>> welcome back to aljazeera america. these are the top stories this hour. retail giant target saying up to 40 million credit card accounts may have been hacked. the secret service is looking into the breach that stole the data on the back of your didn't a understand credit cards at cash reaming officers across the country, target now saying the problem has been fixed. >> a jury finding two men guilty of murdering soldier lee rig by on the streets of london, the men ron over him with a car then hacked him to death last may. >> the u.s. is watching. that's the message from the american ambassador to the united nations samantha power. she is the highest ranking american to visit since fighting

broke out. a new african peace keeping force is going to try to stop the violence there in that war-torn nation. >> for the first time in three years, congress has passed a bipartisan budget deal, the bill clearing the senate with 64 votes despite opposition from the tea party and conservatives in congress. the bill easing automatic spending cuts that would have taken place next year and making sure there are no government shutdowns for at least two years. those are your headlines. consider this is next. you can check us out 24 hours a day by going to aljazeera.com. >> america faced with two international incidents deeply

personal in very different ways. first an indian diplomat jailed and strip searched because she may have lied to the u.s. government and severely underpaid her house keeper. consider this, how did a nanny salary dispute in danger u.s. diplomats in india. >> president obama snubs russian president putin over the countries anti gay laws, but will the move backfire. >> the e.p.a.'s top paid employee claims to be a spy and scams the agency out of $1 million. how did he get away with it for more than a decade? >> why are americans skipping out on vacation when we know taking time off reduces major health risks? >> welcome to consider this. we begin with the arrest a understand strip search of an indian diplomat in new york that has parked a diplomatic uproar. india's deputy consul general was arrested last week for committing visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. the outrage in india stretches from the streets to the prime

minister, mostly because she was subjected to cavity searches after her arrest. indians have retaliated by removing security barriers surrounding the indian embassy in new delhi. headlines there says india takes on uncle sam and bulldozer diplomacy. for more on the case, i am joined by legal contributor jami floyd, joining us here in our studio and by ambassador nancy soderburg. jami, i want to start with you. the facts of this case are this deputy consul was paying her house keeper less than $600, even though she had gotten a visa for her saying she was going to pay her $4,500 a month. >> those are the allegations. >> if that is the case, there's little doubt she commit add

crime, so why is this going on? >> the real crime here is not so much in the failure to pay the adequate wage, although that is of course a crime, but the real crime is the visa fraud, lying about it is a felony, and she's charged with two crimes, lying on the visa to get the woman into the country. >> right. >> and giving false information to the authorities. this carries a sentence of possibly 15 years. now, probably, authorities won't ask for that stiff a penalty, but this is really quite a serious felony. does it require a strip search? does it require d.n.a. tests, all that have business? >> well, that's protocol, say u.s. marshalls. it may seem like a paperwork offense, shouldn't require that kind of a protocol, but it does and they say she was not deserving of special treatment. >> in an email published in indian media, it was wrote:

>> ambassador, the u.s. marshall service does say that the search is standard operating procedure, anybody getting arrested gets those searches. the u.s. attorney's office says that she was not handcuffed. why all of the outrage? is this all about diplomatic immunity? >> well, she is going to claim it, but a deputy consul does not have the right to hire slave you labor and lion the visa applications, so as we've just heard, she's in serious legal trouble. whether her arrest justified a strip search apparently was not a savety search, the facts will come out, but i think the reason this is in the headlines is that the incident does have the possibility of disrupting u.s.-indian relations. this is a relationship that the

u.s. has worked hard on in the last decade to improve. we've get a strategic dialogue going on there, trying to use them as a strategic counter weight to russia, iran, china, it's one of our most important relationships, 1.2 billion people, twice that by the middle of the century. it's one of our most important and delicate relations. an incident like this can just set things on fire overnight as we're seeing. secretary of state john kerry is trying to tamp it down. everyone is trying to tamp it down. it will eventually get off of the headlines but for the next couple of months, it's going to be a major issue in our diplomacy. the facts will emerge, but it's going to set some tensions into a very important relationship. >> i want to get to more of that, but lets focus on the immunity issue. her lawyer said she should get immunity. >> we hope that we won't ever have to and the actual charges in court, because we hope and

expect that from a diplomatic level, this case will be resolved, but we're confident that if we do have to address the charges, she will be completely vindicated. >> however does diplomatic immunity go? >> not very. >> this is a lower level diplomat. >> that's right. >> the immunity technically only he can tends to things she's doing within her diplomatic pro we say. >> she knows better than i, she was a consul so had consular immunity, extending to things she did in that capacity. the indian government has a bigger title, promoted her in the hopes that retroactively she will be given a broader immunity, but given the allegations now pending against her, that's not likely to be applied. the first and foremost defense, the better defense is i didn't do this. i'm not guilty of the crimes

alleged, rather than invoking immunity. >> the outrage, though, isn't a terrible overreaction by the indian government because of what they've done, taking down the barricades at the u.s. embass and playing with the safety of americans? >> absolutely. my guess is going to oh be reversed very quickly. the idea that they would put our diplomats at risk over this incident where i think this woman was clearly in the wrong or they wouldn't be calling for diplomatic immunity, that needs to be reversed and is simply outrageous. i think what you're going to see here, she will be on a plane home quickly, let's get it resolved. we do have the authority to let her go, depending on what charges occur, she can come back to them. i think she'll be moving home quickly and trying to put this, all sides of going to try to put this incident behind them. she does not have diplomatic immunity to lion a visa application or hire slave labor in this country.

it's simply unacceptable. there's no doubt that her guilty will emerge in my mind. we'll wait until the facts emerge. you'll see outrage about this incident and cooler heads will prevail, we'll have our security replaced and she'll be on a plane home will be the quick resolution to this. >> and very outrage about the real victim here, the nani. >> secretary of state john kerry, let's talk about the diplomatic side, has sent his regrets for the incident, but the u.s. is not backing down. >> the secretary understands very deeply the important of enforcing our laws and protecting victims and expects the laws will be followed by everyone here in our country. as a father of two daughters about the same age, the secretary emphasizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from india and in his conversation with national security advisor, he expressed his regret and concern that we not allow this to hurt our close an vital relationship with i

understand i can't. >> ambassador, i think you were about to say he wasn't apologizing, expressing regret this has gotten to where it has gotten. >> the state department is making it very clear we are not apologizing. i think the facts on the strip search whether that was appropriate will emerge. on face value, it seems overkill for the circumstances, but i think the message here is follow our laws, don't hire slave labor in this country is the number one lesson. number two, the indians are flat wrong to not try and protect their own diplomats here, which is my secretary of state john kerry is on the phone trying to tamp this down. i think what you'll see is much more care given to the employees that the diplomats here are hiring here in the united states, and have better controls within their embassies of what they are really paying their employees. this is reminiscent of the

strauss conn incident, the indicates fell apart. diplomats have immunity, but it is not all encompassing. >> appreciate you both joining us tonight. >> from india, we go to russia where the obama's delegation to the 2014 winter olympics in sochi is diplomacy in favor of diversity. >> the president that made it very clear he finds it offensive the anti lbgt stance in russia. we take strong to answer against that as well as civil society in russia. >> for more, i'm that joined by mark adomatus, a contributor at forbes and kimberly martin from

columbia university. it's pleasure to have you both with us. >> it's a pleasure to be here. >> mark, the obama administration has been under pressure to respond to russia's tough laws against openly you gay citizens. he has done that, sending two openly gay athletes to sochi, billie jean king and kaitlyn kayhow. billie jean queen tweeted: >> president obama is toying home. he just snubbed president putin a few months ago by not going to a summit with him in moscow. this is a big statement. >> yeah, and look, i think this is exactly the right statement to send. kaitlyn was a classmate of mine in college. she's a brilliant ambassador for the united states. it's great we are discussing a law that is unjustifiable. i wish we would be a little more consistent in the message that we're inning, because unfortunately, russia's treatment of lbgt citizens while

bad is certainly not the worst that you encounter in the world by any means. >> it's been a rocky relationship, putin and obama just pretty much didn't get off on a good foot and it just seems like certainly at the beginning wasn't as bad but has gotten worse as time has gone on. how do you think he will respond? >> i think the media sometimes has a tendency to play up the disagreements and the bad parts of u.s. russian relations, because it makes good news. >> in this case, he's not going to the olympics, not sending any member of the first family, no current cabinet members, it's a big departure from the past. >> since 1988, which is the last time the president didn't go to the olympics, but in line with what our allies in france and germany are doing. we need to keep in mind that things might be happening behind the scenes in terms of u.s. economic relations that are moving in a positive direction. we have to keep things in balance and not only look at the

scandals. >> how about this decision, though, about the delegation? is there any way, mark, that you think it might backfire on the u.s. you? >> i find it hard to imagine. i think the russians understand how these things work. they are certainly not going to be happy about it, but these sorts of snubs are inevitable in the way our relations work with russia, so, you know, it's obviously not something putin is going to be particularly excited about, as to how he would retall 80, i can't see it going any other direction. >> kimberly, there's been this outrage abroad about putins policies, his poll numbers are not fantastic, they are at lows for him. according to the most recent poll, 61% have russians approve of the job i's doing aband a lot of russians believe that the stance that he's taking on the lbgt community is correct. i think a pew research poll found if he didn't 4%.

>> that's correct, but i think putin doesn't have to worry just about the russian public. he has to worry about possible disagreements within his advisory team. one interesting thing, some members of the putin administration are much more interested in having better economic relationles with the the outside world. they realize that some of putin's poles are taking russia in the wrong direction economically, and that helps to explain why it is that putin is reaching out to this very conservative cultural community on lbgt. >>, for example on the russian orthodox church issues, because he's trying to keep these coalitions in balance and losing support among the people who recognize that russia's economy is not in the shape it was a couple of years ago. >> a lot of the issues with popularity is that the economy is not doing so well. an amnesty bill he supports passed this week will set free the two jailed members of the

punk band pussy riot. we've covered that story here and ending the prosecution of 30 green peace crew members. do you think that's a move by putin to defuse some of the international criticism about his human rights crackdown in advance of the olympics? >> i'd like to point out people think that it's going to lead to the release. none of them have been released yet. while it's possible that this amnesty will in reality lead to the release of the pussy riot members and green peace crew, i tend to take a wait and see approach when it comes to the russian government. it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they go flee, but i'd like to actually see them leave jail, because there is ambiguity in the way the law was written as to exactly who is eligible. >> another issue for putin is what's happened in ukraine, it used to be part of the soviet union, ukraine was trying to get closer to the european community, now putin has gone in and offered $15 billion in aid

to ukraine. he's a shrewd negotiator. >> he is trying to again create a sense of hostility between russia and the west. that is not getting at all the issues involved, because this is obviously just a short-term solution for the next 18 months for ukraine to get the ukrainian president through the upcoming releases. it's not long term solution for the economic problems and not a good opportunity to extend money to bail out a country without a good credit rating. i think it aggravates the tension. >> this isn't dependent on any conditions, either an increase or freeze in benefits, pensions, scholarships or spending. >> putin not giving any concessions at all suddenly grants them again. do you think this is all about

the olympics? >> the ukraine thing, i think frankly has to do with how spooked the leadership was. on first glance if what he says is true doesn't make sense. putin is a very canny guy, never in the habit of giving something away for nothing. i find it very hard to believe that the russians would extend this level of support without getting any kind of con as he ises in return. it's possible just that the russian government is very concerned about the possible consequences if ukraine signs the e.u. association agreement and that they're determined to avoid that whatever the casts and as is possible, the russians did get something in return or some kind of vague promise, not talking about it publicly now. >> appreciate you both joining us tonight. coming up, ben bernanke's term ended wednesday and he did not go out quietly. >> our associate media producer is tracking the top stories on

the web. >> a favorite past time credited for improving the vocabulary of americans turns 100 this week. i'll tell you more coming up. >> what do you think? join the conversation on twitter and on our facebook and google plus pages.

night with the combatants in their training base.

>> better than bernankes era is ending with a big bang. the stock markets soared to record levels despite the announcement the central bank was going to taper its economic stimulus next months. shortly after the rediscretion, the short dropped short term interest that rates to close to zero and began buying hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds as part of an easing program meant to fight the recession. those fed purchases reached $85 billion a month. thanks to an improving economy, that will be cut back in january. what does that change mean for

all of us? for more, i'm joined from westchester pennsylvania by chief economist at moody analyst particulars, marg, great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> any surprise with the fed decision to roll back its stimulus campaign? >> i was surprised by the fact that they effectively lowered the threshold for the unemployment rate. they have a 6.5 unemployment rate for raising interest rates in the language with the statement they released with their decision, they effectively lowered that threshold and effectively adopted a floor under inflation. when you add it all up, it was actually quite dubbish decision that provided anything net stimulus to the economy. that's what surprised me, that they were at dubbish as they were. >> in layman's terms, that means the likelihood of interest rates going up anytime soon was pretty much diminished by what they said today. >> yeah, exactly. i mean, they had been saying all

along that they're not going to raise interest rates for a long, long time. they effectively made that a a stronger statement today, that they really mean they're not going to be raise in interest rates for a very long, long time and they did it so strongly that look what happened to the stock market, it took off and that's the reason why. >> the stock market dropped last summer when ben bernanke suggested the fed might do what it's doing now, but the markets surged. is that because of that dubbish stance that you're talking about? >> yeah, i think it's in part because of the dubbish stance, a big part of it is that. also, i think stock investors are coming to the realization that the economy actually is on sounder ground and kicking into a higher gear, that we're going to see stronger growth going forward. that's good for earnings and stock prices. >> do you think this $10 billion rollback and the money that the ted has been pump i go into the economy, that's not too big of a

deal and do you think that people expected that would happen? >> yeah, i don't think it's that big a deal. there was a lot of debate discussion among economists and investors about when they would exactly tart this process, you know, some people thought today, some people thought in january, some in march. but in general, everyone expect would the fed to begin this process in the next few months and end their bond-buying program by sometime in the summer-fall of 2014, so none of that changed as a result of the decision today, so in that sense, it was not a big deal. >> while some economic indicators have improved in the past year, some still seem pretty weak, as of november unemployment still at february%, better than before, but not terrific and despite a third quarter pickup, the countries gross domestic product is hanging in at 1.8%. how much are those numbers going to have to improve before we can feel comfortable that the economy is growing at a solid

pace and maybe back to normal? >> yeah, i mean, we need cigarette that's closer to 3%, so we're going to get 2% growth in g.d.p., the value of things produced in 2013. if we get the 3% growth i expect and most economists expect, we'll feel a lot better that b. that, but won't feel good, great about how things are going until that rate is lower. we need to see 5.5 to six percent before everyone can exhale and feel better about the way things are going. >> let's listen to ben bernanke on unemployment. >> the job market has continued to improve with the unemployment ray having declined to rice further. it clearly is far from complete with unemployment elevated and long term unemployment still major concerns. >> the fed will have a big role in trying to improve the

employment situation. >> it's key. one of the key links, most direct links between what they do and jobs runs through the housing market, so they keep interest rates low through their bond-buying program, and their forward guidance trying to keep rates down. that keeps mortgage rates low and although mortgage rates are up from a year ago, by historical standards, they are still very, very low. we get more housing construction, housing construction produces a lot of jobs. so that there are many, many ways in which the fed affects the job market, but that's one of the most direct and obvious ways. >> if confirmed, janet yellen, president obama's pick to replace ben bernanke, do you expect her to stay the course? >> i do. i think janet yellen is cust out of the same intellectual cloth as chairman bernanke. they've been working together closely for years now and i think are on the same page. i don't expect to see any

meaningful change when she takes the reigns in a few weeks. >> this was ben bernankes last hurrah today, he's presided over the fed during an extraordinarily difficult time. how do you think history will judge him no. >> very, very well. i think we're lucky as a nation that was at the head of the federal reserve when he became chair, because we went through a very dark period and it required somebody who had an exceptional understanding of american history, what we went through during the depression and most importantly how the federal reserve should navigate through something like that. there was no one better than he to lead the federal reserve at such a key critical time in our history. i think he will be judged very, very well by history. >> mark, i know you're bullish about the economy. it's good to hear good news. thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> to a big scandal in our nation's capitol, the e.p.a.'s

highest employee is heading to federal prison after masterminding a fraud he covered up claiming he was really working for the c.i.a. john beal was a top administrator when he began stealing from the government, mostly by not showing up for work. at his sentencing wednesday, he said he was motivated by simple greed, the rush and sense of entitlement he got by claiming he was a c.i.a. agent. he faces two and a half years in prison and must pay $1.4 million in restitution after taking $900,000 in unearned salary and bonuses, $57,000 for trips to visit his family in los angeles and $8,000 for a special parking space. >> patrick sullivan spearheaded the investigation, joins us, he is the assistant inspector general for investigations at the environment protection agency. great to have you with us. this man was the highest paid employee at the e.p.a. the fraud went on for more than a decade.

at one point, he didn't show up for work for 18 months. how did he get away with this for so long? >> because he was a very adept liar and able to take people into his confidence. he started this fraud in about 1994 where he began to tell his family and friends that he was a member of the c.i.a. and it morphed into telling coworkers. in the early 2000s, he told his boss, a political appointee that he worked for the c.i.a., helping plan covert operations. from there, it took on a life of its own. >> doesn't the anyone in the e.p.a. read spy novels. what happened to the if i tell you, i have to kill you. don't they know people don't tell people they work for the c.i.a.? >> you would think so. in this case, nobody checked. if you could go back 14 years ago, 13 years ago, it -- once

the lie was told and people accepted it, it became almost a self fulfilling prophecy. the lie was told, one or two people in power and authority accepted it and then it became an accepted fact, so no one ever checked on it. based on our interviews, basically every executive at the e.p.a. we interviewed believed he worked for the c.i.a. >> he was billing the e.p.a. for first class airline tickets, for stays at five star hotels, charging per dies twice allowed at the e.p.a., and this was for travel that really wasn't for the e.p.a., so how was he allowed to get away with that? >> well, sometimes, he charged travel that was four times the allowable limit. the travel was because of his alleged status as a c.i.a. agent, the people approving the vouchers didn't want to challenge him, because they felt they would be interfering with a

c.i.a. mission. he also traveled extensively for personal business and charged it to the government. it's because of his status, his aura or mistake, full. there was clearly a lack of due diligence on the part of folks charged with reviewing his vouchers. >> is there an investigation into that now? >> yes, that's not criminal. based on our criminal investigation of mr. beal, we've done an extensive investigation rewarding the circumstances surrounding the fraud, and we are fairly certain that there's no one else within e.p.a. criminally culpable, although there will be some potential administrative sanctions for people to fail to do for example due diligence, examining the vouchers and not insuring they matched up for the purpose of the trip and to ensure that he did not exceed allowable per diem rates. >> the prosecutor, jim smith said his crimes made him a poster child for what's wrong with government. there's certainly fraud in private industry, but it seems something like this could never

go on in the private sector. >> well, i think it's possible, you know, depending on the ability of the person whose perpetrating the fraud. mr. beam's a very intelligent man, very he gauging. at one time, he was a superstar in the e.p.a. he was instrumental in the creation of the clean air acts in the early 1990's and worked with the white house and congress. he had quite a very good reputation with the e.p.a. >> he did have some admirable work early on in his career. his attorney tried to justify his behavior by saying: >> how, if that's true, did he manage to despite his early admirable work, get to be one of the top guys at the e.p.a. and certainly the most well paid? >> well, he became the most well paid because his base salary was

approximately $165,000 as a senior executive. that however, he received for 23 years straight, a retention bonus of 25%, which is highly unusual. it's highly unusual for any employee to get it for one year, he got it for 23 years straight. >> for a guy who wasn't working for the e.p.a. >> for sometime, right. that pushed his salary above $200,000 the last few years he was employed. >> do you think the federal government will learn anything from this? >> i can tell you right now, e.p.a. has completely revamped the way they examine the incentive bonuses, retention bonuses, the way they do examine travel vouchers, revamped the way they do time and attendance for senior executives. there will be some very good changes coming about because of this case. >> it is a fascinating extremely depressing at the same time case. patrick sullivan, appreciate you

joining us to talk about it. let's check in with hermela to see what's trending. >> the crossword puzzle turns 100 years old. it was born in 1913 when one was published in the new york world, a major newspaper at the time. it wasn't an instant hit. over a decade passed before it became a fad first in new york city, then spreading to the rest of the country. simon and shuster deserve a lot of credit for its popularity. it published the first book of crossword puzzles and didn't think it would be a hit. after my demand, 2 million copies were sold in the first two years. it was one of the top best sellers in 1924 and 1925 on that on the facebook page, carrol says: >> to celebrate, you can download a crossword puzzle at

the our website. back to you. >> i used to torture myself every single day, but it's been a while woo i never finished one. >> i have, but not the friday or saturday new york times ones. thanks hermela. >> straight ahead, new lottery winners are counting their blessings but could the big winnings actually be a curse? later on, new research show vacations can make you healthier, so why aren't more americans taking them no. >> baseball gets rocked by the concussion crisis. will the moves baseball has made to protect players actually work? concussion crisis. much-needed vacation. travel is a great cure-all. the framingham heart study tracked about 750 women for two decades. those that didn't travel once,

once every six years or less were 50% more likely to have a heart attack than those that took drips. women surveyed higher proportion, of satisfaction with marriages if they took higher breaks. men who skipped vaguation increased death and suffered a 30% risk of death by heart disease. no wonder in my opinion out of 10 satisfied in another study saw a drop in stress after a day for two on vacation. sounds great, as long as you take the break. the u.s. travel association found two-thirds of organizations polled had employees with three or more vacation cases left at the end of the year. the recession led to smaller staff, making it tougher to take a break. 71% who hadn't gone on a vacation for five years didn't

like their jobs. as we wind down the year do yourself and your body a favour and take a break. >> coming up - we expect major concussions in football. major league baseball rule >> this week's megamillions >> this weeks megamillions jackpot generated a lot of buzz

with the second large evident prize, $636 million and two lucky people won in georgia and california. does hitting the jackpot lead to a life of bliss or make you doomed to failure? for more, i'mdowned by kent, contributor to the daily beast who recently wrote a piece asking will winning the megamillions kill you? science says no. from tampa, roy cap land, author of the book lottery winners, i thank you both for joining us tonight. roy, you conducted a study back in the 1980's and found they fared pretty well. >> it's a mixed bag, but for the most part, i think it's not a bad problem to win a million dollars. >> it's a problem i think most of us would like to have, but we hear stories about people not doing so well. you've looked at more recent studies, a study conducted in

2011 that supports roy's claims. why do you think we've gotten to this point where the conventional wisdom tells us that winning the lory is not such a good thing. i think we like the idea that bad things happen to other people, and so, because we didn't win the lottery, we like to think that the lucky guys don't do so well. i think the evidence is pretty straight forward and clear, consistently clear that for the most part, people resume their regular life for the most part, they're richer, either as happy or happier. they are not suicidal, they are not depressed, they are not drinking and driving, they are not into drugs. inevitably, you are going to have some who fall off the deep end and we read the stories. >> they are pretty depressing stories, cautionary tales that have ignited the fears. we heard of a guy in west virginia, jack wilt kerr is sort of the poster boy, a $315 million prize, his money was stolen, his home and

officeles broken into within granddaughter died, arrested quite for drunk driving. he got $500,000 stolen from him. it went on and on and on. he said he wished he had torn that ticket up. a florida man won $13 million and later split with his wife. these stories go on and on. >> it's music to our ears at losers, but the simple matter is for the most part, 80% to 90% of everybody does just fine, thank you and there's a handful that don't do so well and can't handle the good news or people who were somewhat did he say tinned to stumble and struggle in their lives. >> do you agree that we focus more on the failure stories than the success stories of lory winners? >> i think it's correct, the summation and research i did over 30 years indicates that there's a wide variety of people who play and win. you're going to have some people that adjust to it and some

people that have problems. if you are suspicious and anxious before, that's going to be hydened by this, but if you are even level, you know, kind of person, i think you're going to do fine. i mean, think about it. you don't have to worry about one of the biggest problems that people face and that's financial considerations. you know, if you just take some time, plan how you're going to use the money, and enjoy it, i think most people are going to find out that their life is immeasurably improved. >> some people's lives spike when they win, then settles down. is it because we have a certain set level of happiness. >> we are who we are, we have good days and bad days. it's a mighty good day i suspect when you get a windfall like that, but people become once again their basic self. the notion that people are

totally transformed to become someone else is really a disneyland, hollywood sort of notion of the way human behavior plays out. >> your studies focus on people who won $50,000 to a million dollars, more, significant because it was back in the 1980's and 1970's when the people you were looking at. do you think this that the winning amount makes a difference? >> oh, i would say today, i mean, no one even conceived of some of the jackpots we have today. obviously it's off the chart. certainly i would not expect some of these megamillion dollar winners to try to go back to work, because they probably wouldn't fit in very well any longer. in the days that i interviewed these people, there were thousands of people that i interviewed and surveyed. most of them, i think they adjusted rather well to what happened. because there are so many different people that have won

lotteries today, you're going to get a wide range of behaviors. that's to be expected. you'll find some cases where people went off the deep end, but for the most part, i think they're well add justed. i think part, there's an envy here. people couldn't be satisfied or happy because they just didn't work for the money they go. it's almost like a protestant ethic. you have to sweat, as you have in order to really enjoy it. >> one myth out there is that people immediately leave their jobs. that's often not the case i don't often not, most of the the studies we have since the ground breaking work in the 1970's and 1980's, he flew against current wisdom early in the game, to be commended. most subsequent studies are from europe. there have not been big studies from the u.s. the big winners and very big winners continue to work. a a few of the megawhippers don't, but for the most part, people resume their daily lives,

and like their daily lives and they are somewhat easier. >> what other advice do you have for the people who win these big jackpots? >> i would say that you really should take it easy in the beginning. don't make any rational decisions, don't move, try to remain incommunicado if possible. usually it isn't. plan things out, sample the universe of advice, and don't take necessarily the first information you get or your relatives' advice, get professional advice. when you're satisfied with the people giving you have advice, make a plan. don't be hasty in your actions, because the best adjusted people are the ones that maintain their friendships and relationships. >> after all the research you both have done, did you buy megamillions lottery ticket

yesterday no. >> i never bought a ticket in my life. >> you never bought one in your life. >> i have the tempted, i have to say as i was pulling this article together, i thought jeez, you know one never know as the saying in new york city goes, but no, i have not. >> how about you, roy? >> i buy tickets. i don't indulge, you know, i mean just one or two a week, i think my wife pressures me into buying, but i've met so many people that bought one and won the lottery, so you can't whip unless you buy a ticket. >> i bought 10 and won one dollar yesterday, so not a very good return on my investment. >> that's better than most. >> that's true. kent, roy, really appreciate you joining us tonight, thank you. >> coming up, a major sport battles concussions and it's not football. will the steps taken by major league baseball to protect its players actually make a difference? first, new research shows just

how good vacations are for you. our data dive is up next.

>> today's data dive takes a much-needed vacation.

new research finds travel is a great cure-all, the framing ham heart study tracked 750 women for two decades. those who didn't travel much, once every six years or less were 50% more likely to have a heart attack that that those who took a trip twice a year. women faced higher rates of depression and marital satisfaction when they took fewer breaks. for men, skipping annual vacation increased risk of death by 20% and suffer a 30% greater risk of death from heart disease. no wonder near nine out of 10 people surveyed in another study saw a significant drop in stress after just a day or two on vacation. sounds great, as long as you take that break. the u.s. travel association found nearly two thirds of organizations polled had employees with three or more vacation days left at the end of the year. it's believed the recession led to smaller staffs, making it tougher to take a break.

that leads to resentment. expedia found 71% of people who hadn't vacationed for five years didn't like their jobs. as we wind down the year, please do yourself and your body a favor and take a break. >> coming up, we expect major concussions in football, but on the baseball diamond? we will see if major league baseball's new rule changes will have an impact.

>> the stated goal of the limb picks is to build a peaceful and better world, but politics keep getting in the way. as we discussed earlier, president obama snubbed russian president putin for the second time in four months, declining to attend the olympic and sending a delegation with no current high-level government officials, while appointing two openly gay athletes to the delegation, sending a pointed message to russia over its barely new anti gay laws. joining me now is aljazeera

america contributor dave zyron. good to have you. what was your reaction when you heard that president obama was send, inc. billie jean king and kaitlyn kayhow as part of the delegation? >> two reactions, the first one was wow, honestly, because you're not just talking about two people who are part of the lbgt community. billie jean king, you are talking about a legendary sports and social justice activist, someone who has organized around issues ranging from labor rights to women's reproductive health and using her position as an athlete, as an alley time tennis great to advocate for these potions. sure enough in her statement, where she accepted the invitation to be part of the u.s. delegation, she said quite explicitly, i'm going there to make sure that the sochi olympics are a place where all

people's rights are respected. in september, she said she was hope, inc. for what she said "a john carlos moment," a direct reference to one of the two protestors on the medal stand who raise the their black gloved 50. that was amazing an aggressive act. the second thing, what is it going to mean for lbgt people on the ground in russia after the smoke is cleared, after everybody has gone home. >> article 50 says no kind of demonstration or political religious or racial propaganda is permitted in olympic related sites or areas. you wrote about the importance of what john carlos and tommy smith, when they raised their black 50ed hands in the 1968 olympics. should gay athletes ignore the

charter and demonstrate against the russian oppression of the lbgt community? >> should they? there is also article six in the olympic charter, which is in direction contribution to the one you mentioned. article six said that no sporting event should abridge people's rights when it comes to and this is the quote it says "race, religion, gender, politics or otherwise." act gists have pushed the international olympic committee to say that otherwise means sexual orientation, as well that that's under the umbrella of otherwise. you have these two things in conflict to each other. the second person on the delegation who's openly gay, openly lesbian woman, two time hockey player kaitlyn is part of somebody called the article six committee, which has been pushing and advocating an agitating the i.o.c. to take a stronger stance.

this was a very aggressive move by the white house playing chicken with a country such as russia that they're seeing as more adversary than ally. >> this is about human rights, the rights of the lbgt community now and in the future in russia, but young men and women spend their whole lives working for this moment to represent their country on the world stage. are you worried that the controversy over these anti gay laws will overshadow the athletes and their accomplishments. >> i think there's no question about it that this will be the dominant story of the 2014 olympics, but the responsibility for that first and foremost is on the shoulders of the international olympic committee making sure the olympics took place in sochi and how it put that responsibility as well on the shoulders of putin and their parliament the which voted to put these laws in place. so ask the athletes themselves

whether they're l.b.g.t. or allies there to compete, so ask them to pretend that they're on some antseptic planet where the world of politics does not exist is asking them to be less than human. >> let's turn to the head injuries in sports. it was announced that another athlete who committed suicide was suffering from the degenerative brain disease c.t.e. and this time was a baseball player, who played for various teams over his eight year career. he was reported to have had nine or 10 concussions during his playing daze. now i think most people understand the big contact sports, football, hockey, but in baseball? >> baseball is just in the embryonic stage of even addressing this. as chris nowitzki of the sports legacy institute, the medical center where ryan's brain was

investigated after his death for c.t.e., he made the point that payable charts, pitch counts, charts every bit of statistical minutiae are still not charting concussions. there is no reliable data on how prevalent it is in baseball. the one thing i will say which i think is very important is that concussions absolutely endemic to football, concussions almost certainly endemic to hockey, baseball is a sport where it's not necessarily endemic. ryan freel, this made him a fan favorite. he played hard with a real outrageous style, crashed into walls, jumped into the stands, tried to take out catchers at home plate. that's the tragedy of this, that kind of behavior which fans love is going to have to be curtailed. >> home plate collisions, baseball is planning to ban those by 2015 because of other injuries. do you see any rule changes that

baseball's making that will help? >> no, i don't at all. i mean, those collisions at home plate frankly have gone down a great deal in recent years because catchers play the position in a different way, due to the sweep tag, trying to catch the ball in front of the plate, so that to me is public relations. if you look at the concussions that ryan freel had, these were fluke plays, the worst one, he was taken off the field once on that a stretch of a the right fielder of the reds clocked him in the head with an elbow and they were both chasing the same ball. at some level when you're talking about any social behavior that involves human interaction, these things will happen. >> let's move on. superbowl xlviii will be at met life stadium in new jersey and the obvious concern about a game in february is the chance of snow, but not to worry, the nfl has floated the idea of moving the game to a different day if a major snowstorm is predicted. really? couldn't they have seen this coming?

why did they pick a northeast stadium that didn't have a dome? >> first and foremost, it was part of the whole sort of rush which post 9/11 sentiment that said we're going to reward the new york-new jersey area, the nfl stands with all the families of 9/11 victims, so it was part of that mood that was in the country at the time. that's why it's there. now that it's there, though, i think it's hilarious to the nfl is trying to cover its behind to preserve the game. let's be honest. i love the superbowl because i sit on my couch and watch it on t.v. i would love to watch a superbowl in the snow. on my did he have, it would be amazing. it's where all the corporate big leagues come in, there is no event in the united states that has more private jets go to it on an annual basis than the superbowl. that's an f.t.a. fact right there. >> got to leave it there, dave. >> got to leave it there, ok. >> show's over now, the conversation continues on our website,

aljazeera.com/considerthis. we'll see you next time. >> welcome to the news hour from aljazeera headquarters in doha and london, these are the top stories. pushing for a diplomatic solution in south sudan, foreign ministers touched on juba slipping further to chaos. >> in london with all the news from europe. guilty of hacking a british soldier to death. the two men who wanted a religious war are convicted of murder. >> putin