check check >> a holiday nightmare for a top retailer - 40 million credit card accounts stolen from target. will it scare off customers. putting boots on the ground - president obama orders american forces to go to south sudan to help secure the citizens. >> a divide over the arrest of an indian diplomat. why the state department and federal prosecutors are not seeing eye to eye >> and why this stunning photo of a polar bear is getting rave reviews.

hello, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. across the country holiday shoppers are contending with a massive security breach at one of the nation's top retailers. hackers have stolen the credit and debit card information of tens of millions of customers since black friday. some say they won't shop at target until the problem is fixed and the cull prits caught >> target says if you shopped at the stores between september 15th and december 19th credit card information could have been stolen. >> it's concerning. makes me want to check out my accounts. >> stolen information includes names, credit card numbers and expiration dates. >> i may be done shopping at target for a while. >> target has not revealed how

it happened, but says it's fixed the problem and apologised to consumers. the company's ceo said: >> paula says she last used her debit card at a target in new york. this week she noticed is a $400 charge she never made. i thought i will not use my debit any more. i don't think the banks have it secure enough. it's not a matter of a bank robber taking a tissue paper and putting it in the waste basket. >> the minneapolis-based country reached out to banks and a forensic form. the secret service is involved. >> 130 million credit card breaches have happened in the fast. this will not be the last one.

it is important to make clear this does not affect online shoppers. only those with cards in the target store in the u.s. if it's you, check your statements and look for charges you don't recognise. kault the credit card company and bank to ensure you are not charged for fraudulent purchases. >> potential victims of credit card fraud at target reported that they are having trouble contacting the store through websites and call centres and one customer filed a lawsuit. president obama says south sudan is on the precipe of a civil war and ordered 45 u.s. soldiers to the region to protect american citizens and property. clashes in juba are spreading to other parts of the county. three peacekeepers died in an attack on a u.n. compound.

500 are feared dead since last weekend. we have more on the spiralling violence. >> officials checking passports. those that want to leave south sudan must be on the evacuation list. foreigners and locals have been flown out of the country, it's for security regions. >> they are letting us go back home. >> u.s. soldiers are in juba, making sure it's safe to land. they have been monitoring the situation. many people cannot leave. they find safety in u.n. compounds. they are making sure they return before sunset. this is the area where most of the fighting took place. families are coming in, not

feeling safe sleeping at home. >> human rights watch say civilians are targeted along ethnic lines. president salva kiir's forces are dinka. the man he blames, riek machar, is from the nuer tribe. >> if you go outside they'll kill you >> violence is because of a coup, not ethnic rivalries. riek machar denies trying to take over the country. u.n. officials say their bases have been attacked. government officials have put in officials. >> where the fighting occurred is where the government officers are. that's why the whole government it to get out of the process of the fight and located to run the camp. so they are still fighting on and on. of course, the government has

been displaced from the offices. that's why they say we have lost control. there is still fighting going on, so you wouldn't say it is completely captured, because there is still presence. >> in the cam ta-- capital the y is ending. why rivalries could plunge the country into another civil war. >> before south sudan became independent they struggled through a 22-year civil war, leaving more than a million dead. >> after a year of debate congress acted on the issue of sexual assault in the military. the senate overproved the defense bill, stripping military commanders of their power, deciding whether a sexual assault case should be pursued.

26,000 were sexually assaulted last year. they set aside $550 million for the regular product. >> it's a tradition for presidents to pardon prisoners this year, and president obama did that, reducing sentences for eight people. all were serving time for drug convictions. >> president obama's decision is the administration's latest effort for making up for drug laws seen as unfair. until 2010, a person convicted of possessing crack co-cane faced a longer sentence than someone stealing powder co-cane. civil liberties advocate called the focus discriminatory since moth of those convicted were poor and minorities. >> congress pass the the fair sentencing act removing some

disparities, only applying to new convictions. people convicted under the old rule remained in prison. a concern addressed by senator holder. >> too many go to too many prisons for too long. >> among them clarence, sentenced to life in prison. his crime - introducing two drug dealers. today erin was one of the eight people whose sentence was commuted. >> in a statement the white house pointed out that each served 15 years in prison:

>> in addition to the eight computations president obama pardoned 13 people who completed their sentence on a variety of charms, including embezzlement and robbery. >> london theatre goers had to evacuate in the middle of a show when large parts of the theatre ceiling fell on them. 76 were injured, seven seriously as a 30 by 30 foot portion of the ceiling came clashing down. a chaotic seen emerged as rescue crews worked to evacuate the apollo theatre. investigators are looking into the cause of the collapse. >> in southern california three bus crashes left dozens injured. the first, the bus slid, 14 injured, one seriously. 50 miles ost of los angeles, 13

were injured when a bus slipped over. it was raining hard. it's not clear if that caused the crash. 50 miles south on the same highway, another tour bus overturned. a woman died at the scene, six others suffered injuries. >> across most of the utah we saw a bit of snow. things are getting better. take a look at the image that we got earlier in the day. the roads were slippery, traffic accident right here. one person, an umbrella and a unicycle - they were getting around fine. they probably had winter tiles on the bicycle. the snow is fading across parts of salt late city. we are looking at better conditions in terms of traffic in and out of the area. we do have showers from los angeles all the way down to san

diego. it is unusual, but we need any rain we can bet in the region. we are looking at a distraught situation. snow in idaho, and in the cascades we'll get a bit of snow, and it will be great as we go towards the christmas holiday. the next biggest event is a severe weather outbreak. normally we have these in the spring time. when you get the right ingredients, this is what you have been seeing. here is a cold front on friday. the reason being it's the temperatures - cold temperatures to the north and warm to the south. you can see here memphis at 70, chicago at 34. more weather will be on the final boundary, and on saturday big, big problems all the way from the gulf of mexico to chicago. we are expecting severe weather - damaging winds, hail,

tornadoes, lightening and thunder and to the backside of the boundary, it will be a major snow event making its way across parts of iowa and kansas. we'll keep you informed through the rest of the weekend with atlanta on saturday. >> straining diplomatic ties outrage out of india over a diplomat arrested and strip searched by police in new york. >> we look at some gripping moments captured on film by national geographic.

>> the justice department is refusing to drop charges against the indian diplomat arrested. allegations have caused protests and strained relations, secretary of state john kerry expressed regret, but it has not been enough to quell the anger. >> protesters in the indian city

vent their anger at the united states. the arrest and detention of an indian doi. by american authorities in new york city has sparked a nation-wide backlash against one of the india's strongest alleys, new delhi is unhappy about how india's deputy connual general, devyani khobragade, was issued. >> we have seen the statement issued by the manhattan attorney-general. we need to keep in mind the simple fact that there's only one victim in this case. that is a serving indian diplomat on mission in the united states. >> this story captured the indian media's attention. news outlets pitched the arrest and detention of the indian diplomat as the humiliation of the nation. many people welcomed the government's strong response and

new delhi is determined to set an international example. >> translation: it's not a matter of india alone. all developed nations should learn a lesson and raise their voice when such incidents take place. >> protesters shout anti-american protests. their angry chants are feeding a chorus of discontent. they are wrangling over laws governing diplomatic behaviour. some say the way to diffuse it is simple. >> apologies is not good enough. some say regret is not good enough. essentially the case has to be withdrawn. >> india and the united states traditionally shared a strong relationship. this relates a breakdown between the two nations. with both sides standing firm,

it's hard to see a quick end to the crisis. >> any report revealing details about why a u.s. airfort fired a top general. the investigation says maimer general michael cary drank too much, engaging in inappropriate behaviour with women during a trip to russia. he was leading a delegation participati participating with rurans. >> the obama administration says it will provide $100 million to assist african union troops and 15 million to the u.n. for humanitarian aid. >> a military handover that is meant to make a difference to the traumatised people of the central african republic.

the car peacekeepers. formac and replaced by miska, another acronym and a large force. it will try to calm the car, which is on the brink of more killing. it's twice the size of the exits force, foe mack and will double the number again in the coming weeks to 6,000. with the military build up political pressure is bearing down on michel djotobia to calm the anger and threaten full justice against anyone involved in the unknown number of atrocities. >> we have to discuss with the president the transition to insist on what needs to be done to prevent further atrocity crimes. in other words, it is critical that a message comes from himself to make sure that nobody

will be immune from any form of prosecution. >> here in bossongoa, a city like the capital, the risk of large-scale killing has not diminished. bolder military action is needed as attacks on villages continue. the challenges for the replacement to fomac is profound. it's not about peacekeeping, but enforcing calm. to have a hope of doing that the new force needs to be fast, efficient and well equipped. >> the outgoing peacekeeping demander believes the bolstered force will work. >> we only intervene in specific locations. misca will be able to go everywhere and diminish the risk. >> action is needed soon in bossongoa, if fears of the muslim people don't lead to retaliation.

the french army wants to disarm both sides. it's too tense. sources told al jazeera that more firepower is needed. in the coming days it's spected more political pressure is needed. alongside that robust action to disarm the killers. >> first it was traditional cigarettes, now the electronic version. why cigarette smokers and the big apple are forced to line up outdoors. >> this is one of national geographic pictures of the year - a polar bear peekaboo.

>> ecigarette users in new york city will have to take it outside. the city council approved a ban on e-cigarettes - meaning they can't puff on them indoors or in public place, it has the consent

of michael bloomberg. no smoke comes out of the e-cigarettes, just a vapour. four states incueded indoors to include e-cigarettes. >> the u.s. makes nearly 2 billion pounds of poly-steyr een packaging. as techno's tells anchor john siegenthaler there could be a solution growing under our fight. >> every cubic inch of the soil is teaming with mi sillium. >> a walk through the woods in green island in new york is with pleasure. when with two 30-year-old geniouses you are sure to stumble on something scientific lick complex. >> we use corn husks and mushrooms as a resin and combine

them together and grow them in a mould to make packaging. >> do you grow mushrooms. >> we keep miss ill yim. where it makes root structure. the conkept of using mushroom roots was inspired when i saw them holding wood chips together. >> it takes seven days for a product to grow from beginning to completion. why is this important. what is the problem with poly-steyro foam >> they are developing home insulation. >> welcome to the tiny house. >> so what is the tiny how muches. >> the walls are filled entirely with mushroom insulation. >> what was impressive about the building materials was the resistance to fire. >> if you leave it there, it

will burn. as you can see, it's not the safest thing to have in your house. we can keep an open flame on this for a few minutes before it's a danger. you'll have more time to get out of your house >> do you guys feel like you are having an impact on humanity? >> really, we see this looking forward centuries, not days >> which companies will we see using the packaging during the holiday season. >> del computers is using it to package their computers. what we'll see in the years to come is this kind of packaging will transform the holiday season. you think about the packaging that we are drowning in with everything that we order. all of which takes a tremendous amount of time, thousands of years, potentially to biodegrade. i think this will be a packaging material of the future. >> you hear about the steyro

foam and how many decades it takes to break down. how long does it packaging take to break down in a landfill. >> it depends. typically it will break down in a matter of months. >> you did work on the factory floor. how complicated is this process. >> when you see it produced, you think this makes perfect sense to make packaging material out of agricultural waste. mi sillium breaks down, but no one thought of it before. it's the perfect marriage of some high-tech and really innovative science going on and a commonsense approach to not just packaging but all sorts of products. >> you talk to people who are worried about whether or not what's inside the package will smell or whether it's gross to have the material inside the package where there's great things coming. >> the factory smells like mushroom soup.

the materials that they make, there's to odour to the packaging materials once they've been produced. >> what other items might we see the products used for? >> they have started to manufacture mushroom surfboards, which are not made from the hazardous pettero chemical materials, and they are taking orders for those now. and they are using the material - they are experimenting with it for insulation, home insulation, and in addition to that, they are using it for synthetic wood, similar to balsa wood and they are producing desk organizers, but the thought is to have this be able to replace all kinds of synthetic wood. >> it's a fun story, exciting product. thanks, lindsay. >> thanks. >> and techno airs sunday at 7:30pm eastern:

>> movie making getting a microscopic treatment. ibm created the smallest movie called "a boy and his atom", the character is a series of carbon monoxide atoms, and to watch you have to mag niify it. >> nationle geographic picked its top pictures of the year. al jazeera's john siegenthaler showed us some of the winning images. >> here is national geographic's grand prize winner. we see a polar bear peering up from the sea ice as the midnight sun sets over canada's hudson bay. the bear watched for several seconds, under the surface, before taking a deep breath and swimming away. it's a spectacular shot. one of 7,000 submitted from 150 countries, including this from

japan - crows living in tokyo, using coat-hangers to make nests. they do it because there's few trees. the effect resembles a work of ard. this is from hungary. the great egrets in the danube. this is titled a man feeding swans in the snow. from malaysia a national geographic winner. alan tan trained his camera on a town in transition, from the old to the new. a mother carrying a child in a basket. here a lion lies in wake. following the pride before an ant lop strolls by. the photographer says this shot means more, because it ended badly for the ant lop. finally a series of pictures on a poor romanian family living in belgium. a child bunded up against the

code with a caution grip on a bird. >> you are watching al jazeera america. hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you are in "the stream." birth control pills are taken by millions of women without a second thought. but are there new dangers along with the newer generations of the contraceptive? ♪ >> our digital producer, wajahat ali is here. he is bringing in all of your live feedback. waj so many people take these prescriptions sometimes for decades at a time and some don't bother to ask if there are risks.