check check >> hello. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. here are the top stories we are following. >> egypt's muslim brotherhood is criticising the decision to declare it a terrorist organization. it says it is based on false accusations. the brotherhood denied it was behind the deadly suicide bomb engine mansoura. >> the united nations says aid agencies will need at least $166 million over the next three months to help people displaced by fighting in south sudan. thousands died since the violence in central africa began a week ago. >> bad weather and last-minute online orders are being blamed for delivery delays that had

presents missing from under the tree. demand exceeded expectations. walmart and amazon are offering disappointed customers gift cards. >> power people in maine spent the day on the job, working to restore power to people. fierce stores knocked out electricity. insurance companies say they are making progress, but winds are slowing down repairs. >> "america tonight' is coming up next. remember you can get the latest news on aljazeera.com.

>> and good evening, thanks for joining us on this holiday. i'm joie chen. this is the time of year to count or blessings to consider the in our lives. but imagine not having your very basic needs met. roof over our heads, a warm bed, a hot meal, a harsh reality. we share a story of a woman who found her own gift by stitching together the threads of community. from our what works series, here's chris bury in detroit. >> downtown detroit on a warm summer day. the biting chill of a michigan winter seems very far away. but in a warehouse about two miles from the city center that's exactly what they're focused on. nine seamstresses, working eight

hours a day, turning out winter coats for a particularly vulnerable population, the homeless, employing homeless or living in homeless shelters, their job is to sew winter coats to give to the dirs possessed and decemberity -- dispossessed and destitute. its founder is veronica , and the idea came out of a class project. >> this coat came out of that, came out of that class project. >> her research took her to the city's homeless shelters. she tried to figure out what people who live on the street really need to survive. veronica concluded that some heavy garment was what they could use the most. she eventually came up with a hand-sown

prototype. she showed it off at the shelter. >> this was their first prototype, not just mine. and the reaction to that first one was, that's a great idea but it looks like a body bag. >> reporter: so veronica took the initial idea and improved on it. returning to the shelter for feedback. >> i think the thing that made the coat different is i the the research with the community i was reaching out to that at the end of the five months that semester, i was known as the crazy coat girl, crazy coat lady or crazy white coat girl, that was my street name. >> but one day veronica got into an angry confrontation with a woman at the time shelter. >> she said, we don't want coats. we need a job. i don't want you to get off the

hook by creating a band-aid. >> veronica was forced to look beyond just giving coats to people. >> giving a coat isn't going to change people. but if i could hire people that would be on the receiving end of these, just giving them a coat, but hiring them. >> the beyond coat phenomenon was born. hour long meeting went well, remarkably well for a 21-year-old who lived in her grandparents' basement. >> the next day i got calls from their plants in tennessee and kentucky and mexico saying hey we have two tons worth of equipment, three industrial sewing machines, being shipped, we have them for this home address. is that okay? they were all being shipped to my grandparents' house on two

freight trucks. >> water resistant shells and good price. veronica got a surprise call from general motors. the auto maker gave her a good idea for the design. >> this is from gm, recycled from their scrap. it's made from the stuff that's put inside the gm door panels to insulate and sound-deaden the whole car. >> this is the result. a transportable water resistant, heavy duty coat. it is closed by velcro. it has a sleeping bag that can be entered in without taking the coat off, and it's big, allowing for layers of clothing or possessions to be kept underneath. and the single moms, formerly living the in shelters, all

desperate to work, none with seamstress experience. >> we bring them in. we do a month of basic, you are sitting in front of a machine that is a car motor attached with a needle. i know it's interm dating. let's get comfortable with it. >> the women earned between 8 $and $12 an hour depending on their ability. already 15 have worked in the program. >> they transition from being homeless, being in a shelter, to their home for the first time in a long time. a stable home that they know they can pay for. >> one of the newest hires is tia sames. she's been at the shop for about four months now. she ended up living at a shelter. she was separated from her children and desperate to reunite with them.

>> i said veronica, this maybe a possible good job. so i filled out a application and i told her don't forget my face because you'll see me again. >> tia got the job. >> when i walked in here all i thought about was my kids. i'm going to have a job and i'm going to be able to get my kids back. that helped me get excited. >> tia has moved out of a shelter and into an apartment with her can its. even three-year-old tamia understands. >> my three-year-old tells me, mommy i am proud of you you! she sed to me, on the 4th of july, i'm so proud of you mommy. you love us and you tie care of us. i say, how old are you? >> detroit may be bankrupt but those on the street will

struggle this winter just like the last. so the ladies will cut and backstitch and hem every day and deliver at least 4,000 of these sturdy coats to the ones who need them the most. it is their way to help the homeless and help them out of poverty along the way. >> chris tells us the empowerment plan has now been growing, has 13 seamstresses on board and joined in the day of restoration in which they handed out 100 of the coats and they are also providing 3,000 sleeping bag coats to those in need on the street of detroit. three years after haiti's devastating earthquake, survivors have a grim reminder of what they have to live with. the youngest survivors is a sad form of discrimination against the disabled.

but "america tonight"'s soledad o'brien reports. >> she seems no different from other haitian boys his age. he spends his summer afternoon in a fierce battle, alongside his little brother. minutes later, our camera mancaptures his attention. they lost everything when their house collapsed during the devastating earthquake in january of 2010. this is the life they've managed to rebuild in three years. mois every's father works as a driver during the day. he teaches his boys religious songs and hopes jesus will answer their prayers. but his mother, weshleen, worries.

he was earthquake. this is why. >> the foot was damaged. the house collapsed on he and his brother. >> one doctor said there was no need to amputate but a second opinion from an american doctor delivered the terrible news. >> translator: the white american looked at it and said, if we don't cut the foot off, the child will die. they cut his foot off on the 18th of january. >> it must have been terrible for your son to lose his leg. >> there are some words that need no translation. >> translator: it was horrible. i looked at him for a moment. just a moment. it was so painful. i didn't want the foot cut off. >> reporter: she feared the physical pain her son was facing and the lifetime of hardship. in haiti when you are missing a

limb you are stigmatized, considered an outcast. called a kokobe, a cripple in creole. >> how come when i walked around the streets i don't see people on crutches? i don't see people who are missing a leg or an arm. >> they prefer hiding it. >> why? >> they feel that they are rejected from the society. >> reporter: ashamed? >> exactly. by showing that. >> reporter: arrest joseph is the director at healing hands for haiti. a nonprofit that offers prosthetic limbs to those who need them. they provided 1200 prosthetics to amputees since the earthquake. dr. rudolph rulane sits on the board. >> there's also a crucial matter survive. if you have any kind of handicap you are done, they throw you away. >> the earthquake destroyed healing hands facilities.

that's when ngo handicap international came in with a partnership that saved their program and created a successful model for how international aid can help haitians solve a haitian problem. patrick senia is the program's director. >> translator: when we arrived at haiti after the earthquake, there were no professional rehabilitation services. so there was an urgent need to bring in specialists from overseas. >> the partnership built this new center in port au prince. maurice has a new appointment today to be fitted with a new prosthetic. before the doctor comes in the young boy sizes up what will become his new left foot. >> we give him the best possible fit in 2010. and every day he grow. >> which is good except your

prosthetic is knot growing. >> it's not growing. >> every three months or six months. >> he needs a new one. >> because the stump is growing all the time. >> noise is glowing quickly. when they try the new prosthetic, it needs a few adjustments. it takes time. when they come back, a second test is a better fit. moise walks up and down, up and down aas therapists check his balance. -- as therapists check his balance. he seems to like what he sees. another hard life in haiti will be even harder for her son. pascal oversees the prosthetic workshop . he is optimistic. >> how will the little boy that we see, how will his life be when he is 30, 40, 50?

>> he is not safe. he miss a part of the leg. he continue to evolve like a normal boy. >> reporter: one big challenge like host countries like haiti is the eventually departure of the program. self-run and self-sufficient. >> at the same time, we started a training program for the medium term to ensure that at some point there would be a transfer so that maintenances would be capable of providing the care for themselves. >> -k so that haneys woul haitians be capable of it themselves. >> the velcro straps will hold the prosthetic to the patients. there are ten

technicians that make about 30 prosthetics a month. there is a trainer on the center. >> so it's a good gig, good job. >> few places in port au prince are accessible for the handicapped. lead therapist alice says the tragic earthquake could have a silver lining. >> a lot of people before the earthquake, they used to reject the handicapped. but i don't know why it's opened their eyes but they are starting to accept them. >> this is moise's newest reality. every few months he will travel to and from the city's downtown to get a new prosthetic leg. to him it's the answer to his prayer, one he sings about with his father. especially in haiti where the

next steps are anything but certain. >> coming up next on our program, bending convention. a cultural phenomenon that changed the world of dance. the ballet russe, was it

>> now we travel back in time. over 100 years to witness a revolutionary thi thrill for audience he at that time. the first footsteps of what is today recognized as a historic overthrow of tradition. recently featured at the national gallery of art in washington. sheila macvicar with the story of the ballet russe. >> picture paris, may 29, 1913.

traditional paris turns out for an evening at the ballet. >> the first act of the evening, a wonderful neoromantic ballet. white tutu ballet. >> and just what the audience expected. and then the next act opened. and there was this pounding music. >> sarah kennel is an associate curator at the national gallery of art in washington, d.c. >> then these dancers came on stage, slumped over, hobbling, stomping their feet. they were wearing these wool tunics. the audience had no idea what was going on. >> the ballet was the rite of spring. there had never been anything like it. the story is of a young woman sacrificed to appease a vengeful

god. the music pounding, dissonant. by igor stravinsky. the dancers flooding on stage, primitive and raw. everything about it was new and shocking. >> after a few minutes, people started shouting in the aisles. first murmurs then fist fights breaking out. >> people in evening dress , throwing punches. >> yes, people felt like they were having mud slung at them. utter madness. how could this have been even presented as art? you have a few people, a few people saying this might be the germ of something new. >> scandalous, shocking, ugly

parody, words used to describe the original dances of the ballet russe. while many of the iconic ball it russe seems tame, some like the fire bird, have become well loved classics. of the nearly 100 ballets that came from the company in the 20 years between 1909 and 1929, none brought together the ideals of the ballet russe more than the rite of spring. >> you had this performance, it really was a lightning rod for what art was, what avant garde was. whether art, moving forward, had to destroy the past or not. >> list of collaborators read like a who's who of the 20th century art scene. pablo

picasso designed sets and costumes, including this 11 foot stunner. somebody had to dance in this. imagine dancing in this hand painted henry matisse. together with avant garde choreographers, they pushed the boundaries of what art was or could be. >> suddenly to be an artist you didn't have to paint on can value or create clutc sculpturer draw. suddenly art was on a three dimensional stage. >> sergei deagala drove the ballet russe. >> a supporter of the artist, somebody who was almost a monster, who was very, very driven and could be demanding. what

deagalus did, bring a total spectacle, willing to work together, deagalus pushed him to experiment, he hired visual artists to think about the stage as a kind of moving canvas. >> work that continues to supplier today. these young dancers are from the kirov academy. a new generation gracing the collaborations of the ballet russe. >> de deagala had a knack to finding discovering new things in the arts. audiences respond. they did in his day and they still do today. >> i fell in love with the idea of the artist collaborating, you know, musicians and composers, they all came together and were working.

i really think that that is just spectacular. >> it was this cultural phenomenon that sort of brought together people from different disciplines, from different viewpoints. from you know, different sides of the political spectrum, even, and the class spectrum, to think about what made art. what was great art. so i think that was, you know, one of the most fantastic and kind of enduring legacies of the ballet russe. >> coming up next here, a robbery, 70 million years in the making. who would steal a dinosaur and almost get away with it ? curious creature ever

was -- prince william was dating kate middleton. >> ross shimabuku is here with sport. >> dennis rodman is in north korea to train basketball players for an upcoming player. he wants everyone to know he's not a joke. this is the same guy who dressed up in a wedding gown and will rite a book with his bff, kim jong un. the 52-year-old rodman, who never shies away from the spotlight arrived in north korea

>> now, here's something even the most rule bound lawmakers in

this country haven't tried to legislate. believe it or not, the country does not have a law regulating possession of dinosaur fossils. if you happen to dig up a brontosaurus bone in your backyard you can keep that. but the great dinosaur that almost got away. >> the great gobi desert, home to countless long extinct life forms. one of those turned up inform sale last year in new york city. >> i got an e-mail friday night in houston, basically said there's a dinosaur that's been stolen from the gobi desert. it's going to be auctioned on sunday at 2:00 in new york. is there anything you can do legally to stop it?

>> at stake the impending , sale of tyrannosaurus betar. the provenance of t batar is unmistakable, not new york city. >> outside mongolia, as a paleontologist, we can look at something, little bumps on bones, the architecture of this skeleton tells us this is a tyrannosaurus batar. >> he went from i guess mongolia to japan to england to florida, to texas, to new york. >> that is one well-traveled dinosaur. >> when heritage auction he advertised the sale of the dinosaur, the mongolians first tried discretion. >> like augmentation company, how did he get this thing?

we think it might be ours and can you show us the provenance? basically, heritage auctions said buzz off, no. i knew nothing about the provenance of the dinosaur. fortunately, the auction house was texas-based and i have a license in texas and turns out there are things can i do. >> in the saga of batar, serendipity, loose lips and a lot of dumb luck. >> if you make it official, tell us what your role is? >> i'm the president of mongolia. >> that's president you. >> can you tell me why the dinosaur is important to you? >> that's part of our cultural heritage.

>> to rescue that heritage, painter had to act fast. >> as lawyers we have in our tool belt restraining orders. but a really tough thing to do on a friday night is find a judge that will hear the temporary restraining order application. >> a colleague of paintser's found one in dallas. he was in the middle of attending a music festival and it's 10:00 at night. >> i get a phone call from an attorney that doesn't ever call me. and he says here's the deal, i have a friend of mine who went to the law school with me and he's the private attorney of the presidents of mongolia, and they are about to file a restraining order against the sale of a

tyrannosaurus ba b atar, or t rex i thought he said. i just hung up. >> i got the auction catalog. >> what did you think? >> i thought i.t. was here in new york -- i thought it was here in new york and you can't do this. >> you went into the auction house? >> threr probably i'm going osay 300 items and the marquee item was the tyrannosaurus. the first thing i saw this thing, 28 feet long 12 feet tall he's there. he or she. in the auction room. [applause] >> the auction didn't go well. >> we're walking around, overheard an official of heritage auctions on the phone talking rather loudly and he said well, we aren't going to follow the order. they tell someone on the phone who we now know was the buyer, we're going to go ahead and do

it but we're going to say, subject to the court's ruling we're going to do the auction. >> the sale of this will be pending a resolution -- >> so we called the judge on his cell phone and he said you need to tell them. >> and i told mr. painter to remind them that this was an order, not a suggestion. >> you are the guy at the wedding that said, stop. and you're a big guy. >> it's true, yes. a blackberry, a dinosaur of itself, i dialed my phone and said -- >> sorry the judge -- >> who signed the restraining order that you're about to violate and he wants to explain why. >> okay, we need to go outside. >> the puzzled auctioneer proceeds with the auction and it's finished and the guy on the phone bought it.

>> for how much? >> $875,000. >> so what is this 70 million year old mongolian fossil creating this fuss? batar and his american cousin t rex were two of the most fearsome dinosaurs who ever troamed -- roamed the earth. >> do we know why they have such tiny arms? they have enormous legs. but tiny little arms. >> the arms coach touch each other when they were alive. couldn't do this. >> batar and there guy could have eaten all the other little dinosaurs around them. and probably did. >> probably did. >> mongolia has become engaged in some of these issues like the looting of dinosaur bones from their land. and it's been happening for a very long time.

i mean certainly in the early '90s even we started to see illegal excavations happen there but it's only been recent that the mongolian government has been recognized as a real problem and engaged in trying to stop it. >> for national sovereignty purposes, the country has the right to make those laws and respected. >> when you take the dinosaur away from it, what troubles me is we could smuggle a 24 foot anything in. >> buyer withdrew and the auction house asked to cooperate. with the batar moved to an undisclosed location in queens, teams along with a telling

delegation from mongolia, identified him or her. then another lucky break. >> an official from the mongolian ministry of culture sitting in the lobby and this guy sitting over here is on his phone talking about there's this mongolian dinosaur and on and on and on. so this guy from mongolia takes his picture, and e-mails it to me and says i think this is the smuggler. i take this photo and the police take it and go out on the gobi desert door to door and they find someone who says, oh, yeah, that's mr. eric. >> this guy? >> this guy is mr. eric. and they go to the computer and find photos of this guy in the gobi desert in mongolia with a hammer and sickle digging in the dirt looking for dinosaurs. >> meantime, the dinosaur was placed under arrest.

>> it's an old legal concept. you are actually trying to sue to return an asset a piece of property. you put it in the piece of the property. it's called united states of america versus one tyrannosaurus batar. a case where the government sued a dinosaur. the first in my experience. >> in june we were able to secure the civil complaint. we were able to secure the warrant to be able to seize the dinosaur. would we be able to locate it? within four months in september 2012 we had it in our possession. >> also in their possession a search warrant. the immigration and customs enforcement of homeland security went to the florida workshop of mr. eric, that's eric percopi. >> in this case, even better than that was the items we were looking for or at least part of the items we were looking for

were actually getting delivered on the day that we were there. >> talking about weird coincidences, of all the times for a delivery truck to show up, while the agents are there looking for dinosaurs and then here's another one. >> what we were able to do is say thank you to the delivery driver, take the boxes and include that as part of our search warrant and that helped us greatly. >> eric percopi pleaded guilty of three felonies, transportation of stolen property, conspiracy and smuggling. he is currently awaiting sentencing. the president of mongolia has recognized the lawyer for his service. so after a year in new york,

tyrannosaurus batar was flown back on korean air, first class. and today, batar is traveling again. but this time, to temporary museums inside mongolia. >> so there was a rush that the people were so amazed that at the success, they love the dinosaur. their hero, their batar. >> mongolia is rebuilding the former lenin museum to house their national museum. the last one 98 have been bengus en -- gengus

us khan. by the way, the translation for the mongolian word, batar, is hero. >> wide a hero is he. after the break, cancer's unlikely enreply, could this be the medical wrai break through? it's already saved woman young woman's life. we'll get her remarkable story, next.

many worry that the gains made in education will not stick in the future. aljazeera's jane ferguson takes us to a school in kandahar city that was long considered a success and is now facing closure. >> it's a place offering more than these girls know, a quality education in real tangible skills, a path away from positivity and early marriage and towards university and a career. since 2002, the modern stud has been teaching women languages, like management and computer skills. that they are skills that speak of ambition which in the heart of tallle ban country is remarkable. >> we are a unique school, preparing women to go to jobs. our school is preparing women to

go to universities. every sunday night join us for exclusive, revealing and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. this sunday. >> we try to be funny in serious stories which is very, very rare. >> he made radio cool with his sense of humor, insight and curiosity. he opened a new window into american life. >> before they know it we're actually able to present something new that they haven't heard about. >> talk to al jazeera with ira glass. >> al jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour. >> here are the headlines at this hour. >> only on al jazeera america.

>> as we prepare to close out the year we consider the future for some of the strongest people we can think of, cancer patients. they do face an ongoing battle with a recent grim prognosis organization. more than 14 million cases of cancer were in 2012, but even in the darkest moments there can be miraculous forces. meet stephanie lipscom. >> the pain in stephanie lipscom's head began in the spring of 2011. >> i just started noticing the back of my eyes would hurt really bad. then the migraines started. i couldn't bathe myself, dress myself, all i could do there was lay there in pain.

>> the headaches became so painful that stephanie checked into the local er. >> i got it via text from my mom, they found something on stephanie's brain and they are sending her to greenville. >> doctors found the tumor and operated almost immediately. a biopsy confirmed their worst fears. >> it was a grade 4, glioblastoma, a very aggressive tumor. >> for months, conventional therapies that 95% of the time only delay the inevitable. >> in april of 2012, i was given the news that my cancer had come back. >> this disease, especially when it returns, after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation

therapy is uniformly lethal. >> these are the new lines. >> put a revolutionary new therapy developed by cancer researchers at duke university gave stephanie one last hope. >> it is overt expression not perfect. >> enter dr. mathias gromeier, seeking to use one disease over another. >> i'm a polio virolooingsgist, interested in targeting tumors with therapy. >> exist naturally on many cancers. >> polio virus naturally we didn't have to do anything to it. it naturally like to infect cancer cells and kill them. the virus is the spark that

makes the tumor recognizable to the immune system. so this entails inserting a catheter into the patient's brain, into the area of the tombor and the virus is infused through this catheter. >> polio kills. and i didn't think that that was a good idea. >> she's like what? you're putting polio in my daughter's brain? are you serious? >> it took me a little bit to get used to that idea. but it was stephanie's decision. and i stood beside her. >> the doctor actually came in and explained that to me and i was just amazed. i was like why not try it, you know. >> it had not been used on a human yet. >> it had only been done on monkeys and that's exactly how they explained it to us. >> over a six hour period a surgeon injected over 1 million

virus particles into stephanie's brain. >> i started the infusion pump to deliver the virus. it gave me a great level of confidence that we were doing the right thing. because we had studied this so thoroughly. >> yet in the months after the infusion the tumor disturbingly appeared to be growing. >> that is something nobody wants to see. and i have to be honest. it was not something we were happy about, of course. we were very concerned about it. >> hello, how are you doing? >> as an oncologist who deals with this virus, when i was seeing the tumor growing it was very scary for me to sit back and have faith that the polio virus will be working. >> what was actually happening in her brain was an inflammatory response, rather than the tomb growing. >> yes.

>> in fact, stephanie's immune system was responding exactly as predicted . attacking the tumor sells infected by the polio virus. >> this is remarkable, because this is something that wasn't achievable with any type of treatment that was currently available for these cancer patients. >> and that whole area here was a tomb that we treated. and -- teumo tumor that we treated. it really decreased. you're happy too? congratulations. >> by december, seven months after treatment there were some signs that the tumor began to respond and at february nine months after treatment we knew that her tumor was responding. >> animal studies suggest that once the body recognizes and

destroys the tumor it won't return. >> producing a lasting response is the holy grail. that's what we want to achieve. we don't stop at brain tumors. we want to investigate a broader use of these techniques that we are currently testing noshed to make -- in order to make a dent against currently incurable cancers. >> could use for a whole range of cancers. including malignant melanoma, prostate cancers and more. stephanie has survived four times longer than others with her same result. >> i survived cancer, not just cancer but brain cancer. people actually look up to me. pief grown so much.

not only did i mature more, i found out who my friends were and realized i can go anything if i can beat cancer. >> many congratulations to her. ahead in our final segment this hour, acting on faith, where broadway sounds, finding peace and answers after the curtain call.

>> finally this hour, we visit a place that's awfully popular in the holidays. streets of new york city, filled with joy and hope. but on a late saturday night you may see famous faces, on a mission. a local church known by many as the actors' chapel. ♪ i give thanks to you o lord >> dear father, it's very hard

for me to put into word what st. malachi's has meant to me. where i first took my children to mass, where i would go to matinee, would meet fellow actors. i can't imagine ballet without st. malachi's. i'm father baker, pastor of the actors chapel. the development of the theater district, it had settled here around where a church had already been established. once it came here the parish priest automatically served a new need, the theatrical community. >> i would call it the entertainment chapel because it involves crew and everybody involved in the industry. >> sometimes square in 1977 was

a disaster. when father george moore arrived here in 1977, he realized he couldn't keep the church open, if the neighborhood wouldn't change. he would talk to the drug dealers, the porn shop owners, everybody. to start to organize to work against the negative elements. so much so that in the long run, gary schubert, may he rest in peace. >> the bells play a tune you may recognize. >> well, i moved into the neighborhood back in '82. and i got an apartment down the street here. and one summer night i heard these bells playing, "there's no business like show business." i asked the landlady, i heard the bells playing, "there's no

business like show business." what theater is doing this? she says no, there's no theater, there's a chapel down the street. >> we are a catholic church. the doors are wide open and no matter what faith you would feel comfortable walking into. >> a lot of actors are famous for coming here. chris farley used to come here and antonio banderas,. >> bop hope used to come here. douglas fairbanks was married here. >> i was in mary poppins, beauty in the beast. >> my name is en re kay segura, you may know me as ed on the lion king. >> i'm luke, i'm

on the matild matilda,. >> we are catering to the entertainment industry specifically. >> late enough that it still satisfied your sunday obligation to attend mass. >> i think it's important that the 11:00 p.m. last exists because i don't want to get up no [ laughter ] >> did you get a lot of laughs? >> on a saturday night trying to get to the chapel is very stressful. >> i finished the show. i've done this great show. i played a lot of people hopefully very happy in their experience. >> everybody's talking about the show that they saw and they're all like oh this person was amazing and the show was amacing. >> and -- amazing. >> people are out having a good time, some of them maybe having one too many. >> can clowns to the left of me

jokers to the right. >> you should get to where your destination is and then talk about it. >> just don't get run over. >> crowds everywhere, you're trying to get to church. they're dodging, you're scurrying. >> go, we got a break. >> that's what i find interesting. it's the trying. it's the trying to get there. it's reply spiritual struggle. >> my wife is currently in her second battle with cancer. so it's really -- it's amazing. what something like this bring to your life. it's sort of a thing where you don't -- you're not aware of it until these times. but i'm keenly aware of it now. >> i

pray that everybody who's sick and homeless, that they get what they need. and everybody who wants to try to be in this show bis, you know, they try their hardest, even if they don't get something that doesn't mean they're not good. it just means that they just have to keep working. >> i think actor will pray for success in their craft. they're willing to sacrifice so much and i've seen it. the struggle that an actor will be engaged in, trying to keep life normal just to be able to pursue this craft, is incredible. the dedication. it's impressive. >> there's a lot of people that would say that there is a conflict between the values of the catholic church and what is traditionally perceived as the he

hedoni ni is srvegti style. most actors are real honest hardworking a lot of them are very spiritual, very religious. >> i think you have to understand an actor is involved in a profession. that as john paul ii says the actor and the artist are those who best emulate god in his activity of creation. where god took nothing and made it something. so to an actor or artist they seem to create out of nothing something that seems to be their own work. therefore it is quite appropriate that an actor would come to a place of worship. >> and that's it for us here on america tonight. we wish all of you a happy holiday season and we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow.

check check > welcome to the newshour, live from al jazeera's news center in doha. these are the main stories - running battles in bangkok. an officer is killed as anti-government demonstrators fight the police. >> the turkish prime minister reshuffles his cabinet after three senior ministers resign over corruption investigations. >> after the battle al jazeera has access to the town of bor, the scene of intense fighting