this is al jazeera america, i'm john siegenthaler. >> finding fault,ing to sony hacks. beyond belief. ferguson witnesses lied to the grand jury and the prosecutor knew all about it. coal controversy. the federal ruling that has environmental groups fuming. and ♪ ♪ >> george benson talks about his rise from child street musician to one of the biggest stars in

the world. we begin with the sony hacking story. tonight the fbi says there's little doubt that north korea is responsible. president obama says the u.s. is planning a response. he's also calling out the corporation exposed in the cyber attack. randall pinkston reports. >> john, north korea is denying responsibility for the sony cyber attack but u.s. investigators say the evidence points directly at pyongyang. president obama promises action. president obama put north korea on notice. the u.s. will strike back for the cyber attack on sony pictures. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and a place and manner that we choose. it is not something that i will announce here today at a press

conference. >> the fbi says it consulted with several u.s. agencies and consultants. the fbi cited several factors for its conclusion. malwear, including similarities of code and encryption algorithms. known north korean infrastructure and they found similarities to a cyber attacked launched in march 2013. the cyber attack was apparently against "the interview." after threats of violence, sony decided to cancel the movie. but president obama in his end

of the year news conference criticized that decision. >> yes, i think they made a mistake, we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they do when they see a documentary they don't like or a news report they don't like. >> but sony disagrees with the president. michael linton says the president and the country is mistaken what has happened. we have not backed down, we have every desire to have the american public see this movie. sony can't tell any theater what

movie to show but it's unclear whether sony will put "the interview" back ton market. john. >> thank you randall. kevin mitnick has changed his way from the most wanted hacker. thank you. >> thank you for having me on your show. the fbi made these statements regarding the malwear that was found on sony's networks but knowing how hackers work they share code, they share malwear, they share disploits. >> how hard is it to fake an attack by north korea?

>> it's very easy. i could sit and attack a system in the u.s. and make it look like it's coming from indonesia, china, anywhere in the world. >> what would be the motive for that? >> i don't know what the motive would be. there's a clear motive why north korea would attack sony but i don't know if any other bad actors are trying to pin it on north korea. i don't really know -- i don't know who's behind it because i haven't been able to analyze the evidence. i just am not convinced by what was released by the government today. >> i understand you saw some internal memos from sony. how secure were sony's servers during this attack? >> lks like they had some -- looks like they had some problems with their monitoring. a memo went up to the vice president of security at sony and they realized that about 20% of their infrastructure wasn't being monitored properly. and i think that's really a huge concern of whether sony was

really following best security practices to at least detect if bad guys entered their network. >> 10100 terabytes ever data. >> let's see it's 100 megabits which is a pretty fast speed, it's a pretty fast speed, anyway, that would take three months full time to ex filtrate or move out the data to the internet. what would be a lot faster if somebody was in sony's physical fasts and was able to move the data. the unfortunate thing is i don't know the size of pipe they had to the internet. >> what should these companies learn from sony. >> they really have to think

about layered defenses and depth, they have to think about protecting the perimeter. they have to look to other security companies that develop services and software, to -- that innovate these products to help protect their systems. because unfortunately, it's way to easy to hack into systems these days. >> you say it's way too easy. >> it is. >> i know that -- i know that i guess some companies ask you to hack into their system and see how easy it is to get in and when you do that what happens? >> usually i would say my success rate is about 99.5% and i've tested companies that are even larger than sony? >> and it's easy? >> it is not that hard to break into systems. it's harder to detect it. and what sony really needs to concentrate on is at least having better technology and better security practices, at

detecting when the bad guys are in their network. >> so let's get down to it. what would it take for all these companies to fix the problem? >> companies coming out and innovating better technology. >> how much money? >> wow, it would be asignificant amount of money to -- a significant amount of money to develop. i don't have any idea. >> but also easy to do? >> there are great technologies out there and if you configure them wrongly they don't work. the being systems they have to prevent detect and repel this kind of attack. other companies don't want to be the next sony. >> i bet they don't, kevin mitnick it's always good to talk to you. we'll talk again. >> thank you, john.

>> ing staples said hackers may have compromised 115 million cards. allowing access to card holder names, card numbers, verification codes, expiration dates, the breach affected transactions from july to september. as we said earlier president obama held his year end news conference today. one of his big topics was the landmark deal with cuba. senior being reporter mike viqueria is at the white house. >> disputed the president's upbeat assessment of the past year, and good economy, the president faces a rough road with republicans when he returns in january. >> hello everybody. >> despite his lame duck status, president obama says he's energized. >> my presidency is entering the

fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter and i'm looking forward to it. >> but mr. obama faces strengthened opposition, gop leaders are vowing to fight on a host of issues, including mr. obama's opening to cuba. lift the economic embar go. >> i think that ultimately we need to go ahead and pull down the embargo which i think has been self-defeating in advancing the aims that we're interested in. but i don't anticipate that that happens right away. >> republicans will also try and balk the president's executive actions on immigration and repeal all or part of the affordable care act, obamacare. >> if republicans seek to take health care way from people who just got it, they will meet stiff resistance from me. >> hands up don't shoot. >> and in the wake of ferguson staten island and cleveland,

mr. obama sees a shift in public awareness when it comes to racial tensions between african americans and law enforcement. >> because people have been able to film what has just been in the past, stories passed on around a kitchen table, allows people to make their own evaluations. you're not going to solve a problem if it's not going to be talked about and now i'm going to go on vacation. >> the president and his family will have an extended holiday in hawaii, a rest before returning to washington anden a new political reality. >> and john one other major issue. the keystone pipeline has been delayed for years as it winds its way through the administration approval process, today the president played down the approval process saying it would not add, mitch mcconnell says it will be the first item on the agenda when they return in january.

>> mike viqueria reporting. now during the news conference the president appeared to make a subtle statement. he only called on female reporters and did it on purpose, to highlight female workers in the white house, doesn't remember ever seeing that before. the grand jury in the michael brown case, earlier today the prosecutor in that case said some witnesses clearly light. jonathan betz is here with that, jonathan. >> he knew some of the witnesses were lying and let them testify to the grand jury anyway. in court documents she's referred to as witness 40. her story would be often repeated. she defended officer darren wilson, telling the grand jury michael brown was in the football position and had his fist made and he began to charge at the officer forcing the fatal shots. now that witness has been

exposed. identified in several reports as 45-year-old sandra mcelroy and her story apparently completely made up. the smoking gun website has discredited the witness saying she was nowhere near the scene, has a criminal history, made racist comments and has before inserted herself into big stories. even the prosecutor seemed to agree. >> this was a lady who clearly wasn't present when this occurred. and she recounted the statement that was you know right out of the newspaper, i'm sure she was nowhere near the place. >> yet the st. louis county prosecutor said he put her on anyway. >> my determination was to put everyone on and let the grand jurors assess her testimony which they did. >> picking apart mcelroy's story still she's standing by it telling the st. louis dispatch,

they are trying to discredit me. because of my racial slurs, have i used the n word, yeah i have. now this revelation throws even more suspicion on the proceedings and the prosecutor. >> my job is to just seek the truth and seek justice and do what is right and what is appropriate in there and that's what we did in this case. >> even though he says he feels people lied on the stand the d.a. says he will not file perjury charges. he says it's important for the grand jury to hear everything and make up their own mind john. >> waste from coal fired power plants is not hazardous, robert ray reports. >> tons of waste.

>> arsenic, chromium, lead in a lot of places. >> poured into a cracked drainage pipe into a are river. >> duke energy cannot fail. we do feel we failed a bit with dan river. >> duke energy is the largest being power company in the u.s. duke's relationship with north carolina regulators. miles away from the dan river spill a shuttered coal plant overlooks the yacki nrveg river basin ayackin riverbasin. residents call this dukeville. >> you have these jugs of water that you have to drive to go get to? >> yes, we do. >> how about bathing your little kids? >> we don't bathe the children in the water. the pediatrician feels like it's not in the best interests of the children to do that right now. >> joann and ron thomas live

just down the road. >> you and your husband created this map and it shows 72 people in your area that have had some sort of deadly disease. >> right. >> near the coal ash ponds. right across the street cancer? >> right. >> right over there? >> right. >> cancer? >> three brain tumors. >> brain tumor? >> brain tumor, brain tumor and then cross over the street, had another brain tumor. >> we have heard questions and concerns from residents near the plants who are hearing so much hype about coal ash. and we take very seriously their concerns. we are not finding any evidence that coal ash has impacted groundwater near our facilities that has not already been addressed. the company has been very proactive. >> i don't call that hype, i call that very serious. there are lots of people who have had cancer and died. lots of brain tumors. duke energy sampled the water.

residents like the thomas say they watched duke take samples in areas that would not show high levels of toxicity. >> how are the test results so different between the river keepers and duke on the water sampling? >> i think it is really about the collection methods. one of the things we're finding is sometimes thee group groups e taking very turbid samples. >> what does that mean? >> they have a lot of sediment in them. >> higher levels of toxicity. but river keeper will scott says his samplings follow federal guidelines. >> duke is doing what is going to make the samples look for them. >> duke spends millions of dollars in political contributions in north carolina. this year the governor,.

>> farther part of what we want is for the management of duke to fully understand the dangers that their company's practices are foisting on the people of the state and our rivers. we think they are beginning to realize it. >> duke says it will have all 32 coal ash ponds in the state cleaned up by 2029. a cost of between two and $8 billion. for the residents living near the ponds daily life is a struggle as many will still not use the water supply and worry about their future. robert ray, al jazeera, charlotte, north carolina. >> white house officials say the president could act as soon as next month to begin dismantd lindismantlingthe trade embar g. david ariosto reports from miami. >> go to calle ocho, angry even

about the president's decision to normalize relations. most people here have a cousin, a family member who still lives if cuba in which they're sending money back and that type of thing really boosts up the cuban economy. but with these normalization relations, economies that are beginning to bubble up in havana and other places. in many ways this is engine of cuba's economy. cuban americans who send money home to their families represent a $2.6 billion industry. an increasingly important source of revenue as falling oil prices send a squeeze on how much money venezuela can stoned cuba. but it's not just cash that they are bringing home, tvs,

clothes and even car tires. >> they are family in cuba, all of these packets are gifts. >> so this is a daily scene here at miami international airport. you have cuban american families who are heading back to havana, toys for children, things you might get in the united states but are just not available in havana. with this recent policy shift the expectation is this will happen much more often. >> under the new policy the those with relatives will be able to send home $8,000 a year, four fold increase over what it used to be. no special license to do their business. u.s. companies will also be able to export a list of items that include items like building materials and telecommunications. 90 miles from the coast of florida. scenes like these will likely get bigger as cuba's economy

opens to its old cold warren my. that old cold war relationship dates back to 1959 when fidel castro and his band of rebels rolled into havana. that relationship between these two companies, has been frozen in time even. this normalization in relations could mark a beginning in the shift in relations, only time will tell. john. jahn all right, robert, thank you. what former president jimmy carter thinks about this. the cdc says that caramel apples are the source of a deadly listeria outbreak. they don't know which brands are affected right now. coming up next, seattle police

are looking for local hackers not to bust bust to help handle sensitive information. plus, what nasa can tell from your holiday lights. people of our time... talk to al jazeera, only on al jazeera america

>> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america

>> holiday lights are not only lighting up the street this year. threr also lighting up the skies. nasa says you can see them all the way from outer space, and rebecca stevenson is here with that, rebecca. >> we have a partnering satellite between noaa and nasa. it can detect the glow of the light from the cities. back in 2012 they noticed in cairo there seemed to be this strange increase in brightness and they watched a little bit more and they realized this was sort of tracking with the islam icislamingicislammic calendar,i. they notate that the poorer

areas, they wouldn't turn their lights on overnight until it got to the end of ramadan, then everybody in egypt had a party. >> is there a way to determine or compare one city or one suburb from another? >> they do, start to notice urban areas in the center of the city their light output would increase by 20 to 30% over those times of the holidays whereas if you go further out in the suburbs they were saying that yard size would have a lot to do with it. more single family homes up to a 50% increase in light output in those outer areas. initially they were looking at this for energy usage to get an idea of greenhouse emissions. they started to say now we've got all these buildings but how are those buildings actually being used? are they being used? because they are just not putting out even though they increase in the light not nearly as much as these areas in the

outer spaces. >> interesting what they learned. thank you rebecca. facebook got a boost, instagarage is valued at $35 billion. since this instagram has introduced advertising into their accounts. coming pickup sony hacked. others are worried about the similar. plus, george benson talks about his nearly seven decades of award-winning music, coming up.

this is ladges. i'm john siegenthaler. al jazeera america. this is john siegenthaler. are any computers safe? we'll hear from a top member of the lacking group anonymous. what the new relationship between the u.s. and cuba could

mean for an american fugitive who was granted asylum there. and the prosecutor in the ferguson grand jury case admits some witnesses lied. the fbi now says it has proof north korea was behind the sony cyber attack. the agency says ip addresses and the type of virus used point directly to north korea. today president obama said the u.s. is planning a response, but he did not offer details. the president also says sony made a mistake postponing the release of the film "the interview." >> we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the united states. >> sony disagrees with the president.

ceo michael linton says the president the investigators and the press have gotten it wrong. we have not backed down, we have every reason to have the public see this movie. the fear that other companies could have knowledge are our jake ward is in france san francisco. >> circumstantial evidence. earlier i spoke to the head of hewlett packard research institute into the cyber warfare capabilities of north korea. and i asked him whether north korea was technologically sophisticated enough to pull this off. >> they are definitely sophisticated enough. i think the thing to think of here is there's a marketplace,

where any actor as long as they have money could buy expertise. even if they don't have all the expertise required they can go into the black market, they can purchase those skills as long as they have money. >> the software and hardware the fbi is using to identify north korea it turns out is not very specific. it's knot a finger print. here is how mr. gililand described how unique this software is when you're trying to identify somebody. >> after a set of vulnerabilities that are known and some cases have patches available, it just get used and reused >> so the difficulty here for the fbi is this stuff is not exactly a fingerprint. not a smoking gun. anyone with the means can buy it.

the evidence what is so convincing that the fbi wants to actually identify north korea publicly as the culprit here? that question has not been answered. the reason everyone is so worried about this is not that sony is of particular importance in the national landscape and it was pretty well-known that sony was pretty lax when it comes to cyber security, it's not that its standards are ones that everybody is using and we're everybody is using and that is what we're worried about, but from a great distance even a reclusive government like north korea and assuming this is north korea could come in and do a lot of damage. it used to be that hacking was maliciousness and getting attention but now it is a case of perhaps real terrorism, where physical damage can actually b >> the german authorities issued their real look back of 2014, and they identified an instance where a factory in germany had been hacked, physical palpable damage done on the ground by remote means. that is the kind of attack that i think has everyone so worried

about what sony could forecast for the future, john. >> all right, jake, thank you. >> the online group anonymous has carried on hack around the world. i spoke to hector sabu monsagour. how vulnerable is the united states to this type of hacking? >> there is no security. >> even the government, we nod only paid to protect the government. i think that's a good lesson. >> bank accounts? >> bank accounts? >> hacked bank accounts? >> what's the point hacking bank accounts when we could just hack

the bank? >> you're pretty proud of that. >> proud of -- >> of your ability to do that. >> no, there's no real pride in it. it's just a skill, it's knowledge, you know, it's something i have. >> i can't do that. you say there are plenty of people who can? >> you could do it, anybody could do it. sit here for five minutes i could teach you. but you've got to understand security. but there's got to be ethics and morals behind it. >> why not go to silicon valley and get a job? >> they don't trust me. >> don't companies need people like you, to make sure they don't get hacked? >> i'm sure they do. you know, they think you have some good skills you can put to use, i'm open to that but to answer your question: we have no security and i really want to emphasize that people need to understand that, that's the first step to fixing our problems. the major issue is with the government, the government needs to stop paying federal contractors billions of dollars

a year when they're getting hacked themselves. you understand? >> you are not working with the government? you're no longer helping the government. >> i haven't seen a federal agent since march 6th, 2012. >> it's a great thing, i want nothing to do with nonof them. >> thank you for sharing your story. we appreciate it. >> appreciate it too, thank you. >> cuba is home to about 80 fugutives wanted in the united states, one of them is asada shekur, once known as joann chesalore. she was convicted much shooting a new jersey police officer, she escaped and granted asylum by fidel castro. her attorney talked to al jazeera. >> my concern as her lawyer is, with respect to the bountiy that

has been -- bounty that has been put on her. now you have bounties that have been put on her and now they are attempting to capture her and that is an illegal act. >> he says there is no evidence linking shakur to the murder. former president jimmy carter tried to normalize relations with cuba in the 1970s. i asked him why it took so long. >> cuba at that time would not desist in trying to subbetter governments in this hemisphere towards communism, he sent

troops to africa, including ethiopia, and those are thaingss that hindered full recognition. we took as much of a step as we can and that's when we established intersections both in havana and washington. they have been open under all successive presidents since that time. >> president carter you traveled to owner cuba in 2011 and you spoke to fidel castro and his brother raul. >> they made the proposition then that is basically accepted now, and that is that the three cuban priz centers in florida would be -- prisoners in florida would be released, that alan would be released and i met with him when he was down there in prison then and the sanctions

would be lifted. so i think this has been a potential realization for a long time. and i'm very glad that president obama finally decided to do it on his own initiative. >> does this give legitimacy to castro's regime in your opinion? >> no, it doesn't. but i think whole gam us of arrangements -- gam united stategamuts ofarrangements, i te very good for both countries. i see very wonderful boost for cuba, particularly in american tourism and a good boost for american farmers and others that i already mentioned in normal trade relationships with our nearest neighbor except for mexico and canada. >> what does it mean for russia and the influence in this region? >> well, this will greatly

increase the american influence. as a matter of fact, the carter center has a lot of programs in latin america and the united states was getting into great disfavor with an increasing number of latin american countries, because of our unique harsh treatment of cuba. and as you know, just a few weeks ago there was another annual resolution in the united nations acknowledge which, whicd american sanctions of cuba. the only countries that voted against it were the united states and israel. i think the upcoming meeting of the organization of american states was a forgone conclusion that cuba would be there. recall of these other nations had decided on that decision, made that decision and now the united states has decided that they would cooperate with this i say forgone conclusion, and that we would cooperate as well.

i think this will strengthen the organization of american states. it will lessen outside influence from russia or any other disruptive forbes and heal a lot olot -- force and heal a lot of wounds from latin american countries who were supposedly our friends. >> thank you president carter for joining us. >> thank you johnny good luck on all your good work. >> james holmes face he the death penalty for the 2012 shootings, his parents say he is not a monster but rather mentally ill. they're asking that holmes be institutionalized. in ferguson, missouri a question about the grand jury decision. appearing on a radio show prosecutor robert mccullough defended his decision, allowing

questionable witnesses testify. i talked to jamilla lemieux. the digital editor of ebony magazine. >> earlier on it felt very clear he did not want darren wilson to be indicted, that he allowed this type of thing to happen, and there was nothing to punish this person to lie in front of a grand jury. >> what does it speak to? >> it speaks to the fact that this prosecutor, this office did not want to indict darren wilson. he chose the grand jury he wanted he refused to recuse hymns when thhimself, the streeg we don't think you are capable.doing that. >> what was his response, have

everybody say something,. >> why not let me get up there or you get up there? there were a lot of opinions in that community, could you have listened to michael brown's mother or the ghost busters or anyone. this woman got up there and lied and she should be punished for that. >> this story on social media for many days finally has come out. what do you think the prosecutor in the case should have done. >> first of all, i think bob mccullough should have recused himself. >> obviously he did not do that. what else could he have done? >> at the point where there were questions of the validity of persons being questioned, if he found out they were not truthful she circulat should have been rn

let me play this out for a second. let's say for sake of argument, i have no idea what happened in that your, but let's say that was pointed out. let's say the grand jury heard her information or discredited the information, but they still made the decision about darren wilson, you would say? >> somebody who had animus towards african americans and was allowed to lie. it is one thing to be witness to a crime that happen to involve a group of people that you do not like or not be witness to a crime and not be honest and truthful about what you saw because you have an agenda, honestly what he should have done was dismembered that grand jury and started all over again because that group of people was soiled. their minds had been tainted. they had been presented something that was incredibly inaccurate. presented on purpose.

eyewitnesses are not necessarily most reliable people in the world. you see one thing i see another thing, this personal decided to lie. >> all right, jamilla, good to see you again acknowledge happy holidays. police nationwide to wear body cameras, from those cameras comes millions of hours of video. making that video online has now become a top priority in seattle. one citizen is playingepartment with that task. here is allen schauffler. >> i just wanted to watch video. >> a week ago we saw him only as police video request, as he filed millions of rrnlg requests for information. >> we have 360 terabytes of incar video data and we store

that internally. >> police requests, 40,000 dvd moifts or 90 million songs on mp 3 files. but that anonymous requester is no longer anonymous. >> timothy a. clemons. >> he says he wants as much information made public as is technologically possible and legally allowable. >> the biggest position is bias policing and use of force. let's go create a log of every single use of force, here is the video here is the 9/11 calls and everything. >> now he's working with police and found a social yeet question. >> i set i'd respond to him. >> the request is, and he

responded with a program he wrote that automatically edits police video. it shows what's happening but it's obscured, depending on freedom of information laws in different states, it may not work for or be needed for by each police department. >> you have a really good idea if somebody's getting punched. >> the seattle pd has no cost estimate for broad use of such a program but they say it would almost certainly be far less than doing the same thing manually. it's one of clemons ideas for opening up the process, always balancing law enforcement needs and public rights. and police around the country will be weighing the same issues as more officers wear cameras. at v-veu in seattle, business is

booming as people clamor for police accountabilities. they are demanding their police agencies go get these. >> meantime, clemons continues his work with seattle president, a future of accessible video. >> every situation to the tax board, exactly why we have the best professional on earth handling this. >> and they will be watched by those watching the videos. >> yes. >> alan schauffler, al jazeera america. >> gay marriage rights, couples can start gettin getting marrien

january. florida is the 36th state to allow same text marriage. just ahead. ♪ ♪ >> george benson talks about his wig hit, "on broadway."

>> where is the worst weather

going to be in the united states? looks like tomorrow on the west coast. wind, rain, a lot of rain too but it's going to come down as snow first in the washington cascades and oregon as well, then that snow as warmer air moves in changes to rain, so our big concern is going to be flooding river flooding coming off the cascades. you can see this big global view. what this is we're watching for is an speaker river, a very intense flow of air, lot of moisture traveling from the east to the west. but these little tiny areas of moisture come in and travel from west to east and when they start going up to california and the pacific northwest we get a lot of rainfall, over about two to three-day period. you can see it starting to same in first to northern california but really we're going to get all that rain for the western coast of washington, oregon, boy the is it going to be windy too.

we've already got our storm watches impacting, slippery weather for several states, carry chains if you head over the pass, al jazeera america news continues. is a

>> george benson is a ten time grammy winning musician. he's not just known for his voice but his masterful guitar playing, his hits include on broadway and breezyin'. i asked george benson what it's like to be the greatest jazz artist of all time. >> it's amazing for someone to look at you with that much

esteem. i didn't realize it but it feels good. my mother's nickname was sing. she sang to me all the time. so singing was very natural to me. >> little georgeie they called you, you were singing,. >> my folks got in trouble, they tried to take me from my parents, but we got out of that and at ten years old i started making my first records. >> it sounds, like she makes me mad. >> ♪ i got me a baby that fights me makes me mad mad mad ♪ >> ten years old. this talent was oozing from you at an early age. did you always know you were going to become a performer, singer, great guitarist?

>> i had no ideas what i was doing. i did those things like eating and breathing. >> did 1976 just change your life quj ♪ ♪ >> obviously you've been working at this for a long time. but the first time i ever heard of george benson and a lot of people heard about george benson, did it change your life overnight? >> it did. miles davis wanted me to join his band and that's the greatest honor i could have ever imagined right? my manager said you can't do it george. i said what are you talking about i can't do it. >> everybody thinks you're going to be bigger than miles. what fool said that? i couldn't imagine it. later on miles and i became very good friends. did a lot of shows together. >> did you know that on broadway was the big hit that it was? >> that was the only record i

felt in my life that was going to be a big hit, the rest of it you guessed on it, this feels like it could be a hit but on broadway we took the song home from the club we were working at which was the club in hollywood. and we played it, we couldn't take it off. we were playing it on the pad patio opatiowhere we were stayi. and every time we took it off, somebody said, "play it again." so we knew it would be big. what the world didn't do, my producer he lost the tune, he liked the version we did earlier. he said, he liked it better. where is the one we did friday afternoon?

he said we lost it. then i said find it. he went back and said i think we found it. >> what do you think about r n b? >> i think about pa pavarotti sg nessandorma, but nothing's going to change my love for you and everywhere we go in the world people love that song. and then in your eyes, and this masquerade, and the biggest single i've ever heard, being and then turn your love around, pop with beat underneath, i felt good about that song it turned out to be everything i had hoped

for and more. >> clearly you're still singing and in a big way. you've got a new album and a tribute to nat king coal. ♪ do you smile to temp a lover mona lisa ♪ >> when i hear you sing mona lisa, did you try osound like nat king coal? >> all my life. this is gone this doesn't mean anything. so i got as close as i could at this point in my life. 20 years earlier i would have been spot on, you wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. >> really. george benson it's a pleasure to meet you in person and have this chat with you. thank you. >> pleasure is mine. thank you for having me. >> now to our picture of the day. christmas celebrations in singh. it's a light sculpture installation inspired by italian

architecarchitecture from the 1d 17th century and it's beautiful. that's our story. i'm john siegenthaler, have a great holiday weekend, we'll see you back here on monday. >> hundreds of days in detention. >> al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. >> thousands calling for their freedom. >> it's a clear violation of their human rights. >> we have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. >> journalism is not a crime.

>> previously on "in god we trust". >> my name is eleanor, and for the last 25 years i was bernie madoff's secretary. >> the main team on the 17th floor were fully aware of what was going on. >> what nobody imagined was that bernie was stealing every nickel, that he wasn't trading anything. >> i said "60 million"? he said, "no... umm, 60 with a 'b'". >> sir, why did you do it? >> they lived this incredible life...