very peaceful. >> we've been given a great life. it's unfortunate that charlotte has this gervais syndrome, but thank god we've got something now that's working. now that's working. >> she's doing so great today. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com two new york police officers shot and killed in broad daylight inside her patrol car. we're learning more about the attack. that's ahead this hour. also the u.s. asks china for help with the crippling cyberattack on sony while north korea denies it had any role. also ahead, this little wiener dog isn't all that attractive. not here at least. but just wait until you see his new figure, worthy of a calendar. we promise, it's going to be good. thank you for joining us. and hello and welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching "cnn live coverage." i'm natalie allen. an assassination. that is what officials in new

york city are calling the shooting deaths of two police officers. they say officer raphael ramos, on the right, and officer wenjian liu were killed while sitting in their patrol car in a brooklyn neighborhood. here's andy rose with more. >> they were quite simply assassinated. >> reporter: two new york city police officers are dead following an ambush saturday afternoon. police commissioner william bratton says officer wenjian liu and rafael ramos were shot while they sat in their patrol car in brooklyn. both sustained gunshot wounds to the head. >> officer liu and officer ramos never had the opportunity to draw their weapons. they may never have actually even seen their assailant, their murderer. >> reporter: the alleged assailant is ismail brinzly. his body was found in a nearby subway station. officials say he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

brooklyn residents are shocked and outraged by the violence. >> we've got to take back our communities. this can't happen. if you're mad at somebody, be mad at the person that you're mad at. now we have two families that's missing somebody for the holidays. i don't condone this. and i'm not with it. >> reporter: investigators say they're looking for a motive but that brinesly's social media post indicated bias against law enforceme enforcement. the fallen officers were not engaged with the shooter in any way before they were attacked. i'm andy rose reporting. >> this comes at a time when police around the u.s. are being criticized for some of their tactics. the families of a black missouri teen shot and killed by police and a black new york man who died after a police chokehold say they're outraged by saturday's violence. u.s. president obama also condemns the attack saying, "i ask people to reject violence and words that harm and turn to words that heal." prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and

family of the fallen. well, police in central france are sorting through a chaotic attack after a man entered a police station in a suburb of tours and stabbed three police officers. reports say he was shouting "god is great" in arabic before a different officer shot and killed him. the attacker was known as a common criminal, a french citizen born in burundi. cnn's affiliate bf mtv are checking whether islamic radicalism played a role. police in australia have charged a 37-year-old mother with eight counts of murder after eight children were found dead in her home. seven of the victims were her own children. the woman appeared before a magistrate while in her hospital bed. she'd been found stabbed at the scene. police say they've contacted the fathers of all the children. the united states has asked china for help dealing with cyberattacks like the sony pictures incident.

north korea has denied any involvement in that cyberattack. it prompted the studio to stop its release of a satirical film about the assassination of kim jong un. all of north korea's internet traffic goes through china, a key pyongyang ally. cnn's will ripley is following this story from our tokyo bureau, and he joins us now live with the very latest. hello, will. >> hey, natalie. the reason why the focus is shifting toward china right now is a simple reality that any hacking attack, even if it was orchestrated by north korea, would be very unlikely to originate from within that country because north korea doesn't have the kind of internet infrastructure that other countries around the world have. north korea deliberately doesn't have the internet readily available because they don't want their citizens inside the country to have access outside. in fact, the average adult when i was in pyongyang just a few months ago had never even heard of the internet, had never heard

of social media. the computers that they do have to use are restricted to access to an intranet inside the country. but what we're learning is that north korean hackers often are crossing over into china. china of course is bankrolling a lot of north korea's economy. it's its major benefactor pop so these hackers will cross over into china, set up shop at hotels and other places where they have access to the internet, and that is where officials believe these cyberattacks are being 4r5u67d from. china as well as other locations around the world. i want to read you a quote from a senior obama administration official talking about this. that official said, "we have discussed this issue with the chinese to share information, express our concerns about this attack, and to ask for their cooperation." it goes on to say both china and the united states have expressed the view that conducting destructive attacks in cyberspace is outside the norms of appropriate cyber behavior. so as the investigation into this cyber attack unfolds, more countries are joining the united

states in condemning the alleged actions of north korea including australia which put out a statement over the last few hours saying they have reviewed the evidence presented to them by the united states and they also believe it is credible, credibly pointing to the fact, natalie, that north korea is behind this devastating attack on sony. >> all the while north korea has issued a threat, as you know, will, of serious consequences, whatever that means, if the u.s. doesn't agree to a joint investigation. what more can you tell us about that? >> we're used to hearing this kind of rhetoric from north korea, serious consequences. they've talked about raining fire down on washington. those are the kind of things, the kind of incendiary language that while certainly acknowledged and noted has not been taken as much of a serious threat until now where now the world is waking up to the possibility that north korea may in fact have this sort of cyberarmy at its disposal to conduct these types of attacks on anybody that the country may

feel deserves them. so what north korea wants is a mutual investigation with the united states. but that's very unlikely to ever happen. one, north korea and the u.s. don't have any sort of diplomatic ties whatsoever. but also, other countries that have tried in good faith to work with north korea in a mutual investigation including japan, where i am right now, they've only come up dry. they've come up with a will the of broken deadlines, broken promises, and no real answers, and of course one would assume that that would be the outcome if the united states were even to entertain the notion of a joint investigation with north korea. natalie. >> well, we know for sure there will be an investigation bri the united states. how that's out and where it leads will be interesting to see. will ripley staying on top of this story for us. will, thank you. well, next here on cnn -- kurdish peshmerga forces claim victory in a major advance on isis in iraq. now thousands of people may be

able to go home. we'll have that for you. also ahead, a new immigrant detention center built in the u.s. faces backlash from human rights groups. [ rob ] we weren't always the most adventurous couple. once we kept the lights on. but then we started using k-y yours & mine. yeah, we were nervous to try it. there's an amazing sensation for her. amazing. this one feels fantastic for me. and combined... ohh, it's a completely new sensation for us both. it's opened a whole new door for us. i've come to clean your pool. but we don't have a pool.

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former champion heavyweight boxer muhammad ali is in the hospital. the 72-year-old is being treated for pneumonia. but as you know, he's a fighter. and the greatest, as he's always called himself, he's always backed that up with hard fists and a quick wit. and as you know, after retirement he developed parkinson's disease but made public appearance despite appearing frail. his spokesman says the champ is in stable condition, his prognosis is good, and he's expected to have a short hospital stay.

as we said, he's a fighter. well, the u.s. has released four more detainees from the guantanamo bay detention center. the pentagon says they've been sent back to afghanistan. this leaves 132 detainees still there. president obama has been working to shut down the military prison, which began housing terror suspects after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. the four freed men were suspected of belonging to the taliban or similar groups. a multimillion-dollar detention center has just opened in texas in response to the surge of immigrants crossing into the u.s. an immigrant rights group says the crisis needs a humanitarian response and calls the facility unjust. here's cnn's nick valencia with more. >> reporter: behind the chainlink fence and just beyond the dusty dirt field sits the largest immigrant family detention center in the united states. the facility quietly opened this week in dealy, texas, about an

hour outside of san antonio. and while the surge of unaccompanied children fleeing central america spiked this summer, months later the federal government continues to work to solve the problem. >> those who came here illegally in the past, who have been here for years, have committed no serious crimes, and have become integrated members of american life are not priorities for removal. >> but they are candidates for unnecessary trauma and prison-like conditions. according to immigrants' rights groups who oppose facilities like the one in texas. >> it's the wrong side of history. when i see these pictures of dilly, of carnes, many people say it reminds them of the japanese internment camps we had in our history. certainly we don't want to repeat that. >> with 240 beds the detention center at dilly will replace another facility in new mexico which will close by 2014. at a cost of $260 million ber year to the american taxpayer,

victor niebles says there are cheaper and better options. >> whether there are churches who can be responsible for these individuals or even one of our most criticized programs, you know, giving these individuals electronic bracelets, at the very least that would be an option that would not cost the taxpayers money. >> dhs would not respond to specific criticisms of the centers but did say the facility in dilly "protest and hiemts the border security aspects of the executive actions president obama announced on november 20th." the federal government had a high rate of detention this year at the u.s.-mexico border. just looking at unaccompanied minors more than 68,000 were cat crossing the border since last october. it's figuring aught what to do with them afterwards but still the biggest problem. nick valencia, cnn, atlanta. kurdish peshmerga fighters now claim to control nearly 80% of sinjar in northern iraq.

a peshmerga source told cnn fighters are going house to house in areas now liberated from isis to check for my booby traps left behind. one journalist says it's unclear why isis retreated. >> the coalition air strikes are very, very important. second what's important is the moral of the peshmerga. they fight with old weapons. they have kalashnikovs that are 40 years old, just a handful of the tanks. but the morale is very, very high. isis invaded their ground. isis raped their women. isis beheaded their relatives. so they want to throw isis out of kurd stistankurdistan. and this is what they're doing now. why did isis flee? i don't know. nobody expected that ice wois just leave sinjar town. obviously they were very surprised about the strength of

the peshmerga. but the quickness of the peshmerga breaking the siege of sinjar mountain. >> for the peshmerga source says the yazidi minority can return to their homes over the next month. they'll certainly be happy with that, although many of the buildings are in ruins. there was low voter turnout in liberia saturday to elect a new senate. the election was postponed by nearly a week due to the ebola outbreak there. there were strict guidelines for both voters and campaigners throughout the election to prevent the spread of the disease. officials took voters' temperatures before letting them enter. results from the election are expected sometime today. so meantime, as far as the numbers now go, the world health organization counting more than 18,000 k06r78d confirmed or sus cases in west africa. nearly 7,000 died. the vast majority are in

liberia, guinea, and sierra leone. still to come, with christmas just days away, the crunch to deliver gifts is on. but who will be getting those packages to your door? we'll go behind the scenes to see how that operation works. also ahead, it's fun to pop and keep things safe during shipping. ahead we'll get a look at the bubble wrap factory.

gifts under the tree wherever they're headed. we wanted to see how that happens. christina alessi visited one of the world's largest courier companies to see how today's elves do their best to get your packages where they need to be. >> each item that flows through ups's world port facility is a logistical challenge. and after failing to deliver thousands of christmas gifts on time last year, mistakes are high for thear world's largest package delivery company. >> we've added more flights in the system. that gives us more flexibility to ensure we move those packages. we go from 140 jets to about 180 jets. >> is the idea get the package

delivered at all costs? >> we always factor cost into the decision-making but on the same note we're going to service the customers. and if we have to fly multiple flanz to get package moved so those packages get delivered for that christmas event, that's what we're going to do. >> so it sounds like from what you described i should never get a package late. >> that's totally not true because there are certain situations that are even beyond ups's control. weather plays i would say a 30% to 40% role. >> as far as the northeast is concerned, the snow intensities have all been reported as light. >> reporter: to mitigate the risks of weather, ups has an internal meteorology team that forecasts potential problem areas. >> we need to let the decision makers know when are these storms actually going to impact the airport? because that allows them to rearrange the landing schedule. >> are you guys ever wrong? >> oh, yes. occasionally we're wrong and we hear about it. that's one thing, we get feedback right away from our customers.

that helps us look at the situation and try to figure out, okay, what clues did we miss? >> reporter: during the 2013 holiday season ups got a great deal of feedback from customers who didn't receive their packages on time. weather was a factor, but so was an unexpected surge in last-minute shopping at retailers like amazon. what is the biggest reason that a package is delayed? >> it's a combination. we had a lost weather in the system. i don't want to say it was a perfect storm, but based off when ups has the package available to them to move it. we're going to move it. >> i think we all remember the ups disaster of last year. let's bring in derek van damme now. we just heard derek in that story, that two reasons for it last yeah, last-minute purchases by all of us from amazon, that waited till the last second. me too. and the weather. >> the weather. what a great intro. that news story kind of reminded me when i was a kid and i would

tell my teacher that i wasn't able to turn in my homework because my dog ate it. oh, i wasn't able to get you your package because the weather influenced the delivery. >> you can never use that. because you're supposed to know the weather and anticipate it. >> how about we answer that question? will there be a delay in the packages across the united states? here's the answer. we are actually tracking a major storm for christmas eve. and christmas day. but i think the effects will be more on travel getting to and from family across the east coast in the u.s. more than the shipping industry for packages. here's the storm system we're talking about. not too impressive yet but i stopped it because i wanted to show you this pink line. that is actually the freezing line. it's kind of the demarcator between rain and snow. now we set this in animation. you can start to see the storm develop across the eastern half of the u.s. notice the pink line i just mentioned. where the cold air separated

from the north and the warmer air to the east. this is where we're expecting the rain-snow cutoff to be. basically detroit to chicago. anyone to the north and west of there should see some snowfall. still a bit uncertain. but the eastern half of the storm warm enough for rainfall and it doesn't appear we'll have much of a white christmas along the east coast from new york to places like boston and into the nation's capital. this is a look at the current snowpack across the united states. in fact, as we look toward northeastern sections of new england, vermont, new hampshire, maine you've got some snow. very light amounts across michigan. you can also see heavy snowpack consistent with this time of year across the rockies and into the cascades as well as the sierra nevada. so we can expect a white christmas across those regions. we would expect to see that this time of year. but with temperatures like this well above freezing from sunday into monday the chances of our

white christmas dwindle with time. but there is no-some glimmer of hope. some cold air behind the winter storm that's settling in. look at this. an atmospheric river of moisture bringing in heavy rainfall. my producer was asking me about this. this is just the distance that air flows over water. winter storm watches and heavy rain watches and flood watches across the western half of the united states. natalie, back to you. >> all right. well, somebody somewhere just might get a white christmas. we'll wait and see. so while we're on the subject of packaging and shipping your holiday gifts we're going to take a little time to talk about that bubble wrap. it has more of a job than just letting your kids pinch it and hear it pop. it was invented by accident 60 years ago it's still quite popular. but the future of packaging may

be changing as we go inside a bubble wrap factory. ♪ >> reporter: inside steel bear's headquarters in saddlebrook, new jersey they make it by the truckload every hour. but there's something new happening. in their lab they create boxes that sell -- bublgz that in-flight on site and packaging that takes the shape of a product once it's cracked much like a hand warmer. >> this is not made out of bushrooms. it's made of -- >> mushrooms? >> but bubble wrap start td all. and like other brilliant inventions it was made by accident. the story begins in 1957 when these guys were trying to make wallpaper. it didn't quite stick. but from that failure bubble wrap was born.

>> what is the secret to making bubble wrap? >> i'm not going to say that. come on down. >> this would be one of the resins that we're using on the product. >> and this is essentially product? >> this is product. >> and then it gets sucked up into these huge -- >> from here we will suck it up into any one of the three lines. >> to form the bubbles the plastic is melted down at 500 degrees into a consistency like molasses. >> once we vacuum form the bubble then we extrude another layer of material to seal the air inside the bubble. a static charge just like a balloon. >> it's cut down to size by a million-dollar machine, and there are different kinds of bubble wrap customized for every shipping company in the world. >> bubble wrap is only 3% of the

company's revenue. their newer innovative packaging isn't so easy to pop. >> so this is kind of a thing of the past and this is the thing of the present and future. >> yes. exactly right. >> no bubble wrap? >> don't forget to recycle your bubble wrap. well, the u.s. is blaming north korea for a damaging cyberattack, but some experts think pyongyang did not act alone. up next a look at wholesale might have been involved in that attack. also ahead, 70 years after being put to death, this teenage boy is exonerated. ahead, why the families of two murdered girls are still convinced of his guilt.

welcome back to our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. you're watching cnn live coverage. our top stories, u.s. officials condemn the ambush deaths of two new york city policemen. they were gunned down on saturday just sitting inside their patrol car. police say the shooter killed himself and was found inside a nearby subway sedation.

offi officers are looking at his social media posts for a motive 37. police in central france shot and killed a man after he stabbed three officers in a police station. the officers were hospitalized but are out of danger. reports say the attacker was shouting "god is great" in arabic before he was killed. french officials say the man was a french citizen born in burundi. police in cairns, australia have charged a 37-year-old mother with eight counts of murder after eight children were found dead in her home. seven of the victims were her own. the woman appeared before a magistrate while in her hospital bed. she had been found stabbed at the scene. police in new york city are looking into social media posts they say ismaaiyl brinsley wrote before shooting and killing two policemen inside their patrol car. cnn correspondent lori segal shows us some of the posts and how police think it will lead to

a motive. >> as we piece together this tragedy we're also piecing together the digital footprint of the shooter behind this horrific event. he had an extensive social media profile. i want to gef yive you a little sample of that. the last post he posted on facebook. "i always wanted to be known for doing something right but my past is stalking me and my future is haunting me." he said why live if you don't love to live. when we heard from the nypd, commissioner bratton, he spoke quite a bit about these digital crews and instagram and how the shooter had posted on instagram and they were piecing together the motivation behind this tragedy. i want to get to one of the suspicious posts allegedly posted by the shooter. he said "i'm putting wings on pigs today. they took one of ourksz let's take two of theirs." he also goes on to say "this may be my final post with a picture of a gun and emoeji bullet."

so you really begin to wrap your head around the clues and motivations behind this horrific attack. back to you. the united states is turning to china for help dealing with cyberattacks like the one that hit sony pictures. that attack which the u.s. blames on north korea prompted the studio to stop the release of its satirical film called "the interview." the movie depicts the assassination of north korea's leader. north korea insists it was not behind the cyberattack. as kyung lah reports for us, now pyongyang is warning of serious consequences if the u.s. retaliates. >> reporter: just hours after president obama lands in hawaii for the christmas holiday -- the regime lashes out via its state-run television. with all of its usual bluster the regime slams the u.s. government's investigation of the sony hack as childish.

that north korea is being framed, saying it can prove its innocence without using any torture methods like the american cia. those digs come in response to president obama that the evidence points to pyongyang. >> they caused a lot of damage. and we will respond. we will respond proportionately. and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> reporter: north korea directly rebuked the president, saying it is the one who should respond after insults to its supreme leader but adds it will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoers, rather target the originators of the insult. >> you two are going to be in a room alone with kim and the cia would love it if you could take him out. >> reporter: the movie and the hack at sony also got north korea's bankroller and ally china to respond. in china's state-run "global times" an editorial calls the

movies vicious mocking of kim senseless cultural arrogance and that china was once a punching bag for hollywood but now that the chinese market sits as a gold mine for u.s. movies the teasing shifts to impoverished north korea. the north koreans and their fiery rebuttal to president obama by curiously suggesting the two countries work together in a mutual investigation to find the real culprit. north korea saying if america refuses there will be serious consequences. kyung lah, cnn, seoul. well, the sony cyberattack involved technological savvy that some experts say goes beyond north korea's capabilities. cnn's brian todd looks into that claim to see who else might be behind the attack. >> reporter: the cyber forensic evidence all points to north korea. according to the fbi, the computer code,'ll algorithms, the i.p. addresses, but that's not necessarily a clear path to pyongyang. >> it's all circumstantial he

evidence that can be faked. >> reporter: scott borg's cybersecurity group monitors the skill levels of hackers across the globe. despite north korea's efforts to develop a sophisticated army of hackers he says there were elements in the sony attack that went beyond their skill level. >> the biggest one is that they were able to carry on with activities inside sony's network for so long without being spotted, moving possibly terabytes of data without anyone noticing requires a lot of skill. opening documents all over the place in order to download them and have no one notice requires quite a bit of skill. >> and they just didn't have that even recently? >> that's right. earlier this year there was no sign of that level of skill. >> reporter: borg believes kim jong un's regime may have outsourced at least some of the sony hack, but to whom? ? i think that most likely this was hacking talent that volunteered to help them or criminals that they hired. or someone inside of sony who provided them with all kinds of

inside access. >> u.s. investigators have evidence that hackers stole the computer credentials of a sony system administrator to get inside access. but could another government helped north korea? u.s. says there are signs others other involved. >> signs suggest iran is involved. they have worked together on missile development for many years. because iran has been a major client of north korea weapons. >> cnn reached out to iranian officials about that. they didn't respond. the white house maintains north korea acted alone. >> we've got no indication north korea was acting in con juchx with another country. >> north korea denies hacking sony but if pong pang pulled this off without any outside help it would be the greatest success for their shadowy hacking group called bureau 1231. >> frankly, north korea probably doesn't need the help. they've been investing in herr

cybercapabilities very heavily and they've had a couple of trial runs on south korean media and banks. >> one bank points to key reasons why other governments may not have helped north korea with the sony attack. he says most governments wouldn't be foolish enough to hand any kind of attack tools to north korea given their erratic behavior. brian todd, cnn, washington. he was the youngest person ever executed in the united states and now this young boy's murder conviction is thrown out. up next, what led to his case being reviewed and why some are still convinced he did it. i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara®. it helps keep my skin clearer. with only 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses... ... stelara® helps me be in season. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections require hospitalization. before starting stelara®... ...your doctor should test for tuberculosis. stelara® may increase your risk of cancer. always tell your doctor if you have

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a 14-year-old boy was executed in the u.s. south for killing two girls. he was black. they were white. his trial took less than three hours. recently a judge overturned his conviction. we learn more from cnn's david mattingly. >> reporter: at 5'1" and 95 pounds, he was just a skinny little teenager, only 14 years old, growing up in the town of alcaloo, south carolina back in 1944. george he stennee jr. was tending to the family's cow with his little sister in this field near an old set of railroad tracks when they cross paths with two young white girls looking for flowers. george's sister remembers it clearly. >> they said, could you tell us where we could find some may pops? we said no.

and they went on about their business. >> reporter: they were the last known to see the girls alive. a coroner's report at the time describes a vicious murder. 11-year-old betty is june benneker and 7-year-old mary ellen thames were beaten to death. multiple severe head injuries suggest the killer used a hammer. the stinee family fled in fear after police came for little george. >> they were looking for somebody to blame it on. so they used my brother as a scapegoat. >> reporter: the motive was attempted rape. and in a dizzying rush to judgment george stinney's trial took just three hours. the all white jury deliberated just ten minutes before the judge sent them to the electric chair. his defense attorney called no witnesses and filed no appeal. with attorneys repth the stinney family today i went back to where that tragic encounter

happened to find the railroad tracks rusted, covered in kudzu, and the field littered with painful memories. >> a rush to judgment i could almost understand. but why was there no appeal? >> george stinney needed to be dead soon. george stinney sitting in jail for a year would have been an incredible difference in the facts and circumstances of this case. and i think in that way they swept it completely under the rug. >> in spite of a confession police say they got from stinney, family attorneys say a new examination of the few records that still exist shows a botched investigation. stinney's alibi, his little sister, was never questioned. there was no evidence of attempted rape no, evidence of blood on stinney's clothing and no murder weapon consistent with the wounds found on the girls. what is left seems like an almost impossible story. that little george stinney was somehow able to murder both of

these little girls, beat them to death without a struggle, then carry both of their bodies and their bicycle about 300 yards that way to hide them in a ditch. 70 years later the stinney family asked a south carolina court to throw out george's conviction. all of the authorities from that era are gone, along with most of the court records. surviving relatives of the murdered girls continue to believe in stinney's guilt and question his family's timing. >> i have sympathy for the parents and the sisters and the brother. i feel like that they know that he did it and that's why they never have revisited the grave, they never have put a headstone there, or footstone. and they never talked about it. >> if we had allowed a stone to be there and someone found out where my brother was, they probably would have dug his grave up and thrown him to the wolves. even if you think i'm wrong, my

brother did not do it, and i hate no man. >> reporter: in the end the stinney family got what they were looking for. the judge agreed young george's rights had been violated and threw out his conviction. describes by his family as bright and talented, george stinney wanted to be an artist when he grew up. daring to dream beyond the limitations of life in the segregationist south. instead his name will be forever linked to a tragic story of jim crow-era injustice. david mattingly, cnn, alcaloo, south carolina.

new technology and bold business strategies are changing the way we all watch tv. samuel burk shows us what's in store as far as changes go and takes a look at the company leading it all. >> reporter: 50 countries, 50 million subscribers. when it comes to streaming tv shows and movies, netflix, with its growing stable of original content -- and i don't know whether to be proud or terrified. >> -- is the company to beat. >> no other online service is in that same league. >> hit him again and hit him now. >> reporter: the company whose addictive original series helped popularize the term binge watching is now spearheading another trend -- cord cutting. new figures show the u.s. cable

industry lost 179,000 customers in the third quarter as more people ditched cable. and perhaps no one company has helped people decide to cut the cord more than netflix. thanks to netflix's mix of old and new programming, more viewers are cobbling together their own entertainment packages online, changing the way tv is consumed. >> netflix's incredible success absolutely makes them the poster child in that they lit the fire. >> reporter: now netflix is taking it to a whole new level. it wants to dethrone hbo's "game of thrones" with one of the most ambitious and expensive shows ever produced -- marco polo." estimated cost for the first season -- $90 million. >> you are not one of them. >> reporter: spurred on by netflix's success in both streaming and programming, yahoo! and youtube are developing their own original

content. amazon rolled out its own original series, "transparent." >> tell me what? >> dad. is a woman. >> reporter: plus hbo, owned by cnn's parent company time warner-s readying a new app to watch content without a cable subscription. all this competition means netflix's ultimate dominance is by no means assured. >> i think amazon and hulu can both get there. they can both be up in that tom tier of networks with high-quality original programming in the near future. it just goes to show that it's not about where you put the programming anymore, it's about how good the programming is. >> i'm thinking lilyhammer. >> what? >> netflix wants to expand into even more international markets next year. it's betting marco polo will appeal to a wide audience, allowing for strong subscription growth worldwide. 2015 could be the year that streaming goes truly global. despite fierce competition, netflix hopes to lead the charge or cord cutters could cut the

cord on netflix. samuel burk, cnn, new york. all right. we go from your tv watching to what scientists are watching on mars. and they may be closer to finding some sort of life. nasa's robotic rover "curiosity" made a discovery that leads researchers thoi theo think thed be organic material on mars. >> i'm scanning the galaxy for signs of hostile anti-martian activity. >> reporter: nasa hasn't exactly found the eke toll marvin the martian but they may be getting closer to finding life on mars, all thanks to the rover "curiosity." since 2012 "curiosity" has been scouring an ancient martian crater looking for signs of methane. methane is one of the simplest organic molecules and organics are necessary forlife. so what "curiosity" found gives

scientists hope. over a period of 60 martian days, which are longer than earth days, detected burps, or sudden increases of methane in the carat's atmosphere. scientists say the detection suggests the methane comes from a localized source and possibly from bacteria benaeath the surface. >> we only know of life in one place in the universe, on earth. if we find it somewhere our understanding changes that we are not alone. >> reporter: much work remains to determine the soers of the methane. it is possible the gas may not be from life at all. scientists say more measurements of these so-called burps could reveal crucial clues. short of that in 2 2019 europe's ex-omars rover is due to land. equipped way six-foot drill. >> what do you think you you

are? real martian? >> we are. >> reporter: so maybe one day humanity will discover what was once the stuff of movies and tv is a reality. erin mclaughlin, cnn, london. >> while scientists look for life on mars, derek van dam is looking for some snow in our forecast. >> that's right. natalie, can i bring us back to earth for a change? >> mm-hmm. >> we've been on mars for a while. at least for the past minute and a half. but now we're talking about earth and the sun. that's because we are transitioning seasons. we are going into winter in the northern hem sfreisphere and su in the southern hemisphere. your likelihood of snow on christmas day or of course australia in the southern hemisphere would be very unlikely. even as far south as new zealand. you can see auckland and christchurch both topping the

middle 20s. that's temperatures basically in the 70s degrees fahrenheit. some light drizzle for capetown, also known as the mother city. as we head across the equator, where we would normally find winter weather and the possibility of a white christmas, you can see temperatures are above freezing for much of europe at the moment. in fact, leaving sights like this in switzerland. normally we'd like to see these slopes filled with white stuch, that being snow. unfortunately, that's just not happening. across the pond that would be the atlantic into the united states we are monitoring a storm that's going to bring significantly colder weather to the upper midwest. some of the snowpack across that region visible on this nasa injury, especially at the u.p. of michigan as well as new england and across the rockies. hey, natalie, santa took a break from the north pole and he decided he would give the mermaids underwater in key west some presents.

>> he is so talented. it's amazing. >> he can go from the north pole all the way to underwater delivering christmas treats. not bad, huh? i wouldn't mind aching that. >> santa, just knock yourself out. >> i wonder what nemo thought with all the bright lights in front of his face in the christmas tree. >> pretty cool stuff. forget the pirelli calendar. next year a hound will take center stage in the calendar world. obie the dachshund who shot to fame for being abuse, has slimmed down in a photo shoot that should last you the next 12 months. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: when you go from this to this, you deserve your own calendar. >> here he is. i just pulled him out of bed. >> reporter: meet obie. actually, you probably met him back in 2012. that's when he was famously fat.

>> and you have a wosom. >> it's never a good sign when you're introduced with the word "whopping." >> a whopping 77 pounds. >> reporter: yet now he's a calendar pin-up boy with a beach body. mr. august, mr. september. how'd obie get here from being so obese you could hear his belly drop? he had to wear a vest to protect it. he looked like a beached walrus instead of a dachshund. loving but elderly owners overfed him human food. lauren vanatta, a veterinary tech, took custody, put obie on a dry food diet and the pounds melted off. about a pound a week for a year. she remembers the milestones. >> the first time he ran, the first time he lifted his leg to pee. >> after losing 40 pounds he had so much excess skin he had to surgically remove 2 1/2 pounds

of tissue. and now -- >> he just looks sleek and slim and svelte. >> he's maintained a weight of 23 pounds for a year. obie's $25, 2015 calendar sounds like a hallmark card. every once in a while a dog enters your life and changes everything. dog owners could use a little inspiration. over half, 52% of u.s. dogs, are overweight or obese. obie isn't into exercise. he eats half a cup of regular dry dog food twice a day. >> i remember the first time he was able it scratch his face with his back leg. >> mr. march is a wiener dog with buns he can be proud of. jeanne moos, cnn. >> okay. you can go back to bed, silly. >> reporter: new york. >> aw. that's kind of sad, where he was. but thank goodness where he is now. let's remember, no people food. for those dogs. much more news ahead. stay with us. thanks for watching.

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today two of new york's finest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation, they were quite simply assassinated. >> two of new york's finest gunned down in broad daylight in the wake of recent police-involved deaths in the u.s. and the talk of sony's fallout. also ahead, health concerns for boxing's greatest, mohammed ali in the hospital. welcome to our viewers around the world. the new york police department is in mourning after two officers were shot and killed in what