mantle, the zinc miner, who embodied what every parent in america has always wanted, a better life for their child. >> larry: good book, jane. thanks so much. >> thank you, larry. >> larry: you look great. >> thank you, babe. appreciate it. >> larry: jane leavy, the book good sunday morning, everybody. take a look at that vessel right there. we've got a problem because that vessel, carrying some 500,000 gallons of oil stranded right now, and they're trying to keep it from running aground. you see pictures there of a rescue effort that's underway right now trying to rescue that vessel that you are already

seeing. we've got high waves and high winds we are dealing with. we'll give you an update about that situation. also this morning, we're hearing from iran, a breaking story out of iran. iran saying we do not need anybody's help. they are claiming that now their nuclear program is totally self-sufficient. this is a significant development. we will explain it and explain the timing of it as well this morning. as we get started on this sunday morning from the cnn center, 6:00 a.m. in atlanta where i stand, 2:00 p.m. in baghdad. wherever you may be, glad you're right here. want to welcome all of you and especially welcome our troops who are watching on the armed forces network in iraq and afghanistan and around the world. thank you for being here as well. of course, as always, thank you for what you do. also coming up for you for the next 90 minutes, a dramatic rescue. the highlighted part of the video you can see here. you kind of make it out. we'll show it to you again. there's a man who stumbled onto a subway track in madrid. the train just seconds away. and then an off-duty cop, all of

a sudden he goes on duty. and also this morning, a volcano known as the throat of fire erupting in ecuador. a cloud of ash some two miles high. we'll update you there. also, if you are ever tempted to stray, you've got an official scientific excuse. it is in your genes. it's not your fault. we'll tell you all about that, the cheating gene, this morning. first, that developing story going on right now off the coast of alaska. they're trying to prevent a potential environmental disaster. a rescue operation is under way at this moment. the u.s. coast guard is conducting this particular rescue mission. they're in the process right now of towing what you're seeing there, a giant freighter. it was found adrift off the aleutian islands. this is a massive 738-foot freighter. now, what happened here is that it lost much of its power. still had a little power but lost most of it. so when it lost its power, it had a tough time navigating

those rough waters. those waters were awfully rough. there were some deteriorating weather conditions. the waves got very high, up to 26 feet at least. we're also told that some of the winds got to 30, 35 knots. now, they couldn't combat that. so the problem was it was starting to run adrift, possibly getting closer to running aground at some point. well, the weather died down, cooperating enough that they were able to use the control that they did have to keep it from at least running aground, preventing what may have been an environmental disaster. the rescue is under way right now. the coast guard was able to get a tug boat out there. they are doing a slow process. they think it's going to take some 30 hours to possibly get it into harbor, a nearby harbor. again, you're seeing it there. there is a crew on board, about a 20-member crew. the crew is doing just fine, we're told. they're okay. this is a delicate situation that really much of it has to do with what's going to happen with the weather. they are dealing with it now. do we have the coast guard,

petty officer on the line right now? we do not have that person. we do have someone we're trying to get on the line to give us an update of exactly what's going on. certainly, the coast guard keeping a close eye on this as well. going to turn to northern europe. going to be some important meetings taking place the next couple of days, including with secretary of state hillary clinton. she's going to be meeting with japanese and south korean counterparts tomorrow. china not invited to this meeting. china actually wanted the larger six-party talks, the six-party group to get together following last month's attack by north korea on south korea on the south korean island. now, washington and south korea didn't want to go that route. they said they didn't want to be seen as rewarding north korea with those talks for its provocative actions. there are right now nearly 30,000 u.s. troops in south korea. speaking of south korea, we were talking yesterday about that new u.s.-south korea trade deal. we were following that quite a

bit for you yesterday. the president talked about it yesterday as well. he's calling this a landmark agreement, one that will increase u.s. imports by $11 billion. he says it will also support or create 70,000 american jobs. the target goal certainly there about the 70,000 jobs, with our unemployment rate, as we just got word a couple days ago, has gone up now, uptick from 9.6% to now 9.8%. also, this new trade deal will eliminate all the tariffs on industrial and consumer goods within five years, especially opening up the korean beef and auto markets. mr. president, sum this up for us. >> i'm interested in agreements that increase jobs and exports for the american people and that also help our partners grow their economies. so i told our team to take the time to get this right and get the best deal for america, and that is what they have done. the agreement we're announcing today includes several important improvements and achieves what i

believe trade deals must do. it's a win-win for both our countries. >> all right. well, the president also said that he is very disappointed that the senate failed to make middle class tax cuts permanent. we told you about this yesterday as well. this was happening live right here on our air yesterday morning. senate democrats tried twice yesterday with votes in the senate over the tax cuts. one vote would have kept the cuts for the vast majority of americans but eliminated them for those making more than $250,000. that one failed. try number two, a $1 million cutoff. that one failed as well. no shock here, the debate went along, hmm, party lines. >> to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in america at this moment in history is foolish and reckless, and yet that is the position of the republican party and a definition of their values. >> this debate is not about cutting taxes. this debate is whether or not we ought to increase taxes on

anybody during a recession, and we feel you should not raise taxes on anybody during a recession. all right. well, turning to another story we're keeping an eye on for you here. spain. most of the air traffic controllers are back on the job now. looks like the threat of prosecution convinced them to get back to work. that will usually work. they went on strike friday. there was a backlog of stranded passengers at madrid's airport and airports really all across spain. the airports, this one in particular, can only handle about one-third of its usual traffic right now. folks who have been there for a while, as you can imagine, they would like to go home. >> i feel very disappoint ed, ad the actual airline themselves have been pretty good. they've kept us informed a lot of the times. so in that respect, it's been good. but the actual experience, after traveling for two, three days is

getting -- you know, taking its toll now with two hours sleep. so i really need to get home and relax. okay. developing story now out of iran. iran is now claiming nuclear independence. they say it has produced what's called yellow cake uranium. now the head -- listen to this. the head of iran's energy atomic organization telling the state media about the country's new moves now. take a listen. >> this means that iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle, starting from the exploration and then mining and turning it into yellow cake and then converting it into uf6 and then enriching it and turning it into fuel plates or fuel pellets. >> let me bring in reza joining me on the phone from islamabad. reza put this in perspective for

our viewers. this is a new development because now iran is saying we don't need anybody in the rest of the world to do this. our nuclear program is now self-sufficient. that's what they claim. >> reporter: first of all, whatever people hear about iran and its nuclear program, the question is are they closer to building a bomb? it's important to emphasize that it takes much more than yellow cake to build a nuclear bomb. so i don't think iran, there's any hard evidence that they're any significantly closer to building a nuclear bomb. but let's talk about yellow cake because that's the announcement coming out of iran, that they can now produce yellowcake. what is yellowcake? it's not the cake that you can spread with frosting that you can eat. this is uranium concentrate powder, and it's yellowcake that can be turned into highly enriched uranium, that can then be used to fuel nuclear power plants to generate electricity, if you're able to enrich it to

levels of 90%, which iran can't at this point, all evidence shows. you can use it to build nuclear bombs. the ability to produce yellowcake is important because it's part of the processing of nuclear energy, which iran says it's doing. if indeed this news is true, it's significant because up until now iran couldn't produce its own yellowcake. they had to get it from other countries, and obviously with the sanctions against iran, it was tough for them to have access to yellowcake. but if they produce their own, which they've announced they can, they're not dependent on other countries anymore. they've taken a major step towards producing enriched uranium themselves, t.j. >> and one more thing, reza, the timing. why are we hearing about this now? >> reporter: i don't think there's any coincidence the timing is the day before washington and its allies are scheduled to sit down and talk with iran about its nuclear program. again, iran loves to posture. it loves to send out big headlines before big events. this is an announcement to send a message to washington and its

allies that iran is not negotiating from a position of weakness, that despite all the sanctions and the outside pressure, it's making progress with what it calls a peaceful nuclear program. of course, washington and its allies say they're convinced that iran is after a bomb, t.j. >> reza, we appreciate you keeping this all in perspective for us this morning. thank you so much. reza sayah from islamabad. oftentimes out there, when people cheat on their significant other, they have all kinds of excuses for why they did it. well, they may have a scientific reason for it now. we'll explain. it's 11 minutes past the hour. first, a check of some of the scores from yesterday's big college football saturday. leftover desserts, boardroom, now.

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my director said i could start talking any time, but i was just enjoying the song. this is chicago. this is what happens in chicago, though, right? >> it really is. they had a record-setting snowfall yesterday, but it was just record-setting for just that specific day. 5'1" of snowfall. for people in chicago, they handle that pretty easily. but if you had that kind of snowfall in valdosta, georgia, or in west memphis, people would go cuckoo for cocoa puffs. they'd lose their mind. but this is chicago. some 300 flights were cancelled out of o'hare. midway issues not so bad. in parts of western michigan, you could get heavy snowfall. the snow could get very deep. we're not talking several inches, possibly several feet of snow in many locations. even that is typical on some of the shores. we'll have that possibly over towards erie. in terms of your snowfall in

buffalo, buffalo might get a little bit of a break today, but tomorrow the snow is going to kickback up again in earnest. all the scene of the snowfall in the appalachians from parkersburg to bloomfield. kingsford, johnson city, you're definitely getting into the snow action also. national perspective, the cold air remains locked in place. minneapolis, 16 degrees will the high for today. salt lake city, 43. 39 in boston. 62 in houston. miami, 78 degrees, possibly a few scattered showers, maybe a boom of thunder. and back out towards san diego, 69 degrees. in champagne, 8.5 inches of snowfall. rockford, 6.3. 5.1 was the total at o'hare. t.j., i know you've got a lot more of an entirely different story to talk about. as most people know, it was a big football saturday. it determined a lot.

we have now determined who is going to play for the national championship in glendale next month. it is going to be auburn, and it is going to be oregon. we'll make it official today with the bcs rankings. but, yes, the auburn tigers yesterday at the georgia dome just quit the south carolina gamecocks. there he is, mr. heisman. he's going to win the heisman. we'll go on record. not really going out on a limb there. cam newton had a day. six touchdowns yesterday. just wore out south carolina yesterday. as you all have been keeping up by now, cam newton has been in the middle. he's a superstar quarterback. he is going to win the heisman. he has been embroiled in this pay for play scheme. he was actually ruled ineligible last week, and then a short time later reinstated and declared eligible with this pay for play scheme. it looks like his dad, they're saying, was the one who was trying to solicit money for his son's services. right now nothing's touched him. right now congratulations. you all are moving on. if you have to vacate it in a

few years. >> they were on fire yesterday. it's kind of like one of those things -- i think that, as far as steve spurrier is concerned, custer had an easier time with little big horn. it was absolutely incredible. newton was on fire. he's one of those guys who seems to do better, the more pressure you put on him, the more his game rises. >> there must have been a lot of pressure on him yesterday because his game was outstanding. one more thing. a buyer's market out there. check out this house. dwyane wade has a new crib. dwyane wade, as you know, superstar guard for the miami heat, just bought this new house. six determine, 60,000 square foot mansion, $10.6 million. that surely sounds like a lot. however, the original asking price was about $18 million. so he got a heck of a deal. now, he has learned a little something about the housing market. apparently, he lost $4 million in the sale of his last home.

so maybe he made up for it on this. >> i think he's doing all right. i think he'll be able to sleep at night. >> he's doing all right. 17 minutes past the hour. quick break. we'll be right back.

the sun's coming in a while

for san francisco. beautiful shots of the city by the bay at 19 minutes past the hour. latest job numbers, we've been telling you, are out. we got them on friday, and they did not meet expectations. a big disappointment here. one thing, the unemployment rate is now at 9.8%. it went up. some jobs were added, about 39,000. a lot of the estimates, a lot of the forecast, the experts, the economists thought that 150,000 jobs would be created. so a disappointing jobs report. but when you dig into these numbers a little more, you find a way to kind of double your chances of finding a job. josh levs with that for us this morning. >> what it means is we're up near double digit unemployment. that's not what anyone wants to see. getting close to 10%. it's 9.8%. according to the latest numbers, 15.1 million americans are on the unemployment rolels, are ou there looking for a job. that doesn't include the people who stopped looking for work. so we have millions more people without a job. this breaks down to education

level. this is where we talk about doubling your chances to get a job. people who have not graduated high school are more than 15% unemployed. here 9.6%. boom, way down here, people who have graduated from college or you have a higher degree, so a b.a. or higher unemployment rate there is only at 4.8%. this tells us that the millions of people out there who are looking to going back to school because you can't find a job, they have reason to. it's backed up by the numbers. getting a degree could do a lot toward getting you a job. one more thing we want to show you, because when we look at unemployment in america, it's very uneven among the races in america. there's all sorts of reasons. let's zoom in here. among black people in america, it's up at 16%. latinos at 13%. whites down at 8.9%. asians at 7.6%. this sort of sliding scale down is what we see every month. it's that difference with racism in america. now, if you are looking for work, we have a resource for you.

cnn.com/jobs. there's all sorts of information about jobs, the jobs picture in america, what kinds of jobs to look for. and my favorite feature here. take a look at this map. we take you to a map in which you can look at the state of unemployment in every state and look at specific jobs. you click on your industry here. you can say, oh, i'm looking for a job in retail trade. you click on the state, and it tells you what's going on in each state in your field. if you wanted to pick up and move, might help you find those jobs. that's one of our goals here at cnn.com. we want to help you find work that works for you. so it's cnn.com/jobs. we got it uplinked for you at my pages, facebook and twitter. t.j., what we all want to see, obviously, is the unemployment numbers go down as fast as possible. >> josh levs this morning, we appreciate you. thank you so much. congressman charlie rangel has been censured by his colleagues, but he hasn't let that bring him down. he had tough words about his ethics charges.

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26 minutes past the hour. taking a look at a couple stories making headlines. police in mobile, alabama, have arrested the father of two missing children who are now believed to be dead. 27-year-old john joseph deblase faces two counts of child abuse and two counts of abuse of a

corpse. 3-year-old natalie and her brother 2-year-old jonathan have been missing for two weeks now. in ivory coast, both candidates claim they have won the election even though the incumbent president was sworn into office despite appeals that he step aside. one of ecuador's active volcanos has erupted, spewing ash and lava into the sky. check that out. people living near this glacier capped volcano, known as the throat of fire, evacuated yesterday. the volcano is 90 miles from quito, ecuador's capital city, and has erupted periodically over the last decade. as you know, there are 50,000 u.s. service members still in iraq now. they're on this advise and assist mission. many of them are now preparing to come home as well. i'm going to be talking now with the commander of one of those advise and assist brigades. someone that i spent time with

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bottom of the hour here now. welcome back to this "cnn sunday morning." glad you could be here. senate majority leader harry reid is determined to bring the don't ask, don't tell rule for gay and lesbian service members to the floor for a revote. first, here's what mccain said about the policy on friday. >> no one came up to me and said, gee, please, senator mccain, get to work on don't ask, don't tell. in fact, every place i went, members of the military came up to me and said, things are fine. it's working. >> senator reid, though, said yesterday he believes mccain has

flip-flopped on this policy. >> there's a defense that he's given to an obsolete, embarrassing, discriminatory policy that weakens our military and our values, is as follows. first, senator mccain said he'd seriously consider repealing it if the military leadership thought we should, and the military leadership said it should be repealed. he pulled away the football. then senator mccain said he'd need to see a study from the pentagon. the pentagon produced a study saying repeal would have no negative effect at all. he pulled away the football again. senior senator from arizona said he couldn't support repealing don't ask, don't tell because of the economy. i have no idea what he's talking about, and no one else does either. >> the house already has approved a repeal of the don't ask, don't tell policy. of course, we know this is a lame duck congress right now. they still have a lot of things they need to be doing. cnn's political director paul

steinhauser looks ahead at the week in politics. >> good morning, t.j. more action, at least more negotiations on capitol hill this week as the white house and top congressional republicans and democrats try to find common ground when it comes to extending the bush-era tax cuts, extending unemployment benefits for those without jobs, and a host of other pressure issues on the lawmakers' to-do list. on monday, president barack obama tours a biotech classroom at a community college in north carolina, where he'll make comments on the economy. and from the president to a man who may want to run for president, former president rick santoro gives speeches in iowa. santoro is considering a bid for the gop presidential nomination, and all three states play a prominent role in the road to the white house. t.j.? >> thank you, paul steinhause.. two days after the white house censured him on alleged ethics violation, congressman charlie rangel returned to his district and got a standing

ovation. >> this weekend will be the last time that i intend to refer to this matter in any way. i didn't go to bed with any kits. i didn't curse out the speaker. i didn't start a revolution against the united states of america. i did not self-deal. i did not take any money. if you pick up just yesterday's newspapers, you would see charlie the crook, charlie the convict, charlie found guilty, and nobody here can possibly show any evidence of self-enrichment. >> he told a town hall meeting he's very pleased the two-year ethics investigation, which he called politically motivated, is, in fact, behind him. coming up, they have done their advising and assisting, and now they're getting ready to come home. we're going to be live to baghdad. stay with us. 34 minutes past the hour. ♪

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36 minutes past the hour now. simulating war in the california desert. that's what they do at the national training center at ft. irwin, california. i spent a week in the desert a year ago as the first brigade prepared for their mission in iraq. well, their mission is about to wrap up. they have been in iraq about a year now. we're going to check in with them as they wrap up. but first, let me take you back to my story from a year ago and that training mission in the california desert. for the 1st brigade of the 3rd infantry division, it was shaping up to be a very bad day. as the convoy wound its way through the desert canyon, it

comes under attack from insurgents perched in the surrounding mountains. the soldiers eventually fight their way through an insurgent hideout. they're forced to clear the scene building by building. there are casualties. but this isn't iraq. >> move, move, move. >> or afghanistan. this is california. and before heading to war, many soldiers come here to the mojave desert, where training is anything but basic. this is the national training center at ft. irwin, billed at the most realistic training facility in the world. >> tell you what, they get it so doggone close here, i had to kind of close my eyes a few times and remind myself, hey, this is just training, and this

is just we're in california. >> when it opened 30 years ago, the ntc was meant to prepare soldiers for conventional w warfare against primarily a soviet threat. times and enemies have changed, and so has the ntc. >> it's actually no comparison. when i first came out here as a young lieutenant in 1985, the entire place was desert. but over the years ntc has done a great job in adapting to what our forces are geared towards and what the current fight is. >> the california desert provides an ideal natural terrain. >> hit the wall and go into the building. >> for the army's own version of a hollywood production. complete with props, special effects, and actors. we spent a week in the desert with the 1st brigade out of ft. stewart, georgia, before deployment to iraq. colonel gregory sierra is one of

the commanders of the 1st brigade. >> when you are on a mission, the conditions have been set appropriately by the national training center. it puts people you're in iraq. mentally you're in iraq. that's what we want, when you go out on a combat patrol when we're in iraq, it won't be a surprise because they already did it here at the national training center. >> coming up next, i am going to be speaking live with two of the soldiers and one that you saw featured there. there he is on the left, lieutenant colonel sierra, and also sergeant major sean cook, i spent time with out in the desert last year. and they are getting set to come home. just about ready to fulfill their mission. i'll talk to them live after the break. stick with us.

42 minutes past the hour. we showed you just before the break, the time that i spent with the unix, an army unit

preparing to go to iraq for their mission, that mission is about to wrap up now after a year deployment. i want to bring in now two of the gentlemen that i did spend time with during their training out there in ft. irwin. sergeant major sean cook on the right and on the left, lieutenant colonel greg sierra. gentlemen, i am so happy to be able to talk to you this morning and so happy to be able to report as well that, like you said, colonel sierra, half of your unit already back home. the other half will be home by christmas. quite frankly, let me have your reaction, sir, just to hear those words uttered out loud. >> we are incredibly excited, and i know all the soldiers and families are as well to get everybody back home after a great accomplishment of the mission. >> and i want to talk about that mission now because, when i was with you guys at the national training center, that training center evolved, and you all did a lot of training that had to do with having meetings and doing things with your comrades on the other side, the iraqis, that

advise and assist. so let me ask you, sean, have you felt like an adviser there in iraq since the combat mission wrapped up earlier this year? >> oh, yeah. when we came over here, we started out as stability ops and advising and assisting iraqis and continued to the end. new dawn was just another new day for us. >> that was going to be my next question. it sounds like colonel sierra, i think it was august 19th when the last combat brigade rolled out of iraq, and at the end of that month is when the operation actually changed, but did it feel any different, colonel sierra? did you do anything any differently once the mission officially changed? >> not really, t.j. we put a lot of thought into this mission before we even deployed when we were out at ntc with you. as we came in, it was really about the iraqi security force commanders, the two division

commanders we've been partnered with. and we've been supporting them and ensuring that we help them do their mission. really "operation new dawn" the 1st of september, there was no difference between the 31st and august and the 1st of september for the battalion. >> sean, at any point, people here advise and assist, and people might get the idea, and some did, that maybe you guys were just sitting around in offices and answering phone calls or something like that. but you all are always combat ready. after the mission officially changed, how often, sean, did you all find yourselves back in somewhat of a combat role and having to be supportive of your iraqi comrades in more of a combat role? >> there's always a chance that something bad's going to happen, and when it does, you know, we react. the iraqi security forces, though, take the lead, and we help them when needed for the most part. >> colonel sierra, are you going to be leaving iraq feeling like certainly, i guess, your time at least is wrapping up.

will you be feeling that the mission is wrapped up? will you be leaving thinking there is still more you in your unit and american forces can be doing there even beyond the deadline of the next year to get all u.s. forces out? >> t.j., there's a couple parts to that. first part is there's a security agreement between the two nations, and we'll comply with the security agreement because our two nations have agreed to that. i had said to the soldiers, before they deployed, at the end of the day, when you get home, you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and know that you spent a year away from your family and you made a difference. what we have seen is exponential growth in the iraqi security force ability to secure their populous right now. those soldiers can do that. they can be very proud of themselves and what they accomplished. there's always improvements where you can refine the security force capability, but for our two divisions that we're partnered with, no mistake about it, those guys are in charge of security in their areas. >> and, sean, back to you here now. we talked about the national training center and how it has had to evolve over time when the

mission changing and things changing on the ground in iraq. if you were going back to advise the national training center now after your year in iraq, what would you tell them to do to tweak kind of the training they do out there to make it still fit what's happening on the ground in iraq right now. >> i think they got that just about right. it's hard to make adjustments because the environment over here changes a little bit. however, the training center prepared us as it continues to prepare soldiers to deploy. i think they've got it about right. >> gentlemen, i will wrap up on this last note here, and i'll have both of you answer it. colonel sierra, i'll let you answer it first. just how excited you are to come home. it's been a year. earlier, i think you all both know they held an event for you guys. i think, colonel sierra, your wife played a big role in it. it was called the halfway there picnic. that was kind of the halfway point. they marked the halfway of just

so much left before you guys are going to come home. i'll let you both wrap up by first just saying whatever you want to say to your families back home, but just the idea of knowing you are coming home and you will be here for the holidays. lieutenant colonel sierra, you start it off. >> okay. three points. first, just overall to the populous back there, there's been a lot of money, blood, sweat, tears, lives that have been put into this mission. it is absolutely made a difference in the growth of the security force ability to secure the populous. so people can feel very confident, and that makes us happy. the soldiers, incredibly proud of them. they've earned this christmas. they have earned their time there. i already said, they look in the mirror, they should be proud of what they did. i'm incredibly proud of what those guys have done over the course of the year. most importantly to the families. the guys, i can't tell you how happy everybody is. we want to get home to them. we could not have done this mission without the support of our friends and family back home taking care of us. their actions back home taking

care of the home front allowed us to do this mission here. i cannot wait to get home to my family. i know every soldier feels exactly the same. >> you go ahead, sean. >> i'd like to thank all the families for supporting all the soldiers over here for the year that we've been here. all of them are looking forward to getting home, and we're proud to bring them home and say hey, and happy holidays. >> gentlemen, it is so good to see you both. i am certainly going to follow up with you and hope to see you down the road. i will see you down the road when you guys get back. thanks so much. please give my best to the rest of the men and women in your unit that i spent some time with. thank you so much. looking forward to seeing you guys back home. >> thank you. >> thanks, t.j. >> all right. it's 49 minutes past the hour now. we're going to take a quick break on this "cnn sunday morning." take a break on that note. innovative technology, and inspired design. and now, they want to give as much as they can to as many as possible.

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beloved monarchs in the world. king bhumibol. >> how old is he? >> he turns 83. he became king when he was only 18 years old. why he's so beloved. he's done so much for the poor of thailand. he's the most considerate leader. he is so revered that most thailand families will have a picture of the king. it's a constitutional monarchy in thailand. there's been controversy. there were riots earlier this year. the king stays out of politics unless he absolutely has to intervene. but you seldom find a king as revered as this. there are going to be balloon festivals. we spoke about the monkey festival happening in thailand yesterday. it is quite a time to be in thailand this weekend. they're opening madam tussauds museum. they're lighting the balloons. >> you say they're sparing no expense here. any idea about the expense? >> not exactly, but it will certainly run into the millions because nothing is too much for the king.

>> what is this here? >> this is the sunflower festival. note the color of the sunflowers is, of course, yellow. you are wearing a gold yellow tie today maybe in honor of king bhumibol. why yellow? he was born on a monday. in thailand, the day you are born has certain colors associated. if you're born on a monday, it's yellow. if you're born on a tuesday, it's pink. do you know what day you were born? >> i don't remember. >> you do need to ask your mother. >> i'm going to look that up. >> that's a very big part of it. so many people throughout thailand will be wearing yellow today in honor of king bhumibol, the longest reigning monarch in the world. the kind of philanthropy he would be involved in, he was involved in many, many projects for the poor. to show you how considerate he was, when his mother was very, very ill he wouldn't go to bangkok during the day because of great disruption with his

entourage, he'd visit her at night. just a superb human being, extremely bright. what is going to happen after he dies remains to be seen. >> what kind of health is he in right now? >> very good health. obviously, the thai diet works. >> 83 years old. >> happy birthday, king bhumibol. >> very nice. nadia bilchik, we appreciate you. you may want to stick around for this one. are you faithful to your significant other? have you never cheateded before? congratulations, that's great. but you still have a cheating gene. it's in you. we'll explain this coming up. with the capital one venture card we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! dinner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles!

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just a couple minutes to the top of the hour now. check this out. do you see what just happened there? we have it spotlights, but this is a subway station in madrid. man falls off the platform, falls into the tracks there. other passengers waving their arms trying to get a train pulling into the station to stop. you see that? well, an off-duty officer was there. he drags the man to safety just seconds before the train arrives. you see the man fall there, and then the officer finally gets down there. but the train is really just seconds away when the officer -- you can see him coming into the frame now -- gets the man and drags him out of the way. as soon as he does, look at that, the train comes by. the officer's name, angel. cheating, playing around, one-night stands, if your heart has a tough time staying loyal,

this can wreak havoc on your relationships. all kinds of excuses for why people cheat. they have all kinds of excuses. it may turn out it's not your fault. you can just hear some cheaters right now. their ears perked up when i said that. let me explain. a new study claims a genetic variant is responsible for cheating and promiscuous behavior. the study's author says we all have this gene. >> so it turns out everyone has the gene. the gene is called drd-4. it's a dopamine d-4 receptor. we all have it, but we vary in the type of variant we have for the gene. everyone's got it. it's kind of like height. we all vary in our height. the same is true with the genes, and it varies in its length. the one particular variant, people who seek dopamine more. they're more likely to kind of need thrills and want to jump out of airplanes and extreme sports. they're more likely to gamble and abuse alcohol.

good morning, everybody. welcome to the "cnn sunday morning." you know, we've heard so much about the drug wars in mexico. seems like it's hard to shock you with any news these days. this was a bit shocking. a 14-year-old is accused of working as a hit man for a drug cartel. you will hear from him. also, a developing story this morning out of iran. it may now be very close to having it needs to become a nuclear power. this comes just days before a very important meeting where iran's nuclear program is going to be discussed. from the cnn center, this is your "cnn sunday morning" for this december 5th. good morning to you all. i'm t.j. holmes. glad you can be with us this morning. we can go it alone. that's the important message iran is sending out to the world this morning about its nuclear capabilities. the islamic republic claims, they claim at least, they can produce everything necessary for nuclear fuel. that means they don't need any

help from anybody else, any other countries. the u.s. and its allies fear that iran is trying to produce a nuclear bomb. iran denies that. the head of iran's atomic energy organization tells state media is the country is now mining and processing what's called yellowcake uranium. >> translator: this means that iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle starting from the exploration and then mining and then turning it into yellowcake and then converting it into uf-6 and then enriching it and turning it into fuel plates or fuel pellets. >> the announcement comes just a day before iran is continue nuclear talks with top world leaders. an important meeting is going to be taking place over the next couple of days having to do with north korea and its most recent provocative acts. what's interesting here is who is being left out of the meeting. secretary of state hillary clinton is going to be meeting with her japanese and south

korean counterparts tomorrow. china is not invited. china wanted a meeting of the six-party group following last month's attack by north korea on a south korean island. washington and south korea balked at the idea of six-party talks, saying they did not want to be seen as rewarding north korea with a seat at the table for its provocative actions. right now there are nearly 30,000 u.s. service members in south korea. speaking of south korea, we talked a lot yesterday about that trade agreement between south korea and the u.s. the president talked with b. it yesterday. he's calling it a landmark agreement, one that will increase u.s. exports by $11 billion. he says it will also support or create some 70,000 jobs here in the u.s. a target goal, of course, with the unemployment rate now ticking up, at least it did last month in november. it went from 9.6% to 9.8%. also, this new trade deal will eliminate nearly all the tariffs on industrial and consumer goods in the next five years,

especially opening up korean beef and auto markets. here's how the president summed up the deal. >> i'm interested in agreements that increase jobs and exports for the american people and that also help our partners grow their economies. so i told ron and our team to take the time to get this right and get the best deal for america. and that is what they have done. the agreement we're announcing today includes several important improvements and achieves what i believe trade deals must do. it's a win-win for both our countries. >> the president also says he's very disappointed the senate failed to pass middle class tax cuts. the senate democrats tried twice yesterday working in a saturday session. one vote would have kept the cuts for the vast majority of americans but eliminated tax cuts for those making more than $250,000. that failed. they tried again with another measure that would have the cutoff at $1 million. so everybody making less than $1 million would see the tax cuts staying in place.

that one failed too. where do you think the vote was? maybe along party lines? >> to give a tax break to the wealthiest people in america at this moment in history is foolish and reckless, and yet that is the position of the republican party and a definition of their values. >> this debate is not about cutting taxes. this debate is whether or not we ought to increase taxes on anybody during a recession, and we feel you should not raise taxes on anybody during a recession. let's follow up on another story from yesterday. spain, where the air traffic controllers were on strike. now most of them have gotten back to work today. there was a threat of prosecution against them, and that seemed to work to get them back into the office, get back into those towers. they went on strike on friday. the backlog of stranded passengers at madrid's airports thinning out. not completely, though.

the airport can only handle about one-third of its usual traffic. still trying to get things up and going. and the folks, they are just trying to get home. >> i feel very disappointed, and the actual airline themselves have been pretty good. they've kept us informed a lot of the time. so in that respect, it's been good. but the actual experience, after traveling for two, three days, is getting -- taking its toll now into our sleep. so i really need to get home and relax. let's give you more now on another developing story this morning. this is off the coast of alaska. maritime rescue operation is going on to try to avoid a potential oil disaster. the u.s. coast guard is towing a giant freighter found adrift off the aleutian islands. it's a 738-foot freighter that lost much of its engine power friday morning. it's carrying about 500,000 gallons of crude oil and diesel

fuel. a woman who's been missing the last ten days has been found alive. deborah collins is her name. she was found by a group of hikers early saturday in california's santa cruz mountains. she was believed to be delirious when found and possibly suffering from hypothermia. at seven minutes past the hour, time to say good morning once again to reynolds wolf. got everything together there? making last-minute adjustments. >> we're going to try to adjust the forecast and show you parts around the country. yesterday was all snow business in parts of chicago. they had 5.1 inches of snowfall. doesn't sound like a whole lot when you think about chicago, but it was a record for that date. today in atlanta, we're expecting some pretty nice conditions. you can see the shot right over me. we're going to talk about the full forecast coming up in a few moments. that is straight ahead.

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are elephants cute really? >> baby elephants are darling. they're beautiful. >> we are looking at zoo animals here. this is out of germany. oh, they put the elephant up for me. is that a baby elephant? that was a baby elephant, wasn't it? okay, nobody knows. sorry. they're dealing with the snow as best they can. great britain got hit with a wave of weather, kind of made its way across europe now. >> what is that thing? >> it's a baby elephant. >> it looks more like a wooley mammoth, doesn't it? it appears to have some kind of hair on it. >> it's got a do. >> it does. it's kind of weird stuff, like all spiky and what not. >> that's my job. you got any more pictures per chance of the weather? >> i've got a picture of chicago. let's show you what we have here. we've got the flamingos up. they look good. isn't it nice how their necks

are together and makes a little heart. it warms the heart. this is a beautiful shot we have compliments of wlos. to me it's a sad story about the tree you have in chicago. this is a tree donated by a family to the city of chicago. this was a tree planted back in 1923, and it is certainly beautiful, but the family that had this tree celebrated weddings, family get-togethers, everything near this beautiful douglas fir tree, and then it was cut down and donated to the city. great, very, very giving, but i'd have a hard time parting with something like that. but the good side is everyone gets to enjoy it. yesterday if you were in chicago, you enjoyed the snow. guess what, your neighbors across lake michigan in the state of michigan will be enjoying some of that snowfall. enjoying it? i don't know. going to have a few scattered inches of snowfall from muskegon heights. but kalamazoo and places over the next several days could see several inches of snowfall. over to the east of lake erie,

same situation. not so much for buffalo today. buffalo will get the majority of its snow overnight and into tomorrow. from cleveland to ashtabula, one to two inches of snow. in the appalachians several inches of snowfall. should be a beautiful day in spots like houston with 62 degrees the expected high. boston with 39 degrees. salt lake, upper 40s. upper 60s in san diego. miami, 78 degrees with a chance of thunderstorms into the afternoon. t.j., it looks like a pretty nice day across the nation. where we are seeing the snowfall, again, it was record-setting in chicago yesterday for that date at 5.1 inches of snowfall. but i'll tell you, if it happens to be in, say, february, and they get that amount of snow, they're going to be happy. it's great. it's nothing compared to what's coming. i don't know if you've seen this yet, but let's -- we're not cross-country folks. we're not marathoners. look at this. the young lady is trying to finish the race. this is in high school in

california, the state championships. just didn't have it in her at the end of the race and collapses. watch what she does now, folks. she's going to finish this race. she's not going to walk across or run across the finish line. she literally is crawling across the finish line. this young lady, the name is holland reynolds. and you know, long race. she just conked out. but she crosses the finish line. it was so important to do so because she was running on behalf -- her whole team was here, reynolds, for her coach who had just been diagnosed with lou gehrig's disease. they had something they were battling for. she wanted to get across, and she made it. just to see that picture. >> i don't care who you are, that's wonderful to see. obviously, your heart goes out to her, but to see her work that hard is kind of a neat thing. >> congratulations to her on that effort at least. also, another effort we want to tell you about, show the pictures of this first. it will look a little silly maybe to you, but it's for a

noble cause. we told you last -- you might remember this, reynolds. the november, the mow-vember they called it. guys were growing out their mustaches. now we have this decemburns. december, and you're growing out sideburns. this is being used to draw attention to aids and hiv in africa. the idea is to grow them long enough to look so silly that people ask, what is your problem? why are you doing that? and then you can spark the conversation about what's happening in africa and what's happening to women, children, men as well certainly, but the hiv/aids epidemic in africa. >> people ask me what my problem is every day. >> and what do you tell them? >> i should be using that. that's a great thing. what a wonderful cause. i'm going to let mine grow out. >> really? >> i'm thinking of doing that, absolutely. maybe just a little bit. i don't know. the problem is, you know, i don't know if i could let it go. i don't know if they'd be happy

with the big pork chops on air. >> pork chops. all right. 15 minutes past the hour now. we were showing you this video a little earlier. a man stumbling onto the subway track in madrid. train seconds away. off-duty cop goes on duty. we'll show you how this played out. ? this one? still not big enough. [ disappointed ] but it's the biggest one here... [ male announcer ] let's be honest. no one ever wished for a smaller holiday gift. ♪ it's the lexus december to remember sales event, and for a limited time, we're celebrating some of our greatest offers of the year. see your lexus dealer. for adults, stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks. and 6 out of 10 patients had their plaque psoriasis rated

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19 minutes past the hour now. time to see what's hot on the internet. there's always a new viral video out there. josh levs keeping track of them for us. >> a lot of good ones today. this one has a lot of stunning images. take a look here. it's from a company called batelco. let's watch. this is a telecommunications company based in bahrain. they're calling this video infiniti. it's about a journey through people's ideas and bringing them to life. they worked with spy films to create this. the music was created for it. it's gone absolutely viral.

at the end, they send you the facebook page for batelco. comedy front now. people are loving this one. take a look at the cats playing patty cake. >> baker's man. bake me a cake as fast as you can. roll it. >> that's not roll it. >> you dropped it, man. >> that's not roll it. >> you quit. >> this is from justin c. elliott. hilarious stuff on that site. you can see the cats go at it for a while. they voiced it over, and people eating it up. take a look at this kid with some serious dancing skills. ♪ this kid is the new hot dancer online. people loving this. he's at some kind of street fair. if anyone can make out the song behind him, let us know. he's got some moves. finally, this new hanukkah

song has got everybody moving. take a look. ♪ until the mighty greeks were gone ♪ ♪ i spend my life in the air sometimes ♪ >> this went up last week and has 1.5 million views online. we had a front page story about it on cnn.com. this group, a capella group, the maccabeats telling the story of hanukkah. everything i showed you just now is up on my page, facebook.com/josh levscnn. send me your favorites. i'll have some of those for you next week. >> we've got another video coming up. a mascot arrested at his football game. don't worry. they had a backup mascot ready to go as well. we'll explain this. [ male announcer ] it's a rule of nature.

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turning now to some of the stories that are making

headlines. something more to shock us in the mexican drug wars. a 14-year-old alleged assassin telling his story now. the boy, who cnn will not formally identify because of his age, has been dubbed el ponches, or the cloak, is his name. he's accused of ruthless killings on behalf of a mexican drug cartel boss. he says the leader made him do what he did. here's part of the interview and its translation into english. >> translator: who gave you the orders to hit them, to execute them? >> el negro. >> where did you learn to execute, to beat? >> i got high. >> did you get drugged? >> el negro drugged me. >> el negro drugged you. since when did he drug snu >> since i was 12. >> you belonged to the gang since you were 12? >> yes. we turn to albania now, where thousands have been displaced by torrential rains

and flooding. 12,000 people have been evacuated from their home. state of emergency is in effect for some of the hardest hit areas. also, look at this out of madrid, spain. we have it highlighted there. you see a man falls off the subway flat platform, falls onto the tracks. other passengers waving their arms trying to get the oncoming train to stop. then you see there's an off-duty police officer who comes into the frame there. he grabs the man, drags him out of the way literally just in the nick of time. the police officer, would you believe, his name is actually angel. want to turn to some sports now, welcome in our guy, sports anchor joe carter from headline -- excuse me. hln. sorry about that. that was great football action yesterday, but a mascot ended up in handcuffs. this is great. >> of all that happened yesterday, the talk this morning is about a bearcat mascot who went loco for lack of a better word. i've seen people, i've seen fans

throw things onto football fields before. i've never seen a mascot do such a thing. during this run, the running back for pittsburgh starts getting pelted with snowballs. it's coming from a mascot. he starts to encourage everyone around him to do the same thing. >> i thought, when i saw that, i thought the crowd was just throwing snowballs. but it was actually the mascot who was pelt the guy. >> he basically took charge of the whole thing and said, let's start throwing snowballs with this guy. he was booked and then charged with disorderly conduct, taken to the pen. they said, we're going to call in the bench. they brought in a backup mascot. >> who has a backup? >> that's what i said. who in the world -- where does he sit? is he in the locker room? is he just waiting for the other guy to go down. they brought in the backup mascot. it didn't work. cincinnati would lose that game to pittsburgh. they finished their season 4-8, really bad season, and sort of embarrassed their mascot got out of control. >> will he get his job back? >> i doubt it. >> so this a big opportunity for the backup now to shine.

>> in just one instance, everything can change for that backup. >> seems like everything is going to change today possibly for tiger woods. he's wrapping up the year possibly with a victory. >> what a difference a year makes. last year this time, tiger woods hit a tree and several mistresses fell out. a lot of people were wondering if he'd ever get back from the fall from grace. now he stands just 18 holes from winning his first tournament in over a year. he's got a four-shot lead going into today. just like i said yesterday, the course really plays into his favor. it's got a lot of long par 5s. plays into his long game. he got a new swing coach this year, shawn foley. it looks like that is starting to come through in terms of getting his swing back and adjusting his game. yeah, tiger actually could get that world number one ranking back that he lost earlier this year. mathematically, it's possible if he wins today. so a fall from grace and potentially ending the season with his first tournament win and back at number one is