iran vowing an aggressive response after claiming it shot down a u.s. spy drone. american military officials only confirming one of their drones is missing. courting herman cain. now that the candidate has suspended his campaign, his rivals are coveting what could be a game-changing endorsement. do i look like a terrorist? i'm going to be 85 years old and weigh 85 pounds. >> claiming the tsa agents at jfk airport pulled down her pants and strip searched her. now she's talking about taking action on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

all right. good morning, everyone. it is monday, december 5th. ali and carol are both off this monday morning. i'm christine romans along with alina cho on this "american morning." nice to see you. >> good morning. nice to see you. a highly classified u.s. stealth drone may be in the hands of iran. iranian officials are claiming that they shot down the drone after it invaded its airspace. >> american military officials confirming one of their drones is missing. now iran is vowing an aggressive response. here is pentagon correspondent barbara starr with more. >> reporter: christine, alina, iranian authorities say they shot down a highly classified u.s. unmanned spy plane over their territory along the eastern border with afghanistan. iran says the drone they shot down is an rq-170. one of the most secret drones in the u.s. military, and intelligence arsenal. it's a stealth drone that can fly largely undetected gathering

intelligence and targeting information. so far what is the u.s. saying? it's saying, you've seen the nato alliance in afghanistan to issue a statement only saying this -- "the uav to which the iranians are referring may be a u.s. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western afghanistan late last week. the operators at the uav lost control of the aircraft and have been working to determine its status. the flight crew operating the drone did report a loss of flight control before it went down. they are not saying it was shot down and they're not saying it was one of these rq-170s. the key question is, shot down or not, do the iranians have they're hands on classified u.s. intelligence technology, and if they do, the u.s. knows its not getting it back. alina? >> more than a few people saying

that if the iranians have it, the chinese or someone else on the open market will likely have it. we still don't know where that drone is. and president obama called pakistan the president with condolences. president obama says the air strike was not a deliberate attack on pakistan. he and pakistani president adarrie reaffirmed their equipment to the bilateral relationship between both countries. now to the courting of herman cain. the candidate suspended his presidential campaign on saturday unable to overcome allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year extramarital affair. now his former rivals are scrambling for a potentially game-changing endorsement. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser is live in washington for us. paul, a lot of speculation cain could endorse newt gingrich as early as today?

>> a lot of speculation. on saturday when cain suspended his campaign, newt gingrich was quick to compliment, both from georgia, both friendly on the campaign trail. at 1:45 today newt gingrich added a news conference up in new york city. we don't know why and we don't know if herman cain will be there, we're calling trying to find out what's going on. last week all eyes are on herman cain to see if and when he would drop out. he suspended his campaign on saturday. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> reporter: the ride's over for the cain train, but herman cain promises he'll still make an impact in the race for the republican nomination. >> i will be making an endorsement in the near future. >> reporter: new front-runner newt gingrich was quick to compliment cain. >> i think he deserves a great deal of credit for having had the courage to run, the courage to have big ideas and the

clarity to say them in a way that many of americans found very, very positive. >> reporter: many tea party activists liked cain and tea party supporters from the grass root movement home cain will come their way. >> go somewhere in the next week or so. that's going to happen. i'm optimistic keel pick up some votes. >> herman cain calling our office and coming over to our side. part of that, because people see i'm the tea party candidate in the race. they saw herman cain as an outsider, and i think they see that my voice would be more reflective of his. >> reporter: cain remaining supporters may go a bunch of the candidates. the one who may benefit most is gingrich. the former house speaker, surging at the right time. without cain in the race gingrich stands at 28% in a new

nbc news poll in iowa with the former massachusetts governor mitt romney and congressman ron paul of texas, each at 19%. as for gingrich, today, just before that news conference in new york today, he'll meet with donald trump. of course, he becomes about the fifth candidate that will meet with trump. alina? >> never a dull moment. paul steinhauser live in washington. thank you. democrats today unveil a payroll tax cut compromise plan. harry reid will introduce this proposal which would extend a cut in the pay roll taxes used to pay for social security. it's a compromise between duelling plans rejected by the senate last week. no word yet of specifics of the plan. a hefty $200 million price tag will be fully paid for, say democrats. if they don't do there, americans will have a $900 increase in taxes next year. a cash-strapped united states postal service unveil as

new cost-cutting plan this morning. under the proposal, first class mail would no longer be delivered the next day. they want to change the nashltil standard to two to three days for delivery. they've racked up more than $5 billion in debt this year. we have this just into our newsroom. minutes ago we learned wikileaks founder julian assange won his chance to appeal against his extradition from the uk to sweden. he will make his case to britain the's supreme court. assange is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. he's accused of sexually assaulting two women back in 2010. also new this morning, syria facing sanctions from the arab league after it failed to meet a deadline. monitoring the government's response to protests. on sunday, at least 22 more demonstrators were killed. the number of deaths now

reaching at least 4,000 since the government crackdown began in mid-march. syria's government says it will survive sanctions. tense of thousands of people without power if last week's wind storms in southern california. forecasters warn another blast of high winds could be a problem this morning. that's raising big concerns in fire-prone areas like malibu and western los angeles county. 300 firefighters are in position this morning just in case. also in position this morning, rob marciano in the extreme weather center. good morning, rob. >> good morning, guys. it's going to be two days of fire danger and high winds across parts of southern california. they had a break yesterday, but it was a long weekend of cleaning up. hopefully a lot of that debris has been moved off of areas that could be dangerous. winds, 30 -- 40 to 60 miles an hour. the debris will get blown around and calm down this afternoon and the winds come back tonight. today and tomorrow, critical

fire danger across the coastal regions of southern california and the canyons and dry areas and the mountains around los angeles county. also, to the east of the system, heavy snow again across parts of the southern rockies including most of new mexico. blizzard conditions potentially today. 14 to 20 inches of snow with this system. a lesson in degrees. the cold air mass, that makes the santa anas worse. out ahead of the very slow-moving front, 58 degrees in new york city. 42 degrees in chicago. in between, we also have a flood threat stretching from cleveland all the way to the eastern parts of dallas with heavier rain with a slow-moving system across the western great lakes, back through cincinnati, across the midsouth. memphis, potentially you could see flooding with two to four inches of rainfall there and rain heavy now in dallas. a cold rain at that. just northwest of dallas and across the red river, some snow falling with this system. so you've got it all today.

the best weather probably is across the northeast. temperatures near 60 degrees. enjoy it. next week, downhill. >> thank you for the nice weekend as well, rob. thank you. coming up, a fierce face-off at occupy d.c. why police brought in a cherry picker to remove some of the protesters. a big win and a big scare. fans trampled on the football field after thousands pushed their way on to the field, they went over to take down the goal post. details straight ahead. this stare realory really g attention. tsa agents at jfk airport went way overboard. a claim by this woman. what she plans to do. you're watching "american morning." it's 11 minutes after the hour. ♪ [ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪

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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. welcome back to "american morning" on a monday. it is 14 minutes after the hour, and an hour's long standoff between police and occupy d.c. protesters. those demonstrators were given just one hour to dismantle a

wooden straur they built inside a park. >> when they refused to leave, police moved in with a cherry picker. here's athena jones with the details. >> reporter: hi, alina and christine. after more than nine hours and an intense standoff between occupy d.c. proesters and d.c. police came to an end with 31 arrests throughout the day. it began in the morning when police ordered demonstrators to take town a structure they erected overnight. there were safety concerns, police said. demonstrators refused to take town the structure. many of them occupying it themselves. some climbing on to the roof where they held on for hours. they led chants with the crowd of demonstrators here who have been camped out in this park since early october. many of the democrat are straighters in the crowd threw food and water to the people on the structure over the course of day. ultimately, police use add cherry picker, a giant

inflatable cushion, too ladders, vrs ropes and harnesses to get the last protesters off of the roof of the structure. the process of getting these demonstrators off of the structure was at times dangerous because of the safety concerns and structural integrity concerns with the building. at one point you had police warning people, warning cohorts to stop because of concerns one of the rafters might break. ultimately, they were able to get all of the protesters off the structure. 31 arrests here in this park, mcpherson square a few blocks from the white house. back to you, alina and christine. >> thank you very much. ten people injured at the oklahoma state football game over the weekend. did you see these pictures? they were getting trampled. >> so happy. it did not turn out wet. >> thousands stormed the field. a postgame celebration. fans rushed the field tearing down a goal post. victims taken to the hospital

with various injuries, include twog with ankle injuries. the cowboys beat the oklahoma sooners 44-10. that's why the fans were so happy. >> well, a very big game got the best of them. u.s. investors looking to europe this week. the european union looking to overcome its debt crisis. angela merkel meets today to discuss a possible new eu treaty. the big question, can the euro be saved? live in paris, to say they're scrambling to fix it, it's going to be such a long process for investors and politicians there. >> reporter: yeah, such a long process and according to senior euro crats in brussel, only five days left to solve all this, christine. we have an initial summit going on, a bilateral summit between france and germany because they're the richest countries and the biggest economies in the eurozone. they're calling a lot of the

shots here. what they're going to be do, setting up some sort of legislative framework encouraging other euro countries to exert more budget discipline. balance their books and keep them from overspending. germany wants this to be, let's say, automatic. an automatic process. one that would involve severe penalties for countries that overspend. on the other hand, france says it's want a more soft approach. one that wouldn't impinge upon these individual country's sovereignties. what is crucial here, the help of the global economy, and just a note we should also mention here to show how important it is for the united states, we'll also have the u.s. treasury secretary, timothy geithner arriving here in paris in two days' time to talk with the french finance minister and other european figures. at the end of the week, the final summit of the entire year for these eu heads of state in

government, expected to see some kind of grand plan to solve this crisis that threatens to enter its third year, christine. >> oh, my. nina, thank you, from paris. and vice president joe biden is in greece meeting today with that country's president and the new prime minister, lucas papademos. the agenda, of course, greece's crumbling economy, and how to best implement the eu's controversial bailout plan. we're watching the next phase of egypt's parliamentary ewlekzs. running in lower races for the lower house. the process ends tomorrow coming one week after they cast ballots the first time since the toppled former president hosni mubarak. moderate islamic parties are in the majority of seats. in russia's parliamentary elections, the prime minister vladimir putin the united russia party holding a slim majority any those elections bringing in fewer votes than expected.

the party could lose as many as 60 seats in russian parliament. russian police cracked down on election protesters. about 100 people were arrested in moscow. it's a celebration of the arts. the kennedy center honors five stars of stage, screen and music and the gala happened in washington yesterday. this year's honorees, barbara cook, neil diamond, sunny rollins and yo-yo ma. president obama on hand to toast them. and saluted chinese-american cellist, yo-yo ma. >> the most extraordinary thing about i donyo-yo ma is that evey likes him. you've got to give me some tips. it's remarkable. >> i would say the first tip, stay out of politics. the president also thanked the honorees for sharing their talents with the world. >> you know, meryl streep is playing margaret thatcher in an upcoming film called "iron lady." i saw it recently.

it is extraordinary. i encourage all of you to go see that film when it comes out in december, this month. still to come, ten murder victims dump and the shores of new york's long island. coming up, the new clues that could point to a serial killer. something we haven't seen since 2009. tiger woods back in the winners' circle. you're watching "american morning." it's 20 minutes after the hour.♪ it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and $250 goes to your choice of 5 charities. with your help, we can reach $20 million dollars by the end of this, our fourth year. the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles...

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welcome back. "minding your business" this morning. u.s. stock futures are higher following a stellar week with u.s. markets last week up more than 7%. a move like that is rare, folks.

the markets continue their run, this depends on negotiations in the eurozone where leaders are working feverishly to save the euro. pushing european markets up this morning, the unveiling of new austerity measures this weekend dietly the new prime minister. italian borrowing costs are falling this morning. a good sign. a sign of confidence from investors that the country is moving in the right direction to balance its budget. all right. french crude prices are up above $110 a barrel this morning. that's the type of oil most used in europe. it would take a big hit in the region decides to slap iran with oil sanctions because of the country's nuclear aspirations. you're seeing oil prices up in europe but also up at home. here at home as well, the price of home heating oil is expected to rise 10% this winter. the energy information administration says unrest in the middle east, particularly libya, is partly to blame for this year's increase. the average cost for this winter's heating season from october through march is

supposed to be about $2,500. gas prices, though, down 9 cents in the past two week, despite an increase in crude oil prices. the weekly lundberg survey says the drop is because of lower demand due to hard economic conditions. right now the average price for regular gas, $3.29 a gallon. another big weekend at the box office. "twilight," breaking down, the vampire movie brought in more than $247 million so far in the u.s. "american morning" will be right back after this break. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot

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courting herman cain. the georgia businessman may be out of the republican race, but his endorsement could help decide who wins it, on this "american morning." all right. welcome back. it's about 30 minutes past the hour. time for this morning's top stories -- a highly classified u.s. stealth drone may be in the hands of iran. iranian officials say they shot down a drone after it invaded its airspace along the afghanistan border. american military officials only confirming one of their drones is missing, but they maintain they do not fly over iranian airspace. iran is now vowing an aggressive response. senate majority leader harry reid will unveil a pay roll tax cut compromise plan today. it is a compromise between the duelling plans rejected by the

senate last week. no word yet on specifics, but democrats say it includes a "serious way to pay the more than $200 billion price tag." and newt gingrich the one to watch in the gop race with about a month to go before the first votes cast in a usual iowa caucus. in a new poll, gingrich is leading the pack in iowa, but mitt romney is still ahead in new hampshire with 39%. gingrich pulled in 23%. all right. turning to politics and the fallout from herman cain suspending his presidential campaign. allegations of sexual harassment and too much for the campaign to overcome. swirls concern about who he will support. welcome to you both. speculation now that cain will

endorse gingrich maybe this afternoon. jim, if that happens, how much does it help gingrich? there's a conventional wisdom this cain endorsement is a potential game-changer. hasn't gingrich already gained all of the support from the people who are fleeing the cain camp? >> yeah. the cain bandwagon is significantly smaller than a month ago. having said that, at some point speculation the race will come down to mitt and not mitt. and consolidation around newt gingrich as the not mitt. i should point out, i am hearing he will not be endorsing today after politico reported he would be endorsing. >> you're saying he's not going to endorse today? >> simultaneously endorsing and not endorsing today at the same time. >> karen, one reason he can do that, stay in the media. the media's been talking about this and not other things for a very long time because cain has been sort of all of the energy on the republican side. so dragging it out, some would say, would, i guess that would go right in the playbook. i want to look, we're just four weeks until the iowa caucuses.

i want to look at the new numbers from the des moines register. beginning rir in first, 25%. then ron paul, and romney down to 16%. key numbers. 8% said they'd vote for cain. 11 percent pr undecided and, karen, 60% say they're willing to change their minds. it's still very fluid there. >> this is a very fluid race. and you know, i don't think that herman cain is going to be a game-changer in this primary election. you know, and the other thing is, let's keep in mind, after he announced that he was suspending his campaign, he sent out a fund-raising e-mail encouraging people to show their support for him by sending him donations. so i don't think he's going to make any sort of announcement anytime soon, and i don't think he's going to have much of an impact in iowa. you know, i think there are not high expectations for mitt romney in iowa. he has not spent a lot of time or money there.

he doesn't have to win iowa. i think if he came in second, that would be certainly enough for him. particularly as he goes on to new hampshire. the question is, how is he going to perform in new hampshire? that's a state he does absolutely have to win. he has spent a great deal of time and money there, and that's what he's really banking on. so you know what? i also think -- don't forget, we've got a couple, two more, or at least one more debate before the end of the year. we have two more debates before the new hampshire election. and i think that, you know, aside from some major national event taking place that would really put the spotlight on one of these two candidates, the debates could further define the candidacy of these men. >> let's talk about new hampshire what it means more romney. i want to look at the newest number. an nbc maris poll. romney, gingrich, paul and

huntsman. do you think he could surprise people? moderate republicans looking at the gingrich rise saying why couldn't that be jon huntsman? >> it is. seems like everyone's gotten their chance to the flavor of the month. there's about a month left. perhaps jon huntsman moment to rise will come then. new hampshire is an open primary in the sense you don't have to be a registered republican. if you're an independent you can vote in the republican primary in new hampshire and there is no real democratic contest. last cycle might have voted in the hillary/obama fight might be voting. those not into the republican party, you could see him carrying a lot of that vote and perhaps getting close to a third and winning a three-way race. having said that, that's not necessarily a natural sales pitch to south carolina, the following state and not a natural sales pitch for florida afterwards. the path for huntsman is difficult. one thing going for mitt and

karen put it pretty well. iowa is not a must-win. the good news for mitt, the purpose of new hampshire is to refute iowa. you rarely see the same man win twice. conscience or subconscious. we're rubber stamping this, more important, for four years down the road. the best way to win new hampshire is to lose iowa. >> one thing to add to that. huntsman could turn out to be a spoiler in new hampshire for romney. if you have independents that look at romney and huntsman and this hunts sman the kind of candidate i would like that could actually siphon votes from romney and that could help newt gingrich. so, you know, again, huntsman isn't going to win new hampshire, but, again, he could be very influential in the races going forward, because if mitt romney lost new hampshire, i think that would suck a lot of energy out of that campaign.

>> yeah. certainly getting exciting. this part of the election process, these are actual real people making decisions about candidates. i know a lot of it has to do with how organized the campaigns are in the different states, but this is where it starts to get interesting. nu just 26 days. thank you both this morning. there's a frightening new here to any a string of unsolved murders. new york city police say a remote beach on long island has long been a dumping ground for murder victims. the victims, mostly prostitutes, vanish without a trace. cnn's susan candiotti has details. >> reporter: it's been a year since police discovered the bodies of four sex workers wrapped in burlap, disposed of like garbage along heavy brush along a desolate stretch of highway near long island's south shore. from december to april, ten victims eventually were found. one had vanished 15 years ago. all women, except for a toddler and a man.

each grisly discovery begging a question -- that one man is answering. >> hi, commissioner. good to see you again. >> reporter: the long island police commissioner richard dormer has a new theory. >> what is your theory now, almost a year after the bodies were found of how many killers there are? >> we're leaning towards the one serial killer scenario. >> reporter: one killer, because of his targets. victims in the sex trade in their 20s, hidden in the same general area. seven months ago investigators had a different theory. that there was more than one person responsible. >> there is no evidence that all of these remains are that of a single killer. >> reporter: what drew you to the conclusion, however, that you didn't have before? >> there was a male found with the group. now, that certainly was different. and then in was a toddler found. >> reporter: because the man shown in this police composite

was dressed in women's clothes, dormer says he probably also was a prostitute linking him to the other victims. as for the toddler, found seven miles from the remains of his likely mother. police theorize she was also in the sex trade. >> we find out it's, you know, not unusual for a sex worker to bring her toddler along, if she can't find a baby-sitter. >> do you have a profile who you think this person? >> no, we don't. in this case, we believe that this person is organized. he's an organized killer. rather than disorganized. >> reporter: organized and a local. >> well, it's obvious that somebody, whoever this is, knows the area. >> reporter: the suspected killer did not dismember every victim. dormer says that's not unusual. >> they can change their m.o., and it's possible that he changed his m.o. >> reporter: for the first time, police are not linking shannon gilbert to this case. also a prostitute it was her

disappearance last december that led to the discovery of the first four bodies. gilbert remains missing. police plan another search for her and the serial killer. do you think he'll slip up? >> they always do. it doesn't matter how smart they are, or how organized they are, they always make a mistake. >> reporter: which means he could strike again. susan candiotti. cnn, suffolk county, long island. all right. an 8a-year-old grandmother from long island is considering filing a lawsuit against the tsa after allegedly being strip searched at jfk airport. in she is. lenore zimmerman preparing to fly from new york to ft. lauderdale last tuesday when she was traumatized by two female tsa agents. >> i have a defibrillator, so i don't go through the machines. i asked them to pat me down. they took my pants down and then they took my underwear down.

don't i look like a terrorist? i'm going to be 85 years old and weigh 103 pounds. and they strip searched me. >> she also suffered a cut on her leg during the search. tsa denies she was strip search invists proper procedures were followed but apologized to lenore for the "unpleasant screening experience." also new this morning, it's the first win for tiger woods in two years. call it vintage tiger. woods rolling in a ten-foot birdie putt on the final hole yesterday for a one-stroke victory over zach johnson in the chevron world challenge in california. it's the fifth time he's won the event, which he happens to host. afterwards when asked how he felt to win a tournament again, tiger said, awesome. all right. the green bay packers still undefeated, barely. the new york giants came close to handing the super bowl champs their first loss of the season

yesterday. when eli manning tossed a touchdown pass and tying the score at 35-35, but the packers marched down the field in the final minute and mason crosby hit a 30-yard field goal. the final seconds, to give the packers their 12th win. packers 38, giants 35, final score. if one of those teams makes it to the super bowl they're see her. it's official. the nfl says madonna will be the featured performer at this year's super bowl half time show. 53-year-old material girl will collaborate with circumstancequ soleil and jamie king. the first female entertainer to host the show since janet jackson back in 2004. remember that? super bowl xlvi is in indianapolis, two days after her movie release. >> great planning there on the part of -- what do they call her

in england? madge. >> madge. the end of the iraq war, sending thousands of soldiers home for the holidays. these happy reunions ahead on "american morning." it is 42 minutes after the hour. econds ago. we should get him a present. thanks for the gift basket. you're welcome. you're welcome. did you see hr just sent out new... ...office rules? cause you're currently in violation of 6 of them. oh yeah, baby? ...and 7. did you guys hear that fred is leaving? so 30 seconds ago. [ noisemakers blow ] [ both ] we'll miss you! oh, facecake! there's some leftover cake. [ male announcer ] the new htc vivid. stay a step ahead with at&t 4g lte, with speeds up to 10x faster than 3g. ♪

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45 minutes after the hour. all this week cnn is going in depthth examining the final hours of the iraq war. thousands of u.s. soldiers have already come loam and will be spending the holidays with loved ones. >> they've started arriving at military bases here in the states, like ft. hood in texas. chris lawrence was in for some of the tearful reunions and join us live from the pentagon this morning. it's amazing to see the end of a war. these men and women are saying, the war is over for me. now i'm going home and starting again. >> reporter: yeah. that's right. christine, alina, no matter how many times you see the reunions it never gets old. one wife explained, after nearly a year of being the taxi drive e for the kids, having to be good cop and bad cop, sure going to be nice to have her husband home. >> dismissed!

>> reporter: at the first glimpse of her father in near lay year, alexandria showed how fast a 14-year-old can move. she started high school while her dad was gone. her mom had 20 do everything alone. >> it has been a very long time. but it's over. >> reporter: is there any way to describe what it feels like to have your dad back after so long? >> he looks good. >> reporter: what did you miss most about it? >> he was more like my best friend. >> reporter: now you've got your best friend back? >> yeah. i have more of a bond with him than anything. so, yeah. >> reporter: enjoy your time. the last few hours of waiting were the toughest. then -- the plane full of soldiers finally landed, and the troops got a welcome home fit for rock stars. christmas wishes were answered.

the fight in iraq finished. for sergeant major eric frye, bittersweet. >> in one sense i feel happy that it's over with and that we're getting al of our troops out, then you look back at the sacrifices our soldiers and family members have made. >> reporter: both in blood and money. at one point, the u.s. was spending $5,000 per second in iraq. the war took nearly 4,500 american lives. 32,000 troops came home wounded. but these are some of the last americans to leave iraq, and they won't be going back. >> my third deployment. first one with both of these guys, and it was a lot harder but it makes it that much sweeter coming home. >> reporter: there's a little over 10,000 troops left in iraq route now. that number is literally changing by the hour. all of them have to be out by the end of december, although most will be out in the next

couple weeks well before christmas. christine? alina? >> seeing many, many, many, many more reunions. >> are a lot of people going to stay in the military or are they transitioning to civilian life? or a mix? >> reporter: it's a mix. some feel they've done their time. they're going to try to take a break. a lot of service members say even if they had plans to maybe get out, the economy right now sort of changed that equation. they're saying maybe this isn't the best time. i'm going to re-up another four years and see how it looks a little later. >> makes sense. chris lawrence, thank you very much. 28 minutes after the hour. new safety concerns this morning at the fukushima nuclear plant in japan. coming up, another sign that the earthquake and tsunami disaster may have poisoned the pacific ocean. we'll have more on this when we return. ears - 25 or more of them? do you have a financial plan for you family that works,

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ten minutes before the top of the hour. what you need to start your day -- a spy drone shot down along the country's eastern border with afghanistan. american military officials confirming one of its drones is missing. the iranian government is not releasing any pictures of the recovered aircraft. democrats will propose a compromise plan to extend the pay roll tax cut today. the chairman of the senate budget committee says it includes a "serious way to pay the more than $200 billion price

tag." a major leak of radioactive water at japan's fukushima nuclear plant. some 12,000 gallons of contaminated water found gushing from a purification facility. some of that tainted water may have leaked into the pacific ocean. mega church pastor eddie long says he's taking some time off to work on family issues after his wife of 21 years filed for divorce. the split comes more than a year after four young men accused long of pressuring them into sexual relationships when they were teens. long has denied the allegations. a civil suit was settled earlier this year. louisiana state and the university of alabama will play for college football's national championship next month. alabama beat oklahoma state for the number two spot. it will be the first time in the 14-year history of the bowl championship series that two teams who met in the regular season will face each other in the title game. undefeated lsu is the only team

to beat alabama all year. that's the news you need to know to start your day. "american morning" is back after this.

welcome back. the next list is focusing on some of america's creative minds. every sunday dr. sanjay gupta, people on the cutting edge. this week, a graffiti artist. tristen keaton in the third dimension. >> my name is tristen. i made a toy.

the combination of the devil and money. designed to be a blank surface for artists. every time it comes out designed by a different artist. >> customizing toy community grown immensely, being a part of it from the beginning. >> everywhere there's a major city where there are creative people, we'll find art toys. all parts of europe, south america. they're everywhere now. >> very cool. >> yeah. i see these toys. they are very cool. >> collaborative toy market. interesting. catch the next list each sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern time right here on cnn. the late-night comics are sure going to miss herman cain. "saturday night live" had fun at the expense ever the now former presidential candidate. have a look. >> so you still deny the allegations that you had an affair with ginger white? >> it's garbage. the truth is that ginger white and i are friends. and, yes, i gave her money. because that's what friends do. seth, you and i are friends.

right? >> i guess. >> here. take some money. >> oh, well, thank you. >> now, you know that money ain't free. >> i'll just give it back. >> in fact, what i want everyone to know is i love my wife. we are close to each other as any couple that i've ever known. so four days after these allegations came out, i scheduled an appointment to talk to her. last night, we had an intimate productive discussion while she glared at me and listened to mary j. blige. >> and that's when you told her about the affair? >> no one said nothing about an affair. come on! i am innocent isn't proven guilty. that's what this country is all about. now, if i can't have that, i may as well go on and move to labibbia. >> do you mean libya? >> you know, the mobo gadhafi

place. mercedes involved in a pileup in japan. how it happened and how much damage was done. >> what are the odds? >> i know. you're watching "american morning." ♪ [ male announcer ] sometimes, a hint is all the wrapping a gift needs. is that what i think it is? ♪ [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer for exclusive lease offers on the 2012 is 250 and, as a gift from lexus, we'll make your first month's payment. britta olsen is my patient.

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iran promising an aggressive response after claiming it shot down an american spy drone. the u.s. now admitting one of its drones is missing. the fallout ahead. courting cain. his campaign may be over, but herman cain could still influence who gets the gop nomination. his potentially game-changing endorsement could come as early

as today. and powerful gusts in the forecast for l.a. this morning. winds strong enough to spark dangerous fires as tens ever thousands remain in the dark on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it's monday, december 5th. ali and carol are off. i'm christine romans. >> and i'm alina clcalina cho. a drone, iran claims was shot down. the u.s. confirming one drone is missing. iran is vowing an aggressive response. we bring in barbara starr for this, live at the pentagon with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to both of you. take a quick look at what we are talking about. this is a photo of the type of drone that everyone is talking

about right now. the rq-170. iran says they shot one of these down over their territory. that it was flying along that border with afghanistan, eastern iran, that that's where they shot it down. now, what are we talking about? this is the rq-170 sentinel drone, developed for the air force. stealthy. cannot be detected when flying. reconnaissance targeting information. it is one of the key weapons in the u.s. military and intelligence arsenal. now, what is the u.s. saying about it? so far using the nato alliance in afghanistan, the only thing that has been said is the following statement issued yesterday -- "the uav to which the iranians are referring may be a u.s. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western afghanistan late

last week. the operators says the uav lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status." so the u.s. is not saying that it was shot down. it is not saying that it is an rq-170. simply saying they lost a drone over the border region, but all indications are that it went down in iran. key question now -- what does iran have its hands on and do they now have access to some of the u.s.' most secret surveillance technology? christine, alina? >> a complicated relationship for some time between iran and the u.s. what options does the u.s. have here? >> reporter: well, not very many. what they'd really like to know, of course, is, do the iran'ses ha have the wreckage and what condition is it in? could the iranians gotten to it and got the stealth technology or sensors onboard. had they crash, operators knew

they lost control of it. were they able to essentially self-destruct any of the sensitive technology? that's not clear. look, iran is not giving this back. whatever it is, they're not giving it back. what's really interesting is so far they haven't shown any photos of it from iran. from iranian authorities. that what the u.s. is waiting for and wants to see to determine what shape this wreckage is in. >> and we know the black market for such stealth technology and sciencers particularly from china is very aggressive. hopefully they don't have it, but we just don't know. thanks so much. the courting of herman cain. the former gop front-runner dropped out of the race on saturday unable to overcome allegations of sexual harass money and then allegations of a 13-year extramarital affair. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign because of

the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. not because i'm not a fighter. >> now cain's former rivals are scrambling for an endorsement. live in nashville, first to cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser in washington. paul, a lot of speculation cain could announce his endorsement today, although we were just told it wouldn't happen today. is it a game changer or does herman cain drag it out so he can stay on the front page? >> yeah. the longer he waits, the more we keep our eyes, last week keeping our eyes on herman cain every day, every second to see if he would drop out.

he did suspend his campaign. today, who will he endorse and when? speculation. on saturday after cain dropped out gingrich came in front of cameras in staten island, new york, and said nice things about hit fellow georgian. gingrich added a news conference. no indication herman cain will be there and we don't know what the news conference will be about. we'll continue to dig on that. two other candidates, ron paul and michele bachmann, both popular with the tea party movement, as is cain. look what he said on our "state of the union" with candy crowley. >> they're going to go somewhere in the next week or so. that's going to happen. i'm optimistic we'll pick up some votes from there. >> a lot of herman cain supporters have been calling our office and coming over to our side. i think part of that is because people see that i'm the tea party candidate in the race. they saw herman cain as an outsider, and i think they see that my voice will be the one that would be most reflective of his. 's. >> tomorrow marks four week

until the first votes in the iowa caucus. where does the race stand with cain out of it? people likely to attend the iowa, gop caucuses on january 3rd. there's newt gingrich continuing to surge. 28% support. ron paul, former massachusetts governor mitt romney at 19%. texas governor rick perry at 10%. a lot of people still undecided and a lot of people willing to change their vote over the next four weeks. christina and alina? >> thanks, paul. an endorsement from cain could be critical. polls show newt gingrich gaining ground in iowa and mitt romney appears to be headed in the wrong direction in new hampshire. live in nashville, tennessee for us, john, good morning to you. so we're hearing conflicting reports about whether this endorsement is going to happen today, if at all. but if herman cain does, in fact, endorse newt gingrich, how does it change the race? >> well, it does help newt coalesce that anti-romney vote.

conservative alternative for romney, which he's been surging on. first we had perry. then cain. then newt gingrich, and it really does seem like newt is surging at the right time. a cnn poll just the other week showed that 38% of herman cain voters would go to newt gingrich's camp. so this is likely to formalize that movement. i think ron paul and bachmann are both hoping for a bit of a bump here as well, but it makes sense that newt would get the benefit from the bulk of cain supporters looking for an alternative. >> timing is everything, as you say. i want to look at the polls again. you look first in iowa. you're right. gingrich has the lead. ron paul in second there. romney in third. it is still close. over in new hampshire kmshgs , second big test, romney's backyard. he's in the lead, but the lead is shrinking. could we see surprises here and how do you see it playing out in the next several weeks? you're hearing a lot about jon huntsman being a potential

spoiler? >> jon huntsman has been inching up in new hampshire, at least a move in the right direction. newt gingrich announcing late last week he would host a lincoln douglass-style debate with huntsman. elevating him effectively and boxing romney out. the overall trends are clear. they get darker if you look to florida, stunning polls showing gingrich with as much as 50% of that vote. romney trailing behind. newt gingrich is surging basically across the board. mitt romney's been declining slightly. so that actually creates a real opportunity for that, for that newt momentum to carry him through january, where we've got iowa, new hampshire, south carolina and florida. the romney camp's got to be real nervous right now about the way the trends are going. newt's got to be feeling pretty good. >> you mention romney heading in the wrong direction. i mean, with newt gingrich in the news so much, not talking as much as mitt romney. you recently wrote a piece for "the daily beast" calling him a

sinking ship. both an aura of inevitability. how does romney right the ship? >> first of all, he needs to recognize that status quo strategy isn't working. what you have is the idea of the inevitability campaign imploding, and the way to deal with that is to start playing off that. recognize that you're no longer in that sanguine position and play off against newt and start campaigning like he's behind. two weeks ago he decided to play in iowa. big, strategic decision, because he got burned there four years before. now in third place behind ron paul. he needs to recognize there's still time to right the ship, but he's got to start playing offense right now. draw contrasts and make a point about electability. that's sort of his trump card, the key, going forward. >> there have been some rumblings among insiders in washington, as you know, talking about newt gingrich potentially being a better general election

nominee at this point. do you think he has staying power? >> well, look, it's an issue of timing. you know, right now the sort of conservative alternative to mitt romney's post has been hanging on around five week on average, if you look tat. that will carry newt through iowa gishing momentum. you need to recognize that ron paul's in second place in iowa now. that's an additional factor here. but he could be sort of in that alternative position at the right time to really start sailing through primaries. then the republican party's going to need to deal with the fact they've got a very smart sort of policy as their front-runner, but the romney camp can't be liking the trends. that's a significant thing. this guy has been holding in there. he's got a professional team. he's been serious and disciplined, but that interview from last week is devastating showing a candidate easily rattled by basic questions. so you know, the romney camp needs to realize, this is time for sort of def com iii and they

need to deal with playing offense the next few weeks. >> not sure why you're in nashville, tennessee and not right here on the couch in new york. always great to see you. >> i'll be back. >> okay. good. all right. senate majority leader harry reid will unveil a pay roll tax cut compromise today. this is a measure that would matter for every working american. it's a compromise between the duelling plans rejected by the senate last week. no word yet on specifics, but democrats say it includes a serious way to pay the more than $200 billion price tag and, of course, will come up with a solution, working families will see their tax bill increase next year if not. no question. talk about what's going on in california. ten of thousands without power from last week's wind storms in southern california and forecasters warn another blast of high winds could be a big problem this morning, and that's raising big concerns in fire-prone areas, like malibu

and western l.a. 400 firefighters are in position just in case. and good morning, rob. >> in the wake of today and tomorrow, winds not as bad as thursday morning of last week, but with the air drying out and the vegetation drying out, you mentioned, fire fighting an issue. critical fire danger for the next not one but two days leer. low levels of humidity and winds out of the northeast as typical of santa anas. we'll see winds gusting 40 to 60 miles an hour. not much doing right now, unless you get towards san bernardino. later, gusting and calming down this afternoon and again tonight into tomorrow morning and probably see downed trees and power lines. again, not like last wednesday or thursday. most of the weaker trees then were taken out. but like last week, parts of the southern rockies including new mexico will see a decent amount of snow. 14 top 20 inches with a low moving along a slow-moving front

that runs from the great lakes all wait down to dallas. look at snow across the panhandle. sticking to grassy svss. not much in the way of advisories for oklahoma and texas but some snow falling out of the sky there and also a lot of fog across the northeast. i-95 is mild and muggy and ground stops at a number of airports right now including newark, philadelphia, teterboro and white plains, most of which for the mex few minutes, not until 8:00, extended because of the air very stagnant and mild and muggy. 55, high temperature in new york. enjoy the warmth. >> you said newark ground stop? yes? >> ground stop in new york, teterboro and philadelphia. >> flying out of nuewark today? >> yeah. come down to atlanta and see us. >> all right. >> i don't like milk in my tea. just two sugars. >> yes, ma'am. >> thanks, rob. >> lots of hot sauce with her eggs, too, by the way. >> i know.

coming up, a fierce face-off at occupy d.c. police had to bring in a cherry picker to remove some of the proteste protesters. we'll tell you what happened. and a new interview with a disgraced coach jerry sandusky saying prosecutors misrepresented his work with children through the second mile charity he founded. jerry sandusky, in his own words, ahead. then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule! oh, load up the sleigh; this is going to be a great christmas. [ male announcer ] more christmas for your money, guaranteed. ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. [ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪

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welcome back. it was a home invasion in connecticut that shocked 9 nation back in 2007. now jurors return to a courtroom in connecticut today. they'll begin deciding whether a triple murderer will live or die. >> that same jury found joshua komisarjevsky guilty of all 17 charges in the murders of jennifer hawke-petit and her daughters michaela and hailee. >> good morning. this jury, this 12-member jury, will have to agree with each other a total of 600 times, because when they make their decision as to whether joshua komisarjevsky should live or

die, they're going to have to weigh both the aggravating factors supported by the prosecution and the mitigating factors reported by the defense team. the defense team trying to convince the jury in fact joshua komisarjevsky is worthy of staying alive, even if it means staying alive the next 40, 50, 60 years in prison. the defense lawyers tried to portray him as a loving father, they tried to portray him as somebody who has a support system. somebody who was sexually abused as child that led to a whole range of emotional and mental problems, including suicidal behavior, self-destructive behavior, but they say this is a person who's life should be spared. the defense saying josh is a human being. albeit severely damaged, his life has value. on the other hand, prosecutors say this is somebody who created among the heinous of imaginable crime. basically held this family hostage including a mother, a

husband and two daughters. the father, the only one who survived this tragedy. prosecutors say he should be put 20 death. there's really no question about it, in their words, "how many people do you have to kill before the death penalty is appropriate?" is what the jury will be weighing. this has been a very long trial. both with the guilty phase, now the penalty phase. they've got to decide whether in fact the death penalty is appropriate. again, they'll have to agree unanimously 600 times. they've got their work cut out for them. christine, ailelinalina? >> deb feyerick, thanks. and demonstrators given an hour to dismantle an unfinished wooden structure they had built inside the park. >> when they refused, police moved in with a cherry picker. here's athena jones with the details. >> reporter: hi, alina and christine. after more than nine hours and a tense standoff against occupy

d.c. protesters and police came to an end with 31 arrests total throughout the day. it began late morning when police ordered demonstrators to take oun down a structure erected overnight. this said there were safety concerns and it hadn't gone through the proper permitting process. so demonstrators refused to take down the structure. many of them occupying it themselves. some climbing on to the roof where they held on for hours. they led chants with a crowd of demonstrators here who have been camped out in this park since early october. many of the demonstrators in the crowd threw food and water to the people who are on the structure over the course of the day. ultimately, police use add cherry picker, a giant inflatable cushion, two ladders, various ropes and harnesses to get the last protesters off of the roof of the structure. the process of getting these demonstrators off the structure was at times dangerous because of these safety concerns and structural integrity concerns with the building.

at one point you had police warning people to -- warning cohorts to stop because concerns one of the rafter, might break but ultimately were able to get all ever the protesters off the structure. 31 arrests here in this park, mcpherson square a few blocks away from the white house. back to you. >> thanks, athena. athena, alina. tripped me up for a second. an 85-year-old grandmother is considering a lawsuit after allegedly being strip searched at jfk airport. her name, lenore zimmerman, getting ready to fly from new york to ft. leauderdale when traumatized by two female tsa agents. >> ause a defibrillator so i don't go through the machine. i asked them to pat me down. they took my pants down and then they took my underwear down.

do i look like a tear gist i'm going to be 85 years old and i weigh 103 pounds, and they strip searched me. >> lenore says she also suffered a cut on her leg during the search. the tsa denies she was strip searched insisting that proper procedures were followed, but they have apologized to lenore for the "unpleasant screening experience." how sad. >> and the unpleasant public relations that followed for the tsa. >> right. still to come this morning, a celebration gone terribly wrong. ten fans trampled at the oklahoma state football game. hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now. coupons? coupons. coupons? next, you convert coupons to tokens. tokens? then you trade tokens for credits. and then i get the cash? then you call back. bye bye. peggy? hello? what just happened? want rewards that make sense? switch to discover. america's #1 cash rewards program.

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welcome back. "minding your business."

future stocks trading higher following a stellar week last week with u.s. markets up more than 7%. whether the markets continue that run depends on negotiations in the eurozone where leaders are working feverishly to save the euro. pushing europeans markets up overnight, new austerity measures by monte. italian borrowing costs are falling this morning. a good sign that investor are confident that italy is moving in the right direction to balance its budget. the price of all of those unemployment checks here, the labor department says 434 billion dollars spent over the past four years on jobs. a figure sure to be brought up in congress in the weeks ahead as republicans and demming duke it out over whether to extend additional jobless benefits. heating oil expected to rise 10%. unrest in the middle east and libya, to blame.

the average cost for the heaton seizing september how that march, $2,500 according to the government. facebook is hiring new workers. gearing up to go public next year. the company anticipates rapid growth and isexpanding its teamo keep up. can i help you?

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welcome back to "american morning" on a monday. it's 30 minutes part the hour. your top stories now -- a highly classified u.s. stealth drone may now be in the hands of iran. iranian officials say they shot down the drone after it invaded its airspace along the border with afghanistan. american military officials only confirming one of its drones is missing, but maintain they do not fly over iranian airspace. iran is now vowing an aggressive response. >> all right. herman cain may have thrown in the up to but says he's not a quitter. instead insisting he had to get out of the gop race because it's hurting his family. he'll endorse weren't of his former rivals soon. meanwhile, newt gingrich on top of polls in iowa. and gusts of wind in

southern california may reach hurricane force. more power out 567s and damage could be on the way. states like new mexico and colorado could see 10 inches of snow. u.s. investors have their eyes on europe. looking to overcome its crisis. s sarkozy and merkel meeting to talk about a new eu treaty. live in paris, nina, the big question on everyone's mind is, can the euro currency and the countries that use it, can this be saved? >> reporter: yes. that's now become a 1 trillion euro question to answer and one that politicians have been spending the best part of the last six months or so answering. all these rafts of different summits we've seen. going on today, christine what we saw about four months ago when we had these big eu leaders meeting. what we tend to have, two, three days before, the heads of france and also germany, the two

largest economies in this region, meeting before to try to steer the discussions. hammer out a proposal, concrete proposal for solving the crisis. they will put forward towards the other colleagues to ratify. now, what they're going to be talking about today, i must point out, the german chancellor has not let us down on the famed german punctuality. just arrived here in paris in france, about two minutes ago, bang on time for that lunch they'll have and they're going to try to hammer out some kind of proposals for getting these countries, all 17 in the eurozone, to adhere to strict budget discipline. france and germany clashed on exactly how strict those rules should be and indeed how they should be implemented. the hope they can get something in place before the middle of the week and then the end of the week so that eventually perhaps even the european central bank can step in with a whole wad of cash to help solve the problems some of these countries are having, particularly when it comes to financing themselves in

the world's markets. christine? >> incredibly complicated, nina. last week the crisis economist expert said think of it like 17 members of an extended family all sharing the same checking account, but all with different ideas about the rules to use that account, and that's, i guess, bringing it down to the very simplest course. that's what's going on here. nina desantos in paris, thank you. the cash-strapped united states postal service announces a new cost cutting plan. under the proposal, first class mail would no longer be delivered the next day. the agency wants to change its national standard to two to five days from one to three. no word yet when the plan could take effect. the postal service racked up more than $5 billion in debt this year. a new interview with disgraced penn state coach jerry sandusky. the former coach slapped with 40 counts of raping and molesting young boys. the invest gays still ongoing

and sandusky spoke on camera with the "new york times." susan candiotti has the details. >> reporter: in an interview videotaped by the "new york times," jerry sandusky not only repeats his denials of wrongdoing, he tells the paper, youngsters in this second mile program "might say i was a father figure." a father fig here stands accused of 40 counts of raping and molesting young boys. a few weeks ago, nbc's bob costas asks sandusky whether he sexually is attracted to young boys. >> am i sexually attracted to und underaged boys? >> yes. >> sexually attracted? i enjoy young we'll. >> reporter: the former coach tells the "new york times" he wondered what to make of the question. then, in an intriguing exchange and apparently uncomfortable sandusky tries to explain his answer. off camera you'll hear the voice of sandusky's lawyer prompting his client. >> if i say, no, i'm not attracted to boys, that's not the truth, because i'm attracted

to young people, boys, girls -- >> yeah, but not sexually. >> right. i enjoy -- that's what i was trying to say. i enjoy spending time with young people. i enjoy spending time with people. i mean, my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young. >> reporter: and attorney who represents victim number six named in the grand jury report, the boy whose mother came forward in 1998 saying sandusky had showered with her son and hugged him maked from behind says the accused coach's latest explanations are hard to watch. >> his answer was really no different, frankly, than the answer that he gave before, and the sad part from his perspective, if we want to look at it from that perspective, is his lawyer had to intervene and give him advice as to how to answer that question. he won't have that luxury in the courtroom. >> reporter: sandusky add mitsz after banned from taking young people on to penn state the main

campus, 23 following a 2002 allegation he rape add boy in the shower hi still had access. tim curley never took away his keys. still had my keys and still went in there and worked out. >> any allegation that these men are making any of this up is really weak, and if that is all that he has in terms of his defense, she going to have a really rough going in the courts. >> reporter: sandusky again denies that then head coach joe paterno ever mentioned anything to him about the 2002 shower allegation. sandusky faces a preliminary hearing in a couple of weeks. among the expected witnesses, at least one of his accusers. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. all right. 37 minutes past the hour. what's new this morning, only hours ago we learned wikileaks founder julian assange won his chance to appeal against his extradition from the uk to

sweden. he'll make his case to britain's supreme court. assange is want ford questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. he's accused of sexually assaulting two women back in 2010. vice president joe biden is in greece. he'll meet today with that country's president and the new prime minister lucas pop dame ow pop dame moos. and unveiling a pay roll compromise plan between the duelling plans rejected last week by the senate. no word yet on the specifics but democrat say it includes a serious way to pay the more than $ 200 billion price tag. a move that affects every person in america. and fans, thousands, rushed on to the field following the oklahoma/oklahoma state football game. the cowboys beat the archrival sooners 44-10. two of the victims had to be

airlifted to local hospitals. a new leak of radioactive water in japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant. 12,000 gallons of contaminated water found gushing from the fast. the plant's operator say some of that tainted water may have leaked into the pacific association. according to preliminary election results in russia, prime minister vladimir putin's party is winning, barely hanging on to the majority. the party stands to lose many of the 300 seats currently held in parliament. a crackdown in protesters. about 100 arrested in moscow. and southwestern japan -- wow. he may have just witnessed the costliest car crash in history. eight ferraris, a lamborghini, mercedes, all involved in a pileup. part of a luxury sports cart car event. total damage, $3.8 million. >> wow.

>> i'm actually surprised it's not a little bit more. unbelievable. and tyke a loake a look at . panda deploeksy. two giant pant da bears arriveds an act of goodwill. sweetie and sunshine, their names. britain's first breeding pandas in 17 years. what an attraction. >> i love it. still to come, iran promising an aggressive response after claiming it shot down and unmanned american spy drone. what the u.s. military is saying, ahead. and she has a new album in the work, a big screen project, now word madonna could be taking the stage during football's biggest night. you're watching "american morning." it's 40 minutes after the hour. i love the holidays. and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i love 'em even more. i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries.

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welcome back. iran is promising an aggressive response after claiming its military shot down an unmanned u.s. spy drone along its border with afghanistan. the iranians also warning washington not to block their

oil exports insisting such a move, they say, the irans say, that would more than double the price of crude. let's bring in jim, director of the progressive policy institute's national security project, joining us live from washington this morning. good morning. >> good morning. thank you very much for having me. >> so this drone is reportedly the same model that flew stealth missions over bin laden's hideout. never deshgted. flying a mission over western afghanistan. do you really think this was a mission maybe to hunt for hidden nuclear sites in iran? >> look, maybe it was. maybe it wasn't. the important takeaway from this is that whether it was shot done or whether as the u.s. military claims, it lost control and went down of its own volition, the important thing, iranians now have a sensitive piece of american technology in their hand and they'll exploit it.

i hope there's a self-destruct button to it. >> they knew they were losing control. certainly hope in was a self-destruct button. the chinese, for example, are aggressive consumers on the black market for american center and stealth technology. >> absolutely. it doesn't matter what sort of piece of technology you're talking about, whenever there's a piece of proprietary u.s. technological information you don't want it to end up in the hands of iran, china or anyone else. >> for people who aren't following this, an explosion at a major missile testing site in iran last month. nuclear scientists have been assassinated on the streets of tehran and a computer virus last year. is there sort of a covert war already going on with iran? >> there is certainly very likely covert actions undertaken by the united states and its allies. that's not the point. we're not in an over war yet and something the united states want to avoid at any costs. the best way to avoid that at this point, continually ratchet up sanctions. make sure there's pressure on the iranian regime, this

amendment that just passed the united states senate, 100-0 in an area when congress can't agree on anything, bipartisan n unanimous support. making it difficult for iranians to sell oil on the international market. you mentioned in the intro the fact that oil, the iranian officials claim oil will go to $250 a barrel. i think this is pretty much an exaggeration, because any supply taken off the world market can be increased by increasing production in saudi arabia, libya's going to come online and iraq. the important point to remember, if you want to avoid an over war you've got to continue the pressure on iranians through ever-increasing targeted and layered sanctions. >> how do the sanctions work? the white house said it is concerned about higher oil prices and careful how its handling iran. >> sure. the united states is being very careful. the obama administration has

done very good, very tough up to this point, the obama administration led several rounds of sanctions against the iranian regime. in this case we wanted to be careful to not give the iranians a windfall, but at the end of the day i think the claim that oil prices are going to skyrocket is based on scare tactics. >> so much attention in this country myopic, to be honest with you. the race for the republican side, jobs. tensions rising between the west and iran, we've seen, as we're focused inward. haven't we? >> no doubt about it. of course. at a point when we see the gop talking in debates about michele bachmann, for example, said something along the lines of pakistan, you know, the best -- we have to treat pakistan different because they have a bomb. let me tell you, as think per teens pertains to iran, a bad signal, if they get a nuclear bomb, the

united states has it treat you differently. in the case of iran, we want to be aggressive to be sure we don't get to that point and have to consider a bunch of very bad policy options. >> we don't get to the overt point. one final question. do you see a scenario? inside israel there's a very vigorous discussion about whether there should be some sort of action against iran. a full military strike on iran, for example. would that be something we see? >> would it be something we see in terms of before they go ahead and do it? >> no, no. would -- is that something that's possible? on the table? >> oh, yeah. of course. of course it's on the table. there's a vigorous discussion as you said, israeli prime minister netanyahu and pushing a discussion towards possible military action against iran. there are some former security officials who come out publicly against it. the issue is that israel is a sovereign state and going to make the choices that it feels best protected security. that's why it's so important to push sanctions now so we don't have to get to that point.

>> to your question about my question, you don't think they would ask the u.s. for a green light? >> no, not necessarily. like i said, israel makes its own security decisions with the context it sees and has to make those choices. >> certainly the heat is rising. i wonder what that aggressive response could be from the iranians at this point? progressive policy institutes national security project. thank you so much, jim. a lot of ps in there. have a good morning and good week. talk about big news in sports. tiger woods is back in the winner's circle after a two-year drought. he rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the final stroke yesterday. a one-stroke victory over zach johnson in the zchevron world challenge in california. something you haven't seen in a while. look at that. it's official. the nfl says madonna will be the featured performer at this year's super bowl halftime show. she's 53 years old. can you believe it? the material girl will collaborate and perform with

cirque du soleil. super bowl xlvi is february 5th in indianapolis. >> don't you think she has a body of a 33-year-old? >> looks amazing. not an ounce there that isn't like, worked, i'm sure. >> lots of pilates? what does she do? >> yoga, also eats very well. she stays very fit. looks amazing. still to come this morning, yeah. it's gift-giving time. your wallet isn't feeling the holiday cheer. i'm going to not be too bah-hum-buggy here. how to put santa on a budget. >> put santa on scrooge budget and still be happy for the holidays. >> something i want to hear. are you having a hard time quitting smokes? blame mom and dad? that's right. a new study finds that genetics may play a big roll in nicotine addiction. and "roman's numeral's" $934. here's a hint. how much you could stand to lose next year if congress doesn't s

to lose if congress doesn't act soon. it's 50 minutes after the hour. ♪ [ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪ [ malennounc ] at northrop grumman, makthworld a feplace. th's value performance.

northr gruan. 51 347b9 minutes after the hour. newt gingrich surging to the top of the gop heap in iowa. a new nbc news poll shows that the former house speaker is leading with 26%. mitt romney trails behind at 18%. another blast of wintry

weather is expected in parts of the west through tomorrow night. another high wind warning is in effect for southern california. gusts could reach hurricane force. officials warn that more power outages and damage could be on the way. wikileaks founder julian asange will be allowed to appeal his extradition. he'll make his case to britain's supreme court. he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. vladimir putin pounded in russia's election. his party clinging to a slim majority in parliament. they could lose 60 seats. 100 election protesters were arrested in moscow. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back after this. ♪

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[ electronic beeping ] [ male announcer ] still getting dandruff? neutrogena® t/gel shampoo defeats dandruff after just one use. t/gel shampoo. it works. neutrogena®. welcome back. time for your a.m. house call. researchers may have found a link between certain genes and adhd. the genes that have been pinpointed transmit signals between the neurons and the brain. the study found that at least 10% of children with adhd had defects in these brain signalling pathways. researchers say drugs that target these genes could be a treatment option. if you're having trouble quitting smoking, listen up.

a new study finds that genetics may be linked to nicotine addiction. that's right. blame mom and dad for that pack a day habit. the study says new medications could be developed to help hard core smokers. smoking kills more than 400,000 americans every year. all right. this morning's "romans' numeral," a number in the news today, and my number today is $934. >> you already told me the answer. >> it's how much the average worker gets from the payroll tax holiday. accord 121 families have benefited over the past year from this tax break. and moody's says that letting the tax cut expire would reduce our economic growth by about half a percent. so folks, what congress does about this is important, because it is scheduled to expire at the end of the year. democrats and republicans agree on an extension of the tax holiday, but they disagree on how to pay for it. so you have a little bit of a $200 billion dispute going on right now that would affect every single working american family.

>> there is a compromise plan coming out today. we'll see whether that makes any difference. meanwhile, you're a retail fashionista. you know the retail world. >> so you say, yes. >> retailers and banks want us to spend as much money as we possibly can. they want us to party like it's 2005. and forget all of those little things that happened with overconsumption. credit cards are making a comeback, and it's working. more customers are paying with credit, a far cry from past years when shoppers opted for cash or debit cards. on black friday, 7% more consumers paid with credit cards than last year. banks are doing everything they can to get you to pull out the plastic. credit card mailings surging 85% in the past year. meanwhile, debit card reward programs are getting the ax. so cash or credit, americans, you and me, all of us, being encouraged to spend lots of money for the holidays. the national retail federation says you'll probably spend about $704. but with the debt crisis

sweeping the globe, where is that money coming from? and have we learned nothing? >> you see the numbers about how much money people are spending for the holidays, and it reminds you when people had expensive cars in the driveway, boats, fancy vacations. you wondered, how are they affording all of this? and we seem to be back in that situation. the fundamental situation here is that real income after inflation has been flat for the last year or maybe even down a tiny little bit. >> that means you have to be very careful about putting new debt on their credit cards. people say they want to be good spenders. 42% of you plan to spend less this year according to a new bankrate.com poll, but the road to debt is paved with good intentions. >> there's a lot of data to show there's a disconnect between what people say they are going to do and what they actually do. even when people say i intend to pay off my credit card balances, they typically don't pay them off. that's why we've got about 15 million people right now in 2011 who haven't paid off their holiday shopping bills from 2010. >> people who haven't paid off

from 2010 who are going to put more debt on their credit card. don't be that person. a few smart things to consider before you spend a dime. if you can't afford it, put it down, right? make a budget. it sounds so simple. but simply make a list. think about what you want to buy, and why, and then stick to it. you are smarter than the retail tricks. use technology. comparison shop online. use coupon codes. and never buy into the hype that these are the lowest prices that you're going to see. they're going to get lower. take a time-out. if you see something on your list that you want to buy, wait 48 hours and go back later. you would be surprised how often the urge fades with time. and let's say your cost center is crying for that sold-out leap pad, a little toy advice. shop in person, on fridays, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. that's when toy stores restock for the weekend. so that's when you're going to have the best chance of getting that. did you know that? >> that's a good tip. i did not. i'm not in a lot of toy stores. >> everybody wants this leap

pad. so i'm saying if there's one thing that you really must get, and you can afford it -- >> what's that? >> it's like an ipad for kids. but for all of you parents who have been asking how to get it, 5:00 to 7:00 at the toy store on fridays. >> that 48-hour rule i think really works. >> totally works. >> and make the list. i'm one of those people that i say i'm going to spend less this year, and i spend the same. still to come this morning, iran talking tough after claiming its military shot down an unmanned u.s. spy drone. details are coming up. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader.

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morning. and at least 10 people hurt when fans stormed the field at the end of a college football game. a big celebration turning into a very big scare. on this "american morning." good morning. it's monday, december 5. you have newt gingrich on top of the polls in iowa, and the political field all shifting up. >> and a possible endorsement coming from herman cain. and a lot of news from overseas. but first, a u.s. stealth drone filled with top secret information may now be in the hands of iran. iranian officials are claiming that they shot down the drone after it invaded its air space. >> we have reaction from the pentagon on the implications of losing such a drone. we begin with barbara starr. good morning. >> good morning. the pentagon not saying a whole lot about all of this. iran saying it shot down a drone over the border with afghanistan, and they are

issuing a lot of statements about all of this. what kind of drone is it? this is something called an r q170. that's what the iranians say they have in their hands, the wreckage. this is a stealth drone. it was developed for the air force. it conducts intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance missions to provide information for hitting targets. but do they really have it? so far, the u.s. military through the command in afghanistan is only issuing a statement saying this, and i quote, the uav to which the iranians are referring may be a u.s. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western afghanistan late last week. the operators of the uav lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status. so where are we? the iranians say they shot it down. the u.s. says, yes, they lost flight control of a uav late last week. they do not know where it went. but clearly, they suspect now

that this is the wreckage the iranians are talking about. the u.s. not saying it was shot down, only that it was lost. not saying that it was an rq-170, because of course it is one of the most classified, highly important intelligence assets that the u.s. has. and if the iranians have the wreckage, the u.s. knows it's not getting it back. christine, alina? >> is it likely that the u.s. is flying missions with that drone over iran and not just along the border? >> i think it's very unlikely. according to sources we have spoken to that they would risk flying anything into iranian air space because of this very issue. certainly no manned aircraft, with no pilots. unmanned, these are very sophisticated intelligence platforms, if you will. they don't want to risk a mechanical failure like they might have had here and have anything go down in iranian air space. they were probably flying it over gwynafghanistan close to t

border, looking for convoys of illegal weapons. that's a major intelligence issue out on that border. and they can still fly in afghanistan and use their sensors to see into iran. they don't even need to be over iranian air space. so i think it's very unlikely they were flying over iran directly. >> thanks, barbara. let's bring in nick robertson right now live from london. >> and the big question is just how big of a deal is this, and what exactly could iran do with this type of technology from a classified drone? >> well, potentially, it's a very big deal not just for the united states but for its allies as well. the attractive nature of drones is that they are cheap to operate, cheap to build. they are a less sort of political consequences associated with losing them. you're not going to lose a pilot over enemy territory. but the big concern is, what happens if one falls into the hands of a nation that is known to be a state sponsor of terror? and iran does fall into that category. if you look back in 2006 when

hezbollah, a client of iran, fought a war against israel, hezbollah were using drones in 2006 over israel. and the analysis is they were probably getting help with that from iran. iran has a very advanced drone technology program. so iran would be looking to gather whatever intelligence, whatever help it can get, in developing this technology. so if it does have this aircraft, it will be looking at what kind of optical sensors does it have, how many cameras, how strong were those lenses. what other senses? did this aircraft have an ability to sniff nuclear particles in the air? this is the sort of thing iran will be looking at. and if iran isn't able to use this technology itself, there's a fear that it might sell it to somebody like china. and this would be the second incident of significance this year with sort of stealth technology. we all remember the helicopter that crashed in osama bin laden's compound in pakistan. the assessment there is that pakistan likely sold that very sensitive technology to china. so these are the bigger issues

that are coming out of this right now. >> nick, we know how sensitive this technology is, and barbara starr has reported that handlers of this drone knew that there was a problem before it actually went down. so is there a self-destruct button, something that can make sure that if it does crash, that there isn't a lot of technology that can be stolen and sold on the black market? >> when that helicopter, the stealth helicopter, went down in bin laden's compound, it was destroyed afterwards, because a lot of the components in there we didn't want to fall into anyone else's hands. there's been a lot of discussion about these type of stealth aircraft. do they have that technology aboard? we don't know. there is only really one photograph that we're aware of that exists that was taken at kandahar airfield sort of on a long lens. it's very grainy and hard to make out. there are very few details we know publicly about this. but the loss could prove to be very, very expensive. and you would hope and expect there would be a self-destruct

mechanism. there's a period here -- and we don't know the details of how this went down. was it shot down? there's a period when these drone aircraft are coming in to land, they switch from satellite control, probably being controlled from somewhere in the united states, to local control from the ground. did the iranians manage to break into that signalling technology? that would be a huge worry as well. there are so many unanswered questions. we just don't have many details at the moment. >> interesting. all right, nick robertson live for us in london. nick, thank you very much. back in this country, another high wind warning is in effect for southern california. gusts may reach hurricane force. officials there are warning that more power outages and damage could be on the way. meantime, some states like new mexico and colorado could see about 10 inches of snow. >> and snow is something rob marciano loves to talk about. >> who doesn't love it? a lot of people don't like it. >> good morning, rob. >> good morning, guys. and it's all driven by a really intense cold air mass that's bringing some serious

temperatures well below 0 in some sports of the northern midwest. this guy moving to the south. and this is one of the ingredients of a separate system last week that created that wind across parts of southern utah and california and nevada. we'll have santa anas that will kick up 60, 65 mile an hour wind gusts not out of the question. there are some trees that were damaged from the last go. these winds won't be as intense as they were last week, but again enough trees that were potentially damaged and a lot of debris on the ground that may cause some problems. not only today, but tomorrow we have critical fire danger as well. and near blizzard conditions across parts of new mexico. in some cases, we could see 10-20 inches of snow. western parts of dallas, parts of southern oklahoma as well. some of it accumulating, mostly on grassy surfaces. not necessarily on the roadways. and a subtropical train of moisture getting into the great lakes. this is not moving quickly to

the east, and because of that we have the threat for flooding today. memphis is the bull's-eye, 2-4 inches of rainfall. maybe more than that. and then heading towards cincinnati and cleveland, some rainfall as well. fog, the other issue across parts of the northeast with the mugginess and the warm temperatures. we have ground stops at some of the airports. philadelphia, teterboro and jfk reporting delays. just be aware of that if you are traveling, christine. for your trip down here later on thfr an. >>. >> everything is ok for now. >> how did you sleep, rob? >> saturday was good. sunday not so much, you know? and full disclosure. my mother-in-law came in last week for a few days. and we want you back, please. [ laughter ] >> that would help. >> you never love your in-laws and your own parents more than when you have a brand-new baby. >> big help. >> rob, thank you. newt gingrich now surging to the top of the gop field in iowa. he is opening up some breathing room on the rest of the candidates too. take a look at this new nbc

poll. the former house speaker leading in iowa with 26%. mitt romney in second with 18%. ron paul in third with 17%. now to the courting of herman cain. the candidate suspended his presidential campaign on saturday. you would have to live under a rock if you didn't know that. >> he was unable to overcome allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year extramarital affair. now his former rivals are scrambling for a possibly game-changing endorsement. paul steinhauser is live in washington for us. paul, the big question is, how important is a cain endorsement, and who might he endorse and when could it come? >> it could come as early as this week. you know, cain said he would endorse and he would do it before the iowa caucuses. that's what he said on saturday. could it help? it could help. cain still has support in iowa, the first state to vote, and that's just over four weeks away. some speculation it's newt gingrich. gingrich on saturday went in front of cameras and said some

very nice things about his fellow georgia resident. and there's some speculation that maybe it could be today. gingrich did add a news coconference today in new york city. but we are getting some pushback against that. no idea what that news conference is about. regardless, we kept an eye on cain to see when or if he would drop it. this week, we're keeping an eye out to see when and who we will endorse. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> reporter: but he promises he'll still make an impact in the race for the presidential nomination. >> i will be making an endorsement in the near future. >> reporter: new front-runner newt gingrich was quick to compliment cain. >> i think he deserves a great deal of credit for having had the courage to run, for having the courage to have big ideas and say them in a way that many millions of americans found them very, very positive.

>> reporter: many tea party activists liked cain, and two candidates with support from the grassroots conservative movement hope cain voters come their way. >> they're going to go somewhere in the next week or so. that's going to happen. i'm optimistic that we'll pick up some votes from there. >> herman cain supporters have been calling our office, and they have been coming over to our side. i think part of that is because people see that i'm the tea party candidate in the race. they saw herman cain as an outsider. and i think they see that my voice will be the one that would be most reflective of his. >> reporter: cain was slipping in the polls. he went from 23% support in late october to just 8% in a new des moines register survey of likely caucus goers in iowa, the first eight to vote in the gop nomination. his remains supporters may go to a bunch of the candidates but who may benefit the most is gingrich. he now stands at 28% in a new poll in iowa, with the former massachusetts governor mitt romney and congressman ron paul

of texas each at 19%. and gingrich holds that 1:45 news conference in new york city, and before that, he meets with donald trump at trump tower. he becomes the fifth republican presidential candidate to meet with trump. and remember earlier this year trump himself was flirting with a white house bid. and one note to rob marciano. i have an 11-month-old. and it gets better. she is sleeping through the night now. >> paul, you can't tell people that. it makes them not like you as much. still say, you have to get up every three hours. fans stampede the field at a college football game. at least 10 people were hurt. some with broken bones. why the celebration was short lived. we'll tell you what happened. and u.s. soldiers finally out of iraq and into the arms of loving family. the happy homecoming ahead. 15 minutes after the hour. ♪ captain, we have to keep going!

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welcome back. it's 18 minutes after the hour. it was a scary scene. take a look. hundreds of fans, possibly thousands, storming the field at the end of saturday's oklahoma-oklahoma state college football game. at least 10 people were injured, and school officials say there was little anyone could do to control the crowd. paul worthheimer is the president and founder of crowd management strategy. he is joining us live from los angeles. good morning to you, paul. when you look at that video, how do you think it got so out of control? >> well, i think it got out of control because ohio -- excuse me -- oklahoma state university did not have a plan to try to mitigate this situation from developing. something that's known to occur at high profiled events. >> but there were, you know, some 58,000 people in the stands. oklahoma state did release a

statement saying that they made an announcement over the p.a. system. now students laughed about that. but they did say that they did all that they could. and given the crowds that there was little anyone could do. and when you look at that, i have to say, you know, thousands of people storming the field, what can you do? >> well, when you start at the moment of distress, there's not a lot you can do. having a policy is good. but policies have to be enforced. and there have to be penalties. >> what should they have done? >> they should have started earlier in the year. you know, they ran promotions at the university saying fans need to be rowdy this 2011 football season. there was a lot of hype. they need to educate fans before games. they need to have policies and procedures in place that take into consideration the possibility that fans will want to rush the field.

and the fans need to be told what may occur. you know, it's not just the people who were anti-social and broke the rules and rushed the field. it's also the people in the stands who were injured by those who broke the rule. and the university needs to protect, as all universities do, those people as well. >> so what about the people who were injured? at least 10 people injured. two people air lifted. at least two with ankle fractures. do they have any recourse here? could the university be held responsible? >> i'm not a lawyer. i don't know. but i assume some of those injured will pursue that avenue. >> you know, you just look at these pictures, and they really are extraordinary. you know, i have read somewhere that some experts say that there should be one security person for every 250 spectators. to me, that doesn't seem like enough. when you look at that there, and what happened, i mean, do you

think there was enough security there in the stands to handle this? or is this a situation of just too little, too late? >> well, you're right. one security person for every 250 is not enough for this type of event. oklahoma state university adheres to the national fire protection association standard that says that's the minimum per person. and at a regular kind of event. but there should have been more security. eyewitnesss tell the media that there was hardly any security on the field. this was a time for police officers to be on the field. they are much better -- a very persuasive symbol for people who want to break the law, makes them think twice. >> right. paul wortheimer, thank you so much for joining us. >> you're welcome, alina. thank you. >> christine?

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it's 25 minutes after the hour. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures trading sharply higher this morning after a stellar week. last week, u.s. markets were up more than 7%. whether that continues depends on whether the eurozone leaders can get the region's debt crisis under control. stock futures now all higher. pushing european markets up overnight, the unveiling of new austerity measures by italy. borrowing costs are falling, and

that's a good sign that investors are confident the country is moving in the right direction. the u.s. post office will announce a new cost-cutting plan this morning. next stage delivery for first class mail would be scrapped and the new standard delivery time would be 3-5 days instead of 1-3. no word yet on when the plan could take effect. another big weekend at the box office for the latest "twilight" movie, "breaking down part one." after topping sales for the third weekend in a row, the vampire movie now has brought in more than $247 million so far in the u.s. up next, why this freeway crash in japan has car lovers everywhere cringing. we're back after the break. nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers? tylenol: me, too. and nasal congestion. nyquil:what? tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him.

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welcome back to "american morning." it's 30 minutes past the hour. i'm alina cho. christine romans is off to catch a flight to atlanta. time for top stories.

a highly classified u.s. stealth drone may be in the hands of iran. iranian officials say they shot down a drone after it invaded its air space along the board wear afghanistan. american military officials only confirms one of its drones is missing, but maintain they do not fly over iranian air space. iran is now vowing an aggressive response. herman cain suspending his presidential campaign, but he says he's not a quitter. insisting he had to get out of a gop race because of all the pain it was causing his family. the former candidate says he'll be endorsing one of his former rivals soon. another high wind warning is in effect for southern california. gusts may reach hurricane force. officials warn that more power outages and damage could be on the way. meanwhile, some states like new mexico and colorado could see 10 inches of snow. a new interview with disgraced penn state coach jerry sandusky. the former coach slapped with 40 counts of raping and molesting young boys. the investigation still ongoing.

sandusky spoke on camera with "the new york times." cnn's susan candiotti has details. >> reporter: in an interview videotaped by "the new york times," jerry sandusky not only repeats his denials of wrongdoing, he tells the paper youngsters in his second mile program, quote, might say i was a father figure. a father figure who stands accused of 40 counts of raping and molesting young boys. a few weeks ago, nbc's bob costas asked sandusky whether he is sexually attracted to young boys. >> am i sexually attracted to underaged boys? >> yes. >> sexually attracted? you know, i enjoy young people. >> reporter: the former coach tells "the new york times" at first he wondered what to make of the question. then, in an intriguing exchange, and apparently an uncomfortable sandusky tries to explain his answer. off camera, you'll hear the voice of sandusky's lawyer prompting his client. >> if i say no, i'm not attracted to boys, that's not

the truth, because i am attracted to young people, boys, girls. >> yeah, but not sexually. you're attracted because you enjoy spending time. >> yeah. that's what i was trying to say. i enjoy spending time with young people. i enjoy spending time with people. my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young. >> reporter: an attorney who represents victim number six, named in the grand jury report, the boy whose mother came forward in 1998 saying sa sandusky had showered with her son, says the accused coach's latest explanations are hard to watch. >> his answer was really no different frankly than the answer that he gave before. and the sad part from his perspective, if you want to look at it from that perspective, that his lawyer had to intervene and give him some advice as to how to answer that question. he won't have that luxury in a courtroom. >> reporter: sandusky admits that after he was banned from taking young people onto penn state's main campus following a

2002 allegation that he raped a boy in a locker room, he still had access. sandusky told the paper then athletic director tim curly never took away his keys. quote, i still have my keys, sandusky said, and i still went in there and worked out. >> any argument that these men now are making any of this up is really weak. and if that is all that he has in terms of his defense, he is going to have really rough going in the courts. >> reporter: sandusky again denies that then head coach joe paterno ever mentioned anything to him about the 2002 shower allegation. sandusky faces a preliminary hearing in a couple of weeks. among the expected witnesses, at least one of his accusers. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. now to that gruesome connecticut home invasion that shocked the nation back in 2007. when jurors return to a courtroom in connecticut today,

they will begin deciding whether a triple murderer will live or die. that same jury found guilty the murderer. deb, good morning. >> good morning, aleen a. this jury really has its work cut out for it. you have to think about this. the 12 men and women will have to say yes a total of 600 times for him to receive the death penalty. they heard a lot of testimony for people in support of the defendant. the defense trying to portray him as a loving father to a 9-year-old daughter. somebody who sought custody and actually supported her financially that. they describe him as having a support system. although he didn't have a happy childhood, at least his mom, dad, and sister all of them are backing him. they also tried to make the point that he suffers from

mental problems, mood disorders, and the key factor, they tried to show that in fact he was not the one who was ultimately responsible for the deaths of some of those in the house. and that is going to be key. that's one of the things that the jurors will have to weigh. the prosecutors really put it on the table. they said, look, what he did, holding this family hostage and then setting fire to the home, a blaze that killed the two daughters and burned the mother to death, well, they said, this is a cruel -- it's a heinous crime, and there is no other sentence besides death. prosecution closing by saying this was seven hours of horror that ended in a hellish inferno. so a lot before the jury. likely to take several days before they come back. but then again, you never know. it could be quick. they could say it's a lock. alina? >> all right. deb, thank you. also new this morning, only hours ago wikileaks founder

julian assange won his chance to appeal against his extradition from the uk to sweden. he'll make his case to britain's supreme court. assange is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. he is accused of sexually assaulting two women in 2010. an 85-year-old grandmother from long island says she's considering filing a lawsuit against the tsa after allegedly being strip searched at jfk airport. her name is le-nora zimmerman. she was getting ready to fly from new york to fort lauderdale last tuesday when she says she was traumatized by two female agents. >> i have a defibrillator, so i don't go through the machines. i ask them to pat me down. they took my pants down, and then they took my underwear down. don't i look like a terrorist? i'm going to be 85 years old, and i weigh 103 pounds. and they strip searched me. >> lenora says she also suffered a cut on her leg during the

search. the tsa denies she was strip searched but have apologized to her for the, quote, unpleasant screens experience. harry reid will unveil a compromise plan today, a compromise between the plans rejected last week. democrats say it includes a serious way to pay the more than $200 billion price tag. a new leak of radioactive water at japan's crippled fukushima nuclear plant, some 12,000 gallons of contaminated water found gushing from a purification facility. the plant's operator says some of the tainted water may have leaked into the pacific ocean. get a load of this in southwestern japan. they may have just witnessed the costliest car crash in history. eight ferraris, three lamb geni in a pileup. total damage, $3.8 million.

and call it panda diplomacy. two giant panda bears arrived in scotland yesterday. china is loaning the bears to the zoo for 10 years as an act of goodwill. they will become britain's first breeding pandas in 17 years. and what an attraction. still to come this morning, home for the holidays. american heroes finally in the arms of their loved ones. cnn goes in depth on the final hours of the iraq war. we're back after this. it's 39 minutes after the hour. what's next? 607 franklin st. ♪ sea bass... ♪ ooohhh! ♪ i like it. yeah, i love the kitchen. [ male announcer ] the epa-estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from looking for your perfect home to finding it.

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♪ ♪ i met this girl when i was 3 years old ♪ >> take a look outside of our studios in new york. it's 38 and cloudy. going up to a high of 59 degrees today. the early part of december. hard to believe. welcome back, everybody. good morning to you. all this week, cnn goes in depth examining the final hours of the iraq war. thousands of u.s. soulders have already come home to spend the holidays with their loved ones, arriving at military bases here in the united states like ft.

hood in texas. our chris lawrence was there for some tearful reunions. he joins us live from the pentagon this morning. >> this one was extra special, because in the past it was always a matter of when, not if, a lot of these troops will be going back to iraq. this time they know there is no going back. and as one wife and mother told me, after nearly a year of being the taxi shuttle for the kids, of being good cop and bad cop, sure is going to be nice to have her husband home. >> dismissed. >> reporter: at the first glimpse of her father in nearly a year, alexandria showed us just how fast a 14-year-old can move. she started high school while her dad was gone. her mom had to do everything alone. >> it has been a very long 10 months. glad it's over. >> reporter: is there any way to describe how it feels to have your dad back after so long? >> no.

it's good. >> reporter: what did you miss most about him? >> he was like my best friend. so, yeah. >> reporter: now you have your best friend back? >> yeah. i have more of a bond with him than anything. so yeah. >> reporter: enjoy your time. the last few hours of waiting were the toughest. then, the planeful of soldiers finally landed, and the troops got a welcome home fit for rock stars. christmas wishes were answered. their time in iraq finished. for sergeant major eric frey, it's very sweet. >> in one sense, i feel happy that it's over with and we're getting all of our service members out. but then you look back at the sacrifices that our soldiers have made, and our family members have made. >> reporter: both in blood and money. at one point, the u.s. was

spending $5,000 per second in iraq. the war took nearly 4,500 american lives. and 32,000 troops came home wounded. but these are some of the last americans to leave iraq, and they won't be going back. >> this is my third deployment. first one with both of these guys. and it was a lot harder. but it just makes it that much sweeter coming home. >> there's a little over 10,000 american troops still left in iraq, but that number is literally changing by the hour. once they get back, the troops will go through a couple of days of reintegration, learning how to be home again, how to interact with their families. and then they are going to get about 30 days leave to just kick back, relax with their families, and let it all sink in that they're done with iraq. >> just 30 days? that's it? >> yeah. >> after all of that? chris, you know, i find it interesting last how are you were talking about how there's a mixture of troops who will either stay in the military or leave the service. but some are staying in because of the economy. right?

>> that's right. i mean, really, when you talk to some of these troops, it really runs the gamut. there are a lot of guys who are going to miss combat. that's the reason they went into the military. they joined during the wars, and they really want to go and fight. a couple of people i talked to over the weekend said, even though iraq is done, they were hoping to get an afghanistan deployment before that conflict wraps up. others were looking to leave. but because the economy in the civilian sector is so bad right now, they are thinking maybe it's better to just re-up for another four years, wait it out, and see how things play out and see if the civilian economy is even better four years from now. >> right. christine made a point that all of these troops are coming home, and there aren't any jobs for them at home. and so it makes sense that they would stay in for another four. all right, chris lawrence. thank you so much for bringing us those heart-warming reunions. tis the season for shopping and for shoplifting. one in every 11 people who walks

into a store will steal at least one item. we're going to take a look at what these thieves are taking, coming up.

u.s. markets open in 45 minutes from now and are poised to open higher following a week when u.s. markets were up more than 7%.

herman cain suspending his campaign, insisting he had to get out of the gop race because of all the pain it was causing his family. he says he'll be endorsing one of his former rivals soon. another blast of wintry weather is expected in parts of the west through tomorrow night. and a high wind warning is in effect for southern california. gusts could reach hurricane force. officials warn more power outages and damage could be on the way. wikileaks founder julian assange will be allowed to appeal against his extradition from the uk to sweden. he'll make his case to britain's supreme court. assange is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. according to preliminary election results in russia, prime minister vladimir putin's party is winning, but barely hanging on to its majority. his party stands to lose many of the 300 seats it currently holds in parliament. in italy, working to end its budget crisis. new prime minister mario monte presenting a huge proposal before part amt today.

a whopping $30 billion euros or $41 billion u.s. in spending cuts and new taxes. democrats will propose a compromise plan to extend the payroll tax cut today. the chairman of the senate budget committee says it includes a, quote, serious way to pay the more than $200 billion price tag. a cash-strapped united states postal service will announce a new cost-cutting plan this morning. under the plan, first class mail would no longer be delivered the next day. the agency wants to change its national standard to 2-5 days from 1-3. that's the news you need to know to start your day. "american morning" is back after this.

welcome back. it's 52 minutes after the hour. u.s. investors have their eyes on europe this week. the european union is working to overcome its debt crisis. french president nicolas sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel are meeting in paris this morning to talk about the possibility of a new eu treaty, and it couldn't come at a more important time. cnn's nina desanto is live in paris for us. could we be seeing french francs again, or can the euro be saved? >> reporter: that's a big question, isn't it, alina? probably a trillion dollar question at this point. the reality is a lot of the economists have been saying that the euro will still be around for a number of years to come. it's just completely inconceivable seeing that 15 countries share the currency having to reprint their own money. it would be fraught with difficulties and bear all sorts of costs. they'd have to set up their own central banks.

it would be a total disaster. for the moment, it seems as though that would be jumping the gun a little bit. but what they are trying to do of course is divert a disaster before the end of the year. we know that some very senior people in brussels have been saying that realistically at this point we only have about five days left to hammer out legislation to shore up confidence in the single currency and also the european union as a whole. now angela merkel of germany and nicolas sarkozy of france being the heads of the two biggest economies in the eurozone are hoping that they are going to be able to get the rest to agree to balance the budgets once and for all, to try and shore up confidence in the region and perhaps, alina, even then we could see the european central bank having the confidence to try and buy more bonds, to bring down the borrowing costs for the troubled countries like for

instance italy, greece, spain, et cetera. all right. we know you'll be watching it for us. nina dos santos live for us in paris. thank you so much. it's the season for giving, and apparently stealing. up next, we have the top three lists of stolen goods, and you won't believe what made the cut. wait for it. we'll be back with it after this. it's 54 minutes after the hour. [ elevator bell dings ]

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the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ ♪ just another manic monday ♪ wish it was sunday good morning, washington d.c., where it's 45 and mostly cloudy, going up to a high and sunny 63. and there's a look at our newsroom on this bangles "manic monday." good morning, everybody. new this morning, it's the first win for tiger woods in two years. call it vintage tiger. woods rolled in a 10-foot birdie

putt on the final hole yesterday for a one-stroke victory over zach johnson in the chevron world challenge in california. it's the fifth time he's won the event, which he happens to host. afterwards, when he was asked how it felt to win a tournament again, tiger said awesome. the green bay packers still undefeated, barely. the new york giants came close to handing the super bowl champs their first loss of the season yesterday, when eli manning tossed a late touchdown pass to hakim nicks. the score was 35-35, but the packers marched down the field in the final minute and mason crosby, take a look at that, hit a 30-yard field goal in the final seconds to give the packers their 18th straight win dating back to last season. final score, packers 38, giants 35. close one. and it's official. the nfl says madonna will be the featured performer at this year's super bowl halftime show. she'll collaborate with cirque

du soleil for the big gig. super bowl xlvi is in indianapolis two days after madonna's movie release. tis the season for gift giving and apparently gift stealing. get this. one in every 11 people who walks into a store this holiday season will steal at least one item. you won't believe what the top three items are. according to a recent survey by ad week, the number one item is meat. officials say thieves target fillet mignon and other choice cuts. item number two, pricey liquors like jameson, and electric toothbrushes and power tools. go figure. that will do it for me. i'm alina cho. i'll be right back here tomorrow on "american morning" 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. eastern. right now, kyra phillips starts right now. what did you think of tiger's win? you're a golfer, kyra. >> oh, scottie and i, my