he drew a cartoon that sparked protests worldwide. last night he escaped an attempt on his life. what police are saying about an attack on a controversial artist whose work earned him death threats from across the globe. president obama points the fichk err in an attempted airline bombing over u.s. soil. who he says gave this man his marching orders and what the president says the u.s. is doing about it. and what did this man do to cause another security scare at a u.s. airport? well, how he had some passengers seeing red. you're watching hln. i'm holly firfer. police in denmark say a man with ties to al qaeda tried to kill a cartoonist who drew a controversial sketch of the

prophet muhammad. authorities arrested the somali man at the home of kurt westergaard after he broke inside. police say westergaard was able to flee to a safe room along with his 5-year-old granddaughter. officers shot and wounded the suspect after he allegedly threatened to kill them with an axe. the man now faces two charges of attempted murder. he denied those charges at an initial hearing. police have not given a motive for last night's attack. but back in 2005, westergaard drew a cartoon showing mohammad with a turban shaped like a bomb. that prompted protests of death threats worldwide. president obama is blaming an affiliate of al qaeda for an attempted terror attack on a flight to detroit on christmas day. in his weekly radio address, the president said the group, al qaeda in the airborrabian penin.

>> the investigation into the christmas day incident continues and we're learning more about the suspect. we know that he traveled to yemen, a country grappling with poverty and insurgenties. it appears he joined an affiliate of al qaeda and this group in the arabian pensual yea trained him and directed him to attack that plane headed for america. this is not the first time this group targeted us. in recent years they bombed yemeni government facilities, restaurants and embassies including our embassy in 2008, killing one american. so as president, i've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al qaeda terrorists. >> in his party's weekly address, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell delivered an upbeat look for the new year. mcconnell says despite last

year's serious challenges, he has no doubt the american people will see better days. >> two long and difficult wars, a prolonged recession, double-digit unemployment, these are difficult days for our nation. and in this new year, we're grateful for the courageous men and women of our own day who keep a lonely watch to defend the cause of liberty. we're also painfully aware of how many americans were out of work this christmas. but these challenges don't define us as a people. what's always defined america is its ability to overcome even the most daunting difficulties. on this first weekend of 2010, we're asking you to weigh in. so if you could suggest a new year's resolution for the u.s. government, what would it be? well, karen posted this on my facebook page --

and robert wrote, stop it, just stop it. well, he could be talking about so many things, so i'm going to leave that up to you to interpret. but what do you think? what should the u.s. government resolve to do in 2010? you can weigh in on my facebook page. go to facebook.com and search for me holly firfer or e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. and you just might see your response on the air today. fox and time warner cable reached a broadcasting deal just in time for millions of people to watch the sugar bowl. now, fox had threatened to force time warner cable and another cable provider to drop the fox broadcast signal from 14 of its stations and half a dozen of its cable channels. but a contract between the companies expired thursday,

signals were extended as talks continued. the companies are not releasing details of that agreement. time warner cable is no longer a part of time warner incorporated, hln's parent company. that was sold earlier in 2009. police in georgia say someone shooting a gun to celebrate new year's eve is responsible for the death of a 4-year-old boy. markell peters was in a church in atlanta when a bullet came through the roof and hit him in the head. police say someone may have gone outside and shot a gun into the air. his mother is asking whoever fired that gun to come forward and and admit what they did. >> i want to say to them, who did this to my son? please come forward and say something. we need justice. >> she says he was her only child. that happened just 20 minutes into the new year. two mo defendanto, california, firefighters are in the hospital after a roof

collapsed on them without warning. they were cutting a hole in the roof of a burning house to ventilate it when the roof caved in last night. >> the intensity of the fire in the garage called the roof to fail much sooner than we would regularly see in most house fires. the company officer of the truck company reported to me that he had never seen a roof fail in such short amount of time. >> luckily, there were no other injuries in the fire, and it appears to have started accidentally when the home's occupant dropped a candle while trying to refill a gas-powered generator. a new year's day fire killed a woman and her three children. a 32-year-old man also died when the mobile home in palm springs, california, burned early yesterday morning. crews initially found the bod yifs the two adults, then they found the bodies of the kids. an 11-year-old girl, 7-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. it's still not clear just how that fire started.

a fire in missouri killed five people, including a 4-month-old girl and two 11-year-old boys. two adults were also killed. they were found huddled in a basement bathroom of the rural home in the northern part of the state. two people were able to escape. one ran to a neighbor's house and called for help. investigators think the fire may have started in an unintended fireplace? two nba players are under investigation for an alleged locker room confrontation that allegedly got way out of hand. "the new york post" reports two washington wizard players, gilbert arenas and ja varis crittenton drew guns on each other during an argument. according to the post, it began when arenas refused to pay a gambling debt to crittenton. it's not clear if any other wizard players saw the confrontation but "the post" says wizard officials didn't even notify the league about the incident until the paper made

inquiries. d.c. police are now investigating. . there's a lot of rumors going around. sorting rumors from fact will take some time. there is an investigation under way and i can't comment on it. >> the wizards released a statement saying the team takes this situation and the ongoing investigation very seriously. iraq says it's filing a lawsuit against five u.s. security guards. on thursday, a federal judge threw out manslaughter charges against five employees of blackwater. they were accused of killing 17 iraqi citizens in 2007 in a massive shoot-out in baghdad. the judge said the government improperly compelled the guards to make statements about the incident, which violated their fifth amendment rights. an official for the iraqi government calls the incident an act of murder. iraq is asking the u.s. justice department to appeal the dismissal. the u.s. commander in iraq says the iraqis are looking for justice. >> it's a lesson in the rule of law. we're a country of rule of law.

iraq is a country that's abiding by the rule of law. and that's what protects its citizens in the long run is having a system where you use the rule of law in order to make your determinations. and i think this is the case. >> the blackwater employees were guarding a state department convoy when the shooting began. the company says its contractors were under attack. now, after the incident, blackwater changed its name to xe. a suicide car bomb at a volleyball game killed at least 93 people. it happened yesterday in northwest pakistan near the border with afghanistan. the explosion injured more than 30 people, many of them still in the hospital. an official says most of the victims were teenagers, who were just watching the game. a local police chief says the explosion was so strong, it was felt 11 miles away. he says militants have been threatening the area since the military pushed them out two months ago. some anxious moments at seattle's airport. a man who says he has a gun locks himself in a bathroom and

refuses to come out. what he wanted from authorities.

conservative talk show host rush limbaugh says he's fine. he was released yesterday from a hospital in hawaii. limbaugh went in wednesday because he was having chest pains. doctors say tests showed he didn't have a heart attack and, more importantly, he does not have heart disease. as evidence he was feeling better, limbaugh couldn't resist taking a political jab at a hospital news conference. >> based on what happened to me here, i don't think there's one thing wrong with the american health care system. it is working just fine, just dandy. and i got nothing special. i got no special treatment. >> at his news conference, limbaugh also said he wasn't taking painkillers. you might remember that in 2003, he admitted he was addicted to painkillers and went to rehab. authorities in new york city

want to know why police apparently ignored an illegally parked van in times square for days before someone finally called authorities. the van had blacked-out windows and no license plate. police evacuated times square wednesday and called in a bomb squad to check out the van after a security guard reported it. police say the van may have been ignored because it had an i.d. card from a nonprofit law enforcement group in the windshield. but the group and other law enforcement groups say such cards are never supposed to be construed as parking permits. the organization says it doesn't know how or why the placard was put in the windshield. police arrested a man who barricaded himself in a family rest room at the seattle airport yesterday. now, officers say the man told them he had a gun and wanted to fly somewhere but didn't have a ticket. the man finally surrendered after about two hours. turns out, he wasn't armed. while negotiators were trying to convince him to come out of the

bathroom, airport officials did reroute passengers to other points. >> i'm scared. i'm just going to keep my distance and let the cops do their thing. they're good at it. >> now, the rest room was not located near any gates, and there was only one door, so the man had no access to any other location. a computer glitch caused a scare aboard a flight bound for chicago. the carrier go jet checked passengers in manually when their computers went down yesterday. well, the computers came back online after the flight was already in the air and that's when screeners noticed that someone's name on the flight matched a name on the tsa's restricted passenger list. forced the plane to return to st. louis. the plane was eventually allowed to take off again after screeners determined the person on the plane was not the same person on the tsa list. the head of delta air lines is speaking out for the first time about that attempted attack on a northwest flight headed for detroit on christmas day.

ceo richard anderson says he's disappointed that suspect managed to bring smros inches on the plane. however, he says delta followed all government security airlines. he added, delta will keep working to implement new government security measures. the suspect is accused of trying to blow up that flight from amsterdam to droi. the faa says it's looking closer at american airlines because their carrier had three landings go wrong last month. the first incident happened on december 13th when a plane landing in charlotte went off the left side of the runway. over a week later, another american flight overran a runway in kingston, jamaica, injuring 91 passengers. you can see the aftermath in this video. then two days later an american airlines plane hit a wingtip while landing in austin, texas. an american spokesperson told cnn the airline is cooperating with the investigation, which he says is routine in landing incidents. well, it takes ink to make a

tattoo. and for the police to take a fingerprint. but you're not going to believe what a couple did with one that got them the other.

about 15 same-sex couples in new hampshire rang in the new year exchanging wedding vows in the cold. the state's new law legalizing same-sex marriage went into effect new year's day at midnight. couples said "i do" while strang outside the new hampshire state house in concord.

others plan private ceremonies around the state. the law grants no new rights to gays and lesbians but eliminates the separate status for civil unions. new hampshire joins massachusetts, vermont, connecticut and iowa in allowing gay marriage. a woman in dispute with her former partner defied a court order to give up custody of her 7-year-old daughter. lisa miller seen here could face criminal charges. a vermont judge ordered her to turn over her daughter isabella to janet ginkins yesterday in virginia, but miller didn't show up. they were joined in a vermont civil union in 2000. their daughter was born in 2002. when the couple broke up, the following year miller moved to virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical christian. she was initially granted custody of the girl, but a judge later determined she denied jenkins proper visitation rights and ordered miller to turn the girl over to jenkins. thousands of people who fled

a volcano were allowed back home today even though the danger isn't over yet. most of the people who were evacuated lived within five miles of the mayon volcano. now, scientists say the volcano's activity has been decreasing over the past few days, but they warn the mountain's level of volcanic unrest is still high. rescuers are searching for people who may have been buried alive in mudslides. officials say that more than 50 people have been killed after heavy rains hit brazil including at least 22 people who died when part of a mountain collapsed and slammed into an upscale resort popular with celebrities. other mudslides left hundreds of people homeless. okay. check this out. you're looking at the top of an suv. a father, a son and their friend parked on a sandbar on the river in oregon for a new year's day fishing trip. when rains started pouring, the river quickly swelled and it swallowed up that suv.

>> we were up to our necks in water basically already. i tried to open the door and it wouldn't open because of the pressure of the current. so i just made a quick decision to get out of truck and get him out of the back. >> it was down to the last couple of minutes. >> he was in pretty bad shape. he couldn't move his arms or anything. >> now, the men say they struggled in the water for about 15 minutes as that suv sank. a man with a boat nearby came to their rescue and they credit him with saving their lives. a georgia couple is facing child cruelty charges for tattooing their six kids. authorities say patty, jo-jo marsh and her boyfriend jacob edwards bartells used a homemade device to tattoo black crosses own the hand of their children raging from 10 to 17 years old. the homemade tattoo gun used an electric motor, wiring and pen and sharpened piece of guitar string as a needle. their mother denies she did anything wrong.

>> i don't think we did anything wrong. the kids don't think we did anything wrong. this is crazy. this is blowed up so bad. >> now, the sheriff says the same needle was used to tattoo all six kids. everybody wants to save more and spend less, right? well, we've got the guy who's going to help you. join hln money expert clark howard at 4:00 eastern. he's going to show you ways to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. "the clark howard show" 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln. there's a mystery brewing after more than 1700 sea lions just swam away from their adopted home at pier 39. so can anyone tell us what happened to san francisco's sea lions in?

president obama points the finger in an attempted airline bombing over u.s. soil. who he says gave this man his marching orders and what the president says the u.s. is doing about it. what police are saying about an attack on a moon whose work earned him dealt threats from across the globe. rush limbaugh says he's convinced the u.s. health care system is working just fine. how he's gotten a very up close and personal look at it. you're watching hln. i'm holly firfer. president obama is blaming an affiliate of al qaeda for an attempted terror attack on a flight to detroit on christmas day. in his weekly radio address, the

president said the group al qaeda in the arabian peninsula trained umar farouk abdulmutallab. he's accused of trying to bring down an airplane landing in detroit with an explosive device that failed to detonate. >> the investigation into the christmas day incident continues and we're learning more about the suspect. we know that he traveled to yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies. it appears he joined an affiliate of al qaeda and that this group, al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for america. this is not the first time this group has targeted us. in recent years they've bombed yemeni government facilities and western hotels, restaurants and embassies, including our embassy in 2008, killing one american. so as president, i've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al qaeda terrorists.

in his party's weekly address, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell delivered an upbeat look for the new year. mcconnell says despite last year's serious challenges, he has no doubt the american people will see better days. >> two long and difficult wars, a prolonged recession, double-digit unemployment, these are difficult days for our nation. and in this new year, we're grateful for the courageous men and women of our own day who keep a lonely watch to defend the cause of liberty. we're also painfully aware of how many americans were out of work this christmas. but these challenges don't define us as a people. what's always defined america is its ability to overcome even the most daunting difficulties. on this first weekend of 2010, we're asking you to weigh in. so if you could suggest a new year's resolution for the u.s. government, what would it be?

well, chad sent us an e-mail from mobile, alabama. and he says -- okay. so what do you think? what should the u.s. government resolve to do in 2010? weigh in on my facebook page, facebook.com and search for holly firfer or go ahead and e-mail us at cnn.com/hln. and your response to be chosen to show on the air today. police in denmark say a man with ties to al qaeda tried to kill a cartoonist who drew a

controversial sketch of the prophet muhammad. authorities arrested the somali man at the home of kurt westergaard last night after he broke inside. police say westergaard was able to flee to a safe room along with hills 5-year-old granddaughter. he was shot and wounded after he allegedly threatened the police with an axe. he faces two charges of attempted murder. he denied those charges at an initial hearing. the police have not given a motive for last night's attack but back in 2005, westergaard drew a cartoon showing muhammad with a turban shaped like a bomb. it prompted protests and death threats from muslims worldwide. fox and time warner cable reached a broadcasting deal just in time for millions of people to watch the sugar bowl. now, fox had threatened to force time warner cable and another cable provider to drop the fox broadcast signal from 14 of its stations and half a dozen of its cable channels. but a contract between the companies expired thursday, signals were extended as talks continued.

the companies are not releasing details of that agreement. time warner cable is no longer a part of time warner incorporated, hln's parent company. that was sold earlier in 2009. police in georgia say someone shooting a gun to celebrate new year's eve is responsible for the death of a 4-year-old boy. marquel peters was in a church in suburban atlanta when a bullet came through the roof and hit him in the head. police say they think someone may have gone outside and shot a gun into the air to celebrate new year's. peter's mother is asking whomever fired the gun to come forward and admit what they did. >> i want to say to them, who did this to my son? please come forward and say something. we need justice. >> nathalee peters says marquel was her only child. that accident happened just 20 minutes into the new year. two modesto, california, firefighters are in the hospital after a roof collapsed on them without warning.

they were cutting a hole in the roof of a burning house to ventilate it when the roof caved in last night. >> the intensity of the fire in the garage caused the roof to fail much sooner than we would regularly see in most house fires. the company officer of the truck company reported to me that he had never seen a roof fail in such short amount of time. >> luckily, there were no other injuries in the fire, and it appears to have started accidentally when the home's occupant dropped a candle while trying to refill a gas-powered generator. a new year's day fire killed a woman and her three children. a 32-year-old man also died when the mobile home in palm springs, california, burned early yesterday morning. crews initially found the bodies of the two adults, then they found the bodies of the kids. an 11-year-old girl, 7-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. it's still not clear just how that fire started. a fire in missouri killed

five people, including a 4-month-old girl and two 11-year-old boys. two adults were also killed. they were found huddled in a basement bathroom of the rural home in the northern part of the state. two people were able to escape. one ran to a neighbor's house and called for help. investigators think the fire may have started in an unintended fireplace. two nba players are under investigation for an alleged locker room confrontation that allegedly got way out of hand. "the new york post" reports two washington wizard players, gilbert arenas and javaris crittenton, drew guns on each other during an argument last week. according to "the post," it began when arenas refused to pay a gambling debt to crittenton. it's not clear if any other wizard players saw the alleged confrontation. but "the post" says wizard officials didn't even notify the league about the incident until the paper made inquiries. d.c. police are now investigating.

>> there's a lot of rumors going around. sorting rumors from fact is going to take some time. there is an investigation under way and i can't comment on it. >> the wizards released a statement saying the team takes this situation and the ongoing investigation very seriously. iraq says it's filing a lawsuit against five u.s. security guards. on thursday, a federal judge threw out manslaughter charges against five employees of blackwater. they were accused of killing 17 iraqi citizens in 2007 in a massive shoot-out in baghdad. the judge said the government improperly compelled the guards to make statements about the incident, which violated their fifth amendment rights. an official for the iraqi government calls the incident an act of murder. iraq is asking the u.s. justice department to appeal the dismissal. the u.s. commander in iraq says the iraqis are looking for justice. >> it's a lesson in the rule of law. we're a country of rule of law. iraq is a country that's abiding by the rule of law.

and that's what protects its citizens in the long run is having a system where you use the rule of law in order to make your determinations. and i think this is the case. >> the blackwater employees were guarding a state department convoy when the shooting began. the company says its contractors were under attack. now, after the incident, blackwater changed its name to xe. a suicide car bomb at a volleyball game killed at least 93 people. it happened yesterday in northwest pakistan near the border with afghanistan. the explosion injured more than 30 people, many of them still in the hospital. an official says most of the victims were teenagers, who were just watching the game. a local police chief says the explosion was so strong, it was felt 11 miles away. he says militants have been threatening the area since the military pushed them out two months ago. some anxious moments at seattle's airport. a man who says he has a gun locks himself in a bathroom and refuses to come out.

what he wanted from authorities.

conservative talk show host rush limbaugh says he's fine. he was released yesterday from a hospital in hawaii. limbaugh went in wednesday because he was having chest pains. doctors say tests showed he didn't have a heart attack and, more importantly, he does not have heart disease. as evidence he was feeling better, limbaugh couldn't resist taking a political jab at a hospital news conference. >> based on what happened to me here, i don't think there's one thing wrong with the american health care system. it is working just fine, just dandy. and i got nothing special. i got no special treatment. >> at his news conference, limbaugh also said he wasn't taking painkillers. you might remember that in 2003, he admitted he was addicted to painkillers and went to rehab.

authorities in new york city want to know why police apparently ignored an illegally parked van in times square for days before someone finally called authorities. the van had blacked-out windows and no license plate. police evacuated times square wednesday and called in a bomb squad to check out the van after a security guard reported it. police say the van may have been ignored because it had an i.d. card from a nonprofit law enforcement group in the windshield. but the group and other law enforcement groups say such cards are never supposed to be construed as parking permits. the organization says it doesn't know how or why the placard was put in the windshield. police arrested a man who barricaded himself in a family rest room at the seattle airport yesterday. now, officers say the man told them he had a gun and wanted to fly somewhere but didn't have a ticket. the man finally surrendered after about two hours. turns out, he wasn't armed. while negotiators were trying to convince him to come out of the

bathroom, airport officials did reroute passengers to other checkpoints. >> i'm scared. i'm just going to keep my distance and let the cops do their thing. they're good at it. >> i don't see why anybody would want to act crazy in the airports nowadays. it's already hard enough to travel. >> now, the rest room was not located near any gates, and there was only one door, so the man had no access to any other location. a computer glitch caused a scare aboard a flight bound for chicago. the carrier go jet checked passengers in manually when their computers went down yesterday. well, the computers came back online after the flight was already in the air and that's when screeners noticed that someone's name on the flight matched a name on the tsa's restricted passenger list. forced the plane to return to st. louis. the flight was eventually allowed to take off again after screeners determined the person on the plane was not the same person on the tsa list. the head of delta air lines is speaking out for the first time about that attempted attack on a northwest flight headed for

detroit on christmas day. ceo richard anderson says he's disappointed that suspect managed to bring explosives on the plane. however, he says delta followed all government security airlines. he added, delta will keep working to implement new government security measures. the suspect is accused of trying to blow up that flight from amsterdam to detroit. the faa says it's looking closer at american airlines because their carrier had three landings go wrong last month. the first incident happened on december 13th when a plane landing in charlotte went off the left side of the runway. over a week later, another american flight overran a runway in kingston, jamaica, injuring 91 passengers. you can see the aftermath in this video. then two days later an american airlines plane hit a wingtip while landing in austin, texas. an american spokesperson told cnn the airline is cooperating with the investigation, which he says is routine in landing incidents.

well, it takes ink to make a tattoo. and for the police to take a fingerprint. but you're not going to believe what a couple did with one that got them the other.

about 15 same-sex couples in new hampshire rang in the new year exchanging wedding vows in the cold. the state's new law legalizing same-sex marriage went into effect new year's day at midnight. couples said "i do" while standing outside the new hampshire state house in concord. others plan private ceremonies around the state. the law grants no new rights to gays and lesbians but eliminates the separate status for civil unions. new hampshire joins massachusetts, vermont, connecticut and iowa in allowing gay marriage. a woman in dispute with her former partner defied a court order to give up custody of her 7-year-old daughter. lisa miller seen here could face criminal charges. a vermont judge ordered her to turn over her daughter isabella to janet jenkins yesterday in virginia, but miller didn't show up.

miller and jenkins were joined in a vermont civil union in 2000. their daughter was born in 2002. when the couple broke up the following year, miller moved to virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical christian. she was initially granted custody of the girl, but a judge later determined she denied jenkins proper visitation rights and ordered miller to turn the girl over to jenkins. thousands of people who fled a volcano were allowed back home today even though the danger isn't over yet. most of the people who were evacuated lived within five miles of the mayon volcano. now, scientists say the volcano's activity has been decreasing over the past few days, but they warn the mountain's level of volcanic unrest is still high. rescuers are searching for people who may have been buried alive in mudslides. officials say that more than 50 people have been killed after heavy rains hit brazil including

at least 22 people who died when part of a mountain collapsed and slammed into an upscale resort popular with celebrities. other mudslides left hundreds of people homeless. okay. check this out. you're looking at the top of an suv. a father, a son and their friend parked on a sandbar on the willa met river in oregon for a new year's day fishing trip. when rains started pouring, the river quickly swelled and it swallowed up that suv. >> we were up to our necks in water basically already. i tried to open the door and it wouldn't open because of the pressure of the current. so i just made a quick decision to get out of the truck and get him out of the back. >> it was down to the last couple of minutes. >> he was in pretty bad shape. he couldn't move his arms or anything. >> now, the men say they struggled in the water for about 15 minutes as that suv sank. a man with a boat nearby came to their rescue and they credit him with saving their lives. a georgia couple is facing child cruelty charges for

tattooing their six kids. authorities say patty, jo-jo marsh and her boyfriend jacob edward bartells used a homemade device to tattoo black crosses on the hands of their children ranging from 10 to 17 years old. the homemade tattoo gun used an electric motor, wiring and ink pen and sharpened piece of guitar string as a needle. a vile vial of black ink was used for the coloring. their mother denies she did anything wrong. >> i don't think we did anything wrong. the kids don't think we did anything wrong. this is crazy. this is blowed up so bad. >> now, the sheriff says the same needle was used to tattoo all six kids. a group of former students made good on a promise they made 20 years ago. >> to me, they look exactly the same. just with beards and gel in their hair and stuff. >> and everybody is acting like

we did. >> see their emotional re union with a teacher they say left a lasting impression on their lives.