a u.s. embassy shuts its doors over concerns about terrorist threats. where it's happening and why the u.s. is focusing more attention on that country these days. captured. the man accused of killing four members of his own family found in a florida motel. what the father of a 6-year-old victim is saying about that arrest. and you regularly donate to your house of worship, but do you know where the money is going, and how confident are you that it's being spent wisely? we're taking your views on the topic. hln news and views. i'm holly firfer. the u.s. embassy in yemen is cloessed today because of al qaeda threats against american

interests. now the embassy is not saying if there's any specific threat, and it's unclear when it might reopen. the british embassy in the yemeni capital is closed today. yemen is pledging more cooperation in the fight against terrorism. and experts on the region warn it will take a lot of time and resources to root out al qaeda in that country. >> the al qaeda threat is not simply to u.s. interests but very much to yemeni interests as well. the people of yemen have suffered a great deal, in terms of economic well-being because of al qaeda's activities there. so that's number one. and i think the second thing is that, based on that, actions by yemeni security forces are likely to be much more effective in countering the al qaeda threat in yemen than direct action by u.s. military forces. >> there are no easy, no obvious solutions in yemen. but one of the most important

things for the u.s. to ceremony that it's not going to defeat al qaeda in yemen today, tomorrow, next month or even next year. it's going to be a very long, a very hard slog. there's no magic missile solution. >> why do you say that? >> well, al qaeda is someone that the u.s. has already defeated once in yemen. it defeated it really in '01 to '03 and al qaeda came back after a prison break in february of 2006. so if the u.s. continues to go down the same road, it's going to get the same results. the u.s. is going to be fighting different incarnations of al qaeda in yemen every few years. >> the head of u.s. central command, general david petraeus, met with yemen's president yesterday. a senior u.s. government official says they discussed the latest intelligence on al qaeda in that country. the man accused of trying to set off a bomb on a northwest airlines flight 253 got aboard the plane because of lapses in security. now that's the assessment of a top counterterrorism official.

umar farouk abdullah mutal ab boarded the flight for detroit despite several indications he might pose a threat. the white house adviser leading a review of airport security says there was no warning sign pointing to an imminent attack. republicans, however, continue to attack president obama's response to that attempted bombing. >> clearly, the system didn't work. we had a problem in terms of why abdulmutallab got on that plane. there's no smoking gun piece of intelligence that says he was a terrorist and going to carry out an attack against the aircraft. we had bits of information that didn't give us the clarity to be able to map it and attach it to abdulmutallab. what we need to do as an intelligence community and as a government is bring those disparate pieces of information together so we prevent mr. abdulmutallab from getting on a plane. >> we need to take the politics out of this, but there's no question the pllt has downplayed the risk of terrorists since he took office.

he's investigating the cia rather than to build them up. he is not focused on building the security and intelligence apparatus of our country. the last administration, president bush, made a huge mistake by sending the yemenis back. the core leadership of al qaeda now is made up of those folks who were at the gitmo prison. we can't make that mistake again. >> air travel safety will top the agenda when president obama meets with homeland security officials on tuesday. an intense manhunt for a murder suspect in florida has come to an end. u.s. marshals captured him at a motel in the florida keys. paul merhige is accused of killing and shooting four members of his family after dinner. in his first court appearance this morning he was ordered held without bond while he awaits trial. the dead include his twin sisters, a 79-year-old aunt and his 6-year-old cousin. with the arrest, mikhaila's

father says he'll be able to rest easier. >> it means i'll be able to sleep a little better tonight and i won't be patrolling the inside of my house with my shotgun, you know, thinking that the monster is right around the corner. i've been in protective mode. and now that he's captured, at least my family, we can -- even begin the healing process. >> merhige was captured when a viewer of "america's most wanted" recognized him and his car. a woman is resting at her parent's house after authorities say she escaped from her ex-fiancee. dennis cox kidnapped julie ann kilgore in colorado tuesday. three days later she, escaped while they were at a wyoming hotel. cox fled back to colorado and was killed in a shoot-out with police. >> he had a pistol and he was holding it to his head and they were yelling drop the gun. >> kilgore's father said his daughter broke off the

engagement with cox last sunday. mexican police say they've captured the head of a notorious drug cartel. carlos beltran leva was arrested wednesday. authorities say leva was taken into custody after he showed a fake driver's license with an alias they knew he'd been using. his arrest comes a week after his brother arturo was killed in a shoot-out outside mexico city. iran has issued an ultimatum over its nuclear program. it's threatening to enrich nuclear fuel on its own. if the west is not renegotiate a u.n.-backed deal by the end of january. this demand came two days after iran defied a deadline by the u.s. and other security council members. the west has been trying to get iran to swap its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. the concern is iran may use its uranium to make nuclear weapons. iran says it needs the fuel for research. there's no relief in sight for parts of brazil where heavy rains and mudslides are blamed for dozens of deaths.

officials say at least 60 people have been killed since rain started pounding southern brazil on wednesday. mudslides buried entire homes and shut down a major highway. rescuers are looking for survivors. sometimes digging with their bare hands. and it is heart breaking work. but rescuers celebrated when they dug out a toddler whose entire family was killed at home. but the little girl later died in the hospital. i'm meteorologist reynolds wolf for hln. we've got a two-part weather story today. part one deals with an area of low pressure up in new england that's going to bring heavy snowfall. and could provide up to a foot of snow in some places. the second part, the bitter cold that's going to be moving into half the nation. let's start with the snowfall first. it all stems from this area of low pressure which is not only drawing moisture from the great lakes and st. lawrenceseaway but the atlantic ocean. that low picking up the moisture and as that moisture falls through the lower levels of the atmosphere, we'll see snow pile up. that coupled with windy conditions can give you nearly

white out conditions. look for very treacherous issues in terms of driving. same deal could be in store for you along the finger lakes back in parts of new york state. maybe even parts of pennsylvania back near erie, cleveland. could see heavy snowfall today. when you look at this area of high pressure, it's that high working with the low that will bring in cold air into the southeast. high in memphis only 32. sfaens, chicago. 17 in kansas city. 7 for minneapolis. atlanta and tampa, 30s and 50s. 20s mostly for boston, new york, washington, d.c. 31. then as we zip toward the west. 72 in phoenix. 63 in san francisco. l.a. 74 and 51 in seattle. that is a wrap on your forecast. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. one of our ireporters had his camera rolling when a firecracker went off course with dramatic results.

what happened to the crowd at this new year's eve celebration.

police in arizona say a teenage girl killed her 17-year-old brother when she accidentally ran over him with the car. authorities say the two were playing a dangerous game at a mall in mesa. the boy kept jumping in front of his sister's moving car and then she'd slam on the brakes. police say the last time he did it she couldn't stop in time and ran over him. he later died at a hospital. friends and family of a missing utah woman are turning to social media networks in an attempt to find her. starting tomorrow, people looking for susan powell will begin a three-day blitz on twitter and youtube. organizers are asking facebook users to turn their profile pictures to a purple ribbon. powell went missing december 7th and police have focused on her husband. although he's not officially a suspect in her disappearance.

he says he was camping with the couple's young sons at the time his wife went missing. a delta flight from boston to new york returned to logan international airport when a pilot smelled smoke in the cockpit. a delta spokesman says the pilot turned back eight minutes into the flight. the odor was gone by the time the plane landed back in boston and all of the passengers were rebooked on a later flight. delta is investigating the cause of the smoke smell. the fire's finally out at an oil well near austin, texas, but it wasn't easy to do. the fire started yesterday afternoon with two 500-barrel tanks. crews moved in but had to pull back because it was too dangerous. the flames spread to a few other tanks but the were finally extinguished by early evening. about 2,000 barrels of oil burned. it's not clear how the fire started, but no one was hurt. ireporter ryan hartman got more than he expected while taping a new year's eve

fireworks show in thailand. one of the ignited shells misfired and fell back on to other fireworks. hartman says some people were screaming and panicked while others were cheering. he saw some people with minor burns but luckily no serious injuries. so what's another inch or four. yeah, that's how much snow people in rhode island could get today on top of the 7 to 10 inches that's already fallen over parts of the northeast. most main roads were cleared for drivers, but the side streets in many neighborhoods were covered with snow. some people, though, took that as an opportunity to make some money. >> shoveling, helping people and everything. if they need help, we shovel for

$5 or $10. >> we've been fortunate it's been weekends. therefore it doesn't happen where you have to go to work. >> we're doing whatever we can. we've been really judicious about how we're doing, calling in a few people so that we can keep the main roads and the hilly roads salted and sanded. >> and that snow in rhode island is expected to end by tomorrow. and temperatures should get a little warmer. china could end up dealing with its coldest winter in 40 years. snow has been causing major trouble in china since friday. there's been so much of it that traffic in beijing is barely moving. a lot of people are trying to get back into the city after the long holiday weekend. beijing's airport is a mess and many highways have been shut down. and the forecast doesn't call for any breaks. temperatures are forecast to stay below zero for the next week. a woman was browsing through photos in a thrift store when she came upon a very rare find.

and now why she's calling the pictures her best christmas present of the year.

megachurch pastor rick warren got more than double what he asked for in plea donations. his church in southern california took in $2.4 million in just three days. on wednesday he made an urgent plea for $900,000 to fill a deficit. warren said the recession and a huge drop in offerings over the holiday caused that shortfall.

warren is the author of the best seller "the purpose-driven life" and he also gave the invocation at president obama's inauguration. we're taking a broader look at church donations as part of our "your views" topic for the day. here's the question. your confident that your house of faith spends your donations responsibly? and are you satisfied overall with the way religious organizations support your community? all right. let's hear what you have to say. start with this facebook message from wonkguy. here's the thing. the only person who can confidently say how a house of faith spends its money is the person who conducts the audit and performs a detailed analysis of revenues, expenses and debt obligations. even an irs form 990 can conceal or obscure certain transactions because often there isn't enough detail. ginger added this. as an agnostic atheist, naturally idon't have a house of faith. as far as religious organizations overall, i believe

they have managed to be tax exempt and for profit all at the same time. i don't understand why churches have to be so opulent when that is more money that could be used to help the community. isn't that what they are supposed to be doing? why do you need enormous buildings with ornate decor and stained glass just to spread a message that's been out there for 2,000 years? i don't get it. all right. we really want to hear from you about this. just weigh in on my facebook page. such for holly firfer or send us a message at cnn.com. a florida woman was looking through a stask old pictures at a thrift store when she saw a familiar face. and a few dollars later she, had a piece of history to call her own. chris martinez of hln affiliate wfts tells us why these photos sore special. >> these are really special. >> reporter: safely stored in a black cardboard box, this handful of old photos has become

amber osbourne's most guarded treasure. >> here's another one of jfk. >> reporter: they appear to be candid shots of history. three in the moment, black and white photos, of president john f. kennedy. amber found them in a stack of old pictures on sale at a thrift store. and instantly knew she'd stumbled on to something special. >> this is jfk. this is an historical moment that's going on. i need to know more about these. >> reporter: so $30 and a matter of minutes later, amber was home online trying to track down this moment in time. the name of a network tv exec on the back of one photo was her only clue. and using that, she was able to find this. >> how does a president go about making a decision? >> the pictures it seems, were taken during an 1962 interview where kennedy gave reporters has assessment of his first two years in office. this was just about a year

before he was killed. >> i just matched it up immediately. i mean it was the same people and the same clothing and the chair that he was sitting in. >> the question remains, though, who took the pictures in the first place? nothing on the prints show where they came from or how they ever wound up in a thrift store. >> they are very special to me. >> reporter: those of questions amber hopes to find answers to, determined to uncover the full story of this piece of history lost and now found again. >> it was probably the best thing that i got for christmas was these photos. >> reporter: chris martinez, newport richie, florida. singer elton john and eminem are working together, but not on a new album. but to help the rapper fight his drug problem. john told the bbc he's been helping eminem battle his addiction for more than a year. he said the rapper is making progress. john say recovering drug abuser himself. eminem has written publicly about his past substance abuse

problems. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke says the best way to prevent financial bubbles is through tighter regulation. but he says it's not the only way. and that may be necessary to raise interest rates again to prevent what he calls dangerous build-ups of risk. now some critics blame the federal reserve for causing the recent housing bubble. they say the central bank held interest rates too low for too long. but in a speech before the american economic association's annual meeting, bernanke defended the fed's actions calling the links between low interest rates and rising home prices, quote, weak. ♪ ♪ i'm gonna tell myself i believe it's true ♪ ♪ i don't need a dime to be good to you ♪ >> imagine losing your job just a week before christmas. it happened to this woman and now she's singing about it. why her song is so catchy.

a u.s. embassy shuts its doors over concerns about terrorist threats. where it's happening and why the u.s. is focusing more attention on that country these days. she's been missing for weeks. now friends and family of a missing mom are turning to the internet to help find the woman they love. plus, a shocking new report. 1 in 50 americans lives in a household that survives on nothing but food stamps. and the number of people stuck in this situation is on the rise. hln news and views. hello. i'm holly firfer. the u.s. embassy in yemen is closed today because of al qaeda

threats against american interests. now the embassy is not saying if there's any specific threat and its unclear when it might reopen. the british embassy in the yemeni capital is also closed today. yemen is pledges more cooperation in the fight against terrorism. experts on the region warn it will take a lot of time and resources to root out al qaeda in that country. >> the al qaeda threat is not simply to u.s. interests but very much to yemeni interests as well. the people of yemen have suffered a great deal in terms of economic well-being because of al qaeda's activities. so that's number one. i think the second thing is that, based on that, actions by yemeni security forces are likely to be much more effective in countering the al qaeda threat in yemen than direct action by u.s. military forces. >> there are no easy, no obvious solutions in yemen. but i think one of the most

important things for the u.s. to remember is that it's not going to defeat al qaeda in yemen today, tomorrow, next month or even next year. it's going to be a very long, a very hard slog. there's no magic missile, solution. >> why do you say that? >> well, al qaeda is someone that the u.s. has already defeated once in yemen. it defeated it, really in '01 to '03 and al qaeda came back after a prison break in february of 2006. so if the u.s. continues to go down the same road, it's going to get the same results. the u.s. is going to be fighting different incarnations of al qaeda in yemen every few years. >> the head of u.s. central command general david petraeus met with yemen's president yesterday. a senior u.s. government official says they discussed the latest intelligence on al qaeda in that country. the man accuses of trying to set off a bomb on a northwest airlines flight 253 got aboard the plane because of lapses in security. now that's the assessment of a top counterterrorism official.

umar farouk abdullah mutal ab boarded the flight for detroit spite several indications he might pose a threat. the white house adviser says there was no warning sign pointing to an imminent attack. republicans, however, continued to attack president obama's response to that attempted bombing. >> clearly the system didn't work. we had a problem in terms of why abdulmutallab got on that plane. there's no smoking gun piece of intelligence out there that said he was a terrorist that was going to carry out an attack against the aircraft. we had bits of information that didn't give us the clarity to map it and attach it to abdulmutallab. what we need to do as an intelligence community and government to bring those disparate pieces of information together so we prevent mr. abdulmutallab from getting on the plane. >> we node to take the politics out of this. but there's no question the president has downplayed the risk of terror since he took

office. he's investigating the cia rather than to build them up. he is not focused on building the security and intelligence apparatus of our country. the last administration, president bush, made a huge mistake by sending the yemenis back. the core leadership of al qaeda now is made up of those folks who were at the gitmo prison. we can't make that mistake again. >> air travel safety will top the agenda when president obama meets with homeland security officials on tuesday. an intense manhunt for a murder suspect in florida has come to an end. u.s. marshals captured him at a motel in the florida keys. now we just got this new photo of murder suspect paul merhige. he's accused of shooting and killing four members of his family after dinner. in his first court appearance he was held without bond. the dead included his twin sisters, a 79-year-old aunt and a 6-year-old cousin.

with this rest, makayla's father says he'll be able to rest easier. >> it means i'll be able to sleep a little better tonight. and i won't be patrolling the inside of my house with a shotgun thinking that the monster is right around the corner. i've been in protective mode. now that he's captured, at least my family, we can even begin the healing process. >> merhige was captured when a viewer of "america's most wanted" recognized him and his car. a woman is resting at her parents' house after authorities say she escaped from her ex-fiance. police say dennis cox kidnapped julie ann kilgore in colorado last tuesday. three days later she, escaped while they were at a wyoming hotel. cox fled back to colorado and was killed in a shoot out with police. >> he had a pistol and he was holding it to his head. and they were yelling, drop the

gun. >> kilgore's father said his daughter broke off her engagement with cox last sunday. mexican police have captured the head of a notorious drug cartel. carlos beltran leva was arrested last wednesday. he was taken into custody after he showed a fake driver's license with an alias they knew he'd been using. his arrest comes a week after his brother arturo was killed in a shoot-out outside mexico city. iran has issued an ultimatum over its nuclear program. it's threatening to enrich nuclear fuel on its own if the west does not renegotiate a u.n.-backed deal by the end of january. this demand came two days after iran defied a deadline by the u.s. and other security council members. the west has been trying to get iran to swap its enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. the concern is iran may use its uranium to make nuclear weapons. iran says it needs the fuel for research. there's no relief in sight for parts of brazil where heavy

rains and mudslides are blamed for dozens of deaths. officials say at least 60 people have been killed since rain started pounding southern brazil on wednesday. mudslides buried entire homes and shut down a major highway. rescuers are looking for survivors. sometimes digging with their bare hands. and it is heart breaking work. but rescuers celebrated when they dug out a toddler whose entire family was killed at home. but the little girl later died in the hospital. when the basket is passed at your house of worship, where does that money end up? and how confident are you that it's being spent wisely? we're taking your views on the topic next.

about 6 million americans who receive food stamps say they have no other income. no welfare, no unemployment

insurance, no child support. in other words, they live off food stamps alone. and that report is out in today's "new york times." and it comes from a reyou video of state data collected by the paper. with food stamp use at a record high, the subgroup of recipients with no cash income has risen by nearly 50% in the past two years. about 1 in 50 americans now live in such a household. and some get by living in shelters or subsidized apartments or even with relatives. megachurch pastor rick warren got more than double what he asked for in plea donations. now his church in southern california took in $2.4 million in just three days. on wednesday, he made an urgent plea for $900,000. warren said the recession and a huge drop in offerings over the holiday caused that shortfall. warren is the author of "the purpose-driven life" and also

gave the invocation at president obama's inauguration. okay. we thought we'd take a broader look at church donations as part of our your views topic of the day. here's the question for you. your confident your house of faith spends your donations responsibly? and are you satisfied overall with the way religious organizations support your community? all right. let's hear what you have to say. why don't we start with eduardo who wrote on our facebook page saying if you donate you fully agree to what the donation is for. be it for clergy or community or church/building use or education. mack had this to say. our job is to give back part of what god entrusts us with, to be obedient, since it's all his anyway. at that point it's in the storehouse's hands. it is then accountable to god, not us. and then allen added, i think being concerned with your donation after you give it is a contradiction of your faith. there 24 types of accountability in this equation. one, being the spirit and the

other being the flesh. the church is accountable to god, not man. all right. we want to hear more from you on this. to weigh in do a search on facebook for holly firfer and post me a message there. or you can go on e-mail and send us an e-mail. cnn.com/hln. and dive right into our discussion. friends and family of a missing utah woman are turning to social media networks in an attempt to find her. starting tomorrow, people looking for susan powell will begin a three-day blitz on twitter and youtube. organizers are asking facebook users to turn their profile pictures to a purple ribbon. powell went missing on december 7th, and police have focused on her husband, although he's not officially a suspect in her disappear asbestos. he said he was camping with their young sons at the time his wife went missing. one of the two nba players who reportedly drew a gun in a team locker room is talking to the media.

gilbert arenas talked to reporters yesterday but didn't get into too many details. arenas was very careful with his words saying that he used bad judgment in bringing guns into the washington wizards locker room. arenas also said that he does not gamble and that there are misconceptions in the various reports about the dispute between himself and teammate javaris crittendon. he was not go do into detail about other parts of the investigation but he did tell reporters he has a meet with law enforcement authorities tomorrow. >> do you feel there's a perception that things went wrong here and someone pulled a gun on someone. it's not true. everyone -- >> i can't, you know, speak on that. but, you know, if you know me, you've been here, i never did anything violent. anything i, do it's funny. well, it's funny to me. >> the wizards are certainly not laughing. they sign arenas to a six-year, $111 million contract in 2008. depending on the severity of the

findings in this investigation, they could attempt to void the remainder of that contract. a u.s. snowboarding champion is in critical condition today after training accident left him with a traumatic brain injury. kevin pierce was hurt thursday as he trained in park city, utah, for next week's olympic qualifying events. his spokeswoman says pooers was in the middle of a maneuver when he landed on his head. their main concern is monitoring his brain for signs of swelling. they say pearse has a long recovery ahead of him. elton john's musical style has little in common with eminem's, but there is one thing they do share. a personal struggle with addiction. how the british superstar is helping the rapper.

ireporter ryan hartman got marry than we expected while taping a new year's eve fireworks show in thailand. one of the ignited shells misfired and fell back on to

other fireworks. hartman says some were screaming in panic while others were cheering. he saw some people with minor burns but luckily no serious injuries. china could end up dealing with its coldest winter in 40 years. snow has been causing major trouble in china since friday. there's been so much of it that traffic in beijing is barely moving. a lot of people are trying to get back into the city after the long holiday weekend. beijing's airport is a mess and many highways have been shut down. and the forecast doesn't call for any breaks. temperatures are forecast to stay below zero for the next week. so what's another inch or

four. yeah, that's how much snow people in rhode island could get today on top of the 7 to 10 inches that's already fallen over parts of the northeast. most main roads were cleared for drivers, but the side streets in many neighborhoods were covered with snow. some people, though, took that as an opportunity to make some money. >> we are cleaning snow for money. shoveling, helping people and everything, if they need help, we shovel for $5 or $10. >> we've been fortunate it's been weekends. and, therefore you know, it doesn't happen where you have to go to work. >> we're doing whatever we can. like even today, we've been really judicious about how we're doing. calling in a few people so that we can keep the main roads and the hilly roads salted and sanded. >> and that snow in rhode island is expected to end by tomorrow. and temperatures should get a little warmer. a delta flight from boston to new york returned to logan international airport when a pilot smelled smoke in the cockpit. a delta spokesman says the pilot turned back eight minutes into the flight.

the odor was gone by the time the plane landed back in boston and all of the passengers were rebooked on a later flight. delta is investigating the cause of the smoke smell. the fire is finally out at an oil well near austin, texas, but it wasn't easy to do. that fire started yesterday afternoon with two 500-barrel tanks. crews moved in but had to pull back because it was too dangerous. the flames spread to a few other tanks but they were finally extinguished by early evening. about 2,000 barrels of oil burned. now it's not clear how the fire started, but no one was hurt. one of the last survivors of the 1906 san francisco earthquake has died. jeannette trapani died of pneumonia last week at the age of 107. her funeral will be held. she was not even 4 when the quake struck. her daughter says her mother never forgot the horrific events

of that day. >> she always told the story that she remembered very clearly. my grandfather picking her up and rushing her across to an empty lot across the street so that the building wouldn't fall on her. what she remembered was the smoke. that there was a tremendous amount of smoke in the air. she said she remembers the smell of smoke. >> the april 18th quake was followed by uncontrolled fires that burned for days. they destroyed much of san francisco. this is neat. a small piece of history from the south pole was found. researchers have recovered what they believe is the first airplane to ever visit antarctica. it arrived there in 1912. explorer douglas mawson hoped to stage the first airplane flight over the frozen continent but the wings were damaged in a crash before the expedition got under way. so he removed them and used the aircraft as a tractor to haul gear. when that broke down, it was abandoned near commonwealth bay. singer elton john and eminem are working together, but not on

a new album but to help the rapper fight his drug problem. john told the bbc he's been helping eminem battle his addiction for more than a year. john is a recovered drug abuser himself. eminem has written publicly about his past substance abuse problems. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke says the best way to prevent financial bubbles is through tighter regulation. but he says it's not the only way. and that may be necessary to raise interest rates again to prevent what he calls dangerous build-ups of risk. now some critics blame the federal reserve for causing the recent housing bubble. they say the central bank held interest rates too low for too long. but in a speech before the american economic association's annual meeting, bernanke defended the fed's actions calling the links between low interest rates and rising home prices, quote, weak. blind mice are helping researchers see a bright future for humans with incurable eye

diseases. what's working in the lab and how quickly it could come to market.