>> even if one of us wins it we are still coming back to work for the 6:00 news. >> of course. >> of course. >> maybe not. >> bye. on our broadcast tonight, backlash. world leaders converge on paris with millions of people in a show of solidarity against terrorism, but where was the american delegation from the president on down? tonight, the white house forced to admit it made a mistake. armed and dangerous. the global hunt for the woman who escaped to syria, and why authorities nhink the terrorists had a lot more help as security is again stepped up here at home. and game night, something we've never seen before. the championship millions of fans have been asking for for years. will it really settle things once and for all? also, our monday night "making a difference" report. "nightly news" begins now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian williams.

good evening. it was the largest crowd in the modern history of paris, a crowd not seen since the liberation of paris from the nazis in world war ii. an estimated 1.5 million people showed up in defiance of terrorism. and leading the march with arms locked together many of the leaders of the free world. missing from the picture was the man so often referred to as the leader of the free world, president obama. no sign of him, vice president biden or secretary of state john kerry. and today the white house admitted it was a mistake. they said they should have sent someone of higher rank than the u.s. ambassador to france to stand with the rest of the world in solidarity. it's where we begin tonight with our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. >> reporter: it was an event so powerful it united enemies. israel's netanyahu in the grip of a security man at each elbow only a few arm lengths from the

palestinian president abbas. at least 44 world leaders in a gathering of more than a million. the highest ranking american official? u.s. ambassador jane hartley. the woman in dark glasses. so far back you can barely pick her out of the crowd. where was president obama sunday? in the white house all day. the vice president, no public schedule, at home in delaware. the attorney general was in paris taping television interviews but didn't join the march. the secretary of state in india sunday and in pakistan today. >> i really think this is sort of quibbling a little bit. >> reporter: tell that to the "new york daily news" and the french press headlining no american in paris sunday, only the u.s. ambassador. not obama nor kerry nor holder. after seeing the worldwide criticism, by early afternoon a chastened white house admitted to the mistakes. >> here at the white house we do believe we should have sent somebody with a higher profile to the march beyond just a u.s. ambassador. >> reporter: was it a diplomatic faux pas?

the french ambassador who joined a similar march in washington with the french foreign head of the international monetary fund christine lagarde was polite. >> from the french side there is absolutely no feeling -- no hard feeling. >> reporter: the president did sign a condolence book at the french embassy in washington last week but no mention today during his public appearances of the extraordinary gathering of his fellow world leaders in france. even some administration officials say the white house simply misjudged the symbolic importance of showing up at that march. the secretary of state will go to paris on thursday after attending meetings in nearby geneva to try to repair the damage. brian. >> andrea mitchell starting us off in our d.c. newsroom tonight. andrea, thanks. now let's move to the investigation. which stretches from paris to the middle east with the french now saying other suspects are still at large. the woman accomplice they were looking for after the attacks has apparently made her way to syria. we have two reports from paris beginning tonight with nbc's

richard engel. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. police here are reportedly still searching for six additional suspects. officials won't comment, but at least one of those suspects has reportedly been linked to that woman who's finally been tracked down. this is the woman, the one in the veil, that all of france has been looking for. it turns out she and a male companion escaped turkey well before the paris attacks. hayat boumeddiene became the most wanted person in france when her husband amedy coulibaly attacked a paris kosher grocery store and professed his allegiance to isis. authorities believe she and coulibaly were partners in terror. today we learned that boumeddiene left france traveling to madrid. and then ten days ago arrived in istanbul where she was spotted by an airport security camera. turkish intelligence followed

her to an istanbul hotel. from there she traveled on to urfa, her cell phone tapped by turkish officials who say they lost contact january 8th when she crossed into syria to the isis-controlled town of tal abyad, far beyond law enforcement's reach. france's prime minister calling the terror threat still present is deploying 10,000 troops and police nationwide. almost half of them to guard jewish schools. the leader of the jewish community here welcomed the extra security but says many jews are considering leaving france. you survived this wave of anti-semitism of targeted anti-jewish rival. >> many people very attached to french culture, but on the other hand you think about the german auschwitz and the pessimists went to new york. >> reporter: the prime minister says without jews france wouldn't be france.

but after last week few things here are the same. richard engel, nbc news, paris. >> reporter: this is bill neely in paris where the survivors of a massacre are back at work. their magazine was attacked, their colleagues were murdered but the cartoonists of the satirical "charlie hebdo" are working on their next issue, under heavy security. >> you try to kill "charlie hebdo"? they make "charlie hebdo" the most famous paper in the world. how stupid they are. you can kill our friends, you cannot kill freedom of speech. >> reporter: the journalists of "charlie" have become heroes their names chanted, but they're not the only ones. the police are being hailed for ending two sieges. no hostages died in the twin assault when police shot the three gunmen who'd killed 17 people. amid the horror here two hostages emerge as heroes. one lived, one died. one a muslim, one a jew.

21-year-old yahv mateb buried in jerusalem tomorrow. he grabbed one of the killer's guns and tried to shoot him, but the gun didn't work. he was shot. this man, a muslim worked in the kosher store and hid his jewish customers in a freezer he'd turned off. they huddled together, one woman clutching her baby as four hostages were killed upstairs. he escaped and told police what was happening inside. the names of the young jewish hero, a muslim policeman shot dead, and the cartoonists murdered are remembered with pride in a city that is shocked but defiant. and the magazine is defiant tonight putting on its latest front page the prophet muhammad holding a sign saying "je suis charlie, i am charlie." it's normal print run is 50,000

not only in french this one 3 million copies in 16 languages. the terrorists, brian, didn't kill "charlie hebdo," they've just made it stronger. >> nbc's bill neely along with richard engel our team in paris. gentlemen, thanks. as we mentioned, here at home security being stepped up again at a number of federal buildings and some major u.s. cities following the terrorist attacks in france. if you're flying, the tsa is doing more random searches now of carry-on bags mostly. and here in new york police are on alert after a posted threat against police and civilians in the u.s. our report on all of it tonight from nbc's stephanie gosk. >> north ready to deploy. >> reporter: the nypd's counterterrorism response is constantly adapting especially after attacks like those in paris. how quickly did you re-deploy? >> within an hour. >> reporter: today one of the hercules units, new york city's elite heavily armed special forces to guard at a jewish museum in manhattan. james waters is the chief of

counterterrorism. >> there's no credible threat to new york city right now, however we remain the number one terrorist target and we're well prepared. >> reporter: on saturday an isis supporter renewed a threat made in the fall calling for attacks on police officers, soldiers and civilians in the u.s., france, canada and australia. the nypd issued a bulletin instructing police to be on alert while on patrol. while stopped, at least one officer must stand outside the vehicle, pay close attention to approaching vehicles and anyone getting out, look for their hands as they approach you. attorney general eric holder worries about lone wolf attacks. >> that is the thing i think keeps me up most at night. >> reporter: since the original isis threat, a lone gunman in canada killed a soldier at the national war memorial. in new york, a man was shot and killed after he attacked two police officers with a hatchet. and in australia, two people were killed when an islamic

extremist stormed a coffee shop. >> these are events that may not be well-coordinated with core al qaeda or isis, but rather smaller attacks that are inspired by them. >> reporter: to prevent another counterterrorism in new york is an around-the-clock operation. today, new york's police commissioner bill bratton says he worries isis will get new recruits with its skilled public relations campaign and that if they post a new video, brian, it could trigger new attacks. >> stephanie gosk in times square new york city, for us tonight. stephanie, thanks. interesting thing happened on this day, the president devoted in part to a cyber security event. centcom was apparently hacked. the u.s. military central command for u.s. operations against forces like isis in iraq and syria, also the war in afghanistan. this hack indicated someone has burrowed inside military computers. it revealed information about top u.s. generals among others. our report tonight from our

pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: in military terms it was a cyber ambush. without warning an unknown group with the hashtag cyber caliphate hijacked the twitter and youtube accounts of the military central command. for 30 minutes the hackers whose message included "i love isis" took control and tweeted threatening messages on centcom's feed. american soldiers we are coming, said one message, watch your back. and posted isis propaganda videos on youtube. >> this really does embarrass the department of defense in the sense it can't even secure its own publicly available website. >> reporter: the hackers also posted names and phone numbers of high ranking generals which are for official use only. but defense officials insist that information was not classified and that no military secrets were compromised. >> the attacks have been extremely embarrassing, but they have caused no long-term damage. and there's no evidence

whatsoever that these hackers have managed to get their hands on classified information. >> reporter: late tonight centcom called the hack attack cyber vandalism, but it's serious enough the fbi is investigating. and since the pentagon and military have thousands of these social media accounts, officials here are confident that many more of those sites are just as vulnerable to an attack, brian. >> all right. jim miklaszewski at the pentagon for us tonight. thanks. there is another terrorist attack in the news, but this one didn't take place in paris or on live television. and there's been no parade of world leaders with arms locked in defiance. this attack reportedly took place in northern nigeria late last week. according to terrorist experts and u.s. officials, as many as 2,000 civilians were massacred. though the nigerian government disputes that number. the clear suspect, the jihadist group boko haram. and the horrors continued through the weekend in nigeria, a pair of bombings at marketplaces killed at least 19 people.

the method of attack was apparently among the most despicable imaginable, using girls as young as 10 years of age to carry suicide bombs. tonight, search teams in the java sea have recovered one of the black boxes from that airasia flight 8501. the flight data recorder has been pulled from underneath one of the wings of the plane. it will now be analyzed in indonesia for clues as to how the plane crashed. searchers have also located the other black box, the cockpit voice recorder. they're working now to dislodge it from beneath the wreckage. still ahead on a monday evening, championship fever. the excitement building for tonight's culmination of one of the more exciting football weekends of the year. also, "making a difference" for a lot of brave kids after an unimaginable loss. parents honor their daughter's final wish in a very big way.

what a weekend it was for football. four nfl playoff games, plenty of drama including a cowboys catch that was ruled not to be, what may have been peyton manning's final game after a brilliant career and the seismology results proving seattle fans did in fact make the earth move. and tonight, again, a major football event. oregon versus ohio state for what the new playoff system has determined to be the ncaa national championship in a game unlikely to stop the argument

over who the best team is in college football. our report tonight from nbc's ron mott. >> reporter: call it the battle of os. ohio state versus oregon. this year's combatants in college football's relentless war of words about who's the best in the land. >> hey, it's the ducks, baby. >> go bucs all the way. >> reporter: while the ducks or buckeyes will have official bragging rights come morning, the debate over number one is sure to rage on. >> let's go bucs! >> reporter: for decades fans have clambered for a playoff similar to how the pros crown a champion. >> everyone wants to know who's the really number one. >> reporter: they finally get their wish, a game hyped to rival tv's biggest draw, the super bowl which attracts more than 100 million viewers. and yet the complaints continue. four teams were invited into the tournament, including florida state and alabama. others snubbed, some say, like

baylor and texas christian. >> it's an imperfect way to do it, but the more i'm in it now, this is the only way to do it. >> reporter: bickering, of course is part of college football lore. who can forget undefeated miami in '91 or michigan/nebraska in '97 each considered co-champions leaving many unhappy. now a small committee is on the hook for picking the final four teams, mostly football types. former secretary of state condoleezza rice a notable exception. so no more sharing, no more mythical champions. the title decided once and for all on the field. win or lose, though, in college football it seems the score is never really settled. ron mott, nbc news. back in a moment with the photograph that may have just mistakenly revealed a big secret.

the golden globes are history and a big winner last night was "boyhood," the film that chronicles 12 years in the

life of an actual boy and also features the same actors during that same time. in the tv world something inconceivable a few years ago, amazon picking up two golden globes for its series with jeffrey tambor called "transparent." tina fey and amy poehler hosted they say for the final time and they did an excellent job slicing through hollywood beginning with the newly-married honoree george clooney. >> george clooney married amal alamoudin. amal is the human rights lawyer that worked on the enron case was an adviser to kofi annan regarding syria and was selected for a three-person u.n. commission investigating rules of war vitals in gaza strip. so tonight her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award. [ laughter ] >> to keep it fair, fey and poehler also did material on north korea and bill cosby. back in 1942 buddy huntley

and joseph cham brie enlisted in the air force and became members of the tuskegee airmen the all-black world war ii squadron. both men eventually settled in los angeles. we have both learned that both men died on the same day at the same age. they were both 91 years old. it was just a photo in a car magazine in russia, but there in the background sharp-eyed readers spotted something unique and it's believed to be among the first photos of a secret new class of russian nuclear submarines the ac-12 project. defense experts think that's what it is in the water, but they can't be sure because the sub's appearance has truly remained unknown. when we come back, the parents who fulfilled their daughter's dream of making a difference in the lives of so many children.

tonight, we mark another anniversary of a major event in the news. it's been five years since the devastating earthquake in haiti. five years ago our team was among the first to land there to see the scope of the devastation.

and tonight one member of our team has gone back for an assessment. and what she found was a family that suffered a great loss now making a difference for the people of haiti. their story tonight from our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: even at age 19 britney gengel knew what her life's work would be, helping the children of haiti. on a mission with a student group, she sent her mother this tex message. i already know this is what i want to do with the rest of my life. i want to move here and start an orphanage myself. three hours later the massive earthquake struck. >> we are here united. >> reporter: for weeks her distraught father and fellow parents held out hope their children would be found alive in the rubble. >> these young ladies are intelligent with their whole lives ahead of them. god bless our children tonight. >> reporter: it took 33 days to find britney's body.

>> we included two medical rooms. >> reporter: to honor their daughter's wish, the gengeles built this orphanage, 33 girls and 33 boys. but these children are not up for adoption. the gengels are investing in them believing they can be haiti's leaders of tomorrow. the orphanage has a computer lab where the children sharpen their english and math skills daily. and it's working. >> mirna. >> reporter: what's your favorite subject? >> i like math. >> reporter: you like math? good for you. >> today we honor britney gengel. >> reporter: to protect against another earthquake, this building has been constructed to american standards. their foundation, be like brit, gives these haitian children good food health care and chance to just be kids. >> we came to haiti thinking we were going to help haiti, but haiti has helped us a lot more. >> reporter: out of the darkness of their daughter's death they

have found light, giving these children a chance for a better future. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, haiti. that's our broadcast on a monday night as we begin a new week. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we of course hope to see y nbc bay area news starts now. >> right now at 6:00 gunshots and panic at a chris brown concert in the south bay. the concerns that police expressed before the concert began. thanks for joining us. i'm raj mathai. >> and i'm jessica aguirre. that party came to a quick end at the fiesta nightclub with a controversial and often troubled singer chris brown was performing as part of what was described as a birthday celebration. instead of dancing people were ducking for cover, trying to avoid the bloodshed.

tonight could anything have been done to prevent that gunfire? nbc bay area's marianne favro is outside the club. brown's events have been plagued by lots of problems. that's why people are asking questions about security. >> reporter: this is the third time there has been some kind of violence surrounding a concert or a time when he was out and about in town especially in new york. now, i can tell you that witnesses say after the gunfire erupted here at this nightclub, hundreds of people stampeded toward the front door trying to get out. and tonight there are serious questions about security here. in the middle of his first song on stage, singer chris brown notices trouble in the back of the fiesta nightclub. seconds later, shots ring out. video taken by witnesses shows the chaos that followed as people trampled on each other to race out the front door. 37 seconds later,