>> glor: tonight, freed american hiker sarah shourd is flying back to the united states, amid speculation about the fate of her two companions still being held by iran. i'm jechg also tonight, palin's power. what are unclear are her plans for the 2012 presidential race so what was she doing in iowa? pope benedict expresses sorrow and shame of the sex abuse scandal during his controversial visit to england. >> they're massive. they're huge. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: good evening.

a journey that began with a mountain hike more than a year ago is concluding tonight with a long flight toward home. released american hieger sarah shourd left oman today for dubai, while her two fellow hikers remained prisoners in iran. what's next for them? michelle miller has more. >> reporter: after more than 13 months in captivity, sarah shourd is on her way home tonight. before leaving oman she expressed appreciation and hope to the nation that help broker her release. >> i will always associate your country with the first breath of my freedom. >> reporter: shourd arrived in oman tuesday, the arab nation an ally of both the u.s. and iran, mediating the half million dollar bail that was part of her release. it may have saved her life. her morclaims shourd has a lump on her breast and precancerous cervical cells but she laefdz behind the men she was arrested with last year, her fiance shane bauer and their friend josh

fattal, all three aciewldzed of spying in july of 2009 after iran claimed they crossed the border. >> these two young men have been held without cause now... >> reporter: secretary of state hillary rodham clinton says she's continuing diplomat negotiations for their freedom through third parties. >> it would be a very significant humanitarian gesture for the iranians to release th them. >> reporter: but on iranian tv, president mahmoud ahmadinejad called on america to offer the olive branch. he wants the release of 11 iranians he claims are being held captive by the u.s. shourd made no mention of her yearlong ordeal inside tehran's notorious evin prison. she chose, instead, to talk about the future. >> it would be a pleasure to return to oman, and it is my deep the, deep the hope that i will be able to show shane and josh the grand mosque soon, one of the most peaceful and powerful places of worship i have ever seen.

>> reporter: shourd will have a news conference tomorrow here in new york. her supporters say it's time to coincide with the iranian president's arrival here. he is set to attend the u.n. general assembly. jeff. >> glor: in washington, president obama today challenged senate republicans to allow a vote on a bill to limit corporate and union campaign contributions. in his weekly media address, mr. obama called the g.o.p. opposition, "politics at the worst." >> the special interests want to take congress back and return to the days when lobbyists wrote the laws. and a partisan minority in congress is hoping their defense of these special interests and the status quo will be rewarded with a flood of negative ads against their opponents. >> glor: a straw poll today at the values voters summit in washington has indiana congressman mike pence in the lead for the 2012 presidential nomination with 24% of the vote, just ahead of mike huckabee with

22%. mitt romney is third with 13%, followed by newt gingrich with 10, and sarah palin with seven. palin was in iowa last night delivering a much-watched speech that has many wondering what she's planning next. dean reynolds is in des moines. >> we don't need t to fundamentally transform america. we need to restore america. >> reporter: sarah palin's appearance in iowa, the state that sometimes sends presidential hopefuls aloft or quickly down to earth, capped a week with her at the center of the political stage in the role of insurgent cheerleader. >> it's time for no more business as usual. it is time to take our country back. >> reporter: true to her word, palin has been pushing republican renegaded to victory over more establishment choices. christine o'donnell's stunning upset in the delaware g.o.p. senate primary... >> thank you, governor pailen. >> reporter: ...would probably not have happened without the former alaska governor's blessing. >> when she decide to get involved in an election, her

star power does something for candidates. >> reporter: but questions linger with some she endorses. in kentucky rand paul walked into political quicksand by questioning civil rights law. in nevada sharon engel demand a debate with harry reid when she was behind in the polls but backed out when she pulled even. in delaware, o'donnell's personal finances are under scrutiny, and today she abruptly canceled an appearance on "face the nation" set for tomorrow. and yet she had many fans in the crowd of state party activists friday night. >> among a lot of the folks there was a sense she was mistreated during the 2008 campaign, that she can't get a fair shake from the media today. >> reporter: indeed, attacking the news media took up four minutes of palin's speech in des moines. >> we've got to hold the press accountable when you know that they're making things up and telling untruths. >> reporter: palin did not tip her hand on future plans friday night, tell the crowd to focus on november 2010 and worry about

2012 another time. but as she left the stage, she had a brief chat with reporters and told the "new york times,," i want to get back to iowa soon." dean reynolds, cbs news, des moines. >> glor: joininginous from washington is political analyst john dickerson. john, good evening to you. i know sarah palin just said, as dean mentioned, she's telling her supporters to focus on 2010, not 2012. but at this early stage is there anything we can gene glean about the 2012 presidential election based on what's happening now? >> anybody who wants to run for the nomination of the republican party in 2012 will have to do a balancing act. they'll have to court establishment interest to get money and organizational helps and endorsements but also tea party activists who have been at odds with the establishments. you can over-read these new moments in politics but the tea party activists have shown one thing in these primaries -- they're keeping scores. republicans who ignored them are now can kaput.

presidential candidates, if they get the tea party seal of approval, the problem then is getting independents who participate in presidential years more than off-year elections and how they'll get those independents after courting the tea party will be the big challenge. >> glor: talking about the tea party candidates whether sharon engel in nevada or rand paul in kentucky or christine o'donnell in delaware, how electable are they right now? if they want to win what do they have to do before november? >> it depends on the state,sh, and. how of a a new vote they need outside of their core supporters. it used to be you had to appeal to your core supporters and then kind of move to the middle in the general election. but that's just the kind of thing that irtaits tea party activists. so these candidates are going to have to figure out if they can either pick up some independent voters who have shown they don't exactly like the tea party candidates or create such a sense of enthusiasm among tea party activists that they don't need too many independent votes. >> glor: it will be interesting to watch. john dickerson joins us from

washington, john, thank you. overseas, pope benedict prayed with people in london with people who had been sexually abiewlzed by priests but today thousands still protested the church's handling of the crisis. we have more from elizabeth palmer. >> reporter: it was on day three of pope benedict's visit at mass in london's catholic cathedral that he addressedly the sexual abuse of children in some of his most direct comment yet. >> above all, i express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes. >> reporter: after the service in private, the pope met with five british victims of arb biews. a vatican statement said he told them the church is doing all in its power to bring to justice clergy accused of these egregious crimes. but critics simply don't believe it. >> the pope has made many apologies, but he always apologizes for other people and

their failings, never for his own. he knew about child sex abuse for years and years and years and 99% of cases he failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. >> reporter: among the roughly 10,000 protesters who marched through central london were also dissenting catholics who believe the pope is stubbornly out of touch with modern society. still, as this visit draws to an end, there have been fewer protesters than pilgrims. tonight, left-hand's hyde park filled with the faithful who gathered for a prayer vigil and spiritual guidance from the man they believe is god's representative on earth. on friday, the police arrested six men under the terrorism act, suspected of a plot to harm the pope. five of them were of north african origin, and they worked as street cleaners so could have passed inconspicuously.

however, the police haven't charged them yet, and they say they haven't turned up anything in significant in their investigation, either. jeff. >> glor: elizabeth palmer in left-hand, liz, thank you. still ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, after the storm in new york city's tornado alley.

>> glor: hurricane igor has set itssitis squarely on the island of bermuda tonight. bermuda residents are busy preparing for igor which is expected to hit late tomorrow with heavy rains and winds over 100 miles per hour. in mexico, what's left of hurricane karl is still generating drenching rains the there. five people have died in mudslides and flooding and thousand have been forced from their homes. the national weather service confirmed last night the powerful storms that battered new york city on thursday

included two tornadoes, a very rare occurrence as we hear now from tony guida. >> reporter: to their notoriously colorful vocabulary, new yorkers have two new entries-- tornadoes and nak row bursts. >> oh, my god! >> it was very, very frightening. >> this is a tornado. >> reporter: two tornadoes roared through nine minutes apart in the rush hour thursday evening. they packed winds up to 100 miles per hour, toppling trees, smashing windows, lifting the roofs off houses and stores. >> it seems like 30 seconds, and i came downstairs to check, and this whole street was totally destroyed. >> reporter: one minute this street was clear. in an eyeblink it was engulfed by wind and rain. >> it came right through portions of new york city, not manhattan, but right across staten island, into brooklyn, into queens. >> reporter: the tornadoes claimed thousands of trees, tossing them around like kindling, smashing them to the ground as the storms roared northeastward through the city's outer observers.

it was more than 38 hours another that the powerful storm knocked this tree on to this house in queens. the homeowner tells me he is very angry. he wants this tree out of here now but he's had no response from city officials or other emergency teams. the storm's heaviest punch came from the macroburst with its 125-mile-per-hour winds. the national weather service defines macrobursts as an intense gust of wind in a straight line that pours down from a storm. this one was eight miles long and five miles wide. given the city's dense pop haitian, it's remarkable that few people were hurt and just one killed, a woman sitting in her car with her husband. tony guida, cbs news, new york. >> glor: in the gulf tonight, b.p. crews have plugged that blown-out well with 74 barrels of cement. pending results of final pressure and weight tests on the seal, officials overnight could declare the well dead almost five months after it began gushing and set off the worst

offshore oil spill in u.s. history. just ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, educating afghan girls with the help of a few cups of tea.

>> glor: afghan officials say taliban attacks killed at least 11 civilians during today's parliamentary elections. turnout was estimated at 40%, with 3.6 million voters taking part. the voting was generally peaceful in most pace places. there were numerous claims of irregularities and fraud. in a war zone like afghanistan talking to the taliban may sound like a futile strategy yet that's what one american does, in some cases with surprising results. that is the focus of tonight's weekend journal-- what one volunteer has accomplished with just a few cups of tea. greg mortenson's success begins

with failure. an attempt to climb k-2, the second highest mountain on earth, became a lost cause. when he became disoriented and stumbled into a primitive village in the far reaches of pakistan, the villagers took him in, and in return, mortenson promised to build them a school. that was 17 years ago. today, 145 schools later, mortenson has helped educate 64,000 children in the most remote areas of pakistan and afghanistan. 90% of them are girls. your focus for these 17 years has been on girls' education primarily. why is that? >> i'm educating girls, it decreases mortality, reduces the population explosion, improves the quality of health and life and the best investment one can make in any society is investing in girls' education. >> glor: morton son's bestselling book "three cups of tea,"" describes the art of negotiating with villagers in

pakistan to build schools on their own terms, lessons mortenson eventually took with him to afghanistan. >> you can start schools where there's a lot of taliban but it's because we have the relationships with the elders, but it took a lot of cups of tea to get there. for peace and hope for all the world. >> glor: it is mortenson's knowledge of tribal realities that brought about a deepening relationship with the united states military, a collaboration that began after the wives of the top brass recommended "three cups of tea." >> they said, "honey, you ought to read this book." admiller mullen's wife, debra, put the book on his pedestrian side stand. holly petraeus gave "three cups of tea" to general petraeus and they read the book and contacted me. >> glor: the book, which details village conditions, is now mandatory reading among senior american military commanders. mortenson has set up three dozen leaders between military leaders and tribal elders. mortenson's work sometimes means tea with the enemy. >> in order to do our good work, we have to deal with a lot of

shady people, and i-- i pass no judgment on anybody as long as they want to help get their children in school. >> glor: mortenson tells the story of trying to convince some taliban members to open a new school, a deal that was struck over a swing set. >> they threw down their weapons and for an hour and i have they jumped on the swings and had a glorious time. their turbans were flying all over the place. when they got done they said, "we're ready to build a girls' school." >> glor: mortenson said none of the schools he has helped establish have been shut down or destroyed by the taliban and credits that to local community involvement. villagers donate land and materials and run the schools themselves. we'll be right back.

>> glor: today the people of chile celebrated the 200th anniversary of their country's

independence from spain while the miners trapped a mile underground celebrated wildly when a foot-wide rescue drill broke through to the chamber where they'd taken refuge after the mine collapsed. wreck iewrs will work to expand the hole to 28 inches to bring up all 33 miners one by one. lindsay lohan could be facing more jail time for violating terms of her probation. the 24-year-old actress admitted on her twitter page she failed a recent court-ordered drug and alcohol test, though she did not say what substance was involved. an american soldier in afghanistan couldn't make it home for his child's birth but he still managed to witness that big event. great story. when kim race of braintree, massachusetts, went into labor this week, she notified her husband on facebook. sergeant jason race was soon in the delivery room watching son logan being born over the internet have a skype. >> it was like he was there, except for the fact i couldn't touch him, you know. but it was definitely-- he was definitely there in the room. he's like,"you're doing great, babe. i love you.

i wish i was there." >> glor: kim said he saw everything. it was awesome. it took special permission from the army and hospital to make that all possible. up next on tonight's cbs evening news. whale watchers' delight. why

y. >> glor: finally tonightap arb mazing show is unfolding off california from santa monica bay to newport and anyone can watch. all you need is a sture boat and a healthy sense of awe. bill whitaker takes us out on the water. >> reporter: off the coast of southern california, the hunt is on. >> huge. >> reporter: for a rare, upclose look at the largest creature on earth. >> whoa! >> reporter: the 90-foot-long blue whale. >> they're massive! they're huge! >> reporter: in recent weeks the big blues have been putting on a whale of a show. >> this is as good as it gets out here. >> reporter: they're fluky and frolicking with their young. >> i've been working on the

water for 23 years right now, and this is the first time i've ever seen a congregation of blue wind chills like this. >> reporter: these massive whales have made a hiewng comeback. they were hunted nearly to extinction 50 years ago. now more than 2,000 of them spend their summers off the california coast. veteran whale watchers say they've never seen so many so close to shore. >> about 200 or more blue whales between santa monica bay and newport and is very unusual. >> reporter: they're here for the seafood buffet. they eat tiny shrimp-like krill every day and these days the krill... >> it going bananas. there's massive amountes of krill and not only krill in many areas but concentrating at the surface so the blue whales are spending a lot of time at the surface and very close to shore. >> reporter: when is also cause for concern. the whales are swimming near some of the nation's busiest shipping lanes. in the past three years, at least six have been killed by ship strikes.

scientists want to know why so they're rushing out to sea to tag and track the whales. >> there's a hint that they actually come and spend more time near the surface when they perceive a threat and so our concern is that might make them more vulnerable to ship strikes as well. >> reporter: on board whale watching ships, the reaction is purdelight. three-year-old isabella branscombe has a new favorite activity-- whale spotting. >> the whale's coming! >> reporter: but the show won't last forever. the whales could high tail it out of these waters any day. bill whitaker, cbs news, los angeles. >> glor: that is the cbs evening news tonight. later on cbs, "48 hours mystery." russ mitchell will be here tomorrow night. i'm jeff glor, cbs news in new york. good night. 7

hear from his family and his doctor. a bay area person is paralyzed after a terrible fall. tonight we hear from the family and the doctor. as a bay area remembers a young life lost in a san bruno explosion, tonight the new lawsuit filed against pg&e. muslims kwraobt in the bay area despite acts against their religion. cbs 5 eyewitness news is next. ,, ring ring. progresso. everyday i eat your soups, i save a lot of money. that's great. so, your rich and hearty soups have made me, rich and hearty. that's funny. i'm hearty because of your juicy steak, your potatoes... you're really, rich and happy. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.