making news in america this morning, tough questions in the aftermath of the christmas day terror plot. we have exclusive, new imimages of the bomb itself. are more needed to keep passengers safe? and frozen out. the bears deal the vikings another setback in a back and forth monday night battle. it's tuesday, december 29th, 2009. good morning. we thank you for joining us on this tuesday. the white house is facing increasing criticism this morning over missed signals in the christmas day bomb plot.

now, congress will hold hearings on the issue next month. >> we're learning now details about the suspect and how close he came to carrying out the mission. viviana hurtado is joining us from washington with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, vinita and jeremy. one lawmaker says there's enough blame to go around. one priority is revamping security policies to prevent another attack. many questions linger after the christmas day foiled terror attack. the obama administration is looking for answers. and vowing to impre a flawed system. >> a thorough review, not only of awe the subject was handled. but of the watch system. >> reporter: 23-year-old umar mutallab, was able to board the flight with the explosives in his undergarments. if the bomb had not malfunctioned, it could have caused an explosion seen in this

government demonstration, that would have downed the aircraft. >> we ended up with a bomb on a plane, with a detonator, ready to go off. >> reporter: hearings are scheduled to delve into the missed signals. as officials return to washington from their recess. >> all of these are red flags. warning signals. bell should have gone off. this was a failure and break down from beginning to end. >> reporter: an i fill yat in yemen posted this picture on the web. he was able to slip past security barriers. >> yemen is in many ways the new afghanistan. it's the new al qaeda base, where people who want to be trained are sent. >> reporter: and according to reports, abdulmutallab turned to the internet for counseling. he wrote on an online forum that he was lonely. >> thanks, viviana. there are new additional

restrictions for those flying from cana to the u.s. canadian officials are banning most carry-on bags from u.s.-bound flights. passengers may only carry certain medical devices. cameras, laptops, diaper bags or other approved items. already, some of the other new inflight restrictions are being eased up. it is now up to the captain of each flight to decide what guidelines passengers must follow. and there's new security measures in place at the nation's airports. here's david muir. >> reporter: for traveler, the security changes have been hard to miss. lara setrakian, with her own camera, flying from montreal, canada, to new york's jfk airport. a two-hour delayefore taking off. not because of weather. but because of increased security. >> the new security procedures take an estimated five to seven minutes per person. they're checking every carry-on bag by hand.

and giving every passenger a patdown. >> reporter: a patdown for everyone. digital reporter alex marquardt flew from geneva to new york city today. >> we were told if we had to use the restroom, we had to do so then because we wouldn't be able to get out of our seats for the last hour. the in-flight map was replaced with a tv show. >> reporter: it's part of the so-called one-hour rule, up to the airlines. if imposed, no passenger can get up during the final hour of a flight. and no blankets or pillows on your lap, like the suspect used to hide explosives. and the in-flight maps to tell you how much time is left. on many international flights they're turning the map office. will the additional measures make a difference? with all of the changes already. the elimination of the pillows and blankets. the second patdown in some cases. would any of these changes prevented this man? >> in my condition, no.

a patdown would not have identified what he was carrying. the map only told him about where he was in flight. >> reporter: so many travelers appreciating the effectiveness. take the in-flight map, for example. many asking by turning it off, how is that to change a potential bomber's plans? the tsa, the government now backing off the restrictions, leaving it up to the airlines themselves. and the captains, who can decide how many of the restrictions they want to impose, depending on the flight. david muir, abc news, new york. at his news conference in hawaii yesterday, president obama condemned what he called iran's iron fist of brutality. that came in the wake of sunday's crackdown on demonstrators in tehran, that killed at least eight people. the u.s. is reaching out to other nations in an attempt to build support for new sanctions against iran. china has exkuded a british man for drug smuggling. akmal shaikh was arrested for

bringing heroin into china. his family says he was fooled into carrying the drugs. north korea is confirming it has taken into custody a u.s. missionary who may have entered the country illegally. activists say robert park went to the communist nation, to call attention to human rights abuses. the north koreans say park entered illegally on christmas eve. back here, a tragic fire in starkville, mississippi, has killed nine people. all for living in the second-floor residence here. investigators say the blaze started in the living room, which neighbors say blocked the only escape route. arson is not suspected. it is another stuff day for drivers trying to get around upstate new york. >> blowing snow creating wite-out conditions in buffalo and syracuse yesterday. and an additional foot of snow is expected by tonight. and winds whipping up to 40 miles per hour. and now, for this morning's weather from around the nation.

the snow and gusty winds hitting upstate new york extend from michigan to new england. six inches of snow from the southern rockies into oklahoma, kansas and north texas. some rain in south texas. and rain and mountain snow in the northwest. >> 44 in seattle. 32 in boise. 27 in salt lake city. 15 in fargo. 19 in the twin cities. miami gets up to 68. and new orleans, 54. and when we come back, some hot deals from general motors. but there's something of a catch. that's part of the business news, straight ahead. and a machine that performs a virtual strip search at airports.

it is time, now, for a check of market activity, starting overseas. tokyo's nikkei average was up slightly. hong kong's hang seng is up in late trading. in london, the ftse is gaining ground in early trading. wall street starts the day with the dow jones industrial average at 10,547, after gaining almost 27 points yesterday. the nasdaq index picked up 5 points to close at 2291. well, maybe you're trying to figure out what to do with those unwanted holiday gifts. check your credit card policy. you may be in luck. certain visa, mastercard and american express customers can send their unwanted gifts to their credit card companies and get a refund. it could be very useful when a retailer won't take the gifts back. now, not all customers can get

the refunds. only those with specific, exclusive credit card deals. the new ceo of bank of america says he wants to revise how his company handles credit cards. brian moynihan said the company needs to rely less on credit bank of america is the oans. second-biggest credit card company. but it lost billions on bad credit card debt this year. gm is holding a saturn and pontiac firesale. general motors wants to unload cars from those two brands, which are being discontinued. the automaker told them it will pay them $7,000 for every pontiac or saturn sold. the offer lasts until january 4th. new york city residents can buy iphones on the at&t website. it's unclear why the sales wouldn't go through over the weekend.

at&t has blamed network congestion, online frad and dified promotions. it looks light it was a tough year for artists that run ponzi schemes. 2008 was a bad year when bernie madoff's multibillion-dollar ponzi scheme was 1 of 40 to collapse. but this year, 170 separate ponzi schemes came down. investors lost a tot of $16.5 million. >> little was said about the other 150 or so. >> they certainly had a lot of money. when we come back, the controversy over what is being called the naked scanner. and a new wrinkle in the relationship between bristol palin and her former fianc

now, a look at the road conditions you can expect this morning.

snow-covered roads in michigan and upstate new york. windy on i-95, from boston down to washington, d.c. slippery today in the rockies and the southern plains. and wet on i-5 in the northwest. >> if you are flying today, expect delays in seattle, san francisco and salt lake city. also in texas, detroit, cincinnati and the northeast. and here is the latest on the christmas day terror plot. the white house is facing increasing criticism over mixed signals about the suspected bomber. now, congress says it will hold hearings on the issue next month. abc news has obtained these exclusive photos of the bomb smuggled on to the flight. >> al qaeda, in addition to claiming responsibility, is now promising another attack. and it says its attempt to bring down a jetliner was in retaliation for air strikes in yemen. but those air strike took place after the suspect bought his >> our david wright shows us a

machine that might have worked. >> reporter: they're called whole-body imaging machines. nicknamed naked scanners because they do a virtual strip search. >> you are now entering a safety zone. >> reporter: technology plucked straight from science fiction movies, that's already a reality at 20 u.s. airports as parts of a tsa pilot program. the agency hopes one day these devices might replace walk-through metal detectors. they work by beaming high-frequency radio waves to create an image of your whole body. one manufacturer showed us the procedure is quick and painless. >> a few seconds. >> reporter: about the same time to walk through a metal detector. >> yes. >> reporter: and any object will stand out. >> you have a bottle of liquid in your breast pocket. >> naipolish remover. >> reporter: this type of machine would have spotted last

week's underwear bomb. >> the technology is important to meet the threats we're facing now. >> they show you naked. it's an tomically direct image of the human body. >> including breast implants, body piercings and other features that people night not want to advertise. some now say we can't afford to be squeamish anymore. >> you've got to learn to live with that, just as we've learned to live with all kinds of other things that people thought were privacy invasions when they first occurred. >> reporter: there's two tsa-approved companies that make these types of devices. both of them working hard to address the privacy concerns. you see on my scan, not much in the way of identifiable features. features are that identified to the particular passenger. but its would take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to put these machines at every checkpoint in all 450 airports across the country.

david wright, abc news, arlington, virginia. there are new details about actor charlie sheen's christmas day arrest. in an affidavit, his wife says sheen put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her when she wanted a divorce. the 44-year-old sheen told police his wife has a drinking problem. and bristol palin and levi johnston are battling it out over their 1-year-old child. the daughter of sarah palin, wants sole custody and scheduled visits. palin and johnston broke off the engagement shortly after the son was born. and as you've heard, relations between the families have been strained. to say the least. it is a big day for the temple university football team. >> the owls playing their first bowl game in 30 years today. they'll take on ucla in the eaglebank bowl. it starts at 4:30 p.m. eastern on espn.

>> highlights now from will selva at espn news. >> good morning. "monday night football" between the bears and the vikings turned out to be a thriller. brett favre and company at one point in time were down 23-6. but come roaring back. favre, sidney rice. we head to overtime. in o.t., bears lining up on the 45-yard field goal to win the game. robbie gould misses its. so, the vikings still have life. adrian peterson would fumble the ball. first play, first play for the bes. cutler, to amadou. the bears, 36-30, as adrian peterson stares in disbelief. hoops now. kobe bryant and the lakers, in phoenix to take on the suns. kobe, dropping 34 on phoenix. lakers were down 42-36. third quarter, suns up by six.

steve nash, 16 points. also had 13 dimes. 73-64, suns. time winding down in the quarter. lakers down a dozen. kobe, rejected by robin lopez. fourth quarter, suns up comfortably by 15. jared dunleavy, streaming. suns win it 118-103. that'll do it for this espn news update. now, back to new york and "america this morning." >> our thanks to espn. you could say they have a unique way of clring the air in purr rue. >> basically around this time every year, folks with differences to settle get together just to duke it out. it's a very face-to-face and hand-to-hand way of leaving their troubles behind and entering the new year with a clean slate. >> after it's all done, they all have a big party. >> and forgive each other, we hope. >> hopefully. up next, the stories we'll be following today, including

the latest on the terror plot investigation. and from times square, a yu newsweek test being done today, as the countdown to the new year rolls on. how were your holidays? great! lots of mom's rich food. a little irregular, sluggish. that was me. but now i'm eating better plus activia every morning. i feel great. take the activia challenge now. it works, or it's free. if you want to see the weather ahead, push here.

if you want to access 10 gigs of music you just downloaded to your hard drive, push here. and if you want to pull away from it all, you can push here. nav and entertainment system on the 2010 lacrosse. from buick. it's the new class of world class. with all the pet hair in the air my eyes would really itch. but now i have new zyrtec® itchy ee drops. no other allergy itchy eye drop works faster or longer.

zyrtec® itchy eye drops work fast i can love the air™. (announcer) find it in the allergy aisle. now, a look ahead to the stories we'll be watching on this tuesday. there's new demands for answers in morning in the failed christmas day bombing plot. congress is bound to hold hearings next month on what, if any, signals were missed. there is technology that

might have spotted the explosives taken on that flight. concerns about privacy have kept the machines from becoming mandatory. britain is criticizing china eakes execution of a brain man for drug smuggling. his family says akmal shaikh was mentally unstable. china is brushing off the criticism. upstate new york is bracing today, on top of the foot or so already on the ground. it will be another day of whiteout conditions. a report is released this morning on how the nation's shopping malls fared during the holiday shopping season. overall, retail sales were up over 3.5% compared to last year. and it is time for a test run for all that new year's eve confetti. testers in times square will drop hand fulls of paper with messages in over 20 languages. and for some of you, your

local news is up next. >> for everyone else, "america this morning" continues after this. whoo! i'm doing another one of my sleep studies. looks like aches and pains are keeping these people up. so... advil® pm or tylenol® pm? middle of the night. awake again? blissfully asleep. with advil® pm she is spending less time lying awake with aches and pains and more time asleep®. he should switch to advil® pm. the difference is a better night's sleep. some washed mirrors with soap. others, dove. ( water running, gasp ) soap leaves soap scum. you can't see it on your skin, but you can see it here. dove is different. skin is soft, smooth, soap-scum free. finally fr

finally from us this morning, funny-faced clowns step aside. >> cirque berzerk is a circus that lives on the dark side. >> you might want to leave your little ones at home. abc's mike von fremd took in the show. ♪ >> reporter: it's called cirque berzerk. truly, the circus reimagined. produced straight out of hollywood. a dark, seductive play, part circus, part love story. and it crewly is as berserk as the same suggests. before the show start, you get a frightening preview of that dark side. after hours of makeup, costumes, warming up and a preshow group huddle, it's showtime.

>> we begin with a girl. >> reporter: but for all the glitz, the show takes place in downtown l.a. far from beverly hills. and has provided valuable jobs to a place that needs the most. and at a time when people are holding tight on to their jobs, the co-founders quit their former gigs as tv producers and editors, to invest it all in this show. >> i was the single-biggest investor into the circus, yes. >> reporter: you put the mother lode into this. >> yes. i put a significant portion of our savings into this circus. >> repter: you risked your future. >> yes. absolutely, i did. >> reporter: well, the risk is paying off. and with the reviews in, this audience is not just thrilled. >> it's gorgeous. it's scary. it's literally one of the best shows around. >> reporter: and the word of mouth so far is priceless. >> it's worth it.