>> glor: tonight, for the first time, the president links the accused christmas day airline bomber to al qaeda in yemen. >> al qaeda and in the arabian peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for america. >> glor: i'm jeff glor. also tonight, the new front in the war on mirk. security camera video captures the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old just months after the killing of another student from the same chicago high school. and whale mystery-- why are these giants of the deep massing off california in greater numbers than ever before?

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: good evening. the president today clearly laid the blame for the foiled christmas day airline bombing attempt on al qaeda militants in yemen, and he said the u.s. is stepping up aid to yemen's embattled government. also, cbs news has learned the u.s. is playing a more direct role in yemen's anti-terror war than previously acknowledged. more on that shortly, but first we begin our coverage this even with our chief white house correspondent chip reid who is traveling with the president in hawaii. chip, good evening. >> reporter: well, good evening, jeff. the president did not mince words. for the first time, he directly linked the attempted bombing of flight 253 to al qaeda. >> i will do everything in my power... >> reporter: in his weekly address, the president said his administration is learning more about the 23-year-old nigerian suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab and the time he spent in yemen. >> it appears that 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. >> reporter: that's the first time the president has publicly pointed the finger directly at al qaeda and its faction based in yemen for the christmas day incident. u.s. officials say in recent months, the emotion has dramatically increaseits focus on yemen with with where al qaeda has bombed hotels and embassies, including the u.s. embassy in 2008. the president said u.s. has increased support for the government of the yemen, training and equipping security forces, sharing intelligence sand working with them to attack eabled terrorists. >> training camps have been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted. and all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on christmas must know you, too, will be held to believe. >> reporter: that's a strong indication al qaeda in yemen will be attacked again. speaking in iraq yesterday,

general david petraeus said joint u.s.-yemen operations al qaeda against in december headed off planned terrorist attacks in yemen's capital. >> in one case fordisawling an attack of four suicide bombers. >> reporter: it's believed that attack was aimed at the u.s. embassy. advisers say the president has combined fun and work during his hawaiian vacation. notion family time and golf, he's spending hours every day, they say, reading reports and getting briefed on the investigation. administration officials say they're not ready to put yemen on a level with afghanistan or pakistan in the war on terror, but they clearly are upping the ante significantly. jeff. >> glor: chip reid in honolulu tonight. chip, thank you. as we noted earlier, cbs news has learned u.s. forces are playing a lead role in assaults on al qaeda norsz yemen, which is on the southern-most part of the arabian peninsula. kimberly dozier in washington has more on that part of the story.

story. >> reporter: this is yemeni government video of its u.s.-trained counter-terrorist teams at work. but cbs news has lshed exclusively that recent combined air and ground assaults against al qaeda in december were american-led, according to a u.s. special prayings expert who trains yemeni officers. >> that was very much something executed by the united states but with very heavy support by the yemeni government. it was cruise missile strikes, in combination with military units on the ground, but it was a very disik signal from the obama administration that they are serious in assisting yemen remove these al qaeda facilities from its soil. >> reporter: the target, al qaeda of the arabian peninsula, an affiliate of osama bin laden's group with a popular following in yemen. the yemeni offshoot claimed responsibility for the attempted airliner bombing on christmas day, but american

counter-terrorist teams have been track al qaeda in yemen since the uss "cole" bombing in 2000 and the u.s. military, include the army special forces, has been training yemeni counter-terrorist forces since 1990. the top american commander general david petraeus was reported to have visited yemen's capital. he said the u.s. is about to double the $70 million in aid. i didn't mean me local media report the three strikes on december 17 killed al qaeda targets, including one former guantanamo detainee. more strikes on christmas eve targeted american-born al qaeda cleric anwar al-awlaki. intelligence officials believe he may have helped plan december's attempted airliner bombing, but they believe he survived the attack. they also say stand by for more joint u.s.-yemeni action. now, u.s. officials had kept fairly quiet about the extent of u.s. involvement in these joint attacks but each day now we are learning more, weps more

americans asking what their government is doing to keep them safe in the wake of the christmas day bombing. >> glor: kimberly dozier in washington. in kabul, a political setback for afghanistan's president karzai. the parliament rejected most of karzai's picks to fill his new 24-member cabinet. most turned down were viewed as cronies of karzai. a bit of controversy from five years ago is flaring up again this weekend in denmark where a man has been arrested for trying to kill an artist who drew cartoons of the prophet mohamm mohammed. sheila macvicar has more. >> reporter: carried into the courthouse on a stretcher his face covered to conceal his identity, this is the man police say tried to murder danish cartoonist kurt westergaard. the somali broke into westergaard's home last night wielding an axe and a knife and shouting he wanted to kill him. the car to bist and his

five-year-old granddaughter was able to take shelter in a specially secured bathroom. when the police arrived two minutes later, the would-be killer attacked them, too. police shot him in the knee to stop him. five years another a danish newspaper commissioned a dozen cartoons depicting the prophet mohammed. kurt westergaard drewab image of the prophet with his turbin shaped as a bomb. the publication of th cartoons provoked outrage, attacks on danish embassies, and a boycott of danish products. in 2008, osama bin laden warned that europe and denmark would be punished. westergaard came out of hiding last year in spite of the million-dollar price islamic militants put on his head. he's been under close police protection ever since. that wasn't enough. a spokesman for the danish intelligence service said the attack was part of a terror-related network linked to the somali militant group al-shabaab. the somali militant organization

flexing its muscle yesterday with this rally in mogadishu has moved steadily closer to al qaeda. five years after they were first published, the danish attack shows the original cartoons still have the power to incite violence. sheila macvicar, cbs news, london. >> glor: two students from the same school, both killed, both in frightening ways only months party. for the city of chicago tonight, more evidence of violence on the streets there, especially among teenagers, is not over. randall pinkston has details. >> reporter: the grainy image from a convenience store surveillance cam rafs another sad reminder of the violence that has claimed dozens of students in each of the past three years. wednesday night police say a gunman shot 16-year-old fred couch in the back twice before getting away. this later murder marred a promising trend for chicago. in 2009, there were 453 homicides, an 11% drop from the previous year, but that does not

ease the pain of victims episcopal families. >> that's my baby, and i'm hurtin, you know, and it's not right. >> reporter: fred couch was the 18th student killed in chicago since september. he came from the same school that 17-year-old darien albert attended before he was beat tone death on his a home from school. how often do fights occur in your school? >> every day. >> reporter: every day? >> almost every day. >> reporter: near the spot where albert was killed, another student 17-year-old jermaine fareed told meanger and turf wars trigger some of the violence. what do you think is the solution to this conflict? >> i mean, i can't even tell you. this is how we kind of grew up, too. >> reporter: that is the kind of mindset that cease-fire, a chicago violence-prevention project, is trying to reverse. >> these behaviors are learned behaviors. >> reporter: cease-fire relies on teams who know the players and keep track of disputes. they talk gang leaders into

choosing alternatives to violence. a one-year justice department study showed shootings were down 16% to 34% in chicago neighborhoods where cease-fire teams worked. >> what we're working against is peer pressure. >> reporter: chicago police also credit their intelligence gathering and targeted crackdowns on gang violence and guns. it helps, but not enough to completely break the cycle of violence. randall pinkston, cbs news, new york. >> glor: authorities in washington, d.c. are investigating reports that pro basketball players drew guns on each other inside their locker room last week. gilbert areinas and gevaris crittendon of the washington wizzard reportedly were arguing over a gambling debt. still ahead, could switzerland's health care be a model for america?

>> glor: later this month, congress will begin negotiations to merge the house and senate versions of health care reform into one bill. a glimpse of what the u.s. health care system of the future might look like can be seen right now in switzerland. richard roth has more. >> reporter: picturesque and prosperous, this alpine country in the heart of europe is almost 8 million people known for their love of chocolate almost as much as their love of capitalism. peaceful switzerland hasn't fought a war in almost two centuries, but it was a really battle here reforming health care. >> it was controversial. it is still controversial. >> reporter: the law finally approved in the 1994 national referendum guaranteed health care for everyone by requiring everyone to have insurance. it amounted to a law recognizing health care as a human right, says former swiss president ruth dreyfuss.

>> everybody has really the right to receive the medical care they need from birth to the death. >> reporter: they choose their own doctors and their own insurance company, and the whole country's covered. true to its national reputation, switzerland devised a health care system that's been praised as efficient and neutral. basic insurance is the same price for everyone. also true to the swiss reputation, it's turned out to be expensive. mandatory insurance for an adult costs almost $4,000 a ye, deductibles and copayments can add another $1,000 to that. there's no medicare or medicaid. the government pays a cash subsidy to anyone who can't afford the basic policy. no one goes broke from getting sick, but health care's cost to the economy here is higher than anywhere except the u.s. what you built here was a rolex and really, perhaps, you should have made a timeex.

>> it is a rolex. you're right. it should not just look like a rolex but also work like a rolex. >> reporter: it does, and the swiss love it, except once a year when premium prices go up. insurance companies which aren't allowed to make a profit from selling basic coverage and can't limit patient choice complain their hands are tied. do you think that patients have too much choice now? >> they have a lot of choice. >> reporter: too much? >> i think perhaps yes. >> reporter: given an aging population and high-tech medicine, some say costs are bound to rise 3% or 4% a year. health care reform here has been more expensive than reformers predicted, but the swiss say they didn't expect a perfect system overnight. >> such a system needs, i would say, forever fine tuning. >> reporter: to keep things running smoothly, it's accepted here that's part of the process.

richard roth, cbs news, switzerland. >> glor: next up on tonight's cbs evening news, what's ahead for the economy and the government in 2010.

>> glor: questions about nacial security and the economy

both loom very large on this second at a of 2010. to help us look ahead in the new year we are joined tonight in washington by our political analyst john dickerson. here in new york we have the managing director of the economicking cycle research institute. good evening to both of you. the president returns from his vacation in hawaii ostensibly to deal with the systemic failures, what he calls, in a system that led to the christmas day terror attack. what can he do on that front? >> in the coming weeks what he'll be trying to do is much what he did today in his weekly address, which is, one, say that protecting the american people is his first job. two, that he's on the case, that he's ordered these reviews of the terrorist watch systems and of airline safety more broadly and hold people to account if there are mistakes. and then he makes two political poipts, one of which is he since coming into office has been focused on islamic terrorism and al qaeda and that the previous administration was too focused on iraq, and then he switches and says, well, my opponent

should not try to score political points, that we all need to gather together in a sense of unity, just like the kind that prevailed eight years ago after the attacks of 9/11. >> glor: and politically he has to deal with the midterm elections coming up and the economy. let me ask you about that. some promising signs the stock market up 60% from its bottom, which is a big improvement, but the unemployment rate is still at 10%. economically, how do things shake out? >> well, everybody who's been questioning the recovery, is it real, has been saying show me the jobs. and in the next few months you will see headline jobs growth appear. already we see the service sector, where most of us work, creating tens of thousands of jobs per month. this will persist into the first half of the coming near. that is the good news. the bad news is in order to fully recover what we lost, it would take an expansion of almost 10 years and the likelihood that happening is pretty low. >> glor: john, let me ask you about the political cycles in

washington. what can the president do realistically to jump start job growth? >> well, there's not a whole lot he can do to move this enormous economy. the first thing he's got to do is get health care out of the way, passed through both houses, then he can try to get some of these economic measures through congress. he wants to extend loans to small businesses, tax breaks for small business and supported the $174 billion house plan for extending unemployment insurance and investment in states and so he's trying to do everything he can to show that he's on the case here with respect to the economy but basically he's still hostage to the business cycle. >> glor: talking more about that, the foreclosure situation just keeps getting worse. moody's is publishing a prediction that 2.4 million homes will be lost to foreclosure in 2010, a 40% jump in 2009. does the housing market keep the economy in the dumps? >> it keeps it from gathering a stronger head of steam. i think if we step back, we can see that the home price decline

has bottomed. it doesn't look like there's another huge leg down. however, with all these foreclosures still coming in the door, as it were, the chance for the housing sector to drive the economy stronger and stronger is quite low. it's not going to happen. >> glor: okay, our soothsayers. we appreciate both your time. happy new year to both you. still ahead here on tonight's cbs evening news, what is the reason for the huge number of whales gathering off the coast of california?

>> glor: california's scenic santa monica bay is getting crowded again and nobody is complaining. whales have returned in force. scientists don't know why for sure, but one of the ocean's smallest creatures may be luring the biggest. sandra hughes explains. >> reporter: tracking a mystery, they follow an ocean footprint looking for the second-largest mammal in the world. >> that look likeaise fin whale directly in front of us. >> reporter: sightings of the fin whale, part of the family that includes the humpback and big blue whale, used to be a rarity in the santa monica bay. >> look at that. >> reporter: but not anymore. they're everywhere. >> the people who have done this watching 20, 25 years have never seen anything like it. it's described as a forest of

blows. everywhere you look there are these columns of blows going into the air. >> reporter: pliern biologists started tracking the whales for a census. >> we've seen then 30 out of 31 days. it's amazing. i don't know how long this is going to continue but it's absolutely fabulous. >> reporter: in the 2005-2006 seasons, fin whales were seen on four days. by 2007-2008, they were sighted 41 days. by '8-09, fin whales were seen on 91 days. >> not just the concentration of the fin whales and blue whales and humpbacks, there has been a smorgasbord out there. >> reporter: marine biologistsinoid a large number of giant blue whales had taken us residence off southern california's shores instead of migrating as they usually did thap. >> it's possible that this is in response to some greater thing

that's happening because of global climate change. it could just be a variation in a natural cycle. >> reporter: marine biologist tracking the fin whale say it's, again, the crill population that have kept these whales here. >> we have so many whales feeding and so much preponderance of the crill and the small fishes they like, i think there's a lot of good stuff going on with the ecosystem here. >> reporter: once a highlight scientists believe cleanup effort along the southern california coast have worked. sea life is repopulating, creating new patterns of migration that are boast mistifying ... just spectacular. >> reporter: ...and magnificent. sandra hughes, cbs news, los angeles. >> glor: that is the cbs evening news tonight. russ mitchell will be here tomorrow night. i'm jeff glor. cbs news in new york. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs

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