elizabeth palmer, cbs news. >> up next on tonight's cbs evening news, how the civil rights movement usedges toerally a nation. >> and finally tonight, although we don't mark the holiday until monday, today is the actual birthday of dr. martin luther king jr. had he lived he would be 82 years old. along with other civil rights leaders, king used the growing power of the media to awaken americans to long-overlooked injustice. mark strassman shows us how they did it. >> reporter: as a story, the civil rights movement had it all-- good versus evil, drama, social upheaval. but at first, america's major media ignored it, especially in the south. >> it was our responsibility to find a way to dramatize the issue. >> reporter: congressman john lewis says that the movement's leaders realized to bring change, they needed to reach white americans. how did you do that? >> as a movement, we literally put our bodies on the line. >> influence on the civil rights coverage. . >> reporter: dominika cibulkova cowrote the "race beat" a book about the media and movement. >> it's just that no one knew about it

russ. >> mitchell: elizabeth palmer in cairo, thank you. these shockwaves from the egyptian protests are spreading far and wide across the arab world. supporters rallied today in tunisia where protests topple a long-entrenched regime earlier this month. demonstrators turned out today in the capital of yemen as well as on the street of jordan. as you can imagine it's been a very busy day at the white house and beyond on the diplomatic front. chip reid joins us now with the latest from there. good evening. >> reporter: well, good evening, russ. the president has been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in egypt, but some analysts say there's not a lot he can do to help control what happens next. at the white house today, president obama met with his national security team for an update on the situation in egypt. following the meeting, the president's new chief of staff, bill daly had only a brief comment. >> i think it's a very fluid situation. the president is very clear on it and we look forward to seeing some stability and peace

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, dublin. >> mitchell: here at home, the kennedy and shriver clans gathered for the funeral of peace corps founder and former vice presidential candidate sergeant shriver. also there, michelle obama and joe biden. maria shriver spoke of her father. >> the programs he fought for, the ones he created, they still have impact as we stand here. but for me as his only daughter, perhaps his greatest achievement was showing us in our family how to show up in other people's lives and how to love unconditionally. the smell of shaving cream. whatever scents fill your household, purina tidy cats scoop helps neutralize odors in multiple cat homes... giving you just what you need to keep your house smelling like it should. purina tidy cats scoop. keep your home smelling like home. to stay fit, you might also want to try lifting one of these. a unique sea salt added to over 40 campbell's condensed soups. it helps us reduce sodium, but not flavor. so do a few lifts. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ you won't believe your taste buds. you won't believe it's fiber.

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, cairo. >>> straight ahead your thursday morning weather. in sports, the nba's top scorer hits for a career high. the best device for everything you love to read editors' choice. best dedicated ereader. magazines look spectacular. fantastic device. touch the future of reading at barnes and noble. nookcolor. >>> here's a look at the weather in some cities around the country. new york, partly cloudy, 36. miami, sunny and 74. chicago, light snow, 26. dallas, sunny there, 63. l.a., sunny and a warm 78. >>> time now for a check of the national forecast. the latest satellite picture shows -- the latest winter storm in the northeast is moving out to sea. clouds cover the northern plains and northeast. and there are mostly clear skies in the southeast, and southwest. later today, though, the snow will come to an end in the northeast. lake-effect snow showers could form in western new york and pennsylvania. there are areas of fair weather covering the west coast, and southeast. >>> take you to sports now, the nba's leading scorer came through in over

cbs news correspondent elizabeth palmer is in cairo with more. >> reporter: a dramatic turn of events in the square that's been at the center of this popular uprising. egypt's bookish nobel peace prize winner mohamed elbaradei defied the curfew to come and address the crowd. his message, it's all over for president hosni mubarak. but so far, there's no sign that mubarak is going anywhere. he continues swearing in senior officials to serve alongside the newly appointed vice president and prime minister. a government reshuffle that hasn't impressed the protesters. >> he is trying to cheat us, and these two persons, the prime minister and the vice president, are worse than him. we don't want all this regime. no way. >> reporter: the supposedly fierce guardians of that regime, the army, are upset. they're arresting looters. but embracing the demonstrators who, for their part, have accepted the soldiers as popular heroes. but there are mixed messages from the army, and very loud ones, as we found out during an earlier report. just in the last couple of minutes we've seen an extraordinary s

elizabeth palmer is in the middle of it all in cairo. >> reporter: by night fall central cairo lookede a war zone. antigovernment protestors had fought their way past police and pushed into the very heart of the city cheering and chanting "we demand the end of the regime." hours earlier after friday prayers cards set out to march but almost immediately they were stopped by lines of police in full riot gear that beat them. that's the front line right there. that's where the police lines are preventing people from getting to the center of town. these demonstrators are pinned in and furious. . >> reporter: they want one thing. >> we don't want this party any more. go, please, out of egypt. >> reporter: people are demanding an end to the corruption, to abuse, unemployment, but above all they want to see the end of president hosni mubarak. >> go away. go away. >> reporter: protestors coming here from all parts of the city were determined to cross into downtown. a brave few rushed forward through the tear gas. they were pushed back again by the police. but the protestors refused to give up.

as elizabeth palmer reports, the power shift triggered violent protests in lebanon. >> reporter: with the enemy nowhere in sight, demonstrators in the northern city of tripoli took their anger out on a tv crew satellite truck. this is a stronghold of lebanon's sunni muslims, angry that the iranian-backed shiite group hezbollah will, for the first time, lead their country's government. this rage has roots in the unsolved bombing and assassination of lebanon's prime minister. an international investigation is soon expected to hand down murder indictments against senior hezbollah leaders. but rather than take the blame, hezbollah toppled a lebanon government and formed a new one. which means that, with supporters of the dead prime minister, justice will never be done. the u.s. administration is, to say the least, disappointed. >> a hezbollah-controlled government would clearly have an impact on our bilateral relationship with lebanon. >> reporter: that relationship included spending more than $700 million training and equipping the lebanese army, which the u.s. hopes would one day be abl

we'll start this morning by going first to elizabeth palmer, who is on the scene. elizabeth, you've been there from the beginning of all this. what is the absolute latest right now? >> well, bob, just in the last couple of minutes, we've seen an extraordinary show of (inaudible) (plane flying overhead) i don't know if you can hear me. the aircraft are (inaudible) flying over the crowd. >> schieffer: what is the meaning of that? are they trying to frighten people off the streets? what... it sounds like a fly- over at a football game or something. >> well, the army is deployed widely all over the city in a very unthreatening way. but a way that shows muscle. the context is that, overnight, the city... parts of the city were sacked. the police were nowhere to be seen. people were taking to their own neighborhoods in militias to protect their houses. so there's a total breakdown of order that is only being held together by what the citizens can do, and also by this show of muscle by the army, who in fact has been attacking looters and so on, arresting and in some cases

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, tripoli. >> couric: after the terror attack in moscow yesterday, plenty ofa security camera captured the suicide bombing at the airport which killed 35 and wounded 180. today the russian president blamed airport management for lax security. management in turn blamed the police. officials believe islamic insurgents were behind the attack. in new york city, the first guantanamo detainee tried in civilian court was sentenced today to life in prison. ahmed ghailani was convicted of just one of 285 counts in the 1998 al qaeda bombings of two u.s. embassies in africa. ghailani asked for leniency, claiming he was tortured by the c.i.a., but the judge said that pales in comparison to the 225 lives lost in the attacks. we'll be right back. l be right back. how can you transform tonight's dinner from same old, same old into oh la la? just cook with campbell's. our soups contain surprising ingredients like a splash of sauterne wine, a drizzle of fresh cream, or a sprinkle of lower sodium sea salt. we put great ingredients in our soups, to help you put meals on the tabl

elizabeth palmer is in cairo tonight, and we caution you, this video is graphic. >> reporter: police brutality at its most explicit. ( gunshot ) a protester in the sinai desert shot dead as he ran. the unrest in egypt has spread like wildfire. in suez, about an hour east of the capital, furious mobs burned down government buildings. just like the huge street protests that erupted in iran in 2009, egypt's uprising is a real movement that was born in a virtual world. led by young, educated activists who understand the power of social networking. >> millions of egyptians... >> reporter: a call for action went out on facebook which initially reached more than a million people and was amplified by a torrent of twitter messages. >> egypt was in more than one in every 200 tweets in twitter. >> in the world? >> in all the tweets in the world. >> reporter: it was egypt's urban youth that led the protests earlier in the week, but demands for change will gain real traction only when the grass roots join in. the anger behind this uprising is about a lot of things. it's about freedom of expressio

as elizabeth palmer reports egypt has tonight disrupted the internet as part of the government crackdown>> reporter: police brutality at its most explicit. a protest tore in the sinai desert shot dead as he ran. the unrest in egypt has spread like wildfire. in suez, about an hour east of the capital. furious mobs burned down government buildings. just like the huge street protests that erupted in iran in 2009, egypt's up rice is a real movement that was born in a virtual world. head by young educated an ty visits like ahmed sal a who understands the power of social networking a call for action went out on facebook, which initially reached more than a million people, and was then amplified by a tore rent of twitter messages. >> egypt was in one -- was in more than one in every 200 tweets. >> in the world. >> in all the tweets in the world. >> reporter: it was egypt's urban youth that led the protest earlier in the week. but demands for change will gain real traction only when the grassroots join in. the anger behind this uprising is about a lot of things. it's about freedom of expression

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, cairo. >>> president obama tried something new to keep the momentum goings state have the union address. he went on youtube and let people all around the country ask him questions. as grace lee tells us some were from bay area students. >> not having the best possible chance. >> reporter: reaching out to americans, the president offered to answer questions from anyone through youtube. the competition was fears. out of the 140,000 questions submitted only 15 were chosen. that chewedded three students at kip king collegiate, a charter school in san lorenzo. >> it hasn't really hit me yet that obama has seen our video and has actually seen me talking about education. >> i don't know what time he e- mailed us, we won and got picked like 15 other videos. i don't even know what to say. i was -- i don't know. it hasn't hit me yet either. >> i was so excited. it's like a dream right now. i never thought i would be in this situation. >> i started dancing around. i was ecstatic. i literally started jumping around my apartment and kind of you know like doing the rocky

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, cairo. >>> 7 minutes after 9:00 now. fbi agents have raided a home in connecticut linked to cyber attacks by wikileaks supporters. a university of connecticut student says that he was the target of the raid yesterday. he acknowledged he is part of the group that coordinated those attacks on visa and mastercard and paypal. the group claims they hacked into the company's website to support wikileaks founder julian assange. the raid comes a day after federal officials issued 40 search warrants related to the hacking. the student was not arrested. >>> back here closer to home, it is going to rain a little bit this weekend, and that's something we haven't been able to say for several weekends. >> ready for a change? >> i think so. might be a freshing. >> inc. it would be a nice change. we'll see changes in the atmosphere out there today, beginning with a lifting in the fog bank. might notice already out there visibility is a little greater than the last few days. we will continue cloudy and cool. and as ann mentioned, a bit o

elizabeth palmer is in the middle of it all in cairo. >> reporter: by night fall central cairo looked like a war zone. antigovernment protestors had fought their way past police and pushed into the very heart of the city cheering and chanting we demand the end of the regime. hours earlier after friday prayers a crowd set out to march but almost immediately they were stopped by lines of police in full riot gear who beat them and fired round after round of tear gas and rubber bullets. that's the front line right there. that's where the police lines are preventing people from getting to the center of town. these demonstrators are penned in and furious. they want one thing. >> we don't want this party any more. go. leave out of egypt. >> reporter: people are demanding an end to corruption, abuse, employment but above all they want to see the end of president hosni mubarak. the main standoff played out over the nile river. protestors were determined to cross into downtown. a brave few rushed forward through the volleys of tear gas. the masks followed until they were pushed back again by th

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, cairo. >> couric: back in this country, critics say it's too vague, comics joke about it. tomorrow the obama administration will announce the color-coded terror warning system created after 9/11 is fading into history. homeland security will continue to put out public warnings when warranted, but starting in late april, the warnings will include specific information about new threats. and still ahead here on the cbs evening news, how she's helping kids in need help themselves with their own art work. tonight's "american spirit." but up next, stopping w-w-d: walking while distracted. ÷ >> couric: driving can be particularly dangerous if you're distracted by a cell phone or the radio. but walking while distracted can be dangerous as well. and national correspondent jim axelrod reports there is a new push to get us to watch where we're walking. >> reporter: the body under the tarp was a man named jason king. last month in new york, he was run over by a truck backing up. king's ipod may have drowned out the truck's warning signal. >> unfortunately, we've done su

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, london. >>> coming up, a chance encounter that changed a homeless man's life forever. >> don't forget tomorrow morning is your chance to win a pair of tickets to see this band live in concert. >> how his golden voice may land him a dream job and get him off the streets. ,, they think the best way to clean it is by brushing it with toothpaste. toothpaste contains abrasives that scratch dentures, leaving microscopic crevices where bacteria can grow, and bacteria can cause bad breath. the best way to go is to soak them in polident. only polident is proven to clean without scratching and kills 99.9% of odor-causing bacteria. i recommend using polident and soak every day. it's the right way to go. >>> well, today's tip of the day is going to be mineola tangelos. this is one of my favorites of all tangerines. these are fantastic. it's kind of like an orange, tangerine, different variety of the citrus all rolled into one. they are more popular although they have been around for a long time. when you select them, make sure it's nice and orange just like this all the w

cbs news correspondent elizabeth palmer is in cairo. elizabeth, good morning? >> reporter: good morning, chris. we are a week into this upheaval. people are getting tired, not only from demonstrating, but they have to go home at night to defend their homes. however, there doesn't seem to be a weakening of resolve. i have seen people flowing into liberation square steadily all morning. it looks like this may be the biggest gathering yet. all night, gun fire crackled from residential neighborhoods. on day seven it was clear the city once again had been looted as police remained in their barracks. citizens groups sprung up to defend neighborhoods commonly believe it is the police unleashing the looters and at times join in themselves. nobody is wreaking havoc here, says this man, except the police and thieves. this morning some officers run returned to duty. they are not the riot control squads we saw last week. state television aired men arrested by soldiers for breaking curfew. the message is clearly stay off the streets, but it is not working. nevertheless the

elizabeth palmer reports from cairo. >> reporter: by nightfall, central cairo looked like a war zone. antigovernment protesters fought their way past police and pushed into the very heart of the city, cheering and chanting "we demand the end of the regime." hours earlier, after friday prayers, crowds set out to march but almost immediately they were stopped by lines of police in full riot gear who beat them and fired round after round of tear gas and rubber bullets. that's the front line right there. that's where the police lines are preventing people from getting to the center of town. these demonstrators are penned in and furious. ( screaming ) they want one thing. >> we don't want this party anymore! go, leave out of egypt! >> reporter: people are demanding an end to corruption, to abuse, unemployment. but above all they want to see the end of president hosni mubarak. >> go away from egypt. go away from egypt! >> reporter: the main standoff played out on a bridge over the nile river. protesters who funneled here from all parts of the city were determined to cross into downtown. a b

first elizabeth palmer. (gun fire) >> reporter: six days into the egyptian uprising and there are at least 100 dead. although in the chaos no one knows for sure. we do know thousands more have been wounded since it all began on tuesday, a day the opposition called the day of wrath. their anger has been fueled by repression, poverty, corruption but most of all by their president who they believe has been robbing the country blind for 30 years. mike reuben of the american enterprise institute. >> egypt was a nasty nasty place to be a citizen. it was a tolerable place if you were a policeman. it was a utopia if you were a mubarak. >> reporter: two thirds of egypt's 80 million people are under 30 years old. it was the young who were the original engines of this movement which began on facebook and twitter and then exploded into the streets. the country watched on arab satellite television as these kids took on the police on the first day and won! on day two, out came the civil servants, the women, the unemployed

cbs news correspondent elizabeth palmer is in the egyptian capital where it is already saturday afternoon. elizabeth, what's the latest? >> reporter: the phones have been restored here. as you know, we've been without communication. but the quality is not very good. so, forgive me and my hand here. i want to draw your attention to freedom square behind me. that's been the front line in this uprising. and it's filling, again, with thousands and thousands of people. they're coming from all directions. this is in marked contrast, because they're marching freely, in marked contrast to the scenes that we witnessed yesterday. the running battles between protesters and egyptian police carried on late into the night. demonstrators fought back against volleys of tear gas, and rubber bullets. and at last they broke through police lines, and flowed into the city's central freedom square. egyptians went to sleep having seen and on a huge scale taken part in a historical event. many dared hope the president would be forced to resign. but after midnight when hosni mubarak finally addressed the nation,

what it feels like ♪ ♪ right now it feels like in my wind pipe i can't breathe ♪ >> this is elizabeth palmerling bruised and a little fragile. maybe that's why there... they're especially sensitive to reports about america's decline. we decided to ask several commentators from around europe for their perspective. >> europeans especially germans i would say they fear a decline of american power. >> reporter: peter klein berlin bureau chief says europeans hope first for a revitalized u.s. economy. >> they do american leadership. they do need a strong america. because you cannot solve any of the major problems and crises in the world without american leadership. >> reporter: there have been serious risks... rifts with europe over the u.s. invasion of iraq, for example, and more recently wikileaks which revealed what american diplomats really think of some european leaders. but the common bond in europe even as geo politics shift. >> we're never going to have the political links with china or russia the way we have them with the u.s.. >> reporter: tim marshal diplomatic editor in london for sky

our correspondent elizabeth palmer is following developments from london. >> reporter: for weeks, angry civilians, young and educated have battled day after day with government forces demanding an end to corruption and unemployment. amnesty international estimates 55 people have been killed. last night, the protesters won when the man they depies most, the president, fled with his family to saudi arabia. the country's prime minister went on national television to appeal for calm and to promise political reform. today, the capital is quiet but tense, with the speaker of the parliament named interim president. the army has been deployed to keep order. the u.s. is calling for free and fair elections, something the demonstrators and opposition politicians say they want, too but a prospect that had other repressive regimes in the region deeply worried. >> elsewhere this morning, at least 500 people dead in brazil and thousands homeless after four days of devastating floods and mud slides. the brazilian government is under fire for not doing enough to rescue victims stranded on remote hillsid