happens. >> thank you. >> woodruff: finally tonight, back to the cargo bomb scare story, and to jeffrey brown. >> brown: some of the pieces of the bomb plot puzzle have begun to come together in the last several days, as we heard earlier. but many questions remain about the perpetrators and the air security system. we sort some of that out with richard clarke, who served as a senior adviser for counterterrorism in the clinton administration and the early days of the george w. bush administration. he's now a consultant. and rafi ron, president of new age security solutions, an aviation and transportation consulting firm. he's a former director of security for the israeli airport authority at ben gurion airport. i'll start with you. one part of the investigation is to figure out who is behind this, of course. what do you see as the key leads being pursued now? >> i think it's pretty clear al qaeda and the arabian peninsula is behind it. the evidence is from the bomb itself which seems to be of the same manufacture as other bombs a.q.a.p.has used attempts at christmas to blow up an airplane over

jeffrey brown has that. >> brown: she is the stuff of myth and legend, one of history's great heroin's cleopatra, queen of egypt lover of jewel yas caesar, mark antony. subject of shakespeare, shaw and of course the cinema. >> the queen has come to the people of rome. >> it would not occur to me to look to you for instruction. >> which is have you have come back chained like a slave. >> slave? >> and with such an exquisite set of chains, so softly spoken, so virtuous. >> brown: but it turns out the real cleopatra was perhaps if anything far more interesting and certainly more complex. her story is told in a new biography, cleopatra, a life. the author is pulitzer prize winning writer stacy shiff. welcome to you. >> thanks, jeff. >> brown: this is one of the women who have had the busiest after life in history. what made you want to write about her? >> the roman propagandaists who put her on the map. this is one of those cases where your enemies make you into something you were greater than you werein your lifetime. you have this inflated idea of who this egyptian queen was in the first

. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: tom bearden reports on the internet push to get passengers to opt-out of new image scanning machines. >> lehrer: then, we get the latest on the compensation program for gulf oil spill victims from jefferson parish president john young and fund administrator kenneth feinberg. >> brown: ray suarez wraps up his series of stories from africa with a look at the suspected link between illness and intelligence. >> does being sicker as a child make it harder to learn for the rest of your life? we're asking that question in heavily disease burdened and very low-income mozambique. >> lehrer: we examine the options for u.s. policy after north korea's artillery attack on a south korean island yesterday. >> brown: and judy woodruff looks at the future of space exploration with science correspondent miles o'brien. >> 500 people have flown to space for so far. in the his of the space program. the notion is there will be 500 a month flying or maybe even more than that if th

jeffrey brown has our story. >> that's november 9, seven days since the republicans took control of the house. mr. boeher, where are the jobs? >> brown: keith olbermann was back to his usual combative self last night on his msnbc show, "countdown." as he returned from a two-day suspension for making campaign contributions to three democratic candidates. all three appeared on his program-- one the same day as the donation. >> this advice mr. bush. shut the hell up! >> reporter: olbermann, a consistently strong liberal voice, is the top-rated host on msnbc and served as one of the network's anchors on election day. last night, he said he hadn't been aware of parent company nbc's policy that contributions had to be approved. he apologized for that, but added much more, including this: >> i think we saw where the political contribution system is working for transparency in democracy and where it is failing transparency in democracy. i made legal political contributions as a us citizen, near midnight eastern on thursday october 28. by 10:00 p.m. eastern thursday night, november 4, those cont

jeffrey brown has just that in mind. >> you could make a meal of it, and what a meal. from biloxi, mississippi, vietnamese shrimp pancakes, and berkeley, california, cathy farly's grilled figs, to massachusetts the portuguese kale soup. and from mt. ida, arkansas, squash casserole, and francis butler's tamale stuffed turkey. >> and a blue ribbon apple pie from apple valley, minnesota. these recipes plus hundreds more from all over the country can be found in the new book, one big table, portrait of american cooking by molly o'neill, the former food columnist for the new yorker magazine. what does that mean, molly? what were you after? >> i was trying to create the feeling and spirit and reality of this hugely diverse country that we have and how millions of different private lives come together around the table. >> and you didn't just collect recipes to do that, you traveled the country. you talked to lots and lots of real people? >> i did. i spent about 10 years on the road, crisscrossing the nation. i tried to go to a lot of sort of off the grid places, and spent a l

. >> lehrer: and jeffrey brown talks to outgoing new york city schools chancellor joel klein. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: there was artillery fire over south korea today. two south korean marines were killed. it was a stark reminder that north and south korea are still technically at war 57 years after their korean war armistice. we begin our coverage with a report narrated by lindsay hilsum of independent television news. >> reporter: closed circuit tv recorded the moment north korean shells hit yeonpyeong island. south korean television broadcast the images of an incident which demonstrates just how fragile is the truce between the two koreas. the north says the south fired first. the south says its shots were merely part of a scheduled military exercise. and this was a provo

. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, from lisbon, portugal, margaret warner has the latest on the summit, and previews tomorrow's discussions about ending combat operations in afghanistan in 2014. >> woodruff: then, we explore the federal reserve's latest move as chairman ben bernanke hits back at critics at home and abroad. >> brown: ray suarez gets an update from journalist sebastian rotella on the investigation into the 2008 attacks in mumbai, india. >> it combines in a very al qaeda style a mix of targets so you strike india in its heart, its economic and cultural heart but you very specifically go after american, european, jewish targets. >> woodruff: mark shields and david brooks analyze this week's news. >> brown: and spencer michels reports on the oakland, california, mayoral race, where a second-place finisher became an election winner. >> if nobody gets a ma jort, whichever candidate comes in last place he is eliminated and everybody who voted for that candidate their first choice will

. >> ifill: then, jeffrey brown examines the federal reserve's latest action to jump start the troubled economy and how politics will play its part. >> lehrer: plus, mark shields and david brooks offer their day-after election analysis. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: chevron. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: political aftershocks echoed in washington and around the country today after republicans scored resounding victories in the mid-term elections. the democratic majority in the house of representatives lay in ruins, and the two sides began to assess what it all means. in a decided swing of the political pendulum, republicans regained control of the house just four years after losing it. ( cheers and applause ) and although democrats retained a narrow major

i'm jeffrey brown. investors bet on general motors today in what could end up the largest initial public offering in u.s. history. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we look at the automaker's turnaround after it slid into bankruptcy and received a $50 billion federal bailout. >> brown: then, ray suarez explores how yesterday's verdict in a terrorism case affects the debate over trying suspects in civilian courts. >> woodruff: betty anne bowser reports on an effort to inspire medical students to become family physicians. >> the shortage of primary care doctors could become a crisis as the new health care reform law moves forward. so a major health system here in northern california is trying to do something about that. >> brown: paul solman talks to authors joe nocera and bethany mclean about who's at fault for the financial crisis. >> even though in... you can argue that this was a run on the bank, it was a run on the bank created by the way wall street did business. so in t

. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: margaret warner explores the challenges the new coalition will face amid rising sectarian violence. >> lehrer: then, paul solman explains the u.s. effort to get china to stop holding down the value of its currency. >> because china is lending us the noun run our big deficits. >> one interstation is china is basically lending us the money to buy stuff from t >> brown: we get reaction to the wide-ranging proposals to cut the federal deficit made yesterday by the leaders of a presidential commission. >> lehrer: judy woodruff talks to senator-elect chris coons of delaware. >> brown: and on this veterans day, ray suarez updates the investigations into mismarked graves and other problems at arlington national cemetery. >> one grave site was empty. one grave site had the wrong set of remains, and a third grave site had two sets of remains, only one of which matched the headstone. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshou

jeffrey brown has our conversation. >> reporter: american soldiers serving in afghanistan. in battle, relaxing together, asleep. these and many other photographs were taken in the valley in the northeastern afghanistan, in 2007 and 2008. they're part of a new book titled in"infidel". by pete hetherington. the video he shot for this project became the prize winning documentary. welcome. first set the scene of how long were new the valley there, how did it work in terms of daily life and interacting with the soldiers? >> we were with a battle company of the 173rd airborne in the northeast of afghanistan. first the pakistan border. the coming oh was a small six-mile long valley and we went there and were on the side of a mountain. at that time we went and the war was focused on iraq, but afghanistan was the war was getting out of control. it was a really active place to be. >> brown: you say in this book that rather than attempt to describe the war in afghanistan, i have sought to convey some of the contradictions of war what do you mean by that, what does war mean to you? >>

. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we talk to economics writer daniel gross about consumer spending and the prospects for a broader rebound. >> woodruff: and as cyber monday approaches, we tell the story of one of the largest internet hijackings ever, when web traffic was routed through china. >> if i was a large enterprise or a large organization involved in critical infrastructure, if i was a government, i would be sweating bullets currently. >> brown: then, from port-au- prince, npr's jason beaubien previews sunday's presidential election in haiti, as the country struggles to recover from the earthquake and a cholera epidemic. >> woodruff: mark shields and david brooks offer their analysis of the week's news. >> brown: and on the day after thanksgiving, ray suarez talks to david beckmann, winner of this year's world food prize about feeding the hungry at home and abroad. >> what we need to finished job, to overcome hunger andç poverty is moreç organized give a damn. >> woodruff: that's all