from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. an american hostage has been killed in a failed rescue attempt in yemen. 33-year-old photojournalist luke somers had been held by al qaeda militants for nearly a year. the group recently issued a videotape, threatening his life. somers was fatally shot by his captors last night when u.s. special forces launched the raid on a village in the southern province of shabwa. he died from those wounds. one local tribal leader said commandos landed in helicopters, deployed concussion grenades and stormed four different houses. a south african captive was also killed in the siege. in a statement, president obama expressed his sympathy for somer's family. he added: "the united states will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring americans home safely." joining me now via skype from bahrain is "new york times" reporter eric schmitt. so, eric, what do we know about the details of this operation? >> well, overnight fri

i'm hari sreenivasan.id brooks. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thqÁyou and good night >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ç moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer.ç >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ç captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org report" with tyler mathisen and susie gharib. funded in part by -- thestreet.com and action alerts plus where jim cramer and fellow portfolio manager stephanie link share their investment strategies, stock picks and market insights. you can learn more at thestreet.com/nbr. >>> hay did l did l and the dow jumps over the moon. the big chip barometer rockets

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, ari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good eveng. thanks for joining us. north korea today calledhe obama administration's clams that it was behind the cyber attack on sony "slander" and threatened to retaliate unless the united states agrees to conduct a joint investigation about the matter. its comments were included in a statement read on state- controlled television. american officials say the attack was similar to others carried t by the north koreans. chinese authorities have detained a 74-year-old american missionary, peter hahn. the incident occurred sterday near china's border with north korea. saying hundreds of christian missionaries have been forced out of china since august. the united states has freed four more detainees from the military detention center at guantanamo bay, cuba. the four, all from afghanistan, were returned home after being released late yesterday at the request of the new afghan president, ashraf ghani. the u.s. has freed 23 prisoners from guantanamo this year. 132 remain imprisoned there. new htilit

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. as we speak, tens of thousands of demonstrators across the country are marching in the so- called day of resistance, protesting the killings by police of michael brown, eric garner and akai gurley. in new york and in many other cities, thousands joined in mostly peaceful demonstrations. new york city protesters planned to end their march in front of police headquarters. another protest led by the reverend al sharpton marched on the national mall in washington, d.c. today. sharpton is calling for congress to pass legislation putting federal prosecutors in charge of police shooting cases. inside the capitol building this evening, u.s. senators passed a four-day short-term spending bill that extends the debate over the $1.1 trillion budget package and averts a government shutdown, at least till wednesday. the house narrowly approved their version of the deal last thursday. besides funding the military and fighting ebola, the budget plan also clears the way for muc

i'm hari sreenivasan.id brooks. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thqÁyou and good night >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ç moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer.ç >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ç captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> this is "bbc world news merica." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation. >> you can connect communities and commerce for centuries. that's the strength behind good banking relationships too. which is why at mufg we

good evening, i'm hari sreenivasan. gwen ifill and judy woodruff are away. also ahead: as pope francis calls for peace in the middle east and beyond in his annual christmas address, some insight into how his early life shaped the outlook of this reformer. plus, as common core tries to stay afloat in stormy waters, what principles are some states tossing overboard, and what can be salvaged? >> the states are nervous. anytime more kids don't meet the proficiency mark, it's very difficult for states. they have to tell people, are our kids getting dumber? why are our kids not performing well? >> sreenivasan: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institution

thank you. >> sreenivasan: we begin with that missing airliner in indonesia. the mystery came into better focus today when search teams found the remains of victims, and mangled metal, off the coast of borneo. shaken, grieving relatives of the victims filed out of a crisis center in surabaya after their agonizing wait ended with a jolt. a short time earlier, as they watched indonesian television, images of bodies and wreckage flashed on screen, with no warning. the multi-national search had found what it was looking for in the java sea, as indonesia's national search and rescue chief confirmed. >> ( translated ): the area was where the plane crashed and the debris came from the missing plane that we have been searching for. >> sreenivasan: the drama began sunday when air-asia flight 8501 left surabaya, indonesia on a two-hour trip to singapore. 162 people, mostly indonesians were on board. but the plane disappeared off radar, without warning, about halfway into its route traveling through stormy weather. searchers found the first debris about ten miles from th

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. it's been a week now since two new york city police officers were murdered by a man who apparently was seeking revenge for the killings of michael brown and eric garner by white police officers, deaths for which the police were not charged. and today, there was a funeral for one of the officers shot dead in his patrol car last saturday in brooklyn. the newshour's hannah yi has our report. >> reporter: thousands flooded the streets near a queens church this morning for the funeral of officer rafael ramos, a 40-year- old father of two teenaged boys who had been studying to become a chaplain. he and another patrolman wenjian liu, were shot dead without warning as they sat in their police car. a wall of blue uniformed officers stood in solidarity, quietly paying their respects alongside other new yorkers. inside the packed church, vice president biden eulogized ramos and the other murdered policeman. biden said the sacrifices police officers and their families make

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. president obama has decried the murder of two new york city police officers in brooklyn yesterday. and so did the families of michael brown and eric garner, african-americans whose killings by white police officers set off nationwide protests. but former new york city mayor rudolph giuliani said today the protests send the message that "the police are bad, the police are racist," a conclusion, he said, that is completely wrong. meanwhile, the investigation into yesterday's incident is continuing. the newshour's william brangham reports. >> reporter: mourners gathered today at the scene of last night's killing of the two new york city police officers, res dents last night expressed shock and anger. >> at the end of the day, two families were missing somebody for the holidays and it's wrong. >> what, are we living in dd city or something like that t doesn't happen, who does this. >> officers rafael ramos and wenjian liu where were shot at point-blank rang in thei

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening. thanks for joining us. it's monday morning in asia and the search for a missing airasia jetliner carrying 162 people is resuming. the airbus disappeared from radar screens about 40 minutes after taking off from indonesia on route to singapore. the newshour's zachary green has more on the investigation. >> reporter: at singapore's changi airport, friends and relatives gathered to await news about airasia flight 8501, which disappeared early this morning. among those waiting, the fiance of a young man who had been traveling with relatives. >> ( translated ): it was supposed to be their last vacation, before us--we got married. it was to be his last vacation with his family. >> reporter: the flight took off at 5:35 a.m. local time from surabaya, indonesia's second- largest city. the scheduled flight time to singapore was one hour and 55 minutes. but at 6:13 am, 38 minutes after takeoff, the pilot radioed air traffic control, asking to change course and increase altitude to avoid storm c

he can choose. >> give it about a second, hari. >> sreenivasan: right >> good job. >> sreenivasan: roberts says such commands can get dogs to critical areas faster, and get them out safely. i'm going to press the left. >> good boy. >> sreenivasan: roberts and his team plan to advance their canine computer technology in the next two years with a recently awarded grant from the national science foundation. hari sreenivasan in raleigh north carolina. >> ifill: finally tonight, a change of pace. my conversation with rock legend melissa etheridge on how her life, and her music, are changing. >> ifill: it's been a big year for melissa etheridge, personally and professionally. she got married to hollywood producer linda wallem, shook up her 35-year music career by founding her own record label and used it to release her 14th album: "this is m.e." >> ♪ ♪ the 53 year-old rocker was born in kansas, earning her at one point in her career the label: "queen of the heartland." >> ifill: hits like this one, from her 1988 self titled album, rocketed her into the spotlight for their raw and honest lyrics.

hari sreenivasan has our report.orah mullins blames most of her health problems on this block in downtown los angeles. she has been living on the sidewalk here for the past 30 years. >> do you know how many times she went to the hospital? at least eight. >> the woman's health has gotten so bad even the police started worrying. >> we're not even done yet this year. >> she's the kind of person dr. susan and her tame of department of l.a.'s health services have been trying to find. they say they have an obviously cure for what ails most of the city's homeless, housing. >> they can put you in temporary housing. >> put me somewhere. the healthcare reform law brought insurance to most of l.a.'s homeless population this year when c.c. expanded the medicaid program but so far it's done little to improve the health of the 3500 homeless residents on skid row. even with better access to doctors and prescription drugs, they're still living on the streets, many with severe chronic and mental health conditions. mark directs a new

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening thanks for joining us. late last night the senate passed a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending bill, heading off a government shutdown for at least the next fiscal year. the president is expected to sign it. despite it's passage, the budget plan has drawn criticism from both democrats and tea party republicans. besides funding the military and fighting ebola, the bill also relaxes school nutrition standards, clears the way for much larger campaign contributions from wealthy individual donors, and includes a controversial rollback on bank regulations put in place after the financial crisis in 2008. for some more insight we are joined from washington d.c. by niels lesniewski of roll call.çó >> thank you. so last night we were headed home thinking that this was going to drag out for another few days. what happened, how did this get through? >> well, what we had in the senate on the floor of the senate was what we might call saturday night magic. it's the kind of thing that often takes place

from the tisch wnet studios in lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. the pentagon announced today that the u.s. has transferred six detainees from guantanamo bay prison this weekend, sending them to uruguay. human rights activists say the six were never charged or given a trial during their 12 years of detention. this is the largest prisoner contingent to leave gitmo since 2009, and it's the first group of detainees sent to south america. the transfer has been in the works since january, but uruguay's presidential elections delayed the deal. the state department expressed its gratitude and called the transfer a "milestone in u.s. efforts to close gitmo for good." uruguay's outgoing president jose mujica said friday that the detainees are, "coming as refugees and the first day that they want to leave, they can leave." 136 detainees remain at the prison, including 67 who've been approved for future transfers. in saudi arabia 135 people suspected of plotting terrorist attacks inside the kingdom. most of them are saudi nationals.

hari sreenivasan has the story. >> sreenivasan: there's even more at stake than usual in tomorrow's 101stbowl game. the number-two oregon ducks will face the number-three florida state seminoles for a spot in the national title game. but the schools and their supporters are also finding common ground off the playing field, in fighting a rare blood disorder called fanconi anemia. it affects fewer than 1,000 americans. but, as fate would have it, both florida state and oregon's communities have been affected. on the florida state side, ethan fisher, nine-year-old son of head coach jimbo fisher and his wife candi, suffers from the disease. fisher has pushed for increasing awareness. >> that's how things are defeated: you have to present them, you have to bring them to the forefront so people can help you. and that's the way so many other diseases in this world have been conquered. and that's our goal. we're gonna conquer this disease-- it's not going to define ethan or our family and we're on a mission to find a cure. >> sreenivasan: former university of oregon president dave frohnmayer and

hari sreenivasan has that. >> sreenivasan: little black pearl, a public school on the south side of shirk trying to write a new song book for success. it started last fall when the school's founder, monica haslet, transformed her after school art center into a full-time public school focused on the arts. her students come from some to have the highest crime areas in the city. the undertaking was born from frustration. >> my biggest motivation for this school was about looking at the volume and the number of children that we have in chicago that are dropping out of school. >> sreenivasan: haslet partnered with chicago public schools to identify students on the wrong track. >> a lot of schools we have had really poor attendance prior to coming here. we believe and we have been able to see that by offering them access to the arts, that in itself is the thing that is inviting them to come to school every day. >> sreenivasan: the hope is art can offer students who may be distracted or even traumatize bid violence that surrounds them a way to return to learning. why art? why is this the reason

>> sreenivasan: david harris is a professor at the university of pittsburgh law school.predicts body cameras will soon be widely used by departments everywhere. >> police need to take this on on their own terms. to have their own ways of looking at this. the public will be served because there will be greater accountability, there can be a much better, more nuanced record. and the police have begun to realize, just as they did years ago with dash cams, that their interests will be served as well. >> sreenivasan: still even harris concedes that body cameras don't necessarily mean police will be held more accountable. earlier this month, a new york city grand jury decided not to indict an officer in the chokehold death of eric garner, in spite of the fact the incident was videotaped by bystanders. >> we know that even if you see it on camera, there can still be biases. you only have one camera angle or the one you have only shows part of the action. or you have situations in which there has been editing. >> sreenivasan: jay stanley, a policy analyst with the american civil

time trying to figure out where a high school kid was after school every day in 1999. >> sreenivasan: that's just part of the hook of a weekly podcast called "serial" that's riveted millions with its exploration of a true murder case and a felon's potential innocence. >> this is "serial" podcast , a story told week by week. i'm sarah koenig. >> sreenivasan: first released in october, "serial" is a spin- off of the public radio program "this american life." each week, the program's investigation of the case seems to unfold along with the viewer. the focus: the 1999 conviction of a high school senior, anan syed, who was charged with murder of his ex-girlfriend, hae min lee. "serial" host and creator sarah koenig, takes listeners through an extensive re-examination of the alibis, testimony, work of the defense attorney done back then asking whether syed really was guilty. >> what grabbed me about this story is that a friend of the family came to me and said, "we believe this guy is innocent. there are holes in this case. can you take a look? >> sreenivasan: its a huge hit in the world o

hari sreenivasan has more on the case of eric garner. >> sreenivasan: reaction to the grand jury decision been sharp and highlights a very tense relationship between police in new york and the communities they serve. it's also a test for its new mayor. joining us now is pervaiz shallwani, criminal justice reporter for the "wall street journal." so surprised? >> you know, i think there is some surprise. i think some people believe that because there was a video in this case there was a little bit more clear-cut path to a charge of some kind. you know, the grand jury ultimately decided that there wasn't. >> sreenivasan: okay. the parallels and the not so parallels with ferguson? >> i think some of the parallels are there is a belief that it's almost impossible to indict a police officer in a case where the autopsy reveals there's a homicide, but there are very different situations here, just, you know, in how they sort of played out, one, and, two, on the ground the way the situation is, i think new york city is a much different situation than ferguson. >> sreenivasan: we played a little bi

hari sreenivasan has the story from our new york studios. >> sreenivasan: i'm joined by diane swonk withinancial services firm. what's behind the higher number today? >> a lot of good news. we had meet on the bone jobs in things like business services, an area hard hit during the recession, includes accountants, technical consultants, engineers, architects. that's the good news. we also saw manufacturing and construction jobs, awful low base but still jobs in that sector. then a huge hiring in retail, also food, restaurants, all those kind of areas. >> sreenivasan: holiday season? >> not just holiday hires. 20% was in the auto sector to sell cars. we don't tend to buy those for gifts in the holiday season. the department stores and the big box retailers didn't hire up and that's because they're showing off their online presence. we saw warehousing and packaging. shippers are hiring because last eyear we had bad weather and online spending and i was one of the ones who didn't get their presents on time. it's not good when it comes three days later. they're trying to get that in order all

hari sreenivasan has the story. >> sreenivasan: more than $3 trillion in deals worldwide have been announceds year, many of them including american companies. there have been some enormous ones in the pharmaceutical world. drugmaker actavis is buying the manufacturer of botox, allergan, for $66 billion. there are more than $400 billion of announced deals in the health care sector overall. media megadeals were a part of the boom too. comcast will pay $45 billion for time warner cable, if regulators approve it. what's behind the frenzy? and what kind of impact do these deals have on the companies, employees and the economy historically? for that, we turn to andrew ross sorkin, he co-hosts squawk box on cnbc and is a columnist for the "new york times" and editor at large of its dealbook section. so, andrew, what's behind up a these mergers and acquisitions this year? >> well, what's behind these deals is actually what's behind the market which is confidence. mergers and acquisitions happen to be probably one to have the better barometers of confidence, not so much in the market itself, but also

they don't always want to know the details. >> sreenivasan: would this be different than how we treatming from japan or south korea? would we set up academies like we have in other countries as well? >> that will be under discussion. i don't know cuban officials would want to scrap their system or have two systems side by side. those things will be negotiated. we'll see probably a mainly league baseball team, maybe outside of ten years, but i think you will begin to see a normalizing relation, where ball players will be able to play winter ball in cuba. it used to be, quite frankly, sort of a wintering season for a lot of the great negro players because cuba allowed black players around 1900. >> sreenivasan: there are market forces at work. cuba obviously has no incentive to try to have all of it best players jump over to the united states right away and then if you bring all the players over at the same time you can't sign the contracts like the one you were talking about for millions of millions of dollars because you have an increase in supply, right? >> right. that's going to be t