Hour plus row bow could be. Remarkable prototypes that one day may save our lives. Tonight our science and Technology Correspondent jake ward gets up close and personal with these heavy metal machines. Be president obama is heading home for the holidays. He and his family are headed right now on air force one to hawaii. Before leaving he had a News Conference talking questions about what went right and what went wrong in 2013. Mike viqueria reports. Well, the president had the tone and demeanor of a man ready to put 2013 in the rearview mirror. He also insists that next year 2014, things are looking up. Good afternoon everybody. With calls for reform coming from the courts and some of his own advisors, president obama defended the nsas collection of millmillions of phone calls. Whatever benefits this particular program may have may be outweighed by the concerns that people have on its potential abuse, and if thats the case there may be another way of skinning the cat. Asked directly if a plea deal could be negotiated with Edward Snowden in a t stop to the leak, president obama chose his words care offully. This has done untold damage to u. S. Intelligence capabilities and u. S. Diplomacy. On iran the president came out against a push for new sanctions. Joining some Congressional Republicans on a call to tighten the screws, president obama called to give his plan a chance. What ive said to democrats and republicans is, theres no need for new sanctions legislation. Not yet. The session with reporters was an effort to end 2013 on a positive note. In some areas it has been a rough year for the president. To blame the nsa controversy and the botched Health Care Rollout for which president obama again admitted blame. Since im in charge obviously we screwed it up. Chided reporters for writing him off. I think this room has probably recorded at least 15 neardeath experiences. At the top of the 2014 agenda immigration reform, on the newly passed budget the president sees more hope for new deals in the coming years. In the terms of brinksmanship coming out of the government shutdown. This was probably the president s last potential appearance no. The new year. There are no fights in congress to keep him in washington. At the end of the day, he boarded marine 1, for 17 days in hawaii. The president tried to accentuate the positive, the sinking of the unemployment rate, and he had an nows announcement for healthcare. Gov, he said 1 million have signed up, half a million in the first three weeks in december alone. That is obviously a good news for the white house, however, the goal was 3 million enrolled by the first of the year, 7 million enrolled by april 1st. Theyve obviously got a long way to go. Mike viqueria, thanks. The health care, nsa leaks, can he turn it around in time for the mid year elections . With me is heather hurlburt, welcome heather. Thanks for having me john. What did you think of the president S Performance today . I was impressed by his attempt to try, to shape the agenda for next year, wait until congress leaves up to, theres nobody left here to give a rebuttal, his clip is what you and everybody else are showing and you lay out these are the achievements, this is the way we want to frame it going forward. Let me frame it to the 15 near death experiences sound bite. I think this room has recorded at least 15 near death experiences, weve had ups and weve had downs and what ive been focused on each and every day, is are we moving the ball in helping the american people, families, have ask more opportunity if they work hard, they can get ahead. As a speech writer i would expect you would focus on the words. Let me focus on the tone for a moment. My sense is this was a very down press conference as much as he would want to move it forward. You would have near death experiences, you know nothing about near death experiences. You do. I was struck actually there was a real pr 101 lets take responsibility and move on. He did that before didnt he . Yes but what i did this is the second time. What i thought of was interesting was that this wasnt a sort of yeah we screwed up. It was a hey the numbers are way up the costs are way down and yes we screwed up. We got the report on the nsa were going to look at it and yes maybe we didnt understand some things quite right. There was an effort to do two things at once, first to say consumer play book 101, you immediately take responsibility for things and at the same time, youre trying frame discussion, youre trying to put the positive out there trying to force, because think about it. Whats the story you would write about the end of the year . It would be a pretty negative story, you had cover stores, on the d. C. Media, worst year ever, worst year in economy, balance that by saying more people are at work. I was going to say that, on a day that probably could have been one of his best days as president , because the numbers were tremendous regarding the economy. It looks like the economy is back on track, hes struggled through all these years and yet, i mean, i kept hear the tone. And the tone to me just sounded a little bit off. It just sounded like he was worn out, done with it. Is that is that taking it too far you think . Or not . Well, you know its worth mentioning the last question in the press conference which has gotten less attention where he was asked about the folks on his staff leaving. He talked directly about what its like and how exhausted people are. And he says we have this opportunity for a relatively short time to make a difference but theres an all o awful lot u sacrifice in the meantime. Youre looking at a group of people, look how gray his hair is, how much hes aged. Beginning of next year theres some new folks coming in on the team and so you know this is a bit of a turning point and a farewell to a bunch of people and a sort of you come back next year and you mentioned in your setup the mid terms. As a president who as he says is never going to run for anything again, you have some the luxury and some the wait about how your party does in the mid terms. So that gives you a more sort of reflective i think focus. And more than that a lot of time left as president of the united states. Heather its great to see you, thanks for talking to you again, happy holidays. Thanks same to you. New revelations about nsa surveillance activities. U. S. And british surveillance since 2008 and 2011. They include an israeli prime minister, and others. Leaked by Edward Snowden. The situation is increasingly dire and dangerous in south sudan. Ethnic fighting has left hundreds dead this week and now president obama is sending troops to safeguard americans. This woman is angry because the food shes been given. They told us there would be food but thats not true. They said we would get help. Im angry hungry and frustrated. There are 5,000 living here, families too scared and traumatized to go back home. James ega is the currents president. He says juba is safe. He replaced, in august, the man the president accused of planning a coup. Only places are under his control. We will flush him out. The United Nations paints a slightly different picture. Mashar denies taking over the country. Fighting are still recovering in hospital. Officials say they battle to cope at first but now things seem under control. Almost all of them, short wounds, different from shots at night and shot in the day. Shot at night are people running. In the morning, they were all in the front, legs, thighs, chest, and in the head, which means they are anonymity in combat, most of the fatal injuries were those of the chest and the head. Locals in the capital juba say if the crisis escalates, they have nowhere to run to. North korea making threats to south korea with a fax machine. Low tech merciless strikes without warning was protests on the anniversary of kim jongils death, burned effigies of kim jongun. Now to our latest report on veterans voices. Its our focus on the men and women who serving america and what they face on the front lines and at home. Tonight we want to take a look at something very special thats being offered to veterans. Its for trip back to the states and as you will see it provides them for both care and comfort. Its l called the Freedom Center lounge and its in detroit. David hawkins has the story. It may not be as fancy as a first class lounge but its a place of welcome and comfort for a special kind of traveler. The Freedom Center at detroits Metropolitan Airport is a place where military personnel veterans and their families can rest before and between flights. Wifi, comfortable chairs, even bunk beds for the weary. Its a nice relaxing break. She has a sixhour layover. Actually toying with trying to get a hotel room for several hours. That doesnt make any sense. My plane got pushed back for a couple of hours, so i its nice to relax and get something to eat. The u. S. Didnt get a Christmas Holiday until the civil war. Its a holiday homecoming for american soldiers and sailors to get some time with their families. I was home since boot camp. Its just for the weekend, some really want to see me. Some are headed in the other direction. This sergeant is heading back to kuwait, after attending his fathers funeral. , aifort piloair force captain a pilot. We have evolved into this great crossroads of air travel so there are literally hundreds if not thousands of military personnel transiting this airport. More than 80,000 people have visited this transit center. I havent slept for several days actually, it is nice to kickback and relax. That is what this place is for, to provide rest and relaxation for people who have served or are serving their country. Coming up. Credit card abuse, plus the robot olympics. And the first couple to say i do, joins us live. You you you. A live look at the Empire State Building in new york. Which is lit up ahead of christmas. A clear night in the city but thats not the case in other part of the country. Kevin corriveau joins us. Thats not the case, john. You can see through texas, oklahoma, not just the rain and the thunderstorms, were talking about icing. Most of oklahoma is dealing with icing right now. Earlier i said we had a tornado. Now were picking up wind damage in most of oklahoma on ice storm warnings, you dont want to be on the roads for this. Especially tomorrow look all the way up towards chicago were talking about winter storm warnings as well as flooding possibly across indiana, ohio, three to four inches of rain is expected across that region. Tomorrow a lot of people are on the roads or trying to be on the roads or in the air. We have a lot of Severe Weather, talk about the Mississippi River valley, the damaging winds, weve already seen those. The tornadoes we expect to see several tomorrow. Now decembers not that time of the month where we normally have tornadoes but we do think the risk is going to be there because the air temperature is so warm. We are looking at atlanta tomorrow at 74 as well as memphis well above average. John. Kevin thank you. Target is trying to make amends over the Security Breach that could have affected tens of thousands of customers. Between november 27th and december 15th. It will also give all customers a 10 discount on purchases this weekend. About 40 million credit and debit accounts were compromised. The u. S. Leads all other countries in being number 1 in credit fraud. Reliance on technology that deals back to the days of cassettes and eighttrack tapes. The news that target commerce are vulnerable to customers are vulnerable to cdc theft, target still doesnt know how that breach happened but these large scale Security Breaches are becoming more and more common. T. J. Maxx, barns and noble. Adding that credit card theft is more pre prevalent than anywhere else in the world. The Magnetic Stripe in the existing credit card based here in the u. S. Is old school. Its antiquated, the data is in plain text, and it can be easily compromised. This makes american shoppers extremely vulnerable. According to neilson, the u. S. Primarily uses magnetic Swipe Technology on credit cards, where other countries adopted a more sophisticated technology. In mexico and other places, they are calling chip in pen, requiring a chip meaning it is a small little chip, and it requires a pin. Its not easily read and it has a lot more security and encryption. Here is how it works. When you use a chip card the transaction is scrambled cryptographically. Dozens of pieces of information are shared between the card and the company. Use it to create court fit cards and then they go on to purchase gift cards and convert gift cards back to cash. Neilsen says the Chip Technology is the strongest defense against counterfeit cards. Why is the Technology Used in less than 1 of cards . One, it costs more to create the system. Others prefer to use the technology that includes fingerprints. Anywaysys kmart and kohls will expand hours to counts until christmastime. State ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional. U. S. District court judge robert j. Shelby wrote the funnel right to marry in doing so demean the dignity of these same sex couples for no rational reasons. Accordingly the court finds these laws unconstitutional. Accordingly, Salt Lake City has begun issuing licenses to same sex marriages. Seth anderson and michael ferguson, congratulations. Thank you very much. This decision came as kind of a surprise and a surprise to the state. How did you move so quickly and get in to get your license and get married . Sure. So seth and i were working at the tea shop that we own here in 38tsalt lake and we got a text message and it said judge shelby just struck down the law, you better get down to the courthouse right away. We didnt understand the details but just went, and realized holy moaly, youre going to get married in our state. You got married quite soon after getting the license . Thats correct. The clerks hadnt heard, we showed them the email, shortly after that the d. A. Got there and was kind and supportive and took the clerks aside to brief them what was going on. About 20, 30 minutes later they came out and said we can proceed. I couldnt believe it. So now utahs attorney general says the state is requesting an emergency stay pending the filing of an appeal. In fact the Attorney Generals Office said this, well continue reviewing the ruling until an appeal is filed contending the passage of the law for citizens of utah. Whats your reaction . Were not were leap and protection of social contracts like any other couple. Im going to ask you to hold on just one second. Lets make sure we get the satellite thing fixed. Im asking you to repeat. What was your reaction to the toarnl general . I set were not attorneys were not lawyers ourselves, we are really thrilled that equality is being recognized, that we are permitted to do so and it just seems really obvious that this is the way that it is fair for everybody to proceed and participate in a civil society. So you are both mormons, ex mormons i understand and the Mormon Church is opposed to this ruling and is releasing a statement, i can read it, the church is consistent in its approach, we continue to think that voters in utah did the right thing by providing clear direction, that marriage should be between a man and a woman and we are hopeful that this would be validated in the higher court. We invite them to talk to us and not just talk in legal jargon, actually talk to the people who are affected by this. You are in a state where 28 of the people are in favor of gay marriage. Can you explain what thats like, seth . Its we lef in downtown Salt Lake City which is a beautiful city, it is an island of blue in a very big sea of red. It is a very conservative state. There are a lot of organizations that are networked and organized to pos to oppose rights for samx marriage. But the scene at the court was a cheering and sharing of joy. This is a profamily movement. The support was just palpable in the room. And do you have any idea how many other couples were getting licenses after you or were there very few . The last count we heard was upwards of 200. They had to turn a bunch of people away because they had to close the office. At least 700 and they are probably opening the office tomorrow to continue issuing licenses. So gracious. Can you give us the idea what the news is like in Salt Lake City about this Court Decision and how big it is in your state . Were just still dealing with all the Text Messages of love and congratulations from friends so we havent even gotten to that yet. Well, we appreciate you taking the time. Sure. On your wedding day to get to talk with us, seth and michael good luck, thanks so much. Thank you very much. Strip search, indian diplomat is getting the headline but we are looking closely at the nanny she allegedly mistreated. And a Rock N Roll High School in music city, u. S. A. Welcome back to Al Jazeera America. Im John Siegenthaler in new york and here are the top of stories. President obama and his family flew to hawaii this weekend, where they will enjoy two weeks of vacation. Following the time the president held a Year End Press conversation. The more than 1,000 targets of surveillance include European Union and other foreign officials. Edward snowdenstrophy of leaked documents. On their way home, killed after an attack on a u. N. Base violent clashes between the government and the rebels, led to fleeing. Anger in india over a gloament arrested an strip searched in new york city. Protestors filled the streets, theres been much Police Attention for the domestic servant who was supposedly paid only 3 and hour. Rafsia sakaria, attorney, human rights activist, welcome, good to see you. Thank you for having me on. Can you talk i mean we dont know the details of this case, we dont know exactly what happened. We do know th