Minority, about 9 of the u. S. Electorate, in a tight election, these voters could end up providing the winner with the margin of victory. Brown Judy Woodruff gets an inside view of the financial crisis and the government bailout from former fdic head sheila bair. Warner and mark shields and david brooks analyze the weeks news. Brown thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And carnegie corporation. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. Friends of the newshou this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown lebanon found itself reliving a nightmarish past today after the worst bombing in four years. At least eight people were killed and nearly 80 wounded in a carbomb attack. The explosion rocked central beirut as afternoon rush hour was getting underway, tearing through a mostly christian neighborhood. Streets were strewn with burned out cars, and the force of the blast blew out windows and doors, and sent bloodied, dazed people into the streets, pleading for help. translated the whole place was destroyed. God saved my life. Nothing left no roof, no windows. Brown other witnesses to the bombing said it brought back grim memories of lebanons long civil war from 1975 to 1990. translated i heard the sound that everybody heard. The loss of material things is not a problem we are used to replacing the glass windows since 1975, but those who lost a loved one, that is the real loss. Brown among the dead today Police Intelligence chief wissam al hassan. Lebanese officials said his convoy had been the target. Alhassan exposed a bomb plot last summer that was linked to syria, and his killing instantly raised questions about a possible syrian role in todays attack. translated the message was to prove what the u. N. Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been saying, that all the region is on the edge of exploding because of what is happening in syria. So syrian president Bashar Al Assad sent this message that they can do anything in the region. Brown lebanon had had a few years of relative calm, but the conflict in syria has reopened sectarian fault lines. The powerful Shiite Militia hezbollah, backed by syrias ally, iran, supports the assad regime. Lebanese sunni muslims support the predominantly sunni Syrian Rebels. The divide turned violent in august, when gun battles broke out in the Northern City of tripoli. Tensions have also been fueled by a flood of Syrian Refugees into lebanon. In washington today, state Department SpokeswomanVictoria Nuland stopped short of blaming syria for todays attack, but she said lebanon is at risk of being destabilized again. We have been, for a number of weeks and, in fact, months now, that weve been concerned about increasing tensions inside of lebanon, particularly sectarian tensions and tensions as a result of spillover from syria. But i dont want to prejudge before the lebanese authorities have had a chance to declare themselves who was responsible here. Brown there was no such reluctance back in lebanon, where sunnis burned tires in protest in cities across the country as news of the bombing spread. A short time ago, i spoke with abigail fielding smith of the Financial Times from beirut. Abigail, welcome. Tell us a bit more about the presumed target here, a top intelligence official. How has he stirred up enemies . Well, he was one of the most Senior Intelligence officials in lebanon. And he was associated with a couple of particular things which really targeted syria and syria allies in lebanon. One was the investigation into the murder of former Prime Minister rafik hariri in 2005 and most recently he was seen as being involved in the arrest of one of the syrian president assads top allies in lebanon which was seen as a very bold move for the Intelligence Services in lebanon. Brown no one has taken responsibility for the bombing yet, i gather. Who what is the thinking there . What is being talked about . Who is being looked at . Well, politicians in lebanon who are associated with the sort of antiassad movement have been very quick to blame assad. For many lebanese the bomb today was a huge blast, was reminiscent of a string of attacks which took place against antisyrian politicians in the year 2005 to 2008. So theres a lot of people targeting the syrians for this, although syria has condemned the attack. And described it as an ago of terrorism. But there are protests in areas of lebanon, sort of associated with opposition to the Syrian Regime today. So the mood on the street at least in those areas is very angry. Brown well, you know, as you say, there is a lot of history there between syria and lebanon, how is this, what is going on in syria now, how is it spilling over, how is it playing out in lebanon. What force has that unleashed there . Well, i think theres been two types of things. First of all there is the sort of literal spillover. Theres been a lot of clashes on the Syrian Lebanese border where a lot of Syrian Rebels are believed to be sort of seeking refuge. And also theres been a lot of refugees pouring into lebanon which is quite a small country. Theyve had about 70,000 refugees. So thats also increased tensions. Another way in which it is increased the sort of political temperature here is that it is made the sort of predominantly sunni opposition of lebanon who are close to the opposition in syria more empowered and more angry with syrias allies in lebanon. So in many ways these tensions preexisted the Syrian Crisis. But the Syrian Crisis has inflamed them and you know, particularly when you have things like lebanese citizens getting kidnapped in syria as happened during the summer, it really sort of inflames things and makes the situation in lebanon very unstable. Brown and what about the role of hezbollah, the u. S. Recently said its become part of the syrian governments killing machine, was the way they put it, i believe. How much is known about hezbollahs role in what is going on both in lebanon and visavis syria . Well, you know, hezbollah themselves deny sending fighters to syria. But there have been these reports of funerals, of hezbollah members who are widely reported to have died in syria. Not very much is actually sort of known about it in terms of fact. What we do know is that hezbollah is closely allied with the Syrian Regime. They see sort of an alliance of interest together. And that has actually costed hezbollah politically in lebanon, being to publicly associated with the Syrian Regime. Brown let me ask you finally, abigail, personally there, whats the tension level at this point . How close does it feel to a return to the kind of sectarian violence of the past . Well, i mean i dont know about sectarian violence but certainly the people i saw today sort of around the site of this massive bomb blast looked, you know, extremely disappointed that their country had gone back to a pattern of failure that everybody hoped had left behind. Beirut itself, the central beirut, the streets i have driven in to get to the studio are quiet, much quieter than usual. But i havent seen any actual sort of burning tires or anything on the streets. I think the coming days will show whether the Political Leadership on both sides in lebanon is really able to kind of contain the tension provoked by events like this. Brown abigail fielding smith of the Financial Times in beirut, thanks so much. Thanks. Brown immediate reports of the explosion were captured on twitter today. See a timeline of these tweets from journalists who were at the scene on our web site. Warner still to come on the newshour new guidelines for freezing human eggs; the outreach to latino voters; former fdic head sheila bair on the financial crisis; plus, shields and brooks. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan a roadside bombing in afghanistan today killed 19 people on their way to a wedding. Most of the victims were women and children. The group was in a minibus, heading to the grooms home in a Northern District to congratulate the newlyweds. Afghan President Hamid karzai strongly condemned the attack. In yemen, suicide bombers in military uniforms stormed an Army Barracks in the south, killing 14 soldiers and wounding more than 20. The attack came one day after at least seven al qaeda militants died in what were believed to be u. S. Drone strikes in the same area. A pakistani schoolgirlactivist who was shot in the head by the taliban is now able to stand without help. Doctors treating 14yearold Malala Yousufzai in britain said today she still has signs of infection. They also released a photo of her, showing a large bruise under left eye. Overall, they said, her condition is stable. At this stage were not seeing any deficit in terms of function. She seems to be able to understand. She has some memory, shes able to stand. Shes got motor control so shes able to write. Whether there is any subtle intellectual or memory deficits down the line is too early to say. Sreenivasan yousufzai was flown to birmingham, england, on monday. She had advocated for Girls Education in pakistan and against taliban atrocities. The militant group has warned it will try again to kill her. New disclosures emerged today about the assault that killed the u. S. Ambassador to libya. The Associated Press reported the cia station chief cabled washington the next day. He cited evidence it was a terrorist attack, and not a protest, as top u. S. Officials said for another week. Today, in a radio interview, republican Vice President ial candidate paul ryan called for president obama to say more in mondays final debate. They refuse to answer the basic questions about what happened. You know, and so his response has been inconsistent, its been misleading. And more than a month later we still have more questions than answered. And so hopefully on monday night they can, that will give the president a chance to explain himself sreenivasan the president pointed out in this weeks debate that, the day after the assault, he said no acts of terror will ever shake u. S. Resolve. Republicans insist he was speaking only generally. In another development today, the New York Times reported that one of the alleged ringleaders of the attack has yet to be questioned, and is defiantly showing himself in public. The president did not address the subject of libya today, but he did go after his republican opponent, mitt romney. Campaigning in northern virginia, mr. Obama said romney seems to be forgetting the more conservative positions he took during primary season. I mean hes changing up so much, and backtracking and sidestepping. Weve got weve got to name this condition that hes going through. I think i think its called romnesia. Sreenivasan both candidates will spend the weekend preparing for that final debate, monday night in boca raton, florida. Wall street had one of its toughest days in months. The market tumbled after microsoft, general electric, and mcdonalds turned in earnings that fell below expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 205 points to close at 13,343. The nasdaq fell 67 points to close at 3,005. For the week, the dow eked out a gain of onetenth of 1 ; the nasdaq fell more than 1 . European leaders have taken a new step toward dealing with their longrunning debt dilemma. After allnight negotiations in brussels, they agreed a plan for creating a central banking supervisor should be in place by january 1. They did not say when the watchdog would begin work. The supervisor would oversee efforts to bail out european banks so hardpressed governments wont have to. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to margaret. Warner we turn to new guidelines and questions surrounding freezing eggs to treat infertility. Doctors started freezing and then thawing eggs for in vitro fertilization, or i. V. F. , years ago, but in very few cases, and the procedure has been considered experimental. Today, the American Society for reproductive medicine shifted its position, saying the process shouldnt be labeled experimental any longer. It said babies born from frozen eggs are as healthy as those from fresh eggs. But the Committee Said the procedure should be limited in its use. Its estimated there have only been about 1,000 births from frozen eggs in the u. S. , compared to more than a million babies born through i. V. F. We look at whats changed and the thicket of questions it raises. Doctor eric widra cochaired the committee that made the recommendation change. Hes with the shady grove fertility center. And Marcy Darnovsky is the associate executive director of the center for genetics and society in berkeley, california. Welcome, both of you, dr. Wid ra widra, beginning with you, on what basis did your group, your committee conclude that this shouldnt be considered experimental any more. That it works as well as using fresh eggs. Theres been a fair amount of pressure from patients and practitioners over the last years to remove this label of experimental from eggfreezing and thank youing, but there has been very little data published comparing the technique using frozen eggs and fresh eggs and looking at the outcome of the pregnancies. In the last several years there have been studies painly out of europe but some in the the u. S. As well showing near equivalent from fresh eggs from younger woman and frozen eggs in terms of establishing pregnancies and a large series looking at the outcomes of these pregnancies, and the children seem to be doing as wells appears without reproductive technology. Warner yet are you limiting its applicable. Youre not recommending it for all women who might want Something Like this. Explain the limitations and why. Sure. What were saying is three fairly specific points. One is that we do think we should be recommending this procedure for women who may become infertile from medical treatment such as cancer and chemotherapy. We think that it is a Reasonable Technology to use in centers that provide egg Donation Services to their patients but that we need to monitor that very closely as that still a very young technology. And we think its premature to recommend that women freeze their eggs to preserve their own fertility for later. But we recognize that there is a strong impetus to do so and if centers proceed with that service that we carefully counsel the patients with the pros and cons. In other words, youre talking about what you would call elective correct. Warner something that is elective. But is this procedure delivers as many babies or produces as many babies and healthy ones, why not, why doesnt it also apply to older women who may want to delay, lets say they are in their mid 30s and still arent married and want to preserve the option of having a baby. There is no question in our mind that that could be a huge benefit to women and families. If this technology is safe and effective across the age range, that that could really be a boon to women who are in a position where theyre not preped to have children yet. But dont have other alternatives. So we would love to say yes, please go and do this. But it comes with both personal and societal and scientific ramifications that we arent prepared to say we understand yet. Warner does the data, and then i want to get to you, ms. Darnovsky, but does the data, do you have data showing how safe and effective it is for older women . No, we really dont. The relatively small number of women without freeze their eggs lechively or even for Cancer Therapy often wont need those egg force many years. And those that have frozen them may conceive on their own. So we have a small subset of women who have frozen their eggs for a reasonable period of time and wanted to use them again. Warner Marcy Darnovsky, what is your reaction to is reaction to this recommendation. Well, our concern is that a lot of fertility clinics, hundreds, really, are already aggressively marketing this procedure for lech difficult purposes, for what is times called social egg freezing. And we think that that is really not a good thing. Its the spirmental label may be removed which would enable Insurance Companies to cover the costs for women who might become infertile because of cancer treatments, for example, but its still an experiment. And as attractive and tempting as it is to, we all want to expand choices for women, so they can have children when they want to. But i dont think any woman wants to experiment with her own health or experiment with her childs health. And we really dont have the data and the new guidelines from the fertility industry organizations say that the data is not adequate to assess the effectiveness or the safety of this procedure for social purposes. Warner so are you saying that you arent persuaded that for any woman this has been proven to be safe, healthwise. Right it there are risks to the children. We dont know yet, we hope they are all okay, and they seem to be so far. But theyre still very young. There are risks to women. Because egg extraction is actually a fairly invasive procedure. And surprisingly, and really dismayingly, even though hundreds of thousands of women have undergone it in the year since ivf has become an option for family formation, we dont have adequate data about either the shortterm risks or longterm risks of egg extraction. And there are som