Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and by bnsf railway. 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. Ifill a white chicago policeman pleaded not guilty today in the killing of black teenager laquan mcdonald. That case sparked local protest, and gained national attention. Jason van dyke was arraigned on charges of firstdegree murder and official misconduct. Police video released last month showed him shooting mcdonald 16 times. Meanwhile, in cleveland, protesters gathered a day after a grand jury refused to indict two Police Officers for killing tamir rice. The 12yearold was shot dead in november of last year. This morning, mayor Frank Jackson said the city wants to address public anger, in part with a special committee to examine the case. The grand jury has said that theres been nothing done wrong criminally. We are reviewing based on what we have seen, whether or not something has been done administratively. A 12yearold lost his life, something happened. Ifill attorneys for the accused officers reiterated today that their clients did not know rice was only 12, or that he had a toy gun not a real one. In pakistan today, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a government office, killing at least 26 people and wounding scores more. It happened in the northwestern city of mardan, near peshawar, in a province bordering afghanistan. The bomber opened fire, then detonated his suicide jacket at a National Registration office. Many of the victims were there to receive identification cards. translated i was offering my prayers in my house when the blast occurred. It was a huge blast. When i came running here, there were dead bodies lying all around. It was like doomsday. Body parts were scattered on the ground. Rescue workers were picking up dead bodies and putting them in vehicles. Ifill an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Police in belgium have arrested two people in a possible plot to stage attacks around new years. Brussels main square is popular with tourists this time of year, and was allegedly one of the targets. Authorities say the plotters had militarytype uniforms and Islamic State propaganda. Back in this country, days of heavy rain triggered flooding along the Mississippi River today, inundating small towns in missouri and illinois. The rising tide also shut down parts of two interstate highways and forced residents of west alton, missouri to evacuate their homes. Governor jay nixon warned the worst is yet to come. Here that except to say, weve got a lot more water coming, we try to stay in front of it as best we can, today is tuesday and as i said before were looking at thursday or friday morning for that to crest, so we have 3648 hours to get ready for the top. Ifill later, the governor activated the national guard. Elsewhere, heavy rain continues in georgia and alabama, and new england is finally getting snow, after one of the warmest decembers on record. Michiagns governor apologized today for lead contamination in the city of flints drinking water. And, his environmental chief resigned. The city started drawing water from the flint river last year to save money. State officials insisted it was safe, but the water corroded aging pipes and released lead. Residents have now been warned against drinking unfiltered tap water. And, wall street rallied on higher oil prices, plus upbeat economic reports. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 192 points to close at 17,720. The nasdaq rose 67 points, and the s p 500 added nearly 22. Still to come on the newshour a victory in the iraqi city of ramadi. Guinea ground zero for the Ebola Outbreak declared free of the virus. A law to prevent data breaches. A drought in the heart of the caribbean. And much more. Ifill now to the fight against isis, and the fate of a key city. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner begins with this report. Warner it was a triumphant tour for the iraqi Prime Minister. Today Haider Al Abadi planted his countrys flag in the city after Government Troops retook its center. They did not fight, they fled and many were killed. Reporter it was a sevenmonth slog to this day. It was a sevenmonth slog to this day. Islamic state militants had captured ramadi, capital of the majoritysunni anbar province, in may. After encirling ramadi for weeks, last week, iraqi forces, backed by u. S. Led coalition airstrikes, finally launched an assault into the city. And over the weekend, they made a final push to seize its Central Administration complex. Yesterday, troops celebrated as they raised the iraqi flag above the key government building. Today, speaking from baghdad, u. S. Army colonel steve warren underscored the role of u. S. Led airpower in retaking the city. I would agree that probably 80 of the effort i would in ramadi was due to coalition airstrikes. This is significant. And this is what really facilitated or enabled the iraqi forces to move in. Its using that air power as the force multiplier that it is. Warner warren also told reporters that airstrikes over the past month have killed 10 Islamic State leaders. Several of them were linked to the deadly attacks in paris, and one had direct ties to the ringleader of the november 13th rampage. Back in ramadi, there is much work left to do. Iraqi forces have cleared the areas shown here in green, but militants remain in other parts of the city. Indeed, abadi and his convoy were forced to leave one section of ramadi after mortar rounds landed nearby. Explosives also must be removed from streets and buildings. Warren declined to predict how long that would take. Ifill now, we get the view from iraq with wall street journal reporter matt bradley in baghdad. I spoke with him earlier today. Matt bradley, thank you for joining us. This victory people have been talking about has been imminent for several days. How significant is that it was accomplished without help of kurdish or Shiite Militia . This victory is vindicating for the Iraqi Military but also for Prime MinisterHaider Alabadi and his partners in the united states. As Haider Alabadi said, this is sort of paving the way toward mosul, which will be a much, much more difficult fight. Ifill you mentioned Haider Alabadi, the Prime Minister, he made kind of a victory lap througthrough there today. How well was that received . Any politician likes to get his picture in the right place at the right time so this is not unusual. Rumors were circulating his convoy came under fire from missiles from ten my, but that was not the case at all. This is how difference it is. He is caught between the Islamic State on the one side and is Shiite Militia groups that were very resentful they werent included in the fight for ramadi. Ifill have iraqi troops improved on their performance and how . One of the things iraqi troops were able to do in ramadi and not previous battlings were combined tactics, they called the on airstrikes and iraqs military at the right time for the right targets, they combined the use of amphibious assaults when they erected a bridge down river from ramadi to surprise the enemy from the south. So they have created a combined assault which is a lofty military theory that a lot of these iraqi soldiers hadnt been exposed to until u. S. Training this past summer. Ifill what effect does it have on morale not only for the iraqi citizens but the Iraqi Military . Every victory that happens is strategic. What the iraqi troops really lack is morale, is the feeling theyre defending a nation, that their nation is grateful, its worth saving and their victories wont be usurped or eclipsed by the Shiite Militias or the peshmerga. This is a huge moment. This is the first time the Iraqi Military really achieved a victory against the Islamic State. Up till now, its only been embarrassing defeats for the Iraqi Military. Ifill and mosul seems like a more difficult target. Is that realistic . Not at this present moment. Mosul is seven times the size of rammedy, second largest city in iraq, the Islamic States de facto capital in this country. There is a huge number of civilians in the city and a lot who have some amount of affection or support for Islamic State. So the mosul fight will not be nearly as easy as the ramadi fight, and the ramadi fight wasnt easy at all, so it will get only more difficult. Ifill matt bradley reporting from baghdad for the wall street journal. Thank you so much. Thanks. Ifill for the first time in two years, the country where the Ebola Outbreak began can say its free of the virus. Thats also true for the region of west africa where more than 11,000 people have died in the epidemic. Ebola sickened more than 28,000 people across ten countries. Mostly in africa. But a Long International effort eventually paid off. William brangham begins our look at the Lessons Learned and the challenges that remain. Brangham the outbreak first began in eastern guinea back in december of 2013 and then spread to neighboring liberia and sierra leone. More than 2,500 people died in guinea before it was fully contained, and today, an estimated 6,000 children there are orphans because of the epidemic. Its now been six weeks since the last known ebola patient repeatedly tested negative for the virus. Reports from guinea today suggest a mix of both celebration and wariness. Sheri fink has chronicled the impact of the epidemic for the new york times, and was part of the team who won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. So, sheri fink, guinea says no more ebola. How big a deal is this . Its a big deal. As youve said, its been two years since experts believe the first case in guinea started this epidemic. Thats a very long time. Today marks the date all three of the most affected countries have broken the original chain of transmission, the humantohuman transmission that led us to this day of thousands of deaths and many many thousands of people getting sick with ebola. Brangham is the Scientific Community pretty confident we are in fact at zero in liberia at one point was declared ebola free and new cases erupted, so how confident can we be this really is it . This has been something we learned this year. In fact, people might even be surprised ebola has slipped from the headlines, that the transmission continued to go up until this date and that is because there have been sort of these cases that nobody knew about of potential ebola kind of hanging out in certain parts of the body that are immune logically immunolodgecally protected in survivors causing minioutbreaks. Liberia twice had small flareups thought to be linked from transmission from survivors and in rare cases thought to be sexually transmitted for one thing. So the World Health Organization is saying humantohuman transmission stopped but guinea will enter a 90day period of enhanced surveillance to be on thetic lookout for sporadic cases that could pop up and lead to more cases. Brangham you reporting over the last months and years have revealed there were real problems in the way the World Health Organization responded to this epidemic. Can you tell us some of the problems they have had and how have they been addressed . The World Health Organization has really been a punching bag for this outbreak and it should be said nobody responded well at the beginning, but certainly the World Health Organization as that u. N. Body thats in charge of the Worlds Health came in for a lot of criticism and said it was justified, and numerous groups have come out, experts trying to say what can relearn from this. The essential fact was early in the outbreak, the w. H. O. Failed to sort of understand its gravity. These cases popped up in a part of the world that hadnt been known to have Ebola Outbreaks in the past, right at the border of three countries, and very quickly had hit capital cities. So there wasnt just enough of a sense of urgency in that very early response, a sense that this was different from the w. H. O. Plus, they had cut down their outbreak response units just before the outbreak happened. This was because, you know, they hadnt had as much money to work with, with the Global Financial crisis, so they chose to cut certain aspects of their Global Health portfolio. Unfortunately, one of them was outbreak response. So now the focus is how to strengthen that in the future. Brangham you reported also sometimes political concerns got in the way of Public Health concerns. Explain how that happens. So the w. H. O. Is made up of its member countries, and in the past, even with this outbreak, we saw that there is sort of a punitive response when a country has a dangerous disease like ebola within its borders. Airlines shut down flights, countries pull out, and the thought is also that these countries put pressure on the local, the regional w. H. O. Offices. They dont want a big deal to be made of this outbreak. So looking forward, a lot of these groups are saying the w. H. O. Needs to be protected from that political pressure so that they can address an outbreak, not minimize it, in the beginning as well as the other countries of the world need to reward countries that are willing to come forward and say weve got an outbreak. And that reward is, you know, immediate assistance to fight the outbreak. More broadly, Health Systems really need to be strengthened in all these countries. These are countries with poor Health Systems to begin with, and all the countries of the world have realized that there is an interest in strengthening those Health Systems. You know, thats partly to help people humanitarian, but partly so that future outbreaks of even more dangerous, you know, epidemics would be stopped at their source. Brangham sheri fink of the new york times, thank you so much. Thanks. Ifill the best way to stop ebola would be developing a vaccine and, in fact, more than a dozen trials and experiments are underway. Earlier this year, our science correspondent, miles obrien, reported on some of those efforts in west africa, and why the search for a cure has been so difficult. This is an encore look from his series, cracking ebolas code. Reporter its dark and early in freetown sierra leone. A team of pharmacists is in a nondescript government building preparing the days supply of an experimental vaccine against ebola. The clock starts running when they take the vaccine out of a very deep freeze. This is likely the coldest spot in the whole country. The vaccine can only be thawed out right before it is injected, or it will lose its potency and all of this will be a waste of time, money and hope. So right now, timing and temperature are absolutely critical. And then it happens. The power went out. Reporter another reminder of how hard it is to conduct a hightech vaccine trial in one of the poorest countries on the planet. But they are ready theyve got two backup generators for the building, solar charged batteries, and if all else fails, a special container that maintains about 100 degrees below zero fahrenheit for five days, without power. Pharmacist Morrison Jusu is delivering the vaccine three and a half miles across freetown. After a seemingly endless national nightmare, he carries a cooler full of expectations. He knows much is riding with him. Some people lost family members. Some families were essentially wipedout as a result of this thing. If this vaccine proves out to be something that prevents such in the future, then its, words cannot describe how much relief that would be to this community. Reporter while jusu and the vaccine are wending their way, a line is growing outside their destination freetowns connaught hospital. The volunteers start showing up before dawn. They are healthcare workers, this trial is limited to them because they are, by far, the most at risk of contracting ebola virus disease. Even though there is no evidence the vaccine poses any real danger, they must weigh the rumors and the uncertainties. Life is all about risks. But i believe it will be of help in the job that i do. translated it is a high risk for me. I believe this can protect me from ebola and thats why i came here for this vaccine. Reporter it wasnt always this way, the trial got off to a slow start when it began in april, people were too afraid. Dr. Mohammed samai is one of the principal investigators. People said the vaccine was the ebola virus. So once you get it, you become infected. So, a lot of people were not willing to come forward there in the first week to take the vaccine because they thought they should wait and see what happens. Reporter the vaccine does contain a piece of the ebola virus, a protein, its enough to trick the body into triggering its natural defenses, but wont give the recipient ebola virus disease. On the wall in the lobby of the hospital a spontaneous memorial to some of the doctors and nurses who died here during the epidemic, a grim reminder of what motivates volunteers like richard kanu. translat