tonight: the connection between ideology, wealth and happiness. >> reporter: study after study, it turns out, finds conservatives happier than liberals. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> intelligent computing technology is making its way into everything from cars to retail signs to hospitals; creating new enriching experiences. through intel's philosophy of investing for the future, we're helping to bring these new capabilities to market. we're investing billions of dollars in r&d around the globe to help create the technologies that we hope will be the heart of tomorrow's innovations. i believe that by investing today in technological advances here at intel, we can make a better tomorrow. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. 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. >> brown: something gained, but was something also lost? european leaders agreed early today to tie their budgets ever closer and force fiscal discipline on individual nations. but there was one big hitch, as the deal to save the euro currency also threatened to split europe anew. it was a late-night showdown in brussels, as leaders of 27 european nations met deep into the early morning hours, struggling to reach a deal that would shore up confidence in the common currency called the euro. in the end, 26 of the 27 member nations said they'd signed on or had agreed to consider a plan that would make it harder for countries to run up big deficits in the future and help countries now saddled with debt. christine lagarde-- managing director of the international monetary fund-- outlined the major tenets. >> what is really encouraging today is to see that the members that will be party to the agreement have decided three key components. number one, they want to really consolidate their fiscal union, number two they've decided to accelerate the european stability mechanism and number three, they've decided to add to the resources of the international monetary fund by an amount of 270 billion u.s. dollars, that is to be confirmed within ten days. so, that's, that's a really good step in the right direction. >> brown: german chancellor angela merkel, leader of europe's biggest economy, had been pushing hard for such a deal. >> ( translated ): i believe after long talks there is a very important result because we learn from the past and the mistakes, and we say in the future: binding agreements, binding rules, more influence for the european commission, more unity and therefore more that is our contribution to making the euro safe. >> brown: but there was a very prominent holdout as british prime minister david cameron declared that his country would not be party to the deal. >> if i couldn't get adequate safeguards for britain in a new european treaty, then i wouldn't agree to it. >> brown: cameron said it was a question of protecting britain's national sovereignty. >> britain's interests in the european union-- keeping markets open, free trade, selling our goods and services with rules over which we have a major say-- all those things are protected, they don't change. but this new round of integration and special powers and surrenders of sovereignty for european countries and others that want to join the euro, they will be carried on outside the european union treaty. so we will not be presenting this new treaty, when it's agreed, to our parliament. it will not involve britain. >> brown: the british decision disappointed french president nicolas sarkozy. he said britain's demands for regulatory exemptions countered the goals of the deal. >> ( translated ): david cameron asked for what we all considered as unacceptable: a protocol, within the treaty, allowing to exonerate the united kingdom of a certain amount of regulation regarding financial services. part of the problems of the world comes from the deregulation of the financial services, hence the necessity of european regulation. >> brown: european leaders want the details of a final agreement nailed down by march. today, financial markets seemed to react favorably. germany's dax index rose 1.9%, as stocks in france and italy shot up as well. in the u.s., stocks on wall street rose after the deal was made. both the nasdaq and the dow opened on an upswing and finished out the day high. the dow rose over 186 points to close at 12,184. and the nasdaq gained upwards of 50 points to finish the day at 2,647. good news after u.s. markets took a beating from europe's volatility all week long. the dow closed the week up 1.4% and the nasdaq rose 0.8%. for more on today's agreement and what it might mean for the region going forward, i am joined by francois rivasseau, deputy chief of mission for the european union delegation to the united states. and dan mccrum, a correspondent for the british newspaper, "the financial times." he's based in new york. francois rivasseau, so angela merkel said this is the breakthrough to the stability union. now, what exactly does that mean? is this truly a new kind of union within the european union? >> it is a historic day for europe, indeed, because we have made a good step towards more integration as the proper way of answering the crisis we face. we had two goals, one, to tighten, the rules of the e."u" of the programs of debt and deficits. the other goal was to strengthen the firewalls to defend the euro. that we have also achieved. so i think it was ad any day. >> brown: these changes won't take hold for some time. is the expectation now that because of this deal, the european central bank, the i.m.f., others might step in with greater force to stem the kind of problems we're talking about. >> we shall see what the effect of the decisions taken yesterday are. but all in all, if you look at where we were and where we are today, i think we have made a great step in improving all the figures. there are a number of decisions which have been made, but everybody has to study quietly, and everybody will realize a very significant message has been made, strengthen our crisis funds to defend the euro, and speed up thea implementation. but also what, is important for the market, solving the problem of the association of... of the private sector decision to be made. and we have decided and that was an important point maybe for new york. we have decide the the rules of i.m.f., the principles and practices will be now followed. greece will not be repeated. >> brown: followed by individual nations. >> followed by the euro zone countries. and, also, we have engage the cooperation of the i.m.f., and i think all that provide, i hope, an answer which will be seen as satisfactory. now nobody can see the future completely, obviously. >> brown: dan mccrum, explain the reservations from david cameron. what exactly is he afraid of if britain signs on? >> david cameron has a very strong and distinct euro-skeptic political party back at home. and so they are veriant-european. the populous of the u.k. is euro-skeptic as well. he faced a challenge attempting to sell request treaty to that party back home. what he'll get is a short-term political boost from this and he'll be able to say he protected the financial services industry, which is incredibly important both to the economy of london and the economy of the u.k. as a whole. but i think what he will fundamentally come away with is very little in real terms at the cost of really distancing the u.k. from the rest of the europe with some quite dangerous dangerous long-term consequences. >> brown: what would those be? what are the potential repercussions people are talking about now for britain and the e.u.? >> well, i think it's now much more difficult to answer the question, "will britain still be in the european union in five to 10 times?" and that necessarily will have an effect on the way businesses think about ve investing our trading in the u.k. also, he hasn't really protected financial services industry, the supposed reason for this veto. because the european union can still act to change the rules through majority voting. the countries which are forging ahead without the u.k. still can impose different financial regulations. now they have a-- >> brown: excuse me. >> now they have a particular incentive to do so, now that britain has decide to step away from the negotiating table. >> brown: i was going to say it really comes down to we're talking about a historic day here, but in britn, it seems historic in the sense that britain may no longer be in the e.u. within a few years, you're saying? >> it certainly could feed into that statement. and i think the important thing to realize about this agreement is that whilest there has been some small steps to help solve the banking crisis and sovereign debt crisis, i think europe has potentially opened up the doors to a new political crise leer which may bring into question the euro and britain's role in the future. >> brown: are you concerned about that political rift? >> we, obviously, would have preferred the u.k. to be in. everybody would have. now at a certain point, you have to choose the choice has been made by all the other 26 countries, either to go go forward, and consider and ask parliament of the other countries not numbers of the euro zone. in my view, fundamental choice, we have to respect the british decision, but fundamental choice has been made when you decided not to take part in the euro. this is a choice which has been made 20 years ago, almost-- 18 years exactly. what we see today is something which is very important, which is, in my view, a consequence. so i'm not sharing. wew all due respect-- >> brown: you don't see a on terrible-- potential two-track. >> no, in the e.u. we are used to situation where's one country or two can stay out, stay out of euroes, and sometimes out of different dispositions. there are press debts on that. the european union can accommodate such situations. >> brown: mr. mccrumb britain aside here, we've had so many ups and downs in the crisis, moments when the markets go up and they take another look and they go down. what do you look to immediately to see, to know whether enough has been done to stem the immediate problem? >> i think what everybody is going to be concentrating is on the bond yields for these countries-- spain, italy-- whether their borrowing costs will start to go down. and they're looking forward to the new year. there has to be an awful lot of new debt. they have to roll over some of this debt. italy, in particular, has 300 billion worth of euros of debt it has to issue next year and that is treasurely done at the start of the year. in january, we'll be able to see what the private sector appetite for this government debt is and that will start to give us an indication of the severity of the crise, and whether the incremental steps have been enough to avert the situation pgh >> naoko: >> announcer: he just referred to incremental steps. this is the conundrum we talk about every we discuss this. it looks like it's been solved, and then a few days later it's, no, wait a minute. >> yesterday that was an important step. as we have said, markets will have their own reaction, but what has also been decided, what we have confidence, if a situation is not seen as satisfactory, there will be steps. the important thing is to restore confidence. to restore confidence we had to prove to the rest of the world that we were absolutely serious and we were able to take all measures needed by the other countries. today we have taken that. if other measures have to be taken-- for example, if the level of the firewalls is seen as not enough, we have already decided we will come back the beginning of the next year to assess. we are determined to do all that is needed to make sure this crisis is over. >> brown: all right, francois rivasseau and dan mccrum, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": gun violence revisits virginia tech; shields and brooks and ideology as a predictor of happiness. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: the family of missing retired f.b.i. agent robert levinson has released a video sent by his unidentified captors. levinson vanished in 2007 in iran. the family received the video in november 2010, but posted it on their family website today, along with an urgent plea for his freedom. it was the first proof that the 63-year-old father of seven was alive. a u.s. investigation has not revealed where levinson is now or at the time the video was taken. >> i need the help of the united states government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for three and a half years. please help me get home. 33 years of service to the united states deserves something, please help me. >> holman: the appeal comes as iran showed off pictures of what it said was a largely intact, captured u.s. drone. the iranian military claimed it shot down the top-secret unmanned aircraft on sunday as it flew a surveillance mission over eastern iran. iranian state television broadcast video displaying the drone yesterday. the u.s. military has acknowledged it lost control of a drone earlier this week. but officials would not confirm or deny it was the aircraft in the video. a fire tore through a hospital in kolkata, india early this morning, killing at least 89 people. authorities said many hospital employees fled the flames instead of helping patients escape. residents from nearby slums rescued some of those trapped in the smoking building. fire equipment took more than an hour to get through narrow streets to the scene. six hospital officials faced homicide charges. u.n. secretary-general ban ki- moon made a surprise visit to somalia's war-torn capital mogadishu today. it's the first time a u.n. chief has visited the city in two decades. ban said recent security gains in the nation will allow the u.n. to move its political office for somalia from nairobi, kenya to mogadishu in january. president joseph kabila of the democratic republic of congo has won a second term in office. he won 49% of the vote, according to provisional results announced today. but long-time opposition candidate etienne tshisekedi rejected those results and declared himself president. and his supporters have vowed to take to the streets in protest. election-related violence has killed 18 people and wounded more than 100 others. a u.n. climate conference in durban, south africa teetered on the brink of collapse as it neared a close today. the european union has proposed a 2015 target date for a new pact of binding cuts on the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters. it would replace the kyoto protocol which expires next year. the u.s., india and china-- the world's three largest carbon emitters-- never signed on to that treaty. the european commissioner for climate change acknowledged negotiations are down to the wire. >> if there is no further movement from what i have seen until 4:00 this morning, then i must say i don't think that there will be a deal in durban. that is what we are faced with. there is still time to move and i must say there have been a lot of constructive talks. >> holman: the climate talks likely will carry over into saturday. they're also expected to produce a fund to help the least- developed countries cope with climate change impacts. ford is recalling more than 100,000 ford fusion and mercury milan sedans because their wheels could fall off. the recall affects the 2010 and 2011 models of the two cars. federal regulators found bolts holding the wheels can fracture, creating a vibration that can cause the wheels to come off. ford said no crashes have been attributed to the problem and dealers will replacing wheel bolts for customers in january. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: a tragedy gripped virginia tech again yesterday. but this time, the response by the university and police was different. "newshour" correspondent hari sreenivasan has our report. >> reporter: there were still few details today about the man who shot and killed virginia >> he shot and killed virginia tech police officer yesterday afternoon and apparently took his own life. police would only say that the gunman worked alone and was not airginia tech studenta t nohey d un mr ivd foe thefo shooting ronnection between the gtiman vunndi theim.ct river in a parking lot on thea hmpus near mccom cassell liseum and lane stadium. thr sh teooshe ctelorous catse range while he was in his vehicle. crouse did not have time to return fire. the gunman was found a short time later in another parking lot. police chief wendell flinchum: >> from what you've heard, read, crouse described as swat officer, received awards. derek more than that, was a friend to many of our department, husband, father. police officers develop close bonds, tremendous loss to our department. >> reporter: heavily armed officers from local, state and federal agencies again swarmed campus and locked it down for hours. today, there was a sense of bewilderment. george russell is a vice president emeritus for alumni relations at virginia tech. >> your heart sinks. it is hard to talk about it. we really were afraid more people might be hurt and it reminded us so much what happened back in april 2007. >> reporter: on april 16, 2007, a student named seung hui cho murdered 32 people over the course of several hours, then shot himself. in 2007, virginia tech waited hours to alert its students and staff to the initial killings. yesterday, however, the university's elaborate alert system-- devised in the wake of the massacre-- was activated six minutes after the first report of gunfire. university spokesman larry hinckers said the system worked. >> we have text alert. we have phone mail messages. we have computer alerts that show up on the computer. we have electronic signs in our classrooms. indeed, we have just shy of 500 of them around the campus community. we have blast email. and then also they automatically go to our twitter and to our facebook accounts. and so they're a series of communication channels that simply flood the airwaves. >> reporter: coincidentally, as events unfolded on the campus, many of tech's top officials were in washington yesterday 250 miles to the northeast. they were contesting a $55,000 federal fine levied against the university for its slow response in 2007. there are still lawsuits pending from families of those slain then. stephanie voshell is a graduate student in biology. she was at tech in 2007, and knows the difference first hand. >> i think then people are more alert, they look around their surroundings a bit more i feel like the school is doing a great job with their alert system. over the summer, we also had a campus scare, but it turned out to be nothing, again the alerts worked really well, people were informed. >> reporter: melissa peebles is a freshman. >> the initial 30 minutes i was kind of scared, after i got the alerts and knew they were taking care of it very well, i was not worried at all. when i came here, my family and i talked about, we were not worried at all. things like this shooting and suicides happen everywhere. it is just like because of april 16, 2007, it is such a big deal here. >> reporter: once the all-clear sounded yesterday, some students gathered last night at a memorial built for the victims of the 2007 killing spree. >> the fear, the nervousness of where is this going to go next? this has happened not once, but twice to a school that really just doesn't deserve to happen to us. >> reporter: virginia