Youre getting plenty of sleep right . Are you getting plenty of sleep . Yes. Brown chinas new leader will head both the communist party and the military. We assess the change at the top in beijing. Suarez and we close with the story of volunteers stepping up to help victims of Hurricane Sandy in the borough of queens in new york. Theres people who have been without attention for a long time. Some with, some without running water. Definitely without power. You know, so as time goes, it gets worse. And im afraid if we dont like, really get this situation under control. 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 by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. 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 israel and the militant group hamas slid closer to allout war today. The israelis blasted gaza with scores of air strikes, and the palestinians said 16 people were killed there. Hamas and its allies fired more than 200 rockets and even struck as far away as tel aviv. Three israelis were killed. We begin with this report by john ray of independent Television News. gunfire reporter in gaza, gunfire and a thirst for revenge. Thousands throng the streets for the funeral of a hamas leader killed by israel. The first death of this conflict but how many more will follow . The mood here is of great anger and defiance. Militarily, hamas is no match for the israeli air force. But they say this ia death that must and will be avenged. So, no ceasefire in sight, just a ceaseless barrage of rockets and missiles. And misery on both sides of the border. Here, three israelis died when their home suffered a direct hit. Israeli defenses have intercepted two dozen or more rockets. And israels air force has stepped up its bombardment. It calls these precision strikes on terror targets weapons dumps and launch sites. But in crowded gaza, civilians are suffering too. There is no such thing as a war in which innocents escape. Omar was just 11 months old, a happy and smiling boy, his mother says. Now, she is lost in grief, her son and her sister in law died when an israeli shell crashed through their roof and began an all consuming inferno. An older brother survived, no one in the family can bear to tell him what happened. We have rockets here, we have guns . Around my place, we dont have any resistance. All of them is civilians. Just civilians. Reporter tonight, palestinian rockets are reaching ever closer to israels heart. Sirens sounding over tel aviv, the biggest city. Authorities have told residents to be ready to run to shelters. Meanwhile israel is massing forces at the gaza border, their presence a warning to hamas and perhaps a statement of intent, too. Suarez after nightfall in the region, israeli planes carried out major raids across gaza city. The skyline lit up with explosions from dozens of new air strikes. The israelis said they had targeted some 70 underground launching sites for hamas mediumrange rockets. But leaders of the militants maintained their defiance. Hamas Prime MinisterIsmail Haniyeh eulogized the groups military commander killed by the israelis yesterday. And, he vowed revenge. translated this noble blood will not be shed in vain, and this brave nation, which for more than a century has offered sacrificers, martyrs, leaders, p. O. W. S and wounded, we will never let their blood be shed in vain. It is impossible for this movement to let their blood be in vain. Brown meanwhile, the new islamist president of egypt Mohamed Morsi denounced the israelis. And his government asked the u. S. To press for an end to the offensive. But the Obama Administration lined up with the israelis. State Department Spokesman mark toner said the u. S. Believes israel has the right to defend itself. Our position is clear that theres no justification for the violence that hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against israel. And the onus is on them to cease their rocket attacks so that this deescalation can take place. Suarez earlier, i spoke with the israeli ambassador to the United States michael oren to discuss the latest developments. Ambassador, whats the latest from tel aviv . Where the strikes accurate . Have missiles actually hit the city and is anyone snurt thankfully nobody was hurt. The rockets struck in the greater tel aviv area. The alarms went off. The sirens, Prime Minister netanyahu was in the city at the time to a bomb shelter and now this simply means that 4. 5 million israelis over half the population of the state of israel has come under rocket fire from terrorists within gaza suarez does this represent a significant of abilitys in the range of people who would shoot in israeli cities . Well, certainly it represents an escalation in the fighting. We knew terrorists in gaza had iraniansupplied longrange missiles. Our aircraft managed to neutralize a great number of those missiles. Some were located in densely populated areas, in mosques, under schools and playgrounds. In one case, one of our pilots targeted one of those longrange missiles and aborted because he saw children playing in the vicinity and here you see the type of price we paid for trying to avert as much as possible civilian casualties. Suarez how does israel plan to respond to this attack . We have extensive intelligence on the deployment of terrorist rockets and other assets, other military stockpile arsenals, firing pits in the gaza strip. And, look, weve conducted more than 200 or tees, 200 aerial attacks and theres been very minimal collateral damage. Whatever civilian casualties have occurred we deeply regret. Were doing our best to avoid them but were fighting against a terrorist group which is on the one hand doing its best to kill our civilians and three of our civilians were killed last night and two children wounded, at the same time theyre hiding behind their own civilians. Thats the difference between a Democratic State and a terrorist organization. Suarez youve talked about trying to minimize civilian casualties, youve talked about an aborted strike. In a place as densely populated as gaza, is it possible to minimize civilian casualties or are they just part of whats going to happen . Its difficult. And this is it is difficult, again, because were dealing with hamas and other terrorist organizations who are literally using their own civilian population as human shields. Theyre putting these rockets in schools, in mosques, near hospitals, even in homes. We have pictures of rockets in homes because they not only have a military strategy, they have a media strategy. They want pictures of civilian casualties to make the front page of newspapers around the world. Were doing our best to deny them that ability and through very surgical precision strikes to take out the rockets with which these terrorists want to kill our civilians. Suarez can the tit for tat become endless . Is there a point at which more attacks may not make your people safer and invite more counterattacks . Theres no tit for tat here. Prior to this operation, the pop you lags of southern israel, over a Million People the equivalent of about 50 million americans were hudling in bomb shelters. Think had been hit by close to 1,000 rockets. No government in the world could sustain and remain passive in the face of such outrageous aggression for very long. So israel demonstrated, i think, superhuman restraint for a long time until the situation become intolerable and then it had to act. I think that the message had been given to hamas, its been a strong message, i hope they specialize it and become down. Suarez there was an initial small callup of reservists followed by a much larger one. How should that be seen by the rest of the world . Well, i hope its being seen by hamas that we are willing to take any measure necessary to defend our citizens, whether in the air or on the ground and we are headaching the preparations to ensure those measures can be mounted if necessary again. Well do everything we can to protect our citizens. Suarez is israel prepared to make the same kind of incursion into gaza strip that it did in 2009 . We hope it wont come toll that. We hope these terrorist organizations will get the message and stand down. But, again, we are prepared to take those measures, difficult that they may be. We have a lot of skin in the game. I have sdmin the game i. I have a son in the israeli army right now. The last thing we want to do is see this thing escalate. Hamas has escalated. Hamas has fired rockets at tel aviv. We want nothing more than peace to be restored to our citizens. Suarez ambassador oren, thanks for joining us. Pleasure. Brown we had hoped to follow rays interview with ambassador oren with an interview with hamas representative usamah hamdan. He had agreed to talk to us by telephone from qatar but cancelled late today. He did, however, defend hamas rocket attacks on israel, during an offcamera conversation with the newshour saying, i think when you are facing an occupation, an armed occupation with air support and the best weapons made in the u. S. A. You do the best you can. Well post more comments from him on our website this evening. You can view a slide show that captures the days dramatic events in israel and gaza online. Suarez still to come on the newshour a day of reckoning of b. P. , more than two years after the oil spill; learning lessons about sleep from dolphins; tapping new leaders in china. And helping out after the storm. But first, the other news of the day, heres kwame holman. Holman former c. I. A. Director David Petraeus denied today he gave classified information to the woman he had an affair with, paula broadwell. He spoke to cnn. That came as the c. I. A. Announced an exploratory investigation of petraeus conduct. His relationship with broadwell came to light during an fbi investigation that began last summer. Today, attorney general eric holder defended the bureaus decision not to alert president obama and congressional leaders. We made the determination as we were going through the matter that there was not a threat to National Security. Had we made the determination that a threat to National Security existed, we would of course have made that known to the president and also to the appropriate members on the hill. Holman that investigation also has led to a pentagon probe of the top u. S. Commander in afghanistan marine general john allen. Hes under scrutiny for Extensive Communications with a tampa, florida woman. Allen has denied wrongdoing. Defense secretary leon panetta said today no other senior military officials appear to be involved. He spoke during a trip to thailand. Im not aware of any others that could be involved in this issue at the present time. Obviously as this matter continues to be investigated both on capitol hill and by the inspector general, im sure well have to wait and see what additional factors are brought to our attention. Holman panetta now has ordered an ethics review for military officers. He said hes asked the joint chiefs of staff to reexamine the training of senior commanders, to avoid similar incidents in the future. The 17member nations of the eurozone have fallen back into recession for the first time in three years. From july to september the eurozones economy contracted by a tenth of a percent. That was the Second Straight Quarter of negative growth the technical definition of a recession. The netherlands saw its economy shrink the most by a dramatic 1. 1 . On wall street today, stocks were down after major retailers issued disappointing forecasts and on news that firsttime claims for jobless benefits hit an 18month high. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 28 points to close at 12,542. The nasdaq fell nearly 10 points to close below 2837. The u. S. Postal service reported today it lost nearly 16 billion in the fiscal year that ended in october. Thats a record, and its more than three times the losses of the previous year. Much of the shortfall some 11 billion was in Unpaid Health benefits for future retirees. In response, postmaster general Patrick Donahoe called again for congress to pass a postal overhaul bill. The 23 billion global fund to fight aids, t. B. And malaria has fired its top internal watchdog citing unsatisfactory performance. His office had uncovered millions of dollars in financial losses. And, his reports had caused some groups to withhold donations. Separately, the fund today named a new executive director, mark dybul. He served as global aids coordinator to president george w. Bush. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to jeff. Brown and we turn to a Major Development in a story that grabbed the nations attention for months in 2010, as oil giant bp reached a settlement today in one part of its ongoing dispute with the federal government over the gulf coast spill. Its been two and a half years since the record oil spill that fouled the gulf of mexico for months and soiled miles of marshes and beaches. Today, b. P. Agreed to pay 4. 5 billion in a settlement of criminal charges brought by the u. S. Government. U. S. Attorney general eric holder announced the deal in new orleans. I hope that this sends a clear message to those who would engage in this kind of reckless and wanton conduct that there will be a significant penalty to pay and that individuals in companies who are engaged in these kinds of activities will themselves be held responsible. This is simply not a corporate plea. Individuals. Individuals have been charged. Brown under the settlement, b. P. Will pay 1. 25 billion in criminal fines the largest criminal penalty in u. S. History. Another 2. 4 billion will go for wildlife and coastal restoration. And the oil company will pay 500 million for misleading investors by underestimating the size of the spill. B. P. Also agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter charges for the 11 workers who died when the deepwater horizon rig exploded in april of 2010. Assistant attorney general lanny breuer perhaps the greatest tragedy is that the deaths of the 11 men on board the deepwater horizon could have been avoided. We hope that todays acknowledgement by b. P. Of its misconduct through its agreement to plead guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter brings some measure of justice to the family members of the people who dies on the rig. Brown breuer said the criminal investigation continues. And two b. P. Well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine were indicted on charges of negligence leading up to the explosion. A separate indictment charged a b. P. Vice president david rainey with obstructing congress and lying about how he calculated the rate of the spill. B. P. Executives did not appear publicly today, but the Company Chairman said the settlement was in the best interest of b. P. And its stockholders. Chief executive bob dudley issued a statement, saying brown b. P. Already agreed last march to pay an estimated 7. 8 billion for property, economic and medical damages to some 100,000 individuals and businesses. A federal judge is still reviewing that agreement. And the company is facing other civil cases, which attorney general holder emphasized today will continue. The largest of those involve violations of the federal clean water act and could end up in fines totaling 21 billion. For more were joined by john young, president of jefferson parish, louisiana, an area seriously impacted by the spill. And Abrahm Lustgarten, a reporter at propublica and author of run to failure bp and the making of the deepwater horizon disaster. We asked both the department of justice and b. P. To join us. They declined our invitation. John young, an initial reaction to todays settlement . Well, its the first major step, and lets not forget the 11 workers who lost their lives and their family members who lost loved ones but the fact that its the largest criminal fine in u. S. History i think is appropriate in light of the fact that the b. P. Oil disaster was the largest environmental disaster in u. S. History. But, again, its just a first step. The civil awards and damages that need to be assessed against b. P. So that were made whole down here in louisiana and in the entire gulf coast. Brown well come back to that but let me ask Abrahm Lustgarten of the criminal indictments in particular of the company as well as several individuals. Yeah, i mean, i have to agree i think this is a very significant step and most significant, in my opinion, is the indictment of three senior b. P. Managers. B. P. s had a number of accidents in the past and in both the gulf disaster and those past accidents what you hadnt seen until now is an individual held responsible. And thats something that can help create a culture of responsibility and consequence inside the organization. So without the a doubt, todays indictments of those three individuals sends a message not only to the public but i think to b. P. s employees that they are responsible for the decisions that they make in b. P. s operations around the world. Brown let me just stay with you for a moment. How do you see the calculation of the company in this . They made clear in their statement that they wanted to end some of the uncertainty surrounding the litigation but they also said they intend to continue fighting on the other civil charges. Sure. Well naturally b. P. Wanted to put this behind them and todays settlement is a huge step . That direction. Ive heard from sources for a long time that criminal charges of the prosecution was held up by b. P. s desire to reach some kind of global settlement that could essentially erase as many of these issues off the board in one fell swoop as possible. This is something theyve done in the past after they had an oil spill in 2006 in alaska and a refinery explosioning in 2005 in texas city in which 15 workers died they saw a global settlement and they announced a press release that took care of everything all at once. Its the same n