News Wrap: U.S. not intimidated by Islamic State beheading, says Kerry

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• GWEN IFILL:

  Another American family mourned today for a son slaughtered by Islamic State killers in Syria.

  Peter Kassig's death was confirmed over the weekend.

  PAULA KASSIG, Mother of Peter Kassig: Our hearts are battered, but they will mend. The world is broken, but it will be healed in the end.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Ed and Paula Kassig appeared this afternoon in Indianapolis after learning of their son's murder.

  Mrs. Kassig quoted one of his teachers.

• PAULA KASSIG:

  In 26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh realities of life than most of us can imagine. But, rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good in himself and in others. Peter's life is evidence that he has been right all along. One person makes a difference.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Islamic State fighters released a propaganda video yesterday showing the decapitated head of Peter Kassig.

  Later, President Obama confirmed and condemned Kassig's killing in a statement, calling it — quote — "an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity."

  But Secretary of State John Kerry insisted today, the group, also known as ISIL, has miscalculated.

  JOHN KERRY, U.S. Secretary of State: ISIL's leaders assume that the world will be too intimidated to oppose them. Well, let us be clear. We are not intimidated.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Peter Kassig served in Iraq as an Army Ranger in 2007. After a medical discharge, he founded an aid group in Syria in 2012. He was taken captive in October of last year, and converted to Islam, as several other Western captives have done, taking the name Abdul-Rahman.

  Last month, his parents acknowledged his conversion and appealed for his release.

• PAULA KASSIG:

  We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go.

• GWEN IFILL:

  But it was all for naught. In yesterday's video, a black-hooded figure with a British accent, apparently the same man seen in previous beheadings, identified his new victim as Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen who fought against the Muslims in Iraq.

  Unlike past videos, this one didn't show Kassig's actual killing. But it did show more than a dozen captured Syrian soldiers being beheaded by militants, possibly including this man from an earlier video.

• MAN:

  You who believe, answer the call of Allah and his messenger when he calls you to what gives you life. (INAUDIBLE) says that what gives you life is jihad.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The father of Nasser Muthana, a British medical student, said his son resembles one of the militants in the latest video. And in Paris, officials said a 22-year-old Frenchman was likely among the executioners as well.

  All told, Islamic State forces have killed five Westerners since August. Syrian civilians have paid a far more fearsome toll. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today more than 1,400 have been beheaded, stoned to death or had their throats cut since June.

  Islamic State militants still hold a British photojournalist, John Cantlie, and an American woman. U.S. officials have asked that she not be publicly identified.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Missouri Governor Jay Nixon declared an emergency and activated the National Guard today. He acted before a grand jury decides whether to indict a white police officer in Ferguson in the death of Michael Brown. The August shooting sparked violent protests. The Saint Louis mayor said the guard will back up police, but will not engage directly with protesters.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Fresh off a major emissions-cutting deal with China, the Obama administration is turning to fighting climate change at the local level. Vice President Biden met today with governors, mayors and tribal leaders about coping with severe weather. White House officials also laid out measures to help local leaders get ready for rising sea levels, drought and other events.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  A doctor who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone died today at a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Martin Salia was flown to the U.S. from West Africa on Saturday. The 44-year-old surgeon initially tested negative for Ebola in Sierra Leone. By the time he tested positive and was sent to Omaha, the disease was far advanced.

  DR. DANIEL JOHNSON, University of Nebraska Medical Center: Dr. Salia was extremely critically ill when he arrived to our hospital. He had no kidney function. He was working extremely hard to breathe and he was unresponsive. We really, really gave it everything we could. All modern medical therapies were provided. And we wish there could have been a different outcome. But I'm also proud of the team for what they were able to try.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Also today, U.S. airports began screening travelers arriving from Mali for symptoms of Ebola. Several cases have appeared there in recent days.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Efforts to stop an outbreak of bird flu ramped up in the Netherlands and Britain today. The Dutch government ordered the killing of 150,000 chickens on a farm where the disease was found; 6,000 ducks at a breeding farm in Northern England were to be destroyed and a restriction zone imposed. But officials said there's little risk to public health. Separately, a woman in Egypt died of a more dangerous strain of bird flu. It's the second fatality there this year.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  The first spacecraft to land on a comet has gone silent after running out of power. But European scientists said today they're holding out hope that the small lander will eventually wake up. The lander ended up in the shadow of a cliff, where its solar panels can't charge the battery. Mission scientists said today that as the comet races toward the sun, the battery may yet charge and let the spacecraft resume its work.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The world's third largest economy, Japan, has unexpectedly fallen into a new recession. Officials in Tokyo announced today that overall economic output shrank in the third quarter at an annual rate of 1.6 percent. By comparison, the U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace.

  And, on Wall Street, stocks struggle to make much headway. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 13 points to close at 17,647; the Nasdaq fell 17 points to close at 4,671; and the S&P 500 gained just a point to finish at 2,041.