News Wrap: Montana oil spill causes drinking water concerns

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  In just a few hours, the president goes before Congress and the country, laying out his view of the state of the union at the start of a new year.

  He spent this day putting finishing touches on many of the proposals he's already made public, while Republicans readied their own arguments. We will hear from both sides after our summary of the day's other news.

• GWEN IFILL:

  And that summary begins with new signs that bipartisanship could yet be elusive, two new presidential veto threats aimed at a pair of Republican-sponsored bills. One would ban abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. And the other would mandate decisions on oil and gas pipelines within 12 months of being proposed.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  An oil pipeline break in Montana has forced the town of Glendive to start trucking in bottled water. About 50,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Yellowstone River on Saturday. The town draws its water from the river, and tests have confirmed hazardous levels of benzene, a cancer-causing component in oil. It's unclear how long the water will be fouled.

• GWEN IFILL:

  In France, police arrested five Chechens today, amid a heightened alert since the Paris attacks. There was no immediate indication that the five had any connection to terrorism. Instead, officials in two towns in Southern France said they were tied to other crimes. A cache of explosives was found as well.

  GILLES SOULIE, Director of Regional Police, Montpellier (through interpreter): What I can tell you is that we have found during a raid at one person's place some explosive material, extremely dangerous. For the moment, with the investigations we carried out, we have not determined if they have a current bombing project. We are talking about charges of fabrication and possession of explosive material.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Also today, four men suspected of having links to one of the Paris gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, were charged in Paris. Coulibaly died earlier this month in a shoot-out with French police.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Jury selection has begun in New York for a Saudi man linked to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa. Khalid al-Fawwaz was extradited from Britain in 2012. He's accused of conspiring with al-Qaida in planning the attacks that killed 224 people. Another defendant already pleaded guilty. A third died before he could be brought to trial.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Shiite rebels in Yemen seized the presidential palace today, after taking over state media. They also shelled the home of the U.S.-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, but he was unhurt. The rebel leader demanded that Hadi quickly implement a peace accord brokered by the United Nations.

  But a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon condemned the violence.

  STÉPHANE DUJARRIC, Spokesman, Office of the UN Secretary-General: The secretary-general is gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Yemen. The secretary-general calls on all sides to immediately cease all hostilities, exercise maximum restraint, and take the necessary steps to restore full authority to the legitimate government institutions.

• GWEN IFILL:

  The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting this afternoon and issued a statement, saying President Hadi is — quote — "the legitimate authority" in Yemen.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Investigators in Indonesia have concluded an AirAsia plane was climbing much too fast before it crashed last month. The transport minister said today the jet was rising at 6,000 feet a minute. That's more than triple the normal rate, and it could have caused the plane to stall. The pilots had asked to climb to avoid a storm, but ground controllers denied permission.

• GWEN IFILL:

  In economic news, the International Monetary Fund lowered its forecast of global growth for the next two years. And China reported its growth in 2014 was the slowest in nearly a quarter-century, at 7.4 percent.

  The global news held Wall Street mostly in check. The Dow Jones industrial average gained just three points to close at 17515. The Nasdaq rose 20 points to close near 4655. And the S&P 500 added three to finish at 2022.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  And there's good news today about tigers. Their numbers in the wild in India have increased nearly a third since 2010. A government report today cited images collected at nearly 10,000 camera traps. India is home to 2,200 tigers, 70 percent of the world's population. The country has pledged to construct new preserves to keep the big cats in their natural habitat.

• PRAKASH JAVADEKAR, Environment Minister, India:

  We have proactively decided that we will create more grasslands and water storage in forest areas, so that the animals will live happily in forests and people will live happily along the side of the forest also, and no one will intrude upon anybody's territory.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  The World Wildlife Fund estimates the world lost 97 percent of its tigers in the last century.