Himself, he said if he felt his strength and his body wasnt up to speed to comply with the duties that were that are expected of a pontiff, and very heavy duties like traveling around, attending ceremonies, working nonstop. At 85, thats tiring for everybody, for any man his age, let alone a pontiff and the pope and leader of 1 billion catholics around the world, but nobody really believed that would happen or nobody believed that would happen before at least next year, because this, maybe i remind you, is the year of the faith. So that came as a surprise to everybody, as you heard card natural dolan doesnt know about it. Certainly he is not the only one, because the spokesperson for the vatican even said he was shocked. He didnt see it coming, and so didnt his closest aides. As we know, when benedict was named as pope, he was one of the oldest popes to take over that job. George, let me talk to you about the fact that we are hearing all the different reactions coming in now just from H
2014. Theanna goldman follows behind the scenes wrangling of the u. S. Senate over potential budget agreements. First, extensive Team Coverage on our cover story the price of privacy. We begin with the National Security agency. We have learned the nsas book collection of phone collections is unlikely is likely unconstitutional. It raises the possibility that the program may be thrown out. The Legal Process is just of one of the many places they have been forced to engage in the wake of Edward Snowden. The disclosures that some are hoping to stop with a special offer to the former intelligence contractor. Phil mattingly has more on the story. Officials have made clear since Edward Snowden was charged in june that they wanted him to return to the u. S. To face trial. Was floated publicly yesterday by a senior nsa official in a 60 minutes segment. Amnesty my personal view is it is worth having a conversation about. I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be considered
President of the United States will protect and preserve and defend the constitution of the United States. Will protect and preserve the constitution of the United States. So help me god. So help me god. Thank you, mr. Chief justice. We have Team Coverage of the 57th president ial inauguration, and luke russert is with us on the washington mall, but we start with Peter Alexander on the north lawn of the white house this afternoon. Pete, we know that the first family attended the historic Metropolitan Church this morning, and what are they up to right now . Well, they get some quiet time together as a family which compared to the hundreds of thousands of people now converging on the capitol ahead of tomorrows public swearing in and the president ial address, the inaugural address to take place, we believe they are here at the white house right now. We have a good look at sasha obama, the youngest daugt e of the oobamas today after the swearing in took place and she looked at her dad and
From nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. Good evening. For the folks who have moved to an allelectronic webbased life, todays news maybe wasnt all that impactful. But for the folks with mailboxes in cities and towns across this country on dirt roads or in apartment buildings, theres always been mail on saturday. Six days a week, since the time of abraham lincoln. But today the u. S. Postal service says delivering the mail on saturdays must stop. If they are to survive. Its one of two American Institutions in the news tonight for differing reasons in changing times. We want to begin tonight with nbcs tom costello in glen echo, maryland. Tom, good evening. Reporter hi, brian, no secret the Postal Service is up to its neck in red ink, handling 30 billion fewer pieces of first class mail today than just four years ago. And guess what . Delivery of packages booming because were all buying stuff online. This action is about just trying to ke
Judiciary committee, and we had some very rancorous debate within our own party, behind closed doors, out in the committee room, here on the floor over the patriot act. Over the extension of power under the foreign Intelligence Surveillance courts. I was very concerned, even though we had a republican administration, and president that i liked and respected, george w. Bush, smarter, wittier than people gave him credit for, a good decent man, but we have to consider the possibilities, and we have to be specific in our laws, and when we debated these changes before the Judiciary Committee back in the 109th congress, when i was a freshman, there were people, my democratic friends across the other side of the aisle, that were very concerned about an abuse of power that might be occasioned if we dont tighten up the patriot act. Anal enough, i read the bill as it existed, i read the law as it existed, i was pushing for some things to be changed, and it did cause me of concern that the title