[Cho:] Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING for a Friday, our favorite day of the week. It's 31 minutes after the hour. Time for this morning's top stories. Mitt Romney's hunkering down for the home stretch in Iowa. With four days to go until the caucuses, the former Massachusetts governor now plans to spend most of the next 96 hours in the state after a quick trip to New Hampshire. His staff confirming he will be there New Year's Eve as well as caucus night and the morning after.
[Feyerick:] North Korea warning a violent revenge against South Korea. The nation says it is insulted that more South Koreans did not attend the funeral of the late leader Kim Jong-Il. South Korea did allow some citizens to attend, but did not send an official delegation. North Korea responding with a harsh message threatening to, quote, "smash puppet forces," end quote, in the south.
[Cho:] Billed as the biggest New Year's Eve celebration in the world, one million partygoers will pack into New York City's Times Square tomorrow. Right now, big preps are under way, workers are ripping up areas setting up a stage and checking out the famed crystal ball. Later on, we will speak with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly about the security preparations.
[Feyerick:] Al Qaeda recruiting hundreds of Jihadists in Libya. A source tells CNN that the terrorist group has already mobilized and army of some 200 fighters. Al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri has himself sent in at least one veteran Jihadist to head recruitment efforts. Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson joins us on the phone from London with more, and, Nic, why Libya? Why not a different country there?
[Nic Robertson, Cnn Senior International Correspondent:] Well, al Qaeda had interest in the North of Africa for a long time. They want to be able to use it as a base of operation to strike into Europe and to strike U.S., American interests. Why Libya right now, because the opportunity presents itself. Saudi Arabia is known to produce al Qaeda, has in the past for Iraq, produced quite a large number of Jihadists. They went to Iraq and became suicide bombers targeting American troops inside Iraq. Right now, Ayman Al-Zawahiri has chosen he actually sent two top lieutenants. One who has had a very, very long relationship with Ayman Al Zawahiri, is trusted by him and he sees this as a strategic move to get an al Qaeda strong foothold in the North of Africa and in the eastern part of Libya, where he's determined is the best place to do that. There are other Libyan members, senior figures in the al Qaeda leadership. The two people that he sent, one of them was picked up as he was a Libyan, European national. He was picked up traveling through Europe. The other one has made it there, established a group. This is somebody who was a Jihadist in the 1990s, trained in Mujahadin training camps in Afghanistan, known to be exceptionally radical, was also in jail in Britain for some time about three or four years ago Deb.
[Feyerick:] Nic, are we going to be seeing attacks potentially in Europe? Are they going to be targeted to American interests in Europe? What are the likely target locations?
[Robertson:] Well, the Jihadist who is now heading this al Qaeda group in Libya is known to be very radical. He is known to buy into al Qaeda's global Jihadist ideology and he is known to be particularly interested in U.S. targets. He is less interested in establishing, if you will, an Islamist counter fate in Libya, per se. His agenda, it seems, from what we understand, from our source, is much more of an international agenda, and this is what al Qaeda looks for to establish itself in a much stronger way in North Africa looking to give them a foothold to do that. The south of Libya, there's a desert. Countries to the south of there, Nigeria, they're all places where al Qaeda has had a small number of operatives. The leader of al Qaeda now has clearly set an agenda to establish a stronger base, to further al Qaeda's global Jihadist ideology, which includes European and U.S. targets.
[Feyerick:] All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Obviously, Libya a place where they can act, really, without any sort of surveillance or supervision from the government. Thanks so much, Nic.
[Cho:] New this morning, a massive sinkhole is threatening to swallow a historic cemetery. Officials in Allentown, Pennsylvania, are scrambling to exhume graves that stand in danger. The cemetery holds about 20,000 graves dating back to the 1800s. The sinkhole spans from 50 feet and it's not just threatening the dead. Twenty five people evacuated from their homes.
[Feyerick:] Just call it "Occupy Twitter." Massachusetts prosecutor subpoenaed the Twitter records of an "Occupy Boston" protester and two hashtags yesterday. They're asking for tweets that were sent out during protester-police clashes at Dewey Square earlier in the month. The ACLU is calling this a violation of the first amendment. No comment from prosecutors and no charges yet filed.
[Cho:] China is officially on a mission to send a man to the moon. The plan includes the development of new satellites, spacecraft, even a space station. The Chinese successfully docked two unmanned spacecraft in orbit last month. They hope to have construction of a space lab completed by 2016, but any moon landing not expected until at least 2020.
[Feyerick:] And in Colorado, police have arrested a driver who they say intentionally rammed his SUV into five cars, including this one. A security camera captured it. Police say the driver also tried to run over several people.
[Cho:] Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, some Muslim leaders are boycotting New York City's annual Interfaith Breakfast. Why are they so angry? We'll tell you.
[Feyerick:] And New Year's Eve in New York City, the biggest party of the year. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly joins us to talk about how the NYPD will keep revellers safe during tomorrow's celebration. It is now 38 minutes past the hour.