times" poll out tonight, there are sign he is has turned a corner. for the moment, at least, half the public now approves of the job he is doing. have a look. last may, right after navy seals killed osama bin laden the president's job-approval rating soared to 57%. but by november it was back to 43%, tying his all-time low. then the numbers started rising. tonight hitting 50%. you've guessed why. since november, the dow is up about 7% and unemployment is down four-tenths of a point. in our poll, the number of americans who say the economy is getting better has risen from 18% in november to 34% now. even so, when asked about the condition of the economy, 75% said it's bad. more now about the president and the poll from our chief white house correspondent norah o'donnell at the white house

tonight. norah? >> reporter: scott, the good economic news out there is boosting the president's overall standing with voters, particularly independents, and that's why there's hardly a day that goes by that we don't hear the president talking about the turnaround in the economy. >> our economy is growing stronger. and the last thing we need, the last thing we can afford to do, is to go back to the same policies that got us in this mess in the first place. >> reporter: the president's message seems to be resonating. 42% of voters think he is making progress fixing the economy. and that's up 14 points in just two months. we found democrat kathie maloney on a street coroner chicago. >> if he hadn't have taken the steps he did and enacted the proposals he did we'd be in a much worse place than we are now and i think things are coming back and getting better. >> reporter: at the heart of mr. obama's reelection message is a push for what he calls economic fairness and a proposal to raise taxes on millionaires,

called the buffett rule named after warren buffett. >> i think asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes is just common sense. >> reporter: two-thirds of americans-- 67%-- agree taxes should be increased on households making over a million dollars a year. including, for the first time, a majority of republicans. but bud faircloth, an independent from delaware, doesn't believe the president will make good on his goals. >> i'm not sure if he'll ever get the congress to work with him and i just don't think he'll ever get the job done. >> reporter: but in our poll, independents have shown a shift towards mr. obama. a month ago they favored mitt romney. today independents favor the president. and, scott, that swing among independents is why for the first time the president has a clear advantage against his republican opponents if you put

them a general election matchup. >> pelley: and independents decide these elections. norah, thanks very much. there is news in the numbers for republicans as well. rick santorum has soared to the lead in our national poll of republican voters. he's at 30%. followed by mitt romney at 27%, ron paul 12%, and newt gingrich 10%. john dickerson is our cbs news political director and, john, you've been digging into the numbers and you found something fascinating. >> well, you know, rick santorum is becoming the conservative alternative to mitt romney by arguing he makes the sharpest contrast with barack obama. there's a number that point this is out. we asked voters who would have very different policies from barack obama. 60% said santorum. for mitt romney, only 36% said he would have the most different policies. the snapshot we're seeing now is that santorum... people are so take within santorum it's changing the way they're looking at the race. asked what qualities they'd look for in a candidate they picked moral character and values. those are santorum's strong

points. beating barack obama used to be the number one thing people cared about. it's now the fourth thing they care about. >> pelley: john, i wonder, is this race hurting republican chances in november? >> 57% of republicans say yes. and they have a right to be worried because of those independents we were talking about. a month ago, ron paul and mitt romney beat barack obama among independents. obama beats them all now. why? because the attacks in the republican field have hurt individual candidate images. mitt romney in particular has been very hurt. but more broadly, when people look to the republican race, they don't see them talking about the things that affect their daily lives. now candidates are going to start to get more positive. >> pelley: john, thank you very much. one more note from our poll. you remember that controversy last week when president obama said the health insurance companies of faith-based institutions must provide employees with free birth control? well, in our poll, 61% overall told us they approve of that policy. the number was exactly the same

for catholic respondents. another issue this election year is the tax that's taken out of your paycheck to pay for social security. congress cut that tax last year from 6.2% to 4.2%, to give the economy a boost. the cut expires at the end of this month but tonight nancy cordes at the capitol tells us congressional negotiators are close to a deal to extend it for the rest of the year. nancy? >> reporter: scott, for a while there it looked like bipartisan negotiations over extending the payroll tax cut were going to end up gridlocked as usual. but a major concession by republican leaders appears to have broken the logjam. saying "this is not our first choice," the three top republicans in the house proposed a plan to simply extend the payroll tax holiday for the remainder of the year without paying for it. something house speaker john boehner had been insisting on as recently as last week. >> this spending ought to be

offset with reductions in spending elsewhere. >> reporter: the new plan is what many democrats had been calling for all along. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell said he understood boehner's move because bipartisan negotiations over how to pay the cost of the tax cuts-- about $100 billion-- have been gridlocked until now. >> this conference seems not to be getting anywhere. >> reporter: tea party republicans were not as understanding. congressman dennis ross of florida complained the republican message has been muddied. >> i have some grave concerns about this. i don't think it's good policy to start with. i think we've missed the mark entirely. >> reporter: but house republican leaders made a political calculation to avoid getting the blame if the tax cuts lapsed at a cost to the average american family of about a thousand dollars a year. the president made it clear even today he's happy to make this an election-year issue. >> the last thing we need is for washington to stand in the way

of america's comeback. >> reporter: unemployment benefits are also part of this payroll tax cut negotiation. currently, jobless americans can stay on unemployment for up to 99 weeks but, scott, that could get scaled back as part of this pending deal. >> pelley: unanimous six thanks very much. tensions continue to rise between israel and iran over the iranian nuclear program. israeli diplomats were targeted yesterday in two bombings overseas. israel blamed iran. today the plot thickened when a house blew up in bangkok. three men ran out apparently all iranian secret agents. one was severely wounded, as you will see, in david martin's report. >> reporter: an iranian who, in all likelihood, is a foot soldier in the covert war between iran and israel, lay covered in soot and blood. it was the violent end of a botched terrorist operation in blank congress. it began with an explosion in this house which was apparently

a bomb factory. three men fled. one tried to stop a passing taxi by throwing a grenade at it. he threw another grenade at the police but it bounced back and blew his own leg off. the second man, also an iranian, was picked up later at the airport as he tried to flee the country. the third is still at large. at the bomb factory, police found two magnetic bombs similar to ones used yesterday in attempted attacks against israeli diplomats in new delhi, india, and tblisi, georgia. u.s. intelligence believes those were the work of iran in retaliation for israel's suspected involvement in the recent assassinations of iranian nuclear scientists which also used magnetic bombs. so far, no one has been killed by these retaliatory attacks. but defense secretary panetta says it's an ominous move by iran. >> it's deliberately supplying equipment and arms to others to engage in terrorist activity and

that, too, concerns us very much. >> reporter: at the very least, these plots show iran has no intention of backing down in the confrontation over its nuclear program. >> pelley: thank you, david. as you already know, the iranians have also threatened to close the strait of hormuz-- the narrow opening to the persian gulf that tankers use to carry about 20% of the world's oil. iran has warned the u.s. to keep the navy out of there, but today a battle group led by the aircraft carrier u.s.s. "abraham lincoln" crossed through the strait and into the gulf. because of what's at stake, we put allen pizzey on one of the ships, the guided missile cruiser "cape st. george." >> reporter: the "cape st. george's" 500 strong crew are on full alert, eyes and ears on everything that floats. helicopters patrol the flanks. the iranian navy is no match for the vast firepower of the americans, but they're not helpless captain don gabrielson

says. >> the biggest concern is the number of small fast-attack craft that the iranians have built up over the last 20 years. they have a couple thousand of them available. >> reporter: more than 17,000 tankers ply this 60-mile-long waterway every year. and every one of them is vulnerable to iranian gun boats, antish missiles and other threats. the waterway is clogged with maritime commerce, tankers, cargo ships, fisrmen and smugglers among which the iranians can hide suicide bomb speedboats which is why gunner mate richard gullikson is managing a 50 caliber machine gun. >> we're looking for small boats and aircrafts. anything that may be getting close to us. >> reporter: the idea is to keep everyone in line without overheating the situation. this passage was business as usual. >> usual hear means there's always some level of tension and there's always some level of friction between everybody that's in the neighborhood. >> reporter: iranian navy ships regularly come close to check out the americans. this one made everyone nervous because it looked like it might

have missiles on board. captain gabrielson decided the worrisome tubes were, in fact, exhaust pipes and a crane. then came an iranian plane on a reconnaissance mission. routine me a place where everyone is watching each other. allen pizzey, cbs news, aboard the u.s.s. "cape st. george." >> pelley: in syria, the slaughter we've been telling you about is continuing. the assad dictatorship is out to destroy the nearly year-old freedom movement there. today the city of homs with more than a million residents came under the heaviest shelling yet. food is running low, people are trapped inside as tanks patrol the streets. human rights groups say hundreds have died in homs in just the past ten days. other arab countries said today that they may be willing to send arms to the rebels fighting assad. president obama goes face to face with china's future president. a warning tonight about phony vials of the cancer drug avastin. and tony bennett follows his

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vice president biden was blunt when he spoke about china's poor record on human rights which includes jailing political dissidents. >> we have been clear about our concern over the areas in which, from our perspective, conditions in china have deteriorated and about the plight of several very prominent individuals. >> reporter: through a translator, xi said china has made great progress on human rights in the last 30 years, though he admit there had's room for improvement. tomorrow xi will do something that every serious presidential candidate does in this country, he'll viz sit iowa. but wyatt andrews says in muscatine, xi just wants to catch up with old friends. >> reporter: it was 27 years ago when xi jinping led a six-manning a which you are delegation to muscatine, iowa. sitting on a bend of the mississippi, it has huge grain processing plant bus small town values. so sarah lande who organized the

visit, put xi in the spare room of a friend. >> he was treated just like one of us. >> reporter: he stayed in a room with "star wars" wallpaper? >> yes, that's right. just in the kids' room. >> reporter: for three days, lande took him on tour to the hog farms, to the heinz ketchup plant, to the grain mills. she recalls him as warm and always smiling. when you say he always had a smile on his face, i need to hear your take. a politician smile? >> no, not like this all the time. no. he just seemed to be a happy, contented person there. >> he was very inquisitive. we had fun. >> reporter: doyle turbandt, now the president of must a teen foods, gave xi a tour to discuss this. xi wanted to know everything about iowa corn. in 1985, he was the provincial manager of the animal feed supply. he was very easy to be around. very genuine.

very sincere. did i know he was going to rise to be president of china? absolutely not. >> reporter: didn't see that coming? >> no. >> reporter: which explains why the residents of muscatine didn't see his visit coming, either. they remembered xi but had no idea he'd grown powerful. >> wow. wow. and i thought what a wonderful opportunity we are going to have here to meet him. >> reporter: the visit will begin with tea and with one rule: the only guests are the 17 people he met and knew in 1985. he hasn't said why, but they are all the people who treated him as someone of great importance long before he knew that's who he would be. wyatt andrews, cbs news, muscatine, iowa. >> pelley: xi's visit got us wondering how china elects a president. our research department looked into it. it turns out candidates are groomed for years in a number of high-level posts and then nine top members of the communist

party vote. after they make their selection, the grooming process goes on several more years. the chinese people do not get a vote. saying good-bye to whitney houston. her funeral will be held wre her career began. that's next. 3-d shark attack ned the head 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback on movies. it pays to discover.

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ingredient found in avastin. right now, it's unclear how widespread this problem is or whether anyone has been harmed by the bogus medication. whitney houston's family said today that her funeral will be private. it will be held saturday at the new hope baptist church in newark, new jersey. it was there in the church choir that her talent was discovered. there are no plans for a public memorial. houston, who died on saturday at 48, sold more than 100 million albums in her lifetime. 50 years ago this month tony bennett released a single called "once upon a time." but d.j.s kept flipping the record over and playing the song on the "b" side. ♪ i left my heart in san francisco ♪ >> pelley: that song became an

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>> pelley: finally tonight, a story that could have come from the imagination of robert louis stevenson. it's got sunken cargo, a determined treasure hunter and a bit of a mystery. seth doane tells us it could end up with the richest haul from a ship wreck ever. >> reporter: aboard his 200 foot salvage ship "sea hunter" greg brooks calls himself a treasure hunter extraordinaire. what are you searching for? >> we're not searching for anything. we found $3 billion worth of platinum. >> reporter: brooks believes he's located the british merchant ship "port nicholson." the ship was torpedoed by a german u-boat during world war ii and sank about 50 miles off cape c. >> this is the area that we found the wreck. >> reporter: he's convinced it was secretly hauling 4,600 bars of platinum and gold. a war-time payment from the soviets to america. >> back in 1942 when she sunk, they did not have the technology to go down and retrieve it. it was too deep.

>> reporter: in 700 feet of water, the team's robotic sub discovered wooden boxes in the wreck's debris field. too heavy for the small sub to lift, brooks believe they hold platinum and gold ingots. what if you get out there and it turns out this isn't what you think it is. it's ammunition or something worthless. >> if that does happen, there's only... i think it's very small chance, but there's always that chance. i'll go to another one. >> reporter: the ship's official manifest lists only auto parts and military munitions but brooks produced this different cargo list which he says he uncovered from declassified u.s. treasury archives. brooks >> ed: the the document to protect his trade secrets. he secured the rights to salvage the wreck but with perhaps $3 billion at stake, he could face a fight in court over ownership. so what's this? >> it's a 50 caliber rifle. >> reporter: he's even worried about pirates. >> what we're talking about the

a valuable treasure. you have to protect yourself. >> reporter: in 19 years, brooks has claimed several million dollars in treasure. >> the hunt for the treasure keeps you excited everyday. you're out there saying "am i going to get some today?" >> reporter: for now the crew waits for calmer seas, perhaps in mid-march, and the chance to solve this mystery of the deep. seth doane, cbs news, boston. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, happy valentine's day. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

now, "entertainment tonight," the most watched entertainment newsmagazine in the world. whitney houston. what she looked like when her body was pulled from the tub. new details. >> sources say that she was left alone in her suite before she died. ♪ whitney's mother in mourning. her remains inside this golden hearse. her funeral inside the new jersey church. plus, are this doctors who