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CNN Live Sunday

Earthquake Hits Southeast Asia; Bush Express Condolences

Aired December 26, 2004 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Here's what's happening now in the news. The worst earthquake in at least 40 years has triggered huge waves in southern and southeast Asia, killing at least 10,000 people. The highest death tolls are in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Associated Press quotes the State Department as saying there are three Americans among the dead, two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand.
President Bush expressed his condolences for the loss of life and suffering caused by the tsunamis. He issued a statement en route to his Texas ranch. An official says U.S. relief efforts are already under way.

Supporters of Viktor Yushchenko are rallying again in Kiev, this time in celebration, not in protest. They hit the streets after exit polls projected a landslide win for the opposition candidate in today's Ukrainian presidential revote. Official results won't be in for several more hours.

We begin in southeast Asia, where it's a horror movie come true. One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to shake the planet today triggered huge waves that swept away anything and anyone in the way. Thousands of people have been killed and many more are missing. The U.S. State Department says three Americans are among the dead. The magnitude 9.0 tremor struck about 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. It's the strongest quake in more than 40 years.

There have been several aftershocks, including one that measured 7.3 magnitude. The tsunamis that followed wiped out coastal areas as far as 1,000 miles away. In addition to those killed or injured, hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. It was a surprise hit for most there. Unlike the Pacific basin and the U.S. West coast, there is no tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. The waves were 40 feet high in some places. For a time line of the disaster, here's CNN's Andrew Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: in 40 years jolted northern Indonesia. Soon after, the first casualties were reported in Aceh (ph) Province where the quake demolished buildings and brought down phone lines but that was just the beginning. The epicenter of the quake, underneath the ocean off Indonesia, triggered giant waves or tsunamis that surged across the Andaman Sea and Indian ocean eventually drowning coastal communities including popular reports.

The Malaysian Islands of Canang (ph) including the upscale (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tourist area was inundated. The Thai holiday island of Phuket was devastated by waves up to 30 feet or 10 meters high. In the main tourist center Catong (ph), the streets were pounded by water and debris. Witnesses say the waves were so powerful they tossed one car into a hotel lobby.

Other reports say swimmers were sucked into the ocean as the tsunami approached or were dragged by waves against razor sharp coral. Thousands of people, many of them in Phuket to enjoy the Christmas holidays, fled to higher ground. Other Thai resorts including the scenic Phi Phi island were always hit with bungalows swept away. Meantime, tremendous waves surged across the Indian Ocean, traveling by some estimates at hundreds of kilometers per hour, then smashed into the Maldives, Sri Lanka and parts of southern India.

In India, many homes in Madras were submerged and in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hundreds of fishermen were reported missing. Low lying parts of Sri Lanka were defenseless against the tsunami that ravaged the country's coast, with the northeastern area especially hard hit. What should have been a quiet Sunday in Asia turned into a day of devastation for the region, with thousands of people dead or missing. Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Among the many Americans who are vacationing in that region is well-known home improvement interior designer Nate Berkus, a regular contributor on the Oprah Winfrey show. He joins us on the telephone now from Sri Lanka. You apparently Nate were vacationing there along with some friends? What happened?

NATE BERKUS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Yeah, we were completely devastated yesterday morning around 9:00 in the morning. We desperately, desperately need help from the government here. We're without water. We're without food and many of us are injured. There are women and children here who are -- there's a pregnant woman with broken ribs.

The Sri Lankan army seems to only have very few helicopters here that have touched down and taken away very few of the injured people. We've all been sleeping in a field throughout the night and right now, I believe, it's about 4:00 in the morning here. I'm with about a group of 50 tourists as well as many locals and it's just been utter devastation, bodies everywhere, and just really absolutely horrible, horrible devastation.

WHITFIELD: Nate, can you kind of replay for us where you were at the time of the tsunami hitting the area where you are and exactly what transpired?

BERKUS: There was absolutely no warning. I was asleep in a beach front cottage. I heard a loud noise, all of a sudden the roof was ripped off of the cottage and my friend and I were taken out to sea, just taking in currents that were so strong with debris and cars and animals and people, tearing by. We were able to hang onto a telephone pole with a mattress wedged between us for literally 30 seconds. There was a calm in the storm and then another wave hit. Both of us were torn away from the phone pole. I finally climbed onto a roof of a home, because the water pushed me behind the home and sat out the rest of the waves on top of this structure, which luckily held but many people have died there. A lot of us are injured here. I'm very scraped up, but luckily I'm OK and I'm still missing my friend.

WHITFIELD: And the other people around you, was it a sense of everything happening so fast. It was even difficult for you all to kind of cling to one another or help one another? Was it really every man for him or herself?

BERKUS: Well, I mean, really against that kind of force of nature, there was nothing any of us could do. There were definitely people helping one another in the aftermath, helping to reunite families and helping to understand exactly what was going on but the bottom line is we desperately need help here and we need it first thing, as soon as the sun comes up here which is in a couple of hours. I understand the American government has something under way, I hope that that's true because we are really very desperate.

WHITFIELD: And Nate, you mentioned your friend is still missing. What kind of efforts are under way to try to locate your friend?

BERKUS: Well, right now, I'm part of one sort of area with all of the -- it's nighttime here. It's pitch-black outside, and part of just one little area of survivors. Our hope is that there are other little pocket of survivors throughout the island. I'm in a town called Aragon Bay, which is near the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) which is a tourist area here in Sri Lanka on the east coast. And apparently, there is a -- we have been cut off, this section of this group of people and myself have been cut off completely from the mainland because the bridges were destroyed that connect this part of the island to the mainland of the island. So we're hoping that with the current being as strong as it was, that we are not the only survivors here stranded on this part, that there are people who have survived, including my friend, Fernando (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the other side.

WHITFIELD: Are there any locals there who are trying to come to the aid of and you other foreign tourists there to give you a sense as to what to do next, given that this is a very foreign experience for most people?

BERKUS: Yeah, I mean, there's a language barrier here, obviously. I'm sitting here with nothing, no passport, no money, no anything in shorts that somebody gave me. There is not really a sense what we're going to be doing other than a lot of people have spoken to the British embassy, a man named Colin Martin, who's a defense minister has been on the phone.

There are a couple of cars with power that we can plug telephones into to be in touch with the different embassies, and we've been told that helicopters are coming to air lift us out as soon as the sun comes up. As far as searching for the other people, we have no communication whatsoever with the mainland at the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we're hoping that there's a bunch of people who are on that side as well because that town is protected by a large sand dune, and apparently it wasn't hit as severely as the tourist area where I was staying.

WHITFIELD: And you mentioned the language barrier between you and many of the locals there. But in the time that you have been vacationing there, were there also a number of westerners vacationing at that location along with you and your friend?

BERKUS: Yeah. It's not a tremendous amount of Americans. There's quite a few (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we know that for sure. Quite a few people from Great Britain, people from all over in Europe, and other Sri Lankans. There was, I should say, a wonderful destination for people who are living in other areas of this country to come and spend a holiday at.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nate Berkus, well-known to many television audiences around the country, interior designer there, vacationing, along with your friend, best of luck, and wishes on the search efforts for your friend, who continues to be missing at this point. And best of luck for you and the others there who are stranded there after this devastating tsunami to hit the area there in Sri Lanka. Nate Berkus, thanks so much for joining us.

Well, the Sri Lankan government has declared a state of emergency. Here's CNN Satinder Bindra on the telephone with us from the capital of Colombo. Satinder.

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. It's about 5:00 just after 5:00 here in Colombo and literally within the next couple of hours, Sri Lanka will be launching one of its most extensive relief and rescue operations. The government first has to identify the worst affected areas and then it has to go in and try and rescue tens of thousands of strand people. The government is also looking to air drop supplies and it has made an appeal to the international community that it desperately needs food, water and medicine.

The Indian government has responded to this plea for help and the Indians are rushing in helicopters and we understand that some relief supplies have already arrived. In the meantime, Fredricka, with every passing hour, the death toll here continues to mount. The latest figure of the number dead is about 4,500 and the most extensive damage has been caused on the eastern coast. Even here near the capital, Colombo, where I am, entire communities along the coast have been destroyed. I'm standing right in the midst of one community where literally nothing is left. All the homes have been shattered and smashed literally like tooth picks, back to you.

WHITFIELD: And Satinder, we heard Nate describing in the location where he is in, this Aragon Bay area, a lot of that island resort area has been washed away, so access to those survivors is going to be very difficult. You mentioned how helicopters being used. Will these Indian ships that apparently are going to be used in some circumstances be able to be used to get to some of these resort communities on these small islands? BINDRA: Well, the ships are not going to be really used for plucking survivors out of hard to access zones. But these ships and in some instances planes from India will be carrying helicopters. We're given to understand that six to eight Indian helicopters have been dispatched to Sri Lanka and it is the helicopters who will bear the brunt of most of the rescue and relief operations.

Now in the next few hours, the Sri Lankan government is trying to mobilize as many of the citizens as possible to help. Some 20,000 troops have been deployed to help in the efforts and the government is also appealing to boy scouts and girl guides here to come out and try to do their utmost to help. Many, many people are missing and we understand that about a million people here are displaced. So this is a huge, huge tragedy, and clearly this island nation is overwhelmed. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Satinder Bindra from Colombo, thanks so much.

Some of the worst destruction happened in Indonesia as well. CNN's Atika Shubert joins us on the telephone from Jakarta. And I imagine, Atika, the primary concern there is launching these rescue efforts as well.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation as dawn breaks, the island of Sumatra was of course the closest to the epicenter, the 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurring just about 100 miles off the coast. And aftershocks are actually still continuing in this area. Initially, the death toll here was actually quite low. It now appears, however, that the only reason for that was that the devastation was so widespread, that it literally wiped out communications, making it impossible to get an accurate picture of just how many people have been killed.

So far, however, it appears the death toll has climbed dramatically overnight. There are varying reports. Authorities now say it appears thousands may have been killed and the estimates are ranging anywhere between 2,000 to upwards of 4,000, and it's almost certain that the death toll will rise further. The kind of scenes that we've been seeing on local television are just horrifying, entire villages gone. What looks like at first just a fast-flowing stream entering city streets and not even reaching your ankles and then all of a sudden within minutes a flood sweeping away everything in its path.

Unfortunately, many of the victims were children and elderly. These are people who are not fast enough or simply not strong enough to hold on when these incredibly fast waves came through the town. One local reporter even described seeing bodies littering beaches and caught in trees as these gigantic waves swept everything in its path. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Atika Shubert, thanks so much for that update from Jakarta, a gruesome scene there throughout south and southeast Asia.

The death toll from the earthquake and the tsunamis triggered apparently has been rising all day. Here's what we know right now. More than 3200 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, at least 2300 are dead and 2,0000 are missing in India. Those numbers are still coming in and are escalating. At least 4,000 people are dead in Indonesia and 300 have been killed in Thailand, hundreds more still missing. Let's get a better understanding of tsunamis and how they form. Our meteorologist Orelon Sidney is joining us now to give us a sense. You can't have these tsunamis without having these earthquakes at sea and that's what happened here.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. The actual correct term for tsunamis is seismic sea waves. You have to get some seismic activity going in the ocean before these waves are generated. So I wanted to give you an idea first of all of where it is we were talking about. We have a graphic that I'll show you. You can see what you might remember from your junior high school geology class. This is a picture of the earth showing the tectonic plates. These are the plates of the earth that the continents ride on and they move all over the earth. That's what generates earthquakes and volcanoes.

In this case, the Indo-Australian plate appears that it was diving beneath the Pacific plate. That's called subduction. That's when one plate dives beneath another one. We have another picture that we can show you I believe a little bit closer in. You see the star there in the bottom portion of the screen, that's where the earthquake occurred and the trench there, what looks like a cold front, is actually moving off to the northeast. That's the plate that dived beneath Sumatra.

Surprisingly, this was a really shallow quake. A lot of times can you get quakes about 100 miles deep. This was only 6.2 miles deep so that's all this energy released in a very shallow area. It's one of the reasons we see that problem. A quick little demonstrator, I wanted to show you too if Fredricka will help me here. I'm going take this slinky and show you -- imagine how this is the surface of the earth and this is how these waves travel, maybe give you an idea of how these tsunamis get going. The first waves that happen are compression waves. They move along, just like sound waves. You see the wave going back and forth there. Those are very quick and those happen first. The second and third types of waves though move laterally, back and forth, and then most devastating move up and down.

WHITFIELD: And this is all happening just within a few minutes' time.

SIDNEY: This is happening in a few minutes. Imagine that we've got hundreds of feet of water here and we're getting this kind of motion back and forth and up and down. The 1964 Alaska earthquake was a 9.2. The shaking that we just described lasted 4 1/2 minutes. So this may have been even stronger and longer or as longer lasting as that. When you get .2, you're not getting a whole lot of difference in energy release, but that just gives you an idea of the kind of turbulence under the ocean and the huge waves that can be generated from this kind of a situation.

WHITFIELD: It's hard to believe it could have been more devastating had it last even longer. This alone is horribly tragic.

SIDNEY: I think this is going to be the biggest human tragedy of the year unfortunately.

WHITFIELD: All right, Orelon Sidney, thanks so much.

Perhaps the third time is a charm? Ukraine's voters hit the polls again to select their next president. Exit polls are out. Who's ahead? A live report from Kiev coming up next.

Plus are more U.S. troops bound for Iraq? CNN talks exclusively with a commanding general, and big changes could be in store.

And later, terror on tape, a chilling new video surfaces showing just how those insurgents attacked the tent in Mosul. They taped the entire thing apparently.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's been just weeks since U.S. troops retook Falluja from insurgents. Now another Iraqi city is growing increasingly more dangerous. 22 people including 14 U.S. troops were killed in a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Mosul last week. It's just the latest deadly attack in the area and it's a situation U.S. military leaders are paying close attention to. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has our exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As violence continues in the northern city of Mosul and elections are just one month away in Iraq, General John Abizaid, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, has confirmed to CNN in an exclusive interview that troop levels in Mosul are about to go up. The U.S. is determined to ensure control of the city.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's clear that that Mosul will need additional boots on the ground during the election period. We will figure out what the right combination of boots on the ground may be. Mosul is very important in all terms in Iraq.

STARR: Abizaid is emphasizing the additional troops in Mosul will include Iraqis and U.S. forces to be shifted from other areas inside the country. He spoke to CNN from his desert headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

ABIZAID: We will make additional adjustments of forces for Mosul.

STARR: The U.S. recently increased troop levels in Iraq to 150,000, so these types of pre-election problems could be dealt with. Ensuring Sunnis in Mosul feel secure enough to vote is crucial. The suicide bombing at the U.S. military base only underscored the problem, officials say.

But now, it could require another 6,000 to 8,000 total troops to be sent to Mosul. Senior U.S. military sources in the region tell CNN the city has been wracked by violence for weeks. Local Iraqi security forces have virtually melted away, say those officials. One senior U.S. officer tells CNN, we have no Iraqi police force up in Mosul today.

The problem in getting Iraqis to fight the insurgency may be deeper across Iraq. The military assessment now is that the U.S. miscalculated Iraqi tribal and religious loyalties and did not realize Iraqis are likely to fight only for their brethren. Thousands of Iraqi security forces have been put in the field, but the focus has been on numbers of troops, training and equipment, not on experience, confidence and leadership. So in cases like Mosul, they simply will not fight the intimidation of the insurgents, the U.S. now believes.

The solution now? The U.S. is planning to put 10 to 20-men training teams with individual Iraqi units across the country after the January election. The hope is this type of local on-the-ground effort will make Iraqi forces more willing to fight. Barbara Starr, CNN, Doha, Qatar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A new development in the attack on the U.S. military base near Mosul. The preparations for the bombing and the blast itself may have been captured on tape. CNN's Jeff Koinange will have details in about 15 minutes from now. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about our security.

Ukrainians who took to the streets of Kiev in rage after the November presidential runoff are back in the streets, but now they're celebrating. The result are not in yet, but three exit polls point to a big win for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. CNN's Jill Dougherty is in Kiev looking at the sea of orange, Jill?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, you know we asked some people what they're feeling down in Independence Square and this one man said, he really can't quite believe that this all happened. He said it feels like a dream, because after all about a month ago, it completely different situation. They said that this election had been stolen from the man they thought had won, the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

And tonight, although the official results are not yet in, the exit polls are showing at least a 15 percent spread in favor of Mr. Yushchenko. And now, just a few minutes ago, the central election commission saying that 30 percent of the vote has been counted, and it's 19 percent spread. Now, that could diminish a bit, but you can certainly see the trend. It's a really resounding victory so far, it appears for Viktor Yushchenko.

And interestingly, the man who was his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich is now saying that he is going to go into the opposition. He said they want to see what the opposition is like. We're going to show them. So already, you can see the tables completely shifted here, Fredricka and the people on Independence Square are very, very happy. This party is going to last for a long time tonight.

WHITFIELD: And Jill, what is exactly Yanukovich mean by going into the opposition?

DOUGHERTY: Well, it would appear that what he's going to do is, in parliament, he will try to make life as miserable as possible for President Yushchenko. I mean there is a lot of animosity between these two men and they really divided the country, divided in half almost like red and blue states, except that there's a geographical part of this, too. East supporting Yanukovich, west supporting Yushchenko and that's the big task for the new president. He's going have to bring those two parts together.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, Jill, we're looking at live pictures there, on the right side of our screen of a number of people out there celebrating. The bands playing and folks are looking very merry there this holiday season, not just because of the Christmas holiday.

DOUGHERTY: It is. Remember, these are the people now who have been on the streets for almost a month. The election took place on November 21st and that's when the orange revolution happened. And this is really the hot bed of the orange revolution. This is where people would come virtually every single night and they would chant Yushchenko is our president, Yushchenko is our president.

Now they're beginning to believe it. And you've got cars running around the city, honking their horns. Yushchenko! Yushchenko! So It's really just like a party. And that really has been the way it has been since the beginning and the tent city, remember the tent city? That is still on the main street in Kiev. So we'll have to see whether Mr. Yushchenko can tell them now they can go home finally.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jill Dougherty in Kiev, where it's a very Merry Christmas in some circles there.

But apparently it wasn't a very Merry Christmas for many U.S. travelers. The latest on the problems at the airports.

And later, grieving the greats. A look back at lives lost in 2004.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening now in the news. More than 11,000 are dead and many more missing in Southern and Southeastern Asia. A powerful earthquake measuring 9.0 and centered just off Sumatra triggered a series of tsunamis. The massive waves swamped parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.

And sad news in the NFL today. Former Packer great Reggie White has died, his wife says of a heart attack. He was known as the minister of defense. White was a Pro Bowl standout at Philadelphia before moving on to the Green Bay Packers. White at Green Bay, White helped the Packers to two consecutive Super Bowls, including a win in 1997. White was 43 years old.

In North Carolina, a snowstorm is causing some problems on the roadways. Up to six inches of snow and sleet fell in some areas, and the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for several eastern counties.

And it wasn't a merry Christmas for flyers of Comair or US Airways at all. Comair is blaming a computer glitch for grounding all of its flights on Christmas Day, and US Airways says it canceled flights and delayed others after a high number of sick calls from baggage handlers and flight attendants. The Transportation Department says it will investigate the calls.

Tens of thousands of Americans are spending Christmas weekend stuck in airport terminals. Last week's winter weather, huge holiday travel, and a major computer system failure has, as I just explained, created a perfect storm of sorts of travel tie-ups. Gary Nuremberg reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So what did the travel mess do to your holiday weekend?

SUE KING, DELAYED TRAVELER: It screwed it up.

NUREMBERG: Sue and Joe King were trying to get 20-month-old Haley to Disney World. They arrived at Washington's Reagan National Airport at 6:45 Sunday morning for an 8:40 US Airways flight.

KING: We got in line and waited for four hours, so obviously missed our flight, and we're on standby now for a 3:00 p.m. flight.

NUREMBERG (on camera): And if that doesn't work?

KING: There's a 7:00 p.m. that we're on standby for.

NUREMBERG: And if that doesn't work?

KING: Then the next morning. We might be on standby for that.

NUREMBERG: So how happy are you?

KING: Not very happy.

NUREMBERG (voice-over): The Kings are not alone. When Delta subsidiary Comair canceled weekend flights because of computer problems, thousands had to scramble for alternate flights. The airline generally carries 30,000 passengers a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stood in line for two hours, our flights were canceled, then we came back on our rebooked flights today, got to Cincinnati, found out 25 minutes before the flight was supposed to board that it was canceled. Now we're driving to Columbus tomorrow to take a Northwestern flight.

NUREMBERG: By Sunday afternoon, it had began to resume a limited schedule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to continue to grow that improvement, with the hopes of being 100 percent, back to normal by midweek.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole setup is a mess. Completely sold out. Got to go.

NUREMBERG: US Airways says it had several hundred flight attendants and baggage handlers phone in sick, causing an estimated 10,000 passengers to be separated from their luggage. Mary Ann Robbins (ph) was without her medication for three days, found her luggage this afternoon, and was, needless to say...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very frustrated.

NUREMBERG (on camera): By Sunday evening, US Airways claimed to have made great progress in reuniting passengers with their lost luggage, but clearly it still had a long way to go.

(voice-over): Ask Billy Black (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My bags got lost, and I've been waiting for my bags now for four days. It's kind of sad because I had some presents for kids and so on, and I couldn't -- you know, I couldn't give the presents to the kids.

NUREMBERG: And there is one more disappointed kid. Remember little Haley on her way to Disney World? Her family failed to make it on two standby flights and called it quits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going home, no Disney World, next year.

NUREMBERG: Gary Nuremberg, for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Is it their new tool for terror? Chilling videotape surfaces on the Web depicting the planning of that attack in Mosul, Iraq. I'll talk with CNN military analyst Ken Robinson on what it all means.

And what was your favorite book of the year? Later find out if it makes the top 10 list of 2004.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An Islamic Web site has released video its makers claim is actual footage of last week's suicide attack in Mosul. It shows three men plotting the attack, including the alleged suicide bomber. Here's CNN's Jeff Koinange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video that purportedly shows a bone-chilling prelude to what would become the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. In the video, three members claiming to belong to the radical Islamic group Ansar al Sunnah, clad in black, wearing face masks, and carrying automatic weapons, are discussing an attack on Camp Marez in Mosul. Among them, the would-be suicide bomber, identified here as Abu Omar Al-Mussuli (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We, the army of Ansar al Sunnah, are carrying out a destructive attack which will terrorize the hearts of Americans, crusaders and their helpers.

KOINANGE: The same man even includes the time of day the attack would take place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will wait until the lunch area is crowded with the crusader and then he will execute the operation.

KOINANGE: The people making the tape then purportedly make their way to an undetermined vantage point, somewhere near what appears to be the cafeteria at Camp Marez, seen here in the foreground. They continue to film. While CNN cannot validate the time on the tape as authentic, it does coincide with the time the attack took place.

Seconds passed, then the explosion that appeared to rip the mess hall's roof off, killing 22 and wounding scores.

The members then drive off, while still filming the devastating outcome.

The attack on Camp Marez is a hugely embarrassing security breach for the U.S. military, but the video does appear to confirm what the U.S. said earlier this week, that the attack was a coordinated and premeditated strike.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, COMMANDER, TASK FORCE OLYMPIA: It is very difficult to conceive that this would be the act of a lone individual. It would seem to me reasonable to assume that this was a mission, perhaps, some time in the planning, days, perhaps.

KOINANGE (on camera): Late Sunday, a sign the U.S. military won't be taking any chances in the run-up to the January 30th elections. General John Abizaid, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, told CNN that troop levels in Mosul would be increased by an additional 6,000 to 8,000, almost doubling the U.S. force presence in that ever volatile region.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And the elections that Jeff was talking about is scheduled to take place five weeks from today. But there doesn't seem to be an end to the violence throughout that country. And there's mounting concern about whether the country is secure enough to ensure safe and smooth balloting.

CNN military intelligence analyst Ken Robinson joins me now. Let's first, though, talk about this tape. We don't know about its authenticity. But say it is authentic, what would be the motivation of putting this kind of practice on tape, and then releasing it on the Web? KEN ROBINSON, CNN ANALYST: Several things, Fredricka. First, they're beating their chest. They're saying we can reach you, and you can't catch us. Second, it's speaking to the Arab street. They're saying recruitment and retention, come join us, we can be effective, we can hit the crusaders. Third, they want to send a message of fear to the United States, domestically, because they want to impact the policies that are occurring in the country, and to do that, they want to impact here domestically, public opinion.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, speaking of fear, Donald Rumsfeld, who was visiting on a surprise visit in Iraq, tried to address the type of fear that the insurgency is trying to impose on people in Iraq. And he had this very message about whether or not this mission can be accomplished with or without the help of Iraqi troops. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The coalition forces can't provide security for the Iraqis. Iraqis are going to have to provide security for the Iraqis. And in the last analysis, and our task is to get those folks trained up and equipped and organized, and give them that responsibility. So we have to put an enormous focus on that piece of it. And that is the only way it will work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Is it that simple?

ROBINSON: Truer words were never spoken. The tipping point will be when the Iraqis are willing to fight and die, as Barbara Starr said in her reporting, they didn't anticipate the tribal loyalties, the religious divisions that occur in the country that are so strong, and many of these Iraqis are Sunnis, members of the police, members of the armed forces, and they fear for their lives and they fear for the lives of their families.

WHITFIELD: But many Iraqis have signed up for the police and for the troops, and what's happened is they've either been intimidated or they have been executed. We've seen various pictures of, you know, beheaded troops or people who were executed, you know, by a shot in the head. So this form of intimidation that the insurgency is imposing is effective.

ROBINSON: It's working. There's been three assassinations in the last 24 hours in Baghdad. Going after judiciary, going after council members.

WHITFIELD: So what would be the incentive for the Iraqis to join the troops?

ROBINSON: The incentive is the recognition that the United States is not going to leave. The United States cannot leave until a government is up and running that will not lead to civil war, because that will be globally impacted. No one can take that, and so if that is the truth, then they must either sit there and bleed, or route out the insurgency. There's no choice. WHITFIELD: Do you see this country on the verge of civil war?

ROBINSON: The conditions are there for civil war. They certainly exist, and the Sunni jihadists are trying to exploit that.

WHITFIELD: It is evident that taking the country was one thing, but being able to control or maintain some peace now is something else, and there have been questions about whether the coalition has been prepared for this sort of venture.

ROBINSON: Well, that's the old argument of what it takes to take it, and what it takes to own it. Colin Powell said if you break it, you own it. Clearly, the numbers of forces that it took -- I was embedded with the coalition during the war, and the numbers and the force structure and the planning for phase three of the collapse of Baghdad were sufficient, but the numbers to be able to deal with this growing insurgency certainly have not been, and it's been self-evident for about a year.

WHITFIELD: All right, military intelligence analyst Ken Robinson, thanks so much.

ROBINSON: Thanks, Fredricka.

Well, joining us now via videophone from Phuket, Thailand, is Aneesh Raman, to give us more on the tsunamis that were spawned by the earthquake just off the coast there. Aneesh, give us an update of what's happening there?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, good evening. A very somber mood, as dawn arrives on this, the first full day of critical relief and recovery efforts.

We're standing on the western coast of Phuket Island. This would have been the hardest hit area in southern Thailand, given its proximity to the epicenter of this earthquake. Government officials tell us at least 100 people have died here alone. The total death toll rising all day yesterday, and now again rising to well over 400.

The more troubling fact, though, was that as of last night, 300 to 400 people were thought to be missing at sea, given the overnight hours, their fate worsening by the minute. This is, as you say, a resort island, it's one of the biggest resort areas in Southeast Asia. And this is the peak of that tourist season. So it's hard to imagine any other time where there would have been any more people on this island.

The predominance of people that would have been here would have been Western tourists. It's an often that they come here at this time. So globally, people have been desperately trying to get in touch with relatives that were here, reconnect and make sure that people were OK.

Now, it's been almost a day since two near-simultaneous walls of water, as one eyewitness described them, descended on the coast here, completely devouring anyone in the water or on the beachside. They were, some of them, upwards of 30 feet tall, these waves, and they continued throughout the day.

And fear last night as we arrived was very palpable, that more aftershocks could occur and more waves could come. We're standing in one of the few remaining hotels, and getting here was a journey in itself last night. Roads remain completely littered with debris. Cars are unable to be found. At the airport as we arrived, people were completely stranded.

The government has called this situation an unprecedented catastrophe, something the likes of which it has never dealt with before.

Last night at the airport, the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, arrived. I spoke with him. He said that he feels confident with the relief and recovery efforts. He has not asked for nor has he requested international aid. And he's got the entire military here as well.

But Phuket, really the central focus, to try and get anyone who's still out at sea. Also, the devastation, any structural damage, people trapped there. As we get closer to that area today, as the sun rises and light comes back, we'll get a better sense of the picture.

The destruction continues eastward from here. The smaller island of Phi Phi completely destroyed. Some 60 people dead there, and well over 100 to 200 people died on the mainland coast of Thailand, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Aneesh, can you give us a sense, though, of the infrastructure there?

RAMAN: Yeah, Phuket is much larger infrastructure. It's a much more popular tourist destination, so when you think of these waves coming in, 30-foot waves, coming in at 50 to 60 miles an hour, it's hard to imagine anything stopping them. But the structures that would have been there would have sustained severe damage, but also would have weakened the blow of these waves as it went further into the island.

And so in terms of exactly what's happened, we haven't gotten to the site yet. But it's safe to say that Phuket wouldn't have suffered the same sort of structural damage you would have seen at that smaller island of Phi Phi, which is less developed. So there would have been less to mitigate the force of those waves.

But people -- harrowing stories of survival, Fredricka, from tourists. We met some from New Zealand, some from Europe, some from the U.S. Describing just moments where they dashed between huge waves of water that was coming to higher ground. Mothers whose babies were completely taken away by the water. It's just amazing stories we'll hear more of today. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Devastating. Aneesh Raman in Phuket, Thailand, thanks so much.

And we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, time now for best reads of 2004. The nation's literary editors have the delicious task of reading all the books published during the year to come up with the top 10. Joining us from New York is Sam Tanenhaus, editor of "The New York Times" book review. Good to see you, Sam.

SAM TANENHAUS, EDITOR, NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW: Hi. Nice to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. How in the world do you whittle it down to 10 by year's end?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's not easy, but during the course of the year, week by week we look at the titles we think are especially good. And in fact each week, spell them out for readers, the ones that we think are particularly of interest, and then we draw on those lists ourselves.

WHITFIELD: Now, are they of interest because you all, you know, your team finds them intriguing. or does sales have anything to do with?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's a combination of many factors. What we like as editors, what our reviewers like. We don't look specifically at sales, but certainly books that are doing well are books we pay some attention to.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's take a look at some of them. Let's start with fiction, "The Plot Against America." Philip Roth. What did you like about that?

TANENHAUS: This is probably the most debated and discussed novel of the year. It's an anti-historical novel, that is Roth imagines an America in 1940 that elected Charles Lindbergh, of all people, president, on an anti-war platform. It is a novel with a lot of resonance for the contemporary moment.

WHITFIELD: "Runaway," Alice Munro.

TANENHAUS: Well, Alice Munro, the great Canadian writer, is probably the most admired short story writer of our time, and our reviewer, Jonathan Franzen, thinks she's the best of all North American writers, and we think this book is very good too.

WHITFIELD: "Snow?"

TANENHAUS: "Snow," by Orhan Pamuk. He's a great Turkish writer. This novel will tell American readers more than they'll get from any other source about the conflicts between Islam and secularism in the Middle East.

WHITFIELD: And what happens after you name these top 10 in the case of just mentioning, you know, three out of the fiction categories one. Do you find that a lot of these end up picking up in sales almost immediately after you all have posted what you believe your top 10 are?

TANENHAUS: Well, sometimes that happens, yes, but these happen to be books that did very well already, and were finding many readers. And also with other lists that are citing these among the top books, we see some movement. But we don't like to think we have too much influence.

WHITFIELD: All right, the non-fiction category. A really interesting, perhaps surprise for many, "The Chronicles Volume One," Bob Dylan?

TANENHAUS: This is probably the single most surprising book of the year. Dylan, the peerless singer and songwriter, and a master of written language, but he's never really been much of an author before, and this book is a wonderful narrative that in many respects resembles his best narrative songs.

WHITFIELD: And this "Volume One" kind of intimates that, you know, perhaps this is just the springboard for him, huh?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's nice to think so, but no one is really sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then, "Will in the World?"

TANENHAUS: Yes, this is another surprise. Stephen Greenblatt, the great Harvard scholar of Shakespeare and the Renaissance period, has written a book that really explains Shakespeare's work and world and life for ordinary readers, and we thought this was an especially valuable book.

WHITFIELD: All right. Fun reading, and I know especially fun reading for you guys all year?

TANENHAUS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Fun to get your hands on it first before everyone else, and then give the nice reviews, and sometimes not so nice, but in the end, encapsulate it all into 10 tops.

TANENHAUS: Well, we did the best we could.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sam, thanks so much. Sam Tanenhaus of "The New York Times."

TANENHAUS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead tonight, a recap of our top story of the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An update now on this top story. More than 11,000 are dead, and many more missing in Southern and Southeastern Asia. A powerful earthquake measuring 9.0, and centered just off Sumatra, triggered a series of tsunamis. The massive waves swamped parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. We'll have complete coverage of this major disaster tonight at 10:00 Eastern time.

And that's all we have time for, for this hour. Coming up next, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS." Tonight, we profile T.D. Jakes, one of America's most influential ministers. At 8:00 Eastern "CNN PRESENTS: The Two Marys," the two women at the heart of Christianity. At 9:00 Eastern, "LARRY KING WEEKEND." Larry's guest tonight, Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And I'll be back at 10:00 Eastern. Again, we'll have several live reports from the ground where those tsunamis devastated much of Southeastern Asia. The hour's headlines when we come right back, and then "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired December 26, 2004 - 18:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. Here's what's happening now in the news. The worst earthquake in at least 40 years has triggered huge waves in southern and southeast Asia, killing at least 10,000 people. The highest death tolls are in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. The Associated Press quotes the State Department as saying there are three Americans among the dead, two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand.
President Bush expressed his condolences for the loss of life and suffering caused by the tsunamis. He issued a statement en route to his Texas ranch. An official says U.S. relief efforts are already under way.

Supporters of Viktor Yushchenko are rallying again in Kiev, this time in celebration, not in protest. They hit the streets after exit polls projected a landslide win for the opposition candidate in today's Ukrainian presidential revote. Official results won't be in for several more hours.

We begin in southeast Asia, where it's a horror movie come true. One of the most powerful earthquakes ever to shake the planet today triggered huge waves that swept away anything and anyone in the way. Thousands of people have been killed and many more are missing. The U.S. State Department says three Americans are among the dead. The magnitude 9.0 tremor struck about 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. It's the strongest quake in more than 40 years.

There have been several aftershocks, including one that measured 7.3 magnitude. The tsunamis that followed wiped out coastal areas as far as 1,000 miles away. In addition to those killed or injured, hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. It was a surprise hit for most there. Unlike the Pacific basin and the U.S. West coast, there is no tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. The waves were 40 feet high in some places. For a time line of the disaster, here's CNN's Andrew Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: in 40 years jolted northern Indonesia. Soon after, the first casualties were reported in Aceh (ph) Province where the quake demolished buildings and brought down phone lines but that was just the beginning. The epicenter of the quake, underneath the ocean off Indonesia, triggered giant waves or tsunamis that surged across the Andaman Sea and Indian ocean eventually drowning coastal communities including popular reports.

The Malaysian Islands of Canang (ph) including the upscale (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tourist area was inundated. The Thai holiday island of Phuket was devastated by waves up to 30 feet or 10 meters high. In the main tourist center Catong (ph), the streets were pounded by water and debris. Witnesses say the waves were so powerful they tossed one car into a hotel lobby.

Other reports say swimmers were sucked into the ocean as the tsunami approached or were dragged by waves against razor sharp coral. Thousands of people, many of them in Phuket to enjoy the Christmas holidays, fled to higher ground. Other Thai resorts including the scenic Phi Phi island were always hit with bungalows swept away. Meantime, tremendous waves surged across the Indian Ocean, traveling by some estimates at hundreds of kilometers per hour, then smashed into the Maldives, Sri Lanka and parts of southern India.

In India, many homes in Madras were submerged and in (UNINTELLIGIBLE) hundreds of fishermen were reported missing. Low lying parts of Sri Lanka were defenseless against the tsunami that ravaged the country's coast, with the northeastern area especially hard hit. What should have been a quiet Sunday in Asia turned into a day of devastation for the region, with thousands of people dead or missing. Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Among the many Americans who are vacationing in that region is well-known home improvement interior designer Nate Berkus, a regular contributor on the Oprah Winfrey show. He joins us on the telephone now from Sri Lanka. You apparently Nate were vacationing there along with some friends? What happened?

NATE BERKUS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: Yeah, we were completely devastated yesterday morning around 9:00 in the morning. We desperately, desperately need help from the government here. We're without water. We're without food and many of us are injured. There are women and children here who are -- there's a pregnant woman with broken ribs.

The Sri Lankan army seems to only have very few helicopters here that have touched down and taken away very few of the injured people. We've all been sleeping in a field throughout the night and right now, I believe, it's about 4:00 in the morning here. I'm with about a group of 50 tourists as well as many locals and it's just been utter devastation, bodies everywhere, and just really absolutely horrible, horrible devastation.

WHITFIELD: Nate, can you kind of replay for us where you were at the time of the tsunami hitting the area where you are and exactly what transpired?

BERKUS: There was absolutely no warning. I was asleep in a beach front cottage. I heard a loud noise, all of a sudden the roof was ripped off of the cottage and my friend and I were taken out to sea, just taking in currents that were so strong with debris and cars and animals and people, tearing by. We were able to hang onto a telephone pole with a mattress wedged between us for literally 30 seconds. There was a calm in the storm and then another wave hit. Both of us were torn away from the phone pole. I finally climbed onto a roof of a home, because the water pushed me behind the home and sat out the rest of the waves on top of this structure, which luckily held but many people have died there. A lot of us are injured here. I'm very scraped up, but luckily I'm OK and I'm still missing my friend.

WHITFIELD: And the other people around you, was it a sense of everything happening so fast. It was even difficult for you all to kind of cling to one another or help one another? Was it really every man for him or herself?

BERKUS: Well, I mean, really against that kind of force of nature, there was nothing any of us could do. There were definitely people helping one another in the aftermath, helping to reunite families and helping to understand exactly what was going on but the bottom line is we desperately need help here and we need it first thing, as soon as the sun comes up here which is in a couple of hours. I understand the American government has something under way, I hope that that's true because we are really very desperate.

WHITFIELD: And Nate, you mentioned your friend is still missing. What kind of efforts are under way to try to locate your friend?

BERKUS: Well, right now, I'm part of one sort of area with all of the -- it's nighttime here. It's pitch-black outside, and part of just one little area of survivors. Our hope is that there are other little pocket of survivors throughout the island. I'm in a town called Aragon Bay, which is near the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) which is a tourist area here in Sri Lanka on the east coast. And apparently, there is a -- we have been cut off, this section of this group of people and myself have been cut off completely from the mainland because the bridges were destroyed that connect this part of the island to the mainland of the island. So we're hoping that with the current being as strong as it was, that we are not the only survivors here stranded on this part, that there are people who have survived, including my friend, Fernando (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on the other side.

WHITFIELD: Are there any locals there who are trying to come to the aid of and you other foreign tourists there to give you a sense as to what to do next, given that this is a very foreign experience for most people?

BERKUS: Yeah, I mean, there's a language barrier here, obviously. I'm sitting here with nothing, no passport, no money, no anything in shorts that somebody gave me. There is not really a sense what we're going to be doing other than a lot of people have spoken to the British embassy, a man named Colin Martin, who's a defense minister has been on the phone.

There are a couple of cars with power that we can plug telephones into to be in touch with the different embassies, and we've been told that helicopters are coming to air lift us out as soon as the sun comes up. As far as searching for the other people, we have no communication whatsoever with the mainland at the town of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we're hoping that there's a bunch of people who are on that side as well because that town is protected by a large sand dune, and apparently it wasn't hit as severely as the tourist area where I was staying.

WHITFIELD: And you mentioned the language barrier between you and many of the locals there. But in the time that you have been vacationing there, were there also a number of westerners vacationing at that location along with you and your friend?

BERKUS: Yeah. It's not a tremendous amount of Americans. There's quite a few (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we know that for sure. Quite a few people from Great Britain, people from all over in Europe, and other Sri Lankans. There was, I should say, a wonderful destination for people who are living in other areas of this country to come and spend a holiday at.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nate Berkus, well-known to many television audiences around the country, interior designer there, vacationing, along with your friend, best of luck, and wishes on the search efforts for your friend, who continues to be missing at this point. And best of luck for you and the others there who are stranded there after this devastating tsunami to hit the area there in Sri Lanka. Nate Berkus, thanks so much for joining us.

Well, the Sri Lankan government has declared a state of emergency. Here's CNN Satinder Bindra on the telephone with us from the capital of Colombo. Satinder.

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. It's about 5:00 just after 5:00 here in Colombo and literally within the next couple of hours, Sri Lanka will be launching one of its most extensive relief and rescue operations. The government first has to identify the worst affected areas and then it has to go in and try and rescue tens of thousands of strand people. The government is also looking to air drop supplies and it has made an appeal to the international community that it desperately needs food, water and medicine.

The Indian government has responded to this plea for help and the Indians are rushing in helicopters and we understand that some relief supplies have already arrived. In the meantime, Fredricka, with every passing hour, the death toll here continues to mount. The latest figure of the number dead is about 4,500 and the most extensive damage has been caused on the eastern coast. Even here near the capital, Colombo, where I am, entire communities along the coast have been destroyed. I'm standing right in the midst of one community where literally nothing is left. All the homes have been shattered and smashed literally like tooth picks, back to you.

WHITFIELD: And Satinder, we heard Nate describing in the location where he is in, this Aragon Bay area, a lot of that island resort area has been washed away, so access to those survivors is going to be very difficult. You mentioned how helicopters being used. Will these Indian ships that apparently are going to be used in some circumstances be able to be used to get to some of these resort communities on these small islands? BINDRA: Well, the ships are not going to be really used for plucking survivors out of hard to access zones. But these ships and in some instances planes from India will be carrying helicopters. We're given to understand that six to eight Indian helicopters have been dispatched to Sri Lanka and it is the helicopters who will bear the brunt of most of the rescue and relief operations.

Now in the next few hours, the Sri Lankan government is trying to mobilize as many of the citizens as possible to help. Some 20,000 troops have been deployed to help in the efforts and the government is also appealing to boy scouts and girl guides here to come out and try to do their utmost to help. Many, many people are missing and we understand that about a million people here are displaced. So this is a huge, huge tragedy, and clearly this island nation is overwhelmed. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Satinder Bindra from Colombo, thanks so much.

Some of the worst destruction happened in Indonesia as well. CNN's Atika Shubert joins us on the telephone from Jakarta. And I imagine, Atika, the primary concern there is launching these rescue efforts as well.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation as dawn breaks, the island of Sumatra was of course the closest to the epicenter, the 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurring just about 100 miles off the coast. And aftershocks are actually still continuing in this area. Initially, the death toll here was actually quite low. It now appears, however, that the only reason for that was that the devastation was so widespread, that it literally wiped out communications, making it impossible to get an accurate picture of just how many people have been killed.

So far, however, it appears the death toll has climbed dramatically overnight. There are varying reports. Authorities now say it appears thousands may have been killed and the estimates are ranging anywhere between 2,000 to upwards of 4,000, and it's almost certain that the death toll will rise further. The kind of scenes that we've been seeing on local television are just horrifying, entire villages gone. What looks like at first just a fast-flowing stream entering city streets and not even reaching your ankles and then all of a sudden within minutes a flood sweeping away everything in its path.

Unfortunately, many of the victims were children and elderly. These are people who are not fast enough or simply not strong enough to hold on when these incredibly fast waves came through the town. One local reporter even described seeing bodies littering beaches and caught in trees as these gigantic waves swept everything in its path. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Atika Shubert, thanks so much for that update from Jakarta, a gruesome scene there throughout south and southeast Asia.

The death toll from the earthquake and the tsunamis triggered apparently has been rising all day. Here's what we know right now. More than 3200 people have been killed in Sri Lanka, at least 2300 are dead and 2,0000 are missing in India. Those numbers are still coming in and are escalating. At least 4,000 people are dead in Indonesia and 300 have been killed in Thailand, hundreds more still missing. Let's get a better understanding of tsunamis and how they form. Our meteorologist Orelon Sidney is joining us now to give us a sense. You can't have these tsunamis without having these earthquakes at sea and that's what happened here.

ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. The actual correct term for tsunamis is seismic sea waves. You have to get some seismic activity going in the ocean before these waves are generated. So I wanted to give you an idea first of all of where it is we were talking about. We have a graphic that I'll show you. You can see what you might remember from your junior high school geology class. This is a picture of the earth showing the tectonic plates. These are the plates of the earth that the continents ride on and they move all over the earth. That's what generates earthquakes and volcanoes.

In this case, the Indo-Australian plate appears that it was diving beneath the Pacific plate. That's called subduction. That's when one plate dives beneath another one. We have another picture that we can show you I believe a little bit closer in. You see the star there in the bottom portion of the screen, that's where the earthquake occurred and the trench there, what looks like a cold front, is actually moving off to the northeast. That's the plate that dived beneath Sumatra.

Surprisingly, this was a really shallow quake. A lot of times can you get quakes about 100 miles deep. This was only 6.2 miles deep so that's all this energy released in a very shallow area. It's one of the reasons we see that problem. A quick little demonstrator, I wanted to show you too if Fredricka will help me here. I'm going take this slinky and show you -- imagine how this is the surface of the earth and this is how these waves travel, maybe give you an idea of how these tsunamis get going. The first waves that happen are compression waves. They move along, just like sound waves. You see the wave going back and forth there. Those are very quick and those happen first. The second and third types of waves though move laterally, back and forth, and then most devastating move up and down.

WHITFIELD: And this is all happening just within a few minutes' time.

SIDNEY: This is happening in a few minutes. Imagine that we've got hundreds of feet of water here and we're getting this kind of motion back and forth and up and down. The 1964 Alaska earthquake was a 9.2. The shaking that we just described lasted 4 1/2 minutes. So this may have been even stronger and longer or as longer lasting as that. When you get .2, you're not getting a whole lot of difference in energy release, but that just gives you an idea of the kind of turbulence under the ocean and the huge waves that can be generated from this kind of a situation.

WHITFIELD: It's hard to believe it could have been more devastating had it last even longer. This alone is horribly tragic.

SIDNEY: I think this is going to be the biggest human tragedy of the year unfortunately.

WHITFIELD: All right, Orelon Sidney, thanks so much.

Perhaps the third time is a charm? Ukraine's voters hit the polls again to select their next president. Exit polls are out. Who's ahead? A live report from Kiev coming up next.

Plus are more U.S. troops bound for Iraq? CNN talks exclusively with a commanding general, and big changes could be in store.

And later, terror on tape, a chilling new video surfaces showing just how those insurgents attacked the tent in Mosul. They taped the entire thing apparently.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's been just weeks since U.S. troops retook Falluja from insurgents. Now another Iraqi city is growing increasingly more dangerous. 22 people including 14 U.S. troops were killed in a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Mosul last week. It's just the latest deadly attack in the area and it's a situation U.S. military leaders are paying close attention to. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has our exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As violence continues in the northern city of Mosul and elections are just one month away in Iraq, General John Abizaid, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, has confirmed to CNN in an exclusive interview that troop levels in Mosul are about to go up. The U.S. is determined to ensure control of the city.

GEN. JOHN ABIZAID, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: It's clear that that Mosul will need additional boots on the ground during the election period. We will figure out what the right combination of boots on the ground may be. Mosul is very important in all terms in Iraq.

STARR: Abizaid is emphasizing the additional troops in Mosul will include Iraqis and U.S. forces to be shifted from other areas inside the country. He spoke to CNN from his desert headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

ABIZAID: We will make additional adjustments of forces for Mosul.

STARR: The U.S. recently increased troop levels in Iraq to 150,000, so these types of pre-election problems could be dealt with. Ensuring Sunnis in Mosul feel secure enough to vote is crucial. The suicide bombing at the U.S. military base only underscored the problem, officials say.

But now, it could require another 6,000 to 8,000 total troops to be sent to Mosul. Senior U.S. military sources in the region tell CNN the city has been wracked by violence for weeks. Local Iraqi security forces have virtually melted away, say those officials. One senior U.S. officer tells CNN, we have no Iraqi police force up in Mosul today.

The problem in getting Iraqis to fight the insurgency may be deeper across Iraq. The military assessment now is that the U.S. miscalculated Iraqi tribal and religious loyalties and did not realize Iraqis are likely to fight only for their brethren. Thousands of Iraqi security forces have been put in the field, but the focus has been on numbers of troops, training and equipment, not on experience, confidence and leadership. So in cases like Mosul, they simply will not fight the intimidation of the insurgents, the U.S. now believes.

The solution now? The U.S. is planning to put 10 to 20-men training teams with individual Iraqi units across the country after the January election. The hope is this type of local on-the-ground effort will make Iraqi forces more willing to fight. Barbara Starr, CNN, Doha, Qatar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A new development in the attack on the U.S. military base near Mosul. The preparations for the bombing and the blast itself may have been captured on tape. CNN's Jeff Koinange will have details in about 15 minutes from now. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about our security.

Ukrainians who took to the streets of Kiev in rage after the November presidential runoff are back in the streets, but now they're celebrating. The result are not in yet, but three exit polls point to a big win for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. CNN's Jill Dougherty is in Kiev looking at the sea of orange, Jill?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, you know we asked some people what they're feeling down in Independence Square and this one man said, he really can't quite believe that this all happened. He said it feels like a dream, because after all about a month ago, it completely different situation. They said that this election had been stolen from the man they thought had won, the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

And tonight, although the official results are not yet in, the exit polls are showing at least a 15 percent spread in favor of Mr. Yushchenko. And now, just a few minutes ago, the central election commission saying that 30 percent of the vote has been counted, and it's 19 percent spread. Now, that could diminish a bit, but you can certainly see the trend. It's a really resounding victory so far, it appears for Viktor Yushchenko.

And interestingly, the man who was his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich is now saying that he is going to go into the opposition. He said they want to see what the opposition is like. We're going to show them. So already, you can see the tables completely shifted here, Fredricka and the people on Independence Square are very, very happy. This party is going to last for a long time tonight.

WHITFIELD: And Jill, what is exactly Yanukovich mean by going into the opposition?

DOUGHERTY: Well, it would appear that what he's going to do is, in parliament, he will try to make life as miserable as possible for President Yushchenko. I mean there is a lot of animosity between these two men and they really divided the country, divided in half almost like red and blue states, except that there's a geographical part of this, too. East supporting Yanukovich, west supporting Yushchenko and that's the big task for the new president. He's going have to bring those two parts together.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, Jill, we're looking at live pictures there, on the right side of our screen of a number of people out there celebrating. The bands playing and folks are looking very merry there this holiday season, not just because of the Christmas holiday.

DOUGHERTY: It is. Remember, these are the people now who have been on the streets for almost a month. The election took place on November 21st and that's when the orange revolution happened. And this is really the hot bed of the orange revolution. This is where people would come virtually every single night and they would chant Yushchenko is our president, Yushchenko is our president.

Now they're beginning to believe it. And you've got cars running around the city, honking their horns. Yushchenko! Yushchenko! So It's really just like a party. And that really has been the way it has been since the beginning and the tent city, remember the tent city? That is still on the main street in Kiev. So we'll have to see whether Mr. Yushchenko can tell them now they can go home finally.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jill Dougherty in Kiev, where it's a very Merry Christmas in some circles there.

But apparently it wasn't a very Merry Christmas for many U.S. travelers. The latest on the problems at the airports.

And later, grieving the greats. A look back at lives lost in 2004.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Here's a quick look at what's happening now in the news. More than 11,000 are dead and many more missing in Southern and Southeastern Asia. A powerful earthquake measuring 9.0 and centered just off Sumatra triggered a series of tsunamis. The massive waves swamped parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.

And sad news in the NFL today. Former Packer great Reggie White has died, his wife says of a heart attack. He was known as the minister of defense. White was a Pro Bowl standout at Philadelphia before moving on to the Green Bay Packers. White at Green Bay, White helped the Packers to two consecutive Super Bowls, including a win in 1997. White was 43 years old.

In North Carolina, a snowstorm is causing some problems on the roadways. Up to six inches of snow and sleet fell in some areas, and the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for several eastern counties.

And it wasn't a merry Christmas for flyers of Comair or US Airways at all. Comair is blaming a computer glitch for grounding all of its flights on Christmas Day, and US Airways says it canceled flights and delayed others after a high number of sick calls from baggage handlers and flight attendants. The Transportation Department says it will investigate the calls.

Tens of thousands of Americans are spending Christmas weekend stuck in airport terminals. Last week's winter weather, huge holiday travel, and a major computer system failure has, as I just explained, created a perfect storm of sorts of travel tie-ups. Gary Nuremberg reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So what did the travel mess do to your holiday weekend?

SUE KING, DELAYED TRAVELER: It screwed it up.

NUREMBERG: Sue and Joe King were trying to get 20-month-old Haley to Disney World. They arrived at Washington's Reagan National Airport at 6:45 Sunday morning for an 8:40 US Airways flight.

KING: We got in line and waited for four hours, so obviously missed our flight, and we're on standby now for a 3:00 p.m. flight.

NUREMBERG (on camera): And if that doesn't work?

KING: There's a 7:00 p.m. that we're on standby for.

NUREMBERG: And if that doesn't work?

KING: Then the next morning. We might be on standby for that.

NUREMBERG: So how happy are you?

KING: Not very happy.

NUREMBERG (voice-over): The Kings are not alone. When Delta subsidiary Comair canceled weekend flights because of computer problems, thousands had to scramble for alternate flights. The airline generally carries 30,000 passengers a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stood in line for two hours, our flights were canceled, then we came back on our rebooked flights today, got to Cincinnati, found out 25 minutes before the flight was supposed to board that it was canceled. Now we're driving to Columbus tomorrow to take a Northwestern flight.

NUREMBERG: By Sunday afternoon, it had began to resume a limited schedule.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to continue to grow that improvement, with the hopes of being 100 percent, back to normal by midweek.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole setup is a mess. Completely sold out. Got to go.

NUREMBERG: US Airways says it had several hundred flight attendants and baggage handlers phone in sick, causing an estimated 10,000 passengers to be separated from their luggage. Mary Ann Robbins (ph) was without her medication for three days, found her luggage this afternoon, and was, needless to say...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very frustrated.

NUREMBERG (on camera): By Sunday evening, US Airways claimed to have made great progress in reuniting passengers with their lost luggage, but clearly it still had a long way to go.

(voice-over): Ask Billy Black (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My bags got lost, and I've been waiting for my bags now for four days. It's kind of sad because I had some presents for kids and so on, and I couldn't -- you know, I couldn't give the presents to the kids.

NUREMBERG: And there is one more disappointed kid. Remember little Haley on her way to Disney World? Her family failed to make it on two standby flights and called it quits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going home, no Disney World, next year.

NUREMBERG: Gary Nuremberg, for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Is it their new tool for terror? Chilling videotape surfaces on the Web depicting the planning of that attack in Mosul, Iraq. I'll talk with CNN military analyst Ken Robinson on what it all means.

And what was your favorite book of the year? Later find out if it makes the top 10 list of 2004.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An Islamic Web site has released video its makers claim is actual footage of last week's suicide attack in Mosul. It shows three men plotting the attack, including the alleged suicide bomber. Here's CNN's Jeff Koinange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video that purportedly shows a bone-chilling prelude to what would become the deadliest attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq. In the video, three members claiming to belong to the radical Islamic group Ansar al Sunnah, clad in black, wearing face masks, and carrying automatic weapons, are discussing an attack on Camp Marez in Mosul. Among them, the would-be suicide bomber, identified here as Abu Omar Al-Mussuli (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We, the army of Ansar al Sunnah, are carrying out a destructive attack which will terrorize the hearts of Americans, crusaders and their helpers.

KOINANGE: The same man even includes the time of day the attack would take place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): (UNINTELLIGIBLE) will wait until the lunch area is crowded with the crusader and then he will execute the operation.

KOINANGE: The people making the tape then purportedly make their way to an undetermined vantage point, somewhere near what appears to be the cafeteria at Camp Marez, seen here in the foreground. They continue to film. While CNN cannot validate the time on the tape as authentic, it does coincide with the time the attack took place.

Seconds passed, then the explosion that appeared to rip the mess hall's roof off, killing 22 and wounding scores.

The members then drive off, while still filming the devastating outcome.

The attack on Camp Marez is a hugely embarrassing security breach for the U.S. military, but the video does appear to confirm what the U.S. said earlier this week, that the attack was a coordinated and premeditated strike.

BRIG. GEN. CARTER HAM, COMMANDER, TASK FORCE OLYMPIA: It is very difficult to conceive that this would be the act of a lone individual. It would seem to me reasonable to assume that this was a mission, perhaps, some time in the planning, days, perhaps.

KOINANGE (on camera): Late Sunday, a sign the U.S. military won't be taking any chances in the run-up to the January 30th elections. General John Abizaid, the senior U.S. military commander in the region, told CNN that troop levels in Mosul would be increased by an additional 6,000 to 8,000, almost doubling the U.S. force presence in that ever volatile region.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And the elections that Jeff was talking about is scheduled to take place five weeks from today. But there doesn't seem to be an end to the violence throughout that country. And there's mounting concern about whether the country is secure enough to ensure safe and smooth balloting.

CNN military intelligence analyst Ken Robinson joins me now. Let's first, though, talk about this tape. We don't know about its authenticity. But say it is authentic, what would be the motivation of putting this kind of practice on tape, and then releasing it on the Web? KEN ROBINSON, CNN ANALYST: Several things, Fredricka. First, they're beating their chest. They're saying we can reach you, and you can't catch us. Second, it's speaking to the Arab street. They're saying recruitment and retention, come join us, we can be effective, we can hit the crusaders. Third, they want to send a message of fear to the United States, domestically, because they want to impact the policies that are occurring in the country, and to do that, they want to impact here domestically, public opinion.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, speaking of fear, Donald Rumsfeld, who was visiting on a surprise visit in Iraq, tried to address the type of fear that the insurgency is trying to impose on people in Iraq. And he had this very message about whether or not this mission can be accomplished with or without the help of Iraqi troops. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The coalition forces can't provide security for the Iraqis. Iraqis are going to have to provide security for the Iraqis. And in the last analysis, and our task is to get those folks trained up and equipped and organized, and give them that responsibility. So we have to put an enormous focus on that piece of it. And that is the only way it will work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Is it that simple?

ROBINSON: Truer words were never spoken. The tipping point will be when the Iraqis are willing to fight and die, as Barbara Starr said in her reporting, they didn't anticipate the tribal loyalties, the religious divisions that occur in the country that are so strong, and many of these Iraqis are Sunnis, members of the police, members of the armed forces, and they fear for their lives and they fear for the lives of their families.

WHITFIELD: But many Iraqis have signed up for the police and for the troops, and what's happened is they've either been intimidated or they have been executed. We've seen various pictures of, you know, beheaded troops or people who were executed, you know, by a shot in the head. So this form of intimidation that the insurgency is imposing is effective.

ROBINSON: It's working. There's been three assassinations in the last 24 hours in Baghdad. Going after judiciary, going after council members.

WHITFIELD: So what would be the incentive for the Iraqis to join the troops?

ROBINSON: The incentive is the recognition that the United States is not going to leave. The United States cannot leave until a government is up and running that will not lead to civil war, because that will be globally impacted. No one can take that, and so if that is the truth, then they must either sit there and bleed, or route out the insurgency. There's no choice. WHITFIELD: Do you see this country on the verge of civil war?

ROBINSON: The conditions are there for civil war. They certainly exist, and the Sunni jihadists are trying to exploit that.

WHITFIELD: It is evident that taking the country was one thing, but being able to control or maintain some peace now is something else, and there have been questions about whether the coalition has been prepared for this sort of venture.

ROBINSON: Well, that's the old argument of what it takes to take it, and what it takes to own it. Colin Powell said if you break it, you own it. Clearly, the numbers of forces that it took -- I was embedded with the coalition during the war, and the numbers and the force structure and the planning for phase three of the collapse of Baghdad were sufficient, but the numbers to be able to deal with this growing insurgency certainly have not been, and it's been self-evident for about a year.

WHITFIELD: All right, military intelligence analyst Ken Robinson, thanks so much.

ROBINSON: Thanks, Fredricka.

Well, joining us now via videophone from Phuket, Thailand, is Aneesh Raman, to give us more on the tsunamis that were spawned by the earthquake just off the coast there. Aneesh, give us an update of what's happening there?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, good evening. A very somber mood, as dawn arrives on this, the first full day of critical relief and recovery efforts.

We're standing on the western coast of Phuket Island. This would have been the hardest hit area in southern Thailand, given its proximity to the epicenter of this earthquake. Government officials tell us at least 100 people have died here alone. The total death toll rising all day yesterday, and now again rising to well over 400.

The more troubling fact, though, was that as of last night, 300 to 400 people were thought to be missing at sea, given the overnight hours, their fate worsening by the minute. This is, as you say, a resort island, it's one of the biggest resort areas in Southeast Asia. And this is the peak of that tourist season. So it's hard to imagine any other time where there would have been any more people on this island.

The predominance of people that would have been here would have been Western tourists. It's an often that they come here at this time. So globally, people have been desperately trying to get in touch with relatives that were here, reconnect and make sure that people were OK.

Now, it's been almost a day since two near-simultaneous walls of water, as one eyewitness described them, descended on the coast here, completely devouring anyone in the water or on the beachside. They were, some of them, upwards of 30 feet tall, these waves, and they continued throughout the day.

And fear last night as we arrived was very palpable, that more aftershocks could occur and more waves could come. We're standing in one of the few remaining hotels, and getting here was a journey in itself last night. Roads remain completely littered with debris. Cars are unable to be found. At the airport as we arrived, people were completely stranded.

The government has called this situation an unprecedented catastrophe, something the likes of which it has never dealt with before.

Last night at the airport, the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, arrived. I spoke with him. He said that he feels confident with the relief and recovery efforts. He has not asked for nor has he requested international aid. And he's got the entire military here as well.

But Phuket, really the central focus, to try and get anyone who's still out at sea. Also, the devastation, any structural damage, people trapped there. As we get closer to that area today, as the sun rises and light comes back, we'll get a better sense of the picture.

The destruction continues eastward from here. The smaller island of Phi Phi completely destroyed. Some 60 people dead there, and well over 100 to 200 people died on the mainland coast of Thailand, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Aneesh, can you give us a sense, though, of the infrastructure there?

RAMAN: Yeah, Phuket is much larger infrastructure. It's a much more popular tourist destination, so when you think of these waves coming in, 30-foot waves, coming in at 50 to 60 miles an hour, it's hard to imagine anything stopping them. But the structures that would have been there would have sustained severe damage, but also would have weakened the blow of these waves as it went further into the island.

And so in terms of exactly what's happened, we haven't gotten to the site yet. But it's safe to say that Phuket wouldn't have suffered the same sort of structural damage you would have seen at that smaller island of Phi Phi, which is less developed. So there would have been less to mitigate the force of those waves.

But people -- harrowing stories of survival, Fredricka, from tourists. We met some from New Zealand, some from Europe, some from the U.S. Describing just moments where they dashed between huge waves of water that was coming to higher ground. Mothers whose babies were completely taken away by the water. It's just amazing stories we'll hear more of today. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Devastating. Aneesh Raman in Phuket, Thailand, thanks so much.

And we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, time now for best reads of 2004. The nation's literary editors have the delicious task of reading all the books published during the year to come up with the top 10. Joining us from New York is Sam Tanenhaus, editor of "The New York Times" book review. Good to see you, Sam.

SAM TANENHAUS, EDITOR, NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW: Hi. Nice to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. How in the world do you whittle it down to 10 by year's end?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's not easy, but during the course of the year, week by week we look at the titles we think are especially good. And in fact each week, spell them out for readers, the ones that we think are particularly of interest, and then we draw on those lists ourselves.

WHITFIELD: Now, are they of interest because you all, you know, your team finds them intriguing. or does sales have anything to do with?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's a combination of many factors. What we like as editors, what our reviewers like. We don't look specifically at sales, but certainly books that are doing well are books we pay some attention to.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's take a look at some of them. Let's start with fiction, "The Plot Against America." Philip Roth. What did you like about that?

TANENHAUS: This is probably the most debated and discussed novel of the year. It's an anti-historical novel, that is Roth imagines an America in 1940 that elected Charles Lindbergh, of all people, president, on an anti-war platform. It is a novel with a lot of resonance for the contemporary moment.

WHITFIELD: "Runaway," Alice Munro.

TANENHAUS: Well, Alice Munro, the great Canadian writer, is probably the most admired short story writer of our time, and our reviewer, Jonathan Franzen, thinks she's the best of all North American writers, and we think this book is very good too.

WHITFIELD: "Snow?"

TANENHAUS: "Snow," by Orhan Pamuk. He's a great Turkish writer. This novel will tell American readers more than they'll get from any other source about the conflicts between Islam and secularism in the Middle East.

WHITFIELD: And what happens after you name these top 10 in the case of just mentioning, you know, three out of the fiction categories one. Do you find that a lot of these end up picking up in sales almost immediately after you all have posted what you believe your top 10 are?

TANENHAUS: Well, sometimes that happens, yes, but these happen to be books that did very well already, and were finding many readers. And also with other lists that are citing these among the top books, we see some movement. But we don't like to think we have too much influence.

WHITFIELD: All right, the non-fiction category. A really interesting, perhaps surprise for many, "The Chronicles Volume One," Bob Dylan?

TANENHAUS: This is probably the single most surprising book of the year. Dylan, the peerless singer and songwriter, and a master of written language, but he's never really been much of an author before, and this book is a wonderful narrative that in many respects resembles his best narrative songs.

WHITFIELD: And this "Volume One" kind of intimates that, you know, perhaps this is just the springboard for him, huh?

TANENHAUS: Well, it's nice to think so, but no one is really sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then, "Will in the World?"

TANENHAUS: Yes, this is another surprise. Stephen Greenblatt, the great Harvard scholar of Shakespeare and the Renaissance period, has written a book that really explains Shakespeare's work and world and life for ordinary readers, and we thought this was an especially valuable book.

WHITFIELD: All right. Fun reading, and I know especially fun reading for you guys all year?

TANENHAUS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Fun to get your hands on it first before everyone else, and then give the nice reviews, and sometimes not so nice, but in the end, encapsulate it all into 10 tops.

TANENHAUS: Well, we did the best we could.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sam, thanks so much. Sam Tanenhaus of "The New York Times."

TANENHAUS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead tonight, a recap of our top story of the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: An update now on this top story. More than 11,000 are dead, and many more missing in Southern and Southeastern Asia. A powerful earthquake measuring 9.0, and centered just off Sumatra, triggered a series of tsunamis. The massive waves swamped parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. We'll have complete coverage of this major disaster tonight at 10:00 Eastern time.

And that's all we have time for, for this hour. Coming up next, "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS." Tonight, we profile T.D. Jakes, one of America's most influential ministers. At 8:00 Eastern "CNN PRESENTS: The Two Marys," the two women at the heart of Christianity. At 9:00 Eastern, "LARRY KING WEEKEND." Larry's guest tonight, Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And I'll be back at 10:00 Eastern. Again, we'll have several live reports from the ground where those tsunamis devastated much of Southeastern Asia. The hour's headlines when we come right back, and then "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS."

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