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American Morning
International Relief Teams Fanning Out to Start Massive Recovery in Southern Asia
Aired December 28, 2004 - 09:29 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: International relief teams are fanning out to start the massive recovery in southern Asia, where deadly tsunamis have now claimed more than 33,000 lives. More than half of those deaths occurred on the island nation of Sri Lanka.
Satinder Bindra is live from Galle. It's one of the hardest-hit areas on the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
He's joining us by videophone, where it is nighttime there now -- Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, yes, it's nighttime here and there's a complete power blackout. There's no lights in the area that I'm in. It's easy to understand why, because these waves, three days ago, hit with amazing intensity. Here in Galle itself, it's estimated perhaps more than 2,000 people were killed. Many died in a train. Police estimate hundreds died when a train flipped over on its side, and then waves just carried it out towards the sea. Entire rail tracks were ripped out and there's been extensive damage here in the city of Galle. Several buses were tossed right up onto the roofs of houses. Large concrete houses completely ripped offer. I'm standing at the bus station, or what was once the bus station. Several buses turned over.
So the damage quite extensive. Also today, Heidi, I visited a hospital, and there, senior hospital officials telling me at this one hospital alone, over the past two days, some 800 bodies have been brought there. Three hundred of these bodies remain unidentified, which is why health officials are now ordering mass burials.
COLLINS: Satinder, let me just ask you, as you mentioned those hospitals and all of these bodies and the scene around you there, it has been a couple of days since this first happened. What is the feeling of people as you see them walking in the streets? I mean, is everyone still just basically in shock?
BINDRA: Heidi, there's a sense of shock. There's a sense of disbelief. There's a sense of numbness, as well. Many people have lost their loved ones. They've lost their homes. They've lost their businesses. Other people are still frantic. They're going from hospital to hospital, trying to identify the bodies of their loved ones. And over and above all that, there's a deep sense of fear, people still scared that they could be hit by another tidal wave, so people here are quite scared, and people also saying that they will not be celebrating the new year at all. Sri Lanka, in fact, has declared five days of national mourning, and is appealing desperately to the international community for all kinds of assistance.
COLLINS: Satinder Bindra, coming to us live by videophone this morning, in the area of Galle, the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
Satinder, thank you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as you were just hearing, all reports indicate that Sri Lanka has been the hardest-hit area in this disaster. The government is now saying the more than 18,000 have died, another million have been displaced. Thousands remain in need of some kind of shelter and some type of supplies, among other things. Close to home, the Sri Lankan-America Association of Southern California is trying to do all it can.
That organization's president Keshin Wijegoonaratne is good enough to join us now from Los Angeles.
Mrs. Wijegoonaratne, thank you so much for joining us.
Can you give us a sense of how big this community is in Southern California?
KESHIN WIJEGOONARATNE, SRI LANKAN-AMERICAN ASSN OF S. CALIFORNIA: Actually we have approximately close to 40,000 Sri Lankans living in southern California.
SANCHEZ: That's an awful lot of people. How many have been in contact with you, if you can give us a rough estimate?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Actually, I don't have a specific number at this moment. But I have to say that thousands of thousands of people have been tried to reach back home.
SANCHEZ: Do they know to reach out to you? Are you the agency, the type that kind of puts all the communications together there for that community?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Rick, actually, yes, we do have a hotline that we have established for the Sri-Lankan America Association, and I have got close to about 300 phone calls.
SANCHEZ: What do you want them to know that you can do for them? And what are they asking for when they call?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Rick, actually, I'm begging the people across the nation, we all need to come together. We need financial funds. We need clothing. We need medical items. We need food. We need everything. And that's what people are asking me for.
SANCHEZ: Well, tell me what your organization can do. Will you work as a conduit then for people who are trying to help the people in Sri Lanka?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Yes, we have groups of Sri Lankans looking at the different Buddhist temples right now, and we have established a separate account called the Sri Lanka earthquake disaster fund, and we are accepting pledges from people. And my next step would be to reach out and get a contact back in Sri Lanka to transfer the funds over to.
SANCHEZ: You know, I'm curious. You say you've gotten thousands of calls from people in Southern California alone. How many of those people have still not been able to make any contact with their relatives in Sri Lanka, literally don't know what their condition is if they are alive or dead?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Many of them, Rick. I don't have a number this morning. But many of them haven't had any contact. My husband has cousins in the city of Hekadaru (ph) and Galle, and he has not been able to make contact with any of them.
SANCHEZ: Is there any communication, though? We know that the infrastructure is messed up, especially where your husband has relatives in Galle. There may not be phone lines for them to be able to call, right?
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct. The only contact that I've been able to make is my brother, who is in Colombo, and Colombo was not affected by this earthquake.
SANCHEZ: So really, it's just a matter of trying to get the people who can get to the people who will be able to talk to them.
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct.
SANCHEZ: It's going to be very difficult to make the call.
OK, finally, what will you do with the funds? And if you could, be as specific as possible so people know if they're helping your organization that it's going to be going soon to the cause it needs to go to.
WIJEGOONARATNE: What our plan, as far as the Sri Lankan America Association, is to find a reliable contact back home. And if I have to physically fly over there with the funds, that's probably what I'll have to do, because I have not been able to get in contact with anybody yet.
SANCHEZ: And since we live in a world of the Internet, correct we if I'm wrong, but what we have here is www.slaasc.com?
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct.
SANCHEZ: That is your Web site?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: We thank you so much for joining us and sharing this information with you, and certainly we at CNN will continue to keep in touch with you, and the people in your community.
WIJEGOONARATNE: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The tsunami disaster in Asia is triggering what's likely to be one of the biggest worldwide relief efforts in history.
As our Allan Chernoff reports, the ripples of the disaster are reaching out now to the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. State Department.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans are answering the call for help, opening their hearts and wallets as they phone in donations to the American Red Cross.
LESLIE GOTTLIEB, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Calls have really increased in the past day, I think, as the enormity of the situation hits home and people realize how devastating this is.
CHERNOFF: Relief workers in Portland are packing medical supplies. A volunteer medical team is scheduled to fly Tuesday morning to Thailand.
BAS VANDERZALM, NORTHWEST MEDICAL TEAMS: Volunteer medical professionals in the Northwest are incredible and very giving. And so we are ready with personnel to be deployed.
CHERNOFF: And the international relief group Doctors Without Borders is seeking volunteers.
CATRIN SCHULTE HILLEN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Our first appeal is to medical personnel and logistic personnel that is available, that can help, yes, we'd be delighted. We need volunteers for the field.
CHERNOFF: Employees of the International Red Cross, CARE and OXFAM are already on the ground, working on the harsh logistics of providing food, drinking water and medical care. Aid workers agree the need will go on for months.
CHRISTOPH GORDER, AMERICARES: The larger task at hand will be keeping the survivors alive. There are millions of people who were displaced and vulnerable, in these unsanitary conditions, to killer diseases like diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections.
CHERNOFF: Secretary of State Powell announced the U.S. government is starting off with $15 million in assistance. Not enough, argues the head of emergency relief at the United Nations.
JAN EGELAND, U.N. UNDER SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is beyond me why we are -- why are we so stingy, really, when we are, and even at Christmastime should remind many Western countries, at least, how rich we have become.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Relief organizations say Americans should donate money, not goods. That will allow professional aid workers to buy and deliver the goods and services that victims most desperately need.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: For a full list of international aid organizations accepting donations to help survivors, go to our Web site. That's CNN.com.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to appear in a Missouri federal court today. She is accused of killing a pregnant woman and then cutting the unborn baby from the victim's womb.
Keith Oppenheim is covering this story. He joins us live from Kansas City, Missouri.
Good morning to you, Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And a couple of things are expected to happen in this afternoon's hearing in federal court. The judge will want to make sure that Lisa Montgomery, the suspect, has some representation, some court-appointed attorneys. He'll also want to make sure that Montgomery understands what she has been accused of doing -- killing a pregnant mother and stealing an unborn baby.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): The federal charge Lisa Montgomery faces is called kidnapping resulting in death.
TODD GRAVES, U.S. ATTY.: That is a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole, or the possibility of the death penalty in the appropriate case.
OPPENHEIM: On December 16th, police say Montgomery came to the home of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri, posing as a buyer of rat terriers, dogs that Stinnett raised. Instead, authorities say, Montgomery strangled Stinnett, and cut the 8-month- old fetus from the mother's womb. The mother died, the baby survived, and by next day was found by investigators at Montgomery's home in Melverne, Kansas, 170 miles away.
KEVIN MONTGOMERY, HUSBAND OF LISA MONTGOMERY: That was a precious baby. I know.
OPPENHEIM: Her husband Kevin expressed remorse and disbelief. Investigators say he thought his wife was pregnant, that she'd given birth at a Topeka, Kansas, clinic. But her ex-husband claims Montgomery often faked pregnancies and accused her of lying.
CARL BOMAN, SUSPECT'S EX-HUSBAND: Anything that they're saying in the media that, you know, she had lost a baby within the last six months, she had a miscarriage, or she delivered anything is all a lie.
OPPENHEIM: As police and relatives of Lisa Montgomery and Bobbie Jo Stinnett sort through lies and seek the truth, there is still a fundamental question, why? What, as police allege, might have caused a mother of four to kill for another child?
GARY DESKINS, MELVERNE, KANSAS RESIDENT: I think it probably goes back maybe to a childhood. Who knows. I don't think it just happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM: The one bit of good news in this terribly tragic story is the baby, now named Victoria Jo, has been united with her father, Zeb Stinnett. That happened last week. This week, Lisa Montgomery will have another hearing on Thursday. But so far, Heidi, prosecutors say they have not yet decided whether or not they will seek the death penalty in this case.
Back to you.
COLLINS: And interesting, too, that the charge as I understand it reads as kidnapping resulting in death. Why would this not be a murder charge, Keith?
OPPENHEIM: I asked the U.S. attorney's office about that. And their answer is that this is federal lingo for a federal homicide charge. Kidnapping resulting in death, as I was indicating before, does carry a capital -- an ultimate capital crime charge of the possibility of the death penalty.
COLLINS: I see. All right, Keith Oppenheim live this morning from Kansas City, Missouri.
Keith, thank you.
SERWER: Would you trust a carmaker to try and control the skyrocketing drug prices? Andy's going to be "Minding Your Business."
COLLINS: OK, also, who needs courtroom dramas like "Law & Order" when you've got real life? A look back at 2004's legal star power, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. You probably noticed it's beginning to look an awful lot like New Year's. Before we ring out the old we're looking back this week at the good, the bad and the unforgettable from the 2004 in our series the last word. This morning it's the year's legal-life courtroom dramas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: It was a year of big trials -- you had Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson. The big trial that wasn't, Kobe Bryant. And the big trial to come, Michael Jackson.
It was a combination of the coincidence of some very famous people on trial, combined with the public's enduring fascination with trials, period. LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: If the Scott Peterson case teaches us anything, it's that when there isn't a celebrity case, we will invent one. You know, Scott Peterson was just an ordinary fertilizer salesman from Modesto. And now he's an international celebrity. Why? Because he has a case with fascinating facts. How could he have killed his pregnant wife, dumped her body in the bay, allowed the community to be searching for her for months and not say anything?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The titillating things, when the Amber Frey relationship was revealed, that kept people's attention going.
TOOBIN: Scott Peterson emerged from this trial as the perfect villain. He did everything that is the worst we expect of men -- he cheated on his wife, he lied to the woman he was cheating with, and, of course, most importantly, he killed his wife, and his unborn son.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury in the above entitled cause, find the defendant Scott Lee Peterson guilty of the crime...
(CHEERING)
BLOOM: When that guilty verdict came in, people across the country, and in front of the courthouse, cheered, and especially women cheered, feeling that justice was finally done for just an ordinary woman, for Laci Peterson.
ANDREA PEYSER, "N.Y. POST" COLUMNIST: Kobe Bryant is a very, very fascinating trial, because I went in to Kobe Bryant, thinking that the man had gone too far. I got out seeing that this was a he said, she said.
KOBE BRYANT, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: I didn't force her to do anything against her will.
CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Holding his wife's hand above the table, for all to see that, look, my wife believes me. If this plays out in the court of public opinion, I want you to believe me, as well.
TOOBIN: These prosecutors went to court without knowing the victim's, alleged victim's, full story, and without being sure that she could be the witness she needed to be. So, she lost. And Kobe Bryant lost a lot in his reputation. And the case is totally unresolved.
BLOOM: Michael Jackson is a story that i've been following since 1993, since the first child came forward and said that he was molested by Michael Jackson. And we all remember at that time Michael Jackson settling the case. We only learned this year the amount of the settlement, $20-plus million. Now there's a second child who's come forward.
TOOBIN: The michael Jackson trial promises to be the great train wreck of 2005, because what you're going to have in that trial is the defense saying that the victim, alleged victim, is a liar, his parents are greedy, the prosecution is out to get him, and you have the prosecution saying Michael Jackson is an evil child molester.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: And he doesn't really seem to have a full sense of what's going on, right? I mean he shows up to court late. He dances on the car outside. You know, he's on trial for child molestation, and then he's inviting what, 100 kids, back to the Neverland Ranch?
BEN STEIN: Michael Jackson's so wacky I have no idea what he's going to do.
TOOBIN: Martha Stewart was the most famous woman defendant in the history of the American criminal justice system.
PEYSER: People were so divided on Martha. You were pro-Martha, or you were against Martha. Very few people were neutral on Martha Stewart.
MARIO CANTONE, COMEDIAN/ACTOR: She should be free.
BLOOM: She wasn't really even accused of hurting anyone directly, maybe indirectly -- all stock market fraud hurts someone. But really, this was a case about her pocketing a few extra dollars.
MARTHA STEWART: Perhaps all of you out there can continue to show your support by subscribing to our magazine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really is the ultimate comeback kid. Before she can even go away and we have time to forget about her she's already back. She'll be rivaling Jane Pauley for the 11:00 time slot on NBC. So just when it seemed like Martha was losing her whole empire, she's actually going to come back better than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And tomorrow we're going to have the last word on this year's winners and losers -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A company known for making cars gets into the pharmacy business. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Toyota comes up with a unique health insurance idea for employees. With that and a check on the market, Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." Good morning once again.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Hello again. I've got to tell you that Toure has suggested that I change the name of this to "All Up in Your Business." Instead of "Minding Your Business." Slightly different, Toure...
COLLINS: I like it.
SERWER: ... but thank you. We'll take that into consideration. They are trading stocks on Wall Street and the markets are slightly higher to open up today. Let's see, we're up 30 points on the Dow industrials. Amazon continues its streak, up $1.55 to $43 with that good holiday season. Blockbuster Video tried to do it the friendly way with Hollywood Entertainment. Now it's going hostile. Says it's going to try to take over its rival for $700 million. Interesting story there.
Another interesting story here. You know, millions of Americans struggle with the high cost of health care. Also thousands of companies struggle with those costs, as well. Maybe a novel solution to this problem by Toyota, which is going to be opening up its own pharmacies. That's right.
The Japanese automaker has had one for several years in its Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, and now it's going up a bunch of others. It has an outside contractor, Heidi, to do the work. But basically you can see, some generic drugs will be free for its 40,000 employees, but if you use brand names you're going to have a 20 percent co-pay. And also, they're going to make you buy large quantities so you have to split the tabs yourself.
COLLINS: Well, that's not too hard.
SERWER: It's not too hard, you get one of -- look, Toure doesn't slice his own pills. I can tell. He does not do that.
TOURE: Don't ask about the pills.
COLLINS: Toure always takes the whole pill.
SERWER: Very good, Heidi. Very, very good. But I really think this is a situation where other companies are going to be watching this very closely and if it works out, you're going to see others trying this because the costs of health care for employees, both for the companies and us folks, has just been spiralling, spiralling, spiralling.
SANCHEZ: Unique idea.
TOURE: That's what I'm talking about -- "All up in Your Business."
SERWER: And that's why -- I'm sorry.
TOURE: That's great stuff.
SERWER: Was that good stuff?
TOURE: That's great stuff.
SERWER: It fits under that rubric.
TOURE: Of "All Up in Your Business."
SANCHEZ: And you want to talk about what needless and unnecessary hype on the part of the news media?
SERWER: Oh, my goodness.
SANCHEZ: No!
TOURE: We got a needless overhyped story right here. Rosa Parks is considered the mother of the civil rights movement because of her courageous refusal to go along with racially-segregated public bussing in Alabama in 1955. She's 91 now, still alive, living in Detroit, suffering from dementia, living in an apartment that she gets for free because the landlord says she's done so much for the country. And she's also probably unaware that since 1991, she's been suing the hip- hop group Outkast -- no, since 1999, she's being suing the hip-hop group Outkast.
They're the makers of "Hey Ya," mom. Because on their album "Aquemini," there's a song called "Rosa Parks." It's a great song, by the way, but it makes no direct reference to her. The chorus goes, hey, hush that fuss, everybody move to the back of the bus. Park's attorney says the damages Parks' control over her name. A Detroit district court threw the suit out, but last year it was reinstated by a federal appeals court and now the lawyers are talking about entering into settlement talks. They say next year they will reach a settlement.
But even Parks' family is uncomfortable with all this. Her niece Rhea McCauley says this isn't something Rosa would have wanted. Not how she would have wanted to be remembered. So we have a lawsuit over an innocuous well-intentioned piece of art filed on behalf of a woman who doesn't even know what's going on. A clash between the civil rights generation and the hip-hop generation. And another reason that Shakespeare was right when he said, "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
SERWER: Hey ya!
SANCHEZ: So you're not going to do the "Question of the Day"?
COLLINS: After all that? There's no time.
SERWER: That story is not overhyped. I never heard that before. That's interesting.
TOURE: Well, I thought the lawsuit was over. But, you know, it's still trickling on somewhere.
SANCHEZ: But the back of the bus reference, I think...
COLLINS: Toure, thanks for that. As you know, there were thousands of tourists in Southeast Asia when the tsunamis hit. Many of them were Americans who survived the disaster. So in a moment Daryn Kagan will have their stories as well as that of a little boy who has a beacon of hope. That's on CNN "LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING, though, will be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Well, sadly, that is all from us here on AMERICAN MORNING. Daryn Kagan is standing by at the CNN Center to take you through the next few hours on CNN "LIVE TODAY." Daryn, good morning to you.
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 28, 2004 - 09:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: International relief teams are fanning out to start the massive recovery in southern Asia, where deadly tsunamis have now claimed more than 33,000 lives. More than half of those deaths occurred on the island nation of Sri Lanka.
Satinder Bindra is live from Galle. It's one of the hardest-hit areas on the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
He's joining us by videophone, where it is nighttime there now -- Satinder.
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, yes, it's nighttime here and there's a complete power blackout. There's no lights in the area that I'm in. It's easy to understand why, because these waves, three days ago, hit with amazing intensity. Here in Galle itself, it's estimated perhaps more than 2,000 people were killed. Many died in a train. Police estimate hundreds died when a train flipped over on its side, and then waves just carried it out towards the sea. Entire rail tracks were ripped out and there's been extensive damage here in the city of Galle. Several buses were tossed right up onto the roofs of houses. Large concrete houses completely ripped offer. I'm standing at the bus station, or what was once the bus station. Several buses turned over.
So the damage quite extensive. Also today, Heidi, I visited a hospital, and there, senior hospital officials telling me at this one hospital alone, over the past two days, some 800 bodies have been brought there. Three hundred of these bodies remain unidentified, which is why health officials are now ordering mass burials.
COLLINS: Satinder, let me just ask you, as you mentioned those hospitals and all of these bodies and the scene around you there, it has been a couple of days since this first happened. What is the feeling of people as you see them walking in the streets? I mean, is everyone still just basically in shock?
BINDRA: Heidi, there's a sense of shock. There's a sense of disbelief. There's a sense of numbness, as well. Many people have lost their loved ones. They've lost their homes. They've lost their businesses. Other people are still frantic. They're going from hospital to hospital, trying to identify the bodies of their loved ones. And over and above all that, there's a deep sense of fear, people still scared that they could be hit by another tidal wave, so people here are quite scared, and people also saying that they will not be celebrating the new year at all. Sri Lanka, in fact, has declared five days of national mourning, and is appealing desperately to the international community for all kinds of assistance.
COLLINS: Satinder Bindra, coming to us live by videophone this morning, in the area of Galle, the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
Satinder, thank you.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as you were just hearing, all reports indicate that Sri Lanka has been the hardest-hit area in this disaster. The government is now saying the more than 18,000 have died, another million have been displaced. Thousands remain in need of some kind of shelter and some type of supplies, among other things. Close to home, the Sri Lankan-America Association of Southern California is trying to do all it can.
That organization's president Keshin Wijegoonaratne is good enough to join us now from Los Angeles.
Mrs. Wijegoonaratne, thank you so much for joining us.
Can you give us a sense of how big this community is in Southern California?
KESHIN WIJEGOONARATNE, SRI LANKAN-AMERICAN ASSN OF S. CALIFORNIA: Actually we have approximately close to 40,000 Sri Lankans living in southern California.
SANCHEZ: That's an awful lot of people. How many have been in contact with you, if you can give us a rough estimate?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Actually, I don't have a specific number at this moment. But I have to say that thousands of thousands of people have been tried to reach back home.
SANCHEZ: Do they know to reach out to you? Are you the agency, the type that kind of puts all the communications together there for that community?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Rick, actually, yes, we do have a hotline that we have established for the Sri-Lankan America Association, and I have got close to about 300 phone calls.
SANCHEZ: What do you want them to know that you can do for them? And what are they asking for when they call?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Rick, actually, I'm begging the people across the nation, we all need to come together. We need financial funds. We need clothing. We need medical items. We need food. We need everything. And that's what people are asking me for.
SANCHEZ: Well, tell me what your organization can do. Will you work as a conduit then for people who are trying to help the people in Sri Lanka?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Yes, we have groups of Sri Lankans looking at the different Buddhist temples right now, and we have established a separate account called the Sri Lanka earthquake disaster fund, and we are accepting pledges from people. And my next step would be to reach out and get a contact back in Sri Lanka to transfer the funds over to.
SANCHEZ: You know, I'm curious. You say you've gotten thousands of calls from people in Southern California alone. How many of those people have still not been able to make any contact with their relatives in Sri Lanka, literally don't know what their condition is if they are alive or dead?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Many of them, Rick. I don't have a number this morning. But many of them haven't had any contact. My husband has cousins in the city of Hekadaru (ph) and Galle, and he has not been able to make contact with any of them.
SANCHEZ: Is there any communication, though? We know that the infrastructure is messed up, especially where your husband has relatives in Galle. There may not be phone lines for them to be able to call, right?
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct. The only contact that I've been able to make is my brother, who is in Colombo, and Colombo was not affected by this earthquake.
SANCHEZ: So really, it's just a matter of trying to get the people who can get to the people who will be able to talk to them.
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct.
SANCHEZ: It's going to be very difficult to make the call.
OK, finally, what will you do with the funds? And if you could, be as specific as possible so people know if they're helping your organization that it's going to be going soon to the cause it needs to go to.
WIJEGOONARATNE: What our plan, as far as the Sri Lankan America Association, is to find a reliable contact back home. And if I have to physically fly over there with the funds, that's probably what I'll have to do, because I have not been able to get in contact with anybody yet.
SANCHEZ: And since we live in a world of the Internet, correct we if I'm wrong, but what we have here is www.slaasc.com?
WIJEGOONARATNE: That's correct.
SANCHEZ: That is your Web site?
WIJEGOONARATNE: Yes.
SANCHEZ: We thank you so much for joining us and sharing this information with you, and certainly we at CNN will continue to keep in touch with you, and the people in your community.
WIJEGOONARATNE: Thank you, Rick.
SANCHEZ: All right -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The tsunami disaster in Asia is triggering what's likely to be one of the biggest worldwide relief efforts in history.
As our Allan Chernoff reports, the ripples of the disaster are reaching out now to the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. State Department.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans are answering the call for help, opening their hearts and wallets as they phone in donations to the American Red Cross.
LESLIE GOTTLIEB, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Calls have really increased in the past day, I think, as the enormity of the situation hits home and people realize how devastating this is.
CHERNOFF: Relief workers in Portland are packing medical supplies. A volunteer medical team is scheduled to fly Tuesday morning to Thailand.
BAS VANDERZALM, NORTHWEST MEDICAL TEAMS: Volunteer medical professionals in the Northwest are incredible and very giving. And so we are ready with personnel to be deployed.
CHERNOFF: And the international relief group Doctors Without Borders is seeking volunteers.
CATRIN SCHULTE HILLEN, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Our first appeal is to medical personnel and logistic personnel that is available, that can help, yes, we'd be delighted. We need volunteers for the field.
CHERNOFF: Employees of the International Red Cross, CARE and OXFAM are already on the ground, working on the harsh logistics of providing food, drinking water and medical care. Aid workers agree the need will go on for months.
CHRISTOPH GORDER, AMERICARES: The larger task at hand will be keeping the survivors alive. There are millions of people who were displaced and vulnerable, in these unsanitary conditions, to killer diseases like diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections.
CHERNOFF: Secretary of State Powell announced the U.S. government is starting off with $15 million in assistance. Not enough, argues the head of emergency relief at the United Nations.
JAN EGELAND, U.N. UNDER SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is beyond me why we are -- why are we so stingy, really, when we are, and even at Christmastime should remind many Western countries, at least, how rich we have become.
CHERNOFF (on camera): Relief organizations say Americans should donate money, not goods. That will allow professional aid workers to buy and deliver the goods and services that victims most desperately need.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: For a full list of international aid organizations accepting donations to help survivors, go to our Web site. That's CNN.com.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Lisa Montgomery is scheduled to appear in a Missouri federal court today. She is accused of killing a pregnant woman and then cutting the unborn baby from the victim's womb.
Keith Oppenheim is covering this story. He joins us live from Kansas City, Missouri.
Good morning to you, Keith.
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And a couple of things are expected to happen in this afternoon's hearing in federal court. The judge will want to make sure that Lisa Montgomery, the suspect, has some representation, some court-appointed attorneys. He'll also want to make sure that Montgomery understands what she has been accused of doing -- killing a pregnant mother and stealing an unborn baby.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): The federal charge Lisa Montgomery faces is called kidnapping resulting in death.
TODD GRAVES, U.S. ATTY.: That is a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole, or the possibility of the death penalty in the appropriate case.
OPPENHEIM: On December 16th, police say Montgomery came to the home of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri, posing as a buyer of rat terriers, dogs that Stinnett raised. Instead, authorities say, Montgomery strangled Stinnett, and cut the 8-month- old fetus from the mother's womb. The mother died, the baby survived, and by next day was found by investigators at Montgomery's home in Melverne, Kansas, 170 miles away.
KEVIN MONTGOMERY, HUSBAND OF LISA MONTGOMERY: That was a precious baby. I know.
OPPENHEIM: Her husband Kevin expressed remorse and disbelief. Investigators say he thought his wife was pregnant, that she'd given birth at a Topeka, Kansas, clinic. But her ex-husband claims Montgomery often faked pregnancies and accused her of lying.
CARL BOMAN, SUSPECT'S EX-HUSBAND: Anything that they're saying in the media that, you know, she had lost a baby within the last six months, she had a miscarriage, or she delivered anything is all a lie.
OPPENHEIM: As police and relatives of Lisa Montgomery and Bobbie Jo Stinnett sort through lies and seek the truth, there is still a fundamental question, why? What, as police allege, might have caused a mother of four to kill for another child?
GARY DESKINS, MELVERNE, KANSAS RESIDENT: I think it probably goes back maybe to a childhood. Who knows. I don't think it just happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OPPENHEIM: The one bit of good news in this terribly tragic story is the baby, now named Victoria Jo, has been united with her father, Zeb Stinnett. That happened last week. This week, Lisa Montgomery will have another hearing on Thursday. But so far, Heidi, prosecutors say they have not yet decided whether or not they will seek the death penalty in this case.
Back to you.
COLLINS: And interesting, too, that the charge as I understand it reads as kidnapping resulting in death. Why would this not be a murder charge, Keith?
OPPENHEIM: I asked the U.S. attorney's office about that. And their answer is that this is federal lingo for a federal homicide charge. Kidnapping resulting in death, as I was indicating before, does carry a capital -- an ultimate capital crime charge of the possibility of the death penalty.
COLLINS: I see. All right, Keith Oppenheim live this morning from Kansas City, Missouri.
Keith, thank you.
SERWER: Would you trust a carmaker to try and control the skyrocketing drug prices? Andy's going to be "Minding Your Business."
COLLINS: OK, also, who needs courtroom dramas like "Law & Order" when you've got real life? A look back at 2004's legal star power, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. You probably noticed it's beginning to look an awful lot like New Year's. Before we ring out the old we're looking back this week at the good, the bad and the unforgettable from the 2004 in our series the last word. This morning it's the year's legal-life courtroom dramas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: It was a year of big trials -- you had Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson. The big trial that wasn't, Kobe Bryant. And the big trial to come, Michael Jackson.
It was a combination of the coincidence of some very famous people on trial, combined with the public's enduring fascination with trials, period. LISA BLOOM, COURT TV: If the Scott Peterson case teaches us anything, it's that when there isn't a celebrity case, we will invent one. You know, Scott Peterson was just an ordinary fertilizer salesman from Modesto. And now he's an international celebrity. Why? Because he has a case with fascinating facts. How could he have killed his pregnant wife, dumped her body in the bay, allowed the community to be searching for her for months and not say anything?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The titillating things, when the Amber Frey relationship was revealed, that kept people's attention going.
TOOBIN: Scott Peterson emerged from this trial as the perfect villain. He did everything that is the worst we expect of men -- he cheated on his wife, he lied to the woman he was cheating with, and, of course, most importantly, he killed his wife, and his unborn son.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury in the above entitled cause, find the defendant Scott Lee Peterson guilty of the crime...
(CHEERING)
BLOOM: When that guilty verdict came in, people across the country, and in front of the courthouse, cheered, and especially women cheered, feeling that justice was finally done for just an ordinary woman, for Laci Peterson.
ANDREA PEYSER, "N.Y. POST" COLUMNIST: Kobe Bryant is a very, very fascinating trial, because I went in to Kobe Bryant, thinking that the man had gone too far. I got out seeing that this was a he said, she said.
KOBE BRYANT, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: I didn't force her to do anything against her will.
CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Holding his wife's hand above the table, for all to see that, look, my wife believes me. If this plays out in the court of public opinion, I want you to believe me, as well.
TOOBIN: These prosecutors went to court without knowing the victim's, alleged victim's, full story, and without being sure that she could be the witness she needed to be. So, she lost. And Kobe Bryant lost a lot in his reputation. And the case is totally unresolved.
BLOOM: Michael Jackson is a story that i've been following since 1993, since the first child came forward and said that he was molested by Michael Jackson. And we all remember at that time Michael Jackson settling the case. We only learned this year the amount of the settlement, $20-plus million. Now there's a second child who's come forward.
TOOBIN: The michael Jackson trial promises to be the great train wreck of 2005, because what you're going to have in that trial is the defense saying that the victim, alleged victim, is a liar, his parents are greedy, the prosecution is out to get him, and you have the prosecution saying Michael Jackson is an evil child molester.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: And he doesn't really seem to have a full sense of what's going on, right? I mean he shows up to court late. He dances on the car outside. You know, he's on trial for child molestation, and then he's inviting what, 100 kids, back to the Neverland Ranch?
BEN STEIN: Michael Jackson's so wacky I have no idea what he's going to do.
TOOBIN: Martha Stewart was the most famous woman defendant in the history of the American criminal justice system.
PEYSER: People were so divided on Martha. You were pro-Martha, or you were against Martha. Very few people were neutral on Martha Stewart.
MARIO CANTONE, COMEDIAN/ACTOR: She should be free.
BLOOM: She wasn't really even accused of hurting anyone directly, maybe indirectly -- all stock market fraud hurts someone. But really, this was a case about her pocketing a few extra dollars.
MARTHA STEWART: Perhaps all of you out there can continue to show your support by subscribing to our magazine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She really is the ultimate comeback kid. Before she can even go away and we have time to forget about her she's already back. She'll be rivaling Jane Pauley for the 11:00 time slot on NBC. So just when it seemed like Martha was losing her whole empire, she's actually going to come back better than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And tomorrow we're going to have the last word on this year's winners and losers -- Heidi.
COLLINS: A company known for making cars gets into the pharmacy business. Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Toyota comes up with a unique health insurance idea for employees. With that and a check on the market, Andy Serwer, "Minding Your Business." Good morning once again.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Hello again. I've got to tell you that Toure has suggested that I change the name of this to "All Up in Your Business." Instead of "Minding Your Business." Slightly different, Toure...
COLLINS: I like it.
SERWER: ... but thank you. We'll take that into consideration. They are trading stocks on Wall Street and the markets are slightly higher to open up today. Let's see, we're up 30 points on the Dow industrials. Amazon continues its streak, up $1.55 to $43 with that good holiday season. Blockbuster Video tried to do it the friendly way with Hollywood Entertainment. Now it's going hostile. Says it's going to try to take over its rival for $700 million. Interesting story there.
Another interesting story here. You know, millions of Americans struggle with the high cost of health care. Also thousands of companies struggle with those costs, as well. Maybe a novel solution to this problem by Toyota, which is going to be opening up its own pharmacies. That's right.
The Japanese automaker has had one for several years in its Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, and now it's going up a bunch of others. It has an outside contractor, Heidi, to do the work. But basically you can see, some generic drugs will be free for its 40,000 employees, but if you use brand names you're going to have a 20 percent co-pay. And also, they're going to make you buy large quantities so you have to split the tabs yourself.
COLLINS: Well, that's not too hard.
SERWER: It's not too hard, you get one of -- look, Toure doesn't slice his own pills. I can tell. He does not do that.
TOURE: Don't ask about the pills.
COLLINS: Toure always takes the whole pill.
SERWER: Very good, Heidi. Very, very good. But I really think this is a situation where other companies are going to be watching this very closely and if it works out, you're going to see others trying this because the costs of health care for employees, both for the companies and us folks, has just been spiralling, spiralling, spiralling.
SANCHEZ: Unique idea.
TOURE: That's what I'm talking about -- "All up in Your Business."
SERWER: And that's why -- I'm sorry.
TOURE: That's great stuff.
SERWER: Was that good stuff?
TOURE: That's great stuff.
SERWER: It fits under that rubric.
TOURE: Of "All Up in Your Business."
SANCHEZ: And you want to talk about what needless and unnecessary hype on the part of the news media?
SERWER: Oh, my goodness.
SANCHEZ: No!
TOURE: We got a needless overhyped story right here. Rosa Parks is considered the mother of the civil rights movement because of her courageous refusal to go along with racially-segregated public bussing in Alabama in 1955. She's 91 now, still alive, living in Detroit, suffering from dementia, living in an apartment that she gets for free because the landlord says she's done so much for the country. And she's also probably unaware that since 1991, she's been suing the hip- hop group Outkast -- no, since 1999, she's being suing the hip-hop group Outkast.
They're the makers of "Hey Ya," mom. Because on their album "Aquemini," there's a song called "Rosa Parks." It's a great song, by the way, but it makes no direct reference to her. The chorus goes, hey, hush that fuss, everybody move to the back of the bus. Park's attorney says the damages Parks' control over her name. A Detroit district court threw the suit out, but last year it was reinstated by a federal appeals court and now the lawyers are talking about entering into settlement talks. They say next year they will reach a settlement.
But even Parks' family is uncomfortable with all this. Her niece Rhea McCauley says this isn't something Rosa would have wanted. Not how she would have wanted to be remembered. So we have a lawsuit over an innocuous well-intentioned piece of art filed on behalf of a woman who doesn't even know what's going on. A clash between the civil rights generation and the hip-hop generation. And another reason that Shakespeare was right when he said, "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
SERWER: Hey ya!
SANCHEZ: So you're not going to do the "Question of the Day"?
COLLINS: After all that? There's no time.
SERWER: That story is not overhyped. I never heard that before. That's interesting.
TOURE: Well, I thought the lawsuit was over. But, you know, it's still trickling on somewhere.
SANCHEZ: But the back of the bus reference, I think...
COLLINS: Toure, thanks for that. As you know, there were thousands of tourists in Southeast Asia when the tsunamis hit. Many of them were Americans who survived the disaster. So in a moment Daryn Kagan will have their stories as well as that of a little boy who has a beacon of hope. That's on CNN "LIVE TODAY." AMERICAN MORNING, though, will be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COLLINS: Well, sadly, that is all from us here on AMERICAN MORNING. Daryn Kagan is standing by at the CNN Center to take you through the next few hours on CNN "LIVE TODAY." Daryn, good morning to you.
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