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American Morning

Children of South Asia Have Seen More Horror, Felt More Pain Than Most People Will Ever Know; Accused Marine Deserter Missing Again

Aired January 06, 2005 - 09:30   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Bill Hemmer here in New York City.
Soledad continues reporting in Thailand. We'll get back to her in a moment.

Also watching at this hour, live at the Senate Judiciary Committee, now beginning its hearing for what could be the next attorney general of the United States, Alberto Gonzales, now White House chief counsel. He is the man the president wants to head up the -- head up that office with the outgoing John Ashcroft announcing his resignation several weeks ago. We'll follow that throughout the morning.

We'll also take you to a school where there are many empty seats these days. Stories of survival straight from the children who barely escaped that giant tsunami. We'll get to that story.

And also that major winter storm in this country plowing across the nation, leaving snow and ice in state after state. And Chad has that. He'll tell us about the worst trouble spots out there in a moment.

Heidi Collins also with us here in New York City. Good morning to you.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: That's some snow.

HEMMER: I'm telling you.

Good morning.

COLLINS: Want to get straight to the news now. Now in the news at this time, this information just in to CNN now, now Texas state appeals court has overturned the capital murder convictions against Andrea Yates. She now faces a new trial in the drownings of her children.

And more details about the train collision in South Carolina. There's now word of possible deaths, but sheriff's officials have not confirmed those reports. Crews are working to clean up chemicals that spilled when two trains collided in Macon County earlier this morning. Health officials say the chemicals include chlorine gas, and people in surrounding areas are now being asked to stay indoors. And the man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart will be back in court today. A Utah judge will decide whether Brian David Mitchell Is mentally competent to stand trial. Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and several other charges in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart. His trial had been scheduled to begin February 1st.

HEMMER: Thank you, Heidi. Back to you in a moment here. Want to get back to the tsunami right now and the latest that we have at this hour. The number of dead just under 156,000. Health agencies, though, concerned that number could double -- could double, they warn, without immediate aid and assistance.

Secretary of State Colin Powell met with world leaders in Jakarta earlier today. Debt relief, a tsunami warning system and the immediate need for $1 billion in cash all talked about today. And two more U.S. Naval ships have arrived offshore in Sumatra. They have a wide range of capabilities, but most critically they double the number of U.S. helicopters now operating throughout the country of Indonesia -- Heidi.

COLLINS: And before we get to this next story, I want to tell you a little bit more information about the death toll of Americans in the Southeast Asia tsunamis. That number has gone down by one. Apparently there was a duplicate name. So that death toll now sits at, I believe, 34 -- 35 now, pardon me. That number, again, 35 Americans lost their lives in the tsunamis.

Meanwhile, the children of South Asia have seen more horror and felt more pain than most people will ever know.

But as Aneesh Raman reports from a school in Phuket, they must go on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Do not let the image fool you. Amidst this innocent scene of children back at school, smiling and playing, the horrors of last week lurk quietly everywhere.

Like others today, 9-year-old Panutna (ph), surrounded by friends, tells her tale of what took place.

PANUTNA, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR (through translator): I was sleeping. My aunt (ph) knocked my door. I didn't get up. Then she kicked my door. I got up and packed (ph) with my mother and father and run out to the hill. The water was still coming, so we had to go even higher up. Water everywhere.

RAMAN: Her father (ph) was then thrown by the waves. As she speaks of that, translation can do no justice to a little girl's pain.

PANUTNA (through translator): Nanny Polo (ph) died.

RAMAN: What these eyes have seen, what the effects will be on a child's mind is nothing short of profound. Panutna, not even a teenager, already speaks of death with resignation.

PANUTNA (through translator): If I die, at least I die once.

RAMAN: But she is lucky, Panutna and her family survived. In her classroom, empty seats with those children yet to return. Their absence today is ominous.

(on camera): Panutna's story is this island's story. The pain of what took place still so real, so fresh. But even for these children picking up school books left out to dry, the need to rebuild cannot be ignored.

(voice-over): A new roof for a house destroyed. Panutna's father trying to provide a glimmer of hope that perhaps things can and will get better. Yet the most troubling question is the one she cannot answer, the one that she avoids, why this happened.

PANUTNA: I don't know.

RAMAN: Amidst friends, overcoming such an ordeal seems possible for Panutna. But as she walks home alone, there is no way to know the images playing in her mind, the emotions brewing.

For children all across this region, digesting the hellish enormity of this disaster could be impossible.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And tonight, beginning at 10:00 Eastern, "Saving the Children," our primetime special with Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour. Soledad is going to contribute to the special as well, focusing on the children affected by the tsunamis. Again, 10:00 Eastern tonight.

HEMMER: About 24 minutes now before the hour. An accused Marine deserter missing again this morning. Marine Corporal Ali Hassoun disappeared last June in Iraq. He later turned up in the country of Lebanon. On Tuesday, Hassoun failed to return to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina after he had taken a leave.

What's going on here? To the Pentagon and Kathleen Koch there with more.

Good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, the U.S. military thinks he's done it again, gone AWOL. As is standard practice, they had yet young Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun go home, to Salt Lake City, Utah for the holidays, and that's a decision the military now obviously regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KOCH (voice-over): Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun had been visiting family in Utah, just as he had twice before since his return from the Middle East. But when he didn't show up as scheduled at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on Tuesday, the Marine Corps declared the corporal a deserter. Investigators found evidence that Hassoun took money out of the bank and altered his original flight itinerary to North Carolina.

Instead, Marine Corps officials say Hassoun flew to Canada where he booked a flight to Lebanon, his family's home country. Relatives who'd embraced Hassoun upon his initial return said, through a spokesman they hadn't seen him since he left Utah just over a week ago.

TAREK HOSSEIR, HASSOUN FAMILY SPOKESMAN: They were pretty much surprised as everybody else was, you know, to hear, you know, the news that's being reported right now. Last time they had heard from him was when he was there on vacation, and then he was traveling on his way back to Camp Lejeune.

KOCH: Hassoun became the subject of speculation and investigation when he disappeared in June from a Marine base outside Falluja. He showed up days later blindfolded on a videotape released by militants claiming to have kidnapped him. Then July 8th Hassoun surfaced in Tripoli, Lebanon, contacted authorities, and was brought back to the U.S.

Military investigators in December charged him with desertion and theft of government property after U.S. troops found his passport, military I.D., and uniform in a house during a siege of Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And the young corporal is now in more trouble than ever before. If he were to be captured and found guilty, desertion at time of war carries a penalty of life in prison without parole, and the country of Syria is looking for him. They want to talk to him as well to find out how this summer he managed to leave Iraq and cross to their country to Lebanon.

Back to you.

HEMMER: There is a mystery there.

Kathleen, thanks. Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Doctors may have found a startling new risk factor for heart attacks. We'll tell you what you can do to reduce that very risk in a moment here.

COLLINS: Plus, does Howard Stern have a big surprise up his sleeve for listeners? It won't be the first time. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BILL HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. Inflammation may be just as likely to cause heart attacks and strokes as bad cholesterol. This latest news today from two different research groups, two different studies, likely to open debate about popular statin drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor.

Dr. Steven Nissen authored one of those studies. He was funded by Pfizer. And Dr. Nissen is with me now, the vice chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Good morning to you and thanks for your time. I mentioned two different studies, same basic result. What did you find?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN, CARDIOLOGIST, CLEVELAND CLINIC: Well, it's really quite a surprising result. Both studies done independently by two separate groups show exactly the same thing, that lowering levels of inflammation, as measured by something called C-reactive protein, or CRP, is just as important as lowering cholesterol.

In my study, we showed that if you could lower cholesterol and CRP, this measure of inflammation, you could dramatically slow or even reverse the progression of the plaque buildup in the coronary arteries.

HEMMER: Let me stop you there. C-reactive protein is what again?

NISSEN: It's a substance circulating in the blood of everyone. It's made by the liver, and it measures the amount of inflammation in the artery wall. And we now understand from these studies that the amount of inflammation is as important as the level of cholesterol in determining what will happen to patients who have coronary disease.

HEMMER: So then if you continue to get your cholesterol level checked what you're saying now, based on your results, is that that's not enough?

NISSEN: It isn't enough. If the cholesterol levels in both of these studies were lowered but CRP levels remained high, patients did not do as well. They had more heart attacks in one of the studies, and in my study, they actually had more progression of the plaque buildup in their arteries.

HEMMER: How do you test, doctor, for C-reactive protein?

NISSEN: Simple blood test. Costs about $8. Very easy. Available everywhere in America.

HEMMER: How do you lower that? If you've got a problem, the blood test comes back and says hey, you've got some issues here, how do you take care of it?

NISSEN: Well, it's very fortunate that surprisingly, the statin drugs, drugs like Lipitor, that you talked about, that lower cholesterol, also lower CRP. But it takes large doses, kind of maximum doses of the drugs. And what both studies showed was that the maximum dose of a atorvastatin (ph), known as Lipitor, was more effective at lowering CRP and that led to better outcomes for the patients.

HEMMER: All right, we have three things on the screen. One is lowering drugs -- cholesterol-lowering drugs. Reduce stomach fat and regular exercise.

NISSEN: Very important. It turns out that abdominal fat and lack of exercise drive up CRP levels. If you exercise and if you lose weight, CRP levels can drop by 40 or even 50 percent. It's one more reason to keep that new year's resolution and get off the couch.

HEMMER: Well, it's January 6th and we'll try our best. Thank you, doctor.

NISSEN: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Steven Nissen there from the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Howard Stern surprised fans by announcing he was going to satellite radio. Now it looks like he's got another surprise. Andy has that right after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Word on Wall Street, a possible way out for Howard Stern, that plus market preview from Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Hello.

The market's heading up just as I predicted, just as I said. All it has to do is end the day this way. Let's check it out, up 23 points, just hold it. Freeze it. Freeze it. Yes, we got many hours to go, and we've seen a string where the market's been up in the morning and then they sell them out later in the day.

Stocks moving, Starbucks down a little bit. They only reported really good sales instead of amazingly fantastic superb sales, if you follow me. Wal-mart is up a bit. Costco is up. A lot of retailers reporting December figures, basically mixed picture. Pier One is down, and so is Zales. But Wal-mart and Costco a little more important than Pier One and Zales.

The Satellite radio gold rush continues. A couple stories here. First of all, XM, the leader in the business, reported its numbers for the year, 3.2 million subscribers, up 1.8 million. No. 2 player is Sirius. They get all the buzz, though, because of the Howard Stern. Of course you know he is going to Sirius satellite radio in January of '06. How could you not know this? We talk about it all the time. Howard talks about it all the time.

COLLINS: He's not very vocal about it.

SERWER: No, Howard got thrown off a small bunch of radio stations the other day because he's been advertising so much, they said why should we even listening to this anymore? Anyway, an analyst at Oppenheimer yesterday, a guy named Mursky (ph), had a good suggestion though. He said why doesn't Viacom let Howard Stern out of his contract early in exchange for a stake in Sirius? So in other words, Viacom says, you're gone, you're out of here, and then they get a piece of Sirius Satellite Radio. Interesting idea. Mel Karmazin, of course, works for Sirius. He was here the other day, and he used to work for Viacom. So maybe they could broker some kind of deal. Who knows.

COLLINS: They could all be friends.

SERWER: Let's all be friends.

HEMMER: You only have six hours and six minutes to make your prediction come true. Hang in there.

Here's Jack now with the Question of the Day.

HEMMER: Thank you, Bill.

Should the U.N. be leading the tsunami relief effort of its investigations into its mismanagement of other humanitarian aid programs is the question?

Gabe in Coral Springs: "Yes, the United Nations should supervise the tsunami effort through its specialized agencies like the World Food Program, World Health Organization and UNICEF, which have operated efficiently and honestly. Don't blacken the entire U.N. for one miserable failure in which Saddam Hussein had his dirty hands."

And then we lighten up here at the end of the program with these. Dave in Wellington, Ohio, "Kofi Annan says the U.N. needs $60 million for the tsunami relief fund, and they need it in cash right now. Had a siding salesman by the house last night, must have used to work for the U.N."

And Jim in Cambridge, New York, "Jack, I was wondering if you could forward this note to Kofi Annan. There was a little tsunami here in the bathtub last night, I won't go into details, but a few hundred thousand dollars would help defray the expenses to the bathroom floor. I understand there has to be accountability for these handouts, so if Bill Frist wants to tour my bathroom, that's fine. As long as he brings his own towel and shower thongs."

SERWER: That's a little disturbing.

HEMMER: We'll send Jim a contract.

SERWER: What's the guy got going on there?

CAFFERTY: You'd have to call Jim and talk with him more about this. I just read his mail.

HEMMER; Let's get a break here. We're watching the confirmation hearings for Alberto Gonzales, Senate Judiciary Committee, starting today. As soon as he is sworn in and begins his testimony, we'll drop in there live on Capitol Hill. In a moment, though, let's get a break. Back after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 6, 2005 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Bill Hemmer here in New York City.
Soledad continues reporting in Thailand. We'll get back to her in a moment.

Also watching at this hour, live at the Senate Judiciary Committee, now beginning its hearing for what could be the next attorney general of the United States, Alberto Gonzales, now White House chief counsel. He is the man the president wants to head up the -- head up that office with the outgoing John Ashcroft announcing his resignation several weeks ago. We'll follow that throughout the morning.

We'll also take you to a school where there are many empty seats these days. Stories of survival straight from the children who barely escaped that giant tsunami. We'll get to that story.

And also that major winter storm in this country plowing across the nation, leaving snow and ice in state after state. And Chad has that. He'll tell us about the worst trouble spots out there in a moment.

Heidi Collins also with us here in New York City. Good morning to you.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: That's some snow.

HEMMER: I'm telling you.

Good morning.

COLLINS: Want to get straight to the news now. Now in the news at this time, this information just in to CNN now, now Texas state appeals court has overturned the capital murder convictions against Andrea Yates. She now faces a new trial in the drownings of her children.

And more details about the train collision in South Carolina. There's now word of possible deaths, but sheriff's officials have not confirmed those reports. Crews are working to clean up chemicals that spilled when two trains collided in Macon County earlier this morning. Health officials say the chemicals include chlorine gas, and people in surrounding areas are now being asked to stay indoors. And the man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart will be back in court today. A Utah judge will decide whether Brian David Mitchell Is mentally competent to stand trial. Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and several other charges in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart. His trial had been scheduled to begin February 1st.

HEMMER: Thank you, Heidi. Back to you in a moment here. Want to get back to the tsunami right now and the latest that we have at this hour. The number of dead just under 156,000. Health agencies, though, concerned that number could double -- could double, they warn, without immediate aid and assistance.

Secretary of State Colin Powell met with world leaders in Jakarta earlier today. Debt relief, a tsunami warning system and the immediate need for $1 billion in cash all talked about today. And two more U.S. Naval ships have arrived offshore in Sumatra. They have a wide range of capabilities, but most critically they double the number of U.S. helicopters now operating throughout the country of Indonesia -- Heidi.

COLLINS: And before we get to this next story, I want to tell you a little bit more information about the death toll of Americans in the Southeast Asia tsunamis. That number has gone down by one. Apparently there was a duplicate name. So that death toll now sits at, I believe, 34 -- 35 now, pardon me. That number, again, 35 Americans lost their lives in the tsunamis.

Meanwhile, the children of South Asia have seen more horror and felt more pain than most people will ever know.

But as Aneesh Raman reports from a school in Phuket, they must go on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Do not let the image fool you. Amidst this innocent scene of children back at school, smiling and playing, the horrors of last week lurk quietly everywhere.

Like others today, 9-year-old Panutna (ph), surrounded by friends, tells her tale of what took place.

PANUTNA, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR (through translator): I was sleeping. My aunt (ph) knocked my door. I didn't get up. Then she kicked my door. I got up and packed (ph) with my mother and father and run out to the hill. The water was still coming, so we had to go even higher up. Water everywhere.

RAMAN: Her father (ph) was then thrown by the waves. As she speaks of that, translation can do no justice to a little girl's pain.

PANUTNA (through translator): Nanny Polo (ph) died.

RAMAN: What these eyes have seen, what the effects will be on a child's mind is nothing short of profound. Panutna, not even a teenager, already speaks of death with resignation.

PANUTNA (through translator): If I die, at least I die once.

RAMAN: But she is lucky, Panutna and her family survived. In her classroom, empty seats with those children yet to return. Their absence today is ominous.

(on camera): Panutna's story is this island's story. The pain of what took place still so real, so fresh. But even for these children picking up school books left out to dry, the need to rebuild cannot be ignored.

(voice-over): A new roof for a house destroyed. Panutna's father trying to provide a glimmer of hope that perhaps things can and will get better. Yet the most troubling question is the one she cannot answer, the one that she avoids, why this happened.

PANUTNA: I don't know.

RAMAN: Amidst friends, overcoming such an ordeal seems possible for Panutna. But as she walks home alone, there is no way to know the images playing in her mind, the emotions brewing.

For children all across this region, digesting the hellish enormity of this disaster could be impossible.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Phuket, southern Thailand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And tonight, beginning at 10:00 Eastern, "Saving the Children," our primetime special with Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour. Soledad is going to contribute to the special as well, focusing on the children affected by the tsunamis. Again, 10:00 Eastern tonight.

HEMMER: About 24 minutes now before the hour. An accused Marine deserter missing again this morning. Marine Corporal Ali Hassoun disappeared last June in Iraq. He later turned up in the country of Lebanon. On Tuesday, Hassoun failed to return to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina after he had taken a leave.

What's going on here? To the Pentagon and Kathleen Koch there with more.

Good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Well, the U.S. military thinks he's done it again, gone AWOL. As is standard practice, they had yet young Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun go home, to Salt Lake City, Utah for the holidays, and that's a decision the military now obviously regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KOCH (voice-over): Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun had been visiting family in Utah, just as he had twice before since his return from the Middle East. But when he didn't show up as scheduled at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on Tuesday, the Marine Corps declared the corporal a deserter. Investigators found evidence that Hassoun took money out of the bank and altered his original flight itinerary to North Carolina.

Instead, Marine Corps officials say Hassoun flew to Canada where he booked a flight to Lebanon, his family's home country. Relatives who'd embraced Hassoun upon his initial return said, through a spokesman they hadn't seen him since he left Utah just over a week ago.

TAREK HOSSEIR, HASSOUN FAMILY SPOKESMAN: They were pretty much surprised as everybody else was, you know, to hear, you know, the news that's being reported right now. Last time they had heard from him was when he was there on vacation, and then he was traveling on his way back to Camp Lejeune.

KOCH: Hassoun became the subject of speculation and investigation when he disappeared in June from a Marine base outside Falluja. He showed up days later blindfolded on a videotape released by militants claiming to have kidnapped him. Then July 8th Hassoun surfaced in Tripoli, Lebanon, contacted authorities, and was brought back to the U.S.

Military investigators in December charged him with desertion and theft of government property after U.S. troops found his passport, military I.D., and uniform in a house during a siege of Falluja.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And the young corporal is now in more trouble than ever before. If he were to be captured and found guilty, desertion at time of war carries a penalty of life in prison without parole, and the country of Syria is looking for him. They want to talk to him as well to find out how this summer he managed to leave Iraq and cross to their country to Lebanon.

Back to you.

HEMMER: There is a mystery there.

Kathleen, thanks. Kathleen Koch at the Pentagon.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: Doctors may have found a startling new risk factor for heart attacks. We'll tell you what you can do to reduce that very risk in a moment here.

COLLINS: Plus, does Howard Stern have a big surprise up his sleeve for listeners? It won't be the first time. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BILL HEMMER: Welcome back, everyone. Inflammation may be just as likely to cause heart attacks and strokes as bad cholesterol. This latest news today from two different research groups, two different studies, likely to open debate about popular statin drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor.

Dr. Steven Nissen authored one of those studies. He was funded by Pfizer. And Dr. Nissen is with me now, the vice chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Good morning to you and thanks for your time. I mentioned two different studies, same basic result. What did you find?

DR. STEVEN NISSEN, CARDIOLOGIST, CLEVELAND CLINIC: Well, it's really quite a surprising result. Both studies done independently by two separate groups show exactly the same thing, that lowering levels of inflammation, as measured by something called C-reactive protein, or CRP, is just as important as lowering cholesterol.

In my study, we showed that if you could lower cholesterol and CRP, this measure of inflammation, you could dramatically slow or even reverse the progression of the plaque buildup in the coronary arteries.

HEMMER: Let me stop you there. C-reactive protein is what again?

NISSEN: It's a substance circulating in the blood of everyone. It's made by the liver, and it measures the amount of inflammation in the artery wall. And we now understand from these studies that the amount of inflammation is as important as the level of cholesterol in determining what will happen to patients who have coronary disease.

HEMMER: So then if you continue to get your cholesterol level checked what you're saying now, based on your results, is that that's not enough?

NISSEN: It isn't enough. If the cholesterol levels in both of these studies were lowered but CRP levels remained high, patients did not do as well. They had more heart attacks in one of the studies, and in my study, they actually had more progression of the plaque buildup in their arteries.

HEMMER: How do you test, doctor, for C-reactive protein?

NISSEN: Simple blood test. Costs about $8. Very easy. Available everywhere in America.

HEMMER: How do you lower that? If you've got a problem, the blood test comes back and says hey, you've got some issues here, how do you take care of it?

NISSEN: Well, it's very fortunate that surprisingly, the statin drugs, drugs like Lipitor, that you talked about, that lower cholesterol, also lower CRP. But it takes large doses, kind of maximum doses of the drugs. And what both studies showed was that the maximum dose of a atorvastatin (ph), known as Lipitor, was more effective at lowering CRP and that led to better outcomes for the patients.

HEMMER: All right, we have three things on the screen. One is lowering drugs -- cholesterol-lowering drugs. Reduce stomach fat and regular exercise.

NISSEN: Very important. It turns out that abdominal fat and lack of exercise drive up CRP levels. If you exercise and if you lose weight, CRP levels can drop by 40 or even 50 percent. It's one more reason to keep that new year's resolution and get off the couch.

HEMMER: Well, it's January 6th and we'll try our best. Thank you, doctor.

NISSEN: My pleasure.

HEMMER: Steven Nissen there from the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

Howard Stern surprised fans by announcing he was going to satellite radio. Now it looks like he's got another surprise. Andy has that right after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Word on Wall Street, a possible way out for Howard Stern, that plus market preview from Andy Serwer "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Hello.

The market's heading up just as I predicted, just as I said. All it has to do is end the day this way. Let's check it out, up 23 points, just hold it. Freeze it. Freeze it. Yes, we got many hours to go, and we've seen a string where the market's been up in the morning and then they sell them out later in the day.

Stocks moving, Starbucks down a little bit. They only reported really good sales instead of amazingly fantastic superb sales, if you follow me. Wal-mart is up a bit. Costco is up. A lot of retailers reporting December figures, basically mixed picture. Pier One is down, and so is Zales. But Wal-mart and Costco a little more important than Pier One and Zales.

The Satellite radio gold rush continues. A couple stories here. First of all, XM, the leader in the business, reported its numbers for the year, 3.2 million subscribers, up 1.8 million. No. 2 player is Sirius. They get all the buzz, though, because of the Howard Stern. Of course you know he is going to Sirius satellite radio in January of '06. How could you not know this? We talk about it all the time. Howard talks about it all the time.

COLLINS: He's not very vocal about it.

SERWER: No, Howard got thrown off a small bunch of radio stations the other day because he's been advertising so much, they said why should we even listening to this anymore? Anyway, an analyst at Oppenheimer yesterday, a guy named Mursky (ph), had a good suggestion though. He said why doesn't Viacom let Howard Stern out of his contract early in exchange for a stake in Sirius? So in other words, Viacom says, you're gone, you're out of here, and then they get a piece of Sirius Satellite Radio. Interesting idea. Mel Karmazin, of course, works for Sirius. He was here the other day, and he used to work for Viacom. So maybe they could broker some kind of deal. Who knows.

COLLINS: They could all be friends.

SERWER: Let's all be friends.

HEMMER: You only have six hours and six minutes to make your prediction come true. Hang in there.

Here's Jack now with the Question of the Day.

HEMMER: Thank you, Bill.

Should the U.N. be leading the tsunami relief effort of its investigations into its mismanagement of other humanitarian aid programs is the question?

Gabe in Coral Springs: "Yes, the United Nations should supervise the tsunami effort through its specialized agencies like the World Food Program, World Health Organization and UNICEF, which have operated efficiently and honestly. Don't blacken the entire U.N. for one miserable failure in which Saddam Hussein had his dirty hands."

And then we lighten up here at the end of the program with these. Dave in Wellington, Ohio, "Kofi Annan says the U.N. needs $60 million for the tsunami relief fund, and they need it in cash right now. Had a siding salesman by the house last night, must have used to work for the U.N."

And Jim in Cambridge, New York, "Jack, I was wondering if you could forward this note to Kofi Annan. There was a little tsunami here in the bathtub last night, I won't go into details, but a few hundred thousand dollars would help defray the expenses to the bathroom floor. I understand there has to be accountability for these handouts, so if Bill Frist wants to tour my bathroom, that's fine. As long as he brings his own towel and shower thongs."

SERWER: That's a little disturbing.

HEMMER: We'll send Jim a contract.

SERWER: What's the guy got going on there?

CAFFERTY: You'd have to call Jim and talk with him more about this. I just read his mail.

HEMMER; Let's get a break here. We're watching the confirmation hearings for Alberto Gonzales, Senate Judiciary Committee, starting today. As soon as he is sworn in and begins his testimony, we'll drop in there live on Capitol Hill. In a moment, though, let's get a break. Back after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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