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Dick Ebersol's Son Missing After Crash; Religious, Secular Groups Call for Delaying Iraq Elections; Ukraine's Supreme Court Considers Election Issue; Severely Ill Woman Argues at Supreme Court for Medical Marijuana; Holiday Shopping Starts Strong for Retailers
Aired November 29, 2004 - 13:00 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: An NBC Sports executive survives a fiery plane crash, but one of his sons apparently does not. Investigators want to know what went wrong.
TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: Medical marijuana. Do states have the authority to legalize it? The Supreme Court takes up the question.
PHILLIPS: And then a new face nominated to the Bush cabinet. Will a cereal company CEO have what it takes to make the U.S. economy snap, crackle and pop?
HARRIS: Oh, my. And the monster that's been menacing Tokyo for 50 years, Godzilla gets ready to take his rightful place on the streets of Hollywood. Rightful, huh?
PHILLIPS: It only took 50 years.
HARRIS: Fifty years.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the tragedy that capped an idyllic holiday weekend for one of the best-known names in broadcasting. NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and one of his sons are hospitalized today. A younger son is still accounted for after the fiery crash of their charter jet in Colorado.
CNN's David Mattingly is following developments from here at CNN Center. He joins us now with the latest -- David.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the jet carrying Dick Ebersol, his two sons and three others was attempting to take off from the Montrose Regional Airport yesterday morning in snowy, windy conditions.
An eyewitness tells CNN the jet veered sideways off the right side of the runway and erupted into flames as it hit a runway fence. You can see part of the crash in these dramatic photographs.
The plane skidded about 200 yards, where it was then consumed by fire. The cockpit, we are told, had been torn off in the crash. Airport officials say the pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Ebersol, his older son, Charles, and someone described as a possible crewmember were hospitalized. The most immediate concerns at this hour are for Ebersol's younger son, 14-year-old Edward. According to authorities in Montrose, he remains unaccounted for after his seat was ripped from the aircraft during the crash.
Air and ground searches were conducted in the area and other wreckage itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT EILTS, DEPUTY CORONER: We have done a complete, thorough search of the area surrounding the crash site, looking for the potential of an ejection. Have been unsuccessful in finding anybody. We believe at this time that the boy has probably perished within the crash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: According to an FAA spokesman, the plane was bound for South Bend, Indiana, at the time. That's where Ebersol's son Charlie is a student at Notre Dame.
Ebersol is married to actress Susan St. James. She was not on board. The couple have five children.
Ebersol is a long time executive at NBC, a protege of ABC's Roone Arledge. He is credited with bringing the Olympics to NBC, and back in the '70s he presided over the launch of "Saturday Night Live."
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the ground. The jet is described as a Challenger model 601, an older corporate aircraft.
The aircraft was -- was or may not have been deiced. We don't know, because that is left up to the discretion of the pilots there. Icing conditions and mechanical failure are among the things, the possibilities that could be explored as they investigate this crash -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to follow the story and check in with you. David Mattingly, thank you so much.
Also much of what investigators know of the crash so far comes from Chuck Distel, an eyewitness whom you may have seen earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK DISTEL, EYEWITNESS: Driving by the airport on the way to our office, I looked over to the right. And I could see on the runway there was a plane that had just turned sideways, and it shot off the right side of the runway. And then immediately smoke and flames started rising into the air. I pulled off on to the frontage road and I called 911, and I pulled up on down to where the airplane was. When I walked up on the scene, I got out of my pickup and another gentleman from the airport had just showed up. There was an older man and a younger man in front of the airplane.
The man from the airport at that time was yelling into the front of the airplane, trying to see if there was any other survivors in the airplane. We didn't hear any voices in there, and the flames were starting to get larger and larger. I mean quickly. Within seconds the thing burst into flames.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: CNN does have additional crews at the scene. So you'll hear the latest on that search and the investigation as it happens.
HARRIS: Vote or wait. With every new insurgent attack in war- ravaged Iraq, the question of keeping or postponing those nationwide elections gets a little more urgent.
Iraq's prime minister is defying a call by 17 separate factions, religious and secular alike, to walk away from the long-scheduled U.N.-approved date of January 30. Ayad Allawi sees the voting as a necessary milestone, and a U.S. senator who is just back from Baghdad agrees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: If the insurgents take a delay in the election -- and this is an election not to elect people but to elect a -- to establish a constitution -- that if -- if they take this as a victory, then the insurgency could increase.
So it's sort of on the horns of a dilemma as to which way you go. But Prime Minister Allawi has said that -- that he's going to move forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, the latest violence claimed the lives of U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and Iraqi police officers in Baghdadi, a town some 130 miles northwest of the capital.
CNN's Karl Penhaul checks in with the latest details.
Hi, Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony.
This morning in Baghdad, the northwest sector of the city, in fact, there was a roadside bomb that went off as a U.S. military convoy passed by. We're told by U.S. military spokesmen that two U.S. soldiers died in that.
Few more details, but this is the kind of devastating roadside bomb attack that occurs almost daily here in the city.
Then about mid-afternoon in the city of Baghdadi -- that's about 130 miles west of Baghdad -- a suicide car bomber drove into a police station, we're told. Six people were killed; eight others were wounded. Of the six that died, a police sources have told us that four of the dead were, in fact, Iraqi policemen.
This police station was bombed around the same time last month. We understand today was payday, and so there were lines of policemen outside. And that was when the suicide car bomber drove up.
All of it, though, does underscore some of the concerns raised by these 17 secular, religious and regional parties just before the weekend. They're basically saying that they don't believe Iraq is going to be safe enough for voters to go to the polls on January 30 and are calling for a postponement in those elections by up to six months.
Those shouldn't be confused, though, with another group of political parties, predominantly Sunni Muslim religious parties. They're calling for a boycott of the elections altogether until coalition armies leave Iraq completely.
Then of course, we've got the Shiite Muslim majority. Their leaders are saying, no, let's have these elections at the first available opportunity. Let's go ahead with the January 30 date.
And that is also being echoed by the government. The government spokesman has said very clearly that the prime minister favors the January 30 elections. In fact, if the government did want to delay those elections, it would be unclear what the legal grounds would be because, after all, this date has been set, according to a mandate from the United Nations Security Council -- Tony.
HARRIS: Karl Penhaul reporting live from Baghdad. Karl, thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Trouble surrounding the presidential elections eight days ago in Ukraine have landed in that country's highest court. At issue there, fraud allegations that could, if seen as credible, lead to a do-over.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is watching developments in Kiev -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, these events are happening so quickly that you need a scorecard at this point to follow it.
But the most important thing today, the supreme court of Ukraine hearing the complaints from the opposition. And the opposition claiming that there was massive vote fraud during the elections that took place eight days ago. And they were bringing in their proof to the court, trying to prove exactly that.
Now at the same time, you have the man who ostensibly won the election, the government-backed candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, saying that he would be open to the possibility of maybe recounting votes or maybe even a revote in the areas where there were the most questions. He said if they can prove it.
Then finally, you have the president of Ukraine saying, yes that might be a good idea, a recount or even a revote, as long as it settles this. So there is a lot of movement at this point.
At the same time, you had the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, the western-leaning candidate, back down on that cold Independence Square but filled with hundreds of thousands of people, giving them another pep talk and saying that being on the streets has really changed the country, changed Ukraine in this past week and to keep it up.
Should warn, though, that President Kuchma is saying that all this demonstrating and everything that is happening threatens the economic situation in Ukraine -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: As we look at these live pictures, still in the middle of the square. Jill, how did this even start with regard to the fraud? Was it someone who witnessed a fraud or just got reports of it? How did it start to spiral?
DOUGHERTY: Absolutely. Well, you know, they had thousands of international observers who were watching these elections when they took place, the run-off last week. And they found that there were many ways that this happened.
One of the biggest ones was absentee ballots, people who would take a bunch of absentee ballots. They'd vote in their hometown, and then they'd go some other place and say, "Hey, I'm here for a wedding," for example -- this is really one case -- and then they'd vote in that town. So they would cast five, six votes. That was one big, big problem that observers did see.
So the opposition actually says that they have videotapes and audiotapes proving some of these shenanigans.
PHILLIPS: Jill Dougherty watching those shenanigans from Kiev. Thank you so much. We'll continue to check in with you.
HARRIS: Now to Vienna where there is once again word of a pledge by Iran to stop enriching uranium voluntarily and without obligation. You heard it before.
But now Iran and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdogs say they have crafted a compromise over 20 uranium centrifuges that Tehran wanted exempted from outside scrutiny. The deal allows the devices to avoid being sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency but requires that they be monitored by the IAEA cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: We are going to continue with full vigor, our verification in Iraq. I call on Iran to again to demonstrate maximum transparency, active cooperation. The more transparency demonstrated by Iran, the sooner we can provide the international community with the needed -- with the needed assurances that Iran program is dedicated for peaceful purposes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The deal was brokered by Britain, France and Germany and avoids for now a politically explosive referral to the U.N. Security Council. On the sidelines, the Bush administration reserves the right to involve the council whenever it sees fit.
Elsewhere around the world today, Russia claims to have successfully test fired an anti-ballistic missile. It's said to be a design from the early 1950s that's been converted to defensive use in apparent reaction to the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty.
Pakistan, meanwhile, says its test of a short-range missile that's capable of carrying nuclear warheads is not in response to India's test of a similar weapon on Friday. Officials call today's test normal and routine and successful and say it shouldn't affect a thawing of relations with Pakistan's neighbor and nuclear rival.
In China this hour, hopes are now virtually none existent that anyone will be found alive in the coal mine that was devastated yesterday in a gas explosion. One hundred forty-one miners were in the hole at the time. At last report, 25 were confirmed dead.
PHILLIPS: Life or death for Scott Peterson. As the sentencing phase of his trial is about to get under way, we're going to talk with a mom who has a message for Peterson's family.
Also, should federal law trump state laws when it comes to legalizing medical marijuana? The Supreme Court gets set to decide.
Have your credit cards cooled off from the heavy holiday work out this weekend? We're going to see if retailers are happy about the sales, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. According to Al Jazeera Television, it says it has received a new videotape that the station is now airing from what they say is senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahiri. As you know, that's Osama bin Laden's closest adviser. It appears that this was taped before the U.S. election. Here is a small part of what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI, SECOND IN COMMAND, AL QAEDA (through translator): Although they are not willing to listen. You have to choose between two ways of dealing with Muslims. You either deal with them based on respect and mutual benefit, or you deal with them as they are just land that's -- that's ready for you to take them over.
This is your problem, and you have to choose by yourselves. And you have to understand that we are a nation of patience. And we will resist to fight you, God willing, until the last minute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That bit of an interview there from senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 in al Qaeda, close confidant to Osama bin Laden. That videotape now airing on Al Jazeera Television.
He is announcing that al Qaeda will continue to fight the U.S. until it changes its relations and policies when dealing with Muslims. It appears this could have been taped before the U.S. election. We'll continue to check into that tape and its authenticity.
HARRIS: At the Supreme Court today, a case that gets to the heart of states' rights versus federal law. The issue, medical marijuana.
Ten states, the ones shown here in yellow, currently allow people to use marijuana if their doctors agree. But lawyers for the federal government say there should be no exceptions in the war on drugs, even for the seriously ill.
CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from our D.C. bureau with more on the individual case the justices are hearing and the larger issues at stake.
Hi, Kimberly.
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Tony.
Well, every story has a face. And on the issue of medical marijuana, argued before the Supreme Court today, that face is Angel Raich.
Thirty-nine-year-old Raich is a married mother of two. She suffers from a brain tumor and fibromyalgia. Those conditions give her chronic pain and make eating anything difficult. Raich says marijuana is her only relief and credits the herb for saving her life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGEL RAICH, USES MEDICAL MARIJUANA: I need to use can business over two hours. If I don't medicate every two hours, I become debilitated. In fact, just standing here now my body is actually trying to go in spasm. And you can actually see my physical body already changing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: Attorney Randy Barnett pled her case and that of another woman with chronic back pain, claiming states should maintain their autonomy regarding the use of medical marijuana for those purposes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDY BARNETT, ATTORNEY: The idea here is that the existence of states and states' laws protects liberty, and in this case it's the liberty of feel use medical cannabis, provided that their activities are regulated according to state law and strictly for medical use and are not in any way having any effect adverse on the broader regulatory scheme of the United States government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: California and nine other states currently allow individuals to smoke marijuana with a doctor's prescription.
Federal lawyers argue the position of the Bush administration: use of marijuana and other narcotics is illegal. The government also says there are health risks to marijuana use which give it the right to regulate the drug.
Also the administration says federal law should trump state law.
Other opponents say legalizing any drug under any circumstance is a dangerous precedent to set.
An interesting twist: Raich's attorney bases his argument on the Constitution's commerce clause, saying Raich and other patients don't sell cannabis interstate or sell it, period, so trafficking isn't an issue.
Win or lose, the laws in the 10 states will remain in effect. Marijuana smokers would have to be prosecuted federally -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, Kimberly, Chief Justice Rehnquist is not on the court today. How might that impact this case?
OSIAS: Well, yes, you're exactly right. Of course, he has been undergoing treatment, radiation and chemotherapy for thyroid cancer. But we are told by our sources that he's been monitoring things and has been getting transcripts, as well.
HARRIS: Kimberly Osias, reporting for us in Washington, D.C. Kimberly, thank you.
In another state's rights issue, the Supreme Court has refused to step in on the issue of same sex marriage in Massachusetts. Conservative groups had asked the court to overturn last year's decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which allowed same sex marriages. Without comment, the Supreme Court justices refused to take up the matter.
Since same sex unions were approved in Massachusetts, at least 3,000 such couples have wed there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM: movie star, icon, monster. Godzilla going strong at 50. We'll trace his early career back to its beginnings with a rubber suit and a car battery.
Later on LIVE FROM...
(MUSIC)
PHILLIPS: ... attention Parrotheads. Jimmy Buffet leaves Margaritaville for a salty piece of land. He joins us with a LIVE FROM interview about his new book and the new tune it inspired.
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, when duty calls, men and women answer leaving families behind. Tomorrow, one woman's unique way to help children cope when the military calls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Strong. That's how the National Retail Federation describes the opening weekend of the holiday shopping season. The trade group says 133 million of U.S. -- or Americans, rather, indulged in holiday shopping. That's what I should say.
Over the weekend shoppers spent an average of $265, 15 cents each -- wait a minute. Average of $265.15 each. Can you see that?
HARRIS: Yes, I'm with you there.
PHILLIPS: I was just talking about my contact lenses. I think it might be the writing.
In all, shoppers dropped nearly $23 billion. Did any of that make sense? Twenty-three billion dollars, that's a lot of money. That makes sense. But that's just a fraction of the spending total expected this year.
With more on holiday shopping, we're going to go to CNN financial news correspondent Allan Chernoff in New York, because can he make sense of it all.
Allan, help me out.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, any way you add it up, it is big bucks. And it looks like the first weekend of the holiday shopping season certainly was a success for many retailers.
Lots of surveys are indicating that sales were up more than 10 percent compared to the year-ago period.
However, it appears that many of those door buster specials, like the one you're looking at right now -- we shot this footage early Friday morning at Macy's in midtown Manhattan. Shirts, 65 percent off. Sales like that were pulling shoppers into the stores.
Now very good for sales, but not necessarily for profit margins.
Also, Wal-Mart has said that it is scaling back its forecast for the entire month of November to a really small gain. So this is one reason we're seeing retailing stocks trading lower today on Wall Street. At the same time, electronic stores seem to have had a very good first weekend. And it appears that many children are demanding electronics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what everyone wants. At the minute I'm finding that's what everyone wants, including the children. They're wanting those new games, the new DVDs, everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm concerned about the kids. So they don't like clothes. They -- they give me the orders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I'm going to be spending a little bit less. We're going to be going on a vacation in the springtime. My kids are getting older and before they go away to college. So I'm going to -- they're old enough that I can sit them down and say, "OK, look. We're, you know -- you have to put the money down now if you're going to go away in the spring."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: So at least some people are sacrificing a little bit for the future.
Let's look now at some of the best selling toys. According to Toys 'R' Us, not just electronics, but also Dora the Explorer Magic Hair, Hokey Pokey Elmo, and then the game, Operation. Kyra, you remember that? Now you can operate on Shrek, take apart his ears, his nose, everything else. It's -- it's a ball of fun.
PHILLIPS: I still have that Operation game. What happened to Grover? You told me Grover was the hottest selling Sesame Street character this year.
CHERNOFF: Grover is certainly very hot, as well. That was an exclusive over at Macy's.
PHILLIPS: An exclusive.
CHERNOFF: You had Grover all over the store. But he was being snapped up at Macy's, midtown Manhattan. But Elmo is the man at Toys 'R' Us.
PHILLIPS: OK. Now I got it straight. Thanks for sorting that out for me, Allan. Thank you -- Tony.
HARRIS: Staying on the holiday shopping theme, just how much do three French hens, a couple of turtle doves, or five gold rings actually cost? Well, Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with the answers.
Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Costs a lot of money when you add this all up. We do this as a tradition every year on CNN. "The 12 Days of Christmas." You know the song. What's the price tag behind it all?
The entire package mentioned in the holiday classic, not counting all the repetitions, is going to set you back a little bit more than $17,000 this year, driven mostly by the price of skilled labor.
PNC Advisers has calculated the Christmas cost index every year since 1984. And while the goods like turtledoves and swans accounted for most of the total costs back in '84, the price for services is actually fueling higher costs these days.
In fact, those dancing ladies and leaping lords were the most expensive items on the list. In case you're wondering, the higher price of fuel was also factored into the cost of delivering a pear tree -- Tony.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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Aired November 29, 2004 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: An NBC Sports executive survives a fiery plane crash, but one of his sons apparently does not. Investigators want to know what went wrong.
TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: Medical marijuana. Do states have the authority to legalize it? The Supreme Court takes up the question.
PHILLIPS: And then a new face nominated to the Bush cabinet. Will a cereal company CEO have what it takes to make the U.S. economy snap, crackle and pop?
HARRIS: Oh, my. And the monster that's been menacing Tokyo for 50 years, Godzilla gets ready to take his rightful place on the streets of Hollywood. Rightful, huh?
PHILLIPS: It only took 50 years.
HARRIS: Fifty years.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in for Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
We begin this hour with the tragedy that capped an idyllic holiday weekend for one of the best-known names in broadcasting. NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and one of his sons are hospitalized today. A younger son is still accounted for after the fiery crash of their charter jet in Colorado.
CNN's David Mattingly is following developments from here at CNN Center. He joins us now with the latest -- David.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the jet carrying Dick Ebersol, his two sons and three others was attempting to take off from the Montrose Regional Airport yesterday morning in snowy, windy conditions.
An eyewitness tells CNN the jet veered sideways off the right side of the runway and erupted into flames as it hit a runway fence. You can see part of the crash in these dramatic photographs.
The plane skidded about 200 yards, where it was then consumed by fire. The cockpit, we are told, had been torn off in the crash. Airport officials say the pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Ebersol, his older son, Charles, and someone described as a possible crewmember were hospitalized. The most immediate concerns at this hour are for Ebersol's younger son, 14-year-old Edward. According to authorities in Montrose, he remains unaccounted for after his seat was ripped from the aircraft during the crash.
Air and ground searches were conducted in the area and other wreckage itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT EILTS, DEPUTY CORONER: We have done a complete, thorough search of the area surrounding the crash site, looking for the potential of an ejection. Have been unsuccessful in finding anybody. We believe at this time that the boy has probably perished within the crash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: According to an FAA spokesman, the plane was bound for South Bend, Indiana, at the time. That's where Ebersol's son Charlie is a student at Notre Dame.
Ebersol is married to actress Susan St. James. She was not on board. The couple have five children.
Ebersol is a long time executive at NBC, a protege of ABC's Roone Arledge. He is credited with bringing the Olympics to NBC, and back in the '70s he presided over the launch of "Saturday Night Live."
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the ground. The jet is described as a Challenger model 601, an older corporate aircraft.
The aircraft was -- was or may not have been deiced. We don't know, because that is left up to the discretion of the pilots there. Icing conditions and mechanical failure are among the things, the possibilities that could be explored as they investigate this crash -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to follow the story and check in with you. David Mattingly, thank you so much.
Also much of what investigators know of the crash so far comes from Chuck Distel, an eyewitness whom you may have seen earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK DISTEL, EYEWITNESS: Driving by the airport on the way to our office, I looked over to the right. And I could see on the runway there was a plane that had just turned sideways, and it shot off the right side of the runway. And then immediately smoke and flames started rising into the air. I pulled off on to the frontage road and I called 911, and I pulled up on down to where the airplane was. When I walked up on the scene, I got out of my pickup and another gentleman from the airport had just showed up. There was an older man and a younger man in front of the airplane.
The man from the airport at that time was yelling into the front of the airplane, trying to see if there was any other survivors in the airplane. We didn't hear any voices in there, and the flames were starting to get larger and larger. I mean quickly. Within seconds the thing burst into flames.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: CNN does have additional crews at the scene. So you'll hear the latest on that search and the investigation as it happens.
HARRIS: Vote or wait. With every new insurgent attack in war- ravaged Iraq, the question of keeping or postponing those nationwide elections gets a little more urgent.
Iraq's prime minister is defying a call by 17 separate factions, religious and secular alike, to walk away from the long-scheduled U.N.-approved date of January 30. Ayad Allawi sees the voting as a necessary milestone, and a U.S. senator who is just back from Baghdad agrees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: If the insurgents take a delay in the election -- and this is an election not to elect people but to elect a -- to establish a constitution -- that if -- if they take this as a victory, then the insurgency could increase.
So it's sort of on the horns of a dilemma as to which way you go. But Prime Minister Allawi has said that -- that he's going to move forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, the latest violence claimed the lives of U.S. soldiers in Baghdad and Iraqi police officers in Baghdadi, a town some 130 miles northwest of the capital.
CNN's Karl Penhaul checks in with the latest details.
Hi, Karl.
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony.
This morning in Baghdad, the northwest sector of the city, in fact, there was a roadside bomb that went off as a U.S. military convoy passed by. We're told by U.S. military spokesmen that two U.S. soldiers died in that.
Few more details, but this is the kind of devastating roadside bomb attack that occurs almost daily here in the city.
Then about mid-afternoon in the city of Baghdadi -- that's about 130 miles west of Baghdad -- a suicide car bomber drove into a police station, we're told. Six people were killed; eight others were wounded. Of the six that died, a police sources have told us that four of the dead were, in fact, Iraqi policemen.
This police station was bombed around the same time last month. We understand today was payday, and so there were lines of policemen outside. And that was when the suicide car bomber drove up.
All of it, though, does underscore some of the concerns raised by these 17 secular, religious and regional parties just before the weekend. They're basically saying that they don't believe Iraq is going to be safe enough for voters to go to the polls on January 30 and are calling for a postponement in those elections by up to six months.
Those shouldn't be confused, though, with another group of political parties, predominantly Sunni Muslim religious parties. They're calling for a boycott of the elections altogether until coalition armies leave Iraq completely.
Then of course, we've got the Shiite Muslim majority. Their leaders are saying, no, let's have these elections at the first available opportunity. Let's go ahead with the January 30 date.
And that is also being echoed by the government. The government spokesman has said very clearly that the prime minister favors the January 30 elections. In fact, if the government did want to delay those elections, it would be unclear what the legal grounds would be because, after all, this date has been set, according to a mandate from the United Nations Security Council -- Tony.
HARRIS: Karl Penhaul reporting live from Baghdad. Karl, thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Trouble surrounding the presidential elections eight days ago in Ukraine have landed in that country's highest court. At issue there, fraud allegations that could, if seen as credible, lead to a do-over.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is watching developments in Kiev -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, these events are happening so quickly that you need a scorecard at this point to follow it.
But the most important thing today, the supreme court of Ukraine hearing the complaints from the opposition. And the opposition claiming that there was massive vote fraud during the elections that took place eight days ago. And they were bringing in their proof to the court, trying to prove exactly that.
Now at the same time, you have the man who ostensibly won the election, the government-backed candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, saying that he would be open to the possibility of maybe recounting votes or maybe even a revote in the areas where there were the most questions. He said if they can prove it.
Then finally, you have the president of Ukraine saying, yes that might be a good idea, a recount or even a revote, as long as it settles this. So there is a lot of movement at this point.
At the same time, you had the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, the western-leaning candidate, back down on that cold Independence Square but filled with hundreds of thousands of people, giving them another pep talk and saying that being on the streets has really changed the country, changed Ukraine in this past week and to keep it up.
Should warn, though, that President Kuchma is saying that all this demonstrating and everything that is happening threatens the economic situation in Ukraine -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: As we look at these live pictures, still in the middle of the square. Jill, how did this even start with regard to the fraud? Was it someone who witnessed a fraud or just got reports of it? How did it start to spiral?
DOUGHERTY: Absolutely. Well, you know, they had thousands of international observers who were watching these elections when they took place, the run-off last week. And they found that there were many ways that this happened.
One of the biggest ones was absentee ballots, people who would take a bunch of absentee ballots. They'd vote in their hometown, and then they'd go some other place and say, "Hey, I'm here for a wedding," for example -- this is really one case -- and then they'd vote in that town. So they would cast five, six votes. That was one big, big problem that observers did see.
So the opposition actually says that they have videotapes and audiotapes proving some of these shenanigans.
PHILLIPS: Jill Dougherty watching those shenanigans from Kiev. Thank you so much. We'll continue to check in with you.
HARRIS: Now to Vienna where there is once again word of a pledge by Iran to stop enriching uranium voluntarily and without obligation. You heard it before.
But now Iran and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdogs say they have crafted a compromise over 20 uranium centrifuges that Tehran wanted exempted from outside scrutiny. The deal allows the devices to avoid being sealed by the International Atomic Energy Agency but requires that they be monitored by the IAEA cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: We are going to continue with full vigor, our verification in Iraq. I call on Iran to again to demonstrate maximum transparency, active cooperation. The more transparency demonstrated by Iran, the sooner we can provide the international community with the needed -- with the needed assurances that Iran program is dedicated for peaceful purposes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The deal was brokered by Britain, France and Germany and avoids for now a politically explosive referral to the U.N. Security Council. On the sidelines, the Bush administration reserves the right to involve the council whenever it sees fit.
Elsewhere around the world today, Russia claims to have successfully test fired an anti-ballistic missile. It's said to be a design from the early 1950s that's been converted to defensive use in apparent reaction to the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty.
Pakistan, meanwhile, says its test of a short-range missile that's capable of carrying nuclear warheads is not in response to India's test of a similar weapon on Friday. Officials call today's test normal and routine and successful and say it shouldn't affect a thawing of relations with Pakistan's neighbor and nuclear rival.
In China this hour, hopes are now virtually none existent that anyone will be found alive in the coal mine that was devastated yesterday in a gas explosion. One hundred forty-one miners were in the hole at the time. At last report, 25 were confirmed dead.
PHILLIPS: Life or death for Scott Peterson. As the sentencing phase of his trial is about to get under way, we're going to talk with a mom who has a message for Peterson's family.
Also, should federal law trump state laws when it comes to legalizing medical marijuana? The Supreme Court gets set to decide.
Have your credit cards cooled off from the heavy holiday work out this weekend? We're going to see if retailers are happy about the sales, just ahead.
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PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. According to Al Jazeera Television, it says it has received a new videotape that the station is now airing from what they say is senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahiri. As you know, that's Osama bin Laden's closest adviser. It appears that this was taped before the U.S. election. Here is a small part of what he says.
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AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI, SECOND IN COMMAND, AL QAEDA (through translator): Although they are not willing to listen. You have to choose between two ways of dealing with Muslims. You either deal with them based on respect and mutual benefit, or you deal with them as they are just land that's -- that's ready for you to take them over.
This is your problem, and you have to choose by yourselves. And you have to understand that we are a nation of patience. And we will resist to fight you, God willing, until the last minute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That bit of an interview there from senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 in al Qaeda, close confidant to Osama bin Laden. That videotape now airing on Al Jazeera Television.
He is announcing that al Qaeda will continue to fight the U.S. until it changes its relations and policies when dealing with Muslims. It appears this could have been taped before the U.S. election. We'll continue to check into that tape and its authenticity.
HARRIS: At the Supreme Court today, a case that gets to the heart of states' rights versus federal law. The issue, medical marijuana.
Ten states, the ones shown here in yellow, currently allow people to use marijuana if their doctors agree. But lawyers for the federal government say there should be no exceptions in the war on drugs, even for the seriously ill.
CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from our D.C. bureau with more on the individual case the justices are hearing and the larger issues at stake.
Hi, Kimberly.
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Tony.
Well, every story has a face. And on the issue of medical marijuana, argued before the Supreme Court today, that face is Angel Raich.
Thirty-nine-year-old Raich is a married mother of two. She suffers from a brain tumor and fibromyalgia. Those conditions give her chronic pain and make eating anything difficult. Raich says marijuana is her only relief and credits the herb for saving her life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGEL RAICH, USES MEDICAL MARIJUANA: I need to use can business over two hours. If I don't medicate every two hours, I become debilitated. In fact, just standing here now my body is actually trying to go in spasm. And you can actually see my physical body already changing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: Attorney Randy Barnett pled her case and that of another woman with chronic back pain, claiming states should maintain their autonomy regarding the use of medical marijuana for those purposes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDY BARNETT, ATTORNEY: The idea here is that the existence of states and states' laws protects liberty, and in this case it's the liberty of feel use medical cannabis, provided that their activities are regulated according to state law and strictly for medical use and are not in any way having any effect adverse on the broader regulatory scheme of the United States government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OSIAS: California and nine other states currently allow individuals to smoke marijuana with a doctor's prescription.
Federal lawyers argue the position of the Bush administration: use of marijuana and other narcotics is illegal. The government also says there are health risks to marijuana use which give it the right to regulate the drug.
Also the administration says federal law should trump state law.
Other opponents say legalizing any drug under any circumstance is a dangerous precedent to set.
An interesting twist: Raich's attorney bases his argument on the Constitution's commerce clause, saying Raich and other patients don't sell cannabis interstate or sell it, period, so trafficking isn't an issue.
Win or lose, the laws in the 10 states will remain in effect. Marijuana smokers would have to be prosecuted federally -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, Kimberly, Chief Justice Rehnquist is not on the court today. How might that impact this case?
OSIAS: Well, yes, you're exactly right. Of course, he has been undergoing treatment, radiation and chemotherapy for thyroid cancer. But we are told by our sources that he's been monitoring things and has been getting transcripts, as well.
HARRIS: Kimberly Osias, reporting for us in Washington, D.C. Kimberly, thank you.
In another state's rights issue, the Supreme Court has refused to step in on the issue of same sex marriage in Massachusetts. Conservative groups had asked the court to overturn last year's decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, which allowed same sex marriages. Without comment, the Supreme Court justices refused to take up the matter.
Since same sex unions were approved in Massachusetts, at least 3,000 such couples have wed there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM: movie star, icon, monster. Godzilla going strong at 50. We'll trace his early career back to its beginnings with a rubber suit and a car battery.
Later on LIVE FROM...
(MUSIC)
PHILLIPS: ... attention Parrotheads. Jimmy Buffet leaves Margaritaville for a salty piece of land. He joins us with a LIVE FROM interview about his new book and the new tune it inspired.
Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, when duty calls, men and women answer leaving families behind. Tomorrow, one woman's unique way to help children cope when the military calls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Strong. That's how the National Retail Federation describes the opening weekend of the holiday shopping season. The trade group says 133 million of U.S. -- or Americans, rather, indulged in holiday shopping. That's what I should say.
Over the weekend shoppers spent an average of $265, 15 cents each -- wait a minute. Average of $265.15 each. Can you see that?
HARRIS: Yes, I'm with you there.
PHILLIPS: I was just talking about my contact lenses. I think it might be the writing.
In all, shoppers dropped nearly $23 billion. Did any of that make sense? Twenty-three billion dollars, that's a lot of money. That makes sense. But that's just a fraction of the spending total expected this year.
With more on holiday shopping, we're going to go to CNN financial news correspondent Allan Chernoff in New York, because can he make sense of it all.
Allan, help me out.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, any way you add it up, it is big bucks. And it looks like the first weekend of the holiday shopping season certainly was a success for many retailers.
Lots of surveys are indicating that sales were up more than 10 percent compared to the year-ago period.
However, it appears that many of those door buster specials, like the one you're looking at right now -- we shot this footage early Friday morning at Macy's in midtown Manhattan. Shirts, 65 percent off. Sales like that were pulling shoppers into the stores.
Now very good for sales, but not necessarily for profit margins.
Also, Wal-Mart has said that it is scaling back its forecast for the entire month of November to a really small gain. So this is one reason we're seeing retailing stocks trading lower today on Wall Street. At the same time, electronic stores seem to have had a very good first weekend. And it appears that many children are demanding electronics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what everyone wants. At the minute I'm finding that's what everyone wants, including the children. They're wanting those new games, the new DVDs, everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm concerned about the kids. So they don't like clothes. They -- they give me the orders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I'm going to be spending a little bit less. We're going to be going on a vacation in the springtime. My kids are getting older and before they go away to college. So I'm going to -- they're old enough that I can sit them down and say, "OK, look. We're, you know -- you have to put the money down now if you're going to go away in the spring."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHERNOFF: So at least some people are sacrificing a little bit for the future.
Let's look now at some of the best selling toys. According to Toys 'R' Us, not just electronics, but also Dora the Explorer Magic Hair, Hokey Pokey Elmo, and then the game, Operation. Kyra, you remember that? Now you can operate on Shrek, take apart his ears, his nose, everything else. It's -- it's a ball of fun.
PHILLIPS: I still have that Operation game. What happened to Grover? You told me Grover was the hottest selling Sesame Street character this year.
CHERNOFF: Grover is certainly very hot, as well. That was an exclusive over at Macy's.
PHILLIPS: An exclusive.
CHERNOFF: You had Grover all over the store. But he was being snapped up at Macy's, midtown Manhattan. But Elmo is the man at Toys 'R' Us.
PHILLIPS: OK. Now I got it straight. Thanks for sorting that out for me, Allan. Thank you -- Tony.
HARRIS: Staying on the holiday shopping theme, just how much do three French hens, a couple of turtle doves, or five gold rings actually cost? Well, Rhonda Schaffler joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with the answers.
Hi, Rhonda.
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Costs a lot of money when you add this all up. We do this as a tradition every year on CNN. "The 12 Days of Christmas." You know the song. What's the price tag behind it all?
The entire package mentioned in the holiday classic, not counting all the repetitions, is going to set you back a little bit more than $17,000 this year, driven mostly by the price of skilled labor.
PNC Advisers has calculated the Christmas cost index every year since 1984. And while the goods like turtledoves and swans accounted for most of the total costs back in '84, the price for services is actually fueling higher costs these days.
In fact, those dancing ladies and leaping lords were the most expensive items on the list. In case you're wondering, the higher price of fuel was also factored into the cost of delivering a pear tree -- Tony.
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