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Bush Defends Rumsfeld, Promotes Social Security Reform; Dozens Arrested in Iraqi Sunday Bombings; Murder Suspect in Baby Napping Case Awaits Hearing

Aired December 20, 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.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But beneath that rough and gruff no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: President Bush, defending his secretary of defense and sounding off about Social Security. We're live from the White House on his year-ender press conference.

BETTY NGUYEN, CO-HOST: Stolen from the womb. The woman arrested for allegedly strangling a pregnant woman and stealing her baby goes to court. We're live from Kansas City.

O'BRIEN: Dramatic tape, into the flames. Firefighters rush to the rescue. Amazing video takes you inside the efforts to fight the fire. We've got more to show you.

NGUYEN: Failing the crash test. The insurance industry gives out the lowest possible rating. Find out how your car did.

From the CNN center here in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen, in today for Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And from our Washington newsroom, I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

Tight budgets, free elections, strong relations, a system in crisis and a good human being. If you've been watching CNN, you heard all that and more as President Bush's holiday gift to the White House press corps came: a free-wheeling news conference touching on the deficit, Iraq, Russia, Social Security, and Donald Rumsfeld, just to name five.

CNN's Elaine Quijano wrapping it all up for us, live now from the White House -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

That's right. Today President Bush spent about an hour, almost an hour, talking to reporters here in the White House campus in his second news conference since his re-election.

As you mentioned, the president taking on a number of topics facing questions. About his defense secretary you mentioned, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And you'll know that in recent days, the defense secretary has faced some fresh criticism over the issue of signing condolence letters that go out to U.S. military personnel's families, the families of those who were killed.

Now the defense secretary has said that the reason that he allowed mechanical reproductions of his signature to be used on those condolence letters was to allow those letters to go out in a faster way.

And today, President Bush once again defended the secretary, talking about the caring that he says the secretary has for the troops out in the battlefields.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I know Secretary Rumsfeld's heart. I know how much he cares for the troops. He and his wife go out to Walter Reed and Bethesda all the time to provide comfort and solace. I have seen the anguish in his -- or heard the anguish in his voice and seen his eyes when we talk about the danger in Iraq and the fact that youngsters are over there in harm's way. And he is -- he's a good, decent man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, President Bush also talked about Iraq, specifically the upcoming elections in that country at the end of January. President Bush saying that he believes this is not the end, that Americans should look at this, really, as sort of the beginning of the move towards democracy in that country.

But President Bush also making clear that he believes Iraqis themselves will have to take over security responsibilities in order for stability to be achieved there.

That, of course, Miles, an open question as there is continued violence in Iraq, that run up to the January 30 elections showing to be a violent time. But President Bush saying he believes that the objective remains clear, that successful elections there will hopefully be the start of democracy in that country -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Elaine, the big domestic issue heating up, Social Security and whether to privatize it or not. The president had some things to say about it, but it was kind of cryptic, wasn't it? He was talking about how there's a problem, the American people need to understand the problem. But beyond that, he was not specific.

QUIJANO: That's absolutely right, Miles. And that's an interesting point, because in this debate over Social Security and specifically what the president wants to do, he hasn't gone into any detail really about how the proposal that he wants to see, the partial privatization of Social Security, how that will be paid for.

The president was asked some pointed questions today on that front. Also questions about whether or not that partial privatization would, in the end, fix those long-term problems with Social Security. What the president basically has said is that he doesn't want to tip his hand at this point. He said today he will not negotiate with himself, meaning he believes until he is ready to come out with a firm proposal, he's not going to talk about what might be on the table.

We've heard the president talk about some principles, some broad principles, saying he doesn't want to raise payroll taxes, that benefits won't change for those at or near retirement and that he wants these private accounts. But beyond that, you're right, Miles, still many unanswered questions about what the president wants to do.

O'BRIEN: Lots going on behind closed doors. All right. Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Now that salute from the West Wing comes none too soon for Donald Rumsfeld, who's been under heavy fire from Capitol Hill. Criticism comes from both parties. Most recently over a lack of armor in Iraq and a perceived lack of personal attention to the families of dead G.I.'s.

But even one of Rumsfeld's toughest adversaries says the buck stops higher than the top office at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: There's been a lot of mistakes. But the mistakes have been mainly policy mistakes on the part of the administration going in as unilaterally as they did without support of the world community through the United Nations, disbanding the Iraqi army, not having a plan for the aftermath, leaving out the top professional leaders in this country in planning for an aftermath.

They made a lot mistakes. They're unwilling to acknowledge any mistakes. But that's mainly the policies of this administration. And if I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, I'd be all for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The commander in chief says Rumsfeld will reach out to lawmakers in the months ahead. After which, and we quote, "members will recognize what a good job he's doing."

In Iraq where Mr. Bush today vowed the terrorists will fail, police arrested dozens in the aftermath of yesterday's car bomb attacks that killed almost 70 people.

We get the latest from CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There certainly has been a security clampdown in the city of Najaf in the course of the day. In fact, authorities there blocked most of the streets leading toward the holy Imam Ali shrine in the center of Najaf and also blocked many of the main routes in and out of the city to try and prevent any suspects in that bombing from leaving.

We're told at this stage more than 50 people have been apprehended. It's a little unclear as yet, though, as to how directly they may be connected with yesterday's explosion.

(voice-over) As mourners wound through Najaf to bury a tribal leader, a car bomb rips through the funeral procession. Carnage close to the shrine of Imam Ali, the holiest site for Iraq's Shiah majority.

Scores lay dead and wounded in the chaos, survivors scrapped through wreckage for others who may still be alive. Najaf hospitals were overwhelmed, and some casualties were taken to neighboring cities.

Security officials say Najaf's police chief and the provincial governor were in the crowd but survived unstated.

Just two hours earlier, another lethal car bomb rocked Najaf's sister city, Karbala, about 50 miles away, the second deadly blast there in four days. The target in Karbala, the main bus station, close to two other revered Shiah shrines.

The walking wounded stagger off, the dead and maimed ferried away in ambulances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They are taking any opportunity to strike. As you see, this place was crowded. As many people are coming from Baghdad and from all over Iraq, so they took advantage of these crowds.

PENHAUL: Najaf was the scene of heavy fighting between the Shiah, Mehdi Army militia and U.S. forces in July. And in Karbala in March, a wave of explosions killed more than 170.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blasts. Security officials suggest the bombers may have been Sunni radicals looking to stoke sectarian strife ahead of January elections. But a Shiah leader said the attackers may have been renegade tribal factions from within the Shiah community.

Bloodshed, too, in Baghdad on Haifa Street, a few blocks from the Green Zone, center of the U.S. and Iraqi administrations. Police say insurgents dragged a senior election official and two bodyguards from their car, made them kneel in the street, and shot them, execution- style.

(on camera) Hospital sources were saying today that they confirmed at least 52 people killed in the Najaf bombing along with 145 others wounded. In Karbala, the toll there 16 dead and 30 others wounded.

Many Iraqis are now wondering how many more deaths and how many more explosions of this kind will there be in the run-up to the January 30 elections.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: A murder and kidnapping case of unspeakable horror will be the subject today of at least one federal court hearing, while a four-day old infant at the heart of it remains in remarkably good condition in an intensive care unit in Kansas.

We get the latest on all this from CNN's Jonathan Freed, who joins us now from Kansas City, Missouri -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles.

Lisa Montgomery has been held across the river from us here in Kansas City, Missouri, in Kansas City, Kansas, at a detention center. Now, she is supposed to have on the Kansas side a brief court appearance there called an identity hearing, essentially, Miles, to determine that she is indeed -- officially determined she's, indeed, the person who is named in the federal charges.

At that point she will be transferred to this side of the river here to Kansas City, Missouri, where she will appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court. At that time, Miles, she is going to have a public defender appointed for her, and the charges will be read out in federal court here for the first time, charges of kidnapping resulting in death.

Now Lisa Montgomery is accused of strangling 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting Stinnett's 8-month-old fetus out of her womb. The U.S. attorney in this case told CNN earlier today it is still too early for them to determine whether or not they would seek the death penalty in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD GRAVES, U.S. ATTORNEY: The federal government is -- has a very strict procedure. And it's not something you enter into lightly. So we have to go through -- we do to do many steps before we make that decision. But I will say in this district, we have a history of seeking the death penalty in the appropriate cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Now Miles, they are hoping that the hearing here on the Missouri side would happen at around 3 p.m. Central Time today, but that depends on whether or not they can actually get that identity hearing done. And that, when we last spoke to the U.S. attorney's office, still had yet to be scheduled today -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jonathan, conflicting information on whether Montgomery had, in fact, been pregnant and had a miscarriage. What are you hearing?

FREED: We asked -- CNN asked the U.S. attorney that quite forcefully today, and they wouldn't give an answer. They suggested that perhaps something might be revealing about that in documents that might at one point be made public. But beyond that, they really were not saying. That's been the only -- the question surrounding a possible motive for this have been focusing on that. But the U.S. attorney really wouldn't give very much.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jonathan Freed, thank you very much. Keep working it there in Kansas City. We appreciate it.

Some amazing video to show you. Shows you just what firefighters are willing to face, all in the line of duty. Later on LIVE FROM, we'll find out just what happened when these guys answered the alarm here in the district.

And "Security Watch," fears that terrorists may be just a click away from disrupting America's power grid.

Plus, getting that sinking feeling after this huge hole swallows up part of a Florida highway. We'll get to the bottom of it straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the Washington newsroom.

The maker of the pain killer Celebrex says it will stop advertising to drug consumers at the request of the Food and Drug Administration, but it will continue advertising it to doctors.

Pfizer says Celebrex may increase the risk of heart attack in some patients, but the company will keep it on the market.

Meantime, the Arthritis Foundation says there are alternative treatments, including over the counter pain relievers, exercise, weight loss and dietary supplements.

There is new evidence of a possible connection between lung cancer and the widespread oil well fires during the first Gulf War in '91. That word comes from a government advisory committee. The report also notes there's very little information about actual exposure of U.S. military personnel.

Iraqi troops set fire to more than 600 oil wells during their retreat from Kuwait -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. The high spirits of the holidays are sometimes too much for people who find themselves suffering from seasonal depression.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk about the symptoms and, more importantly, the treatment for it.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. And for many people, that starts several months of darkness. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUANNE HUGHES, MOTHER: I love that shirt.

COHEN (voice-over): In the winter, Luanne Hughes dresses her three children before the sun comes up. She eats breakfast before the sun comes up.

HUGHES: You get out of the shower and it's still dark. And you have your cup of coffee and it's still dark.

COHEN: In winters past, all that darkness made her feel depressed and irritable with her children.

HUGHES: Mostly those were the things that really caused me trouble in the winter, is not being able to be the effective parent that I wanted to be. Those months were tough.

OK, here you go.

COHEN: At first, Hughes tried an anti-depressant drug, which she says didn't work very well. And then she tried light, fake light for about half an hour a day in the winter.

HUGHES: It took only about two weeks until I really started noticing something is different.

COHEN: Hughes has seasonal affective disorder or winter depression. Her doctor explained to her that the light outside affects so many things inside the body, such as hormone levels, which in turn, affect mood.

DR. MICHAEL TERMAN, N.Y. STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE: The clock in our head depends on seeing sunrise every day to keep in sync with local time.

COHEN: Dr. Michael Terman, director of the winter depression program at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says 80 percent of the time light therapy helps patients with winter depression feel better.

TERMAN: It's a rapid turnaround. It's a faster effect than you get with anti-depressant drugs.

COHEN: Fake light and getting as much real light as she can has been the answer for Hughes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: (NO AUDIO) ... in colder climates, where people spend less time outside during the winter.

NGUYEN: Elizabeth, we all get depressed every now and then. So how do you know if you actually have seasonal depression?

COHEN: There's one single thing, the most important thing that people can look out for to try to figure out if they have SAD, and that is do you feel more depressed during the winter?

Think about yourself at other times of year, and then compare it to how you feel in December, January and February, especially January and February. The reason for that is that even though SAD does affect some people during the holidays, for a lot of people the holidays kind of lift you up. So you won't have SAD during the holidays, until when January and February hit, and that's when you really feel it.

NGUYEN: When you're looking at the credit card bill.

COHEN: That's right. That's a different kind -- that's anxiety, not depression, I think.

NGUYEN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, secretary of defense under fire. The latest salvos are over his signature on letters to military families.

Later on LIVE FROM...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about $10 million, $20 million to make some of these games.

NGUYEN: Billion-dollar boom. Video game sales setting records. Later on LIVE FROM, we'll take you inside the risky business of making it big.

Also, later on LIVE FROM, think you've got a killer commute?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The alarm goes off at 4 p.m.

NGUYEN: We go along for the long ride with an extreme commuter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: News across America now.

In Duluth, Minnesota, fire and ice. This spectacular blaze the result of an exploded Zamboni. That's right. One broomball player was hospitalized after the resurfacing machine exploded while he was on the ice. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet, because it was dented when he hit the deck.

Residents in Volusia County, Florida, suffering from severe depression or, in other words, a sinkhole. Check it out. On Saturday it was a mere 12 feet deep. Now, it's 225 feet and still settling. Officials say about 25,000 people are having to be rerouted.

And forget 23 skidoo. It was more like 80 vehicles that skidded and crashed in a pileup near Mercer, Pennsylvania. Police say the chain reaction started thanks to a tracker trailer that jackknifed on I-80 during whiteout snow conditions. No serious injuries or deaths reported, just an eight-hour traffic headache.

Well, hazardous roads are likely in a lot of places today as snow is falling in the northeast, the great lakes, the plains. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras has a map and a 411 from the CNN Weather Center.

What a day, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Can you hear it? Can you hear the roar of the kids right now out on break?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, absolutely! They're all off school; they've got their sleds and skates ready, I'm sure.

O'BRIEN: Yes, bring it on, Jacqui! All right. Thank you very much, Jacqui Jeras.

Now to the holiday shopping forecast. Partly cloudy for retailers over the weekend with the chance of cleaning this week in the profit department. The latest retail figures show Saturday sales down seven percent compared to the same Saturday shopping day last year. Overall weekend sales numbers are due a little later today.

The silver lining may be in a tally of online sales, which aren't included in those numbers. Online buying could jump by as much as 26 percent this holiday season. I swear by it. Remember, only five shopping days left for all you procrastinators out there.

And speaking of my fellow procrastinators, two-minute warning for all you laggards. Two hundred and 80 million cards and letters expected to pass through the U.S. postal service today. This is the busiest day of the year for folks who handle letters and packages. The mail blizzard is a tradition on the last Monday before Christmas.

If you still want to push the deadline, some advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: You can use priority mail up until Wednesday. After Wednesday, you really should use express mail to make sure it gets there for Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right. There you have it. So if you're late, you're going to pay for it.

All right. A lot of Americans earning the minimum wage are having a hard time filling that Christmas list this year. David Haffenreffer joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with word on the minimum wage and really what a joke it is -- David. (STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 20, 2004 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But beneath that rough and gruff no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: President Bush, defending his secretary of defense and sounding off about Social Security. We're live from the White House on his year-ender press conference.

BETTY NGUYEN, CO-HOST: Stolen from the womb. The woman arrested for allegedly strangling a pregnant woman and stealing her baby goes to court. We're live from Kansas City.

O'BRIEN: Dramatic tape, into the flames. Firefighters rush to the rescue. Amazing video takes you inside the efforts to fight the fire. We've got more to show you.

NGUYEN: Failing the crash test. The insurance industry gives out the lowest possible rating. Find out how your car did.

From the CNN center here in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen, in today for Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And from our Washington newsroom, I'm Miles O'Brien. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

Tight budgets, free elections, strong relations, a system in crisis and a good human being. If you've been watching CNN, you heard all that and more as President Bush's holiday gift to the White House press corps came: a free-wheeling news conference touching on the deficit, Iraq, Russia, Social Security, and Donald Rumsfeld, just to name five.

CNN's Elaine Quijano wrapping it all up for us, live now from the White House -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

That's right. Today President Bush spent about an hour, almost an hour, talking to reporters here in the White House campus in his second news conference since his re-election.

As you mentioned, the president taking on a number of topics facing questions. About his defense secretary you mentioned, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And you'll know that in recent days, the defense secretary has faced some fresh criticism over the issue of signing condolence letters that go out to U.S. military personnel's families, the families of those who were killed.

Now the defense secretary has said that the reason that he allowed mechanical reproductions of his signature to be used on those condolence letters was to allow those letters to go out in a faster way.

And today, President Bush once again defended the secretary, talking about the caring that he says the secretary has for the troops out in the battlefields.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I know Secretary Rumsfeld's heart. I know how much he cares for the troops. He and his wife go out to Walter Reed and Bethesda all the time to provide comfort and solace. I have seen the anguish in his -- or heard the anguish in his voice and seen his eyes when we talk about the danger in Iraq and the fact that youngsters are over there in harm's way. And he is -- he's a good, decent man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, President Bush also talked about Iraq, specifically the upcoming elections in that country at the end of January. President Bush saying that he believes this is not the end, that Americans should look at this, really, as sort of the beginning of the move towards democracy in that country.

But President Bush also making clear that he believes Iraqis themselves will have to take over security responsibilities in order for stability to be achieved there.

That, of course, Miles, an open question as there is continued violence in Iraq, that run up to the January 30 elections showing to be a violent time. But President Bush saying he believes that the objective remains clear, that successful elections there will hopefully be the start of democracy in that country -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Elaine, the big domestic issue heating up, Social Security and whether to privatize it or not. The president had some things to say about it, but it was kind of cryptic, wasn't it? He was talking about how there's a problem, the American people need to understand the problem. But beyond that, he was not specific.

QUIJANO: That's absolutely right, Miles. And that's an interesting point, because in this debate over Social Security and specifically what the president wants to do, he hasn't gone into any detail really about how the proposal that he wants to see, the partial privatization of Social Security, how that will be paid for.

The president was asked some pointed questions today on that front. Also questions about whether or not that partial privatization would, in the end, fix those long-term problems with Social Security. What the president basically has said is that he doesn't want to tip his hand at this point. He said today he will not negotiate with himself, meaning he believes until he is ready to come out with a firm proposal, he's not going to talk about what might be on the table.

We've heard the president talk about some principles, some broad principles, saying he doesn't want to raise payroll taxes, that benefits won't change for those at or near retirement and that he wants these private accounts. But beyond that, you're right, Miles, still many unanswered questions about what the president wants to do.

O'BRIEN: Lots going on behind closed doors. All right. Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you very much -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Now that salute from the West Wing comes none too soon for Donald Rumsfeld, who's been under heavy fire from Capitol Hill. Criticism comes from both parties. Most recently over a lack of armor in Iraq and a perceived lack of personal attention to the families of dead G.I.'s.

But even one of Rumsfeld's toughest adversaries says the buck stops higher than the top office at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: There's been a lot of mistakes. But the mistakes have been mainly policy mistakes on the part of the administration going in as unilaterally as they did without support of the world community through the United Nations, disbanding the Iraqi army, not having a plan for the aftermath, leaving out the top professional leaders in this country in planning for an aftermath.

They made a lot mistakes. They're unwilling to acknowledge any mistakes. But that's mainly the policies of this administration. And if I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, I'd be all for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The commander in chief says Rumsfeld will reach out to lawmakers in the months ahead. After which, and we quote, "members will recognize what a good job he's doing."

In Iraq where Mr. Bush today vowed the terrorists will fail, police arrested dozens in the aftermath of yesterday's car bomb attacks that killed almost 70 people.

We get the latest from CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There certainly has been a security clampdown in the city of Najaf in the course of the day. In fact, authorities there blocked most of the streets leading toward the holy Imam Ali shrine in the center of Najaf and also blocked many of the main routes in and out of the city to try and prevent any suspects in that bombing from leaving.

We're told at this stage more than 50 people have been apprehended. It's a little unclear as yet, though, as to how directly they may be connected with yesterday's explosion.

(voice-over) As mourners wound through Najaf to bury a tribal leader, a car bomb rips through the funeral procession. Carnage close to the shrine of Imam Ali, the holiest site for Iraq's Shiah majority.

Scores lay dead and wounded in the chaos, survivors scrapped through wreckage for others who may still be alive. Najaf hospitals were overwhelmed, and some casualties were taken to neighboring cities.

Security officials say Najaf's police chief and the provincial governor were in the crowd but survived unstated.

Just two hours earlier, another lethal car bomb rocked Najaf's sister city, Karbala, about 50 miles away, the second deadly blast there in four days. The target in Karbala, the main bus station, close to two other revered Shiah shrines.

The walking wounded stagger off, the dead and maimed ferried away in ambulances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They are taking any opportunity to strike. As you see, this place was crowded. As many people are coming from Baghdad and from all over Iraq, so they took advantage of these crowds.

PENHAUL: Najaf was the scene of heavy fighting between the Shiah, Mehdi Army militia and U.S. forces in July. And in Karbala in March, a wave of explosions killed more than 170.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blasts. Security officials suggest the bombers may have been Sunni radicals looking to stoke sectarian strife ahead of January elections. But a Shiah leader said the attackers may have been renegade tribal factions from within the Shiah community.

Bloodshed, too, in Baghdad on Haifa Street, a few blocks from the Green Zone, center of the U.S. and Iraqi administrations. Police say insurgents dragged a senior election official and two bodyguards from their car, made them kneel in the street, and shot them, execution- style.

(on camera) Hospital sources were saying today that they confirmed at least 52 people killed in the Najaf bombing along with 145 others wounded. In Karbala, the toll there 16 dead and 30 others wounded.

Many Iraqis are now wondering how many more deaths and how many more explosions of this kind will there be in the run-up to the January 30 elections.

(END VIDEOTAPE) O'BRIEN: A murder and kidnapping case of unspeakable horror will be the subject today of at least one federal court hearing, while a four-day old infant at the heart of it remains in remarkably good condition in an intensive care unit in Kansas.

We get the latest on all this from CNN's Jonathan Freed, who joins us now from Kansas City, Missouri -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Miles.

Lisa Montgomery has been held across the river from us here in Kansas City, Missouri, in Kansas City, Kansas, at a detention center. Now, she is supposed to have on the Kansas side a brief court appearance there called an identity hearing, essentially, Miles, to determine that she is indeed -- officially determined she's, indeed, the person who is named in the federal charges.

At that point she will be transferred to this side of the river here to Kansas City, Missouri, where she will appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in federal court. At that time, Miles, she is going to have a public defender appointed for her, and the charges will be read out in federal court here for the first time, charges of kidnapping resulting in death.

Now Lisa Montgomery is accused of strangling 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting Stinnett's 8-month-old fetus out of her womb. The U.S. attorney in this case told CNN earlier today it is still too early for them to determine whether or not they would seek the death penalty in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD GRAVES, U.S. ATTORNEY: The federal government is -- has a very strict procedure. And it's not something you enter into lightly. So we have to go through -- we do to do many steps before we make that decision. But I will say in this district, we have a history of seeking the death penalty in the appropriate cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Now Miles, they are hoping that the hearing here on the Missouri side would happen at around 3 p.m. Central Time today, but that depends on whether or not they can actually get that identity hearing done. And that, when we last spoke to the U.S. attorney's office, still had yet to be scheduled today -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Jonathan, conflicting information on whether Montgomery had, in fact, been pregnant and had a miscarriage. What are you hearing?

FREED: We asked -- CNN asked the U.S. attorney that quite forcefully today, and they wouldn't give an answer. They suggested that perhaps something might be revealing about that in documents that might at one point be made public. But beyond that, they really were not saying. That's been the only -- the question surrounding a possible motive for this have been focusing on that. But the U.S. attorney really wouldn't give very much.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jonathan Freed, thank you very much. Keep working it there in Kansas City. We appreciate it.

Some amazing video to show you. Shows you just what firefighters are willing to face, all in the line of duty. Later on LIVE FROM, we'll find out just what happened when these guys answered the alarm here in the district.

And "Security Watch," fears that terrorists may be just a click away from disrupting America's power grid.

Plus, getting that sinking feeling after this huge hole swallows up part of a Florida highway. We'll get to the bottom of it straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the Washington newsroom.

The maker of the pain killer Celebrex says it will stop advertising to drug consumers at the request of the Food and Drug Administration, but it will continue advertising it to doctors.

Pfizer says Celebrex may increase the risk of heart attack in some patients, but the company will keep it on the market.

Meantime, the Arthritis Foundation says there are alternative treatments, including over the counter pain relievers, exercise, weight loss and dietary supplements.

There is new evidence of a possible connection between lung cancer and the widespread oil well fires during the first Gulf War in '91. That word comes from a government advisory committee. The report also notes there's very little information about actual exposure of U.S. military personnel.

Iraqi troops set fire to more than 600 oil wells during their retreat from Kuwait -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. The high spirits of the holidays are sometimes too much for people who find themselves suffering from seasonal depression.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk about the symptoms and, more importantly, the treatment for it.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, tomorrow is the shortest day of the year. And for many people, that starts several months of darkness. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUANNE HUGHES, MOTHER: I love that shirt.

COHEN (voice-over): In the winter, Luanne Hughes dresses her three children before the sun comes up. She eats breakfast before the sun comes up.

HUGHES: You get out of the shower and it's still dark. And you have your cup of coffee and it's still dark.

COHEN: In winters past, all that darkness made her feel depressed and irritable with her children.

HUGHES: Mostly those were the things that really caused me trouble in the winter, is not being able to be the effective parent that I wanted to be. Those months were tough.

OK, here you go.

COHEN: At first, Hughes tried an anti-depressant drug, which she says didn't work very well. And then she tried light, fake light for about half an hour a day in the winter.

HUGHES: It took only about two weeks until I really started noticing something is different.

COHEN: Hughes has seasonal affective disorder or winter depression. Her doctor explained to her that the light outside affects so many things inside the body, such as hormone levels, which in turn, affect mood.

DR. MICHAEL TERMAN, N.Y. STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE: The clock in our head depends on seeing sunrise every day to keep in sync with local time.

COHEN: Dr. Michael Terman, director of the winter depression program at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, says 80 percent of the time light therapy helps patients with winter depression feel better.

TERMAN: It's a rapid turnaround. It's a faster effect than you get with anti-depressant drugs.

COHEN: Fake light and getting as much real light as she can has been the answer for Hughes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: (NO AUDIO) ... in colder climates, where people spend less time outside during the winter.

NGUYEN: Elizabeth, we all get depressed every now and then. So how do you know if you actually have seasonal depression?

COHEN: There's one single thing, the most important thing that people can look out for to try to figure out if they have SAD, and that is do you feel more depressed during the winter?

Think about yourself at other times of year, and then compare it to how you feel in December, January and February, especially January and February. The reason for that is that even though SAD does affect some people during the holidays, for a lot of people the holidays kind of lift you up. So you won't have SAD during the holidays, until when January and February hit, and that's when you really feel it.

NGUYEN: When you're looking at the credit card bill.

COHEN: That's right. That's a different kind -- that's anxiety, not depression, I think.

NGUYEN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, secretary of defense under fire. The latest salvos are over his signature on letters to military families.

Later on LIVE FROM...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about $10 million, $20 million to make some of these games.

NGUYEN: Billion-dollar boom. Video game sales setting records. Later on LIVE FROM, we'll take you inside the risky business of making it big.

Also, later on LIVE FROM, think you've got a killer commute?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The alarm goes off at 4 p.m.

NGUYEN: We go along for the long ride with an extreme commuter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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NGUYEN: News across America now.

In Duluth, Minnesota, fire and ice. This spectacular blaze the result of an exploded Zamboni. That's right. One broomball player was hospitalized after the resurfacing machine exploded while he was on the ice. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet, because it was dented when he hit the deck.

Residents in Volusia County, Florida, suffering from severe depression or, in other words, a sinkhole. Check it out. On Saturday it was a mere 12 feet deep. Now, it's 225 feet and still settling. Officials say about 25,000 people are having to be rerouted.

And forget 23 skidoo. It was more like 80 vehicles that skidded and crashed in a pileup near Mercer, Pennsylvania. Police say the chain reaction started thanks to a tracker trailer that jackknifed on I-80 during whiteout snow conditions. No serious injuries or deaths reported, just an eight-hour traffic headache.

Well, hazardous roads are likely in a lot of places today as snow is falling in the northeast, the great lakes, the plains. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras has a map and a 411 from the CNN Weather Center.

What a day, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Can you hear it? Can you hear the roar of the kids right now out on break?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, absolutely! They're all off school; they've got their sleds and skates ready, I'm sure.

O'BRIEN: Yes, bring it on, Jacqui! All right. Thank you very much, Jacqui Jeras.

Now to the holiday shopping forecast. Partly cloudy for retailers over the weekend with the chance of cleaning this week in the profit department. The latest retail figures show Saturday sales down seven percent compared to the same Saturday shopping day last year. Overall weekend sales numbers are due a little later today.

The silver lining may be in a tally of online sales, which aren't included in those numbers. Online buying could jump by as much as 26 percent this holiday season. I swear by it. Remember, only five shopping days left for all you procrastinators out there.

And speaking of my fellow procrastinators, two-minute warning for all you laggards. Two hundred and 80 million cards and letters expected to pass through the U.S. postal service today. This is the busiest day of the year for folks who handle letters and packages. The mail blizzard is a tradition on the last Monday before Christmas.

If you still want to push the deadline, some advice.

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JOHN POTTER, POSTMASTER GENERAL: You can use priority mail up until Wednesday. After Wednesday, you really should use express mail to make sure it gets there for Christmas.

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O'BRIEN: All right. There you have it. So if you're late, you're going to pay for it.

All right. A lot of Americans earning the minimum wage are having a hard time filling that Christmas list this year. David Haffenreffer joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with word on the minimum wage and really what a joke it is -- David. (STOCK REPORT)

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