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Rescue Teams Continue to Search for Miners; Fueling America; Weather Connection; Last Mining Accident Ended Happily; Narnia Takes Reign at Box Office; Introducing CNN Pipeline; New Laptop Could Give Internet To Developing Nations

Aired January 03, 2006 - 14:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want him to come out. He's a good friend. He don't deserve this. All of them are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Foot by foot, the search teams move down the shaft. Inch by inch, the drill bits penetrate the rock. But minute by minute, the mission to rescue 13 West Virginia coal miners gets a little tougher, the odds of success a little longer, the burden on family and friends a lot heavier.

It's now more than 31 hours since the blast that trapped a crew that was starting up the Sago Mine northeast of Charleston after 48 hours of down time for New Year's weekend. The rescue mission is a multi-pronged affair. Three narrow holes being drilled for cameras and air monitors while search teams, a robot proceed along the gently sloping shaft.

CNN's Kimberly Osias is on the surface keeping tabs on all of it -- Kimberly.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, Kyra, this is slow, tedious and arduous work. And as you can well imagine, for these families, 31-plus hours, and each minute just seems like an eternity that these men are still stuck in a mine.

There are two rescue crews down there now of about five to eight men a piece. They are going through, combing through very systematically, being very, very cautious because, of course, there are many noxious gases that are very, very harmful and, of course, obviously can kill rescue workers and obviously the concern for the miners in there, certainly, as well.

So they are certainly taking their time. But, of course, the concern is, as these hours drag on, that these men were able to seek some safe haven and barricade themselves in.

The families are certainly holding on to hope, as is this company. The president of this company, International Coal Group, is doing so as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEN HATFIELD, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL COAL GROUP: The hope that we cling to is, again, with the drill hole that did penetrate in the face area of second left we didn't see major combustion damage, we didn't see the equipment turned upside down. We didn't see cables burned.

There was no indication of a massive disruptive explosion. That's probably the brightest spot that we've encountered in the last few hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OSIAS: Now, that was Ben Hatfield, and what he was talking about is the actual drilling that they're doing. They are doing two and three simultaneously right now. They had a first one early this morning. And what they are really clinging to is that they didn't see debris.

So they feel that that is certainly good news boding well for the safety of these miners, Kyra. And, of course, the families, they are nearby. They have been praying. They have been keeping vigil. All of these friends, doing everything they can.

A very, very close-knit community here. And for many, mining is cultural and a cross-generational affair with these families. I mean, some of the men down there have three decades of experience. And these families are hoping that that experience really pays off right now, that they will know what to do, that they will try and seek those safe little pockets of air or barricade themselves in and hope for the best -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Obviously, number one priority, Kimberly, is to find out how those 13 miners are, to make contact with them, communication, get them out of there. But looking forward, what do we know about the investigation into what caused this explosion, the fact that this mine has had a number of violations?

At what point does the investigation start?

OSIAS: Well, you know, I have been told by the governor's office that right now, obviously, the focus is on the rescue efforts. And they are really, as you mentioned, of course, trying to get any sign of life, sign of communication. That's their big hope right now in drilling and trying to get some kind of acknowledgement of that or some tapping. But they are beginning to look at the investigation, the governor's office certainly, the company as well.

Now, this company actually, International Coal Group, bought out Anchor Corporation (ph) just within the last year. And there have been I think 164 safety citations.

They point to the fact that the safety citations have dropped, have gone down, and some of them actually are talking about roofs caving in and not having appropriate air ventilation, two factors really at play here that these families are quite concerned about. So that is certainly disconcerting.

But what the company says -- because I asked the president that directly, and he said, look, you know, you can't overhaul a company immediately. Is a culture, it is a process, we are doing the best we can. And there was nothing that was so egregious that would have cause MSHA, the umbrella corporation, the umbrella organization of mining companies, to shut us down.

PHILLIPS: Kimberly Osias, thank you so much.

And here's a "Did you know?"

Each section of a mine is required by law to have a disaster kit. Besides wood and cable, there's brattice cloth. Brattice cloth is fire-resistant fabric or plastic partition. It can be made from vinyl or fiberglass, depending on whether you need ventilation or fire-proof material. The weight and tear strength of brattice cloth can vary, so there are many types available.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration approves all materials found in those mine disaster kits.

What Saudi Arabia is to oil America is to coal. You're sitting on the world's biggest recoverable coal reserves, an estimated 275 billion tons, enough to last 250 years at current rates.

CNN's Bruce Morton digs a little deeper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We mine it, we burn it, because we have it. We have lots of it, and it's cheap and it doesn't come from the Middle East.

We burn about a billion tons a year, but that's OK. We have reserve of more than 200 billion, maybe 200 years worth at the rate we use it today.

We don't burn it in our home furnaces as much as we did when I was a kid. A lot of the coal we burn today, 91 percent, one Web site says, is for electricity. Turn on the kitchen light, probably, and you're burning coal.

There are two kinds of mining, surface and deep. Surface just scars the earth. Strip mining in Appalachia wasn't pretty. Nowadays they sometimes just take the whole top of a mountain off.

And while coal production in Kentucky and West Virginia is still going on, Wyoming mines the most coal now. And that's surface mining.

The West mines a little over half our coal, Appalachia about 35 percent. And it's not as deadly as it used to be. More automation, fewer men who have to go down into the mine.

In 2001, 13 miners died in an Alabama blast, but that was the worst disaster since 1984. West Virginia, where these men are trapped, ended the year 2005 with just three mining deaths.

(on camera): But it's no life, no life for those who go down into the mine, no life for the families who wait up above and worry. My late father grew up in a coal mining town. That's a long time ago now. And I always thought the smartest thing he ever did was walk away from it.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Lost in a dry spell. Oklahoma is more than a foot shy of the normal rainfall it would see this time of year.

Our Tony Harris is monitoring fire danger in the newsroom.

Tony, what are you seeing?

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kyra, good to talk to you.

I want to show you some pictures from a short time ago, aerial pictures, in fact, over northwest Oklahoma City, the grass fire -- there are the pictures for you right now -- that is pretty much under control. This is at the intersection of Western and Hefner (ph) if you're familiar with that section of Oklahoma City, and this fire is between an apartment building and homes.

Oklahoma City, Kyra, as you just mentioned, under a high alert for more than a week now. This situation not as bad here as some of the other scenes we've witnessed over the last week or so.

High winds and heat the mix leading to these fires. But take a look, if you would, at all of the brown patches around that fire site right there. All of that area a potential problem for not only the city, but the city's firefighters as well. But the good news here, Kyra, is that firefighters have been able to handle this particular situation and bring that broad swath of fire under control.

Temperatures in Oklahoma City today in the 70s. So that mix of wind and heat is still a problem there.

More to come, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll keep watching. Thanks, Tony.

From bone dry to thoroughly drenched, parts of northern California are now under a state of emergency. Seven counties, to be exact.

Governor Schwarzenegger is seeking state federal money to help resident recover from two massive winter storms. Close to 10 inches of rain was dumped on the area, flooding homes, businesses and entire farms. Damage estimates are in the hundreds of millions and still climbing.

The rain has also made a mess of things in wine country. But word is the great crop in Napa, at least in the Napa region, is OK. The 2005 harvest was brought in weeks ago. And this time of year, the vines are largely dormant.

Well, it may seem a lot like a cruel coincidence, but experts say that the flooding in northern California is directly related to the wildfires raging in Texas and Oklahoma.

As CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano explains, the source for both is the same.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Fire. Wind. Rain. Floods. What's happening in California may seem totally separate from what's going on in Texas and Oklahoma, but they are connected.

First, look at the tremendous amount of rain that's fallen in California. Since Christmas Day, Redding, California, has had almost two feet of rain. Just north of there in the mountains, Slate Creek has had over three feet of rain. And all of this has led to flooding along the Russian River in Napa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You fight it the whole time until you finally just throw in the towel, I think, and realize you're not going to win.

MARCIANO: Helicopter rescues of people trapped by rushing water. Flooding water up to four feet deep, causing up to $40 million worth of damage in the Marin County town of San Anselmo. And Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevadas has received almost 50 inches of snow in the past 24 hours.

Now, here's how it all comes together. The winter storm track, basically a river of air, comes off the Pacific Ocean, picking up moisture and dumping it, as in rain in most of California and snow in the mountains. Those storms are bringing rain and snow into the northern plains like Montana and Wyoming.

And here's what you might not expect. Those same storms are pulling up warm, dry air off the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico and blowing them over Texas and Oklahoma, already suffering from a drought since early summer and intensifying the already high risk of fire.

Rob Marciano, CNN, Marin County, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Stormy times here, too, in the Southeast. It's been unseasonably warm, which is setting off the kind of thunderstorms that we usually see in the summertime and spawning tornadoes.

Residents spotted at least two, each in Kentucky and Georgia overnight. Nearly a dozen homes were damaged or destroyed just south of Atlanta. One man says that he knew he had to seek cover when he saw a picnic table flying by. Funnel clouds also were reported across Kentucky, where high winds leveled several homes and damaged a number of power lines.

That weather system is now moving into the Northeast and bringing a sloppy mix of snow, sleet and rain. Some residents in Massachusetts are bracing for more than a foot of snow.

Jacqui Jeras watching the first winter storm of the year from the CNN weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: And here's something that you can catch on CNN Pipeline today. Of course, in addition to Jacqui and the weather, you can follow the ongoing efforts to find miners trapped underground in West Virginia.

At 3:30 Eastern, we're going to learn more on their situation from president and CEO of International Coal Group, Ben Hatfield. He'll be holding a news conference from Tallmansville, West Virginia.

And don't forget to check back with Pipeline throughout the day for up-to-the-minute developments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Rescuers in Germany call off their search for more possible survivors in the rubble of a skating rink. They're worried that what's left of that structure will collapse even further.

The roof gave way yesterday after a heavy snowfall. Thirty-four people were rescued, 18 of them injured. The bodies of 11 others, most of them children, have been recovered. Four skaters are believed to still be trapped under all that snow and debris.

Police and volunteers are also digging through mud with their bare hands, trying to recover bodies in the wake of flash flooding in Indonesia. At least 57 people are confirmed dead, dozens more are injured.

Rescuers are struggling to reach stranded survivors in villages in the central province of East Java. The rain triggered landslides and flooding that destroyed hundreds of buildings, leaving some 5,400 people homeless.

Heavy snow and rain adding to the misery of earthquake survivors in Pakistan. More than two million of them living in tents and flimsy shelters, battling to survive the winter. The massive Pakistan quake killed more than 73,000 people. Despite the bitter cold, international aid agencies say there are no reports of new outbreaks of disease or deaths.

Now, as we wait for word on the trapped miners, we might draw hope from the two men who survived a near tragedy yesterday just north of New York City. One moment they were flying over the Hudson River, the next, they were in it. The water temperature, in the mid-30s. Cold enough to kill you in a matter of minutes.

Here's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two pilots from New Jersey floundering in the Hudson River just north of New York City after engine trouble forced an emergency landing on the water. Helicopter rescue teams arrived within minutes. The Coast Guard pursuing one pilot, the New York Police Department the other.

ANTHONY CASSILLO, NYPD PILOT: Once we got within 30, 40 feet, we were able to see him. There was very little above the surface at that point when we got there. Face and hands is all I particularly saw.

CHERNOFF: Divers plunged into the 40-degree water to nab the pilots who were rapidly losing body heat.

LIAM DEVINE, NYPD RESCUE DIVER: When I swam up to him, he didn't dry to grab me, he didn't try to hold on to me. Normally people in the water, that's what they do. And so I knew he was in bad condition at that point.

CHERNOFF (on camera): It was thanks to a retired New York City police officer that the rescuers arrived so quickly. He happened to be flying a helicopter at the time of the May Day and immediately contacted NYPD aviation.

Fourteen minutes late, the divers were in the water.

(voice-over): The precious minutes saved may have meant the difference between life and death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we put him in the basket, he wasn't trying to hold the basket. He was hypothermic, he was losing a lot of his muscle strength.

CHERNOFF: Coast Guard rescuer Ben Bradlee (ph) says the pilot he helped save looked dazed and terrified when he was pulled into the helicopter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could not say anything. He was pretty hypothermic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were here very fast. The divers were in the water very fast. And I think survival depends on the speed with which they got up here and got in the water.

CHERNOFF: The single-engine plane was under water not long after the crash. Both rescue teams flew the victims to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. For Tony Sanseverino, who just retired from the NYPD on December 31 and now flies tourists, it's a gratifying addendum to a career of service. TONY SANSEVERINO, CAPT., LIBERTY TOURS: When you retire, it's something you don't turn off. I'm constantly flying, looking around, you know, and it's in me. It's in my blood.

CHERNOFF: The struggle is not over for pilots John Everly (ph), 43, and Mark Sory (ph), 44. They remain under treatment for hypothermia. A hospital spokesperson said they were in fair condition.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: So, are your children safer riding in an SUV or a car? The findings form a new study next.

The news keeps coming. We're going to keep bringing it to you.

Stay with us. More LIVE FROM ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, parents, take note. Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to choosing which vehicle is best for transporting your kids.

A new study finds they're no safer riding in SUVs than in passenger cars. Researchers examined accidents involving almost 4,000 children. They found the injury rates were about 1.7 percent in both in cars and SUVs. The extra weight of the bigger vehicles does offer more protection, but SUVs are more than twice as likely to roll over in crashes as cars, canceling out any safety advantages of their size.

Well, more bad news for air travelers. A cash crunch at Independence Airlines could lead to higher airfares.

Susan Lisovicz has more now from the New York Stock Exchange.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Minute by minute, the mission to rescue 13 West Virginia coal miners gets a little tougher. The odds of success a little longer, the burden on families and friends a lot heavier. Tony Harris is monitoring the situation for us right now. What do we know?

HARRIS: Kyra, I want to bring you pictures of the work and the team that is actually doing the work to drill that third hole. We can tell you, that that work is actually under way.

A third team, another team, working on that third hole of that West Virginia mine where 13 miners are still trapped in Upshur County, West Virginia. This is work that wasn't scheduled to get underway until about 2:00 p.m. eastern time. We can tell you that by 12:30 eastern, team were working on the third drill hole. We expect that a camera will be dropped into that third hole at any time now. I want you to hear from Mike Ross. Mike is one of the members of this drill team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you been a mining man all your life?

MIKE ROSS, HELPED DRILL 3RD HOLE: I grew up in coal mine, in the oil and gas industry, digging a lot deeper wells than this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you optimistic you'll get it down here?

ROSS: Very optimistic and hopeful, and if we -- we're successful, this is a small hole this is a six-inch hole, observation hole. We have a larger rig waiting down there along the road. Should we be successful here and make contact, we'll pull in and we'll drill a three-foot diameter hole, and then we'll try to help the men out through the hole. Similar to what they did in Pennsylvania a couple years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Kyra, an important bit of information that Mike just gave us. This is a six-inch hole. This is in fact, kind of a data monitoring hole. Not holes that you can actually pull people out of. You recall that earlier an air monitor was sent into hole number one, as you take a look at this graphic here, measured high levels of carbon monoxide, way too high support life.

This was in an area where rescuers thought the miners might be barricaded.

A quick reset here, rescuers are moving faster now, drilling on a second hole. Hole number two continues. No signs of fire in that tunnel. The hope is that the miners have found their way to good air, Kyra, and hopefully are down in that pocket of good air.

The latest information here is that drilling on a third hole is underway. We're expecting a camera will be dropped into that hole at any time now for a look around. More to come.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned dropping in that camera. We want to look at that video one more time. You said that's the third -- tell me what that is?

The third hole. In a is it right there, that we're looking at.

HARRIS: Right.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned a camera. We were talking about that the special robot, Tony that will go down in there, actually coming up in the 3:00 eastern hour.

HARRIS: Show-and-tell? PHILLIPS: Yes, we're going to have a little show-and-tell of the V2. It's pretty amazing. It's stuff you and I talk about a lot when bomb squads roll on to a scene, and they put these robots out. They're going to put a robot down there just to able to, like you said, take pictures with the cameras, test the toxic levels of gas. It's been incredible how this mechanism has been able to help in mining accidents.

HARRIS: What's interesting about this is Mike Ross, you see him there to the left of your screen, was telling us, what happens is, they've actually been able to drill just a small hole a six-inch hole. This is, as you look at the graphic on the right of your screen, the third hole we're talking about now.

The second hole is still being worked on. The third hole is at a stage where they can drop this camera in, and take a look around. Now, if they can find, locate, see, the trapped miners, then they will pull the camera out and they'll enlarge that hole and effect that rescue, but that's where they are right now.

PHILLIPS: Tony, thank you so much.

Whether it's Tony or the rest of the LIVE FROM... team, you can also monitor, minute-by-minute, what's happening with regard to the miners that are still trapped in that mine on Pipeline. You can see right here, the rescue efforts.

Basically, it's reality TV news. You can click on and see what's happening at the moment, continuously. Just go CNN.com/pipeline. Pretty cool stuff that we just started working on and are bringing it to you. Today's the big kickoff.

PHILLIPS: It's worth remembering America's last coal mine catastrophe. It took almost 80 hours to resolve and it had a very happy ending. CNN's Gary Tuchman takes a look back at Cue Creek, Pennsylvania, July, 2002.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world was watching as rescuers desperately drilled into 240 feet of rock trying to save nine men in a flooded Pennsylvania mine. Nobody above the ground knew if the miners were dead or alive, and then came the word.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All nine are alive. [ applause ]

TUCHMAN: After 77 hours, with tens of millions of gallons of water flooding the Cue Creek mine, the men were pulled up one at a time in a cage-like cylinder. All nine miners survived and over a 90- minute period all rescued on live TV.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lucky seven. Dennis J. Hall. He is 49 years old and a local boy from Johnstown.

TUCHMAN: Dennis Hall comes from a family of miners, he had worked underground since he was teenager. At first he was hopeful there would be a rescue, but 18 hours went by, where nothing was heard from above.

DENNIS J. HALL, RESCUED MINER: Time was running out. As that water filled the mine up we were losing our oxygen.

TUCHMAN: Hall and his fellow miners wrote good-bye letters to their families and put them in a bucket.

HALL: I made peace with the lord, and I figured that this is the way he wants me to die, you know I have to accept this. I ain't liking it, but I did accept it.

TUCHMAN: Another trapped miner, Randy Fogel, felt the same way and thought about family members in the mines before him.

RANDY FOGEL, RESCUED MINER: I've had, on my mom's side, her dad died in the mines. My uncle on her side lost his leg in the mines. On my wife's side, her dad lost his dad before he was born.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His name is Randy Fogel.

TUCHMAN: Heroic measures by many made the rescue possible. The Cue Creek mine is under a farm. The owner of the farm did the first digging.

BILL ARNOLD, FARM OWNER: Because they were under my property, I somehow felt responsible for their well-being.

TUCHMAN: A microphone lowered into the ground ultimately made it clear everyone was alive. The cage was dropped inside and the miners realized they were saved.

HALL: Wow. You know? I can't believe this. You know? I just couldn't believe it.

TUCHMAN: Some of the men still work in the coal mining industry, but only Randy Fogel is still working underground. Dennis Hall, husband and father of two, undergoes counseling and at his family's request will never work again as a miner.

HALL: You know, stop and smell the roses. There's a lot of truth to that.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Right now, rescue efforts still underway in West Virginia. We are monitoring every second of it. Tremendous efforts to save those 13 trapped miners. Our live coverage continues. We expect to hear another live briefing from Ben Hatfield, the president and CEO of International Coal Group. He'll update us on the situation 3:30 eastern.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The Patriot Act is one of President Bush's main weapons in the war on terror. Just before the end of the year, he lost a bruising battle with Congress to permanently renew the legislation, parts of which were about to expire. Well instead, he signed a bill extending those laws by one month. And now Mr. Bush is back on the offensive. Just a short while ago he extended his first meeting of the new year, aimed at getting the Patriot Act renewed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're talking about the Patriot Act and how useful the Patriot Act has been to safeguard America and at the same time safeguard the liberties of Americans. And yet the Patriot Act is going to expire in 30 days.

And these good folks, whose task it is to do everything they can to protect the American people from a terrorist enemy that wants to hit us again, is asking the United States Congress to give them the tools necessary to do their job. And I'm asking the Congress to do so as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Congress approved the initial Patriot Act shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Well you might think he's a little presumptuous, but after just three months on the job as chief justice, John Roberts is urging Congress to boost judges' salaries. In his first year-end assessment of the federal judiciary, Roberts minced no words. You need to pay the top dollar to get the top judges.

Well according to the administrative office of the U.S. courts, rates are just over $175,000 per circuit judges and $165,000 for district judges. Those sitting on the nation's highest court are paid from $203,000 for associate judges to just over $212,000 for the chief justice.

A major milestone for America's largest generation. The first baby boomers begin turning 60 this year. Here's a quick look at the facts about the boomers, that first generation of Americans born after World War II.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone born from 1946 through 1963 qualifies as a baby boomer. That means the oldest boomers are now turning 60 and the youngest will be turning 43 this year. All told, there an estimated 78.2 million baby boomers alive in America today. That's more than 26 percent of the nation's total population.

A little more than 50 percent of the boomers are women. And a little more than nine percent are African-American. For every hour this year, an estimated 330 boomers are expected to turn 60. Older bombers who are turning 60 this year include Donald Trump, Reggie Jackson and Dolly Parton.

Younger baby boomers turning 43 this year include Brad Pitt, Mark McGwire and Michael Jordan. America has had only two baby boomer presidents so far, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. They are actually among the oldest boomers, both were born in 1946 and will turn 60 later this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Checking in with the world of entertainment next, what's on tap, Sibila?

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the lion and the gorilla clawed to the box office crown over the holiday weekend. We'll tell you who won that battle when LIVE FROM returns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: A lion and a giant ape do battle at the box office. Woody Allen is back on the road and David Lee Roth, back behind the mic. But he's not singing. But Sibila Vargas sings, but that's a whole another story. She's got all the entertainment buzz.

VARGAS: I knew you would do that.

PHILLIPS: But you're fighting a cold, it sounds like?

VARGAS: Exactly. I have a hoarse voice, but you know I would sing for you. You know that.

PHILLIPS: I know you would.

VARGAS: Well let's get to movie news. Kong thought he was the king of the jungle, but it looks like Narnia's lion Aslan proved too hard to beat at the box office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aslan, we need your help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, but understand, the future of Narnia rests on your courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: It was a four-day holiday battle for the top spot, but in the end it was Narnia which reigned supreme, with close to $33 million.

Kong was not far behind. The powerful primate took in a little over $31.5 million. Rounding out the top five were "Fun with Dick and Jane," "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and "Rumor Has It."

Well with films like "Manhattan," "Hannah and her Sisters," and "Bullets over Broadway," Woody Allen has proven himself to be quite the quintessential New York moviemaker. Well now Allen will be taking his talents overseas.

Allen will be shooting an English-language film in Spain with international and Spanish actors. The director has been forced to shoot overseas due to the drying up of American financing of his uncommercial films. His new film, "Match Point," which was received a Golden Globe nomination, was shot in England.

Well, did you hear him this morning? David Lee Roth took over Howard Stern's duty on the radio in a lot of markets. The "Just a Gigolo" singer replaces the shock jock, who has moved on to satellite radio. Entering the new arena of syndicated radio is just the latest of Roth's reinventions.

Along with a stint as a New York City EMT worker, Roth has been quite busy with a guest spot on "The Sopranos" and a performance with the "Boston Pops." As for Stern, Kyra, his new show launches on Sirius satellite radio Monday January 9th. And as you can imagine, there are a lot of fans that have been missing him and they can't wait to hear him. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, back to David Lee Roth. What do you think? Will he be as extreme as Howard Stern? Is he behaving himself, do you know?

VARGAS: I don't think he's going to behave himself. I think he's going to try to be just as extreme and he's kind of, a little on the wacky side. Which is good. I mean, I guess it will fill that void, I guess, that a lot of fans have been waiting -- and people that I guess can't afford Sirius satellite radio will have something. But I don't know, I guess the jury's still out. We'll see.

PHILLIPS: All right. Taking me back to those Van Halen concerts so many years ago.

VARGAS: He'll also sing for you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. I'd love to have you two together, that would be a class act right there.

VARGAS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Sibila, nurse that cold. We'll see you soon.

Well life wasn't always pretty for pretty Juanita Dale Slusher of Edna, Texas. Even after she changed her name to Candy Barr, and took to the burlesque stage, known for her angelic face and perfect body, she became a famous stripper in the '50s and '60s. Candy made her share of headlines over the years, romantically linked to mobster Mickey Cohen. She was also a friend of Dallas nightclub number and Oswald assassin, Jack Ruby -- an association that led Feds to question her after the Kennedy assassination.

Well in Tinseltown-- got to love this picture. Candy Barr helped Hollywood hottie Joan Collins, using her exotic dancing skills, to earn the job of technical adviser on the film "Seven Thieves." Sexy Joan said that no one ever taught her more about sensuality. Jail time for marijuana possession put the kabosh on Candy's career. Once named by "Texas Monthly" magazine as a perfect Texan, Candy Barr sought the quiet life in her home state and died of pneumonia in Abilene on Friday. Pneumonia, that is. She was 70 years old.

Well, it's an indestructible laptop, a TV and more, and only costs $100. Just turn the hand crank on the green machine and you're in business! American technology helps the world's poorest get online. LIVE FROM in the global village, straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: Marion Barry -- you know, the former mayor of Washington, but that didn't protect him against crime. You'll remember, he's now a city council member. Well, Barry was robbed at gunpoint at his apartment. He says he was the victim of some youths who had been helping him carry in groceries from his car. The former mayor says that he was traumatized by the incident. Barry says that the robbers got away with his wallet which contained cash and credit cards.

Former Ohio State University football star Maurice Clarett was in court today to face charges of robbing two people outside a bar in downtown Columbus. He made no statement, and bond was set at $50,000. Clarett turned himself in to police last night, ironically while his former teammates were in Arizona winning the Fiesta Bowl.

Well, as a freshman in 2002, Clarett helped lead the Buckeyes to the national championship. Later he waged an unsuccessful fight to overturn NFL eligibility rules so he could turn pro. He was picked up by the Denver Broncos in last year's draft and then cut from their roster in August.

A Florida teen who traveled alone to Iraq plans to speak out later today. So do officials at the school where he skipped class to make the trip. And now it turns out that Farris Hassan wasn't totally on his own.

Get this -- his father says he helped the teen obtain a visa to get into Iraq and he had someone pick his son up at the airport and take him to a hotel for his two-day stay. The father says that his son left the hotel, wants to get something to eat but returned when people began to stare at him.

Technology is everywhere. It's mobile, wireless, virtual. In this speed of wide information age, the need to know and know now has never been so critical. That's why CNN is opening an information pipeline. Our Melissa Long shows how this new offering will keep you up to date.

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MELISSA LONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The promise of uninterrupted multiple live news feeds and commercial-free content all under your command is now a reality with CNN Pipeline, and it's going to give you new choices when it comes to how you get your news.

(voice-over): Here at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, we're constantly collecting news feeds from all over the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thought (ph), blogs (ph), Bush, interest to know, source, CNN.

LONG: These are unedited, often live. Throughout the day, the CNN.com Pipeline staff selects the four most compelling newsworthy feeds and makes them available to you in the four pipes you'll see within the Pipeline Player.

(on camera): These streaming feeds are constantly changing throughout the day, as live events end and new ones begin.

(voice-over): So whether it's breaking news, a car chase, presidential news briefing, you'll be able to follow what's going on as it happens, right from your desktop.

(on camera): From satellite feed to the control room, from our servers to your desktop, CNN Pipeline provides you with a new window on the world. So log on to CNN.com/pipeline for more information.

Melissa Long, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: Well, some call it a revolution in the world of computers, cheap, hand-cranked laptops that could link people in the world's poorest countries to the Internet. The brainchild of MIT computer experts, it's called the "green machine." Sylvia Smith has the story.

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SYLVIA SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surfing the Web in rural Tunisia isn't exactly easy, but it's not impossible. Remote pockets of the country's population can access the net by way of a colorful Internet bus, a mobile outpost of the worldwide Web. But a project led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could radically reshape Internet access in the developing world, taking home computing to some of the five billion people who aren't yet on the Web.

Nicknamed the "green machine," MIT launched this laptop at the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. The foldable, lime green computer costs less than $100 per unit. It's virtually indestructible, and its standard-sized batteries don't always need a power cable.

MARY LOU JEPSEN, ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD: This is a little dynamo. As you crank the handle, you create energy and you transfer that energy to charge up the batteries.

SMITH: It's an innovation that's been designed specifically for children.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: These robust, versatile machines will enable kids to become more active in their own land. SMITH: The green machine isn't just a laptop. It's also a television, a games console, a reading device. It even has a microphone and speaker allowing it to be used as a mobile phone.

But what's truly revolutionary is its ability to enable the organic growth of the Web, creating wireless communities, and empowering a new Internet generation.

NICHOLAS NEGROPONTE, MIT MEDIA LABORATORY: The laptop will be a mesh network. And by that I mean each laptop communicates with its nearest neighbors so that they all make this mesh that allows 1,000 kids or 2,000 kids to create a network amongst themselves. And any one or two kids are connected back to the Internet, they are all connected.

SMITH: The device moves away from traditional cutting edge technology, focusing instead of what Nicholas Negroponte calls the trailing edge.

NEGROPONTE: There's something called Moore's Law which was commonly quoted by technologists of how the complexity of integrated circuits would double every 18 months and has actually done that for the past 30 years. And Moore was correct, but the complexity has never been used to lower the price.

SMITH: The green machine isn't just cheap by design, but also in terms of its production values. The $100 laptop isn't yet in production. And for now, the developing world will continue to rely on government initiatives like the Internet bus.

JEPSEN: We've solved this missing link that allows the flood of everything else to happen. But, we still have a lot of work before us.

SMITH: In Tunis, this is Sylvia Smith.

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PHILLIPS: Rescue attempts are going full bore at the Sago Mine in West Virginia coal country more than 32 hours after the unexplained blast that left 13 miners trapped, hurt, or worse some 260 feet below the surface. Here's where things stand right now.

Search teams and a robot are almost two miles down the shaft which enters the earth at an angle, and progresses gently downward. Separately, three narrow holes are being drilled for the purposes of lowering cameras and air-quality monitors. One test early this morning showed that carbon monoxide levels more than three times the maximum for sustaining life. Mud and water are slowly -- are slowing rescuers progress, rather, and especially that of the 1,200 pound robot.

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