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CNN Live Today
War's Innocent Victims; Utah Mountain Rescue
Aired January 23, 2006 - 11:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A deadline set by her captors has come and gone. Nearly three days later, we have heard nothing about kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll, except her father's urgent plea. Militants have threatened to kill Carroll unless the U.S. releases Iraqi female prisoners. The deadline they set expired on Friday.
In a statement that you saw here on CNN, Carroll's father again appealed for her safe return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM CARROLL, FATHER OF KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST: I wish to speak directly to the people holding my daughter. I hope that you heard the conviction in Jill's voice when she spoke of her country. That was real. She is not your enemy. When you release her alive, she will tell your story with that same conviction. Alive, my daughter will not be silenced. Your story is one that can be told by Jill to the whole world. Allowing her to live and releasing her will enable her to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Carroll was working for "The Christian Science Monitor" when she was kidnapped on January 7th.
In any war, there are innocent victims. Their stories remind us of the toll that bullets and bombs can take on human lives, immeasurable tolls marked by loss and grief.
Our Candy Crowley has one such story. But loss is just the beginning; this is also a journey to hope.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has been almost three years since that day in Nasiriya, the day a sandstorm brought confusion to the chaos and the fighting, the day Daham Kassim tried to get his family out of the way of war and drove straight into it.
DAHAM KASSIM: There is, I think, four or three tanks, Americans tanks, in the Nasiriya gate. I don't see -- but just I see the tanks there, I stop my car, and I wait, I wait less than one minute really, and they shoot me.
CROWLEY: Three of his children died almost instantly. The fourth died later that night after being transferred to a U.S. airbase hospital.
KASSIM: My daughter then said, "Pop, it is very cold." But you know, I have nothing to help her, because I can't stand up. I can't -- this is broken and my legs is also broken, and the other also. And my wife also, the two arms -- two arms are broken. It is difficult for me to help my daughter. And also died.
CROWLEY: We first met Daham and his wife, Hufran (ph), a year ago, as they were visiting relatives in St. Louis. They carried the kind of pain that was easy to see and hard to watch.
KASSIM: Like this, huh?
CROWLEY: Some things heal more easily than others. The open wound was the loss of their family. They wanted children.
KASSIM: If come a daughter, the same name of my big daughter. And if come a boy, the same of my boy. This is sure.
CROWLEY: Just before Christmas, a year to the day, they arrived in the United States, there came a boy.
KASSIM: Mohammed (ph) came exactly at the time when the snow begin to fall, exactly in that day, in that minute.
CROWLEY: They are different people than they were a year ago. It is as though three lives began that day.
KASSIM: I am very, very happy. My son in my hand and I can see him, and touch him and speak to him. That is what I need, what I want. My story's not destroyed me, and I can stand up, and now I have a baby and I can start my life again.
CROWLEY (on camera): First time I've seen you smile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CROWLEY (voice-over): She no longer wears only black, giggles frequently and rarely puts Mohammed down. But her other children are just a whisper away. The day Mohammed was born, she says, was very happy and very difficult.
The thing is, now when they think of Americans, it's not just about that day in the sandstorm; they see the businessman who brought them to the U.S., the U.S. companies that donated a prosthesis and rehab, the doctors and nurses who watched over Hufran, a diabetic with a history of miscarriages.
KASSIM: They're like angels with the dealing in my health, the health of my wife and the health during the delivery of my son.
CROWLEY: They have roots here now.
KASSIM: You know, Mohammed, he's my son. And now he is an American citizen. CROWLEY: He is American by birthright. His parents are not. Their visa has run out. They await a decision by immigration that would allow them to stay. This is where their life is.
Candy Crowley, CNN, St. Louis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Thank you, Candy, for that nice story.
(NEWSBREAK)
KAGAN: And now live pictures once again from San Diego, California. Getting more information about this mishap on the 805. Apparently, according to Caltrans, a tractor-trailer ran into that highway sign and knocked it down. It fell on about two vehicles. This happened about an hour and a half ago. And at least one person in one of the vehicles suffered major injuries.
On top of that, as you can see, 805, which is a major freeway as people go through the morning commute, has come to a standstill, and it will be closed for an extended amount of time.
On to health news, it's supposed to magically melt away those extra pounds. Soon, it could be available over the counter. But is it too good to be true and could it be dangerous? We'll talk about the pros and cons of a leading prescription diet pill, up next.
First, though, a look at some political buzz online. Let's check in with Veronica De La Cruz at the CNN.com desk.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Senate is expected to take up the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito as the newest Supreme Court justice next week.
At CNN.com, a special report. The 55-year-old New Jersey native and Yale Law School graduate is likely to be confirmed to replace retiring Justice Sandra O'Connor. A growing number of Democratic senators have expressed that they would not vote to confirm Alito. And Democratic leaders have not ruled out a possible filibuster, though Senate sources say it is unlikely.
As of now, none of the 55 Republican senators have said they are opposed to Alito's nomination, which means that he could be confirmed with GOP votes alone.
This gallery highlights portions of what each senator on the judiciary committee said during the hearings. And check out this pundit scoreboard to find out how experts rated Alito's performance. And you can you let us know what you think by grading him yourself. It is all online and cnn.com/supremecourt.
For the dot-com desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Life and death hung in balance on a Utah mountainside, where a team of Korean climbers was stranded. Sheer rock cliffs, freezing temperatures and darkness all complicated rescue attempts on the ground and from the air.
CNN's Tim Lister takes us through an incredible mountain rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Clinging to life on the face of a mountain, four trekkers, members of a local Korean climbing club, trapped just below the summit of Mount Olympus. The temperature on the mountainside, about four degrees Fahrenheit.
A group of seven hikers set out on Saturday, but on the way down from the peak left the trail. They were not roped together.
One of the women hikers slipped, knocking over two others, who fell 60 feet. The whole group ended up on the shear mountainside with darkness closing in.
When they failed to return, family members alerted authorities. Rescuers were able to locate the group and bring three uninjured hikers off the mountain overnight. But three others had suffered fractures, and lifting them off by helicopter before daybreak was too risky.
DEP. ROBERT BURTON, SALT LAKE CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT: The area they were in was very technical and very dangerous and unstable area.
LISTER: A mountain rescue team stayed with the injured hikers overnight. And at daybreak, the operation began to bring them down.
DANIEL SMITH, SALT LAKE CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT: They were not hysterical. They were fairly well-contained. They understood their situation. They were relaxed, and they let us do their work. They weren't jumping up and down trying to, you know, take control of what we wanted to do.
LISTER: The first to be brought off the mountain, a woman with serious back injuries.
One of the hikers acknowledged they had had a lucky escape.
IN HAN, RESCUED HIKER: Without the rescue team's excellent job, maybe we really have really big problems. So they did a really great job.
LISTER: But when asked why the group had left the trail he said...
HAN: It was a mountain area, it's challenging.
LISTER: In this case, somewhat too challenging.
Tim Lister, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And speaking of challenging, that's the situation in San Diego this morning. This is a highway camera, a freeway camera, from Caltrans. This is the 805, as it heads into downtown San Diego. A huge highway sign, apparently clipped by a tractor-trailer about an hour and a half ago, caused that sign to come tumbling down and now the freeway has been closed. That's -- there's a better picture of it. That sign, by the way, fell on top of two vehicles and at least one person in one of those cars did suffer some major injuries. And now one of the major arteries in San Diego's rush hour completely shut down at this hour.
We'll continue to follow that story, also check in on weather and business. And news of a popular prescription diet pill that is supposed to melt away the fat. Should it be over-the-counter? We'll talk about that just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: In our Daily Dose of health news, the FDA weighs whether to sell a prescription diet drug over the counter. The company that makes Xenical wants to sell a lower-dose version directly to consumers. Regulators do have some concerns, and nutrition experts say that taking a pill is not a quick fix for obesity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PAMELA PEEKE, NUTRITION EXPERT: You take the pill, this is not a magic pill. What it does, it basically partially blocks fat absorption. That's all. The fat has to go somewhere. It goes out the other end. When it does this, however, it also decreases the absorption of fat soluble vitamins like A, D and K. So everyone taking this pill, obviously, have to be taking a multivitamin as well. So it's really important to keep this in mind.
The only thing is, you're only dropping five percent of your total body weight -- five percent. So if you're 200 pounds, that's only 10 pounds, and this is over the course of a year. This is supposed to be working adjunctively with diet and exercise. But the last I looked, when you got up and you actually took a walk, you dropped something like 20 to 25 pounds a year by basically sweating and putting on the sneaks.
So it's really up to you as to whether or not you want to do the side effects, pay the money, which is going to be about $100 a month or so, not covered by any insurance plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: And that was from CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, which airs weekdays at 6:00 A.M. Eastern. They go until 10:00 a.m. Eastern, our favorite warmup act.
You can get your daily dose of health news online. Log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.
(MARKET REPORT)
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: And it is the worst day of the year for folks on the 805 in Southern California.
Well, that's not the picture we meant to go to.
That was that woman's worst day of the year, but this is what's happening here on the 805 in San Diego, that highway sign clipped by a tractor-trailer, came tumbling down on top of two other vehicles. One person suffering major injuries, and can you see the 805 northbound lanes shutdown during rush hour in San Diego. We'll continue to follow that.
I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is up next for you. Stay tuned for YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'll be back with the latest headlines from the U.S. in about 20 minutes, plus live coverage of President Bush's speech at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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