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CNN Sunday Morning

Dozens of Miners Trapped in Northwest China

Aired November 28, 2004 - 09:30   ET

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

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


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Here's what's happening now in the news.

Rescue workers in China are frantically searching for victims of a coal mine explosion. Local reports say 166 workers have been trapped under ground for more than 12 hours. It's unclear how many were alive. Reports say 127 miners were rescued shortly after the blast. We'll have a live report from Beijing in just a moment.

And this word just in to CNN, European diplomats say it appears Iran has agreed fully to stop uranium enrichment, diplomats tell the Associated Press. Iran sent a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog group promising not to test some centrifuges during the freeze.

Back in the U.S. the kickoff of the holiday season has been good to many retailers. Visa says its customers charged about $4 billion worth on Friday alone. However the news not so good for Wal-Mart. A slow sales week prompted the world's largest retailer to cut its projected sales increase for the month by more than half.

And part of the Delaware River near Philadelphia remains closed this morning after the worst oil spill on that river in nearly a decade. The Coast Guard says a tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the river Friday night, threatening fish and other wildlife.

NGUYEN: Back to our top story, now, dozens of miners trapped in northwest China. Frantic efforts under way to save them. CNN's Tara Duffy is in Beijing and joins us now with the latest. What do you know?

TARA DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, there are still 166 miners trapped in this mine. And what we do know is that witnesses told state run media that -- this morning in local time they saw thick smoke billowing from the ventilation shafts. But when the workers tried to contact those workers who were still in the pit the communication line was already broken. That's after the rescue efforts began. 127 miners have made it safely out of the mine.

Those who were mostly working near the mouth of the mine at the time. And some of them are now suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning and are in hospital. Now this accident is coming days after the local government there ordered a tougher inspection on mines in the area, and the closing of mines that had insufficient ventilation. This is the latest in a series of quite serious mining accidents in China. Just a couple of days ago we heard that a mining accident that happened a week ago, the death toll had risen there to 68, and 119 people still missing from that accident as well. But just to put it into perspective, more than 4,100 people have died in mining accidents in China in the first nine months of this year alone.

Now, so far we've seen messages of support on the Internet posted by the public, but also some questioning of government officials, and the management in the mining industry of whether or not they had been up-keeping the proper safety standard. Betty?

NGUYEN: Absolutely. A lot of people looking for answers, here. CNN's Tara Duffy in Beijing for us today. Thank you, Tara.

Other stories making news around the world this morning, did assassins have their sights on President Bush when he went to South America last week? Colombia's defense secretary says they did. And he says leftist rebel leaders had ordered their fighters to try to kill Bush during his brief visit to the country. No comment from the U.S. Secret Service and no evidence of that plot has surfaced.

In an effort to move the stalled Mid-East peace process forward once again, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is willing to meet with the Palestinian leader. Mahmoud Abbas is the leading candidate to become Palestinian Authority president. Sharon says he would be willing to meet with Abbas if he wins the January 9th election. In the meantime the previous Palestinian leader is still on Israel's mind. Israeli officials want to change Yasser Arafat's death certificate. It lists Arafat's birthplace as Jerusalem, but Israel wants French authorities to change it to Cairo, Egypt. Arafat always claimed he was born in the Israeli holy city but Israel disputes that. Arafat died in a French hospital this month.

In the Ukraine, seven days and counting. That is how long mass protests over the presidential election have been going on. Ukraine's outgoing president is pushing for an end to those protests that you see here. Meantime, talks continue today to resolve the election which has been held in limbo by claims of fraud.

HARRIS: Well, patience may be the keyword if you are heading back home from the long Thanksgiving holiday. Let's check in with Rally Caparas for an update on travel. And Rally, I hope you are here to tell us things have improved from, let's say, a couple of hours ago?

RALLY CAPARAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, I can't do that for you, sorry. Christmas is around the corner, I will do something like that later. Today is not going to be an easy go, especially in the Northeast. You got beat up on Wednesday. It looks like round two is today. Take a look at flightexplorer.com. You'll see what's going on. The weather is moving through Philadelphia up into New York cities and over to the Boston before the end of the day. Delays will be a major problem at those locations.

Here's how it's going to work. Boston's Logan Airport will remain delay-free until 1:00, or 2:00 p.m. Eastern, and then you will start to see the low clouds, the rain and the poor visibility really blow in along with gusting winds of 40 knots. They're seeing 40 knot winds in New York City right now. Expect those to last into the late evening hours once they start. LaGuardia and Newark, 1-2-hour arrival delays are already taking place. The FAA administered a ground delay program, they assigned two-hour delays to most flights in those airports and that will likely to last throughout the entire day and evening.

Philadelphia, it's starting to look like you may get away with shorter than 60-90-minute delays. I will have an update for you in the next hour or so, but looks like the wind is subsiding somewhat. You could see on-time schedules before we hit the evening rush period, but expect a 45- to 60-minute arrival delay until then.

A little further west, Denver, you are going to suffer some de- icing and some snowfall in the area. 45-60 minutes into and out of that airport for the remainder of the day. And then finally, Las Vegas McCarran, it hasn't started yet, but they too are seeing 35 knot gusts and that will mean delays of about 60 minutes. I will be back throughout the day. Tony, back to you.

HARRIS: Rally, I hope it's clean and green from this studio, this set, over to the Omni.

CAPARAS: Oh, it is.

HARRIS: It is. OK. Great. Thank you Rally.

NGUYEN: You have some travel time to make up for and speaking of, you know, whether you are watching in the airport or at home, we have Najee coming up for you. It's a holiday treat for you here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HARRIS: And I am had heading over there to have a little conversation, a little chat time with Najee and to hear him play a live performance coming up in just a couple of minutes.

NGUYEN: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ended up fifth in the chase for the Nextel Cup. Maybe the NASCAR superstar needed a pet pig for good luck. We're not joking here. There is one waiting for him in West Virginia. Randy Yohe of CNN affiliate WSAZ brings home the bacon, so to speak.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RANDY YOHE, WSAZ CORRESPONDENT: So are you a big NASCAR fan?

DANA SHOALS, PIG OWNER: No.

YOHE (voice-over): But when Dana Shoals black and white Hampshire piglet that his daughter named Allie grew into a 150-pound pig with a well-defined number 8 on its side, Dana thought of NASCAR's popular number 8 car driven by racing superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr.

SHOALS: I just wanted to find out the Earnhardt's address and stuff I was going to send a picture to him. Just for sending it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has number 8 and it has two of his colors.

YOHE: Oh, it has his colors, too, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mm-hmm.

YOHE: That's right, pig number 8 is black and white. Dale Jr.'s number 8 race car is black, white and red.

YOHE: You think that Dale might want that?

SHOALS: Might want it. Might want to put it in a zoo or something.

YOHE: I took some photos of pig number 8 to NASCAR store Dixie Thunder where they say number 8 merchandise outsells all other numbers combined. And the response -- they went hog-wild.

(on camera) You asked me if it's born that way. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's incredible. I wonder if he pays a licensing fee for that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want it.

YOHE: You want that pig?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got an 8 on it. It's got to be good luck. I'm a Junior fan, so I'm partial.

YOHE: Do you want it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I want the pig? I don't think my wife would let me. Really got nowhere to keep it, but I can try.

SHOALS: If somebody wants to buy it then I will sell it.

YOHE: Otherwise?

SHOALS: Otherwise I'm going to slaughter it when it gets old you enough.

YOHE: Well, number 8 is a prime pork Hampshire hog.

SHOALS: The bacon and stuff is leaner on them.

YOHE: If that time comes, let's hope number 8 can move as fast as number 8.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

NGUYEN: He'd better move fast or he's going to be turned into bacon. Oh no. Again, that was Randy Yohe of WSAZ of Huntington, West Virginia. Two platinum albums, four gold ones. Just listen to that sound. That will get you a live appearance on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Najee performs live. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: You're looking at live pictures of jazz artist Najee. Getting ready to bring you a holiday weekend treat. Grammy-nominated Najee live coming up on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a look at the top stories today.

Rescue teams are working feverishly to reach trapped coal miners in china, an explosion trapped 166 miners, some five miles from the mine entrance. 127 others got out okay.

A top Colombian official reports an assassination order targeted at President Bush. Colombia's defense secretary says leaders of a Marxist group ordered fighters to kill Mr. Bush when he stopped in Cartagena Monday. Security was tight during that brief visit and no incidents were reported.

A 3.1 earthquake rattles Mount St. Helens. It's the strongest shaker in more than a month. Scientists say they don't believe a major eruption at the volcano is imminent.

Well, from a major shake to some musical swinging. We've been teasing you all morning long, now, finally we give you the goods. Jazz musician Najee is with us, so let us go to the Omni Hotel right next to the CNN Center here in Atlanta where Tony Harris is with Najee. And I tell you, Tony, you got a great assignment. How did you do that?

HARRIS: How about this? I was able to swing this. Like I've been telling you all morning here, I'm trying to incorporate more and more into the weekend show. You are right, Najee has been with us all morning, and Najee, you developed a little following hire, I see folks walking through the lobby here at the hotel and stopping by?

NAJEE, MUSICIAN: That's right. Yes, they have.

HARRIS: Well, it's been great. It's been great having you here this morning. And I have to ask you, take us back to the earlest days when you were a young guy and tell us when music became not just something that you would sing around the house but something that became important to you.

NAJEE: You know, I think it happened for me in high school. I remember when one day I took a saxophone solo at a talent show and then all the girls new my name after that. So I knew from that moment on that I was going to do it the rest of my life.

HARRIS: So that's interesting. It wasn't a bug that you got early in your life. When did you figure up your first instrument?

NAJEE: Gosh, I think it was about 9 years old.

HARRIS: What was it?

NAJEE: It was a clarinet. I fooled around with it but it wasn't until high school I realized I wanted to do it.

NAJEE: So you play the clarinet, you play all the saxophones. All of them?

NAJEE: Yes. Most people know me as a saxophone player, but I play flute as well.

HARRIS: And you play flute.

NAJEE: Yes.

HARRIS: OK. So let me ask you the question a different way. Did you find music or did music find you?

NAJEE: It's funny. I think it was a combination of both. I grew up in a house where my family listened to a lot of music. My brother and I - Faree(PH), he plays guitar -- we played in local bands, and we went on to play professionally and it seems like we found each other. It was kind of my escape. Most kids were into basketball, sports ...

HARRIS: Yeah. Give us a sense of what those as we look at video, give us a sense of what those days were like in the 80s, when artists like yourselves were being criticized for not being traditionalists and moving to this new form of music called contemporary jazz.

NAJEE: Right. Well, at first it was as little difficult, because it's interesting, I didn't call it contemporary jazz. It wasn't called that. What we did back then was R&B, instrumental R&B music. And then later on it became the smooth jazz format. But I think some of the criticism back then was a little harsh but now it's become the standard and nothing can ever replace the traditional jazz, you know.

HARRIS: You are a platinum artist, a gold artist, Grammy nominated artist. What do you point to as some of the highlights in your career?

NAJEE: I've had so many. Being able to work with great artists, such as Prince, Chaka Kahn, or Melba Moore, Quincy Jones, many others.

HARRIS: The list goes on.'

NAJEE: Yeah.

HARRIS: What are you going to play for us this morning?

NAJEE: Well, today am joined by Phil Davis, we are going to play a song called "Greensleeves" which is a holiday tradition.

HARRIS: OK. Najee.

(MUSIC - "GREENSLEEVES")

HARRIS: Phil Davis and Najee that was beautiful.

NAJEE: Thank you so much. Thank you.

HARRIS: All right. We are going to have a little built more from Najee in a moment when CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues. Najee, play us into a break.

NAJEE: Okay.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: This holiday movie season has something in common with one of the top political issues in this year's election, do stay with us for INSIDE POLITICS just seven minutes away right here on CNN, seven minutes away. And speaking of politics, we've been asking for your thought on our email question of the day, should Iraqi elections go ahead as planned on January 30th? And we got some very interesting responses.

Cheryl writes, "I do not feel we should stick to a deadline that is not relevant. How can elections be viable when a major part of Iraq is not accessible to any foreigner, including parts of Baghdad. It is questionable as to whether the population as a whole would be inclusive in this election and if the answer is, 'No,' then in my opinion the election should be postponed.

And Marisa from Ohio writes, "Why not? Look at our last two elections here in the U.S. Our elections are anything but perfect or fair! Let it go on. We did."

Hmm. Very interesting. We appreciate all your responses today. A lot of people getting ready to travel home after this big holiday weekend, Rob, it's kind of a mess out there weather wise.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHERMAN: The only thing that's messy about our election process is this Electoral College deal. Other than that it's the best process in the world. Anyway, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

NGUYEN: Two cents there.

MARCIANO: Here we go, looking at nice weather across Florida and nice weather across California, although it will be a little windy there. Snow from Denver back to Salt Lake City already three feet in some of the higher elevations. They're cutting tracks in Colorado today.

Chicago looking good, just a little bit wind, Detroit a couple of rain and snow showers, you go from Pittsburgh to Philly, northeast along I-5 almost into Hartford, now, we're seeing some rain. Some of that rain will be heavy at times. So it's just a wet and nasty day across the Northeast. A windy day across parts of California, Santa Ana is blowing there.

High pressure in control across the midsection of the country, we're looking at pretty nice weather. There's the Northeast looking pretty good. New York and Philly, tomorrow is going to be dry, Atlanta 59, Miami 83, 61 in Charlotte and across Detroit looking for that rain-snow mix. No big deal, really, maybe across Chicago. We got a little music for you. There's LA. KABC. Hey it's Randy Newman. And he loves LA. Yes he does.

There's the sunshine glistening off the high skyscrapers of downtown LA. Blue sky in the horizon but the Santa Ana winds are blowing. They have the Hollywood Christmas spectacular happening. 1 million fans turn up for this little bit of a gaudy, glitz affair down Sunset Boulevard. Each and every year entertainers and comedians(PH) come out and singers and musicians and entertain the masses. Weather in LA, windy, mentioned that, hold onto your hats, temperatures will be in 50s, there, or 60s in LA and 50s in San Francisco.

NGUYEN: Did you call it a gaudy glitz there in LA? Come on. There's nothing gaudy about Hollywood or LA. What are you talking about Rob?

MARCIANO: All right. Just glitzy.

NGUYEN: OK. Just Glitzy. Glamour. All right. We do want to bring in Tony now because we are at the end of the show. We appreciate you watching, but it's not over just yet. Because we have had the pleasure of having Najee on today. Are you going to do a little dancing for us Tony?

HARRIS: Betty, you do totally want me to make a fool of myself on national television.

NGUYEN: Why not?

HARRIS: He goes on national television and loses his mind. That won't happen. There will be no singing either. But the only thing missing over here is the brunch, we have the cool jazz. The only thing missing is the brunch, but I will work on that. Betty, very good to be with you, but we will leave you with morning, this Sunday morning with Najee, accompanied by Phil Davis.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 28, 2004 - 09:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Here's what's happening now in the news.

Rescue workers in China are frantically searching for victims of a coal mine explosion. Local reports say 166 workers have been trapped under ground for more than 12 hours. It's unclear how many were alive. Reports say 127 miners were rescued shortly after the blast. We'll have a live report from Beijing in just a moment.

And this word just in to CNN, European diplomats say it appears Iran has agreed fully to stop uranium enrichment, diplomats tell the Associated Press. Iran sent a letter to the UN nuclear watchdog group promising not to test some centrifuges during the freeze.

Back in the U.S. the kickoff of the holiday season has been good to many retailers. Visa says its customers charged about $4 billion worth on Friday alone. However the news not so good for Wal-Mart. A slow sales week prompted the world's largest retailer to cut its projected sales increase for the month by more than half.

And part of the Delaware River near Philadelphia remains closed this morning after the worst oil spill on that river in nearly a decade. The Coast Guard says a tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the river Friday night, threatening fish and other wildlife.

NGUYEN: Back to our top story, now, dozens of miners trapped in northwest China. Frantic efforts under way to save them. CNN's Tara Duffy is in Beijing and joins us now with the latest. What do you know?

TARA DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, there are still 166 miners trapped in this mine. And what we do know is that witnesses told state run media that -- this morning in local time they saw thick smoke billowing from the ventilation shafts. But when the workers tried to contact those workers who were still in the pit the communication line was already broken. That's after the rescue efforts began. 127 miners have made it safely out of the mine.

Those who were mostly working near the mouth of the mine at the time. And some of them are now suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning and are in hospital. Now this accident is coming days after the local government there ordered a tougher inspection on mines in the area, and the closing of mines that had insufficient ventilation. This is the latest in a series of quite serious mining accidents in China. Just a couple of days ago we heard that a mining accident that happened a week ago, the death toll had risen there to 68, and 119 people still missing from that accident as well. But just to put it into perspective, more than 4,100 people have died in mining accidents in China in the first nine months of this year alone.

Now, so far we've seen messages of support on the Internet posted by the public, but also some questioning of government officials, and the management in the mining industry of whether or not they had been up-keeping the proper safety standard. Betty?

NGUYEN: Absolutely. A lot of people looking for answers, here. CNN's Tara Duffy in Beijing for us today. Thank you, Tara.

Other stories making news around the world this morning, did assassins have their sights on President Bush when he went to South America last week? Colombia's defense secretary says they did. And he says leftist rebel leaders had ordered their fighters to try to kill Bush during his brief visit to the country. No comment from the U.S. Secret Service and no evidence of that plot has surfaced.

In an effort to move the stalled Mid-East peace process forward once again, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is willing to meet with the Palestinian leader. Mahmoud Abbas is the leading candidate to become Palestinian Authority president. Sharon says he would be willing to meet with Abbas if he wins the January 9th election. In the meantime the previous Palestinian leader is still on Israel's mind. Israeli officials want to change Yasser Arafat's death certificate. It lists Arafat's birthplace as Jerusalem, but Israel wants French authorities to change it to Cairo, Egypt. Arafat always claimed he was born in the Israeli holy city but Israel disputes that. Arafat died in a French hospital this month.

In the Ukraine, seven days and counting. That is how long mass protests over the presidential election have been going on. Ukraine's outgoing president is pushing for an end to those protests that you see here. Meantime, talks continue today to resolve the election which has been held in limbo by claims of fraud.

HARRIS: Well, patience may be the keyword if you are heading back home from the long Thanksgiving holiday. Let's check in with Rally Caparas for an update on travel. And Rally, I hope you are here to tell us things have improved from, let's say, a couple of hours ago?

RALLY CAPARAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, I can't do that for you, sorry. Christmas is around the corner, I will do something like that later. Today is not going to be an easy go, especially in the Northeast. You got beat up on Wednesday. It looks like round two is today. Take a look at flightexplorer.com. You'll see what's going on. The weather is moving through Philadelphia up into New York cities and over to the Boston before the end of the day. Delays will be a major problem at those locations.

Here's how it's going to work. Boston's Logan Airport will remain delay-free until 1:00, or 2:00 p.m. Eastern, and then you will start to see the low clouds, the rain and the poor visibility really blow in along with gusting winds of 40 knots. They're seeing 40 knot winds in New York City right now. Expect those to last into the late evening hours once they start. LaGuardia and Newark, 1-2-hour arrival delays are already taking place. The FAA administered a ground delay program, they assigned two-hour delays to most flights in those airports and that will likely to last throughout the entire day and evening.

Philadelphia, it's starting to look like you may get away with shorter than 60-90-minute delays. I will have an update for you in the next hour or so, but looks like the wind is subsiding somewhat. You could see on-time schedules before we hit the evening rush period, but expect a 45- to 60-minute arrival delay until then.

A little further west, Denver, you are going to suffer some de- icing and some snowfall in the area. 45-60 minutes into and out of that airport for the remainder of the day. And then finally, Las Vegas McCarran, it hasn't started yet, but they too are seeing 35 knot gusts and that will mean delays of about 60 minutes. I will be back throughout the day. Tony, back to you.

HARRIS: Rally, I hope it's clean and green from this studio, this set, over to the Omni.

CAPARAS: Oh, it is.

HARRIS: It is. OK. Great. Thank you Rally.

NGUYEN: You have some travel time to make up for and speaking of, you know, whether you are watching in the airport or at home, we have Najee coming up for you. It's a holiday treat for you here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HARRIS: And I am had heading over there to have a little conversation, a little chat time with Najee and to hear him play a live performance coming up in just a couple of minutes.

NGUYEN: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ended up fifth in the chase for the Nextel Cup. Maybe the NASCAR superstar needed a pet pig for good luck. We're not joking here. There is one waiting for him in West Virginia. Randy Yohe of CNN affiliate WSAZ brings home the bacon, so to speak.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RANDY YOHE, WSAZ CORRESPONDENT: So are you a big NASCAR fan?

DANA SHOALS, PIG OWNER: No.

YOHE (voice-over): But when Dana Shoals black and white Hampshire piglet that his daughter named Allie grew into a 150-pound pig with a well-defined number 8 on its side, Dana thought of NASCAR's popular number 8 car driven by racing superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr.

SHOALS: I just wanted to find out the Earnhardt's address and stuff I was going to send a picture to him. Just for sending it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has number 8 and it has two of his colors.

YOHE: Oh, it has his colors, too, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mm-hmm.

YOHE: That's right, pig number 8 is black and white. Dale Jr.'s number 8 race car is black, white and red.

YOHE: You think that Dale might want that?

SHOALS: Might want it. Might want to put it in a zoo or something.

YOHE: I took some photos of pig number 8 to NASCAR store Dixie Thunder where they say number 8 merchandise outsells all other numbers combined. And the response -- they went hog-wild.

(on camera) You asked me if it's born that way. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's incredible. I wonder if he pays a licensing fee for that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want it.

YOHE: You want that pig?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's got an 8 on it. It's got to be good luck. I'm a Junior fan, so I'm partial.

YOHE: Do you want it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do I want the pig? I don't think my wife would let me. Really got nowhere to keep it, but I can try.

SHOALS: If somebody wants to buy it then I will sell it.

YOHE: Otherwise?

SHOALS: Otherwise I'm going to slaughter it when it gets old you enough.

YOHE: Well, number 8 is a prime pork Hampshire hog.

SHOALS: The bacon and stuff is leaner on them.

YOHE: If that time comes, let's hope number 8 can move as fast as number 8.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

NGUYEN: He'd better move fast or he's going to be turned into bacon. Oh no. Again, that was Randy Yohe of WSAZ of Huntington, West Virginia. Two platinum albums, four gold ones. Just listen to that sound. That will get you a live appearance on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. Najee performs live. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: You're looking at live pictures of jazz artist Najee. Getting ready to bring you a holiday weekend treat. Grammy-nominated Najee live coming up on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a look at the top stories today.

Rescue teams are working feverishly to reach trapped coal miners in china, an explosion trapped 166 miners, some five miles from the mine entrance. 127 others got out okay.

A top Colombian official reports an assassination order targeted at President Bush. Colombia's defense secretary says leaders of a Marxist group ordered fighters to kill Mr. Bush when he stopped in Cartagena Monday. Security was tight during that brief visit and no incidents were reported.

A 3.1 earthquake rattles Mount St. Helens. It's the strongest shaker in more than a month. Scientists say they don't believe a major eruption at the volcano is imminent.

Well, from a major shake to some musical swinging. We've been teasing you all morning long, now, finally we give you the goods. Jazz musician Najee is with us, so let us go to the Omni Hotel right next to the CNN Center here in Atlanta where Tony Harris is with Najee. And I tell you, Tony, you got a great assignment. How did you do that?

HARRIS: How about this? I was able to swing this. Like I've been telling you all morning here, I'm trying to incorporate more and more into the weekend show. You are right, Najee has been with us all morning, and Najee, you developed a little following hire, I see folks walking through the lobby here at the hotel and stopping by?

NAJEE, MUSICIAN: That's right. Yes, they have.

HARRIS: Well, it's been great. It's been great having you here this morning. And I have to ask you, take us back to the earlest days when you were a young guy and tell us when music became not just something that you would sing around the house but something that became important to you.

NAJEE: You know, I think it happened for me in high school. I remember when one day I took a saxophone solo at a talent show and then all the girls new my name after that. So I knew from that moment on that I was going to do it the rest of my life.

HARRIS: So that's interesting. It wasn't a bug that you got early in your life. When did you figure up your first instrument?

NAJEE: Gosh, I think it was about 9 years old.

HARRIS: What was it?

NAJEE: It was a clarinet. I fooled around with it but it wasn't until high school I realized I wanted to do it.

NAJEE: So you play the clarinet, you play all the saxophones. All of them?

NAJEE: Yes. Most people know me as a saxophone player, but I play flute as well.

HARRIS: And you play flute.

NAJEE: Yes.

HARRIS: OK. So let me ask you the question a different way. Did you find music or did music find you?

NAJEE: It's funny. I think it was a combination of both. I grew up in a house where my family listened to a lot of music. My brother and I - Faree(PH), he plays guitar -- we played in local bands, and we went on to play professionally and it seems like we found each other. It was kind of my escape. Most kids were into basketball, sports ...

HARRIS: Yeah. Give us a sense of what those as we look at video, give us a sense of what those days were like in the 80s, when artists like yourselves were being criticized for not being traditionalists and moving to this new form of music called contemporary jazz.

NAJEE: Right. Well, at first it was as little difficult, because it's interesting, I didn't call it contemporary jazz. It wasn't called that. What we did back then was R&B, instrumental R&B music. And then later on it became the smooth jazz format. But I think some of the criticism back then was a little harsh but now it's become the standard and nothing can ever replace the traditional jazz, you know.

HARRIS: You are a platinum artist, a gold artist, Grammy nominated artist. What do you point to as some of the highlights in your career?

NAJEE: I've had so many. Being able to work with great artists, such as Prince, Chaka Kahn, or Melba Moore, Quincy Jones, many others.

HARRIS: The list goes on.'

NAJEE: Yeah.

HARRIS: What are you going to play for us this morning?

NAJEE: Well, today am joined by Phil Davis, we are going to play a song called "Greensleeves" which is a holiday tradition.

HARRIS: OK. Najee.

(MUSIC - "GREENSLEEVES")

HARRIS: Phil Davis and Najee that was beautiful.

NAJEE: Thank you so much. Thank you.

HARRIS: All right. We are going to have a little built more from Najee in a moment when CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues. Najee, play us into a break.

NAJEE: Okay.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: This holiday movie season has something in common with one of the top political issues in this year's election, do stay with us for INSIDE POLITICS just seven minutes away right here on CNN, seven minutes away. And speaking of politics, we've been asking for your thought on our email question of the day, should Iraqi elections go ahead as planned on January 30th? And we got some very interesting responses.

Cheryl writes, "I do not feel we should stick to a deadline that is not relevant. How can elections be viable when a major part of Iraq is not accessible to any foreigner, including parts of Baghdad. It is questionable as to whether the population as a whole would be inclusive in this election and if the answer is, 'No,' then in my opinion the election should be postponed.

And Marisa from Ohio writes, "Why not? Look at our last two elections here in the U.S. Our elections are anything but perfect or fair! Let it go on. We did."

Hmm. Very interesting. We appreciate all your responses today. A lot of people getting ready to travel home after this big holiday weekend, Rob, it's kind of a mess out there weather wise.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN WEATHERMAN: The only thing that's messy about our election process is this Electoral College deal. Other than that it's the best process in the world. Anyway, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

NGUYEN: Two cents there.

MARCIANO: Here we go, looking at nice weather across Florida and nice weather across California, although it will be a little windy there. Snow from Denver back to Salt Lake City already three feet in some of the higher elevations. They're cutting tracks in Colorado today.

Chicago looking good, just a little bit wind, Detroit a couple of rain and snow showers, you go from Pittsburgh to Philly, northeast along I-5 almost into Hartford, now, we're seeing some rain. Some of that rain will be heavy at times. So it's just a wet and nasty day across the Northeast. A windy day across parts of California, Santa Ana is blowing there.

High pressure in control across the midsection of the country, we're looking at pretty nice weather. There's the Northeast looking pretty good. New York and Philly, tomorrow is going to be dry, Atlanta 59, Miami 83, 61 in Charlotte and across Detroit looking for that rain-snow mix. No big deal, really, maybe across Chicago. We got a little music for you. There's LA. KABC. Hey it's Randy Newman. And he loves LA. Yes he does.

There's the sunshine glistening off the high skyscrapers of downtown LA. Blue sky in the horizon but the Santa Ana winds are blowing. They have the Hollywood Christmas spectacular happening. 1 million fans turn up for this little bit of a gaudy, glitz affair down Sunset Boulevard. Each and every year entertainers and comedians(PH) come out and singers and musicians and entertain the masses. Weather in LA, windy, mentioned that, hold onto your hats, temperatures will be in 50s, there, or 60s in LA and 50s in San Francisco.

NGUYEN: Did you call it a gaudy glitz there in LA? Come on. There's nothing gaudy about Hollywood or LA. What are you talking about Rob?

MARCIANO: All right. Just glitzy.

NGUYEN: OK. Just Glitzy. Glamour. All right. We do want to bring in Tony now because we are at the end of the show. We appreciate you watching, but it's not over just yet. Because we have had the pleasure of having Najee on today. Are you going to do a little dancing for us Tony?

HARRIS: Betty, you do totally want me to make a fool of myself on national television.

NGUYEN: Why not?

HARRIS: He goes on national television and loses his mind. That won't happen. There will be no singing either. But the only thing missing over here is the brunch, we have the cool jazz. The only thing missing is the brunch, but I will work on that. Betty, very good to be with you, but we will leave you with morning, this Sunday morning with Najee, accompanied by Phil Davis.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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