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CNN Sunday Morning
Deadly Plane Crash in Siberia; 40 Sunnis Killed in Massacre; North Korea Threat
Aired July 09, 2006 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: "Now in the News, "a Russian plane has crashed in Siberia. Look at these pictures. Russian officials say at least 122 people were killed when the jet skidded off a rain-slicked runway while landed. Now, officials say the jet plowed into a concrete barrier and then burst into flames. Several dozen people actually survived with injuries, but some are still missing
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: A breaking story now. Iraqi police say gunmen roaming a western Baghdad neighborhood are shooting unarmed Iraqis after identifying them as Sunnis. At least 40 people are dead. Police have called in U.S. and Iraqi forces.
A live report from CNN's Nic Robertson is about four minutes away.
NGUYEN: More Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza. The Palestinian prime minister's proposed cease-fire, well, that's been rejected. Israel says the offensive will continue until Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and stop firing rockets into Israel.
HARRIS: A private memorial for Enron founder Ken Lay is set for later today in Aspen, Colorado. Only family and friends will attend. Lay's co-defendant in the Enron scandal, Jeffrey Skilling, will be among them. Lay died of heart failure Wednesday at an Aspen resort where he and his wife were vacationing.
NGUYEN: Check this out. It is a dramatic rescue in New Mexico.
HARRIS: Whoa.
NGUYEN: See right there the guy? Well, the rain fell so fast around Albuquerque, flashfloods closed roads and swept away a teenage boy. Right there you're going to see him, yes, disappear into these raging waters. And just for a few tense moments -- watch it, watch it -- rescuers feared they had lost him. But then his head bobbed up again. You'll see it here in just -- there he is -- and was quickly brought to safety.
HARRIS: Oh, man.
After a long week that included a 60th birthday, why not spend a Saturday night at the ballpark with a few friends? President Bush, the first lady, the secretary of state and attorney general joined the fans in Washington last night. And you could hear more about President Bush turning 60 from the commander in chief himself tonight, as he sits down with Larry King at 9:00 Eastern.
From the CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING, 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 8:00 p.m. in Serbia, where there is news this morning...
NGUYEN: Siberia.
HARRIS: Why do I...
NGUYEN: You keep getting it flipped. That's all right.
HARRIS: What did I say, Serbia, again?
NGUYEN: That's why I'm here.
HARRIS: Thank you. It's like the fourth time I've said it in meetings and everything else.
NGUYEN: That's all right. You'll get it right.
HARRIS: Siberia.
NGUYEN: Siberia, yes.
HARRIS: Thank you, Betty.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen.
Thanks for being with us today.
Coming up in this hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING, a woman of god who preached forgiveness is also a woman who simply cannot forgive. Her story is ahead in our "Faces of Faith."
And let's take a trip into the final frontier, shall we? Or at least close to it. We've got your ticket to ride into inner space.
And it's a giant birthday for one of the most watched celebrities in Washington. We'll go live to the National Zoo.
Oh, how sweet is that?
Next hour, right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
HARRIS: But our top story is that fiery and deadly plane crash in Siberia. The jet crashed while landing on a runway. At least 122 people were reported killed, but dozens of others survived.
Let's get the very latest now from CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much, Tony.
And there are some terrible casualty figures that are coming to us from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry. They say that so far they've recovered 122 bodies, and many of the passengers on board that Airbus A310 airliner were children en route to a holiday vacation with their school near Lake Baikal, which is a very popular spot for tourists this time of year.
Amazingly, 53 people, though, survived the crash. Many of them have been hospitalized, being treated for critical injuries and some very serious burns -- you can see from the pictures.
Twenty-five people are still unaccounted for. Clearly, as the emergency services continue to sift through the wreckage of the -- of the airbus, they'll find more human remains. But also, officials are saying that when the plane actually came to a standstill and burst into flames, some of the passengers were able to throw themselves off the aircraft, and they just ran away. And they haven't come back. And so they're appealing for these people to come back, to show that they're alive so they can be properly accounted for, Tony.
Emergency workers on the scene very quickly, because the crash was in the airport. Here's what one of them had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We saw the plane burning, petrol tanks were exploding. The plane crashed into private garages and damaged them. Something was exploding in the garages. It must have been petrol. The plane itself was on fire.
A lot of people with burns were running around, but concentrated and those lying on the ground. I was the first to arrive on the scene, so I had to categorize the types of injury and get them into the ambulances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: I should point out, the plane actually had an uneventful flight, it seems, from Moscow, the Russian capital, to the Siberian city of Irkutsk. It's only when it touched down on the runway that things started to go very wrong.
It overshot the runway. It failed to stop on the tarmac, crashed into a concrete wall, then into a building, and burst into flames. The flight recorders have already been recovered, and we're waiting now to see what analysis they bring to see what caused the crash, whether it was human error or technical failure -- Tony.
HARRIS: And Matthew, maybe you can help us sort of understand the lay of the land around that airfield. I understand that it is a difficult runway to negotiate. It's relatively short, and there are mountains sort of framing the airport and runway as well.
CHANCE: Well, there aren't high mountains around there, but it's a very sort of undulating countryside area. It's an area of great natural beauty. There aren't that many sort of facilities in the area, apart from the big city of Irkutsk, which is very much an isolated place in the middle of that vast area of Siberia. It's a long way from the Russian capital, five hours flight, five time zones, in fact, away Moscow. It's in a very remote part of the country.
There have been incidents there in the past. Siberian Airlines, the airline that operated this flight, has also been -- had its fair share, more than its fair share of tragedies in the past few years as well. I have to say, most of them, none of them, really the fault of the airline.
The fault was back in 2001, when you may remember the Siberia Airlines Tupolev 154 aircraft was shot down as it was flying from Israel to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk by a Ukrainian anti- aircraft missile that was being tested during some military exercises. That was a major diplomatic incident back in 2001.
And in 2004, two airplanes were blown up by Chechen suicide bombers. One of them was Siberia Airlines as well.
So there have been some tragedies, but, you know, the airline so far hasn't really been to blame. This time it may be.
HARRIS: Yes.
Matthew Chance for us in Moscow.
Matthew, we appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Now to news out of Iraq. Police tell CNN roaming gunmen are checking IDs in a western Baghdad neighborhood, then shooting anyone who is Sunni. At least 40 people are dead.
So let's go straight to Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
First of all, Nic, where were the security forces? How could this happen?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The security forces in Baghdad simply don't control the city, they don't provide enough security for people to feel safe. What has happened this morning seems to be part of a surge of sectarian attacks or tensions in this particular area.
On Friday night, a Sunni mosque was attacked in the neighborhood. On Saturday night, last night, a Shia mosque was attacked. A bomb went off in a car, two people killed, 13 wounded.
Then, according to a Sunni Muslim party this morning, gunmen were touring the area with loud speakers -- this was last night -- warning people, warning Sunnis to get out of the neighborhood. This morning, according to the Baghdad emergency police, four to six carloads of gunmen were touring the neighborhood, stopping people. If their ID papers indicated by name that they were a Sunni, then these people were killed.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, a moderate Sunni party in the area, says that the gunmen were also going into people's homes, and they say that the gunmen killed the mother of one family outside her home, then went into the house and killed the children. And this appears to be very much a part of the continuing wave of sectarian violence here -- Betty.
NGUYEN: It is just so disturbing. And we'll be talking with you a lot about this morning.
Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
Thank you, Nic.
HARRIS: A diplomatic showdown with North Korea could head to the U.N. Security Council as early as tomorrow. Japan is adamant about getting a toughly-worded resolution from the council as quickly as possible. That's despite China and Russia opposing the resolution.
North Korea remains unfazed. Its ambassador to Australia bluntly warns that any outside interference with North Korea's missile tests could trigger a war.
NGUYEN: Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill is the U.S. point man on the North Korean issue and is en route to Tokyo this morning for further discussions. Now, before leaving South Korea, he did sat down with CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae in an exclusive interview you'll see only on CNN. And she joins us from Seoul.
Bring us up to speed on the highlights in speaking with the assistant secretary of state.
SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the assistant secretary of state did address the China issue. He said that after meeting Beijing, as well as South Korean officials, he found that officials in both countries were both outraged at North Korea's missile launch, especially China.
He said that Beijing was a very close, very close and very good friend to North Korea. It provides fuel and food to North Korea, and it asked for only one thing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman had specifically asked North Korea not to fire the missiles, but North Korea went ahead and did it anyway. And so, Assistant Hill -- Assistant Secretary Hill said it brings both the United States, China, as well as South Korea, to a very important and crucial point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER HILL, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: I think we're now in a situation where we have to see, what we are going to do about this, and what kind of leverage is necessary to get the DPRK to stop behaving like this and start behaving like a civilized country?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOHN : And he also said that because of the outrage that he felt in both China and South Korea, that he was actually very positive about Tokyo's efforts to get a U.N. resolution that would include sanctions against North Korea.
So we'll have to see -- Betty.
NGUYEN: We'll be watching. Thank you so much for that report.
And you'll want to stay with CNN throughout the day for all the latest developments on North Korea. You can see the full interview with Assistant Secretary of State Hill in our 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour.
And coming up at 11:00 Eastern on "LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns will be among Wolf's guests. And discussing, of course, this North Korean threat.
HARRIS: And still ahead, a dramatic rescue after a 15-year-old is swept away by raging currents.
Look at these pictures.
NGUYEN: They're unbelievable, really.
HARRIS: And we will tell the full story in about four minutes.
NGUYEN: And fly me to the moon, will you? Or at least to the outer edges of space. I'll take that. But now even you can prepare for blastoff. We have your ticket to space just ahead.
Good morning, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. Take a look at this.
You know what this is, right? It's a tomato, but it's grown from the garden of one of our writers. They tell me I can't take a bite of it, although it looks pretty good.
HARRIS: Why not?
NGUYEN: I might just have to do that. But this is exactly what the founders of The 100-Mile Diet want you to do.
And this is what they want you to do, Tony. They want you to eat what you can grow, or at least what's produced within 100 miles from your home.
Looks good, huh, huh? You like it? Looking tasty?
But is it really healthier and will it cost less? Those are the questions we're going to be asking the founder of the "Eat Local Challenge." She's going to join us live at 9:30 Eastern.
And that brings us to our morning e-mail question. HARRIS: It doesn't look real.
NGUYEN: It's -- what do you mean it doesn't look real?
HARRIS: Well, look at this.
NGUYEN: Look at -- does that not look real?
HARRIS: Oh, OK. There you go. All right. Now you're talking.
NGUYEN: Right there. OK, this is a real tomato. It's not plastic.
HARRIS: Did we polish it up for TV or something? Is that what we did?
NGUYEN: We polished it up a little bit. All right. But here's the question. Can I get to the question already?
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
NGUYEN: Would you consider the 100-Mile Diet? Would you spend time doing that, buying local or maybe even just growing your own essentials?
Send your answers to weekends@cnn.com, and we're going to read some of those answers a little bit later this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It looks pretty enticing, doesn't it? How would you like a ticket to ride on a rocketship right into outer space? Well, the idea is not that out of this world anymore, oh no. That's ahead in eight minutes.
HARRIS: But first, a check of our top stories this morning.
At least 122 people were killed early this morning in a plane crash at an airport in Siberia. Russian officials say the jet veered off the runway while landing, hit a concrete barrier and burst into flames. More than 50 people were taken to hospitals, most of them with burns.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill tries to ramp up support for a unified voice against -- among Asian allies against North Korea's recent missile tests. China and Russia are still resisting any Security Council resolution seeking economic sanctions. They favor a less severe course of action.
And a private memorial service for Enron founder Kenneth Lay takes place later today in Aspen, Colorado. Another service is scheduled for Wednesday in Houston.
Lay died of severe coronary artery disease last week. He and colleague Jeffrey Skilling were awaiting sentencing after their conviction on corporate fraud and conspiracy related to Enron's financial collapse.
NGUYEN: OK. Take a minute, look at your television screen, because you have to see this miracle rescue in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Rain came down so hard and fast overnight, and then a teenager gets swept away in all of it. It happened so quickly, but fortunately, rescue teams were quick, too.
Sasha Andrade of CNN affiliate KOAT shows us how fast things can go wrong but still end right.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a man floating down the river.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, he just popped underneath the water.
SASHA ANDRADE, REPORTER, KOAT (voice over): Witnesses say it was all happening so fast. A 15-year-old boy dragged along the arroyo by raging waters. This is video you'll only see on 7. Rescue workers spot the boy and think they'll be able to rescue him, but then...
EDDIE GUTIERREZ, RESCUE WORKER: The two meet right here. There's a certain point in the middle there where he went under water.
ANDRADE: Here is that moment captured on camera. He slips under the water and doesn't come back up. Crews worked frantically to find him, hoping that all is not lost. All eyes remain on the rapid water, searching for a glimpse of the victim.
GUTIERREZ: That's when he popped out close to me. Through the rope in front of him, and luckily he was able to grab it from there.
ANDRADE: After that intense moment, the 15-year-old is pulled out of the arroyo and into safety. Amazingly, he's going to be OK.
Some might call his rescuer a hero, but he says it was all in the line of duty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just doing our job, you know. Anybody else, another station would have done it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Wow, but what a job that was. That was Sasha Andrade, reporting from CNN Affiliate KOAT in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
HARRIS: The Great Lakes region of the country could see some possibility, at least, for some severe weather.
Reynolds Wolf is with us now.
WOLF: There is that chance. There is that chance.
HARRIS: Good morning, sir.
WOLF: Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WOLF: Speaking of Washington, we have a great treat for you this morning. We have a live image from the National Zoo, and we have a great shot -- Panda cam. Take a look at it.
HARRIS: Yes.
WOLF: Yes, that is a -- it's Tai Shan.
HARRIS: No, no, Tai Shan. Tai Shan.
NGUYEN: Tai Shan.
WOLF: Yes, him, too. Both of them.
And, let's see, the giant panda turns one year old today. And I'm told he's not going to need a girlfriend until he's about 5 or 6.
NGUYEN: Oh, he's got to wait a little while until he's a grown man.
WOLF: Oh, yes. They eat -- about 98 percent of their diet is bamboo. The rest, beer and Cheetos.
NGUYEN: No way. Get out of here.
WOLF: That's what I'm told. Yes, seriously.
NGUYEN: Well, what is that? Where is he?
WOLF: I have no idea.
NGUYEN: Outside somewhere? Is this really the zoo? This is your home.
WOLF: OK, it's the weather office. What am I telling you? It's seriously the weather office, yes.
NGUYEN: Actually, we'll be talking more about this panda a little bit later, aren't we, Tony?
HARRIS: Well, 21 million hits in this first year.
NGUYEN: Oh, I can see why.
HARRIS: Folks checking in to check out Tai Shan.
NGUYEN: It looks like he's scratching himself right about now.
HARRIS: That's lovely.
NGUYEN: Lovely. WOLF: Kind of a private moment.
NGUYEN: Yes, maybe we should leave him to himself.
All right. We'll be checking in with the lovely little Tai Shan a little bit later.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes. Get the vitals.
(CROSSTALK)
NGUYEN: I don't think you could actually -- he's a little big, right?
WOLF: Oh, he's a big guy. He will be 250 pounds when he's full grown.
NGUYEN: Wow. All right.
WOLF: A big guy.
NGUYEN: Yes, a big panda.
All right. Talk to you soon.
WOLF: You bet you.
HARRIS: Is there a -- I don't know, a top-rated hospital close to you? "U.S. News & World Report" surveyed almost 5,200 hospitals, and only 14 ranked at or near the top in at least six specialties. The top five were spread out in cities across the country: Johns Hopkins in Baltimore; the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; Ohio's Cleveland Clinic; Massachusetts General in Boston; and UCLA Medical Center.
NGUYEN: Here's a question. Could you forgive the unforgivable? Just think about it, the unforgivable, especially after someone you love has been taken from you?
Well, a woman of god struggles with this question one year after her daughter was killed in the London bombings. Her story is in our "Faces of Faith," so you'll want to stay with CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take a second and look at the area to your left, and I think you've got Ireland and England coming up there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My left? Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my goodness. It's a beautiful day in Ireland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Can you imagine what it's like to see an entire country from outer space?
NGUYEN: Oh, I can't. but what a sight that would be, though.
HARRIS: Well, here's the thing. During yesterday's space walk, Discovery crewmembers took care of a few important details related to the mission, then they admired the view from up high, a view we'll probably only enjoy, well, vicariously through the eyes of astronauts. But -- but, Betty, maybe not.
NGUYEN: Why is that?
HARRIS: Follow me. Follow me.
NGUYEN: I'm trying.
HARRIS: Space tourism isn't necessarily out of the question. That's if you're interested. A seat on a Russian space craft normally costs about $20 million.
NGUYEN: Oh, pocket change for you, Tony. Pocket change.
HARRIS: Thank you, Betty. But soon -- soon you might have the option of using, let's just say, a discount carrier...
NGUYEN: Really?
HARRIS: ... to travel toward outer space.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS (voice over): For the Jetsons, space travel is a way of life. For the rest of us, it was something that seemed so far away. Until now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was your flight?
DENNIS TITO, 2001 SPACE TOURIST: It was paradise.
HARRIS: Dennis Tito is the world's first space tourist. He got his joy ride back in 2001 on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that docked with the International space Station.
The California money manager spent a cool $20 million for his space vacation, but what if you don't have $20 million for your ticket to ride? A suborbital flight may be the answer.
Unlike commercial air travel, which hugs the Earth's surface, and unlike deep space, where the space shuttle and International Space Station hang out, suborbital travelers would fly 62 miles above the Earth to the edge of space. Passengers will experience weightlessness, see the curvature of the Earth, and be able to gaze into the dark, star-filled sky.
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson is banking on a lot of pent-up demand.
SIR RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER, VIRGIN GALACTIC: And of all the businesses I've started, this is by far and away the most exciting.
HARRIS: His new company, Virgin Galactic, is already taking reservations for suborbital flights from the paying public. For $200,000, you're promised a three-hour flight with several minutes of weightlessness, and you can float around the cabin if you want to. The first flights are scheduled for the end of this decade.
BRANSON: We're going to be building five bigger versions of spaceships, one capable of taking seven or eight people into space on every trip.
HARRIS: Branson is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aviation pioneer Burt Rutan. He designed SpaceshipOne, the first successful privately-manned spacecraft. And they're not the only billionaires vying for your space tourist dollar.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is funding a super-secret commercial space venture called Blue Origin LLC. Its stated goal, to develop safe and expensive and reliable human access to space.
A company called Rocketplane Limited, based in Oklahoma City, is also offering suborbital flights, as is Space Adventures, the company that put Dennis Tito into space.
Two hundred thousand dollars is still a lot of money, but as demand increases, analysts say prices will come down. And plenty of people say they're ready to take the ride of a lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just has always seemed so far away, you know, something that would not happen in our time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to go into space one day, but I don't want to get hit by a meteor or something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Yes, that would be a problem.
HARRIS: That would not be a good thing.
NGUYEN: Stay away from meteors, asteroids, all those things, yes.
HARRIS: Would you do it?
NGUYEN: I don't know. I mean, I need to learn a little bit more about it. It's still in its early stages.
I don't even ride roller coasters. I don't know if I'm going to go out into outer space.
HARRIS: Want to send Miles up first?
NGUYEN: Yes, I nominate Miles.
HARRIS: Have him test it out for us?
NGUYEN: Yes. He'll be the guinea pig, lucky guy.
All right.
Hard choices something we're going to talk about now. Why some say a military option would be the last option with North Korea.
Plus...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't think well, hey, ho, I'm a priest here, I need to consider this notion of forgiveness. I think it was many weeks after someone asked me, you know, "Do you forgive them?" And I thought, oh, actually, no. I don't think I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: The inability to forgive costs this reverend her congregation. Her "Faces of Faith" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. "Now in the News." At least 122 people were killed when a plane crashed in Siberia. Russian officials say the jet skidded off a rain-slicked runway, plowed into a concrete barrier, then burst into flames. More than 50 people are injured and nearly two dozen others are missing.
NGUYEN: Ambush in Baghdad. Iraqi police say gunmen are driving around a western Baghdad neighborhood checking IDs and then shooting those identified as Sunnis. Police say at least 40 people have been killed.
HARRIS: On the high seas, the Coast Guard chased a speeding boat packed with more than 30 illegal immigrants on the coast of Florida yesterday. Officials say three suspected smugglers were arrested and one woman died of unknown injuries. The speeding boat rammed the Coast Guard vessel several times before it was stopped.
NGUYEN: A private memorial service takes place later today in Aspen, Colorado for Enron founder Ken Lay. Lay died of a heart attack last week at an Aspen hospital. Now a second memorial service is set for Wednesday in Houston. Lay was to be sentenced in October after being found guilty on fraud charges related to Enron's collapse. Lay was 64.
HARRIS: And an amazing rescue in New Mexico. Look at these pictures. A 15-year-old boy was swept away in the raging waters northeast of Albuquerque. Just when rescue workers thought they'd be able to save him, the teen slipped under, right there. And again here. Now, after a few -- well, 10 seconds, he popped up again, and the rescues were able to pull him -- there he is, pull him out of the water.
NGUYEN: All right, panda lovers, they are going to be heading to the National Zoo today to celebrate Tai Shan's birthday. Check him out. This is live Pandacam. The zoo's prized panda cub will be treated to a four-hour birthday bash. Boy, I didn't even get four- hour birthday parties, topped with a fruitsicle. It's estimated that over a million people have come to see Tai Shan since he went on display last December.
And coming up next hour, Tony will talk to the zoo's panda curator about the birthday event and the little cutie named Tai Shan.
In the meantime, though, a blunt warning to the West to simply butt out. North Korea's ambassador to Australia quoted in The Sunday Herald says any attempt to stop its missile tests risk war.
As CNN's Brian Todd explains, U.S. military strategists take that scenario very seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a peninsula that's been heavily militarized and preparing for confrontations for more than 50 years, scenarios for war are detailed and frightening. We discussed them with the former senior U.S. Army intelligence officer assigned to Korea. A former Delta Force commander who also has a CIA background. And a former strategic planner at the National War College who developed a war game on Korea.
They all make clear, war is a very remote possibility. So is the prospect of a U.S. pre-emptive strike.
MAJ. JEFFREY BEATTY, FMR. DELTA FORCE CMDR.: If you're going to do a pre-emptive strike, you have got to make sure you get everything, because if you don't, they're going to launch what they have left and they're going to probably launch a full-scale attack against the south.
TODD: Our experts say if America struck first, the best-case scenario is casualties in the tens of thousands on both sides. If North Korea attacked first, they say thousands of its special operations commandos would likely swarm into the south from the air and sea, linking up with sleeper agents who have already infiltrated through tunnels.
Then...
BRIG. GEN. JAMES MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Step two would be, they have to secure the Demilitarized Zone that separates the north from south, and that would do that with light infantry. Simply to hold the shoulders of the penetration. Not to go deep, but to hold the door open, if you will. TODD: Holding the door for North Korea's heavily armored million man army to push towards Seoul and points south. At the same time, the North Koreans would launch missiles.
MARKS: They would be conventionally tipped, we have to assume they would be chemically tipped.
TODD: Prompting U.S. forces to launch air strikes on North Korean artillery positions, many of which can be hidden in deep underground bunkers, and inevitably, experts say, U.S. and North Korean ground forces would engage, likely on very difficult terrain.
(on camera): Terrain in what has turned into a very urbanized region over the past 50 years, that means possibly hundreds of thousands of casualties, military and civilian, and that leaves out North Korea's nuclear capability, which our experts say is too crude to be used effectively for the moment.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
NGUYEN: And that kind of in-depth reporting can be found each day on CNN's "THE SITUATION ROOM." It airs Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 Pacific.
Be sure to join us at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, when we will air our exclusive interview with U.S. envoy Christopher Hill on the North Korean threat.
HARRIS: And a look now at other stories making news "Across America" this morning. In Connecticut, 27 people were hurt when a car hit a pedestrian, then continued into a crowded festival. The 89- year-old driver told paramedics his gas pedal got stuck. Ned Lamont, the Democratic challenger for U.S. Senate, and several of his campaign staff workers were in the crowd. Lamont wasn't injured, but three of his staffers were treated for injuries.
They don't call it the Colorado Rockies for nothing. Look at this. A bolder, man, the size of a car, slid off the mountain onto an unoccupied vehicle. The road was shutdown for -- look at this. The road was shut down for seven hours while crews moved the heap. That was once a car from under the rock.
In California, an update on the story from February. A woman given a jaywalking ticket for taking too long to cross a busy intersection -- you remember that story?
NGUYEN: Yes. I remember that story, yes.
HARRIS: Well, she has had her $114 fine waived by a judge, she was still found guilty of jaywalking.
NGUYEN: OK. Well, one year after the subway bombings in London, should the terrorists be forgiven for their crimes? We're going to tell you if this minister that you see right there -- well, you did see her, was able to practice what she preached. That's ahead in our "Faces of Faith." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It is simply miraculous anybody survived this plane crash. You can see why right here. A Russian jet lies in smoldering ruins after it crashed while landing in Siberia. At least 22 people died, 53 did survive, but 25 others are still missing.
A swirling torrent nearly takes the life of an Albuquerque teenager. Monsoon rains triggered flash flooding, but rescuers finally got a rope to him and pulled him to safety. After all that, well, he wasn't badly hurt.
Fifty-five million and still counting, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" kills the competition -- I mean, just slams them at the box office...
HARRIS: That's a good look there, huh?
NGUYEN: ... in the opening. Yes. I kind of like that...
HARRIS: Good look, yes.
NGUYEN: That's not even facial hair. I don't even know what that is. Well, Captain Jack just really sinks all previous records for one-day ticket sales. This movie is just a monster.
HARRIS: A solemn scene in London Friday, as the city stood still to mark the anniversary of last July's terror attacks. More than 50 people were killed when three trains and a bus were bombed. Among them, 25-year-old Jenny Nicholson (ph). For Jenny's mother, the road to forgiveness has been long and difficult. It's also taken her from the congregation she once headed.
CNN's faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH & VALUES CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was Thursday, July 7th, a warm summer morning in London, but the bright sunshine gave no hint that in moments, Julie Nicholson's life, like the lives of so many others, was about to change forever.
JULIE NICHOLSON, MOTHER: I was very calm, and I just wanted to find out what was going on.
GALLAGHER: What was going on was the worst thing a mother could imagine. At 8:50 a.m., a series of explosions rocked the London Underground. Three bomb blasts, less than 50 seconds apart. And less than an hour after that, another bomb would tear apart a London bus. And Julie's daughter, Jenny, who took the Tube to work each morning, was missing.
NICHOLSON: We didn't immediately think she's been killed. We thought, well, she's probably caught up in it somewhere, but we only had to look at news reports to see that the entire center of London was in absolute chaos. But as the hours went on, the day went on, and we found ourselves in that process of her possibly being one of the casualties.
GALLAGHER: Jenny, just 24 years old, was one of the casualties, killed in the second blast on a circle line train near Edgware Road. Like any other mother, Julie Nicholson was overcome with grief, surviving on memories of their final conversations.
NICHOLSON: I spoke to her the day before she died, yes. She had been in the center of Trafalgar Square when the news that London had succeeded in its bid for the 2012 Olympics, and she sent both myself and her father a text message, saying, wow, you just won't believe this. And she was so full of joy and excitement and euphoria, and very typically of her, she wanted to sort of spread that about in a very loud and noisy way.
GALLAGHER: But unlike most mothers, Julie is also a vicar, a priest in the Church of England, and she faced a heart-wrenching question. Could she, as someone who preached forgiveness from the pulpit, forgive the suicide bomber who took her daughter's life?
NICHOLSON: For me as her mother, she was a perfect and precious and unique human being, and she was violated, brutally, and that's, that's all that consumed my being. I didn't think, oh, well, hey-ho, I'm a priest here, you know, I need to consider this notion of forgiveness. I think it was many weeks after that someone asked me, you know, do you forgive them? And I thought, oh, actually, no, I don't think I do.
GALLAGHER: And that inability to forgive cost Julie Nicholson her congregation.
NICHOLSON: Every Sunday morning and other days that's what a priest is about, in bringing people to peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness in their lives, and with God and in the world. And I felt that I could not lead people in those words and in that liturgy when I felt so very far from it all myself.
GALLAGHER: She may not be able to forgive him, but the man who murdered her daughter is never far from her mind.
NICHOLSON: Mohammad Sidique Khan, who is the person who took the bomb onto Edgware Road, and I mean, particularly in the early days, I ask myself all the time, why, what is it that makes, you know, a 30- year-old man do this? And I think the other bombers were younger than that. You know, what is going on inside them?
GALLAGHER: Even without a congregation, Julie Nicholson is still an Anglican priest, working in her Bristol community. And while forgiveness is still a challenge for her, one thing that hasn't failed her is her faith and her belief that the fault for this tragedy lies not with God, but with man.
NICHOLSON: I mean, I think it's futile asking why God allowed this to happen. You know, I think it's a waste of time, waste of energy, you know. We'd do better to ask, you know, why did humanity allow this to happen? You know, this was humanity, this was not God for goodness sake. GALLAGHER: Delia Gallagher, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: That anger is so real. Well, a Christian Web site is giving its blessing to America's most influential churches. Their annual list of the top 50 came out earlier this week, and somewhat considered unconventional, using hip-hop and rock, instead of the regular hymns to reach their congregation.
So let's take a look at this list, shall we? Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lakeside, California. He is also author of the bestselling book, "The Purpose-Driven Life." And Willow Creek, that community in Illinois, is number two. North Point, outside of Atlanta, is number three. And the Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, number four. And Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, where they have like, 18,000 members, number five on the list.
HARRIS: Well, just so you know, it's not just for the rich and famous anymore.
NGUYEN: No. We're talking about a day of rest and relaxation at the spa.
So, Tony, if you're looking for a pedicure, maybe a whipped cocoa bath, you know...
HARRIS: Of course I am.
NGUYEN: I hear you're fond of those.
HARRIS: Yes.
NGUYEN: We've got a list of spas you just cannot live without, that is straight ahead.
HARRIS: (INAUDIBLE) take care of (INAUDIBLE).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: This "Just In" to CNN. We're getting video of what has happened in Iraq overnight. Forty people have been killed. Let me give you the situation of what occurred. Gunmen in a western Baghdad neighborhood shot unarmed Sunnis as soon as they were identified as being Sunnis, killing 40 people.
Basically, what they did was they went around checking ID cards, and once they determined that the person was a Sunni, they shot him. A lot of these people killed were unarmed. Here's some of the video just coming into CNN right now.
Although we do have to tell you that hours earlier insurgents did bomb a Shiite mosque, killing two and wounding thirteen. So it's really not known if these shootings were in retaliation of that or not, but again, 40 people have been killed in a western Baghdad neighborhood after they were identified as Sunnis. We'll stay on top of this story.
HARRIS: Let's get some information so that you can sort of take care of yourself a little better. You're looking a little peaked these days. Everyone can use a massage, right? But not all massages are created equal, so where do you go? What is the etiquette of this kind of thing? Nicole Lapin is here from the ".com Desk."
Nicole, good morning.
NICOLE LAPIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.
Well, I'm here to help you guys out with -- I'm not going to give you a massage, I'm going to tell you about -- that's next time.
HARRIS: was that on the menu?
LAPIN: That wasn't on the menu. But you know what, it's not just you, it's not just Tony and Nicole who are in need a little TLC. A lot of people need a little massage every once in a while, a little spa experience, but you know what? The spa trend keeps growing, and here's the thing. There are so many different kinds of spas, well, it gets a little confusing. So cnn.com is really breaking it down for us.
Tony, what kind of spas do you like to go to?
HARRIS: Well, Nicole, thank you for the question. I tend to enjoy the sort of full-on exotic spa experience.
LAPIN: Oh, you would.
NGUYEN: Hold on, does that require dollars? I mean, I don't know, I don't think I've ever heard of this "full-on exotic spa experience."
HARRIS: Well, that's why Nicole is here.
LAPIN: Well, the full-on exotic ones are more like vacations than just the regular day spas. You actually go somewhere. So we're talking about caves in Jamaica. We're talking about the Himalayas.
LAPIN: You know, look at this one from Iceland. Look at all that steam. Those are geothermal spas. Then we go over to Ireland. Betty, this one's for you.
NGUYEN: OK.
LAPIN: This is a castle, so you get the supreme I-feel-like-a- queen experience, in this spa.
NGUYEN: I'm digging that, I'm digging that one, yes.
HARRIS: OK.
LAPIN: All right. And now we have some that are a little less far out, but these are for the ones with ultimate luxury. So you can get the J-Lo glow...
HARRIS: The what?
LAPIN: The J-Lo glow, you get all glistening at the Mandarin Oriental in New York.
NGUYEN: Actually, that's outside the Time Warner Center, isn't it?
HARRIS: Oh, is it?
NGUYEN: I believe so.
HARRIS: Well, I wouldn't know, I haven't been invited.
LAPIN: You have to ask for a transfer. And then if you'd like a little more of an active experience, the Miraval in Arizona has horseback riding and golf, so you can, you know, get active. You don't sit around and just have a massage.
HARRIS: I would enjoy that, but you know what, sometimes, you know, you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't, and sometimes my tastes run to the offbeat, Nicole.
LAPIN: Tony, you always feel like a nut and let me tell you this, all I have to say is whipped cocoa bath.
HARRIS: Now you're talking.
NGUYEN: Wait, whoa, whoa, whipped cocoa bath?
LAPIN: Yes, this is at the Hotel Hershey, as in Hershey chocolate...
NGUYEN: But of course, right, yes..
LAPIN: ... in Pennsylvania. You can even get chocolate bean nail polish and hydrotherapy...
NGUYEN: Can you eat that stuff?
LAPIN: ... with chocolate. Well, you know, I don't know. We'll have to check that one out. But it sounds yummy. It smells yummy, too. But now you're probably thinking, how much does all this cost?
NGUYEN: Yes, that's the kicker. How much is this going to set me back?
LAPIN: Well, there's actually a budget section. And we get some great deals for you on there.
HARRIS: Beautiful. All of this information online, cnn.com.
LAPIN: Cnn.com/spa. And you wonder also about the tipping issue, right?
HARRIS: Yes.
LAPIN: That comes up a little bit. So how much do you tip?
NGUYEN: What is that?
LAPIN: OK. It's usually 10 to 20 percent, like at a fancy restaurant, but the norm is 15. I'm not here to calculate that for you, but you should also note that a lot of the resort places, like the fancy ones with chocolate, they calculate that with you, so double check.
NGUYEN: So it's already in there. Yes, so you're not tipping them twice.
HARRIS: Just because we can't say it enough, all of this is at cnn...
LAPIN: : ... dot-com.
HARRIS: Dot-com.
LAPIN: Thanks, guys.
HARRIS: Nicole, appreciate it, thank you.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, you know, speaking of food and that chocolate bath or whatever it is...
HARRIS: Treating yourself?
NGUYEN: ... that you're trying to treat yourself to, Tony, we were also talking today about this 100-mile diet. Basically what that is is trying to grow your own foods to eat, or at least gather it from within 100 miles of where you live. So you're basically eating local. So here's a question. Would you consider the 100-mile diet? And we've have gotten some really good responses.
HARRIS: Well, Larry writes -- he's in Palm Springs, California: "Because I live in Palm Springs, everything in the world is grown within 100 miles, so the diet is no problem for me. But if you let me have another eight miles, I could get to the beach and eat seafood too." Yes, that's pretty good.
NGUYEN: Well, Scott says -- and this is a good point: "Would that include meat? I don't know it if would even be possible to buy cereals and staples like flour from a local source, what would the point of the 100-mile diet?" You know, that's a good question and I'm going to ask the lady who's putting folks to the challenge of this 100-mile diet.
And Catherine from West Green, Georgia, writes: "Not only do we grow most of our own vegetables, we make our own jelly, wine, and hot sauce. In addition, my husband and I both work full time jobs." That's pretty good. "Bite that tomato, Betty! It's the only way to live!"
NGUYEN: They won't let me -- you know, one of our writers actually grew this in her own garden, she told me...
HARRIS: Well, that's what she claims anyway.
NGUYEN: She warned me not to eat it. But I have -- I don't know if you can get tight shot of this. Right here, after I said that, somebody took one little bite out of this, attempted. And I don't know if it was you, Tony, because I was away from it, see that right there?
HARRIS: Yes.
NGUYEN: That looks like your snaggletooth right there. Did you try to bite this?
HARRIS: The next hour of CNN...
NGUYEN: Oh, he's not going to answer me. I didn't do it (INAUDIBLE).
HARRIS: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Now in the news, a brutal day developing in Iraq. Police in Baghdad report more than 40 people have been massacred, pulled from their cars and grabbed from sidewalks by gunmen looking for Sunnis. U.S. and Iraqi forces have sealed off the area. Now the assault follows a car bombing last night at a Shiite mosque.
A fiery and deadly crash in Siberia to tell you about, at least 122 people were killed when a plane skidded off the runway during landing. It slammed into a concrete wall and then burst into flames. You see it there. More than 50 people survived that crash, believe it or not, but did receive injuries and about two dozen are still missing.
U.S. envoy Christopher Hill seen here and South Korea heads to Japan today. He's conferring with officials on how to respond to last week's North Korean missile test. Japan wants a tough resolution from the U.S. Security Council, China and Russia; well they're opposing that. We'll hear from envoy Hill in an exclusive interview next hour.
HARRIS: Scenes of more destruction as Israel carries out more air strikes against targets in Gaza. The Palestinian prime ministers proposed cease-fire has been rejected. Israel says the offensive will continue until Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and stop firing rockets into Israel.
Michigan Congressman Hoekstra reportedly scolded President Bush for keeping secrets. The "New York Times" obtained a harsh letter Hoekstra wrote to the president in May. The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee criticized the president about intelligence programs not revealed to his committee.
Two private memorial services will be held for Kenneth Lay. The disgraced founder of Enron died Wednesday of severe coronary artery disease. One service is the afternoon in Aspen, Colorado. Lay's favorite vacation spot, the second service will be Wednesday in Houston.
CNN the most trusted name in news.
NGUYEN: From the CNN Center this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING, it is July 9th, 8:00 a.m. at CNN Headquarters right here in Atlanta, 4:00 p.m. in Baghdad where it's been a bloody day. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: We will get to that story in just a moment. Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us.
To Iraq, it feels like an internal struggle. Right to this developing story out of Iraq. More than 40 are dead in what police are calling a deliberate hunt for Sunnis. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is following this story and he joins us from Baghdad. Nic this is a particularly disturbing set of events here. It looks like Sunnis were deliberately targeted. Give us the latest information on this.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What the Iraqi police are telling us, at 6:00 this morning about four to six cars full of gunmen toured a neighborhood in the west of Baghdad. They were stopping people on the street. They asked them for identity papers and by reading their names were able to tell if they were Sunni or Shia and if they were Sunni, the police told us, the people were killed. One eyewitness there today has told us that he went out of his house. He saw a pile of four bodies on the road across a bus stop where there were three bodies lying there and another place saw five bodies. The Sunni is Iraqi Islamic Party have told us that one of their politicians in that area was killed and they also say that a family was killed. A mother as she was leaving her house and forced to by gunmen, shot down. The gunman went into the house and shot the children.
The Iraqi security forces and the coalition are now on the scene there. The Iraqi Islamic Party and the Sunni Party said they'd asked the government here for help and nothing had come, Tony.
HARRIS: Nic security forces, the police, where were they as all of this was unfolding?
ROBERTSON: That's a very, very difficult question to answer. One of the facts about the situation in Baghdad is that groups and the Iraqi Islamic Party has pointed the finger at a Shia militia. These groups are able to move around the city and go into neighborhoods and target people in a way that's happened today. It's happened. The security forces were there to stop it. Why didn't they come sooner is just not clear, Tony.
HARRIS: All right. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson for us in Baghdad. We appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Now back to North Korea. Certainly one of the thorniest diplomatic issues the Bush White House has had to face. The U.N. Security Council could take up the issue as early as tomorrow. Now Japan is seeking a strongly worded resolution condemning last week's missile test, but not everyone is onboard. China and Russia have signaled their opposition. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill is headed to Tokyo for more talks and from there he's going travel to Russia.
One ultra-sophisticated U.S. war ship has arrived in Japan and another will soon follow. The navy says it's part of a routine ship rotation, but the timing is very curious and those ships are especially equipped to track and shoot down missiles. Let's bring in CNN's Kathleen Koch at the White House. Kathleen, put all of this with North Korea and the situation into perspective for us.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, clearly the United States has its work cut out for it in trying to resolve this impasse over North Korea. As you mentioned, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill has left South Korea where he was engaged in meetings arriving in Japan, in Tokyo this morning. He insists there's a united front right now over how to respond to North Korea's firing of those missiles last week. He says all countries are showing resolve.
He doesn't see any splintering of positions. As you pointed out, in the United Nations, Japan is circulating this very tough resolution that does include and this is a main sticking point, sanctions against North Korea, the US, Great Britain and France support that resolution while China and Russia continue to resist. Now Hill in an interview with CNN pointed out that there are other ways to contain North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER HILL, ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think anyone who wants to take anything off the table, of course, there are other options, but one issue we have to do is take measures to protect ourselves. We need to find the means to deny North Korea the financial means to buy missile technology and nuclear technology so we really want to make sure that we're not allowing North Korea to go around and pick up technology or to trade in these components. So there are some efforts there and in fact we had good discussions with Japan, with South Korea on export control issues. So that gives some hope that we can work together on -- to protect ourselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: Now President Bush continues to favor diplomacy over force in U.S. dealings with North Korea, saying that the United States will now engage in one-on-one talks with North Korea, but that country instead must come back to the table for the six-party talks that so far have been stalled for months and have been unsuccessful in halting North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Betty.
NGUYEN: Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thank you Kathleen.
be sure to join us at 9:30 a.m. Eastern when we will air our exclusive interview with U.S. envoy Christopher Hill on the North Korean threat. HARRIS: A deadly crash leaves to a search for answers of the missing. At least 122 people were killed in a plane crash during a landing in Siberia. Let's get the latest from CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow. Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony thanks very much. That investigation is one truly underway. The flight recorders have already been recovered and have been brought back from the Siberian City to the Russian capital Moscow where they'll be analyzed to see exactly what went wrong with this airliner, this airbus a310 airliner that crashed when it touched down on the landing strip in Irkutsk airport.
Still some uncertainty circulating about the number of casualties, I'm afraid. Rescue workers have been sifting through the wreckage of the aircraft. They've so far recovered just over 120 bodies in total, 53 people, remarkably; in fact, seem to have survived the crash. Most of them hospitalized and have been treated for some very severe burns, 25 people are still unaccounted for. Most of them, of course, assumed to be dead. Their remains, it's hoped located at some point over the course of the coming hours, but officials say that some people, some passengers were able to throw themselves off the plane when the aircraft came to a halt this was before it burst into flames and they ran away from the aircraft as you might expect they would. They haven't come back and they're appealing for them to come back so they could be accounted for.
Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Matthew Chance for us in Moscow. Matthew thank you.
Still ahead. Happy birthday.
NGUYEN: This is good stuff.
HARRIS: Tai Shan.
NGUYEN: Who's that, you say?
HARRIS: Live pictures now of the panda.
NGUYEN: Which one is Tai Shan?
HARRIS: The baby.
NGUYEN: The one on the right. Yes.
HARRIS: Of course. The national zoo there in Washington hosts the birthday celebration in honor of the giant panda's first birthday. Guess what? You're invited. We'll take you to watch it live in about five minutes.
HARRIS: What is it?
NGUYEN: "Pirates of Caribbean" hit the theaters this weekend.
HARRIS: Erg? Where did you get erg from?
NGUYEN: I said argg! That's my pirate impersonation. Can you just let me roll with it? Jack Sparrow and the buccaneers are back and now imagine all of this. Just listen with no music in the background, can you imagine it? Well, if it wasn't there it would be really lame, don't you think? That's why you should will meet Hans Zimmer right here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING in about ten minutes, you don't want to miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Does a 3,000-year-old spa in Italy hold the key to the fountain of youth? Dr. Nicholas Fortunato (ph) thinks so. He's the director of one of the many spas in Italy's Tuscany region that claim the warm sulfur waters have anti-aging and healing properties.
NICHOLAS FORTUNATO (ph): You achieve a special sensation, a special feeling of well-being.
COSTELLO: He says the hydrogen sulfate is good for your heart and that you can drink the waters to purify your livers. Some doctors are skeptical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think there's science or medical evidence with that, but the composition of the water does anything particularly healing for us, but I think the whole idea of a hot spring is not so much dipping your toes in a magical water and getting better, but I think it's the investment to come to the hot springs to be healthy.
COSTELLO: Dr. Drew recommends his patients use the Colorado Glenwood hot springs for swimming and exercise.
Carol Costello, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: This just in to CNN. Take a look at this. This is new video that we just received. It's actually camera phone video of that crash that occurred in Siberia where a jet crashed overnight or actually early this morning. There are 200 people onboard and what happened is it skidded off the runway. It crashed into a concrete barrier and then burst into flames. This video is quite remarkable. Let me tell you where it's shot from, not only is it from a camera phone, it's shot from a fence or over a fence at a home nearby and you can see the people being taken out of the plane.
What's remarkable though is some 50 people did survive this. They did have some injuries, but they were able to make it out of this crash alive. About 122 people killed in that crash and as new developments comes in, new information comes in we'll bring it straight to you.
HARRIS: Technology changing the way we bring you news.
NGUYEN: It is really remarkable.
HARRIS: That's really something.
Well, a big birthday party starts less than two hours in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., baby panda Tai Shan turns one and anyone who wants to join in the fun is invited. Lisa Stephens is the zoo's giant panda curator. Lady curator good to see you. How are you, Lisa?
LISA STEPHENS: I'm doing great.
HARRIS: Well 3:41 a.m. this morning a year ago Tai Shan was born, like a little stick of butter. Give us the vitals on Tai Shan a year later.
STEPHENS: Tai Shan now weighs 56 pounds and he is just a big bundle of fur and energy. He's eating bamboo now where as a year ago he was searching for his first nursing.
HARRIS: Wow! And you're right, you just want to squeeze the -- hey, but I have to ask you. How's mom doing? We remember in the early days it was tough for mom staying up, doing the work that any mom does while dad was doing what dads do in those early days, hanging out by the grotto, the air-conditioned grotto. Has dad stepped up and how's mom doing?
STEPHENSON: Dad doesn't play a role in Tai Shan's rearing at all. He basically is spending his hot days resting in his grotto. Tai Shan is starting to have and has had a life of her own for several months now and she pretty much only interacts with Tai Shan for nursing and play, otherwise she's pretty independent of him now.
HARRIS: How big of a hit has Tai Shan been for the zoo?
STEPHENSON: He's been an enormous hit. He has been incredibly popular. I believe he's the most popular panda cub ever. We have about 2 million visitors a month that see him on the web cam and our visitors here at the zoo have jumped up enormously.
HARRIS: Here's a bit of a rub here, by agreement with the government of China, you only have Tai Shan for what another year?
STEPHENSON: Another year and according to our agreement when he's two years old he could be returning to China. We have to remember that he's here at the zoo as part of a major breeding effort with the species. So his future is in China.
HARRIS: So what's on the agenda for the birthday celebration in a couple of hours?
STEPHENSON: I'm sorry. I didn't catch that.
HARRIS: What's on the agenda for the birthday celebration I guess getting started in a couple of hours?
STEPHENSON: We have this great party starting at 10:00 this morning. People are lined up for it. Tai Shan will get some special gifts. He's going to get a fruitcicle, a frozen treat to help him make it through this hot day, a nice baby pool and soccer ball from our corporate sponsor, Fuji film, and the visitors will get lots of treats also from our sponsor as well as their own panda cupcake.
HARRIS: Hey Lisa looks like a lot of fun, have a great time today. We appreciate your time this morning.
STEPHENSON: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Let's get back to that new video just coming to CNN. You're looking at that time; this video was taken from a camera phone. It's video coming out, someone who shot it from a home nearby. Look at the smoke coming off this crash. This is in Siberia where a plane crashed early this morning and what happened was it veered off the runway. It crashed into a concrete barrier and burst into flames. You're seeing the flames there and you're seeing the immense smoke coming from this crash.
Some 122 people on board were killed. Here's the amazing part. You see all of the flames here and you hear the fact that this crashed into a concrete barrier, but some 50 people have managed to get out of this plane alive although they do have injuries and are at a local hospital, they did survive this crash. That's really the amazing part of it and this video again coming into us just into CNN and this is home video from a camera phone taken at a home nearby.
HARRIS: Former President Bill Clinton is in Germany to watch today's World Cup final, but also on his agenda, launching a half billion-dollar effort to fight AIDS in Africa. CNN's Becky Anderson joins us live from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin. Becky good morning to you.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very good morning to you. A gorgeous day here in Berlin for this, the World Cup final and guess what? Lucky man, he, Bill Clinton, has a ticket to that. Not only does he have a ticket, he will sit in the box with the FIFA president, we are told. He is here on route to Africa for the next installment of the Clinton global initiative, but while he's here, what we are expecting is that FIFA the Football Federation will announce a half billion dollars -- a half billion dollars, $500 million in donation for Clinton's AID initiative, for AIDS initiative.
So that's the story coming out of here. Very much wanting to get involved in Africa and all things African bearing in mind that it's the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. That will follow this tremendous competition.
Tony.
HARRIS: All right, Becky. Becky Anderson in Germany following Former President Clinton and I suspect taking in a little bit of the World Cup final as well. Becky thank you. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was awesome. I can't wait for number three. The ending was perfect, you know, but the whole thing was good. Everything I expected, you know? I mean, you have Johnny Depp in there. How can you ask for anything more, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major cliffhanger at the end. Take makes you want the third one to come out tomorrow. Yes. It's real serious. I'm going tell everybody to see this. We should probably see it again, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I might harm my friends if they don't see it. It's that good.
HARRIS: Hey it seems like the second installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is already a big hit, but did you ever wonder how much music plays a role in the success of the movie? Meet the guy responsible for the pirates tune, some serious arggh.
I'm taking you test. Mine's pretty terrible.
NGUYEN: Mine's better than that.
HARRIS: The story in three minutes here on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
Plus --
NGUYEN: At 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time for your "House Call" today with Elizabeth Cohen and today's topic, summer travel safety. What should you do before leaving home and how can you better survive that dreaded jet lag? "House Call" has the answers.
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NGUYEN: Well, "Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest" is a box office treasure. According to box office MOJO.com. opening day totals are at a record $55.5 million. "Star Wars Revenge of the Sith" once held a record, no more. Pirates sliced and diced it by 5 million smackeroos.
HARRIS: Well the movie itself is the draw; no doubt about it, but a movie without music is like a guitar without strings. Composer Hans Zimmer puts the musical score into motion pictures including both installments of "Pirates of the Caribbean." CNN's A.J. Hammer was with Zimmer as he put the final notes on dead man's chest.
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A.J. HAMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The swaggering Jack Sparrow is back in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," but before he was strutting on the big screen, composer Hans Zimmer is charting the film's musical score.
HANS ZIMMER, CONDUCTOR: Make your notes just a little bit longer, if you can. More menacing. The orchestra is doing a good pirate scene right now. HAMMER: A picture's orchestration is the last element to be added and not a swash-buckling thing will be seen until Zimmer mixes the last note.
ZIMMER: I suppose I could put it toward procrastination. Luckily, I'm working with filmmakers who are still changing maybe a thing here or there or whatever, you know?
HAMMER: This conductor may be at the helm music, but the real captain of the ship is director Gore Verbinski.
ZIMMER: He's really involved just where I want him, just, you know? He's my co-conspirator, definitely. I know I just do what he asks me to do; I'm going to let him down because my job really is to do what he can't even imagine because otherwise he would be doing it.
HAMMER: There were no cryptic messages to decipher when director Ron Howard compared notes for "The Da Vinci Code."
ZIMMER: The only way we can do it because it is collaboration and it is a team effort, keep your director tight.
HAMMER: It's back to a pirate's life for the academy award winner as he creates his next symphonic treasure.
ZIMMER: I should start pirates 3 in August and I have a lot of ideas for pirates 3, oops. I have nothing for pirates 2 and then I had the other little movie on its way as well. So right now I'm feeling fairly comfortable about pirates 3.
HAMMER: A.J. Hammer, CNN, Hollywood.
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NGUYEN: Music makes all the difference apparently, yes.
OK now to Colorado, yesterday it was a rock versus a car. Guess which one won. Take a look at it. Yes. See it squished that piece of metal right under it. The rock won, of course. You see the car barely moving right there. The good news is the driver is fine. You'll want to stick around for this story. That's ahead on CNN SUNDAY MORNING at 9:00 Eastern.
HARRIS: And just ahead "House Call" with Elizabeth Cohen, today's topic summer travel safety. Stick around for "House Call" next here on CNN.
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