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CNN Saturday Morning News

Stores Have Big Sales; U.S. And Iraqis Kick Off Joint Operation; Cindy Sheehan In Crawford; Three Die On Thin Wisconsin Ice; U.S. Soldiers Face Punishment For Burning Bodies; Dead Bodies Into Diamonds; Betty Gives Back To Those In Poverty In Vietnam

Aired November 26, 2005 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: For the thousands of Thanksgiving travelers, tomorrow's trip back home could be a tough one, thanks to mother nature. Stormy weather is in store for many across the country. CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider's forecast is just ahead. From the CNN Center this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. The 26th day of November.
Did you survive the shopping yesterday? Hope so. Good morning everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen. Tony Harris joins us next hour. But right now let's take a look at some of the other stories making news.

In the news, it is night in eastern China and thousands of people are sleeping outside in tents. They were jolted early today by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake. The government reports at least a dozen deaths and nearly 400 injuries. China's official news agency said thousands of homes collapsed across the rural region and more than 100,000 are damaged.

Also in China that country's premiere today visited the city of Harbin. He praised workers there dealing with a large binding spill, which forced the city to shut down its water supply several days ago. Tap water is not expected to begin flowing in the city of 9 million people until late Sunday night.

In Iraq now. A new military offensive is underway. Operation Tigers seeks to disrupt insurgent activity in the city of Ramadi. Now the goal is to stabilize security in that region ahead of next month's national elections.

While thousands of you traveled home for Thanksgiving, are you getting ready to head back to your own home? Well you need to know a few things before you pack your bags. Take a look at Buffalo, New York. Snow already on the ground and blowing hard. The wintry conditions can cause problems on the roads. We know that and in Wisconsin, more winter conditions, several storms will affect much of the northern part of the country and they could impact air travel as well.

I want to give you a live picture now out of Denver. What you see could change by tomorrow, time when you travel on Sunday. There's that live look. It looks nice and sunny, but Bonnie Schneider joins us to talk about exactly how things are expected to change tomorrow.

(WEATHER REPORT) NGUYEN: Well if that's a perfect recipe for severe weather, hopefully Mother Nature won't follow the direction, but it sounds like she probably will. Thank you Bonnie.

So are you looking for an Xbox 360 this holiday? A lot of people are good luck. Your best bet might be on eBay if you're willing to pay double or even triple the retail price. That is a steep price as it is. But if you're hunting for bargains the mall is the place to be this morning. That's where we can find CNN's Susan Lisovicz who is at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, one of the oldest and largest malls in the country. I imagine traffic isn't as busy and crazy as it was yesterday morning.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right Betty. Traffic so far is very manageable, but the parking is filling up and you have to remember that the mall has only been open one hour now. An estimated 130 million people will do some sort of shopping this Thanksgiving Day weekend and the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey is hoping its fair share. There are 280-plus stores here.

It's one of the largest malls just outside of New York City. Only in fact about 10 miles away from the George Washington Bridge. One of the big advantages about shopping in New Jersey if you live nearby is there's no sales tax here on apparel so that's a big draw for New Yorkers.

The stores open today at 8:00 a.m. One hour later than Black Friday and the trends so far are promising. The folks here at the Garden State Plaza are telling me that volume was up about 5 percent over a year ago. That people were waiting in line before the doors opened. About 100,000 people went through this mall just yesterday alone.

And Betty, I've done a little recon for you and checked out some of the sales. At B.B., you can take off an additional 65 percent off. That is a ladies apparel shop. At Aeropostale, which is, a youth apparel store, 50 percent off everything except cologne; and at J.C. Penny, their doorbuster sale, take an additional 10 percent off of the clearance items.

NGUYEN: Wow!

LISOVICZ: They're not counting on that alone, Betty, because this is the age of the Internet, after all. So they're throwing in some perks, too.

NGUYEN: That is good to hear, but I have to ask you, though. These great sales out there. Is everything all picked through after yesterday?

LISOVICZ: You mean is anything left, you mean?

NGUYEN: Yes basically.

LISOVICZ: Yes. Well I think that some of the items that you're talking about like the MP3 players, the digital phones, the digital cameras are in really short supply especially in if in fact they are promoted but there's a lot of other things, too as you see. I mean in a place like this, with two million square feet of retail, there's plenty of apparel. There are plenty of toys and everything is promoted. That's one thing that you see.

Every Black Friday, every Thanksgiving Day weekend. There's lots of sales and there is lots of clearance, but this particular one is especially so because of the fear about gasoline prices and high gasoline prices and the home heating oil.

NGUYEN: Well, we could still do plenty of damage with what's left. What is already picked through? There's plenty of stuff for us to buy and I'm sure you'll be buying a bit while you're there today, Susan.

LISOVICZ: I'm going squeeze it in, Betty. You can e-mail me your shopping list.

NGUYEN: Hey, that's a good idea. It can't be all work and no play. Thank you, Susan.

U.S. and Iraqi troops did kick off another joint operation this morning designed to cripple insurgents. I want to tell you about that. Operation Tigers is the fourth in a series of operations being carried out in eastern Ramadi in the Anbar Province. It is aimed at stabilizing the region for next month's elections. The military says about 400 U.S. troops and 150 Iraqi soldiers are taking part in that operation.

In other news as well, Cindy Sheehan is back in Crawford. The peace mom is again leading more protests near the president's ranch. Our Elaine Quijano is watching developments there and joins us now with the latest. Hi Elaine. We finally get to see you.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Betty. That's right. Well, Cindy Sheehan's name, as you recall, became familiar to us back in August. That's when she first brought her anti-war demonstrations here to Crawford.

And at its height, her protests then drew thousand of people. Now, quite a bit less people turning out this Thanksgiving weekend, but Sheehan on Friday joined roughly 50 other demonstrators here to dedicate a stone memorial to her son Casey who was killed in Iraq and more than a dozen other U.S. service members killed there as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY SHEEHAN, SON KILLED IN IRAQ: This is a very beautiful place and it's filled with good people and I know that we have more in common than we have that separate us, but we're here to say that the killing has to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now Sheehan's presence here is also drawing a number of counter demonstrators. People who support President Bush's Iraq policy and say the actions of Sheehan and other anti-war activists are hurting the morale of U.S. troops overseas.

As for the White House, no comment on Cindy Sheehan's presence or on any of the demonstrations, but the Bush administration as you known Betty continues to oppose the idea that Cindy Sheehan very much supports and that's the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. The Bush administration saying simply they feel that would be a big mistake -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes we heard definitely a lot about that last week. Thank you, Elaine Quijano in Crawford.

The deaths of three people in Wisconsin remind us about the dangers involving thin ice this time of year. A 12-year-old boy died at a hospital last night, some eight hours after he was pulled from a pond in Cascade. Now authorities say he was riding an all-terrain vehicle and apparently just simply fell through that ice.

Around the same time a father and his daughters were out ice- skating together when the unthinkable happened. Reporter Charles Benson from CNN affiliate WTMJ has more on these ice deaths.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF MICHAEL HELMKE, SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, WISCONSIN: Obviously, it's an unfortunate tragedy.

CHARLES BENSON, WTMJ REPORTER (voice-over): When rescue crews arrived they knew they were racing against the clock to find the father and daughter, but as minutes faded into hours, so did any hope of a rescue.

HELMKE: The rescue was difficult. The water was zero visibility. The bodies were found on the bottom of the pond in relatively thick mud.

BENSON: The 44-year-old father had taken his two daughters ages 9 and 6 to this small farm pond for skating. When the 9-year-old fell through the ice, the father did what any father would do.

HELMKE: The father had attempted to rescue her and he fell through and then the other daughter had run to a nearby residence to call 911.

BENSON: Others who watched say there's an important lesson in this terrible tragedy.

STEVE HILDEBRAND, NEIGHBOR: It is. It is. Kids should stay away from the ice that the time of year, you know? Some places it might be thick and some places are really thin, you know. It's not so good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: That was WTMJ's Charles Benson reporting. Again, officials want to remind people to be careful around ice especially early in the cold weather season when it's likely that the ice will be thin and weak.

There's trouble for two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. That tops this morning's "Going Global." Let's bring in now Shanon Cook from the international desk with the latest on that. Good morning.

SHANON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey good morning to you, Betty, thank you very much. This just coming into CNN now. The U.S. military says that two U.S. soldiers based in Afghanistan will face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of what they call two Islamic militants. This incident happened last month.

You might remember it and at the same time the bodies were being burned two other soldiers used loudspeakers to taunt Taliban fighters. We've learned that those two soldiers will also be reprimanded. The body burning sparked out raging in Afghanistan because Islam bans cremation, but the military says the soldiers burned the bodies for hygienic reasons.

Now to Gaza where hundreds of Palestinians streamed across the border between Gaza and Egypt today the first time they've been allowed to do so without passing through Israeli security. The crossing is now officially under Palestinian control, but dozens of European Union monitors will be there for the next year and Israelis are keeping an eye on the traffic using closed-circuit television.

Now turning our attention to Mexico where people are being offered a new way to honor the deceased. Betty, I believe you know a little bit about this. There's this Swiss company, which offers a service to turn a body's ashes into a diamond.

The diamonds are basically made from the carbon extracted from ashes and it can be made up to a whole carat diamond from these ashes. This company has just done operations in Mexico, but it already offers its service in a dozen or so countries around the world. Quite an interesting concept.

NGUYEN: Yes, You know Shanon I did a story on this about a year ago and you can get your relatives made into a diamond, parts of their ashes and even your pets and they really are beautiful pieces of art work, but do I have to tell you, there are some people that simply can't go there. So I want to know how are folks in Mexico reacting to this?

COOK: Well -- good question. Mexico, as you know, Mexico is deeply rooted in the Catholic faith and ancestral traditions. For some people, this is a little bit crass. It's a little bit of a superficial thing to do with the remains of one of their loved ones, but for others, they see it as a reasonable solution to overcrowding -- overcrowded cemeteries.

NGUYEN: Really?

COOK: Yes.

NGUYEN: So for the story that I did, it costs a lot of money. It was several thousands of dollars. How much is it down there?

COOK: It's more for the wealthy people. It will cost you anywhere between $5 and $11,000 dollars.

NGUYEN: That's about on par with what I learned in the story. Very interesting stuff. I don't know if I could do it Shanon. What about you?

COOK: I'd be worried that someone would break into my house and steal it because it's a diamond.

NGUYEN: That's my relative, bring that back.

COOK: Exactly. No one would really steal ashes out of an urn I don't think, but a diamond hanging on the wall. I don't know.

NGUYEN: My luck, if I were ever turned into a diamond, I'd end up in a pawnshop somewhere.

COOK: Exactly that is a concern.

NGUYEN: Thank you Shanon.

COOK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: And you want to stay right here because in the spirit of volunteerism on this holiday weekend I'm going take you on a personal journey to my birth country, Vietnam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER, "THEN & NOW" (voice-over): Dominique Dawes tumbled into the spotlight in the 1996 Olympics as part of the magnificent seven gold medal-winning gymnastics team Awesome Dawesom became the first African-American to win individual gymnastics medal with a bronze in the floor exercise.

DOMINIQUE DAWES, GYMNAST: It just meant a lot to do it for the country, my team and myself.

ANNOUNCER: After the Olympics, Dawes turned heads on Broadway. Dabbled in acting and modeling and cart wheeled her way through a Prince music video.

She hung up her leotard in 1998 and went on to the University of Maryland, but soon realized that gymnastics was not quite out of her system. Dawes participated in her third Olympic games in 2000 in what she calls a once in a lifetime experience. Dawes, now 28 is completely retired from gymnastics and splits her time between coaching and motivational speaking.

DAWES: It's really going out there and teaching young girls what being fit is all about.

ANNOUNCER: She's also president of the Women's Sports Foundation and has recently launched a new project, Go Girl Go. DAWES: I feel like I do have to inspire and empower others and that's why I found these different platforms and these different venues that I feel live been able to touch lives in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now to Vietnam as we focus volunteerism this holiday weekend. This next story is a personal one. For me, it's not just a journey back home; it is much more than that. It is a time to reconnect and to give back to those facing hunger and poverty in my birth country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): The sun rises over Ho Chi Minh City; it will always be Saigon to me. This is where I was born, shortly before the communists took over and my family fled to the United States as the Americans pulled out of the war. Today, it's a place that's familiar in the most foreign sort of way.

I'm like a stranger in my own homeland which is why I come back, to reconnect. This time it comes by way of a six-hour journey south of Saigon where annual monsoons are destroying homes and putting lives in danger. We're bringing humanitarian aid donated through Help the Hungry, a charity my family founded. It's our way of giving back.

Now that this boat has been loaded with supplies, it's already started to rain and we're going cross this river to get to flooded homes. I can only begin to imagine what we're going find.

One thing is sure; the water stretches for miles, drowning rice fields, which are key to Vietnam's economy. It's deep; it's dirty and happens every year. Filling up what are little more than grass huts with dirt floors. I'm shocked at how many are still living in flooded homes. From the very old, who say there's nowhere to go, to the young who have lost more than many adults could endure. These children are on their own. They're not even sure what illness killed their parents. All they have is each other and a hut with three walls.

The oldest is 15. This frog will be their dinner, cooked in a makeshift kitchen next to a pole where their clothes hang. Not only do these orphans live in this grass hut with floodwaters just inches below them. This is where they sleep. On this wooden platform, no mattress, there's no blanket.

A reality that's even more difficult to digest when you see the sore on her arm. She says she fell on it and now it's infected.

We gave them enough food, medicine and money to sustain them for a while and maybe even a little hope, but I hated to leave not knowing what will become of them. From flooded homes to uncertain futures, this homecoming of sorts is never easy.

When you see children who should be in school digging through the dirty water, fishing out pieces of plastic to sell, you can't help, but hurt inside. It's raining once again. It makes me wonder what kind of night the people that we met today are going have with the monsoon season here.

The people, the situations, it makes me wonder also about what my life would have been like if I had not left with my family after the war. Would that have been me? I don't think I'll ever know the answer to that, which is why I come back, I guess, searching for answers. Trying to find a way to give back. A sense of purpose, to make a difference.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And you don't have to travel half way around the world to make a difference in the lives of those in need. It can start in your own backyard. On Thursday our weekend morning crew went to Turner Field here in Atlanta to volunteer. We joined Hosea Williams Help Feed the Hungry Program.

Through this foundation, thousands of people get a hot meal and clothes and many of them also received haircuts and showers. This is the 35th year of the program. So you'll want to stick around, because coming up in our next hour we'll show you more of the hard work that went on behind the scenes. It was good work.

Coming up as well. A look at what people are clicking on to this holiday season. "Dot.com News" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: You know, folks are tired of that turkey so they're probably doing other things like suffering the net this morning.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Surfing the Web. 'Tis the season.

And Veronica De La Cruz is here to talk about exactly what they're clicking on.

DE LA CRUZ: Well some really interesting holiday stories. We're going to go ahead and start with this one. A pretty bizarre situation in the Bay area on Thanksgiving. Betty, check this out. Watch as these men in suits and bow ties terrorize this liquor store.

The owner says he was frightened as the men came barreling into through store punching and shoving him and breaking windows and displays. Authorities unfortunately believe it was a hate crime on Thanksgiving of all days.

NGUYEN: Yes, they're all dressed up to do it. It's just different.

DE LA CRUZ: All right Betty. We've all heard pets are people, too, right?

NGUYEN: Of course, they are.

DE LA CRUZ: So I'm betting that Fluffy will probably be getting something pretty nice for Christmas this year. Listen to this, Betty. According to Doggynews.com, 30 percent of you have admitted to spending more money on your pets than on your spouses.

NGUYEN: Are you kidding me?

DE LA CRUZ: No, I'm not, and if you are one of those people and you're looking for a good gift idea, how about this? A high-tech, self-cleaning kitty litter box at $100.

NGUYEN: My.

DE LA CRUZ: Check it out right there.

NGUYEN: That is high tech.

DE LA CRUZ: Or a doggy daybed which will cost you a whopping $300. But look how nice it is.

NGUYEN: Here's the deal, though. You spend all that money and those pets will not go near it.

DE LA CRUZ: It always works that way. Finally, the world's ugliest dog has died; Sam won the ugliest dog contest three years in a row. He turned his bad looks into fame Betty with appearances on shows like "Carson Daily" and "Live with Regis and Kelly." And a side not here Susie Lockheed who is the owner of the dog said she once had a boyfriend dump her because he claimed that the dog was so ugly he gave her an ultimatum. Either I go or the dog.

NGUYEN: I have to admit that is a pretty ugly dog.

DE LA CRUZ: I would say that we all have to say that we all know who the real dog is in that situation.

NGUYEN: The boyfriend.

DE LA CRUZ: Yes of course.

NGUYEN: Well may Sam rest in peace.

DE LA CRUZ: Exactly poor Sam.

NGUYEN: OK, Veronica very good stuff there.

DE LA CRUZ: Yes CNN.com/video.

NGUYEN: See you tomorrow. By now most us have seen this video of shoppers fighting. Yes. Fighting over a laptop computer, buying electronics shouldn't be that difficult. My goodness. So to make it easier for you, consumers electronics analyst Robin Liss will be live here on CNN all day long starting next hour and if you're wondering whether to go plasma or LCD. She will have the answer. "OPEN HOUSE" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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