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CNN Saturday Morning News

Investigation Continues About Midway Airport Incident; Plane Catches Fire In Nigeria; Winter Storm In Northeast; Hostages In Iraq Face Deadline; Fights Between Houston Locals And Katrina Evacuees At School; Iran To Move Ahead With Uranium Enrichment; Kite Riot; Government Tests Bird Flu Preparedness; Good Holiday Technology Gifts; Gorillas Rate "King Kong"

Aired December 10, 2005 - 11:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at this and this and this and this. Winter weather is making life so miserable for many across New England this morning. How long will the deep freeze continue? That's the big question.
It is Saturday, December 10th, feeling like December.

Good morning, everybody.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: That dog was loving it.

NGUYEN: That was not the only thing that was loving it out there.

HARRIS: Loving life.

NGUYEN: The rest was just a mess.

HARRIS: Good morning, everybody.

I'm Tony Harris.

Thank you for starting your day with us.

Let's get you started this morning with the headlines now in the news.

The Boeing 737 that skidded off the runway at Chicago's Midway Airport may be removed from the crash site this morning and hauled to a hangar at the airport. Investigators are also starting to interview the pilot, crew and witnesses today. The Southwest airliner hit two cars after it slid into a busy intersection Thursday night, killing a child and injuring 13 other people.

In Nigeria, a passenger plane with more than 100 people on board caught fire today on an airport tarmac in the southern city of Port Harcourt. That's according to Nigeria's Federal Airport Authority. The number and nature of casualties are not yet known.

And you know him as the outspoken chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency and now he and his agency are winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. In accepting the prestigious award this morning, Mohamed ElBaradei said the world should work to make nuclear weapons as universally condemned as slavery or genocide.

And will convicted killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams live or die? California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will announce his decision very soon, after listening to both sides in a clemency hearing. Schwarzenegger called the decision very tough. Williams is set to die by lethal injection on Tuesday.

NGUYEN: Now back to that investigation into the deadly accident at Chicago's Midway Airport. That begins in earnest today. Officials say the plan is to haul the Southwest Airlines jet into a hangar this morning for a thorough probe. They're going to look at wind, ice and temperature conditions, the height of the plane and other details.

Questions about whether the runway is long enough to safely land a jet of that size are also being considered.

The bottom line, don't expect answers any time soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLEN ENGLEMAN CONNERS, NTSB: We anticipate that we're going to be on scene here with this lead team probably for about five or six days of intensive work and then some may stay longer. We'll continue to be interviewing, researching, data collection, fact gathering, etc. for some time.

This entire process will probably take a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Six-year-old Joshua Woods was killed in that crash. Here is his picture. He was in one of two cars that were hit when the Boeing 737 skidded off the runway and onto a street Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN MULLINS, FRIEND OF VICTIM'S FAMILY: We were shocked that it would happen so close to, you know, to us, and that it would happen to somebody you know. Normally when you see something like this it's -- you don't know who it is or don't have a clue about what's going on. But knowing that, knowing the family and that it was a part of it and a son of the community is, it was a shock at first and now it's more of a heartbreak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: No doubt.

Well, the boy's parents and siblings were among the 13 people injured in the crash.

HARRIS: Back to our top story right now. Breaking news in Nigeria. A passenger plane with more than 100 people on board caught fire today on an airport tarmac in the southern port city of Port Harcourt.

Reporter Christian Allen Purefoy is on the line with us -- and, Christian, good morning to you.

And what can you tell us about this crash, this accident and this fire?

CHRISTIAN ALLEN PUREFOY, JOURNALIST: Yes, good morning, Tony.

Yes, these confirmed reports of a plane crash in Port Harcourt, southeast Nigeria, with 110 people on board. We don't know how many casualties yet, but there are rumors of four to five survivors. A witness on the ground spoke to me and told me that they had been taken to the hospital.

The weather down there apparently is heavy rain and thunder, and it happened probably about 2:00 this afternoon.

HARRIS: Well, Christian, clear this up for me.

Are we talking about a crash? Because the line I just read suggested that the plane was on the tarmac. So was this a crash? Was this something that happened before the plane took off? Can you clarify that for me?

PUREFOY: I can't quite confirm why the plane has crashed. I've heard it is at the end of the runway and that it was on fire. The fire has now ended, but I can't give you -- I don't have any more details, I'm afraid, on quite why.

HARRIS: OK. And -- all right, because I'm still trying to determine, and I guess we all are, at this point, until everybody can get to the scene and get some assessments going here, whether the plane was actually taxiing to take off, whether the plane was actually sitting on the tarmac when the fire started.

And I guess what I hear you saying is that those are questions that are still out there that need answer, is that correct?

PUREFOY: Yes.

Well, what we do know is that it was flying from the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, to the southeast of the country, to Port Harcourt.

HARRIS: OK.

PUREFOY: It's a journey that takes about an hour. So, yes, no, most likely it's just, you know, it was sort of trying to land and it crashed in bad weather. But that is pure speculation.

HARRIS: Got you.

Got you. OK, that helps us advance it a bit.

Christian, we appreciate your time.

Thank you.

PUREFOY: Thank you.

HARRIS: And this is deadline day for four Western hostages in Iraq. Kidnappers have vowed to kill the Christian humanitarian workers today if U.S. and Iraqi officials don't release all their prisoners. One American, one Briton and two Canadians were kidnapped two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian hostage who was kidnapped on Friday has been killed. Police in Tikrit say they found the man's body on a road this morning.

Four American soldiers were also killed today in Iraq. The military says the soldiers died in separate incidents. One was killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad. Another was killed by small arms fire while on patrol northwest of the capital. And the other two soldiers died in small arms fire southwest of the city.

For a complete look at problems and progress in Iraq, be sure to watch a special "CNN PRESENTS: 100 Days In Iraq." It's on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The show jump starts a week of special coverage, as the Iraqis elect a permanent government and the U.S. military reaches its 1,000th day in the war.

NGUYEN: Now to the brutal winter weather in the Northeast. People there are trying to dig out from yesterday's major snowstorm. Up to a foot of snow fell in parts of Massachusetts and New York. New Hampshire got even more, 14 inches. At least five deadly crashes are being blamed on the storm.

In Massachusetts, about 100 -- actually, take that back -- about 70,000 customers are still without power. It was 150,000 a little bit earlier today. But in the winter storm, it did have a little bit of a silver lining for students there, who got a jump on the weekend after school was canceled from Maryland all the way to Maine.

HARRIS: To get a sense of what it is like to be smack dab in the middle of all of that snow -- we've had some fun with Steve this morning, haven't we?

Steve Cooper is with us again, doing what a lot of folks in the Northeast and doing it right now, and that's digging out.

He is joining us from our affiliate, WHDH, in North Andover, Massachusetts -- careful with that, you know?

People have all kinds of health problems that are related to shoveling snow, so be careful, sir.

STEVE COOPER, WHDH CORRESPONDENT: I'm trying to, Tony. But I'll tell you, anything -- I'm trying to get to you in Atlanta. You know, last hour I had the snowballs heading your way and everybody is just waking up this morning doing a little bit of digging out. I actually shouldn't say a little bit, an awful lot of digging out.

Look at these mountains of snow that were left behind from this pretty significant storm that fell yesterday, but left behind about 14, 15, 16 inches of snow here. And everybody's busy trying to clear this stuff out of the way so they can get on with their days.

But, boy, there's an awful lot of snow here right behind us.

The salters and the sanders had a busy night trying to clear all this stuff up. But now that it is pretty much cleared away, people can get on with their day, take care of some holiday shopping. And I guess as you look at this mountain of snow left behind, if you were dreaming of a white Christmas, I think those dreams have come true because I can't imagine, over the next couple of weeks, this stuff is about to disappear.

After the shopping, time for some sweating. So, Tony, here we go.

HARRIS: Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it.

COOPER: Live in North Andover, Massachusetts, Steve Cooper.

NGUYEN: Tony, you leave him alone.

COOPER: Back to you guys.

HARRIS: Fabulous.

COOPER: I think.

HARRIS: Good stuff. No, no, it's all good.

We'll take it from here.

Be well.

COOPER: All right.

NGUYEN: Yes.

HARRIS: Because you're a sick man.

NGUYEN: Oh, the good thing is he didn't slide off into the road like he did earlier...

HARRIS: That's right.

NGUYEN: ... where cars were coming and, you know, roads are slick throughout the nation -- Brad Huffines.

BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the good news is, as we look at the map of the Northeast and you see the cold temperatures still, the better news is that there is some sunshine back. In fact, we're going to show the one place, the one place on the map where it's snowing still, just north of Bangor, Maine. Hey, now doesn't that look good?

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: And look at that, Miami with those 80 degree temperatures, guys. Whoa. Wouldn't that be nice?

HARRIS: See, one thing that you need is to understand that we've got shopping to do.

NGUYEN: We've got things to do.

HARRIS: We've got to keep this economy propped up here.

NGUYEN: Yes.

HUFFINES: Exactly.

HARRIS: So, we've got to get that stuff cleared out here in the East.

NGUYEN: Shovel it out of there.

HARRIS: Right.

HUFFINES: Winter wear is always good to buy for Christmas.

HARRIS: That's right.

Brad, thanks.

NGUYEN: Thanks, Brad.

HARRIS: Still ahead, the battle to recover after hurricane Katrina is getting personal. Look at this. Just ahead, find out why fists and feet were flying in Houston this week.

NGUYEN: Hmmm.

Well, later, an update on Iran's plans to go nuclear.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: If you're just joining us, here are the top stories we're following for you this hour.

Winter is biting a little harder. Heavy snowfalls from the Midwest to Maine. Power was knocked out in tens of thousands of homes in Massachusetts. And airports in Boston were forced to close. Flights were delayed or canceled throughout the Northeast region and forecasters say there is calmer weather ahead in the region. That's some good news.

But could this happen again? This time we're talking about members of a Nazi group in Toledo, Ohio, are planning another rally at city hall this afternoon. Anti- racist groups are planning a counter demonstration and you might remember the neo-Nazi group's march in October never happened, but it did touch off four hours of violence.

HARRIS: Betty, several brawls broke out at a school in Houston, Texas. What triggered the violence? Friction between students who have been there for years and the new kids, evacuees from New Orleans.

With the details, here's CNN's Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A report of a fight in school fight between hometown students and New Orleans evacuees sent an army of police to Houston's Westbury High School. And as the officers arrived, the fighting went on.

Watch what happens as students start to run outside, chasing each other across the track field. Half a dozen boys go at it, wailing away at each other. One boy even loses his shirt before a school coach rushes in to break it up.

But it didn't stop there. Less than a minute later, more running, more trouble and then the police tackled at least one student and handcuffed several more, including one girl who didn't go quietly.

Eventually, some of the students were carted off to jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One child got a laceration under the eye. And I'm not aware of any other injuries at this point. There will be a number of kids arrested.

ROESGEN: The police arrested 27 students, 15 from New Orleans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day it's something at Westbury High School. Every day it's something. It's -- if it's an argument, a rumor, it's something, a fight. It's something.

ROESGEN: Trouble between New Orleans students and Houston students has been going on for weeks. The billboard says: "Welcome to Westbury High School." But graffiti near the door says "New Orleans girls are trash."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the girl pushed me. And I'm like I'm not just going to let you push me like this, so, you know what I'm saying?

ROESGEN: Three hundred of the school's 2,500 students are New Orleans evacuees. New Orleans kids complain the Houston kids pick on them, while the Houston kids say the New Orleans kids don't fit in.

And it isn't just here. School officials say the fighting at Westbury was one of about a dozen clashes at Houston schools since about 5,000 New Orleans students started enrolling in September. In other cities, people who initially welcomed New Orleans evacuees now blame them for everything from more traffic to more crime.

Robin Smith, a New Orleans mother, says no one should blame the children.

ROBIN SMITH, MOTHER: Every other day it's something with New Orleans, Houston. These children is not bad children. They didn't ask to come here, you know what I'm saying?

ROESGEN: More difficulties for some New Orleans evacuees and for those who once welcomed them.

Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Goodness.

Well, she has been making a lot of headlines around the world recently. Coming up, is Condoleezza Rice about to receive a well known honor for her efforts?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARUCH SHEMTOV, TIE DESIGNER: My name is Baruch Shemtov.

I am 17 years old.

Just about two years ago, I began to design and to produce my own line of neckwear.

I began with neckties in particular when I was 15 years old because, as part of our school dress code, we need to wear neckties. I got bored wearing the same old ties everyday and I thought let me try to, you know, reinterpret the tie, let me inject my ties with some bold flavor.

This is the first tie that I ever made and this is really how it all started. It's a little bit crude. And this is a thin bandana tie, and people loved it. So I decided to have them manufactured.

All my ties are handmade right here in New York City. They're done in a factory here.

These are some examples from my spring and fall collections. I realized that many people really saw the necktie as a burden. Men really just saw it as something that they removed when they left the office.

I decided that neckties could be the way in which men could really express their sense of fashion and I decided that I would reinvent the necktie, reinterpret it through unusual fabrics, like kimono fabrics, my vintage couture fabrics and my double tie.

That's a layered tie.

My ties are primarily available at Takashimaya. It's a Japan department store in New York City. They're also available online. I'm working on expanding my line and expanding the distribution of my line. My ties retail for between $95 and $110. That really is the price of a luxury necktie.

The business is a profitable business, which is great. You know, again, I didn't do it for the money, but it's always good if it's profitable and the way I look at the fact that it's been profitable is that that just means that people are interested in the designs.

What's really been most satisfying over the past two years has been the fact that I have been able to witness others enjoying my creativity and to witness their appreciation of my neckties has really been an absolute reward in itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And time now for a check of other stories making news around the globe.

NGUYEN: Iran's nuclear chief has indicated the nation will go ahead with controversial uranium enrichment.

And Shanon Cook has been following that story for us from the International Desk -- good morning, Shanon.

What do you know?

SHANON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Shanon.

Thanks, Betty.

Good morning, Shanon!

I mean it's gorgeous Shanon!

I'm sorry.

NGUYEN: That's all right. We...

HARRIS: I'm sorry.

I'm Tony here.

You're Shanon.

NGUYEN: It's a little early, I guess, for you, Shanon.

COOK: I thought you were Sarah...

(CROSSTALK)

COOK: Thank you, Betty.

And thank you, Tony.

NGUYEN: OK.

COOK: Iran has faced much scrutiny and criticism from Western nations over its nuclear program and now new comments out of Tehran that could further inflame this situation. The head of Iran's atomic energy organization says Iran will enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. He added that construction of a new nuclear plant has begun in Darkhoin. There's concern that Iran will build nuclear weapons with its uranium enrichment program. But Iran maintains it's for energy only.

Now to Montreal, Canada, where some last minute agreements were reached at a United Nations conference aimed at combating global warming. The Kyoto nations agreed to begin talks on extending the pact beyond its expiration in 2012. The Kyoto Protocol requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The Bush administration, by the way, has refused to participate in the pact because of concern that it would damage the economy.

To London now. The city there has bid farewell to an icon, the red double-decker buses known as the Routemasters. These buses have been in service for about half a century. They've carried millions of passengers around London. They're quite loved, but deemed too expensive to run. So they've slowly been phased out since the '80s and yesterday the last remaining Routemaster, Number 159 it was, made its final trip -- Betty, a lot of people turned out to say see you later to that big old red bus.

NGUYEN: Yes, hate to see that thing go, but I understand that they're going to still be touring them around. So they're not completely gone just yet.

COOK: Right.

NGUYEN: All right, Shanon...

COOK: They'll remain a tourist attraction.

NGUYEN: ... it still is, right?

We haven't switched names, right?

COOK: Yes.

NGUYEN: Shanon.

COOK: Yes.

NGUYEN: All right.

COOK: Yes. You're not Shanon?

NGUYEN: Not yet.

COOK: Just checking.

NGUYEN: But I could be.

Some clashes in Pakistan over kites? What is that?

COOK: Yes, rather a bizarre situation. A protest in Lahore, Pakistan turned really violent when police attempted to disperse the crowd Friday. Now, these demonstrators were there to protest the Supreme Court for upholding a nationwide ban on kite flying.

You may be thinking what's wrong with kite flying?

Well, recently several people have been killed by the thin strings of kites.

NGUYEN: Ew.

COOK: Hence the ban.

Apparently they coat the strings with glass or some kind of substance that enables the kites to cut through rival kite strings. I didn't know kite flying was so competitive.

NGUYEN: Yes.

COOK: But kite manufacturers and residents who enjoy kite flying quite upset over it, as we can see by these images.

NGUYEN: So, is that it, this ruling? It's done? Over with? No more kite flying in Pakistan ever?

COOK: Well, maybe, maybe not. The court is apparently going to reconsider the ruling next month and it will be interesting to see what happens, because there is actually a kite flying festival in March which is quite well known. It attracts enthusiasts all over the world.

So we'll have to see what the court decides in January.

NGUYEN: I never knew kite flying could be so dangerous.

COOK: I know.

Fascinating.

NGUYEN: The things you learn on CNN, Shanon.

COOK: Exactly.

NGUYEN: Thank you.

COOK: Thanks, Betty.

HARRIS: All right, then, thank you.

I don't know about that story.

Well, anticipation is growing about who will be "Time" magazines Person of the Year. The announcement will be made next weekend.

Here's a look at one potential candidate, arguably the most powerful women in America right now, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMESH RATNESAR, WORLD EDITOR, "TIME": Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, in my mind, has had a significant impact on the way in which America's foreign policy has changed direction over the last year. In lots of ways, I think, the last 12 months have been the most productive period for American diplomacy probably since this president took office. And a lot of that is due to Secretary of State Rice, who has reinvigorated the State Department.

I think she's taken much more control over the direction of American foreign policy. She has repaired some of our relationships with our allies. And then in important areas, both in Iran and North Korea, too, the major crises facing the world, she has really put the United States firmly in the camp in terms of working with our allies to try to resolve those situations.

And in that sense, I think, she would be someone who you could make a case is the person of the year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: If you're just joining us, good morning. Here is what's happening now in the news. The Southwest jet that slid off a runway in Chicago's Midway airport is being dragged to an airport hangar today. The jet slid into a street during a snowstorm on Thursday night, hitting two cars and killing a six-year-old boy. The investigation into what caused the accident could take as long as a year.

Another airline incident, this one in Nigeria, a passenger jet with 110 people onboard caught fire on an airport tarmac in the southern city of Port Harcourt. That's according to Nigeria's Federal airport authority. Now witnesses say the plane crash landed during bad weather and an explosion followed causing the fire. The number and nature of the casualties are not yet known

NGUYEN: The White House is in preparation mode this morning. They're testing the government's readiness for a bird flu pandemic. Now a virus inflecting millions of birds has spread through Asia and parts of Europe. So government planners are working under a worst- case scenario about a wide spread outbreak right here in the U.S. CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us live from the White House with the latest on this. Again, this is just a test and only a test.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just a test and only a test, and Betty, I think you can see the White House is doing its best to put on a full court press on this because the administration has come in for a lot of criticism over the last year for its slow response to disasters like the tsunami, like hurricane Katrina. So it really wants to appear as though it's doing its best to get ready for this one.

Federal officials right here at the White House are as we speak, beginning to wrap up a four-hour exercise that basically is planning how each branch of the Federal government would respond if a bird flu pandemic were to begin spreading here in the United States.

To say it would be overwhelming is an understatement. According to a new Congressional Budget Office evaluation, a pandemic would send the nation's economy spiraling downward worse than a recession. Senator Bill Frist unveiled the study this week which predicted 90 million Americans would become infected and two million would die.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL FRIST (R) MAJORITY LEADER: Normal life stops, the churches close, the schools shutter, communications and transportation grinds to a halt. The public succumbs to hysteria and panic, police protection fails, order decays, productivity falls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: ... has taken a personal interest in pandemic preparedness after reading a book this summer about the great pandemic of 1918 that claimed the lives of more than 500,000 Americans. In a speech last month, President Bush announced he would ask Congress for $7.1 billion in emergency preparedness funding to among other things, establish a surveillance system, to track any cases of bird flu, to stockpile treatments and vaccines and also to speed the development of new vaccines, enough for each and every American. And we expect this afternoon to be getting a briefing from Fran Townsend. She is President Bush's homeland security adviser on just how the drill went. Betty?

NGUYEN: And the drill was only at the Federal level? No state and local officials involved in it?

KOCH: As far as we understand, Betty, simply at the Federal level, but again hopefully in an hour and a half or so, we'll be able to ask Fran Townsend some questions but it's really taking again a look at the Federal government, how it would respond. They've picked out some sort of scenario. We're hoping to find out from them exactly what it was and then they'll be telling us hopefully how it went, what worked, what didn't, what things they might implement and what things they might drop that didn't work.

NGUYEN: Kathleen Koch at the White House. Thank you, Kathleen. You can find out more about the potential threat of avian flu in a prime time special with chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. We're going to take you to southeast Asia to explain the origins of bird flu. Check it out tomorrow 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, are you trying to find a holiday gift for the gadget lover in your life, Tony?

HARRIS: Sure, sure. Absolutely.

NGUYEN: Stick around because we have some tips. That's coming up.

HARRIS: Also ahead, we'll get an update on the winter weather forecast for the rest of the day, for the rest of the nation. Everybody, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

And our top stories at this hour, no word yet on the fate of death row inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he will decide soon on whether to grant clemency to the former gang leader. Since his four murder convictions in 1981, Williams has become an anti-gang crusader. He's scheduled to be executed on Tuesday.

In Oslo, Norway, an awards ceremony that tops all others. How classy was this? The 2005 Nobel peace prize was handed out. Sharing the honor, Mohammed ElBaradei and the group he heads, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. He gave his acceptance speech, ElBaradei called for a world where nuclear weapons become taboo.

And today in the northeastern U.S., there is a whole lot of shoveling, up to a foot of snow fell in parts of Massachusetts and New York yesterday. New Hampshire got even more, 14 inches in Massachusetts, about 70,000 customers are still without power.

NGUYEN: You know this is a real problem, because it's the weekend and Brad, people want to shop. There are gifts that need to be bought. What is going?

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: All right. So, if you're snowed in and you still want to help Santa stuff those stockings this Christmas, then there are some great gift ideas that you should know about. Joining us now to give us the lowdown, electronics guru Robin Liss. Hi there, Robin.

ROBIN LISS, CONSUMER ELECTRONICS ANALYST: Hey, Betty.

NGUYEN: There are some really cool items to put in those stockings. One of them, how did these electronics - you've got DVDs. You've got those iPods and you need the little media things that go with it, you know, CDs, DVDs, those kind of things. That's a good stocking stuffer, huh?

LISS: Right. We have some great kind of technology miniaturized gifts here. One of the best stocking stuffer gifts out there are memory cards. I have a couple here. These can go from anywhere for $10 to even $40 or $50 and the prices on these have dropped significantly. So you can get 128 megabyte memory card for $20 or $30. There's actually quite a few great sales on them.

NGUYEN: Really. That's not bad and those memory cards especially if you're taking pictures with a digital camera, they are so important. Here's another thing that I've never heard of before, a remote controlled digital camera plane? What is that?

LISS: Right. It's a little big, so we don't have it here in the studio, but Wal-Mart has a remote controlled plane. It's made by a company called Estes. And what this is, is it has a digital camera right on the top so you can fly this around and take aerial shots of your home or -- you might want to be careful not to ply it in a big city because you don't want to scare the authorities with one of these.

NGUYEN: No and power lines. You don't want to get it caught up in that.

LISS: Absolutely. You can find them in a Wal-Mart. They're kind of made out of Styrofoam so you got to be careful when you're landing these things, but otherwise it's really cool because you can download the pictures into your computer when you're done.

NGUYEN: A lot of people want iPods, iPod this, iPod that, but when you go to purchase an iPod if that's what you choose for one of these stocking stuffers, which one do you get? There's the Nano. There's the Shuffle. There's a ton of them out there.

LISS: Right. So this is the entry-level kind of beginner's iPod. It's the iPod shuffle. It goes for $100 and it holds about 120 songs. The one down side to this product is it doesn't have a screen. So you kind of to just shuffle around.

NGUYEN: Have you memorized what songs are where, basically?

LISS: Well, you can create a play list and download onto it or the really popular kind of feature of this product is that it will randomly pick a song for you. For a little bit more for $200 you can get the iPod Nano which is just tiny and if you want video, the upper higher end $300 and above iPod models can show movies and actually yesterday iPod announced -- Apple announced with NBC that you're going to be able to download popular NBC television shows on to your iPod video.

NGUYEN: The things you can do these days.

LISS: The shuffle won't take video.

NGUYEN: Not the shuffle, but if you do get one of those cool iPods which I'm hoping to get, knock, knock, you need a cool case to go with that, right? For the fashionista in your family, there are some cool ones out there.

LISS: Absolutely. If you're getting a gift for your wife or the girl in your life, you know you can't go wrong with Coach and this is the Coach iPod case. It's $89. It comes in a variety of different stylings and colors and it fits a variety of iPod models, but make sure you know which iPod model the person you're buying the case for has because you don't want it to fall out.

NGUYEN: Yes. For $88, yes. You don't want to lose that. All right. This next thing I think is the neatest because when you're going to areas and you want to use your laptop and the Wi-Fi, sometimes you don't know if they offer it or not and there's a key chain that helps you with that. A key chain?

LISS: Right. So this is the Iogear Wi-Fi hot spot finder. You press this little button and these lights go up and you can see if there's a Wi-Fi signal in your area. It's not great for people in big cities where there's kind of Wi-Fi everywhere because it doesn't tell you if it's a secure connection or an open and free connection. That's the one downside to it, but it saves you time because you don't have to open up your laptop and search for a signal.

NGUYEN: And another stocking stuffer which I would never recommend putting sushi in a stocking, but you've got something along those lines, don't you?

LISS: Right. These are really cool. These are -- they're imports from Japan.

NGUYEN: Look at that.

LISS: Available at dynamism.com. These are sushi USB drives so they hold anywhere from 128 megabytes to a gigabyte of space. They look like pieces of sushi, but you plug them into your computer and you can store your files on it, your music on it. It's not really a good bargain when it comes to the storage for price, but it is really cool-looking.

NGUYEN: Just don't try to eat it. All right. Last thing for those kiddos. You want to get them a cell phone, but you don't want them to run up the bill. So there is a solution.

LISS: Right, so this is a beginner's cell phone. It's made by Firefly. It's available at Cingular for $49 and it's a special phone where you program in 22 numbers and that's all the numbers that kids can dial on this phone. So they're not going to run up huge cell phone bills. The other neat thing is it has this kind of mom button and this dad button so young kids, it's designed for kids under age 12. They can call up mom, call up dad. It's also good for an emergency.

NGUYEN: Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for us, Robin Liss, great gift ideas. I want some of those in my stocking, all right, Robin.

LISS: OK. I'll send them.

NGUYEN: Get on that, if you would, please. Thank you Robin. Tony?

HARRIS: You just want gifts from everyone in the free world.

NGUYEN: I am trying! HARRIS: All right. Still ahead, the new King Kong movie is on the theater screen near you or it's coming soon. Straight ahead we'll take a look and (INAUDIBLE), keep it down, one of a kind review from a jury of Kong's peers.

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HARRIS: People at cnn.com are getting into the Christmas spirit, finally, Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes they are and Betty is, too, she keeps asking for presents. What are we going do this Christmas?

HARRIS: Well we're going to erect a big old box for all of these -- like she's petitioning the whole world here to give her gifts and everything.

DE LA CRUZ: Some people getting into the Christmas spirit without one store, with all those lights. Betty just walked in front of the camera.

NGUYEN: Mess it up, go ahead.

DE LA CRUZ: All right guys. Let's move on. People want to watch an extremely festive light show, but we're seen a few times this morning, but they're also watching this, guys.

A new sheriff has come to town and he's hard to miss and that's because he's 7'1" and weighs more than 300 pounds and goes by - thank you Tony -- Shaq. He goes by the name of Shaq. So he's not really the sheriff. Shaquille O'Neal says he wants to work in Miami's special victims unit guys to help stop crimes against children.

He's says he's always wanted to be a cop but then started playing ball and he put that dream on hold. Here is what he's going to be adding to his annual salary. Drum roll, please. He's going to be making one dollar a year as a reserve officer. Come on. He makes like $20 million a year, like he needs it. He'll donate the one dollar.

All right, DJ, can you play that funky music just one more time? Take a listen to this. And we hear the reporter or top of it. But you guys know the story, eight years ago, his wife said hey, honey can you put some lights on the house and 25,000 lights later we have this. Carson Williams combines lights, computer software and music to create one of the biggest home light shows in U.S. history.

The light show is so popular and has drawn so much attention, Williams recently got an offer to feature this house in a beer commercial. His 15 minutes of fame may be up because after a minor fender bender in front of the house because of all that traffic, the cops have asked him to pull the plug on the house for at least a year. So some sad news and earlier we were talking about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, saying they were from Europe. Looked them up on the Internet, the guys are from New York. NGUYEN: There you go. Don't always believe what you read, right?

HARRIS: All right.

NGUYEN: Sorry about that. They told me to stay off the set so I wouldn't get in the shot.

HARRIS: That was a few minutes ago, Betty.

DE LA CRUZ: More camera time, is always about Betty.

NGUYEN: I was just apologizing and hoping that really wasn't my fault. We're moving on now.

They are going bananas, just bananas over the new King Kong remake. So we decided to turn some real experts on the subject just for review and no, they didn't go ape, but they are apes. We're not kidding there. Our Jeanne Moos reports, everybody's a critic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These days King Kong can do no wrong. There's the remake, the video game, the lotto named after him. There's the King Kong costume that even dogs like. The giant ape's popularity has rubbed off on chimps. Sharper Image is selling a $150 interactive chimp, but it's the movie that's generating the buzz. Who better to review it?

Who better than the Siskel and Ebert of gorillas. Well, Siskel may be gone, but Laila and Kiosha are alive and well thanks to the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx zoo.

King Kong seemed to be a real nail biter though it's tough to trust movie critics who seem to enjoy the film just as much in rewind. Since there was no concession stand they made do with regurgitating and re-eating past meals.

JASON ROWE, SENIOR KEEPER, BRONX ZOO: Bringing it back to enjoy it all over again.

MOOS: What does it mean when your movie critic starts licking the glass during pivotal scenes? Our visit coincided with one by the act oar who played King Kong sort of. Andy Serkis also did expressions and motion capture for Gollum in "Lord of the Rings".

For calm, Serkis studied the gorillas at the London zoo. One female got so attached to him, that when Serkis' real wife showed up, the jealous ape tossed a plastic bottle.

LORRAINE ASHBOURNE, ANDY SERKIS' WIFE: She just leapt and squeezed all this juice all over us.

MOOS: No wonder the ape fell for him, listen to how he speaks in gorilla. How does that go? He's a beast. Our critics interest in King Kong tended to wander and what do gestures like this mean? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Thumbs up? Thumbs down.

Was Laila literally trying to knock the film? These aren't the first apes to watch videos. Casey at the New Orleans zoo is famous for watching gorilla porn. The inexperienced bachelor was shown tapes of gorilla courtship and mating in hopes he'd catch on.

Zoo officials don't know if it helped after watching the tapes over and over for a couple of weeks, Casey got bored. As for King Kong, maybe it didn't get two thumbs up or four stars, but it did get four licks. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Leave it to Jeanne Moos. Well we want to thank you for watching us this morning.

HARRIS: You can watch us again tomorrow 7:00 a.m. Eastern on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. CNN LIVE SATURDAY with Fredericka Whitfield.

NGUYEN: There she is.

HARRIS: Straight ahead.

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