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CNN Saturday Morning News

GOP Candidates Do Last-Minute Politicking in Iowa; Monkey Stolen From San Francisco Zoo; New Year's Celebrations; Samoa Time Change; Examining the Destructive Weather of 2011; Verizon Calls Off Charge For Online Payments; Times Square Prepares for New Year's Celebration; New Zealand Rings in New Year; UFC's Brock Lesnar Retires After UFC 141 Loss; President Obama's Foreign Policy Decisions of 2011 Reviewed

Aired December 31, 2011 - 08:00   ET

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

E.D. HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It's going to be hilarious. Stay home. Turn on CNN. Stay with us.

Also coming up this morning, the countdown to the Iowa Republican caucuses. The first contest in the battle over who will face President Obama in November. We'll take you live to Des Moines.

And a major corporation bows to public pressure. That's Verizon's convenience fee, forget about it.

We start with Iowa and the Republican presidential race. There are just three days now until the first votes are cast, which means plenty of action this weekend in places like Goblin Goat and Bloomers. Here's a taste of what potential voters are hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are just a few days, you know, before, before an important election. Some people say, why does Iowa have so much clout? It's a small state and it has such great meaning, because it's sending a message around the country.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A week ago we were in last place. So right now people are thinking --

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My whole emphasis on brain science comes in directly from dealing -- see that ambush, dealing with the real problems of real people in my family. And so it's not a theory. It's, in fact, you know, my mother.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I'm in a good mood this morning. I'm feeling happy and upbeat. I love being with Mitt, but let me tell you, you people disappoint me on Tuesday -- you don't do what you're supposed to do on Tuesday for Mitt Romney, I will be back Jersey- style, people. I will be back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: That, of course, is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. A lot of folks were hoping that he'd be in the running there.

CNN political reporter Shannon Travis has been following all the action now and joins us now from Des Moines.

So where are the candidates today?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean who would want to be anyplace other than Iowa? The party seems to be here, as least politically speaking. Not all of the candidates are here. Let's talk about who's in New Hampshire this morning, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. We know that Jon Huntsman has been staking much of his candidacy, pretty much most of his candidacy on doing well in New Hampshire. So he's there and Mitt Romney is there as well.

But back here in Iowa, you've got Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and guess who else -- Mitt Romney. I just mentioned. He's in New Hampshire this morning. He's going to be in two cities here in Iowa this evening. It's pretty much because all of the candidates know that the stakes are high, just a few days before the caucuses. And Mitt Romney himself has said that he really wants to do well here in this state.

HILL: He came in second, I believe, in 2008, but, you know, a lot of times they split, Iowa and New Hampshire. You had had Bush winning Iowa. You had Reagan winning New Hampshire but they were both clearly very important in narrowing out the field. I saw that video earlier. Newt Gingrich is choking up, talking about his mom. Has anything like that happened to other candidates?

TRAVIS: Yes. It's a very tender moment for Newt Gingrich as he was talking about his mom and her bipolar depression before she died in 2003. Well, there was a similar sort of moment like that for Mitt Romney yesterday.

Let's take a listen at what happened yesterday in New Hampshire, E.D.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My mom and dad were extraordinary people and they both left this life and moved on and, you know-I won't cry. No, I won't. But I do, I do, nothing to be ashamed of in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Now, E.D., was that a subtle little dig at Newt Gingrich? We want to be clear to our viewers that someone in the crowd shouted out, don't cry to Mitt Romney as he was talking about his parents, but it's maybe being interpreted, was it a subtle dig at Newt Gingrich? Was it not? You heard in that sound bite right there that Mitt Romney was very quick to say, I do cry. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

HILL: You'd have to be pretty callous. Any of us who have had a parent we've lost, we talk about them. I think most people do get choked up. So I can't criticize anyone there. But this weekend it's going to be really big, thank you Shannon, because we're going to be able to watch the GOP presidential candidates offer their closing arguments uninterrupted, not just the sound bites. They're great and all that, but you really don't get the sense of what's really going on, what they really believe. You will, you'll hear their own words, the contenders, 2012, today and tomorrow, both times, 2:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And then tomorrow night, join Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin - sorry -- Anderson Cooper for a last minute push for the Iowa votes. Take a look at that. It's countdown to Iowa, the final 48 hours. Check it out tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. I was thinking about tonight, of course when Anderson is partying in Times Square with Kathy Griffin. 11:00 here on CNN.

Now, let's move to the international headlines this morning. Kim Jong- Il's funeral is over. His son, Kim Jong-Un, officially running North Korea's military. Supreme command was actually transferred in October. North Korean officials say the change in leadership will not change relations with South Korea. They are reportedly upset that only a few South Koreans were allowed to attend Kim Jong-Il's funeral earlier this week.

Yep, sounds like that peace agreement in Syria is working out, right? No. I am, of course, being facetious here. Those are the shots you hear in Syria, thousands of Syrians taking to the streets, more anti- government protests. The shooting continues. Opposition leaders say as many as 35 people were killed yesterday during massive protests and get this.

This is going on as the Arab league monitors are there, on the ground right now, determining whether the government is adhering to the agreement to pull its forces from the streets and stop the violence. The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al Assad began last March.

Iran's navy conducting military exercises in the Persian Gulf this weekend near the Strait of Hormuz. That strait is a major gateway for oil shipments to the rest of the world. The United Arab Emirates sits just across from the Strait of Iran and the Pentagon just announced a $3.5 billion deal to sell a couple of anti-missile defense systems to the UAE. Iran says it's planning to test fire a long-range missile in the next few days.

A cyclone that roared ashore in eastern India has killed at least 19 people. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is here with more.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What a mess, just a horrible situation. Our viewers happen to be wondering what in the world the cyclone happens. It's the same as a hurricane, just the location is different. A hurricane in the Atlantic is called a hurricane, Gulf of Mexico, same thing. In the western Pacific, it is called a typhoon, but in the Indian Ocean, it's a cyclone.

This cyclone actually did make its way onshore and the devastation - we've got video for you. Again, 19 people lost their lives.

The situation with this is that it will become to weaken in terms of the winds. The winds are going to die down. But the problem that we're going to face, increased precipitation. A lot of rain expected, some places well over a foot of rain.

This is a climate that normally deals with a lot of rain, especially during monsoon season, but when you have this great amount that falls in a very rapid time, the result is always going to be flooding. So yes, I would not be surprised unfortunately to see that death toll climb in the coming days, hours and possibly weeks.

Meanwhile, the other big story that we've been following around parts of the Pacific and close to the Pacific, is of course is in Alaska. And that happens to do with, of course, the big threat we had yesterday. We had originally the possibility of an eruption we believe right in parts of Alaska. The threat has actually been dropped a bit now. It's a yellow warning at this point.

We see a little bit of a plume that's coming out of this actual cinder cone that you see it here. Not unusual to see volcanoes in parts of Alaska. Some of you may sound like an odd thing. It's not. It's one of those seismically active places on the planet. That stretch we have Alaska clear down to the west coast of the United States, even over towards parts of Japan. It's called all part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, so not unusual.

We're going to watch it for you very carefully. Should be very interesting to say the very least E.D.

HILL: And we'll be chatting with you later about the forecast for today's festivities, football and otherwise.

WOLF: You bet.

HILL: Thank you.

Somebody stole a monkey from the San Francisco zoo. The case of Banana Sam, as we continue next.

Later, he plays for the New York Mets and he wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity. The team though says you get hurt, your $4 million contract is kaput. (INAUDIBLE) joins us live to tell us whether he will climb or not.

And Australians just rang in the New Year. We'll show you where everyone else is partying right now, because it is 2012 in many areas of the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Welcome back. Let's check some stories cross country on this last day of 2011.

Not once but twice police tried stopping this slow-speed chase in an Alabama parking lot. That woman now faces attempted murder and criminal mischief charges after police were called to stop this very strange ride. Officers fired shots. They laid down spike strips, all in an attempt to stop her. No luck, though. Finally, they boxed her in with their cars, busted out the window and grabbed her, but only after she tried running them down.

In Pennsylvania, a sinkhole is causing massive headaches for about two dozen families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a close-knit block to see all your neighbors distressed, it's upsetting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: This water main break may have contributed to massive erosion after this hole formed. Workers filled the holes with cement for now, but two homes will likely have to be torn down.

Seventeen-year-old Banana Sam is missing. Banana Sam is 12 inches tall and weighs about two pounds. He is a squirrel monkey, stolen from the San Francisco zoo. Surveillance cameras didn't capture anything, but you can follow all the monkey business on Twitter.

Happy New Year, everyone. 2012 will no doubt be a make or break year for President Obama as he tries to keep his job. A big part of his challenge is making sure the New Year brings more jobs for unemployed Americans. He says in his weekly radio and Internet address that it will take everyone working together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no doubt that 2012 will bring even more change and as we head into the New Year, I'm hopeful that we have what it takes to face that change and come out even stronger, to grow our economy, create more jobs and strengthen the middle class. I'm hopeful because of what we saw right before Christmas when members of Congress came together to prevent a tax hike for 160 million Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Well, we certainly are hoping that new jobs come with the New Year. Right now, of course, there's a lot of celebrations around. Just, I think it's very hopeful. Everybody is excited about the New Year and what it will bring. Josh Levs is here.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we're feeling today. There's one place in the world that gives Times Square a run for its money as having the most spectacular New Year's eve celebrations going on right now, Sydney, Australia. It's amazing what they do there.

HILL: It really is, all the lights and the crowds, the music.

LEVS: Let's go straight to it. We're going to take a look at it and I'm going to tell you -- we lost it? Oh, we were just seeing it before.

HILL: Lost it? Gone?

LEVS: Apparently we've lost it.

HILL: I'm going home.

LEVS: No. There it is. This is the Sydney spectacular. Take a look at this. Let me tell you about it while we're watching it here. They put 15 months of planning into this, seven tons of pyrotechnic explosives including 11,000 aerial shells, 25,000 shooting comets all being fired from 130 points along the Sydney harbor bridge. You got seven barges and the rooftops of seven buildings. They do this (ph) and E.D. will find this interesting, for the first time this year, the Sydney New Year's eve celebration is doing it an Australian sound track.

HILL: Good. Priscilla queen of the desert and --

LEVS: OK. I was thinking, Olivia Newton-John and like the Bee Gees. Kylie Minogue (ph), maybe.

HILL: Good music track. I'm not sure about Olivia Newton-John. Love her, but --

LEVS: She's got some good stuff.

HILL: She does.

LEVS: It's absolutely beautiful.

HILL: You know any Bee Gee songs?

LEVS: Yes, but I'm not going to fake it right now. You don't want to hear my voice do that.

HILL: I know what happens. You start dancing when you sing.

LEVS: I can't help it. Let's get some more video to get me out of this. We have Auckland earlier. That was the first major one around the world and Auckland was very beautiful (INAUDIBLE) sky tower. They didn't have the best weather but it went nicely. And there's one more place -- yes, there you go, Auckland, New Zealand. So happy New Year to all the folks there.

And more place to mention to you, very interesting, in case you haven't heard about this is what's going on in Samoa where they decided to skip a day. This used to be western Samoa. Now it's just called Samoa and this country decided to skip a day so it's now at the front of the International Dateline instead of at the end of the International Dateline. So they used to have one of the last New Year's celebrations. Now Samoa had one of the first in the world.

HILL: They can just do that?

LEVS: They voted to do it basically because they do a lot of business with Australia. What happened was they were losing two days a week. They had different weekends when they couldn't do business. So they made the choice to jump ahead. You can just do that, apparently. It is allowed. So happy New Year to folks everywhere. They want to hear from you, how you're celebrating New Year. Go ahead and tweet us. Send us the information on Facebook; we'll share later.

HILL: All I've got is Olivia Newton-John songs going through my head right now. Grease is the word -- Thank you very much.

One of the most popular places for ringing in the New Year is Times Square and here's a look from New York where hundreds of thousands of people will fill the streets there. More than a million expected to watch, a billion, I guess, now on TV, a million down there on the streets.

Anderson Cooper is going to be there along with comedian Kathy Griffin. They're hosting the CNN special New Year's Eve coverage. It starts at 11:00 tonight. I'll tell you what, that is a really fun show to watch. So if you are staying home, I think like many of us, that's what you should be watching. Count it down.

Now, something happened in 2011 that's really never quite happened like this before. The U.S. was hit with one weather disaster after another.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say 2011 was certainly a year for the record books. You know, deadly, destructive and relentless are the words we're using in the National Weather Service.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So why was this year so deadly? And what is coming in 2012? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Deadly tornadoes, damaging droughts and massive wildfires. 2011 a record breaking year for weather here in the U.S. in all, 650 people here were killed in different storms and those storms cost more than $50 billion in property damage.

So why was it so extreme? Reynolds Wolf is here to explain these destructive storms. What made them so destructive? We get tornadoes. We get all this stuff each year, but this year was different.

WOLF: I know I'm going to sound like a real estate expect when I say this. It's all about location because every one of these big, major events, especially in terms of the tornadoes took place in places that were relatively well populated. We're not talking about major metropolises -- can't say it.

HILL: Metropolitan areas.

WOLF: Thank you very much. (INAUDIBLE) My mouth stops.

HILL: Is that champagne I smell? WOLF: What was in that eggnog? But seriously, you've had tornadoes that hit big communities, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Joplin. What happened, the timing --

HILL: It's still the scenes from the destruction there and the families out there. Ah. It chokes you up.

WOLF: A World War I battlefield. I mean we're talking about trees, homes from the foundations almost wiped completely clean. So it was a tremendous mess. And what's so weird about last year is that every single season had some kind of catastrophic weather event and it was just really insane.

We're going to begin with what happened during the wintertime and of course, the snow, we're getting record snowfall in parts of New York. A lot of people were working overtime with the snow blowers, using the snow shovels, trying to move as much of it. And as soon as you would move one scoop, more snow would fell from the sky.

In February, it kept up. We're talking about the massive winter storms that hit parts of the Midwest and parts of the northeast.

There was some incredible pictures of cars on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago that were basically stacked up motionless due to the incredible snow that was coming down. We have wind gusts that were actually tropical storm to hurricane force winds along Michigan Avenue in parts of Chicago. On top of that, you have widespread power outages across parts of the Midwest.

Let's fast forward into April. We talked about it. Let's talk about it again, the two deadly tornado outbreaks, 367 people killed. Of course one of the bull's eyes was right near the campus, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, missed the stadium, of course changed the lives of people in that community forever. They're still cleaning up parts of the community, just insane.

In May, we had the Joplin tornadoes that killed 157 people, the deadliest single tornado on record and in Mississippi, along the Mississippi River. This story was the flooding. From, my goodness, all way from Memphis through the state of Mississippi down into Louisiana, widespread devastation. Farmers lost crops. On top of that, the economy losing their crops for the year certainly did not help matters whatsoever, just a destructive time.

We go from the excess of rainfall to July where the year-long drought in Texas really hit its worst month. On top of it, all the parched landscape, guess what, we had the wildfires. Over 4 million acres burned, $50 billion worth of losses in terms of agriculture.

In August, we shifted gears to the hurricanes, hurricane Irene caused record flooding across parts of the northeast, the Eastern Seaboard killed 43 people in 11 states, billions of dollars worth of damages.

In October, it was snow time again. The target was mainly in the northeast. It killed 13 people, left 1.6 million without power. Many people in Connecticut, you remember this, without power for weeks, almost a month in some locations. It was basically weather taking people back to the stone age in this day and time.

HILL: Taking them back to their parents' house. I know a lot of folk who moved out because they didn't have power for weeks.

WOLF: We were rendered helpless because of the elements, in this day and age, all of this technology, we're still at the mercy of mother nature.

HILL: It is kind of tempting to move back home. Let mom do your laundry.

WOLF: There's some good things about that.

HILL: That's about it. Why do you think 2011 was so bad? Was it just coincidence, the trifecta of conditions or was there something else?

WOLF: For places like Texas, the weird thing about that, we already talked about that the tornadoes, but when it comes to Texas, it was just one of those years where you had different patterns out in, say, the Gulf of Mexico, even the Atlantic. Think about how many times in Texas where you have a big tropical system comes in, stops, drops tons of rain and then widespread flooding back in the hill country. We're talking about towards --

HILL: The floods there, we lost, that drought killed -- we lost 200 of our chickens, because it got so hot, that there was nothing you could do. You couldn't set up misting systems because the water was precious. You didn't want to have your well run dry. A lot of people -- crops.

WOLF: Also about Texas, all about the southern plains. We're hoping that this year we're going to see a little bit of a shift. Too early to say what's going to happen.

HILL: Thank you very much. You've got game forecast coming up.

WOLF: You keep bringing that up. We're going to talk about that coming up here in just a moment.

HILL: I'm excited about this. There have been some phenomenal bowl games. This is the year. Games I've been enjoying.

WOLF: So true. She knows what she's talking about.

HILL: Coming up, forget the fee, the nation's largest wireless provider changing course after customers said what? You want us to pay more?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Who says they're all about making money? You know who that is? That's not the barber shop; that's Wall Street. They're with the exchange singing out. One year over, the next one about to begin and traders traditionally apparently belt out "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines Nelly." Something to do right before Christmas and again the last day of the trading year. It's a tradition that's going back several decades. Keep your day jobs. Not that I'd sing any better, but keep your day job.

Verizon is obviously hearing its customers now after announcing a new $2 fee for some bill paying. It's paying for the privilege to pay your bill. The nation's largest wireless provider now decided, not such a good idea.

CNN's Alison Kosik has details. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Hi, E.D.

Put another check mark in the win column for angry consumers and this battle it didn't even last for 24 hours.

It began Thursday afternoon, when Verizon Wireless announced it would impose a $2 fee for every one-time payment made for the credit or debit card, whether you did it online or over the phone. This fee sparked immediate consumer outrage on Twitter, on Facebook, in blogs, and the outrage worked.

By Friday afternoon, Verizon Wireless succumbed to pressure from consumers and a warning from the Federal Communications Commission and scrapped the fee. In a statement, Verizon Wireless said, "At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers based on their input. We believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time."

Verizon has said the fee was designed to cover its costs associated with credit card payments and steer customers away from paying with a credit card at the last minute. Customers could have avoided the $2 fee by signing up for automatic bill pay, by paying with an electronic check using a Verizon gift card or by going old style and putting a check in the mail.

And even though most customers would not have been affected, just the idea that you may have to pay a fee for the privilege of paying a bill was enough to set the customers off, and they spoke out and they won.

It's not the first time a company had bowed to pressure from consumers and it probably won't be the last. Consumer backlash forced Bank of America to retract a $5 debit card fee it tried to impose earlier this year.

And outrage from Netflix over the summer forced the company to reverse its decision to split its online streaming and mail order services into separate accounts. Netflix kept its pricing the same, though, and it cost them big time.

Now, there's no direct connection here, but I can't help but believe that the outrage that we witnessed in the Occupy movement around the country has encouraged consumers to band together and protest what they see as unfair.

The Verizon Wireless fee fight is another example of the growing power of U.S. consumers, especially when they take their case to the internet -- E.D.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Thank you very much.

Coming up next, we are headed live to New York's Times Square with tens of thousands of people packing the streets tonight, ringing in 2012. A party review, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Good morning. It is 33 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. I'm E.D. Hill here at CNN in Atlanta. Thank you for starting your day with us.

Checking top stories. The first votes in the Republican presidential race basically three days away. It's the Iowa caucuses. Right now Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and a surging Rick Santorum are headlining the caucus field.

A series of arson fires, 21 in all in a couple of hours has people in Hollywood, California on edge. It's prompted police to post a $60,000 reward. Nearly all the fires targeted cars and a few spread to nearby buildings. Police call it one of the worst arson sprees in history.

Could your credit card information and passwords be on the internet? Computer hackers say they released information on at least one million people who are registered on the website of a global security company Stratford (ph). They say they're targeting, quote, "the rich and powerful oppressor" but also claim they will attack law enforcement tonight.

That's right, get your poppers, ready. That's going to spread here pretty soon. There it is New Zealand and it is happy New Year there. This is Auckland. It's already January 1, 2012.

In New York City police are beefing up security for tonight's big farewell party, but for many folks it's a chance to say goodbye to 2011. Up to a million people are expected to watch the ball drop tonight from Times Square.

CNN's David Ariosto joins us now.

So how many people are expected to be there in Times Square, and how much goes into all the planning for something that big?

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The short question is a lot. And when you talk to authorities, it's expected to be about a million people gathering here stretching all the way to Central Park. You see police erected some of the first pens, one of 65 pens that will stretch all along this road. Once you're in, you can't leave. No going for bathroom breaks. No coffee runs. Nothing. You are locked in. No alcohol, no backpacks.

Authorities are being very strict. This is, of course, New York city is always a terrorist threat but also a big party. About a ton of confetti set to be dumped once that ball drops. Anderson cooper and Kathy Griffin will be ringing in the New Year starting at about 11:00. We spoke to the organizer of the world's biggest party to let us know exactly what goes into this whole process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM TOMPKINS, PRESIDENT OF TIMES SQUARE ALLIANCE: What you see behind me, this is like organizing the Super Bowl half time show except you've got half a million people every day in a city alive all around you. It's so different from setting up in some empty stadium until the crowd comes in. The crowd is already here. The crowd is in your way. It's great, but it makes it a lot more complicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARIOSTO: Now, of course, New York City, like I said, is a terrorist threat. So police have come out in force. About 10,000, part of that task force through the streets. You have plain clothes police officers, helicopters flying overhead with infrared cameras. You have manhole covers removed. You've got an armada ships protecting some of the cruise ships going along the Hudson and seeing fireworks takes place. So a heavy security presence here in New York as always. We sat down with Commissioner Ray Kelly to let us know exactly what they plan to do and what they're concerned about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: There are no specific threats. But as I said, we operate under the assumption that we're at the top of the terrorist target list. We've had 14 attempts here, terrorist-type attacks. They've been thwarted. The combination of good work, NYPD, our federal partners, and sheer luck, quite frankly, which we'll take every time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARIOSTO: Now, of course, it is a party. To give you a sense how diehard some of these revelers are, we spoke to a mother-daughter pair since 7:00 last night, but they're not here for the ball drop. They've got some Bieber fever. They're here for Justin Bieber. He'll be performing tonight. Also Lady Gaga is the Mayor Bloomberg's special guest, pushing the button to drop the ball to ring in the New Year at 11:59.

HILL: Not sure I'll be watching the ball. I'll be watching to see what she's wearing. Always something interesting. Thanks so much.

ARIOSTO: Fair enough.

HILL: It is time to say good-bye to 2011. What are your big plans? We have some. Be sure to ring the New Year with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. The party starts at 11:00 eastern.

And there are lots of New Year's Eve parties around the world. Vikings have been partying in Scotland since yesterday. We'll tell you how some countries celebrate. It's pretty interesting, next. Later on, he plays for the New York Mets and wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity. The team says, you get hurt, your contract is gone. Ari Dickey joins us live to tell us, will he or won't he?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Folks around the world gearing up for New Year's Eve celebrations, but they're already ringing in the New Year in New Zealand and other western pacific countries. Nadia Bilchik is joining me for "Morning Passport" to share some New Year's Eve traditions and festivities.

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Let's go to Scotland first. In Scotland, quite right, they celebrate New Year's Eve, and they do this by dressing up as Vikings, and they celebrate their Viking ancestry. As you can see --

HILL: Manly men.

BILCHIK: Exactly. They literally make a river of fire with their torches, and this is a four-day celebration. Hundreds of thousands of people gather and celebrate in Edinburgh Scotland.

And then we go to Brazil. Now, this is the one celebration I would like to be at, the beaches of Brazil. We'll take to you Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro and hear the fireworks. Everybody dresses in white. The idea, to bring in a very peaceful New Year, and they light candles and pay homage to the goddess of the sea.

HILL: Listening to Barry Manilow songs. I love it. "Copacabana."

BILCHIK: And you can sing. Now my other absolute all-time favorite because on the exact strike of midnight, everybody gets together. They will have their grapes. Some uncover their grapes.

HILL: Peel their grapes?

BILCHIK: That's the word.

HILL: Who peels grapes?

BILCHIK: Some peel grapes, it's taken very seriously. And on the strike of midnight, the idea is you have to see how many grapes you can eat in the 12 strikes of the clock. So are you ready --

HILL: We did this about an hour ago and we tied. We got ten down each. Like that hot dog guy, I've been practicing. I spent all of the commercial breaks practicing.

BILCHIK: OK. Are you ready?

HILL: I'm taking you on.

BILCHIK: Let's go for. Tell me when we're ready. One, two, three -- go! HILL: How much do you have left in your mouth, though? You got a lot.

BILCHIK: Chipmunk teeth. Only a half one.

As we say -- oh, as people say in Japan, happy New Year, and you say --

HILL: Thanks.

BILCHIK: You had a brilliant one. You said earlier some somewhere --

HILL: Clearly you didn't go to a public university. I did. I don't speak all that stuff. Thank you very much, though.

The man who tried to shake down David Letterman has a new job. When everybody else is having difficulty finding a job, this guy's got one. We'll tell you who hired him just ahead.

Plus, huge crowds lined up to see the latest "Harry Potter" film. A lot of other movies weren't too popular. 2011 was a big disappointment at the box office. Why? That's coming up.

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HILL: Checking your entertainment headlines, 2011 not at good year at the box office. Attendance hit a 16-year low. The "Hollywood Reporter" said only about 1.28 billion went to the movies, the lowest numbers since 1995. Some films like Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible" drew in the crowds. Folks, why pay that much money to go to a movie when you can rent. Drop the price, we'll come. Make the popcorn cheaper, too.

Next, the former CBS news producer who tried to extort millions from late-night host David Letterman has a new job. Robert Altman is now working for "Investigation, Discoveries, On the Case with Paula Zahn." He served four months behind bars pleading guilty to trying to blackmail Letterman.

And I thought it might last, but, no. Katy Perry, Russell Brand, who is so funny, they're calling it quits. Pop star and British comedian citing irreconcilable differences, doesn't everybody, for their one year marriage ending. The two tied the knot in India in October of last year.

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HILL: You know, between Patsy, Ella, and Etta, I don't know which one's better.

But do have good news about Etta James. Representatives saying the 73-year-old singer is now breathing on her own. She has been taken off a respirator and remains in a California hospital, according to one report.

James is battling leukemia and dementia, and, yes, who doesn't love that song? Gosh, they don't make voices like that. Well, best of luck to her, and good health in the New Year.

A former pro wrestler now calling it quits. It seems his turn at ultimate fighting didn't end so well. And so now, I go back and forth. The former pro came back, and now he says, not doing it, hanging up the gloves for good.

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CROWD: Three, two, one -- happy New Year!

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HILL: 2012, Sydney, Australia. They rang in the New Year earlier this hour. We will take you to more celebrations.

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HILL: Time for a little sports action. Forget the Iowa caucuses. Both the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones were in action. I was watching that Iowa State game, I wanted them to win. What caught your eye?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A lot of things caught my eye. The great thing about this time of year is there are a lot of people taking time off work. In terms of the sports world, things really get ramped up.

HILL: Great.

WOLF: It's a weird combination. Things get ramped up, at the same time able to sit back, relax and take in all the beauty and splendor. A lot of, we're going to get to the bowls coming up in a moment. As you know, say this selfishly, my Auburn Tigers are in action tonight in Atlanta.

HILL: Michael Dyer is suspended, though. How will you do?

WOLF: I feel so bad about that, very bad. Michael Dyer, we're not talking about violations. This is my facial expression. Get it on camera three. There you go. This is sad face. That's how I'm feeling, talking about the Auburn Tigers.

Let's talk about something else -- ultimate fighting. Brock Lesnar used to be a champion. He also used to be a pro wrestler. He also tried out for the Minnesota Vikings. My point is the man needs to find something else because he got beaten up, losing in just about 30 seconds during his big UFC fight last night. Afterwards, he retired.

The guy that beat him, Alistair Overeem, was fighting in his very first UFC bout. Not a bad arrangement. Not saying the fight was arranged. You step in, make a statement immediately. He made a statement with his left fist, right fist, knee, his foot everything. It was bad.

Brock Lesnar was probably UFC's biggest star in Pay Per View draw. This is the end of his career, and it can't good for him or them for that matter.

You want to talk about the pigskin, let's talk pigskin. The Iowa Hawkeyes and Oklahoma Sooners happen to be there, too. The Sooners all over the place, especially the end zone. The bowl in Tempe, Arizona. Oklahoma jumped out to a 21-point lead and hold on, Iowa tried to mount a comeback. This was really a down season of teams. Be honest, Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech earlier in the season.

Former Tiger guy, we love you, at least this ends on a high note for Oklahoma you and I know you're a huge Sooner fan.

HILL: Yes.

WOLF: It could have been worse. Check this out. This thing pushed across the field. Yes. That's not one of the running backs. That's a big camera that passes over the cool, amazing shots. It did not like it high above, it fell and just missed Iowa receiver Marvin McKnight Jr. Not senior, Jr.

HILL: It looks like one of those transformer parts, one that blows up the other.

WOLF: It sure does. Like one of those murderous, nasty transformers out to get a defensive back maybe even a quarterback. Thankfully missed everybody. Good news.

HILL: We got a lot of games coming up. We've got Houston, El Paso, Memphis, San Francisco, Atlanta.

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HILL: The political game is just three days away from starting. I'm talking about the Iowa caucuses, of course. We're live in Des Moines in just a few minutes.

Plus, President Obama looking ahead to 2012, what it means for those still looking for a job as he tries to keep his own.

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HILL: Welcome back. We're taking a live look at Hampton, New Hampshire. Anyone in the crowd look familiar? Soon there will be. Mitt Romney will be there. More with, it's called "Breakfast with Mitt." He's going to show up.

Political reporter Shannon Travis will join us in a few minute to tell us what's going on, because I think Romney will try to jump from New Hampshire to Iowa perhaps later today. It looks very festive there, doesn't it, with all the lights. So getting ready there.

Meanwhile, the economy and battles on Capitol Hill have dominated the discussions in Washington this year, but President Obama, there has been a completely different narrative when it comes to the international stage.

CNN's chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin takes a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2011 brought some foreign policy successes for President Obama. The hunt for bin Laden came to a close.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.

YELLIN: An end to a controversial war, and a campaign promise kept.

OBAMA: As promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over.

YELLIN: But since the December withdrawal, violence has rocked the country and critics have pounced.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: It is clear that this decision of a complete pullout of the United States troops from Iraq was dictated by politics and not our national security interests.

YELLIN: The same critics decry the president's plans to withdraw the 90,000 troops currently in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 as well as his policy towards Israel. A speech President Obama gave in may prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lecture President Obama in the Oval Office.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 laws.

YELLIN: Of course, 2011 was also the year of the Arab Spring, a democratic protest movement whose goals the president embraced.

OBAMA: There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity.

YELLIN: In some case, the protests turned violent, in March president Obama authorized U.S. planes to assist NATO's military mission to protect the Libyan people from Moammar Gadhafi.

OBAMA: Left unchecked we have every reason to believe he would commit atrocities against his people.

YELLIN: Military action mace a difference. Months later Gadhafi killed and his regime fell. The U.S. took a different approach when violence erupted in Egypt and Syria. Republicans have reserved their sharpest criticism for the president's policy towards Iran, and some Republican presidential candidates have described his posture towards enemies generally as appeasement. That word does not go over well at the White House.

OBAMA: Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al Qaeda leaders that have been taken out of the field whether I engage in appeasement. YELLIN: In the year ahead there are predictable challenges for the president -- the uncertainty of the a new regime in North Korea, rising tensions with Pakistan and a broad instability in the Middle East. But remember, it's often the unexpected foreign policy crisis that shapes a president's legacy.

Jessica Yellin, CNN, Washington.

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