CBS Evening News open - 1999-05-30

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Pope Hines. Week nights at 8 on News

[0:02] Channel 5. Plus,

[0:03] >> another bridge attack. NATO jets take

[0:06] out a crossing in central Serbia,

[0:08] killing at least 11 people. Shuttle

[0:10] astronauts walking tall outside the new

[0:13] International Space Station. And a

[0:15] Memorial Day dilemma. America's veteran

[0:18] cemeteries are running out of room.

[0:22] This is the CBS Evening News

[0:26] with John Roberts.

[0:29] Good evening. There were more civilian

[0:31] casualties in the NATO bombing campaign

[0:33] in Yugoslavia today. For the first time,

[0:36] a group of journalists was hit. A woman

[0:38] from the London Times, an Italian

[0:40] reporter, and a French writer were

[0:41] wounded and their driver killed when the

[0:44] press convoy they were traveling in came

[0:45] under attack on the road between prison

[0:48] and Braziche in southern Kosovo. And

[0:50] there were more deaths today when NATO

[0:52] bombers took out a bridge in a small

[0:54] town south of Belgrade. Alan Pizzy is on

[0:57] the scene in Varin, Yugoslavia.

[1:00] >> Hours after the attack, local fishermen

[1:03] still searched in vain for bodies. At

[1:05] least 11 people died and an unknown

[1:07] number were missing after two NATO war

[1:09] plananes struck this bridge.

[1:11] Eyewitnesses said the first jet came in

[1:13] low just before 100 p.m. local time. One

[1:16] missile smashed the bridge at the

[1:18] shoreline. 14 minutes later, another

[1:20] attacked, two missiles slamming into the

[1:22] middle of the span. Among their victims

[1:25] was the local priest beheaded as he

[1:27] tried to help the wounded. His body lay

[1:29] with seven others in a makeshift morg at

[1:31] a church where he had said mass. Stunned

[1:34] residents of the farming town the bridge

[1:36] served said the attack came as people

[1:38] were heading home from a market and

[1:40] feast day of the local saint.

[1:42] >> Why would they target here is what we

[1:43] want to know.

[1:46] This is completely agricultural part of

[1:48] the country without any industry,

[1:50] without any military objects, without

[1:53] anything.

[1:54] >> NATO explained the attack this way.

[1:56] >> The fact that the bridge didn't have a

[1:58] tank on it at the time that the NATO

[2:00] aircraft attacked it would not mean that

[2:02] it was any less a military target. On

[2:04] the bridge at the time, eyewitnesses

[2:06] said, were up to five civilian cars. And

[2:09] at the river's edge, a smashed bicycle,

[2:12] an old man's hat, and two thick rivers

[2:14] of congealing blood. What people here

[2:17] find difficult to grasp is why NATO,

[2:19] which repeatedly stresses its desire to

[2:21] avoid civilian casualties, would target

[2:24] a bridge on a sunny Sunday afternoon,

[2:26] the time when civilians are most likely

[2:28] to be out and about.

[2:31] >> How, one man asked, can NATO expect to

[2:33] come as peacekeepers when they do this?

[2:36] Alan Pizzy, CBS News, Barbarin.

[2:39] >> Tough talk today from Energy Secretary

[2:41] Bill Richardson on the China nuclear

[2:43] espionage investigation. Richardson

[2:45] promised officials who didn't pay enough

[2:47] attention to security at US nuclear labs

[2:50] will be demoted or fired.

[2:53] There were communications breakdowns.

[2:55] There were uh incompetent acts. Security

[2:58] was not considered important and counter

[3:00] intelligence was not considered as

[3:02] important as it should be. And at least

[3:04] under the people in in in my department,

[3:07] there should be accountability.

[3:09] >> The US government reportedly has

[3:11] expelled a nuclear scientist from India

[3:13] who worked at the Los Alamos National

[3:15] Laboratory. Newsweek magazine said this

[3:17] weekend the scientist was expelled last

[3:19] year after it was learned he had ties to

[3:22] India's nuclear arms program. This is

[3:25] rest time for the crew of the space

[3:26] shuttle Discovery, which is docked with

[3:28] the International Space Station.

[3:30] Earlier, two of the astronauts put in

[3:31] some overtime on a spacew walk. They

[3:34] hooked up a 9- foot long extendable

[3:36] crane that eventually will be used to

[3:37] help expand the orbiting station. The

[3:40] spacew walk was planned for 6 hours but

[3:42] lasted almost eight.

[3:44] >> Joining us now from the Kennedy Space

[3:46] Center in Florida to discuss the shuttle

[3:48] mission is our CBS News space

[3:50] consultant, Bill Harwood. And Bill, just

[3:51] how important are these spacew walks to

[3:53] the eventual construction of the space

[3:55] station?

[3:56] >> John, they're all important. You know,

[3:57] dozens of spacew walks are scheduled

[3:58] from now through completion in four

[4:00] years. This one didn't have a lot of

[4:01] razledazzle to it, but getting those

[4:03] supplies over to the station is

[4:04] absolutely critical. Uh, it's

[4:06] interesting because I think spacew walks

[4:07] used to be the exception to the rule for

[4:09] NASA. They're very safety conscious and

[4:10] spacew walks are inherently more risky,

[4:12] but spacew walks are now the rule. Every

[4:14] space station assembly flight features

[4:16] spacew walks.

[4:17] >> What's on the schedule for the

[4:18] astronauts today?

[4:19] >> Well, they're going to open the hatches

[4:20] and actually float into this floating

[4:22] laboratory. They're going to go inside,

[4:24] start moving some two tons of supplies

[4:25] over to the station, and they're also

[4:26] going to attempt some repairs. They had

[4:28] problems with the US radio system, and

[4:30] they're going to tinker with the

[4:31] electrical system in the Russian Zarya

[4:33] module. Relatively minor stuff, but it's

[4:35] going to keep them busy for the next

[4:36] four or five days

[4:37] >> after they get all the equipment

[4:38] transferred over there, get it all set

[4:40] up. How long before somebody actually

[4:42] moves in for a few months at a time?

[4:44] >> Well, that really depends on the

[4:45] Russians. They're scheduled right now to

[4:46] launch a critical module, the initial

[4:48] crew quarters in November at top a

[4:50] Russian rocket. If that module does in

[4:52] fact get in orbit, the first three-man

[4:54] crew led by US Commander Bill Shepard

[4:56] will dock with the station on a Russian

[4:57] Soyuse rocket