CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2005-12-30

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hi, I'm Russ Mitchell and welcome to the

[0:02] CBS Evening News online edition. Just

[0:04] ahead, the tinder box that is Texas and

[0:06] Oklahoma. Jim Axelrod reports on the

[0:08] wildfires and the weather that drives

[0:10] them. Also, how did a 16-year-old

[0:12] American student end up in Baghdad?

[0:15] Kelly Coa has his almost unbelievable

[0:17] story. And can radically cutting your

[0:19] calories actually help you live longer?

[0:22] We'll give you the inside story on a new

[0:24] diet. It's all starting now on the CBS

[0:26] Evening News online edition.

[0:30] The holiday weekend is beginning with

[0:32] dangerous weather all over the map. The

[0:34] western half of the country is in for

[0:35] more heavy rain and snow, and the

[0:37] forecast calls for stormy weather in the

[0:39] east as well. But we'll begin in the

[0:41] grasslands of Texas and Oklahoma, where

[0:44] brush fires have already killed four

[0:46] people this week and burned hundreds of

[0:47] homes. Here's Jim Axelrod in Texas.

[0:52] You can't miss the warnings in Texas

[0:53] where more than 150 counties now have

[0:56] burn bans and 80 plus have outlawed New

[0:58] Year's fireworks. Be careful out there.

[1:02] Uh Texas truly is a tinder box at this

[1:05] uh point in time.

[1:08] >> This is one of the latest fires to break

[1:10] out in southern Oklahoma. At last count,

[1:13] 200 homes have burned in the two states.

[1:17] And with conditions still creating

[1:19] exceptional fire risk, Texas is

[1:22] prepositioning firefighting aircraft to

[1:24] be able to respond to any fire anywhere

[1:27] in the state within 20 minutes.

[1:29] >> So, we're trying to strategically place

[1:31] these resources where they can respond

[1:33] rapidly, knock down a fire, help the

[1:35] local fire departments get a fire

[1:37] manageable before we burn through any

[1:38] towns again like we did Tuesday.

[1:40] >> Texas and Oklahoma are both just one

[1:43] good wind gust away from disaster. And

[1:45] while the winds the last couple of days

[1:47] have been relatively friendly, the

[1:49] forecast for this weekend is anything

[1:51] but helpful, the eyes of Texas are on

[1:54] the weatherman.

[1:55] >> Let me show you the fire threat level

[1:56] for today, we're calling it very high.

[1:59] >> And he doesn't have a whole lot of good

[2:00] news to report. Low humidity, high

[2:03] winds, and high temperatures make New

[2:05] Year's Day very scary.

[2:07] >> It's about as bad as it gets. I mean,

[2:09] everything is in place. All the

[2:10] ingredients you need for wildfires to

[2:13] develop and spread rapidly are going to

[2:15] be here.

[2:16] >> The rest of the country may be chilling

[2:17] the champagne for New Year's. But in

[2:19] Texas and Oklahoma, folks will simply

[2:22] hold their breath. Jim Axelrod, CBS

[2:25] News, Kennondale, Texas. Most amazing

[2:28] story tonight is the incredible and

[2:29] dangerous adventure of a Florida

[2:31] 16-year-old who took off on his own for

[2:34] Iraq and lived to tell about it. Kelly

[2:36] Koba in Baghdad begins our coverage.

[2:39] Kelly.

[2:41] Russ, at first it seemed almost too

[2:43] strange to be true. An American

[2:45] teenager, a junior in high school, using

[2:48] his Christmas break to travel eight time

[2:51] zones from Florida to downtown Baghdad.

[2:55] His name is Ferris Hassan. In the midst

[2:58] of a violent week of car bombs and

[3:00] kidnappings, he strolled into the

[3:02] Baghdad offices of the Associated Press.

[3:05] >> The first word that came to mind was

[3:07] crazy. I couldn't I couldn't believe it.

[3:09] >> Hassan said he came to Baghdad on a

[3:11] journalistic field trip of sorts. He was

[3:14] interested in seeing in person what life

[3:16] was like here that turned out to be much

[3:18] more dangerous than he expected. He

[3:21] arrived on a flight from Lebanon on

[3:22] Christmas Day, traveling on Baghdad's

[3:24] notorious airport road before being

[3:27] dropped off at this hotel in the center

[3:28] of the city. The next day, as a wave of

[3:31] violence shook Baghdad, Hassan wandered

[3:34] out of his hotel to a nearby food stand

[3:37] >> and he tried to order in English. That

[3:39] was probably his most dangerous moment

[3:42] because if the wrong person was in that

[3:45] food stand with him, he would have made

[3:47] a quick phone call and somebody

[3:51] who knows somebody who would have sold

[3:54] Ferris to somebody was probably just

[3:56] around the corner. Hassan's parents are

[3:58] from Iraq, but he grew up in Florida and

[4:01] speaks no Arabic. On the street and on

[4:04] his own, he realized how far from home

[4:06] he was.

[4:07] >> It only takes one day, be out there and

[4:10] uh either be unlucky or have, you know,

[4:12] have something go wrong.

[4:14] >> But Hassan was lucky, very lucky. The

[4:17] Associated Press staff called the US

[4:19] Embassy, which immediately made new

[4:21] travel arrangements for him. This time

[4:24] with a full escort. Perhaps his luckiest

[4:27] move was not doing his homework. Hassan

[4:29] first tried to cross into Iraq at the

[4:31] Kuwaiti border, but it was closed

[4:33] because of elections. Had he taken that

[4:36] desert road lined with insurgents, his

[4:38] story could have had a much different

[4:40] ending. If you are like many other

[4:42] Americans, you may be considering some

[4:44] resolutions for the new year. Better

[4:46] diet and nutrition are often among the

[4:48] top 10 resolutions. And for many, losing

[4:50] weight is number one. With that in mind,

[4:53] here's one solution for that resolution.

[4:55] Mik Brazinski has tonight's inside

[4:58] story.

[5:00] >> Oh, this looks great.

[5:01] >> It is.

[5:02] >> 47year-old Joseph Cordell is counting

[5:05] his calories.

[5:06] >> And this is all about getting the most

[5:07] bang for your buck nutritionally

[5:09] >> and counting on every single one,

[5:12] >> trying to squeeze the most nutrients out

[5:14] of the fewest calories.

[5:16] >> That means he eats about 30% fewer

[5:19] calories than most people. green

[5:21] peppers. Wonderful. A lot of that.

[5:23] >> And he restricts his choices to food

[5:25] with the very highest nutritional value.

[5:27] It's called calorie restriction optimal

[5:30] nutrition or CR for short. And

[5:32] >> the whole idea of calorie restriction is

[5:34] recognizing that calories are basically

[5:36] bad for you.

[5:38] >> So what does he eat? Well, twice a day,

[5:40] a big bowl of

[5:42] >> blueberries, nuts, and apple pills. I

[5:45] just eat the pill of the apple, which

[5:47] that's where all the nutrition is.

[5:50] That's right, just the peel. For lunch,

[5:53] a huge salad made up of the right kinds

[5:56] of food.

[5:56] >> I'll bet the calories on my plate, which

[5:58] is significantly larger than yours, I

[6:00] bet these calories are probably

[6:02] certainly no more than 300,

[6:04] maybe less.

[6:05] >> And his largest meal is dinner with his

[6:08] family tonight. That means another

[6:10] salad, broccoli, asparagus, and salmon.

[6:13] known as the 120-year diet. Followers

[6:16] believe they'll live a lot longer by

[6:18] eating a lot less.

[6:20] >> Definitely, his life expectancy, it's

[6:23] higher than an average American.

[6:26] >> Doctors like Luigi Fontana are

[6:28] conducting long-term studies of CR.

[6:30] They're convinced it protects against

[6:32] major diseases.

[6:33] >> There's no chance of them getting type 2

[6:35] diabetes.

[6:36] They have very low blood pressure and uh

[6:40] the risk of devel developing cancer is

[6:42] marketkedly decreased.

[6:44] >> And exercise not an option. CR dieters

[6:48] simply don't have the calories for it.

[6:50] >> The calorie restriction protects them

[6:52] from the same diseases that exercise

[6:56] protects against and more importantly

[6:58] actually than exercise. Cordell's

[7:00] doctors say he has the blood pressure of

[7:02] a child, the cholesterol of a teenager,

[7:05] and his risk of heart disease is close

[7:07] to zero. Average middle-aged men have 23

[7:10] to 25% body fat. Cordell's is 7%.

[7:14] >> If there wasn't substantial benefit to

[7:17] CR, no one would do it.

[7:19] >> For Joe Cordell, the potential payoff is

[7:22] worth eating this way. Something many of

[7:24] us might have a hard time with.

[7:26] >> Many Americans are not good at deferred

[7:28] gratification. What are we good at?

[7:31] >> Gratification.

[7:32] >> It's not about a short-term New Year's

[7:34] resolution. It's about a complete diet

[7:36] overhaul that Cordell will stay on for

[7:39] what he believes will be a longer,

[7:41] healthier life. Mika Brzinski, CBS News,

[7:44] St. Louis.

[7:45] >> More stories are just a click away, but

[7:47] don't forget to join us on television

[7:49] for the on air edition of the CBS

[7:51] Evening News. On Monday's broadcast, new

[7:53] food labels. They'll tell you more than

[7:55] ever about what's bad in your food. But

[7:57] some food companies think the label

[7:59] should also list what's good. Should

[8:01] they? We'll take a look. for

[8:03] cbsnews.com.