CBS Evening News Online Edition - 2004-12-30

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Hello, I'm John Roberts and welcome to

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

[0:04] Just ahead, the tsunami's youngest

[0:07] victims as desperate relatives continue

[0:09] to search. We'll look at why so many

[0:11] children didn't survive. Also, training

[0:14] Iraqi security forces to fight for

[0:16] themselves. It's a vital mission for US

[0:18] troops. How's it going? We'll give you

[0:20] the inside story. And from the far

[0:23] reaches of space to the deepest oceans,

[0:25] we'll show you what science has in store

[0:27] in our series, the year ahead. It's all

[0:31] starting now on the CBS Evening News

[0:33] Online Edition.

[0:36] It's believed that a third or more of

[0:38] the tsunami victims are children and in

[0:40] Thailand, many were foreigners on

[0:42] vacation with their parents.

[0:44] Correspondent Barry Peterson reports on

[0:46] the desperate search for the youngest

[0:48] victims.

[0:50] >> Max Workhelm is four. His big brother

[0:53] Charlie is all of six. Saga calm is

[0:56] three. Erica is from Japan. Charlotte's

[1:00] Venson's 10th birthday party is 2 weeks

[1:03] from today. Now they share one fate.

[1:07] Their pictures are on the boards at

[1:09] Phuket's main hospital. These are

[1:11] posters put up by family members. The

[1:13] last desperate plea that somebody will

[1:15] spot a face and recognize it. They come

[1:18] from all over. from France, from Spain,

[1:20] from Japan.

[1:22] Some have special identifying marks, a

[1:25] tattoo or what people were wearing the

[1:27] last time they were seen. And as you can

[1:29] see, there is literally no place to put

[1:32] another poster on this board. When the

[1:35] waves roared in, the children could not

[1:37] know what was happening, did not know

[1:39] they should run. They were the least

[1:41] able to withstand nature's wrath. And

[1:43] that is why so many were just swept

[1:46] away. Those rescued and rushed to

[1:50] hospitals were often separated from

[1:52] their parents. Doctors found them lost

[1:55] somewhere deep in the terror of what

[1:57] they endured.

[1:58] >> I had a couple couple of those children

[2:00] that just, you know, came in and they

[2:01] sit there and staring against the wall

[2:03] and cannot communicate to them.

[2:06] >> Leo and Camila Ekloff were part of a

[2:08] Christmas gathering of family and

[2:10] friends. 17 people, 14 are missing,

[2:14] including all eight of the children.

[2:17] Among them, Leo's three grandchildren.

[2:21] >> Teamu,

[2:22] >> Emilia,

[2:24] >> Julia,

[2:25] >> Julia.

[2:26] >> We are searching for 20 hours per day.

[2:29] >> They have so many pictures from this

[2:31] joyous Christmas, but they no longer

[2:34] have hope. A friend tried to comfort

[2:36] Camila with these words. They died happy

[2:41] because they were so happy here.

[2:43] >> Timu loved playing ice hockey. Amelia's

[2:46] passion was horseback riding. And Julia,

[2:50] she was, said her grandmother, my own

[2:53] little angel.

[2:55] Barry Peterson, CBS News, Phuket,

[2:58] Thailand.

[2:59] >> Exactly one month now until the

[3:01] scheduled elections in Iraq. And today,

[3:03] militant groups dominated by the Sunny

[3:05] Minority called the elections quote, "a

[3:07] dirty farce and warned voters they could

[3:10] be attacked." With election security in

[3:13] mind, US Marines are training Iraqi SWAT

[3:16] teams on the job. Kimberly Doer has the

[3:19] inside story.

[3:21] >> In one day this week alone, more than 30

[3:23] members of Iraq's security forces were

[3:25] killed by insurgents across Iraq.

[3:29] So, in the militant hotbed south of

[3:31] Baghdad, known as the Triangle of Death,

[3:33] US Marines are picking up the pace,

[3:35] teaching the Iraqis how to fight back.

[3:38] >> These men are learning how to kick down

[3:41] or blow up doors

[3:43] and clean up their own neighborhoods.

[3:46] >> They have to go out there. They have to

[3:47] be aggressive. They have to go after the

[3:49] the insurgents.

[3:50] >> They're learning fast.

[3:53] >> I think they hate the insurgency. They

[3:55] don't get paid very well. Uh the work's

[3:57] certainly hazardous. Uh but they uh they

[3:59] really want to see a free and stable

[4:00] Iraq.

[4:01] >> The real graduation for this team has

[4:03] nothing to do with pump and

[4:05] circumstance. It's a nighttime raid with

[4:07] the Iraqis out in front.

[4:09] >> They've got the ball.

[4:11] >> Their objective following a lead from

[4:13] their own interrogation of local

[4:14] suspects to an insurgent hideout.

[4:17] >> We're behind the u

[4:20] checkpoint.

[4:23] Guys who call themselves jarheads

[4:24] because of their signature short

[4:25] haircuts have similar irreverence for

[4:28] the Iraqis, calling their vehicles bongo

[4:30] trucks. They say it's all part of the

[4:32] brotherhood of battle.

[4:33] >> We've been in firefights together.

[4:34] There's a very tight bond.

[4:36] >> The Iraqi forces take point and take

[4:38] their target without a shot being fired.

[4:41] Two suspects are found, plus a sizable

[4:43] weapons hall. The Americans are trying

[4:45] to repeat this all across Iraq with the

[4:48] Iraqis learning from them and the

[4:50] Americans learning they can trust their

[4:51] students to one day do this on their

[4:54] own. The challenge remains not only to

[4:56] build the Iraqi forc's confidence in

[4:58] themselves, but to get the Iraqi people

[5:01] to trust them literally with their lives

[5:03] in the face of an insurgency that only

[5:05] seems to get stronger and deadlier by

[5:07] the day. Kimberly Doer, CBS News,

[5:10] Baghdad. In this final week of 2004, the

[5:14] CBS Evening News is giving you a look at

[5:16] some of what you can expect in 2005.

[5:19] Tonight, what's coming in technology.

[5:22] Jerry Bowen reports. Some innovations

[5:24] will fit in your pocket, others will be

[5:26] simply out of this world in the year

[5:29] ahead.

[5:31] Fasten your seat belts. We're off to

[5:33] Saturn, where one of the most

[5:34] anticipated celestial events of 2005 is

[5:38] already underway. A probe launched

[5:40] Christmas Eve from a spacecraft orbiting

[5:42] Saturn is now hurtling towards the

[5:44] planet's moon Titan on track for a

[5:46] parachute landing mid January. This

[5:49] month's San Francisco gathering of top

[5:50] scientists was shown tantalizing images

[5:53] of Titan which may mirror a very early

[5:55] Earth.

[5:56] >> Titan is a body that is regarded as

[5:58] being the the closest we can come to

[6:02] seeing what the Earth was like before

[6:04] life evolved here. In another feat of

[6:06] engineering, NASA's preparing for the

[6:08] May return to flight of a retoled

[6:10] shuttle, the first mission since

[6:12] Colombia was destroyed on re-entry last

[6:14] year.

[6:14] >> They've improved their ability to see

[6:16] the shuttle both with cameras on the

[6:18] spacecraft, on the ground, and in orbit

[6:20] to make sure that if there was a problem

[6:22] that they will in fact see it

[6:24] >> and very high on the G- Whiz scale.

[6:27] Testing will continue on the next

[6:29] generation of unmanned war plananes like

[6:31] Boing's X45 designed to do it all on its

[6:35] own. Fly into battle, find a target,

[6:37] take it out, and come on home. And when

[6:40] it does, you can catch it on your new

[6:42] cell phone TV. A hit now all over Japan

[6:45] and headed here. Or get ready for

[6:48] Wristwatch TV, so you can watch

[6:50] commercials anywhere. And you know about

[6:53] pay-per-view? Well, how about paper thin

[6:56] view? a paper thin TV screen slated for

[6:59] more fine-tuning in a Japanese lab in

[7:02] 2005. Now, remember the home video

[7:05] format wars of the 1980s, Beta versus

[7:08] VHS and VHS1? Well, there's a whole new

[7:11] war brewing over the DVDs you're going

[7:14] to be buying next Christmas. It will be

[7:17] a choice between highdefin DVD formats

[7:20] that are totally incompatible and

[7:21] require different players. The Hollywood

[7:24] studios are lining up on either side.

[7:26] It's the Blu-ray with greater storage

[7:28] capacity versus the HD DVD that's

[7:32] cheaper to make. Which side wins? Stay

[7:35] tuned. Everyone's watching Toshiba's

[7:37] test of high-speed downloads of movies

[7:39] to the home. The goal, a 2-hour movie

[7:42] delivered in 10 minutes. Test results

[7:45] premiere in March. And golfers, there's

[7:48] high-tech help on the way for you. A

[7:50] radical new golf ball created with space

[7:52] age nanotechnology.

[7:54] The molecules in the core and surface

[7:57] altered to reduce the spin rate which

[7:59] reduces hooks or slices by a third. And

[8:02] remember Titanic director Jim Cameron?

[8:05] He caught some very big and exotic

[8:07] creatures on film for an IMAX movie out

[8:09] next month. NASA astrobiologists were

[8:12] invited on the high-tech high ticket

[8:14] expedition to study extreme life forms

[8:17] in 700 degree thermal vents 2 mi

[8:20] underwater. A lot of scientists believe

[8:22] that what we look at when we see the

[8:23] this vent activity on the bottom of the

[8:25] ocean is really like looking back in

[8:27] time 3 billion years um at the at the

[8:30] actual sort of dawn of life on Earth.

[8:32] >> Sound familiar? It's all part of a year

[8:34] promising discovery and innovation. much

[8:37] to wrap your mind around in 2005. Jerry

[8:40] Bowen, CBS News, Los Angeles. More

[8:43] stories are just a click away, but be

[8:45] sure to join me on television for the on

[8:48] air edition of the CBS Evening News. On

[8:50] Friday's broadcast, wireless internet

[8:52] surfing is all the rage, but someone may

[8:55] be spying on you. We'll show you how

[8:57] it's done and what you can do about it

[8:59] in the Friday Consumer Alert for

[9:02] CBSN.com.

[9:04] I'm John Roberts.