CBS Evening News open - 2004-12-29

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Time to wit's signing. From all of us at

[0:02] News Channel 5, happy holidays.

[0:07] Tonight, with the death toll rising by

[0:09] the hour, help is on the way. The first

[0:12] relief supplies arrive in the tsunami

[0:14] disaster zone as the United States and

[0:16] other nations promise more. A bloody day

[0:20] in Iraq. Insurgent attacks killed dozens

[0:22] of Iraqis and leave 15 US troops

[0:25] seriously wounded. A powerful winter

[0:27] storm throws everything it has at

[0:30] Southern California. And you saw the

[0:32] movie, now see the play. Broadway taking

[0:36] its cues from Hollywood.

[0:46] This is the CBS Evening News with Dan

[0:49] Rather.

[0:51] And good evening. Dan is off tonight.

[0:52] I'm John Roberts. The focus is now on

[0:54] helping the survivors before it's too

[0:57] late. World health officials estimated

[0:59] today that 5 million people are without

[1:02] food, clean water, or shelter in the arc

[1:04] of tsunami destruction across Southern

[1:07] Asia. The relief effort shifted into

[1:09] high gear today as the death toll

[1:11] continued to climb.

[1:14] The sheer scale of the catastrophe is

[1:16] nearly impossible to grasp. At least

[1:18] 76,000 people in 12 countries have been

[1:21] killed and officials expect the number

[1:23] to soon exceed 100,000.

[1:26] More than a half a million people have

[1:27] been injured.

[1:29] Hardest hit Indonesia where at least

[1:31] 45,000 people lost their lives.

[1:34] In Sri Lanka, the toll is over 22,000.

[1:39] At least 7,000 people have died in

[1:41] India.

[1:43] And in Thailand, about 1,600 are dead

[1:46] with an additional 5,000 still listed as

[1:49] missing.

[1:50] President Bush today made his first

[1:51] public comments on the disaster from his

[1:54] Texas ranch. These past few days have

[1:56] brought loss and grief to the world that

[1:58] is beyond our comprehension. The

[2:00] president announced that the United

[2:01] States, India, Australia, and Japan have

[2:04] formed a coalition to coordinate the

[2:06] massive relief effort. Authorities say

[2:08] providing clean water and food to

[2:10] millions of victims is the best way to

[2:12] prevent deadly epidemics.

[2:14] There is a sharp difference of opinion

[2:16] on whether the huge numbers of decaying

[2:18] bodies are an immediate health threat

[2:20] requiring burial in mass graves.

[2:24] What everyone does agree on is that it

[2:26] will take many months and billions of

[2:28] dollars to restore what nature took in

[2:31] just a few