Nepal Bridge Collapse; Baghdad Christmas; Iraq Suicide Attack; Boston Highway Tunnel Collapse Settlement; Utah Family Adopts Five
DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hello everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon, in today for Tony Harris. Merry Christmas.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Yes, merry Christmas to you, as well. And good morning, all, I'm Brianna Keilar. Heidi Collins is off. Watch events come in to the NEWSROOM, live on this Tuesday, December 25. Here's what's on the rundown. Christmas in Baghdad where U.S. troops give their families a virtual hug, and Santa packs a pistol.</s>LEMON: And Christmas in court. The man accused of ramming his van into a TV station faces justice. We'll hear from the anchor, he's shocked.</s>KEILAR: And Christmas food without fear, tweaking your menu to prevent a calorie catastrophe, in the NEWSROOM. A tragic story developing in Nepal at this hour. Hundreds of people are missing and 13 are known dead after an overcrowded footbridge collapsed over a raging river. Police say the victims were attending a religious festival in remote region of Nepal, southwest of Katmandu. Authorities say 400 to 500 people are missing and there were as many as 1,000 people on the 500 yard-long bridge. Hours after the collapse, police say only 13 bodies had been recovered. Joining us now by phone from Nepal is journalist Manesh Shrestha, he - Manesh, can you hear me?</s>MANESH SHRESTHA, JOURNALIST: Yes I can, Brianna.</s>KEILAR: Can you -- I know that you are not there on scene, but I know that you have -- you are in Nepal, you have some sources there. What are they telling you about what the scene looked like?</s>SHRESTHA: There are - the</s>KEILAR: What is the sense there among rescuers, that 400 to 500 people are missing? Is there a sense that maybe some of these people can be recovered downstream, or is there a sense that the reality maybe these people have perished?</s>SHRESTHA: Four-hundred meters after where the, after where the bridge collapsed, there is a lake off, so if people could go up to the lake, it'll be easier for swimming. But the fear is that the</s>KEILAR: All right, Manesh Shrestha, thank you very much for all the details. We are still working on this story, trying to get more pictures and more details. But again, 400 to 500 people missing in Nepal after falling, as we just heard about, 30 meters from a bridge, quite a long fall. No doubt this will be a developing story. Stay with us throughout the morning for more details.</s>LEMON: Christmas, a celebration of faith and family, a time of hope and prayer. Vatican City, Pope Benedict delivers his Christmas day message and urges world leaders to edge the bloodshed in the world's warzones.</s>POPE BENEDICT, XVI:  POPE BENEDICT: There's a verse in the Prince of Peace reminds the world that true happiness lies and may your hearts be filled with hope and joy for the savior has been born for us.</s>LEMON: Now to the heavens, 220 miles above the earth, Christmas is celebrated on the International Space Station. The two Americans and one Russian will feast on smoked turkey with cornbread dressing and candied yams in pre-sealed pouches. Tomorrow a Russian module will arrive with gifts for the crew, including fresh tomatoes and onions. Sounds really good. Christmas in a warzone, lofty hopes, harsh realties. Alphonso van Marsh is embedded with the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne and he joins us now from Camp Stryker in Iraq. Merry Christmas to you, Alphonso.</s>ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas to you as well as our viewers. As you can see, the wave of U.S. service members have started to come on in. I am at the "DIFAC," the dining facility here at Camp Stryker. You can start to see some cooks coming in, some cheering, some bands are playing some festive tunes. It's all about giving a moral boost to the U.S. service members serving here in Iraq at this very difficult time for many of these service members away from their family and friends. Something to make them feel good while they're so far away from home.</s>JIM YINGLAND, U.S. ARMY: She was telling me she was eating Chex mix and that mom was making pumpkin loaves.</s>VAN MARSH: Army Specialist Justin Valliers (ph) shows me pictures of his new daughter e-mailed from his wife.</s>SPECIALIST JUSTIN VALLIERS, U.S. ARMY: Just some of her first moments when she was born, in the hospital, laying there.</s>VAN MARSH: Amaya (ph) is just two weeks old. She's never met her father, but Valliers is beholden, not bitter.</s>VALLIERS: It's probably my best gift that I get for Christmas is just the anticipation, waiting, knowing that she was born and I can't see her. I mean, the picture, it's just hard to explain.</s>SANTA: Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas.</s>VAN MARSH: Meanwhile, Santa is doing his part to spread the Christmas cheer, visiting soldiers at bases around Baghdad.</s>SANTA: Just want to see the troops, hand out candy canes and make them smile.</s>VAN MARSH: Santa, who really is an Army major with Rocison (ph) 3rd Brigade, has the beard and the stuffed belly, but he's also carrying a pistol. This is Christmas in the warzone. Here, Santa travels by Blackhawk helicopter instead of reindeer and sleigh.</s>VAN MARSH: Now, while Santa is making his way in Blackhawk helicopter, you can see behind me, many of these U.S. service members are cuing up, getting in line for a hot Christmas meal. Right there is one of the some of the 10,000 portions of turkeys being served this afternoon, 10,000 portions of ham, 8,000 portions of roast beef. By the time Christmas day is done, some 24,000 meals will be served. Some service members sitting here, upwards of 1,800 of them at a time in this large dining facility. Again, it's all part of the move to help these troop members feel good. A nice hot meal, a Christmas day meal while they're spending time away from home, here in the warzone. Back to you -- Don.</s>LEMON: All right, Alphonso van Marsh at Camp Stryker in Iraq. Thank you for that report, Alphonso.</s>KEILAR: Meantime, the reality of war on this Christmas. A massive blast in northern Iraq, this morning. At least 23 people were killed in this suicide bomb attack. Look at the crater left behind by the blast. What happened here, the driver rammed into a truck surrounded by people who were picking up cooking gas cylinders, many of those cylinders also exploded. The attack came at a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers, it was near a local government complex. Some 80 people were wounded in the explosion.</s>LEMON: Thousands in California can end up celebrating Christmas without the traditional dinner at home. Strong Santa Ana winds downed power lines and blew several transformers in the Los Angeles area leaving almost 10,000 homes and businesses in the dark. The gusty winds fueled a fire at Holiday Church. No one was inside and officials are investigating the cause. Los Angeles and Ventura Counties have issued a warning that conditions are right for wildfires. The wind is expected to pick up during the day. CNN's Bonnie Schneider in the Severe Weather Center to tell us about this Santa, not exactly welcome, right? We're talking about Santa Ana Winds, right?</s>BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're right, Brianna and Don. We are looking at the winds picking up even as we speak Check out current winds in Malibu coming from the northwest, the classic Santa Ana pattern coming in at 23 miles-per-hour. In Oxnard, not much left in terms of intensity, but we're seeing a little bit lighter winds as we head further to the south. I want to take a closer look at some of the peak wind gusts we've seen overnight and early this morning. Look at this, Whittaker Peak, 90 mile-per-hour winds. They just come racing down the mountain as that air heads and compresses, it really does gain strength. Looking at this Santa Ana pattern, we are at risk for critical danger and fire danger today. Here's high pressure over the Great Basin as the winds come down the mountain, the air heats and compresses and that's why we're forecasting critical danger for today. Now, Los Angeles did see some rain last week and that's why it's not extremely critical, but a dangerous situation, nonetheless.</s>KEILAR: Well, $6 million, that's the settlement reached by the family of a women killed in the big dig highway tunnel collapse in Boston. You may remember that this was a Boston woman who was killed when the ceiling of the tunnel collapsed on to her car in 2006. Investigators determined that workers secured the ceiling with a fast- drying epoxies adhesive that wasn't safe to use for overhead loads. The company that supplies adhesive will pay the woman's family.</s>LEMON: A Christmas court date today for a man accused of running his van into a TV studio in Chicago. Witnesses say Gerald Richardson warned them to get out of way before hitting the studio's outside glass wall. That crash came during the live 10:00 news at our affiliate WLS, it happened on Sunday night. Anchorman Ravi Baichwal was live on the air when it happened. I got a chance to talk with him about the incident and what happened right after.</s>RAVI BAICHWAL, WLS REPORTER: I'll tell you, the glass that we have used for the studio did its job. It actually stopped that van in its tracks and it's a special tempered glass and the other thing to worry about was now that the van crashed through the lower part, when was that upper pane of glass, which essentially has pinned the van, when was that then going to fall and what kind of hazard was that? Meanwhile, there's a police situation unfolding literally right in front of us. There are people jumping around all in front of us and we're still live on the air, so we've got to carry on with our newscast. I have to give...</s>LEMON: You know, Ravi, that's what I want to ask you. You were live on the air. And so when you -- did you continue to toss to the reporter or did you start reporting on this at the time?</s>BAICHWAL: We were in the middle of the toss and Michelle Gallardo, God love her, she took the toss and stayed with it and I guess our producers decided to stay with that while we just kind of gathered our wits about us to make sure that nobody was hurt, because like I said, that was the first thing. And then we came back approximately 90 seconds later, so after her package and then we were really into it trying to explain what was it that just happened, because not only my expression, but the sound of it was just phenomenal. It was so loud, the concussive feel to us at the studios, by my colleague Phil Schwarz on the weather desk, he and I both felt kind of a pressure on our chest...</s>LEMON: Joe</s>KEILAR: Packages torn open, piles of shredded gift wrapping strun all about. Now what? The Tennessee newspaper has some suggestions on how to trudge through this Christmas afternoon. No. 1, go to the movies. No. 2, play touch football, which I know Don is planning on doing later today, right Don?</s>LEMON: Yeah, with my mom. Touch football in the park.</s>KEILAR: Yeah, with your mom. Three, well maybe this will be better - three, play board games or cards. Choice No. 4, take a walk or a drive and rounding the out the list at the five spot, tell family stories. So, of course, we want to know how will you spend your Christmas afternoon? Send us an e-mail at cnnNEWSROOM@cnn.com and let us know.</s>LEMON: Yeah, are you going to play touch football today.</s>KEILAR: I think probably not.</s>LEMON: No?</s>KEILAR: No. I don't actually know if I'm doing any -- I may go for a walk.</s>LEMON: Yeah, and you are here today with your...</s>KEILAR: With my Christmas presents.</s>LEMON: Your fiance. Is that your Christmas present?</s>KEILAR: Yeah, well, no, no, early Christmas, I guess.</s>LEMON: Congratulations. Do you have a wedding date yet? I know I'm embarrassing you on live</s>TV. KEILAR: No, we are kind of procrastinators, maybe after the holidays. There's a lot of things figure it out.</s>LEMON: Don't cover it up. Come on, show the bling. How long have you been engaged, now?</s>KEILAR: A month, a month and a half.</s>LEMON: And where did it happen?</s>KEILAR: In Peru.</s>LEMON: Yeah, I know all this stuff, so I just - congratulations. Congratulations. That's a wonderful Christmas present.</s>KEILAR: Thank you.</s>LEMON: And she's going to be spending it with her fiance. I'm going to be spending it with my mom. And of course, you can always stay tuned to CNN for a couple of terrific programs today. They didn't ask for the recognition, but they certainly deserved it. It's CNN's all-star absolute to ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It's called CNN HEROES. You can see that at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and again at 5:00 p.m. Eastern in between the little Iraqi boy who stole the hearts of millions, RESCUING YOUSSIF, it's a CNN IMPACT YOUR WORLD special. It comes your way at 4:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN. Congratulations to Brianna, again.</s>KEILAR: Thank you, very much. All right, turning a corner now, Christians in Iraq, a small minority celebrating Christmas with hopes for a happier New Year.