U.N. Security Council May Impose Sanctions Against Iran
HOLMES: Checking out the most popular video right now on CNN.com, a giant squid filmed alive in Tokyo. It may be a first for one of the ocean's most mysterious creatures. But zoologists at Japan's National Science Museum say the female squid is about 24 feet long. Also, a big Christmas for a huge Georgia military family. Wal- Mart trucks serve as Santa's sleighs, surprising a struggling single father just back from Iraq with Christmas presents for his 11 children. The military and Wal-Mart call it Operation Christmas. Sergeant Russell Fairchild calls it a blessing. He says all he had was $5 in gas money until now. Also, lots of people clicking on the picture perfect shuttle landing. Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida yesterday evening, ending a 13-day mission to the International Space Station.</s>NGUYEN: On Monday, Christians will celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the beginnings of Christianity. But some of the earliest writings on Christianity were lost in modern times. And tonight, Liam Neeson narrates our special, "</s>CNN PRESENTS: AFTER JESUS, THE FIRST CHRISTIANS." Here's a preview.</s>LIAM NEESON (voice-over): Of all the threats to Christianity over the past 2,000 years, perhaps the greatest came in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi and southern Egypt, where the waters of the Nile dry up into desert sands. This is where a farmer named Mohammed Ali was digging for fertilizer when he discovered a clay jar with 13 ancient books hidden inside. (on camera): Within these books, there were over 50 texts, most of which we did not know about before, that can help us understand the beginnings of Christianity and the development of religion in some remarkable new ways. (voice-over): But it all nearly vanished in a puff of smoke when the mother of Mohammed Ali was looking for fuel to make some tea. (on camera): She found these old books and, as he told the story, Mohammed Ali says that his mother ripped out some pages of papyrus, some precious pages of ancient text, and pushed those underneath her stove and burned the papyrus and had some delicious tea that day. But what was lost in the process, we will never know. (voice-over): What we do know is that the surviving books, called "The Gnostic Gospels," gave the world a compelling and competing story of what happened after Jesus. (on camera): The texts of the Nikamiti Library (ph) are making it very clear that there were a lot of gospels that were composed in the early church. Four were finally selected for the New Testament Canon. But beyond that, there were plenty of other gospels. (voice-over): Other gospels? More than one version of the faith? In fact, there were many. There were even Christians who believed in more than one god.</s>HOLMES: And you can see the rest of this two hour special narrated by Liam Neeson. "</s>CNN PRESENTS: AFTER JESUS, THE FIRST CHRISTIANS." That airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and midnight. Meanwhile, after months of haggling and negotiations, the U.N. Security Council may impose sanctions against Iran today. CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth is standing by for us -- Richard, has all of this gotten underway yet?</s>RICHARD ROTH, SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: It's about to start, T.J. The United Nations Security Council, if we could take a look at the meeting room, is poised to pass a sanctions resolution against Iran. This is a significant measure. Is it going to change the regime there? No. It's the start of a process and it's taken months to get to this part, after the Council threatened that if Iran did not freeze its uranium enrichment program, it would take action such as sanctions. And now the Council, after months of wrangling, is on the verge of doing that. Last minute holdup over the last few days, Russia and China forcing concessions and a change in language proposed by Britain and other European countries in this text. The resolution would bar any shipment, the search for of technology, materials and the like to Iran. It would also start a list of figures and companies connected to the Iranian nuclear enrichment program. It would freeze their assets. Russia, which has extensive business interests in Iran is concerned about this and thus was forcing changes in how it was worded. And they're worried that, also, sanctions puts too much pressure on the Iranian regime and that there should be more room for negotiation. That's the Council president at this moment, the ambassador from Qatar. It's a monthly rotation, T.J. And it's not clear whether there will be any speeches before the vote. We'll take a listen here, but we can discuss this for a moment or two. It's another rare Saturday session. Russia forcing one day of postponement. President Bush speaking today with Russian leader Putin. Putin saying that he would -- they'll go forward with this. Bush stressing the need for big power unity in this measure. It's possible that Qatar, the lone Arab representative on the Security Council, would abstain. That is not a veto here. There is no John Bolton in this chamber. He is now a former U.S. ambassador, in effect. The U.S. is being represented by the acting ambassador, Alejandro Wolf, in this chamber. A little bit different atmosphere, I can tell you that, without John Bolton here for this type of contentious significant measure, imposing some sanctions on the Iranian regime. The Iranian ambassador is inside the room. The Iranian ambassador is going to watch and he may be called to the table shortly while they're considering this measure against his country. We may see him stride to the table --</s>T.J. HOLMES: And, Richard, what do you know about what we might expect? You spoke about the Iranian ambassador. But what kind of response can we expect from Iran here?</s>ROTH: I think you're going to see a denunciation, like we did with no question, which didn't take long. There are very similar tracks here -- two countries the Security Council is concerned about their nuclear capabilities. Iran has already given indications it will not accept this resolution and will continue with what it says is a peaceful nuclear enrichment program for more civilian electrical nuclear power to help the nation. There's the Iranian ambassador going up to the table now, taking his seat. Javad Zarif, a very personable fellow who has spoken at local universities here in New York and was once a deputy foreign minister in Tehran and knows the scene very well here at the U.N. And he has been given his instructions. And if he speaks, he'll be relating what the view is from Tehran on this measure.</s>HOLMES: And Richard, you certain said the mood is different there having Bolton not there anymore. So, I guess he was kind of the bulldog, if you will, for the U.S., kind of he rubs people the wrong way of course. What kind of I guess representation there, do they still have that kind of push, that same kind of I guess swagger that he brought. And of course the U.S. name means plenty and has a lot of power and has a lot of prestige and what not, influence. Is the U.S. still as strong of a player even though we don't have that strong of a personality or that strong personality of Bolton in that chamber any more?</s>ROTH: Well, it may be just the atmospheric difference. The U.S. I'm sure would say they have their man in place here,</s>HOLMES: All right. Richard Roth at the UN keeping an eye on it for us. Richard, thank you as always. We'll be checking back with you a little later.</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Other news to tell you about, planes are flying out of Denver international airport after a blizzard grounded them for two days. But many holiday travelers can still face delays as airlines face a backlog of cancelled flights. We have a full update on your holiday weekend weather. That is just minutes from now. But up next, in London, take a look at this, thousands of stranded airline passengers are also on the move once again. Heavy fog cancelled dozens of flights at Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest airport and those flights have been cancelled over the past few days. The fog though is finally starting to clear, but delays still exist.</s>HOLMES: New Defense Secretary Robert Gates' meeting with President Bush at Camp David this morning. They're talking about Iraq and potential options to take there. Gates is of course just back from a visit to Iraq where he met with Iraqi leaders and U.S. military commanders.</s>NGUYEN: If you'd won what they had, you would be happy, too. Yes, extremely festive folks. They are among the lucky winners of the world's richest lottery. Up to 1800 people share the top prize in Spain's annual el gordo (ph) drawing. They won just over $395,000 apiece, 1800 people, can you do the math? The lottery's total prize money is $2.8 billion. Wish I had one of those winning tickets. Well, surviving the holidays, travel stress, shopping stress, family stress. It's enough to make you tired already. Tips on getting through it all unscathed.</s>HOLMES: You remember these song, you hear them every single year. We will run down the most annoying holiday songs.</s>NGUYEN: Holiday songs.</s>HOLMES: We got that and more still ahead right here in the newsroom.