Rudy Giuliani's Illness; Shopping Surge Helps Retailers; Pope Benedict Delivers Midnight Mass
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Christmas at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the birth of baby Jesus in St. Peter's Square. Shopping surge - did a last minute rush save the season for retailers? Plus, all quiet on the campaign front. A rare down day in Iowa before the mad rush to the finish. We're live from the campaign trail on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Hey, good morning to you. Thanks very much for being with us. Merry Christmas. It's December 25th. I'm John Roberts.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you open up your presents, we're glad you're spending part of your day with us. Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho. Kiran Chetry has the morning off.</s>ROBERTS: Good to have you with us this morning. Topping the news this Christmas morning, thoughts for thousands of American heroes who are thousands of miles away from their families. President Bush made Christmas Eve calls to 10 U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world. The White House says he thanked them for their sacrifice and wished them a happy holiday, even though they will be far away from their families and friends. The president made the calls from Camp David, where he'll be spending Christmas today before heading down to the western White House in Crawford. At this time last year, President Bush was putting the finishing touches on plans to increase troop levels in Iraq. This Christmas, thousands more soldiers are in the war zone. Special meals and care packages from the states are giving them a taste of home as they celebrate with their military family. The new year may bring new hope, with December on pace to be the safest month for them since the war began. And perhaps some of those troops will be able to come home in the new year. Alphonso Van Marsh is embedded with the 3rd brigade at the 101st airborne division live for us today at Camp Striker in Iraq. Good morning to you, Alphonso, and how are the troops celebrating Christmas?</s>ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are celebrating the best they can, given the job they have in Iraq. As you mentioned, we are at Camp Striker in the dining facilities. This is one of the biggest U.S. military dining facilities in the entire country. At any given time, except for right now, some 1,800 people come and eat their Christmas meal. This is a hive of activity. As we speak, in a few hours, this will be packed full of hundreds of service members just trying to get a bit of a morale boost with that Christmas meal, given that they're so far away from their families, so far from home.</s>CROWD: O little town of Bethlehem.</s>VAN MARSH (voice-over): This isn't Bethlehem, it's Baghdad, where these carolers are active duty soldiers separated from their loved ones at Christmas.</s>CROWD: We won't go until we get some so bring it right here.</s>VAN MARSH: Crime scene investigator Jim Yinglin (ph) is using a Web cam to see what his family and daughter are up to at home.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was telling me that 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>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just some of her first moments when she was born in the hospital laying there.</s>VAN MARSH: Amaya (ph) is 2-weeks-old. She's never met her father, but Valliers (ph) is beholden, not bitter.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably like my best gift that I get for Christmas, it's just the anticipation waiting and knowing that she was born and I can't see her. I mean, the picture was just -- it's hard to explain.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas.</s>VAN MARSH: Meanwhile, Santa's doing his part to spread the Christmas cheer, visiting soldiers at bases around Baghdad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just want to see the troops and hand out some candy canes and make them smile.</s>VAN MARSH: Santa, who really is an army major with the 3rd brigade, has the beard and stuffed belly, but he's also carrying a pistol. This is Christmas in the war zone. Here Santa travels by Blackhawk helicopter instead of reindeer and sleigh.</s>VAN MARSH: Now, what you're seeing here is actually a lull. There are literally waves of U.S. service members coming into this dining facility. As I mentioned, some 1,800 at any given time getting that special Christmas meal, some 10,000 portions of turkey, 10,000 portions of ham, 8,000 portions of you name it that's being served. By the end of Christmas day, some 24,000 meals will be served for the men and women serving here in Iraq at Camp Striker. Back to you, John.</s>ROBERTS: Alphonso, I have actually eaten in the dining facility, or DFAC, as they call it there at Camp Striker. I know the troops are sometimes reluctant to talk about this on camera. But certainly in private they'll give you a sense of it. How are they feeling about the reduction in violence there and the idea that maybe soon they'll be able to come home?</s>VAN MARSH: Well, what a lot of people, I should say that service members that we're talking to, especially in the last couple of days since we've been here, the idea that these deployments at this moment do seem like they will be 15 months in duration, many of the service members have only been here a little over two months. What's on their minds today, John, is the prospect they will very much be here again next Christmas on their minds. But knowing that what they're doing, they believe is the right thing. John?</s>ROBERTS: Alphonso Van Marsh for us this morning from the DFAC there at Camp Striker where I've got to say, they've got some pretty good chow. Alphonso, thanks very much. We'll check back with you a little bit later on. Alina?</s>CHO: Also new this morning, a holiday tradition going on right now in Vatican City. Take a look.</s>POPE BENEDICT XVI: The prince of peace reminds the world where true happiness lies.</s>CHO: Pope Benedict is delivering his Christmas Day address from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, just an extraordinary sight. And just a couple of moments ago, the pope lamented the violent conflicts going on around the world in places like Iraq, Sudan, and Sri Lanka. Earlier this morning, the pope held a traditional midnight mass, and during it, he touched on environmental issues, a modern day message. He made an appeal for Christians around the world to protect the Earth from what he called reckless exploitation. There were calls for peace in the holy land, meanwhile. They're coming from the first Palestinian to hold the Catholic Church's top position there. At midnight mass in Bethlehem, the traditional birth place of Jesus of course, Latin patriarch Michel Sabbah gave a politically charged address calling for an independent Palestinian state. Tourism officials expect about 20,000 visitors to Bethlehem on this Christmas Day. And Queen Elizabeth II is expected to give her Christmas greeting on the Web this year. It will be posted on youtube.com right on her brand new Royal Channel, how about that? Those are older pictures of course. On her broadcast 50 years ago, she talked about the power of television, so that a half century ago. Now she's taking another technological leap.</s>ROBERTS: Wow. Also new this morning, a deadly suicide car bombing in the residential area of Iraq. It happened in the northern city of Baiji. At least 23 people dead, 80 more wounded. At least three of those killed are children. Authorities say a driver detonated a bomb in a vehicle right next to a truck that was loaded with cooking gas cylinders. It happened just outside of a complex belonging to the state-run oil company. New details now in a foiled bomb attack in Turkey. Police in Istanbul found plastic bags stuffed with more than seven pounds of explosives near a ticket stand. One man was arrested. One government officials say the man may be a member of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Police also arrested a second man in another part of the city and say they found more explosive in a safe house. And a search going on right now for 14 men missing at sea. They went down with a freighter that sank before dawn off of South Korea's southern coast, about 280 miles south of Seoul. Maritime police say the 13,000-ton ship vanished in rough waters after it sent out a distress signal. It was carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid bound for Taiwan. Crews did rescue one sailor who was taken to the hospital. The missing include 12 Koreans and two sailors from Myanmar.</s>CHO: Well, the roads should be clear this morning in the upper Midwest. Clear skies yesterday helped crews clear away snow from the latest winter blast, but the death toll has risen to at least 22. One of the latest victims, a Michigan woman who died when her truck rolled into a watery ditch. And at least eight people were killed on icy roads in Minnesota. Well it's a Christmas morning straight out of a postcard in Utah. Take a look behind me there. Forecasters say a winter storm could dump eight inches of snow in the valleys near Salt Lake City and up to 18 inches in other parts of the state. Now before you start thinking powder day, John, the storm will also bring with it some fierce winds. Gusts could reach 75 miles-an-hour on the mountain peaks. And thousands in Los Angeles have no power this Christmas morning thanks to some extreme weather. We're talking about those Santa Ana winds there. They returned with a vengeance, tearing down power lines, blowing out several transformers, and cutting power to about 10,000 homes and businesses. The National Weather Service says winds topped 94 miles-per-hour in the San Fernando Valley. Forecasters are warning that conditions are ideal for another outbreak of brush fires. Well, Rob Marciano is taking this Christmas off. Bonnie Schneider in at our weather update desk taking a look at all of the weather on this Christmas morning. So Bonnie, what do you have this morning?</s>ROBERTS: Big news in the retail world. It looks like the last- minute shopping rush did help salvage the holiday season. According to one industry analyst, sales from this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were up nearly 19 percent over the previous year. And shoppers who put their lists off until the last minute were happy to do their part.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was like OK, I can wait, wait, wait, way, and all of a sudden I woke up and thought, oh, my goodness. It's almost Christmas.</s>ROBERTS: Well, if you still need another present or two, there are, believe it or not, a few stores that are open this morning. For example, if you happen to be in New York City, if you live there or you're here visiting, FAO Schwartz, the toy store in Manhattan, is open. Quick hits now. A multi-billion dollar deal involving Merrill Lynch. It announced the Singapore's state-owned investment company will buy more than $4 billion in Merrill Lynch stock. A U.S. advisory firm will also invest more than $1 billion. The injection of cash could help Merrill rebound from the credit crisis. Republican presidential candidate and former prostate cancer patient Rudy Giuliani is saying that he is cancer free. He made the announcement after reading Christmas stories to kids in Harlem yesterday. However, Giuliani is still being pressed about the severe headache that forced him to turn his campaign plane around last week and check into a hospital in St. Louis. His campaign says that tests showed nothing alarming, but they have yet to disclose what those tests were or what doctors were trying to rule out. Our Dana Bash is on the campaign trail. She's got more on Giuliani's announcement, plus other presidential candidates making headlines, that's coming up. A famed chef with cancer of the mouth facing an agonizing decision. Save his sense of taste or his life. This morning, good news. This is a really incredible story. We've got it for you coming up. But first, holiday greetings from some of our men and women serving overseas on this Christmas day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is PFC Chris Lewis (ph) from the 111th engineer brigade, West Virginia armed national guard serving in northern Iraq. I want to wish my wife Christina and my family from Charleston a merry Christmas. I love you all.</s>ROBERTS: Fifteen minutes after the hour. The presidential candidates are off for Christmas day. But they get right back in the thick of it tomorrow. Rudy Giuliani is not concentrating on Iowa, but he is spending an awful lot of time spending that mysterious headache that caused him to turn his plane around in midair and head for a St. Louis hospital last week. The CNN Election Express is in Des Moines this morning. That's where we find Dana Bash on this Christmas morning. Dana, yesterday while he was wrapping and giving out presents in Harlem on Christmas Eve, Giuliani talked about his health. But he didn't talk about the headache, what he talked about was the fact that he is cancer free. Let's take a listen.</s>RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can tell you the results. I know the results now of all the tests. I'm perfectly healthy. I have - I don't have cancer.</s>ROBERTS: So the campaign is really focusing on this idea that there's been no recurrence of his prostate cancer, not that that was ever a question. But they have yet to answer a lot of important questions about what happened last week in St. Louis.</s>DANA BASH, CN CORRESPONDENT: You're exactly right. That's the second time, John, in the span of two days, that Rudy Giuliani unsolicited has brought up the fact that he is a cancer survivor. He had prostate cancer about seven or eight years ago and the fact that he is very happy about the fact that he is cancer free. But on the key issue, what exactly caused his plane to turn around Wednesday night into Thursday morning last week? Why was he put in the hospital, and what specifically tests were done at the hospital and perhaps subsequently to sort of make them apparently confident that he's OK? We still don't know the answers to that. What his campaign is insisting is that they are going to put out a full doctor's report probably after Christmas. So hopefully we'll get it in the next few days. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened. He says, again, that he had a very bad headache. That's the reason why they rushed him to the hospital. You know, we sort of asked questions about the fact that he said on Sunday that he was prescribed to take an aspirin a day. That sort of sounded a little bit odd to us. Our own Sanjay Gupta said that might be because the doctors were a little worried about a potential stroke, a potential heart attack. His campaign pushed back very, very hard on that, John. But the bottom line is we don't know what the deal is. We don't know what tests he had done and what specifically the health problems he had.</s>ROBERTS: Well perhaps in the coming days we'll learn more about that. Meantime, everybody very happy that he is cancer free. I had a brother die from cancer in 1981, so I know how serious that is. Dana Bash for us this morning in Des Moines. Dana, thanks very much. The Democrats are learning just how unpredictable Iowa can be. Several polls say it's a three-way race among Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. But there's one new poll, it's an American Research Group poll that has got Clinton jumping out again to a double digit lead over Obama and Edwards. In fact, Obama is in third place in this latest poll. Take a look at that. John Clinton jumps from 18 to 20 percent. Clinton goes up from 29 to 34. And Obama, who must be in the next frame on that, actually dropped from 25 to 19. So he went down six points. Jessica Yellin on the road with the CNN Election Express for us this morning in Des Moines. Why did Barack Obama drop so much, particularly among men, in the last few days?</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well you know, John, there are two possible explanations. There are probably a world of explanations, but one is that Senator Clinton's message and Edwards' message in the last week has started to click arguably. Clinton started with a new theme of introducing voters to family members and people she knows to argue that she's a very likable person. That's been one of her challenges. And also, she's gone on the attack trying to differentiate herself from the other gentlemen and also adopting some of John Edwards' message about poverty. So maybe she's gained some traction. And Edwards has also remained strong. On the other hand, all of this could really mean that it's just impossible to poll in Iowa. This state is notoriously difficult to measure because it's not a one for one ratio. Not every supporter necessarily translates into a vote because of their caucus system. So you need to have geographic distribution within the state. You need to have support in the urban areas and the rural areas. So it's possible that none of this actually accurately measures what the actual results will be caucus night. And a lot of that actually depends on turnout, which could be based on weather and other unknown factors. John?</s>ROBERTS: It is an incredibly complex process, and as we saw in 2004, polls even a few days out can be completely wrong. So we'll see how this one goes. Jessica Yellin for us this morning in Des Moines. Jessica, thanks. Alina?</s>CHO: Thanks, John. A controversy over home heating oil is heating up this holiday. Families like the one you're about to see in New York are starting to get shipments of free oil sponsored by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Now, the plan is backed by Joseph Kennedy's nonprofit group Citizens Energy. Calls for boycotts have been springing up online to fight the plan. That brings us to this morning's quick vote question. Take a look there. Should Americans accept free heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez? Of course, it's controversial but it also helps a lot of people in need. Cast your vote at CNN.com/am. And right now, 75 percent say yes, 25 percent say no. We're going to continue to tally your votes throughout the morning.</s>ROBERTS: This is a very controversial issue. A lot of people are saying, well, why shouldn't we accept the free oil? And then other people are saying, what are the oil companies doing for us? And other people are saying, hey, relations are so bad. Why accept that oil?</s>CHO: This is the man remember who called President Bush the devil so a lot of controversy about that. So cast your vote.</s>ROBERTS: Stirring it up on Christmas morning.</s>CHO: That's right, we're trying to. Well presidential Christmas holiday plans for President Bush and a busy start to his final year in office. That's in the works. We're live in Washington ahead. And a famous chef facing life-threatening cancer says he's in remission this morning. An extraordinary story, that's after choosing a riskier treatment option. We're going to bring you his story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.