On World News tonight, the extraordinary efforts to stop bird flu at the border, the first
new rules in 25 years, how it will affect millions of passengers on planes and ships.
Exit strategy, the Pentagon's plan to reduce American forces in Iraq by 50,000.
Iraqi leaders demand to know when the U.S. will be gone for good.
In New Orleans, a search for 4,000 people still missing from Hurricane Katrina, how
many of them are lost in shelters and how many are dead.
Huge excitement over the new Xbox from Microsoft, video games plus a billion dollar bet on the
future of entertainment.
And Ted Koppel says goodbye to Nightline, 25 years, bringing people together and showing
us the world.
On ABC News, this is World News Tonight.
Reporting from ABC News headquarters, Elizabeth Vargas.
Good evening.
We start tonight with the unprecedented effort to stop a deadly pandemic of bird flu from
hitting the country.
For the first time in 25 years, the government is changing the rules on how it keeps dangerous
viruses from entering the country.
These new rules would give officials broad authority to screen passengers on planes and
ships and put people who may be sick in mandatory quarantine.
It is something to think about as so many people begin traveling for the holiday weekend.
ABC's Lisa Stark joins us live from Reagan National Airport.
Lisa, these new regulations are for a world where a virus can spread with lightning speed.
Absolutely, Elizabeth, spread very efficiently as we know through air travel.
Now the guidelines proposed today by the Centers for Disease Control include a number of changes.
First and foremost, they're expanding the definition of those who could be subject to
quarantine to include persons with fever and flu-like symptoms.
Under the new guidelines, the government would have easy access to information about passengers
on airlines and cruise ships.
The CDC says that's critical so it can trace everyone who may have come in contact with
a sick passenger.
What was highlighted during the SARS epidemic in 2003 was a remarkable inability to obtain
accurate contact information of potentially exposed passengers in sufficient time to notify
them and to check in on their health status.
Passengers flying internationally and to one of 67 major domestic airports would be asked
for name, address, phone number, email address, passport number, traveling companions and
emergency contact.
Airlines would keep that information for 60 days and would have to give it to the CDC
within 12 hours when asked.
The CDC would keep the information for up to a year.
The same would apply to cruise ship passengers.
We want to highlight is that there are very strict confidentiality and privacy security
requirements about the maintaining of this information.
Under the new regulations, if the CDC believes someone has a communicable disease, it can
quarantine them for up to three days without an appeal.
That has to be done very, very carefully and only, only in the dire circumstances.
The CDC has expanded its quarantine stations at US airports from 8 to 18.
Doctors at the stations can examine sick passengers.
In the wake of fears about bird flu, airport officials at LAX are also drawing up plans
for quarantining a plane load of people if need be, possibly in this airplane hangar.
We'll work hand in hand with CDC to make sure that this epidemic, if it does happen, stays
on the airport until we can, and they can control it.
Health officials say anyone who has a deadly flu virus and is contagious may not even show
any symptoms until after they are off the airplane.
And that's, they say, why it is so critical to be able to track passengers after the fact.
So Elizabeth, these rules are now proposed and open for public comment.
All right, I'm sure there will be plenty of public comment.
Lisa Stark, thank you.
And now to the war on terror.
In Virginia, a jury has convicted an Arab-American college student of plotting to kill President
Bush.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was first arrested at a university in Saudi Arabia.
Prosecutors say he went there with the intention of becoming a terrorist leader.
He was also convicted of providing support to al-Qaeda.
He could get life in prison.
And in Washington, an indictment was unsealed today against another American citizen, the
so-called Dirty Bomber.
The Brooklyn-born man had been held in the military brig in the U.S. for more than three
years without being charged.
The case has become something of a lightning rod for civil rights groups who say the war
on terror does not give the government license to hold an American citizen without trial.
Our justice correspondent, Pierre Thomas, has the latest.
Jose Padilla was portrayed in 2002 as a direct threat to national security.
We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological
dispersion device, or dirty bomb, in the United States.
But today the government accused Padilla of a completely different conspiracy to murder,
maim, and kidnap people overseas.
The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the
intention of fighting and violent jihad.
There was not a single word about a dirty bomb.
The government never had a case with respect to the allegations that they put before the
public, frightened the public, for three and a half years.
Padilla, sometimes called the Dirty Bomber, is an American citizen.
Critics have claimed his three-year detention in this military brig as an enemy combatant
was unconstitutional.
The government was heading for a showdown after Padilla's attorneys petitioned the
Supreme Court to release him or bring charges.
Today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said there is no longer a need for that Supreme
Court showdown.
And since he has now been charged in a grand jury in Florida, we believe that the petition
is moot.
But Padilla's attorney says the Supreme Court should rule on the limits of presidential
power.
It is important for all of us to have a determination on the extent the president may use his authority
to arrest an American citizen and then just hold them without charges.
Some legal scholars agree.
The Padilla case represents pretty extreme arguments of presidential power being put
forward by this administration.
It's ready to be resolved.
The White House does not want the Supreme Court to take this case.
They say the president needs great latitude in fighting the war on terror.
Elizabeth?
All right, Pierre.
Thomas, thanks so much.
We're now to Iraq.
The U.S. ambassadors, Almay Khalzad and General George Casey, the senior commander of U.S.
forces in Iraq, had a very close call today.
Insurgents fired a mortar at a ceremony they were attending.
Nearly everyone scrambled for cover.
The mortar fell 300 yards away but did not explode.
The ceremony soon resumed, marking the return of one of Saddam Hussein's palaces to the
new local government in his hometown of Tikrit.
The other major headline about Iraq today, Iraq's rival political factions have united
to demand a timetable for the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds issued the joint statement at the end of a reconciliation conference
in Cairo.
It was a rare moment of unity and it comes as the Bush administration battles pressure
here at home to commit to a pullout schedule.
ABC's White House correspondent Martha Raddatz has the latest.
It is the first time Iraq's political leaders have called for a timetable.
Today Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds agreeing on a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified
timetable dependent on an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces.
For months the White House has refused to offer up a withdrawal schedule and today a
senior U.S. commander refused as well.
I'm not going to get into a timetable.
But there is a working plan to draw down U.S. forces.
More than 158,000 troops are in Iraq today.
Senior officials tell ABC News the plan calls for at least 10,000 fewer forces by March.
By the end of 2006 the troop level is expected to drop to 110,000.
We asked General Vines in a recent interview in Baghdad whether a drawdown could occur
if security remains as bad as it has been in the last few months.
There are a lot of factors that enter into it but the answer is yes.
If the Iraqi security forces are more capable, if the government is more capable and the
conditions were the same, they can shoulder a greater share of the burden.
Absolutely.
Even if the insurgency is at the same level?
Absolutely.
There are already concrete signs the drawdown is in the works.
A 3,000 soldier brigade from Fort Riley scheduled to leave for Iraq next month has been put
on hold.
A senior military official tells ABC News they're not going although a small number
of soldiers from the brigade may go.
Some officials say the Iraqi demands for a timetable will provide the White House with
political cover, Elizabeth.
They do not want to appear.
They were following the Democrats' lead.
All right, Martha Raddatz from the White House.
Thank you so much.
One other item from overseas today.
New guidelines from the Vatican will bar homosexuals with what the church calls deep
seated gay tendencies from the priesthood as well as those who support gay culture.
But the Vatican will allow men who are gay but celibate for at least three years to become
priests.
When we return nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina, how can 4,000 people still be missing?
We'll take a closer look.
The Xbox goes on sale.
Microsoft's billion dollar gamble to revolutionize home entertainment.
And a milestone tonight, Ted Koppel signs off remembering a quarter century of remarkable
television.
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An unusual new program to help the needy heat their homes began in Massachusetts today.
The need is great in many parts of the country.
Heating oil costs 28% more now than last winter.
But Congress has added no money to the federal heating assistance program.
So what's unusual about the new program is who was behind it.
Hugo Chavez, president of oil-producing Venezuela.
Is he being a good neighbor or is he trying to score points against the Bush administration?
Here's ABC's Dan Harris.
At a rain-soaked media-saturated event outside Boston today,
the first delivery of discounted home heating oil to Linda Kelly, a struggling mother of three,
courtesy of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
I don't see any political issues. I just want to keep my family warm.
Kelly, who says the cheap oil means her family won't have to choose between heat and food,
is not concerned by allegations that Chavez is doing this just to embarrass President Bush.
Chavez has been rattling Mr. Bush's cage for years,
accusing the administration of wanting to invade his oil-rich country,
cozying up to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro,
and disrupting Mr. Bush's effort to forge a free trade agreement
at a Latin American summit by leading a protest.
The Venezuelans say their discount home heating oil program,
offered through SitGo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government,
is a humanitarian gesture aimed at tens of thousands of low-income Americans.
The Bush administration says it's, quote, for political gain.
And argument officials in Massachusetts today rejected.
This today is about people. It's not about politics.
With billions of dollars from rising oil prices,
Chavez has been offering things like free surgeries to his own people
and cheap gas to neighboring countries in an attempt to boost his popularity,
influence regional elections, and push his brand of anti-capitalist, anti-American politics.
He sees himself as a modern-day revolutionary.
He sees himself as unifying Latin America,
as building a Latin America that is independent from the United States.
Of course, if oil prices go down, so will Chavez's influence.
But few predict a steep decline anytime soon.
So the man they call El Comandante may be able to wield petrol power
from Mexico to Massachusetts for some time to come.
Dan Harris, ABC News, New York.
And we'll have that story about the thousands still missing after Hurricane Katrina for you tomorrow night.
When we come back, the new Xbox, Microsoft's huge bet on the future,
trying to change home entertainment forever.
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There was midnight madness as stores across the country began selling Microsoft's highly anticipated new video game player early this morning.
Video games have become a $27 billion a year business worldwide, and now it's poised to grow even bigger.
But Microsoft is positioning the new Xbox as much more than just a game.
Here's ABC's John Berman.
They lined up far and wide, day and night, all to get their hands on this.
Microsoft's Xbox 360, the most anticipated new product in the white-hot business of video games.
An industry that already brings in more money in the U.S. than movies.
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Michael Futter is the epitome of the average gamer.
27 years old male, the father of one.
He pre-ordered his Xbox 360 in May.
I'm one of those people who needs to have a system on the first day. I need to get in at the ground floor.
He picked up his new game just after midnight.
I cannot wait to get home. I am really, really excited.
The Xbox 360's stunning, lifelike graphics and Internet capabilities are what is so attractive to hardcore gamers.
But Microsoft is hoping to reach a much bigger audience.
On the 360, you can play DVDs and music.
Just as Microsoft dominates your computer screen, the company wants to take over your living room.
It's not just a gaming machine. It's this home entertainment system that's going to let you do everything in your living room that you ever would want to do.
Since Microsoft introduced its first Xbox in 2001, it has lost billions, the cost of breaking into the industry.
But it is gambling on the future.
It's certainly a mainstream medium, certainly growing faster than any other form of entertainment, and we think has tremendous prospects for the future.
Already, many stores have sold out, and since midnight, more than 1,500 360s have sold on eBay for prices way above the $400 sticker price.
The biggest complaint about the Xbox is that there are only 18 new games to play on it right now.
But that's fine with Mike Futter. He's taken the next two days off from work just to play.
John Berman, ABC News, New York.
Now that's a fan. You hear a lot about the negative effects of video games, but there are some positives.
Did you know that playing video games might actually make you smarter?
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One of the country's great journalists has died. Hugh Seide spent 40 years covering American presidents for Time magazine.
The relationship between the president and the press, quote, should be as friendly enemies, he wrote.
We are concerned with what really happens rather than what the White House tells us.
Mr. Seide was known for capturing the personal side of the most powerful men on the planet.
He once interviewed JFK in the White House swimming pool.
He liked to say that presidents are not as tall or as articulate as you think they should be.
But when you write about them, you realize just how vital they are to the country. Hugh Seide was 78.
And when we come back 26 years on Nightline, Ted Koppel signs off, the man who changed television and helped change the world.
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Straight ahead at 6, Valley City is having to pay the price for budgeting blunders at the new Yakima County Jail.
What it means for Yakima City law enforcement.
Those stories plus fortune weather coming up next.
Finally tonight saying goodbye.
As you may know, this evening Ted Koppel will step down from Nightline, the program he's anchored for the last 26 years.
It is an incredible story still unfolding to this very moment.
An incredible story indeed.
This is Ted Koppel, ABC News.
It's more than 20 miles from here to the Red Chinese border.
Ted Koppel began as a reporter in the field.
In 1979, with Americans held hostage in Iran, Koppel began broadcasting at 1130 each night to give Americans the latest.
This is the fifth agonizing day for the U.S. government.
ABC News took a risk and turned that late night broadcast into Nightline.
This is a new broadcast.
Ted Koppel would use this opportunity to change television news.
It has been suggested to me that we need a symbolic divider between our Israeli guests on the one hand and our Palestinian guests on the other.
Bringing together people in conflict.
We don't want to accept citizens of a certain country, but we have decided that.
Taking on the racial divide in America.
I heard him refer to all of the giants in our community as you people.
If we're ever going to reach our hands out to one another, you can't lump us all together any more than we can lump you all together.
Ted Koppel brought his audience to Kosovo.
We were shown the pictures of the people who had been executed by the Serbs.
And there were men and women and children.
Yeah.
And the Congo.
The number of victims who have died here over the last three years is about two and a half million.
Two and a half million.
You'd think we would have noticed.
What is going on here can be a matter of life and death.
At age 63, he traveled to Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division.
Koppel wanted to cover America's new war firsthand.
Something that Shakespeare wrote for Henry V. Reek havoc and unleash the dogs of war.
And there they start moving into Iraq.
One year later came his controversial program honoring America's fallen.
Andrew Chris.
Oranthal Smith.
Ted Koppel has never shied from confrontation.
Mr. Brown, some of these people are dead.
They're beyond your help.
Don't you guys watch television?
Don't you guys listen to the radio?
You are attacking me?
You are speaking to Jada Arafat.
I understand.
Who's more frustrating, me or Arafat?
He's funnier.
In 1995, Ted Koppel introduced America to Maurice Schwartz, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.
I want you to confront for me the moment when your still active mind is a prisoner of your no longer functioning body.
That has to scare the hell out of you.
Not yet. Not yet.
Ted Koppel and his conversations with Maurice showed America that a dying man had much to teach about living.
When I'm dying, I don't only have to be taking.
I can also be giving.
Nightline will continue, but 11.35 tonight is Ted's final broadcast.
Yes, it will be Tuesday with Maureen.
And we wish Ted well.
I'm Elizabeth Vargas.
Good night.