AP Network News. Merry Christmas. I¡¯m Bryant Thomas.
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For many military families, this Christmas will not be the merriest. Joining us live from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina is our Lisa Meyer. Lisa.
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--- Bryant, the mood is very subdued here with so many people away on deployment. Not all of them are in Iraq, though. Thousands more are in Afghanistan. Lynn Thomas is the father of one of them. He says that his son is stationed at an old Soviet airbase in the western part of the country. (It¡¯d be the first Christmas he hasn¡¯t been around. And of course, it has a tendency to make you rather sad. But we¡¯re adapting well, and, we¡¯re looking forward to him coming home in April.) Thomas says that his son was supposed to be out of the army by now, but his tour of duty was extended by one of those stop-loss orders. He fears that if the order itself is extended, his son may face deployment in Iraq when he leaves Afghanistan in April. Bryant.
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That¡¯s correspondent Lisa Meyer live at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
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Meanwhile at the Vatican, midnight mass at which Pope John Paul II was animated and alert, beaming as he blessed children during his Christmas Eve mass. The ailing pontiff also prayed for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
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Thousands took advantage of a brief respite in the Middle East siege to visit Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born. With Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and other dignitaries looking on from the front row, the Latin patriarch called on Israelis and Palestinians to put the violence behind them.
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Federal officials said they want to know more about why thousands of US Air travelers have been separated from their luggage. DOT spokesman Robert Johnson said there¡¯ll be a full investigation.
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--- We will want to know exactly what happened, how the passengers came to be stranded, and whether or not other issues beyond just a bad storm may have affected this problem.
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Adding to the problem of the lost luggage on US Air, US Airways cancelled about a hundred flights on Friday.
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This is AP Network News.
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Crew of the International Space Station is getting a special Christmas delivery: food, which was running perilously short. NASA¡¯s Kelly Humphrey said a Russian spaceship is set to dock sometime this evening.
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--- Progress is carrying about 2.5 tons worth of supplies to the International Space Station. Among them, about 70 rations of food. A ration is a daily ration of food for each crewmember.
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Food supply at the International Space Station was pretty dicey. Officials say there was only seven to 14 days¡¯ worth beyond Christmas Day.
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Also from outer space comes word that the Cassini spacecraft has launched a probe to one of Saturn¡¯s moons. Correspondent John Anzac reports the probe is equipped with instruments to sample the chemistry of Titan, and then send the information back to Cassini.
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--- During its entire descent, it¡¯ll be radioing data on the atmosphere back to Cassini. Cassini will store that information and then, when the transmission is done, Cassini will turn around and point its antenna at earth and transmit all the data on the atmosphere and surface of Titan back to NASA and to ESA.
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ESA is short for the European Space Agency.
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