7:01 PM ET: Alina Cho is in Atlanta bringing hourly news updates tonight. She's normally based in New York, why not bring the updates from there... unless she's been moved to Atlanta for good? Where's Carol's replacement Rick Sanchez tonight?

Edit: Rick is in Dallas tonight covering NYE Celebrations there. I guess Ed Lavandera wanted the night off.

Been watching some more of CNNI this evening. Some nice touches, like they always do, to celebrate the new year. Throughout the day there have been recorded messages from memebers of CNN staff in Atlanta, London and Hong Kong (providing some interesting shots of the three respective newsrooms - including the first shots of the Atlanta newsroom since the new set).

Also, at the end of World News at 1926 gmt, after the messages above, the programme ended with a familiar shot of the Atlanta control room, but Jim Clancy live in Atlanta re-appeared in audio, ordering the control room staff to turn around and wave at the camera, which they duly did.

"Without them, we wouldn't have any audio" said Jim. Although I'm quite sure they actually do more than just audio! ;-)

Click here for an example of the New Year greetings

At the top of each hour today, CNN International will be marking New Year around the world. At 1300 gmt, a "It is midnight in..." sting was played before World News began, in this case being New Year in Sydney and the east of Australia. World News then started with live pictures from the Ten Network in Australia, and the fireworks display off of Syndey Bridge.

This will be continued throughout the day, as midnight creeps west around the world.

Rosemary Church appeared on CNNI live in Atlanta at 1228 gmt, during a break in a re-run of CNN Future Summit, to bring breaking news of at least four explosions in Bangkok, as the city prepared to see in the new year. CNN Future Summit then continued.

Rosemary reappeared during the breaks at 1238 gmt and 1246 gmt with updates.

CNNI will join CNN/US at 0400 gmt on 1 January 2007 an hour before the east coast of the USA welcomes in the New Year. The programme, as always, will be hosted by Anderson Cooper, and will include live performances from Lionel Richie, the B52s and many more.

Right now, at 2045 gmt, the funeral of music legend James Brown is live on three pipes of CNN Pipeline. On Pipe 2, coverage from WAGT. On Pipe 3, it's WRDW's footage and on Pipe 4, WJBF. All three pipes are showing the very same service, albeit from different angles.

CNN Pipeline's Melissa Long is in for Betty Nguyen today.

Isn't this great?

Just woke up, after going to sleep shortly after the execution, to find Michael Holmes and Stephen Frazier co-presenting a special live programme from Atlanta on CNNI, focusing on the execution of Saddam Hussein and the reaction. This was from 0900 gmt, and may have started before then. The programme included the images of the execution process from Al-Iraqiyah Television. World Sport at 0930 gmt was cancelled for continuing coverage.

This special programme continued at 1000 gmt with Michael and Stephen.

Anyone know who Virginia Cha is? Is she a new anchor for CNN Headline News? On Tuesday night she was anchoring "Prime News Breaks" during Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, etc.

Anyone know where Erica Hill is? Is she on vacation? She's been gone the last 2 weeks and various anchors have been filling in for her.

Robin Meade was out all week and Christi Paul filled infor her this morning and Linda Stouffer filled in for her one day earlier this week.

I noticed CNNI taking "This Week At War" live from CNN/US after 0100 gmt, rather than World News. I believe CNNI started simulcasting CNN/US from the Situation Room at 0000 gmt. This continued until around 0150, when Asieh Namdar continued with World News, live from Atlanta. Larry King continued live at 0200 gmt.

At 0306 gmt, a report came through that Saddam Hussein had been executed. At this time, CNNI was relaying AC360 as scheduled, with live coverage of the reaction to the execution. Although I went to bed shortly after this, I understand coverage from CNN/US continued for several hour after this, with Anderson Cooper at the helm.

At 1400gmt, CNNI's World News Asia is coming live from Atlanta, with Colleen McEdwards at the helm. This may have been the case earlier today and this week, but I haven't seen much CNNI at all recently as I'm on vacation in Scotland.

Merry Christmas, everyone! :)

Here on CNN/US, Betty Nguyen did CNN Newsroom at it's regular time, but during "A Very Larry Christmas", Carol Costello did hourly news updates from CNN in New York.

Hope you all have had a great day! :)

I received a Christmas e-card from CNNI last night, which I've posted below.

CNN Press Release - Tom Foreman Reviews Year with Guests including Lewis Black, Arianna Huffington for Dec. 26 Special

On Christmas Day, CNN plans to air 14 hours of Larry King Live’s most compelling interviews of 2006, beginning at 9 a.m. (ET). These include King’s interviews with Angelina Jolie and Elizabeth Taylor among others.

CNN’s special programming for the day begins on American Morning with a heartfelt family reunion between Sgt. Darrin Gibbs, a soldier in Kuwait, and his mother, Joanne Gibbs of Vicksburg, Miss., who took a job in Iraq this summer. In addition, a service member in Afghanistan, who oversees approximately 400 soldiers, will speak about the status of fighting there and the overall morale of troops over the holidays. American Morning, co-anchored by Soledad O’Brien and Miles O’Brien airs each weekday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. (ET)

CNN Pipeline, CNN.com’s premium live news video service, will provide live and taped programming throughout the day, offering breaking news reports as they occur. The service also will air the CNN Presents documentary After Jesus – The First Christians and other CNN specials including “Time Person of the Year” and “Welcome to the Future.”

On Tuesday, Dec. 26, CNN will air “Flashpoints,” a one-hour special in which a guest panel reflects upon the top events of 2006 and expectations for 2007. For the special, correspondent Tom Foreman employs visual technology and satellite maps to show an ever-changing world. Guests include Middle East analyst and author Reza Aslan, comedian Lewis Black, anthropologist Wade Davis and HuffingtonPost.com founder Arianna Huffington.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, an on-demand broadband video service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and one Web site.

Rick Sanchez, a CNN anchor and correspondent, becomes the new prime-time weekend anchor for CNN Newsroom, it was announced today by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. Sanchez, who is based in the network’s world headquarters in Atlanta, will also continue reporting for Anderson Cooper 360°.

“When Rick is on camera, you’ve just got to watch,” Klein said. “His passion for the news and natural gift for storytelling will be a welcome addition to our weekend coverage.”
Since joining CNN in September 2004, Sanchez contributed to the network’s coverage of hurricanes such as Ivan and Jeanne and anchored CNN’s coverage when the New Orleans levees broke following Hurricane Katrina. He has been part of the Anderson Cooper 360° reporting team for the last year, offering memorable stories such as the government’s airlift of illegal immigrants and, just last week, winter survival techniques for stranded hikers.

He frequently uses his fluency in both English and Spanish to access unusual stories, as when he reported for the Anderson Cooper 360° special edition, “24 Hours on the Border.” He also provided such coverage from Mexico City following congressional elections there and from Caracas, Venezuela, following President Hugo Chavez’s harsh criticism of U.S. President George W. Bush at the United Nation.

Throughout his career, Sanchez has reported on major events across the United States and around the world, including on-the-scene coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Sanchez has also reported on wars in Afghanistan and Nicaragua, the invasion of Grenada and the fall of the Duvalier regime in Haiti. Additionally, Sanchez – who was born in Cuba and came to America at the age of 3 – has traveled to report live from Havana, Cuba, numerous times.

Sanchez has also interviewed several prominent newsmakers, including Laura Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Michael Gorbachev, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Manuel Noriega, among others.

Before joining CNN, Sanchez was an anchor for WTVJ/Channel 6 and an interim anchor for WBZL/Channel 39 in Miami. Prior to his tenure with the NBC affiliate, he worked for two years as a correspondent and anchor for MSNBC.

Sanchez started his career as a television journalist at WSVN-TV Miami in 1982. He briefly worked as an anchor at KHOU-TV in Houston but soon returned to WSVN-TV. In Miami, he became the first person to both anchor a television news program and host a talk show on Spanish-language radio, El Show de Rick Sanchez.

Sanchez joined MSNBC in 2001 as a correspondent and also delivered breaking news for CNBC and filed radio updates for NBC National radio. Sanchez’s professional honors include an Emmy Award and an American Medical Association “Distinguished Journalist Award.” Sanchez studied journalism at the University of Minnesota.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is one of the world’s most respected and trusted sources for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; four Web sites, including CNN.com, the first major news and information Web site; CNN Pipeline, an on-demand broadband video service; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and partnerships for four television networks and one Web site.

TJ Holmes, Anchor - CNN Newsroom

It's been reported that Carol Lin, one of the on-shift anchors on the morning of September 11 2001, is leaving the network - apparently on her own accord.

More here

Their picture makes Kathleen Kennedy look REALLY short compared to Renay San Miguel. Hope you've enjoyed our look back! :)

New bios have been added:

Adrian Finighan, Pedro Pinto and Frederik Pleitgen

Read on!

Click here to read this interview with Jim Walton from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Robin & Company this morning was having some video troubles. She mentioned not being able to show video clips and that they were all gonna be on camera for a very long time. (No video clips to "hide" behind. lol) I think they finally got it fixed because as she was going to commercial they showed a video clip and she said "Lookin' good!" So we'll see what happens after the commercial break.

More tomorrow... :)

I caught a Larry King Live snippet on CNN Pipeline Pipe 1 yesterday at 2139gmt. Larry had several guests in London, and they were sitting in the London studio (as opposed to the newsroom). This is quite surprising, as the set is usually out of action at the time LKL goes out live (2am to 3am London time).

The most interesting part is that the whole London set resembled the Larry King Live set - the coloured light-bulbs look. The video wall, and "top three stories" wall were showing the LKL-type background, making it all look pretty good.

If the new sets are anyting, they are versatile.

What do you think? Hit Comment below and let us know. More tomorrow...