Planet In Peril - Battle Lines airs December 11, 2008.

Christiane Amanpour will anchor a nightly show on CNN International, as part of their restructuring happening after the first of the year. The New York Times has more details.

December’s LIVING GOLF is in Shanghai China for the new ‘Race to Dubai’. This marks the official start of the 2009 European Tour schedule with the HSBC Champions event. The program looks at the revamp of the Tour, how its now only “European’ by name but not by nature and also asking how the Tour can offer more money with the world in the grip of the credit crunch. LIVING GOLF then takes a step back in time to show viewers how the European Tour has evolved since its inception some 30 years ago.

The continued expansion of the European Tour has helped promote the game in China, but it is not just at the professional level that golf is making a difference. CNN’s Emily Chang files a report from Beijing where schools are using the sport to instil good manners to their pupils.

Host Justin Armsden also sits down with the new world number two, Sergio Garcia to gather his thoughts on what it means for the professional game, and to reflect on his most successful but perhaps his most disappointing season to-date.

For more program information, please visit www.cnn.com/livinggolf.

CNN Press Release - Hugh Jackman to Present PEOPLE Magazine’s 2008 ‘Heroes Among Us’

CNN today announced celebrities who will be participating in the second annual “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” which honors ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things in their communities and beyond. Hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, the program will air globally on Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 27, at 9 p.m. (ET) on CNN/U.S., CNN International and CNN en Español.

Grammy Award-winning artists Alicia Keys and John Legend will each perform at the “CNN Heroes” gala. Celebrities slated to appear include: Cameron Diaz, Meg Ryan, Forest Whitaker, Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Terrence Howard, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale and Selena Gomez. In addition, Hugh Jackman will present PEOPLE Magazine’s 2008 “Heroes Among Us”; PEOPLE has partnered with CNN for this portion of the telecast.

This year’s Blue Ribbon Panel judges included: Queen Rania Al Abdullah; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach; Sir Richard Branson; Deepak Chopra; Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE; Franklin Graham; Earvin “Magic” Johnson; George Lopez; Holly Robinson Peete; Jeffrey Sachs; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; and Kristi Yamaguchi.

This year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes, as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel, were unveiled last month by Cooper on CNN’s American Morning, and their profiles are available at www.CNN.com/Heroes. The public will select the “CNN Hero of the Year” via voting at the CNN Heroes site through Wednesday, Nov. 19. At the Kodak Theatre gala, CNN will honor the 10 heroes and reveal the CNN Hero of the Year, who will receive an additional $100,000. In its second year, the multiplatform initiative received nearly 4,000 submissions from 75 countries.

Joel Gallen, who has helmed ambitious telethon events supporting victims of both the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, returns as executive producer for the event. Kelly Flynn is senior executive producer for the CNN Heroes initiative.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source 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; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Press Release - CNN’s chief medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes an in-depth and refreshing look at the world of medicine in VITAL SIGNS, a new monthly, half-hour program on CNN International. From China to Peru and Jerusalem to Japan, Dr. Gupta travels the globe looking for important medical breakthroughs, secrets to aging well and clues that might solve medical mysteries.

“We are excited about this new program and the wealth of knowledge that Dr. Gupta can bring to our viewers regarding the field of medicine and its significance around the world,” said Katherine Green, senior vice president of CNN International.

The first episode looks at tuberculosis, one of the world’s most opportunistic and easily transmittable diseases. Dr. Gupta reports from Lima, Peru, a place that has become a surprising success story in the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis. While there, Dr. Gupta spent time with local doctors, health officials and patients to discuss the collaborative effort in treating this disease. Tokyo correspondent Kyung Lah also reports from Okinawa on a very active aging population in their ‘90s and 100’s defying the physical odds of old age. While the 100–year old crowd is healthy, their children are dying younger and at the highest rate anywhere in Japan and VITAL SIGNS goes to find out just why this is.

"I'm really looking forward to talking to our global viewers about some of the major global health issues that impact us all in our rapidly shrinking world -- as well as hearing from viewers about what concerns them most through our interactive Q&A opportunities via CNN.com and CNNmobile," said Gupta.

Whether it’s demystifying medical jargon or answering viewer questions, VITAL SIGNS looks to engage viewers by providing comprehensive and sometimes ground-breaking reports across CNN’s television, online and mobile platforms. The program’s online presence can be found at www.cnn.com/vitalsigns and will include links to current stories involving various health issues and the medical industry itself. Also, viewers can share their health concerns or amazing medical stories by submitting their own iReports via the web site or by contributing to the VITAL SIGNS page using their PC or mobile phone.

Regular segments in the program that feature Dr. Gupta include ‘Doc Talk’, where he shares the buzz in the medical community; ‘Medical Myth Busters’, where he identifies medical myths that some doctors believe to be true; and ‘On the Frontlines’, where he and a number of CNN contributors report from the field on a specific issue.

For more program information go to www.cnn.com/vitalsigns

CNN Press Release - Former European Commissioner and statesman Chris Patten, best known as the last governor of Hong Kong speaks to CNN’s Anjali Rao for the latest edition of TALK ASIA. He gives his thoughts on U.S. President elect Barack Obama, what Obama must do to tackle the global financial crisis and his ‘distaste’ for outgoing President George Bush. As Patten revisits a few of his old haunts in Hong Kong he also tells Rao how he got into politics and what he misses most about the city.

Despite being a former chairman of the British Conservative Party, Chris Patten supported a Democrat as the next U.S. president: “I think that I would find myself having some difficulty in sitting down in the same Party with, for example, Governor Palin…President Obama would not I think be regarded in European politics as particularly left-wing, I suspect that while he will have, for an American, quite a pronounced interest in fairness and social equity, that he’s quite a cautious, cool cat.”

His opinion of President Bush as “the worst U.S. President” is again echoed when he shares with Rao that “I don’t think there will be much nostalgia about the Bush years.” But in all fairness that “I think it would be wrong to think that everything was hunky–dory before Bush and that all you need to do is to send him back to Crawford and Vice President Cheney to shoot his friends and everything will be fine.”

Patten’s take on the financial crisis is that China has an increasingly influential role in the world’s economy: “And if you expect the Chinese for example to put their hand in their pocket and to take out larger sums of dosh in order to bail out the international financial system; they for their part, can reasonably expect to be given a bigger role in policy making in international institutions.”

Patten also reminisces on his days when he oversaw the former British colony between 1992 and 1997 as the last governor, a period which ensures he is still well-recognized and quite a crowd pleaser. When asked how he sees the city going forward, especially now that it is being run by his former financial secretary Donald Tsang, he says: “I think it’ll go on being special. I don’t think it’ll ever lose this vibrancy or vitality, and I’m sure it’ll go on being free and one day it’ll be democratic.” He knows that the Chinese leadership was not sad to see him go as it was well known that he clashed almost weekly with the government. As he says: “I think after it was all over, they recognized that despite the turbulence of our public exchanges…Hong Kong that they took over in 1997 was a huge success story, and some of them hadn’t expected that.”

For more program information on TALK ASIA visit www.cnn.com/talkasia.

Rick Sanchez's CNN Newsroom blog debuts on Monday... we have a preview for you! Visit http://www.cnn.com/ricksanchez to connect with Rick.

CNN Press Release - Scream Bloody Murder Reports on ‘Unchecked Evil’ from Armenia to Darfur in Special Premiering Dec. 4

From ethnic slaughters in Armenia to the Holocaust to systematic terror and violence in Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq and Darfur, CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports on the recurring nightmare of genocide and the largely unknown struggles of the heroes who witnessed evil – and “screamed bloody murder” for the international community to stop it. As the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide approaches, a new two-hour documentary, CNN Presents: Scream Bloody Murder, will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 9 p.m. and replay at midnight. (ET).

Amanpour, who just celebrated her 25th year at CNN, has reported on most crises and human events from around the globe, including events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans. She has interviewed world leaders at the key moments of history as they happened and leverages this direct experience and depth of knowledge in Scream Bloody Murder. Her first-hand insights provide context to the key decisions before and during the heinous events that continue to shock the world.

Past as Prologue
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and lawyer, narrowly escaped the Holocaust, but his parents and 40 other members of his family perished in the slaughter. In the 1940s, Lemkin coined the term “genocide” and lobbied the then-fledgling U.N. for an international convention compelling nations to prevent and stop genocide.

Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer for CNN Productions says: “Lemkin hoped that the international community would ensure that genocide never happened again, but other crusaders against genocide met the same indifference and resistance Lemkin encountered. This film is about their stories – and what we can learn from them.”

Just one generation later, Father François Ponchaud, a Catholic missionary working in Cambodia, tried to alert the world to the torture and mass executions following the rise of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Ponchaud published articles, a book, and even spoke before the U.N. to urge action to stop the killing.

“No one believed us” Ponchaud tells Amanpour in the documentary. In fewer than four years, the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror claimed the lives of nearly two million men, women and children – one fourth of Cambodia’s population.

“No one defends human rights,” the priest says in the documentary. “Governments are cold beasts looking out for their own interests.”

Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda
In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein unleashed poison gas on the Iraqi Kurdish population, killing tens of thousands, in violation of international law. Amanpour draws on U.S. government documents that show the Reagan Administration opposed measures to sanction Iraq because it was trying to cultivate Iraq as an ally against Iran in 1988. Peter Galbraith, at the time an idealistic staffer in the U.S. Senate, witnessed Hussein’s brutal policy and tried unsuccessfully to get Congress to punish Iraq. The White House continued its support for Hussein. Amanpour questions the Reagan administration officials who made the decisions at the time, including former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz.

Amanpour returns to the former Yugoslavia, where in the 1990s, she reported on the “ethnic cleansing” of Muslims by Serbs. She reminds viewers that the slaughter in Bosnia happened in full view of the world, captured on 24-hour television news.

Amanpour describes the efforts of Richard Holbrooke, at the time a private citizen who would later become one of President Bill Clinton’s most influential advisors, who tried to persuade the Clinton administration to use military force to stop the principal aggressors, the Bosnian Serbs. It would take three years – and the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica – to make his case and secure U.S. military support to end the “ethnic cleansing.” Amanpour also interviews Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel, who during the opening ceremonies for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in 1993, publicly demanded the newly elected Clinton to intervene in Bosnia.

During an international news conference in 1994, Amanpour challenged Clinton: “Do you not think, that the constant flip-flops of your administration on the issue of Bosnia sets a very dangerous precedent?”

Amanpour also returns to Rwanda, where she reported on genocide there 14 years ago. The atrocities still haunt retired Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire. In 1994, Dallaire was the commander of the U.N. peace-keeping troops in Rwanda. He sounded early warnings about an impending human tragedy but was prohibited from taking military action to prevent the slaughter that eventually claimed the lives of at least 800,000 people. Dallaire, ordered to leave Rwanda by his bosses, tells Amanpour, “I refused a legal order. But it was immoral.”

Amanpour recounts the Clinton administration’s refusal to use the word ‘genocide’ to describe the killing in Rwanda, and the U.N.’s refusal to reinforce Dallaire’s troops. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. National Security Advisor Anthony Lake discuss the failures in Rwanda. Amanpour also interviews current Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who says the world was indifferent to the fate of Rwandans.

Darfur and Beyond
Finally, Amanpour reports on what many consider to be the first genocide of the 21st century: Darfur.

“There was no lack of information, there was no lack of understanding, there was a lack of will to stop genocide – year after year after year,” says Eric Reeves, a Smith College professor and one of the founders of the grassroots activism to end genocide in Darfur. Amanpour interviews Dr. Mukesh Kapila, the U.N.’s former top official in Sudan, who reveals what he says is today’s challenge: The U.N. is powerless to compel its members to act, even in the face of mass murder.

There may be a ray of hope in Reeves and Kapila’s frustrated efforts. Human rights groups continue to call attention to the atrocities in Darfur, and activists around the world advocate for Darfur via the Internet, which may holds some promise for maintaining international pressure and keeping the world’s conscience focused on relief action.

Six decades after Lemkin’s challenge to never let genocide happen again, Amanpour ponders what it will take for the world to live up to his challenge and the promise of the Genocide Convention he worked so tirelessly to bring about. The next time the killing starts and someone stands up to scream bloody murder, will anyone listen?

Christiane Amanpour has reported on crises from many of the world’s hotspots and war zones during 25 years at CNN. Her assignments also include exclusive interviews with world leaders on the human consequences of natural disasters and global politics. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the coveted Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, four George Foster Peabody Awards, a Courage in Journalism Award and a number of Emmys and duPont awards. She is a member of the board of directors for the Committee to Protect Journalists and was named an honorary citizen by the City of Sarajevo for her “personal contribution to spreading the truth” during coverage of the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995.

The managing editor for Scream Bloody Murder is Kathy Slobogin. Andy Segal is senior producer; Ken Shiffman and Jennifer Hyde are producers for this documentary.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source 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; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Press Release - Highest Prime-Time Viewership in CNN’s History
Dominates Fox News, MSNBC in Total Viewers all Demographics
CNN.com Breaks Records on Election Day with 30 Million Unique Visitors

CNN’s 2008 Election Night coverage dominated the competition and resulted in its highest prime-time ratings in the network’s 28-year history. CNN topped the cable news competition with 12.3 million total viewers tuning in during primetime (8-11p), a 36% advantage over FNC’s 9 million and an impressive 109% lead over MSNBC’s 5.9 million. Among adults 25-54, CNN was also #1 with 5.8 million, a 48% advantage over FNC’s 3.9 million and 119% lead over MSNBC’s 2.7 million demo viewers. Among younger viewers18-34, CNN was also first with 3.4 million, FNC placed second with 1.8 million and MSNBC was third with 1.4 million.

CNN had the largest gains in prime time compared to 2004 in 25-54, doubling its audience, up 102%, while FNC only increased 4% and MSNBC was up 87%. (This was also reflected in total day where CNN grew the most among 25-54, up 97%, while FNC declined -16% and MSNBC was up 94%.)

CNN.com delivered the largest daily audience in its history with 30 million unique visitors on Election Day, more than doubling the previous record of 13.4 million generated on Super Tuesday of this year.

CNN.com Live, the Internet's only multi-stream, live video news service, smashed previous records by serving 5.3 million live streams on Election Day. The number of live video streams served by CNN.com on Election Day is nearly triple that of its previous daily streaming record, which was set on September 1, 2008 - the first day of the RNC and the day Hurricane Gustav made landfall. CNN.com also served an additional 6.8 million on-demand video streams on Nov. 4.

CNN.com generated 282.5 million page views, also marking the highest day in the site's history and more than doubling its previous record of 103.2 million page views from Super Tuesday of this year. On Election Day, CNN.com's traffic peaked during the 9pm ET hour with 35.6 million page views. CNNPolitics.com also saw record-breaking traffic on Election Day, generating 30.1 million page views - a 43% increase over its previous record. Furthermore, CNN.com's special Election Section alone generated 103.2 million page views. The Political Ticker, the No. 1 political news blog according to Nielsen Online, generated 8.7 million page views, scoring its second best day ever. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, global)


Election Night 2008
8p-11p P2+ P18-34 P18-49 P25-54
CNN 12.292 3.374 6.512 5.817
FXNC 9.027 1.823 4.042 3.922
MSNBC 5.888 1.382 2.672 2.662

Election Night 2008
7p-1a P2+ P18-34 P18-49 P25-54
CNN 11.940 3.517 6.575 5.826
FXNC 7.516 1.518 3.333 3.246
MSNBC 5.821 1.495 2.803 2.635

Photo: E.M. Pio Roda/CNN

CNN Press Release - On Election Day, CNN.com broke traffic records across several metrics, including unique visitors, page views and live video streams.

With 30 million unique visitors, CNN.com attracted the largest daily audience in its history, more than doubling the previous record of 13.4 million generated on Super Tuesday of this year.

CNN.com generated a remarkable 282.5 million page views, also marking the highest day in the site's history and more than doubling its previous record of 103.2 million page views from Super Tuesday of this year. On Election Day, CNN.com's traffic peaked during the 9pm ET hour with 35.6 million page views.

CNN.com Live, the Internet's only multi-stream, live video news service smashed previous records by serving 5.3 million live streams on Election Day. The number of live video streams served by CNN.com on Election Day is nearly triple that of its previous daily streaming record, which was set on September 1, 2008 - the first day of the RNC and the day Hurricane Gustav made landfall. CNN.com also served an additional 6.8 million on-demand video streams on Nov. 4.

CNNPolitics.com also saw record-breaking traffic on Election Day, generating 30.1 million page views - a 43 percent increase over its pervious record. Furthermore, CNN.com's special Election Section alone generated 103.2 million page views.

The Political Ticker, the No. 1 political news blog according to Nielsen Online, generated 8.7 million page views, scoring its second best day ever.

(Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, global)

CNN Press Release - Frequent CNN guest, Stephen F. Hayes, has made it official by signing on with the network as a political contributor. Currently a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, Hayes will appear on the full line-up of CNN programming as part of the network’s ideologically diverse group of analysts and contributors.

Hayes has a long history of reporting on the political world. In addition to his work with The Weekly Standard, Hayes’ writings have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Reason and many other publications. Most recently, Hayes wrote Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, a biography of Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Steve is a well-respected and knowledgeable journalist who already has become a natural part of CNN’s political coverage,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s political director. “As part of the ‘Best Political Team on Television,’ Steve will help CNN in its commitment to go beyond political spin and present viewers with the most in-depth and bipartisan insights.”

Prior to joining The Weekly Standard, Hayes served as a senior writer for National Journal’s Hotline. Previously, he spent six years as director of the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University. A native of Wisconsin, Hayes graduated from DePauw University and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source 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; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

CNN Press Release - One day out from Election Day, more than 27,000 Americans already have dialed into CNN’s Voter Hotline about voting concerns and irregularities. The crews managing the phones and the CNN “go-teams” investigating complaints are just getting started. By election’s end, CNN expects to field tens of thousands of calls through the hotline.

“Our goal in setting up the CNN Voter Hotline was to establish a simple and reliable destination for voters to report information about problems at the polls,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s political director. “In just two weeks, thousands of Americans have called the hotline and CNN has dispatched reporters across the country to follow up on these reports.”

Working with InfoVoter Technologies, CNN launched the hotline - 877.GOCNN08 (877.462.6608) – two weeks ago. To date, voters from Georgia, Florida, Washington D.C., West Virginia and Nevada account for the largest number of calls in proportion to their population. Registration issues rank as the highest number of complaints – 36 percent of the calls - followed by problems with absentee ballots, vote integrity, poll access and voting machines.

From Hotline calls, InfoVoter Technologies employees collect the data and code the problems according to categories, such as faulty machines, abnormally high numbers of voters, voter suppression or voter fraud. The hotline also directs callers to their correct polling location and, if necessary, transfers voters directly to local and state election boards.

From there the information goes to CNN, where producers and reporters examine patterns and major complaints to determine whether the network needs to follow-up with more extensive reports.

On Election Day itself, CNN will assemble “go teams” of correspondents and producers who will report on breaking election news and voting irregularities. Throughout the day, chief business correspondent Ali Velshi will anchor reports on voting irregularities from the “go teams,” and legal experts will track and analyze such issues across the country. Correspondent Carol Costello will be part of the teams tracking and analyzing such issues across the country. On air, viewers will see a map that highlights irregularities across the country. Online, CNN.com users can zero in on specific counties in each state experiencing the largest number of Election Day complaints, as well as the most commonly occurring type of problems.