Preview -- World News Tonight 07/09/01

July 9 -- Good Afternoon.

We'll start tonight with America in debt. A report today finds stunning evidence that U.S. consumers are more deeply in debt than ever.

They owe $1.6 trillion — an all-time high; credit card debt alone spiked by more than 5 percent in the last month. The American consumer has been the engine driving the robust national economy for so many years; such crippling debt means the engine may stall.

At the same time, there is news that 401(k) retirement accounts lost money last year. That's never happened before. So on this midsummer day, a one-two punch for the American pocketbook, and the economy in general. Betsy Stark reports on that mountain of debt; then Bob Jamieson covers the 401(k) news.

In other news today, road blocks in the investigation into the attack on the USS Cole, the looming decision on stem-cell research and a suicide bomber captured on tape. And what a day at The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. Goran Ivanisevic was ranked 125 in the world coming into this year's Wimbledon Championships; he needed a "wild card" just to get into the tournament. Today he completed a remarkable comeback, in a remarkable five-set match. And then he jumped into the crowd. We'll have that.

Also tonight, we begin a two-day series on supply and demand and human organs. Tonight, the international traffic in human kidneys. It's a story that takes us from Los Angeles to Jerusalem, from Baghdad to a small village in Moldova. Gillian Findlay has been working on this for some time, and as she reports tonight, while the sale of kidneys is illegal in most parts of the world, it is happening almost everywhere you look. And there are respected doctors who believe the traffic should be legalized. This is a fascinating and highly complex issue. And it's our Closer Look tonight.

Then our final report — which is part domestic news, part foreign story. Technically, the dateline is Seattle. But as correspondent Neal Karlinsky explains, the phenomenon of Suzuki & Sasaki (right-fielder and relief pitcher, respectively, for the Seattle Mariners) is a Tokyo story, too. The two of them have engineered a phenomenal turnaround for the Mariners, and created sleep deprivation for many fans in Japan. And Suzuki & Sasaki will be two of Seattle's eight representatives at tomorrow's Major League All-Star Game.