Preview -- World News Tonight 02/16/01
N E W Y O R K, Feb. 16 -- Peter Jennings is off today and has asked Senior Producer Stu Schutzman to fill you in on today's news from New York.
Good afternoon.
U.S. and British warplanes struck Iraq today. This afternoon's attack, the first near the capital of Baghdad in three years, was intended to weaken Iraqi air defenses. The Pentagon said sophisticated Iraqi radar was becoming more of a threat to American aircraft which, since the end of the Gulf War, regularly patrol the "no-fly" zones. Is this an indication of new U.S. policy on Iraq? National Security correspondent John McWethy has the details. President Bush authorized the strike Thursday before he left for Mexico on his first foreign trip. White House correspondent Terry Moran has the president's reaction from Mexico where he is meeting with Mexican counterpart Vincente Fox.
Neal Karlinsky has been standing by all day for the Navy's first report on the collision between a U.S. Navy submarine and a Japanese fishing boat off the coast of Hawaii. There's a suspicion they will say there was no mechanical error. Hopefully we'll know more by broadcast.
And one of the most famous — and sensational — murder cases in history has been reopened. It's been more than 35 years since the Boston Strangler killed 13 women, plunging the entire city into a state of terror. Albert DeSalvo confessed to the murders one year later, but one victim's family is convinced he is not the real killer. If DeSalvo was not the Boston Strangler — then who was? Morton Dean brings us this fascinating and frightening story tonight from Boston.
And finally tonight: cats. No, not the Broadway show and not the kitty out on the front porch. Texan cats. Texans increasingly have taken a liking to big cats as pets, and by big, we mean tiger-big. After India, the state of Texas now has the world's second-largest tiger population, and many of them are kept as backyard pets. (Imagine playing Frisbee with a Bengal Tiger in the back yard.) It's perfectly legal, but as you know, tigers act a little differently than most pet cats. For one, they're awfully difficult to housetrain. Mike Von Fremd reports on the pros and cons of the biggest game in Texas.
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