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Kerry Naming Some of Possible Choices for Pentagon Chief, Including Two Republicans

Aired May 12, 2004 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. First, the headlines.
The United States is vowing to hunt down and punish the killers of Nicholas Berg. The 26-year-old Pennsylvania man was beheaded on a videotape posted to an al Qaeda-linked Web site. His body is expected to be returned to the U.S. today.

Greek police and soldiers are holding a four-day security drill this week before the Summer Olympic Athens Games begin. The train includes terrorist and hostage scenarios. Greece is spending over $1 billion to make the summer games safe.

Kobe Bryant has entered a not guilty plea to charges of sexual assault. A trial is expected to begin in August. The L.A. Laker admits to sex with a 19-year-old hotel worker last summer. He claims the sex was consensual.

The Cannes Film Festival opens today on the French Riviera. Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron are among the stars attending.

Amid all the problems in Iraq and calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, Democrat John Kerry is naming some of his possible choices for Pentagon chief. INSIDE POLITICS anchor Judy Woodruff has the campaign headlines for us from Washington. Judy, good morning.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Daryn. Thank you.

Senator Kerry saying there are a number of people he would consider as defense secretary. Of the three he named, specifically two are Republicans. During an interview with radio's Don Imus today, Kerry named three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee as potential leaders, Republicans John McCain and John Warner and Democrat Carl Levin.

Because he was on the campaign trail, John Kerry was the only senator not to vote yesterday on a measure to extend federal unemployment benefits. The amendment failed by one vote. The Bush campaign was quick to accuse Kerry of being too busy to cast a key vote for his party. Kerry later accused Republican senators of timing and engineering the vote count in an attempt to embarrass him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were told that no matter what would happen, they would change the vote in the Senate and they were not going to let it happen. So it's not really a one-vote margin, it's a multiple vote margin because they don't want it to happen. And it was very clear even if it passed the Senate, they're not going to pass it in the House.

If they're willing to reconsider and keep everybody's votes where they are we'll go back and do it. But that's not what they're doing. They're playing a game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Today, Kerry is on the campaign trail in the South. A short time from now, in Orlando, Florida, he holds a town hall meeting on his plan to make health care more affordable. The senator then takes his campaign to Little Rock, Arkansas.

After his trip to Arkansas, President Bush is focusing on affairs of state and on education. This morning, he's meeting with the president of Angola. Later today, he travel to nearby Bethesda, Maryland near Washington to promote his No Child Left Behind Act.

Senators have three hours a little later today to view the latest photos and videos from the Iraqi abuse scandal. This afternoon, I'll talk with some of them live about what they saw.

Plus, former President Clinton speaks out on this year's race for the White House. I'll tell you what advice he's giving the Democrats when I go INSIDE POLITICS at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 Pacific.

Right now, back to Daryn in Atlanta.

KAGAN: Judy, thank you. We actually have more on former President Clinton's book. He's talked about completing his memoir. He did it last night at a fund raiser in New York City. The book is called "My Life." It's about 900 pages long, it'll hit stores in June. Clinton says writing his life story, believe it or not, was not easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been in writer's jail up in Chappaqua. For three months, I have done nothing but try to finish the story of my life.

It was hard enough to live it the first time, it's been awful the second time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Historians expect the book will seek to defend the former president's record and preserve the future political viability of his wife.

It's a warning we've heard over and over again. America is too fat. But is it really? Up next in our "Daily Dose" of health news, you'll meet an author who says there is just too much worry over our waste lines.

And later, are you hankering for "Halo 2," desperate for "Doom 3"? L.A. is the place for you. We're live at the E3 Video Game convention. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A little food for thought for you on this Wednesday morning. A study says the vast majority of food sold in school vending machines is junk. The Center for Science and the Public Interest surveyed more than 1,400 vending machines. They found more than 75 percent of the drinks sold were sugary sodas and juice drinks, 85 percent of the snacks were things like candy, chips and cookie.

We've been hearing about America's obesity epidemic. Dieting has become almost a national obsession. But a new book challenges conventional wisdom about weight and health. The book is called "The Obesity Myth," by columnist and University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos. He's with us in Denver for our "Daily Dose" of health news. Professor, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.

PAUL CAMPOS, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: You say throw out the scale and though out those charts?

CAMPOS: Absolutely. We're obsessed with weight and that obsession is actually quite harmful to our health. And we would be much healthier if we focus open what was important to health, which is lifestyle and being active and eating nutritious food, instead of trying to conform to the government's very false message you have to be thin in order to be healthy.

KAGAN: Making your point, the BMI. We've all heard about what our BMI number should be. You point out some famous people that you say under the BMI standards would be considered obese or overweight. People like Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, Mel Gibson?

CAMPOS: That's right. All those people are overweight or obese according to our public health agencies, including the president, by the way. George W. Bush is overweight according to his own public health authorities, even though he's obviously a quite trim individual who is very physically active and in excellent health.

That's just a typical example of how ridiculous these standards are. And as I demonstrate in the book, they're really quite scientifically baseless. They're no scientific basis for saying people have to have a BMI under 25 to be healthy.

KAGAN: Speaking of the president' people we had Tommy Thompson, the health and human services secretary, right here on this program saying obesity is about to overtake tobacco and smoking as the biggest threat to America's health. Is he wrong?

CAMPOS: He's completely wrong about that. That's a ridiculous statistic. I go into great detail as to why that's completely false. If you look at people who have heavier than average, who are physically active and eat a solid diet, they're just as healthy as thin people who also have good lifestyle habits. And they're far healthier than thin people who have poor lifestyle habits.

So if you take lifestyle into account, weight basically has nothing to do with health. This is all a form of cultural hysteria which is scientifically baseless, and actually based open junk science. Really, the propaganda of the of the weight loss industry.

KAGAN: Well, we do need to point out that you're not a scientist, you're a law professor, as we said off the top. So does that hurt your credibility in making argument?

CAMPOS: Well, actually many doctors and scientists who I interviewed, and of course in researching this book over four years, who I agree with everything that I'm saying, and I quote them extensively in the book, there are a lot of doctors who will tell you the notion that somehow we're suffering some huge health crisis because of obesity is basically false, and that what's especially false is the message that -- for example, the average American woman is supposed to weigh 115 pounds in order to be healthy, something that most people cannot do, and there's no way that they can reduce themselves to the weight that the government says that they ought to reduce themselves to. And in fact, their attempts to reduce themselves to this governmentally approved weight is actually causing many of the health problems which are then being ascribed to obesity and overweight.

KAGAN: So quickly, your message is just eat what you want and doing the bother exercising?

CAMPOS: Absolutely not. It's just the opposite. It's To be physically active, to eat nutritious food, and to not pay attention to these false messages about weight, which when people are being told that if they have a healthy lifestyle, they will be thin, from ten of millions Americans, that's just simply not true. If they have a healthy lifestyle, they still may weigh more than the government says they ought to weigh, but they will be just as healthy as anybody else. But we should be paying attention to the lifestyle, not to BMI figures, which are scientifically baseless and have no justification in terms of the kinds of public health message that we ought to be sending out there.

KAGAN: It is a different message than we've been hearing. Paul Campos, the book is called "The Obesity Myth." Thanks for your time.

CAMPOS: Thank you.

KAGAN: Our daily dose of health news is always just a click away. Log on to CNN.com/health for the latest medical news. There's also a health guide from CNN and the Mayo Clinic.

Gentlemen, start your Xboxes and your Playstations and your Gamecubes. Video game fans have descended on L.A. to peer into the future. Our own Gameboy, Daniel Sieberg, is there. He'll give us a preview, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Gamers of the world, the future is now. The next generation of high-action video games being unveiled right now in Los Angeles. It's the 10th Annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition, or E3, for you cool people, like our Daniel Sieberg, who somehow talked his way into this assignment, to give us a peek at the E3 Expo.

Good morning.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right, we're a little bit about -- about an hour away from the show officially opening here. But for the past couple of days, the media's had a chance to get a preview of what to expect here. In fact, we went to some media briefings for the big three companies in the console world, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. We can tell you what the three of them had to say.

Microsoft talked about its Xbox Live service. They also talked about a game that they have been sort of teasing for a while, and that's "Halo 2," a sequel to one of the most successful games of all time. They had a demo there with some of the game footage. And as well, one of the executives actually had the release date tattooed on his arm, November 9th, is when "Halo 2" is going to be coming out.

Now they also partnered with EA for their online service, so they can have the sports games online. And they had some athletes there to support this as part of EA. They had Muhammad Ali there, along with some other professional athletes, to talk about the partnership between EA and Microsoft. "Madden 2005" being a huge game you're going to be able to play online.

Some other big games from Microsoft as well, including "Fable."

Now we also went to the Sony press conference, a little more subdued at the Sony event, not quite as boisterous as the Microsoft one. They talked about the handheld. The handheld is really becoming a big deal here. They talked about their PSP, or Playstation Portable. You see it there. The idea behind this is it's a portable gaming device, but it's also able to play multimedia files. It's got it's own type of disc, called a universal media disc, which can hold movies, and music and that kind of thing. It will go up against Gameboy and the other handhelds that are out there. I want to tell you about one from Nintendo coming up in a second.

"Grand Tourismo 4," a racing game they talked about as well. A lot of big titles from Sony. They were talking a little bit about their online stuff. "Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal," that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the names of the games.

Now, Nintendo, they are really going to be -- they're pushing the handheld here as well, and they talked about the Nintendo DS. This is still a codename. That means dual screen. You can see it there. The two different screens for a handheld. This is a whole new world for them and for handheld gaming. That's going to be competing with the Sony PSP in the portable gaming world. It's only going to be a game device.

Now of course Nintendo also talking about their popular characters, Mario being the most recognizable of all. "Legends of Zelda," a very big series of games for Nintendo. Quite a big cheer from the fans of Nintendo there when they talked about this "Legends of Zelda" game. "Metroid Prime," a big popular one there as well.

So the handheld market for Sony and Nintendo, they really pitched those, moving forward. The PSP coming out early next year. The Nintendo DS late this year, they're saying -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Daniel, here's what I really want to know -- keep in mind, your bosses and probably your girlfriend are watching. How do you end up at the Playboy Mansion as part of covering the video game conference? This better be good.

SIEBERG: Yes, we squeezed that in. Yes, we did manage to get through the gate of the Playboy Mansion, and that's because Nintendo -- Playboy is coming out with a video game. It's going to be coming out in November. And yes, you do see me playing it there with some bunnies.

We did go to the Playboy Mansion. They had a party there. Hef was in attendance. We talked to him about the game. The idea was you would play as Hugh Hefner and build up your Playboy empire. There would be some photo shoots, as you might imagine. There will be some topless nudity in the game.

KAGAN: No?

SIEBERG: It will be -- surprise, surprise. But they are going to release it about November. It's going to be for PS2, Xbox, and PCs. Of course, the whole idea is just to have a little fun, as well, create your empire. And we didn't create an empire last night, but we did have a little fun. And there will be some visuals in the game. We certainly saw some visuals last night, I can tell you.

KAGAN: But for the record, for Daniel's Girlfriend, you saw his hands were on the video control. Very good.

SIEBERG: Right, yes.

KAGAN: And you're looking straight at the screen, not at the Playboy bunnies behind you. What happened when the camera went off, we don't need to know. What goes on the road stays on the road.

Daniel, thank you. Thank you so much for that. Daniel Sieberg in L.A.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Getting breaking news out of Gaza. Getting word that five Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush. This was when an explosion hit an army vehicle in the southern part of Gaza. An Islamic Jihad group is telling Rueters that it was behind the ambush near Gaza's border with Egypt. Much more on that but an ambush on some Israeli soldiers. Reports of five soldiers dead in that attack. Much more on that ahead.

(WEATHER BREAK)

KAGAN: We do have breaking news coming out of Gaza. An ambush on some Israeli soldiers. Let's go to our Matthew Chance. He is in Gaza with the latest -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. A developing situation coming out of Gaza, where it's been confirmed by the Israeli army that another one of their armored vehicles has been targeted and destroyed by Palestinian militants. This time, in the area of Rafah, which is in the south of the Gaza strip.

We understand from Israeli defense officials that there are casualties, although the Israeli army at this point is not confirming how many casualties and what nature those casualties are at this stage.

However, Palestinian eyewitnesses on the ground in Rafah, which is about 45 kilometers or 30 miles from the center of Gaza City, are saying that they see at least five bodies on the ground, which they believe to be dead bodies. Although we must stress at this stage that figure is not confirmed as the number of Israelis who may have been killed in this attack.

Palestinian security forces, though, saying that they've received information that the group was responsible for this attack, has named itself as the Popular Resistance Committee. That's an umbrella organization that brings in all the main Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, all operating under this popular banner, the Resistance Committee.

At this stage, unconfirmed reports saying that they have claimed responsibility for this attack. And if there are five Israelis dead that would bring to 11 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in the past two days. Back to you.

KAGAN: Matthew, with the earlier attacks on the other Israeli soldiers there were reports that the bodies were being held for ransom. Anything updated on that?

CHANCE: There's been fierce confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in this part of Gaza City, just to the north of where this latest attack has apparently taken place in the Zaytun neighborhood. in fact, this a very densely populated neighborhood.

Israeli forces lost six of their soldiers there when their armored personnel carrier was attacked by -- was blown up by a Palestinian-planted explosive device. The body parts, the remains of those soldiers are being held by various Palestinian militant factions. They've presented videos to media organizers in Gaza, saying they'll only hand back the body parts when certain conditions have been met by Israelis.

One of those conditions at this stage being that Israel withdraw from the Zaytun neighborhood before they'll talk about handing those remains back.

KAGAN: Matthew Chance with the latest on the breaking news story from Gaza. Thank you for that.

That will do it for us. Our two hours together have come to a close.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired May 12, 2004 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. First, the headlines.
The United States is vowing to hunt down and punish the killers of Nicholas Berg. The 26-year-old Pennsylvania man was beheaded on a videotape posted to an al Qaeda-linked Web site. His body is expected to be returned to the U.S. today.

Greek police and soldiers are holding a four-day security drill this week before the Summer Olympic Athens Games begin. The train includes terrorist and hostage scenarios. Greece is spending over $1 billion to make the summer games safe.

Kobe Bryant has entered a not guilty plea to charges of sexual assault. A trial is expected to begin in August. The L.A. Laker admits to sex with a 19-year-old hotel worker last summer. He claims the sex was consensual.

The Cannes Film Festival opens today on the French Riviera. Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron are among the stars attending.

Amid all the problems in Iraq and calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation, Democrat John Kerry is naming some of his possible choices for Pentagon chief. INSIDE POLITICS anchor Judy Woodruff has the campaign headlines for us from Washington. Judy, good morning.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Daryn. Thank you.

Senator Kerry saying there are a number of people he would consider as defense secretary. Of the three he named, specifically two are Republicans. During an interview with radio's Don Imus today, Kerry named three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee as potential leaders, Republicans John McCain and John Warner and Democrat Carl Levin.

Because he was on the campaign trail, John Kerry was the only senator not to vote yesterday on a measure to extend federal unemployment benefits. The amendment failed by one vote. The Bush campaign was quick to accuse Kerry of being too busy to cast a key vote for his party. Kerry later accused Republican senators of timing and engineering the vote count in an attempt to embarrass him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were told that no matter what would happen, they would change the vote in the Senate and they were not going to let it happen. So it's not really a one-vote margin, it's a multiple vote margin because they don't want it to happen. And it was very clear even if it passed the Senate, they're not going to pass it in the House.

If they're willing to reconsider and keep everybody's votes where they are we'll go back and do it. But that's not what they're doing. They're playing a game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: Today, Kerry is on the campaign trail in the South. A short time from now, in Orlando, Florida, he holds a town hall meeting on his plan to make health care more affordable. The senator then takes his campaign to Little Rock, Arkansas.

After his trip to Arkansas, President Bush is focusing on affairs of state and on education. This morning, he's meeting with the president of Angola. Later today, he travel to nearby Bethesda, Maryland near Washington to promote his No Child Left Behind Act.

Senators have three hours a little later today to view the latest photos and videos from the Iraqi abuse scandal. This afternoon, I'll talk with some of them live about what they saw.

Plus, former President Clinton speaks out on this year's race for the White House. I'll tell you what advice he's giving the Democrats when I go INSIDE POLITICS at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 Pacific.

Right now, back to Daryn in Atlanta.

KAGAN: Judy, thank you. We actually have more on former President Clinton's book. He's talked about completing his memoir. He did it last night at a fund raiser in New York City. The book is called "My Life." It's about 900 pages long, it'll hit stores in June. Clinton says writing his life story, believe it or not, was not easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FRM. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been in writer's jail up in Chappaqua. For three months, I have done nothing but try to finish the story of my life.

It was hard enough to live it the first time, it's been awful the second time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Historians expect the book will seek to defend the former president's record and preserve the future political viability of his wife.

It's a warning we've heard over and over again. America is too fat. But is it really? Up next in our "Daily Dose" of health news, you'll meet an author who says there is just too much worry over our waste lines.

And later, are you hankering for "Halo 2," desperate for "Doom 3"? L.A. is the place for you. We're live at the E3 Video Game convention. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A little food for thought for you on this Wednesday morning. A study says the vast majority of food sold in school vending machines is junk. The Center for Science and the Public Interest surveyed more than 1,400 vending machines. They found more than 75 percent of the drinks sold were sugary sodas and juice drinks, 85 percent of the snacks were things like candy, chips and cookie.

We've been hearing about America's obesity epidemic. Dieting has become almost a national obsession. But a new book challenges conventional wisdom about weight and health. The book is called "The Obesity Myth," by columnist and University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos. He's with us in Denver for our "Daily Dose" of health news. Professor, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.

PAUL CAMPOS, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: You say throw out the scale and though out those charts?

CAMPOS: Absolutely. We're obsessed with weight and that obsession is actually quite harmful to our health. And we would be much healthier if we focus open what was important to health, which is lifestyle and being active and eating nutritious food, instead of trying to conform to the government's very false message you have to be thin in order to be healthy.

KAGAN: Making your point, the BMI. We've all heard about what our BMI number should be. You point out some famous people that you say under the BMI standards would be considered obese or overweight. People like Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, Mel Gibson?

CAMPOS: That's right. All those people are overweight or obese according to our public health agencies, including the president, by the way. George W. Bush is overweight according to his own public health authorities, even though he's obviously a quite trim individual who is very physically active and in excellent health.

That's just a typical example of how ridiculous these standards are. And as I demonstrate in the book, they're really quite scientifically baseless. They're no scientific basis for saying people have to have a BMI under 25 to be healthy.

KAGAN: Speaking of the president' people we had Tommy Thompson, the health and human services secretary, right here on this program saying obesity is about to overtake tobacco and smoking as the biggest threat to America's health. Is he wrong?

CAMPOS: He's completely wrong about that. That's a ridiculous statistic. I go into great detail as to why that's completely false. If you look at people who have heavier than average, who are physically active and eat a solid diet, they're just as healthy as thin people who also have good lifestyle habits. And they're far healthier than thin people who have poor lifestyle habits.

So if you take lifestyle into account, weight basically has nothing to do with health. This is all a form of cultural hysteria which is scientifically baseless, and actually based open junk science. Really, the propaganda of the of the weight loss industry.

KAGAN: Well, we do need to point out that you're not a scientist, you're a law professor, as we said off the top. So does that hurt your credibility in making argument?

CAMPOS: Well, actually many doctors and scientists who I interviewed, and of course in researching this book over four years, who I agree with everything that I'm saying, and I quote them extensively in the book, there are a lot of doctors who will tell you the notion that somehow we're suffering some huge health crisis because of obesity is basically false, and that what's especially false is the message that -- for example, the average American woman is supposed to weigh 115 pounds in order to be healthy, something that most people cannot do, and there's no way that they can reduce themselves to the weight that the government says that they ought to reduce themselves to. And in fact, their attempts to reduce themselves to this governmentally approved weight is actually causing many of the health problems which are then being ascribed to obesity and overweight.

KAGAN: So quickly, your message is just eat what you want and doing the bother exercising?

CAMPOS: Absolutely not. It's just the opposite. It's To be physically active, to eat nutritious food, and to not pay attention to these false messages about weight, which when people are being told that if they have a healthy lifestyle, they will be thin, from ten of millions Americans, that's just simply not true. If they have a healthy lifestyle, they still may weigh more than the government says they ought to weigh, but they will be just as healthy as anybody else. But we should be paying attention to the lifestyle, not to BMI figures, which are scientifically baseless and have no justification in terms of the kinds of public health message that we ought to be sending out there.

KAGAN: It is a different message than we've been hearing. Paul Campos, the book is called "The Obesity Myth." Thanks for your time.

CAMPOS: Thank you.

KAGAN: Our daily dose of health news is always just a click away. Log on to CNN.com/health for the latest medical news. There's also a health guide from CNN and the Mayo Clinic.

Gentlemen, start your Xboxes and your Playstations and your Gamecubes. Video game fans have descended on L.A. to peer into the future. Our own Gameboy, Daniel Sieberg, is there. He'll give us a preview, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Gamers of the world, the future is now. The next generation of high-action video games being unveiled right now in Los Angeles. It's the 10th Annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition, or E3, for you cool people, like our Daniel Sieberg, who somehow talked his way into this assignment, to give us a peek at the E3 Expo.

Good morning.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right, we're a little bit about -- about an hour away from the show officially opening here. But for the past couple of days, the media's had a chance to get a preview of what to expect here. In fact, we went to some media briefings for the big three companies in the console world, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. We can tell you what the three of them had to say.

Microsoft talked about its Xbox Live service. They also talked about a game that they have been sort of teasing for a while, and that's "Halo 2," a sequel to one of the most successful games of all time. They had a demo there with some of the game footage. And as well, one of the executives actually had the release date tattooed on his arm, November 9th, is when "Halo 2" is going to be coming out.

Now they also partnered with EA for their online service, so they can have the sports games online. And they had some athletes there to support this as part of EA. They had Muhammad Ali there, along with some other professional athletes, to talk about the partnership between EA and Microsoft. "Madden 2005" being a huge game you're going to be able to play online.

Some other big games from Microsoft as well, including "Fable."

Now we also went to the Sony press conference, a little more subdued at the Sony event, not quite as boisterous as the Microsoft one. They talked about the handheld. The handheld is really becoming a big deal here. They talked about their PSP, or Playstation Portable. You see it there. The idea behind this is it's a portable gaming device, but it's also able to play multimedia files. It's got it's own type of disc, called a universal media disc, which can hold movies, and music and that kind of thing. It will go up against Gameboy and the other handhelds that are out there. I want to tell you about one from Nintendo coming up in a second.

"Grand Tourismo 4," a racing game they talked about as well. A lot of big titles from Sony. They were talking a little bit about their online stuff. "Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal," that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the names of the games.

Now, Nintendo, they are really going to be -- they're pushing the handheld here as well, and they talked about the Nintendo DS. This is still a codename. That means dual screen. You can see it there. The two different screens for a handheld. This is a whole new world for them and for handheld gaming. That's going to be competing with the Sony PSP in the portable gaming world. It's only going to be a game device.

Now of course Nintendo also talking about their popular characters, Mario being the most recognizable of all. "Legends of Zelda," a very big series of games for Nintendo. Quite a big cheer from the fans of Nintendo there when they talked about this "Legends of Zelda" game. "Metroid Prime," a big popular one there as well.

So the handheld market for Sony and Nintendo, they really pitched those, moving forward. The PSP coming out early next year. The Nintendo DS late this year, they're saying -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Daniel, here's what I really want to know -- keep in mind, your bosses and probably your girlfriend are watching. How do you end up at the Playboy Mansion as part of covering the video game conference? This better be good.

SIEBERG: Yes, we squeezed that in. Yes, we did manage to get through the gate of the Playboy Mansion, and that's because Nintendo -- Playboy is coming out with a video game. It's going to be coming out in November. And yes, you do see me playing it there with some bunnies.

We did go to the Playboy Mansion. They had a party there. Hef was in attendance. We talked to him about the game. The idea was you would play as Hugh Hefner and build up your Playboy empire. There would be some photo shoots, as you might imagine. There will be some topless nudity in the game.

KAGAN: No?

SIEBERG: It will be -- surprise, surprise. But they are going to release it about November. It's going to be for PS2, Xbox, and PCs. Of course, the whole idea is just to have a little fun, as well, create your empire. And we didn't create an empire last night, but we did have a little fun. And there will be some visuals in the game. We certainly saw some visuals last night, I can tell you.

KAGAN: But for the record, for Daniel's Girlfriend, you saw his hands were on the video control. Very good.

SIEBERG: Right, yes.

KAGAN: And you're looking straight at the screen, not at the Playboy bunnies behind you. What happened when the camera went off, we don't need to know. What goes on the road stays on the road.

Daniel, thank you. Thank you so much for that. Daniel Sieberg in L.A.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Getting breaking news out of Gaza. Getting word that five Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush. This was when an explosion hit an army vehicle in the southern part of Gaza. An Islamic Jihad group is telling Rueters that it was behind the ambush near Gaza's border with Egypt. Much more on that but an ambush on some Israeli soldiers. Reports of five soldiers dead in that attack. Much more on that ahead.

(WEATHER BREAK)

KAGAN: We do have breaking news coming out of Gaza. An ambush on some Israeli soldiers. Let's go to our Matthew Chance. He is in Gaza with the latest -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. A developing situation coming out of Gaza, where it's been confirmed by the Israeli army that another one of their armored vehicles has been targeted and destroyed by Palestinian militants. This time, in the area of Rafah, which is in the south of the Gaza strip.

We understand from Israeli defense officials that there are casualties, although the Israeli army at this point is not confirming how many casualties and what nature those casualties are at this stage.

However, Palestinian eyewitnesses on the ground in Rafah, which is about 45 kilometers or 30 miles from the center of Gaza City, are saying that they see at least five bodies on the ground, which they believe to be dead bodies. Although we must stress at this stage that figure is not confirmed as the number of Israelis who may have been killed in this attack.

Palestinian security forces, though, saying that they've received information that the group was responsible for this attack, has named itself as the Popular Resistance Committee. That's an umbrella organization that brings in all the main Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, all operating under this popular banner, the Resistance Committee.

At this stage, unconfirmed reports saying that they have claimed responsibility for this attack. And if there are five Israelis dead that would bring to 11 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza in the past two days. Back to you.

KAGAN: Matthew, with the earlier attacks on the other Israeli soldiers there were reports that the bodies were being held for ransom. Anything updated on that?

CHANCE: There's been fierce confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in this part of Gaza City, just to the north of where this latest attack has apparently taken place in the Zaytun neighborhood. in fact, this a very densely populated neighborhood.

Israeli forces lost six of their soldiers there when their armored personnel carrier was attacked by -- was blown up by a Palestinian-planted explosive device. The body parts, the remains of those soldiers are being held by various Palestinian militant factions. They've presented videos to media organizers in Gaza, saying they'll only hand back the body parts when certain conditions have been met by Israelis.

One of those conditions at this stage being that Israel withdraw from the Zaytun neighborhood before they'll talk about handing those remains back.

KAGAN: Matthew Chance with the latest on the breaking news story from Gaza. Thank you for that.

That will do it for us. Our two hours together have come to a close.

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