CNN.com - Transcripts

Transcript Providers

Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

More Wildfire Evacuations in California; Last Filipino Troops To Leave Iraq Today

Aired July 19, 2004 - 05:30 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.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Growing wildfires have led to more evacuations in California. In Santa Clarita, shifting winds forced nearly 600 more homes to be evacuated. That brings the total to more than 1,600 families that have been displaced by the fire. Meanwhile, firefighters have gained the upper hand on the blaze that threatened dozen of homes in Nevada. That's a little bit of good news.
Here is CNN's Ted Rowlands in Carson City.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Despite having the upper hand, firefighters say they're still very concerned about the possibility of the fire coming back to threaten more homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we're not letting our guard down. This fire could come right back out of this canyon again and sweep right through, burn what it's already burned.

ROWLANDS: Crews spent the day checking wind speeds and hosing down areas around structures. And 16 homes have been burned to the ground in what many firefighters say is one of the worst fires in the state's history.

DAWN ANDONE, FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: This is one of the nastiest that we've had in many, many years, especially with the homes burning. That's kind of a new experience for us in this area.

ROWLANDS: People who live in the threatened areas have been allowed back, many of them came home to see that fire had come within just a few feet of their homes. Firefighters say they got a major break when the wind shifted late Friday and they are confident that they will have this fire fully contained by early next week.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Carson City, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And for more on the California wildfires, be sure to log on to CNN.com. There you'll find more on the causes of the fires and the efforts under way to save several neighborhoods. All that and much more at CNN.com.

The acting director of the CIA says he thinks a national intelligence director is unnecessary. It would be a cabinet level post. That's one recommendation in the final report of the 9/11 Commission. Acting director John McLaughlin says intelligence agencies have already made changes to better protect the country from terrorism. But, McLaughlin adds, the commission's report deserves a close look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: The idea of a czar to oversee the entire intelligence community, a good argument can be made for that. It doesn't relate particularly to the world I live in. I see the director of central intelligence as someone who is able to do that and empowered to do so under the National Security Act of 1947. So I think with some modest changes in the way the CIA is set up, the director of central intelligence could carry out that function well and appropriately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The final report of the 9/11 Commission is expected to be made public on Thursday.

Now shifting overseas, the commander of Filipino troops in Iraq arrived home in Manila this morning and the remaining members of his small contingent will be leaving Iraq today. This pullout meets the deadline of kidnappers who had threatened to kill a Filipino hostage in Iraq.

Live now to Manila and CNN's Maria Ressa.

What's the latest -- Maria?

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, even as we speak right now, the last of the Filipino contingent, this group of 51 non- combat soldiers and police, they are now driving out of Iraq towards Kuwait where they will stay in transit until they take commercial flights back to the Philippines.

As you said, very early on Monday morning, the head of the contingent arrived in Manila. All this appeases the demands of the kidnappers of a Filipino truck driver, 46-year-old Angelo de la Cruz. There's been no word yet about his state or when or if he will be released soon after. But the kidnapper's demand is that he will be released -- the kidnappers say they will release him as soon as the last Filipino soldier is out of Iraq -- Betty.

NGUYEN: What kind of response are the officials in the Philippines getting from the rest of the world, because much of the world was not happy with the fact that they met the demands of these hostage takers?

RESSA: Absolutely. In Iraq over the weekend, the Iraqi government said that it was -- quote -- "a bad precedent." That was echoed by the United States.

At the same time, many critics have said, have warned of the fact that the Philippines is now seen as a country that will be vulnerable to more terrorist demands. In fact, that's just been tested. In March, two Filipino soldiers were kidnapped by communist rebels, now a demand for the Philippines to negotiate with them. The Philippine military says it will not negotiate for the release of these two soldiers, despite the fact that their families have made a personal appeal to President Arroyo. Now other groups are testing the waters, will the Philippines once again give in to kidnapper's demands -- Betty.

NGUYEN: You know back to the truck driver being held hostage, we don't know when or where he will be released. Is there any guarantee that this will happen now that the Philippines have met its end of the bargain?

RESSA: There's no guarantee, except for the kidnapper's word, and the fact that they say they are going to do it, part of the reason there is cautious optimism here in the Philippines.

In the streets of Manila, the people we speak with say they believe this is the right move. Certainly the Philippine government says that this is the right move for the country's national interest. However, this is not the first time that there has been word that the -- that the Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz is safe. As you recall over the weekend, there was -- there was word that he had already been released. All of that, of course, not true. Now until there is word from the Philippine government, the family continues to wait, hoping for the best -- Betty.

NGUYEN: And so does much of the world. OK, Maria Ressa, thank you very much for that report.

And in Iraq today, nine people were killed when a suicide truck bomber struck a police station in southern Baghdad. Our Michael Holmes tells us 60 people also were injured in today's bombing. Many of the 60 are in critical condition. The attack was the latest on Iraq's security offices.

A U.S. air strike targeted militants in Fallujah. The office of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi says he gave approval for that attack. Fourteen people were killed. The U.S. military says fighters from outside Iraq were in the house at the time. Some residents say only civilians were there.

Prime Minister Allawi is himself in the crosshairs. A statement on an Islamic Web site is offering a $280,000 reward for killing the Iraqi leader. The statement calls him an American stooge and adds that a militant group has been ordered to kill him and other Iraqi leaders.

Chaos in Gaza with young Palestinians in revolt against Yasser Arafat. Palestinians are fighting Palestinians. Three people have been killed or have been wounded in the latest clash. Protestors are marching in the streets, burning Palestinian government offices. Top Palestinian officials are trying to resign but their resignations are not being accepted.

We want to go live to sort all of this out to CNN's Alessio Vinci in Jerusalem. It has been a difficult few days.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very hard, indeed, for Chairman Arafat, Betty. This time the Palestinian cabinet is meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

And we do not know whether the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is again going to offer his resignations for the third time in as many days. Chairman Arafat has rejected those resignations twice already before, Saturday and Sunday, and we do not know whether he is going to tender those resignations as promised again today. But we do know from Palestinian officials is that should indeed Mr. Qorei offer his resignations again, Mr. Arafat will no longer be able to turn them down.

All of this, of course, in response to the latest violence in the last two days in the Gaza Strip with militants and members of Arafat's own Fatah movement taken to the streets, protesting a series of new appointments within the security structure of the Palestinian Authority.

About 1,000 demonstrators, many of them armed and wearing masks, attacked first a police station in the town of Hamunis (ph), burning it to the ground. And then later on in the day, they surrounded the headquarters of the Palestinian intelligence in Rafah, clashing there with police officers held up inside. Ten people have been wounded as a result of those attacks.

Now this latest round of violence began after Mr. Arafat on Saturday appointed a new police chief and as well as a new head of the Palestinian national security. But among those appointments, there is Arafat's own nephew, and therefore, sparking a lot of doubts within the Palestinian society and those professing there of the true natures of these reforms that have been demanded by the international community as well as many people within the Palestinian Authority itself.

One Palestinian we heard, many Palestinians saying that basically this new appointment meant that Arafat replaced corruption with more corruption. Therefore, there is a big doubt about whether Mr. Arafat is really intention about reforming the Palestinian Authority, and especially the security services that have been giving him so much a strong grip on power in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank.

Back to you -- Betty.

NGUYEN: A lot of instability in that region. Let's get back to Qorei, speaking of that instability, is it important for him to remain as the prime minister to show unified support?

VINCI: No. Mr. Qorei, as a matter of fact, is saying that because of this violence, that this violence -- this violence is a result of the fact that he has -- does not have the power to control the situation, especially in Gaza and portions of the West Bank as well. He needs an empowered interior ministry. He needs to be able to control the security services. Mr. Arafat has promised to consolidate, if you want, the 12 or more security services currently existing within the Palestinian Authority into three main branches. But they are still appointing at the head of those branches people who are loyal to him and not to the prime minister and those who want to push ahead with reforms. And therefore, the prime minister basically standing Chairman Arafat either you give me the power to move ahead with these reforms or I'm going to quit.

So Mr. -- the Mr. Qorei, the Prime Minister, basically sending a very clear message, not just to Mr. Arafat, but also to the international community, that he is trying to do his job. But without power, without being able to control the security services is very, very difficult to push ahead with reforms. And as you can see, as you can imagine, it is impossible to even consider slightly reforms when in the streets of Gaza you have Palestinians fighting Palestinians. It's very difficult, very hard indeed for him -- Betty.

NGUYEN: A lot of violence and a huge power struggle. Alessio Vinci, thank you very much.

On the campaign trail today, President Bush spends the day at the White House taking care of some official diplomatic business. But Vice President Cheney takes to the stumping Columbia, Missouri. He later travels to Toledo, Ohio to deliver remarks about health care costs.

And the Kerry-Edwards campaign begins what they call blazing America's freedom trail. The Democratic duo and their wives will be crisscrossing the country this week attending events that showcase state Democratic delegations. All this leads up to next Monday when Kerry and Edwards arrive in Boston for the Democratic National Convention.

And that upcoming event in Boston prompted senior political analyst Bill Schneider to do a little number crunching, numbers like 2008 and 2012 and figuring what happens then. And then he is factoring in some names too, names like Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): John Edwards now becomes the alternative to Hillary Clinton as the future Democratic standard bearer. After all, they've both been certified for the job. She by a democratic president...

GOV. BILL CLINTON (D), ARKANSAS: Two for the price of one.

SCHNEIDER: And he by a Democratic would-be president.

KERRY: John Edwards is ready for this job.

SCHNEIDER: Watch Democrats who are nervous about having Hillary at the top of the ticket begin to gravitate towards Edwards, particularly in the South.

Does Hillary have higher ambitions? She made a pledge to New Yorkers in her Senate campaign...

HILLARY CLINTON, FIRST LADY: I am going to serve my six-year term as senator. I owe it to the people of New York.

SCHNEIDER: Her term ends in 2006.

If Kerry loses this year, the showdown between Edwards and Clinton could come in 2008. As the vice-presidential candidate on a losing ticket, however, Edwards' stature may be diminished.

Suppose Kerry gets elected for two terms. Then Edwards becomes the instant favorite to head the ticket in 2012. Elected vice presidents have a claim on party loyalty and nearly always get their party's nomination: Nixon in 1960, Humphrey in 1968, Mondale in 1984, Bush in 1988, Gore in 2000.

If Kerry wins this year and then loses in 2008, it sets up a wide open contest in 2012.

Hillary's supporters are ready. They were outraged to hear that she would not have a speaking role at the Democratic convention in Boston. The former chairwoman of the New York Democratic Party called it "a slap in the face for every woman in the Democratic Party."

Party leaders did not want a floor demonstration with signs saying, "Let Hillary speak."

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: She is going to be on stage on Monday night. She and other senators collectively agreed which woman senator they wanted to speak.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Listen carefully to what Senator Clinton says next Monday night and what John Edwards says on Wednesday night. You could hear the beginning of the next Democratic debate.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Very interesting.

Well it seems parts of the U.S. may be facing the eye of a serious storm. Ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK, why scientists think current weather conditions will determine when and where a hurricane will strike.

But first, see how a revolutionary new treatment is working to save kids with cancer.

This is DAYBREAK for Monday, July 19.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well good morning. Your news, weather and sports and a little bit of money. We're going to talk about all of that. The time right now is 5:45 Eastern. Here is what's new this morning. Police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are looking for more than 20 teachers who fled their burning school building on Friday. Ninety children died in that fire. Some residents and officials say many teachers abandoned the school when the fire started.

Here is news for people at high risk of Alzheimer's. A new study shows a new drug can delay Alzheimer's for about a half a year for those with mild memory problems. The drug is trademarked under the name Ariset (ph).

In money, a published report says about 2,000 people worldwide will lose their jobs in the merger of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group. Reuters says the merger will save up to $360 million for the companies.

In culture, artifacts from the New York hotel room where Sid Vicious of the group Sex Pistols and girlfriend Nancy Spungen lived are going on display in London. Spungen died from a stab wound there in 1978. Among the items to be displayed, a blood flecked poster of the Sex Pistol's album "Never Mind the Bullocks."

And in sports, 38-year-old American Todd Hamilton is this year's British Open winner. Hamilton beat Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff, not bad for a guy in his first year of the PGA Tour.

Chad, you get a chance to watch that? You know golf to me isn't always so exciting, but that was pretty exciting that four-hole playoff.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It really was. I wish Todd had played a little faster. That was getting a little boring there at times. But you know what, if you're going to win the British Open, you can play any speed you want to. Yes, he did a great job there, obviously really making a birdie there when Ernie just made the par on the -- on the 17th hole, the third hole of the four-round playoff.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Lots of rain on that map.

MYERS: Yes.

NGUYEN: OK, thank you, Chad.

In 'Health News' this morning, undergoing cancer surgery is scary enough for adults, but for children it can be downright traumatic. But now a new diagnostic technique is helping doctors treat kids with cancer.

Here is CNN's Denise Belgrave.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE BELGRAVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Kenneth Gow knows how debilitating surgery can be. Nationally, he is one of only a handful of pediatric surgeons using a cancer diagnosis technique on children. It's called Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping.

DR. KENNETH GOW, PEDIATRIC SURGEON: The goal with Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping may not be to cure cancer, but to certainly try to make sure and limit invasive procedures when we can.

BELGRAVE: Eleven-year-old Guadeloupe Garcia (ph), diagnosed with skin cancer five weeks ago, said he was a little scared he might not wake up from surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

BELGRAVE: The procedure starts in the nuclear medicine area where radioactive material is injected into the cancer site. The material drains from that site into the sentinel or main lymph node that services the area in question. Doctors then use X-rays and a Geiger counter probe to locate that sentinel node. The sentinel node has been shown to predict whether cancer exists in the rest of the lymph system.

In the past, doctors would either remove many nodes or just the largest one and hope that they pick the right one.

GOW: You would essentially be choosing lymph nodes. And presumably, if one was larger than the other, you probably would choose that one. But whether that's truly representative of a lymph node that needs to be removed for examination, it probably is unclear.

BELGRAVE (on camera): Surgery is a scary proposition for anyone, but much more so for children. So the more you can reduce the number of times they have to go into the operating room, the better it is for their overall health.

(voice-over): With the sentinel node located, it's on to surgery. This is where Dr. Gow injects blue die into Guadeloupe's cancer site. This helps him to see the sentinel node once he is inside the body. Dr. Gow then uses the probe to find the primary node, he removes it and then he sends it to pathology for analysis.

GOW: In most studies with the use of Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping, the accuracy is at least 99 percent. In other words, identifying the correct lymph node that supplies the area that you are interested in.

BELGRAVE: Doctors want to leave as many lymph nodes as possible in the body because they help fight disease. Dr. Gow hopes that longer-term studies will show the procedure also impacts the real goal, eliminating cancer.

Denise Belgrave, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health. This is DAYBREAK for Monday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Filmmaker Spike Lee has plenty of achievements to his name. And over the weekend, he picked up another one, winning the Innovator Award at the eighth annual American Black Film Festival in Miami. The five-day event is dedicated to promoting cultural diversity in filmmaking. Lee has a new movie coming out this month called "She Hate Me."

And last night, he talked to our Carol Lin about education in the African-American community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, DIRECTOR: I mean this -- we have got to take off the kid gloves, because what you have to realize, we're at a point where it's not just the matter of that a large segment of African-American kids can't read or write, it's the fact they don't want to learn how to read or write because somehow they have been told that education is acting white.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Lee made those comments in response to recent statements by Bill Cosby. He says Cosby is addressing -- quote -- "serious monumental problems in the African-American community."

Spike Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, is getting her own share of attention with a new book she co-wrote with Crystal McCrary Anthony. "Gotham Diaries" is as part of a popular genre in the publishing industry known as "Black Chic Lit."

CNN's Adaora Udoji has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Gotham Diaries" launched in a scene reminiscent of its pages, a hit Manhattan hotel penthouse, the latest in a new era of black chic literature. The author, Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of spike Lee, and Crystal McCrary Anthony, wife of former NBA star Greg Anthony, write about the rich and privileged they know well in a story revolving around New York City real estate.

CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, CO-AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": We've been hungry for a story about educated culture, sophisticated African- Americans, you know, that also give us a fun read at the same time.

TONYA LEWIS LEE, CO-AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": And there's social satire for sure.

UDOJI: That fun translated into a first printing of 100,000 books, a rare occurrence for two African-American women writers. It joins "Bling" with an estimated release of 125,000, "Hitts & Mrs.," "Cosmopolitan Girls," which has sold a reported 25,000 copies, and "The Accidental Diva."

Unprecedented says "Essence" magazine's book editor Patrick Henry Bass.

PATRICK HENRY BASS, BOOK EDITOR, "ESSENCE" MAGAZINE: We saw proliferation of these novels that are addressing the needs of -- the needs and wants of young urbane girls who would watch "Sex and the City," who love Manila Blahniks, you know. For the first time we're having these books addressing the needs of African-American women.

UDOJI: Until now, say industry insiders, publishers have questioned their marketability. Change has come slowly, following the smash hits of Terry McMillan's books, then movies like "Waiting to Exhale."

CHARLOTTE ABBOTT, "PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY": There are a growing number of African-American authors who are really making a -- making a dent in the best seller list.

UDOJI: The business is taking note.

T. LEE: Our agent submitted our book to publishing houses and we had an offer within 36 hours.

UDOJI: Expectations are high, especially for "Gotham Diaries." It may be a test for black chic lit books to come or not.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well ahead, the debate over a national intelligence director for the country. Why some members of the 9/11 Commission think the position should be created. We'll explain in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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 July 19, 2004 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Growing wildfires have led to more evacuations in California. In Santa Clarita, shifting winds forced nearly 600 more homes to be evacuated. That brings the total to more than 1,600 families that have been displaced by the fire. Meanwhile, firefighters have gained the upper hand on the blaze that threatened dozen of homes in Nevada. That's a little bit of good news.
Here is CNN's Ted Rowlands in Carson City.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Despite having the upper hand, firefighters say they're still very concerned about the possibility of the fire coming back to threaten more homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we're not letting our guard down. This fire could come right back out of this canyon again and sweep right through, burn what it's already burned.

ROWLANDS: Crews spent the day checking wind speeds and hosing down areas around structures. And 16 homes have been burned to the ground in what many firefighters say is one of the worst fires in the state's history.

DAWN ANDONE, FIRE INFORMATION OFFICER: This is one of the nastiest that we've had in many, many years, especially with the homes burning. That's kind of a new experience for us in this area.

ROWLANDS: People who live in the threatened areas have been allowed back, many of them came home to see that fire had come within just a few feet of their homes. Firefighters say they got a major break when the wind shifted late Friday and they are confident that they will have this fire fully contained by early next week.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Carson City, Nevada.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And for more on the California wildfires, be sure to log on to CNN.com. There you'll find more on the causes of the fires and the efforts under way to save several neighborhoods. All that and much more at CNN.com.

The acting director of the CIA says he thinks a national intelligence director is unnecessary. It would be a cabinet level post. That's one recommendation in the final report of the 9/11 Commission. Acting director John McLaughlin says intelligence agencies have already made changes to better protect the country from terrorism. But, McLaughlin adds, the commission's report deserves a close look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: The idea of a czar to oversee the entire intelligence community, a good argument can be made for that. It doesn't relate particularly to the world I live in. I see the director of central intelligence as someone who is able to do that and empowered to do so under the National Security Act of 1947. So I think with some modest changes in the way the CIA is set up, the director of central intelligence could carry out that function well and appropriately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: The final report of the 9/11 Commission is expected to be made public on Thursday.

Now shifting overseas, the commander of Filipino troops in Iraq arrived home in Manila this morning and the remaining members of his small contingent will be leaving Iraq today. This pullout meets the deadline of kidnappers who had threatened to kill a Filipino hostage in Iraq.

Live now to Manila and CNN's Maria Ressa.

What's the latest -- Maria?

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, even as we speak right now, the last of the Filipino contingent, this group of 51 non- combat soldiers and police, they are now driving out of Iraq towards Kuwait where they will stay in transit until they take commercial flights back to the Philippines.

As you said, very early on Monday morning, the head of the contingent arrived in Manila. All this appeases the demands of the kidnappers of a Filipino truck driver, 46-year-old Angelo de la Cruz. There's been no word yet about his state or when or if he will be released soon after. But the kidnapper's demand is that he will be released -- the kidnappers say they will release him as soon as the last Filipino soldier is out of Iraq -- Betty.

NGUYEN: What kind of response are the officials in the Philippines getting from the rest of the world, because much of the world was not happy with the fact that they met the demands of these hostage takers?

RESSA: Absolutely. In Iraq over the weekend, the Iraqi government said that it was -- quote -- "a bad precedent." That was echoed by the United States.

At the same time, many critics have said, have warned of the fact that the Philippines is now seen as a country that will be vulnerable to more terrorist demands. In fact, that's just been tested. In March, two Filipino soldiers were kidnapped by communist rebels, now a demand for the Philippines to negotiate with them. The Philippine military says it will not negotiate for the release of these two soldiers, despite the fact that their families have made a personal appeal to President Arroyo. Now other groups are testing the waters, will the Philippines once again give in to kidnapper's demands -- Betty.

NGUYEN: You know back to the truck driver being held hostage, we don't know when or where he will be released. Is there any guarantee that this will happen now that the Philippines have met its end of the bargain?

RESSA: There's no guarantee, except for the kidnapper's word, and the fact that they say they are going to do it, part of the reason there is cautious optimism here in the Philippines.

In the streets of Manila, the people we speak with say they believe this is the right move. Certainly the Philippine government says that this is the right move for the country's national interest. However, this is not the first time that there has been word that the -- that the Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz is safe. As you recall over the weekend, there was -- there was word that he had already been released. All of that, of course, not true. Now until there is word from the Philippine government, the family continues to wait, hoping for the best -- Betty.

NGUYEN: And so does much of the world. OK, Maria Ressa, thank you very much for that report.

And in Iraq today, nine people were killed when a suicide truck bomber struck a police station in southern Baghdad. Our Michael Holmes tells us 60 people also were injured in today's bombing. Many of the 60 are in critical condition. The attack was the latest on Iraq's security offices.

A U.S. air strike targeted militants in Fallujah. The office of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi says he gave approval for that attack. Fourteen people were killed. The U.S. military says fighters from outside Iraq were in the house at the time. Some residents say only civilians were there.

Prime Minister Allawi is himself in the crosshairs. A statement on an Islamic Web site is offering a $280,000 reward for killing the Iraqi leader. The statement calls him an American stooge and adds that a militant group has been ordered to kill him and other Iraqi leaders.

Chaos in Gaza with young Palestinians in revolt against Yasser Arafat. Palestinians are fighting Palestinians. Three people have been killed or have been wounded in the latest clash. Protestors are marching in the streets, burning Palestinian government offices. Top Palestinian officials are trying to resign but their resignations are not being accepted.

We want to go live to sort all of this out to CNN's Alessio Vinci in Jerusalem. It has been a difficult few days.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very hard, indeed, for Chairman Arafat, Betty. This time the Palestinian cabinet is meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

And we do not know whether the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei is again going to offer his resignations for the third time in as many days. Chairman Arafat has rejected those resignations twice already before, Saturday and Sunday, and we do not know whether he is going to tender those resignations as promised again today. But we do know from Palestinian officials is that should indeed Mr. Qorei offer his resignations again, Mr. Arafat will no longer be able to turn them down.

All of this, of course, in response to the latest violence in the last two days in the Gaza Strip with militants and members of Arafat's own Fatah movement taken to the streets, protesting a series of new appointments within the security structure of the Palestinian Authority.

About 1,000 demonstrators, many of them armed and wearing masks, attacked first a police station in the town of Hamunis (ph), burning it to the ground. And then later on in the day, they surrounded the headquarters of the Palestinian intelligence in Rafah, clashing there with police officers held up inside. Ten people have been wounded as a result of those attacks.

Now this latest round of violence began after Mr. Arafat on Saturday appointed a new police chief and as well as a new head of the Palestinian national security. But among those appointments, there is Arafat's own nephew, and therefore, sparking a lot of doubts within the Palestinian society and those professing there of the true natures of these reforms that have been demanded by the international community as well as many people within the Palestinian Authority itself.

One Palestinian we heard, many Palestinians saying that basically this new appointment meant that Arafat replaced corruption with more corruption. Therefore, there is a big doubt about whether Mr. Arafat is really intention about reforming the Palestinian Authority, and especially the security services that have been giving him so much a strong grip on power in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank.

Back to you -- Betty.

NGUYEN: A lot of instability in that region. Let's get back to Qorei, speaking of that instability, is it important for him to remain as the prime minister to show unified support?

VINCI: No. Mr. Qorei, as a matter of fact, is saying that because of this violence, that this violence -- this violence is a result of the fact that he has -- does not have the power to control the situation, especially in Gaza and portions of the West Bank as well. He needs an empowered interior ministry. He needs to be able to control the security services. Mr. Arafat has promised to consolidate, if you want, the 12 or more security services currently existing within the Palestinian Authority into three main branches. But they are still appointing at the head of those branches people who are loyal to him and not to the prime minister and those who want to push ahead with reforms. And therefore, the prime minister basically standing Chairman Arafat either you give me the power to move ahead with these reforms or I'm going to quit.

So Mr. -- the Mr. Qorei, the Prime Minister, basically sending a very clear message, not just to Mr. Arafat, but also to the international community, that he is trying to do his job. But without power, without being able to control the security services is very, very difficult to push ahead with reforms. And as you can see, as you can imagine, it is impossible to even consider slightly reforms when in the streets of Gaza you have Palestinians fighting Palestinians. It's very difficult, very hard indeed for him -- Betty.

NGUYEN: A lot of violence and a huge power struggle. Alessio Vinci, thank you very much.

On the campaign trail today, President Bush spends the day at the White House taking care of some official diplomatic business. But Vice President Cheney takes to the stumping Columbia, Missouri. He later travels to Toledo, Ohio to deliver remarks about health care costs.

And the Kerry-Edwards campaign begins what they call blazing America's freedom trail. The Democratic duo and their wives will be crisscrossing the country this week attending events that showcase state Democratic delegations. All this leads up to next Monday when Kerry and Edwards arrive in Boston for the Democratic National Convention.

And that upcoming event in Boston prompted senior political analyst Bill Schneider to do a little number crunching, numbers like 2008 and 2012 and figuring what happens then. And then he is factoring in some names too, names like Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): John Edwards now becomes the alternative to Hillary Clinton as the future Democratic standard bearer. After all, they've both been certified for the job. She by a democratic president...

GOV. BILL CLINTON (D), ARKANSAS: Two for the price of one.

SCHNEIDER: And he by a Democratic would-be president.

KERRY: John Edwards is ready for this job.

SCHNEIDER: Watch Democrats who are nervous about having Hillary at the top of the ticket begin to gravitate towards Edwards, particularly in the South.

Does Hillary have higher ambitions? She made a pledge to New Yorkers in her Senate campaign...

HILLARY CLINTON, FIRST LADY: I am going to serve my six-year term as senator. I owe it to the people of New York.

SCHNEIDER: Her term ends in 2006.

If Kerry loses this year, the showdown between Edwards and Clinton could come in 2008. As the vice-presidential candidate on a losing ticket, however, Edwards' stature may be diminished.

Suppose Kerry gets elected for two terms. Then Edwards becomes the instant favorite to head the ticket in 2012. Elected vice presidents have a claim on party loyalty and nearly always get their party's nomination: Nixon in 1960, Humphrey in 1968, Mondale in 1984, Bush in 1988, Gore in 2000.

If Kerry wins this year and then loses in 2008, it sets up a wide open contest in 2012.

Hillary's supporters are ready. They were outraged to hear that she would not have a speaking role at the Democratic convention in Boston. The former chairwoman of the New York Democratic Party called it "a slap in the face for every woman in the Democratic Party."

Party leaders did not want a floor demonstration with signs saying, "Let Hillary speak."

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN: She is going to be on stage on Monday night. She and other senators collectively agreed which woman senator they wanted to speak.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): Listen carefully to what Senator Clinton says next Monday night and what John Edwards says on Wednesday night. You could hear the beginning of the next Democratic debate.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Very interesting.

Well it seems parts of the U.S. may be facing the eye of a serious storm. Ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK, why scientists think current weather conditions will determine when and where a hurricane will strike.

But first, see how a revolutionary new treatment is working to save kids with cancer.

This is DAYBREAK for Monday, July 19.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well good morning. Your news, weather and sports and a little bit of money. We're going to talk about all of that. The time right now is 5:45 Eastern. Here is what's new this morning. Police in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are looking for more than 20 teachers who fled their burning school building on Friday. Ninety children died in that fire. Some residents and officials say many teachers abandoned the school when the fire started.

Here is news for people at high risk of Alzheimer's. A new study shows a new drug can delay Alzheimer's for about a half a year for those with mild memory problems. The drug is trademarked under the name Ariset (ph).

In money, a published report says about 2,000 people worldwide will lose their jobs in the merger of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group. Reuters says the merger will save up to $360 million for the companies.

In culture, artifacts from the New York hotel room where Sid Vicious of the group Sex Pistols and girlfriend Nancy Spungen lived are going on display in London. Spungen died from a stab wound there in 1978. Among the items to be displayed, a blood flecked poster of the Sex Pistol's album "Never Mind the Bullocks."

And in sports, 38-year-old American Todd Hamilton is this year's British Open winner. Hamilton beat Ernie Els in a four-hole playoff, not bad for a guy in his first year of the PGA Tour.

Chad, you get a chance to watch that? You know golf to me isn't always so exciting, but that was pretty exciting that four-hole playoff.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It really was. I wish Todd had played a little faster. That was getting a little boring there at times. But you know what, if you're going to win the British Open, you can play any speed you want to. Yes, he did a great job there, obviously really making a birdie there when Ernie just made the par on the -- on the 17th hole, the third hole of the four-round playoff.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Lots of rain on that map.

MYERS: Yes.

NGUYEN: OK, thank you, Chad.

In 'Health News' this morning, undergoing cancer surgery is scary enough for adults, but for children it can be downright traumatic. But now a new diagnostic technique is helping doctors treat kids with cancer.

Here is CNN's Denise Belgrave.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENISE BELGRAVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Kenneth Gow knows how debilitating surgery can be. Nationally, he is one of only a handful of pediatric surgeons using a cancer diagnosis technique on children. It's called Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping.

DR. KENNETH GOW, PEDIATRIC SURGEON: The goal with Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping may not be to cure cancer, but to certainly try to make sure and limit invasive procedures when we can.

BELGRAVE: Eleven-year-old Guadeloupe Garcia (ph), diagnosed with skin cancer five weeks ago, said he was a little scared he might not wake up from surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

BELGRAVE: The procedure starts in the nuclear medicine area where radioactive material is injected into the cancer site. The material drains from that site into the sentinel or main lymph node that services the area in question. Doctors then use X-rays and a Geiger counter probe to locate that sentinel node. The sentinel node has been shown to predict whether cancer exists in the rest of the lymph system.

In the past, doctors would either remove many nodes or just the largest one and hope that they pick the right one.

GOW: You would essentially be choosing lymph nodes. And presumably, if one was larger than the other, you probably would choose that one. But whether that's truly representative of a lymph node that needs to be removed for examination, it probably is unclear.

BELGRAVE (on camera): Surgery is a scary proposition for anyone, but much more so for children. So the more you can reduce the number of times they have to go into the operating room, the better it is for their overall health.

(voice-over): With the sentinel node located, it's on to surgery. This is where Dr. Gow injects blue die into Guadeloupe's cancer site. This helps him to see the sentinel node once he is inside the body. Dr. Gow then uses the probe to find the primary node, he removes it and then he sends it to pathology for analysis.

GOW: In most studies with the use of Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping, the accuracy is at least 99 percent. In other words, identifying the correct lymph node that supplies the area that you are interested in.

BELGRAVE: Doctors want to leave as many lymph nodes as possible in the body because they help fight disease. Dr. Gow hopes that longer-term studies will show the procedure also impacts the real goal, eliminating cancer.

Denise Belgrave, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health. This is DAYBREAK for Monday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Filmmaker Spike Lee has plenty of achievements to his name. And over the weekend, he picked up another one, winning the Innovator Award at the eighth annual American Black Film Festival in Miami. The five-day event is dedicated to promoting cultural diversity in filmmaking. Lee has a new movie coming out this month called "She Hate Me."

And last night, he talked to our Carol Lin about education in the African-American community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, DIRECTOR: I mean this -- we have got to take off the kid gloves, because what you have to realize, we're at a point where it's not just the matter of that a large segment of African-American kids can't read or write, it's the fact they don't want to learn how to read or write because somehow they have been told that education is acting white.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Lee made those comments in response to recent statements by Bill Cosby. He says Cosby is addressing -- quote -- "serious monumental problems in the African-American community."

Spike Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, is getting her own share of attention with a new book she co-wrote with Crystal McCrary Anthony. "Gotham Diaries" is as part of a popular genre in the publishing industry known as "Black Chic Lit."

CNN's Adaora Udoji has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Gotham Diaries" launched in a scene reminiscent of its pages, a hit Manhattan hotel penthouse, the latest in a new era of black chic literature. The author, Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of spike Lee, and Crystal McCrary Anthony, wife of former NBA star Greg Anthony, write about the rich and privileged they know well in a story revolving around New York City real estate.

CRYSTAL MCCRARY ANTHONY, CO-AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": We've been hungry for a story about educated culture, sophisticated African- Americans, you know, that also give us a fun read at the same time.

TONYA LEWIS LEE, CO-AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": And there's social satire for sure.

UDOJI: That fun translated into a first printing of 100,000 books, a rare occurrence for two African-American women writers. It joins "Bling" with an estimated release of 125,000, "Hitts & Mrs.," "Cosmopolitan Girls," which has sold a reported 25,000 copies, and "The Accidental Diva."

Unprecedented says "Essence" magazine's book editor Patrick Henry Bass.

PATRICK HENRY BASS, BOOK EDITOR, "ESSENCE" MAGAZINE: We saw proliferation of these novels that are addressing the needs of -- the needs and wants of young urbane girls who would watch "Sex and the City," who love Manila Blahniks, you know. For the first time we're having these books addressing the needs of African-American women.

UDOJI: Until now, say industry insiders, publishers have questioned their marketability. Change has come slowly, following the smash hits of Terry McMillan's books, then movies like "Waiting to Exhale."

CHARLOTTE ABBOTT, "PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY": There are a growing number of African-American authors who are really making a -- making a dent in the best seller list.

UDOJI: The business is taking note.

T. LEE: Our agent submitted our book to publishing houses and we had an offer within 36 hours.

UDOJI: Expectations are high, especially for "Gotham Diaries." It may be a test for black chic lit books to come or not.

Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well ahead, the debate over a national intelligence director for the country. Why some members of the 9/11 Commission think the position should be created. We'll explain in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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