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Scott Peterson Defense Begins; Canadian Report Worries Terror Experts; Celebrities Design Shoes to Fight Breast Cancer

Aired October 12, 2004 - 10:32   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: Let's take a look at the stories that are "Now in the News." The Supreme Court is in session this hour, and in a surprise, agreed to hear a case involving displays of the Ten Commandments on government property. Justices are hearing arguments in two other cases today. One deals with whether driving under the influence with serious bodily injuries should be an aggravated felony. The other concerns whether the attorney general can send an immigrant to another country without getting that country's approval.
A $137 billion corporate tax cut bill heads to President Bush's desk for his signature. The bill passed the Senate yesterday by a 69- 17 vote. The tax bill gives a break to a wide variety of groups, including native Alaskan whalers and NASCAR race track owners. The measure also includes a $10 billion buyout for tobacco farmers that eliminates quotas.

Vice President Dick Cheney is campaigning in the Midwest today. He took part in a town hall discussion in Davenport, Iowa, earlier this morning. Later today, he has appearances in Milwaukee and Rochester, Minnesota. Speaking in New Jersey yesterday, Cheney said John Kerry doesn't understand the seriousness of terrorism.

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards is stumping in the West. He has his own town hall meeting in Commerce City, Colorado, next hour. Then he flies to California to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show," and to attend a reception in San Francisco. In a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, Edwards called for a crackdown on the methamphetamine drug trade.

And the U.N. nuclear watch dog agency tells CNN that machinery that could be used in a nuclear weapons program has been disappearing from Iraq. An agency spokesman expresses concern the equipment could fall into the wrong hands. The spokesman says that in some cases, entire facilities that used to be monitored have been completely dismantled.

It is four months into the Scott Peterson double murder trial. The defense is beginning its case today. Our Rusty Dornin is covering the trial in Redwood City, California.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. During the entire prosecution case, defense attorney Mark Geragos would use the prosecution's own witnesses to stir up images of shady characters in the Peterson neighborhood and by the park, furthering his own theory that Laci Peterson might have been abducted, their bodies thrown in the bay after December 24, therefore his own client was innocent.

He even said he would pinpoint the real killers in his opening arguments. But legal analysts here say, don't expect that strategy. This case, they say, will be a battle of the experts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice over): Expectations abound on what the defense will do in the Scott Peterson case. While his attorney Mark Geragos promised in the beginning to smoke out the real killer, legal analysts here say it's not Perry Mason, and don't expect that to be his strategy.

DEAN JOHNSON, LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think we're going to hear Mark Geragos even trying to solve the murder of Laci Peterson. Ultimately, this will be a battle of the experts.

DORNIN: Experts like Dr. Henry Lee, the famed criminalist. He examined the remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner last year. The primary focus of the experts is likely to be the age of the fetus.

JOHNSON: They need to convince this jury that Conner Peterson lived past December 24th. If they can show that, if they can convince the jury of that, then they can argue to this jury, look, Scott Peterson could not have done it.

DORNIN: Prosecutors tried to portray Peterson as a fugitive, attempting to elude police in changing his appearance. The defense claims he was eluding the media, and possibly others.

MICHAEL CARDOZA, LEGAL ANALYST: I know that Geragos has a stack of letters threatening Scott's life. I would assume in the defense portion of the case, they will put that on to explain why Scott changed his appearance.

DORNIN: Speaking of appearances, CNN has learned that Peterson will not make one on the stand. Sources close to the case say the defense had considered calling him as a witness but decided against it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: One big expectations that's common in cases like this is for defense attorney Mark Geragos to ask the judge to have the case dismissed for insufficient evidence. Also expected, the judge will deny that. Geragos is also expected to take about six to eight days to present his case. That would take us through the end of next week, possibly into the following week -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And Rusty, what about the issue of the age of the fetus and how that might play in to the case?

DORNIN: That's going to be a primary focus because if Mark Geragos can prove that the fetus lived beyond December 24th, then that means Scott Peterson could not have done this because he was under such stark surveillance from police.

KAGAN: Rusty Dornin in California. Thank you for that.

A former Seattle teacher who served more than seven years in prison for raping one of her students now plans to marry him. Mary Kay Letourneau had two children with Vili Fualaau. He was 13 when the couple began a sexual relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE" OCTOBER 11, 2004)

LARRY KING, HOST: Do you and Vili want to get married?

MARY KAY LETOURNEAU: Yes, we do. Yes.

KING: Are you going to?

LETOURNEAU: Yes, we are.

KING: Nothing stops you, right? You can get married. He's of age, you're of age.

LETOURNEAU: Yes. It's our plan.

KING: I asked you before (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Is this a wedding ring, an engagement ring?

LETOURNEAU: This is my first ring before -- before I went into prison, during the relationship. This I recently got.

KING: This second ring looks like a wedding ring.

LETOURNEAU: Yes.

KING: Is it?

LETOURNEAU: That is an engagement ring.

KING: You're engaged?

LETOURNEAU: Uh-huh.

KING: Do you have a date?

LETOURNEAU: Not that we're talking about, no.

KING: You mean publicly? Do you have one non-publicly?

LETOURNEAU: We have a time frame but not a specific date.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Letourneau tells Larry King that she wouldn't have gotten sexually involved with the then-teenager had she known that such an act was a felony. Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast. Ninety-two thousand Florida panhandle students are back in school, it is four weeks after Hurricane Ivan tore through the region. The storm destroyed or damaged many homes. One family had to move to Mobile, Alabama, but the three children are going back to their same school, making a three-hour commute.

Scientists hope to send an unmanned drone filled with instruments over Mount St. Helens later today. And here's another live picture from there. As we were showing you just a few minutes ago with Jacqui Jeras, steam once again today coming out from the top of the volcano. What they're planning to do, measurements looking at the crater that has been steaming since that volcano rumbled to life last month. The FAA, by the way, needs to approve today's flight before they can take off and do that.

And finally how about the mystery in the skies over Fort Wayne, Indiana? A family took out their video camera to take pictures of this object. A college professor thinks it's a meteor. An astronomer suggests it's space junk like an empty booster, and a UFO expert says it is a high altitude aircraft. We will leave that one with you to decide.

Fighting terror north of the border, just how liberal immigration laws and a lack of urgency make Canadian officials concerned about safety.

And later, the bill for breast cancer research. We'll show you what these celebrities are doing to help.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Today marks a grim anniversary. It has been four years since alleged al Qaeda terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 American sailors. The suicide bombing happened at a port in Yemen. A court there recently sentenced two men to death for the attack.

And in Indonesia, another mournful day. A special ceremony was held to mark the second anniversary of the Bali night club bombing. Two hundred and two people were killed in the attacks, many of them foreign tourists. Nearly 90 Australians were among the dead. The Australian ambassador to Indonesia says the two countries are united in their fight against terror.

Concerns about terrorism have Canada working to come up with new ways to keep the country safe. But the problem may be that not everyone there is equally worried about the threat.

Here now, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The report by Canada's auditor general found scathing lapses in national security: problems that included no routine background checks on thousands of airport workers; old, incomplete border watch lists; and customs agents unable to access critical information on any of the 25,000 Canadian passports lost or stolen each year.

PETER KASURAK, CANADIAN GOV. INVESTIGATOR: The RCMP basically didn't have enough people to keep inputting information into their system. And there wasn't a good way to link their system to the front line customs agents.

FEYERICK: The RCMP, or Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other Canadian officials say many of these problems have now been fixed. A single agency similar to the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. was created last December, prior to the March report.

Officials say it has resulted in better sharing and analysis of intelligence. But because al Qaeda plans years in advance, security officials realize terrorists may have a dangerous head start. Indeed, two of the seven people on an FBI watch list reissued in May are Canadians.

ANNE MCLELLAN, CANADIAN PUBLIC SAFETY: I'd love to be able to tell Canadians that I am 100 percent sure that no one slipped into this country who was here as part of a plan to do us harm. I can't say that.

FEYERICK: Canadian security analyst Martin Rudner says the reason Canada may be attractive to would-be terrorists is Canada's long tradition of liberal immigration.

MARTIN RUDNER, CENTRE OF INTEL & SECURITY: We do not have discriminatory immigration policies, as is appropriate.

FEYERICK (on camera): Canadian officials say they have a dual responsibility. One, put enough security in place to prevent an attack in their country. And two, make sure that Canada does not become a staging ground for terrorists to launch an attack across the border.

(on camera): Over the last decade, the Canadian government has detained or deported at least 25 men with ties to Islamic terrorism. Tough new laws make it easier for prosecutors to go after terror suspects. The first criminal charges using the laws were brought in March against a computer programmer living in Ottawa. Some analysts say part of the security challenge is, unlike most Americans, Canadians simply don't feel they're in the crosshairs.

RUDNER: I think a Canadian approach would be, if you had Osama bin Laden prisoner, what you want to do is give him a lecture in both official languages of Canada about sustainable development, gender equity, there are charter rights and freedoms.

FEYERICK: As for border security now, on a scale of 1 to 10...

KASURAK: We're at about -- maybe about a 6 prior to 9/11. And we're moving someplace up towards the 8 zone now.

FEYERICK: Substantially improved, Canadian officials say, but still far from perfect.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Canada and terror in the spotlight tonight during CNN's "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN." You can watch the program 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Using a few of women's favorite things to help in the fight to cure breast cancer. Shoe designer Stuart Weitzman will be along with me next. Oh, check out these shoes, got to love them.

Also this is what we're working on for next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Hilary Duff, Beyonce and Jessica Simpson, all power celebrities, all also working toward a common cause. They and others have decorated shoes to be sold off in this year's Stuart Weitzman celebrity shoe auction. The proceeds will help in the fight against breast cancer. And we have some of the fabulous shoes with me today. Shoe designer Stuart Weitzman joining me with more, live from Boston.

Stuart, always a pleasure to have you on with us.

STUART WEITZMAN, SHOE DESIGNER: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's get right to the shoes and who designed what, and what their inspirations were. First one I want to look at comes from Celine Dion. It seems like she went with a little bird theme here.

WEITZMAN: Yes, it's a feather insert. But every one of these shoes, including Celine's, which actually is my favorite, they are works of art. They're really not shoes to be worn. It's probably the one and only work of art that many of these singers will create. And you all have a chance to own it. They're being auctioned, as you mentioned, on stuartweitzman.com, and before the end of October, before the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, everybody has a chance to bid.

KAGAN: So how does it work? You sign up these celebrities and they're sent just a plain white pump and they can do with it what they want?

WEITZMAN: They sure can. We give them all the same shoe. Nobody gets the benefit of one design over another. And then they recreate it. They cut it apart. They add things to it. They give it a little bit of their own home touch, something that maybe is close to them. If you look at the 50 Cent shoe, he's got 50 cent pieces all over it. So people who are in the singing world have come together with us to help raise money to knock out this disease.

KAGAN: Excellent. Queen Latifah, she got into some color here. A fuchsia and some chains.

WEITZMAN: I think it's a bit of a reflection maybe of how she dresses and her lifestyle, and her up way of living.

KAGAN: And Cher, you would expect sparkles from her, and definitely that's what you got.

WEITZMAN: Yes. She's our diva, I would say, of all of these. The great Cher, it probably used 10,000 or 15,000 crystals to decorate that shoe.

KAGAN: Do they really do it or do they give it to their people?

WEITZMAN: No, I think they do most of it, if not all of it. I really do. They put a lot into charity work. And women love shoes. Singers love them, as well. And they put their time in.

KAGAN: It looks like Jessica Simpson had a beach on her mind when she decorated her shoe, a lot of seashells and rocks and things.

WEITZMAN: I don't know why she used all that but it's very, very pretty.

KAGAN: And then, of course, most of them have signed, if not the top, then the bottom of the shoe. There's Jessica's signature right there.

WEITZMAN: Yes. Every shoe is autographed, as well as the signed picture. And I'll point something out for people who are bidding on shoes like this, just imagine if you had one done by Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley what it would be worth today. You're getting a piece of Americana. You're helping a great cause. And you've got something to show off for many years.

KAGAN: And so people go to stuartweitzman.com if they want to bid. How much do you expect each of these shoes to go for, Stuart?

WEITZMAN: Well, they go for in the thousands of dollars. I remember the last time we had singers on, which was about two years ago, Tina Turner's shoe went for $6,000. And some will go for $1,000, some will go for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, maybe 10,000. Last year I believe Michael Jordan's shoe went for over $8,000.

And we totally try to raise a lot of money. It's also part of a big industry event that totally, in the month of October, through the shoe industry, our contribution, as well as others, raised over $3 million for breast cancer research.

KAGAN: Well, good for you. Keep up the good work. Good luck with the auction. The shoes are lovely. Thanks for sending them along.

WEITZMAN: OK. Hope you bid on them, too.

KAGAN: Yes. Very smart sending one that are not my size so I can't even get anywhere close to them. Thank you, Stuart, appreciate it.

WEITZMAN: Thank you. KAGAN: Be sure to stay with us and tune in to CNN LIVE TODAY. In our next hour we're going to talk more about breast cancer. We're going to speak with Lillie Shockney of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center, especially important for you women who have just been diagnosed. She herself is a two-time survivor and has some really good advice about some of the first things you need to do.

We're back after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTI FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Having a family history of heart disease increases your risk for developing it. But a new study says that if your brother or sister has premature heart disease, that's a better predictor of your future risk than if your parents have it. The study released by the American Heart Association found that brothers and sisters of heart disease patients were twice as likely to have calcium buildups in their arteries than those who only had a parent with the disease.

And women on hormone therapy may have doubled the risk of blood clots says a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that in addition to increasing your blood clot risk in general, using the combined estrogen and progesterone hormone treatments also makes old age and obesity even more serious risk factors for future clots.

Christy Feig, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

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Aired October 12, 2004 - 10:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at the stories that are "Now in the News." The Supreme Court is in session this hour, and in a surprise, agreed to hear a case involving displays of the Ten Commandments on government property. Justices are hearing arguments in two other cases today. One deals with whether driving under the influence with serious bodily injuries should be an aggravated felony. The other concerns whether the attorney general can send an immigrant to another country without getting that country's approval.
A $137 billion corporate tax cut bill heads to President Bush's desk for his signature. The bill passed the Senate yesterday by a 69- 17 vote. The tax bill gives a break to a wide variety of groups, including native Alaskan whalers and NASCAR race track owners. The measure also includes a $10 billion buyout for tobacco farmers that eliminates quotas.

Vice President Dick Cheney is campaigning in the Midwest today. He took part in a town hall discussion in Davenport, Iowa, earlier this morning. Later today, he has appearances in Milwaukee and Rochester, Minnesota. Speaking in New Jersey yesterday, Cheney said John Kerry doesn't understand the seriousness of terrorism.

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards is stumping in the West. He has his own town hall meeting in Commerce City, Colorado, next hour. Then he flies to California to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show," and to attend a reception in San Francisco. In a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, Edwards called for a crackdown on the methamphetamine drug trade.

And the U.N. nuclear watch dog agency tells CNN that machinery that could be used in a nuclear weapons program has been disappearing from Iraq. An agency spokesman expresses concern the equipment could fall into the wrong hands. The spokesman says that in some cases, entire facilities that used to be monitored have been completely dismantled.

It is four months into the Scott Peterson double murder trial. The defense is beginning its case today. Our Rusty Dornin is covering the trial in Redwood City, California.

Rusty, good morning.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. During the entire prosecution case, defense attorney Mark Geragos would use the prosecution's own witnesses to stir up images of shady characters in the Peterson neighborhood and by the park, furthering his own theory that Laci Peterson might have been abducted, their bodies thrown in the bay after December 24, therefore his own client was innocent.

He even said he would pinpoint the real killers in his opening arguments. But legal analysts here say, don't expect that strategy. This case, they say, will be a battle of the experts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice over): Expectations abound on what the defense will do in the Scott Peterson case. While his attorney Mark Geragos promised in the beginning to smoke out the real killer, legal analysts here say it's not Perry Mason, and don't expect that to be his strategy.

DEAN JOHNSON, LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think we're going to hear Mark Geragos even trying to solve the murder of Laci Peterson. Ultimately, this will be a battle of the experts.

DORNIN: Experts like Dr. Henry Lee, the famed criminalist. He examined the remains of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner last year. The primary focus of the experts is likely to be the age of the fetus.

JOHNSON: They need to convince this jury that Conner Peterson lived past December 24th. If they can show that, if they can convince the jury of that, then they can argue to this jury, look, Scott Peterson could not have done it.

DORNIN: Prosecutors tried to portray Peterson as a fugitive, attempting to elude police in changing his appearance. The defense claims he was eluding the media, and possibly others.

MICHAEL CARDOZA, LEGAL ANALYST: I know that Geragos has a stack of letters threatening Scott's life. I would assume in the defense portion of the case, they will put that on to explain why Scott changed his appearance.

DORNIN: Speaking of appearances, CNN has learned that Peterson will not make one on the stand. Sources close to the case say the defense had considered calling him as a witness but decided against it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: One big expectations that's common in cases like this is for defense attorney Mark Geragos to ask the judge to have the case dismissed for insufficient evidence. Also expected, the judge will deny that. Geragos is also expected to take about six to eight days to present his case. That would take us through the end of next week, possibly into the following week -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And Rusty, what about the issue of the age of the fetus and how that might play in to the case?

DORNIN: That's going to be a primary focus because if Mark Geragos can prove that the fetus lived beyond December 24th, then that means Scott Peterson could not have done this because he was under such stark surveillance from police.

KAGAN: Rusty Dornin in California. Thank you for that.

A former Seattle teacher who served more than seven years in prison for raping one of her students now plans to marry him. Mary Kay Letourneau had two children with Vili Fualaau. He was 13 when the couple began a sexual relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "LARRY KING LIVE" OCTOBER 11, 2004)

LARRY KING, HOST: Do you and Vili want to get married?

MARY KAY LETOURNEAU: Yes, we do. Yes.

KING: Are you going to?

LETOURNEAU: Yes, we are.

KING: Nothing stops you, right? You can get married. He's of age, you're of age.

LETOURNEAU: Yes. It's our plan.

KING: I asked you before (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Is this a wedding ring, an engagement ring?

LETOURNEAU: This is my first ring before -- before I went into prison, during the relationship. This I recently got.

KING: This second ring looks like a wedding ring.

LETOURNEAU: Yes.

KING: Is it?

LETOURNEAU: That is an engagement ring.

KING: You're engaged?

LETOURNEAU: Uh-huh.

KING: Do you have a date?

LETOURNEAU: Not that we're talking about, no.

KING: You mean publicly? Do you have one non-publicly?

LETOURNEAU: We have a time frame but not a specific date.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Letourneau tells Larry King that she wouldn't have gotten sexually involved with the then-teenager had she known that such an act was a felony. Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast. Ninety-two thousand Florida panhandle students are back in school, it is four weeks after Hurricane Ivan tore through the region. The storm destroyed or damaged many homes. One family had to move to Mobile, Alabama, but the three children are going back to their same school, making a three-hour commute.

Scientists hope to send an unmanned drone filled with instruments over Mount St. Helens later today. And here's another live picture from there. As we were showing you just a few minutes ago with Jacqui Jeras, steam once again today coming out from the top of the volcano. What they're planning to do, measurements looking at the crater that has been steaming since that volcano rumbled to life last month. The FAA, by the way, needs to approve today's flight before they can take off and do that.

And finally how about the mystery in the skies over Fort Wayne, Indiana? A family took out their video camera to take pictures of this object. A college professor thinks it's a meteor. An astronomer suggests it's space junk like an empty booster, and a UFO expert says it is a high altitude aircraft. We will leave that one with you to decide.

Fighting terror north of the border, just how liberal immigration laws and a lack of urgency make Canadian officials concerned about safety.

And later, the bill for breast cancer research. We'll show you what these celebrities are doing to help.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Today marks a grim anniversary. It has been four years since alleged al Qaeda terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 American sailors. The suicide bombing happened at a port in Yemen. A court there recently sentenced two men to death for the attack.

And in Indonesia, another mournful day. A special ceremony was held to mark the second anniversary of the Bali night club bombing. Two hundred and two people were killed in the attacks, many of them foreign tourists. Nearly 90 Australians were among the dead. The Australian ambassador to Indonesia says the two countries are united in their fight against terror.

Concerns about terrorism have Canada working to come up with new ways to keep the country safe. But the problem may be that not everyone there is equally worried about the threat.

Here now, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The report by Canada's auditor general found scathing lapses in national security: problems that included no routine background checks on thousands of airport workers; old, incomplete border watch lists; and customs agents unable to access critical information on any of the 25,000 Canadian passports lost or stolen each year.

PETER KASURAK, CANADIAN GOV. INVESTIGATOR: The RCMP basically didn't have enough people to keep inputting information into their system. And there wasn't a good way to link their system to the front line customs agents.

FEYERICK: The RCMP, or Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other Canadian officials say many of these problems have now been fixed. A single agency similar to the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. was created last December, prior to the March report.

Officials say it has resulted in better sharing and analysis of intelligence. But because al Qaeda plans years in advance, security officials realize terrorists may have a dangerous head start. Indeed, two of the seven people on an FBI watch list reissued in May are Canadians.

ANNE MCLELLAN, CANADIAN PUBLIC SAFETY: I'd love to be able to tell Canadians that I am 100 percent sure that no one slipped into this country who was here as part of a plan to do us harm. I can't say that.

FEYERICK: Canadian security analyst Martin Rudner says the reason Canada may be attractive to would-be terrorists is Canada's long tradition of liberal immigration.

MARTIN RUDNER, CENTRE OF INTEL & SECURITY: We do not have discriminatory immigration policies, as is appropriate.

FEYERICK (on camera): Canadian officials say they have a dual responsibility. One, put enough security in place to prevent an attack in their country. And two, make sure that Canada does not become a staging ground for terrorists to launch an attack across the border.

(on camera): Over the last decade, the Canadian government has detained or deported at least 25 men with ties to Islamic terrorism. Tough new laws make it easier for prosecutors to go after terror suspects. The first criminal charges using the laws were brought in March against a computer programmer living in Ottawa. Some analysts say part of the security challenge is, unlike most Americans, Canadians simply don't feel they're in the crosshairs.

RUDNER: I think a Canadian approach would be, if you had Osama bin Laden prisoner, what you want to do is give him a lecture in both official languages of Canada about sustainable development, gender equity, there are charter rights and freedoms.

FEYERICK: As for border security now, on a scale of 1 to 10...

KASURAK: We're at about -- maybe about a 6 prior to 9/11. And we're moving someplace up towards the 8 zone now.

FEYERICK: Substantially improved, Canadian officials say, but still far from perfect.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Canada and terror in the spotlight tonight during CNN's "NEWSNIGHT WITH AARON BROWN." You can watch the program 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Using a few of women's favorite things to help in the fight to cure breast cancer. Shoe designer Stuart Weitzman will be along with me next. Oh, check out these shoes, got to love them.

Also this is what we're working on for next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Hilary Duff, Beyonce and Jessica Simpson, all power celebrities, all also working toward a common cause. They and others have decorated shoes to be sold off in this year's Stuart Weitzman celebrity shoe auction. The proceeds will help in the fight against breast cancer. And we have some of the fabulous shoes with me today. Shoe designer Stuart Weitzman joining me with more, live from Boston.

Stuart, always a pleasure to have you on with us.

STUART WEITZMAN, SHOE DESIGNER: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's get right to the shoes and who designed what, and what their inspirations were. First one I want to look at comes from Celine Dion. It seems like she went with a little bird theme here.

WEITZMAN: Yes, it's a feather insert. But every one of these shoes, including Celine's, which actually is my favorite, they are works of art. They're really not shoes to be worn. It's probably the one and only work of art that many of these singers will create. And you all have a chance to own it. They're being auctioned, as you mentioned, on stuartweitzman.com, and before the end of October, before the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, everybody has a chance to bid.

KAGAN: So how does it work? You sign up these celebrities and they're sent just a plain white pump and they can do with it what they want?

WEITZMAN: They sure can. We give them all the same shoe. Nobody gets the benefit of one design over another. And then they recreate it. They cut it apart. They add things to it. They give it a little bit of their own home touch, something that maybe is close to them. If you look at the 50 Cent shoe, he's got 50 cent pieces all over it. So people who are in the singing world have come together with us to help raise money to knock out this disease.

KAGAN: Excellent. Queen Latifah, she got into some color here. A fuchsia and some chains.

WEITZMAN: I think it's a bit of a reflection maybe of how she dresses and her lifestyle, and her up way of living.

KAGAN: And Cher, you would expect sparkles from her, and definitely that's what you got.

WEITZMAN: Yes. She's our diva, I would say, of all of these. The great Cher, it probably used 10,000 or 15,000 crystals to decorate that shoe.

KAGAN: Do they really do it or do they give it to their people?

WEITZMAN: No, I think they do most of it, if not all of it. I really do. They put a lot into charity work. And women love shoes. Singers love them, as well. And they put their time in.

KAGAN: It looks like Jessica Simpson had a beach on her mind when she decorated her shoe, a lot of seashells and rocks and things.

WEITZMAN: I don't know why she used all that but it's very, very pretty.

KAGAN: And then, of course, most of them have signed, if not the top, then the bottom of the shoe. There's Jessica's signature right there.

WEITZMAN: Yes. Every shoe is autographed, as well as the signed picture. And I'll point something out for people who are bidding on shoes like this, just imagine if you had one done by Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley what it would be worth today. You're getting a piece of Americana. You're helping a great cause. And you've got something to show off for many years.

KAGAN: And so people go to stuartweitzman.com if they want to bid. How much do you expect each of these shoes to go for, Stuart?

WEITZMAN: Well, they go for in the thousands of dollars. I remember the last time we had singers on, which was about two years ago, Tina Turner's shoe went for $6,000. And some will go for $1,000, some will go for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, maybe 10,000. Last year I believe Michael Jordan's shoe went for over $8,000.

And we totally try to raise a lot of money. It's also part of a big industry event that totally, in the month of October, through the shoe industry, our contribution, as well as others, raised over $3 million for breast cancer research.

KAGAN: Well, good for you. Keep up the good work. Good luck with the auction. The shoes are lovely. Thanks for sending them along.

WEITZMAN: OK. Hope you bid on them, too.

KAGAN: Yes. Very smart sending one that are not my size so I can't even get anywhere close to them. Thank you, Stuart, appreciate it.

WEITZMAN: Thank you. KAGAN: Be sure to stay with us and tune in to CNN LIVE TODAY. In our next hour we're going to talk more about breast cancer. We're going to speak with Lillie Shockney of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center, especially important for you women who have just been diagnosed. She herself is a two-time survivor and has some really good advice about some of the first things you need to do.

We're back after this.

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CHRISTI FEIG, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Having a family history of heart disease increases your risk for developing it. But a new study says that if your brother or sister has premature heart disease, that's a better predictor of your future risk than if your parents have it. The study released by the American Heart Association found that brothers and sisters of heart disease patients were twice as likely to have calcium buildups in their arteries than those who only had a parent with the disease.

And women on hormone therapy may have doubled the risk of blood clots says a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that in addition to increasing your blood clot risk in general, using the combined estrogen and progesterone hormone treatments also makes old age and obesity even more serious risk factors for future clots.

Christy Feig, CNN.

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