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CNN Live At Daybreak

Watchword: Caution; Tut's Uncommon End?; Clinton's Condition

Aired March 09, 2005 - 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.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."

A huge rally expected in Damascus, Syria today to show support for President Bashar Assad. It follows a massive pro-Syrian rally in Lebanon and comes amid present (ph) criticism of Syria by President Bush.

President Bush will deliver a speech on energy policy today in Columbus, Ohio. He's expected to make an optimistic assessment of the economy's direction while noting concern over higher energy prices. This comes as the government announced that gas prices will hit record highs this spring.

Congress wants seven current and former baseball stars to testify this month about steroids. Reports say congressional subpoenas may go out as early as today to Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi if they don't agree to testify voluntarily.

The mayoral primary in Los Angeles is too close to call. Right now, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa has a thin lead over the incumbent James Hahn who is in second.

And northeasterners will have to dig out of another winter storm today. In Massachusetts, icy snow and a chilly blast of wind resulted in power outages, dangerous windchill and whiteout conditions.

To Chad for hopefully better news about the weather.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well it gets better today, Carol.

The problem is this morning is that there was a lot of rain yesterday and then it froze immediately after the cold front came by. It didn't get a chance to evaporate or really run off. The snow came in, covered some of it up, and there are black icy patches everywhere on roads, on walkways, and you're just not going to be able to get to all of them this morning. It's going to be one of those walk like a penguin days, if you remember that commercial.

(WEATHER REPORT)

All that ash coming off Mount St. Helen's, Carol, did you hear about that?

COSTELLO: I did.

MYERS: Mount St. Helen's kind of did a little poof yesterday, not a big one, but had some ash in the sky.

COSTELLO: Well they don't know if it's just gases like riled up or if it's an actual eruption of the volcano.

MYERS: Exactly.

COSTELLO: We're going to actually go there live in the 6:00 hour of DAYBREAK.

MYERS: That's why I was telling you that.

COSTELLO: Thanks -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Today's prime minister -- Italy's prime minister, rather, goes before a skeptical Parliament this morning. Silvio Berlusconi will be talking about that controversial shooting of three Italians at a U.S. military checkpoint and about Italy's troop commitment in Iraq.

The Italian negotiator, Nicola Calipari, was killed while escorting freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena to safety. Sgrena, a journalist, was wounded. The Italian driver says he was not speeding as U.S. troops claim. He says he was doing 25 miles an hour. The U.S. military says he was doing over 50 miles per hour.

The driver says he got no warning to slow down and there was an explosion of gunfire. The U.S. military says fewer than a dozen rounds were fired at the car. A U.S. brigadier general is heading the investigation into the incident and that's expected to take about three to four weeks.

Word just coming in this morning of another suicide car bombing in Iraq, this one happened about 25 miles west of Ramadi. We just got word of this about 15 minutes ago. Iraqi police officials say the bombing took place at a checkpoint operated by U.S. and Iraqi troops. There are reports of casualties. We'll bring you more details as we get them in. As I said, we just heard about this about 15 minutes ago.

That highway to Baghdad's airport is possibly one of the most dangerous stretches of road on the globe.

Our Nic Robertson has more on tensions that can boil over at U.S. checkpoints.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firing low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firing low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): At a U.S. checkpoint a year ago, I saw the aftermath of an Iraqi shot when he failed to stop. At the time, the soldiers feared he might have been an insurgent, and had tried to disable his car to save their lives.

Later that year, and 65 miles away, Miqdad Abdull, a former Iraqi general, says a similar thing happened to him. He points to the windshield of his car where, he says, he was shot at by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint.

MIQDAD ABDULL, FORMER IRAQI GENERAL (through translator): The first shot was a killer shot. And this I know from my experience. I ducked, and the shooting lasted for about another 15 seconds.

ROBERTSON: He shows photographs of the many bullet holes through the windshield of his car, and of his own injuries, lays out police maps, and a note apparently written by a U.S. Army officer. It reads, "This vehicle failed to stop for a coalition traffic point. The vehicle was engaged and hit by small arms fire."

He claims not to have seen the warning for him to stop.

ABDULL (through translator): In my personal opinion, people fear these checkpoints more than they fear other attacks and explosions.

ROBERTSON: This day, at a checkpoint on the highway to Baghdad International Airport, the most dangerous road in Iraq, two Iraqi drivers get confused about how to proceed.

(on camera): This is exactly where Iraqi drivers worry the most, they say. They're coming into a checkpoint here, and what they say they fear is that they may be mistaken for a suicide bomber. And that's why this area, they say, is the most dangerous, because they could be shot at.

(voice-over): No one has an accurate account of how many Iraqis and others have been injured in this way, but commanders say they are committed to avoiding casualties.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, U.S. ARMY: We've trained our soldiers, and we continue to retrain them on techniques of causing a vehicle to slow down and stop far enough away where it doesn't present the threat of an explosive device.

ROBERTSON: And in Iraq, explosive devices like that go off 40 to 60 times every day.

The threat that worries the soldiers the most is the suicide car bomber. So every time a car comes close to them, they told me, it's a critical moment where self-preservation forces a fast decision.

WEBSTER: If the vehicle looks like a threat of lethal force to the soldier guarding the position, then we may fire warning shots into the ground next to the vehicle. And then we instruct our soldiers to engage the engine block, if they possibly can, to disable the vehicle, and try not to kill anyone.

ROBERTSON: On Iraq's roads, on both sides of the checkpoint, caution remains the watchword.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A murder mystery gilded in gold. Did King Tut die in a murder plot or did he possibly have an infection? New information from new CAT scan images of the mummified king.

And President Clinton heads back to the operating room. A complete look at the rare complication and why it requires surgery.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The mystery surrounding King Tut's demise may have to stay just that, a mystery. High-tech tests may have ruled out murder, but then again, maybe not.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Cairo, Egypt with some answers, we hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): One of the oldest murder mysteries solved -- well, maybe. More than 3,000 years ago, 19-year-old Pharaoh Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut, was found dead in his royal bed. Many historians and history buffs suspected foul play.

Late last year, Egyptian scientists oversaw a first ever C.T. scan, a three-dimensional X-ray of Tut's mummy. They pored over 1,700 images searching for clues to answer the question was Tut murdered? Last November, we asked Egypt's top archaeologist what he thought.

DR. ZAHI HAWAS, SUPREME ANTIQUITIES COUNCIL: I believe there was a conspiracy, and I believe that he was murdered.

WEDEMAN: After the C.T. scan, he's changed his tune.

HAWAS: King Tut was not murdered, but we found out in his left leg that he was crushed. He had an injury, just maybe a few days before he died.

WEDEMAN: Which might have caused a fatal infection or...

HAWAS: Maybe he was poisoned.

WEDEMAN: The high-tech scan might not solve the mystery, but it may give us a better idea of what Tut really looked like.

HAWAS: It shows three dimension of the mummy. We'll be able to reconstruct the face of King Tut.

WEDEMAN: Egyptian authorities say old Tut has been roughed up enough since his tomb was discovered in 1922, and now it's time to put him back in the ground for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So, Carol, they seemed to have narrowed down the possibilities as to how King Tut died, but this 3,300-year-old who done it isn't dead yet -- Carol.

COSTELLO: No, I hope not, because I'm still wondering about it, even after what you have told me. So if it was poison, why can't they test for that?

WEDEMAN: Well, actually they may be testing for it, despite the fact that they will be putting King Tut back in the ground. When the Egyptians would embalm or make mummies, they would take the internal organs out and put them in separate pots. Now they may conduct some sort of tests on those internal organs. The problem of course is at 3,300 years old it's going to be very difficult to find the traces of anything, poison or otherwise, in those, essentially, canned guts, for lack of a better word -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh man! We're used to that terminology because we have CSI. And I bet they could solve it.

Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, reporting live from Egypt this morning.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

An upcoming report from a special commission will say U.S. intelligence on Iran is insufficient to conclude that Iran has nukes. "The New York Times" reports one person familiar with the panel's work calls intelligence on Iran scandalous.

Here's Boeing's newest 777 flying high on a test flight from Everett, Washington to Seattle. The company says it's the world's longest-range commercial airplane. It can carry, get this, up to 300 passengers on 18-hour flights.

In money news, it's March Madness for General Motors. Dealers say they'll kick off a new promotion tomorrow aimed at boosting sales. It will include $1,000 rebate for vehicles that have been sitting on the lot for more than 120 days.

In culture, do you recognize this guy? Mario is one of the video game stars inducted into the Walk of Game in San Francisco. Atari co- founder, Nolan Bushnell, he's the man behind Pong, also got his own star.

In sports, scalping tickets for the Super Bowl is a given. But now there is word that Minnesota head coach Mike Tice is being investigated for allegedly directing a Super Bowl ticket scalping operation. That's unbelievable.

MYERS: He denies absolutely all of it, Carol, denies it. So the NFL is actually going to look into it, too, with other coaches of Minnesota as well.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: That sounds so nice. Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.

Still ahead on DAYBREAK, former President Clinton says Thursday's surgery is no big deal, but is he right? We'll have more on his prognosis next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A bit of developing news out of Rome. You see that's Gemelli hospital. The pope is just closing his blinds now. But just a second ago, the pope was waving to the crowds outside of the hospital. And that surely is a good sign that the pope is on his way to recovery. In fact, they say he'll be back at the Vatican in time for Easter services. And here you see all of the people gathered around the hospital to watch the pope wave to them.

Former President Bill Clinton will be on the golf course today and under the knife tomorrow. He says follow-up surgery to his heart bypass is no big deal, but is it?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first clues were subtle. During routine exercise near his home in New York, doctors say former President Clinton began to feel the nagging in his chest and shortness of breath.

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: He had noticed over the past month or so that on steep hills he was getting winded a bit more easily. At the same time, he was starting to feel a bit of discomfort in his left chest.

GUPTA: A rare complication of fluid and scar built up in the chest will place Clinton back in the operating room on Thursday.

SCHWARTZ: This is not an emergency. This is being done to assure that he is able to continue to maintain a highly active lifestyle and that he's not at all functionally limited by his lung. But this is not a medically urgent procedure.

GUPTA: Even though Schwartz called the procedure elective, it's clear that President Clinton needs the operation. His discomfort due to fluid, which is causing the thin lining outside the lungs, called the pleura, to thicken and collapse.

SCHWARTZ: Left untouched for a long period of time, any collection in the body is potentially could be seeded with infection, although that risk is extremely low. We don't want to leave him with compromise of normal lung function.

GUPTA: So doctors will perform a procedure to shore off those thickened layers and remove fluid, allowing the lung to heal and re- expand. When asked if Clinton's busy schedule, including recent trips to areas devastated by the tsunami, are to blame for his condition, doctors said...

SCHWARTZ: The short answer is no.

GUPTA: And so the president kept his busy schedule and even talked about the procedure.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a routine sort of deal, and it'll knock me out of commission for a week or two, and then I'll be back to normal. It's no big deal. And, you know, I felt well enough to go to Asia to try to keep up with President Bush, and we're going to go play golf tomorrow. So I'm not in too bad a shape.

GUPTA: Doctors do predict a routine operation and recovery, in and out of the hospital in 3 to 10 days.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Clinton and President Bush are going to play golf tomorrow to raise money for the tsunami victims. It goes to show how sick he is.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.

BUSH: Thank you all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health.

Here is what's just ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

The price of fear, why threats rather than supply and demand are driving up gas prices.

Plus, Mount St. Helen's had quite a night last night. We'll take you there live to see how things look this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, here is the picture of Pope John Paul II waving to the crowds outside of his hospital window. You can hear the shouts from down below. This is the third time he's appeared at his window waving to the crowds. As you know, he's recovering from a tracheotomy. And he looks pretty good, actually. We wanted to show you the full picture with the blind open this time, so there he is. Pope John Paul expected to be back at the Vatican in time for Easter services, which is, of course, next week.

Time to read some e-mail now. Our e-mail "Question of the Morning" is about Dan Rather -- Chad.

MYERS: Yes, we have some Ratherisms, as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, we're ready.

MYERS: The "Question of the Day": fond farewell or good riddance for Dan Rather? What goodbye does Mr. Rather deserve?

Some Ratherisms that we came up with, "two hands worth of white knuckles still hanging ten." "It's beginning to get exciting as the Democrats' fingernails are starting to sweat." I never did understand that one.

COSTELLO: It was always fun kind of watching him, waiting for something bizarre to come out of his mouth.

MYERS: Yes, he always...

COSTELLO: That kind of made it more exciting.

MYERS: He always says good ones. I do have a great e-mail here.

COSTELLO: OK.

MYERS: Some of our folks must have been up all night here. This is from Rick (ph) in Pennsylvania. The ode to Dan. He did his best for many years. Not many say the same. The way the end has come about is nothing but a shame. The story right, the memo's wrong, but Carl's (ph) quick to act. It's Dan Rather, he got the gong and America got the shaft.

COSTELLO: That man deserves a DAYBREAK coffee mug.

MYERS: He does.

COSTELLO: This is from Jeff (ph) from Saratoga, California. He says Rather's leaving makes me happier than a spotted calf sitting in the sunshine under a wagon in the tall grass. It does.

MYERS: He made his own Ratherism.

COSTELLO: He did.

MYERS: But, let's see, no answer -- Bussy (ph), Jim (ph), actually, a guy here, says he's kind of full of himself, pretentious, phony and fake. Took himself far too seriously.

You know what, though, I will miss Dan Rather, personally. I always thought that he did his best. Whatever happened at the end of his career is, you know, that's going to be what goes down in the history books, but, whatever.

COSTELLO: Yes, let me read this one quickly. This is from Jeff (ph) from Bowie, Maryland. Cronkite was too kind. Mr. Rather had an agenda and used his position to further it. Good riddance.

We're going to talk a lot more about this in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which starts right now.

MYERS: Fair enough.

COSTELLO: Is fear fueling higher gas prices? The president is expected to talk about his energy policy today. We'll take a closer look at the factors.

And is someone ripping off your retirement funds? Details about a spike in 401(k) theft and what you can do to protect yourself.

And then, Dan Rather says goodbye to a nightly audience, but it's the parting words from his co-workers that may overshadow his farewell.

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 March 9, 2005 - 05:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, welcome to the second half-hour of DAYBREAK. From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers.
"Now in the News."

A huge rally expected in Damascus, Syria today to show support for President Bashar Assad. It follows a massive pro-Syrian rally in Lebanon and comes amid present (ph) criticism of Syria by President Bush.

President Bush will deliver a speech on energy policy today in Columbus, Ohio. He's expected to make an optimistic assessment of the economy's direction while noting concern over higher energy prices. This comes as the government announced that gas prices will hit record highs this spring.

Congress wants seven current and former baseball stars to testify this month about steroids. Reports say congressional subpoenas may go out as early as today to Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi if they don't agree to testify voluntarily.

The mayoral primary in Los Angeles is too close to call. Right now, City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa has a thin lead over the incumbent James Hahn who is in second.

And northeasterners will have to dig out of another winter storm today. In Massachusetts, icy snow and a chilly blast of wind resulted in power outages, dangerous windchill and whiteout conditions.

To Chad for hopefully better news about the weather.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well it gets better today, Carol.

The problem is this morning is that there was a lot of rain yesterday and then it froze immediately after the cold front came by. It didn't get a chance to evaporate or really run off. The snow came in, covered some of it up, and there are black icy patches everywhere on roads, on walkways, and you're just not going to be able to get to all of them this morning. It's going to be one of those walk like a penguin days, if you remember that commercial.

(WEATHER REPORT)

All that ash coming off Mount St. Helen's, Carol, did you hear about that?

COSTELLO: I did.

MYERS: Mount St. Helen's kind of did a little poof yesterday, not a big one, but had some ash in the sky.

COSTELLO: Well they don't know if it's just gases like riled up or if it's an actual eruption of the volcano.

MYERS: Exactly.

COSTELLO: We're going to actually go there live in the 6:00 hour of DAYBREAK.

MYERS: That's why I was telling you that.

COSTELLO: Thanks -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Today's prime minister -- Italy's prime minister, rather, goes before a skeptical Parliament this morning. Silvio Berlusconi will be talking about that controversial shooting of three Italians at a U.S. military checkpoint and about Italy's troop commitment in Iraq.

The Italian negotiator, Nicola Calipari, was killed while escorting freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena to safety. Sgrena, a journalist, was wounded. The Italian driver says he was not speeding as U.S. troops claim. He says he was doing 25 miles an hour. The U.S. military says he was doing over 50 miles per hour.

The driver says he got no warning to slow down and there was an explosion of gunfire. The U.S. military says fewer than a dozen rounds were fired at the car. A U.S. brigadier general is heading the investigation into the incident and that's expected to take about three to four weeks.

Word just coming in this morning of another suicide car bombing in Iraq, this one happened about 25 miles west of Ramadi. We just got word of this about 15 minutes ago. Iraqi police officials say the bombing took place at a checkpoint operated by U.S. and Iraqi troops. There are reports of casualties. We'll bring you more details as we get them in. As I said, we just heard about this about 15 minutes ago.

That highway to Baghdad's airport is possibly one of the most dangerous stretches of road on the globe.

Our Nic Robertson has more on tensions that can boil over at U.S. checkpoints.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firing low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firing low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): At a U.S. checkpoint a year ago, I saw the aftermath of an Iraqi shot when he failed to stop. At the time, the soldiers feared he might have been an insurgent, and had tried to disable his car to save their lives.

Later that year, and 65 miles away, Miqdad Abdull, a former Iraqi general, says a similar thing happened to him. He points to the windshield of his car where, he says, he was shot at by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint.

MIQDAD ABDULL, FORMER IRAQI GENERAL (through translator): The first shot was a killer shot. And this I know from my experience. I ducked, and the shooting lasted for about another 15 seconds.

ROBERTSON: He shows photographs of the many bullet holes through the windshield of his car, and of his own injuries, lays out police maps, and a note apparently written by a U.S. Army officer. It reads, "This vehicle failed to stop for a coalition traffic point. The vehicle was engaged and hit by small arms fire."

He claims not to have seen the warning for him to stop.

ABDULL (through translator): In my personal opinion, people fear these checkpoints more than they fear other attacks and explosions.

ROBERTSON: This day, at a checkpoint on the highway to Baghdad International Airport, the most dangerous road in Iraq, two Iraqi drivers get confused about how to proceed.

(on camera): This is exactly where Iraqi drivers worry the most, they say. They're coming into a checkpoint here, and what they say they fear is that they may be mistaken for a suicide bomber. And that's why this area, they say, is the most dangerous, because they could be shot at.

(voice-over): No one has an accurate account of how many Iraqis and others have been injured in this way, but commanders say they are committed to avoiding casualties.

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WEBSTER, U.S. ARMY: We've trained our soldiers, and we continue to retrain them on techniques of causing a vehicle to slow down and stop far enough away where it doesn't present the threat of an explosive device.

ROBERTSON: And in Iraq, explosive devices like that go off 40 to 60 times every day.

The threat that worries the soldiers the most is the suicide car bomber. So every time a car comes close to them, they told me, it's a critical moment where self-preservation forces a fast decision.

WEBSTER: If the vehicle looks like a threat of lethal force to the soldier guarding the position, then we may fire warning shots into the ground next to the vehicle. And then we instruct our soldiers to engage the engine block, if they possibly can, to disable the vehicle, and try not to kill anyone.

ROBERTSON: On Iraq's roads, on both sides of the checkpoint, caution remains the watchword.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: A murder mystery gilded in gold. Did King Tut die in a murder plot or did he possibly have an infection? New information from new CAT scan images of the mummified king.

And President Clinton heads back to the operating room. A complete look at the rare complication and why it requires surgery.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The mystery surrounding King Tut's demise may have to stay just that, a mystery. High-tech tests may have ruled out murder, but then again, maybe not.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Cairo, Egypt with some answers, we hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): One of the oldest murder mysteries solved -- well, maybe. More than 3,000 years ago, 19-year-old Pharaoh Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut, was found dead in his royal bed. Many historians and history buffs suspected foul play.

Late last year, Egyptian scientists oversaw a first ever C.T. scan, a three-dimensional X-ray of Tut's mummy. They pored over 1,700 images searching for clues to answer the question was Tut murdered? Last November, we asked Egypt's top archaeologist what he thought.

DR. ZAHI HAWAS, SUPREME ANTIQUITIES COUNCIL: I believe there was a conspiracy, and I believe that he was murdered.

WEDEMAN: After the C.T. scan, he's changed his tune.

HAWAS: King Tut was not murdered, but we found out in his left leg that he was crushed. He had an injury, just maybe a few days before he died.

WEDEMAN: Which might have caused a fatal infection or...

HAWAS: Maybe he was poisoned.

WEDEMAN: The high-tech scan might not solve the mystery, but it may give us a better idea of what Tut really looked like.

HAWAS: It shows three dimension of the mummy. We'll be able to reconstruct the face of King Tut.

WEDEMAN: Egyptian authorities say old Tut has been roughed up enough since his tomb was discovered in 1922, and now it's time to put him back in the ground for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

So, Carol, they seemed to have narrowed down the possibilities as to how King Tut died, but this 3,300-year-old who done it isn't dead yet -- Carol.

COSTELLO: No, I hope not, because I'm still wondering about it, even after what you have told me. So if it was poison, why can't they test for that?

WEDEMAN: Well, actually they may be testing for it, despite the fact that they will be putting King Tut back in the ground. When the Egyptians would embalm or make mummies, they would take the internal organs out and put them in separate pots. Now they may conduct some sort of tests on those internal organs. The problem of course is at 3,300 years old it's going to be very difficult to find the traces of anything, poison or otherwise, in those, essentially, canned guts, for lack of a better word -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh man! We're used to that terminology because we have CSI. And I bet they could solve it.

Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, reporting live from Egypt this morning.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

An upcoming report from a special commission will say U.S. intelligence on Iran is insufficient to conclude that Iran has nukes. "The New York Times" reports one person familiar with the panel's work calls intelligence on Iran scandalous.

Here's Boeing's newest 777 flying high on a test flight from Everett, Washington to Seattle. The company says it's the world's longest-range commercial airplane. It can carry, get this, up to 300 passengers on 18-hour flights.

In money news, it's March Madness for General Motors. Dealers say they'll kick off a new promotion tomorrow aimed at boosting sales. It will include $1,000 rebate for vehicles that have been sitting on the lot for more than 120 days.

In culture, do you recognize this guy? Mario is one of the video game stars inducted into the Walk of Game in San Francisco. Atari co- founder, Nolan Bushnell, he's the man behind Pong, also got his own star.

In sports, scalping tickets for the Super Bowl is a given. But now there is word that Minnesota head coach Mike Tice is being investigated for allegedly directing a Super Bowl ticket scalping operation. That's unbelievable.

MYERS: He denies absolutely all of it, Carol, denies it. So the NFL is actually going to look into it, too, with other coaches of Minnesota as well.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: That sounds so nice. Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.

Still ahead on DAYBREAK, former President Clinton says Thursday's surgery is no big deal, but is he right? We'll have more on his prognosis next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A bit of developing news out of Rome. You see that's Gemelli hospital. The pope is just closing his blinds now. But just a second ago, the pope was waving to the crowds outside of the hospital. And that surely is a good sign that the pope is on his way to recovery. In fact, they say he'll be back at the Vatican in time for Easter services. And here you see all of the people gathered around the hospital to watch the pope wave to them.

Former President Bill Clinton will be on the golf course today and under the knife tomorrow. He says follow-up surgery to his heart bypass is no big deal, but is it?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first clues were subtle. During routine exercise near his home in New York, doctors say former President Clinton began to feel the nagging in his chest and shortness of breath.

DR. ALLAN SCHWARTZ, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: He had noticed over the past month or so that on steep hills he was getting winded a bit more easily. At the same time, he was starting to feel a bit of discomfort in his left chest.

GUPTA: A rare complication of fluid and scar built up in the chest will place Clinton back in the operating room on Thursday.

SCHWARTZ: This is not an emergency. This is being done to assure that he is able to continue to maintain a highly active lifestyle and that he's not at all functionally limited by his lung. But this is not a medically urgent procedure.

GUPTA: Even though Schwartz called the procedure elective, it's clear that President Clinton needs the operation. His discomfort due to fluid, which is causing the thin lining outside the lungs, called the pleura, to thicken and collapse.

SCHWARTZ: Left untouched for a long period of time, any collection in the body is potentially could be seeded with infection, although that risk is extremely low. We don't want to leave him with compromise of normal lung function.

GUPTA: So doctors will perform a procedure to shore off those thickened layers and remove fluid, allowing the lung to heal and re- expand. When asked if Clinton's busy schedule, including recent trips to areas devastated by the tsunami, are to blame for his condition, doctors said...

SCHWARTZ: The short answer is no.

GUPTA: And so the president kept his busy schedule and even talked about the procedure.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a routine sort of deal, and it'll knock me out of commission for a week or two, and then I'll be back to normal. It's no big deal. And, you know, I felt well enough to go to Asia to try to keep up with President Bush, and we're going to go play golf tomorrow. So I'm not in too bad a shape.

GUPTA: Doctors do predict a routine operation and recovery, in and out of the hospital in 3 to 10 days.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Clinton and President Bush are going to play golf tomorrow to raise money for the tsunami victims. It goes to show how sick he is.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, New York.

BUSH: Thank you all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: For more on this or any other health story, head to our Web site. The address, CNN.com/health.

Here is what's just ahead in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

The price of fear, why threats rather than supply and demand are driving up gas prices.

Plus, Mount St. Helen's had quite a night last night. We'll take you there live to see how things look this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, here is the picture of Pope John Paul II waving to the crowds outside of his hospital window. You can hear the shouts from down below. This is the third time he's appeared at his window waving to the crowds. As you know, he's recovering from a tracheotomy. And he looks pretty good, actually. We wanted to show you the full picture with the blind open this time, so there he is. Pope John Paul expected to be back at the Vatican in time for Easter services, which is, of course, next week.

Time to read some e-mail now. Our e-mail "Question of the Morning" is about Dan Rather -- Chad.

MYERS: Yes, we have some Ratherisms, as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, we're ready.

MYERS: The "Question of the Day": fond farewell or good riddance for Dan Rather? What goodbye does Mr. Rather deserve?

Some Ratherisms that we came up with, "two hands worth of white knuckles still hanging ten." "It's beginning to get exciting as the Democrats' fingernails are starting to sweat." I never did understand that one.

COSTELLO: It was always fun kind of watching him, waiting for something bizarre to come out of his mouth.

MYERS: Yes, he always...

COSTELLO: That kind of made it more exciting.

MYERS: He always says good ones. I do have a great e-mail here.

COSTELLO: OK.

MYERS: Some of our folks must have been up all night here. This is from Rick (ph) in Pennsylvania. The ode to Dan. He did his best for many years. Not many say the same. The way the end has come about is nothing but a shame. The story right, the memo's wrong, but Carl's (ph) quick to act. It's Dan Rather, he got the gong and America got the shaft.

COSTELLO: That man deserves a DAYBREAK coffee mug.

MYERS: He does.

COSTELLO: This is from Jeff (ph) from Saratoga, California. He says Rather's leaving makes me happier than a spotted calf sitting in the sunshine under a wagon in the tall grass. It does.

MYERS: He made his own Ratherism.

COSTELLO: He did.

MYERS: But, let's see, no answer -- Bussy (ph), Jim (ph), actually, a guy here, says he's kind of full of himself, pretentious, phony and fake. Took himself far too seriously.

You know what, though, I will miss Dan Rather, personally. I always thought that he did his best. Whatever happened at the end of his career is, you know, that's going to be what goes down in the history books, but, whatever.

COSTELLO: Yes, let me read this one quickly. This is from Jeff (ph) from Bowie, Maryland. Cronkite was too kind. Mr. Rather had an agenda and used his position to further it. Good riddance.

We're going to talk a lot more about this in the next hour of DAYBREAK, which starts right now.

MYERS: Fair enough.

COSTELLO: Is fear fueling higher gas prices? The president is expected to talk about his energy policy today. We'll take a closer look at the factors.

And is someone ripping off your retirement funds? Details about a spike in 401(k) theft and what you can do to protect yourself.

And then, Dan Rather says goodbye to a nightly audience, but it's the parting words from his co-workers that may overshadow his farewell.

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