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CNN Live At Daybreak

Evacuation Eased; Japan Quake; Plane Crash Probe

Aired August 16, 2005 - 05:00   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, August 16. The earth rumbles beneath the Land of the Rising Sun. Overnight, an earthquake hits Japan. Skyscrapers sway in Tokyo. And concerns are raised about the safety of the nation's busy rail system.
Back in Washington...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: But this is an Iraqi process. This is not an American process. And...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: The U.S. secretary of state has times have changed in Iraq and democracy takes time.

And in the Jewish settlements of Gaza, anger and anguish over leaving their homes as the deadline for forced evictions inches closer.

And good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello.

We will have much more from Japan in just a moment.

Also ahead, searching for answers in Greece as families identify the remains of loved ones killed in that plane crash.

And up, up and away. We are talking about gas prices, of course. We are at record levels again.

But first, these stories "Now in the News."

A strong earthquake rattles northeastern Japan. The 7.2 magnitude quake struck about six hours ago. About 50 people were hurt, almost half of them at an indoor pool where the roof caved in.

Iraq's National Assembly votes to allow an extra week for drafting the country's constitution. The new draft deadline is now August 22. We will be checking in with Baghdad at the bottom of the hour.

And in Cologne, Germany, World Youth Day events get under way today. Hundreds of thousands of young people are expected from across the world. And security is very tight. Pope Benedict XVI will lead an open-air mass on Sunday. Time to get your first check of the forecast. Chad in Atlanta.

Chad, let me just tell you, it was beautiful getting out this morning. So cool. I thought it was fall.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm glad you said "beautiful," because I was afraid someone was going to say, "It's too cold out there."

WALLACE: I know.

MYERS: Not you. Not you.

WALLACE: I know. We're already complaining.

MYERS: You're not the whiner of the group. She's on "AMERICAN MORNING," filling in for Miles O'Brien today.

Good morning.

Good morning, Kelly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: All right, Chad. Carol's going to be coming after you a bit later this morning.

MYERS: Oh, she knows I always have the violin for her.

WALLACE: Yes, she does. All right, Chad. We'll talk to you in a few minutes. Thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

WALLACE: And now to our top story this hour. The clock is ticking for Jewish settlers to evacuate Gaza. They must be out by midnight tonight local time. That's 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Or they'll be forced out.

Meanwhile, Israeli police made some progress overnight in clearing the way for residents to leave Gaza's largest settlement.

CNN's Guy Raz has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Israeli police have now entered the Neveh Dekalim settlement here in Gush Katif. Overnight, police broke down the main gate leading into this settlement. Yesterday, some 300 demonstrators had obstructed that gate. And police say they've entered the settlement, just about 200 meters into this settlement, in an effort to make sure that moving trucks and containers can enter.

Now, throughout the day some 120 containers and trucks are expected to arrive into this settlement. Police are estimating that some 60 percent of the existing residents will choose to leave by midnight tonight. But there are still many thousands of infiltrators, many of them young people, who have managed to sneak into the settlements over the past several days and weeks in a bid to bolster the defiance.

The Israeli army says it is prepared to deal with all eventualities. For each individual who remains in the settlements, the army will send in four soldiers to evacuate that person.

Guy Raz, CNN, Neveh Dekalim settlement, Gaza.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Now to Japan, which has been rocked by an earthquake and several aftershocks. And this was a big one.

Let's get right to CNN's Atika Shubert, live in Tokyo.

Atika, give us some sense of the damage and the injuries.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kelly, it was a pretty powerful earthquake, as you say, a 7.2 magnitude. And that's pretty big even for a country as earthquake prone as Japan.

Now, fortunately, however, there was no widespread damage caused by this earthquake. The area most effected was an area called Miyagi Prefecture, and that was closest to the epicenter. It's about 80 kilometers away from the epicenter, which was off the coast.

Now, there were about 35 people in that area that were injured, but most of them, it appeared, were from a sports center. A ceiling collapsed, a ceiling over an indoor pool, injuring at least 19 people, one of them seriously.

There were several other isolated incidents of buildings being damaged. More than 100 homes were minorly damaged. One wooden building actually just outside of Tokyo also collapsed. Firefighters and police are now investigating those buildings to see whether or not they're safe enough for people to stay there -- Kelly.

WALLACE: Atika, and I know with this very strong earthquake concerns about a tsunami. What can you tell us about that?

SHUBERT: That's right. As you know, Japan -- "tsunami" is actually a Japanese word because it happens so frequently when it has earthquakes off the coast. And whenever there's a powerful earthquake like this, a tsunami warning immediately goes into effect.

So for a stretch of Japan's northeastern coast earlier this afternoon there was a tsunami warning. Two waves were created, but they were very small. Only about 10 to 20 centimeters. That's about four inches of a wave, actually came onto shore.

So not much of a danger there. Once those waves had come ashore, the tsunami warning was called off. But whenever you have a powerful earthquake like that off the coast, a tsunami warning immediately goes into effect here.

WALLACE: All right, Atika. Thanks for that update.

Atika Shubert reporting from Tokyo.

Turning now to that plane crash on Sunday in Greece. First autopsy results are in, and they suggest some of the 121 victims were unconscious but alive when the plane smashed into a mountain.

Live to our Chris Burns now in Athens with more.

Chris, what can you tell us about the latest on the investigation?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kelly, what we understand now is that many more bodies have been analyzed, but the first six have -- the results have been released, and the coroner here in Athens says that those people who died were alive when the plane crashed. They were breathing, they were alive, but they may have been unconscious.

That may lend credence to the theory generally believed by authorities here that the plane had some catastrophic loss of cabin pressure and oxygen that incapacitated both pilots. But they're continuing to look at that.

And also, the investigation going on in Cyprus, where authorities have raided the offices of Helios Airlines, the owner of that Boeing 737, to take a look at the maintenance records of the plane. It turns out that it is a plane about seven years old, not one of the new ones that Boeing has sold to that airline, and that maybe the maintenance could have been to blame for that. They are looking into that right now -- Kelly.

Oh, meanwhile, this hour, a moment of silence in Greece. There was a ceremony at the crash site with the prime minister there, with the families. And across the country here, a state of mourning today.

Back to you.

WALLACE: Chris, it is such a sad story. And as you were reporting yesterday, so many of the passengers children, as you reported. Many of them headed to a soccer match in Prague.

I want to ask you, though, about those so-called black box, the flight data and voice recorders. We understand they are getting analyzed. But are they in good condition to get any worthy information?

BURNS: Well, that's the question, Kelly. There are two kinds of flight recorders. There's the data and there's the voice recorder.

The voice recorder is said to be in such bad condition -- it was very badly damaged in the crash -- that they may not be able to get anything out of it. And that would have given you the conversations that happened in the cockpit in the last moments before the crash. It does -- it is believed the F-16s that flew alongside that plane to see what was going on said what they saw what they believed to be was a stewardess trying to get control of the plane to try to keep it from crashing as the copilot was slumped over.

And so according to authorities, they believe that they won't be able to get anything from that voice recorder -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And Chris, I wanted to follow up with something we talked about on this show yesterday, that initial report of a passenger text-messaging his cousin saying he was freezing. We now learned that was a hoax? Is that right?

BURNS: It was a -- it was a hoax, and that man is to be charged formally in court today with disseminating false information. That was -- the report from that came through state television, and all the press picked it up, including ourselves. So we've all been victims of that hoax, and he's to be charged today in court.

WALLACE: Yes. Impossible to comprehend how people could jump into a tragedy like this.

All right, Chris. We're going to leave it there.

Chris Burns reporting live this morning from Athens, Greece. We appreciate it.

News "Across America" this morning.

It was a dramatic emergency landing at the U.S. Navy airfield in Norfolk, Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get that down. He's caught the cable. That should stop the aircraft...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Some happy moments after that landing. It is the C2 transport plane that touched down without its landing gear. Instead, it used a catch cable like the ones used on aircraft carriers. All 25 passengers and crew walked away without any injuries at all.

Police in Atlanta, Georgia, are investigating a murder suicide that took place in a hospital intensive care unit. It started when a 71-year-old husband shot and killed his 70-year-old wife. They had been married for more than 50 years. Neighbors say they believe Donald Shields (ph) had become despondent over his wife's condition, but a statement from the hospital and the family said that Beverly Shields (ph) had been recovering.

And firefighters in Washington State have gained the upper hand on several wildfires across that state. The 49,000-acre so-called fool (ph) fire is the only one still not totally contained. That fire has already destroyed more than 100 homes. OK. Brace yourselves for this one: babies as potential terrorists. That's right. They may be cute and irresistible, but airport screeners have stopped some of them from boarding flights. Here's the reason: because their names are on the government's no-fly list.

Frustrated parents say that is boarding on the ridiculous.

Laura Evans of our affiliate station WTTG in Washington, D.C., has one mother's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA EVANS, REPORTER, WTTG (voice over): It takes a bit of patience getting through airport security these days. Shoes off, long lines, a walk through the metal detector. But some passengers don't even make it that far.

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates 30,000 people a day are stopped because their names appear or are similar to those on terror watch lists. It may come as a surprise that among those stopped are infants.

SARAH ZAPOLSKY, MOTHER: And she laughs and goes, "Oh, dear. OK. Well, he's on the no-fly list."

EVANS: Sarah Zapolsky's 11-month-old son was suspect just recently at Dulles. She and her husband and their son were checking in for a flight to Italy when her son's very common name raised some red flags with the gate agent.

ZAPOLSKY: And she was very apologetic, but she's like, "I'm going to need the passport and I'm going to need, you know, to Xerox it and fax it somewhere." And I was pretty stunned. I thought this is -- this is not helping anybody.

TIM SPARAPANI, ACLU LAWYER: I was not surprised.

EVANS: ACLU lawyer Tim Sparapani says the problem is the TSA is focusing on a name-based system rather than a physical security system.

SPARAPANI: That means that anyone with a name that sounds like somebody who could be on a terrorist list is going to be flagged and stopped every time they try to fly. It's really the wrong approach.

EVANS: The TSA says it's working on a new so-called secure flight program to be launched later this year. It is also name-based, but with more information behind the names.

A TSA spokesman says, "We are strongly committed to customer service and the highest level of security. We believe with the secure flight program we'll eliminate these difficulties."

The difficulties for Zapolsky and her family ended within a half- hour after an inspection of the infant's passport and a few phone calls. They did make their way to Italy but were left wondering how effective our system really is.

ZAPOLSKY: If you have all this information and you can't sort of eliminate 11-month-olds, then really it's as much as, like I said, not having any information at all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And that was, Chad, Laura Evans of our affiliate WTTG in Washington. Is something wrong, Chad, investigating an 11-month- old?

MYERS: I don't know. I just -- I just did a Google search on Zapolsky. There are 199 Zapolskys in the United States. They called it a common name. I didn't think that that was that common.

WALLACE: It doesn't sound common to me.

MYERS: So, you know, somebody's named that. That person got that name on that list somehow. And I understand that clearly that they didn't know that the name was on the no-fly list, or they probably wouldn't have named their child that, because he's going to have trouble probably every time he gets on an airplane, right?

They don't give out the numbers. The government won't tell you how many people are on the no-fly list, but it could be anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 different names on that list.

So we want to know from you. That's our e-mail "Question of the Day." A no-fly list: is there a better way to screen passengers? Or -- I mean, because people, I guess, if you really want to get on an airplane you just make up a different name that you know is not on a no-fly list.

You know, it's kind of like locking the doors. That's only for the honest people. We'll see.

Is there a better way? DAYBREAK@CNN.com -- Kelly.

WALLACE: Chad, I am predicting we are going to get some pretty passionate e-mails on this one.

MYERS: I bet we'll get some people that actually got stopped.

WALLACE: I bet. All right.

MYERS: Senator Kennedy -- Senator Kennedy got stopped.

WALLACE: Well, that's exactly -- I was going to bring that up, yes. So he was stopped, Ted Kennedy, on the no-fly list.

All right, Chad. Let's see what e-mails you get.

MYERS: Not him, particularly, but someone with his name.

WALLACE: Not him. Something with his name, yes. Thank you.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: Correct in that.

MYERS: Right.

WALLACE: All right, Chad. We'll talk to you in a few minutes.

Still ahead on this Tuesday edition of DAYBREAK, lots of left turns, high performance, and no slowing down in popularity. We're talking NASCAR as we go beyond the sound bite with some of the best good old boys you'll find behind the wheel.

Plus, how to fight the fat without dieting, surgery or starving. Yes, we all want to know how to do it. European Weight Loss comes stateside. We've got the skinny on this controversial therapy.

And later, what's God got to do with it? Is Hollywood marketing to faithful, or is -- I can't say this -- spirituality -- hello -- far from the big picture? Stick around for that and more.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Let's get a quick check of the international markets for this Tuesday.

Japan's Nikkei closes up 59 points. That is the highest close in four years. Britain's FTSE is trading down nine points. And the German DAX is up almost 20 points.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's about 18 minutes after the hour, and here's what is all new this morning.

A major earthquake jolts Japan. The magnitude 7.2 quake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan, injuring more than 30 people. The tremor caused a roof to collapse at an indoor swimming pool. It knocked out power and started a fire.

Iraqi leaders vote to give themselves an extra week to reach agreement on a new constitution. This after they failed to meet yesterday's deadline. Unresolved issues include power-sharing, oil wealth and Islam's impact on women.

In money, gas prices, get this, are at another record level. That's right. The Energy Department says the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $2.55.

In culture, a group of best-selling authors wants you to name their next characters. Authors, including Stephen King, Norah Roberts and Lemony Snicket are taking bids for the names on eBay. The money goes to the First Amendment Project.

In sports, Phil Mickelson is a major champion once again. He is called "Lefty." And he hit a birdie on the final hole of the rain- delayed PGA championship to take the title by one shot.

He is a happy man, Chad. Did you watch the finals yesterday?

MYERS: You know, I actually -- I forgot that they were on, and, no, I didn't. I just -- you just said it, Phil Mickelson won. I went, "Oh, my gosh! I forgot to watch it."

Anyway, congratulations to him and his second major. Obviously the first one took a lot longer than the first one, as they predicted.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: Chad, if it were not past your bedtime last night, "LARRY KING LIVE," I bet you would have been watching last night. And why is that?

MYERS: Because the NASCAR boys were on.

WALLACE: The NASCAR boys.

MYERS: Yes. In fact, I would have watched because of Rusty Wallace, but there were Jeff Gordon and Kyle Petty were on, and they were all talking to Bob Costas, who was filling in for LKL yesterday, about NASCAR.

WALLACE: Yes. You know -- so let's just take a listen to what those good old boys were saying last night in our "Beyond the Soundbyte" segment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE PETTY, NASCAR DRIVER: You train. You're constantly training.

Obviously, when you get to be 45 or 47, 48, like Rusty and I, you've got to do some physical activity away from the racecar to stay competitive with a Kasey Kahne or a Casey Mears, or some of these young guys that are coming in. But to sit in a car at 120 or 130 degrees or hotter for three or four hours at a time, we really don't have timeouts like you have in other sports.

JEFF GORDON, NASCAR DRIVER: I'll take any athlete in the best shape and put them in that car yesterday. A road course race in hot temperatures is a very demanding race, and it will take two days to recover from it. So, you know, there are days that it's not physically demanding, but those days are usually more mentally -- you know, more mental races more than anything else.

RUSTY WALLACE, NASCAR DRIVER: I'll tell you, nowadays, though, it's not really how strong you are. It's how much you know about the racetrack.

The tracks change a lot. It's about understanding your car, the setups. It's not how fast we can run the 50-yard dash or how strong we are and which weight we can lift. It's understanding that car related to your crew, and do those type of things. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just think it's a team sport. We are a part of the team, just as a quarterback's a part of a team or a lineman's a part of a team. The guy that sweeps the shop, sweeps the floor at the shop, to the guy that assembles the gear and never goes to the racetrack, he's just as important in making Jeff Gordon successful or Rusty Wallace successful or Kyle Petty, whoever. It's a team sport all the way through.

The drivers take a lot of the credit and get a lot of the credit, but they take a lot of the blame, too, sometimes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sport is incredibly popular. There's a set of two teams. There's 43 teams. And all 43 of those teams have all different sponsors and different people that are helping promote their team. So there's an awful lot of money being spent on all these cars, awful lot of excitement going on.

And, you know, I don't understand why there shouldn't be 50 percent of women pulling for NASCAR. And there might be, you know, because the sport is just incredibly exciting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Chad, what did you think?

MYERS: I could have probably watched that all night, I suppose. But I did ask Richard Petty probably, I don't know, a half a year ago, six months ago, how much it costs to put a car on the road. And I said, "Is it $20 million?" And he goes, "Oh, no. It's more than that."

So you've got 43 teams spending $20 million or more per team to get these cars on the road. So there's an awful lot of money in NASCAR.

WALLACE: A lot of money, Chad. And how hot is it? I mean, just listening to those men last night, it sounds like the sport is even hotter now than maybe it was a decade ago.

MYERS: Oh, I'm certain it was. I was doing the pit reporting back in 1993, and we probably had, I don't know, 50,000 people in the stands. Now I think the last brickyard had 200,000 people there, or maybe more than that.

So it's really -- it's growing because I think the fan base is good. There aren't any bad boys yet. I mean, Dale Earnhardt Sr. possibly was the first one. People loved him because of that. But scandals haven't hit NASCAR yet, so, so far, so good with all that stuff.

WALLACE: So far, so good. They're queuing the music, Chad.

MYERS: All right. We're done.

WALLACE: That means I guess we'd better move on. OK. Talk to you in a few. Still to come this morning, we take a ride with U.S. Marines hunting for explosives. It is a rare, close-up look at what the troops face every day in Iraq.

You are watching DAYBREAK for Tuesday, August 16. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MYERS: Getting a few responses this morning, but we need some more. No-fly list, an 11-month-old baby was stopped. It actually eventually got on the plane in time, but stopped because the baby's name was on the no-fly list.

We want to know what you think. Is this working? Is there another way? Is there a better way?

We'll be interested in hearing your comments. Go to DAYBREAK@CNN.com and send us an e-mail -- Kelly.

Chad, time to check out what the late night comics were talking about last night. You might not be surprised to hear this. They were talking about high gas prices. That's right.

MYERS: Of course, for their cams (ph).

WALLACE: Take a listen to what Jay Leno had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Here's some good -- and finally some good news. You might have heard about this. Officials are now backing off the statement that terrorists were planning to use fuel trucks for attacks in major cities. Remember that was on the news?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

LENO: Right. What happened is the fuel price is so high, the terrorists could not afford it. Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

LENO: In Beverly Hills, gas is like $3.45 a gallon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.

LENO: Unbelievable. You know, I heard people complaining about it in line today at Starbucks, where they're waiting to get their $5 cappuccinos.

Well, a neighbor of President Bush's in Crawford, Texas, fired his shotgun in the air twice over the weekend. He was upset about all the protesters and he fired his gun in the air. And President Bush pretty shaken up, because this is, you know, the closest he's ever come to actual combat. So that -- he was pretty upset to hear that...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Ouch.

MYERS: Did you see the picture of that guy that was -- that did shoot the gun?

WALLACE: I did. I love that story.

MYERS: Did you see the case of beer that was sitting right next to the gun?

WALLACE: I missed the case of beer.

MYERS: Yes. Don't try that at home.

WALLACE: Don't try that at home. Keep the two separate from each other.

MYERS: Absolutely, always.

WALLACE: Chad, this is something else that made me feel very old, and it's in our DAYBREAK "Eye Opener" for the day, because today, Chad, the 28th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.

MYERS: Oh, wow.

WALLACE: To mark the solemn day, hundreds of fans showed up for a candlelight vigil last night at Graceland. The walk through the grounds of Elvis' home ending the traditional Elvis Week celebration.

I can't believe it's been 28 years.

MYERS: No, I know. He's been hiding in Kansas City that long.

WALLACE: All right.

Well, imagine a hot dog eating contest -- that's tough to follow, Chad -- without the hot dogs, though. Well, then you would get what they tried in Hong Kong. It was called the Bun Eating Championship. And world champion eater, Chad -- you remember him...

MYERS: Kobayashi.

WALLACE: ... Kobayashi, he was on hand to show them how it is done. He easily won...

MYERS: Look at that face.

WALLACE: ... by eating 100 of the roasted pork buns in just 12 minutes.

MYERS: That guy next to him is going, "What in the world is going on?"

WALLACE: Where do they think of these contests? That's what I want to know. MYERS: Oh, there's the American Federation of Competitive Eating out there now.

WALLACE: That's right. That's right.

MYERS: Oh yes.

WALLACE: OK. Final story.

The panda population is going. A recent count found more than 1,500 of the giant pandas now living in the wild in western China. That is up more than 30 percent over the last count two decades ago. Breeding programs in cities around the world have also added to the number of pandas.

MYERS: So what's the next story we have to do like five years from now? Pandas are decimating the crops, or something like that, right?

WALLACE: Exactly.

MYERS: Because now there's too many of them.

WALLACE: There are too many of them. We can't handle it.

MYERS: No, that's not true.

WALLACE: No.

MYERS: We're not even close to that point.

WALLACE: They're so cute, though.

MYERS: They are. They're awesome.

WALLACE: We always -- we always like the panda stories.

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