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CNN Live Today

New Mine Drama In West Virginia; Iraqi Election Results; Bin Laden Threat; Missing Katrina Victims; Summer Vacation Tips

Aired January 20, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Through the next couple of hours.
Hey, Daryn, good morning.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And before you lost Ted, we lost him from here in Atlanta. So feel your pain.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That's right. That's right.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

KAGAN: Homegrown. Congratulations to him. And you guys have a great weekend in New York City.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Thank you. You too.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. You too.

KAGAN: For the second time in less than three weeks, drama playing out at a West Virginia mine overnight. A fire underground. The search is underway for two miners believed trapped inside. We are expecting an update from rescue officials to begin very soon. And you'll see that live right here on CNN LIVE TODAY.

For now, though, let's check on other stories happening "Now in the News."

The man who knew about the Oklahoma City bombing plot but did nothing is expected to get out of prison today. Survivors and victims families received word this week of Michael Fortier's release. Fortier served most of a 12 year sentence in his plea deal with the government.

New information this morning on a suicide bombing we first told you about yesterday. Israeli officials say that Iran financed the bombing near a bus station in Tel Aviv. They blame Syria, too. Israel's defense ministry says the directions for the attack came from the Islamic jihad headquarters in Syria. More than 20 people were wounded in that bombing.

Japan has again stopped importing U.S. beef, just weeks after lifting a ban. The latest move comes after Japanese inspectors found spinal cords in three boxes of U.S. beef. Japanese officials have asked the U.S. for an explanation. It's not clear how long the import stoppage will last. And look very closely at this. You see some splashing in the water. We are looking at live pictures here from London. Well why we're telling you to look so closely, a whale swimming in, of all places, the river Thames in London. The northern bottlenose whale is the world's deepest diving whale and experts aren't exactly sure what this one is doing -- oh, there you go. Did you see the blow hole come up. Excellent. What the whale's doing there in the river Thames, we're not exactly sure. Neither are the experts. But you can believe we'll be following this story and have more for you in just a bit.

Don't see a lot of whales swimming around London, that's for sure.

Good morning, everyone. It is Friday. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.

It is less than three weeks after the Sago Mine tragedy and a new drama now is unfolding inside another West Virginia coal mine. On the other end of the state, rescue teams are now searching for two miners believed trapped after a fire separated them from their co-workers. A briefing is scheduled for the bottom of the hour. Our National Correspondent Bob Franken has been following this developing story and he joins us from Melville with the latest.

Bob, hello.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the latest is no word yet on the two miners who disappeared overnight.

What happened is about 5:30 p.m. yesterday Eastern, is that the regular shift was going into the Aracoma Mine, which is about a half mine from here. This is in Logan County, about 60 miles south of Charleston, across the state from the Sago Mine where the tragedy happened three weeks ago.

In any case, they went in. They encountered a fire on a conveyor belt. Not an explosion like at Sago. But, nevertheless, something that was causing smoke. They turned their transport around, it's called a man transport, and started heading out. What occurred then, however, is that they ran into smoke that required them to get off, put on their respirators and crawl to safety. Now putting on a respirator is a very complicated task and it's one where a lot of problems can occur. When the 10 got out, they discovered that two of their number had been missing.

So the search began. And before it was through, there were five crews in there. They rotate the crews. They are not putting out the fire. They're not reducing carbon monoxide levels that are not as bad as they were at Sago because that would destabilize the situation. But there has been no chance yet to find the miners. They have not been able to bring in what they called geophones to try and see if they can locate them by audio means. So this search goes on.

Meanwhile, the families are at a church nearby. The governor of the state is here once again paying attention to them, being very carefully with the information he puts out, but coming down to talk to us every once in a while and talk about his time with the families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER BRYANT, DIRECTOR, LOGAN COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES: There are seven mine rescue teams that have been on scene through the night. And we've been providing services to those folks. We brought in about 2,250 gallons of foam fire retardant which is on scene and we're importing that into the mine and have been for some time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And, Daryn, we're going to be getting briefings about every two hours. And you can imagine how careful they're going to be this time given the bitter experience of the last time three weeks ago. What we are going to hope, of course, is that the outcome this time is quite different than it was at the Sago Mine.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Absolutely, Bob, thank you. We'll be checking back in with you. Bob Franken in West Virginia.

Also this morning, we are closely following the plight of a kidnaped American journalist. Michigan native Jill Carroll is facing a deadline from her captors. There's no indication that the U.S. military has met their demands to release all female Iraqi prisoners. Her father today appealed directly to the kidnappers in a statement that aired on the Arabic language network al-Jazeera. Jim Carroll begged that "they not sacrifice an innocent soul." That plea was echoed by Iraqi politician Adnan Al-Dulaimi. He's also the Sunni Arab leader she was on route to interview when she was abducted on January 7th in Baghdad.

Let's get the latest now on Jill Carroll. Also another developing story that is stoking security concerns in Baghdad today. That's where we find our Michael Holmes.

Michael, hello.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, to you, Daryn.

Let's update you now on a very important day in the formation of a democracy here in Iraq. The results of the December 15th election were announced. They were largely, as expected. The United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shia group, got 128 of the seats in this 275 seat parliament. The Kurds got 53 seats. Now, together, that's 65 percent painfully short of the two thirds required to form a government on their own, pick a president, push through reforms and the like. Now comes the difficult job, forming a government that's going to satisfy an often divided population. The key there, the importance of Sunni inclusion. Perhaps a major portfolio for them, perhaps. They got 55 seats.

You mentioned Jill Carroll. Well, the efforts go on to secure her release. As you pointed out, her father appearing on Arabic language television here widely watched in the region. We've had all kinds of religious and secular people coming forward. Iraqis, ordinary Iraqis, calling for her release. Just about everyone saying, it was a mistake and she must be set free.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Michael Holmes live in Baghdad.

Michael, thank you.

Federal law enforcement authorities are urging their local and state counterparts to remain vigilant after the apparent confirmation that Osama bin Laden is indeed the voice on a newly leased audiotape. A lot of coverage during these hours yesterday of the story. The White House says it doesn't plan to raise the nation's terror alert level. Joining us with the latest is our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, at Los Angeles International Airport, the L.A. Police Department will be more visible, but most cities, including the prime targets of Washington, D.C. and New York, are not changing their security postures. Homeland Security officials say the color coded threat level will stay at yellow or elevated because counterterrorism officials have no intelligence to indicate that an attack plan is in motion and because they have not seen an uptick in so-called chatter that sometimes precedes an attack. Tom Ridge, the architect of the color coded warning system, says it is the right decision to stay at yellow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's not news that we're a target. It's not news that he would say publicly that they continue to plan for attacks in the United States. But unless there's a significant amount of additional information that's credible, no, I think his public statement notwithstanding, there's no need to raise the threat level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security put out a bulletin last night to state and local officials and law enforcement urging them to be vigilant and to follow up on any terrorism related leads, but it does not recommend any specific security precautions.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: And, Jeanne, in the past, they never have raised the security level, have they, just in response solely to one of these tapes?

MESERVE: That's correct. They've raised it seven times total. Six times it was in response to very specific, credible intelligence. The seventh time it was raised after the London train bombing and then only for the transit sector. But never has it been put solely on one of these tapes from bin Laden or from one of his deputies.

KAGAN: Jeanne Meserve live for us in Washington, D.C., thank you.

And at the bottom of the hour, we're going to take a closer look at the bin Laden tape and its meaning through the eyes of a terrorism expert from London.

Though right now let's turn to the case of privacy versus protection. It involves Google. The company says it is going to fight a government lawsuit to get the search engine firm to turn over records. Now the government has subpoenaed a list of all search requests for a week. That could work out to tens of millions of searches. Justice Department lawyers want the information to bolster the case for a law that protects children from online pornography. The government petition doesn't seek information on people who do the Googling, but the company believes it would betray its users by giving it to the government.

Rescue teams desperately trying to reach two men believed to be trapped inside of a West Virginia coal mine. We are expecting an update from officials of the mine at the bottom of the hour. So stay with us on CNN for that.

Meanwhile, after a quick break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why not just say, we're never going to be able to find these people?

DR. LEWIS KATALDI (ph), LOUISIANA MEDICAL EXAMINER: Would you want me to give up on your mother? I don't want you to give up on mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The state medical examiner who's fighting incredible odds to help the families of about 3,000 people who are still unaccounted for following Hurricane Katrina.

Also, this is ahead for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had no doubt that it was our father. Wearing a mask and a hat and sunglasses, but we could tell it was him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The other side of the story. You might remember we brought this story to you a few weeks ago. The sons who turned in their father. Well now the father gives as jailhouse interview. You'll hear that and the sons' response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: A mystery to tell you about now. It haunts the Gulf Coast almost five months after Hurricane Katrina. What has happened to thousands of people who are still listed as missing? Now it's possible some of them were missing -- that were missing were washed into Lake Pontchartrain or their bodies are still in the rubble that blankets much of the city. Our Gulf Correspondent Susan Roesgen picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For weeks search teams went into the hardest hit areas. And when they couldn't find bodies, they sent in cadaver dogs. Since the hurricane, more than a thousand bodies have been recovered in Louisiana, yet nearly 3,000 people still are unaccounted for. People like Viola Eaton.

This is the block that Viola Eaton used to call home. Somewhere in here was her house. But now, almost five months after a wall of water flattened this neighborhood, Viola Eaton is still among the missing.

SUSIE EATON, MOTHER MISSING: Not knowing is the thing that is really mind bothering. Not knowing. I need closure.

ROESGEN: Susie Eaton says she needs answers. Louisiana's medical examiner, Dr. Lewis Kataldi (ph), does too. He's asking that search teams be sent back to look again for hurricane victims, focusing on about 400 specific addresses where people are listed as missing.

DR. LEWIS KATALDI, LOUISIANA MEDICAL EXAMINER: You can go into a house and furniture is piled on top of furniture and there's sludge in these houses and you may have thought that you indeed had cleared a house and in reality it wasn't cleared. So we're going to go back and take another look.

ROESGEN: When we told Doctor Kataldi about Susie Eaton's mother Viola, he took notes and promised to help her. With a sample of Susie Eaton's DNA, he might be able to identify one of the bodies at the state morgue that have baffled him for weeks.

KATALDI: I've got about 75 people right now who I have absolutely no clue who they are. I mean, none.

ROESGEN: Kataldi and others believe that most of the people on the missing list have already been found alive but their families have forgot to take their names off the list.

Not Susie Eaton. Doctor Kataldi would like to put her mine at rest.

Why not just say, we're never going to be able to find these people?

KATALDI: Would you want me to give up on your mother? I don't want you to give up on mine. ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And you can catch up with Anderson Cooper tonight live from New Orleans. He'll be with Mayor Ray Nagin. That's "Anderson Cooper 360" tonight at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific. Of course, he immediately follows "Larry King Live."

They are slogging through another soggy day in Western Oregon. Rain has been falling there since the weekend before Christmas. Damage from high winds, floods and mudslides is mounting there. And the governor has declared disasters in 24 of 36 Oregon counties. Forecasters hold out hope for a possible dry spell over the weekend.

To Colorado now, the problem is snow there. Drivers can expect drier, clear roads today. That's after a day-long snowstorm caused rush hour gridlock yesterday. Snow packed roads forced schools in Aspen to cancel classes for the first time this year. But skiers and resort owners cheered as several inches of new powder refreshed the slopes.

Which leads us all to Jacqui Jeras.

Hi, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: And this just in to CNN. Word from the Department of Justice. Major arrests in an ecoterrorism case. Our Kelli Arena has the latest on that.

Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Daryn.

Well, we're told by government officials that 11 people will be indicted on ecoterrorism charges affiliated with the group called Earth Liberation Front. Not all of those people, though, according to at least one source, are in custody right now. But 11 indicted.

They involve arsons in six states on the west coast, Daryn, Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. And at least one of these incidents dates back to 1998. You may remember when the ecoterrorist burned down that upscale ski resort in Colorado in Vail in 1998. A big deal then and so this is something that's been in the works for many, many years. An investigation that's been ongoing.

Sources say that there was some valuable help from an informant from within the group who was able to provide some vital information moving forward. And this sounds like this could be the biggest indictment against this domestic terror group yet. I mean 11 people indicted. I don't remember anything that big, Daryn.

KAGAN: We will look forward to hearing more about that later today.

Kelli, thanks for breaking the story.

ARENA: We will.

KAGAN: Appreciate that.

As Jacqui was telling us just before, it's winter. You know that. It's cold. At least in some places it is. And that means the perfect time to start day dreaming about the summer vacation. Gerri Willis is coming along to tell us about some good bargains that are out there already. We'll be with her coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The markets have been open about 52 minutes. It is not a pretty Friday out there. As you can see, the Dow is down 84 points. The Nasdaq also headed south. It is down about 14 points at this hour.

Let's forget the markets and the bad weather. Let's talk about getting away. Let's start daydreaming about summer vacation plans. Why not, especially if you want to get a good deal. Gerri Willis tells us now is the time to start shopping.

Hey, Ger.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn. Good to see you.

This is one of my favorite topics, travel. It's time to start thinking about summertime. You know the best ways to shop is go online. There are lots of great Web sites. You probably already know Expedia, Orbitz. You've been there.

But here's another idea. There are lots of packages coming from the hotels and the airlines these days but you have to go to their Web sites to find them. Of course you'll want to compare them with everything out there. But, Daryn, if you don't do the complete search, you really don't know what's available to you.

KAGAN: Well, let's talk about getting there first.

WILLIS: OK.

KAGAN: Because it seems like air fares are getting kind of expensive.

WILLIS: You're right. And they're supposed to get . . .

KAGAN: Even more expensive, I should say.

WILLIS: You bet. Up 10 percent over last year is what the experts are saying we're going to be experiencing. And here's something you got to be really carefully of. If you don't book two months ahead this summer, you could find yourself paying prices that are double the going rate. So you definitely want to book ahead. Book early.

Here's the good news, though. There is good news in this scenario. The discount carriers are expanding their services to new cities. JetBlue, for example, going to the Bahamas. AirTran Atlanta to Seattle. So, Daryn, if you want to go to Seattle. Spirit's going to Jamaica.

KAGAN: To get rained on.

WILLIS: A lot.

KAGAN: Yes.

WILLIS: So, you know, there are other options. You don't have to stick with the same old, same old airlines. You can really branch out and make some broader comparisons.

KAGAN: Yes. And, by the way, Seattle, I love your city. It is beautiful. I don't care if it's raining. It is gorgeous.

WILLIS You're getting some letters now.

KAGAN: Well, I love my west coast from north to south.

WILLIS: That's great.

KAGAN: All right, let's talk about where you stay. Think outside the box of the hotel box.

WILLIS: Yes. You know, hotels are getting more and more expensive. You might want to rent a house. That's always a great idea. And let me tell you, you can get a deal by offering just to do a little work. Let's say you're a photographer. Maybe you could take pictures for the owner that they could use in their own promotional literature.

KAGAN: All right.

WILLIS: Maybe write a little ad copy, if you're a writer. There are ways of getting a discount. The easiest way is to book more than seven days. Book a really long stay and then negotiate for the lower rate. A couple of great Web site you want to check out, though, if you're going to rent a house, and you need to get on it soon, ownerdirect.com. And here's my favorite, vamoos.com (ph).

KAGAN: That's a great name.

But if you are interested in staying in a hotel, what are some tips for that?

WILLIS: Well, hotels are going to be much more expensive. Six percent higher over last year. And, let me tell you, in New York City here they're going through the roof. If you want to come to New York, I don't know what you do. You suspend yourself from a ceiling somewhere it's so expensive. But you can shop around on the web. Again the web is your friend to make price comparisons. We want to show you some of our favorite Web sites here, quickbook, travelpost, hotelchatter. Now I've used quickbook myself. And the great thing about that Web site is they give you customer reviews and they're often very up-to-date. So if there's been some major improvement or not so much an improvement at a location, you're going to find out about it.

KAGAN: Great sites. I've never heard of any of those.

WILLIS: Great.

KAGAN: What about cruising?

WILLIS: Cruising. OK. The big story there . . .

KAGAN: I mean on a boat, you know, just to be clear what I think of as a vacation.

WILLIS: Exactly. Ships, as they call them.

KAGAN: Yes.

WILLIS: They call them ships. If you want a cruise, the big story there has been that it's been cheaper, cheaper, cheaper because there's such a glut in the industry. Well, they're working off some of that excess, but you can still get a deal, particularly for destinations like Hawaii, Mexico and the Caribbean where there is still a ton of ships out there floating around. A couple of great Web sites that you want to check out there as well. Comparecruises.com is a great one to start with. You know, I still believe in the web for really shopping for vacation destinations. Ways to get there. It really, you know, shortens your search time and gives you lots of ways to find great deals.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Gerri, I believe in getting up Saturday mornings and watching "Open House."

WILLIS: Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that. 9:30 a.m. Saturday mornings, we'll talk about all kind of fun topics, including this week we're looking at plasma TVs. The Super Bowl is coming up. Do you need one of those? We'll tell you how to choose one.

KAGAN: Does anybody need a plasma TV? You might want one.

WILLIS: They're cool. They're cool.

KAGAN: They are. No, they're beautiful. But I don't think they need . . .

WILLIS: Yes. Well, you know, some people say, usually fellows, let's face it.

KAGAN: Yes, that's true. WILLIS: You know.

KAGAN: They do need it.

Thank you.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Still ahead, a lot more news, including the most wanted man in the world resurfacing in an audiotape that was released yesterday. What is the underlying message from Osama bin Laden? A terrorism expert weighing in when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

Also, we're expecting a news conference from Melville, West Virginia. This is where there has been another incident inside of a coal mine. Two men believed to be trapped inside this time. CNN will bring you that news conference live when it happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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