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CNN Live Sunday
Gay Bar Attack Suspect Dies; More Protests in Middle East over Cartoons; Deadly Jail Riot in California; Super Bowl Excitement; Alberto Gonzales Will Testify Tomorrow
Aired February 05, 2006 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Protests spread across the Muslim world sparked by outrage over newspaper cartoons. We've got an update on the situation.
Following recent deaths from bird flu, do we know any more about the virus?
Plus millions of dollars could be up for grabs on this Super Bowl Sunday, but not all that money is bet on the Steelers or the Seahawks. We'll tell you where some of it is going in about 20 minutes from now.
Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All of that and more after this check of the headlines.
More is being revealed today about what led to the shooting death of the 18-year-old man suspected of going on a gun-and-hatchet rampage at a gay bar in Massachusetts. Arkansas officials say Jacob Robida was shot last night during a gun battle with Arkansas police. Officials say Robida was shot after shooting and killing his female companion in the car, as well as a police officer. We'll have live reports from Arkansas and Massachusetts straight ahead.
New picture of the dramatic rescue efforts in the Red Sea where a ferry sank on Friday. More survivors were pulled from the water this weekend. About 400 people have been rescued, 195 bodies have been recovered and about a thousand people are feared dead. The ferry capsized in windy weather after a fire broke out below deck.
This urgent security alert from Interpol. The man identified as the mastermind of the deadly attack on the USS Cole in October of 2000 has escaped from a Yemeni prison. Interpol says Jamal Ahmed Badawi escaped Friday with 22 other prisoners, many of them convicted al Qaeda fighters.
Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont collapsed today during the funeral for a Vermont national guardsman killed in Iraq. Emergency technicians attended to Sanders for about a half an hour. He then walked unassisted to the ambulance and told reporters he felt fine.
And security is tight in and around Ford Field in Detroit, the site of Super Bowl XL, which kicks off in about two and a half hours. Battling it out, the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll have a live report from Detroit, coming up.
Up first, that all-out surge for a teenager wanted in a bloody rampage at a Massachusetts gay bar, ending in a hail of bullets. Jacob Robida was spotted in Arkansas, a shootout that ensued and in the end, three people were dead.
CNN's Ceci Rodgers has been following all the developments from Mountain Home, Arkansas. Ceci?
CECI RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening -- afternoon, I should say. We just finished with a news conference with officials here in Baxter County, Arkansas, and they told us that because there's an ongoing criminal investigation, there are probably still more questions than answers as to why Jacob Robida was with his 33-year-old companion.
They're assuming, a sort of belief, that these two might have had a relationship, but they haven't confirmed that. What they have confirmed is that is Robida who turned the gun on his companion in that final standoff yesterday, just a few miles from here.
He shot her and then opened fire on police and they opened fire on him -- and then overnight at the hospital, he, of course, died. Mr. Robida had made it through three different blockades. The police tried to catch him three different times after he was stopped for routine traffic stop.
All the evidence seems to point to the fact that he might have been speeding and was pulled over, but he shot the officer when the officer came to the driver's side window. He fled the scene and then came across three other officers, two who shot at him trying to hit him, trying to hit Mr. Robida. And then the third roadblock was a strip across the highway to puncture his tires and that is ultimately what led to him stopping in North Fork, Arkansas.
The officers here said that speeds of up to 90 miles-per-hour at the beginning of the chase had slowed to about 30 miles-per-hour at the end of chase. The sad fact for these officers is that one of their own, of course, was downed in this whole tragic chain of events yesterday. Officer Jim Sell who was a retired police officer from Blytheville, Arkansas, a 24-year veteran there and a captain there, he was working every other weekend here in this area, just to keep his hand in law enforcement. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, terrible ending. Thank you so much, Ceci Rodgers there in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Well we're learning some new details about Jacob Robida. CNN's Allan Chernoff is in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where all of this began. Allan, what's being learned?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, CNN has been messaging with a person with whom we're confident in fact is a friend of Jacob Robida. And he does give a little bit of insight into his tragic end.
Let's go to the graphics and you can see. The person writes, "I saw him a week before he did this and he was himself, being respectful in my house and nice to my family. He said he was just proud of who he was." She continues, "He could have been a good person if he would have kept coming by, but he had problems and hung out with the wrong people who were really racist," and this is the spelling of the writer, "And homophobic. Jake had gay and black friends, but these people would always talk about killing black people and laughing about it. Really, they could never hurt anyone because they are too afraid to do anything. I think they helped him plan it and even now they think what he did was right."
By the way, the police are investigating that possibility that there may have been some other people involved in the assault at the gay bar in New Bedford. She continues, "He threw his life away because he was alone and people made him believe this was his only escape." So, Fredricka, again, a little bit of insight into the tragic life of Jacob Robida. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: In the meantime, Allan, what if anything, is being learned about some of the victims who were injured during that attack. How are they doing?
CHERNOFF: Well, as we've reported, one of the victims was released from the hospital and he's getting along fine although he does have some severe wounds, slash to the face and also bullet wounds in his back. Incredible that he survived because the bullet went right through his back, right near the spine and exited just below the left shoulder. Two other victims, though, remain hospitalized and we understand one remains in critical condition. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: Allan Chernoff, thank you so much from New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Well Muslim rage ignited and spreading like wildfire in the Middle East. New developments today in the growing dustup over cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. More protests in Muslim nations, this time in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Iraq's transportation minister has severed contracts with Danish and Norwegian companies. Danish and Norwegian newspapers published the controversial cartoons. Norway's troops left Iraq last year, but Denmark has more than 500 still there helping coalition forces. Denmark and Norway are urging their citizens to leave Syria after demonstrations there Saturday turned violent. Danes are also being advised to leave Lebanon.
Despite calls for restraint, protests over the cartoons in Beirut escalated into fights, pitting Muslims against Christians, reviving unsettling memories for some of the civil war that once rocked that city. Our Brent Sadler is in Beirut with the latest on the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The domino effect of Muslim rage in the Islamic world. Smoke rises from a Beirut building that houses the Danish consulate, the prime target of protest, sparking a pitched battle lasting hours. Hundreds of security forces both police and army failed to contain demonstrators who'd massed in central Beirut and then stormed the high-rise building. Setting fire to the ground floor, flames spreading as demonstrators went on the rampage.
Tear gas and water cannon, ineffective in holding back the protesters. Events in Beirut came just 24 hours after a less violent protest destroyed the Danish Embassy in Damascus, capital of neighboring Syria.
Denmark has been a focus of Muslim outrage in a battle that's unexpectedly turned global, pitting the principle of press freedom against that of religious honor. It's not only Danish prestige that's being hit, there's a growing financial penalty, too.
Iraq has now joined a growing Muslim boycott of Danish products and expertise, a transport ministry announcement coinciding with anti- Danish street protests. The Danish government warns that extremists are adding fuel to a raging fire.
PER STIG MOLLER, DANISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, misinformation and misunderstandings on both sides have been allowed to nourish those forces that seek to promote confrontation.
SADLER (on camera): The wildfire protests by Muslims defending the image of their prophet Mohammed skewed in another direction here, degenerating into violent clashes between Christians and Muslims.
(voice-over): It followed the stoning of a Maronite Catholic Church, triggering more ugly confrontation in a city once destroyed by religion-fueled civil war. Both Christian and Muslim leaders appealed for calm.
SAAD HARIRI, LEBANESE LEGISLATOR: What happened today in Beirut and especially to the Christian community is something that is totally unacceptable and we are one people and we will not let this thing go by.
SADLER: A red line that peacemakers on both sides of Lebanon's divide say they are anxious not to cross. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All 21,000 inmates in Los Angeles County's jail system are locked down after racial tensions sparked a deadly riot. Violence broke out at a jail in Castaic yesterday. CNN's Kareen Wynter is there with details on the riot and the extreme measures taken to keep the inmates apart. Kareen?
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, good evening. Well we can tell you that there are several jails actually here at the North County Correctional Facility. Two of them remain on lockdown. That means the inmates aren't allowed to go out for extracurricular activities, they're not allowed any visitors following yesterday's deadly melee. Officials say at least 2,000 inmates were involved in that, dozens were injured although no law enforcement officials. We also, Fred, have more information on that one fatality involving a 45-year- old prisoner here who has now been identified as Wayne Robert Tiznor, again, 45-years-old. He was an L.A. resident, arrested just last month for failing to register as a sex offender.
There will be an autopsy done on this, but preliminary assessment shows that he perhaps died of blunt trauma. Now as things stand right now, there are several other facilities on this ground here. People have been coming all day.
Some people concerned who hadn't heard about this yesterday, Fred, wondering if their loved ones are OK. I spoke with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Backa yesterday who said that the racial tension that they've been experiencing here at this facility within the last several weeks, perhaps spurred this attack. Here's more from Sheriff Backa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE BACKA, SHERIFF, LOS ANGELES COUNTY JAIL: Each of the disturbances that we've had today are similar to the ones in the past. It's all divided on racial lines. The Latinos, in this case, have the upper hand in the sense that they're outnumbering the African- Americans two-to-one. So that's their motive. It's a racial turf war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WYNTER: Officials were also -- they received a letter they believe that was written before this attack, spelling out in quite detail the request by an inmate to be separated here. Hispanics outnumber black inmates two-to-one.
There's also an issue of overcrowding here, so that's another piece of evidence, Fred, that they're examining right now to see if perhaps that may have led to yesterday's attack. Additionally, it's against the law to separate inmates based on their ethnicity or race, but the sheriff said that's one thing they may have to look into just because it's been so tense here and there's quite an issue of safety. Fred?
WHITFIELD: Kareen Wynter, thank you so much.
OK, all you football fans, Super Bowl kickoff in Detroit is just hours away and after the break, we'll take you live to the Motor City to see how fans and players are revving up for the big face-off. Plus, super Sunday is a day for super wagers, but not all the fans place their bets on the actual game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL KRACKOMBERGER, SUPER BOWL GAMBLER: Will the B.K. man in the commercials, the king, score a touchdown during one of the commercials? Absolutely. He's absolutely going to score a touchdown. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Football talk coming up next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with a look at your cold and flu report for Sunday. As we check out the map we can show you states across the nation that have been reporting outbreaks of the flu so far this season.
You'll find widespread activity across Texas and further north, sporadic outbreaks in Louisiana and other parts of the south. No activity? Well you can't find that anywhere across the country. Most states are reporting sporadic or regional outbreaks of the flu so far this season. That's a look at your cold and flu report for Sunday. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, the wait is just about over. In just about two hours from now, Super Bowl XL gets underway in Detroit with the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers going head-to-head in the biggest game of the year. CNN sports anchor Larry Smith joins us now from the lovely and cold Motor City. Larry?
LARRY SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Fredricka -- thankfully this game will be played indoors because it is very chilly, as we expected. We were spoiled all week with the weather, but it's gotten much worse today. I can tell you this, Pittsburgh fans are really out in force. The city just a four and a half hour drive away. A friend of mine sent me a text message just a short time ago from a local establishment and said that Steelers fans outnumber Seahawks fans 50- 1.
Let's talk about those Steelers though. The Jerome Bettis, what a week it's been for him, 13-year veteran, went on his entire career, fifth all-time leading rusher to finally get to a Super Bowl and now here he is in his hometown, trying to bring home Pittsburgh's fifth Super Bowl championship of all-time and trying to get it down versus Seahawks.
On the other side, it is maybe the best running back in the game today. Shaun Alexander for the Seattle Seahawks. He was the league's most valuable player this season with over 1,800 yards and set an NFL rushing record with 28 rushing touchdowns. As he goes, so go these Seahawks, who were 13 and three during the regular season and won a couple of games at home to get to here, their first-ever Super Bowl appearance.
Now talking about the weather. It has been very cold. A couple of inches of snow dropping late last night and that made things a little testy coming in. The roads, it appears, are very clear, at least it was for us from our hotel and around here in the downtown area. But very chilly wind, but it is not taking anything out of these fans.
Both these teams, cold-weather cities, and the fans, really the weather hasn't phased them at all. They're walking out in force, thousands are roaming the streets of downtown as again, they get ready for kickoff here in a couple of hours. Fredricka, let's go back to you.
WHITFIELD: Why am I not surprised? They are die hards. If they've got tickets to go to the Super Bowl, they can endure anything. Larry Smith, thanks so much.
All right, well as Larry said, Monica McNeal in the Weather Center. These folks don't care about any stinking snow in Detroit.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: All right, well snow is not bad. It's always very pretty in the southeast as long as you're inside. All right, thanks a lot.
Coming up, the big game with big bets on just about anything. We'll have all the odds straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It is Super Bowl Sunday and chances are you or someone you know has a stake in tonight's outcome. But who's going to win by what isn't the only thing gamblers are wagering on. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on prop betting. It's the game within the game.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Las Vegas casinos call Super Bowl Sunday the biggest betting day of the year. The Pittsburgh Steelers are favored to win, but gambler Bill Krackomberger isn't interested in those odds.
KRACKOMBERGER: What's the first song the Rolling Stones is going to sing for the Super Bowl half-time show? I bet "Start Me Up." I think it's a positive song and everyone will -- actually it's the favorite now.
KAYE: Krackomberger is putting his money down on proposition wagers, bets placed on anything having to do with the game, other than the actual outcome. A popular prop bet is the coin toss, 50/50 odds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is tails, Philadelphia won the toss.
KAYE: Or who will score the first touchdown. There are even bets on commercials.
KRACKOMBERGER: Will the B.K. man in the commercials, the king, score a touchdown during one of the commercials? Absolutely. He's absolutely going to score a touchdown.
KAYE: By the end of the fourth quarter, Krackomberger says he'll have placed at least 60 different bets.
KRACKOMBERGER: Something that jumps out on this piece of paper on the props that I've seen is will Seattle score a touchdown on the reverse? The Seahawks have not scored a touchdown ever in their history on a reverse. So I've seen that one right away and I pounced on that one.
KAYE: Robert Walker is the director for sports betting at top hotels in Las Vegas.
ROBERT WALKER, MGM/MIRAGE: It's a game within a game.
KAYE: His casinos offer about 200 different prop bets. Walker says prop bets are so popular they've become synonymous with the Super Bowl.
WALKER: It's exploded and it's become the biggest thing. You know, there's some books in the city right now, that 50 percent of the handle is on the props.
KRACKOMBERGER: Ten years ago you come to Vegas, you'd watch it, you'd pay for $110 to $100, watch it, and hope you have a winning ticket. Now you can do everything on the Super Bowl and these prop bets are definitely a fun part.
KAYE: But it's not all fun and games. Rick Benson is a counselor and a former addict who worries that prop bets create moment-by-moment excitement that can lead to addiction.
RICK BENSON, RECOVERING GAMBLING ADDICT: Could that crystallize for me the addiction and move me from that place of being a problem gambler to that place of being a pathological gambler? Certainly. That's -- there's potential in that.
KAYE: But for Krackomberger and his friends, prop betting is an annual event.
KRACKOMBERGER: We need some luck.
KAYE: Their wagering is here to stay. Randi Kaye, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Domestic spying, it's raised all sorts of debate and this week hearings kickoff on Capitol Hill into the legalities of eavesdropping. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux will join us live from the White House with a preview from there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now in the news, Interpol says the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing has escaped from a Yemeni prison. Jamal Ahmed Badawi and 22 other inmates fled through an underground tunnel Friday. At least 13 are convicted al Qaeda terrorists, 17 U.S. sailors died in the USS Cole attack back in 2000. Protesters furious over published newspaper cartoons of the prophet Muhammad torched the Danish Consulate in Beirut today. Street clashes erupted between Muslims and Christians. Officials say at least 18 people were injured. Denmark is recommending its citizens to leave Lebanon. Lebanon's interior minister resigned after the violence.
The teenager suspected of attacking three men at a gay bar has died after a shootout with police. Police say 18-year-old Jacob Robida died at a Missouri hospital earlier today. He was captured in Arkansas yesterday. Police say he then shot dead a woman in his car and a police officer who had stopped his vehicle.
The countdown is nearly over. Super Bowl XL kicks off in just under two hours from now in Ford Field in Detroit. The Pittsburgh Steelers are taking on the Seattle Seahawks. It's the Steelers' sixth Super Bowl the first for the Seattle Seahawks.
Preparing for grilling from Congress tomorrow, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is to testify before a Senate committee over the government's controversial domestic spying program. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us from her post. Suzanne, what are we expecting to hear tomorrow?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fred, we expect to hear very much of the same that we've heard from the president and the White House, really a part of that very aggressive campaign to defend this domestic spying program what the administration likes to call the terrorist surveillance program. Of course, tomorrow all eyes are going to be paying very close attention to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales when he takes the hot seat.
Of course he is going to argue that the program is lawful and necessary. He will call it an essential element of our military campaign against al Qaeda, essentially making the case here, the 1978 law that requires the president to go before the four intelligence surveillance court to tell them to get a warrant before listening in on Americans. Gonzales essentially will say that the president did not need to do that and that he was within his authority to do so. The one big question, of course, that he is going face this coming from the Republican in charge of those hearings, here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: Why the administration did not go to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and tell them about the program? They have a great record for not leaking. They're experts in the field. The program could have been presented there, still could be and I think that's the biggest question the administration has to answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So Senator Arlen Specter definitely plans to ask that as one of his first questions of Alberto Gonzales and, of course, part of that as well, we expect that Gonzales will say that the president has the constitutional and legal authority to carry out the administration's secret surveillance in part, at least from Congress's authorization to go to war, to go after al Qaeda after September 11th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPECTER: I believe that contention is very strained and unrealistic. The authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: And, of course, the FISA Court actually does allow for a 72-hour grace period, if you will to go ahead and do that secret surveillance initially and 72 hours later get that warrant afterwards, but Gonzales will make the case that it is a process that is to cumbersome, that it is too slow. That there's still a number of steps that they have to go through, rather, in order to make that happen and they will give more details about that, but, Fred, of course, the big question here is the politics of all of this, just how damning this will be to the administration.
WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thanks so much.
The other big question is whether the president had the authority to authorize those wiretaps without a warrant. Let's bring in an expert. Jonathan Turley is a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, good to see you, Jonathan.
JONATHAN TURLEY, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Or professor, should I say. All right. Well point- blank, as Suzanne underscored, the U.S. attorney general is likely to be asked is it necessary? Is it lawful? He will testify according to documents at that CNN has obtained, yes on both fronts. Do you agree with him?
TURLEY: I don't. I testified in the House hearing held by Democratic members a couple of weeks ago and I was asked the same question. I have to be blunt. I think the arguments being made that the president has this authority are legally absurd. Meaning it is absurd to argue that the force resolution gave him this authority, but more importantly what the president is arguing here is what the administration's argued in the past that the president has the inherent authority to trump or even violate federal law.
That was the argument made earlier with regard to the torture memo, the infamous memo that they later rejected, with enemy combatants. Most recently the president when he signed the torture prohibition said he reserved the right to violate that law. It's a very dangerous and, frankly, destabilizing notion in our system, which is based on, limited and shared powers.
WHITFIELD: So, Congress is going to say, wait a minute. We're the ones who make law. So how is it the White House will think on any uncertain terms that Congress as a whole will be supportive of what it's doing? TURLEY: Well this is really going to test the Republicans in the House and Senate and whether they will hold to the constitution or to loyalty to the president. There was a bizarre moment in the State of the Union when the president said, you know, I ordered this program and I'm going to do it again. This is a program that violates the federal law that these members enacted and they gave him a standing ovation. It's something I think the framers would never have anticipated.
But it's going to be a real test of principle in my view and the pressure is on the Democrats as well because there's a lot of concern that there's been no effective opposition on this. The overwhelming majority of experts in this field have said that this dog won't hunt, that there is not a legal argument supporting the president in this case and that indeed what he did is a federal crime.
WHITFIELD: Well, is it your feeling that in terms of the Democrats it's a little too late and maybe perhaps too little overall? What we're hearing already according to "Time" Magazine that some Senate Democrats and the Judiciary Committee, Republican Chairman Arlen Specter we saw earlier in that tape have fired off nine letters to the Justice Department and to the White House demanding that information on this domestic spying program be revealed. How much more should or could they do?
TURLEY: I have to tell you, I believe the Democrats have been -- it's almost bizarre how little activity there's been. This is the only major lead team that seems to want to win the pennant by never leaving the dugout. Here you've got both Republicans and Democrats denouncing this as a crime. The proper response of Democratic senators is to refuse to pass business through the Senate, to refuse to cooperate. If they believe as many people do, that the president has ordered federal crimes you can't come up with anything more serious than that.
And so, what a lot of people are wondering is why the Democrats have been doing all these sort of relatively passive gestures when the White House is out there trying to frame this debate and being very, very aggressive. I've got to tell you, I've been in this city a long time and I just don't understand it. I don't know what's happening in the Democratic Senate.
WHITFIELD: All right. Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University. Thank you so much.
TURLEY: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well there is no shortage of stories and conspiracy theories about the National Security Agency because it is shrouded in such secrecy, but here are a few things we do know for sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The national security agency is the branch of American intelligence dedicated to cryptology. It designs codes to protect U.S. government information and communications. It works to break codes used by the nation's adversaries. The agency uses some of the world's most advanced technology since its founding in 1952, the NSA has helped coordinate military maneuvers in the Korean War, helped monitor Soviet communications during the Cold War and more recently tracked cell phone chips to identify the September 11th hijackers.
One more thing about the NSA you may not know. The agency says its efforts in developing small storage devices helped lead to the creation of the taped cassette. NSA headquarters is in Fort Meade, Maryland. It was moved there in 1957 amid fears that Washington would be hit in a nuclear war.
At Fort Meade and in the posts around the world, the agency employs mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, linguists and others. The employees are about half civilian and half military. The agency won't disclose its budget or say how many employees it has, but it says if it were a corporation, it would be among the Fortune 500's top 50.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A crew member aboard the packed ferry that went down in the Red Sea has told investigators the ship continued its journey even though a fire alarm rang shortly after it left the port on Thursday. CNN's Paula Hancocks is at the Egyptian port and filed this report by videophone.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VIA VIDEOPHONE): Many relatives have started to leave the port of Safaga here expecting the worst. It's been three days that they have been here and still have no word on their relatives. There are around 1,000 people still unaccounted for and feared dead. The waters here are very cold if in February, about 60 so it's unlikely many would be able to survive for three days.
There are still a few hundred relatives here just waiting in case many of them, though are getting on to buses to go up to Cairo, about 500 kilometers north of here where they will be able to go to the morgue and collect the bodies of their loved ones. Also this Sunday they did start to give out food and water. This is from a charity that started to give out food and water. The first that we have seen in the three days we've been here. And this is one of the reasons that many relatives have been so angry. They feel they've been left out here without shelter and without food and without water and they say without very much information as well.
We are hearing some information about the investigation itself, though. The investigators were briefing with one of the crewmembers that survived the sinking of the ferry this Sunday morning and he said that the fire alarm sounded at 9:00 p.m. local time just after it left the port of Dubai, which is western Saudi Arabia, and it was on its way here in Egypt. The captain made the decision to press on even though they were quite close to the Saudi Arabian coast and they say the fire then took hold according to the transport minister in the mechanics room.
That's when thick smoke started and a lot of the passengers rushed to the deck looking for lifeboats and looking for life jackets and that, they say is when the boat sank.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Safaga, Egypt.
WHITFIELD: Since the deaths of children in Turkey from bird flu, does the medical world know anything more about the disease? I'll talk to an expert about what we know or should know at this point.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: New developments in the battle against the bird flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received FDA approval for a new avian flu test. It can determine if a person has bird flu within four hours. Other tests can take up to three days.
A teenager has died of the bird flu in Iraq. British officials confirm the 15-year-old Iraqi girl who died last month had the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. It's the first confirmed human case in Iraq and the discovery of an ill swan is raising fears that the bird flu may have spread from Turkey to Bulgaria. The swan was found in the Danube River. Tissue samples are being sent to Britain to determine if the bird suffered from the deadly strain.
A new book called "Bird Flu, Everything You Need to know about the Next Pandemic" details the threat of the virus. The author Dr. Marc Siegel joins us now from New York. Good to see you, Dr. Siegel.
DR. MARC SIEGEL, AUTHOR, "BIRD FLU, EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEXT PANDEMIC:" Hello Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: When we talk about this bird flu strain, h5n1 possibly migrating from country to country are we looking at the big picture and saying that it's evident that it could migrate to this continent as well?
SIEGEL: Well of course the main issue is that it is primarily still a bird disease and it is spreading, but there's no sign that h5n1 has gotten closer to where it would do a big mutation and actually go easily human-to-human. In terms of your question how it would get here, we would have to have a specific flyaway bird, fly over Siberia and bring it to Alaska. That would be the most likely way, but that is not that likely. It is not a typical migratory pattern, though it is possible.
WHITFIELD: Now you mentioned just a second ago that it doesn't appear to be mutating but there are reports in some of these various countries that it does seem to be a different strain that some of the victims are encountering. Is that true? Does that mean that overall there is some mutation?
SIEGEL: Let me clarify that, Fredricka. Flu viruses change all of the time and they're always mutating and you know, it's not clear whether this one is changing to a form that is going more casually human to human because we don't know the whole spectrum of this disease even as far back in 1997. We can't tell how many people have been exposed it and have never really gotten sick. It actually seems right now that there are more cases of people who aren't getting as sick with it.
Whether that means that virus has changed, we're just scrutinizing this more it's hard to say, but the key point is it doesn't seem to be passing easily human-to-human at this point. These are still scattered cases.
WHITFIELD: What seems to be the common denominator with some of the Asian countries, Turkey and now Iraq since those are the documented places that have reported cases?
SIEGEL: Well, people really need to understand that there's a culture there where birds are carried around in cages and ducks are together with chickens. You know if a bird dies it's not necessarily removed from the cage and chickens are walking the streets and they're pets of people and they're very commonly exposed to these birds. So the CDC is saying that most cases, if not all, still appear to be bird to human contact and it's easy to understand that because of such great contact between birds and people in this culture.
WHITFIELD: So the title of your book "Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic." So you're almost certain that it's imminent.
SIEGEL: No, I don't think that. I think that what I'm really trying to say is that at some point there's going to be another pandemic. We don't know if it will be mild, we don't know if it will be severe. We don't know if it is h5n1, this particular virus, but there's a very good reason for governments around the world to be preparing for a future pandemic, to be improving their cooperation and getting hospitals prepared and upgrading how we make vaccines using 21st century technology is still important because we're still using vaccines that were investigated 5 0 years ago. These are things that have to happen but I don't want the public to get the message that something is imminent. It does not appear to be.
WHITFIELD: And so far speaking of vaccines, the most effective vaccine on the market is Tamiflu. Why wouldn't this country stockpile it?
SIEGEL: Well first of all Tamiflu is not a vaccine, it's an anti- viral drug and it's useful if you actually have flu of any kind within the first 24 to 48 hours. There is a good idea for governments to be stockpiling it but only against the worst-case scenario. Our government is planning on stockpiling it. But again, if we stockpile too much of it I'm against personal stockpiles because then you may be inclined to use it when you don't need it.
WHITFIELD: And the issue of the strains possibly changing again.
SIEGEL: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Marc Siegel thank you so much and the book is "Bird Flu Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic."
SIEGEL: My pleasure. WHITFIELD: In Seattle, fierce winds forced the city to shut down its floating bridge for the first time in almost seven years. The bridge takes passengers across Lake Washington. It reopened to traffic earlier today. The winds also downed trees and power lines across western Washington and Oregon. Winds gusted up to 78 miles an hour at least, 160,00 homes and businesses are now in the dark.
In Lunenburg, Massachusetts's police say a 7-year-old boy was mauled to death by a neighbor's dog. The boy died at the hospital. Police say he was playing in the neighbor's yard when he was attacked by their English Mastiff. No charges have been filed against the dog's owner.
In Arkansas, an apparent crime of passion is caught on tape at a Wal-Mart. Police say a man saw his estranged wife and her boyfriend in the store and he grabbed an aluminum bat from the aisle and started hitting them on the head. The victim's injuries are minor and the suspect is free on bond.
Grammy's and Olympics and big events, oh, my. Music and sports take center stage this week. A look ahead next.
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WHITFIELD: Well some Olympic hopefuls won't be in Torino, Italy when the Olympics begin next week. They've got their eyes set on the next winter games in 2010. As Gary Nurenberg reports, money can be a mogul of an obstacle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Olympic hopeful Christine Zukowski knows the numbers that can add up to success. The alarm clock goes off before practice.
CHRISTINE ZUKOWSKI, SKATER: 3:30.
NURENBERG: The cost of just one pair of skates.
C. ZUKOWSKI: $1,000.
NURENBERG: The cost of training each year.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Like $35,000.
NURENBERG: Not really.
THERESA ZUKOWSKI, CHRISTINE'S MOTHER: It's about $45, $50,000 a year.
MICHAEL WEISS, CHRISTINE'S TRAINER: Just do another spin.
NURENBERG: Christine is training with two-time Olympian Michael Weiss whose own family struggled with the dizzying costs.
MARGIE WEISS. MICHAEL WEISS'S MOTHER: Michael wore his sister's skates until he was 12 years old until he outgrew her feet. But he didn't want that to happen to other up and coming skaters.
M. WEISS: There you go that was a nice one.
NURENBERG: So Weiss started a foundation to help kids pay for the endless bills and they do seem endless.
M. WEISS: You need a spin coach, a jump coach, and a choreographer.
MARGIE WEISS: A skating dress at the upper levels can cost $2,000 to $10,000.
NURENBERG: Skating lessons.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Sometimes they're $30 for 20 minutes and you have about three lessons a day and your ice time costs a lot of money.
T. ZUKOWSKI: I probably could have sent her to Princeton like twice already.
M. WEISS: Somebody who solely works on your music, a costume designer, off ice training expenses. You have the weight trainers, the dance teachers and instructors.
T. ZUKOWSKI: It's insane.
NURENBERG: Christine has seen it take a toll on friends.
C. ZUKOWSKI: A lot of people have had to quit skating because the expenses were getting to outrageous for them and they just couldn't take it anymore.
M. WEISS: My foundation was established to help relieve some of that stress and financial strain that is put on families and the athletes when they're growing up and chasing their dreams of becoming Olympic champions.
NURENBERG: The estimated costs of training an Olympic figure skater can approach a million dollars.
M. WEISS: Sometimes you're just banging your head against the wall.
NURENBERG: An investment that can end in goal or sometimes just a million dollar smile.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Skating is important because I just love it.
NURENBERG: Gary Nurenberg, CNN.
M. WEISS: We're going to kick some butt.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Yes.
NURENBERG: Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well some prisons in California are still under lockdown after a violent riot. Was race a factor? That story, straight ahead in our next hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Ahead this hour, cartoons sparked more protests and more outrage across the Muslim world.
Plus, the two faces of Iran. The hard-liners and those who desperately want a new way of life and the daunting task of securing the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
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