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CNN LIVE SUNDAY

Four American Soldiers Charged with Rape, Murder in Iraq; North Korean Threat; Fatal Russian Jet Crash

Aired July 9, 2006 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, the U.S. military announces more charges in the slaying of an Iraqi family and the rape of an Iraqi girl.
Plus, we'll introduce you to an escape artist. He slipped out of handcuffs and talked his way out of an arrest by a cop who was looking for him.

And then, North Korean missiles, bird flu, terrorists. Is there anywhere to hide? Perhaps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He walked us through the basement and said, "Hey, there's a bomb shelter here."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Welcome to underground nation.

This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All that and more after a check of the headlines.

Five soldiers in Iraq now charged in the Mahmoudiya case. The military says they conspired in a rape, mass killing and cover-up in March. New details straight ahead.

The official death toll is 124 following the crash of a Russian passenger jet. Officials say the plane skidded off a slick runway after landing in eastern Siberia.

One person is dead and at least 12 wounded in new Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Several of those hurt are Hamas militants. Israel is pressing for the release of a captured soldier and an end to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

The cooling off period is over today on documents seized from Congressman William Jefferson's office. The freeze was ordered by President Bush to calm a congressional outcry. A federal court still hasn't ruled on whether the FBI raid was constitutional. And a record-smashing opening weekend for some big screen buccaneers. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" has raked in about $132 million since its release on Friday.

Italy is the winner of the 2006 World Cup. You are looking at live pictures of the celebration now in full swing in Rome. The Italians beat France on penalty kicks in Berlin.

First Iraq and the horrifying details of a rape and multiple murder allegedly committed by American troops in Mahmoudiya in March. CNN learned that the ID card of the alleged rape victim showed her age, 14. And according to the U.S. military, the horrors don't stop there.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, those soldiers are now confined to their base. They have had their weapons taken away from them. Whenever they want to move around the base they have to have a military escort.

Four of the soldiers charged with rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and the murder of three of her family members. The fifth soldier charged with dereliction of duty for failing to inform his officers about the attack. All five soldiers charged in connection with and accused of conspiring with former private 1st class Steven Green, who was charged in the United States just last week, charged with planning to rape a young Iraqi woman, raping her, killing her, killing the family members, burning the house, throwing away the AK-47 into a nearby canal. The AK-47 used in the killings. All an attempt to cover up what they had been doing.

But in Baghdad today it's been a day of sectarian violence. In the evening, around 7:00 p.m., in a small Shia neighborhood in a Sunni area of Baghdad, a marketplace was targeted with two bombs. A number of people killed and wounded there.

This appears to have been a sectarian tit-for-tat killing in retaliation for the killing of at least 40 Sunnis earlier in the day. Iraqi Baghdad emergency police say the Sunnis were killed in a western predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad by a gang of gunmen who were going around the neighborhood from the early hours in four to six vehicles.

They say they were stopping people on the sheets, looking at their identity papers. If they were Sunni, they were being killed. They could tell this from reading their names.

An eyewitness in the area reports seeing bodies piled on the streets, and the moderate Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni party, has said that one of their politicians was killed. They also say that a family was killed in the area. They say Iraqi Islamic Party, this moderate Sunni party, says it blames a Shia militia, the Mehdi militia for those killings. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Unidentified senior Marines are singled out in a probe into civilian killings in Haditha. A Pentagon source says the report concludes the Marine leaders failed to properly investigate charges that two dozen Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. troops. The source says by failing to investigate the commanders may have been negligent and could be held accountable.

Diplomats around the world are in overdrive today, holding intense talks on the best way to respond to North Korea's missile tests. And the U.S. has a definite opinion.

For that, let's go straight to the White House and CNN's Kathleen Koch.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the United States, above all else, wants a unite and response, wants to see North Korea get back to the six-party talks. But when it comes to getting North Korea's attention, one country's voice stands out above all others.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice over): U.S. officials agree the road to resolving the North Korea nuclear standoff runs through Beijing. China provides food, energy and more to its neighbor.

NICHOLAS BURNS, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE: We hope very much that the Chinese government, which has some influence in Pyongyang, will now use that influence and exert some pressure on the North Korean regime to get it to come back to the six-party talks and end these missile tests that have been so disruptive and, frankly, so irresponsible over the past week.

KOCH: If China doesn't up the pressure on North Korea, two Republican lawmakers say it could pay a price.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There are consequences in our relationship. There are many key areas that we are cooperating on that I believe would be affected, including trade, by China's failure to act.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The Chinese are hanging by a thread politically with the Congress now over trade policy. If they don't really come to the table harder with North Korea, they're going to be hanging by a thread in terms of international diplomatic policy.

KOCH: Japan has proposed a United Nations resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea. U.S. envoy Christopher Hill is making the rounds of East Asian capitals, rallying support. The U.S. still rejects one-on-one talks with North Korea, but some Democrats, including a former special envoy to Pyongyang, say it's time for a new game plan. GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Our current policy is not working. They have increased their supply of enriched plutonium. They have more nuclear weapons. They have missiles.

Face-to-face direct talks, getting North Korea to dismantle their nuclear arsenal, I believe, is the best way to go.

KOCH: A Republican who once supported such face-to-face meetings insists that after the missile tests it's now too late.

SEN. RICHARD LUGAR (R), INDIANA: I think, unfortunately, the shots eliminated the efficacy of that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: China and Russia are against imposing sanctions. Still, the U.S. says it has the votes to pass a United Nations resolution. But the fear is that if such a resolution goes forward with both China and Russia abstaining, that could weaken its impact on North Korea -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And meantime, Kathleen, Russia hosting the G8 summit talks. The president expected to be there, President Bush.

How might the North Korean crisis overshadow discussions there?

KOCH: Well, Fredricka, certainly in those G8 talks the subject will come up, and one can expect certainly if there is a vote before the G8 talks begin on Wednesday that the U.S. -- and if Russia abstains -- that the U.S. would indeed try to exert some pressure to get Russia to try to do more to push North Korea to come back to the six-party talks, to drop its nuclear proliferation, its nuclear program. So it certainly will -- will play higher on the scale of issues to be discussed than it would have ordinarily.

WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch, from the White House.

Thanks so much.

Russian aviation officials are examining the black boxes from a Siberian jet crash. The plane was trying to land in southeastern Russia today. It skidded off the runway, erupting into a ball of flames.

Matthew Chance has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Recorded on amateur video, the fiery aftermath of Russia's latest air catastrophe. The ill-fated Airbus A-310 aircraft was carrying more than 200 people from Moscow to Irkutsk. Many of the passengers were children on a school trip.

Emergency workers were quick on the scene and described the chaos. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We saw the plane burning. Petrol tanks were exploding. The plane crashed into private garages and damaged them.

Something was exploding in the garages. It must have been petrol. The plane itself was on fire. A lot of people with burns were running around, but we concentrated on those lying on the ground.

CHANCE: It seems to have been an uneventful flight until the aircraft touched down in Irkutsk, five time zones from Moscow. On the runway, the Siberian Airlines aircraft failed to stop, overshooting the tarmac, plowing into a concrete fence and a building at a terrific speed before bursting into flames. Incredibly, dozens survived the inferno, including six children and three crewmembers. Most are now hospitalized with severe burns.

A few passengers like Margarita Svetlova (ph) were able to throw themselves from the aircraft and escape the horror. "I was so scared," she says, "I heard the people screaming and saw how they burned, so I just ran and jumped out."

Siberian Airlines has a relatively good reputation in Russia but it's had more than its fair share of tragedies, too. In 2001, one of its airliners was accidentally shot down by a missile over Ukraine, killing all 78 on board. Three years later, in 2004, another Sibir aircraft was blown up by a suspected Chechen suicide bomber.

Investigators in the latest crash say the black box flight recorders have already been retrieved and they soon hope to know what caused the catastrophe this time.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: NASA feels confident about the space shuttle and its mission, but how is it going for the Discovery astronauts themselves? An update from outer space next.

And they are celebrating in Italy tonight after the country's World Cup win. There, a look at the goings on in Rome tonight. We're live from Rome next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In the Middle East, more back-and-forth firing, this time in Gaza City. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile into Gaza City. The Israeli defense forces saying that an Islamic Jihad weaponry manufacturing facility was the target. No reported injuries as yet.

The world's biggest sporting event has just come to an end. In the game that concluded the past half-hour, Italy beat France on penalty kicks to win soccer's World Cup.

CNN's Alesso Vinci is live in the wild celebration there in Rome -- Alessio

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF; Hello, Fredricka.

It was quite a game, 90 minutes. The regular football time was -- were not enough. It took extra time and then eventually the penalty kicks to give Italy its fourth World Cup title as the best team in the world playing football. And, of course, this country is celebrating, and they are celebrating like never before.

This is about rapture. It is about a good deal of energy. Scenes like this happening across the country from the north to the south. Millions are taking to the streets.

After 24 years, the World Cup returns to Italy, and this country is celebrating because this was unexpected. The Italians did not fare really well at the beginning of the World Cup. It was only when they beat Germany, the host country, in the semifinals that they knew that they could go all the way. And indeed, they went all the way on this very long night in Berlin, and a night that will be celebrated throughout this country for many hours to come.

And then tomorrow night, Monday night, here in Rome, up to a million people are expected to welcome their heroes back here in Rome.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: And so where in Rome, Alessio, would this big welcoming party take place tomorrow?

VINCI: It's going to happen right here. This is the Circus Maximus. It is where -- the foothill of the Palatine Hill. The Palatine Hill being the residence of former Roman emperors.

That is where the word "palace" comes from. It is a beautiful place. As you can see, many of the fans now are already leaving, but this is where tomorrow the celebrations will take place.

The Italian team will be put on an open-deck bus and they will tour this beautiful square. Now, this is where chariot races, carriage races used to take place during the ancient Roman times, but tomorrow there will be a different kind of celebration. Of course, thousands of years later, the Italians will come back here holding the Cup -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: At least 24 hours of celebrating there in Rome and other places throughout Italia.

Alessio Vinci, thanks so much.

Well, Italians in New York are celebrating as well. A short time ago, fans spilled out of local watering holes and onto the streets of Little Italy, and they will be there all night long.

Discovery astronauts are awaiting on the nod from NASA that it is safe to fly home. Engineers with the space agency in Houston have been examining the shuttle's heat shield. A piece of fabric known as a gap filler is sticking out from the thermal tiles covering Discovery's belly, which could cause problems during reentry.

NASA is leaning against fixing the filler. The shuttle's commander says he's impressed with how NASA engineers are handling any problem they encounter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN LINDSEY, DISCOVERY COMMANDER: What it really means for the program is, you know, we have struggled for a long time since Columbia dealing with the tank, trying to fix the problems of the tank and the foam. And granted, this is only one data point. We still have more flights to go.

It's -- I hope it comes out OK, and I think it's going to. And I just -- my hats are off to all of the engineers and all of the folks in the shuttle program that have worked so hard on this for so long, trying to solve a very, very difficult problem. And to get a clean vehicle or a win, I think, is really exciting.

And I'm really excited for them. And my hats -- my hats are off to the whole workforce who worked on this.

WHITFIELD: And talk about take a trip out of this world. You can get your ticket to ride in space maybe just a couple of years from now.

Our Tony Harris looks at tourism soaring into space.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For the Jetsons, space travel is a way of life. For the rest of us, it was something that seemed so far away. Until now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How was your flight?

DENNIS TITO, 2001 SPACE TOURIST: It was paradise.

HARRIS: Dennis Tito is the world's first space tourist. He got his joy ride back in 2001 on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that docked with the International space Station.

The California money manager spent a cool $20 million for his space vacation, but what if you don't have $20 million for your ticket to ride? A suborbital flight may be the answer.

Unlike commercial air travel, which hugs the Earth's surface, and unlike deep space, where the space shuttle and International Space Station hang out, suborbital travelers would fly 62 miles above the Earth to the edge of space. Passengers will experience weightlessness, see the curvature of the Earth, and be able to gaze into the dark, star-filled sky.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson is banking on a lot of pent-up demand.

SIR RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER, VIRGIN GALACTIC: And of all the businesses I've started, this is by far and away the most exciting.

HARRIS: His new company, Virgin Galactic, is already taking reservations for suborbital flights from the paying public. For $200,000, you're promised a three-hour flight with several minutes of weightlessness, and you can float around the cabin if you want to. The first flights are scheduled for the end of this decade.

BRANSON: We're going to be building five bigger versions of spaceships, one capable of taking seven or eight people into space on every trip.

HARRIS: Branson is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and aviation pioneer Burt Rutan. He designed SpaceshipOne, the first successful privately-manned spacecraft. And they're not the only billionaires vying for your space tourist dollar.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is funding a super-secret commercial space venture called Blue Origin LLC. Its stated goal, to develop safe and expensive and reliable human access to space.

A company called Rocketplane Limited, based in Oklahoma City, is also offering suborbital flights, as is Space Adventures, the company that put Dennis Tito into space.

Two hundred thousand dollars is still a lot of money, but as demand increases, analysts say prices will come down. And plenty of people say they're ready to take the ride of a lifetime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just has always seemed so far away, you know, something that would not happen in our time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to go into space one day, but I don't want to get hit by a meteor or something.

HARRIS: Tony Harris, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And new pictures and announcements just in. You think the folks down here on Earth were excited about the final outcome of the World Cup soccer? Well, NASA had to fill in the folks -- the astronauts 220 miles above Earth as well.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was dramatic all the way to the last kick. And it seems like it's the first World Cup that's been decided on kicks since 1994, 12 years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So the astronauts on board the International Space Station now, once on shuttle Discovery just days ago. Now they are in on the World Cup soccer outcome. Well, take a look at this man. He escaped from prison three times. Ahead, we will tell you why it's so hard to capture and keep Richard McNair.

Plus, where would you hide if an enemy attacked? Next, we go underground and tour modern-day bomb shelters.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The North Korea standoff brings back memories of the Cold War, but fears of enemy invaders have been around a lot longer than that. So have innovative ways to hide.

In a report that's one of the best of CNN, Jim Huber goes underground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "CHICKEN LITTLE": The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

JIM HUBER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Where do we go to hide when the sky is falling or the river rising? If the air becomes thick with flu or tainted with poison, where do we run? There are several versions of the story of "Chicken Little," all of which teach courage and an avoidance of foxes' den.

But as the warning screams grow louder by the day, of hurricanes and terrorism and a mutating strain of avian sickness, underground would seem the most logical direction. In fact, it always has. Archaeologists have only recently uncovered caves deep within the mountains north of Jerusalem, believed to have been constructed prior to the first Jewish war in 66 A.D.

It was when man began flying, however, and thus developed the ability to strike from above that we took sheltering to a new level. And when the threat of atomic annihilation became a reason for planetary panic, we built our own foxes' dens. Let the sky fall, Chicken Little. It can't get us down here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK, everyone!

HUBER: Beneath the old Woolworth's building in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, for instance, remains a room today large enough to shelter 100 people standing. On a tiny spit of land off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida, called Peanut Island, a five-minute helicopter ride from the old Kennedy compound, remains the secretly- built emergency fallout shelter built by President Kennedy and his staff during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Inside one of the arched structures under the Brooklyn Bridge's main entrance, workers discovered just weeks ago a nearly half century old bomb shelter, still stocked with water, medical supplies, blankets, cookies, thousands of packs of crackers, all marked "for use only after enemy attack." Relics of a time long gone by, reminders of our childhood fears or our own little private foxes' dens.

Bob and Kelly Frater bought this 40-year-old house in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2002...

KELLY FRATER, MADISON, WISCONSIN: Watch your head.

HUBER: ... only to later discover the secret compartment in the basement.

FRATER: We didn't know it existed. And we were looking at the house with the homeowner and the realtor and he walked us through the basement and said, hey, there's a bomb shelter here.

HUBER: It has no water source, but there's still the hand crank to pump out radiation. Likely one of thousands just like it below the American soil line; what seemed like great ideas at the time, so much better than simply hiding under our school desks, as we were instructed to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES (singing): Just duck...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And cover.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES (singing): ... and cover.

HUBER: But in the years since not just 9/11, but Hugo and Andrew and Katrina and a hundred unnamed disasters, the trend toward personal protection seems to have returned.

The O'Dells, for instance, are just one of several families in Bonneau Beach, South Carolina, who installed an egg-shaped underground shelter in which they ride out storms. It has air ducts, but no filtration, can seat up to 10 people, but only a couple comfortably, and has the space to store supplies for several days. The $45,000 price tag seemed cheap, especially after the devastation Hurricane Hugo unleashed.

ARLIE O'DELL, BONNEAU BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA: I didn't want to have to get up and drive every time I wanted -- every time I got someplace, when a hurricane or something come through. And I said, this is -- seemed like a cheap, easy way to do it and I don't have to leave. I'll be right here when it's over, I'll come out of my hole.

HUBER: And there are other, more elaborate, shelters both underground and in house, designed to withstand almost anything thrown at them, ranging in price from $5,000 to elaborate six-figure extravaganzas. The market, obviously, is there and growing.

(on camera): So where do we go when the sky is falling and the world seems ready to implode, when the sea is lapping at the topsoil and down is no longer an option? Maybe Stephen Hawking had it right after all. Perhaps driving to the moon is the song we all should be singing.

I'm Jim Huber for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: An undercover journalist risked his life to bring us these images. A rare and uncensored look inside North Korea is next. It's a story you will only see on CNN.

And later, an escaped convict face to face with the police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What it is, we've got an escapee.

MCNAIR: Where from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The prison.

MCNAIR: There's a prison here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. Hear how he pulled a fast one and talked his way out.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Here's what's happening now in the news -- four U.S. soldiers are charged with rape and murder. A fifth has been charged for not reporting what allegedly happened in this home in Mahmoudiya, Iraq. The latest in the case straight ahead.

At least 124 people died in last night's crash landing of a Russian jetliner at a Siberian airport. Investigators are reviewing flight data and voice recorders to find out how and why the plane skidded off a rain-slicked runway before hit a building.

NASA is still debating whether or not a small piece of fabric filler protruding from the shuttle Discovery's heat shield needs to be removed. If so, another space walk for repairs will be in the works. Other than that, NASA says the shuttle is in relatively good shape.

And new pictures into CNN: Israeli defense forces confirm continued air strikes on Palestinian targets in Gaza. Witnesses say Israel has fired another missile into Gaza City. Palestinian sources say one Palestinian was killed in a previous attack along with another dozen injured. Israel is still demanding the release of one of its soldiers who was kidnapped two weeks ago.

More pain at the pump for American motorists. The latest Lundberg Survey shows gas prices jumped more than a dime over the past two weeks. The nationwide average for a gallon of self serve regular is just under $3.

Enron founder Ken Lay was remembered today at a memorial service in Aspen, Colorado. The 64-year-old died from a massive heart attack last week.

Allegations of rape and murder in Iraq, five American soldiers now stand accused in the alleged plot. Four unnamed active duty soldiers were charged today with participation in rape and murder of an Iraqi woman and the murder of her three family members. A fifth soldier is charged with dereliction of duty for not telling superiors what happened. The incident allegedly happened in the town of Mahmoudiya. Reuters news agency has obtained identity cards and death certificates of the alleged victims. The documents suggest that the rape victim was a 14-year-old girl.

Former private first class Steven Green is already charged with rape and murder. Prosecutors said Green killed the girl's family before assaulting and ultimately killing her. He has plead not guilty in a civilian court.

And now to North Korea. The U.S. wants to increase the pressure on the north to get it to slow down its weapons program. So it's turning to China, North Korea's biggest trading partner for help. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il still doesn't seem ready for negotiations. He's promising retaliation against any enemy.

U.S. Envoy Christopher Hill is making the diplomatic rounds in Asia, hoping to win support for United Nations sanctions against North Korea. The United States hopes to convince Russia and America's Asian allies to speak with a unified voice. Hill spoke to CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae in this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER HILL, ASST. SECRETARY OF STATE: There's an ongoing discussion in New York. These discussions are always tough discussions. I draw some sense of optimism from the fact that I think everybody was pretty outraged by this outrageous action, so we will see. We are committed to making, finding a diplomatic solution through a six-party process. There's a good reason for this. It's not a bilateral issue. When North Korea fires off scud missiles, that's not a U.S.-North Korea bilateral issue. That's a regional issue that involves all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The U.N. Security Council reconvenes tomorrow to consider sanctions, but China and Russia continue to resist that idea.

And during an exclusive interview last week with CNN's Larry King, President Bush talked about how he views the threat from North Korea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If it headed to the United States, we've got a missile defense system that will defend our country.

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Do you then fear it more? BUSH: No. I think he does want people to fear him. My response to him and the response of our partners is that it's very important for you, the leader of North Korea to make rationale decisions, because the United States is not alone in making these demands.

The demand of course is to give up his weapons program in a verifiable fashion. I think he would love to have the United States sit down at the table alone with Kim Jong-il. The problem is we tried that and it didn't work.

I think the best way to solve this problem diplomatically is for their to be other nations around the table with us, so that when he looks out, when he looks at the table, or he looks at the world, he hears China and the United States speaking one voice, or China and the United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea speaking with one voice. I am into solving problems. And I am convinced the strategy we have got is the best way to solve this problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: See Larry's entire conversation with the president and first lady tonight at nine Eastern, six Pacific right here on CNN.

North Korea is so isolated and tightly controlled that any attempts to show what's going on there could mean death. CNN has obtained pictures smuggled out of the country by a man who risked his life to reveal life inside the communist nation. Frank Sesno has this report from "CNN PRESENTS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK SESNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across from this hill in China is one of the border towns in North Korea. Loudspeakers pump propaganda through the streets.

Somewhere over there, Mr. Lee, the undercover cameraman has new pictures to smuggle out.

When he finally arrives, Mr. Lee brings his new footage to a secret location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It's been an incredibly tense time. How can I say this? There would have been no way if my work was discovered. They would have put me out of existence.

SESNO: This is uncensored North Korea in its bleak unadulterated form.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Video camera is the most serious form of treason in North Korea. My wife came with me on the journey and she kept telling me not to do it. That we should just get on with our lives.

SESNO: He's captured people outside the station huddled in the streets, waiting for a train to arrive. Fuel shortages mean the trains don't often run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was petrified the guard was coming. The punishment they afflict on political offenders in North Korea is extremely severe. The system is such that they don't just punish the offender himself, his family and relatives are also punished.

I placed my camera inside a bag and made a hole on the side to secretly film. But the thing is, light was being reflected on the camera lens, so I had to be very, very careful.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, remarkable stuff. Watch "CNN PRESENTS: Undercover in the secret state" tonight and tomorrow, 8 p.m. Eastern.

Now more of this week's "Best of CNN." U.S. marshals, the Canadian Mounties and Interpol all want to find one man. Richard McNair is a convicted murder and three-time escapee. CNN's Susan Roesgen has this report from "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The story begins with a burglary at a grain elevator in Minot, North Dakota. It was at night and the burglar snuck through the storage facility. He was carrying a revolver but didn't plan to use it because no one was supposed to be there. Inside the company office he was stopped briefly by a metal gate, but he fiddled with the wiring, got the gate to go up, and headed for the office safe.

It was November of '87 and the burglar was Richard McNair a 28- year-old sergeant at the air force base nearby. Friendly, good looking, no one suspected that McNair was the one that had been burglarizing Minot businesses for weeks until that night at the grain elevator when McNair was startled to see the manager who'd come in to see a late shipment.

RICHARD KITZMAN, VICTIM: This is where he shot me.

ROESGEN: McNair's first shot was aimed to kill

KITZMAN: I think it took me down like this to my back. I ended up -- I don't know if I hit these drawers. I ended up just missing the drawers, I guess. Right in here.

ROESGEN: And then he came and stood over you?

KITZMAN: He stood right there in front of the window.

ROESGEN: McNair shot Richard Kitzman four more times and Kitzman who still works at the grain elevator today is alive only because he fooled McNair into thinking he was dead. With McNair still on the property Kitzman crawled to a phone and called police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-seven, 41, we have shots fire, a man's been shot at the Farmer's Union elevator on Country Road 19. ROESGEN: But McNair wasn't finished because there was another potential witness. A truck driver was waiting for his shipment of grain outside the office and hadn't heard the shots. Minot sheriff Vern Erck says trucker, Jerry Thees (ph), never had a chance.

SHERIFF VERN ERCK, WARD COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: He shot five more shots right at the truck driver, point blank and killed Mr. Thees.

One was a head shot and the poor guy didn't know what hit him.

ROESGEN: Sheriff Erck cracked the case. He had McNair come to the police station and that's when McNair pulled off his first escape.

(on camera): When the detectives brought him in they handcuffed one of his hands to a chair leaving his other hand free. While he casually chatted with the detectives, he reached for a tube of lip balm on the desk, smeared some of it on his wrist and slipped out.

(voice-over): McNair ran from police across town racing into this house and onto this roof. As the cops closed in he jumped on to a tree branch that broke and fell to the ground. The police had him again but not for long.

ERCK: We had him in custody and was awaiting trial. He would have been in this cell block. And he took the very top two cinder blocks out of his cell, kept chipping away on them.

ROESGEN: McNair didn't get away that time but he was successful four years later, in 1992, escaping from the state prison in Bismarck where he'd been sent for the murder. When he was caught he was transferred through a series of prisons and late last year wound up at the federal penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana. That's where he pulled off his best escape yet. How did he get out of a maximum security prison? The answer is amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: More vanishing acts than Houdini and the best ones yet to come. The second half of Richard McNair's incredible story coming up in about three minutes.

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WHITFIELD: And now more on fugitive killer Richard McNair. As you will see in a moment, his last escape may be his most ingenious. Once again, here's Susan Roesgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN: This is Duncan, Oklahoma, population 23,000, Richard McNair's hometown.

(on camera): It's a small town, everybody seems to know everything about everybody else, but nobody could tell us much of anything about Richard McNair. VICKI VRIONES, DUNCAN, OK: You've got to understand small town people live different than large people, we're close. We care about each other. And we just -- there's no point in making a big issue out of it because we don't want to hurt each other.

ROESGEN (voice-over): Since we couldn't find anyone on the street to talk about McNair we went to the library and looked him up in the high school yearbook. There he was, Rick McNair, graduating in 1977. Even back in high school Rick was in trouble.

A report from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations reveals that when he was still a student he was arrested for stealing a car. Investigators say McNair's family in Duncan is embarrassed and hurt by McNair's crimes. And when I tried to talk to his mother, she wouldn't open the door. She knows her son is on the run now after his most dramatic escape yet. In April McNair slipped out of the maximum security federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana.

McNair worked at the prison repairing mail bags similar to these. He used those mail bags to make an escape.

(on camera): Prison officials won't say exactly how he did it but somehow McNair made an enclosure inside a stack of mail bags, sort of like a beaver dam, crawled inside it, had more mail bags on top, shrink wrapped and then he was wheeled on a pallet right outside the prison walls.

(voice-over): And the chase was on. While law enforcement combed the woods around the prison, one small town police officer stopped a man who fit McNair's description.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What it is, we got an escapee.

RICHARD MCNAIR, ESCAPED CONVICT: Where from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prison.

MCNAIR: There's a prison here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

ROESGEN: The officer's dashboard camera caught the encounter on tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What color eyes you got?

MCNAIR: Kind of turquoise blue?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turquoise blue. You want to give me some more.

You know the bad thing about it? You're matching up to him.

ROESGEN: The similarities were obvious but McNair was so smooth he talked his way out of an arrest and two weeks later despite a massive manhunt he was a thousand miles away across the border in Canada. McNair was spotted in a stolen car, but got away before the Mounties could catch him. Inside the car were pictures McNair had taken of himself to make fake IDs. That was on April 28th, the last time law enforcement found a trace. Once again McNair has vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am living Richard McNair's life right now. This case -getting him, putting him back in prison is what I'm about right now.

ROESGEN: U.S. marshal Glenn Bellguard (ph) has been chasing McNair every step of the way. He's gotten thousands of tips, and he thinks McNair is still in Canada, but where and when McNair might be caught is anybody's guess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He eventually will make another mistake and we're going to be there waiting for him.

ROESGEN: A fugitive who's smart but maybe not smart enough to get away for good. Susan Roesgen, CNN, Alexandria, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: An ironic footnote, investigators point out if McNair had never broken out of prison, he'd probably be eligible for parole right now. Susan Roesgen's reports first aired on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Catch that show weeknights at eight Eastern, five Pacific.

If you can stomach the competition, you can compete in Cairo. It's the other World Cup, next.

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WHITFIELD: Wiggling their way to the top, 1,200 belly dancers gave amazing displays of abdominal dexterity in Cairo. All contestants in the International Belly Dancing Festival, but not one Egyptian was among them. As our Kevin Flowers explains, the Egyptians didn't want an unfair advantage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN FLOWERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it the other World Cup. The World Cup of belly dancing. Dozens of international contestants showing off their shakes, spins, and gravity-defying moving not attempted by mere mortals. All trying to win the Golden Crown in Egypt's International Belly Dancing Competition. Twelve hundred belly dancers, all shapes and sizes in Cairo to shake their bellies.

Belly dancing is one of the Egypt's biggest cultural exports and growing worldwide. You won't see any Egyptian women shimmying here. This battle of the bellies is for foreigners only. Egypt's most famous dancer says the explanation is simple.

DINA, EGYPTIAN BELLY DANCER: Belly dancing is our dance and when we compete with foreigner we win. This is not fair.

FLOWERS: A rare chance for non-Egyptians to strut their snuff in the birthplace of belly dancing.

FRANCESCA RUSSO, AMERICAN BELLY DANCER: I'm exciting. I'm in Egypt. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

FLOWERS: American Francesca Russo started dancing for therapy after a knee operation. Five years later she is teaching and competing.

(on camera): How did it go?

RUSSO: Oh my god, I think it went OK. The judges looked tough.

FLOWERS: And belly dancing is big business. Dozens of merchants come to this festival every year selling the latest in belly dancing apparel and accessories. In fact, outfits like these can range in price from $100 to thousands.

(voice-over): But the dancers are not judged on their costumes. Judges here look at technique, musical understanding, stage presence and overall presentation. In the end, not all bellies are created equal. So this night it wasn't the amazing displays of abdominal discipline that captured the judges' imagination, it was the graceful twists and turns of American dancer, Bozenka, winning her the Golden Crown. Then, if that wasn't enough, Egyptian dancer Nancy and her equestrian friend stole the night, not by competing but by performing and showing the rest of the world why Egypt remains the home of belly dancing.

Kevin Flowers, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, here's a severe turn. Panda lovers, they're loving this. Today is Tai Shan's first birthday. The rambunctious toddler at the National Zoo is having quite the celebration. He's big for a one-year-old, at 56 pounds. His birthday cake is made of frozen fruit juice, yams, apples and carrots. Happy birthday, Tai Shan.

Still much more ahead on CNN. Carol Lin with more of CNN LIVE SUNDAY, coming up.

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