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U.N. Sanctions on North Korea; Florida Turnpike Killings; Gallaudet Unrest; Black Panthers To Hold 40th Reunion; The Striptease Workout
Aired October 14, 2006 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAK GIL YON, NORTH KOREAN AMB. TO U.N.: If the United States increases pressure upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That is the North Korean ambassador to the U.N., lashing out after a unanimous Security Council vote for sanctions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: I want to call your attention to that empty chair. That is the second time in three months that the representative of the DPRK, having asked to participate in our meetings, has rejected a unanimous resolution of the Security Council and walked out of this chamber.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: More drama. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. chastises the North Korean diplomat for his abrupt exit.
Hello and welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Live coverage of the North Korean standoff in just a moment.
But first, other headlines making news right now.
More slayings today in Iraq. Across the country at least 15 people were killed in attacks. Four of those victims shot dead by gunmen in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
NATO says two Canadian soldiers have been killed in an ambush in southern Afghanistan. Three other troops were wounded in that attack.
Former congressman Gerry Studds has died in a Boston hospital. Studds was the first member of Congress to acknowledge being gay during a 1983 scandal involving congressional pages. Studds was 69 years old. And the power is still out for tens of thousands in upstate New York after this week's record early season snowfall. With temperatures in the 40s today, a flood watch was posted aed my fears of a rapid melt.
First this hour, U.N. sanctions on North Korea. Less than a week after the north claimed to test a nuclear weapon, the Security Council has spoken, with Russia and China jumping on board to make the vote unanimous.
With more now, here is our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth.
And so when do these sanctions take hold, Richard?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, not for a few weeks while the Security Council comes up with a list of banned goods and items and works through the bureaucracy. But it will be interesting to see how many countries indeed comply with putting these sanctions into place, because in some cases inspections of goods going into North Korea will be on an as-necessary basis.
The Security Council voted unanimously 15-0 to impose arms and financial sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test several days ago. The council had already condemned the action in a statement earlier in the week.
The North Korean ambassador to the United Nations instantly rejected the resolution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAK: It is gangster-like for the Security Council to have adopted today a coercive resolution while neglecting the nuclear threat and moves for sanctions and pressure of the United States against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This clearly testifies that the Security Council has completely lost its impartiality and still persists in applying double standards in its work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: The North Korean ambassador says the United States, in effect, gets away with murder at the Security Council, never challenged even though it has a nuclear arsenal. The North Korean representative said the resolution was a declaration of war and then walked out of the chamber before the speech by the South Korean ambassador. Something U.S. Ambassador John Bolton responded to, plus North Korea's rhetoric.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOLTON: I'm not going to waste any of our time responding to what the representative of the DPRK has said, but I want to call your attention to that empty chair. That is the second time in three months that the representative of the DPRK, having asked to participate in our meetings, has rejected a unanimous resolution of the Security Council and walked out of this chamber.
It is the contemporary equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk of the General Assembly, and that empty chair raises questions about the DPRK's adherence to article -- to Chapter 2 of the U.N. charter, which I think we need to consider and in due course.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: So high drama inside the Security Council. Ambassador Bolton said he hopes that's not North Korea's official response, though he also thought it probably was -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: At the same time, Richard, I imagine that no one at the U.N. expected that North Korea would embrace this resolution, right?
ROTH: That's correct. The North Korean ambassador did walk out three and a half months ago, or in July, when the council imposed a resolution against Pyongyang after those surprise missile tests in July. This will definitely go on for weeks, if not months. We have one country in a standoff showdown with 191 others, as seen through this Security Council resolution.
WHITFIELD: All right. Richard Roth, thanks so much, from the U.N.
Arriving back at the White House just a short time ago, President Bush applauded the U.N. action as tough and swift.
Standing by for us on the White House lawn, CNN's Kathleen Koch.
And his remarks were very brief, weren't they?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They certainly were, Fredricka, but this was certainly also the outcome that the United States, that the White House had hoped for in the United Nations Security Council, had anticipated. The president had been saying ever since North Korea took this unprecedented action last Sunday that it had unified the international community against it, really rallied everyone to -- to the United States side that some sort of really critical action, some sanctions had to be imposed against North Korea to prove to them that this action, this alleged test was unacceptable.
Now let's hear what the president had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today the United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution, sending a clear message to the leader of North Korea regarding his weapons programs. This action by the United Nations which was swift and tough says that we are united in our determination to see to it that the Korean Peninsula is nuclear weapons free. I have said all along there is a better way I forward for North Korea. There is a better way forward for the people of North Korea. If the leader of North Korea were to verifiably end his weapons programs, the United States and other nations would be willing to help the nation recover economically. The message today, however, says to the leader of North Korea that the world is united in our opposition to his nuclear weapons plans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The next step now is a trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region. She will be departing on Tuesday, visiting the heads of state in China, Japan and South Korea, working with them to try to find the means to implement this resolution, these sanctions. Of course she will also, we're told by State Department officials, be talking with those leaders about the concern of proliferation, the very distinct and present possibility that North Korea, now that it has this nuclear technology, could sell it, could give it away to rogue states or to terrorists -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And Kathleen, this resolution coming about even though many world leaders say they're not so convinced that a nuclear test did take place. However, U.S. sources say there is certainty.
KOCH: What we have heard -- and this from a draft statement from the office of the director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte -- is that the U.S. does indeed from some samples gathered Wednesday have evidence of radioactivity emitted from the area where the U.S. believes that test took place, but it's not 100 percent proof positive. And the U.S. has been very careful not to overplay its hand on this, not to want to look like it was try trying to unduly influence this vote by the U.N. Security Council. But obviously this lack of definitive proof was not a problem for the nations involved.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch from the White House.
Thanks so much.
KOCH: You bet.
WHITFIELD: And you can follow the developments in the North Korea story minute by minute. The best place to do that is at CNN.com.
And at the bottom of the hour, the world's first atomic bombing. Survivors tell the story of the U.S. attack on Hiroshima in Japan.
More now on the grisly discovery of a family of four found shot to death along the Florida turnpike yesterday. Investigators say the family had just moved to Florida from Texas four months ago.
CNN's Susan Candiotti is live in Fort Pierce with the very latest.
And what else do we know about this family, Susan? SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we now know that the family's bodies are -- or rather the family lived just about an hour's drive south of here from where their bodies were abandoned, just off the Florida turnpike, well before dawn on Friday. Police say all of the victims were shot multiple times, and they identified this family as a married couple and their two children.
The husband's name is Jose Luis Escobedo, and today would have been his 29th birthday. His wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo (ph). She used her body, policy say, to try to shield her two sons from the killer or killers' bullets. The two boys are identified as 3-year-old Luis Damian and 4-year-old Luis Julian.
Police say the family moved here to Greenacres, Florida -- that's in Palm Beach County -- from Brownsville, Texas, last June. And investigators are now involved in a multi-state search for the family's car that might still be in the killer's hands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF KEN MASCARA, ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA: We are currently looking for the victims' family's Jeep. That Jeep, the description has changed. It is a 1998 four door.
Last night we reported it was a two-door, but it is actually a four-door Jeep Cherokee. It is black in color, and we now have the addition of a temporary tag. It is a Florida temporary tag, M952180.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Police have also recovered bullets, bullet casings, and blood from the crime scene. They are now analyzing all of that. Autopsies on the victims will be performed on Monday. And as to motive, if there is one, police are not letting on what it might be.
Back to you -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And so, Susan, why is it that police are so sure that this family was in their own vehicle, along with the killer, who has gotten away?
CANDIOTTI: Well, they went back to the place where they lived, talked to the neighbors, so they have confirmed that this is the car and it is missing. But police won't say exactly why they think or where they think the killer might have gotten in the car with them and whether they knew him. But they do say definitively that this was not a car jacking.
WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much for details on a horrific story.
Well, it was an explosive time in American history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community or we're going to take up guns and we're going to drive them out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The Black Panthers, remember them? They mark their 40th anniversary this week. A trip back in time later on in the NEWSROOM.
Plus, protests and now arrests at Washington's Gallaudet University. An update on the uproar straight ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lift it up. Very nice, girls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And what is going on here? In the suburbs, soccer moms swinging on poles like dancers at a strip club? All in the spirit, they say, of staying fit. You don't miss this one.
Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: It's one of the country's most renowned colleges not only for its unique student body, but for its history of protests. Students at Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University are writing more chapters in that history this weekend.
CNN's Gary Nurenberg reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A hundred and thirty-three demonstrators were arrested Friday night as they blocked an entrance to Gallaudet University, the country's most prominent school for the deaf. Protesters, opposing the choice of a new school president, had shut down the campus for three days.
I. KING JORDAN, OUTGOING GALLAUDET PRESIDENT: It includes the education of elementary school children, high school children, people who come for hearing assessment, infants who come for hearing assessment, senior citizens who come for hearing aid repair. All of the many different things that we do on campus ground to a halt for a week. We can't allow that to happen.
NURENBERG: Outgoing president I. King Jordan, who is deaf, got his job after protesters forced the resignation of a hearing president in 1988. This year, demonstrators object to the selection of school provost Jane K. Fernandes as Jordan's replacement. They say there was a lack of diversity in the screening process and they don't like Fernandes' track record at the school.
RYAN COMMERSON, GRADUATE STUDENT: She does not have a relationship with the Gallaudet community in general. She keeps herself hidden. NURENBERG: Some opponents believe her background disqualifies her for the high prestige position.
JANE FERNANDES, GALLAUDET UNIV. PRESIDENT-ELECT (through translator): I had attended a public school, not a school for the deaf. I had gone to a college other than one that was for deaf people. And I didn't learn to sign or really meet deaf people who did sign until I was 23 years of age. So my emerging into American sign language and culture came later in my life.
NURENBERG (on camera): The arrests last night cleared a side entrance to the school. The main entrance to Gallaudet University remains blocked, and students insist they'll continue their protests until they get what they want.
(voice over): Christopher Corrigan (ph) was among those arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're getting more support than ever. We're getting bigger and stronger. And we're going to continue. We're not giving up. We're not going to weaken.
NURENBERG: Fernandes says she won't give up either. She is scheduled to assume the presidency when Jordan retires in December. If Fernandes actually doe, she knows her first big job will be to heal a campus deeply divided about having her there.
Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Other news "Across America" now.
The classroom, is that any place for a gun? Some Utah teachers are getting firearm friendly this weekend, applying for concealed weapons permits. Naturally, not everyone in the state is on board with the whole armed teacher thing.
News flash. The Secret Service has no sense of humor.
This Sacramento teenager was pulled from class this week to explain an entry on her MySpace page. It was a picture of the president with the words "Kill Bush". Julia Wilson (ph) says it was a joke and that the agents "yelled at me a lot."
No funny matter.
Well, New York Yankees and small planes just don't seem to mix this week. Third baseman Alex Rodriguez was on board a Gulf Stream jet that overshot the runway yesterday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California. Six others were on board, and thankfully nobody was hurt.
Dramatic moments at the United Nations this afternoon. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, the North Korean ambassador calls today's action an act of war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Authorities say some homes in western New York could be in the dark for a week. They lost power in that record-breaking storm that dumped nearly two feet of snow around Buffalo Thursday and Friday. At least three deaths are blamed on the storm. And New York governor George Pataki has declared a state of emergency in the region.
CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is keeping an eye on the conditions there, a New Yorker -- New York City, that is.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Well, they were heroes to some. To others, a threat to America. Next in the NEWSROOM, the Black Panthers mark the 40th anniversary of the group's founding.
Plus, a reminder of the awesome power of a nuclear blast. Remembering Hiroshima straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Half past the hour now. Here are the headlines.
Iraqi authorities impose a curfew in two cities after 26 people are found dead. Officials believe the latest round of killings are retaliation for Thursday's kidnapping of 14 Shiites.
The son of former president Gerald Ford says his 93-year-old father is doing well. The nation's oldest living ex-president remains hospitalized as he undergoes further medical tests. It's Mr. Ford's fourth hospitalization this year. He underwent heart surgery and a pacemaker installation back in August.
Funeral plans are under way for ex Massachusetts congressman Gerry Studds. Studds served most of his 24 years in Congress as its first openly gay member. In 1983 he was censured by the House of Representatives for his affair with a teenage page. Gerry Studds, dead at the age of 69.
Well, you saw the fireworks earlier as the U.N. imposed sanctions against North Korea right on here on CNN. Well, today the Security Council vote was unanimous, and it came less than a week since the North claimed to test a nuclear weapon. North Korea, deeply unhappy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States has sought to impose collective sanctions upon the DPRK by manipulating the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution pressurizing Pyongyang. The Democrat Peoples' Republic of Korea is ready for both dialogue and confrontation.
If the United States increase pressure upon the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures, considering it as a declaration of war. JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I'm not going to waste any of our time responding to what the representative of the DPRK said. But I want to call your attention to that empty chair. That is the second time in three months that the representative of the DPRK, having asked to participate in our meetings, has rejected a unanimous resolution of the Security Council and walked out of this chamber. It is the contemporary equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk of the General Assembly. And that empty chair raises questions about the DPRK's adherence to Article -- to Chapter 2 of the U.N. Charter, which I think we need to consider in due course.
Thank you, Mr. President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And a short time ago, President Bush responded to the U.N. vote. He said the imposition of sanctions was swift and tough, and it was a message to North Korea that its purported nuclear test was unacceptable to the world. We're going to take a closer look now at the implications of the new proposed sanctions on North Korea.
Dan Poneman is a former official with the National Security Council. He joins us now from McClane, Virginia.
Mr. Poneman, thanks for being on the phone with us.
Why do you see this resolution as just a starting point?
DAN PONEMAN, FMR. NAT. SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL: Well, the critical thing at this point, I think, was to get all of the U.N. Security Council members on record swiftly within a few days of the test on a sanctions resolution. This we have done.
I think that always you can ratchet the pressure up, and it's very difficult in the first instance to get every single thing you would like to bring to bear by way of pressure. So I think what we're going to do now is see if we can get this resolution implemented strongly by the members of the Security Council, see if that then persuades the North Koreans to relent and perhaps come back to the negotiating table.
WHITFIELD:: But you have to wonder what this resolution will do when you hear from the North Korean ambassador, who says they out and out reject the resolution, so you have to presume, shouldn't you, that the testing will go on?
PONEMAN: Well, I think they're going to have to take this one back and think very carefully about it. There has been some back and forth this week, already between China, Russia and the United States.
But I think the important story here is that at end of the day, they came together. If North Korea looks at that and sees that they are losing their most important supporters in the U.N. Security Council, the hope is it will give them pause. If, in fact, they insist on a continued defiant course, that I think would actually justify harsher sanctions. WHITFIELD:: You mentioned the U.S. along with Russia and China in agreement here. Why is it so important to take note of Russia and China being on board?
PONEMAN: Precisely because it's been a difficult task at times to persuade them to come on board, and they both, of course, as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, hold a veto. If we don't have the Russians and Chinese along with us, we really don't have a very strong hand at all. We already have good support from the Japanese, of course, and the other fact to take into account is that China is, among all nations, the most critical to North Korea's survival, both in terms of food and in terms of fuel.
WHITFIELD: Dan Poneman, former National Security Council official, thanks much for your time, joining us on the phone from McClane, Virginia.
Well, while the world worries about North Korea, there is one country, Japan as we just heard from Mr. Poneman, that understands the horrors of a nuclear attack.
CNN's Atika Shubert gives us a sobering reminder of what happened in Hiroshima 61 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): For most of the world, nuclear war is a nightmare that can only be imagined. For Hiroshima, it was a reality. August 6, 1945, the world's first nuclear attack, an explosive force the equivalent of more than 12,000 tons of TNT traveling faster than the speed of sound. A giant fireball engulfs the city, 80,000 die instantly, 90 percent of the buildings collapse or burst into flames. Months and years later, tens of thousands more die from radiation poisoning. In all, an estimated 200,000 perish.
(on camera): If you think it can't happen today, consider this, today's nuclear weapons are 1,000 times more powerful. Out of the eight nations that are believed to have them, half have gone to war in the last few decades. And now the very public display of North Korea's claim that it too has a nuclear weapon.
(voice-over): Yoshiko Kagimoto (ph) was 14 years old, just a mile away, a little more than two kilometers from the atomic blast in Hiroshima. She tells her incredible story of survival over and over to younger generations, hoping to prevent history from being repeated. She takes North Korea's nuclear test as a personal challenge.
"I can never forgive North Korea for conducting that test," she says. "I want those presidents and world leaders to see this place and listen to the stories of those who survived. I would then ask them if they're still there to create a nuclear weapon. They wouldn't be human if they did."
Tourists from around the world flock to Hiroshima. It is a sobering experience. These Australian teenagers now fear North Korea has increased their odds of seeing a nuclear attack in their lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think it -- something can definitely happen, and I definitely fear through my whole life that something will happen.
SHUBERT: They pray to witness instead the abolishment of all nuclear weapons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think we should have them at all. We never want anything like this to ever happen again.
SHUBERT: Hiroshima's peace clock, which counts both the number of days since Hiroshima and the number of days since the nuclear test, is now spinning faster. For some, a sign the world is one step closer to another Hiroshima or worse.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: That was Atika Shubert reporting.
America's newest memorial was dedicated a short time ago in Arlington, Virginia. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush led the ceremonies dedicating the new U.S. Air Force Memorial. Mr. Bush praised current and past members of the Air Force for their service to the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This memorial lies in sight of Arlington National Cemetery, where so many of those fallen airmen are buried. This memorial also lies inside of the Pentagon, where our nation came under attack. It is a fitting location. Under these magnificent spires, we pay tribute to the men and women of the Air Force who stand ready to give all for their country. And looking from this promontory to a place once filled with smoke and flames, we remember why we need them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The memorial is made up of three stainless steel spires that soar up to 270 feet into the sky. It's first Washington memorial honoring the Air Force. And that sculpture kind of mimics what they call the bomb burst, which is a popular maneuver carried out by fighter jets.
Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, activists who made America take notice of the Black Panther Party, a social and civil rights organization founded in the sixties. Through next week, Black Panther reunions focus on the 40th anniversary of its start by two college students. What was it about this organization that makes it both heralded and hated?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD (voice-over): It was the turbulent sixties that spawned the Black Panther Party. Their call for a revolution, armed if necessary, to correct what they saw as civil, social and criminal injustices against black Americans.
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale started the movement in October 1966, in Oakland, California. Among their goals for black America: full employment, decent housing, an end to police brutality and freedom for all black men in prison.
A year later, Newton was arrested for killing a police officer in a shootout. The Free Huey Movement would help make Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Angela Davis and Bobby Seale household names while spreading their message.
By 1969, the organization claimed it had gone from 500 members to 5,000 in 45 chapters from Los Angeles to Chicago to New Haven. That same year, the Panthers' national Free Breakfast For School Children Program began. The group claimed to serve 10,000 children daily. The Panthers had also become fixtures on college campuses, often selling Communist literature to earn money to buy weapons.
They had also become targets of police and the FBI, with director J. Edgar Hoover calling the group the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. Some of the conflicts with law enforcement ended in deadly gun battles. 1969 was the year the structure of the Panthers began to crumble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community, or we're going take up guns, we going to drive them out.
WHITFIELD: Eldridge Cleaver had fled the country to escape arrest while Seale and Newton dealt with their own legal problems. Newton was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the police officer's death, a conviction eventually overturned. Seale was indicted for conspiracy and inciting a riot at the Chicago Democratic National Convention.
During his infamous Chicago Eight trial, Seale was bound and gagged and cited for contempt after repeatedly standing up to complain about civil rights violations. Seale was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. The conviction was later overturned. In 1973, Seale would run for mayor of Oakland, gaining 40 percent of the vote, not enough to win, but it was a campaign that inspired others to depart from militancy.
Bobby Rush was co-founder the Panthers' Chicago chapter in 1968, before jumping into politics, becoming a longtime Illinois Congressman. Former Panther Angela Davis is now a college professor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD (on camera): Eldridge Cleaver became a born-again Christian, returned from exile, pleaded guilty to assault in a police shootout and was put on probation. Huey P. Newton became disenchanted with the group, and in 1989 was shot dead, reportedly in a drug dispute.
You can get more information on the Black Panther reunion event scheduled for New York and Oakland. It's all at their official website, www.itsabouttimebpp.com.
Well, it is one of the most popular stories on CNN.com today. Check this out. Yikes. Suburban moms striptease dancing for exercise? So no dollars, please. The story coming up in the NEWSROOM.
Plus, fact or fiction? Or both? About the very popular Mediterranean diet. Is it really healthier? Dr. Bill Lloyd is next, right here in the NEWSROOM.
There he is to join us and talk about this diet or health plan. Which is it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD:: Well, if you're thinking about shedding a few pounds, and who isn't, you might want to try the Mediterranean diet. New research suggests that it may beef up your brain while trimming your waistline.
Dr. Bill Lloyd has some rather appetizing food for thought.
Good to see you, Dr. Bill. So...
DR. BILL LLOYD, UNIV. OF CALIF.-DAVIS MED. CTR.: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: How are you?
LLOYD: Just great.
WHITFIELD: All right.
Well, I'm hungry, so let me know whether this is a diet or a good health plan that really is suitable for everybody.
LLOYD: Well, it starts as a nutritional plan. Imagine a Saturday night supper that has a nice salad with a balsamic vinaigrette with a little olive oil in it...
WHITFIELD: Yummy.
LLOYD: ... maybe some whole grain pasta with a marinara sauce, nice glass of Chianti wine. Sign me up.
WHITFIELD: Sign me up as well.
LLOYD: Well, it's got all the wonderful ingredients that will help you live longer. Now, the Mediterranean diet has been around in America's consciousness for about 15 years, based on population studies that showed that folks from Greece, Italy and Spain live longer than folks elsewhere on the planet.
WHITFIELD: So how does this compare to the FDA pyramid, because that is what most Americans are being asked to be married to.
LLOYD: There's some very striking differences. First of all, with the pyramid of a Mediterranean diet, you're allowed 40 percent of your calories that come from fats. Now, these should be unsaturated fats that come from vegetable oils, like olive oils. Lots of whole grains, all right? Not processed starches, lots of fresh vegetables, drinking plenty of water. Again, you're allowed some moderate alcohol as well. But not so much on red meats and back off on the dairy products, which, as you know, is a staple of the American food pyramid.
Now, we know that if you observe a Mediterranean diet, you'll eat better, better foods, better calories, better nutrition. It will fill you up and you'll be less inclined to eat less junk during the day.
WHITFIELD: Wow, so is this for everyone?
LLOYD: Yes. The Mediterranean diet is something that everybody can enjoy. And some in so doing, you're going benefit because you're going to greatly reduce your risk of heart disease later in life. It will lower your blood pressure.
Did you know people who regularly eat a Mediterranean diet have a 30 percent less chance of developing cancer, and nearly a 50 percent chance of eventually developing Alzheimer's disease, based on new research in the "Archives of Neurology". And overall, greater longevity. You live longer, and that extra year that you'll enjoy will be spent in good health.
WHITFIELD: All right. I like it. So, heavy on the olives, olive oil, cucumbers, red wine. Sign me up.
LLOYD: And that's right. Bon giorno, have a great weekend.
WHITFIELD: All right. You as well.
Dr. Bill Lloyd, thanks so much.
Carol Lin with us now. More of the NEWSROOM.
I'm hungry, how about you?
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: I know. I was hoping he would add mac and cheese to that. But I didn't see that on the list.
WHITFIELD: Well, pasta. Whole grain pasta.
LIN: OK, there you go. We don't have to get more detailed than that.
Coming up in the next couple of hours. At 5:00, we're going get to the bottom line on these North Korean sanctions and their threat of a possible war. I've got an Asia expert who is also an expert in nuclear proliferation in that particular region of the world so the "Bottom Line", right in the first block of the program.
Then at 6:00, Fred, there were firefighters in New Orleans who grabbed a camera as they were going to rescue people and actually managed to document some of their experiences. Sadly and ironically, the photographer died just a few months after Katrina in a work- related accident. But the film is now in a film festival in New Orleans being featured today. So I get to talk with one of his colleagues about the reception of the film and we'll show some of the clips. It's pretty dramatic. It's an hour long natural sound documentary.
WHITFIELD: Remarkable.
LIN: And it's gritty, riveting and very real.
WHITFIELD: OK, we'll be watching for that.
LIN: OK.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.
All right, Carol Lin, hot mama that you are. Listen up. You think about trying this, perhaps, for exercise?
It is the new craze, at least in the suburbs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up and around. Now listen... Step down. Lift it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: She's got her eyebrows raised like, huh? What? Me?
OK, well, soccer moms and everybody else, they're all about it. The striptease workout, a story you won't want to miss.
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WHITFIELD: Pole dancing -- got your attention, didn't I? -- no longer dirty words, no longer just for strip clubs anymore. More women are using the techniques of stripping to stay in shape. In fact, the most popular video on our website, no surprise, on CNN.com, is about stripper workouts.
Brianna Keilar reports on why more women are turning to exotic rhythms to keep fit.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These aren't your typical athletic shoes but then, this isn't your typical workout.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lift it up. Very nice, girls.
KEILAR: Welcome to "Exposed Fitness", one of a growing number of gyms dedicated to workouts inspired by stripping. Classes include pole dancing and chair dancing, but, unlike so-called exotic dancers, these women keep their clothes on.
ANITA AMMAN, DANCE INSTRUCTOR: I think it is empowering.
KEILAR: Anita Amman (ph) owns this franchise in suburban Maryland. She says her average customer is in her late 30s to early 40s, and many participants are moms.
AMMAN: It's kind of bringing their femininity back, that they've kind of lost for sacrificing with their kids and, you know, being so hectic and leading such busy lives.
KEILAR: At home, Jenny Becker (ph) is a wife and mother. In her spare time, she pole dances at another studio she opened early this month. Becker credits the classes with working out her confidence as much as her muscles.
JENNY BECKER, STUDIO OWNER: And I'm able to speak without feeling awkward. It's a wonderful way to build confidence in yourself.
KEILAR: Dr. Tina Deshotels has stripper culture for a decade. She says the growth of upscale clubs has made exotic dancing mainstream enough for gyms and music videos. Witness the chart- topping Pussycat Dolls, born of a burlesque Hollywood dance troupe.
DR. TINA DESHOTELS, PH.D., SOCIOLOGIST: This is making it more acceptable because it's not so seedy anymore.
KEILAR: But Deshotels found many dancers lose their individual sense of self and sexuality, and she fears stripping as exercise could have the same results.
DESHOTELS: I have some ideas that this is possibly limiting individual women's definitions of beauty and definitions of sexuality, just like it does for the women in this profession.
KEILAR: But these women don't see it that way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make it look a little naughty.
KEILAR: They say there's a big difference between doing this for fun and fitness than to pay the bills.
Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.
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WHITFIELD: All right, some pretty steamy stuff.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Did you hear the roar in the newsroom.
WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, you know, it was so loud, our crew here, mostly dudes back here, very vocal and now, suddenly, it's quiet. What is that all about?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that's a wild workout for sure.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
Well, what do you got, weather-wise?
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WHITFIELD: All right.
Expect more on the developing story at the U.N. at the top of the hour.
Plus, we talked about soccer moms. What role will they play in the next election? That's where we are going with this. That and much more with Carol Lin right after this break.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield. See you tomorrow.
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