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Tsunami Alert Canceled; Mass Kidnapping in Iraq

Aired November 15, 2006 - 09:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Good morning, everyone.

I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.

I'm Heidi Collins.

For the next three hours, watch events happen live on this Wednesday morning. It is November 15th and here's what's on the rundown.

Coastal residents run-scared by a tsunami in northern Japan. A major earthquake stirs up danger in the Pacific.

HARRIS: The Iraq war's top general this morning. Congress has tough questions for General John Abizaid. We cover it live in THE NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: And we mouth off -- researchers find your lips can forecast contentment. I know about this. So go ahead, smile. Be happy, in THE NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: So head to higher ground. A tsunami could be on its way. That warning now in place Japan's Pacific Coast following a powerful earthquake in the Kuril Islands. Hawaii and Alaska also on alert.

CNN's Richard Quest joins us from our Tokyo bureau -- Richard, good morning to you.

First of all, tell us what the scene is like on the ground in Tokyo.

How are folks there reacting to this news?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the truth of the subject is that here in Tokyo there's very little effect. We are not only many hundreds of kilometers away from the earthquake zone, we're also several hundred kilometers away from where the tsunami has hit.

You have to put it -- there is the north Hokkaido and then there is the main island down here where Tokyo is. And what has happened is that the tsunami has hit off the ness coast of the north island, about 400 kilometers from where the earthquake zone, the epicenter of the earthquake.

Initially, we had thought and they were warning, the tsunami warning, Tony, of a tsunami of about six feet.

Well, when it finally arrived just over an hour ago, I would say it was about 40 centimeters, which is probably just about the size of this piece of paper.

So one wave hit and in one place. Another wave hit roughly again, roughly one-and-a-half feet in a different place. And there, Tony, have been numerous other waves, much smaller than that.

That is not to belittle the warning. This could have been far more serious -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK.

And, Richard, one quick question.

How good is the tsunami warning system in Japan?

QUEST: Very good. It's well practiced. It's well rehearsed and they consider it to be extremely important. You have to recall that Japan has been the victim of many deaths from tsunamis over the years. They know the seriousness of this. This is not an Indonesia situation, as we saw earlier last year.

HARRIS: OK, Richard Quest for us in our Tokyo bureau.

Richard, thank you.

COLLINS: We want to head over to Chad Myers now to get more on the tsunami.

So what we have here, Chad, is an 8.1 earthquake, first, of course.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right.

COLLINS: And then this 16 inch tsunami.

Where are we at now?

I mean the graphic behind you looked amazing.

MYERS: The graphic behind me, made by NOAA, is an indication of how far the wave, the wave, if there's a single wave, how far it would be moving in one hour. Every different color is another hour. So you work your way all the way across the Pacific.

The same map was made for the Banda Aceh earthquake when it struck a couple of years ago.

Now, the way they came up with this six foot estimate of the wave is that back in September of 2003, an 8.0 developed off the same coast, in the very same trench, the Kuril Trench. That area there put out an eight foot wave to Hokkaido.

So, that's Hokkaido. Here's Honshu and Tokyo right about there.

So if you count from when it was -- this was probably, you know, two hours and 45 minutes ago -- the wave would be, this would be one hour, two hours, now three hours. So somewhere in here, possibly now beginning to hit the western sections of the Alaskan -- the Aleutian Islands, the Alaskan -- the coast of Alaska, as the Aleutians go all the way out toward Russia.

The difference with this is that maybe the wave that was generated was not forced in this direction. It may have actually been forced in another direction, kind of like when you throw a stone in the pond, you see a ripple and they're all the same. But if you throw a stone in a pond at an angle, then that angle, where the rock went into it at an angle, the biggest wave goes one way or the other.

That can always happen, depending on the structure of the subsurface. This was 20 miles below the surface of the ocean.

As it shook, it's in a trench. The one that's in the subduction zone, as it's called. There's a plate here and there's a plate right through here. And the plate is right around the island. This plate here is going down below the plate that is the Asian plate and that earthquake happened so far and so deep that there probably wasn't much. But there were warnings put out. There are still warnings for parts of Alaska and still watches for the rest of Alaska, all the way down through British Columbia and Hawaii.

We haven't seen any big waves on the buoys yet. That's what they'll watch for next, to see if a buoy goes up and down and how far it goes and how long it's up and how long it's down -- back to you guys.

COLLINS: All right, Chad.

So it's certainly not over.

MYERS: Yes.

COLLINS: We will keep an eye on this one for sure.

MYERS: All right.

COLLINS: Thank you.

MYERS: Yes.

COLLINS: The Iraq war and its top U.S. general facing new scrutiny and a new reality this morning. A Congressional hearing that could help chart a new course for U.S. policy.

General John Abizaid appears before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees today. It is the first Iraq hearing since Democrats won control of the new Congress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld quit his job. One likely overriding theme -- a plan to bring the troops home.

The latest now from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr -- Barbara, what are we expecting General John Abizaid's message to be today?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, General Abizaid is a guy who plays his cards close to the vest. He isn't yet tipping his hand. The expectation is that he will not publicly offer any particular series of recommendations with any specify about Iraq, but will lay the situation out for the senators this morning and for the members of the House later this afternoon.

General Abizaid the first commander, as you say, to testify on the war in Iraq since the mid-term elections. He is really walking into a four way political buzz saw today.

The Democrats, who will take control in January, already putting down their marker. They want to see a phased withdrawal beginning in as soon as four months.

Republicans, some of them, led by Senator John McCain, want to actually see more troops go into Iraq. Then, of course, you have the Iraq Study Group and you have the joint chiefs of staff also working on their recommendations.

General Abizaid is a pretty candid guy, so if he gets pressed by members of either the Senate or House panel, there's really no way to predict just how candid he may be about the situation. But if he is -- offers a new assessment, there may be some questions as to where that candor was in the weeks before the elections.

So here at the Pentagon, really, all eyes turning to Capitol Hill, waiting to see what this top commander has to say -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, and as those hearings continue, we will check in with you once again, I'm sure.

Barbara Starr, thank you, live from the Pentagon today.

HARRIS: Well, here's a question for you this morning -- is Delta ready to deal?

US Airways floating an $8 billion merger with the bankrupt carrier.

Susan Lisovicz live from the New York Stock Exchange -- Susan, big news this morning.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Big news about two big companies, Tony. In some ways, not a complete surprised. A lot of folks in the airline industry saying that there would be consolidation in the post-9/11 world, especially with the double whammy of record high fuel prices. That is, of course, one of the highest costs for any airline. What's happening here is that US Airways is making an $8 billion bid for Delta Airlines. Once it emerges from bankrupt protection. $8 billion -- $4 billion in cash, $4 billion in stock that would go to Delta's unsecured creditors.

Of course, when you go into Chapter 11 protection, you can't pay your creditors and the bankruptcy court is trying to work it out, how you can pay back, usually pennies on the dollar, to your creditors.

So what's happening here, US Airways made a couple of private plays for Delta Airlines. Delta rebuffed them, now going public to try to get -- to try to get, put more pressure on Delta Airlines to go ahead with this.

HARRIS: Well, you know, Susan, one man's proposal could be viewed as another man's hostile take over.

What is Delta calling this proposal?

LISOVICZ: It's not talking, basically.

HARRIS: OK.

LISOVICZ: And that's one of the things that we can glean from the SEC documents that are made public. The CEO of US Airways saying in a letter to Gerald Grinstein, who is the CEO of Delta, that he was disappointed that you declined to meet or even enter in discussions in your letter of October 17th, 2006.

That followed some conversations that they had in the spring.

So we don't know what's going on with Delta. Delta right now standing by its earlier statement that it plans to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent airline. It could also mean that Delta is in play, that it could, perhaps...

HARRIS: Yes.

LISOVICZ: ... be entertaining other offers or perhaps up the ante for it. The fact is that the CEO of US Airways is already talking to the press and he's saying he wants to do this deal during bankrupt protection because what they could do is lose some of the excess aircraft that would be a result of this merger...

HARRIS: Oh, I see.

LISOVICZ: ... and that it's easier to get rid of these leases during the bankruptcy process.

HARRIS: Oh, I see what you're saying.

LISOVICZ: So that's what he's trying to put pressure on Delta to do it now.

HARRIS: So, Susan, let's say this happens.

How large an airline would the new Delta or the new US Airways become?

LISOVICZ: It would be huge, because you're talking about, basically, the third biggest U.S. and the sixth biggest U.S. airlines merging. So according to these documents, it would be the number one. It would remain -- if it goes through according to US Airways' proposal...

HARRIS: Yes?

LISOVICZ: ... it would remain -- it would retain the name Delta. It would be the number one trans-Atlantic air carrier. It would be the second largest carrier in the Caribbean. It would serve 350 destinations on five continents.

So the answer would be pretty darned big.

HARRIS: Huge.

All right, Susan, I know you'll be following this story throughout the day for us.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

LISOVICZ: My pleasure, Tony.

Talk to you later.

COLLINS: President Bush in the air and on his way to Southeast Asia this hour. He's heading to Singapore right now. Then it's on to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit.

Just a few hours ago, Air Force One made a refueling stop in Moscow. And that gave the president time to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

To Moscow now and CNN's Ryan Chilcote -- all right, Ryan, what is the purpose, at this point in time, for President Bush to sit down with Vladimir Putin?

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as far as we can tell, it was basically to make nice. President Bush and his entourage were headed eastward on their way to Singapore when they made this stopover, this refueling stop in Moscow.

Initially it was just supposed to be a gas and go stop. That's how -- as -- how it had been planned. But at President Putin's initiative, the presidents and their wives met out at the airport. They met for lunch. The Russian president and his wife treating the Bushes to a very traditional Russian meal that included Russian pancakes and black caviar.

All advisers on both sides saying the real goal of this meeting was to make nice. Russian-American relations are going through a very difficult period. They've been deteriorating for the last couple of years. And so that was the focus.

However, the Russian president's spokesman said they did discuss politics. Specifically, they talked about Iran, he said, and trade, and very important for the United States, which is trying to get Russia on board a U.N. Security Council resolution that would allow for sanctions against Iran. So that was a very topic -- Iran, a very important topic for the United States.

For Russia, it was very important to discuss its desire to join the World Trade Organization and make sure that the U.S. is still on board for that. And, indeed, the presidents did confirm at their meeting that they both plan on meeting again later this week in the Far East to sign a bilateral deal that would clear the way for Russia to join the World Trade Organization.

After making nice, it appears they succeeded. Just as President Bush was about to get back on the plane, the Russian president came up to him and gave him a big Russian bear hug. So it looks like they succeeded there -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, Russian bear hugs -- that has to be a good sign.

Quickly, Ryan, where is he headed next now?

CHILCOTE: He's headed to Singapore and from Singapore he will go to Indonesia and, most importantly, to Vietnam for that APEC summit. It's very important. It's part of an eight day trip for the U.S. president. This was just a stopover on his way there -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, very good.

Ryan Chilcote from Moscow this morning.

Thank you, Ryan.

HARRIS: Still to come, criminals communicating in code, even invisible ink?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was written in grapefruit juice and you pretty much, you write it in a Q-Tip or a toothpick and then the back of it is heated up and the message becomes visible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: New, signals from Supermax, ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Caught red hooved -- a deer in a daring daylight bank break. Ouch. We've got the pictures, coming up.

HARRIS: And a fake quake -- but it could help engineers design buildings to stand up to the real deal. You are in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: We want to go back over to Chad Myers now and quickly get an update about the tsunami that we have been talking about, inching its way, is it fair to say, toward Alaska and Hawaii within the next, what did you say, a few hours, yes?

MYERS: Yes. Well, a number of hours. Probably 1:20 Eastern time would be the closest approach to Hawaii's westernmost island, which would obviously be Kauai.

The map behind me made by NOAA here a few minutes ago, has the hours in different colors. So every time you change color, that's one hour of wave travel. Waves actually travel very quickly through the ocean, not like the little wave that you see coming onshore are your local beach in Atlantic City.

There's Hawaii. A bunch of sensors here. There's a couple of sensors here, the dark sensors that we talk about, some of these buoys that go up and down. They float on top of the water. But I just found out from Rob Marciano, who knows a little bit more about them than I did, that actually the sensor is on the bottom of the ocean measuring the weight of the water above it, the pressure of the water above it. And it can feel the difference to one centimeter. So if a one centimeter wave came over it, it would actually feel it. So that's what's out there.

Not too many of them around Japan. One, a couple here. Maybe two or three right here along the coastal sections of the western Aleutians, and also a few in the middle of the ocean. But that's a pretty deep ocean out there.

We will still -- we'll still continue to watch whether there's a wave or not. I've been watching NHK, the Japanese broadcasts. They've had a few 40 centimeter waves, you know, maybe 15 inches, and then a few 20 centimeter waves, but nothing like the six-and-a-half feet that was possible with an 8.1 earthquake.

COLLINS: Yes, boy...

MYERS: Back to you.

COLLINS: It was much more significant when we were talking about Banda Aceh.

MYERS: Yes.

HARRIS: Oh, my.

COLLINS: Quickly, though, Chad, do I understand you correctly, that it could grow as it moves further away from -- and we think about an epicenter of an earthquake, is it an epicenter of a tsunami?

MYERS: It doesn't really necessarily get larger. But as the water gets shallower, you force this six inch bubble of water into a smaller area and now this bubble can grow to a large wave, the same way a wave would crash onshore from any ocean anyplace.

COLLINS: OK.

All right, well, as always, we'll keep our eye on it with you.

MYERS: All right.

COLLINS: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

HARRIS: Looking for leadership -- Senate Republicans meet this hour to pick positions in their new role as the minority party. Senator Mitch McConnell is expected to become minority leader and a GOP senator ousted from the ranks hoping for a come back.

Details from Congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind this door, inside this office, Republican Senator Trent Lott is working the phones, plotting a come back. Four years after his own GOP colleagues forced him out as majority leader, he is running to become the number two Republican in the Senate.

In 2002, Lott was pushed aside for comments seen as racially insensitive, praising the late Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist.

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And if the rest of the country had have followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.

BASH: Lott's fate was sealed by the president.

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country.

BASH: Since then, Lott has toiled with the rank and file, looking out for his home state of Mississippi and lobbing an occasional bomb, like here at GOP supporters of lobbying reform.

LOTT: Some of it is outrageous. I mean now we're going to say you can't have a meal for more than $20. Where are you going, to McDonald's?

BASH: Now, Lott wants back in the Republican leadership and he's making the case to colleagues that he can help redirect a party that's lost its way.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA: We would make a mistake if we didn't use his experience in the leadership of the Republican Party.

BASH: Lott's supporters, like Senator Richard Burr, say what's passed is past and the new GOP minority needs someone like Lott, who knows how to outmaneuver Democrats.

BURR: We want to get things done. We want to have legislative accomplishments. And I believe that Senator Lott can certainly help to guide us in that path.

BASH: Lott's spokeswoman says he is closing in on victory. But he's up against Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, who's been working it for months and insists he is going to win.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), TENNESSEE: I think our Republican Party, after the drubbing we took, needs, first, unified leadership; and, second, we need some new faces and some fresh thinking. And I hope that's what I offer the caucus.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HARRIS: Dana Bash joins us live from Capitol Hill -- Dana, good morning.

BASH: Good morning.

HARRIS: Trent Lott? Trent Lott?

Handicap his chances for us.

BASH: Good morning, Tony.

It's going to be neck-and-neck. You know, I actually just saw Senator Lott as he was about to go in for this vote this morning. And, you know, so far he has really been avoiding reporters. He's been trying to do this under the radar, quietly making calls to his colleagues. But he did stop briefly and said that he's actually feeling pretty good. You could -- he was -- he had a little bit of nervous energy, I think it's fair to say. But he also said that he doesn't really know because this, like all of these leadership elections up here, is a secret ballot.

So he said he feels confident that he has the votes, but whether or not they're actually going to stick with him when they get in there is a different question. He said it's "like herding cats."

And, you know, on the other side, we talked to Senator Lamar Alexander, his opponent, yesterday. He says he is absolutely confident that he has the votes because he, unlike Senator Lott, has been working this for about a year-and-a-half, talking to his colleagues. And he says he has ironclad commitments that should push him over the edge.

So they're about to go in momentarily. We'll find out pretty soon whether or not Trent Lott really is able to make a come back.

HARRIS: It's a horse race. Well, we love a good horse race. BASH: Absolutely.

HARRIS: Dana Bash on Capitol Hill for us.

Dana, thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

COLLINS: A once powerful lobbyist, Jack Abramoff enjoyed access and influence in Washington. Today, Abramoff begins serving nearly a six year prison sentence. It's punishment for a fraudulent deal to buy a fleet of casino ships in Florida. Abramoff also facing possible jail time for corrupting government officials and their staffers.

Prosecutors say he could hold the key to a sweeping corruption case. It involves members of Congress, the Bush administration and their aides. Abramoff was known for lavishing politicians with expensive gifts, exotic trips and campaign cash.

HARRIS: A fake quake, but it actually could help engineers design buildings to stand up to the real thing.

That story ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: It's just a snapshot of the present, but it may also predict the future. That story coming up, right here in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Predicting your future from a photo -- not fortune telling, but true science. This week, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is looking at why we ought to be happy.

Here's part three of his series now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DACHER KELTNER, PSYCHOLOGIST: That's good.

Where's that smile?

Very nice.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That smile means more than you think. Psychologist Dacher Keltner studies human emotion. To see if a smile reflects real happiness, Keltner looks for telltale muscle movements.

KELTNER: And this has the zygomatic measure and a little bit of the orbicularus oculi.

GUPTA: In a genuine happy smile, the corners of the lips go up, just as other muscles contract around our eyes.

KELTNER: And those are hard to fake and they -- several studies have shown -- correlate with feelings of happiness, with activation in the left hemisphere of the brain. If you see evidence of that muscle movement, you know the person is happy.

She got a lower score.

GUPTA: In one groundbreaking study, Keltner analyzed the smiles of women in their college yearbook photos. These two women look very much alike. But hold on. Look closer. The woman on the left, see how her skin pouches under her lower eyelids?

But the woman on the right, that tiny protrusion isn't there. And see this little crinkle in her cheek. It's less intense than the other woman's smile. The woman on the left looks happier.

Researchers followed the sample of women as they got older.

Keltner's findings?

Those with genuine smiles in their college yearbook photos were significantly more likely to be happy, a full 30 years later.

KELTNER: She feels more warmly toward others. She feels more confident and successful in achieving her goals. She feels less anxiety on a daily basis and warmer and more connected to her spouse.

GUPTA: We don't know exactly why. Maybe a smile reflects other factors -- biological wiring, good health, good relationships that endure long after the photographer says "cheese."

But somehow a simple picture is a glimpse of the future.

KELTNER: The idea that I can take a snapshot of you in an artificial setting and then tell you what your life is like for 30 years, that's almost preposterous. And yet it turned out.

GUPTA: One thing we learned, be happy now if you want to be happy later.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

GUPTA: Are you buying it?

COLLINS: Is it fake or not?

All right, so you really can't manipulate a fake smile.

GUPTA: OK...

COLLINS: You were saying it's so much more kind of out of control than we realize.

GUPTA: It's more reflexive than you think. And here's what's interesting, because I walked into this a bit skeptical, as well.

COLLINS: I'm skeptical.

GUPTA: But I looked at a lot of pictures and there are certain things -- I literally stood there in front of a mirror trying to do things to my face that would make me have a genuine smile, because it's not just here. It's the pouching underneath the eyelids. You can't make that happen much...

COLLINS: Right. But you were aware of it, then, if you were looking in the mirror and you were doing this, right?

GUPTA: And I wasn't happy. But if I were happy...

COLLINS: And you were not happy.

GUPTA: ... a little crinkle in the cheek. But it's a lot in the eyes, as well as the mouth, that changes during a genuine smile. And they actually backed this up. People who they thought had genuine smiles, they actually looked at their brains and they found that area of the brain that's associated with happiness was more likely to light up in someone who was genuinely smiling versus someone who was not. So...

COLLINS: Are we talking serotonin?

What's the part of the brain that is associated with happiness?

GUPTA: The left prefrontal cortex. It's right in this area and they find that that area is most associated with happiness. Now, what was most interesting to me was they had looked at these high school yearbook photos and they said, all right, these people are more happy based on their genuine smiles...

COLLINS: OK...

GUPTA: ... and they went and looked at them 30 years later and found, in fact, as preposterous as it might sound, it still ended up being true, to some extent.

COLLINS: What if they just had a bad hair day and they were not happy about their hair?

HARRIS: Oh, Heidi.

GUPTA: Well, yes. I mean, well then you weren't happy. I mean, you know, there's lots of reasons not to be happy.

COLLINS: But not overall happiness. I don't know, I just don't get (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

GUPTA: You'd have to take several points in time.

COLLINS: Right.

GUPTA: I think it's a fair point. You'd have to take several points in time, which would be a better study. But, you know, someone who's getting a yearbook photo is going in there, giving a grin, you know?

They know that that's what they're going to be doing all day. Hopefully they've done their hair in a way that makes them happy. HARRIS: Exactly.

COLLINS: All right, so we will continue to think about this one.

GUPTA: Think about this.

COLLINS: Not that I'm debating with the neurosurgeon, but, you know...

GUPTA: Yes, I'm watching your smile as you're saying this.

HARRIS: Oh.

COLLINS: I'm totally happy.

All right, so what's in store for tomorrow?

GUPTA: We're going to look at meditation.

COLLINS: OK.

GUPTA: I was fascinated by this topic, as well.

COLLINS: OK, this I'll buy.

GUPTA: This you're going to buy?

Can you make yourself happy through some simple, relatively simple techniques?

We're not talking about the breath holding and sort of the standing on your head. We're talking about simple meditation techniques that can actually change your happiness set limit.

COLLINS: You can make yourself calm, and therefore happier.

GUPTA: That might be it.

COLLINS: I bet that's it.

GUPTA: I'll have more on that tomorrow.

COLLINS: OK, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Stay happy.

COLLINS: Thank you again.

OK, we'll work on it here.

All right, also Sunday night, Sanjay has a full hour long special that you are not going to want to miss, "Happiness and Your Health," which takes a closer look at the surprising mind-body connection, which is sometimes overwhelmingly powerful. That starting at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

And in the meantime, you can always go to our Web site at cnn.com/happiness. You'll see a picture of Tony.

HARRIS: That's what I'm talking about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Building a house only to destroy it. It's part of the plan to study the power of earthquakes.

CNN's Rob Marciano reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Three bedrooms, a cozy den. The table is even set for dinner. But the location might leave a little to be desired.

ANDRE FILIATRAULT, U. BUFFALO ENGINEERING: This is a full-scale, two story, 8,000 square foot townhouse with an attached garage. And it's mounted on our shake tables here and we're going to submit it to a large earthquake.

MARCIANO: Andre Filiatrault is an engineering professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His team spent a month building this house in a huge lab last spring. Now they plan to shake it apart with a simulated earthquake.

FILIATRAULT: And in a corner over there we have a whole set of instruments that measure how much this foundation moves.

MARCIANO: The house is equipped with 250 sensors to monitor every nook and cranny. Eighth cameras will film what happens inside. But what's most important in what happens the basement, so to speak.

Now we're actually underneath the dining room where this house sits on top of this huge shaker. This is it. This is what's going to do it, isn't it, Andre?

FILIATRAULT: That's right. That's one of the shake tables. I said there's two of them. And this shake table has eighth actuators. Basically they're a big piston. You can see one of those here. You can see the stainless steel piston here. The shaft of the stem is steel piston. And basically this is going to move up and down, doing the shaking, and in 15 seconds you're going to see very high velocity, displacement and so on to reproduce the motion.

MARCIANO: Within a few seconds, one of the eight cameras dies. In one room, computers, TVs and lamps go flying. In the garage, a station wagon rocks and rolls. In one room where all of the furniture have been brace and bolted down, the bookcases and television have still intact. Plates slip and slide, but like a magic trick, remain on the kitchen table. But the house severely damaged with large cracks in the walls. Studying all this will help engineers design better wooden buildings. Some day this fake quake could save your life.

Rob Marciano, CNN, Buffalo, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(MARKET REPORT)

COLLINS: Meanwhile, we're going to be talking more about the tsunami. Seemingly small at this point, but you never know what could happen as it moves closer to Alaska and Hawaii. So, of course, we, along with Chad Myers, are watching that.

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

HARRIS: And looking for the door in Iraq. What will Democrats do? A preview from a man who will soon have the power to push for change. Democratic Senator Carl Levin live in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Want to get back to updating you on the tsunami that we've been telling you about this morning. There was an 8.1 earthquake that hit near Japan. And they have recently just in the last couple of minutes actually canceled their tsunami alert. Always looking, well not always, dependent upon where the geographical location of an earthquake is, sometimes a tsunami follows because of those waves in the water obviously.

That situation has been canceled in Japan, but we want to take you to Hawaii. Laura Kong is the director of the international tsunami information center in Honolulu. She is on the phone with us now. Laura, can you update us on the situation in Hawaii and what you are telling residents there?

LAURA KONG, DIR. INTERNATIONAL TSUNAMI INFORMATION CENTER: Right now what we are -- what we have still in effect in Hawaii is a tsunami watch. That's no different from when it was issued about 3:00, 3:15 or so. So that's about an hour and a half ago. And really what we're doing is waiting and seeing -- Japan, as you reported, canceled theirs. And what we understand from our colleagues in Russia is they also do not see any waves. So that's good news. But what you'll notice, though, is both Russia and Japan are actually not in the direction of the greatest tsunami energy.

In fact, the greatest energy is probably directed towards Hawaii or towards the Pacific. So there is some indication of a wave, very small, though, that we've seen on these deep ocean buoys off of Alaska. So we're trying to make a better assessment and trying to see as the wave goes across the Pacific and heads toward Hawaii what we're going to do. So right now we're still in a wait and see.

COLLINS: I hear a phone ringing in the background. I hope that's not something you need to get to immediately. While we have you, let me quickly ask you how the day will go. You'll continue to monitor, we were hearing from Chad Myers a little bit earlier about these sensors that are located deep in the ocean that can measure even the smallest change in the size of a wave.

KONG: Right. Well, these deep ocean buoys right now we have a number off of Alaska extending into -- off the West Coast, as well as in -- to be deployed in the southern part of the Pacific. What that's giving us is information in the deep ocean as the wave passes over and that's important because when we don't have islands and we don't have coastal gauges or tide gauges on islands, we don't have any data and we can't confirm whether a tsunami has been generated. Those are important for us.

But in addition, most of what we can do here is for this situation is we have information from near the source or near in Japan and Russia, we have information from the Aleutians, so what our scientists are doing is trying to analyze all that information and determine what it means for Hawaii, which is slightly different direction. But this is all the data we have.

COLLINS: All right. Well, I'm sure that you will continue to watch it very carefully for the people there. If an evacuation were to come, which is nowhere near where we are at this point, but the tsunami watch still in effect for Hawaii. It would be difficult to conduct an evacuation on such a small island. We appreciate your time here today, thank you, Laura Kong.

HARRIS: Well, the top U.S. Commander in the Middle East on Capitol Hill facing the hard questions on the Iraq war. General John Abizaid goes before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning with a vastly changed political landscape. The hearing on Iraq will be the first since the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a chief architect of the war. And it's the first since Democrats won control of the new Congress. Democrats are likely to bring up the topic of a phased withdrawal of American troops.

COLLINS: Lawmakers are sure to point to the surging violence in Iraq. And just today, a car bombing central Baghdad killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more. The attack, just a day after insurgents killed at least four U.S. troops west of the capital.

CNN's Arwa Damon is in Baghdad. The other story that's still developing is yesterday's mass kidnapping. Arwa, can you give us the latest on that? We've been hearing so much about some of those people who were kidnapped have been released. Some have not. What can you tell us?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, there is still a fair amount of confusion even here on the ground in terms of putting together all the varying pieces of information that we are getting. However, we do now know that at least 40 of these hostages have been released. That is according to the ministry of higher education. Iraqi police are also now confirming that at least 40 individuals have been released.

Now the ministry of higher education believes that another 40 are still in custody. Iraqi police putting that at a lower number saying that it is about 20 that are still in custody of the kidnappers. Now the Iraqi minister of education, though, himself has said -- is threatening right now to suspend all activity with the Iraqi government unless the government starts to take active steps towards securing the release of these hostages and bringing the kidnappers to justice.

That announcement coming just hours after the Iraqi prime minister himself held a press conference at Baghdad University with university professors and students there to show his solidarity and also to affirm to them that the kidnappers would be brought to justice. But as of yet and from what we are hearing from the minister of higher education, he does not feel that the steps that the government is currently taking is enough to secure these individuals that are still in captivity. From those that have been released, they are reporting that they were beaten, that their IDs were taken from them, that they were asked about their tribal -- what tribe they belong to. They said the captors released them in groups in different parts of Baghdad. We are not being told specifically what parts of the city for the security of those still in captivity, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Arwa Damon live from Baghdad for us. Arwa, I know you'll keep the situation under your watch. Thank you. We'll check back a little later on.

HARRIS: And coming up, the man at the center of a police arrest investigation speaks out for the first time.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just felt punches coming left and right. I told them I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

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HARRIS: Now new questions. Is the LAPD breeding a culture of abuse? That story straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: "I did not resist." That from a man at the center of an Los Angeles police investigation. The FBI and the LAPD are looking into the August arrest of William Cardenas after this new video evidence was posted on YouTube. Cardenas talked about the incident in his first jailhouse interview.

HARRIS: William Cardenas after this video evidence was posted on YouTube. Cardenas talked about the incident in his first jailhouse interview.

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WILLIAM CARDENAS, ARRESTED MAN: I got pepper sprayed, and I felt a knee on my neck. But I was awkward on the sidewalk. I was so awkward, I like on the driveway or something. So my rear was on the -- I felt punches coming left and right. I just told them I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

QUESTION: Did you -- I mean, according to, this is what was said in court, and this it what it says here -- it says he's grabbing at me at my clothes. He grabs at my belt. I could feel my belt being tugged on and my holster move. Their concern was you were trying to get their gun. What were you trying to do?

CARDENAS: I was trying to tell them to stop, because I couldn't breathe. They pepper sprayed me too much, and I felt dizzy already after they punched me.

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HARRIS: This arrest may not be an isolated one as CNN's Chris Lawrence reports. Other incidents may be pointing to a dangerous trend.

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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): This home video captures an LAPD officer pepper spraying a suspect after he's handcuffed inside the patrol car. We're blurring the face of the suspect, Ben Barker (ph), as part of an agreement with his attorney. But the witness who shot the video could tell Barker was hurting.

CALVIN MOSS, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: He was tearing. There was a lot of saliva. He was drooling. And he looked very -- in pain.

LAWRENCE: The officers arrested him after Barker assaulted a store worker in Venice Beach. The videotape shows Barker complained and yelling.

BEN BARKER: Stop! Stop!

LAWRENCE: But eventually, he voluntarily gets in the car?

JOHN RAPHLING, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: He's subdued. He has submitted to their authority. He's handcuffed. He's helpless. He can't do anything to them.

LAWRENCE: Attorney John Raphling admits the officers did loosen Barker's handcuffs when he complained they were to tight. Chief William Bratton says the officers showed restraint based on behavior not seen in the videotape.

CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LOS ANGELES POLICE: He kicked at Officer Dusing (ph), lunged toward Sergeant Beras (ph) and batted Officer Gudamin (ph) by spitting on him. Barker spat inside the police car and then vandalized it during transportation to the jail.

LAWRENCE: This arrest happened last year. The officer who sprayed Barker resigned shortly thereafter. Chief Bratton says after a full investigation, the prosecutor found the officers did not violate the law.

BRATTON: Pepper spray is here to stay, make no mistake about that. It is an appropriate tool to deal with uncooperative individuals. LAWRENCE: Last week, the FBI launched an investigation into a separate incident in Hollywood. Police say William Cardenas ran when ordered to stop and resisted arrest. Cardenas says he struggled because he could not breathe. Civil rights attorney Connie Rice says officers are in a tough position.

CONNIE RICE, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: They've got to make a split second decision that may or may not get them killed. And in that assessment, does LAPD have a culture that has an overreaction in terms of force?

LAWRENCE: A question investigators and the LAPD are still trying to answer.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Venice, California.

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HARRIS: Still to come, a brawl at a pee wee game. But it wasn't the kids throwing punches. Find out what set off the melee in the NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: An outrage of the day. Not exactly a lesson in sportsmanship here. A brawl breaks out at a pee wee football game in Corpus Christi, Texas. The November 4th attack captured on amateur video. Police say a coach attacked an 18-year-old referee, who had ejected him for swearing. The referee was briefly knocked unconscious. Parents from both teams rushed the field. Most tried to...

Heidi, this is serious.

COLLINS: It's disgraceful.

HARRIS: Well, it's outrageous.

Most tried to break things up, but some got in a few shots. There's a woman here who kicks another woman on the backside. Investigators plan to meet with prosecutors to determine whether charges should be filed in this case.

COLLINS: Charge them all.

HARRIS: There you go.

COLLINS: It's ridiculous.

Meanwhile, get this. Caught red hoofed. A deer in a daring daylight bank break. The pictures right here in the NEWSROOM.

Also, looking for the door in Iraq. What will Democrats do? A preview from a man who will soon have the power to push for change. That's coming up, live in the NEWSROOM.

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