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Johnson Diagnosed; Balance of Power; Princess Diana Report; The Fight For Iraq; Strategy Session; New U.N. Leader

Aired December 14, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Spend a second hour in the NEWSROOM this morning and stay informed. Here's what's on the rundown.

A Democratic senator in critical condition after a brain hemorrhage. Democratic control of the Senate now in question.

COLLINS: The Joint Chiefs reportedly advising the president against more troops for Iraq. We talk to our military analyst about the options.

HARRIS: Where would the military find more manpower? No matter the answer, it's sure to strain the National Guard and Reserve. A congressional commission weighs in on the impacts, this Thursday, the 14th of December. You are in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Twin shocks on Capitol Hill today. Concern for a colleague and speculation about a potential shift of power. Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota in critical condition after brain surgery. Let's go ahead and talk with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta now who is a neurosurgeon. Go ahead and read between the lines if you would. We've gotten some new information about what this was. First we thought it was stroke and now we know we know it's something called AVM.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean he had some of the classic signs of stroke, which is why there was a little bit of confusion early on. He was having trouble speaking. He was having trouble moving the right side of his body. That all sort of fits with a stroke. And in some ways, when you have a bleed in the brain, which we now know it was, it does give you those sorts of symptoms.

What an Arteriovenous Malformation, AVM, that's you just mentioned, Heidi, is, is when there's sort of a cluster of blood vessels. You have some arteries which typically carry fast moving blood and some veins which typically carry slow moving blood and they sort of cluster together. They get into a tangle. And sometimes in that cluster, you can actually have some bleeding that comes from that as the blood sort of spills back and forth between the arteries and veins.

I've got a picture. I want to show you what it looked like. You should normally see just a very clean, one blood vessel sort of going up. And instead, you see that sort of tangle at the very top right of the screen there. That is what an AVM looks like on an angiogram. This is the sort of malformation he had. This is obviously not his angiogram, but this is the sort of problem that he would have.

Now, the biggest concern, obviously, is where this was located. It does appear to be located, reading between the lines, in a very important part of the brain. I have a brain model here I want to show you. This part of the brain is called the left temporal lobe and it's responsible for the ability to speak, for the ability to understand speech. It's very important. You also have area of the brain here that's responsible for strength on the right side of the body. Both those areas seem to have been affected in the senator's case. It's hard to know how affected actually. That's what people are concerned about right now.

COLLINS: OK. So now that we know what this is called, I'm sure the biggest question for our viewers would probably be, how do I know I have it. And you really don't.

GUPTA: Right. It's a great question. A lot of people are watching, saying, well, I mean, this came out of nowhere with the senator. And, unfortunately, that's oftentimes how it comes. I mean there's about 300,000 people -- that's a guess -- who have AVMs at any given time in the United States. And about 10 percent of those people will actually have a bleed from them. So about 30,000 people. It's a small percentage of people. That's the good news.

The bad news is, unless you did an MRI on everybody, you wouldn't know who has it and who doesn't. And so that makes it very difficult to screen for this sort of thing.

COLLINS: Have you ever operated on something like this?

GUPTA: I have. I have operated on AVMs. And the biggest goal of the operation is to get the blood out that has just caused the symptoms that he had and to also remove that tangle of blood vessels so this never happens again. And it sounds like they were able to succeed on both those fronts.

COLLINS: And so that's why we're hearing that it apparently is a successful surgery. But again, as you very clearly point out, we have no idea what the recovery would be like. Can you talk about patients that you have operated on this before, though? I mean, their recovery time? I imagine it's similar to a stroke recovery. You have to learn how to speak again or . . .

GUPTA: That's right. Yes, that's right. I mean, you know, it really depends on what area of the brain this occurs. It can be vastly different, Heidi, because this occurred in what seems like a very important part of the brain. We call it an eloquent area of the brain that's responsible for so many different things. I think recovery is going to be measured in weeks and months, not hours and days. And recovery in the truest sense of the word, meaning get back to the point where he speaks normally, where his strength returns. It's very hard to say. But in the patients I have taken care of with similar sorts of problems, it is a very long process involving rehabilitation and speech therapy and just months of work.

COLLINS: And, quickly, as you just mentioned, that we haven't heard before, once that area, the trouble area, if you will, layman's terms, is removed, it is possible that there would not be another event?

GUPTA: If this operation is successful, as they say that it was, he should not have this sort of problem ever again.

COLLINS: OK. All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our neurosurgeon luckily here today.

Thanks so much, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you so much.

HARRIS: And we're standing by waiting to hear more about the current condition of Senator Tim Johnson. A live look there now at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he is being treated at this hour. When that news conference begins, we will, of course, bring that to you live. And let's get the view of all of this on Capitol Hill now. Our congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel joins us there live.

Andrea, good morning to you.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.

Well, there are some small glimmers of hope. My colleagues, Dana Bash and congressional producer Ted Barrett (ph), just spoke with the incoming majority leader, Harry Reid, as he had come back from the hospital here on Capitol Hill. And he told them, "he was so happy to see him this morning. He looked very, very good." Senator Reid had been at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning and he left, went home and then was back there again at the crack of dawn this morning.

We also have another quote from Barbara Johnson, who is the wife of Senator Johnson, who has been at his bedside since this incident happened yesterday. She said, "the Johnson family is encouraged and optimistic. They are grateful for the prayers and good wishes of friends, supporters and South Dakotans."

Now, for Democrats and Republicans alike, they have been on pins and needles ever since last month's midterm elections. The Democrats were set to take over the Senate with the slimmest of majorities, 51- 49.

Now if Senator Johnson is incapacitated at this time, it would then be left to the governor of South Dakota to choose his replacement. The governor is a Republican. It's likely that he would pick a Republican to replace Senator Johnson.

That would make it a 50-50 split, which would then leave it up to the vice president, Dick Cheney, to cast the tie-breaking vote. It would then be -- the Senate would be in Republican hands. This would be a huge blow for Democrats who have waited four years for the chance to get the gavel back in their hands, in charge of committee assignments, the agenda on the floor of the Senate nominations, everything that you can imagine would then be out of their grasp.

But, Tony, at this point, it's too soon to say whether or not that would happen.

HARRIS: Andrea, how does the timing of this illness, coming after the election but before Congress begins, the new congress begins its work, how does that make a difference, if at all?

KOPPEL: Well, it does make a difference. I spoke with the Senate historian here, Don Richie (ph), this morning, and he said that if the senator, Senator Johnson, becomes incapacitated between now and January 4th, when the new Congress is set to take over, it would then be left up to the governor of South Dakota to make the decision.

However, if he becomes incapacitated after the Congress takes over, it would then be sort of a no-man's land. There is no precedent for replacing a senator unless he chooses to be replaced. In fact, there's more precedent for senators to serve while they're out on medical leave. In fact, there's one senator, Karl Mint (ph) from South Dakota, was actually -- didn't cast a vote for two years while he was out on medical leave. And so it would be a much different situation, Tony

HARRIS: OK. Our congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel for us.

Andrea, thank you.

COLLINS: Dowsing the fires of conspiracy. A British police report out today concludes the death of Princess Diana was a, "tragic accident." CNN's Paula Hancocks now from London.

Paula, good morning.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.

Well, John Stevens, the former head of the London police, who was heading up this report, wanted to make it extremely clear today that there was no conspiracy to murder. He wanted to make sure that everybody knew this was an extensive report. It had been going on for nearly three years, more than 300 witnesses. And he wanted to make sure that some of those that have been bandying about these conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, princess of Wales, over the past near decade, realize that his extensive report found that that really wasn't the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN STEVENS, FORMER METROPOLITAN POLICE CHIEF: Our conclusion is that on the evidence available now, there was no conspiracy to murder any occupants of that car. This was a tragic accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HANCOCKS: Stevens also said that Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death. And also there was no indication that she was engaged or had any plans to become engaged to Dodi Fayed, who was her companion, who also died in that car crash. Now the conclusion was the same as the conclusion from the French inquiry back in 1999, that Henri Paul, the driver, who also died in the crash, was twice over the legal drunk driving limit and was also speeding through that tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.

Now at this point, there is a press conference ongoing at the Harrod's department store, which is owned by Dodi Fayed's father, Mohamed al Fayed. His spokesman at this point is saying that he believes that this inquiry was ended prematurely and Mohamed al Fayed still wants answers.

Now it was obvious that he was not going to be pacified by this report. He's one of the ones that has been peddling the most conspiracy theories. He really believes that his son and Diana, princess of Wales, were murdered by the establishment, that the British royal family was embarrassed by their relationship. But Stevens really is trying today to put a line -- draw a line underneath those conspiracy theories, saying it was a tragic accident.

COLLINS: All right. Paula Hancocks coming to us live from London today.

Paula, thanks for that.

HARRIS: Freezing rain, high winds, dangerous ice, and three climbers trapped high atop Oregon's Mount Hood. Searchers have been trying to find them since the weekend, but weather conditions have kept them below the mountains's tree line. One of the climbers made a cell phone call to his family on Sunday. He said he was in trouble and separated from his friends. Searchers have been trying to trace the cell phone signal and are using heat-seeking technology. Wind gusts on Mount Hood -- boy, listen to that sound, the natural sound on this tape, you can hear it -- expected to hit about 100 miles an hour by early afternoon. The weather not expected to improve until the weekend. Let's get the latest.

Chad, it doesn't bode well at all for anyone who is trying to be a part of that team that's searching for these for these hikers, these climbers.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, even if the climbers could actually move -- I mean and let's say that they're fine, they're in an ice cave, they're in a snow cave, they're fine. They can't get out there and even get down the mountain in weather like this. It's raining and has been raining all the way up to about 7,000 feet and tonight it's going to turn much, much colder.

And all of that ice that has now been forming on the ground with sleet and even freezing rain they've been talking about, that will be a huge slab of snow with a very glossy and slick surface that will actually make avalanche danger much, much higher as more snow tries to fall on top of that. So these guys are just -- they're just -- they're out there. You can't do anything. You can't move anywhere with winds like that.

Right now it's OK. But as the cold front comes by in a couple of hours, the winds are going to pick up to sustained at 50 and gusts to 100. There's 140 -- 130, 140 knot jet stream right above that and that's starting to mix down into that atmosphere and those gusts are just going to be incredible.

Now tomorrow the storm moves farther to the east, at least east enough to lose some of the gradient between the high and the low. So you're actually going to lose some of the wind. Not a lot. You'll lose some.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: The role of the National Guard and Reserves, one of the topics on Capitol Hill today. Proposed changes are being discussed. We'll talk about them in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: American troops, draw down or build up. The big question for Iraq. A strategy session with military analyst Major General Don Shepperd coming up in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: They've sworn to uphold the law, but whose law? Police officers accused have being enforcers for a jailed sex leader.

HARRIS: And a ticket to ride, Yoko Ono's chauffeur busted. She claims he tried to drive a hard and illegal bargain. That story in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Congress focusing on Iraq. Powerful Republican Senator John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman are there right now. CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins us now live from Baghdad.

Hello to you, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Heidi.

Well those senators, and Senators Collins, Kirk and Graham, have been meeting with Iraqi leaders. They met with Iraq's president and the Kurdish president. Both of those politicians oppose a beef-up of U.S. forces to help train the Iraqi army. The senators have also met with the head of U.S. forces, General Casey, General Chiarelli as well. They've had intelligence briefings. But Senator McCain, from everything he has seen, says that he still finds the situation more violent than his last visit and needing more U.S. troops to help out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I'd like to say that I believe conditions haven't (ph) improved. Certain in Baghdad they have not. I believe there is still a compelling reason to have an increase in troops here in Baghdad, and in Anbar province, in order to bring the sectarian violence under control. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Now, Senator McCain's comments here come right hard on the heels of the Iraq's prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, and his security adviser essentially trying to disengage Iraq's army from the U.S. military, particularly in Baghdad, saying the Iraqi army, Iraqi security forces ready to take on security in the capitol alone, despite the rising sectarian tensions here. Senator Lieberman had an assessment on that as well and he believes, like Senator McCain, the situation is just too violent to leave it to the Iraqis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN, (I/D) CONNECTICUT: I echo what Senator McCain said. I think -- I feel very strongly that as the president looks for a new direction forward in Iraq, that we need more, not less troops here. But there has to be real thought about what those troops do to help the Iraqi security forces secure the country. And, of course, there has to be ultimately real leadership by the government of Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And an attack on the government today. Iraq's vice president, a leading Shia politician, Adel Abdul Mahdi, his convoy attacked by gunmen as he drove through the city. Another 20 to 30 Iraqis kidnapped, broad daylight, downtown, 10 vehicles driven by armed men dressed as Iraqi police, swept into a market area, opened the doors, got out and bundled the store owners, the shop keepers into their vehicles and drove off. No more information about them right now.

Heidi.

COLLINS: Nic, you know, we talk quite a bit about how dangerous it is to travel in Iraq. We're just wondering here if there's any way to know where exactly these senators, McCain and Lieberman, were able to go in Iraq to come to the conclusions that they have come to.

ROBERTSON: I think the security conditions dictate that we have very little information to tell you about that, Heidi. We cannot get a full brief of exactly where the senators go and where they have been holding their meetings. I mean it seems very clear that they flew into Baghdad International Airport, although that's not known for certain. And very likely they came into the international super secure green zone in the center of the city to meet with Iraqi politicians, but we don't know where else they've gone.

There was potentially a visit to the south of Iraq, to Basra, where British forces are based. But even that can't be confirmed at this time. And really that's just an indication of the security here. That anyone who travels about in Iraq has to go with a maximum of security. And any information leaked to the public can compromise those travel plans.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. Just always wondering what they've been able to see, you know, to come to their conclusions.

All right, Nic Robertson live from Baghdad. Thank you.

HARRIS: So which way forward in Iraq? President Bush is weighing the options from adding more troops, pulling them out, to changing the military's mission altogether. Joining me live, CNN military analyst -- we love having him on the program for sure -- Major General Don Shepperd.

Don, as always, great to talk to you. Don, what's the president going to do here? Is he going to send more troops in?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I tell you, he's in a very tough situation, Tony. What the president needs to do is he needs to provide a solution, and a solution quickly, that will show that things are improving, getting better. And getting better can mean getting out. Getting better can mean adding more troops. But clearly what we're focusing on is a security situation in Baghdad. And just adding troops to Baghdad is extremely risky, Tony.

HARRIS: Well, what about adding troops to control the security situation now, to bring the civil unrest, the sectarian violence under control? What do you say to the idea of moving more troops, not necessarily adding more troops, but moving more troops, say, to Anbar province? We're talking Ramadi, Mosul, Baghdad, to be sure. How about that as an option?

SHEPPERD: I think that's the thing that you're going to have to do. Take troops that are in country, move them from some of the areas that are more peaceful into Anbar and into Baghdad. And I do think that embedding them with Iraqi forces, a platoon, you know, about 40 guys with an Iraqi company of 150, 175 Iraqi soldiers or a battalion, 500 to 700, that means that anywhere from a quarter to 10 percent of the unit would be American soldiers to help give backbone, intelligence, mobility, all of those type of things. That certainly could help.

But, if you're going to take on the militias directly, that's almost an impossible task in Baghdad. It involves going against al- Sadr, his Mehdi army, about a quarter of the city. It would require an enormous number of troops and I don't think we're going to do that, Tony.

HARRIS: So let me see if I can paraphrase this. You wouldn't send in additional troops of the number that we keep hearing kicked around, 20,000 to 30,000 to 40,000 additional boots on the ground there unless you were talking about taking on the militias. And if you did that, that would be very dangerous and very risky to the stability of the whole country.

SHEPPERD: Indeed. I would take the 20,000 or 40,000 that we're talking about and embed them with Iraqis, bring them up to speed, send some of our combat troops home, about 70,000 of our 140,000 American troops that are in the country are combat troops. I'd start sending some of them home. I would embed the others. I would try to rapidly train the Iraqi forces, turn over areas as soon as they're ready and slowly work our way out. I don't think there's any other way, Tony.

HARRIS: Well let's talk about that training up. Platoons, maybe battalions, what are we talking about now in terms of student-teacher, for lack of a better phrase, student-teacher ratio now, and what do you envision that being increased to?

SHEPPERD: Yes, we got right now somewhere between three and 10 trainers, if you will, embedded with every Iraqi brigade. It's slowly increasing. But if you're talking about a major increase, you're talking about taking a platoon, that's about 40 U.S. soldiers, and embedding them with every Iraqi company, which would be 150, give or take, soldiers. Or a battalion, 500 to 700. So it would be a significant increase that could really increase the training rate and really help with mobility and the other things that the Iraqi army desperately needs.

HARRIS: So you've been talking to folks at the Pentagon. If the president said to Generals Casey and Abizaid, we're sending in an additional 20,000 to 30,000 troops on the ground, would they be able, can they come up with a plan to make that a successful deployment?

SHEPPERD: No, I don't think they can. And that's the danger of sending additional troops. If you send them in and nothing improves, it's perceived as a huge failure, a second failure, if you will. The president needs to start working our way out of there and the commanders on the ground, at least as of last week, have said American troops are not the solution. Only Iraqis fighting for their country, taking over their country, over time, us training them up over time and giving them backbone and help is the way to go. And I certainly believe that's true, Tony.

HARRIS: General Shepperd, great to talk to you.

SHEPPERD: You bet.

HARRIS: Thanks for your time this morning.

And still to come, critical condition. Illness could rob the Democrats of Senate control before they even take the gavel. A news conference from incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expected shortly here in the NEWSROOM.

And changing of the guard at the United Nations. Kofi Annan's tenure draws to a close. A new leader taking the reins. Details in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: What do you say we take a trip to the New York Stock Exchange right now. An hour into the trading day. The Dow off and running, 57 points to the good. And the Nasdaq performing well at 23 points up so far this morning. We will check on the entire business day, the forecast for the rest of the day, with Susan Lisovicz coming up in just a few minutes here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon will be sworn in this morning as secretary-general of the U.N. Many global hot spots await him when he officially takes over on January 1st. The crisis in Darfur is expected to be high on his agenda. CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth has more now.

Good morning to you, Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Well, before Ban Ki-Moon can take the job officially, Kofi Annan must be lauded and praised inside the general assembly, which is what is going on right now as we speak. And Ban Ki-Moon will also, in a short time, take the official oath of office.

That's Kofi Annan speaking earlier this week in Kansas City. Now there you're looking at the general assembly. Ban Ki-Moon is in the audience listening to Kofi Annan be praised by regional countries speaking for the entire body of the 192 membership.

It's another turbulent period. When is it not for the United Nations. Crisis around the world. The United Nations somewhat bypassed when it comes to the Iraqi War. Ban Ki-Moon is going to pledge to beef-up moral in the organization, effectiveness, efficiency. There's always that undercurrent of Oil for Food scandal, which touched on several figures in the Annan administration and Annan himself with his son being implicated in the affair.

And now it's the turning over of the administratorship of the U.N. Kofi Annan, 10 years on the job. January 1st Ban Ki-Moon will take over.

COLLINS: And, quickly, Richard, it seems like we don't know too much about Ban's plans for, you know, future appointments or his policies. But I've been reading some things here. Maybe you can add to them. Some quotes from him. He says, "I may look low-key or be soft spoken, but that does not mean I lack leadership or commitment. He doesn't want to be seen as a pushover.

ROTH: That's right. There's the stereotype of the Asian political culture really of not making waves, of moving very delicately behind the scenes. He's going to -- he says he's going to try to show that that doesn't mean that he can be a powerful force.

He also says that words must be backed up by deeds, perhaps you will see less proclamations, less statements or denunciations. There's the big issue of whether he's going to be more secretary than general in the secretary-general title.

The United States' outgoing former ambassador John Bolton said the U.S. wants more of a chief administrative officer. Many of those see the moral authority of this office as a secretary general who must speak out even if it means against the United States or any member country.

COLLINS: Richard, we also know that the prosecutor for the international criminal court on Darfur will be presenting his case today. What's expected to happen there? ROTH: This is a briefing required. Luis Moreno-Ocampo goes to the security council to say he's got most of the evidence he says he needs for his first series of cases, maybe involving 100 people involved in what some call the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Human rights groups say any investigation must include the top leadership in Sudan, maybe as high up as the president. The leadership there denies any involvement in any war crimes. Darfur, Sudan, for years -- killings have gone on there. The security council has been unable to move in an effective manner. Sudan denying permission for international peacekeepers to come into the territory of Darfur, Sudan

COLLINS: All right. A really tough situation, especially as we look at that video. All right. CNN's senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth, thank you.

HARRIS: And new information coming into the NEWSROOM about a senator hospitalized in critical condition. Doctors say Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota suffered a brain hemorrhage.

He underwent surgery last night after appearing to suffer stroke- like symptoms. Doctors say the hemorrhage was due to a cluster of blood vessels being too close together -- a congenital condition for Johnson. Doctors describe the surgery as successful and say the senator is recovering without complication. But they add that it is still too soon to make any long term prognosis.

Senator Harry Reid arrived at George Washington University Hospital last hour to visit his colleague. Reed told CNN Johnson looked very, very good. Johnson's wife, Barbara, released a statement thanking people for their prayers and the hospital staff for their work.

And we are expecting to hear from Harry Reid coming up this morning, 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. And when we see Harry Reid and he is prepared to make that statement, to give us an update on the condition of his colleague, we will of course bring that to you live here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Questions and some insightful answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do you consider racism a bad word?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, not really a bad word, but racism itself is a bad thing. It's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: They always have the clarity, don't they? CNN's Paula Zahn talks with America's children straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And they're sworn to uphold the law, but whose law? Police officers accuse being enforcers for a jailed sect leader. The story in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs back to a Utah courtroom this morning. The hearing is to determine whether prosecutors have probable cause for a trial. Jeffs has been charged as an accomplice to rape. Prosecutors say he forced a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin. The now 20-year-old woman told the court last month, the marriage led to sex without her consent.

Assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian will get an early release from prison -- maybe not as early as he would like. The Michigan Parole Board has voted to free him next June. His attorney is asking the governor to release him earlier. He says Kevorkian has less than a year to live. Kevorkian is serving time for second degree murder. He claimed he helped at least 130 people commit suicide.

COLLINS: If your television reception suddenly goes all snowy and fuzzy this afternoon, don't gripe at the cable company. Call Chad Myers. No, no, the problem is actually a magnetic storm. I promise we won't give your phone number.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What did I turn into the cable guy?

COLLINS: Yes exactly. So what is this all about? A magnetic storm. How are we going to it feel on Earth?

MYERS: We are going to feel probably nothing. You're not going to feel it in the air. But you may see static on the TV, you may get interference on your cell phone or maybe even like your little cordless phone you're going to hang onto.

About 1:00 this afternoon, a little solar burst. It actually came from a very bright and hot spot on the sun. We get these solar flares all the time, but many times they actually, they spread out toward the outer atmosphere. Not toward the United States. Well, this one actually, as it bursts out, was actually coming toward the Earth rather than going out into outer space.

So now this is what it looks like. This is actually a telescope, but the middle part of this right here, that's a dot that they put over the sun so you don't see the sun and all you see is the flare coming out from the sun.

We will do that again. Watch this part here, as the flare came through, and all those sparks kind of coming out of the sun. And now it takes a couple days for all that spark activity to actually get to the Earth, but now it's going to be arriving about 1:00.

It arrives where the sun is out. Well, where is the sun out at 1:00? Right over the United States, Canada, and South America, and Mexico, so we will actually feel the biggest effect where the countries that are in the dark, Russia, China, they won't feel anything probably at all.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: So, if you were with us here in the NEWSROOM this morning, you heard that Mel Gibson's film, "Apocalypto," has been nominated for a Golden Globe, receiving one nomination. Best Foreign Film. But no nomination for Mel Gibson as director.

COLLINS: That's right. So, questions surrounding that, possibly because of the anti-Semitic comments that he made several months ago. He was on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" last night. He says he has moved on. So should people. He cannot change other people's minds about him. All he can do is direct good films. More about that right after the break. Stick around everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And more reaction coming in to the ill health of Senator Tim Johnson, coming into the NEWSROOM from Johnson's congressional colleagues. Here's House Speaker to be Nancy Pelosi from a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), INCOMING SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: As we begin this morning, I want to extend my personal warm wishes and prayers to Barbara Johnson and the Johnson family for a speedy recovery for our former colleague in the house, Tim Johnson.

As you know, he served with us here for ten years. Many still in the House were proud to call him a colleague, and we're hoping for the best for him and praying, again, as I said, for a speedy recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And as you know, Senator Johnson reported in critical condition this morning at George Washington University hospital after undergoing brain surgery last night. We are expecting to hear from Senator Harry Reid. That coming up in the next hour. His scheduled briefing, 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. And of course, we will bring that to you here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: We want to grow straight to London now and get the very latest coming out of a press conference with Mohammed al-Fayed, the father of Princess Diana's former companion Dodi al-Fayed on the final report into Princess Diana's death. Let's listen in for just a moment.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... I would say to you this. If there was -- any sort on of civil action in a court, it would enable us to do what we cannot do now, to call witnesses, to bring evidence, to obtain things which are denied to us on discovery.

In other words, to get where we want to be in an open court because we have no fear of the -- of daylight. Justice has no fear of daylight. But I'm sure Mr. Al-Fayed has his own thoughts about that. MOHAMMED AL-FAYED, DODI AL-FAYED'S FATHER: I think, Michael, you have explained the whole story, but it is for me, I am the father who lost his son and close friend, Princess Diana.

Nobody have any right just to predict and spreading rumor, displaying things which is not completely real. I am the one who been very close to Diana over the last 14 days before she died. She was my guest, spent the most wonderful time of her life. She is the person have conveyed to me all her suffering, all the devastation of threats she have in her life in the last 20 years. She was living in the royal family environment.

I know what she told me before she -- three hours before she died. I know what my son told me before the plan being executed. If they come out, Lord Stevens come and say this and that, that she's not going to be engaged, I mean, what rights, what proofs he have? Why he portray such garbage you know publicly?

Do you think it is fair that he go publicly, leaking all the reports to the newspaper, to the television? For -- how can this report be a call to stand in inquest? How can a jury be fair if he spread everything? Is this very important factor and reason for everyone to understand that there is a plan and plot against me.

The original coroner being removed, he was working on the case for three years and bring somebody out of the blue, an old lady, 75 years old, to just to be ordered to do what the establishment and the royal family want to do, to cover up the whole thing. Is this normal? Is this logic? Is this fair?

For me today, at 12:00, Lord Stevens come spread that report everywhere. How can this be a major factor to be used for the inquest. I'm just asking your help and your judgment about the fairness doing some -- it's just how simple that it is a plan for covering up. Is this right for them to spread the report before any inquest or any -- in front of any jury? It's not, not right.

And this is part again, main factor to prove that what Lord Stevens have done, he'd been ordered to do it, removing the original coroner, putting somebody just to have Lord Stevens, to expose and do his plan, to exactly accommodate the royal family and the establishment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead. You have a microphone?

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Egyptian newspaper. I understand the feeling of Mohammed al-Fayed because we are from the same country, but I would like to ask him, do you have any coordination with the family of Diana to be -- to have a new, serious investigation? And also you said that the report of Lord Stevens was a stall (INAUDIBLE). The three samples of blood of the driver which taken away.

Al-FAYED: I think all this being answered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have answered it. You could not have more exquisite detail about the blood, the key point there is there is no DNA link from Henri Paul to the incriminating blood samples.

Interestingly, you're entitled, this is what it's for, you're entitled to be skeptical about mow Mohammed's profound belief about the cause of his son's death and that of Diana, Princess of Wales, but you've got to not ask what people say. You have to ask, look at things that happened. Real things that really happened.

And you have to remember that one early morning, about 4:00 or maybe it was as late as 5:00, but it was dark and it was miserable the home of Paul Burrell was raced by the police up in Darvashar (ph); this florist, retired butler had his house raided by a large force of policemen, and they surprised themselves by finding in his loft lots of dresses, and handbags and shoes. But they weren't looking for those, although they became the subject of a court case which was so sensational that it will never be equalled in legal annals. But what they were looking for was what Diana called the crown jewels.

The crown jewels was a locked mahogany box she kept at Kensington Palace and that Paul Burrell had removed to his house in Darvashar. And what was in the locked box? What was in it was tapes that she had made, and also letters that she had received from the Duke of Edinboro (ph). You don't have to look at Mohammed and say, well, how do you believe this?

Listen to what Diana said. Listen to what she said in her life. She said to many friends, one time I'm going up in a helicopter and I won't come down alive. She wrote to Paul, who presumably she trusted, and said, Paul, I'm going to be killed in a car crash, contrived to look like an accident.

Her majesty, the queen, who I think you would all agree couldn't be described as conspiracy theorist, said to Burrell when she bade farewell to him, watch your step, Paul. There are dark forces at work in this country. What could she have meant? She knew what she meant, and he took the meaning of what she meant. Diana lived within the royal family for 15 years. She knew what was what. She knew -- she was concerned about her safety. She was very concerned about her surveillance. She employed her own surveillance expert who I met actually at the funeral service.

He was coming out of the west door, and I was introduced to him. She wouldn't have the official people coming in and sweeping her apartment. She didn't trust them. She knew what she was up against, and I personally, when I watched the Martin Bashear interview, as a former royal correspondent for the BBC, I looked at it with a great deal of interest, and there were sensational revelations every two minutes.

MOHAMMED AL FAYED: Michael, I'd like you to show this letter, what she said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like you to hold it up. I will read it to you in a minute. I just finished this story...

COLLINS: You have been listening to a press conference held by Dodi Al Fayed, and you see him on the right of your screen. this is being held at Harrod's, of which he is the owner of that department store in London. He is the father of -- excuse me, that was Mohammed Al Fayed. He is the father of Dodi Al Fayed, the former companion of Princess Diana.

The final report on Princess Diana's death was released today. It took three years to compile. It's something like 832 pages. Mohammed Al Fayed still maintains that it is, quote, "outrageous" that report came to the conclusion that Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed were killed in a tragic car crash, as opposed to a conspiracy that he has always maintained. You may remember that that conspiracy, he says, was going on because the royal family did not like the idea that the princess of Wales had a Muslim boyfriend.

We'll be back in just a few minutes here on CNN NEWSROOM.

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