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Severe Weather in North Texas Causes Damage and Death; Civilians Dead in Iraq; Don Imus Has No Job; New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine; Stumping across Country; Longer Tours of Duty in Iraq

Aired April 14, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: A tornado in Texas and more sever storms are on the move right now. We'll tell you where they're headed.
Also, Senator Barack Obama on the campaign trail. We'll hear from the presidential hopeful, live this hour.

And following the firing of Don Imus, how will this impact other radio shock jocks?

The news unfolding live this Saturday April 14, I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you are in the NEWSROOM.

Shocking damage and death in North Texas. The aftermath of a powerful storm including a possible tornado battered parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Among the widespread damage, a Baptist church wiped out. Officials report at least two people killed. Jim Douglas of our affiliate WFAA has more.

Jim Douglas of our affiliate, WFAA, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM DOUGLAS, WFAA REPORTER (voice-over): White Settlement, a little before 6:00 p.m., black clouds drop and start to churn. Radar indicates rotation right above our heads, but there's no funnel, just a brief hard blast. We chased the storm east to Haltom City, a large funnel has descended around Haltom Road and 121, it sucked up motor homes and tractor trailers at an RV center, shredding some, stacking others three stories high, but as we try to shoot more, the we discover the tangled power lines around us are not dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Everybody all right?

DOUGLAS: One more jolt for resident whose saw the twister coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terrified. I was screaming at him, telling him to turn right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then he says, "oh, that's not bird, that's trash and debris, get in the house, it's a tornado." It was just fast and terrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: That report from Jim Douglas out of WFAA out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Our Bonnie Schneider is in our Severe Weather Center.

And so, I understand Bonnie, there are several new tornado warnings out there. All concentrating in Texas still?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, Mississippi now, Fredricka. That storm is pushing to the east and Mississippi is feeling the brunt of it. We have two new warnings that just came in moments ago, Clark County and Jasper County in central Mississippi under tornado warnings. We still have the tornado warning for the city of Hattiesburg and also, northern Perry Town. So we're covering also, Forest County, several counties under these tornado warnings.

So far we've had the reports of the tornadoes within the Doppler indicated category, meaning that we haven't had reports of actual sightings of tornadoes, but that's very likely, because once you have the tornadoes spinning on Doppler, it's not too long before a funnel cloud appears and eventually that touches down and becomes a tornado.

The tornado watch box now extends all the way to Florida and Alabama, that does include the city of Montgomery down into areas in Biloxi, Mississippi. This goes into the evening house, 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. A severe thunderstorm watch continues, as well, for areas back off towards Mississippi.

This powerful system is so strong that we're getting tornado warnings in the early part of the day. Generally, on average, you see the most tornadoes between 3:00 and 7:00 p.m., but today we're starting to see things get active very early in the morning.

Here's a look at some of these super cell thunderstorms as they pound cities like Hattiesburg and Mississippi. Baton Rouge felt the brunt of the storms, as well. Most of this precipitation is pushing to the east at 35 miles-per-hour. We've had reports of hail into Attala County in Mississippi there were reported numerous sightings there of nickel and dime sized hail, so we are seeing hail, not as large as we've saw in Texas, but that doesn't mean we won't see it later on today because a threat for severe weather exists for a good portion of the southeast.

Severe storms today, as this vigorous storm system works its way to the east, pulls in the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, so we're looking at particularly strong storms that will produce large hail and likely tornadoes.

Now, eventfully for the rest of the weekend, we'll watch this energy push offshore, get going, as it does over the ocean, and unfortunately that means a nor'easter Sunday into Monday. Even Saturday night, you'll feel the winds pick up on the Atlantic coastline into New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, the strong winds coming from the east and from the northeast, eventually into northern New England; they will whip things up for Sunday and Monday. We're looking at coastal flooding and very heavy wind-swept rain. So a very strong weekend for severe weather. Back to you. WHITFIELD: Wow, but the temperatures in the northeast aren't such that we're also talking about, along with that nor'easter, snow. Are we?

We are, well, Fred, that's a good question. Because into interior sections, we will see snow, and some substantial snow, but on the coast line, for cities like New York and in Boston, no snow, just rain.

WHITFIELD: All right, Bonnie, thanks so much for the warnings.

Well, dozens of new civilian deaths in Iraq today, following car bomb attacks in Baghdad and Karbala. The Karbala bomb exploded in a shopping center just 200 yards from a Shiite shrine. The Baghdad blast targeted a bridge over the Tigris River.

CNN's Kyra Philipps is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can probably see by these pictures that we're just getting in from Iraqi television. It shows the hundreds of people that have crowded around the Karbala explosion. You can see emergency workers placing victims in ambulances, attending to the injured there.

This is what I can tell you right now with regard to the latest numbers. At least 43 people were killed in this explosion, 55 were wounded.

What happened is there was a parked car bomb that exploded right there in the busy area of Karbala, a busy shopping area. People had just gathered for the beginning of the day to start their shopping, here in the central area.

We can tell you also that this explosion happened not far from the Imam Hussein holy shrine. The background on that, it's where the grandson of Islam's Prophet Mohammed is buried. It's one of the most important areas for the Shiites. So, once again, in Karbala, still 43 people have a -- dead, 55 wounded in that car bomb that exploded there.

Something else that we're learning that happened this morning. The second attack in two days on a popular bridge here in Iraq, this one at the Jadriya Bridge. It's usually a very crowded bridge.

We're getting reports that 10 people were killed, 15 wounded, but not a lot of damage done to this bridge like damage that was done to the al Sarafya Bridge just two days ago. That explosion knocked that bridge out and people could not travel back and forth. A very historic bridge, a very important bridge to Iraqis. Now this second attack by extremists on this bridge. Not causing much damage, but killing 10 people.

There are 11 major bridges in Baghdad. So, now U.S. troops and Iraqis will be taking a look at those other nine bridges, trying to prevent extremists from attacking that mode of transportation for Iraqis.

Kyra Phillips, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Now here state-side, Don Imus out of a job. His radio and television shows canceled over his offensive choice of words, but as our Allan Chernoff reports, the Imus incident goes beyond just another muzzled shock jock.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD STERN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: This broadcast is history in the making

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Shock-jock Howard Stern left the public airwaves for satellite radio. So did controversial radio hosts Opie and Anthony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our first day on XM Satellite Radio.

CHERNOFF: But a source in the industry says there's no opportunity now for Imus on satellite radio, especially since Sirius and XM are hoping to gain government approval for a planned merger.

PAUL LA MONICA, CNNMONEY.COM: Satellite radio can't afford the risk right now. Simply put, they just need to steer clear of any more controversy that could possibly derail their merger plans.

DON IMUS, FMR. RADIO HOST: And sometime we go too far.

CHERNOFF: Indeed, the collapse of Imus, an original shock jock, could mark a threshold, a change in attitudes about public vulgarity. In cutting ties to Don Imus, both CBS and NBC say they hope to clean up the airwaves.

STEVE CAPUS, NBC NEWS PRESIDENT: This had touched a nerve. And the comment that came through to us time and time again was, when is enough going to be enough?

CHERNOFF: CBS CEO Les Moonves told his staff in a memo, "Firing Imus is an effort to curb offensive speech in American pop culture. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our company."

JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: (INAUDIBLE) more inclusive.

CHERNOFF: Minority leaders who called for Imus' firing say their campaign on all kinds of media companies is just getting started.

REV AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: We're going to be looking around the television industry and the music industry. And clearly, I think that all of them ought to know that there is no one that does not, in our judgment, get a pass, here. I think from musicians on. CHERNOFF (on camera): Of course, easier said than done. Controversial and sometimes offensive comments very frequently lead to big ratings on radio and television. And nasty lyrics certainly have not hurt music sales. So many people may be fed up, but among those who are not, will they actually stop buying and stop tuning in?

Allan Chertoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well the Imus controversy drew reaction from the highest ranking African-American woman in government; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says it was disgusting for Imus to say what he said about the Rutgers women's basketball team. In an interview with talk show host Michael Medved, Rice said basketball players were, "...showing that they're really fine athletes, and plying under extraordinary pressure." And their deeds were "ruined" by Imus' "disgusting" remark.

A CNN opinion research poll finds most Americans think Imus' remarks were offensive, but African-Americans and whites differ on how they view the talk show host, overall. More than half of African- Americans consider Imus a racist, only about a third of whites feel that way.

And later on in the 4:00 p.m. hour we'll be talking more about life after Imus. The responsibility of radio stations as well as the music industry. And also tune in to RELIABLE SOURCES tomorrow morning at 10:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Extended duty, extended stress, the strain on the Army and the toll on the troops. A look at that later on in the people in the NEWSROOM.

And later:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a video from Iraq, a hostage bound, interrogated, tortured by his captors who remain off camera, but the language is not Arabic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And what does this mean? Who is behind these frightening images and what happened to the man strapped in that chair? The answer are just as scary as the image.

And also, out of New Jersey we are awaiting an update from the hospital there on New Jersey governor Jon Corzine's condition as he continues to be recovering from an accident earlier this week. More in the NEWSROOM right after this. The hospital there on New Jersey governor Jon Corzine's condition as he continues to be recovering from an accident earlier this week.

More in the NEWSROOM right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Taking you straight to Camden, New Jersey, for an update on the condition of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine.

DR ROBERT OSTRUM, COOPER UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Something that we did since we did have a small amount of bleeding in the operating room. He is back in the trauma intensive care in stable condition and his vital signs are slowly, I will reiterate slowly, improving.

QUESTION: Critical but stable condition?

OSTRUM: He is still critical and he is stable, yes.

QUESTION: What type of medication is he on (INAUDIBLE)?

OSTRUM: He's on a lot of medications right now. Which are -- none of them are to support any of his vital signs.

QUESTION: How is his breathing and pain management?

OSTRUM: His pain management is sufficient. He's not in pain. He still has his breathing tube in, which is breathing for him. Again, he has a segment of his chest, due to the fractured sternum and the ribs, which we have to breathe for him. I would, at the current time, expect he's going back for surgery on Monday, that he will keep his breathing tube most likely until Monday, following the Monday surgery, we will then look at how he's doing and discuss, perhaps, some time soon after that, if he can tolerate it taking his breathing tube out.

QUESTION: How long was he under anesthesia?

OSTRUM: Is he aware? I don't know. No, I don't think so, no.

(CROSSTALK)

OSTRUM: One at a time. One at a time.

QUESTION: Does he have other injuries inside because he had a lot of ribs broken?

OSTRUM: No, he does not. He's got the rib fractures and I believe we're going to release -- we're going to give you a written list of all of the injuries he sustained so you can all have it so that we're all on the same page.

QUESTION: All right, what is surgery for Monday? Monday surgery?

OSTRUM: Monday surgery is for the same thing, it's just to clean up devitalized tissue and from what I saw today, I would expect that should be his last surgery. Having said that, with a wound the size that it is and the amount of contamination, he still has a risk of infection, the leg, we're still concerned about pneumonia, there's still lots of things that we're treating aggressively, but he's still, although he's improving, he still has significant improvement to do.

QUESTION: Doctor, have you done any more CAT scans for brain injuries?

OSTRUM: No.

QUESTION: You were talking about him being in a semiconscious state, aren't we?

OSTRUM: No, he's sedated because we're breathing for him.

QUESTION: So has he been conscious at all in the past 24 hours?

OSTRUM: Do you want to answer that?

DR STEVEN ROSS, COOPER UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I'm Dr. Ross, I'm the head of trauma here at Cooper. The governor is receiving both narcotic pain medication and Ativan, which is a sedative to keep him comfortable while he's on the ventilator. He has been -- he awakens, answers simple yes and no questions about pain, et cetera, and will perform things for us to demonstrate that his brain is working properly.

He, however, is not really aware of what's going on or where his surroundings, he's on enough medications to assure that he is comfortable and probably to assure that he won't remember much of what he's going through at this point. He is doing well from a -- much better than any of us would have expected from a respiratory standpoint and during the course of the next two days, we'll be starting to see whether or not we can allow him to be a little bit more awake and see whether or not it looks like...

(SIREN)

Paramedics.

Whether or not he will be rapidly weanable from the ventilator, but there is no plan to get him off the ventilator before the

(SIREN)

Before the surgery on Monday, so do not plan to get him off the ventilator before Monday.

QUESTIONS: (INAUDIBLE)

ROSS: He has no signs of brain injury or brain damage.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Doctor, at this point, is there an update for when you believe his improving and recovery when he'll be able to resume (INAUDIBLE).

ROSS: I can't say that. As I said, he is doing much better than any of us would have expected, hopefully he will continue to do that, but it's part of our job to expect and watch for any of the known problems that can develop and treat them. What? QUESTION: Why is he doing so much better? Was he in good health prior?

ROSS: He was in good health prior to this, I am aware he exercise and was looked at very well.

QUESTION: Doctor, can you talk about the risks right now of infection, blood clot, pneumonia, are any of these life threatening (INAUDIBLE)?

ROSS: Any complication is potentially life threatening, but he has no signs of any of those things and we are taking the, if you will, the standard precautions to prevent them.

QUESTION: Danger of paralysis?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) by gesture or verbally...

ROSS: Just nodding. He cannot speak. He cannot speak. He cannot speak -- I will tell -- since I was the physician who was here when he came in, he was awake, talking to us, not even signs of a concussion when he arrived here, so that we know he did not have a brain injury, he was also have -- he was CAT scanned, it was negative for any signs of injury.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Well, doctors at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, updating us on the condition of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, he remains in intensive care and is in stable condition. The doctors were saying that while he cannot speak, it does appear that there are any brain injuries or head injuries, we understand that his thigh bone was broken in two places. He is being sedated. He is continuing to be on a ventilator and more surgeries are scheduled for Monday.

Jim Acosta has been following this story from New York. And we know this took place as the governor was making his way back from Atlantic City and heading back to the governor's mansion in which to host a meeting between radio shock jock Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team. This accident took place, but it is opening up other things about the investigation as to the other vehicle involved and why the governor was not wearing a seatbelt -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, you asked a lot of questions there about all of this and at this point a lot of those questions remain simply unanswered. It's not clear why the governor was not wearing his seatbelt. Apparently he was riding in the front seat of that state provided SUV, it was being driven by a state trooper on the Garden State Parkway, but it's unclear as to why he was not wearing his seatbelt. A lot of VIPs, when they're being driven around, we know politicians and celebrities and so forth, when they're being chauffeured around don't wear their seatbelts in these types of vehicle, so that might be part of the reason why, but that's only speculation.

His chief of staff, one of his aides yesterday, said that it's likely the governor will not be issued for not wearing a situation for not wearing a seatbelt. It is against the law not to wear your seatbelt in the state of New Jersey.

As for that red pickup truck, the other vehicle involved in this collision, we don't even know whether or not that vehicle was responsible for this accident, if it had caused the accident, and at this point, it's pretty safe to assume it was doing something wrong or otherwise the driver of that vehicle would not have fled the scene.

Speaking of break the law, the driver of that vehicle, hitting and running the governor of the state of New Jersey is looking at being in a lot of trouble right now.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, and while you mention the citation that's something they're considering in the scheme of this investigation, it seems rather insignificant when we talk about the touch and go medical situation that the governor is encountering right now.

And Jim, right now, there is an interim governor, and the family members of Jon Corzine have been outspoken, prayers in many churches in the area are being carried out, all hoping for the best. The medical condition that we heard from those doctors today, is that relatively encouraging?

ACOSTA: I think yes. I think we heard one of the doctors there say he's doing much better than they expected and that at this point they expect him to make a recovery. Today's surgery was fairly minimal. They were cleaning up some of the tissue and that broken femur bone in his leg.

But he suffered multiple injuries, 12 broken ribs and some of those broken ribs are weighing down his chest, which is why he's on these breathing tubes and on this ventilator at this point. But at this point, yes, he's expected to make a full recovery. And prior to this press conference, doctors were saying that it's possible that within days he could resume his role as governor of the state of New Jersey.

You mentioned that the Senate president in New Jersey Richard Cody is now the acting governor and this a role that he's familiar with. He had to step in November of 2004 in the fallout of that James McGreevey controversy, the former governor who had to stepped down in the middle of a sex scandal. So, the state of New Jersey moves on here and perhaps, hopefully in a few days, Governor Corzine will be able to resume his position.

WHITFIELD: Everything's hoping for the best for him. Jim Acosta, thank so much, from New York.

ACOSTA: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Meantime other things we're watching across the map, we're got serious weather in the southeast and threats of serious weather in the northeast on the way, Bonnie Schneider in the Severe Weather Center -- Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Well Fredricka, we have reports now of a tornado reported on the ground nine miles west of Ellisville, and that's in central Mississippi, south of Laurel. This report comes to us from the Storm Prediction Center out of Norman, Oklahoma, it's a preliminary report, but it's important to note because most of the warnings we've seen so far, have been Doppler radar indicated tornadoes, but now we have report of a tornado that came down into the area of Ellisville. And the movement to this storm is about -- to the northeast at 55 miles-per-hour.

The tornado warning for Jones County, for Clark County and northern Perry County, those will expire within the next 30 minutes, but the bigger threat looms for us straight through the evening hours until 6:00 p.m. This red box you see here, stretches Florida into Alabama, as well, this goes until 6:00 p.m. tonight, it's a tornado watch, and we'll be watching this so closely throughout the day -- Fredricka.

All right, thanks so much, Bonnie.

Extended duty, extended stress, the strain on the Army and toll on the troops, a look at that straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

Also coming up later in the hour -- terrorists, warlords, drug dealers abound and those are just the most public problems that we know of. So, is Afghanistan improving or failing? You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, let's talk a little politics right now. Out stumping across the country, many candidates on both the Democratic and the Republican side. Right here in Atlanta, you're seeing one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama, who is there at the campus of Georgia Tech, appealing to students, faculty, everyone. Let's listen in.

SEN BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDACE: ...has become morally and politically untenable. That's how he describes the war in Vietnam. And although the parallels are not precise, what is absolutely true is that if you were traveling with me over the last several months, and you meet mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters are not coming back, and they're in your arms crying and asking: did my son die for a mistake? Or if you go to Walter Reed Hospital and you see young people in the prime of their lives, 18, 19, 20, 22 years old, double amputees, or paralyzed for life, then you are reminded that we don't engage in war because it's a sport.

This park is full of patriots.

WHITFIELD: The war is central on the campaign trail, no matter which candidate you're talking about, Barack Obama did not vote for authorization of the war in Iraq. And certainly he's appealing to a lot of people because of his position. Meantime other presidential hopefuls are on the stumps as well. Today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton holding conversations with Granite Staters where she's been getting a lot of flak because of her vote and some people asking her to apologize for her vote to authorize the war in Iraq.

Also talking it up in Hampton and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani is in Springfield, Missouri, before meeting later today with caucus-goers in Des Moines, Iowa. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, so fare, the Republican with the biggest war chest, testing his southern appeal at two county conventions in South Carolina. And then Senator John Edwards rides the global warming wave in Fort Myers, Florida.

Well, more strain on U.S. Army families. Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced longer tours of duty, from 12 months to 15, and that's effective immediately. Critics say this is one more sign of a military stretched too far. Josh Levs, joins us with the reality check.

And this really has gotten under the skin of a lot of people, hasn't it?

JOSHUA LEVS, REALITY CHECK: It has. Yeah, you're hearing everybody talking about it. We're going to be hearing all the Democrats and some of the Republicans addressing this issue as well, because it's so central to so many people's minds.

You know, you've heard the announcement this week that a lot of these troops, more than 100,000 troops will now face 15 months deployments to Iraq. But you may also have heard the military say that recruitment and retention are going great. So, we started to wonder, if recruitment and retention are so good, then why do they need to extend the deployments?

What we found is that in fact, the military is meeting a lot of its goals; however, there's a larger issue going on and that's the overall size of the military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): As some U.S. troops who have served leave the military and some others are killed or wounded, the overall size has stayed about the same, around 1.4 million over the last few years. Military officials say recruitment and retention are high, but deployments to Iraq still need to be extended.

ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: If the Army were quote unquote broken you would not see these kinds of retention rates and our ability to recruit. I think that what this recognizes, though, is that our forces are stretched, there's no question about that.

LEVS: Here's the deal, the Army and Marines grew a little last year through heavy recruiting. The Army met its goal of 80,000 signups, partly by raising payments. A few got $40,000. To get troops to re-enlist, the Army and Marines combined spent $1 billion, six times what was spent in 2003, the year the war began.

So, the military avoided a major drop. Then came this: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So I've committed an additional 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq.

LEVS: Military leader sass that move on top of other commitments, including Afghanistan stretches the military, because of its size. President Bush has considered trying to expand the armed force, but has not brought a proposal to Congress. So, defense officials say extended deployments in Iraq are the answer.

GEN PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: What it does, it allows us to provide to the nation, if need, the amount of force that's currently deployed for sustained period of time.

LEVS: Many Democrats say it's a sign the president's strategy is wrong.

SEN JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: I think there are limits to -- to human endurance and there are limits to what families can put up with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: Now the military does point out that along with these 15 month deployments they're going to guarantee a full year off in between deployments. However, Fred, these 15 month deployments are some of the longest U.S. forces have faced ever since World War II.

WHITFIELD: Wow, meantime maybe perhaps trying to soften the blow, General Petraeus sent a letter to a lot of the families that would be directly affected by this.

LEVS: That's right, yes, he is the top-ranking general. I actually have a bit of it here. He's the top ranking general from the United States in Iraq. And he sent a personal letter talking to the families of these troops. And I'll read a little bit of it to you here.

He says, "We know what you and your loved ones have gone through in recent years and we -- and all Americans -- are grateful to you. You, too, have been soldiering along with your favorite trooper."

And Fred, he thanks them for their sacrifice and he also says that he himself is going through this. He connects on a personal level. He says my family has gone through this, I've gone through this. All that said, these are individual families making an even bigger sacrifice now. And we are hearing some complaints from some military families.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much Josh.

LEVS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: So here's a question for you -- is there a secret to long life? Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SANJAY GUPTA, HOST (voice-over): On the Niqua (ph) peninsula in Costa Rica, families are close, hard work is the norm, and there's no such thing as retirement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So do those things make them live longer? That story coming up in 20 minutes from now.

And Afghanistan, a country in crisis, a government under fire, is there any hope for a nation in turmoil? That is straight in the NEWSROOM.

And a brutal message shows up online. This one, eerie echoes of Iraq, but this one hits much closer to home. A south of the border shocker. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM, I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

It is clean-up time in north Texas after a powerful storm ripped through the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Strong winds wiped out a church. It was one of several buildings damaged and officials report at least two deaths.

In western Kansas, folks are digging out from a storm that dumped a foot of snow in some areas. Some highways are closed and officials are urging motorists not to venture out.

Let's check in with Bonnie Schneider where the worst is far from over, at least for other parts of the country, in the southeast and northeast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Let's go overseas right now, Afghanistan, a country in turmoil with a government unable to turn it around. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Afghanistan's most pressing problem --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to the right there. You need to go straight or around it.

ROBERTSON: Fighting a resurgence and ever more lethal Taliban, all battling the nation's booming narco business, expanding again this year according to the U.N.

(on camera): How many arresting officers do you have right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None, zero. No arrest officers yet. ROBERTSON: No arresting officers? So you have absolutely no power.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No power.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Or tackling corruption so endemic, it's entrenched in upper levels of government or fixing the economy and employing the country's booming young population.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president must act, must realize that in certain areas that not enough has been done. He has to change ministers, he has to bring about some sort of a major change.

ROBERTSON: Musseini (ph) runs two of Afghanistan's seven private TV stations and a radio channel. He was in exile in Australia and came back after the Taliban were toppled. He epitomizes the business entrepreneurs rebuilding the country. He set his networks up from nothing and now employs 400 people, wants to invest more money but worries without firm leadership, the country is headed for trouble.

MUSSEINI (ph): We have problems such as terrorism and insurgency but the bigger problem is the youth of Afghanistan. Sixty percent of the population is under the age of 20. If we can't create jobs for these people, if we can't create universities and build universities for them, if they have no hope, the real danger is going to be is going to come from the younger generation of Afghans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people expectations are not being met. And they have a lot of concerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people of Madrid --

ROBERTSON: Dultra Dula Abdullah (ph) was the country's foreign minister until President Hamid Karzai replaced him a year ago. He remains diplomatic and supportive of the Afghan leader but strongly suggests Karzai needs to get tough.

DULTRA DULA ABDULLAh (ph): I don't see a coherent team. This used to be the problem when I was in the government but I see that that is not getting better.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Around the president?

ABDULLAH: Around the president, yes.

ROBERTSON: What does -- what can he do about that?

ABDULLAH: I think it needs a whole review.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): As we talk, the city power fails. Common even in Abdullah's up-market corner of the capitol.

ABDULLAH: So he needs -- he needs -- oh, I don't know.

He needs to bring electricity to this town. After all, this is the capital of the country after five years of reconstruction efforts. ROBERTSON: He jokes about the president but admits he is partly to blame, the government has been indecisive, failed to deliver on a host of improvements.

(on camera): And it's that indecision, failure to act, keep promises and make a difference in people's lives that Karzai's enemies are taking advantage of. Taliban sources say that government failings, particularly in the south would help them win support.

(voice-over): Afghan civilians mistakenly killed or injured by U.S. and NATO troops is another factor driving Afghans to accept the Taliban. Most readily in the south where the Taliban is stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Attacks where Afghan civilians and families have been caught, often in the middle and killed by the foreign forces, not the Afghan forces or the Taliban forces have created a lot of distrust and anger down there. So I think that more and more people in the south are probably becoming part of the Taliban.

ROBERTSON: In villages in the south where Nelson's aid organization Mercy Corps has worked for years, they are seeing two types of Taliban, foreign or expact (ph) Taliban who present a danger and local Afghan Taliban, in some cases village elders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They made it clear in some cases where they've told us basically not to worry, that we don't have any concerns with the work you're doing. It's the expact (ph) Taliban that our concern lies with because they are not coming from the communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just here to look for the Taliban.

ROBERTSON: In this often confusing mix of innocent villager, Taliban sympathetic elder and Taliban fighter, NATO troops often have to make very quick choices about who is friend or foe. Some soldiers are drawing startling conclusions about what villagers want, and even question their own presence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over there, this country is run by the Taliban. It's not run by an Afghanistan government, all they want to do is be left alone in their 50 meter rubble.

ROBERTSON: In remote areas like this in Helman (ph), Taliban claim 80 percent support among the population. NATO commanders disagree and calculate the Taliban influence as spotty. Wherever the Taliban are, narcotic opium poppy growth is increasing. The police (ph) fears the Taliban helped fund their fight with the narcotic.

The U.N. predicts a bumper crop this year, up on the record breaking 6,000 metric tons grown last year and if that's not enough for President Karzai, his country is riddled with poor governance and corruption, according to the man he appointed to tackle it, a family friend who was convicted and sentenced to jail in the U.S. for selling a pound-and-a-half of heroin to undercover agents 20 years ago.

Karzai robustly defends his picks for government and has begun to tackle corruption, replacing the chief justice and attorney general.

(on camera): On the upside for President Karzai, some provinces in the north are relatively stable but the pressure is now on him to make significant changes. If he does not, the expectation is the instability that's been growing over the past few years will get worse.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Karbal (ph), Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And where do you suppose this image comes from? Afghanistan? Well, guess again -- maybe Iraq? No, not there either. The breeding ground for the newest round of cyber-terrorism straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NILOU MOTAMED, TRAVEL + LEISURE MAGAZINE: When you're considering buying travel insurance, the first thing to think about is how upset will you be if your trip gets ruined. Let's start by protecting your investments.

The first step is to figure out where you're already covered for, check your own health insurance plan. Also, if you've bought your trip through a credit card company, check and see what they cover. On average, travel insurance costs about five to seven percent of your trip, which may seem like a lot, but really isn't when you think about how much it's going to cost you to have peace of mind.

There are a few great Web sites to go to if you want to compare quotes from the major providers. One is insuremytrip.com and the other one is tripinsurancestore.com.

If you're planning a trip to the Caribbean during hurricane season, which is June through November, insure your trip early, once the National Weather Service names a hurricane, you won't be covered if that hurricane affects your trip.

One thing to keep in mind is that all travel insurance isn't created alike, there are very specific guidelines about why you can cancel a trip so you're not always covered just because you change your mind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Scarface on a computer screen, horrifying hostage videos on the Internet. We warn you, this report contains graphic pictures that may be disturbing to some.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports on a drug war that's being fought much closer than you think.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks like a video from Iraq. A hostage bound, interrogated, tortured by his captors who remain off camera. But the language is not Arabic. It is Spanish. The country is not Iraq, it is Mexico. And along with the threats scribbled on this hostage's body is a big Z which stands for zetas (ph), the name of one of Mexico's many drug cartel hit squads. The victim, allegedly a member of the zetas. His captors, apparently from a rival gang, seven of whose members were recently killed.

Are you responsible for killing our people, the interrogator asked him. Yes, he answers. Soon after, the beheading takes place.

As shocking as its content is the way the video was made public. It was put on YouTube, the U.S. based Web site that allows anonymous users to post home videos, and while YouTube removed the posting after a few hours when it became aware of it, it is only the most recent posting on a variety of sites in what Internet security experts in Mexico say is a trend among the Mexican drug cartels.

GABRIEL CAMPOLI, INTERNET CRIME EXPERT (through translator): It is a message to society, a way of saying that the government's efforts to combat drug trafficking have failed and that the cartels are alive and well.

WHITBECK: Here's another Mexican video that made the rounds on the Internet. The singer is Valentin Elisalves (ph), who is said to have quite a following among drug traffickers, over images of victims of the drug cartel battles, he sings what's known in Mexico as a narco ballad, "I'm singing this song to my enemies" is the lyric.

Several months later, Elisalves (ph) himself wound up dead, shot 20 times. And pictures of his autopsy appeared on another Web posting. Federal prosecutors in Mexico have seen many of these videos and the chat room messages that they trigger. They say they are investigating them for clues that might lead to their authors. But experts say Mexican law enforcement is ill-equipped to track criminals in cyberspace.

CAMPOLI: The problem is one of legislation, Mexican law does not allow the police to dig very deeply into the identities of people on the Internet. What we really need is a special prosecutor for Internet crime.

WHITBECK (on camera): The Web may be a powerful medium for transmitting drug trafficker's messages, but if properly investigated it could also be a treasure trove of clues about their whereabouts and identities.

(voice-over): In fact, at the end of that beheading video, a message scrolls on the screen that serves as both a clue for police and a warning to a rival drug lord, citing the drug lord by name, the message says you're next.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And this just in -- according to the Associated Press, while the governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine continues to improve slowly at a Camden Hospital after being involved in this car accident, the videotape you're seeing right there on the right-hand side of your screen, we're now learning from the Associated Press that state officials say police have found the driver they believe may have helped cause the car accident that left Governor Corzine in the intensive care unit at the hospital.

The search had been on for this other vehicle that may have been involved in the collision between the governor's SUV on the Garden State Parkway since earlier in the week and now we're learning, according to the Associated Press, that police say they may have located the driver of the that other vehicle and the investigation continues. However, police say they may not charge that driver. When we get more information, we'll be able to bring that to you.

Meantime, dangerous weather is racing across the southeast, we'll tell you the latest warnings you need to know about. You're watching CNN.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider, with a look at your allergy report for Saturday. Well, now that we're in the allergy season, we are seeing some very high risk areas across parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific northwest. Otherwise we're looking at low outbreaks that people suffering from allergies which is good news for the northeast and the Great Lakes.

Moderate records reported across much of the southeast, and we'll look for high pollen and mold, those of you suffering from allergies will feel it definitely across areas in the southeast but the worst again across the western states.

That's a look at your allergy report for Saturday. I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider.

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WHITFIELD: Lots of severe weather across the country. We've got tornadoes, hail and more severe weather on the way. Bonnie Schneider in the weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Bonnie. And of course we're going to continue to watch the severe weather developing around the country throughout the day. We'll continue to look at it and a look at the headlines as well, that's coming up next. Then "IN THE MONEY," stay with CNN.

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WHITFIELD: McMansions, you know what they are. Huge houses that seem to be popping up across the country, we mean really huge. Well, some people dream of owning one. Others hope the sprawling homes just don't come to their town.

Here's Gerri Willis with this week's Modern Living.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: Drive through Atlanta's older neighborhoods, and they're hard to miss. New houses, most of them big and some the subject of controversy. Atlanta city councilwoman Mary Norwood is leading the fight against so-called McMansions.

MARY NORWOOD, ATLANTA CITY COUNCILWOMAN: If you are the egregious example and you are three to four times the size of the house next door, that house can literally lose value because it is only worth the land. It becomes a teardown.

WILLIS: Norwood is trying to pass new regulations that would limit the size of houses and she hopes will maintain the character and look of Atlanta's signature neighborhoods. But critics say the regulations won't work.

DAVID GREEN, ATLANTA ARCHITECT: If they make the changes that are proposed, it's going to become an incredibly complicated complex process that ultimately really won't have any affect on the way that we see the houses from the street.

WILLIS: The proposed regulations are ...

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