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White House Arrival Ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II; Tornado Devastation in Greensburg, Kansas; The Reagan Diaries; Man Killed by Bomb in Las Vegas; Iraqi Vice President Demands Change to Iraqi Constitution; Chefs Compete in Gluten-Free Challenge
Aired May 07, 2007 - 11:07 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning.
Laura and I are honored to welcome back to the White House Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
(APPLAUSE)
The United Kingdom has written many of the greatest chapters in the history of human freedom. Nearly 800 years ago, the Magna Carta placed the authority of the government under the rule of law. Eighty years later, the first representative assembly of the English people met to debate public policies.
Over the centuries, parliaments in Britain established principles that guide all modern democracies, and thinkers from Britain like Lock and Smith and Burke showed the world that freedom was the natural right of every man, woman and child on earth. As liberty expanded in the British Isles, British explorers helped spread liberty to many lands, including our own.
In May of 1607, a group of pioneers arrived on the shores of the James River and founded the first permanent English settlement in North America. The settlers at Jamestown planted the seeds of freedom and democracy on American soil, and from those seeds sprung a nation that will always be proud to trace its roots back to our friends across the Atlantic.
Our two nations hold fundamental values in common. We honor our traditions and our shared history. We recognize that the strongest societies respect the rights and dignity of the individual.
We understand and accept the burdens of global leadership. And we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations, our deep and abiding love of liberty.
Today our two nations are defending liberty against tyranny and terror. We're resisting those who murder the innocent to advance a hateful ideology where they kill in New York or London or Kabul or Baghdad.
American and British forces are standing in the offense against the extremists and terrorists. We are supporting young democracies. Our work has been hard. The fruits of our work have been difficult for many to see. Yet our work remains the surest path to peace, and it reflects the values cherished by Americans and by Britons and by the vast majority of people across the broader Middle East.
Your Majesty, I appreciate your leadership during these times of danger and decision. You've spoken out against extremism and terror. You've encouraged religious tolerance and reconciliation. You've honored those returning from battle and comforted the families of the fallen.
The American people are proud to welcome Your Majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well. After all, you've dined with 10 U.S. presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its buy centennial in 17 -- in 1976.
(LAUGHTER)
She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.
(LAUGHTER)
You have helped commemorate both the 350th and 400th anniversaries of the Jamestown settlement.
Your Majesty, the United States receives with honor the sovereign of the United Kingdom.
We welcome back to the White House a good person, a strong leader for a great ally.
(APPLAUSE)
QUEEN ELIZABETH II, UNITED KINGDOM: Mr. President, thank you for your warm words.
This is my fifth visit to the United States, and I believe it is important to remind ourselves of the purpose of these occasions which gives meaning to the ceremonial symbolism and the circumstance. A state visit provides us with a brief opportunity to step back from our current preoccupations, to reflect on the very essence of our relationship. It gives us the chance to look back at how the stories of our two countries have been inextricably woven together.
It is the moment to take stock of our present friendship, rightly taking pleasure from its strengths while never taking these for granted. And it is the time to look forward, jointly renewing our commitment to a more prosperous, safer and freer world.
Last week I had the pleasure of sharing with you an extraordinary anniversary in our common history. It was a privilege to join the commemoration of the Jamestown landing by that small group of British citizens all those years ago. My two days in Virginia gave me a new insight into those events which helped to shape this country's development and to lay the foundations of this great nation based on shared principles of equality, democracy and the rule of law.
And now in Washington, we have a further opportunity to acknowledge the present strength of our relationship. I shall enjoy not only renewing old acquaintances and making new ones, but also recognizing the breadth and depth of the friendship that we have shared for so long. We can celebrate the close and enduring associations which thrive between the United States and the United Kingdom at every level, be it government or corporate, institutional or personal.
This visit also gives us a window on the future, both the future of the United States and the future cooperation between our countries. I particularly look forward in the next two days to seeing it first hand, something of how the cutting edge of science and technology can take us to the next phases of discovery and exploration in human endeavor.
Mr. President, thank you for inviting Prince Philip and me to visit your country, to share in the commemoration of the Jamestown anniversary, and to have this opportunity to underline the extent of our friendship, past, present and future. It is indeed a pleasure for us to be here in Washington again and to be welcomed back to the White House
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, this concludes the ceremony.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Wonderful ceremony.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Beautiful.
HARRIS: Wonderful ceremony.
COLLINS: Nice to hear from them both.
HARRIS: Yes, it really was. I think that was the moment. You wanted to hear from the queen.
COLLINS: Even though he winked at her.
HARRIS: Did you see that?
COLLINS: I did.
HARRIS: You did see it?
COLLINS: He made some reference to her last visit in 1976.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: We're trying to figure out exactly what it was, and then he turned to her and winked. And she looked down, and people laughed.
HARRIS: Right. COLLINS: And then he continued.
HARRIS: I heard the laughter. I wasn't sure what brought it on. OK. So I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis of that moment to come.
COLLINS: As always.
HARRIS: Yes.
And welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins.
Hi, everybody.
HARRIS: And to our top story this morning: destruction as far as the eye can see. A heartbreaking sight for the people of Greensburg, Kansas, this hour.
They are getting a first-hand look at the damage from a monster tornado. But there is not much left. An estimated 95 percent of the town destroyed, at least nine people in the area killed.
On Main Street, not a business left standing. Every church blown apart.
The tornado was one of dozens to roar across the southern plains over the weekend. The Greensburg twister, an EF5, that is the highest on the National Weather Service scale. Its winds estimated at 205 miles an hour.
You have to be in Greensburg to see the true scope of the damage. CNN's Rob Marciano is there.
And Rob, you have been to many scenes like this, unfortunately. It's a fact of life and a fact of your work. They are remarkably similar and unique at the same time, aren't they?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's true, Tony. But the damage is just staggering when you're here on the ground. Similar to, say, a Katrina, the storm surge that brought a 20 and 30-foot wall of water up and pulverized towns along the Mississippi coastline, similar to other tornadoes of this magnitude in other parts of the country. But unique in that this entire town wiped out by this EF5 tornado.
Maybe five percent of structures remaining, but cars thrown about, homes completely demolished or collapsed in. Decades-old trees either uprooted completely or completely stripped of their foliage, branches and/or bark.
Two-hundred-mile-an-hour winds with this system. They did have fair warning from the National Weather Service -- a 20-minute warning, a 30-minute warning. That's great stuff for a tornado. That's probably why there was a limited loss of life.
Another job the National Weather Service has to do, they come out the day after the storm to survey the damage and determine how strong the storm was. I went out and walked around and talked with such a storm surveyor yesterday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: Larry, what was your first thought when you came on site here?
LARRY RUTHI, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: I was kind of surprised at the magnitude of the damage that came into town. There's just not much left.
MARCIANO: You look around, and seemingly things are indiscernible. I mean, you have to have lived in this town to even pick out what something might be.
When you look at structures like this over here built with not just brick veneer, but actual brick and mortar...
RUTHI: Yes, absolutely.
MARCIANO: ... what is this kind of damage telling you about how strong this storm was?
RUTHI: With the damage that we're getting to these very old buildings that have been here for, in many cases, 100 years, or close to it, probably what I'm seeing is high end EF3 or low-end EF4 damage, probably close to EF4 damage in these buildings.
MARCIANO: So, EF4, we're talking 170, 180-mile-an-hour winds?
RUTHI: Yes.
MARCIANO: What have you rated this storm? This damage you think is an EF4.
RUTHI: EF4, I would say.
MARCIANO: But the storm as a whole, you'd rate it at a what?
RUTHI: An EF5.
MARCIANO: An EF5.
RUTHI: Yes. And we used the high school. If you've been town to the high school, that was one of the indicators we used to push us over the edge for an EF5 rating.
The whole south half or more of the high school is just completely gone, folded in on itself. A two-story brick structure, extremely sturdy. That really impressed me, with the magnitude of damage we had there.
MARCIANO: How wide was this tornado?
RUTHI: About 1.7 miles.
MARCIANO: That is huge.
RUTHI: It's extremely huge. And we had another tornado that developed after this one had concluded. Friday night was a night of extremely wide and devastating tornadoes. Everything just came together perfectly for that to occur.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: A night surely the residents here will never forget. Three days later now, this is the first day that residents are allowed back into the neighborhoods to sift through the rubble, what's left of their homes, and pick up the valuables and things that mean something to them. For the most part, folks are coming back to homes that are completely unlivable, but many and many of the town officials are vowing that they're going to rebuild.
Mr. Paulison from FEMA, the FEMA director, is going to be here later this afternoon to speak to the residents, Heidi. And the president, as you know, has also opened the pocketbooks to get the help that they need here to rebuild this town as soon as possible.
Back to you.
HARRIS: Boy, what a scene. That's all you can say -- what a scene.
All right, Rob. Thank you.
COLLINS: Want to get you back to another story that we have been following. And it's still developing, and I believe authorities there just really trying to figure out what on earth happened.
You're looking at Las Vegas. This is the second floor parking deck behind the Luxor, if you're familiar with the resort there.
Apparently, one person was killed and another person hurt today in an explosion in this parking lot. There was a guy taking a backpack off of the top of his car. Apparently, it exploded. It happened earlier this morning, about 4:00 in the morning, and he was killed. The second person was taken to the hospital.
And again, looking at these area pictures coming in from our affiliate there, KLAS.
Certainly firefighters and police, Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, explosives agents, everybody is trying to figure out what on earth went on at the Luxor. We are going to get a live report for you coming up shortly to go ahead and see what other details we might be able to offer just as soon as they become available. HARRIS: What do you say we take everyone east of Atlanta now, to Augusta, Georgia. And take a look at these pictures just in to CNN. That's pretty intense.
Augusta firefighters are working a massive fire at the South Augusta Flea Market. As you can see, just a heavy cloud of smoke coming from the area near Augusta Regional Airport.
No sense of what might have caused this. In fact, the flea market isn't even open today. So, no word, at least yet, of a possible cause, but firefighters are working this scene. Heavy smoke from the South Augusta Flea Market there. Augusta firefighters working on that.
And we will try to get additional information as to the cause and if there are any injuries associated with this fire.
COLLINS: President Reagan and the trouble with children. Insights from his diaries from a man mentioned in those writings.
We'll be talking with Bill Bennett coming up right here in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Tornado scavenger hunt. Going home to Greensburg, Kansas, this morning, searching for mementos of a town that used to be.
Leveled -- in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Family secrets inside the Reagan White House. Newly released diaries show the great communicator having a time tough time getting through to his children. It's something he shared with his Education secretary, this man, William Bennett, now a radio show host and a CNN contributor, and a man wearing a hat, joining us from Washington this morning.
Is this in honor of the queen?
BILL BENNETT, RADIO HOST: Yes. But it's an American flag to make my own statement.
COLLINS: Yes.
BENNETT: It was interesting -- good morning, Heidi. It was interesting. She spoke about equality, and the president spoke about liberty.
You could argue, historians could argue, philosophers could argue, the British invented liberty. We invented equality. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." "We will do better without kings and nobles than with them."
So, it was an interesting counterplay there. COLLINS: It is fascinating, that's for sure. We've gotten some poll numbers, too, that say that certainly people have a favorable rating for her, even though several of them -- I think four out of 10 -- say that we should get rid of the monarchy altogether.
BENNETT: Exactly. My wife believes that, and she is there.
COLLINS: She's there.
BENNETT: She's there.
COLLINS: Now, will you be going tonight to the dinner?
BENNETT: White tie? Me?
COLLINS: No way?
BENNETT: Not me.
COLLINS: OK. Let's move on, if we could, Bill, to these Reagan diaries.
We had heard a few excerpts coming out of them on Friday. And just some really fascinating things here.
BENNETT: Yes.
COLLINS: Tell us about the entry and the story behind it where you, in fact, are mentioned.
BENNETT: Well, President Reagan and Ron Reagan, not Ron Jr. -- he's Ron Reagan, he's not Ron Jr. -- had disagreements from time to time, politics and other things. Ron Reagan got on me. We were talking about AIDS in this country in the late '80s, and I said that, you know, yes, I thought we ought to educate kids about the dangers here and maybe look into things like contact tracing for people who are carrying the virus, maybe they should inform -- be required to inform doctors, all the people with whom they had had contact.
And then I said, you know, it would be a good idea for people to restrain themselves a little bit on this front, heterosexual and homosexual activity both. Well, Ron Reagan got really upset and took after me in "People" magazine pretty -- pretty tough. But, you know, it was OK with me.
It bothered the president.
COLLINS: Really?
BENNETT: So the president called me at home on a Saturday on the White House phone. I was his secretary. The minute he picked up -- I was waiting for him -- the minute he picked up, my 3-year-old son came running into the room screaming at the top of his lungs. So that's all you could hear.
I said, Mr. President, I'm so sorry. I'm having a problem with my son. And he said, "So am I, Bill. That's why I'm calling."
COLLINS: Oh, that's great. That is a terrific story. I love it.
BENNETT: Yes. He had that touch. Talk about the common touch, you know. The touch of the -- the American touch, that was Ronald Reagan.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about that. In fact, there's another excerpt here that is really entertaining about -- about kids.
It said this in the diaries: "Insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your kids."
BENNETT: That's right. That's very much a Ronald Reagan line. You bet. Absolutely.
COLLINS: Typical of his type of humor.
BENNETT: You bet.
COLLINS: Did you know, though, Bill, that he was keeping a diary all that time? Did he ever talk about it?
BENNETT: Yes. He talked about making notes, and he hand-wrote things all the time.
He asked me if I was familiar with a poem called "The Teacher" by Clark Mollenhoff (ph) from Iowa. And I said, "No, I'm not." He said, "Well, I'll write it out for you and send it to you."
I said, "Mr. President, I'm sure there's somebody at the White House who will make a copy from a book. You don't have..." The next day I got this handwritten poem...
COLLINS: Oh, that's fantastic.
BENNETT: Four stanzas. You can bet it's saved in the Bennett archive.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about it.
Why do you think, though, that these diary entries are just coming to light now?
BENNETT: Well, Nancy, I think, has kept -- Nancy Reagan has kept access to them limited. And then she just gave Doug Brinkley, a historian from New Orleans, I guy who's done tremendous work on a lot of things, but is a real expert on New Orleans, gave him access to it. So he has unearthed this stuff and put it out.
It's a great insight into the president's character.
COLLINS: Yes.
BENNETT: And you know, Reagan is very much in the air, as you know, if you saw the Republican debate.
COLLINS: Certainly. Yes. I can't remember how many times he was mentioned, but I think...
BENNETT: Nine.
COLLINS: ... we kept track. Yes. Nine times. Let's talk about that for a moment, if we could. How popular is Reagan today? We certainly saw the candidates aligning themselves with Ronald Reagan.
BENNETT: Yes. Memory, of course, always softens, always makes glow. He's my president. He's one of the great presidents of American history, I think. But I think now the Republican base is looking for the next Ronald Reagan. And so a lot of the guys up there in that debate were trying to go for that mantle, that title.
Indeed, his achievements were extraordinary. I mean, we won the Cold War, basically, on his watch with George Bush, and he did bring the government to heel on a number of things. The two things he wanted to do, he basically -- he basically got done.
George Will's line about Reagan is the best: "He took us on a stormy voyage. He calmed the passengers and the sea." It's a pretty good line.
COLLINS: It is. Very much so. Quickly, quickly.
BENNETT: Yes.
COLLINS: The French elections.
BENNETT: Yes.
COLLINS: What are they doing over there? They put a conservative in the chair at the helm now.
BENNETT: How about that? We can like the French again. As close as they could get to Ronald Reagan, this guy sounds in some ways when he talks about self-reliance, independence, don't indulge the nanny state, is a kind of French Ronald Reagan.
COLLINS: You're kidding.
BENNETT: Right. Break out the champagne and the brie.
COLLINS: All right. Dr. Bill Bennett, we appreciate your thoughts very much today.
BENNETT: Thank you, Heidi.
COLLINS: In all things politics and queens, too.
BENNETT: Yes, yes. And America.
COLLINS: Thanks, Bill. Yes.
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins and Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. You're back in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Returning home and finding heartbreak. That's the day ahead for residents of Greensburg, Kansas, or maybe more accurately, what used to be Greensburg. It will be rebuilt, huh?
COLLINS: Yes.
HARRIS: The town virtually disintegrated by winds that topped 200 miles an hour. Today residents can return home for a quick assessment of what, if anything, they have left. Emergency crews are also combing through piles of debris, searching for the missing.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Don Lemon in Greensburg, Kansas. Residents are just starting to return home and see their residences for the first time. What are they finding? I'll tell you, coming up in a live report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Want to take a moment now to get the very latest coming in from Greensburg. CNN's Don Lemon is there to tell us the very latest about the situation.
And boy, it is certainly a tough one. I mean, there's just nothing left, Don.
LEMON: Heidi, you know what? Words can't describe, as people say. I'm going to try to describe it for you, because that's my job. But look, this is -- we're standing in front of a senior center here. And we've been visiting people throughout the morning here. The sun's starting to come up. They're starting to let them in.
This is part of the senior center here in town. What I'm standing on is literally the framework, which weighs, I'm sure, hundreds and hundreds of pounds. Just really thick wood here. This is that senior center and part of a VFW hall.
Just moments ago, literally, before the live shot, I was just kind of looking through here. You see the flag, the VFW flag here on the ground. Obviously, they had meetings here. I was looking at this box, and my photographer said, "Don't touch that, because it's 30 caliber -- it looks like -- ammunition."
And once inside, once we got closer, and I don't think police have even seen this yet, and we're discovering things. Look at all the guns, rifles in there, inside the safe, which I imagine was locked. You can see this big safe here. So it completely picked this up and knocked that safe open.
Just a short while ago, when some of the residents started coming in, I spoke with the governor. She was out touring the area. And we took a little walk through the area along with some of the people just coming back to their homes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS (D), KANSAS: Today is going to be a day of real grief for this community. We've lost nine friends and neighbors. And most people fled in the middle of the night, so they haven't seen the devastation. They haven't seen what little is left of their beloved town. So it's going to be a tough day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A tough day. And the governor told me she used to be an insurance adjustor, and she's used to seeing things kind of like this. Maybe, you know, part of a town being blown out, a certain section of a town. But never an entire town.
I mean, just look back here, even where the media is set up. It's just devastation everywhere. The National Guard just starting to come in this morning.
And one of the families I was walking with and talking with the governor when they were just coming in and hadn't seen their home since the tornado came through. We actually -- they took us on a tour, the police here, to go find that family. And we found them as they were just starting to dig through the wreckage of what's left of their homes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: This is it?
BARB MILLER, TORNADO VICTIM: This is it. This is it.
LEMON: And what are you seeing?
MILLER: We have found pictures. We have found some -- you know, that's what we're looking for now, is pictures and things that are precious to them.
LEMON: Do you want to show us around?
MILLER: Yes. That would be fine.
LEMON: So this is the porch. I'm sure you enjoyed...
MILLER: This, it tells it all. Every day I'd e-mail my dad and I'd say, "Are you going to get in some porch time today?"
LEMON: He'd be sitting right here?
MILLER: He'd be sitting right there. We all came to Greensburg for porch time. That meant that we would be sitting out with lemonade and popcorn, and this porch is very important to the family. So we're glad it's here. We won't be sitting in it, but, yes.
LEMON: Do you want to show us around? MILLER: It's going to go somewhere.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That was Barb Miller. That's the Baileys' daughter. She lives here, and her parents live here. And they said that porch was very important.
She said she was on the phone with her Dad, or she had just e- mailed her dad just before it happened and she asked him if he was going to get some porch time. And he said, "Absolutely. I'm going to enjoy some porch time today." And then the tornado comes through.
We also talked to, Heidi, some people who are at the store. Two truck drivers delivering, you know, their stuff to the store. And they had to hunker down in a freezer, about six people, and link arm in arm. And all they had to grab onto was a bookcase or a shelf case that was in that freezer.
One person with them died, because they decided to wait it out in the bathroom. They went in that freezer, and they survived. And I started talking to this him. He started crying, and saying, "You know what? It's a miracle that we're still here."
But it's just amazing, just to show you again, just how dangerous it is here, that FEMA and everyone here is telling people to be careful. Ammunition here. We're going to tell police about this just as soon as we're done here. Inside a safe, rifles here.
So a lot of land mines, so to speak, here. But folks really just trying to at least get back to normal. But real normalcy is not going to happen for quite some time.
COLLINS: No. I mean, it was just an absolutely huge storm. I was reading here, Don, that apparently it took just about 15 to 20 minutes to destroy the entire town.
LEMON: Yes. And the people I spoke to this morning, you saw the reverend. He was so emotional on the air. He was down in his basement with his family, and he said it maybe lasted five minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes, as you said, but it felt like an hour. It felt like an eternity.
COLLINS: I'm sure. I'm sure. All right. Don Lemon, some great reporting for us coming out of Greensburg, Kansas. Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Thanks.
HARRIS: More now on that explosion that killed one person outside a Vegas strip resort. Angela Martin is with our affiliate station, KBBC. She joins us live.
Angela, good morning to you. First of all, there are some bizarre circumstances surrounding this. Tell us what you've learned.
ANGELA MARTIN, KBBC REPORTER: Well, a bomb explosion, Tony, now a murder investigation here on the Las Vegas strip. You can see the crime tape behind me blocking off the entrance to this parking garage at the Luxor Hotel and Casino.
But all the activity that's taking place is on the upper level of this parking garage. We have some video that we can show you that we shot earlier to kind of show you the scene.
Police say around 4 a.m. this morning two employees leaving work when one of them noticed a suspicious object on top of a car on the second level of the garage. When he went to move that object, it exploded, ultimately killing him. The other employee was not injured.
Now, police think that those two employees and no one else were the target of this attack. Right now, police will not say if those two employees owned the car in question or what the object was on top of the car.
Now, you can see, back here live on the upper structure of the parking garage there are several security cameras. Police not saying right now if those cameras were rolling, if they caught any suspect information. Police being very tight-lipped about this as local police and firefighters, as well as federal agents, ATF agents, are investigating this murder.
Reporting live from Las Vegas, back to you, Tony.
HARRIS: All right. Angela, just a quick question. It sounds like the two employees were not going to their car but noticed the backpack on another car. Is that the best information you have right now?
MARTIN: Well, that's a question that we posed for local police here. They're not willing to give that information up right now about who owns the car in question.
HARRIS: OK. All right. Angela Martin for us from our affiliate there in Las Vegas, KBBC. Angela, thank you.
COLLINS: Some revised figures coming out of Iraq in just the past half hour. Officials now saying bomb and mortar attacks have killed 27 Iraqi civilians and police today. The deadliest attack in Ramadi. Police say 13 people were killed in two suicide car bombings.
The U.S. military says ten American troops were killed in Iraq yesterday, most of them in a single blast in Diyala province.
Live now to CNN's Nic Robertson in Baghdad.
Good morning to you, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. Well, the main blasts of the day coming in Ramadi, which surprisingly, has been relatively quiet recently. The tribes there being able to beat down al Qaeda over the past few months, it seems. But that ending today. Those two large suicide car bombs going off, one in a market, one to the north of the city. Thirteen people killed, 25 wounded, according to the police.
But bombs also in Baghdad today. Two people killed, three wounded when a car bomb went off right in the center of the city. A mortar landed in the southwest of Baghdad. Five people killed, two wounded in that attack.
And a deadly day for Iraqi traps as well. North of Baghdad in the town of Samara, a town where just yesterday 12 Iraqi policemen were killed in a massive blast, five Iraqi army soldiers killed in the town of Samara today. A big bomb blast going off today as their vehicle drove by, killing all the occupants of the vehicle.
But not just violence. Now there appears to be political trouble ahead. Iraq's top Sunni politician says that, unless the government makes key constitutional changes by Tuesday next week, he is going to pull out of the political process here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARIQ HASHEMI, IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT: If government not the constitution is not to be subject to major changes, definitely I will tell my constituency frankly that I have made the mistake of the life when I put my endorsement to that national accord.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And what Vice President Tariq Hashemi says is important, because he leads a big political party here. And those promises he says that were made were co-signed by the U.S. And he's been on the phone to President Bush about the fact that he's dissatisfied with the process and believes the political process here is doomed to failure right now -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Certainly not good news on that front. Nic Robertson for us, live out of Baghdad this morning. Nic, thanks.
HARRIS: Certainly more on this story at the top of the hour, about 15 minutes from now, on "YOUR WORLD TODAY". Jim Clancy standing by with a preview for us this morning.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Tony.
Good morning, Heidi.
We've got a lot coming up for you. We're going to take you live to Paris, where my co-anchor is spending a little bit of time. She's following the French elections. We'll have the latest reaction to this new president and what differences America expects to see in France.
And we'll also hear from Washington senior political analyst, Bill Schneider joins us with what differences may already be seen from Washington with Nicolas Sarkozy in power.
And we'll also take you to Portugal and the heartbreaking story of a beautiful little girl gone missing. Her parents were vacationing in Portugal when the 3-year-old vanished from a resort. We're going to have her story, hear from her parents.
And in Germany, angst over drought and a predicted searing summer would normally give Germans pause to be thankful for their cold beer. But what beer drinkers are hearing is that the beer is going to be a little more dear.
So all of those stories coming up to you, the news from an international perspective. Heidi, Tony, hope to see you there.
COLLINS: Do you think that's gluten-free beer?
HARRIS: Probably not. Sorry.
COLLINS: More on that later, Jim.
HARRIS: Yes. Thanks, Jim.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM this morning, rush job for the rush hour. San Francisco Bay Area residents may get their MacArthur Maze back a little sooner than they probably anticipated. That story coming up for you right here in the NEWSROOM.
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COLLINS: Little daily dose, a little gluten free.
HARRIS: You had a good weekend, didn't you?
COLLINS: I had a good weekend.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: I had a great weekend. It was a time yet again for the gluten-free cooking spree. I want to show you some of the video.
HARRIS: The cooking spree? OK.
COLLINS: Yes. Here's what happened. As we get together from whatever city we're in -- we've had seven events this year. We did our last one, you may remember, in New York City. This is back in the kitchen of the Hyatt Regency...
HARRIS: Wow, OK.
COLLINS: ... there in Bethesda, Maryland. That's my sister-in- law and my brother-in-law.
HARRIS: OK.
COLLINS: And we are watching one of the chefs. And they're putting together all of these fabulous gourmet dishes. HARRIS: What was being prepared right there?
COLLINS: You know, that was a...
HARRIS: It looks good.
COLLINS: ... ravioli type thing. That looks like Team Maggiano's (ph), I believe. But the winner, you're looking at some of these dishes here. The winner, believe it or not, including two kid votes -- you see those two children there?
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
COLLINS: Coriander skate.
HARRIS: What?
COLLINS: That was the winner. I mean, it was fabulous, fabulous food.
So the deal is, we give them all these ingredients, and then they have to come up with their own gluten-free dish.
HARRIS: Absolutely.
COLLINS: And then we have judges. The last time my son was a judge. But we want to get the kids' feel for this.
HARRIS: Right.
COLLINS: Because it's difficult...
HARRIS: Yes, it is.
COLLINS: ... to feed these kids all their gluten-free foods. That was our NPR gentleman, fabulous professor. And then we had...
HARRIS: Did Jamie show up? Did Jamie show up? Was Jamie there?
COLLINS: Jamie McIntyre was there, however, a bit delayed.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: Our Pentagon correspondent, as you all know, Jamie McIntyre. He was supposed to be on one of the teams. But he was a bit delayed by some of the news events of the day. So it was...
HARRIS: That looks like a great time, Heidi.
COLLINS: His team didn't win, so I think they're kind of mad at him.
HARRIS: Yes, yes.
COLLINS: It was a great event. We had about 360 people there. And people are learning more and more about celiac disease and eating gluten free every day.
We're going to send you to the website real quick before we go, more information about celiac disease or eating gluten free. The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. There is the web site: CeliacCentral.org.
HARRIS: Very nice.
And to get your daily dose of health news online, log on to our web site. There you will find the latest medical news, the health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is CNN.com/health.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange where the Dow could match a rally last seen in the summer of 1927. I'll tell you what investment guru Warren Buffett told me about this extraordinary run, next on NEWSROOM.
You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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HARRIS: Things are getting back to normal in Omaha, Nebraska, after a weekend ritual known as the Woodstock for capitalists. The annual shareholder meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the company run by Warren Buffett, attracted nearly 30,000 people.
Susan Lisovicz was among them, and she joins us from the New York Stock Exchange this morning with details.
And Susan, you're not a name dropper, so for you to drop Warren Buffett's name in that tease, this must have been special.
LISOVICZ: I was just one the press way up in the cheap seats, Tony. It was really, really a spectacle. One investor told me that he thinks a better comparison is spring break for capitalists.
And shareholders do go wild about Buffett. Not only because the folks see billionaire annually, sings and plays the ukulele or yuks it up with characters from Fruit of the Loom, a company Berkshire owns.
What they love most is Buffett delivers annual returns in Berkshire shares of 23.5 percent over the last 42 years. Buffett told me he's still bullish about stocks and consumer spending in spite of record-high gas prices.
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WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN/CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Gasoline here, of course, is still cheap compared to the cost around the world. So we can overcome an awful lot of things that seem like temporary problems in this country.
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LISOVICZ: Buffett fielded questions from shareholders for about six hours Saturday, all eager to pick the brain of one of the brightest guys in business.
HARRIS: That is -- what access. All right. What about the housing market? Was he optimistic about that sector?
LISOVICZ: No. No. No, he wasn't, Tony. Buffett was blunt about the problems in the housing market.
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BUFFETT: Housing is sick. Housing will stay sick for quite a while, in my view. And particularly in certain areas of the country. There are just a whole lot more houses around than -- than natural -- than the supply at the present time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LISOVICZ: Buffet is 76 years old. He announced in March he's looking for someone to succeed him as chief investment officer. This weekend he said he'll consider up to four people to fill his shoes, and that the search will be conducted like "American Idol". He says he's the Simon Cowell in terms of judges.
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COLLINS: Fifteen by Christmas!
HARRIS: Susan, thank you.
LISOVICZ: It's going wild. Not only the Berkshire shareholders.
HARRIS: All right. We're going to take a break. Susan, thank you.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
HARRIS: We're back in a moment.
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