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American Morning

Bush Meets Putin: Differences Over Missile Shield; "Borat" Lawsuit: Heading to Federal Court?

Aired June 07, 2007 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: -- pretty cold out there.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Be glad for the small things. Well we have a lot today to cover, including the breaking news that we told you about, a break in that case, the murder of a Kansas teenager.

ROBERTS: She was abducted on Saturday night from the parking lot of a Target store, she was caught on videotape being forced into her car. They now found the body unfortunately yesterday and they have a suspect in custody. Also, at almost the same time as that body was found yesterday, a Connecticut girl who had been missing for more than a year was found alive, 15 years old. She disappeared when she was 14, locked in a tiny room under the stairs of a home in a little room just three feet high. We'll have more on that coming up for you.

CHETRY: Also the man at the center of the TB case that ignited so many questions about the safety of our system when it comes to preventing people from carrying and leaving and coming back in the country with diseases that are potentially deadly, well he spoke to Larry King last night and Larry King exclusively has some tapes that we have never heard before about the big question, was he told not to travel. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING: In that meeting, you insist you were told you were not contagious. Now let's hear part of the tape.

DR. ERIC BENNING(ph): Now that I don't know, but because of the fact that you actually are not contagious, there's no reason for you to be sequestered.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There it is, no reason for you to be sequestered, this coming from county health officials. Of course the CDC had a completely different take, so what went wrong there?

ROBERTS: Clearly on the tape though he says you're not contagious and another part of the tape he says you're not a threat to anyone. So, a lot of he said, she said going on with that case.

Also, a man rescued from the woods in northern California after a tree falls on him. This is reminiscent of that story in Colorado where the guy was hiking, the boulder fell on him and he had to cut his arm off. Wait until you hear what this guy had to do to survive. CHETRY: An unbelievable tale of survival, that's for sure. But we start this hour with a developing story out of Kansas, police now announcing an arrest overnight in the case of missing 18-year-old Kelsey Smith. Now here is the video that put this case in the national spotlight. Security cameras at a Target store in Overland Park seem to show Smith being abducted. She was shopping four days ago, paying for items at a checkout and walking out to her car where she was grabbed. Smith's body was then found yesterday near a shallow creek across state lines in Missouri. Police say that cell phone signals led them there. It's about 20 miles east of the Target store. The suspect under arrest is 26-year-old Edwin Hall. Investigators say he was also captured by the store's security cameras. Police also located the pickup truck that was seen in the surveillance video. They say they don't know why Smith was targeted or if Hall acted alone, but they're calling the arrest a big break for the family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DOUGLAS, OVERLAND PARK POLICE CHIEF: I want to again, express my condolences to the Smith family. I realize that this is not the preferred conclusion. While we cannot give them their daughter back, we can at least give them justice.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Kelsey had just graduated from high school two weeks ago. Her father described her as being, quote, scrubbed with sunshine. And again, some questions today, if they were able to locate those cell phone pings, why couldn't they do that a little bit earlier? Also, they had a picture of the suspect, thought they may have knew who he was, and again, that investigation taking four days. So we're going to talk more about that with a live report from Kansas in just a moment.

ROBERTS: What a terrible tragedy. In Connecticut an extraordinary development in the case of a teenager missing for more than a year, police found a 15-year-old alive in a home in West Hartford. She was locked inside a tiny room just three feet high beneath a staircase. Police have not released her name, but she is believed to be Danielle Cramer, listed on a missing children's Web site. Police arrested three people who lived in the home, including 41-year-old Adam Gault. They say that Gault and the girl's parents had some sort of undisclosed business transaction in the year before she disappeared. Gault was questioned several times, but always denied any involvement in her disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN JEFFREY BLATTER, BLOOMFIELD, CT. POLICE DEPT.: We have no evidence that she's been out in public. Some of the investigators made reference to the coloring of her skin, the paleness and brought that in as a question of whether or not she's actually seen sunlight for some time.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Police say the girl had sometimes run away from home before she vanished last June.

CHETRY: Also overnight, a crucial bill, a vote in the immigration bill that actually could derail it altogether. An amendment passed by just one vote happened just after midnight and it ends the guest worker program after five years. Well now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other backers of that bill are trying to hold on, holding a vote tonight to cut off any more amendments. A final vote on that bill would be expected tomorrow. There were some dramatic moments during that heated debate on the immigration bill. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went on the attack against Senator Barack Obama and his amendment to the bill's controversial point system. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: When you're out there on the campaign trail, you're trying to bring us altogether. You're trying to make America better. Why can't we work together? This is why we can't work together. Because some people, when it comes to the tough decisions, back away because when you talk about bipartisanship, some Americans on the left and the right consider it heresy.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) ILLINOIS: It simply says that we should examine, after five years, whether the program is working. Now, the notion that somehow that guts the bill or destroys the bill is simply disingenuous. And it's engaging in the sort of histrionics that is entirely inappropriate for this debate.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well they weren't done there, because that argument then carried outside into the hall. Obama blaming the argument on a long day and too much coffee. His amendment, though, was eventually defeated. Isn't that every day, when you're on the campaign trail?

ROBERTS: Shades of John McCain and Jon Cornyn over immigration as well. House Democrats are gearing up for a new fight with the White House over stem cells. This morning, they expect to follow the Senate and pass a bill that funds research on stem cells donated from fertility clinics. Don't expect scientists to see those tax dollars any time soon though, President Bush promises to veto the bill as he did the last one. And right now it appears Congress doesn't have enough votes to override him.

Meanwhile, a major advance in science could one day take the moral equation out of stem cell research. Three teams of scientists just created the equivalent of embryonic stem cells out of skin cells from mice. They're hoping to replicate the procedure in humans. That would be an enormous breakthrough. Right now embryonic stem cells are created by destroying the human embryo and that's what makes stem cell research so controversial.

For the first time, we're hearing the recorded conversations between the man infected with tuberculosis and officials from the Centers for Disease Control before the man took off to Europe. Andrew Speaker insists he was never told not to fly. He spoke out last night on "LARRY KING LIVE" and says he never knew how serious his condition was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW SPEAKER, TB PATIENT: No one ever told me it was necessary. No one ever gave the impression that I was a threat to anyone. No one ever told me that anyone in my family was at risk. This whole attitude of quarantine and isolation, the first time I heard about that was over a week into my honeymoon, long after they knew about my condition and about my treatment options and how severe my diagnosis was.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Coming up in our next hour, we're going to speak with Dr. Anthony Fouchi, from the National Institute on Allergies and Infectious Diseases who says the Speaker case is minor compared to millions of people worldwide and thousands in this country who have tuberculosis.

An amazing story of survival in northern California, 66-year-old Al Hill used a pocket knife to cut off his own leg. He had been cutting down trees when one of them fell on him pinning him below the knee. He was trapped for 11 hours before he was finally able to free himself by using the knife to cut off his leg just below the knee joint. But it was the good timing of a passing neighbor that really saved him. He didn't want to be identified, but he had this to say about the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was in a position where he could not move four inches. I mean, he was stuck, capital letters.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The neighbor had to hike two miles to get a cell phone signal and call for help. Hill was eventually airlifted to a hospital and underwent the rest of the amputative surgery.

CHETRY: Putting the war to the voters in our quick hits now. If you live in California, you could get to vote for or against the Iraq war in the state's next primary election. There is a valid question in the works that lets voters have their say, even if it doesn't have any power over the federal government.

And the man President Bush wants to take charge of the war is going to the senate today. General Douglas Loot needs Senate approval before he can become the president's war adviser. If confirmed, Loot would directly report to the president, giving the commander in chief daily briefings.

ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, flight 93 controversy. Family members want to begin work on a memorial, but the owner of the property says no deal. Is he profiteering off sacred land? Find out what the families are saying, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: A controversial decision topping our quick hits now, a judge in Brevard County, Florida, is under attack for freeing a man seen in this video punching an undercover cop during a sting. The man had faced up to 15 years behind bars after the jury found him guilty. The judge though reduced the charges and let him go for time served.

Well it may be bad to rain on a parade, but it's a whole lot worse to drive right through one. An 81-year-old woman in Oregon drove through a police barricade on to a blocked street that was blocked off for a parade and she narrowly missed a police officer as well as someone selling ice cream. Police say that she was angry the road was closed.

Well a furious firefight in northern California this morning. Firefighters battling a giant wildfire in the Sierra, Nevada. They're hoping to get some cooler temperatures that will hopefully help them out, 65 mile an hour winds pushing the flames across more than 600 acres. Dozens of families have been evacuated.

We get more now on this story developing this morning. The case of the missing girl from Kansas who was found dead in a field, 18- year-old Kelsey Smith abducted from a Target parking lot in Overland Park Saturday night, the incident even caught on a store security camera. For more now on this story, we bring Robb Yagmin from our affiliate KMBC, he's live at the Johnson County Courthouse where charges are expected to be filed this morning. Hi, Robb.

ROBB YAGMIN, KMBC: That's what they're saying. Good morning, Kiran. They're saying that Edwin Hall will in fact be charged today, possibly tomorrow because it happened so late last night, about 11:30 when we were all sleeping central time. Police did announce an arrest in the case, 26-year-old Edwin Hall, he's from Alatha, not too far from where we're standing right now.

Now, police believe he in fact is the man in that surveillance tape they've been calling a person of interest since Saturday. Police are saying this morning that he followed Kelsey Smith into that Target about a minute after she parked her car on Saturday evening. They then think that he followed her out and then abducted her thereafter. We have surveillance tape of him pushing her into the car.

Now yesterday afternoon, this thing really came together very quickly. Yesterday afternoon, police searched an area off of Longview Lake, which is not too far, about 20 miles actually from that Target store in Overland Park, Kansas.

Now, Longview Lake is in Kansas City, Missouri, right across state lines. They did find her body after several hundred tips, we're talking 500 tips which led them to her body and also led them to interview this man, Edwin Hall, yesterday afternoon. Phill Kline took -- the district attorney here in Johnson County took the stand last night about 11:30 for a press conference and talked about what we, as a community, have lost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PHILL KLINE, JOHNSON CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This community has lost a vibrant and promising life and a family has suffered an unimaginable tragedy. And I'm certain your prayers, as ours and our thoughts remain with them.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

YAGMIN: Several things we do not know this morning. If, in fact, he will be charged. We're thinking it's going to happen today, we're not too sure. But he will be brought here, he's in the Johnson County jail, which is just across the street from the courthouse here. We do believe at this point that he did not know Kelsey Smith. We don't know much about him, where he's from, that kind of thing, much about his background. We hope to find out more about him today. We do know that the Johnson County district attorney is asking for $5 million bond. And once again, we are saying that he did not know his attacker. So we hope to have much more on this throughout the next coming days. Kiran?

CHETRY: One of the questions this morning that seems to be coming up is about the cell phone signals, these so-called pings, as they're called, that eventually led police to her body. Any reason why they couldn't identify the location using those cell phone pings any earlier?

YAGMIN: No, there's no word on that. The FBI is also investigating this as well, because the kidnapping did go across state lines and they're not really releasing a lot of information on the investigation, as you can imagine in a case like this. What we do know is there were four pings from her cell phone that came off right around a cell tower, right around where Longview Lake, right where her body was found. We're being told that happened, the first ping was somewhere right around two hours after she was abducted on Saturday night. They didn't let us know that information until yesterday, but they did track four pings from her cell phone after she was abducted.

CHETRY: Just a couple hours after, wow. Robb Yagmin from KMBC, thanks.

ROBERTS: Sixteen minutes now after the hour. A strong cold front whipped through Colorado, close to 60 mile an hour winds knocked down several power lines in Grand Junction, leaving thousands in the dark for hours yesterday. Take a look at that as the sparks are flying. The gusts also fueled several brush fires. Firefighters say some residents with garden hoses were able to contain a small fire near a highway. Been weird weather there this spring in Colorado.

In York, Nebraska, heavy winds kicked up a small dust storm, blowing dirt and dust made for lots of problems on the road. Visibility was reduced to near zero and a tractor-trailer truck flipped over in the whole thing. Street signs were also blown around like so much paper by the wind.

A funnel cloud caught on tape in western South Dakota, the National Weather Service says a number of people reported seeing a tornado touch down near Kyle on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. A house and a trailer were also hit. Look at that though. Isn't that spectacular? Rescue crews say nobody was in either building at the time.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: We saw the controversy over the 9/11 memorial at ground zero in New York. Now there's another battle, it's brewing over a planned memorial to flight 93, the plane that went down in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. The man who owns some 200 acres of the land in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, including the four acres of the actual crash site wants to sell, but he's reportedly asking for millions, well above what the families of 9/11 victims say is the fair market value. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho talked to the landowner and she joins us live from Shanksville this morning with more on this controversy. Hi Alina.

ALINA CHO: Hey there Kiran, good morning to you. This is a dispute over land but more so a dispute over money. Let's not forget that some people call this land here a cemetery, 40 people died when flight 93 crashed here on 9/11, and some of the victims' families say the man who owns this land is now trying to make a buck on what they call sacred ground. They call it blood money. The landowner says he just wants what's fair.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): Nearly six years later, they still come to this remote field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to see for themselves where United flight 93 crashed on that fateful day. A place where one day this memorial will be built. But nothing will happen until the land is sold.

PATRICK WHITE, COUSIN DIED ON FLIGHT 93: If there is a price for it the down payment has been paid. 40 lives were given for this land.

CHO: Patrick White's cousin, Joey Nacke, was among the victims. He says the man who owns the land wants to profit to the tune of $10 million from what is now hallowed ground, a figure far above market value. The families say they offered to buy the land for more than $500,000, but were rejected by landowner Mike Svonavec.

MIKE SVONAVEC, FLIGHT 93 LAND OWNER: I can't afford to give it away. I mean, it's an asset of my corporation.

CHO: Svonavec says he never demanded $10 million and just wants to settle on a fair price. If anything, he says he's losing money. Three months ago when federal funding ran out for security, Svonavec says he began paying $10,000 a month for his own security guards. So this week, he set up a donation box, which further angered the victim's families, and the National Park Service which manages the temporary memorial and just yesterday put a plastic bag over the box.

JOANNE HANLEY, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: We didn't feel it lent itself to the dignified setting and the solemn setting we were trying to convey to our visitors. CHO: Family members, like Debbie Borza, who still wears her daughter's ashes around her neck call the donation box and Svonavec's desire to make money on the land, offensive.

DEBBIE BORZA, DAUGHTER DIED ON FLIGHT 93: I don't think there's a dollar figure that would ever satisfy him.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Svonavec owns 273 acres in total, including the most critical land, that four-acre crash site. Now he has said from the very beginning, that he will never accept money for the actual crash site. It's the other surrounding land that's in dispute. And though he says he wants fair market value, he has hired what the park service calls a stigma appraiser, a man who has also appraised the homes of Jon Benet Ramsey and O.J. Simpson is now looking at this land, Kiran, to see what it's worth. And it's worth noting that fair market value at about $1,000 to $2,000 an acre is somewhere between a quarter of a million and a half million dollars. Kiran?

CHETRY: Wow, OK, so where did they get that $10 million figure that he is denying that he wants for it?

CHO: Well, again, he says he has not floated that $10 million figure. The victims' families, a spokesman for the United 93 families, we should mention Kiran and this is interesting, they say that he not only said he wanted $10 million, but he said he believed that the land was actually worth $50 million and that he would accept $10 million as a fair price.

CHETRY: Wow! Alina Cho, thanks for bringing us that side of the story. We in fact did have him booked to be on our show today. Unfortunately, he canceled. But coming up in our next hour, we are going to be speaking with the man whose cousin died on flight 93. He's now the president of the families of flight 93 and he says that Svonevec is basically holding the family members hostages. We do have a prior interview that we will play parts of as well and talk to the president of this organization about what their plans are now in the future.

ROBERTS: A new twist that is startling suicide tops our quick hits. Victor Hans getting probation for standing by while his wife drove a minivan off of a 300 foot cliff on Bear Mountain in New York. The couple's two children were inside the van, somehow survived the crash. Hans is now fighting for custody of the children, but police say child pornography was found on his computer. Those images have been turned over to the FBI.

A lucky 13-year-old is the latest to strike it rich at the Crater of Diamonds Park in Arkansas. Nicole Ruhter found a 2.9 carat tea colored diamond while walking down a path. The park allows visitors to keep diamonds that they find. More than 300 have been found this year. Now these aren't the type of diamonds that would be worth millions, but they could be worth thousands of dollars.

Another sign of trouble for home sellers, your home may soon be worth less than you expected. We'll explain next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty six minutes after the hour, Carrie Lee here, minding your business this morning. The Dow went down yesterday and home prices on the way down as well.

CARRIE LEE: And sales as well. We're talking about numbers that are just out from the National Association of Realtors, the leading group for looking at home prices. Now remember as early as March, the NAR had expected sales and prices would rise this year.

Well ever since then, they've been bringing the numbers down and case in point today, taking a look at existing home sales for this year, the estimate is now that sales will drop over 4 percent with prices down over 1 percent. Existing home sales do make up the bulk of homes sold and in new home sales, the numbers are even more dramatic, with sales expected to decline more than 18 percent now and prices are down over 2 percent.

So if you're in the market to buy a home, well this could be a good time. If you're in the market to sell a home, numbers could be improving though by the end of this year with sales and prices now expected to start gaining in 2008. So we may be in the worst of it, maybe the worst a little bit behind us, but NAR expecting things to improve later this year and into 2008.

ROBERTS: It's all cyclical, isn't it?

LEE: It's very cyclical of course. Another thing people are always keeping an eye on in this area, mortgage rates. Right now, the 30-year fixed rate at 6.35 percent, that's the highest it's been since October and the NAR expects rates to go up to about 6.6 percent by the end of this year and then stay at about that level through 2008. So that's something to keep in mind for homebuyers as well.

ROBERTS: That could be bad news for the Dow again, too.

LEE: Could be, yes.

ROBERTS: Everything affects everything else.

LEE: Right.

CHETRY: Thanks Carrie.

ROBERTS: Thanks Carrie.

LEE: Sure.

CHETRY: There's been an arrest overnight in the death of a missing Kansas teen, it tops our quick hits now. Charges will be filed they believe today against 26-year-old Edwin Hall. Police say that he killed 18-year-old Kelsey Smith and that her kidnapping was caught on surveillance tape. They say that they found her body yesterday afternoon after locating what they're calling cell phone pings.

The most popular now on cnn.com, another missing girl, this one found alive, it's really an unbelievable story. Police found 15-year- old Danielle Cramer under a staircase in a home in Bloomfield, Connecticut, she had been missing for almost a year. The three people living in that home are now under arrest.

Well we know his name by now, Andrew Speaker, the man behind the tuberculosis scare, and now he's sharing tapes that he says prove he was never told not to travel. It's a CNN exclusive. We're going to hear those tapes from county health officials in Atlanta. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning is here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, welcome back. It's Thursday, June the 6th.

I'm John Roberts, back here in New York, safe and sound after being up in the wilds of New Hampshire.

CHETRY: That's right. And you made it out alive, even though you had to deal with, what, 10 Republicans and eight Democrats?

ROBERTS: Ten Republicans, eight Democrats, 18 polls in all. I had to deal with all of their campaign organization, as well, and not to mention weather that brought us everything from lightning to hail.

CHETRY: Oh, and one of the best moments of the GOP debate, actually, when Mother Nature decided to step in with her two cents.

ROBERTS: It was priceless, wasn't it?

CHETRY: It really was?

Well, welcome back. And we're so glad you're with us today.

Some stories "On Our Radar".

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: We start with a developing story out of Kansas, though. Police announcing an arrest overnight in the case of missing 18-year- old Kelsey Smith. Here is the video that put this case in the national spotlight.

Security cameras at a Target store in Overland Park show Smith shopping four days ago, paying for items at a checkout, walking to her car, where she was then abducted. Smith's body was found yesterday near a shallow creek across state lines in Missouri.

Police say cell phone signals led them there. It's about 20 miles east of the Target store.

The suspect under arrest is 26-year-old Edwin Hall. Investigators say he was also captured by the store's security cameras. Police also located the pickup truck that was seen on that surveillance video. They say that they don't know why Smith was starting or if Hall acted alone, but they are calling the arrest a big break for the family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DOUGLASS, OVERLAND PARK POLICE CHIEF: I want to again express my condolences to the Smith family. I realize that this is not the preferred conclusion. While we cannot give them their daughter back, we can at least give them justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Kelsey graduated high school just two weeks ago. Her father described her as being "scrubbed with sunshine".

CHETRY: And in Connecticut, an extraordinary development in the case of a teenager missing for more than a year. Police found the 15- year-old alive in a home in West Hartford. She was hidden in a tiny room. It was just three feet high, four to five feet wide, underneath a staircase.

Police didn't release her name, but she is believed to be Danielle Cramer, listed on a missing children's Web site.

Police arrested three people who lived in the home, including 41- year-old Adam Gault. They say that Gault and the girl's parents had some sort of undisclosed business transaction in the year before she disappeared. Gault was questioned several times, always denied any involvement in her disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. JEFFREY BLATTER, BLOOMFIELD, CT., POLICE DEPT.: We have no evidence that she's been out in public. Some of the investigators made reference to the coloring of her skin, the paleness, and brought that in as a question of whether or not she's actually seen sunlight for some time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Police say that the girl had sometimes run away from home before she vanished last June.

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 36 minutes after the hour.

President Bush meets face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next couple of hours, and amid some frayed nerves over plans to build a missile shield on Russia's doorstep. Earlier today at the G8 summit, President Bush says it's not an issues "to be hyperventilating about".

CNN's Ed Henry is outside the summit site in Rostock, Germany, and joins us now live.

Ed, just a couple of days ago, the White House seemed pretty worked up about this whole idea that Russia might point nuclear missiles at Europe because of this defense shield. And now everything seems to be moving along, if not swimmingly, at least a little better than it was.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, at least in public they're trying to calm everything down. But you know that in three hours from now, when Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin huddle behind closed doors, they could be breaking some china in that room. But undoubtedly, when they come before TV cameras, they're going to try to put a happy face on this, because this rhetoric got pretty hot.

All eight leaders now here at the summit are meeting behind closed doors. And earlier this morning, Mr. Bush actually had his final, final meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, final meeting with Mr. Blair as prime minister.

Mr. Bush got emotional, said it was a nostalgic moment for him. And both Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair said they really hoped the focus of this summit would be on big issues like climate change, wiping out world poverty. But those issues clearly being overshadowed by this meeting coming up this morning between Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin. And as you noted, Mr. Bush tried to reiterate he wants things to calm down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I repeat, Russia is not a threat. They're not a military threat. They're not something that we ought to be, you know, hyperventilating about. What we ought to be doing is figuring out ways to work together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, Mr. Blair's final G8 summit is a reminder that in the run up to this, there had been a lot of talk about the so-called new kids on the block in Europe -- Mr. Blair's likely successor, Gordon Brown. You have Angela Merkel, from Germany, relatively new, and also Mr. Sarkozy, the new president of France. And that maybe this would be a new day in U.S.-European relations.

Ironically, instead, the focus is now about a split, not about coming together, but a split between Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin -- John.

ROBERTS: So what was this all about, Ed? I mean, were the tensions really that high? Was there a lot of posturing? Was there ever a real possibility that Putin was going to aim missiles at Europe?

HENRY: I think there clearly was a lot of posturing on both sides. But it's also a real threat.

Despite the talk now about calming things down, the fact of the matter is, last night Mr. Putin's press spokesman talked to reporters here in Germany and made clear, Mr. Putin is not backing down from that threat to potentially aim nuclear weapons at Europe. So while there is some political posturing going on, there's also some real threats out there. And so again, while you may see Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush come out in a couple of hours from now and say, look, we have our differences but we're going to come together, the fact of the matter is there is a real divide here. And things have gotten so serious, in fact, that Mr. Bush yesterday had to come out and take the extraordinary step of denying that the U.S. is about to go to war with Russia. That's a big difference from where we've been with Russia in the last few years -- John.

ROBERTS: That's not the headline you want coming out of a G8 summit.

Ed Henry for us at that summit in Rostock, Germany.

Ed, thanks.

CHETRY: And some breaking news now.

It looks like North Korea may have launched a barrage of short- range missiles off of the country's west coast. South Korea is looking into intelligence reports that several of these short-range missiles were launched into the Yellow Sea as a test. If true, it would be the second missile test by North Korea in the last three weeks.

And for the first time, we're hearing tapes from the conversations between the man infected with tuberculosis and CDC officials, as well as Fulton County health officials in Atlanta. Andrew Speaker insisting that he was never told not to fly, saying that he had the audiotapes to prove it. And he played some of those exclusively for Larry King last night.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": In that meeting, you insist you were told you were not contagious. Now, let's hear part of the tape that starts with your father asking about a stay at that Denver hospital.

Listen.

TED SPEAKER, ANDREW SPEAKER'S FATHER: And where does he stay? Physically at the hospital?

ANDREW SPEAKER, TB PATIENT: Like, for three weeks am I just sitting in a hospital bed?

DR. ERIC BENNING: Now, that I don't know. But because of the fact that you actually are not contagious, I mean, there's no reason for you to be sequestered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: "No reason for you to be sequestered." So you can understand where the confusion may have come in with Speaker and his wife.

Speaker said that he never would have risked the health of his wife and other passengers if he had known the severity of his condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: But just to be safe, Andrew, why didn't you say to your bride, "Let's get married in the United States, let's keep me close to hospitals here, doctors here that I'm aware of," and not risk the idea of travel?

A. SPEAKER: I think that something that hasn't come across -- you know, like anyone who gets a diagnosis if they're sick, you go to your doctors and you ask them about your condition. There was never a sense conveyed about, you know, doom of my condition, that it was -- it was just something you had to take care of. You got on the treatment and you took care of it. There was...

KING: But I mean, just by your own sense, Andrew -- I know a lot of people who have told me today that if they had tuberculosis, whether they were told it was contagious or not, they wouldn't fly off to a foreign country.

A. SPEAKER: And everyone is going to have their own opinion on that. I looked to my doctors and I looked to the health officials, and the whole time I asked, "Am I a threat to anyone?" Nothing was ever conveyed.

There was never this sense of -- you know, here I am in an isolation room. My wife has a mask on. Even up until the -- I'm sure we'll get into it -- the meeting on May 10th, no one ever wore a mask around me, no one ever told me it was necessary, no one ever gave the impression that I was a threat to anyone, no one ever told me that anyone in my family was at risk.

This whole attitude of quarantine and isolation, the first time I heard about that was over a week into my honeymoon, long after they knew about my condition and about my treatment options and how severe my diagnosis was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Yes. And so there you have it. You can see plainly that he truly felt that he was told he wasn't a threat.

Coming up in the next hour, we're going to be speaking with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who says that the Speaker case is actually pretty minor compared to the millions of people worldwide who have tuberculosis -- John.

ROBERTS: Forty-two minutes after the hour.

They are opting out of Iowa and topping our "Quick Hits" this morning.

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: Extreme weather on the plains, including funnel clouds in South Dakota. More extreme weather in the forecast. Chad Myers shows us where next on AMERICAN MORNING.

The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: He chased down a guy in the streets. Now that guy is chasing him down in court. Borat getting sued once again.

The details when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 52 minutes after the hour.

Is "Knocked Up" a knock-off?

Your "Quick Hits" now.

A Canadian author is suing Universal Pictures and director Judd Apatow. She says the new movie is a rip-off of her book by the same name. The movies producers deny it though.

The last fans have come on down to "Price is Right" host Bob Barker. He taped his final episode yesterday. Barker is retiring after hosting "The Price is Right" for 35 years. No word yet who will succeed him.

And Nicole Richie says she is hoping that she's not going to land in jail like her former best friend Paris Hilton. She told David Letterman she's scared, but also willing to face whatever consequences come her way. She could face jail time for getting two DUI charges within 10 years.

CHETRY: And I bet you she won't like what's on the menu in the jail prison.

Well, Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as "Borat," faces another lawsuit this morning. Well, remember the scene from the movie? He tried to give a hug -- he was so happy to be in America that he wanted to hug the people along the streets of Manhattan. And if you live around here, you know people don't usually take too kindly to that type of thing.

Well, the man seen running away doesn't think it's very funny. And now the case could be headed to federal court.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Lola Ogunnaike joins us now. You saw the movie, I saw the movie. I just thought to myself, when are the lawsuits going to start rolling in? Because he -- the whole premise is he makes fools of everyday people who don't know that he's acting.

LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. He spooks them the entire time. They're not in on the joke, and apparently they're not happy about not being in on the joke.

This guy in particular has decided, look, my face was scrambled during the promotional material, but now in the film his face wasn't scrambled. And he's saying that the film violated his civil rights. And he's suing.

The crazy thing is, the film came out last year. This guy has already won a Golden Globe for this. But again, people keep suing. They keep suing.

A slew of lawsuits came out last year. Some of them were -- most of them were not successful, in fact, because a lot of these people signed waivers and releases. And that was it. So when that happens, it's done.

CHETRY: Ran into this case. I mean, when you have these slice of life moments, like when he captured people on the subway, or in this one, did they have to sign waivers?

OGUNNAIKE: With the chicken on his head.

CHETRY: Yes.

OGUNNAIKE: They all have to sign waivers, apparently. And once you do that, it's really hard to come back around and say, well, wait a minute, that's not...

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: You know what's happening, Lola? I think what's happening is that their friends were making fun of them. They're the laughing stock in the corporate world.

OGUNNAIKE: Oh, absolutely. Can you imagine?

CHETRY: And now they've got to sue.

OGUNNAIKE: Remember the frat boys?

CHETRY: Yes.

OGUNNAIKE: They sued, as well. Their suit was thrown out. But they were very -- they were very upset about this.

One of the guys lost an internship. Another one claimed that he suffered ridiculous amounts of ridicule for their racist and sexist comments. And they claimed that the "Borat" people got them drunk and all sloshed. So, yes, people are not happy about this. But again, a lot of good news in Borat's world. He's got a book coming out, Kazakhstan, the Western World, a travel guide, introducing the two countries to each other. And he's got a baby on the way with his girlfriend, Isla Fisher. So...

CHETRY: That's great.

OGUNNAIKE: ... a lawsuit on one hand, good news on the other.

CHETRY: Well, he's laughing all the way to the bank anyway.

OGUNNAIKE: Absolutely.

CHETRY: Sacha Baron Cohen...

OGUNNAIKE: He's not worried at all. And he won an MTV Movie Award for best kiss the other day, too. So he is fine.

CHETRY: Lola Ogunnaike, thanks -- John.

ROBERTS: Good news for every man who is trying to convince his wife to let him by a Porsche. Carrie Lee is "Minding Your Business" coming up next.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, we said just before we went to the break that we had good news for any man trying to convince his wife to let him by a Porsche. Now, it's not because they're on sale, but you could tell your wife that you're driving a very well-made car.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a new quality survey from J.D. Power and Associates. Annual ranking, and Porsche came out number one, top brand overall.

What they do is survey new buyers 90 days after they buy a car for manufacturing defects, design problems. So Porsche, number one, gives you guys another reason, and some women another reason, to buy one.

Also (INAUDIBLE) Lexus number two. But perhaps the standout here, Ford, because Ford's cars and trucks won in five rankings overall. The compact sporty car, Mazda MX-5, Miata. Mid-sized sporty went to the Ford Mustang. Mid-sized car overall, Mercury Milan. Entry premium car went to the Lincoln MKZ. And finally, the large premium SUV went to the Lincoln Mark LT.

Interesting to note, Kiran and John, that no GM brands earned above-average scores. And Mercedes-Benz was the most improved. They didn't so well in years past.

That's the latest. CHETRY: Wow.

LEE: Yes.

CHETRY: But like you said, you can always justify the Porsche now if you've got the money for it.

LEE: That's the sexiest one. Come on. I know, the beginning, the end, that's the one we really want to talk about though.

ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Carrie. See you in a half an hour.

CHETRY: Thank you.

LEE: Sure.

ROBERTS: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

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