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Six Coal Miners Trapped Underground

Aired August 06, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live in Atlanta.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: I'm Elizabeth Cohen in today for Kyra Phillips, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

LEMON: Missing and presumed trapped in Utah, half dozen coal miners four miles from the entrance of a mine that caved in early this morning. Did the walls give way because of an earthquake or did the mine collapse itself, and set off the seismographs? Here's what we know right now, the group was working underground overnight when the mine apparently caved in.

It is unclear whether this was due to a small earthquake or the collapse itself, was strong enough to register on the seismographs. Rescue crews are on the scene and have gotten, we are told, within a half a mile of the miners of that presumed location. So far, no contact has been made. You're looking at new video just in to the CNN NEWSROOM.

Now at the mine's most recent inspection, here's some background for you, it happened just last month. It was cited for problems with escape ways and emergency drills.

COHEN: Chad Myers joins us now with more on the apparent earthquake, Chad what can you tell us.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well the ground shook. We know that, we don't know whether it was a slipping of two plates, plates are around there but not that close. Or was the shaking, that was actually felt and basically recorded on the heliograph, or the seismic recorder was that actually the collapse of the mine itself. There's the mine --

LEMON: Hey, Chad?

MYERS: There was the earthquake location-yeah go ahead?

LEMON: Hate to cut you off but --

MYERS: Yeah, OK, I've got good stuff. Come back to me.

LEMON: Yeah, we'll come back to you, thank you very much. We want to get to you now to Minnesota, Minneapolis, specifically, and that press conference happening now with the Hennepin County sheriff's department.

RICHARD STANEK, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: HENNEPIN CO. MINN.: Today down river we're continuing to conduct shore searches. We've got a number of patrol boats up and down the river between the collapsed structure site, that being the bridge, and the foredam, which is about a six- mile stretch of river.

Secondly, we continue side scan sonar on the down river side of the collapse site. The other side that we've been doing last night and this morning, most of the night, is coordinating liaison with our federal partners, I mentioned the navy's mobile diving and salvage team representatives are on-site.

They've been working with the Hennepin County sheriff's office we also have the FBI, evidence recovery team, Paul McCabe, a special agent with the FBI is here and he's going to talk to you in just a minute. Between these two groups, the Navy, FBI and Hennepin County sheriff's office, we'll continue our recovery efforts as we move forward.

We've also got a number of other assets working with us today in partnership through mutual aid agreements, that being the Department of Natural Resources, a number of their boats on the river of course, the Carpen (ph) County sheriff's office, and of course, the Coast Guard -- Paul.

PAUL MCCABE, FBI: Yeah, just to give you a little kind of a briefing on the different teams we have here. We have our evidence response teams that are working two-man teams or two-person teams that are helping surveying. They have very high technology equipment and specified training. They assist the NTSB. We do cross training together and have worked on major aircraft disasters with them in the past.

Those two-person teams are from Chicago, San Antonio and Pittsburgh. They use a piece of equipment that's called the NIKON Total Station. Basically when you see crews out on the highways with the surveying equipment but this also has a laptop attached to it so they can get the information immediately and actually see what they're surveying.

Also we have our FBI underwater and evidence response teams here. We have three teams here from New York, L.A. and Washington D.C., about 13 members. They are certified divers. They are specialized FBI training and special equipment for evidence recovery. They also use a radial sonar which is not a side scan sonar. This basically sits on a tripod that's lowered down to the bottom of the river. From there they're able to map the layout underneath.

They also have what's called a remote operated vehicle. This is kind of a mini unmanned submarine. It has, powered by thrusters, attached to that there are sonar, lights, cameras, and a grabbing arm. And that team has been deployed all over the world on specialty operations. Thank you.

STANEK: As I mentioned yesterday, the Hennepin County sheriff's office and other resources we've been using on the river recovery operations, again, our mission here is to reunite the loved ones with their families, quickly came to a time when our resources in terms of things that we could do to further our efforts, we've done them here. And so that's why we ask for assistance from our federal partners.

We did this on meeting with President Bush on Saturday morning, had a very candid conversation with him, as you know, he came down to the Algonquin Dam, came down to near the -- near the diving platform, talked with the divers, talked with myself.

Asked us what we really needed. I told him what we need. And sure enough later that afternoon, throughout the night I got phone calls from a lot of different places, engaged in some of these additional resources. We're very thankful with it. We continue to meet with the families as well. I think that's it -- we'll take questions, Paul and I and Captain Schilling is here on behalf of the Hennepin County sheriff's office dive teams.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: Yeah, eight people that are confirmed missing, that we continue to focus on as released by Minneapolis police. And I'll remind you that Minneapolis police continues to handle that part of the investigation regarding missing persons.

QUESTION: Sir, could you talk a little bit about coordinating the recovery as well as debris removal and how that's going to work, looking for the victims while, you know, some of the crew members get started eventually removing debris?

STANEK: Right. Well, we've had -- we have frequent, very frequent meetings with NTSB and the salvage crews that they've employed or deployed or hired along with Minnesota Department of Transportation. Again, the water recovery side, bank to bank, our goal here is to recover victims. And so strategically removing debris is what will happen over the next several days as we get into the operations.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: You know, I think it has. This morning is the first time that we came out. They were out about here about 6:00 a.m. at the lock and dam, and they're going to continue to working 24 hours a day alongside our folks alongside the FBI personnel, Army Corps of Engineer. There's a lot of resources being deployed here to get this mission done. We're absolutely committed to it.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: Thus far, since Thursday morning, we began our recovery operations. We've identified seven vehicles -- we've recovered -- we've identified seven vehicles that were submerged on the river bottom. Six of those vehicles, we know and have accounted for the occupants. On the seventh one is the one that we have not been able to identify where that missing person is and we have spoken to the family about that.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: You know, the eight missing is what's confirmed thus far. Minneapolis police is handling that part of the investigation. I have to defer you to them.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: Well, throughout the week, again, there's a number of pieces of heavy equipment that are both being deployed up river from here, up around Boom Island. There's already a crane in place at the lower lock here. In fact, it had been in place prior to the bridge collapsing. They were doing some maintenance and construction work down here anyways. And that's the kind of equipment we need, in addition to what the Navy and the FBI might require. We are providing that, getting that in place as we continue the operations.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: I'm going to leave that up to the experts, that being the Navy and the FBI, in consultation with us about when that's going to be appropriate. I expect though that things will start to move along fairly soon. Go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

STANEK: Do you want to talk about that? Well, I think --

LEMON: All right, press conference happening. Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek holding that press conference basically saying he's getting all the resources he needs to get the mission done. Here's the interesting part. The FBI says they have an evidence recovery team on the scene using a new type of sonar, radar sonar instead of that side scan sonar that the divers have been using there.

The sheriffs department there in charge of the water recovery not in charge of missing people, making that very clear. And that's why he held this press conference to talk about a new submersible they're going to be use he said it was--which is like a -- he said it was like a one-man (sic) submarine that has sonar, lights, camera, and then a grabbing arm to try to recover vehicles and evidence from that.

So it's going to be a while they said, a very slow mission there. They want to do it methodically because they want to gather as much evidence as possible to help them sort of solve this, to find out exactly why that bridge crumbled with passengers in cars on top of it. We'll continue to update you.

COHEN: Four college students, one ordained minister, shot in the school yard in New Jersey. The deadly, horrifying details ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COHEN: We've been telling you about this mine collapse in Utah for several hours now. Well, now we have our first report from the area. KSL reporter Sam Penrod is there and has this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM PENROD, KSL REPORTER: Well, the search and rescue for those six miners continues this afternoon. They have been trapped for about eight hours now. They are inside what is known as the Genwall Mine, that is about 10 miles east of Huntington, up Huntington Canyon it's about a mile away from where we are here in Huntington Canyon.

Chopper 5, as you can see, has been over the mine this morning. At 2:48 a.m. a 4.0 magnitude earthquake hit in this same area, and then at 3:50 a.m. the report of the mine collapse came in.

Now, there is still some question over whether the mine collapse was what registered as the earthquake, or if the earthquake made the mine unstable and caused it to collapse. We do know some miners were able to get out, but at least six are still unaccounted for and presumed to be trapped inside of the mine.

This is a coal mine. Whether they were underneath the area where the mine collapsed, or behind it, and just can't get out, no one knows at this point.

We are told that this mine is not one where there are those dangerous mine gasses, so of course that's good news, both for the miners and rescuers who are going in. We have been watching as miners have come to the area with maps, also some timber to shore up the mine, and coal mining equipment. Now, MSHA, that's the mining safety officials, they are here as well. We have seen ambulances as well as other trained rescue teams here in this area.

Whether or not they have gone into the mine yet to begin this rescue or if they are still evaluating the situation so they can try and come up with a plan to get the rescuers in safely, and get the miners out safely, we don't know. In fact, we're still waiting for any official information from MSHA on this other than we do know six miners are unaccounted for inside this coal mine and they are believed to have been trapped. We, of course, will be --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Chad Myers joins us now with more on the apparent earthquake. Chad, tell us what's going on.

MYERS: Well, as we were saying before, the earth shook. Something made it shake, was it a fault slide, was it something else? The fault is a little bit away from here, its' the Wasatch Fault. That's a little bit farther to the west. And so if you have these plates clashing, basically a normal collision, you probably would have had a deeper earthquake than what we had. Because you would be so far away from the fault the shake would be farther down, not on the surface. This shake was only about 2500 feet or so below the surface.

Now, three miles between where the mine entrance was, where all those aerials you just saw, and where the shaking actually occurred. So what does that mean? Three miles away, that seems like a pretty far area. But when you look at the Genwall permit area, here's the mine permit area.

This is the area that this mine entrance can mine, they can go in any direction here, anywhere they want, inside this box. I'm gonna rotate it for you so you could get some kind of idea of what that is. Now we have north faced to the north and the top. Earthquake location is, in fact, under the permit area. They're are very well may have been some time of mine equipment or mining going on in this permitted area.

But we also talked to an expert in the mine field in West Virginia saying that sometimes this coal -- because there's dirt on top of it -- will come down and shatter itself and make its own earthquake. Not saying the roof of the mine collapsed. But some kind of other scene may have collapsed. When that did when this happened, this is the shaking that went on.

I know this is kind of a convoluted map, but this is really what the seismograph looked like back at about 2:48 a.m. Utah time. And here's the shaking. It started and it continued. Every line that you see here -- I know they're hard to see, but every line is a minute. There's one minute of shaking and another minute of shaking. And finally tapering off, a normal earthquake, a lot of them I've looked at you take and get you'll get a long, a very high amplitude shaking right at the beginning. Then it settles down and settles down into this.

This is an area, you know, it's too early to tell, but in my opinion, the more we look at it, the depth of the shaking was exactly the depth of the mine. It really does appear that this probably, this collapse caused the shaking, caused the 4.0 rather than vice versa.

Even though the call came in about the collapse later. It came in like an hour later. So our first thought was, oh, earthquake, oh, no, mine collapse. Well, probably because of the delay in get that call out -- Elizabeth.

COHEN: Well, we have outrage in New Jersey after three college students were shot like that --

LEMON: Yeah --

COHEN: And it was just a horrible, horrible incident.

LEMON: Absolutely. I want to thank Chad Myers for that report.

And then talk about this, as you said, the outrage in New Jersey after three college bound students are shot to death execution style outside elementary school in Newark. A fourth was shot and stabbed but survived. Jim Acosta is in New York with the very latest for us, Jim? JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, Newark police say the four teenagers sent text messages to each other on their cell phones warning each other about a possible attack. One of the messages said, "Let's get out of here."

The killings which police say appear to be random took place just before midnight Saturday night behind an elementary school in Newark. Police say the victims were socializing near the school and listening to music when they were approached by a group of young men. According to investigators, the teenagers were shot execution style. The families are devastated, saying these were good kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARYL TILLMAN, COUSIN: Someone young and full of life, you know, got enough vigor, you know, it's not fair.

PAULA DOW: It's horrendous. These were college kids. We hear so many tragic things about what happens with our youth. But these were doing the right things and were on their way to success stories.

ACOSTA: And there is a $20,000 reward posted for any information leading to the arrest of the attackers. The fourth victim, Natasha Ariel, who sustained a gunshot wound to the head and knife wounds to her face and ear is in an area hospital and listed in fair condition -- Don.

LEMON: CNN's Jim Acosta, thank you, Jim.

COHEN: Well, we're now going to be speaking to Glenna Millberg, she's in Florida with our station WPLG to talk about the officer shooting -- Glenna.

LEMON: Apparently, Glenna's not there. But we want to tell you exactly what happened there.

This morning, an officer was on the scene at another related -- or another -- something that wasn't related and felt the need to make this traffic stop as we spoke to Glenna Milberg a little bit earlier. Sadly he ended up being shot. Let's go now to Glenna Milberg with the very latest on this.

Glenna, any changes since our last update, what do you know?

GLENNA MILBERG, WPLG MIAMI: Actually I just got an update from the public information officer here. The suspect is being questioned. As for the deputy who was shot, unfortunately still in grave condition. That's how it's being described. And it's a wait and watch at the hospital about half a mile from this scene.

And this is where it happened. This is a major roadway, East-West roadway called Pembroke Road that splits jurisdictions. The Broward sheriff's officer who was here was working, what's called a selective investigations unit. And was on some kind of project -- some kind of operation that they're not identifying. But at some point decided to make a traffic stop right about where you're looking. A man on a motorcycle, he pulled over, traffic stop was made. The man on the motorcycle got off the motorcycle and started walking, or running away. Turned around, pulled a gun and fired at the deputy. The deputy was hit, went down.

We did talk to a witness who saw this officer right afterwards doubled over. He says, clutching his stomach. And the call went out, officer down. What you're looking at is the result. When this call goes out, officer down, law enforcement from all over South Florida really converged on this spot, in Pembroke Park, to see if they could join in the investigation.

We have at least three jurisdictions here. The largest, of course, being the county sheriff, the Broward County sheriff. This officer is a white male officer in his 30s. That's all we're being told publicly. He's got a brother on the Hollandale Beach police force, which is the next town over from Hollywood. He's got brothers in law enforcement and sisters in law enforcement, by the dozen, who have come out here, many more are at the hospital waiting.

Why this man opened fire on a deputy, we don't know, why the deputy made the traffic stop in the first place, we don't know -- Elizabeth.

LEMON: Take it back, Glenna, when I asked you, because we could barely hear you there. He has a brother, you said, that works for an adjacent police department in an adjacent municipality. And also that big truck that you're seeing there, is that an evidence recovery truck that's on this scene there, Glenna, real quick?

MILBERG: Yeah, that's called a mobile command unit, that pulled up. There's been a few mobile command units that pulled up here.

LEMON: Wondering why we couldn't hear you. Glenna Milberg on the scene with for us.

Thank you Glenna.

COHEN: Coming up, we'll be speaking with a seismologist about that earthquake in Utah and the trapped miners, that's straight ahead in NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COHEN: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. We are back on our top story. Six miners trapped in a mine in an area remote Utah. There was also an earthquake there. Our Chad Myers has some information from a seismologist at the University of Utah -- Chad.

MYERS: Actually Dr. Arabasz is on the line with us right now.

Want to talk about this with you, Doctor. From the University of Utah, you are the director of the stations. I read something where you said you were a little bit concerned at the signature of this seismograph yesterday, or the helicorder. Tell us what you were talking about. DR. WALTER ARABASZ, SEISMOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH: Well, we're talking about, first, a magnitude, a revised magnitude 3.9 earthquake that occurred 2:48 a.m. this morning in Utah. Our best interpretation at this point is that the seismic recordings we observed were consistent with a mine-type collapse. This evidence is ambiguous. I couldn't take this into a court of law and say this is exactly what happened.

But our earthquake location was in the area of a map uncertainty is within the general boundaries of the Crandall Canyon Mine. And again, my best judgment is that what we observed seismologically consistent with a mine-type collapse. We don't have information from the mine. Don't know exactly where the collapse was in the mine, nor exactly what time.

MYERS: Doctor, behind me here, I have actually the helicorder data. Now this isn't an exact replica of what it looks like, but it's very close. This is a digital representation. Can you see this here? And tell me what you see, why does this look like a mine collapse?

ARABASZ: I'm sorry. I just have a telephone connection.

MYERS: OK, well, what we have, shaking, I'll describe it to you. I know you watched it all night long. We have shaking that probably lasted for three solid minutes with no real big moment at the beginning of this. Is this the signature you're talking about, this long kind of long duration, rather than big moment and then slowing down?

ARABASZ: What I'm referring to is in particular the direction of the ground motion at the very beginning of each of the seismic recordings, consistently throughout our network what we observed was a down motion on vertical seismographs that would indicate a relaxation of the ground, pointing back to the source. An earthquake would produce a mixture of up and down motions in different quadrants through our network.

MYERS: I'm not sure if you've seen this or not on the TV. But I'm showing you a map behind us now of what the mine entrance is here; the mine and the earthquake location about three miles away. And, Doctor, we do now know that the permit area for this mine was, in fact, directly inside of the earthquake location here itself. What does the depth of that earthquake tell you, half a kilometer, or a little bit less?

ARABASZ: Well, that's one of the problems seismologically. Our nearest recording station was about 13 kilometers away and that's too far to give a very precise resolution on the depth to fix this at mine level, or below mine level. There's also an error in the map location. Our error -- horizontal error would be of the order of plus or minus a mile.

MYERS: So it could be above the surface, if that's plus or minus. We obviously know that didn't happen. We talked to a coal inspector, a coal mine inspector, from West Virginia earlier, he said that these collapses of seams -- I think this is the Hiawatha seam -- the seams can collapse on their own. This has happened in the past, correct?

WALTER ARABASZ: That's correct. And the important thing -- and I don't have this information from the mine -- it would -- this size event would tend to occur in the type of mine where there are so- called rooms and pillars, where there are -- there's a checkered board pattern of pillars holding up the roof.

MYERS: And one checkered came down. You would go in making -- let's think of it as a checkerboard. You would go in picking out all the red checkered squares and then you would come out taking out all of the black checkered squares if you were going to take those the pillars out. That was the direction he was actually talking about. What do you know about other earthquakes in the area of this depth? Can that just happen geologically?

ARABASZ: Well, this is within an active mining district. These central Utah has a number of active underground coal mines which produce constant mining related seismicity. Since 1978, we've observed about 19 events that have been in the magnitude 3 to 4.2 range. 4.2 is the largest that we've observed.

MYERS: We heard a little bit earlier about the Wasatch fault. And obviously this is the Wasatch plateau. But isn't the fault farther west than this location?

ARABASZ: Yes, it is, the Wasatch fault is to the northwest of this location unrelated to this mining area.

MYERS: Absolutely. That's kind of what we thought. We knew it was close but we didn't think it would be close enough to be related. Doctor Walter Arabasz, thank you so much; Arabasz from the University of Utah, you put this really in perspective. And really, Elizabeth, to get it from basically the state or ground zero, I get a seismologist that really knows what he's talking about because he's looked at these and lived these earthquakes for so very long. That was a really great phone call we just had. Thank you.

COHEN: That was. That was great information. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You bet.

LEMON: Plus we want to remind our viewers too as well, if you have pictures of this story or information for any story, any breaking news stories, send it to CNN.com/ireport and maybe you, too, can be a CNN I-reporter. Let's go to another person who is an actual reporter here. Stephanie Elam with the New York Stock Exchange is here to tell us about another blow for Bear Stearns, and once again the nation's troubled housing market is to blame for that. What do you know, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. Bear Stearns has been at the center of much of the nation's mortgage turmoil after the melt down of two of the company's high profile hedge funds. Those funds had a huge presence in the risky mortgage arena which of course is known as sub prime loan. Now the management who oversaw the fund, his name is Warren Spector, well he's been pressured into resigning as co-president and co-chief operating officer of the company. Spector had been considered a likely successor to the company's 73-year-old chief. So it's interesting here how things are changing, Don.

LEMON: Well, that's Wall Street for you. But on Main Street, the mortgage crisis is having a big effect, too, right?

ELAM: Yes, it's not just about what happens here with these big companies. If you think about it, it's getting tougher for people to go out and find a mortgage. Especially those no money down loans or the loans with the low teaser rates but then they shoot up and so then people find themselves pushed out of being able to afford their homes. Lenders are getting pickier about who can get those riskier mortgages. And some are scrapping them all together. Even for buyers who actually have good credit. That's if they even manage to survive the crisis in the first place. The latest lenders to succumb to the turmoil would be American Home Mortgage. It filed for bankruptcy protection today, just days after laying off all but 10 percent of its work force.

And by the way, looking at Bear Stearns, its shares are down four percent. Overall, however, the major averages are gaining back some of the ground they lost in Friday's big sell off. But there's still a great deal of nervousness out there. The Dow industrials right now on up the side by 115 points at 13297. The NASDAQ by 13, better than half a percent there at 2524. The S&P 500 is up almost one percent as well.

And by the way, oil prices are sliding nearly $3, less than a week after hitting new records. So a little bit of good news there as well.

Now, the Minnesota bridge collapse is putting a harsh spotlight on the nation's aging infrastructure. And in the next hour of NEWSROOM, I'll tell you about the potential economic toll. Obviously that's the other side of the story that we have to examine. Until then, back to you, guys.

LEMON: Look forward to that one. And when it comes to the markets today, you have to be positive. At least it's in the plus territory, considering. Stephanie Elam, we'll check back. Thank you very much.

ELAM: Thanks.

LEMON: It is 34 past the hour. Here's one of the stories, our top story as a matter of fact, as we first reported a small earthquake rattled Utah overnight. But now scientists say the tremors may actually have been caused by a mine collapse. And that left six miners trapped. Rescue crews are on the scene at the Crandall Canyon Coal Mine. That's near Huntington. Looking at video into the CNN NEWSROOM within the last hour. An area utility company has sent heavy equipment and a team there to help with that search. So far, there's been no contact with those missing miners.

Here's what we know right now. The group was working underground overnight when the mine apparently caved in. It is unclear if this was due to the small earthquake or if the collapse itself was strong enough to register on seismographs. Rescue crews are on the scene and have gotten within we are told a half mile of the miners of that presumed location. Now, so far no contact has been made. At the mine's most recent inspection just last month it was cited for problems with escape ways and emergency drills.

Well, it all began when a deputy stopped them for speeding and it snowballed from there. Did South Carolina authorities stop a possible terror plot or maybe just bust a couple of guys with fireworks? A closer look ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Shock and horror in New Jersey where four incoming college students were found shot outside an elementary school in Newark. Now police say the lone survivor is a woman who was shot and stabbed in the face. Her brother and two others were lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head execution style. All three dead. The four were set to attend a Delaware state university this fall. The school plans to hold a memorial service when classes resume.

South Carolina is charging two men of Middle Eastern descent with explosives offenses. But the FBI sees no link to terrorism. The men were stopped for speeding Saturday night. An officer noticed that what looked like explosives in the car and called for back up. The men insisted the materials were fireworks but a robot was brought in to detonate some of them. This morning the sheriff explained why officers found the men so suspicious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF WAYNE DEWITT, BERKELEY COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: One not wanting to talk, basically. The other, talking, sort of telling different stories as to where they were, where they were going and why they in this particular area. The mere fact of the folding of the laptop computer and disposing of it before the officer came up. That's just, you know, clearly suspicious activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And Islamic American group say the men are students at the University of South Florida and were just taking a road trip.

One of America's chief allies on the war on terror, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, wraps up the two-day summit with President Bush today. The two leaders met at Camp David on the precarious state of Afghan security. Elaine Quijano is live at the White House with details for us.

Hi Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you Don. That's right. Camp David summit over the weekend was meant to sure up the alliance between the United States and its critical ally, Afghanistan. Today President Bush and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai reaffirmed their commitment to working together in U.S.-led war on terrorism. Both leaders emphasized the need to fight and keep the pressure on the Taliban and the resurgence of Taliban forces in Afghanistan. But at the same time, the U.S. and Afghanistan do not see eye to eye when it comes to the role of Iran in the region. President Karzai this weekend told CNN that he viewed, for now, Iran as a, quote, helper in the region, as somebody -- as someone that, in his words, be part of a solution. But President Bush made it clear today he strongly disagrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe that it's in the interest of all of us that we have an Iran that tries to stabilize, not destabilize. An Iran that gives up its weapons ambitions and, therefore, we're working to that end. The president knows best about what's taking place in his country and, of course, I'm willing to listen. But from my perspective, the burden of proof is on the Iranian government to show us that they're a positive force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, we also heard today Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai predicting that it would be a good meeting with the neighboring ally, Pakistan. There has been, of course, a great deal of tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan, each side essentially pointing to the other and saying, "You're not doing enough in the war on terrorism." Interesting to note as well, President Bush during the question and answer portion of that was asked whether or not the United States would seek permission from Pakistan in going after al Qaeda targets if there was actionable intelligence that there were targets in Pakistan. The president did not answer directly, Don, instead emphasizing cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan.

LEMON: There's been a lot in the news lately, also, about this Korean-south Korean hostages being held by the Taliban. Any talk of that, Elaine?

QUIJANO: Yes. There was in a private discussions. We didn't hear the leaders publicly talk about that during the joint press availability at Camp David. But a White House spokesman said that, in fact, in their private discussions earlier today that was a topic. And the spokesman saying that there is no, quote, quid pro quo, both leaders emphasizing that the Taliban, of course, remain a brutal group and they should not feel emboldened by this. But at the same time, the leaders pledging to do everything possible to secure their release.

LEMON: CNN's Elaine Quijano. Thank you, Elaine.

COHEN: Well, somebody sure left the thermostat on broil. Dangerous heat settles over St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta. I could keep naming cities all day. We'll go live to the weather center ahead in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: And a spectacular crash at a Firestone, the Firestone Indy 400. The driver of this car. Look at that. The husband of film star Ashley Judd. We'll show you more of what happened when the NEWSROOM continues. Man.

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LEMON: A developing story here today in the CNN NEWSROOM is the mine collapse in Utah. Six miners are believed to be trapped inside of this mine. We're told that investigators and people who are trying to find these miners have gotten within a half mile of them. We'll update you on the conditions and the operation of trying to rescue these miners as we get it here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COHEN: But first, check out this spectacular crash at the Firestone Indy 400 in Michigan. Take a look at this Indy 500 winner, Dario Franchitti. So funny, I can't talk. And Dan Wheldon battle for the lead. Their wheels touched. Franchitti's car takes flight. He goes airborne and lands upside down. And then he's hit by two other cars before he finally skids for a stop. Now the really incredible thing here, Franchitti walked away from this. You may recall that Franchitti is married to actress Ashley Judd. And by the way, after all this, if you're still interested in who won, Tony Kanaan.

LEMON: You can't say that (inaudible)

COHEN: That's right.

LEMON: That's how it works. Hi Sibila Vargas.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Hi. Tragic details though surrounding the death of a man at the home of actor Ving Rhames. I'll have that and more when the NEWSROOM continues.

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LEMON: The Bourne Ultimatum, Simpson's, Underdog, yes the late summer box office is proving to be even hotter than expected. Speaking of hot, entertainment correspondent, Sibila Vargas.

VARGAS: No, he didn't.

LEMON: Yes, I did. The latest blockbuster to set a record blockbuster, hot, I mean come on. You're a good looking woman.

VARGAS: OK. Well, let's get to the movies.

LEMON: Let's see if you can recover from that.

VARGAS: OK. I'm going to try. All right? OK. Traditionally though moviegoers are going to show signs of fatigue at this point in the summer, right? Thanks to a forgetful spy named Jason Bourne, the opposite appears to be true. Universal's third installment of the popular franchise "The Bourne Ultimatum" set a new August recorded earning an estimated $70.2 million over the weekend. Overall, the totals for the top 10 films were up 35 percent over the same weekend last year. Likely giving the studios a new found faith in late-summer races. Now the Simpson's movie held strong at number two with earning about $128.5 million since its release last weekend. And Disney's "Underdog" debuted with about $12 million to round out the top three.

LEMON: I'm going to have to check out that Bourne. I haven't seen any of the Bournes.

VARGAS: It's amazing.

LEMON: Bourne Ultimatum, the Bourne something.

VARGAS: Identity.

LEMON: The Bourne Supremacy. Is that it? The Bourne Identity. Everybody's telling me ...

VARGAS: Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum.

LEMON: Matt Damon, I know that part.

VARGAS: Yes.

LEMON: OK.

And this is sarcasm because it's been a rocky walk down the aisle. That's not sarcasm for Usher. But it appears the singer has finally said his I dos. And I hear it was in a very romantic setting. That's sarcasm.

VARGAS: Yes. Not as extravagant though. You remember just last weekend we were all shocked when we canceled his big Hamptons wedding. That was Usher. It appears the 28-year-old singer has now officially tied the knot, Don, in a much less extravagant event in Atlanta, Georgia. Usher wed stylist Tameka Foster in his lawyer's office on Friday. Though all details surrounding the demise of the first wedding still unclear, the bride did confirm to "People" magazine that the change of plans was partly due to a pregnancy scare. Thirty-seven year old Foster who has three children already and is due to give birth to Usher's baby in December. So he is off the market. Sorry, ladies.

LEMON: Well you know I was kind of joking about the lawyer's office, but we wish them well.

VARGAS: We certainly do. Absolutely.

LEMON: They are very nice folks.

VARGAS: I'm all for marriage. All for it.

LEMON: OK.

VARGAS: Continuing it, too.

LEMON: OK.

VARGAS: Stay in there. Stay in the course.

LEMON: All right. I'm just going to let you keep going. VARGAS: You started it.

LEMON: I know.

VARGAS: OK.

LEMON: This one is a very serious subject, though, Sibila. Let's talk about Ving Rhames and what happened at his home on Friday. Any update on that alleged dog mauling?

VARGAS: My gosh, on Friday we got that shocking news that a man had been mauled to death by dogs at the actor's Brentwood home. And now we do have more details. The man who was killed at the home of actor Ving Rhames has been identified as 40-year-old Jacob Adams of Los Angeles. Now Adams had been living on the property for nearly two years taking care of the actor's four dogs, three bull mastiffs and one English bulldog. Now currently all four dogs, two of which weigh more than 200 pounds, are being held as evidence pending the investigation. While the media signs indicate that Adams was mauled by the dogs, it's unclear perhaps a heart attack was involved.

The L.A. county coroner's office just told us that the earliest the body will be examined is tomorrow and that will indeed determine the official cause of death. Tonight on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT," we're shifting gears a little. Where in the world is Lindsay Lohan? Reports are that she's back again in rehab but the question tonight, will the third time be a charm? The inside story on TV's most provocative entertainment news show on CNN. The show is 11 p.m., 8 p.m. Pacific. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: Do you remember the "TODAY SHOW" had where in the world is Matt Lauer? That little theme. We're going to have to get that for these Hollywood starlets.

VARGAS: Exactly. You never know.

LEMON: You never know. We will be watching as always. Sibila Vargas, thank you.

VARGAS: Thank you.

COHEN: Well, reporting for duty, jury duty, that is. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg arriving at court this morning, security and reporters in tow. The mayor says he's doing what everyone should do. He said if he's picked for a jury he will be the second sitting New York mayor to serve. Rudi Giuliani was foreman of a jury eight years ago.

That's the one I can't -- Rudi Giuliani. I always trip over his name. Excitement at the ballpark, major league milestone. Some of baseball's biggest stars take their game to a new level. We're going to tell you about it straight ahead in the "NEWSROOM."

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