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Search for Suspect in Videotaped Child Sexual Assault; Myanmar Protests; Pakistan Presidential Nomination Sparks Protests; New Orleans Food Fight

Aired September 29, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM. It is Saturday, September 29th. It's 10:00 here in Atlanta. 7:00 in Nevada. Good morning everyone, I'm Don Lemon, T.J. is off today.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen, new developments in a story that we have been following all week long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TONY DEMEO, NYE COUNTY, NEVADA: Chester Arthur Stiles, turn yourself into your local law enforcement agency so you can be arrested for the warrants that we have open for you so you can be further investigated for any culpability you have in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And this, right there, is the man police want to question. The move comes after the discovery of a little girl shown on a homemade videotape being sexually assaulted.

LEMON: Plus children in a picture for a Capitol Hill photo op. You know it's about politics, but what's the issue here?

NGUYEN: And speaking of kids, Don, have you thought of testing your kids for lead? One mom did and now she is starting to look at a lot of other things in her house besides just the toy box.

LEMON: We begin with new developments in a disturbing case out of Nevada. A young girl seen being sexually assaulted on a homemade videotape. Well, she has been found and she's safe. Right now, an intense search is under way for the suspect. CNN's, Kara Finnstrom is live from Nevada with more on that.

KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This community has now gotten the news it was hoping and praying for. The little girl seen repeatedly raped on that video tape has been found and detectives say she is safe and she is with her mother. Now, they say, they are going to shift their priorities. Shift their focus, all their resources to finding the man who attacked her, who they say is dangerous and still out there. Yesterday, they named their suspect in this case as Chester Arthur Stiles; this is a man they already said they wanted to question as a person of interest. Once they found this little girl and spoke with her mother, they learned that this was a distant family friend of this girl's family. So now he has been named an official suspect. We also know this is a man that authorities have already been looking for. He is a suspect in another case unrelated to this one in which he is suspected of having lewd conduct with a 14-year- old. The FBI and Las Vegas police are already searching for this man. Detectives also tell us that he has a combative history with police and they are concerned about the fact that he is known to carry weapons and to be a little paranoid, they say. And possibly be dangerous. So they are out looking for him at this point. And here's what they had to say about himself--about him possibly turning himself in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF TONY DEMEO, NYE COUNTY, NEVADA: Chester Arthur Stiles, turn yourself into your local law enforcement agency so you can be arrested for the warrants that we have open for you so you can be further investigated for any culpability you have in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINNSTROM: Now as for the little girl in this case, detectives do tell us that she is now 7-years- old. This abuse happened 4 years ago when she was about 3 years old. They say the mother says she was completely unaware that it took place. So there are a lot of questions that remain about how this was undiscovered for so long because is it such horrific abuse. They say that will all be tackled in an upcoming investigation. But they are hoping that the public will now really try and focus on trying to help them find this attacker. Don?

LEMON: Kara Finnstrom, thank you.

NGUYEN: Moving overseas now and the growing unrest in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, a greater military presence is there today and possible ray of hope from the United Nations. Journalists unable to report from inside the country for fear of execution and CNN's, John Vause, joins us now from Bangkok, Thailand as CNN is also banned from Myanmar. John, the U.S. Envoy has arrived in country. How much hope is being placed in the meetings?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the interesting thing about the U.N. Envoy there in Myanmar right now. He's in the capital, he arrived a short time ago. He's described, both at the same time, as being the best hope for resolving this but at the same time there are almost no expectations that he'll be successful. On the one hand, he is the only chance in many ways this could be resolved peacefully that there can be any hope that this pro-democracy movement can continue in the weeks and months ahead. But at the same time, not a lot of stock is being put into the fact that this military regime will be listening to anything he has to say. Betty?

NGUYEN: Talk to us about the situation on the ground, if you would. We've been following it, they're in the beginning days of it, we were getting lots of videos and pictures from the web but it seems like that has slowed because of a possible shutdown of the public internet access service. Has the government participated in that or is the government behind that? VAUSE: Well, there are two web-based services in Myanmar, both are state control and provided for by the state. So the assumption is that the Myanmar military government now has cut that internet connection to the rest of the world. Because, really, for these protestors, that was their lifeline, that was their way of getting their message out and try to plead for help from the rest of the world because that was the only way they would ever win this campaign against this military dictatorship inside Myanmar. Right now tonight, there is this incredible security presence on the streets of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, and despite that security presence, which has been there all day long, one CNN source inside the country has described this dangerous game of cat and mouse between demonstrators and the security forces. Now according to this source, at any one time, about 100 or so protestors have been facing off against the army, against the police, they've been about three blocks apart. The protestors have been taunting the soldiers, taunting the police, yelling abuse, they've been chanting slogans just as the police and the soldiers move in to arrest them, they run away, they scatter, they hide; that is the symbol for a second wave of protests. A red flag goes up, the fighting peacock flag which was the symbol of 1988 pro- democracy movement, hundreds of people fall in behind that, then they start marching and chanting Buddhist prayers. The security forces then turn their attention to those protestors, they then scatter and hide, as well. And then all of these protesters regroup in another location and it starts all over again. So far today, no reports of gun fire, but there are reports of arrest. Also on the streets of Myanmar, no sign of the Buddhist monks who were very much at the forefront of leading this popular uprising over the last couple of day. Hundreds are being rounded up. Many have been arrested and many others have been confined to their monasteries, Betty.

NGUYEN: The latest on the ground from there from our John Vause who is reporting from Thailand since CNN is banned from Myanmar. Thank you, John.

LEMON: The internet has really been a link between what's going on in Myanmar and rest of the world but now the internet is no longer available. Our Josh Levs joins us now to talk about how important those links have been.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I can offer more information beyond what John Vause was telling us there. Just from some information we're getting in right now. It has been a critical link and I want everyone to understand this. We do all we can to show you photos from there, very often it is because blogs have been putting them up there and people are using e-mail, they're using the internet, modern communication to try and get their word out. Let me tell you what we're learning about the State Department and what it has said about the severe restrictions on the internet in Myanmar, or as the State Department says in Burma. Even on the website, right now, the State Department talks about how this authoritarian government restricts the internet. It has a current warning for people who go to Myanmar, saying you should understand, newspapers are censored, internet access is not only unreliable but it is always, all the time, very tightly controlled. And one more thing that they are saying, that even when people are using it, not only is it monitored but they check if people use certain words and if they use certain words too much, sometimes they go and track them down. The State Department also says this government, this repressive government, in Myanmar sometimes finds people who interact with foreigners and forces them to say everything they told any foreigner. That's the context in which people are sending us these I-reports which I want to show you now. We even today have managed to get these photos, these are brand new photos that we have just gotten today from someone on the ground in Myanmar who talks about what John was talking about, the cat and mouse game in which some of these protestors fighting for democracy and freedom are getting close to some of these military who are coming towards them, the guards. This person inside, we're not going to say the name, don't want to get anyone in trouble. This individual who sent us these photos says that these people are sometimes getting very close to the guards and ending up in violence, sometimes not. But this is a daily occurrence. Also, new to us right now, is this video that just came in from Thursday of protests on the street. So this is yet another video that we've gotten through the internet, I mean this is CNN cannot go there, but we want to show everyone what's happening through this I-report system. And without telling you who it is, no one should get in trouble; we want people to see the kinds of fights going on here. Now you cannot really see very closely here, but the person who sent us this said, in the short time after this video, guards come towards them over the horizon. So we at CNN are going to continue watching everything that comes in through I-reports and e- mails, we'll stay on this, obviously, today and every day as long as this goes on. Don, Betty?

LEMON: Josh, thank you.

NGUYEN: Well rioting this morning in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, that after the Pakistan's Elections Commission accepted President Purvis Musharraf's nomination to run in next week's presidential elections. Now clashes erupted outside the Commission Building between Pakistani police and anti-Musharraf demonstrators. And yesterday, Pakistan's Supreme Court cleared the way for today's commission vote. That panel rejected petitions to would have blocked Musharraf from seeking re-election. He took power in a 1999 military coup.

LEMON: In neighboring Afghanistan, new this morning, a deadly blast on a crowded military bus in the capital of Kabul. Government officials say 27 people were killed, most of them soldiers. Nearly 30 others were wounded. A Kabul police officer says for a few seconds it was like an atom bomb. The government says no one has claimed responsibility.

NGUYEN: Well, if you're just waking up with us this morning, we have a new tropical storm to tell you about. Oh yes, her name is Melissa and is it is the 13th named storm of the hurricane season. We still have about two months to go, folks. So this could only be the beginning. Melissa formed in the far eastern Atlantic early this morning and you know someone who has been watching Melissa very closely.

LEMON: It is Bonnie Schneider who is checking on Melissa. Tell us all about it, Bonnie. BONNIE SCHEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Melissa and Karen, we can't forget we've got two tropical storms out there right now. Melissa formed this morning well, well far from the U.S., near the Cape Verde Islands. But check out tropical storm Karen, they're both about equal strength and they're both getting torn apart by wind shear. So we're not expecting these to intensify to hurricane strength, at least not right now. You can see our computer models have Melissa tracking slowly to the west-northwest. Staying pretty moderate, about 25 miles per hour winds, but tropical storm Karen may intensify a bit on Tuesday after weakening later on tomorrow due to that wind shear coming in from the Atlantic. Well, back to the U.S., we had some snow in Mt. Hood, Oregon. Now we're starting to see some snow in the higher elevations of Idaho, a fast moving storm there is bringing some rain to that region and some snow. Also rain headed towards Minneapolis and that's been slowing you down at the airport. We've had airport delays in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area and we're tracking those for you. Don, Betty.

NGUYEN: Thanks, Bonnie, we'll be watching. Thank you.

Rebuilding New Orleans, folks are carrying on but here and there, there's some controversy.

LEMON: Absolutely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they needed these people that they were here for us. Now that we're all back in our houses and whatever, the parish just strictly forgot them saying now leave, I don't think it's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: We're going to uncover the controversy that is brewing, that story still ahead.

LEMON: Later, with all the toy recalls, have you thought of testing your kids for lead? One mom did and she was shocked at the results. Now she's looking at other things in her house besides the toy box.

NGUYEN: And we want to know what you think this morning, okay? So the engagement is off, but who gets to keep the ring?

LEMON: The person who gave it to you.

NGUYEN: Or the one who received the ring.