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Airline Lobbying Congress to Crack Down On Oil Speculators; Iran's Nuclear Ambitions on the Table and Under the Microscope; Tales of Terror and Abuse; New Leads Coming From Cold Cases; Iranian Missile Test Send Oil Prices to New Records
Aired July 11, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's almost contagious, I want to start moving like that.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You want to move, don't you?
WHITFIELD: I don't want to embarrass you.
HARRIS: No, no, no.
WHITFIELD: That's all.
HARRIS: No, no. I'd join you.
Good morning, everyone, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Heidi Collins.
You'll see events come into the NEWSROOM live this Friday morning, July 11th.
Here's what's on the rundown.
Eight Spokane families lose their home to wildfire. Also the fire battle in California.
HARRIS: Families in mourning. They say the bodies of two soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found.
WHITFIELD: And the slumping economy -- is your marriage pairing up right? We're taking your e-mails, as well. Standby for the address in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: OK, let's get started with some breaking news this morning. Oil prices gush into record territory overnight. Supply fears driving the market.
We will see how all of this plays out on Wall Street a little later this morning when the markets open. That's about 30 minutes from now.
Our senior business correspondent Ali Velshi joining us now from New York.
And Ali, we're talking about Iran's missiles, violence in Nigeria, all having, look, a real impact on the price of oil.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very big deal.
Let me first -- I've got one eye on my screen here because we're pushing up against another record on oil.
HARRIS: Oh boy.
VELSHI: A few minutes ago, we hit $146.90 for oil, the highest it's ever been. We're around -- we're going to get there probably while I'm talking.
Let me show you what happened at the end of the day yesterday with oil. We ended the day at $141.65, which was a gain of $5.60. That is the second biggest gain on record in the history of the world for a barrel of oil.
Just this morning, we were up another $5.25 to bring us to that $146.90, almost $147, for a barrel of oil.
Now we've been talking for the last couple of days about tensions in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.
HARRIS: Yes.
VELSHI: We talked about that yesterday. There's another set of tensions that are developing, and that is with Nigeria. Let me explain you a little bit about what the situation is.
HARRIS: Oh great.
VELSHI: Nigeria has been -- traditionally has produced about 2 1/2 million barrels of oil a day. It's the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States, but there have are been attacks in the Niger Delta, which is the delta of Niger River where there are a lot of oil production facilities, international companies.
Those attacks -- there had been a cease fire with the rebels in the Niger Delta. So you've got Nigeria, and if we push in, maybe we can see the actual Niger Delta, which is the southern coast there. And you see that red line that's going down to the bottom right by the Gulf of Guinea. That's the Niger Delta.
Now the issue here is that there's a cease fire in place that ends at midnight tonight local time, which will be 7:00 Eastern Time. And there has been an expectation that those rebels who have said they will attack oil facilities will resume their attacks on those facilities, thereby cutting down supplies.
They'll cut off pipelines or things like that. And that's why you're seeing the price of oil push as high as it is again today.
We do not have a new record on oil -- on gas prices, $4.10. But we have not taken into consideration these extreme increases in oil. And as you mentioned, the Dow futures are down fairly substantially right now. There are other problems going on in the market today, but oil is not helping those futures as well.
HARRIS: You've got to figure out a way to become more energy independent.
VELSHI: Right. That's...
HARRIS: The fluctuations, the tensions here...
VELSHI: Yes.
HARRIS: ... impacting markets there. It's just...
VELSHI: One big world.
HARRIS: It's a little (INAUDIBLE)
VELSHI: Yes, that's absolutely right.
HARRIS: OK, Ali. Appreciate it. Thank you.
VELSHI: OK.
WHITFIELD: All right. Big worries in the west right now. Out of control wildfires closing in on homes in two states.
California firefighters are battling to save the town of Paradise. Shifting winds forecasts for today are similar to those that push the fire to destroy dozens of homes earlier in the week.
And flames on a ridge line lit up suburban Spokane Valley, Washington overnight. Winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour stoked the wildfire. At least eight homes destroyed. But no one has been hurt. That's the good news.
And change of fortune with a change of winds. Firefighters battling wildfires in Butte County, California, today have a new potential foe forecasted shifting winds. 10,000 people are under an evacuation order and right now fire troops have drawn a line at the river. And if the fire drums it, the town of Paradise could lose more homes.
The town lost 74 of them in a wildfire last month and a long stretch for firefighters is certainly taking a toll.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DELACOUR, CALFIRE: With the heat and the terrain, it's getting pretty brutal. And the fact that most of these guys have been out here -- been on the fires for at least 14 to 20 days. And so the fatigue and everything starts to set in after a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK, the weather is actually helping firefighters in eastern Washington this morning. A different story last night when 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts propelled a wildfire through suburban Spokane Valley. At least eight homes were destroyed there and 1,200 acres burned.
Fires are also burning in several other counties in the state. Forecasters say winds will be lighter today, but a little solace for some homeowners.
Look at these pictures.
WHITFIELD: That is heart-breaking to see.
HARRIS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And this has been a tough year, weather-related year, all the way around.
HARRIS: And if you're talking about the fire season, Bonnie, the fire season is really just beginning.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, beginning at the early part of the summer. But what's happening is we've been seeing temperatures that are typical of what we'd see a couple of months from now with numbers in the triple digits.
Right now we have a red flag warning in effect for a good portion of northern California, meaning conditions are favorable for any fires that are burning to continue to spread with hot temperatures, low relative humidity, and gusty winds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Love that picture right now, though.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it's a beautiful city.
HARRIS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And boy, when the weather is just so, it just is spectacular, it sparkles.
All right, thanks so much, Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: Speaking of fire, here's another one, but this case is very different. An apartment complex in Pasadena, Texas engulfed in flames this hour.
Affiliate KTRA reports a gas line is fuelling this massive three- alarm fire. Four fire departments are actually on the scene trying to put it out and officials say everyone was safely evacuated from the building. One resident said she woke up to people screaming for her to get out. It's unclear, however, just how this fire started.
HARRIS: Finally found. The bodies of two American soldiers recovered 14 months after they were kidnapped in Iraq. That confirmation coming from the family of one of the soldiers.
Let's get right to CNN's Frederik Pleitgen in Baghdad.
And Fred, certainly, the worst fear for these families sadly confirmed.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Tony, some very sad news for the families of Sergeant Alex Jimenez and Private First Class Byron Fouty. And as you said, it was one of the family members -- the father of Alex Jimenez -- who indeed said that yesterday afternoon he was approached by the U.S. military and they told him that indeed the remains of his son had been found in Iraq.
And let's just listen in to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAMON "ANDY" JIMENEZ, FATHER OF DEAD SOLDIER (Through translator): That's the one thing I wanted. I wanted everyone who didn't know Alex to meet him, to see what a great person he was. And that Alex, in turn, could see how many people were here praying with me for his return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Such a hard time after this long period of uncertainty.
Tony, we do have to mention that the U.S. military here in Iraq has not confirmed all of this yet. I was able to speak to them earlier this morning and all they said is that, yes, indeed, they had found human remains in this specific area of operations.
They said those human remains had been brought to the U.S. for positive identification. And the way this usually works is that they will notify the next of kin and they give them about a 24-hour period until they tell the public the names of the deceased so if Alex Jimenez -- his father says he was informed yesterday afternoon, then we're looking for a statement from the military probably sometime later today, maybe tomorrow -- Tony.
COLLINS: CNN's Frederik Pleitgen for us in Baghdad.
Frederik, thank you.
WHITFIELD: In this country, another female soldier is missing from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Right now police are looking for an army lieutenant whose apartment they say was deliberately burned.
Adam Owens from affiliate station WRAL has more on this investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAM OWENS, WRAL REPORTER (voice over): It took a long time for investigators to get to this point. They waited most of the day for a warrant to get inside this Morganton Place Apartment. Darrell Worthy(ph) and his wife will have to wait even longer. Every resident in the building was told to find another place to sleep while police continue to work.
DARRELL WORTHY, APARTMENT RESIDENT: Now they're talking a couple of nights. It's not guaranteed, but you never know with these people here.
OWENS: The concern started at 9:00 in the morning. Police say a soldier living in an apartment at 146 Wayah Creek Drive did not show up for work. Coworkers came to check on the woman and found two rooms blackened by smoke. There was also the smell of gas.
Police began to investigate the case as an arson.
CAPT. DAVID HOUP, FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. POLICE: In the process of that, we found out that the person that actually lives there is missing. So it's an arson and a missing person is what we're investigating right now.
OWENS: The missing soldier's car was still parked out front. Investigators hauled it away to look it over. Police will not say much about the woman who lives in the apartment. But one neighbor says he did see something suspicious the night before she failed to show up for work.
ROLAND PETTY, APARTMENT RESIDENT: He seemed to be running from (INAUDIBLE) and he hopped in the truck and left.
OWENS: Shortly after that, Roland Petty says he started smelling smoke.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Just last month the body of Megan Touma was found in a Fayetteville motel. The pregnant soldier was also stationed at Ft. Bragg.
HARRIS: John McCain takes pause.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow, is that a moment or what? Let's see, maybe we should call this the latest awkward moment brought to you by Viagra.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Western wildfires from the suburbs of Spokane to the hills of northern California, fire crews are on the move. We're live from one of the hot spots next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: News as it develops as only CNN can bring it to you. See for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: We've been watching a wildfire that has burned at least eight houses in Spokane Valley, Washington.
Reporter Cindy De Hoog of our affiliate KHQ is here with the very latest.
Cindy?
CINDY DE HOOG, KHQ REPORTER: Good morning. Yes, we're east of downtown Spokane right now in Spokane Valley. And I want to give you a look behind me here. There are crews working right now to douse some of the flames. They're trying to build a containment line around the fire right now. And it is a very, very smoky morning out there as we show you the ridge line here.
Like you said eight homes confirmed to burn. We're told this fire is 1,200 acres at this point. Some people have been evacuated, dogs and people, animals, everyone evacuated from some of the homes in Spokane Valley. And right now, it is burning in the area of some subdivisions.
Now, fortunately, no one has been injured in the blaze at this time. The problem is, is the wind, the wind has been a huge factor in this fire. It really spreads very quickly yesterday. We are up in an area where one home was within 200 yards of being burned.
And we were actually up -- if we can get a live picture again -- up by this cul-de-sac up here last night. We got here at about 6:00 p.m. last night and the fire was actually -- it was coming at us so quickly and the smoke was coming at us so quickly, we actually didn't feel safe.
Went further down the hill where there was some crews. But the smoke and fires really did come up close to some of the homes up here. All these homes are OK at this point, but, again, eight homes burned in the fire in Spokane Valley.
WHITFIELD: So, Cindy, now, what about the many people who've been evacuated? Where are they staying? What about shelter?
DE HOOG: Right now, they actually -- most people are being taken to a local high school being put in a gym there. I've been told around 100 people evacuated. Where I am right now, people were asked to evacuate, however, they weren't required to evacuate.
That's also why we're up here, too. It is OK and safe for the most part up here as we also do have crews monitoring the situation where we are right now.
WHITFIELD: All right, Cindy De Hoog, thanks so much from Spokane Valley there.
HARRIS: Sure, the times are tough. But stop your wining. That message from a top McCain advisor. Is he talking to you?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. The presidential candidates targeting two battleground states today.
John McCain focuses on the economy and women voters during a town hall meeting in Wisconsin. That's expected to begin in less than two hours.
And Barack Obama campaigns in Ohio. He'll discuss his plan for what he calls a secure energy future. Obama's town hall meeting also set to begin during the 11:00 Eastern hour. And we hope to bring you both candidates live.
HARRIS: Comments by some of his advisors causing problems for John McCain. He faced an awkward moment when a reporter asked about insurance coverage for birth control pills and Viagra. It's an issue raised by McCain advisor and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Earlier this week Carly was meeting with a bunch of reporters and talked about it being unfair that insurance companies cover Viagra and not birth control. And...
MCCAIN: I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I think you voted against...
MCCAIN: I don't know what I voted...
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You voted against coverage of birth control, forcing health insurance companies to cover birth control in the past.
Is that still your position?
MCCAIN: I'll look at my voting record on it, but I have -- I don't recall the vote right now. But I'll be glad to look at it and get back to you as to why. I don't...
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I guess her statement was that it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control.
Do you have an opinion on that?
MCCAIN: I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don't recall the vote. I passed thousands of votes in the Senate. But I will respond to you. (INAUDIBLE) choice.
It's something that I had not talked much about. And I did hear about her response, but I hadn't thought much about -- I will get back to you today. I don't want to -- I don't usually duck an issue. But I'll try to get back to you. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: This is rough. This is a rough moment. John McCain also rejecting comments from top economic advisor. The campaign official called Americans a nation of whiners.
Dana Bash now live from Washington with that.
Dana, good morning. I guess you could fill in the blank on this. We all can. Oh, the problem with surrogates is, example A and B here.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly.
Well, example A is the advisor you're just talking about and that is former senator Phil Gramm. He's not only the chairman of McCain's campaign, Tony, he's also a long time friend. But here's the catch, he's also an economist who McCain has pointed too often as a guide for him on economic issues.
That's why as soon as McCain's advisors heard what Gramm said, they knew they had a problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice over): In hard-hit Michigan, this is the McCain mantra on the economy.
MCCAIN: People are hurting. People are hurting very badly.
BASH: A carefully measured message that part feel your pain, part realist, but all optimist.
MCCAIN: They need to have trust and hope and confidence in the future.
BASH: Given that, quotes in the "Washington Times" from Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's top economic advisors, were a big oops.
PHIL GRAMM, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: You just hear this constant whining, complaining about the loss of our competitiveness.
BASH: Gramm also said...
GRAMM: This is a mental depression. This is a mental recession.
BASH: McCain couldn't distance himself fast enough from his friend.
MCCAIN: Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me. So I strongly disagree.
BASH: He struggled to steer his economic message back on course.
MCCAIN: The person here in Michigan that just lost his job isn't suffering from a mental recession. I believe the mother here in Michigan around America who is trying to get enough money to educate their children isn't whining.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not all in your head.
BASH: Minutes earlier, Barack Obama shoved a dig about Phil Gramm's comments into his speech.
OBAMA: America already has one Dr. Phil. We don't need another one.
BASH: Now surrogate slip-ups have plagued both campaigns.
Obama recently rebuked retired general Wesley Clark, his supporter, for questioning McCain's military service.
GRAMM: And John McCain has...
BASH: The problem for McCain is that he relies on Gramm, a Ph.D. in economic, for policy advice and as a character witness for voters worried McCain doesn't get the economy.
MCCAIN: The reason why I have support of people like Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm is because of their confidence in my proven record of handling the economy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Now I spoke to former senator Phil Gramm by phone yesterday. He said he wanted to clarify some of his comments. He insisted that he didn't mean to say Americans are whining about the economy, but rather many of the country's leaders are.
In fact, here's what he said. He said, quote, "The whiners are the leaders. Hell, the American people are victims, but it didn't quite come out that way in the story."
But Gramm did tell me he is standing by another controversial thing he said and that is that we're in a, quote, "mental recession."
Tony, he said he believes that the steady drum beat of bad news is making Americans feel worse about the economy than they really should.
HARRIS: Yes, what comments. What a 24-hour period for the McCain campaign.
Dana Bash for us in Washington -- Dana, good to see you, thanks.
WHITFIELD: All right, Tony, still on the topic of the economy, but this food for thought.
Is the economy taxing your marriage? Share your wedded blues. Send us your e-mails right now, the address CNNnewsroom.com.
All right, but first, U.S. airlines sent down an urgent SOS to their passengers. Help. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
HARRIS: Pause for the bell, Tony, do the right thing.
Yes. The Gillette Fusion -- that's a shaver razor.
WHITFIELD: I figure if it's Gillette.
HARRIS: There you go. I think it's the one with Tiger Woods. Never mind. I'm so off the topic here. Let's get the business day started. The DOW's --
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: There's a really good soccer player. There's an ad that's high everyone.
WHITFIELD: Wow, that's a lot.
HARRIS: Boy, we're hoping for some good news today with the markets and we really need it with the price of oil, as we've been telling you, just spiking again to a new record high.
The DOW starts today at 11,229. After a pretty nice rally yesterday, the DOW picking up 81 points and our friends at cnnmoney.com indicating that U.S. markets will get the kind of a cautious start this morning. But we will be following all of the developments with market checks with Susan Lisovicz right here in CNN NEWSROOM.
WHITFIELD: And this we know, airlines reeling from the high cost of fuel. And now Airline Labor Unions are taking action. They're lobbying Congress to crack down on oil speculators. All of this as airlines plead for help from their passengers.
CNN's Carol Costello explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's getting harder and more expensive to fly, but the airlines say don't blame us. Blame the oil speculators. CEOs from 12 airlines signed an open letter to their customers, asking them to pull together to reform the oil markets. Then urging flyers to go to a Web site to lobby Congress on the airlines' behalf to regulate market speculation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This just seems inappropriate.
DAVID CLARK, AIRLINE PASSENGER: To blame the oil speculators is ridiculous as well. The price of oil is going up. It's not because of oil speculators. It's because more people around the world are demanding and using oil. COSTELLO: The airlines' plea to pull together may be the toughest part for many airline passengers who had been trapped on runways for hours with little explanation. Force to pay 15 bucks for checked bags, charged $25 for a fuel surcharge, et cetera, et cetera.
And if you read the whole open letter there is no guarantee things will improve for consumers even if fuel prices do go down.
TYSON SLOCUM, PUBLIC CITIZEN: Maybe these airlines should have thought a little harder about this e-mail that they sent out to make some pledges of improved service on their own before asking consumers to act on their behalf to call Congress to reign in these speculators.
COSTELLO: Still, Slocum says the airlines are not insincere about what fuel costs and about what they believe speculators are doing to their industry.
SLOCUM: There is a legitimate case to be made that the airlines are not necessarily the culprit of recent fair increases, but rather sustained high oil prices.
COSTELLO: And Slocum who heads a consumer group is slated to testify before Congress himself to say oil speculators are driving up oil prices. And he says while the airline's open letter isn't perfect, he does agree wholeheartedly with this line. "The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this problem."
(on-camera): I called on four of the airlines to ask if the price of a ticket would go down if oil prices dropped. I really didn't get an answer to that question, but those fuel surcharges that some airlines charge, they will probably go away if oil prices go down.
Carol Costello, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Right. The economy taxing the airline industry. Well, is the economy also taxing your marriage? Share your wedded blues. Send us your e-mails right now. Here's the address. The correct address, I didn't give you the right one before, cnnnewsroom@cnn.com. That's what we had to give it to you. (INAUDIBLE) because I messed it up.
HARRIS: But our folks know the address.
WHITFIELD: Sorry.
HARRIS: No, it was OK. Our folks know the address. We will get those e-mails. Let's check in with Bonnie Schneider once again.
Bonnie, a lot on your plate. We've got Bertha. We need an update there. The fires in Washington, the fires in Northern California, as well.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: That's right. That helps to push it out to sea because of the water temperature issue. All right. Thanks so much, Bonnie. Appreciate it.
HARRIS: Iran's nuclear ambitions on the table and under the microscope. As early as tomorrow, Iran's top nuclear negotiator will meet with the top foreign policy chief of the European Union.
That issues a package of rewards for Iran if it stops enriching uranium. That's a process essential to creating nuclear weapons. The proposed deal comes amid rising international tensions over Iran's nuclear plants.
Now adding to the global concerns, Iran's test firing of long range missiles this week. But here's the thing, it appears that one of the most fearsome photos was faked.
CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre shows how such visual trickery is not rocket science.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: When I first saw the picture, it looked more like this. And then, we saw the original picture where you could actually see down here at the bottom, which looks like an SA-2 that U.S. Intelligence believes was actually fired later.
But if you -- just to show you if you're familiar with Photoshop at all, you just use the cloning tool to take a little bit of the smoke from the bottom of another missile over here, which looks like they did because this cloud matches over here. And then, you just grab up here some of the missile there and you just sort of add that in. And in no time, you've got four missiles set.
Now, they were a little more sophisticated in how they sort of added some more clouds at the bottom and stuff. But that's basically how you digitally alter the picture. And it's -- what it does is it undermines their claim that they fired as many missiles as they said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well, Iran's government has not responded to the widespread reports of the doctored photos.
WHITFIELD: Tourists shot dead at a resort. South Korean officials investigating the death of a woman in the communist North. Well, North Korean officials say the 53-year-old woman was on a walk and apparently went beyond the resort's boundaries.
North Korean soldiers were then ordered to open fire on her. The resort is one of only two areas where South Korean tourists are allowed to travel in the North. The tours to the North have been suspended for now.
Well, she has put a public face on the tragedy of child marriages in Yemen. CNN's Paula Newton introduces us to a 10-year-old divorcee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Nujood Ali is every inch a child. And yet at just 10, she has already been married and divorced. The very portrait of innocence, a shy smile, a playful nature. It makes her story all the more moving. In February, her parents married her off to a man more than three times her age.
NUJOOD ALI, CHILD BRIDE (through translator): I didn't want to sleep with him, but he forced me to. He hit me and insulted me.
NEWTON: You must have been tortured.
ALI: Yes.
NEWTON: Her husband declined to be interviewed for this story. But Nujood said she was beaten and raped and turned to her own family for mercy after just a few weeks of marriage.
ALI: When I heard my heart burned for her. He wasn't supposed to sleep with her.
NEWTON: Her parents told her they couldn't protect her, she belonged to her husband now. The international aid group, OXFAM, says more than half of all young Yemeni girls are married before the age of 18, many to older men. It means the girls are no longer a financial burden to their often impoverished parents.
SUHA BASHREN, OXFAM: A lot of people in the public don't think that this is wrong or what happened to her is abuse.
NEWTON (on-camera): The truth is here in Yemen there is nothing rare or extraordinary about Nujood's story. But what is incredible is that this young girl had the courage to take an intensely private family matter and go public with it.
(voice-over): Nujood escaped. Brought herself across town to the central court house, sat on a bench, and demanded to speak to a judge.
ALI: And he asked me, what do you want? And I said I want a divorce. And he said, you're married? And I said, yes.
NEWTON: What unfolded in those few days in April gripped the country. Nujood got her divorce, but based on the principles of Sharia law, her husband was compensated not prosecuted. There were no charges against him. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200. For this determined spirit, it was sweet victory.
ALI: I did this so that people would listen and think about not marrying their daughters off as young as they was.
NEWTON: But the fact is human rights advocates say it will take more than a generation if any of this is to change in Yemen. BASHREN: So these girls, they live in a misery that no one is talking about it.
NEWTON: But Nujood hopes her defiance will at least salvage the childhood of Yemen's next generation of women. Paula Newton, CNN, Sana, Yemen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well, we really have to get you an update on the markets. Oil prices surging, stocks plunging as you can see.
Senior business correspondent Ali Velshi is back with an update. Pretty, rough start there, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. A while ago, I think it wasn't even an hour ago, I was here telling you that oil was pushing up against $147 a barrel. Blew right through that, $147.27 a barrel. You know, why did these little things matter when we're trading in oil? It's the trend, Tony.
It's the fact that we're headed now toward what a lot of people have said is the next target for oil -- $150. Now, we had seen oil at $146 almost last Thursday and we saw it pull back, which suggests to us as people who watch markets that there was a -- what we call a resistance level. That it wasn't really going to get there.
So, now, we're very interested to see what's happening. There's a couple of reasons why oil is trading this high in addition to all of the reasons we've talked about for, I don't know, two years.
One of them is Iran test firing conventional missiles earlier this week that could reach Israel. Now there are reports that we have not been able to confirm in the Jerusalem post that Israeli war planes have been conducting exercises around Iran. That's escalating tensions. And there are problems in Nigeria.
Effective midnight, local time in Nigeria, tonight, there has been a cease fire that is going to expire and the rebels who have been attacking installations -- oil installations have suggested that they may resume those attacks. That would be around 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. That as soon as that cease fire expires.
So all of those things are causing oil traders to be concern about it. That increase in oil prices affecting stock markets as we just saw right there. We're seeing the DOW down about 160 points right now. And we're 13 minutes, 14 minutes into this trading session. So, it shows like it'll be a busy day.
Tony?
HARRIS: All right. We're going to follow it with you throughout the morning. And Susan will be joining us shortly. All right, Ali, appreciate it. Thank you.
VELSHI: OK. WHITFIELD: Well, they were held prisoner for years in the jungles of Colombia. Well, today, a CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about ten pounds of chain, 15 feet long. It's wrapped around your neck. It looks like this, OK? And then about three feet behind you, you've got a guy holding your chain with a dog leash and then he's got a rifle pointed at your back.
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WHITFIELD: Unbelievable. Tales of terror and abuse. The freed hostages talk exclusively to CNN's Robin Meade.
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WHITFIELD: A CNN exclusive. Those three Americans held hostage in the Colombian jungle talked to CNN. Rebel guerrillas held the government contractors for more than five years. They were rescued just last week in a daring operation by Colombia's military.
Well, today, they are back home and they're talking exclusively to CNN "HEADLINE NEWS" anchor Robin Meade about how they survived.
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MARC GONSALVES, RESCUED AMERICAN HOSTAGE: This is a chessboard right here. Yes. Right here, I don't know if the camera can zoom in on this. Keith and I signed this when we made it, and Tom also.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR, "HEADLINE NEWS": Did you carry this around with you for years?
KEITH STANSELL, RESCUED AMERICAN HOSTAGE: Look at the date. Show her the signature date.
GONSALVES: Yes. We signed it on the 10th of December 2005. Since then I was carrying it. This is the chessboard and here are the pieces that --
MEADE: How did you make the pieces?
GONSALVES: I was able to carve with a broken piece of a machete.
MEADE: You carved the chess pieces with a broken piece of machete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just woke up one day and did it. He said, guys, I'm going to make a chess set in a broken -- he just started. He said, I'm making a chess and I'm tired of this.
MEADE: And your captors allowed you to do it or did you hide it?
GONSALVES: No. They allowed me to do it. Some of the lower ranking guards actually took interest to see if I was going to be able to finish it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They wanted one carved later.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want themselves and want to get it.
MEADE: They wanted you to carve it?
GONSALVES: Yes. Then later, they wanted me to carve some for them.
MEADE: So how often did this keep your mind sharp and pass the day?
GONSALVES: That's the point that I wanted to make was that this chess set here must have gotten, wouldn't you say hundreds of hours of use between all the hostages. It was a way for us to stop thinking about the cruel situation that we were in.
MEADE: Yes.
GONSALVES: And to think about something else and exercise our minds.
MEADE: It looks great. It's incredible.
STANSELL: We would sit chained. Thanks to this guy, right here. He just woke up one morning and said we've got to do something. Eights months. Was it eight months, buddy? I think.
GONSALVES: Three months.
STANSELL: Three months, he spent carving this just non-stop. Now, we might get hit. The camp would be moved and Marc (INAUDIBLE) keep going. We'd sit there in the morning. We're in chains. We're sitting Indian style on a piece of plastic just playing chess. And when you're doing that, you're free.
Your mind is engaged. You are not a prisoner. And that's the game. That's the victory. And they don't even know it. They could come and look at us playing, but we're not there, we're somewhere else when we're doing that. And that's what this guy did.
MEADE: So, in your minds, then, were you ever a captive? In your mind? Did you always stay free?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 100 percent, yes.
THOMAS HOWES, RESCUED AMERICAN HOSTAGE: I've got to say I was a captive. I would make up the thing. This was a get away because you were there. I knew I was a captive. This was a getaway. When I was playing chess, I was free.
MEADE: But in your mind?
HOWES: And I did that, we came up with these things to not have that captive feeling. GONSALVES: They tried to capture our minds and brainwash into their philosophy and their doctrine. I think they would have loved to have done that. They tried, but I think the three of us, we maintained firm to the American way. We love our country and there's no brainwashing that they could have done to change us. And so, we did stay free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They couldn't take control of that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wow, pretty extraordinary. Well, the Americans were among 15 hostages freed. They say rebel troops beat them, ordered them not to speak for months on end, and made them march for hours while in chains.
HARRIS: A breakthrough in DNA testing. What a criminal touches could lead to conviction.
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HARRIS: And they're off. Right now, people are snatching up Apple's new and improved iPhone. They went on sale on the East Coast just about, what, Fred, two hours ago. The rest of the country will get their hands on them over the next hour or so. Thousands camped out outside stores around the world to be the first iPhone owners. I guess this is a really big deal.
WHITFIELD: Again.
HARRIS: How about this? This was the scene in Tokyo early this morning. Look out for the dress. Hang on! Hang on!
WHITFIELD: Marilyn Monroe moment, watch it.
HARRIS: Pretty smoky rollout there. The new iPhone has a faster Internet service than the first version, a Global Positioning System and it supports Microsoft Outlook e-mail. It is also cheaper than the original iPhone with the starting price of $199.
New leads coming from cold cases. Thanks to a breakthrough in DNA test. It's called touch evidence testing and it cleared the family in the death of JonBenet Ramsey.
CNN's Brian Todd went to the lab to see how it's done.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a cold case more than 11 years old, a dramatic turn. JonBenet Ramsey's family is cleared of her murder by prosecutors who tapped into a new world of DNA testing.
This office park in Lorton, Virginia may seem an unlikely setting. But this is where the evidence finally turned in the Ramseys' favor. The labs of Bode Technology, where prosecutors from Boulder, Colorado came for what's called touch evidence DNA testing.
How is it different from traditional bodily fluid DNA tests?
ANGELA WILLIAMSON, DNA ANALYST, BODE TECHNOLOGY: Touch samples are samples you can't see. You can't look at an item and say there's touch evidence. It's not a bloodstain. It's not a seminal stain. It's an area where you think that person may have been grabbed.
TODD: DNA analyst Angela Williamson handled the Ramsey case. She can't show us the long johns belonging to JonBenet Ramsey they tested here. But she takes us through the process with a pair of shorts.
(on camera): This is essentially where the analysis process begins. Say I'm the perpetrator and I've grabbed this piece of clothing, pulled down or pulled any other direction and then left it.
Angela, you're going to tell me how you take the sample from this particular piece of clothing, a skin sample.
WILLIAMSON: So once we know that information, we would mark the area where we think that you have made contact. In this case, I mark quite a large area like this. And I would also include the inside. Then you just get your scalpel blade and take a fine layer of shavings from the top surface.
TODD (voice-over): The shavings from my skin cells are placed in a small vial. For hard surfaces, swabs are used. Next step -- extraction using machines like this centrifuge to remove dies, dirt, bacteria from the skin cell DNA sample.
WILLIAMSON: That one takes about two hours. We have one that takes almost two days.
TODD: Next, the samples are copied, amplified. Extraneous DNA is cleaned out in these hoods with U.V. rays. Then they can get a profile.
In the Ramsey case...
WILLIAMSON: The DNA profile that we obtained is attributed to an unknown male. There is an X-Y chromosome present.
TODD: One important part of this, touch evidence is used at the state and local levels on cases, but federal agents tell us there are certain types of touch evidence they don't use because the technology has not been perfected yet. This is when there are only minute amounts of skin cell DNA available and you could get a false positive.
Brian Todd, CNN, Lorton, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, the king of talk, now king of the block. The word on the street about CNN's own Larry King.
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HARRIS: You know, he is the king of talk and now he is also the king of the block, king of the hill. CNN's own Larry King gets a street renamed in his honor. The intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles (ph) is now Larry King Square.
The street was named after King to honor his 50 years in broadcasting. Our main man. It is adjacent to the CNN Los Angeles Bureau where "LARRY KING LIVE" is based.
Way to go, Larry.
WHITFIELD: And that, too, nice address. Good morning, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in for Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown.
Iranian missile test send oil prices to new records.
