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Georgian President Signs Cease-Fire Agreement; Men Lift Bus Off Pregnant Woman, Saving Baby; New Laptop Bag Design Eases Security Check for Passengers; What Michael Phelps Eats On a Daily Basis
Aired August 15, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we pulled out, and I seen she was pregnant, I wanted -- I just about wanted to cry. I just wanted to cry.
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DON LEMON, CO-HOST: Man, oh, man. New York's finest. Bystanders to a terrible accident band together to lift a school bus off the woman trapped underneath. Heroism and heartbreak this hour.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CO-HOST: An angry and emotional Georgian president signs a deal to get his country back from Russian invaders. But only after hours of persuasion from Condoleezza Rice. We've got the latest on the conflict and the consequences.
Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived today in Georgia, and one agreement on a cease-fire, the deal includes this: concessions to Moscow and the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops.
With Rice at his side, Georgia's president lashed out at the west for failing to heed warnings about the Russian invasion.
President Bush is accusing Moscow of bullying, and earlier today he said Russia has damaged its ties to the west. The U.N. now says the fighting in Georgia has displaced almost 120,000 civilians. Food is reported to be low in the Georgian city of Gori. Also today a top Russian general threatened Poland for a deal to place a missile defense battery on Polish soil. Russia's aggression in Georgia clearly on Poland's mind today.
KEILAR: After delaying the start of his Texas vacation, President Bush today used his strongest language yet and condemned Russia's behavior toward its Black Sea neighbor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With its actions in recent days, Russia has damaged its credibility and its relations with the nations of the free world. Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: For more on Russia's aggression having broader implications, let's head now to the State Department and our State Department correspondent, Zain Verjee.
Zain, what can you tell us about this?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, after more than five hours of discussion, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice got the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to sign that cease-fire he signed on the dotted line, essentially saying that he's just doing it to get those Russian thugs out of his country.
Secretary Rice making it very clear that she expects the Russians to sign it, as well, and to honor their word and get out. Here's what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: And, now, with the signature of the Georgia president on this cease-fire accord, all Russian troops and any irregular and paramilitary forces that entered with them must leave immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Now, the cease-fire essentially means, just to break it down for you here, specifically, Brianna, that all Russian tanks, troops, military hardware that was deployed after the sixth of August into Georgia proper need to get out of the country. They just need to pull out.
The only Russian presence is Russian peacekeepers that were already there before August 6 in South Ossetia, and they will be allowed to patrol a few miles outside South Ossetia. That is the concession, the slight concession that the U.S. and the Georgians have made by agreeing to this cease-fire.
Secretary Rice says that that's only until international monitors and peacekeepers come on the ground. We don't have more specifics about that, and the Russians are expected to sign this deal, we're hearing from one U.S. official who's there, when President Medvedev gets back to Russia.
KEILAR: So Zain, obviously, tightening up some of the language in that deal brokered by France earlier in the week, but this meeting between Secretary Rice and Georgia President Saakashvili, do we know how it went? It went on for quite a while.
VERJEE: Yes. It went on for hours. We understand from people who were there at the meeting that during the meeting President Saakashvili really wanted to nail down the language and make it water- tight and be absolutely crystal clear on the status of the Russian troops in his country, in South Ossetia, and what exactly would it mean.
There were multiple calls made to the French and to the Germans. We understand that during the meeting with Secretary Rice, President Saakashvili was very calm, very focused and practical and making decisions and really looking forward toward Georgia's future.
But when he came out, clearly, at the press conference, he was very emotional, very upset and really slammed the west for ignoring his warnings that this was a situation waiting to explode.
KEILAR: Zain Verjee at the State Department, thanks.
LEMON: We have a harrowing scene from Georgia to show you. A Turkish broadcast crew under sustained rifle fire. Just listen.
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(GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (speaking foreign language)
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LEMON: That is unbelievable stuff. You can see the bullet holes there as they were peering through the windshield. Turkey's NTV says the incident happened last Sunday as the crew entered South Ossetia, the scene of the brutal fighting. NTV says the crew was apprehended by Russians, taken into southern Russia, interrogated and released after negotiations. None of the crew was seriously wounded.
KEILAR: George Feigley walks out of a Pennsylvania prison today, 33 years after he walked in. There is certainly no warm welcome home.
Feigley was locked up for sexually abusing children, and a loophole means he won't have to register as a sex offender. You think his soon-to-be neighbors are happy? No, they are not.
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ANNETTE ANTOUN, CONCERNED RESIDENT: I was -- I was outraged. Frankly, I'm not sure that that's sealed in stone. The federal statute, I think the Jacob Willerby (ph) statute said if they abuse children, upon release. It doesn't say anything about when the crime was committed. It says upon release they must register. Because I think the jury's out on this.
They have scars that they say will never go away and that they have trouble relating to men. They have trouble relating to women. They have trouble relating to anybody, and they're frightened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Feigley was convicted of crimes that occurred in the '70s and is grandfathered out of Megan's Law's requirement to register. Some people in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are circulating a petition to prevent his return to their neighborhood. LEMON: A jury in Idaho is hearing heartbreaking testimony as it decides whether to send Joseph Edward Duncan III to prison for life or to Death Row. He is a man who kidnapped and sexually abused a young brother and sister then killed the boy.
Duncan shot -year-old Dylan Groene to death while his younger sister watched. Shasta Groene's tape-recorded account of her brother's killing was played in the courtroom yesterday. And Shasta survived the 2005 ordeal. Duncan has also pleaded guilty to killing the children's mother, their older brother and their sister's fiance. He pleaded guilty to ten federal charges.
KEILAR: Michael Rodriguez is dead, executed overnight by the state of Texas. He was a member of the notorious Texas Seven fugitives blamed for killing a police officer in 2000.
Rodriguez had dropped his appeals and requested -- he actually requested lethal injection. This is the policeman who was shot dead in 2000, if you can bring that picture up. This is Aubrey Hawkins.
Rodriguez and six others, escaped prisoners, were on the run for a couple weeks. One of them killed himself. The others were captured. Rodriguez is the first of those Texas Seven to be executed.
LEMON: Back before a judge today, the mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick. It is his third day in court this week. This is a hearing to determine whether Kilpatrick should stand trial on felony assault charges.
A sheriff's detective says the mayor shoved him into another person and made profane and racial comments. The mayor's also the defendant in a separate and ongoing perjury case.
KEILAR: Hey, you know it's a pretty rare day on the campaign trail: neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has any public rallies or speeches on their schedules.
McCain is in Aspen, Colorado, where he had breakfast this morning with Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and after that a private campaign meeting. Obama is wrapping up his vacation in Hawaii and also heading home to Chicago. The Democratic candidate soaked up the sun, caught a few waves and saw a few sights, including the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.
White born-again or evangelical Christian voters are overwhelmingly supporting McCain. In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll 67 percent say they'll vote for McCain. Just 24 percent back Obama. Four years ago almost four out of five voters in that group voted for President Bush over John Kerry.
And John McCain and Barack Obama are getting ready to talk about faith and values at a mega church in California. Later this hour, we'll hear what religious leaders from different faiths are saying about tomorrow night's forum.
You remember last month's scare aboard Obama's campaign jet, the unscheduled landing in St. Louis? Well, at the time Midwest Airlines said there wasn't an emergency, but now we hear the pilot actually felt otherwise. FAA tapes released to ABC News revealed conversations between the flight crew and the tower.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, at this time we'd like to declare this an emergency and also have CFR standing by in St. Louis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will show that and would you -- do you have a preference on runways? Would you like runway 3-0 right or runway 3- 0 left?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, which one is the longest?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Runway 3-0 left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we'd like 3-0 left and, just for informational purposes, we have Senator Obama onboard the aircraft and his campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The crew was having trouble controlling the aircraft's pitch. They did land safely, though. An FAA spokeswoman tells CNN that preliminary information is often complete or incorrect. The National Transportation Safety Board said last month it found no evidence of tampering with the plane.
LEMON: All right. Let's talk some weather now. Our Chad Myers is tracking a big rain maker in the Caribbean. The question is, will it develop into something bigger? Right now it has no name.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Remember that song, "A Horse With No Name"?
LEMON (singing): Been through the desert on a horse with no name.
MYERS: Exactly. This is a storm with no name. But I think pretty soon it will either have a number or a name. It would be Fay, F-A-Y. We've been saying that for the past three days.
It was a very impressive-looking ball of convection over Puerto Rico, and a lot of flash flooding going on there. Here's some pictures out of Puerto Rico and it was just coming down in buckets. When you get flash flooding in Puerto Rico, and they get a lot of rain. I mean, they have El Yunque rain forest there in the middle of the country there.
And, boy, look at this, just pouring down rainfall that looked like (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I'll tell you what: I've been on Puerto Rico a number of times, and it handles the rain well. But let me tell you, rain like this just comes down inches at a time. Now it's over the D.R., over the Dominican Republic, headed into Haiti. And here's the problem here. Haiti, when you get east there and west of Santo Domingo, very mountainous: 10,000-foot mountains here. You get that much rain on a 10,000-foot mountain peak, and it all runs downhill. That's going to cause trouble. That's going to cause flooding, mudslides and probably more loss of life than if you get with the wind, for sure.
There's the storm up from the Puerto Rico radar. You can see a lot of rain coming down. It's headed into the Dominican Republic. You'll see that for the rest of the day. We do know there's a hurricane hunter aircraft in there. There's the flight all the way from Barbados into the plane. There's the track of the plane right there. They just found a 51-mile-per-hour wind. Let's see what that means for a name or a number, coming up -- Don.
LEMON: All right. You know, "Horse With No Name," do you know who that was?
MYERS: Seals and Crofts?
LEMON: America. America.
That's what you told me? OK.
MYERS: America.
LEMON: Very good. It's a good song. All right. Thank you very much, Chad. We'll check back throughout the day -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Don, just a horrible accident on a New York City street. A pregnant traffic officer struck by a van and pinned under a bus. It took nothing short of a superhuman effort to save her unborn baby's life.
LEMON: Trouble in the neighborhood. After Russia's invasion of Georgia, some other former soviet republics are asking, what's next?
KEILAR: And Big Foot or big fib? What do you think? Is this picture proof that Big Foot really exists?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Michael Phelps completes his task with machine-like precision, and we're not talking about swimming. We're talking about breakfast. How to fuel an Olympic champion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We have a heroic rescue in New York to tell you about. Sadly, it not enough to save the life of a pregnant woman, but her unborn baby did survive.
A woman, a New York City traffic officer, was hit by a van and run over by a school bus. That's when some everyday heroes took action, and our Josh Levs joins us now with the details on that -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just an amazing story. You know, it's gripping a lot of people.
I have some information I've just gotten. There's going to be a prayer vigil for this woman, this traffic cop, at 3 p.m. today in the Bronx outside of St. Barnabas Hospital.
I've spoken with the hospital a lot today to find out the condition of this child. Still in critical condition, born 3 pounds, 6 ounces.
Let me take you over to this board here so you understand some of the basics of what's going on. So many people gripped by this.
This is our affiliate, New York One, leading with this story today. And here's "New York Post," saying "30 Men and a Baby." Let's talk about the rescue. I'll explain in a moment. Over here you've got the "Daily News": "Heroism Amid Tragedy." This quickly became a really big story.
Here's the basic idea: this traffic cop was in this area in the Bronx and was apparently heading off to lunch when a van came along and hit her. That left her in the middle of the street, too late for a bus to stop. Bus ended up on top of her.
Let's go into the video now of the crime scene that we have. If we have that, let's go to that video, and we'll be able to see where they taped off some of it. There you go. You see the officers there. This is one section right near Fordham University up there in the Bronx and, obviously, they've had to tape it off while they're trying to study exactly what happened here.
We have an eyewitness who spoke with the media there. Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen that somebody was trapped under that bus there. Now, we didn't know a person or at that moment I didn't know what it was. All we knew that somebody was under there and they was bent, like, forward. I could see her feet, but she was under there, and you can see she was, like, bent over.
So, what we did is the garage right here is a car garage right here. And the guy went to get his pump check. But we knew somebody was saying it was a lady, it was a lady. So what we did, it was like 30 to 40 of us, and we lifted -- actually lifted that bus off of her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: They physically lifted up a five-ton bus off of this woman, and before I toss it back to Don, let me show you one thing here on our CNN.com story that we have about this.
The man who was driving it has been arrested. Charges of criminally negligent homicide and driving without a license. And the police commissioner says that this man had 20 suspensions previously to his driver's license, Don, which means there's a lot of questions yet to be answered.
Now, we're keeping a close eye on the hospital right now to find out the condition of that child.
LEMON: All right, Josh Levs, thank you very much for that.
So the mother is dead, the baby is alive. And with us to talk more about the part -- that part of the story, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
I guess, Elizabeth, it is really amazing that this baby is still alive.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It is amazing for several reasons.
First of all, it's amazing that the baby survived the trauma, being hit by a van and then underneath a bus, that that baby wasn't -- wasn't crushed in any way.
Second of all, what's amazing is that mom's heart kept beating as she was hit by this van, as she was under the bus. Because the baby would not be alive today if the mom's heart didn't keep beating through all that trauma, because that's really the key here, Don. For a baby to get the blood and the oxygen that it needs, the mom's heart needs to keep going.
LEMON: The mom's heart kept going on its own or was it the paramedics? Or what...
COHEN: While she was under the bus, it was on its own, because she wasn't getting any help.
LEMON: OK.
COHEN: But then once the paramedics got there, this is what we don't know. We don't know if they intubated her and gave her CPR. We don't know if they gave her drugs to keep her heart going when she was at the hospital. These are all questions that have not been answered yet. All we know is that she died within hours of her baby being born.
LEMON: Oh, my gosh. OK. Let's take a turn here. You've got something else coming up that is very interesting. It's really sort of captivated the nation, if not the world.
COHEN: Oh, absolutely. Michael Phelps.
LEMON: Right.
COHEN: There are a lot of great swimmers out there. What makes this guy so incredibly good? Is it how he trains? Is it the body that God gave him? Is it the food that he eats? And we'll have a sample Michael Phelps breakfast later in the show. It's a lot.
LEMON: The food that he eats. That's a day's, you know, meal for most...
COHEN: For both of us, yes. Together. Right.
LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth.
KEILAR: Cruising in the fast lane. Jeanne Meserve shows us a special bag that can speed you right through airport security.
LEMON: And Donald Trump swoops in to save Ed McMahon's home from foreclosure. We'll explain the Donald's art of the deal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: If you can't travel without your laptop, well, you're going to love this. A new way to save time at the airport. Our homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you travel, you know the drill: laptops out at the security checkpoint.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely slows you down.
MESERVE: Well, all that's about to change.
(on camera) This looks like a standard computer case, but big difference. A zipper goes like this and it opens up like a clam shell. Computer on one side, wire on the others and you can just put it right through the X-ray machine.
(voice-over) It lies flat, giving screeners an unobstructed view of anything suspicious like an improvised explosive device. In addition to security, speed.
ELLEN HOWE, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: If they can get a clean look at the laptop while it's still in the bag, that's less time spent putting things in the bin and putting things back in the bag at the other end. So it may help move the process along.
MESERVE: A possible added bonus: fewer computers accidentally abandoned by their owners after screening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They grab their bag; they forget their laptop.
MESERVE: Travelers we talked to love the new cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it makes it easier getting through here. It's a positive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign me up. MESERVE (on camera): starting Saturday the TSA will let you bring your laptop through the checkpoint in a specially designed case like this. There are many different manufacturers and styles. They cost about the same as any high-end laptop case. This one runs about $100.
Jean Meserve, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right. Interesting information, Jeanne. Thank you.
More head butting today between American Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration, with the company signaling it will contest a $7-plus million fine proposed by the FAA yesterday for maintenance violations and problems with the airline's drug and alcohol testing program.
The FAA calls the fine appropriate, saying American intentionally flew planes that it knew needed maintenance. American says it wants to meet with the FAA to review the agency's findings.
KEILAR: It has been a tough summer for the nation's retailers, and now one of the largest department stores joins the list of companies suffering in the crisis. Stephanie Elam on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with more on JCPenney's rough quarter and how the fall shopping season is looking -- Steph.
STEPHANIE ELAM CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna.
Yes, take a look at JCPenney's second quarter profits. You'll see that they dropped 36 percent, obviously not a number that they would like to have there. They're saying their margins were smaller than they would like for them to be. They're also saying that sales were down.
So that's been putting pressure on all the department stores, actually, and affecting their numbers. People just going to the discounters to see what they could do there.
Now as part of what they were doing to deal with this drop in sales, they were scaling back renovation plans in April, trying to make it through these quarters as they come up here, Brianna.
KEILAR: Looks like the retail industry going to keep struggling, Stephanie, at least in the short term. A lot of this will be because of college students?
ELAM: Yes. College students, I think, are focusing on what they really need and not really about looking -- wearing the hot new fashion that may be coming out. Right now it looks like college students are poised to pull back how much they're spending.
In fact, for the first time in five years back-to-school shopping among college students is expected to drop. And there's a new National Retail Federation poll that says college students will spend 7 percent less. That equals to about $600 a family that will be spent.
This is obviously the second most important period for retailers behind Christmas, the holiday season. So they like to see their numbers stronger during this period. So this is effecting them, as well.
They're hoping grade school students will sort of offset that. Their spending, or the spending their parents are making, during that period is expected to grow by about $30 from last year on average.
Now, if you take a look at retail stocks, they're actually higher on average. JCPenney up around 8 percent. But if you take a look at the markets, the dollar strengthening. You've got markets up, oil going down, all of these things factoring in. Right now the Dow is up 20 points, 11,640, and the NASDAQ on the plus side, same thing with the S&P 500. So, we'll keep our eyes on it, Brianna.
But I have to tell you before I go, if you want to put your name on the Bird's Nest, you know, in Beijing where all the Olympics going on, you can actually do it. You're just going to need one, two, three, a whole lot of millions of dollars to make it happen. We'll talk about that in the next hour.
KEILAR: Is the water cube cheaper? No?
ELAM: You know what? I was a swimmer in college. I'd like to take the water cube, if I could.
KEILAR: I love that building. It's beautiful. OK. Well, stay tuned. I'm curious about this one, Stephanie Elam. Thanks.
ELAM: All right. Thanks, Brianna.
LEMON: Well, the self-proclaimed happiest place on earth didn't look too happy yesterday. A cast of characters was arrested outside Disneyland as a labor dispute between Disney and roughly 2,300 hotel workers went public.
Protesters, some dressed as Disney favorites, were cuffed and tossed into paddy wagons. Some had been working for months without a contract. They say Disney's latest offer falls short in terms of salary and benefits. And the company says talks are continuing.
KEILAR: The Donald comes to the rescue of Johnny Carson's former sidekick, Ed McMahon. The New York real estate mogul says he's buying McMahon's Beverly Hills mansion so McMahon can lease it from him and stay living there.
The 85-year-old McMahon ran into money trouble when he broke his neck months ago. He has since defaulted on his mortgage and was facing foreclosure. Trump says he doesn't know McMahon personally but just wanted to help out.
LEMON: A first of its kind forum for Barack Obama and John McCain. They'll answer questions about faith and values at a California mega church. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: It is 31 after the hour here in the news room and some stories we're working on for you.
A convicted Pennsylvania sex offender has been released from prison and his potential neighbors are up in arms. George Feigley served thirty years for abusing children but, he's not required to register with authorities when he's released. He committed the crimes before the state's Megan's Law was passed.
Detroit's mayor back in court for a third day this week. This time a hearing to determine if there's enough evidence for Kwame Kilpatrick to be tried on two felony assault charges.
And Puerto Rico is getting drenched by heavy rains. The storm is moving slowly towards the west, it could become a tropical depression as soon as today.
LEMON: Here's the latest on the Russian aggression in Georgia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived today in Tbilisi. And won agreement on a cease-fire. The deal centers on the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, but, includes some concessions through Moscow. With Rice at his side, Georgia's President lashed out at the west for failing to heed warnings about the Russian invasion. President Bush is accusing Moscow of bullying. Earlier today he said Russia's ties to the west are damaged.
Also today, a top Russian general threatened Poland for agreeing to place a U.S. missile defense battery on Polish soil.
As CNN's Jill Doherty tells us, Russia's neighbors clearly are taking notice of events in Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The image was striking. The President of Georgia, his nation reeling from a military incursion NY Russian troops, stands defiantly on the main square in the capital of Tbilisi, calling on the world to defend this country. At his side, the leaders of four former Soviet republics: Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and the former Soviet block nation of Poland, who had their own run-ins with Moscow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You Georgians, stay united. United you win.
DOUGHERTY: But Georgia's army was no match for Russian forces. In spite of a vastly increased Georgian military budget and training by U.S. Military advisers. And some of Russia's smaller neighbors are drawing big conclusions from Russia's victory. Could Moscow try to do the same thing to them? The U.S. defense secretary is stoking that fire.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I think that the Russians' further message was to all of the parts of the former Soviet Union as a signal about trying to integrate with the west. And move outside of the long-time Russian sphere of influence.
DOUGHERTY: Moscow scoffs at that idea.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We have no plans to throw down any leadership. That is not part of our culture. Part of our foreign policies. It is not what we do.
DOUGHERTY: But Russia's foreign minister is dropping strong hints that Moscow would recognize the independence of Georgia's break- away regions no matter what Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili thinks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The factor right now, neither the South Ossetians nor the Abkhazians want to live in the same country with the man who sent his troops against them.
DOUGHERTY: Repercussions from the conflict in Georgia already are being felt. As Russia's Black Sea fleet deploys off the coast of Georgia, Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko issues restrictions on those Russian ships which operate out of the base in Ukraine's Crimea. Moscow says it will ignore that order.
Poland, after months of tough negotiations with the U.S. over Washington's proposal to install a missile defense system in that country, suddenly agrees. The deal includes a pledge by the U.S. to quickly come to the aid of Poland in case of attack.
Moscow is furious, claiming the speed with which the agreement came together is proof the missile system is aimed at Russia, not at Iran, as the U.S. insists.
(on camera): Russia insists it has limited objectives in the Georgian conflict to protect the Russian peacekeepers and protect Russian citizens. That it has no desire to reassert control over its former republics, much less reconstitute the Soviet Union.
(voice-over): But the men who stood by the Georgian president in Tbilisi this week are drawing broader conclusions and taking actions that, in turn, threaten to increase tensions between Russia and the west.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: A first in the general election battle between John McCain and Barack Obama. The two appearing together tomorrow night at a faith forum in southern California, an event that you can see live, right here on CNN.
They'll be answering questions from the Reverend Rick Warner, Pastor of the Saddleback Mega Church.
And joining me now from New York, to talk more about the event, Rabbi Schmuley, host of a daily national radio program. And in Chicago, Eboo Patel, executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core and author of the book "Acts of Faith."
Thanks to both of you for being with us.
And what we want to do is really get a survey from different religious perspectives. Obviously, we know that Rick Warren is an Evangelical -- a prominent Evangelical leaders. He says Evangelicals are overrated as a monolistic voter block. But asked about abortion as being maybe the biggest issue for Evangelicals yesterday, he did spell out, rather, what matters most to him.
Let's listen to what he said yesterday on "THE SITUATION ROOM."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. RICK WARREN, SADDLEBACK CHURCH: I'm more than pro-life. I am what I call whole life. I just don't care about that little girl who's unborn, I care about her once she's born. I care about whether she gets an education, whether she lives in poverty, whether she's a crack baby, whether she has AIDS or not. So, I have extended my personal agenda from simply pro-life, I call myself whole life.
KEILAR: Mr. Patel, let's start with you first. As a religious representative from -- of Islam, what would be your first question of the candidates if you were to be asking the questions tomorrow night?
EBOO PATEL, EXEC. DIRECTOR, INTERFAITH YOUTH CORE: What I would say is America is the most religiously diverse nation in human history and the most devote nation in the west at this time of global religious conflict.
Mr. Senator, how would you make sure that America's religious diversity can be united and can be of service to our nation and can be a model of interfaith cooperation to the world? I think we need a bold vision on that issue and I think our next president needs to lead us into it.
KEILAR: And what type of answers do you think you'd get? Do you think you'll get the answers you want to hear?
I think that both Senator McCain and Senator Obama understand how powerful faith communities can be in doing service to others. And understand that all of our faiths teach service to others. And that can be a common ground to bring people from different backgrounds together to do precisely that.
But, I think that we need action on that and not just talk on it. And what I would like to know is how each of these senators, if they became president, were going to start programmatic initiatives that made that vision a reality.
KEILAR: And Rabbi, as a representative of Judaism, what would be the question that you would ask these two mean and what I guess, answer might you hope to hear?
RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, RADIO SHOW HOST: Well, Brianna, great societies are never defeated from external enemies, they are defeated through disintegration, corrosion from the inside.
My first question would be, what are you doing to shore up the disintegrating American family? Why isn't marital counseling tax deductible in the United States? So that when husbands and wives being to really fight, they can afford the help that they need and not make their children into insecure yo-yos who are going back and forth between two different homes on the weekends. Why don't we have school uniforms for children so that our schools become temples of learning and not just temples of peer pressure and conformity and fashion trends.
The fact is, that religion is about two things. It's about relationships -- a relationship between God and man and man and his fellow man. And the second thing is, it's about the pursuit of knowledge. And these are the two institutions that are really disintegrating. We don't know how to have relationships in America today. We don't know how to get along and that's why people opt for the false idolatry of Hollywood and celebrity because they're not really giving the unconditional love and validation that comes from a nuclear family.
And the second thing is, our kids don't want to know. We're becoming increasingly ignorant. So, it's a translation of those faith-based ideas and to every day, even secular language that religion is meant to inspire, because let's not use religion as a culture by which to divide the secular and the religious.
KEILAR: And that's a question I think maybe someone from any sort of religious background might ask, Rabbi.
SHMULEY: Absolutely. I mean, let's face it.
The problem with religion in America is that for so long it's been divisive. You now hear Rick Warren saying, let's move away from abortion and gay marriage. I mean, for goodness sake, I mean, that's what religion's been reduced to. Speaking about a whole life experience.
Religion is not meant to create groups who spar against one another -- that I'm a person of faith and you're not. It's really meant to be the values by which we live. And those are universal values and they apply to people of faith, they apply to people who are complete atheist.
I mean, as a religious man, I don't care if the next President of America is a Muslim, a Jew, an atheist, as long as they are of good character, they have vision and they aspire. There are things that underlie all of our human experience no matter what we consider our faith or lack there of and that's the voice with which religion has to begin to communicate.
KEILAR: Well, it seems like a unified voice with which you all are speaking.
Thanks so much Rabbi Shmuley and Eboo Patel for taking the time to be with us. We appreciate it. SHMULEY: Thank you.
PATEL: Thanks.
KEILAR: And you're going to want to be right here on CNN tomorrow night for that McCain/Obama faith forum. Our live coverage will begin at 8:00 Eastern.
And then tonight you can find out how the running mate race is shaping up. We've got a special report, Crucial Choice, coming up at 10:00 Eastern on CNN's "AC 360."
LEMON: How'd you like to work a four-day workweek?
KEILAR: Nice.
LEMON: Nice.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: It has been in the news a lot lately and we put the schedule to the test right here in the news room. Was it worth the time?
OK. What is your call on this? Is it Big Foot or just a freezer full of hairy nonsense?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, the monthly premium for Medicare's prescription drug coverage is going up about $3 next year. That's a 12 percent increase. And brings the monthly premium to $28 for standard drug coverage.
Medicare officials saying people taking more prescriptions and rising drug costs made the premium increase necessary. But they also note the $28 monthly cost is far lower than what it was projected to be.
In other medical news, we want to tell you researchers say if you already have allergies, stress and anxiety can make them even worse. In a new study, volunteers with a history of seasonal allergies had stronger allergic reactions after they were placed in stressful situations. Now, the stress-related reactions also appeared to be harder to treat and lasted longer than normal allergic reactions.
KEILAR: Michael Phelps has carved out a place in the Olympic pool. And when it comes to eating, his performance at the training table also legendary. You will not believe how much food it takes to fuel a champion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Our producer Katie Baritone (ph) taped it last night. So you can open up yours now, Katie -- take your hands out of your ears. You can go home tonight and watch it. Yes, he is eating up a storm. He is sweeping his swimming evnts, Brianna. He's also cleaning up in the dining hall. But, there's a lot more to Michael Phelps than carbo-loading.
Our Elizabeth Cohen is here to take a look at what fuels his physique and all of that.
It's a lot of stuff. If I ate this, I'd weigh 350 pounds.
ELIZABETH COHEN: Right, exactly. Because you don't work out like he does. He burns thousands of calories in a single workout.
LEMON: You're kidding me, right?
COHEN: No -- this is one meal.
LEMON: Oh my gosh.
COHEN: This is according to what was said on NBC. This is breakfast. OK. Starting out with three cheese and egg sandwiches, omelet, grits, French toast -- and these are big servings -- and three chocolate-chip pancakes.
LEMON: I'll have everything here except for chocolate-chip.
COHEN: All right. I'll take the chocolate-chips.
LEMON: OK.
COHEN: And what's so interesting here is that on NBC, Michael Phelps said that he was told he needed to have between 8,000 and 10,000 calories a day. The Average Joe, who is his size and his age, needs more like 2,500. So you can see that it's a gigantic difference.
LEMON: OK. Then -- so what about his body? What does that do to his body, eating this much and then -- it's got to be good I guess?
COHEN: He burns it up, and his body is really a huge key to his success, obviously.
So let's take a look at what makes Michael Phelps special. First of all, take a look at these feet. They are huge, size 14. They act like flippers, and they are especially useful in those turns that he's so famous for. He uses them great in turns I've been told.
Also, now take a look at this. He has a very, very long torso. So an expert told me that means that he has extra long back muscles to make those strokes really work.
LEMON: And then also, apparently, this really, really long wing span.
COHEN: Wing span, right. So every stroke is bigger than anybody else's, yes.
LEMON: OK. What about -- there's something -- what about his head?
COHEN: His head -- it's what's going on inside his head, that's what's sports medicine experts tell me. They say what is really incredible about him is not only does he have this incredible spirit of competition but that he's incredibly focused. You can tell it even with the glasses on. Not only that, but the experts are telling me that he has this very systematic way of training. And so it's not just enough to be focused, it's not just enough to want to win, but you have to know how to train. And he knows it.
LEMON: Yes, keeping focused. That's right, don't let them get in your head.
COHEN: Right, exactly.
LEMON: All right, thank you.
That is a lot of food. Can we eat this now?
COHEN: It's been out here for about four hours, but feel free.
LEMON: I'm sure it's good. Yes, after the show I'm always starving.
All right, thank you Elizabeth.
And you know what -- we were talking about Michael Phelps. He is really the only thing anybody is talking about in Beijing. Now CNN.com will be talking to him. Multiple gold medal winner Michael Phelps joins us on CNN.com live this Tuesday. Go to ireport.com right now and submit your own video question for him. Don't miss Michael Phelps live Tuesday morning, 8:30 Eastern, only at CNN.com/live.
KEILAR: OK. So what is your call? Is it Bigfoot, or just a freezer full of hairy nonsense?
But, first, Election Day -- less than three months away. And the hot topic this week is VP selection. CNN's Josh Rubin has the word on the street.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH RUBIN, CNN ELECTION EXPRESS PRODUCER: It's the veepstakes, ladies and gentlemen. Barack Obama and John McCain, who will they pick? Time to express yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure yet. I need to look at where each of the candidates stand first before I make my decision. Because if you just make a gut decision without researching, you may make the wrong choice and I don't want to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I have no idea who it's going to be. But I think for the Democrats, it has to be someone from a southern state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually think that Colin Powell would be an excellent choice.
RUBIN: Why is that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got such strong character, he's got a very good background.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to see Hillary run for vice president with Obama because I think that would be a good thing for the Republicans. It would absolutely cause chaos and be really good for McCain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Reporting from a war zone can be dangerous, yes, absolutely. But it's not just bullets, reporters are also having to dodge hippo jaws, cat claws and more.
This is only a Jeanne Moos story. Our Jeanne Moos has all the close calls from the silly to the serious.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans now have a different Georgia on their minds, thanks to all the war reporting. Reporting that has led to some close calls. For instance, when this Georgian State TV reporter got shot during a live shot. Actually, the bullet just grazed her and she kept on reporting, despite the bloody wrist.
Another close call caught on tape happened as a soldier, who had stolen some TV gear, pointed a gun at the guy pointing the camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MOOS: Shots were fired in the air.
It's not unusual for close calls to get on the air when reporters put themselves in the thick of things. CNN's Zain Verjee got hit with a tear gas canister in Kenya.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: They will stop firing back.
MOOS: It left a big, ugly bruise. And now, almost seven months later --
VERJEE: It left a scar that, you know, sometimes I show off.
MOOS (on camera): Like I'm not going to ask you to show me the scar.
VERJEE: No. It's the shape of the canister.
MOOS (voice-over): A canister someone picked up and handed to her as a memento. It now sits on a shelf at home.
Sometimes, a close call just feels close. For instance, when reporters feared gas attacks during the first Gulf War.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please put on your gas masks. There hasn't been any gas --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you smell anything?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MOOS (on camera): Now, a reporter doesn't have to be in a war zone or trouble spot to have a close call. I had my own close encounter at the circus.
(voice-over): I was mopping the mouth of Zusha (ph), the hippo.
(on camera): She seems to like to be mopped. Just kidding.
(voice-over): But the giant jaws of a hippo were no match for the claws of this cat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, as part of their setting (ph), the couple is going to (INAUDIBLE), right?
MOOS: Sometimes it's the crowd that turns on you. For instance, outside a British soccer match --
PEDRO PINTO, CNN INT'L SPORTS ANCHOR: The atmosphere here has been fantastic over the last hours.
MOOS: It got even more fantastic for CNN's Pedro Pinto.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Manchester (INAUDIBLE).
MOOS: Vastly outnumbered, Pedro says he didn't attack back.
PINTO: Since I do need my face for work.
MOOS: So did this reporter, covering an alleged real estate scam when he got whacked with a plastic bottle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do I have to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not appropriate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
MOOS: Then her husband arrived.
Still, no close call seems closer than when a giant snake comes calling up the weather man's shorts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God! (INAUDIBLE)
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: OK. Brace yourself. I'm about to show you a picture of something. Some Bigfoot hunters swear up and down that it's the big guy himself. This is it, whatever it is. It could be Bigfoot, it could be a dirty old gorilla suit in a box. A couple of good old boys in Georgia say they found it up in the hills. And today they'll release more photos and what they say is DNA evidence that Bigfoot walks among us.
Oh and if you're looking for a grain of salt, here is one too -- that the guy behind this Sasquatch sensation runs a company that specializes in Bigfoot tours. What do you know?
The next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right now.
