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Nation's Post Offices in Danger?; Will Gadhafi Step Down?; Palin Bus Tour; Royal Itinerary; Pricing Homes to Sell; Libyan Generals Defect; Lawyer: Mladic Too Ill for Trial; Ohio State Football Coach Resigns; "Genderless" Baby; America: The "No-Vacation Nation"

Aired May 30, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And now we have a lot more coming at you. If it's interesting, it's happening right now. It's rapid fire.

I want to begin with some damage. But, first, take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): America's housing bust. Is now the best time to be putting up that for-sale sign?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The buyers are the one who is going to set the price.

BALDWIN: When to hold, when to sell, and when to check your feelings at the door.

What is happening to the nation's small-town post offices?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is in a potential closing phase.

BALDWIN: Who really suffers if they do shut their doors for good?

The duke and duchess are coming to America. And we have got all the details of their first trip to the United States as a married couple.

Plus, would you keep the gender of your baby a secret? It's one family's choice, and it's trending.

The news starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Welcome back, hour two of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Want to begin in Michigan here for rapid fire. Take a look at the damage. This is Battle Creek, Michigan, Vicksburg, Mississippi. This is between the Lake Shore and Ann Arbor areas. A line of severe storms chopped a path of destruction across the Midwest last night, killing power to more than 100,000 people in this one state alone. Trees, you see them, they are down. Power crews have a busy, busy day ahead of them cleaning up, checking out the damage there.

President Obama pledging to stand with the people of Joplin, Missouri. he says -- quote -- "every step of the way as the town rebuilds." Yesterday, the president toured the shredded city, met with survivors, and spoke at a service honoring the 142 people who lost their lives when the tornado hit Joplin last Sunday -- 29 people still unaccounted for.

To Texas now, where wildfires, they are burning across the Panhandle there. Hundreds of people who had to evacuate their homes just yesterday in Amarillo are now being allowed back in. Look at that thick smoke there. The U.S. Forest Service tells us 12 homes have been destroyed thus far. Evacuees have been getting help from the Red Cross.

And now to Southern Tennessee, where crews are trying to rescue a man trapped in a cave. This is all happening right now in Franklin County. That is near the Alabama state line.

Here's what we know. The man is an experienced caver who fell some 20 feet during an expedition yesterday. An expert at the site tells us the man is injured and getting him out will be tough because he will have to pass through a crawl space about eight inches high and 14 inches wide. We will stay on that for you.

In Atlanta, a woman who was celebrating her 30th birthday died after falling out of a 10th floor window at this hotel in midtown. A second woman fell through the window, but she is in the hospital. She's critically injured. Guests at the party told police the two women were play-fighting at the time when they came out of that window.

Finally to space, where space shuttle Endeavour begins its final journey home. Endeavour had spent some 11 days docked in the International Space Station. And just yesterday, it left the space station for the very last time, and the crew took a couple pieces of video.

Look at this, pretty pictures. Here is video of the shuttle as it's pulling away from the space station. Endeavour, this is its last flight, scheduled to end its 16-day mission on Wednesday with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center.

And now this: water cannons firing in a town in Yemen trying to disperse angry protesters. But this scene, that is not enough to stop those deadly clashes with protesters and security forces. Plus -- plus, South African President Jacob Zuma is in Libya, his aim, stop hostilities and spur peace talks. But why hasn't he led the call for Gadhafi to step down? We're on it. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to "Globe Trekking."

And I want to get you an update from Yemen, where witnesses tell us 20 people were killed. That is -- 10 times that number were injured last night in clashes with security forces. We have pulled some video. Watch this. The clash happened last night in Taiz, Yemen.

Riot police fired tear gas, turned water cannons onto people gathered in the town's Freedom Square. Witnesses describe a similar scene today, troops dispersing crowds with water cannons. Police also reportedly cleared away demonstrators' camps in Taiz with fires and bulldozers.

And from Yemen to Libya. We're told embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi is hosting another African leader today, the president of South Africa. That is the two of them. Take a look at this picture. Here they are, two of them in Tripoli today, these pictures just into the CNN NEWSROOM.

And a lot of speculation swirling now about President Jacob Zuma's visit to Tripoli. Is he helping Gadhafi negotiate a cease-fire with rebel forces? Are they talking exit strategy? Might they be discussing the future, a Libya without the man on the right-hand side of your screen?

We also learned something enormous today about Moammar Gadhafi's top military leadership.

Let me go straight to Tripoli, live to CNN's Nima Elbagir.

And, Nima, before you tell us about the reported defection of a number of these general officers, what about this Jacob Zuma appearance in Tripoli? What can we read into this?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jacob Zuma and Colonel Gadhafi go back a long way.

Colonel Gadhafi had supported the ANC during the apartheid struggle. So, for many of us here, the buildup was that this was pitched as old friends, someone could say the unsayable. We were all expecting that perhaps we would get an announcement today that Colonel Gadhafi might be stepping down.

And, instead, what we are seeing is President Zuma holding off on releasing a statement, a South African statement on the talks until tomorrow morning.

And all we're getting from the Libyans is that Zuma is very happy that Colonel Gadhafi had agreed to the A.U. road map, the African Union road map, which he had agreed to a month ago, so really not very signs coming out of Libya here (AUDIO GAP) possible stand-down and anything beyond a cease-fire, which the rebels have said they won't accept while Colonel Gadhafi is still in power -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, Zuma -- so no announcement, Zuma saying he's going to hold off on any kind of statement until the morning.

So, anything else really would be speculation. We don't know if Zuma is offering Gadhafi a way out, maybe a soft landing. It's impossible to answer.

ELBAGIR: Well, once the Libyans said that it was within the African Union road map, then that automatically removes any possibility that Gadhafi will step down, because the African Union had said, you know, we're against this NATO aggression. But if I was the Libyans, I would be thinking about these reports coming out of the U.K. and France that attack helicopters are coming in. Now, these helicopters, what is so decisive about them is that, because they are quite precision, they are used to lessen collateral damage.

So, the concern here is that they will be able to clear the way through aerial bombardment for a rapid opposition advance in a way that the NATO jets haven't been able to. And when you add that to what you had mentioned, of these eight Libyan generals defecting, then it doesn't really feel like time is on Gadhafi's side.

So, for Zuma to leave without any kind of a joint statement between him and Gadhafi must be very worrying for the administration here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, what kind of message? You mentioned the defection of these eight army generals that are now in Italy. What kind of message is that sending to the rest of Libya?

ELBAGIR: Well, the generals -- one of the generals said something very interesting. General Mesarud (ph) said that he believed that Colonel Gadhafi's military capacity was down to about 20 percent of what it was prior to the -- to the rebellion starting in the east.

So, if I was the rebels, that would be some very good news for me. The generals are saying that there are only 10 generals remaining that are still loyal to Gadhafi. And yet we still don't really feel like there is this sense of impetus that there is any kind of sense of time running out here for Gadhafi.

The administration always say to us, the only person that can answer these questions about when Gadhafi will go is Gadhafi himself. And he's just not talking right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: No, no, he isn't.

One more question about Jacob Zuma, and then I will let you go, Nima. But he had said he would bring up the missing South African photographer, missing in Libya. Did he do that?

ELBAGIR: This is something that the South African press have been calling very strongly for. It was quite an unfortunate situation.

His family released a statement saying that those journalists that had been him when he was killed -- one of them was Clare Morgana Gillis, an American journalist -- had said that he had died from his injuries.

But what we were hearing here on the ground was that they were saying to us: We have never seen him. He was never in any kind of Libyan detention. But his family had been told that he had been taken away safely, until they spoke to those journalists.

So, from the South African side, there was a lot of upset that Zuma was coming here to even negotiate with Colonel Gadhafi anyway. There was a real cooling of relations between the two countries, which I'm sure really did hamper Zuma's ability to be able to publicly offer Gadhafi a soft landing, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I see. And perhaps that's one of the reasons why there is not quite an announcement yet. We don't know, but perhaps.

Nima Elbagir live in Tripoli -- Nima, thank you.

Here, hundreds of post offices all around the country are on a list to be possibly closed. Find out if yours could be one of them and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Rain, sleet, and snow, you can't stop the U.S. mail. But looming budget cuts could shutter your local post office.

Here's CNN Paul Corson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL CORSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can find them everywhere, small town post offices off the main highway, not many people around. The locations can date back many years. Long before competition from other delivery companies and things like electronic bill-paying.

So, are enough customers using these locations to justify the costs of keeping them open? Looking at ways to cut red ink, the U.S. Postal Service by the end of June will have a list of potential shutdowns.

CYNTHIA REEDE-FISHER, POST OFFICE MANAGER: This post office is small. And for me working here for the past two years, I was pretty sure that this post office would be on the list.

CORSON: Her customers found out that the Laneview Post Office is under review from a vaguely worded survey from the Postal Service called a community meeting notification. The introductory letter says nothing about a shutdown, just a possible change in how Laneview would get its mail.

REEDE-FISHER: What could happen? OK. Well, right now, it's in a potential closing phase. I will say that much.

CORSON: The elderly in her community are the most vocal about not closing their post office. They don't drive. They don't do the Internet. And having to go up the road another dozen miles or so doesn't make any sense to them. This post office has already consolidated with two others.

AARON JONES, CUSTOMER: Actually, the last post office around here for a while. One of them burnt down and another closed down.

CORSON: He knows it would be tough on friends like 88-year-old Winston Young to go much farther for the mail.

WINSTON YOUNG, CUSTOMER: Come here every day.

CORSON: This post office was built a year before Pearl Harbor and has been closed since 2008, yet people were still putting mail in the lobby slot where it dropped to the floor on the other side.

(on camera): Community leaders are worried that if their post office were to close, not only would lose postal services, they'd lose a sense of community, unless the post office can be combined with other goods and services.

(voice-over): The postmaster general has told congressional lawmakers such a combination would save the postal service some money.

PATRICK DONAHOE, U.S. POSTMASTER GENERAL: You got a post office, gas station, and a store there in a small town, the gas station and the store is struggling. So, we think we can provide services through contracts in many cases, and give the customers great access, more hours, and more affordable price for us.

CORSON: Postal officials say the public's input will be vital in determining which post offices stay and which must close.

Paul Corson, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Well, forget the old food pyramid. Everything you need to know about daily nutrition will apparently nicely fit on your plate. Elizabeth Cohen explains straight ahead.

Also, Jim Acosta on the road with the Palin bus tour. He is our Political Ticker. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Jim Acosta joins me now with the latest news from the Political Ticker.

And, Jim, I'm just going to call you out, just because it was fun. I heard during the commercial break playing a little "Stairway to Heaven." And you said you were having some flashbacks to college, friend?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I was just saying that it's possible that it is playing in my head involuntarily. But we probably shouldn't --

BALDWIN: We won't go there.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: on live television, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That was humorous, though, nonetheless, OK.

ACOSTA: We're following this politician. You may have heard of her. Her name is Sarah Palin.

BALDWIN: I think I have. ACOSTA: Well, she's been on -- she's been sort of on an unconventional bus tour the last couple of days, hitting the National Mall, as you know, yesterday. She went to Mount Vernon, this morning, the National Archives. We understand she just made a pit stop in Baltimore and is on her way right now to Gettysburg, where we're standing right now.

However, I have to tell you, we're not really sure she's going to come to this spot where we are standing right now. We are hopeful that she will. There are about another 100 people who are also hopeful that she will swing through this spot in Gettysburg.

So, we are following Sarah Palin obviously for all of those reasons. A lot of people are expecting that she may indeed run for president after a lot of speculation that she wasn't going to run. So, we are following Sarah Palin this afternoon.

Also, on Twitter today, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, he is expected to run for president. He's pretty much said everything but the fact that he's running for president. Well, he announces that on Thursday. And on Twitter today, Mitt tweeted that he is looking forward to the event on Thursday up in New Hampshire.

And not to be outdone, we should also mention that Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann are also out on the campaign trail today. Michele Bachmann is up in New Hampshire. Tim Pawlenty out in Iowa, both are being overshadowed a great deal by Sarah Palin who, if our estimates are correct, will be arriving here at Gettysburg within the hour, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, in the meantime, I'm sure you have good tunes on the CNN Express Bus. Go enjoy yourselves until you see Ms. Palin, all right?

ACOSTA: We're trying to stay cool.

BALDWIN: All right, Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

Did you hear that the duke and duchess are coming? Canada and United States are on their upcoming itinerary. We are getting much more from the palace. That is next.

Also, Chad will tell us where we can expect more bad weather, and really he was emphasizing, it's just hot. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There is plenty going on this holiday Monday starting with when a pyramid -- it's actually a circle, William and Catherine coming to the U.S. for a visit, and the new chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, and a heat wave. Got a lot coming at you here in today's "Reporter Roulette."

But I want to start with you, Chris Lawrence, our Pentagon correspondence, at Arlington Cemetery.

And, Chris, we know that the president is nominating a new chairman of the Joints Chief. Who exactly is General Martin Dempsey?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's a career -- obviously, a career man. He's seen as someone of an extrovert. But the thing that sort of makes him different in some of the other people who are considered for this job is his combat experience.

He has spent the better part of the last nine or 10 years involved in a very low-tech war in Iraq. He commanded some of the troops during the -- you know, some of height of the insurgency and he's also, you know, seen as someone who is looking more at how the Pentagon can fight the wars of today and not just concentrating on what it's going to be doing in the wars of 10 to 20 years from now.

BALDWIN: This potential change, the change at the top of the Defense Department, might these changes -- how might these changes affect troops in Iraq or Afghanistan?

LAWRENCE: Well, Brooke, if you look at -- you know, just very recently, Defense Secretary Gates said that he hoped that the Iraqi government would ask the U.S. to keep troops there beyond the end of the year and he said, if they did ask, I would hope that we would say yes. You know, will Leon Panetta taking his place, will he feel the same way? You know, when you look at Afghanistan, there is going to be a very, very intense argument over whether to go with the counterinsurgency strategy that David Petraeus was running out of Afghanistan versus a counterterrorism strategy that Joe Biden advocates with fewer troops and more Special Ops going after specific targets.

So, whenever you come to these decisions now, you're going to have different voices in the room all trying to weigh in for the president.

BALDWIN: Chris Lawrence for me in Arlington -- Chris, thank you.

Next on "Reporter Roulette," the food pyramid is no longer a pyramid. It will become round.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explains what this change is all about -- Elizabeth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, it's time to say RIP to the food pyramid. It's been around for nearly 20 years. And hello to the dinner plate.

Now, the new USDA dinner plate won't look exactly like this, but we got enough details to know that the plate will show that you're supposed to fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables and have much smaller portions of a protein and a grain and a little bit of dairy off to the side. Now, this is a far cry from how Americans eat, Brooke, and they're really hoping that having this icon, giving it to school children, putting it everywhere they can possibly think of, will remind people that this is the goal: half a plate of fruits and vegetables. Now, you might wonder what was wrong with the food pyramid other than the fact that it was nearly two decades old. One problem, the stuff you're not supposed, the sweets and the fats are at the top. That was a bit counterintuitive. Also, people said too much emphasis on starches and grains, not enough on fruits and vegetables.

They are hoping that this new icon will take care of that -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I see no sweets on the plate, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you very much.

Next on "Reporter roulette" -- right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BALDWIN: Next on "Reporter Roulette": the duke and duchess of Cambridge, William and Catherine, will be visiting the United States and Canada. Now, we know their itinerary.

Max Foster is at St. James Palace in London. And, Max, you have the details. What do you know?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prince William has been to Canada before and he was a huge hit, but the duchess has not been to Canada nor the United States. At the end of June, they will be picked up in the U.K. by the Canadian Air Force and flown to Ottowa.

From there, they're travel through Quebec, Prince Edward Island, the northern territories and onto to Calagry where the duchess' grandfather trained bomber pilots during the Second World War.

A series of engagements is being arranged, which allows them to reflect on Canada's history, but also to look at the future of next generation of royal. So expect to see the meeting lots of young people.

The final leg of the journey is being organized with the British government and takes them to Los Angeles where they will promoting British interest to the United States.

A source here at St. James Palace has told me is seen as a working visit, not an opportunity to meet celebrities, although not quite sure they are going to avoid them. More details will be released in June. Max Foster, CNN, St. James Palace, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Chad Myers now with a look at the weather. I don't know how wonderful those silk outfits will be once they, you know, the royal couple wears in California come July. It might be mighty hot, but it's all right mighty hot in May.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Maybe they are just going to go to Santa Monica. You know, you get the breeze and it depends on where you are in the valley.

BALDWIN: California is nice.

MYERS: Maybe a little hot by then, yes.

BALDWIN: For us now on this holiday, it's hot.

MYERS: It is hot. It's Fourth of July hot out there. Literally, it's 90s all the way from the Virginias up to New York and then back into Texas and now tornado warnings across parts of eastern Colorado.

Now there are more cows than there are people in some of these, but we will keep watching. If it gets near Greeley, if it gets near Brighton, it's gets anywhere, you know, closer to Denver. We'll watch it, but right now it's the northeast part. I-76, I know it well. I used to live in Nebraska.

BALDWIN: You've lived everywhere.

MYERS: Everywhere.

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: I was like an army brat, but my father was retired, retired from Army. As you drive into Nebraska, you see the Colorado Rockies and say, wow, we're almost to Denver and then 100 miles later, you're still not there yet. So that's the kind of distance we're talking about. You can see it from there, but the tornadoes are not that serious.

BALDWIN: Is it an old wives tail that if it's hot now, hot already on Memorial Day. It's going to be really, really hot in the summer? Not necessarily?

MYERS: Not necessarily, but it maybe because we have a lot of humidity in the air. Remember all that flooding we had in Mississippi River Valley.

BALDWIN: Of course.

MYERS: OK, all that water still kind of sitting there. It's all evaporating. It's all getting up and so the stickies, this could be the summer of the stickies.

BALDWIN: Can I quote you?

MYERS: Sure.

BALDWIN: OK, summer of the stickies. Chad Myers, OK, thanks.

Now, should you put out your for sale sign or just sit tight? Allan Chernoff asks the experts, part of the NEWSROOM's special coverage of "America's housing bust."

Next, the foreclosure crisis far from over. Just ask anyone who can't pay their mortgage right now. But it is worse in some cities and others. Reality track has been putting out top cities for foreclosures and there were five, you have Miami. Number four, Los Angeles, Chicago, number three. So what are those top two that break out? The only hint that I'm going to give you is this. They are both cities in the west. Stay with me. You have a guess, Mr. Myers?

MYERS: I have a guess.

BALDWIN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So before the break I went through the top cities for the number of foreclosures and Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, all making the top five. So you thought about this, I gave you the hint. The top two cities were out west. Did you think about it?

Here we go, number two is Phoenix and number two in the country for foreclosures at this moment. And the city with the dubious honor of having the most foreclosures is Las Vegas. A whopping 53 percent of all home sales in Vegas are from foreclosures.

You heard that right. More than half of everything sold is from a foreclosure. By the way, the national average is only 28 percent.

The old saying, the real estate saying, location, location, location, may not have as much bearings these days. Now in the buyer's market, the price you set is more important than ever. Here is CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lynda Nair's charming Maplewood, New Jersey home has a beautiful kitchen and renovated bathrooms and four bedrooms. But when she put it on the market for sale last month at $599,000, she found no buyers. Even though her broker, Carol Greenberg showed the home 16 times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there's lots of kids on this block.

CHERNOFF: What to do? Lynda divorced mother of two grown children who's looking to downsize didn't hesitate. She lowered her asking price by $20,000.

(on camera): Are you confident that it's going to go at this price?

LYNDA NAIR, HOME SELLER: No, not really, because of what the market is now.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): The market in much of the country remains sluggish. Lynda, a former realtor herself understands that she needs to be flexible. She followed Carol's advice to respond to the market's message. The original price was too high.

CAROL GREENBERG, TOWNE REALTY GROUP: The buyers are the ones who are going to set the price. You know, we could do as much as we can and when the buyers, when we have 16 showings in two weeks and no offers, what does that say? That says the buyers have rejected this price.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Most people have an attachment to their home and their neighborhood. But when it comes to selling, realtors say you have to take the emotion out of the sales equation.

(voice-over): By minimizing their emotions, sellers like Lynda can realistically assess what they need to do to make a sale at the best possible price.

NAIR: If I want to sell my house and move on, I have to put it where the market says it should be. I don't have a choice.

CHERNOFF: Another key to selling in this market says Greenberg is recognizing that buyers hope to get a deal by negotiating the seller down. So sellers have to allow for wiggle room.

Lynda Nair says she's willing to negotiate but only a bit, considering all the money she's spent on renovations.

NAIR: I'm not going to give that away just because the economy has turned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And let me follow up here with Allan Chernoff. Allan, you mentioned in your piece that Lynda, you know, decreased her price by 20 grand. Has she had any luck since then?

CHERNOFF: No, she has not, and she has lowered the price yet again. Now down to 550. That's originally 599 down to 550, a big decline. Brooke, that tells you a lot about the market. She's being aggressive. She's trying to get this home sold.

BALDWIN: You know, not a lot of people can be like her. It sounds like she can at least afford to be patient, but will that improve the price she gets if it just sits there?

CHERNOFF: That's right. She doesn't have to sell. She's not in a situation where she must do it right away. She could sit. But realtors say if you wait and wait and wait, generally it does not help you. You want to try to move that property so she's being aggressive, lowering that price.

BALDWIN: What is her downsizing plan, Allan?

CHERNOFF: Very interesting, Brooke. She's looking to sell the house in New Jersey, move down to Florida, buy a condo there for a fraction of the price and then she wants to be a gambler full time.

She wants to play at the casinos down in Florida. Brooke, I'm not sure I would recommend that as a retirement plan for most of our viewers.

BALDWIN: A little risky.

CHERNOFF: That's what Lynda wants to do. Absolutely, usually you don't take on risk in your retirement, but Lynda must be a pretty good card player.

BALDWIN: She must be. Our best to her that she can sell her house and live out that dream, I guess. Allan Chernoff, thank you so much.

And one month later here, people who knew Osama Bin Laden's wives and his children are speaking about their infamous neighbors. We'll have more on that.

Also trending today, the family with the genderless baby. Have you heard about this yet? The parents don't want to force societal norms on this child. They've called him/her Storm. So they're keeping his/her gender a secret. Mom is defending - you're going to hear her explanation ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Thanks for tuning in to CNN here on your Memorial Day. Let me bring you up to speed in some of the other top stories including in Libya, an apparent major blow today to leader Moammar Gadhafi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN (voice-over): CNN has learned that eight Army generals have defected. They're now in Italy. Gadhafi's military has been battling rebel forces in that country for weeks and weeks now. The opposition has said that there cannot be any sort of peace agreement as long as Gadhafi is still in power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In Serbia, the lawyer for Ratko Mladic wants the former Bosnian Serb general to be re-examined by a team of medical specialists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN (voice-over): He says the 69-year-old former commander is not healthy enough to face all of these charges of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague.

In the meantime, the chief prosecutor denies that Mladic is in poor health saying he's been, quote, "lively and joking since being taken into custody last week." Remember he is the man accused of overseeing the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys back in 1995.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Big, big news for Buckeye fans. Ohio State University said Jim Trussel, the head football coach has resigned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN (voice-over): The school fined Trussel $250,000 in March and suspended after he failed to report that some of his players may have violated some of those NCAAA rules. So now Assistant Coach Lou Fickel will serve as interim coach come next football season. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And very few people in the west have heard of the small town in Pakistan where al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is hiding out.

Well, now a month after his death, new details about the place are still hard, if not impossible to come by. CNN's Stan Grant has found that out for himself. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CNN STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One month on, killing Osama Bin Laden has not won America too many friends here. The shopkeeper lives less than 200 meters from where Bin Laden lived and died. He has more sympathy for the slain al Qaeda leader than foreigners, wearing at us, calling us pigs.

Are Muslims terrorists every way, he says. Actually America is the biggest terrorist. Others though are friendlier. This boy, Zara, approaches us with a story to tell.

He and his sister, Aza, befriended Bin Laden's youngest children and grandchildren. They say they were two boys, one girl, 7, 4 and 3- years-olds. Zara relives the cricket games he played with them. That's the white Bin Laden you can see behind us.

Contradicting reports that no outsiders have reached the Bin Laden security, Zara says he actually played inside the compound itself, getting a close look at a secret world. Despite being neighbors, the brother and sister, he didn't know the Bin Laden children's names.

The children told them their father was the family courier they called Nadeen. Only now that they know who their playmates really were. My grandmother asked in Pashto who is your father, Aza says, they say Nadeen. They always say Nadeen.

Through this brother and sister, we get to piece together daily life in the Bin Laden compound. Rather than speaking from local language, the Bin Laden's preferred Pashto, the language of the Afghanistan- Pakistan order.

They were normal family, friendly the children say. They never saw Osama Bin Laden. He remained well hidden. They did meet the Bin Laden wives. They were two aunties standing in the house, Zara says.

They asked me how was I, where did I live, what did my mother do. I told them my mother was a housewife. They wore ordinary Pakistani clothes. Zara says he noticed the women were different from other mothers in the neighborhood.

They spoke in a strange language he says, very poor (inaudible) and then I thought probably they were Arabic and the children were different too. Even in this Muslim community, they were especially devout.

They were very religious, Zara says. Whenever I went there to play, they ask me to wait until afternoon prayer and then they would stop playing later for evening prayer. Aza shows us pet rabbits, a gift from the Bin Laden family.

After everything she says, she misses her friends. They were young. They were beautiful. I really miss them. They were the only children we played with. Zara and Aza's father is a government official in the Justice Department.

Yet, Osama Bin Laden lived right next door and no one knew. The Bin Laden's lived this way for years in the heart of Abbottabad, a military city in the mountains, two hours' drive north from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Now the area is in lockdown. In recent days, it's been open to the CIA to collect material and information, but no such access for us. As we tried to get close, this is what happens. The police say they are under instructions to smash our camera to get us back and we weren't be going in further.

(on camera): Well, this is clearly as far as we're going to go. We're not going to get any closer to the Bin Laden compound. Here life continues as normal. Beyond here though, 200 meters or so away is the Bin Laden house. Still holding in so many of the secrets of his life here in Abbottabad.

OK, we're finished. Thank you very much. Thank you. Stan Grant, CNN, Abbottabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Stan, thank you. On this Memorial Day, it's a fitting day to remind all of you that more than 6,000 U.S. and coalition troops have died in both Afghanistan and Iraq, from all over the world, spanning all ages and on this Memorial Day you can honor them by learning who they were. Just go to cnn.com/casualties.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now time for our best video of the day. You've got to see this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN (voice-over): I want to you look at these cars racing in the Indy 500 just over this weekend. Just seconds away from the finish line, watch this with me, crashes into the wall. Who was driving?

That was a rookie mistake. Rookie driver J.R. Hildebrand, just 23 years old, was in line to win that thing. Instead, the number two driver Dan Wheldon ends up coming in first place for the Indy 500.

Now, I want you to watch this one with me. You know, growing up here in Atlanta, one of my favorite things to do was to go to the Braves' game dad with my dad. I always want one of the foul ball, maybe you did too, but this never happened to me. Watch the ball into the stands, watch it closely. I'm going to just stop talking. I want you to listen. You see this little boy, none too pleased with dad for leaping over him for the foul ball. Look at that face. At least dad brings home the baseball and maybe buys him a little cotton candy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now something else you have to see, a genderless baby. I want you to look at this bundle of joy. This baby is named Storm. But here's the story here. His-her parents -- and I say his-her, because they are not revealing the baby's gender at least for now.

Mom, Kathy Witterick says it started with her 5-year-old son, Jazz. So she says she has already seen that the pressure he gets to, quote, "act more like a boy." So when Jazz wondered if people would respond differently if they didn't know the baby's sex, she got an idea.

They decided to keep the gender private. She says it's about avoiding the inevitable gender stereotyping for at least a little while. I want to read you just part of an op-ed this mother wrote that appeared in the "Edmonton Journal." She wrote this, Storm has a sex which those closest to him/her know and acknowledge. We don't know yet about color preferences or dress inclinations, but the idea that the whole world must know our baby's sex strikes me as unhealthy, unsafe and voyeuristic.

Kathy's second child is a boy with a gender neutral name of Keo. We've tried reaching out to the parents. They so far don't want to talk.

The Memorial Day holiday traditionally kicks off the summer vacation season. But are you among the millions of Americans who don't use all of your vacation days? Take a look at this.

France mandates its workers to get 30 days off a year. Germans get more than four weeks. In the states, as you know, there is no mandate to take vacations and now typically Americans get, you know, two, maybe three weeks off a year, yet barely half of us take all of them.

While nearly 90 percent of French workers take every single day. Kind of makes you a little jealous perhaps, but workers do in other industrial countries. We have reports here on two of them. This is from our Paula Hancock in Seoul and Kyung Lah in Tokyo. Here's Kyung in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the image that the world has of the Japanese worker, serious and buttoned up and a very hard worker. I'm Kyung Lah in Tokyo. Guess what, everybody that stereotype is true.

According to Japan's government, the average Japanese worker gets 18 paid holidays a year but half, 50 percent of those workers take only eight of those 18 days. That's less than half of their paid vacation. The reason why?

There's this long standing notion incorporate Japan that if you take all of your vacation days, you are lazy. You're considered a better employee if you leave those vacation days on the table. Little wonder that there is a legal term here in Japan called Karochi, which means death by overwork.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Hancocks in Seoul. The fact Koreans are one of the hardest working people in the world to be considered workaholic here is almost like a badge of honor.

According to recent figures from the OECD, in 2009, South Koreans worked an average of 52-hour work week. That's compared to a 34-hour work week in the United States so you would assume that vacations would be very precious, but not so.

According to government figures last year, almost half of all vacation days were simply not taken. Forty eight percent of days off were worked through. Now, one of the reasons for this could be that it's quite a higher society.

It is frowned upon to actually arrive at work after your boss or leave work before your boss and even if your work is done, it's considered a good idea to stay and be seen to stay so that you can get ahead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And we have this reminder for all of you that need to know about planning vacations, where to go, what to pack, the dos and don'ts of vacation, head to our website. Go to cnn.com/travel. It is all there.

And when we come back, I have one final tribute for you on this Memorial Day. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's look ahead and get tomorrow's news today. Let's fast forward beginning with Cindy Anthony. She will take the stand yet again tomorrow in the Florida trial of her daughter Casey Anthony.

Casey was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-year- old toddler daughter, Caylee. Just this past Saturday, Casey started balling in court when her mother testified about the explanation she's received from Casey in the month after her granddaughter went missing.

Also tomorrow, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, we go in depth on medication at nation. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will explain why testing new pills for you, Americans is quite often times done outside of the U.S.

But as we wrap up on this special day of remembrance, I want to take you to the nation's capital now and a look at the services our president and military leaders took part in today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIKE CARROLL, COMBAT VETERAN: It's a frightening thing for human beings to think that they could die and that no one would know to mark their graves.

NICKI BUNTING, WIDOW OF FALLEN SERVICEMAN: I want to realize that these are not just graves, they are real people and they have real families and lives and husbands and children and friends.

ADMIRAL MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: The best of the life lies here, but that the best of who we are Americans lies in our own hearts and in our own actions.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice and we must. We must honor it in our own lives by holding their memories close to our hearts and heeding the example that they set. And we must honor it as a nation by keeping our sacred trust with all who wear America's uniform and the families who love them.

ERIK CASTILLO: I respect an honor them and if I were they, I would do the same thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Thank you. And now "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Candy Crowley starts right now.