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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Aruba Search Continues; Schiavo Autopsy Results; Earthquakes Related?
Aired June 15, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Kitty, thanks.
New developments in the search for Natalee Holloway. Police focusing in on a suspect. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(voice-over): The search for Natalee intensifies as the three suspects reportedly turn on each other. Tonight, the latest on the case, and the parents of teens still partying hard on Aruba speak out about their daughters are up to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach! And they make you want to have sex on the beach.
COOPER: Terri Schiavo's autopsy report finally revealed. Brain- dead, blind, her condition was irreversible. Tonight, the truth about Terri Schiavo.
A quake off the California coast triggers a tsunami warning. Tonight, are the two recent quakes connected, and is the U.S. really ready for a killer tsunami?
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): We begin tonight in Aruba where the frustrating search for a missing American teen has intensified. There are new developments at this hour in the search for Natalee Holloway, the straight-A student who disappeared May 30th during her senior class trip to the island.
Today, the three young men being held in connection with the case appeared in court and the Associated Press says police seized two cars from the home of the one of the suspects. Following all the developments, CNN's Karl Penhaul who's had this very latest now (ph) from Palm Beach, Aruba. Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, law enforcement sources close to this investigation say the three young suspects in this case are pointing fingers at one another during interrogations. It seems to be as a result of that, the police and investigators swooped on the house of Joran van der Sloot. He's in custody, but the house belongs to his parents. His father's a judge. Now, police spent about two hours there. They seized bags and various items which we weren't able to identify. They also took away two cars from that house. As you say also, earlier in the day the three suspects did appear in court. A judge has heard a motion that would allow Joran van der Sloot's father to visit him in -- whilst he's in jail, and also another motion from other defense attorneys to get more evidence so that they can prepare the defense for their clients. Anderson?
COOPER: Karl, you know, a lot of people here don't -- can't figure out why it is so difficult to search for this young girl, to find this young girl. We just learned yesterday, the first time they actually brought in dogs. I think a lot of people would've assumed they brought in canine units long ago. This thing has been going on for more than two weeks. What is so tough about the search?
PENHAUL: Well, it is a tiny island, as you say, 19 miles by six miles wide at its widest point. But to try and answer that question, just a few moments ago, we've just got off a helicopter with the -- one of the search leaders, Reuben Cruise (ph), and he was explaining to us as we overflew the island some of the key points here on why it has been so difficult to search.
Up at the northwest tip there's an area of wide sandy dunes. He says, that in the past years, there have been bodies of people that have got lost and those bodies have disappeared for weeks, months, and in some cases, even years, Anderson. There's also, on the northern coast, an area of very rugged, rocky shoreline. He says, if an object was dumped in the sea there, it would automatically float back into the sea. Not so on the western side. He says, there, if you can manage to get out about 100 yards and dump an object into the sea, that object would then float out into the open ocean.
Go a little further around the island, and inland a little bit, and there's some very hard ground, very rugged, covered by cactus, and Reuben Cruise says there, if you were to try and dig a hole to bury any object, it would take several hours. The ground is too hard. But travel a little further around the island, there's a number of disused mine shafts. He says those were -- became disused about a hundred years ago, but they're now flooded by sea water, and he says those are very deep. He does suggest that they have been searched in some fashion so far, he says, but it's going to take a long time, and he says, sometimes, especially in the past in his experience, when a body has gone out to sea, that it, sometimes, has not been found. Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Karl Penhaul, appreciate the explanation. We'll check in with you a little bit later tonight. Developments moving fast on that island. Later on on 360, we're going to talk with Natalee's father and her stepmom about the investigation, whether they're satisfied with the pace of it, and their continuing search themselves.
Also ahead tonight, American teens continue to party hard in Aruba. We followed, last night, a teen homecoming queen named Ali (ph) as she spent a night on the town, drinking in the exact spot where Natalee was last seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closing time, the homecoming queen seems a little worse for wear. What's she been drinking?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach. It may make you want to have sex on the beach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, later on 360, we're going to talk to Nat -- that girl's parents -- Ali's parents, and find out if they are concerned about their daughter's late nights on Aruba.
In Florida today, an end to some of the questions about the life and death of Terri Schiavo: the results of her autopsy were, today, finally released. CNN's Susan Candiotti investigates the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Doctors say they don't know why a heart-healthy Terri Schiavo suddenly collapsed 15 years ago.
DR. JOHN THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Her brain suffered damage from lack of blood flow and oxygen, the cause of which cannot be determined with reasonable medical certainty.
CANDIOTTI: The chief medical examiner says Schiavo's brain injuries were beyond repair.
THOGMARTIN: The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. This was due to diffuse, hypoxic, ischemic damage. There was massive neuronal loss or death. This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.
CANDIOTTI: After years of speculation that Terri Schiavo's husband may have physically attacked her, an autopsy also laid that to rest.
THOGMARTIN: No evidence of strangulation was found. No evidence of trauma whatsoever was noted by the physicians during her initial hospitalization.
CANDIOTTI: Pathologists say the young woman may have been dieting, but nothing in their investigation turned up any hard evidence of eating disorders or drugs that could have caused her heart to stop at age 26.
Though home videos appear to show Terri Schiavo making eye contact with her family, doctors call it impossible.
THOGMARTIN: Her vision centers of her brain were dead. Therefore, Mrs. Schiavo had what's called cortical blindness. She was blind, could not see. CANDIOTTI: Pathologists don't rule out some interaction, but say it's unlikely, given the extent of Schiavo's brain damage.
SGT. PHILLIP BREWER, ST. PETERSBURG POLICE DEPT.: This was just one more call, at the time.
CANDIOTTI: Among those anxious to hear Terri Schiavo's autopsy, the former patrolman who rushed to her apartment 15 years ago for a medical emergency. Sergeant Phil Brewer questioned Michael Schiavo.
BREWER: He said that he either awakened to the sound of a thud, or had just awakened and then heard a thud, thought his wife may have fallen.
CANDIOTTI: Since Terri Schiavo couldn't talk, the officer examined her at the hospital and found no signs of violence.
Do you think something criminal went on that night?
BREWER: I don't think anything criminal went on that night.
CANDIOTTI: The officer says he found Michael Schiavo credible.
BREWER: I have nothing to indicate that he wasn't straight with me.
CANDIOTTI: What amazed pathologists is that Terri Schiavo survived at all that day 15 years ago. When paramedics rushed to her side it took an hour to get her heart beating again.
THOGMARTIN: She went for, you know, really over an hour without, really, a blood pressure, and it's just a miracle that she was able to come back at all.
CANDIOTTI: Michael Schiavo pulled his wife's feeding tube after a court agreed he was following her wishes. An autopsy said she died of dehydration, not starvation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Terri Schiavo was cremated in April. Her hus -- her remains have not yet been buried, for now, why her heart stopped beating is an unsolved mystery. Anderson?
COOPER: Susan Candiotti, thanks.
In those dark, difficult days when the country and the courts and the Congress debated the fate of Terri Schiavo, a lot of claims were made on cable TV and where else. Doctors and supporters of Terri Schiavo's parents said she was responsive. She was crying out for help, in one case. Some even said she'd been strangled, or injected with substances.
Today, no evidence of any of that was found. Terri Schiavo was blind, as you just heard the medical examiner saying. The vision centers of her brain were dead. Her brain weighed only 1.35 pounds, less than half of what it should've in a woman of her age. Her condition consistent with a persistent vegetative state, they've said.
Jay Wolfson was Terri Schiavo's court-appointed guardian. He's now a professor at the University of South Florida, and all during this debate, we talked to him and we found him always to be a voice of reason. He joins us again tonight.
Jay, good to see you. The night before Terri Schiavo died, when I was in Pinellas Park, I spoke to a doctor who treated Schiavo in 2002. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: She did respond to me when I saw her, and apparently she still is responding to people. You know, she looks at you. She focuses on you. She focuses on other people around you. I would ask her to do things and she would do things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Was this just wishful thinking?
JAY WOLFSON, FMR SCHIAVO LEGAL GUARDIAN: As we discussed last time, Anderson, it's very difficult when you're in this tragic situation. The parents, the family, all of us were caught up in the life of this extraordinary young lady who touched us. I don't know if we touched her very well. But she certainly touched us. And Dr. Hammesfahr has a belief and wish, as many of us did -- we hope that something would have happened. Her mother and her father hoped. During the many hours that I spent with her, I was not able to elicit those kinds of responses.
But, as we discussed last time, and for may other times, hope is an extraordinary powerful thing in these cases
COOPER: You know, it's interesting, Dr. Hammesfahr appeared on a lot of cable TV programs during the debate on this, made a lot of claims. We asked him to comment tonight. Interestingly, he said he had no comment about the result of today's autopsy.
An attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents spoke out after the autopsy report was released. Let's play what he had to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terri Schiavo was not in an "end of life" situation. The decision was made to end her life. And it was done we believe a barbaric manner, starving her to death, with her family, with her parents literally begging the world, begging Michael Schiavo, begging the courts for the life of their loved one, their daughter Terri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: As I recall, I think he has previously said that Terri Schiavo had been the one begging. Now he's saying it's the family. The medical examiner did say that Schiavo could have lived another 10 years. Would her condition ever have improved?
WOLFSON: Not from what the medical evidence indicates, Anderson. She would have remained exactly the same, or she might have declined a little bit. Had she gotten a cold or an infection or pneumonia, she could have died from it.
But you know, I think it's important to go beyond what we've learned in the case. This medical examiner's report is important, because I think it closes the door. Michael didn't have to agree to an autopsy, and he did. And I'm glad that he did, because it takes the medical science and the good law that was applied and it puts it into one place. And hopefully, it closes the door on this.
But the lesson that we have to learn from Terri -- and I hope we don't continue to revisit the allegations and the bad feelings. The Schindlers, hopefully, can move on. Michael can move on. The rest of us can move on.
But Terri grabbed all of us in an important way. And maybe she helped us to realize how important it is for us to take responsibility for our lives, something that she wasn't able to do early on. She and Michael didn't write living wills. They didn't have healthcare surrogates. Hopefully, many more Americans have, as a consequence of this, to make their intentions known. And beyond that, to recognize that we are in a period in our country's history when really tough decisions have to be made about the allocation of increasingly scarce resources for all the of us.
COOPER: There really are no winners or losers, right?
WOLFSON: No, there's not. This remains a tragic issue, tragic for all of us There were no winners.
COOPER: And I guess -- as you said, the best that can come out of this for others is making your own decisions and putting the things in place: a living will, a health care proxy, talking to attorneys and your family.
WOLFSON: And do it according to law in your state. Because, Anderson, the laws are different in different states. Had Terri been living in Missouri, she'd still be alive. Had she been living in New York or New Jersey, she'd still be alive, because the guardianship laws in those states are different than they are in Florida.
But the law was applied carefully, meticulously and thoughtfully in Florida. And the medical evidence that was presented early on was, again, captured in this final report of the medical examiner to indicate that there was no reasonable medical hope. That does not help the Schindlers and the loss and the grief that they feel.
COOPER: Jay -- you know, this is a personal question and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Do you think about her still? I mean, you know in the world of cable TV, people move on, and life moves on. You spent a lot of time with her, probably more time than most people. Do you still think of her? WOLFSON: Golly, yes. I don't think a day goes by, Anderson, when I don't see her face, when I don't at some point in my heart, say, Terri, I wish you could have given me some sign that I could have heard and felt. And even though I felt that she touched me, I felt that she was touching me from some place else.
COOPER: Jay. It's always good to talk to you. And we appreciate you coming on tonight. Thank you very much.
WOLFSON: My pleasure, Anderson. Be well.
COOPER: Jay Wolfson, you too.
This is what Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobbi Schindler, had to say about today's developments. I quote, "The autopsy report only raises more questions in regards to the reason Terri collapsed. The doctors eliminated bulimia and a heart attack. We still do not know what caused her collapse."
Coming up tonight on 360, the latest on the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway. Developments moving along there. We're going to talk with Natalee's father and her stepmother. Also ahead, we mentioned a look at the life -- the party scene that is still going on on Aruba.
Plus, can change really happen in Iran? Elections are this week, and women are hoping they will spark reform. Christiane Amanpour is there. We'll take you inside.
Plus, a California earthquake rattling fears of a tsunami. We've seen a lot of activity in the Pacific Rim. What is going on there? Are the quakes connected? We'll investigate.
All that ahead, but first let's look at your picks -- the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the shaking has stopped, but the nerves are still rattled after last night's powerful quake in Northern California. The magnitude 7.2 quake was strong enough to set off tsunami warning sirens in Crescent City. Here's what it sounded like, let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that?
Sierra, come here.
Sierra.
What is that? Come here, let's get in the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The quake was in the ocean off the coast of California. The sirens and the earthquake just the latest indications from deep within the Earth that the Ring of Fire surrounding the Pacific Rim may be heating up. CNN's Peter Viles investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shakes the California desert. Monday, it's a 7.8 shaker in Northern Chile. Tuesday morning, a swarm of quakes in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the biggest a 6.8. And then Tuesday night, tsunami fears after a 7.2 quake off the coast of Northern California.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come here, let's get in the car.
VILES: What's going on here? Is this all a coincidence or a dangerous pattern in the giant quake and volcano zone that's known as the Ring of Fire? The official government explanation from the U.S. Geological Survey is that it's all a coincidence. But other experts aren't so sure.
Kate Hutton is known as the Earthquake Lady in southern California.
KATE HUTTON, CALTECH: And Crescent City is right in here.
VILES: She says it's possible that these quakes are actually triggering each other.
HUTTON: Where one very large earthquake such as the 7.8 in Chile yesterday sends out very strong seismic waves that pass through the crust. If it encounters a fault, which is about ready to break anyway, it might set it off. And we're looking into that to explain why we've had so many earthquakes in the last day.
VILES; And at the University of Southern California -- which helped produce this model of a quake underneath downtown L.A. -- one expert says it's possible the quakes are all part of a single event up and down the massive Pacific Plate.
TOM HENYEY, USC GEOPHYSICIST: These three earthquakes that have occurred recently are all along the margin of the Pacific Plate. And it's possible that the Pacific Plate has moved as a unit very suddenly all at once. And these earthquakes occurred where the stresses happen to be high.
VILES (on camera): Now, both this trigger theory and this Pacific Plate theory are just that -- they're just theories. And even if they're true, they don't really help us answer the question that most of us answered. And that is, what, if anything, does this cluster of earthquakes tell us about whether a bigger earthquake is on the way?
Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS following a couple of other stories for us tonight, about 20 past the hour.
Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, ANCHOR, HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.
We start off with some investigations tonight; this after a Marine Harrier jet crashed in a residential area in Yuma, Arizona. No injuries have been reported on the ground. We do know the pilot ejected and landed about a mile from the crash site and is receiving medical treatment. No word on just what caused that accident.
In Middletown, Connecticut, a deadly shooting outside a courthouse: Investigators say a former state trooper shot and killed his ex-wife, wounded her lawyer, then shot himself on a parking deck. Police say the lawyer is in stable condition. The shooter is listed as critical. All three were expected in court for a civil proceeding.
In Waco, Texas, a confessed murderer sentenced: Former Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson faces 35 years in prison for killing his teammate two years ago. The parents of the victim say Dotson should spend the rest of his life in prison.
In California, some boos for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as he delivered a graduation speech at his alma mater, Santa Monica College. Throughout the 15-minute speech, protectors dished out distracting chants and whistles. They're outraged at Schwarzenegger's education policies and plans to hold a special election.
And in Hereford, England, some sad news tonight: Death, separating the world's longest married couple. Percy Arrowsmith, who recently celebrated his 80th wedding anniversary with his wife Florence, has died. He was 105 years old.
The couple's secret to a long marriage: Never going to bed angry at each other and Percy often said, "Yes, dear."
So sweet. I was so sad when I heard about that.
COOPER: That is so sad. Eighty years together; that is just incredible.
HILL: It's amazing.
COOPER: Yes. God, that's just amazing.
Well, what a life.
Erica Hill, thanks.
We'll see you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on 360, the push for more freedom in Iran: Could Friday's elections actually lead to more women's rights? We go inside in a struggle in a country often at odds with the U.S. Also tonight, the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway: We're going to talk with her father and her stepmother about what they think of the pace of the investigation.
Also, a little bit later tonight: The partying in Aruba continues. Tonight we talk with the parents of a homecoming queen who is having, well, a lot of late nights there on Aruba.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In America, the fight for gender equality has been waged for decades. If you'd look at salary scales, you'll see that the glass ceiling still exists in a lot of business and even our government is still heavily dominated by men.
But look ahead to 2008, already many people are saying a woman, Senator Hillary Clinton, has the best shot to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
It's a much different story in Iran, which is holding a presidential election on Friday. There, women aren't even allowed on the ballot. Now, some are hoping this election will spark change, but change moves very slowly in Iran.
CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is there for tonight's "World in 360."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Goldshifteh Farahani is 21 years old. She's been an actress since she was 14 and rarely out of work. Iran has a thriving film industry and her movies pack the cinemas and reaped awards.
GOLDSHIFTEH FARAHANI, ACTRESS: I like work in Iran. I like it because I think it makes me more creative because of these, you know...
AMANPOUR: She's trying to say pressures and limitations: political, religious and social that force everyone here, especially the women, into subtle forms of self-expression. Her latest film was released this week, but Goldshifteh knows that her career flourishes at the pleasures of the authorities. Like many Iranian women, she hopes their next president will give women more rights, especially legal rights.
FARAHANI: I think the problem is: It's not only the government and system that doesn't give enough rights for the women; even the women themselves, they don't give -- they don't know their rights. They don't know it. So I think that's the real problem.
AMANPOUR: But women's rights advocates point out that all the women who try to register as candidates for this presidential election were disqualified by the guardian council, which vets all contenders. (on camera): And this week groups of professional women and students held their first public demonstration since the veil was made obligatory 26 years ago. This time, they're demanding their next president improve women's status.
(voice-over): Authorities allow women to wear ever-tighter overcoats, show ever more hair and makeup and they tolerate women like Laleh Seddigh competing in car races. But she, too, believes that women should pursue their rights more.
LALEH SEDDIGH, RACE-CAR DRIVER: If they ask for their rights, for sure they will achieve it and I hope so.
AMANPOUR: Do you think it's that easy?
SEDDIGH: For sure, no. But they must try if they want to be successful and everything
AMANPOUR: For now, though, many Iranian women seem more interested in improving their daily lives rather than risking them on political activism. Women who have always turned out to the polls wonder this time: Will they vote?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I will because I love my country and it's my right to participate in what belongs to me.
AMANPOUR: But still they ask: Will it make a difference?
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Tehran, Iran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The parents of teens still partying hard on Aruba speak out about what their daughters are up to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the Beach and they make you want to have sex on the beach.
COOPER: A comatose mom kept alive to save her unborn child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan would love walk through hell and back just to give her child a chance.
COOPER: Tonight, a mother's race against time.
360 continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER; I want to update you know on our top story this evening: the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway who vanished on May 30. Three suspects have been arrested. According to the Associated Press, police removed two cars from the house of one of those suspects. They also searched his home.
Sources tell CNN, the suspects are now pointing the fingers at each other. And last night, a former suspect, a man no cleared, told us that in jail, one of the current suspects admitted he had lied to police about what happened to Natalee.
Joining us from Aruba live are Natalee's father and stepmother Dave and Robin Holloway. Appreciate both of you being with us. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you and with Natalee.
Dave, there has been a lot of search activity over the last 20, 48 hours or so. What, if anything, are authorities telling you tonight?
DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: Well, last night they searched the area north of the Marriott. They drained the pond and came up with nothing.
We heard later on today, they searched the home and removed two vehicles.
COOPER: And have you been told any specifics about what might have come from the search of that home and the vehicles?
D. HOLLOWAY: Not yet. I'm sure, we'll get an update later on this evening.
COOPER: Robin, are you pleased with the pace of the investigation? I guess pleased is the wrong -- are you satisfied what has been done thus far? Personally, I was surprised to hear that it was only yesterday that a search dog was involved in the search. And that was for the first time.
ROBIN HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S STEPMOTHER: We've been told the search dogs were here, but they have to have a specific area to look. So, I mean -- we're positive that will help.
But we're just- - I was pleased to see the extent of the investigation. Yesterday, the search. We realized all of the equipment that's been brought in. And, I mean, we just have to have faith in that.
COOPER: Dave, I talked yesterday to one of the security guards who had been a suspect, who had released, cleared of all charges. And he told me in prison while in jail, he was in a cell next to these three suspects who is still there and that suspect admitted that he had lied to police initially. Were you surprised when you heard that? Or, I mean, have you zeroed in pretty much on these three young men in custody?
D. HOLLOWAY: Well, I was kind of surprised that he had a positive attitude about being detained for several days. And the last comment I heard was that he wanted resolution of this case just as much as anyone else here does.
The people here have been absolutely amazing. We've been with Red Cross on some occasions, and those ladies have been awesome. And it's truly, the whole island wants to be helpful and wants resolution to this case.
COOPER: Yeah. We've been getting a lot of e-mail from viewers on Aruba who are obviously following this closely and are concerned as well. And want to find Natalee as quickly as possible. How do you two get through every day? I mean, I just can't imagine what this has been like for you. What are your days like?
D. HOLLOWAY: Well, when I left Meridian, Mississippi -- oh, just over two weeks ago -- I met with my pastor. And we had a prayer over the phone. And one thing I keep in the back of my mind when I go through one of these low points is that we ask that God give us the strength, me and my family and friends and everyone else to continue on.
And every time that we hit the brick wall or whatever, I just keep that in the back of my mind, and that's what keeps us going. That, and family support.
COOPER: Well, I hope you know that you have the support of people around the country, really around the world who have been following this. And a lot of prayers out there for you and for Robin and for Natalee and everyone else involved. We wish you the best. And we hope you hear good news soon.
D. HOLLOWAY: Yeah. I do, too.
COOPER: We appreciate you joining us. I know it's been a busy day for you. Thanks very much.
Robin and Dave Holloway, the father and stepmom of Natalee Holloway.
Coming up next on 360, while the investigation in the search for Natalee continue, so does the partying. It's another side of Aruba, American teens making the most of the low drinking age there, letting loose at the same night spots where Natalee went. I'll talk to the parents of one of those teens.
Plus, a happy day for this Australian man held hostage in Iraq. Good news our of Iraq tonight. For more than six weeks, he was held hostage. He is free. A remarkable rescue effort by U.S. and Iraqi authorities. We'll tell you how it happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Just days after Natalee Holloway disappeared, another group of American teenagers travelled to Aruba, staying in the very hotel where Natalee stayed. They were there to have fun and to party, and yesterday, we introduced you to one of them. Her name is Ali. She let CNN's cameras follow her and her friends around the island and if you thought the disappearance of one American teen would stop others from partying hard, you'd be wrong. A short time ago, we talked with Ali's parents, John and Janet D'Orsi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
John and Janet, we first aired this story last night. Let's watch it and then after the story, we'll talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:: One, two, three!
PENHAUL (voice-over): School's out for Stoneham High's class of 2005. It's time for cocktails, a splash of sun, sea and something exotic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a great time.
PENHAUL: They paid $1,500 each for this all-inclusive graduation trip from Boston. They're at the same hotel where Natalee Holloway stayed.
Meet homecoming queen, Ali.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we going to go Iguana Joe's or Mambo Jambo or Carlos 'N Charlie's?
PENHAUL: Time to get ready. Toni's (ph) in demand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rachel, sit down. It's time to do makeup.
PENHAUL (on camera): You're on holiday. You're here to have fun, and I'm sure you're here to blow off some steam. You've been working hard all year. Is that about the short and tall of it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're here to have fun and start our last summer really all together.
PENHAUL: What did you start to think when you saw the case about Natalee? Did any of you have second thoughts?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our parents had heart attacks (ph).
PENHAUL: What have they been saying?
UNIDENITFIED FEMALE: Don't go. They said, if you do go, don't go to Carlos'N Charlie's, blah, blah, blah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After what happened with Natalee, I think we're trying to stay away from people outside of our group.
PENHAUL (voice-over): The gang's planning on hitting Carlos 'N Charlie's, where Natalee Holloway was last seen. But haven't parents banned them from there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom doesn't know we're here.
PENHAUL: Unlike Natalee Holloway's group, there's no chaperones here but they've set up their own buddy system.
On the bus and the party's already kicking off.
It's going to be a wild one. Toni (ph) shares her photos with us. It's a booze and boogie wonderland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six nights a week, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When any guy came near one of us, all of the guys were around ready to stop them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here and the party's right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go every night, dude.
PENHAUL: Closing time, the homecoming queen seems a little worse for wear. What's she been drinking?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach, and they make you want to have sex on the beach.
PENHAUL: What about Mike, the high school soccer MVP?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be back tomorrow.
PENHAUL: Steve's been drinking yards of beer. He'd be the first to admit he's only just holding it together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, amazing. It was awesome. We had a good time -- a lot of girls, a lot of drinks. Carlos 'N Charlie's is the best bar ever -- best bar.
The taxi's waiting for us. We gotta go. You're my boy, you're my boy.
PENHAUL: The buddy system seems to be in chaos.
Lindsey (ph) thinks the numbers add up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're the Army. We never leave a man behind.
Ali (ph) seems less sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The buddy system works beautifully, but my buddy's not with me. I got a new buddy.
PENHAUL: At this moment it's almost two weeks to the minute since Natalee Holloway was last seen.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Arandastat (ph), Aruba.
COOPER: I guess no one likes to see their kid out partying. We should point out, as you will point out, that Ali is going to BU in the fall, homecoming queen, honor student, a great student and clearly has a great future ahead of her.
Did you have any concerns about her going for Aruba, given what happened to Natalee?
JOHN D'ORSI, ALI'S FATHER: Well, you know, both my wife and I have been to Aruba. We always felt that Aruba was a very safe place to go to and I was glad the children close Aruba to go to. I think Ali would go back to Aruba, and I would go back to Aruba.
COOPER: I think I heard you say, while you were watching the piece, oh, Ali.
JOHN D'ORSI: Well, you know, I know Ali and Ali's a very good kid, as well as every one of those kids down there. I've known them all since they've been in grammar school and I know they're all looking out for each other. They may say -- they may have said their buddy system was falling apart, but I know them well enough that, like one of them said, they're not leaving anybody behind.
JANET D'ORSI, ALI'S MOTHER: And Ali's a comedian. She does have a very funny personality, and that phrase is something funny Ali would say.
COOPER: You'd have no problems going down yourself? You've been there yourself. Do you plan on going again?
JANET D'ORSI: Oh, abso -- oh, definitely.
JOHN D'ORSI: I plan on going again.
JANET D'ORSI: We have a time share there. We're going.
COOPER: Well, John and Janet, we appreciate you joining us, and I know -- I'm sure when Ali gets back, you'll have a lot to talk about.
JOHN D'ORSI: Well, thank you.
JANET D'ORSI: We sure will.
COOPER: I bet you will. Thanks very much. It was good to talk to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: They're good sports. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest about at a quarter to the hour.
HILL: They are good sports. Just throwing Ali under the bus there, Anderson.
COOPER: What? No, we weren't. Please. I'm not even going to -- she's 18-years-old and can do exactly what she wants.
HILL: Exactly, and we've all been 18 before.
COOPER: Hey, I'm not casting judgment.
HILL: No, no, no, me either. Ah, all right, moving on. You want some news, right? That's what I have for you.
Australian Douglas Wood is a free man tonight -- talk about good news here -- after he Iraqi militants held him hostage for six-and-a- half weeks. Iraqi soldiers found Wood today. He was tied up under a blanket in a house in northwest Baghdad. A top Iraqi military official said insurgents had told soldiers that their hostage was a sick relative. Wood's now getting medical care. He's said to be as well as you'd expect, considering the circumstances.
Out to Madrid, Spain, where police have rounded up 16 suspected Islamic terrorists, five of them linked to last year's train bombings in Madrid, while 11 have alleged ties to the network of Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
In Washington, former White House environmental aide Phillip Cooney is going to the world's biggest oil company, Exxon Mobile, to work in its public affairs and communications department. The White House says Cooney resigned on Friday, two days after "The New York Times" revealed he'd edited reports, downplaying the effects of greenhouse gases. Now the White House says the resignation had nothing to do with the reports.
And the "Rocket Man," now the chocolate man. Britain's Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum has sculpted a life-size of Elton John out of 227 pounds of Cadbury's chocolate. Sir Elton was the top pick in a Cadbury survey -- that's amazing, that detail -- on the Cadbury survey, who would be the best celebrity to be made out of chocolate? And, I think that's when you know you've made it.
COOPER: Yes, I love that they had a survey, who would be the best celebrity to be made out of chocolate? Do they call people up and just randomly ask that? I actually have -- I have two celebrities who I'd rather see made out of chocolate. You know -- you want to see you they are?
HILL: Really?
COOPER: Yeah, one is Iggy Pop. That's Iggy Pop there, made out of chocolate And also I think, Keith Richards. Who wouldn't want to eat a Keith Richard pop?
HILL: Ah, that would be tasty. Yeah, it would be like smoked chocolate.
COOPER: I'm leave that one alone. Erica Hill, thanks very much -- 360 next, a remarkable story, a mother's wish to stay alive long enough to save the child inside her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Today, we learned the autopsy results of Terri Schiavo. And it reminded us that there are many stories of families facing impossible choices. Tonight, you're going to meet a mother trying to save her unborn child. The mother is in a coma and sadly beyond saving herself. For her child, however, there is still hope. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susan and Jason Torres weren't too worried, but in May when she was three months pregnant with they're second child, she started getting headaches.
JASON TORRES, HUSBAND: We had gone around and gone to a couple of doctors and tried to figure stuff out. And she was dehydrated and things like that. And so, they said, you know, go home, feed her, drunk juice.
COHEN: So Jason took care of his wife, told her to lay down and rest. When he brought her something to eat...
TORRES: She was lying in bed. And I was talking to her, trying to get her to eat some more. Then, all of a sudden, she just stopped.
COHEN: Susan had had a stroke. Cancer had attacked her brain. It was too late to save her life. But they can, and they are, keeping her body functioning on a ventilator. But there's a risk, the melanoma that started in her skin and attacked her brain could also attack her baby.
DR. DAVID LAWSON, ONCOLOGIST, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Once it's in the blood stream, it can go almost anywhere -- melanoma.
COHEN: For Jason there was only one course of action.
TORRES: If you have a chance to save your child's life, you're going to do it. And I know for a fact that Susan would do whatever she needed to do just to give her child the chance.
COHEN: And now Jason hopes that their second child, due October 31 will stay in his wife's belly until at least July 11, to 25 weeks gestation.
DR. STEPHEN WEISS, OB/GYB, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Our good modern nursery care can save babies reliably starting at about 25 weeks.
COHEN: Jason's hopes are for his baby, since he knows, he's lost his wife.
TORRES: It sounds kind of hackneyed, but one day at a time.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: One day at a time, indeed.
Let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour, on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Hey, Paula.
PAUL ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Anderson. Thanks so much.
In about seven minutes from now, the story of one extraordinary family's devotion to their country and to each other. For the past year, our own Alex Quaid has been checking in with four brothers from Idaho all in the National Guard, all of them deployed at the same time to Iraq. We're going to follow them from the homefront, through training, to the front lines.
Brothers in arms, at the top of the hour. And I guess the more remarkable part of the story, Anderson, is that their father has returned from Iraq, as well as another brother. So, six members of one family serving our country in Iraq.
COOPER: Incredible. Definitely want to see that about six minutes from now. Thanks, Paula.
Coming up next on 360, Wal-Mart is about to take something off the shelves, something that changed the world. We'll tell you why ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight, a sad occasion to the "Nth Degree."
Settle down, please, this is not going to be easy. Farewells never are, and that's why we're gathered here this evening, ladies and gentleman, to bid farewell to a friend we took into our homes not quite 30 years ago. Only, 30 years, and here already, it's time to say good-bye to this, the VHS video cassette.
As of today, Wal-Mart and Target have joined Best Buy and Circuit City, except for the latest releases, they'll no longer carry movies on VHS.
Soon enough, the black, plastic box full of magnetic tape will be no more. But consider what it's done for us. Films are like books now. They line our shelves, and we can reach for them whenever we want. That was not true before the VHS cassette. Only Hollywood big wigs with they're own screening rooms could watch movies whenever they felt like it. Now we all can and do.
And we document our lives in color with sound, it seems, minute by minute. We couldn't do that either until the cassette and camcorder came along.
Hollywood entered the age of the talkie in the late 20's, the rest of the country didn't follow suit for another 50 years.
That was me in the Barney costume before. It's all digital now, of course, silver disks with mysterious 1s and 0s encoded on them. Movies and the moments of our lives as easy to cut and paste as clippings. But the age began with this -- thanks for the memories, VHS.
And with every passing, of course, there is a birth. And tonight we have one in our own family here at CNN to report about. Meet the next Dr. Gupta. Sage Ayla Gupta entered the world at 7:01 this morning.
Everybody, awe! CROWD: Awe.
COOPER: Sanjay tells us the baby and her mother are healthy and beautiful. As you can tell by the photos, she is certainly beautiful. And we wish them all the best. What a treat for Sanjay and his wife. Just in time for Father's Day. Sage Ayla Gupta, welcome to the world.
I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks very much for watching 360 this evening. CNN's primetime coverage continues now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 15, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Kitty, thanks.
New developments in the search for Natalee Holloway. Police focusing in on a suspect. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(voice-over): The search for Natalee intensifies as the three suspects reportedly turn on each other. Tonight, the latest on the case, and the parents of teens still partying hard on Aruba speak out about their daughters are up to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach! And they make you want to have sex on the beach.
COOPER: Terri Schiavo's autopsy report finally revealed. Brain- dead, blind, her condition was irreversible. Tonight, the truth about Terri Schiavo.
A quake off the California coast triggers a tsunami warning. Tonight, are the two recent quakes connected, and is the U.S. really ready for a killer tsunami?
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): We begin tonight in Aruba where the frustrating search for a missing American teen has intensified. There are new developments at this hour in the search for Natalee Holloway, the straight-A student who disappeared May 30th during her senior class trip to the island.
Today, the three young men being held in connection with the case appeared in court and the Associated Press says police seized two cars from the home of the one of the suspects. Following all the developments, CNN's Karl Penhaul who's had this very latest now (ph) from Palm Beach, Aruba. Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, law enforcement sources close to this investigation say the three young suspects in this case are pointing fingers at one another during interrogations. It seems to be as a result of that, the police and investigators swooped on the house of Joran van der Sloot. He's in custody, but the house belongs to his parents. His father's a judge. Now, police spent about two hours there. They seized bags and various items which we weren't able to identify. They also took away two cars from that house. As you say also, earlier in the day the three suspects did appear in court. A judge has heard a motion that would allow Joran van der Sloot's father to visit him in -- whilst he's in jail, and also another motion from other defense attorneys to get more evidence so that they can prepare the defense for their clients. Anderson?
COOPER: Karl, you know, a lot of people here don't -- can't figure out why it is so difficult to search for this young girl, to find this young girl. We just learned yesterday, the first time they actually brought in dogs. I think a lot of people would've assumed they brought in canine units long ago. This thing has been going on for more than two weeks. What is so tough about the search?
PENHAUL: Well, it is a tiny island, as you say, 19 miles by six miles wide at its widest point. But to try and answer that question, just a few moments ago, we've just got off a helicopter with the -- one of the search leaders, Reuben Cruise (ph), and he was explaining to us as we overflew the island some of the key points here on why it has been so difficult to search.
Up at the northwest tip there's an area of wide sandy dunes. He says, that in the past years, there have been bodies of people that have got lost and those bodies have disappeared for weeks, months, and in some cases, even years, Anderson. There's also, on the northern coast, an area of very rugged, rocky shoreline. He says, if an object was dumped in the sea there, it would automatically float back into the sea. Not so on the western side. He says, there, if you can manage to get out about 100 yards and dump an object into the sea, that object would then float out into the open ocean.
Go a little further around the island, and inland a little bit, and there's some very hard ground, very rugged, covered by cactus, and Reuben Cruise says there, if you were to try and dig a hole to bury any object, it would take several hours. The ground is too hard. But travel a little further around the island, there's a number of disused mine shafts. He says those were -- became disused about a hundred years ago, but they're now flooded by sea water, and he says those are very deep. He does suggest that they have been searched in some fashion so far, he says, but it's going to take a long time, and he says, sometimes, especially in the past in his experience, when a body has gone out to sea, that it, sometimes, has not been found. Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Karl Penhaul, appreciate the explanation. We'll check in with you a little bit later tonight. Developments moving fast on that island. Later on on 360, we're going to talk with Natalee's father and her stepmom about the investigation, whether they're satisfied with the pace of it, and their continuing search themselves.
Also ahead tonight, American teens continue to party hard in Aruba. We followed, last night, a teen homecoming queen named Ali (ph) as she spent a night on the town, drinking in the exact spot where Natalee was last seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Closing time, the homecoming queen seems a little worse for wear. What's she been drinking?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach. It may make you want to have sex on the beach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, later on 360, we're going to talk to Nat -- that girl's parents -- Ali's parents, and find out if they are concerned about their daughter's late nights on Aruba.
In Florida today, an end to some of the questions about the life and death of Terri Schiavo: the results of her autopsy were, today, finally released. CNN's Susan Candiotti investigates the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Doctors say they don't know why a heart-healthy Terri Schiavo suddenly collapsed 15 years ago.
DR. JOHN THOGMARTIN, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Her brain suffered damage from lack of blood flow and oxygen, the cause of which cannot be determined with reasonable medical certainty.
CANDIOTTI: The chief medical examiner says Schiavo's brain injuries were beyond repair.
THOGMARTIN: The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. This was due to diffuse, hypoxic, ischemic damage. There was massive neuronal loss or death. This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.
CANDIOTTI: After years of speculation that Terri Schiavo's husband may have physically attacked her, an autopsy also laid that to rest.
THOGMARTIN: No evidence of strangulation was found. No evidence of trauma whatsoever was noted by the physicians during her initial hospitalization.
CANDIOTTI: Pathologists say the young woman may have been dieting, but nothing in their investigation turned up any hard evidence of eating disorders or drugs that could have caused her heart to stop at age 26.
Though home videos appear to show Terri Schiavo making eye contact with her family, doctors call it impossible.
THOGMARTIN: Her vision centers of her brain were dead. Therefore, Mrs. Schiavo had what's called cortical blindness. She was blind, could not see. CANDIOTTI: Pathologists don't rule out some interaction, but say it's unlikely, given the extent of Schiavo's brain damage.
SGT. PHILLIP BREWER, ST. PETERSBURG POLICE DEPT.: This was just one more call, at the time.
CANDIOTTI: Among those anxious to hear Terri Schiavo's autopsy, the former patrolman who rushed to her apartment 15 years ago for a medical emergency. Sergeant Phil Brewer questioned Michael Schiavo.
BREWER: He said that he either awakened to the sound of a thud, or had just awakened and then heard a thud, thought his wife may have fallen.
CANDIOTTI: Since Terri Schiavo couldn't talk, the officer examined her at the hospital and found no signs of violence.
Do you think something criminal went on that night?
BREWER: I don't think anything criminal went on that night.
CANDIOTTI: The officer says he found Michael Schiavo credible.
BREWER: I have nothing to indicate that he wasn't straight with me.
CANDIOTTI: What amazed pathologists is that Terri Schiavo survived at all that day 15 years ago. When paramedics rushed to her side it took an hour to get her heart beating again.
THOGMARTIN: She went for, you know, really over an hour without, really, a blood pressure, and it's just a miracle that she was able to come back at all.
CANDIOTTI: Michael Schiavo pulled his wife's feeding tube after a court agreed he was following her wishes. An autopsy said she died of dehydration, not starvation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Terri Schiavo was cremated in April. Her hus -- her remains have not yet been buried, for now, why her heart stopped beating is an unsolved mystery. Anderson?
COOPER: Susan Candiotti, thanks.
In those dark, difficult days when the country and the courts and the Congress debated the fate of Terri Schiavo, a lot of claims were made on cable TV and where else. Doctors and supporters of Terri Schiavo's parents said she was responsive. She was crying out for help, in one case. Some even said she'd been strangled, or injected with substances.
Today, no evidence of any of that was found. Terri Schiavo was blind, as you just heard the medical examiner saying. The vision centers of her brain were dead. Her brain weighed only 1.35 pounds, less than half of what it should've in a woman of her age. Her condition consistent with a persistent vegetative state, they've said.
Jay Wolfson was Terri Schiavo's court-appointed guardian. He's now a professor at the University of South Florida, and all during this debate, we talked to him and we found him always to be a voice of reason. He joins us again tonight.
Jay, good to see you. The night before Terri Schiavo died, when I was in Pinellas Park, I spoke to a doctor who treated Schiavo in 2002. Let's listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM HAMMESFAHR, NEUROLOGIST: She did respond to me when I saw her, and apparently she still is responding to people. You know, she looks at you. She focuses on you. She focuses on other people around you. I would ask her to do things and she would do things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Was this just wishful thinking?
JAY WOLFSON, FMR SCHIAVO LEGAL GUARDIAN: As we discussed last time, Anderson, it's very difficult when you're in this tragic situation. The parents, the family, all of us were caught up in the life of this extraordinary young lady who touched us. I don't know if we touched her very well. But she certainly touched us. And Dr. Hammesfahr has a belief and wish, as many of us did -- we hope that something would have happened. Her mother and her father hoped. During the many hours that I spent with her, I was not able to elicit those kinds of responses.
But, as we discussed last time, and for may other times, hope is an extraordinary powerful thing in these cases
COOPER: You know, it's interesting, Dr. Hammesfahr appeared on a lot of cable TV programs during the debate on this, made a lot of claims. We asked him to comment tonight. Interestingly, he said he had no comment about the result of today's autopsy.
An attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents spoke out after the autopsy report was released. Let's play what he had to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terri Schiavo was not in an "end of life" situation. The decision was made to end her life. And it was done we believe a barbaric manner, starving her to death, with her family, with her parents literally begging the world, begging Michael Schiavo, begging the courts for the life of their loved one, their daughter Terri.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: As I recall, I think he has previously said that Terri Schiavo had been the one begging. Now he's saying it's the family. The medical examiner did say that Schiavo could have lived another 10 years. Would her condition ever have improved?
WOLFSON: Not from what the medical evidence indicates, Anderson. She would have remained exactly the same, or she might have declined a little bit. Had she gotten a cold or an infection or pneumonia, she could have died from it.
But you know, I think it's important to go beyond what we've learned in the case. This medical examiner's report is important, because I think it closes the door. Michael didn't have to agree to an autopsy, and he did. And I'm glad that he did, because it takes the medical science and the good law that was applied and it puts it into one place. And hopefully, it closes the door on this.
But the lesson that we have to learn from Terri -- and I hope we don't continue to revisit the allegations and the bad feelings. The Schindlers, hopefully, can move on. Michael can move on. The rest of us can move on.
But Terri grabbed all of us in an important way. And maybe she helped us to realize how important it is for us to take responsibility for our lives, something that she wasn't able to do early on. She and Michael didn't write living wills. They didn't have healthcare surrogates. Hopefully, many more Americans have, as a consequence of this, to make their intentions known. And beyond that, to recognize that we are in a period in our country's history when really tough decisions have to be made about the allocation of increasingly scarce resources for all the of us.
COOPER: There really are no winners or losers, right?
WOLFSON: No, there's not. This remains a tragic issue, tragic for all of us There were no winners.
COOPER: And I guess -- as you said, the best that can come out of this for others is making your own decisions and putting the things in place: a living will, a health care proxy, talking to attorneys and your family.
WOLFSON: And do it according to law in your state. Because, Anderson, the laws are different in different states. Had Terri been living in Missouri, she'd still be alive. Had she been living in New York or New Jersey, she'd still be alive, because the guardianship laws in those states are different than they are in Florida.
But the law was applied carefully, meticulously and thoughtfully in Florida. And the medical evidence that was presented early on was, again, captured in this final report of the medical examiner to indicate that there was no reasonable medical hope. That does not help the Schindlers and the loss and the grief that they feel.
COOPER: Jay -- you know, this is a personal question and you don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Do you think about her still? I mean, you know in the world of cable TV, people move on, and life moves on. You spent a lot of time with her, probably more time than most people. Do you still think of her? WOLFSON: Golly, yes. I don't think a day goes by, Anderson, when I don't see her face, when I don't at some point in my heart, say, Terri, I wish you could have given me some sign that I could have heard and felt. And even though I felt that she touched me, I felt that she was touching me from some place else.
COOPER: Jay. It's always good to talk to you. And we appreciate you coming on tonight. Thank you very much.
WOLFSON: My pleasure, Anderson. Be well.
COOPER: Jay Wolfson, you too.
This is what Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobbi Schindler, had to say about today's developments. I quote, "The autopsy report only raises more questions in regards to the reason Terri collapsed. The doctors eliminated bulimia and a heart attack. We still do not know what caused her collapse."
Coming up tonight on 360, the latest on the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway. Developments moving along there. We're going to talk with Natalee's father and her stepmother. Also ahead, we mentioned a look at the life -- the party scene that is still going on on Aruba.
Plus, can change really happen in Iran? Elections are this week, and women are hoping they will spark reform. Christiane Amanpour is there. We'll take you inside.
Plus, a California earthquake rattling fears of a tsunami. We've seen a lot of activity in the Pacific Rim. What is going on there? Are the quakes connected? We'll investigate.
All that ahead, but first let's look at your picks -- the most popular stories right now on CNN.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the shaking has stopped, but the nerves are still rattled after last night's powerful quake in Northern California. The magnitude 7.2 quake was strong enough to set off tsunami warning sirens in Crescent City. Here's what it sounded like, let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that?
Sierra, come here.
Sierra.
What is that? Come here, let's get in the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The quake was in the ocean off the coast of California. The sirens and the earthquake just the latest indications from deep within the Earth that the Ring of Fire surrounding the Pacific Rim may be heating up. CNN's Peter Viles investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunday a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shakes the California desert. Monday, it's a 7.8 shaker in Northern Chile. Tuesday morning, a swarm of quakes in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, the biggest a 6.8. And then Tuesday night, tsunami fears after a 7.2 quake off the coast of Northern California.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come here, let's get in the car.
VILES: What's going on here? Is this all a coincidence or a dangerous pattern in the giant quake and volcano zone that's known as the Ring of Fire? The official government explanation from the U.S. Geological Survey is that it's all a coincidence. But other experts aren't so sure.
Kate Hutton is known as the Earthquake Lady in southern California.
KATE HUTTON, CALTECH: And Crescent City is right in here.
VILES: She says it's possible that these quakes are actually triggering each other.
HUTTON: Where one very large earthquake such as the 7.8 in Chile yesterday sends out very strong seismic waves that pass through the crust. If it encounters a fault, which is about ready to break anyway, it might set it off. And we're looking into that to explain why we've had so many earthquakes in the last day.
VILES; And at the University of Southern California -- which helped produce this model of a quake underneath downtown L.A. -- one expert says it's possible the quakes are all part of a single event up and down the massive Pacific Plate.
TOM HENYEY, USC GEOPHYSICIST: These three earthquakes that have occurred recently are all along the margin of the Pacific Plate. And it's possible that the Pacific Plate has moved as a unit very suddenly all at once. And these earthquakes occurred where the stresses happen to be high.
VILES (on camera): Now, both this trigger theory and this Pacific Plate theory are just that -- they're just theories. And even if they're true, they don't really help us answer the question that most of us answered. And that is, what, if anything, does this cluster of earthquakes tell us about whether a bigger earthquake is on the way?
Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS following a couple of other stories for us tonight, about 20 past the hour.
Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, ANCHOR, HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson.
We start off with some investigations tonight; this after a Marine Harrier jet crashed in a residential area in Yuma, Arizona. No injuries have been reported on the ground. We do know the pilot ejected and landed about a mile from the crash site and is receiving medical treatment. No word on just what caused that accident.
In Middletown, Connecticut, a deadly shooting outside a courthouse: Investigators say a former state trooper shot and killed his ex-wife, wounded her lawyer, then shot himself on a parking deck. Police say the lawyer is in stable condition. The shooter is listed as critical. All three were expected in court for a civil proceeding.
In Waco, Texas, a confessed murderer sentenced: Former Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson faces 35 years in prison for killing his teammate two years ago. The parents of the victim say Dotson should spend the rest of his life in prison.
In California, some boos for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as he delivered a graduation speech at his alma mater, Santa Monica College. Throughout the 15-minute speech, protectors dished out distracting chants and whistles. They're outraged at Schwarzenegger's education policies and plans to hold a special election.
And in Hereford, England, some sad news tonight: Death, separating the world's longest married couple. Percy Arrowsmith, who recently celebrated his 80th wedding anniversary with his wife Florence, has died. He was 105 years old.
The couple's secret to a long marriage: Never going to bed angry at each other and Percy often said, "Yes, dear."
So sweet. I was so sad when I heard about that.
COOPER: That is so sad. Eighty years together; that is just incredible.
HILL: It's amazing.
COOPER: Yes. God, that's just amazing.
Well, what a life.
Erica Hill, thanks.
We'll see you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on 360, the push for more freedom in Iran: Could Friday's elections actually lead to more women's rights? We go inside in a struggle in a country often at odds with the U.S. Also tonight, the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway: We're going to talk with her father and her stepmother about what they think of the pace of the investigation.
Also, a little bit later tonight: The partying in Aruba continues. Tonight we talk with the parents of a homecoming queen who is having, well, a lot of late nights there on Aruba.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: In America, the fight for gender equality has been waged for decades. If you'd look at salary scales, you'll see that the glass ceiling still exists in a lot of business and even our government is still heavily dominated by men.
But look ahead to 2008, already many people are saying a woman, Senator Hillary Clinton, has the best shot to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
It's a much different story in Iran, which is holding a presidential election on Friday. There, women aren't even allowed on the ballot. Now, some are hoping this election will spark change, but change moves very slowly in Iran.
CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour is there for tonight's "World in 360."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Goldshifteh Farahani is 21 years old. She's been an actress since she was 14 and rarely out of work. Iran has a thriving film industry and her movies pack the cinemas and reaped awards.
GOLDSHIFTEH FARAHANI, ACTRESS: I like work in Iran. I like it because I think it makes me more creative because of these, you know...
AMANPOUR: She's trying to say pressures and limitations: political, religious and social that force everyone here, especially the women, into subtle forms of self-expression. Her latest film was released this week, but Goldshifteh knows that her career flourishes at the pleasures of the authorities. Like many Iranian women, she hopes their next president will give women more rights, especially legal rights.
FARAHANI: I think the problem is: It's not only the government and system that doesn't give enough rights for the women; even the women themselves, they don't give -- they don't know their rights. They don't know it. So I think that's the real problem.
AMANPOUR: But women's rights advocates point out that all the women who try to register as candidates for this presidential election were disqualified by the guardian council, which vets all contenders. (on camera): And this week groups of professional women and students held their first public demonstration since the veil was made obligatory 26 years ago. This time, they're demanding their next president improve women's status.
(voice-over): Authorities allow women to wear ever-tighter overcoats, show ever more hair and makeup and they tolerate women like Laleh Seddigh competing in car races. But she, too, believes that women should pursue their rights more.
LALEH SEDDIGH, RACE-CAR DRIVER: If they ask for their rights, for sure they will achieve it and I hope so.
AMANPOUR: Do you think it's that easy?
SEDDIGH: For sure, no. But they must try if they want to be successful and everything
AMANPOUR: For now, though, many Iranian women seem more interested in improving their daily lives rather than risking them on political activism. Women who have always turned out to the polls wonder this time: Will they vote?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I will because I love my country and it's my right to participate in what belongs to me.
AMANPOUR: But still they ask: Will it make a difference?
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Tehran, Iran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): The parents of teens still partying hard on Aruba speak out about what their daughters are up to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the Beach and they make you want to have sex on the beach.
COOPER: A comatose mom kept alive to save her unborn child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Susan would love walk through hell and back just to give her child a chance.
COOPER: Tonight, a mother's race against time.
360 continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER; I want to update you know on our top story this evening: the search in Aruba for Natalee Holloway who vanished on May 30. Three suspects have been arrested. According to the Associated Press, police removed two cars from the house of one of those suspects. They also searched his home.
Sources tell CNN, the suspects are now pointing the fingers at each other. And last night, a former suspect, a man no cleared, told us that in jail, one of the current suspects admitted he had lied to police about what happened to Natalee.
Joining us from Aruba live are Natalee's father and stepmother Dave and Robin Holloway. Appreciate both of you being with us. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you and with Natalee.
Dave, there has been a lot of search activity over the last 20, 48 hours or so. What, if anything, are authorities telling you tonight?
DAVE HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S FATHER: Well, last night they searched the area north of the Marriott. They drained the pond and came up with nothing.
We heard later on today, they searched the home and removed two vehicles.
COOPER: And have you been told any specifics about what might have come from the search of that home and the vehicles?
D. HOLLOWAY: Not yet. I'm sure, we'll get an update later on this evening.
COOPER: Robin, are you pleased with the pace of the investigation? I guess pleased is the wrong -- are you satisfied what has been done thus far? Personally, I was surprised to hear that it was only yesterday that a search dog was involved in the search. And that was for the first time.
ROBIN HOLLOWAY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S STEPMOTHER: We've been told the search dogs were here, but they have to have a specific area to look. So, I mean -- we're positive that will help.
But we're just- - I was pleased to see the extent of the investigation. Yesterday, the search. We realized all of the equipment that's been brought in. And, I mean, we just have to have faith in that.
COOPER: Dave, I talked yesterday to one of the security guards who had been a suspect, who had released, cleared of all charges. And he told me in prison while in jail, he was in a cell next to these three suspects who is still there and that suspect admitted that he had lied to police initially. Were you surprised when you heard that? Or, I mean, have you zeroed in pretty much on these three young men in custody?
D. HOLLOWAY: Well, I was kind of surprised that he had a positive attitude about being detained for several days. And the last comment I heard was that he wanted resolution of this case just as much as anyone else here does.
The people here have been absolutely amazing. We've been with Red Cross on some occasions, and those ladies have been awesome. And it's truly, the whole island wants to be helpful and wants resolution to this case.
COOPER: Yeah. We've been getting a lot of e-mail from viewers on Aruba who are obviously following this closely and are concerned as well. And want to find Natalee as quickly as possible. How do you two get through every day? I mean, I just can't imagine what this has been like for you. What are your days like?
D. HOLLOWAY: Well, when I left Meridian, Mississippi -- oh, just over two weeks ago -- I met with my pastor. And we had a prayer over the phone. And one thing I keep in the back of my mind when I go through one of these low points is that we ask that God give us the strength, me and my family and friends and everyone else to continue on.
And every time that we hit the brick wall or whatever, I just keep that in the back of my mind, and that's what keeps us going. That, and family support.
COOPER: Well, I hope you know that you have the support of people around the country, really around the world who have been following this. And a lot of prayers out there for you and for Robin and for Natalee and everyone else involved. We wish you the best. And we hope you hear good news soon.
D. HOLLOWAY: Yeah. I do, too.
COOPER: We appreciate you joining us. I know it's been a busy day for you. Thanks very much.
Robin and Dave Holloway, the father and stepmom of Natalee Holloway.
Coming up next on 360, while the investigation in the search for Natalee continue, so does the partying. It's another side of Aruba, American teens making the most of the low drinking age there, letting loose at the same night spots where Natalee went. I'll talk to the parents of one of those teens.
Plus, a happy day for this Australian man held hostage in Iraq. Good news our of Iraq tonight. For more than six weeks, he was held hostage. He is free. A remarkable rescue effort by U.S. and Iraqi authorities. We'll tell you how it happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Just days after Natalee Holloway disappeared, another group of American teenagers travelled to Aruba, staying in the very hotel where Natalee stayed. They were there to have fun and to party, and yesterday, we introduced you to one of them. Her name is Ali. She let CNN's cameras follow her and her friends around the island and if you thought the disappearance of one American teen would stop others from partying hard, you'd be wrong. A short time ago, we talked with Ali's parents, John and Janet D'Orsi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
John and Janet, we first aired this story last night. Let's watch it and then after the story, we'll talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:: One, two, three!
PENHAUL (voice-over): School's out for Stoneham High's class of 2005. It's time for cocktails, a splash of sun, sea and something exotic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a great time.
PENHAUL: They paid $1,500 each for this all-inclusive graduation trip from Boston. They're at the same hotel where Natalee Holloway stayed.
Meet homecoming queen, Ali.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we going to go Iguana Joe's or Mambo Jambo or Carlos 'N Charlie's?
PENHAUL: Time to get ready. Toni's (ph) in demand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rachel, sit down. It's time to do makeup.
PENHAUL (on camera): You're on holiday. You're here to have fun, and I'm sure you're here to blow off some steam. You've been working hard all year. Is that about the short and tall of it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're here to have fun and start our last summer really all together.
PENHAUL: What did you start to think when you saw the case about Natalee? Did any of you have second thoughts?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our parents had heart attacks (ph).
PENHAUL: What have they been saying?
UNIDENITFIED FEMALE: Don't go. They said, if you do go, don't go to Carlos'N Charlie's, blah, blah, blah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After what happened with Natalee, I think we're trying to stay away from people outside of our group.
PENHAUL (voice-over): The gang's planning on hitting Carlos 'N Charlie's, where Natalee Holloway was last seen. But haven't parents banned them from there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom doesn't know we're here.
PENHAUL: Unlike Natalee Holloway's group, there's no chaperones here but they've set up their own buddy system.
On the bus and the party's already kicking off.
It's going to be a wild one. Toni (ph) shares her photos with us. It's a booze and boogie wonderland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six nights a week, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When any guy came near one of us, all of the guys were around ready to stop them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here and the party's right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go every night, dude.
PENHAUL: Closing time, the homecoming queen seems a little worse for wear. What's she been drinking?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sex on the beach, and they make you want to have sex on the beach.
PENHAUL: What about Mike, the high school soccer MVP?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be back tomorrow.
PENHAUL: Steve's been drinking yards of beer. He'd be the first to admit he's only just holding it together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, amazing. It was awesome. We had a good time -- a lot of girls, a lot of drinks. Carlos 'N Charlie's is the best bar ever -- best bar.
The taxi's waiting for us. We gotta go. You're my boy, you're my boy.
PENHAUL: The buddy system seems to be in chaos.
Lindsey (ph) thinks the numbers add up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're the Army. We never leave a man behind.
Ali (ph) seems less sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The buddy system works beautifully, but my buddy's not with me. I got a new buddy.
PENHAUL: At this moment it's almost two weeks to the minute since Natalee Holloway was last seen.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Arandastat (ph), Aruba.
COOPER: I guess no one likes to see their kid out partying. We should point out, as you will point out, that Ali is going to BU in the fall, homecoming queen, honor student, a great student and clearly has a great future ahead of her.
Did you have any concerns about her going for Aruba, given what happened to Natalee?
JOHN D'ORSI, ALI'S FATHER: Well, you know, both my wife and I have been to Aruba. We always felt that Aruba was a very safe place to go to and I was glad the children close Aruba to go to. I think Ali would go back to Aruba, and I would go back to Aruba.
COOPER: I think I heard you say, while you were watching the piece, oh, Ali.
JOHN D'ORSI: Well, you know, I know Ali and Ali's a very good kid, as well as every one of those kids down there. I've known them all since they've been in grammar school and I know they're all looking out for each other. They may say -- they may have said their buddy system was falling apart, but I know them well enough that, like one of them said, they're not leaving anybody behind.
JANET D'ORSI, ALI'S MOTHER: And Ali's a comedian. She does have a very funny personality, and that phrase is something funny Ali would say.
COOPER: You'd have no problems going down yourself? You've been there yourself. Do you plan on going again?
JANET D'ORSI: Oh, abso -- oh, definitely.
JOHN D'ORSI: I plan on going again.
JANET D'ORSI: We have a time share there. We're going.
COOPER: Well, John and Janet, we appreciate you joining us, and I know -- I'm sure when Ali gets back, you'll have a lot to talk about.
JOHN D'ORSI: Well, thank you.
JANET D'ORSI: We sure will.
COOPER: I bet you will. Thanks very much. It was good to talk to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: They're good sports. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with the latest about at a quarter to the hour.
HILL: They are good sports. Just throwing Ali under the bus there, Anderson.
COOPER: What? No, we weren't. Please. I'm not even going to -- she's 18-years-old and can do exactly what she wants.
HILL: Exactly, and we've all been 18 before.
COOPER: Hey, I'm not casting judgment.
HILL: No, no, no, me either. Ah, all right, moving on. You want some news, right? That's what I have for you.
Australian Douglas Wood is a free man tonight -- talk about good news here -- after he Iraqi militants held him hostage for six-and-a- half weeks. Iraqi soldiers found Wood today. He was tied up under a blanket in a house in northwest Baghdad. A top Iraqi military official said insurgents had told soldiers that their hostage was a sick relative. Wood's now getting medical care. He's said to be as well as you'd expect, considering the circumstances.
Out to Madrid, Spain, where police have rounded up 16 suspected Islamic terrorists, five of them linked to last year's train bombings in Madrid, while 11 have alleged ties to the network of Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi.
In Washington, former White House environmental aide Phillip Cooney is going to the world's biggest oil company, Exxon Mobile, to work in its public affairs and communications department. The White House says Cooney resigned on Friday, two days after "The New York Times" revealed he'd edited reports, downplaying the effects of greenhouse gases. Now the White House says the resignation had nothing to do with the reports.
And the "Rocket Man," now the chocolate man. Britain's Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum has sculpted a life-size of Elton John out of 227 pounds of Cadbury's chocolate. Sir Elton was the top pick in a Cadbury survey -- that's amazing, that detail -- on the Cadbury survey, who would be the best celebrity to be made out of chocolate? And, I think that's when you know you've made it.
COOPER: Yes, I love that they had a survey, who would be the best celebrity to be made out of chocolate? Do they call people up and just randomly ask that? I actually have -- I have two celebrities who I'd rather see made out of chocolate. You know -- you want to see you they are?
HILL: Really?
COOPER: Yeah, one is Iggy Pop. That's Iggy Pop there, made out of chocolate And also I think, Keith Richards. Who wouldn't want to eat a Keith Richard pop?
HILL: Ah, that would be tasty. Yeah, it would be like smoked chocolate.
COOPER: I'm leave that one alone. Erica Hill, thanks very much -- 360 next, a remarkable story, a mother's wish to stay alive long enough to save the child inside her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Today, we learned the autopsy results of Terri Schiavo. And it reminded us that there are many stories of families facing impossible choices. Tonight, you're going to meet a mother trying to save her unborn child. The mother is in a coma and sadly beyond saving herself. For her child, however, there is still hope. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susan and Jason Torres weren't too worried, but in May when she was three months pregnant with they're second child, she started getting headaches.
JASON TORRES, HUSBAND: We had gone around and gone to a couple of doctors and tried to figure stuff out. And she was dehydrated and things like that. And so, they said, you know, go home, feed her, drunk juice.
COHEN: So Jason took care of his wife, told her to lay down and rest. When he brought her something to eat...
TORRES: She was lying in bed. And I was talking to her, trying to get her to eat some more. Then, all of a sudden, she just stopped.
COHEN: Susan had had a stroke. Cancer had attacked her brain. It was too late to save her life. But they can, and they are, keeping her body functioning on a ventilator. But there's a risk, the melanoma that started in her skin and attacked her brain could also attack her baby.
DR. DAVID LAWSON, ONCOLOGIST, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Once it's in the blood stream, it can go almost anywhere -- melanoma.
COHEN: For Jason there was only one course of action.
TORRES: If you have a chance to save your child's life, you're going to do it. And I know for a fact that Susan would do whatever she needed to do just to give her child the chance.
COHEN: And now Jason hopes that their second child, due October 31 will stay in his wife's belly until at least July 11, to 25 weeks gestation.
DR. STEPHEN WEISS, OB/GYB, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Our good modern nursery care can save babies reliably starting at about 25 weeks.
COHEN: Jason's hopes are for his baby, since he knows, he's lost his wife.
TORRES: It sounds kind of hackneyed, but one day at a time.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: One day at a time, indeed.
Let's find out what's coming up at the top of the hour, on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Hey, Paula.
PAUL ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Anderson. Thanks so much.
In about seven minutes from now, the story of one extraordinary family's devotion to their country and to each other. For the past year, our own Alex Quaid has been checking in with four brothers from Idaho all in the National Guard, all of them deployed at the same time to Iraq. We're going to follow them from the homefront, through training, to the front lines.
Brothers in arms, at the top of the hour. And I guess the more remarkable part of the story, Anderson, is that their father has returned from Iraq, as well as another brother. So, six members of one family serving our country in Iraq.
COOPER: Incredible. Definitely want to see that about six minutes from now. Thanks, Paula.
Coming up next on 360, Wal-Mart is about to take something off the shelves, something that changed the world. We'll tell you why ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight, a sad occasion to the "Nth Degree."
Settle down, please, this is not going to be easy. Farewells never are, and that's why we're gathered here this evening, ladies and gentleman, to bid farewell to a friend we took into our homes not quite 30 years ago. Only, 30 years, and here already, it's time to say good-bye to this, the VHS video cassette.
As of today, Wal-Mart and Target have joined Best Buy and Circuit City, except for the latest releases, they'll no longer carry movies on VHS.
Soon enough, the black, plastic box full of magnetic tape will be no more. But consider what it's done for us. Films are like books now. They line our shelves, and we can reach for them whenever we want. That was not true before the VHS cassette. Only Hollywood big wigs with they're own screening rooms could watch movies whenever they felt like it. Now we all can and do.
And we document our lives in color with sound, it seems, minute by minute. We couldn't do that either until the cassette and camcorder came along.
Hollywood entered the age of the talkie in the late 20's, the rest of the country didn't follow suit for another 50 years.
That was me in the Barney costume before. It's all digital now, of course, silver disks with mysterious 1s and 0s encoded on them. Movies and the moments of our lives as easy to cut and paste as clippings. But the age began with this -- thanks for the memories, VHS.
And with every passing, of course, there is a birth. And tonight we have one in our own family here at CNN to report about. Meet the next Dr. Gupta. Sage Ayla Gupta entered the world at 7:01 this morning.
Everybody, awe! CROWD: Awe.
COOPER: Sanjay tells us the baby and her mother are healthy and beautiful. As you can tell by the photos, she is certainly beautiful. And we wish them all the best. What a treat for Sanjay and his wife. Just in time for Father's Day. Sage Ayla Gupta, welcome to the world.
I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks very much for watching 360 this evening. CNN's primetime coverage continues now with Paula Zahn. Hey, Paula.
END
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