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President Obama Visits Florida; Islamic Center Near Ground Zero; Tiger's Play on Display; Pakistan Flood Victims Wait for Aid That Is Very Slow in Coming

Aired August 14, 2010 - 16:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Checking the headlines, President Obama is spending the day on the Gulf Coast. He met earlier with small business leaders in Panama City Beach, Florida to talk about the concerns and lingering effects from the gulf oil disaster.

And a serial stabbing suspect could be heading back to Michigan soon. Elias Abuelazam was arrested in Atlanta but decided not to fight extradition. It is believed he is responsible for 18 stabbings in three states.

And there are new flooding fears this weekend in Pakistan. More than 1,300 people died in the first round of flooding. Pakistan canceled independence day celebrations today because of this widespread disaster.

But first up, President Bush has waited - or President Obama has waited - let me start over. President Obama has waded into the contentious debate over whether to build an Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. Today, he clarified remarks that he made at a White House dinner last month commemorating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and every culture, drawn from every end of this earth. That diversity can bring difficult debates. This is not unique to our time. Past eras have seen controversies about the construction of synagogues or Catholic churches.

But time and again the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: President Obama's endorsement drew praise from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg but many people in New York are split on whether the president should get involved in what some believe is a local matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) because the Muslims have the right to prayer. It's Ramadan. They have synagogues, churches everywhere. I'm proud of him. I'm proud of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I don't live in New York, but I understand his point. I know it's controversial that it's close by here but I also believe that it's right to be able to allow all religions to be able to be in the United States. That's what we're built on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's terrible. It doesn't have anything to do with freedom of religion. It's making a point. There's plenty of realty all over Manhattan. There's plenty of realty anywhere. It shouldn't be here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: President Obama is also sharing his thoughts about the Islamic mosque center near Ground Zero. He is spending part of the weekend on Florida's gulf coast to boost tourism and senior White House correspondent Ed Henry is traveling with the president.

He's joining us right now from Panama City beach. And you actually had an exclusive interview with him earlier and you were able to capture him on camera about not only why he was on the gulf coast, Ed, but about these mosque comments.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Brianna. This was after his event at the Coast Guard station here in Panama City and the president, you know, obviously is here because it's his fifth trip to the gulf region since the disastrous oil spill and he wants to send the signal that it's open for business.

But he runs a risk now because of his comments he laid out last night about the mosque in New York City of having that whole controversy over shadow this. So I asked the president, in a couple of minutes we got to chat, about first of all whether or not he is going to go swimming because that's what the locals want to know, whether he's going to send a signal that the water here is safe. But then we got into the substantive issue of why he waded into this debate last night.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY (on camera): Going to go for a swim?

OBAMA: Absolutely.

HENRY: You getting in the water today or tomorrow?

OBAMA: I think we're going to go tomorrow and as I just said, Ed, I'm not going to let you guys take a picture of me without my shirt on but there will be proof because you guys will tease me just like the last time. I was on the front page. People commenting.

HENRY: What do you think about the reaction to your speech about the mosque? OBAMA: Well, my intention was to simply let people know what I thought, which was that in this country we treat everybody equally in accordance with the law regardless of race, regardless of religion. I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there.

I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about. And I think it's very important that, you know, as difficult as some of these issues are, that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: The key right there in what the president told me was really trying to clarify just ever so slightly what he said last night when he said today to CNN that basically he was not commenting on the wisdom of this particular project, the construction of the mosque and the Muslim community center.

We'll see if that's good enough for critics but he is trying to draw a distinction there that he is just talking broadly about the principle of religious freedom but is not weighing in directly on this mosque. Of course people there on the ground in New York who were upset about it think that by extension even though he is talking broadly about the principle of religious freedom he is wading in and he is essentially supporting this project so the debate is obviously going to continue. Brianna.

KEILAR: And that's really interesting because we talked earlier about how some democrats were really walking a fine line and not really talking about the merits of the situation, of doing it, that they were kind of talking about whether they should even have an opinion on the matter because it might be a local matter. But it really does seem to be almost a very nuance kind of hair-splitting clarification that he's making there.

HENRY: I think you're right about the nuance part. I mean I think they would dispute the hair splitting because they think he is consistent with what he said last night about religious freedom. But you're right that he's adding that nuance today about that he's not, you know, endorsing specifically the construction project essentially there on the ground in New York.

You're also right to note the concern among some Democrats. I mean, we're obviously just a couple of months away from a major mid term election. Democrats already in some trouble. There's going to be some nervous Democrats thinking now this is the last thing they wanted the president to weigh in on at all.

Look no further than the White House podium. My colleague Suzanne Malveaux I think about a week ago was pressing Robert Gibbs with two or three questions about why they hadn't weighed in and Robert Gibbs said "this is a local issue. We're not going to deal with it." Here we are now and the president is dealing with it two days in a row so things have changed. Their explanation is that it was a local issue and then they didn't want to interfere with Mayor Bloomberg's decision. Mayor Bloomberg essentially endorsed it so now they're weighing in. You're right. They are making some distinctions there and the critics just aren't buying it right now.

KEILAR: Yes. Ed Henry our senior White House correspondent there for us on the gulf coast. Thanks for that, Ed.

And President Obama is expected to travel to New Orleans a little later in the month. He wants to be there on August 29th for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. And while there, he is expected to speak at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Now, that plan to build that Islamic center and the mosque near Ground Zero is getting mixed reactions in New York. But how is it playing in Peoria, as we say, and around the rest of the country? We asked CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser to take a look at the latest poll numbers.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Brianna, our poll suggests that Americans are not divided on this issue. Take a look at this. This is a CNN Opinion Research Corporation national survey we conducted from August 6 to 10. It indicates that 68 percent of the public are opposed to that mosque by Ground Zero in New York City with 29 percent in favor.

And when you break the numbers down you can see there is no generational divide or a partisan divide. 54 percent of Democrats opposed to the mosque. Seven out of 10 independents, jumps to 82 percent of Republicans. It's rare when Democrats and Republicans are on the same side of the issue. Our poll indicates they are here.

And by age as well. More than six out of 10 people under 50 years opposed to the building of that mosque. That jumps a little higher, a little more than three quarters, 50 and older. But not much of a difference.

The mosque developers say will be part of a 13-story complex that they term an Islamic center, which will be just two blocks from where the World Trade Center used to stand. Brianna.

KEILAR: Paul Steinhauser there for us from Boston.

You know, last year at this time the PGA tour was wondering if Tiger was even going to show up and play and this year he's there but many are still wondering about his level of play.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Residents in Iowa have been dealing with some really severe flooding for days, but they're going to be getting good news today. Let's bring in Jacqui Jeras in the CNN weather center. It's so nice to bring you in for the good news, I have to say.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. Hurrah! It's usually not the case, is it? We do have some issues still going on in the Ames area in particular and this is where some of the worst of the flooding has been as of late as well but the good news is that the water is back on so that is the great thing to be able to tell you and let's go ahead and roll that video.

Do we have the video of that flooding that's been going on in the Ames area all week? Iowa State University, my alma mater, has had some water over it. I don't think that's the right video. I think that's the Chicago parade. Anyway, but the drinking water is back on. So that's the good news but the boil order is still ongoing.

Here you can see that those flood warnings remain in effect across central and eastern Iowa. The weather pattern has quieted down here a little bit as the cold front tries to sink its way on through so hopefully some dryer days are ahead and those Iowa State students, by the way, going back to school now. 1,500 students showed up today to move back into their dorms.

Let's show you the radar picture across that area. We did have some wicked thunderstorms across parts of the upper midwest last night with a couple of tornadoes which touched down in parts of Minnesota. Today, you can see the stronger thunderstorms down here towards parts of Ohio into western Kentucky and we could see a little bit of wind damage associated with that.

Across the southeast the pop-up showers and thundershowers and this is really due to the remnants of what was tropical depression number five. Not a lot of flooding but we could see some urban flooding, the type that fills up the streets really quickly and then goes back down.

But we will be watching this because nothing is really steering it for the most part. So the concern is that if this thing starts to retrograde a little bit these rain showers are going to move on top of areas that have already received a fair amount of rain so we could see some flooding. Models not really having a good handle on it but some of them producing as much as six to seven inches of rain in this area in the next five days.

So that certainly could be problematic for you. Those of you that are getting the rain though, that is kind of helping you out a little bit in terms of suppressing the heat. So you can see the heat advisories and warnings today are kind of focused in the central and southern plains states and not so much across parts of the deep south.

That cold front is bringing the advisories away from the upper midwest and hopefully are going to continue to kind of bring these slowly southward throughout the weekend and we'll see fewer states, 17 of them today, also some heat issues across parts of the Pacific northwest including Seattle as well as Portland that are heat advisories.

And look at those feels like temperatures at this hour. I just kind of cringe when I look at them. I hate that I'm bringing the bearer of the bad news on this one. It feels like 105 in Dallas right now, 107 in Shreveport. And look at this, what a thunderstorm will do to you, bring you all the way down into the upper 70s. That won't be lasting long though. Brianna. KEILAR: Really, I mean, there's just too many numbers on your board there, Jacqui. I'm sorry. I get hot just looking at that. All right. Jacqui, thanks so much for that.

JERAS: Sure.

KEILAR: You know, the PGA championship, golf's fourth and final major of the year is going on right now in Wisconsin and it looks like Tiger Woods may be fighting his way back on to the leader board a week after the worst performance of his pro career.

Marshawn Evans, the president of Edge 3M Sports and Entertainment is joining us live now from Dallas. And Marshawn, from what you've seen this week, is this the old Tiger back or is it just too soon to say?

MARSHAWN EVANS, EDGE 3M SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT: Well, you know, we have seen Tiger have some ups and have some downs and it's really marrying his personal life right now. I think what we're used to seeing is a brand Tiger that is brand perfect both off the golf course and on the golf course and right now we're seeing an inconsistent Tiger. So it will take some time to see exactly whether he has settled back into his rhythm again.

KEILAR: And Marshawn, will sponsors and advertisers tolerate an inconsistent Tiger? How, you know, what does this slump mean for them and how patient will they be?

EVANS: Well, there is a key distinction between sponsors, those who are personally sponsoring him as an endorser, and then advertisers who are working with the network or working with the tournament or the tour in particular.

So the sponsors that have decided to stay with him, which are Nike, EA Sports, and Upper Deck, those core three are going to stay with him because they're focused more on the performance of Tiger. They know that he will come back. This is a slump for him but he will come back.

So those brand partners are sticking around. The other brand partners though that have already dropped him, I don't think they're ever going to come back. I don't think that they can come back. And then those like AT&T who have dropped him from being a headliner with the tour and a host with the tour, I think that, you know, they are going to want to stick around with Tiger as well because eventually he will come back around, eventually he'll start playing well again, and Tiger's life right now is like a reality show and people are just wanting to see how things are going to turn out and how he is going to start playing again. So even though he is playing poorly people are still watching him play poorly more so they would be watching if he wasn't playing at all.

KEILAR: Yes, and I think fans and even people who aren't a fan of him or who have been turned off by his personal troubles that he has caused himself, they can't imagine him not making a comeback. So let me ask you this, though. Do you think it was a good idea for him to get back to playing so soon? Some people might say, look, he had all this going on in his life. He at least needed to be keeping his mind busy working and trying to stay on track in that way. Do you think it benefited him to throw himself into this?

EVANS: Well, you have two ways to enter into a pool of water. You can either tiptoe in or you can dive in head first. And whether you tip toe in, meaning you come back slowly you're still going to get wet nonetheless. And so I think that he did what he thought was best for him. I think that part of his therapy is being back on that golf course.

And perhaps he would have saved his marriage or saved his family and keeping that more intact had he taken some more time away from the game of golf but I don't think he knows himself without being on that golf course. So perhaps he came back too soon but at any point in time he was going to have to make a comeback and it was going to be difficult at any point in time.

So there's nothing to say that a year from now that we wouldn't be seeing the same up-and-down performance that we're seeing today. I think that we've got to give him some grace. He is a person who has a right to make the choices that he thinks are best for them and we all have to face consequences for negative choices. We just happen to see him facing them in the public eye and on that golf course.

KEILAR: And Marshawn, let me ask this really quickly. I just want to get this in because you have experience with helping people get through tough times like this. How long does it take him to get out of this slump do you think and what can he do to better get out of it? What would you do or tell him to do if you were guiding him through this?

EVANS: Well, when you're working with somebody in a crisis management mode, and for Tiger he still is in the middle of crisis management mode. He's dealing with the divorce. He's dealing with public scrutiny. He's dealing with a bad public opinion, still.

So the first thing to remember is that progress, not perfection, is what you're looking for. You take baby steps. And he has taken those steps. He started to talk more with the media even though he is still very guarded. So he has taken those baby steps. I would say that he needs to focus. He needs to focus on his core business plan, which is the game of golf, endorsements, sponsorships, all of those commercials.

That was not his core business model to begin with. So if he can focus on first things first, which is apparently now not going to be his family. He's going to be focusing on the game of golf I think that he will be fine. It'll just take some time and we'll see the same Tiger that we're used to.

KEILAR: All right. We will certainly be watching. Marshawn Evans, thank you so much for joining us to talk about this.

EVANS: Thank you. And it is hot here in Texas. It is hot. KEILAR: Oh, boiling. Oh, yes. Jacqui Jeras told us. Thanks for that. Stay cool there.

EVANS: I will.

KEILAR: A check now of our top stories.

The president and the first family traveled to Panama City beach today. They are hoping to boost tourism by showing that the gulf is open for business. The president addressed recovery efforts, pushing for BP to move faster in processing oil disaster claims. He and the first lady also participated in a round table discussion with small business owners, Navy secretary Ray Navis and Florida's Governor Charlie Crist.

Serial stabbing suspect Elias Abuelazam is awaiting extradition to Michigan. He did not fight the move in a Georgia hearing yesterday. He was captured in Atlanta Wednesday trying to board a flight to Israel. He is suspected of stabbing 18 people in three states. Five of those people have died.

The medical examiner's office in Alaska says the five people killed in a plane crash earlier this week could not have been saved even if rescuers had reached them immediately. Former Senator Ted Stevens was among those killed. The NTSB has interviewed two of the four survivors but they say nothing unusual happened before the crash.

It is movie time now. We're changing gears. Julia Roberts, I'm sure you know this, she is setting off on a journey to find herself based on a book many of us have read. Then you also got the all star cast of tough guys that's teaming up to do what tough guys do best.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A soul searching journey for Julia Roberts as she returns to the big screen this weekend and then Sylvester Stallone leading an all star cast of action heroes and also Michael Cera bringing his brand of comedy back to theaters.

Matt Atchity joining us now from Los Angeles with today's movie reviews. Let's start with "Eat, Pray, Love," Matt, you know, this is based on a book, of course, and let's take a look and then we'll talk out of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All I think about is my meditation room and how to decorate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The meditation room is within. Decorate that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you always talk in bumper sticker?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. Here's another one. You have to learn to select your thoughts the same way that you select your clothes every day. Now that's a power that you can cultivate. You want to come here and you want to control your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control because if you can't master your thoughts, you're in trouble forever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am trying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll say you have. Hello. That's the damn problem. Stop trying. Surrender. Go out into the garden and just sit there and still your mind and watch what happens. Why don't you just let it be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I have to say, this is a pretty serious part of this movie or book if you've read the book but this is basically, you know, someone coming out of a divorce and she goes on, travels through Italy and India and Bali and kind of finds herself and that's really the whole idea here. What did you think about this movie when you saw it?

MATT ATCHITY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, ROTTENTOMATOES.COM: You know, I have to tell you, I didn't read the book. I read some things about the book. I have plenty of friends who did read the book. And I can tell you that fans of the book are going to enjoy this movie. I was a little under whelmed.

I'm glad you showed that scene with Richard Jenkins though because his scenes steal the movie. In fact, he's got a speech that comes up a little bit after that that is probably the best five minutes in the whole movie. It is jaw dropping. He is so good.

And you understand why he was nominated for an Oscar. He's fantastic. The rest of the movie is OK. You know, it's the journey, the biggest problem with the movie is that it's hard to separate Julia Roberts, the actress, and her success to this character that's so lost and in so much turmoil because you're thinking, well, it's Julia Roberts. How bad can life be? But that being said -

KEILAR: Yes. You're thinking it's Julia Roberts. She is in, you know, she has a happy marriage with two cute little kids and all is well for her. OK. So what is the grade then?

ATCHITY: I'm going to give it a "C."

KEILAR: A "C."

ATCHITY: Now, I'm probably a little bit higher - yes, I will admit I'm a little higher than most of the critics. You know, most of the critics I can tell you on my site that 36 percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes have said this is not or only 36 percent have said the movie is good. Most of the critics are really saying it's kind of a disappointment.

I actually surprisingly was kind of OK with it. There's good chemistry between Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts and really again for the audience that this movie is made for, fans of the book, you'll be just fine. You'll enjoy it. But if you're coming in cold, if you're not a fan of the book, if haven't read it, you might want to skip this one.

KEILAR: OK. So next up, I mean talk about a right turn here. The Sly Stallone movie "The Expendables." Let's roll that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop your guns!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll take the one on the left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not take the two on the right and leave the rest alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should take the two on the right. You're not that fast anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing faster is light.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll say. We'll see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bullets go faster than blades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring the money here, now!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want the money? Go get it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting a text.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I call that a tie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Keep dreaming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. About what I expected there. You take every big blockbuster action actor that is known to man. You throw them together. What did you think of this?

ATCHITY: You know, I have to admit I was kind of disappointed. You look at the star power of this movie. It's Sylvester Stallone. It's Jason Statham, who I love, it's Jet Lee, who is always fantastic. You got good cameos from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. You've got some fighters in here like Randy Couture and Steve Austin, Terry Cruz, the former football player now action star and you would think this movie should be astounding. And really, it's just kind of just this plodding action movie. The action is over the top. I will say that. It's very violent and it's very bloody. It's extremely bloody. So be prepared. This is definitely not a movie to bring your kids to.

KEILAR: And the grade?

ATCHITY: But that being said the grade, I give it a "C." It takes itself way too seriously.

KEILAR: A "C."

ATCHITY: Yes.

KEILAR: So the whole less than the sum of its parts. But I'm wondering then what you think about Scott Pilgrim versus the world? I mean, we have to do better than a "C" here right? Let's look at this clip and then we'll talk.

ATCHITY: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That ex-boyfriends thing is messing with my head. Exes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you keep saying that? A girl from earlier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roxie (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know this girl?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, boy. Does she know me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is she talking about?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He really doesn't know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait. Hmm. You and her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just a phase.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just a phase?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a phase?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It meant nothing. I didn't think it would count.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It meant nothing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just a little bi-curious.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, honey, I'm a little bi-furious!

(END MOVIE CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: So the whole premise of this is Michael Cera has to beat up his girlfriend's ex-boyfriends-and apparently an ex-girlfriend, at least one there. So let's do this. Let's start with the grade. What do you give this one?

MATT ATCHITY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, ROTTENTOMATOES.COM: I'm going to go big and tell you I give this one an A. It is a fantastic movie. It is a lot of fun. I was laughing the whole time. Visually the movie is over the top. It's a comic book movie. It's kind of a video game movie. It has a great punk rock songs. It's so much fun. There's a lot of things going on, on the screen. It's very silly.

But around all that there's a nice love story here. And Michael Cera's character goes from kind of this goofball, insensitive, romantic type to somebody who actually really learns something about himself. All of the insanity that's going on in this movie actually is just icing on the cake of what is actually a really nice, sweet little love story.

KEILAR: I said to you earlier, Matt, it seems that you could go to the movies as a couple, and you part ways, one goes to see "Eat, Pray, Love" and one goes to see "The Expendables", and you said?

ATCHITY: I said as a couple go and see this one because this is the one to see this weekend.

KEILAR: Go together and see "Scott Pilgrim."

ATCHITY: Yes. Go to see "Scott Pilgrim" together.

KEILAR: That is your verdict. Thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

ATCHITY: Thank you.

KEILAR: Back to the scene of the crime, coming up we'll take you to Michigan where they're preparing for the return of a serial stabbing suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The suspect in a string of stabbings will be heading back to Michigan to face at least one charge. It's believed that Elias Abuelazam is responsible for 18 stabbings in all and five deaths among those. CNN's Susan Candiotti is in Flint, Michigan, where she talked to the relatives of one of the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIAS ABUELAZAM, STABBING SUSPECT: Why should I wait nine days, right?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now that they've seen serial stabbing suspect Elias Abuelazam in court, victims' families call him the face of evil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of person are you?

CANDIOTTI: What do you wish to say to this man?

ELZORA MINOR, VICTIM'S MOTHER: Do you have a mother? Or a family? How would he feel about taking someone's life?

CANDIOTTI: On their front porch in Flint, Michigan, Arnold Miner's family struggles for answers. STEPHANIE WARD, VICTIM'S SISTER: You know, why? How can you just go about and just take a stranger's life?

CANDIOTTI: On August 2nd, Miner was the fifth and final man to die among 18 stabbed in a three-month spree in Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia.

(On camera): After Sunday night dinner with his mother and sisters and brother, Arnold Miner headed for home. It was about 1:00 in the morning and he had a five-mile walk ahead of him. That wasn't unusual. But what he didn't expect on this lonely stretch of road, about a mile shy of his house, was an encounter with a killer.

Police say they found his body fatally stabbed here on the side of the road and apparently not a single person saw what happened.

WARD: Somehow when he tried to defend himself he did get a wound in his right arm.

CANDIOTTI: Police say the killer tracked his victims by car in the dead of night, luring them over by asking for help. Most were black and police suspect that was no accident.

WARD: It was like you got vengeance toward black men.

CANDIOTTI (On camera): Why do you think someone would do this to your son and to the others?

MINOR: I don't have a clue.

CANDIOTTI: Neither do the suspect's co-workers at this Flint, Michigan convenience store. They call Abuelazam a nice guy who gave no hint of racism or violence. The Israeli national was arrested before boarding a flight to Tel Aviv.

WARD: You don't know who your neighbor is. You know, they pretend to be this nice guy, and then in the night time turn into Doctor Jekyll.

CANDIOTTI: Miner never married. He was going to a trade school to learn home renovations. This is how his family wants to remember him.

(On camera): When you see your son's smiling face?

MINOR: It makes me smile. It makes me smile. It makes me smile.

CANDIOTTI: Smiling through pain. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Flint, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: In southwestern China at least 38 people were killed by flooding in Sichuan Province. The main highway there is under 13 feet of water and just to the north is Gansu Province where mudslides killed more than 1,100 people last weekend. Nearly 600 are still missing seven days later. Tomorrow will be a national day of mourning there. And more flooding is expected this weekend in southern Pakistan. Huge areas of the country are already devastated by flood waters. Pakistan's prime minister puts the number of affected at 20 million and counting. But as our Reza Sayah reports, international aid still isn't getting to victims in desperate need.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When flood waters swept through Pakistan, the devastation was often quick and complete.

"The floods left nothing in my home except my wooden door and parts of my roof," says Ruwad Sha (ph).

For Sha, and millions of flood victims, the wait for help has been equally agonizing. Ruwad (ph) says it took two weeks before he received a bag of flour from an aid agency.

"This is the first time I'm getting help," he says.

The Pakistani government has received sharp criticism for its perceived slow response to the floods. But aid groups say international aid has also been too slow and too small for a disaster this big.

One private aid official tells CNN the European Union and the U.K. have pledged millions, but aid groups have yet to see all the cash.

(On camera): The biggest donor in the world is the U.S. humanitarian assistance agency, U.S. AID. This is some of the flour they've donated. But private aid groups here in Pakistan say they are often the slowest to respond to emergencies. Those groups say they send proposals to U.S. AID as far back as August 4th and have yet to hear back.

A U.S. official tells CNN U.S. AID is assessing scores of proposals to avoid waste and duplicate projects and that takes time. The official defended U.S. AID pointing to pledges of more than $70 million in relief goods, much of it to private aid agencies.

That's not nearly enough to meet the needs, says Daud Jan.

DAUD JAN, RELIEF INTERNATIONAL: More aid is required actually. I think only one person has been provider so far.

SAYAH: Jan heads a team of aid workers from Relief International in northwest Pakistan. The U.S.-based foreign aid group has teams deployed in four districts helping 30,000 flood victims, a tiny fraction of the 15 million who need relief.

JAN: It destroys you from inside that you are unable to help these people, this community, from this-to relieve them from this disaster.

SAYAH: Jan says if international aid doesn't significantly increase, and soon, Pakistan's most vulnerable flood victims could begin losing their fight for survival. Reza Sayah, CNN, Paubi (ph), Pakistan. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Checking our top stories now.

President Obama now tells CNN that he wasn't commenting on the wisdom of plans to build an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero, when he came out in support of it last night. In that speech the president said Muslims have the same rights as anyone else in this country and that includes the right to build a place of worship on private property in Manhattan.

Today the president says he meant that the government should treat everyone equally regardless of religion.

Well, four people were shot to death outside a restaurant in Buffalo, New York overnight. Two others are in the hospital. In a news conference a short time ago police wouldn't comment on a report that one person is in custody. Right now they're pleading with witnesses to come forward to provide more details on the incident.

Crews have found two bodies deep in a Nevada gold mine. And they are believed to be the bodies of two miners riding in an elevator that was hit by a large falling pipe. It took two days for crews to reach the site where bodies were found 1,300 feet underground.

A Massachusetts man was rushed to the hospital and doctors ran tests for two weeks. You will not believe what they finally found.

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KEILAR: A Massachusetts man was afraid that he had a tumor but that's not what it turned out to be, not at all. Ryan Shultise (ph) of CNN affiliate WHDH explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RON SVEDEN, HAD PEA PLANT IN HIS LUNG: I was told that I had a pea seed in my lung that had split and had sprouted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not the diagnosis Ron Sveden was expecting. He prepared himself to hear the words "cancer" and "tumor" but a plant growing in his lung?

SVEDEN: Probably about a half inch. And that's a pretty big thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ron had been sick for months. He was already fighting emphysema when his health took a turn for the worse.

SVEDEN: I was not doing too well, a lot of coughing. I was very listless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Memorial Day Ron's wife called 911 and he was rushed to the hospital where doctors took these X-rays and found his left lung collapsed. For two weeks they ran tons of tests but they all came back negative for cancer, until one doctor found a plant growing in his lung. SVEDEN: Whether this would have gone full term and I'd be working for the Jolly Green Giant, I don't know. But I think that the thing that finally dawned on me is that it wasn't cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ron says he never felt anything growing in his chest, just a lot of coughing. Doctors suspect he had eaten a pea at some point in the last couple months and it went down the wrong way and then began to grow.

SVEDEN: One the first meals I had in the hospital, after the surgery, had peas for the vegetable. I laughed to myself and ate them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His wife, Nancy, thrilled with his strange twist of fate.

NANCY SVEDEN, RON SVEDEN'S WIFE: God has such a sense of humor. I mean, it could have been just nothing but it had to be a pea and it had to be sprouting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: So how common is it for fruits or vegetables to grow inside of the human body? We are going to ask Doctor Sampson Davis that. He is joining us now from New York to discuss these issues.

We also want to ask you about male menopause, or mano-pause, as we've been calling it here. But back to the pea, what are the chances, Doctor, of this happening?

DR. SAMPSON DAVIS, EMERGENCY MEDICINE: This is a very unique story. I mean, for a pea to grow inside somebody's lung is simply amazing. First of all you have to consider that the pea went down the wrong pipe. He inhaled the pea. And the fact that the pea must have been raw because if it was a pasteurized pea there is no way it could have grown. The only sense I can make of it is that it was in a dark environment and it was able to germinate and sort of sprout. But it would not have continue to grow because it needs light, of course, and water in order to grow.

KEILAR: And he did say it was only a half inch and he certainly had a sense of humor about it I guess which is kind of good.

Turning now to something that you may want to kind of laugh at but maybe it isn't something to laugh at. Male menopause, because a lot of people would be quite confused about this. According to an article on CNN Health between 1999 and 2008 the number of prescriptions filled in the U.S. for testosterone gels, shots, patches, the first line treatment for most men, increased by more than 400 percent to 3.3 million.

But you say that low testosterone or male menopause is actually very uncommon. What are the symptoms?

DAVIS: Well, actually menopause, or mano-pause, is common in the sense that testosterone levels as we age drop. After the age of 40 about 1 percent each year our testosterone level will drop. As a recent -- so that is part of the common aging process. But as of recent people have started labeling it as something we need to treat. Some of the symptoms includes fatigue, obesity, headache, decreased physical activity, decreased libido.

But with that said, we have to have a word of caution. Because if you start to take testosterone supplements there are risk factors associated with that. One is an increased red blood cell production. That can lead to heart attacks and stroke. So you have to be careful and realize that before seeking treatment you should document your symptoms and make sure they're symptoms ongoing for a period of time, as well as your testosterone level needs to be consistently low for a period of time.

KEILAR: So, you say people shouldn't jump the gun because there are these side effects. And it's true, right, you could also see the same symptoms because of other conditions. So how tricky is it to really diagnose this?

DAVIS: It is very tricky. I mean, depression can present this way. Low thyroid can present this way. Sleep apnea can cause some of the symptoms that you may experience. So the main thing is doing your yearly physical examinations that you should have a testosterone level drawn.

And then you should document-I like to break it into three categories. One is physical. Are you less active? One is psychological. Are you not sleeping well? Do you feel depressed? The last is sexual. Do you have decreased libido? Those three categories along with the prolonged period of time when your testosterone level was low, then may advocate for treatment. But even though you may get treated, it doesn't mean that you would start to improve with the testosterone. Some people don't improve when they receive testosterone treatments and therefore you have to decrease or stop the therapy, obviously.

KEILAR: OK. Then I guess the other bit of advice would be to get your yearly physical if that's when you should be checking it. I know a lot of people are certainly not that diligent about doing that. All good tips, Doctor Sampson Davis, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

DAVIS: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: And five years after Hurricane Katrina the rebuilding continues and so does the commitment of heroes who are really making a difference.

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KEILAR: As we approach the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina CNN's Anderson Cooper kicks off our coverage with this special "CNN HEROES: COMING BACK FROM KATRINA". We caught up with three of our CNN Heroes working to rebuild New Orleans. 2008 Top 10 CNN Hero Tad Agoglia first came to the Gulf to clean up after Katrina, and five years later he is back to clean up oil. Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TAD AGOGLIA, CNN HERO: Right now we are in the marshlands of southern Louisiana. The barrier islands are right on the Gulf Coast. This is where commerce takes place, where people fish, and we have to try to protect it. This is a different kind of disaster.

When a hurricane comes in it can be cleaned up. Oil is not that easily cleaned up. Oil could stay around for decades.

When Katrina hit, I was a contractor that was hired to come in and clean up cities. When I came two or three months later and saw the destruction that remained, I realized that I was going to respond immediately, and help people that were in need.

I founded a nonprofit called First Response Team of America. We respond to natural disasters all over this country. This is where we stage every morning. Every day the tides are bringing in more oil, fresh oil. We brought in equipment that is able to suck up large amounts of oil very quickly. I didn't realize how emotional it would be to see the wildlife affected, the water affected.

This is tough, man. We've got oil right in the middle of hurricane season.

We're really proud to be here and I think that everybody has a contribution to make in this life. Everybody has something to give. We're determined to find the solutions, to help each other, and to begin again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You can learn more about Agoglia and other CNN Heroes working to rebuild the Gulf Coast this weekend. Check out "CNN HEROES: COMING BACK FROM KATRINA" tonight, as well as Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Hosted by Anderson Cooper.

Then at 8:00 a look at the actions of the New Orleans police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Did innocent people die at the hands of police officers? CNN investigates whether some over stressed officers took shoot-to-kill orders too far in "SHOOT TO KILL".

The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM continues with Don Lemon. I'm Brianna Keilar here at the CNN News Center in Atlanta. Up next from White House to publishing house. Desiree Rogers talks about her new challenge, live.

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