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Florida Schools in Lockdown; President Obama in South Korea for G-20 Summit; Elizabeth Smart's Trial; The Rising Price Of Gold; Bomb Timed To Explode Over U.S.; ELegs Provide Hope for Paraplegics

Aired November 10, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: We're watching three major stories happening around the world right now. A frightening new revelation in that plot to smuggle bombs out of Yemen onto planes headed to the United States. We're now learning one was timed to explode over U.S. soil.

In Florida, 300 Broward County Schools are in lockdown right now as police chase down a threat from a possible gunman. And chaos in London as tens of thousands of angry students take over the streets protesting a government move that could send their tuition fees skyrocketing. It is all happening right now.

We're following all of those stories. But first let's go to this bomb plot out of Yemen. We have just learned that if one of those bombs that was discovered wasn't discovered, it was set to detonate six hours later right as that plane would have been over U.S. soil. Let's go straight to Susan Candiotti in New York, who's following this very, very closely. Susan, what do you have?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an intriguing revelation now, this additional information coming to CNN from a senior U.S. Counterterrorism official, revealing that that package that was discovered at the East Midlands Airport in the UK about 12 days or so ago in fact would have detonated about six hours after apparently it was discovered.

What's important about this is that where it would have been when it did go off. And that, as you know, we still have -- there are a lot of variables involved here. But it is believed that it could possibly have exploded when the plane, the cargo plane, the UPS plane, was over the Eastern seaboard. Depending on a lot of different factors.

VELSHI: Sure.

CANDIOTTI: We don't know for sure what route it would have taken, the trajectory, whether it would come over Halifax - Newfoundland, Halifax - down Cape Cod, and down onto where the original cargo plane would have landed. Remember, Ali, there are so many questions here. The authorities discovered this package with the printer and then determined on later inspection that it had the explosives inside, the P.E.T.N. So we don't know how much time that took.

VELSHI: Right.

CANDIOTTI: Then the plane that it was supposed to be on, that cargo plane, was originally, according to German intelligence officials talking to CNN, we know that that original UPS plane was set to go on to Philadelphia and then Chicago. Remember that the package was addressed to a location in Chicago.

It turned out to be a fake address, but be that as it may. So what's frightening about this clearly is that if it had gone off, whether it would have been over the Eastern seaboard, whether the plane could have been close to land, whether it would have been close to landing, too many variables here to know for sure.

VELSHI: When we say it was set to detonate, does that mean it was set to detonate on its own or would it have to have been triggered by something? Earlier there was speculation that because it had cell phone components in that maybe as it got into cell range as it was landing somewhere and you start to get the cell signal somebody could have detonated it then. Are we thinking that this was timed?

CANDIOTTI: Well, that's one of the questions and one of the scenarios that authorities have said, intelligence officials, as they try to pick this apart any further. We don't have more information about that at this time.

VELSHI: All right, Susan. I know you're working very hard on it. I know Paul Cruickshank is there. You're all working on this. We'll check in with you regularly to see what this means. But this certainly ups the ante on how serious an issue this actually was, that these bombs could have gone off in a plane over the Eastern seaboard of the United States. Susan thanks very much. We'll continue to stay on this story.

All right. Elsewhere on the global stage, I want to keep talking about this. I want to talk a little about this G20 summit going on in Seoul - financial shock waves from a summit that hasn't even started yet. It's starting on Thursday. Think about this. No matter how much money you have or how little you have, you want it to be worth something.

But right now the two biggest economic powers on the planet are accusing each other of driving their own currencies down. China and the U.S. are accusing each other of keeping their currencies too low and making efforts to keep them lower, and that means rough times ahead at this G20 economic summit getting under way tomorrow in Seoul, South Korea.

The G20, the group of 20, includes the world's biggest economies and also some of the fastest emerging economies. Together these economies make up 85 percent of the world's economic output. So trust me, you have a stake in what these leaders decide or don't decide at this summit. This year all eyes are going to be on the U.S. and China.

China has long been accused of keeping its currency, the Yuan; unnaturally low, artificially cheap, in part by buying up currencies from other countries, creating more demand for other currencies, and making those prices higher. This is simple supply and demand, if you don't understand it. What's the point of doing that?

Well, when the Chinese currency is worth less, Chinese products can be sold for less abroad. It also discourages Chinese from buying foreign-made goods. Sure enough, Chinese exports have been off the charts. Let me show you this. China exported -- just this morning we learned, by the way, that China exported $27 billion more in goods than it imported. That's China's trade surplus.

The U.S., by the way, does the opposite. For years we have imported into the U.S. far more than we've sold to other countries. We got those figures for September - a trade deficit of $44 billion. So we imported $44 billion more in goods and services than we exported. Now, the Obama Administration thinks that the ultimate answer for all countries is economic growth. Wouldn't we love that? We're all firing on all cylinders.

More producing, more consuming, more buying, and selling, everybody wins. Well, to that end the Fed decided last week to pump more money into the U.S. economy by buying up treasury bills - $600 billion. That means there's more money to loan. It's easy to get a loan. You get a loan, you're more likely to spend, build a factory, employ people. Those people have money to spend. But guess what?

One of the expected impacts of all of that money being put into the system, whenever you take anything of value and you create more of it, it lowers the value of that which already exists. So the impact of that is to lower the value of the U.S. dollar. We've seen that happen already. That would make U.S. exports cheaper to other people. And that gives the U.S. the very edge that everybody is complaining to Beijing about. Let me bring in Christine Romans.

She understands this stuff even better than I do. But Christine, this G20, I mean, two years ago the whole world was talking about coordinating and doing things together to fix this global economy. It seems we've gone the opposite direction now. This is the stamp of how everybody is now going to do what they think is best for their economy and the rest of the world be damned.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: As one analyst watching this this morning told me it's every man for himself or every country for himself. And that's where things stand now. You know, two years after the crisis and a year after the G20 in Pittsburgh. These countries all pledged to speak with one voice. That was an excellent explainer, Ali. I'm so glad that you buttoned it up so well because it's exactly what's happening here.

The United States would like to be talking about global imbalances, those big uneven trade that you were talking about, global imbalances, but instead we're having to deflect criticism. This president's going to have to deflect criticism about the Fed's stimulus.

One of the things that these other countries are concerned about, the big fast-growing emerging economies, they're worried that that money the Fed is injecting into the system isn't necessarily going to go to create new jobs and invest in new factories and have new loans in the united states but that it might find homes in other bubbles around the world where they're very concerned about how those bubbles have come up and that it might hurt them.

They're worried about that as well. Also, this comes on a day with some new numbers for you about the U.S.-China trade issue. An issue that still is as unbalanced as it was before the financial crisis began. The United States this September, Ali, exported $7 billion worth of goods to China. So we sent $7.2 billion worth of goods to China. We imported $35 billion worth.

VELSHI: Wow. Five times.

ROMANS: So still this incredible uneven -- incredibly uneven situation. For a long time the treasury department, Tim Geithner, as you know, he's told you this as well, want to talk -- address these global imbalances, it means Europe investing more, the united states saving more, spending less, China developing its domestic consumer.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: So that they're buying more. But numbers like this seem to say, or seem to suggest that things are still going the way they were before the crisis.

VELSHI: Yes. This is going to make the conversation a little bit tougher, the conversation that starts tomorrow. You and I will keep a close eye on all of these things and all of the related developments, including the price of oil, the price of gold, the price of commodities, everything here is connected. Christine, great to see you. I will see you in New York tomorrow. And of course we're together every single day including this weekend on "Your Money."

Elizabeth Smart back on the witness stand today, recounting her nine months of hell. What kind of questions is she going to face, if any, in the cross-examination? I'll have the latest on that trial right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I don't know if you've been following this, we certainly have. The trial that Elizabeth Smart has been testifying in for the third straight day. This is the federal kidnapping trial. She's now 23 years old. She was abducted when she was 14 and spent nine months in captivity. And she's been talking about that quite -- quite freely over the last couple of days, last three days. She was held by a street preacher and his wife.

She was threatened and repeatedly sexually assaulted. The defense was entering its cross-examination today. Jean Casarez joins us now. She's a correspondent with "In Session." She joins us from where the trial is taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jean, it's been fascinating to hear the words that Elizabeth Smart has been using to describe her captivity. It's detailed. It's hard to listen to, but the reality is she's very poised about describing nine months of constant agony and hell, really.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, it's amazing. I sit in that courtroom, and I watch her eloquence, her classiness, but her honesty - as she turns to the jurors and says some of the most humiliating, degrading things that could happen to anyone. But she is recounting it. She has to recount it. She is a surviving victim. And today she just got off the stand, by the way. It was a short cross-examination but it was pretty pointed. But in the direct examination today they seemed to try to want to anticipate what the defense was going to do.

So they asked her about his preaching, about that he was the Davidic King, that he was the one chosen to have seven wives. Did he ever talk about this in public or just to you? She said he never mentioned it in public; it was just to me, which is an indication to show he was using that to maneuver her.

VELSHI: You said it was a short cross-examination. What could the defense try and discredit her in? I mean, often a cross- examination is meant to try to find weaknesses in testimony. What could they attempt to poke weaknesses in?

CASAREZ: Do you know, Ali, that's what they did a little bit. I was surprised, because this is Elizabeth Smart. But there was one example where she had said on direct examination that he had never gotten in an argument with anyone about religion in the public. So on cross-examination he said, but didn't you mention about a rave party that you all went to and he got into an argument?

Her response was, "thank you so much for reminding me of that." I saw an intensity from Elizabeth Smart toward that public defender that I have not seen before.

VELSHI: She's a woman of 23 years old now. What is her life like now?

CASAREZ: She is actually living in Paris right now. She's on a mission for the LDS Church. She flew in just for this trial. Her whole family is with her. They're sitting in the gallery and they are watching. Her mother and father, I see them watching with pride, with sadness, with anticipation.

VELSHI: Sure.

CASAREZ: They're nervous for her. And every time she gets off the stand she just goes into their arms there in the gallery.

VELSHI: Wow. It must be something to follow. Jean thanks very much for being with us. We'll continue to check in with you.

CASAREZ: You're welcome.

VELSHI: Now, you probably heard the price of gold is going through the roof. So let me ask you, what do you think the record price for gold is? I'm talking about its value adjusted for inflation. Think about that for a moment. And we'll come back with an answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUSTIN POWERS, ACTOR, "GOLDMEMBER": I love gold. The look of it. The taste of it. The smell of it. The texture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That, of course, is Austin Powers in "Goldmember." He isn't the only one who loves gold, apparently. On Tuesday, the price of gold briefly poked its head above $1,400 an ounce. A record of sorts. But that almost seems like a bargain compared to its peak in 1980, when it was $850 an ounce.

Here's the question I asked before the break. What's the peak price for an ounce of gold adjusted for inflation? If you put that 1980 number, $850 an ounce, into today's money, it works out to about $2,250 an ounce.

Now, the question people are trying to figure out, what's driving the price of gold back up to these record levels? It certainly isn't outright demand for its usage. Gold is used for aerospace. It's clearly used for jewelry. We know that. It's in the computer on your desk, by the way. It's also in the cell phone in your pocket. But it is far too expensive these days to still have huge industrial demand. Even when the world's central banks don't hold nearly as much as they used to, the simple reality is that it is being used as an investment, as a hedge against other things going wrong.

Is gold still a good investment? Let me ask somebody who knows gold about as well as anyone. Rob McEwen is the founder and former CEO of Goldcorp. These days he's the CEO of gold miner Minera Andes.

Rob, good to see you again. Thank you for being with us.

ROB MCEWEN, CEO, MINERA ANDES: Thank you, Ali.

VELSHI: Rob, let's start with that obvious question. At $1,400 we've got people saying they're shorting gold, they want to get out of gold. This is certainly a peak price for gold. Tell me, you're a guy who's lived in gold for decades, what's -- is $1,400 -- are we going higher than that? Are we going lower than that? What do you think is happening with gold?

MCEWEN: We're going much higher, Ali. There's a lack of confidence in paper currencies around the world as their debt levels expand and their economies have weakened. And governments are printing massive amounts of money. It's a --

VELSHI: It's not priced in yet? We haven't seen all of it yet? We still -- there's still more to come?

MCEWEN: A lot more to come. I think we're probably one third of the way right now. VELSHI: Let's talk about what I was just discussing, real value for gold versus investment value or speculative value or hedging value. At this point, this drive up, there is an increase in demand for gold. We've seen that in the last few years. But that's not what's driving this.

MCEWEN: Gold is an alternative currency. In my mind, at this particular juncture in the financial system, it's the ultimate currency. If you look over the last decade, gold against the dollar is up almost 400 percent against the Australian dollar, which has been one of the better performing commodities -- or currencies due to its commodity base. It's up just under 200 percent. People are looking at it and saying there's uncertainty in the financial markets, the government actions aren't working as promised, and where do we put our money?

VELSHI: What -- what --

MCEWEN: Interest rates are very low.

VELSHI: What's the thing that's going to happen, Rob, to make that change? What's the thing that's going to happen to make you come on here and say, I think the run in gold is done?

MCEWEN: Once it hits $5,000 and the exchange ratio between the Dow and gold is one or two ounces buys the Dow, so if you divided the Dow by the price of gold and you came up with a number of one or two, that's when I think gold will be at its zenith (ph) in terms of purchasing power relative to other assets. And you'll then roll -- take some of your money and roll it into debt instruments, possibly real estate, undervalued equities. But until that happens, I think we're in a strong up trend for gold and silver.

VELSHI: Rob, for my view who does something else for a living and doesn't get to follow finances and markets and precious metals on a regular basis, what percentage of their portfolio should they have exposed to gold in whatever way they choose to do that, whether it's bullion or stocks or exchange traded fund or mining companies? How much exposure should you have -- should the average person have to gold?

MCEWEN: They should start with 10 percent. I'm an extreme case. I'm over 85 percent, 90 percent of my wealth in gold.

VELSHI: But you are an extreme -- you know it very well. You have lived and breathed this for a long time. Thank you for that sage advice.

Rob, good to see you. Rob McEwen, a founder of Goldcorp and current CEO of Minera Andes, a gold expert if there ever was one. And he eats his own cooking. He says he's 85 percent, 90 percent in gold.

All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to follow the latest breaking news on that plane. The printer cartridge that got on a plane in Yemen that we are now learning was set to explode possibly over the eastern United States. I'll have more detail on this when I come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, this is breaking news we have on those printer cartridges that were sent, those bombs -- let's call them bombs, that's what they were -- that were sent from Yemen to the west. One of them was intercepted at East Midlands Airport in England. That one was set to go off six hours after it was intercepted. It's quite possible that that plane could have been over the eastern United States at that time. Speculation is that maybe it would have been landing or maybe it would have been coming in close to a populated area.

Let's go right to our terrorism analyst, Paul Cruickshank, in New York. He's working the story, along with Susan Candiotti.

When this happened 12 days ago, Paul, you and I were together right where you are in New York, we were discussing this and you were saying that there had been speculation amongst experts that perhaps this device was designed, either remotely or with a timer, to go off as it was descending, possibly into an area that had cell coverage because it had cell phone components. But the idea might have been -- because I said, why would you put a bomb on a cargo plane? What damage could that do? Seems like we're getting closer to an answer.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: We are getting closer to an answer. The British authorities now saying that this is a ticking time bomb and was set to explode. They calculate, based on their estimate, over the eastern seaboard of the United States. So you're looking, Ali, at a Lockerbie style event, not only killing the people in the cargo plane, but also significant numbers potentially on the ground.

This is a very significant plot that has been uncovered and we're getting more information on when this timing device was going to go off. It seems to be an alarm clock on a mobile phone component that was the bomb design in question here, Ali.

VELSHI: You know, when I think back to 9/11 and one of the things a lot of people say is that it was remarkable the ability for al Qaeda to have timed those planes, given that planes are late, and, you know, to have been so effective about getting planes that took off at roughly the same time. How would these terrorists have been able to know, when you send a package from Yemen with a destination of Chicago, where it would be in the process?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, we understand, Ali, that in mid-September there was sort of a dry run where they sent some packages from Yemen to Chicago, to try and work out exactly where these planes would likely be. There was a lot of optics involved. Their hope would have been these two planes exploding around the same time, perhaps in the early morning as they were approaching the United States Friday, Ali.

VELSHI: What do we know about the planes that were identified at Newark airport and at Philadelphia airport? How does this whole plot come together? We know that there were packages sent from Yemen. We know bombs were intercepted. How does it all come together?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, what we understand is the plane coming from East Midlands that was going to take this device was going to go to Philadelphia airport. So it's a reasonable presumption that some of the alert that then happened at Philadelphia airport was linked to that. But we're still finding out a lot more as the hours go by, Ali.

VELSHI: Is there some learning yet, or are we too early? Is there something authorities have learned that is going to prevent the next one from going on? Because this was pretty good work I guess from authorities intercepting a bomb that was going to go off.

But is there a lesson out of it yet?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, unfortunately, it's very difficult to find these things randomly, to screen for these sorts of devices. P.E.T.N. is very difficult to detect. It's all about intelligence. It's about getting the information that could prevent the plot. In this time around it was Saudi Arabians that provided the crucial intelligence. This bombmaker is still out there. And the al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, the group responsible say that they're going to pass this idea on to other Mujahidin brothers around the world. So this plot could be launched from any country in the world. A lot of concern right now, Ali.

VELSHI: You bring up a good point. This bombmaker is the same one who we think was involved in the attempt to bring down that Delta plane, the underpants bomber, if you will, on Christmas Day.

CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely right. Ibrahim al Asiri, they believe it's him based on the forensics. It's a similar sort of design, P.E.T.N. both times, similar forensics. He's still out there in Yemen. The Yemeni authorities say they're going to go after him.

As yet, they haven't captured him. He's still out there, still able to make these very, very dangerous explosives. And the concern has to be there may be follow-on attempts in the coming weeks and months. And al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula has said exactly that, we are going to try again and again. And next time they're saying we hope to actually target passenger jets, Ali.

VELSHI: Yes. And they put out a statement. They're very, very bold. They put out a statement outlining what they've done and what they plan to do.

Paul, thanks very much for staying on top of this. You'll let us know as soon as you have any other information.

Susan Candiotti, Paul Cruickshank working very hard to get more details on this breaking news story.

OK. I tweeted out and put on Facebook that you really need to watch this next thing. You need to call other people and tell them to watch because after the break I'm going to show you this woman in the pink top going from wearing -- from being in a wheelchair, being paralyzed for 18 years, to walking using robotics. This is not sleight of hand. She's demonstrating it for you right here on CNN. This is world-changing technology.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. This one is sending chills up my spine. I cannot get enough of this story. It's really outstanding. I mean, you really do think of -- we talk about paralysis a lot. We talk about people being stuck and not being able to move. We really do talk about stem cells and the hope that that research has for people in terms of dealing with paralysis.

But now we have real-life, what I think of as bionics. Amanda Boxtel is with me right now. And Eythor Bender. He's the CEO of the company we're about to talk about, eLegs. Amanda is wearing the eLegs.

Amanda, you have been paralyzed for how long?

AMANDA BOXTEL, ELEGS TEST PILOT: I've been paralyzed for 18 years. It was a freak skiing accident that rendered me a paraplegic and just in a split second I shattered four vertebrae and I felt an electric current that zapped through my legs and then there was nothing. No muscle power, no movement, no sensation.

VELSHI: And that's it. And you have been confined to a wheelchair or some sort of device to get you around.

You lost your mobility?

BOXTEL: Well, yes. I lost my mobility instantaneously. And life changed for me.

VELSHI: Yes.

BOXTEL: And I had to look at the world from four foot tall, to look up all the time, and now that's not the case.

VELSHI: Right. And this is -- and we're going to show -- we showed you standing. But we're going to show this whole thing in just a moment.

Eythor, you are behind this, your company is behind this. How did you meet up with Amanda?

EYTHOR BENDER, CEO, BERKELEY BIONICS: Well, it was simply through a friend. This is a small world in a way, especially in this field. And I heard about Amanda. I heard her speak. And she's been very passionate about getting walking again through her whole life. And I thought she would be just the perfect candidate.

VELSHI: And how did you come up with this?

BENDER: Well, this is really originated from Berkeley, where there's a lot of background in terms of wheelchairs.

VELSHI: Yes.

BENDER: And they were basically UC-Berkeley and together with a couple of very innovative guys who came together, and they thought, OK, this would be a great idea to build an exoskeleton for people to walk.

VELSHI: And let's take a look. It's an exoskeleton. It's something that goes outside your clothes, outside your body. But -- and it runs on batteries?

BENDER: It runs on batteries. It has actually motors here by the knee and by the hip. And it has a computer here on the back.

VELSHI: Yes.

BENDER: And then there are sensors that actually detect her movements.

VELSHI: OK.

BENDER: So she moves the clutch forward and that will actually initiate the step.

VELSHI: How long did it take you to get used to this? You've been playing around with this for a couple of months now?

BOXTEL: Well, I've only -- I've got about 20 hours under my belt. And I called myself a guinea pig at first. And they said no, Amanda, you're a test pilot. And in my book no pilot can ever get enough air time.

VELSHI: Sure.

BOXTEL: But there's a learning curve to this, as there is in any sport. And so I first went into the parallel bars, then a walker, and then I graduated to crutches, to the cross-lateral movement. And I was walking tall in my 5'7 body and loving every minute of it.

VELSHI: Well, we've teased everybody enough. We've talked about it. We're going to see it. We're going to take a quick break. Amanda is going to stand up, walk across the room. For anybody here who's not a believer -- and the reason why I waited for a break -- because is if you haven't called other people you know to say turn on CNN and watch this, you are going to see a miracle in a minute.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Every day on the Big I we bring you technology or an idea that is going to change the world. People have been in wheelchairs. -- Eythor and I were just talking -- for centuries, for hundreds of years. That has been largely the only option for most people who get a spinal cord injury or who are paralyzed.

Now we are on the brink of something entirely new happening. Amanda Boxtel is here. She's demonstrating it for us. Eythor Bender is here. He's from the company that is developing this. And you're thinking that if everything goes the way you'd like it to go, people could start using this at the end of next year even?

BENDER: Yes, we are talking about middle of next year. We will have it in selected clinics around the country. And so we'll start as something for the rehabilitation centers.

VELSHI: Yes.

BENDER: But the goal is for all people to have it to take home.

VELSHI: That's incredible.

Amanda, 18 years in a wheelchair.

BOXTEL: Shall we go for it?

VELSHI: Let's do it.

BOXTEL: OK. Here we go.

Now, keep in mind, this is to be used in a completely safe medical situation, for someone to learn how to walk. But now there's no excuses, Ali, for a doctor to ever say again you will never walk again. Because we've got bionic technology right in front of us and this is happening right now. The future is now.

VELSHI: Did you ever think you'd walk again?

BOXTEL: You know, I never believed in my lifetime that I would be able to walk and here I am, walking with you, side by side, eye to eye. And it's the most beautiful thing that, you know -- it just triggers emotion in me to this day. And it's a natural step because I'm bending my knee in the most natural step that I've had in 18 years.

VELSHI: How does it know? I hear some hydraulics or something, a motor happening. How does it know what you're trying to do?

BOXTEL: Oh. I think it's -- I'm not the technology expert. I'm a test pilot. Do you want to answer that question?

BENDER: Yes. Basically, what you do is that you are moving your crutch forward and with simply the arm gesture you send the signal to the device to make the walk.

VELSHI: And you've got some sensors on here.

BENDER: Yes.

VELSHI: And that's how it's sensing it. I mean, I can just see the joy in your face. You see a whole new life in front of you.

BOXTEL: Absolutely. VELSHI: What are the things you're going to do when you're able to use this on your own and freely? What does this mean for your life?

BOXTEL: When this is available for in-home use, I see myself using this every day as a rehabilitative device --

VELSHI: Let's, by the way, walk and talk because not many people have said that to you in the last couple of decades, right?

BOXTEL: Let's walk and talk. I can do that.

And then, you know, I live in the mountains. I live in Colorado. And if I'm able to eventually get out on uneven terrain and hike in the wilderness, that would be my most beautiful goal, to be outdoors with the wind on my face and to be loving life. And at the end of this, I want you to promise me one thing.

VELSHI: What's that?

BOXTEL: Can you give me a heart-to-heart hug?

VELSHI: Absolutely! Absolutely! You get more than a hug. You deserve everything life has to offer you because this is absolutely, absolutely incredible. Your success is going to mean great things for people who have been, you know, confined to a wheelchair, who haven't been able to move around. As you said, you saw the world from four feet. Now you're seeing it from my height.

BOXTEL: Come here!

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Congratulations. Congratulations. This is so incredible.

BOXTEL: Thanks for having us.

VELSHI: This is really -- this is why we do this. This is why we do these things about great ideas because this is where they come from. So, thanks to you. Thanks to Berkeley Bionics and you two who have been here to make sure everything goes well.

There will hopefully come a day when you won't need to be here. But we're very grateful to you and the folks at Berkeley and to you, Eythor. And to you, Amanda, for being the test pilot on this. We will watch your progress very, very closely.

BOXTEL: Someone's got to do it. And this is going to revolutionize mobility options for people in wheelchairs.

VELSHI: It really, really is. Thank you so much for coming out here to do this. I really appreciate this.

BOXTEL: Thank you. You need to know more about this. For more on this amazing technology, go to my blog, CNN.com/ali. I'm also going to get this put onto our Web site so you can get it on Twitter, you can get it on Facebook. You're going to really need to do this again. You need to watch it again to really get a sense of it.

We're going out for a quick break. I'll come back with more on the other side.

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VELSHI: A lot of news today, interrupted with some fantastic stuff. But I want to tell you, at the beginning of the show we were telling you about a school lockdown in Broward County because they were concerned about a gunman. That lockdown has now been lifted. School is being released at normal time. After-school activities today have been cancelled, but it looks like everything in Broward County is under control.

Time now for "Globe Trekking." Our first stop is London. Tens of thousands of students took to the streets today, protesting government plans to hike university tuition fees. This is all part of that austerity program introduced by the new Conservative government there. At one point, the outraged crowd broke into the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party, setting off flares and spray painting anti-government symbols. Police forced them back to the streets where they set fires outside the building. At least eight people were injured, none seriously we understand. The planned tuition increase is part of the government's austerity program that would allow universities to raise fees by about $9,700 per year.

Now we're going to Afghanistan. We told you about the plight of Afghan women. At best, second-class citizens. At worst, virtual slaves to their husbands and in-laws. This is a situation far too often resulting in their murder or the taking of their own live.

Now under a program that's part of the U.S. strategy to defeat the Taliban and bring peace to the country, women are being taught jobs that have always been off limits to them. CNN's Jill Dougherty recently spoke to some of them.

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JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A shocking sight for Afghans: women renovating a building. For women like Salma, working outside the home is almost impossible.

SALMA, PAINTING APPRENTICE (through translator): I need to work. My husband cannot work. I was taking in laundry for students, washing it at home. Then I heard about this program.

DOUGHERTY: It's called Cash for Work, an American-sponsored program to help these women, most of them widows, survive. RODNEY STUBINA, USAID: Their family members are desperate. But if we can give them a job, get food on their tables, their kids wouldn't join insurgencies.

DOUGHERTY: At this hospital in Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, women learn the basics of construction work. (on camera): The women start out as unskilled workers may earn $5 a day, and then they can become skilled workers and they actually earn $9 a day. That is as much as men earn for the same job, which is very rare here in Afghanistan.

(voice-over): Eighteen-year-old Shakila uses the pay to support her family.

(on camera): Was it difficult for you to think about doing a man's job?

SHAKILA, PAINTING APPRENTICE (through translator): It's not a problem for me. If a man can do it, why can't a woman?

DOUGHERTY: This is men's work in Afghanistan for the most part. And so, when they started this program, there actually was a bit of nervousness about women doing a man's job.

STUBINA: This is a woman's hostel. The women -- it's OK for them to do that kind of work here. We couldn't have them this in the construction outside.

DOUGHERTY (voice-over): Across Afghanistan, women are in the background, hidden behind burqas they wear on the street. But empowerment projects are being replicated across the country by the U.S.

Getting women into the workforce is a major initiative as it seeks to build up Afghanistan. Like this program for female journalists in Herat.

Lida Ahmady says that's her dream, but first, she has to convince her husband.

LIDA AHMADY, JOURNALISM STUDENT: Things in my life, for example, I will be a good mother for my child. I will be a good wife for you, and also maybe a good journalist. Now he says, OK, I will see.

DOUGHERTY: Back in Jalalabad, Salma sees a glimmer of hope for her future. She's already found some new painting jobs, which she does when men aren't present.

SALMA (through translator): I'm proud about me, and I'm doing something for my family. I'm very happy I can work like man and go outside of my home, that I can work and get money for my family.

DOUGHERTY: And she's training her 14-year-old daughter to work with her.

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VELSHI: Jill Dougherty joins me now from the State Department. Jill, this is a fascinating series you're doing, which is really giving us some insight into how Afghans live as opposed to war in Afghanistan. How does this sort of thing go over in normal Afghan society?

DOUGHERTY: It's pretty rare because, after all, they are out there. They were working on a women's kind of hospital. And so that was okay because there were no men around. They would not be able to do that if there were men in the picture. They'd have to have a relative, a husband or brother or something chaperoning them in essence. So, it's very, very difficult for women to really get out unless they're highly educated. And there aren't a lot of those.

So, I would say it's rare. And what they're trying to do with some of these programs is they give them the money, they give them some training with the idea that that will pay off in the end and they might change their, at least, immediate society.

VELSHI: Jill, I can't thank you enough for these stories. I hunger for stories that tell us what these people are like, what these Afghans are like. What these Afghans who are so intertwined with are like and what their struggles are on a daily basis. And you're doing such a great job of that. Hopefully we'll have you back tomorrow with more of it.

Jill Dougherty at the State Department.

All right. The consequences of improper spelling on display in Alaska today. What hangs in the balance? Only a Senate seat. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us now from Washington with an update. Hey, Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, Ali. How are you doing? Vote counting is just getting under way in Juneau, Alaska. Today they're starting to count the write-in ballots. This is so crucial, obviously, because Senator Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent up there, the Republican, is a write-in candidate. And Republican Joe Miller, the Republican nominee up there is not, obviously. So, that's why you have to check out each one of these write-in ballots.

Check this out. We put a little graphic together. This is where it stands right now. This is where the count stands as of right now when they're beginning this count. Write-in votes 92,528. Joe Miller 81,195. Miller made up a little bit of ground yesterday against the write-in candidate, which they hope most go to Murkowski. They were counting absentees yesterday.

Check this out as well. We have brand new video we're getting in from Alaska from Juneau of the ballots arriving at the vote counting headquarters there in Juneau, which is the state capital of Alaska, Ali. Crucial stuff here.

Listen, we've got Shannon Travis, our political producer. He's going to be live starting in about two hours up in Juneau. We've also got Mike Calloway, a CNN photographer, based in Atlanta. We have our two-man team up there going to keep track of this vote count. Everything that happens.

And also, check this out. You want more, you know where to go, Ali. CNN.com. That's what we have. The latest from Alaska.

VELSHI: Good, Paul. We'll stay on top of this. That gap narrowing, so it's not a given what's going to happen. We only know it's going to be a Republican who is the next senator from Alaska. We'll stay on top of this with you. Paul, thanks very much.

Hey, look, you may not see too many help wanted signs these days, but we happen to know about thousands of job openings at some of America's best companies. I'm going to name names after this.

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VELSHI: Odd things, bonuses and raises. That might sound a little odd to hear about, considering the current state of the economy, but not if you work for Google. The Internet giant is handing out $1,000 in holiday bonuses to each of its employees. It's even paying the taxes on that. But if that's not a good enough stocking stuffer, come January workers also get at least a 10 percent pay raise. Unheard of in this economy. Google is trying to keep those people from running off to the competition. I

f you're looking for a job, some of America's top companies are hiring. Let me show you some of them. Ernst and Young has 10,000 openings. I keep saying accounting is very, very big. PriceWaterhouseCooper, 8,528 openings. Marriott International, more than 5,500 openings. Take a look at this. Nordstrom more than 4,000 openings. And Boston Consulting Group has 2,000 openings.

If you want more information on this, see a complete list of Fortune 2010 Best Companies with at least 400 job openings each, check out CNNmoney.com. If you're looking for a job or you know someone who is, please send them to the site. This is important stuff.

General Motors reporting its best quarter in 11 years and pulled in nearly $2 billion. A big turnaround for the automaker that filed for bankruptcy just to stay afloat. The earnings report comes a week before General Motors begins reselling its stock to the public in its initial public offering.