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China: Superpower Politics; Representative Giffords Making Progress

Aired January 14, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast. 7:00 a.m. out West. I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for joining us. Here are some of the stories that had us talking this morning.

Snow in 49 states, mudslides in brazil, intense flooding in Australia. What in the world is going on with weather? Well, La Nina and something called the North Atlantic oscillation.

Bonnie Schneider is going to explain it all to us.

After Peter Fonda discovers a dead body in Sunset Boulevard, police say the easy riders star was driving when he saw a body just slump over inside a car, so he called 911.

I used to be a Leo, but now I'm a cancer. I just can't believe it. Some constellation experts are saying there are now 13 zodiac signs instead of 12. So we're debating the astrological controversy.

Any minute now, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will deliver remarks at the State Department about the future of U.S./China relations. This actually tees up a visit next week when President Obama welcomes President Hu Jintao for a White House visit.

Now as China's influence grows, it becomes a bigger player not only in its own region in the far east, but on the world stage as the communist country handles its own growing pains. The United States must adjust how it handles China and things have been a little cool lately.

Earlier today, one Chinese diplomat actually said to CNN, quote, "Maybe the biggest misperception on the U.S. side of China is the so-called China threat." I really don't understand why some people in the U.S. always believe that China is posing a threat to the United States.

But when the leaders of the two countries meet next week, there will be a lot of things to chat about. Now I mentioned earlier the shared concerns about North Korea and the likely discussions they'll have on how to handle that country moving forward.

Another big talking point? The economy and, of course, human rights issues. Now, coming up, we'll be talking with the U.S./China Institute. He's in Hong Kong, but right now live pictures as Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton is getting ready to accept up to the mic, make those remarks. They're introducing her now. As soon as she begins, we will take that live.

All right, with "Don't Ask Don't Tell" finally decided, the military is about to turn its attention to another policy that maybe consider discriminatory. We're talking about a ban on women taking part in direct combat. A commission of high ranking officers, retired and active, is about to recommend to the Pentagon that that ban be dropped. Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon this morning.

And you know, Barbara, we already know that so many women are already involved in combat, whether this policy is in place or not. They have simply no choice of what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, you're right, Kyra. That really is the new face of warfare. Tens of thousands of women serving in the U.S. military, but now a Pentagon commission on diversity is recommending that women be allowed to serve in front line combat units, infantry armor, right on the front lines where they are not allowed to serve.

I want to very quickly read to you why the commission, the Pentagon commission, says they think it's time to finally make this change. They say, quote, "one frequently cited argument in favor of the current policy is that having women serving in direct combat will hamper mission effectiveness by hurting unit morale and cohesion. Comparable arguments were made with respect to racial integration, but were ultimately never borne out."

And, you know, no one's saying it's going to happen anytime soon, but it's not inconsequential that this commission is saying let's think about it. Women are already serving. Time to end that policy that they can't serve in those front line units. They're already in the war zone. Kyra --

PHILLIPS: Well, and let's talk about how dangerous it's already been for women on the front lines. Actually, Barbara, forgive me, Hillary Clinton is stepping up to the mic here about to give her remarks with regard to U.S./China relations. Let's go ahead and listen in live from State Department.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, this is a bittersweet moment for me personally to deliver this first inaugural lecture. I want to thank Kurt for that introduction and for reminding everyone that you are a tough act to follow, my friend.

Along with Deputy Secretary Steinburg, Lurt and his terrific team here at the State Department have brought intellectual heft and vision to our diplomacy in Asia. Wherever I go in the region, people always have a Kurt Campbell story to tell and some are even flattering. So thanks to my great team here at the State Department for all of your hard work and leadership.

And it is a special honor to welcome my colleague, Foreign Minister Bilt, along with so many distinguished ambassadors including Ambassador John. To this inaugural Richard Holbrooke lectured here at the State Department in the Ben Franklin room.

For nearly half a century, as a young foreign service office in Vietnam, as the tireless negotiator of the Dayton Accords, as the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Richard Holbrooke grappled with some of the most difficult and important challenges of American foreign policy.

And he left an indelible mark on this department, on our country and on the world. Because of his efforts, America is more secure, millions of people around the world have had the opportunity to live up to their full God given potential. And we are honoring Richard's legacy in many ways and this afternoon many of us will gather at the Kennedy Center to share stories and remembrances.

And one of the ways we have chosen is this new lecture series, which reflects Richard's passion for serious policy question and his conviction that they deserve serious discussion. Richard had a hand in merely every crucial foreign policy challenge the last 50 years. If he was not invited to have a hand, his hand was there anyway. And I look around this room not only at American, but at many of our friends from across the world, and many of you know what I'm talking about.

He was tireless, he was relentless, he would not take no for an answer because I would give him no over and over again and it was not the answer he wanted. He worked with many of us on these important issues. And today I would like to focus on one that he knew well p. And that is on everyone's mind as we prepare for the important arrival of President Hu Jintao, the future of U.S./China relations.

As the state department's youngest ever assistant secretary of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Richard was as Kurt has said a key player in the brokering of the opening of formal diplomatic relations with China in 1979. Later he served for many years as the president of the Asia Society. Throughout his career, Richard understood that a strong U.S./China relationship would bolster stability and security in the Asia pacific region.

And he was also clear eyed about the many obstacles to our cooperation. Most of all, though, he saw that the success of the relationship depends on its ability to deliver positive ruts to the people of both our nation's first and foremost, but also to the rest of the world. These insights remain just as relevant today and we heard them underscored this week by Secretary Gates in Beijing and by Secretaries Geithner and Lock here in Washington.

Three decades after our nation's first opened the door to engagement, our relationship is marked by great promise and real achievements, but also by significant challenges as one would expect. And more than ever, we will be judged on the outcomes that we do produce for greater peace, prosperity and progress in our own countries and throughout the world.

America and China have arrived at a critical juncture, a time when the choices we make, both big and small, will shape the trajectory of this relationship. And over the past two years in the Obama administration, we have created the opportunity for deeper, broader and more sustained cooperation. We have seen some early successes and also some frustrations.

And moving forward, it is up to both of us to more consistently translate positive words into effective cooperation. It is up to both of us to deal with our differences and there will be always differences between two great nations. We need to deal with them wisely and responsibly and it is up to both of us to meet our respective global responsibilities and obligations.

These are the things that will determine whether our relationship delivers on its potential in the years to come. Now, we have already come a very long way since the first tentative accepts of the diplomatic opening in 1979. After many years of virtually no contact, we've had three decades of intense engagement. In the beginning, our relationship was almost exclusively focused on the common threat posed by the former Soviet Union.

And during the 1990s, we began to engage on broader regional issues. And I remember with great fondness the trip that my husband and I and our daughter took to china as part of that intense engagement. Today our relationship has gone global. We debate and discuss nearly every major international issue in both bilateral dialogue and multilateral issues.

These are on issues in which we have concerns together on and also fundamental disagreements such as human rights. The breadth of our engagement will be on full display next week when President Obama welcomes the President Hu to the White House.

These three decades of relations between our countries have also been three decades of impressive growth for China. When Richard Holbrooke and his colleagues first visited China, its GDP barely topped $100 billion. Today it is almost $5 trillion. Trade between our two countries used to be measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Today it surpasses $400 billion annually.

China's transformation made possible primarily by the hard work of its people and the vision of its leaders was also aided by an open and dynamic global economy and by the American power that has long secured stability in the region. It has lifted hundreds of millions out of grinding poverty and now helps drive global prosperity.

The United States has welcomed will growth and we have benefited from it. Today our economies are entwined and so are our futures. But despite its progress in the past 30 years, China still faces great challenges. When I speak with my Chinese counterparts, they often talk to me in passionate terms about how far their country still has to go.

Because even with all that growth, China's GDP is only a third of the size of America's with nearly four times the number of people. And our trade with the European Union is still greater than our trade with China. As Secretary Geithner noted this week, China has a lot of work to do to move from a state dominated economy dependent on external demand and technology to a more market oriented economy powered by domestic demand and innovation.

More of its people are also seeking greater respect for their cultural and religious beliefs. They're seeking more opportunity for improved working conditions and for legal recourse for injustices. Understanding these strengths and challenges is essential for us and others to understand today's China and it provides important context to the country's changing role on the world stage and to the future of the U.S./China relationship.

History teaches that the rise of new powers often ushers in periods of conflict and uncertainty. Indeed on both sides of the Pacific, we do see some trepidation about the rise of china and about the future of the U.S./China relationship. Some in the region and some here at home see China's growth as a threat that will lead either to cold war style conflict or American decline.

And some in China worry that the United States is bent on containing China's rise and constraining China's growth, a view that is stoking a new streak of assertive Chinese nationalism. We reject those views. In the 21st century, it does not make sense to apply zero sum 19th Century theories of how major powers interact. We are moving through uncharted territory. We need new ways of understanding the shifting dynamics of an international land escape, a landscape marked by emerging centers of influence, but also by non-traditional even non-state actors and the unprecedented challenges and opportunities created by globalization.

This is a pact that we believe is especially applicable to the U.S./China relationship. Our engagement, indeed I would say our entanglement, can only be understood in the context of this new and more complicated landscape. I said when I first went to China as secretary of state early in my tenure that there was an old Chinese saying that when you're in the same boat, you have to row in the same direction.

We are in the same boat and we will either row in the same direction or we will unfortunately cause turmoil and whirlpools that will impact not just our two countries, but many people far beyond either of our borders. This is not a relationship that fits neatly into the black and white categories like friend or rival.

We are two complex nations with very different histories, with profoundly different political systems, and outlooks. But there is a lot about our people that reminds us of each other. An energy, an entrepreneurial dynamism, a commitment to a better future for ones children and grandchildren. We are both deeply invested in the current order and we both have much more to gain from cooperation than from conflict.

Now, that doesn't mean we will not be competitors. That's the nature of human endeavors. It is who we are as people, but there are ways of doing it that are more likely to benefit than not. A peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific region is in the interests of both China and the United States. A thriving America is good for China and a thriving China is good for America.

Our friends and allies across the Asia Pacific region would agree. They also want to move beyond outdated zero sum formulas that might force them to choose between relations with Beijing and relations with Washington so all of this calls for careful, steady, dynamic stewardship of this critical relationship.

An approach to China on our part that is grounded in reality, focused on results and true to our principles and interests. And that is how we intend to pursue a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship with China. Now, I'm sure you will hear that phrase quite a bit over the next week, positive, cooperative, and comprehensive relationship.

Because that really does capture our hopes for the future and that is how our two presidents have described this relationship, but you cannot build a relationship on aspirations alone. That is what makes this a critical juncture. As I said at the outset, the choices both sides make in the months and years ahead and the policies we pursue will help determine whether our relationship lives up to its promise and it is up to both of us to translate high level pledges of summits and state visits into action.

PHILLIPS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressing U.S./China relations as she gets ready to host along with the president, of course, the president of China this Wednesday. Mike Chinoy is with the U.S./China Institute. He's actually joining us from Hongkong. He has been listening, as well.

Earlier this week, Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates was also in China and then you've got today's speech with Secretary Clinton and as we mentioned, the visit, the upcoming visit from the Chinese president to the White House. It's clear the administration might see China as an important part of the U.S. future, but also a lot of other critics saying it's very much a threat.

So let's talk about some of the key issues of importance here when it comes to this I guess we should say interesting relationship between the U.S. and China.

MIKE CHINOY, U.S./CHINA INSTITUTE: Well, it's unquestionably the single most important bilateral relationship in the world and is going to really have a critical impact on the way the whole world develops in the coming years. I think the Obama administration recognizes that.

It's interesting in what Secretary Clinton said, she's really laid out some important markers in the run up to Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington. She said that the U.S./China relationship was now at a critical juncture and it was really important for both Washington and Beijing to learn how to manage the relationship in a mature and intelligent way.

She didn't mince any words in indicating that the two sides did have their differences. She noted that the rise of any new great power can be potentially very destabilizing. She explicitly referred to fears among some in the United States that the rise of China was a threat and also to fears on the Chinese side that somehow the U.S. is trying to contain China.

But she tried to frame the issue rather differently. She said that's a kind of zero sum game idea that's outdated, that the relationship is so complex that you can't talk about it in those terms. But I think what she's really tried to indicate in a very clear way, she had a phrase where she talked about the need for careful steady and dynamic stewardship of the relationship by the two leaders.

And I think that's what you're going to be hearing out of the visit of President Hu next week and if it goes well, then that's what you'll be hearing not only publicly, but in background briefings, as well, on the administration side that the two leaders were able to reach some kind of understanding that will allow them to manage this very complicated relationship that will have ups and downs as well going forward.

PHILLIPS: Well, complicated indeed because if you look at China and how it's growing with regard to dominance, just taking a look at military, economy, politically. A lot of critics say, look, China is the biggest threat and we're not dealing with that. You know, the U.S. is kind of sitting back and sort of letting things happen whereas we should be more proactive. I mean, what's your take on that?

CHINOY: Well, I think that's a very oversimplified description. China is arising power, no question about it. It's got the fastest growing economy in the world. It came out of crisis in much better shape than many other countries and as China becomes richer and more powerful and more prosperous. It's understandable that its leaders and its people feel they should play what they see as their rightful role on the international stage and that includes acquiring the military muscle to go along with being a great power.

From the U.S. point of view there are unquestionably things to worry about because the Chinese and the U.S. have some serious differences. China claims ultimate sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and the U.S. is committed to prevent Beijing from using force to resolve the Taiwan question. China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea, which borders a half dozen countries in southeast Asia.

The U.S. has said and Secretary Gates repeated this in a speech in Tokyo that this is not something the U.S. is prepared to budge on, that it believes that freedom of navigation in these water ways is absolutely essential. The Chinese are the closest friends that the North Koreans have and Washington is very worried about North Korean behavior.

So there are a lot of rough edge edges and there's a lot of potential for tension, but I think Secretary Clinton is right that it's not a black or white situation. And what you've seen in the last few months from the Obama administration is they have pushed back at the Chinese in response to what they saw as rather excessively assertive pattern of Chinese behavior.

But they're trying not to sort of throw the baby out with the bath water because this is an enormously complex relationship with billions of dollars of trade, with exchanges, each country and each economy needs the other. So you can't say as the secretary pointed out that it's a zero sum, that it's all or nothing. But navigating that middle road is not easy.

PHILLIPS: Mike Chinoy, always great to have your perspective. Thanks so much, Mike.

President Obama will join Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at this afternoon's memorial service for Richard Holbrooke by the way. A long serving diplomat died last month at the age of 69. Holbrooke was most recently the Obama administration's point man in the Afghan-Pakistan war zone, but he's perhaps best remembered for helping to broker that Dayton peace accord, a pact ended the ethnic conflict during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: New developments for you in the shooting rampage in Tucson. A teenager walking his dog may have stumbled across another piece of evidence. A black bag containing ammunition was found near an abandoned home of suspected killer Jared Loughner. If DNA test confirm that that bag belonged to Loughner, it could help track his movements before the rampage.

Also later today, funeral services will be held for another victim U.S. District Judge John Roll was one of the six people killed. And yesterday services were held for the youngest victim 9-year-old Christina Green.

The apparent target of the attack, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, is showing more remarkable signs of recovery today. In fact, less than a week after being shot in the head, doctors could remove her breathing tube today.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at Giffords hospital in Tucson and he got a behind the scenes look at the medical efforts trying to save her life.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Captain Mark Kelly was in Houston when he got the call from Giffords' chief of staff telling him to come quickly to Tucson. He's a Navy pilot. He's an astronaut. He was able to get on a plane, a private one, and get here within 45 minutes he told me.

He got here right as he was wife was coming out of the operation and into the ICU. It was at that time that he spoke to Dr. Rhee and Dr. Lemole specifically about what had happened. He learned the details of this gunshot injury to his wife's brain. Remarkable - he talked a lot about what the last several days have been like including when the president came to visit.

And I asked him, I said do you think your wife knew the president was in the room when he visited and he paused for a second and he said, well, I think she knew he was there, but she was trying to piece together why he was there.

And I tell you that because I think it's important to get an idea of exactly where the congresswoman's cognitive function is now. She's starting to put pieces of the puzzle together, trying to understand what happened to her. She's shown higher cognitive function all along. This is a further step up of awareness.

I asked the chief of neurosurgeon specifically about that. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Do you feel she understands all that's happened to her?

DR. MICHAEL LEMOLE, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY: I'm starting to think so.

GUPTA: She knows.

LEMOLE: It's really -- I was there when the congresswoman and the senator were in the room and to see her open her eye and look at them, there's no question in my mind and she's done that for her husband, as well.

Those glimmers of recognition, that tracking of the eyes, tells and you whole lot more, that she is aware of her surroundings to some extent coming in and out perhaps and that she's trying to engage that reality, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Captain Kelly also told me his wife could have her breathing tube out as early as today. It could be a couple more day, but they've not had one day backwards. Something they expected. He said every day since this injury, they have been moving forward.

A lot happens to make her recovery so successful and part of it was how she was treated when she got into the hospital. Dr. Randall Friese was there. He was the first doctor to see her and he showed us an exclusive look at exactly what transpired including the room where she was initially treated. Listen to how he describes it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RANDALL FRIESE, CRITICAL CARE SURGEON: I walked in the room. Some things were occurring and I think I've said this before, but my first response was I grabbed her hand, leaned into he and said, Ms. Giffords, you're in the hospital. We're going to care for you. Please squeeze my hand and she did.

I saw the severe head injury. I saw some blood loss. Her eyes were closed. She did have a blackened right eye and swollen right eye, and she was grunting a little bit. I got the impression she was trying to communicate, but was being frustrated by the fact that she could not.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GUPTA: Why exactly someone survives a gunshot wound? There are lots of different factors, but one of them was the speed at which will this all worked, 38 minutes from the time she hit the door to the time she was in the operating room. As Dr. Friese, Dr. Rhee, and Dr. Lemole went to work. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Join us this weekend for a special edition of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, M.D. He'll be in Tucson with the latest information on Congresswoman Giffords' condition, that's Saturday and Sunday 7:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Well, hold on to your horoscopes folks. Your life as a Libra might be a lie. We're talking about changes to the zodiac chart and how the ancient Babylonians have come back to haunt us. No ancient Babylonians were available for comment, by the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All week, we've shown you Atlanta and how we've just been encased in ice. It literally paralyzed our city. And school districts across the metro area have been closed for the fifth straight day.

And that's led to a very controversial decision. Two districts in north Georgia are actually calling students back to class on Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday. (INAUDIBLE) and Gilmer Counties have already used nine snow days this year and say that they have to make up for the lost time somewhere. Well, some civil rights groups, including the NAACP, the state chapter here in Georgia, say the decision is insulting, to honor the Georgia icon - not to honor the Georgia icon, rather.

So, we wanted to hear what your thoughts were about this. Here's what some of you tweeted.

"I think MLK would have it the same way and the current NAACP agenda is typical of that statement"

From John: "Who cares if the NAACP gets upset? The kids education comes first."

And Terrell says that "Going to school on the holiday doesn't really take away from what the day means since he fought for kids to go to school anyway!" And by the way, the names they are referring to are the supervisors, the county supervisors here in Georgia.

Tony says, "It's an insult. It's a national holiday just like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it just makes no sense." Thanks for weighing in. We appreciate it.

All right, 10:33 right now on the East Coast, 7:33 out West. Here's some of the other stories that have us talking this morning.

Snow in 49 states. Mudslides in Brazil, intense flooding in Australia. What in the world is going on with the weather? Well, La Nina and something called the North Atlantic oscillation. Bonnie Schneider is here to explain to us in just a minute.

Actor Peter Fonda discovers a dead body on Sunset Boulevard. Police say that the "Easy Rider" star was driving when he saw the body slumped over inside a car, so he called 911. It looks like an apparent suicide.

And Martha Stewart's little French bulldog keeping her in stitches. And not in a good way. Stewart leaned down to tell sleepy Francesca good-bye. Well, the dog apparently got startled, jumped up and head-butted Stewart right in the face.

Stock market opened - or opening bell, rather, rang just about an hour ago. Dow Industrials up fairly -- well, no, now it's down almost a point.

OK. Paper checks slowly becoming a thing of the past for tax refunds. Now the government is experimenting with issuing refunds on debit cards. We'll get the low down now from Stephanie Elam in New York. Steph?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a few reasons why they want to do this, Kyra. For the first thing, they're talking about targeting lower- to middle-income people who really just don't have bank accounts. They're saying this is a nice way for them to get their tax refund. They'll send out letters 600,000 taxpayers who those making $35,000 or less. And this test program, you can get the card through April. After they send the letter, you can do it. You can keep using the card for a year.

But what they're saying this will make a difference for is because it costs the government ten cents - ten cents -- to direct deposit the money in to your account. It costs them a dollar every time they send out a check. So, they're saying this could actually save them $40 million a year, and they say that this will actually help these people because they can reload money onto the card and then keep using this card for a year, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Are there any downsides to the debit card?

ELAM: Well, there are cautionary things you should know about. For one thing, there are fees associated, but they're pretty much fees to make you use the system instead of going inside a bank to use a teller to add money to it. So, if you take a look at some of the fees, there is a monthly service fee that can be anywhere from free to $4.95. There's also, if you use an ATM that's of network, you'll pay for that, as well.

But overall, the whole idea go ahead and use an ATM, don't go in to see the teller. Add money through an ATM, don't go to another location where you have to talk to somebody. They want to cut back on that. But this really should help out some of those people.

It's just a pilot program. After this, they'll figure out if it's something that they'll bring back to the 2011 tax season, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. Now, on a totally different subject, what's this about people being able to detecting a tweet because of a certain dialect (sic)? You've been studying this?

ELAM: Apparently! Apparently, there's some people who have been studying it a lot. They say it's easier to do it with Twitter than it is to use with any other social network choices you have out there. Simply because they're way more easy to just see and they could study them.

So, they went through this at Carnegie Mellon University, the school of computer science, and they're saying regional slang and dialects are prevalent in the tweets that people are sending out. And they're saying that a lot of it has to do with the 140 character limit, so people are limited in the way that they can communicate. But it's also because of wherever they are.

To that end, these researchers say that their model, their statistical model that they came up with, could predict the location of a tweeter within 300 miles will in the U.S. So, there's little things. Like, we all know in the South where you are, folks say y'all. You know that. But in Pittsburgh, they say yens. Have you ever heard that before?

Have you heard yens before, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Have I what?

ELAM: Have you heard the term yens before? Because I had never heard of it.

PHILLIPS: Yens. No, what the heck does that mean?

ELAM: That's how they say you all in Pittsburgh. I had never heard it until I read this.

PHILLIPS: Well, here in the South, it's y'all!

ELAM: Y'all. Y'all. Exactly. But I feel like everyone knows y'all. I hadn't heard yens. But those little regional dialects, that's how they're able to pinpoint it because everyone's doing it their own way.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. Do you tweet?

ELAM: I'm the most pathetic tweeter ever.

PHILLIPS: Yes, I've cut it back, too.

ELAM: It's there, but I don't know. It's just -- I'm a Facebook person. What can I say?

PHILLIPS: We'll come up with our own language.

Oh, OK. Hey, have a great weekend. We'll see you on Monday.

ELAM: Sounds good. You, too.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, attention, single guys born between Novembers 29th and December 17th. Try this pickup line tonight. "Hey, good looking, I'm an Ophiuchus. What's your sign?" Sounds like a great way to get slapped, doesn't it? But if you look at a a new zodiac chart, it's the new 13th sign. The others have shifted, too, so you might not be the Scorpio or Taurus or whatever you think you are.

CNN's Jason Carroll is covering this for us. Once again, Jason, you used to be a Virgo - that very organized, structured, attention to detail guy -- and now you're a Leo?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESOPNDENT: Now I'm a Leo. Always sort of felt like a felt like a Leo. Maybe now this is the reason why. You know what we should all do? We should probably stick with Chinese astrology. That will solve everything.

But let's get you to what's going on here. You know, astronomers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society say there is another way to look at the charts. The astrological chart most are familiar with is inaccurate because it doesn't take into account for how the earth's position has changed since the Babylonians created the chart 3,000 years ago.

Astronomers recalculated the dates, taking into account the earth's position in relation to the sun. you've shown it once, let's show it again. Here's how the new chart looks. As you say, there are now 13 signs. Scientists restored the sign Ophiuchus. The ancients originally had the sign, Kyra, but they dropped it because they only wanted 12 signs, not 13.

So, as you can imagine, the whole thing has created quite a stir among believers. The astronomer, which released the findings, said in response, "The science we deal with has a long tradition of fact-based investigation. We are not in the business of interpreting the purported relation between the positions of the planets and human affairs."

Well, the people who do deal with the human affairs associated with astrology readings say, hold on. They've known about this for quite some time. Susan Miller, listen to what she has to say. She's the creator of the popular Web site astrologyzone.com.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN MILLER, CREATOR, ASTROLOGYZONE.COM: Please don't believe the hype. This is not a new concept. This is not a new discovery. It's something astrologers have been looking at for years and years and years. It's not a new concept.

Please believe that. And we have had time to test this and it doesn't work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, Miller says many astrologers have already tried using the updated chart, but Kyra, they say that the general consensus is that those readings were not as accurate. So, what they do now is they suggest you might want to look at your old sign and your new sign and perhaps split the difference.

PHILLIPS: So then, I guess somebody would be a Cap-Aquarius or Virgo-Leo. Or -

CARROLL: Virgo-Leo.

PHILLIPS: That would be you!

CARROLL: Or just switch to the Chinese astrology! Switch to the Chinese astrology! Try that!

PHILLIPS: What are you under Chinese astrology?

CARROLL: I hate to say it, but I think I'm a snake.

PHILLIPS: Oh! Well, I'm a monkey. I did our connection last time, so I'll see how the monkey and snake do. That's kind of frightening!

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Don't worry, I won't take it back (INAUDIBLE) to our college tales. Yes, exactly.

Oh, Jason. Well, it's definitely a big "Talker." Thanks, pal.

CARROLL: All right. Take care.

PHILLIPS: It's probably a good bet that most people know what their sign is, but perhaps not anymore. According to astronomers at the Minnesota Planetarium Society, well, the astrological chart most are familiar with isn't accurate because it doesn't account for how the earth's position has changed over thousands of years.

Anyway, we're going to take a quick break. More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Have you heard about this? Sandwich giant Subway testing out new gluten-free buns and brownies for people who have problems digesting wheat. The new menu now available at 700 locations in Dallas and East Texas. Employees are even instructed to use disposable knifes to prevent cross contamination with products that contain wheat.

Well, a new Republican Hispanic group is holding its first ever meeting today. Jeb Bush, the Hispanic Leadership Network's co-chair and the former Florida governor just finished addressing the new group. CNN political producer Shannon Travis covering the session in Coral Gables, Florida for us.

Shanno, what have we learned?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Hey, Kyra, I've got a question for you. Do you remember your first date?

PHILLIPS: Ha! I remember the first slow dance. I'd have to think about the first date. Yes, I think I do. I think it was ninth grade.

TRAVIS: I remember mine. I remember mine. I just want to say if she's watching, I'm sorry for running out of money. But that's another story.

Let's talk about what's going on right now here. This is kind of a date of sorts. This is kind of a date -- I'm sorry, someone is cueing me right in back of me. This is a bit of date of sorts. A little bit of a courtship between the National Republican Conference, the Hispanic Leadership Network and the nation's Hispanics. Basically, they're trying to tell the nation's Hispanics that hey, the GOP is your natural home.

As you just mentioned, Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of the state of Florida, jut got off stage. And he talked about how Hispanics with their growing population that they're going become the swing vote that a lot of political parties, Republicans especially, will have to court in order to win races, whether it be Senate or governor or even the White House in 2012. Last night, I caught up with the current Republican governor of Florida, Rick Scott. And I put this question to him that a lot of people may be wondering about this conference. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Governor, is this some sort of tacit acknowledgement that Hispanics who are leaving the Republican party are not really on board with Republican ideas and politics?

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: The Hispanic community clearly believes in the Republican principles. They're principles that family is important, the principle that we care about -- we all care about religion. They care about building businesses. They focus on the same things I focus on, limited government, making sure we don't kill jobs through regulation through too-large of government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: So there you have it, Kyra. The current Republican governor, Rick Scott, explaining why he and many others here believe that it this conference is so important.

PHILLIPS: All right. And we'll keep you out of trouble, Shannon and we'll move on softly as you continue to listen in and bring us more.

TRAVIS: Appreciate that.

PHILLIPS: Yes, appreciate it. Thanks, Shannon.

The power of a good heart -- or in this case a bunch of between little hearts. Schoolkids took it upon themselves to raise money, collecting coins from their parents for chores in an effort to help a disabled boy move out of his ramshackle, converted chicken coop house in to a new home. We'll have that story, next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Lost at sea for nine days, but now found. A 52-year- old Mississippi man is on dry land. His rescue story tops our "CrossCountry" this morning. Josiah Hoffman and his boat Long Last went missing January 3 during a severe storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Hoffman spent nine days adrift before spotting a barge and contacting the Coast Guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSIAH HOFFMAN, RESUCED AT SEA: When they arrived, they look the like angels. I mean, to know that they were going to take me back, that was a real relief because I was thinking how in the world am I going to get to Mississippi from here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS; He says he's just lucky to be alive.

Well, in (INAUDIBLE) Illinois, age is just a number for 39-year- old freshman college basketball player Jermaine Townes. He's trying to earn a spot as starting center on the College of DuPage team. The veteran of Desert Storm says he's happy, though, whatever the outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERMAINE TOWNES, 39-YEAR-OLD COLLEGE BASKETBALL PLAYER: Old school, that's what they call me. Let me play on your team for one year; I'll be the biggest cheerleader you ever had on your team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if you never end up starting?

TOWNES: I'll be happy. Let me tell you something. I'm happy to be in the crip (ph) line. I'm happy to put on the uniform. I'm satisfied already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And finally, biblical history made in the small village of Bonduel, Wisconsin. A teacher discovers a 340-year-old Bible that was inside a safe at the St. Paul Lutheran church. Researchers say the 1,500 page Lutheran Bible was printed in 1670. No word on how it made its way to Wisconsin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's been pretty rough for several states dealing with snow and ice this week, and we have the pictures to prove it. Check out this virtual ice spout in Independence, Missouri. A broken water pipe sent icy water spewing in to the air as the temps hovered well below freezing yesterday. The ice turned into snow, shut down the street while a snowplow moved into clear the area.

Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider tracking all that frigid weather. Looks like the Midwest, New England, other parts of the nation - it's not getting any better right now, Bonnie. There's got to be relief somewhere.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There is. It's just going to take a few days to get here, Kyra.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Okay, Bonnie, thanks.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Well, a close encounter with a critter can be cute. Or it can just be downright nightmarish like in New York. A supersized rat actually climbs up a commuter's leg and onto his face. In Germany, just about everyone wants to come face-to-face with a cross eyed possum.

How this all fits together? Jeanne Moos does it, of course.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a tale of two critters. One gives folks joy, the other gives them the creeps. Ever wonder what it would be like to wake up with a rat crawling on you?

Jeff Ford had fallen asleep riding the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn at 2:00 in the morning.

JEFF FORD, SUBWAY RIDER: A woman screams. I looked up. This was going on. I see a rat running back and forth.

MOOS: He whipped out his camera and took these shots of rat after it jumped on to a sleeping guy's lap, then took off. By the time Jeff adjusted his camera to shoot video, the rat was back.

FORD: And he runs up the guy's leg.

MOOS: It's bad enough seeing rats on the tracks, but in your face? Nobody bothered to rat out the rat to warn the sleeping guy. Amazingly, he remained fairly calm. So calm that --

FORD: He goes right back to sleep like didn't even happen.

MOOS: Maybe he thought he was dreaming.

But it's a rare and slow news day when you can cross a rat story with a tale of a cross-eyed opossum.

Her name is Heidi. She lives at the Liestik (ph) zoo in Germany, and her crossed eyes have seduced opossum lovers worldwide. She's got her own Facebook page with thousands of friends added by the hour. Making comments like "what big eyes you have." A stuffed animal has been modeled after Heidi. Kids chant her name.

CHILDREN: Heidi, Heidi!

MOOS: The German TV station RTL demonstrated how her appeal would be lost were her crossed eyes not so crossed. She was originally orphaned in North Carolina and raised at a sanctuary. A composer wrote a song and got three young girls to record it, singing lyrics like, "Heidi is so dinky."

(SINGING)

MOOS: The cross-eyed marsupial has even been compared to one of America's best known anchors.

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": Do I look like that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you're both adorable.

MOOS: Even the subway rodent photographer has fallen for Heidi.

FORD: That rat was actually kind of cute. I think if I woke up and saw a cross-eyed marsupial in my lap --

MOOS: He's lap it up. But in the New York subway, it doesn't pay to play opossum.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Have a great weekend. We'll see you back here on Monday. Carol Costello and I completely grossed out.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Why do we keep showing that rat running up that guy's leg? Disgusting.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Because everyone's reacting exactly how we are. Have a great weekend, Carol!

COSTELLO: You too, Kyra. Thanks.