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Egypt's Friday of Wrath; Egypt's Social Media Blocked; Live Coverage of Chaos in Egypt; Mandela Out of Hospital; Charlie Sheen's Wild Night; Makeup Line For Tweens; Economy Growth Rate at 3.2 Percent; U.S. Concerns over Egypt; 2003 the Jackpot, Now the Check; Sex, Lies -- and the FBI

Aired January 28, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning guys. And we do begin with breaking news.

It is rippling across the world right now. A fourth day of riots erupting across Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the region. And the anti- government protests have now spread to a fifth country, Jordan. But the most violent clashes are in major cities across Egypt.

Protest organizers calling it a "Friday of wrath." They want one million people to pour into the streets and demand that embattled President Hosni Mubarak step down. Today his government is at risk as the protests are turning more angry and more bloody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My main hope right now is that violence is not the answer in solving these problems in Egypt. So the government has to be careful about not resorting to violence. And the people on the streets have to be careful about not resorting to violence.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, that call for peace comes too late for some. We want to warn you now about this video. The man in the center of your screen, you can just hear, has been shot. Apparently by police. He had just picked up a rock and had not thrown it.

The police are not cracking down on protesters. The police are not only cracking down on protesters, rather, but our crews are telling us now that international news operations are also being targeted. We got live pictures for you right here.

Our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has witnessed the abuses firsthand. We just lost that live picture. Ben is in Cairo with the latest from what he has seen and experienced. He is now joining us on the phone.

We just lost that live connection, Ben, of some pretty harry video there of what is happening on the streets. But we do have now video coming through another source. Not live. But these are taped pictures that we got not too long ago. But you were right there in the middle of it.

Tell me what you're going through and I understand some of this was even moving closer toward the bureau.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it's just down the street from the bureau. Really the battle of Cairo is well under way. Every direction you look you see tear gas, you see crowds, you see riot police and plain clothes policemen.

You know on the one hand, you've got a state government that clearly is ceding no ground to the demands to these mass protests against the government of Hosni Mubarak. They have not given an inch. What they're giving now is a lot of tear gas. There's been -- of many people, really all holds, all restrained thrown to the wind.

We were out in one of the main squares of Cairo shooting -- police chasing protesters and the protesters, I must say, are by and large peaceful, but the police are going after them with everything they've got short of live ammunition.

The entire city is just covered in a cloud of tear gas. And what happened was we were attacked by a group of plain clothes policeman backed up by uniformed riot police. They threatened us with their clubs. They roughed us around a bit and then they stole our camera and broke it.

And that's not -- it's not -- CNN isn't the story here, obviously. There's -- this has happened to many other television crews. But what we've seen is that protesters will sit down peacefully and start chanting then the police will just come, let those plainclothes policemen, what the Egyptians simply calling colloquial thugs, and go at those people with everything they've got. Beating them, kicking them, punching them.

And it's not just men, it's women and young teenagers as well. So the government doesn't seem to be holding back. They said there would be no tolerance of protests and they are putting that into action -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You know, as I'm looking at these pictures and these protests, Ben, I'm thinking I've been tossing to you live for more than a decade now, and this is your beat, this is your part of the world that you know so well. I don't think either of us have ever witnessed anything like this before. Has this been a challenge for you?

WEDEMAN: It's been a huge challenge. Interestingly, you know, the protesters, the people couldn't be more friendly. They are happy to have us there, but really the challenge is trying to get through police lines, trying to escape from the plainclothes policemen and get the story out.

And of course, the challenge is made much worse, at the moment, by the fact that we have -- the only communications we have are land lines. Cell phones don't work. BlackBerries don't work. The Internet doesn't work. It's a complete crackdown and I've never seen anything like it. Just a -- an attempt to utterly suppress the other side of the story.

PHILLIPS: That's not usually what we would expect in this country. I mean, we, obviously, have seen that in Iran, we've seen that in China, but not in Egypt. So what is your sense?

You know the government well. You know the controversies that have taken place over the years. You know the view of the people. What is your sense? Are they getting desperate here?

WEDEMAN: It's hard to say if they're getting desperate now. I mean my sense is that, you know, this is no different. The only difference between Iran and its suppression of its protesters and Egypt and it's suppression of largely peaceful protest is that Egypt is a U.S. ally and, therefore, pressure on it is not very intense.

What we're seeing is a government that simply isn't putting up with the other side. There isn't really actually listening to so many of its people who are making their unhappiness very clear.

You know, under normal circumstances, Egypt is a place where people speak their minds. You have relatively independent press and a party press that's highly critical of the government, but the government, despite that, and they always hold that up as something to show the world and to say, you see? We're a democracy.

But it likes the window dressing of democracy but it doesn't like the real nuts and bolts where you have to listen to people and hold free and fair elections which are a rarity, if not a complete novelty in Egypt in recent decades -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, and also, too, what do we know about Mohamed Elbaradei? You know the country's leading pro-democracy advocate? Apparently, there have been swarms of police allegedly that have gone after him and his supporters and he's now had to gain sort of a posse of protection.

What do you know about Elbaradei and his situation?

WEDEMAN: Well, you know, I spoke to him last night, just a private conversation on the phone. And, you know, he was -- he's got profound concerns about his safety given this -- the current situation. He told me, I think this is the beginning of the end of the Mubarak regime, but as it goes down, it's going to get vicious.

Now we've gotten reports that he has been detained by the authorities. Not because he's necessarily done anything, but he is sort of one of the leaders, though, not necessarily the most popular one of the opposition.

He leads a group called the National Association for Change, which is sort of an umbrella organization for all the major Egyptian opposition movements. And he only returned to Cairo last night and he was planning to go to pray in the mosque in Giza which is one of the sort of sister cities of Cairo. And he was detained because, obviously, he is somebody who does command a fair amount of respect among ordinary Egyptians as somebody who very prominent, very respected worldwide, has spoken out against the Egyptian regime.

PHILLIPS: And Ben, are you still with me? Did I lose you?

WEDEMAN: I'm with you.

PHILLIPS: OK, great. I thought I lost the connection there. We were talking about Elbaradei. And we want to welcome our international viewers now, Ben. We're now broadcasting not only domestically, but around the world.

And you know, and just to remind -- I mean, obviously, our international viewers are very much in touch with this story. Many of our domestic viewers as well. But let's put in perspective, Ben, if you don't mind, for those that are maybe just seeing these pictures and listening to our conversation.

The thousands of protesters here are very frustrated with Mubarak because they feel for years that he has completely ignored the poverty, the unemployment, the rising food prices. I mean, I think to many Americans, they see Egypt as a beautiful place to come visit and tour the Nile and see the pyramids.

And this is the complete opposite, I think, of what a lot of Americans visualize when they think of Egypt.

WEDEMAN: Certainly. And Egypt is truly a beautiful country with friendly people and you couldn't be more welcome. But it always hides -- tourists oftentimes don't see the reality, which is that this is a country where a very tiny minority of rich and well-connected people to the regime live an incredibly sumptuous lifestyle, while the vast majority of Egyptians has to struggle with just getting by.

In fact, this morning, I came in with a taxi driver who told me he is upset about these protests because he needs to make about $10 a day to feed his four children. He said, I can't do it. And he went and he asked his boss for an advance. He said, no, I'm just not going to give you the money because I don't have it.

And so people here live, you know, day-by-day. According to the World Bank, 40 percent of the Egyptian population lives on less than $2 a day. The feeling is that this is a country with great potential, great potential wealth but it's been monopolized by a tiny minority at the top which is backed up by a regime that has very little qualms when it comes to crushing open sort of street dissent.

The regime has always been quite tolerant of, you know, parlor talk and complaints and idle complaints, and even criticism in the press. What it's not tolerant of is when people come out in the street and voice their grievances the way we've seen them doing since Tuesday.

And I think Egyptians have been electrified by suddenly discovering that people have power in Egypt, that they can raise their voices and they hope to be heard, but we heard nothing from President Hosni Mubarak since this broke out.

Late yesterday we went to a press conference by the secretary of the general ruling National Democratic Party. And I think, as I've said on air before, an Egyptian journalist came up to me afterwards and said it was like listening to a dispatch from a parallel universe.

The secretary-general of the party said all is well, it's a tiny minority that is causing trouble. So this gives you an idea, Kyra, of -- as far as how many Egyptians are concerned, that this government is indifferent to a lot of ordinary people.

PHILLIPS: And you mentioned, this is a tremendous U.S. ally and the president of the United States has come forward this week and said, all right, it's obvious that the people are expressing their grievances. They should have the opportunity to do that.

And -- but the administration has also encouraged this country to refrain from using violence, but that does not seem like what's happening here. You're saying there on the streets, protesters are calm and being peaceful, yet we are seeing the police use water cannons and batons, and we're getting reports of a lot of violence on those streets, even getting some video sent in to us through social media of people being shot right there on the streets.

WEDEMAN: And this is the problem. It appears that the Egyptian government is turning a deaf ear to the United States perhaps because they realize just the size of the challenge they're facing. A challenge that Egypt has not seen this level of public unrest since 1977 when it was ruled by the late President Anwar Sadat when people rioted over bread prices.

So there's certainly a sense when things are getting particularly hairy here that the government sees -- the regime sees its survival at stake and, therefore, when it comes to maintaining itself in power, it doesn't seem to have any qualms yet about suppressing dissent.

Having said that, the death toll, at least as far as we know at this point, is very difficult, with proper -- without proper communications to know what's going on, but the death toll is only three protesters, one policeman but I suspected that that death toll is indeed much higher after today's event.

PHILLIPS: And it's hard when apparently the government is trying to crush the anti-government movement on the Internet as well. Talking about social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube all being blocked.

And Ben, stay with me. Mohammed Jamjoom has been gathering as much as he can on this for us.

And Mo, what have you -- what have you found? I've been reading a number of reports about people complaining that they have been cut off from using social media and that the government is blocking this form of communication. MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kyra. Even though social media has been so integral in getting people out into the streets and organizing these protests in the past several days, what we've seen since last night is the Internet has been blocked in Egypt. It's a complete standstill.

And yet still it's extraordinary that today these sites that were organizing this the past several days they managed to still get people out into the streets even though these -- even though the Internet is shut down there.

Let me just walk you through a couple of things we've been monitoring. This is a Facebook page. This is one of the key Facebook pages and groups that's been encouraging people and inviting people to go out and protest on this day of anger in Egypt.

Now the last time anybody posted on this was actually Wednesday and, yet, still, people out in the streets today. Now what we've seen today as far as Twitter, not a lot of people there being able to tweet. Mainstream media people there, people like our Ben Wedeman who you were just speaking with, he's been able to tweet occasionally. Last tweet from him, "Plainclothed policemen in Tahrir Square attacked CNN crew."

And we see other media outlets tweeting similar messages. But one of the ways people have been trying to get around the block right now through alternative means like this. Apps for android phones. Web sites like this in Arabic are being sent around to a lot of users in the Middle East, in the region in order to try to encourage people to download these type of applications so they can get around the block, showing you how much of a will there is to try to circumvent this block of the Internet.

PHILLIPS: Ben, stay with me. Mohammed Jamjoom has been gathering as much as he can on this for us. And Mo, what have you found? I've been reading a number of reports about people complaining that they have been cut off from using social media, and that the government is blocking this form of communication.

JAMJOOM: Well, that's right, Kyra. Even though social media has been so integral in getting people out into the streets and organizing these protests in the past several days, what we've seen since last night is the internet has been blocked in Egypt. It's at a complete standstill.

And yet, still, it's extraordinary that today, these sites that were organizing this the past several days, they managed to still get people out into the streets, even though these -- even though the internet is shut down, there.

Let me just walk you through a couple of things we've been monitoring. This is a Facebook page. This is one of the key Facebook pages and groups that's been encouraging people and inviting people to go out and protest on this Day of Anger in Egypt. Now, the last time anybody posted on this was actually Wednesday and, yet, still, people out in the streets today. Now, what we've seen today as far as Twitter, not a lot of people there being able to tweet. Mainstream media people there, people like our Ben Wedeman, who you were just speaking with, he's been able to tweet occasionally. Last tweet from him, "Plainclothes policeman in Tahrir Square attack CNN crew." And we see other media outlets tweeting similar messages.

But one of the ways people have been trying to get around the block right now, through alternative means like this. Apps for Android phones. Websites like this in Arabic are being sent around to a lot of users in the Middle East, in the region, in order to try to encourage people to download these types of applications so they can get around the block, showing you how much of a will there is to try to circumvent this block of the internet.

Now, we also see some people that have been able to tweet, and giving other suggestions for alternative means for people to get the message out on social media. This user, Mohammed Ziad (ph) in Egypt, "Direct IP address for social media, pass these on to people in Egypt." He gives the direct IP address for Twitter and for Facebook, again showing how much of a will there is for people to try to get their message across on social media. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Mohammed Jamjoom and our Ben Wedeman, covering this developing story for us. We will continue to monitor all of the violent -- violence that's happening there in Cairo, the protests that are increasing, as you heard from Mohammed. The fact that the internet has been blocked. We are on this story, and we'll be bringing you as much information as we can throughout the entire morning. Stay with us. More from the CNN NEWSROOM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And we're continuing to follow the violent chaos there on the streets of Cairo. As we heard from our Ben Wedeman, he says protesters there, tens of thousands of them, for the most part, remaining calm. Protesting in peace.

What you're seeing are water cannons and batons knocking down people from the government. So far, we have not seen the protesters there on the street in any way get violent with police. I mean, the pictures say everything right here.

And the latest news to tell you, too, overnight, the internet being shut down, but we're doing our best to cover this story for you as tens of thousands of anti-government protesters are confronting police right now on the streets of Cairo and other areas there in Egypt.

A major escalation. The biggest challenge to President Hosni Mubarak that these anti-government protesters says needs to go. We'll be covering it all morning for you.

Now, some other big stories that we're following for you. In South Africa, former president Nelson Mandela out of the hospital. He was in there with a respiratory infection. Doctors say that the meds are working, and the treatment may condition continue at home. Mandela, by the way, is 92 years old.

And Charlie Sheen in the hospital again. His people say it's because of a hernia. TMZ.com, though, suggesting it's because of an acute non-stop partying lifestyle. A 36-hour bender involving cocaine, five women and, yes, a porn star.

And there's cause for a big party at Ford. The automaker posting a $6.6 billion annual profit. That's the company's fattest figure in 11 years.

OK, ladies, you remember your tween years? Eight-year-olds? About that age, eight, nine years old? You played hard, you got your hands dirty, you wore your play clothes outside, and you also wore your hair in pigtails. Didn't think too much about base blush, rouge, or lipstick, did you?

I don't know about you, but you see shows like "Toddlers in Tiaras," and you kind of feel a bit uneasy. Little girls who are still on the Tooth Fairy's payroll gussied up like mini grown-ups. Now, the most makeup I wore at the age -- that age was Bonnie Bell lip smacker, bubble gum flavor, by the way. Sometimes Dr. Pepper, delicious.

But check it out. Walmart's got a line of makeup that is geared toward tweens. It's called Geo Girl lipstick, mascara, powder, it's the whole works. Cleansing supplies. The girls of my time used to go outside and get dirty, not sit in front of a vanity and get pretty. There's plenty of time for that later, right?

Sorry, folks. We've got to talk about this. Amy Boshnack is the editor of CafeMom.com, The Stir. So, Amy, what's your take on all of this?

AMY BOSHNACK, EDITOR, CAFEMOM'S THE STIR: Yes, well, I just -- makeup for kids this age just isn't necessary. I feel like like it's -- we're supposed to let kids be kids, and they're growing up way too fast.

PHILLIPS: And let's put that in perspective. I was reading the -- what a number of child psychiatrists, psychologists are saying about this. And they're saying that this could actually have long- term effects where these girls don't appreciate their natural beauty, don't understand what natural beauty means. And then they think they have to have all this makeup and look a certain way to be a beautiful young woman.

BOSHNACK: Well, yes, that's what happens. I feel like at age 8, 9, 10, it's just -- they're learning about themselves and they're starting to worry about, at 10, 11, 12, about their weight. And to start adding, "You need to wear mascara, you need to have lip gloss on to look pretty."

For play time, it's OK. For play time, dress-up, kids like that. They see their moms putting makeup on, they want to do it. But at this young age, 8 and 9 and 10, they're not even in middle school yet. It just seems like it's making our kids grow up to fast, too quick. PHILLIPS: So, who do you think is it at fault here? Is it Walmart that's saying. "Hey, we can make a buck?" You know, there's so many tweens that buy this stuff and love this stuff. Or is it the parents? Is there anybody at fault here?

BOSHNACK: I think, listen, parents have to make the decisions that are right for their families. And who am I to judge what another mom is going to do? What I'm going to do for my family is I'm not buying lipstick for my daughter, you know? If she wants lip gloss when she's 10, 11, I'll go out and get her some.

I don't think Walmart is necessarily at fault. I think that you can buy this stuff at Claire's, which is, I think, a national chain. There's lots of places that kids can go to get makeup. They can take it from their parents. I think it's up to the parents and the moms and the dads to have some level of responsibility and not get their kids this kind of makeup and teach them these type of morals at this young age.

PHILLIPS: Let me ask you, as a mom, and you're editor of CafeMom's The Stir. A lot of moms get involved in conversation there on your site. How would you address this?

BOSHNACK: They do.

PHILLIPS: If you're -- yes, they do. We've seen it. If your 8- year-old, 9-year-old came up to you, how would you approach it with her?

BOSHNACK: Well, I think I would set some ground rules. If she was really into it -- I don't have a princessy little girl. She's not really into the dress-up that much. But I think that if she came to me and said, "Mommy, all the girls at school are wearing lip gloss," or "all the girls at school are wearing mascara," I would explain to her that people do things differently in different homes. And in our home, this is what is acceptable.

And if she wants to do it to practice putting it on, or to play dress up, or for Halloween, makeup's allowed, or in the house, it's allowed. But to have to wake up an extra ten minutes early at -- in fourth grade to put on your mascara, just doesn't make any sense to me, and I would explain that to her, and I would say, "When you get older, there are certain things that adults do and teenagers do, but you're not there yet. And when you are there" --

Just in the same way there are certain programs I don't allow her to watch. It's the same type of thing. Moms and dads have to set parameters for their kids, and that is our job. That's our responsibility.

PHILLIPS: I think about, what did we stress about? Getting our Garanimals matching up properly. Amy Boshnack, thank you --

BOSHNACK: Right.

PHILLIPS: Thanks for weighing in today. I appreciate it. BOSHNACK: Thanks so much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

Well, Walmart has issued a statement about its tween makeup line. "The Geo Girl line was developed," they say, "in partnership with our customers to give parents a healthier, age-appropriate option for their tween girls who ask about wearing makeup. Decision of what is age appropriate to wear makeup rests solely with parent. The line will be marketed to parents and targets a certain life stage, as opposed to do certain age of girl, so parents can make informed decisions whenever they feel it's appropriate for their child to wear makeup."

All right, a story that we are watching right now, those huge protests on the streets of Cairo. Find out how they're affecting the US's already shaky relationship with Egypt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right, today, the biggest economic report of all is actually released, and if you want to know how the economy is doing, well, this number will tell you. 3.2 percent. That's how fast the economy is growing. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Hey, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra. So, yes. We do want to see the economy grow and, this time around, Wall Street expected a bit better. But hey, 3.2 percent isn't too bad, either. It's actually considerably faster than what we had in the second and third quarters. It shows that recovery is continuing and is actually picking up some speed.

Now, consumer spending really drove growth in the fourth quarter. Spending rose at the fastest rate in almost five years. Now, this did include the holiday season, where we expect consumers to go ahead and spend their dough, but spending also was up because confidence is rising and unemployment is falling.

Also helping our economic growth, we did export more goods than we imported, but we do still have the weak housing market and a drop in government spending. Those are still issues and a drag on our recovery. Still we are expecting stocks to open a bit higher today. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right. Alison Kosik, appreciate it.

And at this hour, thousands of people protesting in the streets, answering the call for a Day of Anger in some of Egypt's major cities. Our Nic Robertson is in Alexandria, Egypt, witnessing the demonstrations there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, no sooner had the prayers ended at the mosque, which is a few hundred yards in this direction, then the crowds clashed immediately with the police.

The police, hundreds of them, had strong batons, they were firing teargas at the crowds. People have now rushed up along the Corniche, saying that they're going to the center of the city. There's a lot of chanting, anti-Mubarak chanting. Teargas is in the air, I can feel it in my nose. That's another round of teargas, it sounds like is being fired. And the protesters here say they're worried that live rounds of ammunition, that shots may be fired at them.

This gentleman here --

(MAN SHOUTING IN ARABIC)

ROBERTSON: This gentleman here saying that his -- there's teargas being fired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They fired inside the mosque.

ROBERTSON: They fired inside the mosque, is what this man was telling us here right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: It is just about 9:30 here on the East Coast. 6:30 in the West. Let's take a look at other top stories we are talking about.

An L.A. police officer claims he was shot while patrolling near a school. Well, he's now been arrested. Investigators say he made the whole story up. That incident prompted a manhunt and several San Fernando Valley schools to lock down. Now the officer faces a felony count of filing a false report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHARLIE BECK, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPT.: The current state of the investigation refutes Stenrow's (ph) initial count of the incident, and we are now certain that there is no outstanding suspect in this shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Turning to the East Coast. The monster snowstorm is over, but the Northeast is still digging out, trying to get back to normal. New York's Central Park got a record 19 inches of snow overnight. Wednesday into Thursday. Newark, New Jersey, did also. And Philadelphia, students are getting yet another day out of school because a lot of those streets are still impassible. Twenty-five years ago today, the world watched as a disaster unfolded in the clear blue skies over Florida. CNN carried the launch of the space shuttle Challenger live. Then the unthinkable happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM MINTIER, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the 25th space shuttle mission is now on the way after more delays than NASA cares to count. This morning, it looked as though they were not going to be able to get off.

VOICE OF UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1:15. Velocity 290 feet per second, altitude nine nautical miles, down range distance seven nautical miles.

Flight controller here looking very careful at the situation. Obviously, a major malfunction.

MINTIER: We're awaiting word. They are holding their breath just, I'm sure, as everyone else is. You saw it just a few moments ago, about 45 seconds after liftoff, a huge fireball in the sky.

VOICE OF UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a report from a flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Wow. And today at the Kennedy Space Center, the seven astronauts who died in the Challenger explosion are being remembered at an anniversary service. Challenger commander Dick Scobee's widow, June, is among those speakers. For many people, though, the name most closely linked to the Challenger disaster is Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space.

CNN's John Zarrella at the Kennedy Space center. John remembers that day -- covering it, also. What is being done to mark this anniversary, John?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra. Well, here at the Kennedy Space Center, they are about two-thirds of the way through the ceremony. A wreath laying. Still waiting for June Scobee Rogers to speak. Robert Cabana, the head of the Kennedy Space Center and a former shuttle commander himself, has just finished speaking. They're at the space mirror, which has the names of all 24 NASA astronauts who have perished in one way or another over the years.

And once this ceremony is over, June Scobee Rogers going to be leaving here and going to Houston for another ceremony later today where, again, they will mark this anniversary. As you know, Kyra, a bad time of the year for NASA. Yesterday was the anniversary of the Apollo I fire, Grissom, White and Chaffee (ph). And on February 1st is the anniversary of the Columbia accident. A tough time for the NASA family. Kyra? PHILLIPS: No doubt. And John, as CNN executives scrambled to cover this tragedy, your name actually was front and center. We were listening to the video today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have Zarrella.

ZARRELLA: No, he continues to work the story. Telling him he is getting tons of people coming in there. His worry now is the air. He worries about the air. We will worry about everything else.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is leaving!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIPS: I don't know if you caught that, John. "Get John Zarrella on the air. Get him on the air." What do you remember from that day?

ZARRELLA: Well, you know, we didn't have a satellite truck back then, Kyra, out here back in 1986. We had phone reports I was doing from the space center, but I remember I was standing down at the countdown clock when the vehicle lifted off with all of the other members of the media. It was kind of tradition. We stood by the lagoon there.

And when the explosion took place from our vantage point, you couldn't see with a naked eye the fireball. After a few seconds, realizing just this huge cloud up there that something was very wrong. Ran back up towards my cameraman who was filming. I said, "Steve, what happened?" And he said, "It exploded."

And I remember very vividly running up to the press center, and it was absolute chaos inside there. Journalists screaming, "Get us over to the landing strip, we need to be at the landing strip!" Because there was a feeling perhaps the vehicle had survived and the astronauts would try what is called an RTLS, return to landing site, and try to get the vehicle back. But that never happened, obviously, because quickly as we heard in that sound at the top, NASA came out and confirmed very quickly that the vehicle had exploded.

It was the beginning of many long months up here, Kyra, and certainly something that is etched in my memory forever. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: And no doubt, I think, in the memory of many of us. John, thanks so much.

We're just getting video in out of Egypt. We told you we would be covering this story all morning for you. We are talking about the violent clashes taking place as the protests continue to escalate. What you're seeing now are the armored police trucks actually rushing the crowds. We are just getting this video fed in. One catching fire there.

If you've been following the protests this week, today definitely the most intense, definitely the most amount of people. Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters stoned, confronted by police. And now we are seeing the armored vehicles just charge through the crowds. And they have been firing rubber bullets, tear gas. Truly the biggest challenge right now for President Hosni Mubarak and his 30- year rule as anti-government protesters say they want him out, and they are coming out in full force to make that message clear.

A quick break. More from the CNN NEWSROOM, straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: Las Vegas. Sin City. You can gamble, you can go to a different strip club every night for weeks, but you better not jaywalk. See the wounded 13-year-old girl right here? A car going about 45 miles an hour hit her. She was in a coma for about a week. While she was lying in the hospital, a cop gave her a jaywalking ticket. Gave it to her distraught mom. Classy move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLIE OBONG, MOTHER: I just swallowed that big lump and rode it through.

TAKARA DAVIS, VICTIM: In the hospital, I didn't know what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, thank goodness a judge threw the ticket out. Turns out the girl was in a legal crosswalk when she got hit.

And check this out. The roof of a gas station on the ground. Rubble and dust all over the place. What force of nature could do such a thing? Oh, yes, pigeon droppings. See the roof over the pumps was actually a bird bathroom for years! Finally the structure couldn't take it any more. A woman was pumping gas when it came down; she's okay, not smelling too good.

And that darn piano in Miami. Ebony, ivory and saltwater. Now off to the sand bar in a boat yard. A man hired a tow boat to haul it to shore. He wants to adopt the piano. The teenager who put it there said it was an art project and he wants it back, too. Battle over the Biscayne Bay baby grand has begun!

Seven men in Canada get a $12 million payday.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This stuff doesn't happen to people like us, right?

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PHILLIPS: Yes, here is the twist. It happened seven years after they actually won! Each man gets millions of dollars while a woman is facing fraud charges. That is coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Throughout the morning, we have been following violent protests in Egypt. Thousands of people have amassed across the country, demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. While the U.S. has long viewed Egyptian president Mubarak as a valuable ally in a troubled region, but that doesn't mean Washington hasn't had concerns about his leadership.

The whistle-blowing Web site Wikileaks has released a new batch of diplomatic cables. The confidential messages reveal that Washington was worried about a lack of economic reforms, and President Mubarak's lack of plans on who would succeed him in office.

Let's take a closer look. CNN's Atika Shubert has been sifting through the new releases. She joins us live from our London bureau. Hi, Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Well, this is part of that batch of a quarter of a million diplomatic cables that Wikileaks had. They basically went through them and took out the ones pertaining to Egypt. Quite a few of them focused on police brutality by Egyptian police. Apparently, diplomats were very concerned and they had a number of NGOs reporting back to embassy officials basically saying in at least one cable that torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread. Targeting not just common criminals, but also demonstrators, political prisoners, and even unfortunate bystanders. That's -- bystanders, that's something that we've been seeing in the video today, that sort of police brutality unleashed on protesters.

And unfortunately according to the cable, this is a daily occurrence. Some NGOs estimating that there are literally hundreds of instances of police brutality in Cairo alone every day.

So that's one aspect that's come out of the cables. The other is the sort of analysis of President Mubarak and just how tentative his position is there. In one of the cables, which is basically sort of a primer on Mubarak's visit to Washington, D.C., they point out that Mubarak is a classic Egyptian secularist who hates religious extremism and interference in politics. And it's clear from these cables that Egypt sees itself as the American ally in the region as a sort of a counterweight to Iran, instrumental in Israeli and Palestinian talks.

And so that's how the -- the relationship between Egypt and the U.S. has turned out. But, at the same time, there -- you can clearly see in these cables quite a bit of U.S. pressure on Egypt to reform human rights, to do something about that police brutality.

But as one of these cables pointed out, in Mubarak's mind, it is far better to -- to leave -- to leave behind a few individual suffer than risk chaos for society.

So if these cables are anything to go by, it does not look like there will be much reform coming ahead in Egypt -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Atika, thank you so much.

And we are just getting some developing news in. Apparently, we are getting reports that a suspicious package was found at Cowboys stadium there in Dallas, Texas. Someone had -- threw something into a ditch. As you know the Super Bowl is coming up, first week of February there and Super Bowl Sunday.

So there is obviously, concern about what that suspicious -- authorities are -- I'm being told authorities are on the scene. Now, the suspicious package has been reported, so we are trying to find out as much information as we can.

We're working the story for you and bring you more out of Dallas as we get it.

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PHILLIPS: All right, heading around the world and see what's making headlines.

Thousands of protesters packed the streets of Cairo, Egypt clashing with police. They are demanding that the president step down and it's getting more and more violent.

Zain Verjee has been following it all from London all through the day there and still with us -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hey there, Kyra. Yes, this is really the story of the day. The situation in Egypt in places like Suez, Alexandria, Cairo, people are out on the streets, they are protesting. And their one message is very simple. They want Mubarak to go. They're really upset over things like high food prices, high unemployment and corruption. And they have a long list of grievances.

So this is a very important day for Cairo and Egypt. It's also an important day for the United States because Egypt is -- has been the U.S.'s ally. It is a pro-western country. Mubarak has been so; U.S. needs Egypt when it goes through the Mideast peace process.

Also Egypt is one country that recognizes Israel. It pressures Hamas and Gaza so, on an -- on an international policy and from the regional ally point of view, Egypt is absolutely critical. It's also a bulwark against Iran for the U.S. And it also Kyra, has the Suez Canal which is a very, very important economic water way for the world and U.S.

PHILLIPS: All right. Quite a different story, a much lighter note, what's this about the group of Canadians finally getting their lottery money --

(CROSS TALK)

VERJEE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: -- seven years after they won the jackpot.

VERJEE: Oh my God.

PHILLIPS: See Canadians are such nice people, they just you know, they go with the flow.

VERJEE: Yes, they -- they do. And it was worth the wait. There was seven guys, they were construction workers. And in 2003 they bought a lottery ticket, but then they tried to go and claim it because they won, and the guys at the store basically said, oh, no, this ticket didn't win. And they took the ticket and then a little bit later they tried to turn it in themselves.

And so this has been going on for a while. There was this huge investigation and finally these guys can claim their cash. Listen.

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ADAM BARNETT, LOTTERY WINNER: Monday was the day that we actually knew what was going on this past Monday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But when you heard the news that there was this -- there was this lottery ticket out there, did you think it was you right then and there?

BARNETT: Oh, no, no. They keep -- this stuff doesn't happen to -- to people like us, right. So --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERJEE: What great news for them. They're going to have a wonderful time spending, oh, a cool $14.85 million. Check it out. There it is, Kyra.

You know, Canada has a history of -- of these kinds of lotteries have -- people being swindled of winnings. There was one that I heard about, you know, a crime organizations buying winning lottery tickets for more and then using them as a front to launder money. So that's -- that's also happened.

PHILLIPS: Well, these guys are going to have plenty of money now for hockey tickets and Tim bits (ph). They know exactly where to put that cash.

Thanks, Zain.

VERJEE: Yes, really, eh?

PHILLIPS: There you go.

All right, well, our Dallas affiliate right now is reporting a suspicious package just outside Cowboys stadium. According to WFAA, it was dropped into a ditch. Cops now on the scene, they've got a quarantine around that package. As you know, the Super Bowl is coming up in that stadium February 6th. We'll update you on the breaking story as we get the information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: FBI agents lead protectors of American justice, hitting the strip club, driving drunk, checking out porn, acting like frat boys instead of G-men.

A pattern of misconduct our investigative unit uncovered in this CNN exclusive.

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PHILLIPS (voice-over): This is the FBI we know and trust, agents who take down bank robbers, the mob, Russian sleeper cells, agents who swear to uphold "fidelity, bravery, integrity".

But what we found inside one of the most respected federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies doesn't always match that image.

(on camera): Why did you lie?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I panicked. I lied about speaking to somebody about a piece of information.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Ashamed that he was caught, fearful that he'll be identified, the story of this former agent who illegally searched the FBI database for personal use and then lied about it is not unique.

Matter of fact, the FBI confirms about 1,000 cases of misconduct over the last three years.

(on camera): Many are highlighted right here in confidential summaries of disciplinary reports that we obtained; bad behavior that may have you wondering why many of these employees didn't lose their jobs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And you'll see my entire and the contents of those documents coming up right here at 10:30 Eastern on CNN NEWSROOM.

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