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Still a Tense Situation in Cairo; Yemen's 'Day of Rage'; Blizzard Causes Travel Troubles; Youth, Poverty in Arab World; An American Helps in Egypt; New VP Suleiman Addresses Egyptian People; President Obama Explains His Faith

Aired February 03, 2011 - 10:59   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks, Kyra.

Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Let's get you up to speed for this Thursday, February 3rd.

It is tense in Cairo right now, where tanks are standing guard around Tahrir Square. The Egyptian military putting itself between anti-government protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak. There are some isolated skirmishes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Hosni Mubarak! That's what he do! We will die for our freedom!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: State television says battles in Tahrir Square left five people dead and more than 800 wounded in the last 24 hours. Makeshift field hospitals sprang up along the sides of the plaza. The primary weapons, rocks and machetes, left many people with large gashes to the head.

Egyptian security forces are targeting foreign journalists today. According to "The Washington Post," some two dozen have been detained or harassed. Among them, colleagues from CNN, the BBC and "The New York Times." The State Department condemns what it calls a campaign of intimidation.

And take a look at this. This amateur video from Facebook shows a police van speeding through Cairo. Now watch what happens.

Awful. The van ran over at least two people. Both got up, amazingly, and walked away.

Well, Egypt's prime minister today calls protests in Tahrir Square a sign of democracy. He labels government supporters there infiltrators. The prime minister apologized for what he describes as a complete disappearance of police and security forces during Wednesday's violence.

And President Obama briefly brought up the crisis in Egypt today. He spoke this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast held every February in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We pray that the violence in Egypt will end, and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realized, and that a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Thousands of protesters are on the streets of Yemen's capital today demanding that the country's leader step aside after 32 years in power. They are not satisfied with the President Ali Abdullah Saleh's pledge to stand down in 2013. Government supporters also rallied.

Now you are up to speed in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We're going to take a look at this. Egypt's Tahrir Square looks like a war zone, with more vicious attacks today. Anti-government demonstrators on one side, pro-government on the other, and military troops in the middle.

Our Fred Pleitgen is monitoring on the front lines. He joins us on the phone from Cairo.

Fred, we had just gotten news. "The Washington Post" reporting its own bureau chief there in Cairo has been detained. Can you give us a sense of what you know? What is taking place on the ground right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm actually overlooking Tahrir Square from an elevated position right now, Suzanne, and those isolated skirmishes that you're talking about are actually going on right in front of me. I can see protesters sort of hurling rocks at each other.

It seems as though the anti-Mubarak protesters are pretty much well in command of the situation, pushing back the pro-Mubarak protesters, of which there really only are a couple of dozen -- maybe about 100 left. They are sort of being pushed towards a bridge that goes over the Nile.

And for the better part of the day, that was really the scene here, is that the sort of -- one of the entrances to Tahrir Square was pretty much a battle zone, where these two sides were going at it, throwing rocks at each other, in some cases even shooting flashes at each other. The military, as you said, that's been trying to get in between the two sides, Suzanne, they have actually now taken an outside position again on one of the bridges on the Nile. They are not really a factor in this now.

So these two sides are going at it, but it really is much less violence than we saw earlier in the day -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And that certainly is a welcome relief to a lot of the Egyptians who are there. We know that there are Egyptians on the side of the violence. We also know that there are journalists are being targeted.

Can you tell us about your experience? Do you feel that you as well have faced a hostile crowd?

PLEITGEN: Yes. I think that you said the State Department called this something like an organized campaign of intimidation, and that's certainly the gist that I have been getting, or what I've been feeling.

I have had instances where we went and tried to shoot some video somewhere, and we were instantly harassed by people who are clearly part of the security forces. People tried to smash our camera, people beat up on my camerawoman, tried to beat up on me, threw rocks at our cars.

Those are all people who are in the pro-Mubarak camp here. They have also been attacking our journalists as well. Of course, also members of our crew.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, of course, was attacked with his crew. Our cameraman Joe Duran was attacked as well. So that's something that clearly is going on. And right now, if you walk across this area, you don't want to get into the hands of the pro-Mubarak crowd. And what we've been trying to do is trying to conceal all of our equipment as well -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: OK. All right. Frederik Pleitgen, I hope you remain safe there. And obviously we'll be getting back to you as those details, developments warrant.

Well, I want to get to a segment here. It's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Our question for you is about President Obama's faith. He spoke about it today, addressing the belief by some that he is a Muslim and not a Christian.

Our Carol Costello is here with more.

Carol, he keeps facing the same question.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know, Suzanne. He does. It was fascinating, really.

President Obama got really personal this morning about his faith at the National Prayer Breakfast, talking about how he came to accept Jesus Christ in his life and how he's asked Jesus to make him an instrument of the lord.

Now, public opinion surveys show only a minority of Americans even know that President Obama is a Christian, and a growing number of Americans who believe he's a Muslim. The White House denied the tone of the president's speech this morning is in response to those who love to call Mr. Obama "Barack Hussein Obama."

But listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: My Christian faith has been a sustaining force for me over these last few years, all the more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time. We are reminded that ultimately, what matters is not what other people say about us, but whether we are being true to our conscience and true to our God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And Suzanne, it's not just his political enemies who think Mr. Obama is Muslim. According to Pew Research, fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans correctly identify the presidents a Christian.

So here is your time to "Talk Back." What will it take for people to believe President Obama is a Christian?

You can get in touch with me at Facebook.com/CarolCNN. And of course I will read some of your responses later this hour. I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about this.

MALVEAUX: I'm very curious about that, because the president doesn't really like to talk about his faith that much, especially during the campaign. And he has been forced to really talk about it and talk about it and talk about it because people just don't believe him. So -- .

COSTELLO: Well, his personal pastor came out and said, you know, you should talk about this at the prayer breakfast, get it out there. Tell people about your faith and how you pray every day, and how you accept God and Jesus into your life. And that's what the president did today.

MALVEAUX: Let's see if people are listening. OK. All right.

COSTELLO: Facebook.com/CarolCNN.

MALVEAUX: All right. Good. Thank you, Carol.

Well, a quick look at what's ahead "On the Rundown."

Fourteen thousand flights cancelled. A live update from Chicago's O'Hare on getting some of those planes back in the air.

Also, caught up in the chaos in Egypt. We're going to talk with an American teacher who is in the middle of all of it.

And you've got to see this one. It's incredible. A roof comes tumbling down under the weight of all of that snow. There it goes.

And finally, a would-be thief gets caught. As you can see, trapped. His plan for the great escape, I think it needs a little work. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. I don't know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We've got breaking news. A vehicle ran off a roadway. This coming from Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.

There were people who were trapped there, and they were in the river. That vehicle, in the river. There were six who were rescued. I understand that perhaps there were those who died in this.

I want to go straight to Jack Damrill with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to tell us what actually happened here.

I don't believe that -- do we have Jack?

We just lost Jack Damrill, but the information that we are getting there, obviously a tragedy taking place there. That is where a car plunged into a freezing river full of ice, it looks like. That vehicle was trapped for some time.

We are getting video from KOTV, KWTV. And there were six who were rescued. From what limited information we are getting, we understand that two may have died in that tragic accident. That vehicle plunging into the freezing waters there.

Want to go to scenes of the day, of rage today out of Yemen. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in dueling rallies. Some demanding the country's leader step down, others rallying in favor of him.

My colleague Mohammed Jamjoom joins us by phone from the capital of Yemen.

And Mohammed, there were some fears that this was going to be violent, that we were going to see the same kind of thing erupt there that we saw in Cairo. Apparently, that did not happen.

Can you explain the scene there and why?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Suzanne.

And as of last night and early this morning, government officials I have spoken with, and even normal citizens here in Sana'a, were quite concerned. The atmosphere here was very tense. People thought that this could easily erupt into a violent kind of protest, especially because there were two protests, pro-government and anti- government protests going on at the same time.

That didn't happen. Nonetheless, even though it was a peaceful protest, even though the security apparatus was not as in view as we thought it would be, and there was not really a security crackdown going on, there were probably about 15,000 people demonstrating and opposing the government and calling on President Saleh to step down.

They were not happy. Even though he said he will not seek re- election in 2013, they said the government needs to change, it needs to change now, there needs to be economic reforms in place, there needs to be reforms in general. And people were very emotional about it.

MALVEAUX: Do we think that he's going to make further concessions? Do we think that the president is going to make further concessions?

JAMJOOM: Well, right now, people are urging him to initiate a dialogue with the opposition, to really -- even though he has made concessions in the last few days, and he's trying to implement economic reforms to try to satisfy the citizens -- he's even given a raise to the armed forces here -- people think that he will have to make probably more concessions, although there is still some question as to, even if President Saleh stepped aside, or even if he made more concessions, who would step in? What are the demands of the opposition? What exactly do they want?

And right now what people are urging, other governments that are allied with Yemen, is that people come back to the table, the opposition and the president, parliament get together, figure out what to do so everybody's happy.

MALVEAUX: OK. All right.

Mohammed Jamjoom, out of Yemen.

Thank you so much.

And obviously those are open questions not only for Egypt and Cairo, but for Yemen as well.

(NEWSBREAK)

MALVEAUX: Well, we want to go to Rob Marciano and Jacqui Jeras on the weather.

Obviously, we're looking at ice, very dangerous conditions. Rob is in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Jacqui Jeras, she's in the CNN Severe Weather Center.

Rob, O'Hare -- obviously a lot of people -- the travel backed up -- had to wait a while. Is it back up to speed today?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not quite, but it's getting there. It was another ghost town earlier this morning with just the employees showing up. Most of the flights up until noontime have been cancelled, with the exception of a handful, because they had over 2,000 flights cancelled yesterday. So that equipment that would have been here, ready to go this morning, it wasn't here.

So, looking at the board, the afternoon flights are beginning to chug along. The security line finally looking a little bit more like it should, which is, you know, about 10 deep or so. So that's encouraging signs as well.

So we're in here reporting on the flight delays, of which they are numerous in cancellations from the past couple of days, but also, it's cold outside. I mean, temperatures are barely above the zero degree mark, 20 degrees colder now compared to when it was during the height of the blizzard yesterday and the night before.

So, dangerous cold air that's sinking down to the South. Jacqui Jeras is going to talk more about that and the impending snow and ice storm that will be affecting parts of Texas and the I-10 Corridor.

Jacqui, I'll toss it back over to you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MALVEAUX: And Jacqui, we have an example out of Oklahoma. We're getting breaking news here, some information about what happened to a vehicle.

It was I-44. This vehicle went off the bridge and into the Spring River.

There were eight people that were in the vehicle. I understand that six might have made it on top of the vehicle, two were inside the vehicle. But it was dangerous, icy conditions.

And we are now going to take Jack Damrill, of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, who can give us a sense of what actually happened here.

Mr. Damrill, are you with us?

JACK DAMRILL, OKLAHOMA TURNPIKE AUTHORITY: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Can you tell us what happened?

DAMRILL: Well, as far as the accident details, I'm going to have to leave that up to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. We had been reporting slick and dangerous conditions. Our bridges and overpasses were very slick for the past couple of days since we had the blizzard on Tuesday.

So, obviously, with slick and hazardous conditions, anything can happen. And unfortunately, we had a truck go off one of our bridges, fall fairly far into the water, and several people were in that car, and two confirmed did not make it out of there.

MALVEAUX: Do you know how long that car was in that icy river and how much time they had?

DAMRILL: No, I don't. At this point, I know the Oklahoma Highway Patrol will be investigating that. They'll be looking at that. I believe they took the first calls around 6:15, but according to them, not sure if that car was in there any longer than that.

MALVEAUX: Describe for us what the situation is for the commuters, for drivers out there.

DAMRILL: Well, it's not very good. We had 21 inches of snow in that area. That turnpike had been closed until last night, around 10:00. We were able to open reopen at least one lane of that section, but we were still trying to battle getting all the snow off the roadways. So, it had been closed for quite a while, and we were still seeing a lot of icy spots and slick spots in that area of the turnpike.

MALVEAUX: And Jacqui, I understand you have a question.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

I was wondering if you can give us a handle on what road conditions are all across Oklahoma and how long you think it's going to be before people can safely travel.

DAMRILL: Yes, that's a good question. I mean, from Tulsa, to the northeast, up to the Missouri State line, they're still very difficult. In fact, we're discouraging traffic.

As you get further west from Tulsa, down where I am, in Oklahoma City, and further west than that, then the road conditions improve greatly. But up in northeast Oklahoma, and especially on the turnpike, with 21 inches of snow, we don't really have that here too often, and it's only 5 degrees here currently. So it's made it real tough for us.

JERAS: Have there been people trapped in their cars? Have you heard stories about people becoming injured because they've been stuck out in the storm?

DAMRILL: We did have people stranded in their vehicles Tuesday night, when the storm did come in. We were able to deploy the National Guard to help and go rescue those people. I don't have all of the numbers right now, so I'm not sure how many people they actually took off the roadways. But we were able to rescue several people.

JERAS: Wow. Amazing stuff out of Oklahoma.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you so much for joining us. Obviously, a bad situation that's taking place there. We appreciate your time.

DAMRILL: No problem.

MALVEAUX: The cost of flying is going up. The bottom line on how the rising price of oil is affecting airfares.

Also, we'll reveal our "Most Intriguing Person of the Day." This former Pentagon leader has a memoir out next week. He's got a lot to say about the war in Iraq and those weapons of mass destruction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Just days after the invasion of Iraq, when everyone was looking for the weapons of mass destruction, this defense secretary said, "We know where they are." Of course, we didn't. In fact, they were never found.

Well, now, almost eight years later, Donald Rumsfeld regrets that comment. According to "The Washington Post," it's one of the topics he covers in his new memoir due out next week titled "Known and Unknown."

Donald Rumsfeld, our "Most Intriguing Person of the Day."

An encouraging report today on the job market. The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week.

The Labor Department says 415,000 people filed initial jobless claims in that week that ended January 29th. That was down 42,000 from the week before. Now, economists are waiting for the big monthly jobs report for January. That comes out tomorrow.

The rising price of oil, it means that it's going to cost you more to fly. Airlines are adding now fuel surcharges to the ticket prices.

Alison Kosik, she is at the New York Stock Exchange with the bottom line.

Alison, tell me, how much are we talking about here?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, the fuel surcharge is back. We talked with Rick Seaney. He's the CEO of FareCompare.com.

Expect $4 to $10 to be tacked on to your roundtrip fare. United and American have already started this. In fact, they started on Monday.

How they did it is kind of interesting. United hiked the surcharge. At the same time, American hiked its base charge. And United looked at that and said that's a better PR move. So it went back, took off the oil surcharge, and actually rose the base fare.

The bottom line here, expect your fares to go up, and not just with United and American. You'll see this on Delta, US Airways, AirTran and Southwest. They are matching these airfare hikes -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Alison, how bad is the situation with oil prices? Are we going to see these $100 a barrel like we did two years ago?

KOSIK: Well, you know, since the crisis in Egypt started, we saw oil go up as high as $91, $92 a barrel. It's pulling back a bit, but the fact is oil has been steadily going higher since May of 2010. And remember, the higher these oil prices go, the more that's going to eat into these airline revenues, so they wind up passing these cost on to us.

But there is a silver lining here. Seaney said these fuel surcharges, they can go away, too. This happened back in 2008, when oil prices went down from $145 a barrel to $70 a barrel -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Alison. Thank you so much. KOSIK: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Now it is your turn to "Choose the News." Yes, that's right. We're going to tell you about three stories, and you vote via text message for the one that you want to see in detail in the next hour. So these are the choices. OK?

Pentecostal churches in Cuba out of the shadows and on the rise. Many Cubans are turning to religion to get through tough economic times.

Also, a young woman searching for her biological roots finds answers on Facebook. The social network connects her with her birth family.

And an Egyptian woman who says she is willing to die for freedom. Her story from the front lines of the protests.

So, this is what you have to do -- vote by texting 22360. Vote 1 for Cubans turn to religion; 2 for a family found on Facebook; or, 3, willing to die for freedom.

Now, the winning story is going to air in the next hour, so vote.

Well, beneath the violence in Egypt, our Michael Holmes will explain how poverty and a huge youth population could be fueling the rage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Another quick look at what's ahead "On the Rundown."

An American in Egypt. We're going to talk with a teacher caught in the middle of all of this chaos.

And the lighter side of that monster snowstorm. That's right, from Snowzilla to a giant giraffe, people are finding creative things to do with all of that snow.

Plus, President Obama's personal talk about his religion, and your chance to talk back.

And finally, J.R.'s return to Dallas. That's one of the stories that is trending today.

It's now time to go beyond the headlines. Egypt is not the only country in recent weeks to see a popular uprising against the government. In fact, we have seen protests in at least five Arab nations across Africa and the Middle East. Our Michael Holmes is here to highlight how all of this is really connected.

I understand we are waiting to hear from the vice president of Egypt, who is supposed to make a grand statement to his people. We will have to see how he is going to try to quell the violence on the street. MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he was expected to start like right now, so we'll hopefully get that at some point in the next few minutes.

Put the map back up there, we can talk a little bit about that. And one country that is not up there is Sudan. They have had protests as well. But you're talking Tunisia where this all started. Yemen, crucial country for a number of reasons. Algeria and Jordan, another crucial country and, of course, Egypt.

Now, it's important to remember that all of these countries, they're different. They have distinct social and political controversies all their own, but the one common thread between them is a young population and high unemployment rate. Egypt has been getting the most attention, let's talk about that.

Nearly 40 percent of the population living below the poverty line, two bucks a day and daily pay as well. So they're not getting paid well while all this is going on. The average Egyptian is just 24 years old. In fact, half of the population is under 25, it's worth remembering.

Now it's true across the region. The average of 60 percent of the population under 30, right across the region we're talk about -- North Africa, Middle East, the Maghreb -- combined with high unemployment, low incomes, you have an angry young man effect taking place, and it becomes a tinderbox, a contagion if you like, a powder keg situation in an already volatile region.

MALVEAUX: I imagine, as well, you have angry men. You've got angry women as well, but they're not the ones who out in the streets. Obviously because of the culture, they wouldn't be out there. But it seems to be that is the common thread and a lot of leaders worried that there's going to be a domino threat.

HOLMES: Yes, well isn't it ironic that we used to talk about domino effect when it related to Communism, now we're talking it in relation to perhaps Democracy.

You know, again, you look at the youth levels. Jordan, 54 percent under 25; 26 percent of them are unemployed. Saudi, 51 percent of people are under 25. Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, all similar stories.

Now we've talked about this before too, and that is, you know, uprisings are not exportable. Each country has its own set of dynamics, they're own set of factors that can trigger unrest. But when you put these things together with a sense of hopelessness, years under authoritarian or autocratic rule, and that's where you see the bubble come to the surface.

And also you see also a confidence grow. You see what happens in Tunisia, and people in Egypt all of a sudden say, well, hang on, we can give that a go as well.

MALVEAUX: And also it takes more than incredible high unemployment to the making of a revolution. Clearly there is a tipping point.

HOLMES: It's the economy as well. You are dealing with oppressive regimes, autocratic regimes, unchallenged rule by leaders for decades, a complex relationship between the region between these countries who all have, as we said, their own dynamics.

But it comes down to poverty, desperation, that can be a trigger. And historically, around the world that has been known to lead to violence as well and the kind of unrest we're sort of seeing today. Watch out for Jordan and Yemen.

MALVEAUX: We'll be watching very closely. Thank you very much, Michael.

HOLMES: Good to see you.

MALVEAUX: Hunter Moore, he is a young American who is working as a teacher in Cairo. Now he and a friend shot this video for CNN iReport while helping the wounded in Tahrir Square on Wednesday. He plans to jump in again today, if necessary.

Hunter Moore is joining us by phone in Cairo.

And, Hunter, thank you very much for being with us here. First and foremost, we're taking a look at these extraordinary pictures that you sent in.

How did you get involved in this? Were you actually on the scene on the ground when this started to erupt?

HUNTER MOORE, AMERICAN LIVING IN CAIRO (via telephone): Yes. We have been out there since last Tuesday, the 25th, and sort of assessed the need of what we could do to help, and we realized that we could get some medical supplies and some food to distribute. That's kind the role we have taken.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: What kind of injuries did you see?

MOORE: Beg your pardon?

MALVEAUX: What kinds of injuries did you see? Were they serious?

MOORE: It was mostly head injuries, easily 90 percent head injuries. Some that required much more medical attention than we could offer. A lot of it was, you know, many men needed stitches.

But mostly it was head injuries, and a lot of them came two or three times because they would get patched up and they'd run right back out there and come back with another head injuries minutes later.

MALVEAUX: And this was from what? I understand there were machetes, there were rocks?

MOORE: Mostly rocks.

MALVEAUX: And what were people saying to you? Was there a sense of despair? Were they determined? You said they went back out and would fight again?

MOORE: Yes. They went back out over and over again. They were screaming about freedom, screaming about democracy. There was a lot of solidarity in the crowd. They were thanking me. It was a really an amazing time to be out there.

MALVEAUX: And, Hunter, in light of your experience here, you have been in Cairo for quite some time. Do you have a sense that it's time for you to go, that you should leave this country?

MOORE: Not quite. You know, I'm kind of -- just this past day, we haven't been able to get down to Tahrir due to rumors. We tried to go, and but we were being warned by many people that they were being pretty hostile to foreigners. So we set up an ad hoc food drive and a Facebook group called "Medical Aid For Cairo" that we're trying to organize getting medical aid and food to the people of Cairo that need is right now.

MALVEAUX: OK, Hunter Moore, thank you so much, we appreciate your hard work and obviously we wish you the best of safety.

We want to go to a speech that is taking place now, Egypt's vice president, Omar Suleiman. He's speaking out on state television to his people. Let's take a listen to see what kind of news he might make.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

OMAR SULEIMAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF EGYPT (through translator): -- presented those demands, and their demands were studied to actually be implemented.

However, unfortunately, along those honest and honorable elements, some other brutes who have other private agendas infiltrated in these groups. These agendas may be associated with foreign run or for internal personal interests. But the objective from this issue is to bring about the largest possible chaos and tension between the (INAUDIBLE) Egypt.

The movement of the 25th of January was not destructive, but it was a demanding movement. A movement to set up demands. The impact that came in following the infiltration of certain elements with the police authority and the legal authority and in certain (INAUDIBLE) had a major impact on the ability of the police to continue facing up this destructive movement which forced President Mubarak to ask the military forces to take up its duties in protecting the legitimacy of the country. And the military forces are doing their task right now to protect the people and to prevent danger from attaining the people.

President Mubarak, when he found that those demands made by the 25th of January used are legitimate and accepted, it was studied how we can reply and answer back those demands so that it would serve all of the needs of the nation. And the president has set up a plan called a road map to implement those demands, and he announced them in his recent address to the nation, and it was very clear that he has responded to all the legitimate demands.

And it could have been possible also that we would have accepted more demands, maybe you can work on the political restructuring more, but the time is the restriction. What does that mean? This means that the presidential elections will be conducted in August or September. It will be no later than that date, which means that from today until the presidential elections, we have less than 200 days. And during that time, there will be a need for a lot of amendments, constitutional and logistic.

So the youth were demanding the change of the parliament and the Shura Council. This means that we want to be able to look into the constitutional amendments. There must be a people's assembly or parliament to amend the constitution. These means that it's either we work on the constitutional amends or change it to reach that or sacrifice the amendments if we want to --

MALVEAUX: We are listening to the vice president, the newly appointed vice president of Egypt, Omar Suleiman. He is trying to explain to the people of Egypt, particularly those who wanted to see President Mubarak out right away, that the president has made a concession, that there are problems, delays, logistics he says, that it's not realistic that Mubarak leave any sooner than September. That's when they would hold their presidential election.

He went on to also explain why we have seen violence in the streets erupting, saying that the police not being there was part of the problem, so that the military was trying its very best to separate and protect the people.

We will see if these explanations coming from the Egyptian government is good enough for the Egyptian people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We are going down under for today's guilty pleasure. News that is not so quite serious.

OK, here we have a surveillance camera recording a guy trying to break into a bakery in Australia through a skylight. Yes, a skylight. OK, he gets in, sort of. He is in the bakery all right, trapped inside a locked storeroom. So now the camera catches him stacking anything he can to get back out through the skylight. Eventually, eventually he makes it, but the police say he had to have a little bit of help.

It was a snowstorm for the record books, but now it's time to pick ourselves up, dust the snow off, and that's why we have my friend Jeanne Moos who shows us how it's done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Having to abandon your car on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago is bad but not as bad as having your car's nose rubbed in the snow. They were accidents like this one in Salem, New Hampshire, and roof collapses, but as some things went down, others went up and up and up.

This 35-foot snowman in Champion, New York, has a snow cone for a nose, and a swimming pool for a top hat.

(on camera): It's enough to give Frosty button envy.

(voice-over): These were made out of racing tires.

iReporters have sent in Packers and Steelers helmets in Wisconsin, a snow squirrel in New Jersey, a giraffe in Staten Island and our personality favorite, Nick and Anna of Bel Air, Maryland call their creation

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snowzilla.

MOOS: Godzilla out of snow. The fiery breath is supplied by a flamethrower made out of carburetor cleaner and a butane lighter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The flame actually ignites a little bit past the past the snow, so it doesn't melt it that much.

MOOS (on camera): Now, if there's a buzzword coming out of the latest mega storm, it's --

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, CBS "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Thunder snow. It's god's first new work in 500 years. It's thunder snow.

MOOS (voice-over): Thunder during snow is a weatherman's snow fantasy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus! Listen to that. Son of a --

MOOS: Weathermen get dumped on by comedians during snowstorms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that spells that nasty four-letter word, ice.

(LAUGHTER)

MOOS: CNN's own Ed Lavandera got the Jimmy Kimmel treatment.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And what -- sorry, somebody's got to be careful as these cars drive by, want to make sure they don't lose control or anything like that.

MOOS: From sliding dogs to a joker who thought it would be funny to go shirtless in Chicago, how you view the snow can help you weather it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you live up north, you have to expect weather like this on occasion. You know, got to grin and bear it. Kind of a fun challenge, don't you think? (LAUGHTER)

REGIS PHILBIN, HOST, ABC "LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY": I love those glasses.

KELLY RIPA, HOST, ABC "LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY": She has four inches of snow on her glasses!

MOOS: And a 100 percent chance of near zero visibility.

Jeanne Moos, CNN --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holly smoke!

MOOS: -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: I can't believe they did that to Ed. Shame on them.

Up next, we've got the Political Update right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: President Obama may have his work cut out for him in Florida. Our Mark Preston, he is part of "The Best Political Team on Television," he is live from the Political Desk in Washington.

And, Mark, it's great to see you. What is crossing now? Is the president going to have some problems?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: He is going to have some problems, no question about that. We know that in the past couple of weeks he has made some very key staff moves to gear up for 2012.

One state he's going to have to focus on is down in Florida. A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that his approval rating down there is only 47 percent. What's even more disturbing is only 45 percent of Floridians think that he should be reelected.

So Florida is a very important state, as you know, Suzanne, in the electoral politics, presidential electoral politics. Expect President Obama to spend a lot of time, a lot of money in the state.

MALVEAUX: And, Mark, what about Mitt Romney? I understand he's doling out some cash for Republicans?

PRESTON: He is. You know, Mitt Romney was on "PIERS MORGAN" just a couple days ago. He said that his wife wants him to run for president again. He hasn't officially come out and said that he's going to run, but just in the past couple of hours his political operation put out news that Mitt Romney is already donating to Republican candidates to the tune of $129,000. These are candidates all across the country, of course, all Republicans. What I found interesting, Suzanne, is he's not only just giving to Republicans in the key early states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, he's giving to everybody across the board.

So Mitt Romney hasn't announced if he's going to run for president. All signs point that he is, though, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Mark, thanks so much. Good to see you.

For the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

A reminder with about your chance to choose the news by texting 22360. Vote 1 for Cubans turning to religion during tough times. Vote 2 for the woman who found her biological family on Facebook. Or vote 3 for the Egyptian woman who says she is willing to die for freedom. The winning story is going to air in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Well, here is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. This one, President Obama's religion. He spoke about it during his prayer breakfast and about people doubting his Christian faith.

Our Carol Costello has more on this.

Carol, how are people responding?

COSTELLO: I think we got over 100 responses in like five minutes to this question.

MALVEAUX: Wow.

COSTELLO: I know, it's incredible, and we got great answers, too.

At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama got very personal about his faith and Jesus. Some suspect he did that because one in five people think he's Muslim.

So the "Talk Back" today: What will it take for people to believe that President Obama is a Christian?

This is from Mohammed. He says, "I honestly don't care if he is Muslim or Christian because at the end of the day I will still see him as president of the United States."

This is from Dee. She says, "Who freakin cares if he's Christian? Are Christians the only one allowed to run for the presidency?"

This one from Brad. "I'd say that Jesus might have to personally vouch for the poor man except no one believes in Jesus these days."

And this is my favorite answer from Justin. He says, "This is what it would take, a baptism in the reflecting pool." (LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Oh, my goodness.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: So keep the responses coming. I'd like to keep the conversation going. You can get in touch with me at facebook.com/carolCNN.

MALVEAUX: Why do I think that's not going to happen, the baptism in the reflection pool?

COSTELLO: That would do it, don't you think? Then everybody would know that President Obama is indeed a Christian.

MALVEAUX: Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're right. Whom am I? Sure, I'll be back.

MALVEAUX: It was intense and dramatic. Leave it up to Conan to find it funny. The punch line next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A reminder about your chance to choose the news. You vote by texting 22360. Vote 1 for Cubans turning to religion during tough times. Vote 2 for the woman who found her biological family on Facebook. Or vote 3 for the Egyptian woman who says she is willing to die for freedom. The winning story will air in the next hour.

Well, it would be difficult to find anything funny about the turmoil in Egypt, but leave it up to Conan O'Brien to come up with today's punch line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, TBS "CONAN": But while in Egypt, you probably heard this or saw about it, CNN's Anderson Cooper was attacked and punched in the head by protesters. Yes.

Which brings up two questions, is it safe to send out media into such a hostile situation, and how do we get Glenn Beck over there.

(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)