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Signs Point To Vessel Breach; The Battle For Misrata; Al Mehdi Gave His Life For The Rebels; Everyday Civilians Now In War Against Gadhafi; The Other Side of Groupon; Tracing A Reactor Core Leak

Aired March 25, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Suzanne.

For all that's gone wrong at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, there hasn't been a full-scale meltdown and containment vessels around the reactor cores have appeared to stay intact. Well, there's still no sign of a meltdown, but two weeks after the plant and much of Japan were ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, experts fear one containment vessel may have cracked. And at the worst possible reactor, that's reactor number three that we're talking about.

It's only one of six at the Daiichi complex to contain plutonium, you can see the reactors here behind me. It also contains uranium, the telltale sign was the highly radioactive water that three workers stepped in by Wednesday. By highly radioactive, I mean 10,000 times the norm for that location. The workers are being checked out at Japan's National Institute of Radiological Sciences.

Japan's government now says people living between within 20 or 30 kilometers of the Daiichi plant, that's roughly 12-20 miles or so, should now leave. People living closer were never given a choice, but until today, the rest were told simply to stay indoors. The U.S. and other countries have set a much wider evacuation zone for their people, 80 kilometers or 50 miles from Daiichi.

Now, we've all gotten a crash course in nuclear physics over the past two weeks or so, but to understand the impact of a possible containment breach, I want to bring in a scientist. Bill Nye, "The Science Guy," joins us live from L.A., and Bill knows all about this.

Bill, good to see you.

Would a leaking reactor core which we may be seeing here, would it be a major escalation of this disaster or just simply another complication?

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY": It's probably a major escalation. Now, if it's not the core that's cracked, it's some plumbing, some pipes, that lead into it. Because when you get this kind of radioactivity level going up so fast, it's probably plutonium.

Now, this is -- this sounds like science fiction, and it kind of is. You transmute uranium into plutonium by giving it a jolt. You change some neutrons into protons and it becomes fantastically radioactive. And also, Glen Seaborg himself, the guy who won a Nobel prize for creating plutonium, told me that it's toxic, it's very poisonous.

KAYE: Yes, so what if they found plutonium - What's the extra risk about plutonium?

NYE: It's just especially active chemically and it's especially radioactive. So, this contamination, this radioactive -- these radioactive particles suspended and carried and dissolved in the water could end up who knows where, and they could end up in the water in Tokyo. It could end up on farm fields. It could end up spreading all over the area where workers are trying to cool this thing off.

KAYE: So, is there any turning back here? I mean, can they go about in any way repairing this cracked containment vessel which houses the core?

NYE: Boy, I'm open-minded, of course, but I don't think you can repair a cracked vessel. Instead, you have to cement it, maybe that is a repair. You have to seal it off in a -- irreversible way. You have to plug it up with concrete, it's often mixed with a compound of borate, boron also soaks up neutrons. And so, this is what they did at Chernobyl in an extraordinary fashion with helicopters.

KAYE: So, did they end up repairing it at Chernobyl?

NYE: But I think everybody here is hoping they can do it --

Well, I am, yes. Everybody remember that at Chernobyl, there's an area, if you think of an oval, about 100 miles long and 50 miles wide that you can't in because this contamination got all over the place, this radioactive material. And so, as soon as you get leaks like this, and guys come out of there with apparently radiation sickness, something is cracked open, and something is leaking. And everybody knows this. And I -- I understand how much we all need energy, but this stuff is fantastically dangerous.

KAYE: Let me get back to those exposed workers. They went through the contaminated water. Apparently, they have burns because the water got into their boots and it's burned their ankles and their legs. How will they go about treating these guys?

NYE: Well, the first thing they should be doing is to just wash it off, just wash the stuff is a big first step. Then I guess there's some anti-inflammatory and anti-nausea drugs you take to help you get through it. But it sounds -- I mean, just sounds really bad to me. You know, another thing, you know, we don't get the whole story, I'm afraid.

KAYE: A lot of people certainly across the U.S. are wondering, you know, how far away are these health risks going to be felt away from the plant. How far away do you think? I mean, might the U.S. be exposed to some of this?

NYE: I don't think so, because it has to get in the air, and it has to get to very high altitude. I'm not talking about detectable. We have exquisite instruments for detecting very small amounts of radiation. They're used in all sorts of mining and they're used in spacecraft and so on. But this isn't been -- this hasn't been shot very high in the air, so I don't think the risk to the west coast is that significant.

But everybody -- look, I mean, it's great to worry about ourselves in the United States. These people have had their villages wiped away, all their ancestors gone, their family gone, and then on top of that we have this crazy nuclear disaster. You know, if it's not this plant this time, it's going to be another one next time. And my dream, Randi --

KAYE: It's a tragedy that we will continue to watch. Bill Nye, the science guy, we always appreciate you coming on and talking about this with us.

NYE: Thank you.

KAYE: And now, some other big stories that we're following.

A show of Friday fury in Syria as pro- and anti-government demonstrators turn out in force. Several thousand people converged on the city of Daraa which has been a flash point all week. Human rights groups say that three dozen people were killed there in 48 hours. Residents say another 15 died today.

Security forces accused of opening fire on the pro-democracy crowds. This video posted online is said to show some of that violence that we can't independently confirm that.

A crowd of several hundred turned out in the capital Damascus, chanting 'Daraa is Syria' in support of demonstrators. They ran smack into government loyalists shouting their support for President Bashar al-Assad.

Now, to the Libya conflict, a new word about who will be taking command of the NATO joint task force mission, Canadian Lieutenant General Charlie Bouchard is expected to be announced shortly. Meantime, British fighters have just bombed government tanks in position to target Ajdabiya. Pro-Gadhafi forces are going house to house there looking for opposition residents, has got residents fleeing the eastern city in droves.

They say the horror is unimaginable with bodies littering the streets. Meantime, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi could soon be a wanted man. A spokeswoman for the international criminal court says the prosecutor there is 100 percent certain attacks on Libyan protesters will mean charges for crimes against humanity.

He was an oil worker, a husband, a father of two teenage girls. He also made one huge sacrifice for his country. What this man did in the fight to liberate Libya on the other side.

And summer is coming, which means swimsuit season is on its way. So, we want to know if you think Abercrombie & Fitch is going too far with this product? Take a look, a padded bikini top for girls as young as 8. The Ashley pushup triangle bikinis are in the current spring line for Abercrombie kids, a division of the company specifically geared toward kids 8 to 14.

If you want to comment on this, as I'm sure you do, we want to know what you think, go to our blog CNN.com/Ali for more on the story and to share your thoughts. And you can also post on Ali's Facebook and Twitter accounts, and on my Twitter accounts as well, RandiKayeCNN.

We'll share your comments later in the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Amateur video of explosions Monday in Misrata. The fierce battle for Misrata, Libya's third largest city, has been going on now for more than a week.

Let me take you to the map here. Here is Misrata, and if we turn you about 500 miles or so to the east, that is the city of Benghazi, that is the rebel stronghold. So, how did this city become a turning point in the war?

CNN's Reza Sayah has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rebel fighters in street clothes, going head to head with the Libyan army tank. The amateur video reportedly shot last week, a dramatic glimpse of the war for Libya. Pitting civilians against Gadhafi's heavily armed forces. Despite being severely out gunned, this is what rebel fighters did last month to the regime's military barracks in what is now the opposition capital of Benghazi.

The destruction of the compound, the turning point in the fight for this key city. To many here, Al Mehdi Tzu was the hero of that fight, a 49-year-old oil company worker, husband, father of two, the best way to help the opposition, he decided, was to sacrifice his life. His two teenage daughters say they had no idea what their father had planned. His wife, too distraught to appear on camera.

We're not able to express how much we miss him, says Sajeda. We miss him a lot, says her sister Zohur, he was with us every moment of our lives.

This is where he gave his life. It's the old military barracks here in Benghazi. It's pretty much demolished today, but on February 19th rebel fighters had surrounded it and they were facing heavy firepower. They were trying to get inside these military barracks, they couldn't. They needed something to shift their momentum. What Al Mehdi did was pack his car full of car fuel containers in cooking gas cylinders and witnesses say he parked his car, right over there where the SUV is, and prayed and read the Koran for about 30 minutes, and then he sped toward the main gate where he blew himself and his car up. This is a picture of Al Mehdi's best friend, Abdul Frahud (ph), carrying his remains after the blast. ABDUL FARHOUD, AL MEHDI'S FRIEND: If I didn't saw him body in the car, I could not believe it.

SAYAH: He says Al Mehdi's suicide attack sent Gadhafi troops running, clearing the way for rebel fighters to overtake the barracks.

FARHOUD: He's a hero, he's a real hero.

SAYAH: For opposition forces, the taking of the barracks was a monumental victory, made possible they say by Al Mehdi, one of hundreds of civilians who died in the war for Libya. For his two daughters, the sudden loss of their father is heart-wrenching but one they say they are honored to live with. He did something very important. We're definitely very proud of him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Reza Sayah joins me now from Benghazi. Reza, the opposition is hailing this man as a martyr. Can you tell us a little bit more about the opposition forces? Have you met many of them? I mean, who are they? Can you paint the picture for us?

SAYAH: Well, do you know what, Randi, if you ask people who these rebel fighters are, they'll tell you everybody here is a rebel fighter. In one sense, it's true. What's remarkable is a few weeks ago, these were everyday civilians, students, activists, farmers, mechanics, all of a sudden they find themselves taking up arms, taking on professional military in the Gadhafi regime. So, it's a remarkable story of how everyday civilians are now in the middle of a war.

KAYE: Yes, and I want to take you back to this map because the opposition is really fighting Gadhafi loyalists in these cities here. If you take a look, we have -- there's fighting happening in Ajdabiya, in Misrata, in Zintan as well.

And, Reza, I know that you're in Benghazi, but what are you hearing today about these other cities where fighting is taking place?

SAYAH: Well, the newest information, the newest development is coming out of the city of Ajdabiya. A strategically critical city. That's where a British military official is telling CNN that British jet fighters have targeted and destroyed several Libya tanks that have taken aim on the city of Ajdabiya. This is a city that both sides have fought over for the past couple of weeks. And over the past several days, we've heard witness accounts of some disturbing tactics being used by the Gadhafi regime.

Just today a witness telling CNN that leaving the city he saw bodies on the streets, bodies that nobody dare to recover. Another witness telling CNN that Gadhafi forces were going house to house, taking away young men, suspected rebel fighters, to who knows where. So it's these types of witness accounts that have this opposition desperately calling for the international community to step up its intervention. They got a little bit of help with the British fighter jets taking out those tanks, but the two sides still fighting for this key city, Randi. KAYE: Yes. All right, Reza Sayah, we'll leave it there, in Benghazi for us. Thank you.

Well, you've probably heard of these companies that e-mail you coupons that only work if enough people use them? Well, we're going to take you behind the scenes to see what happens at a little restaurant that eagerly waits to see if their coupons brings customers running to the door.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Today on "Your Money" let's talk about saving a little money. Every day millions of people get e-mails offering deals on food or shopping in their city courtesy of Groupon. CNN's Stephanie Elam looks on the other side of that e-mail and how businesses are using the service to pull in more clients.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON FEIL, OWNER, SUSHI BY SIMON: Everyone with me?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've probably never heard of Sushi by Simon.

FEIL: Marketing has probably not been the strongest aspect of my business.

ELAM: That is unless you saw this. This is a Groupon. The deal? A New York City sushi-making class for $99. A 50 percent saving from the usual fee. The first one sells nine minutes after the midnight launch. By 9:00 a.m. five have sold.

FEIL: In other words once at least 10 people buy it, the deal is on.

ELAM (on camera): Yes.

FEIL: If -- which obviously will not happen. If only nine people were to buy, then nothing would happen, there would be no deal, those people wouldn't get charged and --

ELAM: You're kind of confident. How do you know that nine won't buy it?

FEIL: Because there's a million people looking at this.

ELAM (voice-over): Confident and yet all eyes on the computer screen.

FEIL: Six.

ELAM: (on camera): Six.

FEIL: Another one.

ELAM (voice-over): Then a quick jump to 11. FEIL: Boom! The deal is on.

ELAM (on camera): Now what?

FEIL: Now I get to obsess over seeing how many more people are going to buy it every 30 seconds by hitting the refresh button.

ELAM (voice-over): By noon the tally is 57. At 2:00 p.m., it's 91. And when the deal closes at midnight the next day, Sushi by Simon has 109 new customers.

FEIL: So the next time just have even a service --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I saw it -- like sushi on there, like a sushi-making class, I was like, I have to take this class.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tried it on our own and --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wasn't -- we were not very successful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It didn't work. Yes. So we thought we'd --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a great way to learn.

FEIL: I have definitely gotten a huge uptick in other business interest. I have to imagine that it is due at least in some part to the visibility that I got from Groupon.

ELAM: Since launching in 2008, Chicago-based Groupon has flourished. And now boasts 60 million subscribers around the world. It's also spawned a swarm of competitors looking to cash in on the group-buying phenomenon.

ELAM (on camera): What sets Groupon apart?

ROB SOLOMON, GROUPON PRESIDENT & COO: We're getting smarter and smarter by using data to get the right deal in front of the right person at the right time. So that's the holy grail of data.

ELAM (voice-over): Groupon is taking half the proceeds, but Simon said it's worth it. The deal gives him access to that customer data, guarantees him three months of sold-out classes, and helps his business grow. Of course, that means he's had to train more chefs.

FEIL: And it is primarily to deal with what I expected and am experiencing with growth from Groupon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: And Stephanie joins us now from New York.

Stephanie, they were taking about data being the holy grail. What kind of data exactly are they talking about?

ELAM: That's the thing that you probably don't even realize, Randi, is what they're getting is access to when most of the deals are sold, they're able to see is it men or women who are buying, how many people are buying the win, when are their peak sales, so that going forward they actually know how to advertise their business and actually make more sales just from this one experience. So that data there which Groupon really capitalizes on, despite all the very colorful and wonderful language that they use in the Groupon offers that are written by the Groupon people, they're saying that's what really sets them apart and they're able to do that and get their deals in front of people who are really interested in those types of deals.

KAYE: Well, you know, I get those little Groupon e-mails and I've never really known what to do with them. So this was a bit of an education. So, thank you.

ELAM: Really?

KAYE: Yes.

ELAM: Yes, there's some people who live by them. They live by them, Randi. You get them every day and go, hmm, maybe I do need to go get my eyebrows waxed right now. You never know.

KAYE: I guess I'm missing out.

All right, Stephanie, I'll take you advice on that one. I'll check it out. Good to see you.

ELAM: Cool. You, too.

KAYE: And be sure to join Christine Romans for "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning at 9:30 Eastern. And Don't miss "Your Money" with Ali Velshi Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.

Let's get you caught up with our top stories.

In Libya today, British fighters have bombed government tanks in position to target Ajdabiya. Pro-Gadhafi forces have reportedly been going house to house there looking for opposition members. That's got residents fleeing the eastern city in droves. This comes as NATO prepares to take control of the mission this weekend under a Canadian commander.

Back in the U.S., the school shooting this morning in Indiana. Police in Martinsville say one student was shot at West Middle School as students and teachers were preparing for the day. He was flown to a hospital and local media reports say he is in critical but stable condition. Police arrested a suspect several miles from the school. They say the alleged shooter is a student who was suspended from school just two days ago.

And even in death, Elizabeth Taylor set her own style and was fashionably late. Her private funeral yesterday was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. at the Forest Lawn Cemetery but the actress actually left specific instructions that it not begin until 15 minutes later. Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday from congestive heart failure. She was 79. New fears today of a reactor core breach at that nuclear plant in Japan. Our expert, Chad Myers, breaks down the problems with that reactor number three. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Three workers in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were laying cables in the basement of the reactor's turbine building when they stepped into water. The water seeped into the ankle-high boots of two of the men who were subsequently hospitalized. It appears that the water actually touched their skin and it had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that location.

Chad Myers joins me to talk about this, take a closer look at the water and where it came from in this reactor number three.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we actually don't know exactly where it came from. They have not identified the source of the leak. But clearly to have this much radiation in the water, it must have touched some type of radioactive rod (ph).

KAYE: Right.

MYERS: OK. So, now they didn't find -- the men were not in the building where the core is. They were in a separate building where these turbines make power. So there's a source -- a possible source -- and you can go on the websites and see a number of speculations. I think what we need to realize is that there is this containment vessel up here, that pool where the rods are, the old ones are. When they were splashing water in, that water they had splashed out, that's a possibility how it got into the other basement. But also all these rods, all these pipes, all this pressurized stuff that makes these turbines go, there could be a crack in the well. There could be corrosion because of the salt. And if it's leaking out -- all we really don't -- the source is not so important is the fact that it is coming out.

KAYE: Right.

MYERS: And that steps up the severity of this leak significantly.

KAYE: Yes, especially because this has the plutonium and the uranium, right?

MYERS: And all of a sudden you have other isotopes in that water and in the ocean water around the plant that we weren't seeing before. Cobalt -- the radioactive cobalt, which is a half life of about five years, it's -- so it will degrade into nothing in about 50 years, plus -- OK, that's 50 years, but this is in the groundwater. But this is anywhere around here.

KAYE: Yes.

MYERS: This steps up the severity of the plant of number three significantly. KAYE: Yes.

MYERS: There's just no question about it. You know, we don't really believe that the core is cracked down here or the containment vessel. I talked to a number of engineers, even engineers that were on TV from Georgia Tech, Glenn Soji (ph). He basically told me, he said, this is the hardware. This over here is kind of the software. The cracks could happen in the welds, not so much where the reacture (ph) -- where the reacture (ph) --

KAYE: So more of the activity probably over there?

MYERS: You know, you're only as strong as your weakest link, right, no matter -- even if you're a TV station, if you're a car, if you're -- whatever the weakest link, that's the first thing that's going to break. And the weakest link was over there in the turbine building and the water leaked (ph) out.

KAYE: Yes, it's so concerning, though. You hear somebody like Bill Nye who says, really the only answer is to just cement this thing over. Be done with it. Which is --

MYERS: Right.

KAYE: Maybe not even the best option, but --

MYERS: Well, now we're trying to bring in fresh water instead of the saltwater.

KAYE: Right.

MYERS: That saltwater has made so much corrosion inside that machine.

KAYE: Yes.

MYERS: That salt's never going to go away. Even if we put fresh water in, that old salt's not leaving.

KAYE: Right.

MYERS: It stays in there the whole time.

KAYE: You can't get it out.

MYERS: We're just making more brine! Wow.

KAYE: What a mess!

MYERS: I know.

KAYE: It continues to get worse every day, it seems. Everything -- every time I think we're on the verge of something --

MYERS: For a while, it flattened out --

KAYE: Yes.

MYERS: -- and there was no more bad news. And now this, after the workers were stepping in that pool of water --

KAYE: Right.

MYERS: -- 10,000 times what it could --

KAYE: Yes.

MYERS: -- should have been. That stepped it up again.

KAYE: Yes. All right, Chad. Thanks for the explainer on that one.

MYERS: You're welcome.

KAYE: This is a story that is rattling a lot of people, an air traffic controller asleep on the job at a major airport. How could this happen? His mistake and what the airport is now doing about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: And we want to take you right now to the State Department, where the U.S. ambassador to Libya is about to speak. So let's listen in for just a moment.

GENE CRETZ, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO LIBYA: Good afternoon.

As you know, I'm the U.S. ambassador to Libya. I resided in Libya until late December 2010. You all know the circumstances under which I left. I'm not here to discuss these circumstances, I'm here to discuss the situation in Libya today and what the United States and its coalition partners are doing to stop the brutality and bloodshed of the Gadhafi regime bent on denying its people universal rights that are the birthright of people everywhere.

My embassy team was evacuated from Libya on February 23rd and has been reconstituted in Washington. They're playing an active role in providing information, analysis and assistance based on their experience. At best, we are trying to find clarity about a place that in the best of times can only be described as opaque. Now it is exponentially more difficult, as you all know, including your own personal experiences, to get the kind of precise information that we would like.

Let's discuss how we got here. On February 17th, a brave group of Libyan citizens decided that they no longer wanted to live under a repressive regime which denied them their most basic universal rights for over 41 years. In response to the Libyan people peacefully protesting for their universal rights, the Gadhafi regime unleashed a bloody wave of violence and oppression, slaughtering its own citizens.

The consequences of those barbaric actions was the exodus of tens of thousands of Libyans and foreigners, and we in the international community rushed at first instance to provide assistance at the Tunisian and Egyptian borders. Since that time, we have provided humanitarian assistance. We've helped those workers get back to their countries, and we continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Libya.

The Libyan people -- the Libyan people appealed to the world to help stop these barbaric attacks, and the international community spoke with one voice to condemn them and to respond. The Arab League and the GCC called for urgent action, and the U.N. Security Council mandated all necessary measures to protect civilians, including a no- fly zone. We also implemented -- we, the United States -- our own unilateral response, including sanctions to the Gadhafis' regime's atrocities.

It became clear that Gadhafi and his henchmen had no intention of ceasing the violence and bloodshed. And as the secretary said last night, we faced the prospect of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in Benghazi. By his words, by his actions, and certainly by his past deeds, we had to take Gadhafi at his word when he threatened to go house to house and to wreak revenge against the people of Benghazi.

The international coalition was compelled to act. The coalition's effort over the past week garnered the support and the active participation of nations who recognized the significance of coming together in the international community to address the situation in Libya.

The Libyan people must be allowed to have a voice. Ultimately, it is the Libyan people themselves who will forge the path forward for Libya. Our immediate goal is to ensure we provide the humanitarian assistance and protection they need in order to achieve their aspirations. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) bring us up to date on your --

KAYE: All right, you're been listening to the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz. He talked about how we got into this. He described Gadhafi's actions as a "bloody wave" of slaughtering his citizens. And he said, "Our immediate goal" is to provide humanitarian effort and aid there.

We're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan have a unique perspective on the current nuclear crisis. One woman who lived through Hiroshima went on to use radiation to help save lives as a cancer doctor. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has her story in "The Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. RITSUKO KAMAKI, MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: Hello!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you? KAMAKI: Fine. How are you? Good to see you. You always look wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to see you back Stateside.

(CROSSTALK)

KAMAKI: Oh, OK. That's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

KAMAKI: Yes, just breathe in and out. Do you have any weakness or any problems to use of your hands? OK. Do you have a lot of cough?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No worse than it's been, but yes, more than normal.

KAMAKI: This is a kind of magnification of those 1,000 origami birds. She was with her, and that day, she went to Hiroshima University. She was a -- what I was told and also what I saw the pictures, and that's all I remember. And some of the people, when we moved back to Hiroshima when I was 4 years old, the people had a lot of keloid disfiguring the face. And some of them are orphaned. It was very brown and no big trees. It was very hot. That's all I remember.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Federal officials say an air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport admits that he fell asleep, and that's why two planes never got clearance and were forced to land on their own earlier this week. The planes both landed safely. The controller was suspended. Officials say the airport is changing its policy to require at least two people to staff that control tower overnight.

What makes a high school science project worthy of a $100,000 prize? We'll let a couple of very brilliant young scientists tell you themselves in today's "Big I." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back, 42 minutes past the hour. Deadly

gunfire mixed with shouts of freedom rang out in several Syrian cities today. Residents in the southern city of Daraa and human rights activists say at least 25 people were killed when security forces opened fire. Thousands filled the streets that were attending the funeral of 34 protesters killed Wednesday.

CNN is unable to confirm the reports. Daraa has become the center of the most serious challenge in decades to President Bashar al Assad. Pro-democracy demonstrators also took to the streets of the capital, Damascus.

Marchers shouted "God, Syria, Freedom" and chants of support for those in Daraa. Reuters correspondents in Damascus say security forces arrested dozens of protesters. Demonstrators also took to the streets in the town Hama. Hama is viewed as a symbol of anti- government opposition because it was there that the army crushed an uprising back in 1982. Human rights groups say thousands of civilians were killed.

Next door to Syria now, several thousand anti-government protesters filled the streets of Jordan's capital of Amman, demanding political reforms. Organizers say 62 demonstrators were injured when they were hit by rocks thrown by supporters of Jordan's king. Witnesses say police stood by without trying to break up the fighting. The foreign minister, speaking to CNN, said 54 police officers also were hurt, and he conceded that things have gotten a little out of hand.

Anti-government protests have occurred almost every Friday since the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt were ousted earlier this year. Jordan's opposition forces are calling for a constitutional monarchy, with less power for the king. They're also demanding that the prime minister resign. He was appointed by the king only last month in a bid to placate the opposition. Other demands include a crackdown on corruption and measures to deal with rising prices and high unemployment, as well.

We are all about big new ideas on this show, and those big ideas don't always come from adults. In today's "Big I," we're talking to two kids who took the top prizes in Intel's Science Talent Search contest. These are some of the smartest kids on the planet! Evan O'Dorney won Intel's contest. He's joining us live from San Francisco. Michelle Hackman came in second. She's live in our New York studios today.

Evan, let's start with you. Great to see both of you. Evan, tell us about your project first.

EVAN O'DORNEY, WINNER, INTEL SCIENCE TALENT SEARCH: I submitted a math project comparing two methods for approximating a square root. The classic method always gives the most accurate possible result, while the dynamic method is a faster computation. And I figured out for which square roots the dynamic methods gives instantly (ph) man of the same highly accurate results as the classic.

KAYE: So have you always loved math? Is that how you came up with this project?

O'DORNEY: I've always loved math.

KAYE: Michelle, let's talk about your project. You did a study on students and their cell phones. We've all heard about that separation anxiety when it comes to kids and their cell phones, but it sounds like you found something actually quite different.

MICHELLE HACKMAN, 2ND PLACE WINNER, INTEL SCIENCE TALENT SEARCH: Yes, I did. Actually, I went with the cell phone -- the separation anxiety approach, and I found more what I would call withdrawal symptoms. So I basically found that when I took cell phones away from kids, they actually became what I call understimulated or bored. It was almost like they couldn't entertain themselves because they were so used to that high stimulus. And that's sort of how an addiction works.

KAYE: Sure. I am curious, though, because we should point out that you're not sighted. You're blind. So I'm curious how you were able to conduct this study.

HACKMAN: Sure. I -- well, first of all, I should say that I just used very basic measures of anxiety and measures of stimulation, which is a biofeedback meter, and basically, a very basic pencil and paper survey. But I actually also had 10 assistants helping me administer the study, and that was sort of the really cool part of that. It was that, you know, I actually had a team helping me out, and that's really how science is run.

KAYE: And were you surprised by your finding?

HACKMAN: Very!

(LAUGHTER)

HACKMAN: I definitely was expecting -- I was expecting kids to actually go crazy with the anxiety, and they started falling asleep from the lack of stimulus, so --

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: What do they do without their cell phones, right? Evan --

HACKMAN: Yes, you can't --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: No, you can't. Evan, I'm curious. With your love of math, what do you want to do when you grow up?

O'DORNEY: I want to become a professor of mathematics.

KAYE: That sounds pretty cool. Any specific line of mathematics that you're most interested in?

O'DORNEY: I don't know what field I'm going to go into, but it's going to be pure math.

KAYE: All right. And Michelle, what about you? What do you want to do when you grow up?

HACKMAN: I've loved working in behavioral sciences. I would love -- I know for the next four years, I'd really love to continue with the cell phone research and definitely to continue with research that really has very immediate applications to our society.

KAYE: Evan O'Dorney, Michelle Hackman, great to talk with you both. And our whole staff is really impressed with the two of you. So great job on the competition, and thanks for being on the show today.

O'DORNEY: Thank you.

KAYE: All right, here's a fact. Right now, one in six Americans is Hispanic. We look behind the new Census Bureau numbers, the implications, and where you might fit in. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Brand-new U.S. Census Bureau numbers are giving us an interesting look at the changing face of America. There is a dizzying array of numbers and percentages, so let's break it down for you. This was where we were in 2000. Take a look at that pie chart. Whites are by far the majority, taking up more than two thirds of the American pie. Far behind in second place is the Hispanic population. Hispanics and blacks are pretty even here, while 4 percent of Americans are Asian.

Now, this is 10 years later. When you look at the big picture, there's not a lot of change, right? But when you look behind these numbers, the trends are pretty revealing. The majority, the whites, grew, but barely. They still take up most of the population pie, but their share shrank slightly by 5 percent because at the same time, we saw a huge spike from Hispanics and Asians. Both groups grew by 43 percent in a decade.

But the thing is, Hispanics made up more than half of the growth in this country -- more than half. What you get is a sense of a true melting pot, the minority outgrowing the majority.

So we want to talk a little bit more about this. Let's bring in John Zarrella, who's joining me this afternoon from Miami. John, good to see you. When you chew on these numbers a bit, the most significant trend, clearly, is the growth of the Hispanic community. Where are they moving to?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's no question about it, Randi. In fact, if you look back 10 years ago, it was 30 million people. Now, today, the Hispanic population is 50 million. And clearly, you're seeing the biggest growth in the Southwest United States. In fact, Nevada's growth was 35 percent. And then you have other places like Texas and Utah and Arizona also growing fairly rapidly with large Hispanic populations.

KAYE: And a lot of the growth, it seems, is from legal immigration, as well as birth rate. But what is the Bureau -- the Census Bureau saying about how illegal immigrants factor into this?

ZARRELLA: You know, it's interesting. A lot of what we're hearing is that illegal immigration actually may have actually gone down in recent years, the reason being because of increases in the border patrol and the fact that we've been going through some recessionary conditions in this country. So that may not have been that big of a contributing factor.

KAYE: And clearly, Latinos, we certainly know, are becoming a huge voting bloc. What do you think the political implications here are, especially in Arizona?

ZARRELLA: Yes, you know, we saw just a few years ago in the presidential election, a huge emphasis by both parties on trying to garner the Hispanic vote. And clearly, that's going to be the case again when we get into this next round of elections. No question about it. One of the things we note that some of the demographers have told us is that, you know, Hispanics tend to, a lot of them are Catholic, tend to be a little bit more conservative in a lot of their social views, but doesn't necessarily mean they vote Republican, as we saw. So there's no doubt, Randi, as you and I are both well aware, there's going to be a huge battle for the Hispanic vote.

KAYE: Yes. So it sounds like with lots of folks moving south, they take a little tip --

ZARRELLA: Yes.

KAYE: -- out of John Zarrella's real estate book?

(LAUGHTER)

ZARRELLA: Absolutely! Move south. It's 80 degrees here today. It's beautiful.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: Yes, you learned that a long time ago.

(LAUGHTER)

KAYE: All right, John, we'll leave it there. Good to see you. Thank you.

ZARRELLA: Thanks, Randi. Yes. Bye-bye.

KAYE: All week, you've been following his journey in a frigid faraway land. CNN special correspondent and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau joins us next for an update on day four of his expedition in the Arctic. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: And this just in to CNN. We want to let you know that President Obama will be calling congressional members in just a few minutes, about 2:00 o'clock Eastern time or so. He wants to talk about the Libya situation. He wants to update them, according to his press secretary, Jay Carney. He will let them know what's been accomplished so far, and he'll also update them on the transition to NATO leadership. So we'll bring that to you, an update on that, when we get it.

This week, our special correspondent and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau and a team from CNN is in one the coldest places in earth as part of a vital study called the Catlin Arctic Survey. The team is looking at how the effects of melting arctic ice can be felt globally. But after weeks of preparation, disappointment turned to frustration today as unusually bad weather once again delayed their departure from Resolute Bay in the northern Canadian Arctic to the Catlin Arctic Survey ice base. Here's Philippe with more on the fourth day of his expedition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT AND ENVIRONMENTALIST: Behind me is a DC-3 aircraft. You know, these were made very popular in the 1930s in the '40s as a commercial aircraft. But this one in particular is scheduled to fly us up to ice base. Unfortunately, due to, well, weather, we are grounded for the second day in a row.

Now, these airplanes can conceivably take off in this weather, fly using the latest navigational equipment. The challenge for pilots is landing the aircraft on an ice strip when it's blowing and snowing this hard. The way the pilots were able to land on the ice is because this DC-3 has been modified to be able to operate in these extreme Arctic conditions. In particular, it's been outfitted with skis. However, in zero visibility, even skis won't help. Pilots need at least 200 feet of visibility to be able to land the plane on the ice and not overshoot the runway. So all we can do is hope that tomorrow will be better and we'll be able to get out of here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: To read Philippe Cousteau's daily expedition blogs or see some videos, including one on how to survive an encounter with a polar bear, head to our blog at CNN.com/Ali.

We'll also be posting more on this story on line. Busch Gardens in Florida has a new baby cheetah to take care of. The 5-week-old was born at Jacksonville Zoo to a mother who wasn't able to care for him, so he's being raised by humans. Look at how cute he is! Now at a little more than 2 pounds, the cub is eating well, getting stronger and exploring his new home. Oh, my, is he adorable! When he grows up, he may also become a part of Busch Gardens' plans for a cheetah breeding program to help boost the population of the endangered animals.