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British Parliament Calls Rupert Murdoch to Testify About Phone- Hacking Scandal; Pakistan Arrests Doctor who Helped CIA; Government Shutdown Hits Home; The Effects of Extreme Heat on Your Body; Final Spacewalk of Shuttle Era; Sandal Rocks Media Empire

Aired July 12, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed for this Tuesday, July 12th.

The British parliament today called Rupert Murdoch to testify next week about the growing scandal that has engulfed his media empire. Murdoch's three British newspapers are accused of hacking cell phones and using other deceptive techniques to get news scoops. News International, which operates the paper says that senior executives will appear. And parliament also summoned Murdoch's son James and former "News of the World" editor Rebekah Brooks.

In London today, the parents of murdered teen Milly Dowler met political leaders in parliament. Now, Sally and Bob Dowler say that the phone-hacking investigation must look at politicians' ties to the media, and the Dowlers say that the cozy relationship fueled the scandal. A tabloid hacked their daughter Milly's phone after she was kidnapped, giving them false hope that she was alive. The revelation led to the disclosure of other instances of hacking or hacking attempts that reached all the way to the royal throne.

Well, stocks are treading water today. Dow blue chips have been moving seesawing between positive and negative territory all morning. Right now, the Dow Jones down about 16 points or so. Investors are perhaps taking a breather on negotiations over the debt ceiling playing out in Washington.

President Obama says there's a Groundhog Day feeling at the White House. He and congressional leaders meet again today to work on a deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit. Republicans are insisting on deep cuts only. The president wants to close tax loopholes as well.

Now, the debt ceiling deadline is three weeks from today. And so far, nobody is blinking.

Well, it's going to feel like 105 to 115 degrees in almost half the states across the country today, if you can believe that. This is amazing. A midsummer heat wave is spreading out of the Plains, into the Northeast. And advisories for dangerous heat reach from Oklahoma, across the south and to New England.

Humidity leveling are also extraordinarily high today. That makes it difficult for the body to cool. The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated today. A bodyguard gunned down Ahmed Wali Karzai him in Kandahar. The Taliban say the bodyguard was on their payroll.

Karzai was linked to drug trafficking. He was even said to be a CIA informant. Karzai always denied both those claims.

Well, this is a first in space. During the last shuttle mission, it is the first time that space station astronauts are walking outside while the visiting shuttle squad stays indoors. That's because Atlantis has a small crew. All four shuttle astronauts will be busy with some other stuff. The spacewalkers hope to retrieve a broken cooling pump and bring it back to Earth.

Well, President Obama will award the Medal of Honor today to Sergeant First Class Leroy Arthur Petry. Petry is only the second Medal of Honor recipient to make it out of Afghanistan alive.

The Army Ranger took a bullet through both legs during a firefight. He still managed to fling an enemy grenade away from two other Rangers -- from the other Rangers. The grenade exploded, taking off Petry's right hand.

Well, it is the scandal rocking one of the most powerful media empires in the world, and it is getting bigger and even uglier today. Two more of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in Great Britain are being called out for allegedly breaching the privacy of everyone, from the former prime minister, to the queen of England. Murdoch himself, along with his son and one of his top editors, are being called by the British government to explain themselves.

Dan Rivers, he is in London.

And Dan, tell us about this. It seems to go all the way at the top of News Corp.

I understand we just lost Dan. We're going to try to get back to Dan as quickly as we can to bring you the very latest.

I understand now we have Dan.

Dan, can you hear me? Dan, can you hear me?

DAN RIVERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi. Yes, I can hear you fine.

MALVEAUX: Dan, tell us about how high up this goes. We understand that now Murdoch himself is expected to explain this mess to parliament.

RIVERS: Well, I think that the kind of billion-dollar question is, you know, how high up does this go? Did James Murdoch know about all this nefarious practices in News International?

He has consistently maintained he knew nothing about it at all. And equally, Rupert Murdoch, his father and his boss, also says he was completely unaware of what was going on.

Now they are going to be asked those very pointed questions by politicians, if the politicians get their way here. They have called both James and Rupert Murdoch to appear before a committee of politicians in the building behind me.

Often, these committees can be very fiery affairs with MPs, members of parliament lining up to quick-fire question them, a bit like in a courtroom under cross-examination. So it's going to be fascinating if they turn up.

Now, because Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch have U.S. citizenship, I don't think they can be forced to come along, but it's going to be pretty embarrassing if they don't turn up and all these allegations swirling around.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Sure. And Dan, do we know if either one of these Murdochs could face criminal charges here?

RIVERS: Well, at the moment I don't think there is any evidence that could result in criminal charges for them. Some of -- well, one reporter for "News of the World" has already served four months in prison, as has a private detective working for "News of the World." Others members of News International have been arrested -- a former editor, Andy Coulson, for example. They have not been formally indicted yet or put to trial.

I think we're a long way yet from the trail of evidence leading all the way up to James Murdoch, and James Murdoch is maintaining he knew nothing about this at all.

MALVEAUX: OK.

RIVERS: So the police have a long way to go, I think, if that's the direction they're going.

MALVEAUX: And we know the family of Milly Dowler -- that was the murdered girl whose voicemail was allegedly hacked by News Corp, "News of the World." We know that her family is meeting with the prime minister tomorrow.

What do we know about that meeting? Why have they been summoned to meet with the prime minister?

RIVERS: Well, they have been doing a series of meetings. They met with the deputy prime minister yesterday. Today, they met with the leader of the opposition. Tomorrow, David Cameron, the prime minister.

I mean, they will be underlining their shock and anger that their murder daughter's phone was hacked into by journalists from "News of the World," it is alleged. And I think, really, they're calling for something to be done about the criminal practices of some parts of the media here. They are at the full front of this campaign, which has got the likes of Hugh Grant and other people involved as well. But enough is enough, that something has to change.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dan Rivers, thank you very much.

Here's a rundown of some of the other stories ahead.

First, a cybersecurity expert explains how disturbingly easy it is to hack into anyone's cell phone.

And the sting before the raid inside Bin Laden's compound. Before SEAL Team 6 took out the terrorist leader, the CIA carried out a plan to get his DNA.

Then, we take you out of this world for the last spacewalk of the shuttle era.

Also, how to protect yourself and your health in this blazing heat.

And the budget standoff in Minnesota hitting home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the state shutdown is a huge deal, because I think about my little piece of what I do for state government, and I think there are 20,000 people that have been laid off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Pakistan arrests a doctor for helping the CIA in its efforts to nail Osama bin Laden. The doctor is accused of trying to collect DNA from people in Bin Laden's compound to prove he was there.

CNN's Reza Sayah joins us live from Islamabad.

Give us a sense about this doctor. He allegedly set up this fake vaccination drive. What was that about?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've been trying to put together bits and pieces of this alleged plot. And it really gives you a fascinating glimpse of how the CIA was operating on the ground here in Pakistan before the raid on the Bin Laden compound.

A Pakistani security official is telling us that this doctor has been arrested. He's suspected of helping the CIA put in this plot to confirm the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. And he allegedly staged a free vaccination campaign, offering free vaccinations and shots to children and residents of Abbottabad, where the Bin Laden compound was located.

According to the British paper "The Guardian," he had hired two nurses who were going around from house to house. The plan was to get to the Bin Laden children, somehow extract some of their blood, or use the syringe from these vaccinations to eventually match their DNA samples to Bin Laden's sister's DNA sample. Bin Laden's sister, passing away last year in Boston, Massachusetts.

We haven't been able to verify if these two nurses actually got into the Bin Laden compound, but we did track down one of the nurses who was allegedly involved in this plot a few hours ago. She repeatedly told us she can't comment on this matter.

MALVEAUX: Right.

SAYAH: We've also talked to residents of Abbottabad who tell us that, indeed, days before the raid, two nurses were coming around, giving shots and vaccinations, Suzanne. One U.S. official telling "The Guardian" this plan was in place, but it didn't succeed in getting the DNA samples necessary.

MALVEAUX: So this was all an attempt to find Osama bin Laden. And I understand this doctor is just one of several people that was arrested for helping the CIA. Is that right?

SAYAH: Indeed. After the raid on the Bin Laden compound, Pakistani officials went around arresting a number of people who they suspected of helping the CIA. And this is an indication that when it came to intelligence gather on Osama bin Laden, Islamabad and Washington were not talking to each other, were not on the same page. And certainly it's another indication of what we already know, that Pakistan was not happy with this unilateral action from Washington, the U.S. forces raiding the Bin Laden compound.

Many here still view it as a violation of their sovereignty. And this arrest, another indication that Pakistan's still unhappy, perhaps a way of sending a message to Washington, and also a way of finding out how the CIA managed to set up an elaborate intelligence network on the ground here in Pakistan behind the government's back -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Reza Sayah, thank very much.

A government shutdown -- 20,000 people now out of work. The budget standoff in Minnesota hits home for one family when both parents are laid off from their state jobs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Twenty thousand workers in Minnesota face another day off the job. The Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers, they're locked in a stalemate over the state's $5 billion budget deficit.

CNN's Chris Welch spent an afternoon with a family caught in the middle of this budget standoff to find out how they're coping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOBY MCADAMS, LAID-OFF WORKER: It's hard. I miss my job and I miss doing the work that I know is so important for Minnesota.

TEXT: Twenty thousand-plus state workers out of a job.

MCADAMS: I work for the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

TEXT: Toby McAdams and her partner Wendy Crowell are two of them.

WENDY CROWELL, LAID-OFF WORKER: And I work for the Department of Natural Resources.

I think the state shutdown is a huge deal, because I think about my little piece of what I do for state government, and I think there are 20,000 people that have been laid off. And every single one of them has a little piece that's just as large as the piece that we're doing.

MCADAMS: Where did these cucumbers come from?

CLAIRE THOMS, DAUGHTER OF LAID-OFF WORKERS: They're from the farmers market. They're chemical-free.

THOMS: Both of my moms' jobs are so important to them. It's actually a little bit nice to have my mother's home for a teensy bit. But if it's months, I can't imagine. I mean, already my mom is wandering around a little lost.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there anything else I can do?

THOMS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

THOMS: You can set the table.

MCADAMS: It's terrifying. Not only will it have an impact on our family -- and we're luckier than most people, because we can weather a short-term disturbance in our incomes. But eventually, we won't be able to handle it.

CROWELL: Everything I consider spending I stop and I go, wait. Can that be put off? Can we get by with what we have?

THOMS: We've all talked about it as a family, what cutting back would mean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's just so expensive.

CROWELL: We have savings for the kids' college. That's -- we try to always get by, but now we just try more.

THOMS: When I'm looking at colleges, I'm counting on that college fund. I'm counting on our family to have a safety net if something bad happens.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MALVEAUX: Budget troubles like the ones in Minnesota are playing out in states across the country. Governments are struggling to close huge deficits and make some painful spending cuts.

But, you know, some states are actually doing better than others in meeting their financial challenges. And Alison Kosik, she's at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us about that.

Alison, let's start with the states that are in trouble.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well, believe it or not, first of all, Suzanne, 48 of the 50 states have actually passed their budgets for fiscal 2012, and what that means is that, you know what? They're in pretty good shape.

Now, there are two that are operating without full working budgets. They're Minnesota, as you heard there, and Iowa.

Now, Iowa just avoided a shutdown yesterday. It's now operating under a temporary spending measure. That's according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.

But states that actually passed these budgets, it hasn't been smooth sailing all the way. You know, they had to make some really tough choices, including cuts to retirement plans, cuts to education at all levels, and transportation as well.

Now, California, it's the most glaring. It made some of the most notable and painful cuts, including laying off over 5,000 state employees and slashing contributions to the state university systems. You know, in all, a California cut over $15 billion in spending from the budget. So even though they passed budgets, Suzanne, if hasn't been easy.

MALVEAUX: And what about the states that are doing relatively well? There's some surprising success stories.

KOSIK: Yes, there are. You know, in many cases, state legislators, they managed to find common ground and pass their budgets. But you know what? States, they have a mandate to pass balanced budgets.

But, still, lawmakers, let's say in New York and New Jersey, they're getting a lot of credit for making their budgets work. Both of those states, they were able to come to bipartisan agreements to change state pension plans and the get the state's fiscal house in order. And in New Jersey, they managed to increase state aid to local school districts, and in both states there weren't tax increases to individuals, which is really amazing -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Alison. Thank you. A little bit of good news there.

Well, here are your choices for today's "Choose the News."

First, captured soldiers once fighting for Moammar Gadhafi talk to CNN. Hear their firsthand accounts of the battlefield and information Gadhafi doesn't want the rest of the world to know.

Second, the uplifting story of a man who took his personal experience and transferred it to the workplace. Now his business focuses on hiring mentally challenged workers. Other businesses are looking to cash in on his unique plan.

And third, survival through soccer. A new league for the homeless is aimed at helping players develop confidence, a sense of teamwork, and even make friends, with the hope of getting them back on their feet.

You can vote by texting 22360. Text 1 for "Soldiers Reveal Secrets"; 2 for "Unique Business Plan"; or 3 for "Survival Through Soccer."

The winning story is going to air in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.

Up next, Phone Hacking 101, lessons on how easy it can be and how best to protect yourself.

Then, it could be the last one we see for quite a while. We're going to take you outside the Earth's orbit to watch the final shuttle spacewalk.

And later, the heat isn't just unbearable, it is downright dangerous. We're going to tell you how it affects your body on the inside.

"CNN In-Depth." Former British prime minister Gordon Brown is just one of the latest high-profile names to surface in the U.K.'s phone-hacking scandal. Now, he says that hackers were able to get access to his personal information.

Just listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON BROWN, FMR. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think what happened pretty early on in government is that "The Sunday Times" appear to have got access to my Building Society account, they got access to my legal files. There's some question mark about what happened to other files, documentation, tax and everything else.

But I'm shocked. I'm genuinely shocked to find that this happened because of the links with criminals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Not surprising, you don't have to be former prime minister or a celebrity to be victimized by hackers.

Our Brian Todd spoke to some cybersecurity experts, and he finds that with the tools now available online, anyone could be a hacker.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For "News of the World" reporters to have allegedly hacked into the voicemails of murder victim Milly Dowler, of celebrities or terror victims, experts say they wouldn't have to be experts.

KEVIN MAHAFFEY, LOOKOUT MOBILE SECURITY: There are a lot of easy-to-use techniques and freely available tools that can help hackers get access to your phone.

TODD: In speaking with telecom and cybersecurity experts, we picked up three basic techniques hackers can use to get into your voicemail. First, they can dial into your voicemail network, keep trying default pass codes like 1111.

ROBOTIC VOICE: Enter password and pound sign.

(BEEPING)

ROBOTIC VOICE: Log-in incorrect. Try again.

TODD: Many cell phone providers give users default pass codes to retrieve voicemails, and many users either never bother to change them, or change them to bad pass codes like their birthdays, information that can be obtained from places like Facebook.

We spoke with Anup Ghosh, founder of Invincea, a cybersecurity company.

(on camera): A second method for hacking into someone's voicemail is to spoof your phone number to make someone's voice mail think that it's their own phone accessing the voice mail. To do that you sometimes can go to a Web site that lets you get a spoof phone number. And Anup Ghosh and I are going to do that.

(voice-over): We buy a spoof account on Spoofcard.com, a legitimate Web site for pranksters. It allows us to call any number we want, make it seem like it's coming from any number we want. Then, from another phone, we call Anup's cell phone, disguised as his own number.

ANUP GHOSH, FOUNDER/CEO, INVINCEA: So I'm going to ignore this phone call.

TODD (on camera): Ignore the call.

OK.

GHOSH (via phone): This is Anup Ghosh. Please leave a message. I'll return the call when I can.

TODD: You hit star.

ROBOTIC VOICE: You have one unheard message.

TODD: So we were able to hear your voice mails just now, a very simple process if you just dial a series of numbers.

GHOSH (on camera): That's absolutely right. I have a PIN set up on my voicemail account, but if I'm dialing my voicemail account from my phone, I get straight into it.

TODD (voice-over): Some carriers require you to give a pass code to access your voicemail from your own phone. Some don't, making it easier for hackers. A third method to hack into a voicemail --

MAHAFFEY: They can call your network operator and pretend to be you and say that they lost your password and that they need to get access to your account, supplying information such as your Social Security number, your date of birth, and your mother's maiden name, and they would be able to get access to your full account.

TODD: So how do you protect yourself? Experts say you can call your carrier and set a pass code for your account itself, so that even if a hacker knows a lot of that personal information about you, they don't know that pass code.

(on camera): Experts say you should also keep changing the passwords on your different accounts, maybe as often as you change your toothbrush, like every few months. And limit the amount of personal information about yourself on Facebook and other social media. That's a gold mine for hackers.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: It's a scandal that has touched everyone from former prime ministers to movie stars to the queen, but the public outcry was the loudest when the world learned that the phone of this young murder victim had been hacked. I'm going to talk to the attorney representing Milly Dowler's family in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

Well, no one has more appreciation for history, right, than a historian? But police say this guy went a little bit too far. We're going to tell you what he's accused of doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is one of latest high-profile names to surface in the UK's hacking scandal. And he says that hackers were able to get access to his personal information. So how do you protect yourself from getting hacked?

John Abell, he's the chief of Wired.com.

John, thanks for being with us here.

You know, if you think about your phone as a digital wallet, what is on your phone that is vulnerable to hackers? JOHN ABELL, WIRED.COM: Well, it's not only what's on your phone, it's what your phone gives you access to. The truth of the matter is that your most important information is out there someplace, your credit card information of the credit card company, your voice mails through your carrier. But your phone gives access to that to somebody who has your phone. So you want to lock your phone down. You want to use password protected programs and stuff like that.

MALVEAUX: So, John, how do you protect yourself, because everything we've been hearing and we just heard a great piece from Brian Todd, it's fairly simple to hack to anybody's phone.

ABELL: Yes. Well, there are issues here.

One, the information that's not on your phone, your credit card information, your bank and things like that, there's nothing that you can do with your phone to protect yourself from that kind of attack. People are going to go after those servers someplace else.

But every Smartphone made allows you to lock it down. And you can use a very simple or a very complicated password with your phone right now. And that way it's impossible for somebody to easily get access to the phone itself.

The trouble is, it's inconvenient to do it so most of us don't bother, but it's a very simple way to protect yourself and anybody can do it now.

MALVEAUX: Yes. Brian Todd he was saying, like change your password like you change your toothbrush, every couple of months or so. I hadn't really thought about it that way, but I guess it's a good way of remembering.

What about protecting your information that's online?

ABELL: Well, you're kind of depending on the kind of depending on the kindness of strangers here. And you can just look back to the news archives of the past few weeks to see the things -- companies get hacked all the time. Sometimes information that is accessed isn't terribly important, e-mail addresses and things like that. Sometimes it's credit card numbers, but that complete ecosystem information so that it can't be used.

There's nothing you can do except to deal with companies whose security policies are good and solid and to not share information with companies any more than you have to. That's it.

MALVEAUX: Wow. OK. And you know, we've been focusing a lot on celebrities, politicians who've fallen prey to hackers.

Is there any real reason for everyday folks like us to be worried about being hacked?

ABELL: Yes. The News Corp scandal only became catastrophic when it was revealed that so-called normal people were being targeted, victims of crimes and things like that. Nobody seemed to care too much when Hugh Grant's phone was hacked or this wasn't a Murdoch thing. But, you know, Paris Hilton's texts and things like that.

We're amused by this sort of thing. We buy newspapers that report on it. But now it's personal. So, yes. Anybody's information that's out there someplace is accessible by determined, smart people that want to get at it and there are lots of that.

MALVEAUX: All right. John Abell. Thank you so much. We appreciate your good advice there and the good warnings, as well.

Some of our stories our affiliates are covering across the country.

Two men, including a well-known historian charged with stealing millions of dollars in presidential documents from the Maryland Historical Society. Employees say they noticed the men acting strangely in a library, saw them pocket the documents and try to walk out the door.

Well, it is so hot in Oklahoma, concrete is buckling. Check out these pictures. Amazing pictures. This is a portion of the state's turnpike literally bent. A motorcyclist went airborne, 150 feet when he hit this section of the road.

And severe storms near Chicago ripped off roofs, knocked parked planes around in the airport, caused major power outages. Powerful wind gusts, large hail, even knocked over tractor trailers. At least three people were trapped in their cars by falling tree limbs.

Well, it is hot. It's humid. It's unbearable. I mean, the blazing heat across the country, really no joke for a lot of people. It is dangerous.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MALVEAUX: If you can't beat the heat with air conditioning like I am, you could be roasting outside. We wanted to know just how the heat affects your body.

Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen she joins us, and Elizabeth was outside and she came inside.

Gratefully, you're in the cool air conditioning now.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And it feels lovely.

MALVEAUX: Very nice in the studio, for once.

What does the heat do to your body?

COHEN: All right. I picked three areas of body to look at really what does the heat do.

Let's start with the brain. When it's hot outside, the temperature in your brain actually goes up. If you could stick a thermometer in there you'd see the mercury rising and that's why people get kind of confused sometimes when they're overheated is that they're actually, the temperature's going up.

Now, let's talk about your skin. You get extra blood to your skin. That helps your skin cool off. That's sort of your body's way of getting rid of that heat. So, more blood to your skin. And you get less blood to your GI tract because the body is saying, OK, wait a minutes, I've got to send that blood to the skin and to the vital organs. The stomach can wait. And that's why, you know sometimes when you're really hot you don't feel like eating?

MALVEAUX: Right, yes.

COHEN: It's because your stomach's not getting a lot of blood. It's just kind of -- doesn't really want to do its thing. And it's the body's way of saying food is not the most important thing right now. Your vital organs and your skin are much more important.

MALVEAUX: And does it matter what you eat? Are there foods that can help you if you're dealing with extreme heat?

COHEN: Yes. I was speaking with Michael Bergeron, who's a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine and he said try to avoid things that are hard to digest. Avoid fats, avoid proteins because that makes your gut work harder and it's not getting a lot of blood so it doesn't want to work hard. So simple carbohydrates, you know, something like pretzels or something like that, your body can digest better. And it's also OK sort of not to eat much for a period of time. Drink water. Drink tons of water. But if you don't eat for a short period of time, that's OK, too.

MALVEAUX: All right. Elizabeth, you and I are going to be inside today.

COHEN: That's right. Feels much better.

MALVEAUX: Eating.

COHEN: Right, eating all sorts of things.

MALVEAUX: We're going to join you for that eating segment, too.

COHEN: Oh, that's right. Later.

MALVEAUX: Thanks.

A reminder to vote for today's Choose the News winner. You can vote by texting 22360.

Text one to see captured Libyan soldiers reveal information from the battlefield and secrets Moammar Gadhafi doesn't want the world to know.

Text two for a new business model that focuses on hiring and training mentally challenged workers and the enormous success that it's having.

And text three to see a unique soccer league focusing on helping the homeless get back on their feet.

Winning story is going to air in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Michele Bachmann comes out on top again.

Paul Steinhauser, part of the Best Political Team on Television, live from the political vest in Washington.

Hey, Paul. What is the latest on Bachmann and the run for the White House?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Suzanne, if you need more evidence that Michele Bachmann's campaign is on the rise, here it is. Two new polls, two days in a row, today and yesterday out in Iowa, among likely caucus goers out there. And in both these polls, one today by the American Research Group, one yesterday by Iowa Republican.com, and in both of them, Michele Bachmann on the top of the pack of those running for the GOP presidential nomination.

Listen I guess you could say her campaign's been on the rise since many thought she hit a home run at our presidential debate in New Hampshire last month. But, remember, it's still seven months away from the Iowa caucuses. Things change. People change their minds. But Michele Bachmann, at least in the polls, doing very well right now, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Plenty of time until then.

STEINHAUSER: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: Now, you've got the new polls that are out over the battle raising the debt ceiling. I know the president very much caught up in whether or not that is going to happen.

What are folks saying about it?

STEINHAUSER: Yes, this is interesting, because it really shows how tough it is to get any kind of agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

Take a look at this. This is from the Pew Research Center. And you can see right here that Democrats and Republicans don't even agree on how important it is to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, Republicans, two-thirds of them in the poll say that raising the debt ceiling, they're more concerned about raising the debt ceiling and what that would mean maybe higher government spending. Only 27 percent say not raising the debt ceiling is their top concern.

Just the opposite on Democrats. Look at that. A majority of them say not raising the debt ceiling is their top concern because they believe that would lead to defaulting of the government. So Democrats and Republican definitely have different opinions here on how important it is to raise that debt ceiling by early August and the consequences, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes. That's a tough debate there.

Paul, I want you to check this out. President Obama, he's been sounding kind of like a stern father in the debate, the debt negotiations. He says it's time to take the Band-Aid off and eat your peas, and, you know, the question is whether or not power brokers are acting like kids.

Well, this is what Jay Leno said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")

JAY LENO, HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Debt ceiling and the -- you know, have you watched these people? Go to C- Span, show them arguing.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL, "DEMOCRATS": No.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY, "REPUBLICANS": I said no first.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I said no first.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I said no first.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I say no first!

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Be quiet!

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: You be quiet.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: You be quiet now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Paul, that's nothing like your kids. You know, no. Your kids are well behaved. Not fighting or anything like that, yes?

STEINHAUSER: Not at all. Not at all.

And listen, the opinion of Congress right now is pretty low and I think Jay Leno really kind of -- he hit it right on the head there with that one. That's good stuff, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: That is funny. All right. Keep us in line, Paul. Please. Keep them in line.

STEINHAUSER: We're trying. We're trying.

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We are keeping an eye on space as well. Two astronauts stepping out of the International Space Station to do some repairs. A live report on the mission.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The final spacewalk of the space shuttle is now underway. It is scheduled to last more than six hours.

CNN's John Zarrella joins us live from Miami.

John, it's great to see you again. Tell us what the two spacewalking astronauts are up to. What are they doing?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Suzanne.

Well, they're about three hours into the spacewalk. And we can see in this live picture from space -- what a great shot that is? That's the -- that's the back of the space shuttle, and you have one astronaut there, Ron Garan, on the end of the arm of the robotic arm from the space station, and the other astronaut there, Mike Fossum, to the left.

And what they're doing is they are installing into the cargo bay an ammonia pump that failed a year ago and has been replaced. That ammonia pump was part ever the space station's cooling system. So it was a vital piece of equipment that had to be replaced and repaired.

This one had been stowed outside of the space station, and now it's been moved into the space shuttle. It's just a piece of junk now that they're going to bring back to Earth, but that is some fantastic shot there of the two astronauts.

Now, which one is upside down? I guess in space it doesn't matter?

MALVEAUX: Yes. I can't even tell.

John, is it kind of a routine thing they're doing, or is this exceptionally difficult or hard, challenging for these guys?

ZARRELLA: You know, there's no spacewalk that's routine. The astronauts also have tethers that they have to attach to the inside of the cargo bay there so if anything did happen, they wouldn't float away. They have also got these safer suits, that they call them, which are backpacks that if something happened and the tether broke and they actually floated off, they could use these jet backpacks to get back to safety.

So this is the 160th spacewalk from the space station for either space station repairs or space station construction. So it's the 160th time astronauts have ventured out there in the last 10 years or so in construction of the space station or repairs.

So again, another three hours to go in this spacewalk, Suzanne, but it's always high drama and just spectacular to be able to see these images from about 240 miles up -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: John, you've seen just about all of them, but I don't suppose it gets tiring. I mean, there is a sense of drama and some anticipation, if you will, about what's going to happen and whether or not they will be successful in one of these missions, yes?

ZARRELLA: Yes. It's always interesting, I know on the Hubble repair missions there were some incidents where they had trouble removing the bolts and they had to break off a bolt to get something moved.

So they don't always go the way they are planned. And in fact, when they were moving this piece of junk, this ammonia pump from where it had been berthed, they had some initial problems getting it out of its berthing mechanism.

So it's always something that they've got to deal with and they are fascinating to watch. Even though they've practiced for probably two years on what they're going to do on this spacewalk, you know, it's never simple.

MALVEAUX: Wow. That is amazing. Two years to practice for what they're doing right now. Unbelievable. We'll be keeping a close eye on it, John. Thanks for everything.

ZARRELLA: Yes.

MALVEAUX: Rupert Murdoch is being called on for some explanations by the British Parliament in a media scandal that has the whole world now talking. We get the latest word from a lawyer in the U.K. about what's in store for the head of News Corp.

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The winning story is going to air in the next hour.

Allegations of hacking are sending one of the world's biggest media companies reeling. Now media baron Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp, is being called by British lawmakers to explain a rash of allegations that his reporters were hacking into the personal information of everyone from former prime ministers to the queen of England.

Mark Stephens, he's a lawyer in the U.K. specializing in media law. Mark, thanks for joining us.

Tuesday, Murdoch, his son, Rebecca Brooks, she's the former editor of "News of the World," they're all going to stand before parliament. Could they face criminal charges for the behavior of those that were employed at the papers?

MARK STEPHENS, MEDIA LAWYER: Well, I think that we have to draw a distinction between Rupert Murdoch himself as the chairman of this organization, there is absolutely nothing, not one scintilla of evidence which has yet pointed in his direction, but the same cannot be said for his acolytes, his son and Rebecca Brooks and indeed, further down the chain, people like Andy Coulson, who was the prime minister, David Cameron's, spokesman for awhile.

And in those circumstances, I think those people are in for some very uncomfortable questioning, not only by parliament but also by her majesty's constabulary. I think the police are going to call on them, I think they are going to be interviewed about the allegations that have been made.

And only then once all the evidence is in will a be a decision made as to whether or not they have got to face the music.

MALVEAUX: And why do you say that? What kind of evidence would have to surface for any one of them to be personally implicated here?

STEPHENS: Well, I think that what's going to happen is that they are going to follow the money. The suggestion is that some of these officers who paid -- the policemen who were paid by News International were paid by check, and therefore there is a financial trail which is indelible, really, and as a result of that, that can be traced.

Also, that there are internal e-mails and that will tell who knew what and when. And I think if people knew and didn't do anything about it, then there are real serious questions to be asked, particularly if that kind of misbehavior continued after senior executives knew about it.

MALVEAUX: And, Mark, when we look at the law, U.K. law, U.S. law and the FCC, Federal Communications Commission here, what -- what -- could Murdoch actually face criminal charges in the United States if there was anything, any kind of hacking that was going on at one of his American publications? STEPHENS: Well, I think that if he knew about it personally and authorized it or approved it, then yes. But I don't think there's any evidence to that effect at all.

I think there are questions about this area which, whether his son James knew or approved either after the event or at the time, and I think the police will ask him about those kinds of questions.

Now, for James Murdoch, that presents a very serious question. Of course, news international, American corporation, and of course, the foreign corrupt practices act comes into play. If it can be shown that anyone at news international who is an American citizen was involved in the corrupting or paying of bribes or authorizing of the paying of bribes to foreign officials, and of course, that includes English policemen, then in those circumstances, that could get really serious indeed and of course, could strike at the very heart of the Murdoch empire.

MALVEAUX: All right. Mark Stephens, thank you very much for your insights. Appreciate it.

STEPHENS: Thank you.