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Parts of Vermont Still Reeling From Floods; Venus Williams Withdraws From U.S. Open Due to Medical Reasons; Study Shows WWII U.S. Researchers Infected Guatemalans With STDs; Moammar Gadhafi Releases Audio Recording; The Help Desk; Talk Back Question; Comic Book Reboot

Aired September 01, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed.

First, video that you have just got to see.

(GUNFIRE)

MALVEAUX: Where is this? This is violence on the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, today. Ethnic Kurds, they were holding a peaceful rally. Dozens of young men, however, en masse apparently hijacked that rally. This set off a confrontation with police. Kurds are a minority in Turkey, and they've been out on the streets protesting because many are angry that the Turkish military has been attacking their villages.

Crew say that they've got that big wildfire in Texas about 50 percent contained today. They are battling gusty winds, bone-dry conditions. So far, 39 homes have burned. A lot of people forced out of their houses, but some evacuation orders have now been lifted today. Texas is dealing with an extreme drought and temperatures now above 100 degrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A single spark from a chain hanging behind a truck or something can start this whole cycle all over again. Until there is meaningful amounts of rain, not just a shower or two, they're going to have these conditions. And that's why we are seeing these fires across Texas and all the way up into the Oklahoma City area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: A wildfire burning in Oklahoma City is trying to push into the suburb of Edmond. Crews thought they had the fire knocked down after it burned several homes, but the winds whipped it up again.

August was a momentous month for American troops in Iraq. If you can believe this, not a single American died in Iraq last month. That is the first month since that has happened since the U.S. invaded the country back in 2003.

Well, it is quite the opposite in Afghanistan. A record 66 American troops lost their lives in that war last month.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she is in Paris today. She's meeting with U.S. friends about helping the new Libya. There's some 60 countries that are represented, and the diplomats, they're focusing on ways to set up a democratic government, as well as ways to rebuild this country, Libya, after its civil war.

Well, Algeria is saying don't look at us. Moammar Gadhafi, he's not here. Several Gadhafi family members have turned up recently in Algeria. Well, just the last hour, a television station friendly to Gadhafi aired a message that it said was from Gadhafi himself. It gave no hints about where he was.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): We're not going to give way or give up ourselves to them. We're not stupid. We are not cowards.

The Libyan people are blessed (ph). They will have themselves. The Libyans will govern themselves by themselves, and they are free people.

We have sacrificed and we've become martyrs. Yes, people will die.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Libyan rebels who have Gadhafi forces surrounded in his hometown, Sirte, had given fighters until Saturday to surrender. Well, they now extended that deadline by a week to September 10th.

Tennis pro Venice Williams is now dropping out of the U.S. Open after playing just one match. Williams says that she has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain. She's won seven Grand Slams, but Williams hasn't made it to a U.S. Open final since 2002.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VENUS WILLIAMS, TENNIS PLAYER: I lost a lot of feel. Like, I would miss shots by feet, and I just couldn't feel my hands, and my hands would hurt when I was playing. And I had swelling and numbness, and then fatigue, which is really debilitating.

I just didn't have any energy. And it's not that you don't have energy, you just feel beat up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We wish the very best for Venus.

Well, maybe some engineers at Apple should swear off happy hour. An iPhone 5 turned up at a tequila bar near San Francisco a month before it goes on sale. At least that is what the story is. Right? It sounds familiar? Well, the same thing happened last year, before the iPhone 4 came out. A lot of tech blogger a little suspicious. They think Apple might be trying to whip up some publicity. If that's the case, it has worked.

We've got some heartbreaking pictures out of Vermont. Just look at these pictures.

You are looking at houses ripped apart by floodwaters from Hurricane Irene earlier this week. Now, that storm tore up roads, about a dozen towns, leaving these communities essentially cut off from everything else. And the National Guard now is dropping supplies from helicopters.

You've got emergency workers. They're trying to get to people now that most of those roads have temporarily been repaired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A staircase collapsed over me, but the bookcase underneath made a bridge, and just all the rubble fell around me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I was really frightened at that point, and I said, "Get out of the house, it's going to go."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're cut off. There is none of our usual connections to the outside world. It's gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Another storm. Well, it's to soon to say whether Katia is going to add to damage left by Irene. This tropical storm grew into a hurricane, with 75-mile-an-hour winds, and forecasters hope that a cold front that's on the way is going to act like a barrier, keep Katia away from the United States.

Floodwaters left by Irene are going down just a little bit, but as this water recedes, people are just beginning to come to grips with the extent of this damage. This is Prattsville, New York. They are not just coping with the loss of homes and businesses, but really the way they remember their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN O'HARA, FMR. PRATTSVILLE RESIDENT: This is where my father and family business for five generations has been. My nephews at the time were running this. It withstood 18 floods. Obviously it didn't this time.

My family grew up across the street. Five generations also lived there.

There is major devastation throughout the house. I don't know if the house will be saved. The walls are, of course, saturated. And then, of course, you get the black mold. This is the gas station at that time looking from the house. That's one of my relatives standing right there. Of course you see the river in the back. That is 1933.

It wiped out not only my father's -- my family's gas station business, but many, many families in this town are homeless that have been -- lived here their whole lives and had businesses here.

KORY O'HARA, FMR. PRATTSVILLE RESIDENT: We have nothing left. There is absolutely nothing there but concrete. A concrete slab.

We want to rebuild. As you can see, the land where we can rebuild is just not there. We have no land to put our business on. It's gone.

MATT CANGELOSI, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: All these trailers here came from the trailer park, Prattsville Trailer Park, which is a good quarter mile to a half a mile east. So all these trailers that you see here floated down from all the way over there down to here, caught in the trees, and were just breaking apart.

PATRICIA CROSS, PRATTSVILLE RESIDENT: We have had flooding before, but nothing like this. Nothing. This is devastation.

My home is up by O'Hara's, the gas station. That's gone. And it was up there, and it's traveled probably a half a mile.

I have no idea what I'm going to do. This has been my home since 1969. I have been here, like I said, 71 years. I cried. What do you do?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Carol Costello, she's joining us from New York.

Carol, another ugly dustup in Washington between the president and Congress. Not over the economy, jobs. Over-scheduling conflict? Come on. I mean, come on.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. The president's big speech will now take place on September 8th instead of September 7th.

But Suzanne, President Obama's jobs plan is not exactly off to a fantastic start. The president has already had to postpone the unveiling of his plan by 24 hours to avoid a clash with Republicans.

As a "Washington Post" op-ed put it, "This spat sums up so well the images problems that Obama has faced since the start of his term. If the White House has spent months working to appear above the fray -- as they insist they have -- then pulling a blatantly partisan stunt like this torpedoes all of that PR work."

And don't think the Republicans running for president didn't pile on.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, does this show maybe a little insecurity on the part of the president? Either, A, he wants to distract the American people so they don't watch him, or, B, he doesn't want the American people to hear what the next president of the United States is going to say about the president's job plan.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Whether you think that's fair or not, it may resonate more than a statement from the White House saying, "The president is welcoming the opportunity to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday so our nation's leaders can focus 100 percent of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people."

Yawn.

Obama's critics say he may want to look Congress in the eye and challenge them on jobs, but any dream of bipartisanship is just naive. "The Daily Beast" called the president "The wimp in the White House" for expecting Republicans to compromise.

"The Daily Beast" says, "The plan can be bold, the plan can be modest. The point is that he has to fight for it like hell, but he won't. Please, Mr. President, you're the guy who ran on change. Well, change."

So the "Talk Back" today: How can Obama end the partisan bickering?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.

MALVEAUX: Carol, it seems like an awfully tall order. I would think everybody has got to be involved in get rid of the partisan bickering. The president alone can't do it, yes?

COSTELLO: Well, I think that many voters just want to hear a plan, some plan, and they want it to be put boldly in that joint session of Congress. And then, maybe they want the president really to look Congress in the eye and say something tough, meaningful, something that will put the country back on track.

MALVEAUX: Presidential. Presidential, yes?

COSTELLO: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Carol.

Well, be sure to put this on your political radar. Republican presidential contenders meet in a debate cosponsored by CNN, the Tea Party Express, and Tea Party groups representing every state in the nation. That is coming up September 12th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, live from Tampa, Florida

(NEWSBREAK) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're now giving you a chance to "Choose the News." Text "22360" to vote for the story that you'd like to see in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

Number one, imagine hearing "Stairway to Heaven" sung by a Mongolian throat singer. An ancient art form getting a pop culture makeover. We're going to listen in.

And number two, no time to plan a date with your significant other? Well, now there's a Web site that's going to do it for you. It's a new spin on online dating for couples.

Or number three, attention nerds, or folks like me. Imagine a world where Clark Kent has never met Lois Lane or where Batman doesn't even drive a Batmobile. Anything is possible, because DC Comics is starting their superhero storylines over, from scratch.

You can vote by texting "22360." Text "1" for "Throat Singing Goes Pop"; "2" for "Online Date Night for Couples"; or "3"for "Rebooting Comic Books." The winning story is going to air later this hour.

Along the East Coast, 1.5 million folks are still without power after Hurricane Irene. This weekend, President Obama plans to tour Paterson, New Jersey, which was hit really hard.

Vermont is another state coping with a lot of flooding. Entire towns there are still cut off.

Here is more on the damage from CNN's Amber Lyon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN RANSLOW, RESIDENT: We can handle snow. Not this much water all at once.

AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten-foot-high floodwaters poured through Eileen Ranslow's 40-year-old flooring business.

RANSLOW: Oh, it's devastating. It's devastating. You know?

LYON: Eileen's family business once made $1 million a year, she says. But revenue dwindled by three-quarters in the economic downturn. Now, this family says they are facing at least $300,000 in damages. They don't have flood insurance, and they are not alone.

RANSLOW: Had a little cry and then just say, "OK. OK." This was Sunday night, before they even let us into town to kind. We kind of snuck in and came in, and it was just, you know, in shock. We are still in shock.

LYON: Mud covers the clothes at this consignment shop, but these two won't be covered by insurance. (on camera): What are these are Gucci pants right over here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gucci pants.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gucci leather pants.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were like butter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Butter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now they are like mud.

LYON (voice-over): But some things can't be replaced.

(on camera): This is Anne Coleman, and she's a local artist. And her entire studio filled with originals was just washed away by the waters.

ANNE COLEMAN, LOCAL ARTIST: When I first realized it was gone, I was -- I just couldn't believe it. It's like, it was gone.

LYON (voice-over): Thirty of her original paintings went downstream with the gallery.

COLEMAN: So I think the one that got me the most is a piece I did in 1978 of my grandma's house. And it was incredible. This watercolor, I did it when I was recovering from a broken neck.

LYON: Pile after pile of once valuable goods, but floodwaters haven't washed away Wilmington's sense of community.

SARAH BOISBERT, RESIDENT: You can't just sit around. You have to get up and do something. I mean, there's no other -- you just have to.

LYON (on camera): Who are these volunteers?

RANSLOW: They are just people. Like the gal yesterday said, they are neighbors. And in Vermont, we are all neighbors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: All neighbors there.

Amber Lyon is with us from Wilmington, Vermont.

Tell us about how the folks there are coping. You talked to a lot of those folks there. What are we seeing now?

LYON: Well, we are seeing people being start to be a little more mobile. More of the roads are opening up, and that's making people feel a little less isolated and more at ease.

And the reason it's taken so long for construction crews to open up some of these roads, Suzanne, is they are not just dealing with debris lying on the top of the road, they're dealing with floodwaters that came through here, like right through the entrance to town, and just washed away the foundation of the road, compromising the structural integrity. In fact, this piece of road up to that cone is deemed unsafe.

Also, construction crews out here are really on a countdown, because in order to lie this asphalt all across the state -- we had more than 250 roads flooded here in Vermont -- they have to have this down by November, otherwise it's too cold to do so. So I just spoke with transportation officials. They say they are working as quickly as they can, pulling out all their resources to at least get these roads built up enough that people can drive over them, back and forth, and leave these communities, because we have been talking about all week 20 communities here in Vermont were at one point were isolated.

That meant the people living inside could not get out because bridges like this one right here and other roads were damaged leading in and out of town. And now 13 communities, the roads are open, but only to emergency vehicles. The residents still are not allowed to drive in and out.

And right here, if I can have you pan over to the police officers, although this bridge leading into Wilmington is open, the only people getting in and out are residents, emergency crews, and people assisting in cleanup efforts. There is still not easy ways to access these towns, and that's happening in over 20 communities across the state of Vermont.

And that's because we had a flash flood here. We're not talking about these people having time to prepare.

Here, at Dot's (ph) Restaurant, you see that tin roof. Within eight hours, this river rose up all the way to the height of that roof and cane and flooded all across here. And the rising happened instantly, and then it fell down, and it all swept in town within an eight-hour time span.

A lot of people didn't have time to get their belongings out of their businesses, out of their homes. And as you saw in that story, some of them unfortunately did not have flood insurance -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We wish them the very best.

Thank you, Amber, for giving us a pretty good look at what they are facing there.

Venus Williams withdraws from the U.S. Open. She says she is too sick to continue playing. We're going to have the latest on her condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Venus Williams is pulling out of the U.S. Open. The tennis star says that she has been diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder Sjogren's Syndrome and cannot continue.

This morning, she talked about what it was like for her on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: I lost a lot of feel. Like, I would miss shots by feet, and I just couldn't feel my hands, and my hands would hurt when I was playing. And I had swelling and numbness, and then fatigue, which is really debilitating.

I just didn't have any energy. And it's not that you don't have energy, you just feel beat up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain what this is about.

You know, we heard the news. It was really so disappointing for her. You know? I mean, she is obviously struggling with this.

How debilitating is this disease? Could she still play tennis?

COHEN: You know, it's really hard to tell, Suzanne. And the reason why is that people are affected by this disease in different ways.

We talked to folks from the Sjogren's Foundation, and they said, look, some of our patients run marathons. Other patients are really quite debilitated because there is an autoimmune disease. So, your immune system, which is so good at protecting you from outside invaders, turns on itself and it basically thinks you're an outside insider.

So, some folks, their kidneys are affected, their pancreas, their lungs. And it really makes it hard to, you know, be really fit.

Obviously, she is fit and she's an athlete. So there's kind of two questions.

One, can she continue to, you know, be an athlete at all? And two, can she continue to operate at that incredibly high level that she has been operating at?

MALVEAUX: And she says she was feeling ill for years now. Why did it take so long to actually make the diagnosis, to figure this out, what was going on with her body?

COHEN: Right. Actually, she talked about that on "Good Morning America." Let's actually listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: I think I've had issues with Sjogren's for a while. It just wasn't diagnosed. And I was diagnosed this summer, a few weeks ago, actually, and I have been struggling this summer. And I came to learn that it takes an average of six-and-a-half years for people to get diagnosed. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Really?

COHEN: I know, six-and-a-half years. And the reason why is that you really have to be an empowered patient with a disease like this. And I'll show you the symptoms and I think you'll see why.

So the symptoms are a dry mouth, dry eyes, fatigue, joint pain, things like that. All of us have probably felt that in sometime in our life or another. So you go to your doctor with these things and they go, oh, it could be a whole bunch of things.

MALVEAUX: Right.

COHEN: And so what you have to do is, if you are feeling those symptoms, and if you feel like something is not quite right, go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient. You can read more about the disease. And go to your doctor and say, is this a possibility? Could I have this disease?

MALVEAUX: So what actually causes this disease? Does it run in families? I mean, is Serena at risk potentially of getting this as well?

COHEN: There is what doctors call a genetic component, which is a fancy way of saying that your genes might have something to do with it. But it might not be your genes. Maybe it's something about your hormones. I mean, they really don't know.

So, is her sister at higher risk? Maybe, maybe slightly higher, maybe not. Genes have something to do with it, but it's not everything.

MALVEAUX: All right. Well, we wish Venus the best.

COHEN: Yes, absolutely.

MALVEAUX: We really do.

Thank you, Elizabeth. Appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: CNN reporters, anchors, producers, we cover stories around the world. It means we also get some great tips on the best restaurants, hotels, even some travel spots.

In this week's "Travel Outsider," producer Karen Waygood (ph) and photojournalist Jim Gilson (ph), they take a free concert in Michigan's Oscoda Beach Park on beautiful Lake Huron.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On behalf of our Oscoda Rotary Club, we'd like to thank you for coming down tonight. Tonight we have the Sunshine String Band all the way from Midland County.

ED "CROSSCUT" LARSON, MUSICIAN: I bought a little Regal mandolin when I came home from Korea. It was a nice little mandolin, and a buddy sat on it when we were out drinking and playing. And so I saved the neck out of it and then I rebuilt the body for it.

Well, that was back 45 years ago. I built this body and I rebuilt it and rebuilt it. But it's one of these easiest playing instruments I have ever had. And I've had a mandolin since I was about 12. And so I'm 83. I play mandolin, guitar, banjo, harmonica. Whatever is left over I try to play.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like this song.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You better watch it. It's a very dangerous instrument. It cut off three legs already.

(MUSIC)

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crosscut Larson, thank you for that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: I want to go beyond the headlines. This is a very disturbing story, but it happens. Scientist working for the U.S. government secretly gave people sexually transmitted diseases as part of a study. It happened during the 1940s after World War II. At least 5,500 people in Guatemala, including prisoners, mental patients and children were experimented on. 1,300 of those who were exposed to STDs, including syphilis and gonorrhea.

Eighty-three people died during those experiments. And the goal of the research was to determine whether taking penicillin after sex protects against those sexually transmitted diseases. It was a medical priority at the time, especially in the military.

Well, last fall, President Obama ordered a review of what happened. And now that panel has come out with this report.

Joining us is the head of that panel, the presidential commission for the study of bioethical issues. Amy Gutmann is also the president of the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor, first of all, you know, explain to us what your panel has learned about this, perhaps even the most disturbing information about what your panel discovered.

AMY GUTMANN, PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION FOR STUDY OF BIOETHICAL ISSUES: A group of medical researchers, doctors and scientists working for the American government between 1946 and 1948 treated their fellow human beings in a way that can only be characterized as egregious and shocking. There were gross violations of human rights. They did not obtain the consent from any of the people they were using for research in Guatemala. And those people, included some of the most vulnerable populations in Guatemala -- mental patients, soldiers, children.

MALVEAUX: How did they infect them?

GUTMANN: They infected them in a variety of ways. They infected some of them using commercial sex workers who they also infected with syphilis or gonorrhea. They, in one case is so graphic that it's hard to actually speak about it. But one woman who was a mental hospital patient, they inoculated in her arm syphilis, and when she developed symptoms, Dr. Cutler wrote in his journal that it looked like she was dying and then they injected gonorrheal pus in both her eyes and her urethra, in her rectum, and she did die shortly thereafter.

This happened over many months' period. And they never treated her.

MALVEAUX: This is just horrific when you hear stories like that. But we know this is really not the first time something terrible like this has happened. The Tuskegee Experiment with African-Americans, that happened many years ago. And I understand that how they ended up discovering the case -- this Guatemala case, was during the research of the Tuskegee Experiment, is that right?

GUTMANN: Yes. Susan Reverby (ph), who was doing research on Tuskegee, discovered some documents. The presidential commission has subsequently combed through over 125,000 pages of documents. And she discovered that the same -- some of the same researchers who were involved in Tuskegee, which was not an inoculation study. What happened in Tuskegee was a group of African-American men were known to have syphilis and were not treated.

In this case, this group of researcher actively inoculation people, and did not obtain their consent. And earlier in an experiment in Terre Haute, Indiana they took pains, they knew that they did have to ethically and legally obtain informed consent and yet went to Guatemala and they didn't do so.

MALVEAUX: All right. Professor, very disturbing information. Thank you for bringing it to us. And obviously this panel meant to prevent this kind of thing from happening again by exposing the ugliness of history and what our government has been capable of doing to make sure that that really never comes to light in the future.

Thanks again, Professor.

GUTMANN: Thank you. Thank you very much.

MALVEAUX: Fugitive Libyan dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, he has a message to tell the Libyan people.

Plus, a Paris meeting is looking at beyond Gadhafi, at the new Libya. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Libyan rebels on the move and on the hunt for Moammar Gadhafi, a message said to be from Gadhafi himself surfaced today. But the big question is where is he?

We're going to focus on that. Also a meeting going on in Paris planning for the future of Libya. Our CNN senior state department producer Elise Labott, she is at the Paris meeting. And senior national correspondent Dan Rivers, he is in Tripoli.

We want to start -- representatives from about 60 countries and rebel leaders are trying to determine where Libya goes from here. Let's bring in our own Elise Labott. What are the goals for this meeting out of Paris?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, it's a couple of things. It is really a way to mark Libya's reentry into the international community. And Mustafa Jalil and Mahmoud Jibril they are walking through that Alize (ph) meeting by President Sarcoz. Really a powerful moment that shows Libyan NTC is really in charge now.

So what they want to do hear from the Libyans exazctly what they are going to need in terms of reconstruction, in terms of moving the country forward and they want to make sure that they are paying attention to human rights, transitional justice, no retribution against Gadhafi loyalists, things like that. They are going to be talking right now, Secretary Clinton should be speaking momentarily about a U.N. mission, how can the U.N. get on the ground as soon as possible and help move the country towards elections, help with economic recovery.

As we have been reporting, the economy is really devastated. There is so many services that are needed. So they are really hoping the United Nations can serve as an international coordinator for that aid, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Elise.

A man claiming to be Moammar Gadhafi today urged Libyans to keep fighting and not to surrender to rebel forces. Now this is an audio. It didn't give any answers to the question that so many people are asking -- where is he? Where is Gadhafi?

So let's bring in our Dan Rivers out of Tripoli. Dan, what do we know more about this particular message?

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was broadcast on a station that comes out of Damascus in Syria that is loyal to Colonel Gadhafi. We don't know where he was when it was broadcast. We assume it's him. It sounds like him. It's the kind of rhetoric he comes up with full of phrases like we're not cowards, we will fight. They will give up and surrender, referring to the rebels. We will attack them, confuse them. We will not give up to the traitors and so on and so forth. So all the kind of same rhetoric that we've heard all along the last broadcast I think was on the 25th of August. Nothing new here. The timing, though, was really interesting, almost exactly the same time as that meeting was going on in Paris, suddenly up pops this message from Colonel Gadhafi, broadcasting to his loyalists and urging them to fight on.

MALVEAUX: And Dan there was another reported claim by the rebels that they had cornered Gadhafi. Do we have anything new on that?

RIVERS: I think we have to be really cautious with these claims from the rebels. There have been a number of claims, you know, about them having captured different members of the Gadhafi family or think they have them in different parts of the city. This latest one concerns Bani Whalid (ph), a town to the southeast of here. They are around that town now, but there is no more suggestion that they were there -- there was some suggestion that a convoy may have left from there to go to Algeria with his family. But frankly, I don't think anybody really knows. And I think the rebels keep on putting out these stories that they're having caught him in one place or another. And none of those claims have been born out to be true.

They claim they had Saif al Islam, one of his sons in custody. That turned out not to be true as well.

So I think we have to treat them pretty cautiously.

MALVEAUX: And Dan, Algeria, I guess they are saying that here's not there, but we did know that other Gadhafi family members were in Algeria. Are they still in Algeria, his sons and daughter?

RIVERS: Yeah, they are. We're told his daughter, for example, Isha (ph) gave birth to a baby there just after she crossed over. One of his other sons, Hannibal and Muhammad are also there, as is his wife Safia (ph).

So a large percentage of the Gadhafi sort of clan there, the family there, but they haven't specified whether he is there or not. And that of course is the big question, is he still in Libya or has he gone abroad?

MALVEAUX: That's the big question. Dan Rivers out of Tripoli, thank you.

Well, a school close to the epicenter of last month's quake suffers millions of dollars in damage. We're going to show you more of this frightening video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Time to go cross-country for stories CNN affiliates are covering.

A winter storm off the coast of New Zealand is generating dangerous waves and high surf warnings across the Pacific. Experienced surfers in Hawaii, yep, enjoyed eight to 12 foot swells. That happened yesterday. But lifeguards, they had to help hundreds of people out of the water. Waves up to 11 feet are expected today and tomorrow along southern California beaches.

Well, a surveillance camera captures the moment that a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Virginia last month. This is what it looked like inside Louisa County High School. Pretty close to the quake's epicenter. The school suffered so much damage that engineers are really trying to decide if they can even fix it.

We're going to go back to California now for kind of a creepy way to raise money. Folks dressing up like zombies, staggering down the street to help out a local food bank. It is San Jose's third annual Zombie-O-Rama, they call it. Interesting.

Our "Talk Back" question of the day, how can President Obama end the partisan bickering? We're going to read through some of your responses.

But first, here's some free money advice from the CNN "Help Desk."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Well, time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers for your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, the founder of the financial advice blog askthemoneycoach.com, and Stacy Francis. She's a certified financial planner and president of Francis Financial.

First question goes to you, Stacy. This comes from George in Arkansas. He's wonder -- he's going to cancel a credit card with an annual fee and then he's going to apply for a new one with no fee, but he wants to know if this is going to affect his credit score.

STACY FRANCIS, PRESIDENT, FRANCIS FINANCIAL: Well, he has a reason to be concerned because, yes, it will affect your credit score. It will have a short term reduction in your credit score.

It still may be worth it to go ahead and do that. You're saving $59. Money is tight. But most importantly, he should only do it as long as he's not going to be applying for a job, getting insurance, taking out any loans, maybe a mortgage. In that case, guess what, don't do it.

HARLOW: Think about what's ahead that you need a good credit score for.

FRANCIS: Exactly.

HARLOW: Lynnette, your question comes from Bob. Bob wrote in that he's changing jobs and the new employer that he's going to work for doesn't offer a 401(k). He's wondering how he can reduce his taxable earnings.

LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: Well, one way -- one option for him to still reduce his taxable earnings is to contribute to an individual retirement account, or an IRA. Under current law, he can, depending on his age, contribute up to $5,000 a year or $6,000 if he's 50 or older, and that is a way to reduce his taxable earnings.

HARLOW: OK. Good point. Thanks, guys, appreciate it.

If you've got a question that you want answered, please just send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: You're been weighing in on our "Talk Back" question of the day, how can President Obama end the partisan bickering? Carol Costello, she joins us from New York.

So, any of our viewers have a solution for all this government gridlock, Carol?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of them do.

MALVEAUX: OK.

COSTELLO: So let's repeat that question, shall we. How can President Obama end the partisan bickering?

This from Bonnie. "He could stop behaving like a child. He knew about the debate. He scheduled his speech anyway. How do you spin that as the Republican's fault? I want to hear both the debate and his speech. I'm glad he stopped pouting and made that possible."

This from Kristina. "Bipartisanship is a farce. Unfortunately, the president keeps giving in to a petulant GOP. He has gone way beyond extending the hand of bipartisanship. The GOP has cut off his hand, his arm, and as we all know, has been aiming for the jugular since the beginning. Quit giving in to the GOP."

(INAUDIBLE)

"Talk just do it. We've had to many speeches and not enough action."

And this from Courtney. "Obama should dissolve the Senate and the House and declare himself emperor. Kind of like the emperor in 'Star Wars'."

Although, Suzanne, I think maybe Darth Vader would work better, but then some say we already experienced a Darth Vader in government.

MALVEAUX: We like our democracy. We don't want an emperor. All right, thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Well, you told us what you wanted to see. Your "Choose The News" story just moments away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: You told us what you wanted to see. We're listening. Here's your "Choose The News" winner. It's a totally fresh start for your favorite superheroes. Felicia Taylor tells us it is rocking the world of comic book fans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm in midtown Manhattan where there are many fans that have been lining up since about 11:00 on Tuesday morning for the release at midnight, August 31st, of this comic book. I happened to get my hands on one. But what's important is that it's also going on the web. And that's going to attract a whole new line of readers for the Justice League and other comic books by DC Comics. It's a multi $100 million business that's just about to expand.

I'm with a real comic book fan. He's going to such lengths that he's actually tattoo himself all over with different characters.

How many do you have?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About nine tattoos.

TAYLOR: Nine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Right here's Batman. And I got the Cat Woman down here.

TAYLOR: Oh, that's my favorite. I like the Cat Woman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I got the ninja turtles on my legs.

TAYLOR: Tell me how long you've been out here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband and I arrived around noon today.

TAYLOR: And you're going to stay here until midnight tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: we are, yes.

TAYLOR: Why are you such avid fans of comic books?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't say that I'm a fan, but my husband is a huge DC Comics fan, and especially Jim Lee, and he needed a companion to run and get his food and like relieve him. So --

TAYLOR: Oh, well you're the gopher?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of been, yes.

CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, EDITOR-WRITER, COMICSALLIANCE.COM: This is huge. Comics readership has been going down. People aren't buying comics as much. They've been jumping off because they're not happy with the story or because they've been digitally pirating comics. So this is -- this is do or die. This is either change or the industry could collapse.

TAYLOR: It's large comic book stores, just like this one, that have been on the decline over the last few years, with only about 2,000 left across the entire United States. And it's that lost audience, in addition to the new audience, that DC Comics is hoping to capture on the web.

JIM LEE, CO-PUBLISHER, DC COMICS: Well, it's the first book of a huge initiative that we're doing in September, right. So it's 52 books that we're relaunching, renumbering with new costumes, new storylines.

TAYLOR: Do you think this is going to revolutionize the comic book industry?

LEE: It works. Yes --

TAYLOR: Well, but this is (INAUDIBLE) what it is.

LEE: Yes. Well, I think it definitely is going to change things. It's a game changer because not only are we changing the content, but we're also changing some of the delivery. We're doing digital day and dates. So that means you can download this comic book digitally the same day you can go into a shop and buy it in print. So that's a big change for us because it allows us to tap into new markets, hopefully find new readers.

We want the comic books to really reflect the society we live. So we have lesbian characters, we have other gay characters that are members of a team called Storm Watch. We have a lot of different ethnicities. So we're really trying to mix things up and keep things as fresh and modern as possible.

TAYLOR: So if you were to draw me as a superhero, what would it looks like?

LEE: Oh, yes, well, it would be on the spot woman, right? So, right? That would be her power.

TAYLOR: That would be my power, yes.

Felicia Taylor, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: For more on this story and all things nerdy, check out cnn.com/geekout. And if your choice didn't win or you just want to check out the runners up, I'm going to have links to them on my page at facebook.com/suzannecnn.

Well, CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.

Hey, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne.