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Massacre In Syria; Pope's Butler Arrested; Storms Hit On Memorial Day Weekend; Wildfire Scorches Parts Of Michigan; Fire Shuts Down Traffic Near Disney; Atty: Patz Murder Suspect Troubled; Mother Of Abandoned Kids Found; Egypt Likely To Face Runoff Election; Hidden Benefits For Veterans; Gadgets From Military to Mainstream; Remembering Fallen Soldiers; Burn Victim Graduates With MBA; Travel to WWII Battle Sites; What's a Bunga Bunga Girl to Wear?
Aired May 26, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield here in Atlanta. First to some breaking news out of Syria now, where U.N. observers are confirming reports of a massacre in the town of Houla. Dozens of people killed, including 32 children younger than 10-years- old. This video is said to be from Houla. Rows of bodies from this tragic attack blamed on government forces. Mohammed Jamjoom joining me right now by phone from Beirut, Lebanon, with more on this. Mohammed?
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, opposition activists we're speaking with in Syria today are begging the international community for help, for intervention because of what they're calling this massacre that happened yesterday. They say that first the town of Hula in Homs Province was shelled by mortars from the Syrian regime and then after that was done that pro-regime militias went into the town and started indiscriminately slaughtering men, women and children, entire families.
The video that we've seen today, extremely gruesome. We can't authenticate those videos, but they purport to show the bodies of children and women in sheets. You see horrible images, children with their heads bashed in.
Right now, the U.N. monitoring team that's in Syria is in the town. They are going there. They are checking out what happened because of the reports of the massacre that's gone on now.
Earlier in the day, General Robert Hood, he is the head of the U.N. mission in Syria. He was speaking about this. Here's more of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. ROBERT MOOD, CHIEF U.N. SYRIA OBSERVER TEAM: The death of 32 innocent children, lots of women and men, but in particular the children. That is unacceptable attack on the aspirations of the Syrian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP) JAMJOOM: This is considered to be one of the worst days and one of the worst acts of violence in Syria since the uprising began over 15 months ago.
Now a network of opposition activists called the Local Coordination Committees in Syria earlier today decried the world's apparent violence going on there and that the U.N. Security Council should take responsibility for not being able to protect innocent civilians there.
We also spoke to an opposition activist in the city and he said it's unbelievable that we have 7 billion people on this planet and they all can't do anything about what they're seeing on TV. He then begged the world. Please do something for the Syrian people -- Fredricka.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, a tragic and horrible picture. Thanks so much, Mohammed Jamjoom, for that reporting.
All right, now to our other big international story, an embarrassing scandal is coming to light today at the Vatican. The man you will see highlighted here riding in the pope mobile, that's the pope's butler.
Right now he's being held in a cell in Vatican City accused of stealing personal letters and confidential Vatican papers from the Pope Benedict's desk.
Those leaked documents ended up in a book that now tops Italy's best seller list. The book, seen by many, as a breach in the Vatican's wall of secrecy.
Journalist Barbie Nadeau is following this story from Rome.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBIE NADEAU, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR (via telephone): He's in custody within the Vatican City state, which is separate from the Italian judicial system, which means there's really no transparency. If someone is arrested in Italy, we have a little bit more access.
Inside the Vatican, though, they can do basically what they want. Their methods of interrogation, their right to have a defense lawyer, all of those things are their own set of rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: I'll talk with CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen about who this butler is, his access to the pope and what was at the heart of these leaks.
Now here at home, millions of Americans are in the middle of a holiday weekend right now. But then it looks like Mother Nature is not quite cooperating for everyone.
If you're on the east coast, you know of the weather is threatening. Tropical storm conditions are headed your way. Jacqui Jeras is tracking all of this from the CNN Weather Center. So how serious or potentially serious is this storm? JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it could be deadly if you don't play it smart, Fredricka, and that's the biggest concern is that Beryl doesn't have to be a deadly storm if you follow all those safely rules that we always tell you about.
The number one issue that we're dealing with this system today is the threat of rip currents because it's a holiday weekend. People are out at the beaches and it looks great because all of the showers and thunder showers associated with this thing have been offshore.
There you can see how great it looks. That's Jacksonville, Florida. People are littered all over the beaches, but the rip currents are a huge danger. There have been at least 20 people rescued off the coast of Georgia around Tidy Island. That rip current threat is there in Jacksonville all the way up into Charleston, even up towards North Carolina.
So you really need to keep this in mind. Now the tropical storm type conditions could come into play late tonight and early tomorrow as the storm makes its way towards the shore, very little additional strength that can be expected.
But a lot of dry air moving into this thing and maximum winds around 45 miles per hour so with those winds and thunderstorms are out there, but we're not talking about hurricane type conditions.
There's the rip current threat that we're talking about. This is going to stay with us through the holiday weekend, so keep that in mind if you're thinking about the beach tomorrow or Monday.
Heavy rainfall also a concern, we could see as much as 3 to 6 inches particularly in northern parts of Florida. This part of the country is rain starved, so it's not all bad news except for the people who want to be outside playing.
WHITFIELD: Yes, exactly. They're going to have to wait for another day until that storm passes. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate that.
So from storms to a dangerous fire, flames are racing through parts of Michigan that normally attract a lot of visitors on a Memorial Day weekend. The Upper Peninsula along Lake Superior, a wildfire scorched 21,000 acres there.
And in Florida, a raging brush fire causing problems for people trying to get to another major tourist attraction, Disney World. Heavy smoke and flames forced police to shut down traffic in both directions along a major highway near that amusement park. The road has since been reopened.
Lawyers for the man charged with killing 6-year-old Aton Patz could be giving us a preview of his defense. Pedro Hernandez confessed to strangling the boy and dumping his body in the trash 33 years ago in New York.
His lawyer says Hernandez has quote, "a long psychiatric history," including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and hallucinations. He says a plea won't be entered in the case until a psychiatric evaluation is complete. Hernandez is charged with second degree murder.
In Oregon, a hearing is set for Tuesday to determine who will get custody of three children found abandoned earlier this week in Portland shed. Police say they've located the mother, but aren't releasing her name or the circumstances that led to the children being left alone. The children appear to range in age from under 4 to as young as 1. All remain in foster care today.
A woman who is best known for being the driving force behind the development and growth of black enterprise media has passed away. Barbara Graves was the wife of Earl G. Graves, the founder and publisher of "Black Enterprise" magazine. Graves had been fighting gallbladder cancer for more than three years. She was 74 years old.
If you think the bickering in Washington is bad, take a look at this. We'll tell you where these politicians are and what they're so upset about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Egypt's presidential election is probably headed to a runoff. One of the top two candidates is from the Muslim Brotherhood. The other was a former prime minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Last hour, I spoke to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter about whether the election has been free and fair.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (via telephone): Well, I think in general terms it's been OK. The Egyptian people and all of the opposition candidates have seemed to agree that the election has been orderly and that the people's will has not been subverted by any outside forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And President Carter has been in Cairo as a monitor for that election.
All right, in Ukraine, a heated debate in parliament erupts into a fall-out brawl there. Lawmakers came to blows over a bill that would expand the use of Russian language in courts and hospitals. It's a touchy subject. The head of parliament is calling for early elections saying lawmakers can no longer work together.
In the past few weeks, the multibillion dollar lawsuit that JPMorgan and the investigation of how Morgan Stanley has handled the Facebook IPO have left many wondering whether Washington has done enough to regulate Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.
Ali Velshi breaks down the issue in this week's "Fortune Brainstorm" (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, HOST, CNN'S "YOUR MONEY": One of the best known advocates for financial reforms joins me now. Elizabeth Warren was one of the main architects of consumer financial protection, through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
She was brought in by the Obama administration to get the consumer watchdog group off the ground. She's now a Democratic candidate for Senate in Massachusetts.
Elizabeth, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good to be here.
VELSHI: Elizabeth, four years after the financial crisis, are we or are we not better equipped to shield the economy from risky bets that are made by institutions like JPMorgan?
ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, we are better equipped. There are some changes that have been made like Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That means we're feeding a little less risk into the system.
But the real question is, are we adequately equipped? I think what the JPMorgan Chase problem shows, there has been no change in attitude out there. The banks still want to load up on risk in order to juice their profits.
They are still not adequate oversight of that. So long as that situation exists we're at risk.
VELSHI: Here's the question, why should I care that JPMorgan Chase, a private company with lots of money is taking risky bets. Because my mind goes back to 2008 and AIG and I think -- I don't care if you do it for you and your shareholders, but at some point it starts to risk the entire economy. Am I overstating the case here?
WARREN: No, you're not. That's exactly the point. You know, if these banks load up on too much risk, as long as it all pays off, you know, then they take the profits home, but as soon as it reverses then the losses are on the rest of us.
Never forget what happened in 2008. It meant that people lost their jobs. It meant that small businesses couldn't get the money they needed in loans to keep their businesses afloat. It meant that people lost their pensions. It meant that this whole economy nearly went over the edge.
You know what makes it so important is that burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me.
VELSHI: Elizabeth Warren, thank you. I'm Ali Velshi with this week's "Fortune Brainstorm."
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right, this is the weekend when we take time to remember our fallen heroes. But we also want to honor the veterans still with us. We'll tell you about some of the great benefits that you may not know are available.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, some help for some of our veterans. Life after military service has its challenges. So in today's "Financial Fix," we're revealing some of the little known benefits for vets and their families.
Daria Dolan is with us from West Palm Beach, Florida. Good to see you. Lovely in that purple or I should say lilac.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much. Great to see you, Fred. I missed you my last visit.
WHITFIELD: I know it's been a long time. Great to see you. So there are lots of benefits available to our veterans. Let's start with one of your favorites that perhaps too many vets don't know about, the V.A. Loan Program.
DARIA DOLAN, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: I think more know about this than some of the others we're going to talk about. But nonetheless, the V.A. Program for home loans, for mortgages will cover up to, depending on where you're buying in the country, of course.
But in the higher rate states, up to $729,000 of the mortgaged guaranteed by the V.A. and this is a perfect time with the low interest rates that we're seeing that I don't think can last to much longer, Fred.
A perfect time, you know, below 4 percent for a 30-year mortgage for a veteran to take a look at buying a home or refinancing an existing loan.
WHITFIELD: Well, that's a nice perk to hear about. Say it's not a home that you're in the market for, but maybe a car, particularly a Volvo. Tell me about these special discounts being offered to vets.
DOLAN: Yes, I'll tell you, when you dig around, you find the darndest things. For my money, we can't do enough for our veterans after what they risk for all of us. This is Volvo military sales.
It is solely for those, and they've sold hundreds of thousands of these vehicles, but solely for those military who are deployed overseas. What you get is the factory price on the Volvo, not the manufacturer's suggested retail price.
What it cost to come of the factory floor. Along with that, you can get savings on any of the equipment within the car, which is always the expensive items when you start adding this, that and the other things. And when you're deployed back to the U.S., Volvo ships it free back to the U.S.
WHITFIELD: Wow.
DOLAN: For those that are maybe in Okinawa or wherever, they will make sure the cars meet the standards in the particular country which you're deployed. That's a fabulous thing and you get a four-year, 50,000 mile warrantee on the cars and you can get information on that by going to volvocars.com.
WHITFIELD: That's fantastic. And then maybe you want to take the family on a trip to Disneyland for example. There's a discount for armed forces.
DOLAN: Yes, this is really exciting, too. Because first off, the Military Benefits Association, which you can access at militarybenefit.org offers discounts on airline flights for the military, which will equate to about $150 on each ticket that the military person purchases.
Because getting to Disney can be expensive, as well. But then Disney has what they say is their thanks to armed forces called "Salute Military." And they've announced that they're extending that right through September 30.
So you can get deeply discounted theme park tickets, as well as deep discounts on Disney properties if you're planning on San Diego on property. So that's the "Salute Military" from Disney available from now until the 30th of September.
WHITFIELD: Wonderful ideas and certainly some enticing discounts and offers being made available. Thanks so much, Daria Dolan. Always good to see you. Let's not make it so long next time.
DOLAN: OK. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much.
DOLAN: Thank you and thanks to our veterans, including my husband, Ken.
WHITFIELD: Exactly. All right, thanks so much for everyone's service, including Ken. Ken, we miss you. All right, thanks so much. And of course, you can get a more personal financial advice from the Dolans, Ken and Daria at dolansonyourmoney.com.
Just in time for Memorial Day, a big moment for the war in Iraq. We'll tell you about it, and an unprecedented way you can honor fallen soldiers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A storm barrelling down on the east coast. Jacqui Jeras with more on this storm.
JERAS: Fredricka, it's a subtropical storm but has the same type of impacts as it gets towards the coast. The big concern with Beryl today, packing winds of around 45 miles per hour is what you can't see. Take a look at this live picture from Jacksonville, Florida. It shows you beautiful blue skies and all kinds of people on the beach, but the threat is in the water and it's rip currents. You can't always see that.
Red flags are flying in Georgia, just up the shore there from Jacksonville. At least 20 people have been rescued from the water today as a result of that. So keep that in mind throughout the holiday weekend.
Our storm is moving towards the southwest and should be heading into North Florida as we head towards Memorial Day and we'll see a significant threat with heavy rains there, as well.
We're also tracking some storm suppose the northeast. A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued here, including you here in New York City and a lot of problems at the airports. JFK, Laguardia, Newark and we also have a few problems out west. So some weather threats out there this holiday weekend.
WHITFIELD: That's right. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate that.
All right, an embarrassing scandal at the Vatican. One of a few men with very close daily access to the pope is under arrest, accused of leaking confidential Vatican papers to a journalist. The man is identified as the pope's butler.
The leaked information appears in a new book that is Italy's number one best seller. The arrest is the latest in the Vatican's crackdown on leaks.
Let's bring in CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen. He's joining us right now from Denver. So, John, you know, first off, who is this butler and what kind of access are we talking about to the pope? And you know, closeness to the pope.
JOHN ALLEN, CNN'S SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Well, look, you know, the pope is like presidents and prime ministers. They live in a bubble. Most ordinary people do not have regular access to these guys.
But the one exception to that would be the members of the pope's own household. These would a dozen or so people including two priest secretaries, four consecrated lay women who cook and clean and so on.
And then a handful of laymen who act as butlers who lay out his clothes, serve his meals and help him with his other personal needs. The guy who's been identified now by the Vatican as the suspected mole, in his early 40s, by the name of Paola Gabriele is one of those papal assistants right there in the pope's apartment.
So this is somebody that the pope would perceive as a member of his own personal family.
WHITFIELD: And someone who rides in the pope mobile. We're seeing his image highlighted right there with Pope Benedict standing right behind him.
So what kind of papers and documents are we talking about that this butler is alleged to have taken from the desk of the pope? And then handed off to a journalist, which found its way into a book?
ALLEN: Well, how much of the total Vatican leaked scandal this guy is responsible for we don't yet know. But certainly if we look at the totality of the scandal, which erupted in January and gathered steam in February and March and continues to this day, you're talking about an enormous quantity of documents.
Enough to fill an entire best-selling Italian book, they cover a lot of ground. Some have to do with personal correspondence with the pope's current ambassador in Washington, and the home office about policy disputes.
Some of them have to do with Vatican finances and the question of alleged cronyism and corruption in money management. One document concerned a plot to kill the pope. To tell you the truth, the problem for the Vatican isn't so much the content of the documents.
They have fairly good luck knocking some of that down. The problem is, these are all real highly confidential documents which apparently have been leaked by somebody who has the closest access possible to the right hand of the pope.
WHITFIELD: And now this man is under arrest. Who would proceed with the prosecution, would it be Vatican City? Is it Rome investigators or is it on a much larger scale in Italy?
ALLEN: Yes, this has the potential to become a real diplomatic headache for the Italian government. What the Vatican announced is they are going to continue to do their own investigation using the -- the Vatican is a 108 acre city state and has its own court, whose normal business is prosecuting pickpockets, not alleged moles.
But they're going to do a preliminary investigation and determine if there is enough evidence to bind this guy over for trial. If that were the case, then the trial, they might want to hand over the trial to the Italian justice system, because they don't have the facilities to incarcerate anyone.
And the question then would become, does the Italian government want to pick that up? And so in addition to being an additional scandal for the Vatican, this --
WHITFIELD: John, thanks so much. Have a good rest of the weekend.
All right, ever wonder how cell phones, radios and even the internet became so popular? We'll tell you about their unusual beginnings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, bet you didn't know, from your cell phones, your radio and even your GPS, did you realize all of this technology was made for the U.S. military? Our tech expert, Marc Saltzman, is here via Skype from Toronto to explain how these products have gone from military to mainstream, beginning with how you and I are able to talk right now by way of the Internet.
What's the background on -- and I guess the connection with the military?
MARC SALTZMAN, SYNDICATED TECHNOLOGY WRITER: Sure. Well, long before the Internet was fast enough for us to do a two-way video call like this, in the '60s, the U.S. Department of Defense felt that their data center that housed intelligence was vulnerable to attack. So they devised a system by which computers can communicate with one other over a telephone line, hence ARPANET.
And then ARPANET was the predecessor to the Internet that was sort of used by academic institutions in the '70s and '80s, followed, of course, by the World Wide Web, the commercial explosion of the Internet in the '90s. And the first e-mail, by the way, Fred, was sent in 1971. So a long time ago.
WHITFIELD: Wow. OK, so, now what about the radio? Some of us still like to tune into the radio, we rely on the radio.
SALTZMAN: That's right. So the radio was devised by the U.S. Navy -- I'm sorry, the European navy, the French, and then embraced by the U.S., as well, in the early 20th century. And of course, it was, of course, a communication tool. It was a very fast and efficient way to relay information between one another.
And then it became a commercial sensation in the '20s and '30s, with radio plays and music. And of course, before television took off in the early '50s, radio was the most popular entertainment medium around.
WHITFIELD: OK. And then the first mobile communication was used by the Navy back in 1907. How did that become the cell phone as we know it today?
SALTZMAN: Right. So that's right. So in 1907, it was called the radio phone or radio telephone. It's very different than the cell phones we use today, but it was a two-way communication tool, whereas radio was one-way before that. And it was wireless, of course, but not the same infrastructure we know today.
In the 1920s, the Detroit Police Department put mobile radios in their car. But they were more -- again, more like walkie-talkies, and then -- which was also a military-bred invention. And then, of course, cell phones for us civilians didn't take off until the late '80s, early '90s.
WHITFIELD: And then the GPS?
SALTZMAN: Right. In the early 21st century, just a decade ago, we started to use these to help us get from point A to point B. But originally, GPS satellites hovering above the earth were used by and created by the U.S. military. So (INAUDIBLE) classified technology. We use this when -- you know, these small devices communicate with satellites that hover above the earth to pinpoint our exact location on the ground. And when it's paired with mapping software, it, of course, helps us navigate the roads.
Men, we all know, don't like to ask for questions. So this is a great invention. And now GPS chips are in almost all smartphones you buy. So we're still using this U.S. military -- once U.S.-only military technology.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Now universal. Oh, that's fantastic. All right, thanks so much, Marc Saltzman, for bringing all of that to us. And you have a great weekend.
SALTZMAN: Thank you. You, too, Fred. Cheers.
WHITFIELD: All right. So for more high tech ideas and reviews, just go to CNN.com/tech and look for the "Gaming and Gadgets" tab.
A young man came to the U.S. to finish his degree. But one month until graduation, a fire broke out in his apartment and then changed everything.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Three thousand coalition troops have died as part of the war in Afghanistan. Nearly 5,000 have died in the war in Iraq. Well, this Memorial Day weekend, we have a unique interactive way for you to learn about these troops and pay testament to them. Our Josh Levs has more on that -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the best Web sites in the world.
WHITFIELD: Oh, that's great.
LEVS: And this is one of the best Web sites that there is. And Fred, we just hit that grim marker this week on that war in Afghanistan, that 3,000 number of coalition deaths.
Folks, as you're enjoying your Memorial Day weekend, I highly encourage you to check out this site. It is beautifully done, and it is a forever thing.
Let's zoom right to it so you know what I'm talking about. It's at CNN.com, and it's called "Home and Away." And here's what you have that you're looking at right now.
You see, this is a map of the United States here, with dots all over it. Over here, because I'm on the Afghanistan page, there's a map of Afghanistan with dots all over it. You can click on any section of Afghanistan or any section of the United States and find out about coalition troops, most of them U.S. troops, who have given their lives in the war in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Let me show you an example right here. I called up one example totally at random, clicking on the area of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Let's go on over here. And you learn about Lance Corporal Jeremy Mitchell Cane (ph). You learn about how he gave his life. Now, that's just the beginning. It gets a lot better than that. Take a look here. Once you click on someone, suddenly, you can get a lot more information. And I called up, for one example, someone who gave his life in Iraq. This is a soldier from Flint, Michigan. You learn about his unit. You learn about the fatal accident in which he died. And you can learn so much about these people.
And here's why it means so much. Let's go to this video. We see video all the time of funerals taking place all over this country as troops come home and are laid to rest. And often, that's all you know is that these funerals happen, or you see a casket.
Well, what happens -- here's a really good example. I saw this video. I wanted to learn about this exact person. I wanted to know what his sacrifice was. Where did he come from? Who was he? So I went straight to our Web site, CNN.com/homeandaway. And the man you're seeing buried right there is on this screen behind me. So there's this marker forever about who these people are and what they did and what was happening when they gave their lives.
And that's just the beginning. One more thing you should know here. You can then post a message for the families of these troops, or really, about anything at all. And here's an example of someone who did that. This is a woman named C.L. Reed (ph), who published an iReport through that Web site, a message about her younger brother, Jeffrey (ph).
And she has a quote that I want you to see right here. And we can go to that. That really speaks to Memorial Day in general. She says these troops, "They were willing to leave everything behind to fight for the freedom of millions of people they never even knew. It's so important to remember their sacrifice so that we don't take our freedom for granted."
So Fred, really good time this weekend, on Memorial Day, while you're enjoying it, also take some time to see this Web site.
WHITFIELD: Oh! And then, you know, Josh, we've got some information on a special tribute to those veterans of Vietnam.
LEVS: Yes, you know, it's interesting. You and I have talked about this. On both Memorial Day and Veterans Day, our nation really thinks about our veterans and those who have given our lives, as well.
Just last weekend, I was telling this was coming. It happened. Take a look here. This is from Ft. Hood, Texas. They had an event this week to welcome home Vietnam veterans. The Army officials there say Vietnam veterans never had the welcome home they deserve. So on Monday at Ft. Hood, according to military officials, 700 Vietnam veterans turned out for that event and were welcomed home by 2,000 people who wanted to give them the welcome home that they never had, Fred.
WHITFIELD: And then we know on Monday, the president of the United States -- the entire first family, in fact...
LEVS: That's right.
WHITFIELD: ... is going to be paying tribute to those Vietnam veterans at the memorial there on the Washington Mall.
LEVS: (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: Yes. You can't say thank you enough. All right, thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate that.
LEVS: Thank you, Fred.
WHITFIELD: So in this week's "Human Factor," Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to a young man who came to America to finish his engineering degree. His future looked so bright until a vicious fire changed his life forever. And yet he's never given up, even under the most difficult of circumstances.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2004, Manoj Rana's family couldn't have been more proud because he was coming to America to Purdue University to complete his degree in computer engineering. Just a month from graduation, however, his life changed forever. His neighbor two floors below intentionally set a fire with his wife and child still inside.
MANOJ RANA, BURN VICTIM: By the time my roommate and I woke up, the whole apartment was on fire.
GUPTA: Rana and his roommate, Pravat Singal (ph), tried to escape, but they couldn't.
RANA: My roommate collapsed in front of me, and I started running down the stairs.
GUPTA: Rana only made it down a few steps before he collapsed. A fireman found him still alive, but on the way to the hospital, he could hear paramedics talking about how badly he had been burned.
RANA: At that moment, I was thinking about my family, what I had come here for, to get a good education, and now this guy is saying that I don't have a chance to survive. And I passed out, and then I woke up in University of Chicago burn unit after four months of induced coma.
GUPTA: Rana had burns over 95 percent of his body. So far, he's had 54 operations. But he didn't give up. And he credits three people for his survival.
RANA: My father, my mother and my occupational therapist, Shannon Hendricks (ph).
GUPTA: Rana says his father saved every hard-earned penny so he could get an education.
RANA: My mother always kept on telling me have some faith and keep your eyes on the goal. GUPTA: And then there's Shannon, whom he calls his guardian angel. He says she's gone way beyond the duties as an occupational therapist, making it her mission to help in any way she could.
RANA: On top of my therapy, she would take me to church every Sunday. I think that was the only thing that kept me from going crazy because as a 22-year-old, I was living in a nursing home and it was really, really depressing.
GUPTA: His biggest accomplishment so far, getting his MBA. He recently graduated with the highest honors.
RANA: I'm still happy that, you know, I can live an independent life. And now, you know, I have gotten my MBA, and hopefully, you know, I'll get a job soon, and you know, have a good life.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A beautiful stretch of beach in France that played a crucial role in World War II is now a hugely popular travel destination. If you were paying attention in history class, you know that more than three million Allied forces, including American troops, stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in June of 1944. D-Day was the largest sea-borne military invasion in history.
This is what the beautiful beaches of Normandy look like today. We're going to show you the best way to get there. My next guest knows intimately. She was there as a child. She remembers what that felt like, and she's with us now to give us a better idea of how to get there.
So Kate Maxwell is the editor-in-chief of Jetsetter.com. She's joining me live right now from New York. Good to see you, Kate.
KATE MAXWELL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JETSETTER: Good to see you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, so even though you were a child, you remember as though it was yesterday.
MAXWELL: I do, yes.
WHITFIELD: For most folks, they've got to get there by plane to get to Paris. But then...
MAXWELL: Right.
WHITFIELD: ... once you get to Paris, are you advising folks to just, you know, get on a train, rent a car, get to Normandy right away, or spend a little time in Paris first?
MAXWELL: I mean, it's Paris. You know, it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world, so I would definitely spend at least a night there. There's a great new hotel called the Hotel St. James. We have it on Jetsetter.com. It starts at $470 a night. And it's a mini-chateau, believe it or not, not too far from the center. So I would definitely -- I would definitely spend a night there.
And then after that, you have a couple of options. You could either rent a car in Paris and drive to Normandy -- it'll take you about three-and-a-half hours -- or perhaps an easier option is to take the train from Paris, Saint Lazare station to Caen, and then hire a car from there.
A car will cost you between $30 and $50 a day. And be prepared to use a stick shift because automatic cars are pretty hard to come by in France, and they're a little bit more expensive, as well.
WHITFIELD: Maybe the latter might be the safest because, you know, driving in Paris...
MAXWELL: I think so.
WHITFIELD: Whoa! You got to be very courageous.
MAXWELL: Exactly. Absolutely. And then traffic, as well.
WHITFIELD: That's right. OK, so now, you get to Normandy and then what do you do? How do you make a decision about where to stay?
MAXWELL: Well, I would recommend staying in Bayeux. It's a really quaint, historic town only about a 15-minute drive from the Normandy beaches. There are a couple really good hotel options there. One is Villa Lara, which opened relatively recently, only a couple of months ago. It's a 28-room boutique hotel, and rooms cost from $280 a night.
Alternatively, another chateau, Chateau De Sully, which is a few minutes outside Bayeux. Rooms there are $216 a night. It has a great restaurant. It has a swimming pool. So a lovely, lovely historic place to stay.
WHITFIELD: Wow. And so, you know, these boutique hotels -- that's kind of a larger scale when you look at those pictures, boutique not by standards of just, you know, 10 to 15 rooms, but just a little bit bigger than that.
MAXWELL: Yes. Yes. I mean, the term "boutique" has changed a bit in the last few years.
WHITFIELD: All right, so how many days...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. Now, how many days do you need to give yourself to really maximize, get the best out of your trip to Paris and Normandy?
MAXWELL: Right. So it's at the coastline, the D-Day landing site. It covers about 60 miles. It'll take you about eight or nine hours altogether to cover them. So I would definitely recommend putting aside two days to do it justice.
WHITFIELD: And then do you take a tour, or do you got to go it alone once you're in Normandy?
MAXWELL: I mean, it's really up to you, but I think you'll probably get more out of it if you do do a tour. You can either go with a group -- Overlord Tours is a really good option. They have a maximum of eight people per group. Or if you want a private tour, Normandy Battle Tours is a really good option. Alternatively, if you want to do a complete customized tour, go to Jetsetter.com/advice. Our personal travel planning service will be able to arrange your complete tour trip to Paris and Normandy, and you'll really be able to do exactly what you want and see the battlefields that you want to see in the time that you want.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Beautiful. Beautiful images. It really does look like a recommended travel for everyone, whether you have, you know, a family connection to Normandy or otherwise.
MAXWELL: Right.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kate Maxwell...
MAXWELL: It's a great cross-generational trip, actually.
WHITFIELD: Yes. It really is beautiful. All right, Kate Maxwell, always good to see you. Thanks so much -- editor-in-chief of Jetsetter.com.
MAXWELL: Thanks very much.
WHITFIELD: All right. and of course, if you want to get more information, you can go to Jetsetter.com/advice and find out a little bit more intimately about those kind of travel options.
All right, sex parties, underage girls, a ``bunga bunga'' girl dressed like Barack Obama -- just another day of testimony at the underage sex trial of the man once in charge of running Italy.
And if you do have to go out today, leave your television set, just a reminder you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone. And you can also watch CNN live from your laptop. Just go to CNN.com/tv.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A New Jersey woman claims she was wrongfully fired from her job at a Manhattan lingerie distributor. Lauren Odes says it had nothing to do with her performance.
I asked the "Legal Guys," Avery Friedman and Richard Herman, how she'll be able to prove that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, it's very interesting. Unless some employees at the lingerie company are going to back her up, I don't know how one proves that. They want -- she claims they wanted her to tape her breasts down and minimize her mammaries and be less sexy, or something like that.
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: How you get to sexual discrimination and religious discrimination here is beyond me. And the fact that Gloria All-Wrong (SIC) is in this case tells you that...
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: Have you gotten that phone call from her yet?
FRIEDMAN: Relax.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. All right, Richard and Avery -- of course, you will hear more from them later on, on this case and others, in just a few minutes.
All right, CNN International's Jonathan Mann joins me now about a story that's making some pretty strange headlines. One headline goes something like this -- Berlusconi bunga bunga girl masquerades as Obama. That's strange, all right! Berlusconi, of course, being the former prime minister of Italy, and "bunga bunga" the name of his infamous parties. All right, Jonathan with us now. You take it away! I need say no more.
JONATHAN MANN, CNNI ANCHOR: Can I just -- can I just say at the outset that if there's a child in the room or if you're creeped out by...
WHITFIELD: Good bye!
MANN: ... the antics of...
WHITFIELD: Yes.
MANN: ... older rich guys who can do whatever they want, this story is not for you.
But we're talking, of course, about Silvio Berlusconi, 75 years young, former prime minister of Italy, forced out of office in November, but still in the headlines because he's in trouble. Why is he in trouble? He's on trial for two things, paying an underage prostitute for sex and misusing his powers of office to get her out of trouble. Who are we talking about? We're talking about a young woman who was 17 at the time, who's...
WHITFIELD: But he's claiming that he didn't know that, right?
MANN: He's claiming a whole lot of things. He's claiming that he never did anything wrong, period...
WHITFIELD: OK. MANN: ... and that the prosecution is evil and political. He's been on trial -- he's had legal proceedings against him a hundred times in connection with Ruby, who was 17 at the time. He claims that he was just trying to be nice to her. She got arrested for theft. He called up the police and asked them -- sitting prime minister calls up the cops about a 17-year-old runaway and says, Can you please let her go? That's why he's in trouble. And he's in big trouble. This is a man who could face 15 years in jail.
WHITFIELD: Is there a lot of evidence?
MANN: Well, there's testimony, and the testimony that you alluded to, women are coming forth to the courts, one of them saying there were all kinds of tawdry parties at his house, women dressed up as nuns, women dressed up as nurses, one of them...
WHITFIELD: But that's not against the law.
MANN: No.
WHITFIELD: It's the age part.
MANN: It's against everything that is right and holy. There was a woman walking around that party dressed as Barack Obama!
WHITFIELD: Oh.
MANN: And if that doesn't creep you out, you have a whole different creep-o-meter than the rest of us, I think. She claims nothing bad happened. It was all kind of burlesque and innocent.
But you know what? His personal accountant showed up at the trial this week.
WHITFIELD: Yes?
MANN: He gave those girls -- those women $20 million in cash over two years' time.
WHITFIELD: Oh, really?
MANN: Parties with young women, $20 million in cash -- actually, more than that, 20 million euros. So was nothing going on? I don't know...
(CROSSTALK)
MANN: ... and a lot of big money, and the trial continues.
WHITFIELD: And the allegations of the prostitution. Wow. Well, it goes on and on. We could talk for an hour because something tells me that's just the tip of the iceberg with this case. But we don't have an hour to talk about it. But Jonathan Mann, I'm glad you were able to give us three minutes of your time. Good to see you. Thanks so much.
MANN: Nice (INAUDIBLE)
