Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Cold War Heats Up in Arctic; Knicks to Decide on Jeremy Lin; Crimes Against Women in Mexico Increase; New CEO at Yahoo; Search Continues for Missing Girls; U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Confiscate Large Amounts of Drugs; Search for Oil in the Alaskan Arctic; FDA Approved Drugs to Come to Market Soon

Aired July 17, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": And hello, everyone. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West.

Tons of cocaine and hundred pounds of pot headed to the U.S., seized on the high seas. We're aboard the ship that's hauling the goods.

Terror in Tuscaloosa, bullets flying, people running for their lives. More than a dozen people reported injured in an Alabama bar.

And the newest pill that promises to magically melt away the pounds. Is it for you? Our medical expert weighs in.

So when Yahoo! started searching for a new CEO, it made perfect sense to pluck the person who was a part of creating "search" as we know it. She was one of Google's first employees, first female engineers, and also responsible for the look and feel of the popular search engine that we use every day.

Oh, and let me add two more impressive stats. Marissa Mayer is just 37 and about to be a mom for the very first time.

Poppy Harlow, I wonder what's going to be harder, Yahoo! CEO or first-time mom.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: You tell me. I'm not a CEO or a mom. You're a mom. I don't know. I think having a baby and running a company and trying to put on a massive turnaround is going to be pretty challenging.

But, look, this is a woman that I've interviewed a number of times since 2009. She's incredibly impressive. She manages down to the detail, Kyra, so if anyone can do it she can.

Yesterday was a huge day. I want to show you two tweets from Marissa Mayer that she tweeted out last night. The first one is, "Another good piece of news today -- @zackbogue and I are expecting a new baby." She's going to have a son in a few month.

And then she also tweeted this, "I'm incredibly excited to start my new role at Yahoo! tomorrow." So that makes today her first day. I sat down with her last in October at the Fortune Most Powerful Women's Conference and what's interesting, Kyra, and I can tell you this, "Fortune" is just reporting now that she is the youngest CEO on the Fortune 500 list. So she's the youngest at 37-years old.

And when I sat down with her in October, we talked about whether she was itching to do something different. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Any thoughts about venturing out on your own Marissa?

MARISSA MAYER, CEO, YAHOO!: Well, I have been really lucky at Google because every time that, you know, I sort of feel like I've got a handle on things, there's some sort of new and exciting opportunity and challenge.

But for me, now, it really is Local and Maps and it's an area that's been just incredibly -- it's been changing incredibly quickly. There's a lot to do. There's a lot of things that are working well. There's a lot yet still on our plate.

There's always interesting challenges and, as long as I'm challenged, I'm very happy in my current role.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So that's the question, was she still challenged or not? You know, when Eric Schmidt gave up the reins as CEO and Larry Page took over at Google, they didn't promote her to senior vice president. So there were some questions about whether or she wasn't challenged enough.

She had been there 13 years. And I just got off the phone with Pattie Sellers at "Fortune" who knows her very well and Pattie said, you know, Marissa'd said she'd been getting a lot of those calls from big companies trying to recruit her, but she hadn't been gotten as many lately because a lot of people thought, Kyra, she'd stay at Google forever. She had been there 13 years, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, here's what's interesting. Yahoo! has been struggling for a while, so what's the thought process here? I mean, is she the woman that can turn things around?

HARLOW: Well, and the question I had when I saw the news, too, was, why would you take a job like this? It's so hard.

I think the answer to that is she's very consumer-facing. She was the most sort of consumer-facing person at Google, in front of the media the most. She's sort of the face of the products there and she said that she wants to make Yahoo! products much more innovative and delightful.

The p.r. on this has been very good, but think about this, Kyra. If she manages to come in and be the fourth CEO in the last four years for Yahoo! and turn this company around, she's going to be revered. If she doesn't, well then, no one can, right? That's the thinking here. Many are saying that, you know, four other CEOs couldn't do it in the last few years, so if she can't, well then, maybe it's a structural problem at the company.

But if she can do it, this is going to be one of the biggest corporate turnarounds that we've seen in a long time.

And think, too -- she has to compete with newer entities when it comes to search and advertising. Not only does she have to take on Google, she has to take on Facebook right now, really head-on.

PHILLIPS: Well, we'll be watching it closely. That's for sure. Poppy Harlow, thanks so much.

Police are on a frantic search right now to find these two little girls in Iowa, 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook who are cousins and they left to go on a bike ride on Friday.

Well, four days later, nothing. Nearly 1,000 volunteers searching the area, but still no trace of these little girls, except their bicycles which were found near a lake just hours after they were reported missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY BROUSSEAU, AUNT OF MISSING GIRLS: It's very baffling to understand how someone got off with a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old at the same time because it's as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, after searching the lake, authorities are now draining it, looking for any sign of the little girls.

Jim Spellman on the ground there in Evansdale, Iowa. So, Jim, what's the latest on the search? Any new clues, anything?

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know that the FBI has brought in two scent dogs and last night they were able to get samples of scent from the girls' shoes and we know they got some sort of hit on them. We have no idea yet where that's led them or if it will become a meaningful part of the investigation.

Let me set the scene for you a little bit, Kyra. This wooded area of this lake, Meyers Lake, is where the girls' bicycles were found. Right now, they are, as you mentioned, draining this lake. They don't think they're going to find anything in here, but they want to be absolutely certain that there's nothing in this lake that will help their case.

What's interesting is the families told us that this is not a place where the girls came a lot. Here's Lyric's mom talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MISTY COOK-MORRISSEY, MOTHER OF 10-YEAR-OLD LYRIC COOK: From my understanding, they do not know that area. Maybe Elizabeth and some friends had ridden down there at one time.

BROUSSEAU: One time.

COOK-MORRISEY: But no, it's not an area that they frequented. They didn't go far from home, either of the girls. They mainly stayed around the Evansdale area that my sister lives in, so it's just not kind of like them to go that far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPELLMAN: An investigator here told me this morning that it's like the girls evaporated. They're really trying to find any sort of thing they can that will start this investigation in a direction towards finding the girls and bringing them home safe, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now. this is a pretty tight-knit community, right? Were there any witnesses? I mean, everybody pretty much knows everybody.

SPELLMAN: Yes. Absolutely. No witnesses. It's what's baffling so many people. This is an open public area. There's a freeway that goes right by the bike path where their bikes were found. People live there. Their backyards are against the lake on this side.

About 1,000 people out of a town of about only 5,000 came out to help on this search over the weekend and they were not able to find anything. Just about every business in town, you'll find a flyer like this here. Everybody is really coming together trying to support these girls are girls and this family.

On the back, Kyra, it says, "DSBUTCH -- Don't Stop Believing Until They Come Home." Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Jim Spellman, thanks so much.

And sheriff's deputies say that there are no signs right now of foul play. The FBI and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, as Jim mentioned, have joined the search now.

Well, in Alabama right now, police are holding a news conference on their hunt for a suspect who went on a shooting rampage at this Tuscaloosa bar that you will see here in just a second. There, it is.

The shooting actually went down shortly after midnight here at the Copper Top Bar. Affiliate WVTM spoke with hospital officials and say more than a dozen people were injured. At least one person now in critical condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like so loud I couldn't really tell what was going on. Then the next thing you know, we started getting away from the gunshot, like going towards out front and that's where all the shooting really took place at.

And it's like, all you seen was sparks and people ducking and glass busting and, you know, we never saw the guy shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, take a close look at this surveillance video from just outside the bar. You can actually see the suspect wearing a baseball cap backwards, carrying a gun through the parking lot.

Witnesses told the Tuscaloosa news the bar was packed with 80 to 90 people when that shooting began.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it was quite a successful anti-drug operation. It was led by the U.S. Navy and it netted 7,500 pounds of cocaine and several hundred pounds of marijuana, all of it headed to the U.S. and the streets of our cities and towns.

The confiscated drugs arrived in Florida today aboard the USS Nicholas. John Couwels is joining me now from Jacksonville Beach via phone. John, this wasn't just one seizure though, right?

JOHN COUWELS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it wasn't, Kyra. This was over almost a five-month period, five different interdictions.

And on these Navy frigates this particular one, USS Nicholas, there's always a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment attached to these and, this particular one, they were able to board four different vessels over this period to gather this material and it's estimated to be about $93 million in wholesale value and, on the street, it's estimated to be valued at about a quarter of a billion dollars.

And this is all part of "Operation Martillo" which began in January and it's multiagency within the U.S. government and it's also working with 14 other countries to help stop the flow of drugs coming into the -- into Central, South America and tino the United States.

PHILLIPS: You know, it's pretty incredible. We've seen the coast guard and the navy involved in all types of maritime operations. Tell me about this anti-drug operation. How common will this become? Will they be working together more on trying to stop, you know, as we know, a very tough mission?

COUWELS: What's really unique about "Operation Martillo," which -- there's always been a drug interdiction in the southern hemisphere of the United States, trying to stop the flow of drugs from Central and South America into the United States. There's always been -- the Coast Guard was always the lead agency and the navy operated independently from the Coast Guard.

In this particular operation, they have now, working together amongst each other and with other nations' coast guards and law enforcement agencies, so within just the first seven months, the fact that they've brought in over a billion dollars worth of drugs has been an incredibly successful.

And what's even more unique is what they've told us that over time, the navy ship, when they're in these indictments has a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement attachment. These are the guys who are specially trained over years to go on and identify drug runners and be able to board their ships and they're specially trained.

So, a navy ship will run up a Coast Guard cutter flag, a warship will then transition from being a military drug operation, military warship, to becoming U.S. Coast Guard and these drugs that you can see on board of the USS Nicholas was over this five-month period among these six, different interdictions that they were able to nab this large amount of drugs.

PHILLIPS: So, John, before I let you go, let me ask you, because I know that the Coast Guard has trained SWAT teams now and then, of course, you mentioned, you know, the navy has incredible assets with these warships, but still, these drug cartels have unbelievable amounts of weapons.

So what has been the talk with regard to just the aspect of danger and how dangerous these missions can be and can the navy and coast guard combined, with their training and obviously the weaponry that they have, go up against some of these drug cartels?

COUWELS: Well, exactly. I mean, these small ships, they -- the small boats tend to run the drugs across these bays of water, whether off Nicaragua or off Colombia. They're on the smaller boats. They're really no match to a large cutter or even a navy warship.

But when they see these ships and they have AWACs, airplanes in the air, identifying particular drug runners in the area, they deploy a Coast Guard plane with these special Coast Guard -- they're all special operations and they're fully armed and they go on-board these ships and they are in complete war coverings with bullet-proof vests, so they go on knowing that these people are going to be armed and they go and they are very specially trained to deal with the drug runners.

PHILLIPS: John Couwels, thank you so much.

And this is just the latest success for the U.S. Navy, by the way, in stopping drugs. Just a few weeks ago, a strike group led by the aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, caught several transport boats carrying drugs off the western coast of Mexico.

In all, the U.S. and Mexican navies collected more than 1,800 pounds of marijuana just that day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, two Americans kidnapped in Egypt have been reunited with their families in Israel. We're told that Boston-area pastor Michel Louis and church member Lisssa Alphonse are in good condition.

They were abducted along with their Egyptian tour guide on Friday in the Sinai region when gunmen actually boarded their tour bus headed to Israel. We're told for four days they moved around the desert and didn't think that they would get out of there alive, but they put their faith in God.

Let's head to Syria where, quote, "the battle for Damascus is coming." Those are the words of an ex-Syrian army colonel who's now fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Opposition groups say that fighters are bracing for a major showdown for the Syrian capital. The shelling explosions and assaults around Damascus have grown fierce over the past few days.

Three activists recently sneaked into a Damascus neighborhood, too, and they say what they found was a massacre by the hands of government forces. I want to tell you the footage you're about to see is from those activists who actually managed to smuggle it out of Damascus. It took two weeks, but we want to warn you that the images are graphic and it's disturbing.

Arwa Damon explains the danger and the desperation to try to get the story out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The power is out in the streets of Douma. The three activists and their escorts don't dare shine a light.

There is a sniper lurking. Gunfire in the distance forces them to pick up the pace.

The activists are part of the opposition's media operation. They smuggled themselves into the Damascus suburb last month and risked their lives to document this, a massacre said to have taken place just hours earlier.

Among the corpses strewn about, that of a little girl. A man points to one of the bodies and says, he was executed, a civilian, points to a second corpse and adds, this is his cousin, shot because he tried to save him.

Residents are readying the bodies for burial, blood soaking through the funeral sheets, the names of the deceased hastily scrawled. It's a grim routine Syrians in areas that have dared stand up to the regime have grown accustomed to, the bodies unceremoniously dragged away and placed alongside others.

Residents say Syrian security forces searching for weapons in some buildings wiped out members of several families. This man described what happened in one instance.

They had two rooms they put the men and women in, he says. From 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., the living were trapped with the dead. It was an execution. They asked, where are the guns? There are no guns, was the response, and they executed them one after the other.

At least 45 were killed in this one attack, residents say, information CNN cannot independently verify.

In the morning, the media team picked their way through rubble- strewn streets, but they would not be able to leave Douma. The Assad regime's siege intensified, the government bombardment, relentless. Many more were killed.

The team that filmed this at the end of June was trapped inside Douma for more than a week and it's taken this long to get the footage smuggled to Lebanon. All that effort, all that risk to give the world a glimpse of Syria's narrative of horror and despair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Arwa Damon monitoring all the developments out of Beirut, Lebanon. And, Arwa, you just mentioned this is just a glimpse of what is actually going on.

DAMON: It most certainly is, Kyra. There's been fighting throughout Damascus, very close to the heart of the capital, the seat of power, Bashar al-Assad's seat of power, in and of itself for the last few days.

Opposition activists have been describing it as the most intense fighting that has been taking place. The images coming out, quite dramatic, showing street-to-street guerrilla warfare.

That story you saw, though, that is just a fraction of what it is that people are going through inside Syria and the lengths that these opposition activists are going to, to try to put their plight into the international spotlight.

Of course, the aim of all of this, the reason why they're taking this risk, is that they're hoping that, at the end of it, the international community is going to somehow unite, is going to rally, and somehow bring about an end to the fighting because the death toll only grows more devastating by the day, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We're going to be following it closely. Arwa Damon, thanks so much.

And al-Assad's government has repeatedly blamed the violence on armed terrorist groups as the conflict began 16 months ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: There's no question that America needs more energy, but there is plenty of debate about where and how to get it.

Drilling for oil in the Arctic has been off limits until now and, after years of lawsuits and resistance from environmental groups, Shell has actually been given the OK to drill off the icy coast of Northern Alaska.

It's the first new offshore drilling oil project approved by the government since the 2010 B.P. disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell is spending up to $20 billion, but there's a lot of challenges and risks.

CNN's Miguel Marquez takes us in-depth on the fight for oil in the Arctic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For millions of nesting birds, for seals, walruses, whales, and countless sea animals, the Arctic is the cradle of life, a short but intense summer with 24-hour sunshine.

In the winter, another world, a place of sub-zero temperatures, ferocious winds and a frozen landscape, yet this harsh, but delicate place, is changing.

Look at this. From NASA, ice covering the North Pole in 1980 compared to 2012. The North Pole is melting, opening new opportunities.

I am standing on an iceberg in the middle of the Arctic. It must be several hundred tons and what's amazing, I can feel the entire structure move as the water comes underneath it.

The Inuit Eskimos have more than 100 words to describe ice and they had it for a reason, ice, not only now in the summer, but certainly in the winter is a way of life.

That way of life, headed for change. The Arctic now open for summer shipping and some predictions say by mid century shipping year- round will be commonplace. Enter Shell and its plan to prospect for oil offshore here. If they find what they think is down there, it will spark a race to drill, increasing the possibility of a spill.

JACKIE DRAGON, GREENPEACE: There's absolutely no world experience that tells us that we could address and clean up a spill in the unforgiving waters in the Arctic.

MARQUEZ: In the gulf's Deepwater Horizon only about a third of the oil was physically recovered, burned or dispersed in the Alaska Exxon Valdez disaster less than 10 percent of the oil was recovered and cleaning up a spill in this place would be a very tall order.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Miguel Marquez joining us from New York now.

It seems that Shell is making a major investment here. High risk, high reward, is probably the mentality. But what have they put together in terms of resources at the site to be prepared for a worse case scenario?

MARQUEZ: Because of how difficult this has been to drill up here, Shell has put together a pretty impressive armada of ships. 15 vessels will be attending these two rigs this summer to basically sit offshore, just sit next to them and watch. If there is an oil spill they will be able to collect and process that oil quickly, says Shell. They have planes and helicopters on standby in the event that they need to spray dispersants on the ocean and worse comes to worse, they can always burn, they say, fairly easily in the Arctic waters because the colder the water the more the oil holds together and they'll have somewhat better ability to burn oil. But, you know, it appears they have taken about every precaution they can in order to drill up there. But, you know, at the end of the day, there is still a risk.

PHILLIPS: Miguel, all the equipment, all the assets, any test run? Any test runs or testing of the equipment, god forbid, I mean you know what I'm thinking, something like the B.P. explosion happens?

MARQUEZ: There have been tests. There have not been test in the Arctic in real world conditions which is one of the concerns people up there have. It's not legal in the U.S. to dump oil or any contaminants in the water. That alone may create an emergency situation. They can't actually test a lot of these devices in the Arctic in the places that they'll be operating this summer. They have been tested to some degree in Norway and laboratory conditions in other places, so they've had tests, but they haven't been tested in the place that they'll be operating, which is a big bone of contention for people still against this.

PHILLIPS: You think, there you go, folks still against this, I was wondering about the residents? We can't forget the Exxon oil spill and then we've mentioned B.P. What are residents saying about this?

MARQUEZ: Some are for it, some are for it reservedly, some are absolutely against it. You can see why. The Arctic has that short summer period. It is -- it literally is the cradle of life. The amount of life that goes up there, plankton which feed on fish and birds, it's an amazing chain of -- food chain and chain of life that then returns to the lower 48 and other parts of the world after that short summer period and people are very concerned if there's a spill, the currents will bring it around, bring it back on shore and could disrupt that very, very delicate balance -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.

Make sure you catch Miguel's special report "Cold Wars: The Fight For Arctic Oil" this week on "Erin Burnett, Out Front" 7:00 p.m. eastern.

Speaking of the Arctic, on this hot July day, hot July every day across our country, actually, I got to give a shout out to the coolest invention of all time, the A.C., Carrier air conditioner. It was 110 years ago today, July 17th, 1902, that Willis Carrier showed off the blueprints for his new-fangled invention to help a New York print shop keep its presses working in the stifling heat and humidity. The Carrier Company is still around today, by the way. So thanks, Willis. Can't imagine life without your invention.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's message on the nation's economy can be summed up with two words. Frustratingly slow, especially when it comes to jobs. Bernanke on Capitol Hill for a semiannual monetary police report say the economy's recovery is slowing and points to two big reasons -- Europe's financial crisis and Congress's inability to come to an agreement on the nation's finances. Following that event for you.

A stock market update, Dow Industrials down 40 points right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: His story showed us all what the American dream is about. And we couldn't get enough. So much so, we dubbed it Linsanity. You know who I'm talking about, Jeremy Lin. The Harvard grad who came out of nowhere to become a star for the New York Knicks. Well now his awesome story is taking yet another turn. The Knicks have to decide whether Lin stays or goes.

CNN's Richard Roth in New York.

So, why would Lin leave? $25 million big reasons.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: You don't go to Harvard University and not get knowledge of big business. Why would he leave? At least $25 million. And there may be other reasons. A lot of stars on this Knicks team after they got Jason Kidd, so Lin may like the fact that the limelight could be elsewhere and he will have more are of a free-flowing offense in Houston, a team which needs stars, used to have Yao Ming, a star from China. This is not over yet. The Knicks have until 11:59 tonight to hatch the Houston offer. There's a poison pill, the Knicks would be responsible for 40, $50 million extra under NBA luxury tax and contract rules that they would have to pay more than Houston. It may be all too much for a big spending Knicks team.

All right. But come on, you follow basketball. You've got inside scoop. You really think the Knicks will let him go to Houston?

ROTH: It's possible that they will. A lot of sports columnists are calling for it and we talked to one analyst who says he can't believe that the big spending Knicks, who gathered so much attention and Lin became a phenomenon, would actually leave.

PHILLIPS: One of the things about the Knicks, of all the problems the Knicks have had over the last 20 years, the one thing they've been good at is spending money. They've been willing to pay for talent and for big names. That's why it's so surprising they would draw the line in the sand now, the one global super star they've really had in the last 20 years, it's strange that this is the guy that they decide to pay.

ROTH: I saw Linsanity up close in bars and on the streets, fans who were never attending NBA basketball games, were drawn to Lin for his team style of play. He was filling in for a lot of absent stars on the Knicks. He only played around 25 games and the Knicks may decide they don't want to pay the millions to see if he really does pan out in the long run.

PHILLIPS: Now you mentioned, Richard, that the Knicks have added a couple guys to replace Lin, right? Wasn't one just busted for DWI?

ROTH: Yes. The man who was going to mentor Kin, Jason Kidd, the veteran guard from Dallas, was arrested for dui running into a telephone pole on long island, after a night out at the bar. Kidd is definitely a player who's a team player who could have helped Lin. It still may happen. The Knicks may feel we need all the stars we can get. Lin helped us make the playoffs even though he didn't do well against Miami in the regular season. They're ready to replace him if it comes to that. A lot of fans will be disappointed. Lin solved a major television dispute. You couldn't see Knicks games in Manhattan. Time Warner Cable and the Knicks parent company were at odds when Linsanity hit. There was such a clamor that the Knicks were put back on TV here in Manhattan.

PHILLIPS: He's got some pull, that's for sure, and a heck of a shot.

Richard Roth, we will follow this story, of course. And Jeremy Lin's salary will jump from $760,000 this past season to more than $8 million a year for the next three seasons. And the ironic part of the whole thing, the Knicks picked up Lin for scrap, basically, after he was cut loose by you guessed it, the Houston Rockets.

If you're leaving the House right now, a reminder you can continue watching CNN from your mobile phone and also watch CNN live from your desk top. Go to CNN.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: President Obama and his wife, Michele, are used to being on camera and in the spotlight, but probably not quite like this. Cameras were rolling as the Obamas were watching an Olympic exhibition basketball game last night. You're going to se what happened here. Here we go. Go in for it. OK. There's more to this, promise. Why is everybody clapping? They were on the kiss cam. Where's the video of the kiss cam? It didn't happen just once. But it happened twice. That's right. He went in for a second smooch. The first time around, the crowd booed after the Obamas shied away from showing a little PDA. I guess, you know, second time is a charm. What about Biden? He wasn't kissing anybody there.

Let's be realistic here, the majority of us are obsessed with losing weight but don't want to put the hard, sweaty painstaking work into it. We want a quick fix. Like a magic pill that will make those pounds go poof. What is the deal with this new drug called Qnexa? Am I saying that right?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You are saying it right.

PHILLIPS: So let's talk about how the drug works, how does it make you feel, what do we know about it?

COHEN: This is a drug that we expect might get an approval from the FDA today. I think this is going to be a drug that a lot of people will be hearing a lot more about. So, let's talk about how much weight you lose. That's what everyone wants to know. They don't care how it works. They want to know how much am I going to lose.

What's it going to do for me? In the studies they did it on obese people. They started on average 227 pounds, went down to 204 pounds. They also did, you know, they were counseled to eat well and exercise and all that and they kept that weight off for two years. So that's a pretty significant weight loss. That's actually more than you see with some other diet pills.

PHILLIPS: What exactly is in it and do we know if it's safe? I mean, are these pills ever 100 percent safe?

COHEN: Right. Let's talk about what's in it for a minute. Remember fen phen?

PHILLIPS: And the people that died.

COHEN: The safer half of fen phen is in there, called phentermine, and it's an appetite suppressant. The other half is called topiramate, an anti-anxiety medicine, of all things, and that -- once you start eating that makes you feel fuller faster. It's called a safe drug, and sort of like a nice side effect of the anti- seizure medication.

You asked me about side effects.

There are side effects. And that was the problem with fen phen, people didn't pay attention to those soon enough. Let's talk about what those are up front. They did find in studies it increased some people's heart rate and it also was linked for some people to confusion and language problems, which is sort of an interesting thing for a diet pill. And when women have taken it in other drugs, there's been an increased risk of cleft lip and cleft palate. Women taking this, they're supposed to be counseled to be on birth control, supposed to be on birth control when taking this diet pill. In the clinical trials they were also told not to take -- not to get pregnant and to use birth controls, 34 women got pregnant.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

COHEN: There's a concern that women aren't going to listen to this or their birth control will fail and there could be problems, right.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow it. Definitely.

Elizabeth, thanks so much.

Also go for more on this story, to CNNhealth.com.

And good news for all of you Fleetwood Mac fans. We're going to go back on tour next year. 64-year-old Stevie Nicks -- can you believe she's 64? Still sounds amazing. Band members haven't appeared together since 2009, but there have been rumors of a reunion for quite some time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Want to take a look at Mexico now. A suspect connected with that brutal attack at a Christian camp in central Mexico has been arrested. It happened near the town of Chalco in Mexico state just about 22 miles southeast of Mexico City. Police say five girls were raped and several teenage boys beaten. The vicious attack is another example of how violence against women is surging, surging in a state that until last year was governed by the man who will be Mexico's next president, Enrique Pena Nieto. During his six years in office, human rights groups say more than 1,000 women were killed, nearly half of those cases unsolved. Just last year, every day, two women on average were murdered or went missing in Mexico State.

Joining me now, our senior Latin-American affairs editor, Rafael Romo.

Boy, that's a long title, Rafael, to get that down. You know, let me just, because you were born and raised in Mexico, I lived there for a while. Violence against women is nothing new.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, it's nothing new. I was taking a look at a record by amnesty international that says that between 1985 and 2009 there were 34,000 murders, women killed, in many cases very violently. And also when it comes to the crime of rape, in 2009, alone, there were 15,000 cases reported. Amnesty international says that many cases went unreported and they estimate the actual number may be 74,000, but the problem here, Kyra, is when those cases are reported, what do authorities do? We find and amnesty international say that in most cases, the prosecutions don't really go all the way through, only less than 3,000 cases actually resulted in conviction.

PHILLIPS: Why is that? Why is it? Is it culture? Is it lack of training? Is it lack of education? Why is there this surge in violence against women?

ROMO: Well, Mexico is undergoing, I would call it a revolution in training when it comes to the police. A lot of police officers used to lack the most minimal sensitivity when it came to a crime like rape or sexual abuse. Women would go to the police and they would say, oh, you might have done something to deserve this that happened to you. That is changing very slowly for sure, but that is changing. But in this case that we saw in Mexico, it was just so sad. This Christian group going to a park. It's supposed to be a safe area near Mexico City and they get attacked by armed men in the middle of the night.

PHILLIPS: A suspect already arrested. Do we know anything about this suspect in connection to this?

ROMO: There's one suspect that has been arrested. Not one of the perpetrators, but somebody who might have given information to the group at large. And what authorities say is that this is a group that is known in the area because they've committed crimes before and they know, they say, who they are, and it's just a matter of time before they arrest them. PHILLIPS: It's going to be interest to see how the new president of Mexico handles this as well. Not a good track record, according to human rights.

ROMO: Big challenge for sure.

PHILLIPS: OK. We'll follow it. Rafael, thanks so much.

I know that you'll be following this story as well. Go to CNN.com and follow it in our international section.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: U.S. officials are expressing condolences this morning after a navy fuel supply ship fired on a small boat in the Persian Gulf. One person was killed. Three others wounded. United Arab Emirates said they were Indian fishermen. U.S. military says at least one warning shot was fired before other shots disabled that boat.

And video you will not believe. Watch closely now. 7-year-old New York girl dancing on an air-conditioning unit outside her third floor apartment and she lost her balance. Now, Steve St. Bernard, yes, the same name as the rescue dog, was there no grab her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE ST. BERNARD, RESCUED GIRL: I ran over there, hoping that she wouldn't fall, and when I got there, she was still standing there and I just, like, positioned myself, hopefully I would catch her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the girl wasn't hurt and St. Bernard, who says he's no hero, did suffer an arm injury but says he's going to be OK.

And before we let you go, remembering a country legend who sang all the songs we women could relate to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, "Cheating Hearts," tangled affairs, ugly divorces. Kitty Wells sang about the taboo subjects at the time. In 1952, she was the first female singer to actually reach number one on the country charts. Recording 50 albums, and blazing the trail for females struggling to make it in a male-dominated genre. The queen of country music died yesterday after complications from a stroke. Kitty Wells was 92.