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Obama on Asian Tour; Why Did Ferry Sink?; Buffett Speaks Out about Minimum Wage; Obama in Malaysia; Search for Flight 370; Measles Making a Comeback; Catholic Church to Canonize New Popes; Baby Bear Left at Doorstep

Aired April 26, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, serving in different ways. And so there's an ebb and a flow, and who knows if there's -- you know, high tide is set in for the Bush family. I don't think so. I think the tide is still rising.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORGER: Both Bush and Clinton have said they're going to make a decision by the end of the year, Fred, so we'll know then whether we're going to see a replay of Bush versus Clinton.

Back to you.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's all fascinating. Thank you so much, Gloria.

And we have much more straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM which begins right now.

Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. And here are the top stories we're following in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Fears of an imminent invasion of Ukraine are growing with allegations Russia violated the country's airspace overnight. Will new sanctions stop Vladimir Putin's aggression?

A historic day in the making as Pope Francis gets ready to elevate not just one but two Popes into sainthood. We'll go live to the Vatican for a preview.

And it's a potentially deadly disease that shouldn't even be on the radar anymore. But measles are making a comeback. How a push against vaccines could be at the heart of this dangerous trend.

Our top story right now, at least nine million people could be at the mercy of possible deadly tornadoes in the U.S. and storms this weekend. Several violent tornadoes ripped through parts of North Carolina just last night. They shredded and damaged several homes. Folks there are now cleaning up and trying to salvage what they can today. One person had to be taken to the hospital with a traumatic injury and at least four others were injured. A man who survived the storm says it was a total mess.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL GAY, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: It was the roughest night. It was like a complete fog of heavy rain. I mean, it was so intense. Everything was bending down under the pressure of it. Stuff was flying everywhere. It was a total mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is at the CNN Severe Weather Center.

So, Karen, which areas of the country are in the next potential bull's eye?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We got millions over the next several days and this particular one for today is right across the central United States from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, all the way into North Central Texas, right around the Dallas area, also towards San Antonio.

That shifts a little bit towards the east going into Sunday. And then into Monday, even a little bit further towards the east. It's a fairly slow-moving weather system, but very vigorous and dangerous consequences as far as the atmosphere is concerned.

Here is that yellow shaded area between five and 10 million people potentially effected by an outbreak, a slight risk of severe weather, high winds, heavy rain, heavy downpours expected. Also the potential for an isolated tornado. But we have a moderate risk going into Sunday. This includes the area from southern Missouri towards the Ark-La-Tex, that's Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas.

Watch out, that could be upgraded to a high risk, meaning the potential is definitely there. Then we move it towards the east, as we go in towards Monday. So this system is not giving up any time soon. Warm, moist air coming up from the south. Behind it cooler, dryer air. Those thunderstorms, the tornadoes which touched down in eastern sections of North Carolina not associated with this system at all, but we've had a slow start to the tornado season, the severe weather season.

Heavy rainfall across this region, high winds. But you saw the damage from those tornadoes which touched down in Elizabeth City. We're just now beginning the severe weather season. If you've got a NOAA weather radio, you need to pay attention, listen to it. If a warning is issued, that means severe weather has been spotted. If a watch is issued, it means conditions are favorable.

But then you can see this real spike in the threat for tornadoes through the months of April, May, and into June. They start to taper off into July.

So, Fred, we've got a lot on our plate. We're going to continue to have coverage throughout the afternoon. Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is going to be here starting in the 2:00 hour Eastern Time. We have lots to tell you about. Lots to stay on top of. WHITFIELD: All right. Karen Maginnis, thank you so much. Folks really need to pay attention to those warnings as you mentioned.

All right, meantime, overseas, President Barack Obama has a lot on his plate as he visits Malaysia today as part of his Asia tour. The missing airliner is weighing heavily on that nation and as Obama extends his sympathies there, the crisis in Ukraine, a continent away, is also demanding his attention.

Erin McPike is live for us right now at the White House.

So, Erin, let's begin with the missing plane and what the president has said about it while overseas.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, President Obama spoke to the global impact of this missing plane. And I want to read part of those comments to you that he made to the "Star." He said, "Any time there is a tragedy like this, we ought to also reflect on what can be done going forward to prevent something similar from happening again. That discussion has begun in Malaysia and around the world. And we'll see what improvements might be recommended to continue improving aviation security."

Now he also pointed out that the United States was one of the very first countries to get involved in the search and in the investigation, and even as we're hearing that those the search efforts could begin to wind down, he committed the United States to helping in the search efforts and also that the FBI will continue to investigate what caused the plane to disappear -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then the other issue, a bubbling issue, Ukraine. How is the president addressing it?

MCPIKE: Well, Fred, he's continuing to talk about more sanctions. He's escalating the rhetoric, threatening more tougher sanctions against Russia. And so far the State Department is insisting that even though we're seeing that Russia has not yet begun to back down, the State Department is insisting that those sanctions are having a very chilling effect in slowing Russia's economy.

And over the past month or so, the United States has been trying to get European leaders specifically on board with ratcheting up those sanctions. Well, that effort appears that it's working.

I want to read a new statement to you from the G-7 leaders, they say, "We have now agreed that we will move swiftly to impose additional sanctions on Russia. Given the urgency of securing the opportunity for a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine's presidential elections, we have committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions and measures to increase the cost of Russia's actions."

Now we do know also that European leaders will meet Monday to iron out what that could look like. And we may see new sanctions as early as Monday -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Erin McPike, thanks so much from the White House.

And there are new developments in Ukraine that have the tension in that country escalating. Ukraine's prime minister, in fact, says Russian military aircraft violated their airspace seven times last night. And now G-7 leaders, as Erin was just alluding to, say they will discuss a new round of sanctions on Monday.

Let's bring in Arwa Damon who is in eastern Ukraine. She's in the divided city of Donetsk.

So, Arwa, in addition to these actions, Russia has thousands of troops near the border and pro-Russian militants are not laying down their arms and going home. So from what you have seen, is there potentially an all-out war developing?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's what people here are very afraid of because it's difficult to see how this stalemate is going to end, given how polarized and determined all sides are to hold on to their various positions. The government in Kiev has dispatched the military in the second phase of this so-called anti-terrorism operation, but we haven't seen any real significant military movement.

The tensions have been increasing here on a daily basis. You mentioned the Russian troop presence on the other side of the border. Tens of thousands of Russian troops. Russia also undertaking training exercises, saying that that is in direct response to what's been happening here. And also according to the Ukrainian government, the prime minister, Russia has even gone so far as to violate Ukrainian airspace.

Here is what he said earlier in Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARSENIY YATSENYUK, UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: We urge Russia to pull back its security forces, not to provoke and not to support Russian- lead terrorists that are located and deployed in eastern and southern Ukraine. We urge Russia to leave us alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: Now Russia has denied that it did, in fact, violate Ukrainian airspace and Russia also continues to deny that it is involved in what is happening in eastern Ukraine. However, Russia has continued to maintain that it does reserve the right, that should the need arise, it will take measures to protect its interests and the Russian speaking population -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then, Arwa, the G-7 nations meeting Monday to apply more sanctions. Will it take more than just sanctions, though, for Ukraine to get its land back, to get Russia to retreat from the border?

DAMON: It seems like it will at this stage. You know, this is going to be the second round of sanctions that the U.S. and other European countries are slapping on the Russians. The first round did have an effect. Russia was forced for the second month to increase its interest rates, but the Russian government is saying that it believes that it can actually weather these sanctions. And what also has to remember that potentially it's not just Russia that's going to be impacted. The European Union and Russia do have very close trade ties and Europe relies on Russia for about a third of its natural gas supplies, so there's still quite a few cards that all sides have to play.

WHITFIELD: Arwa Damon, thank you so much.

All right, next, the sinking of that South Korean ferry, it's a heartbreaking disaster. But should the ferry company have learned some valuable lessons from another sinking that ended much differently?

And it is a highly infectious disease that had almost fallen by the wayside. But now fears of a link between vaccines and autism are helping it make a dangerous comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Divers are waiting for the waters off Jindo, South Korea to calm down before actually resuming the search for victims of last week's ferry disaster. That search was suspended today because of bad weather.

One diver says he is searching for those victims like he would for his own children. 115 people are still missing. And on Friday they found the bodies of 48 girls huddled together in one room. 187 people are confirmed dead. Fifteen crew members, including the captain, had been arrested for, quote, "causing death by abandoning ship."

As for what caused the wreck, investigators are looking into how alterations to the ferry may have made it less stable and prone to capsizing.

Here's Kyung Lah looking at a nearly identical ship and the safety lessons its Japanese makers may have learned from another disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Sewol ferry sinking with hundreds of people trapped inside, shocking Korea and the world. But in Japan this is deja vu.

November 13th, 2009. A Japanese ferry named Ariake was traveling from Tokyo to Okinawa. Less than 12 hours into the journey -- the ocean current was very rough, says Professor Yukata Watanabe, a marine scientist. He says the current shifted the Ariarke's cargo to one side, causing the ship to capsize.

The Ariarke ferry doesn't just look like the Korean ferry accident. The two ships were made by the same builder, run by the same operator. They weighed almost the same and capsized nearly the same time into their journey. But here's a major difference, says Professor Watanabe. When the Koreans bought the ferry from Japan, they expanded it to pack in more people, turning it into a ticking time bomb.

"The Koreans bought a used vessel from Japan and added lots of cabins," says Watanabe, and the cabins were built on top.

The Japanese ferry accident had only 29 passengers and crew aboard, and the crew saved everyone, pulling them to the upper deck and deploying all the lifeboats. In the wake of its ferry accident, Japan toughened ship regulations to lockdown and limit cargo, especially in poor weather or currents. Since that change in the law, Japan has had zero accidents in vessels of this size.

The Korean ferry company appears not to have known much about the risks of cargo and the current. It bought the Japanese ship in 2012, refitted it to carry hundreds more passengers, and launched it as the Sewol, the doomed ferry that carried the passengers to a disaster Japan had already learned to prevent.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Jindo, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And he is one of the biggest names in business. So what does Warren Buffett think about the push to raise the minimum wage? His answer just might surprise you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: To raise or not to raise, we're talking about the federal minimum wage. Several cities and states have made the move and President Obama wants Congress to raise it from $7.25 an hour to more than 10 bucks an hour. But is that the right move?

Poppy Harlow posed that question to business magnet Warren Buffett, and got a rather surprising answer from him.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Fredricka. Well, I sat down with Warren Buffett this week at a restaurant in New York City. And we talked a lot about the minimum wage debate. Federal minimum wage in this country is $7.25 an hour right now. And the issue of whether or not it should be raised is one that Buffett has thought about for a long time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Should federal minimum wage be raised?

WARREN BUFFETT, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: That's the toughest question you've asked me because I thought about it for 50 years. And I don't know the answer on it.

HARLOW: Really?

BUFFETT: Well, I just don't -- in economics, you always have to say and then what, and the real question is, are more people going to be better off, you know, if it is raised. And I don't know the answer to that. I know that if you raise the earned income tax credit significantly that that would definitely help people that got the short sticks in life, but you do lose some employment as you increase the minimum wage.

You know, if you didn't, I would be for having it be $15 an hour. If you actually got the same result in all other ways, but you won't. And I don't know the tradeoffs.

HARLOW: But is $7.25 an hour a living wage in this country?

BUFFETT: No, I think it's terrible. $7.25 an hour is not what should be what people are trying to live on in a country as prosperous as ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Now it's important to keep in mind that some states have a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage, and many companies do pay above minimum wage. Buffett is warning raising minimum wage could cost jobs. He suggests altering the tax system to give those with more moderate incomes a boost.

Now in this interview we also talked about jobs of course. Many higher paying industries like manufacturing, et cetera, have shrunk as technology has improved. But interestingly, Buffett says that shift is not a bad thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: What do you do in a day and age where iPads can replace certain jobs and they are?

BUFFETT: Yes. It's always good to replace jobs. In --

HARLOW: Always good to replace jobs?

BUFFETT: Yes. I mean, you know, we had -- I don't know if it was 70 percent of people working on farms, just think of the number of jobs we got rid of.

HARLOW: Right.

BUFFETT: If you told people then we're going to get rid of, it's going to be 2 percent someday or 3 percent, maybe 3 percent, they'd say the world is going to go to hell. But you want to free up people for other things. I mean, the less people it takes to build a car, the better off we are.

HARLOW: Will they have those other jobs to go to?

BUFFETT: Well, that's always been the question, when the tractor came along and the combine, and when they put robots in auto factories or whatever.

HARLOW: Right.

BUFFETT: People always say, well, where are they going to go? The market system has found places for most of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: But of course the challenge is finding that new job, especially right now, just ask the more than 10 million Americans who are out of work currently. But Buffett emphasized he has faith in the market system and says it has worked in the past.

We talked about a lot more in the interview, including his thoughts on the 2016 presidential race. You can see all of that at CNN.com and CNNmoney.com -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much for that, Poppy Harlow.

All right. President Obama is in Malaysia today as part of his four- country Asian tour. And the economy is likely to be a critical topic. Obama got a warm welcome at a dinner with the prime minister and the country's supreme king in Malaysia. But tomorrow, it's time to get down to business. Obama will meet with the prime minister and then both will be holding news conferences.

CNN's Richard Quest asked the prime minister this week, in fact, about that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: What was the message that you will be giving to President Obama?

NAJIB RAZAK, MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER: Is that we want to be friendly with both United States and with China, and that we expect the two super powers to play a productive and positive role in the region.

QUEST: Good luck. They both want you on their side, perhaps to the exclusion of the other. You know that.

RAZAK: Well, that's life. You just have to manage the two super powers. Do we need to choose? I don't think we need to choose. We need both. We need America's market, technology, America is the strongest super power. And we need China. China is our largest trading partner. And mind you, you know, the economic relationship between United States and China is also quite strong. So you know, we have to be realistic about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The prime minister and President Obama will hold a news conference at 1:15 on Sunday afternoon in Malaysia. That makes it 1:15 a.m. Eastern Time. And we'll have live coverage of that right here on CNN.

All right. Also, up next, distress beacons are supposed to start transmitting in the case of a plane crash. But the ones on board Flight 370 apparently never went off. What could that mean? Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, bottom of the hour. Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the big stories crossing the CNN news desk right now.

It has now been 51 days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished, and as Malaysian leaders are trying to move the investigation forward, they're also hosting President Barack Obama in their country. He arrived in Malaysia earlier today.

Obama is the first U.S. president to visit the country since Lyndon Johnson. He was welcomed at a state dinner with the Malaysian prime minister and the country's king.

And Russia said its foreign minister and Secretary of State John Kerry have talked on the phone about the crisis in Ukraine. Russian officials issued a statement saying Sergey Lavrov stressed the need for the Ukrainian military to crease military operations against the pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country. Those groups have seized land and government buildings and have refused to give them up.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's prime minister says Russian military aircraft crossed into and violated Ukrainian airspace last night. Russia has denied violating the airspace.

And Catholics around the world are preparing for a historic event tomorrow. For the first time ever, the church will canonize two Popes on the same day. Pope Francis will lead the special ceremony. At least a million pilgrims are expected to attend that event in St. Peter's Square.

And incredible images coming to us out of Illinois. This is all that's left of a home in suburban Chicago. Authorities say an explosion possibly caused by a gas leak leveled the house and damaged 30 other homes nearby. But amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. The explosion could be heard two towns away.

Police in Milford, Connecticut, are investigating the stabbing death of a 16-year-old girl. Maren Sanchez died after being slashed in the neck, chest and face in the school stairwell. She was set to attend her prom that night. A classmate is under arrest and faces a murder charge. The prom was postponed, but in an emotional moment, students all in their formal wear gathered around the prom dress that Sanchez would have worn. Friends describe her as a bright light full of hopes and dreams.

Officials are re-evaluating now what to do next in the search for Flight 370 but it could mean heading north. The Bluefin-21 drone has covered 95 percent of the designated search area, but so far has come up with nothing. And if it comes up completely empty handed, officials say it will move to an area where a separate ping was picked up. It has been 51 days now since Flight 370 went missing. Malaysia's Transportation minister says he'll release a full report of the disappearance to the public next week. It includes safety recommendations for better tracking systems in planes.

The families of the missing passengers have demanded the release of that report and they've also asked for answers to a series of questions including this one. Why weren't there any signals from the emergency beacons that are supposed to go off upon impact of water or land?

Brian Todd explores what that could mean.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we're told by sources there were four of these devices called Emergency Locator Transmitters on board the missing plane. They're supposed to send out locator signals on impact or if there's sudden deceleration. But not one burst was sent out from Flight 370.

Could the reasons why these didn't work lead us closer to finding out what really happened?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): It's one of the most baffling questions in an already confounding mystery. Why didn't any emergency beacons on the missing plane send a distress signal? They're called Emergency Locator Transmitters, ELTs. And Malaysian officials say there were four of them on the plane.

JEFF WISE, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The Emergency Locator Transmitter is a small radio transmitter that sends a signal that's detected by satellites in the event of an airplane crash.

TODD: Signals sent by ELTs to satellites are then relayed to monitoring stations on the ground. The ELTS are not related to the pinger, the signal coming from the black boxes containing the flight recorders. These beacons are designed to be activated if they sense extreme deceleration or by impact.

Those are circumstances which could have played out with Flight 370, but experts say there are other possible scenarios with the missing plane where the ELTs would not have worked.

WISE: If the plane crashes with too much velocity into the surface so that the entire plane is disintegrated. Also if the plane lands gently enough, for instance, in the case of Captain Sullenberger, the miracle on the Hudson, if the plane set down gently enough that there wasn't such a G-force to activate the ELTS.

TODD: Other reasons why those beacons wouldn't have worked? A crash could have broken the ELTs' antennas. Also there's a time lag after impact. It takes 50 seconds for the first signal to be transmitted.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Even after it hits the water, it has to stay afloat for more than 50 seconds, or they won't -- they won't do either.

TODD: So even two ELTs placed near the plane's life rafts and triggered by contact with salt water might be useless. That's because ELTs don't work underwater.

WISE: Once these things become submerged, the radio signal is no longer able to reach the satellite.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Could the Emergency Locator Transmitters on board Malaysia Air Flight 370 had been tampered with? Well, experts say two of the transmitters that are attached to the fuselage probably would have been inaccessible to anyone on board. But two near that are the life rafts which are portable could have been tampered with -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Brian Todd, thank you so much.

Let's bring in our panel now, CNN safety analyst, David Soucie, and aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

So, you know, Mary, let me begin with you just to revisit this notion of that device. I know we talked about it a couple of weeks ago as to what happened that it wouldn't go off. And now we're listening to Brian Todd's report and Jeff Wise's theory of maybe that plane could have landed so gently that perhaps it didn't go off?

Do you have any new thoughts as we have to now revisit, you know, the whole resetting of this entire investigation?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Right. Well, you know, those -- you know, the recent piece was very good explaining what might have happened. But there are two more things that might have happened, too. One, we don't know when they last changed the batteries, when they last checked on the batteries on these ELT or EPIRBs, to make sure they were in functioning condition.

And some of the satellite algorithms and which particular satellites these EPIRBs and ELTs were going to signal to did change a few years back. And so we don't know if they updated their service. And so there are additional reasons why even if they did go off, they might have not been received. So there's lots of mysteries.

But the Malaysian Airlines, of course, could solve that mystery by explaining when they last changed the batteries and what satellite locator service they were using and if they were current.

WHITFIELD: OK. And, David, how do you see this? We are in kind of a reset mode. Everything is being reconsidered. Everything is right back on the table, back to square one.

SOUCIE: Well, not really back to square one. I think that the finishing out -- searching for the pings right now of course is the best lead, and I still believe that that is where those pings came from, this aircraft, but back to Mary's point, I agree that there's reasons that the ELT wouldn't have sounded. However, I did check to see in their maintenance program that they do -- they do routinely check the batteries.

They have to be replaced every two years, which is sufficient for those -- for that type of ELT. And also that year of aircraft was sent from Boeing with the 406 megahertz ELTs, which is the frequency that's measured by the satellites, so that makes it a little bit more curious as to why they didn't go off.

WHITFIELD: OK. And now a few things to look forward to next week. We've heard from the Malaysian authorities who say they are now going to release a report, make it public so as to help appease or answer some of the questions of the family members.

Mary, what could be in this report that might comfort family members?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think what's going to be in the report are just the facts. The preliminary reports are usually bare bones. They try to put in there only things that they know for sure and as best as we can tell, they don't know a lot of things for sure. It will have the basics about the flight, when it took off, and the equipment, and the last known contact, et cetera, and so it will be a little disappointing in that it won't be very long or detailed.

What is encouraging is the prime minister had indicated that they were going to include to a recommendation and in fact I think it was going to be a recommendation to beef up security of the cockpit, so that's kind of different. Ordinarily you don't get the recommendations until the end of the investigations so they feel strongly enough about that to include that. And that's certainly helpful to get changes under way now while the focus of the world is upon them.

WHITFIELD: And then one of the other recommendations potentially, David, is going to be so that there is a better way to track these planes live as it is happening.

Do you feel like this is kind of cart before the horse? This is -- these recommendations coming too soon? Number one priority should be let's find the plane?

SOUCIE: Not -- well, I think we have concurrent priorities for sure. And this is really unique in the history of aviation in that they're taking action before the accident report comes out. And I really am proud of how the aviation community is responding to this, both Malaysia Air and the entire aviation, commercial aviation industry in taking action, getting recommendations out.

I know -- I know that many airlines have already started changing these pingers from 30 to 90-day pingers, which will be available next month more readily. So I think they're already taking action.

WHITFIELD: Wow. OK, David, Mary, thank you so much. We'll talk with you again later on. Appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. It is a potentially deadly disease that was considered eradicated here in the U.S. But now measles is making a comeback. We'll tell you why and what you might be able to do to help stop it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A deadly respiratory disease appears to be spreading in Saudi Arabia. Health officials said on Friday 14 new cases of the Middle East respiratory symptom Corona virus were diagnosed in a 24- hour span. And five of those people died. Saudi Arabia officials have called on the World Health Organization to meet this month to address this virus. The virus is in the same family as the common cold, but not much else is known about it.

All right. And back here at home, American hospitals are seeing a disturbing increase in the number of patients with measles, a disease that had been nearly wiped out.

Stephanie Elam is following the story from the center of an outbreak in California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ERIC G. HANDLER, ORANGE COUNTY HEALTH CARE AGENCY: This is a highly infectious disease.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may start with a fever or a cough, but a splotchy red rash is its signature.

HANDLER: You're infectious four days before you even develop symptoms. So you may not know you're sick.

ELAM: Many people in the United States have never seen measles since it was all but eradicated a decade ago.

HANDLER: I have been practicing for over 30 years. I've seen it. I know what to look for. But the new physicians haven't seen it. So part of the campaign that public health has been doing is to make sure that they know what to look for.

ELAM: In California, the number of confirmed cases has risen in the last couple of years. So far this year, 58. In Orange County alone, the number of cases has skyrocketed.

HANDLER: We had 22 cases here in Orange County. That's a lot more than we normally have. We've had over the past five years no more than one or two cases a year.

ELAM: Why the sudden outbreak? The reason is the growing number of parents refusing to vaccinate their children. Last year in California, there was a 15 percent increase of people opting out of immunizations. In Orange County, a 30 percent increase.

(On camera): Is there any reason to support this idea that vaccinations could be dangerous to children?

HANDLER: Absolutely not. There are serious consequences to having -- getting the measles.

ELAM (voice-over): So here they are trying to spread the word faster than the virus that vaccinations work.

HANDLER: The two immunizations, the MMR that you get, is almost 95 to 98 percent protective.

ELAM: There haven't been any new cases here in three weeks and more people are getting their shots. Maria Guadarno (ph) tells me she brought her children in for their immunizations two days after hearing about the outbreak.

HANDLER: Education can overcome these perceptions.

ELAM: Another reason for the outbreak is our shrinking world. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 93 percent of the people diagnosed with measles in California contracted it abroad or from someone who just returned from overseas.

HANDLER: Measles is pretty prevalent in other countries. So when you go and visit, you need to make sure that you're immunized.

ELAM (on camera): Dr. Handler says that the majority of the people that are opting out of vaccinations are in the more affluent parts of Orange County. But he's hopeful through education that their minds will be changed.

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Orange County, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Up next, it's history in the making at the Vatican. We'll go live to Rome for a preview of the ceremony that will elevate two former Popes to sainthood.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Catholics around the world are preparing for a historic event tomorrow. For the first time ever, the church will canonize two Popes on the same day. Pope Francis will lead the special ceremony. Today he met at the Vatican with Ukraine's acting prime minister. Several world leaders and tens of thousands of faithful are flocking to Rome for tomorrow's double canonization.

CNN's Delia Gallagher joins us live with more now where even more people have descended behind you.

So, Delia, at least a million pilgrims are expected to attend the sainthood ceremony tomorrow. But they're there today already. What's going on?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Many of them are already here as you can see behind me, Fredricka. I think the largest contingent so far is certainly from Poland. They're the most obvious because they're carrying the flags with the names of their hometowns on them. Many of them from Wadowice, which is Pope John Paul II's hometown.

As you mentioned, tomorrow many dignitaries are expected to attend the ceremony. You know, the Vatican doesn't issue invitations for this. It's come one, come all. So there's no official list of who will actually be attending. We're just finding out from various sources who will be here. Certainly the president of Poland, the president of Italy, and the royals from Spain are expected. And Pope Emeritus Benedict has confirmed that he will also be at the ceremony -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: This is a historic event clearly for Catholics but then it -- it has some significance for non-Catholics, to what degree?

GALLAGHER: Well, I think, you know, certainly there are non-Catholics who have respect for both of these Popes. In particular tomorrow there will be a big representation of the Jewish community. John XXIII opened the second Vatican council which issued a document on Catholic-Jewish relations which was considered fairly revolutionary for the Catholic Church.

John Paul II, we know, was the first Pope to enter a synagogue. He established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1994. So both of these figures not only for Catholics, also certainly for the Jewish community, are highly respected.

WHITFIELD: And can you give us kind of a thumbnail sketch of the ceremony tomorrow? What do we expect will happen?

GALLAGHER: Well, what happens is it's very formal Vatican ceremony. They do the litany of saints, long procession where they sing in Latin invoking all of the saints. They have the incense. They will have relics of John Paul II and John XXIII. The Pope is asked formally three times if he will canonize these two Popes and the third time then he pronounces the actual words of the canonization and all of this happens right at the beginning, just before the mass and then they will go into the regular mass.

So it should be a fairly long ceremony but one of those things that only they can do at the Vatican with all of the bells and incense, as it were.

WHITFIELD: Right. Very special place for many, many reasons.

All right, Delia Gallagher, thank you so much there in Rome.

And of course you can watch this canonization ceremony live beginning at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow morning right here on CNN.

All right. You've heard the old tale of the baby left in the basket on the steps of someone's house? Well, in California a couple opened their door to find this, a baby bear, waiting for them. The full and very fuzzy story next in the NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Now for an update on mortgages. Rates are down this week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: All right. Alison Kosik is up at the top of the hour with an all-new edition of "YOUR MONEY."

Alison, what do you have for us?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. We managed to stump the legendary Warren Buffett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUFFETT: That's the toughest question you can ask me because I've thought about it for 50 years and I don't know the answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Plus, how ex-convicts became Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. That's coming up at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on an all-new "YOUR MONEY".

WHITFIELD: All right. Cool stuff. We'll look for it. Thanks so much, Alison.

Hey, this, too, very cool. A California family looked out on their doorstep and what did they find but a bundle of joy. But as our Jeanne Moos reports, they're going to have to grin and bear it and then give it away.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is cute enough to lick. OK, maybe not quite that cute. But just imagine somebody dropping off this bear cub in front of your house.

ANN BRYANT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEAR LEAGUE: We look out on the front door step and there's a baby in the basket. Well, here is a baby in a dog kennel.

MOOS: Oops, this 10-week-old black bear cub still has trouble walking. Someone dropped her off last week at the home of the head of the Bear League who then took her to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.

CHERYL MILLHAM, CARETAKER: She doesn't have teeth yet. She can't eat. She would be dead.

MOOS: Sheryl and Tom Millham feed her special bear formula every four hours or so. But this is no Goldilocks story.

The experts theorize that this wee baby bear lost her mother maybe in a car accident, or perhaps to poachers, but whatever traumatic event happened, it hasn't stopped her from chortling.

BRYANT: It is just like a motor running. It's a contented sound.

MOOS (on camera): What the caretakers don't want is for the bear to bond with them so they try not to talk to her or hold her anymore than they have to.

MILLHAM: We don't cuddle her.

MOOS (voice-over): That's because in a year or less they hope to release her back into the wild. In the meantime, they're trying to figure out how she got here. The only clue so far, an e-mail.

BRYANT: It said, "I think I know where the cub came from."

MOOS (on camera): They want to find out where the bear is from because that is where they will eventually have to release her.

(Voice-over): California's Department of Fish and Wildlife requires release within 75 miles from the point of capture.

To give the bear a chance of survival, she's got some growing to do before she can graduate from stuffed animals to facing real ones. But she was born with wicked claws to stumper her up trees. Cute, but needs a mani-pedi, noted one fan. You can LOL, but she can chortle.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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WHITFIELD: Way cute. All right. We're wishing that little bear the best.

Hey, when the CNN NEWSROOM continues he says he has no idea how many people he saved but dozens of people may owe their lives to a South Korean fisherman who used his tiny boat to rescue them from that sinking ferry.

This story when the NEWSROOM returns in 30 minutes from now. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Stay tuned. Right now, time for "YOUR MONEY" with Alison Kosik.