Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Tips On How To Avoid Flu; CNN Travels With Insurgent Group In Iraq; Senator Kerry Focuses On 12 Battleground States In Final Campaign Push

Aired October 23, 2004 - 16:00   ET

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

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We hear a lot about the insurgents in Iraq. Today a CNN exclusive, CNN goes inside with one of the groups.
We also go inside the World Series. Game one tonight. Larry Smith is at Fenway where the Cards and the Sox are getting ready.

The World Series of beauty or scholarship loses its date for the prom.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Those stories and more coming up but first a look at the headlines.

A fantastic homecoming is on tap for a U.S. astronaut and a cosmonaut who lived aboard the international space station for six months. About an hour from now, the two, along with another cosmonaut will be undocking a Soyuz capsule from the station from their journey home.

Aftershocks are rattling already frazzled nerves in northwest Japan today. Three strong earthquakes have killed at least four people and injured more than 300 others. Some reports say as many as a half a dozen quakes have hit the area.

The U.S. military says a member of terror mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle is in U.S. custody in Iraq. An aide to the militant leader and five others were nabbed in a raid on a safe house in Fallujah today. More on that situation in Iraq coming up later.

Now to politics, just 10 days left in the presidential race. President Bush and Senator Kerry are spending the weekend racing from swing state to swing state, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida were on the senator's agenda. The president has spent the entire day in Florida. Our coverage starts in Jacksonville with White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, the president hits four different cities in one day, all Republican friendly areas. The president first hitting Ft. Myers, then Lakeland, Melbourne and then finally here in Jacksonville. The message of course is to try to get out the vote effort critical to a Bush win here. Of course, there was temporarily a scare, however, in Lakeland. That is where during the president's speech a small plane inadvertently violated restricted airspace. Two F-15 fighter jets rather were patrolling in the area, intercepted the Cessna, escort it to a local air field. We're told the pilot has been questioned and released. The White House saying the president was never in any danger. The president of course, as you know, Fred, keeping his message very consistent, saying to his supporters he does not believe that Kerry is fit to be commander in chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He used to understand that Saddam was a major source of instability in the middle east. After all he said so. When he voted to authorize force, the senator must have recognized the nightmare scenario that terrorists might somehow access weapons of mass destruction. Senator Kerry seems to have forgotten all of that as his position has evolved during the course of the campaign. You might call it election amnesia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The Kerry camper responding to the latest attack line saying certainly the voters will not forget or have amnesia when it comes to who to vote for during Election Day, election time and Fred, I should let you know the one wild card here of course is all those new registered voters, an 18 percent increase since the last presidential election. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Well, Suzanne, you have to wonder how embarrassing of a moment, an awkward of a moment it may have been for that violation of airspace. We're talking about this president touting how he is going to keep the U.S. grounds and airspace safer and here a violation just as he's about to speak.

MALVEAUX: Well, here's now the Norad and FAA respond to that. They say essentially that this is not unusual. This often happens where you'll have a plane, someone who does not realize those restrictions are in place for a particular event and they will inadvertently actually violate that airspace. They do not believe that it was a serious breach and that is the way that they are describing it today.

WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne Malveaux in Jacksonville, Florida with the president. Thanks so much.

Well the Republicans didn't have Florida all to themselves today. Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards also campaigned across the sunshine state. And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton attended several get out the vote rallies in south Florida. Senator Kerry arrives in Florida tonight after spending most of his Saturday campaigning in the west. Our correspondent Ed Henry is in Pueblo, Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the final sprint, John Kerry is focusing in on only about a dozen battleground states still up for grabs including Colorado, a Bush state in 2000. Kerry aides believe that they can carry it if they turn out the Hispanic vote. So Kerry appeared at a rally today along side Ken Salazar, an Hispanic Democrat who is leading in the U.S. Senate race here. Also the rally was in Pueblo, Colorado, which has the largest concentration of Hispanic voters in the state. And at this large rally, Kerry fired back at the president who in his Saturday radio address accused Kerry of having a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president keeps going around the country trying to scare people. He talks about only one thing, the only thing he wants to talk about is terror, the war on terror, national security. Well let me tell you something, if that's a debate we want to have, I'm prepared to have that debate because I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has.

HENRY: Despite those comments on national security, Kerry zeroed in on the domestic agenda and mocked President Bush's performance in the recent debates.

KERRY: You know, when it comes to jobs and healthcare and all these other things in that debate I kept hearing the president say, he would lean over the podium and he'd kind of look at you real nice like. And he would he say, it's hard work. It's hard work. It's hard work. Well I got news for you, Mr. President, I'm ready, I'm ready to relieve you of the hard work.

HENRY: Kerry completes his western swing with a stop today in Las Cruces, New Mexico where he also hopes to rally Hispanic voters. Then it's on to the mother of all battleground states, Florida where Kerry has a series of events on Sunday. Ed Henry, CNN, Pueblo, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Of course, the electoral vote is determined by the popular vote in the individual states and for Americans living overseas, casting that home state vote can be tricky, down right expensive and inconvenient. Jim Bittermann looks at what some Americans in Paris are going through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alexandra Hughes is an American opera singer who divides her time between Paris and New York. In 2000 when she tried to register for an absentee ballot, an election official told her there was no point since her vote wouldn't be counted anyway. So this election year, the performer is taking what might seem a fairly dramatic step. She is flying home just to vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately I don't trust the system. So I want to go back to protect the right that we have as Americans to vote.

BITTERMANN: While few Americans overseas may follow Hughes lead on Election Day, they certainly share both her skepticism and her tenaciousness -- essential, given the kinds of challenges overseas voters face. Take the case of the Ohio voter who discovered the address of his election board is incorrectly listed on the official Federal website. RON MOORE, LEGEN, GERMANY: I got my registration form, my request for an absentee ballot back unopened with a mark saying that the forwarding time had expired, that they couldn't forward this.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the Pennsylvania voter whose ballot has candidate Ralph Nader's name on it while a fellow Pennsylvanian's does not.

NANCY HUSTON, FRANKFURT, GERMANY: Official permission to print the ballots hadn't been given yet and yet mine was printed and sent.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the Colorado voter whose election supervisor was trying to mail her ballot to Thailand with a local stamp.

GARY SUWANNARAT, CHANGMAI, THAILAND I said, well, how much postage did you put on that? Oh, 60 cents just like we put on all of the ballots.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the California voter who was instructed to fill in a sample ballot, mail it in an envelope which could identify her and have faith that it would accurately be transferred to a punch card.

TAMARA BENICASA, PARIS: The country as big and as great as America shouldn't be having these banana republic problems.

BITTERMANN: There are reports of thousands of other problems overseas, ranging from a Texas voter who was sent a torn ballot and told to vote it anyway to two dozen Ohio voters who were sent ballots with John Kerry's name crossed off. In most cases the problems can be resolved before Election Day but if it's a close outcome there are batteries of lawyers standing by on both sides ready to examine every case looking for ways to influence the final result.

JOE SMALLHOOVER, DEMOCRATS ABROAD: Well, I think the potential for lawsuits is relatively high if the results of this election are anywhere near close.

MARK WALLACE, BUSH/CHENEY '04: I think you will see that the Republican side will actually be for the rule of law. But actually, absolutely make certain that those that can lawfully vote will cast their vote and that every vote is counted.

BITTERMANN In the end, while few of the 4 million Americans abroad will be taking the kind of drastic action opera singer Alexandra Hughes is to exercise her right to vote, many are having to be equally determined. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well here at home, will the hex be broken? Boston gets ready for game one of the World Series. Larry Smith joins us live from Fenway.

And the Mickey mantle restaurant got a temporary name change and Yankee fans, they are not so happy about that.

And how much do you think this pumpkin weighs? The answer when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Larry Smith from Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, coming up it is game one of the World Series, the 100th renewal of the fall classic. The Boston Red Sox versus the St. Louis Cardinals and tonight, game one of the best of seven series. What a match-up of these two outstanding franchises that both survived game seven thrillers to get to here in the World Series. Coming up in a little bit, I'll have a live report on this game, who will be pitching and why pitching will be so important, even though the offenses are outstanding in both teams. That's coming up on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We hear a lot about the insurgents in Iraq, but we never see much of them until now. A CNN stringer videotaped a band of men as they took on U.S. forces in a street fight in a village north of Baghdad. To bring us that exclusive report, our Karl Penhaul joins us now from Baghdad. Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, in the last few days, Pentagon intelligence sources have been telling us how their latest information shows that the Iraq insurgent movement is growing in size. It is getting better funded, better equipped, more sophisticated. What this shows is giving us some context to that it's an incident that we know what happened from the U.S. military's point of view. We know what happened from the Iraq insurgent's point of view, too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): Midmorning in the farming village of Bugarus (ph). Insurgent fighters from the so called 1920 brigade were engaged in a hit and run street fight with U.S. soldiers. Pentagon intelligence sources say that battling multiple groups motivated by a common agenda, anti-U.S. sentiment. They believe Iraq's resistance is getting better funded and better organized. But there are few clear signs of that here. Some are fighting barefoot. The weapons they are reloading are Soviet designs used by Saddam Hussein's army also cheaply available on the black market.

These fighters, men and boys are outgunned and outnumbered by coalition forces but they are bristling with confidence. We live and die by Allah's words, God willing, victory will be ours, he says. When they are not fighting, these insurgents say they have regular jobs as farmers, auto mechanics and truck drivers, adding they only grab their guns on Friday because coalition troops rolled into their village.

A U.S. Army quick reaction force pushed into Bugarus after the U.S. military says insurgents attacked a patrol on the outskirts. Seven people were killed and nine were wounded in the cross fire according to doctors at the hospital in nearby Bakuba (ph).

We were walking and we got shot at, me and my dad, he says. A U.S. military spokesman couldn't confirm any civilian casualties but said nine insurgents were killed, three wounded and one captured. As U.S. forces advanced, the 1920 brigade slips away down the winding back alleys it knows so well. A quick discussion of tactics and the fighters split up only to pop up minutes later blasting away from another street corner or ducking out of a house to unleash a rocket propelled grenade.

This insurgent sniper team clambers down from a vantage point. In a show of bravado they announce -- we got off on a high position and spotted these cowards he says. We killed two of them. They quickly changed their position after that. U.S. forces say they took no casualties. It's one of many daily skirmishes in Iraq's Sunni triangle. Resistance gunmen may not be able to defeat coalition troops, but they continue trying to bog them down in a messy guerilla war in Iraq's streets and back alleys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: You also have noticed in some of those images, there are young boys, young teenagers, we estimate doing not -- not doing the fighting but running ammunition from some rear area up towards the fighters who are on the street corners. That suggests, also, that not only has Iraq's insurgency grown according to Pentagon sources, but there are new apprenticeships there in training ready to take up guns once they completed their training. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Karl, was our stringer able to calculate whether the majority of those insurgents in the group that he accompanied, were they mostly Iraqis or were there even some who from across the border?

PENHAUL: No, indeed, the ones that our stringer there did accompany, appeared to all be Iraqi fighters. The name as well, the 1920 brigade indicates that this could be a group of Iraqi nationalists. Intelligence sources suggest some of those may even have been former regime elements from Saddam Hussein's regime, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul from Baghdad. Thanks so much.

A look at other news around the world now. In Afghanistan, a suicide attack on a busy shopping street in Kabul. At least seven people were injured including three international peacekeepers. Afghan police say the attacker had hand grenades strapped to his body.

Some Americans beef products could soon be back in grocery stores in Japan. The imports were stopped nearly a year ago because of the mad cow scare. Japan tentatively agreed today to resume imports of beef but only from younger cattle whose age can be verified. Those animals are believed to carry the lowest risk of mad cow disease.

And in Turin, Italy, Britain's Prince Charles visits one of the world's largest markets, the hall of taste. He sampled beer and delicacies from across the globe and chatted with a few food experts. Prince Charles is on an eight-day tour of Italy, Turkey and Jordan.

World Series play begins tonight with the Boston Red Sox squaring off against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fall classic. Game one is at Fenway Park in Boston seen here from outer space, this image. CNN's Larry Smith joins us live from Fenway, center of the sports universe right now. Hi, Larry.

SMITH: Hi Fredricka. Yes, it really is. In fact the city of Boston is electric with the first World Series game to be played in the city in 18 years now just a little over three hours away. Barricades have been set up outside the stadium for several hours. In fact, a little over an hour ago, I was outside near the players entrance and the fans behind the barricade, several deep, I mean, several hundred people there behind the barricade screaming every time a player drove into the parking area here at Fenway Park. Game one is tonight.

The Red Sox may be the sentimental favorite across the country to get a victory this best of seven series, 85 years without a title they've come in. But the Cardinals are a team not to be overlooked. St. Louis was the winningest team in the regular season in baseball and led the National League in hitting, finishing a close second in pitching. Their emotional, grueling seven game series win over Houston is less than 48 hours behind them, but the Cardinals are ready to fire up this chilly Boston evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY WALKER, CARDINALS OUTFIELDER: I don't think there's going to be -- if there's a letdown with (INAUDIBLE) on this team, somebody is going to smack somebody just to get them back going. This is the World Series, we're at Fenway Park and if you have a letdown here, you need to get a reality check.

TERRY FRANCONA, RED SOX MANAGER: The task at hand is all that's on our mind because the task isn't over. When it's over, we can sit back and think about a lot of things that I'm sure will bring a smile to my face, not yet, not even close to yet. We got a lot of work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: One smile to Terry Francona's face would be breaking the curse. Now everyone here at baseball knows what the curse is. Those around the country may not. The curse of the bambino (ph) goes like this. In 1920, Babe Ruth, you may have heard of him, pretty good hitter, also a good pitcher at one time for the Red Sox, was traded to the Yankees by a cash strapped Boston owner. The Yankees went on to win 26 World Series championships. The Red Sox ever since have won none. That's since 1920 and so the curse of the bambino. The Red Sox and their fans hope that this is the year they finally can break through and win their first World Series title since 1918 when Ruth was a part of the team. Fredricka. WHITFIELD: Wow and Larry you alluded in your tease how important pitching strategy is going to be. So the question for those Red Sox fans, you know, how is Curt Schilling's (ph) arm?

SMITH: Yeah, it really will be. In fact the one guy who is the ace in the hole throughout the American League championship series, Tim Wakefield, the knuckleball pitcher, 38 year old, makes his first ever World Series appearance. He will start for the Red Sox opposite Woody Williams of St. Louis. Both these offenses are so strong, the Red Sox, the top offensive team in all of baseball during the season. Both have been outstanding in the playoffs as well. So it may come down to pitching and relief pitching. Whoever's arm, whatever team's arms can last the longest in this with all those hits that we expect to happen, maybe the team that comes out on top at the end.

WHITFIELD: All right. Larry Smith, thanks so much. All eyes on Fenway Park tonight.

all right, time for a check of other stories making news across America now. As Shakespeare said, what's in a name? Apparently a lot. The owner of Mickey Mantle's restaurant in New York has taken down the Ted Williams banner he had hanging over the awning. It was in honor of the Sox win over the Yankees. But many Yankee fans - they were not so amused.

American Airlines says it will furlough as many as 650 maintenance workers in Kansas City and St. Louis. 450 pilots could also be affected by the cost cutting measure. American plans to trim its flight schedule by 5 percent starting next year.

The Dave Mathews band is trying to clean up a big stink it caused in Chicago. The city is suing the band because one of its charter buses emptied its septic tank on a passing tour boat on the Chicago River. The band is hoping a pair of $50,000 donations to the cit will help put the matter to rest.

And Charlie Brown's buddy Linus would be proud of this great pumpkin. It weighs 700 pounds and was supposed to be moved to a different California farm this weekend. How they got it on that truck we still haven't figured that one out.

A special report on Jews in Baghdad and the woman who helped them when we come right back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ZELON, HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY: I have been doing this work for 25 years. Baghdad and these people were different than everything. They were so few but they needed all of us so much and we just didn't know it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In 1948, there were reportedly 150,000 Jews in Iraq. By 2003, that number had dwindled to an estimated 100. One New York woman risked her life last year to help the tiny and forgotten community of Jews in Baghdad. CNN's Aaron Brown has this remarkable story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rachel Zelon arrived in Baghdad with the names of 35 Jews believed to still be in Iraq and hand drawn maps to where they lived. The list came from members of the Jewish community who had already fled.

RACHEL ZELON, HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY: We went to this home in what was once the Jewish section of Baghdad. We knocked on the door. And this 90-year-old gentleman comes outside and he is just charming. He just has these intense blue eyes and he speaks beautiful English because he had worked for the British railways in the '50s until they fired him because he was Jewish. And we went in and we talked with him and what I saw was this lovely charming delightful man who lived in a tiny room. It was just heartbreaking.

BROWN: But not as heartbreaking as some.

ZELON: Regina was 75 years old. And Regina has such terrible curvature of the spine, that she literally is bent in half all the time. And she lived up a steep flight of stairs. With no running water and so she had a little faucet at the bottom of the stairs and she would have to sort of crawl up the stairs and step by step move a pail in front of her.

During that week we saw a lot of people and a lot of elderly people in the small community living very, very poor conditions with little or no medical care at all.

BROWN: A week later, Rachel returned to Baghdad to see who in the Jewish community there would like to leave.

ZELON: We went and saw Sasoon (ph) and sat down with him in his little room and I said, would you like to go to Israel? He finally looked at me and he said, I'm 90 years old, and every day I get weaker. I'm just not that strong and my heart isn't very good. And I'm afraid that I'll die. He said I think it's better if I just stay here and I started to cry.

And I looked at him and I said, it will break my heart to leave you but I understand. That was a Wednesday. And on Friday I just -- I wanted to go visit him. And he came to the gate that day and he just - he wasn't right. We became very worried. And he said, no, come inside and we put cold compresses on his head and on his neck because he was just burning up. So about 2:00 in the afternoon he sort of opens his eyes and I'm sitting there and I'm holding his hand and he looked at me and he goes, if I go with you, do I need a passport?

I looked at him and I said, no, no, you don't need anything. Don't worry. He closed his eyes and he went back to sleep. And about an hour later he opened his eyes again, and he looked at me and he goes, if I go with you, do I have to do any bureaucratic things? I said no, no, no. I'll handle everything. I promise. You won't have to do a thing. He just closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

So Sunday morning comes and OK, let's go see how he is. We were very worried he wasn't going to make it, he was so sick. He comes to the gate on Sunday morning and he just his old self and he opens the gate and looks at me. Where were you yesterday? I was so worried about you.

And I just gave him a big kiss and I said, oh, I told you I couldn't make it yesterday. I said but you look better. He goes, oh, I feel fine. I told you I would be fine. About 15 minutes into our conversation, he looked at me and he said, you know, I would never break your heart. And I said, I looked at him quizzically. I'm going to come with you to Israel, he said. I realize I really need to be taken care of. I said and we will take care of you, I promise.

BROWN: Nine Jews left Baghdad on two chartered flights last year in July and November, the departures intense and emotional. At 90, Sasoon (ph) walked away from everything he had ever known to board an airplane for the first time in his life.

ZELON: You know, I've been doing this work for 25 years. Baghdad and these people were different than everything. They were so few but they needed all of us so much and we just didn't know it.

BROWN: Regina, the woman bent in half from the curvature of her spine, walked off the plane in Israel in bare feet. With proper medical care her health began to rebound immediately.

ZELON: A few months after Sasoon got to Israel, I happened to be in Israel again and I went to visit him in the home for the aged that he was living in. He had put on 20 pounds and his hair was long and it was so wonderful to see him and we were sitting there and we were talking at this table in the home and all of a sudden a telephone starts to ring. And we're looking around trying to find a telephone and Sasoon reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cell phone and says, hello and it was just the most wonderful thing. It was -- it is like, oh, this really was worthwhile. We did good here.

BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In news from the fight for Iraq, the U.S. believes it has captured a member of insurgent leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle. It happened during a predawn raid today in Fallujah. Five other men identified as terrorists were captured. Also in Iraq today, a pair of suicide car bombings left at least 12 Iraqis dead. The attacks targeted a police station and a security checkpoint.

Nothing more has been heard about the fate of a kidnapped official of CARE International. Margaret Hassan disappeared last Tuesday. Friday al Jazeera ran a videotape showing Hassan pleading for her life.

Although the daily news from Iraq is filled with kidnappings and fighting, much more is going on. Jane Arraf brings us a glimpse of new beginnings and of people who don't want the U.S. to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the most precious thing Mustafa Achmed Mustafa (ph) owns, these documents in a plastic bag. They are 40 years old, blackened and shredding but they say his Kurdish grandfather owned land near Kirkuk. They arrested my father and put him in jail. They broke four of his fingers. After that they forced us to leave Kirkuk, he said. That was 1987. He came back from Kurdish controlled Iraq two months ago and found that his house had been destroyed and Arab families had been resettled on his land.

Mustafa and his wife (INAUDIBLE) are better off than most of the 3,000 families who live in the sprawling camp. He works as a laborer and has started building a house illegally on the city property.

There's no running water, though and although they have a new fridge there's no electricity. When the kids get sick, there's no doctor here. (INAUDIBLE), who's 26-year-old and expecting a fourth child says although conditions were a lot better in the camp than Kurdish controlled (INAUDIBLE) they were in, she considers this city home.

To help entrench the Kurdish identity of oil rich Kirkuk, U.S. officials say Kurdish parties encourage displaced Kurds to return here before a planned census now cancelled. More than the 2,000 families live in this abandoned army camp. They say they want better living conditions but they also say Kirkuk is their home and they have no plans to leave. The U.S. military, working through the Iraqi government, has taken on bringing in electrical lines and trying to provide water. These Kurds say they trust only the United States to keep them safe. (INAUDIBLE) named her baby girl Mishtavan (ph) which means homeland for Kirkuk. If she had had a boy, she would have named him George Bush, she tells us.

TRANSLATOR: We're worried that if the Americans leave here, Saddam and his regime will come back. If the Americans leave, they need to take us with them.

ARRAF: In the same way the coalition forces rid them of Saddam, the coalition has to help establish a real Iraqi government that can help them finally go back to their homes, they say. Jane Arraf, CNN, Kirkuk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The flu vaccine shortage has people everywhere talking. But do you really have reason to worry? A reality check straight ahead.

And then, the pageant of poise and grace take a fall. When we come back, the future of the Miss America pageant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In about an hour and 20 minutes, more of CNN LIVE SATURDAY with Carol Lin. Carol, what's on tap?

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're going to be talking a little election politics, but not with the spin meisters of the campaigns. We're going to be talking with families who actually have - who've lost sons and daughters in the war on terror. They are going to take opposing points of views on the two candidates. It will be kind of interesting. And have you watched the new reality show about the biggest loser?

WHITFIELD: I have not watched but I know it's out there.

LIN: All right. We have got the trainers on this program who are utterly brutal. This one woman told her group, if you want to win, you got to be up all night on the treadmill. All night, in order to lose the calories that you need to do.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So exercise certainly a premise but they are also encouraged to eat right.

LIN: It's a boot camp. They are all monitored by doctors. They've got these serious trainers. We've got the trainers at 6:00 in our prime time show at 10:00 we're going to actually have the loser of the biggest loser, the first person to get kicked off but a controversial show too because some people who embrace being fat say, why are you making such a big deal out of this?

WHITFIELD: Right and of course, the other spin to that is the encouragement of wanting to be called a loser.

LIN: Right. Exactly.

WHITFIELD: Well we'll be watching at 6:00 and 10:00. Good bye Carol.

LIN: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Well it's not the elixir of life, but the angst over the flu shot shortage has some people thinking that way. Many wonder if the current gap between supply and demand is a sign of things to come. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen looks at the outlook for getting vaccine supplies back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Will these long lines stretch all the way to next year's flu season? After regulators said it could be contaminated, nearly half the nation's supply of flu shots had to be thrown out this year. And now there are signs that the same factory won't be able to make any shots next year.

In a conference call with investors, the CEO of Chiron, the company that made the flu shots, said the situation remains fluid. We're determined to return to the U.S. market as a reliable supplier of flu vaccine as soon as is feasible. If Chiron doesn't get back on track, that could leave the U.S. for the second year in a row with just one company making the vaccine for the entire country.

DR. JERRY AVORN, AUTHOR, "POWERFUL MEDICINES": We probably should not be in a position where we are so dependent on one or two companies for a product that is literally life saving.

COHEN: The government is now on the hunt for other suppliers. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control said all options are open. The government is already inspecting a Canadian drug manufacturing plant to see if it's up to U.S. standards. Over the past four years, several pharmaceutical companies have gotten out of the flu shot business.

AVORN: Companies have felt that this is not a profitable area and one by one most of the flu or the vaccine manufacturers of many kinds have dropped out to pursue more lucrative products.

COHEN: That's prompted some experts to say the government ought to take over the production of flu shots itself. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Some people are so worried about getting a flu shot, that they are going across the border to Canada. A ferry service plans to take flu shot seeking passengers from Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, British Columbia. The combo deal is $105 and includes the cost of a shot. The first group is expected to head out Monday morning.

Well, crossing the border may seem like a radical move. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between five and 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu every year. About one third of high risk adults under 65 get the vaccine. And if you are one of those not getting the vaccine, there are other things you can do to protect yourself. Dr. Bill Lloyd is with the University of California at Davis Medical Center. However, he joins us today from New Orleans. Good to see you.

DR. BILL LLOYD, SURGEON: Hi Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. So what can we do to prevent ourselves from getting the flu if we're unable to get a flu shot?

LLOYD: Well, Fredricka, there's a variety of products that are out now that can actually help protect you. There's even a facial tissue out that claims to kill the flu virus. Here's some other steps that you can take that can lower your risk of contracting the flu, specifically if you are not getting a flu shot. First order of business is avoid crowds. Don't take that elevator; take the stairs.

Practice good hygiene, good hand washing. Remember, people with the flu can pass the virus on days before they actually become sick so you never really know. You want to stay fit. Healthy people have a stronger immune system. And if you ever wanted a good excuse to stop smoking, this is the occasion, because the data shows smokers are more likely to contract influenza. And if you are in a situation where you have a high risk family member, you could ask your doctor for an anti- viral prescription which works about 80 percent of the time of protecting you from getting influenza.

WHITFIELD: Wow! And maybe this is some comfort for those who are unable to get a flu shot. Is it true that even if you do get a flu shot that doesn't necessarily prevent you altogether from getting a flu?

LLOYD: We had great experience with that last year. When they create the flu vaccine, it's a formula of three different popular flu strains. A committee decides, watching worldwide trends of how the flu travels around the world, which are the strains of flu most likely to come to the United States. But last year they missed the mark. And many people who had the vaccine they went ahead and got the flu anyway. So you can never be fully prepared.

WHITFIELD: So the flu, a lot like the cold, there really are no cures, only ways in which to treat the symptoms, like the Kleenex you were talking about.

LLOYD: Well, prevention is always the best thing. If you can get the vaccine, that's great. But those anti-virals I discussed, drugs like imantadine (ph) and Tamaflu (ph), if you take them before you are exposed, you won't contract the flu in four out of five cases. And in fact, if you take it in the first or second day of getting the flu, you know, the time like when your hair hurts and all your bones ache and you're getting a little fever.

WHITFIELD: The miserable feeling.

LLOYD: Ask your doctor for a prescription and it will lessen the severity of that flu and shorten that flu course by a day or two.

WHITFIELD: So now what about the flu mist? I'm not hearing that much talk about the flu mist this season like we did in seasons past.

LLOYD: Well, flu mist is what they call an attenuated vaccine so it is live vaccine that's been weakened. They think they are going to have upwards of 3 million total doses of the flu mist which, as you said is administered through the nose. Not nearly as many as the ingestible form and there they are shooting for hopefully 60 million doses when all is said and done which ought to be enough to protect the people who are truly at risk of having complications from the flu.

WHITFIELD: So who can get the flu mist?

LLOYD: Well, doctors can prescribe it and it's available in clinics and it is doled out just like the vaccines are doled out via the CDC. They have taken total control over the distribution of the flu virus to make sure folks that are over 65 and young infants, the population at greatest risk of contracting influenza and having those influenza-related deaths fully protected. They say, what, 200,000 people a year die from flu-related complications. Those are sick, fragile people with diabetes and other medical problems. Those are the group that ought to be receiving the influenza vaccine.

WHITFIELD: How concerned are you, doctor about this flu season that so many people who ordinarily may have wanted to get in line and get a flu shot are not eligible for it this year?

LLOYD: Oh, Fredricka, it's human nature. You always want what you can't get. The truth of the matter is, most healthy adults they don't get the flu shot. In fact, they weren't going to get it this year anyway. Maybe 20, 25 million healthy Americans get their flu shots. That means hundreds of millions others don't get it anyway. So it's not going to make a profound difference. So you contract the flu. You stay home from work for a few days. You'll get over it and your immune system will develop an even broader repertoire, so you'll be read for future infections.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Bill Lloyd of the University of California Davis, although you are coming to us from New Orleans today. Thanks a lot.

LLOYD: Talk to you again soon.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well straight ahead, the Miss America pageant gets the boot. Find out why ABC is taking it off the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA ROSATO, WRITER, MONEY: November and early December are fantastic times to go to Hawaii. There really is no off season for Hawaii. June is a very popular time, a lot of honeymooners go there, also early fall. But if you go in late fall, in November, early December, outside of the holidays, you'll find fewer crowds, fewer people, and better deals. And you'll also have an easier time getting into some of those hard to get resorts. It will be easier to land an ocean view room if you go this time of year. The weather is pretty temperate all year round. Early December you should have a little bit of rain but in general you should still have the fabulous Hawaiian weather which is 80 degrees and sunny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: There she is, Miss America, perhaps on the air for one of the last times. ABC announced this week it is ditching the Miss America pageant. For the first time in 50 years the famous beauty pageant is left without a television contract. CNN's Aaron Brown has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For decades, she was the epitome of American womanhood, a fairy tale come true for anyone who believed that goodness would always be crowned in glory. It's always been a fall ritual like the World Series for girls in days when they didn't mind being called girls. The days when fathers knew best and Burt Parks knew the rest. He presided over the pageant from 1955 until 1980.

The pageant began in 1921, a way to lure more tourists to Atlantic City. For decades most Miss America contestants were white, which was no accident. In 1937 the pageant decreed that only white women need apply.

Bess Myerson was the first Jewish woman ever to wear the crown. That happened in '45 but not on television. Americans couldn't tune in until 1954 and when they could, they did in droves. 47 percent of the nation's TVs were watching when Lee Merriweather (ph) won the title 50 years ago.

But as times change, so did our thoughts about the pageant. In the '60s as the anti-war movement gave birth to feminism, women began to challenge the pageant as sexist and bras were burned on the boardwalk. Feminists asked serious questions which were usually quickly dismissed. Those who believed in the pageant did so with a fervor.

Despite the parade of beautiful women in bathing suits and high heels, it was never sexist to its ardent fans who insist it's about scholarship and talent and opportunity. Cynics always implied that was like saying you read playboy for the fiction. Contestants could look sexy, just not be sexual. Vanessa Williams dazzled audiences in 1983 when she was crowned as the first black Miss America but she gave up her crown after a spread in "Penthouse" ignited a firestorm of outrage. Our puritan hearts couldn't deal with it.

But we were never quite as innocent as we pretended to be. Miss America summed up an era but "Sex in the City" defined another. He's just not that into you anymore was what the announcement from ABC seemed to say to the pageant, a network currently obsessed with a different sort of woman, the desperate house wives. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that's all we have time for right now. But stay with CNN. Up next on people in the news, a look at third party candidate Ralph Nader and how he could help decide the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.

Then a look at what the future holds for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. I'll be back with today's top stories right after this.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired October 23, 2004 - 16:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We hear a lot about the insurgents in Iraq. Today a CNN exclusive, CNN goes inside with one of the groups.
We also go inside the World Series. Game one tonight. Larry Smith is at Fenway where the Cards and the Sox are getting ready.

The World Series of beauty or scholarship loses its date for the prom.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Those stories and more coming up but first a look at the headlines.

A fantastic homecoming is on tap for a U.S. astronaut and a cosmonaut who lived aboard the international space station for six months. About an hour from now, the two, along with another cosmonaut will be undocking a Soyuz capsule from the station from their journey home.

Aftershocks are rattling already frazzled nerves in northwest Japan today. Three strong earthquakes have killed at least four people and injured more than 300 others. Some reports say as many as a half a dozen quakes have hit the area.

The U.S. military says a member of terror mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle is in U.S. custody in Iraq. An aide to the militant leader and five others were nabbed in a raid on a safe house in Fallujah today. More on that situation in Iraq coming up later.

Now to politics, just 10 days left in the presidential race. President Bush and Senator Kerry are spending the weekend racing from swing state to swing state, Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida were on the senator's agenda. The president has spent the entire day in Florida. Our coverage starts in Jacksonville with White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, the president hits four different cities in one day, all Republican friendly areas. The president first hitting Ft. Myers, then Lakeland, Melbourne and then finally here in Jacksonville. The message of course is to try to get out the vote effort critical to a Bush win here. Of course, there was temporarily a scare, however, in Lakeland. That is where during the president's speech a small plane inadvertently violated restricted airspace. Two F-15 fighter jets rather were patrolling in the area, intercepted the Cessna, escort it to a local air field. We're told the pilot has been questioned and released. The White House saying the president was never in any danger. The president of course, as you know, Fred, keeping his message very consistent, saying to his supporters he does not believe that Kerry is fit to be commander in chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He used to understand that Saddam was a major source of instability in the middle east. After all he said so. When he voted to authorize force, the senator must have recognized the nightmare scenario that terrorists might somehow access weapons of mass destruction. Senator Kerry seems to have forgotten all of that as his position has evolved during the course of the campaign. You might call it election amnesia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The Kerry camper responding to the latest attack line saying certainly the voters will not forget or have amnesia when it comes to who to vote for during Election Day, election time and Fred, I should let you know the one wild card here of course is all those new registered voters, an 18 percent increase since the last presidential election. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Well, Suzanne, you have to wonder how embarrassing of a moment, an awkward of a moment it may have been for that violation of airspace. We're talking about this president touting how he is going to keep the U.S. grounds and airspace safer and here a violation just as he's about to speak.

MALVEAUX: Well, here's now the Norad and FAA respond to that. They say essentially that this is not unusual. This often happens where you'll have a plane, someone who does not realize those restrictions are in place for a particular event and they will inadvertently actually violate that airspace. They do not believe that it was a serious breach and that is the way that they are describing it today.

WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne Malveaux in Jacksonville, Florida with the president. Thanks so much.

Well the Republicans didn't have Florida all to themselves today. Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards also campaigned across the sunshine state. And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton attended several get out the vote rallies in south Florida. Senator Kerry arrives in Florida tonight after spending most of his Saturday campaigning in the west. Our correspondent Ed Henry is in Pueblo, Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the final sprint, John Kerry is focusing in on only about a dozen battleground states still up for grabs including Colorado, a Bush state in 2000. Kerry aides believe that they can carry it if they turn out the Hispanic vote. So Kerry appeared at a rally today along side Ken Salazar, an Hispanic Democrat who is leading in the U.S. Senate race here. Also the rally was in Pueblo, Colorado, which has the largest concentration of Hispanic voters in the state. And at this large rally, Kerry fired back at the president who in his Saturday radio address accused Kerry of having a fundamental misunderstanding of the war on terror.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president keeps going around the country trying to scare people. He talks about only one thing, the only thing he wants to talk about is terror, the war on terror, national security. Well let me tell you something, if that's a debate we want to have, I'm prepared to have that debate because I can wage a better war on terror than George Bush has.

HENRY: Despite those comments on national security, Kerry zeroed in on the domestic agenda and mocked President Bush's performance in the recent debates.

KERRY: You know, when it comes to jobs and healthcare and all these other things in that debate I kept hearing the president say, he would lean over the podium and he'd kind of look at you real nice like. And he would he say, it's hard work. It's hard work. It's hard work. Well I got news for you, Mr. President, I'm ready, I'm ready to relieve you of the hard work.

HENRY: Kerry completes his western swing with a stop today in Las Cruces, New Mexico where he also hopes to rally Hispanic voters. Then it's on to the mother of all battleground states, Florida where Kerry has a series of events on Sunday. Ed Henry, CNN, Pueblo, Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Of course, the electoral vote is determined by the popular vote in the individual states and for Americans living overseas, casting that home state vote can be tricky, down right expensive and inconvenient. Jim Bittermann looks at what some Americans in Paris are going through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alexandra Hughes is an American opera singer who divides her time between Paris and New York. In 2000 when she tried to register for an absentee ballot, an election official told her there was no point since her vote wouldn't be counted anyway. So this election year, the performer is taking what might seem a fairly dramatic step. She is flying home just to vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately I don't trust the system. So I want to go back to protect the right that we have as Americans to vote.

BITTERMANN: While few Americans overseas may follow Hughes lead on Election Day, they certainly share both her skepticism and her tenaciousness -- essential, given the kinds of challenges overseas voters face. Take the case of the Ohio voter who discovered the address of his election board is incorrectly listed on the official Federal website. RON MOORE, LEGEN, GERMANY: I got my registration form, my request for an absentee ballot back unopened with a mark saying that the forwarding time had expired, that they couldn't forward this.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the Pennsylvania voter whose ballot has candidate Ralph Nader's name on it while a fellow Pennsylvanian's does not.

NANCY HUSTON, FRANKFURT, GERMANY: Official permission to print the ballots hadn't been given yet and yet mine was printed and sent.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the Colorado voter whose election supervisor was trying to mail her ballot to Thailand with a local stamp.

GARY SUWANNARAT, CHANGMAI, THAILAND I said, well, how much postage did you put on that? Oh, 60 cents just like we put on all of the ballots.

BITTERMANN: Take the case of the California voter who was instructed to fill in a sample ballot, mail it in an envelope which could identify her and have faith that it would accurately be transferred to a punch card.

TAMARA BENICASA, PARIS: The country as big and as great as America shouldn't be having these banana republic problems.

BITTERMANN: There are reports of thousands of other problems overseas, ranging from a Texas voter who was sent a torn ballot and told to vote it anyway to two dozen Ohio voters who were sent ballots with John Kerry's name crossed off. In most cases the problems can be resolved before Election Day but if it's a close outcome there are batteries of lawyers standing by on both sides ready to examine every case looking for ways to influence the final result.

JOE SMALLHOOVER, DEMOCRATS ABROAD: Well, I think the potential for lawsuits is relatively high if the results of this election are anywhere near close.

MARK WALLACE, BUSH/CHENEY '04: I think you will see that the Republican side will actually be for the rule of law. But actually, absolutely make certain that those that can lawfully vote will cast their vote and that every vote is counted.

BITTERMANN In the end, while few of the 4 million Americans abroad will be taking the kind of drastic action opera singer Alexandra Hughes is to exercise her right to vote, many are having to be equally determined. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well here at home, will the hex be broken? Boston gets ready for game one of the World Series. Larry Smith joins us live from Fenway.

And the Mickey mantle restaurant got a temporary name change and Yankee fans, they are not so happy about that.

And how much do you think this pumpkin weighs? The answer when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Larry Smith from Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, coming up it is game one of the World Series, the 100th renewal of the fall classic. The Boston Red Sox versus the St. Louis Cardinals and tonight, game one of the best of seven series. What a match-up of these two outstanding franchises that both survived game seven thrillers to get to here in the World Series. Coming up in a little bit, I'll have a live report on this game, who will be pitching and why pitching will be so important, even though the offenses are outstanding in both teams. That's coming up on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We hear a lot about the insurgents in Iraq, but we never see much of them until now. A CNN stringer videotaped a band of men as they took on U.S. forces in a street fight in a village north of Baghdad. To bring us that exclusive report, our Karl Penhaul joins us now from Baghdad. Karl.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, in the last few days, Pentagon intelligence sources have been telling us how their latest information shows that the Iraq insurgent movement is growing in size. It is getting better funded, better equipped, more sophisticated. What this shows is giving us some context to that it's an incident that we know what happened from the U.S. military's point of view. We know what happened from the Iraq insurgent's point of view, too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL (voice-over): Midmorning in the farming village of Bugarus (ph). Insurgent fighters from the so called 1920 brigade were engaged in a hit and run street fight with U.S. soldiers. Pentagon intelligence sources say that battling multiple groups motivated by a common agenda, anti-U.S. sentiment. They believe Iraq's resistance is getting better funded and better organized. But there are few clear signs of that here. Some are fighting barefoot. The weapons they are reloading are Soviet designs used by Saddam Hussein's army also cheaply available on the black market.

These fighters, men and boys are outgunned and outnumbered by coalition forces but they are bristling with confidence. We live and die by Allah's words, God willing, victory will be ours, he says. When they are not fighting, these insurgents say they have regular jobs as farmers, auto mechanics and truck drivers, adding they only grab their guns on Friday because coalition troops rolled into their village.

A U.S. Army quick reaction force pushed into Bugarus after the U.S. military says insurgents attacked a patrol on the outskirts. Seven people were killed and nine were wounded in the cross fire according to doctors at the hospital in nearby Bakuba (ph).

We were walking and we got shot at, me and my dad, he says. A U.S. military spokesman couldn't confirm any civilian casualties but said nine insurgents were killed, three wounded and one captured. As U.S. forces advanced, the 1920 brigade slips away down the winding back alleys it knows so well. A quick discussion of tactics and the fighters split up only to pop up minutes later blasting away from another street corner or ducking out of a house to unleash a rocket propelled grenade.

This insurgent sniper team clambers down from a vantage point. In a show of bravado they announce -- we got off on a high position and spotted these cowards he says. We killed two of them. They quickly changed their position after that. U.S. forces say they took no casualties. It's one of many daily skirmishes in Iraq's Sunni triangle. Resistance gunmen may not be able to defeat coalition troops, but they continue trying to bog them down in a messy guerilla war in Iraq's streets and back alleys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PENHAUL: You also have noticed in some of those images, there are young boys, young teenagers, we estimate doing not -- not doing the fighting but running ammunition from some rear area up towards the fighters who are on the street corners. That suggests, also, that not only has Iraq's insurgency grown according to Pentagon sources, but there are new apprenticeships there in training ready to take up guns once they completed their training. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Karl, was our stringer able to calculate whether the majority of those insurgents in the group that he accompanied, were they mostly Iraqis or were there even some who from across the border?

PENHAUL: No, indeed, the ones that our stringer there did accompany, appeared to all be Iraqi fighters. The name as well, the 1920 brigade indicates that this could be a group of Iraqi nationalists. Intelligence sources suggest some of those may even have been former regime elements from Saddam Hussein's regime, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Karl Penhaul from Baghdad. Thanks so much.

A look at other news around the world now. In Afghanistan, a suicide attack on a busy shopping street in Kabul. At least seven people were injured including three international peacekeepers. Afghan police say the attacker had hand grenades strapped to his body.

Some Americans beef products could soon be back in grocery stores in Japan. The imports were stopped nearly a year ago because of the mad cow scare. Japan tentatively agreed today to resume imports of beef but only from younger cattle whose age can be verified. Those animals are believed to carry the lowest risk of mad cow disease.

And in Turin, Italy, Britain's Prince Charles visits one of the world's largest markets, the hall of taste. He sampled beer and delicacies from across the globe and chatted with a few food experts. Prince Charles is on an eight-day tour of Italy, Turkey and Jordan.

World Series play begins tonight with the Boston Red Sox squaring off against the St. Louis Cardinals in the fall classic. Game one is at Fenway Park in Boston seen here from outer space, this image. CNN's Larry Smith joins us live from Fenway, center of the sports universe right now. Hi, Larry.

SMITH: Hi Fredricka. Yes, it really is. In fact the city of Boston is electric with the first World Series game to be played in the city in 18 years now just a little over three hours away. Barricades have been set up outside the stadium for several hours. In fact, a little over an hour ago, I was outside near the players entrance and the fans behind the barricade, several deep, I mean, several hundred people there behind the barricade screaming every time a player drove into the parking area here at Fenway Park. Game one is tonight.

The Red Sox may be the sentimental favorite across the country to get a victory this best of seven series, 85 years without a title they've come in. But the Cardinals are a team not to be overlooked. St. Louis was the winningest team in the regular season in baseball and led the National League in hitting, finishing a close second in pitching. Their emotional, grueling seven game series win over Houston is less than 48 hours behind them, but the Cardinals are ready to fire up this chilly Boston evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY WALKER, CARDINALS OUTFIELDER: I don't think there's going to be -- if there's a letdown with (INAUDIBLE) on this team, somebody is going to smack somebody just to get them back going. This is the World Series, we're at Fenway Park and if you have a letdown here, you need to get a reality check.

TERRY FRANCONA, RED SOX MANAGER: The task at hand is all that's on our mind because the task isn't over. When it's over, we can sit back and think about a lot of things that I'm sure will bring a smile to my face, not yet, not even close to yet. We got a lot of work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: One smile to Terry Francona's face would be breaking the curse. Now everyone here at baseball knows what the curse is. Those around the country may not. The curse of the bambino (ph) goes like this. In 1920, Babe Ruth, you may have heard of him, pretty good hitter, also a good pitcher at one time for the Red Sox, was traded to the Yankees by a cash strapped Boston owner. The Yankees went on to win 26 World Series championships. The Red Sox ever since have won none. That's since 1920 and so the curse of the bambino. The Red Sox and their fans hope that this is the year they finally can break through and win their first World Series title since 1918 when Ruth was a part of the team. Fredricka. WHITFIELD: Wow and Larry you alluded in your tease how important pitching strategy is going to be. So the question for those Red Sox fans, you know, how is Curt Schilling's (ph) arm?

SMITH: Yeah, it really will be. In fact the one guy who is the ace in the hole throughout the American League championship series, Tim Wakefield, the knuckleball pitcher, 38 year old, makes his first ever World Series appearance. He will start for the Red Sox opposite Woody Williams of St. Louis. Both these offenses are so strong, the Red Sox, the top offensive team in all of baseball during the season. Both have been outstanding in the playoffs as well. So it may come down to pitching and relief pitching. Whoever's arm, whatever team's arms can last the longest in this with all those hits that we expect to happen, maybe the team that comes out on top at the end.

WHITFIELD: All right. Larry Smith, thanks so much. All eyes on Fenway Park tonight.

all right, time for a check of other stories making news across America now. As Shakespeare said, what's in a name? Apparently a lot. The owner of Mickey Mantle's restaurant in New York has taken down the Ted Williams banner he had hanging over the awning. It was in honor of the Sox win over the Yankees. But many Yankee fans - they were not so amused.

American Airlines says it will furlough as many as 650 maintenance workers in Kansas City and St. Louis. 450 pilots could also be affected by the cost cutting measure. American plans to trim its flight schedule by 5 percent starting next year.

The Dave Mathews band is trying to clean up a big stink it caused in Chicago. The city is suing the band because one of its charter buses emptied its septic tank on a passing tour boat on the Chicago River. The band is hoping a pair of $50,000 donations to the cit will help put the matter to rest.

And Charlie Brown's buddy Linus would be proud of this great pumpkin. It weighs 700 pounds and was supposed to be moved to a different California farm this weekend. How they got it on that truck we still haven't figured that one out.

A special report on Jews in Baghdad and the woman who helped them when we come right back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ZELON, HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY: I have been doing this work for 25 years. Baghdad and these people were different than everything. They were so few but they needed all of us so much and we just didn't know it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In 1948, there were reportedly 150,000 Jews in Iraq. By 2003, that number had dwindled to an estimated 100. One New York woman risked her life last year to help the tiny and forgotten community of Jews in Baghdad. CNN's Aaron Brown has this remarkable story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rachel Zelon arrived in Baghdad with the names of 35 Jews believed to still be in Iraq and hand drawn maps to where they lived. The list came from members of the Jewish community who had already fled.

RACHEL ZELON, HEBREW IMMIGRANT AID SOCIETY: We went to this home in what was once the Jewish section of Baghdad. We knocked on the door. And this 90-year-old gentleman comes outside and he is just charming. He just has these intense blue eyes and he speaks beautiful English because he had worked for the British railways in the '50s until they fired him because he was Jewish. And we went in and we talked with him and what I saw was this lovely charming delightful man who lived in a tiny room. It was just heartbreaking.

BROWN: But not as heartbreaking as some.

ZELON: Regina was 75 years old. And Regina has such terrible curvature of the spine, that she literally is bent in half all the time. And she lived up a steep flight of stairs. With no running water and so she had a little faucet at the bottom of the stairs and she would have to sort of crawl up the stairs and step by step move a pail in front of her.

During that week we saw a lot of people and a lot of elderly people in the small community living very, very poor conditions with little or no medical care at all.

BROWN: A week later, Rachel returned to Baghdad to see who in the Jewish community there would like to leave.

ZELON: We went and saw Sasoon (ph) and sat down with him in his little room and I said, would you like to go to Israel? He finally looked at me and he said, I'm 90 years old, and every day I get weaker. I'm just not that strong and my heart isn't very good. And I'm afraid that I'll die. He said I think it's better if I just stay here and I started to cry.

And I looked at him and I said, it will break my heart to leave you but I understand. That was a Wednesday. And on Friday I just -- I wanted to go visit him. And he came to the gate that day and he just - he wasn't right. We became very worried. And he said, no, come inside and we put cold compresses on his head and on his neck because he was just burning up. So about 2:00 in the afternoon he sort of opens his eyes and I'm sitting there and I'm holding his hand and he looked at me and he goes, if I go with you, do I need a passport?

I looked at him and I said, no, no, you don't need anything. Don't worry. He closed his eyes and he went back to sleep. And about an hour later he opened his eyes again, and he looked at me and he goes, if I go with you, do I have to do any bureaucratic things? I said no, no, no. I'll handle everything. I promise. You won't have to do a thing. He just closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

So Sunday morning comes and OK, let's go see how he is. We were very worried he wasn't going to make it, he was so sick. He comes to the gate on Sunday morning and he just his old self and he opens the gate and looks at me. Where were you yesterday? I was so worried about you.

And I just gave him a big kiss and I said, oh, I told you I couldn't make it yesterday. I said but you look better. He goes, oh, I feel fine. I told you I would be fine. About 15 minutes into our conversation, he looked at me and he said, you know, I would never break your heart. And I said, I looked at him quizzically. I'm going to come with you to Israel, he said. I realize I really need to be taken care of. I said and we will take care of you, I promise.

BROWN: Nine Jews left Baghdad on two chartered flights last year in July and November, the departures intense and emotional. At 90, Sasoon (ph) walked away from everything he had ever known to board an airplane for the first time in his life.

ZELON: You know, I've been doing this work for 25 years. Baghdad and these people were different than everything. They were so few but they needed all of us so much and we just didn't know it.

BROWN: Regina, the woman bent in half from the curvature of her spine, walked off the plane in Israel in bare feet. With proper medical care her health began to rebound immediately.

ZELON: A few months after Sasoon got to Israel, I happened to be in Israel again and I went to visit him in the home for the aged that he was living in. He had put on 20 pounds and his hair was long and it was so wonderful to see him and we were sitting there and we were talking at this table in the home and all of a sudden a telephone starts to ring. And we're looking around trying to find a telephone and Sasoon reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cell phone and says, hello and it was just the most wonderful thing. It was -- it is like, oh, this really was worthwhile. We did good here.

BROWN: Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In news from the fight for Iraq, the U.S. believes it has captured a member of insurgent leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle. It happened during a predawn raid today in Fallujah. Five other men identified as terrorists were captured. Also in Iraq today, a pair of suicide car bombings left at least 12 Iraqis dead. The attacks targeted a police station and a security checkpoint.

Nothing more has been heard about the fate of a kidnapped official of CARE International. Margaret Hassan disappeared last Tuesday. Friday al Jazeera ran a videotape showing Hassan pleading for her life.

Although the daily news from Iraq is filled with kidnappings and fighting, much more is going on. Jane Arraf brings us a glimpse of new beginnings and of people who don't want the U.S. to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the most precious thing Mustafa Achmed Mustafa (ph) owns, these documents in a plastic bag. They are 40 years old, blackened and shredding but they say his Kurdish grandfather owned land near Kirkuk. They arrested my father and put him in jail. They broke four of his fingers. After that they forced us to leave Kirkuk, he said. That was 1987. He came back from Kurdish controlled Iraq two months ago and found that his house had been destroyed and Arab families had been resettled on his land.

Mustafa and his wife (INAUDIBLE) are better off than most of the 3,000 families who live in the sprawling camp. He works as a laborer and has started building a house illegally on the city property.

There's no running water, though and although they have a new fridge there's no electricity. When the kids get sick, there's no doctor here. (INAUDIBLE), who's 26-year-old and expecting a fourth child says although conditions were a lot better in the camp than Kurdish controlled (INAUDIBLE) they were in, she considers this city home.

To help entrench the Kurdish identity of oil rich Kirkuk, U.S. officials say Kurdish parties encourage displaced Kurds to return here before a planned census now cancelled. More than the 2,000 families live in this abandoned army camp. They say they want better living conditions but they also say Kirkuk is their home and they have no plans to leave. The U.S. military, working through the Iraqi government, has taken on bringing in electrical lines and trying to provide water. These Kurds say they trust only the United States to keep them safe. (INAUDIBLE) named her baby girl Mishtavan (ph) which means homeland for Kirkuk. If she had had a boy, she would have named him George Bush, she tells us.

TRANSLATOR: We're worried that if the Americans leave here, Saddam and his regime will come back. If the Americans leave, they need to take us with them.

ARRAF: In the same way the coalition forces rid them of Saddam, the coalition has to help establish a real Iraqi government that can help them finally go back to their homes, they say. Jane Arraf, CNN, Kirkuk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The flu vaccine shortage has people everywhere talking. But do you really have reason to worry? A reality check straight ahead.

And then, the pageant of poise and grace take a fall. When we come back, the future of the Miss America pageant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: In about an hour and 20 minutes, more of CNN LIVE SATURDAY with Carol Lin. Carol, what's on tap?

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're going to be talking a little election politics, but not with the spin meisters of the campaigns. We're going to be talking with families who actually have - who've lost sons and daughters in the war on terror. They are going to take opposing points of views on the two candidates. It will be kind of interesting. And have you watched the new reality show about the biggest loser?

WHITFIELD: I have not watched but I know it's out there.

LIN: All right. We have got the trainers on this program who are utterly brutal. This one woman told her group, if you want to win, you got to be up all night on the treadmill. All night, in order to lose the calories that you need to do.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So exercise certainly a premise but they are also encouraged to eat right.

LIN: It's a boot camp. They are all monitored by doctors. They've got these serious trainers. We've got the trainers at 6:00 in our prime time show at 10:00 we're going to actually have the loser of the biggest loser, the first person to get kicked off but a controversial show too because some people who embrace being fat say, why are you making such a big deal out of this?

WHITFIELD: Right and of course, the other spin to that is the encouragement of wanting to be called a loser.

LIN: Right. Exactly.

WHITFIELD: Well we'll be watching at 6:00 and 10:00. Good bye Carol.

LIN: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Well it's not the elixir of life, but the angst over the flu shot shortage has some people thinking that way. Many wonder if the current gap between supply and demand is a sign of things to come. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen looks at the outlook for getting vaccine supplies back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Will these long lines stretch all the way to next year's flu season? After regulators said it could be contaminated, nearly half the nation's supply of flu shots had to be thrown out this year. And now there are signs that the same factory won't be able to make any shots next year.

In a conference call with investors, the CEO of Chiron, the company that made the flu shots, said the situation remains fluid. We're determined to return to the U.S. market as a reliable supplier of flu vaccine as soon as is feasible. If Chiron doesn't get back on track, that could leave the U.S. for the second year in a row with just one company making the vaccine for the entire country.

DR. JERRY AVORN, AUTHOR, "POWERFUL MEDICINES": We probably should not be in a position where we are so dependent on one or two companies for a product that is literally life saving.

COHEN: The government is now on the hunt for other suppliers. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control said all options are open. The government is already inspecting a Canadian drug manufacturing plant to see if it's up to U.S. standards. Over the past four years, several pharmaceutical companies have gotten out of the flu shot business.

AVORN: Companies have felt that this is not a profitable area and one by one most of the flu or the vaccine manufacturers of many kinds have dropped out to pursue more lucrative products.

COHEN: That's prompted some experts to say the government ought to take over the production of flu shots itself. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Some people are so worried about getting a flu shot, that they are going across the border to Canada. A ferry service plans to take flu shot seeking passengers from Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, British Columbia. The combo deal is $105 and includes the cost of a shot. The first group is expected to head out Monday morning.

Well, crossing the border may seem like a radical move. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between five and 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu every year. About one third of high risk adults under 65 get the vaccine. And if you are one of those not getting the vaccine, there are other things you can do to protect yourself. Dr. Bill Lloyd is with the University of California at Davis Medical Center. However, he joins us today from New Orleans. Good to see you.

DR. BILL LLOYD, SURGEON: Hi Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. So what can we do to prevent ourselves from getting the flu if we're unable to get a flu shot?

LLOYD: Well, Fredricka, there's a variety of products that are out now that can actually help protect you. There's even a facial tissue out that claims to kill the flu virus. Here's some other steps that you can take that can lower your risk of contracting the flu, specifically if you are not getting a flu shot. First order of business is avoid crowds. Don't take that elevator; take the stairs.

Practice good hygiene, good hand washing. Remember, people with the flu can pass the virus on days before they actually become sick so you never really know. You want to stay fit. Healthy people have a stronger immune system. And if you ever wanted a good excuse to stop smoking, this is the occasion, because the data shows smokers are more likely to contract influenza. And if you are in a situation where you have a high risk family member, you could ask your doctor for an anti- viral prescription which works about 80 percent of the time of protecting you from getting influenza.

WHITFIELD: Wow! And maybe this is some comfort for those who are unable to get a flu shot. Is it true that even if you do get a flu shot that doesn't necessarily prevent you altogether from getting a flu?

LLOYD: We had great experience with that last year. When they create the flu vaccine, it's a formula of three different popular flu strains. A committee decides, watching worldwide trends of how the flu travels around the world, which are the strains of flu most likely to come to the United States. But last year they missed the mark. And many people who had the vaccine they went ahead and got the flu anyway. So you can never be fully prepared.

WHITFIELD: So the flu, a lot like the cold, there really are no cures, only ways in which to treat the symptoms, like the Kleenex you were talking about.

LLOYD: Well, prevention is always the best thing. If you can get the vaccine, that's great. But those anti-virals I discussed, drugs like imantadine (ph) and Tamaflu (ph), if you take them before you are exposed, you won't contract the flu in four out of five cases. And in fact, if you take it in the first or second day of getting the flu, you know, the time like when your hair hurts and all your bones ache and you're getting a little fever.

WHITFIELD: The miserable feeling.

LLOYD: Ask your doctor for a prescription and it will lessen the severity of that flu and shorten that flu course by a day or two.

WHITFIELD: So now what about the flu mist? I'm not hearing that much talk about the flu mist this season like we did in seasons past.

LLOYD: Well, flu mist is what they call an attenuated vaccine so it is live vaccine that's been weakened. They think they are going to have upwards of 3 million total doses of the flu mist which, as you said is administered through the nose. Not nearly as many as the ingestible form and there they are shooting for hopefully 60 million doses when all is said and done which ought to be enough to protect the people who are truly at risk of having complications from the flu.

WHITFIELD: So who can get the flu mist?

LLOYD: Well, doctors can prescribe it and it's available in clinics and it is doled out just like the vaccines are doled out via the CDC. They have taken total control over the distribution of the flu virus to make sure folks that are over 65 and young infants, the population at greatest risk of contracting influenza and having those influenza-related deaths fully protected. They say, what, 200,000 people a year die from flu-related complications. Those are sick, fragile people with diabetes and other medical problems. Those are the group that ought to be receiving the influenza vaccine.

WHITFIELD: How concerned are you, doctor about this flu season that so many people who ordinarily may have wanted to get in line and get a flu shot are not eligible for it this year?

LLOYD: Oh, Fredricka, it's human nature. You always want what you can't get. The truth of the matter is, most healthy adults they don't get the flu shot. In fact, they weren't going to get it this year anyway. Maybe 20, 25 million healthy Americans get their flu shots. That means hundreds of millions others don't get it anyway. So it's not going to make a profound difference. So you contract the flu. You stay home from work for a few days. You'll get over it and your immune system will develop an even broader repertoire, so you'll be read for future infections.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Bill Lloyd of the University of California Davis, although you are coming to us from New Orleans today. Thanks a lot.

LLOYD: Talk to you again soon.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well straight ahead, the Miss America pageant gets the boot. Find out why ABC is taking it off the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNA ROSATO, WRITER, MONEY: November and early December are fantastic times to go to Hawaii. There really is no off season for Hawaii. June is a very popular time, a lot of honeymooners go there, also early fall. But if you go in late fall, in November, early December, outside of the holidays, you'll find fewer crowds, fewer people, and better deals. And you'll also have an easier time getting into some of those hard to get resorts. It will be easier to land an ocean view room if you go this time of year. The weather is pretty temperate all year round. Early December you should have a little bit of rain but in general you should still have the fabulous Hawaiian weather which is 80 degrees and sunny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: There she is, Miss America, perhaps on the air for one of the last times. ABC announced this week it is ditching the Miss America pageant. For the first time in 50 years the famous beauty pageant is left without a television contract. CNN's Aaron Brown has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For decades, she was the epitome of American womanhood, a fairy tale come true for anyone who believed that goodness would always be crowned in glory. It's always been a fall ritual like the World Series for girls in days when they didn't mind being called girls. The days when fathers knew best and Burt Parks knew the rest. He presided over the pageant from 1955 until 1980.

The pageant began in 1921, a way to lure more tourists to Atlantic City. For decades most Miss America contestants were white, which was no accident. In 1937 the pageant decreed that only white women need apply.

Bess Myerson was the first Jewish woman ever to wear the crown. That happened in '45 but not on television. Americans couldn't tune in until 1954 and when they could, they did in droves. 47 percent of the nation's TVs were watching when Lee Merriweather (ph) won the title 50 years ago.

But as times change, so did our thoughts about the pageant. In the '60s as the anti-war movement gave birth to feminism, women began to challenge the pageant as sexist and bras were burned on the boardwalk. Feminists asked serious questions which were usually quickly dismissed. Those who believed in the pageant did so with a fervor.

Despite the parade of beautiful women in bathing suits and high heels, it was never sexist to its ardent fans who insist it's about scholarship and talent and opportunity. Cynics always implied that was like saying you read playboy for the fiction. Contestants could look sexy, just not be sexual. Vanessa Williams dazzled audiences in 1983 when she was crowned as the first black Miss America but she gave up her crown after a spread in "Penthouse" ignited a firestorm of outrage. Our puritan hearts couldn't deal with it.

But we were never quite as innocent as we pretended to be. Miss America summed up an era but "Sex in the City" defined another. He's just not that into you anymore was what the announcement from ABC seemed to say to the pageant, a network currently obsessed with a different sort of woman, the desperate house wives. Aaron Brown, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And that's all we have time for right now. But stay with CNN. Up next on people in the news, a look at third party candidate Ralph Nader and how he could help decide the outcome of the 2004 presidential election.

Then a look at what the future holds for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. I'll be back with today's top stories right after this.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com