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CNN Live Saturday
Reaction to North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Announcement; Eating Certain Types Of Chocolate Could Help You Live Longer
Aired February 12, 2005 - 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.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE SATURDAY: What is this? It's big, it's orange, and it's in central park.
The good, the bad and the ugly. Dr. Bill weighs in on chocolates and your health.
Hip-hop in St. Louis, not as weird as you might think. Hello and welcome to CNN SATURDAY. I'm Christine Romans. All that and more after this check of the headlines.
Howard Dean has a new gig. The former Vermont governor and former presidential candidate is the new leader of the Democratic Party. He was elected today by the Democratic National Committee to replace outgoing party chief Terry McAuliffe. Dean says he'll work hard to sell the Democratic Party at the grass-roots level.
More violence in Iraq today as suicide car bombs detonated at an Iraqi police checkpoint in a town south of Baghdad killing 17 people. Dozens were wounded.
Meanwhile, the bodies of six Iraqi National Guard troops were found in Mosul. A note left on one body said the soldiers took part in operations against insurgents in Falluja.
Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to persuade militants to abide by a cease-fire agreement with Israel. Abbas is meeting with leaders of Hamas and other hard-line Islamic fundamentalist groups in Gaza today. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
As the violence subsides in the Middle East, the war of words intensifies elsewhere. Days after North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, it's asking for public support from its people. Pyongyang is urging North Koreans to rally behind Kim Jong-Il.
Russian's defense minister today criticized North Korea over the stand off. Sergei Evanoff (ph) said if North Korea has in fact developed nuclear weapons, it has made the wrong choice. The White House meantime is holding firm on its insistence that North Korea rejoins six-party talks. We get the latest reaction from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House and its allies are involved in tense negotiations, discussions over what to do next if North Korea does not abandon its nuclear weapons program. Should the United States abandon those six-party talks, U.S. officials are considering a number of options, the first one to treat North Korea like Iran, refer North Korea to the UN Security Council to impose economic sanctions.
The problem with this approach is they believe however that Russia and China would likely not sign on. Another option perhaps is to toughen efforts to block North Korea from transferring nuclear technology to so-called terrorist states. The U.S. so far has proved that North Korea has sold nuclear components to Libya in the past, perhaps even Iran as well. What the U.S. would do is actually put more pressure on North Korea's neighbors, particularly China to try to monitor North Korean flights or shipments that are crossing their borders and then of course finally what U.S. officials say is their most immediate strategy, their short-term strategy, that is to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six-party talks -- that's Russia, China, Japan, as well as South Korea -- to get tough on Kim Jong-Il's regime.
And of course all of this comes in a flurry of diplomatic efforts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her Chinese as well as South Korean counterparts within days, one of them being South Korea's foreign minister who was just here at the White House on Friday to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney. And we also understand as well, there will be a Chinese delegation on its way to North Korea to try to convince them to come back to the bargaining table. All of this it just the weeks to come. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
ROMANS: If diplomacy fails, will the U.S. be forced to take military action? If so, what are the military options for dealing with North Korea? Joining us with some insight from Washington is retired Army Brigadier General and CNN military analyst James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, thanks for joining us.
BRIG. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET): Sure.
ROMANS: What are the military options if this standoff with North Korea continues?
MARKS: Well, understand that the United States certainly would not act unilaterally in this case. They have a very strong alliance with South Korea. U.S. forces are positioned on the peninsula and they have been for close to 50 years and the South Koreans are an absolutely incredibly talented military, very industrious state. You need to realize that this would be a -- it would be a decision that would be made very, very deliberately after great consultation with all those members of the six-party talks, as well as the United Nations. This would be a very grave and a very serious endeavor.
ROMANS: When we talk about North Korea's missile range, when we talk about what kind of capabilities this country might have, clearly the players in that region and the United States have a lot at stake here to make sure that this issue can be handled appropriately, can be defused through diplomacy. We're taking a look at a picture right now, a graphic, if you will, of the range of North Korean missiles. That's what makes this all so important, right? MARKS: Oh, absolutely and in fact, there have been great efforts over the course of the last 50 years at multiple levels to ensure that engagement with North Korea keeps the lid on. Great efforts on diplomacy, but it has to be backed up by a very strong and a very diligent and focused military effort, and that's exactly what has taken place and is in place today.
ROMANS: That is always what diplomacy holds out, at the end if it doesn't work, there is this what-if? There is this risk that we could do something militarily. What are those options? Could there be strategic strikes against nuclear facilities? What kinds of issues would be on the table, do you think?
MARKS: First and foremost, you realize that North Korean military is extremely capable. There are a million men in the army alone. You need to realize that their rocket forces and their artillery forces are protected. They have a lot of their military formations and their capabilities dug into deeply hardened buried targets in North Korea. They have some incredible special operation forces. They have over 100,000 special ops forces. They could be infiltrated by light scanned aircraft. They can be infiltrated through submarine forces that they have and certainly diplomatically you always have to realize that the North Koreans have probably planted a lot of their agents in South Korea and in the region. So they get a very good sense of what is happening both diplomatically and militarily in the region.
ROMANS: At what point do you think the United States would have to start thinking about military options and turning to military options? At this point it looks as though the goal is to get everybody back at the table, six-way talks, back at the table. That's the goal right now.
MARKS: Absolutely it is. And having served on the peninsula, the expression and the posture of military forces at every moment was we would fight tonight. So the positioning of forces and the capability of forces are available to initiate combat operations immediately. That as I said, would be a decision that would have to be taken after much deliberation.
ROMANS: All right. Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks, thanks for joining us.
MARKS: Thank you Christine.
ROMANS: And you can stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Another spoke in the so-called axis of evil is Iraq. There was more violence there today. A suicide car bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint south of Baghdad today. Seventeen people were killed. Six of them were Iraqi security guards. More that two dozen people were wounded.
In the southern city of Bazra, gunmen riding on a motorcycle assassinated a prominent Iraqi judge. Two of his bodyguards were wounded. Police speculate the judge was targeted because of his work with the new government.
Meantime, police in Mosul made a grisly discovery. The bullet- riddled bodies of six Iraqi National Guardsmen were found along a highway. A note on one of the men accused them of participating in the offensive against Falluja.
Every day is a battle for military families who must live apart during times of war. CNN's Jane Arraf talked to a group of soldiers in Iraq who are just days away from returning home, but first CNN's Alex Quaid brings us the poignant story of one family who tries to lessen the distance and continue a tradition that has marked each war, writing letters between home and the battle field.
ALEX QUAID, CNN CORRESPONDENT: August, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Marine Major Tim Parker's last minutes with his family. He's about to deploy to Iraq, leaving behind his wife and eight children. Yes, eight. Tim plans to write home every day.
MAJOR TIM PARKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I think it's important for my family to know what I'm doing over there and why we're over there, that I'm not just abandoning back here for a seven-month vacation.
QUAID: Letters he hopes will help them understand.
PARKER: I don't think some of the young ones have a realization of how long seven months is.
QUAID: Tim's wife, Joan.
JOAN PARKER: He can gear them to child-friendly letters and let us know what he's doing when he's away. We're going to be doing the same thing.
QUAID: Eight-year-old Timmy looks forward to them.
TIMMY PARKER: So I don't feel alone and I know he's going to come back soon.
QUAID: The letters will explain why he's gone.
PARKER: I think it's important that they know later on, you know, why we made the sacrifice.
QUAID: October, near the front lines of Falluja. Tim is keeping his promise, a quick e-mail to wife Joan. Then his daily letter to the kids.
PARKER: Hi family, I know it's tough for me to be away, there's so much to do in the house and your lives. Now your mom has to do it all without me. As tough as (INAUDIBLE) been, I wanted to just tell you all a story about something we did that will hopefully make you understand why I have to be gone. The other day we discovered a young girl, the same age as Katie having been shot in the foot. When it was brought to our attention, we coordinated to have her operated on and save her foot. She's recovering here right now on the base. If we were not here, she might have lost her foot. JOAN PARKER: Help your mom out as much as you can and I'll be home as soon as I can. Love dad. Did you like that letter?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.
JOAN PARKER: Yeah?
QUAID: Their letters tell him what he's missing.
PARKER: My son is plays his first season of football, my oldest son and I'm missing that. I'm not there to go to the practice with him and see his first game. You know, that's tough. My oldest daughter is doing band. Sharing, being a family.
QUAID: E-mail photos mark the holidays away from home. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. They write of baking cookies. He writes of his makeshift Christmas tree. Holiday barbecue, roasting marshmallows. The letter-writing has kept this family close, despite the distance.
PARKER: It's been very important. I mean it lets them know why I'm here, why I'm investing this time away from them. It lets them know what we're doing is important.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: And there's a letter from daddy.
PARKER: I'm thinking of them. I love them and I will be home as soon as I can be.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're not supposed to count the days, but they do, even the hours until they go home to Germany, to California, to Tennessee. They've been in Iraq a year. Task force 22 of the 1st infantry division has seen combat in Najaf, in Falluja, in Mosul. This is one of their last missions.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: So if you can ID an enemy, by all means, shoot.
ARRAF: Over the last year these soldiers would have been desperate to get off the base. But in this last week, nobody wants to go out in these streets. For soldiers about to go home, this is one of the most harrowing times. They've survived a whole year in Iraq. They just have to get through the next few days. They talk about what it will be like going home. Most had a small taste during leave. Private first-class Troy Langley sitting in the back is 19.
TROY LANGLEY: I want to play pinball with my buddies. (INAUDIBLE) That's fine, but if I freak out, don't worry about it. Sure enough, he shot me in the back, and I didn't know he was (INAUDIBLE) and I flipped out on him.
ARRAF: They've seen enough explosions to last a lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Falluja was hell on earth.
ARRAF: In the steel of his Humvee, Joshua Thomas Casias (ph) has etched the name of three of the battalion's 36 men who died in Iraq.
JOSHUA THOMAS CASIAS: (INAUDIBLE) He was our first medic, good friend. We've all known him for about....
ARRAF: Staff Sergeant James Madison and Sgt. Major Steve Balkenberg (ph) were killed in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: They watched over me, and that's how I remember them. That's how we all will.
ARRAF: Casias is getting out of the army.
CASIAS: I wish I never came down here.
ARRAF: So is Sgt. David Pope.
SGT. DAVID POPE, US ARMY: It's kind of good to see the elections that happened turn out the way they did because it helps alleviate some of the sense of pointlessness.
ARRAF: A lot of the rest have reenlisted. In this last year, when many grew up, this is how they passed the time and kept the ghosts at bay. Grateful they're alive. Jane Arraf, CNN, Moqtadia (ph), Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Iraq was in the spotlight at a security conference in Germany today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for further cooperation among the U.S. and its allies to defeat terrorism and stop the spread of banned weapons. Rumsfeld also said the American European alliance can withstand current differences caused mostly by the war in Iraq.
Remember the gay marriage brouhaha? An important official changes his stance. Find out who coming up.
Did this man set up a suicide pact through the Internet? Kimberly Osias reports. And --
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Koch in Washington. Coming up, newly discovered Vatican documents raise questions about whether some Jewish children hidden during the holocaust were deliberately not returned to their families.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: And now some stories from across America. The biggest art exhibit in New York City history has central park awash in saffron. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and exhibit creators Cristo (ph) and Jean-Claude today opened the gates, more than a million square feet of fabric in 7500 strips festooned miles of footpaths in the park.
Massachusetts' attorney general has done an about-face on gay marriage. He's now for it. Thomas Reilly opposed same sex marriage in the case in which the state supreme court upheld it. The unannounced Democratic candidate for governor now says rights once given should not be taken away.
Hollywood stars and throngs of Harlem residents turned out today for the funeral of actor and activist Ossie Davis. The service featured music by Winton Marsalis (ph), a poem by Maya Angelou and a eulogy by Harry Belafonte. Davis and his wife Ruby Dee split their time between their television, film and stage careers and the civil rights movement. Davis died eight days ago in Miami Beach where he was working on a film. He was 87.
Investigators in Oregon are trying to find more than two dozen women who were allegedly planning to take part in a mass suicide on Valentine's Day. Authorities say the women made the suicide pact in an Internet chat room. Their alleged ringleader is under arrest. CNN's Kimberly Osias has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gerald Krien (ph) walked shackled from a jail cell to a police questioning room. The 26- year old, charged with solicitation to commit murder, after allegedly setting up the suicide pact on the Internet with at least 32 people spanning several states and Canada.
WESLEY GRABOWSKI, NEIGHBOR: I was shocked. At first, when I saw the police show up, I pretty much figured it was a drug bust and then to my surprise, I found out what it really was.
OSIAS: The alleged plot was exposed earlier this week when a Canadian woman who went by the screen name hapieluv got cold feet and alerted authorities. Today three other women came forward, revealing more information about the group called suicide party 2005 which communicated on a chat room that went by that name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It turned, from the very beginning you know, have you ever thought about it? Do you want to join a suicide party? That was like the third thing he asked me.
OSIAS: Krien is behind bars, but authorities worry about another group member who claimed to be a mother planning to kill her two young children and then herself.
SHERIFF TIM EVINGER, KLAMATH COUNTY, OREGON: As far as the children go, it's still a worldwide search at this point. We're still examining information.
OSIAS: But police concede they can't be sure whether any of the members, including Krien himself planned to commit suicide or whether some were playing a prank. However, police said the women who came forward gave consistent accounts of how the suicides were to be carried out, saying members were going to hang themselves from high ceilings. Wednesday, authorities seized Krien's computer, hard drive and DVDs from his family's home.
ED CALEB, KLAMATH COUNTY D.A.: He may have attempted to download his computer or erase a bunch of stuff that's on there. OSIAS: Prosecutors said they expect to seek second degree attempted manslaughter charges before a grand jury on Monday. FBI forensics are investigating into Krien's computer hard drive. His attorney says she's not yet ready to make a statement. Krien's mother says her son is not mentally ill. He was bullied as a child and maybe lashing out. Kimberly Osias, CNN, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: ... discover documents have some religious leaders questioning what happened to Jewish children hidden from the Nazis, during the holocaust. CNN's Kathleen Koch has that story straight ahead.
And then a law designed to protect unwanted children, coming up, I'll talk with a woman who helped enact the safe haven law.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: During World War II, thousands of Jewish children were hidden from the Nazis by catholic families in orphanages, but did the Vatican order those Catholics to keep the children after the war when many of them could have been reunited with their families? CNN's Kathleen Koch takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their stories are told in songs like this one, written in the Warsaw ghetto. Thousands of Jewish children left with Gentiles, many Catholic, who risked their own lives to hide the children from the Nazis, who saved them from almost certain death. The children were given new identities, some baptized, given Holy Communion. A Catholic woman in (INAUDIBLE) Poland hid Julie Keefer and her grandfather but couldn't keep her six- month-old sister.
JULIE KEEFER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: They changed my sister's name from Toila (ph) to Antonina Novitska (ph) and put her in this Catholic orphanage.
KOCH: Her grandfather in his diary tells how he returned to the orphanage after the war to find the children had been moved, the building bombed. He searched Europe for Julie's sister unsuccessfully.
KEEFER: How do you find a six-month-old child when buildings are destroyed, countries are destroyed, and borders don't exist?
KOCH: But there were cases documented at the time and sometimes settled in court, where Catholic families or institutions refused to return Jewish children to their families or Jewish groups. Now papers discovered in church archives outside Paris and revealed by the Italian newspaper "El Journale" have some charging that was the policy of then Pope Pius XII. One clause from the 1946 document from the Vatican to French clergy states, quote, children who have been baptized cannot be entrusted to institutions that cannot guarantee their Christian education. But another adds, quote, things would be different if the children were requested by their relatives.
RABBI SHMUEL HERZFELD: The time has come for an independent investigation of this act. We want to know all of the children who might have been affected by this directive from the pope.
KOCH: A Vatican official says church policy was to return Jewish children to their families, but no one else.
FATHER PETER GUMPEL, VATICAN OFFICIAL; The instruction was if persons come who have no direct relationship with these children, the church has taken care of them and should continue to take care of them until the time that they can be told and then they should be completely free to decide on their own.
KOCH: A Catholic scholar insists the church did its best to handle each case fairly during those difficult post-war years.
EUGENE FISHER, U.S. CONF. OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: This is an unprecedented situation in human history and yes, one can say the church was behind the curve, so were most institutions in Europe and the United States for that matter behind the curve on what had happened and what its significance was.
KOCH: Keefer says she and her grandfather were saved by the Christian woman who hid them, became his wife and is honored on the rescuers' wall in the Holocaust museum, but she is deeply troubled by the possibility children like her sister Toila may have been deliberately kept from their families.
KEEFER: I'm irate, because everything else was taken from us. Why this too?
KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: From children of the holocaust to safe haven laws for newborns. Coming up, this baby ignited debate this week on the safe haven laws in some states. We'll continue that discussion.
And feeling guilty over your chocolate intake? You may not need to. Dr. Bill Lloyd later with his take on living well with chocolate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE SATURDAY: Here are the latest headlines.
We should have results of Iraqi's January 30th national election soon. The chairman of the independent election commission in Iraq says the body will announce the results tomorrow afternoon Baghdad time. It will hear complaints about the outcome before certifying the numbers.
Iraqi police report 17 deaths from a suicide car bombing in a town south of Baghdad. The blast happened at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Police say six Iraqi security guards are among the dead; 26 people were wounded.
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is now chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The 2004 presidential candidate who flamed out after a strong start won on a voice vote today in Washington. He promised the reemergence of the Democratic party.
A Florida woman who claimed to have witnessed a newborn baby being tossed from a moving car is now under psychiatric evaluation. Police say the woman is in fact the baby's mother and made up the story as a cover to abandon the child. With details on this bizarre story, here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a horrifying story, police trying to locate a young mother said to have pitched a newborn baby, umbilical cord still attached out of a moving car, the baby stuffed inside a plastic bag. A good Samaritan stopped to help and rushed the baby to police.
SHERIFF KEN JENNE, BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA: The good news about the story is that we have someone in this community who has got the heart and soul to pick that child up and save it.
CANDIOTTI: Nurses nicknamed him Johnny, then the discovery that came like a body blow.
JENNE: This is a case of a disturbed woman who gave birth, but did not want to keep her child and made up an incredible story. The mother of the baby is the good Samaritan.
KOCH: By Friday morning, police put two and two together. The good Samaritan confessed she did not want to raise another child. Police said the mother, 38-year-old Patricia Pokriots (ph) gave birth Thursday afternoon, took a shower, and set out to concoct a cover story. Sadly because of a so-called safe haven law copied in 45 states, Pokriots did not have to create a charade. If she had turned in her unwanted newborn to authorities within three days, there would have been no questions asked.
JENNE: The irony of this once again if Patricia had done this, if Patricia had done this, we would not be talking about her name and her child would be safe. She would be safe, and this would not be an issue before us.
CANDIOTTI (on-camera): The mother is under court-ordered psychiatric care. Police say they're not sure whether any charges will be filed. The sheriff says one possibility is filing a false police report. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Well, the woman accused of fabricating that story could have given up her child up to authorities legally under Florida's safe haven law. Such laws are now on the books in all states except for Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska and Vermont which has a bill pending. Television reporter Jodi Brooks launched a nationwide child safe harbor movement about six years ago. She's joining us now from Denver, Colorado. Jodi, when you saw this case as this was unfolding in the past couple of days in Florida, what were you thinking? This is publicity, I guess, for all the people out there who don't know about the child safe haven laws, but again, it sort of draws attention to the fact that there are women out there who don't want their children and are willing to go to extreme measures to get rid of them.
JODI BROOKS, CREATOR OF SAFE HAVEN PROGRAM: Well what it tells us is that laws are great, but if you don't publicize the laws, people don't know about it. I think having laws in 46 states is a great thing, because it keeps it uniform from border to border in these states, but what happens is there's just not enough publicity, enough campaign. Even the girl who's listening to this today six months from now, the girl who needs this program actually six months from now is probably not listening to us today. So you need constant education, constant promotion and unfortunately in Florida, that didn't happen.
ROMANS: And you've created the original or sort of the impetus behind the original movement and now it's spread all over the country. What was your inspiration?
BROOKS: Christine, as a reporter, probably like you, I've covered so many different kinds of stories and through my career, the theme in my career seemed to be covering these abandoned babies, babies left in dumpsters, in canals, in the woods, in gutters, I was covering this high-profile murder case in Mobile, Alabama where a woman was accused of hiding her pregnancy. Her and her mother were both charged with murder, because the mother -- the state was able to prove the mother knew her daughter was pregnant and would hide the pregnancy with the daughter. And during that trial, I approached the district attorney and I said, you know, why not just let women take their babies to the hospital? Would that be a crime, just leave, take the baby, hand it over and walk away. Is that a crime? He said it wasn't a crime, because it wouldn't be abuse, neglect or abandonment, as long as the baby wasn't harmed. But he said you've got to get the hospitals to agree to do this. So when I was working in Mobile, Alabama, I went to all the area hospitals and we developed a local program and we launched it in November of '98 and we ended up saving our first baby Christmas eve, November, I mean December 1998.
ROMANS: There's sort of like no real pattern of who -- these are mothers all over the country who, for a variety of reasons, are just overwhelmed or they're mentally ill or, you know, they're abused. How do you get to those women and make sure they know that they can leave their baby in safety? And that there are people who want to raise their children? That must be such a challenge.
BROOKS: The problem is, first of all, it's not a particular woman. We've seen this program, we've seen girls who are 13 abandon their babies, like Patricia, these 38 and has another child. The key is not just focusing on that college student who's living in her dorm and has hidden her pregnancy and then decides to put her baby in a dumpster. The key is just a constant education, billboards, sides of buses, PSAs and just talking about it, positive stories when the program does work. I mean it does work. We have saved babies. We don't want to say that it's not working. It is working. We just saved a baby here in Colorado last week, a baby was dropped off at a local fire station, but the problem is we just need to constantly remind people that this is an option for them.
ROMANS: Jodi, quickly, don't have very much time, but if a young woman or any woman is watching right now and is in trouble, what should she do?
BROOKS: We have an 800 number that she can call. It's 1-866-694- baby and they can call that number in any state in the country and you can find out more about your law. Most of the laws are similar, get the baby to a hospital or a fire station within 72 hours. Some states say a police station but you can call 1-866-694-baby, and you can learn more about your state's law.
ROMANS: And it's the right thing to do. Jodi Brooks, thank you so much for joining me.
BROOKS: Sure.
ROMANS: We're going to switch some gears now. Straight ahead, the sometimes overlooked health benefits of that sweet stuff -- chocolate. Dr. Bill is up next with a segment no self-respecting chocolate lover would want to miss.
And later we're heading to the heartland in search of a little R&B.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The top 25 medical stories that shaped our health and changed our lives during CNN's first 25 years. We asked top medical experts to come up with a list. Taking us into the top 10, here's numbers 10 through 6. Number 10, BMI or body mass index. In 1998, the U.S. government adopts new guidelines to define obesity. Scale it down at number 9, weight. The CDC announces in 1999 that over one half of Americans are overweight. Buckle up for number 8. Seat belt laws, the first U.S. seat belt use law is enacted in 1984 in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM BRANCH, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: This is sort of a good community health measure. It's good for the community because it saves lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number seven, Prozac. In 1987 Prozac was released for use in the United States to help patients cope with depression. At number 6, the heart transplant. In 2001, 59-year-old Robert Pools became the first person to receive a self-contained artificial heart. Stay tuned as we continue our countdown to number one. ROMANS: And don't miss CNN's one-hour special tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will take a look back at the top 25 medical stories of the last 25 years. Which one do you think is number one?
Erica Hill is here now to preview what's to come. Erica, what's on top for your show?
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately I don't have the number one story. We're all going to have to wait and guess until tomorrow, but we do have a lot of great things coming up, sort of medical related actually. Talking about what could be the next diet sweeping America. At 6:00 p.m. Eastern, we talked to the creators of a hot new diet known as fill up, slim down. We're going to get the secrets to this new one, see if the weight-loss success is really there because it sounds good.
And also coming up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, I just spoke with the sheriff involved in the case in Florida about that baby that was supposedly thrown out the car. We know now of course that the baby was not thrown. We'll hear what the latest is going on there, what's happening with the mother and how the baby is doing.
ROMANS: That story is so incredible. We were just talking about how in most states you are safe to just drop your baby off at a fire station. You don't need to go through such a charade.
HILL: Exactly and the sheriff mentioned that specifically and how important that is for so many mothers out there.
ROMANS: All right. Erica Hill, can't wait, look forward to it, thanks.
There's still much more ahead in this hour of CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Straight ahead we're going to the Grammys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Toure out in L.A. for the Grammys where everything is all wrapped up in plastic like at your grandmother's house. Who's going to win? Tanya West (ph), Ray Charles, Green Day? I don't know. Coming up, we'll break it all down.
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ROMANS: And then a little hip-hop and some R&B. The two genres dominated "Billboard's" top 10 in 2004, so where are they coming from? CNN's Candy Crowley hits the heartland to find out.
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ROMANS: And now it's time for "Living Well." Many of you may be giving bonbons to your sweeties on Valentine's Day. You're not only being romantic. A new study suggests you could be helping the one you love live longer. In addition to heating up your love life, chocolate has other health benefits. Dr. Bill Lloyd is with the University of California Davis Medical Center. He joins us from Sacramento with sweet surprises about chocolate. Dr. Bill, can you really live longer? Chocolate, of all the wonderful attributes of chocolate, you can actually live longer.
DR. BILL LLOYD, UNIV OF CALIF-DAVIS MEDICAL CTR: Well, Christine researchers would want you to believe that these Valentine chocolates are actually a fountain of youth. There's several studies, including one out of Harvard involving 7,000 adults, that say that you have a 30 percent chance of living longer if you consume chocolate on a regular basis compared to adults who never eat chocolate.
Here's some reasons why chocolate can help you live longer. The first thing is it's loaded with antioxidants. That means it's good for your heart and will lower your chance of atherosclerosis, that hardening of the arteries that can give you a heart attack, because chocolate is full of flavonoids. It's also full of chemicals that will improve your memory. It improves your circulation to all parts of your body, your heart, your brain and your limbs and chocolate even has a kind of baby aspirin activity to keep your platelets from sticking together so that your blood vessels don't clot up.
ROMANS: There are all different kinds of chocolates. Are there different benefits for the different kinds? I mean the people who are real connoisseurs like dark over light, milk over -- I mean is there one better than the other?
LLOYD: There certainly is, Christine and the dark chocolate is the best of all. The benefits of chocolate come from how much cocoa is in it. So the darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content and this nice expensive European chocolates are 70 percent cocoas are loaded with those antioxidants. Milk chocolate has far less cocoa, has too much butter and milk by the way as well and white chocolate has absolutely no cocoa, so it has none of those antioxidants that can help you live longer.
ROMANS: And they all have a lot of caffeine though right? So what about some of the drawbacks potentially to eating an awful lot of chocolate?
LLOYD: Well, you mentioned caffeine and that's important, because rich chocolate can be loaded with caffeine. And if you're taking medications that interact with caffeine or have problems with high blood pressure or a heart arrhythmia, you wouldn't want to be consuming too much dark chocolate. Chocolate of course is loaded with calories. A cup of chopped apple might be 50 calories, a cup of chocolate can be over 1,000 calories. Chocolate has plenty of cholesterol, have of it unsaturated, the good kind and half the poly saturated kind which is the bad chocolate that's bad for your own cholesterol levels. People with reflux problems probably shouldn't eat too much chocolate and it's ironic, so many fine restaurants will serve you a little chocolate at the end of the meal. It's actually the last thing you want to eat if you have a problem with reflux. And finally, migraine headache sufferers note, they ought to stay away from chocolate because it can dilate the blood vessels and lead to a migraine attack. ROMANS: That's me. See, I'm not going to live as long as all those chocolate eaters, because I have to worry about the migraine headaches I get from chocolate. What about a cup of hot chocolate, hot cocoa, same kind of dividends as regular chocolate or a chocolate bar?
LLOYD: Well, a rich hot cup of cocoa is loaded with antioxidants, probably about the same amount as a glass of red wine. What you want to be careful though is, don't load it up with all the toppings and the sugar and the whipped cream. Added calories aren't going to be healthy for you, but for adults who enjoy a nice cup of rich hot cocoa made with hot water, not milk, it will be an excellent healthy treat for you to enjoy with your chocolates on St. Valentine's Day.
ROMANS: OK, my migraine alarm signals are going off like crazy just watching you Dr. Bill. Everything in moderation we should point out though. Yes, there are probably some longevity advantages to eating chocolate, but everything in moderation, right?
LLOYD: It's the food of the gods, everything in moderation, just like you say, easy on the calories, easy on the cholesterol, but don't deny yourself an occasional treat of a chocolate candy bar every now and then.
ROMANS: ARA Dr. Bill Lloyd, thank you so much.
It's the music industry's equivalent to the Oscars. The Grammy awards will be handed out in Los Angeles tomorrow night and there could be a lot of drama on stage for some of the top categories. Our pop culture correspondent Toure has a preview of the 47th annual awards show.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, it's Toure out in L.A. for the Grammys where everything is being built as we speak. The green carpet is all wrapped up in plastic. There's been parties all week long. Tonight, Clive Davis is having his big annual soiree, the biggest party of the year for the record business. Maroon Five unfortunately is going to perform Fantasia from "American Idol" is going to perform, and the ubiquitous Usher is going to be on stage.
Last night there was a benefit for tsunami relief, $150 a head. (INAUDIBLE) showed up, James Brown showed up, I did not. Now, who's going to win the album of the year? Nobody knows. Kanye West (ph) is the best album in the group for the college drop out, intellectual hip-hop. He produced it. He rhymed on it. He created an original sound.
But the Grammy doesn't always go from straight add (ph) hip hop. So maybe Ray Charles will win for "Genius Loves Company," which is clearly the weakest album of the group, but it's Ray Charles, the James coattails effect. Everybody loves Ray and it will be the record's businesses' last chance to stand up and applaud him, so maybe Ray Charles will win. Now, rock and roll is also a big part of this show of course. Green Day is nominated for five for "American Idiot," their great punk album that some say saved rock and roll. They'll be performing as well as the fantastic U2.
But the biggest performance of the night, I'm thinking Alisha Keys (ph) with Jamie Foxx. That's right, Jamie, he better win that Oscar, and the Anthonies, the great husband and wife team, Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez in which will surely by the most yapped- about moment of the night. For CNN in Los Angeles, it's your man Toure.
ROMANS: Yakked about indeed. All right. Hip-hop artists certainly received a lot of Grammy nominations. While many rappers seem to favor either the east coast or the west coast, tomorrow's new talent could be coming from somewhere in between. Here's our Candy Crowley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The rap scene, going mainstream, c'mon, bring it to us, right here in St. Louis. Not surprised they listen to rap in the Midwest? Would you be surprised to know they make it here?
KEVIN JOHNSON, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: It has a very street element to it. It has a very bouncy element to it. It has what they call a country feel to it. It's something you can easily dance to, and kronk (ph) is another word they put on the sound to it.
CROWLEY: 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, open mic night at the Hi Pointe. Has anyone gotten famous by doing this?
LAMAR WILLIAMS, HI POINTE CLUB: The latest one happens to be Ebony Eyez. She's been coming here since the first or second year we opened. Last year she actually got signed to Capitol records.
CROWLEY: Ebony Eyez raps against the grain, a mid westerner in what's been a east coast/west coast scene, a woman in a business rife with lyrics that debase woman.
MARK WILLIAMS, PRODUCER, TRACKBOYZ: She's not a passive pushover type of female. She is rough, rugged female at the same time, Ebony cries tears, it's the same thing, when she's hurt, it's the same response as anybody else.
CROWLEY: Meet the Trackboyz, St. Louis born and raised, producers, working out of a basement studio, who among other things, put rapper Jay Kwan (ph) on the charts with one of the most played songs in 2004. They now look to Ebony Eyes.
JO CAPO, PRODUCER, TRACKBOYZ: She tells stories. She's talking about things that make you laugh. She's talking about things that make you cry.
CROWLEY: She is talking about some things we can't put on the cable news network. Now, pretend you're talking to a middle-aged white woman, for instance.
EBONY EYEZ, RAPPER: OK.
CROWLEY: Tell me about the song that I heard.
EYEZ: My sound is just like -- I think it's like raw emotional hip-hop.
CROWLEY: So a female power?
EYEZ: Yeah, I just word it in a different way, but that's really what it's meant to be.
CROWLEY: Ten years ago nobody looked for hip-hop or rap talent out of the Midwest. That was pre-Nellie (ph), the St. Louis rapper who hit platinum and is up for another Grammy this year. Now, the gateway to the west is wide open, probably the most vibrant hip-hop scene in the country. So as Grammy awards give out the shine, kick back while you keep this in mind. When you look to see rap at its newest check out the beats in St. Louis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime you're rhyming words, you're rappin'.
CROWLEY: So there. Candy Crowley, CNN St. Louis.
ROMANS: That's all for this hour of CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Straight ahead, PEOPLE IN THE NEWS. On the eve of the Grammy awards, a look at two hit-making nominees, LL Kool Jay (ph) and country crossover Shania Twain. Then at 6:00 Eastern, Sgt. Tucker's journey through Iraq. It seems one deployment wasn't enough for this ammunition loader. And at 7:00 p.m., it's the CAPITAL GANG. What are the chances President Bush's budget plan will actually pass? And I'll be back in just a few minutes with the hour's next headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS in a moment. But first, here's what's happening now in the news.
By this time tomorrow, we should know the results of Iraq's elections. They'll be announced Sunday afternoon, but it won't be certified until any complaints are heard.
A suicide car bombing in a town south of Baghdad today killed 17 people and wounded 26. It happened at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Police say six Iraqi security
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE SATURDAY: What is this? It's big, it's orange, and it's in central park.
The good, the bad and the ugly. Dr. Bill weighs in on chocolates and your health.
Hip-hop in St. Louis, not as weird as you might think. Hello and welcome to CNN SATURDAY. I'm Christine Romans. All that and more after this check of the headlines.
Howard Dean has a new gig. The former Vermont governor and former presidential candidate is the new leader of the Democratic Party. He was elected today by the Democratic National Committee to replace outgoing party chief Terry McAuliffe. Dean says he'll work hard to sell the Democratic Party at the grass-roots level.
More violence in Iraq today as suicide car bombs detonated at an Iraqi police checkpoint in a town south of Baghdad killing 17 people. Dozens were wounded.
Meanwhile, the bodies of six Iraqi National Guard troops were found in Mosul. A note left on one body said the soldiers took part in operations against insurgents in Falluja.
Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to persuade militants to abide by a cease-fire agreement with Israel. Abbas is meeting with leaders of Hamas and other hard-line Islamic fundamentalist groups in Gaza today. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
As the violence subsides in the Middle East, the war of words intensifies elsewhere. Days after North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, it's asking for public support from its people. Pyongyang is urging North Koreans to rally behind Kim Jong-Il.
Russian's defense minister today criticized North Korea over the stand off. Sergei Evanoff (ph) said if North Korea has in fact developed nuclear weapons, it has made the wrong choice. The White House meantime is holding firm on its insistence that North Korea rejoins six-party talks. We get the latest reaction from CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House and its allies are involved in tense negotiations, discussions over what to do next if North Korea does not abandon its nuclear weapons program. Should the United States abandon those six-party talks, U.S. officials are considering a number of options, the first one to treat North Korea like Iran, refer North Korea to the UN Security Council to impose economic sanctions.
The problem with this approach is they believe however that Russia and China would likely not sign on. Another option perhaps is to toughen efforts to block North Korea from transferring nuclear technology to so-called terrorist states. The U.S. so far has proved that North Korea has sold nuclear components to Libya in the past, perhaps even Iran as well. What the U.S. would do is actually put more pressure on North Korea's neighbors, particularly China to try to monitor North Korean flights or shipments that are crossing their borders and then of course finally what U.S. officials say is their most immediate strategy, their short-term strategy, that is to put as much pressure as possible on the other members of the six-party talks -- that's Russia, China, Japan, as well as South Korea -- to get tough on Kim Jong-Il's regime.
And of course all of this comes in a flurry of diplomatic efforts. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with her Chinese as well as South Korean counterparts within days, one of them being South Korea's foreign minister who was just here at the White House on Friday to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney. And we also understand as well, there will be a Chinese delegation on its way to North Korea to try to convince them to come back to the bargaining table. All of this it just the weeks to come. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
ROMANS: If diplomacy fails, will the U.S. be forced to take military action? If so, what are the military options for dealing with North Korea? Joining us with some insight from Washington is retired Army Brigadier General and CNN military analyst James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, thanks for joining us.
BRIG. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET): Sure.
ROMANS: What are the military options if this standoff with North Korea continues?
MARKS: Well, understand that the United States certainly would not act unilaterally in this case. They have a very strong alliance with South Korea. U.S. forces are positioned on the peninsula and they have been for close to 50 years and the South Koreans are an absolutely incredibly talented military, very industrious state. You need to realize that this would be a -- it would be a decision that would be made very, very deliberately after great consultation with all those members of the six-party talks, as well as the United Nations. This would be a very grave and a very serious endeavor.
ROMANS: When we talk about North Korea's missile range, when we talk about what kind of capabilities this country might have, clearly the players in that region and the United States have a lot at stake here to make sure that this issue can be handled appropriately, can be defused through diplomacy. We're taking a look at a picture right now, a graphic, if you will, of the range of North Korean missiles. That's what makes this all so important, right? MARKS: Oh, absolutely and in fact, there have been great efforts over the course of the last 50 years at multiple levels to ensure that engagement with North Korea keeps the lid on. Great efforts on diplomacy, but it has to be backed up by a very strong and a very diligent and focused military effort, and that's exactly what has taken place and is in place today.
ROMANS: That is always what diplomacy holds out, at the end if it doesn't work, there is this what-if? There is this risk that we could do something militarily. What are those options? Could there be strategic strikes against nuclear facilities? What kinds of issues would be on the table, do you think?
MARKS: First and foremost, you realize that North Korean military is extremely capable. There are a million men in the army alone. You need to realize that their rocket forces and their artillery forces are protected. They have a lot of their military formations and their capabilities dug into deeply hardened buried targets in North Korea. They have some incredible special operation forces. They have over 100,000 special ops forces. They could be infiltrated by light scanned aircraft. They can be infiltrated through submarine forces that they have and certainly diplomatically you always have to realize that the North Koreans have probably planted a lot of their agents in South Korea and in the region. So they get a very good sense of what is happening both diplomatically and militarily in the region.
ROMANS: At what point do you think the United States would have to start thinking about military options and turning to military options? At this point it looks as though the goal is to get everybody back at the table, six-way talks, back at the table. That's the goal right now.
MARKS: Absolutely it is. And having served on the peninsula, the expression and the posture of military forces at every moment was we would fight tonight. So the positioning of forces and the capability of forces are available to initiate combat operations immediately. That as I said, would be a decision that would have to be taken after much deliberation.
ROMANS: All right. Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks, thanks for joining us.
MARKS: Thank you Christine.
ROMANS: And you can stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
Another spoke in the so-called axis of evil is Iraq. There was more violence there today. A suicide car bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint south of Baghdad today. Seventeen people were killed. Six of them were Iraqi security guards. More that two dozen people were wounded.
In the southern city of Bazra, gunmen riding on a motorcycle assassinated a prominent Iraqi judge. Two of his bodyguards were wounded. Police speculate the judge was targeted because of his work with the new government.
Meantime, police in Mosul made a grisly discovery. The bullet- riddled bodies of six Iraqi National Guardsmen were found along a highway. A note on one of the men accused them of participating in the offensive against Falluja.
Every day is a battle for military families who must live apart during times of war. CNN's Jane Arraf talked to a group of soldiers in Iraq who are just days away from returning home, but first CNN's Alex Quaid brings us the poignant story of one family who tries to lessen the distance and continue a tradition that has marked each war, writing letters between home and the battle field.
ALEX QUAID, CNN CORRESPONDENT: August, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Marine Major Tim Parker's last minutes with his family. He's about to deploy to Iraq, leaving behind his wife and eight children. Yes, eight. Tim plans to write home every day.
MAJOR TIM PARKER, U.S. MARINE CORPS: I think it's important for my family to know what I'm doing over there and why we're over there, that I'm not just abandoning back here for a seven-month vacation.
QUAID: Letters he hopes will help them understand.
PARKER: I don't think some of the young ones have a realization of how long seven months is.
QUAID: Tim's wife, Joan.
JOAN PARKER: He can gear them to child-friendly letters and let us know what he's doing when he's away. We're going to be doing the same thing.
QUAID: Eight-year-old Timmy looks forward to them.
TIMMY PARKER: So I don't feel alone and I know he's going to come back soon.
QUAID: The letters will explain why he's gone.
PARKER: I think it's important that they know later on, you know, why we made the sacrifice.
QUAID: October, near the front lines of Falluja. Tim is keeping his promise, a quick e-mail to wife Joan. Then his daily letter to the kids.
PARKER: Hi family, I know it's tough for me to be away, there's so much to do in the house and your lives. Now your mom has to do it all without me. As tough as (INAUDIBLE) been, I wanted to just tell you all a story about something we did that will hopefully make you understand why I have to be gone. The other day we discovered a young girl, the same age as Katie having been shot in the foot. When it was brought to our attention, we coordinated to have her operated on and save her foot. She's recovering here right now on the base. If we were not here, she might have lost her foot. JOAN PARKER: Help your mom out as much as you can and I'll be home as soon as I can. Love dad. Did you like that letter?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.
JOAN PARKER: Yeah?
QUAID: Their letters tell him what he's missing.
PARKER: My son is plays his first season of football, my oldest son and I'm missing that. I'm not there to go to the practice with him and see his first game. You know, that's tough. My oldest daughter is doing band. Sharing, being a family.
QUAID: E-mail photos mark the holidays away from home. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. They write of baking cookies. He writes of his makeshift Christmas tree. Holiday barbecue, roasting marshmallows. The letter-writing has kept this family close, despite the distance.
PARKER: It's been very important. I mean it lets them know why I'm here, why I'm investing this time away from them. It lets them know what we're doing is important.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: And there's a letter from daddy.
PARKER: I'm thinking of them. I love them and I will be home as soon as I can be.
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're not supposed to count the days, but they do, even the hours until they go home to Germany, to California, to Tennessee. They've been in Iraq a year. Task force 22 of the 1st infantry division has seen combat in Najaf, in Falluja, in Mosul. This is one of their last missions.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: So if you can ID an enemy, by all means, shoot.
ARRAF: Over the last year these soldiers would have been desperate to get off the base. But in this last week, nobody wants to go out in these streets. For soldiers about to go home, this is one of the most harrowing times. They've survived a whole year in Iraq. They just have to get through the next few days. They talk about what it will be like going home. Most had a small taste during leave. Private first-class Troy Langley sitting in the back is 19.
TROY LANGLEY: I want to play pinball with my buddies. (INAUDIBLE) That's fine, but if I freak out, don't worry about it. Sure enough, he shot me in the back, and I didn't know he was (INAUDIBLE) and I flipped out on him.
ARRAF: They've seen enough explosions to last a lifetime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Falluja was hell on earth.
ARRAF: In the steel of his Humvee, Joshua Thomas Casias (ph) has etched the name of three of the battalion's 36 men who died in Iraq.
JOSHUA THOMAS CASIAS: (INAUDIBLE) He was our first medic, good friend. We've all known him for about....
ARRAF: Staff Sergeant James Madison and Sgt. Major Steve Balkenberg (ph) were killed in Falluja.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: They watched over me, and that's how I remember them. That's how we all will.
ARRAF: Casias is getting out of the army.
CASIAS: I wish I never came down here.
ARRAF: So is Sgt. David Pope.
SGT. DAVID POPE, US ARMY: It's kind of good to see the elections that happened turn out the way they did because it helps alleviate some of the sense of pointlessness.
ARRAF: A lot of the rest have reenlisted. In this last year, when many grew up, this is how they passed the time and kept the ghosts at bay. Grateful they're alive. Jane Arraf, CNN, Moqtadia (ph), Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Iraq was in the spotlight at a security conference in Germany today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for further cooperation among the U.S. and its allies to defeat terrorism and stop the spread of banned weapons. Rumsfeld also said the American European alliance can withstand current differences caused mostly by the war in Iraq.
Remember the gay marriage brouhaha? An important official changes his stance. Find out who coming up.
Did this man set up a suicide pact through the Internet? Kimberly Osias reports. And --
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Koch in Washington. Coming up, newly discovered Vatican documents raise questions about whether some Jewish children hidden during the holocaust were deliberately not returned to their families.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: And now some stories from across America. The biggest art exhibit in New York City history has central park awash in saffron. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and exhibit creators Cristo (ph) and Jean-Claude today opened the gates, more than a million square feet of fabric in 7500 strips festooned miles of footpaths in the park.
Massachusetts' attorney general has done an about-face on gay marriage. He's now for it. Thomas Reilly opposed same sex marriage in the case in which the state supreme court upheld it. The unannounced Democratic candidate for governor now says rights once given should not be taken away.
Hollywood stars and throngs of Harlem residents turned out today for the funeral of actor and activist Ossie Davis. The service featured music by Winton Marsalis (ph), a poem by Maya Angelou and a eulogy by Harry Belafonte. Davis and his wife Ruby Dee split their time between their television, film and stage careers and the civil rights movement. Davis died eight days ago in Miami Beach where he was working on a film. He was 87.
Investigators in Oregon are trying to find more than two dozen women who were allegedly planning to take part in a mass suicide on Valentine's Day. Authorities say the women made the suicide pact in an Internet chat room. Their alleged ringleader is under arrest. CNN's Kimberly Osias has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gerald Krien (ph) walked shackled from a jail cell to a police questioning room. The 26- year old, charged with solicitation to commit murder, after allegedly setting up the suicide pact on the Internet with at least 32 people spanning several states and Canada.
WESLEY GRABOWSKI, NEIGHBOR: I was shocked. At first, when I saw the police show up, I pretty much figured it was a drug bust and then to my surprise, I found out what it really was.
OSIAS: The alleged plot was exposed earlier this week when a Canadian woman who went by the screen name hapieluv got cold feet and alerted authorities. Today three other women came forward, revealing more information about the group called suicide party 2005 which communicated on a chat room that went by that name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It turned, from the very beginning you know, have you ever thought about it? Do you want to join a suicide party? That was like the third thing he asked me.
OSIAS: Krien is behind bars, but authorities worry about another group member who claimed to be a mother planning to kill her two young children and then herself.
SHERIFF TIM EVINGER, KLAMATH COUNTY, OREGON: As far as the children go, it's still a worldwide search at this point. We're still examining information.
OSIAS: But police concede they can't be sure whether any of the members, including Krien himself planned to commit suicide or whether some were playing a prank. However, police said the women who came forward gave consistent accounts of how the suicides were to be carried out, saying members were going to hang themselves from high ceilings. Wednesday, authorities seized Krien's computer, hard drive and DVDs from his family's home.
ED CALEB, KLAMATH COUNTY D.A.: He may have attempted to download his computer or erase a bunch of stuff that's on there. OSIAS: Prosecutors said they expect to seek second degree attempted manslaughter charges before a grand jury on Monday. FBI forensics are investigating into Krien's computer hard drive. His attorney says she's not yet ready to make a statement. Krien's mother says her son is not mentally ill. He was bullied as a child and maybe lashing out. Kimberly Osias, CNN, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: ... discover documents have some religious leaders questioning what happened to Jewish children hidden from the Nazis, during the holocaust. CNN's Kathleen Koch has that story straight ahead.
And then a law designed to protect unwanted children, coming up, I'll talk with a woman who helped enact the safe haven law.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: During World War II, thousands of Jewish children were hidden from the Nazis by catholic families in orphanages, but did the Vatican order those Catholics to keep the children after the war when many of them could have been reunited with their families? CNN's Kathleen Koch takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their stories are told in songs like this one, written in the Warsaw ghetto. Thousands of Jewish children left with Gentiles, many Catholic, who risked their own lives to hide the children from the Nazis, who saved them from almost certain death. The children were given new identities, some baptized, given Holy Communion. A Catholic woman in (INAUDIBLE) Poland hid Julie Keefer and her grandfather but couldn't keep her six- month-old sister.
JULIE KEEFER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: They changed my sister's name from Toila (ph) to Antonina Novitska (ph) and put her in this Catholic orphanage.
KOCH: Her grandfather in his diary tells how he returned to the orphanage after the war to find the children had been moved, the building bombed. He searched Europe for Julie's sister unsuccessfully.
KEEFER: How do you find a six-month-old child when buildings are destroyed, countries are destroyed, and borders don't exist?
KOCH: But there were cases documented at the time and sometimes settled in court, where Catholic families or institutions refused to return Jewish children to their families or Jewish groups. Now papers discovered in church archives outside Paris and revealed by the Italian newspaper "El Journale" have some charging that was the policy of then Pope Pius XII. One clause from the 1946 document from the Vatican to French clergy states, quote, children who have been baptized cannot be entrusted to institutions that cannot guarantee their Christian education. But another adds, quote, things would be different if the children were requested by their relatives.
RABBI SHMUEL HERZFELD: The time has come for an independent investigation of this act. We want to know all of the children who might have been affected by this directive from the pope.
KOCH: A Vatican official says church policy was to return Jewish children to their families, but no one else.
FATHER PETER GUMPEL, VATICAN OFFICIAL; The instruction was if persons come who have no direct relationship with these children, the church has taken care of them and should continue to take care of them until the time that they can be told and then they should be completely free to decide on their own.
KOCH: A Catholic scholar insists the church did its best to handle each case fairly during those difficult post-war years.
EUGENE FISHER, U.S. CONF. OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: This is an unprecedented situation in human history and yes, one can say the church was behind the curve, so were most institutions in Europe and the United States for that matter behind the curve on what had happened and what its significance was.
KOCH: Keefer says she and her grandfather were saved by the Christian woman who hid them, became his wife and is honored on the rescuers' wall in the Holocaust museum, but she is deeply troubled by the possibility children like her sister Toila may have been deliberately kept from their families.
KEEFER: I'm irate, because everything else was taken from us. Why this too?
KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: From children of the holocaust to safe haven laws for newborns. Coming up, this baby ignited debate this week on the safe haven laws in some states. We'll continue that discussion.
And feeling guilty over your chocolate intake? You may not need to. Dr. Bill Lloyd later with his take on living well with chocolate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVE SATURDAY: Here are the latest headlines.
We should have results of Iraqi's January 30th national election soon. The chairman of the independent election commission in Iraq says the body will announce the results tomorrow afternoon Baghdad time. It will hear complaints about the outcome before certifying the numbers.
Iraqi police report 17 deaths from a suicide car bombing in a town south of Baghdad. The blast happened at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Police say six Iraqi security guards are among the dead; 26 people were wounded.
Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean is now chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The 2004 presidential candidate who flamed out after a strong start won on a voice vote today in Washington. He promised the reemergence of the Democratic party.
A Florida woman who claimed to have witnessed a newborn baby being tossed from a moving car is now under psychiatric evaluation. Police say the woman is in fact the baby's mother and made up the story as a cover to abandon the child. With details on this bizarre story, here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.
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SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a horrifying story, police trying to locate a young mother said to have pitched a newborn baby, umbilical cord still attached out of a moving car, the baby stuffed inside a plastic bag. A good Samaritan stopped to help and rushed the baby to police.
SHERIFF KEN JENNE, BROWARD COUNTY FLORIDA: The good news about the story is that we have someone in this community who has got the heart and soul to pick that child up and save it.
CANDIOTTI: Nurses nicknamed him Johnny, then the discovery that came like a body blow.
JENNE: This is a case of a disturbed woman who gave birth, but did not want to keep her child and made up an incredible story. The mother of the baby is the good Samaritan.
KOCH: By Friday morning, police put two and two together. The good Samaritan confessed she did not want to raise another child. Police said the mother, 38-year-old Patricia Pokriots (ph) gave birth Thursday afternoon, took a shower, and set out to concoct a cover story. Sadly because of a so-called safe haven law copied in 45 states, Pokriots did not have to create a charade. If she had turned in her unwanted newborn to authorities within three days, there would have been no questions asked.
JENNE: The irony of this once again if Patricia had done this, if Patricia had done this, we would not be talking about her name and her child would be safe. She would be safe, and this would not be an issue before us.
CANDIOTTI (on-camera): The mother is under court-ordered psychiatric care. Police say they're not sure whether any charges will be filed. The sheriff says one possibility is filing a false police report. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.
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ROMANS: Well, the woman accused of fabricating that story could have given up her child up to authorities legally under Florida's safe haven law. Such laws are now on the books in all states except for Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska and Vermont which has a bill pending. Television reporter Jodi Brooks launched a nationwide child safe harbor movement about six years ago. She's joining us now from Denver, Colorado. Jodi, when you saw this case as this was unfolding in the past couple of days in Florida, what were you thinking? This is publicity, I guess, for all the people out there who don't know about the child safe haven laws, but again, it sort of draws attention to the fact that there are women out there who don't want their children and are willing to go to extreme measures to get rid of them.
JODI BROOKS, CREATOR OF SAFE HAVEN PROGRAM: Well what it tells us is that laws are great, but if you don't publicize the laws, people don't know about it. I think having laws in 46 states is a great thing, because it keeps it uniform from border to border in these states, but what happens is there's just not enough publicity, enough campaign. Even the girl who's listening to this today six months from now, the girl who needs this program actually six months from now is probably not listening to us today. So you need constant education, constant promotion and unfortunately in Florida, that didn't happen.
ROMANS: And you've created the original or sort of the impetus behind the original movement and now it's spread all over the country. What was your inspiration?
BROOKS: Christine, as a reporter, probably like you, I've covered so many different kinds of stories and through my career, the theme in my career seemed to be covering these abandoned babies, babies left in dumpsters, in canals, in the woods, in gutters, I was covering this high-profile murder case in Mobile, Alabama where a woman was accused of hiding her pregnancy. Her and her mother were both charged with murder, because the mother -- the state was able to prove the mother knew her daughter was pregnant and would hide the pregnancy with the daughter. And during that trial, I approached the district attorney and I said, you know, why not just let women take their babies to the hospital? Would that be a crime, just leave, take the baby, hand it over and walk away. Is that a crime? He said it wasn't a crime, because it wouldn't be abuse, neglect or abandonment, as long as the baby wasn't harmed. But he said you've got to get the hospitals to agree to do this. So when I was working in Mobile, Alabama, I went to all the area hospitals and we developed a local program and we launched it in November of '98 and we ended up saving our first baby Christmas eve, November, I mean December 1998.
ROMANS: There's sort of like no real pattern of who -- these are mothers all over the country who, for a variety of reasons, are just overwhelmed or they're mentally ill or, you know, they're abused. How do you get to those women and make sure they know that they can leave their baby in safety? And that there are people who want to raise their children? That must be such a challenge.
BROOKS: The problem is, first of all, it's not a particular woman. We've seen this program, we've seen girls who are 13 abandon their babies, like Patricia, these 38 and has another child. The key is not just focusing on that college student who's living in her dorm and has hidden her pregnancy and then decides to put her baby in a dumpster. The key is just a constant education, billboards, sides of buses, PSAs and just talking about it, positive stories when the program does work. I mean it does work. We have saved babies. We don't want to say that it's not working. It is working. We just saved a baby here in Colorado last week, a baby was dropped off at a local fire station, but the problem is we just need to constantly remind people that this is an option for them.
ROMANS: Jodi, quickly, don't have very much time, but if a young woman or any woman is watching right now and is in trouble, what should she do?
BROOKS: We have an 800 number that she can call. It's 1-866-694- baby and they can call that number in any state in the country and you can find out more about your law. Most of the laws are similar, get the baby to a hospital or a fire station within 72 hours. Some states say a police station but you can call 1-866-694-baby, and you can learn more about your state's law.
ROMANS: And it's the right thing to do. Jodi Brooks, thank you so much for joining me.
BROOKS: Sure.
ROMANS: We're going to switch some gears now. Straight ahead, the sometimes overlooked health benefits of that sweet stuff -- chocolate. Dr. Bill is up next with a segment no self-respecting chocolate lover would want to miss.
And later we're heading to the heartland in search of a little R&B.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The top 25 medical stories that shaped our health and changed our lives during CNN's first 25 years. We asked top medical experts to come up with a list. Taking us into the top 10, here's numbers 10 through 6. Number 10, BMI or body mass index. In 1998, the U.S. government adopts new guidelines to define obesity. Scale it down at number 9, weight. The CDC announces in 1999 that over one half of Americans are overweight. Buckle up for number 8. Seat belt laws, the first U.S. seat belt use law is enacted in 1984 in New York.
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DR. WILLIAM BRANCH, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: This is sort of a good community health measure. It's good for the community because it saves lives.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number seven, Prozac. In 1987 Prozac was released for use in the United States to help patients cope with depression. At number 6, the heart transplant. In 2001, 59-year-old Robert Pools became the first person to receive a self-contained artificial heart. Stay tuned as we continue our countdown to number one. ROMANS: And don't miss CNN's one-hour special tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will take a look back at the top 25 medical stories of the last 25 years. Which one do you think is number one?
Erica Hill is here now to preview what's to come. Erica, what's on top for your show?
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately I don't have the number one story. We're all going to have to wait and guess until tomorrow, but we do have a lot of great things coming up, sort of medical related actually. Talking about what could be the next diet sweeping America. At 6:00 p.m. Eastern, we talked to the creators of a hot new diet known as fill up, slim down. We're going to get the secrets to this new one, see if the weight-loss success is really there because it sounds good.
And also coming up at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, I just spoke with the sheriff involved in the case in Florida about that baby that was supposedly thrown out the car. We know now of course that the baby was not thrown. We'll hear what the latest is going on there, what's happening with the mother and how the baby is doing.
ROMANS: That story is so incredible. We were just talking about how in most states you are safe to just drop your baby off at a fire station. You don't need to go through such a charade.
HILL: Exactly and the sheriff mentioned that specifically and how important that is for so many mothers out there.
ROMANS: All right. Erica Hill, can't wait, look forward to it, thanks.
There's still much more ahead in this hour of CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Straight ahead we're going to the Grammys.
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TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Toure out in L.A. for the Grammys where everything is all wrapped up in plastic like at your grandmother's house. Who's going to win? Tanya West (ph), Ray Charles, Green Day? I don't know. Coming up, we'll break it all down.
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ROMANS: And then a little hip-hop and some R&B. The two genres dominated "Billboard's" top 10 in 2004, so where are they coming from? CNN's Candy Crowley hits the heartland to find out.
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ROMANS: And now it's time for "Living Well." Many of you may be giving bonbons to your sweeties on Valentine's Day. You're not only being romantic. A new study suggests you could be helping the one you love live longer. In addition to heating up your love life, chocolate has other health benefits. Dr. Bill Lloyd is with the University of California Davis Medical Center. He joins us from Sacramento with sweet surprises about chocolate. Dr. Bill, can you really live longer? Chocolate, of all the wonderful attributes of chocolate, you can actually live longer.
DR. BILL LLOYD, UNIV OF CALIF-DAVIS MEDICAL CTR: Well, Christine researchers would want you to believe that these Valentine chocolates are actually a fountain of youth. There's several studies, including one out of Harvard involving 7,000 adults, that say that you have a 30 percent chance of living longer if you consume chocolate on a regular basis compared to adults who never eat chocolate.
Here's some reasons why chocolate can help you live longer. The first thing is it's loaded with antioxidants. That means it's good for your heart and will lower your chance of atherosclerosis, that hardening of the arteries that can give you a heart attack, because chocolate is full of flavonoids. It's also full of chemicals that will improve your memory. It improves your circulation to all parts of your body, your heart, your brain and your limbs and chocolate even has a kind of baby aspirin activity to keep your platelets from sticking together so that your blood vessels don't clot up.
ROMANS: There are all different kinds of chocolates. Are there different benefits for the different kinds? I mean the people who are real connoisseurs like dark over light, milk over -- I mean is there one better than the other?
LLOYD: There certainly is, Christine and the dark chocolate is the best of all. The benefits of chocolate come from how much cocoa is in it. So the darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content and this nice expensive European chocolates are 70 percent cocoas are loaded with those antioxidants. Milk chocolate has far less cocoa, has too much butter and milk by the way as well and white chocolate has absolutely no cocoa, so it has none of those antioxidants that can help you live longer.
ROMANS: And they all have a lot of caffeine though right? So what about some of the drawbacks potentially to eating an awful lot of chocolate?
LLOYD: Well, you mentioned caffeine and that's important, because rich chocolate can be loaded with caffeine. And if you're taking medications that interact with caffeine or have problems with high blood pressure or a heart arrhythmia, you wouldn't want to be consuming too much dark chocolate. Chocolate of course is loaded with calories. A cup of chopped apple might be 50 calories, a cup of chocolate can be over 1,000 calories. Chocolate has plenty of cholesterol, have of it unsaturated, the good kind and half the poly saturated kind which is the bad chocolate that's bad for your own cholesterol levels. People with reflux problems probably shouldn't eat too much chocolate and it's ironic, so many fine restaurants will serve you a little chocolate at the end of the meal. It's actually the last thing you want to eat if you have a problem with reflux. And finally, migraine headache sufferers note, they ought to stay away from chocolate because it can dilate the blood vessels and lead to a migraine attack. ROMANS: That's me. See, I'm not going to live as long as all those chocolate eaters, because I have to worry about the migraine headaches I get from chocolate. What about a cup of hot chocolate, hot cocoa, same kind of dividends as regular chocolate or a chocolate bar?
LLOYD: Well, a rich hot cup of cocoa is loaded with antioxidants, probably about the same amount as a glass of red wine. What you want to be careful though is, don't load it up with all the toppings and the sugar and the whipped cream. Added calories aren't going to be healthy for you, but for adults who enjoy a nice cup of rich hot cocoa made with hot water, not milk, it will be an excellent healthy treat for you to enjoy with your chocolates on St. Valentine's Day.
ROMANS: OK, my migraine alarm signals are going off like crazy just watching you Dr. Bill. Everything in moderation we should point out though. Yes, there are probably some longevity advantages to eating chocolate, but everything in moderation, right?
LLOYD: It's the food of the gods, everything in moderation, just like you say, easy on the calories, easy on the cholesterol, but don't deny yourself an occasional treat of a chocolate candy bar every now and then.
ROMANS: ARA Dr. Bill Lloyd, thank you so much.
It's the music industry's equivalent to the Oscars. The Grammy awards will be handed out in Los Angeles tomorrow night and there could be a lot of drama on stage for some of the top categories. Our pop culture correspondent Toure has a preview of the 47th annual awards show.
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TOURE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, it's Toure out in L.A. for the Grammys where everything is being built as we speak. The green carpet is all wrapped up in plastic. There's been parties all week long. Tonight, Clive Davis is having his big annual soiree, the biggest party of the year for the record business. Maroon Five unfortunately is going to perform Fantasia from "American Idol" is going to perform, and the ubiquitous Usher is going to be on stage.
Last night there was a benefit for tsunami relief, $150 a head. (INAUDIBLE) showed up, James Brown showed up, I did not. Now, who's going to win the album of the year? Nobody knows. Kanye West (ph) is the best album in the group for the college drop out, intellectual hip-hop. He produced it. He rhymed on it. He created an original sound.
But the Grammy doesn't always go from straight add (ph) hip hop. So maybe Ray Charles will win for "Genius Loves Company," which is clearly the weakest album of the group, but it's Ray Charles, the James coattails effect. Everybody loves Ray and it will be the record's businesses' last chance to stand up and applaud him, so maybe Ray Charles will win. Now, rock and roll is also a big part of this show of course. Green Day is nominated for five for "American Idiot," their great punk album that some say saved rock and roll. They'll be performing as well as the fantastic U2.
But the biggest performance of the night, I'm thinking Alisha Keys (ph) with Jamie Foxx. That's right, Jamie, he better win that Oscar, and the Anthonies, the great husband and wife team, Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez in which will surely by the most yapped- about moment of the night. For CNN in Los Angeles, it's your man Toure.
ROMANS: Yakked about indeed. All right. Hip-hop artists certainly received a lot of Grammy nominations. While many rappers seem to favor either the east coast or the west coast, tomorrow's new talent could be coming from somewhere in between. Here's our Candy Crowley.
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CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The rap scene, going mainstream, c'mon, bring it to us, right here in St. Louis. Not surprised they listen to rap in the Midwest? Would you be surprised to know they make it here?
KEVIN JOHNSON, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: It has a very street element to it. It has a very bouncy element to it. It has what they call a country feel to it. It's something you can easily dance to, and kronk (ph) is another word they put on the sound to it.
CROWLEY: 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, open mic night at the Hi Pointe. Has anyone gotten famous by doing this?
LAMAR WILLIAMS, HI POINTE CLUB: The latest one happens to be Ebony Eyez. She's been coming here since the first or second year we opened. Last year she actually got signed to Capitol records.
CROWLEY: Ebony Eyez raps against the grain, a mid westerner in what's been a east coast/west coast scene, a woman in a business rife with lyrics that debase woman.
MARK WILLIAMS, PRODUCER, TRACKBOYZ: She's not a passive pushover type of female. She is rough, rugged female at the same time, Ebony cries tears, it's the same thing, when she's hurt, it's the same response as anybody else.
CROWLEY: Meet the Trackboyz, St. Louis born and raised, producers, working out of a basement studio, who among other things, put rapper Jay Kwan (ph) on the charts with one of the most played songs in 2004. They now look to Ebony Eyes.
JO CAPO, PRODUCER, TRACKBOYZ: She tells stories. She's talking about things that make you laugh. She's talking about things that make you cry.
CROWLEY: She is talking about some things we can't put on the cable news network. Now, pretend you're talking to a middle-aged white woman, for instance.
EBONY EYEZ, RAPPER: OK.
CROWLEY: Tell me about the song that I heard.
EYEZ: My sound is just like -- I think it's like raw emotional hip-hop.
CROWLEY: So a female power?
EYEZ: Yeah, I just word it in a different way, but that's really what it's meant to be.
CROWLEY: Ten years ago nobody looked for hip-hop or rap talent out of the Midwest. That was pre-Nellie (ph), the St. Louis rapper who hit platinum and is up for another Grammy this year. Now, the gateway to the west is wide open, probably the most vibrant hip-hop scene in the country. So as Grammy awards give out the shine, kick back while you keep this in mind. When you look to see rap at its newest check out the beats in St. Louis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime you're rhyming words, you're rappin'.
CROWLEY: So there. Candy Crowley, CNN St. Louis.
ROMANS: That's all for this hour of CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Straight ahead, PEOPLE IN THE NEWS. On the eve of the Grammy awards, a look at two hit-making nominees, LL Kool Jay (ph) and country crossover Shania Twain. Then at 6:00 Eastern, Sgt. Tucker's journey through Iraq. It seems one deployment wasn't enough for this ammunition loader. And at 7:00 p.m., it's the CAPITAL GANG. What are the chances President Bush's budget plan will actually pass? And I'll be back in just a few minutes with the hour's next headlines.
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ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. PEOPLE IN THE NEWS in a moment. But first, here's what's happening now in the news.
By this time tomorrow, we should know the results of Iraq's elections. They'll be announced Sunday afternoon, but it won't be certified until any complaints are heard.
A suicide car bombing in a town south of Baghdad today killed 17 people and wounded 26. It happened at a police checkpoint near a hospital. Police say six Iraqi security
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