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CNN Live Saturday
Severe Weather Hits Southern Plain States; Prince Harry Doing His Part to Fight AIDS; Rush Limbaugh Trying to Shake Cloud of Drug Addiction
Aired April 29, 2006 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN ANCHOR: This CNN SATURDAY.
I'm Susan Roesgen sitting in for Carol Lin tonight.
Ahead this hour, severe weather slams into parts of the Southern Plains. We've got the up to the minute forecast there and all around the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We learn from every casualty we have and we believe that, over time, using the techniques that we're using, that you're going to see those numbers fall.
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ROESGEN: America's number two military man in Iraq speaks bluntly and exclusively about life and death on the front lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: You see so many new kids here, that it's nice, in any way, to know that they're being looked after and at this time, more kids are coming in, which is a problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: Prince Harry carries on his mother's legacy in the fight against AIDS.
We'll hear a lot more from him next.
But first, a look at tonight's top headlines.
A big cleanup for five east Texas towns right now. Take a look at this new video in to CNN. A string of tornado-filled storms wrecked homes and buildings before it pushed on east.
We will show you more of the damage and get the very latest weather focus in just a minute.
Well, he's still the prime minister, but not for long. Silvio Berlusconi is about to resign from Italy's top job. He'll do that on Tuesday. Italy's top court certified Berlusconi's loss to Romano Prodi after elections earlier this month. Some unwanted attention for the former head of the Food and Drug Administration. The "New York Times" says Lester Crawford is the target of a federal criminal probe. It involves alleged financial misconduct and false statements to Congress.
And she's back on television. After four years off the air, Rosie O'Donnell is heading back to daytime TV. She will be the newest co-host of ABC's "The View." O'Donnell will replace Meredith Vieira, who you know is moving to NBC's "Today Show."
He is no jumping jack flash tonight. No, sir. Local news reports in Fiji say Keith Richards fell out of a palm tree on vacation. The Rolling Stones guitarist suffered a mild concussion. He's OK. No word on why the 62-year-old Richards was up in the tree in the first place.
Well, tornadoes, drenching rain, baseball-sized hail, they've got it all. The weather has really messed with Texas in the last 24 hours. The storm has left some homes and buildings in shambles in five east Texas towns. The winds were so strong that they blew parked planes into each other at an airport.
CNN's John Lawrence shows you more.
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JOHN LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you didn't see it, you may have had a hard time believing it -- planes tossed around runways in Gainesville, Texas like toys, one on top of the other. The airport's manager was amazed by the sheer strength of the wind.
MATT QUICK, GAINESVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT: And I know some of the aircraft were very large and it takes a lot of force to move those things like it did.
LAWRENCE: Winds estimated at up to 100 miles per hour moved into north Texas Friday night. An emergency management worker in one of the affected areas said they knew the storm was coming, but it simply moved too fast.
RAY FLETCHER, EMERGENCY MANAGER: It spun-up real fast on us and intensified very quickly and didn't give us a lot of time to get warnings out.
LAWRENCE: Authorities say the wind, rain and marble to baseball- sized hail destroyed a handful of homes and damaged at least 30 more.
FLETCHER: Some of the mobile homes were completely destroyed and some of the other homes, with the windows blown out and roofs damaged, were -- were probably not lived in last night.
LAWRENCE: No serious injuries were reported.
I'm John Lawrence, reporting from Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE) (WEATHER REPORT)
ROESGEN: The fight for Iraq again spills into the streets of Baghdad. The dead now include one Iraqi police officer, killed when a homemade bomb went off next to an Iraqi police patrol. April has been the deadliest month of the year so far for American troops in Iraq. Sixty-nine U.S. service members died there this month. That includes one soldier today, killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle.
And that figure fueled a sizeable anti-war protest in New York City. Thousands of people rallied in lower Manhattan, among them, activist Cindy Sheehan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and actress Susan Sarandon. Organizers say they marched for withdrawing troops from Iraq and they marched against any military action in Iran.
Al Qaeda leaders have been very talkative this week. Three tapes have surfaced, including one from Osama bin Laden himself. The latest was a video featuring bin Laden's number two man, Ayman el-Zawahiri. For 15 minutes in this tape, he praises the insurgents in Iraq and blasts the president of Pakistan, calling him a traitor. The video popped up last night on several Islamist Internet sites.
Now an exclusively CNN interview. He is the American Army officer overseeing day to day operations in Iraq, Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli.
He says the militias, more than the insurgency, are the most urgent threat to Iraq's stability.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote met the general out in the field.
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RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Your military commanders on the ground say their biggest problem right now, a lot of them are saying it's not the insurgents, but these militias -- militias, armed men that owe their allegiance not to the Iraqi military, but to these various sects. There are thousands of these guys. Some people say more than in the Iraqi military. This is a problem that's been growing. The U.S. military hasn't done anything about it. The Iraqi government hasn't done anything about it.
What are you going to do?
LT. GEN. PETER CHIARELLI, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL CORPS IN IRAQ: Well, I think you've seen the new prime minister has indicated that that will be one of the very first policy decisions that he makes. I think you're seeing that and I believe that that's exactly what's going to happen.
This is a problem that the Iraqi government has got to solve. They're the ones that have to come up with a policy and the Iraqi armed forces will be ready to implement that policy.
CHILCOTE: If they ask the U.S. military to get involved in disarming these groups, is that something you're ready to do? CHIARELLI: That's a decision that'll be made, a policy decision that'll be made at levels above me. But I can tell you that I feel fully confident that the Iraqi security forces have the ability to work that problem.
CHILCOTE: U.S. casualties, more than 2,300 fatalities now. About 17,500 wounded. April is now the deadliest -- it was the deadliest month yet this year for U.S. troops.
What's that say to you?
Why are the numbers going up?
CHIARELLI: We had them go up this month. We had them go up this month. We took -- we had some casualties go up this month. But I've been at this long enough to know that you're going to have months where casualties are going to be higher than other months are. And we look at every one of them. We learn from every casualty we have and we believe that, over time, using the techniques that we're using, that you're going to see those numbers fall.
CHILCOTE: Three years ago, President Bush declared the U.S. military's mission accomplished here.
Do you think that there was an under appreciation, an underestimation of the challenges that lay ahead?
CHIARELLI: I wasn't here three years ago. I'm here today. And I realize that we have challenges. But with soldiers like you saw today, we will, in fact, meet those challenges. They're ready to do the job.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ROESGEN: The general arrived in Iraq in January and it's his second tour of duty there.
Click over to cnn.com for our special report on Iraq. It is constantly updated with photos, videos, interviews and interactive time lines. Cnn.com/iraq.
Florida prosecutors have charged Rush Limbaugh with fraudulently hiding information to get prescription drugs. But they've also agreed to drop the charge in a year-and-a-half if the conservative talk show host stays in treatment.
On his radio show in 2003, Limbaugh admitted that he was addicted to painkillers.
Time for our Gas Gauge.
Prices are still on the rise. On average, a gallon of regular unleaded costs you $2.93. A year ago, it was $2.23.
Democrats accuse Republicans of giving tax cuts to oil companies as Americans struggle with the rising gas prices. In their weekly radio address, Democrats accused Congressional Republicans of continuing to turn a blind eye to oil company activities.
And rising numbers at the pump are making Americans pay closer attention to another set of figures -- the window stickers that tell you human miles per gallon a new car gets. But that's not the only way to lower your fuel costs.
Here's CNN's Peter Viles.
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PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): $3 gas makes people do some strange things, like pouring vegetable oil into the gas tank of a classic Mercedes.
BRIAN FRIEDMAN, LOVECRAFT BIO-FUELS: Just 100 percent vegetable oil, Wesson, Mazola. You put it straight in the tank.
VILES: Lovecraft Bio-Fuels sells old diesel sedans that have been converted to run-on vegetable oil, which sells for about $2.25 a gallon.
FRIEDMAN: The money stays in the U.S. economy and it's a clean burning car. It's like there's just winners all the way around.
VILES: This woman likes the retro look of the cars, but...
CLEO BAUDENBACHER, SHOPPING FOR A CAR: I'm still visualizing myself putting gallons of vegetable oil right in the tank.
VILES: The drawback is you need a diesel engine, which rules out 96 percent of the cars sold in America.
Ethanol blends like E85 -- that's 85 percent ethanol -- can be cheaper than gas in some places, but E85 is not widely available. You see electric vehicles on the road, but no major car maker is marketing them to consumers, who complain about having to charge them so often.
And politicians talk a lot about hydrogen and fuel cells...
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What you're witnessing here is the beginning of a major change in the driving habits of the American people.
VILES: ... but the fact is you cannot buy a fuel cell vehicle today and no one knows for sure when, or even if, Detroit will produce them.
And that leaves the old-fashioned option -- shop for a mass produced car that gets better gas mileage. A good rule of thumb -- fewer cylinders means more miles per gallon.
JOE CARACCIOLO, COLONIAL HONDA: So the four cylinder cars are very, very popular right now.
VILES: Hybrids, which run-on gas and electricity, offer the best mileage. This Honda Civic hybrid gets an estimated 51 miles per gallon on the highway and 49 in the city. It's roughly $4,000 more than the conventional Civic and there's often a waiting list, but you do get a federal tax credit of up to $2,000 if you buy one.
(on camera): And one more thing to consider if you're shopping for a new car and you're very concerned about gas mileage and that is that you cannot rely on the accuracy of those EPA gas mileage estimates that are on that sticker in the window of a new car. In almost every case, your actual mileage when you drive the car is not going to be as good as those EPA numbers.
Peter Viles for CNN, Glendale, California.
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ROESGEN: Somehow we figured that. But how about $0.40 a gallon? That's the price you pay for gas when your country has the second richest oil reserves. But it does come with its own set of problems. That story is ahead.
Also, AIDS, Africa and a prince on a mission. Up next, Princess Diana's youngest son reaches out to children facing an epidemic.
And, it's a creative competition for high school students -- the robot rivalry, in about 35 minutes.
You're watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
Stay with us.
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PRINCE HARRY: Sentebale is basically the name of a flower. It does mean forget me not and it's -- it's a way that both me and Prince Seeiso can relate to our mothers, who were both in sort of the same jobs, working with orphaned children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: Britain's Prince Harry talking about a charity he has helped set up for AIDS orphans in the African kingdom of Lesotho. He's following in the footsteps, of course, of his late mother, Princess Diana, who was one of the first to reach out to the victims of AIDS.
CNN's Jeff Koinange has more.
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JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Prince Harry has traveled the world and met tens of thousands of people, some very important. But he has not forgotten the children he met at this tiny mountain kingdom nearly two years ago, children like 6-year-old Mutsu Potsani (ph), who live in the AIDS orphanage in the country's capital, Maseru. PRINCE HARRY: It's really good to see him. I think he remembers me. His English is still as good, or as bad, as it used to be. But you see so many new kids here, it's nice, in a way, just to know that they're being looked after. But at the same time, more kids are coming in, which is a problem.
KOINANGE: Lesotho has one of the highest HIV rates in the world -- 29 percent of the adults in a country with just over two million people. The young prince has teamed up with Lesotho's prince, Seeiso Bereng Seeiso.
Their message?
AIDS is real and does not discriminate. Together, they hope to prevent the spread of a disease that's decimated entire households in Lesotho.
PRINCE SEEISO BERENG SEEISO, LESOTHO: Parents are dying. Both spouses are dying. We have so many double orphans in this country. And a 14-year-old or a 13-year-old, you would be surprised to be heading a household.
KOINANGE: In 2004, the two princes worked with the British Red Cross to set up a fund that has since raised nearly $2 million. Now, in an effort to call more attention to the pandemic in Lesotho, they've formed a new charity this week, Sentebale, a local Basutu word meaning "forget me not."
It's going to take a concerted effort to help stamp out the scourge in a nation where one in three said to be HIV positive.
PRINCE HARRY: As far as I'm concerned, I'll be here, come and do visits as much as I can, to come and see my good friend Seeiso, to come and see all the kids.
KOINANGE (on camera): AIDS in Africa was an important issue for the late Princess Diana. Looking every bit like an officer and a gentleman, the recent military school graduate seems to be picking up where his mother left off.
Jeff Koinange, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ROESGEN: And wrapping up other news in the world tonight, Mexico's senate has approved a bill that would decriminalize small amounts of cocaine, heroin and Ecstasy possession. Mexican lawmakers say the country should focus on traffickers, not small time users. President Vicente Fox has not signed the bill, but his office has expressed support for it.
In Sri Lanka, the United Nations estimates that violence has forced 21,000 people out of their homes recently. There's been an increase in fighting in recent weeks between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels. U.N. agencies are trying to deliver food and water to the affected areas. Iran has repeated a longstanding offer to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities -- but only if the U.N. Security Council drops its plans to shut down Iran's uranium enrichment program. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for nuclear power production. But the U.S. suspects a secret effort to make nuclear weapons.
Iranians are also enjoying cheap gas prices. Currently, they only pay $0.40 a gallon.
Our Aneesh Raman is one of a handful of journalists worldwide who's been given the green light to go into Iran and as he tells us, the gas prices there may also go up.
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ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If cheap gas is your vision of paradise these days, this is paradise -- a gas station off of one of Tehran's main roads.
(on camera): In Iran right now, a gallon of gas is just about $0.40, in part because of government subsidies but also because Iran has the world's second largest oil reserves.
(voice-over): And with such low prices, virtually everyone here can afford to drive and drive a lot. In fact, all that driving causes so much congestion and pollution, the government is now moving to ration gas so people drive less.
"There is too much traffic," says Rasul (ph). "With rationing, only those who really need it will use their cars and others will use public transportation."
There's another reason Iran may ration. Iran has oil, but little capacity to refine it. So the country actually imports 40 percent of its gas, which gives others leverage over them. But rationing is no quick fix and could further the country's economic divide.
"The poor are vulnerable. This will only be good for the rich," says Gisu (ph). "They'll have the money to pay for as much gas as they want."
In the next few months, the Iranian government plans to start handing out ration cards and those who want to buy above the allotted amount will have to pay five times more, $2.a gallon. So much for the paradise of cheap gas.
Aneesh Rahman, CNN, in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ROESGEN: Some U.S. soldiers wounded in the war on terror enjoy a night out in the nation's capital at a very special place. But that's about to end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTOINE DAVIS, HIV POSITIVE: Sleeping on the street, trying to look for a job is a real hard task and we've done it for a while. And then also having the virus on top of that is extra hard.
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ROESGEN: The agony of AIDS brings a former president and hundreds of people together. Sights and sounds of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. It's all on the way on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
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ROESGEN: Every week we bring you personal stories about U.S. troops serving in Iraq.
Today, we took a look at a small perk that leaves a big impression on some troops who are recuperating in the nation's capital. It's a restaurant there that hosts free dinners for severely wounded service men and women. But the meals may soon be put on hold.
CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has the story.
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JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would just be another landlord-tenant dispute, except for who is caught in the middle -- America's war wounded.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fine. That's fine.
MCINTYRE: For two-and-a-half years now, these steps have led to a haven for healing -- Fran O'Brien's Steakhouse, tucked in the basement of the Capitol Hilton in Washington.
SGT. WASIM KHAN, U.S. ARMY: The dinners are like inspiration and motivation for us. It's just, from my personal view, it's like at home for me.
MCINTYRE: What volunteers started in 2003 to thank wounded veterans with free dinners has grown into a Friday night institution where along with the steaks come heaping helpings of emotional nourishment.
HAL KOSTER, RESTAURANT CO-OWNER: It's therapeutic to get out and especially in this environment, because it gives them an opportunity to be out with people that have gone through a lot of the same things they've gone through.
STAFF SGT. CHRISTOPHER BAIN, U.S. ARMY: I was sitting down next to an amputee that didn't have any legs or even if he only had one leg, maybe he didn't have his prosthetic yet. But I told him, hey, this is the deal. I can get your food, you cut my steak. And he goes, "Not a problem."
MCINTYRE: Donations from various organizations cover the tab and everyone from Vietnam era veterans to government bureaucrats like Paul Wolfowitz have become part of the therapy.
BAIN: I can actually tell you that they didn't just save my life. They're saving all these soldiers' lives.
MCINTYRE: But the dinners end this month because The Hilton is evicting the restaurant in a dispute in which each side blames the other, even as everyone agrees the dinners must go on.
BRIAN KELLER, GENERAL MANAGER, CAPITAL HILTON: These guys have done good work. We support the veterans. But it's all about conditions in terms of a lease.
MCINTYRE: The hotel at first offered to take over hosting the dinners, but the restaurant owners and the volunteer who came up with the idea in the first place insist they'll find some place more accommodating.
JIM MAYER, VOLUNTEER: I think the soldiers and Marines will keep that spirit going.
MCINTYRE: And that's not in dispute.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ROESGEN: Tomorrow night, a story we don't hear much about, the everyday struggles of men whose wives are serving in Iraq. That story tomorrow on CNN SUNDAY at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
Coming up, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta teams up with former President Bill Clinton, envisioning a world without AIDS. The race against a disease that doesn't discriminate.
Cool new inventions -- robots doing things you've only dreamed of, created by high school students. We'll show you them live when we come back.
And in 10 minutes, why slow and steady wins the race in the battle of the bulge.
You're watching CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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