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CNN Live Saturday
Car bomb in Basra Kills 10; European Union to Present Proposal to Tehran; Bush Urging Congress to Pass Constitutional ban on Same-Sex Marriage; Indianapolis Police Searching for a Mass Murder Suspect; Seventeen Terror Suspects in Custody in Canada; U.S. Officials Deny Allegations Of Killing Civilians in Ishaqi; Russian Diplomats Come Under Attack in Baghdad; CBS News correspondent Wounded in Iraq Soon to Return Home; How One Palestinian Group Builds Its Crude Weapons; Liver Donation Far Riskier Than Kidney Donation; Finding The Best Travel Deals Online
Aired June 03, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Indianapolis, police are still searching for a mass murder suspect. He's identified as 28-year-old Desmond Turner who is described as having an extensive criminal history. Seven members of an Indianapolis family, including three children, were shot to death, Thursday. We'll have a live update in a few minutes.
Another car bombing in Iraq, this one in the southern city of Basra. The blast occurred in a crowded outdoor market, at least 10 people were killed and 30 injured.
The European Union's foreign policy chief is prepared to go to Iran to present a proposal by the world superpowers. The package offers incentives in Tehran gives up its nuclear program or sanctions if that country refuses. We'll take a closer look at the proposal in about 15 minutes.
Southern Iran got a jolt if an earthquake today. Authorities say a magnitude 5.4 quake killed a young girl and injured two other people. It was centered in a sparsely populated area.
President Bush is again urging Congress to pass a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. He used today's weekly radio address to renew his call. The Senate votes next week on the so-called marriage protection amendment.
And now let's check in with Reynolds Wolf for a quick check of your weekend weather. Hello Reynolds.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: And we update the top stories every 15 minutes right here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
Straight ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, you'll want to log on before you pack up for your summer vacation. We'll tell you where you can find the best deals online. And this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a nondescript hovel somewhere in Gaza, masked men mix a witch's brew of chemicals. This is a rocket workshop where members of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, under strict secrecy, go about their deadly business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A chilling report you will only see on CNN. CNN's Ben Wedeman goes behind the scenes of a bomb making factory in Gaza.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASST. COMM. MIKE MCDONELL, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one ton of ammonium nitrate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: But Canadian authorities say 17 terror suspects they now have in custody were seeking three tons of the potential explosive and they had scoped out possible targets. CNN's Kyung Lah joins us now from Washington with more on this investigation.
KYUNG LAH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Fredricka. We are learning a little bit more about this investigation. And I want to update you with something that CNN is learning, that some sort of connection does exist between the men who were arrested here in the United States a few months ago in the Atlanta, Georgia, area and what has been happening in Canada.
I'm going to quote the FBI spokesman, Richard Kolko who says, quote, "There is preliminary indication that some of the Canadian suspects may have had limited contact with the two people recently arrested from Georgia." Now, that's Georgia in the United States, the state of Georgia. He continues, quote, "There is no imminent threat to the U.S. from these current law enforcement operations."
Those two U.S. Citizens from the Atlanta area had traveled to Canada, according to the FBI. They were arrested, according to an affidavit that was made public, saying that they had discussed potential targets -- terror targets in the United States. There was nothing that did happen. Again, hearing some sort of connection with that, but the FBI will not confirm anything beyond what we have learned.
Now, as far as what you're seeing, this video that you're seeing is from Canada. Everything that has happened yesterday, the arrests yesterday and the press conference, it is all within Canada's borders. It's an ongoing investigation according to agents. They have been monitoring this for some time.
We don't know what prompted the arrests last night, but agents did move in and they were, according to the press conference today, able to avert attacks in Canada by making these arrests. Seventeen men arrested, 12 adults, five minors, little detail of who they are other than, for various reasons, they did become inspired by al Qaeda. Most disturbing, though, was the amount of the explosive devices this group tried to acquire. Here's what they said:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCDONELL: This group took steps to acquire components necessary to create explosive devices using ammonium nitrate, which is a commonly used fertilizer. Three tons of ammonium nitrate was ordered by these individuals and delivered to them.
It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack. If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma city that killed 168 people was completed with only one ton of ammonium nitrate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: These suspects are expected to be in court in Canada later this afternoon. And as far as the authorities in Canada, they say that this group did not have any plans of conducting anything in the United States.
Again, that connection that I referred to earlier in my report is some sort of connection that the FBI's confirming between a recent arrest of two men in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, but again, everything that happened in Canada appears to have been suspects within Canada, who are Canadian citizens, and targets within Canada -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Kyung Lah, thanks so much from Washington.
And stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable information about your safety and security.
New developments now in Indianapolis, police thought they had their chief suspect pinned down today, but not so. Desmond Turner is wanted for the shooting deaths of seven family members. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is in Indianapolis.
And Keith, what happened?
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, those seven family members, I'll say, first, Fredricka, they all died last Thursday in the home behind me, and Desmond Turner has been the focus of, get this, seven raids in Indianapolis in the last 24 hours, but he still has not been located by police. The last one happened early this morning, just a few miles from this location.
Police came with bullhorns to a home in a residential neighborhood. They started calling out his name and later used tear gas to try to get Desmond Turner out of the house, but he just was not there. I spoke to deputy police Chief Clifford Myers about why police thought that the key suspect might have been at that location.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEP. CLIFFORD MYERS, INDIANAPOLIS POLICE: We continually are getting tips from the community is working well with us. This was a tip. And we strongly believed that Mr. Turner was in this house since the homicides have occurred.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).
MYERS: Not here. We had not located him. Yes, we believe he has slipped by us prior to our arrival.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OPPENHEIM: Investigators have been very intense about trying to find Desmond Turner. They did make an arrest of a different suspect, James Stewart, on Friday. But Desmond Turner is still out there. However, Fredricka, they are saying that they have confidence that he's still on the east side of Indianapolis. And if they have 100 officers working this case and continue to put the pressure on, they think they're going to get him. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, the search intensifies. Thanks so much Keith Oppenheim.
On to Iraq now, and today a deadly attack on a group of Russian diplomats. It happened just hours ago on a Baghdad street. A car carrying five Russian diplomats attacked by gunmen, one of the Russians was shot to death, the other four now held hostage. Russia's foreign ministry says efforts are underway to get them released. The attack happened in a Baghdad neighborhood where the Russian embassy is located.
Allegations of U.S. troop misconduct in Iraq still very much in the spotlight this weekend. An aide to Iraq's prime minister accuses the U.S. Army of rushing to judgment in its exoneration of American troops in a March raid. That attack in a town of Ishaqi killed a group of Iraqi civilians including several children. The American troops were targeting a suspected Al Qaeda safe house. The Army probe found they acted properly and will not face any charges. More now from CNN's John Vause in Baghdad -- John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the U.S. officials may have exonerated American service men at Ishaqi, but that's not enough for the Iraqi government which has now ordered its own investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE (voice-over): No one doubts that on March 15 innocent civilians died in this farmhouse in the town of Ishaqi, but there is not an agreement on how they were killed or even how many were killed. Iraqi police, citing witness accounts, say 11 people, all from the one family, including women and children were shot dead. And these bullet casings, they say, could have only come from the U.S. military.
Iraqi police say they were told again by witnesses that the family was kept in one room for an hour before being shot dead by U.S. forces. A resident, who did not want to be identified, was interviewed on the day and made similar accusations.
"Children were stuck in the room alone surrounded," he said, "after they handcuffed them, they shot them dead. Later they struck the house with their planes. They wanted to hide the evidence."
And from the brother of one of the victims, no doubt about who's to blame. He and his 11 family members were shot dead by U.S. troops at 2:30 in the morning, he said. Then the house was blown up by aircraft and artillery. On the day this is how CNN's Arwa Damon the story was reported.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It started out as a straightforward mission, to rout out foreign fighters, but military success came at a terrible human price.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: U.S. officials deny all of those allegations and say their own investigations show that claims that U.S. forces rounded up to a dozen members of the one family, kept them in a room before shooting them all dead, and then calling in an air strike to destroy the home to cover up the evidence are, quote, "absolutely false" -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: John, thank you so much for that update.
The killings in the town of Ishaqi, one of several questionable incidents getting attention from the Pentagon. A dozen American Marines are also under investigation in the April shooting death of an Iraqi civilian. That incident happened in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad. While no charges have been filed, a source tells CNN around seven Marines are likely to face murder charges.
Also the investigation goes on into last fall's killings of two dozen civilians in town of Haditha. A lawyer for some of the families of those killed says relatives are refusing a request by American investigators to exhume the bodies for forensic tests.
Still ahead, it's a combination of carrots and sticks. We're talking about incentives being offered to Iran to stop nuclear enrichment. Will Tehran say yes? If not, then what? We'll ask an expert.
And later, a terrifying trip to a secret bomb factory. Our Ben Wedeman travels blind-folded with the bomb makers to see just how it's done. CNN SATURDAY LIVE continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A quarter past the hour. Here's what's happening "Now in the News," a manhunt is underway in Indianapolis. Police are still looking for a man named -- that man right there, Desmond Turner. He's the prime suspect in Thursday's shooting deaths of seven family members, three of the victims were children. Police believe robbery might have been the motive. A massive anti-terrorist raid nets 17 people in Toronto, Canada. Canadian agents say the suspects were trying to get their hands on ammonium nitrate. That substance can be used in explosive devices. Officials say the group was planning to attack targets in southern Ontario.
Russian diplomats come under attack in Baghdad. One is dead and four others were kidnapped in a morning assault near the Russian embassy.
And in a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier is breathing and eating on her own. CBS says she could return to the U.S. as early as tomorrow. Dozier is recovering from head and leg injuries she received in a Baghdad car bombing.
And let's check in again with Reynolds Wolf in the Weather Center. How do things look?
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: We update the top stories every 15 minutes on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Your next update is coming up at 12:30 Eastern.
It's possible that Iran could be coaxed into abandoning its nuclear enrichment program. Iran's foreign minister is hinting at a breakthrough this morning. He says his country is prepared to talk about it with all parties including the United States.
The European Union's policy chief, Javier Solana, is preparing to deliver an incentive package agreed to by six world powers. Tehran faces possible sanctions and other consequences if it ignores the offer. U.S. intelligence officials estimate that Iran is within three to five years of developing nuclear weapons capabilities.
Well, what we are watching develop in Iran is something of a diplomatic chess game. Joining me now from Washington to help explain some of the rules, is William Samii. He's a senior Iran analyst for Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty. Good to see you.
WILLIAM SAMII, EDITOR, "IRAN REPORT": Good to see you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, is this hopeful to hear that possibly Iran is changing its tune a little bit within the past 24 hours, that it is willing to look at this package and maybe talk some more?
SAMII: I think the willingness to at least study the package and think about it is an encouraging sign. I find it a little worrisome, though, that the Iranian officials in some ways have painted themselves into a corner, continuously saying that they have no intention of going back on their plans to enrich uranium and to reprocess uranium. Yet these are the very things that the international community and The International Atomic Energy Agency have been asking for quite a while, so it's going to be a drawn-out process, frankly. WHITFIELD: Well, how much of a difference is it making now that we have these six nations saying, together, we have put together in incentive package as opposed to, for a long time it was looking like a battle between the U.S. and Iran over the enrichment program?
SAMII: I think that's really important. And the very fact that Russia and China have also signed on to this package is also significant. Until now, I believe Tehran has counted on Peking and Moscow to side with it in any sort of dispute over the nuclear issue. And it appears to have lost these allies.
WHITFIELD: And Russia and China together, being part of this, namely even Russia still coming to the defense of Iran saying, wait a minute, it is too early to talk about sanctions. Why is that important and possibly pivotal?
SAMII: Well, from the Russian perspective, there's a number of factors. One diplomatically and strategically, it likes to show itself as a counter or another balancing factor to the influence of the United States, internationally, and in the Iranian case specifically, it's working on the Bushehr nuclear reactor and that's worth a lot of money to Russia. Also Iran is a market for Russian goods including arms, so if sanctions are imposed, Russia would suffer a great deal financially.
WHITFIELD: So this package of incentives is on its way to Tehran. It could get there in the next few days. If in the end Iran snubs its nose and says, you know what, I'm still not interested in this, what would be the next step?
SAMII: Well, obviously, we don't know what this package includes, but some of the possible sanctions that would be imposed are restrictions on travel for Iranian officials, perhaps the freezing of Iranian government assets that are overseas or the freezing of Iranian officials' assets that are overseas. There are things that have been mentioned are restrictions on the possibility of Iranian students studying nuclear or missile related fields in European or American universities.
WHITFIELD: Dr. William Samii, coming to us from Washington of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty as well as the editor of the "Iran Report." Thanks so much.
SAMII: Thank you, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Still ahead, a story you will only see on CNN. Our Ben Wedeman goes behind the scenes of a Gaza bomb making factory.
And later, surfing for a great vacation but never getting quite in the water? We'll tell you how to point and click your way into a great little getaway, a bit later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: "Across America" this morning, police say a search of a home in suburban Nashville, Tennessee, turned up a baby food jar filled with ricin, a deadly biological agent. Police say they also found two pipe bombs, blasting caps, and five gun silencers. The owners of the house were jailed last week for violating a protective order taken out by this man's wife.
Two people were killed and three injured when a small corporate jet crashed off the coast of Connecticut in heavy fog. The Learjet was owned by a company controlled by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, but leased to a third party. Roberson says he is deeply grieved by the fatalities.
And good news for about 200 people who have been evacuated from their homes in northern Arizona, firefighters say an 800-acre wildfire near Sedona has been contained and evacuees may be able to return to their homes as early as this afternoon.
Downtown Washington filled up early this morning as thousands of people turned out for the National Race for the Cure. The annual 5-k event raises money for breast cancer research.
And let's check in again with Reynolds Wolf who is concentrating on the forming of a tropical depression?
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: A desperate situation in Indonesia could go from bad to worse as activity at Mount Merapi increases after last week's deadly earthquake. We'll update you on the situation there. Also this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: The group says they can make as many as 50 rockets a week. And ironically all the materials they use come from Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Up next, Ben Wedeman has an exclusive look at a bomb making factory in Gaza.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories, another deadly car bombing, this time at a crowded outdoor market in the southern Iraqi city of Basra today. At least 10 people are dead and another 30 injured. Basra is about 300 miles from Baghdad.
In Baghdad, a Russian diplomat shot to death and four others taken hostage. It happened this morning on a Baghdad street when gunmen attacked a car carrying the Russian diplomats.
Iraqi leaders are not pleased with the U.S. military investigation into some civilian deaths, and they say that they are still seeking the truth. Up to a dozen people, including five children, were killed in a U.S. raid in March in the town of Ishaqi. The U.S. army has cleared the American troops of any wrongdoing. Half past the hour and here's what's happening now. Out of Canada, 17 people now under arrest in that country on terrorism charges. They're accused of plotting to carry out a series of bombings in southern Ontario. The suspects include a dozen adults and five young people.
The prime suspect in a killing spree in Indianapolis is still on the loose. Dozens of police officers are searching for Desmond Turner. He is accused of killing seven members of a family two days ago. Three of the victims were children.
President Bush taking aim at same-sex marriage this weekend. He's urging the Senate to ban the practice with a constitutional amendment. Mr. Bush says it would protect marriage from being redefined by activist courts. Senators are expected to debate the issue in the coming week.
And now let's check in again with Reynolds Wolf.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: We'll look for that. Thanks a lot, Reynolds.
And we update the top stories every 15 minutes here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY. Your next update coming up at 12:45 Eastern.
It happens virtually every day. Even days when the Middle East seems relatively peaceful, Palestinian militants trade rocket fire with the Israeli military. Our Ben Wedeman recently got unprecedented access to a hidden rocket factory. He saw firsthand how one Palestinian group builds its crude weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a nondescript hovel somewhere in Gaza, masked men mix a witches' brew of chemicals. This is a rocket workshop, where members of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, under strict secrecy, go about their deadly business.
To get to the workshop, we changed cars three times, riding in one with the group's gunman. We were blindfolded in the last one.
The chief engineer, masked to protect his identity, goes by the name of Ahmed.
With chilling professionalism, he explains how they melt aluminum to make the rocket's components; how they mix the toxic ingredients for the propellant in this basin. "One of our guys was killed by these chemicals," he says.
The mixture is then put in plastic tubs to dry in the sun. Eventually, it becomes a fine white powder. "Abu Ahmed" declines to say what they use to make the propellant "because the enemy is always on the lookout to stop us getting the materials," he tells me.
The powder is heated and stirred over a fire until it turns into a gritty paste.
(on camera): The group says they can make as many as 50 rockets a week and ironically almost all of the raw materials they use come from Israel.
(voice-over): For extra lethal effect, they pack parcels of metal shards into the warhead. One of these rockets recently crashed into a school classroom in the Israeli town of Sderot. It would have resulted in a massacre had the students been in the room at the time.
These are crude weapons, without guidance systems, designed to inflict maximum casualties. Fired on a daily basis, they don't differentiate between soldier and civilian.
The Israeli Army says Palestinian groups have fired more than 5,000 rockets in the last six years, killing 13 civilians and two soldiers in the past two years.
In a nearby grove, the rocket unit's leader, Halled Jabadi (ph), brushed off the savagery of targeting innocent civilians. "We will rain down more rockets on the Israelis," he vows, "until they pressure their government to leave our land."
The Israeli Army regularly bombards areas from where the rockets are fired, hitting northern Gaza, with more than 5,000 rounds so far this year. At least six Palestinians have been killed by the shelling, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Both sides are paying a high price for this rain of rockets.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Gaza.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: In "going global" now, the U.N. says it's in a race against time to help survivors of last week's devastating earthquake in Indonesia. A strong aftershock today sent people running into the streets. One agency warns unsanitary conditions could increase the threat of a bird flu outbreak.
Also, a threat to the survivors there, the nearby Mount Merapi volcano. Its dome is swelling, 330 feet since the earthquake struck. Hot clouds and lava are spewing from the top. Scientists say the volcano could blow if the dome collapses.
And killer storms rampaged through southern China. Mudslides and floods destroyed thousands of homes. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. Twenty-nine are reported dead.
Shifting focus now, every hour patients needing organ transplants pray their pagers will go off. Every day, some people decide to donate their organs. On good days, these surgeries go smoothly.
Elizabeth Cohen reports on one bad day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Who was looking out for your husband?
RHONDA BOONE, WIDOW: Me. No one was looking out for my husband except for me.
COHEN (voice-over): Danny Boone was 41 when he gave a section of his liver to his brother, who would have died without it. A liver donation is far riskier than kidney donation. According to the federal government's Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation, up to one-third of donors suffer complications. Immediately after the surgery, Rhonda Boone noticed something was very wrong.
BOONE: When I took one look at him, he didn't even look like a human being. He was swollen from his head to his toes. He was unrecognizable.
The first words I said to the nurse that was taking care of him, I said do all of the transplant patients look this way? She said I don't know. This is the first time I've ever taken care of one. I thought, oh, no. That's not a good sign. And let me tell you, it went from bad to worse right there.
COHEN: Danny was in liver failure. And ironically, he now needed a liver transplant. Over the course of three weeks, surgeons operated on him five more times.
By the time they put him on the transplant list to receive the liver transplant himself, it was the day before he died. And it was only a token.
COHEN: Danny Boone died July 16, 1999. What his widow learned later made her furious.
BOONE: My husband's death was very preventable, very preventable. Post-op care was horrible. It was a nightmare. The list of complications Danny suffered are so numerous.
COHEN: An expert testified that based on medical records, too much of Danny's liver was removed. What's more, before the surgery, his doctors knew he had a condition called celiac stenosis, which restricts the blood flow to the liver. Rhonda says his doctors brushed it aside.
BOONE: Danny was told that would be no problem.
COHEN: The doctors from the hospital where Danny had his surgery declined to be interviewed for this story. They settled out of court with Rhonda. She and her son, Justin, now live on a farm in Boone, North Carolina.
BOONE: There's a lot of things that happened from the time you're 15 until you're 21 that you need your father for. And Justin didn't have that.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: And you can see more of Elizabeth's report coming up on "CNN PRESENTS: BODY PARTS" tonight and Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern, 7:00 Central right here on CNN.
On the frontlines with the Marines in Haditha.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: I have been pinned down on rooftops with them for hours taking incoming fire, and seeing them not fire a shot back because they had not positively identified a shooter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Last fall, our Arwa Damon was imbedded with the marine company at the center of the Haditha investigation. We'll hear about her reaction to the charges of a civilian massacre in our 2:00 hour.
CNN's LIVE SATURDAY continues. See you in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Now in the news at 45 past the hour, Toronto police questioned 17 terror suspects today. They call the group a homegrown cell inspired by al Qaeda. Police say the suspects wanted to build a fertilizer bomb three times the size of the one used in Oklahoma City.
Indianapolis police lobbed teargas into a house this morning, but their chief suspect this man, in a mass murder, apparently was not inside. Desmond Turner is accused of killing seven family members. Three were children. Police call it a robbery home invasion.
Gunmen ambush Russian diplomats today in Baghdad. One was killed, four others were taken hostage. The group was traveling near the Russian embassy in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood.
U.S. and Afghan forces are tangling with Taliban fighters in Helmand province. Coalition command says enemy fighters were hit when they tried to take weapons from a cave and load them onto a truck. Forces also bombed Taliban insurgents who were said to have taken over one local police department.
And in a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier is breathing and eating on her own. CBS says she could return to the U.S. as early as tomorrow. Dozier is recovering from head and leg injuries she received in a Baghdad car bombing.
Let's check in once again with Reynolds Wolf. Hello again.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Reynolds.
And we update the top stories along with weather every 15 minutes here on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.
Point, click and save. Up next, we'll tell you how you can plan an awesome vacation online in our "Dollars & Deals" segment.
And check this out. A feathery fugitive stops traffic and crashes a graduation. Details coming up in 10 minutes.
CNN LIVE SATURDAY CONTINUES right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, in today's "Dollars & Deals," finding the best travel deals online. More and more people are surfing the Web to find that perfect vacation. And there are plenty of deals out there, but which Web sites are the best to get what you want.
"BusinessWeek" magazine put the biggest travel Web sites to the test, and they're e-business editor, Timothy Mullaney, joins me now with some of the results. Good to see you, Tim.
TIMOTHY MULLANEY, "BUSINESSWEEK" MAGAZINE: Thanks, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Well, is convenience the main reason why people are now turning to the Web to try to book their travel online?
MULLANEY: Well, that probably is number one. You know, after 9/11 there were a lot of discounts on the Internet because the hotels companies and the airlines really had a lot of excess inventory to move.
That has tightened up quote a bit in the last couple of years, and probably the two biggest reasons are the convenience of not having to go find your travel agent, and also the ability to compare a lot of different providers, you know, without doing too much work or going to too many places.
WHITFIELD: You can't even find a travel agent anymore. They've been replaced by these services, it seems.
MULLANEY: Yes, in fact, you know, people tell the joke about how Barnes & Noble got Amazon, you know, because Amazon.com came in and took so much of the business. But that's nothing compared to what happened to travel agents when Expedia and Travelocity came along.
WHITFIELD: All right, well, let's talk about some of your favorite picks of these online services, beginning with Hotwire.com. Why is it hot on your list?
MULLANEY: Well, we liked Hotwire because it's good for certain things. You know, what you find is that the discounting is less, but you can get discounts if you solve a particular problem for the people who own the hotel or the chain that manages the hotel. And Hotwire gets usually cheap hotel rooms. They also get some airline discounts, and the reason that they do is because they let a hotel discount some last-minute inventory, some rooms they wouldn't sell otherwise, without putting the word all over the Internet that they're discounting.
And the reason they do that, or the way they do that, is that you don't get to find out which hotel you're staying in until after you book. All you know is that you're staying in a hotel in midtown Manhattan.
WHITFIELD: Oh, no. That's kind of scary.
MULLANEY: And you it's, you know, two stars, three stars, four stars but only after you book do you find out that it's the Marriott Marquis at Times Square. And you give up something, obviously, but you get something in form of a lower price.
WHITFIELD: So some of the other one-stop shopping kind of travel sites, if you will, Kayak.com, SideStep.com. Why are those good?
MULLANEY: Well, what those two do, they're called screen scraper sites, and what they search do is they search a lot of sites at once. So if you're going on a trip and you want to -- you know, you want to look at different airlines and different hotels because you don't know where you want to stay, what this will do is go to all the airline sites and it will go to all the hotel chain sites.
And it will bring all the prices to one place so you don't have to make all those visits. And then you can make your choices and go over to the site you want and do the booking there.
WHITFIELD: And then perhaps you really would focus or rather focus on kind of a la carte shopping. And that's where Orbitz and things like CheapTickets.com come around, right?
MULLANEY: No, actually, the screen scrapers are the best for ...
WHITFIELD: You can get more than just your ...
MULLANEY: No, the screen scrapers are the best for the a la carte.
WHITFIELD: OK.
MULLANEY: But what Expedia and Orbitz do well, especially Expedia, it is that -- you know, what their thing is because they have a lot of size and they have the ability to move an awful lot of business, you know, on a consistent basis, is they get discounts from suppliers for building hotel rooms and cars and even ground attractions like tours and concert tickets and what-not into packages.
And what they do, because it's one price, they can hide the discounts. You know, if a hotel wants to discount a room but doesn't want to tell anybody, they put it in a package. Then you don't know if the airline discounted or if the hotel discounted or if the concert ticket is cheap. So the other 200 people in the hotel aren't at the hotel saying, hey, I want the Expedia rate.
WHITFIELD: Wow, well, a lot to choose from Tim Mullaney. Tim Mullaney -- it's Mullaney right?
MULLANEY: Mullaney -- close enough.
WHITFIELD: Mullaney -- sorry about that -- of "BusinessWeek" magazine. Thanks so much for putting it all in perspective and trying to narrow down the field for us in our travel plans. Thanks so much.
MULLANEY: Thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: Well, perhaps you have travel plans to take you to upstate New York this summer. Well, keep your eyes open for some pretty wild wildlife. This feathery fugitive is moving fast and keeping his would-be captors on the run. We've got that story right after the break.
But first, Gerri Willis has a look at a house that is sure to give any clicker envy.
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GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to the electronic home of the year according to "Electronic House" magazine. First stop, the bedroom.
(on camera): So this is your bedroom?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WILLIS: Well, where is the TV?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This panel controls everything in the apartment.
WILLIS: Holy guacamole. OK, so Mark (ph), what's your favorite feature here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I think the coolest thing in this room is the lighting. This is LED lighting which can control color, solid colors, fast rainbows, you name it.
WILLIS: He's even connected in the bathroom. Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, now in here, you can actually put on television.
WILLIS: So you can sit on the john and watch TV?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
WILLIS: My husband would love that.
(voice-over): So what's the price tag for all this? A mere $100,000. Gerri Willis, CNN, New York.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One guy got hurt pretty bad, so we're just going to be very, very cautious.
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WHITFIELD: Oh, let's be blunt. Emus just don't like people, especially when they're trying to make a run for it. This big bird escaped from a farm, then trotted over to a school in upstate New York, passing right by. This unannounced visit kind of interrupted things there, where there was a kindergarten graduation underway.
So animal control workers responded, then they tried to let the emu kind of tire itself out by just running around. It did make it easier to nab him, eventually, and it also kept the clawing and the spitting to a minimum, and it also stopped traffic.
So, Lesson learned, Reynolds.
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WHITFIELD: Well, "IN THE MONEY" is coming up next in a moment. But first, a quick check of the headlines.
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