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CNN Live At Daybreak

Gaza Evacuation; Pope Benedict XVI in Germany for Youth Day; Out of Africa

Aired August 18, 2005 - 06:30   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: From the Time Warner center in New York, this is DAYBREAK. I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for starting your day with us. Chad Myers will have your forecast in just a moment.
Also coming up this half-hour, it is day two in the forced evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza. We'll hear from the Palestinian prime minister about the future of the region. A live report in just a minute.

And Ohio's governor has some impressive political roots, but those roots won't be enough to keep him from going before a judge.

First, though, these stories "Now in the News."

More U.S. losses in Iraq today. Four U.S. troops were killed in a roadside bomb blast north of Baghdad. The soldiers from the unit based in Tikrit were killed near the town of Samarra. More than 60 U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month.

More stories of torture and killing will be heard in a Wichita, Kansas, courtroom this morning. It is day two of sentencing for confessed serial killer Dennis Rader. He faces life in prison.

Harsh criticism for NASA this morning in the wake of Discovery's problems during launch. Members of an oversight group say the space agency skipped some safety improvements in order to hit an unreasonable launch date. NASA is expected to hold a news conference at noon Eastern today to respond to that criticism.

Coretta Scott King is expected to remain in an Atlanta hospital another night. Friends of the widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. say she suffered a stroke. The family is not discussing the 78-year-old's illness, but is expressing gratitude for the outpouring of support.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: Now for more of a developing story out of Gaza that we are following. Israeli soldiers are in their second day of shepherding Jewish settlers out of the area. And in at least one settlement, the soldiers are equipped with riot gear in an effort to handle the resistance.

John Vause joining us now from one of the more hard-line settlements. John, good to see you. Give us a sense of what you're seeing happening there.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kelly.

Well, we're in Kfar Darom, which was always going to be one of the more difficult settlements to evacuate. Right now, the soldiers and police are going door to door, asking the residents to leave. Some are going quietly. Some are being carried out.

About 200 of the 500 or so people who live here, we are told by the police, have so far left their homes. The police here are now encircling around the synagogue. This could be an area of confrontation in the coming hours.

So far, it's a standoff. If we take a look up here, what we can see is a group of protesters.

Now, a lot of them are on the roof. But we're told about 200, maybe more, of these protesters are inside the synagogue. All of these people, we are told, are not from Kfar Darom, but have come from Israel and mostly from the West Bank.

If we take a look, we can see they have these mirrors with them. They're reflecting the sun. Now, that's to reflect into the eyes of the soldiers should the soldiers put ladders or the police put ladders up on the walls of the synagogue to try and remove them by force.

You can also see they've rolled out barbed wire. They're behind it. They've been behind that all day long. They've seen singing songs. They've been chanting.

They've also been booing and heckling the police and the soldiers as they walk by. It's been fairly peaceful for the most part. But a short time ago, there was a stone thrown at a passing police car.

Now, if this goes for much longer, this is how the situation could well play out. The police and the army have a plan to deal with protesters who are up on the top of a roof like this. What they have is a crane. And if we take a look over here, we can see that there is, in fact, a crane, which is being brought into place.

Now, the plan before the disengagement got under way was to use this crane to hoist a cage full of police and soldiers, hoist it to the roof, and then get out and put the protesters inside the cage and take them away -- Kelly.

WALLACE: John, that is an incredible, incredible situation there. We're going to be watching your reports throughout the morning, especially on "AMERICAN MORNING" coming up. John Vause reporting from Gaza. We appreciate it.

We want to turn now to another developing story we are following this morning, Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne, Germany, his first foreign trip since he became pope. He's speaking. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): ... shows us together the way so that we can find a greater strength of peace through him and together. So, I would say thank God from the bottom of my heart for having so designed that thy should be here in my own motherland and with such an occasion of peace, bringing occasion, and so that I can come to Cologne and be in deep continuity, as the federal president has already said, with my great and beloved predecessor, John Paul II, who had this intuition for the world youth there.

I would have to say it was an inspiration that he had, so that it would not be from great religious and church significance, but one for human qualities, so that the humans could cross frontiers, to meet each other, and together build a future.

(APPLAUSE)

What I think we will be hearing quite a lot of is all of you who are here present I would like to thank you so warmly for this reception. And, of course, Federal President Koehler, I would thank you for your friendly words, which you have spoken out of your heart. I didn't know that there are so many philosophies and theologies -- theologians in the political life of my country.

(APPLAUSE)

And I would like to give my thoughts, my gratitude for the representatives of the government of the diplomatic cause, the civilian and military authorities, the federal chancellor, the president of (INAUDIBLE), everyone who is here present today and who are here in brotherly esteem, I greet you, the mayor of Cologne. I would like to greet the archbishop of Cologne and all of the other bishops who are here present, the head of the Archbishops Conference, Cardinal Lehman (ph), and all of those who in the different activities of the German speaking of religious are doing service. And to all of those in other states of Germany.

The preparation which has taken place for this World Youth Day has shown what the dioceses and, of course, particularly the diocese in the city of Cologne, have been able to do. But you young people can come here from all over the world. I would like to thank you all that all of the efforts you have put into organizing this church event of worldwide significance, what you have contributed.

I am also thankful, full of gratitude for the parishes, for the religious organizations and private people, those who have shown their hospitality, how you have received thousands of pilgrims from various continents, all continents. The hospitality you are showing, I find it wonderful for such occasions. The almost disappeared virtues of hospitality are coming out and being refreshed so that people from all social levels and from all places in society can come together.

The church in Germany and the whole people of the Federal Republic can, praise be to God, can only show that they have strong and deeply-rooted traditions of openness and hospitality. And I would hope that they can show this and this spirit of preparedness to receive others, to receive other traditions, other cultures. This is the spirit in which we would like to experience the World Youth Day here in Cologne.

The meeting of so many young people with the successor of Peter is a sign of continuity of the church. And I am happy myself to be among young people with belief and in the will of God and to be able to experience it. And I am also quite certain that I am the person who is receiving this enthusiasm, the feeling, the preparedness, the goodness and the hope, so that this will also affect me and will confirm me in my way as in my service to the church as a successor of Peter and to meet the challenges of our time so that I can meet this.

So all of you here, all of those who are here present and taking place in this event, people who have come together from all parts of the world, I give my warmest greetings. And, of course, apart from the important times of prayer, of reflection and the different events, which are going to take place, I will have the opportunity to have also meetings with bishops, and to them I extend also my brotherly greetings.

And then, as I will be meeting representatives from other churches and from other church communities, I am glad for that. I will be making a visit to the synagogue to meet Jewish communities, and also to meet representatives of a number of Muslim communities. These are important meetings to the way of dialogue, the way of cooperation, so that we can make approaches, so that we can bring a right and brotherly future, so that we can work in a more intensive way for this. It is very important to look for this way, to search the way of dialogue and the way of cooperation.

WALLACE: And you have been listening to Pope Benedict XVI upon his arrival in Cologne, Germany. He is praising all of the young people who came out to see him, and talking about this visit for World Youth Day celebrations, talking about how it's part of a deep continuity with, in his words, his beloved predecessor, the late John Paul II.

Much more on the pope's first foreign trip since becoming pope on this hour of DAYBREAK.

Still to come also, out of Africa and into America. It may sound like a mammoth transition for animals to make, but a group of scientists are saying it might actually be good for some species.

And later, the perfect tan. Are young women getting too much of a good thing?

First, though, here is what else is making news this Thursday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: OK, imagine this: Going on a real African safari in Nebraska. Well, that could happen, thanks to a plan to introduce lions, elephants and antelope to the great plains of the American Midwest. Sarah Tomlin is a features editor of "Nature" magazine, which first reported on the ambitious re-wilding plan.

Sarah, thanks for being here. Good to see you.

SARAH TOMLIN, "NATURE" MAGAZINE: Thanks. Hi, Kelly.

WALLACE: Initially, some people look at this and say, it's a wild idea.

TOMLIN: It is. I think the first time you hear it, it is a slightly crazy idea.

WALLACE: But at the heart of it, what is the reason why the scientists who wrote in your magazine believe it's crucial to do this, to take some of the wildlife from Africa and bring it to North America.

TOMLIN: Well, to be fair, they don't actually propose relocating animals from Africa to America. So their idea is to turn the clock back 13,000 years to a time when large mammals were much more common than they are now, and we're talking about mammoths and camels and lions and cheetahs and so on. And at this time, there were large mammals across all continents, including the United States.

And so, their idea is not so much to relocate African mammals to America, but there are already quite a lot of these species in America. They say there are 1,000 cheetahs, for example, either in zoos or on private ranches.

And so, their idea is more to provide more natural settings for these animals than to actually relocate animals from Africa. They don't want to divert attention from conservation efforts in Africa.

WALLACE: No. But isn't there a concern, though, about the possibility of some of these animals becoming extinct in Africa...

TOMLIN: Oh, absolutely.

WALLACE: ... because of war and hunting and other issues?

TOMLIN: Absolutely.

WALLACE: Isn't that part of the...

(CROSSTALK)

TOMLIN: Yes. As they say, you know, 13,000 years ago these animals were much more common than they are now, whereas today you have these dwindling populations in Africa and parts of Asia. And they're really concerned that in particular, for example, the African cheetah, the Asian elephants, that they won't survive this century. And in places like Africa, it's very hard to do these sorts of conservation efforts.

So they are turning their attention to opportunities in the U.S., where you could build these new parks and perhaps breed new populations of these animals for future generations to see.

WALLACE: And even though we talk about parks that would be sort of -- animals would be penned in. But even the author, the lead author of the proposal in your magazine, John Donnalin (ph), he did talk about the issue of animals such as lions would be a tough sell to Americans. He said lions eat people. There has to be a pretty serious attitude shift on how you view predators. Is that the case?

TOMLIN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think lions they see as the ultimate goal in their vision. They want to start very small. And there's a project already under way where the idea is to rescue the Bolson tortoise from extinction. And this is a tortoise that can weigh up to 100 pounds. It's now found in only remote corners of North Mexico. But there's a plan under way to reintroduce this to a private ranch in Texas.

And if this successful, they want to build on that program with wild camels, with wild horses, and ultimately build up to lions. But they're talking like 50 years down the road. This wouldn't happen overnight. And they need to be much more further research and discussion before that happens. Obviously, there are big risks involved with introducing predators.

WALLACE: A provocative idea, as we said. It's our e-mail question of the day, and we've been hearing from our viewers about it. Sarah, I wish we had more time. We have a lot of developing news though. Sarah Tomlin, features editor of "Nature" magazine. Thanks for coming in today. We appreciate it.

TOMLIN: Thank you.

WALLACE: Still to come here on DAYBREAK, riding in your car or strolling the beach, a lot of us expose our skin to too much sun. Have you already done too much damage? That story coming up.

But first, a look at who are celebrating birthdays on this Thursday, August 18.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back.

William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States. After he left office, he became a Supreme Court justice. You might be asking, why the history lesson this morning? Well, it's because his great-grandson is in a little legal trouble. Ohio Governor Bob Taft will be arraigned today on ethics charges.

CNN's Mary Snow has the details from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Prosecutors in Ohio were charging Governor Bob Taft with four criminal misdemeanors for failing to disclose golf outings, dinners and other gifts. Those who hold office in Ohio are required to report any gift over $75. Taft has said the omissions were not intentional, and his lawyer says the governor has pledged total cooperation.

Prosecutors say they came across the ethics violations while investigating a scandal linked to someone else, a Republican campaign contributor. It involved state money being used to invest in rare coins.

Taft is the great-grandson of President Taft, but the governor is making his own mark on history by becoming the first governor on Ohio to be charged with a crime.

The misdemeanors carry a $1,000 penalty and six months in jail, although jail time is considered unlikely.

Taft is expected in court Thursday morning.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Turning now to security at airports. So much has been done to increase security at the airports around the country following September 11. Well, now the TSA -- the Transportation Security Administration -- is considering lifting some of those restrictions. One group is speaking out about that.

Carol Costello joining us now for a look at what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."

One group, Carol, is not happy about this.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, no. And that would be the flight attendants. And they know what's going on, on board airports, don't they?

Good morning, everyone. You've heard about the proposal to change some of those airport security guidelines that would lift the post-9/11 ban on razor blades and small knives. The nation's largest flight attendants union is speaking out against the proposal, calling it -- quote -- "insane." The head of that union will join us live.

Plus, we will talk to Emmy-nominated actor Michael C. Hall of HBO's "Six Feet Under." The critically-acclaimed drama wraps up its fifth and final season this weekend. We will see if we can get him to reveal what happens. That's later on -- I think it probably involves death, don't you, Kelly?

WALLACE: I have a feeling that's a recurring theme.

COSTELLO: Yes.

WALLACE: I think you're right about that. Good luck on getting him to reveal the ending, though, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks. WALLACE: We'll be watching. See you in a few minutes. Thanks so much.

Well, this is an important story for all of you out there, because when it comes to catching rays, you could be catching hell. Doctors say that despite numerous warnings -- you hear about them all the time -- Americans still are willing to risk the dangers of skin cancer through unprotected exposure to the sun.

Here are some of these burning statistics to keep in mind. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer. Five or more sunburns double your risk of skin cancer. And this one: 80 percent of sun damage occurs before the age of 18.

Joining us now is Dr. Arielle Kauvar, associate professor of dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine.

Doctor, thanks for being here.

DR. ARIELLE KAUVAR, DERMATOLOGIST: Good morning, Kelly.

WALLACE: I want to talk and focus on young people too. How much of a problem are we seeing when it comes to risks of skin cancer in our young people?

KAUVAR: It's a tremendous problem. There was a recent study showing that there was an increase in incidence of women under 40 of 30 times what was occurring in the last 30 years; so the increase of basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma.

WALLACE: And, you know, we were talking before we came on the air here, we were saying when we were younger we didn't really hear about all of the warnings. But now, kids hear about all of the warnings. So, why then do we still have so many kids going out and getting suntans?

KAUVAR: Because everybody still thinks that a tan is a sign of health and beauty. And the indoor tanning industry is just exploding, and so is beach-going.

WALLACE: I want to talk about the indoor tanning industry. I mean, how big of a problem and how big of a danger are tanning salons? Some people think, they might think that it's less dangerous to go to a tanning salon than to be kind of soaking the rays out on a beach. Is that true?

KAUVAR: It's not true at all. Tanning salons emit ultraviolet radiation, which has shown to be a cause of skin cancer. And just like going outside is dangerous, so is tanning from a salon.

WALLACE: Now you say you have three kids.

KAUVAR: Yes.

WALLACE: And you've been drilling into them the dangers. What can you do? I mean, you as a parent, what do you do? What is your message for parents to get the message to kids that going out in any way, shape or form unprotected in the sun is dangerous?

KAUVAR: Yes. What's most important is to avoid peak exposure hours from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., to wear protective clothing, seek shade, wear sunscreen SPF 15 or higher, reapply it every two hours, and avoid tanning salons. Most of the sun exposure that causes skin cancer is obtained before the age of 18.

WALLACE: That was the troubling one when you said 80 percent of the sun damage. You think about all of the damage you've done to your body before the age of 18. Very quickly, how much are celebrities playing a role here? We see the stars. We see them looking glamorous. And we see them with a suntan. Does that have an impact on young people?

KAUVAR: Yes. We're constantly bombarded with tanned stars, tanned entertainers and tanned singers. And so, everyone wants to look like that and have a tan. But you can get a tan safely using the self-tanners, which are completely safe.

WALLACE: Right. All right, important information. Dr. Arielle Kauvar, thanks for coming in this morning.

KAUVAR: Thank you.

WALLACE: We appreciate it.

Much more ahead. Final minutes of DAYBREAK right after this. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Chad, I love this moment.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's time to give away another mug.

WALLACE: Yea!

MYERS: But you can't buy it; you've got to win it.

Here are the questions from yesterday. Under a new Atlanta law, what happens after the third panhandling offense in downtown Atlanta around the attractions? One month in jail. Name the worm infecting millions of computers in the Windows 2000/98/95? That was Zotob or R- BOT. I would have taken either name.

And the winner is actually from Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, Jessica Hoskins. Congratulations, you win a CNN DAYBREAK coffee mug.

Now is your chance today. You have to answer them both and give me your address. What U.S. senator has new book coming out? And what percentage of sun damage occurs before the age of 18? If you were paying attention 30 seconds ago, you got that one. What percentage of sun damage before 18?

CNN.com/daybreak. And we will send you the mug -- well, as we randomly pick your name.

WALLACE: And, Chad, exactly.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: And have a great day, everyone. From the Time Warner center in New York, I am Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Kelly. I'm Miles O'Brien.

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