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G-8 Summit Begins; Reagan Viewing Extended

Aired June 08, 2004 - 15:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for joining us.

Well, soothing -- soothing, rather, smoothing, soothing -- things over, President Bush is using the G-8 Summit to try to mend fences with world leaders who opposed the war in Iraq. The gathering opened today in Georgia, complete with the traditional protesters.

We find our John King nearby now in scenic Savannah.

John, what's the latest?

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

You mentioned the president trying to soothe over some old bitterness, perhaps begin a new chapter of cooperation with some allies who vehemently opposed the war in Iraq. That is the president's goal here. And he spoke earlier today about one of the vehicles the administration hopes will change the tenor, if you will, of all the diplomatic conversations about Iraq. And that is the ongoing debate at the United States.

The Security Council expected before this day is out to approve a new resolution giving its blessing to the political transition now under way in Iraq. You're seeing a live picture there as I speak of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He is arriving for the summit, which officially kicks off tonight.

Now, Mr. Bush spoke of that resolution and the importance of that vote earlier today when he was meeting with the Japanese prime minister. Japan was with Mr. Bush on the war in Iraq. Mr. Bush says he believes this resolution not only is a good chapter, a new chapter for diplomacy, but also for the people of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm delighted that we're about to get a Security Council resolution. There were some who said we would never get one. And it looks like, if things go well, it will be a unanimous vote, thereby saying to the world that members of the Security Council are interested in working together to make sure that Iraq is free and peaceful and democratic. I think this is a very important moment. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A very important moment, the president calls it. And, again, the White House views it as a chance to move on and move past the bitterness.

You saw President Putin arriving a few moments ago. He was a critic of the Iraq war. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany arrived several hours ago. And we'll see the president later this afternoon. He was a critic of the Iraq war, now saying and he said as he arrived today that he hopes, with this new resolution passing, the European nations can now get together and relief some of the debt, outstanding debt in Iraq, so that it can use money from say oil revenues to pay for reconstruction.

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, also on hand for these discussions. He was of course the president's most ardent supporter throughout the war in Iraq, an enthusiastic greeting for him. Kyra, one staple of this event, as each of the leaders arrive, they are met not only by U.S. government officials, but schoolchildren as well, waving flags and the like, trying to welcome the leaders here for a summit, at which Mr. Bush hopes -- the G-8 was evenly divided on the question of whether to go to war in Iraq. Mr. Bush is hoping for a great deal of unanimity now on an approach to helping the new government -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our John King there side by side, as we look at live pictures of Vladimir Putin and his wife arriving at the G-8 Summit.

John King, thanks so much.

KING: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: In California, mourners are lined up for several blocks to pay their final respects to the nation's 40th president. So many people have turned out that organizers are extending today's viewing for Ronald Reagan.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is at Moorpark College, where people are heading to the Reagan Presidential Library.

Hello, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

This is where folks that want to spend the time to wait to see President Reagan and pay their respects up at the library come. They are being -- you park here and then shuttled via bus up to the college. These folks here behind me are pretty much at the end of the line, if you will, before they can get on to the buses and head up to the college.

It is getting better in terms of the speed through it. These folks say they have been in line for just about two hours. At its worse, that was at seven hours. More than 60,000 people have gone through this process to spend those few minutes in the lobby of the library up in Simi Valley, the familiar scene now of people walking in a circle around the flag-draped casket of former President Ronald Reagan.

The people here paying their respects really does run the gamut. There are those folks that remember Ronald Reagan not only as their president, but as also the governor here in California, and, of course, as a movie actor here in California. And then, of course, a lot of children are here as well. Some parents have brought their children here.

We saw a school bus outside as well. Some impromptu field trips have been planned, a lot of people wanting to come here to mark this spot in history and take advantage of the Reagan's willingness to allow the public here in California to partake in this opportunity. Of course, folks on the East Coast will have the same opportunity when the president lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

That, of course, will happen later this week. But these folks have been told, if they're not in place by 3:00 Pacific time, they will not, unfortunately, have that opportunity. So people have a few more hours to get in line, so that they can pay their respects to President Reagan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Ted Rowlands, thank you very much.

Two former presidents and first ladies remember Ronald Reagan with CNN's Larry King, tonight, Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty Ford, tomorrow, the man who served as Reagan's vice president and then of course followed him to the White House, former President Georgia H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara. Those exclusive interviews both nights 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE."

PHILLIPS: Right now, saying goodbye to a former president seems more on America's mind than the race for America's next president. That reality certainly isn't lost on John Kerry, whose campaign is on pause while the nation mourns.

CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying into Reagan National Airport Sunday night, John Kerry began a week operating below the radar.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a lot to do, don't worry.

CROWLEY: The death of Ronald Reagan has silenced the '04 campaign trail. Camp Kerry calls what he called overt political activities, which means tonight's glitzy Hollywood fund-raiser with Streisand and company is out, pushed off until at least the end of the month, likewise, Thursday's equally star-studded New York fund-raiser and several routine events in between.

Kerry arrived at campaign headquarters getting some policy briefings, said an aide. There are as well convention plans to make and a vice president to pick.

KERRY: Work, a lot of work, a lot of plans, no loss of anything to do.

CROWLEY: Fulfilling a promise to address a high school graduation in Ohio Sunday, Kerry, whose first major work in Congress was investigating Iran-Contra, paid tribute to the man he said led with great grace.

KERRY: President Reagan's belief in America was infectious. And because of the way he led, he taught us that there was a difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship.

CROWLEY: Kerry plans to attend Friday's funeral in Washington. The campaign says it will not air any ads that day.

(on camera): The decision not to campaign for a week was made out of common sense and common courtesy, but for Kerry it may be good politics as well. Of late, the Democratic candidate had been reaching out to both swing voters and moderate Republicans. Honoring Ronald Reagan is not a bad idea.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Checking news around the world now, France's royal descendants and their supporters buried the tiny shriveled heart of the boy king, Louis XVII, today, exactly 209 years after his death. The child monarch died in a grim Paris prison after his parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, you know, the let them eat cake one, were beheaded during the French Revolution.

The Olympic flame has arrived in Beijing for runners to carry it along the Great Wall of China. Beijing is the fifth city on a six- week torch relay around the globe, leading up to the Summer Games in Greece. I guess that was a smoking flame.

Reagan changed the face of American politics.

PHILLIPS: But will he also change the face of your money? Ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS," Judy Woodruff talks about a push to put the former president on the $10 bill.

O'BRIEN: Speaking of money, there's rising interest in raising interest rates. What Alan Greenspan is saying and how investors are reacting straight ahead.

PHILLIPS: And Mini-Me's marriage, apparently big some problems. We're serving up love on the rocks later on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A new study providing encouraging news for patients suffering from an incurable form of brain cancer.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is one of the most malignant types of cancer known out there. This is the type of cancer that, if given the diagnosis, the doctor often says, you have less than a year to live. It's known as GBM or glioblastoma.

And there hadn't been any significant advances in the treatment of this cancer for several decades. To give it some characteristics, it's one of the most common brain sort of cancers. It's very aggressive, to be sure. It's incurable at this time, and the prognosis often less than a year.

So patients, doctors and scientists alike were all pretty excited at some new data actually coming looking out a new chemotherapeutic agent and when it should be given. Specifically, up to 286 patients with this type of tumor who received surgery followed by radiation only, and they looked at the same numbers of patient who also received this chemotherapeutic agent before and after radiation.

What they found, pretty startling, the numbers, if you can look there. After two years, three times as many patients with the chemotherapy were alive, as compared to the radiation patients alone. To give you absolute numbers, that's 10 percent of patients are alive at two years, compared to 26 percent of the patients who got the chemotherapeutic Temadol as well.

Now, typically what happens if a patient is given the diagnosis is that there's surgery, followed by radiation and sometimes perhaps chemotherapy as a last-ditch effort. This new study is certainly going to move Temadol, a chemotherapeutic agent, to the front line and possibly give that medication much sooner.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And Dr. Gupta will be on call this weekend. You can join him on Saturday, again on Sunday for the "Weekend House Call," 8:30 a.m. Eastern, 5:30 Pacific.

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, space cadets, it's time now for the Mars minute-plus. Perhaps today, we should call it planets in the hood because we will check in with our more reclusive neighbor across the street, Venus.

But first to Mars we go, starting the clock. Quick status check on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The former has now driven over two miles, now sits about 100 yards from its objective, the Columbia Hills. Check it out. That's just another trench that it has made with its wheels. He had another opportunity to sort of see what's beneath the surface soil there.

Opportunity is crawling into a stadium-size crater named Endurance, meanwhile, on the other side of the planet. There's Endurance. The objective is this very intriguing bedrock here. That is the size of the Rose Bowl there, by the way. That's what they're going to aim for, that spot right in there. The going is rather slow.

The concern is that it will get stuck somewhere along the way. It could take him a week just to get down to the bottom of the crater there. But as Steve Squires, who is the principal scientist in all of this, puts it, so what if we get stuck? We're stuck in a candy store and already this mission has gone beyond the basic perimeters and then some.

Now, let's go to Venus, shall we? Venus took a walk across the sun this morning.

(BELL RINGING)

O'BRIEN: Venus took a walk across the sun this morning. It's called a transit. It is the same principle as an eclipse. It's just that the moon is just the right distance from Earth and so that it appears to be the same size of the sun. And thus, when it does it, it completely covers the sun. In this case, however, even though Venus is about the size of the Earth, it's so far away, Kyra, that when it gets in front of the sun every 120 or so, it looks like a speck of dust.

Therein lies the speck of dust that is Venus. It took about six hours to do just what you see there.

Now, Andy Chaikin is a stargazer extraordinaire. He's the author of several books, including "A Man on the Moon."

Oh, look, there's that Boeing transit again.

He got up early this morning, which you needed to do in the Northeast to see it. Just after sunrise, the transit was ending. So it really wasn't ideal in the U.S. But he shot some great pictures.

He joins us on the line now.

Hello, Andy. Good to have you back.

ANDY CHAIKIN, AUTHOR, "MAN ON THE MOON": Hello, Miles.

And you know what? I think we're supposed to be doing all we can to build Kyra's interest. And I'm not sure we're doing our job.

PHILLIPS: Andy always builds my interest.

Andy, I've read all your books, FYI, and then I have Miles explain them to me.

(LAUGHTER)

CHAIKIN: Any time, Kyra.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: So you think I'm really just making it worse here by trying to get her enthused?

CHAIKIN: Well, strange sound effects and gongs and things, I'm not sure we're getting into the proper spirit, but let's move on.

O'BRIEN: Let's move on.

This first picture shows -- well, this shows the times that

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It's kind of hard to make that out. It starts off upper left. That's 6:42. Then it goes to 7:02, 7:06, and then 7:20.

CHAIKIN: Yes.

And, basically, what you're seeing here is, I was on the top of Mount Equinox, which is near my home in Arlington, Vermont. And I had a small telescope with a digital Webcam, a digital video camera. And I grabbed individual frames from those videos to create this composite.

And when -- for us here in the Northeast, the transit was already under way when the sun was rising. And it was really neat to see the very red, flattened sun with Venus against it. But here we are a couple hours later and Venus is about to leave the disc of the sun. Now, it's crossing in front of the sun, moving in its orbital speed of 78,000 miles an hour.

And so you can see that it took about, you know, 40 minutes to get from the first picture there to the last, and really quite a bizarre but really neat sight.

O'BRIEN: Now, I know that a lot of astronomers particularly like that image. They call that the black drop of some such because it sort of gives the impression that the sphere has elongated a little bit right in there. What's that all about?

(CROSSTALK)

CHAIKIN: Well, I think it's really just an illusion, that the eye plays tricks on you in a situation like this. And, of course, I'm shooting with a rather small telescope.

I would be interested to see what they got. There were people, for example, from "Sky and Telescope" magazine using the 16-inch refractor at the Vatican Observatory. And we'll see how it looked to them. Now, this is a wide view.

O'BRIEN: Now, there's Venus in there, just in case you were missing it, right, in the center there. Go ahead.

CHAIKIN: And this gives you an idea of the kind of dramatic view that we had with some morning clouds passing in front of the sun.

And, you know, I saw all these articles leading up to this, saying, you know, well, it's probably not going to be very spectacular, but it certainly is rare, so you might as well go look at it. Well, I think it was pretty spectacular.

O'BRIEN: Really? Really?

CHAIKIN: Yes, it was -- it was...

O'BRIEN: This shot in particular, I think this is -- this kind of captures it. It's almost an ethereal thing that you got there.

CHAIKIN: It was a wonderful mood that was under way as it came up in the morning clouds and mist from the top of this mountain. And, you know, I'm always very much aware when I see something like this that I'm seeing nature's own clockwork, that I'm seeing the motions of planets and things greater than us.

You know, it kind of is a humbling -- exciting but humbling feeling to see the clockwork of the solar system moving as it has for billions of years. And we're lucky enough to be able to climb out of bed early one morning and see something like this, which is very rare. As you know, the last one was in 1882. We'll have one more in this century, in the year 2012. And then after that, you'll have to wait until 2117. So I was -- I really had my fingers crossed for clear weather, and I'm very glad that it was.

O'BRIEN: I think so you had just enough clear weather, Andy Chaikin.

And if nothing else, you see that and you know Venus is about the size of the Earth. You see it compared to the sun, a rather humbling moment, isn't it, Andy Chaikin?

CHAIKIN: It is. It's quite a bit closer to us than the sun is, but still, the sun's vast disc dwarfs the planet Venus, just as it would our own world and it gives us a little bit of a big picture there, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, a little bit of a big picture.

I think you said it all, Andy Chaikin. Thanks for dropping by on the telephone.

CHAIKIN: Any time.

O'BRIEN: And thanks for sending those pictures.

Always a treat chatting with you. And Kyra is a big fan.

PHILLIPS: We love you. That's right. I love Andy.

All right, we're going to check entertainment headlines now, this Tuesday, June 8. "ER" pulling the plug on Dr. Corday. After seven years on the hit medical drama, Alex Kingston's contract is not being renewed. The actress says that the show is pushing younger characters and producers consider her, at age 41, an old fogy.

O'BRIEN: Mini-me's marriage apparently a little short on romance, if you know what. Verne Troyer -- is that right?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: I just -- I call him Mr. Me.

PHILLIPS: Mini-Me.

O'BRIEN: He is seeking an annulment from his 5'6'' wife.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I thought she was 6'5''.

O'BRIEN: Money it's 6'5''. Is it 6'5''?

PHILLIPS: I don't know. She's tall.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Troyer achieved fame -- for him, it might as well be 6'5''.

Anyway, he achieved as the pint-sized clown, of course, in "Austin Powers" movies. Now he hopes the annulment doesn't break his diminutive wallet. Actually, it's not diminutive. It's packed. Anyway, go ahead.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Actually, this is not Mini-Me. This is actually -- we know this gay. Remember -- oh, gosh.

O'BRIEN: Hasselhoff.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Hasselhoff. What was it? "Baywatch," that was it. All right. Well, he spent the weekend, we are told, in drydock after he was arrested on DUI charge on Saturday. You remember, he got his stardom by "Baywatch." Well, he entered an alcohol rehab program we're told in 2002.

O'BRIEN: All right, so now I guess this is Bombay watch.

Madonna pranced around in a lot of provocative costumes in her career, But Martin Scorsese will have her in leather chaps. The material girl is joining forces with the movie mogul for a musical called "Hey Sucker." She's such a class act, isn't she? It's based on the life of a 1920s silent movie star. And Madonna silent is about the best news I've heard today.

PHILLIPS: Another reinvention tour.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Yes.

All right, that wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM.

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Aired June 8, 2004 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to LIVE FROM. I'm Miles O'Brien.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for joining us.

Well, soothing -- soothing, rather, smoothing, soothing -- things over, President Bush is using the G-8 Summit to try to mend fences with world leaders who opposed the war in Iraq. The gathering opened today in Georgia, complete with the traditional protesters.

We find our John King nearby now in scenic Savannah.

John, what's the latest?

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

You mentioned the president trying to soothe over some old bitterness, perhaps begin a new chapter of cooperation with some allies who vehemently opposed the war in Iraq. That is the president's goal here. And he spoke earlier today about one of the vehicles the administration hopes will change the tenor, if you will, of all the diplomatic conversations about Iraq. And that is the ongoing debate at the United States.

The Security Council expected before this day is out to approve a new resolution giving its blessing to the political transition now under way in Iraq. You're seeing a live picture there as I speak of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He is arriving for the summit, which officially kicks off tonight.

Now, Mr. Bush spoke of that resolution and the importance of that vote earlier today when he was meeting with the Japanese prime minister. Japan was with Mr. Bush on the war in Iraq. Mr. Bush says he believes this resolution not only is a good chapter, a new chapter for diplomacy, but also for the people of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm delighted that we're about to get a Security Council resolution. There were some who said we would never get one. And it looks like, if things go well, it will be a unanimous vote, thereby saying to the world that members of the Security Council are interested in working together to make sure that Iraq is free and peaceful and democratic. I think this is a very important moment. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A very important moment, the president calls it. And, again, the White House views it as a chance to move on and move past the bitterness.

You saw President Putin arriving a few moments ago. He was a critic of the Iraq war. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany arrived several hours ago. And we'll see the president later this afternoon. He was a critic of the Iraq war, now saying and he said as he arrived today that he hopes, with this new resolution passing, the European nations can now get together and relief some of the debt, outstanding debt in Iraq, so that it can use money from say oil revenues to pay for reconstruction.

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, also on hand for these discussions. He was of course the president's most ardent supporter throughout the war in Iraq, an enthusiastic greeting for him. Kyra, one staple of this event, as each of the leaders arrive, they are met not only by U.S. government officials, but schoolchildren as well, waving flags and the like, trying to welcome the leaders here for a summit, at which Mr. Bush hopes -- the G-8 was evenly divided on the question of whether to go to war in Iraq. Mr. Bush is hoping for a great deal of unanimity now on an approach to helping the new government -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our John King there side by side, as we look at live pictures of Vladimir Putin and his wife arriving at the G-8 Summit.

John King, thanks so much.

KING: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: In California, mourners are lined up for several blocks to pay their final respects to the nation's 40th president. So many people have turned out that organizers are extending today's viewing for Ronald Reagan.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is at Moorpark College, where people are heading to the Reagan Presidential Library.

Hello, Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Miles.

This is where folks that want to spend the time to wait to see President Reagan and pay their respects up at the library come. They are being -- you park here and then shuttled via bus up to the college. These folks here behind me are pretty much at the end of the line, if you will, before they can get on to the buses and head up to the college.

It is getting better in terms of the speed through it. These folks say they have been in line for just about two hours. At its worse, that was at seven hours. More than 60,000 people have gone through this process to spend those few minutes in the lobby of the library up in Simi Valley, the familiar scene now of people walking in a circle around the flag-draped casket of former President Ronald Reagan.

The people here paying their respects really does run the gamut. There are those folks that remember Ronald Reagan not only as their president, but as also the governor here in California, and, of course, as a movie actor here in California. And then, of course, a lot of children are here as well. Some parents have brought their children here.

We saw a school bus outside as well. Some impromptu field trips have been planned, a lot of people wanting to come here to mark this spot in history and take advantage of the Reagan's willingness to allow the public here in California to partake in this opportunity. Of course, folks on the East Coast will have the same opportunity when the president lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

That, of course, will happen later this week. But these folks have been told, if they're not in place by 3:00 Pacific time, they will not, unfortunately, have that opportunity. So people have a few more hours to get in line, so that they can pay their respects to President Reagan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Ted Rowlands, thank you very much.

Two former presidents and first ladies remember Ronald Reagan with CNN's Larry King, tonight, Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty Ford, tomorrow, the man who served as Reagan's vice president and then of course followed him to the White House, former President Georgia H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara. Those exclusive interviews both nights 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE."

PHILLIPS: Right now, saying goodbye to a former president seems more on America's mind than the race for America's next president. That reality certainly isn't lost on John Kerry, whose campaign is on pause while the nation mourns.

CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying into Reagan National Airport Sunday night, John Kerry began a week operating below the radar.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a lot to do, don't worry.

CROWLEY: The death of Ronald Reagan has silenced the '04 campaign trail. Camp Kerry calls what he called overt political activities, which means tonight's glitzy Hollywood fund-raiser with Streisand and company is out, pushed off until at least the end of the month, likewise, Thursday's equally star-studded New York fund-raiser and several routine events in between.

Kerry arrived at campaign headquarters getting some policy briefings, said an aide. There are as well convention plans to make and a vice president to pick.

KERRY: Work, a lot of work, a lot of plans, no loss of anything to do.

CROWLEY: Fulfilling a promise to address a high school graduation in Ohio Sunday, Kerry, whose first major work in Congress was investigating Iran-Contra, paid tribute to the man he said led with great grace.

KERRY: President Reagan's belief in America was infectious. And because of the way he led, he taught us that there was a difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship.

CROWLEY: Kerry plans to attend Friday's funeral in Washington. The campaign says it will not air any ads that day.

(on camera): The decision not to campaign for a week was made out of common sense and common courtesy, but for Kerry it may be good politics as well. Of late, the Democratic candidate had been reaching out to both swing voters and moderate Republicans. Honoring Ronald Reagan is not a bad idea.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Checking news around the world now, France's royal descendants and their supporters buried the tiny shriveled heart of the boy king, Louis XVII, today, exactly 209 years after his death. The child monarch died in a grim Paris prison after his parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, you know, the let them eat cake one, were beheaded during the French Revolution.

The Olympic flame has arrived in Beijing for runners to carry it along the Great Wall of China. Beijing is the fifth city on a six- week torch relay around the globe, leading up to the Summer Games in Greece. I guess that was a smoking flame.

Reagan changed the face of American politics.

PHILLIPS: But will he also change the face of your money? Ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS," Judy Woodruff talks about a push to put the former president on the $10 bill.

O'BRIEN: Speaking of money, there's rising interest in raising interest rates. What Alan Greenspan is saying and how investors are reacting straight ahead.

PHILLIPS: And Mini-Me's marriage, apparently big some problems. We're serving up love on the rocks later on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A new study providing encouraging news for patients suffering from an incurable form of brain cancer.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is one of the most malignant types of cancer known out there. This is the type of cancer that, if given the diagnosis, the doctor often says, you have less than a year to live. It's known as GBM or glioblastoma.

And there hadn't been any significant advances in the treatment of this cancer for several decades. To give it some characteristics, it's one of the most common brain sort of cancers. It's very aggressive, to be sure. It's incurable at this time, and the prognosis often less than a year.

So patients, doctors and scientists alike were all pretty excited at some new data actually coming looking out a new chemotherapeutic agent and when it should be given. Specifically, up to 286 patients with this type of tumor who received surgery followed by radiation only, and they looked at the same numbers of patient who also received this chemotherapeutic agent before and after radiation.

What they found, pretty startling, the numbers, if you can look there. After two years, three times as many patients with the chemotherapy were alive, as compared to the radiation patients alone. To give you absolute numbers, that's 10 percent of patients are alive at two years, compared to 26 percent of the patients who got the chemotherapeutic Temadol as well.

Now, typically what happens if a patient is given the diagnosis is that there's surgery, followed by radiation and sometimes perhaps chemotherapy as a last-ditch effort. This new study is certainly going to move Temadol, a chemotherapeutic agent, to the front line and possibly give that medication much sooner.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: And Dr. Gupta will be on call this weekend. You can join him on Saturday, again on Sunday for the "Weekend House Call," 8:30 a.m. Eastern, 5:30 Pacific.

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, space cadets, it's time now for the Mars minute-plus. Perhaps today, we should call it planets in the hood because we will check in with our more reclusive neighbor across the street, Venus.

But first to Mars we go, starting the clock. Quick status check on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The former has now driven over two miles, now sits about 100 yards from its objective, the Columbia Hills. Check it out. That's just another trench that it has made with its wheels. He had another opportunity to sort of see what's beneath the surface soil there.

Opportunity is crawling into a stadium-size crater named Endurance, meanwhile, on the other side of the planet. There's Endurance. The objective is this very intriguing bedrock here. That is the size of the Rose Bowl there, by the way. That's what they're going to aim for, that spot right in there. The going is rather slow.

The concern is that it will get stuck somewhere along the way. It could take him a week just to get down to the bottom of the crater there. But as Steve Squires, who is the principal scientist in all of this, puts it, so what if we get stuck? We're stuck in a candy store and already this mission has gone beyond the basic perimeters and then some.

Now, let's go to Venus, shall we? Venus took a walk across the sun this morning.

(BELL RINGING)

O'BRIEN: Venus took a walk across the sun this morning. It's called a transit. It is the same principle as an eclipse. It's just that the moon is just the right distance from Earth and so that it appears to be the same size of the sun. And thus, when it does it, it completely covers the sun. In this case, however, even though Venus is about the size of the Earth, it's so far away, Kyra, that when it gets in front of the sun every 120 or so, it looks like a speck of dust.

Therein lies the speck of dust that is Venus. It took about six hours to do just what you see there.

Now, Andy Chaikin is a stargazer extraordinaire. He's the author of several books, including "A Man on the Moon."

Oh, look, there's that Boeing transit again.

He got up early this morning, which you needed to do in the Northeast to see it. Just after sunrise, the transit was ending. So it really wasn't ideal in the U.S. But he shot some great pictures.

He joins us on the line now.

Hello, Andy. Good to have you back.

ANDY CHAIKIN, AUTHOR, "MAN ON THE MOON": Hello, Miles.

And you know what? I think we're supposed to be doing all we can to build Kyra's interest. And I'm not sure we're doing our job.

PHILLIPS: Andy always builds my interest.

Andy, I've read all your books, FYI, and then I have Miles explain them to me.

(LAUGHTER)

CHAIKIN: Any time, Kyra.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: So you think I'm really just making it worse here by trying to get her enthused?

CHAIKIN: Well, strange sound effects and gongs and things, I'm not sure we're getting into the proper spirit, but let's move on.

O'BRIEN: Let's move on.

This first picture shows -- well, this shows the times that

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: It's kind of hard to make that out. It starts off upper left. That's 6:42. Then it goes to 7:02, 7:06, and then 7:20.

CHAIKIN: Yes.

And, basically, what you're seeing here is, I was on the top of Mount Equinox, which is near my home in Arlington, Vermont. And I had a small telescope with a digital Webcam, a digital video camera. And I grabbed individual frames from those videos to create this composite.

And when -- for us here in the Northeast, the transit was already under way when the sun was rising. And it was really neat to see the very red, flattened sun with Venus against it. But here we are a couple hours later and Venus is about to leave the disc of the sun. Now, it's crossing in front of the sun, moving in its orbital speed of 78,000 miles an hour.

And so you can see that it took about, you know, 40 minutes to get from the first picture there to the last, and really quite a bizarre but really neat sight.

O'BRIEN: Now, I know that a lot of astronomers particularly like that image. They call that the black drop of some such because it sort of gives the impression that the sphere has elongated a little bit right in there. What's that all about?

(CROSSTALK)

CHAIKIN: Well, I think it's really just an illusion, that the eye plays tricks on you in a situation like this. And, of course, I'm shooting with a rather small telescope.

I would be interested to see what they got. There were people, for example, from "Sky and Telescope" magazine using the 16-inch refractor at the Vatican Observatory. And we'll see how it looked to them. Now, this is a wide view.

O'BRIEN: Now, there's Venus in there, just in case you were missing it, right, in the center there. Go ahead.

CHAIKIN: And this gives you an idea of the kind of dramatic view that we had with some morning clouds passing in front of the sun.

And, you know, I saw all these articles leading up to this, saying, you know, well, it's probably not going to be very spectacular, but it certainly is rare, so you might as well go look at it. Well, I think it was pretty spectacular.

O'BRIEN: Really? Really?

CHAIKIN: Yes, it was -- it was...

O'BRIEN: This shot in particular, I think this is -- this kind of captures it. It's almost an ethereal thing that you got there.

CHAIKIN: It was a wonderful mood that was under way as it came up in the morning clouds and mist from the top of this mountain. And, you know, I'm always very much aware when I see something like this that I'm seeing nature's own clockwork, that I'm seeing the motions of planets and things greater than us.

You know, it kind of is a humbling -- exciting but humbling feeling to see the clockwork of the solar system moving as it has for billions of years. And we're lucky enough to be able to climb out of bed early one morning and see something like this, which is very rare. As you know, the last one was in 1882. We'll have one more in this century, in the year 2012. And then after that, you'll have to wait until 2117. So I was -- I really had my fingers crossed for clear weather, and I'm very glad that it was.

O'BRIEN: I think so you had just enough clear weather, Andy Chaikin.

And if nothing else, you see that and you know Venus is about the size of the Earth. You see it compared to the sun, a rather humbling moment, isn't it, Andy Chaikin?

CHAIKIN: It is. It's quite a bit closer to us than the sun is, but still, the sun's vast disc dwarfs the planet Venus, just as it would our own world and it gives us a little bit of a big picture there, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, a little bit of a big picture.

I think you said it all, Andy Chaikin. Thanks for dropping by on the telephone.

CHAIKIN: Any time.

O'BRIEN: And thanks for sending those pictures.

Always a treat chatting with you. And Kyra is a big fan.

PHILLIPS: We love you. That's right. I love Andy.

All right, we're going to check entertainment headlines now, this Tuesday, June 8. "ER" pulling the plug on Dr. Corday. After seven years on the hit medical drama, Alex Kingston's contract is not being renewed. The actress says that the show is pushing younger characters and producers consider her, at age 41, an old fogy.

O'BRIEN: Mini-me's marriage apparently a little short on romance, if you know what. Verne Troyer -- is that right?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: I just -- I call him Mr. Me.

PHILLIPS: Mini-Me.

O'BRIEN: He is seeking an annulment from his 5'6'' wife.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I thought she was 6'5''.

O'BRIEN: Money it's 6'5''. Is it 6'5''?

PHILLIPS: I don't know. She's tall.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Troyer achieved fame -- for him, it might as well be 6'5''.

Anyway, he achieved as the pint-sized clown, of course, in "Austin Powers" movies. Now he hopes the annulment doesn't break his diminutive wallet. Actually, it's not diminutive. It's packed. Anyway, go ahead.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Actually, this is not Mini-Me. This is actually -- we know this gay. Remember -- oh, gosh.

O'BRIEN: Hasselhoff.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Hasselhoff. What was it? "Baywatch," that was it. All right. Well, he spent the weekend, we are told, in drydock after he was arrested on DUI charge on Saturday. You remember, he got his stardom by "Baywatch." Well, he entered an alcohol rehab program we're told in 2002.

O'BRIEN: All right, so now I guess this is Bombay watch.

Madonna pranced around in a lot of provocative costumes in her career, But Martin Scorsese will have her in leather chaps. The material girl is joining forces with the movie mogul for a musical called "Hey Sucker." She's such a class act, isn't she? It's based on the life of a 1920s silent movie star. And Madonna silent is about the best news I've heard today.

PHILLIPS: Another reinvention tour.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: Yes.

All right, that wraps up this edition of LIVE FROM.

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