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Magnitude 6 Earthquake Rocks California; Riad Ali Freed by Captors; New Presidential Polls

Aired September 28, 2004 - 14:30   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news -- central California rocked by a strong earthquake. The magnitude 6 quake struck about an hour ago just south of the city of Parkfield. It could be felt from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Some 40 aftershocks have rocked the region. No immediate reports of damage or injuries at this time.
In Detroit, every parents' nightmare: A gunman opened fire at a home day care center. A three-year-old child and two women were critically wounds. A seven-month-old infant is also in critical condition after apparently being dropped. The suspect is still on the loose.

Two Italian women held hostage in Iraq are now free. The women who work for a humanitarian group were kidnapped from their Baghdad office three weeks ago. Last week, unconfirmed Internet postings claimed that they had been killed. Well, Italy's parliament broke into applause when the release was announced.

A CNN producer abducted yesterday in Gaza is also free today. Riad Ali was released almost 24 hours after he was abducted at gunpoint from a cab. In a video that surfaces shortly before his release, Ali said that he was being held by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Leaders of that group had condemned the abduction. Ali thanked everyone who worked to set him free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIAD ALI, CNN PRODUCER: I would like to say is to thank all of those people who were involved in my release. I would like to thank President Arafat, the Palestinian prime minister, many Israeli Arab figures, of course, CNN. CNN had made a lot of efforts to ensure my release. I would like to thank all of these people.

The only thing that I'm awaiting for now is to see my family, to see my kids, to see my wife. They're waiting for me up in the north in my village. So, thanks to all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Real quickly, we've been talking about that central California rocked by a strong earthquake, 6.0 magnitude. So far, no reports of any injuries or structural damage, but definitely some flashbacks for folks that remember the earthquake that hit that same area just nine months ago.

Diane Ray lives in Paso Robles. She remembers the last quake. Can you even compare the two, Diane?

DIANE RAY: This was more of a rolling earthquake, where the other was more of a pounding earthquake. But very long, same, you know, longevity of shaking.

PHILLIPS: Were you at home or at work when this happened?

RAY: At work.

PHILLIPS: At work.

RAY: Same place as the December one.

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. So, last time, obviously, we saw a lot of damage, even deaths reported out of Paso Robles and surrounding areas. We're even looking at video right now at how that earthquake rattled the same region then.

Now tell me -- what did you say? This is -- what did you say? This is file -- right, that's what I just said. OK.

Diane, today, can you even -- when you look outside your window, is it the same at all as last time? Do you see any structural damage or are you hearing any reports of injuries?

RAY: No, no injuries. I did hear a few sirens and, of course, fire departments and police have been actively driving up and down the streets looking for any damage. We lost a lot of chimneys last time, and they're looking for that.

But everybody was outside in the streets again, on their cell phones and bringing back sheer panic again.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no kidding. Did you talk with any family members or friends?

RAY: Yes, I talked to pretty much everybody. Everybody's OK. And I know they felt it pretty far, you know, east and south both. So, it's felt pretty far, it sounds like.

PHILLIPS: All right. Diane Ray in Paso Robles. Glad you're safe. Thank you so much.

RAY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.

Now we've got Eric Lamoureux on the phone with the California Emergency Services. Eric, did I pronounce your last name properly?

ERIC LAMOUREUX, CALIF. EMERGENCY SERVICES: Lamoureux.

PHILLIPS: Lamoureux, OK. Well, tell us, from an emergency standpoint, where exactly are you? Has there been a lot of calls, any 911 calls, any injuries, any reported deaths to this point? LAMOUREUX: Well, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services continues to actively monitor what's going on. We've got folks on the ground from state OES as well as local county OES -- San Luis Obispo County. And all indications are at this point that we have no damages and no injuries at this point.

As your map is indicating, we've got strong shaking east of Paso Robles and south of Coalinga -- that's a relatively unpopulated area along the San Andreas Fault. So, we're certainly fortunate there.

We're going to continue to actively monitor the situation so that we can get on top of anything as it develops.

PHILLIPS: And of course, everything is OK at this point. Could there be any more aftershocks that might cause more damage or lead you to be a little more concerned?

LAMOUREUX: Well, the USGS has put out an aftershock advisory, which is pretty routine on earthquakes like this. We will continue to have aftershocks. We've already had 30-plus aftershocks. We'll continue to have those aftershocks.

And you know, what we're telling people in California is, you know, if you feel one of the aftershocks, you need to duck, cover, and hold under a sturdy table of desk, protect yourself from any items that may fall in the building.

But we've been fortunate so far that the earthquakes that have occurred are in a relatively unpopulated area. So, we haven't had much concern for citizens at this point, but we need to be cautious.

PHILLIPS: Well, no news is good news with a story like this. Eric Lamoureux with California Emergency Services, thank you so much.

LAMOUREUX: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, slowly but surely, the race for the White House is nearing the finish line. Only five more weeks to go before the election and only a couple of days until the first debate.

Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey, with some new polls. Frank, what's the latest numbers on the election?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, Kyra, Bush is ahead -- by how much, of course, we'll wait and see after the debates as we get nearer to the election itself.

But right now, it's the convention that's been everything. The candidates were close after the convention. Three different CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls had showed George W. Bush in the lead among likely voters over John Kerry. Our most recent poll, just finished over the weekend, 52 percent for George W. Bush and 44 for John Kerry -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: We're just two days away from the first of three debates. Will they influence voters? NEWPORT: Well, it's a fascinating question. Everybody assumes they will, but look at the data here. We asked this question, the third time now over the last 12 years: Will they influence your vote? And look at this, back in 1992, 30 percent said they would -- that was Bush the elder, Clinton and Perot. In 2000, it was 26, and now only 18 percent.

So, actually fewer voters this year, Kyra, interesting, say that it's going to affect them in the past. That may be because we've all noticed in our polling -- that is, survey organizations -- that people are more fixed this year than they have been in the past.

One other point about the debates: Who's going to win them? Both campaigns want to downplay expectations. We asked the voters, 52 to 39 they say Bush is probably going to do better than Kerry. That's -- interestingly -- this is weird paradox of contemporary politics, Kyra, but that's actually better news for Kerry that he comes in lower because expectations are lower for John Kerry.

PHILLIPS: Well, the town hall debate is next week. Gallup selects the audience, of course. How does that work?

NEWPORT: Well, the way we did it in 2000 and in 1996 -- 2000 in St. Louis, 1996 in San Diego -- was we take a random sample -- totally random sample, just like we do polling of the metropolitan area around the venue where the debate is being held -- and then screen for voters.

And the past couple of times, we've screened for voters that we have called broadly uncommitted -- people that are undecided or soft in their support for either candidate. We're still working out the final details for this year, but our presumption is we'll do something quite similar.

PHILLIPS: All right. Frank Newport, thank you so much.

Straight ahead: A space challenge, big money -- you know my co- anchor is there.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, we're out here to cover the first attempt to win the $10 million X Prize. We're also going to check in with an astronomer who's a good friend of ours, Neil de Grasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium. He's out with a new special series on NOVA on the very origins -- and I'm told he has a great explanation for the Big Bang.

You're going to want to stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: This time tomorrow, the designer of the spacecraft Spaceship One could be halfway to winning 10 million bucks. That's when he'll attempt his first of two spaceflights in an extraordinary X-Prize Competition. Mile O'Brien once again joining us from Mojave, California, with the preview. Hi, Miles. O'BRIEN: Hello, Kyra. Yes, it's an exciting moment for the history of space exploration. Civilians really kind of reaching the edge of space. The hope is that this X-Prize which just announced another prize just within the past couple of days, "Aviation Week" reported that there's a $50 million prize about to be offered for the first team that takes a five to seven-seat craft all the way to orbit. That, coming from an aviation and space pioneer Robert Bigelow.

So this seems to be heating up, it's almost reminiscent of the 1920s and thirties when a series of cash prizes made it possible for aviation to progress. Lindbergh flew the Atlantic trying to win a $25,000 prize. A lot of people today forget that little point. That's where we are in the future of space exploration right now. Civilians trying to take a toe hold.

Let's talk for a moment about some very deep origins of how we got here today. That is the subject of an impressive new series which is out from the folks at Nova, public broadcasting. Check your local listings. The series begins tonight and really looks at the fundamental building blocks of what got us to this point right now of where we are here at the X-Prize and just the fact that we exist on this planet. The executive editor of the series is a familiar face to you all, Neil de Grasse Tyson who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York's Museum of American Natural History. Neil, good to have you back with us.

NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON, DIRECTOR, HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: Miles, it's always great to be with you.

O'BRIEN: First of all, this is an ambitious project, multipart series, a companion book, and you're talking about the very essence of why we're all here, the fundamental stuff, was it daunting?

TYSON: It was. With a four-hour baseline of time on which to cram 14 billion years of cosmic history, you have to really figure out what to leave out in order to get that to fit, but I see you've got a clip of me there explaining. What was going on there was how the planets formed and how on Mars it's iron core hardened long before earth's iron core hardened. In fact, it's still molten. And if you lose your iron core, you lose your shielding from -- there's a good clip, that's the Mars-size object slamming into earth, creating the debris out of which the moon formed. This is the first time we've had such high quality visuals bringing to bear on that question.

O'BRIEN: So welcome to television. Fourteen billion years into four hours. That's a lot of time. I want to listen -- have folks listen to a brief clip, and you get a sense of your explanation of something which really can be hard to understand, something as big quite literally as the big bang. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYSON: Most of that static comes from stray local radio waves, hitting these rabbit ear antennas, but amazing, about 1 percent of the snow and noise comes from microwaves produced in the big bang itself. Right now, we're all eavesdropping on the birth pangs of cosmic. (END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Neil, when you were looking for analogies, it's always difficult when you go down the road of trying to simplify for a mass audience while trying to be true to the scientific facts. How did you straddle that line?

TYSON: That is always a challenge. I spent a fair amount of my life thinking about how to make that connection but sometimes you just have to say it like it is. Unfortunately in astrophysics our lexicon is actually rather transparent. The big bang, that's two syllables. Two one-syllable words that accounts for the origin of the cosmos. With the biologists their molecule of life has ten syllables in. Deoxyribonucleic acid.

So we have red giants, white dwarf, black holes, so I have good material to work with to try to make it accessible to the public.

O'BRIEN: Those are good TV words, big bang. It is helpful, isn't it? Let's talk about another thing. You talked about what happened a little later in the formation of our universe. The formation of our planet and other term that you use is "pelted and melted." Let's listen for a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a hazardous world, no doubt about it, if you were located in the wrong place at wrong moment, you were simply vaporized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all hear about the impact 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, and you're getting that kind of impact something like once a month.

TYSON: Pounded and battered, our newborn earth grew so hot, it melted, an event that triggered a truly life saving transformation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: When you check our library, Neil, there's not a lot of visuals explaining the big bang or the formation of the earth. We just don't have the file tape on that.

So you mentioned that you used a lot of great animations, the technology really makes it easier, but it still had to be a challenge to try to visualize a lot of this stuff?

TYSON: That is true. But when you have asteroids slamming in from outer space at a rate of one a week, one a month, rendering earth's surface molten, these are -- you can feel that, you can sense that. We've all seen images of volcanoes, and the image we just saw, the entire earth is like this volcanic puddle, so the images definitely help the language, and I can tell you what helps to make -- to tell the story is if it were just that, OK, maybe you'll forget it after you turn off the TV, but we connect the big bang, the origin of galaxies and structure and the elements and formation of stars and the formation of planets that orbit around them and the emerging conditions that enable life.

It is one unbroken story line, and people like connecting ideas into a bigger story, that's what we tried do do here. I think you can watch it and take it to heart and give you something different to talk about at the office the next day rather than the election or something else that's swamping the news these days.

O'BRIEN: All right. We welcome it and we appreciate you trying to take on a big subject and explaining it in that way. The program once again is "Origins." It begins tonight on PBS. Check your local listings for this Nova series special. There is a companion book out there as well by the same name. You can find that at your bookstore and on Amazon. Neil de Grasse Tyson, always a pleasure. Thanks for being with us.

TYSON: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: And we'll be back with more LIVE FROM in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we've all been unwilling participants in the cell phone calls of others but when a D.C. Metro officer put the a cabash (ph) on one such conversation, controversy ensued. John Harter from our Washington affiliate WJLA with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN HARTER, WJLA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This five-months pregnant Silver Spring woman says a Metro Transit police officer abused her when she was talking on her cell phone at the Wheaton Metro Station last month. She was in Rockville today looking for a lawyer.

SAKINAH AARON, ARRESTED FOR DISORDERLY CONDUCT AND CURSING ON A CELL PHONE: It was ridiculous, it was overkill because I wasn't breaking a law.

HARTER: But Metro Transit Police have charged Sakinah Aaron with disorderly conduct and cursing on a cell phone. Aaron says the officer forced her to the ground.

AARON: I just kneeled down on my knees or whatever because he wasn't going to let me up. And he pushed me down, knee to my back and then I started to cry, like, what are you doing? I'm pregnant, please release the pressure off my back.

HARTER: Metro Police Chief Timothy Gronau says he has looked into the alleged incident just outside the metro rail station and that the arrest was appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She refused to comply, as a matter of fact, directing an expletive toward the officer himself.

HARTER: Did he put his knee in her back? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, I don't have the information available to me. I know that is one of the control points, that is a means of controlling a suspect that's uncooperative.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: That was WJLA's John Harter reporting from Washington. We haven't heard the end of Sakinah Aaron's story. She's scheduled to appear in court October 21 to face charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Oil for $50 a barrel used to be seen as an economic nightmare, but now the prices have soared that high what does it mean and where are we headed now? Let's ask Rhonda Schaffler at the New York Stock Exchange. Hi, Rhonda.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oil did top $50 a barrel for the first time and is settling today just below that milestone level. A growing number of analysts are warning, don't expect the prices to reverse course any time soon. Morgan Stanley says oil could top out as much as $61 a barrel. Saudi Arabia says it will raise production and is willing to raise it again if needed, but the analysts say that this is a time of year when inventory should be at their highest just before winter demand picks up, but inventories remain low. What all this could mean is more expensive heating bills for consumers. Meantime, diesel fuel hit a record average price of more than $2 a gallon. That is taking a heavy toll on truckers and trucking companies -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Oil close to $50 today. How come the Dow is moving higher?

SCHAFFLER: It's interesting, the market has been so prepared for oil to hit this level. In many ways it's been factored into the market. And we also have a situation here where stocks have been beaten down so much ahead of today that you've got investors finally doing bargain hunting in a big way, I should add. The Dow is up 77 points right now. Nasdaq is a quarter percent higher. And that is the latest from Wall Street. Kyra, we'll see you tomorrow.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, look forward to it. "INSIDE POLITICS" is next. Judy Woodruff has a preview. Hi, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Thanks very much. It's cram time. We are just two days away from the first presidential debate of the year. We'll look at how the president and Senator Kerry are preparing.

Plus, are the candidates meeting voters' expectations? We'll take a look at what the latest poll numbers say when "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Stories in the news now. Walls rattled, chandeliers swayed, but no one was hurt in the 6.0 magnitude earthquake in central California this afternoon. It was centered near Parkfield, it was felt for hundreds of miles, from Santa Ana to Sacramento.

Days after a website reported them killed, two former hostages in Iraq could be headed home to Italy tonight. Two aide workers were freed today three weeks after they were abducted from their office in Baghdad. We'll have a live report 5:00 Eastern.

"JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

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Aired September 28, 2004 - 14:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news -- central California rocked by a strong earthquake. The magnitude 6 quake struck about an hour ago just south of the city of Parkfield. It could be felt from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Some 40 aftershocks have rocked the region. No immediate reports of damage or injuries at this time.
In Detroit, every parents' nightmare: A gunman opened fire at a home day care center. A three-year-old child and two women were critically wounds. A seven-month-old infant is also in critical condition after apparently being dropped. The suspect is still on the loose.

Two Italian women held hostage in Iraq are now free. The women who work for a humanitarian group were kidnapped from their Baghdad office three weeks ago. Last week, unconfirmed Internet postings claimed that they had been killed. Well, Italy's parliament broke into applause when the release was announced.

A CNN producer abducted yesterday in Gaza is also free today. Riad Ali was released almost 24 hours after he was abducted at gunpoint from a cab. In a video that surfaces shortly before his release, Ali said that he was being held by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Leaders of that group had condemned the abduction. Ali thanked everyone who worked to set him free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIAD ALI, CNN PRODUCER: I would like to say is to thank all of those people who were involved in my release. I would like to thank President Arafat, the Palestinian prime minister, many Israeli Arab figures, of course, CNN. CNN had made a lot of efforts to ensure my release. I would like to thank all of these people.

The only thing that I'm awaiting for now is to see my family, to see my kids, to see my wife. They're waiting for me up in the north in my village. So, thanks to all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Real quickly, we've been talking about that central California rocked by a strong earthquake, 6.0 magnitude. So far, no reports of any injuries or structural damage, but definitely some flashbacks for folks that remember the earthquake that hit that same area just nine months ago.

Diane Ray lives in Paso Robles. She remembers the last quake. Can you even compare the two, Diane?

DIANE RAY: This was more of a rolling earthquake, where the other was more of a pounding earthquake. But very long, same, you know, longevity of shaking.

PHILLIPS: Were you at home or at work when this happened?

RAY: At work.

PHILLIPS: At work.

RAY: Same place as the December one.

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. So, last time, obviously, we saw a lot of damage, even deaths reported out of Paso Robles and surrounding areas. We're even looking at video right now at how that earthquake rattled the same region then.

Now tell me -- what did you say? This is -- what did you say? This is file -- right, that's what I just said. OK.

Diane, today, can you even -- when you look outside your window, is it the same at all as last time? Do you see any structural damage or are you hearing any reports of injuries?

RAY: No, no injuries. I did hear a few sirens and, of course, fire departments and police have been actively driving up and down the streets looking for any damage. We lost a lot of chimneys last time, and they're looking for that.

But everybody was outside in the streets again, on their cell phones and bringing back sheer panic again.

PHILLIPS: Yes, no kidding. Did you talk with any family members or friends?

RAY: Yes, I talked to pretty much everybody. Everybody's OK. And I know they felt it pretty far, you know, east and south both. So, it's felt pretty far, it sounds like.

PHILLIPS: All right. Diane Ray in Paso Robles. Glad you're safe. Thank you so much.

RAY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.

Now we've got Eric Lamoureux on the phone with the California Emergency Services. Eric, did I pronounce your last name properly?

ERIC LAMOUREUX, CALIF. EMERGENCY SERVICES: Lamoureux.

PHILLIPS: Lamoureux, OK. Well, tell us, from an emergency standpoint, where exactly are you? Has there been a lot of calls, any 911 calls, any injuries, any reported deaths to this point? LAMOUREUX: Well, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services continues to actively monitor what's going on. We've got folks on the ground from state OES as well as local county OES -- San Luis Obispo County. And all indications are at this point that we have no damages and no injuries at this point.

As your map is indicating, we've got strong shaking east of Paso Robles and south of Coalinga -- that's a relatively unpopulated area along the San Andreas Fault. So, we're certainly fortunate there.

We're going to continue to actively monitor the situation so that we can get on top of anything as it develops.

PHILLIPS: And of course, everything is OK at this point. Could there be any more aftershocks that might cause more damage or lead you to be a little more concerned?

LAMOUREUX: Well, the USGS has put out an aftershock advisory, which is pretty routine on earthquakes like this. We will continue to have aftershocks. We've already had 30-plus aftershocks. We'll continue to have those aftershocks.

And you know, what we're telling people in California is, you know, if you feel one of the aftershocks, you need to duck, cover, and hold under a sturdy table of desk, protect yourself from any items that may fall in the building.

But we've been fortunate so far that the earthquakes that have occurred are in a relatively unpopulated area. So, we haven't had much concern for citizens at this point, but we need to be cautious.

PHILLIPS: Well, no news is good news with a story like this. Eric Lamoureux with California Emergency Services, thank you so much.

LAMOUREUX: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, slowly but surely, the race for the White House is nearing the finish line. Only five more weeks to go before the election and only a couple of days until the first debate.

Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey, with some new polls. Frank, what's the latest numbers on the election?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP: Well, Kyra, Bush is ahead -- by how much, of course, we'll wait and see after the debates as we get nearer to the election itself.

But right now, it's the convention that's been everything. The candidates were close after the convention. Three different CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup polls had showed George W. Bush in the lead among likely voters over John Kerry. Our most recent poll, just finished over the weekend, 52 percent for George W. Bush and 44 for John Kerry -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: We're just two days away from the first of three debates. Will they influence voters? NEWPORT: Well, it's a fascinating question. Everybody assumes they will, but look at the data here. We asked this question, the third time now over the last 12 years: Will they influence your vote? And look at this, back in 1992, 30 percent said they would -- that was Bush the elder, Clinton and Perot. In 2000, it was 26, and now only 18 percent.

So, actually fewer voters this year, Kyra, interesting, say that it's going to affect them in the past. That may be because we've all noticed in our polling -- that is, survey organizations -- that people are more fixed this year than they have been in the past.

One other point about the debates: Who's going to win them? Both campaigns want to downplay expectations. We asked the voters, 52 to 39 they say Bush is probably going to do better than Kerry. That's -- interestingly -- this is weird paradox of contemporary politics, Kyra, but that's actually better news for Kerry that he comes in lower because expectations are lower for John Kerry.

PHILLIPS: Well, the town hall debate is next week. Gallup selects the audience, of course. How does that work?

NEWPORT: Well, the way we did it in 2000 and in 1996 -- 2000 in St. Louis, 1996 in San Diego -- was we take a random sample -- totally random sample, just like we do polling of the metropolitan area around the venue where the debate is being held -- and then screen for voters.

And the past couple of times, we've screened for voters that we have called broadly uncommitted -- people that are undecided or soft in their support for either candidate. We're still working out the final details for this year, but our presumption is we'll do something quite similar.

PHILLIPS: All right. Frank Newport, thank you so much.

Straight ahead: A space challenge, big money -- you know my co- anchor is there.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, we're out here to cover the first attempt to win the $10 million X Prize. We're also going to check in with an astronomer who's a good friend of ours, Neil de Grasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium. He's out with a new special series on NOVA on the very origins -- and I'm told he has a great explanation for the Big Bang.

You're going to want to stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: This time tomorrow, the designer of the spacecraft Spaceship One could be halfway to winning 10 million bucks. That's when he'll attempt his first of two spaceflights in an extraordinary X-Prize Competition. Mile O'Brien once again joining us from Mojave, California, with the preview. Hi, Miles. O'BRIEN: Hello, Kyra. Yes, it's an exciting moment for the history of space exploration. Civilians really kind of reaching the edge of space. The hope is that this X-Prize which just announced another prize just within the past couple of days, "Aviation Week" reported that there's a $50 million prize about to be offered for the first team that takes a five to seven-seat craft all the way to orbit. That, coming from an aviation and space pioneer Robert Bigelow.

So this seems to be heating up, it's almost reminiscent of the 1920s and thirties when a series of cash prizes made it possible for aviation to progress. Lindbergh flew the Atlantic trying to win a $25,000 prize. A lot of people today forget that little point. That's where we are in the future of space exploration right now. Civilians trying to take a toe hold.

Let's talk for a moment about some very deep origins of how we got here today. That is the subject of an impressive new series which is out from the folks at Nova, public broadcasting. Check your local listings. The series begins tonight and really looks at the fundamental building blocks of what got us to this point right now of where we are here at the X-Prize and just the fact that we exist on this planet. The executive editor of the series is a familiar face to you all, Neil de Grasse Tyson who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York's Museum of American Natural History. Neil, good to have you back with us.

NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON, DIRECTOR, HAYDEN PLANETARIUM: Miles, it's always great to be with you.

O'BRIEN: First of all, this is an ambitious project, multipart series, a companion book, and you're talking about the very essence of why we're all here, the fundamental stuff, was it daunting?

TYSON: It was. With a four-hour baseline of time on which to cram 14 billion years of cosmic history, you have to really figure out what to leave out in order to get that to fit, but I see you've got a clip of me there explaining. What was going on there was how the planets formed and how on Mars it's iron core hardened long before earth's iron core hardened. In fact, it's still molten. And if you lose your iron core, you lose your shielding from -- there's a good clip, that's the Mars-size object slamming into earth, creating the debris out of which the moon formed. This is the first time we've had such high quality visuals bringing to bear on that question.

O'BRIEN: So welcome to television. Fourteen billion years into four hours. That's a lot of time. I want to listen -- have folks listen to a brief clip, and you get a sense of your explanation of something which really can be hard to understand, something as big quite literally as the big bang. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYSON: Most of that static comes from stray local radio waves, hitting these rabbit ear antennas, but amazing, about 1 percent of the snow and noise comes from microwaves produced in the big bang itself. Right now, we're all eavesdropping on the birth pangs of cosmic. (END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Neil, when you were looking for analogies, it's always difficult when you go down the road of trying to simplify for a mass audience while trying to be true to the scientific facts. How did you straddle that line?

TYSON: That is always a challenge. I spent a fair amount of my life thinking about how to make that connection but sometimes you just have to say it like it is. Unfortunately in astrophysics our lexicon is actually rather transparent. The big bang, that's two syllables. Two one-syllable words that accounts for the origin of the cosmos. With the biologists their molecule of life has ten syllables in. Deoxyribonucleic acid.

So we have red giants, white dwarf, black holes, so I have good material to work with to try to make it accessible to the public.

O'BRIEN: Those are good TV words, big bang. It is helpful, isn't it? Let's talk about another thing. You talked about what happened a little later in the formation of our universe. The formation of our planet and other term that you use is "pelted and melted." Let's listen for a moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a hazardous world, no doubt about it, if you were located in the wrong place at wrong moment, you were simply vaporized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all hear about the impact 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs, and you're getting that kind of impact something like once a month.

TYSON: Pounded and battered, our newborn earth grew so hot, it melted, an event that triggered a truly life saving transformation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: When you check our library, Neil, there's not a lot of visuals explaining the big bang or the formation of the earth. We just don't have the file tape on that.

So you mentioned that you used a lot of great animations, the technology really makes it easier, but it still had to be a challenge to try to visualize a lot of this stuff?

TYSON: That is true. But when you have asteroids slamming in from outer space at a rate of one a week, one a month, rendering earth's surface molten, these are -- you can feel that, you can sense that. We've all seen images of volcanoes, and the image we just saw, the entire earth is like this volcanic puddle, so the images definitely help the language, and I can tell you what helps to make -- to tell the story is if it were just that, OK, maybe you'll forget it after you turn off the TV, but we connect the big bang, the origin of galaxies and structure and the elements and formation of stars and the formation of planets that orbit around them and the emerging conditions that enable life.

It is one unbroken story line, and people like connecting ideas into a bigger story, that's what we tried do do here. I think you can watch it and take it to heart and give you something different to talk about at the office the next day rather than the election or something else that's swamping the news these days.

O'BRIEN: All right. We welcome it and we appreciate you trying to take on a big subject and explaining it in that way. The program once again is "Origins." It begins tonight on PBS. Check your local listings for this Nova series special. There is a companion book out there as well by the same name. You can find that at your bookstore and on Amazon. Neil de Grasse Tyson, always a pleasure. Thanks for being with us.

TYSON: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: And we'll be back with more LIVE FROM in just a moment. Stay with us.

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PHILLIPS: Well, we've all been unwilling participants in the cell phone calls of others but when a D.C. Metro officer put the a cabash (ph) on one such conversation, controversy ensued. John Harter from our Washington affiliate WJLA with the details.

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JOHN HARTER, WJLA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This five-months pregnant Silver Spring woman says a Metro Transit police officer abused her when she was talking on her cell phone at the Wheaton Metro Station last month. She was in Rockville today looking for a lawyer.

SAKINAH AARON, ARRESTED FOR DISORDERLY CONDUCT AND CURSING ON A CELL PHONE: It was ridiculous, it was overkill because I wasn't breaking a law.

HARTER: But Metro Transit Police have charged Sakinah Aaron with disorderly conduct and cursing on a cell phone. Aaron says the officer forced her to the ground.

AARON: I just kneeled down on my knees or whatever because he wasn't going to let me up. And he pushed me down, knee to my back and then I started to cry, like, what are you doing? I'm pregnant, please release the pressure off my back.

HARTER: Metro Police Chief Timothy Gronau says he has looked into the alleged incident just outside the metro rail station and that the arrest was appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She refused to comply, as a matter of fact, directing an expletive toward the officer himself.

HARTER: Did he put his knee in her back? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, I don't have the information available to me. I know that is one of the control points, that is a means of controlling a suspect that's uncooperative.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: That was WJLA's John Harter reporting from Washington. We haven't heard the end of Sakinah Aaron's story. She's scheduled to appear in court October 21 to face charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Oil for $50 a barrel used to be seen as an economic nightmare, but now the prices have soared that high what does it mean and where are we headed now? Let's ask Rhonda Schaffler at the New York Stock Exchange. Hi, Rhonda.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oil did top $50 a barrel for the first time and is settling today just below that milestone level. A growing number of analysts are warning, don't expect the prices to reverse course any time soon. Morgan Stanley says oil could top out as much as $61 a barrel. Saudi Arabia says it will raise production and is willing to raise it again if needed, but the analysts say that this is a time of year when inventory should be at their highest just before winter demand picks up, but inventories remain low. What all this could mean is more expensive heating bills for consumers. Meantime, diesel fuel hit a record average price of more than $2 a gallon. That is taking a heavy toll on truckers and trucking companies -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Oil close to $50 today. How come the Dow is moving higher?

SCHAFFLER: It's interesting, the market has been so prepared for oil to hit this level. In many ways it's been factored into the market. And we also have a situation here where stocks have been beaten down so much ahead of today that you've got investors finally doing bargain hunting in a big way, I should add. The Dow is up 77 points right now. Nasdaq is a quarter percent higher. And that is the latest from Wall Street. Kyra, we'll see you tomorrow.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rhonda, look forward to it. "INSIDE POLITICS" is next. Judy Woodruff has a preview. Hi, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF, HOST, "JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS": Hi, Kyra. Thanks very much. It's cram time. We are just two days away from the first presidential debate of the year. We'll look at how the president and Senator Kerry are preparing.

Plus, are the candidates meeting voters' expectations? We'll take a look at what the latest poll numbers say when "INSIDE POLITICS" begins in just a moment.

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PHILLIPS: Stories in the news now. Walls rattled, chandeliers swayed, but no one was hurt in the 6.0 magnitude earthquake in central California this afternoon. It was centered near Parkfield, it was felt for hundreds of miles, from Santa Ana to Sacramento.

Days after a website reported them killed, two former hostages in Iraq could be headed home to Italy tonight. Two aide workers were freed today three weeks after they were abducted from their office in Baghdad. We'll have a live report 5:00 Eastern.

"JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS" up next.

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