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Ailing Arafat Decides to Seek Treatment in Paris; Wayward Ballots; Scott Peterson Trial Update

Aired October 28, 2004 - 14:00   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: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat seriously ill at his Ramallah compound. This hour, a look inside the leader's inner circle.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush brings out the heavy artillery while Senator Kerry blasts away with missing explosives with five days to go in the battle for the White House.

O'BRIEN: Absent absentees. Thousands of ballots apparently lost in the mail in, yes, you guessed it, Florida. How will this affect the count this go-around?

PHILLIPS: And a toast to your health. New information on the benefits of drinking wine. But only if you pick the right color.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.

PHILLIPS: He's been Arafat the agitator, Arafat the icon, Arafat the fighter and leader and lightning rod. Today he's Arafat the patient, reportedly seriously ill with ailments unknown, prognosis unclear. It does appear at this point he'll abide by his doctor's strong recommendation that he fly to Paris for treatment.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour has made her way to Ramallah, joins us now live from the Palestinian leader's compound with the very latest -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, well this is such a dramatic story. For nearly 40 years, Yasser Arafat has been the symbol of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. And for the last 24 hours, in earnest, the state of his health has been very seriously in doubt.

Today, it has now been confirmed in the last hour that he will, in fact, accede to his doctor's recommendations and wishes to leave this compound and go to France for treatment. This will be the first time in more than two-and-a-half years that he has left this place, perhaps actually even longer.

Officially, his confinement here is dated from back in December 2001, when he was forbidden from going to Bethlehem for Christmas. And obviously ever since there has been the Israeli invasion of parts of the West Bank, and he has been kept virtual prisoner inside this compound behind me, not only in pretty healthy conditions, but in very sort of demolished conditions as well. Not helping at all the attempt to diagnose what is wrong with him.

Today, the Palestinian officials, knowing how dramatically this whole situation was being viewed around the world, released two pictures of Yasser Arafat, a still and some video, in which -- we're told this was taken today, this afternoon -- he is dressed in what appears to be a jumpsuit or pajamas, light blue in color.

He is obviously not wearing his traditional military costume, because he is not well. He's also not wearing his Kafir (ph). Instead, he's wearing a wool hat on his head.

But he is smiling, he is sitting up, and he's holding hands with members of his medical team. And, indeed, some of his guards are recognizable in the back behind him.

So this was released in order to basically, I think, reassure not only Palestinian opinion but world opinion that, in fact, he was conscious, that he was alive, and that he is essentially still in there. And now all of this movement that we've been seeing over the last 24 hours appears to be him resulting in him agreeing to go to France.

His wife came here from France, arrived here just a few hours ago. She's been in there with him. She hasn't seen him for the better part of three years since he's been confined here. And she has spoken to CNN producers, saying that "He's OK, he's better, he's recovering, I hope." So that is her take on this matter.

We're told by officials that a Jordanian helicopter will come from across the border, will land here in this compound at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. That's in several hours from now.

It is going to be very difficult because, over the years of Arafat's confinement, the Palestinians have made an obstacle course of any of the free parking lots or open spaces inside that compound to ward off and to try and prevent what they feared would be an Israeli attempt to snatch him out of there. So now fire trucks and other vehicles have been moving in, trying to clear a place for a helicopter to land. At least that's what we've been told those fire trucks are doing. And we know that it is strewn with demolished cars, concrete blocks and the rest to try to keep him safe from an Israeli snatch attempt over the last several years.

We're told that once he gets to Amman, there will be a French plane waiting to take him to France and to proper medical and diagnostic conditions. They still don't know, they tell us here, the doctors, exactly what is ailing him.

All we know is that he's been unable to keep food down, that every attempt he's made to eat food, whether it be to break the fast of Ramadan, whether it be to try to build up his strength, has not worked. That he's had to basically vomit it. And that they are desperate. They have had him on an intravenous drip, and they need to try to diagnose exactly what is wrong with him. We're also told that he has dozed in out and of sleep and of memory loss or presence.

So that's the condition. That's the state we're in. We're waiting to see how this develops and when, in fact, he'll leave tomorrow morning -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Christiane Amanpour right there in the middle of it off all. Thank you so much.

And we're going to have much more on what life is like inside the Arafat compound there in Ramallah, close to where Christiane is. I'm going to talk with CNN reporter Michael Holmes and a CNN producer -- actually our Ramallah producer about that situation. That's later right here on CNN's LIVE FROM.

O'BRIEN: Five days from Election Day, those missing Iraqi explosives still giving the presidential candidates plenty of ammunition. In Ohio today, John Kerry seized on speculation by the former chief U.S. weapons inspector that the stockpile was probably looted after the fall of Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now today, in the last days, the president's -- the president's own former chief weapons inspector says it's likely that these explosives are being used against our troops. That's not me saying it, that's the president's own former chief weapons inspector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, Madison, Wisconsin. Bruce Springsteen having warmed up the crowd there. The candidate beginning to make his address to a large crowd there.

The pair of them will go back to Ohio this evening. The Boss and the candidate sticking together for a little while.

A day after George W. Bush accused Kerry of making wild accusations, Bush used another "W" also in battleground Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This week, Senator Kerry is again attacking the actions of our military in Iraq with complete disregard for the facts. Senator Kerry will say anything to get elected. The senator's willingness to trade principle for political convenience makes it clear that John Kerry is the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Bush is hitting Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania today, reversing his Wednesday travels through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. A well-worn path it is.

Some folks in Florida are having trouble casting their ballots early. That's because no one seems to know where the ballots are. CNN's Susan Candiotti is on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Poor Diane Willis. About two weeks ago, the young mother applied for an absentee ballot to avoid this, enduring a two-hour wait at the polls with her toddler in tow. But when her absentee ballot failed to show, Willis (ph) drove to the polls anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not perfect, but if that's what it takes in order for me to get my vote counted, then that's what I have to do.

CANDIOTTI: In Broward County, Florida, officials say about 60,000 absentee ballots were mailed out three weeks ago, and that now hundreds could be missing in action.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a real concern to us as election officials because...

CANDIOTTI: State and federal investigators are trying to figure out where the illusive ballots are. The largest batch was delivered to the main post office for distribution. Election officials tried to get answers from the postal service.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They really provided no real explanation. They assured us that those ballots had actually left their facility. So where the ballots were, were really in question.

CANDIOTTI: Early voter Arthur Ballau (ph) got wind of the trouble and got himself to the polls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to gamble on it. After I read in the paper today that 60,000 ballots, absentee ballots are missing, I'm not going to be waiting around.

CANDIOTTI: The U.S. Postal Service issued a statement insisting local delivery normally takes one day. "All absentee ballots are processed and delivered immediately. There is no backlog of absentee ballots in postal facilities." This would-be absentee ballot not willing to wait another day.

(on camera): You're here today because you don't want to take any chances.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want my vote counted. I want to make sure I get it done. I don't want it to get lost in the mail.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): So far, there is no evidence of any crime and no firm number of missing ballots. It does highlight one more chink in Florida's election process that already has a lot of voters on edge. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Two Iraq war veterans with one mission they are calling Operation Truth. But some are not saluting their cause.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kimberly Osias, live in Redwood City. They say it all comes down to how you seal the deal. Well the question now in the double murder trial of Scott Peterson is which side can do it best?

O'BRIEN: And some haunting images for Halloween. It gives new meaning to the term gourd-gous. Gourd-gous -- get that? That story is a little later on LIVE FROM.

It was a nice try. Give me credit for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The defense rests. Lawyers on both sides in the Scott Peterson murder trial decide against calling more witnesses. What's next? CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from Redwood City, California, with a look what we can expect in the coming days.

I suspect this jury, if not literally scratching their heads, certainly is symbolically.

OSIAS: You're exactly right. I mean, that would be exactly what I would say to classify what happened yesterday. People were just very surprised, Miles.

It was about an hour, no witnesses. This jury was dismissed, which is actually kind of a good thing because the jury is going to be sequestered for deliberations. In fact, it is the first time in San Mateo County that something like that has happened.

And perhaps, many experts opine, Judge Delucchi is really doing everything he can to ensure that there is not a hung jury. So this will be sort of their last little weekend, their last respite home before heading back to a hotel.

Now, it was interesting yesterday. No witnesses were called, but we really were expecting testimony from eight witnesses on the side of the prosecution.

One, in fact, actually flew in from Connecticut. That was famed forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee. Now, what's interesting about this one is he is definitely renowned, and he did the autopsies on Laci Peterson and the fetus at the request of the defense back in April 2003 when their bodies washed ashore on the San Francisco Bay. Now, what is important in a case (AUDIO GAP) that you finish hard, because that is what jurors will be left with. So, of course, all eyes are on this jury right now, and on closing arguments, which are set to start on the first and the second. Of course, the second being Election Day before deliberations will then begin on the 3rd -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Kimberly Osias, Redwood City. Thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Other news "Around the World" now.

More airstrikes in Falluja. U.S. warplanes hit what officials say was a meeting site used by insurgents loyal to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. Hospital sources say the strike destroyed three homes and killed two Iraqi brothers and wounded another. The U.S. military has no word on casualties.

Hostage crisis, this time in Afghanistan. Three U.N. election workers kidnapped in Kabul by a group of armed men. The group, calling itself the Muslim Army, sent a statement to Al Jazeera claiming responsibility, but did not make any demands.

Disaster at a Russian coal mine. Thirteen miners killed, 23 others injured in a methane gas explosion at a mine in Siberia. Rescue teams evacuated 67 uninjured miners to the surface. It's the sixth mine accident in western Siberia this year.

O'BRIEN: Red or white? Your answer to that question at cocktail time could help you prevent a certain kind of cancer. Details ahead on LIVE FROM. Kyra will be listening to that one.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I will too. I'm Rhonda Schaffler at the New York Stock Exchange. You know which company's slogan is "Right Here, Right Now?" I'll let you know when CNN's LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, this is it, Red Sox fans, the moment that we have been waiting for. Eighty-six years to be exact. Some doubted it would ever come. Many even died waiting, of course. But finally their day has come.

Look at those pictures there. That's Storrow Drive. If you know Boston, you know what that's all about.

They don't call them estrines (ph) up there. They call them reverse curves. And for years and years, folks with a little can of spray paint and a couple of brewskies in their system would go and put "Reverse the curse" there.

Well, you'll see what they're doing right now. They are taking a blow torch to it to retire it for good.

For fans like actor Michael Chiklis, these are the kinds of scenes you can only dream of. Perhaps the greatest moment in Boston sports history, in a very storied part of the world. He joins us now on the phone from Vancouver, British Columbia, where -- well, I guess it was a long night, wasn't it?

Michael, congratulations. Nice to see those pictures of that sign coming down, isn't it?

MICHAEL CHIKLIS, ACTOR, RED SOX FAN: Oh, so beautiful. I can't -- I really can't accept it. I mean, you know what this means, don't you?

O'BRIEN: No, what?

CHIKLIS: It's the end. It's the beginning of the end.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I see what you mean, though. I was reading Dan Shaughnessy's piece today in "The Globe," and he had a point. He said -- he had a quote from somebody who said, you know, it's -- you can -- there's a lot more to say, a lot more to talk about after a loss, all the what-ifs.

What do you talk about after you win? Red Sox fans don't know what to do.

CHIKLIS: I don't even know what to do with myself. You know what? We've done pretty well with the Patriots' success. So we'll find something to do.

Actually, I think -- I think now the rivalry between the Yanks and the Sox even becomes that much greater. Now the Yankee fans can bite their nails a little bit more and wring their hands a little bit more. I just love it.

O'BRIEN: Oh, that would be nice. That would be nice.

As you know, it is customary on opening day the home opener for the team to receive in a ceremony their World Series rings. Next April, guess who the Red Sox are playing at Fenway when they receive that? The Yankees. Now, does it get any sweeter than that?

CHIKLIS: It really doesn't. I mean, we're just laughing.

My grandmother called me last night and said, "The last time these guys did this, I was one." She's 87!

You know, I mean, it just -- to come back four straight against the Yankees, and the greatest comeback in history, and then to just sweep the Cardinals, I mean, it's storybook. And also, we got another little piece of revenge there with the rocket falling, too. So, I mean...

O'BRIEN: Well - and -- yes. That's a -- we haven't talked much about that. But the fact that the rocket was out and watching it from Houston, as cocky as he was, and as much as he thumbed his nose...

CHIKLIS: There's so much justice involved there. It's beautiful.

O'BRIEN: You know, the series itself was such an un-Red Sox series. It was anticlimactic, they never were behind. I mean, it was all fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it was so unlike the Red Sox, right?

CHIKLIS: Yes, absolutely. You know, a lot of people have been saying to me -- you know, I was supposed to fly out for game seven. And, you know, other people were saying, "Are you bummed out that it didn't go back to..." -- you know what? With my nervous system with the Red Sox, I am so thrilled that they just did it and got it over with.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Unbelievable. One to savor, one to remember, one to tell the grandkids about.

CHIKLIS: Beautiful.

O'BRIEN: Next year this time we'll meet and we'll talk about why, oh why, can't the Red Sox repeat, right?

CHIKLIS: No. No, we won't!

O'BRIEN: All right. Michael Chiklis, get back to work. Thanks for your time.

CHIKLIS: Great to talk to you.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate you joining us on LIVE FROM -- Kyra.

CHIKLIS: Go Sox!

O'BRIEN: Go Sox!

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: A little subliminal advertising.

Well, you probably get annoyed when you have a company's jingle stuck in your head, right? Except for that "Go Sox" jingle. But companies love it. And the problem for advertisers is it doesn't happen often enough.

Rhonda Schaffler has the story at the New York Stock Exchange.

Rhonda, thanks for backing me up, by the way, on the wine a couple minutes ago.

SCHAFFLER: For you, anything, Kyra, of course.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired October 28, 2004 - 14:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat seriously ill at his Ramallah compound. This hour, a look inside the leader's inner circle.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush brings out the heavy artillery while Senator Kerry blasts away with missing explosives with five days to go in the battle for the White House.

O'BRIEN: Absent absentees. Thousands of ballots apparently lost in the mail in, yes, you guessed it, Florida. How will this affect the count this go-around?

PHILLIPS: And a toast to your health. New information on the benefits of drinking wine. But only if you pick the right color.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips.

O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM begins right now.

PHILLIPS: He's been Arafat the agitator, Arafat the icon, Arafat the fighter and leader and lightning rod. Today he's Arafat the patient, reportedly seriously ill with ailments unknown, prognosis unclear. It does appear at this point he'll abide by his doctor's strong recommendation that he fly to Paris for treatment.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour has made her way to Ramallah, joins us now live from the Palestinian leader's compound with the very latest -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, well this is such a dramatic story. For nearly 40 years, Yasser Arafat has been the symbol of Palestinian aspirations for statehood. And for the last 24 hours, in earnest, the state of his health has been very seriously in doubt.

Today, it has now been confirmed in the last hour that he will, in fact, accede to his doctor's recommendations and wishes to leave this compound and go to France for treatment. This will be the first time in more than two-and-a-half years that he has left this place, perhaps actually even longer.

Officially, his confinement here is dated from back in December 2001, when he was forbidden from going to Bethlehem for Christmas. And obviously ever since there has been the Israeli invasion of parts of the West Bank, and he has been kept virtual prisoner inside this compound behind me, not only in pretty healthy conditions, but in very sort of demolished conditions as well. Not helping at all the attempt to diagnose what is wrong with him.

Today, the Palestinian officials, knowing how dramatically this whole situation was being viewed around the world, released two pictures of Yasser Arafat, a still and some video, in which -- we're told this was taken today, this afternoon -- he is dressed in what appears to be a jumpsuit or pajamas, light blue in color.

He is obviously not wearing his traditional military costume, because he is not well. He's also not wearing his Kafir (ph). Instead, he's wearing a wool hat on his head.

But he is smiling, he is sitting up, and he's holding hands with members of his medical team. And, indeed, some of his guards are recognizable in the back behind him.

So this was released in order to basically, I think, reassure not only Palestinian opinion but world opinion that, in fact, he was conscious, that he was alive, and that he is essentially still in there. And now all of this movement that we've been seeing over the last 24 hours appears to be him resulting in him agreeing to go to France.

His wife came here from France, arrived here just a few hours ago. She's been in there with him. She hasn't seen him for the better part of three years since he's been confined here. And she has spoken to CNN producers, saying that "He's OK, he's better, he's recovering, I hope." So that is her take on this matter.

We're told by officials that a Jordanian helicopter will come from across the border, will land here in this compound at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. That's in several hours from now.

It is going to be very difficult because, over the years of Arafat's confinement, the Palestinians have made an obstacle course of any of the free parking lots or open spaces inside that compound to ward off and to try and prevent what they feared would be an Israeli attempt to snatch him out of there. So now fire trucks and other vehicles have been moving in, trying to clear a place for a helicopter to land. At least that's what we've been told those fire trucks are doing. And we know that it is strewn with demolished cars, concrete blocks and the rest to try to keep him safe from an Israeli snatch attempt over the last several years.

We're told that once he gets to Amman, there will be a French plane waiting to take him to France and to proper medical and diagnostic conditions. They still don't know, they tell us here, the doctors, exactly what is ailing him.

All we know is that he's been unable to keep food down, that every attempt he's made to eat food, whether it be to break the fast of Ramadan, whether it be to try to build up his strength, has not worked. That he's had to basically vomit it. And that they are desperate. They have had him on an intravenous drip, and they need to try to diagnose exactly what is wrong with him. We're also told that he has dozed in out and of sleep and of memory loss or presence.

So that's the condition. That's the state we're in. We're waiting to see how this develops and when, in fact, he'll leave tomorrow morning -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Christiane Amanpour right there in the middle of it off all. Thank you so much.

And we're going to have much more on what life is like inside the Arafat compound there in Ramallah, close to where Christiane is. I'm going to talk with CNN reporter Michael Holmes and a CNN producer -- actually our Ramallah producer about that situation. That's later right here on CNN's LIVE FROM.

O'BRIEN: Five days from Election Day, those missing Iraqi explosives still giving the presidential candidates plenty of ammunition. In Ohio today, John Kerry seized on speculation by the former chief U.S. weapons inspector that the stockpile was probably looted after the fall of Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now today, in the last days, the president's -- the president's own former chief weapons inspector says it's likely that these explosives are being used against our troops. That's not me saying it, that's the president's own former chief weapons inspector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, Madison, Wisconsin. Bruce Springsteen having warmed up the crowd there. The candidate beginning to make his address to a large crowd there.

The pair of them will go back to Ohio this evening. The Boss and the candidate sticking together for a little while.

A day after George W. Bush accused Kerry of making wild accusations, Bush used another "W" also in battleground Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This week, Senator Kerry is again attacking the actions of our military in Iraq with complete disregard for the facts. Senator Kerry will say anything to get elected. The senator's willingness to trade principle for political convenience makes it clear that John Kerry is the wrong man for the wrong job at the wrong time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Bush is hitting Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania today, reversing his Wednesday travels through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. A well-worn path it is.

Some folks in Florida are having trouble casting their ballots early. That's because no one seems to know where the ballots are. CNN's Susan Candiotti is on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Poor Diane Willis. About two weeks ago, the young mother applied for an absentee ballot to avoid this, enduring a two-hour wait at the polls with her toddler in tow. But when her absentee ballot failed to show, Willis (ph) drove to the polls anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not perfect, but if that's what it takes in order for me to get my vote counted, then that's what I have to do.

CANDIOTTI: In Broward County, Florida, officials say about 60,000 absentee ballots were mailed out three weeks ago, and that now hundreds could be missing in action.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a real concern to us as election officials because...

CANDIOTTI: State and federal investigators are trying to figure out where the illusive ballots are. The largest batch was delivered to the main post office for distribution. Election officials tried to get answers from the postal service.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They really provided no real explanation. They assured us that those ballots had actually left their facility. So where the ballots were, were really in question.

CANDIOTTI: Early voter Arthur Ballau (ph) got wind of the trouble and got himself to the polls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to gamble on it. After I read in the paper today that 60,000 ballots, absentee ballots are missing, I'm not going to be waiting around.

CANDIOTTI: The U.S. Postal Service issued a statement insisting local delivery normally takes one day. "All absentee ballots are processed and delivered immediately. There is no backlog of absentee ballots in postal facilities." This would-be absentee ballot not willing to wait another day.

(on camera): You're here today because you don't want to take any chances.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want my vote counted. I want to make sure I get it done. I don't want it to get lost in the mail.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): So far, there is no evidence of any crime and no firm number of missing ballots. It does highlight one more chink in Florida's election process that already has a lot of voters on edge. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Two Iraq war veterans with one mission they are calling Operation Truth. But some are not saluting their cause.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kimberly Osias, live in Redwood City. They say it all comes down to how you seal the deal. Well the question now in the double murder trial of Scott Peterson is which side can do it best?

O'BRIEN: And some haunting images for Halloween. It gives new meaning to the term gourd-gous. Gourd-gous -- get that? That story is a little later on LIVE FROM.

It was a nice try. Give me credit for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: The defense rests. Lawyers on both sides in the Scott Peterson murder trial decide against calling more witnesses. What's next? CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from Redwood City, California, with a look what we can expect in the coming days.

I suspect this jury, if not literally scratching their heads, certainly is symbolically.

OSIAS: You're exactly right. I mean, that would be exactly what I would say to classify what happened yesterday. People were just very surprised, Miles.

It was about an hour, no witnesses. This jury was dismissed, which is actually kind of a good thing because the jury is going to be sequestered for deliberations. In fact, it is the first time in San Mateo County that something like that has happened.

And perhaps, many experts opine, Judge Delucchi is really doing everything he can to ensure that there is not a hung jury. So this will be sort of their last little weekend, their last respite home before heading back to a hotel.

Now, it was interesting yesterday. No witnesses were called, but we really were expecting testimony from eight witnesses on the side of the prosecution.

One, in fact, actually flew in from Connecticut. That was famed forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee. Now, what's interesting about this one is he is definitely renowned, and he did the autopsies on Laci Peterson and the fetus at the request of the defense back in April 2003 when their bodies washed ashore on the San Francisco Bay. Now, what is important in a case (AUDIO GAP) that you finish hard, because that is what jurors will be left with. So, of course, all eyes are on this jury right now, and on closing arguments, which are set to start on the first and the second. Of course, the second being Election Day before deliberations will then begin on the 3rd -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Kimberly Osias, Redwood City. Thank you very much -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Other news "Around the World" now.

More airstrikes in Falluja. U.S. warplanes hit what officials say was a meeting site used by insurgents loyal to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. Hospital sources say the strike destroyed three homes and killed two Iraqi brothers and wounded another. The U.S. military has no word on casualties.

Hostage crisis, this time in Afghanistan. Three U.N. election workers kidnapped in Kabul by a group of armed men. The group, calling itself the Muslim Army, sent a statement to Al Jazeera claiming responsibility, but did not make any demands.

Disaster at a Russian coal mine. Thirteen miners killed, 23 others injured in a methane gas explosion at a mine in Siberia. Rescue teams evacuated 67 uninjured miners to the surface. It's the sixth mine accident in western Siberia this year.

O'BRIEN: Red or white? Your answer to that question at cocktail time could help you prevent a certain kind of cancer. Details ahead on LIVE FROM. Kyra will be listening to that one.

RHONDA SCHAFFLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I will too. I'm Rhonda Schaffler at the New York Stock Exchange. You know which company's slogan is "Right Here, Right Now?" I'll let you know when CNN's LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, this is it, Red Sox fans, the moment that we have been waiting for. Eighty-six years to be exact. Some doubted it would ever come. Many even died waiting, of course. But finally their day has come.

Look at those pictures there. That's Storrow Drive. If you know Boston, you know what that's all about.

They don't call them estrines (ph) up there. They call them reverse curves. And for years and years, folks with a little can of spray paint and a couple of brewskies in their system would go and put "Reverse the curse" there.

Well, you'll see what they're doing right now. They are taking a blow torch to it to retire it for good.

For fans like actor Michael Chiklis, these are the kinds of scenes you can only dream of. Perhaps the greatest moment in Boston sports history, in a very storied part of the world. He joins us now on the phone from Vancouver, British Columbia, where -- well, I guess it was a long night, wasn't it?

Michael, congratulations. Nice to see those pictures of that sign coming down, isn't it?

MICHAEL CHIKLIS, ACTOR, RED SOX FAN: Oh, so beautiful. I can't -- I really can't accept it. I mean, you know what this means, don't you?

O'BRIEN: No, what?

CHIKLIS: It's the end. It's the beginning of the end.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I see what you mean, though. I was reading Dan Shaughnessy's piece today in "The Globe," and he had a point. He said -- he had a quote from somebody who said, you know, it's -- you can -- there's a lot more to say, a lot more to talk about after a loss, all the what-ifs.

What do you talk about after you win? Red Sox fans don't know what to do.

CHIKLIS: I don't even know what to do with myself. You know what? We've done pretty well with the Patriots' success. So we'll find something to do.

Actually, I think -- I think now the rivalry between the Yanks and the Sox even becomes that much greater. Now the Yankee fans can bite their nails a little bit more and wring their hands a little bit more. I just love it.

O'BRIEN: Oh, that would be nice. That would be nice.

As you know, it is customary on opening day the home opener for the team to receive in a ceremony their World Series rings. Next April, guess who the Red Sox are playing at Fenway when they receive that? The Yankees. Now, does it get any sweeter than that?

CHIKLIS: It really doesn't. I mean, we're just laughing.

My grandmother called me last night and said, "The last time these guys did this, I was one." She's 87!

You know, I mean, it just -- to come back four straight against the Yankees, and the greatest comeback in history, and then to just sweep the Cardinals, I mean, it's storybook. And also, we got another little piece of revenge there with the rocket falling, too. So, I mean...

O'BRIEN: Well - and -- yes. That's a -- we haven't talked much about that. But the fact that the rocket was out and watching it from Houston, as cocky as he was, and as much as he thumbed his nose...

CHIKLIS: There's so much justice involved there. It's beautiful.

O'BRIEN: You know, the series itself was such an un-Red Sox series. It was anticlimactic, they never were behind. I mean, it was all fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it was so unlike the Red Sox, right?

CHIKLIS: Yes, absolutely. You know, a lot of people have been saying to me -- you know, I was supposed to fly out for game seven. And, you know, other people were saying, "Are you bummed out that it didn't go back to..." -- you know what? With my nervous system with the Red Sox, I am so thrilled that they just did it and got it over with.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Unbelievable. One to savor, one to remember, one to tell the grandkids about.

CHIKLIS: Beautiful.

O'BRIEN: Next year this time we'll meet and we'll talk about why, oh why, can't the Red Sox repeat, right?

CHIKLIS: No. No, we won't!

O'BRIEN: All right. Michael Chiklis, get back to work. Thanks for your time.

CHIKLIS: Great to talk to you.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate you joining us on LIVE FROM -- Kyra.

CHIKLIS: Go Sox!

O'BRIEN: Go Sox!

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: A little subliminal advertising.

Well, you probably get annoyed when you have a company's jingle stuck in your head, right? Except for that "Go Sox" jingle. But companies love it. And the problem for advertisers is it doesn't happen often enough.

Rhonda Schaffler has the story at the New York Stock Exchange.

Rhonda, thanks for backing me up, by the way, on the wine a couple minutes ago.

SCHAFFLER: For you, anything, Kyra, of course.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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