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Jury Deliberates Abu Ghraib Abuse Case; Ohio Town on Flood Watch; European Probe Landing on One of Saturn's Moons; FDA Debates Making Cholesterol Drugs Over the Counter
Aired January 14, 2005 - 13:00 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CO-HOST: Fear of flooding. Rising waters force the evacuation of hundreds of people downstream from this dam. We've got details on that story from California. Plus, flooding in the Midwest.
BETTY NGUYEN, CO-HOST: Was he the ring leader of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, or was Army Specialist Charles Graner just following orders? A jury is deciding that right now in Fort Hood, Texas.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little later on LIVE FROM, we expect to make space history. You'll see the first glimpses from the surface of Saturn's moon Titan if you stay tuned.
WHITFIELD: And slam dunk to the extreme. The M-1 team brings its brand of streak ball right here to LIVE FROM.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Kyra Phillips is off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
WHITFIELD: This could be judgment day for the U.S. Army reservist who shocked the world in pictures showing the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. The military jury in Fort Hood, Texas, has just received the assault and maltreatment case against Specialist Charles Graner.
And CNN's Susan Candiotti brings us up to date from Fort Hood -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, yes, the jury never got a chance to hear from Specialist Charles Graner himself. He decided in the end, and his attorney did, not to have him take the stand to testify in his own defense. Graner has insisted that he wasn't disappointed because he feels as though he made his case in court.
The question is, will this jury agree with the defense and their argument that Graner was under pressure to follow orders from military intelligence to soften up prisoners in order to get good intelligence to, quote, "save American lives"?
Or will the jury agree with the prosecution when they call what happened here pure and simple abuse, that Graner was acting as a freelancer when he carried out this abuse?
Now let's go over the charges that Graner faces. There are five of them. The first one is conspiracy. There are two count there, conspiracy to mistreat detainees. Next, dereliction of duty. There is one specification or count, failure to protect the detainees.
Next, maltreatment of subordinates, meaning detainees in this case, or prisoners. There are four specifications, including that famous pyramid photo you've seen and, also, that he ordered detainees to commit a sexual act.
There are also two counts of aggravated abuse. And finally, one count of committing an indecent act. And that, of all the charges, carries the most amount of time, if he is convicted of that: five years alone on that one count.
Now, one of the things that happened today was that both sides got a chance to make final arguments. Prosecutors, one of the things they talked about was the famous photographer of the stack of human lives, the human pyramid photo as we call it.
The defense tried to explain it by saying there was nothing wrong with what happened here, called it like cheerleaders piling up and that no one was injured. However, prosecutors countered that, "If this happened to one ever our soldiers, there's no question that this was abuse."
They also showed them the famous leash photograph: Graner's girlfriend, Lynndie England, extracting a prisoner from the cell, or appearing to do so with a leash around his neck.
The defense said, again, no one was injured here. This was simply a creative method to get someone out of a cell. The prosecutor said, well, it wasn't creative. It was creative abuse, as they put it.
Now, because the prosecution gets the final word here, they had a chance to, again, show the human pyramid photo. And this is what they said about it, quote, "This could not become a recruitment poster for the United States Army."
Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: And Susan, let's talk about the verdict phase. These four officers and six enlisted jurors don't have to reach a unanimous decision, do they?
CANDIOTTI: That's right, unlike in a civilian trial. In this case, only seven of the ten must agree to convict. Anything less than this means an acquittal for Specialist Graner.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be watching for that as they now deliberate. Susan Candiotti in Fort Hood, thanks so much -- Betty.
NGUYEN: In Baghdad today, a member of the 1st Cavalry was convicted of murdering a badly wounded teenager during last summer's uprising in Sadr City. Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was busted to private and sentenced to a year in prison for a crime some officials consider a mercy killing.
Last month the second soldier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years. A second lieutenant stills faces charges.
Well, President Bush is at a community college in Jacksonville, Florida, today. He's taking part in a conversation on higher education and job training. But as he promotes his education agenda, Mr. Bush also says he's learned a thing or two about the unintended consequence of tough talk.
Here are some live pictures right now.
During a round-table interview with the newspaper -- with newspaper reporters, the president expressed misgivings about two of his famous comments, including his vow to get Saddam Hussein dead or alive. As for his "bring them on" comment about Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, Mr. Bush says he meant to rally the troops but says his words were misinterpreted as defiance in the face of danger.
WHITFIELD: Out west, high pressure leads to high anxiety today in saturated Southern California. It's the water pressure behind Prado Dam in the town of Corona, some 50 Miles southeast of Los Angeles.
More than 800 homes have been evacuated in light of a hairline crack that apparently developed in the dam after all that rain since New Year's.
The Army Corps of Engineers tells CNN that it is deliberately releasing 10,000 cubic feet of water a second while the seepage from the crack amounts to no more than 10 gallons a minute.
No one expects the dam to give way, at least not any time soon. But the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch downstream just in case.
Let's check in with the weather center to find out what more can be expected, particularly out west, particularly in California, with Dave Hennen.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave, thanks a lot.
Well, the good news here n the weather forecast is for dry and cold weather, and particularly freezing temperatures across much of Ohio, which should help to slow the flow from some of those tributaries that Dave just mentioned.
If you, in fact, get freezing temperatures up in the higher elevations, that does a lot to slow things down. And of course, the absence of rain is the best news of all.
I'm standing here on the considerably higher banks of the Ohio River right on the frontage road here in historic Marietta. The river here right now, about 20 feet above normal. It is still, though, about, probably, two or three feet from a level that would cause initial flooding into the front streets here of Marietta. If it goes up another four feet, you get into some serious problems.
Now, earlier this week, the water was up at about this level. And that caused the evacuation and problems for about 600 businesses here in Marietta and about 400 homes.
Last September, a much more significant flood, levels up to about here, about 10 feet above where the water currently is. The records here put the water up another 25 feet or so.
So this town is well accustomed to getting soggy and drying out, although this year, an unprecedented frequency of four floods this year, has really taxed people here, both economically and in terms of their spirit. There is concern among some that some of the national chains that have restaurants along this frontage road that are not rooted in this community might just think about moving to higher ground. That would not be a welcome development here in Marietta.
But the outlook for now, Betty, is that the situation is stable. The Army Corps of Engineer dams are holding back all the water they can. If the weather remains dry, they'll be able to slowly release some pressure; bodes well for the situation. But it's very, very precarious right now -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. All right. Chris Huntington, thank you for that report.
Well, some South Carolinians who were chased out of their homes by a weather related fire are back today. It seems a tornado smashed the roof and wrecked the wiring of a business where tires were stored, and firefighters worried the resulting blaze would send obnoxious fumes. The fire was brought under control early this morning, and no one was hurt.
Now, in Arkansas, the National Weather Service confirms a substantial twister is to blame for a 20-mile path of destruction. The so-called F-3 tornado killed two elderly people and damaged or destroyed numerous homes. That happened late Wednesday.
WHITFIELD: Well, the FDA is considering allowing you to get your cholesterol drugs without going to a doctor.
NGUYEN: Really? And ahead on LIVE FROM, some of the pros and cons of this move. Would it help or harm people who need the medicine?
O'BRIEN: A Titanic event in space and nary an iceberg in sight. But maybe, just maybe a lake made of methane. We'll take you to the non-smoking moon in our solar system.
NGUYEN: And you won't see these pros in the NBA. But they don't care. It's all about the game. High octane and prime objective from the M-1 basketball team will step up to the line later on LIVE FROM. ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: So you think the weather is lousy where you are today? How about minus 300 degrees and 300 mile an hour winds? That's what it's like on Titan.
Where's that? Well, it's a moon of Saturn, and it's taken a spacecraft nine years to get there. And today, it landed.
CNN's intrepid space reporter, Miles O'Brien, is standing by in our makeshift mission control. He's privy to some long-awaited information to share with us.
Hey, there, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, yes. I may be intrepid, but I'm not too far away from you. Of course, really, I'm just as close to Saturn as anybody on the planet right now. So this is as good a place as any. You can call it our CNN mini mission control here.
As we've been watching the Huygens probe, built and flown by the European Space Agency, piggybacked to the Saturn system onboard the Cassini spacecraft, which is a -- the handiwork of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
So far, so good. One little communication glitch. I'll tell you a little bit about that in a moment. But first, show you the scene. This is sort of the scene when things go well for rocket scientists.
That essentially was the first e-mail from Huygens, via Cassini, back to Darmstadt, Germany, which is ESA -- European Space Agency's -- control center. And that's an e-mail that some of the people in that room have waited about 15 years to see.
Since that time, they have been steadily getting a stream of data from the Huygens probe, which dropped down into the hazy atmosphere of Titan. There you see the final stages of it. Three parachutes gliding it down, taking pictures, sniffing the air along the way, measuring the wind, listening for thunder. Six scientific instruments in all to make it possible to learn a little something about this mysterious place.
As a matter of fact, let me show you a little bit about this particular instrument that is on there, sending back images as we speak. This is a fairly decent look at it. And as you can see, Betty, it's really not unlike a 1950's grade B flying saucer.
We're going to peel away some of the exterior. There's the heat shield there. And then bring you down into the scientific package here. We'll spin it around and tell you what we've got here.
These boxes give you all kinds of information about the atmosphere, the wind. This particular one right here is called the surface science device, which is giving some indication of whether Huygens landed like a thud on the ground or perhaps is floating in a sea of methane, which is one of the things that could be a possibility.
This particular box over here is designed to measure the temperature and the pressure and the wind speeds as it came down through the atmosphere.
Now, there is one particular experiment that I was telling you that they're some having problems with. This is the Doppler wind experiment. And because of a little communications snafu -- they have two communications streams coming back, two frequencies, if you will. One of them isn't working. Well, that's fine for almost everything, because they're almost completely redundant.
But that one particular experiment, the Doppler wind experiment, is only on that one channel. I don't know the real reason why they do it that way. But as a result, that particular experiment might be in trouble right now as they try to troubleshoot that.
Nevertheless, in an hour and a half, 2:45 Eastern, the first images should be back here on Earth. And we will not waste a millisecond before we share them with you. The hope is, Betty, that somehow those pictures, those panoramic cameras, will be able to see through that thick haze on Titan.
NGUYEN: Miles, we remember the pictures we saw from the Cassini, which were just amazing. Are we expecting similar pictures from this?
O'BRIEN: Well, it's interesting. You know, Cassini has -- this is actually it's third visit in the Titan neighborhood, if you will. And those Cassini pictures, which we can show you right now, of course, they've got these wonderful pictures of Saturn and its moons there and the rings.
But in addition, it has pointed its cameras at Titan, as well. And quite frankly, scientists were a little bit disappointed. They thought they would be able to see the surface from Cassini. Turns out that haze is a little thicker than they thought.
And the wonderful pictures that they've gotten of these rings haven't been met with nearly as much success on Titan. That's why this probe is so important. It drops through the haze. The hope is -- as you look at it there, you're looking at nothing but the atmosphere, the haze. The hope is that the probe eventually gets to the point where they can make out the surface -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's not all haze. All right. Miles O'Brien from CNN's mini mission control. Thank you, Miles. We'll check in a little bit later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, will you be able to get your cholesterol drug without a prescription? Find out why some doctors say that's not such a great idea.
Later on LIVE FROM: extreme street ball. They've slam dunked around the world. Now, the M-1 team brings its game to LIVE FROM.
And later on LIVE FROM, actress Alfre Woodard takes about a performance of a lifetime, honoring the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
NGUYEN: This just in to CNN. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut contact with Mahmoud Abbas until the newly elected Palestinian leader reins in control of militants there. Now this report comes a day after Palestinian militants killed six Israeli civilians in a bombing and shooting. That was an attack at Gaza Strip crossing.
And of course, we will continue to follow the story. We have a live report coming out of the Mideast a little bit later in the show -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Meantime, the FDA is pondering today a decision that could put a new kind of medicine on drugstore shelves, available to everyone. The government has been down this road before. It's a debate swirling with questions about safety, patients' rights, as well as money, of course.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk a little bit more about what this could all mean.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, right now if you have a headache, you just go to the store and get aspirin. You have allergies, you go to the store, you get your antihistamine.
Well, if you have high cholesterol, should you be able to just go to the store and pick up Mevacor, which is one of the leading anti- cholesterol drugs? Well, the company that makes Mevacor, Merck, wants to be able to make that drug over the counter. And they've asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to do that. And an advisory committee of the FDA is expected to vote on that proposal later today.
Now let's look at what some of the purported advantages and disadvantages would be. If it were to go over the counter, the drug would simply be more available. And Merck says that would lower heart disease rates in this country. And of course, heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States.
Also, the price would be lower. You'd be paying about $30 a month for your Mevacor, rather than $70 a month, as it is now as a prescription drug. But a lot of doctors have a lot of worries about this. They're afraid that patients would skip doctors' visits. They'd say, "Well, my doctor told me I had high cholesterol," or "I think maybe I have high cholesterol. I saw an ad on TV. That looks like me." And you would just take this drug and you wouldn't even go to the doctor. And that way a patient wouldn't even know if the drug was working.
Unlike other with other kinds of conditions you can't tell if your cholesterol is high or not. And also, the patient then would not get checked for liver, kidney and muscle problems that can happen with these so-called statin drugs. They're unusual, but those side effects do, indeed, happen.
WHITFIELD: So if we wanted to qualify this a little further, who might stand the most to gain?
COHEN: From this. Right. There are two groups that would gain from this decision, if, indeed, it did go over the counter.
First of all, folks who don't have health insurance and who are paying out of their own pocket for their cholesterol lowering drugs, well they would be paying less. Instead of that $70, they would be paying $30. So some people will say, "Well, that's good for people who are uninsured."
Another group that would stand to profit is insurance companies. Insurance companies, if you have high cholesterol, they would then be able to say to you, "Well, you got pay for it out of your own pocket. You just go to the drug store and buy it. We're not going to pay for it as a prescription." That's a lot of money.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be waiting to hear what the decision is...
COHEN: That's right.
WHITFIELD: ... from the FDA. Thanks so much, Elizabeth.
All right. Back to Betty for more on the breaking story.
NGUYEN: As we just told you, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut all contact with Mahmoud Abbas, the newly elected Palestinian leader.
We want to go to CNN's John Vause in Jerusalem with the latest on this.
John, what do you know?
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, I know that the -- the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has in fact severed all contacts with the Palestinian Authority.
He's also ordered the closure of all terminals in Gaza. That's the area crossing and the county crossing which was the scene of an attack last night by Palestinian militants, leaving six Israeli militants dead. Three Palestinian government officials were also shot dead during that attack. And also the Rafa Crossing (ph) from Gaza into Egypt.
And these contacts will be suspended until, in his words, the Palestinian Authority takes steps to curb the terrorist attacks in Gaza.
I spoke with, a short time ago, with the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who told me that he was informed by telephone of the Israeli prime minister's decision.
He urged the prime minister's office not to do this. He pleaded with him saying, don't do this. Abbas has not even been inaugurated yet. That's Mahmoud Abbas, who was only elected last Sunday and it was said to be sworn into office tomorrow. So he is still the president-elect.
In Saeb Erekat's words, at this stage, Mahmoud Abbas can't be held accountable for the actions of the militant groups like Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and the popular resistance community, which claimed responsibility for the attack last night, because he hasn't even yet been inaugurated -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Very interesting development, considering the timing of it all. CNN's John Vause in Jerusalem. Of course, we'll stay on top of this story. Thank you for that.
Well, a big anniversary on Wall Street today. But, there's no celebration.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Hayes is in the New York Stock Exchange to explain all that.
Kathleen, what's going on?
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 14, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CO-HOST: Fear of flooding. Rising waters force the evacuation of hundreds of people downstream from this dam. We've got details on that story from California. Plus, flooding in the Midwest.
BETTY NGUYEN, CO-HOST: Was he the ring leader of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, or was Army Specialist Charles Graner just following orders? A jury is deciding that right now in Fort Hood, Texas.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little later on LIVE FROM, we expect to make space history. You'll see the first glimpses from the surface of Saturn's moon Titan if you stay tuned.
WHITFIELD: And slam dunk to the extreme. The M-1 team brings its brand of streak ball right here to LIVE FROM.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Kyra Phillips is off today. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
WHITFIELD: This could be judgment day for the U.S. Army reservist who shocked the world in pictures showing the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. The military jury in Fort Hood, Texas, has just received the assault and maltreatment case against Specialist Charles Graner.
And CNN's Susan Candiotti brings us up to date from Fort Hood -- Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, yes, the jury never got a chance to hear from Specialist Charles Graner himself. He decided in the end, and his attorney did, not to have him take the stand to testify in his own defense. Graner has insisted that he wasn't disappointed because he feels as though he made his case in court.
The question is, will this jury agree with the defense and their argument that Graner was under pressure to follow orders from military intelligence to soften up prisoners in order to get good intelligence to, quote, "save American lives"?
Or will the jury agree with the prosecution when they call what happened here pure and simple abuse, that Graner was acting as a freelancer when he carried out this abuse?
Now let's go over the charges that Graner faces. There are five of them. The first one is conspiracy. There are two count there, conspiracy to mistreat detainees. Next, dereliction of duty. There is one specification or count, failure to protect the detainees.
Next, maltreatment of subordinates, meaning detainees in this case, or prisoners. There are four specifications, including that famous pyramid photo you've seen and, also, that he ordered detainees to commit a sexual act.
There are also two counts of aggravated abuse. And finally, one count of committing an indecent act. And that, of all the charges, carries the most amount of time, if he is convicted of that: five years alone on that one count.
Now, one of the things that happened today was that both sides got a chance to make final arguments. Prosecutors, one of the things they talked about was the famous photographer of the stack of human lives, the human pyramid photo as we call it.
The defense tried to explain it by saying there was nothing wrong with what happened here, called it like cheerleaders piling up and that no one was injured. However, prosecutors countered that, "If this happened to one ever our soldiers, there's no question that this was abuse."
They also showed them the famous leash photograph: Graner's girlfriend, Lynndie England, extracting a prisoner from the cell, or appearing to do so with a leash around his neck.
The defense said, again, no one was injured here. This was simply a creative method to get someone out of a cell. The prosecutor said, well, it wasn't creative. It was creative abuse, as they put it.
Now, because the prosecution gets the final word here, they had a chance to, again, show the human pyramid photo. And this is what they said about it, quote, "This could not become a recruitment poster for the United States Army."
Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: And Susan, let's talk about the verdict phase. These four officers and six enlisted jurors don't have to reach a unanimous decision, do they?
CANDIOTTI: That's right, unlike in a civilian trial. In this case, only seven of the ten must agree to convict. Anything less than this means an acquittal for Specialist Graner.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be watching for that as they now deliberate. Susan Candiotti in Fort Hood, thanks so much -- Betty.
NGUYEN: In Baghdad today, a member of the 1st Cavalry was convicted of murdering a badly wounded teenager during last summer's uprising in Sadr City. Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was busted to private and sentenced to a year in prison for a crime some officials consider a mercy killing.
Last month the second soldier pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years. A second lieutenant stills faces charges.
Well, President Bush is at a community college in Jacksonville, Florida, today. He's taking part in a conversation on higher education and job training. But as he promotes his education agenda, Mr. Bush also says he's learned a thing or two about the unintended consequence of tough talk.
Here are some live pictures right now.
During a round-table interview with the newspaper -- with newspaper reporters, the president expressed misgivings about two of his famous comments, including his vow to get Saddam Hussein dead or alive. As for his "bring them on" comment about Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, Mr. Bush says he meant to rally the troops but says his words were misinterpreted as defiance in the face of danger.
WHITFIELD: Out west, high pressure leads to high anxiety today in saturated Southern California. It's the water pressure behind Prado Dam in the town of Corona, some 50 Miles southeast of Los Angeles.
More than 800 homes have been evacuated in light of a hairline crack that apparently developed in the dam after all that rain since New Year's.
The Army Corps of Engineers tells CNN that it is deliberately releasing 10,000 cubic feet of water a second while the seepage from the crack amounts to no more than 10 gallons a minute.
No one expects the dam to give way, at least not any time soon. But the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch downstream just in case.
Let's check in with the weather center to find out what more can be expected, particularly out west, particularly in California, with Dave Hennen.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave, thanks a lot.
Well, the good news here n the weather forecast is for dry and cold weather, and particularly freezing temperatures across much of Ohio, which should help to slow the flow from some of those tributaries that Dave just mentioned.
If you, in fact, get freezing temperatures up in the higher elevations, that does a lot to slow things down. And of course, the absence of rain is the best news of all.
I'm standing here on the considerably higher banks of the Ohio River right on the frontage road here in historic Marietta. The river here right now, about 20 feet above normal. It is still, though, about, probably, two or three feet from a level that would cause initial flooding into the front streets here of Marietta. If it goes up another four feet, you get into some serious problems.
Now, earlier this week, the water was up at about this level. And that caused the evacuation and problems for about 600 businesses here in Marietta and about 400 homes.
Last September, a much more significant flood, levels up to about here, about 10 feet above where the water currently is. The records here put the water up another 25 feet or so.
So this town is well accustomed to getting soggy and drying out, although this year, an unprecedented frequency of four floods this year, has really taxed people here, both economically and in terms of their spirit. There is concern among some that some of the national chains that have restaurants along this frontage road that are not rooted in this community might just think about moving to higher ground. That would not be a welcome development here in Marietta.
But the outlook for now, Betty, is that the situation is stable. The Army Corps of Engineer dams are holding back all the water they can. If the weather remains dry, they'll be able to slowly release some pressure; bodes well for the situation. But it's very, very precarious right now -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. All right. Chris Huntington, thank you for that report.
Well, some South Carolinians who were chased out of their homes by a weather related fire are back today. It seems a tornado smashed the roof and wrecked the wiring of a business where tires were stored, and firefighters worried the resulting blaze would send obnoxious fumes. The fire was brought under control early this morning, and no one was hurt.
Now, in Arkansas, the National Weather Service confirms a substantial twister is to blame for a 20-mile path of destruction. The so-called F-3 tornado killed two elderly people and damaged or destroyed numerous homes. That happened late Wednesday.
WHITFIELD: Well, the FDA is considering allowing you to get your cholesterol drugs without going to a doctor.
NGUYEN: Really? And ahead on LIVE FROM, some of the pros and cons of this move. Would it help or harm people who need the medicine?
O'BRIEN: A Titanic event in space and nary an iceberg in sight. But maybe, just maybe a lake made of methane. We'll take you to the non-smoking moon in our solar system.
NGUYEN: And you won't see these pros in the NBA. But they don't care. It's all about the game. High octane and prime objective from the M-1 basketball team will step up to the line later on LIVE FROM. ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: So you think the weather is lousy where you are today? How about minus 300 degrees and 300 mile an hour winds? That's what it's like on Titan.
Where's that? Well, it's a moon of Saturn, and it's taken a spacecraft nine years to get there. And today, it landed.
CNN's intrepid space reporter, Miles O'Brien, is standing by in our makeshift mission control. He's privy to some long-awaited information to share with us.
Hey, there, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Well, yes. I may be intrepid, but I'm not too far away from you. Of course, really, I'm just as close to Saturn as anybody on the planet right now. So this is as good a place as any. You can call it our CNN mini mission control here.
As we've been watching the Huygens probe, built and flown by the European Space Agency, piggybacked to the Saturn system onboard the Cassini spacecraft, which is a -- the handiwork of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
So far, so good. One little communication glitch. I'll tell you a little bit about that in a moment. But first, show you the scene. This is sort of the scene when things go well for rocket scientists.
That essentially was the first e-mail from Huygens, via Cassini, back to Darmstadt, Germany, which is ESA -- European Space Agency's -- control center. And that's an e-mail that some of the people in that room have waited about 15 years to see.
Since that time, they have been steadily getting a stream of data from the Huygens probe, which dropped down into the hazy atmosphere of Titan. There you see the final stages of it. Three parachutes gliding it down, taking pictures, sniffing the air along the way, measuring the wind, listening for thunder. Six scientific instruments in all to make it possible to learn a little something about this mysterious place.
As a matter of fact, let me show you a little bit about this particular instrument that is on there, sending back images as we speak. This is a fairly decent look at it. And as you can see, Betty, it's really not unlike a 1950's grade B flying saucer.
We're going to peel away some of the exterior. There's the heat shield there. And then bring you down into the scientific package here. We'll spin it around and tell you what we've got here.
These boxes give you all kinds of information about the atmosphere, the wind. This particular one right here is called the surface science device, which is giving some indication of whether Huygens landed like a thud on the ground or perhaps is floating in a sea of methane, which is one of the things that could be a possibility.
This particular box over here is designed to measure the temperature and the pressure and the wind speeds as it came down through the atmosphere.
Now, there is one particular experiment that I was telling you that they're some having problems with. This is the Doppler wind experiment. And because of a little communications snafu -- they have two communications streams coming back, two frequencies, if you will. One of them isn't working. Well, that's fine for almost everything, because they're almost completely redundant.
But that one particular experiment, the Doppler wind experiment, is only on that one channel. I don't know the real reason why they do it that way. But as a result, that particular experiment might be in trouble right now as they try to troubleshoot that.
Nevertheless, in an hour and a half, 2:45 Eastern, the first images should be back here on Earth. And we will not waste a millisecond before we share them with you. The hope is, Betty, that somehow those pictures, those panoramic cameras, will be able to see through that thick haze on Titan.
NGUYEN: Miles, we remember the pictures we saw from the Cassini, which were just amazing. Are we expecting similar pictures from this?
O'BRIEN: Well, it's interesting. You know, Cassini has -- this is actually it's third visit in the Titan neighborhood, if you will. And those Cassini pictures, which we can show you right now, of course, they've got these wonderful pictures of Saturn and its moons there and the rings.
But in addition, it has pointed its cameras at Titan, as well. And quite frankly, scientists were a little bit disappointed. They thought they would be able to see the surface from Cassini. Turns out that haze is a little thicker than they thought.
And the wonderful pictures that they've gotten of these rings haven't been met with nearly as much success on Titan. That's why this probe is so important. It drops through the haze. The hope is -- as you look at it there, you're looking at nothing but the atmosphere, the haze. The hope is that the probe eventually gets to the point where they can make out the surface -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's not all haze. All right. Miles O'Brien from CNN's mini mission control. Thank you, Miles. We'll check in a little bit later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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WHITFIELD (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, will you be able to get your cholesterol drug without a prescription? Find out why some doctors say that's not such a great idea.
Later on LIVE FROM: extreme street ball. They've slam dunked around the world. Now, the M-1 team brings its game to LIVE FROM.
And later on LIVE FROM, actress Alfre Woodard takes about a performance of a lifetime, honoring the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
NGUYEN: This just in to CNN. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut contact with Mahmoud Abbas until the newly elected Palestinian leader reins in control of militants there. Now this report comes a day after Palestinian militants killed six Israeli civilians in a bombing and shooting. That was an attack at Gaza Strip crossing.
And of course, we will continue to follow the story. We have a live report coming out of the Mideast a little bit later in the show -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: Meantime, the FDA is pondering today a decision that could put a new kind of medicine on drugstore shelves, available to everyone. The government has been down this road before. It's a debate swirling with questions about safety, patients' rights, as well as money, of course.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk a little bit more about what this could all mean.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, right now if you have a headache, you just go to the store and get aspirin. You have allergies, you go to the store, you get your antihistamine.
Well, if you have high cholesterol, should you be able to just go to the store and pick up Mevacor, which is one of the leading anti- cholesterol drugs? Well, the company that makes Mevacor, Merck, wants to be able to make that drug over the counter. And they've asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to do that. And an advisory committee of the FDA is expected to vote on that proposal later today.
Now let's look at what some of the purported advantages and disadvantages would be. If it were to go over the counter, the drug would simply be more available. And Merck says that would lower heart disease rates in this country. And of course, heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States.
Also, the price would be lower. You'd be paying about $30 a month for your Mevacor, rather than $70 a month, as it is now as a prescription drug. But a lot of doctors have a lot of worries about this. They're afraid that patients would skip doctors' visits. They'd say, "Well, my doctor told me I had high cholesterol," or "I think maybe I have high cholesterol. I saw an ad on TV. That looks like me." And you would just take this drug and you wouldn't even go to the doctor. And that way a patient wouldn't even know if the drug was working.
Unlike other with other kinds of conditions you can't tell if your cholesterol is high or not. And also, the patient then would not get checked for liver, kidney and muscle problems that can happen with these so-called statin drugs. They're unusual, but those side effects do, indeed, happen.
WHITFIELD: So if we wanted to qualify this a little further, who might stand the most to gain?
COHEN: From this. Right. There are two groups that would gain from this decision, if, indeed, it did go over the counter.
First of all, folks who don't have health insurance and who are paying out of their own pocket for their cholesterol lowering drugs, well they would be paying less. Instead of that $70, they would be paying $30. So some people will say, "Well, that's good for people who are uninsured."
Another group that would stand to profit is insurance companies. Insurance companies, if you have high cholesterol, they would then be able to say to you, "Well, you got pay for it out of your own pocket. You just go to the drug store and buy it. We're not going to pay for it as a prescription." That's a lot of money.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be waiting to hear what the decision is...
COHEN: That's right.
WHITFIELD: ... from the FDA. Thanks so much, Elizabeth.
All right. Back to Betty for more on the breaking story.
NGUYEN: As we just told you, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut all contact with Mahmoud Abbas, the newly elected Palestinian leader.
We want to go to CNN's John Vause in Jerusalem with the latest on this.
John, what do you know?
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, I know that the -- the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has in fact severed all contacts with the Palestinian Authority.
He's also ordered the closure of all terminals in Gaza. That's the area crossing and the county crossing which was the scene of an attack last night by Palestinian militants, leaving six Israeli militants dead. Three Palestinian government officials were also shot dead during that attack. And also the Rafa Crossing (ph) from Gaza into Egypt.
And these contacts will be suspended until, in his words, the Palestinian Authority takes steps to curb the terrorist attacks in Gaza.
I spoke with, a short time ago, with the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who told me that he was informed by telephone of the Israeli prime minister's decision.
He urged the prime minister's office not to do this. He pleaded with him saying, don't do this. Abbas has not even been inaugurated yet. That's Mahmoud Abbas, who was only elected last Sunday and it was said to be sworn into office tomorrow. So he is still the president-elect.
In Saeb Erekat's words, at this stage, Mahmoud Abbas can't be held accountable for the actions of the militant groups like Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and the popular resistance community, which claimed responsibility for the attack last night, because he hasn't even yet been inaugurated -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Very interesting development, considering the timing of it all. CNN's John Vause in Jerusalem. Of course, we'll stay on top of this story. Thank you for that.
Well, a big anniversary on Wall Street today. But, there's no celebration.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Hayes is in the New York Stock Exchange to explain all that.
Kathleen, what's going on?
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