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Bush, German Chancellor Agree on Iran; FAA Considers Closing Some Towers at Night; Health Experts Warn of Coming Avian Flu Pandemic
Aired February 23, 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: President Bush rallying the troop, trying to unite allies about the Iran nuclear dilemma. We're live from Mainz, Germany.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH MARLIN, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER ASSOCIATION: What could happen is that a plane could crash and nobody's there to help them. That's what could happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: A proposal to close some air traffic control towers at night comes under fire. Find out why the FAA thinks it's a good idea.
Fake designer purses. Our hidden cameras find some bargains, but not without some hidden consequences.
Out of control and caught on tape. A long line meets some short fuses at the pizza parlor.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is on assignment. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
President Bush puts the spotlight on Iran on day three of his fence mending tour through Europe. Mr. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder set aside past differences today and demanded that Iran abandon any plan to produce nuclear weapons. But how to go about dealing with Iran is still up for debate.
Their meeting in Germany was followed by a presidential visit to U.S. troops.
CNN's Chris Burns is covering it all in Mainz, Germany.
Hi, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Mainz is springing back to life, now. Seeing a lot of traffic now. The city was completely locked down. Now President Bush is on his way to Slovakia for the last -- third and last leg of his five-day trip to meet with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, as well as other officials there. Earlier today, just before he went to the airport, he met with U.S. troops. He got quite a very warm reception, in contrast to how things went earlier in the day.
He was greeted by some 3,000 troops and their families. The 1st Armored Division is one of those that is very much involved in Iraq, has gone there and has lost more than 100 of its members. So a rather emotional moment for many people there.
The story there cuts another way, as well, because the 1st A.D. is among those that are going back to the states, sometime next year, it's expected, in a redeployment, a restructuring of U.S. forces, all part of this NATO restructuring in the post-Cold War era, very much discussed by President Bush and the Europeans in the last couple of days.
President Bush expressed his thanks to the U.S. troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The sacrifices you have made will change the world for decades to come. By fighting terrorists in places like Baghdad and Karbala and Tikrit, you are making sure we do not face those enemies at home.
By helping captive peoples gain their freedom, you have made a critical contribution to the history of liberty, and that means the world will be more peaceful and our children and grandchildren will be more secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now President Bush and Gerhard Schroeder, when they met earlier today, they did talk about Iraq. They agreed to disagree. The -- President Bush accepting that Germany will continue to refuse sending any boots open the ground to Iraq.
But Chancellor Schroeder saying that they do want to boost Germany's training of Iraqi security forces outside of Iraq. And to help in other ways, perhaps building the interior ministry inside Iraq.
But they did also agree on Iran. That was a very, very important aspect of the meeting, where Germany, France and Britain are trying to negotiate, trying to get the Iranians to agree and promise that they won't produce a nuclear bomb or pursue any nuclear ambitions.
The president saying that he is accepting that effort at diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts. And I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. And we will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: So the president giving diplomacy a chance, though, keeping to reserve his option to pursue, perhaps, a military option in Iran down the road.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Chris Burns, thank you so much.
BURNS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And back in this country, a cost-cutting measure by the FAA is causing big-time controversy. That plan calls for closing dozens of airport control towers overnight, which critics say could jeopardize safety and security.
Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maintain 6,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, 3-3. Down to 6,000. Three twenty eight.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 4:30 in the morning at Roanoke, Virginia, regional airport. This is just the second flight to land since midnight. The rest of the night, hour after hour, the control tower is quiet. The Federal Aviation Administration says that's a waste of taxpayer dollars.
MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: It doesn't make sense, of course, to have personnel who are sitting there like Maytag repairmen.
KOCH: So the FAA's considering closing towers between midnight and 5 a.m. at 48 low-traffic airports in 29 states. Planes could still use the airports between those hours, getting needed weather information and guidance, instead, from controllers at nearby FAA facilities.
BLAKEY: It simply means that the service is going to be handled from some distance away. With all the avionics and the technology we have now, that's not a problem.
KOCH: But some in Congress oppose the plan, especially for airports near military bases like two on the list in Texas.
SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: They do use the runways, and they like having an air traffic control tower so that if there's something that comes out on the runway or something that's blown out on the runway, they would have someone on the ground that could warn them.
KOCH: Airport managers and controllers insist closing towers in the wee hours of the morning hurts service and safety. JACQUELINE SHUCK, ROANOKE REGIONAL AIRPORT: So if somebody gets in trouble at two in the morning, they'd like to know there are eyes watching them as they try to come in and not somebody a couple hundred miles away. MARLIN: What could happen is that a plane could crash and nobody's there to help them. That's what could happen.
KOCH (on camera): So far, passenger airlines don't oppose the cuts, since few fly into the smaller airports between midnight and 5 a.m.
(voice-over) Cargo carriers, though, are hesitant to take on the risk of flying into an airport with an unstaffed tower.
The cuts could save the government $5 million a year. The FAA insists it will study each facility before cutting the night shift to make sure safety won't be compromised.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a startling new study has found high levels of toxic rocket fuel in an unlikely place. Scientists say that perchlorate was found in almost every sample of breast milk that they tested.
What more is that the levels of perchlorate were found to be about five times greater than in cow's milk.
That study involved 36 women in 17 states. Now, perchlorate is known to cause thyroid problems. And researchers recommend that pregnant and nursing women take iodine supplements as a precaution.
Findings are published in the journal "Environmental Science and Technology."
Now, as the World Health Organization begins a bird flu conference in Vietnam, top health officials are warning that the world is edging closer to a deadly pandemic. Although the level of concern varies among public health authorities, there is wide agreement that now is the time to act.
CNN's Brian Todd with more on the reasons why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After three flu pandemics in the last century, many experts agree the world is due for another. And top health officials have new concerns about a potentially devastating strain in Asia.
DR. KLAUS STOHR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Avian influenza in Asia poses a very significant public health threat. The disease is prevalent in several countries. It has never been so widespread to any -- in anytime during the last century.
TODD: Officials at the World Health Organization, which works firsthand with victims in Asia, say the so-called bird flu was identified in 10 countries last year and is now present in four: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
The WHO says more than 50 people have been infected. More than 40 have died. But thousands more have been exposed to this strain.
And while the head of the Centers for Disease Control agrees, we're not on the brink of a flu pandemic...
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: We are, however, very concerned about avian flu in Asia. There are more pigs, people and poultry in that environment than we've ever seen before. That is the formula for emergence of new flu strains.
TODD: CDC officials say this is an airborne disease like other flu strains. In Asia, farmers and others have gotten it from animals' nose and throat secretions. Experts are worried that it could go through a deadly genetic evolution.
STOHR: It's -- what's in it namely that the virus can change, can mutate, and then acquire the capacity for rapid, sustained, permanent human to human transmission without the animal. That virus will travel around the world in less than 6 to 8 months.
TODD: That's due to more widespread air travel. Most humans who have gotten this flu have died from it. And at the moment there is no vaccine. Other experts emphasize the threat is not so urgent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to say that I think it's too soon to panic. I think that avian flu has been with us for a long time. Very recently, we've noticed that it can jump occasionally from birds to people and even more rarely, from one person to another. But so far, there's no evidence of an epidemic.
TODD (on camera): And officials at the CDC and the World Health Organization say they're keeping their eye on the ball, sending teams of experts all over Asia to surveil this flu strain and ordering clinical trials for vaccines to protect against it.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And coming up on LIVE FROM, we're going to have a report from the bird flu conference in Vietnam. We're also going to be joined by an epidemiology expert to talk about the possibility of a bird flu pandemic. If health officials are concerned, should you be?
Well, police say a suspect has confessed to kill a pregnant Texas woman and her 7-year-old son. About 200 people attended a candlelit vigil last night outside Lisa Underwood's Fort Worth bagel shop. Bodies matching the description of Underwood and her son, Jayden, were found yesterday, just two days after they were reported missing. Stephen Barbee, who court records say was the father of Underwood's unborn child, is charged with suffocating the pair.
In Denver, Colorado, police allege a suspected serial rapist kidnapped and sexually assault a woman found with him at the time of his arrest. Convicted child molester Brent Brents is in jail on $25 million bail. He's a suspect in at least seven other sexual assaults since October. Police first listed the woman with him in his car last week as a possible accomplice. Well, now they're calling her another victim.
Straight ahead it happened to Paris Hilton; could it happen to you? No, we're not talking about all that stuff on the Internet. We're talking about her cell phone. What hackers did to her could easily happen to you. We're going to dial that one up, ahead on LIVE FROM.
Ten million of them have them, but Apple hopes that you're going to want more. Four new iPods going on the market at a nice price. We'll have the details.
Give peace a chance. Spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra says ending war begins with you. Find out why in the LIVE FROM interview.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, the rain is subsiding but the mud and misery are long from gone in Southern California. Seven straight days of rain have now made it the wettest season in Los Angeles in 115 years.
Major mudslides and a bolder teetering above the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu are causing major concern right now.
And through all the misery in Southern California, well, comes this happy story. A dug fell down a 40-foot well behind his home last night. The dog's owners just moved in and didn't know it until they saw him about five hours after the pooch fell in. He was pulled to safety. That dog was shaken and covered in mud, but otherwise OK.
Well, so much of the Paris Hilton has already been seen and revealed on the Internet. But you wouldn't think that there would be such a ruckus over her cell phone information. But when her data hit the fan, it sent a cyber chill up the spines of other wireless tech users.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has more on what you can and can't do to protect your vitals.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris Hilton is suffering from overexposure, again.
The socialite turned reality TV star's digital details were stolen and posted online this week after her T-Mobile cell phone was compromised. It housed phone numbers for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Anna Kournikova and other celebs, along with some revealing photos.
Maybe it's easy to scoff. But what about your phone or PDA? Do you know where your data is right now?
DAVID STEINBERG, CEO, INPHONIC: It's really people being careless. I mean, people have to understand that wireless phones, even regular wireless phones, are like little laptops.
SIEBERG: When you sync your phone, your Blackberry or your PDA with your computer, the information is sometimes sent to the Web servers of your wireless provider. That way, you can access the information on another computer.
But any computer attached to the Internet is vulnerable. If you can access it, so can someone else.
But there's also the idea of social engineering, or tricking people into unwittingly handing over sensitive data. You might call that person a conman.
KEVIN MITNICK, SECURITY EXPERT: Hackers go after the weakest link in the chain and, unfortunately, it's people like you and me. It's the human factor.
SIEBERG: Former hacker Kevin Mitnick, seen here during his release from federal prison five years ago, is now a security consultant. He says an attacker is not always a shadowy figure crunching on a keyboard somewhere.
MITNICK: Social engineer is basically putting themselves into the role. They're either an actor or an actress, and they're creating a situation and the object is to get compliance, to get a trusted person or the target to comply with the request.
SIEBERG: Mitnick thinks Paris Hilton may have been tricked into re-setting her password by someone impersonating T-Mobile's service reps and asking her to reveal it.
But there are even lower tech means to get access, as in finders, keepers. In a recent survey by a security firm, Pointsec (ph), tens of thousands of portable devices were apparently left in the back seats of cabs around the world.
STEINBERG: I would say more often than not, people who are having information problems, or losing their data to other people, is because they just leave their phone or their smart device or their PDA or their Blackberry. They leave it somewhere and somebody else picks it up but has access to it.
SIEBERG (on camera): They can help you stay connected and organized. But it can easily come back to hurt you. Just because it's in your pocket or safely on your hip doesn't mean someone can't break in.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: In Santa Maria, California, jury selection continuing right now in the Michael Jackson case.
Two hundred and twenty-one people remain in the pool of potential jurors. During questioning yesterday a total of 20 were dismissed, including the only African-American on that list.
Judge Rodney Melville must seat a panel of 12 jurors and eight alternates.
Well, every day, the cameras follow Michael Jackson to capture every possible photographic moment. And over the years, the pictures show an image in a perpetual state of metamorphosis.
CNN's Rusty Dornin with more on the ever-changing face of a pop star.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never have the before and the after made so many wonder why.
Michael Jackson's biographer says the star began altering his appearance just as the career was moon walking to the heavens, the 1982 release of "Thriller."
RANDY TARABORRELLI, JACKSON BIOGRAPHER: After "Thriller" is when you really started to see, you know, the plastic surgery and -- and you also start -- he also came -- started come up with bizarre ideas.
DORNIN: How many plastic surgeries? Jackson only admits to two, both nose jobs.
STANLEY JACOBS, FACIAL PLASTIC SURGEON: This is where he has an implant.
DORNIN: Like many others, facial plastic surgeon Stanley Jacobs believes the singer went under the knife again and again.
JACOBS: And the most drastic thing is here, 1991, no question, age 32, where he clearly has a nasal implant. You can see, like, a razor sharp edge to his nose, little point, little pinpoint nasal tip. The nostrils are very narrow.
DORNIN: Through the '90s, Jackson appeared to be a man just not comfortable in his own skin.
JACOBS: And here you see the mandible, jawbone implants, which go here, the big cheek implants, which would be something that would sit like this on his cheek area.
DORNIN: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a former adviser to Jackson, says he kept asking. RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, FORMER ADVISER: Why? Well, why the tinkering? He didn't answer that, but he did say to me that he was once on an airline and his father said to him, "You know, your nose isn't nice," or something like that. And generally, he expressed to me that he was made to feel that he was ugly, that he was not pretty.
DORNIN: And pretty he became. Jackson has told interviewers that he suffers from a skin disorder and uses makeup to cover the skin discoloration and that's why his skin tone became lighter and lighter. Disbelievers said it had to be bleach.
Some tried to persuade Jackson enough was enough.
BOTEACH: If he had even little procedures, he used to hide them from me because we used to talk. He swore he wouldn't do it anymore. And I saw once he had stitches here or something. "Oh, Shmuley, it was nothing, it was small."
DORNIN: But small things add up and the morphing of Michael Jackson makes it difficult to recognize the face he was born with, let alone why.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And CNN contacted representatives from Michael Jackson about the story, but they had no response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Next on LIVE FROM, finding the fakes. CNN takes a hidden camera to Chinatown. Wait until you see what we found on this shopping spree.
Later on LIVE FROM, long line, short temper. Anger flairs and fists fly as a pizza parlor fight is caught on camera. Find out what happened after the dust settles.
And Deepak Chopra says to forget fighting. The best-selling spiritual author joins me to talk about why peace is the way. The LIVE FROM interview straight ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So you want those fabulous designer handbags but you can't afford them? You can still buy them. Well, sort of. But there are some consequences. In New York City, the tour guides tell you to go to Chinatown.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick went there with a hidden camera just to see what's happening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along Canal Street in virtually every store selling handbags, buying a knockoff is pretty easy. It's just a matter of knowing how.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can just take this off and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put the Prada over it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And put the Prada over it.
FEYERICK: One way is swapping the tag, replacing a no-name bag with a name-brand label like Gucci, Kate Spade, Chanel. With our hidden camera filming, this guy went in the back to get a Prada label. In another store, when our CNN producer asked, one watchful clerk warned the other to be careful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be careful. Be careful.
FEYERICK: Sellers nervous because of police raids that have largely forced the trade underground. What used to be out front is now under the counter.
Former NYPD Detective Andrew Overfeldt worked Canal Street for years helping seize counterfeit goods. Now a private eye, he helps big companies protect their labels. On a recent walk together, it didn't take long before everyone knew we were there.
(on camera) It's fascinating when one of the women here saw us coming, she took her merchandise and started putting it away, and then everybody got on their Nextels and started radioing each other. So there's a real communication network, even on this one block.
ANDREW OVERFELDT, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Yes. The blocks are organized. They're all friends and neighbors in a lot of instances. They might be from the same province or they're just, from having shops next to each other, they look out for one another.
FEYERICK: And when he says the blocks are organized that's police talk.
BRIAN O'NEILL, DEPUTY INSPECTOR, NYPD: This isn't, you know, someone just on the street making, you know, a quick dollar. These things are manufactured. They're then sold. They're imported. You're talking about a very large business. So, it's not just a simple, let me just buy this for 20 bucks, it's a good bargain. You are supporting organized crime.
FEYERICK: Around the world, counterfeit goods equals a $300 to $500 billion a year business, and experts say it leads to all sorts of crimes.
TIM TRAINER, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ANTICOUNTERFEITING COALITION: I think most people wouldn't want to think of themselves as spending any money than that may go toward promoting child labor, trafficking in narcotics, things like that.
FEYERICK: The thing is, it's not illegal to buy the phony goods. It's only illegal to sell them. (on camera) We blurred the faces of snow clerks in this story because, even though they're breaking the law, none have been arrested or charged with a crime.
We contacted businesses and organizations in Chinatown, and the only one that would comment told us over the phone it has nothing to do with stores that sell fake merchandise.
The vendors themselves quickly ducked into their stores when they saw us passing with cameras. By the time we finished our walk down one block of Canal Street, we had more than a dozen young men following us and the ex-detective with us recognized them as being a part of the counterfeiting operation.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Also New York, dust off your white leisure suits. This is no knock-off, baby. It's the real "Saturday Night Live Fever" -- "Saturday Night Fever" -- I always do that -- deal.
Now, the famous flashing floor -- yes, this one that you're seeing where John Travolta strutted his stuff as Tony Manero in the 1977 movie, is being auctioned off on April Fool's Day. OK. Now I'm wondering if it's a joke.
The floor comes from a club in Bayridge that closed down last week, and a Hollywood memorabilia dealer says that there's been lots of interest from perspective bidders.
Well, if you've just purchased an iPod you may not want to hear this next report. But if you've been holding out, Susan Lisovicz has good news: prices are heading lower.
Susan, my family's going to be very excited. They're addicted to these.
(STOCK REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired February 23, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: President Bush rallying the troop, trying to unite allies about the Iran nuclear dilemma. We're live from Mainz, Germany.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH MARLIN, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER ASSOCIATION: What could happen is that a plane could crash and nobody's there to help them. That's what could happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: A proposal to close some air traffic control towers at night comes under fire. Find out why the FAA thinks it's a good idea.
Fake designer purses. Our hidden cameras find some bargains, but not without some hidden consequences.
Out of control and caught on tape. A long line meets some short fuses at the pizza parlor.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Miles is on assignment. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
President Bush puts the spotlight on Iran on day three of his fence mending tour through Europe. Mr. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder set aside past differences today and demanded that Iran abandon any plan to produce nuclear weapons. But how to go about dealing with Iran is still up for debate.
Their meeting in Germany was followed by a presidential visit to U.S. troops.
CNN's Chris Burns is covering it all in Mainz, Germany.
Hi, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Mainz is springing back to life, now. Seeing a lot of traffic now. The city was completely locked down. Now President Bush is on his way to Slovakia for the last -- third and last leg of his five-day trip to meet with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, as well as other officials there. Earlier today, just before he went to the airport, he met with U.S. troops. He got quite a very warm reception, in contrast to how things went earlier in the day.
He was greeted by some 3,000 troops and their families. The 1st Armored Division is one of those that is very much involved in Iraq, has gone there and has lost more than 100 of its members. So a rather emotional moment for many people there.
The story there cuts another way, as well, because the 1st A.D. is among those that are going back to the states, sometime next year, it's expected, in a redeployment, a restructuring of U.S. forces, all part of this NATO restructuring in the post-Cold War era, very much discussed by President Bush and the Europeans in the last couple of days.
President Bush expressed his thanks to the U.S. troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The sacrifices you have made will change the world for decades to come. By fighting terrorists in places like Baghdad and Karbala and Tikrit, you are making sure we do not face those enemies at home.
By helping captive peoples gain their freedom, you have made a critical contribution to the history of liberty, and that means the world will be more peaceful and our children and grandchildren will be more secure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now President Bush and Gerhard Schroeder, when they met earlier today, they did talk about Iraq. They agreed to disagree. The -- President Bush accepting that Germany will continue to refuse sending any boots open the ground to Iraq.
But Chancellor Schroeder saying that they do want to boost Germany's training of Iraqi security forces outside of Iraq. And to help in other ways, perhaps building the interior ministry inside Iraq.
But they did also agree on Iran. That was a very, very important aspect of the meeting, where Germany, France and Britain are trying to negotiate, trying to get the Iranians to agree and promise that they won't produce a nuclear bomb or pursue any nuclear ambitions.
The president saying that he is accepting that effort at diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts. And I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. And we will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: So the president giving diplomacy a chance, though, keeping to reserve his option to pursue, perhaps, a military option in Iran down the road.
Back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Chris Burns, thank you so much.
BURNS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: And back in this country, a cost-cutting measure by the FAA is causing big-time controversy. That plan calls for closing dozens of airport control towers overnight, which critics say could jeopardize safety and security.
Here's CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maintain 6,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, 3-3. Down to 6,000. Three twenty eight.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's 4:30 in the morning at Roanoke, Virginia, regional airport. This is just the second flight to land since midnight. The rest of the night, hour after hour, the control tower is quiet. The Federal Aviation Administration says that's a waste of taxpayer dollars.
MARION BLAKEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: It doesn't make sense, of course, to have personnel who are sitting there like Maytag repairmen.
KOCH: So the FAA's considering closing towers between midnight and 5 a.m. at 48 low-traffic airports in 29 states. Planes could still use the airports between those hours, getting needed weather information and guidance, instead, from controllers at nearby FAA facilities.
BLAKEY: It simply means that the service is going to be handled from some distance away. With all the avionics and the technology we have now, that's not a problem.
KOCH: But some in Congress oppose the plan, especially for airports near military bases like two on the list in Texas.
SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: They do use the runways, and they like having an air traffic control tower so that if there's something that comes out on the runway or something that's blown out on the runway, they would have someone on the ground that could warn them.
KOCH: Airport managers and controllers insist closing towers in the wee hours of the morning hurts service and safety. JACQUELINE SHUCK, ROANOKE REGIONAL AIRPORT: So if somebody gets in trouble at two in the morning, they'd like to know there are eyes watching them as they try to come in and not somebody a couple hundred miles away. MARLIN: What could happen is that a plane could crash and nobody's there to help them. That's what could happen.
KOCH (on camera): So far, passenger airlines don't oppose the cuts, since few fly into the smaller airports between midnight and 5 a.m.
(voice-over) Cargo carriers, though, are hesitant to take on the risk of flying into an airport with an unstaffed tower.
The cuts could save the government $5 million a year. The FAA insists it will study each facility before cutting the night shift to make sure safety won't be compromised.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, a startling new study has found high levels of toxic rocket fuel in an unlikely place. Scientists say that perchlorate was found in almost every sample of breast milk that they tested.
What more is that the levels of perchlorate were found to be about five times greater than in cow's milk.
That study involved 36 women in 17 states. Now, perchlorate is known to cause thyroid problems. And researchers recommend that pregnant and nursing women take iodine supplements as a precaution.
Findings are published in the journal "Environmental Science and Technology."
Now, as the World Health Organization begins a bird flu conference in Vietnam, top health officials are warning that the world is edging closer to a deadly pandemic. Although the level of concern varies among public health authorities, there is wide agreement that now is the time to act.
CNN's Brian Todd with more on the reasons why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After three flu pandemics in the last century, many experts agree the world is due for another. And top health officials have new concerns about a potentially devastating strain in Asia.
DR. KLAUS STOHR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Avian influenza in Asia poses a very significant public health threat. The disease is prevalent in several countries. It has never been so widespread to any -- in anytime during the last century.
TODD: Officials at the World Health Organization, which works firsthand with victims in Asia, say the so-called bird flu was identified in 10 countries last year and is now present in four: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
The WHO says more than 50 people have been infected. More than 40 have died. But thousands more have been exposed to this strain.
And while the head of the Centers for Disease Control agrees, we're not on the brink of a flu pandemic...
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: We are, however, very concerned about avian flu in Asia. There are more pigs, people and poultry in that environment than we've ever seen before. That is the formula for emergence of new flu strains.
TODD: CDC officials say this is an airborne disease like other flu strains. In Asia, farmers and others have gotten it from animals' nose and throat secretions. Experts are worried that it could go through a deadly genetic evolution.
STOHR: It's -- what's in it namely that the virus can change, can mutate, and then acquire the capacity for rapid, sustained, permanent human to human transmission without the animal. That virus will travel around the world in less than 6 to 8 months.
TODD: That's due to more widespread air travel. Most humans who have gotten this flu have died from it. And at the moment there is no vaccine. Other experts emphasize the threat is not so urgent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have to say that I think it's too soon to panic. I think that avian flu has been with us for a long time. Very recently, we've noticed that it can jump occasionally from birds to people and even more rarely, from one person to another. But so far, there's no evidence of an epidemic.
TODD (on camera): And officials at the CDC and the World Health Organization say they're keeping their eye on the ball, sending teams of experts all over Asia to surveil this flu strain and ordering clinical trials for vaccines to protect against it.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And coming up on LIVE FROM, we're going to have a report from the bird flu conference in Vietnam. We're also going to be joined by an epidemiology expert to talk about the possibility of a bird flu pandemic. If health officials are concerned, should you be?
Well, police say a suspect has confessed to kill a pregnant Texas woman and her 7-year-old son. About 200 people attended a candlelit vigil last night outside Lisa Underwood's Fort Worth bagel shop. Bodies matching the description of Underwood and her son, Jayden, were found yesterday, just two days after they were reported missing. Stephen Barbee, who court records say was the father of Underwood's unborn child, is charged with suffocating the pair.
In Denver, Colorado, police allege a suspected serial rapist kidnapped and sexually assault a woman found with him at the time of his arrest. Convicted child molester Brent Brents is in jail on $25 million bail. He's a suspect in at least seven other sexual assaults since October. Police first listed the woman with him in his car last week as a possible accomplice. Well, now they're calling her another victim.
Straight ahead it happened to Paris Hilton; could it happen to you? No, we're not talking about all that stuff on the Internet. We're talking about her cell phone. What hackers did to her could easily happen to you. We're going to dial that one up, ahead on LIVE FROM.
Ten million of them have them, but Apple hopes that you're going to want more. Four new iPods going on the market at a nice price. We'll have the details.
Give peace a chance. Spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra says ending war begins with you. Find out why in the LIVE FROM interview.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
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PHILLIPS: Well, the rain is subsiding but the mud and misery are long from gone in Southern California. Seven straight days of rain have now made it the wettest season in Los Angeles in 115 years.
Major mudslides and a bolder teetering above the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu are causing major concern right now.
And through all the misery in Southern California, well, comes this happy story. A dug fell down a 40-foot well behind his home last night. The dog's owners just moved in and didn't know it until they saw him about five hours after the pooch fell in. He was pulled to safety. That dog was shaken and covered in mud, but otherwise OK.
Well, so much of the Paris Hilton has already been seen and revealed on the Internet. But you wouldn't think that there would be such a ruckus over her cell phone information. But when her data hit the fan, it sent a cyber chill up the spines of other wireless tech users.
CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has more on what you can and can't do to protect your vitals.
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DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris Hilton is suffering from overexposure, again.
The socialite turned reality TV star's digital details were stolen and posted online this week after her T-Mobile cell phone was compromised. It housed phone numbers for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Anna Kournikova and other celebs, along with some revealing photos.
Maybe it's easy to scoff. But what about your phone or PDA? Do you know where your data is right now?
DAVID STEINBERG, CEO, INPHONIC: It's really people being careless. I mean, people have to understand that wireless phones, even regular wireless phones, are like little laptops.
SIEBERG: When you sync your phone, your Blackberry or your PDA with your computer, the information is sometimes sent to the Web servers of your wireless provider. That way, you can access the information on another computer.
But any computer attached to the Internet is vulnerable. If you can access it, so can someone else.
But there's also the idea of social engineering, or tricking people into unwittingly handing over sensitive data. You might call that person a conman.
KEVIN MITNICK, SECURITY EXPERT: Hackers go after the weakest link in the chain and, unfortunately, it's people like you and me. It's the human factor.
SIEBERG: Former hacker Kevin Mitnick, seen here during his release from federal prison five years ago, is now a security consultant. He says an attacker is not always a shadowy figure crunching on a keyboard somewhere.
MITNICK: Social engineer is basically putting themselves into the role. They're either an actor or an actress, and they're creating a situation and the object is to get compliance, to get a trusted person or the target to comply with the request.
SIEBERG: Mitnick thinks Paris Hilton may have been tricked into re-setting her password by someone impersonating T-Mobile's service reps and asking her to reveal it.
But there are even lower tech means to get access, as in finders, keepers. In a recent survey by a security firm, Pointsec (ph), tens of thousands of portable devices were apparently left in the back seats of cabs around the world.
STEINBERG: I would say more often than not, people who are having information problems, or losing their data to other people, is because they just leave their phone or their smart device or their PDA or their Blackberry. They leave it somewhere and somebody else picks it up but has access to it.
SIEBERG (on camera): They can help you stay connected and organized. But it can easily come back to hurt you. Just because it's in your pocket or safely on your hip doesn't mean someone can't break in.
Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Atlanta.
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PHILLIPS: In Santa Maria, California, jury selection continuing right now in the Michael Jackson case.
Two hundred and twenty-one people remain in the pool of potential jurors. During questioning yesterday a total of 20 were dismissed, including the only African-American on that list.
Judge Rodney Melville must seat a panel of 12 jurors and eight alternates.
Well, every day, the cameras follow Michael Jackson to capture every possible photographic moment. And over the years, the pictures show an image in a perpetual state of metamorphosis.
CNN's Rusty Dornin with more on the ever-changing face of a pop star.
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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never have the before and the after made so many wonder why.
Michael Jackson's biographer says the star began altering his appearance just as the career was moon walking to the heavens, the 1982 release of "Thriller."
RANDY TARABORRELLI, JACKSON BIOGRAPHER: After "Thriller" is when you really started to see, you know, the plastic surgery and -- and you also start -- he also came -- started come up with bizarre ideas.
DORNIN: How many plastic surgeries? Jackson only admits to two, both nose jobs.
STANLEY JACOBS, FACIAL PLASTIC SURGEON: This is where he has an implant.
DORNIN: Like many others, facial plastic surgeon Stanley Jacobs believes the singer went under the knife again and again.
JACOBS: And the most drastic thing is here, 1991, no question, age 32, where he clearly has a nasal implant. You can see, like, a razor sharp edge to his nose, little point, little pinpoint nasal tip. The nostrils are very narrow.
DORNIN: Through the '90s, Jackson appeared to be a man just not comfortable in his own skin.
JACOBS: And here you see the mandible, jawbone implants, which go here, the big cheek implants, which would be something that would sit like this on his cheek area.
DORNIN: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a former adviser to Jackson, says he kept asking. RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, FORMER ADVISER: Why? Well, why the tinkering? He didn't answer that, but he did say to me that he was once on an airline and his father said to him, "You know, your nose isn't nice," or something like that. And generally, he expressed to me that he was made to feel that he was ugly, that he was not pretty.
DORNIN: And pretty he became. Jackson has told interviewers that he suffers from a skin disorder and uses makeup to cover the skin discoloration and that's why his skin tone became lighter and lighter. Disbelievers said it had to be bleach.
Some tried to persuade Jackson enough was enough.
BOTEACH: If he had even little procedures, he used to hide them from me because we used to talk. He swore he wouldn't do it anymore. And I saw once he had stitches here or something. "Oh, Shmuley, it was nothing, it was small."
DORNIN: But small things add up and the morphing of Michael Jackson makes it difficult to recognize the face he was born with, let alone why.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Francisco.
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PHILLIPS: And CNN contacted representatives from Michael Jackson about the story, but they had no response.
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PHILLIPS: Next on LIVE FROM, finding the fakes. CNN takes a hidden camera to Chinatown. Wait until you see what we found on this shopping spree.
Later on LIVE FROM, long line, short temper. Anger flairs and fists fly as a pizza parlor fight is caught on camera. Find out what happened after the dust settles.
And Deepak Chopra says to forget fighting. The best-selling spiritual author joins me to talk about why peace is the way. The LIVE FROM interview straight ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So you want those fabulous designer handbags but you can't afford them? You can still buy them. Well, sort of. But there are some consequences. In New York City, the tour guides tell you to go to Chinatown.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick went there with a hidden camera just to see what's happening.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along Canal Street in virtually every store selling handbags, buying a knockoff is pretty easy. It's just a matter of knowing how.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can just take this off and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put the Prada over it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And put the Prada over it.
FEYERICK: One way is swapping the tag, replacing a no-name bag with a name-brand label like Gucci, Kate Spade, Chanel. With our hidden camera filming, this guy went in the back to get a Prada label. In another store, when our CNN producer asked, one watchful clerk warned the other to be careful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be careful. Be careful.
FEYERICK: Sellers nervous because of police raids that have largely forced the trade underground. What used to be out front is now under the counter.
Former NYPD Detective Andrew Overfeldt worked Canal Street for years helping seize counterfeit goods. Now a private eye, he helps big companies protect their labels. On a recent walk together, it didn't take long before everyone knew we were there.
(on camera) It's fascinating when one of the women here saw us coming, she took her merchandise and started putting it away, and then everybody got on their Nextels and started radioing each other. So there's a real communication network, even on this one block.
ANDREW OVERFELDT, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Yes. The blocks are organized. They're all friends and neighbors in a lot of instances. They might be from the same province or they're just, from having shops next to each other, they look out for one another.
FEYERICK: And when he says the blocks are organized that's police talk.
BRIAN O'NEILL, DEPUTY INSPECTOR, NYPD: This isn't, you know, someone just on the street making, you know, a quick dollar. These things are manufactured. They're then sold. They're imported. You're talking about a very large business. So, it's not just a simple, let me just buy this for 20 bucks, it's a good bargain. You are supporting organized crime.
FEYERICK: Around the world, counterfeit goods equals a $300 to $500 billion a year business, and experts say it leads to all sorts of crimes.
TIM TRAINER, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ANTICOUNTERFEITING COALITION: I think most people wouldn't want to think of themselves as spending any money than that may go toward promoting child labor, trafficking in narcotics, things like that.
FEYERICK: The thing is, it's not illegal to buy the phony goods. It's only illegal to sell them. (on camera) We blurred the faces of snow clerks in this story because, even though they're breaking the law, none have been arrested or charged with a crime.
We contacted businesses and organizations in Chinatown, and the only one that would comment told us over the phone it has nothing to do with stores that sell fake merchandise.
The vendors themselves quickly ducked into their stores when they saw us passing with cameras. By the time we finished our walk down one block of Canal Street, we had more than a dozen young men following us and the ex-detective with us recognized them as being a part of the counterfeiting operation.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Also New York, dust off your white leisure suits. This is no knock-off, baby. It's the real "Saturday Night Live Fever" -- "Saturday Night Fever" -- I always do that -- deal.
Now, the famous flashing floor -- yes, this one that you're seeing where John Travolta strutted his stuff as Tony Manero in the 1977 movie, is being auctioned off on April Fool's Day. OK. Now I'm wondering if it's a joke.
The floor comes from a club in Bayridge that closed down last week, and a Hollywood memorabilia dealer says that there's been lots of interest from perspective bidders.
Well, if you've just purchased an iPod you may not want to hear this next report. But if you've been holding out, Susan Lisovicz has good news: prices are heading lower.
Susan, my family's going to be very excited. They're addicted to these.
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