Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Natalee Holloway's Mother Appeals for International Help; Abducted Girl, Captor Shown on Surveillance Tape Hours Before Capture; Countries Vie to Host Summer 2012 Olympics; Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet
Aired July 05, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, HOST: ... filling up jails and touching communities, large and small, across the country. That's the stern conclusion of surveys by the National Association of Counties. One survey of more than 500 counties found 87 percent had seen an increase in meth-related arrests in the past three years. The group is urging Congress to pass a comprehensive methamphetamine bill.
And Tropical Storm Cindy strengthened today in the Gulf of Mexico and is bearing down on land. Cindy has sustained winds of around 60 miles an hour. Officials say Cindy could grow stronger before it hits land late today or tomorrow but is not expected to become a hurricane. A tropical storm warning is in effect from Intercoastal City, Louisiana, to Destin, Florida.
Natalee Holloway has been missing for 36 days. Today her grief stricken mother fears two men who may know something about her disappearance who may supposedly have played some role in her disappearance, though both deny it, may disappear, as well. A highly emotional Beth Holloway Twitty faced reporters in Aruba with some harsh and unsubstantiated accusations against Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, whom a judge ordered freed from jail yesterday on lack of evidence.
CNN's Chris Lawrence has the details from Palm Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now one suspect, Joran Van Der Sloot, remains in custody for up to the next two months. But he does have a couple days to decide whether to file an appeal on that.
Two other suspects, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, are at home now. They were released yesterday and are spending their first full day at home after many weeks in jail.
Now, their release hit the family of Natalee Holloway very hard. The mother of Natalee Holloway was just devastated by the news. And she is now afraid that the brothers may leave the country.
BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY, NATALEE HOLLOWAY'S MOTHER: It is my greatest fear today, that the Kalpoe brothers will leave Aruba. I am asking the Aruban officials to notify the U.S. State Department in the event these suspects try to leave this island. I am asking all nations not to offer them a safe haven.
LAWRENCE: We spoke with the Kalpoe brothers' attorney, who told us, yes, they can leave the country, but they're not going to. He says they're very aware of how they are perceived. They have nothing to hide. They plan to stay right here.
The Kalpoe brothers' mother even told us they had a trip planned to Surinam. They canceled that trip. They're going to stay.
And we have to remember that just on Monday a judge looked at the case and decided there just was not enough evidence to hold the Kalpoes any longer. They have been freed. But right now, prosecutors are considering whether to file an appeal of the judge's ruling to challenge the fact that he allowed them to go free.
Reporting from Palm Beach, Aruba, I'm Chris Lawrence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: CNN prime time take a closer look at the search, the law and the anguish of the Holloway case in a special edition of "PAULA ZAHN NOW." That's at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific right here on CNN.
Authorities in Idaho still trying to determine how and when 8- year-old Shasta Groene met her alleged kidnapper, Joseph Duncan. Shasta Groene, seen here reunited with her father, was found in the company of Duncan early Saturday in the same small town where her mother, her mother's boyfriend and her 13-year-old brother were found murdered seven weeks ago. She is still recuperating at a local hospital.
Her brother, Dylan, is still missing. Authorities fear remains found in Montana could be his.
Joseph Duncan, the sexual predator charged with kidnapping Shasta, goes before a judge in about 90 minutes. While authorities remain tight lipped on him, they say Shasta is in high spirits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. BEN WOLFINGER, KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: I understand Shasta is doing very well. She's in good condition. We had -- we talked to the media -- or the hospital liaison this morning. She's doing very well. And is being very happy having her father there close by.
(END VIDEO CLIP0
HARRIS: Hours before Shasta Groene and Joseph Duncan were found, they were captured on surveillance video at a convenience store in Kellogg, Idaho. Lee Stoll from CNN affiliate KREM with reaction from the store owner and an employee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's him right there. LEE STOLL, KREM REPORTER (voice-over): At 8:21 Friday night Joseph Duncan and Shasta Groene pull into this Kellogg gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's definitely him right there and her.
STOLL: Owner Ted Beamis (ph) couldn't believe what his surveillance cameras caught. Within seconds of pulling in, a police car cruises by just feet from Shasta.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, he sees the police car now. He's hiding.
STOLL: Eight twenty-two, the pair walk into the convenient store. Shasta keeps her arms locked around her chest but tries to make eye contact with strangers. Wandering down an aisle alone, she squeezes past three adults.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why didn't she bump them on the leg, say, "Help me" or of course you don't know what he threatened her with or whatever.
STOLL: But Duncan doesn't seem worried about where she is, stopping to read a local newspaper and pouring coffee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt terrible. I just thought, you know, I should have called. They could have found her six hours sooner.
STOLL: Charlotte Ansic (ph) ran up four drinks and over $19 in gas, not realizing who the little girl was right in front of her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't seem like any other -- they didn't seem different than any customers I had. They seemed normal.
STOLL: Eight minutes after pulling up, Shasta and Duncan pull out in the stolen red Jeep. Six hours later, their trip would end for good in Coeur D'Alene.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's just jumping in just like nothing is the matter.
STOLL: Reporting in Coeur D'Alene, I'm Lee Stoll, KREM-2 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: News across America now.
Talk about a close call. A Bellevue, Washington, man escaped with only a few singed hairs after a fireball erupted from a gas tank. His classic 1977 Ferrari didn't fare as well. It was totaled. There's no word on the cause of Saturday's blow-up.
The holiday weekend turns tragic for a group of sky divers. A sky diver and a student jumper you collided with the cameraman in midair over Indiana Saturday, killing one man and seriously injuring a second. Sky divers who knew the men say they jumped together more than 100 times. The accident is under investigation. Powerful rip currents off the New Hampshire coast are blamed for killing two people over the holiday weekend. The two men jumped into the water to try to rescue one of their sons, who got caught in the strong undertow. The boy survived. Lifeguards who monitor the stretch of beach had just gone home for the day.
Live pictures? Live pictures now as President Bush arrives in Denmark in advance of the G-8 summit starting tomorrow. Air Force One taxing.
During his brief stop in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, Mr. Bush is expected to thank the Danes for providing troops for the war in Iraq. From Denmark President Bush travels to Scotland for the start of tomorrow's summit with other G-8 leaders. Two main topics on the agenda: aid to Africa and the environment.
Mr. Bush departed Washington earlier today with first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Jenna. It's the president's third visit to Europe this year.
Security is extremely tight in Scotland. But it's not slowing down protesters who are expected to take to the streets in force during the summit.
One of the hottest issues at the G-8 summit is expected to be the environment. As President Bush can expect to get an earful on the topic, in part because the United States is the only G-8 country that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
From London, CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers has this look at the fight over the environment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Polar icecaps retreating at an alarming rate. Oceans heating up, expanding, threatening coastal cities. More than a few species, even humans, may be threatened by climate change. Blame itself, however, is flourishing.
CATHERINE PEARCE, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH: The United States is the biggest kind of climate criminal, if you like, and the White House and the Bush administration is still refusing to acknowledge that climate change is really happening.
RODGERS: Whoa! Read his lips.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In terms of climate change, I have always said it's a serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with.
RODGERS (on camera): How it's dealt with is the rub. The agreement known as the Kyoto Protocol went into effect in February. But the Bush administration has steadfastly refused to sign on.
Yet the U.S. does spend the most money researching ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By contrast, Europe wants to impose Kyoto targets to reduce those emissions in the hope of slowing global warming.
JULIAN MORRIS, INTERNATIONAL POLICY NETWORK: There was a lot of pressure from environmentalists to sign up to something. And so the Kyoto Protocol was that something. Kyoto is a very costly agreement, and it has very few benefits. So in that sense it was absolutely the right move on the part of the United States not to ratify.
RODGERS (voice-over): With numbers of cars on roads increasing, demands for energy soaring across the globe, greenhouse gas emissions, most notably carbon dioxide, are rising above the Kyoto targets almost everywhere, a glaring failing even acknowledged by environmentalists.
PEARCE: There should be no country in the world who right at this stage is congratulating themselves on their emissions control. I think we have a lot of work to do.
RODGERS: Developing countries, China, India, Brazil, all big polluters, were given a free pass at Kyoto, so why the America bashing among global environmentalists?
MORRIS: It's not politically correct to try and impose restrictions on poorer countries. But on the richest country in the world, well, it's got to be the most evil, surely.
RODGERS: Deep meaningful cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would still be so economically disastrous no politician anywhere is advocating that just yet. So, instead they continue to campaign for Kyoto, arguably cleansing their consciences without doing that much to clean up the planet's air.
Walter Rodgers, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Cindy and Dennis kicking up a storm. Make that two tropical storms today, one in the Gulf of Mexico and the other in Caribbean. And they could affect a lot of people.
CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is watching them both -- Bonnie.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: We appreciate it. Bonnie, thank you.
For the 2005 hurricane season forecast and information on how the storms form, you can log to CNN.com/Hurricanes.
We're only a day way from the crucial vote. Which city will win the coveted 2012 summer games? Some familiar faces spring up in Singapore for some last minute campaigning.
Plus, she can predict from the stars, but she couldn't see this coming. Why one Russian astrologist is fuming at NASA. And what she's planning to do about it.
And Home Depot branches out in its backyard. Find out how when LIVE FROM continues.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, call it an Olympic-sized effort to get the 2012 games, and in this competition there's no bronze or silver medal. Power players from all over the globe have descended on Singapore. They're trying to provide a little extra mojo to tip the scales in their favor.
Our Andrew Stevens runs through the list of those plying persuasion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From airport to hotels and beyond, Singapore has watched as the great and the good descend onto its shores.
Turn up at the Raffles Hotel (ph) and you will see the British prime minister, Tony Blair, talking up London's bid to host the Olympics. Soccer icon David Beckham was just up the road doing his bit for the Brits.
Nearby -- well, everything is nearby in Singapore -- Hillary Clinton was rubbing shoulders with some of the sporting elite, flown in especially for the occasion, and telling us why New York City should win.
The French, perhaps surprisingly, taking an initial low profile, awaiting Tuesday's arrival of a galaxy of national sporting heroes capped by the president, Jacques Chirac.
Meanwhile, Spain's prime minister was getting to know the power players in Singapore, while the Russians, considered more the outsiders, were doing their bit to stay in the race.
All that remains now is for the delegations to make one final pitch to the International Olympic Committee members before the vote. The French arrived in Singapore as favorite, but London and New York are gaining momentum, Olympic watchers say.
For the British, it's apparently about spirit and passion.
TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER: The spirit of London 2012 will be best of the spirit of the Olympic movement.
DAVID BECKHAM, SOCCER PLAYER: For me, the biggest thing is the passion. The passion side of it.
STEVENS: New York has elbowed its way into contention with Hillary Clinton providing the star power in the final days of frenzied activity.
No contest that this level, at least, would be complete without a whiff of controversy. Not surprisingly, the two front runners and age-old rivals Britain and France are providing it.
The first shot: a claim by consultants acting for the British that the Paris athletic stadium could pose problems for spectators. The French president, mobbed by reporters on his arrival in Singapore, responded that he was a supporter of fair play and the best man winning.
The race ends Wednesday evening Singapore time, when more than 100 IOC delegates vote to decide who will host the 2012 summer games. A simple majority wins, but it's the classiest field ever assembled, and voting is expected to be tight and last for several rounds.
Andrew Stevens, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: She has been called the domestic diva and the head of Martha Stewart Living, but do you know what her name was in prison? Stewart reveals to "Vanity Fair" that she was called M-Diddy.
She also tells the magazine she can get out of the bracelet that monitors her movements while she's under house arrest. No word on if she's actually done so.
Stewart, who is appealing her conviction of lying to investigators about a stock sale, says she was only prosecuted as a warning to others.
If you own a house, you probably spent plenty of time at Home Depot, as some of you may be able to pick up some new showerheads and some nails soon. Allan Chernoff joins us live from the New York stock exchange with the details -- Allan.
(STOCK REPORT)
HARRIS: Allan, thank you.
They reached havoc on her horoscope, or so she says. Coming up, an astrologist who calls the Deep Impact comet buster a costly mistake and wants NASA to pay yet again. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but this puff of smoke cost about $330 million to achieve. It's the result of the Deep Impact probe NASA sent careening into a comet yesterday. It's estimated the explosion was equivalent to igniting five tons of TNT.
And here's a look after the space dust settled. Scientists believe comets may hold the key to the birth of the Solar System and perhaps the birth of life itself.
But while scientists await results from the Deep Impact probe, a dust up of cosmic promotion is playing out in a Moscow courtroom.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote with more on the woman who claims Deep Impact totally rocked her world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outside a Moscow courthouse, astrologist Marina Bai warns Deep Impact's impact will be felt by the entire universe and all of humankind. She's suing NASA for messing with Mother Nature.
MARINA BAI, ASTROLOGY (through translator): it was wrong to unilaterally decide some comet is extra, she says and take a look at what's inside it just to satisfy their curiosity.
CHILCOTE: Bai is a big fan of eastern art and philosophy. Her world view goes like this. Nature controls everything, and anything that alters nature alters history, too.
"NASA is changing humankind's path," she says. "We don't know in what direction, whether it's opened the gates toward heaven or hell."
Comets have been linked to human events throughout history. By some accounts, the star of Bethlehem was a comet.
When Bai first filed suit, she wanted to stop Deep Impact from happening. Now that it has, she wants to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.
She also wants compensation: $311 million of it, the amount she estimates the project cost NASA. She says she has endured headaches, anger and a feeling of loss.
But Bai may run into trouble substantiating her take on celestial science in court. At Moscow's Institute for Thermal Physics Russia's foremost experts on deep space explosions, if the court asks for their opinion it won't be in Bai's favor.
VLADIMIR FORTOV, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF THERMAL PHYSICS: I'd like to congratulate our American colleagues with a great achievement and to a great experiment which is very successful.
CHILCOTE: Some call her crazy. Bai is unphased by the criticism.
"Let them think I'm crazy," she says. "If only 100 people think about this in a different light then I've accomplished something."
She'll be back in court in three weeks.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And that wraps up this Tuesday edition of LIVE FROM. And now for a preview of what's ahead on "INSIDE POLITICS", we go to the out of this world Dana Bash in Washington.
Hey, Dana.
DANA BASH, HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Thanks, Tony. Thank you very much.
Well, coming up, we're going to tell you what Mr. Bush has to say about filling that opening on the Supreme Court.
Plus the president hasn't picked a nominee yet, of course, but the ad wars are well under way. We'll look at the big bucks being spent in the Supreme Court battle.
All this and much more when we go "INSIDE POLITICS" in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
