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Space Shuttle Discovery Launch; Frozen Sperm Dispute; London Authorities Keep Searching; Does the Birht Control Patch Affect Hearts?

Aired July 26, 2005 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, and lift-off of space shuttle Discovery.

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PHILLIPS: NASA's long wait finally over. American astronauts back in space. We're live from the Kennedy Space Center.

Terror investigation. What bombings in Britain and Egypt reveal about the new way terrorists are carrying out attacks.

Inside Iraqi training. Why these lessons are crucial to getting American troops out of their country.

From the CNN center in Atlanta, hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And lift-off of space shuttle Discovery, beginning America's new journey to the moon, Mars and beyond. And the vehicle has cleared the tower.

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PHILLIPS: It's a goose-bump moment two-and-a-half years in the making. Space shuttle Discovery soars towards space in the most scrutinized launch in NASA history. Next up, the International Space Station. Our space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, taking it all in at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I can tell you the whole newsroom was watching, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm glad to hear that, Kyra. Thank you very much. It was a goose-bump moment.

It's really -- until you felt a launch, you really haven't experienced it. That 7 million pounds of thrust, as it come across the three-and-a-half miles from the launch pad, to hear the fish jump out of the water behind me. And all of a sudden, it feels like your fillings are about to come out. That's the experience of it. And, really, it left NASA managers -- the term they used was giddy. After two-and-a-half years, wild, emotional ride for them, a real struggle to get to this point. In addition to that, they have a lot of work to do, because there are more than 100 cameras that are trained on the Discovery -- were trained on Discovery, as it rose toward orbit.

And they're going to be pouring through those cameras over the next few days to see if there's any sort of debris strike, as we saw with Columbia two-and-a-half years ago.

A matter of fact, there is a piece of debris that fell off. I want to show you right now, using our telestrator here. This is the shot from the external fuel tank. Two minutes after launch, the solid rocket booster goes. Look at the left side of your screen.

And right there. See that little piece? It almost looks like a piece of paper. And that could be some sort of cover. Could be some sort of shroud. We don't know precisely what it is yet. This is one of the things that the engineers will be analyzing.

The important point here, though, is, as you can clearly, it falls harmlessly away, does not cause any damage to the orbiter. As NASA said time and again before this launch, there's no way to stop debris from coming off that external fuel tank. What they did was try to minimize the risk of big pieces falling off, pieces that might cause a fatal breach, as we saw in the case of Columbia.

There were actually, among the dignitaries here, among the VIPs, the first lady, the governor of Florida was here. But there were several members of the Columbia family. Among them, J.P. Harrison, the widower of Kalpana Chawla, who flew on Columbia and perished February 1, 2003.

J.P., I know there was a large group for the first launch attempt, but a core cadre of people who lost loved ones on Columbia. What was it like seeing a launch two-and-a-half years later after all you've been through?

J.P. HARRISON, WIDOWER OF COLUMBIA ASTRONAUT: Well, I was somewhat surprised in my reaction, because I was calmly watching the clock as it counted down. And then we got to the one-minute mark. My heart just started racing.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

HARRISON: And it turned out that I was not alone in the reactions, even though they were different among the others.

M. O'BRIEN: So you had similar reactions from the families. In other words, a sense of -- did that take you by surprise?

HARRISON: My reaction?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

HARRISON: Yes, it took me by surprise, because normally I try to be fairly objective about these kind of things.

M. O'BRIEN: It must be hard to be objective, having gone through what you've gone through, though.

HARRISON: Well, we all take things in different ways, and that's just the way I take it.

M. O'BRIEN: You have obviously been watching NASA very closely along the way, as we all have, as they to try to get to this point. Do you have a -- and I know you're not an insider anymore. You used to work in the agency. But do you have a general sense of whether the agency has really met the challenge of returning to flight in a safe way?

HARRISON: The way I look at it, if Mike Griffin cannot make it work properly, no one can do it. He's very well-qualified, and he's motivated to do it. And he has motivated people underneath him to do it.

M. O'BRIEN: He's talking about the NASA administrator, Mike Griffin, who is new to the task, but is not new to NASA, has multiple advance degrees, is an engineer who really understands the intricacies of this program.

What's interesting to me, J.P., is that this marks a beginning, in a sense, but it also marks the beginning of the end for the shuttle. Is this the time to be thinking about retiring the shuttle? Do you feel that's the right course?

HARRISON: It's not really my decision. But the shuttle is old technology, basically. And obviously, we need to have a replacement vehicle. The problem is, are we going to power it with rockets or something else? What's really needed is a real breakthrough in propulsion technology.

M. O'BRIEN: Tell me, obviously, your thoughts were of Kalpana Chawla today. What were you thinking and what do you think her wishes would have been for this day and for NASA returning to fly?

HARRISON: Well, probably be the same as for any other flight that she observed that she was not involved in. She was always working hard, doing whatever job she was doing, associated with that flight. And she'd be very happy that the shuttle's back in the air, as are we all.

M. O'BRIEN: She felt very strongly about that, as did all the crew members. They all talked about how important this mission is. That meant a lot to her and to them, didn't it?

HARRISON: Of course, yes. She was very happy, and excited, and proud to be part of this U.S. Astronaut Corps.

M. O'BRIEN: Were you reluctant to come here?

HARRISON: No, because we wanted to show support for the crew that's up there now, because they're our friends up there. And Andy Thomas, in particular, was responsible for dealing with us directly after the accident.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, J.P. Harrison, we wish you well. I'm sure it's going to be -- you know, in many cases, in previous missions, we've all falsely breathed a sigh of relief after they got to orbit. We know now there will be a very intense moment 12, 13 days from now when landing come. We wish you well all throughout the mission.

HARRISON: OK. Thank you for being with us.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us.

Kyra, it is a 12-, 13-day mission, a trip to the International Space Station, some much needed supplies there. Along the way, they will be doing a comprehensive photographic survey of that orbiter to make sure that it is safe to return -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Miles, thank you so much. And, of course, you can get your shuttle Discovery news fix anytime at CNN.com, where you can also follow a play-by-play account of the launch through Miles O'Brien's shuttle blog.

And space shuttle astronauts are part of a very elite club, as you know. We're going to talk with one of those members later this hour of LIVE FROM, somebody who has been to the International Space Station. Captain Jeff Ashby served on-board Columbia, Endeavor, and was mission commander of space shuttle Atlantis. He's going to join us at the half-hour.

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TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: Whatever excuse or justification these people use, I do not believe we should give one inch to them, not in this country and the way we live our lives here, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in our support for two states, Israel and Palestine, not in our support for the alliances we choose, including with America. Not one inch should we give to these people.

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PHILLIPS: Passionate words from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. And he says he wants the message to terrorists to be clear: There's no justification for suicide bombings anywhere, anytime. Mr. Blair made the comments after meeting with opposition party leaders to talk about beefing up Britain's anti-terror laws.

Meanwhile, British investigators probing last week's attacks are focus on a London apartment building. It's where one of the prime suspects lived and where he met with another one. We're learning new details about both men.

Muktar Said Ibrahim is a British citizen who came to the country from Eritrea in 1992. Police say he tried to set off a bomb on a double-decker bus on Hackney Road on Thursday.

Yasin Hassan Omar is a Somali national who also arrived in British in 1992. Police say that he tried to set off a bomb on a train near the Warren Street station.

They and two other men are the subject of an intense manhunt now. And at the same time, British transit officials are trying to reassure the public about the safety of London's trains and buses.

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TIM O'TOOLE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LONDON TRANSPORT: We're constantly drilling, on every line. I mean, we even participated in a major exercise, Atlantic Blue (ph), with people over in the states this past summer.

But prior to that, we did a large-scale drill with the emergency services at a major station in town. And just three weeks prior to this incident, we did a drill at Tower Hill which is on the Circle Line itself.

It's about constantly taking people through routines so that, when something happens, they just act automatically. They follow their training.

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PHILLIPS: Now, there's something that was missing before the London attack, an up-tick in chatter, the communication between suspected terrorists that can give away a deadly plot. But this time, there was no hint of what was coming. And that's a big worry for the intelligence community.

CNN's Kelli Arena reports.

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KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After the attacks in London and Egypt, U.S. officials went back and combed through recent intelligence for anything they might have missed. They say they didn't find anything.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, it certainly means one thing, which is the terrorists are getting smarter. They know how to evade us. It's much harder for us to listen to what they're saying because they don't necessarily use devices we can pick up.

ARENA: Intelligence officials say terrorists, like those in London, are operating in smaller groups, communicating face-to-face, resulting in less of what experts call "chatter."

Their association with Al Qaeda may be limited to training or financing. Experts say it's basically up to those local teams to decide what, when, and how to attack. It's not known whether similar groups exist in the United States, but it's a possibility.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: We remain concerned about the potential for Al Qaeda to leverage extremist groups with peripheral or historical connections to Al Qaeda and particular its ability to exploit radical American converts and other indigenous extremists. ARENA: Sources say the FBI has identified more than 1,000 people in the U.S. who may be Al Qaeda sympathizers. And the bureau has had as many as 300 so-called Islamic extremists under surveillance.

Counterterrorism officials say it's helpful to identify possible recruits, but they point out the first London bombers never showed up on the intelligence radar. They had no criminal records. Even their mothers apparently didn't know what they were up to.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Just one of the factors we see today is that the secrets terrorists have that we want are increasingly held by a smaller and smaller number of people. And so it is becoming harder and harder to penetrate and disrupt.

ARENA: But not impossible.

HARMAN: The key will be when some NYPD cop on the beat sees something different, notices that there's a place with funny smells coming out of it, or lots of truck traffic, or lights on 24/7, or something like that, that wasn't like it a month ago, and tells that to the local leadership, and that information is taken seriously.

ARENA: Everyone agrees developing better human intelligence is the key to penetrating these groups, but that can take years. And even the most optimistic experts say the chance of infiltrating every single one is slim.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

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PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, sperm bank battle. A father, a mother, and a hospital in a $9 million dispute over who pays to support the baby.

Cops use it to drop bad guys. The makers of taser guns are banking on you wanting to do the same. A new marketing strategy for controversial stun guns.

Later on LIVE FROM, reenacting a hate crime. Fifty-nine years after a white mob lynched four African-Americans. Civil rights leaders hope this horrific scene will bring those responsible to justice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really wanted to cry. It was horrible. It was horrible.

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PHILLIPS: The Midwest getting some much-needed relief from scorching temperatures as the heat wave moves east. And heat advisories and warnings are posted today for cities including Washington and New York. Jacqui Jeras now live from the Weather Center with more on, hopefully, more relief in sight. JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's coming. We just have to be patient.

Yes, a couple of days, and the northeast will get their big break. Should be arriving, we think, by Thursday. In the meantime, why not hit the beach? That's a good way to stay cool. We've got a beautiful live picture coming in from Atlantic City. See the nice waves? Good day to beat the heat, although the waves look a little rough out there, don't they?

About 93 degrees is your temperature, but feeling a little bit more like 97 degrees. Let's go back to the map and show you the heat index all across the northeast. It feels like 97 in Detroit, as well as in Cleveland. New York, 97 degrees, 96 in Philadelphia, 94 in Washington, D.C.

Now with all that heat, and the high-pressure system keeping things pretty stagnant here, that's creating some bad air quality conditions. Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, both under code red. That means unhealthy for everybody. Don't want to go outside this afternoon and evening if you don't have to. Wait until the sun goes down to do your jogging, if you can.

Code orange, that you can see the orange ball there. That means that it's unhealthy for sensitive groups like the elderly, people with respiratory problems, and children.

Across the southeast, plenty of triple digits beginning to pop up on the heat index thermometer there: 107 is what it feel like in Wilmington. We've got a couple of code reds there. Charlotte looking at code red for today. Atlanta, Columbia, similarly Birmingham in the code orange category.

Here's that heat release we were talking about. Look at the difference in temperatures. It feels like 100 in St. Louis. Check out Minneapolis. Only 67 degree. So hang on, northeast and southeast, it's on the way -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, we'll continue to check in with you. Thank you so much.

Well, the Boy Scouts are mourning the loss of four scout leaders who were killed in a freak accident. The men apparently were electrocuted while setting up a tent yesterday during the Boy Scout's National Jamboree in Virginia. You can see the pictures here. Three of dead were from Alaska, the fourth from Ohio.

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GREGG SHIELDS, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA: Our hearts go out to the families -- excuse me. Our hearts go out to the families of these dedicated scout leaders who gave so much to their sons, their troops, and their communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: In Colorado, a 40-year-old mother is facing possible jail time for holding wild parties for her daughter's friends. Authorities say that Silvia Johnson served drugs and alcohol and had sex with teenage boys because she wanted to be cool. Johnson pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She could get more than 50 years in prison.

A complex fertility battle is brewing in New York right now. A Brooklyn man claims that his estranged wife got a hold of his frozen sperm without his permission and had a baby. Now he's being ordered to pay child support.

Michelle Charlesworth, from CNN affiliate WABC, has the details.

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MICHELLE CHARLESWORTH, REPORTER, WABC-TV (voice-over): Meet Mr. and Mrs. Francois. This couple is currently getting divorced, but before the relationship hit the rocks, they were trying to get pregnant.

(on-screen): According to court documents, Mr. Deon Francois' sperm was frozen at NYU. Then the breakup happened about two-and-a- half years ago. Mrs. Francois continued to pay $500 a year to keep the sperm frozen and underwent in-vitro. Now, Mr. Francois says he didn't know about any of this. In fact, he didn't know that she was still trying to get pregnant. He thought, if no one was paying to freeze the sperm, it would be thrown away and it was a non-issue.

JOHN JAMES, DEON FRANCOIS' ATTORNEY: He did not want a child at that time. He did not give any kind of written or oral consent for them to -- for NYU to use the sperm. In fact, he didn't pay the storage fees. He moved out, and he forgot about the whole plan of having children with Chaamel.

CHARLESWORTH: But Chaamel Francois' attorney says, not only did her husband know, he was cashing thousands in refunds from the couple's insurance company, reimbursement for fertility bills that she had already paid.

STEVEN GILDIN, CHAAMEL FRANCOIS' ATTORNEY: What do we do in the situation where a man relies on a woman who says, "I'm on birth control," but she's lying? Or what if the birth control just fails? Does that father then have the right to walk away from his financial responsibility? It's the same thing.

CHARLESWORTH: Now the embryo is an 8-month-old baby boy. And the judge says Mr. Francois owes $150 a week in child support.

What about a legal release to use the frozen sperm? She says he signed one. He says it's a fake. What about a notary? She says it's notarized. He says it's a fake. And his attorney says his client has run out of money.

JAMES: He ran out of legal fees. He really ran out of legal fees. And he wants to focus now on concluding the divorce matter and focusing on the case against NYU, the notary, and his wife.

CHARLESWORTH (on-screen): Is that because they have deep pockets?

JAMES: Well, he needs to be compensated. And, you know, he's got to pay child support. I don't know -- it's going to cost maybe several million to raise a child in the 21st century.

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PHILLIPS: Well, more concerns today over the safety of birth control, the birth control patch, that is. Ten women have filed suit against the maker, claiming the device caused them to suffer strokes and blood clots. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a closer look at the risks associated with that patch.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there may be some real risks that we're talking about here, but it's important to keep in mind that the numbers are small here.

Women, about 5 million of them, have taken this product since it's been out for three-and-a-half years. So a large number of women over the past several years have been taking this. And we're talking about a very small number.

First of all, here's how the patch works. The patch is actually affixed to the skin and then, over time, it released a steady stream of hormones. These hormones serve to try and prevent births.

Now, this is in difference of a pill, because you don't have to remember to take a pill every single day. But there are risks with both the patch and the pill. The biggest risk is of blood clots and, subsequently, possibly strokes.

Now, it's been well-known for some time that estrogen can put you at increased risk for strokes. That's true with the patch and the pill. And those risks are certainly worsened if you smoke. That's been known for some time.

These recent reports are talking about the numbers being much higher with the patch than the pill. You may have heard some of those reports, saying three times the likelihood of having a survivable blood clot with the patch versus the pill.

I'm going to take those numbers and just put them in a frame of reference for a second here. They say it's about 1-in-200,000 likelihood of having any problems with the pill, and a 3-in-200,000 likelihood of having a problem with the patch.

I think the point is clear: The numbers are small either way that you look at it. Also, keep in mind that there are people who are going to have a greater risk of these things.

If you've had a history of a heart attack, a history of a stroke, a history of a blood clot in the past, or if you're a smoker, you're at greater risk. It's important to know, as well, that the FDA, for their part right now, is saying that both the patch and the pill are safe and effective.

In case you're curious, there are a couple of new products out there, as well. The NuvaRing, for example. Take a look there. This is just a little ring that releases hormones over three weeks after it's placed. There's also a new intrauterine device, a mechanical device, that just prevents the sperm from meeting the egg.

Both of these devices in early clinical trials appear to be both safe and effective. We'll keep you updated as more data comes in.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: And don't forget that we have a doctor in the house, even on the weekends. Watch CNN Saturday and Sunday mornings, 8:30 Eastern, for all the latest medical news on "HOUSE CALL WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA." This week, a reality check on ADHD.

So straight ahead, when will Iraqis be able to keep their own country secure? Well, a lot of it depends on how this training goes. Just ahead, CNN takes you on the story, teaching Iraqi soldiers and police officers to pick up where Americans hope to leave off.

Also ahead, NASA astronaut and shuttle pilot joins me to talk about Discovery's mission and why America's returning to space.

And then there's this. We're keeping you on your toes here on LIVE FROM. Isn't that what you expect from us?

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SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange, where stocks are staying close to the flat line as investors digest a new round of earnings results.

Right now, the Dow Industrials up -- or down, I should say, nearly 4 points. The NASDAQ, however, is on the positive side, up 4.5 points.

Oil giant B.P.'s profits rose 29 percent in the latest quarter, helped by high oil prices. And the company says it expects high prices and tight demand to continue in the current quarter.

House and Senate negotiators have hammered out most of the details of sweeping energy legislation. But analysts say it may not do much to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Winners in the bill include the coal and nuclear power industries.

Farming communities could also benefit due to a measure to raise the production of ethanol, a corn-based motor fuel additive. Increasing the production of ethanol could boost farm income and add more domestic jobs. The big losers in the energy bill debate appear to be oil companies and other makers of the controversial fuel additive MTBE. They failed to get any liability protection against lawsuits. Environmental groups also lose proposals to conserve oil and increase energy from renewable sources like solar and wind power were rejected. Congressional leaders expect to deliver the bill to President Bush this weekend.

And that's the latest business news. On the next hour of LIVE FROM, chocoholics rejoice. I'll tell you about one big company's effort to market chocolate for its health benefits.

Stay with us. More LIVE FROM right after this.

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