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Bombings Leave Bloody Day in Iraq; Ariel Sharon Seriously Ill; Afghan School Teacher Killed for Teaching Girls; Mine Safety Advocate

Aired January 05, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Second straight day of carnage in Iraq. At least 130 people are dead in one of the bloodiest days of the three- year insurgency.
In Karbala, suicide bomber triggering a blast near two Shiite shrines, killing at least 45 people and wounding a number of others. An even deadlier bombing rocked Ramadi. U.S. Marines say a suicide attacker struck a line of police recruits, killing 80 people.

And in Baghdad, five American soldiers died in the latest roadside blast. A military statement says the troops were killed when their armored Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device.

With the very latest on Iraq's wave of blood shed, CNN's Jennifer Eccleston standing by now live in Baghdad. Maybe we can start with Ramadi and talk about these police recruits.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. It's in the western Al Anbar province, a restive town to begin with, a thorn in the side for the U.S. military as of late, and incredible amount of insurgent activity in that area. And what we saw today was just that.

A suicide bomber with an explosive vest getting in with these police recruitment service in Ramadi. There were some 600 men passing through over the course of four days. This day, the suicide bomber detonated his vest amongst them. And as you mentioned, 80 people killed and 70 wounded -- Kyra

PHILLIPS: Now, Jennifer, you've been embedded with the troops. I've seen you out there in dangerous situations. Time and time again, we see these attacks on these recruit, whether it be for the military or the police. What kind of security is being done to help make this a safer place? Are they screening these recruits more often than -- than expected?

ECCLESTON: There is a certain amount of screening done, but it is impossible to screen, to check, to individually check each person that comes into a city, whether they're living in that city or whether they're coming from outside in various neighborhoods.

There just aren't enough Iraqi police forces and security forces on the ground to patrol and to do this sort of extensive security operations so that they could actually make sure nobody would slip through. There are U.S. forces there, as I mentioned. There is quite a heavy presence in and around -- outside of Ramadi, rather. It's a double-edged sword for them. They are there to protect. They are there to help with the security. But they want to keep a low profile. They want to begin to handover these security operations to the Iraqi police, to the Iraqi armed forces.

So while they're there to lend a helping hand to do additional screening, the burden really is on -- especially at these types of events, the burden is on the Iraqi armed forces, the Iraqi police, to make sure that these people are kept safe and sometimes that doesn't happen.

PHILLIPS: Our Jennifer Eccleston with the latest from Iraq, thanks, Jennifer.

Our other top story: now, prayers, fears, apprehension at the Wailing Wall.

Then quite the opposite, celebration in Gaza. Diametrically opposing reactions to the latest and almost certainly most desperate life and death battle of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister who fought his nation's wars then fought his fellow politicians in search of peace.

This was supposed to be the day Sharon underwent relatively simple surgery to plug a tiny hole in his heart, a hole that may have played a part in the minor stroke the prime minister suffered last month. But just about this time yesterday, Sharon fell ill at his ranch and was sped by ambulance to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, suffering a major stroke en route.

Nine hours of emergency surgery followed. At last report, Sharon's vitals were stable but his overall condition and prognosis dire.

Our coverage begins with CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney. She's in Jerusalem.

And what do we know, Fionnuala? Is he on life support at this point?

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're expecting any moment now, Kyra, news conference which will give us an update. We heard about three hours ago from the Hadassah Medical Center behind me that Ariel Sharon was still on life support.

But according to local Israeli media reports, he is not in a vegetative state. His reflexes have been responding to stimulation. And he has retained brain and heart function. His brain and his heart are operating by themselves, on their own, without any kind of intervention whatsoever.

However he still remains in a serious condition. And we cannot speculate any further about that condition until we have this news conference, which as I say, we're expecting any moment now -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: And it may happen actually while we're talking, Fionnuala, so I'm just going to, as we're monitoring the live picture, ask you one more question. Is this actually a live picture, you guys that we have? It is live. OK. So they've stepped up to the mic. Fionnuala, are you able to see them from where you are?

SWEENEY: Yes, right now, I can see them if I look over my left shoulder. It is the director of hospital here, Shlomo Mor-Yosef, who has been giving regular updates over the past 21 hours or so since Ariel Sharon was admitted to this hospital, as you say, feeling unwell.

The doctors have been very careful to make sure that what they say in their statements doesn't give any kind of detailed prognosis. They say he remains in a serious condition, but his condition is stable.

PHILLIPS: Fionnuala...

SWEENEY: Let's go to the news conference now, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Perfect, thank you, Fionnuala.

SHLOMO MOR-YOSEF, DIRECTOR GENERAL, HADASSAH MEDICAL CENTER (through translator): I will be reporting on the condition of the prime minister. The prime minister is in the neurosurgical ward, intensive care, since the afternoon. His condition has been stable.

All the parameters that we measure in the intensive care unit, blood pressure, plus urine, internal cranial pressure, everything is within the normal numbers for a condition such as his.

The main treatment that he is receiving is anesthesia, and the purpose of this treatment is to reduce the intercranial pressure, the pressure on the brain, and the blood pressure. And that is in order to enable the brain to recover from the serious trauma that it underwent as a result of the event and also as a result of the surgery.

This treatment is not carried out with a stopwatch. It is not carried out to the tempo of the media of the 21st Century. It could take 24, 48, or 72 hours. It depends on his condition. And at this stage, we can only monitor the things that we are able to measure, those things that I mentioned earlier.

I must note that we are receiving responses and reactions from all over the world and all over the country, from the medical community, as well as from all the people who are concerned about the health of the prime minister, who are praying for his health, who altogether with us are expressing the hope that, indeed, the stability in the prime minister's condition is the beginning of a marked improvement that we will be able to see only after the prime minister gradually and in a controlled fashion is allowed to awakens.

This is a long process. It will take at least 48 hours from the time the prime minister emerged from the operating theater. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Professor Mor-Yosef, the picture that you have given us, what are the chances of the prime minister recovering?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): I must state that predicting the future in this type of situation is almost impossible. We have defined what happened to the prime minister as a significant stroke, as internal hemorrhaging, severe internal hemorrhaging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What will be the implications after the hemorrhaging and after the surgery?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): Whether it will have implications on his ability to move, implications on his cognitive abilities, we do not have any assessment at this point. And we can only say that gradually we will wake him up and that will give us some indications regarding the significant of the process that the prime minister has undergone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What side of the brain has been affected? Is the prime minister paralyzed at this point?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): The surgery that the prime minister underwent was on the right side of his brain. The prime minister -- when you put a patient on life support, even if he is the prime minister, he is paralyzed. So it's impossible to assess anything beyond that, because that is a paralysis that we, the doctors, have induced.

And beyond that, as I said earlier, we cannot say anything else. And regarding his cognitive functioning that is not an examination that we can carry out at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Can you carry out motor tests? Do they give -- such tests give any response, positive response at this point?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): As I have stated -- and I understand that it's difficult for you and difficult for the citizens of the state of Israel -- it is very difficult to conduct medicine -- or medical treatments in front of the cameras.

We are not carrying out any motor tests, any tests of the prime minister's movements at this point, because he is under anesthetic. He is in an induced comma and it's impossible to carry out such tests at this point.

The only thing I can tell you is that we examined the prime minister's pupils and they are responding as they should.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): To what kind of stimuli does the prime minister respond?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): The prime minister cannot respond to stimuli at this point because he is on life support and is under anesthesia. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There have been many incisive questions regarding the prime minister's medical treatment. Was it right to give the prime minister blood thinners? Was it right to return the prime minister home after his first stroke?

MOR-YOSEF (through translator): The prime minister received the treatment that was most suitable for him for the state that he was in. He was carried out -- his treatment was carried out by the finest physicians. And we consulted the finest specialists, some of whom you interviewed yourselves on your television programs.

We sought to give the prime minister the best treatment possible. We are convinced that the treatment that we gave the prime minister after the first stroke, which came as a result of a blood clot, was -- what was needed then was to give him a blood thinner and that was what was done. And he got it at -- not at a high dose, at the accepted dosages given. And he was constantly monitored after the treatment, after treatment with Clexin.

There are parameters that can be measured and monitored. And on the day the prime minister came here, we knew he was being given the proper treatment. Last question, please.

Regarding the release of the prime minister from hospital after the first stroke, the prime minister was treated and received the recommendations, as every patient does. We do not leave patients in hospital when there is nothing that we can do to help them in hospital. The prime minister completed the hospitalization chapter of his treatment.

PHILLIPS: You're listening to a live news conference with the director of the Hadassah Medical Center there in Jerusalem where Ariel Sharon is definitely fighting for his life right now.

No -- nothing to really advance this story from the last news conference. We can just tell you pretty much the same information that we have been learning within the past hour. Ariel Sharon, still in the neurosurgical ward in intensive care, in an induced comma.

A number of questions that were asked, his chances of recovering, is he paralyzed, have any motor tests been taken, and also another question, regarding the blood thinners that he was on. Some doctors that have been analyzing his care say that could have led to the problems that he's facing right now.

Fionnuala Sweeney also there, outside the medical center. She's been listening to this news conference. Fionnuala, not really a lot of new information or a lot of answers for just the future of Ariel Sharon right now. Won't really know until he comes out of this induced coma slowly.

SWEENEY: Indeed. And I think it was a very cautiously worded news conference on behalf of the director of the Hadassah Medical Center here. He did say that it was almost impossible to predict the future and, indeed, it would be only over the course of the next 48 hours as they would begin to induce him away from this anesthesia that they would begin to ascertain exactly how much damage has been done and how much recovery he might be able to make.

Now I'm just looking over to my left shoulder here because it is the director of the hospital again speaking to other reporters. But basically, he will be saying the same thing as he's been saying to us.

You also heard there are lots of questions from the media about the treatment the prime minister received when he was first admitted to hospital on December 18 suffering from a minor stroke. There has been lots of speculation that the blood thinners he was given at that time perhaps may have induced this major significant stroke, as it's being described.

It is all, though, speculation. Nothing has been determined at the moment. Because they're unable to determine any kind of reflex action, any kind of behavioral changes, until he is brought out of this anesthesia slowly but surely.

There we leave it for the moment, Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Fionnuala Sweeney, thanks so much. Let us know once you get more information.

Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon is larger than life, almost a mythic figure. Ehud Olmert is, well, not. He's well versed and well known in Middle Eastern politics but so far a minor player on the global scene. Now he's the subject of a CNN fact check.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Acting prime minister Ehud Olmert is no stranger to Israeli politics. Olmert was first elected to Israel's parliament in 1973, when he was only 28 years old. He was re-elected to the Knesset several times.

Then in 1993, he successfully ran for mayor of Jerusalem. During his two terms in office as mayor, Olmert was known for his focus on improving education and mass transportation. He also became good friends with New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani.

After the end of his second term as mayor in 2003, Olmert played a key role in Sharon's re-election campaign and then became a member of Sharon's cabinet, serving as minister of industry and trade and then minister of finance.

He is widely considered to have been Sharon's right-hand man in the last few years, backing controversial decisions on the Gaza pullout and Palestinian self-rule and ultimately abandoning the Likud Party to help him form the more centrist Kadima party.

Ehud Olmert is 60 years old. He lives with his wife in Jerusalem. They have four children.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: For Palestinians, the prospect of life without Sharon is cause for concern, uncertainty, or as we saw in Gaza, public displays of glee. Palestinian leaders are publicly wishing the bulldozer, a nickname Sharon picked up decades ago, a full recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED QOREI, PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER: First, no doubt there will be -- Israelis will miss Sharon as a leader and as a decision maker. For us, the Palestinians, what concern us, first of all, we hope that he will recover. And, second, we are looking all the time for leaders in Israel to be in favor of peace, to be ready to sit with the Palestinians, to start a very serious and credible negotiation. This is what we want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In Afghanistan, a suicide bombing killed at least 10 people and wounded 50 others. Two of the dead are children. Fifteen of those injured are reported in serious condition right now. The bomber blew himself up in a crowded area in the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt. People had been shopping for the upcoming Eid holiday.

There's been a string of roadside and suicide bombings in the province in recent months.

Well, disturbing news out of Afghanistan, where officials in a rural province say that Taliban militants attacked and killed a school master this week. His offense, we're told: allowing girls into his classrooms.

It's not the first time we've heard of the Taliban attacking educators. On the line now from Kabul, Tom Coghlan of Britain's "Daily Telegraph."

Tom, just tell us about what you know about the incident and also this teacher, Malim Abdul Habib (ph), what do you know about him? Obviously someone that was dedicated to the job, no matter what the Taliban said, about teaching these girls.

TOM COGHLAN, "DAILY TELEGRAPH": That's correct, Kyra. This man was a teacher with two decades of teaching experience behind him. He was also the father of seven children. And he previously taught in a school that specialized in handicapped children, children injured by mines.

And in the south of Afghanistan, he's widely respected in Zabol province, which is where he worked and where he was killed on Tuesday night by -- we understand from relatives of his -- four Taliban insurgents who entered his house, killed him with a knife and beheaded him in front of his family and children.

PHILLIPS: Now, Tom, is this the first murder that we have seen of a school teacher? Because I know that insurgents and militants have been attacking teachers for a long time, since this change in government has taken place.

COGHLAN: That's correct. Well, under the Taliban interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, an extreme interpretation of that, they believe that girls should not be educated in any way. And now for the last year in Afghanistan, there's been a campaign of arson and intimidation directed against school teachers and against schools, obviously. Now, a part of that is because school teachers are government employees and the Taliban has targeted government employees more broadly than just teachers.

But this campaign of intimidation against teachers has escalated in the last month. And for the first time last month, December the 14th, a teacher was dragged out of his classroom in Helmand province, south of the country, and executed by the school gate.

That was a mixed class of girl and boys. And he had been warned several times by the Taliban to stop teaching girls. He refused to do so, so they executes him, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Tom, has there been any type of beefed-up security to protect these teachers and to protect young girls going to school, or are there just too many teachers?

COGHLAN: Well, to be honest, the school teachers are really voting with their feet. I mean, currently, we understand, from Zabol province's provincial head of education, there are 150 schools in the province and 100 of those schools are currently shut, because it's just too dangerous for teachers to teach. And who can blame them?

PHILLIPS: Tom, when you talk to these teachers, obviously, so many of them keep coming back into the classroom, no matter what the threats are, and how many times they've been attacked. Why do they tell you they want to keep doing it?

COGHLAN: Well, I think there's lots of reasons. I mean, some people love doing their job. And to be honest, in Afghanistan, it's a society which has seen such enormous suffering and such terrible loss of life. Death is so common in Afghanistan after almost 30 years of war that I think people often -- these men are devout Muslims.

These people just seem to have a different appreciation of risk, I suppose in some sense, than perhaps you or I would. And they are prepared to keep doing this, in many cases, even though they're paid really trifling sums. The government teacher in Afghanistan earns $50 a month. So that really isn't a sort of sum that most of us would put our lives on the line for.

PHILLIPS: Well, they're absolutely courageous people. Tom Coghlan, thank you so much for your time.

Now, as Tom and I talked about in the interview, Taliban militants are being blamed for this beheading. Insurgents claim that educating girls is against Islam. They even oppose government-funded boys' schools, because they teach subjects other than religion.

Well, I put a call in to Imam Yahya Hendi. He's the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University. He's been in our program many times. He says the Koran and Mohammed's teachings do not in any way say that girls should not be educated. Males and females should be treated and educated equally. Here's one of Mohammed's hadiths, or sayings: "Acquiring knowledge is an obligation upon every female and male." And according to the Koran 3:195, "God says never will I suffer to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female. You are from one another."

Well, we're watching a developing story right here in Georgia. A person stuck inside a water tower. You're looking at live pictures right now. We'll bring you more information.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM right after this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Safety isn't the only issue that we're talking about in a union, nonunion discussion. There's benefits, job security and pay. But in the line of work of mining, concern No. 1 is whether you're going to come out of that hole alive.

Joe Main knows that. He's a former coal miner in a union-run mine. He joins me now live from Pittsburgh.

Joe, good to see you.

JOE MAIN, FORMER COAL MINER: Good afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Well, the reason why we've asked you, of course, to be with us today, I've done a number of interviews with a number of people in the industry, and one question we keep hammering home and to these guests, what is being done to protect these miners? It seems like there's such a lack of advocacy and legislation to protect such a dangerous profession.

And your name keeps coming up as somebody that, for years, has fought to protect miners. Tell me what your biggest struggle has been.

MAIN: Well, I spent 22 years as the head of the United Mine Workers Health and Safety Department. And that was a very challenging job. Just retired recently. But it's been a real challenge to have the political system moving a way that actually protects miners and improves standards.

I think this mining accident at the end of the day is going to produce some information about shortcomings that clearly point to the need of improvements in mine safety. It's already raised a number of questions with regard to the violations at the mine, which nearly doubled in the last half of the year, the failure violations that were issued, that -- or the kind that are very rarely issues anymore and are issued to mine operators who seem to -- or are more resistant to compliance with the Mine Act.

Questions about what caused the explosion. If it was methane, which that's the likely source, how it elevated to explosive levels, what caused the -- triggered the explosion. What role the federal government played in protecting the miners. What role the mine operator played in really having a safe mine. These are things that we look at and I've looked at many, many times over the many disasters and actions that I've investigated over the past years.

PHILLIPS: Now, Sago, it's not a unionized mine. So let's -- tell me how that has hurt these workers. First of all, safety, their rights and now the investigation. By not being unionized, how is this going to hurt those three things?

MAIN: Well, I don't think there's any question about the fact that miners who work in union mines have a voice of protection if they want to raise concerns about the health and safety conditions that exist. If the company starts putting pressure on him for raising those, they have the full support of the union behind them.

Miners at nonunion mines don't have that -- don't have that benefit and that luxury. And I think that many miners throughout the country are caught in a situation where they may feel it's better for their job if they just be quiet about it and go along with whatever the company wants. That's not saying that that goes -- it's that way in every mine. But it's, I think, a general standard of difference there.

PHILLIPS: Is that why public hearings are so important, Joe, why you're calling for those, so secrets can't be kept and things can't be brushed under the table?

MAIN: Absolutely. I think if public hearings are not held to get to the bottom of this tragedy, that there's going to be some real credibility questions raised. We had problems with the Jim Walter mine disaster investigation, where it was the -- the government gave the appearance that they were trying to cover up information...

PHILLIPS: That was in Alabama in 2001. Right.

MAIN: In 2001. And we described that in a final report. Problems occurred during the Quecreek investigation, where I received a call from a lawyer who was representing the miners, was kicked out of the hearing, and the lawyers for the companies were allowed to be in when the miners were being interviewed. Now that got remedied after some controversy was raised. But these are the kinds of problems that exist.

And I think what needs to happen here, the public needs to know, the miners need to know, the families of those miners need to know the truth about what happened here, and there's really a need to have a public hearing to get to the bottom of this.

PHILLIPS: Joe Main, I'm hearing we're about to lose you -- our signal with you. So I'm going to ask you, please, we're going to talk again, we're going to bring you back.

Joe Main, former coal miner, also was heavily involved with the unions and has been a tremendous advocate for miners and miners' rights. We're going to bring Joe back and talk to him again about more issues, specifically about rescue teams and how he believes the number of rescue teams has been shrinking and that if, indeed, there are more, that it's possible a response to what happened in Upshur County could have possibly been prevented -- more lives could have been saved. So many more issues at hand that we will talk with about -- with Joe Main in the future, in the coming days.

Well, the Sago mine represents a new reality in the mining industry: More demand for coal means more mining, more miners and a trend away from union oversight. That disturbs industry insiders, insiders like Joe Main, who equate union with safety.

Here's more from CNN's Ali Velshi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Decades ago, before nuclear power and natural gas were big, there were a quarter million mine workers in America, and 70 percent of them were unionized. Today there are 74,000 U.S. coal miners but only half of them are unionized. They're represented by the United Mine Workers of America. The union says its members are better protected.

DAN KANE, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA: We cannot be disciplined in any way for insisting on a safe workplace. If we're given a job to do that we believe is dangerous, we can refuse.

VELSHI: The group representing mining companies agrees that unionized workers have a clearer complaint structure than non-union miners, but they say non-union shops give the same attention to safety. Concerned non-union workers can talk to shift supervisors who work in the mines with them, or to the mine's director of safety.

Workers who fear reprisal can call a hot line run by the Department of Labor, which enforces mine safety and leave an anonymous tip. But the Sago Mine was cited by the Department of Labor with 46 safety violations over the past three months. Would it have made a difference if the mine had been unionized? West Virginia mining veteran Virgil Bach says yes.

VIRGIL BACK, FORMER MINE WORKER: The non-union, you go to work, keep your mouth shut, do your job and go home. You go there and you see things, and you don't like what you see, you say too much, and you ain't around very long.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We're going to hear more of course about the investigation into that mining accident and the condition of the sole survivor, Randal McCloy, coming up after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight to Fredricka Whitfield now working on a developing story in the newsroom.

Fred, what's going on?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kyra, for anyone who doubted the potential dangers of doing any kind of work, specifically painting, on, say, a water tower, take notice of this. In Jefferson, Georgia, which is northeast of Atlanta, you're looking at some rescue operations that are under way because a worker who was painting inside the water tower fell apparently about 35 feet, and now rescue workers are there. They've already lowered a basket into the water tower to try to retrieve this worker.

Jefferson Police Chief Darren Glenn is on the line with us to give us more specific idea of exactly how do you carry out this rescue mission?

Chief, you've lowered the basket. Then what?

DARREN GLENN, JEFFERSON, GEORGIA POLICE: They will be bringing them up -- as you can see -- I can't see the very top -- they'll bring him up through the top of the water tank. There's a ladder off to the side. I spoke with the chief of Hall (ph) County. The rescue worker, he Said they will bring them up, the side of the ladder, and then lower him onto the rail of this (INAUDIBLE) tank, and then off the scaffolding.

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's a pretty dangerous mission right there, just trying to figure out how to gingerly and carefully get him on to the side of that tower, on to the scaffolding that you're talk about.

About how many people are involved in this mission?

GLENN: There's 200, probably, people now, all over, involved in the operation right now.

WHITFIELD: Two-hundred people 200 people that means not just on the water tank itself, but on the ground?

GLENN: On the ground, the ground crew perimeter.

WHITFIELD: What's your...

GLENN: Couple...

WHITFIELD: And what's your understanding, chief, what happened? We know he was doing some painting inside the tower. How did he break loose of whatever kind of security lines he may have been using?

GLENN: I'm not aware of safety equipment right now. We do know he was inside the tank, painting the tank, lost his footing and fell approximately 35 feet to the bottom of the thing.

WHITFIELD: So how did you all find out about him? Did he have a partner working with him? Or was there some kind of radio communication.

GLENN: He did. He had a partner working with him, and he telephoned 911. They called the emergency personnel. WHITFIELD: What's the condition of the worker as far as you know?

GLENN: He's stable, in stable condition right now. He's alert and conscious. And it appears he's (INAUDIBLE) -- but he is alert and conscious.

WHITFIELD: How long do you expect, chief, before you're able to hoist them in that basket outside of the tank?

GLENN: I just spoke with Mr. Milton Keller (ph), who is in charge of operations in Hall County. He said it would be approximately maybe 30 to 40 minutes, could a little sooner, depending on the scaffolding on top of it, the tripods to pull him up from the bottom of the tank.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, well, it's an amazing undertaking that you all have on your hands right now. Jefferson Police Chief Darren Glenn, thanks so much for being with us. And of course, Kyra, you can continue to monitor the developments there of this rescue mission on Pipeline -- Kyra.

WHITFIELD: CNN.com/pipeline. Thanks so much, Fred.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Randy McCloy is the only man to make it through the ordeal at the Sago Mine. He's out of the coal pit but far from out of the woods. Doctors call McCloy's condition critical but stable. He is a story of survival, and the nation is watching a West Virginia town for any signs of his improvement.

CNN's Jonathan Freed is at the hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia. Jonathan, what have we learned from the last news conference?

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, that happened just about an hour ago. And I can say that doctors described his condition as guarded. That gave us some pause. And they went on to say but he is a critically ill patient.

When asked about how his brain is doing, because that has been a constant area of concern here -- did he get an adequate supply of oxygen? Would there be brain damage? The doctor that was speaking on behalf of his medical team today reluctantly conceded that he believes that it is at least likely that there is some brain damage.

When asked why, he explained that, well, the patient just hasn't waken up yet and they would have expected that at this point that he was going to do that.

They do say, though, by contrast, that there's been some improvement in the lungs and the kidneys and the heart and the liver, but the doctors caution that the pace of recovery can be somewhat uneven in a situation like this and let's listen to more of what they had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOHN PRESCOTT, W.VA. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Yes, we see improvement, but this is one of these processes in which you see -- sometimes can see moving forward two steps, then you may take three steps back, then maybe four steps forward. That's how it is when you deal with an incredibly ill ICU patient.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: One of the problems that doctors say they're having in getting right to the heart of trying to treat him -- they keep saying they're doing the best they can -- they say they just don't know exactly what happened to him and that he is the only person who knows what happened down there and he just can't communicate with them yet -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Do they have any idea when he could come out of that coma?

FREED: We've asked that question repeatedly, and everybody holding their breath every time it gets asked. A lot of care and concern in the air here on the part of everybody. And doctors just shrug and they say that they wish that they could give us an answer but they just don't know at this point.

PHILLIPS: Any word from his wife or have the kids been able to come to the hospital? I was even try to figure out the ages of his two children. Do we know that, John?

FREED: Yes, his kids are young. I believe that it's a 4-year- old and 1-year-old. And I know that his wife did issue a statement that was read at the beginning of the news conference, and she thanked everybody for the support that she's been getting.

And there have, of course, been a lot of requests for her to come out and speak, but she's saying at this point that she really needs her privacy and she's asking everybody to respect that -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Of course. Jonathan Freed, thanks so much. We'll keep checking in with you.

And we've learned in the past of couple hours that some of those doomed miners had recorded their final thoughts for the benefit of their loved ones. Our correspondent at the scene has confirmed that at least one of those notes, a miner assured his family that he and his co-workers were not suffering and believed that they were just simply going to sleep.

We'll have more on the heartbreaking contents of those notes just a little later in the program. More LIVE FROM next.

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PHILLIPS: Well, disturbing news today from Turkey as the World Health Organization dispatches a team of experts to investigate the deaths of two teens from suspected bird flu. The brother and sister lived in a remote, rural district of Turkey near Armenia. Local newspapers are reporting that chickens were kept at this home. H5N1 has already been confirmed in birds in that region. Initial tests show the siblings come to some form of bird flu. Further testing will be done to verify if it was, indeed, H5N1.

Eighteen other people, many of them members of this teen's family, are ill with flu-like symptoms now. And if the cases in Turkey are confirmed as the lethal H5N1, they would be the first human fatalities reported outside of Southeast Asia and China. To date, there is no evidence the bird flu virus has acquired the ability to easily transmit from person-to-person.

Here in the U.S., H5N1 has not been detected in either local or migratory birds, but the nation's poultry industry is already putting an aggressive plan into action. The National Chicken Council announced a voluntary plan today to test every chicken flock in the U.S. before slaughter.

The industry says that it will finance the plan, which calls for 11 birds to be tested from each flock or farm. That means more than 1.5 million birds. If H5N1 is detected and then confirmed, affected flocks would be destroyed so that none of the chickens would enter the flood chain. A spokesperson for the council says that 90 percent of the nation's poultry producers have already signed up and more are expected to follow. The U.S. produced more than 9.5 billion chickens just last year.

Well, straight ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fighting for his life. We're live from the hospital, where he's being treated in Jerusalem.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM right after this.

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PHILLIPS: Well, making a lot of buzz this week, CNN Pipeline, a new special news service from CNN.com. It's changing the way you get your news over the Internet, and the way we're getting our news, too.

Veronica De La Cruz in the CNN Pipeline control room to walk us through some of its features -- Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Hey there, Kyra.

Yes, we're live in the CNN Pipeline control room and we want to show you how Pipeline works. Let's go ahead and go over here and take a look at it right now.

First of all, you have four different video options and that's where the pipes come in. This is the main pipe that we're looking at right now. And if you don't necessarily want to look at that, don't forget that you have other options. There are four different pipes running underneath.

Let's go ahead and click on pipe number four. Right now we are streaming live pictures of that water tower rescue that's happening in Georgia.

Now, if there is a story that you're not too familiar with or you want to get caught up with that maybe happened, you know, at the beginning of the week or so, let's just say the West Virginia mining accident, you can go ahead and type in "miners," the subject, into the search field right here, click on this button, Kyra, and there you have a myriad of different video options. And they're all separated by time, section, and by most watched.

Now, Kyra, if you're a person on the go, which a lot of us are these days, maybe a feature that you really would enjoy is "Now in the News," which is a two-and-half minute rundown of the day's top stories. You can find it on left-hand side of the pipeline player. Just go ahead and click on "Now in the News" and that brings up the segment. And there we have Virginia Cha (ph), who's one of our colleagues.

Now, Kyra, something that I absolutely love about Pipeline is the interactivity. The fact that CNN Pipeline can interact with its users is phenomenal. The way we do that is with a feature called "Your Voice." You can find "Your Voice" on the right-hand side of the player. You can go ahead and fill in your name and your message, send that to us, and we, of course, love to get your opinions on the stories we're running, and of course try to get a story that you want to see on the air.

So Kyra, I do want to mention that CNN Pipeline is a premium service, but you can sign up for a free trial at CNN.com/pipeline -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Veronica, thanks so much. Second hour of LIVE FROM starts right after this break.

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PHILLIPS: In Iraq, at least 130 people are dead in one of the bloodiest days of the insurgency. Suicide attackers struck police recruits in Ramadi and Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, killing more than 100 people in those two attacks combined.

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