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Authorities Investigate Sinking of Egyptian Ferry; Super Bowl Ad War; Police Investigate Alabama Church Fires

Aired February 03, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A suspicious package in Maryland.
Betty Nguyen working on the story in the newsroom for us.

What do we know, Betty?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are learning a little bit more.

Want to take you live to some pictures coming out of Gaithersburg, Maryland, where this suspected explosive device was found around 12:30 today. A robot has been sent to the area right where this device is.

In the meantime, you're looking at children being evacuated from nearby day cares and an elementary school that's there. This is centered in the middle of a residential area.

And here is that picture of the robot right now. We're looking at live pictures. We have been watching this robot for the last -- oh, I don't know -- 15, 20 minutes, and it hasn't moved. So, obviously, the fire and rescue crews, along with the hazmat team and a bomb squad, they are very -- being very cautious in dealing with what is believed to be a suspected explosive device.

And, as we told you, just as precaution, nearby residents, church, elementary school, day cares, all of them have been evacuated, purely as a precautionary measure.

Here's a tighter look at that robot there. We can't get a good idea of what this package looks like, but the only thing that we're being told by authorities at this time is that it is a suspected explosive device, and they have determined that because the first crews on the scene took a look at it. They called for backup. Then, came the hazmat team, the bomb squad, and local police.

And they used this robot to -- to take a closer look at what was inside this package. And because of that closer look, they decided to initiate the evacuations of the nearby residence and -- and the students there.

But here's a look at that park in this residential area. It's not a very big one at all. And you can see that there are cars just -- really, just a few feet from this bench, which is right next to that robot there. So, we don't know if the package is on the bench, underneath the bench, what the package looks, indeed. And, on top of that, we're not exactly sure what's inside the package. All we know is, according to folks on the scene, this is believed to be a suspected explosive device, but, again, that robot hasn't really made much of a move in the last 15, 20 minutes.

So, we are going to stay on top of it. We are going to keep watching it and bring you the latest -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Betty, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, on shore, sandstorms at sea, rough waters -- investigators looking at the weather in the sudden overnight sinking of an Egyptian ferry. It was packed with workers and pilgrims, 1,400 or more, on their way home to Egypt from Saudi Arabia. Most are feared dead.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is where they expect it to dock, right there at the port of Safaga.

He joins us now by phone.

Ben, we had a chance to talk to the transportation minister. He said, so far, 263 survivors, only three dead. Is that right?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: That is right.

Well, some other Egyptian officials -- officials are say that more than 100 bodies have also been recovered, but we haven't been able to confirm that. Really, basically, all we know is that a large number of the passengers are still unaccounted for.

Now, I am right outside the main entrance to the Safaga port, where there are dozens of Egyptian riot policemen, making sure none of a fairly large crowd of people -- some onlookers, some relatives of those who were on that boat, are waiting for more news, more information.

My understanding is that very little information has been provided here on the scene, although one of my colleagues did have a chance to see a list of passengers. And, contrary to what we're hearing from the U.S. State Department, he said, on that list, there is one American. But we need to double-check that -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right.

And we're just getting these pictures in, Ben, actually seeing survivors in lifeboats. Is that still the situation right now, because, obviously, this is tape? Are there still survivors out there in lifeboats that are being plucked from the water?

WEDEMAN: That, we don't know.

Here, it's 10:00 p.m. at night. It is dark. The winds are picking up. And, therefore, if they're still out there, the conditions are going -- are going to be increasingly difficult in the coming hours. Now, we do know that, earlier in the day, there were Egyptian helicopters and other aircraft in the air. There were also boats out to sea, but, from my vantage point, it's very difficult to see if that operation is still ongoing -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ben Wedeman from Egypt, thank you so much.

Well, as we mentioned earlier, the U.S. and U.K. both offered help with the rescues. The U.S. Navy was ready to send an aircraft. The Brits offered the warship HMS Bulwark, but they say the Egyptians turned them down. The Egyptian ambassador to the U.S. tells CNN the offers were appreciated, but, in his words, it was simply a matter of organizing the search-and-rescue process.

Screams from the scene of a hate crime -- a desperate call to 911 from the Massachusetts gay bar that had just witnessed a rampage.

Our senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff, is in New Bedford with the latest.

Do we know anything about the search for the suspect, Allan?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the search is going on.

And the fact that the pounding rain we had been getting all day long has finally let up should help the police in their search for 18- year-old Jacob Robida. He's charged with an absolutely brutal hate crime, assaulting three men in a gay bar two nights ago using a handgun and a hatchet.

Robida was last seen driving a green 1999 Pontiac Grand Am with Massachusetts plates. Police say he weighs about 200 pounds, is 5 feet 6 inches tall. They say he's armed and extremely dangerous.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: Nine-one-one. What's the emergency?

(SCREAMING)

911 OPERATOR: Yes.

(SCREAMING)

911 OPERATOR: Sounds like a fight.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Call 911!

(SCREAMING)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Allan, it's pretty chilling... CHERNOFF: That was...

PHILLIPS: ... to hear those 911 tapes. Yes. We just -- we -- we rolled that.

I -- I know that you talked with police, also, though, about the search for the suspect. I know they also went in this home. Did they recover anything?

CHERNOFF: Well, certainly, in the home, yes, they did recover quite a bit of very interesting material.

In -- in his home, they did see Nazi literature, also anti- Semitic writings on the wall. They found a sheath for a knife, the knife missing, and police believe that Robida does have that knife with him.

Now, of course, that was the 911 call to police. The police released that call this morning. The police also have said that they believe Robida could strike again, but they have also said that they believe he may be suicidal. So, there certainly is the possibility of -- of something un -- untoward happening in the future here.

But the -- the manhunt is ongoing -- and, as we said, a very brutal crime. And they do believe that this is -- this is the man behind it.

PHILLIPS: Well, we will follow...

CHERNOFF: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We will follow the manhunt, every second of it.

Thank you so much, Allan Chernoff.

Well, who would burn down a church? That's what everyone is asking in Central Alabama today, after a half-dozen church fires overnight. Arson is strongly suspected.

And CNN's David Mattingly is there.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we're looking at five fires in rural Bibb County, all of them started, it's believed, between midnight and 3:00 this morning.

Most of them, we are told, are Baptist churches. Four of them have predominantly white congregations. One of them has a predominantly black congregation. So, at this hour, authorities are saying it does not appear to be a racially motivated crime.

And while they say they have no physical evidence yet that are actually -- that is actually linking all of these fires, the Bibb County sheriff is speculating that -- that it appears that they were set as fast as someone could drive from one location to the other.

Two, maybe three, of these churches are a total loss. Two were only partially damaged, suggesting they might have burst into flames some time later in the evening.

Again, there's no outward evidence of a hate crime, and no one was hurt in this. But the ATF, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, is taking this very seriously. They're sending a lot of personnel here to pick through the rubble and see what they can find. They will also be looking at a sixth location in Chilton County -- that's a neighbor county to Bibb County -- that fire at a Baptist church burning yesterday in the town of Clanton -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: David, two questions -- as fire investigators are looking into what might have caused the fires, does it look like there are any connections and similarities in how the fires were started? In addition, do they have any suspects or any leads to a suspect?

MATTINGLY: No suspects and no leads that they're talking about. They're having a news conference -- that will be at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time -- where they will come out and tell us what they know and what they don't know.

We're told that they will be asking for the public's help in coming forward with anything they might have seen overnight last night that might help them in pinpointing who was responsible for this.

PHILLIPS: David Mattingly, thanks so much.

Well, a new warning -- a new warning, rather, that terror attacks could hit Britain again, and they could include suicide bombings like the ones that killed 52 commuters in London last summer. The warning comes from Britain's terrorism law watchdog, Lord Carlile, who was alarmed after seeing government documents.

Well, at the same time, Prime Minister Blair's government wants Parliament to renew a law allowing house arrest and other restrictions on terror suspects without charges or trials.

Desperately poor, forsaken and barren, not just the Third World, but the very ends of the Earth -- it's fertile ground for al Qaeda, but now U.S. forces hope to make inroads themselves.

CNN's Barbara Starr went to Ethiopia for a first-hand look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Horn of Africa -- we have come to this desperately poor, largely Islamic region. Fourteen hundred U.S. troops are here, fighting to keep al Qaeda at bay. The commander tells us of his weapons -- medicine, education, clean water.

MAJOR GENERAL TIMOTHY F. GHORMLEY, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Instead of sending out a -- a rifleman, I send out a doctor.

STARR: The slums of Djibouti, where thousands of refugees from Somalia are living.

(on camera): It is in refugee ghettos like this one -- they are all over the region -- that the U.S. worries, al Qaeda may be recruiting.

(voice-over): The northern edge of Somalia, a country where al Qaeda openly recruits. The U.S. military does not enter Somalia, but, here, there is no border. We, and potentially al Qaeda, can walk freely.

Back at Camp Le Monier, a torrential downpour turns everyone into a makeshift engineer, draining the mini-flash flood.

(on camera): These are the living quarters here for the U.S. troops in the Horn of Africa. It's pretty rugged, but it's all the conveniences of home. This is my shower towel. I have a big curtain put up for some privacy. And, if you follow me in here, this is where one spends the night when you sleep here.

(voice-over): In Yemen, we are at the ancient Bar-el (ph), Yemen, souk. This is a country where al Qaeda has attacked, where Westerners have been kidnapped. There are few tourists.

We travel with the U.S. special operations team. They do not wear uniforms. We are escorted by Yemeni security forces through a stunning landscape, dotted by mountain villages -- a brief stop at the spot where terrorists bombed the USS Cole. Yemen wants the U.S. to believe the country now is safe.

But it is here in southern Ethiopia, in the town of Gode, the children grab your heart with their smiles. Here, the children run up to U.S. soldiers in delight. They play. Everyone laughs.

Radios are a major source of information. Food is not plentiful. In the outlying villages, there is drought.

At this medical clinic the soldiers run, the story we have sought about the war on terror being fought with medicine and care.

CAPTAIN KAREN LANDMANN, U.S. ARMY: By us being here, we're trying to avoid having to send 150,000 troops into -- into another country.

STARR: This place of peaceful farmers and quiet rivers, a place the U.S. is determined terrorism will not take hold.

Barbara Starr, with cameraman Tomas Etzler, CNN, Gode, Ethiopia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Still to come, anger in the Muslim world, it's not fading; it's getting louder and closing to boiling over -- the cartoon storm when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Some call it freedom of the press. Some call it a thoughtless offense to Islam. Some call it much ado about nothing. All agree it's a firestorm. Tempers flare in the Palestinian territories, where throngs of Islamic faithful rallied again today, demanding a European apology. That's after several Western papers republished editorial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. It's just not safe there, so, overnight, some diplomats, news crews and European Union employees left Gaza for safer digs in Israel.

Anger also in the nation with the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia -- the word from the Foreign Ministry is Islamophobia. And it's blamed for a swell of tension that exploded today in Jakarta.

CNN's Eunice Yoon reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EUNICE YOON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 200 angry Muslim protesters clamored over bushes and barricades, as they rushed the high-rise building housing the Danish Embassy in Jakarta. About one dozen broke through security, voicing their outrage over cartoon drawings, originally published in a Danish newspaper, of the Prophet Muhammad.

"JORDAN," PROTEST LEADER (through translator): We condemn the caricatures, and we demand them to make an apology to all Muslims all over the world.

YOON: The 12 cartoons, one which depicts Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb for a turban, first appeared in a Danish newspaper last September. Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, good or bad. CNN is blurring the image of this cartoon.

The cartoon has been reprinted in several European newspapers, triggering protests throughout the Muslim world. The European papers say it's a matter of free speech and expression. But Indonesia's government, which had criticized the Danish paper for publishing the cartoons, believes freedom of expression has its limits.

YURI THAMRIN, INDONESIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: We are well aware of the importance of the concept freedom of expression. But, having acknowledged the sanctity of this concept, we also believe that it is not to be used to justify -- justify slander, justify defamations to sacred religious symbols.

YOON: Demonstrators in the world's most populous Muslim nation are now calling for their government to cut diplomatic ties with Denmark and boot the ambassador from the country, making some cartoons of their own.

Eunice Yoon, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The bus rolls into Detroit carrying a few friends home for dinner, an important weekend for Jerome Bettis. And it's not just because his team is in the Super Bowl. Hey, mama Bettis, can we come to dinner, too?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: It's the biggest thing on television. No, we're not talking about Ali Velshi. We're talking about the Super Bowl ads and the demands for prices that look like telephone numbers for 30-second ads. Make that long-distance telephone numbers. I said it was bad.

CNN's Ali Velshi, a big thing in TV himself, has more on the ad- travaganza.

I didn't know if it would be able to say it. I think I got it out.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, that was good. And...

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: And, you know, old -- the old standards are coming out. We have talked about this a lot.

There are the -- the funny ads, the gimmicky ads, the ones that use celebrity, the ones that use sex appeal, the ones that have to go through 15 revisions before they get on TV. And then there are few that have messages.

Now, I know you have talked about the Dove ad, which is part of a campaign aimed at young girls, which is an unusual audience for the Super Bowl. And then there's Ford, which is also coming out with a message ad.

Now, here's an interesting approach. Ford and GM, both companies in trouble, both of them want that 90-million-people audience that watch the Super Bowl -- GM using the Super Bowl to -- to kick off its 2007 Escalade, a big, gas-guzzling guy car. Ford is going green, really green, with Kermit the Frog.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, FORD AD)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It is sort part gas, part electric. And that -- and everyone says that's being green. Of course, it's -- it's not quite being green like I'm green. If I could get one thing out of doing this ad, it would be that we take care of -- of these beautiful woods and -- and this beautiful world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: So, that's -- that's one approach, the idea that, in this gas-guzzling world, with gas prices the way they are, Ford is trying to take this new approach.

Now, in both Ford and Dove's cases, Kyra, these are part of longer campaigns. Dove has got a five-year strategy to talk about self-esteem with young girls, girls who are perhaps uncomfortable with their appearance, dark-haired girls who want to be blonde, the girl with the freckles you just saw...

PHILLIPS: What...

VELSHI: ... this one, who thinks she's ugly.

PHILLIPS: Well, what's the thought behind this, that because more -- a lot of men watch the Super Bowl, so, they're thinking, well, you know, this could target dads or...

VELSHI: Yes. It could target parents, exactly.

PHILLIPS: Right.

VELSHI: I mean, in this day and age, these are challenges that kids face. There are all sorts of self-esteem problems. So, that might be part of the effect.

The other thing is, it's -- it's this broader corporate citizenship idea. So, well after the ad is out of your mind, Ford and Dove want to be associated with these better things, being better for the environment, helping out young girls with self-esteem, as opposed to some ads, which will cause you to buy a product. Obviously, there will be Pizza Hut ads. And they will launch a new product.

And there will be Pepsi ads, and the idea that go and buy this now, get that in -- get that in front of your mind. But the -- the longer campaigns -- you know, when you're paying this much for -- for -- for an ad, 2 -- $2.5 million bucks for 30 seconds, by some reports, you -- you want the best bang for your buck.

And -- and it's interesting, the different approaches that different companies will take to these -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, so, as we get close to the closing bell, is that -- is that worth saving our potty humor for closing bell?

VELSHI: You know, fantastic story, Kyra....

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: ... for everybody who is a multitasker today, the story about how the bathroom is becoming a preeminent workplace for people.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: It sounds funny, but it's really true.

PHILLIPS: I know you have got your BlackBerry, right, your wireless computer.

VELSHI: And you know what one...

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: ... one of the biggest hazards of using the bathroom? I will tell you more about this, but you know what one of the biggest hazards is...

PHILLIPS: What is it?

VELSHI: ... about doing business in the bathroom?

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: What is it?

VELSHI: Work business.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Is -- it's call BlackBerry dunk.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Oh, geez. Oh, we're going to all new levels here. All right.

Hey, and right behind you, you know, a very hard worker, that's my booker behind you.

VELSHI: Jill (ph).

PHILLIPS: That's Jill (ph), yes.

VELSHI: Jill (ph) is a very hard worker.

PHILLIPS: Hi, Jill (ph).

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: There we go. Give us a little wave.

VELSHI: I quite enjoy sitting here, because Jill (ph) keeps me busy...

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: ... in between these reports.

PHILLIPS: Good. She brings us great guests.

Thanks, Ali. I will see you in a little bit.

VELSHI: Yes. See you in a bit.

Well, at least one publication said the Super Bowl is awash in money, and that's probably a good description. Here's the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): The face value of a ticket to this year's Super Bowl is $600, but most of the tickets were gobbled up by corporations before the public even got a chance to buy.

Tickets have sold for thousands of dollars on eBay. It wasn't always this way, though. The first Super Bowl in Los Angeles in 1967 didn't even sell out. Many people even said that the $12 tickets were overpriced. Those early Super Bowls were televised, but a 30-second spot back then cost a mere $42,000.

Super Bowl ads have come a long way since then. Apple paid $800,000 for its famous one-minute 1984 commercial. By 1996, 30- second spots cost at least $1 million. And, this year, ABC is getting more than $2.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime.

Incidentally, grocery stores make a little extra money during Super Bowl week as well. Their best-sellers are soft drinks, beer and hot dogs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, when it comes to the Super Bowl, everyone has something to say, apparently even an elephant in Texas.

This prognosticating pachyderm known as Rasha has made her choice. In a somewhat less than scientific display, she picks the Seattle Seahawks to win. But don't bet the mortgage. Rasha's record is a little iffy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRACY STURROCK, FORTH WORTH ZOO: Well, in 2003, Rasha was correct in picking the Super Bowl winner. 2004, she was incorrect. In 2005, she did not pick the Super Bowl winner. She was concentrating on her painting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, good thinking, Rasha. It's important to make time for your art. She seems unimpressed with the whole shebang, kind of like us.

Straight ahead, entertainment news with A.J. Hammer of "Showbiz Tonight."

Hey, A.J., what's on tap?

A.J. HAMMER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I just love that music so much. I'm sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

HAMMER: I want to get up and dance all of a sudden.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: You -- you can do that.

(CROSSTALK)

HAMMER: ... could bring that back.

PHILLIPS: Go ahead.

HAMMER: Well, we have all heard about Dave Chappelle, the big comedian, walking away from a $50 million deal with Comedy Central. He finally opens up about why he did that to Oprah Winfrey. We will have that and much more -- when LIVE FROM continues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER BORGHESI, TEACHER: My thought was that I would probably work with Verizon until around age 55. It still sounds kind of young for a retiree, but that was my plan. But, then, my plans changed.

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life after work caught Peter Borghesi by surprise when Verizon offered him early retirement at age 51. He took the buyout, but...

BORGHESI: I wasn't ready for the hammock in the backyard or anything, or the golf course yet. And I knew I had to do something.

WESTHOVEN: Borghesi had considered a teaching career when he was in college. Now, about 30 years later, he's finally where he wanted to be -- in the classroom.

BORGHESI: A couple of my teacher friends said, don't do it. You don't know what you're getting into. Summers off sound great to somebody who was in another industry. But it's not that easy.

WESTHOVEN: Borghesi felt he had found his calling and entered an accelerated program to get certified. Now he teaches full-time at an inner-city school.

BORGHESI: I ended up here in Jersey City, P.S.-39, Charles DeFuccio School. I teach science and math in sixth grade. And if a kid, for example, comes into class and can't write very well, and that's in September, and by the end of the school year, that same kid is now writing coherent paragraphs, sentences, then you know you got to the kid. You know you -- you had an effect on that kid's life.

And that, I think, is the reward. It's not a monetary reward. It's not a reward where I get something that I can hang on my wall and say, gee, look what I did. It's just something that comes from the heart that you just feel good about it.

WESTHOVEN: Jennifer Westhoven, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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