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Debate Rages over Dubai Company Assuming Control of Ports; U.S. Ambassador: Iraq Must End Sectarian Violence; U.S. Officials Test Birds for Bird Flu to Head Off Outbreak

Aired February 20, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, ANCHOR: This is the first in a series of speeches that the president plans to make on energy and breaking what he calls America's addiction to oil.
We'll have more on those as they continue. I'm Daryn Kagan. We're going to go back to the news now with CNN's LIVE FROM.

BETTY NGUYEN, CO-HOST: From the CNN world headquarters right here in Atlanta, I'm Betty Nguyen. Kyra Phillips is off today.

TONY HARRIS, CO-HOST: And I'm Tony Harris. Happy Presidents' Day. LIVE FROM starts right now.

In the post-9/11 era, it's a deadly serious discussion. Should a Middle Eastern company be allowed to control operations in some of America's biggest ports? The Bush administration says yes, but critics disagree.

CNN White House correspondent, Elaine Quijano, has both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Homeland security chief Michael Chertoff is defending the Bush administration's decision to approve a deal allowing a state-owned Dubai company, Dubai Ports World, to take over operations at six major American ports.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The general process that has to work before this incursion requires a very thorough review and, where appropriate, necessary conditions or safeguards have to be put into place.

QUIJANO: The ports affected include ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans. But both Democratic and Republican lawmakers say that could make Americans less safe.

REP. VITO FOSSELLA (R), NEW YORK: Imagine if today there was an official announcement that Dubai was to take over security at our airports? Would not the American people question why and be somewhat outraged that we would delegate authority and security of our airports to a foreign nation?

QUIJANO: New York Senator Chuck Schumer is calling on President Bush to personally intervene to block the contract. SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with long involvement in terrorism is a homeland security accident waiting to happen.

QUIJANO: According to the 9/11 Commission report, at least one hijacker drew money from bank accounts based in the UAE to help fund operations. And, the commission noted, one of the hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, was from the UAE.

But the Bush administration calls the United Arab Emirates a leading partner in the fight against terrorism. And Chertoff says there are other factors to consider.

CHERTOFF: Certainly, Congress is welcome to look at this and can get classified briefings. We have to balance the paramount urgency of security against the fact that we still want to have a robust, global trading system.

QUIJANO (on camera): The company, DP World, could not be reached for comment. Meantime, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is calling the Bush administration's decision, quote, "unbelievably tone deaf politically."

Last week, Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Menendez said they were working on legislation to ban foreign state- owned companies from controlling operations at U.S. ports.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: So in just a couple of minutes, we will talk more about this with a man who has plenty of stake in this debate: Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. His city, of course, is home to one of the biggest ports in the nation.

NGUYEN: At least 15 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier are dead in another day of violence across Iraq. The bloodiest attack today in Baghdad.

A suicide bomber strapped with explosives climbed aboard a minibus and blew himself up, killing 10 people and wounding eight. Two others were killed in a bombing just north of Baghdad.

Now to Mosul where a bomb blew up in a restaurant packed with police officers. At least three people were killed in that attack. Also, a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bombing near Karbala.

HARRIS: Tough talk today from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Zalmay Khalilzad told Iraqi politicians to bridge ethnic divisions or risk losing U.S. support.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with details. And Barbara, tough talk, unusually blunt from a diplomat.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Tony. A very rare press conference before television cameras by the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. He does not make a lot of public appearances. When he chooses to, that means he has a message for everyone.

And his message today was to warn the Iraqis against the rise of sectarian violence and the rise of militias, warning that there must be a unity government in Iraq and that this type of thing could not be tolerated. Listen to his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ (through translator): Not going to invest resources of the American people to build forces run by people who are sectarian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Warning that the U.S. is investing an awful lot of money in Iraq, in its new security forces, and that if they continued to be infiltrated by militia groups, if there continues to be sectarian violence, that U.S. support may wane, that U.S. taxpayers may not want to invest that money, he says.

U.S. officials very concerned as the Iraqis are trying to form a government, that it be a government that represents all of the people.

Behind the scenes, the pressure is mounting on the Iraqi security forces to take over. There is even more talk about another U.S. troop withdrawal some time in 2006. Again, trying to put pressure on the Iraqis to get their house in order, Tony.

HARRIS: Barbara, another story you've covered for us over the weekend, the deaths of 12 military members killed off the Horn of Africa when their helicopters crashed, and you have a personal connection to that story.

STARR: Very sad business. And you know, we, here in the Pentagon press corps we read the casualty notices from Iraq and Afghanistan, every day, but this one, of course, just a little bit different.

This was two Marine CH-53 helicopters that crashed off Djibouti last Friday. I flew with that very unit, with those kids last month when CNN was in Djibouti. Very, very sad business.

These two helicopters, by all accounts suffering some sort of mid-air collision although that has not been formally stated. They crashed into the ocean. Two were immediately rescued, but very tragically in this training accident, eight Marines and two airmen from the Air Force having perished. Their remains are now back on their way to the United States and their families.

HARRIS: And Barbara, turning to the Philippines for a moment and the mudslides there. U.S. Marines, we understand, are now involved on the ground in what we're calling search and recovery efforts.

STARR: Absolutely. Again, much like Djibouti, U.S. military forces on the other side of the world involved in a very significant humanitarian relief effort. They are now about 150 to 200 U.S. troops on the ground.

These pictures are remarkable. The U.S. troops working side by side with the Philippine rescue crews, lifting dirt, lifting rocks with their hands, trying to move as quickly as they can.

But the situation is extraordinarily dangerous there, as Hugh Remington has been reporting, because that mountain is so fragile, Tony, they've declared a no-fly zone for helicopters over the top of the mountain. They're so concerned that even the downwash from the helicopter might cause another mountain slide.

So the Marines moving in, trying to set up their own base camp so they can get in there and try and help, Tony.

HARRIS: CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, of course. Barbara, thank you.

STARR: Sure.

NGUYEN: We want to talk now about a mass slaughter in western India where hundreds of thousands of chickens are being killed in a bid to stop a new bird flu outbreak its tracks.

Three cases of H5N1 among poultry were confirmed yesterday, and a lab in Bhopal is testing samples of tens of thousands of other birds that have died in the past couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, health officials are going house to house, looking for anyone showing symptoms of the virus. India's health secretary blames migratory birds for the arrival of bird flu in his country.

HARRIS: Lining up to take their medicine in France. Starting Wednesday, nearly a million domestic fowl will be vaccinated against H5N1 bird flu. The precaution is being taken after the virus was found in a dead wild duck in eastern France.

And it comes among shudders of concern among French farmers. France is the largest poultry producer in Europe. And although E.U. officials insist the virus has only been seen in wild birds, sales of chicken and duck meet falling off. France's health minister is urging consumers to keep eating poultry and fois gras.

NGUYEN: Fois gras.

HARRIS: Is that all right? Is that OK?

NGUYEN: Yes. You said it right.

HARRIS: All right.

NGUYEN: We're going to keep talking about the bird flu, because as you know, it's already spread from Asia to Africa to Europe. Is the U.S. next in line, and if we are, how will we know?

CNN's Mary Snow has more on a lab in upstate New York that could be America's first line of bird flu defense.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So far the deadly strain of bird flu known as H5N1 hasn't made it to the U.S., but experts agree it may just be a matter of time.

It would most likely make its way via wild birds migrating from other continents. If that happens, they could infect domestic bird populations, and some of those birds could make their way into live bird markets.

While most people buy their poultry at supermarkets, there are many in cities like New York who buy chickens and other birds at live poultry markets. These markets were regulated and considered safe, but scientists worry that they could one day pose a risk of becoming a breeding ground for spreading the deadly strain of bird flu.

That's why samples are taken from birds like these and shipped hundreds of miles north of New York City to be tested at a Cornell university lab.

SARAH SHAFER, MEDICAL TECHNICOLOGIST: Chickens, ducks, Cornish game hens, anything that you would find in a live bird market in New York City.

SNOW: Sarah Shafer spends her days screening for any sign of the deadly strain. She admits it's a tedious process with some tests taking days to conduct.

SHAFER: If it got into the New York poultry live (ph) market, we would find out here.

SNOW: Doctors say there's concern about live bird markets because it's a place where humans could come in direct contact with the deadly virus.

ALFONSO TORRES, ANIMAL HEALTH DIAGNOSTIC CENTER: They can move from bird to bird very rapidly. So the earliest we can detect them, the quicker we can quench that outbreak and keep the outbreak from being overwhelming.

SNOW: Dr. Alfonso Torres heads the Cornell testing program where monitoring has been stepped up since the spread of avian flu. He says his goal is to build a firewall.

TORRES: If we can prevent the viruses, if they happen to occur in the live market, from going to the commercial flock, then that's almost like a firewall. We can prevent that even from going elsewhere.

SNOW: And he stresses that the threat of the deadly bird flu strain reaching the U.S. is still a big "if."

(on camera) Because New York City has the largest number of live bird markets than any other city in the U.S., health officials say it's important to take extra precautions. and they say THAT, because of the testing that's being done, they feel the United States is better positioned than some other Asian countries in preventing bird flu from even getting here.

Mary snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And the winner is...

NGUYEN: That's a good question, huh?

HARRIS: We don't really know. The country's newest multimillionaire is lying low.

NGUYEN: Not us.

HARRIS: No us, that's for sure.

After winning this record jackpot, $365 million, Betty. Can he or she keep the secret much longer? Good question. Details coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, the worst of this weekend's grizzly weather may be over, but don't tell that to people in eastern New York state. Thousands are still without power, and it could be Wednesday before it's fully restored.

Friday's wind storm knocked out electricity to more than 325,000 people. At least three deaths are blamed on the storm. And more snow is headed for the area, just what they need.

Other parts of the nation are seeing changes in the forecast, too. So let's check in now with meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, we need to thaw out.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, well, we're working on it.

NGUYEN: OK.

JERAS: Slowly, but surely; be patient.

NGUYEN: Trying.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: And Betty, you know, I can't complain that the temperatures here in Atlanta have been sub-zero. However, you know, it's that bone chilling cold that's just kind of damp and it's cold. And it sticks around for days and days.

NGUYEN: I know. I know. We're not ones to complain, though. It's a lot worse in a lot of other areas.

JERAS: Yes, it is.

NGUYEN: So we'll stick with the positive. Thank you, Jacqui.

JERAS: OK.

HARRIS: Sounded like a whine and cheese party to me.

NGUYEN: Doesn't it? Trying not to. My hands are cold!

HARRIS: All right. Well, earlier, we told you about the controversy over a deal that would put a Middle Eastern company in charge of operations at six major U.S. ports. Baltimore is one of those ports. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley is on the phone with us.

Martin, good to talk to you. It's gone awhile, my friend.

MARTIN O'MALLEY, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE. Yes. It's good to talk to you, Tony Harris. It's been like this since we've been born (ph).

HARRIS: Don't you start on me. Life's getting pretty good for you, too, running for governor, but we can't talk about that right now, but down the road maybe we can. But good to talk to you.

First of all, how concerned are you about this development, the news that broke late last week?

O'MALLEY: I'm very, very concerned, as are many elected officials in these cities, Democrats and Republicans alike. The notion of turning over the operations of any American port to any foreign government, I think strikes all Americans as something very unwise.

I believe that this decision by President Bush to turn over Baltimore and other ports, operations, to the United Arab Emirates is outrageous. It's irresponsible, and it's reckless. And we are going do everything we can to rally opposition and stop this.

HARRIS: Were the Brits running it before the sale?

O'MALLEY: Now the distinction...

HARRIS: Right.

O'MALLEY: That's what the Bush administration wants to say. There's a big difference between a private company running operations that happens to have its headquarters in another country, and having it run by a company that is wholly owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates. It's a fundamental difference.

HARRIS: I've got you. I've got you.

O'MALLEY: Let's talk a little bit about the United Arab Emirates, if we may.

HARRIS: Sure.

O'MALLEY: I mean, this is a country whose ports have been a crossroads of illegal shipments of nuclear material to Iran, to North Korea and to Libya. A country through which dollars are channeled to the 9/11 hijackers. A country that our Treasury Department and the FBI says were not entirely cooperative as we try to track down bin Laden's assets that were based in their company.

This is an unwise move. It is a reckless move, and I think bipartisan opposition in Congress will hopefully stop it if the people's voices are heard.

HARRIS: Hey, Martin, Secretary Chertoff talked about this over the weekend. I want you to listen what he had to say about this and then tell me if this sort of allays some of your concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERTOFF: We examine the transaction. We look at what the nature of the threat is. If necessary, we build in conditions or requirements that, for extra security that has to be met in order to make sure there isn't a compromise to national security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Martin, what do you think of that?

O'MALLEY: I don't think buy it. Nor does Peter King, who happens to be a Republican congressman from New York who chairs the Homeland Security Committee.

With all due respect to Mr. Chertoff, whose background is primarily as a lawyer, our homeland security failings in -- after Katrina I think were well documented. He doesn't -- I'm not assured by that and I don't think any other elected official should be, either.

It's so strange that, with all of the reports that have come out of the inspector general's office for homeland security, from the Coast Guard that highlight of lack of investment in the security of American fort ports, that we would now compound that irresponsibility by turning it over to a foreign government, any foreign government, including the United Arab Emirates, I think is just outrageous. It will not stand.

HARRIS: What do you think is going on here? This is a big deal, in the billions. It's also -- it feels like it might be about relationship building, as well. Am I too far afield here?

O'MALLEY: I don't know. The -- are you talking diplomacy or are you talking about the natural relationships people with big corporate dollars want to create with each other?

HARRIS: Yes. Well, let me ask you this. I mean, I'm trying to get to the bottom of what the real concern is. Are you concerned that this company will have offices, let's say, in your city, in New Jersey and New York and manning those offices will be Arabs. Is that your concern here?

O'MALLEY: What I'm concerned about is that this is a country that is -- that has a spotty history, to put it kindly, where terrorism is concerned.

And my fundamental objection, Tony, is this. You know, we have seen investments in port security cut by -- by 30 percent just in the last few years, even though we all -- all of the experts readily acknowledge that we inspect about five percent of the cargo coming through American ports while other companies that have invested in their security, notably Hong Kong and China, inspects 100 percent -- scans 100 percent of the cargo containers.

We can't -- we need to invest in America's security in order to protect our ports and the other valuable infrastructure. We cannot think that, by turning over our ports or our rails or our bridges and tunnels to the United Arab Emirates, that somehow they're going to be more motivated to invest in protecting American infrastructure.

This is a step backwards, and it is also a step that brings the operations of our ports closer to that epicenter of bin Laden's strength.

HARRIS: And there he is. Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley. Martin, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

O'MALLEY: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: Good to talk to you. Amongst a backdrop of devastation, the Mardi Gras roles on. An update from New Orleans is straight ahead.

The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Against all odds, Mardi Gras has come to the devastated city of New Orleans. No one's pretending, though, that it is the all- out blowout partiers have come to expect. But just getting it off the ground is lifting the city's battered spirits.

And Mystic Krewe of Barkus hit the streets of the French Quarter yesterday. Look at those pooches! The pooch parade happens every year. You can tell it's a big draw. Most of these pets, like their owners, are survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

So cute, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, the little pooches.

With 100 days until the hurricane season ahead, homeland security says now is not the time to try to reinvent the wheel. Michael Chertoff is beating back calls to reorganize FEMA, whose performance after Hurricane Katrina made it a four-letter word, in the words of one Washington lawmaker. Chertoff spoke with Wolf Blitzer about the powers at FEMA and where the agency goes here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERTOFF: I think first of all, there was a failure to have real clear information at our disposal. There was a real lack of situational awareness. We didn't have the capabilities on the ground to give us real-time, accurate assessments of the physical condition of the city.

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR: But you knew that for days, that this hurricane was coming towards New Orleans.

CHERTOFF: Wolf, putting these capabilities together is not a matter of putting them together in a few days. It's a matter of planning and preparing for months.

BLITZER: But there have been these tabletop exercises. There was this fictional Hurricane Pam a year earlier, which they basically outlined all of these dire consequences that nobody seem to have paid any attention to.

CHERTOFF: I'm not excusing the fact that planning and preparedness was not where it should be. We've known for 20 years about this hurricane, the possibility of this kind of hurricane.

So all during the '90s and for the first half of this -- this decade, we've had opportunities to get evacuation plans in place, better communications in place. But rather than look backward, my obligation now is to make sure we do a lot of the work we need to do between now and June 1.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, and that clock is ticking, all right. The first- named storm of 2005 formed just one weekend into the season. Arlene became a tropical storm June 9 and made landfall June 11 in Pensacola, Florida.

NGUYEN: That's right. And Tony, in his interview with Wolf Blitzer, Secretary Chertoff was also asked about the thousands of mobile homes ordered by FEMA, sitting empty in fields in Arkansas. Chertoff said they will be used, but rightly or wrongly, they have become a sad symbol of federal government falling.

CNN's Susan Roesgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to Hope, Arkansas, a small town with a huge problem. These are nearly 11,000 mobile homes FEMA has parked in Hope, more mobile homes than the town has people, but no one's living in these mobile homes. They're 450 miles from the Gulf Coast, and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu says FEMA just can't get it right. SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: Well, it's another example, Susan, of the mismatch and planning that has gone on. And it really is, again to the point that even on FEMA's best day, they're not suited to manage this catastrophe.

ROESGEN: On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, released a report criticizing FEMA for buying so many mobile homes and allowing many in Arkansas to sink.

RICHARD SKINNER, HOMELAND SECURITY INSPECTOR GENERAL: Since they were not properly stored, you can see from this second picture, the homes are sinking in the mud and their frames are bending from sitting on trailers with no support. Insofar as many of these homes fail to meet FEMA specification requirements, where FEMA has no qualified, prearranged site location to place them, they might have to be disposed of.

ROESGEN: But FEMA chief David Paulson told CNN Tuesday that the mobile homes have not been damaged.

DAVID PAULSON, ACTING DIRECTOR, FEMA: The mobile homes are fine, there's not one mobile home that's been damaged. They are going to be usable. Mobile homes last a long time, ROESGEN, 20 years so we are going to use them. I don't know where the information came from that the inspector general got because somebody gave him bad information.

ROESGEN (on camera): I'll hitch a ride.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just be careful because the road is bumpy and we don't want you bouncing out of the back.

ROESGEN (voice-over): On Wednesday, FEMA allowed CNN to see the mobile homes on the FEMA lot. In a two hour driving and walking tour, we saw dozens of mobile homes but nowhere near the full 11,000 and it was hard to tell from our vantage point what was going with the mobile homes.

FEMA managers at the site say the largest ones, about 1,600 of them are sagging under their own weight and workers were bringing in jacks to problem up, but FEMA denies that the mobile homes may not be usable.

(on camera): Are these so badly damaged that they might have to be destroyed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no damaged trailers here. None.

ROESGEN: Why aren't they moving then?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to talk to somebody else there.

ROESGEN: Susan Roesgen, CNN, Hope, Arkansas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Whether it's heating your home or just keeping your car going, higher energy costs are hitting many of you hard this winter. President Bush is hitting the roads. He will offer some alternatives, his goal, kick America's addiction to foreign oil and keep energy costs from dragging down the economy.

The president just spoke in Milwaukee. Our Kathleen Koch is with him. Kathleen, so, what's the plan?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you're hearing the president do over the next couple of days is echo a lot of the initiatives that he announced in the State of the Union speech where he said Americans were addicted to oil.

He talked a lot about oil in this speech, pointing out the fact that 60 percent of the oil that the United States uses right now comes from overseas, and he said that we are very vulnerable to high prices of oil fluctuations and the prices to possible disruptions in oil supply.

President Bush today said that dependence presents an economic and a national security problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Less than half the crude oil used in refineries is produced here at home, 60 percent comes from foreign countries. Things have changed since 1985. Some of the nation's we rely on for oil have unstable governments or fundamental differences with the United States. These countries know we need their oil and that reduces influence. It creates a national security issue when we're held hostage for energy by foreign nations that may not like us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Before his speech, President Bush donned protective goggles and toured Johnson Controls. The company makes more car batteries, the largest producer of car batteries in the entire world and it's right now focusing on making better hybrid batteries. Batteries for hybrid cars and the president took a look at some of those, these lithium ion batteries that he believes, someday, could enable hybrid cars to be recharged by being plugged into a standard outlet.

The president from here now goes on to another state. He heads on to a nearby Detroit, Michigan, where he's going to be touring a solar panel plant. A plant that in the past was struggling, but has announced plans in recent weeks that it will be tripling production by the year 2007 and then tomorrow in Golden, Colorado, the president will be visiting with a federal lab that focuses on renewable energy sources.

So, again, President Bush and his administration hoping that this message really resonates with consumers at this time when energy prices, gasoline prices are so high.

HARRIS: Kathleen, the stock price on the company the president is visiting in Michigan is going through the roof right now. Kathleen Koch.

KOCH: Like so many companies.

HARRIS: That's right. Kathleen Koch, traveling with the president. Thank you.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Listen to this. She thought she was an Olympic failure until she answered a help wanted ad. That's right. Coming up, going for the gold again. How switching her focus from summer to winter made all the difference for one U.S. athlete.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Frantic search efforts and grim realities in the Philippines today. U.S. Marines are aiding international rescue teams digging through the mud, searching for more than 1,000 people missing after a mountain of mud inundated a village on Friday. Hope is fading, but not lost of finding any more survivors. One hundred bodies have been recovered so far. Rescue teams are concentrating their efforts where an elementary school once stood. More than 250 people, mostly children, were inside when the mountain collapsed.

NGUYEN: We are waiting for a miracle from God. Those gripping words from the wife of one of 65 miners trapped deep inside a coal mine in Mexico. The miners became trapped yesterday and despite round the clock efforts to free them, the prospects of finding them alive appear grim. CNN's Morgan Neil reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN NEIL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With their co- workers trapped two and a half kilometers underground their fate unknown, these hardened miners do their best to help. Don't look to them for optimism. Do you have hope for them, this miner is asked. No, comes the blunt answer.

He, like the other miners, knows the dangers. More than a day since an explosion underground with tanks holding just six hours worth of oxygen, the math is straightforward. Nothing has been heard from the 65 trapped miners. The rescue effort, relying on picks and shovels, is going slowly. The presence of methane underground makes it hazardous.

The relatives of those below huddle together, seeking comfort against the shock of what has happened. They pay close attention to the periodic updates given by authorities here. But even they aren't optimistic.

First of all, we have faith, she says. In the end it's the one above who holds the final card. Morgan Neil, CNN, San Juan de Sabinas, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: We, awaiting an official word from Gaza this hour on the expected naming of Ismail Haniya as the new Palestinian prime minister. Haniya is a member of Hamas which holds an absolute majority now in the Palestinian parliament. Haniya has entered a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who is pressing Hamas to moderate it's stance toward Israel in the hope of salvaging economic aid from the U.S. and Europe.

Israel pulled the plug yesterday on tens of millions of dollars in monthly tax collections.

NGUYEN: A British historian is going prison for challenging the existence on one of the darkest chapters in human history. David Uring (ph) pleaded guilty today to charges of denying the Holocaust as his trial opened in Vienna. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Uring said he made a mistake 17 years ago when he said there were no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He made that statement in speeches and in an interview while visiting Austria in 1989. Denying the holocaust is a crime in Austria.

HARRIS: It is wildly popular, but it isn't always pretty. Soccer, called football in the rest of the world, attractions fans in Italy fascinated with Nazi-style symbols. One controversial star player has been a favorite of these fans, but he's recently taken a step to take another point of view.

CNN's Alessio Vinci has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Paolo Di Canio says his fascist salute is not racist, although he has never hidden his admiration for Italy's one-time fascist ruler Benito Mussolini. He has the word "Dukes," the name Mussolini gave himself, tattooed on his arm. For this fascist salute he made after a game in December, he received one-match suspension and was fined 10,000 euros.

But on Thursday, the (INAUDIBLE) striker tried to counter accusations that he is anti-Semitic and xenophobic. He and his teammates accepted an invitation from the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, to meet a group of Holocaust survivors. Di Canio was quoted as saying afterwards, "We heard the stories of people who went through something terrible." He condemned the race laws introduced by Mussolini, and added that violence was never a positive thing.

Some Lassio (ph) and Roma (ph) fans openly support the far right. On several occasions, they have even displayed Swastikas during the games, but such behavior will no longer be tolerated by Italian authorities, who warn football clubs that they will face huge fines and may be forced to play games behind closed doors.

Just days after making the fascist salute in December, Di Canio carried the Olympic torch in Rome. With the spotlight now on Italy and the Winter Games, the mayor of Rome hopes Thursday's meeting will help restore dignity to Europe's and Italy's most popular sport.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Torino.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NGUYEN: And speaking of those Winter Games, the continuing adventures of American skier Bode Miller. That is straight ahead in your Olympic update. The news keeps coming. We're going to keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The Olympics fanfare, and all we want to talk in here is NASCAR and the race yesterday. Four chances to win, but still no medal for U.S. ski sensation Bode Miller. Austria's Benjamin Raich won gold at the men's giant slalom today at the Torino Winter Olympics. Miller tied for sixth after a strong second run. His last chance to medal is Saturday in the slalom.

Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister came in first in the women's Super G. It's her second gold medal of the Torino Games, and it is the U.S. versus Finland in women's bronze medal hockey. That game is under way right now. The U.S. team is leading, Betty, after two periods.

NGUYEN: All right. Well, it looks like a roller coast or ice. The bobsled competition is under way at the Winter Olympics, with the women taking over the track. One of the athletes representing the U.S. grew to love the sport after falling short in another sport.

CNN's Larry Smith has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SMITH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You wouldn't expect riding a bobsled to make the list of things to do for a girl growing up in Alabama.

I dreamed of being a bobsledder since the age of nine. So I always wanted to be a bobsledder. No, I'm just kidding.

VONETTA FLOWERS, U.S. BOBSLED TEAM: No, actually, I dreamed of going to the Summer Olympics of when I was nine years old. My first track coach told me that I could be the next Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

SMITH: Vonetta Flowers twice tried out for the U.S. Olympic track-and-field team and twice came up short. But the loss of one dream brought about the birth of another.

FLOWERS: At the Olympic trial, one of the bobsled drivers was there recruiting track and field athletes, and my husband spotted one of her flyers, and we kind of tried out. so we kind of responded to a help-wanted ad.

JOHNNY FLOWERS, VONETTA FLOWERS' HUSBAND: I said, you know, how many of our friends back home can actually say that they've actually tried out for a bobsled team. So you know, we're just having fun with it. And almost a month later she was in Germany, going down the bobsled for the first time.

SMITH: It didn't take long to realize Flowers was a natural. Just 18 months after her first bobsled run, Flowers won a gold at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, but she wasn't just any gold medal winner.

V. FLOWERS: When I found out that I was the first black athlete from any nation to ever win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, I was thrilled. I mean, when you think about the history books, you think of people that have passed on? And you know, my kids will be reading about me, and their kids.

SMITH: Life has been much busier since then. In August of 2002, Flowers gave birth to twin boys, Jordan and Jayden (ph). The family has been traveling the world together since they were five months old, while mom prepares for another run at Olympic gold.

J. FLOWERS: Vonetta, I think, has some type of superpower, to where -- I mean,she really can pull this energy from somewhere. I mean, I am totally drained by the time she comes back from practice a lot of times, and she still has, you know, the big huge smile on her face when she walks in.

V. FLOWERS: I'm still working very hard, but I just have to juggle working out, and being a wife and mother. So I have three jobs, basically. I had two before; now I have three. It's harder being a mom, but it's so rewarding, you know, to wake up in the morning and look into their faces.

J. FLOWERS: She's probably one of the best moms around. There's not many kids at the school that would be able to say, my mom's an Olympic champion.

SMITH: Flowers hopes to add a couple of words to that title, two-time Olympic champion.

Larry Smith, CNN, Torino.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And the winner I is -- the country's newest multimillionaire standing out in the spotlight. But can he or she keep record-setting secrets like this one much longer? LIVE FROM loves the lotto, after this.

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HARRIS: The odds of winning were staggering; so was the size of the jackpot. Now someone somewhere is holding a piece of paper worth a fortune, and until he or she comes forward, the store that sold it is grabbing all of the spotlight.

CNN's Jonathan Freed reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the lottery machine, the one that sold the $365 million Powerball ticket, the largest lotto jackpot in U.S. history. It happened at roughly 10 past 3:00 on Friday afternoon at this U-Stop convenience store in Lincoln, Nebraska.

TOM JOHNSON, NEBRASKA LOTTERY: We know that were was winning ticket sold here. We know what time it was sold, approximately what time it was sold. We know that it was five tickets, five plays on one ticket. They were all quick picks. That much we know.

FREED: What we don't know, at least not yet, is who bought the ticket. And we're not the only ones who want to know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to know. I'm a charity. And you know the charities are going to hit this person up every waking moment of their rest of their lives. Yes, mail like this.

FREED (on camera): The Nebraska Lottery thinks that the winner is likely one of four people that was spotted on the store's surveillance cameras buying a ticket during that magic time on Friday. We're talking about three men and one woman. Now some of the clerks here think that one or two of them may have shopped here before.

(voice-over): The U-Stop's owners will collect a $50,000 award for selling the winning ticket.

Is anything like this even remotely ever happened before?

WENDI MANDL, OWNER, U-STOP STORE: No. We've had someone drive through the front window. That was exciting, but a different kind of excitement.

FREED: Large or small...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four dollars. Four dollars.

FREED: Seemed like everybody was celebrating their winnings and taking losing gracefully.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just luck of the draw, man. It's what it's all about. I hope somebody that won it needs it.

FREED: The Nebraska Lottery says the winner has six months to claim their multi million dollar prize, suggesting whoever it is probably doesn't fully appreciate how much their life is about to change.

Jonathan Freed, CNN, Lincoln, Nebraska.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Maybe they do. Maybe that's why that person hasn't come forward yet.

NGUYEN: I don't blame them, I wouldn't tell either, until I got that money in my hands.

HARRIS: Hey, Betty, one jackpot, so many dreams. All that money has everyone, including us, thinking hmm, what would I do?

NGUYEN: What would we do?

HARRIS: If I had won?

NGUYEN: Well, OK, so you're humble anchors, we're no exception. So here we go. Here is our wish list if we would have won that lotto.

HARRIS: You going to start?

NGUYEN: Yes, I'll go ahead and start.

HARRIS: OK. No, you go first.

NGUYEN: Had I won, first on my list, a private island. Everybody wants an island, right? I'd also have to get a Gulfstream jet, because I got to get to the island somehow. And of course I'm going to need a pilot for that. I didn't put that on there, but I need a pilot to fly that jet.

HARRIS: Nice.

NGUYEN: Also going to get a personal chef and why not, throw in a Bentley with a driver.

HARRIS: And Betty, of course, this is after we take care of all of the charities.

NGUYEN: Yes, charities, families...

HARRIS: All of our charitable responsibilities and our families and everything and all of the good work that we have planned for the rest of our lives, right?

NGUYEN: Yes!

HARRIS: OK, now the fun. All right, so you have the island. Let me get a house on the island. Hopefully you'll give me a good rate.

NGUYEN: Well, I was going to say, I can charge you rent. You can put your house my island...

HARRIS: No, no, no, we don't rent. We don't rent. We own.

(CROSSTALK)

NGUYEN: You can trust me, Tony!

HARRIS: OK. I'd use a chunk of this for -- look at that handsome man there. We use a chunk of that for unlimited travel. And then I'd get myself a little personal trainer because I'm starting to get a little loose in the middle here.

NGUYEN: Uh oh. HARRIS: Little loose. Little loose in the middle. And then let me rent out Carnegie Hall for this super concert. Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and the P Funk All-Stars. Maybe a little Randy -- just a super concert. And there have it. I'm done. That's all I want.

NGUYEN: P Funk All-Stars and Randy Travis? My, oh, my, the list!

HARRIS: It's eclectic, isn't it?

NGUYEN: Pretty eclectic. Something wrong with you? All right. We'll move on.

If the Powerball winner opts to take a lump sum payment, the payoff would be $177 million. But after taxes, that number will shrink to just a mere $124 million. Who's even going to play a game if you're only going get $124 million, right? Well, it's no chump change.

And here's what you could buy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): If you would want your first purchase to be a private island, take a look at Thatch Kay (ph) in the Virgin Islands. This 230-acre undeveloped little piece of paradise is right near St. Thomas. The asking price is a mere $18,600,000. You could buy six private islands at that rate.

Buying the most expensive home in America would not be as easy. Donald Trump owns a home in Palm Beach, Florida, that's priced at $125 million. You never know. He might take $124 if you wanted to blow the whole sum there.

If you wanted to make a business investment instead, or if you just like burgers, McDonald's estimates the total cost of opening a franchise could be as high as $1.6 million. You could open 77 McDonald's restaurants with your winnings.

If you're more concerned about your kids' college education, the estimated cost of four years at Harvard is about $143,000, so you could pay for more than 860 students there.

And if you wanted to pay the whole sum on a super cool sports car, check out the world's most expensive automobile. The Saleen S-7 Twin Turbo costs about $555,000. You could buy one for yourself and 222 of your soon-to-be best friends.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, anything, but smooth sailing today for a deal that would put a Middle Eastern company in charge of six big U.S. ports. Is it an open invitation to terrorists? We'll take a look. LIVE FROM will be right back.

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