Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Iraqi, U.S. Troops Work Together in Search and Destroy Operation; Taliban Gaining Control in Pakistan; South Carolina Police Track Sexual Predator

Aired March 17, 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: Hello, I'm Kyra Phillips, live in B Control. Day two of Operation Swarmer. More search and destroy than shock and awe. Iraqi troops leading the way, weeding out weapons and picking up suspected insurgents, with so far zero reported casualties.
Our Nic Robertson is the only TV reporter embedded with the coalition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we have seen, what we've been shown is Iraqi troops and U.S. troops working side by side. We're seeing helicopters resupplying troops, taking more troops into the field.

We've been able to see the slow, painstaking work of looking for the weapons caches. Six caches so far, we've been told have been discovered.

What we saw as we flew past some of these ongoing operations, we could see the soldiers fanned out, walking through the fields, a very thorough search of fields of sand berms, looking for weapons caches, we've been told, AK-47s, explosive, parts of improvised explosive devices, bomb-making equipment has been found in some of these weapons caches.

We've also been told that there are about 50 people detained. We've been told, as well, during this operation, there's still elements of the operation going on here. Up on the top of the hill here, we saw an Iraqi soldier looking out with binoculars. When he was looking out with the binoculars, he spotted a vehicle going across the horizon and he called through his interpreter.

He said tell the Americans get a helicopter over there. Get them to look at that vehicle. We think he's trying to get away from this particular area.

That's the way we've seen the operations being conducted here: 1,500 troops, 800 Iraqis, 700 U.S. troops involved. There's no information at all about high value targets here, although there is some specific information perhaps linking in the -- linking in the people responsible for blowing up the holy shrine in Samarra a few weeks ago that precipitated much of the sectarian violence.

We've been told that the perpetrators of that attack lived in this area, although the planning for this operation, Operation Swarmer, we're told, began before -- before that attack on the shrine in Samarra. They tell us that they hope that this is a warning for the insurgents so that they can now see the Iraqi security forces can move, with U.S. support, in fast-moving and large operations.

Nic Robertson, north of Samarra, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Swarmer is being billed as the largest air assault since the 2003 invasion. Here's the facts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Pentagon officials say that at the start, Operation Swarmer involved about 1,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops, 200 vehicles and 50 helicopters. The mission is targeting the area around Samarra where as many as 100 insurgents are believed to be operating.

What makes this the largest air assault since the invasion is not attacks from the air. In fact there were more in Operation Vigilant Resolve in Fallujah in 2004. Naval FA-18 Hornets conducted strathing runs and dropped laser-guided bombs. Marine helicopters were involved and even an AC-130 gunship lend its fire power to the operation.

So if not air power, how does Operation Swarmer stack up in terms of manpower? Well, more troops were being used in previous exercises. In Operation Steel Curtain last fall a combined force of about 3,500 U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers fought insurgents in the western Anbar province near the Syrian border.

So hat makes Operation Swarmer the largest air assault since the invasion of Iraq in 2003? Well, air assault is actually often used to refer to operations undertaken by the 101st Airborne Division. The 101st even bills itself as the only air assault division in the world. So in that sense, this does appear to be the largest air assault since 2003.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A three-year war, the ouster of Saddam Hussein, a fitful emerging democracy, that's the new reality in Iraq. But an older reality haunts many people in northern Iraq.

Furious ethnic Kurds went on a rampage yesterday in Halabja, trashing a monument to the thousands of people killed 18 years ago this week in a poison gas attack. Kurds say the local government exploits the dead for its own purposes, while doing little for those who survived.

To Iran the United States is the great Satan. To the Bush administration, Iran is part of the axis of evil, or what's left of it. Despite all that, both sides have agreed to sit down and talk, but only about Iraq. Iran's foreign minister insists that his country's controversial nuclear program will not be on the table. The U.S. fears Iran wants nukes. Iran says the program is peaceful. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is keeping tabs today from Australia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: We will see when and if those talks take place, but that discretion has been there for -- for some time, and I'm sure that we'll talk about his exercise of it. This isn't a negotiation of some kind. We -- we found it useful to exchange information and to talk, and if we do, it will be about Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now a little background: Iran is majority Shiite, as is Iraq. The U.S. accuses of Iran of contributing to Iraqi chaos by supplying fighters and materials for bombs. Iran insists it wants to bring peace to its neighbor. Neither side is saying when or where those talks on Iraq will be held.

The Taliban in Pakistan, apparently it's getting stronger and gaining control of a key region now. The Taliban was forced out of the country it used to dominate, but according to CNN senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy, the Taliban has traction once again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Taliban appear to have taken effective control of much of the rugged Pakistani tribal area called Waziristan, and this is the result. A brutal system America went to war in Afghanistan to destroy recreated just across the border in Pakistan. These men executed, their bodies dragged through the streets, the chilling scene, the Taliban claims, recorded by their own cameramen.

Journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote the definitive book on the Taliban.

AHMED RASHID, AUTHOR, "TALIBAN": It's very similar to what has been going on -- what was going on in the early period of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. They are hanging people and torturing people who they consider as un-Islamic.

CHINOY: And in a video, as slickly produced as it is gruesome, flaunting their brutality, verses from the Koran superimposed on dangling corpses, the fate of unbelievers, the narrator intones. Jihad against bandits; Allah punishes the oppressors.

SAMINA AHMED, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Judging by this documentary that they've made, they're boasting about what they've done. It seems that they have a fairly comfortable position, but they are -- they don't feel threatened, that they are pretty much in control.

CHINOY: Reinforcing that impression, the video, initially acquired by the online journal "Asia Times," was shot not in some remote mountain hideout but in Waziristan's main town, Miranshah. It shows events which reportedly occurred just in the last few months.

This is the bazaar, crowds gawking at the bodies of those on the receiving end of justice, Taliban-style.

(on camera) Some things on the video are so gruesome, we can't show them. They include beheadings, Taliban carrying the severed heads of those they've executed around in the market before placing those heads on a pole for all to see.

(voice-over) So pervasive is the Taliban's grip that 70,000 Pakistani troops have been unable to dislodge them. Instead, Waziristan has not only become, in many ways, a miniature Taliban- style state; it's also become a key staging ground for the jihadi fighters, responsible for an increasingly effective guerilla campaign against American troops across the border in Afghanistan.

RASHID: I think it's important, because you have not just Afghan Taliban, but you have Arabs, Central Asians, Chechens, Africans. The same kind of groups of people that you had in Afghanistan before 9/11.

CHINOY: A daunting challenge in the war on terror.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Back here, street crimes in Virginia caught on tape, apparently by the criminals themselves. Eight people were arrested in Newport News because of this grainy videotape. A group of young men beat and kicked people. One is throwing a bicycle on a person lying on the ground. And police say the victims were threatened and robbed at gunpoint. Thirty-seven other assaults are being looked at for possible links to the same thugs.

Bloodhounds and helicopters in South Carolina on the trail of a convicted sex offender, an offender who police say has struck again. Patricia Burkett of CNN affiliate WBTW has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICIA BURKETT, WBTW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Darlington County deputies say they were extremely shocked by what they found Tuesday morning. In this Hartsfield home, the found an underground bunker where they say a convicted sex offender assaulted two young girls.

CHIEF TOM GAINEY, DARLINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: These are the kind of things you like to think wouldn't happen in a county such as this or any rural county, but it just shows that these type of things are coming home to rural America.

BURKETT: Authorities say 38-year-old Kenneth Glenn Hinson lived very close to the teens, though their relationship is not known. They say he broke into their home in the middle of the night and kidnapped them. (on camera) Officials say Hinson brought the two victims to this small space he created under a shed, tied them up, sexually assaulted them and then left them here.

(voice-over) Investigators say by the morning the girls managed to free themselves from the duct tape and kicked through the shed's door to escape. Officials say they then ran toward the road, where a passer-by took them to safety.

As for Hinson's sex offender status, the previous incident happened back in 1991. Investigators say Hinson served his time and followed the regulations, and that there was just no way of predicting that something similar might happen again.

GAINEY: The registry, he had complied, and everything was as the law requires. We just can't control people's will, what people are going to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're expecting a live news conference on the search for the convicted sex offender coming up in the 2 p.m. hour. We're going to bring that to you live.

Straight ahead, trouble for some teachers in Miami. Almost three dozen have quit or been fired over fake college credits. Details when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Dam check in Hawaii. The state allows inspectors to go in on the private property in Kauai to see whether any earthen dams are in danger. One burst Tuesday after weeks of nonstop rain. At least two people were killed; five are still missing. Property owners are supposed to maintain those dams, and the state is supposed to keep track. Officials acknowledge they have no record of ever inspecting that dam or the dam that broke, rather.

A chance of rain this weekend. Normally news we don't want to hear but it's a beacon of hope in the Texas Panhandle. Fire crews are at it again today, trying to douse hot spots and finally coral three major wildfires that have burned all week. This one near Childress is 95 percent contained. Another, just east of Amarillo, is 80 percent contained.

So far, almost 1.2 million acres have burned. At least 11 people have died.

Governor Rick Perry calls the losses staggering. Flying over that devastation, Perry saw thousands of head of livestock that weren't able to outrun the flames.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is with the ranchers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LANE THOMPSON, CATTLE RANCHER: These are calves that their mothers were killed in the fire.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the calves in Lane Thompson's (ph) herd orphaned by Sunday's wildfire.

THOMPSON: These are the worst, that I don't know if he'll make it.

LAVANDERA: Thompson and his wife are nursing the newborns in their backyard on land his family has worked for generations.

THOMPSON: The cows, they provide us our -- they're our livelihood. If we don't take care of them, we don't exist.

Some of these, when their hooves come off...

LAVANDERA: But Thompson couldn't save most of his cows from the fires that scorched his 12,000-acre ranch. Two hundred fifty cattle and 300 calves burned, more than half of his herd. Some he had to kill himself.

THOMPSON: It was very emotional. I mean, I don't mind saying (ph) I was crying. I mean, it was rough, putting all of the animals down but you had to. They were -- they were suffering.

LAVANDERA: The dead cattle are now being piled up. Crews are digging massive graves to bury the cows.

(on camera) It's believed that this week's wildfires have killed as many as 10,000 head of cattle across the Texas Panhandle. The loss threatens to put many ranchers out of business.

(voice-over) Lane Thompson wonders if his cattle ranching days are over. He's estimated his losses at $250,000. It will be at least a year before cattle can graze on his ranch. The fires turned fertile grass-covered land into something resembling the dusty, barren surface of the moon.

THOMPSON: It's just overwhelming. You think about the country, the stuff lost and your friends and neighbors. They're -- everybody's lives, whether they stay here or not, it's just changed dramatically.

LAVANDERA: Along country roads you find scenes like this, the cattle that couldn't outrun the wildfire. It makes tough weathered cowboys like Tony Smitherman emotional.

(on camera) Does this kind of get you, too?

TONY SMITHERMAN, CATTLE RANCHER: Oh, yes, every time I go by it, I cry.

LAVANDERA: Really?

SMITHERMAN: Yes. It's hard for me to talk about.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Lane Thompson's future is uncertain, but he likes to say that if these tough calves can survive the fire, so can he.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Gray County, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: So what's in store for the weekend? CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has his eyes on that.

Hey, Reynolds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Reynolds Wolf, thanks so much.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Well, if you love "Danny Boy" you've got to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: You want to hear more? Coming up on this St. Patrick's Day, we're going to introduce you to Celtic Woman. Stay with us.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: There's a new kind of schoolhouse rock going on in Florida. Schools in Miami-Dade are rocked by scandal. Teachers not doing their own homework. Jawan Strader of CNN affiliate WFOR reports on the fake credential scam.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAVIER CURRAIS, TEACHER UNDER INVESTIGATION: Fire me. Never work again, I don't care. You don't know me. You don't know anything about me except that one mistake that you saw on that paper.

JAWAN STRADER, WFOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That one mistake cost Javier Currais his teaching job at Coral Reef Senior High School. He joined others in the Miami-Dade School District forced to resign or retire after an investigation showed they basically lied to renew their teaching license.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No academic work was actually done, no courses were offered. This was essentially a fraud, and people were paying for college credits without doing any work.

STRADER: And here's a breakdown: 106 teachers were investigated for using bogus teachers' licenses. Out of that, the district found 44 of the allegations to be true. The district fired six Wednesday; 11 are still under legal review by the board; 15 already left the district. Now 11 teachers decided to retire or resign, and one is on leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As I said before I'm sorry that this is happening, but we want our teacher (ph) to finish our year.

STRADER: Students and parents spoke before the school board, hoping to sway them to allow the teachers who have resigned or been terminated to finish out the school year, but the board voted 5-4 not to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion fails.

STRADER: That triggered a lot of emotion from supporters and from the teacher who must say good-bye to his students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was a really good teacher, and we're going to miss him. We're going to miss him.

CURRAIS: I said go ahead and fire me at the end of the year. Do whatever you want to me. Why hurt 191 kids that had nothing to do with this when it happened three years ago?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: That was Jawan Strader from CNN affiliate WFOR in Miami.

Now we've heard of teachers who hit students or worse, but bite a kid? Kentucky teacher Caroline Kolb denies it happened, but here's how it all went down, according to the mother of the 14-year-old in question.

She says Kolb ordered the student to spit out candy and stand in the hall. Well, the mother says her son returned to retrieve his books. He and Kolb struggled; she bit him on the shoulder. Kolb is charged with aggravated assault. She's also out of a job.

There's a major security breach involving debit cards, and hundreds of thousands of secret PIN numbers may not be so secret anymore. Susan Lisovicz joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange with that story.

Susan, does that mean that we need to stop using our ATMs right now or is it only certain banks?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't even know the stores affected. We do know reportedly it involves Visa and Visa is sending out warnings, Kyra. But it's just another one of these disturbing reports about how your identity and these very proprietary numbers are being put into the wrong hands.

And this one affects thousands of people who used your debit cards at certain stores. Visa reportedly warning retailers that a software program installed in some cash registers can be used to store debit account numbers and PINs. Retailers are not supposed to keep that information, but apparently some retailers were recording the numbers, and someone was able to access the database that held the debit card and PIN numbers for as many as 600,000 accounts. Thieves used that info to create counterfeit cards and withdraw money from those accounts.

Other details still murky. We do know to be at risk you had to enter your PIN number with a debit card purchase at certain stores which are not identified yet. If you used a Visa check card but choose credit at the register you're OK.

Some banks have already sent users new cards. The Secret Service is continuing to investigate.

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Drinking, yes. Debauchery, debatable. Diplomacy? St. Patrick's Day means different things to different people, Irish or otherwise. At the White House, it's traditional for the president to receive a bowl of shamrocks from the visiting Irish prime minister. And so it was today, George W. Bush hosting Bertie Ahern for a photo op and serious talks about peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERTIE AHERN, IRISH PRIME MINISTER: Since we met last year, we've made forward (ph) real progress. After decades of denying the will of the Irish people the IRA announced the end of its armed campaign and the decommissioning of its weapons. These were long- awaited landmark historic developments. Both Prime Minister Blair and I are determined that 2006 will be the decisive year in completing the journey of peace that we've embarked on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Several other Irish leaders are also in town, also talking with Mr. Bush about peace on the emerald isle.

Well, St. Patrick, of course, is Ireland's patron saint. And so half a million revelers, give or take, ignored a late winter chill for the St. Pat's Parade today in Dublin. By way of context, the spectators amount to one-eighth of Ireland's population. That would be like 37.5 million people watching the parade in New York.

In point of fact, two million people were expected for the march in Manhattan. Live pictures right now. The speaker of New York City Council not among them. Christine Quinn, who is openly gay, is boycotting because Irish gays are not allowed to march under their own banner. That's a dispute that dates back to 1991. New York boasts the biggest St. Patty's parade in American. But where's the second biggest? Not in Boston or Chicago, but in Savannah, Georgia, of course. Live pictures from Savannah this year. With the big day falling on a Friday, Savannah expected a bigger turnout than usual. The parade isn't the only attraction in town, though. The Annual Savannah Music Festival begins today. I'll tell you what, it is one fun event.

Well, as luck would have it, Celtic Woman needs no more four-leaf clovers. Their pot of gold lies at the top of worldwide musical charts. These glamorous and talented musicians have taken Celtic and classical music and intertwined that with a mystical new age feel.

Celtic woman is to the voice what Riverdance is to the feet, and we have the pleasure to bring Mabe, Orla, Lisa and Chloe to you live from New York on this St. Patrick's day.

Hello, ladies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Hello, you how are you?

PHILLIPS: I love it, all together. Now we're missing our fiddler today, right? She's feeling a little under the weather.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little bit under the weather, yes. We have a show tonight in Radio City, so she's -- we put her on bedrest.

PHILLIPS: Well, good, because she's a very important part of the show.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: OK, now so just so I don't get confused. From left to right tell me each -- now I know that I've got Mabe, Orla, Lisa and Chloe, So tell me where everybody is. I don't have the order.

LISA, CELTIC WOMAN: I'm Lisa.

PHILLIPS: There's Lisa.

ORLA, CELTIC WOMAN: I'm Orla.

PHILLIPS: Orla.

CHLOE, CELTIC WOMAN: I'm Chloe.

PHILLIPS: There's Chloe.

MABE, CELTIC WOMAN: And I'm Mabe.

PHILLIPS: And there's Mabe.

There we go. All right. Let me ask you, guys, how did this all begin? How it did it start? Lisa?

LISA: Well, we were all basically working on different projects with the musical director, and composer, and arranger David Downes, and he thought it would be really exciting to put a group of five women together to produce the show, so we all agreed to do what we thought was just going to be one night's work, and it just kind of spiralled from there.

PHILLIPS: And what amazes me is, I was reading about each one of you, I was reading about your fiddler, Meav, your fiddler. She started at the age of six.

And speaking of young, Chloe, are you really only 16?

CHLOE, CELTIC WOMAN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: This must be amazing for you.

CHLOE: It's a wonderful experience, and I mean, getting to work with such talented women is a brilliant part of it. So I mean, it's a wonderful opportunity, and I'm loving every minute of it.

PHILLIPS: From age to various talents, Orla, you bring the harp into the mix. When did you start playing the harp?

ORLA: I started playing the harp at the age of 12. I went to -- I come from a very small village in (INAUDIBLE), and I went to boarding school in Dublin, and have a great harp tradition, so I picked up the harp there, and I love it, because I always loved to sing, and the harp is (INAUDIBLE) to accompany myself singing with it.

PHILLIPS: Well, You all have amazing voices. I want to play a little bit about -- from wealthy widow, and then, Mabe, I want to ask you a question.

(MUSIC)

PHILLIPS: Now, Mabe, I know this is a terrible question, because I'm Irish, and I should know this, you're singing in Gaelic, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mabe is singing in Irish, yes.

MABE: That's right, that's Gaelic.

PHILLIPS: So tell me, why is it so important not just to sing in English, but you know, in the dialect?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is it important to sing in Gaelic? Not just in English, but in Gaelic?

MABE: Well, it's very personal, because singing in Irish feels like a big connection to our roots, so for me, it feels very comfortable. It's like coming home singing in Irish.

PHILLIPS: Now, Lisa, I understand, did Mabe lose her IFB? Is that why she can't hear me? OK, that's all right. No problem. That's OK. It's hard micing up four people.

Now why did you decide -- and, Lisa, I'll let you answer this -- to have this type of format, this sort of new age, mystical, combined with the classical and the Celtic? Was this so you could reach not only those of -- that love traditional Irish music, but that you could branch out and really go worldwide with the music? LISA: Well, I think the whole emphasis on the show was that, as soloists, we would remain quite individual within the show, and obviously we come from very different musical backgrounds. So David was always insistent we stick to the style of singing and music that we were used to. So with the result it combines all varieties of music, from very classical music to very traditional Irish music, and then on to the more contemporary. And with the result we found it has appealed to a huge variety of people.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's interesting, you mentioned coming from all different backgrounds.

Orla, let me ask you this. Do all of you get in discussions about the politics of Ireland as well? I mean, from Northern Ireland, across Ireland, and do you think your music somehow helps with, you know, the political situation in Ireland?

ORLA: Well, I suppose music is a very -- none of us ever really get involved in the politics, but we just think -- we feel that music is an international language. It's a very healing -- it touches people's hearts and souls, and I think people find solace and healing in our music, and it reaches out to so many different cultures, to people through so many different languages, but it just speaks to many, many people, and crosses many different barriers and divides, and brings people together from so many diverse and varied cultures.

PHILLIPS: And as I look at the music videos, I can't help but see David Downs.

Chloe, are you the youngest one of the group? And if so, I'm assuming that David's been a pretty amazing mentor for you and the rest of the ladies.

CHLOE: Oh, absolutely. I'm the baby of the group, but I've never felt any different. I mean, I've never been treated very differently. So David has really been a great guide really. He's such a genius. He's a musical genius, he really is, and he's really easy to work with. So I mean, he knows us all so well now knows what kind of music suits us and where we're developing and where we're at with our music and the way we perform. So I mean he's a great person to work with.

Well, Celtic -- I always want to say "Celtic women" but Celtic Woman is the name of the group. All of you absolutely amazingly talented women. Thank you so much for your time. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: It was great to have you. We're going to actually go to break with a little "Danny Boy." We can't go without hearing this. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks, Ladies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye-bye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So can flu be linked to leukemia? A report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that a type of childhood leukemia steadily increased between 1974 and 2004 in Britain, with measurable spikes after flu outbreaks in 1974 and 1990. Researchers say the numbers suggests acute lymphoblastic leukemia may be triggered by flu infection.

And better safe than sorry in Israel. Or, when it comes to bird flu, an ounce of isolation beats a pound of infection. The virus is blamed in the deaths of thousands of turkeys and chickens at two poultry farms in Beersheba. Three people who worked at the farms weren't feeling well, and though there's only a slim chance they've got the virus, they're hospitalized in isolation until bird flu can be ruled out. Police put up road blocks around the farms, and hundreds of thousands of birds may be destroyed to keep a lid on the outbreak.

If you know want to more about bird flu, check out our special report at CNN.com.

Death by poison is a lot more intriguing than a heart attack. But early tests indicate that Slobodan Milosevic died of the latter. The former Yugoslav leader claimed he was being poisoned. Others suspected Milosevic was tinkering with prescribed drugs in hopes of getting transferred to Russia for treatment. But tests have found no poison and no toxic concentrations of his heart or blood pressure medicines. There's also no trace of an unprescribed antibiotic that had been detected in his bloodstream earlier this year. Final autopsy results are expected soon.

Anorexia, bulimia. They're not just for men anymore. Coming up, men dying to be thin. We'll flesh out the story when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Eating disorders in men? Usually those are limited to eating too much of the wrong things, but maybe at the wrong times or wrong place, often with fear of not cleaning up afterward. But Dennis Quaid was different. The big name actor says he developed what he calls "manorexia" around the time he dropped 40 pounds for the movie "Wyatt Earp." Even at 138 pounds, Quaid didn't see himself as too thin. He's not alone.

Our Ted Rowlands found out a lot of men are living in a secret world, dying to be thin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you haven't been on a scale since the last time that I weighed you?

JAI PERUMAN, DIAGNOSED WITH BULIMIA: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Taking off his shoes to step onto a scale, Jai Peruman looks away so he can't see his weight. Jai is recovering from bulimia.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The amount of minutes in the day, the amount of time in the day that you're thinking about this is pretty minimal?

J. PERUMAN: I don't know. It's probably still a significant amount. But it is definitely not like it was.

ROWLANDS: Three years ago at the age of 17, Jai started deliberately throwing up his food.

J. PERUMAN: It was out of control from the start. You know, just I'd just be binging and purging three or four times a day.

ROWLANDS: Jai, who loves playing the bass guitar, lives by himself in this Berkeley, California, apartment. He was living at home with his family when his obsession began and says he was able to keep it a secret until he actually swallowed the toothbrush he was using to gag himself.

J. PERUMAN: And had like I basically my whole hand in my mouth and, you know, and then holding on to the head with, you know, the ends of two fingers. And you lose it.

RAVI PERUMAN, FATHER: I knew he was thin. That part was easy to recognize. I had no idea that he was thin because he had an eating disorder.

ROWLANDS: Jai and his family would soon learn they weren't alone. And estimated 10 percent of people with eating disorders are boys or men like Jeff Everts, who said he started 30 years ago when he was just 15 growing up on a farm in Wisconsin.

JEFF EVERTS, DIAGNOSED WITH BULIMIA: It wasn't that I was worried about getting fat. It's that I wanted to be lean as a football player.

ROWLANDS: Jeff says he remembers avoiding food altogether in high school, skipping breakfast and lunch for days at a time and intentionally coming home late after football practice.

EVERTS: I'd get to that door and I would run as fast as I could through the kitchen, as my dad and mom are yelling at me, hey, Jeff, sit down and get something to eat. Come on. And I'm just making a beeline up that stairs and up into my bedroom. It was the dreaded moment of the day.

ROWLANDS: Eventually, Jeff was so thin, he couldn't play football anymore. The local newspaper published this photograph of Jeff getting an honorary game ball when he was a senior. At the time, nobody knew what was wrong with him.

EVERTS: My parents didn't have any clue about anorexia or bulimia or any of these eating disorders. We lived on a farm. This is 30 years ago.

ROWLANDS: Eventually, Jeff and Jai ended up getting help. They each spent time at Rogers Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The hospital has the only in-patient eating disorder clinic in the country for men and boys.

DR. THEODORE WELTZIN, ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Many males with clear eating disorder symptoms are not diagnosed.

ROWLANDS: Dr. Theodore Weltzin helps run the treatment program at Rogers Hospital. Patients here are put on a special diet to help them gain weight. Their activities are also closely monitored, including trips to the bathroom.

Dr. Weltzin says in recent years more and more men are being diagnosed with eating disorders partly because of the same societal pressure women have dealt with for years, to have that so-called perfect body.

WELTZIN: Six-pack abs and having this ripped abdomen as a way of somehow being happy, being successful, having a good relationship, I mean, that is the message that is going out. That's why we're seeing greater rates of males with eating disorders.

ROWLANDS: Jai keeps a photograph of himself when he entered treatment. He weighed 117 pounds. He also keeps this photo of a friend he met in treatment who later died. Jai, who sees a nutritionist, now weighs more than 140 pounds, and says he thinks he has his problem beat.

Jeff, on other hand, is still struggling.

EVERTS: All right, Lightning.

ROWLANDS: He lives alone with his dog in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And he is still throwing up his food.

EVERTS: It's not like once a week. We're talking about every day.

ROWLANDS: Jeff says he doesn't eat a lot. In his refrigerator, there is some milk, low fat cottage cheese and protein drinks.

EVERTS: This is the source of my protein because again I don't eat much meat.

ROWLANDS: In the freezer, you see Jeff's problem.

EVERTS: We had the binge unfortunately. We have the ice cream. ROWLANDS: Half gallon bricks stacked in rows. Jeff says around 8:00, every night, he eats about a gallon of ice cream then he throws it up.

EVERTS: It is almost like a second high. You're high when you are eating the food because you've already created your fantasy world where nothing matters now. OK, you're, in a sense, a lawless world. OK. So you get that high from that.

And then when the pain level reaches the point where you realize all the wickedness you might say you absorb, now you throw it all up and get rid of it out of your life and then there's back to this low pressure, peaceful mood again.

ROWLANDS (on-camera): Why can't you beat this?

EVERTS: It's a good question. I keep working at it. Keep working at it.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): An estimated 10 percent of people with eating disorders eventually die from the illness. The experts say with help, most people like Jai can get past the disease and lead a normal life. But for others, like Jeff, it is a life-long struggle.

EVERTS: It would be nice to be totally free and never have to think about that again. But I can't foresee that.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Coming up a reunion you won't want to miss. Months after Hurricane Katrina, the family is back together. We're going to tell you why this reunion is so special.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It's a happy ending, a family reunion, the final piece in a 5,000 piece puzzle. It's a family torn apart by Hurricane Katrina, searching for months, praying for news, together again at last.

Here's CNN's Rick Sanchez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hurricane Katrina did something that is almost unbearable for families. It separated 5,192 children from their parents. Mothers and fathers agonized, wondering, where were they? Dead? Alive? Lost? Who knows?

Among the missing was this little girl. Her name is Cortez. This is her story.

CORTEZ STEWART, REUNITED DAUGHTER: They had a lot of water. And my Mima (ph) used to picking me up. SANCHEZ: Mima is the woman seated next to Cortez and her mom. She is Cortez's godmother. And when Hurricane Katrina arrived, she took Cortez to what she thought was the safety of a hotel. But the waters rose and rose, and she ended up having to be rescued by helicopter, like this.

FELICIA WILLIAMS, CORTEZ'S GODMOTHER: It was just, like, unbelievable for them to have me clinging her with a string around my waist, pulling me up into a helicopter.

SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, Cortez's mom had her hands full with her five other children. She was being rescued by boat and taken to the nearest piece of dry land, an interstate overpass, where she and her children slept on concrete for four days.

(on camera): And there you sit for four days.

LISA STEWART, CORTEZ'S MOTHER: Right.

SANCHEZ: With -- you couldn't take a shower?

L. STEWART: No.

SANCHEZ: You couldn't eat.

L. STEWART: No.

SANCHEZ: What they gave you and some scraps, basically, right?

L. STEWART: Right. Right.

SANCHEZ: That must have been hard.

L. STEWART: You know, it was. It was terrible.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): What made it even more terrible was, she was looking through the crowd to find her missing daughter. Where was she? Could she have drowned?

L. STEWART: Right, because the water -- the height of the water, the water was taller than buildings.

SANCHEZ: Actually, Cortez was across town, at Louis Armstrong Airport, where she had been taken with her Mima. They were dropped off by helicopter, put on a plane, and flown to San Antonio, where they contacted Felicia's relatives in Atlanta, which is where they ended up.

Cortez's mom, meanwhile, was picked up by a bus and driven to the Houston Astrodome, tired, hungry, sharing a small space with 100,000 people, all the while thinking she had already lost one child, and wasn't about to lose another one.

L. STEWART: I didn't trust the men that was around, you know? They had predators. SANCHEZ: Finally, Lisa got away and settled in Houston. Almost seven months had passed since that horrible night where she was separated from her daughter, and still no trace of Cortez. She and her husband tried everything: FEMA, the Red Cross, Web sites galore -- nothing.

CHARLES TENNESSE, CORTEZ'S FATHER: I left numbers where we was at, addresses where we was at.

SANCHEZ (on camera): Was it painful?

TENNESSE: It was very painful.

SANCHEZ: Painful and frustrating, because even the organization entrusted by the Justice Department to look for the missing children of New Orleans couldn't find her. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was able to find 5,191 of the 5,192 that were missing, in other words, all except one.

So, Cortez is number 5,192?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The family and Mima say they tried everything, but, somehow, they hadn't been able to find each other on the lists and Web sites.

Finally, one more check of the Web sites was successful. And, so, finally, after tears, and an anxious trip to the airport ...

L. STEWART: Let's start looking around. Oh, my God.

SANCHEZ: ... this happened

(SCREAMING)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... the baby!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the baby.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: A family reunited -- the last of the missing has been found.

Rick Sanchez, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com