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Israeli Forces Enter Southern Lebanon; Authorities Investigate India Bombings; Key Portion of Boston's Big Dig Remains Shut Down After Deadly Ceiling Collapse; Giant Yellowjacket Nest In Georgia; Poland's President Taps Identical Twin Brother To Be Prime Minister

Aired July 12, 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: It's the top of the hour.
Israeli artillery, Israeli tank fire -- the hills and valleys of Lebanon's southern border are shaking with the crash of combat, even though it's after 10:00 at night there. The clashes are costly in human terms. At least seven Israeli soldiers were killed. Two were taken hostage in a raid that set these violent events in motion.

Israel's prime minister calls the kidnapping an act of war. Whether it is or not, our John Vause is right there in the place that certainly sounds like a war zone.

John, what's the latest?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, a short time ago, the officer here at this military base warned us that Katyusha rockets had been fired from Hezbollah positions towards this military base.

This is one of the military bases where the artillery has been firing from Israel into Lebanon. It's been firing fairly regularly throughout the night and for most of the day, part of a wide-scale military offensive. There have been multiple airstrikes in southern Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah strongholds, training bases, as well as regional headquarters.

Five bridges have also been bombed. Earlier today, a rescue mission was launched to try and recover these two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Tanks and troops were sent into southern Lebanon. On one of those operations, a tank hit an explosive device just inside Lebanese territory. Apparently, that device was planted by Hezbollah.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in that attack. The Israeli prime minister still meeting with his cabinet right now in Tel Aviv -- that has been going on now for about two hours. It's expected to approve an escalation of this military offensive.

Earlier today, Mr. Olmert said that the kidnappings and the attacks have gone way beyond an act terrorism. And he's accused Lebanon of an act of war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI VICE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): These are difficult days for the state of Israel and its citizens. There are elements from the south and the north who are threatening our stability and who are trying to test our resolve. They will fail, but they will pay a heavy price for their actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has said, the only way these two kidnapped Israeli soldiers will be released is in exchange for prisoners being held by Israel. And he warned that, if Israeli thought a military offensive would win their freedom, they were delusional, delusional, delusional -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John Vause, we will keep checking in. Appreciate it.

It's officially a state of emergency in San Bernardino County, California, as a bad situation only gets worse. Strong winds are fueling wildfires that have devoured thousands of acres and displaced hundreds of people already.

These are pictures of the aptly named Sawtooth fire, and it bites into tinderbox terrain.

CNN's Kyung Lah has the latest now from the Yucca Valley -- Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, and we're entering the hottest part of the day, the part when this fire will be the most active.

And firefighters right now are trying to do their very best to get this fire to burn itself out. What's happening right behind me is, this is a series of backfires that is being set by firefighters. They're trying to build 30 miles of fire line.

This particular area, they're hoping that the fire will run up and then begin to burn itself out. We have actually just seen a helicopter fly overhead, one of the first we have seen throughout the day. We're anticipating, on this edge of the fire, we will start seeing, at least toward the center of it, some water drops in this area.

As far as the conditions here, it is a little hotter than yesterday, about two degrees hotter, according to the fire department. The wind conditions are a little better. That is good news. They're looking at 20-mile-per-hour gusts, vs. the 40 mile-per-hour gusts of yesterday.

But we are still seeing low humidity out here. The fire department says that the acreage burned, 26,000, that's not changed for the last few hours, although they say that, as far as containment, they are at zero percent, they do not know when they will be able to contain this fire.

And we are learning that this will be an expensive fire for the taxpayers. We're looking at a total, according to the fire department, of some $900,000 -- Kyra. PHILLIPS: And we're just getting some pictures in from one of our affiliates there out of Los Angeles, Kyung, from KCAL there in the Yucca Valley, California. You can actually see the blaze burning strongly along the edge of the valley there.

Bring us up to date. You obviously have been talking a lot about the Yucca Valley area. But remind also our viewers, this really took out a huge part of Pioneer Town, a very well-known area there of Southern California for filming those old westerns, I mean, a big part of history there destroyed.

LAH: There is.

The area that you're talking about, that particular town, does have a significant amount of history to it. And that particular area was the hardest-hit, according to the fire department. That particular town, the main street was able to be preserved by the fire department, but some of the houses around that area, the fire department is estimating some 30 structures were destroyed.

At this point, they don't know how many of them are homes. We're waiting for the assessment. They're not anticipating knowing the extent of damage for the next couple of hours.

At this point, what the fire department says is, some of the pictures you're seeing from our affiliate, the fire is marching north. And what they're hoping is to be able to contain the fire before it hits some heavy brush, some forest area in the San Bernardino County forest, before it hits that area, because those trees -- a big problem out here in the forest areas, Kyra, has been that the bark beetle has really devastated some of the trees, killing those trees.

And, so, that is like tinder. If fires hits that area, you see fire start to crown on top of those trees, and that will really go up.

PHILLIPS: Kyung Lah, appreciate the live report.

Well, burying the dead, unearthing clues, Mumbai, India, a day after a string of railway bombings killed or wounded almost 1,000 people -- the dead may number among 200 -- and among the reported clues, timers hidden in pencils.

Our Aneesh Raman joins me on the phone now with more on the investigation.

What are you finding out, Aneesh?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, authorities have been keen not to be too specific, publicly at least, into what they're finding.

There are reports that they think that some of the bombs had timers that were put in things as small as pencils within these compartments. They will undoubtedly be trying to comb any video that they have got, any lists of passengers, to see who had gone into these cabins before the bombs exploded. They're not naming any group. There are a number of Islamic militant groups that many here say are behind the attack, given the sophistication, given how much planning would have been necessary.

But the government is aware, as well, that Mumbai, as much as it is a city of resolve and has rebounded from this, is also a city that has seen communal riots before, sectarian tensions between the minority Muslims and the majority Hindu population.

So, the government is trying to keep at bay any tensions that could arise after this devastating attack that has left now at least 185 killed and some 700 wounded, this as the families -- and I have gone out and met with them just outside of crematoriums after they have, in Hindu custom, burned the dead and cremated them.

They are angry. They want answers as to why it took so long for cell phones to come back up and running, why it took so long for them to find out where their relatives were, why, when they went to these government hospitals, where the majority of casualties were brought, inadequate care was given, that hospitals were simply overwhelmed.

But private hospitals, it seems, didn't really come into effect until people started, who are rich enough, essentially, to do so, brought themselves to those hospitals. So, there is a sense among these families that Mumbai is a city that has enormous resilience, but, as it's seen terrorist acts before, it will see it again -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman, we will continue to check in. Appreciate it.

Another rush hour is coming on fast in Chicago, a day after a crisis on the evening commute. A subway train jumped the tracks for reasons investigators haven't yet determined. Things were somewhat back to normal this morning, but commuters are still on edge.

CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It all started just outside of Chicago's famous loop, in a tunnel along the El's second busiest transit line. As many as 1,000 people were on board -- the first sign of trouble, hundreds of commuters piling out onto the sidewalk, covered in soot, coughing, some overcome by the smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people didn't know what happened. Some people were screaming. Some people were yelling. Some people were telling other people to be calm. Some women were saying they were going to pass out, that they were feeling faint.

OPPENHEIM: The head of the Transit Authority says the last car in an eight-car train hopped off the tracks, starting a small fire that filled a tunnel and car with smoke.

Here, you can see the damage on the car, which was pulled up from the subway last night. To learn why the train derailed, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will look at numerous factors: the track, the train, the signals. And even though no lives were lost this time, the impact of a derailment like this could have been much worse.

KITTY HIGGINS, BOARD MEMBER, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: I think we had a fortunate result here, but our job is about not just finding out what happened here, but also trying to prevent it happen -- from happening again.

OPPENHEIM: So, no sign of foul play, but plenty of fear on a day that started with a train bombing in India, a stark reminder of the risks train commuters face every day.

(on camera): More than 150 commuters from the damaged train were taken to nearby hospitals. Two are in critical condition. Most, fortunately, were treated and released for respiratory problems from all the soot in a smoky tunnel.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: There's supposed to be a security crackdown under way in Baghdad, but it's really hard to tell. More than 100 people have been killed just since the weekend -- among the latest attacks, two suicide bombings today that killed nine, this one at a Baghdad restaurant.

Elsewhere, gunmen stormed a bus station in Diyala Province. They took away 24 they identified as Shiites, and apparently killed 20 of them. The rest, apparently, were rescued.

Warning and praise from Donald Rumsfeld -- the defense secretary paid another surprise trip to Iraq today for meetings with U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders. He said Iraq's military is making progress, but police are lagging behind. He also talked about the sectarian violence that nothing seems to curb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: If you think about it, the sectarian violence has a purpose. The people engaged in it are not engaged in it for no reason at all.

And one of the purposes they're -- have in mind, probably the first and most important, is, there are those who would like to see a civil war in this country. They would like -- they have decided that they know they can't win on the battlefield. The only way they can win, they believe, is to create anarchy, and to cause the country to become a failed state, so that they can then pick up the pieces and impose their will and establish a caliphate here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: For his part, Iraq's prime minister warned parliament today that Iraq is facing what he called the last chance to end the fighting.

A gigantic mess in New York -- if Monday's building explosion was deliberate, what happens next? LIVE FROM picks through all the legal rubble -- coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Carol Lin working another developing story for us -- hey, Carol.

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

Word out of Baghdad that Saddam Hussein and his three co- defendants are on a hunger strike., apparently, for the last five days, according to a source out of Baghdad. He's only drinking coffee with sugar and water with nutrients. Apparently, he is protesting security for his attorneys, the third one who was killed just last month.

But he's also protesting court procedures, apparently. In fact, just yesterday, CNN.com was reporting on -- Saddam Hussein and his attorneys are actually boycotting court procedures. Now he's on a hunger strike. Doctors say that he is in good physical condition. He and his co-defendants have access to doctors 24 hours a day -- but more drama in the courtroom out of Baghdad.

PHILLIPS: Now, if I remember correctly, he's done this before.

LIN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: One time, I think, only lasted a day.

LIN: Well, you get hungry.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: You know, you get hungry. I mean, water with nutrients is only going to take you so far. And the coffee is going to keep you up.

PHILLIPS: That's true. That's right, all that caffeine.

All right, Carol Lin, appreciate it.

LIN: Sure.

PHILLIPS: Well, all's fair in love and war. Tell it to the judge. It turns out that gigantic mess in New York may not be limited to the pile of rubble on 62nd Street. It could be a benchmark in the history of bitter divorces.

CNN's Allan Chernoff has all the explosive details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just hours before Dr. Nicholas Bartha was found alone in the smoldering rubble of a townhouse that was his home, office and prized possession, he had sent a rambling e-mail to his wife saying: "I always told you, I will leave the house only if I am dead. You ridiculed me. You should have taken it seriously."

Now new evidence the doctor may have carried out his threat -- while sifting through the remains, fire department inspectors discovered, the building's natural gas line had been reconfigured.

LOUIS GARCIA, CHIEF FIRE MARSHALL, FIRE DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK: It was tampered before the meters with a T-connection and an open hose that came off that T-connection.

CHERNOFF: A connection allowing gas to pour into the house.

GARCIA: By turning that valve on, turning it on, you would have a free flow of gas into the basement, flooding the basement.

CHERNOFF: Bartha and his wife, Cordula, had been locked in a contentious divorce. A New York Appeals Court had ruled Cordula deserved millions, including part of the building, valued at more than $5 million. The court ordered the doctor to sell it, which his former divorce lawyer says Dr. Bartha couldn't bear to do.

IRA GARR, DR. BARTHA'S FORMER ATTORNEY: The house represented to him the American dream: This is what I spent 40 years working for. This is where I want to live. This is where I want to die.

CHERNOFF: In fact, Cordula Bartha said in divorce papers that "Nicholas had vowed he would never leave, never give up the building. He has said many times that he intends to die in my house."

And investigators say evidence suggests, Dr. Nicholas Bartha planned to end his life in the rubble.

RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We haven't made a final determination, but it's a -- it's a reasonable investigative position to go forward with.

CHERNOFF: No one was killed in the explosion, but four pedestrians and 10 firefighters were injured. Investigators want to question Dr. Bartha, but he remains in critical condition, with burns over much of his body.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And if the Barthas' divorce was messy, wait until the charges and the lawsuits start getting filed in the wake of the townhouse explosion.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins me from New York to talk about... JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I shouldn't be laughing, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

TOOBIN: I -- but I'm like -- you know, Jack Cafferty, our colleague, was just saying, you know, only in New York would a doctor try to kill himself by blowing up his house.

PHILLIPS: Well, I mean...

TOOBIN: I mean, come on.

PHILLIPS: No, it's true. Well, you sit there and you -- and you look at the situation, and you think it's pretty pathetic and pretty sad and quite -- I mean, we had heard rumors about Dominick Dunne, you know, chasing this to write an article...

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: ... on the story, you know, and that, of course, builds the intrigue.

But, on the serious side, first of all, I mean, suicide is -- oh -- it -- in so many ways, people say it's such a selfish act. And in this -- if this is true, if he was trying to commit suicide, so she couldn't get the building or the money, I mean, it gets even more depressing and sad.

But the reality is, a building demolished. This guy is in bad shape. You have got a messy divorce. A lot of people were shaken up over this -- people's property and homes destroyed.

So, who is liable, Jeffrey? If he survives, OK, will he have to pay? And if this turns out to definitely be a suicide attempt, will he have to pay for the emergency response and all the taxpayer dollars that went into this?

TOOBIN: Well, not the taxpayer dollars. That, unfortunately, just sort of gets washed away.

The question is, what about the damages to the people who were injured and the damages to the surrounding area? You know, in theory, he could be held liable. But look at the shape this guy is in. He's a 350-pound cardiologist who is hanging on to life by a thread.

I mean, in fact, most people are going to best off just asking their insurance companies for money and moving on with things. The interesting question is, well, who owns the house now? And that's going to be a total mess.

PHILLIPS: Right, because the divorce wasn't final. I mean, that was -- this whole fight was who's going to get what and how much money, right? And according to these articles coming out, the property's value is booming.

It's worth $7 million to $9 million, and it keeps getting higher. So, you have got the property value going up, and you're not quite sure what's going to happen to either one of these individuals involved in this lawsuit.

TOOBIN: Well, and the irony is, he may have increased the value of the property by leveling it. It wasn't a particularly nice building. But the property is valuable. And now no one has to worry about getting rid of the building that was there.

What's complicated is, it wasn't just owned by the husband and wife. Their children had a piece of the property as well. So, sorting it out now will be a difficult task. I assume it will be dealt with. But, again, assigning the value -- you know, assigning who owns the house, selling it, then dealing with if anybody -- any of the neighbors have any claims for damages, it's going to take a long time.

PHILLIPS: Well, could the wife be held responsible? Could she have to pay for those damages? And what about the kids?

TOOBIN: I don't think so. I mean, I think when you have what's called an intentional tort, you know, an intentional wrongdoing, by one party, here's the -- you know, assuming he did blow this house up, as it seems clear, I don't -- I can't see any way that the wife or the children would be held liable for anything.

PHILLIPS: But the insurance factor, I mean, sorting all this out could take years.

TOOBIN: Right.

And, if he does recover, he is almost certainly going to be prosecuted for arson and related crimes, because, I mean, you can't -- you know, it's one thing to try to kill yourself. But this was not just a hostile act towards the wife. It was an incredibly hostile act towards the whole community.

PHILLIPS: What if he doesn't make it?

LIN: If he doesn't make it, I think, you know, basically, as a legal matter, the whole thing just kind of goes away. The house passes into his estate. I don't know if he has a will or not. And the widow -- the then widow and her children would divide it.

But I think that would just be theirs. I don't think anybody else would have a claim against it.

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy, the issue of a living will, that could be very interesting. That adds a whole 'nother dynamic.

TOOBIN: Indeed.

PHILLIPS: Jeffrey Toobin, always appreciate you being with us.

TOOBIN: See you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead; Critics called Boston's Big Dig a big boondoggle. Today, there's fears the truth is even worse. Coming up on LIVE FROM: the latest on this week's deadly tunnel collapse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, in California, a state of emergency and zero containment, and firefighters won't even hazard a guess about when the Sawtooth Complex wildfire might be controlled.

Live pictures now from our affiliate out of Los Angeles, KCAL.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras has an update on the situation there -- Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: We're seeing lots of red arrows on Wall Street.

Susan Lisovicz, live from the New York Stock Exchange, to tell us why.

Hey, Susan.

(MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: All right. Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much. We'll see you again coming up. We'll take a quick break. More LIVE FROM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Keeping HIV in check just got simpler. The FDA today OK'd a once daily, three-in-one pill that combines medicines already on the market. Atripla can replace two or more pills that HIV patients take every day. That means simpler an likely less expensive treatment. The drug will be on the market within days.

It was the most expensive highway project in U.S. history. But up until now the cost was measured in dollars, not lives. Well, a key portion of Boston's Big Dig remains shut down two days after a deadly ceiling collapse. Inspectors have identified 60 other problems area.

CNN Boston bureau chief Dan Lothian looks at the caution sign on a road paved with controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): You may only travel on Montana's back roads, through Iowa's cornfields or New York's busy streets, but your tax dollars helped pay for Boston's infamous and now deadly tunnel, known as the Big Dig.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very disgusted with what's going on with that tunnel. I just passed through it the other day and I don't think I want to go through it again.

LOTHIAN: That follows the death of 38 year old Melina Del Valle in one of the tunnels Monday nine. Three ton concrete panels of the ceiling came down on her car. Her husband, 46-year-old Angel, who was driving at the time, crawled from their crushed Honda to safety. Joez Alleger (ph) was driving by and tried to help.

JOEZ ALLEGER, DRIVER: There was a lot of stuff on top but I can't do nothing. I was trying to save her. I was trying to, you know, take her out of there, but it was too dangerous.

LOTHIAN: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney cut short his vacation in neighboring New Hampshire to tour the accident site and express his outrage.

GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: People should not have to drive through the turnpike tunnels with their fingers crossed.

LOTHIAN: The Big Dig, a series of tunnels and roadways designed to smooth out Boston's congested traffic, is the nation's most expensive public works project ever, $12 billion over budget. Its construction problems also have been monumental.

Defects caused water to leak into the tunnel system. And at one point, rocks rained down on about a half dozen cars. In the latest case, the chairman of the agency responsible for the Big Dig says a steel bolting system gave way, causing Monday's accident. Now state and federal investigations are underway to determine why.

MATTHEW AMORELLO, CHMN., MASS TURNPIKE AUTHY.: This is an awful situation that occurred and we will leave no stone unturned and no expense spared in pursuing any wrongdoing that may have occurred in the installation of these tile panels, these ceiling panels, when they were constructed.

LOTHIAN (on camera): Governor Romney believes the chairman is partly responsible because of, quote, failure of leadership. He's now threatening legal action in a long-running battle to have the chairman removed from his job. And the state attorney general, along with the U.S. attorney are looking into whether anyone should be held criminally responsible for the deadly accident.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well a gas line may be the smoking gun in this week's spectacular blast that leveled a New York townhouse. The city's chief fire marshal says that flexible tubing was rigged with a valve to the building's main gas line, allowing gas to fill the landmark building.

Dr. Nicholas Bartha, who was badly hurt, is the building's owner and sole suspect in that explosion. Authorities believe he preferred to destroy the building than sell it to settle a bitter divorce. Doctor Paul Mantia shared his office space with Bartha and he spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL MANTIA, SHARED OFFICE SPACE WITH BARTHA: Wife and two daughters moved out in October of 2001. And he was, he was silent. I mean, he didn't talk about it. He just said, they left. He didn't want to talk about it. It affected him profoundly. He was more, he was quiet and became, he became angry and he became, at times, you know, just didn't want to discuss it. So I never really discussed it with him.

His life was there in his home. He loved living in his home. He told me years ago, I expect, he said, Mantia, don't talk to me about retirement. He expected to work until he was 80 and he would be living upstairs and working in the office and working in emergency. It was his life, working as a doctor, working the emergency room, having his private practice downstairs.

It made him happy. And I'm happy we made the office. I'm happy he worked there these years until now, because it made him happy. His mother told him for years, why don't you make an office? And when she died and I happened to mention, I'd like to make an office, he have saw it as something he could do to fulfill his dreams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That interview from CNN's Anderson Cooper. You can catch his show week nights, 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific, right here on CNN.

Quick watch the right side of your screen. Now, get a load of this. The driver of that truck wasn't hurt when his tractor trailer overturned and skidded to a halt on U.S. 131 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Police did give him a ticket, though. It doesn't appear any other cars were around him at the time of that crash.

You know that expensive mouth bling the kids are wearing these days? Well, schools in Arlington, Texas says no more grilles. Arlington says the tooth jewelry is too distracting and so are those ear lobe hole stretchers. So they are banning the fads all together. Students are upset because they spend a lot of money on those gold teeth. But the administrators say it's a lesson for life and there will be rules in the work force, too.

There's something strange in the water. But is it a sculpture, a tree stump, a fossil perhaps? Here's a hint. Don't get too close. LIVE FROM is buzzing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight to Carol Lin with a developing story -- Carol.

LIN: That's right. The president of the United States just landing in Germany. He's going to be meeting with Angela Merkel, the first female chancellor in Germany's history. You're looking at live pictures now as the president makes his way through the tarmac with the first lady there if can see her just ducking -- there we go, below, in purple.

An interesting meeting between these two leaders. You know, the United States and Germany have formed quite a tight bond. And certainly, this meeting will be symbolic of that, and an odd coupling, Kyra. I mean, here the president is, grew up in wealth and privilege, a frat boy from Texas, essentially, meeting with Angela Merkel, who was a shy ex-physicist and a pastor's daughter.

But the two really hit it off last year at the White House as the president was fascinated with her childhood history as she grew up behind the Iron Curtain. And now the two of them going to eventually the G-8 Summit where they have a united stance when it comes to several issues, including pressuring Iran on its nuclear program. So a big meeting for the president as he stops to visit the chancellor, and then on to the G-8 Summit in Russia.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Carol. Chris Burns mentioning, too, you know, an important relationship between the president and Merkel. He needs that ally at this point.

LIN: He sure does. It's going to be contentious at the G-8.

PHILLIPS: All right, Carol. Thanks.

They've been hard at work all day, but it was a short walk home -- spacewalk, that is, for Discovery astronauts Michael Fossum and Piers Sellers, whose home away for home for a few more days is the International Space Station. Fossum and Sellers have just wrapped up their third and final spacewalk of Discovery's 13 day mission.

They've been testing tools and materials that may be used to repair shuttles someday while they're still in space. The pair happened to misplace a spatula in the process, but NASA assures us it won't come streaking back to earth.

Hear that buzzing sound? One Georgia couple can't get away from it. That's because the wasp equivalent of a high rise condo is towering nearby. Don't think of a nest. Think of a palace.

Reporter Dal Cannady of our affiliate WTOC in Savannah paid a visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAL CANNADY, WTOC REPORTER (voice-over): Rising up out of the water, it looks like another tree stump from a distance. But a closer look is enough to take your attention, maybe your breath. Hundreds of thousands of yellowjackets swarm in and around their nest on Shelley and Tony Roberts' pond. They can't believe it got so big so quick.

SHELLEY ROBERTS, PROPERTY OWNER: I reckon about a couple of months ago all it was just a little stump. And then we've been noticing -- looked like mushrooms growing on it.

CANNADY: It looks to be about six foot tall and three feet wide. No one's gotten close enough to measure. Of course, I'm paid to be curious, so I convinced Shelley's son to take me a little closer. I was hoping if we didn't mess with them, they wouldn't mess with us.

ROBERTS: They're not aggressive. I mean, we'll be out here fishing. They haven't bothered us.

CANNADY (on camera): Just about everything you read about yellowjackets will tell you they nest in the ground. This is one of the first ones that anybody has seen on the water, let alone that size.

(voice-over): When it started to grow, the Roberts wondered what the jackets were using for brick and mortar. Then they noticed a change in their split rail fence.

ROBERTS: First of all, we thought maybe it was the sun bleaching out the fence. But if you notice where the yellowjackets are landing, they're eating the bark off the fence.

CANNADY: They turn the wood to a pulp of sorts and build layer by layer, sometimes several inches in a week. While it may look like paper mache, Shelley says that's one pinata you don't want to strike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: That report from Dal Cannady from affiliate WTOC in Savannah.

Most twins celebrate their birthdays together, but these Denver brothers buck tradition and joined the world two months apart. We're going to explain how it happened when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it sounds like a Mel Brooks movie. A country's president taps his identical twin brother -- wink, wink -- to be prime minister. If it were a movie, we'd never see both guys in the same room at the same time, but it really happened in Poland.

And CNN's Jeanne Moos isn't the only one seeing double.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you think all politicians are alike, well here are two who are really alike.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you say twins in Polish? (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

MOOS: Twins of the world rejoice. Poland's president has appointed his twin as prime minister. Now, this may seem shocking to outsiders, but the Poles are used to these two. The twins were child movie stars back in 1962, in a film called "The Two Who Stole the Moon."

Their hair has gone from blond to silver, they founded their own political party. Lech Kaczynski was elected president last year and now he's appointed his brother Jaroslaw prime minister. JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI, POLISH PRIME MINISTER-DESIGNATE (through translator): We have decided to take this risk and it is risk when the prime minister and the president are brothers.

MOOS: It will be a risk telling them apart. The president, screen right, has two moles on his face. He also wears a wedding ring. The prime minister is single and lives with his mother and cat. Sort of reminds us of the movie "Dave" where Kevin Kline is an average guy who looks like the president and ends up substituting for him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a very handsome man.

KEVIN KLINE, ACTOR: Thank you, Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just get rid of the grin, you look like a schmuck.

MOOS: Just think, when President Bush met with Poland's president five months ago.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, welcome to the Oval Office.

MOOS: W. could have been unwittingly welcoming his double. Twins like Lisa and Debbie Ganz, authors of a book on twins, sometimes switch identities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. We've switched everything. We've switched classes, we've switched on boyfriends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have one membership to the gym.

MOOS: The president and the prime minister have reportedly admitting taking exams for each other in their youth. But these two Geminis tend not to joke about their twin status.

(on camera): They don't like to do interviews together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do interviews together because we know it's annoying.

MOOS (voice-over): In a poll, 67 percent of polls said that Kaczynski twins should not hold both offices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our twin motto always, which he could steal from us is you can only make a first impression once. We make it twice.

MOOS: Sometimes once is enough, though the new prime minister sure kissed enough for two.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Someday a certain pair of brothers is going to win a lot of bets after beating some incredible odds. You see these twins aren't separated at birth. They're separated by birthday.

Reporter Cheryl Graham has more from our Denver affiliate, KUSA.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, bud.

KIM RUGG, MOTHER OF TWINS: Hi, sweetie. Good morning.

CHERYL GRAHAM, KUSA: Reporter: It was always supposed to be like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is this person next to me?

GRAHAM: But baby Adam had to wait 63 days to be back beside his twin brother, Jason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Jason. Oh, such a yawn.

RUGG: It's overwhelming. It's like surreal to see them together because we haven't. This is the actual first time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First time, yes.

GRAHAM: Adam was born nearly four months early. While he was fighting to get stronger in the hospital ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Usually the first twin doesn't survive.

GRAHAM: ... doctor's kept his twin, Jason, in his mother's womb, every day there critical.

DR. RICHARD PORRECO, PRESBYTERIAN ST. LUKES MEDICAL CTR.: Kim, I've been kidding her all along. I said I want a week, I want two weeks, I want a month.

GRAHAM: No one dared to hope for this outcome.

RUGG: Can you believe this? I can't believe it.

PORRECO: We were always curious to see how close will they be.

RUGG: One being inside, one outside.

GRAHAM: Amazingly they're almost the same weight and length.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Ruggsters.

GRAHAM: The Rugg brothers, twins with birthdays more than two months apart.

PORRECO: I think it's going to be very interesting to see what happens when they go for their driver's license. Think about that. How do you celebrate your birthdays?

GRAHAM: Now that they're both here, there's nothing they won't celebrate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't a crying contest. It's not to see who is going to cry the most. We'll get used to that sound. We'll hear that quite a bit.

GRAHAM: It's just the way it's supposed to be.

RUGG: Because I'm so thankful and so appreciative.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Doctors think the babies will be strong enough to go home in two or three weeks.

Now, twins of a different kind. Now we can show the picture. The Erie zoo in Pennsylvania is welcoming two baby red pandas. These balls of fur were born June 15th and they're just now starting to open their eyes. Handlers will figure out the genders next week and then the cubs will be named.

Time to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, standing by in THE SIT ROOM. Hi Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi Kyra, thanks very much. Israel now on the offensive on two fronts, trying to get its soldiers back. A tipping point in the Middle East? We'll go live to Jerusalem and I'll speak live with the former secretary of state, Alexander Hague (ph). President Bush is keeping a close eye on that situation as well as the tensions with North Korea, Iraq and Iran. A full plate on the president's agenda while he's abroad. Our Ed Henry is traveling with Mr. Push.

Plus, no help for firefighters trying to contain a wildfire that's forcing hundreds to evacuate. We're live on the scene.

And a petting zoo as a potential terror target? Just one very unusual part of the new Homeland Security Department report. All of that, Kyra, coming up in THE SITUATION ROOM.

PHILLIPS: We'll be watching, thanks Wolf.

The "Closing Bell" and a wrap of the day's action on Wall Street straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Yes, the "Uptown Girl" heads downtown to divorce court again. Model Christy Brinkley on the brink of single status again. Her publicist confirms she and fourth husband Peter Cooke have separated. Brinkley, 52, married Cooke in 1996. They have an 8-year- old daughter. Brinkley has two older children from her previous marriages to singer Billy Joel and developer Richard Todd.

Well from rush hour to lush hour. Actor Jackie Chan acting a fool at a concert in Hong Kong Monday. Chan went off the chain during a performance by Taiwanese singer/song writer Jonathan Lee. Chan had been invited to perform at the show but he jumped his cue, jumped on stage, tried unsuccessfully to conduct the band and demanded to sing a duet. The Ming Pao Daily News reports the audience heckled Chan, who admitted he was drunk and retorted with an undisclosed insult. At least he didn't head butt anyone.

The "Closing Bell" on Wall Street about to ring. For a final check on the market let's get to Susan Lisovicz, live at the New York Stock Exchange. No head butts, no drunk duets.

(MARKET REPORT)

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