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CNN Live Today

Mideast Politics; California Wildfires; Alabama Church Fires; Drawing Outrage; Managing An Office Romance Tips

Aired February 08, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Four hours went by like . . .
VAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: That.

MILES O'BRIEN: Three fifty nine.

Daryn Kagan at the CNN Center. She's going to take it away.

Hello, Daryn.

VERJEE: Hi.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, darling. You guys have a great day in New York City. You take good care of Zain, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: We will.

KAGAN: All right.

MILES O'BRIEN: She's having a great time.

VERJEE: Buy me things, I'll be happy.

MILES O'BRIEN: She's going to spend a lot today.

VERJEE: Yes.

KAGAN: Have a great day.

We'll go ahead and get started. Let's do that by taking a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."

This morning at the White House, President Bush met with Jordan's King Abdullah. One issue topping the agenda is Hamas' landslide victory in the Palestinian elections. The militant group has refused to recognize Israel and long vowed to destroy it. King Abdullah, an Arab moderate with strong U.S. ties, is seen as a key peace maker in Middle East politics.

Also this morning in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with her Israeli counterpart, foreign minister Tzipi Livni. They too will discuss relations with Hamas. Yesterday's Jordan's King Abdullah urged Livni the foreign minister to give Hamas an opportunity to soften its militant views.

In Iraq, a series of explosions has killed at least two people. The first bomb explode inside of a parked car as the Iraqi education minister passed. The minister escaped unhurt, but the blast did kill one civilian. Within a half hour, two other bombs blew up in the capital killing one civilian. Two police officers are among the wounded.

The topic of Iraqi reconstruction is under the microscope this hour on Capitol Hill, as we look at live pictures of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opening up its hearing. It happened about a half hour ago with a number of Bush administration officials set to testify. The focus will also include the stabilization of Iraq.

Good morning to you on this Tuesday morning. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.

We're going to start this hour with President Bush. He has been focusing on the volatile political landscape in the Middle East with one of the region's leaders. The president sat down for talks last hour with King Abdullah of Jordan. Our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us with more on the meeting and the rest of the president's day.

Suzanne, hello.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX: Well, hi, Daryn.

It was really interesting, both leaders came out of that meeting and they chose to talk about one thing an one thing only, and that is the cartoon controversy developing, erupting in the Middle East, all of the violence that has occurred over that offensive cartoon of Mohammed. Many people taking to the streets, not only in Denmark, but, of course, Pakistan, as well Afghanistan. Some that anger now being directed towards the United States as well. U.S. officials have been very sensitive about this issue in the past. The last couple days saying that, yes, they find the cartoon offensive as well, but that violence is not an acceptable way of dealing with this. President Bush wanted to make that message very clear this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I first want to make it very clear to people around the world that ours is a nation that believes in tolerance and understanding. In America we welcome people of all faiths. One of the great attributes of our country, is that you're free to worship however you choose in the United States of America.

Secondly, we believe in a free press. We also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful to others.

Finally, I've made it clear to his majesty, and he has made it clear to me, that we reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press. I call upon the governments around the world to stop the violence, to be respectful, to protect property, protect the lives of innocent diplomats who are serving their countries overseas. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Daryn, as you know, of course, all of this, the controversy started from a cartoon of Mohammed that was published in Denmark. The president has been supportive of the prime minister there, Rasmussen, calling him the last couple of days offering his support. There's been a lot of debate as well as to whether or not there really are enough moderate Muslim voices from the leadership also calling for calm, expressing their condemnation of that violence. Well, today you heard from an ally, a relied upon ally, that, of course, King Abdullah of Jordan. He also echoing the president's message, saying that anything, of course, that vilifies Mohammed is unacceptable and should be condemned. But also, of course, said that it is unacceptable to pursue this in a violent way.

Daryn, of course, all of them, the White House very much alarmed at the pictures that we have seen over the last week or so.

KAGAN: And with good reason. Very disturbing. Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Suzanne, thank you.

Now to Southern California where fire officials know, they say, how a raging wildfire there got started. It erupted from a controlled burn by the forest service. The fire is whipped up by Santa Ana winds. It has burned 6,500 acres with homes no longer in immediate danger. Evacuation orders from some 2,000 residents have been lifted. There's no word on when the fire may be fully contained.

Crews are fighting another brush fire in Southern California right now. The fire is burning in the rugged canyons of Calabasas. Officials believe a car fire started this blaze. No word right now on the size of the brush fire or whether any homes are threatened.

But those dry wind conditions are making for explosives conditions in Southern California. Joining us to talk about the Calabasas fires is Sam Padilla from the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Sam, good morning.

SAM PADILLA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

KAGAN: First, let's talk about what we see happening in the Calabasas/Malibu area. What's the latest you can tell us there?

PADILLA: Yes. This is called the Latigo (ph) incident. And this call came in at 4:48 this morning where Los Angeles County units responded and came upon a six acres, which is now up to 25 acres. We do have a first-alarm brush assignment on it. We have three water- dropping helicopters, two from Los Angeles County Fire an one from Los Angeles city.

We do have about 195 personnel on this fire. We do not have any structures threatened right now. But we do have a red flag warning until Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. So we are taking all things into consideration when battling this type of brush fire. This is in a rough, hard to get to terrain area. So right now they're having a little problem with getting to the actual line of the fire, so the helicopters are taking care of those situations right now.

KAGAN: So the biggest challenge right now are the dry and windy conditions in Southern California?

PADILLA: That's correct. We are in a red flag warning right now.

KAGAN: And with everything that was happening earlier this week in Anaheim Hills, are there enough resources to go around to battle both fires?

PADILLA: That is correct. Los Angeles County Fire has upped their staffing for last three days, just predicting any type of brush fire, any threat of it. We always up our manning on our engines to another individual, plus manning all our patrols, our water tenders, our heli tenders, just in case a situation like this breaks out.

KAGAN: Sam Padilla with L.A. County, thank you and we wish you well in knocking down these fires.

PADILLA: Thank you.

KAGAN: Now to the latest in a series of church fires in Alabama. And the investigation into what appears to be serial arson. Four more churches burned yesterday, added to the five that burned last Friday. All are Baptist and in rural counties. Federal agents are poring over evidence. Local authorities are beefing up patrols and residents want to know why. CNN's David Mattingly is in front of what remains of one church in Boligee, Alabama.

David, good morning.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

In just the past few minutes, we've been watching what really behind me doesn't look all that exciting, but is actually an indication of just how intense and how meticulous this investigation has become. This church was completely burned to the ground yesterday morning, and today ATF agents are back at the scene. One of them armed with a rake. They are literally going piece by piece through the wreckage looking at everything they can possibly find for any small little clue that might still be in those ashes.

Of course, everyone looking for the answers as to why anyone would be targeting Baptist churches in rural Alabama counties. Nine of them burned, five on Friday, four here in West Alabama yesterday morning. Officials aren't saying yet if they think that the Tuesday morning fires are -- will be linked to the Friday fires, but the answers that they'll get out of the investigation like what is going on here might go a long way to making that link for them.

Now, right now, some of this will be -- this investigation will be going to the laboratory. Yesterday we saw specially trained dogs going through some of these burn sites, isolating areas where there could be chemicals that were used to set some of these fires. At some of these locations, some doors were kicked in. In fact, investigators have been examining those doors for forced entry, finding actually a footprint on one of them. Again, another one of those small piece of evidence they keep collecting. They also were able to find tire tracks at one location not far from here in the mud. They were able a take a plaster cast, a mold, of those tire tracks, again to add to whatever they're coming up with.

At this point, there's very little they've been able to go to the public with. They say that on Friday, someone in the public noticed a dark SUV, possibly a Nissan Pathfinder, in the area. A similar call came in to a sheriff here in West Alabama yesterday, saying there was another dark SUV that was seen in the area, possibly around the time that the fires were going on. So that's what investigators are asking the public to keep an eye out for as they continue in this investigation without any motive and without any real suspect.

Daryn.

KAGAN: David Mattingly live from Alabama. David, thank you.

And at the bottom of the hour, I'll talk with two federal investigators heading the church fires case.

Meanwhile, on to other news this morning. The pilot and two crew members jumped from this burning UPS plane as it landed in Philadelphia shortly after midnight today. The pilot declared an emergency after a fire broke out in the cargo hold en route from Atlanta. The crew was examined for smoke inhalation and released. Philadelphia International was close overnight. Some flights may still be affected.

Now back to the continuing uproar over those cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. A top Muslim organization in Afghanistan today urged people to stop the rioting. But that wasn't enough to stop the violence. Today's march in the Afghan capital of Kabul was orderly, but rioters tried to storm a police station and a U.S. base. Five people were killed.

There was another protest against the cartoons in the West Bank city of Hebron. Hundreds of Palestinians attacked an international mission. At one point, protesters forced their way inside but police finally restored order there.

And Danish flags were burned in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. It's estimated that 3,000 people took part in that protest.

An Iranian newspaper has its own response to the controversial cartoons. A contest inviting submissions of holocaust caricatures. Our European Political Editor Robin Oakley picked up the story from London.

Robin, hello.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

Well, this Iranian newspaper, the Hamshahri, has offered the chance for cartoonists worldwide to depict caricatures of the holocaust, which Germany's foreign minister, for example, has dismissed as a deliberate attempt to incite and to cause further problems over the Danish cartoons. He said it's an example of tastelessness being answered with tastelessness. And I think European diplomat whose have been appealing for calm in this issue see this as inspired, really, by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has, after all, called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map and who has, himself, dismiss the holocaust as a myth. And I think it's all becoming mixed up with various political motives, and all the appeals for calm, jointly issued by the European Union, the United Nations, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, are not being heed while this kind of things goes on.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Robin Oakley live from London. Thank you, Robin.

Well, we have pictures just coming in now from Andrews Air Force Base. Pictures of President Bush. He is heading out of town today. He's heading up not to far. He's going to New Hampshire. He'll be making remarks to the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire and he'll be doing that in Manchester. We'll monitor those remarks that the president makes. He's scheduled to speak at 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

A lot more to get to today on CNN LIVE TODAY.

So you know you're having a bad day when you have to shovel snow off your roof. We'll show you what part of the country is digging out from some extreme snowfall.

Plus, conference call at 9:00, meeting at 10:00, and romantic tryst in the stairwell at 11:00? Hello. We're talking office romantic and Gerri Willis will be along with the dos and, probably more importantly, the don'ts.

And later, the race is on for the best album Grammy? Will it be Kanye or Mariah. Perhaps none of the above. We'll talk about the odds just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: There is so much snow in Colorado. How much? Well, road crews clearing the several mountain areas have run out of places to dump the stuff. On the plus side, the skiing is great this season. And the heavy snow pack is raising hopes that Colorado's drought may be ending. Keep in mind, Colorado's snowiest months of March and April, well they are still ahead of us.

So we're keeping an eye on that, as is Jacqui Jeras.

Jacqui, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Jacqui, wait until you see this next story. It's really high on the awww factor.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Awww.

KAGAN: OK. We go to the tape.

These pictures just in to us here. The weather led to one dramatic rescue just south of Denver, Colorado. A golden retriever found itself trapped in a partially frozen pond. Stay with me here because there's a happy ending. The dog struggled but couldn't get out of the icy waters. So, get this, firefighters went in and plucked him out.

JERAS: Awww.

KAGAN: Don't you love?

JERAS: I do love it. Absolutely.

KAGAN: And the golden retriever goes on to see another day.

JERAS: And he's happy and he's safe and they'll warm him up.

KAGAN: Yes. And hopefully will avoid the icy ponds in the future.

JERAS: Hopefully he learned his lesson.

KAGAN: Jacqui, thank you.

Also this in to CNN. Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett finally is chasing his record setting dream. After a one day delay due to weather and mechanics, Fossett took off this morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His goal, to fly his experimental plane further than anyone has ever flown without stopping or refueling. And we're talking a lot of frequent flyer miles here, 27,000 miles. That's once around the world and then across the Atlantic again before landing in London. At least that's the plan. But he is on his way today. We will monitor that for you.

Ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, is your special someone sitting in that cubicle next to yours? Gerri Willis is here with tips for office romances.

Gerri.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, it gives PDA a whole new level of meaning. Coming up, what you need to know about office romance. "Five Tips" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The markets have been open not quite an hour. The Dow moving up a little bit. You can see it's up 29 points. The Nasdaq just a little bit into positive territory. It is up about 5 points.

Now is the part where we talk about getting your honey where you get your money. Valentine's Day is less than a week away, but matters of the heart can make for some pretty messy dealings in the workplace. Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis joins us with her "Top Five Tips" on how to manage those office romances. If you choose to go fishing off the company pier, as they like to say.

WILLIS: As they like to say. How many ways can we say that it's more than just 9:00 to 5:00, isn't it, Daryn?

KAGAN: Sometimes it is.

WILLIS: Well, you know, I could not believe the numbers that we found. Listen to this. Twenty-six percent of employees have kissed a colleague. Did you know that? And 60 percent have had some kind of relationship with a colleague. Look, 28 percent have had some kind of romantic relationship or entanglement at work. It's happening everywhere is the point. You're not alone if you've had a relationship with somebody at work. Got to tell you, Daryn, you know, more women in the workplace, it's sort of a natural thing.

KAGAN: And that's where people spend all their time. That's where you're going to meet and socialize.

WILLIS: Right.

KAGAN: But your company might not think it's such a great idea.

WILLIS: Well, that's true, but it used to be a total no-no. You could not have a relationship, or should not have a relationship, with somebody at work. And now it's regarded a little differently. I think a lot of companies are starting to see the realities out there. Fourteen percent of them have some kind of policy in place about employee relationships. But look, most of them are prepared to deal with it at this point. In fact, Southwest encourages it.

KAGAN: Really?

WILLIS: Yes. There are 1,300 couples at Southwest. They sort of feel like, hey, you know, everybody's really signed on to make the company go forward because everybody's paycheck is coming from the same place. So they're positive about it.

KAGAN: All right, well there's a different take.

WILLIS: A whole new meaning to mile-high club, you know.

KAGAN: Yes, exactly. I don't think that's what they're encouraging, however, for the record.

WILLIS: Sorry about that.

KAGAN: Now the bad news. Most of the office romance do not work out. WILLIS: That's true. Twenty-one percent of romances lead to a long-term relationship or a marriage, so that's not a ton. So if you're involved with somebody in the cubicle next to you, you need to start thinking about how -- what's going to happen if we do break up? How do I want to handle it? How should I, you know, protect myself? How should I make sure that I can work with this person in an ongoing way? And you might even want to sit down and have a hard conversation with that person and say, you know, look, is this the right thing to be doing and what do we do if it doesn't go on?

KAGAN: Then there's the gossip mill, which is never fun to be part of.

WILLIS: And, you know, it doesn't help your career, I've got to tell you. If people are talking about you in a bad way, it can be bad. Discretion is golden. You definitely want to keep it on the down-low if you can.

KAGAN: And when does human resources get involved in this?

WILLIS: Well the flip side of this is that there's going to be some people out there who maybe they're not having the relationship but they think that a relation is keeping them from getting that really important advancement, from getting the job they want, getting the assignments they want. If you feel like that, it's time to go to human resources. But if you're just kind of feeling out of sorts because somebody is having a relationship, that's not enough. That doesn't really reach the hurdle of calling in the guards to escort your friends out. You've really got to feel like there's some impediment to your advancement if you're going to complain.

KAGAN: All right. Gerri Willis, thanks you for those very practical tips.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Thank you.

Just ahead, nine fires in five days and no significant leads to speak of. Ahead I'll speak with federal law enforcement officials about the Alabama church fires and where the investigation stands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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