Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Rescuers Continue to Search Through Phillipines Mudslide; Car Bomb in Baghdad Market Kills Over 20; U.S. Army Reports Uncovering IED Factory

Aired February 21, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at what's happening right "Now in the News."
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to review a federal law banning a controversial late-term procedures that abortion opponents call partial birth abortion. A federal appeals court has ruled that the law is unconstitutional because it doesn't provide a health exception for pregnant women facing a medical emergency.

Now a developing story we're following from Las Vegas. A suspected gunman is believed to be barricaded in the Harrah's Hotel and Casino on the strip. There are reports that a paramedic may have been shot. SWAT teams are said to be negotiating with a man who is in a room on an upper floor.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Egypt today. It's her first visit to the region since Hamas won the majority in the Palestinian parliament last month. She'll ask Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other leaders to help persuade Hamas to renounce violence and accept Israel's right to exist. Rice will also visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Making secret papers public, then secret again. "The New York Times" reports the government has restored thousands of historical documents to classified status. These papers were previously classified, then made public under the Clinton administration. Some historians have objected, saying many of the documents don't threaten national security. A review is under way.

And three days after that record Powerball jackpot, we are still waiting. Hey winner, where are you? Come on, step forward. We all know the store in Lincoln, Nebraska, is where the ticket is purchased. It is worth $365 million. Lottery officials say the winner has six months to claim the prize. They have tentatively scheduled a news conference for tomorrow. They're hoping to hear from the new multimillionaire winner before then.

And this just in to CNN. A serious car bombing in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Baghdad. A number of casualties.

Our Aneesh Raman standing by live in Baghdad with more on that.

Aneesh, hello.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN BAGHDAD CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning. The attack happened just about an hour ago. A car bomb exploding in the area of Dora at the southern part of Baghdad, a dangerous neighborhood. At least 20 people now confirmed dead, 25 others wounded. The car bomb detonating at a market place there.

Dora is a mixed neighborhood with Sunnis and Shia. It happened just as people would have been crowding around that marketplace. That is an area of sustained attacks since the war began, repeated attacks. And this is really the deadliest single attack we've seen in Iraq in quite sometime.

The daily violence, of course, continues. Yesterday in all some 17 Iraqis were killed in attacks throughout the country. But again, just about an hour ago, Iraqi police officials tell us a car bomb detonating at a market place in the neighborhood of Dora. At least 20 killed, 25 others wounded. These are initial casualty numbers that could perhaps rise -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Aneesh Raman, live from Baghdad. Aneesh, Thank you.

Other news today. Crews are digging through mud and rock for a fourth weary day. It's the site of the Philippines mudslide. Yesterday crews thought they had detected signs of life from a buried elementary school, but those hopes did not out. An entire village was buried in the slide, and nobody has been pulled out alive since Friday.

CNN's Hugh Riminton looks at how the survivors are doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this hospital corridor and in the wards to the left and right are the few, the very few, the survivors, 16 of them, in this hospital.

There were 21 pulled out of the rubble in the first few hours. None since. Two of those have subsequently died. Three others have been flown off for emergency help in other more sophisticated hospitals.

And that leaves these. We've spoken to them. They have different stories. The testament to randomness, there's no pattern for their survival. They include the physically strong, but also the elderly. The eldest, 72. The youngest, a child of just one years old.

Among them is a little girl, 6-year-old Rosemary Sabunga (ph). Television cameras saw her being pulled out of the wreckage and being brought out from being entombed. She was lucky because on that particular day, she was too sick to go to school and so did not suffer the fate of her three siblings and her mother.

Also here among the survivors, Irinia Valasca (ph). She also was seen being pulled out of the mud. She was buried for five hours.

Now, these people, these survivors, share a number of things in common. The stories of their survival might be different, but they say they have a bond between them. Whatever happens in the future, they want to stay together, to be resettled somewhere where this bond can be sustained.

This is the hospital in which they're trying to make their recovery, while up on the hill the search continues for all the members of these people's families who are still missing.

And, in fact, that brings on the question of luck. These might be deemed the lucky ones. Many of them don't see themselves that way. One woman told me she doesn't feel lucky. She would happily give her life for the seven grandchildren who are still mussing in the rubble.

Hugh Riminton, CNN, in Ahawan (ph) Hospital, the Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And this just in to CNN. Watching the situation in Las Vegas with the suspected gunman. Apparently the situation has been resolved. The man giving himself up without incident. This has all been unfolding this morning at the Harrah's Hotel and Casino on the strip in Las Vegas. The man we had heard had barricaded himself on the 20th or 21st floor. Apparently, he has given himself up and guests are being allowed to return to the rooms.

Well, if you have gotten some energy bills in the last month or so that you're really frustrated with, you're going to really be interested in this next story. A man with a 3,000 square foot house, 9,000 foot elevation. His energy bill, $200 for the year. How does he do it? He'll tell us just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Just a few minutes from now, President Bush will take his alternative energy initiative to a very partial audience, the men and women who work at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. The lab conducts research into energy efficiency across a broad spectrum, including the house of the future that was built by senior engineer Otto Van Geet.

Get this. His home was almost completely powered by wind and solar energies, where Van Geet and his family have been living ever since. And he's joining me live this morning from Denver about how he did this and some of the stats involved.

Mr. Van Geet, good morning.

OTTO VAN GEET, NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: OK, let me go over some numbers here, and you tell me if I have this right. So this house is at 9,300 feet.

VAN GEET: That's correct.

KAGAN: OK, 3,000 square feet. So this is not a tiny home.

VAN GEET: Correct.

KAGAN: And your energy costs per year, $200.

VAN GEET: That's correct.

KAGAN: That's a fraction of what my gas bill was last month.

VAN GEET: Yes, there's probably a lesson to be learned here.

KAGAN: Yes, I think so. Let's learn some. Let's go to school, Professor Van Geet. I was reading about your house. You say the number one thing is how it's built.

VAN GEET: Yes, that's correct. What we want to do with new houses is first orient them the right way, and that would be facing south. This is very important in all climates, and especially important in my climate.

KAGAN: What does south do for you?

VAN GEET: What south does is it allows us to gain heat from the sun in the wintertime when the sun is low in the sky, but not gain heat in the summertime when the sun is high in the sky. So we have a lot of south-facing glass. And in most climates, you want to keep the glass shaded to minimize the summertime gains.

KAGAN: My house -- go ahead, I'm sorry.

VAN GEET: Oh, no, that's all right. So there's an overhang over the south glass.

KAGAN: My house was built back in 1928. So somebody was doing it back then. But one difference I could make by learning from your house are the kind of appliances and lighting you were talking about.

VAN GEET: Absolutely. That's something that every house can do. Everybody should be picking the most energy-efficient appliances that meet their needs. For example, compact fluorescents lights instead of incandescent lights. Compact fluorescent use about a quarter of the energy and last 10 times as long. The same can be said for refrigerators, your furnace, your air-conditioners, all those things. You should always be choosing the best of the Energy Star-rated appliances.

KAGAN: And how much does soiler energy play into your house?

VAN GEET: It plays a lot. It plays directly in helping to heat the house, through direct gain, through the windows, and other features like (INAUDIBLE) walls. It plays very directly into the energy sources. Solar electric cells, called photo-voltaics (ph) or PVs for short, provide the electricity for the house. That's stored in batteries for the night. And then solar hot water panels provide the domestic solar hot water needs for the house.

KAGAN: So if we're being honest here, does your family have any inconveniences or hardships by living in the house?

VAN GEET: I would honestly say no. What you do want to do is adjust your lifestyle, just to...

KAGAN: So is it freezing inside your house, like do I need like 12 sweaters?

VAN GEET: Oh, no, no, not at all. The house heats itself. Whenever the sun is out, it can be a day like today. It's 15 degrees up there, but the sun is out. So the sun will heat it. It'll store enough heat in the mass of the house during the daytime to carry it through the night. No inconveniences, but you do want to watch your lifestyle choices. You know, you don't leave the TV on if you're not watching it, or lights on if you're not using them, but that's sort of common sense anyway.

KAGAN: Well, that's fair.

So President Bush is stopping by your lab. If you had a chance to visit with him, what would you tell him?

VAN GEET: I would encourage him to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the country, and I'm hoping that's what he's here to announce.

KAGAN: We'll be listening. Otto Van Geet, thank you, and thanks for the look inside your house.

VAN GEET: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Appreciate it. Fascinating stuff.

Well, you can definitely the file the story under unbelievable. Coming up, an argument over toilet paper. It led to a deadly confrontation.

We'll also check out business news, and something you might not expect when it comes to buying clothes. Apparently men are stepping out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: This just in to CNN: Authorities, federal authorities, saying that three men have been arrested and charged in Ohio, charged with alleged support for terrorism. Two of the men are already in Ohio, the other in an unnamed country, exactly what they were planning, not completely clear, except it looks like a plot to unfold in another country. The man who was arrested in the other country will be returned to Ohio to face charges there. We expect to learn more later today.

(MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: This just in to CNN. Word from the U.S. Army saying they have uncovered a stash of IEDs and an IED factory was uncovered. With more on that, let's go live to Baghdad and welcome in Colonel Jeffrey Snow with the U.S. Army.

Colonel, thanks for being here with us.

COL. JEFFREY SNOW, U.S. ARMY: Well, nice to be with you. How are you doing?

KAGAN: I'm doing OK. Tell us about this stash that your people uncovered?

SNOW: Well, I think what's most notable about this is the fact that it was Iraqi citizens that came forward and provided us the information, which ultimately led to an air assault operation to go in and uncover what was really a series of caches in southwest of Baghdad.

KAGAN: What was actually there?

SNOW: Well, what we actually found is we found -- first of all, there was anti-Iraqi forces. So there were men that we were specifically targeting based on the tip provided from local nationals. And pretty significant caches. It was 60 millimeter mortar rounds, some 600 of them. There was a couple hundred rounds of artillery rounds.

There was evidence that this particular area, village, was used as an insurgent training base, as evidenced by what we believe was an IED or VBIED-making factory. And the reason we say that is we found evidence of gunpowder in the vicinity of a garage with welding instruments and so forth.

KAGAN: Colonel, I want to ask you about the significance on a couple fronts here. First of all, in terms of the huge IED threat that troops face out in the field and all around Baghdad and all around Iraq. How -- is this just a small dent, a big dent, in trying to address that problem?

SNOW: I think at this particular case, it was significant in that we believe this area was a staging area. And we had reason to believe that the insurgents were planning an attack on innocent civilians and coalition forces. And so, as a result of the efforts to conduct this operation, we believe we have thwarted that attack.

With regard to, you know, IEDs, there are really two different IED threats, if you will. There are what we call the pop and drop IEDs, those that planted along the roadways. And because of, you know, the fact that we are traveling in armored Humvees, they provide very good protection for the soldiers. And that has not disrupted our operations. But out in the rural areas, where the insurgents dig in these IEDs and put numbers of them together, that constitutes a little bit more significant threat to our forces.

KAGAN: And when we're talking IED -- for those not living in the military world and in Iraq -- how would you explain what they usually are, how they're formatted?

SNOW: I would explain it this way. What they -- what we tend to see is they use old artillery rounds, either artillery or mortar rounds. And what they do is wire them up so that they can ignite them. And there's a variety of ways in which they can do that. But they lump them together and then they either work some type of pressure-plated device or some type of remote control initiated device where they trigger them in the presence of coalition forces.

KAGAN: And finally, a final significant question here for you, Colonel. You talked about locals helping out the U.S. Army and giving tips as to where this stash might be found and these people might be found. How significant is that? And do you see that as a turnaround or an indication of a turnaround?

SNOW: I'm not sure that I would classify it was a turnaround. We are seeing more and more of this, though. As the Iraqi army forces continue to stand up, there are more and more people not only coming to Iraqi security forces, but as well as coalition forces, in providing us evidence that is leading to the killing or capturing of insurgents.

What I think is good is, again, we're seeing more of it. It is accurate information. In this case, there was very good information that led us to the area. And to me, it's indicative that the people are tired of the terrorists conducting their attacks. And so the more information they provide us, the better able we are to enhance the security situation.

KAGAN: Colonel Jeffrey Snow with the U.S. Army. Thank you, sir, for talking about the IED factory discovered just outside of Baghdad. Thank you for your time.

SNOW: Thank you.

KAGAN: And we'll take a break. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Well, there's this story about toilet paper. Authorities say it was toilet paper or lack of it that was the motive behind a killing in Florida. Fifty-six-year-old Franklin Crow is accused of beating his roommate to death with a sledgehammer and claw hammer because there was no toilet paper in the home. Police say they had to identify the victim by his fingerprints due to the severity of the beating.

New Web site gives critics of "The Da Vinci Code" a place to air their grievances. You might be surprised to find out who's behind that.

Plus, it is show time for women's Olympic figure skating. Gold medalist Tara Lipinski joins me with her picks and her predictions and her advice.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY right now.

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