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CNN Live Today

Crisis in the Middle East; Ramsey Murder Case; Girl Held Captive; Kidnapped Journalists

Aired August 25, 2006 - 10:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: On this Friday morning. Lots of developments in the news to bring you.
French peacekeepers on shore in Lebanon. French politicians getting real about their troop numbers. The Europeans meeting this hour to divvy up peacekeeping duties for southern Lebanon as well.

Ramsey suspect John Karr is finally in Colorado. His relatives are talking again. And you'll see his exclusive CNN video on this case this hour.

And the tropics are starting to bubble. Could that blob of clouds off of Venezuela become the season's first hurricane. Chad has his eye on that and he keeps us up to the minute.

Keeping the peace in south Lebanon, the focus in Brussels this morning. European foreign ministers are meeting to decide whose troops will buffer Israel from Hezbollah. Also at the talks, U.N. chief Kofi Annan. A number of issues to resolve. Among them, how many troops each nation will contribute to the peacekeeping force and who will lead them?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER, EU EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMISSIONER: That we will contribute to the troops, but the security elements have to be seen against the whole political and economic context. And we, the commission, are ready to working for a long-term solution for a revival of Lebanon. That means particularly for the Lebanese institutions, their authority, in order to restore full sovereignty of that country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Our Robin Oakley is following the meeting from Brussels and brings us more on that.

Robin, hello.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

Well, as you say, lots of issues to be sorted here. How many troops the different countries are going to put in. We've had indications. Of course, we know already that Italy will put in 3,000. We know that France will put in 2,000. Indeed the Italian contingent was probably what prompted France to come forward and much increase its offer. Just in the last hour or two, we've heard that Belgium will contribute some 300 troops. And Spanish media are suggesting that 600 will come from Spain.

But it's not just a question of the troop numbers, whether the European Union will produce the 8,000 or 9,000 the United Nations is hoping for, it's a question of what precisely those troops will do and who will have the command. Because when Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, promised those 3,000 Italian troops, he said Italy wanted to lead the operation. But France has come forward with its own troops and said they want to continue leading the operation. And President Bush has said he was positive about the Italian offer and then he praised the French for continuing their leadership. So we're not quite sure who he's backing.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, and then the French seem to have this issue of -- they said, if we're allowed to defend ourselves robustly. Was there some question as to just how far these troops would be allowed to go?

OAKLEY: Yes. I think that's one of the biggest worries for the European countries. What will be the rules of engagement? Already the United Nations has been pressed into saying, yes, they will be able to fire in self-defense. They will be ale to fire in terms of protecting civilians. But nobody knows quite at which point and whom they can fire at. Will they, if they have intelligence of some forthcoming attack, be able to go out and make some kind of preemptive strike.

There's also the question of where exactly they operate because Israel has said it won't end the air and sea blockade of Lebanon until this international force patrols the Syrian border and stops arms coming into Hezbollah. But the French defense minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, has just said, for example, that France will play no part in any patrolling of the Syrian border. And, of course the Syrians are saying, if the force does do that, they will regard that as a hostile action. So an awful lot to sort out yet.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Oh, dear, still quite a few issues to get through. Robin Oakley from Brussels, thank you.

Let's focus on news back here in the U.S. He is back in the city of the crime. John Karr is in Boulder, Colorado, this morning to face charges in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. He spoke with a public defender last night and we're waiting to hear what time Karr will appear in a courtroom there in Boulder, Colorado. Our Ed Lavandera is following developments today. He is in Boulder.

Ed, good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. Well, as you mentioned, just after he was booked and his mug shot was taken here at the county jail in Boulder, we understand that he, John Mark Karr, spent three hours visiting with a public defender here. We bring this up because there's two other attorneys in California who say they will be representing him. So now this is a third person who now says that he has been asked by John Karr to be represented by the Colorado Public Defender's Office. We imagine there are a lot of attorneys who have a lot of straightening of things out to do this morning.

And, of course, he has spent the night here in solitary confinement. The sheriff saying that a lot of it is for his own safety given the intense publicity that followed John Mark Karr from Thailand, to California and, of course, from California here to the county jail last night about just as the sun was starting to set here in Boulder he arrived under a small caravan of well-armed guards that followed him from the airport.

And, of course, now the question turns to the prosecutor whose have still remained incredibly tight-lipped about what is going on behind the scenes on this investigation. The latest clue we got was yesterday a court filing made public saying that the D.A.'s office got John Karr's full identity only five days before he was arrested in Thailand. So this is kind of the only glimpse we've seen to just to how new the investigation is into John Mark Karr specifically, even though that journalism professor we talked so much about had been e- mailing back and forth with Karr.

That professor never knew his full name. That's why John Mark Karr's identity taking so long to come forward. But any clues on as to how much progress they've made on evidence and any other kind of includes in this case, even placing John Karr here in Boulder back in December of '96, just hasn't come out yet.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Do you know how long they can hold him, Ed, without filing charges?

LAVANDERA: Well, they have up until three business days. We're looking at next Tuesday. If they're not ready to file the charges by then, the D.A.'s office can go to a judge and request a delay and some extra time. But that starts to become a little bit more complicated legal issue. But right off the bat we're kind of looking at a three- day window here.

KAGAN: All right, Ed Lavandera in Boulder, Colorado. Ed, thank you for that.

Developing news in the world of weather. Chad Myers has an eye on that from the tropics. Well, Chad's here in Atlanta, but he's looking at the tropics.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Hey, there was this unbelievable sight in the South Dakota sky. A tornado that just keeps going and going.

Chad, are you watching this?

This was one of several twisters that damaged homes and brought down power lines in South Dakota.

Any comments on what you're seeing there, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pretty small tornado. F-0, F-1 maybe. We call it a rope. Could have been bigger. Probably roping out at this point or just starting at this point if it had become a bigger storm. Twenty-five tornadoes yesterday, though, Daryn.

KAGAN: Wow.

MYERS: So, yes, they were out there for sure. And we had the pictures of that storm that was up in North Dakota, putting down 3.25 inch hail. And we had some storms yesterday reported at 4 inches, which is as big as a large grapefruit. That's amazing.

KAGAN: Crazy.

Well, let's go to the tape from neighboring Minnesota. Those were deadly tornadoes. An elderly man was killed when a twister hit his home. In a nearby town, a tornado ripped off roofs, flattened trees and several people were hurt there. So much more intense, I guess, in Minnesota.

MYERS: Yes. Actually, just in a line, a diagonal line, right from almost Rochester, south of the Twin Cities, down to almost O'Claire (ph) where there were tornadoes within 10 miles of each other as it skipped down along that front. And that front is now moving a little bit farther to the east today.

So the potential for more weather in Chicago. This is where the weather is now. Here's Madison. A couple of big cells. And they will fire. As the day goes on and the heat comes in from the sunshine, the storms are going to get stronger.

KAGAN: All right. You'll be watching it for us. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

KAGAN: Speaking of tornadoes, what are the chances? A man's home demolished by a tornado twice in his lifetime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing you can say. It happens. The good Lord wanted it and he took it. You can't do nothing about that. Only thing you can do is pick up the pieces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: His incredible story ahead this hour. A confession, but is it a lie? A mother whose daughter disappeared explains why she is skeptical of John Karr.

And then a young woman who disappeared eight years ago, now she's suddenly reappeared with a story of horror and heartbreak. You'll hear it on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Levee breaches made a soup bowl out of New Orleans a year ago. How strong are the levees now? A status report is coming up.

It was a year ago today that Katrina was just a tropical storm picking up speed, growing into a monster storm. Ahead of next week's coverage of the Katrina anniversary, we take a look back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Chad, let's start with you. The latest on Katrina.

MYERS: Up to 60 miles per hour now is the latest 11:00 advisory just in and the Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, has raised the number from 50 to 60 miles per hour. The storm getting a little bit tighter here. This thing is a wobbler and it's going to continue to do that. That's why this thing has been so difficult to predict landfall, speed, and, of course, timing.

One thing you don't like to see when you're looking at a hurricane is this. Look at the color enhancement in the past couple of hours here as it moved out of the Bahamas and into the Gulf Stream. The water here, 87 degrees. That is the fuel that is the jet fuel to the fire here. If it wasn't so strong, if it wasn't so warm, this storm wouldn't be exploding like it is, but it is certainly going to move across Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Incredible. And, of course, as we know, it moved across Florida and then into the Gulf Coast. More on that ahead.

DNA confirms it. A woman who turned up this week outside of Vienna is, in fact, a girl who went missing almost a decade ago. Her sudden disappearance and her sudden appearance has trans-fixed Austria and revealed a story of horror. Our Matthew Chance has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): She's been hidden from the world for eight long years. Now one of Austria's most disturbing mysteries appears to have been solved and the shattered family has their daughter back.

BRIGITTA SIRNY, MOTHER OF ABDUCTED GIRL, (through translator): I always firmly believed she would return some day. I cannot say how happy I am. LUDWIG KOCH, FATHER OF ABDUCTED GIRL, (through translator): It was hell, these eight years. There was not a single hour when I did not think about her. It was hell.

CHANCE: These were the last images of Natascha before she disappeared back in 1998. She was just 10. Her abduction ripped Austria. But as the years past, police found no trace and she was given up for dead.

But all the time she was here in a cramped dungeon built by a suspected pedophile under his garage not 10 miles from the home. Inside she had a bed, a sink and a toilet and books, from children's stories to serious literature.

Well, this is the house in Strashoff (ph) where Natascha was held for more than eight years. You can see there are police outside now guarding the entrance. But most of the time she was held securely under lock and key. But over the years, the man she came to call her master became increasingly careless and eventually she saw an opportunity to escape.

This is the man police say imprisoned Natasha, 44-year-old Wolfgang Priklopil. Neighbors say he was quiet and polite, if reclusive. After Natascha's escape, he threw himself to his death under a train. The damage he caused an innocent girl, though, remains uncertain.

SIRNY: Natascha just threw her arms around my neck. I am so proud of that child, that she found the opportunity to escape.

KOCH: I purposely didn't talk about the ordeal with her. We only discussed the future and about how things used to be.

CHANCE: For Natascha and her family, reunited after eight years, things will thankfully never be the same again.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Vienna.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: In other international news, they are holding their breath waiting for word. We're going to hear from the families of two journalists kidnapped in Gaza.

And Oprah Winfrey, no lights and no lipstick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY: I look in their faces, I see my own. The girls who came from a background just like my own. I was raised by a grandmother, no running water, no electricity. But yet, because of a sense of education and learning, I was able to become who I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The talk show host makes school bells ring soon for South Africa's poor. That's ahead on CNN, you're most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Another plea to kidnappers in Gaza for the release of two Fox News journalists. It comes from the brother of correspondent Steve Centanni.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN CENTANNI, BROTHER OF STEVE CENTANNI: Our brother, and his colleague, are in Gaza to report your story. Nothing more and nothing less. It is in your control to resolve this matter. I respectfully request that you let our brother, Steve, and his colleague come home to their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig were taken by gunmen on August 14th. CNN's Chris Lawrence brings us up-to-date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Authorities now have a videotape and written statement from the kidnappers, hoping they can help in the intense search for two journalists.

STEVE CENTANNI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Ask you to do anything you can to try to help us get out of here.

LAWRENCE: Before Wednesday, no one had heard of the group that claimed responsibility. The Holy Jihad Brigade is not one of the main militant groups in Gaza. They quote verses from the Koran but make no explicit threat to harm their hostages. The group has promised to free the journalists if Muslim prisoners are released from American jails by Saturday.

JACOB WALLES, AMERICAN CONSUL GENERAL: Concessions to kidnappers, though, we don't intend to do that.

LAWRENCE: The American consulate general told me, additional help is on the way from Washington.

WALLES: People who have experience in hostage situations and they're going to be coming out here in the next couple of days to support what we're doing here in the consulate.

LAWRENCE: By August 14th, most journalists had rushed north to cover Israel's war with Hezbollah. Fox News correspondent Steve Centanni goes west into Gaza with cameraman Olaf Wiig. Gaza is a small strip of land with 10,000 people per square mile. Centanni and Wiig are in a supposedly safe area when witnesses say they're cut off by two trucks. A masked man put a gun to their bodyguard's head. The journalists are dragged from the van and driven away.

Palestinian officials immediately condemn the kidnapping. Olaf Wiig's wife begs for their release. ANITA MCNAUGHT, WIFE OF OLAF WIIG: They are good men and the should be allowed to come home. Please let him come home. Please.

LAWRENCE: In the past two years, 26 foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza. All had been released unharmed. Most within hours. This time, no contact, no demands until the tenth day of captivity.

OLAF WIIG, CAMERAMAN: I love you all. Please, don't worry. I'll do all the worrying for us.

LAWRENCE: Olaf Wiig's wife can't help but worry. On Thursday, she met with Palestinian officials in Gaza and taped a message of her own to the kidnappers.

MCNAUGHT: And we trust that you will continue to care for them until their release.

LAWRENCE: Because of this abduction and the threat to kidnap any foreigners caught in Gaza, we can't go out on the street and talk to people as we normally would. That said, Palestinians have widely criticized this kidnapping, from the prime minister, to militant groups like Islamic Jihad. Even Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails have signed a letter directed at these kidnappers asking them to release the two journalists immediately and with no conditions.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: "Paula Zahn Now" is keeping a close eye on this story. Watch weeknights at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

Israel's prime minister takes a pounding in the polls over the battle of Hezbollah. Can he survive the fall-out from the war? We are live from Jerusalem coming up.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

And let's go ahead and check the markets. They've been open about an hour. You can see the Dow is just about even. It is down two points. And the Nasdaq, as well, is moving. Actually, the Nasdaq's in the opposite direction. It is up about 12.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Keeping the peace in south Lebanon, the focus in Brussels this morning. European foreign ministers are meeting to decide whose troops will buffer Israel from Hezbollah.

Also at those talks, the U.N. chief Kofi Annan. A number of issues still to resolve. Among them, how many troops each nation will contribute to the peacekeeping force and who will lead them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENITA FERRERO-WALDNER, E.U. EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMISSIONER: It's very important that we will contribute to the troops. But, the security elements have to bee seen against the whole political and economic context. And we, the commission, are ready to working for a long-term solution for a revival of Lebanon. That means particularly for the Lebanese institutions, their authority, in order to restore full sovereignty of that country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: So what about those peacekeepers in Lebanon? The U.N. wants to put 15,000 new troops on the ground in the south. The deployment would be in addition to a small U.N. force that's already there, as well as Lebanese troops. France says it will now contribute 2,000 troops to the new force. That's a tenfold increase from France's previous commitment. Earlier this week Italy said it would contribute, or could contribute, up to 3,000 troops. Both France and Italy said they are willing to lead the new U.N. force.

An advanced force of French peace keepers has already landed in Lebanon. That happened today. Our Jim Clancy is in Southern Lebanon with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The first contingent of French army troops is now on Lebanese soil. They came ashore at Naqoura, at the U.N. port that is just north of the Israeli border. They came ashore in landing craft. The admiral in charge of the task force off shore had more about their mission.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever happens, the French force balista (ph) will remain here in support. So I have onboard helicopters. I have combat capabilities, so that in case of something I can extract people from here. I also have medical facilities, and that was one of the lessons learned from Lebanon in '83. We have a road to (ph) hospital, and so we are able to come and pick up someone on the ground and do heavy surgery onboard.

CLANCY: Rear Admiral Manu (ph) also touched on the delicate security issue. He was here in 1983, aboard an aircraft carrier, when U.S. and French troops were attacked as part of a multinational force by suspected Hezbollah suicide bombers. More than 50 French paratroopers died, more than 240 U.S. Marines. He says lessons have been learned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The troops on landing today, 170 men, plus all the heavy equipment. And so they are engineering troops. They have engineering capabilities, so that means they can do reconstruction, rebuilding. They also can do depollution and demining, one of their tasks will probably be, but that is up to the U.N., first having safe areas for the deployment of the next ones. So they will be able to neutralize unexploded ordnance, and then probably be able to rebuild the infrastructure so that they can host the additional troops coming in later on. CLANCY: That task force is going to include a landing ship with the hospital aboard it, as well as a destroyer and a frigate. Now these troops are going to take up engineering duties almost immediately, but they won't be part of the peacekeepers on the ground, if you will.

There are many questions here about where they will deploy, what will be the rules of engagement, things that have to be worked out by the United Nations Security Council itself. All of that is critical if we wait to see what other nations are going to commit troops to this delicate mission and how soon they're going to arrive.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Naqoura, Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Israel's prime minister, could he be the next casualty of the war with Hezbollah? A new poll shows most Israelis want Ehud Olmert to cite. Our Chris Lawrence joins me now live from Jerusalem.

Chris, tell me about these numbers.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, they're numbers no leader would like to have. According to one of Israel's leading newspapers, 63 percent of the people polled feel that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should resign. Only 29 percent of those people polled feel that he should continue to lead.

Most of that frustration and anger is geared toward what some people see as Israel's failure to accomplish two of its main objectives in this latest conflict with Hezbollah, which was disarming Hezbollah and getting the return of those two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.

That said, some people say it's not -- it's a fair -- fair to don't under estimate the prime minister just yet. Right now he is touring society of the northern areas, he's visiting hospitals, talking to families and some of those areas that were very heavily damaged by Hezbollah rockets. They feel that once the money starts pumping into the economies that his poll numbers could certainly rise. And the prime minister has said that it is the central role of the government now to rehabilitate northern Israel.

Now, protests, however, are show nothing signs of really slowing down. The latest happened today, a group of reservists, and also a group of mothers who lost their sons in this latest conflict with Hezbollah. There were signs outside calling for the Prime Minister Olmert to resign, and one mother in particular had a very forceful message for the prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIRA SLASKY, BEREAVED MOTHER: My heart is bleeding, together with the rest of Israel. The situation in the country is desperate, and we would like to change all our leadership. We feel that they all failed. All of them have to go home, from the prime minister to the army, chiefs of the army. Everyone has to go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Now, Israel is a very open society, and some of the reserve soldiers who are coming back from the front lines have been complaining that they had confusing orders, and also that they were fighting with no clear direction. And a change that you're seeing in the last few days is some very high-ranking officers are starting to join the protests, people with the rank of colonel and officers who commanded actual field units out there in those battles -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Chris Lawrence live from Jerusalem. Thank you.

Back here in the U.S., he is back in the city of the crime. John Karr is in Boulder, Colorado this morning to face charges in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. He spoke with a public defender last night, and we're waiting to hear what time Karr will appear in a Boulder courtroom.

So he's is in Boulder, Colorado, but the question is, was he also there at Christmastime 1996? His family says there's just no way that happened. Karr is jailed in Boulder. He's waiting to hear the charges.

But his brother meanwhile spoke up for him on ABC's "Good Morning America." He says, quote, "Do you think he was involved in JonBenet's murder?" Nate Karr answers, "Absolutely not. Emphatically, absolutely without a doubt, impossible." And then he's asked, "You are fairly certain he was there at Christmas dinner at the table in that year 1996?" Nate Karr says, "To the best of our recollection he was either with us in Atlanta or with Laura. It's not as easy as might think to remember 10 years ago. If he was away from his children during Christmas, it would have been a family scandal."

A house overlooking a cemetery and rumored to be haunted. Sounds like something from a bad horror movie, but it's a real life crime scene. The frightening details are just ahead.

And Oprah keeps her promise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY: I brought you all here today to tell you that you will be a part of the very first class of Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And that is the picture of the day. I could run that over and over and over again. The talk show host puts her money where her mouth is, her school for South Africa's poorest. You're going to see more about the story ahead on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Baby steps, but a huge move for a giant. The 83-ton statue of Ramses II was taken from a congested square in Cairo. It will reside now at a more peaceful location near the pyramids. Exhaust fumes and other environmental hazards were hurting the 3,200- year-old statue. Two flatbed trucks, surrounded by 1,500 soldiers, carried Ramses to his new home.

Ramses II, by the way, was a warrior king who ruled Egypt for 67 years. He died in 1225 B.C. He deserves a nice place to kind of hang out.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: We're going to keep an eye also on New York City with that tornado warning going on. Live picture there. They're trying to wipe off the window to get a better look at the inclement and difficult weather in the Big Apple. More on that.

Also a live news conference about the levee breaches that made a soup bowl out of New Orleans a year ago. How strong are the levees now? A status report on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's head south from there, though, to New Orleans. And he did it again. Mayor Ray Nagin can make headlines simply by talking. This time his remarks he makes about the World Trade Center site.

CNN's Sean Callebs has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once again, officials working with the New Orleans mayor are in damage control. During an interview with "60 Minutes," Ray Nagin was asked why flooded-out cars and other debris still litter areas like the Lower Ninth Ward nearly a year after Hurricane Katrina.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: It's all right. You guys in New York City can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later, so let's be fair.

CALLEBS: Nagin is talking about Ground Zero in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

The mayor's spokeswoman says it's disappointing that "60 minutes" would release a statement she says is taken out of context.

Nagin's off-the-cuff remarks have landed him in trouble before. He apologized and spent weeks trying to distance himself from this.

NAGIN: This city will be chocolate at the end of the day.

CALLEBS: Right now New Orleans is trying to lure tourists, industry and investment back to the city.

Business leader Rob Couhig ran for mayor against Nagin. Now they're on the same team. Couhig is heading up a committee Nagin appointed to rejuvenate New Orleans during the mayor's second term. He labels this a media-created story.

ROB COUHIG, NAGIN APPOINTEE: You guys, wait, you're so desperate to say look at what Ray said now. Go with that story if you want. But if you ask me my opinion, I'm going to tell you that that story is inconsequential in the building of the city.

CALLEBS: Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And Sean is live with us now in New Orleans, and a chance to ask him a question.

There you are. Hi, Sean.

Upcoming story. We're going to be listening into a news conference where we're going to hear the latest on the levee there. What can we listen for?

CALLEBS: Well, what you're going to hear from the is the American Society of Civil Engineers, and these are -- this is an entity that really did a postmortem, if you will, after the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center as well as the Pentagon. So they also looked at the levee system that has been protecting New Orleans. They looked at what happened, what caused the levees to breach in certain areas. They looked at the work that the corps has done over the last year in this area, with the anniversary coming up next week.

And they're also, more importantly, looking ahead. Specifically they're looking at risk assessment, and they're taking things into consideration -- do people who live in floodplains, did they understand the risk? Did they know what was at stake? Did they know that these levees could breech and what could happen?

They also issued a report card for everything from the way the corps did its work over the past year, which got pretty high marks. The corps is a very large entity, and has a history of working in a very institutional fashion. So the fact that they were able to put flood gates up in area to keep Lake Pontchartrain from pouring in here, and the fact that they were able to bolster the levee system over the past 10 months, they did that quickly.

However, looking at the future, that is the big concern, the concern that perhaps the corps is backsliding and getting back into that institutional mentality. They're looking at things about evacuation plans. Like so many areas around the country -- if you look at the Carolinas, other parts of the Gulf Coast, they have very firm, very solid evacuation plans in place.

What are the evacuation plans here? As of just a few months ago, we know the mayor was speaking with Amtrak, as well as the various cities in and around this area trying to get people out who don't have their own cars. So that's the kind of information we expect to hear over the next couple of hours -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, we will listening in for that. Sean Callebs live in New Orleans. Thank you.

A story we followed quite a bit yesterday was an explosion at an old weapons plant in the northern part of the Louisiana, north of where Sean is. And with an update on that, our Fredricka Whitfield has the latest on that -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Daryn.

It took place in Doylin (ph), Louisiana, and one day after that series of explosions now the evacuation order has been lifted. Now remarkably there were no injuries or deaths being reported after the series of explosions. Authorities had though called for this evacuation in Doylin, a town of 800. They had closed the towns two school and even emptied the Webster Parish jail when the fire triggered those explosion. All the employees at the plant managed to escape without injury after that fire, which then triggered those explosions. And this was the second explosion in recent weeks at Camp Menden (ph), where large-caliber ammunitions was produced for the military up until 1994, when that plant closed.

But evacuation orders now lifted. Everyone allowed to go home, back to school, their places of business -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Fred, thank you for that.

We're still watching a serious weather situation in New York City. A tornado warning -- in New York? Chad has the latest on that. There's a live picture there of New York City.

Also we are listening in for the latest on the levees. Sean Callebs was just talking about this. The levee breaches made a soup bowl out of New Orleans a year ago. How strong are they now? A status report coming up on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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