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CNN Saturday Morning News

France Tourists Warned Of Violence; Summit Of The Americas Winds Down; Operation Steel Curtain Launched In Iraq; Three Arrested Possible Terror Plot; Death Row Escapee In Texas; Las Vegas Mayor Wants Thumbs Of Graffiti Artists Cut Off; Teen Share Katrina Video Diary; Elmo Arrested

Aired November 05, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Get this. Molotov cocktails in the streets, rioters eyeing area stores, a violent backdrop for the Summit of the Americas in Argentina this Saturday morning, the fifth day of November. I want to say good morning to everybody watching today. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. We'll take you live to Argentina in just a minute. First other news happening right now.

Coalition forces are now pushing into the western Iraqi city of Husayba. Operation Steel Curtain is aimed at toppling a command and control center for insurgents and foreign fighters. Two thousand U.S. forces and 550 Iraqi troops are getting information on the insurgents from residents who live there. We will take you there live.

Police in the nation's Capitol are downplaying a possible threat linked to three terror suspects. The suspects are in custody in Britain. Investigators say one had pictures of Washington sites on his computer. As one U.S. official says, it's hard to know if this was terrorist bravado or a real threat.

The relatives of Charles Thompson's victims are in protective custody at this hour. The Texas death row inmate is still at large two days after slipping out of jail. Thompson changed into civilian clothes inside of jail. He also carried a fake I.D. from the state attorney general's office.

French officials are reaching out to community leaders today in an effort to end recent violence. Friday marked the ninth straight night of rioting. The unrest began in a Paris suburb and has spread to nearly 20 communities. The U.S. Embassy is warning Americans to stay away from the affected areas. We'll take you live to Paris.

NGUYEN: Well, the fourth Summit of the Americas winds down this hour in Argentina. President Bush has been meeting with western hemisphere leaders, pushing a proposal for a pan-American free trade zone. White House correspondent Dana Bash joins us live from the summit in Mar del Plata where the violence has subsided. Dana, what's the latest there?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, as we speak here in very windy Mar del Plata, the president and the other 33 leaders here are having some of their final meetings to discuss a variety of issues, but you're right. From the U.S. perspective, one of the major goals here is to try to provide a stalled trade initiative, one that the White House had hoped would be actually finalized by now.

They started to push it in 1994, the U.S. that is, and that is to get rid of trade barriers essentially for the entire western hemisphere from Canada all of the way down to Chile, but there are a lot of opponents. The host, Argentina, is one of them who is quite skittish on the idea but the most vocal is the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

He is somebody who has actually become almost a nemesis of President Bush, not just in terms of his policies, but personally. And one of the storylines here at the summit has been to see whether or not there would be an encounter between two men. And earlier today, the cameras did get a glimpse of Mr. Chavez with Mr. Bush walking by him, but as far as we know, that's about as close as they've gotten. No encounters, no words, no exchange between the two of them.

Now, Mr. Chavez was a part of some peaceful demonstrations yesterday. He rallied a crowd at a stadium nearby where the summit is but, of course, as we know, some of the demonstrations turned violent. A small band of protesters turned into rioters. They stormed a security barrier and then they started to throw Molotov cocktails.

They were teargassed by police while some were also slamming into the glass barriers or glass walls of storefronts using sticks and rocks, even burning a bank. Today, though, Betty, we understand that it is quiet. No demonstrations and certainly no riots so far today.

NGUYEN: Dana, I want to shift gears now and ask you about something in today's "Washington Post." The headline reads "Bush Orders Staff To Attend Ethics Briefings." Of course, this is in response to the CIA leak investigation. What do you know about this?

BASH: Right. Well, we have the memo. And I would hold it up, but I don't want it to blow away, so I'll just give you a sense of what it says. It is from the counsel, Harriet Miers, who sent it to everybody in the staff at the White House saying that if they had any security clearance at all, they are required to go to a briefing next week. There will be a series of briefing to remind them what to do with classified information.

As the memo says, the president made clear his expectation that each member of the executive office must adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of the law that says that they must not discuss any classified information. Clearly, a response, a reaction to what we've seen in the leaks investigation, Betty.

NGUYEN: CNN's Dana Bash in Mar del Plata. Thank you.

HARRIS: Now some more information about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. You heard Dana mention him just a moment ago. His outspoken criticism of the America's free trade zone agreement and the United States may be rooted in both economics and politics, but there's a deeper history to this troubled relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS (voice-over): Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He promised to improve living conditions for the nation's lower classes. At that time, Venezuela was the United States' second largest supplier of oil. American companies such as ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil had large investments there, but Chavez took a big chunk of their profits away in 2001 when he increased taxes on private oil exports.

Chavez also didn't improve relations with United States by criticizing American imperialism and praising world leaders such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro. In April of 2002, Chavez was briefly overthrown in a coup. Leaders of the coalition that ousted Chavez, including business and military officials, had met with senior members of the Bush administration, but the White House insisted they had not given the group any support.

Today, political relations between the United States and Venezuela remain strained, but commercial ties are strong. Venezuela is now the United States' fourth largest oil supplier. Roughly 500 companies have investments there, and the State Department says about 23,000 American citizens currently live in Venezuela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: U.S. and Iraqi forces today launched a major offensive aimed at taking over an area that's been controlled by insurgents. Operation Steel Curtain is focusing on Husayba, a city on the Syrian border. CNN Producer Arwa Damon is embedded with the 6th Marines. She joins us on the phone with the latest developments, and Arwa what can you tell us about this operation?

ARWA DAMON, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Tony, I can tell you that even as the day has progressed and it is nightfall here right now, there's still sporadic gunfire heard throughout this city. Now, this is believed to be the last insurgent stronghold in the contentious western Al Anbar province, up and down the Euphrates River valley. This is believed to be the last dance for the insurgents.

Now, U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces, including U.S. soldiers and sailors, entered the city at about dawn this morning. They were immediately met with small arms and RPG fire. They returned fire.

There were 30 IEDs found in one sector in the southwestern sector of the city, rigged to the houses, rigged to the roads. One was rigged to the door of a home that detonated causing no casualties. In one instance, they had to detonate an entire house to drop a laser- guided missile on it because of the amount of IEDs that were linked to it.

Now, they believe that the fighting here would be the most intense throughout the region. They believe that the concentration of foreign fighters and homegrown insurgents in this city are those that are quote, unquote, "the smart insurgents," those that have survived, those that are determined to continue smuggling along these routes and those that will fight to the death.

And what they're seeing here today is that they're operating in groups of about 10 to 12, that they're attempting to stand and fight but that their attempts are being unsuccessful. The U.S. military says it's killed dozens of insurgents and that they continue to move forward through the city although the progress is quite slow because of the sensitivity of the area. They believe that the areas might be booby trapped, that there might be IEDs, that there might be fighting positions that are throughout the city -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. CNN Producer Arwa Damon, embedded with the 6th Marines in the city of Husayba right along the Syrian border. Arwa, thank you.

NGUYEN: In our "Security Watch," tourism or terrorism? British police arrest three suspected Muslim extremists. Now American investigators are trying to determine if the three posed a real threat to important sites around Washington. CNN's Gary Nurenberg joins us live from the nation's capital. Gary, what can you tell us about this?

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Betty. If the three men weren't actually planning to stage an attack in Washington, there is evidence this weekend that they were at least thinking about it. One counterterrorism official tells CNN, quote, "it's hard to know if it was terrorist bravado or a real threat."

The men appeared in a London courtroom yesterday, charged with violations of Britain's Terrorism Act and conspiracy. Police say they found in the apartment of one man a page written in Arabic saying "welcome to Jihad" and a piece of paper saying, quote, "hospital equals attack."

Charging documents allege one of the men had a video slide on his home computer showing a number of locations in Washington, including, according to an FBI official, locations near the United States Capitol building.

In addition, the computer allegedly had slides demonstrating how to make a car bomb. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer told CNN there is no direct threat to the capitol. He says "We are neither frightened nor concerned, we have a vigorous capacity to assess the threat."

Assistant FBI Director John Miller says "the FBI is working with our partners overseas on the investigation. We have shared the relevant information with local law enforcement agencies concerned. There is no credible indication of any imminent threat."

Capitol Police Chief Gainer also played down the immediate danger, telling CNN he won't be losing any sleep over the threat. He says the images on that computer could be described as either tourist photography or preplanning for terrorists. Investigators hope to know more, Tony and Betty, by the time the suspects next appear in court on November 18th.

NGUYEN: Take us back for a moment, though, Gary. What led to the arrests? What tipped off officers to arrest these three?

NURENBERG: Not a lot of information in the charging documents, but Scotland Yard played a key role in what is being described in some magazine reporting as an international investigation that was of great depth and some length. We hope to learn more the next time those suspects are in court at the end of month.

NGUYEN: Yes, we do . OK, Gary Nurenberg. Thank you so much, Gary.

HARRIS: Well, Betty, the relatives of two murder victims are now under protective custody while authorities search for the convicted killer. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is following the story in Houston, Texas and, Keith, are police calling this plain and simple a case of human error?

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They absolutely are. They're being very forthcoming here at the Harris County Sheriff's Department that they goofed. The doors to the Harris County Jail are behind me and it was through those doors that Charles Victor Thompson escaped on Thursday afternoon.

It was during that afternoon that he had had a meeting with an attorney in a booth. These are little rooms that are used for sessions between inmates and their lawyers. What police say was that Thompson smuggled his civilian clothes into that booth. He took off his orange jumpsuit.

In civilian clothes, he goes on a security checkpoint in the jail. He's passing himself off now as an investigator for the attorney general's office and he's taken by deputies from a secure area to the lobby and apparently while they are verifying his story, that's when he slipped out the front door.

Keep in mind it was a week ago that Thompson was resentenced to death row in Texas for the 1998 murder of his ex-girlfriend Dennise Hayslip, as well as her boyfriend, Darren Cain. We're going to hear from a friend of Darren Cain in just a moment, but first we're going to hear from the mother of the ex-girlfriend, the mother of one of the murder victims who talks about her fears now that Thompson has escaped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE POTTER, VICTIM'S FRIEND: They've seen the evidence. They know he is a continuing threat. So, obviously, they say he's a continuing threat. You can ask Darren and Dennise, they know that he's a threat. The people on his hit-list, they know he's a threat. He's a desperate man. Anybody that crosses his path, you better watch out because desperate people do desperate things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WYNONA DONAGHY, MURDER VICTIM'S MOTHER: He's a very scary individual and I want him caught and I want nobody else getting hurt and I want my life back. I can't function right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: Miss Donaghy, who we just heard from, she is under protection from local police in a suburb of Texas. A lot of concern there. Police here are offering a $10,000 award for information leading to the discovery of where Charles Victor Thompson is.

They say they have no evidence at this point that anyone inside the jail or the attorney that he met with on Thursday afternoon was some kind of direct help in trying to help with the escape, but they're investigating that key point.

At this point, they are, as you asked me at beginning of this Tony, admitting that not just one person, but several staff blundered in letting him from the secure part of the jail to the lobby when they should have just checked out who he was as soon as he presented himself. Back to you.

HARRIS: That is amazing. Gee, that is just amazing. He's in the lobby. He is in the lobby. Let's rifle through a couple of quick questions, if we could here. Where did he get the badge and where did he get the clothes? I understand he might have had the clothes because of a court appearance or something.

OPPENHEIM: That's right. I mean, the reason why he was in jail and not in state prison on death row where he had been for a years was because his case had been looked at by the court of appeals in Texas. They decided that while the conviction would be upheld that he should have a resentencing hearing.

And, again, he was found guilty and sentenced to death as a result of that hearing. So he had civilian clothes for hearings that he was taking part in the jail and apparently he found a way to get those clothes to that attorney booth.

HARRIS: And my understanding is he had to show this badge, this fake badge, to not one, not two, but maybe as many as four corrections officers before he was able to make his way out.

OPPENHEIM: Yes. And what this badge exactly was is still -- there's still some questions about that. Apparently, according to police, it had his picture on it and some kind of black stripe on the back and he's saying that he's an investigator for the attorney general's office.

It sounds like, from what the police are saying, is that no one took a close look at the supposed I.D. and more like that it was really the way that he carried himself.

HARRIS: Yes. OPPENHEIM: And he presented himself convincingly as an investigator and while they're confirming, trying to figure out who he is, he's already on the move into the lobby and he says just a second, there's someone I need to talk to and he's out the door.

HARRIS: Keith Oppenheim for us in Houston. Keith that you.

NGUYEN: Wow, yes.

HARRIS: What a story.

NGUYEN: It's amazing how that just played out.

HARRIS: Still ahead, He was once a lawyer for the mob and now some people think he's acting like the mob.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR OSCAR GOODMAN, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: I'm saying that maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb. That may be the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The mayor of Las Vegas is getting tough with taggers. That's for sure. That story straight ahead.

NGUYEN: Did he just actually say cut off their thumb?

HARRIS: Yes, he did. Yes.

NGUYEN: All right. And a high school senior turns a camera on her community after Hurricane Katrina. We'll take a look at what she shot, then talk with her about what she's learned.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: I want to update our top stories for you right now. The Summit of the Americas is wrapping up as we speak. The two-day meeting at the Argentine resort of Mar del Plata focused on a variety of economic issues facing Latin America, but in the streets, riot police have had their hands full dealing with violent anti-American protests.

Now to western Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi forces are in a new offensive aimed at rooting out the insurgency from a city near the Syrian border. The military says Husayba is the last major stronghold of the insurgency in the Euphrates River valley.

And in Houston, people believed to be on the hit list of an escaped killer are now under police protection. Charles Victor Thompson has not been seen since he fooled guards into letting him out of the Houston County Jail on Thursday. A $10,000 reward is offered for his capture. HARRIS: You know, and I'm thinking now as the authorities do conduct that search ...

NGUYEN: Right.

HARRIS: ... there's a lot of heat right now. A lot of hot weather, I understand and I'm wondering, does the heat, Brad, dip that far down in the state of Texas? Are we talking about Houston?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Still ahead, graffiti artists are usually anything but thumbs, but now one mayor wants a thumbs down punishment for prolific painters.

NGUYEN: Yes, literally.

HARRIS: And Americans are warned about traveling in France. We will go live to Paris as the city sees its worst violence in years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Now for some real disciplinary action. If the mayor of Nevada's biggest city has his way, graffiti artists nationwide can find themselves hoping what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Allan Chernoff has this cautionary tale.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tough guys like mobster Bugsy Siegel brought gambling to Las Vegas, helping to make the town what it is today. So perhaps it's only natural that Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, formerly a defense attorney for mobsters, wants to get tough with those who painted graffiti along highways and on a decorative tortoise.

GOODMAN: These punks they come along they deface it. And I'm saying that maybe if you put them on TV and cut off a thumb, that may be the right thing to do.

CHERNOFF: No joke says the second-term mayor. If found guilty at trial, take off a finger that could be used for spraypainting.

GOODMAN: I'm dead serious. We take the place of a parent on occasion and some of these people don't learn. You've got to teach them a lesson.

CHERNOFF: It's a lesson Goodman may have learned from those he defended, wise guys like Tony Spilotro and Meyer Lanski.

GOODMAN: Whenever my clients go home with me at the end of the trial, I'm happy.

CHERNOFF: Mobsters call him Big O. Critics call Goodman the mouthpiece of the mob. In the movie "Casino," Goodman played himself.

GOODMAN: I'd like this marked ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon me, counsel, before you continue.

GOODMAN: No, I want to have this marked.

CHERNOFF: Mayor Goodman lives large.

GOODMAN: I told folks when I ran for office not get upset, not to get excited that and I drink with both fists, I gamble with both fists, I party with both fists. I mean, life is short.

CHERNOFF: Too short, Goodman says, who put up with punks who vandalize public property. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, there's been almost two weeks of steady violence in Paris with no end in sight, really. We'll take you live to France where rioters are setting fires nightly and we'll try to explain why.

NGUYEN: Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to show you this intersection right here. And there's a road to my left as well as a road behind me. These roads don't -- still don't have working traffic lights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: We gave a camera to one of the many high school students whose life was changed forever by Hurricane Katrina. Her video diary -- that's later on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now that you know how much house you can afford, why not get prequalified and preapproved for a mortgage loan that will give you negotiating leverage with sellers. And when you're ready to buy, you'll save time by being two steps ahead in the closing process. With prequalification, you provide the lender with details about your finances and the lender estimates how much mortgage you can afford.

Preapproval goes one step further. The lender will verify your financial history and issue you a letter for approval for a certain mortgage amount within a certain timeframe. Gain a buying edge by getting prequalified and preapproved. I'm Gerri Willis and that's your "Tip of the Day." For more, watch "OPEN HOUSE" Saturday mornings, 9:30 Eastern on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And welcome back everyone to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Tony Harris on this fifth day of November. NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Let's get started with what's happening right now in the news. The Summit of the Americas is over, under tight security, no doubt. The meeting of President Bush and the leaders of 33 other countries has been dogged by thousands of anti- U.S. protestors. Rioters have clashed with police, shattered store fronts and set businesses on fire.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are in the middle of a major offensive on the Syrian border. Husayba is considered a nerve center for insurgents and foreign fighters. Operation Steel Curtain is mobilizing about 3,000 U.S. troops and about 550 Iraqi soldiers. Military officials say dozens of insurgents have already been killed.

Law enforcement officials in Washington are downplaying the arrest of three alleged Jihadists now charged under Britain's anti- terror laws. One suspect was found with computer images of important sites in the nation's capital. Now investigators on both sides of the Atlantic are assessing what threat, if any, the suspects may have posed.

And in Texas, the family of a murder victim is under police guard this morning as the manhunt continues for her escaped killer. Thirty- five-year-old Charles Victor Thompson apparently slipped out of his handcuffs and donned street clothes and a fake ID to walk out of a Houston jail. Yes, walked out of a Houston jail. Harris County official admits that his escape was human error.

HARRIS: OK. Let's check out some of the other stories making news around the world.

NGUYEN: In France, fiery riots spread beyond Paris to at least 20 communities and Shanon Cook joins us now from the international desk with more on this story. Shanon, what can you tell us?

SHANON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, thanks, Betty and good morning from me. First up this morning, more violence in France, the ninth straight night of riots. Widespread damage and hundred of arrests are being reported. Let's get the latest now from our Chris Burns. Chris?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shanon, I'm reporting from one of the suburbs outside of Paris where it all began and has contegrated (ph) across the country to suburbs of various big cities from here to Marseilles, to Lese, to Bordeaux.

It's been going on the last couple of nights and in this Paris area for the last nine nights and a record 900 cars were torched last night according to police, across the country as the youths, mainly immigrant youths in poor areas where there's high unemployment have been once again reacting to the deaths of two youths last week in an electrical power station here in this very town where I am right now. They were trying to hide from police. So the anger and the rage continues.

We've been talking to youth here on the ground and they're saying that they would like to see things change. They'd like more opportunity, more jobs, more education. And they're saying that this tough law and order policy engaged by the interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has inflamed tensions and what they want is more dialogue.

It's very interesting to be on the ground and see what has been going on here. There has also been peace marches here around Paris by religious leaders and other groups calling for an end to the violence and more dialogue between the governments and between people here on the ground, Shanon?

COOK: All right. Chris Burns, thank you very much for keeping us updated. I'm sure we'll go back to you very soon.

Now to some of the other stories making news around the world today, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan canceled a trip to Iran, that's after the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map, but the trip could still take place later. Annan says this is not the appropriate time. Ahmadinejad's controversial comments were criticized by a number of countries. Iran said he was just restating a longstanding view.

Now on to the bird flu crisis. It's taken an ominous turn in southeast Asia, two new cases of avian flu have been confirmed in Indonesia. Health officials are telling us a woman who died there last month was suffering from the deadly H5N1 strain.

She's believed to have gotten the disease from infected chickens and now one of her 8-year-old relatives has also been infected and he's in hospital in a stable condition. These two cases bring the total number of bird flu cases in Indonesia to nine. Five of those have been fatal. This coming as new cases were also reported in China and Vietnam in the past few days.

Now, there's a story out of Guantanamo Bay, new questions being raised about the treatment of detainees there. We're hearing that officials are force-feeding 23 detainees that have been on a hunger strike at the facility to protest their continued detention and a doctor tells us feeding tubes were inserted into the prisoners to prevent a loss of life -- Betty.

NGUYEN: ... hunger strike, we know they've happened before. Just how serious is this latest one?

COOK: Well, there have been several hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay. They've been opened (ph) in 2003, but this appears to be the most serious. The last hunger strike was in July, 68 detainees stopped eating, but then they all started eating on their own accord and the number of detains refusing food has increased to about 128 since the beginning of August and that's about a quarter of the prison's population. So clearly it's a problem.

NGUYEN: All right. Thanks for staying on top of that.

COOK: Thank you.

HARRIS: Lets' take a look at some top stories in the news this week. President Bush didn't waste any time. Early Monday morning he nominated Judge Samuel Alito as the next associate justice for the Supreme Court. Alito spent much of the week on Capitol Hill meeting with senators who will vote on his nomination.

On Tuesday, President Bush's outlined his plan to fight a bird flu pandemic. Mr. Bush is calling on Congress to approve his more than $7 billion plan to protect and protect Americans from the flu.

The show must go on, but the music might not sound the same. On Wednesday, musicians for the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas spectacular walked out. So the famed Rockettes will have to kick up their heels to a recorded track instead of live music.

And a New Jersey jury found Merck and company did what it could to warn consumers about Vioxx. The arthritis painkiller was pulled off the shelves last year after studies showed an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. This is only the second of thousands of lawsuits across the country.

And tomorrow we will fast forward to the week ahead and tell you which stories will grab the spotlight.

NGUYEN: So what is it like for the Gulf coast high school students trying to restore their order and their lives after hurricane Katrina? Well, to answer that we gave a camera to one of them as she returned to classes and she joins us live with her video diary. That's next.

HARRIS: Our thanks to our affiliate in Chicago, WLS for the pictures this morning. Good morning, Chicago! Some rough weather could be headed your way. Meteorologist Brad Huffines is back with your forecast and the forecast for the rest of the nation still ahead on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Our top stories this morning, rioters and protestors might be leaving Argentina as the Summit of the Americas ended about 30 minutes ago. In fact, rioting often overshadowed the trade issues being discussed by President Bush and the leaders are of 33 other countries.

Police protection has been assigned to the family of this killer's victim. Charles Victor Thompson walked out of a Houston jail yesterday after fooling at least four corrections workers. Investigators say there was no inside help and the manhunt continues.

And the police escort for Prince Charles and his wife Camilla. They're in San Francisco today where they'll visit a farmer's market and have lunch with local growers.

NGUYEN: Well, during our hurricane Katrina coverage last month, we met a high school senior Lizzie Maloy from Long Beach, Mississippi. We wanted to find out how she and her friends are coping in the aftermath of the storm so we gave her a video camera to make a diary. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIZZIE MALOY, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: 6:15. I'm going go take a shower and get ready for school because I hope to be up there in 45 minutes. So, I'm off.

I wanted to show you this intersection right here and there's a road to my left as well as a road behind me. These roads still don't have working traffic lights. And I'm going to pull into this parking lot right here because you can see there's still a lot of debris lying around and I think this would be an excellent place to show that, still lots of piles all around the city. There's definitely barbed wire strung from one side of our town to the other end all along the tracks. It definitely makes it look like a war zone.

This is my high school, Long Beach High School. It's 7:06 right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I go to my trailer and then go home to a trailer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We couldn't find anywhere to live so we rented an apartment in Gulfport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The trailer folds down to a bed. That's my bedroom.

(CROSSTALK)

MALOY: So, how are things going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the yearbook?

MALOY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're working hard, but we don't know how if the hard work will pay off or not.

MALOY: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have any funding for our yearbook.

MALOY: How much does it cost to print the annual?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roughly $100,000.

MALOY: Do you know how much we have?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we have 21,000.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much for your donations to our annual. Huge corporations have turned us down with claims that they cannot afford to give us anything. Others in Florida have understood and have given us what they could. It seems the only one's willing to give are those who do not possess a fortune. Thank you again for your generosity. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've lost so much that we've lost a bit of our identity, a bit of our culture and I'm just not willing for them to lose any more. So we're working really hard at trying to put this yearbook back -- put this yearbook together despite the gargantuan odds against us, but I really believe that we can do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do too. I do.

MALOY: I guess I just wanted to say that things have been crazy, but it's getting better. I'm not going to fail calculus. I'm exaggerating, I'm going get an A, but, yes. I guess that's all for now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Crazy, but getting better. Lizzie Maloy joins us now live from Long Beach, Mississippi. Let's talk about that yearbook for a moment. Are you any closer to reaching the goal of getting it published, getting the money to get it published?

MALOY: All we can do is try and hop hope. We're not any closer than we were last week, but we're expecting to be soon or we're hoping to be soon.

NGUYEN: What have you captured so far for that yearbook? Take us through some of the moments that you were able to capture.

MALOY: Well, we went around the city to take pictures because we lost 75 percent of our town and we wanted to go ahead and put that stuff in the yearbook, too, because it is sad. It is God awful, if you will, but it is our year and we needed to capture our year and put it in the annual.

NGUYEN: It's the reality of the situation there. OK. The destruction we saw that in your piece as well, what kind of progress has been made? There has to have been some kind of progress made.

MALOY: Well, we have the homecoming dance today and that in all honesty is the most progress that has been made because a town from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has raised $80,000 and 45 of them are here right now in our city helping put on our dance which is tonight.

NGUYEN: Oh, I see you perk up.

MALOY: $80,000.

NGUYEN: Yes and the smile on your face when you talked about that homecoming dance tonight. Did you at a point think that none of the special moments of high school were going to happen this year?

MALOY: Well, in all honesty, that's exactly what I thought right after the storm. I was so disappointed because I thought why did this have to happen to my town and my friends and the people I cared about, but my mother was the one who said right afterwards, it's going to be OK. It's going to be the most amazing year you've ever had just because she knew that people were going care and that people were going to do everything that they could to try and help us.

NGUYEN: And tell us about...

MALOY: That's what's been happening so far.

NGUYEN: Yes and this dance is evidence of it. So is everyone coming together for this tonight?

MALOY: Well, it's a combined homecoming with Pass Christian High School, another school in our community and they lost their school. There's nothing left. So we're combining the homecoming with Long Beach High School and Pass Christian and we're all coming together tonight at 7:00 for the dance.

NGUYEN: Oh, that is wonderful. Have you had time at all to think about your future past high school, about college and your career after that? Are you just so focused right now on putting the pieces back together and living the most, getting the most out of this year that you can?

MALOY: Well, basically I'm doing my best to try and get through the year, but of course, I need to think about college and scholarships and it is very overwhelming because we're having to deal, normally, it's overwhelming to deal with that anyway, because it's some of the most important decisions that you're going to make for your life and having to deal with that and the hurricane is incredibly overwhelming, but we're all doing the best we can and that's all we can do.

NGUYEN: You're staying positive. I can tell on your voice and seeing it on your face. How are you doing that?

MALOY: Well, you have to do that. If you stay bitter and you stay upset because of things that have happened, you can't change things for the better and we need to try and do that. We need to make the best out of this awful situation because we just need to do that. That's what we have to do.

NGUYEN: It's part of the healing as well. So I'm going ask you this and I want you to think just for a moment on it. When you look back on this year when you're 80 years old and you're telling your grandchildren about your senior year in high school, what do you think you're going to tell them?

MALOY: I know exactly what I'm going tell them. I'm going tell them about the awful things that happened, but how people across the country have done everything that they can and that they could to make it better for us.

NGUYEN: It's got to make you proud, proud to be an American. Lizzie, we appreciate your time. We really do and hey, have fun at the dance tonight. You deserve it.

MALOY: Thank you.

NGUYEN: All right. We'll be checking in with you. Thank you. MALOY: It was nice talking to you.

NGUYEN: Sure. She's a great gal.

HARRIS: Yes! Absolutely. You may want to, well, sorry to say, take your children out of the room for this next story. You are about to se a whole new side to Sesame Street's Elmo, yes, the dark side, Elmo behind bars. That's next on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Imagine this,, if you would, bright red, 6 foot Elmo hugging your kids, posing for the cameras and then hitting you up for a few bucks.

NGUYEN: What?

HARRIS: You don't have to imagine it. Just take a stroll down Hollywood's walk of fame. CNN's Ted Rowlands has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks after Elmo's world was rocked, he is out on bail, back working Hollywood Boulevard. Elmo, whose real name is Donn Harper, was handcuffed, his head on the hood of a squad car. Along with Mr. Incredible, Elmo was arrested and taken away for something called aggressive begging. They were nabbed as part of an undercover sting operation.

CAPT. RON SANCHEZ, LOS ANGELES POLICE: We've had an extensive amount of complaints from people visiting Hollywood that they've been harassed and the victims of aggressive panhandling, of really aggressive begging that's reached almost points of the victims feeling like they're almost robbed.

ROWLANDS: Harper and dozen of other impersonators dressed up as superheroes and movie stars park themselves along Hollywood's walk of fame making cash by posing with tourists.

DONN HARPER, "ELMO": We do it for tips, guys. Elmo is not out there snatching purrs or robbing people or anything bad like that. All he's guilty of is loving people and trying to communicate with some foreign tourists.

ROWLANDS: Tourists we talked to said they didn't mind paying a buck or two for a photograph.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get a great photo out of it for the family, so it's OK, by me.

ROWLANDS: Elmo is free on $100 bail. He says a lawyer is helping him with his legal troubles. Police, meanwhile, say until the complaints stop, they'll continue to keep a close eye on the big red Muppet and his friends. Ted Rowlands, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NGUYEN: All righty then. Brad, Elmo, panhandling.

HARRIS: He gets to follow Elmo in Hollywood.

NGUYEN: What a lead.

BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What would Beaker say about that?

HARRIS: There you go.

NGUYEN: He knew he would say something.

HUFFINES: Say something like, me, me, me, me.

NGUYEN: Thanks, Brad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: President Bush has his multibillion plan to fight the bird flu, but will a $30 prescription work better?

NGUYEN: Yes, you want to stay with us for the next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING because one doctor discussed the fact and the fiction of this deadly flu.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Alleged terrorists are arrested in Britain, but what police find in their possession is raising red flags here in the U.S. We'll have a live report from Washington. It is Saturday, November 5th. Good morning everybody.

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