Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
Ariel Sharon Undergoes Third Brain Scan, Still In Critical Condition; Funeral Services Tomorrow For Six Sago Mine Victims; Randal McCloy Improving; Interview with Senators Bayh and Bond; Simple Weight Loss
Aired January 07, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Saturday, January 7th, 2006. Good morning everyone from the CNN Center in Atlanta. It is 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 5:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for starting your day with us.
I want to get you right to the stories now in the news. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains in a medically-induced coma at a Jerusalem hospital. Earlier this morning Sharon had a brain scan following three rounds of surgery.
Doctors are trying to control bleeding in his brain from Wednesday's massive stroke. We are expecting a hospital update on the prime minister's condition in about an hour and we are going bring that to you live when it happens.
Is the Bush administration on shaky legal ground? A memo from two Congressional advisers says it might be, especially when it comes to the president authorizing government spying on Americans without a court warrant. The memo says there appears to be no legal precedent for that. No comment yet from the administration.
And could better body armor have saved more soldiers' lives in Iraq? The Pentagon reportedly began looking into the issue last summer. An unreleased Pentagon study obtained by the AP, Associated Press, looked at bullet or shrapnel injuries that killed marines in Iraq. The study found the injuries might have been prevented or minimized by improved body armor.
Security concerns prompt Britain to close its embassy in Amman, Jordan until further notice. The embassy notice says terrorists are believed to be in the final stages of planning an attack on western interests. No specifics were given. The embassy urges British nationals to exercise extreme caution if traveling to the region.
And funeral services are being held right now for a New Jersey police officer. He was one of two officers killed when the emergency truck they were in plunged from an open drawbridge. The two were driving across the bridge unaware it was open above the icy Hackensack River. Hundreds of other officers have been lining the streets of Jersey City this morning for this funeral procession.
HARRIS: And coming up, stunned, still in shock and sick with grief, West Virginia coal mining families are preparing to bury the victims of last Monday's coal mine accident.
Also a delegation of U.S. Senators is in Iraq get a firsthand update on the war, visit the troops and assess the Iraqis' post- election mood and. We'll talk with senators Evan Bayh and Kit Bond about what they saw.
And how to get the body you've always wanted. All you have got to do, Betty, is eat super foods. That's the key.
NGUYEN: Super foods?
HARRIS: Yes, with our experts help, you can stick to that new year's resolution.
NGUYEN: Well, we are a little less than an hour away from a scheduled briefing with Ariel Sharon's doctors who performed another brain scan this morning on the ailing Israeli prime minister. We're going to bring that to you live when it happens right here on CNN.
As for what's going on right now, well let's go to CNN's Wolf Blitzer who is monitoring the situation for us. He joins us live from our CNN Jerusalem Bureau with the latest.
Good morning, Wolf. You've been on the ground for some time now. What's the latest?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The latest is that the prime minister continues to remain in critical condition and in an induced coma at the Hadassah Medical Center here in Jerusalem. He did undergo, as you pointed out, a brain scan this morning. No formal results have yet been released. We will expect that to be released when the hospital director is scheduled to brief reporters in about an hour or so, not very far away from where I am right now.
All indications, though, are that they're not going to really be able to determine his state until they begin the process of weaning him off all of those drugs that he's been on to induce this coma and at the earliest, they say, that process could begin -- would be tomorrow assuming there's been no additional hemorrhaging, bleeding in the brain or any of the swelling or pressure that we did see yesterday.
As a result of the bleeding and the pressure yesterday, he was forced to undergo yet a third emergency operation, a five-hour operation, this in the aftermath of some seven hours of intensive brain surgery on Thursday.
All of this, all of this, Betty, is causing intense trauma on Ariel Sharon with an uncertain medical future. People here are very, very worried, including some of his closest aides. I had a chance yesterday to speak with his long-time adviser, Ra'anan Gissin. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RA'ANAN GISSIN, SENIOR SHARON ADVISER: In Israel when you're in a crisis and a major crisis, whether it's war or a critical decision that has to be made, the whole tribe gathers around the bonfire and this time maybe the leader is gone, but his spirit is alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And we're just wrapping up the end of the Jewish Sabbath here in Israel. People are going start getting out on the streets. It's been very, very quiet, although all reports suggest that the synagogues around the country, a lot of prayers are going on for Ariel Sharon right now -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Wolf, is Sharon's condition so uncertain at this point? I know you mentioned the political ramifications of this, but what are you hearing? Are things being made, decisions being made, behind the scenes as Israel looks to the future?
BLITZER: Yes. The acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is going to be the prime minister at least until the scheduled March 28th elections, not very far down the road. And he's going to be taking charge of this new centrist party that Ariel Sharon formed with some of his close associates.
There is going to be a stiff challenge from the right from Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister who is the leader of the Likud Party, Sharon's former party, as well as from the left. Amir Peretz is the leader of this revised Labor Party.
It's interesting, Shimon Peres, the former prime minister of Israel, former foreign minister and elder statesman, if you will, someone who is now in his 80s, he's being wooed aggressively from his old Labor Party, as well as by this new centrist party.
He was associated with Sharon in the centrist party. And the polls show that even without Sharon atop, the list for this Kadima Party -- it would still emerge, at least right now, as the leading vote-getter in the Israeli Knesset at the Parliament. So it's going to be a wide open, political battle.
NGUYEN: Yes, a lot of names being thrown out, and, of course, we'll be watching every bit of it. And right now -- the concern right now is determining the condition of Ariel Sharon and we hope to hear from doctors in about an hour from now. Wolf Blitzer in Jerusalem, thank you for that, Wolf.
I want to stay with CNN for the latest regarding Prime Minister Sharon's health. As we mentioned, we do have an upcoming news conference that's been scheduled by Sharon's doctors. We will air that live. That is set for 11:00 a.m. Eastern time right here on CNN.
HARRIS: Family and friends of the 12 miners killed in West Virginia are preparing to say good-bye to their loved ones. Funeral services are planned tomorrow for six of the miners. Already vigils have been taking place at the Sago Baptist Church located near the mine, and people have left all sorts of flowers at the altar.
Randal McCloy, the lone survivor in the mine disaster, is getting better. One of the doctors in Pittsburgh, where McCloy is hospitalized, talked to us earlier this morning. He said substantial progress was made overnight in treating McCloy's inflamed lung. And there's more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RICHARD SHANNON, ALLEGHENY GENERAL HOSPITAL: Randal has been very stable. He had a very good night, a restful night. He -- we've made considerable progress in stabilizing a number of his injuries and this morning we're going to begin our reevaluation of his neurological status.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: McCloy's wife says she'll play her husband's favorite heavy metal music in an effort to jog his consciousness.
CNN's Chris Huntington has more on McCloy's battle to recover.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Perhaps the most encouraging sign of Randal McCloy's progress was the smile on his wife Anna's face as she described what she'd do when he wakes up.
ANNA MCCLOY, RANDAL MCCLOY'S WIFE: I don't know that I'm going squeeze him. I'm going to squeeze him because right now it's kind of hard to hug him like you want to hug him and I'm going to just tell him how much I love him and how much I'm proud of him.
HUNTINGTON: The doctors treating McCloy at Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital say many of his vital signs are improving, but he is still in critical condition.
SHANNON: Randy is holding his own in the face of what are six or seven serious, life-threatening issues. And he's demonstrated today the ability for some of those things to get better. Now we have serious issues with the lung and we have serious concerns that remain with the brain.
HUNTINGTON: Dr. Shannon says he is most worried about McCloy's left lung, which had been collapsed, and is still collecting fluid. The most recent CAT scan shows McCloy's brain injuries appear to have stabilized.
DR. JAMES VALERIANO, NEUROLOGIST: So far what we see are posterior injuries, so part of the brain that would have to do more with sensation and possibly even with vision would be a possibility. The more anterior parts of the brain, which you would think of more as your thinking abilities and those types of things, really right now look pretty well intact.
HUNTINGTON: McCloy has received two treatments and may receive more in a pressurized oxygen chamber. He remains under heavy sedation in a medically-induced coma that's helping his brain to rest, but preventing doctors from measuring the full extent of his brain damage. Doctors say another key to McCloy's recovery is his ever-present family.
MCCLOY: My little boy, you know, he asked me what -- I told him that his daddy had worked very long hours and that he was tired so he had to rest. He was sick and my little boy says well that's OK because my daddy's going get better for me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTINGTON: And you certainly hope that Randy McCloy is able to hear those words directly from his son. He may get an opportunity. In the day or so ahead, doctors are going to ease off on that sedative so that they can get a more thorough reading of his neurological responses. That's coming up today -- Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Chris Huntington for us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chris, thank you.
NGUYEN: Now it is your turn to weigh in on the mine disaster. Our e-mail question this morning: what could have been done differently at the Sago Mine, if anything? e-mail us your thoughts, weekends@CNN.com. We'll be reading those comments all morning long.
Want to give you a program note now. Tonight, "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look inside the Sago Mine tragedy. What really happened and could it have been prevented? Tune in for "HOPE AND HEARTBREAK" on "CNN PRESENTS." That is tonight 8:00 Eastern.
HARRIS: Sad news in the entertainment world. Singer and Grammy winner Lou Rawls has died of cancer. He was 72. Rawls began as a gospel singer and moved on to popular music, scoring hits with "Lady Love" and "Love Is A Hurting Thing," and my favorite, "Groovy People." Rawls had earlier taped a telethon for the United Negro College Fund. The telethon airs nationally this weekend.
It's been a year since a mountain of mud washed away several homes and claimed ten lives in La Conchita, California. Friends and neighbors are holding a memorial service there today. In the meantime, experts warn residents another deadly mudslide is possible.
That's a New Orleans ragtime jazz. That's what's going on there. The city of New Orleans begins its 150th Carnival season today. Not even Katrina with all its devastation could silence the music. The carnival party ends on Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday which is February 28th this year.
NGUYEN: Good to hear the music back in the city.
Well it was a tragic week for the families of the Sago Mine victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to see him. I just want to see his pearly blues (ph). I just want to see him. And then going from, oh my God, I'm going to have to with him and find my dad's body.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: So difficult. We will find out how they are coming to terms with the horrific accident and a loss of their loved ones.
HARRIS: Plus a top level delegation to Iraq. Senators Evan Bayh and Kit Bond are in the region today visiting with U.S. troops. They'll join us here live. Good morning, Bonnie.
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And this information just in to CNN from Baghdad this morning. A western journalist has been kidnapped and her translator apparently shot to death. Iraqi security forces say unknown gunmen abducted the female journalist as she was attempting to meet a local politician. No word on her exact nationality. We'll be back with more of CNN SATURDAY MORNING right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Here's a check of our top stories in case you're just joining us. About 45 minutes from now doctors plan to release the results of the latest brain scan for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and we'll be carrying that hospital announcement live right here on CNN.
The 77-year-old is in grave condition after a massive stroke on Wednesday. Yesterday Sharon was rushed into surgery for new bleeding and increased pressure in his brain.
A new memo by congressional advisers says the president's argument for going ahead with his domestic spying program without outside approval may be on shaky ground. The administration maintains the president had the authority after 9/11.
The funerals for six of the 12 miners killed in the Sago Mine disaster are set for tomorrow in West Virginia. Meanwhile, a doctor for the only survivor says they've made substantial progress treating Randal McCloy's inflamed lung. Still, he remains in a medically- induced coma.
And for the families of the mining victims, a grim reality setting in. How are they coping with their loss? We're going to bring you their stories when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A suicide car bomber blew himself up in Baghdad today, injuring at least 13 people. Six of the victims are Iraqi police commandos. Meanwhile, final results from the national elections could be released next week. They're expected to show a Shiite religious alliance with a strong lead.
Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Missouri Senator Kit Bond are leading a U.S. delegation in Iraq. That delegation, which includes Illinois Senator Barack Obama, hopes to sort out conflicting reports on the progress of the war and on training Iraqi troops. They're getting the word from Iraqis themselves following December elections.
Senators Bayh and Bond join us now live from Baghdad and we appreciate your time, gentlemen.
First let me start with you, Senator Bayh. This is your second trip to Iraq. What kind of progress are you seeing now that you're on the ground?
SEN. EVAN BAYH (D), INDIANA: Well, Betty, obviously, the elections were a major step forward, but now we have to build on that by forming a government that is truly representative of the Iraqi people, finalizing their constitution in a way that promotes both majority rule and the respect for minority rights, and then getting on with the tough business of economic improvement in the country.
And ultimately, most of all, Iraqis need to start thinking like Iraqis, not just as Sunni or Shia or Kurds but as Iraqis. There needs to be a reconciliation and a political settlement in this country. If that can happen, then the security situation should start to improve. If it doesn't happen, then the security situation will be very difficult.
NGUYEN: Senator Bayh, you mentioned security situations there in Iraq. Where are Iraqi troops when it comes to training and readiness?
BAYH: They're making some improvements, Betty. We visited one of their elite units today. They're more numerous. They're getting better and that needs to continue.
What needs to happen is that as they step up and improve their capabilities, then we can start stepping back and they can begin patrolling the streets and clearing some of these difficult cities, and we'll be in a more supervisory and supportive capacity.
So, you know, we're heading in the right direction. It's been painfully slow, taken too long, but we need to continue along the path here so that they can step up and assume their responsibilities for protecting their country so that we won't have to do quite so much.
NGUYEN: Senator Bond, you're on the ground there and you've spoken with troops. As it goes with Iraqi forces being prepared to take over their country and protect their country, do you feel that's something that could happen soon allowing U.S. troops to come home?
SEN. CHRIS BOND (R), MISSOURI: I don't think that we're going have all U.S. troops out of this country for a long time. The war on terror is going to continue even when and if -- which we hope is quite possible -- Iraq does take over, establish a national unity government and move forward, bringing Kurds, Shias and Sunnis all together. I think that the military has demonstrated that it is able to take over more and more of the responsibilities.
This year is going have to be a year when we train the police with the assistance of police experts from the United States and other countries to help them ensure that they have a security force on the ground in each community which can prevent ordinary crimes as well as deal with insurgents and the foreign terrorists who will continue to deal to try to unravel the progress that is being made in Iraq.
NGUYEN: Senator Bayh, I want to ask you this because one of your concerns is making sure U.S. troops have the equipment necessary to stay safe. There's a new Pentagon study out that found 80 percent of marines killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper torso could have survived if they had better body armor. Is that your assessment as you speak with troops on the ground? What's the problem when it comes to equipment?
BAYH: Was question to me, Betty?
NGUYEN: Yes.
BOND: Yes.
BAYH: OK. Bayh and Bond sound somewhat alike, so -- well, look, unfortunately, this is reminiscent of the situation with the up armored Humvees where it finally took that brave soldier standing up and speaking about hillbilly armor to get the kind of action that we needed.
I've not read the report you referred to. We need to get to the bottom of it. Someone in the Pentagon today -- not tomorrow, today -- needs to be assigned about finding out what the truth is.
And if what you described is true, getting to the bottom of it as soon as humanly possible -- we have a moral obligation to give our troops the equipment they need to fulfill their mission and to protect their lives in doing so. And, Betty, if that's not done, someone should be fired and it shouldn't be buck private. It should be somebody higher up the chain of brass than that.
BOND: When you're talking about arming marines, my son happens to be a marine in Iraq and we're -- we have not yet heard any of those problems here. But if there is a report out that says that there is a lack of adequate body armor, you can be sure that Congress is going act and we would expect the administration to take immediate action if that in fact is a significant problem.
And, again, we have not seen that report nor have we heard any account of it so far on our trip. We will be making additional visits tomorrow and we'll certainly be following up with that question.
NGUYEN: Well, we appreciate your time. We appreciate you being on the ground and getting to the bottom of a lot of issues dealing with Iraq. Thank you for your time, senators.
BAYH: Thank you, Betty.
BOND: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Tony. HARRIS: Texas Governor Rick Perry says as many as 70 wildfires in the state may have been deliberately set. Governor Perry has ordered several state agencies to investigate possible arsons.
Just yesterday, Texas authorities reported 35 new fires. Since Christmas, dozens of wildfires have killed three people, destroyed hundreds of homes and burned a quarter million acres. And What we need, Betty -- and we've got enough cold temperatures out there. We need some rain.
NGUYEN: Rain. You know, there out west, California was getting too much, but in Texas and those areas, they just need the rain right now, Bonnie. It seems like all they're getting is wind.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Mourning their loved ones.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm waiting on the church steps thinking my dad's being brought to me and then see everybody going back into the church and then telling me my dad's dead. It just -- you know, I just wanted the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Families of the dead miners are asking why and how as a grim reality starts to set in.
SHANON COOK, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Shanon Cook, when we go global, bird flu claims the lives of three children as the deadly virus moves beyond Asia and reaches the edge of Europe.
CNN SATURDAY MORNING will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Now in the news, in Jerusalem Ariel Sharon has undergone another brain scan. The Israeli leader has now had three surgeries to control bleeding in his brain. Doctors plan to hold a news conference on Sharon's condition at the top of the hour. CNN will of course bring it to you live.
A developing story from Baghdad this morning. A western journalist has been kidnapped and her translator apparently shot to death. Iraqi security sources are telling us that the gunman abducted the female journalist as she was attempting to met a local politician. No word on her exact nationality.
And today marks exactly six months since the deadly suicide bombings of London's transit system. The coordinated attacks killed 52 commuters. British officials quickly identified the four suicide bombers, but the investigation has grown cold. There have been no arrests of anyone who might have recruited, trained or supplied the bombers. And citing security concerns, Britain has closed its embassy in Amman, Jordan indefinitely. The embassy noticed since terrorists may be in the final stages of planning an attack on western interests, it urges British nationals to exercise extreme caution if traveling to the region.
NGUYEN: West Virginians are mourning the loss of a dozen miners. They were trapped for more than 40 hours in Upshur County's Sago Mine after a Monday morning blast. Here's video of a miner's memorial in nearby Phillipi (ph), West Virginia.
Compounding their loss is the fact of botched communications that initially had families believing most of the miners had survived. In addition to that, listen to the seeming lack of urgency in the first phone call made to 911 nearly an hour and a half after the mine explosion.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
OPERATOR: 911, do you have an emergency?
MINE CALLER: Yes, sir. We have a guy at the mines and he needs looked at, checked out.
OPERATOR: OK, I'm going to connect you with the EMS. Stay on the line, please.
MINE CALLER: OK.
OPERATOR: Emergency squad.
MINE CALLER: Yes, ma'am, we need an ambulance at Sago Mine.
OPERATOR: OK. Is this the one up on the Sago road?
MINE CALLER: Yes, ma'am.
OPERATOR: OK, what's going on?
MINE CALLER: Yes, something happened inside the mine there.
CALLER ON SCENE: Be advised we are being informed we are on scene, we are being informed that there are several men trapped inside. We are going need a lot of help.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
NGUYEN: An eight-person team will now investigate both the mine explosion and the miscommunications afterward.
HARRIS: Meantime, relatives of the dead miners still have many unanswered questions not only about what sparked the explosion but why word spread that their loved once were alive when they weren't. CNN's Randi Kaye takes us back to some agonizing moments Tuesday night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Peggy Cohen is in pain. Her father, Fred Ware, Jr., a miner for 40 years, is dead, one of 12 who died in the Sago County mine.
He said that's where he would die.
KAYE: Peggy was given false hope late Tuesday night along with the rest of the trapped miners' families that 12 men had been found alive. It had been reported earlier one had been found dead. We were there when the church bells rang to indicate there were survivors. Families cried tears of joy.
Lisa Pharis thought her brother-in-law Marshal Winans (ph) was coming home. What will you say to marshal, your brother-in-law when you see him?
LISA PHARIS, BROTHER-IN-LAW DIED IN MINE: I don't know. I loved him and I missed him. I'm so glad he's alive.
KAYE: Have you heard anything about when you might see them? When they might get them out?
PHARIS: No.
KAYE: Have you heard anything about where they found them?
PHARIS: No.
KAYE: What condition they're in.
PHARIS: They said they're all fine.
KAYE: They're all fine.
PHARIS: They're all fine.
KAYE: Is this a miracle to you? The governor's been saying...
PHARIS: This is the best miracle ever.
KAYE: Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito gathered with the families to celebrate.
KAYE: What can you confirm for us at this hour?
REP. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R), WEST VIRGINIA: We're told being told 12 miners alive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not even right.
KAYE: Then hours later, a stunning reversal.
PEGGY COHEN, FATHER DIED IN MINE: No. They don't care about us. They're not from West Virginia. They don't care about nothing, but what's going on over there at that mine. KAYE: Word of a miscommunication between rescue crews 13,000 feet below ground and officials above ground was too much for families to bear. News only one miner had survived sent relatives reeling.
COHEN: Why? Just somebody out here, who it is if it's a perfect stranger, send me something through the mail telling me why they've done this to our family. That's all I ask. They had us so happy up there. He told us he would be back every hour and now it's three hours before he came back and told us they were dead.
KAYE: Sam Lance lost his brother-in-law, Martin Bennett and was in Sago Baptist Church when official word came. What was the scene in there? Were you just stunned after learning...?
SAM LANCE, BROTHER-IN-LAW DIED IN MINE: Everybody is stunned right now. Everybody's stunned and sickened to their stomach. We feel like we've been lied to.
KAYE: The grim reality sent Peggy Cohen into shock. She needed treatment overnight at the hospital.
COHEN: I just said I just want to see him. I just want to see him. And then going from oh, my God, I'm going to have to go identify my dad's body.
KAYE: Only after seeing his body, Peggy says, will she believe it.
COHEN: I'm waiting on the church. So I'm thinking my dad's being brought to me and then see everybody going back into the church and then telling me that my dad's dead. Just, it would have -- I just wanted the truth and I wanted the truth up front.
KAYE: Buried beneath her grief is anger, frustration and one question. How could this have happened? Peggy and her husband say they remember the false report 12 had survived coming from a mining company official.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He picked up the microphone and got everybody quieted down and that's when he told us that.
KAYE: Peggy would like the mining company to tell her something else. Why did officials wait so long to correct such a painful mistake? There was a lot of time that passed between you believing they were alive and then learning that they weren't. What do you think about that?
COHEN: Angry. I think that, you know, they could have handled it better. They could have just told us they found them and I think that would have pacified people enough to let them go check to see if they were alive instead of saying we found them. They're alive. They're coming to you.
KAYE: For years, Peggy had been after her father to retire. She worried about him in the mines. He was getting older and wasn't able to move as quickly. Monday, the day of the explosion was a holiday. Fred Ware, Jr., had told his daughter he wanted to go to work to get the holiday overtime pay. Is there something you miss most about your dad?
COHEN: My dad, his humor. Getting the phone calls when he got home from work saying he's home.
KAYE: Peggy finds some solace at this candlelight vigil held for families who lost loved ones and the miners who worked alongside them. It's a first step toward healing for a community badly wounded. Randi Kaye, CNN, Upshur County, West Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And again, Randi Kaye reporting for us.
NGUYEN: I want to give you a program note now. Tonight "CNN PRESENTS" takes an in-depth look inside the Sago Mine tragedy. What really happened and what could it have been prevented. Tune in for hope and heartbreak on "CNN PRESENTS" tonight, 8:00 Eastern.
HARRIS: And now it is your turn to weigh in on the mine disaster. Our e-mail question this morning. What could have been done differently in your mind at the Sago Mine if anything? E-mail us your thoughts at weekends@cnn.com. And we'll be reading your comments throughout the morning.
NGUYEN: We're going to check out some of the stories making news around the world today.
HARRIS: A U.S. sailor is in Japanese custody. To tell us why, Shanon Cook joins us from the international desk. Shanon, good morning.
SHANON COOK, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, there, good morning, Tony. A situation in Japan likely to fuel opposition to U.S. military presence there. We've learned, Tony, that the U.S. Navy has transferred a sailor to Japanese custody. Officials say 21-year-old William Oliver Reese admitted to killing a Japanese woman.
Her beaten body was found near the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka. She died from excessive bleeding and police say the sailor admitted he killed 56-year-old woman during an apparent robbery. The woman's empty purse was found nearby.
To Mecca now, where millions are expected to turn out for the holy ritual, the Hajj this weekend, but tragedy struck earlier this week when an eight-story hotel collapsed. Officials say the death toll has reached 76 and today rescuers indicated they've done all they can do and given up their hunt for survivors.
New information has come in to CNN about human bird flu cases in Turkey. We're told the European Commission confirms the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu in poultry in Turkey. The World Health Organization is sending its own team to investigate the outbreak. Three children have died of bird flu in eastern Turkey. All three were from the same family and now a six-year-old brother of the victim is in the hospital and Tony, if confirmed by the WHO, these would be the first known human deaths from the H5N1 strain outside of Asia.
HARRIS: Shanon, just a thought here. Officials -- health officials in Turkey and other parts of Europe and in Asia, have they come to the conclusion that culling this poultry population is probably the leading way to control this?
COOK: It's kind of the only thing they can do at this point and there are definitely mass cullings taking place in Turkey at the moment and we keep hearing about the destroying off of these large populations of wild birds and birds in captivity.
Yet we don't always hear about how difficult a task that is for authorities and in Turkey it's proving to be particularly difficult because a lot of these chickens are roaming free in small villages. It's difficult to contain, so quite a challenge for authorities there.
HARRIS: It sounds like it. OK, Shanon, thank you.
COOK: Thank you.
NGUYEN: I want to get you caught up now on some of the stories that are making headlines or did in this past week. Fifteen people died Monday when the roof of a German ice skating rink collapsed. A foot of snow mixed with sleet fell in the Bavarian Alps the day before the accident. Government officials denying negligence saying the snow load on the roof was below the limit given for evacuation.
Farris Hassan, remember him, the Florida teen who traveled to Baghdad without telling his parents, is back home in the U.S. He was met at the airport Sunday by his mother who, though relieved to see him, says he faces some serious consequences. Think he'll be grounded? Yes. That and a lot more, probably.
Speak of consequences, former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty this week to charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion in Washington and Florida. The pleas have prompted politicians across the country to unload thousands of dollars in contributions from Abramoff's associates and clients. In a deal with prosecutors, Abramoff has agreed to cooperate in a huge influence peddling probe that could taint dozens of members of Congress.
And accused enemy combat Jose Padilla has finally had his first day in court. After three years, the terror suspect was transferred from military to civilian custody and appeared in Federal court on Thursday. Padilla was arrested in May in 2002 in Chicago. He's been accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb.
Tomorrow we're going to fast forward to the week ahead and tell you which stories will grab the spotlight.
HARRIS: Stay with me here. What if you went on a diet and only had to change one thing.
NGUYEN: Just one thing?
HARRIS: Just one thing.
NGUYEN: If it's an easy thing, no sweat.
HARRIS: It's a diet. It's not easy.
NGUYEN: That's what I was going say.
HARRIS: Would it be possible for you to change that one thing and if it's all about the foods you eat, what changes would you make, what foods would you eat? We'll tell you how to change one diet works. That's ahead.
NGUYEN: I'll be listening, Tony.
Plus, you're looking live now at St. Louis. Look that the beautiful arch, your weekend weather forecast coming up in just 10 minutes. CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: See if we can get you some help here. It's a diet that promises you 12 weeks of total control over your body. Can that be? All you have to do is eat the right super foods and make one change at a time. So what are the super foods? For that we bring in John Foreyt, weight loss expert for ChangeOne, the diet fitness plan. John, it can't be this simple. Good morning to you, sir.
JOHN FOREYT, "CHANGEONE" DIET: Good morning, Tony. Thanks for having me.
HARRIS: Well, good to talk to you. Can it really be -- why is it so difficult? You know, these fitness instructors tell us their most popular time of the year is right now, January, February and then in a couple of weeks, in a couple of months, folks are out their classes.
FOREYT: If it were easy, everybody would be skinny. So it's not easy, but you can do it and the book "ChangeOne" is really aimed at showing people how to incorporate it into their lives in the easiest possible way, by using common sense.
HARRIS: OK. We've got some side panels we're going to put up here as we talk to you here so that we can go through your guidance here and you say make one change at a time. Explain that to us.
FOREYT: Sure, the goal is really taking one change per week. So starting with breakfast, going to lunch, going to snacks, dinner, dining out and so on, but just doing one thing per week, most people want to change their whole life overnight. They want to lose weight by tomorrow. Well, it's not going happen. The secret again is do it slowly but do it in a common sense way.
HARRIS: OK. The secret to weight loss you tell us is understanding portion sizes.
FOREYT: The whole secret to weight loss, of course is eating less and exercising more.
HARRIS: Got you.
FOREYT: So by eating less means watch your portions. You're not going to cut out your favorite foods. That would be idiotic, but you want to watch your portions and that's the secret and make it easy on yourself. Use kind of your checkbook as a measure of how much chicken you can have and that's what ChangeOne does. It shows you ways to estimate portion sizes without counting calories, without counting fat grams, without counting points and so on.
HARRIS: OK, the next bit of guidance here is all foods are allowed.
FOREYT: Well, definitely all foods are allowed. The worst thing you'd ever want to do if you're trying to lose weight is cut out your favorite foods because you're going to dream about those foods. You're going to think about those foods and you're just going to wait for that diet to end so you can get back to those foods. Cut down portion size, but don't cut out.
HARRIS: Eating for a healthy weight is the same as eating for health.
FOREYT: Absolutely. I mean you're not going cut out carbohydrate or you're not going shift to cabbage soup for a while.
HARRIS: Right.
FOREYT: What you really want to do is focus on a healthy lifestyle, which means a healthy diet, balance, variety and moderation and then sensible physical activity, so it's lifestyle change. It's not cutting out foods, going on a radical diet and ChangeOne, which is the official diet of "Reader's Digest" is the way to go.
HARRIS: John, how long does it take to cultivate these new habits?
FOREYT: It depends how long your habits have been inculcated in you. For most of us you can certainly make behavioral changes in 12 weeks and then it's a matter of reinforcing that over time. So it may take a year. It may take two years, but so what?
HARRIS: Right.
FOREYT: The bottom line is it's the rest of your life. You want to be health for your life. You're not focusing on tomorrow or going to that class reunion. Focus on your life and anybody that puts their life on hold just because they think they're too heavy is really unhealthy. Focus on health.
HARRIS: Yes. It feels like a common sense approach, but it sounds like you put it together in kind of a new way. FOREYT: Absolutely, what we did and what "Reader's Digest" has done and the first edition of this book, by the way, 60 million people were exposed to it so it really does work. But what it makes it, it makes the whole job a lot easier and it's a lifestyle approach not a short-term approach.
HARRIS: Got you.
FOREYT: That's the secret.
HARRIS: John Foreyt, we appreciate it. Thanks for your time this morning.
FOREYT: Thank you.
NGUYEN: I like that. I want to be healthy for life, the entire life, not just to fit into those jeans next week. We're asking you this morning, dealing with another story today, that the awful situation at the Sago Mine where 12 miners lost their lives. What could have been done differently at Sago Mine, if anything? We're reading your e-mails when CNN SATURDAY MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: I want to give you a live look now over St. Louis and that beautiful arch where the U.S. figure skating championships kick off today, Saturday morning, we have the forecast coming right up.
HARRIS: Well, you have to book your ticket to Torino for the winter games. So you've got to go and you've got to compete in this event in order to get there. We're going to check in now with Bonnie Schneider in the CNN weather center for an update on the nation's weather and I see that big red spot there over Texas and I guess a bit of Oklahoma as well. Trouble there?
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Bonnie, thank you.
All morning long we've been asking for your thoughts on our e- mail question, what could have been done differently at the Sago Mine, if anything? This from Bernie who writes, "there is a Katrina syndrome present here wherein the locals or in this case the mine company officials did not invoke 911 until much later after the explosion. Procedures must be in place to expedite the request for outside assistance as soon as possible."
NGUYEN: Linda, a former West Virginian, writes, "I would not, in capital letters, have let the media within 100 miles of the Sago Mine. It was unfairly critical of the rescue efforts and coal company management as well as disrespectful and manipulative of the families. The TV media is largely responsible for fanning the wild fires of rumor."
HARRIS: Wow! And this from Cathy from Baltimore, she writes, "I believe that the Sago tragedy as well as others could be averted if our top technological companies spent less time and money creating gadgets like the entertainer and iPods the size of a stick of gum and instead focused on ways to make modern-day jobs less life threatening." Cathy, thank you. Thank you all for sending in your e- mails.
And we want to give you this programming note. We're expecting a live update from Jerusalem on Ariel Sharon's condition at the top of the hour. When that happens we will bring it to you live.
NGUYEN: CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues right after this break.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
