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CNN Live Sunday
U.S. Working with Yemen in Search for Al-Badawi; Congress Looks at Cause of High Gas Prices; Cartoon Protests; Face Transplant Patient Going Public; Athletes Pay Thousands to Prepare for Olympics
Aired February 05, 2006 - 18:58 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New details tonight on how the man suspected of attacking gay men in a Massachusetts bar ended up dead in Arkansas after a three day manhunt. We're going to have the very latest live from Arkansas.
Also, a live report from Castaic, California. That's where a deadly prison riot has ended in chaos.
And another day of violence across the Muslim world in response to that cartoon in a Danish newspaper. We're going to tell you where these protesters took to the streets.
It is February 5th. We welcome you all. I'm Rick Sanchez in for Carol Lin. You're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
To our top stories in a moment, but first these are the stories making news right now.
Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont is in the hospital after collapsing earlier today. He became ill during a memorial for a Vermont national guardsman killed in Iraq. Sanders' chief of staff says the congressman has been diagnosed with the flu and was dehydrated. He's expected to be discharged tonight or perhaps sometime tomorrow.
The Islamic Jihad is threatening to retaliate for an Israeli air strike that killed its top bomb maker and a field commander in Gaza. Today's strike comes two days after an Islamic Jihad rocket attack that wounded three Israelis, including a baby.
Lebanon's interior minister has resigned after protesters torched the Danish consulate in Beirut today. The source of their outrage, cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. The Lebanese government knew about the protest for days but didn't provide enough security to contain it.
Iran today ended all voluntary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is a response yesterday's vote by the UN nuclear watchdog to refer Iran to the UN Security Council. Iran does say it's still open to negotiations.
New pictures of that dramatic rescue effort in the Red Sea, where a ferry sank Friday. More survivors were pulled from the water this weekend. About 400 people have been rescued thus far. Almost 200 bodies have been recovered and about 1,000 people right now are feared dead.
First, the manhunt for a teenager wanted in a bloody attack at a gay bar ends with three people dead. Questions now that perhaps will never get answered. CNN's Ceci Rodgers is joining us from Arkansas where Jacob Robida was found. Ceci, what happened?
CECI RODGERS, MOUNTAIN HOME ARKANSAS: Well, Rick, it's kind of an amazing story, because it appears that police officials isn't know who they had in hand when they pulled him over, that is, Jacob Robida, for a routine traffic stop.
(voice-over): He was speeding through the town of Gassville, Arkansas, and when officer Jim Sells (ph) went up to the car window, he didn't know what he was in for. Robida pulled out a gun and shot him.
Witnesses heard three shots. And then Robida fled. He also had a companion with him, 33-year-old Jennifer Bailey from West Virginia. They went on a 30-mile trek, speeds up to 90 miles an hour, and attracted three squad cars along the way. And finally police cornered them, in a small town near here called North Fork, Arkansas, and there finally, the weirdest thing was that Robida turned and shot pointblank his companion Bailey. Then he turned his gun on police, and then they shot him.
He was critically wounded. Spent the night in the hospital but didn't make it until morning. He died overnight. So that is the -- that is the kind of dramatic and strange tale of what's gone on here the past 24 hours.
SANCHEZ: It sounds like a Western, like an old-style shootout, and one does wonder, you know, Arkansas is a long way from New Bedford, why Arkansas? How did he end up there?
RODGERS (on camera): Not only that, but if you've been on the roads, this is the Ozark Mountain area, it's kind of a hard place to get to, and kind of twisting and turning. You could get lost here. Nobody knows for sure why he came here. Police officials in a press conference were asked, whether there was any connection with some neo- Nazi white supremacist groups in the area.
And they said they couldn't connect those dots. They don't know whether he was passing through, whether he even know the neo-Nazi groups. Whether it was just a big coincidence.
SANCHEZ: There is another question out there that seems to be lingering, and that's Jennifer Bailey. Who was she? Apparently he shot her. She wasn't a hostage, was she?
RODGERS: No. And in fact, police say that they had a relationship, they believe they had a relationship and they seemed to be former acquaintances. No one knows whether this was an Internet relationship or whether it was something in their past, but she was 33, he was 18. She apparently was along for the ride on this one.
SANCHEZ: What a story. Ceci, thanks so much for the update. Meanwhile, the attack and the shootings are generating a lost reaction, people that knew Robida. Some people are shocked, and others surprised. We get more now from CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jacob Robida's step father lashing out at the media in front of his ex-wives home, where Jacob lived.
DAVID ROBIDA, SUSPECT'S STEPFATHER: I loved Jacob, OK? I raised him as a little boy. He doesn't need none of this. He wasn't as bad as you guys put him to be.
What am I going to say? You're running my daughter's life? You've got my ex-wife scared to death. She don't want all of this, people thinking she's some bad mother. She's not.
CHERNOFF: As word spread that Jacob Robida had died in a hospital, following yesterday's shootout with police, a few family friends arrived at his home, none of who would comment. Online, at myspace.com, where Robida had a profile, CNN communicated with a friend of Robida's, who said she had seen him last week, and wrote, quote, "He had problems and hung out with the wrong people who were really racist and homophobic. Jake had gay and black friends but these people would always talk about killing black people and laughing about it."
Down the street from the Robida home at Dillon's restaurant, staffers remember a quiet boy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, he used to come to orders to go, but you can't -- he used to wear black trench coats and the whole black outfit, and you can't judge them by what they wear, it's just a phase and obviously he was a little deeper.
CHERNOFF: Did he ever chat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, never. He was very, like, anonymous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I noticed him wearing the long black trench coat, you know what I mean, and it looked a little funny to me, you know.
CHERNOFF: Did you ever talk to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I never spoke to him.
CHERNOFF: Local police are continuing their investigation, trying to determine if anyone assisted Robida in his alleged assault that wounded three men at Puzzles, a local gay bar.
CAPTAIN RICHARD SPIRLET, NEW BEDFORD POLICE: We are going to really try to find out what happened after the incident that occurred at puzzle and we're trying to trace back his steps, if anybody was involved, hiding him out, helping him and all that. CHERNOFF: Some neighbors are glad that Robida is gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard he was armed and dangerous. I guess I didn't believe how dangerous he could be. And now I'm relieved.
CHERNOFF: But a bartender at Puzzles remains anxious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still remaining in fear, just because of the circle of friends that he had, and I feel as if he almost opened a door to the group of friends that share the same beliefs and same animosity that he had. For them to follow in his footsteps.
CHERNOFF: Allan Chernoff, CNN, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: There's another big story, lockdown and segregated. Extreme measures at a California jail, after some racial tensions spark a deadly riot. The violence broke out in Castaic, California. That's where we find CNN's Kareen Wynter. What do you know, Kareen?
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, the scene completely different from yesterday around this time. Absolutely chaotic. There was a medical triage unit set up outside are out here. Teams in riot gear going inside this correctional facility behind me to basically storm it after 2,000 inmates started rioting there. Dozens of them were injured. One man was killed, 45-year-old Wayne Tiznor who was identified by sheriff's detectives. . They say he was a 45-year-old black male, actually arrested sometime last month for failing to register as a sex offender, officials say they don't believe that's the reason he was targeted, Rick.
But for the very reason that racial tensions here exist. That Hispanics outnumber black inmates two to one, and that this attack may have been sparked by an incident just last week involving a black inmate who stabbed a Hispanic gang member. Rick?
SANCHEZ: So right now it's lockdown. Nobody in and nobody out, and everybody staying in their cells, I imagine, right? And I imagine for some time?
WYNTER: Absolutely, Rick there are several jails inside this correctional facility. Two of them remain in lockdown, and investigators say it will stay that way until they get to the heart of what happened here.
That means that the inmates are staying inside their cells, and no recreational activity, and no visitors, nothing. There's also a letter that they are examining as a piece of evidence written by an inmate and it spelled out safety concerns, something along the lines of what we've been mentioning, the fact that they are pushing for segregation here, that blacks and Hispanics who are housed inside this facility just don't get along, and so things may have spilled over along that end. SANCHEZ: Kareen Wynter following that story for us from California. We certainly appreciate the update. A lot of news on this night. A worldwide police update or alert, I should say, for the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the bombs of the USS Cole. He's just escaped on this day from a prison in Yemen.
Also, the U.S. attorney general vows to defend the NSA domestic spying program as Senate hearings begin this week on just that.
Also, about two half months ago she made headlines around the world tomorrow. The French woman who had a partial face transplant will make her first public appearance, and we are going to have a preview from Paris on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: I moved in the control room to bring you our "Security Watch" segment and this one is extremely important today. A daring escape leads to an urgent global security alert. Interpol is now asking for the world's help in capturing the man identified as the mastermind of the deadly attack of the USS Cole in October of 2000. He and 22 others escaped from a Yemeni prison Friday. Our Barbara Starr is bringing us the latest now on this intense manhunt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The escape of the 23 prisoners from a Yemeni jail, including 13 convicted al Qaeda terrorists is a major embarrassment for the Yemeni government, which has been trying to convince the Bush administration it had broken the back of the al Qaeda network in the country. A U.S. government's official with direct knowledge of the situation tells CNN a national manhunt is underway. Yemeni security forces, including elite counter-terrorism units have been deployed to try to find the prisoners, including the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000.
The official calls the escape a major setback for Yemen, but says the government is sharing information with the U.S. about the situation. The U.S. Navy had been planning to bring another warship into Yemen for a port call. The first time since the bombing of the USS Cole, but now, that plan may be on hold.
Interpol has issued an urgent global security alert, for the escapees, saying they pose, quote, "a clear and present danger." Reports indicate the men may have escaped by digging a tunnel, but sources are also saying it appears they must have had some help from either inside or outside the highly secure prison in which they were being held. There is great concern they may be headed into northern Yemen, an area where the government has little control. Barbara Starr, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, admitted al Qaeda terrorist, Zacarias Moussaoui returns to court this week. Jury selection in the sentencing phase of his case begins tomorrow in Virginia. Moussaoui pleaded last year to charges he was part of the conspiracy culminating the 9-11 attacks. He is the only person in the U.S. ever charged in connection with those attacks. Now, once a jury is seated, they will try to determine if he should be executed for his crimes or spend the rest of his life in prison.
Controversy over the government's domestic spying program, all falls on the shoulders of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tomorrow. He's going to appear before senators to try to answer some critical questions about the wire taps. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has a preview now of what we may expect to hear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will take the hot seat Monday, to defend the administration's controversial domestic surveillance program, and the most important question facing him, says the Republican in charge of those hearings ...
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PA: Why the administration did not go to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and tell them about the program.
MALVEAUX: A 1978 law requires the president to do so. To get a warrant before listening on Americans' communications overseas. Gonzales will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the president didn't need to. In his prepared remarks, obtained by CNN, Gonzales will tell lawmakers that the terror surveillance program is both "necessary and lawful, an essential element of our military campaign against al Qaeda."
He will say that Mr. Bush had the constitutional and legal authority to carry out the administration's secret surveillance, in part from Congress' authorization to go to war after al Qaeda struck on September 11th.
SPECTER: I believe that contention is a very strained and unrealistic. The authorization for the use of force doesn't say anything about electronic surveillance.
MALVEAUX: Gonzales will also explain in greater detail why he believes using the FISA court system, which gives a 72-hour grace period for seeking a warrant is still too slow in tracking al Qaeda.
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER NSA DIRECTOR: The emergency FISA process isn't that NSA can just go do what they want and have a 72- hour hall pass.
MALVEAUX: Members of the committee are eager to question Gonzales. Some are frustrated that the administration has refused to provide classified documents about the wiretap program.
SPECTER: Will I consider a subpoena? Yeah, I'd consider it, depending on whether we need it.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, (D) VT: I think the attorney general has to tell us the truth.
MALVEAUX (on camera): The White House's calculation is that the American people will see this has the administration does -- one of national security, with little political fallout. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And as usual, stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
News across America now, seven years ago, a New York nurse performed lifesaving CPR on a young bat boy. Kevin Stephan, now a teenager, has returned the favor. He was working at a restaurant last week, when the nurse began choking on her food. He quickly did the Heimlich maneuver, saving her life.
Authorities are investigating an apparent murder-suicide in Lake County, Florida. They say that a police officer apparently shot and killed his wife, another officer, and that officer's wife before finally killing himself.
And meet Barbie's friend, share a smile with Becky. Mattel got the doll out of its library for an eight-year-old Florida girl. Morgan Kelly uses a wheelchair, too. Her family had asked the toy company for a doll that looked like her. That works out.
You probably feel the pain at least once a week. You are paying more at the gas pump. And as oil companies rake it in big time. Exxon is one of them, earning a record profit in 2005. Can you fight back?
Also, why a cartoon sparks this type of violence by Muslims in Lebanon, today. That story, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez. Driving these days is becoming a much more expensive proposition, with gas prices on the rise, as I'm sure you've noticed. While consumers' wallets shrink, oil companies are reporting some record profits. So what gives? CNN's Gary Nurenberg takes a look for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the national average price for regular at $2.36 this week ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take more to fill this tank up.
NURENBERG: Members of Congress worry about the impact on their constituents.
SEN. HERB KOHL, (D) WI: The pain felt by consumers by these price increases is real and growing.
NURENBERG: This is at a time when oil companies are reporting record profits. Exxon Mobil posting the biggest in American history.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) PA: So I'm somewhere between impressed and astounded by these profits.
NURENBERG: The Senate Judiciary Committee wanted to talk to oil industry executives about their big corporate mergers and the impact on prices, but invitations were declined.
SPECTER: If we need to issue subpoenas, we can do that, too.
NURENBERG: The industry says it invests heavily in exploration and argues its profits are not out of line.
RAYOLA DOUGHER, AMERICAN PETROLEUM INDUSTRY: In the past five years the oil industry has earned about 5.8 cents on a dollar. The rest of the U.S. industry, five and a half cents on the dollar.
NURENBERG: A government accountability office study February 1st concludes oil industry mergers have caused higher prices leading some senators to question whether merger regulation is sufficient.
SPECTER: It just may be time to legislate in this field, with what is going on.
NURENBERG: Another challenge -- worldwide supply is having trouble keeping up with demand.
SEN. MIKE DEWINE, (R) OH: The biggest problem is simply crude oil. Bluntly, we don't have enough of it, and we rely too much on it.
NURENBERG: The president's State of the Union goal ...
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: To replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.
NURENBERG: ... resonates with analysts who think Americans have their heads in the sand when it comes to oil dependence.
STEPHEN LEEB, LEEB CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: This is a crisis that in my opinion, is almost on the level of a major war.
NURENBERG: Leeb says Congress should give tax breaks to companies trying to develop energy alternatives.
(on camera): Congress is likely to consider a number of options in the weeks ahead, none of which is likely to lower your price at the pump in the immediate days ahead. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: You JUST heard it right there in Gary's report, in the State of the Union address, the president did say, he said it quite clearly, ""addicted to oil," were his words. He called for the development of alternative energy sources to deal with that addiction. The president's speech came just a day, though, after Exxon reported record-high profits. To help explain the significance of all of this or perhaps the juxtaposition of it, we turn to CNN's Ali Velshi. He is joining us now in New York. What gives?
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Nothing to explain, it's this. It's my big oil barrel. If you would have picked one of these a year ago, and took it home on your way, it would have cost you a lot less than it does today. Rick, it's $66.37 for one of these if you want to take a look at these oil profits that you were just talking about, ExxonMobil came on Monday with $36 billion with a "b," dollars, in 2005.
Royal Dutch Shell, $25 billion. Chevron, $14 billion. Conoco Phillips, $13 billion. We haven't got BP yet, but as you can see, $100 billion plus in oil profits in 2005. Now, let's go back to ExxonMobil for a second, $36 billion. That's $10 billion just in the fourth quarter. The last three months of the year. I don't know how long you thing we're going to talk for, Rick, but let's see how much -- whether they make more money than I do.
A hundred and sixteen million dollars a day profit, $4.850 million an hour profit, $80,000 a minute. This is ExxonMobil, or $1,347 a second. These companies are selling something that we use lots of, Rick, and that's why they are making lots of money, just as Gary said in his package. We are -- we are drinking up more oil than we ever have before, and that's why it's costing so much.
SANCHEZ: But you know what people are thinking out there, they are thinking, how much is enough?
VELSHI: Yeah.
SANCHEZ: And at some point, aren't they somewhat obligated to try to pass off some of these profits back to the consumer?
VELSHI: Well, there are a couple things going on here, Rick. First of all, let's just take a look at what we're talking about. It does come back to this, it comes back to the barrel of oil. Let's talk about how much oil we produce every day in the world, 84.6 million barrels of oil per day.
SANCHEZ: Uh-huh.
VELSHI: We consume 84.3 million barrels a day, which means we have 300,000 excess barrels a day. Now, there's some fluctuation in these numbers, but that doesn't account for problems in Nigeria or Iran or whatever else is going on.
Three hundred thousand barrels a day, let's use that as the number. You get 20 gallons of gas per barrel, so that means 6 million gallons of gasoline a day is what we have excess. That's less gas than American drivers use in one day. So to put it a different way, we have one day's worth of American driving worth of gas every day in the United States. So, yes and no. They can make less money. They can make more money. But it goes back to what Stephen Leeb in Gary's story was staying, when Gary Nurenberg was - we use too much ...
SANCHEZ: It's like they are using our dependency against us.
VELSHI: Yeah. SANCHEZ: Is there something Congress can do? Is there any talk again of the windfall tax?
VELSHI: They were talking about it after the state of the union, the Democratic response was the companies should give is some of it back. They don't really mean give it back, what they mean is reinvest in alternative energy sources like hybrid and hydrogen, and unlike previous years, Exxon and these companies have been talking about how much they actually reinvest, not only in finding regular oil but in research and development.
But in the end, here's what matters to most people. Let's take a look at what the gas prices are. These are national averages, which, of course, don't matter to you as much, just to show you a trend.
Today the national average for a gallon of self-serve gasoline is $2.35, a month ago it was $2.27, and it hit its high on September 5th at $3.05. And a year ago you were paying $1.91, in the end of the increase in gas prices actually does correlate to the increase in the price of a barrel of oil over the last year.
SANCHEZ: Did you say, it didn't matter to me? It's a long way, my friend between Peachtree City and Downtown Atlanta.
VELSHI: No, I hear you. What I mean, you pay what you pay, the national average doesn't mean anything, but the trend from $1.91 up to $3, to $2.27 back to $2.35, that does matter to you, so your choices are, walk, find a friend who can drive you to work, get a hybrid car, sell the SUV. And take a bus.
SANCHEZ: None of them work out all that well.
VELSHI: No.
SANCHEZ: We thank, sir.
VELSHI: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Ali Velshi. As usual. We appreciate it.
DNA testing. For a lot of people it's the only remaining hope to find missing loved ones in Louisiana. Next, an exclusive look behind the scenes at DNA testing in the Big Easy.
Also, the violent uproar of a Danish newspaper's cartoon reaches Lebanon. This story ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
Also this. Is she really ready to make her first public appearance tomorrow? Her doctors say, yes, we'll have the report from Paris. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Now in the news, the teenager accused of a violent attack in a Massachusetts gay bar is dead. Eighteen year old Jacob Robida died at a Missouri hospital today. He was captured in Arkansas yesterday, after a gun battle with police. Investigators say he shot dead a woman in his car and a police officer who tried to pull him over.
A maximum-security jail near Los Angeles is on lockdown after a riot yesterday. One inmate was killed, and 50 were hurt and nine critically. Police say up to 2,000 inmates took part in this riot. Authorities used tear gas and flash grenades to try and break it up.
Protesters enraged over newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed set the Danish consulate in Beirut ablaze today. Authorities say at least one person died. Street clashes also broke out between Muslims and Christians there afterward. About 200 people have thus far been detained.
Lebanon's interior minister submitted his resignation after this unrest. He said today authorities had done their best to prevent what was supposed to be a peaceful protest from turning violent.
Islamic jihad is threatening to retaliate for an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza today. Islamic jihad sources say the strike killed two people, a field commander for the militant group, and the man in charge of making its rockets and explosives made to combat.
Interpol says the mastermind on the deadly attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 has escaped from a Yemeni prison. Jamal al-Badawi fled through an underground tunnel Friday, with 22 other prisoners, many of them convicted Al Qaeda fighters, 12 to be exact. The attack on the U.S.S. Cole killed 17 U.S. sailors.
We do welcome you back.
In Louisiana, the hopes and the fears of people still searching for missing loved ones, all coming down to a speck of human tissue on a glass slide. The science of DNA testing barely existed not so long ago. CNN's Sean Callebs has an exclusive look now inside the New Orleans lab on which so many people are now relying.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is how they ring in good news at Louisiana's Fein Family Call Center. It means, another person has been located alive and well. Still, nearly 2,300 are listed as missing.
AMANDA SOZER, DNA IDENTIFICATION COORDINATOR: And after Katrina hit, it's like taking multiple puzzles and throwing them up in the air and scattering them all across the United States, and we're trying to pull the puzzles together and fit the missing pieces in.
CALLEBS: The state morgue, near the town of San Gabriel, holds the remains of 113 unidentified people. Trying to find matches among the legions of missing involves complex DNA testing. Amanda Sozer heads up the DNA matching effort, which, when done properly, works.
SOZER: We're looking for, in cases where we call it a cold hit, where we have a body in the morgue, and we don't know who that person is, based on other methods, a probability of 99.9 percent.
CALLEBS: You're looking at Reli-Gene, a New Orleans company that helps put together a DNA profile.
(On camera): So many people have seen it on TV, but where actually is the DNA sample?
SOZER: The DNA sample is actually in these plates that you see right here.
CALLEBS (voice over): The robot is watering down the DNA samples. The reason -- if the sample is too strong, it can't be read accurately. The same is true, however, if the sample is overly diluted. These spikes, or peaks and valleys, represent someone's unique DNA profile.
SOZER: This is the DNA fingerprint, essentially.
CALLEBS: It is also a global operation. Scientists in the former Yugoslavia, who spent years going through mass graves following war and genocide are pouring over bone fragments from Katrina victims. Researchers there are considered experts in bone DNA analysis.
SOZER: We look for similarities between the provide files and the codes in the bones to the profiles from the families.
CALLEBS: This is what families of missing loved ones go through. A simple cheek swab, creating a DNA fingerprint.
SOZER: Early one some people may have had the misconception that only one person in a family needed to be tested, so one person gave their DNA, but really, we need more people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you do blood?
CALLEBS: The more close family members tested, the better chance the state has at putting together an accurate bar code to pinpoint a loved one. DNA sampling also works closely with other methods of IDing bodies, such as dental records.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a dental office in the Lower Ninth Ward.
CALLEBS: Douglas Cross is a dentist whose business was destroyed. He offered to help in identifying bodies, and has been wading through the muck left behind in flooded dental offices.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a number records that day, and some of them led to an ID.
CALLEBS: At one point, the Fein Family Call Center had 11,000 missing persons. It's emotional work, but employees here say there is a heartfelt benefit to paring a painful list.
(On camera): The state medical examiner believes the DNA labs have six more months worth of work trying to put names to the 113 unidentified remains. Each week hundreds of people are calling trying to find out what happened to their loved ones.
The state authorities say the sad reality is we may never know the exact death toll from Hurricane Katrina and scores of people may never know what happened to their loved ones. Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: By the way, if you have information or any type of message that you can pass out about missing hurricane victims, here's the number for you to call. It's 1-866-326-9393. We'll show you the number again in case you missed it.
Well, in the Middle East, simmering rage over cartoon drawings of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed rose a furious boil today. Muslims say the caricatures are blasphemous. Protest in Lebanon escalated into violent confrontations. Our Brett Sadler is in Beirut with the very latest on the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRETT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The domino effect of Muslim in the Islamic world. Smoke rises from a Beirut building that houses the Danish consulate, the prime target of protest, sparking a pitched battle, lasting hours.
Hundreds of security forces, both police and army, failed to contain demonstrators who had massed in central Beirut, and then stormed the high-rise building; setting fire to the ground floor, flames spreading, as demonstrators went on the rampage.
Tear gas and water cannons ineffective in holding back the protesters. Events in Beirut came just 24 hours after a less violent protest destroyed the Danish embassy in Damascus, capital of neighboring Syria. Denmark has been a focus of Muslim outrage in an battle that unexpectedly turned global, pitting the principal of press freedom against that of religious honor.
It's not only Danish prestige that's being hit, there's a growing financial penalty, too, Iraq has now joined a growing Muslim boycott of Danish products and expertise. A transport ministry announcement coinciding with anti-Danish street protests.
(PROTESTERS CHANTING)
SADLER: The Danish government warns that extremists are adding fuel to a raging fire.
PER STIG MOLLER, DANISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Unfortunately, misinformation and misunderstandings on both sides have been allowed to nourish those forces that seek to promote confrontation.
SADLER (on camera): The wildfire protests by Muslims defending the image of their Prophet Mohammed skewed in another direction here, degenerating into violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. (voice over): It followed the stoning of a Maronite Catholic Church, triggering more ugly confrontation in a city once destroyed by religion-fueled civil war. Both Christian and Muslim leaders, appealed for calm.
SAAD HARIRI, LEBANESE LEGISLATOR: What happened today in -- in Beirut and especially to the Christian community, is -- is something that is totally unacceptable. And we are one people. And we will not let this thing go by.
SADLER: A red line that peacemakers on both sides of Lebanon's divide say they are anxious not to cross. Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: As look at these pictures you do wonder how deep does this run? How widespread is this furor over the prophet's cartoons? Shannon Cook has the information and the headlines that the she's following for us.
How about it, Shannon?
SHANON COOK, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Rick.
Anger over the controversial cartoons is really spreading across the Muslim world. Today it reached Afghanistan, thousands demonstrated across the country, although the protests were fairly peaceful compared to the violent demonstrations in Beirut.
In the West Bank town, Nabalith (ph), gunmen vandalized the entrance to a French learning center. They also attacked a man who tried to protect the building. And in Iraq, the transportation minister has severed all contracts with Danish and Norwegian companies.
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the Council on American-Islamic Relations says the Muslim community in this country rejects violence as a response to the image of the Prophet Mohammed published in Europe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PARVEZ AHMED, CHAIRMAN: The publication of these cartoons are certainly defamatory, and they have ridiculed a historical personality and a revered personality like Prophet Mohammad. These cartoons were insensitive, they were hateful and they were provocative. The reaction to these cartoons for the most part have been retrained, including in the U.S. However, the occasional violence in some parts of the Muslim world, such as burnings of flags, or burning of embassies, are being unequivocally condemned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOK: Moving on to some other international stories, now.
We have pictures of one of the lucky ones from the Egyptian ferry disaster, Al Arabiya released this exclusive video of a rescue from the Red Sea. The ferry sank on Friday with more than 1,400 passengers and crews; several hundred are still missing. Meanwhile, hospital authorities have released some of the bodies of victims. There were reports that the captain kept on sailing, despite a fire on board.
Now, Iran's president is reacting defiantly by the decision by U.N. nuclear watchdog to report his country to the U.N. Security Council at the nuclear program. At a conference in Tehran, he mocked the IAEA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): If we let them go further, they would ask us to close telecommunications and all the universities. I think it is bad to publish their letters to us, and our letters to them. And publicize our negotiations so you can understand who they are. Let the enemies be angry. They know that they cannot do a thing. We do not need you at all. It is you who need the Iranian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOK: And that's all from me. Rick, back to you.
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much, Shannon.
Well, it had never been done before. In late November, a French woman underwent an unprecedented face transplant, after she suffered some devastating injuries to her face. Well, tomorrow she's expected to face the world publicly, for the first time. CNN's Jim Bittermann reports, the woman's doctors say she's making strides and a recovery, but they're not happy about a couple of things.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It has been 10 weeks since the 39-year-old French mother of two made headlines around the world when she became the first person to undergo a face transplant operation. And doctors say, after recovering behind closed doors, she is ready to get on with her life.
DR. BERNARD DEVAUCHELLE, FACE TRANSPLANT SURGEON: She is doing very, very, very well. She is normal. Normal, except maybe in sensitivity.
BITTERMANN: According to an American magazine, which published pictures of her before and after her operation, Isabelle Dinoir is doing so well now that she has been eating strawberries and chocolate cake, trying to regain the weight she has lost. And to her doctor's dismay, she has once again taking up smoking.
Her surgery, which became necessary, after the family dog mauled her face, grafted the lips, nose, and chin of a suicide victim onto her existing bone structure, an operation which doctors say is not only physically challenging, but psychologically difficult for a patient. But from the outset, there was never a question about performing the operation.
DR. JEAN-MICHEL DUBERNARD, FACE TRANSPLANT SURGEON (through translator): When you saw this person's face, how severely disfigured, you will understand why we had to take on this challenge.
BITTERMANN: While the transplant surgeons have appeared in public, they have kept Dinoir away from the cameras, and in the hospital as much as possible. But now they say there is no medical reason for her to stay.
When she does go home, it may be to even more publicity and money as well. According to one report, she has signed agreements with nearly $1 million for a book, and a documentary and a feature film about her story. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And in case you missed it, we have all the news from the morning talk shows coming up, including Wolf Blitzer's exclusively interview with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai.
We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Just about every day most of us sit at our computers and click a mouse, barely giving it enough thought. What about if you are paralyzed and unable to move your hand? Imagine if you could literally connect your mind to the mouse and other things? "Welcome to the Future".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was one of the people that whenever anybody did something nice for me, I would send them a thank you card. Just silly things, just writing what's going on in our lives. And I can't do that anymore.
My family thought I was nuts, but I used to love to go out and shovel snow. It was invigorating and I do miss that. When I first was diagnosed, I thought way would start keeping a journal. I like the blog, because I'm able to write my feelings down, and I like for people to see that life can be still lived with the disease such as mine.
The most times, I have to use my left hand to move my right hand that's on the mouse. One of my concerns, for the future is that I'm not going to be able to write in my blog. Because I won't have the functioning at all for my hands.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Rosemarie was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, about two years ago.
(On camera): Rapidly she is losing the ability to move or even speak. But there's nothing wrong with her mind. What if she had the ability to write her blog, to control her computer simply by thinking about it?
(Voice over): This man believes the future is now. Dr. Lee Hockburg of Massachusetts General Hospital is one of the nation's top neurologists. His focus -- a mind-boggling clinical study called Brain Gate.
DR. LEE HOCKBURG, NEUROLOGIST: The goal of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System is to determine whether someone with paralysis is able to use their own thought or their own intention to move to, at first, control a computer cursor on a screen.
It all begins with this tiny chip. Attached to the part of the brain that controls movement, it detects electrical activity and sends those signals to an external device. A processor, which then interprets those brain waves, and feeds them into a computer. Literally turning thoughts into actions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, there.
O'BRIEN: Twenty-six-year-old Matthew Nagel was the first person to participate in the Brain Gate clinical trial. Paralyzed from the neck down, watch what he accomplished purely through the power of his mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next, I want to turn on my television.
HOCKBERG: He was able to use that computer cursor to change the channel on his television set.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Channel down now. Now I'm going to channel up.
HOCKBERG: To open and close simulated e-mail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says, "You are doing a great job."
HOCKBERG: He was also successful in opening and closing a prosthetic hand, just by thinking about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open, close. Not bad, man. Not bad at all.
HOCKBERG: I'm very hopeful that these technologies will be able to help people with paralysis in the future control their environment more directly, and I hope one day to be able to move again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the great majority of people, live three to five years after diagnosis. Some people live ten years, and some that live 20 years, which I plan on being one of those people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back. I'm Rick Sanchez.
"In Case You Missed It", we're going to check now on some of the highlights from the Sunday morning talk shows. Hamid Karzai condemning the cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed, which have sparked a wave of violent Muslim protests. He appeared with Wolf Blitzer on "Late Edition."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZIA, PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN: The cartoons must stop coming again, and again, must stop appearing. And I hope the Western governments, the United States, the rest of the Western world, the European governments, will also take a strong measure, because this is a matter of sentiment for 1 billion Muslims, and condemn it together with Muslims, that would be a good thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Meanwhile on "FOX NEWS Sunday", the deputy director of national intelligence, General Michael Hayden defended Bush's controversial domestic spying program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, DEP. DIR. OF NATIONAL INTEL: This is focused on Al Qaeda. The only justification we have is to undertake this program is to detect and prevent attacks against the United States. We don't have the time or the lawful authority to do anything except that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And do remember, every Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, CNN is going to bring you the very latest headlines from the Sunday talk show circuit.
Well, it takes more than talent and dedication to make up for the Winter Olympics. It takes hard-earned cash and a whole lot of it. The economics behind the games when CNN LIVE SUNDAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: In a week many of us are going to be cheering on athletes taking part in the Winter Olympic in Torino. Last-minute preparations are evident at a number of Olympic venues already. For the athletes hoping to test their metal to win the gold, but it takes more than talent and ability to get to the games. It also takes a whole lot of money. Gary Nurenberg showing us how one Olympian is helping other athletes offset the tremendous cost of getting to the games.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NURENBERG (voice over): Olympic hopeful Christine Zukowski knows the numbers that can add up to success. Time the alarm clock goes off before practice.
CHRISTINE ZUKOWSKI, OLYMPIC ATHLETE: 2:30.
NURENBERG: The cost of just one pair of skates.
C. ZUKOWSKI: $1,000.
NURENBERG: The cost of training each year?
C. ZUKOWSKI: Like $35,000.
NURENBERG: Not really.
THERESA ZUKOWSKI, CHRISTINE'S MOTHER: About $45,000, $50,000 a year.
MICHAEL WEISS, OLYMPIC SKATER: All right. Just do another spin.
NURENBERG: Christine is training with two-time Olympian Michael Weiss, whose own family struggled with the dizzying costs.
MARGIE WEISS, MICHAEL'S MOM: Michael wore his sister's skates until he was 12 years old, until he outgrew her feet. But he didn't want that to happen to other up and coming skaters.
MICHAEL WEISS: There you go. That was a nice one.
NURENBERG: So Weiss started a foundation to help kids pay for the endless bills, and they do seem endless.
MICHAEL WEISS: You need a spin coach, a jump coach, a choreographer.
MARGIE WEISS: A skating dress, at its upper levels can cost $2,000 to $10,000.
NURENBERG: Skating lessens?
C. ZUKOWSKI: Sometimes they are $30 for 20 minutes, and you have about three lessons a day. And your ice time costs a lot money.
T. ZUKOWSKI: I probably could have sent her to Princeton, like twice already.
MICHAEL WEISS: Somebody who solely works on your music, a costume designer, off-ice training expenses. You have the weight trainers, the dance teachers, and instructors.
T. ZUKOWSKI: It's insane.
NURENBERG: Christine has seen it take a toll on friends.
C. ZUKOWSKI: A lot of people have had to quit skating because the expenses were getting too outrageous for them, and they just couldn't take it anymore.
MICHAEL WEISS: My foundation was established to help relieve some of that stress and financial strain that is put on families and the athletes when they are growing up and then chasing their dreams to becoming Olympic champions. NURENBERG: The estimated costs of training an Olympic figure skater can approach $1 million.
MICHAEL WEISS: Sometimes you're just banging your head against the wall.
NURENBERG: An investment that can end in gold, or sometimes just $1 million smile.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Skating's important, because I just love it.
NURENBERG: Gary Nurenberg, CNN.
MICHAEL WEISS: We're going to kick some butt.
C. ZUKOWSKI: Yeah.
NURENBERG: Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: There is much more ahead on CNN. Coming up at 8:00 Eastern, "CNN Presents: Fat Chance" Obesity is an epidemic with many caught up in the endless cycle of failed diets. Is it possible to lose weight and keep it off? It's ahead on "CNN Presents."
At 9, "Larry King Live, Weekend" as the nation says goodbye to Coretta Scott King, Jimmy Carter reflects on her legacy.
And at 10 Eastern, Erin Brockovich, she brought a huge company to its knees and now after more than 10 years, there's finally a settlement in this case. Erin Brockovich, live tonight at 10:00 Eastern.
And the hour's headlines when we come back, and then "CNN Presents: Fat Chance". We'll see you in a bit.
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