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Forced 'Virginity Tests' in Egypt; President Obama to Announce Personnel Change; Latest Drop in Housing Prices; Possible Link to Cell Phones, Brain Tumors and Cancer; Seniors Volunteer for Risky Work in Fukushima

Aired May 31, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed for Tuesday, the 31st of May.

Westerners governments are condemning Yemen today for what they call grave human rights violations. Witnesses say at least 23 anti- rights protesters have been killed in Taiz, Yemen, since Sunday. Government forces are also battling tribal fighters in the capital, Sanaa. They're also taking on Islamic militants who have overrun a coastal town.

It is a case that sounds eerily similar to the one against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. An Egyptian businessman could be arraigned in New York today, charged with sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper. Seventy-four-year-old Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar is accused of groping a maid at the Pierre luxury hotel. She says she went to the room at Omar's request to drop off tissues.

Call it a bin Laden bounce. Strong performances on national security and international relations are driving President Obama's overall poll numbers even higher. A new CNN/Opinion Research survey finds that 54 percent approve of the job that he is doing. That is up six percentage points since early April.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When are you planning to announce that you're running for president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think the odds are that you will run?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, are you going to run?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That is the question. There is no public schedule, but Sarah Palin's bus tour seems to be headed for Philadelphia today.

Now, Palin visited historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore on Monday, and repeatedly, she was insisting she's not running for anything. A Palin associate quoted by the "Los Angeles Times" speculates that the bus tour is a dry run to see if she and her family are up to the rigors of a Republican presidential bid. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FMR. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know. I honestly don't know.

It's still, you know, a matter of looking at the field and considering much. There truly is a lot to consider before you throw yourself out there in the name of service to the public, because it's so all-consuming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Economists thought that home prices hit bottom in 2009. The Case-Shiller survey says they slid another four percent in the first quarter.

So, what does it mean? It means that prices in 20 major markets have now fallen below what was considered the bottom two years ago.

We're going to break down those numbers in about 20 minutes.

Afghanistan's leader calls it his last warning to NATO and the United States. He says, do not attack Afghan homes, even if militants may be inside. President Hamid Karzai is responding to a weekend raid that left as many as 14 Afghan civilians dead, and he says that NATO runs the risk of becoming an occupier if more civilians die.

Reports say that Ratko Mladic could be transferred to The Hague as early as today to face war crimes charges. Serbia's justice minister is expected to announce this hour a second court has rejected Mladic's move not to be extradited. The former Bosnian Serb military commander claims he is too ill to stand trial.

A shootout outside a preschool, and a teacher keeping a cool head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A teacher calmly instructs her students to take cover and sings songs while suspected cartel members exchange gunfire outside of her classroom.

The teacher, who is identified only as "Martha," tells the students to put their faces on the floor, that nothing is going to happen. As gunfire rages outside the classroom, the teacher asks the kids to sing along to a song by Barney the friendly dinosaur while people were executed outside of the school. None of the children in the classroom was injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Unbelievable. The city of Monterrey, Mexico, honors that teacher for her quick thinking and bravery. Her cell phone video has received more than a million hits on YouTube, and she spoke with CNN en Espanol. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What do you think now, teacher, now that you see the reaction from the media?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This is what I think. This is what gives me satisfaction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When all this happened, you didn't cry, but now you are. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When you're happy, you also cry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The American Academy of Pediatrics is warning parents that energy drinks could be harmful for children and teens. Those are the ones filled with caffeine and other stimulants and sold under brand names like Red Bull and Monster. And the group says that water is better for active teens than sports drinks. Those are the ones with electrolytes.

Well, we have exclusive confirmation that Egypt's military forcibly subjected female protesters to what it calls virginity tests. It is something that many consider sexual assault or torture.

A senior Egyptian general admits, tells CNN that the tests were done on women at a demonstration on March 9th, about a month after president Hosni Mubarak's resignation. Egypt's military initially denied the allegations which first arose in an Amnesty International report. Amnesty International says that female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges, and forced to submit to virginity checks.

Our Ivan Watson has reported extensively on the alleged abuse of protesters, and he joins us live from Istanbul, Turkey.

And Ivan, I want you to tell us, what did the women protesters say to you?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we spoke with one in particular, a young woman named Salwa Hosseini, and she was one of at least 17 women who was arrested by Egyptian military police that cracked down on a protest that took place on March 9th in Cairo's famous Tahrir Square. She said, initially, they were taking them into the famous Egyptian museum, which is right in that square, and that is where she was beaten and hit with electric prods and frequently insulted.

She was called a whore by her interrogators. And that was treatment that other demonstrators experienced at that time, on March 9th.

We spoke to a male demonstrator who showed us the wounds over his back. He couldn't even walk after that experience. Later, in the course of events, both men and women were transported to a facility on the outskirts of Cairo. And there, throughout what sounded like a truly hellish night, the women were strip-searched, at some points photographed by men, and then subjected to what this one woman, Salwa Hosseini, described as a virginity test.

Take a listen to what she had to say to us in March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALWA HOSSEINI, ALLEGED VICTIM (through translator): They made us sign statements declaring whether or not we are virgins. During the test no one was standing except for a woman and a male doctor. Six soldiers were standing behind us and watching the back side of the bed. I think they were there to be witnesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: So you can just imagine how horrific this experience must have been and how hard it was to come forward and speak about this, Suzanne, in a conservative society, on camera, and tell this story around the world last March. We've communicated with the Egyptian military through our Cairo bureau today. Officially, a general there denies that any type of virginity test ever took place on March 9th -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Ivan, I understand as well that the allegations of sexual abuse and sexual assault is not just -- does not just pertain to women, but also to men as well. Are you aware of that?

WATSON: Well, I mean, at that time, there was an awful lot of crackdown going on. This was going into April.

There would be demonstrations taking place. And the military is in charge of the country, and their police were very heavy-handed.

I remember talking to two men who just emerged from the state TV headquarters. They said they'd been pulled in there and repeatedly beaten and subjected to electric shocks on their testicles by military police. And they were still bleeding from some of the wounds that they got in their faces.

And I spoke to them maybe an hour or two after they'd been released from that ordeal. So there had been a pattern more than a month after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak where Egypt's military rulers were using force and torture to try to stop people from demonstrating against them.

Now, our Cairo bureau tells me that there's less of that pattern, but, still, people are being detained and being questioned for coming out and criticizing Egypt's military rulers. And that's going on -- just today we're hearing about bloggers and journalists being brought in for questioning by Egypt's military rulers.

MALVEAUX: And Ivan, this happened almost a full month after president Hosni Mubarak stepped down by a military that is currently in control of the country right now.

Do we anticipate that they're going to face justice here?

WATSON: Well, this is the government in Egypt right now. The Egyptian military has been tasked with Egypt's future democratic transition, and it's not going smoothly. And there's a lot of criticism of the Egyptian military, the ruling council, coming from some of the very same revolutionaries who so bravely demonstrated in Tahrir Square and helped bring down their former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

This is a story that we're going to have to watch closely. There are signs that the military is hearing some of the criticism that's coming to them, and that they've changed some of their approach to dealing with internal dissent. But this battle is still being played out in the streets and in the media in Egypt today.

MALVEAUX: Ivan Watson, thank you very much for that excellent reporting. Obviously, a very disturbing story coming out of the region.

Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Today's question: Is Sarah Palin's tour a trial run for a campaign, a potential campaign?

Carol, what do we think?

Carol Costello, with the question.

COSTELLO: OK. I'm going to go for it right now.

I know you've seen it, Sarah Palin's One Nation bus tour starting in D.C., where she and her family visited some historical landmarks and then continued on to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There are times Palin sounds like a would-be presidential candidate, but she still isn't ready to call her tour anything but a campaign for America's Constitution.

There is some confusion about where her bus is heading at times since she refuses to tell the so-called mainstream media exactly where she's going, except for Fox News, which would be her employer. Palin told her co-worker Greta Van Susteren that, despite how things look, her One Nation tour is not political.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PALIN: It's not about me. It's not a publicity-seeking tour. It's about highlighting the great things about America. And the media can figure out where we're going if they do their investigative work, or they're going to keep kind of, as you put it, going crazy trying to figure out what we're doing here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Jim Geraghty of "The National Review Online" says Palin's tour looks like a dress rehearsal, the closest we've seen to an actual campaign from her.

We've been here before. I mean, remember Donald Trump? After weeks of ranting on every news station around the country and a trip to New Hampshire, Trump told everyone, never mind.

Now, we all know Palin's motto is "Going Rogue," so either she just wants to do it her way or she's taking the rest of us for a ride.

So, the "Talk Back" question today: Is Sarah Palin's bus tour a campaign trial run?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read some of your comments later this hour.

MALVEAUX: So, Carol, people are just trying to figure out where she's going? They don't really know where she's going?

COSTELLO: On her mystery bus tour? But I'm sure she wants it that way.

MALVEAUX: Right.

COSTELLO: And we're all playing into her hands.

I mean, I am aware of that, people.

MALVEAUX: Yes. And you're going to hear from them.

COSTELLO: Yes, I'm sure I will.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next two hours.

You can hack, but you can't hide. The United States calling cyber-attacks an act of war now.

Plus, up in the air down under. Waterspouts steal the spotlight. That, in Australia.

And the housing numbers are out. They are not good. Home prices hit a new rock bottom.

Then, how safe is your cell phone? An announcement on whether or not it can be linked to cancer. That, expected very soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We have some breaking news. President Obama to announce a new commerce secretary later today.

Our own Ed Henry is at the White House with the very latest.

Hey, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, administration officials confirming it's going to be John Bryson. He's a business executive. He'll be the commerce secretary, a key member of the president's economic team.

Now, you'll remember he was chairman and CEO of Edison International. That's the parent company of Southern Cal Edison. He's on the board of directors of Disney and Boeing, some major U.S. corporations.

Obviously, this is somebody who will be key in promoting the president's agenda in terms of trying to double U.S. exports over the next five years, to help pull out of the recession. He's also a co- founder of the National Resources Defense Council, someone who would then, of course, be popular with environmentalists.

You'll remember Gary Locke, the current commerce secretary, has already been nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to China.

The president is going to make this announcement, we're told, at 1:15 Eastern Time in the Rose Garden -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right.

Ed Henry breaking that story for us.

Thank you, Ed.

Responding to computer sabotage with military force. Well, a "Wall Street Journal" report says the Pentagon has concluded that a cyber-attack by another country could be viewed as an act of war. In other words, hack into our computers, we may drop a missile.

That story by our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence.

And Chris, explain to us this new cyber-strategy that the Pentagon is developing.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Basically, Suzanne, what it means is, if an individual, group or country, even country, would, say, insert a virus into one of our nuclear power plants which causes a meltdown, which then kill dozens, hundreds, if not thousands, of people, well, that's the same thing as someone walking in there and setting off a bomb. The damage is the same. Or if someone shuts down, using a computer, an electrical grid, which then causes a pipeline to malfunction, that could have the same effect as, say, a naval blockade. So, they're equating these cyber-attacks with real physical attacks and basically promising that the response could be just like it was if it was a physical attack.

Now, the Pentagon strategy is in its final stages. We're told that it will be completed in two or three weeks. But that is the strategy part.

The actual idea of using conventional military force to combat a cyber-attack, that's policy. And that comes from the White House.

Take a look at this statement from the White House. This is White House policy that was released about two weeks ago, and it says, "The United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country. We reserve the right to use all necessary means -- diplomatic, informational, military, and economic -- in order to defend our nation, allies, partners, and interests. In so doing, we will exhaust all options before military force whenever we can."

It also goes on to say that the U.S. wants it to be known that the risk of attacking the United States using cyber-attack far outweigh the benefits. And when we talked to the Pentagon spokesman just a couple minutes ago, he said, look, you know, letting adversaries know that this is a potential response is a form of deterrence -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So, really, in some ways, Chris, this is a lot of tough talk, warning countries not to launch cyber-attacks against the United States.

Do we think it's beyond this tough talk? Or, as you had mentioned before, that might be the deterrent itself?

LAWRENCE: No. I think if the White House is going to put it down as written policy, I think they are actually, truly keeping that option on the table.

Now, it would have to be calibrated. You know, just simply the idea of a cyber-attack is not necessarily going to necessitate a military response. But it would be on a sort of graduated plane. If you had a cyber-attack that ended up causing the deaths of hundreds of people, or thousands of people, they're saying, what would be the difference between that and a conventional attack?

MALVEAUX: All right.

Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon.

Thank you, Chris.

LAWRENCE: You're welcome.

MALVEAUX: Well, if you're trying to sell your house, good luck. Even if you're not, you're going to want to hear about the latest drop in housing prices.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A quick check of the markets. The Dow Jones now up by 65 points or so.

We're also taking a quick look here at the lead story, CNNMoney.com's lead story, double dip now in home prices. Home prices reaching a post-recession low during the first quarter. Essentially, that this is a new low for the first quarter this year. There's a report that is out now, today, confirming what many economists had really feared. And that is the idea this double dip in home prices. It is happening across the country.

Alison Kosik, she's joining us from the New York Stock Exchange with all the details.

And Alison, this does not look good by any measure.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the numbers tell you what's going on here.

Yes, we saw home prices fall another five percent in the first three months of this year, when you compare it to the same time last year. And what this means is more people are going to be under water on their mortgages. That could lead to more foreclosures, and it pretty much leaves people stuck who want to move, because it's really tough to sell your home when it's in that shape.

This is really a classic double dip. I want to show you this chart that we can bring up. You'll see the two dips.

The prices increased through 2005 and then plunged. You saw a rebound in 2009. But that was actually artificial, because that was because of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

And now we're starting to see the second dip now. Other housing reports that we've gotten jive with this report that we got today. We got new home sales down, existing home sales down. It's just a real dour housing market right now -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Alison, do we have any idea -- anybody talking about when things will actually turn around for the housing market?

KOSIK: You know, you talk with analysts, and I'll tell you what, they are very, very ominous. RealtyTrac, for instance, says a housing recovery is a long way off. You talk with analysts at S&P, they say there's no relief in sight.

Another negative sign is there is this glut of foreclosures on the market. The issue here also could be that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As people don't buy when they don't think that prices have actually hit bottom, so they wind up waiting. And this glut of empty homes continues to sit on the market, putting pressure on prices. And the market just kind of sits there and festers and doesn't go anywhere. That's also the issue here.

Americans are equally as pessimistic as the analysts. Many Americans saying that they don't expect the housing market to recover until 2014 -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Tough, tough times. All right. Alison, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Well, here is your choices for today's "Choose the News" segment.

First, solving crimes with Facebook. Law enforcement agencies are finding clues on the Internet to catch criminals, which means that the FBI can see what you've been up to on the Web.

Second choice, selling your home in a buyer's market. It's all about flexibility and leaving emotions out of the deal. A realtor shares her tips on when to put up that "For Sale" sign.

And third choice, clipping coupons, a thing of the past. Online deals can save you 50 percent or more at your favorite restaurant or store. Going to break down the hottest Web sites and which ones save you the most.

So, all you have to do is vote by texting 22360. Text 1 for "Crime Clues on Facebook"; 2 for "Pricing Homes to Sell" or 3 for "Online Daily Deals."

The winning story is going to air in the next hour.

Well, is your cell phone frying your brain? That's the question. The government and the cell phone industry say don't worry about cell phones causing cancer, but there are doctors and scientists who totally disagree.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is investigating. And we are also awaiting an announcement from the World Health Organization.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories we have ahead.

First, cell phones and cancer. An announcement coming up from the World Health Organization.

Then, another high-profile banker, this one from Egypt, accused of assaulting a hotel made in New York.

And elders in Japan, they know the risks. Yet, they are determined to work inside the contaminated Fukushima nuclear plant.

Well, you've heard a lot in recent years about a possible link between cell phones, brain tumors, and cancer. Well, finally, we may get a definitive answer about all of this.

The World Health Organization's cancer research team is meeting in France, and they're going to make an announcement within the next hour on whether cell phones should be classified as a carcinogen. It's a critical issue for many of us -- our children spending hours and hours every day on their cell phones, virtually attached to our ears. Right?

Well, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has conducted his own investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. I'm on my way.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you've ever put a cell phone to your ear, you should listen to what neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black has to say.

DR. KEITH BLACK, NEUROSURGEON: There's no way to say that cell phone use is safe. I think that the public has a right to know that there could be a potential risk. The public generally assumes that if one is selling something on the market, that we have had assurances that that device is safe.

GUPTA: To be clear, Dr. Black's message is at odds with headlines from the largest international study on cell phones and cancer. Their conclusion, little or no evidence cell phones are associated with brain tumors.

But if you look just one layer deeper into the appendix of that same study and you'll see something unsettling. Turns out participants in the study who used a cell phone for ten years or more had doubled the rate of brain glioma, a type of tumor.

And keep in mind cell phone use in the United States has only been popular for around 15 years. Back in 1996, there were 34 million cell phone users. Today nearly 300 million in use according to industry figures.

BLACK: Environmental factors take decades to see their effect, not a few years.

GUPTA: So if it may take decades to get a clearer answer, what can we say about cell phone safety now? Scientists here in San Jose, California, are trying to answer that very question.

(on camera): So one of the things we have to do first is literally put the drain inside the head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. So it's very light now.

GUPTA (voice-over): The FCC requires all cell phones emit below 1.6 watts per kilogram of radiation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's put some brain to it.

GUPTA: In order to test for that, scientists here try to mimic the human brain with salt, sugar, and water.

(on camera): Let me show you precisely how they do this test. This is a model. This is supposed to approximate the human skull, an adult male. This is my phone that we've actually attached there. It's connected at the angle that most people would speak with. And inside over here, very important, this bubbly liquid inside, that's what represents liquid brain.

What's going to happen is, the phone is making a call. After a period of time this device is going to come over here and start to measure radiation at all sorts of different points in the brain. After that, they're going to take all of those numbers, basically put it on a computer screen and tell us where the hot spots are and just how high the levels got.

(voice-over): My cell phone measured within FCC limits, but the whole process was, well, surprisingly low tech.

And what about different sized skulls or children?

BLACK: In children their skull is thinner. Their scalp is thinner. So the microwave radiation can penetrate deeper into the brain of children and young adults. And their cells are dividing at a much faster rate so the impact of the microwave radiation can be much larger.

GUPTA: But there have been no studies on children and cell phone safety.

(on camera): And here's something else that might surprise you, the cell manufacturers themselves actually advise against putting the cell phone right next to your head or really anywhere on your body.

Take a look, for example, what the iPhone 4. The safety instructions specifically say, when using the iPhone near your body for voice calls, keep it at least 15 millimeters or 5/8 of an inch away from your body.

What if you're a BlackBerry user specifically? They also have safety guidelines. In this case they say keep it 0.98 inches or 25 millimeters from your body, meaning your head or really even your pocket.

(voice-over): Dr. Keith Black has been talking about this longer than many, but the voices joining him are becoming louder and more prominent.

The city of San Francisco pushed for radiation warning labels on cell phones. The head of a prominent cancer research institute sent a memo to all employees urging them to limit cell phone use because of possible risk of cancer. And the European Environmental Agency has pushed for more studies, saying cell phones could be as big a public health risk as smoking, asbestos, and leaded gasoline.

(on camera): The Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, they set the guidelines for how much radiation a cell phone can emit, and they say cell phones are safe. But how can they be so sure? Keeping them honest, we decided to come here to try and find out for ourselves, but you they declined an on camera interview.

(voice-over): The type of radiation coming out of your cell phone is called non-ionizing. It's not like an x-ray, but more like a very low powered microwave oven.

BLACK: What microwave radiation does, in the most simplistic term, is very similar to what happens to your food when you put your food in a microwave oven. It's essentially cooking the brain.

GUPTA: But based on their past statements, the FCC isn't convinced there's a real risk and maintain they quote, Do not endorse the need for consumers to take any precautions to reduce exposure."

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, San Jose, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: So now the World Health Organization's cancer research team is weighing in. Its announcement is scheduled in the next hour whether or not cell phones could be classified as a carcinogen. We're monitoring, we're going to bring that and those results of the vote up next.

But also, breaking news now. Former Bosnian Serb military commander Radko Mladic is on his way to The Hague right now to face war crimes charges. A second Serbian court rejected his claims he was too sick to face prosecution. Mladic is accused of ordering the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims during the Bosnian civil war.

Well, a former international banker accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York. It sounds eerily similar, right, to the case against the former chief of the IMF. Well, a live report from New York, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A reminder to vote for today's Choose the News winner. You can vote by texting 22360.

Text 1 for crime clues on Facebook. Law enforcement agencies are using social media as a new tool in fighting crime.

Text 2 for pricing homes to sell. In a buyer's market, the price you set is more important than ever.

Text 3 for online daily deals. Finding out the hottest coupons on the internet to save money at your favorite stores.

The winning story is going to air in the next hour.

Well, another sexual assault case against an international banking figure and, again, the alleged victim is a maid at a luxury hotel in New York. Police have arrested a 74-year-old Egyptian man who is the former chairman of a major bank.

Our Deborah Feyerick is on the story. She joins us from New York.

And, Deb, it really sounds amazingly similar to a case we saw against the former chief of the IMF.

What do we know about this case?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's what we're hearing. First of all, the alleged suspect, he is Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar. He is the former chair of the Bank of Alexandria. Before that, he was head of the Egyptian-American bank. He currently works for EL Mex Salines, which is a 200-year-old company described as one of the oldest international companies in the salt industry.

Now, the alleged assault took place at the Pierre Hotel. It is a very fancy, very tony hotel diagonally across from The Plaza here in Manhattan. According to police, the hotel housekeeper responded to a guest request to deliver a box of tissues. When she arrived and stepped inside the room, that's when the alleged assault took place with Mr. Omar locking the door behind her and molesting her.

That's what we're learning so far. He is scheduled to be arraigned later today. More details scheduled to come out in the criminal complaint, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Deb, unlike the other case against the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, this housekeeper did not report the incident immediately.

Do we know why or what the circumstances were around that?

FEYERICK: Well, she did not. That's one of the things that is under investigation. The alleged assault took place on Sunday evening. She did not report it until the following Monday.

I did reach out to the lawyer representing the housekeeper for Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He has not gotten back to me, just out of curiosity, to see whether, in fact, she had retained any sort of legal counsel.

The police did find her story credible and they charged Mr. Omar with sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment, forcible touching, and harassment, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Deb, we know it seems rather odd we have these two stories very similar, really just a week away from each other.

Is this a recurring problem in hotels?

FEYERICK: The one thing that we learned last week, or a couple of weeks ago, when the first incident came to light, and that is that hotel housekeepers are trained what to do when a guest requests something. Some hotels, they will send a male housekeeper to respond to any sort of request.

So clearly, there is an alertness, an awareness that this kind of thing is happening, but also housekeepers are told to report it directly, and many of the hotels, they stand behind their staff. In the case of this particular housekeeper, The Pierre sent out an alert saying that they're standing behind this and they're cooperating in the investigation -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Deb, thank you very much.

He is adamant that he's not running for president, but that has not stopped Republicans from urging Chris Christie to get in the race. Find out who's behind the latest push.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: I want you to take a look at some amazing video here. This is a water spout that is over Australia. I'm not even sure what we're actually seeing here.

But our own Rob Marciano can kind of explain this for us.

I mean, that's incredible. What is that? Is it kind of like a tornado or something?

MARCIANO: It's a tornado over water.

MALVEAUX: Really?

MARCIANO: Water spouts are typically smaller and less intense. And they can often happen in pairs or even triplets like in this case. But notice, this is actually spinning in the opposite direction that tornadoes spin in the northern hemisphere, which is the way it works down there, south of the equator.

So, there you go. That was one. And there's two.

MALVEAUX: Wow.

MARCIANO: In the Tropics, this happens quite a bit. Sydney not officially completely in the Tropics, but nonetheless, they've had some pretty intense storms roll through with some flash flooding inland and just off the suburban shorelines of Sydney, that's what they were --

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Is there any way you can tell how big it is?

MARCIANO: Well, they estimated that winds were probably 80, 90, maybe even over 100 miles an hour at times. So if it were to come onshore, it would do some damage. If you were to drive your boat there, that wouldn't be a good thing either. You want to stay away from it and hope it doesn't come onshore.

Here's that little cyclone or storminess that's been affecting parts of Sydney, and that's where that action was.

Basically, it happens a lot, though, in the U.S. across parts of Florida. This is -- this happens in the Tropics when things get -- when we get a little sea breeze front. And that happens in the summertime. We'll get a line of thunderstorms that develop and kind of move onshore with the sea breeze. And if there's a front here, you'll get, you know, winds that kind of go in different directions.

And remember when we talked about the tornadoes the past month, that's really the key to get the Earth to spin -- or not Earth, but the storm to spin itself. And you don't have the thermodynamics you don't have down than, say, in tornado alley, so you don't get the super cell. But you have enough to where things get pretty intense.

That's video of -- that's the real deal there. We're not going to see that down in Florida too often, and they didn't see that in Australia. But we did see that recently, or last night, in Nebraska. And that batch of storms is heading towards the east.

Chicago through Detroit, you're going to be seeing this, and this is a bull's eye for later on today, lower parts of Michigan are going to see potentially severe weather that might contain tornadoes. And everywhere east of that, Suzanne -- and I know you're experiencing this in Atlanta -- near or record breaking temperatures. Temps will be easily into the 90s and dangerous levels of heat and humidity for the next couple of days. So feeling much more like the middle or end of July than the end of May, that's for sure.

MALVEAUX: Tough going. All right, thank you, Rob. Appreciate it.

MARCIANO: You bet.

MALVEAUX: A reminder to vote for today's "Choose the News" winner. You can vote by texting 22360.

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Text "3" for online daily deals. Save money at your favorite shops, restaurants, with these websites. Really interesting.

Winning story will air in the next hour.

He says he's not running, but some Republicans certainly trying to change Chris Christie's mind. Paul Steinhauser, part of "The Best Political Team in Television," live from the Political Desk in Washington.

Hey, Paul. Good to see you. Tell us about who's urging the New Jersey governor to run.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It's a group of Iowa Republicans, some big names out there, about a half dozen or so of them, some big donors who give money to Republican candidates, and they're coming to New Jersey today and this evening, they're going to meet with Governor Christie.

And, Suzanne, as you well know, Republican Governor Christie really become a rock star among people in his party for his tough talk, his outspoken language, and even -- even how he's going after the Democrats in the state to try to reduce the budget there.

But Christie has said so many times, forget about it, I'm not interested in running. In fact, the most recent time he told our Jessica Yellin, you ain't getting me anywhere near that. My god, I'm not running for president. Everybody remain calm, all is well. Chris Christie to our Jessica Yellin not too long ago.

But they are coming today. They're going to meet with him, try to maybe change his mind. Doubtful it's going to happen.

Listen, Suzanne, it's another sign, though, that Republicans are maybe not so crazy about the current crop of presidential candidates they have. Maybe they're still searching for somebody else, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: You can always count on Christie for the plain language there. Just says it like it is. You know, just cut to the chase there to Jessica.

STEINHAUSER: Pretty much.

MALVEAUX: Good for Jessica getting that.

The Republican who, of course, does want to run, we're seeing Mitt Romney. Do we think we're going to see a more casual Mitt Romney than we saw back in 2008? Everybody said he was a little too buttoned up.

STEINHAUSER: Yes, I remember, you know, when you were covering the campaign trail last time around. Romney was wearing the button- down suits, the ties, much more of a business approach. He looks much more casual this time around.

In fact, check out the photograph he released yesterday. This is him and the family over the Memorial Day weekend. A look at that, even the hair, you know, normally the air-brushed hair. No, he's pretty casual here in this photograph with the family. Look at that. That is definitely a very different Mitt Romney than we saw four years ago.

And in an interview this morning on another network, he mentioned that he likes "American Idol" and liked the movie "Twilight." So I guess a more personal Mitt Romney.

MALVEAUX: Really? Well, all right. Who knew?

STEINHAUSER: Who knew?

MALVEAUX: OK, thanks, Paul. Appreciate it.

STEINHAUSER: Thanks a lot.

MALVEAUX: For the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com

Today's "Talk Back" question: Is Sarah Palin's tour a trial run for a campaign? Malik says, "Palin is using the media's thirst for her to hopefully gain enough buzz so she could run for president. If you ignored her, she would eventually go away.

More of your responses up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Sarah Palin said she plans to take her bus tour to Iowa, but she is keeping reporters guessing about whether she is going to run for president, which brings us to the "Talk Back" question and Carol Costello.

I don't know, Iowa seems like a pretty good clue.

COSTELLO: Iowa! Red alert.

On our "Talk Back" question today: Is Sarah Palin's bus tour a campaign trial run?

This from Joy, "She's likely writing a journal of her summer adventure, yet to be published, so her adoring fans can help her earn another few million dollars. The media is being 'Palined' (aka punked). Can you say 'sucka'?"

This from Charles, "Sarah is more woman than any leftist news babe." Thanks for the babe part, Charles.

This from Matthew, "No matter which it turns out to be, it is no doubt a huge waste of our time in general to pay her any attention at all. The Republicans should do everything in their power to muzzle their crazed pet." Ouch.

This from Pat, "From my field of dreams, 'if you stop covering it, it will leave.'"

And this from James, "She is still trying to find a place in the United States where she can see Russia."

Oh, there's lots more where that came from. Facebook.com/CarolCNN, please continue the conversation. I'll be back in a couple of minutes.

MALVEAUX: Yes, you'll get a couple more "babe" comments, I'm sure.

COSTELLO: I hope so. I like the "babe" part, but not the other part.

MALVEAUX: I want you to see this story, it's a crazy story. You know, people getting all muddy, chasing something smelly.

COSTELLO: What?

MALVEAUX: Watch these folks.

All right, Carol, don't go away. Please don't go away. Please don't leave me alone for this story.

They are chasing a wheel of chase down a sharp hill.

COSTELLO: Why? Are they hungry?

MALVEAUX: Most of them slid. They're somersaulting. It's a festival. Organizers pulling the plug on the cheese -- it's the cheese chase, but the organizers are not doing anymore, because the crowds got too big and too rowdy. These are -- these are renegade cheese chasers. Yes.

COSTELLO: I know --

MALVEAUX: Would you ever do that, Carol?

COSTELLO: I would get rowdy at an event like that. No, I would not roll down a hill to chase a wheel of cheese. Call me kooky, but I wouldn't do it.

MALVEAUX: You are kooky, but not like that kooky. Not that strange. You never know what some people come up with for fun. But they had a good time of it. They had to call it off, though, it just got too wild.

COSTELLO: I'm surprised no one broke limbs.

MALVEAUX: All right. We're going to go on to some other stuff after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A touching display of courage and sacrifice from seniors in Japan. Fully aware of the risks, they are lining up to work at the crippled and contaminated Fukushima nuclear plant.

Our Kyung Lah reports from Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this cramped office, these seniors are leading the charge to get retirees back on the job, for one last and critical call.

(on camera): You want to do this.

YASUTERU YAMADA, RETIREE: Yes, sure. Why not?

LAH: Why?

YAMADA: I'm the one of the eldest people.

LAY (voice-over): Age, says 72-year-old Yasuteru Yamada, is a plus, when the work site is the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a place still dangerous, highly contaminated with radiation after the tsunami caused a full meltdown in at least one of the reactors. These workers are the frontline to control the national crisis at high risk of exposure and long-term health impacts. The elderly, says this group, don't worry about much, anything belong term.

"Death becomes familiar as we get older," says 69-year-old Kazuko Sasaki. "We have a feeling death is waiting for us. Not that I want to die, but we're not afraid of it."

She's not the only one. Two hundred and fifty volunteers, all over the age of 60, are now compiled in this database. Calling into the group, volunteering to work at the plant, a team calling themselves the "Skilled Veterans Corps." An idea that Japan's point man to the nuclear crisis initially brushed off last week, saying, quote, "our principle is we should stick to procedures that would not require such a 'suicide corps.'" A label these seniors reject, saying they prefer doing what's right.

"My generation, the old generation, promoted the nuclear plants. If we don't take responsibility, who will?"

(on camera): We called TEPCO at their Tokyo headquarters. They would not speak to CNN on camera. A spokesperson had this to say, though, about the elderly volunteers, "Thanks, but no thanks. We have plenty of employees."

The seniors, though, don't buy it. The government has already told a nuclear regulatory agency that it needs to come up with a system to boost the number of workers, implying they are concerned about a worker shortage.

(voice-over): Workers like Hikaru Tagawa, a temp who once worked at the Fukushima plant. "Nothing can make me go back to work there," he says. He calls the levels of radiation too dangerous.

Whether concerns of a worker shortage or the persuasive seniors, just this week, the same government point man who called the seniors a "suicide corps" appears to be less resistant to the idea of elderly volunteers. He now says, "I met the leader of the group," says Goshi Hosono, "and we have started a discussion, looking for any possible, practical next step."

(on camera): Do you think that the government will let your group work at the plant?

YAMADA: Yes, sure.

LAH (voice-over): One more chance, say these graying citizens, to truly serve in the twilight of their lives.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)