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Top Jihadist Killed; Troops Fired on Demonstrators in Western Syria; Evidence Found in Anthony's Car; New Jersey Amusement Park Death; Court Allows Pray at Graduation; E. Coli Outbreak Spreads; Conservative Conference and Politicians; Tornado Recovery Centers Close on Sundays; Part of Missouri River Closed; Cleveland's 'Foreclosure Hell'; Yemen's President Hurt in Attack; Online Classes for Free; Carpool with Strangers
Aired June 04, 2011 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHELLE CAREY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Saturday, June 4th. I'm Richelle Carey in for Fredricka Whitfield.
They call this man Al Qaeda's military brain. The Jihadist Group he belongs to says he is dead, killed by a drone strike last night in Pakistan. Ilyas Kashmiri was considered a potential successor to Osama Bin Laden in Al Qaeda's leadership ranks. Neither the U.S. or Pakistan has confirmed a drone strike even occurred last night.
Gunfire sends demonstrators scattering in Western Syria. This is Hama, Syria, where witnesses say military forces and police fired indiscriminately into this massive crowd of anti-government protesters yesterday. I talked to CNN's Arwa Damon a few minutes ago and she is watching events in Syria from Lebanon.
ARWA DAMON, CNN BEIRUT CORRESPONDENT: What we saw on Friday was tens of thousands of people, according to activists and eye witnesses, gathering in various neighborhoods, trying to converge on the main square in Hama when eye witnesses tell us Syrian Security Forces as they have repeatedly in the past according to eye witnesses, indiscriminately opened fire on people peacefully demonstrating, people who were unarmed.
CAREY: A human rights group estimates 80 people were killed in that crowd yesterday. Arwa was reporting from Lebanon because the Syrian Government does not allow CNN to report from there.
Turning to U.S. news, jurors in the Casey Anthony murder trial are getting an education in forensic science. Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter in 2008. Today's evidence is focusing on microscopic evidence, namely hair found in the trunk of Casey's car.
(BEING VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN LOWE, FBI FORENSIC EXAMINER: The hair swab was microscopically dissimilar to the head hair sample identified as coming from Casey Anthony. The head hairs in q-12 exhibited similarities to a hair in a hair brush which was identified as belonging to Caylee Anthony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: The prosecution has alleged that little Caylee was in the trunk of her mother's car.
We'll have a live report from the trial in about 20 minutes.
In Wildwood, New Jersey, an 11-year-old girl trying to have fun on a class trip fell 100 feet to her death from a Ferris wheel. She was on a class field trip when she fell from one of the tallest Ferris wheels on the East Coast. This is the first time anyone has fallen from that ride since it opened in 1985.
People attending a High School Graduation Ceremony near San Antonio, Texas, will be able to pray publicly. A federal court of appeals lifted an order banning public prayer at the ceremony ruling against an agnostic family that wanted to ban prayer.
An E. Coli infection linked to certain produce has killed at least 18 people in Europe. The U.S. Food Administration said cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce imported from Germany and Spain will be tested before being sold here. There are tips from an expert on food safety, on how to protect your family from E. Coli.
DR. DAVID ACHESON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, FOOD AND IMPORT SAFETY PRACTICE, LEAVITT PARTNERS (by telephone): It's often present on meat, raw beef particularly. So make sure you cook those hamburgers properly, especially as we're heading into the summer season. Second risk is on fresh fruits and vegetables. Make sure you wash them. If they come already washed, you're fine. If not, wash them. If you can peel them, peel them. The third area of risk is milk. Make sure the milk you drink is pasteurized and not raw.
CAREY: Lots of great information there. Four Americans have gotten sick after returning from Europe. But there are no known cases of E. Coli food contamination here in the United States.
Let's get back to our top story of the hour. The death, still unconfirmed, of a major international terror suspect, a top leader in Al Qaeda. CNN's Phil Black is in Islamabad getting more information on this. Phil, why is it that we don't yet know if he's dead or alive?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richelle, at the moment officials in Pakistan, its military government and intelligence and U.S. Officials as well, none of them are prepared to confirm this. We are told by his followers that Ilyas Kashmiri this Militant Leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the tribal areas of Pakistan overnight.
The reason we're not getting official confirmation yet may be because he has been targeted in the past. He has narrowly escaped a number of strikes, and especially one in September 2009 where it was declared that he had been killed. He surfaced the following month in a newspaper article to prove that wasn't the case. But if it is true this time, it would certainly represent a significant hit for Al Qaeda following so closely from the loss of its leader, Osama Bin Laden.
CAREY: Tell us more about Kashmiri. He is just one of many high- ranking Al Qaeda figures that are often targets.
BLACK: It's true. These drones hunt and prowl over the skies of this tribal area of Pakistan looking for key militant leaders. But he is certainly one of the top figures that the U.S. has been looking for for some time. He started cooperating with Al Qaeda only relatively recently. He has a reputation for great daring, great skill and also great success. He is considered or was considered a highly respected and highly feared militant leader, one whose name has been linked to a long list of terror attacks in this region, including the attack in 2008 that killed more than 160 people.
The reason why he has become such a wanted figure in recent times is that he has been assessed as someone with the ambition and ability to carry out attacks on that scale much further from this region, potentially even in the West.
CAREY: That explains why he is such a high-value target. We still don't have confirmation. Phil Black reporting live from Islamabad, Pakistan.
Phil, thank you.
Conservatives gathering in Washington this weekend hear from a lot of candidates hoping to be the next President.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: A gathering of Christian Conservatives in Washington is a big draw for Republicans who want to be President. Here is a sampling of what some of them had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: We're united tonight in a lot of things. We're united in the love we have for this great country. We're united in our belief in the sanctity of human life. We're united in our belief in the importance and significance of marriage between one man and one woman.
TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: Traditional marriage matters, and we need to tell each other and the country that we need to keep traditional marriage elevated on a platform all domestic relationships are not the same as traditional marriage. It needs to be protected.
RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: The family is the bedrock. The educational system should be through the family and church. We should be promoting home schooling and private schooling and not depending on the public school system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: I love a fired up Ron Paul, that never gets old to me. Let's bring in CNN Political Producer, Shannon Travis, he joins us live from the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference. It seems this Conference is a way to merge Social Conservatives with Economic Conservatives, people like the Tea Party. It seems that that's where this is going. Is that right?
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: That's absolutely right, Richelle. The reason why you have Ron Paul fired up, Mitt Romney fired up and a lot of these candidates coming is because they know that these voters here can help push them over the top in early voting states like Iowa and South Carolina. This is really key. This is one of the first, earliest and arguably the largest effort to merge those two factions of Conservative activists, the Economic Conservatives who rail against Government spending and the nation's debt with the Cultural Conservatives. Typically we see them out there against abortion and gay marriage and immigration. So this Conference is designed to bring the two groups together and say, hey, you know what? We'll be taking on a huge political fight with the Democrats in 2012, we need strength in numbers.
CAREY: Shouldn't we have seen this coming, the Republicans trying to find a way basically to come together?
TRAVIS: Absolutely. Politics and winning elections is all about coddling your factions together, trying to get your supporters -- even if they don't necessarily agree on everything, try to get them to agree on something so they can come together in support of a common cause.
I spoke with Ralph Reid, you know him Richelle, he is the Conservative power broken and the force behind this week's Conference. I caught up with him earlier and said, hey, Tea Party activists have said we don't want to touch those cultural issues, we want to stick with economic messages. He said, you know what? I don't have a problem with them staying on that very narrow band of message, but we need to come together for the sake of just defeating Obama and defeating Democrats. He is willing to say, OK, you don't have to deal with the social issues or whatever. If you will, that's fine. But you can stay away from that stuff so long as we come together and fight the Democrats.
CAREY: All right. Pretty powerful Conference. Political Producer Shannon Travis, thank you.
We'll keep talking politics. Before President Obama visited auto workers in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday. He decided to make a chili dog run.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bowl of chili and fries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Silly chili and fries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: He looked so serious ordering. It sounds great. The President dined with Toledo's Mayor at a place called Rudy's Hot Dog. The owner was told only minutes before the President got there.
A so-called Aids baby is all grown up and now having a baby of her own. What a difference three decades can make. You really want to hear her story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: This weekend marks 30 years since the first case of HIV/Aids was reported. A lot has changed in the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, talks to a woman who was an Aids baby but now has given birth to a baby of her own.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Lolisa Gibson didn't always want to be a mother.
LOLISA GIBSON, HIV POSITIVE ACTIVIST AND AUTHOR: I wasn't ready for a baby. I was too busy focusing on my career and on changing the world.
GUPTA: Changing the world by teaching people about HIV. At age 17, she learned she had Aids. She was watching television when her doctor broke the news to her by phone.
GIBSON: The TV went black. Everything else went black. Nothing else mattered. Now it was like, wow, I'm going to die.
GUPTA: Lolisa hadn't done drugs, she had had sex but used a condom. What she didn't know was that her mother was HIV positive and had passed the virus on to her at birth or through her breast milk. She and her mother are now both on medication and in good health. When Alisa met Daryl Hunte, she told him she had HIV and she insisted on safe sex.
DARYL HUNTE, LOLISA'S FIANCE: I felt that I loved her and we had a very good connection and it was just -- it was worth it.
GUPTA: But one night the condoms failed and to her surprise, Lolisa got pregnant. Unlike her mother, she knew she could protect her unborn child.
DR ANDREW WIZNIA, DIRECTOR OF PEDIATRICS HIV SERVICES, N. BRONX HEALTHCARE NETWORK: I think the vast majority of infections from mother to child are preventable. There's no reason that they cannot have a child. Given the current therapies we have, we believe the transmission rate can be less than one percent even in that population.
GUPTA: Lolisa stuck with her antiretroviral medication. She was tested regularly and after little Daryl was born, he took antiretroviral medication as well. It worked. He's HIV-free, as healthy as any little boy you might find. She wants to be a role model. GIBSON: We try to do as many things as we can together. Again, there wasn't anyone like that that I could see when I first found out, so just to show people that you still can find love and find happiness or have a good family, do whatever you want with HIV.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
CAREY: How beautiful is that? Be sure to watch Sanjay Gupta M.D. tomorrow morning at 7:30 eastern on CNN.
An estimated 25 million young people are infected with HIV according to the World Health Organization. Patricia Sawo is making sure her community and country get information to stop the spread of this disease. That's why she's our CNN Hero of the Week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICIA SAWO, HIV POSITIVE AND COMMUNITY CRUSADER: Back in the 1990s I believed that Aids was a punishment from god. When I tested HIV positive, it was oh, my god, how did this happen to me. I fasted and prayed for years hoping that I would be healed. When I went public, I lost my job. My husband lost his job. The landlord wanted us out of his house. The stigma was terrible. I realized that I had to work. My name is Patricia Sawo. My mission is to change people's attitudes about HIV.
All you need is accurate, correct information.
We need to shepherd the people. HIV is not a moral issue. It is a virus. I do a lot of counseling.
When I'm helping somebody else who is HIV positive, I want them to know that you can rise above this. The 48 children at the Center, most of them saw their parents dying of Aids. My HIV status brings some kind of a bond. I provide that motherly love and all their basic needs. HIV is making me a better person. We want to be there for people. So if we have it, we share it out. It's what I want to do because it's what I'm meant to do. God has his own ways of healing. So for me, I'm healed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: She says she is healed. Wow. We always want to hear from you. Tell us about the heroes in your community. Send your nominations to cnn.com/heroes.
Casey Anthony caught in a pattern of lies. What forensic evidence is now revealing about the case? We'll have a live report from the trial.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: Today's testimony is revealing in the Casey Anthony trial, that's in just a moment. But first, let's check our top stories. A militant Muslim group says its leader, Ilyas Kashmiri was killed by a drone missile strike last night in Pakistan. Many experts expected Kashmiri to take over the leadership of Al Qaeda. So this is huge. The United States says the only country capable of sending drones into Pakistani aerospace is the U.S., but no comment yet from U.S. officials.
Long-time U.S. Diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger died at the age of 80. He served a brief stint as Acting Secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush in the early '80s.
Former Vice Presidential Nominee and Presidential Candidate John Edwards says he did not break the law. He pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of conspiracy and campaign law violations. Prosecutors say Edwards broke the law when he accepted $900,000 to hide an affair with a campaign worker.
Testimony in the murder trial of Casey Anthony is in a new phase today, getting into the scientific evidence of the Florida mom accused of killing her daughter Caylee in 2008. It's talking about microscopic evidence found in the trunk of her car.
Sean Lavin is outside the courthouse in Orlando.
Some people are still grasping that they're having court on Saturday mornings. One of the reasons is that the Judge wants to get this sequester jury back home as soon as possible. Get us up to speed on who was on the stand this morning.
SEAN LAVIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They brought the jury in from Pinellas County, about an hour and a half away. They want this over with so they can go back to their normal lives. This morning Casey Anthony came into court about 9:00 a.m., then we had the FBI expert, Karen Lowe come in. She was talking about the hair found in Casey Anthony's trunk. She testified this hair had a special marking on it consistent with decomposition. Because of that she believes that hair represents Caylee's decomposing body in that trunk and it can help prove the state's case.
Take a listen to what she said in court earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN LOWE, FBI FORENSIC EXAMINER: The hair was microscopically dissimilar as to the sample identified as coming from Casey Anthony. The head hairs in Q-12 exhibited similarities to a hair found in a hair brush which was identified as belonging to Caylee Anthony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIN: Now, the Lead Attorney for Casey Anthony did not want this testimony to be heard today. He made an objection to it right out of the gate this morning. The Judge overruled it and let it in. Now he has to attack it to try to convince that Jury they shouldn't listen to it. CAREY: Jose Baez also filed a lot of motions leading up to this hoping it wouldn't be admitted. It's not just hair samples from the trunk it's the controversial air tests, air samples from the trunk as well. Talk more about that. I understand the Defense Attorney Jose Baez also considers this junk science.
LAVIN: That's right. Baez calls it junk science. He doesn't want this controversial new testing. Basically they take air samples from the trunk of the car and based on the quality of the air they can project there was a decomposing body in there.
Today was the first day someone from the state came up. They called the Orange County Sheriff's Office Supervisor to explain a little bit about it. We expect the state to call a doctor to the stand sometime next week, most likely to explain about it more. We'll hear more about this case, the air tests in this case very soon, Richelle.
CAREY: Sean, in recess until Monday morning at 9:00 a.m.
Sean, thank you very much.
Earlier I spoke to our legal guys about the Casey Anthony trial and about whether her admitted lack of credibility will be a factor in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: The fact is the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Richelle, is overwhelming, and the fact is that the lack of --
RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Which trial are you watching?
CAREY: Richard, wait a second.
FRIEDMAN: I'm watching the same trial every day. The fact is, despite whatever problem there is with the Defense Counsel, it is her behavior introduced methodically, carefully, by the prosecution that's going to do this defendant in.
The very point that's been made that, well, when she takes the stand and puts her hand on the bible -- let me tell you something. A lot of people disagree with this, Richelle. They'll have to put Casey Anthony on the stand for a variety of reasons, not the least of which the Jury will see there's clearly something wrong with her, and that's what the strategy is here.
HERMAN: Richelle, Richelle, Richelle, they have to prove in order to get the premeditated murder that Casey was the one that put the duct tape on her face, her mouth and nose. They have not proven that. They are not going to prove that.
They don't have a cause of death in this case. Therefore, they should not, should not put her on the stand in the case in chief because the Jury is just going to hate her worse and she's going to get convicted and probably get sentenced to death. They have to save her for the mitigation phase.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: Wow. So it remains to be seen whether Casey Anthony will take the stand. You can catch our legal guys every Saturday at noon eastern.
Tornado Recovery Centers in Alabama will no longer be open seven days a week. From now on they'll be closed on Sundays. FEMA says the number of people seeking disaster assistance at the end of the week dropped dramatically. More than 23,000 people have visited those Recovery Centers since that devastating storm hit in the state in April causing widespread damage and dozens of deaths as well.
The Coast Guard is closing a 182-mile stretch of the Missouri River amid flood worries. That section runs from Sioux City, Iowa, to south of Omaha, Nebraska.
Thousands of people in North and South Dakota are evacuating in advances of all this rising water. Heavy rain on top of the snowmelt is causing all the flooding.
Further west, fire crews in Arizona are battling two massive fires today. The largest is the wall low fire in the town of Alpine. It's burned 140,000 acres and forced 2500 people to get out.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is surveying the damage today. She's scheduled to hold a press conference next hour.
So let's talk more about all these wildfires with Jacqui Jeras in the CNN Weather Center. Jacqui, is it just me or does it seem it's a bit early for this?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not really, starting to get to the peak of that. Conditions have been so dry here for so long. That's really what's helping to fuel some of these fires. Take a look at Google Earth. We put all the heat signatures on there.
And so this is by satellite detecting all of this heat. These are the two burning in eastern parts of Arizona. This is that wall low fire and there's another one south of I-10 and south eastern parts of Arizona that's also causing quite a bit of trouble.
Now take a look at this. This will show you where we have read flag watches which are in effect. That's the dark red areas and we're expecting fire conditions to be extremely critical here over the next couple of days once again.
Our weather pattern is really allowing a lot of smoke to filter over into western parts of New Mexico. There are air quality alerts into Albuquerque as well as Santa Fe. You can smell the smoke from the fires so far away.
And unfortunately that wind pattern not changing over the next couple days. We got an area of low pressure off shore in California, but that's stuck. It's just kind of sitting there unfortunately. So that's not going to move in and help clean out any of your air at all.
The heat, that's the other big story here across the U.S. today. We've got heat indices pushing 100 degrees in places like St. Louis down towards Memphis. Tomorrow we're talking above 100. It's going to feel like up to 105 for some of you. So take it easy this weekend. Stay in the AC if you can.
Hurricane season started this week, believe it or not. We've already have an area we're watching in the western Caribbean that has a medium chance of developing into something in the next couple days. It's not going to be moving a lot. We or worried about flooding in places like Jamaica as well as Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
CAREY: Jacqui, we appreciate it. I'll talk to you in just a bit.
Look out below. It's the giant watermelon drop, an annual tradition at the University of California San Diego. So why you ask?
It began in 1965 when a physics professor asked students to find out the speed of a falling watermelon and the size of the splatter. This year's splatter measured about 60 feet, a far cry from the one in 1974 which exceed 167 feet.
Turning now to a much more serious subject, almost four million homes have been repossessed since the housing market started to collapse in 2008. We're going to take you to two U.S. cities that are trying to fight back.
You see them in one neighborhood after another, abandoned homes. Foreclosure notices on the door, on the window. It's heartbreaking. Neighbors are worried about their property values because of this. Reporter Harry Boomer with CNN affiliate WOIO brings us the big picture from one big city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A few years ago we were averaging two foreclosures a day.
HARRY BOOMER, WOIO REPORTER (voice-over): At one point, there were 10,000 homes foreclosed on in a year in Cleveland. It's now down to about 8,000 a year. Even now on Cable Street in Slavic Village, house after house boarded up.
ANTHONY BRANCATELLI, CLEVELAND COUNCIL MEMBER: What we're seeing now is after foreclosures, we're seeing wholesalers come in and buy properties, sitting on them, not making any positive investment.
BOOMER (on camera): The lot I'm standing on, a house once stood here. That house is boarded up. Look, across the street, another empty lot, next to it another boarded up house and another. That is six houses on one street, 71st and Ottawa in Slavic Village.
(voice-over): Those house hoarders buy hundreds of foreclosed homes and wait for the market to rebound. When people get tired of waiting, they start another con.
BRANCATELLI: We're seeing people going into foreclosure who are dumping properties to other unsuspecting dupes.
BOOMER: Trying to solve the problem, Cleveland took part in a special HUD housing program.
BRANCATELLI: We had the HUD dollar program where we were finding property owners to take HUD properties over. The issue we're facing is many weren't worth investing in.
BOOMER: The foreclosure crisis is far from over.
BRANCATELLI: Outside the city of Cleveland, the foreclosure rate has increased and surpassed the city of Cleveland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: So let's turn to Washington now where the city is holding a foreclosure clinic. It's actually necessary in this day and age. This is a place where people can find help in the dismal housing climate.
CNN's Mark Preston is there. Mark, there's always a ton of people that unfortunately that show up at these events because they need help.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes, there's no question about that, Richelle. You know, probably about 1,000 people here today looking for some help, looking for some advice, looking for some relief on how to save their homes or at least get out of their home very cleanly.
As we just saw, where the housing market is hitting in Middle America, it's hitting everywhere. Over one million homes were foreclosed upon last year. It's really been driven by a stagnant economy. Listen to what Tim Massad had to say to me earlier today. He's an official at the U.S. Department of Treasury.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM MASSAD, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: It's been a significant factor. You know, this housing crisis is driven, in part, by this unemployment we're facing. We're still coming out of a very, very tough recession.
You know, we had the worst financial crisis since the great depression. Really, the underlying factors that drove that crisis were worse than the great depression. So while we prevented the panic and a depression, we still have a lot of work to do to repair the damage from that. That's what we're seeing in the housing market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: That's what we're hearing there from Tim Massad. He's an assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department. He was here today as well as lenders and community organizers all coming together, Richelle, to help the folks on the verge of losing their homes.
CAREY: Let's hope they do get some help. It not only affects these families, but a trickle-down effect as well. Mark Presto, we appreciate it live from Washington.
A president is injured when militants shell his palace. Yemen's government says their president is fine, so why haven't we seen him since it happened? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: As many as 80 people may be dead in Syria.
Take a look at Hama, Syria from yesterday. Witnesses say troops and policemen opened fire on protesters gathered to commemorate the children killed since this uprising began. We cannot independently verify the casualty count. The number comes from a human rights group citing medical sources in Syria, but again as many as 80 people possibly.
Let's move to Yemen now. There are conflicting reports about the location of and the condition of the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Ralitsa Vassileva is here from CNN International.
The palace was attacked?
We understand he may or may not have heard. What do we know? What has been verified?
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know very little, Richelle. We just received some information from the Saudi government official that President Saleh has gone to Saudi Arabia. He's arrived there for treatment.
However, Yemeni officials deny that. They say President Saleh is still in the country. He is OK. He has sustained some light injuries, possibly on his head.
So this is the conflicting information, complete confusion as to what the condition of the president is and where he is at this point.
CAREY: What do we know about the motivation behind the attacks, who did this?
VASSILEVA: No one knows. What we know is the President Saleh himself pointed the finger at the leader of the most powerful tribe in his country. Even today government forces attacked the tribal house of this leader, but he says that his tribe was not involved. So we do not know who is behind this.
CAREY: If, in fact -- because there are so many things we don't know, if, in fact, he were dead, what would that mean for the stability or instability of the region?
VASSILEVA: If he had died, analysts say that even more chaos would have come to Yemen, which is already on the brink of full-blown civil war, which is very dangerous for two reasons.
One of them is in the southern part of the country you have one of the most dangerous affiliates of al Qaeda, which has targeted the United States with failed plots several times including the Christmas underwear bomber you might remember.
And a second reason is oil prices because Yemen is -- sits on a very crucial shipping lane for oil. It borders Saudi Arabia. This is the biggest oil-producing region in the world, if you have instability there.
And the most dangerous thing is that, if he's gone, there will be even more instability. Let's listen to what a Yemeni journalist had to say, his read on this attack and its consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BOONE, MANAGING EDITOR, "YEMEN TIMES" (via telephone): I don't think the violence is going to stop any time soon. I do expect he's going to use his last option that he hasn't used and it's going to be air strikes in an effort to push them out. The violence definitely doesn't show any sign it's going to let up any time soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: Indeed what we saw, Richelle, right after the attack today, we saw as I mentioned, the attack on the compound of the tribal leader, 10 people died.
Also, protests have continued. Tens of thousands of people, opposition supporters who want President Saleh to step down turned out in the streets again. So the instability continues, and this is a very serious escalation.
CAREY: And with this escalation being so serious, Ralitsa, why has there not been any international intervention as there has been in Libya?
VASSILEVA: It's a very delicate situation. The country that is so driven by different factions, it has had several civil wars in the past. It was recently unified in 1990, a division between north and south Yemen. It has Shiite separatist movement, insurgency in the north.
As I mentioned, al Qaeda in the south is functioning. It's just very, very dangerous and difficult. There has been -- Arab neighbors have come up with a plan for Saleh to leave. Three times he backs out of this agreement.
This agreement has him handing over power to his deputy, elections being held in 60 days, but he has balked at signing it three times. So it's unclear if he is now indeed in Saudi Arabia which we don't know, whether this plan has a chance or whether the tribal factions and all the other opposition factions in Yemen will turn on each other.
CAREY: It will be interesting to see if we actually see him or lay eyes on him in the next few days.
VASSILEVA: We only heard a statement on the radio. We have not seen him since that attack.
CAREY: Ralitsa, thank you so much for explaining all this to us. We appreciate it.
Saving money by riding with strangers, it's called slugging. I'll explain the concept next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: Welcome back.
Bill Gates calls Kahn Academy the start of a revolution. It's an online site that provides more than 2,000 video tutorials and everything from calculus to chemistry, all for free.
CNN education contributor Steve Perry shows us how it works in this week's "Perry's Principles."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): In a small Silicone Valley office, this man is using simple illustrations and lingo to explain math, science, history and even business concepts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If this does not blow your mind, then you have no emotion.
PERRY: The 10 to 20-minute tutorials on kahnacademy.org are free to anyone anywhere.
(on camera): You've open up the world of learning to the world.
SALMAN KHAN, KHAN ACADEMY: The best way to get to the core of most issues, whether poverty, health care, whatever, is just making -- even democracy, making sure you have an educated population.
PERRY: Dean uses Khan Academy as a tool for home schooling his two children.
DEAN BRETTLE, HOMESCHOOLS HIS CHILDREN: What I like about it and what I think the kids like about it is you can work at your own pace. If they don't understand it, they can pause and rewind it.
With Kahn, you have to master all the material before moving on with only hits to help you.
If you're struggling with something in a you're struggling with something in a regular school, you don't get it, you take the test and get a "C" on the test.
PERRY: Richard Julian is a fifth grade teacher in California. He uses Kahn videos in Math class. The software tracks each students progress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By doing that, it allows them to know their students very well, allows them to know their strengths and allows them to know their weaknesses.
KHAN: Khan Academy is a non-profit, but it's backed by Bill Gates and Google.
PERRY: You're doing this for free, partner --
KHAN: You know, if Kahn Academy was for profit, it would limit the number of kids who use it. Hopefully when I'm 80, I can say, wow, there's a billion kids that uses it and maybe will continue to use it.
PERRY: Steve Perry, CNN, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: Everyone is tired of those high gas prices, right? Some commuters are saving money by slugging. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, Sandra Endo shows you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long lines to hop in a car with strangers. With gas prices --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Outrageous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Disappointing.
ENDO: More people are resorting to blind carpooling called slugging. A way by commuters from northern Virginia going to Washington catch a free ride with drivers looking to beat the rush.
(on camera): These are slugs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All slugs waiting to hop in cars.
ENDO (voice-over): It started more than 30 years ago, but David Leblanc's web site helped organize this pseudo secret society, listing where passengers can line up for a ride.
(on camera): For the drivers, the gas price is so high. It's not benefitting them or saving them money to pick up slugs, right?
DAVID LEBLANC, FOUNDER, SLUG-LINES.COM: Correct, it's not saving them money, but it is saving them a lot of time. It probably saves me at least 20 to 30 minutes each way on the commute.
ENDO (voice-over): That's because Virginia law requires drivers to have at least three people in the vehicle to use carpool lanes to breeze by the stop and go traffic.
LEBLANC: We've added more and more slug lines. As gas prices have increased, those who may not have considered slugging now look at it as an option.
ENDO: Leblanc easily picks up a passenger hitching a ride from Virginia to the Pentagon.
(on camera): Why did you decide to slug? How did it help you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's inexpensive. It gets me where I go, and gas is really expensive.
ENDO: Otherwise, what options do you have to go to work?
LEE DELL POWELL, "SLUG": I have to drive. I would have to catch a cap or catch the commuter bus, the only ride.
ENDO: So how much would that cost?
POWELL: With gas nowadays, anywhere between $70 to fill up the tank, or $14 on the bus for a whole day.
ENDO: This none descript flag lines form for the evening commute, for commutes heading to Northern Virginia from D.C. The practice is catching on in other congested cities like Dallas and San Francisco.
(voice-over): A commuting partnership to save time and money.
(on camera): This is a free ride.
POWELL: I know. I can't beat it.
ENDO: Sandra Endo, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: So would you do it now that you know what it is? You're riding with strangers. OK, if you do it, there is an etiquette that comes with slugging. I got the rules for you. First come, first serve. Slugs do not go out of line.
Do not talk on your cell phone. That could be a rule for a lot of places. This is going to sound like a first date rule, don't discuss politics, religion, or sex. And no smoking or eating by the slug.
And do not leave a woman standing alone in line. Call it chivalry, thoughtfulness. It's just about safety, right? Now you know what it is so slug safely.
A thief snatches a guy's laptop, but this is a smart little computer. Wait until you see how a Mac book saved itself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAREY: Crime story, high-tech story and a happy ending.
Dan Simon reports on how a California man got a stolen computer back with the little help of a smart piece of software and his online friends.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A burglar ransacked his apartment and took his laptop, but he knew something the thief didn't. He installed a security application called Hidden. It secretly screen graphs, pinpoints the computer's location and snaps photos.
(on camera): When you saw the first image pop up, what did you think?
JOSHUA KAUFMAN, REUNITED WITH STOLEN COMPUTER: I was amazed and impressed it was working. I never tested it out.
SIMON (voice-over): It worked. The app began streaming images of the man who stole his laptop. He could view them by logging onto his app account on any computer.
KAUFMAN: I was thinking, this sucks and somebody has my computer and is messing with my stuff and there's nothing I can do about it.
SIMON: One moment, he's in the car, shirtless in bed, or sleeping in front of the TV on the couch.
KAUFMAN: People sleep in front of computers probably all the time, but they don't realize they've been captured on camera.
SIMON: Kaufman presented the data to an Oakland detective, but in a high-crime city like Oakland, stolen laptops are not a priority.
KAUFMAN: He said, I hate to be the one to tell you this, right now, we're just too busy.
SIMON: After week of inaction, he put it all on blog. "Guy staring deliriously into my Mac book," read one post. "Guy deleting my account," said another.
KAUFMAN: I just have to blog because I was frustrated and I wanted my story to get some more media attention hoping that it would cause the police to act.
SIMON: He's strategy paid off. The blog generated thousands of tweets. Police started getting calls from the media. And just like that, they called to tell him they track the man down and made an arrest.
So who is this guy? Twenty-seven-year-old Mutama Aldabashi (ph), an Oakland limo driver booked on charges of possessing stolen property. He reportedly told the cops the computer had been given to him as a gift, but thought it may have been stolen and he should have known better.
KAUFMAN: It was a relief to know that all my effort and I was just excited that it actually worked.
SIMON: It proved that security applications work and that sometimes a little public shame can work in your favor.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: How about that? He got it back.
Be sure to watch more about technology developments every Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern right here in the NEWSROOM.
