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Mississippi Judge Halts Pardons; Video of U.S. Troops Desecrating Bodies in Afghanistan; Suze Orman Discusses Poverty, Answers Viewer Questions; French Journalist Killed in Syria; Rick Santorum's Strategy in S.C.

Aired January 12, 2012 - 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.

Want to get you up to speed for this Thursday, January 12th.

Well, Mississippi's attorney general is slamming -- that is right, slamming -- former Governor Haley Barbour for pardoning 199 convicts, including 14 murderers. The AG says that Barbour violated the state constitution because many of the pardoned requests were not published 30 days before they were granted.

Now, a judge has issued a temporary injunction stopping the release of any more prisoners that the governor pardoned. But four of the convicted murderers are already free.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM HOOD, MISSISSIPPI ATTORNEY GENERAL: These families are afraid out here, and these victims have been through a terrible amount. It's a slap in the face to all in the state of Mississippi, jurors.

I was a district attorney. Some of them he's probably cut loose, I haven't even had a chance to check the list of my former customers that I prosecuted years ago. So this is a significant problem. But I think we're going to get a handle on it. I think the evidence that we've already seen, he violated the constitution and knows me, or if not most of the so-called pardons he gave, will be held null and void.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So-called pardons. Interesting language there. We're going to have more on this story in just a few minutes.

So much for southern hospitality. One Republican presidential candidate is using the word "Armageddon" to describe the political fight that is happening now in South Carolina. The state's primary, just nine days away.

Several candidates have campaign stops in South Carolina in the next hour. You're looking at Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, all holding events there. Mitt Romney campaigns in Florida after an earlier stop in South Carolina. More violence now out of Syria. You are watching a bomb ripping through the streets of Homs, and a French reporter killed in the blast. He is the first Western journalist to die in Syria since the unrest started there almost a year ago. The government is blaming terrorists for the attack, but protesters say that the state is responsible for the bloodshed.

Our Nic Robertson is going to have the latest out of Syria.

And get this -- the Taliban, the United States, been at war for more than 10 years, may soon be at the same table actually talking about stopping the war in Afghanistan. That now looks closer to reality, with plans moving forward for the Taliban to open a diplomatic office in Qatar.

Afghan officials want peace talks to happen. The U.S. is on board, sending envoys to Qatar to work out the details. And the Taliban say they are willing to talk for the sake of peace and stability in Afghanistan, but they also say they're not going to stop fighting during any negotiations.

And parts of North Carolina are cleaning up today after some really severe weather hit. The National Weather Service is investigating whether or not a tornado touched down in Rutherford County late yesterday.

I want you to take a look at this. This is Burke County. A wind sheared off roofs, left just a field of debris. The sheriff's department reports heavy damage to home, many up to 800 now without power. No deaths, but several injuries there.

Want to get back to this story. It is really kind of a shocking story when you think about it, pardoning in Mississippi.

The former governor, Haley Barbour, decides to wipe clean the records of almost 200 convicts as he leaves office. Well, all of this is now in legal limbo.

A judge has blocked any more prisoners from being released, and authorities are trying to decide if the former governor violated the state's constitution in granting these pardons to murderers, rapists, others, without required notice.

I want to bring in our Ed Lavandera, who joins us from Dallas.

And Ed, explain this story here, because it has developed now. And we know that there's a constitutional debate, an argument that's taking place, as to whether or not the governor was actually able to do what he did.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. You know, many people were asking yesterday, Suzanne, what could people who oppose the governor's decision to pardon so many people, what could they do? Well, the state attorney general in Mississippi is arguing that the state's constitution was violated. This, because they say that they need to have 30 days' notice when anyone is going for a pardons request, that they must announce this request, that this is being done 30 days, must be published somewhere, in a newspaper in the community where the crime happened. The state's attorney general says that did not happen in this case, went before a judge, and the judge agreed, offering a temporary injunction.

So all of the inmates that were supposed to have been going through the process of being released, those that were still in prison, all of that has been halted, at least until January 23rd, when there will be another meeting. But all of this has turned very nasty.

A lifelong Republican and a former prosecutor calling Haley Barbour's decision insane. And the Democratic attorney general, even more nasty, comparing Haley Barbour to that famous character from "The Dukes of Hazard," Boss Hogg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOOD: Former Governor Barbour, he kind of ran the state and the governor's office like Boss Hogg. I mean, he didn't follow the law.

This is a very simple constitutional provision, and Governor Barbour just didn't even follow it. I mean, it was very clear that he had to have this information. He didn't obtain it before he signed these pardons, and that has caused public safety issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Suzanne, as far as we've been able to figure out, about five of these inmates had been released so far. And state officials say that those inmates must check in every day until all of these legal arguments are hashed out -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Ed, what happens to the inmates who are already released and pardoned? Are they looking for them? Are they actively searching to bring these guys and put them back into prison?

LAVANDERA: Well, they need to at least check in once a day, is what we're told. Many of these people hadn't necessarily been released, or they had already served their sentences, it sounds like. So there's so many people, it's kind of hard to get one big blanket statement as to where they all fall in. But the ones that had been released -- we believe there are five of those -- they're supposed to check in once a day until a lot of these legal arguments are hashed out.

MALVEAUX: Are they actually doing that? Are they checking in? Are we having convicts come in and check in here, or have they disappeared?

LAVANDERA: Right. Well, good question.

We just heard about this late yesterday. So, obviously today would be the first day of kind of figuring out if they're going along with the plan as it stands now. So that will be one of the things we continue to monitor for sure. MALVEAUX: And what about the former governor here? Is he going to go before the cameras and explain himself here? What is he saying about all of this? Where is he?

LAVANDERA: Well, remember when we were talking yesterday, so many people in the state of Mississippi were shocked that the governor would make these massive amounts of pardons and not say anything.

Late yesterday, his spokesperson issued a statement. It says, in part, "Approximately 90 percent of these individuals were no longer in custody, and a majority of them had been out for years. The pardons were intended to allow them to find gainful employment. Half of the people who were incarcerated and released were placed on indefinite suspension due to medical reasons because their health care expenses while incarcerated were costing the state so much money. They are not threats to society."

The governor also mentioned in that statement that he wanted people to be able to hunt and vote. That comment obviously not going over very well in the state of Mississippi as well -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right.

Ed Lavandera.

Thank you, Ed.

Well, here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the stories of the day. Our question today: Should schools track children's body fat?

Now, right now, in the gyms of more than a dozen states, kids are being weighed, and their body fat is being calculated. Notes are being sent home to the parents.

Now, what is the reason for all of this? Well, obviously to combat childhood obesity. But when parents were surveyed, more than 80 percent of them said that their children were in good shape. But the reality is more than 30 percent of American children are overweight.

While a reality check might be needed, some critics are afraid that weighing kids and checking their body fat at school could be humiliating.

So, we would like the hear from you. What do you think? Should schools track children's body fat?

Leave responses at Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN. We're going to have some of your responses later in the hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: U.S. military leaders from the defense secretary on down say they are outraged. They are promising a full investigation. We are talking about a video purportedly shot in Afghanistan, uploaded to the Internet, that shows a group of U.S. Marines in uniform urinating on what appears to be several dead bodies.

A warning here. The video is graphic. These images spread quickly across the Web in just a few hours.

It is not clear who posted the video or when they shot it, and if the Pentagon knows the identity of these Marines. They are not yet saying. But Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has seen the video. He's released an official statement.

We're going to have more on that in just a moment, but I want to first talk to Nick Paton Walsh. He's our reporter in Kabul, Afghanistan.

And Nick, how are the Afghans reacting to what they're seeing here?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this video has been shown on Afghan TV. But that television doesn't penetrate too much into Afghan society, so we haven't seen widespread public fury at this point. It can take a number of days for that to happen.

What we have heard pretty quickly though is an outright condemnation from the presidential palace. Let me read you this pretty harsh statement.

"The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by the video which shows American soldiers desecrating the dead bodies of three Afghans." It says, "This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman condemnable in the strongest possible terms," and goes on to insist the severest possible sentences for any American soldiers found guilty of this -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nick, we're supposed to be -- the United States is supposed to be negotiating with the Taliban within the next month or so to move forward in Afghanistan in some sort of peace talks. Are they responding or reacting in any way to this?

WALSH: Well, the Taliban lost very little time in seizing upon the potential political capital of a really graphic, disturbing video like this.

I should point out, these peach talks, enormously preliminary. A number of degrees of separation away from the insurgency here happening in the country.

But as I say, the Taliban issued a statement today quick to seize upon any gains from this in the Afghan population, in which they strongly condemn what they refer to in this barbaric video and said, "No religion that follows a holy text would accept such conduct. This inhuman act reveals their real face to the world" -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Nick, we know that there are a lot of U.S. military soldiers that are there in Afghanistan. They come under constant fire. They are in a state of danger there, trying to turn over bits and chunks and pieces of Afghanistan to the Afghan military to take over their own security. But are they in danger? Are we seeing a lockdown here? Is there any concern that there might be retaliation? WALSH: Well, as yet, there's no evident reaction from U.S. forces in terms of their military posture here. As I say, there hasn't been that widespread Afghan furor.

We've seen in previous incidents where it can take a number of days for these things to filter through. But yes, instances like this just destroy that confidence the Americans are trying to build with the Afghan people to let them after their security, and the to hand the security over to the Afghans as well. So something like this is really only going to damage that slow process of handover and drawdown that the Americans are even more quickly going about at the moment -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nick, thanks very much.

I want to review this from a different kind of perspective. That, from the military, U.S. senior military leader, retired Army General -- Major General James "Spider" Marks.

General Marks, if you could, we know that the Pentagon has weighed in. They believe that these images are in fact authentic, or seem to be authentic. And it really conjures up those horrific images of Abu Ghraib that we saw, Americans humiliating and abusing Iraqi detainees.

That damaged our credibility around the world. What do we think this video is going to do?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Suzanne, this does more of the same. It damages our credibility, certainly.

I would be very, very hesitant to draw a parallel between Abu Ghraib and what we see with this. I don't want to jump to a conclusion.

But I think what we see in this video is completely egregious, aberrant behavior, and a failure of leadership at multiple levels to include the team leader of that group of snipers. But I think it's really far afield to draw the comparisons to Abu Ghraib. However, the thing that is similar is that it does incredible damage, and our enemies should be thanking us for this recruiting video that they now have available to them.

MALVEAUX: And I want to just read Secretary Panetta's statement here, if I can, about what he has seen in this video. He says, "This conduct is entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military. It does not reflect the standards or values our armed forces are sworn to uphold. Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent."

What would that be? How would they be held accountable? And are troops actually trained in these matters not to do these kinds of things? They realize this is not appropriate behavior?

MARKS: Oh, of course. Let me answer that part of the question first, if I might.

Look, ,every member of the military is trained on what our ethos and our values are. They either bring those with them to the table when they sign up, or if they don't have them, they're instilled in these young men and women upon enlistment or commissioning. And they need to be constantly reinforced.

Some people find it easy to follow that. You have your own compass, and it works well for you. Some don't, and they need to be reminded. And that's where leadership comes in.

So this is clearly aberrant behavior. And of course they're trained -- this is beyond the pale. This is unacceptable completely.

But you can't plan for every contingency. So you set a climate of what the command should look like. And that is, you do your job, you do it aggressively, you do it fully. And then you compartmentalize and you move on. And that's what's very, very difficult.

We don't know what type of firefight these Marines were in just moments before. That's no justification at all for this activity, but it needs to be realized that you can see that these guys are doing this behavior for their own personal pleasure. It has nothing to do with the accomplishment of the mission.

And the Marines and our military will get at this very quickly. Now, there will be two investigations, I think. There will be an NCIS, a criminal investigation, and then there will be a command investigation to figure out what took place that allow these conditions to occur.

MALVEAUX: And really quickly here, for those of who us really don't understand what takes place on the battlefield, the kind of stress, the mindset that people are in when this kind of thing happens, is this something that's quite rare, or are we seeing this because there are cell phone cameras that are now on the battlefield?

MARKS: Well, I really think we're seeing this because we have to assume the environment we're in is that everybody is everywhere all the time. So you have to take that as the assumption for the conditions in which you operate. But that's -- again, that's irrelevant.

What's relevant is doing the right thing when nobody else is looking. Now, we have to assume that everybody is looking all the time. But discipline is instilled in these units, and it completely broke down, obviously, in this unit. And we'll figure out who is at fault and we'll figure out how to fix the problem moving forward.

MALVEAUX: Thank you, General.

MARKS: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: His job was to show the world what is happening in Syria, and he died trying to do just that. Our Nic Robertson was there. He's going to join us to talk about just how fast this country is unraveling and what it is like to watch a city spiral out of control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

MALVEAUX: Also, coming up next, Suze Orman here to answer your financial questions. It's all about money.

But first, for those who long see the world, here's your chance. "Traveler Insider's Trip" going to take you to 150 cities captured in thousands of pictures. An amazing journey. It takes just two-and-a- half minutes.

Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIEN LAM, TOURED 150 WORLD CITIES: After I left my company last year, I figured it was as good a time as any to take off and do a bit of backpacking. This partially kind of came about because I wanted to capture my trip, but not have to subject my family and friends through, like, a massive slideshow that would take days to finish.

The trip was about 343 days from the first to the last shot that I took. During that time I took about 58 buses, 19 planes, 18 boats. I think eight trains and a few car rides here and there.

When I was in Marrakech, in Morocco, the Djemaa el Fna Square, there were, like, food stalls (ph) and street performers, vendors, shops, and sort of this labyrinth of a bazaar.

The biggest part was actually compiling the clips, choosing which ones to leave out, because I ended up with over 150 different scenes.

My brother is a musician, and I wanted to have, like, an original composition to accompany the music just to help, you know, convey the mood of some of the different scenes. So we kind of worked together and came up with this piece, "Places and Faces," for the video.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.

Next, I'm going to talk to financial adviser Suze Orman. She is standing by live to discuss how to return America to prosperity, and to answer some of your questions as well.

Then, if you think we're the only life in the universe, wait until you hear how many planets there are. We're talking about counting in the billions.

And later, Stephen Colbert for president? The Comedy Central funnyman stirs things up by throwing his hat in the race.

All right. So personal finance guru Suze Orman in the house, known for giving individual financial advice. Today, she's talking about solutions for a much bigger problem. We are talking about poverty. The newest census numbers show almost one in three Americans are low income in this country. That is 97 million Americans. Another one in six Americans live in poverty.

So the big question, what can be done to return America to prosperity the again? Suze Orman is joining filmmaker, Michael Moore tonight, along with others, at a panel at George Washington University. It is called "Remaking America." They will tackle that issue.

Joining us now.

Suze, it is great to see you here. These are startling numbers. Almost one in three, low income. One in six in poverty. So question for you. What should you do if you're employed, but you're poor, and you don't see a way of getting out of this financial mess, this financial struggle?

SUZE ORMAN, PERSONAL FINANCE GURU: Yes, if you're employed, you should be really very, very happy. Because at least you have money coming in. What you can do is try to control how much money do you have going out. I know it's not very nice because people want to do things all the time. But the key here is people really need to learn how to live below their means but within their needs. Just because they have money coming in, they can't spend it all. The reason is this. The chances of them having a back up plan are almost nil. The chances of them of getting full Social Security and doing all they need to do with that, Medicare, all those things could possibly be reduced for them. So they're going to have to provide for themselves. They need to learn to live below their needs but within their needs.

MALVEAUX: What's the most important thing right now -- what should you do if you're unemployed and looking for work?

ORMAN: If you're unemployed -- now this isn't going to make sense when I first say this. But if you're unemployed and looking for work, act like you're going to be unemployed for a long time. Where people get in trouble is they lose their job. They continue to spend like they did when they had a job. The limited resources are used up quickly and they don't know what to do. As soon as you lose your job, cut your spending down to the bare minimum until you get another job. Don't keep living like you were living when you had a paycheck coming in.

MALVEAUX: So many people are excited about seeing you here. They're also asking about this new venture that you're a part of here. You put a million dollars into this prepaid debit card, which essentially lets people pay for things but only as much as they have money for. It's not like a credit card. It's a noble cause. But it's come under criticism. There are a lot of questions about it. First of all, take a listen to our own HLN money expert, Clark Howard. Here's what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK HOWARD, HLN MONEY EXPERT: The good thing about Suze's card, extremely low fees. If you jump through the right hoops, almost no fees at all. But here's my question. Why would you get a stored- value or prepaid card when cash comes with no fee at all? And if you qualify to have a checking account at a credit union or a small bank, you're much better off with a debit card from one of them than you would be with a prepaid card. First of all, why not go with cash?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Suze, address those two points.

ORMAN: The reason you don't want to go with just cash is we have turned into a society where everything is done online. We've also turned into a society where, if you lose your cash, whether it's a robbery or you just lose it, nobody is going to replace it for you. So the way currency it's conducted today, Suzanne, happens to be through plastic. So it's important to have plastic instead of cash.

MALVEAUX: What about the point that he makes that folks who are struggling would be better off if they had a debit card from a credit union than from a prepaid card.

ORMAN: If they had a lot of cash to do that. You know, this card is not going to be for everybody. This is for those people who are not currently having a good experience with their bank and/or credit union. This card is for parents who want to be able to give their kids something because you can get up to four cards on this all as one. When they go away to college, you can then transfer card to card with no fees at all.

You don't have to go through hoops to not spend money on this. I'm sorry, I disagree with Clark there. All you have to do is do an automatic deposit of $20 per month. If you do that, then you can take any money you want out of the all-point ATM system absolutely free.

So there are many other things that come with this card. Such as, every time you swipe it or you use it for free, you get an automatic text that says you just spent $30. You only have $60 left. There's many things this card is doing. But the main thing this card is doing is trying to change how credit scores are created. Cash and debit cards today do not create a credit score. That's what I'm trying to change with this card.

MALVEAUX: All right. Suze, stay with us. Our viewers have a lot of questions about taking care of their own money. We have Jeff, Natalie, Rich, just to name a few of those folks. You're going to answer those questions up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, you guys have sent us a lot of questions. Suze is here to answer them. Personal finance expert, Suze Orman, is joining us again.

Suze, this is the first one. Rich asks, "With home mortgage rates at historic lows, should I refinance my 30-year, 5.14 percent loan? What are the pros? What are the cons"? ORMAN: Here are the pros. Maybe you could go from 5.1 percent down to 4 percent. The con is this. To refinance, you're going to have to come up with closing costs. Will the savings between a 5.1 percent interest rate that you currently have and maybe a 4 percent interest rate, save you enough? From how long you plan to stay in the house. Number two, you have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Maybe you've been paying 25 years. You owe 25 years. If you refinance to a 30, even at a lower interest rate and you pay it over the next 30 years, you've added five years back onto the mortgage. So if you're going to refinance, and you're at 25 years, why not try to do a 15- year refinance fixed rate mortgage that's half percent less to begin with than a 30.

MALVEAUX: Jeffrey wants to know, "What's worse on your credit, defaulting on your mortgage or declaring bankruptcy"?

ORMAN: They're both pretty bad when it comes to what is going to happen on your credit report. But the reason why bankruptcy may be a better option for you is, because we don't know what state he's written in from, but many states have the ability to have recourse loans. That means, even if you walk away from your house, somebody has foreclosed on you, they may have the right to come back after you to get the money that you owe them. Once you have claimed bankruptcy, everything is ended and you know where you're going. Both are going to have the same effect on your FICO score and credit report.

MALVEAUX: And Ron says, "I'm a retired individual with a small monthly cash surplus. What should I do with the surplus each month"?

ORMAN: It depends. Do you have any bills you need to pay? Carrying any credit debt? Do you have a car loan? Normally, what people need to do is first make sure that all of their loans are taken care of. And then if it's a surplus and you really don't need it, you might want to start dollar-cost averaging into the stock market through exchange-traded funds that don't have a commission on it.

MALVEAUX: Suze 0rman, a pleasure to have you here answering the tough questions. We appreciate your advice as always. Love to have you back some time.

ORMAN: You got it. I'm here when you want me.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Suze.

A strong showing in South Carolina could mean everything for Rick Santorum. He's spitting fire on the trail. We'll have the latest in the "Political Ticker".

And in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, we'll look at the human impact of releasing now almost 200 criminals in Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A full and unconditional pardon. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which means -- which means he has the same rights you have. He has the same rights I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Including to carry a gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you worry about David?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you afraid of David?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm afraid that he will come after my family, Randi's family and, like Randi says, finish what he started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A French journalist is killed when a bomb goes off in the street of Homs. The government there is blaming terrorists for the attack, but protesters say the blood is on the hands of the state.

Nic Robertson has the story out of Homs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): These are the seconds before tragedy strikes. Journalists on a roof after a mortar hits. I'd been with them minutes earlier but decided to leave.

(BLAST)

ROBERTSON: Then another mortar and chaos.

(SHOUTING)

ROBERTSON: People at a pro-government rally in the street below, wounded. Not moving.

(SHOUTING)

ROBERTSON: A woman, her face bloody and bleeding. European journalists among them.

French journalist, Gilles Jacquier, a reporter with France National Channel France 2 is down. A taxi door opens. He's bundled in.

(SHOUTING) ROBERTSON: His partner, a photographer, looks in the taxi.

(SHOUTING)

ROBERTSON: Realizes the man she loves is lying there. People are telling her to get in the car fast. A Dutch journalist also among the wounded, rushed off to hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

ROBERTSON: This eye witness said he heard an explosion. Said the journalist came running to film the impact. Then another explosion right between them, he said.

Jacquier died from the blast. This same street less than an hour earlier.

(on camera): The government officials stay these streets are busy. Just like normal is how they describe it. They've driven us around to several areas of Homs. The city normally of perhaps one, one and a quarter million people. But they haven't taken us to Baba Ama (ph) or other neighborhoods, they describe as hot, areas where the opposition is strong. They said it's too dangerous.

(voice-over): Even so, minutes later, we witness this at the same location. We are minutes for the front lines.

(on camera): We're told the soldiers have just been injured. They've just been moved in here to be taken away for medical treatment at the army hospital.

(SHOUTING)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The city is ringed with check points. In some areas, gun-toting soldier ride around in opened-top civilian trucks. It feels like a city under siege, suffering hidden down its side streets.

Gilles Jacquier had come to tell the world what was happening. He paid the ultimate price.

Several of his colleagues wounded. Civilians, too. At least one killed.

This city has become known as the cradle of the uprising.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Nic Robertson is joining us by phone from Syria.

Nic, first of all, congratulations to you and photo journalist, Kalil Abdullah (ph), for doing the excellent work that you do out there. It's a very dangerous situation.

Tell us a little bit about this French journalist. Was this someone who was targeted? Was this journalist in the wrong place at the wrong time?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It appears he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The pro-government rally had only been organized really in the last few minutes. We had seen him following it up the streets just minutes before the rockets landed. It was a situation where it really appeared that that location specifically was being targeted. Was it being targeted because journalists were there or was it being targeted because of a pro-government rally there? That's absolutely unclear. But really, this seems to be a case, for him, of wrong place, wrong time. But somebody knew why they were targeting that area. It was not a random incident.

MALVEAUX: Nic, how does this work? How is Syria's government treating foreign journalists? Are you taken from site to site? How does that work?

ROBERTSON: With strict control. In Homs, we spent the day with government officials taking us to locations they wanted us to go to. We were free to stop the bus whenever we wanted. We weren't free to go to opposition strongholds or to get close to find out what happens on the front lines. Do soldiers shoot at civilians as we've heard?

We're not able to find out the dynamics of the battle. Around the country -- we were able to travel around the country with government permission with government minds. They pay a lot of attention to what we broadcast. We're not allowed to have any live broadcast equipment. We're not free to travel around and broadcast live. We have short visas. Effectively, the government holds us under quite tight control. We are able to reach and talk to opposition people but the government pays close scrutiny to everything we broadcast.

MALVEAUX: Nic, we wish you and Kalil (ph) the best, that you remain safe, that you continue reporting. And we honor the work you do.

Thank you, Nic.

You're sounding off on the "Talk Back" question. More than a dozen states are weighing kids and tracking their body fat. Do you think it's right? Do you think they should?

Lee writes, "It's humiliating and disgusting. The parents know their children are fat. They should be held responsible."

More of your responses moments away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right. Rick Santorum making a stand in South Carolina. He's a social conservative. Hopes to start a comeback down south.

Our CNN political editor, Paul Steinhauser is in D.C. with the latest.

So, Paul, we know this is a state that is make-or-break for anybody who is hoping to stop Mitt Romney. And the candidates have got less than two weeks to do this before they have to convince the voters, right? How is Santorum playing it?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, he's making a pitch, a plea, I guess, you could say, Suzanne, to South Carolina Republicans. Santorum, the former Senator of Pennsylvania, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, trying to be that conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. They say the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is too moderate. They are making a plea to South Carolina making a plea, a pitch to those Republicans in South Carolina to say pick somebody that can be conservative, somebody who can beat President Obama. If not, four more years of President Obama in the White House. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM, (R), FORMER PENNSYLVANIA SENATOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will be the generation that will have to explain to your children and grandchildren something, as to what you did, the opportunity that you missed. The opportunity that your country called you, not to put on a uniform but to be a citizen of this country, defending our freedom, which is our responsibility as an American. That you let America down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Suzanne, remember, since 1980, the person who won that Republican primary in South Carolina, that person has gone on to be the presidential nominee.

MALVEAUX: There's another guy talking about South Carolina and talking bigger ambitions as well. This is Steven Colbert, the comedian. I want you to listen to what he said here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, COLBERT: What do you think, nation? Should I run for president in South Carolina?

(CHEERING)

COLBERT: Ladies and gentlemen, I hear what I'm asking to you say.

(LAUGHTER)

COLBERT: But that's a really big decision. First, I need to pray on it. OK. God's good with it.

(LAUGHTER)

COLBERT: But obviously, I still have to go home, sit down, talk it over with my money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Well, that's great. But you know, he's got this super PAC. Talk about his super PAC. Is it really possible?

STEINHAUSER: He's got a super PAC. He's a South Carolina native. He's having fun with this. Don't -- let's leave it at that.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll see how he does. We'll see what happens in South Carolina.

STEINHAUSER: Stay tuned.

MALVEAUX: Thanks, Paul.

Meanwhile, the real candidates are doing all they can to make their mark in South Carolina and beyond. They're on the campaign trail. They're talking to voters. We're going to monitor all of the events, live.

A lot of you are responding to our "Talk Back" question. Should schools be tracking student's body fat? More than a dozen states have laws requiring some kind of monitoring of children's weight at school. So is this a good idea? Here's what you guys are saying.

Dave says, "Schools are out of line here. It is a right to privacy invasion by the schools."

Susan writes, "Hopefully, not in front of everybody. This would provide everybody with a bit of a prod."

Edward says, "This should be something that parents should handle. You never know how this would affect the children long term."

Katherine writes, "Absolutely. We are a country that can't talk about the subject for fear of offending somebody or violating their rights. Health is something we should get honest about. I think some parents just don't know that their kids are unhealthy."

Keep the comments going at facebook.com/suzanneCNN. We'll have more comments in the next hour.

A new planetary study raises the question, are we really alone in the universe? When you hear how many planets astronomers believe are out there, you're probably going to wonder that, too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right. So it wasn't even two decades ago that astronomers knew of no other system other than our own. They now say they believe 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, all with at least one companion planet.

Chad, that's pretty cool. You and I, right, we learned nine planets. We grew up knowing nine planets. How did this happen? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I remember there was one past Pluto but then they didn't know. Then we lost Pluto. It became a non-planet. Now we're to 100 billion. We found this out. These numbers are coming from scientists saying, look, we have Kepler.

Kepler is looking out there and finding at least one planet per star. Every star it looks at, it's finding at least a planet around that. And then there's this micro-lensing system that's finding more stars beyond stars in our Milky Way galaxy. So adding up to about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, each having at least one planet. That's at least 100 billion planets out there.

MALVEAUX: So I've got to ask you, does this mean that there's the possibility, life, other lives beyond the universe?

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Certainly. All you need is water. Something warm enough that is in the 60, 70, 8--degree Fahrenheit and you have a planet with some kind of life on that.

MALVEAUX: I like that idea.

MYERS: Yes. There's a lot of chances there.

MALVEAUX: I always believe that could be possible, that we aren't alone.

MYERS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.