Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Arrests Made in Libya Killings; Protests Spread Across the Middle East; More Stimulus on the Way; Factory Fire in Pakistan Kills Over 250; Wall Street Reacts to Fed Stimulus Plan

Aired September 13, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL ARMSTRONG, NASA: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

EUGENE CERNAN, APOLLO 11 MISSION COMMANDER: You can now finally put out your hands and touch the face of God.

Farewell, my friend. You have left us far too soon. But we want you to know we do cherish the time we have had and shared together. God bless you, Neil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. It is top of the hour. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for joining us.

Wall Street reacting to the Federal Reserve's decision to pump more stimulus money in to the economy. The Dow is up nearly 200 points right now, positive reaction to the Fed chair.

In this hour, in this last hour of trading, we wanted to find out what that means, what this new program the Fed chair is talking about, what it means to you. We will have that in just minutes, but first this.

We have some breaking news. We are getting word now of arrests in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya which killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

I want to go now to Jomana Karadsheh. She is live in Tripoli with the very latest.

What have you learned, Jomana?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Don, we are hearing from the Libyan news agency that is quoting the deputy interior minister for the eastern region -- that is where the city of Benghazi is -- saying that a number of individuals suspected of involvement in the attack on the consulate in the city of Benghazi have been detained and they are being interrogated right now. An investigation is ongoing with these individuals.

And he says this will reveal either their development or innocence in this attack. LEMON: All right. Jomana Karadsheh in Tripoli, thank you very much. Hopefully the arrests will help determine if the four Americans killed were victims of a specific terror plot of the outrage now being shown at U.S. outposts throughout the world.

In at least 10 countries, demonstrations are building against America over what one reported American created, a movie that mocks the Prophet Mohammed as a child molester and a womanizer.

In Iran, protesters chanted death to America. In Yemen, several thousand people demonstrated. Some of them breached a wall of the U.S. Embassy; 24 security officers were hurt along with at least three protesters who were injured.

In Egypt, you're looking at live pictures now. State television reports more than 200 people were hurt in anti-U.S. protests in Cairo. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denounced the violence against the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: But as I said yesterday, there is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence. We condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's turn now to CNN's Ben Wedeman and he's in Cairo.

Ben, a lot of people reporting injured here, 224 so far?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right. And in fact, the number is probably likely to rise.

Right now, I'm hearing a lot of shouting and there was just a moment ago a lot of tear gas being fired in the street right next to the American Embassy. And this has really been going on all day long. And what we have seen in the last hour is that the security forces have pulled back closer to the area immediately around the American Embassy.

Now, we had a chance to speak with some of those protesters, many of them blaming directly President Obama for this current uproar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Our demand is that President Barack Obama appears and makes an official apology to all Islamic nations. That is our right. We also want the tape burned and all those involved in insulting the prophet punished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is a mark of shame to Mohammed Morsi. He should expel the American ambassador from Egypt and pull the Egyptian ambassador from America. That's the least he should do after what those (INAUDIBLE) did in America. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: And, tomorrow, the Muslim Brotherhood is planning large demonstrations around the city. Apparently, they're going to try to keep them away from Tahrir Square, which is right next to the American Embassy.

The stress they say is going to be on peaceful protests against this anti-Islamic trailer that appeared on YouTube -- Don.

LEMON: Hey, Ben, do people there -- I heard the people you spoke to, but do they understand that the United States government officially had nothing to do with this film, this was just some random person that made a film? Do they understand that?

WEDEMAN: Well, some people do.

And it's important to differentiate between the people who are protesting outside the American Embassy and the great majority of Egyptians who, in fact, are not protesting, many of them expressing their dismay with this film, but not expressing it in a violent manner.

Many of the people I spoke to didn't understand that, in fact, this is the act of an individual, an individual who has been condemned by the highest authorities in the American government. That particular point I don't think is getting across -- Don.

LEMON: Ben, you know, I'm not sure how far you are from the square where this is all taking place, but appears there's been some activity, an escalation in activity there. Do you know what's going on?

WEDEMAN: Yes, actually, it's right below me. I'm watching it as it's going on.

And what is happening at this moment is that several of these police trucks have moved forward and fired volleys of tear gas in the direction of the protesters, trying to push them away from the area around the embassy and back really in the direction of Tahrir Square -- Don.

LEMON: OK. So that activity is happening near the embassy and basically what this looks like, Ben, is crowd control. There's nothing that is escalating beyond that, right? They're just trying to corral them back to Tahrir Square, correct?

WEDEMAN: That's correct.

I mean, really, you know, the protesters move forward. The police move back and then when the police feel that they have lost too much ground, they open fire with a lot of tear gas and push the protesters away.

This is really what's been going on all day long and yesterday as well. LEMON: All right, Ben Wedeman in Cairo with the developing news, Ben, thank you very much.

Much more on this developing story and also more news unfolding this hour. So watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON (voice-over): In less than an hour, Wall Street ends trading on the day Ben Bernanke announces a decision investors have been waiting to hear.

Plus, the two men begging for your vote hit the campaign trail as violence erupts across the Middle East. You will hear what they're saying.

And flames rip through a factory, and survivors say the owners had locked the doors with hundreds inside. Now it's one country's deadliest manmade disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Fed acted and Wall Street reacted to it.

The U.S. economy will get a big jolt of money from the Federal Reserve. The Fed announced today it will buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities each month, $40 billion worth of mortgage- backed securities each month.

Ali Velshi joins us now from New York.

Ali, what's the reaction to that?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look at this Dow. You got a picture of the Dow available?

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Put up the Dow for him.

VELSHI: There is a nice big bump there. The stock market investors really, really like it. It's a bit of a sugar high. Right?

The Fed is making more money available to the banks and it's taking their bonds that are worth something, they're worth a lot of money, but you can't buy something with the bond. The Fed is saying we will take the bonds off your hand, we will give you cash, $40 billion a month. What do banks do with money? They in theory hopefully lend it out to people for money and that puts more money in the economy.

That's how it should work. Right now, stock markets are liking it. The Dow is made up as you know of 30 stocks and one of the biggest gainers today is Bank of America, and Citibank's a big gainer. That's where you're seeing that. But that's one piece of the economy, as you know. Those -- for your investments and IRA and 401(k), that is working very well.

There are mixed reviews of whether or not the Fed should have done what it did by putting -- buying all these bonds back over the course of the next year.

LEMON: So when this happened, immediately, I got people writing to me. Don, you guys talking about money, I hope, because I don't have any.

And he sent us a picture of you and I on air. And then someone else said -- and I think this is a pretty good assessment -- this will only help people who have money.

So is that true? In layman's terms, tell us what this means.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: No. The stock market part of it helps you if you have got money in the stock market, obviously. If you have no investments, then who cares if the Dow is up 200 points.

Here's what should happen. If there's $40 billion going to banks every month, in exchange for the bonds that those banks held in theory a bank only makes money if it lends that money out. Lending standards or lending tightness should ease up a little bit.

We found that interests are very low and people know that, but people still report to us they have trouble getting mortgages, businesses report to us they have trouble getting loans so this in theory should make it a little bit easier for the loans to occur.

What business, however, Don, will take a loan if they don't see people coming in and wanting to buy their product or their service? So you have to have both sides of it. You have to have demand and the economy growing, but this could help people who are trying to get loans.

So it's not just people with money who will benefit from this. The major criticism here is that it sort of mucks up the economy a little bit. When there's fake money comes out of nowhere and gets printed by the Federal Reserve, it has the effect of devaluing the U.S. currency and that makes things expensive. Things like gold and oil is soaring today and generally speaking that causes inflation in the long term.

It also is an excuse for the government not to do what it's supposed to be. And there's some people, particularly Republicans and conservatives, who accuse the Federal Reserve of sort of playing into politics right now.

LEMON: Stop right there, Ali, because that was the next question. He was asked about that. And here's what he said.

He said, and this is a quote, "We have tried very, very hard, and I think we have been successful at the Federal Reserve to be nonpartisan and apolitical. We make our decisions based entirely on the state of the economy and the needs of the economy for policy accommodation, so, we just don't take those factors into account."

Is he basically saying, this is not partisan.

VELSHI: He's a card-carrying, lifelong Republican, Ben Bernanke, by the way. So was Alan Greenspan before him. Alan Greenspan increased rates before an election and people accused him of trying to throw the election for the Republicans.

There are conspiracy theorists who think that the Fed is in the back pocket of the administration. They're technically a separate agency, independent of politics. Ben Bernanke, you might like him, you might not like him, you might like his judgments, you might not like them. I don't think he's a partisan. And if he is a partisan I don't particularly think he's a Democrat in his role as the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

LEMON: Ali, Alison Kosik, you know her well, I know her well. She spoke with a trader on the floor. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN GUILFOYLE, WALL STREET TRADER: I think there's a chance it improves the economy somewhat. We have only seen not even moderate growth off the first two Q.E.s. And this one, it is a big bazooka. It is. It's $85 billion when you combine Operation Twist and this plan, which will run concurrently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, Ali. How does the day end in 40 minutes?

VELSHI: Well, it's 40 minutes to go and the Dow is up 200. The momentum is in its direction.

I would say that unless there's some unusual surprise -- and markets around the rest of the world are closed -- you will see a close somewhere in this range. Strong day. Traders wanted this. Investors wanted this. They got it. But I think that trader said exactly what a lot of people are feeling. Could work. There's some chance it could work. Probably didn't do a lot of harm to the economy, but unclear whether it gets us out of the pickle we're in now and that is we need to create more jobs.

LEMON: Ali Velshi on the Straight Talk Express.

Remember the Straight Talk Express?

VELSHI: I do remember that.

LEMON: Bernanke is a card-carrying Republican, that's straight talk. Get right to it. Love you, Ali Velshi. Thank you, sir.

VELSHI: Good to see you, Don.

LEMON: Good to see you.

(FINANCIAL UPDATE)

LEMON: Taking aim at voter I.D. laws. The Supreme Court in one swing state is considering the issue. Will those laws shape the presidential election come November?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's talk a little politics right now, 54 days until the presidential election, and today a hearing in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over the right to vote.

Thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands may not be able to vote this year if the state upholds a law requiring voters to have a government-issued photo I.D.

Republican lawmakers say they're fighting voter fraud, but considering there's little evidence of it in past elections, opponents say this is merely a ploy to keep the poor and minorities who typically vote Democratic away from the polls.

Here's Deborah Feyerick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Theresa Lococo, getting anywhere with her elderly parents is challenging enough, but getting them to the DMV for a voter I.D. card which they never needed before is absolutely daunting.

THERESA LOCOCO, CARETAKER: It's just a horrible experience. They're not giving people the right to vote if they make it impossible for them to vote.

FEYERICK: The numbers of Pennsylvania voters who may not have the right I.D. come November vary widely. State officials say it's 100,000 people. Civil right activists and community organizers like Lisa Frank say it could be upwards of a million.

LISA FRANK, ONE PITTSBURGH: There's a huge information chasm that the state has created that folks like me are running around trying to fill by tabling, by actually knocking doors, by having one-on-one conversations and saying, hey, let's look together and make sure you're ready to vote.

FEYERICK: Republican lawmakers passed a new voter I.D. law in March saying it's designed to protect voter integrity. But a comment in June by a top state Republican, which appeared on YouTube, has raised serious questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Voter I.D., which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

FEYERICK: The state's chief election official says claims that blocs of voters will be disenfranchised are exaggerated. CAROL AICHELE, PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: We're reasonably certain, really pretty darn certain that we can address the needs of photo I.D. for every eligible voter in Pennsylvania.

FEYERICK: Both sides concede there are no known cases of voter impersonation in the state.

VIC WALCZAK, ACLU: They are saying you have to prove who you are in order for us to make sure that this non-problem doesn't occur.

FEYERICK: ACLU lawyer Vic Walczak and others are suing to block voter I.D. requirements.

(on camera): Is there a socioeconomic component to who is having to get these I.D.s?

WALCZAK: Absolutely. Given that the vast majority of people who are impacted by this law are poor, are uneducated, are of color, live in cities, i.e. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and are likely to vote Democratic, this law could have an impact on the presidential election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Deborah Feyerick joins me now. She's in Philadelphia, Philadelphia's City Hall.

So, Deb, what happened in court today?

FEYERICK: Well, it was so interesting.

The Supreme Court justices are basically deciding whether to overturn a lower court judge and decide whether these voter I.D.s should be required come the November elections and their questioning focused on two main topics.

The first is timing. The justices asking why this was pushed through so speedily, the attempt to really rush by state lawmakers to get this in place by the presidential election, one justice saying that it almost seemed politically motivated.

But the second issue of questioning, the second topic of questioning was the potential risk of voters being disenfranchised. And the lower court judge basically, he found, he said, look, there's no persuasive evidence. For example, it's hypothetical, it's speculative. Just because there could be voters who are disenfranchised doesn't mean there will be voters who are disenfranchised.

And what they're looking at. They're looking to see whether in fact the risk is greater and they will have to rule and decide whether they issue an injunction requiring that voter I.D. to either be in place or to not be necessary by November, Don.

LEMON: What happens if they uphold the lower court's ruling?

FEYERICK: Well, if they uphold the lower court's ruling, what will happen is that voters will be required to bring this photo I.D. And it's considered very restrictive.

Even though the state has basically said, look, we will let you vote provisionally, what that means is that they will go to the polls, they will vote provisionally, but then they have got to go back and they have got to present their identification for that ballot to even be counted.

So this is really very interesting. We spoke to one of the deputy secretaries today. He believes that the state has done a good job alerting voters so that they know what kind of identification case they need, but at the same time right now we're dealing with a hypothetical. Could it happen? It could happen. The big question and the great unknown, what civil rights leaders fear will happen is that there could be as many as 500,000 to 800,000 people whose votes simply don't count on Election Day, Don.

LEMON: All right. Deborah Feyerick in Philadelphia, thank you, Deb.

More on our breaking news out of Libya to tell you about. There's word now arrests have been made in the attack that killed a U.S. ambassador. The prime minister, I want to tell you, just spoke with CNN about what's going down. You will hear about that.

Plus, Fareed Zakaria will join me live as concerns grow about more protests overseas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I hinted of the breaking news just before we went to commercial break here, but this is coming from one of our very own, Christiane Amanpour, on her international program here on CNN called "AMANPOUR."

And it is saying that at least one person, one person has been arrested in the killings of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The Libyan prime minister said that on Thursday as he spoke to Christiane Amanpour, and he said one person was arrested early Thursday in Benghazi and three others, three or four others are currently being pursued.

As a matter of fact, let's listen now to part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSTAFA ABUSHAGUR, LIBYAN PRIME MINISTER: Up to now, we have some individuals having already arrested.

And the investigation continues until we have found out all who has been involved with this -- in this act. And, clearly, they're going to be punished for their -- their actions, because this is not acceptable to the Libyan people. This is not acceptable by our own values and, first of all, these people are our guests here in Libya. They were our friends and partners and before they were diplomats, but we -- very unfortunate to see this happen here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: That is on "AMANPOUR" on CNN INTERNATIONAL, that gentleman there speaking to Christiane Amanpour.

You know, anti-American protests have spread today to Yemen, also to Iran and Kashmir. You've also got 220-plus demonstrators injured today in Egypt and our reporter says that number will probably go up.

Officials throughout the Islamic world are bracing for tomorrow's Friday prayers which often serve as an outlet for political anger.

Joining us now from New York, Fareed Zakaria, host of " FAREED ZAKARIA GPS " right here on CNN.

So, Fareed, Russia's Vladimir Putin is quoted as warning that the Arab world could descend into chaos, his word, chaos. Is that fear is overblown, you think?

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": I think it is overblown. I think what you have here is one of these periodic crises that take place.

You will remember there have been these around the Koran burning, around Danish cartoons and they're all signs of a fundamental problem within Arab societies, a fundamental lack of tolerance and an extremism.

But they do not always descend, in fact, they have never really descended in that form because, just remember, just as you reported, Don, you're talking about a few hundred people, here and there.

There may be a few places where it's worse and remember the crucial difference in the place like Libya is that the government is entirely on the side of the United States. It's trying to battle these extremists.

So, what you're dealing with is a certain degree of extremism in these societies, weak governance in many of these countries. That's different from a kind of grand revolution.

LEMON: Now, obviously, not downplaying the deaths and the violence, do you think -- quite frankly, too much is being made of this when you listen to people yelling on the streets saying, you know, President Obama should apologize to the world and to the Muslim world for this?

Obviously, you know, again, not downplaying the deaths that happened there, but when you say there are just a couple of hundred people here, a couple of hundred people can cause a lot of chaos and a lot of trouble.

ZAKARIA: Well, it's a very good question, Don. Here's how I put it. I think clearly we live in a world in which the images can go viral. Protests can go viral. These things become global very quickly and a kind of feeding frenzy developments, both on the ground and in the media.

I think that that has to be separated from the real issue and the real issue, as I say is, there is a level of extremism in some Arab and Muslim societies that is worrisome, but let's not exaggerate it. Let's not also turn this into a problem of all of Egypt or all of Libya when we're dealing with some isolated groups that have been jockeying for power in various ways.

And, as for President Obama needing to apologize, I think it's absurd. It's ludicrous. I think what we are all waiting to hear is a proper apology from the president of Egypt who is the one figure in all of this that has been most disappointing.

The Egyptian government has not provided the protection the United States needs. It has not reacted to the violence in the way that it should, let alone the fact that Egypt gets a lot of aid from the United States, simply as part of it's job ...

LEMON: $2 billion a year.

ZAKARIA: Yeah, yeah.

LEMON: $2 billion a year, yeah.

ZAKARIA: The second largest recipient of aid from the United States.

LEMON: Yeah, that's it. Behind Israel.

ZAKARIA: It's very different from Libya, as you just showed. The Libyan government is actively on our side trying to ferret out these extremists, catch them, capture them, kill them.

In the Egyptian case, one has to ask, are they actually encouraging a certain degree of extremism?

LEMON: When we look at these pictures and you see the demonstrators and you hear from Ben Wedeman, Fareed, spoke to a couple of them just a short time ago and they made the comments about the president apologizing and this is an insult to Muslims the world over, when you look at this, what aren't -- what aren't they understanding about us, a democracy, here and what aren't we understanding about them?

Because people here want the hear people on the streets in the U.S. talk about how they feel. Because they obviously think it's absurd from some terrible, small movie that no one had seen that it has caused such violence and even death.

ZAKARIA: Well, I think it's fair to say that there is, as I say, a kind of extremism and an ill-liberalism, a lack of kind of an understanding of freedom of speech and opinion.

You know, the person who made the speech, made this movie, is crude, is bigoted and is a buffoon, but in the United States of America, we do not shut down or jail people who are, you know, crude and vulgar and bigoted.

They have to do something that harms people, people physically. People's freedom of speech, even to say offensive things, is protected. They don't get that to a certain extent, particularly relating to religious issues.

Remember, we're in -- you know, Salman Rushdie, the novelist, he's out with a new book. He was -- he went through this whole period of a fatwa and things like that, precisely because people could not understand that he was exercising his freedom of speech to write a book that was regarded by many Muslims as offensive.

What we don't understand about them, I think, is that this does affect a kind of core sense of their dignity and it affects their sense of whether or not we respect them.

But I think at the end of the day, the West is in the -- you know, you can't be evenhanded. The West is in the right here. The United States is in the right.

It is entirely inappropriate under any circumstances to use violence as a response to freedom of speech. The way you counter bad speech is with good speech.

Let them make a great movie about Prophet Mohammed. That's the way you do it, not by killing people, not by burning people.

LEMON: We talked about the amount of money in U.S. aid that is given to that country. The president is going to Congress and he's going to ask Congress to forgive about a billion dollars in debt that Egypt owes Washington.

Do you think that these anti-American protesters are even aware of that?

ZAKARIA: I think they're very ill-informed. I think they know very little, but I think that the government of Egypt knows this and I would hope that we're having serious conversations with the president of -- the government of Egypt and making clear to them that unless their attitude is much more cooperative and much more responsible, it will be very difficult to forgive any of Egypt's debt and, going forward, it would mean a very different relationship.

Egypt is going to have to come to terms with its own internal dimensions and you know what's happening, Don, is there is a contest between the Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood that is in power, and even more radical and extreme groups, which is why the president is clearly trying to curry favor with some of these groups by not condemning the violence more strongly.

But he will have to choose. Does he want to be president of Egypt or does he want to be an Islamic leader of the rabble, of the mob?

And his relationship and the country's relationship with the United States will depend on that and, more broadly, the ability of these countries to chart a moderate, mainstream, modern course is going to be powerfully affected by these kinds of choices. This is what they have to decide.

LEMON: Absolutely. Fareed Zakaria, always a pleasure. Thank you.

ZAKARIA: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: And don't miss Fareed Zakaria's show on Sundays mornings. I don't. Ten a.m. and then 1:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN, of course.

And, speaking of President Obama and Mitt Romney, as well, both back on the campaign trail today, talking about the economy. We're going to hear what they had to say and that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Obama and Mitt Romney, both back on the campaign trail today, both still reacting to the anti-American violence overseas.

Here's Romney in Fairfax, Virginia, today. Before launching into his standard stump speech, Romney offered his thoughts and condolences to the families of the four Americans killed in the attacks Tuesday at the U.S. consulate in Libya.

Then he turned to the President Obama and the economy and went right after Mr. Obama on his small business policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Small business has been crushed under these last three-and-a-half years. We are at a 30- year low in the number of new business start-ups in America.

You realize about two-thirds of the new jobs created in this country are created by small business.

The president wants to raise taxes on a million of them. I don't want to raise taxes. I'd like to keep taxes down.

Regulation? Look, regulations, big companies can deal with, but small companies get crushed by regulation. We've got to ease the regulatory burden on small business.

I want higher wages and more take-home pay for the American people. I don't want people getting crushed by higher costs and lower salaries and lower wages and lower take-home pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, meanwhile, President Obama is campaigning in Colorado today and the importance of that swing state is clearly not lost on him.

The president has visited the state three times in three weeks. He held rallies in the college towns of Fort Collins and Boulder earlier this month and, today, he's in Golden, hoping to shore up his vote in suburbs west of Denver.

Now, like Mitt Romney, he also mentioned the violence in Libya, saying that no act of violence will shake the resolve of the United States. Then he turned to jobs, telling the crowd he still has work to finish when it comes to getting the economy going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We've made progress. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month. We've created jobs now for the past 30 months.

We saved an American auto industry on the brink of going under. Manufacturing is starting to come back here in the United States.

But we have got so much more work to do because there's still a lot of folks out there hurting and here's the thing. I don't think the best answer for today's new challenges are the same old sales pitches.

And, frankly, that's what you heard mostly in Tampa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, President Obama and Mitt Romney remain in a close race in Colorado. This new poll of likely voters in the state has the president at 49 percent and Mr. Romney at 47 percent. Stay tuned.

A garment factory up in flames, hundreds of workers trapped, at least 250 killed. Two-hundred-and-fifty.

Now, investigators are searching for the owner who may be in hiding. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Police open a murder probe after a factory fire kills more than 250 workers in Pakistan. A senior police official says locked exit doors prevented many workers from escaping.

Right now, police are searching for the factory's owner and his two sons.

Reza Sayah has more now in Islamabad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The search for bodies and the recovery operation is over at the site of the factory fire.

Now, all the focus and the attention shifts to the investigation, finding out how this fire started and why more than 250 people were killed.

Investigators say there's evidence that shows many of the exits of this factory were locked, that many of the safety regulations were ignored and that's perhaps why investigators have registered intentional murder cases against the factory owner, his two sons, the factory managers.

Even the government officials who reported to investigators may have failed to enforce the safety codes.

Once investigators are done with their probe, they'll submit their findings to prosecutors who will eventually decide on formal charges.

At this point, it seems unlikely that prosecutors would be able to prove in court that the factory owner and the managers intentionally trapped and killed these workers, but the fact they're talking about a heavy charge like that would seem to suggest that they want to project that they're taking this matter seriously.

The factory owner and his two sons are still missing. Police believe they are in hiding.

This is a fire that put the focus on what labor policy experts here call a lack of regulation when it comes to safety codes and labor laws.

Those experts say the government in Pakistan oftentimes doesn't have the resources or the political will to address these issues.

They also say the international community and the media continue to ignore these issues and they say, until that changes, the condition is right for these disasters to happen again.

Reza Sayah, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, speaking out just days after his colleague is killed. Hear his thoughts on the violence in the region and if he now fears for his life. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Anger and outrage at the U.S. over an online film spread across Muslim countries today with protests in Egypt, Libya and Yemen, to name a few, but so far, the violence has not spread to Afghanistan.

That's because of President Karzai's actions to try to stop the possibility of violence there. He cut off access to YouTube and he denounced that film that Muslims consider offensive. But is that enough?

For insight on how the U.S. is preparing for possible protests in Kabul, CNN's Anna Coren sat down for an exclusive interview with the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The attack has obviously raised some concerns about security of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world.

Here in Kabul, you are obviously a target. Are you worried?

JAMES CUNNINGHAM, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN: We're always worried every day. Every day, we get new information about new possible threats. Our security posture's continually under review.

But I'm not particularly any more worried after this incident. We have great people here and a great system to keep us safe.

COREN: Ambassador, the video that sparked the protests in Libya and Egypt could very well create unrest here in Afghanistan.

That's obviously a major concern for President Karzai. Do you share the same concerns?

CUNNINGHAM: Yes, absolutely. As a matter of fact, we are -- after this, I'm going to be issuing a statement condemning the video and the violence that's taken place already and urging the people of Afghanistan, although they're offended by this, not to react with violence. This is not worth human lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Anna Coren, reporting there.

We're keeping an eye on the big board as the fed announces another round of stimulus.

Plus, what's your guilty pleasure at McD's? Is it a Big Mac? Maybe some fries? Well, the fast food giant now posting just how much food is costing you, not your wallet, but your waistline.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, big announcement from McDonald's. It's no doubt a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. That's why there are so many of them.

But starting next week, that guilt is going to be smack in your face the next time you look at that menu sign behind the counter. McDonald's will post calorie counts in all of its restaurants and drive-throughs, nationwide.

It says it's committed to helping customers make nutrition-minded choices. So, those choices? Take the Angus bacon-and-cheese for example. Yum. Seven-hundred-ninety calories. Wow, 790 calories versus a snack wrap, just 250 calories.

But do people go to McDonald's to be healthy? Well, take a look at this poll on CNN.com. We asked, would seeing the calories in fast food keep you from ordering it?

More than 14,000 of you answered, 48 percent said it might make you choose another item or a smaller size.

McDonald's is actually ahead of the curb, though. A proposed federal regulation will require chains to share this information as early as next year.

Everything in moderation. Nothing wrong with a Big Mac, now and then. All right, a big rally on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve announced its new spending spree for the U.S. economy. The Fed will buy $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities, each month.

Alison Kosik joins us from the New York Stock Exchange. It's getting close to the close. Alison, it was a big day. How much did it rally?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yeah. The Federal Reserve, by the way, gets all the credit for the rally that you're seeing right now.

The Dow, right now, up 186 points. We're a couple minutes before the closing bell. Look at the Dow and the S&P 500. They're at their highest levels, Don, since December of 2007. The NASDAQ, trading at its highest level in 12 years.

We are watching financials, up anywhere from 2 percent to 4 percent. Home builders up 3 percent to 5 percent.

And I've got a little irony in this for you. We are coming up on the four-year anniversary of the worst week of the recession. I'm talking about when Lehman collapsed.

LEMON: Right.

KOSIK: That anniversary coming up on Saturday. That was when the Dow, by the way, on that Monday when Lehman collapsed, the Dow closed 504 points lower. The NASDAQ plunged. What a difference four years makes.

LEMON: Yeah

KOSIK: Talking about four years.

LEMON: Look, we're glad it's in the positive territory. What Lehman is doubled now its asking price for its stock?

KOSIK: Lehman is no longer with us.

LEMON: I thought you said -- wait, what did we just say? Someone just mentioned about stocks being doubled. What are you talking about?

God. OK. I heard double. I'm like, yeah, that doesn't sound right. That's odd. Thank you. I was like, what?

KOSIK: Let's just see if this rally continues. That is really the question.

LEMON: So the Dow has doubled. That's what they were saying.

KOSIK: Yes.

LEMON: OK. So listen, what do you think about this bounce? And what do you think about Lehman, is it going to come back to life? I'm kidding. What do you think about this bounce? Do you think it's going to last or is it a temporary spike?

KOSIK: You know, some people say, you know what, this could just be a temporary spike.

What everybody is really waiting to see is if this bond-buying program that the Fed announced today is going to help the economy.

Will it grow jobs? That's what everybody really wants to see.

All right, so the closing bell, we've got 203 points higher on the Dow. What a day it's been.

LEMON: Two-hundred-and-three points in a rally, all within a couple of hours. Alison Kosik, thank you very much. See you tomorrow, Alison.

Now, it's time for Wolf Blitzer and "The Situation Room." Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Don, thanks very much.

Happening now, violent protests spreading across the Muslim world.