Hunt for Possible Serial Killer in New York; Ivory Coast: One Country, Two Presidentsj; Talk Back Question
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed. Washington, now juggling the 2011 and 2012 budgets at the same time today. I want to take them one at a time, starting with 2011. The president had congressional leaders over to the White House today, looking for a deal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. That would be through September 30th. Without a deal or an extension, parts of the government shut down on Friday. Now, 2012. House Republicans presented a budget blueprint today that cut spending by $6 trillion -- with a "T" -- trillion dollars over the next decade. The GOP plan would replace Medicare with a voucher system. Rebels are rejecting a peace plan that's been kicked around by Moammar Gadhafi's aides in recent days. Now, under the proposal, the Libyan leader would hand over power to his son, Saif Al-Islam. The son would pledge to transition Libya to democracy. Well, rebel leaders call the notion ridiculous. Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who frantically told international journalists she had been gang-raped by Libyan soldiers, is telling the latest in her chilling story to CNN. In a rare telephone interview, she spoke from a family member's home in Tripoli, where she says she is now under House arrest.</s>EMAN ALL-OBEIDY, ALLEGEDLY RAPED BY GADHAFI SOLDIERS (through translator): My feelings were that they had taken my humanity, that I would never leave this place. They told me I would never see the light of day again, that I would never be released or returned home, and that they will kill me. When they are raping me, one man would leave, and another would enter, and he would finish and then another man would come in. Of course, they would untie my hands when they would rape me, and one of them, while my hands were still tied, before he raped me, he sodomized me with his Kalashnikov.</s>MALVEAUX: The conflict in the Ivory Coast appears close to a resolution today. Incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo is reportedly holed up in a bunker at the presidential residence this hour. He is said to be negotiating his departure. Fighters loyal to the man widely viewed as the winner of November's presidential election say that they are holding their fire, at least for now. Well, a new development at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Crews say that they are now making some progress in plugging a leaking concrete shaft. Officials say that water gushing from the shaft into the Pacific is 7.5 million times the legal limit for radiation. Crews are also dumping 11,000 tons of radioactive water that is pooling in basements now. Tokyo Electric says about half of that water has shipped out to sea for disposal. Well, the pilots call their emergency landing at New Orleans a blind landing. The United Airline's cockpit filled with smoke just after takeoff, and then all instruments failed. Well, pilots followed the Mississippi River back to New Orleans. Everybody kept their cool as the tower talked them down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 497, we are declaring an emergency, and please roll equipment for our landing, please. A hundred and six souls on board. Fuel remaining at 32,400.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 497, we've lost all our instruments right now, and we're going to need just a</s>PAR. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aircraft is off the runway.</s>MALVEAUX: The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering new inspections on 80 older Boeing 737s that are based here in the United States. Investigators are going to look for cracks in the plane's skin that may have been hidden by rivets or overlap. A hole opened up in a Southwest plane's roof during flight. That happened on Friday, prompting this FAA order. New York police are on the hunt now for a possible serial killer. Eight bodies now have been found in a Long Island beach, and investigators are searching now for even more victims. Allan Chernoff has the latest with the details. Allan, what do we know about this investigation? This looks as if -- do they believe that they have a serial killer on their hands?</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: That's the one thing that police are quite certain of. They believe that this is a serial killer who preys on prostitutes. Yesterday, the shocking news came of three more bodies discovered in a very desolate area of Long Island, near Gillgo Beach. This is, as you can see, an area where there are very few residents, just a very long strip of 15 or so miles of just straight highway right next to the beach. Now, another body had been found last week. Back in December, there were four other bodies. The total now, eight. The original four bodies were identified as women who had advertised online offering prostitution. Now, what's happened is that the police, when they began this whole search, they were looking for a woman named Shannon Gilbert (ph). She also had advertised online, but her remains have yet to be found. They are hoping that maybe some of the remains that were located either this week or last week will match her DNA. The bodies right now are at the Suffolk Medical Examiner's Office, and the search, Suzanne, is continuing for still more remains by the beach.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Allan Chernoff, thank you very much for the latest. Appreciate it. Well, as if one budget battle isn't enough, we actually have two. One, to address spending cuts that are happening now. One for later. And that, of course, leaves us to Carol and the "Talk Back" question today. Carol, I mean, we're looking at long term here. Obviously, a lost people saying, you know, what is the future here? Medicare, Medicaid -- how is the government going to afford these programs and how are they going to save money?</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: COSTELLO: Well, Paul Ryan has an idea for a 2012 budget. And most economists say to rein in the deficit, you have simply got to take on the sacred cows, those expensive entitlement programs. Well, Republicans are doing just that. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's 2012 budget takes a $6.2 trillion bite out of the deficit over the next 10 years by slashing spending levels to 2008 levels and by tackling Medicare and Medicaid.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: The facts are very, very clear. For too long Washington has not been honest with the American people. Washington has been making empty promises to Americans from a government that is going broke. The nation's fiscal trajectory is simply not sustainable.</s>COSTELLO: In Ryan's plan, the moment of truth comes in 2022. That's when, instead of getting Medicare, where the government foots the bills, anyone turning 65 will get vouchers for private insurance. The GOP plan also calls for deep cuts in Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. As you might imagine, Democrats are not so pleased. Chris Van Hollen, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, says this -- and I quote -- "It is now clear that the Republican budget is not bold, but the same old ideological agenda that extends tax breaks to millionaires and big oil companies, while cutting our kids' education and health security for seniors." Democrats also playing up the fact that Ryan's plan lowers the corporate tax rate and makes the Bush tax cuts permanent. But hold on. Didn't President Obama extend those tax cuts for the next two years? And the president's proposed 2012 budget, it didn't deal with entitlements like Medicare at all. So, the "Talk Back" question today: Are Republicans serious about reducing the deficit? Facebook.com/CarolCNN, and I will read your comments later this hour.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Carol. Here's what's ahead "On the Rundown." The budget battle, as Carol mentioned -- a promise from House Republicans to end Medicare as we know it. And a barrier broken. I'm going sit down with a woman who called the shots for the American no-fly zone over Libya. Plus, bloodshed in Ivory Coast, where the self-declared president may be looking for a way out. Looking for a job? Look to Silicon Valley. And finally, the sky rips open. We take you inside a twister that just tore through Kansas.