Iran Using Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes; Flipped Tanker Truck in Boston
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Wait until you hear what she has got to say about it. Wednesday, December 5th. Thanks very much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. And we begin with breaking news. We are hearing from the International Atomic Energy Agency, that's the world's nuclear watchdog group. It says that Iran is, quote, "Somewhat vindicated by the new U.S. intelligence estimate that says Iran stopped its nuclear program four years ago. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country will continue to enrich uranium for what he calls peaceful purposes. Barbara Starr is following this from the Pentagon for us right now. Good morning, Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Well, these kinds of comments certainly now coming fast and heavy almost every day from around the world. The Bush administration, the Pentagon really now trying to sort out what is the new lay of the land with Iran. Military commanders here are going to have to assess all of this and determine what they think about whether Iran still poses a military threat to the United States and to its neighbors in the Middle East. Next month, we know a classified assessment of risk, if you will, of many countries around the world, Iran, North Korea, other countries and Al Qaeda. All of these risk assessments will be packaged up together in a new report, classified report going to Capitol Hill. All eyes now on what might be said about the threat posed by Iran. If it's not a nuclear threat do they in fact still pose a military threat to the United States -- Kiran?</s>CHETRY: Well, do we know any more about how they came to find out this new information that they were able to gather?</s>STARR: Kiran, there is a number of published press reports this morning actually talking about communications intercepts that the national security agency intercepted some communications from Iranian generals talking about the nuclear program. This whole happening some months back. We have one source indeed that tells us here at CNN that that is one of the key pieces of intelligence but we are going to continue to poke into that story and see what we can bring you later in today.</s>CHETRY: All right, thanks a lot. Barbara Starr live in the Pentagon this morning. We're also following breaking news at a Boston today. And live pictures now of the clean up. And you can still see the aftermath. This was an out of control inferno after a tanker truck flipped over. It was carrying 9,000 gallons of fuels at the time it exploded in Everett, Massachusetts, just five miles north of downtown Boston. And some live aerials you get a chance to see the damage. The homes burned in the area, other vehicles. This tanker was carrying the gasoline and started leaking and ignited burning at least two homes and they say dozens of cars. In fact, the fire chief talked about this earlier this morning saying it was unbelievable that not anyone was hurt.</s>DAVID BUTLER, EVERETT FIRE CHIEF: Our major concerns right now, we still have ongoing firefighting operations in the two six-family dwellings. They are still heavily engaged in those operations and we still has some concerns environmentally.</s>CHETRY: And they said they are concerned about whether the gas leak into storm drains. Some roads are now being reopened. The fire chief says it also appears the driver, at least according to witnesses, of that tanker was speeding, he was not hurt and somehow, no one else was either. Two other people though had to be evacuated from the area, including many elderly -- John?</s>ROBERTS: We're also following rescue efforts this morning in the Pacific Northwest. The heavy rains there had stopped but floods and mudslides are stranding residents across Washington State. This family being pulled out of the waters in Thurston County, Washington. National Guard troops also moving down streets looking for residents cut off by land slides. A new pictures coming in overnight from the coast guard of some dramatic air rescues. They saved people trapped on the roofs of their home including an elderly man and his dog in Western Washington. Search and rescue teams also scrambling to find people missing up in the mountains. Many roads and highways in Oregon and Washington are closed to traffic today. A 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 will remain closed until at least tomorrow. It is the main north/south route between Seattle and Portland. Emergency crews say that there is up to three feet of standing water in some spots. Reynolds Wolf is following the extreme weather. Katherine Barret is live in Burien, Washington. Katherine, what's it looking like today were you are. We obviously see some damage on that home behind you?</s>KATHERINE BARRET, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Severe damage to this home behind me. What happened was this home is on a steep hillside with a beautiful view of Puget Sound but steep hillsides, that porch carries a price as well. And the neighbor's backyard above this home crumbled in an instant and came plowing through. And you can see, I'm basically standing on the front porch of this house where this mudslide swept the homeowner's car down, slammed it into the front wall of the house and the mudslide pushed the car and the mud, breaking down the living room wall. The homeowner said all of this happened in less than the time it took her to place an early morning phone call to her cousin.</s>BARBARA BULL, HOMEOWNER: We talked only about a minute and a half when this huge explosion was. And I said, oh, Jack, I said this -- there's a bomb in my house, hang on and I went to my window and here is my car sticking in the door. And I ran back and I said, please call 911.</s>BARRET: But the homeowner was lucky to escape unharmed and said she was just grateful that had it been one day later, her small grandchildren would have been in this living room where the wall is crumbled and the glass shattered behind me -- John?</s>ROBERTS: Katherine, very quickly. The type of damage that you see there, is it sort of sporadic or is it widespread.</s>BARRET: Well, this is one street, one hillside that collapsed but it is so widespread from the north end of the Olympic peninsula. There are bridges washed out, mudslides blocked Amtrak and commuter train traffic. The whole southwest corner of Washington is under water. It is very, very widespread. More than a dozen counties in Washington State and a similar number in Oregon with severe damage. Still power outages in many areas well -- John?</s>ROBERTS: Wow, a big cleanup ahead. Katharine Barrett for us this morning in Burien. Katherine, thanks -- Kiran?</s>CHETRY: Well, we have some breaking news just out of Indiana. Dozens injured this morning after a greyhound bus spun out of control on Interstate 65. This happened just south of Lafayette. You can see the snow coming down. It was a snowfall at the time. 17 people were injured. None seriously. They say this was the first snow of the season that they still are looking for a cause. President Bush headed to the Middle East next month. The trip will follow a recent agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to start a fresh round of peace talks after last week's Middle East conference in Annapolis. Now, details of the trip were not revealed but Israeli television reported the president will stop in Israel. It would be his first visit as president. He was there years ago as governor of Texas.</s>ROBERTS: Cleaning house in the battle for the White House now. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has fired a landscaping company over immigration concerns. The company Romney hired to worked in his home in Boston is accused of using illegal immigrants. But the landscaper insists all of workers are in the United States legally. The issue first came up last year. Opponents also used it against Romney at last week's CNN/YouTube debate with Rudy Giuliani calling Romney's home a, quote, "Sanctuary Mansion." Focus on the campaign trail turned to Iran after a new intelligence report said Iran stopped trying to make a nuclear weapon back in 2003. And an Iowa radio debate, John Edwards went after Senator Hillary Clinton for voting to designate Iran's revolutionary guard core a terrorist organization. He says she gave President Bush just what he wanted.</s>JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton has said she agrees with George Bush terminology that we're in a global war on terror.</s>SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand politics and I understand making outlandish political charges, but this really goes way too far.</s>ROBERTS: Senator Clinton says the vote was meant to encourage diplomacy and not a green light for war. Late-breaking this morning. A dangerous microwave recall to tell you about. GE says they pose a fire hazard in the kitchen. The company is recalling 92,000 built-in combination wall and microwave ovens. They are sold under the brand names of GE, GE Profile and Kenmore. It says the door switch can overheat and ignite. GE says there have been 35 reports of minor property damage and one incident in which a fire spread to nearby kitchen cabinets. No injuries, though, have been reported. Everything you need to know is posted on our Web site at cnn.com/am -- Kiran?</s>CHETRY: Well, it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for some other stories new this morning. Home values saying their biggest drop in a quarter century. Now, depending on where you live, you might want to think twice if you're planning on selling your home any time soon. Ali Velshi at the business update desk with more. You do have a silver lining in this cloud as well when you look at the overall picture?</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look. There is two silver linings here. First of all, Freddie Mac says the price of homes is down 1.3 percent compared to the same time last year. And that is the biggest drop in the last 25 years. Now, what that probably means, Kiran, is that home prices haven't dropped much in the last 25 years. 1.3 percent is the biggest drop. Now, there's two things that this means. One, is it's a buyers market for a lot of people so if you're looking at buy, this might be a good opportunity to do so. The second thing is, we know these prizes are coming down which means they're going to go up at some point, probably end of 2008, 2009. If you're selling a house right now, you might want to hang on. Take a look at how the picture looks across the country by region. The east coast down. The west coast down. The Midwest down. But even, when you talk about the east coast, you're not seeing that in certain centers. The south and the southwest, which is basically everything in the south, except for Georgia and Florida, are up a little bit. Florida is definitely down. And the mountain states are up a little bit. So, you've got the opportunity, if you are looking to buy, you've got very low interest rates, 6.1 is a 30-year mortgage and you've got the fact that while house prices may go down over the course of the next year, they are at record lows at the moment or record drops. Those aren't record lows. I should clarify in most markets across the United States, the increase over the last five years in house prices is still between 20 and 80 percent. Gerri Willis is going to be on a little bit later with more on housing -- Kiran?</s>CHETRY: All right. Thanks a lot, Ali. And it's now time to check in with Sanjay. Is it better to be overweight but technically fit or be a thin couch potato? A new study is turning conventional wisdom on its head. I know many people are not going to like the answer to this, huh, Sanjay?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it depends on what your perspective is. This is one of the more controversial areas in the world of exercise and exercise physiology. But it is better, according to this new study, to actually be fit and a little bit overweight as opposed to being lean and not fit. This is interesting. Because a lot of people say well, you know, I'm thin, therefore, I must be healthy. At least according to this study, the answer seems to be not so fast. They follow about 2,600 people over 12 years to get the results of this study. The people over the age of 60 and that's how they came to this conclusion that increasing and improving your cardio respiratory function, your heart and your lung function even in moderate amounts, seem to make a huge difference in terms of how much longer you would live. So, even if you have a little bit of extra weight, getting up off the coach and doing a little bit of exercise was a really important message here, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: No, it is. But then, you hear study after study saying, that you know, being a little bit overweight, or having a high body mass index is linked to so many other problems -- health problems. So, how do you fit that into this equation?</s>GUPTA: Absolutely. You know, you're right. Obesity and being overweight is linked to just about every chronic disease out there. But when it comes to things that actually cause mortality, your heart function and things like that, what they said is that even if you keep the weight, even if you're still overweight, but you start improving your cardiac function and getting up and walking ten minutes a day and doing some other kind of exercise, you get a sort of exponential rewards in terms of your impact in your overall longevity. So, I think, the message is here don't get discourage even if you haven't lost the weight. You're still doing something good for your body, especially your heart and your lungs, and that might lead to a longer life in the end.</s>CHETRY: All right, some good news on the horizon. Thanks so much, Sanjay.</s>GUPTA: All right.</s>ROBERTS: 12 minutes now after the hour. Federal help may soon be on the way for people caught in the subprime mortgage mess. But not soon enough for some homeowners. What can they do right now. Gerri Willis has got some important advice for you coming right up. And President Bush says Congress has done very little and better not drags its heels in the next couple of weeks. He wants things done. We'll ask Democratic Congressman Rahm Emmanuel, what he thinks about it ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.