Musharraf Suspends Constitution; Details of Baby Grace Case; New England Storms
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: As we begin with breaking news out of Pakistan today. The government has imposed a media blackout, meaning TV and radio stations are off the air. President Musharraf is expected to declare a state of emergency today amid increasing political unrest.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: What has been happening here, emergency rule expected, that would give the government there a broader powers if you will to take control of courts and also the military. Of course, you see the president Musharraf here who has been wearing two hats. First as the president of Pakistan, and also as the head of the military, and that has certainly been to the point of consternation and objection by many people there who have been opposing that at least. Now, the Supreme Court there in Pakistan is set to rule on whether or not his election, which happened not long ago, is legit, and if he can continue to serve as president and wear those two hats. A ruling expected on that actually from the Supreme Court next week. But amid all of this political turmoil going on in Pakistan right now, there has been a lot of violence, a lot of militants involved as well. A lot of opposition to what has been happening with President Musharraf. Our Nic Robertson certainly knows Pakistan and the politics there really, really well. He joins us now to give us more on what's going on there and exactly what it means. Nic, tell us, first of all, give people kind of that background about what has been happening in Pakistan and how it has now led to this possibility of emergency rule.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., what we've seen happen in Pakistan over the past few months is the rise of the Taliban and their efforts to overthrow the government. They've begun a violent campaign of suicide attacks since President Musharraf overthrew a religious school in the center of the capital, Islamabad. What we have seen in the last few weeks is that campaign perhaps gathers a little bit of strength, about you there's a lot of background to this potential call for a state of emergency. In the summer, a few months ago, the local TV stations reported that President Musharraf was on the verge of calling a state of emergency. That was averted when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called President Musharraf and said, no, don't call the state of emergency right now because what is at stake if a state of emergency is called in Pakistan, potentially this puts on hold parliamentary elections that are coming up at the beginning of next year. We've seen the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto come back to Pakistan in recent weeks. This is a step that most outsiders believe is a step in the direction of democracy for Pakistan. They say that President Musharraf is a military dictator. He needs leaders like Bhutto the former Prime minister to come back. He needs to hold parliamentary elections in the country. President Musharraf was just recently re-elected president, and he said at that time he would step down as army chief of staff. Again, this potential state of emergency that we're hearing may be declared would perhaps give him legitimacy then to say I'm not going to step down as army chief of staff. I am going to remain as president and control the army and potentially parliamentary elections put on hold. When this looked like it was happening last summer, Condoleezza Rice very much, very strongly told President Musharraf, no, your country needs to move in the direction of democracy. So that is what is at stake here. You have a president who is embattled fighting the Taliban, yet these moves hold up democracy in his country, and that is potentially what we're seeing at stake here,</s>T.J.  HOLMES: All right. Nic Robertson. Like you said Democracy may be at stake here with this possible state of emergency being declared. Nic Robertson again knows that region well, knows the politics of Pakistan real well. Nic we appreciate you. We will be following this story. Word just coming to us on a possible state of emergency being declared in Pakistan. We are all over it. Stay here with us.</s>NGUYEN: In the mean time, if you're just getting up, there are new reports this morning of a major volcanic eruption in Indonesia right now. Want to show you some video now of Mt. Kelud shot a little bit earlier told. You see there a little hazy. There are reports the mountains are hidden because of the clouds, but still though intense seismic activity indicates that an eruption is under way. In fact, they've been fearing this would happen for weeks now. This is video from Thursday when officials began evacuating people from the area. You want to stay with CNN for the newest information and video just as it becomes available to us.</s>HOLMES: Also this just in, another recall to tell you about. Check the freezers. You could have some dangerous meat in there. Cargill Foods now voluntary recall of a million pounds of ground beef sold at these supermarkets through out the Northeast under the store's brand name. Federal investigators say the meat may be contaminated with dangerous E. coli. Bacteria. A grizzly find here Galveston, Texas, shocks even the most hardened cops. Inside a plastic box that washed up on this island, the decomposed body of a little girl. Not too much to go on right now except a tiny shoe and some artist sketches. Major Ray Tuttoilmondo joins me now on the phone with the latest on this investigation. Major we appreciate your time this morning. Just how desperate are you all for leads? Are any coming into you?</s>MAJ. RAY TUTTOILMONDO, GALVESTON POLICE: We have been getting literally hundreds of calls with leads of various sorts from, quite frankly, from throughout the country. We're following up on each one as we can. We've gotten actually several hundred phone calls about the similarity between our sketch and that of little Madeleine McCann. We feel pretty confident though that this is not going to be Madeleine, but that's even one of the many, many, many possibilities that we have not yet eliminated.</s>HOLMES: Well, you said hundreds there. How many of those could you say are promising leads that you know you're going to have to really, really track down and could lead you to something?</s>TUTTOILMONDO: There certainly is a significant percentage of them that have promise, both locally as well as some national calls that we've gotten. The focus is let's identify who Baby Grace is, let's find who her family is, and then we figure out what happened to her.</s>HOLMES: Sir, do you have any idea how long the child had been dead?</s>TUTTOILMONDO: Indications are at this time is several weeks, and that's about as narrow of a window as we can be provided right now.</s>HOLMES: Also, any idea at all, this child could have been from anywhere. Any indications even on her person. I know we talked about shoes and some of the clothing. Any idea where in the country or the world even maybe this child could have been from?</s>TUTTOILMONDO: Absolutely none.</s>HOLMES: None. Also, sir, the area where the child's body in this container washed up, I guess give us an idea of how far out possibly would this child, this container had had to have been dumped to wash onshore, because it's been something, you know, maybe it would have been done close by or somebody could have dumped this way away from Texas and away from the United States for this thing to wash up onshore.</s>TUTTOILMONDO: Well, we're fairly confident that wherever the container entered the water is somewhere within Galveston Bay due to the fact that that particular area is fairly well-protected from the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to be centered in that area as to where it went into the water. Nearest residential area is maybe about a mile away, but that's a community that's not readily accessible to the public. So we're looking at pretty broad area of about five miles to the northeast of possibilities.</s>HOLMES: All right. Major Ray Tuttoilmondo with the Galveston Police. Sir, thank you so much for your time. We'll continue to follow this story.</s>NGUYEN: All right. So we've heard of student teacher affairs before, but rarely do they make a run for the border. A 25-year-old female teacher from Nebraska is now in custody. Here is her picture, and this morning her 13-year-old student is back with his parents. The pair were found in Mexico last night. They disappeared last week when police began investigating their alleged affair. Kelsey Peterson is facing kidnapping and child abuse charges. She also faces federal charges for taking the teen across the border into Mexico. Also some new cases of dangerous staph infection to tell you about this morning. St. Joseph's Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, has stopped taking any new admissions to its ICU. Six patients at the hospital were infected with drug-resistant bacteria. Officials say the infection was not caused by MRSA, those bacteria that you have been hearing so much about lately. It's not that. But a high school in Washington State has canceled its last football game because of MRSA. Port High School closed its athletic facility after a player contracted the bacteria.</s>HOLMES: Some serious fears here that have helped emergency developing and so did Mexico because much of the state of Tabasco now under water, massive flooding has caused the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people forced to find higher ground. The rain has stopped, but all that standing water could lead to an outbreak of some water born diseases. Harris Witbeck is in Tabasco this morning; he will join us next hour with his report.</s>NGUYEN: Downgraded, but still very dangerous. What was hurricane Noel is expected to pound the New England coast today. Wind gusts from the storm could reach 85 miles an hour. CNN's Jim Acosta is live in Chatham, Massachusetts, as the storm is starting to roll in. Are people prepared for this one?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we hope so. These are hearty folks up here in Cape Cod, Betty, and, yes, as you mentioned, Noel is no longer a hurricane. Won't be a hurricane when it gets here, but the storm will be very serious for the people along Cape Cod. As you mentioned, some hurricane-force winds will be felt here, 85-mile-per- hour wind gusts will be felt on the Cape. We're in Chatham, which is the tip of the elbow of Cape Cod. If you look at a map, that's where we're standing right now. Just to show you what's happening out here, we can tell judging by how things have changed over the last hour since we last spoke that the winds have picked up out here, and this is definitely a concern for people out here because they have been dealing with major problems from storms in recent years, that nor-eastern that clobbered this coast back in April actually cut this beach barrier behind me in two, and it caused major beach erosion for residents in the area. This is of great concern. They're worried about power outages, downed trees. They've opened up shelters across the area if case things get serious f you're wondering, for people who watch a lot of hurricanes on CNN, what's going on with the winter coat and the wool cap and the boots, Gulf Coast, temperatures only in the high 40s to low 50s today, so it's going to be a cold, nasty day on Cape Cod. People ought to warm up some chowder and stay inside today.</s>NGUYEN: To bad you can't that. Thank you Jim, Do stay safe out there. Want to take you now to Reynolds Wolf in the Hurricane Headquarters. You've been watching Noel for quite some time. It's been downgraded. I guess that's the good news today.</s>WOLF: Yes. When we say it's been downgraded, I don't want our viewers to think that when we talk about downgrading that it's gotten weaker. This is storm is still very strong. It does not have the warm core system that a tropical system would have. It has a cold core system, and it's associated with some frontal boundaries. As the thing moves to the north, we will continue to see the heavy surf. We're going to be dealing with the driving rain in many spots along Massachusetts and the Jersey shoreline and there will be the issue of beach erosion. Look at this video we have. This I-reporter submitted video. This is from Will Bernstein showing you just that happening, that beach erosion. This is in Nags Head, North Carolina. Not a pretty sight to see. Something much of the eastern seaboard will be subjected to as we make our way through the midday hours. Another storm in the west. We have another area of high pressure that is developing over parts of the Great Basin. We will have the winds kick up in parts of southern California. Yes, we're talking about the Santa Ana winds that by this afternoon may increase anywhere from 50 to 60 miles per hour. A threat of wildfires in parts of southern California. Also in the southeastern U.S., Georgia, North Florida, could have some issues there in terms of wildfire threats. That is the latest lets send it back to you.</s>NGUYEN: All right, thank you. We do have some breaking news to bring you.</s>HOLMES: Told you about this at the top of the show, about the possibility of a state of emergency in Pakistan. Well, state TV in Pakistan now, in fact, reporting that President Musharraf has imposed a state of emergency in Pakistan. Of course, there has been political unrest and turmoil and violence after elections. President Musharraf, a debate about whether or not he should be able to serve both as president and head of the military and at the core of this whole debate is democracy in Pakistan. Elections just took place not long ago. He's expected to be -- to start his new post, his new term of president this month. Also, the government, the Supreme Court there is deciding whether or not his presidency is legitimate. Also we saw a former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, return to the country not long ago amid violence and, of course, we saw a huge attack regarding her return. But also she was the one that was coming back to help put a face on democracy in Pakistan. So helping Pakistan move towards that direction, and now with this emergency rule, it gives the president and the government there even more power, extended powers, which does not in the view of many, including the United States government, give a lot of credence to democracy and moving towards democracy in Pakistan. So a major move to declare a state of emergency in Pakistan right now, so that is a developing story that we are all over. We had, of course, our Nic Robertson helping us out on that story. We may check in with him again, but I want to let you know state TV now reporting that in fact Pakistan and the president there has declared a state of emergency. A lot more to come.</s>NGUYEN: We'll bring you now developments on that. In the meantime, why is the most recognized woman in the world flying to South Africa? It has to do with abuse at the Oprah Winfrey School. WE have new developments from Justin in a few minutes.</s>HOLMES: Also, making that white wedding. Not only does it help the environment, it might help keep some green in that wallet. Stay tuned.