this is kind of like the two most popular guys in the school, both competing for a girl that's maybe not quite as popular. everybody is going well why do you want this girl so much? it's because they don't want the other guy to get the girl. i mean that's basically what we're looking at here. yahoo is not a great microsoft, in the hands of the competitor, it could be a dangerous situation, and that could mean good news for yahoo! in the long run. >> right. carter evans, thanks. live at the nasdaq mark site. "american morning" continues right now. i'm alina cho, governor rick perry officially unvam veils his tax plan today. will it help improve his standing at the anti-romney? we'll explain. i'm carol costello. after five days in cold storage, moammar gadhafi has reportedly been buried, but libyan officials aren't saying exactly where on this "american

morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. >> good morning, alina. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "american morning." it is tuesday october 25th. i'm alina cho along with carol costello. ali and christine are off today. >> up first this morning, presidential politics as texas governor rick perry trying to one-up herman cain's 9-9-9 plan and get back the good graces of gop voters. this morning perry will unveil his economic growth plan that includes a flat tax. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us from washington with more details. he has this 20% flat tax, but taxpayers is actually opt out if they like their tax rate better? >> reporter: yeah, and banking on most americans not liking the way they have their taxes right

now and hoping for some of that 9-9-9 that boosted herman cain from an afterthought to a front-runner in the gop nomination. yes, basically this morning the texas governor rick perry unvams his plan. cut, balance and grow, that's the name of it. what he's proposing. americans get a choice. most earning under $120 million, and exemptions for families makingeneder that $500,000 per year making standard deductions $5,000 for individuals and dependents. abolish the death tax and low are corporate tax, lower it to about 20%. put in an op-ed and he'll make his announce mitt later this morning in south carolina. >> who helped craft this plan? >> a guy named steve forbes.

the man behind "forbes" magazine. he ran back in 1996, his big plan, a flat tax. rick perry saying, guess what? my simple 20% tax cut will allow americans to file taxes on a postcard. steve forbes said something similar he was running for the white house. >> no wonder he endorsed him. rick perry will make his formal announcement in south carolina. i suspect i know why. tell us. >> south carolina, guess what, the first southern state to vote in the battle for the white house in the gop presidential nomination battle. and one of the things we've learned, while down in south carolina today, perry will meet with senator jim demint, yes, location, location, location, carol. >> paul steinhauser. many thanks this morning. >> thank you. president obama says he is

tired of waiting for a dysfunctional congress. so, well, he's going to change the rules himself. in las vegas, ground zero for the housing collapse, the president announced changes to a government program that's designed to ease the nation's foreclosure crisis. the president says his new plan makes it easier for responsible homeowners to refinance their mortgages. >> if you meet certain requirements you will have the chance to refinance at lower rates, which would save you hundreds of dollars a month, and thousands of dollars a year on mortgage payments. >> today the president continues his west coast swing. this afternoon he's going to sit down with jay leno. his fourth appearance on "the tonight show" by the way, his second as president. will obama will then head to colorado for two final fund-raising events. last night on "john king

usa," it's not a quick fix to the ailing housing market. >> why should this plan prove to be the difference? >> we've taken a housing market literally falling off a cliff and stabilized it, but it's also true that we haven't done enough and we haven't gone far enough and we're going to keep pushing, keep expanding these efforts to make sure that we do get to a point where the housing market isn't just stabilized but it's recovering and recovering in a way that homeowners again have a light at the end of the tunnel and can see themselves getting back above water. so we're continuing to push. today's announcement is part of a broader strategy to keep making a difference in the housing market, and those are the facts. >> coming up, in a little more than 30 minutes, we will talk to paul jackson. the founder and publisher of housing wire, one of the first people to write about foreclosure prices. we'll talk about whether he believes the president's plan will actually increase housing prices. carol? immigration reform could

become a big eschew on capitol hill come december. democratic sources telling cnn there are discussions taking place now that could retroupe the dream act. the dream act would allow children of illegal immigrants to are in the country or serve in the military to become citizens. contrasting this decision with republicans who favor tougher security along the u.s./mexico border. and we have breaking news out of turkey this hour. a 14-day old baby was reportedly been rescued alive from the earthquake zone in southeast turkey. incredible news. reuters is reporting that the baby was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building earlier today. much more on the baby's rescue as soon as we get more detail. meanwhile, rescue workers in tshgy have been using shovels, even their bare hands to look for survivors. the death toll from sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake stands at 279.

the area has been hit by several aftershocks. some as strong as 6.0. 970 buildings were reported droied. the body of moammar gadhafi has finally been buried acco according to the national council, laid to rest at an undisclosesed locationed. happened today at dawn. he was on display since killed in his hometown of sirte. dan rivers joins us live from tripoli. so they buried moammar gadhafi somewhere in the middle of a desert somewhere? >> reporter: that's right, yeah. the whole idea was to keep it secret. all we know is that he was buried along with his son, the defense minister abu bakr, they were allowed to pray over his body before a convoy took it way

away into the desert and buried him at an unmarked grave far away from anyone to avoid his grave becoming a shrine to any gadhafi loyalists left in the country. hoping to draw a line under this whole affair, but there are still lots of questions asked about how he died, how they treated his body. how his son died, and also questions about an apparent massacre in sirte of what appears to be pro-gadhafi supporters a at hotel. human rights watches discovered 53 bodies there. there's lots of difficulty questions for the ntc going forward. >> when might we know the autopsy on moammar gadhafi's body? >> reporter: well, we know the headline, head that he was shot in the head. details about what range and so on, that bullet was fired, we don't know. we may get those results from

the attorney general's office over the next couple of days. it may be that they never choose to reveal those details. the agency said that he set up a committee to look into his death, but, you know i think it's going to be questioned as to how independent and how thorough that committee will be, and there is still international pressure for them to explain exactly what happened. >> dan rivers live in tripoli this morning. thank you. also new this morning, an explosion at a crowded bus station in downtown nairobi, kenya killed at least one person. it happened yesterday just blocked away from the nightclub where a blast went off earlier that morning. 12 people were hurt in that blast. so far no one has claimed responsibility for either attack. the explosions came just two days of a the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of an imminent terror attack. wikileaks founder julian asau asaudi arabia -- assange, the

site is shutting down. it accomplished a number of u.s. diplomatic cables last year. the nba season still on hold and about to get even shorter. don't tell that to basketball fans. the "new york daily news" reports the league will announce the cancellation of at least two more weeks of games today. nba spokesman told us he wasn't focusing on that. talks collapsed last week after 30 hours way federal mediator and no new talks are scheduled. oh, let's talk about something good now. hope for texas rangers fans. one win away from their first-ever world series title. came from behind to beat the cardinals in game five, 4-2. napoli, insane, broke a 2-2 tie. the rangers can clinch game six

in st. louis. >> you been watching? paying attention, ever since your team -- well, i don't want to bring up a sore subject. >> i am not a sore loser, as many yankees fans are. people out there, yankees fans. i can still watch other teams and root for them, except for the new york yankees. president obama bypassing congress and using what executive powers he has to try and get the economy moving again. so what do you think about the president's plan to run around the lawmakers? we'll tell you about that. plus, look up in the sky. the northern lights make a rare southern appearance. wow. and putting the pedal to the metal. a man and his car celebrating 1 million miles together. it's love. it's 11 minutes past. ♪ [ sighs ] [ bird chirps ] [ bird squawks ] ♪ [ bird screeching ] ♪

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welcome back to "american morning." police in the dallas area this morning are hunting for a suspected serial rapist who has attacked at least four members of the same sorority. the victims our african-american women in their mid-50s to early 60s are alumni of delta sigma theta. all assaulted in their homes the past couple of months. the most recent, 11 days ago in the town of cornith. they're mystified by the so-called sorority link to the case. >> we don't understand how he's obtaining the information, if he by chance has a list of members or if he's just simply looking for members that may be out there sporting different paraphernalia, t-shirts, jewelry, license plate placards, things of that nature, so we put out to the members to not show

affiliation of that sorority for right now for their safety. >> police believe this is the man shown in the surveillance video of the attacks. authorities are asking members not to show their affiliation. >> we'll get that individual glow a few moments. sorry about that. special fire crews called in after an oil rig blowout in texas. firefighters say it is contained, not posing a threat to the surrounding area, but could take a week to put the thing out. officials say 11 workers at the site all okay this morning. and they threw a parade for a man and his car in maine. this is joe loscacero just passed the 1 million mile mark. the car had miles on it already when he bought the car in 1996. he says there's no real secret to keeping it on the road.

regular oil changes. >> he's a mechanic. >> and the parade, well, he was presented with a new 2012 honda accord. you know, if i still had my volkswagen jetta, i might have made the million mark, too. >> jacqui spilled it earlier. the guy's a mechanic. >> that helps. doesn't hurt. >> you've got to take care of your car. right? change that oil every 3,000 m e mimes. >> i never do that. >> have somebody do it for you. >> that's why we get married. >> love that about my husband. i'll tell you. if you're out there driving this morning or going by the airways, a couple of trouble spots we're watching here. most of the rain already starting to pull out of the northeast. good news for you, but the roadways are getting a little wet across the western great lakes. that's where the rain is moving on in. this is very light for the most part. so not much more than sprinkle, but you've got the low overcast

conditions. at least it's rain and not snow, right, from green bay down towards milwaukee. a little mixing in towards the u.p. of michigan. speak of snow, we're definitely going to see that across the rocky mountain states and we are expecting to see quite a bit into the higher elevations. this is really our main storm system across the nation's midsection. rain on the northern tier. cooler condition on the back side and we're going to see snow in places like denver. yeah, denver, colorado. you haven't seen much of that this year. winter storm watches are in effect after a record high yesterday in denver of 80 degrees. we'll be lucky to get about, just shy of 68 and probably down into the upper 30s for tomorrow. a couple of flakes possible in the high country. thinking about that skiing, and some of the resorts opened up a couple weeks ago. the south side of the system, staying extremely warm. look at this. 87 in dallas today. 86 in houston.

83 into kansas city. there you see that cold air behind it. minneapolis looking for 52 degrees today. we're also keeping our eye on the tropics. right? hurricane rina, inten fisifying since sunday. the forecast track of this thing is bringing in closer over the yucatan peninsula, possibly making landfall over cozumel. kni this is going to happen sometime thursday before we get there it will continue to get stronger and forecast to be a major hurricane. we haven't seen a major hurricane make landfall in this area since hurricane wilma. remember that back in 2005. the other thing i want to mention, in the cone of uncertainty down the line for the weekend, you can see the florida keys in here. we'll watch it closely. it's much more likely it will stay south of that. so cross your fingers for that. spectacular video to show you out of michigan from last night. the aurora borealis put on quite

the display. look at those reds and the greens and the purples. geomagnetic storm on saturday night, takes about 40 hours for that energy to get here into the earth's atmosphere and, boy, look at those waves are curtains of light. people got to see it from kancaa down into the deep south. >> that's something you don't see every day. >> it doesn't look real. >> i could watch that all day. >> me, too. jacqui, thanks. now is your chance to "talk back" on one of the big stories of the day. this morning's question, should the president bypass congress to help the economy? president obama has gone from yes, we can, to, we can't wait, since congress hasn't been exactly eager to discuss any part of the president's jobs bill, the president is going rogue. instead of waiting for congress to act he's implementing a series of executive actions, like new rules aimed at making it easier for homeowners to refinance.

>> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. where they won't act, i will. a barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing, if their home values have fallen so low that what they owe on their mortgage is 25% higher than the current value of their home. >> some economists say it won't be enough to solve the housing crisis. republicans say it won't solve anything. the president is simply using the excuse of political gainsmanship to get around congress. >> they're a shame to mention any of the things that they do as republicans because it steps on their story line. their story line is that there must be have villain out there keeping this administration from succeeding. >> what's clear is the economy won't be greatly helped unless congress does act in some way, and congress is not likely to act on the president's jobs proposal. so president obama is moving forward on his own.

monday the home mortgage plan, tomorrow, a plan to help with student loans. the president's intent, to show americans he's doing some. and to shame congress into acting. the "talk back" question today, should the president bypass congress to help the economy? facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your responses later on in the hour. still to come, first michele bachmann new hampshire staff quit. this morning thamp letting everyone know why, and we're going to share those kernels of information with you when we come back. it's 22 after the hour. i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living.

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welcome back. "minding your business" this morning, u.s. stock futures are pointing to a flat open this morning. markets got a boost yesterday from strong quarterly earnings reports and a few merger announcements. we're one day away from finding out details of the grand plan to save the european union and the announcement could not come soon enough. recession fears are on the rise after a new survey shows business activity stalled. france in particular showing major weakness in that sector. more bad news for netflix. the company announced it lost 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter. customers had been jumping ship ever since the company announced price hikes this summer. then the whole flixster debacle. stack is down in pre-market

trading. novartis announcing new job cuts. losing their jobs in the next three to five year. the company says the cuts are part of its $300 million restructuring plan. fedex is gearing up for the holiday shipping frenz any a major way. the global shipping giant says december 12th is set to be the bittiest day its ever had expecting more than 7 billion packages shipped this year and it's adding 20,000 temporary workers to help handle this holiday rush. and it's time to literally pig out again. mcdonald's is bringing back the classic mcrib sandwich and going all willy wonka on us. mcdonald's launched the quest for the golden mcrib. it's a social media game. "american morning" will be back right after the break. i don't want healthy skin for a day.

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30 minutes past the hour. good morning to you. time for top stories -- rick perry is looking to unveil a plan that includes a flat tax. the plan is outlined in the "wall street journal" and at an event this morning later in south carolina he'll unveil the plan. president obama is tired of waiting for congress to act so he's rolling out changes to the government's mortgage relief program himself. under the new rules, homeowners who are up to date with mortgage payments will qualify for new lows at today's low rates, no matter how far the value of their homes have fallen. five days after he was killed in his hometown of sirte, moammar gadhafi has finally been buried. an official telling cnn the dictator was laid to rest at dawn at an undisclosed location. back to this morning's breaking news out of eastern

turkey. a 2-week-old baby incredibly has been found alive in the earthquake rubble. live from turkey this morning, diana, what do you know about this? it is remarkable. >> reporter: hi, alina. it is. some very, very dramatic scenes taking place at the town behind me this morning. i'm going to step out of the way and we'll zoom in so you can get a closer look. the baby, 14 days old, was pulled out of the rubble here alive, and bear in mind, the earthquake took place on sunday. it is now tuesday morning. the baby is fine. it's a little girl. she's on her way to the hospital for check, but her relatives said she looked as though she was doing fine. now they're working frantically to take out her mother and her grandmother, both of whom are still in the rubble. i just spoke to a health worker who's coming out, weren't of the rescue workers and he was thrilled. he came up and said, they're both there, healthy, in broken

english. saying they should be out with the next few minutes. very, very exciting scene here this morning, alina. >> oh, my goodness, diana, that is unbelievable. do you know if rescuers are able to actually see them? how do they know they're okay? they've just had verbal contact? >> reporter: i think they've managed to get quite close to them. i mean, the guy who came up and talked to me with english wasn't good enough for a full interview but seemed convince they were healthy and said they'd been working on trying to free them for the last two hours and that it was going to happen really very soon. so they must have gotten close enough to be really in a position where they can get them out and fairly shortly. i talked to one of the rescue workers oversees various sites here, and he said, bear in mind, the search and rescue operation will ge on for a good, long time, because you can take people out of the rubble still alive 17 to 20 days after an

earthquake such as this. even though moments like this are remarkable, because of lives saved, we can hope this kind of story will continue over the next few days, alina. >> let's certainly hope so. diana magnay, thank you for that update from turkey. too find out how you can help those devastated by the earthquake in turkey, visit our website page. attorneys for conrad murray making their case at the michael jackson death trial. among the first defense witnesses was weren't of jackson's longtime doctors who told the jury jackson was looking for someone to give him propofol so he could sleep. >> he asked me about intravenous sleep medicine. >> did he happen to mention the name of this medicine? >> i think he used the word juice. >> the defense is trying to establish that jackson was shopping for propofol in the months before he died. the case could go to the jury by the end of the week. also new this morning, michele bachmann's camp, trying to downplay claims that her

senior staff is downright mean. yesterday her entire new hampshire senior staff, which resigned last week, released a letter, accusing the congresswoman's national campaign of being rude, unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel. her spokeswoman telling our john king, it's unfortunate they want to call names. you can add aunger to the first lady's resume. michelle obama writing a book as nutritional and edible gardening, it's called "american grown." the book released in april. the first lady accepting nothing for the book, donating all proceeds to charity. >> writing a book and sent her first twitter message last week. amazing. >> kind of pathetic. she had to learn how, but she knows, which is good. >> so did i, not too long ago. coming up next on "american morning," president obama rolling out new rules to help struggling homeowners refinance mortgages. will his plan really help the

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you feel it working, so you know it's working. and that means you're ready for whatever the day brings. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a deeper clean. you're also protected. with new crest complete, you know you're covered. 37 minutes past hour. good morning. president obama expanding the government program to help drowning homeowners refinance their mortgages. the president announced the plan yesterday in las vegas. the city with one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates. the administration says the revamped housing program would nix some fees and provide

financial relief to hundreds of thousands of borrowers. >> if you look at the broad population of who's eligible, there are about 4 million families that have fannie mae or freddie mac loans that are underwater and that could benefit by a refinancing. the average benefit is over $,500 a year. so it's a substantial benefit for those families. $2,500. one expert tells cnn it will not help the housing market. joining us with a critical look at the plan, publish er this. welcome. your mortgage backed by fannie mae or freddie mac, acquired by may 31, 2009, have toy curre y

current on your payments. that's pretty strict. how many are up to date on payments? >> 11 million mortgages are under water. you heard secretary donovan mention earlier in the segment, there's 4 million borrowers that might benefit from this. most estimates we're seeing are about 1.5 million people will benefit from this. it's certainly a positive. i don't know how you can say it's not a positive to say we're going to actually help people doing the right thing. under water on their mortgage yet still making payments. certainly giving them the ability to access ultra low mortgage rates is a good thing. it's good for the economy, it's good for the mortgage markets as a whole. >> this program, the white house original lif said it would help 4 million to 5 million people. turned out it only helped about 1 million people. this, of course, you say, opens it up to more people and takes some of the risk out of it for the banks. so how many people? you mention add number there,

but how many people will this actually help? >> well, the run rate for the program so far has been about 34,000 refinances per month. now, most of those have not gone to under water homeowners. really what i think the change that was announced yesterday will do is allow more under water home owners to get the program. allowing borrowers with more than 125% ltv to access the program. a big change. the really, really big change, the one that probably -- is probably the largest of all with all the changes made is what's called put-back risk. with the new program, banks don't have to worry as much about buying back bad loan. that's really what's held the program up to this point in time. so with the new program guidelines that are announced when they get rolled out, you'll see banks much more willing to lend under this program. that's probably the biggest change of all. >> they c take chances because there won't be the same

liability there. there are serious criticisms of the plan. you've outlined some. it doesn't help people in foreclosure or people way behind on payments and doesn't do anything to reduce what you owe, just reduces your monthly payment. so -- >> when you enter into the refinance, i mean what people need to know is, when you get through a refinance with this new program you're going to owe as much as you did before you refinanced, but like cars, like a lot of other debts i think we face here in the united states, a lot of payment relief can help. especially for performing borrowers. getting an extra $250 a month in your pocket at the end of the day is a plus. u.s. savings rate i believe is around 5% right now. certainly with long-term savings rate averaging around 8%, that means the government is hoping people will spend this money. >> right. just to be clear. this program will help some people, but it certainly won't help solve the housing crisis in this country? >> it is a good first step. you know, it's kind of -- tough

to say that it's taken us this longer to take a good first step after all the missteps we've seen from the government thus far, but it's a good first step. >> what really would help our housing crisis, i mean, legislation has to go through congress, and that's not likely to happen. so we're left out there thinking, well, this is nice, but -- >> absolutely. so at the end of the day, this is what the obama administration can do right now. they can do this without congressional approval. from that perspective i think everybody, including republican'ses will say this is a good first step, but the truth is this is only a first step. there is more that needs to be done. i certainly argued over the past few years where we have to go eventually is towards principle reduction, but that's going to require congressional action, and as you alluded to, carol, i don't see that takes place, at least until after the election. >> no. i think you're right about that, sadly. paul jackson, many thanks. we appreciate it. >> thank you.

we have this breaking news. new video just into cnn of a 14-day-old baby rescued alive from the earthquake zone in southwest turkey. look at this. the baby pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building earlier today. you have to look closely it see that little girl. >> teeny. >> rescuers are working to free the mother and grandmother, said to be healthy, incredibly, and this rescue could happen in the next day. the death toll from sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake stands at 366. more than 1,300 are being treated for injuries. remarkable, our diana magnay is live there and says people can be rescueded 17 to 20 days after the quake and found alive. hopefully we'll see much more of this in the coming days. >> a couple more days for the baby's family. adults, which is they got the baby out in. more difficult for a baby to survive, obviously, in wreckage. >> said to be doing fine. amazing story.

>> so cute. still to come on "american morning," our "talk back" question for you. should the president bypass congress to help the economy? huh. we'll read your thoughts ahead. believe me, there are many of them. plus, the two gop candidates set for a face-to-face debate without the rest of the presidential field. what's that about? we'll tell you. it's 44 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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48 minutes past the hour. what you freed to know to start your day. another look at the 14-day-old baby just rescued alive from the earthquake zone in southeast turkey. the baby pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building earlier today. rescuers are working to free the mother and the grandmother. texas governor rick perry set to formally announce his plan this morning at an event in south carolina. at the heart of the plan, a flat

tax to replace the current income tax system. president obama kicks off the second day of his three-day trip to the west coast with a visit to jay leno. it will be mr. obama's fourth time on "the tonight show" second as president. later he'll be in colorado for two fund-raising events. moammar gadhafi has been buried. an official with libya's transitional council tells cnn the deposed dictator was laid to rest at dawn at an undisclosed location. a one-on-one debate planned in the gop race for president. herman cain and newt gingrich will face off in houston. sponsored by the tea party patriots focuses on fiscal issues. and the texas rangers have never won a world series. now, they're just one win away. the rangers beat the cardinals 4-2. played game five last night in texas. game six and if necessary game seven will be back in st. louis. that's the news you need to

know to start your day. "american morning" is back after this.

51 minutes pafr trt the hou one of the "talk back" questions of the day. should the president bypass congress to help the economy? is there a reason our founding fathers created a separation of powers? wasn't it to avoid tyranny or monarchy? constitutionally the answer is no. common sensewise, the answer is still no. the last thing we need is an imperial presidency. from robert, 14% approval rating

and clear inability to function the president needs to lead by example and finally kick it into gear. our nation's problem is confidence and having a president leading will make a huge difference. from sharon. i've always said the president can't do much unless cons let's him. he can say what he wants to do but the real power is in congress and they let it go to their heads. can anyone say term limits for these people? maybe then they would do their job. if they won't fix the problems go around them. keep the comments coming. facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. we'll read more of your comments throughout our show. it's a bedtime story for a 2-year-old that is melting hearts everywhere. >> true. cnn's jeanne moos reports on a pre-recorded daddy who even manages to hand out cyber hugs. >> the sweet farmer mickey. >> reporter: it's like reading a bedtime story -- >> father mickey wakes at dawn trying to work the whole day

long. >> reporter: only daddy seems to live inside a screen? >> the hens lay eggs. the cows munch hay. >> reporter: away for bake training posted his video of her pre-recorded husband reading to his 2-year-old daughter. it's got everybody talking about how cute it is. the only one who isn't talking is dad. >> daddy. >> the sheep that -- >> reporter: she was trying to say silly kitty, because mom tells cnn the cat just knocked something off a shelf. someone posted the dad, better get back home soon, or that kid's going to be nearsighted. the adorability factor goes through the roof as the bedtime story ends. >> can i have a hug? >> thank you. >> reporter: talk about a screen grab. every time her daughter asks to see daddy, mom would play one of several pre-recorded videos,

similar to the united through reading program. parents separated from their children, especially military parents, record themselves reading aloud and send dvds home to the kids. >> what sound is a lion? aaargh. >> reporter: it isn't as high tech waging the birth of his first child live via skype. >> okay, babe. let's go. >> reporter: since his army corporal was in iraq when his son was born, skype was the next best thing to being there. >> i'm so scared. >> i know honey. keep talking to me. >> this is the moment. >> lots of pressure, it's going to feel really funny. >> you see him? >> i can see him. >> reporter: finally saw him in person three months later. >> hey, buddy. >> reporter: you may think of cyber space as cold, but this inspired us. >> can i have a hug? >> reporter: to have a group hug.

thank you. jeanne moos, cnn. >> bye-bye! bye. >> reporter: new york. >> makes me sad and happy at the same time. >> yeah. just thinking that. you know, it's not the same thing but i guess it's better than not having it, right? >> exactly. >> the whole birth thing via skype was a little, freaked me out a little bit. >> alina was like, no, she didn't. you have to have a nurse cursing at him. skype was better than nothing. >> true. anyway -- ahead in the next hour, more on the amazing story of a 14-day-old baby girl rescued alive in southeast turkey. a live report to show you more. an amazing story. you're watching "american morning." [ male announcer ] your hard work has paid off.

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turkey as a two-week-old baby just pulled from the rubble alive. two days after that deadly earthquake killed hundreds. happening right now, the rescues are continuing. looking to rebound from his plunge in the polls, texas governor rick perry is set to propose a national flat tax as the centerpiece of his economic plan. linba, reportedly set to cancel for regular scheduled season games today. and the head judge and a top dancer going toe to toe. will there be sidestepping on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com oh. >> good morning to you. it is tuesday, october 25th. welcome to "american morning." i'm carol costello. >> and good morning, everybody. i'm alina cho.

christine and ali are off today. we begin with breaking news. boy, is it good news. a remarkable discovery today in the rubble in eastern turkey. a two-week-old baby girl found alive two days after a devastating 7.2 magnitude quake. this gquake killed 300 people. they found a tiny baby buried in the rubble with her mother and grandmother. they're still in the rubble. >> the mother and grandmother are said to be fine. remarkable. diana magnay says the rescue could happen with a day, but remarkable, when you consider the devastation, 366 dead, more than 1,300 injured. there you just saw a close-up look at the baby, and these are live picture, now of the rescue efforts in turkey, which had been hampered, by the way, by near freezing temperatures. obviously, the situation has gotten better there, and hopefully more people will be

found alive. >> i just can't imagine how fearful the mother was with this 2-week-old baby, buried in the rubble of their home. cannot get out. as you said, it's freezing. the baby came out with nearly no clothes on. i don't know why, but it's just a miracle that the baby -- it's a miracle first of all that they happened to find them in the middle of all of that devastation. >> it is remarkable. and the quake happened on sunday, and when you consider, as i said, the devastation. more than 2,200 buildings destroyed. in will be a lot of structures or what's left of them to search. so diana magnay, again on the scene there tells us that people can be rescued alive in the aftermath of an earthquake up to 20 days afterwards. so, again, hopefully this is a scene that we will see again in the coming days, but just a remarkable story. again, a two-week-old baby girl found alive, rescued from the

rubble in eastern turkey. >> and to find out how you can help quake victims visit our impact your world page at cnn.com/impact. moving on to american politics. texas governor rick perry hoping to breathe new life into his presidential campaign way bold economic plan. perry set to announce his proposal for a national flat tax during a campaign event in south carolina later this morning. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us from washington with details. a flat tax idea seems too be a popular one. >> reporter: yeah, we've heard it in past campaigns, from republican candidates. maybe the texas governor is hoping for a little 9-9-9 magic. talking about herman cain's much touted plan that helped cain go from an afterthought to one of the front-runners, according to polls. so perry today you mentioned in south carolina laying it out on the line. what's it called? cut, balance and grow. what does it have in there? yes, a flat tax, you mentioned. a choice for most americans between the flat tax rate,

around 20% or the current income tax rate. perry thinks most will go for the flat tax. preserves mortgage interest, charitable exemptions and state and local tax exemptions. increases standard deductions to $12,500 for individuals and independents, calling for abolishing the death tax and corporate tax rate, lower it from 35% to 20%. carol, as you said, more details today in south carolina when perry lays it all out. >> two questions. who helped mr. perry craft that plan, and why is he making this announcement in south carolina? >> reporter: south carolina, i think you know the answer to that one. yes, one the early voting states. first southern state to hold a primary. good place to go. location, location, location, of course. as for who? yeah. steve forbes. the head of "forbes" magazine. ran for the white house in 1996 and 2000 as a republican and the flat tax was weren't of his big parts of his platform when running, and perry said in the

"wall street journal" this morning that his simple 20% flat tax would allow americans to file their taxes on a postcard. something forbes also said when he was running for the white house, carol. >> we'll see if it catches fire. governor perry also, i guess is reviving this -- there be is no controversy over this birther issue but he tried to create controversy again. tell us exactly what rick perry said and why he might have said that. >> reporter: yeah. comments over the weekend's in "parade" magazine, most get in sunday paper. nopt in hard copy, online. he said in the interview he believes the president was, yes, born in the u.s. but less confident of the birth sir tiff wit, hawaii released and went ton say he had dinner with donald trump and trump doesn't think it's real. a lot of people calling perry out. this morning harwood, the nbc's

chief political reporter for cnbc interviewed perry and perry told him the birther issue was good to keep alive, it's fun to poke at him. that from john harwood, and here's -- carol, wait, there more. >> do it for fun? saying, oh, the president's not born in the united states, because, wow, it's a big, huge -- come on. >> reporter: that's what harwood is reporting, a and we will see the interview later this morning and have more on that. there's more. per vi having a news conference, 3:00 eastern in south carolina. our own jim accost osta will bee and perry will be peppered with questions about this controversy. >> hopefully he'll convince people it really is just fun to poke holes at the president. just teasing. paul steinhauser, thanks so much. president obama on the road, rolling out new relief for homeowners whose mortgage value is greater than the value of their home. the president launched his rebound housing program during a

three-day swing out west and while unveiling his plan to help homeowners refinance, the president called out congress for failing to move forward on his jobs plan. >> the only way that we can truly attack our economic challenges, the only way we can put hundreds of thousands of people back to work right now is with bold action from congress. that's why i'm going to keep forcing these senators to vote on common sense paid-for jobs proposals. >> cnn white house correspondent dan lothian is traveling with the president. he is live in los angeles for us this morning. dan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. >> so, you know, this is a big fund-raising trip for the president. so he has two more planned in colorado today. but before we get to that, let's talk about what he's doing today. he is dropping in on jay leno. isn't he? >> reporter: that's right. this is something that the president has done before as

president. also as candidate. so he will be sitting down with jay leno. we expect that it will be a mixture of some fun moments, but also a chance for the president to continue to push congress to act on his jobs bill. this trip from the president is really focused, at least the first part of it, on helping americans who are struggling to stay in their homes, to be able to do so. revamping the mortgage program, the government mortgage program. it's expected to impact about 1 million americans. the sense is that the depressed housing market is pulling down the economic recovery. that is why you're seeing the president pushing in this direction along those homeowners who are under water. in other words, they owe more on their homes than they're actually valued. it will also lower some of the fees or do away with some of the fees that are holding back these homeowners from getting a chance to refinance, and the idea is that if you make it easier for

these homeowners to refinance, they get lower rates, they'll end up with more money in their pockets and then they can spend that money which can help inject life into the ailing economy. now, there are skeptics out there, the president himself admitted this is not the answer to all of the ailments of the housing market, but it is a start and this is an opportunity for congress to act in his overall jobs bill. the president himself pointing out he has other ideas to jump-start the economy, alina. >> obviously, this mortgage relief proposal is applauded by many americans. it could help up to 30 million americans, and yet you're right. the question is, is it a short-term fix or a long-term solution? having said that, the president is very, very busy, in addition to rolling out these plans. he's also the fund-raiser in cleef. got those two fund-raising events planned later today. how's he done so far? >> reporter: this is a big trip for the president when it comes

to hauling in campaign gold. he did have fund-raisers here in los angeles last night. also one in nevada. you pointed out, he will have more fund-raisers not only in colorado but up in san francisco later today. according to a democratic official, the president expected to haul in more than $4.2 million. so this is huge, obviously, as the president ballances getting initiatives past and raising campaign money. republicans have been digging into the robust campaign fund-raising effort, but this is something all presidents have to do to make that balance again. so the president continues to push forward, and, you know, here in the west, this is key for the president. there are key states out here that the president needs to pick up in order to win in 2012. so you see him out there campaigning, fund-raisingacy well, hoping it will translate to votes come 2012. >> dan lothian in los angeles this morning. dan, thank you.

also this morning, moammar gadhafi has been buried. an official with libya's national transitional council telling cnn the libyan dictator was laid to rest this morning at dawn at an undisclosed location. gadhafi's body had been on public display in cold storage since his death. an explosion at a crowded bus station in downtown nairobi, kenya killed one person. it happened blocks away from a nightclub where a blast went off earlier that morning. 12 hurt in that attack. so far no one claimed responsibility either attack. the explosions came two days after the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of an imminent terror attack. the nba may be one step closer to having the entire season cancelled. the new york daily news reports the league plans to announce the cancellation of at least two more weeks of games today. the nba player talks collapsed last week with a federal mediator knop new talks are scheduled. the texas rangers are one win away from their first-ever

world series title. they came from behind to beat the st. louis cardinals in game five 4-2. a bases loaded double by mike napoli in the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie. rangers can clinch in game six in st. louis. if a game seven is needed that will be in st. louis, too. >> and their rhumba almost turned into a rumble. on last night's dns "dancing with the stars," maxim -- no yo how to pronounce the last name. got into an exchange during the critique of his dance with his partner hope solo. listen. >> this is your worst dance of the whole season, in my opinion. >> max -- max -- half the fault is yours. so don't -- >> as long as -- as long as the audience liked our journey, we're good. >> the audience -- let me tell

you, max, the audience like the effect. they judge on -- i've been in this business nearly 50 years. >> you maybe it's time to get out. >> oh, no. don't be like that. let's not be disrespectful to everybody, because everybody is putting a lot of effort. everybody on that balcony has been dying and only toll hear you guys a little judgmental comments. you know what i mean? >> whew. sort of like the republican debate. the host finally getting in the middle trying to diffuse the situation. hope and max ended up with 20 out of 30 possible points. >> can't we all get along? >> no, we cannot. it's a rule now in this country. we must bicker. >> that's right. just ahead on "american morning," the defense is up at the michael jackson death trial. what does it have to do to convince jurors conrad murray is not responsible for jackson's death? take a look at incredible

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16 minutes past. an update now on that breaking news out of eastern turkey. there's been a remarkable discovery today in the rubble a 2-week-old baby girl found alive two days after a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake. >> diana magnay is live in turkey with this incredible story. good morning to you. tell us what happened? >> reporter: hi, alina. it really is an amazing story. almost two hours ago now a

14-day-old baby rescued from the rubble. we heard from the grandmother that the child was three weeks premature. so should really still have been in the womb and already survived and earthquake and 36 hours in the rubble. i'm just going to move out of the way so you can see the rescue operation that is still going on for that little baby girl's mother and grandmother who are both inside the rubble, and apparently on the point of being brought out. and we just spoke to the man who rescued the little baby girl. a guy who said he's been working on these kinds of situations for 12 years now, and he has never managed to pull somebody out alive. he says he has a son of his own, and the moment when he took that little girl from the mother, from the mother's hands, and carried her out to safety was like having another child, he said. unbelievably emotional comment from this rescue workers, this hero, who took the baby out.

now, i'll just tell you a bit more about the process, alina. apparently the mother, about two hours ago, made contact, the rescue workers heard her voice and managed to carve out a tunnel to her, but it was extremely narrow. they needed somebody who was very thin to go down through the tunnel and collect the child and that's why this man was chosen. the mother and the grandmother are now being supplied with oxygen and trying to expand the space where they are kept so they can free them, too. >> incredible. and tell us, diana, how soon could that happen, and, again, remind our viewers, the mother and grandmother are said to be in pretty good shape. right? >> reporter: they're apparently pretty healthy. i spoke to one of the res ki wo rescue workers who said it could happen any moment now. that is why everybody is poised in the media and a lot of people from the villages are hoping it might happen soon. again,s it is anyone's guess, i

suppose it depends on how safely they can expand that space, and we'll just pan over to the building there. the multistory apartment building that this family was in, and you can see the extent of the devastation. we know, also, that the husband, the father of the child, is inside there, too somewhere. the mother has communicated that to the search and rescue team, but she says that she's not -- she didn't know where he is. she hasn't been able to contact him. she only has contact with her mother, and here you can see all the people gathered. being kept back by military personnel just to make sure the search and rescue workers can do their job as efficiently as possible, alina. >> die an if a, quidiedie -- di ask, is it safe to assume conditions are much, much better

since then? freezing temperatures hampering the rescue? >> reporter: it's freezing at night. we did just here a crack of thunder. somebody came up and said, listen, all the tv crews around the search and rescue operation, but what about the people who aren't getting the attention they need, who are cold at night, not getting the tents? the aid at night has been fairly efficient. we've seen truck, huge amounts of aid and medical supplies flown in and tent cities have been built. we have also seen scenes where people are fighting over tents. it is obviously not the case that everybody is getting the aid and attention that they need at this point. obviously, a race against time. >> diana magnay, thanks very much. i'm so glad the baby girl, but her father still missing. we'll keep our fingers crossed and send up a few prayers. let's check in with jacqui jeras. a pretty good start. a couple hot spots we're watching. first of all, the rain pulling

out of the northeastern quarter, still hanging in there in parts of maine and the western great lakes are seeing the bulk of the rain house issor. enou showers. watch for that, i-39, green bay, milwaukee a couple sprinkles. for the most authority pa holds off until the afternoon hours. expecting major delays because of at o'hare, major thunderstorms and wind. boston, delays under an hour. min ap polineapolis looking for. denver looking for showers later in the day for today, but, denver, man, an interesting swing you guys have here this week. a record high of 80 degrees yesterday. today just shy of 60, and tomorrow luck toy may to make i. upgraded from watches, turning into snow late tonight and into tomorrow.

plenty in the higher elevations. one to two feet, but just a couple ink inches getting towar the valley floor. bringing rain to the north. seeing snow on the cold side of this system. into the south, extreme warmth. temperatures about 10 to 20 degrees above average today. from kansas city down to dallas. spectacular video, guys. it you're not next to your television screen, come over and take a look at this right now. the aurora borealis across the northern tier of the u.s. last night. look at this time lapse from michigan. you can see this as far south as alabama. even into georgia. so we had a nice solar storm that took place on saturday. it takes about 40 hours for that electromagnetic energy to make its way into the earth's atmosphere, and see these beautiful curtains of light. what an amazing show, guys. >> how often does this happen? never seen anything like this. >> it happens every now and then.

more prominent, really, near the equinoxes and this time of the year you can see it easier. often you'll have clear skies and a very nice, dark sky to be able to see it. this is kind of on the weak side in terms of solar storms. a scale of 1 to 5, only a 2. you don't need to worry about losing gps or cell phone reception. what a great display. >> thank you. mother nature. thank you, jacqui. appreciate it. we're going to take you back live to eastern turkey after a break where they're trying to rescue a family still trapped in the rubble. the baby girl came out. 14-weeks old. happy and healthy. they're still looking for the mother and grandmother and father. it's 23 past the hour.

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union. the announcement could not come soon enough. recession fears for the region are on the rise after a new survey shows business activity stalled. france in particular showing major weakness in that area. bp profits soar in the third quarter. the oil giant report add net profit's $4.9 billion, more than double what it was last year when bp was hit hard by the gulf oil spill. more bad news for netflix. it lost sububscribers. they announced price hikes this summer. stock down 30% right now, pre-market trading. fedex is gearing up for the holiday shipping frenzy in a major way. the global shipping giant says december 12th is set to be the busiest day it's ever had and expected millions of packages to be shipped this year. the company is adding 20,000 temporary workers to help handle the holiday rush. and the list of retailers

offering free shipping for the holidays is growing. sears and kmart announcing they will now pick up the shipping tab. all part of an effort to boost sales during these critical next few months. don't forget, for the latest news about your money, check out the all-new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" will be back after a break.

let's head back to eastern turkey, shall we? because there was a miracle amid the rubble. rescuers pulled a 14-day-old baby girl from a collapsed building in turkey. she is alive. you see rescue workers there looking binto the rubble. looking for the child's grandmother and mother, trying to free them right now. it could happen at any moment. the death toll from sunday's 7.2 earthquake stands at 366. they're also looking for the baby's father. no sign of him yet. president obama says he's tired of waiting for congress to act. so he's rolling out changes to the government's mortgage relief program himself. under the new rules, homeowners who are up-to-date with mortgage payments qualify for new loans at today's low rates, no matter how far the value of their homes have fallen. and the new york daily news said the nba is set to announce cancellation of two more regular season games today.

the third time commissioner david stern postponed games as the league's player lock outcontinues. moammar gadhafi has been buried according to an official with libya's national transitional council. the dictator was laid to rest at an undisclosed location this morning ap dawn. gadhafi's body had been on display in cold storage for the public to see. ever since he was killed five days ago in his home town of sirte. cnn's dan rivers with the latest joins us live from tripoli, libya this morning. dan, good morning. has there been any independent confirmation of this burial? any reporters present or just family and close relatives? >> reporter: no reports as far as we're aware. no family present at the actual burial. we're told by the tripoli military council is that members of his tribe, the gadhafi tribe, were allowed to pray over the

body before it was buried in the desert, and that he was buried along with mutassim his son and abu bakr at a secret location out in the desert. that's all we know, really. they wanted to keep this secret to avoid his grave becoming any kind of a shrine to pro-gadhafi supporters, and after almost five days now of lying in that cold storage facility at a market in misrata, he has finally been buried in the desert. the desert that he ultimately came from as a bedouin when he was a young boy. that's where he's gone back to. we don't know the precise location where he's been buried. >> dan, just a day ago we were showing incredible pictures of jubilation, celebration on the streets at the news that the country will move towards a democracy in the next two years.

it looks fairly calm where you are right now. how is it on the streets of tripoli right now? >> reporter: yeah. life beginning to get back to some semblance of normality. i don't know how much you can see behind me. traffic is busy out there in the city center today. shops are reopening. i mean, it's just a world away from the last time i was here back in august, when the city had just fallen. now, you know, you've got cafes open, restaurants open. i've even seen schoolkids out. kids playing in the playgrounds down here. the port is opening again, the airport is functioning. so it is beginning to feel like a normal functioning city and not one under siege or part of a war zone anymore. >> remarkable. cnn's dan rivers live from tripoli with that report. thank you as always. your chance to "talk back" on one of the big stories of the

day. the question, should the president bypass congress to help the economy? president obama has gone from yes, we can, to, we can't wait. since congress isn't exactly eager to discuss any part of the president's jobs bill, the president has gone rogue. instead waiting for congress to act, he's implementing a series of executive actions, like new rules aimed at making it easier for homeowners to refinance. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. where they won't act, i will. the barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing if their home values have fallen so low what they owe on their mortgage is 20% higher than the current value of their home. >> it won't be enough to solve the housing crisis. republicans say it won't solve anything. the president is using the excuse of political gangsmanship to get around congress. >> they're a shame to mention

any of the things that they do as republicans because it steps on their story line. their story line is that there must be some villain out there who's keeping this administration from succeeding. >> what's clear is the economy won't be greatly helped unless congress does act in some way, and congress is not likely to act on the president's plans. so president obama's moving forward on his own. monday the home mortgage plan. tomorrow a plan to help with student loans. he's intonight show americans he's doing something and to shame congress into acting. "talk back" question for you today -- should the president bypass congress to help the economy? facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your responses later this hour. still to come this morning, the defense at the michael jackson death trial plans to call more than a dozen witnesses over the next three or four days. will dr. conrad murray be one of them. already recommended for girls. medical experts are about to vote on a plan to give the hpv

vaccine to boy. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is here to answer your questions. it's 35 minutes past the hour. why do we have aflac...

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39 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." the manslaughter trial of michael jackson's former doctor, conrad murray, is winding down. after the prosecution rested yesterday, murray's defense team wasted no time trying to place the blame for jackson's death on the singer himself. joining us now for a closer look at the challenges for dr. conrad murray's defense, cnn legal

contributor paul cowen, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. nice to see you, as always. >> nice to see you. >> we heard from two key witnesses for the defense. one a doctor who treated jackson on and off for more than two decades for profound sleep disorder. another one, a nurse, who had helped jackson over the years. both of them essentially supported the defense's claim that jackson shopped for propofol himself. so what do you think? is this going to stick? did it work? >> well, the defense is trying to put on the board the defense ta he self-administered the fatal dose of propofol and that in essence he was a drug addict who killed himself. this is the only route that the defense can follow. they're hopefully creating sympathy for dr. murray by saying he didn't even realize that jackson was taking these other drugs. whether they're going to succeed or not, i don't know. the prosecutor kind of turned

one of those witnesses, the doctor -- >> right. let's talk about that. what you're talking about, dr. allen metzger. you're right. they took him, the defense witness and tried to turn it around to their advantage. let's listen to this exchange and we'll talk on the other side. >> did you ever give michael jackson propofol? >> never. >> is there any amount of money that you would have, that could are convinced you to give him intravenus propofol in his house? >> absolutely not. >> so is that a convincing argument for the prosecution? >> it does help the prosecution. they're trying to say, they called on metzger to say he was shopping for drug. now metzger takes the stand and says i didn't give him propofol and by the way i would never have propofol administered in a home setting. what you have to remember in the end in the michael jackson case is that this is not a deliberate murder case. this is an involuntary manslaughter case. >> right. >> the standard is that you

didn't use due caution or circumspection in administering the drug. not that you intended to kill him. >> they have to show dr. conrad murray was reckless? >> right, reckless, overly or grossly negligent. very different standard than intentional murder cases that we're used to seeing in court. >> remind our viewers, really. is the central question still, did michael jackson self-administer the propofol or did dr. conrad murray give it to him in his final moments? i mean, that's the question that really needs to be answered, right? >> and what's really been interesting about that, is that the defense, yes, put that on the board and said, that's our defense. he self-administered, but yesterday and the day before, a prosecution expert anesthesiologist said, you know something, even if he self-administered, who set up the i.v. next to the bed? who put the propofol in the i.v. and who left the room? should you leave a room with a drug addict with an i.v.

dripping his favorite drug propofol? so this doctor, doctor shafer said, that is enough to make that an involuntary manslaughter charge, even if michael jackson self-administered. >> the problem is, it's all speculation's i mean, the only person still alive in the -- who was in that room is dr. conrad murray. right right? you know? so the defense could rest, call a dozen witnesses. do you think dr. conrad murray himself will be called? >> no. i'd be shocked if he were. he's testified through videotape. remember, extensive interviews played to the jury. they know his entire story, and i think he would be destroyed on cross-examination. i'd really be shocked if he testifies. >> so the defense could wrap up their case by the end of the week. monday at the latest. this could go to the jury by then. amazing. we've been following it so closely. if you're a betting man, where are you placing your bets? >> always dangerous to do this.

as those who bet on the casey anthony verdict learned. i think the prosecution has made out a case here, because, and i think they're going to win the case, because i think this -- they put a good argument on the boards that this is reckless, grossly negligent conduct by a doctor to administer this dangerous drug in a home setting without proper equipment and without proper monitoring. it's not an intentional murder case. it's a case based on a very severe medical mistake, and i think the prosecution has made their case. i'd be very surprised if murray is acquitted. >> you're saying they're meet that lower standard? >> i think they will. >> he would lose his medical license and get four years behind bars potentially. paul could youwen, great to see >> i'm not coming back if ing wrong. bring another legal analyst. >> not true. we're bringing you back regardless. >> we'll just play the tape of your prediction over and over and over.

still ahead on "american morning," medical experts are about to vote on a recommendation to give the hpv vaccine to boys. it's a vote that could impact millions of american families. up next, our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen will clear up all the confusion for you. it's 45 minutes past the hour. formation. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. trade commission free for 60 days come on in. (camera flashes) leanne...leanne! how do you feel about your new focus? oh my god, i love it. (laughs) what would you say to a friend who

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47 minutes past the hour. here's what you need to start your day -- searching for survivors from sunday's earthquake. overnight a miracle as rescuers pull a 14-day-old baby girl from a collapsed building. she is alive and so are her mother and grandmother. rescuers are trying to get to them now. the death toll stands at 366. cut balance and grow is what rick perry is calling his new economic plan letting people opt out of their current tax rate for a 20% flat tax. perry will unveil the plan at a campaign event this morning in south carolina. more bad news for nba fans. the new york daily news reporting the league planned to announce the cancellation of at least two more weeks of the

regular season. negotiations between the league owners and locked out players broke down last week and no new talk are scheduled. moammar gadhafi has finally been burred. the national transitional council telling cnn the libyan dictator was laid to rest at dawn this morning at an undisclosed desert location. floodwaters shut down the second major airport in bangkok, effectively halting all domestic flights. the main international airport remain open. catastrophic flooding in thailand in the last three months killed 366 people. an amazing sight across the midwest and southeast. red and pink streaks filling the sky overnight. some say these northern lights were the strongest and most beautiful they've ever seen. you're now caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" back in 60 seconds.

welcome back to "american morning." medical experts are set to vote today on a proposal that recommends giving boys the hpv vacci vaccine. it's already on the vaccine schedule for girls at the disease control. that has sparked plenty of controversyp controversyp controversy. elizabeth cohen is here with

more. what is this all about, elizabeth? >> usually when we think of hpv, we think of girls. but a vaccine against hpv if given to boys would help in three ways. help prevent gentle warts and certain types of cancer for boys and also help keep boys from giving hpv to girls because that's how girls get it. they get it through sexual contact with boys. so, this committee at the cdc, they're going to be looking at this today and they're going to be reviewing whether or not boys should be getting the hpv shot, that's gardasil. the ones that girls are currently supposed to get. >> if the cdc does put this on the vaccine schedule. i don't hear the word mandatory. do marnparents have to get this their children? >> a good chance it won't be mandatory. the cdc tells states, hey, we think kids should get x, y and z

shots. it's then up to the state if they want to require those for children to go to school. only virginia and the district of columbia have said to girls, you have to get this shot or you're not allowed at school. good chance they'll do the same for boys. >> the controversy being, this has been on the campaign trail with governor rick perry. he said it was a mistake that he made at a mandate to administer the hpv vaccine to girls. obviously, social conservatives are saying that this promotes promisecuity and we heard that for a while. the question is, is it safe? >> you know, doctors will tell you that there is no question this shot is safe and millions of doses given around the world and no serious side effects. i mean, among doctors, no debate about safety. they say it is safe. >> all right, elizabeth cohen, senior medical correspondent with that update. great to see you, elizabeth. >> great to see you. we asked you to talk back on one of the big stories of the

day. ed the the president bypass congress to help with the economy. yes, mr. obama is the elected president and congress has proven that they are incapable of doing anything positive for the country. it's time that somebody makes a move and i refuse to trust congress to do that any more. no, the president needs to have the approval of congress. that's why the founding fathers set up the government and the constitution the way that they did. to avoid any one branch of government having too much power. this from kate, absolutely. mr. obama needs to get things done any way he can. our legislatures have boldly said they want him to fail. we have seen him time and time again to sit back and agree to any plan to help the american people just to help them fail. i hope we don't award that behavior by electing any of them in 2012. keep the comments coming. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read more of your responses

later on "american morning." still to come this morning, an incredible story of survival. a two-week-old baby rescued from the rubble after sunday's deadly earthquake. now, the frantic race to save the baby's family. and fixing america's housing crisis. the president unveils a plan to help borrowers refinance their existing mortgages. but will the plan really help? you're watching "american morning." it's 55 minutes past the hour. the employee of the month isss...

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good morning to you, tuesday, october 25th. glad you're up with us. i'm carol costello. >> special welcome to our international viewers, as well. christine and ali are off today. we begin with this breaking news. >> breaking great news, actually, from the earthquake ravaged turkey. a 2-week-old baby girl has been found alive in the rubble two days after a devastating 7.2 magnitude quake killed more than

360 people. let's take you to that scene of that rescue. the town is ercis in eastern turkey. that's where diana is standing by live. we understand it is raining now and sort of a flurry of activity where that baby girl was pulled out earlier. >> yes, that's right. it is raining quite hard. rescue workers have been trying to find the little baby girl's mother and grandmother. the mother's mother-in-law who they have been in contact with for a good few hours. what happened was a couple hours ago the mother made contact. they heard the mother in the rubble. the mother managed to hand her little baby girl over to a rescue worker. they managed to channel out a narrow passage through which they could pass the baby. they had to find a rescue worker who was thin enough to go through and he has, he pulled

the baby out. we talked to him a little bit earlier. he said he's been working on this kind of activity for 12 years and this was the first time he ever pulled anyone alive from the rubble from the situation like this. he said the moment when he took that child in his hands was like him having a second child. and now we know that in there, the mother and the grandmother, who apparently are both healthy and they've been trying to get them out, they've been giving oxygen to them and basically trying to make that tunnel that they took the baby through wide enough to bring them out. as you say, it does seem in the last few moments as though this sort of flurry of activity around her has gathered. they brought a plastic stretcher, which would, obviously, lead the way to carry the two of them out, once they come out. so, we are hoping that at some point soon we might see those two women carried out alive. alina? >> we sure hope so.

diana reporting live from eastern turkey. to find out how you can help those devastated by the earthquake in turkey, visit our impact your world page. you can find it at cnn.com/impact. turn to politics now. rick perry's big pitch. scrap the current tax code and offer the option of a 20% flat tax rate. the texas governor will unveil his plan at a campaign event this morning in the key state of south carolina. joining us now from washington, paul steinhauser to give us some of the details of that plan. what will we hear governor perry say today, paul? >> i think governor perry today in south carolina will try to make a case for a simplified tax system and maybe also politically trying to get some of that 9-9-9. herman cain, his tax plan which he has been touting over the last couple months has boost him to an after thought. perry, of course, was the frontrunner back in september. has faltered in the polls. so, today the plan is called

cut, balance and grow. it includes a new flat rate tax. mortgage interest, charitable state and local tax exemptions for families earning less than $500,000 a year. it increases the standard deduction to 12,500 for individuals and independents. ewants to eliminate the death tax and lower corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%. steve forbes, the head of forbes incorporated and forbes incorporated that ran for the presidency in '96 and 2000 pushing the flat tax was one of the co-authors of this plan. perry uses one of forbes' line saying my tax plan is so simple you can fill out your taxes on a postcard. alina? >> governor perry, obviously, taking center stage because of this today, but he is also trying to revive this controversy over president obama's birth certificate. he gave an interview to parade

magazine. what did he say and why now, paul? >> very interesting and controversy stuff. you know, today is a big day for the tax plan, but he may be overshadowed by these comments. "parade" magazine not in their printed version, but in their online version and perry says he believes the president was born in the united states, but less confident than the birth certificate. the president asked hawaii to release earlier this year was real. perry went on to say in that interview, i don't know. i had dinner with donald trump the other night. he doesn't think it was real. trump was flirting with the run for the white house earlier this year and part of his push was to question president's birth here in the united states. now, john harwood one of the top political reporters for cnb xrrx had an interview with perry this morning. here's what he tweets from that interview. perry tells me why he kept obama birther issue alive. it's a good issue to keep alive and it's fun to poke at him. that from john harwood who just

interviewed perry. our jim acosta will be there and other reporters, as well. i expect this will be coming up. karl rove, a top republican even yesterday scolded perry for trying to bring this back. i thought we were all beyond this, didn't you? >> well, you know, we'll have to wait and see what happens. it is interesting that he has brought this up. i thought it had been settled. but, all right. there you have it. paul steinhauser, thanks so much. >> you thought it didn't need to be settled, no. president obama is tired of waiting for a dysfunctional congress so he's changing the rules himself. the president announced a plan that is designed to make it easy for responsible homeowners to refinance their mortgages. dan lothian is live in los angeles. tell us more, dan. >> well, what we're talking about here is a revision of that program that government program that could impact up to 1 million homeowners. a lot of people believe that the housing market that the housing market is what is really causing

a major drag on the economic recovery. this effort by the president, which goes around congress will ease up on some of the cost, do away with some of the costs that prevent people from refinancing to lower their rates. but it will also help these homeowners who are struggling. >> this is going to help a lot more homeowners refinance at lower rates, which means consumers save money, those families save money and it gets those families spending in it again and it also makes it easier for them to make their mortgage payments. >> now, there are skeptics out there and the president himself admitting that this plan, this revision of the program will not solve all the problems. that's why he's pushing on congress to push his jobs bill and saying he will act alone at other points in order to inject some life into this ailing economy. >> but when you get right down to it, dan, i mean, the president needs congress to act.

congress needs to pass some sort of legislation to really help people through this housing crisis. is there anything on the horizon in congress that may help? >> well, as you know, there has been a log jam and a lot of different things that the president has been pushing as part of the overall plan. now, he's trying to break it into pieces. hopefully that congress, he believes, will pass pieces of his plan, but, yes, you're correct. i mean, this is something that only targets up to a million people. so, in the big scheme of things, it doesn't solve a major problem. especially in some of these hard-hit areas like florida and nevada where we saw the president yesterday meeting with homeowners. the president believing that you have to sastart somewhere becau congress isn't acting he thinks it's important for the government to do something now. >> dan lothian reporting live for us this morning, thank you. also new this morning, moammar gadhafi has been finally buried. you're looking at burial of an empty cold storage room where

the libyan dictator's body has been on display. gadhafi's body was laid to rest this morning at dawn at an undisclosed location in the desert. an explosion at a crowded bus station in downtown nairobi, kenya, has killed at least one person. it happened yesterday just blocks away from the nightclub where a blast went off earlier that morning. 12 people were hurt in that attack. so far no one has claimbed responsibility for either attack. the explosion came two days after the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of an imminent terror attack. he's no magician, but david stern is making nba games disappear. the league will reportedly cancel two more weeks of the season today. talks broke down last week and no new talks are scheduled. the world series heading back to st. lewis the texas rangers in the driver's seat. beat the cardinals 4-2 last night.

catcher mike napoli was the hitting star. texsis one win away from its first ever world series title. incredible. their rumba almost turned into a rumble on last night's "dancing with the stars." >> this is your worst dance of the whole season, in my opinion. >> maks, don't start all that. half the fault is yours. don't start that. >> as long as the audience like our journey, we're good. >> the audience, let me tell you, the audience, like the effect. they i have been in this business for 50 years. >> don't be disrespectful like that. >> everybody is putting a lot of effort. everybody on that balcony has been dying and killing

themselves only to hear your judgmental comments. >> i don't know how they can take that. that really terrible critique sometimes. >> i would give some choice words back myself. >> tom trying to get in the situation and hope and maks ended up with 20 out of 30 possible points. still to come this morning, why the united states is now facing another credit downgrade by the end of the year. here we go, again. what does it all mean? the northern lights lighting up the sky across parts of the u.s. so, what caused, oh, isn't that beautiful? we'll show you more after a break. it's nine minutes past. companies you're just a policy.

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and good morning to you. breaking news out of oakland, california, to tell you about. >> that's right. you look at the pictures here live. kind of a tense situation there. police have arrested more than two dozen people in the occupy tent city there. protesters have been in this area called frank ogoa plaza for six weeks. there have bipartisan some smoke released. again, more than two dozen people have been arrested. the occupy wall street protests began, you'll recall, in new york city back on september 17th. the protesters outraged at what they call the top 1% of the country. but some critics have said that unlike the tea party movement, they have been disorganized about finding a solution to the problem. nonetheless, the occupy protests have spread not just around this country, but around the world to

more than 80 countries, hundreds of cities and we're monitoring this story very closely, again, out of oakland, california. >> this situation in oakland is pretty serious. a camp near 14th street and broadway. you see police in riot gear there. they dispense something that spewed smoke. you can probably guess, they have been trying to get these people to leave for weeks in oakland because the problems we have been hearing about here in new york city about public yourination and garbage and the occu occupy people clear out. they said, please, leave. of course, the protesters refused and some are sitting down and getting arrested, which is apparently what they want to happen. >> remember, it's 5:00 in the morning there and you're looking at live pictures. obviously, the situation which has been tense now for a few weeks reached a boil. more than two dozen protesters arrested today. again, this is a situation we're

following very, very closely and we'll bring more as we get more details into our newsroom. let's head to atlanta now and check in with jacqui jeras. >> good morning, guys. drizzly, wet conditions across the great lakes and in the upper midwest. this is going to be the real focus of where a lot of the wet weather is going to be today and impacting your travel. if you're still heading out the door yet, make sure you have your umbrella with you and take extra time as the roadways are slick. we have been seeing rain along i-94 along i-39. green bay down towards milwaukee and chicago you're staying dry for the most part. the rain should move in later today and we're just starting to see this move into the detroit area, as well. again, mainly light, but enough to kind of be a nuisance overall thisern mog. so, major delays expected this afternoon. over an hour in chicago. not only do you have some of that light rain to deal with, but also very windy conditions. we also have wind in boston and minneapolis looking for showers especially this afternoon. the wind in dallas and kansas

city, although a warm wind. denver looking at afternoon showers. the only delay currently that we have to report is at newark. about a 15-minute departure delay, not major and not weather related. at least not at this time. all right, let's talk a little bit more about the delays in denver we're expected. start off as rain later on today but overnight tonight and into tomorrow, that will change to snow. winter storm warnings in effect. this is after hitting 80 degrees yesterday, denver. that was a record high for you. hard to believe by tomorrow we'll be lucky it hit 40. several inches of accumulation expected in denver. you get up into the high country, we could be talking about well over a foot, possibly as much as two feet for a few of you. of course, keeps a lot of people happy when you're talk about the ski nation. big storm system you're watching over the next couple days and cold air filtering in back behind it and on the south side of it warm, dry air that is moving in.

that's why temperatures here a good 10 to 20 degrees above where you should be for this time of the year. 83 degrees in kansas city for the end of october. 80 in memphis, 72 in chicago. before that cold front moves on through. brings you back down into the 50s. there was a spectacular display last night. just look at the amazing colors. look at the green and purples as well as some of the reds. this is not necessarily a rare event, but what is unusual is that this was seen in the southern parts of the united states. normally you is to be way up there, but people in atlanta saw it and people in alabama saw it and reports in arkansas, as well as ohio. so, really, a lot of people got to see this beautiful, spectacular display. kind of a weak ejection from this solar storm overall, but,

man, look at the results. isn't that beautiful, guys? >> so beautiful. you're right, i could sit here and watch it all day. >> all day, over and over. never gets old. it's so beautiful. >> too bad that rob marciano isn't there to witness it in atlanta. he's filing an investigative report out of denver on the ski slopes. >> that could be the case. i'm not sure. quick trip, because i think he's back tomorrow. >> what he deserves. jacqui, thanks. united states could be just a couple months away from another credit downgrade. the problem, a congressional super committee charged with a debt reduction plan may be too divided to get anything done. here's lisa sylvester. >> reporter: the 12 members of the super committee share one thing in common. strong ties to their caucus and political base. that kind of division makes it challenging to find common ground and wall street seems to know that. a new bank of america merrill lynch report says the deficit commission is, "very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit

reduction plan." the committee is more divided than the overall congress. the merrill lynch report forecasts an additional downgrade from another major ratings agency by the end of the year if the super committee fails to act. university of maryland professor says that's a scenario he also sees playing out. >> we're getting to budget dysfunction. we need a whole restructuring of how the federal government spends money in its relationship with the states regarding health care, medicaid. that's not happening. the credit agencies are quite correct to say it's not aaa and even less. >> reporter: standard & poor's lowered from aaa to aa. s&p left the door open to further rating cuts. moody's and fitch rating still scored aaa, but moody's has a negative outlook and also warned a risk of a downgrade if further fiscal consolidation measures

are not adopted in 2013. the way the committee was set up by congress, there is something called a trigger if the super committee deadlocks or the president vetoes their proposal. >> what happens then in that year, the first year, you get a 9% cut in defense spending and nonexempt domestic spending. things like social security, medicaid. >> reporter: things like medicare, homeland security spending in addition to defense cuts. that would take efeblfect in 20. the merrill report predicts uncertainty for the investors and the markets ahead. downgraded the u.s. credit rating, the stock market dropped 7%. most of the work of the supercommittee has been done behind closed doors. there is a public hearing scheduled for this wednesday, but only five more weeks to go until congress has until december 23rd to vote on whatever proposals the committee comes up with. it's a tall order to get all of

this done. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. still to come this morning, prosecutors for conrad murray as an opportunistic doctor who is responsible for the death of michael jackson. now, the defense will try to convince the jurors otherwise. es and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. [ daniel ] my name is daniel northcutt. [ jennifer ] and i'm jennifer northcutt. opening a restaurant is utterly terrifying. we lost well over half of our funding when everything took a big dip.

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open this morning. strong quarterly earning reports and a few merger announcements. we're one day away from finding out a grand plan to save the european union. the announcement could not come soon enough' recession fears are on the rise this week after business activity has stalled with france, in particular, showing major weakness in that sector. the vatican is calling for an overhaul of the world's financial systems, according to a proposal by the church. the vatican suggests creating a global political authority that would regulate the financial markets. more bad news for netflix, the company announced it lost 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter. customers have been jumping ship since the company announced price hikes this summer. stock is down more than 35% in premarket trading. halloween decorations and candy will cost you much more this year, according to the national retail federation. americans are expected to spend $6.9 billion this halloween, that's up 19% from last year.

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and we have breaking news from turkey this morning. a second person has just been rescued. possibly the mother of a 14-day baby, who was rescued earlier today. a little girl who is said to be in good condition. you're looking now at video of the woman. again, there are some indications that it may be the

mother of a 2-week-old baby who was rescued from a collapsed building. this is all happening in eastern turkey. earlier our diana magna had been reporting that the mother and grandmother were still trapped, but told rescuers wethey were i good shape and doing well and that rescue could happen within a day. it appears as though we're looking at one of those rescues right now. we're watching this story very closely. obviously a wonderful, remarkable story we're bringing you from eastern turkey. we'll bring you more details. >> the baby is safe, we believe the mother is safe and they still have yet to rescue the grandmother and they still don't know where the father is. >> not quite a totally happy ending yet. but two of the four family members have been, it appears, it appears, have been found. we're watching that very closely. happening too right now in oakland, california, police in riot gear moving in to oust

demonstrators from a tense city in occupy oakland. about two dozen of them have now been arrested and so far this morning we expect more arrests to go down later. moammar gadhafi has been buried. an official with the national transitional counts says he was laid to rest at dawn this morning at an undiz closed location in the desert. rick perry unveils his flat tax plan in south carolina today. gives americans the choice between the current tax rate or a 20% flat tax rate. at the michael jackson death trial, prosecutors have painted conrad murray as a reckless doctor who prescribed a powerful anesthetic and failed to properly care for his patient. >> as the defense presents its case, it's trying to shift the blame for jackson's death to the singer himself. ted rowlands has been covering the trial. >> what they're doing right now is establishing for the jury

that michael jackson was shopping for propofol, basically. on the stand right now is a nurse by the name of cheryl lynn lee. she was treating him for sleep and he asked her to give him propofol. he, too, told the jury that in february of the year jackson died, he asked for propofol. >> he asked me about intravenous medicine. >> at some point today we're expected to hear character witnesses. the defense has to try to build up murray's. we will hear from a couple folks we actually met in houston and las vegas. ruby is a patient in houston and she'll testify that murray is a very caring doctor and helped out her neighborhood with medical care and then we'll hear

from a man named jerry cazi and he claims that dr. conrad murray saved his life. >> i had a heart attack ten years ago and he saved my life. he's been my friend ever since. >> janet jackson has canceled her tour in australia. she was not in court yesterday. we do expect her, though, to be in court today along with the rest of the family. alina and carol? >> all right, the case could go to the jury by the end of the week. meanwhile, michele bachmann's camp trying to downplay claims that her senior staff is down right mean. yesterday her entire new hampshire senior staff which resigned last week released a letter accusing the congresswoman's national campaign of being "rude, unprofessional, dishonest and at times cruel." her spokeswoman telling john king it's unfortunate they want to call names. now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. should the president bypass congress to help the economy? president obama has gone from,

yes, we can, to we can't wait. since congress isn't eager to discuss any part of the president's job bill, the president is going rogue. instead of waiting for congress to act, he's implementing a series of executive actions like new rules aimed at making it easier for homeowners to refinance. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. the barrier will be lifted that prohibits home buyers from refinancing that their home valus have fallen so low. >> many economists say it won't be enough to solve the housing cris crisis. republicans say it won't solve anything. the president simply using the excuse of presidential gainsmanship to get around congress. >> they're ashamed to mention any of the things they do with republicans because it steps on

their storyline. their storyline is that there must be some villain out there that is keeping this administration from succeeding. >> what is clear, the economy won't be greatly helped unless congress does act in some way and congress is not likely to act on the president's job proposal. so, president obama is moving forward on his own. monday, the home mortgage plan and tomorrow a plan to help with student loans. he is intent to show americans he is doing something and shame congress into acting. the talk back question for you today. should the president bypass congress to help the economy? facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> they've been streaming in all morning long. up next, a dictator's final resting place now that moammar gadhafi has been buried, the question is, what is next for libya? what role will the u.s. play? plus, wikileaks says it may be forced to shut down. we'll tell you why. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices?

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we want to take you back to eastern turkey where a massive rescue effort is under way in the wake of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. earlier this morning and we've been following this all morning long. we brought you the incredible news that a 14-day-old baby had been rescued from a collapsed building. we are getting word now just within the past couple of minutes that another two people have been rescued. and we don't want to presume, but we certainly hope that it is the mother and the grandmother of this young baby. we have been getting reports earlier from our diana who is there on the ground that rescuers had been in contact with both the mother and the grandmother. they were said to be in good condition and rescuers were said to be very, very close to rescuing them.

however, just in the past hour, we had, the rescue is under way right now, as you see. you're looking there live at it. but diana had reported that the conditions had gotten measurably worse. it has been raining there pretty heavily and weather conditions have been bad over the past couple of days. but the headline being, it appears at this point three people had been rescued from the rubble of the earthquake. more than 2,200 buildings have been destroyed. 1,300 injured and so we're hearing this remarkable story and hoping it's true that the three people of the same family were rescued. we'll follow the story throughout the morning and bring you more as we get more details. cnn going in depth now and the future of a free libya and a possible role in a free libya. mogammar gadhafi was buried thi morning. our next guest is the author of

"rock the casbah." robin wright joins us this morning. thanks for being with us this morning. >> good morning. >> all the tribes inside libya were unified in one thing, hunting down gadhafi. now that they achieved that, the big question is, can they stick together and build a government? how optimistic are you? >> well, libya has a lot going for it. it's a small population and it has a lot of oil welt but it also faces deep divisions. 140 tribes and clans, 30 of which are important. this is a country with a long past of divisions. the east centered in ben gaunzy and the west in tripoli and the challenge is bringing all these people together, not just politically, but also the militias. one of the biggest challenges is all these groups that have led the way in challenging the regime of moammar gadhafi, but from different parts of the country. there is no single chain of

command today, still established to the transitional national council and all of these groups will want their own share of the political and economic spoils. >> that's right. i spoke with a senior member on friday and he said something that, you know, after what you've said seems unbelievable. he said the militias are disciplined in "they obey the orders of the national transitional council exactly." but after what we saw, after they caught gadhafi, they don't seem all that disciplined. >> no. and the human rights watch and other groups have begun to chronicle some of the human rights abuses. the killings, extra judicial killings and the lootings and human rights abuses. there have been 50 bodies found in one town alone that appear to include many members of the loyalist group to moammar gadhafi. and they had their hands bound behind them and it looks like they're executed and then all the questions about what happened with gadhafi, his son and his defense minister, which

increasingly appear to be executions, as well. >> so, in light of that, let's talk about what this new government in libya could look like. i want to read to you part of an editorial in "washington post" this morning. this is it. the rise of islamist parties is inevitable in a democratic middle east. what is crucial is that these parties forswear violence and accept the rules of democracy and human rights. so far tunisia's largest islamic movement has done that. if its success is accepted by secular tunisians and by western democracies. its moderate model should get a boost in egypt and libya. law should be obeyed in the legal system but then came out yesterday and said, i would like to assure the international community that libyans are moderate muslims. which is it? >> i don't think we know the answer to that question yet. it will probably define the region in some ways as it

evolves into something different over the next decade. but there is concern particularly among women in libya because the things that he announced, men who wanted to marry a second wife no longer needed the consent of the first wife. he also talked about eliminating interest and banks, which is considered usery in islam. this is going to be very wor worrisome to the outside community and to the west in eroding the power of moammar gadhafi and to that the rebels could have never ousted him from power this quickly. >> so if he dominates the new law in libya, how might this affect the whole middle east and also, how could it affect us here in the united states? >> i think we need to be careful. in other countries including egypt, constitutional provisions that no law could be in contradiction to islam and yet you had a secular government in

power. the question is, how are they going to be implemented? what is the intrperation. laws that date back and practices that date back to the seventh century. that's an important distinction and we don't know the answer to that yet. >> robin wright, thank you for joining us. still to come on this "american morning," the two gop candidates set off for a face-to-face debate without the rest of the presidential field.

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48 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines. video just in of a third person pulled from the earthquake rubble in eastern turkey. just moments ago, crews freed a woman believed to be the grandmother of a young baby that was rescued earlier this morning. that mother's baby was also just rescued and we're told the baby girl just two weeks old is alive and well. texas governor recperick pe

trying to one up the 9-9-9 herman cain tax plan. give the option of the current tax rate or a 20% flat tax rate. the republican candidate will unveil his plan at an event today in the key primary state of south carolina. wikileaks announcing it is close to shutting down because it's running out of money. cash donations hard to come by since visa, bank of america and paypal stopped doing business with the site after it published a number of diplomatic cables last year. a one-on-one debate planned in the gop race for president. herman cain and newt gingrich will face off saturday, november 5th, near houston. the debate is sponsored by the tea party patriots and focus on fiscal issues. president obama kicks off the second day of his three-day trip to the west coast with a visit to jay leno. his fourth time on the "tonight

show" and second as president. the texas rangers have never won a world series, but now they can taste it. the rangers beat the cardinals 4-2 to take game five last night in texas. they're just one win away now. game six tomorrow night, if necessary, game seven the next night back in st. louis. "american morning" is back after a break.

whatever you say about washington, it's a gorgeous city. good morning, washington. kind of chilly outside now. later today, it will be gorgeous. 67 degrees. the leaves are starting to change.

nothing prettier than rough creek park in the fall. >> this is your home. you've been in new york for quite a while, but this is your official home, washington. i'll take your word for it. welcome back to "american morning." immigration reform could become a big issue on capitol hill come december. democratic sources tell cnn there are discussions taking place right now that could involve reintroducing the dream act. the dream act would allow children of illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military to become u.s. citizens. sources say democrats want to keep hispanic voters in the fold by contrasting their position with republicans who favor tougher security along the u.s./mexico border. there just may be a solution to the political stalemate on capitol hill. if you missed it erin burnett had special guest on "outfront" last night. elmo wasn't -- >> play dates. >> play dates.

>> everybody has play dates. >> let a republican and a democrat play date. >> play dates. and everybody brings their own food. >> okay, yeah. john boehner is kind of your color -- >> they have to sing songs. >> what game would they be playing? battleship, maybe. i don't know. just the thought of that makes me laugh. elmo and his upper ego is hitting the circuit to promote their new documentary "being elmo." >> a documentary, all right. a remarkable story of weight loss. a young woman transforming herself from overweight teen to beauty queen. >> now, she's inspiring others to lead healthy lives. dr. sanjay gupta has more in this morning's human factor. >> i actually used to sit where you're sitting. i'm the same person that i was in high school, although my exterior may have looked a little different. >> reporter: for bree, becoming a beauty queen was beyond her

wildest dreams. >> i was just so unhappy with the way i looked, but, yet, i still continued to eat unhealthy and lack of physical activity. >> reporter: at 17 years old, she weighed 234 pounds. >> i would come home from school, sit on the couch for hours and watch tv and snack all day long. >> reporter: it was nagging pain in her knees that led her to go see her doctor and what he said led her to change her life. >> he said, you know, this weight has to come off. at that moment i knew that he's right. it's up to me and only me to change it. >> reporter: she didn't try a quick fix to losing weight. >> i completely threw out all the junk food. i joined the gym and i educated myself. i went to a nutritionist. i did all the right steps. >> reporter: three years later she had transformed her body from pudgy duckling to beauty queen. winning an early round of the

bathing suit competition. >> are you really excited? >> reporter: every beauty queen has a platform, hers is, you might guess, eating healthy and fighting obesity whether it's doing zumba with kids at health fairs or speaking at her hometown city council meeting. or talking to students at her former high school. >> i challenge you to all to make a change today and to make a change to be a happy, healthy and confident individual in whatever it is in life that you want to set out to accomplish. >> reporter: she practices what she preaches. still making her health her top priority. >> i block out, you know what am i going to eat and how i'm going to eat that day. >> reporter: she still wants to achieve more. she has her sights on winning 2011. >> it takes per s perseverance. >> good for her. we wish her a lot of luck. coming up next our talk back

question of the morning. should the president bypass congress to help the economy? we'll read through your responses next. five minutes until the top of the hour. what's this? it's progresso's new loaded potato with bacon. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh.. look at these big pieces of potato. ♪ what's that? big piece of potato. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ♪ and the flowers and the trees ♪ ♪ all laugh when you walk by ♪ and the neighbors' kids run and hide ♪ deep inside you, there's a person who refuses to be kept deep inside you. ♪ but you're not ♪ you're the one be true to yourself. what's healthier than that?

taking over if the republican-controlled congress is upset about this, it's only because they were not able to grandstand and create more problems and drama. let president obama do his job. this from jennifer, the system is set up with built in checks and balances bypassing congress upsets that system and set a bad precedent for future administrations. this from shontell. sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures. everything president obama tries to pass runs into some type of roadblock from the gop. the democrats aren't innocent but you have to give the president some credit for trying to take some type of initiative. of course, the policies he is trying to pass may not be an immediate fix, but hopefully it's a step in the right direction. the president should at least do something, bypass congress to do something about the economy.

>> let's hope he can push some of those measures past congress -- >> congress can come up with some type of legislation that makes everybody moderately happy. president obama is finding out what show business is all about. here are your late night laughs. >> some political news. today president obama went to las vegas for a campaign fund-raiser. he spent most of the time at the visit working on his new economic recovery plan. come on, 7. come on, you can do this. >> president obama visited los angeles tonight. i don't get that. you know, there has to be an easier way for the president of the united states to get medical marijuana than to fly all the way out to california. >> president obama was back in los angeles today where he will appear on "tonight show" with jay leno. no, obama is appearing with jay leno to highlight t