>> ben wedeman in zintan tonight. we're glad you're safe and your crew as well. inating and brave reporting for ben and his crew yet again putting their lives at risk in libya. let's talk to our senior analyst fran. a lot of people out there may not understand this. i want our viewers and fran and david to listen to this as this plays out. ben is on the ground. mary, his camera woman is out there shooting, and then you hear this. [ gunfire ] >> wait! >> wait, wait, wait. you in, mary? >> yeah, i'm in. >> okay. just calm down. >> fran, i just want your assessment of that in the sense, when you look at the map and we've gone through this. we've talked of stalemate. we've talked for months about are we nearing a tipple point? what does it tell you about the very complicated and violent situation on the ground in libya? >> i think it's just another indication that gadhafi is feeling -- and his forces are feeling pressure. what they don't need are the very reports of the facts on the ground that ben wedeman and his crew are producing. that is, they're under pressure. t

ben wedeman, appreciate it. remarkable day today.rew, mary and everybody are okay. let's check the latest on some other stories, that isha sesay is following for us tonight. >> reporter: afghan president hamid karzai wept at his brother's burial today in the family's ancentral village. he was assassinated in his kandahar home yesterday by a family security guard. the same-sex marriage law signed last month by new york governor andrew cuomo has caused the town clerk to resign. a republican from new york says she'll quit on july 21st, three days before the law takes effect, to avoid compromising her "moral conscience." a california man charged with stalking actress halle berry has pleaded not guilty. richard anthony franco was arrested after allegedly trespassing three times in three days on berry's hollywood hills estate. at his arraignment, franco was ordered to stay 500 yards away from the actress. and a 360 follow, it started as a bet. anderson, remember marine sergeant scott moore? he's currently serving in afghanistan and he made

ben wedeman is live for us tonight. ben, to the rebels who have been asking for this recognition from the united states for months, who does this mean? do they view it as significant or it too little too late? >> reporter: they do view it as significant because as you alluded to, they're desperately in need of money. we spoke to the finance minister of the transitional national council, and he said they're suffering from a profound cash shortage. they need money to buy food to feed people because banks have been closed in this part of libya for months. and they need money to buy weapons. what we've seen time and time again is that they're not lacking for enthusiasm, but what they don't have is the heavy weaponry that they need to move forward. we saw them rita a town, but they had the usual assortment of weapons. sort of heavy machine guns. they do have a couple of tanks in this area but they say they're low on ammunition and they need more money to carry on. >> ben wedeman live for us. thank you. let's get context from

>> that was cnn's ben wedeman.man you heard yelling out there trapped outside the car for a moment, that was camera woman mary rogers, the one who brought you all those pictures. our whole team made it out safely but a stark stark reminder how troubled that part of the world remains even up until now. >>> up next, a very different change of tune. a conservative who can whale on an electric guitar and may score points at the high school reunion but can it help this next man become your president? back in a moment. [ barks ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com. >>> my next guest is running for president. come to think of it, who isn't? he's congressman thaddeus mccotter, a republican from michigan. he's a populist conservative and the thing he

ben wedeman, cnn, in western libya. >>> and coming up on cnn -- >> mr.tone lost his life as a result of a tragic accident at rangers' ballpark last night. >> the baseball community mourn as loss of a man who accidentally fell off of a stadium railing and died trying to catch a baseball thrown into the stands. is it time to change security rails at baseball stadiums? that conversation, next. >>> i completely pictured my husband doing the same thing for my son. >> right now at stadiums around the country, fathers and sons are sitting in the stands eating hot dogs and watching the american pastime. and that is why a death at the rangers ballpark is hitting home for so many people. it both terrible, a terrible accident, and a completely relatable one at that. >> well -- this is it. that's -- why there is time -- wow. >> reached for a ball and fell head-first over the rail dropping 20 feet to his death. his 6-year-old son, named cooper, right next to him. saw the entire thing happen. the man beside him, moved fast, tried to pull him back. >> first instinct, r

cnn's ben wedeman and his crew got caught in the cross fire, literally. they're okay but think about this if you think you're having a bad day. >> reporter: this is how our day started. ambushed by gadhafi loyalists. >> there's a lot of gunfire. it's continuing to come through. >> all right. he's okay as i said. ben and his crew are fine. a quick note about casey anthony. she could make big money from her story once she's released from jail on sunday. florida doesn't want jurors in future similar cases to profit. the state is planning a new law that will ban jurors from cashing in on their cases. it seemed public outrage has trumped common sense among some people. this is casey anthony, this casey anthony is getting phone calls and facebook messages telling him what a bad person is he. he's from philadelphia. looks nothing like the real casey anthony in florida. it's like people dialing 867-5309 thinking jenny would answer. >>> the markets are worse off on the news of the potential downgrade from moody's and the difficulties with the debt talks but not so

. >> that is our ben wedeman actually caught in the cross-fire of libya's civil war. he will join us in a few mints. >>> talk about breaking new ground. these women are training to be pilots in the afghan air force. [ man ] they said i couldn't win a fight. but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] flick, stack, and move between active apps seamlessly. only on the new hp touchpad with webos. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? >>> in california the feds deal a critical blow. 99 charged with crimes. operation black flag seized weapons from handguns to assault rifles. >>> take a look at this group of pioneering afghan women. they are in san antonio yeah, texas. they will learn english bef

ben wedeman with more. tell us what happened.nderstand it got pretty, pretty hairy. >> hairy indeed, wolf. we had gone to this village which this morning was in the hands of the rebels. we just arrived on the outside of the village. we were going to investigate reports, a report by human rights watch that the rebels had engaged in widespread looting and vandalism. but we were just on the outskirts on that village when suddenly we were ambushed by gadhafi's forces. >> you guys! wait! [ bleep ] wait! wait, wait, wait! wait! >> wait, wait, wait. are you in? >> okay, just calm down. get down, get down. >> okay, we're leaving this area. there's gunfire all around us and we believe that gadhafi's forces are doing a round about movement. so we are rushing out of this area. >> now we had to go drive, very quickly, for about 20 minutes to get out of that area where the gadhafi forces seemed to be flanking the rebels along this main road that links this town qawalish to the area where we are now. after something of a barrage of the town, a

>> ben wedeman joins us now. sometimes you become part of the story, especially in this case. what was that moment like for you? >> reporter: we really felt exposed, randi. even when you are in a car, bullets can rip through the side of a car like they would through paper, essentially. you're driving up the road and hearing all the gun fire around you, and one of the bullets could easily go right through the car and right through us. so you're getting there and driving as fast as you can, and you're hoping that the bullet, the gun fire is going to go further and further away. as you saw in the video, we're driving at a good -- basically about 80 miles per hour, and those bullets kept on coming over, just over the car and around us. so we couldn't get out of there fast enough, but fortunately, we did. randi? >> and all are okay, which is wonderful news, considering what we just saw there in the video. any idea why you had come under fire? >> reporter: what we know is that when we arrived at the outskirts of the village, there was a check point manned by two teenage boys. they t

. >> cnn's ben wedeman and his crew caught in the middle in libya.ut, next. kids' wet skin. new neutrogena® wet skin kids. ordinary sunblock drips and whitens. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. >>> all right. this is dramatic new video out of libya, where our own crew, including ben wedeman, got caught in the middle of crossfire between gadhafi loyalists and rebels. take a look and listen. >> wait, wait, wait. wait! >> we're leaving this area. there's gunfire all around us. >> we are rushing out of this area. >> we can report to you that everyone made it out safely. again close to the top of the hour. almost tyke for the sit room with wolf blitzer. we joins us with a preview. >> we're going to check in with ben wedeman to see what's going on this day after that dramatic shot. mary rogers, or photographer there, that was a scary, close call, t.j., as you know. we'll have all of that news, what's happening with rupert murdoch's empire, the fbi as you know, la

most of us will never be in the middle of a fire fight in libya but cnn reporter ben wedeman and hishotographer get that camera rolling even as they ran for cover let's take a look ... the team was investigating reports of abuse and vandalism and 11 and in a village in western libya when the fight broke out everyone made it back to the base safely >>thousands of mourners gathered a synagogue in brooklyn new york for the funeral of a boy who was abducted and killed while walking home from camp. eight year-old leiby kletzy got lost on his way home monday afternoon and asked a stranger for directions the boy was missing for a day and half before police went to the home of levi and around and found some of the child's remains and around refrigerator they found more of the boys remains in a trash bin a break in the case came and police feared grainy video the boy getting into a car outside a dentist office they're both orthodox jews there tight-knit committed neighborhood is considered one of the safest in new york city ... media mogul rupert murdoch could be a target of federal investiga

cnn's senior international correspondent ben wedeman went to one of the four villages, but then he and his crew got caught in a cross fire, watch. . >> reporter: this is how our day started, being shotted a about gadhafi loyalists. >> there's gun fire all around us, and we believe that gadhafi's forces are doing a round about movement. so we are rushing out of this area. guys, alex? we're going as fast as we can. we can't tell who the -- straight through there. is the other car behind us? >> it's behind us, yes. >> reporter: that's a lot of gun fire. continuing to come through. gadhafi's forces apparently have entered qawalish, the town the rebels entered on the 16th of july and there's talk they might be building up forces to make a counter attack and it appears the counter attack is going on right now. be qawalish on this day was lightly defended at best and it's defenders didn't put up much of a fight. we're about halfway from qawalish, the town that's apparently fallen, and we're told we need to go back even further because gadhafi's forces are on the move and as you can see, the t

our senior international correspondent ben wedeman and his team were caught in the mid o oaf an intensefire fight. he later filed this report. >> this is how our day started. >> ambushed by gadhafi loyalists. >> wait! >> wait, wait! >> are you in? >> yeah, i'm in. >> there's gunfire all around us. and we believe that have gadhafi's forces are doing a round-about movement. so we are rushing out of this area. you all right, guys? everybody is fine. we're going as fast as we can. there's another car behind us? >> yeah. the rebels took the town on the 6th of july. and then there's been talk today might be building up forces for a counterattack. and it looks like the counterattack is going on right now. >> its defenders didn't put up much of a fight. we came back to this checkpoint, about how way town between this town and we've been told we need to go back even further because gadhafi's forces are on the move and you can see, the traffic is only going back in one direction. nothing that way. this man is trying to get out with his wife and six children. this is the result of people not being

a very dangerous situation on the ground, as we saw the libyan people as well as our own ben wedeman.l take the story from the white house to our house. what it means for the typical american family. and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates. and execute trades anywhere and anytime the inspiration hits you. even deposit checks right from your phone. just take a picture, hit deposit and you're done. open an account today and put schwab mobile to work for you. the chevy cruze eco offers an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon on the highway. how does it do that? well, to get there, a lot of complicated engineering goes into every one. like variable valve timing and turbocharging, active front grille shutters that close at high speeds, and friction reducing -- oh, man, that is complicated. how about this -- cruze eco offers 42 miles per gallon. cool? ♪ really? 25 grams of protein. what do we have? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [

owner own ben wedeman and his crew caught in the middle of a tense fight for a town in libya.eir faces. all that on this "american morning." >>> good morning to you. thanks for being with us on this thursday. it is july 14th. i'm kiran chetry. ali velshi is with me. christine is taking a well-deserved vacation. >> she is missing a lot of news. this is going to affect you. the federal government's credit rating is on notice. moodys investor service, one of the credit rating agencies, is moving closer to a unprecedented downgrade of the u.s.' debt. president obama abruptly walking out of a key meeting with republicans late yesterday. >> let's bring from right no our business news corinth felicia taylor. when we talk about the aa credit rating it means we can borrow cheaper and it's helpful not only for the government but for businesses and individuals. what does this mean if they go through with this threat? >> if we were to downgrade borrowing gets more expensive for government and small businesses. it has a trickle down effect to basically everybody. think about it like your c