thank you, brooke. >>> now, i want to bring in hala gorani and, hala, the fact that you were there covering the national republican convention not only for us, but cnn international certainty underscores the importance of the process of picking potentially a new u.s. president or staying the course with president obama. what do you think is the biggest draw? h what are the biggest questions or concerns of the international audience? >> well, mitt romney and the running mate do remain a foreign policy mystery for the international audience. they don't have much experience with that, in that regard. paul ryan did vote several times and even co-sponsored a bill extending sanctions to insurance companies that deal with ships that are meant for iranian shores and by the way, if the party starts tomorrow, we are here in the preparty, because the sound checks are going on, and if that is what you are hearing, apologies for the audio issues, but we can identify some foreign policy differences between mitt romney and barack obama, though, of course, as many of the viewers know, once the president ma

thank you, hala gorani. >>> and the fans are on the way home, and the olympic park is still standing. what happens now with london after the games? u, fight back fast with tums smoothies. so fast and smooth, you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums [ male announcer ] tums smoothies. so, what's the problem? these are hot. we're shipping 'em everywhere. but we can't predict our shipping costs. dallas. detroit. different rates. well with us, it's the same flat rate. same flat rate. boston. boise? same flat rate. alabama. alaska? with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. dude's good. dude's real good. dudes. priority mail flat rate boxes. starting at just $5.15. only from the postal service. [ male announcer ] you work hard. stretch every penny. but chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him... mitt romney made twenty million dollars in two thousand ten but paid only fourteen percent in taxes... probably less than you now he has a plan that would give millionaires another tax break... an

i want to bring in hala. ga great to see you.e meeting happened between the iran envoy and assad. a, were you surprised by that and what do you think he's doing there? >> i think they're saying we're standing by you. they are making it public. they were some reports, rumors in the case of syria, many rumors have been flying around that he was injured and he left syria. these are state syrian television images showing he's in damascus. they say any solution that comes from syria cannot come from the outside. it has to come from the inside, which is ironic considering the external influence iran has on syria and how much of a close ally it is. they said it will now allow the access of resistance to be broken in any way. this was quoted by syrian state television. syria and the group hezbollah in leb bo lebanon. >> i want to talk about the growing humanitarian crisis in alep aleppo. we talk with ben wedeman yesterday and this morning. let's listen. >> most people say they run out of cooking gas. some say they are cooking their meals

my colleague hala spoke to secretary rice ahead of her big speech. i'll bring hala in directly.und. this is secretary rice talking specifically on the war in syria. >> what would you do differently with the obama administration is doing now? >> i think we wasted a lot of time in the security council. russia and china were never going to go along with an international response. i'm sorry that the mission of kofi anan died. the united states needs to help rally the regional powers to put together a political framework. >> military intervention? >> for a political framework. for a post-assad regime and help vet and arm the opposition so somebody can stop the slaughter of the syrian people. people say if you arm the opposition it might get worse. look at what assad is doing. >> what's the timeframe for that? >> if we've been doing this for the last year maybe we'd be done by now. >> hala gorani. good to see you. she said the u.s. wasted too much time in the security council. does that then assume that the current administration is perhaps not working on other options, other venues?

so there are field hospitals popping up everywhere in the rebel zones. >> hala, thank you.t is devastating to see what is taking place. >> very difficult to watch. you see the children who have lost their parents and themselves wounded and too afraid to even go to the hospital emergency ward. you saw the dread and the fear on that little boy's face in ben wedeman's reporting. it is heartbreak iing. >> thank you, hal, and we will have more after the break. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ] [ barks ] ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ] beneful playful life is made with energy-packed wholesome grains... and real beef and egg. to help you put more play in your day. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. [ female announcer ] this week only,

if it is several years away, israel feels that nuclear armed iran is a threat. >> thank you, hala. >>now opposition groups are accusing bashar al assad's forces of shelling neighborhoods indiscriminantly. opposition groups say that 61 people died today in fighting in several syrian towns. the violence spilling into lebanon as well as a series of kidnappings on both sides of the border, and now putting lebanon on edge, triggering mass protests. arwa damon is in beirut. >> reporter: syria's civil war is seeping into its tiny and vulnerable neighbor. on wednesday angry young shias blocked the road to beirut's main airport with burning tires after the head of a prominent shia clan was abducted in syria. the free syrian army posted this video of who they al sledge a member of lebanon's powerful group hezbollah. and hezbollah denies he is one of theirs and the family denies any association. but the kidnapping resulted in swift retaliation. this family has an armed section that kidnapped syrians in lebanese territories claims one of the clan members. two of the kidnapped syrians appeared in

hala gorani joining us from washington.t is tough to get to the truth, because of the difficulties of reporting inside of syria despite ben managing to get inside of aleppo, but this is the highest profile person the defect and perhaps another big sunni director from the capital, but what is the signal, another major event or just erosion? >> well, operationally i don't know if it makes a difference, but this is symbolically a blow to the assad regime. he was named agriculture minister after the uprising started last year. he is a sunni muslim, and he is from a part of the country that is very active in the forces against bashar al assad and now you have this man who defected to jordan. there is confusion, because we don't know that, because a spokesperson in jordan denied that. but the spokesperson for this man he is in a neighboring country to syria, and then going to qatar, and then some say, he didn't defect, he was fired. that will remind you what the administration said about a man from iraq who said he was fired, and

and you know that as well, hala gorani. thank you. >>> and now germany's politicians doing bickering over a ruling of giving same sex couples a tax break and now a push to make it a step further, same-sex marriage, and we will discuss that when we come back. i'm going to... drink this... on the porch! ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] mops can be a hassle, but swiffer wetjet's spray cleaner and absorbent pads can clean better in half the time so you don't miss a thing. swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. and for dry messes big and small try swiffer sweeper vac. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealth

thank you, hala. >>> this is what else we are working on for this hour of newsroom international. and this is a whole news channel that has experienced a deep cultural shift since the revolution. >>> and philip cousteau is join joining us to tell us why luxury resorts are leaving the locals high and dry and desperate for clean water. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] who are these guys? oh, that's just my buds. bacon, donuts. -my taste buds. -[ taste buds ] waffles. how about we try this new kind of fiber one cereal? you think you're going to slip some fiber by us? rookie. okay. ♪ nutty clusters and almonds, ♪ ♪ almonds. ♪ fiber one is gonna make you smile. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing new fiber one nutty clusters and almonds. with 43% daily value of fiber for you. crunchy nutty clusters and real almond slices for your taste buds. in here, every powerful collaboration is backed by an equally powerful and secure cloud. that cloud is in the network, so it can deliver all the power of the network itself. bringing people together to develop the best ideas -- and providing the apps a

hala gorani with me once again from cnn international. are they allowing in the towel?es this mean? >> well, it does appear as though they're saying, at least as far as the u.n. observer mission is concerned, we are done. this mandate expires this weekend. here are a few more details for you. a u.n. civilian office is going to remain in the country, 20 to 30 u.n. staffers are going to be manning that. unclear exactly what their role is going to be. certainly, their range of movement is limited. even the observers, when they were at their maximum capacity in terms of the numbers in their group, were at 300. they were all unarmed. and in some cases, weren't able to go to some of the worst hot spots because of security concer concerns. this, of course, was all part of kofi annan's six-point plan. as many of our viewers know, kofi annan is resigning. he will not be kept on as the envoy. reuters is reporting that lakmar brahini has accepted to become the new u.n. envoy. why is this important? some of our viewers might rep him as the u.n. envoy to iraq and afghanistan during

thank you, hala. w i want to bring in the white house to bring reaction of kofi annan's resignation. do we know, keilar knowing that the president is traveling, but that he has been informed of annan's resignation? >> well, don't have c confirmation, buwe know he must know, because he is on air force one headed for a campaign event and he left the white house not long ago and we are expecting as the white house press secretary jay carney will be asked about that, and we will bring you the information as soon as we have that. the president as he left the white house i yelled at a question at him and pretty loud out there, suzanne, as you know, because of the sound coming from the marine i, and he did not stop. he often does not stop, so we did not get to hear directly from him, and i think that the resignation is obviously an important symbolic nail in the coffin of pursuing the annan plan, but we heard a couple of weeks ago jay carney admitting and saying that the annan plan had failed. so even that w

it's halas-minute rush to get -- a last-minute rush it get the details done. they're looking at the track, going through it making sure where the bumps are so they clan get an idea of where to set the race cars up. there's a lot of stuff going on as they make those final touches for tomorrow's race. we were down here earlier and got a look at the preparations both on and off the track. before you can get to this -- bring the six car home. >> reporter: you have to go through this. several weeks of setup are getting down to the nitty gritty. race yous are getting thises together, not in rush but with an urgency for an action-packed weekend. fuel and oil lines are being installed and tools laid out with presismghts on the course, the tires are in place. gentlemen and ladies will be starting their cars early for test runs. they'll have to get the run of the track. indy driver mike conway can't wait because baltimore, he says, is not easy. >> it's the layout which has been good. i didn't like it last year. >> reporter: and there were a lot of things for the public

and hala gorani had a chance to speak to condoleezza rice a few moments ago and do we expect because much speculation of whether she would be a v.p. pick if she is part of team romney after the conversation? >> yes, and there was speculation as well, because she was seated next to him at the convention as ann romney was giving the speech and after ann romney gave the speech, and new jersey governor chris christie was aressingporters in t tampa and i asked her straight out if she would be working for mitt romney in a possible romney administration, and this is what she told me, suzanne. >> i wrote a memoir called "no higher honor" and i consider it the highest honor to serve my country. >> are you thinking of -- >> no, i'm happy to be a professor at stanford and i was fortunate to be the secrety of state, and that is enough. >> she has said it in the past, and suzanne, there was speculation as well that she was on the short list of the vice presidential nomination as part of am romney, and of course, a post that ended up going to paul ryan, but there you have it. so condoleezza rice i

hala gorani, appreciate it as always. >>> new cnn poll shows that americans are mixed about syria.than 70% are concerned about the violence there, but 2/3 oppose putting u.s. boots on the ground in syria. >>> gasoline, food, guns all comes through these tunnels from egypt to the gaza strip, but new tensions in the region could finally shut that tunnel down. touches your lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. >>> in the effort to crackdown on militant attacks in sinai, egypt, is sealing off border tunnel tunnels. they are used to smuggling in goods into gaza, but the militants have been using the tunnels as well. palestinians say they are a lifeline and closing them will hurt the economy. and now we are joined by diana magness, and first of all the tunnels are a major source of commerce and what will happen if they do s

i want to bring in hala gorani to walk us through what we are watching and make sense of this, because now we are not talking about assad's forces, but talking about the rebels here on the ground and what they are allegedly doing. >> right. this is the biggest fear for syria, that this country, and in this case, we believe it happened in aleppo, that it will spiral into sectarian killing and rejeng attacks based on sect, and based on religion, and in this particular instance, we believe that these men who the rebels accuse of being the ghosts, the assad men and regular army, and these are revenge executions, because they blame this particular family and group for having killed protesters and having killed rebel soldiers. let me try to walk you through this and again, a fair warning for viewers if you have children or sensitive to violence and bloodshed, you might want to turn away at this stage. but this is what we are seeing in the first bit of this video. it shows the moment of capture, suzanne, of these militia men or what the rebels say are militia men. they are capture and kicked

the bears returned to practice at halas hall, and brian urlacher watched from the sidelines.him... safeties chris conte and brandon hardin. conte injured his shoulder against the redskins, and the tribune reports that it popped out of the joint. he'll be out at least a week, while hardin is wearing a neck brace, and won't return for a minimum of two weeks. that's a look at sports. your live illinois lottery drawing is next. good afternoon ... here are the winning picked three numbers: 3 numbers.... 1 4 8 here are the winning pick four numbers ... 4 3 8 8 mega-millions jackpot is now $55 million ... ahhh, now that's a clean mouth. i just wish it wouldn't fade away so fast. let me show you something. [ dr. rahmany ] as soon as you leave here... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but now there's a way to keep the clean longer. introducing new crest pro-health clinical rinse. it's a clinical breakthrough that actually keeps your teeth 91% clean of plaque at 2 months after a dental visit. plus, it gives you these key benefits. new crest pro-health clinical rinse. crest. life open

the part of the egyptian people the kickstarter workers strikes and cocked and conquer and my and my hala these steel workers strike you keach is strike the uprising average egyptian working class which the newspapers in the united states in the west are not inclined to discuss very openly but this is what underlies this crisis because the international monetary fund was negotiating to provide billions of dollars of aid to supply this gas the military was not proposed to the so take that because it would cut into their profits so what occurs now is that the emir of qatar goes to egypt and when he negotiates with morsi and he gives billions of dollars he leaves behind him a check for billions of dollars plus ok rob i'm sorry to interrupt you there but just briefly can you explain to me the recent decision definitely indicates a substantial reordering of egypt's political political fourth what about the impact it will have on its regional policy of touch a little bit on that and its relations to israel in particular let's touch a little bit on that briefly while there is a. sensually what i

kimberly h of hillsborough, nigel d of san jose and hala of san francisco.go to the abc7 news page and click the thumps up button every like will -- thumbs up button every like will make a difference. >>> what a new report reveals about the rising cost of childcare in california. >>> a's hit the road with a badly needed victory under the belt. >>> open jitters for a bay area little league team their world series -- [ unintellig >>> welcome back everybody! gorgeous shot live picture of the golden gate bridge. you know, i drove across it this morning, didn't see anything on my wind shield that was a fleeting moment. looks like there's moisture out to there now. >> not quite split pea soup. >> not anything close to light rain looks like we got moisture so be careful out there. mike will explain about the cooling trend coming on. >>> if you have infants in childcare, a stud by the advocacy group ranks california our state, the 7th least affordable state in the nation for infant care. perhaps more disturbing the next statistic, average cost of fulltime childcare

>> hoda's sister, hala, is here. >> oh, wow!h that to you guys so you can take it to your apartment where she's visiting. take that to your apartment, okay, sweetheart. it's on me. actually, no, i'll take it to rehearsal. no, just kidding. >>> saved by the bell. >> time to head to class, the best back-to-school fashions right after this. >>> good morning. i'm meteorologist chris warren with your weather channel forecast for today. the big story on the weather channel will remain isaac, but we are keeping an eye on what else is happening across the country. there will be showers and some thunderstorms for parts of the southeast, also the southwest once again that monsoonal moisture bringing that threat of some more strong storms and flash flooding. high temperatures will be a little cooler where we have some of that rain in parts of the southwest and the pacific northwest. otherwise, very warm, 80s and 90s, not the excruciating heat we've been dealing with for a huge portion of the summer but still plenty of 80s and 90s out there

we have seen him since a bomb killed his brother and other members of his regim i want to bring in hala gorani to talk about this, but what about the fact that assad is in public and on television and what message is he is trying to send? >> well, there are two things interesting about the video is that number one, it is not the big mosque in damascus and we don't know where this mosque is. and the other thing that is important in the video is that the vice president of syria is not in it. and you nknow that last week, there were reports that the vice president had defected to jordan. if that is the case, it is an extremely symbolically important defection and it shows that the regime al assad is crumbling. and also a 73-year-old sunni, and some reports are that he is under house arrest, and the syrian regime is saying he has defected, but we do not know where farooque al assad is. >> what is it important that you say that he was not at a specific mosque, but does that mean he is fearful for his life? >> well sh, for security reasont is not a good idea to go into the center of damascus

hala gorani, thank you. >>> and government fosts s for hammering aleppo, and the ruin is evidence everywherel get a report from a man inside of that city when we come back. in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions, to bring all the right results. [ whirring and beeping ] it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ >>> government forces hammering rebel fighters again in the syrian city of aleppo. some of the fiercest battles raging in the neighborhood where rebels have had a strong presence. ben wedeman is in syria and joins us by phone. state television is saying that government forces have taken control of the neighborhood and beaten back the rebels and the rebels denying that they are retreating and you were there and there for days and i'm curious what your take is on how much of the city that the rebels control and how strong they are. >> well, the rebels control they claim at this point around 50% of the city, and in fact, last night we drove throu

this is hala gorani back with us.now this rebels were targeting this military compound near this hotel and the fact they could get so close, what does that say about their strength and the weakness of the regime? >> on july 18th, top military officials who were part of the regime were killed in a rebel bombing. this isn't the first time that rebels have been able to get close and penetrate the inner parameter of a military building. we're making no secret of the fact they conducted this operation abdomen they are saying that they will be able to get cloers and closer. the regime right now new that assassination on july 18th of its defense minister is now every week or two losing key members of the key circle or of the top ranking members. perhaps not the inner circle of that regime. >> what about iran. i want to get your take. i was talking to barbara starr. leon panetta saying they're getting information that iran is, we know iran and syria are very tight. iran is helping train members of the syrian militia very much

just yesterday we were speaking with hala and she said getting bread has been a problem.he fighting continues. talk a bit more about that, ben. >> reporter: bread is difficult. people have to line up for hours to get just one loaf of bread per person in the family per day. at the same time they're suffering from electricity supplies. they don't have any cooking gas. one woman cooks on firewood she collects in the street and public parks. other families, for instance, are no longer living in their houses in their apartments but rather sleeping in the stairwells because of the danger of bombardment which is really a 24 hour thing. people try to live. i met man who was walking down the street in one of the rebel held neighborhoods with his 10-day old baby. the baby was born during the fighting and when ever this baby hears these massive explosions of the artillery, it just cries and cries and cries. for instance, other people, i spoke to some children and they are clearly disoriented by the fact that aleppo just a few weeks ago had been spared much of the violence and fighti

we'll talk more about the situation with hala in the next hour. >>> other stories we're following. a mosque in missouri to the ground. this is what the mosque in joplin looked like before monday's fire. take a look at what it looks like now. destroyed. back on july 4th, a man was seen throwing some kind of incendiary device at the building causing the roof to burn. the feds are offering a $15,000 dollar reward. >>> firefighters were able to put the blaze out at the chevron facility in richmond overnight. fire started after a diesel leak late last night forcing the plant to shut down all operations. the refinery is the largest in all of california and the shut down is expected to cause a spike in gas prices. >>> fake military i.d.'s, fake uniforms, badges, even a full nasa flight suit. a man is busted with all of this and much more. exactly, how did he get them? >>> plus a welcome surprise you have to see. for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see

one of the other things we do in the room, which i think is fine is dry yourselves and really just halas what a sad feature of your body that you like? and the first thing you get is what? because none of these women -- we dress up and we get in the street and people admire our things, but what i find as you never get your kids because the kid is not part of the culture. you look good, mommy. a year has been says you're very pretty. so we've been looking at spending time looking at yourselves saying wow, you did a good job with me. so by the time we do that is called a catwalk. so we try themselves positively. at the end of that one day, the ones that are very quiet, they are always chatty, chatty, chatty. they come to good facer they find themselves. so these young people, my daughters about women raise or today, the implications for global peace and security, the one thing that struck me was sad is it that we are rising now, or is it that there is a way of being created that we are contributing? we come back to 10,000 women. and liberia, all my life i sonogram under, my ent, my own mot

one of the other things we do in the room, which i think is fine is dry yourselves and really just halas what a sad feature of your body that you like? and the first thing you get is what? because none of these women -- we dress up and we get in the street and people admire our things, but what i find as you never get your kids because the kid is not part of the culture. you look good, mommy. a year has been says you're very pretty. so we've been looking at spending time looking at yourselves saying wow, you did a good job with me. so by the time we do that is called a catwalk. so we try themselves positively. at the end of that one day, the ones that are very quiet, they are always chatty, chatty, chatty. they come to good facer they find themselves. so these young people, my daughters about women raise or today, the implications for global peace and security, the one thing that struck me was sad is it that we are rising now, or is it that there is a way of being created that we are contributing? we come back to 10,000 women. and liberia, all my life i sonogram under, my ent, my own mot

so no matter what the naysayers halas, no matter how dark together a site tries to make things look,here is not another country under that wouldn't gladly trade places with the united states of america. [cheers and applause] so what is standing in our way is not what we don't have the ingredients to make the 21st century the american just like the 20th. the problem we have right now is her politics. the sort of uncompromising view, the notion that we should be going back to what we were doing that got us into this mess in the first place instead of going forward to achieve a greater american future. it's that old top-down economics that we've been hearing about for years, the old discredited idea that if we somehow get rid of or more regulations on big corporations to get more tax breaks to the wealthiest americans, but somehow the lead to more jobs and prosperity for everybody. ohio, you know better. i know better. we know this country wasn't built for the top down. it was built in the middle-class. it was built by farmers in fact drew workers in startups and small businesses and co

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