michael holmes, cnn, beirut. >>> other headlines today, 16 americans are on trial in cairo.y're accused of fraud following a crackdown on pro-democracy groups and egyptian officials say are interfering with the government. one of the americans on trial is the son of the u.s. transportation secretary. west africa, this is senegal on election day, people are furious at the president. they don't want him re-elected to a third term. the highest court cleared him to seek a third term despite the constitutional limit to seek a third term. this what is osama bin laden's former hideout in pakistan looks like today. being demolished. the work started last night. pakistani officials say they don't want the compound to stand as a gathering point for bin laden followers. >>> imagine you could help save 30 lives with one unselfish act. one man did donating a kidney, a kidney. the first link in the kidney donation chain. you have to hear his story. i am talking to rick next. don't go anywhere. we were having too much fun, we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we were in denial. t

joining me is michael holmes, live in beirut. michael, what are you hearing out of that region today? >> reporter: yeah, been a lot more violence today, deborah. in homs itself more than a dozen deaths, that is not counting the injuries. we can't get a number on the injuries. around the country, 36 is the death toll, officially from the activist side of things, but our experience is that is likely to go way up before the end of the day. there has been violence in fact all around the country, not just in homs, several deaths in another area, families killed according to activists. we have seen impacts of shells being uploaded to youtube, activists telling us we were speaking to one activist earlier said the shelling in homs had been almost constant and we could hear the shells impacting as he talked to us via skiep. for the people in the neighborhoods, this is very much a war underway. deborah? >> michael, the red cross was hoping to get in, a lot of people injured, hoping to get them to safety but there's no cease fire, no detante

>>> michael holmes for us there, thanks so much. base with you later on, thanks a million. >>> rick santorum and mitt romney, running neck and neck in the polls. so what does next week's primaries in michigan and arizona have in store for them? i spoke to cnn contributor maria cardona and lenny mcalester. >> it didn't seem he was prepared to receive the attacks to be the big target, going in this as the front-runner, nationally, he should have understood that he was going to be the one that was receiving all these attacks from all sides and should have been ready with a lot more pivot. seemed that romney was able to get under his skin, having said all that, i do think that he still performed well in terms of showing that he is the consistent conservative, that he is still the candidate that can be the anybody but romney, and what we've seen from romney especially this week in michigan, is that he still hasn't been able to seal the deal. so i think that santorum still has a chance here, still neck in neck in michigan and arizona and

michael holmes for us in beirut. chael, thank you. >>> talk about dramatic video of racecar driver danica patrick crashing in her daytona nascar review, and this guy over here, meteorologist rob marciano normally covering weather. hey. >> nice to see you. >> you had kind of a cool assignment recently. >> i did, speaking of nascar and the daytona 500. >> so cool. we'll be right back. yeah... i knew that i was doing the right thing, when i gave him the bayer. i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. so he's a success story... [ laughs ] he's my success story. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook. and most importantly, its lobster. it's the tastiest, the sweetest, the freshest. nobody can ever get enough. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster, the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees like lobster love

the free syrian army and its fight for freedom against government tanks and troops, it ends and michael holmes joins us from the region with a live report. and did gas prices go up overnight? we'll look at pump prices around the nation and see who is paying the most and why it's going up, up, up. >> from cnn's world headquarters, bringing you news and analysis from around the globe. live from studio 7, this is cnn saturday morning. >>> former president nelson mandela is in the hospital right now. officials are calling it an abdominal complaint. the 93-year-old's health has declined in recent years and he was largely kept out of sight, shunning public appearances. first of all, what are you hearing? what is going on? >> well, deborah, the presidency and the international public congress has been very, very adamant that mr. mandela is okay, that there is no need to panic. they're trying to reassure a very panicked public because the last they heard is that mr. mandela is suffering from abdominal ailments that really needed a specialist's attention. but the anc is saying, look, this was not an em

michael holmes monitoring it all for us in lebanon. michael, thank you so much. >>> the bloodshed in syria provoked an unusually harsh statement from secretary of state hillary clinton today. >> it is just despicable. and i ask whose side are they on? >> she is angry. next we'll tell you who secretary clinton is so angry with. it isn't just the syrians. >>> plus comedian bill mahre is donating serious cash to president obama's re-election effort. we'll have the details. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. tle emotional here? aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips we're helping power america's economy with cleaner affordable natural gas... more jobs, less emissions, a good answer for everyone. so, by reducing

i'm michael holmes in for randi. well, she could have had a standing room only memorial, but instead she'll be honored with a private funeral at her childhood church. investigators in los angeles are still determining the cause of houston's death in a hotel bathtub, but her body is in the care of a funeral home in jersey. we're following developments on both fronts. cnn's don lemon on the west coast, deborah feyerick back east in newark. hello to you both. deb, let's start with you. what can you tell us about the arrangements? >> reporter: well, michael, whitney houston's mom, cissy houston, a gospel legend, is making all the funeral arrangements. and they decided to make it an intimate, invitation-only event, at the hope baptist church, the church where whitney houston grew up. another friend and church member said that at the church, whitney houston also felt safe and adored. her mother was the choir director there, the musical director. and whitney often would kick off her shoes and she would just be filled with t

. >>> i'm michael holmes in for brooke baldwin.yria has gotten so bloody that they're shutting out syria and damascus. >> where can syrians go? they've been calling out to the world for help. >> we want to see actions, we don't want to see talk. we're really tired of talk and talk and talk. we've seen no actions at all. the syrian president still has his legitimacy. until now no country said this president lost his legitimacy. until now. why did they not say that? why does he still have his legitimacy after all the killing he did? >> and that activist is talking about this weekend's lack of action from the united nations. the security council rejected a resolution to call for president bajar assad to step down, stop the violence. china and russia are the reason they voted against it. meanwhile, syrians scrambling every minute with the sky hailing on them. it seems that way, anyway, with constant shelling. cnn can't confirm the details because syria has restrictions on journalists. we do have some live in washington. we talk about t

thank you so much, michael holmes. >>> and we want to talk some more about the united states' optionsg s joining me is fran townsend. i guess the question really for us going forward, you heard what the president said earlier. he said it's important that we not be bystanders. but what does he mean by that? >> the president has taken a leading role in sanctions but what you're seeing, gloria s. sanctions aren't enough. >> sure. >> words aren't enough unless it produces action for the people of opposition what does that mean? you need to arm the opposition so they can defend themselves. you need diplomacy because you're going to need to get humanitarian aid in and the safe passage of humanitarian aid and women and children and syrians who wish to get out of the country need safe passage. you need all of those things and it's further complicated by the fact that we've seen a warning go out by the u.s. government about syria's chemical weapons stockpiles. this is a huge, huge concern because of course if they feel threatened, the assad regime, what will they do? >> sure. and is there a wa

michael holmes for us this morning. ere are other stories making headlines. christine has those. >> >>> let's go to kabul first. the american embassy in lockdown right now. this is protest rage across afghanistan over the mistaken burning of the koran at a military base. thousands of afghans demonstrated outside the base setting fires and venting their outrage. an official says some of the religious material was removed because tdetainees were writing on these documents to exchange extremist messages. the u.s. is apologizing saying it was an honest mistake. >>> more nuclear defines from iran. the country's supreme leader said sanctions won't change the course of its nuclear program which he insists is peaceful. meantime, the top military general is threatening a preempttive strike against anyone who threatens iran's national interests. the u.s. and israel have not ruled out strikes against iranian nuclear facilities. >>> a christian college in louisiana is suing the federal government over its birth control mandate. the

. >> now our michael holmes is actually in beirut. he knew marie colvin very well. he will join us live a little later in hour. >>> tonight's big gop debate features a new figure at center stage. rick santorum will share the spotlight with mitt romney due to santorum's recent surge in the polls, but with that spotlight does come more scrutiny. this week people are listening to this 2008 santorum speech clip dug up by the drudge report. >> if you were sat continue, who would you attack in this day and age? there is no one else to go after other than the united states, and that's been the case for now almost 200 years. >>> cnn political reporter shannon travis joining us from mesa, arizona. shannon, what exactly is santorum saying about this revival of this sound bite? >> reporter: yeah. i mean, it raised a lot of eyebrows when we saw this, kyra, on the drudge report, splashed across the drudge report. it's the kind of comment that a lot of other candidates might back down from once it got revealed, but not rick santorum. you know that he's a staunch catholic, staunch

right now we have michael holmes live in beirut. we were watching some video there a moment ago. french journalist is edith bouvier. and we listened to her pleas for help. apparently she requires immediate medical attention and surgery in order to be able to perhaps survive. so we're wondering has there been movement in that that you know of? >> no, not yet. the shelling does continue. i can tell you two dead reported by activists so far this follows 101 dead yesterday. i was reading on the twitter feed, javier espinoza is another journalist trapped inside homs, he is uninjured and tweeted there is less bombing today, but heavy fighting. he said there was shooting in the building next door to him. we're hearing of heavy security presence in other cities it is early yet, but protests are already getting underway. friday, of course, the traditional day of protests in the middle east. you mentioned about those journalists. what we're hearing is that the two wounded journalists are still awaiting help. edith bouvier, particularly badly injured. badly broken leg. it's broken along the

michael holmes has details of their plight. >> reporter: wolf, tomorrow in tunisia, dozens of nationsring to discuss the deteriorating situation and come up with a way to apply more pressure. but the bombs, the shells continue to rain down on syrian civilians in cities around the country. particularly in baba ayman. it was there yesterday we lost two of our colleagues in the attack on the media center in baba amar. others there were injured. today we heard from them for the first time. wounded journalist edith bouvier lays in a safe house. her left leg shattered by the shell it is that killed two of their colleagues on wednesday. a plea for help from a place desperately in need of some. >> translator: my leg is broken, the length of my fee mural. i need to be operated on as quickly as possible. the doctors have treated me as best as they can, except they cannot perform any surgical operations, so i need as quickly as possible during a cease-fire, a car with medical equipment, or at least in good condition to take me to lebanon to be treated as quickly as possible. >> on the same video

michael holmes is with us live in beirut in the adjacent country. those things that stands out because marie colvin died doing something in honor of customs in that country. >> reporter: yes, as you know, ashleigh, when you go into a house in most arab countries you take your shoes off. and then go about in your socks or bare feet in the house. this is what maniry and the others. >> reporter: doing in that media center house last wednesday. when the shelling started, the top couple of floors were hit. they then feared the building was actually specifically being targeted. this is all according to her newspaper, "the sunday times." they ran downstairs to get their shoes which you always put near the front door, in order to get ready to escape the building. as she was down there getting the shoes parentally, that's when another shell hit, pretty much right at the front door. she and the photographer were killed. yes, observing a custom. ashleigh? >> let's move on to one of the more bizarre moves of this regime. bashar al assad has held a constitutional

. >>> continuing now is my pal michael holmes.k was in the west bank or sgch something. >> it was. it was eiffel 2002 or something. let's catch you up on everything making news this hour. rapid fire. let's go. >>> the united states has shut down its embassy in damascus, syria, clearing its remaining staff out of the country. it has repeatedly asked for syria's help to protect the embassy from attack. no response. syria is experiencing major violence as syria people try to overthrow their leadership. >>> the body of a man has been pulled out of that home in taco tacoma, washington. josh powell set fire to the house, endangering he and his son. he is a suspect in the disappear answer of his wife susan. neighbors, needless to say, are stunned. >> we're in shock. we're simply stunned beyond belief. we had suspicions of various things that josh was capable of that i, for one, didn't think he was capable of this. i think this proves it. i think this is his admission of guilt and he just couldn't handle it anymore. >> a new poll from abc

we are back with michael reagan, amy holmes. people were saying i'm looking unkept.higan. michigan and arizona coming out. it's big for all particularly romney. we will win michigan, no doubt, no we might, we will win this. it is big, isn't it? this is his backyard, where he spent a lot of his life. if he lost in michigan, it's a bad thing, isn't it? >> it would be a disaster. last night was a good night for him. momentum is leading in romney's direction. what conservatives are looking for is he's saying the right thing these days. do people believe what he's saying? he's a convicted conservative. he's saying the right things. what they are looking for is him not to pivot like gingrich but start going not just at the media, but after barack obama. somebody is looking for romney to show he has the fight. what you saw in that ad is going to be replicated millions of times over, hundreds of millions of dollars that are framed. the narrative has been framed by the framing of the occupy movement, the haves versus the have nots. >> his ratings are beginning to slip. amy, l

amy holmes, carol roth, michael breitba breitbart. welcome to you all.ngrich has been pretty quiet, didn't really compete in arizona and michigan. we've written him off so many times. >> the professor always has a way back in. it seems to be through the south. georgia is as important to him as michigan was to mitt romney tonight. >> would it be enough even if he wins in georgia? >> newt will think it's enough but he should try to win one or two more. there's a lot of states up for grabs that night. at least he has an area that he can say, i can win there. super tuesday is going to be a make or break for someone. >> it might be, andrew, or it might just be a real mish-mash where they all pick up victories. no one has moved forward. maybe romney wins the most, but everybody has little victories. they are all making victory speeches and we end up after super tuesday thinking, well, that was a waste of time. >> we'll save the big victory if that happens just as this week as barack obama who allows for the republican party to be fighting each other, what i fi

we're going to talk about the gop with michael reagan, the son of ronald reagan, a conservative blogger, amy holmes panel, this is the first time we have done this before midnight, i think. >> i shaved for you. >> exactly. and you collectively have the longest introduction in television history. it's a record you keep breaking. congratulations. let's start, michael, with you. i watched the debate. i thought i haven't got a clue who is going to be the nominee. i really haven't. do you? >> i don't think the party has a clue who is going to be the nominee. it's gotten to a point where i think those of us watching the debates could superimpose ourselves into the positions. they are the same questions we have had in 20 debates now and every debate you see who is going to break out. i don't think anybody is breaking out. last night, newt was in his element sitting down. >> yeah. >> i think it was great. he had the best night. >> actually, i think -- never rule out -- he's made five comebacks in this race. >> i know. because of the way it's set up, could make another comeback. >> santorum was the front-ru