Duke Lacrosse Charges; Allegations Against Iran; Rutgers Women's Basketball Team to Meet With Don Imus
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed. I'm Tony Harris.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on this Wednesday, April 11th. Here's what's on the rundown. They were branded rapists. Now the case against three former Duke lacrosse players may have crumbled. North Carolina's attorney general plans an announcement in just hours.</s>HARRIS: A cancer diagnosis for Republican Fred Thompson. What will it mean for his possible run for the White House?</s>COLLINS: Don Imus already losing three big advertisers following his on-air racial remark. Radio talk show host Frank Ski weighs in, in this hour in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: And at the top this hour, the Duke lacrosse scandal. Thirteen months after a stripper accused three players of rape, an announcement could implode the case that divided a community. That announcement now scheduled later today. CNN's Jason Carroll is in Raleigh, North Carolina, with the latest.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The North Carolina State Attorney General's Office confirms that they will hold a press conference at 2:30. During that press conference, they will make their announcement. Defense attorneys telling us they believe all charges against all three players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and Dave Evans, will be dropped. What they are trying to determine at this point is how the attorney general's office decides to drop those charges. In other words, will they come out with a strong exoneration of all three players, or will they come out with what the defense would deem as a weaker announcement, a weaker decision, in saying something like, we can't find any evidence at this time beyond a reasonable doubt to show that a crime was committed? If they come out with what the defense sees as the weaker presentation, they will hold a press conference where they will put on a PowerPoint presentation where they will show a timeline which will indicate, at least in their eyes, why these boys could not have committed this particular crime. At this point, all three players are here in Raleigh awaiting the decision. Again, that decision expected to come down at 2:30. We will be here awaiting that decision. Jason Carroll, CNN, Raleigh, North Carolina.</s>COLLINS: The U.S. military leveling serious allegations against Iran about actions in Iraq. Live to our Pentagon correspondent now, Barbara Starr. Barbara, what's being said now today?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, good morning to you. We've heard a lot in the past about allegations of Iran's involvement in the war in Iraq. But earlier today, Major General William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, had a press conference and had some new information to offer.</s>MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: The fact that we know they are being manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them, and we know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainee debriefs.</s>STARR: Heidi, General Caldwell there of course referring to the allegations that Iran is shipping those advanced IEDs, advanced roadside bombs into Iraq that are killing U.S. troops, saying that recent information from detainees indicates some of that training to use those EFPs has taken place as recently as the last month inside Iran -- inside Iran -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Barbara, interestingly, you said this information coming to us from detainees. Is it safe to assume that still getting a lot of information about the goings on in Iraq from those detainees?</s>STARR: They are indeed. General Caldwell went on to say, in fact, that recent interrogations of detainees that they have captured, at least two of them now say that they have received their training inside Syria. That, of course, would be very unsettling to the United States. Very recent information coming in. And he also had another new tidbit, if you will, to offer. General Caldwell saying that they have new information emerging that Iran is now supporting some Sunni extremist groups. That would be an expansion perhaps of Iran's involvement. Up until now, their support has largely been for the Shia groups -- Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. CNN Pentagon Correspond Barbara Starr. Barbara, thank you.</s>HARRIS: The battle over paying for the Iraq war is intensifying. Top Democrats in Congress turning now to President Bush's offer to meet about a $123 billion spending bill. The president says he will veto any bill setting a timetable for troop withdrawal. The White House adding that a meeting would not be an opportunity to compromise, but Democrats want to negotiate.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The president wants a blank check, and the Democrats will not give it to him. Contrary to what the president is saying, Democrats are accountable, and we want to hold the administration accountable as well. They want a blank check for a war. They've walked away from their own -- their own benchmarks.</s>HARRIS: President Bush is meeting this morning with a group of lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans who have just returned from Iraq.</s>COLLINS: More fallout from those racially-charged remarks by radio shock-jock Don Imus. Several advertisers on his show say they are pulling their commercials. Office supply chain Staples, Procter & Gamble and the Bigelow Tea company are dropping their Imus sponsorships for now. The Rutgers University women's basketball team agreed to a private meeting with Imus. They say they want to know what prompted his hurtful description of the Big East champions and NCAA runner-ups. MSNBC and CBS Radio slapped a two-week suspension on Imus starting on Monday.</s>HARRIS: At the center of the Don Imus firestorm, the Rutgers women's basketball team. CNN's Alina Cho went to the university's campus to find out more about them.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As a team, these 10 women achieved what few thought they could. Individually, they're remarkable, too.</s>C. VIVIAN STRINGER, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH: ... valedictorians of their class, future doctors, musical prodigies. And yes, even Girl Scouts.</s>CHO: Myia "The Fire" McCurdy is still a Girl Scout, and a tough cookie on the court. Brittany "The Brain" Ray wants to be an orthopedic surgeon, and has basketball is in her blood. Her brother plays for the Boston Celtics.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning, everyone.</s>CHO: Kia Vaughn didn't start playing until high school. She grew up not far from Yankee Stadium with seven younger brothers.</s>HEATHER ZURICH, RUTGERS GUARD: Kia is the big sister you never had but always wanted, and Piph will make an unbelievable lawyer one day.</s>CHO: In fact, Piph Prince is such an inspiration, her mother and grandmother decided to enroll in college after she did. Dee Dee Jernigan recently lost her mother. Her dream is to be a dentist. And Matee Ajavon, she's the team clown, otherwise known as "The Ice Breaker".</s>ESSENCE CARSON, RUTGERS WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM CAPTAIN: She can just spit out a joke, and it just breaks the ice.</s>CHO: That's team captain Essence Carson, a gifted musician who plays four instruments. Carson calls her teammates her sisters, a family that is colorblind.</s>CARSON: Just as much as I was hurt, Heather Zurich, she was just as hurt. Katie Adams was just as hurt. They cried just like we cried.</s>CHO: And around campus...</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're well respected and they're a great team.</s>CHO: A great team that wants to be remembered for what they do and not what someone said. Alina Cho, CNN, Piscataway, New Jersey.</s>HARRIS: Let's get another check of weather now.</s>HARRIS: News now about a popular actor who may be making a bid for the presidency. A source close to Fred Thompson tells CNN the "Law & Order" actor has been diagnosed with lymphoma. That is a cancer that affects the immune system. The source tells us the cancer is treatable in Thompson. The Republican is serious about the next steps toward a presidential run.</s>COLLINS: Hateful words from a man who thrives on shock, but how do they play among young African-Americans? We'll talk to the host of a top urban radio show. Frank Ski in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Face the facts. A new campaign to open your eyes before you open your mouth. That story ahead in the</s>NEWSROOM. COLLINS: Valuable loot. Convenience store robbers opened fire on a pursuing clerk just protecting the candy -- in the</s>NEWSROOM. HARRIS: Circumventing sanctions. How Halliburton got around the rules to do business in Iran. That story coming up in the NEWSROOM.