American Killed In Ongoing Hostage Crisis; Autopsy For Murdered Lotto Winner
COOPER: More now on our breaking news. The hostage standoff has claimed at least one American life and we heard just moments ago that six Americans are now free. As you might imagine, there's a scramble for action tonight, but also for simple information. Let's go back to Jill Dougherty who is working her sources. I'm really stunned at how little information there is. This is really the second day of this operation and there's still so much we don't know.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's true, Anderson. But I think, you know, look at the context. This number one is Algeria. It's a very controlled country, the military controlling it. They're not used to doing operations, putting it mildly, the way the United States or European countries would. They go in and some people have described their operations previously as pretty brutal, so they go in, and they just carry out an operation, period. And that is why the United States and the Europeans that I was speaking to were disturbed by the fact that they weren't warned and also got very conflicting information.</s>COOPER: Yes, I think in a case like this, that is important to know what we don't know is what we do know. We know one American has been killed, six have been freed. Do we know how many hostages remain hostage, how many people remain hostage? Do we know how many terrorists remain, and are they still in control of parts of this oil field, this plant?</s>DOUGHERTY: Well, on the numbers, we don't really. I mean, we knew that originally, we believed according to Leon Panetta, that there were about seven or eight Americans. If you have six freed or escaped but no details about that, one dead, that about where we are right now. Victoria Nuland, who is the spokesperson for the State Department earlier today did say there are Americans who are being held as hostages. And the other, I think, interesting wrinkle in this is Mike Rogers who is the head of the House Intelligence Committee said this evening that the Algerians have launched some type of operation today, which freed more hostages. And as he put it, those hostage takers are hunkered down. So there was some progress, but that still raise the issue of now, what are the hostage takers doing?</s>COOPER: Do we know about general number of hostages, beyond just Americans?</s>DOUGHERTY: You know, I have seen numbers also on that. I wouldn't even want to speculate. I did see about, you know, 60, 70, but I can't even say that's correct.</s>COOPER: OK, Jill, listen, I appreciate the reporting. It's a difficult thing to try to figure out. Thanks for the latest update. Let's get caught up on some of the other stories we're following. Right now, Martin Savidge joins us with the "360 Bulletin" -- Martin.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who made headlines during the city is hit from Hurricane Katrina, you remember in 2005, he was indicted today of 21 federal corruption charges. He was accused of defrauding the city in a bribery and kickback scheme. Nagin is now facing fraud, money laundering, and other charges. And an "AC 360" follow, in fact the story I brought you the body of the murdered scratch lotto winner, Urooj Khan, he was exhumed today at a Chicago cemetery. Officials are hoping that the autopsy will help solve Khan's mysterious death. Khan died from cyanide poisoning after picking up his lotto winnings at nearly half a million after taxes. And the CDC says 48 states now reporting widespread flu cases. More elderly are being hospitalized and now 29 children have died in the outbreak. Then there's this, Lady Gaga about to lose her title as the most popular celebrity in Twitter sometime Sunday. Justin Bieber expected to pass her and have the most Twitter followers. They each have more than 33 million followers with just 46,000 separating them right now. First, the Mayan calendar, now this, hard to believe.</s>COOPER: Passing of the torch. Martin, thanks so much. Tonight, the bizarre story of Manti Te'O's fake girlfriend is only getting stranger. We have more details. The Notre Dame linebacker isn't talking yet. Others are reportedly pointing fingers at this guy. We're going to tell you who he is and what allegations he's facing just ahead.