Israeli Troops Met With Protests As Gaza Evacuation Proceeds; Iraqis Negotiate New Deadline for Constitution
KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR, DAYBREAK: I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello. "American Morning" starts right now.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Thanks, Kelly. I'm Soledad O'Brien. Overnight developments in the Middle East. The most intense conversations, some 500 protestors arrested, this as the deadline fast approaches for Jewish settlers to get out of Gaza. And now reports Israel is asking the U.S. to give another $2 billion to relocate the settlers. We're live with the very latest.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN NEWS ANCHOR, DAYBREAK: I'm Carol Costello in for Miles today. A story still breaking in Japan. A major 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Injuries reported, a tsunami watch ordered. We are live in Tokyo with more.</s>O'BRIEN: And some new clues into the deadly crash of a jetliner in Greece. Have investigators found a mechanical problem that might explain that crash? Live reports ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING. Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Miles has the day off today.</s>COSTELLO: I'm Carol Costello sitting in for him. It is deadline day in the Middle East.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, in fact, that deadline fast approaching, now just ten hours away. All Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip must be out, or be forced out by Israeli troops. Many have already left, but it's estimated more than 5,000 settlers will have to be moved by force. Israeli soldiers have dismantled a gate leading to the largest settlement complex, but as many as 500 right-wing pullout protesters have been arrested trying to infiltrate the settlements. Guy Raz is in Gaza, at the Neveh Dekalim settlement, one of the largest ones there. Guy, good morning to you. Give me a sense of what the resistance is like. And as that deadline gets closer is the resistance building do you think?</s>GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, tension surely is palpable at this moment. The resistance we've seen throughout the day has been the most intense we've seen here over the past week. Behind me is the main road leading into the largest of the 21 Jewish settlements. Throughout the day, many protesters blocked that road. Now police and soldiers have been trying to use that road and to keep it clear to move in containers and moving vehicles for those residents who are prepared to leave. But the demonstrators at one point, burning trash bins and creating a barricade, in fact, in an attempt to obstruct that traffic; now, throughout the day that's been going on back and forth between demonstrators and police and soldiers. Early this morning at first light, police broke down the main gate into this settlement. They entered, and they cleared the main road leading into the settlement. Police again say, in a bid to make sure that moving vehicles and containers could come into the settlement. Now, they did make several arrests. At least nine of these demonstrators were arrested here at this settlement. Now, of course, this is the last day before the evacuations will begin. They're expected to begin about 10 hours from now, any time after midnight local time. And it's still not clear which settlements will be evacuated first, but there's considerable speculation that this one here, Neveh Dekalim, will be among the first to be evacuated. In part, because it's one of the largest and most hard-line settlements here in the Gaza Strip -- Soledad?</s>O'BRIEN: Guy, I have to imagine that it's been incredibly emotional for these soldiers to have to move their own people out.</s>RAZ: There's no question about it. Many soldiers have been preparing psychologically for this for many, many months -- in fact, for the past year. At the same time, it's very, very difficult for many of these soldiers to do it. This is the largest peace-time operation in Israeli military history. Some 60,000 soldiers involved in this process, and they are seen by many of the settlers as, in a sense, messengers from a government that these settlers and the hard-line opponents of the plan, they regard the soldiers of messengers of that government, which they oppose. So, of course, it's very difficult for many of these soldiers. We've spoken to many of them. They say they're following their orders. They're doing their job. It will be carried out with efficiency over the next three weeks. Soledad?</s>O'BRIEN: Guy Raz for us this morning. Guy, thanks. Obviously, we'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning and the afternoon as well. According to the Associated Press, Israel says it needs major financial help to relocate the settlers. The United States is sending experts to assess just how much money Israel needs. Israel already gets $2 billion a year from the U.S., says it needs an additional $2 billion for the relocations. A State Department spokesman says the bush administration has not yet committed to any money -- Carol?</s>COSTELLO: Negotiators in Iraq are back at work today trying to draft a constitution before hitting a new deadline. Time ran out on them last night, so the parliament gave the would-be framers another week to finish their charter. President Bush is praising the process, but the missed deadline a clear setback for U.S. policy. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House this morning. Good morning, Suzanne. What's the president saying about this?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You're absolutely right. It is a major setback for the administration. But the Bush campaign has been involved in two campaigns. One, of course, to try to get the Iraqis to the point they can govern themselves. Also, the second campaign to convince the American people the Iraq war was well worth it. President Bush, as well as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are really at the forefront of the campaign orchestrated, of course, to give the message, look, democracy is messy here. We believe the Iraqis ultimately will be successful. President Bush releasing a statement yesterday saying, "I applaud the heroic efforts of Iraqi negotiators and appreciate their work to resolve remaining issues through continuing negotiation and dialogue. Their efforts are a tribute to democracy and an example that difficult problems can be solved peacefully through debate, negotiation, and compromise." Also, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice trying to down play what some administration officials see as a possible embarrassment to the administration for insisting on that deadline.</s>CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SEC. OF STATE: We are witnessing democracy at work in Iraq. The new constitution will be the most important document in the history of the new Iraq. We're confident that they will complete this process and continue on the path toward elections for a permanent government at the end of the year.</s>MALVEAUX: So, Carol, U.S. officials say worst-case scenario is that the Iraqi government could have been dissolved, starting all over, they say. At least that hasn't happened. You can bet they're in overdrive trying to meet that next deadline on Monday -- Carol?</s>COSTELLO: I'll betcha. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House this morning. America's ambassador to Iraq was at the assembly meeting as the drama unfolded. We'll talk to him live later this morning. In Afghanistan this morning, 17 Spanish troops were killed in a helicopter crash in the western city of Heart. The troops were serving under NATO command as part of a peace keeping effort. They are the first Spanish troop fatalities in Afghanistan. Spanish prime minister's office tells CNN, there was no indication the helicopter was brought down by hostile fire. But a Spanish defense ministry spokesman tells CNN partner station, CNN Pluth (ph), that another helicopter in the vicinity also made an emergency landing.</s>O'BRIEN: A powerful earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered small tsunamis and could be felt hundreds of miles away. The magnitude 7.2 quake hit off the coast of northern Japan, about 50 miles northeast of the town of Sendai. Witnesses say they could barely stand up. Train services were disrupted, still are. The power is out for thousands of people. The quake even shook skyscrapers in Tokyo, about 220 miles south. Atika Shubert is live for us in Tokyo; she joins us via videophone. Atika, give us a sense of the injuries and the damage, too.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Soledad, considering it's such a powerful earthquake, actually, Japan was quite lucky there weren't more damages caused. Most of those injured and damages actually happened in the Myagi Prefecture, which is the area closest to the epicenter. At least 39 people were injured, three of them seriously. And most of those came from a sports complex, actually at an indoor pool, where the ceiling collapsed. There were more than 200 people in the sports complex at the time, but fortunately, only about 19 people were injured, one of them seriously. Emergency workers were able to get there quickly and pull them out. There were also a number of other cases of damages to homes in particular, minor damages. One small wooden house that actually collapsed outside Tokyo. Now emergency personnel and police are going around to the buildings to make sure they're structurally sound and people can still stay there -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: Atika, when you consider that 10 years ago there was an earthquake about the same size in western Japan, and more than 6,000 people were killed in that one, what do you think was the difference? Why do people live this time and the last time they did not?</s>SHUBERT: The big difference here was actually the epicenter. In the case of the Koba (ph) and more recently, the Nigata earthquake, the epicenter was also inland, and that caused a lot of damage because, obviously towns and cities were located right over the epicenter. This time, however, the epicenter was actually 80 kilometers, a little more than 50 miles out to sea. The initial concern was actually tsunami waves. As you mentioned, those tsunami waves turned out to be very small, only a little more than four inches in height when they came ashore; so no damage there. And because the nearest area in Myagi was quite a ways from the epicenter, it seems it was spared from a lot of damage.</s>O'BRIEN: Atika Shubert joining us by videophone from Tokyo. Atika, thanks. Carol?</s>COSTELLO: Helios Airways is now a focus of investigators looking into that deadly plane crash in Greece. Police in Cyprus raided the airlines' offices on Monday. A day after 121 people were killed when Helios Flight 522 crashed near Athens, en route to the Czech Republic. Chris Burns joins us via videophone. He is in Athens this morning. Chris, tell us the latest.</s>CHRIS BURNS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the investigation intensifying. That search in Larnica, Cyprus, was aimed at trying to find out more about that very plane, the Boeing 737 300 that went down on Sunday killing all 121 aboard. They believe, at this point, that it was some sort of catastrophic loss of cabin pressure, but they want to look at maintenance records. And that's mainly what they were trying to get to, those documents, in the offices of Helios Airlines. Meanwhile, there is testimony also, which we don't know the details of, but from the former chief mechanic of the company who quit in January of this year. And so he obviously is going to have some very important information in this investigation, Carol. Meanwhile, members of the National Transportation Safety Board, from the United States, are here on the ground. They are helping with the expertise; part of an agreement that, if an American-made airliner goes down anywhere, that the U.S. should be able to participate in the investigation, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So, Chris, this mechanic, might he talk about the air conditioning problems on board that plane before? I know it had problems before.</s>BURNS: Yes. Well, he did. And what he said was that last year there was an incident -- a problem with air conditioning. In fact, so bad that three people were treated for injuries, apparently respiratory. So there was a problem there. And meanwhile, the autopsies are going on as well. At least 20 bodies have been autopsied, including the flight attendant who was believed to have been the one trying to save the plane from crashing. All those people were still alive when the plane went down, but they did have oxygen deficiency pointing to that same problem. Carol?</s>COSTELLO: Chris Burns live in Athens this morning. The Navy is investigating the emergency landing of one of its transport planes. The C-2 Greyhound had to make a belly landing Monday at Naval Airfield in Norfolk, Virginia, because its landing gear malfunctioned. All 25 passengers and crew made it out safely. Naval air force officials say the landing was a textbook maneuver.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, two women who lost their sons in Iraq react to that anti-war protest in Crawford, Texas. Find out what they think about Cindy Sheehan's demands.</s>O'BRIEN: Plus, a possible political scandal for Arnold Schwarzenegger. We'll take a look at the allegations of an affair and a cover-up.</s>COSTELLO: And in health news, the FDA places unprecedented restrictions placed on an acne drug linked to birth defects. But do they go far enough? That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.