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over the streets protesting a government move that could send tuition fees skyrocketing. it is all happening right now. we're following all of those stories. but first let's go to this bomb plot out of yemen. we have just learned that if one of those bombs that was discovered wasn't discovered, it was set to detonate six hours later right as that plane would have been over u.s. soil. let's go straight to susan candiotti in new york, who's following this very, very closely. susan, what do you have? >> reporter: well, it's an intriguing revelation now, this additional information coming to cnn from a senior u.s. counterterrorism official, revealing that that package that was discovered at the east midlands airport in the uk about 12 days or so ago in fact would have detonated about six hours after apparently it was discovered. what's important about this is that where it would have been when it did go off. and that, as you know, we still have -- there are a lot of variables involved here. but it is believed it could possibly have exploded when the plane, the cargo plane, the ups plane, was over the eastern seaboard. depending on a lot of different factors. >> sure. >> reporter: we don't know for sure what route it would have taken, the trajectory, whether it would come over halifax, newfoundland, halifax, down cape cod, and down onto where the original cargo plane would have landed. remember, ali, there are so many questions here. the authorities discovered this package with the printer and then determined on later inspection that it had the explosives inside, the petn. so we don't know how much time that took. >> right. >> reporter: then the plane that it was supposed to be on, that cargo plane, was originally, according to german intelligence officials talking to cnn, we know that that original ups plane was set to go on to philadelphia and then chicago. remember that the package was addressed to a location in chicago. it turned out to be a fake address, but be that as it may. so what's frightening about this clearly is that if it had gone off, whether it would have been over the eastern seaboard, whether the plane could have been close to land, whether it would have been close to landing, too many variables here to know for sure. >> when we say it was set to detonate, does that mean it was set to detonate on its own or would it have to have been triggered by something? earlier there was speculation that because it had cell phone components in that maybe as it got into cell range as it was landing somewhere and you start to get the cell signal somebody could have detonated it then. are we thinking that this was timed? >> reporter: well, that's one of the questions and one of the scenarios that authorities have said, intelligence officials, as they try to pick this apart any further. we don't have more information about that at this time. >> all right, susan. i know you're working very hard on it. i know paul cruickshank is there. you're all working on this. we'll check in regularly with you to see what it th means. but this ups the ante on how serious an issue this actually was, that these bombs could have gone off in a plane over the eastern seaboard of the united states. susan, thanks very much. we'll continue to stay on this story. all right. elsewhere on the global stage, i want to keep talking about this. i want to talk a little about this g20 summit going on in seoul. financial shock waves from a summit that hasn't even started yet. it's starting on thursday. think about this. no matter how much money you have or how little you have, you want it to be worth something. but right now the two biggest economic powers on the planet are accusing each other of driving their own currencies down. china and the u.s. are accusing each other of keeping their currencies too low and make efforts to keep them lower, and that means rusch timesough time this g-20 economic summit getting under way tomorrow in seoul, south korea. the g-20, the group of 20, includes the world's biggest economies and also some of the fastest emerging economies. together these economies make up 85% of the world's economic output. so trust me, you have a stake in what these leaders decide or don't decide at this summit. this year all eyes are going to be on the u.s. and china. china has long been accused of keeping its currency, the yuan, unnaturally low, artificially cheap, in part by buying up currencies from other countries, creating more demand for other currencies and making those prices higher. this is simple supply and demand, if you don't understand it. what's the point of doing that? well, when the chinese currency is worth less, chinese products can be sold for less abroad. it also discourages chinese from buying foreign-made goods. sure enough, chinese exports have been off the charts. let me show you this. china exported -- just this morning we learned, by the way, that china exported $27 billion more in goods than it imported. that's china's trade surplus. the u.s., by the way, does the opposite. for years we have imported into the u.s. far more than we've sold to other countries. we got those figures for september. a trade deficit of $44 billion. so we imported $44 billion more in goods and services than we exported. now, the obama administration thinks that the ultimate answer for all countries is economic growth. wouldn't we love that? we're all firing on all cylinders. more producing, more consuming, more buying and selling, everybody wins. well, to that end the fed decided last week to pump more money into the u.s. economy by buying up treasury bills. $600 billion. that means there's more money to loan. it's easy to get a loan. you get a loan, you're more likely to spend, build a factory, employ people. those people have money to spend. but guess what? one of the expected impacts of all of that money being put into the system, whenever you take anything of value and you create more of it, it lowers the value of that which already exists. so the impact of that is to lower the value of the u.s. dollar. we've seen that happen already. that would make u.s. exports cheaper to other people. and that gives the u.s. the very edge that everybody is complaining to beijing about. let me bring in christine romans. she understands this stuff even better than i do. but christine, this g-20, i mean, two years ago the whole world was talking about coordinating and doing things together to fix this global economy. it seems we've gone the opposite direction now. this is the stamp of how everybody is now going to do what they think is best for their economy and the rest of the world be damned. >> one analyst watching this this morning told me it's every man for himself or every country for himself. and that's where things stand now. you know, two years after the crisis and a year after the g-20 in pittsburgh. these countries all pledged to speak with one voice. that was an excellent explainer, ali. i'm so glad you buttoned it up so well because it's exactly what's happening here. the united states would like to be talking about global imbalances, those big uneven trade that you were talking about, global imbalances, but instead we're having to deflect criticism. this president's going to have to deflect criticism about the fed's stimulus. one of the things that these other countries are concerned about, the big fast-growing emerging economies, they're worried that that money the fed is injecting into the system isn't necessarily going to go to create new jobs and invest in new factories and have new loans in the united states but that it might find homes in other bubbles around the world where they're very concerned about how those bubbles have come up and it might hurt them. they're worried about that as well. also, this comes on a day with some new numbers for you about the u.s.-china trade issue. an issue that still is unbalanced as it was before the financial crisis began. the united states this september, ali, exported $7 billion worth of goods to china. so we sent $7.2 billion worth of goods to china. we imported $35 billion worth. >> wow. five times. >> so still this incredible uneven -- incredibly uneven situation. for a long time the treasury department, tim geithner, as you know, he's told you this as well, want to talk -- address these global imbalances, it means europe investing more, the united states saving more, spending less, china developing its domestic consumer. >> yep. >> so that they're buying more. but numbers like this seem to say, or seem to suggest that things are still going the way they were before the crisis. >> yeah. this is going to make the conversation a little bit tougher, the conversation that starts tomorrow. you and i will keep a close eye on all of these things and all of the related developments, including the price of oil, the price of gold, the price of commodities, everything here is connected. christine, great to see you. i will see you in new york tomorrow. and of course we're together every single day including this weekend on "your money." elizabeth smart back on the witness stand today, recounting her nine months of hell. what kind of questions is she going to face, if any, in the cross-examination? i'll have the latest on that trial right after this break. down the hill? man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. 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[ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain. i don't know if you've been following this. we certainly have. the trial that elizabeth smart has been testifying in for the third straight day. this is the federal kidnapping trial. she's now 23 years old. she was abducted when she was 14 and spent nine months in captivity. and she's been talking about that quite -- quite freely over the last couple of days, last three days. she was held by a street preacher and his wife. she was threatened and repeatedly sexually assaulted. the defense was entering its cross-examination today. jean casarez joins us now. she's a correspondent withsn "i session." she joins us from where the trial is taking place in salt lake city, utah. jean, it's been fascinating to hear the words that elizabeth smart has been using to describe her captivity. it's detailed. it's hard to listen to. but the reality is she's very poised about describing nine months of constant agony and hell, really. >> reporter: ali, it's amazing. i sit in that courtroom, and i watch her eloquence, her classiness, but her honesty. as she turns to the jurors and says some of the most humiliating, degrading things that could happen to anyone. but she is recounting it. she has to recount it. she is a surviving victim. and today she just got off the stand, by the way. it was a short cross-examination but it was pretty pointed. but in the direct examination today they seemed to try to want to anticipate what the defense was going to do. so they asked her about his preaching, about that he was the davidic king, that he was the one chosen to have seven wives. did he ever talk about this in public or just to you? she said he never mentioned it in public, it was just to me. which is an indication to show he was using that to maneuver her. >> you said it was a short cross-examination. what could the defense try and discredit her in? i mean, often a cross-examination is meant to try to find weaknesses in testimony. what could they attempt to poke weaknesses in? >> reporter: do you know, ali, that's what they did a little bit. i was surprised. because this is elizabeth smart. but there was one example where she had said on direct examination that he had never gotten in an argument with anyone about religion in the public. so on cross-examination he said, but didn't you mention about a rave party that you all went to and he got into an argument? her response was, "thank you so much for reminding me of that." i saw an intensity from elizabeth smart toward that public defender that i have not seen before. >> she's a woman of 23 years old now. what is her life like now? >> reporter: she is actually living in paris right now. she's on a mission for the lds church. she flew in just for this trial. her whole family is with her. they're sitting in the gallery. and they are watching. her mother and father, i see them watching with pride, with sadness, with anticipation. >> sure. >> reporter: they're nervous for her. and every time she gets off the stand she just goes into their arms there in the gallery. >> wow. it must be something to follow. jean, thanks very much for being with us. we'll continue to check in with you. >> reporter: you're welcome. now, you probably heard the price of gold is going through the roof. so let me ask you, what do you think the record price for gold is? i'm talking about its value adjusted for inflation. think about that for a moment. and we'll come back with an answer. i love gold. the look of it. the taste of it. the smell of it. the texture. >> that of course was austin powers in "goldmember." he isn't the only one who loves gold apparently. on tuesday the price of gold briefly poked its head above $1,400 an ounce. a record of sorts. but that almost seems like a bargain compared to its peak in 1980, when it was $850 an ounce. here's the question i asked before the break. what's the peak price for an ounce of gold adjusted for inflation? if you put that in 1980 number, $850 an ounce, into today's money, it works out to about $2,250 an ounce. now, the question people are trying to figure out is what's driving the price of gold back up to these record levels? it certainly isn't outright demand for its usage. gold is used for aerospace. it's clearly used for jewelry. we know that. it's in the computer on your desk, by the way. it's also in the cell phone in your pocket. but it is far too expensive these days to still have huge industrial demand. even when the world's central banks don't hold nearly as much as they used to. the simple reality is that it's being used as an investment, as a hedge against other things going wrong. is gold still a good investment? let me ask somebody who knows gold about as well as anybody. rob mcewen is the founder and former ceo of goldcorp. these days he's the ceo of gold miner manera andes. rob, good to see you again. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, ali. >> rob, let's start with that obvious question. at $1,400 we've got people saying they're shorting gold, they want to get out of gold. this is certainly a peak price for gold. tell me, you're a guy who's lived in gold for decades. are we going higher than that? are we going lower than that? what do you think's happening with gold? >> we're going much higher, ali. there's a lot of confidence in paper currencies around the world as their debt levels expand and their economies have weakened. and governments are printing massive amounts of money. it's -- >> it's not priced in yet? we haven't seen all of it yet? there's still more to come? >> a lot more to come. i think we're probably 1/3 of the way right now. >> let's talk about what i was just discussing, real value for gold versus investment value or speculative value or hedging value. at this point this drive up, there is an increase in demand for gold. we've seen that in the last few years. but that's not what's driving this. >> gold is an alternative currency. in my mind at this particular juncture in the financial system it's the ultimate currency. if you look over the last decade, gold against the dollar is up almost 400% against the australian dollar, which has been one of the better performing commodities -- or currencies due to its commodity base. it's up just under 200%. people are looking at it and saying there's uncertainty in the financial markets, the government actions aren't working as promised, and where do we put our money? >> what -- >> interest rates are very low -- >> what's the thing that's going to happen, rob, to make that change? what's the thing that's going to happen to make you come on here and say i think the run in gold is done? >> once it hits $5,000 and the exchange ratio between the dow and gold is 1 or 2 ounces buys the dow, so if you divided the dow by the price of gold and you came up with a number of 1 or 2, that's when i think gold will be at its zenith in terms of purchasing power relative to other assets, and you'll then roll -- take some of your money and roll it into debt instruments, possibly real estate, undervalued equities. but until that happens, i think we're in a strong up trend for gold and silver. >> rob, for my view who does something else for a living and doesn't get to follow finances and markets and precious metals on a regular basis, what percentage of their portfolio should they have exposed to gold in whatever way they choose to do that, whether it's bullion or stocks or exchange traded fund or mining companies? how much exposure should you have -- should the average person have to gold? >> they should start with 10%. i'm an extreme case. i'm over 85%, 90% of my wealth in gold. >> but you are an extreme -- you know it very well. you have lived and breathed this for a long time. thank you for that sage advice. rob, good to see you. rob mcewen, a founder of goldcorp and current ceo of minera andes, a gold expert if there ever was one. and he eats his own cooking. he says he's 85%, 90% in gold. all right. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, we're going to follow the latest breaking news on that plane. the printer cartridge that got on a plane in yemen that we're now learning was set to explode possibly over the eastern united states. i'll have more detail on this when i come back. this site has a should i try priceline instead? >> no it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79. got it. wow! you win this time good twin! there's no disguising the real deal. s who need assistance getting around their homes. there is a medicare benefit that may qualify you for a new power chair or scooter at little or no cost to you. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. in fact, if we qualify you for medicare reimbursement and medicare denies your claim, we'll give you your new power chair or scooter free. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. i took emergen-c. with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin c and energizing b vitamins, it made every performance count. emergen-c. feel the good. could this face inspire learning? 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[ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. okay. this is breaking news we have on those printer cartridges that were sent, those bombs, let's call them bombs. that's what they were. that were sent from yemen to the west. one of them was intercepted at east midlands airport in england. that one was set to go off six hours after it was intercepted. it's quite possible that that plane could have been over the eastern united states at that time. speculation is that maybe it would have been landing or maybe it would have been coming in close to a populated area. let's go right to our terrorism analyst, paul cruickshank in new york. he's working the story, along with susan candiotti. when this happened 12 days ago, paul, you and i were together right where you are in new york, we were discussing this, and you were saying that there had been speculation amongst experts that perhaps this device was designed either remotely or with a timer to go off as it was descending, possibly into an area that had cell coverage because it had cell phone components, but the idea might have been -- because i said why would you put a bomb on a cargo plane, what damage could that do? seems like we're getting closer to an answer. >> we are getting closer to an answer. the british authorities now saying that this is a ticking time bomb and was set to explode. they calculate based on their estimate over the eastern seaboard of the united states. so you're looking, ali, at a lockerbie style event, not only killing the people in the cargo plane but also significant numbers potentially on the ground. this is a very significant plot that has been uncovered, and we're getting more information on when this timing device was going to go off. it seems an alarm clock on a mobile phone that was the bomb design in question here, ali. >> you know, when i think back to 9/11 and one of the things a lot of people say is it was remarkable the ability for al qaeda to have timed those planes given that planes are late and, you know, to have been so effective about getting planes that took off at roughly the same time. how would these terrorists have been able to know when you send a package from yemen with a destination of chicago where it would be in the process? >> well, we understand, ali, that in mid september there was sort of a dry run where they sent some packages from yemen to chicago to try and work out exactly where these planes would likely be. there was a lot of optics involved. their hope would have been these two planes exploding around the same time, perhaps in the early morning as they were approaching the united states friday, ali. >> what do we know about the planes that were identified at newark airport and at philadelphia airport? how does this whole plot come together? we know that there were packages sent from yemen. we know bombs were intercepted. how does it all come together? >> well, what we understand is the plane coming from east midlands that was going to take this device was going to go to philadelphia airport. so it's a reasonable presumption that some of the alert that then happened at philadelphia airport was late to that. but we're still finding out a lot more as the hours go by, ali. >> is there some learning yet, or are we too early? is there something authorities have learned that is going to prevent the next one from going on? because this was pretty good work i guess from authorities intercepting a bomb that was going to go off. but is there a lesson out of it yet? >> well, unfortunately, it's very difficult to find these things randomly, to screen for these sorts of devices. pet sn ve petn is very difficult to detect. it's all about intelligence. in this time around it was saudi arabia that provided the crucial intelligence. this bombmaker is still out there. and the al qaeda in the arabian peninsula say they're going to pass this idea on to other mujahadin brothers around the world. so this could be launched from any country in the world. >> this bombmaker was the same one involved in the attempt to bring down the delta plane, the underpants bomber, if you will, on christmas day. >> that's absolutely right. ibrahim al asiri, they believe it's him based on the forensics, similar sort of design, petn both times, similar forensics. he's still out there in yemen. the yemeni authorities say they're going to go after him. as of yet they haven't captured him, he's still out there, still able to make these re, very dangerous explosives and the concern has to be there may be follow-on attempts in the coming weeks and months. and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has said exactly, that we are going to try again and again. and next time they're saying we hope to actually target passenger jets. >> and they out a statement, they're very, very bold, they put out a statement outlining what they've done and what they plan to do. paul, thanks for staying on top of this. you'll let us know as soon as you have any other information. susan candiotti, paul cruickshank working very hard to get more details on this breaking news story. i tweeted out and put on facebook that you really need to watch this next thing. you need to call other people and tell them to watch because after the break i'm going to show you this woman in the pink top going from wearing -- from being in a wheelchair, being paralyzed for 18 years, to walking using robotics. this is not sleight of hand. she's demonstrating it for you right here on cnn. this is world-changing technology. what's her advantage? 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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus. okay. this one is sending chills up my spine. i cannot get enough of this story. it's really outstanding. i mean, you really do think of -- we talk about paralysis a lot, we talk about people being stuck and not being able to move. we really do talk about stem cells and the hope that that research has for people in terms of dealing with paralysis. but now we have real-life what i think of as bionics. amanda boxtell is with me right now. and aithor bender. he's the ceo of the company we're about to talk about, e-legs. amanda is wearing the e-legs. amanda, you have been paralyzed for how long? >> i've been paralyzed for 18 years. it was a freak skiing accident that rendered me a paraplegic and just in a split second i shattered four vertebrae and i felt an electric current that zapped through my legs, and then there was nothing. no muscle power, no movement, no sensation. >> and that's it. and you have been confined to a wheelchair or some sort of device to get you around. you lost your mobility? >> well, yeah. i lost my mobility instantaneously. and life changed. >> yeah. >> for me. and i had to look at the world from four foot tall, to look up all the time. and now that's not the case. >> right. this is -- and we're going to show -- we showed you standing but we're going to show this whole thing in just a moment. aithor, you are behind this, your company is behind this. how did you meet up with amanda? >> well, it was simply through a friend. this is a small world in a way, especially in this field. and i heard about amanda. i heard her speak. and she's been very passion ott about getting walking again through her whole life. and i thought she would be just the perfect candidate. >> and how did you come up with this? >> well, this is really originated from berkeley, where there's a lot of background in terms of wheelchairs. >> yeah. >> and they were basically uc berkeley and together with a couple of very innovative guys who came together, and they thought, okay, this would be a great idea to build an exoskeleton. >> and let's take a look. it's an exoskeleton, something that goes outside your clothes, outside your body, but it runs on batteries? >> it runs on batteries. it has actually motors here by the knee and by the hip. and it has a computer here on the back. >> yep. >> and then there are sensors that actually detect her movements. >> okay. >> so she moves the clutch forward and that will actually initiate the step. >> how long did it take you to get used to this? you've been playing around with this for a couple of months now? >> well, i've got about 20 hours under my belt. and i called myself a guinea pig at first, and they said no, amanda, you're a test pilot. and in my book no pilot can ever get enough air time. >> sure. >> but there's a learning curve to this, as there is in any sport. and so i first went into the parallel bars, then a walker, and then i graduated to crutches to the cross-lateral movement, and i was walking tall in my 5'7" body and loving every minute of it. >> well, we've teased everybody enough. we've talked about it. we're going to see it. we're going to take a quick break. amanda is going to stand up, walk across the room. for anybody here who's not a believer -- and the reason why i waited for a break, is if you haven't called other people you know to say turn on cnn and watch this, you are going to see a miracle in a minute. stay with us. okay, now here's our holiday gift list. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yea, i know. oh, you're good. good luck! priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. ♪ no mountain high enough ♪ no valley low enough ♪ no river wide enough to keep me from you ♪ ♪ ain't no mountain high enough ♪ every day on "the big i" we bring you technology or an idea that is going to change the world. people have been in wheelchairs, eythor and i were just talking, for centuries, for hundreds of years. that has been largely the only option for most people who get a spinal cord injury or who are paralyzed. now we are on the brink of something entirely new happening. amanda boxtel is here. she's demonstrating it for us. eythor bender is here. he's from the company that is developing this. and you're thinking that if everything goes the way you'd like it to go people could start using this at the end of next year even? >> yeah, we are talking about middle of next year. we will have it in selected clinics around the country. and so we'll start as something for the rehabilitation centers. >> yeah. >> but the goal is to have it to take home. >> that's incredible. amanda, 18 years in a wheelchair. >> shall we go for it? >> let's do it. >> okay. here we go. now, keep in mind, this is to be used in a completely safe medical situation, for someone to learn how to walk. but now there's no excuses, ali. for a doctor to ever say again you will never walk again. because we've got bionic technology right in front of us and this is happening right now. the future is now. >> did you ever think you'd walk again? >> you know, i never believed in my lifetime that i would be able to walk. and here i am, walking with you, side by side, eye to eye. i mean, it's the most beautiful thing that, you know -- it just triggers emotion in me to this day. and it's a natural step because i'm bending my knee in the most natural step that i've had in 18 years. >> i hear some hydraulics or something, a motor happening. how does it know what you're trying to do? >> oh. i think it's -- i'm not the technology expert. i'm a test pilot. do you want to answer that question? >> yeah. basically, what you do is that you are moving your crutch forward and with simply the arm gesture you send the signal to the device to make the walk. >> and you've got some sensors on here. >> yeah. >> and that's how it's sensing it. i can just see the joy in your face. you see a whole new life in front of you. >> absolutely. >> what are the things you're going to do when you're able to use this on your tone and freely? what does this mean for your life? >> when this is available for in-home use i see myself using this every day as a rehabilitative device -- >> let's, by the way, walk and talk because not many people have said that to you in the last couple of decades, right? >> let's walk and talk. i can do that. and then, you know, i live in the mountains. i live in colorado. and if i'm able to eventually get out on uneven terrain and hike in the wilderness, that would be my most beautiful goal, to be outdoors with the wind on my face and to be loving life. and at the end of this i want you to promise me one thing. >> what's that? >> can you give me a heart to heart hug? >> absolutely. absolutely. you get more than a hug. you deserve everything life has to offer you because this is absolutely, absolutely incredible. your success is going to mean great things for people who have been, you know, confined to a wheelchair, who haven't been able to move around. as you said, you saw the world from four feet. now you're seeing it from my height. congratulations. congratulations. this is so incredible. >> thanks for having us. >> this is really -- this is why we do this. this is why we do these things about great ideas because this is where they come from. so thanks to you. thanks to berkeley bionics and you two who have been here to make sure everything goes well. there will hopefully come a day when you won't need to be here. but we're very grateful to you and the folks at berkeley and to you, eythor and to you, amanda, for being the test pilot on this. we will watch your progress very, very closely. >> someone's got to do it. and this is going to revolutionize mobility options for people in wheelchairs. >> it really, really is. thank you so much for coming out here to do this. i really appreciate this. >> thank you. >> you need to know more about this. for more on this amazing technology go to my blog, cnn.com/ali. i'm also going to get this put onto our website so you can get it on twitter, you can get it on facebook. you're going to really need to do this again. you need to watch it again to really get a sense of it. we're going out for a quick break. i'll come back with more on the other side. ich one? 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>> reporter: it's not a problem for me. if a man can do it, why can't a woman? >> reporter: this is men's work in afghanistan for the most part. so when they started this program, there actually was a bit of nervousness about women doing a man's job. >> this is a women's hoftyou hossel, it's okay to do it here. >> reporter: across afghanistan women are if the background hidden behind burqas they wear on the streets. but empowerment projects are being replicated across the country by the u.s. getting women into the workforce is a major initiative as it seeks to build up afghanistan. like this program for female journalists in herat. this woman says that's her dream, but first she has to convince her husband. >> reporter: things in my life, for example, i will be a good mother for my children, i will be a good wife for you and also be a good journalist. now he say, okay, i will see. >> reporter: back in jalalabad, salma sees a glimmer of hope for her future. she's already found some new painting jobs which she does when men aren't present. >> translator: i'm proud about me and i'm doing something for my family. i'm very happy i can work like men and go outside of my home, that i can work and get money for my family. >> reporter: and she's training her 14-year-old daughter to work with her. >> jill dougherty joins me now from the state department. jill, this is a fascinating series you're doing, which is really giving us some insight into how afghans live as opposed to war in afghanistan. how does this sort of thing go over in normal afghan society? >> reporter: it's pretty rare because, after all, they are out there. they were working on a women's kind of hospital. and so that was okay because there were no men around. they would not be able to do that if there were min men in the picture. they'd have to have a relative, a brother or sus or something chaperoning them in essence. so it's very, very difficult for women to really get out unless they're highly educated. and there aren't a lot of those. so i would say it's rare. and what they're trying to do with am so of these programs is they give them the money, they give them some training with the idea that that will pay off in the end and they might change their at least immediate society. >> jill, i can't thank you enough for these stories. i hunger for stories that tell us what these people are like, what these afghans are like and struggles on a daily basis. hopefully we'll have you back tomorrow with more of it. the consequences of improper spelling on display in alaska today. what hangs in the balance? only a senate seat. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us now from washington with an update. hey, paul. >> reporter: how are you doing? vote counting is just getting under way in juneau, alaska. today they're starting to count the write-in ballots. this is so crucial because senator murkowski, the incumbent, is a write-in candidate and republican joe miller, republican nominee up there is not obviously. so that's why you have to check out each one of these write-in ballots. we put a little graphic together. this is where it stands right now. this is where the count stands as of right now when they're beginning this count. write-in votes 92,52. joe miller 81,195. miller made up a little bit of ground yesterday against the write-in which they hope most go to murkowski. check this out as well. we have brand new video we're getting in from alaska in juneau of the ballots arriving at the vote counting headquarters in juneau. we've got shannon travis, our political producer live starting in two hours in juneau and mike calloway, cnn photographer, based in atlanta. we have our two-man team up there going to keep track of the vote count. you want more, you know where to go cnn.com. that's what we have. the latest from alaska. >> good, paul. we'll stay on top of this. that gap narrowing so it's not a given. we only know it's going to be a republican who is the next senator from alaska. we'll stay on top of this with you. you may not see too many help wanted signs these days but we happen to know about thousands of job openings at some of america's best companies. i'm going to name names after this. 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[ indistinct shouting ] ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes [ dogs barking ] ♪ i'm on my way ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day ♪ another dollar try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. odd things, bonuses and raises. that might sound odd to hear about considering the current state of the economy but not if you work for google. the internet giant is handing out $1,000 in holiday bonuses to each of its employees and even paying the taxes on that. if that's not a good enough stocking stuffer come january workers also get at least a 10% pay raise. unheard of in this economy. google is trying to keep those people from running off to the competition. if you're looking for a job, some of america's top companies are hiring. let me show you some of them. ernst and young has 10,000 openings. price waterhouse cooper 8,528 openings. marriott international more than 5500 openings. nordstrom more than 50,000 openings. boston consulting group 2,000 openings. see a fortune 2010 best companies with at least 400 job openings each. check out cnnmoney.com. if you're looking for a job or know someone who is send them to the site. general motors reporting its best quarter in 11 years and pulled in nearly $2 billion. a big turnaround for the automaker that filed for bankruptcy just to stay afloft. the report a week before general motors begins reselling its stock to the public in its initial public offering. i'm ali velshi and with you for the next hour. we're watching three major stories happening around the world right now. a frightening new revelation in that plot to smuggle bombs out of yemen on to planes headed to the united states. one of them timed to explode over u.s. soil. in florida 300 broward county schools were in lockdown until moments ago as police chased down a threat from a possible gunman. chaos in london as tens of thousands of angry students take over the streets. they're protesting a government move that could send their tuition fees skyrocketing. all of that is happening right now and we're on top of all of it. elsewhere on the global stage, financial shock waves from a summit that hasn't started yet. no matter how much money you have or how little you have, you want it to be worth something. you want that money to hold its value. but right now the two biggest economies on the planet are accusing each other of driving their own currencies down. that means rough times ahead at the g-20 economic summit getting under way tomorrow. tomorrow morning, which is just a few hours from now in seoul, south korea. the group of 20, the g-20 includes the world's biggest economies and also includes some of the world's fastest emerging economies. together they represent 85% of the world's economic output. so trust me, you have a stake in what the leaders at the g-20 decide. this year all eyes are going to be on the contenders, u.s. and china. china has long been accused by the united states and others of keeping its currency. the u.yuan particularly low. by buying up currencies from other countries. it has so much money when it buys the dollar and euro it creates demand and makes it go up compared to its own. the chinese currency is worth less and chinese products can be sold less abroad and for that matter in china. sure enough, it works. chinese exports have been off the charts for years. this morning we got the numbers and learned last month alone china exported $27 billion more to the world than it imported. the u.s., by the way, does the opposite. for years we've imported far more than sold to other countries and got the numbers for september this morning. the u.s. imported $44 billion more from the world than it exported. the obama administration thinks that the ultimate answer for all countries is economic growth. more producing, more consuming, more buying and selling. everybody wins that way. to that end, the fed decided last week in what we have been calling qe-2, the second rounds of quantitative easing to pump more money into the u.s. economy by buying up treasury bills. guess what, the expected impact is to lower the value of the dollar. when you put more of something of value out there, it becomes worth less. that makes u.s. exports cheaper to the world and gives the u.s. the very edge that everybody complains to beijing about. christine romans follows all of this very, very closely and joins me now for her take on what all of this means, on the eve of the g-20, very different world than two years ago where the world was coming together working to solve this global economic crisis. now it seems we'll mark them going in different directions. >> that's right and we're told behind the scenes the deputies of the 20 countries that are there and some guests are all running in and out of rooms with their cell phones in their ears trying to figure out exactly what language to hammer out for the communique about what other countries are doing. and the united states would like to be talking about global imbalances. they'd like to be talking about those trade deficits and those current account deficits that you were just showing there. but instead the u.s. is getting a lot of flak about the fed and the fed injecting money into the system and driving the dollar down. ironically, the obama administration, ali, the position they're trying to take is, look, if this helps the u.s. economy get stronger, that helps our currency get stronger and helps everyone when the u.s. is a strong engine of growth. but right now people are mostly just complaining about the fed's move there. >> bottom line is a short-term drop, what the president and administration are saying a short-term drop in the currency should result in long-term gains if there's economic growth. thats with a the point behind qe-2, the fed deciding to put $600 billion into the economy. >> that's right. here's another twist. you see the commodity prices going up because this money expected to come into the system and a lot of speculation moving into the big commodity prices. at what point does economic growth being a little more robust because of qe-2, at what point is that blunted by the higher commodity prices that have occurred at the same time? so all of this is very intricate, quite frankly. you have the german finance minister saying u.s. policy is, quote, clueless. there are a lot of opinions about what the americans are doing but i think what we can say for sure is speaking with one voice a couple of years ago has given way to a lot of countries pursuing their own policies because they're under incredible pressure at home to get people back to work. >> we'll continue to follow this very closely here and on the weekend as well. catch christine with me on your "money" saturdays at 1:00 p.m. eastern and sunday at 3:00 p.m. eastern. this week we'll talk about commodities and gold and currencies and the g-20 and give you an understanding of this that will help you make some decisions for yourself. also, christine is the author of a new book "smart is the new rich." . today was the third and probably last day of testimony for elizabeth smart in the federal kidnapping trial of the man who abducted her eight years ago. she has been composed on the stand recounting that horrific ordeal. jean casarez is the correspondent that was in the courtroom today. >> reporter: i sit in that courtroom and i watch her eloquence, her classiness but her honesty as she turns today jurors and says some of the most humiliating, degrading things that could happen to anyone. but she is recounting it. she has to recount it. she is a surviving victim. and today -- she just got off the stand by the way. it was a short cross-examination but pretty pointed. but in the direct examination today they seemed to try to want to anticipate what the defense was going to do, so they asked her about his preaching, about that he was the davidic king, that he was the one chosen to have seven wives. did he ever talk about this in public or just to you? she said, he never mentioned it in public. it was just to me. >> and that was a way for the prosecution to show that brian david mitchell was manipulating elizabeth smart. as jean said, the cross-examination was pretty short. at one point smart actually thanked the defense attorney for reminding her of a violent outburst by mitchell. she's not expected to be called back to the stand before the end of the trial. a frightening revelation about the plot to smuggle bombs from yemen on to planes headed to the united states. just how close were we to a major tragedy? closer than you think. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if anything, it was a little too much. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 but the moment they had my money? nothing. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no phone calls, no feedback, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no "here's how your money's doing." tdd# 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closely. susan. >> reporter: ali, it's chilling new information that is now being revealed to us in part by a u.s. counterterrorism official as well as a statement from scotland yard. first that counterterrorism official tells us that that plane, the cargo plane carrying the printer bomb, if it had been on board that plane, would have exploded six hours after the cargo plane took off from the uk and headed toward the united states. scotland yard in a statement goes on to say that that would have meant that the plane would have exploded somewhere over the eastern seaboard of the united states. now, this information is coming to us, ali, about 12 days after that initial crucial tip from saudi intelligence passed on through various channels that allowed the british in this case to nail down one of those two cargo planes that had originated in yemen and was stopped in this case in the uk. that's when authorities discovered the package that eventually led to the discovery that that printer contained some 300 grams of petn, an explosive that could have blown up, officials say, that cargo plane. we also know, ali, from german intelligence that the cargo plane was originally meant to go from the uk to philadelphia and then on to chicago. the question, of course, that we cannot answer right now -- and we don't know whether authorities can -- is whether that plane was meant to blow up in the air, as it was landing or exactly where over the eastern seaboard of the united states. >> here's the thing. i was talking to paul cruickshank about this earlier and you know this. this was determined by a tip. petn can't be scanned. these components look like cell phones or printer cartridges. so the onus is on intelligence. great job for the intelligence community but the fact is without tips and without intelligence, there was no amount of detection that was going to figure this out. >> reporter: that's exactly right. and authorities are the first ones to tell you that. and they say it goes to show that people who want to do harm to the united states and other countries are always looking for a way to break the system, to test the system and they found another way to carry that out if it were not for that intelligence tip, this plan would not have been thwarted. >> al qaeda in the arabian peninsula has said -- they said you should expect more of this. >> reporter: absolutely. and authorities here and across the world know that the system will be tested. so they're constantly trying to beef up the system in the best way they know how. but they do know that intelligence is the most important key to try to break up these plots. >> yeah. no kidding. all right, thanks very much for continuing on this story. we'll stay with you on it. susan candiotti working hard to get more details. next you'll meet one of our top ten cnn heroes. his mission is to make sure wounded warriors have a place to call home without a mortgage. we're counting down to our big event on thanksgiving night when we honor our top ten cnn heroes chosen by you. one is dan walrath. the retired home builder started a program to build free homes for wounded veterans. he says it's his way of saying thanks for the sacrifices they've made. >> one of the most important things for a family is a home. i want you to read a sign for me. >> future home of sergeant alexander reyes, united states army. >> congratulations. >> giving these folks a new home, it means the world. >> just thank you. that's all i can say. >> he joins me now from houston. dan, thanks for being with us. congratulations on being named a cnn top ten hero. tell me a little about your story. we got some sense from what we just saw. tell me how you came to start building homes for veterans. >> well, ali, it's -- it was about six years ago i had a call from a friends that had a son that had come back from iraq and he had severe head injuries and went over and visited with the family. and he was showing me pictures of stephen. and what he was before he got injured and then afterwards. and it just broke my heart. and of what these young men are going through and the families that they have to come back to and it was just -- it was incredible. and i just knew that after building homes for 30 years it was something i could do. >> how does it work, dan? tell me how do you get the land? how do you end up building this? where does the money come from? >> well, being in the building industry 30 years, i was on the board of directors of national homebuilders association, the board of directors for the billed he recalls association and so i had a lot of contacts. so what we do, i had this idea of going back to those builders organizations and tapping into the resources and trying to get all the building associations across the nation to start building these homes. and we just did it one at a time, one association at a time. now it's really taken off and it's growing and we're building homes all over the united states now. so we're very pleased. >> how many have you built so far and how many are you hoping to build? >> well, we've -- we have done 12 homes right now and we have another 10 that's either in the permitting stage or different plans. and -- but we have 38,000 wounded heroes. and we feel like that we're not going to be complete on this mission until we build 38,000 homes. >> and is this helping? is the exposure from being a top ten cnn hero going to help you out? >> oh, it's been incredible. i've gotten e-mails from iraq and australia and new zealand. i mean just all around the world we've gotten support and donations and it's just been incredible. and i just -- you know, i can't thank cnn enough for the exposure because the american public and around the world, they -- people want to help. and we're just giving them an avenue and a way to do that. >> dan, what a pleasure to use you, honor to meet you. you're living proof that sometimes the good guys wear black hats. love the hat and what you are doing. look forward to seeing you thanksgiving night. watch cnn "heroes" an all-star tribute on thanksgiving night right here 8:00 eastern on cnn. bring you up to speed on some of the top stories right now. positive news on jobs. new jobless benefit claims are down to the lowest point since july. 435,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week. still a lot of people. but it's 24,000 fewer than the previous week. washington state is considering a ban on caffeinated energy drinks with alcohol today. those type of energy drinks are blame for an incident where several students were sickened at a matter last month. critics say the caffeine can mask the alcohol's effect until too late. they call it blackout in a can. the fda is investigating the same type of drinks. here's an interesting one. an important precedent may have been set for all who use facebook. the national labor relations board ruled in favor of a woman who says she was wrongly fired from a connecticut ambulance company because of complaints she posted about her supervisor on her facebook page. the board says the social network complaints are a protected activity. the company claims she was fired for complaints about her behavior, not just because of the facebook postings. look at this mysterious trail shooting through the sky. what the heck is that? is that a plane? is it a rocket? is it a missile? we'll run down the latest theories "off the radar." i'm a random windstorm. shaky! shaky! and if you named your own price on car insurance, you could be picking up this tab yourself. so get allstate. 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"well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. i took emergen-c. with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin c and energizing b vitamins, it made every performance count. emergen-c. feel the good. chad, "off the radar" time. this is as "off the radar" as it gets. put me out of my misery because i've been hearing about this a couple of days, this vapor trail in california? >> yes. >> all sorts of speculation. missile, rocket launches. how does it happen that we don't -- we didn't know when we designed this segment "off the radar" we were going to be -- >> we hope this was on the radar. literally. >> nobody seems to know what it is. >> this is a long shot. kcbs took this shot from their helicopter. and it looks like the shuttle is going off. it looks like you're in orlando watching a long distance shot of the shuttle taking off. >> except nobody who would otherwise be launching a rocket or shuttle says they were doing at that at the time. >> not me, not me, not me, not me, all the way through. so there have been speculations from people that are very smart. m.i.t. saying, yes, we think it is some kind of a rocket, we think it is some kind of missile. other scientists say it's just a contrail. it's a regular jet engine that's in there making this and it appears that it's turning to the right. it's the sunset. let's go to the next slide. this is the one that i find to be a little bit more significant. a different shot. but why is it bright right there, right there? >> because that looks like an engine. that looks like a rocket engine, something that we see flames coming out of. you don't ever see that out of a plane. >> i've never seen it out of a plane. >> maybe not qantas 380 when that engine problem happened. it could be the sun. >> i don't believe it's the sun. at some point you can get a reflection off of the fuselage -- >> but that's very bright. >> and it's there for a long time and the plane is turning. and if you were -- >> it would be a glinlt. >> it would have been gone, correct. but, now, what else could do it? >> it is 2010. the fact is people do launch things like rockets more often than -- not the shuttle but california is full of people making rockets. >> pretty big. my concern is that we don't know what it is yet and no one knows and no one is taking responsibility. the only jet that i know that could make that would be a military jet. something with the afterburner on and the blue angel could make that type of light from the bottom. and so maybe some pilot was doing a maverick, going up, let's do mach 2 with my hair on fire and doing that but nobody wants to take responsibility yet. >> so at the moment we still don't know what that is. >> no idea. >> but lots of theories. that is "off the radar." that is "off the radar" as it's ever been. thanks very much. coming up on today's "big i" amazing technology to help paralyzed people stand up and walk. you can see it happen for real in our studios right here coming up. okay. earlier in "the big i," i had the most fantastic conversation with a woman named amanda boxtel who calls herself a test pilot for something called elegs and i spoke to the ceo of the company that designed it, a gentleman named eythor bender. they've created -- they're like bionic legs to take people who have been stuck in a wheelchair like amanda for 18 years and give her mobility. take a look. amanda boxtel is with me right now and eythor bender. he is the ceo of the company that we're about to talk about elegs. amanda is wearing the elegs. amanda, you have been paralyzed for how long? >> i've been paralyzed for 18 years. it was a freak skiing accident that rend erred me a parapelagic. and just in a split second i shattered four vertebrae and i felt an electric current that zapped through my legs and then there was nothing, no muscle power, no movement, no sensation. >> and that's it? and you have been confined to a wheelchair or some sort of device to get you around? you lost your mobility? >> well, yeah. i lost my mobility instantaneously and life changed for me. and i had to look at the world from four foot tall, to look up all the time. and now that's not the case. >> amanda, 18 years in a wheelchair. >> shall we go for it? >> let's do it. >> okay. here we go. now, keep in mind this is to be used in a completely safe medical situation for someone to learn how to walk. but now there's no excuses, ali. there's -- for a doctor to ever say again "you will never walk again" because we've got bionic technology right in front of us. and this is happening right now. >> did you think you would walk again? >> you know, i never -- i never believed in my lifetime that i would be able to walk, and here i am walking with you, side by side, eye to eye. and it's the most beautiful thing. but it just triggers emotion in me to this day. and it's a natural step because i'm bending my knee in the most natural step that i've had in 18 years. >> how does it know? i hear some hydraulics or something, a motor happening. how does it know what you're trying to do? >> i think it's -- i'm not the technology expert. i'm a test pilot. do you want to answer that question? >> basically what do you is that you are moving your crutch forward and with simply the arm gesture, you send the signal to the device to make the walk. >> and you've got some sensors on here and that's how it's sensing it. i can just see the joy in your face. you see a whole new life in front of you? >> absolutely. >> what do you think you'll able to do when you can use this on your own and freely? what does this mean for your life? >> when this is available for in-home use, i see myself using this every day as a rehabilitative device to keep me going. >> let's walk and talk. not many have said that to you in the last couple of decades. >> let's walk and talk. >> that was truly amazing. if you want to see more go to my blog cnn.com/ali. listen, americans are generous. that's a fact. it's true in good times and in bad. but bad times make generosity all the more important. and right now one. most important charities in the country has high hopes for a very generous holiday season. we call that "mission possible." it's coming up next. ...authentic... ...pure... and also delicious. ♪ like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. because natural is not only good, it also tastes good. nature valley -- 100% natural. 100% delicious. every day on "mission possible" we try to raise up an ordinary person who does something extraordinary and inspires the rest of us. today the rest of us are the story. what we do year in and year out and what we can programs do more of. we told you yesterday that 2009 was a rough year for the nation's charities for a number of reasons. of course including the economy. donations to the 400 biggest charities dropped 11%. that's the most by far on record. united way worldwide fared somewhat better. the drop 4.5%. the salvation army made do with 8% less. check out food for the poor. that's a group that took a hit of 27%. the american cancer society was down 11%. and the "y" formerly the ymca received 17% less in donations last year than the year before. safe to say all charities are hoping for a better 2010. but for the salvation army in particular, a lot depends on the next few weeks. it wouldn't be the holidays without salvation army bell ringer's standing by. kettles at malls and on street corners. joining me to talk about this year's campaign major george hood in our studios in washington. thanks for being with us. how is it looking so far? >> we're cranking up and getting ready to put the kettles on the streets. actually some kettles in many communities that have been hard hit already have those bell ringer's out. so we're looking forward to a very robust christmas season. >> what affects how much money people put into those kettles? >> there's lots of things. it's an emotional give. many people walk by and they can think of a neighbor or a relative who may be struggling and having a difficult time and they'll want to put money in there. in many cases it's a traditional give. people look for the red kettle and parents with small children want to teach their kids what it means to give back to charities and to help other people. and they will bring their children actually to the red kettle to allow them to make their first contribution. >> that's a good way to think about it. what kind of money do you normally raise and where does it usually go? >> last year we set an all-time record. we were actually stunned by the amount of money that we raised in the red kettle. it was $139 million. that's a lot of quarters and dollar bills from the american public and that money, wherever it is raised in a local community, will stay in that community to meet the needs of people who are hurting in that town. >> what do we -- what sort of needs are you finding that have increased? have things changed in the last couple of years? a lot of us talk go about how we're out of the worst but a lot of people in their situation tales a little bit worse. >> there are still 14 million people who are unemployed across america and that plays down into foreclosures with homes, the inability to keep utility bills paid, to have proper food on the table, to get clothing for their children. and what we try to do at christmas is to raise as much money as we can, first of all to make sure that children who come from underprivileged families are able to celebrate with toys under the tree. and all of the money that's left over in those local communities is then used to fund our sustained social service program throughout the next year. so it's very important that we raise as much money as we can during these last two months of the calendar year so that we know going into january what kind of funds we have to work with throughout 2011. >> major george hood, thanks for joining us. we wish you the best of luck this holiday season. >> thank you. president obama working on a big deal -- a big deal ahead of the g-20 summit. this is a deal that could have a big impact on american car companies and on american consumers. ed henry, i think we've got him back live. ed henry checking it out on "the stakeout" as soon as we come back. ♪ where is he? where is he? i miss him live and in person. "the stakeout" with ed henry every day we do it at this time but he's been traveling with the president. he has not deserted us. he kept coming back at us. he taped things. he looked for my relatives in india, didn't have a lot of luck. are you on the phone or with us in person? >> i'm on the phone so you can't see how sharp dressed i am although it's 4:00 in the morning. we're about 13 hours ahead. >> you're in your jammies. >> no. >> i don't even want to think about that anymore. listen to this. the president was in india. he was in indonesia. he's reaching out to all of these big democracies in asia. is this meant to sends some sort of a signal to china, which really is becoming the u.s.'s main economic adversary these days? >> it certainly is. an obviously the u.s. is walking a fine line. on one hand the president is sending a not so subtle significant gnat at all visiting four countries in the region that are democracies all around china, not stopping in china although he was there one year ago this month. not like he's ignoring china altogether. hitting four in the region. it's a signal to china that we've got other trading partners here in the region. we don't have to just deal with china. i think while there are a lot of people expecting as the g-20 summit gets ready to go here in seoul hosted by south korea that maybe there will be this big fight between the u.s. and china on currency manipulation and et cetera. what the u.s. is trying to do is raise its points with china but not have a big brawl here in part because some of the new information we're picking up is that the president will probably announce he's going to host a state visit with the chinese president back in january in washington. just in over a month and a half you'll see the chinese vice president come in and hoping to do a lot of business. so they're hoping to avoid a big, big fight here. >> you sound like you have a little sleep in your voice. i picture you in an easy chair in your hotel room wearing a snuggy but enough about that. g-20 is in south korea. the president is going to try to nail down a trade deal that apparently has the -- has some fans in the u.s. auto industry. what is this and what can it mean for americans? >> reporter: it's got summit sort of mixed in the auto industry because you have folks like ford running ads saying this could be a good deal but they have this ad saying for every 50 carlos korea brings to the u.s., u.s. can only export one into south korea. so they're saying, look, if this trade deal will lower the barriers so that a lot more u.s. cars can go in, these u.s. car companies may be interested in doing that and it may mean more u.s. jobs for them back home. but if it only allows some products in and not others, it leaves a lot of barriers in place, they're not going to be for it. i think what's interesting is to step back from this particular deal. you have the chamber of commerce preftz tom donahue battling with the president on health care and other issues. he's in south korea talking up the deal trying to give the president some rare support. something he doesn't do often. because he believe the business community more probably believes this will mean a lot of jobs back home if you bring a lot more u.s. products into this market. what i finds interesting is the president all of a sudden is talking up trade in india and down here in south korea. he hasn't done that a lot for 22 months. why? he had a democratic-run house with nancy pelosi that probably wouldn't move trade deals with south korea, colombia and pan a panama, three pending from the bush administration. now all of a sudden the president is talking them up more. if he gets the deal on south korea free trade agreement, for example, that could maybe open the door to john boehner in the months ahead and might mean jobs back home and might open the doors to these guys working together on other things. pay attention to where this free trade agreement goes. it might signal he can do business with john boehner. >> the with the volcano in indonesia causing problems in the president's travel plans, making him adjust the travel plans. how did you get around? >> reporter: we had a somewhat comical scene. we were on the tarmac yesterday and trying to get out ahead of the president because we were told if air force one took off before us the window was so short we'd probably be stuck in jakarta. we were ready to go but the catering truck didn't arrive. delta was waiting for it-to-av roop we were staring out at air force one wondering when the president's motorcade would pull up and leave us. finally it was to leave without the catering truck. we left for a six-hour flight without food or alcohol. maybe that's not a bad thing for the white house press corps. >> glad to hear your voifs. ed henry on the president's trip in asia. time for your cnn political update. the next phase of the senate election in alaska is getting under way today. first let's talk about the deficit. this is huge news. cnn chief national correspondent john king brings it to us now from washington. john. >> reporter: ali, when you get that guy ed henry and the president of the united states back from the international trip we'll get a test whether washington is serious about an issue huge in the midterm campaign, spending and deficit reduction. the president says it's a priority. he'll have a new republican congress. his own debt commission, the president's commission just put out its recommendations and they call for some very tough choices here in washington. they want to cut spending in 2012 immediately right out of the box, cut spending and bring spending down to 21% of what the gross domestic products, the size of the economy. cut a lot of spending including a 15% cut for the white house budget, 15% for the congressional budget. a lot of programs across the board. and they also say they should reform the tax code. lower rates but here's where republicans will probably get mad, increase revenues in the end meaning some taxes -- overall tax revenues to the government would go up some. spending cuts, some tax increases. we'll see if washington will get serious about this big challenge. you mentioned one of the undecided races still from the midterms. that's that alaska senate race. saw pictures of this count earlier and reminded me of bush versus gore in florida. right now as they count the votes the preliminary total unofficially say the write-in are 92,528 and we presume most are for the incumbent senator mur kmu murkowski. we'll see how this goes as we watch the count in alaska. the miller campaign says it plans to challenge some of the ballots. we'll see how that plays out. tonight on "john king, usa" a false natding conversation with a woman who is about to make history on two fronts. suzanna martinez will be new mexico's first woman governor and latina governor. she has a message on the immigration issue to national republicans as well. tales her first interview since winning that election. we're looking forward to it tonight. >> i like the anchor of that show. your tie looks like it matches the cnn equals politics stuff. like you picked a tie to match. >> preston and steinhauser give us this. this is uniforms. >> pleasure. looking forward to watching this interview tonight. there's a huge problem by the way we've been talking to you about with ipads and iphones. you can't see anything that uses flash player. adobe and apple are not playing nice with each other but there is a solution. we told you about it before. here's a question for you. how many iphones are sold every day? look at these numbers. 10,000, 80,000, 100,000 or 500,00 500,000. okay, now here's our holiday gift list. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yea, i know. oh, you're good. good luck! priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. [ man ] ♪ trouble ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life. before the break i asked you how many iphones are sold every day. is it 10,000, 80,000, 1 hundred,000 or 500,000? the answer is "b," 80,000 iphones are sold every day. lots of people use them. on many levels people love them except so much video that you watch on internet or mobile devices is provided by a flash player, adobe. that's something that apple has not been able to work out. we told you about an app that was introduced a couple of weeks ago. i don't know how long it was. it was a few weeks ago. called sky fire. it was launched to be able to -- basically it would convert the technology -- it would convert flash to html 5 which the ipad or iphone could read and do it internally. guess what. it was released as an app for apple and sort of sold out quickly and they couldn't really deal with it over at the company. so we've got the ceo of sky fire with me now, jeffrey glick. he's here and he's here to tell us what the future is for this. this is very popular, jeffrey. what happened? >> well, we were thrilled to be the top grossing app within hours on the apple app store. we had so much demand that we made a decision to call the app sold out. we reached number one as i said in hours and we wanted to make sure those users that bought the service were getting a great customer service. the demand was so high that in 36 hours we doubled our band which hath and capacity and been back up for sales since friday without interruption and going strong as the top selling app on the apple app store. >> does this solve the problem because apple and adobe couldn't come to an agreement. you got in the middle and converted it to an app that the iphone can read. is this a good business model or are those two going to come to an agreement and cut you out of the picture? >> it's a bigger picture. video consumption is growing by 6,000% to 2014. it's going to be 70% of the data on wireless carriers like verizon and at&t. our technology doesn't just enable flash on devices like iphone that can't otherwise support videos designed for flash. it is a broader technology designed to help everyone have a better user experience with all of this explosion of video and make it play more efficiently over wireless network. so we have a much broader vision than this. now, we'll have to see what happens between apple and adobe. sky fire has played the role of switzerlands. we don't favor any technology. we simply can translate video designed for adobe flash player into a language that the apple media player can understand. >> and at this point you have enough servers to make this work as far as you can determine? >> we're very glad that we're a cloud approach, that we have a bank of servers in the data farm and we've been able rapidly as a cloud service to double our capacity. we're open now as the top selling app and the top grossing app in the apple app store in the u.s. without interruption. we're feeling great. it's been performing well. over the next couple of weeks we'll add even more capacity and we're getting requests from around the world from iphone owners when is it coming to their country and over the next few weeks we'll open up additional countries. >> very good. good to see you. thanks for joining us and telling us more and playing the role of digital switzerland, the ceo of sky fire. airport security a necessity obviously in today's world but does it go too far when it comes to religious traditions and practices that it can't observe carefully? h is why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. we helped keep your skin clear. now we have a solution for wrinkles. neutrogena anti wrinkle with retinol sa smoothes even deep wrinkles. it works...beautifully. neutrogena. try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. time now for the "xyz" of it. today i want to talk a little about security screenings at airport. those of you who travel and i'm about to travel to the airport know a thing about security checks. tsa personnel demand you to take your shoes off, x-ray coats and hats. but hats, head gear can cause problems for some religious communities. muslim women sometimes cover their head with scarves. observe sanity sikh men wear turbans as an article of faith. civil rights group claim their community is unfairly targed by extra screenings who often order sikhs to remove turbans. sikhs sensitive to these is understandable. since the 9/11 attacks many have been targets of violence because of the turbans and beards they wear to express their faith are mistakenly associated with what some americans think an al qaeda terrorist should look like. that hostility from the public informs sikh perceptions when dealing with tsa screeners in airlines. one sikh activist sums it up well when he says once you put sikhs aside for extra screening it sends a message the government is suspicious of them for the same reason that other passengers are suspicious of them. sikhs had been hopeful that the introduction of full body scanners in airlines would eliminate the need for some of the screening measures like pulling pass jerls aside to remove head gear for extra scrutiny. the tsa insists those measures need to be in place and only done on a case-by-case basis. for its part the tsa acknowledges that sikhs have concerns and wants to

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