good morning to you. it is tuesday, august 23rd. this is am: wake up call. i m carol costello live in new york. let s get started with that big storm crashing through the atlantic ocean right now. irene is getting ever more powerful and may be heading toward the united states. people in south carolina already getting ready for irene. the hurricane is near the dominican republic right now. take a look at the storm from the international space station. irene is now a category 2 hurricane, but jacqui jeras says it could become an enormous category 4 later this week as it gets closer to the southeastern united states. it s already left about half of puerto rico without power. cnn will take a closer look at the storm s path in a few minutes. how is the battle for tripoli going anyway this morning? that depends on whom you ask. rebel leaders say they have control over most of the city. there s still some fierce fighting in some neighborhoods. moammar gadhafi s son saif, the o
forces of rain raping her. why she s in the headlines again. and the battle for yemen intensifies. government troops try to put down a rebellion that refuses to go away. hello. a rare and deadly strain of the e. coli bacteria is no longer confined to europe. the bacteria has already killed 17 people. authorities in the u.s. say three people have now fallen ill from e. coli. all of them had recently been to germany, the center of the current outbreak. experts say there s no reason for americans to panic as the bacteria hasn t been found in food there and the disease is rarely passed from person-to-person. the world health organization says it all stems from the strain of the e. coli bacteria that s never been seen before in an outbreak. the u.s. is the 11th country to report cases of e. coli. more than 1600 people have now fallen sick. scientists in germany at first said incorrectly that the bacteria had been traced to cucumbers imported from spain. what resulted was a backl
it. up next, rebels in libya. the opposition forces defending the city of misrata. they are still holding on, coming under heavy fire from proe gadhafi forces. it s a remarkable battle. plus, one of the world s biggest power couples splitting up. arnold schwarzenegger and maria shriver, after 25 years of marriage. [ whistle blows ] oh! [ baby crying ] ben harper: what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. slowly turned into a scream there s an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what s your policy?
take a look at this. it s the scandalous story that is consuming british newspapers. we are going to get you all of these details. but first, to the libyan capital tripoli, rocked by a series of nato missile strikes, explosives repeatedly shook the city late last night followed by the thunder of war planes. take a look at the damage done. the libyan government says buildings were hit and a hospital was indirectly affected. the spokesman for moammar gadhafi says it was the most intense bombing for some time. it comes amid growing concerns of deadlock on libya s front lines. nato s military campaign is in its sixth week but colonel gadhafi shows no signs of backing down and the humanitarian crisis is getting a lot worse. the u.n. describes the situation as grave. it s worried about the government s use of force in the rebel held city of misrata.
now live pictures of the white house. this is our breaking news here on cnn. cnn received word moments ago that the president will make a live statement, a live televised statement, and it could happen as early as 10:30. that official who gave us that information did not say what the subject matter is that the president will be speaking about, but cnn will carry it for you live. breaking news here on cnn. moammar gadhafi is firing back. libyan forces opened fire today on the rebel-held city of misrata. the heaviest shelling seen in weeks. in tripoli groups described as organized mobs ransacked empty embassies belonging to the u.s. and several other countries. the attacks followed saturday s news that nato strikes killed a son of gadhafi. the libyan government says his son died in that air strike. a funeral is planned for monday. moammar was reported in the building, but the government spokesman says he did survive. cnn s pentagon correspondent