the fishermen for your livelihood. now imagine there was a catastrophic oil spill. well, it would really wipe your business out. reporter: leslie warren is a the natural resources defense council, a group monitoring oil spills for decades. he s worried about the potential for spillage if any oil platforms malfunction. but he said just the operation of the platform s infrastructures poses dangers. you have platforms. you have pipelines. you have ships and tankers, and you have storage facilities, and they re really all at risk from hurricanes or just ongoing spills. reporter: how close to the east coast could the platforms come? the obama blueprint calls for exploration in waters about 50 miles from virginia s coast, to see if any oil or gas is out there. but the government controls waters three miles from shore and out. so, if oil s discovered that close, you could see platforms that close. the waters close to florida s gulf coast are still protected, but drilling could take plac
we have an update now on a shocking story we ve been following here in the situation room. sounds like a story from a different century. a popular lebanese tv host is facing the death penalty in saudi arabia, accused of practicing sorcery. now cnn has learned he could be beheaded, as early as friday. cnn s mohammed jamjoom has the background. reporter: this little girl s father went to the birthplace of islam in an effort to cleanse his soul. he ended up in a struggle to save his life. two years ago, ali hussain sibat was arrested while on a religious pilgrimage to saudi arabia. the charge? sorcery. he was put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to death. why? because maybe what he was doing is something against the religion. reporter: sibat was hosting a popular tv call-in show in his native lebanon.
race-based admissions are hoping that this case in texas might be the way to change the policy. for its part the university insists its policy is critical in achieving what it calls the diverse institution that it s looking for. so here s the question. are race-based admissions a good idea at public colleges and universities? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog. get ready for a lot of reaction, jack. i think so. i think you re right. let s get to a follow-up now to a huge controversy in the debate on climb change. it centered on a british scientist that leaked e-mails and fed doubt whether global warming is real. now a pan until the uk has completed its investigation into what a lot of people have come to call, climate-gate. mary snow is working the story for us. she has the findings. reporter: wolf, just to back up, this investigation focused on phil jones. he s a scientist in the uk.
control for anything. his daughter also she cannot talk to anyone. she s just crying, and she is not able to go to school. i think she is going to lose this year from her studies. she lost last year and she s going to lose this year. reporter: sibat s lawyer also told us that she is asking lebanon s president, lebanon s prime minister, and saudi arabia s king to stop this execution. wolf? we ll see what happens, but it could come, beheading, in a public square, as early as friday. we ll watch it with you, mohammed. good reporting for us. thank you. jack cafferty is next. then sanjay gupta takes a closer look at a study, linking, get this, vitamins and cancer. i ve been growing algae for 35 years.
translator: for how many years have you been using magic? translator: about eight years. reporter: sibat s lawyer thinks the confession could have been coerced and his family is preparing another appeal. translator: i hope they let him go. he hasn t done anything. i hope that they have mercy in their hearts. they ve destroyed our family. reporter: he ll have to continue to pray for clemency from a king and mercy from their god. and mohammed jamjoom is joining us now with more on this story. u are working your sources, mohammed, what are you learning? reporter: wolf, we heard from his lawyer earlier today. she was shocked to learn that he could be beheaded, beheaded in a public square as early as friday. we asked her how his family is holding up, and this is what his lawyer had to say his wife is crying all day, and she s completely cannot