we're hearing the word "lies." let me bring in nic robertson, our senior -- let me bring in arwa damon. arwa is live in benghazi. arwa, it seems this whole back-and-forth, this negotiation or perhaps there never was a negotiation. help me understand, where does the truth fit in in all of this? >> reporter: well, oot that thit in time there is no negotiation for any sort of a truce. there was hope this morning through back door channels some sort of a deal could be agreed on. however, both the opposition and government have come out saying that there has been no official talk as of yet. that not entirely surprising, but we have been hearing in terms of the back door dealings is perhaps people close to gadhafi without his endorsement were trying to reach out to the opposition to see exactly what sort of a position he would potentially be in. but from the opposition we're hearing very clear they want him to step down, him and his family out and they do want them all held accountable. >> arwa, let me throw another question at you. you may say you have no idea. do we have any idea where moammar gadhafi is. we know he is in tripoli. he was a no-show this morning. we were supposed to see him. perhaps an interview could be eminent. do we know anything about a possible upcoming appearance? >> reporter: no, actually at this stage i really don't, although i'm pretty sure if he makes an appearance everybody will be fairly interested in what he has to say, although we ask the opposition leaders here, they believe everything coming out of his mouth is nothing but the ramblings of a lunatic and frankly don't trust a single word he says. >> let me ask you about the u.n. food program shipment of food and aid, supplies that i'm sure as you know if covering the story in benghazi are much, much needed. what can you tell me about that? >> reporter: we've seen shipments from the u.n., a number of other aid organizations also providing food. we're being told at this stage there is actually a fairly substantial amount of food. food shortage not top on the list of concerns moving forward. of course, that situation could change. but at this stage it is fairly well organized. in fact, if you look at the city of benghazi, for example, on the surface it does appear as if life is moving along as normal, but we do know in terms of the efforts of the aid organizations, those are being targeted in villages and town that's are largely impoverished. of course there's great difficulty in trying to get into those numerous areas where the fighting is still ongoing. great concern about what's happening there where there is very little information coming out and little to no aid going in, be it food or medical. >> arwa damon for me in rebel-controlled benghazi. arwa, my thanks to you. now we go to our senior international correspondent nic robertson, who is live i believe in tripoli. nic, correct me if i'm wrong there. nic, tell me where you are, i think you're in the hotel where we're expecting to see maybe moammar gadhafi. do you think you're going to see him? >> reporter: the level of expectation here keeps growing. i'm down in the hotel lobby right now. if i sort of step out of the way a little bit here, you can see the hotel doors have been blocked off. there's a red carpet outside of there. that's where everyone is expecting moammar gadhafi to come in. just to my left here there are about, i would say, 50 or so journalists. everyone keeps getting moved around here. there's suddenly been an uptick in activity, more security people coming in. but the expectation is that he'll be coming to the hotel. i can see all the journalists are getting smushed over this way. the expectation is he'll come into the hotel here and may be giving some kind of a press conference, maybe talking to a group of us journalists here. still that's not clear. none of the government officials we're talking to can nail that down for us either, brooke. >> reporter: big questions and we don't know if he'll show up or not. you say he could give a press conference, perhaps he'll be addressing what some people are saying were lies, the talk of these negotiations, a meeting of the minds, if you will, between the east and west. can you shed any clarity on these negotiations? is there any truth to them? >> reporter: the negotiations that have been going on that we've been told about by government officials are negotiations really between tribes, trying to bring tribes on board, the government side, to undermine the strength of the fighters on the rebel side. there have been no negotiations government officials tell us for gadhafi to negotiate a stepdown and handover of power. they say that's absolute rubbish, propaganda on the side of the rebels and that's never been in the works. if you listen to everything gadhafi and the government and his family have been saying, they have been -- they haven't given any clues away that they are in any way, shape or form about to hand over power. in fact, they've said that the rebels can hand over their weapons and they won't be prosecuted, they won't be put on trial, and they've also said that only when the country has been united, only when the rebels have been defeated is when they'll begin to negotiate some political reforms in the country. even that doesn't address the issue of gadhafi stepping down. from the government position, it's a complete non-starter and rubbish at this moment, brooke. >> nic, i don't know if your photographer can hear me, but just to illustrate what i imagine is a media circus there at the hotel where so many people are anticipating moammar gadhafi, can you get the cameraman to just pan around and show the presence of the media there? >> reporter: brooke, that's going to be difficult for me to do because i'm a photographer. we can just turn the camera around a little bit. the camera crew is over here lining up waiting for gadhafi to come in. okay. i've been given excellent help by my colleague who stepped in right at the right moment. that's it, what you're looking at are well over 100 journalists in this city, gathered here from all overt world. some of my colleagues i haven't seen for years since our days in sarajevo. jerome right here. these are journalists literally brought in, invited by the regime, like cnn, because the regime wants to get greater international coverage here. so what we're looking at right now are the massive journalists waiting for gadhafi to arrive. the expectation is growing at the moment that he'll be here very, very soon, brooke. >> nic robertson, i'll let you go. if gadhafi does indeed show up, we sure would like to come back to you. my thanks to you, our senior international correspondent who apparently shoots his own live shots. also, ladies, think about this one. if a woman wants to end a pregnancy, should she be required to see this first? a sonogram. that is what lawmakers in texas are working on. we'll tell you about that legislation that's on the table. and he may not be a house hold name, but this man is accused of scamming americans out of millions of dollars when our economy was at its weakest point. we'll tell you what may work against him at his trial. and it is tuesday. it is fat tuesday, in fact. we're going to peek in on some of the celebrations in full swing. let the good times roll in new orleans today. we'll keep you up-to-date also on tornados in the south. breaking news here. staying on the subject of libya, we now know that the prime minister of the uk, david cameron, has just met with president barack obama. topic number one, libya. i want to bring in senior white house correspondent ed henry with a little bit more on the readout as to what that discussion might have entailed. ed, what do you know? >> reporter: it was a phone call, they didn't have a face-to-face meeting. the president just landed in boston for an education economic event. but they had a phone call before that. the white house readout is basically saying that they agreed that moammar gadhafi has got to leave power, that the brutality and violence has to end. a lot of information frankly we've neen for days if not weeks now. the readout goes on to say, quote, the president and prime minister agreed to press forward with planning including at nato on the full spectrum of possible responses including surveillance, humanitarian assistance, and a no fly zone. interesting that readout coming from the phone call with the british prime minister, jay carney was doing a little session with reporters aboard air force one. our readout of that said a reporter pressed carney on why it seems the white house is dragging its feet a bit on a no fly zone. jay carney insisting the president's been clear, they're considering the options. there are a lot of complexities he said in terms of aimplementig a no fly zone. you can see as these consultations continue, they're still facing great pressure to actually act and not continue to keep talking about it essentially, brooke. >> so still no definitive indication that a no fly zone could happen, but it is indeed mentioned as i'm looking at the readout xl swl, pressing forward with planning and perhaps a no-fly zone. >> reporter: correct. still talking about it and obviously something that needs to be considered carefully because it is probably not as easy as a lot of people think it is, in terms of you've got to go in beforehand, maybe take out some of libya's air defenses. >> right. possible air strikes. >> reporter: but the bottom line is, this administration is facing great pressure to act. >> ed henry, thanks for that. now to this. the last couple of years have been tumultuous for the economy to say the least, the housing market toppling off a cliff, the global economy following close behind and hell breaking loose on wall street. financial scandals as well like bernie madoff's multimillion-dollar ponzi scheme, but there was this guy raj rajaratnam. do you remember him? here are the feds arresting him back in 2009. not for a ponzi scheme but allegedly for insider trading. madoff's day in court, you know it's come and gone. but the day has now arrived for raj rajaratnam, just getting started? fact. jury selection beginning today. cnn's maggie lake joins me live from new york. magg maggie, specifically, what kind of charges is he facing? >> reporter: as you said, brooke, this is insider trading, which means the government is saying that raj rajaratnam, a rising star, hedge fund manager who oversaw billions of dollars used his place of power, access to a network of experts to get inside tips on companies like intel and google that the rest of us didn't have access do and that he made money off that. $45 million, in fact. now, raj rajaratnam appeared here bright and early in court for the first day of this trial. he of course has pled not guilty to all of the charges he faces. he says his investments were based on legitimate research. today was all about jury selection, 100 potential jurors in there. and the lawyers are going through and interestingly asking them a lot of people kwes about how they feel about hedge fund managers, how they feel about the economy. they're trying to figure out if all the public outrage out there over what happened during the financial crisis is going to affect them and some way make them impartial during the trial. that's what this really is about. raj rajaratnam is the defendant in this case, but it's about much more than that, a system that prosecutors say are corrupt where insider trading is rampant and really rigged against the individual investor. the u.s. attorney leading this charge, according to lawyers that we talk to that know him, they say he's just getting started. >> i see what he's done as nothing short of throwing a neutron bomb on to wall street. you know neutron bombs leave institutions intact but get rid of people. this man can't be corrupted. he's not looking for a political advantage. he's not looking to become a judge. he's not looking to become mayor of new york city. he's not looking for the next stop. >> reporter: a neutron bomb onto wall street. quite an image. some people think it need cleaning up. brooke, this is a criminal case, traditionally hard to win especially when talking about insider trading. the bar is very high, the prosecution will have to convince the jury that raj rajaratnam is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. they have their work cut out for them. >> as the bar is so high, part of the issue here in this kind of case you have the high-tech surveillance equipment, critical here. is it different, is it new for this kind of case, insider trading? >> reporter: well, it is a little bit. i mean, the wiretaps and they've been allowed to use them in the case, this is the kind of stuff you usually see when we're talking about organized crime, money laundering, racketeering. it's a little unusual to see it, it's not happened this amount of it in a case against wall street an insider trading case. lawyers say it will be key because a lot of the government's case rests on witnesses that have pled guilty already and turned state evidence. the defense is going to try to attack their credibility. if it comes to he said/he said. but when you introduce the wiretaps noshgs you have raj rajaratnam's own words. that will be tough for the defense to try to counter. >> changes the game. maggie lake in new york, thanks so much. coming up next, what if a woman who wants an abortion is forced to have a sonogram first? would it change her mind? is the government even allowed to mandate such a thing? we'll tell you about a specific piece of legislation on the table right now. hard to save foe and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college. that's when i go to work. we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. in texas the state house just signed off on a proposal that would be among the most restrictive abortion laws in the entire country. women who want an abortion, even those who haven't victims say a sexual assault, incest, would first have to get an ultrasound and listen to a description of what it shows. the texas state senate passed a similar measure last month, but the house version -- we'll show you the differences here -- is a bit tougher. planned parenthood is calling this, quote, a defining moment in reproductive rights not just for texas but all across the country. wayne slater is a political writer for the dallas morning news. good to see you again here. as i pointed out, before we look at the differences because it's obviously part of the story between the house version and senate version, i want to talk motivation. i read part of governor rick perry's statement, saying it bolsters protecting life. especially perhaps hoping a woman who gets an ultrasound might change her mind. is that right? >> absolutely. look, there's no question that the supporters of this legislation, like anti-abortion advocates everywhere, have work to put obstacles and various restrictions and do whatever they can do to restrict and curb abortion. so this isn't about health. this isn't about the welfare of the child, except for the birth of the child by the anti-abortion folks who want to say, we want to do everything we can to make sure that the woman changes her mind and doesn't have an abortion. >> let me run down some of the differences between the house and senate bills. first of all, the house bill clearly more revictimive, requires a full 24-hour waiting period after an ultrasound procedure before the procedure. senate is just 2-hour time period. the house version requires this of all women, even if a victim of rape, sex assault, incest, it does not do that? n the senate. the house strips doctors of their licenses if they do not perform an ultrasound before an abortion. senate version would not punish the doctor. so my question to you would be, what are the chances this clearly stricter version in the house gets the green light in the senate? >> well, it could. right now the senate sponsor who happens to be a conservative radio talk show host here in texas says he thinks he does not have the votes in the senate for that more restrictive house version. and you're right, it is a very tough version, 24-hour waiting period for the woman, the requirement in the event that a woman doesn't want to see ultrasou ultrasound, they can maybe turn her eyes from the doctor. but the doctor is required to talk to her about what's there. the house version has a chance in texas. remember, an enormous tea party, very conservative political wave last november washed over texas, elected a lot of members of legislature. it's still in the mix. >> still in the mix, he says. now, we do know there are something like 18 states, when you look nationwide here, that do regulate ultrasounds by abortion providers, but many of those states -- here's the big difference -- have an opt-out provision. so i know that planned parenthood is at the capitol today. what are they saying? what's their side of the story? >> well, essentially the big argument by planned parenthood is, for all you conservatives who are working hard for this bill and who want to get the government off our backs with respect to economic and other matters, this is one of the biggest intrusions, planned parenthood says, by government into the lives of people, into the patient/doctor relationship. so this really is, planned parenthood says, a violation of the very ideological principles that conservative's pous in most other areas. >> when does it go back to the senate. >> it's effectively back in the senate. they'll agree or not. if they don't, it goes to conference. who knows, it could be weeks if not months before both sides work out some kind of resoluti n resolution. each side says they want their bill their way. >> wayne slater, thank you so much. live from texas. violent emotion. that is what joran van der sloot now says caused him to murder a girl in peru last year. what does that mean for the amount of jail time he could face? you may not believe this one. also, we have new details today in that disturbing case out of cleveland, texas, brought this to you yesterday, where 18 men and boys are accused of gang-raping an 11-year-old girl. more detalls and new video today. but first i want to introduce you to more of the nominees for the first-ever cnn ireport awards. you have shared a lot with us over the last year and we are honoring you at the upcoming south by southwest festival in austin, texas. take a look with me. these are the finalists in the personal story category. just a reminder to all of you, you can see all of these nominees, just go to cnnireport.com/awards. watch. >> there needs to be more education on this. we can't let these kinds of things where people are bullied to death. intro ] in a garage. 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