this will all finally hopefully end early this friday morning, june 10th, 2010. 10th, 2011. from cbs news, it's "the early show" with erica hill and from cbs news, it's "the early show" with erica hill and chris wragge. captioning funded by cbs welcome welcome to "the early show" here on a friday morning, june 10th. i'm chris wragge. >> i'm erica hill. nice to have you with us. a lot to get to. we are beginning with breaking news this morning. that government crackdown in syria. troops are going after pro-democracy demonstrators in a northern town, sending thousands of people fleeing across the border into turkey. cbs news correspondent, elizabeth palmer is on the turkey/syria border with the latest for us. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. i'm standing about ten minutes from the syrian border inside turkey. it's a very pretty rural area, pine forests and farms. the refugees are coming mostly on foot this way this is an area simply not prepared for any kind of humanitarian crisis. yet that does seem to be what's shaping up as groups of refugees, a lot of them women and children, head this way. more than 2000 fridayened people have arrived with base inning belongings at the yayada refugee camp set up in the ground of an old cigarette factory. they're being picked up on the border roads by turkish police and bussed into the camp. and this is what they're fleeing, just 15 miles away. clandestined cell phone video shows the syrian army surrounding the town with heavy armor. more pictures show the town's center, now deserted. today, syrian state television has announced the military will start an operation to liberate the town from what it calls criminal gangs who murdered 120 police and soldiers over the weekend. that's not true, say residents. the dead men were shot by fellow soldiers after they refused to fire on anti-government protesters. the truth of what really happened is still murky. it is clear that anti-government demonstrations that have erupted across syria continue to grow. as does the number of dead and wounded. the syrian government seems determined to crush any movement for political change with ruthless violence. now, the turkish police are not allowing us to talk to the refugees yet, but we did manage to slip into a hospital this morning. there's no question that hospitals do have syrian men patients who have gunshot wounds. we talked to one badly injured man this morning who says that he was shot by syrian forces from a helicopter as he was attending the funeral of a protester. erica? >> that's just awful. elizabeth palmer in turkey for us this morning. in our next hour, we'll take a closer look at the situation in syria as we continue our arab summer series. now here's chris. now the latest on the battle for libya. as u.s. officials are now opel openly suggesting that moammar gadhafi is looking for a way out after 42 years in power. allen pizzey is in libya's capital with the latest this morning for us. allen, good morning. >> reporter: arab governments have pledged more than $1 billion to libya's rebels as part of the effort to force colonel moammar gadhafi to leave. but he has another idea. in spite of air strikes that continue to rock the libyan capital overnight, gadhafi's plan "a" seems to be to hang on until nato grows too weary to keep up the pace or the alliance fractures. it may not look like much of a plan but it isn't without a reasonable basis. eight countries are bearing the brunt of the airborne operation. nato officials including robert gates are warning that the strains will begin to tell if others don't step up soon. the libyan leader continues to insist he will die here rather than leave. and a source with close ties to the libyan inner circle said gadhafi remains confident he can outlast his enemies. but rebels fighting their way towards the capital tripoli from the western mountains have captured another town from loyalist forces, and are pushing ever closer to cutting off the main road to neighboring tunisia that is gadhafi's only remaining supply route. the chances of the rebels knocking on the gates of tripoli any time soon seem remote at best, which brings it all down to a test of wills and stamina between gadhafi and nato, which continues to insist he is not a direct target. chris? >> cbs's allen pizzey for us in tripoli this morning. allen, thank you. this morning, as well, u.s. defense secretary robert gates is leaving his european allies with a blunt message. nato must get serious about its mission or it is doomed. he went on to say the future of the u.s./nato alliance is dim if not dismal. what does this mean for our troops and security? david marty continue is at the pentagon with more. what got into secretary gates here? >> well, he spent the last four and a half years begging members of nato to contribute their fair share of forces to afghanistan. and now that he's only got three weeks left as secretary of defense, he's just speaking his mind, and he unloaded on what is perhaps the most ven herbal military alliance in history. >> okay. you say he is now speaking his mind with just three weeks left. what are his specific complaints? >> well, in afghanistan, his complaint is that troops who contribute forces often put restrictions on actually what they can do in combat. and then they pull them out on their own schedule without any regard for the effect it has on the overall war effort. and then in libya, he said you have the spectacle of the world's mightiest military alliance after only 11 weeks of combat against a third-rate power starting to run out of mu nigss. guess who makes up the difference? the u.s. >> what does he say is going to happen if nato doesn't do something about this, some of the things, the concerns he is raising. >> he has a very interesting point, which is that most american officials these days and politicians including the president of the united states are not old enough to remember the glory days of nato when it was protecting europe against a soviet invasion so they look at what nato has become and have to wonder, what's in it for the u.s.? >> all right. cbs david martin at the pentagon for us. thank you. here is erica. turning now to politics in this country, newt gingrich scrambling to get his presidential campaign back on track after his entire senior staff resigned on thursday. that move is also fueling speculation we could see a new candidate join the race soon. cbs news political correspondent, jan crawford, is in washington this morning with the very latest. jan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, erica. this was more than a few disaffected staffers leaving this campaign. it was a mass exodus and it leaves the gingrich campaign all but dead in the water. >> i'm newt gingrich. >> reporter: the 67-year-old candidate lost his campaign manager, senior adviser, and long-time press aide. also quitting, key staffers in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. despite it, gingrich vowed to fight on telling followers on facebook, i am committed to running the substantive, solution-oriented campaign i set out to run earlier this spring. the campaign begins anew sunday in los angeles. many said gingrich lacked the discipline and commitment needed to win. former press aide, rick tyler, released this statement. there was a path to victory. newt had a different pag. when that happens, the people who work for the campaign have to leave. recently, gingrich and wife, calista, left the campaign for a two-week mediterranean cruz and then the matter of a steep bill at tiffanys. >> it's very odd to me that someone would run up a half million dollar bill at a jewelry store. >> go talk to tiffany's. >> reporter: the campaign has been plagued from the start. gingrich angered many for attacking the congressional republican plan to overhaul medicare. >> what you did to paul ryan is unforgivable. >> i didn't do anything. >> yes, you did. you are an embarrassment to our party. >> now, a former gingrich aide said last night his campaign was coming to a quick and merciful end and he added it's like watching a really great prize fighter come back for one last fight that he never should have. erica? >> is this officially the end of the road despite his pledge to restart in l.a.? >> reporter: yeah. he says he is restarting his campaign at a speech in beverly hills. last time i checked, that's not a key primary state for republicans at this point. listen, the problem for gingrich is money. when he started talking about the republican medicare plan and calling it right-wing, social engineering, if you can believe that, his financial backers started backing away. and now i think it's going to be all but impossible for him to get them back. he may be at the debate. he says he will be at the debate monday night in new hampshire. but my sources tell me they will be surprised if newt gingrich lasts until the next debate. >> wow. was there something more behind the scenes that happened here? there was that discussion of the path and him taking a different path. >> reporter: yes, there was. there was a lot going on behind the scenes. my sources tell me what primarily was happening, though, was a conflict between gingrich's top aides, long-time, loyal aides and his wife, calista. and the final straw was the cruz through the greek islands. they urged him to cancel that cruise. they assumed he would. you know, once they spelled out, look, you can't do this, this is a bad idea, we're in a bad economy, voters aren't going to like this. he went anyway. >> jan crawford in washington, thanks. chris? in eastern arizona this morning, fire officials are finally starting to get some help from the weather to control a giant wildfire that's burned dozens of homes and threatens hundreds more. cbs news correspondent, bill whittaker is in springerville, arizona with the latest for us this morning. bill, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. firefighters are describing the last 24 hours as the best the in their fight against monstrous fire. why? because the winds died down a bit giving them a chance to fight this fire from the air. at this point, firefighters are not just battling the fire but windy weather too as walls of flame and smoke continue to eat up the eastern arizona landscape. consuming homes along with it, displacing thousands of people. >> there was embers coming down on our house. >> reporter: sherry counts and her husband secured their important papers an fled to this trailer park. packed to capacity with evacuees. there, they wait for any word on the fate of their homes. the good news, firefighters were able to contain 5% of the blaze yesterday with assistance from the air. >> we had a pretty good day. there's some new color on the map. it's called black. it means containment. >> reporter: but the optimism is tempered. the fire has claimed 525 square miles. strong winds are predicted for the weekend and are likely to spread more of the blinding smoke which combined with the approaching flames, forced sherry counts from her tiny town of eager right in the line of fire. >> you could see the trees in town were already turning colors. it was like it was sucking all the moisture that you put on your trees. >> reporter: she is still among the lucky ones. yesterday, firefighters were able to enter the nearby town of greer only to find that 22 homes and even more outbuildings were destroyed. >> so you're putting on a brave face. >> they are going to save our house. we are going to have everything. we may have a little smoke damage. i think everything is still going to be there when i go home. >> reporter: i am hoping you are right. while this fire continues to threaten communities on the new mexico side of the border, here on the arizona side of the border, a bit of good news firefighters say if the wints remain calm, residents of two communities, eager and springerville might, just might, be able to return to their homes on saturday. bill whitacre, cbs news. moving now from the fire into the frying pan, a scorching heat wave covering more than half the u.s. has now taken at least eight lives in five states. cbs news correspondent michelle miller is in new york city with the latest this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. people in the eastern half of the nation finally got some relief as thunderstorms moved into the area late last night. but for some, relief didn't come soon enough. as tens of millions did their best to cool off, schools without air-conditioning closed and hospitals throughout the northeast were on high alert. >> people come in because they fainted. they are dizzy, fatigued. >> reporter: in waldorf, maryland, a school outing to a baseball game almost turned deadly. 82 students were rushed to the emergency room for heat exhaustion. >> i started to have a headache. >> reporter: and you told the teacher? >> and a belly ache. >> reporter: parts of downtown detroit are still without electricity this morning. high demand caused the city's power system to fail yesterday. forcing the evacuation to detroit's municipal center, federal buildings, and some schools. >> too hot. it is too hot. >> pretty hot, pretty unbearable when you are outside. >> reporter: in battle creek, michigan, highways buckled under the blaring sun wreaking havoc for drivers. the blistering heat shattered previous records in newark, philadelphia, baltimore and washington, with some cities seeing the mercury soar well into the triple digits. >> it's blazing. it's too hot, way too hot. >> reporter: the reason, an unusually large jet stream that for wet weather in the northwest and exceptionally dry conditions in the south and northeast. >> a lot of this comes down to the chaos in the atmosphere. there are -- there are so many things going on, and we just don't have the tools to measure every single one of them. >> reporter: the first heatwave of 2011 now behind us. meteorologists are looking ahead. and they're not sure if or when the next la nina effect may strike again. chris, as we said, eight people dead. it's been a lot. >> cbs's michelle miller, thank you very much. we want to check in with jeff glor at the news desk for the rest of the headline. good morning. good morning to you at home. health officials in germany are now saying the contaminated vegetable sprouts caused a deadly e. coli outbreak. the german disease center points to locally grown sprouts. they were ruled out earlier this week but now apparently are back in. germany had a difficult time determining the cause of this. 29 people died in the e-coli outbreak, 2,900 sickened. a warning against eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce has been lifted. a former u.s. spy official accused of espionage is due in court today after accepting a late plea bargain. thomas drake blew the whistle on what he considered mismanagement and waste at the national seb kurt agency where he said taxpayer dollars were being wasted. after leaking information to a reporter, drake was charged under a rarely used espionage act. he told scott pelley on "60 minutes" that he never passed on classified information. today, drake is scheduled to plead guilty to unauthorized use of a government computer. he is not expected to spend time behind bars. new york congressman anthony weiner insists he is not resigning. weiner was working yesterday and says he'll keep doing that, even after he admitted to sending sexually explicit photos and messages over the internet to multiple women. we will hear from congressman weiner in our next hour. this morning, weiner's wife, huma abedin, left the united arab emirates with secretary of state, hillary clinton, her boss. they are headed for meetings in zambia today. he says he has been as we take a lookout side mostly cloudy sky conditions also some patchy fog working over the region. conditions trending over the average. postally clear skies, later today, fairfield, 78, concord 77, liver more a high of 77, here is a look at your seven- day forecast temperatures will warm up by monday. thanks so much. that's your latest weather. you know, enjoy the cooler temps here, while you can. >> okay, cooler. temps. >> cooler. fancy girl. >> thanks. still ahead this morning, the gunwalker scandal. an update on a cbs news investigation. you may recall that atf operation that let mexican drug cartels buy u.s. guns. and also coming up, american hikers beaten in iraq and afraid of being executed. former detainee sarah shourd of being executed. former detainee sarah shourd talks ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just love me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just hold me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just kiss me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just want me ♪ l-o-v-e ♪ love, love, love so let's plant some perennials that'll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us depth. and fill it out with flowers placed in just the perfect place. let's start at the place with the best plants, people, and prices. what do you say we plant a weekend, water it, and watch a summer spring up? 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