markets to american automakers and farmers will create 280,000 jobs. more next hour when president obama and lee hold a news conference at the white house and you'll see it live here on cn this. in libya today, the battle for sirte has come down to a few streets. [ gunfire ] >> sirte is among the last towns to keep fighting for muammar gadhafi, the former libyan ruler. it's his tribal home and fiercely loyal. it will declare them liberated once it declares all of sirte. our dan rivers is there. >> reporter: like the troops we're with, we try to stay out of the line of fire. sometimes the bullets come out of nowhere. comfortably close, even battle hardened soldiers flinch sometimes. >> libyan fighters claim they have captured one of gadhafi's sons in sirte. that has not been confirmed. such reports have been wrong in the past. and freed american hikers shane bower and josh fattal will meet with secretary of state hillary clinton this afternoon. iran held the men prisoner for more than two years before releasing them just last month. sarah shourd, who was held with the pair for one year, will join them at the u.s. state department. paris prosecutors have dropped a sexual assault case against dominique strauss-kahn. they said there wasn't enough evidence to accuse him. this summer prosecutors raised doubts about the woman's credibility in that case. the trial of michael jackson's doctor resumes shortly. it's possible prosecutors could rest today. experts have testified that jackson would be alive if dr. conrad murray stuck with customary standards of medical care. they say anesthesia isn't a sleep aid. >> when you monitor a patient, you never leave their side, especially after giving propofol. it's like leaving a baby that's sleeping on your kitchen countertop. >> murray's defense team no longer claims jackson overdosed by drinking propofol. the anesthesia is apparently effective by mouth. the defense claims that jackson injected himself. a man opened fire at a hair salon. eight people were killed. police arrested the suspect a few blocks away. officers say he had several guns in his car. the los angeles times reports that the suspect was locked in a bitter custody fight with his ex-wife. they report she is among the dead. research in motion announce aid short time ago it has restored blackberry service to all customers worldwide. there have been outages from the u.s. to the middle east since monday. rim says a backup computer system failed and it doesn't know why. >> i apologize for the service outages this week. we've let many of you down. but let me assure you that we're working round the clock to fix this. >> and rim says no customer e-mails have been lost and that you will get them eventually. about half of the 70 million blackberry users around the world had trouble. another kid? in this economy? well, many americans say not a good idea. a study by the peer research center says u.s. birth rates that fallen steadily since 2007. by the time 2010 rolled around, there were 300,000 fewer births. now your chance to talk back on one of today's big stories. republican presidential candidate herman cain has pulled ahead of the pack in a new national poll for the very first time. the nbc wall street journal poll shows cain with a four-point lead over mitt romney but can he stay ahead and win the gop nomination. that's today's question. carol joins me in new york. carol, first it was romney, then bachmann, then rick perry, now romney again. now it's cain's turn. he's going to be a volatile race, to say the least. but anything can happen, right? >> to say the least. herman cain, once an afterthoug afterthought, is now leading mitt romney by four points in a new nbc wall street journal poll. republicans seem drawn to his debate skills, his straight talk, and, of course, 999. >> we have an economic crisis, this is why i propose a 999 plan. you know you're doing something right when you get a lot of -- >> you betcha. he now has something far more important. he's everywhere. on "the view," on leno, on letterman. >> she took on herman cain's 999 plan. look at this. >> you're never going to get rid of it. and one thing i would say is when you take the 999 plan and you turn it upside down, i think the devil is in the details. >> you got to let me respond. >> we'll give you several chances to respond. i'll come back. >> that's right. >> i'm sorry, i couldn't resist. some analysts say cain's popularity have more to do with voters wanting anyone but mitt romney. the republican party is like the wizard of oz. rick perry wants a brain, mitt romney wants a heart and herman cain is seeking courage to face the fact he's never going to be the republican nominee no matter how well he does in the polls. he needs the courage to settle for something far better than the presidency, his own show on fox. so the talk-back question today, is cain able to go the distance? facebook/carol@cnn. i'll read your responses in the next hour. >> i know you're going to get a whole lot. here's what's ahead on the rundown next. a big apology from the maker of blackberry smartphones. we'll find out why millions of people had to go without full e-mail or internet service for days. a city files for bankruptcy protection, but the mayor says they can't. we'll have a live report from harrisburg, pennsylvania. plus the american auto industry has been pushing hard for free trade agreement with south korea, but what do south koreans think? >> first of all, he says, parking spaces in korea are made to fit korean cars. european and japanese cars are okay, the big american cars will have problems. a cardiologist says michael jackson might have lived if 911 had been called sooner. we'll get the latest from the involuntary manslaughter trial of dr. conrad murray. and finally, radiation levels spike in a tokyo neighborhood. why the damaged power plant in fukushima may not be the source. meineke's personal pricing on brakes. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. the company research in motion says blackberry service is now fully restored. an executive with the company says it has fix the the outage that left millions without e-mail or internet service worldwide. take a look at how the problem spread across the globe over the last three days. it had such a huge impact because there are about 70 million blackberry users around the world. dan simon joins us live from san francisco. blackberry says the problem is fixed, but are there still people who can't get their e-mails, et cetera? >> well, i think we'll have a better idea as the day goes on. you're right, blackberry now saying that service is total retotally restored, but we'll see what people on social media have to say. it took three days to solve, which is really unacceptable from blackberry's point of view and from their service point of view. what happened was there was a problem with what they say is their core switch, and this started in europe and it spread across the country. i want you to listen now to blackberry ceo who issued this mea culpa earlier today. take a look. >> since launching blackberry in 1999, it's been my goal to provide reliable, realtime communications around the world. we did not deliver on that goal this week. not even close. i apologize for the service outages this week. we've let many of you down. but let me assure you that we're working round the clock to fix this. >> reporter: there are two problems here. there is the service problem and then there is the public relations problem. i would suggest that the pr problem is more severe for blackberry. obviously you have a lot of competitors nipping at their heels. blackberry once owned this category a few years ago, now they're in third place behind google's android system and behind the iphone which their new phone goes on sale on friday, apple generating a lot of buzz, and blackberry not generating a lot of buzz and bad pr lately. >> how does blackberry being down may have impacted productivity at so many businesses and so many people rely on it? >> it's a good question. so many companies provide employees with blackberries, and the fact that employees couldn't access e-mail is a huge problem, so you wonder what, you know, steps companies will take. will they issue employees different phones? blackberry have always prided themselves on the fact they had a more secure service and a more reliable service than their competitors. that's what they had going for them. now that appears to be weakened somewhat, and you're right, the question is how will companies structure things going forward? >> while blackberry or rim is saying we're still not quite sure how this all happened, is it possible that hackers could have been involved? are they looking into that? >> you know, one of the big problems here is, you know, as rim has been talking about this for the last couple of days is they've never identified what caused their server to go out. the one thing they have said is that this was not a hacking issue. so i guess there is some comfort in knowing that people aren't able to access their service from the outside, but a little disconcerting that they haven't figured out the issue or at least they haven't said so publicly. >> all right of the dan simo simon, -- all right. dan simon, thanks so much. federal investigators are trying to find out what caused one amtrak train to slam into another last night in oakland, california. the train that was hit was taking on and letting off passengers. at least 18 people were injured. in texas, storms packing winds up to 65 miles an hour caused quite a bit of damage around houston. at least one person was injured when a tree crashed into her mobile home. it's possible a tornado touched down. and these students in connecticut are trying to help break the guinness world record for most jumping jacks done in a minute. the worldwide challenge is part of first lady michelle obama's let's move campaign to fight childhood obesity. more than 20,425 people had to jump for 40 seconds between noon tuesday and noon wednesday. no word yet if there is a new record. all right, these tough economic times have had a big impact on state and local governments all across the country. pennsylvania's capital city of harrisburg is so broke that it can't pay its bills. and now the city council has voted to fight for bankruptcy protection. allison kosik is with us now from harrisburg. allison, why is the city so broke and is bankruptcy the best answer? >> you know, fredricka, the interesting part about this situation for harrisburg is you would think they're in this predicament because of the recession or the slowing economy, but that's really not the case. you know, harrisburg filed for bankruptcy because of a trash incinerator, of all things. this trash incinerator was bakely built on borrowed fund and continued to be updated and upgraded on borrowed funds as well. it put the city of harrisburg in the hole, i'm talking debtwise, to the tune of $310 million, and harrisburg found itself unable to pay for its debt. so it went ahead and voted a few days ago to go ahead and file for bankruptcy. that was the city council voting. it was not a unanimous decision. it definitely sparked a lot of political debate. one councilman that i talked to said it was really the best decision in a very difficult situation. >> i'm up for election in four weeks, all right? this is the popular or practical cal thing to do, sticking my neck out there? if it was popular or practical, i would keep my mouth shut so i can make sure i win my election. nobody is sticking up for the people of harrisburg, not the bond holders, not the election, not the city. we've got to make this better than it is right now and five years down the reside. >> so the dysfunctional political environment continues here. the mayor of harrisburg, linda thompson, is going to be challenging the city council to file bankruptcy. it may ultimately be up to a judge to decide if this will go through. fredricka? >> overall, how will this impact basic city services? >> right now it's not going to impact anything, everything is pretty much frozen. what could happen in the discussion is some residents could see their property taxes hiked from anywhere from 9 to 20%, because when they sit down at that bankruptcy table, they're going to have to give a little and raise some money in addition to working out the numbers with their creditors, fredricka. >> so what happened? it wasn't long ago that harrisburg was touted for having lots of jobs, a rather stable economy. what happened in a short amount of time? and we're talking just a year or so. >> yeah. i mean, you look at harrisburg. it is the state capital. it's being held up by state government jobs. that's really a stabilizing factor in this economy. but the fact is, this is really a product -- talking about the bankruptcy is really a product of bad decisions. the fact that filing for bankruptcy truly hinged on the success or failure of this trash incinerator shows that some bad decisions were made in building this trash incinerator up as a revenue-producing project, fredricka. >> allison kosik, thanks so much. the housing market is still taking a big hit from foreclosures, and they're up again in the third quarter. we'll go live to the new york stock exchange to find out what caused the increase. but first, did you know president obama's jobs plan, which was shot down in the u.s. senate, would have extended unemployment benefits. how many americans will lose benefits come january if something else isn't done. the answer in a moment. i'm really glad we took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played get the app. tels.com. before the break we asked, how many americans will lose unemployment benefits in january if congress doesn't pass an extension? the answer, 1.8 million americans. that's just in january. a total of 6 million will lose unemployment benefits sometime in 2012. in time we continue to watch your money at cnnmoney.com where the top story today, blackberry, the outage that so many millions experienced over a three-day period. top story now, blackberry executive saying, we're sorry, and we're still trying to get to the bottom of why that happened. we're also watching the markets where the dow is down 126 points. we'll keep you posted throughout the afternoon. in the meantime, foreclosures are still causing a big drain on the housing market. they were up slightly in the third quarter. corinna is with us from the stock market. why were there so many foreclosures? >> we saw foreclosures jump to 610,000 in the period from july to september. that's up less than 1% from the second quarter, but it's notable because we actually saw foreclosures going down, not up. what's at play here? remember we had that whole robo signing period where banks were signing off on mortgages without looking at the paperwork, so falsely foreclosing on some people? that process was stopped so we saw basically a backlog of foreclosures. now that the banks have gone through the paperwork, we're seeing a pickup in foreclosures, so that's really the pickup in the number. >> we're also seeing a backlog of foreclosures. what's that doing to this foreclosure process overall? >> well, overall, of course, this is not a good thing. it's a very painful process, it's making things very slow. i mean, the average amount of time that passes from a foreclosure filing to the actual foreclosure is 336 days. ask in no and in new york, it can take up to three years. tha that is the state that has the longest process. for the homeowner it's a very unusual period, and for the market, as we have this glut of inventory, we can't get prices to rebound, so it might be a while before we see a turnaround in housing. fredricka? >> all right, corrina, thank you so much. we're hearing from the florida man accused of hacking some celebrities. chris cheney hacked into the electronic devices of 50 people including actress scarlet johanssen and christina aguilera. he uploaded nude photos of some of the celebrities on line. what started out as a security soon turned into a strong addiction. >> so what would you do with the information you found in those e-mails? >> nothing. i mean, it was almost like reading a completely unsensored blog. i wasn't saving archives of e-mails to maybe blackmail someone. >> cheney is charged with 26 counts and could be looking at years in prison if convicted. cementing the biggest trade agreement in the u.s. in almost 20 years, south korea's president is at the white house right now. we'll look at his visit and what the free trade deal means for the u.s. auto industry. but first, can you answer this? are there more people or wireless devices in the u.s.? the answer in a moment. [ tires screech ] ♪ oh, it was the first time i fell in love ♪ ♪ the first time i felt my heart ♪ [ man ] people say i'm forgetful. [ horn honking ] ♪ ...all through the night [ man ] maybe that's why we go to so many memorable places. ♪ [ male announcer ] the subaru outback. love the road you're on. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ consumers er wanchai ferry orange chicken... over p.f. chang's home menu orange chicken women men and uh pandas... elbows mmm [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry, try it yourself. before the break, we asked you a question about which outnumbers the other in the u.s., people or wireless devices? what did you guess? the answer, wireless devices. there are 327 million of them in service. that's 15 million more phones and tablets than there are people in this country. here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on next. would a new free trade agreement with south america hurt or help auto workers? then a doctor testifies that michael jackson would be alive today if dr. conrad murray had called 911 sooner. we'll have the latest on the trial. and later, why radiation levels are spiking in a tokyo neighborhood. but first, pomp and circumstance mixed with some rain this morning at the white house as president obama welcomed his south korean counterpart, lee myung bok in his first visit to the united states. they start in the oval office and then go to the cabinet room for expanded talks with u.s. and korean delegations, and the next hour, you will hear from both leaders at a joint news conference in the rose garden. the visit smencements a long-ded trade deal. they cemented free trade agreements last night with south korea, colombia and panama. they said the south korean deal could create as many as 280,000 jobs and boost exports by as much as $12 billion. but some labor unions say the deals will actually hurt u.s. employment because of increased competition from south korean imports. the auto industry is one sector to watch. paula hancock reports on what this might mean for u.s. and korean car makers. >> chung su bought his chevrolet three years ago. since then he's been a big fan of the u.s. car, even joining a chevrolet club. but he's not convinced it will lead to an influx in chevrolets in korea. first of all, he says parking spaces in korea are made to fit korean cars. european and japanese cars are okay. the big american cars will have problems. the korean market san attractive one for the u.s. given the phenomenal explosion in car ownership here. back in 1990, there were just over 3 million vehicles on the road. 20 years later, there were almost 18 million. that's an increase of more than 400%.