breakthrough for mitt romney? he's ahead of his rivals in four early voting states. we have the results of the latest cnn/time/orc poll. plus, this is sure to wake you up. bp has gotten the green tlit drill in the gulf of mexico. good morning to you. it's thursday, october 27th. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." wall street investors are waking up to some encouraging news to the delight of the united states and markets around the globe. unileaders have worked out a deal to resolve the debt crisis. the agreement came after ten hours of tough negotiations in brussels. as part of the plan, banks agreed to take a 50% loss on greek bonds. the region's banks also must raise about $150 billion in new capital to protect themselves from potential debt defaults. and the plan calls for expanding the region's emergency bailout fund. now this debt deal is full of complicated details which must be finalized in the coming days and weeks. joining us now from hong kong with his take on the agreement is cnn's andrew stevens. andrew, good morning. in layman's terms, give us the nuts and bolts of this deal and what it means for the eurozone, greece and the united states. >> well, the vision that the european leaders want to see by signing this deal, carol, is that a big, thick black line has been drawn under the euro crisis. the confidence will be restored in what european leaders are doing to deal with the crisis. and they can then turn around to getting on with the job of lifting economic growth. getting people back to work and generally increasing prosperity. the devil, though is in the details. we got some pretty impressive headline looking numbers there. the banks have been basically -- they've been forced to take this haircut. so they're going to lose 50% of the value of their holdings of all their greek bonds. that means that greece doesn't have such a big debt problem to deal with so it's more -- it's less likely to actually stop paying its debts as in the default. this is all good. but one of the key ones here is this rescue fund. what the europeans have done is said we're going to increase it from around about 250 billion euros to 1 billion euros. that's about 1.4 -- sorry 1 trillion. $1.4 trillion u.s. dollars. and that will be there in the form of a sort of insurance to make sure that if there's any other troubles the eurozone rescue part, there's enough firepower in there to deal with it. and what that means most importantly is what they want to get across, the message they want to get across here is we're prepared to deal with any future problems, which means that you've got confidence as an investor to invest in us again. so europe is getting back to work. if you like, the debt crisis is behind us. it's a big one on their point of view. that's what they want us to believe. a lot of people aren't believing it yet. >> i was going to ask you how the markets are faring in light of this agreement. >> well, look at the knee-jerk reaction. as you said, it's waking up -- u.s. investors waking up to pretty good news. some of the big markets, germany, france, up by more than 3%. hong kong up by more than 3%. the futures on wall street up 1.5%. they like what they see knee-jerk reaction because there's been so much uncertainty. there's been so many plans that started and fell. but this one is much bigger. the brits and americans were calling for a big bazooka approach. this is probably a medium size bazooka approach but it is something concrete that investors are holding on to. whether this lasts, whether this feel-good lasts, that's still a matter of opinion. certainly the people i've been speaking to -- i've been speaking to a lot here in asia and europe today. they are expressing reservations, whether this actually is going to be one that can stick and turn things around. >> yeah, we're kind of used to the roller coaster ride. so we'll continue to watch. andrew stevens live for us this morning. thanks so much. a different protest in show of solidarity for occupy protesters in california. they had a vigil last night for an iraq war veteran who was seriously injured during a clash with oakland police on tuesday. protesters say scott olsen suffered a skull fracture when he was hit by a projectile fired by police. a police spokeswoman says the incident is being investigated. olson is a member of iraq veterans against the war. a member of the group says olson is hospitalized. he's in serious but stable condition. in new york, hundreds of occupy protesters marched in support of olson. at least ten people were arrested in clashes with police. you may remember the story about the $6 billion missing or stolen in iraq? it turns out it wasn't stolen or missing at all. a new pentagon audit says most of the money ended up where it was supposed to be in the central bank of iraq. the bush administration delivered the money to iraq during the early stages of the war. an audist last year was unable to account for the money which triggered suspicion that it had been stolen or misplaced. the money was not american taxpayer dollars. it came from money withheld from iraq during economic sanctions under saddam hussein. it's not looking good for the congressional supercommittee charged with forging a deficit reduction deal by a mid-november deadline. congressional sources from both parties say the republicans on the 12-member committee rejected the latest democratic proposal, a $3 trillion plan, designed to slash the deficit. a republican aide dismissed the plan as, quote, outrageously absurd. democratic sources say the plan would include cuts to medicare and medicaid and other entitlement programs over ten years. in return, republicans were asked to agree to more than a trillion dollars in higher tax revenue. if the committee fails to reach an agreement by november 23rd, across the board trigger cuts would go into effect in 2013. republican presidential candidate mitt romney has something to smile about this morning. a new cnn/time" orc poll shows romney ahead of his rivals in the first four early voting states. romney is the overwhelming front-runner in new hampshire. he holds a lead over rivals in florida and is basically tied for the top spot with herman cain in iowa and south carolina. but only about one-third of all respondents say they have their minds made up. now let's head to atlanta and check in with reynolds wolf. any flight delays to worry about this morning? >> flight delays? yeah, absolutely. we've got a lot of flight delays. take a look at them. beginning in new york and philadelphia, it's going to be rain and wind that may keep you on the tarmac for over an hour. also some other backups farther to the north in boston. showers and wind. delays just under an hour. farther west into chicago and detroit, low clouds and a few rain showers may keep you grounded there. d.c. metro, a few delays. just under an hour with thunderstorms. in dallas, the combination of those thunderstorms, mainly intensifying into the afternoon and, of course, that wind might give you a few delays there as well. take a look at the national perspective. the long frontal boundary that extends nearly 2,000 miles from the northeast to the southern plains. the combination of rain, sleet, snow. quite cold air coming in from the northern plains. the fire threat remains for the sierra nevada out towards the west. in terms of the rest of your forecast, one of the big things you'll deal with, slow and go in terms of just the cold conditions for parts of the northern plains. morning lows, 20s and 30s. wind gusts topping 30 miles per hour. you want to talk about big wind? take a look near the yucatan peninsula. hurricane rina barely holding on as a category 1. we do not expect this really to cause too much of a threat for the united states. expected to actually die out as it surges more to the north. speaking of the tropics, something we found in the tropical waters. take a look at this video. black beard the pirate. they found his cannon. diving crews off of buford inlet on the carolina coast recovered the cannon from his ship that sank back off the inlet in june of 1718, over 280,000 artifacts have been recovered, including an anchor weighing some 2,500 pounds. amazing stuff. the farther down you go, a little more of the past you find. that's one of the prized possessions there from queen anne's revenge. >> that is fascinating. any treasures? i mean, there should be buried treasure on board that ship? >> i would think so. they've been tight lipped about it. they'll let you know about the anchor and the cannon but there are other items we don't know about. i have a feeling there's going to be some traveling show that's going to spill the beans and share with the public what exactly they found. but amazing stuff. >> amazing. i hope they share soon. thanks, reynolds. did you hear? peta plans on suing seaworld. the group says the killer whales are being used as slaves. well, leave it to comedian steven colbert to have a little fun with this one. >> i am incensed every time peta speaks for the animals. they can speak for themselves. and evidently all they care about is cereal and insurance. and now, folks, peta is speaking for the whales. >> saying that animal performers like these orkas are essentially slaves. >> really? >> how many slaves got to hang out all day at a water park? it's what legal scholars refer to as the air bud defense. because evidently there is nothing in the rule book that says that whales can't be a slave. ooh "slave bud." disney, call me. >> defense attorneys are hoping key witnesses will help prove dr. conrad murray is not a killer. >> if this man had been greedy, he never would have come to an area or commune iity, 75% of th poor. >> just ahead, what made the doctor actually break down in the courtroom. but first, our quote of the day. the quote, i don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening. that's the comment of the wife of a notorious criminal. find out who in 90 seconds. edule demands doing more in less time. which is why we've developed innovative learning tools like our mobile application and phoenixconnect, a worldwide academic social network. it's part of our commitment to you and why last year we invested over 1 billion dollars in our students to help them successfully balance work, life and education. ♪ discover all that sets us apart at phoenix.edu. 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the peace of mind of owning a 2011 iihs top safety pick. the all-new volkswagen passat. it's 12 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." back to our quote of the day. "i don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening." came from ruth madoff, bernie madoff's wife. she made those comments in an interview with cbs saying she and her husband attempted to overdose on drugs because of the outrage over his crime. of course, you remember bernie madoff was convicted of masterminding a $50 billion ponzi scheme, the largest in u.s. history. today is a crucial day for the defense in the michael jackson death trial. dr. conrad murray's lawyers plan to call an anesthesiologist to counter disparaging testimony given by one of the prosecution witnesses. ted rowlands has more for you from los angeles. >> reporter: when court resumes, we expect to hear from the defense star witness, dr. paul white. he is the propofol expert that they'll use to combat the state's case that dr. conrad murray overdosed michael jackson with propofol. yesterday in court it was a very emotional day, specifically for dr. conrad murray who broke down a few times listening to character witnesses. these were all patients brought in to basically tell the jury that dr. murray was an excellent doctor. >> i know his love, compassion, feelings for his patients. he's the best doctor i've ever been to because of the treatment, because of the clarity of what he's doing. and the follow-ups. and i just don't think he did what he's been accused of. >> the defense is using these character witnesses for two basic reasons. first to build murray up as a competent physician. the other reason is to dissuade the jurors' notion he was in this for the money. specifically they had a few of these character witnesses talk about murray's practice in an underserved area in houston, texas. >> if this man had been greedy, he never would have come to an area or community of acreage home, 75% of them poor, on welfare and social security. >> reporter: but the key to the defense case will be coming up with the testimony of dr. paul white. we do expect him at some point too take the stand later today. ted rowlands, cnn, los angeles. >> you can see that testimony ted just mentioned by watching live coverage of the trial. it airs throughout the day on our sister network hln, your place for expert coverage of the dr. conrad murray trial. rick perry, he started out strong, but his poll numbers have plunged after his debate performances. now he's debating whether to participate in future debates. we'll talk about that next. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. fantastic! [ man ] pro-gresso they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. okay is there a woman i can talk to? fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink 17 minutes past the hour. time for your political ticker with tim farrelly host of "morning briefing." good morning, tim. >> good morning, carol. >> let's start with mitt romney, shall we? according to new polls by cnn/time/orc, mitt romney is now leading in four key states. you know. analysts are saying he's got it in the bag, but i don't know. >> you know, you look at these numbers. if we take them in order, mitt romney has a lead of three points in iowa, which is statistically tied. 27 points in new hampshire. south carolina, again, two points. statistically, pretty much a tie. and ten a 12-point lead in florida which wise 50 delegates to give out, more than all the other three contests combined. what's fascinating is he's leading in places where he shouldn't be leading, like iowa. herman cain is in second place in all of these polls. in some cases a distant second. so i think that's good news for mitt romney, no question about it. the one caveat is about 50% in some cases even more, of the voters say they could change their mind and vote for somebody else. the question is whether it's that 50% that is committed to somebody other than mitt romney or if it's people committed to mitt romney, too. so this is not over. it's certainly good news for mitt romney but doesn't close the deal for him at all, carol. >> the other thing that i always think about is if republican voters aren't really excited about mitt romney, even though some of them are supporting them, might they stay home or is their desire to get barack obama out of office so strong that they will turn out and vote even if they aren't so enthusiastic about the candidate? >> that's the big question. and the only answer will be what are we doing a year from now? are we still at 9% unemployment? is the economy still having its struggles? is the united states in some sort of an international embroil? all of those things could figure into it. the question guesting the vote out, though, is one. the question of voter enthusiasm will be key for not just the republicans but even the democrats in the next election. >> you've got that right. let's talk about rick perry a bit. he's debating whether to keep debating. we know he's had his struggles. if you need a reminder, here's one. >> i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they are dealing with. is it the mitt romney that was on the side of against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment? was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was for standing up for roe v. wade before he was against roe v. wade. he was for race to the top. he's for obama care and now he is against it. i mean, we'll wait until tomorrow and see which mitt romney we're really talking to. >> okay. so that was just one example of -- that was a really ugly performance. >> out of time, mr. perry. oh, thankfully. mitt romney's gears were turning in his head watching him slowly fall apart. >> what must have been going through his head. but the question is, though -- go ahead, tim. >> no, i was going to say, we never had a presidential debate in this country until 1960 and we didn't have another one again until jimmy carter debated ronald reagan. that said, debates are a part of the landscape now and you have to sell yourself on tv. one can only imagine if rick perry is not able to hold his own among those seven or eight candidates on the stage or against mitt romney, what is it going to be like if he were the candidate against barack obama? i think that's the question people will ask. i understand what he's saying. but, you know, debates are not always the best way to sell yourself. frankly that's the culture we live in and you have to be able to at least hold your ground. i don't think that not p participating is going to help him out at all. that's going to be a problem for him. i don't think it sends a good signal at all. >> thank you as always, tim farrelly, host of "morning briefing" on sirius potus radio. as lawmakers in italy try to get a handle on their massive debt, two decided to get a handle on each other, as in going at each other's throats. we'll have more on this big brawl just ahead. 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