this until the the cotton's picked and the beans and the kernels are counted. smart phones make calls, send e-mails and now you can set them to stun. it is going too far? hello, everyone, i'm poppy harlow in tonight for don lemon. let's get you up to speed on the day r day's biggest stories. in syria, a senior government official with 34 years of service now says he's on the side of the rebel uprising. he was syria's ambassador to iraq, and he's the highest ranking diplomat to defect. he says he can't be part of a dictatorship any longer. you'll hear him his in his own words in just a moment. plus, i just spoke with the long-time american ambassador to syria. his reaction, our conversation coming up. an egyptian official says two americans kidnapped on the sinai peninsula are unharmed and well fed. their families want to know when they will be freed. the son of the reverend michel louis spoke to randi kaye about how the ordeal is taking a toll on the pastor's wife. >> it was all of a sudden and i just -- she even right now seems like a dream to her, a nightmare. also, a huge portion of the united states being strangled by drought this hour, which is threatening everything from crops to battle. 1,000 counties spanning 26 states are now considered drought disaster areas. eventually, you'll likely see the effects in higher food prices. agriculture secretary tom vilsack says the expiration of some existing programs has deeply hurt the farmers. >> the usda does not have the tools it once had to help people through this difficult time. >> we'll have more of that interview coming up. and a video on facebook that showed the brutal beating of a 62-year-old has now led to murder charges. chicago police charged a 16-year-old gang member with first degree murder in the death of delfino mora. the disabled man was collecting cans in an alley when he was attacked. a fellow gang member filmed the attack, put it on facebook, put it on the facebook wall of the suspect. and police arrested nba star jason kidd early today in southampton, new york. they say the newly signed new york knick was drunk and crashed his cadillac into a telephone poll. doctors treated him for minor injuries. kidd signed a reported three-year, $9.5 million deal with the knicks just on thursday. well, the syria conflict is now officially a civil war. that's from the international red cross today. although u.n. peace keepers have been calling it that since last month. 16 months of that violent rebel uprising and the u.n. estimates more than 10,000 people, 10,000, have been killed in the fighting. opposition groups say thousands more have died. also today, we learned that the treatment of the syrian people by the regime prompted the highest ranking government defection thus far. he was the syrian ambassador to iraq, until just a few days ago. now, he has escaped the country. he is supporting syrian rebels. he spoke with our ivan watson. >> translator: i served the syrian regime for 34 years in many different positions. but after what happened in the last year, during the holy revolution, all of the killing, the massacres, the refugees, i don't see how anyone can remain silent. so, i decided to end my relationship with this regime. >> reporter: what message would you like to send to bashar al assad and to your former colleagues in the syrian government right now? >> translator: my former colleagues, i ask them to join the people and leave this corrupt regime. there is still time. to say assad, i say, you don't know history. two wills cannot be defeated. the will of god and the will of the feet. history will curse you for the crimes you committed. >> earlier tonight, i spoke with the man who served two u.s. presidents as the american ambassador to syria. i asked him what he thinks this defection says about the stability of syria's leadership. take a listen. >> i think these are the beginning indications of the dissent within the syrian government and regime, that is now beginning to surface. when you begin to have a high level defection like this, and also the grbrigadier general, wo was very close to the assad family, it indicates that the divisions within the government are beginning to surface. and i think we can anticipate more defections in future. >> you do? >> when defections like this begin to occur, the political perception that the regime is being weakened from within is very important. and that can take on a momentum of its own. so, it's not so much the importance of one or two or three people defecting, no matter how ranking they are. but it's the growing perception that the divisions within the regime are coming to the fore and the regime is beginning to weaken from within. >> he is calling for military intervention from the international community. he said that assad and his regime will not go down without force. do you see this as a clear message from him to the international community that military intervention needs to happen? >> well, i think his judgment that the regime at the end of the day will not go down without force is probably accurate, because there's just been too much blood spilled in the streets of syria. i think the hard core of the regime, which is the -- the political leadership, the military intelligence, the security apparatus and those elite in the community that have been closely identified with the regime, i think, at the end of the day, there has just been too much ravaging inside the country for there to be a peaceful moment. >> very interesting insight from a man who knows the country and its leaders very well. well, moving on, after dismissing the idea again and again, could condoleezza rice be up for mitt romney's v.p. slot? what do you think? we're going to talk about that next. and this -- extreme drought. half the u.s. now in a state of emergency. with crop prices already spiking, how much more will it cost to put food on the table. >> we're really not going to know the full extent of all of this until the cotton's picked and the beans and the kernels are counted. variante ascari, monza. mile 7, highway 1. wehrseifen, nurburgring. the horseshoe, twin peaks boulevard. every famous curve has an equally thrilling, lesser-known counterpart. conquer them, with the lexus is performance line, featuring the is 250. real performance demands real precision. this is the pursuit of perfection. just $14.99. start with soup, salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. four perfect courses, just $14.99. so, why are we up here? 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[ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ we told you a little earlier about that massive drought across the united states. if you are worried about what it means for you, is it going to drive up your food prices, here is what you need to know. likely it would not until late this year, maybe next year. but make no mistake, with the drought spreading, it is going to effect what we all pay for groceries. here's more of candy crowley's interview with agriculture secretary, tom vilsack. >> we're really not going to know the full extent of all of this until the cotton's picked and the beans and the kernels are counted. clearly, our yields are going to be down. we'll probably see less in terms of crop production. but we're going to be able to meet the food needs of the country. we're still going to be able to export, utilize crop residue to produce energy. we have a momentum going. the real challenge for us, though, is that the usda, department of agriculture, does not have the tools it once had to help people through this difficult time. when the disaster programs of the 2008 farm bill expired on september 30th last year, it left us with very little option in terms of being able to provide help to these folks. that's why it's just imperative that the house leadership get the food farm and jobs bill that went through the house committee and get it voted on. so we can provide additional help and assistance to these folks. >> we see in terms of crop price increases, corn up almost 17%, soy 37%, wheat is up 29%. that is bound to have an effect on food supply, at some level. and what we're talking about here, as you well know, coming from iowa, is meat, eggs, poultry, milk. do you expect prices on those products to go up in the grocery store? >> here's the interesting thing about this, and it gives me an opportunity to point out howl little of that grocery store dollar the farmers and ranchers actually get. 14 cents of every food dollar goes in the pocket of a farmer/rancher. while the prices will likely increase, it will have an marginal impact on food prices. what really drives food prices more significantly are energy costs. >> it's my understanding that prices on a lot of things from cereal to soft drinks and meat prices are already up in some cases by 30%. that has nothing to do with the drought? >> they shouldn't be, because those -- the prices and the impact of a drought probably will not likely be seen in the grocery aisles until later next year. 2013. folks are using this opportunity to raise prices inappropriately, shame on them. well, the race for the white house now. which has been dominated for days as you've well seen, about questions about mitt romney's tenure at bayne capital. romney insists the attacks have crossed the line, especially an obama's aides reference to legal filings with the sec and even pointing to a potential felony. romney says the president should apologize. the president tells cnn affiliate, that is not going to happen. >> no, we won't be apologizing. and i don't -- sometimes these games are played during political campaigns. understand what the issue is here. mr. romney claims that he's mr. fix-it for the economy, because of his business experience. i think voters entirely legitimately want to know, well, what exactly was that business experience? >> okay, condi rice keeps saying she doesn't want to be vice president, but her name keeps coming up. earlier tonight, i spoke with cnn contributors and will offered reasons why rice will not be on the ticket. >> we can run through the reasons why rice doesn't make sense to be the v.p. candidate. most important of which is, she is pro-choice. and that is somewhat of a deal killer for any republican running for national office. as you just said, poppy, she doesn't want to be vice president. so, it's a nonstarter. and the timing of it is obvious, because changing the subject, let's not talk about bain bain /* bain. by the way, conversation was a subject changer from the jobs report a week ago. let's just be fair. we're changing subjects away from the things th hold real substance. >> those two are at least related, because mitt romney, of course, is running on the fact he can create more jobs. when the job report comes out, that makes sense to me. the condi conversation doesn't make sense. >> when you look at rice, she's very tied to the bush administration, and it's not likely that romney wants to be very associated with things that rice was very involved in in terms of the invasion of iraq, weapons of mass destruction, obviously the abortion issue is huge here. let's talk about other possible running mates, okay? rob portman of ohio, what about bob mcdonald of virginia, the two key states here. what do you think, lz, of either of those names? >> i've been having a really difficult time. when i saw the question, i had a difficult time trying to find somebody that made sense to me. that's because mitt romney's problem isn't trying to woo conservatives. it's trying to woo the independents. i don't think adding another conservative is going to help him. it's not as if conservatives are going to say, well, if he doesn't pick the right v.p., we're going to vote for president obama. he needs to communicate that he's not as crazy as some of the extremists in his base. that requires him to pick a vp candidate who may disagree with him on social issues. personally, i really like mike bloomberg. he's said that he thinks he would run the country better than president obama. the problem is, he disagrees with everything on the social issues. that's the problem with romney since the beginning, in finding a candidate. >> will, you told me in the break, portman is the ideal choice. >> i think lz is applying the wrong analysis. you don't look at what the v.p. is going to bring. i think what you do and what rob portman does is double down on bland. bland is exactly what he needs and wants. >> why double down on bland? why, will? >> because they want this election to be about president barack obama. this election needs to be a referendum on the job president obama has done over the last four years. you don't need to give the voters something to vote for. you just want them to vote against barack obama. i know a lot of people say the opposite, but that's the truth. mitt romney -- >> how do you energize voters with that strategy? >> i think barack obama's energized them. >> how does mitt romney and a portman ticket energize voters if you are doubling down on bland? >> i think barack obama's energized them. those that will vote will vote against barack obama. >> but those people are going to vote against president obama regardless. he's not going to energize people who are looking for solutions and answers. he's just going to energize people that already despise him. that doesn't hp his ticket at all. >> okay, from politics to smart phones, this thing, you know, your phone? it can make calls, send e-mails, play videos, but a new iphone add-on promises self-defense. we're not kidding. can you guess what it does? 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[ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. well, startup company is promising a unique new feature for your iphone. you've got to hear this one, folks. i talked earlier about it tonight with tech pro john able from reuters. turning an iphone case into a stun gun. apparently this army reservist has done just that. what has he come up with? >> well, apparently, he was attacked in his home and thought that the answer to his problems would be to create a cover for the iphone, which is the number one hand set in the world, which also converts into a taser, a stun gun. >> wow. >> he's -- he's trying to raise money on one of the crowd funding sites called indy go go. it's not doing that great. he's got $12,000 and about 13 days and his funding request is 100 grand but we'll -- the rules are different, he'll get to keep the money he gets -- gets pledged to him. and he's going to fill orders. we talk about, there's an app for that and now there's a cover for this. >> i guess. i wonder if the company, taser, is going to be interested in this technology -- >> wel there are lots of stun gun type things, but literally, this has to be the first thing that actually attaches to your phone. and the idea is you always have your phone. there's that theory. >> okay, all right, so, this has a kick, i guess. i want to read you what the inventor told us. "well, i knew that if i was going to put this thing out in the world, i had to test it on myself. that's what i did." and then he added, "it hurts." and we're assuming this is a pretty tough guy. so -- >> well, you know, 650,000 volts, whatever it is. of course, in the funding video, there isn't a piece of him actually getting stunned by this. we're going to have to take his word for it. now, to the big stories ahead in the news this week. from the white house to wall street, our correspondents tell you what you need to know ahead of monday morning. we begin with the president's campaign plans for the week. >> i'm athena jones at the white house. in another sign that the campaign season is heating up, president obama visiting two battleground states this week. he will speak in ohio on monday and he spends thursday and friday traveling across florida, visiting four cities including orlando in a region that was central to his 2008 victory in the state. he'll hit the red state of texas on tuesday, for fund raisers in san antonio and austin. >> after fund-raising monday in mississippi and louisiana, mitt romney heads tuesday to pennsylvania and wednesday to ohio, both considered important swing states in the race for the white house. >> on the heels of new details of jpmorgan's massive trading loss and better than expected profits, citigroup, goldman sachs, bank of america and morgan stanley will report earnings. and we'll hear from heavy hitters on the dow. like american express coke and microsoft. and tech giants microsoft, google, ibm and intel. also on wall street's radar, federal reserve chairman bernanke will testify on capitol hill. on the economic calendar, we'll get some insight into the struggling housing market and retail sales. >> here's what we're watching this week, more continuing coverage of tom cruise and katie holmes and how they are splitting their time with their daughter suri. and, of course, you remember the original karate kid, right? he's going to be here on "showbiz tonight." we're going to talk about his brand new tv project. all right, thank you, a.j. a mystery illness that killed dozens of children is no longer a mystery. dr. sanjay gupta explains how two doctors teamed up to crack the case in cambodia and save untold lives. that's next. >> you don't have to be in front of a television to watch cnn. stay connected, do it on your cell phone or do it from your computer at work. just go to cnn.com/tv. this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. we want to update you on a story we told you about this time last week. dozens of children in cambodia dying from a mystery illness. it isn't a mystery anymore, though, thanks to two french doctors that are living there. our dr. sanjay gupta explains how they cracked the case. >> reporter: the only thing doctors knew for sure was when the children arrived at the hospital, they were dying. and fast. a fever, convulsions. and then, the lungs, completely destroyed. since the end of april, doctors in cambodia struggled with a medical mystery. and that mystery was ultimately solved right over here. blood samples from those sick and dying children were brought to this laboratory, analyzed, like you see right over there and eventually they concluded that there were different pathogens. all of those infections were made worse by the use of steroids. the