CNN 2008-09-04

Hope you’re having a great day, I’m Nicole Lapin at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Here’s a look at what’s happening NOW IN THE NEWS.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is getting ready to introduce herself to America. She’s delivering the keynote address at the Republican National Convention this evening. She took a tour of the podium in St. Paul, Minnesota early this morning. Palin says she is excited about her speech. High-profile Republicans are praising the little-known governor. A former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani says that Palin has tremendous confidence.    

President Bush meanwhile is set to tour some of the damage left behind by hurricane Gustav, the damage estimate is ranging from 2 billion dollars to 10 billion dollars. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have already asked for federal disaster declarations for areas affected 1 by the storm, the declaration will basically free up federal dollars to help families and businesses rebuild.

Meanwhile the Florida Governor Charlie Crist has issued a state of emergency as Tropical Storm Hanna gains strength in the Atlantic. There is no certainty though that it would actually hit Florida.  

Overseas, now outraged 2 Pakistan officials say a cross-border attack today by coalition 3 forces killed at least 20 civilians 4. They say that helicopters ferried the troops from Afghanistan to a tribal 5 area of south Waziristan, a haven 6 for Taliban fighters. Pakistan calls the attack a grave provocation 7. Officials with the US-led coalitions 8 say that they knew nothing about the attack.

Other violence today. Snipers fired on the limousine 9 of Pakistan’s Prime Minister, striking the window at least twice. Officials refused, though, to confirm if the prime minister was actually in the car, saying only that he was not injured. 

In defiance 10, North Korea reportedly has started reassembling its main nuclear plant. It was barely two months ago, you might recall, that Pyongyang blew up this water cooling tower in exchange for energy aid and removal from the US list of terror sponsors. Well, the terror list is the sticking point. The Bush Administration is holding out for an anti-nuke verification agreement. North Korea says the US is breaking the anti-nuke agreement.

Switching gears, a new spaghetti eating champion was crowned over the weekend and to win he had to knock off the already crowned hot dog eating champion. The 2,500-dollar first prize might have been part of this motivation as Bob Shoudt put away more than 5 kilos of pasta in the annual chili 11 spaghetti eat-off. Now Shoudt is ranked number 5 by the International Federation 12 of Competitive Eating. Joey Chestnut 13, the hot dog champion he vanquished 14 is also the federation’s number one eater.

Well enjoy your lunch. Those are the headlines at this hour, for more on those stories and other news of the day, CNN is always your source online, on TV, or on your cell phone.