Program Note: Watch Anderson’s interview with President Obama on AC360° on Monday at 10 p.m. ET.

Anderson was bitten by something during the night. Here’s his picture for proof.

Anderson Cooper | BIO
AC360° Anchor

@andersoncooper: just interviewed the President. We walked around Cape Coast Castle with him, it’s a former dungeon for slaves heading to America.

@andersoncooper: we walked through the “door of no return,” the portal thru which slaves were sent to the New World. Talked about the …

@andersoncooper: ….impact of it on him and his family. Outside hundreds have gathered to get a glimpse of Obama….

@andersoncooper: playing endlessly, everywhere, is a ghana hi-life song “Bar-ack, Bar-ack. Bar-ack O-Bama.” It’s by a band “Black Rasta”..

@andersoncooper: ..its one of those songs that’s catchy at first, but gradually drives you insane..like 99 Luftballoons. Remember that one?

@andersoncooper: forgot to mention. During the night I got bitten by something on my left eyelid.. Maybe a spider. When I awoke, my eyelid was ….

@andersoncooper: my eyelid had swollen nearly shut. Not the kind of thing you want to have happen before interviewing the President…

@andersoncooper: In my mind I looked like Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky”. In reality i looked more like Mathew Broderick in the movie “Election.”

@andersoncooper: luckily, by the time the President arrived it had gone down significantly. “Not so bad,” he said to me as he sat down.

@andersoncooper: now its nearly back to normal..still a little swollen. I took a picture for the ac360.com blog. I’m about to go to bed.

@andersoncooper: I think I’m going to sleep with the lights on.

Follow all of Anderson’s twitter updates @andersoncooper.

Editor’s Note: Anderson is in Ghana today where he will meet up with President Obama for an exclusive interview. He is talking to people in Ghana about what they think of the significance of the first African-American president to visit the West African country. And we’re also looking into the history of the African slave trade routes. Anderson visited the Cape Coast Castle where many slaves were transferred to ships bound for the Western hemisphere.

The 'door of no return' at the Cape Coast Castle. Slaves would exit this door and board ships bound for the western hemisphere.

Anderson Cooper | BIO
AC360° Anchor

From ac: just arrived in ghana. A lot of excitement here about Obama’s trip. Everyone wants to see him. I’ll be tweeting all weekend.

From ac: ghana is cool. Accra, the capitol is bustling with energy. Posters welcoming Obama are everywhere. It’s great to be back in africa.

Follow Anderson’s twitter updates here @andersoncooper

The coal ash spill more than six months ago left this area of Eastern Tennessee devastated.

Erin Brockovich

Being asked to help the people of Tennessee who have been so devastated by the coal ash disaster has been bittersweet.

It is bitter because it is so shameful that a community should have their homes and lives torn apart by a corporation that could have taken steps to avoid this impending disaster, which they knew was imminent. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) knew of breeches and leaks but did nothing to stop them.

It is bitter because people are experiencing sickness since the disaster and are fearful for their children and families; who wouldn’t be?

One billion gallons of ash, debris and other muck laden with arsenic and radionuclide came roaring down upon them in the night, and they are now having difficulty breathing and have developed skin rashes, debilitating headaches and respiratory problems. What’s worse is that they are being told that these materials can’t harm them, yet their bodies tell them otherwise.

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Octavia Nasr
AC360° Contributor
CNN Senior Mideast Affairs Editor

Marwa is already dubbed the “Hijab Martyr.” Many believe she was murdered because she’s Muslim and wears her religion on her head in a Hijab, the Muslim head cover. Her heinous cold-blooded murder in a Germany courtroom has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and now it is spreading across the world.

Marwa was 31 and three months pregnant, when she appeared at a Dresden courtroom to testify against a man who had already been convicted of verbally attacking her by calling her a “terrorist” at a playground with her 3-year-old son. Instead of justice, Marwa and her family were met by a tragic fate.

On July 1st, in the Dresden courtroom, the same man identified only as Alex M. stabbed her 18 times in front of her son and husband. As her husband tried to defend her, he got his share of the stabbing and he was shot by a police officer who mistook him for the assailant. Marwa later died in the hospital. Her husband is still in critical condition.

Two Egyptian researchers at Dresden University, Mohammed Ahmed Khalif and Magdi Khalil, told CNN that on that fateful day, their trust in Germany was shattered.

“We have fear about our family here, about our children” said Khalif. He said he is disappointed by what he believes is a muted response by the German public and its politicians.

Khalil agrees with Khalif. He adds that some people in Germany could possibly harbor an anti-Muslim sentiment. He suggested twisting this around to see how people would react to the same story. “What do you think if we have an Egyptian guy who kills a German woman in a court? What do you think would happen,” he asked.

Germany’s government spokesperson Thomas Steg stressed that, “In Germany we cannot tolerate, right wing extremism, hatred of foreigners nor Islamophobia.”

For many in Egypt and across the Middle East, this response came late and wasn’t enough.

Egyptians mourned the death of Marwa with shock and outrage. As it is customary in the Middle East when someone dies young, the 31-year-old pregnant mother was buried in a procession fit for a bride, while across the nation people continue to take to the streets in sympathy.

Underneath the sadness of mourning, anger is brewing at what people in the Middle East call a hate crime. They are moved by news reports of how Marwa died.

Many have taken to the streets, waving banners that call her stabbing death a hate crime and that it’s racially motivated. They say Marwa was killed because she’s Muslim and wore the Muslim headscarf.

When they felt their calls for justice were going unnoticed, Egyptians along with other Arabs and supporters from around the world, took to the Internet, which has become the voice for the voiceless in the Middle East region.

On Twitter, they asked for sympathizers to spread the message that a life was lost and they want the world to pay attention.

They accused the media of failing to highlight the murder.

They criticized Europe in general and Germany in particular for becoming increasingly extreme towards minorities, especially Muslims.

And on Facebook, they asked for justice; calling for the harshest possible sentence for the assailant and an apology from Germany. They created pages where people can pay homage to a woman who has now become known simply as the “Martyr of the Hijab.”

Program Note: Tune in tonight to learn more about the environmental disaster in Kingston, Tennessee. Dr. Sanjay Gupta went there to speak to residents of the region and to Erin Brockovich, who is advocating on behalf of the local community. More tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

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Critics warn confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor could turn into a partisan battle.

Bill Mears
CNN Supreme Court Producer

These rulings or cases are from Sonia Sotomayor’s service as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), from 1992-98; and most prominently, an appeals judge on the U-S Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, from 1998. That New York City-based court handles appeals from New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.

Most federal appeals are heard by a three-judge panel that changes from case to case, from a larger pool of full-time judges, which in the 2nd Circuit numbers 12. A particular panel normally hears oral arguments, and has the option of issuing a full opinion. Sotomayor wrote opinions in many of the appeals listed below, but not all. In some bigger cases, the full circuit court will re-hear a case.

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From left: Prince Michael Jackson II, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson and Michael Joseph Jackson Jr.

Editor’s Note: On June 29th, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted Katherine Jackson’s request for temporary custody of her son Michael’s three children. Posted below are the documents she filed to gain temporary custody. On Monday, a judge will once again take up the question of who has guardianship of the late singer’s three children. To hear CNN Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s take on Monday’s custody proceedings, tune in to AC360° tonight 10p ET.

Katherine Jackson custody claim documents.

Program Note: Tune in to AC360º tonight at 10 P.M. ET to hear more from Erin Brockovich as she teams up with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to investigate a toxic oil spill endangering the health of the environment and the citizens of Kingston, Tennessee.

Properties near ground zero of the December 22 Tennessee spill are covered in sludge.

Erin Brockovich
The Brockovich Report

It looks like I may be paying a visit to Tennessee. Numerous residents have asked me to come to the community for a meeting on the coal fly ash disaster around Knoxville, and I think I will be going.

I know the question on everyone’s lips. What is coal fly ash, and why does it need to be contained? The folks around Knoxville are getting to know a lot more about coal fly ash than they ever wanted to learn.

Coal fly ash. It sounds like someone has been burning fly poop or airborne coal. But seriously, it is akin to the creosote that coated those chimneys and chimneysweep boys of Charles Dickens ancient London.

Fly ash comes from chimneys, specifically the chimneys of power plants. The collection point determines exactly what kind of ash it is. Fly ash apparently contains silicon dioxide and calcium oxide as well as trace concentrations of heavy metals. In other words, coal ash is nasty stuff to have floating around in your river, air, and drinking water.

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President Obama says he chose Ghana partly because of the country's commitment to democracy.

CNN

President Barack Obama was due in Ghana Friday, generating excitement in the west African nation and envy among its neighbors with many seeing his visit as sending a message to governments over their poor records on stability.

Across Ghana, street vendors were stocking miniature American flags while citizens donned attire with pictures of the U.S. leader.

“People in Ghana are printing clothes for this occasion,” said Adrian Landry, general manager of a beach hotel in the capital, Accra.

“The fact that his father is African and he picked us makes us special,” he said. “He is endorsing our strong democracy in Ghana. This is historic.”

The president’s visit to the nation is the third by a sitting American leader. Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to visit Ghana in 1998 as part of a six-nation Africa tour. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, stopped there as part of a four-nation Africa tour during his last year of office.

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