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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Wrap: Eye on the World

Aired January 01, 2004 - 06:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about something a little happier, a lot happier, in fact. London is kicking off the New Year with what it claims is the biggest street party in the world.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is -- joins us now with more on that.

The biggest street party in the world?

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: That's what they say, or at least the biggest New Year's Day Parade they are going to have in London. That's coming up, actually, in -- just in a few minutes. It's supposed to start at the top of the hour. And we're expecting to see some pictures of that. And we're watching out. Of course security has been extremely high.

COSTELLO: Because they are on a high state of alert as well?

FLOURNOY: Right. Exactly. Exactly. They are. Thankfully last night and New Year's Eve in London all was calm. Everything seemed to be happy. It was a good news story. Hopefully it will continue to be that way, but we're watching that very closely.

And also...

COSTELLO: I was just watching that man with the bird, trying to figure out what the heck he was doing.

FLOURNOY: Yes, right.

COSTELLO: But I guess he's getting ready for the parade.

FLOURNOY: Right. Right. They are getting ready. It's expected to -- expected to be a big deal.

And we have a special surprise this morning, a DAYBREAK mystery guest elsewhere in the world.

COSTELLO: Really?

FLOURNOY: Someone. And I think we have someone joining us on the line. And let's see if -- let's see if you can tell who it is, Carol.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: And happy...

FLOURNOY: And are you there mystery guest? CLINCH: Happy New Year from Ireland.

COSTELLO: It's the leafy green Irishman David Clinch.

FLOURNOY: David.

CLINCH: Carol, happy New Year to you.

COSTELLO: Happy New Year.

CLINCH: In Irish that's bliain nua vohakis (ph). I want you to write that down.

COSTELLO: OK, I'll try to repeat it later.

CLINCH: I am in Dublin for Christmas. And as Eli has been pointing out, there's, you know, a very big New Year's Day celebrations planned. But you may have already been reporting that a lot of the New Year's Eve celebrations here in Ireland and Scotland and England and elsewhere had to be either canceled or curtailed seriously because of the weather. We had the traditional Irish and British Isles dreadful weather last night. It was very windy and very, very cold. But that didn't stop us celebrating. We had a great time here in Dublin. And there will be some more celebrations during the day today, so.

COSTELLO: So what kind of celebrating goes on when the weather gets that bad -- David?

CLINCH: Well I can't tell you. No, we had -- the traditional thing to do in Dublin, actually, is to go out into the center of town and listen to all of the bells of the cathedrals ringing at midnight. But where there are normally about 20,000 people there or more, there were only about 2,000 or 3,000 out there last night because it was so cold and so miserable. So everybody retreated to their own homes, as I did with my family, and we had a very nice traditional New Year's Eve. And then I was having the very nice traditional New Year's Day sleep in, but then Eli very rudely woke me up and asked me to contribute here.

And the other big news in Ireland -- a couple of big sort of things for the New Year here, I think we mentioned this before when I was on air. There's a smoking ban in pubs coming in in Ireland from today on, which is -- goes against years and years of tradition of pubs in Ireland being the smokiest, darkest places in the whole city. But they are instituting a total ban on smoking in pubs. So it will be interesting to see whether that is actually put into place.

And then Ireland also takes over the rotating presidency, the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which, you know, rotates through all of the different European Union countries. But while they are going to be president, the European Union will expand from 15 countries up to 25 I think it is. So that's quite a big deal here in Ireland.

And otherwise, it's very quiet and very nice here. And as Eli says, while security is an issue, I'm going to London, as well, while I'm here and security is definitely very visible everywhere you go. People are determined to enjoy themselves as much as they possibly can.

COSTELLO: As I know you will.

CLINCH: Absolutely, you can...

COSTELLO: I don't tire (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- Eli.

CLINCH: You can rely on me for that, too.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

FLOURNOY: He does. I gave him -- I gave him several hours to wake up.

COSTELLO: But no.

FLOURNOY: I don't know what the problem is.

COSTELLO: I don't either.

David Clinch, happy New Year, and thank you for joining us this morning.

CLINCH: Happy New Year.

COSTELLO: We can't wait for you to get back.

CLINCH: And to you. Happy New Year to everybody.

COSTELLO: All right -- David Clinch.

CLINCH: Bye-bye.

COSTELLO: Reporting live from Dublin, Ireland.

Thank you, Eli, that was a nice surprise guest. We like that.

FLOURNOY: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 1, 2004 - 06:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about something a little happier, a lot happier, in fact. London is kicking off the New Year with what it claims is the biggest street party in the world.
Our senior international editor Eli Flournoy is -- joins us now with more on that.

The biggest street party in the world?

ELI FLOURNOY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: That's what they say, or at least the biggest New Year's Day Parade they are going to have in London. That's coming up, actually, in -- just in a few minutes. It's supposed to start at the top of the hour. And we're expecting to see some pictures of that. And we're watching out. Of course security has been extremely high.

COSTELLO: Because they are on a high state of alert as well?

FLOURNOY: Right. Exactly. Exactly. They are. Thankfully last night and New Year's Eve in London all was calm. Everything seemed to be happy. It was a good news story. Hopefully it will continue to be that way, but we're watching that very closely.

And also...

COSTELLO: I was just watching that man with the bird, trying to figure out what the heck he was doing.

FLOURNOY: Yes, right.

COSTELLO: But I guess he's getting ready for the parade.

FLOURNOY: Right. Right. They are getting ready. It's expected to -- expected to be a big deal.

And we have a special surprise this morning, a DAYBREAK mystery guest elsewhere in the world.

COSTELLO: Really?

FLOURNOY: Someone. And I think we have someone joining us on the line. And let's see if -- let's see if you can tell who it is, Carol.

DAVID CLINCH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: And happy...

FLOURNOY: And are you there mystery guest? CLINCH: Happy New Year from Ireland.

COSTELLO: It's the leafy green Irishman David Clinch.

FLOURNOY: David.

CLINCH: Carol, happy New Year to you.

COSTELLO: Happy New Year.

CLINCH: In Irish that's bliain nua vohakis (ph). I want you to write that down.

COSTELLO: OK, I'll try to repeat it later.

CLINCH: I am in Dublin for Christmas. And as Eli has been pointing out, there's, you know, a very big New Year's Day celebrations planned. But you may have already been reporting that a lot of the New Year's Eve celebrations here in Ireland and Scotland and England and elsewhere had to be either canceled or curtailed seriously because of the weather. We had the traditional Irish and British Isles dreadful weather last night. It was very windy and very, very cold. But that didn't stop us celebrating. We had a great time here in Dublin. And there will be some more celebrations during the day today, so.

COSTELLO: So what kind of celebrating goes on when the weather gets that bad -- David?

CLINCH: Well I can't tell you. No, we had -- the traditional thing to do in Dublin, actually, is to go out into the center of town and listen to all of the bells of the cathedrals ringing at midnight. But where there are normally about 20,000 people there or more, there were only about 2,000 or 3,000 out there last night because it was so cold and so miserable. So everybody retreated to their own homes, as I did with my family, and we had a very nice traditional New Year's Eve. And then I was having the very nice traditional New Year's Day sleep in, but then Eli very rudely woke me up and asked me to contribute here.

And the other big news in Ireland -- a couple of big sort of things for the New Year here, I think we mentioned this before when I was on air. There's a smoking ban in pubs coming in in Ireland from today on, which is -- goes against years and years of tradition of pubs in Ireland being the smokiest, darkest places in the whole city. But they are instituting a total ban on smoking in pubs. So it will be interesting to see whether that is actually put into place.

And then Ireland also takes over the rotating presidency, the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which, you know, rotates through all of the different European Union countries. But while they are going to be president, the European Union will expand from 15 countries up to 25 I think it is. So that's quite a big deal here in Ireland.

And otherwise, it's very quiet and very nice here. And as Eli says, while security is an issue, I'm going to London, as well, while I'm here and security is definitely very visible everywhere you go. People are determined to enjoy themselves as much as they possibly can.

COSTELLO: As I know you will.

CLINCH: Absolutely, you can...

COSTELLO: I don't tire (ph) (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- Eli.

CLINCH: You can rely on me for that, too.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

FLOURNOY: He does. I gave him -- I gave him several hours to wake up.

COSTELLO: But no.

FLOURNOY: I don't know what the problem is.

COSTELLO: I don't either.

David Clinch, happy New Year, and thank you for joining us this morning.

CLINCH: Happy New Year.

COSTELLO: We can't wait for you to get back.

CLINCH: And to you. Happy New Year to everybody.

COSTELLO: All right -- David Clinch.

CLINCH: Bye-bye.

COSTELLO: Reporting live from Dublin, Ireland.

Thank you, Eli, that was a nice surprise guest. We like that.

FLOURNOY: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com