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CNN Live At Daybreak

Euro Edition: Morning Papers

Aired January 02, 2004 - 05:43   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: Time now, though, to check on what's making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Live to London and Hala Gorani.
Maybe British Airways is on the front page. Is it?

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. It's on the front page of "The Times" of London. And "The Times" of London is using a word that other newspapers are not using, hijacking fear grounds flight to America. According to "the Times" of London that there is specific intelligence that came from the U.S. and was communicated to British Airways that led to the grounding of the flight at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. on New Year's Eve and then led to the cancellation of Flight BA223 yesterday. We're still waiting to hear right now from British Airways on whether BA223 this afternoon, due to leave local time 3:00 p.m. to Washington, D.C., will or will not be cancelled.

Now according to "The Times" of London, officials appear to be acting on information on this particular BA flight without knowing exactly on what day it will materialize. And this is why, according to "The Times," BA is just canceling this flight yesterday and were going to wait for today.

And "Times" is quoting a BA223 passenger grounded in Dulles on the 31st of December as saying that he said he saw a woman being questioned, a woman who appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. I know that's very difficult to pinpoint exactly where somebody is from, but that's according to the passenger, asking her why she was not traveling with her husband. So that's one of the lead stories, of course, here. It concerns British Airways.

A quick look at other front pages.

COSTELLO: Hala, can I ask you a question before you go on?

GORANI: Sure.

COSTELLO: I mean how are people in Britain feeling about this? Are they flying? Are they canceling flights?

GORANI: Well this has just really happened in the last few days. I can't tell you exactly how people are feeling overall, but it looks like the passengers whose flights are cancelled are being rerouted, are taking other planes and that it's business as usual in the airports. And presumably these people have a reason to want to fly all the way to the U.S. from Britain, either they are transferring through Britain or they are going there back home after a holiday, so they are taking their flights.

COSTELLO: It's just to be -- it would just be...

GORANI: So it looks like it's business as usual, but...

COSTELLO: That's good. Go on.

GORANI: OK, a quick run-through the other ones. And this I thought would be of interest to you because it's on the U.S. presidential election. And this is the French view from a left wing newspaper, "Le Brasion (ph)," on how they see 2004 playing out with regards to the presidential race.

Now they are saying that this is going to be the mother of all electoral battles. And that -- and this is, by the way, means the war of the ballot boxes. But they are bringing an interesting point, which is why I'm talking about it, they are saying this is leading to more polarization within American public opinion than at any other time in electoral history.

In other words, you've got those who hate him, those who love him. And you have this multiplication of books, for instance, that are ferociously and fervently pro Bush and the multiplication of books, say the Al Franken book and others, for instance, that are against the conservative administration. And that's going to be very interesting to look at. So we're going to be looking at that from this side of the Atlantic.

COSTELLO: It certainly will be.

GORANI: OK, I'm going to skip the third story, just for time sake, because this is a story I find very interesting, even though it's perhaps less of an international story and more of a local one. "The Sun" tabloid newspaper is saying that an Arab actor, who happens to be from Iran, so it just kind of goes to show you how much "The Sun" knows about the Middle East.

But a Middle Eastern actor says is suing his talent agency saying that they were only putting him forward for roles of kabob owners, of rapists, of terrorists and that he missed out on major acting roles because he wasn't told on time by his agency only because he looks Middle Eastern or he looks from that kind of region of the world. And he is saying, for instance, that for the -- for the "The Pianist," the film for which Adrien Brody won an Oscar, that he wasn't even told about the audition and therefore that he missed out on major roles. And that he was even told by some casting directors that you know he's only really good to play sort of kabob shop owners and that kind of thing. It's a very interesting legal case in the current environment anyway, so.

COSTELLO: Interesting. I'm surprised it hasn't happened here in the United States. So that is interesting.

Thank you. Hala Gorani reporting live London this morning.

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 2, 2004 - 05:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now, though, to check on what's making headlines overseas in this morning's 'Euro Edition.' Live to London and Hala Gorani.
Maybe British Airways is on the front page. Is it?

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. It's on the front page of "The Times" of London. And "The Times" of London is using a word that other newspapers are not using, hijacking fear grounds flight to America. According to "the Times" of London that there is specific intelligence that came from the U.S. and was communicated to British Airways that led to the grounding of the flight at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C. on New Year's Eve and then led to the cancellation of Flight BA223 yesterday. We're still waiting to hear right now from British Airways on whether BA223 this afternoon, due to leave local time 3:00 p.m. to Washington, D.C., will or will not be cancelled.

Now according to "The Times" of London, officials appear to be acting on information on this particular BA flight without knowing exactly on what day it will materialize. And this is why, according to "The Times," BA is just canceling this flight yesterday and were going to wait for today.

And "Times" is quoting a BA223 passenger grounded in Dulles on the 31st of December as saying that he said he saw a woman being questioned, a woman who appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. I know that's very difficult to pinpoint exactly where somebody is from, but that's according to the passenger, asking her why she was not traveling with her husband. So that's one of the lead stories, of course, here. It concerns British Airways.

A quick look at other front pages.

COSTELLO: Hala, can I ask you a question before you go on?

GORANI: Sure.

COSTELLO: I mean how are people in Britain feeling about this? Are they flying? Are they canceling flights?

GORANI: Well this has just really happened in the last few days. I can't tell you exactly how people are feeling overall, but it looks like the passengers whose flights are cancelled are being rerouted, are taking other planes and that it's business as usual in the airports. And presumably these people have a reason to want to fly all the way to the U.S. from Britain, either they are transferring through Britain or they are going there back home after a holiday, so they are taking their flights.

COSTELLO: It's just to be -- it would just be...

GORANI: So it looks like it's business as usual, but...

COSTELLO: That's good. Go on.

GORANI: OK, a quick run-through the other ones. And this I thought would be of interest to you because it's on the U.S. presidential election. And this is the French view from a left wing newspaper, "Le Brasion (ph)," on how they see 2004 playing out with regards to the presidential race.

Now they are saying that this is going to be the mother of all electoral battles. And that -- and this is, by the way, means the war of the ballot boxes. But they are bringing an interesting point, which is why I'm talking about it, they are saying this is leading to more polarization within American public opinion than at any other time in electoral history.

In other words, you've got those who hate him, those who love him. And you have this multiplication of books, for instance, that are ferociously and fervently pro Bush and the multiplication of books, say the Al Franken book and others, for instance, that are against the conservative administration. And that's going to be very interesting to look at. So we're going to be looking at that from this side of the Atlantic.

COSTELLO: It certainly will be.

GORANI: OK, I'm going to skip the third story, just for time sake, because this is a story I find very interesting, even though it's perhaps less of an international story and more of a local one. "The Sun" tabloid newspaper is saying that an Arab actor, who happens to be from Iran, so it just kind of goes to show you how much "The Sun" knows about the Middle East.

But a Middle Eastern actor says is suing his talent agency saying that they were only putting him forward for roles of kabob owners, of rapists, of terrorists and that he missed out on major acting roles because he wasn't told on time by his agency only because he looks Middle Eastern or he looks from that kind of region of the world. And he is saying, for instance, that for the -- for the "The Pianist," the film for which Adrien Brody won an Oscar, that he wasn't even told about the audition and therefore that he missed out on major roles. And that he was even told by some casting directors that you know he's only really good to play sort of kabob shop owners and that kind of thing. It's a very interesting legal case in the current environment anyway, so.

COSTELLO: Interesting. I'm surprised it hasn't happened here in the United States. So that is interesting.

Thank you. Hala Gorani reporting live London this morning.

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