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CNN Live At Daybreak

Euro Edition: Morning Papers

Aired January 06, 2004 - 05:45   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: Now for -- now for some of the top stories straight from overseas in our 'Euro Edition.' Liz George live in London for us.
Liz, tell us about the front pages this morning.

LIZ GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, yes, thanks very much indeed.

To be honest with you, the front pages a bit of a mixed bag today, a lot of the papers focusing on some foreign news. And perhaps one of the most important headlines is the one that is in "The Daily Telegraph." Now this is an exclusive interview here with the president of Syria, President Assad, who is --basically on the inside you've got a full page of his interview. So very, very key, very important there.

One of the perhaps most significant things he does is he talks an awful lot about weapons and the fact that they have a right to protect themselves. We won't scrap WMD stockpile unless Israel does, says Assad. So that's one very key point that he actually makes.

I just should perhaps give you the background to this. He is about to go on a trip to Turkey, a three-day trip to Turkey. Essentially, that's very important, because it's the first time there's ever been a visit from Syria to Turkey. And it's really in an effort to strengthen relations, to garner friendship.

And of course they haven't visited Turkey. There hasn't been a good relationship between Syria and Turkey, because Syria has always viewed Turkey as being an ally of the U.S. and also of Israel and Syria very unfriendly to the U.S. and very unfriendly to Israel. So that's a background to this all. And that's perhaps why this is very important and key.

COSTELLO: Liz, can I -- can I just ask you a question about that?

GEORGE: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Can I ask what kind of weapons of mass destruction does Syria have?

GEORGE: Well that's the interesting point. The headline, perhaps, is a little bit misleading, because although he says we won't scrap WMD stockpile, and that's what the headline is saying, he's actually not admitted to having any weapons. But he said that there's no reason that they can't gather together these weapons. So he hasn't actually said that they have got a stockpile. Although if you look at various different reports, and it comes out in the in-depth report in here, even the CIA has got documents basically outlining the fact that there are chemical and biological weapons in and around Damascus.

Just the area that he talks about is that he says with regards to these weapons, Syria has developed chemical and biological weapons as a last resort defense against Israel. And that was coupled with a warning that the presence of WMD meant that the region was moving from bad to worse. Now there are much greater risks of war than before. So perhaps a little bit of a chilling warning coming out of that interview that he gave to "The Telegraph."

COSTELLO: I understand. What else is in the papers this morning?

GEORGE: Well I'll move on to you for some perhaps lighter news, and in fact even on "The Telegraph" they've got a cartoon talking about the Britney wedding, that one that went a little bit too far, the joke that went too far. And there's a cartoon here, two couples sitting there in a fairly ordinary sitting room. We've been married for years and I still don't get the joke is the cartoon there.

But of course our tabloids are loving this, aren't they? I mean they've got it all over the front pages. She got married in white, at least it was a white baseball cap. She got married in rags is what (ph) the other one says.

COSTELLO: Is that the picture? Wait, show us this, Liz. Is that the picture of the wedding? Please show us, we haven't seen that yet.

GEORGE: Here I can give you -- I can give you, the inside pages have got more details there. There you are. That is the picture, a little bit of a tummy button showing there, you know, the white hat. But she has down here, I don't know if you can see it in detail, there is the white garter, the obligatory white garter there so. Our papers love that.

COSTELLO: Well we've got a sound bite later on from the groom, the short-lived groom. So I'm sure our audience is holding its collective breath out there.

Liz George, many thanks, live from 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 6, 2004 - 05:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now for -- now for some of the top stories straight from overseas in our 'Euro Edition.' Liz George live in London for us.
Liz, tell us about the front pages this morning.

LIZ GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, yes, thanks very much indeed.

To be honest with you, the front pages a bit of a mixed bag today, a lot of the papers focusing on some foreign news. And perhaps one of the most important headlines is the one that is in "The Daily Telegraph." Now this is an exclusive interview here with the president of Syria, President Assad, who is --basically on the inside you've got a full page of his interview. So very, very key, very important there.

One of the perhaps most significant things he does is he talks an awful lot about weapons and the fact that they have a right to protect themselves. We won't scrap WMD stockpile unless Israel does, says Assad. So that's one very key point that he actually makes.

I just should perhaps give you the background to this. He is about to go on a trip to Turkey, a three-day trip to Turkey. Essentially, that's very important, because it's the first time there's ever been a visit from Syria to Turkey. And it's really in an effort to strengthen relations, to garner friendship.

And of course they haven't visited Turkey. There hasn't been a good relationship between Syria and Turkey, because Syria has always viewed Turkey as being an ally of the U.S. and also of Israel and Syria very unfriendly to the U.S. and very unfriendly to Israel. So that's a background to this all. And that's perhaps why this is very important and key.

COSTELLO: Liz, can I -- can I just ask you a question about that?

GEORGE: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Can I ask what kind of weapons of mass destruction does Syria have?

GEORGE: Well that's the interesting point. The headline, perhaps, is a little bit misleading, because although he says we won't scrap WMD stockpile, and that's what the headline is saying, he's actually not admitted to having any weapons. But he said that there's no reason that they can't gather together these weapons. So he hasn't actually said that they have got a stockpile. Although if you look at various different reports, and it comes out in the in-depth report in here, even the CIA has got documents basically outlining the fact that there are chemical and biological weapons in and around Damascus.

Just the area that he talks about is that he says with regards to these weapons, Syria has developed chemical and biological weapons as a last resort defense against Israel. And that was coupled with a warning that the presence of WMD meant that the region was moving from bad to worse. Now there are much greater risks of war than before. So perhaps a little bit of a chilling warning coming out of that interview that he gave to "The Telegraph."

COSTELLO: I understand. What else is in the papers this morning?

GEORGE: Well I'll move on to you for some perhaps lighter news, and in fact even on "The Telegraph" they've got a cartoon talking about the Britney wedding, that one that went a little bit too far, the joke that went too far. And there's a cartoon here, two couples sitting there in a fairly ordinary sitting room. We've been married for years and I still don't get the joke is the cartoon there.

But of course our tabloids are loving this, aren't they? I mean they've got it all over the front pages. She got married in white, at least it was a white baseball cap. She got married in rags is what (ph) the other one says.

COSTELLO: Is that the picture? Wait, show us this, Liz. Is that the picture of the wedding? Please show us, we haven't seen that yet.

GEORGE: Here I can give you -- I can give you, the inside pages have got more details there. There you are. That is the picture, a little bit of a tummy button showing there, you know, the white hat. But she has down here, I don't know if you can see it in detail, there is the white garter, the obligatory white garter there so. Our papers love that.

COSTELLO: Well we've got a sound bite later on from the groom, the short-lived groom. So I'm sure our audience is holding its collective breath out there.

Liz George, many thanks, live from 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