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Pope John Paul II Expected to Leave Rome Hospital in About Two Hours; Saudi Election

Aired February 10, 2005 - 11:30   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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: You will want to mark your calendars because April 8th is going to be the royal wedding of the year. The Windsors, they have announced that Prince Charles and longtime companion Camilla Parker-Bowles will finally tie the knot. They already live together at Charles's official residence. The archbishop of Canterbury has agreed to preside at a prayer ceremony following the civil ceremony.
Strong international reaction to North Korea vow to build up a nuclear arsenal. Besides publicly acknowledging today that it has nuclear weapons, North Korea also quit six-way disarmament talks. Britain called it a major mistake. The U.S. advised North Korea to reconsider. And China, which remains North Korea's only major ally says, it wants those multinational talks to continue.

A mosque founded by a former NBA star, Hakeem Olajuwon, allegedly gave more than $80,000 to charities fronting for al Qaeda and Hamas. That is according to financial records obtained by the Associated Press. Law-enforcement officials tell the A.P. that Olajuwon is not under investigation. Olajuwon says he is unaware of any alleged terrorist connections.

And in Salt Lake City, hundreds of people are being allowed back into their homes this morning. They were evacuated after a butane tanker trailer collided with a van and burst into frames, as you see here. Two homes were destroyed.

Pope John Paul II is expected to leave a Rome hospital, should happen in about two hours. Vatican says the pope has been cured of the breathing problems that caused him to be rushed to the hospital 10 days ago. Interesting choice of words. Once he's back at the Vatican, an aide said, the pope and his doctors will decide when he can resume a normal work schedule. The pope's hospital stay did raise some fears among the faithful and renewed some concerns about the frail condition of the pontiff.

Let's do this now, let's get more on his illness and other issues affecting the church. And to do that, we go to CNN Vatican analyst John Allen with "The National Catholic Reporter." He's joining us from Rome.

And let's start with the illness. Interesting word choice there, that he's cured. How is the pontiff doing?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, you know, the truth is, Rick, that the Vatican is not terribly forthcoming with information about the pope's health, and so we don't really know in any great detail how he's doing. What they tell us is that the bronchial problem, the problem, the problem with the larynx that caused the hospitalization has been cured. And that his general conditions are getting better. But you know, we're just going to have to wait and see. We expect we'll see the pope, at least briefly on Sunday, for his normal Angelos (ph) address. We'll get a certain sense of things then.

But then, you know, after that, he goes into a Lenten retreat in the Vatican for a week. We're not really going to see him. I suspect it's going to be sometime before we have a clear sense where exactly his health is at.

SANCHEZ: Putting aside the last couple of weeks in his hospital stay, in his present condition, does he have the vigor to do this job day in and day out?

ALLEN: Well, it really depends how you define this job. If you mean sitting behind the desk 18 hours a day with his hands on the wheels of government, I think the answer to that question is no, and it's been no for the last few years. If you mean does he have the capability of being a kind of spiritual father to the family that the Catholic Church understands it to be and in carrying out his spiritual function then a lot of faithful around the world would say yes.

SANCHEZ: Well, let me ask you this, if he's only doing the spiritual part, then who is doing the other part right now?

ALLEN: I think the honest answer to that question would be the men around him in the Vatican. There are a handful of senior officials, probably no more than six or seven, that for some time have been picking up a lot of the papal slack on things like deciding who's going to become a bishop, or what ought to be taught on certain questions that come up. And some of that, of course, is the normal rhythm of work in the Vatican. I mean, no pope can possibly make all the decisions that wash through this place in a given week. But obviously the percentage of things that are being done by others has steadily been increasing as the pope has gotten weaker.

SANCHEZ: Is there any provision for him to take himself out of the game, so to speak?

ALLEN: Yes. The Code of Canon Law, which is the body of law for the Catholic Church, in canon 332 makes a provision for a papal resignation. All it says is that the pope has to do that freely, and it's not required that anybody accept it. But, you know, I think at this stage that's largely a theoretical conversation, because John Paul II has made it abundantly clear on a number of public occasions. He doesn't have any intention of going down that path , and I don't think there's any evidence this week that he's changed his mind.

SANCHEZ: A bunch of cardinals, about 190 of them, were sitting in the wings. One wonders whether the pope will be involved in the conversation to select the person who may succeed him. I don't imagine you have the answer to that question, do you?

ALLEN: Well, I think the quick answer to that question is the pope has his mind on other things.

But, you know, Rick, the truth is, although there's a law in the Catholic Church that prohibits discussion of the succession while the pope is still alive, in reality cardinals are obviously thinking about that. One of them said just to me yesterday, this is a choice we dare not get wrong.

SANCHEZ: We do thank you, John Allen, for bringing us that information out of Rome, and we certainly will look forward to talking to you once again.

Betty, over to you.

NGUYEN: Now to a novel exercise in absolute monarchy. Saudi men, and only men, cast ballots today in Riyadh elections. Analysts say it is the first vote in a country that largely conforms to international standards. Now the election comes just a few days after President Bush urged the Saudis to embrace democratic reform. Men in other parts of the country, they will go to the polls in March and in April as well.

Now CNN's Peter Bergen is in the Saudi capital and joins us by telephone for this historic vote today -- Peter.

PETER BERGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, while the vote -- I went to a number of the polling places today, and I've gone to visit some of the campaign tents, and clearly there's some excitement about this -- when you give people the opportunity to vote, they tend to be quite happy about it, particularly if they haven't done it in some cases in this country for now 40 years, hasn't really been any real election.

But as you mentioned in the lead-in, this is the first internationally conforming to international standards election. The registration for the election was somewhat low, 150,000 out of a possible 600,000. But I think that partly may have been the people didn't have much expectations for the elections, but as the election day drew nearer, you could see campaign slogans, you could see people out campaigning. And so there seems to be a more excitement about this election than perhaps there was initially.

NGUYEN: Peter, you mention excitement, but you also mention that only 149,000 people in the city of four million have registered to vote. What does that say about the importance, the significance of this election?

BERGEN: Well, those numbers are sort of misleading in the sense that many, many of the people who live in the city are foreigners. Obviously half the population are women. Only people over the age of 21 can vote, and you know Saudi is a place 50 percent of the population is under the age of 15. So it's really 150,000 out of 600,000 eligible, which is low.

But a number of people have said that their friends regretted not registering, because now they are seeing that this may be something serious. Obviously it's -- we don't want to make too much out of this at the end of the day. This is votes were half the council and the municipal elections here. The rest of the people on the council will be still appointed by the government.

But I think most people see this as the beginning of sort of a thin end of the wedge, that there will be other elections four years from now. Even senior government officials saying they are hoping that women might participate in the next round of elections. There's also a possibility of provincial elections, so I think that the reason that there is excitement not necessarily what these particular elections are for, but more that the general principle is for the first time being, you know, applied in a kind of universal manner.

NGUYEN: So it's being seen as an important first step. I understand that. Peter Bergen in the Riyadh capital there in Saudi Arabia. Thank you, Peter.

SANCHEZ: Let's take a look now at what's making news overseas in this morning's "World Wrap." Hamas militants fired dozens of mortars and homemade rockets on Jewish settlements in Gaza today. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas responded by asking three of his security commanders to the Gaza to resign. This is the first major test of a truce announced between the Israelis and the Palestinians Tuesday.

Also a rare sight in the Iraqi city of Mosul -- snow. That's right, Mosul isn't far enough north to really get snow very often, even though it's common in the mountainous Kurdish regions nearby. The wintry precipitation looks like it will continue through the weekend. Precipitation -- don't you love that word?

Also doctors in Peru are taking the first steps to separate the fused legs of a 9-month-old baby girl. In fact, it's called a mermaid syndrome. It's extremely rare. For now doctors are inserting silicone bags to stretch the skin of the baby's legs. Separation surgery is planned for sometime late this month.

NGUYEN: Well, I think we've felt like our hearts have been broken, at least for once or twice in our lives.

SANCHEZ: Sometimes. Now there's an official name for being lovesick. And there's even a remedy for it.

NGUYEN: And surviving a horrific accident that almost takes your life. A survivor's journey to get her life back when CNN's LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: And today's "Daily Dose" of health news. Nursing care by your spouse probably isn't the best option when you're elderly or sick. A University of Pittsburgh study of elderly patients found that verbal and physical abuse was eight times more likely when the primary caregivers were spouses. Researchers speculate that the stress of constant spouse-to-spouse nursing care can easily aggravate negative behaviors already present in the relationship.

And women on high protein diets should take care to distinguish what types of protein they are eating. Studies confirm that consuming large amounts of meat and dairy can elevate heart disease in women. Some high protein diets instead count tofu and nuts as a better protein alternative.

And just in time for Valentine's Day, medical advice on how to mend a broken heart. Doctors at Johns Hopkins say get bed rest and plenty of fluids. There's even a medical term for it, it's cardiomyopothy (ph). Researchers say it is caused by extreme stress or emotional shock such as the sudden death of a loved one. And the symptoms -- they could mimic a heart attack. Unlike a real heart attack, though, it normally does not require medical treatment.

And to get your daily dose of health news online, all have you to do is log on to our Web site. You will find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address on the screen at cnn.com/health.

SANCHEZ: I'm sure you've heard of these, mp3s, i-Pods?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: i-Tunes?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Got them, right?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Music online has changed how many Americans get their tunes. Well, don't tune us out, because we've got a segment from cnn.com on the music revolution. From cnn.com, here is Veronica De La Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Many mainstream artists thought having mp3 files of their music easily available online. But one Atlanta-based D.J. and producer is using that very technology to his own advantage.

JON FOSTER, RECORDING ARTIST: My Web site is meetjondoe.com.

DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): Jon Foster, known as D.J. Jon Doe, is using the Internet to jumpstart a recording career.

FOSTER: Even though I'm in still in Atlanta, Georgia, and I can't fly to Japan, or even if I can't fly to New York to talk to the labels there, I think you're able to actually, you know, cultivate your career and what you want to present to the world in terms of music and even your image.

DE LA CRUZ: Technology is making it easier for him to promote himself online. But when it comes to the digital divide, he still faces a few challenges.

FOSTER: There's a lot of different types of formats that these companies are using to deliver, you know, the music. So that, I think, makes thinks more confusing. The most popular format is mp3. That's where really this -- the entire revolution with online music started. I can be in the studio on Monday night, get done with the song and mix it and send out the next night and it can preview on a radio show, you know, halfway across the world. So that's what's extremely powerful for me.

DE LA CRUZ (on camera): Now to find out more about the online music revolution, you can log on to our Web site at cnn.com/onlinemusic.

From the dotcom desk in Atlanta, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: It was a night of fun that quickly became night of horror. It's now been two years. I'm sure you remember this. It was a tragic club fire. It happened on one really cold night in Rhode Island.

NGUYEN: And more than 90 people died, plus dozens others. They were critically injured. We will hear from one of those survivors and see how her life has changed since that night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back. It's been nearly two years since the horrific fire that killed a hundred people at a Rhode Island nightclub. The band Great White was performing when that club suddenly turned into an inferno. Bandleader Jack Russell talks now with CNN's "LARRY KING" about the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST: What was it like to deal with Jack, afterwards, emotionally for you?

JACK RUSSELL, LEAD SINGER, GREAT WHITE: You know what's it's still very hard. There is not a day that goes by you don't think about that. I mean, the initial reaction by myself, I was completely in shock. It was almost surreal to a point. The therapy is ongoing as I'm sure with everybody. I'm one of the lucky ones myself. I got out. And but I don't think anybody that was there the night came away unharmed some way or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We should also tell you as a sidenote that Great White guitarist Ty Longley was among those that was killed in the fire.

NGUYEN: Now one of the last victims of that nightclub fire to be released from the hospital looks back at that fateful night.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the story of her long road to recovery and her memories of that tragedy.

We do want to give awe word of caution right now: This report does contain some graphic images. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She walks among the headstones, Gina Russo remembering clearly the nightclub fireworks that went wrong.

GINA RUSSO, NIGHTCLUB FIRE SURVIVOR: Because we were so close to the stage, you could see the base of where the fireworks were set up. And it just kept going and going.

FEYERICK: Remembering, she says, the bouncer who blocked the exit door four feet from the stage where she and her fiance had settled in to hear the band, Great White.

RUSSO: We're screaming, there's a fire. Please open the door. Open the door. There's a fire. And he just, you know, arms crossed, very adamantly, club policy, band only. It's for the band only.

FEYERICK: Remembering how Fred Crisostomi, the love of Russo's life, pushed her to safety before being overwhelmed by smoke.

RUSSO: After he pushed me, I had made it to the doorway, but turned around to try to find him. And I was screaming, Fred, where are you? Where are you? But everybody was screaming. And he was just gone. It was just all these heads and a sea of people on fire.

And my last thoughts when I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore, I remember just praying to God to let my children forgive me for dying here in this place, and let them have a good life.

FEYERICK: Russo, who's 37, woke from a coma three months later.

(on camera): When your eyes opened, what did you see and what did you remember?

RUSSO: I remember being in a plastic bubble. They had me in an oxygen tent. My lungs were very, bad.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Russo's hands, head, and back were severely burned, her left ear completely gone. The former hospital secretary has had more than 30 operations, followed by long months of recovery and rehab.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will get one last X-ray.

FEYERICK: Most recently, doctors removed a knuckle so she can bend her index finger. And surgeons took out part of a rib to try to reconstruct her ear. Her hair is gone, and it's not likely to grow back. Russo blames the owners, the building inspectors, and the band's lead singer.

RUSSO: It's just truly, honest to God, amazes me how he can walk around and not accept some type of responsibility.

FEYERICK: Despite it all, she still sees miracles, the biggest, that she's alive to see her two boys grow up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as she's here, that's all I care about. I don't care about her hair, what she looks like.

FEYERICK: Russo still goes to clubs, but she stays near the door. She thinks about Fred all the time, wondering what life might have been had the bouncer stepped aside and let them out.

RUSSO: Had he opened the door, my life would be completely different. I'd be married by now. And, you know, life would be very different.

FEYERICK: Life redefined.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, West Warwick, Rhode Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. We've been monitoring Donald Rumsfeld. He just went to the podium. He's in Nice, France. He's talking to other ministers of defense from around the world. He's there with members of NATO as well. He's talking about the global effort in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let's go ahead and listen in for just a bit.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECY. OF DEFENSE: ... I believe June, and clearly are on a path toward democracy.

Another 25 million or 26 million people in Iraq have been liberated and have gone out by the millions, despite threats, despite signs on the walls saying, "You vote, you die," and had the courage and the conviction to cast their ballots.

The Iraqi security forces secured with an inner perimeter and outer perimeter some 5,000 polling places in Iraq successfully. And the confidence that that had to give people in that country to see other people coming out of their houses, being willing to do exactly the opposite of what the terrorists told them to do -- the terrorists declared war on democracy, and nonetheless they went out and voted.

I think it's important that the free world stand with those countries. NATO has played and will continue to play an important role. Alliance members know well that extremists seek to prevent democracy from taking root in those countries. And alliance members recognize that the NATO countries remain top targets for extremist attacks.

As the world changes, so must NATO. And those of us who strongly support this alliance recognize the need for it to continue to transform itself to meet the 21st-century challenges and threats.

This includes making NATO forces more capable, more usable, more deployable. It also entails organizational reforms to streamline the NATO bureaucracy and get it better arranged for the 21st century. And I'm confident that, as these things take place, they will be important in making sure that NATO remains probably the most successful military alliance in world history.

Finally, I want to extend my very warm appreciation to our French hosts for their hospitality. I guess I first came to Nice in 1951 as a midshipman. That's a long time ago. And I've been back many, many times. In fact, the most recent visit here, my wife and I came for a vacation in vacation in August 2000, never imagining that I'd end up back in government.

But it's a pleasure to be back here, and I'd be happy to respond to some questions.

And I'll take the easy ones. And Nick Burns is here if there's anything that really requires a diplomatic touch.

(LAUGHTER)

RUMSFELD: He's a diplomat.

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you, now that we're in this new chapter of trans-Atlantic relations that this means there's no more problems, does this mean that it is fine that countries like France and Germany still don't want to send their NATO officers to Iraq?

RUMSFELD: I've been involved with NATO for a great many years. I was a NATO parliamentarian back in the 1960s and I was a NATO ambassador in 1970s. And I've seen these ups and downs and curves in relationships in the NATO partnership, and they have a rhythm to them.

It's not surprising -- ought not to be surprising that from time to time there are disagreements or differences in perspective. But clearly each country in NATO is simultaneously a sovereign nation and makes its own decisions and, in addition, a member of a very successful alliance.

And I think the answer to your question is that countries do make their judgments based on their best interests and their best judgment. And that's understandable. It's always been that way.

So there's really nothing new that's been occurring here. One has it say that this has been a particularly good period for NATO.

If you think of the recent years, we have created the NATO response force. We have modernized the NATO military command structure. NATO has taken steps with respect to Afghanistan and Iraq, as I mentioned, that were really unthinkable not too many years ago. The Bosnia effort has been moved over to the E.U. under the Berlin Plus successfully, and that's an accomplishment for NATO.

So there's a lot of good thing happening in this alliance, it seems to me.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what threat does a nuclear-armed North Korea pose to the world? RUMSFELD: When we have a press conference in the United States, Reuters always gets to ask the first question, and I think he's a little hurt I didn't pick on him first today. I decided to start over there.

Well, it's twofold.

RUMSFELD: One is, obviously, a country that has a behavior pattern that North Korea does of being probably one of the world's leading proliferators of ballistic missile technology, for example, is a threat in the sense of proliferating.

And that is a worrisome thing, that a country of that nature, that has a practice of going outside of most international agreements and understandings and breached the agreed framework that they'd entered into and the North-South agreement that they'd entered into -- so their respect for agreements is modest.

And so one has to be concerned about it from a proliferation standpoint, if you believe them that they have weapons.

I do not know of certain knowledge that they do. I know they -- I'm told that today in the press they indicated they do. But they've indicated other things from time to time that haven't necessarily proved out. So I just don't know whether they do.

But assuming they do -- and I don't want my comments to be confirming that they do, because I can't authoritatively do that. I see intelligence estimates and I know there are countries that -- whose intelligence say that they have them. And they say that they have them. And they may have them. But I don't want to confirm that, because I just can't do that.

And also, given their dictatorial regime and the repression of their own people, one has to worry about weapons of that power in the hands of leadership of that nature. I don't think that anyone would characterize the leadership in that country as being restrained.

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Aired February 10, 2005 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: You will want to mark your calendars because April 8th is going to be the royal wedding of the year. The Windsors, they have announced that Prince Charles and longtime companion Camilla Parker-Bowles will finally tie the knot. They already live together at Charles's official residence. The archbishop of Canterbury has agreed to preside at a prayer ceremony following the civil ceremony.
Strong international reaction to North Korea vow to build up a nuclear arsenal. Besides publicly acknowledging today that it has nuclear weapons, North Korea also quit six-way disarmament talks. Britain called it a major mistake. The U.S. advised North Korea to reconsider. And China, which remains North Korea's only major ally says, it wants those multinational talks to continue.

A mosque founded by a former NBA star, Hakeem Olajuwon, allegedly gave more than $80,000 to charities fronting for al Qaeda and Hamas. That is according to financial records obtained by the Associated Press. Law-enforcement officials tell the A.P. that Olajuwon is not under investigation. Olajuwon says he is unaware of any alleged terrorist connections.

And in Salt Lake City, hundreds of people are being allowed back into their homes this morning. They were evacuated after a butane tanker trailer collided with a van and burst into frames, as you see here. Two homes were destroyed.

Pope John Paul II is expected to leave a Rome hospital, should happen in about two hours. Vatican says the pope has been cured of the breathing problems that caused him to be rushed to the hospital 10 days ago. Interesting choice of words. Once he's back at the Vatican, an aide said, the pope and his doctors will decide when he can resume a normal work schedule. The pope's hospital stay did raise some fears among the faithful and renewed some concerns about the frail condition of the pontiff.

Let's do this now, let's get more on his illness and other issues affecting the church. And to do that, we go to CNN Vatican analyst John Allen with "The National Catholic Reporter." He's joining us from Rome.

And let's start with the illness. Interesting word choice there, that he's cured. How is the pontiff doing?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Well, you know, the truth is, Rick, that the Vatican is not terribly forthcoming with information about the pope's health, and so we don't really know in any great detail how he's doing. What they tell us is that the bronchial problem, the problem, the problem with the larynx that caused the hospitalization has been cured. And that his general conditions are getting better. But you know, we're just going to have to wait and see. We expect we'll see the pope, at least briefly on Sunday, for his normal Angelos (ph) address. We'll get a certain sense of things then.

But then, you know, after that, he goes into a Lenten retreat in the Vatican for a week. We're not really going to see him. I suspect it's going to be sometime before we have a clear sense where exactly his health is at.

SANCHEZ: Putting aside the last couple of weeks in his hospital stay, in his present condition, does he have the vigor to do this job day in and day out?

ALLEN: Well, it really depends how you define this job. If you mean sitting behind the desk 18 hours a day with his hands on the wheels of government, I think the answer to that question is no, and it's been no for the last few years. If you mean does he have the capability of being a kind of spiritual father to the family that the Catholic Church understands it to be and in carrying out his spiritual function then a lot of faithful around the world would say yes.

SANCHEZ: Well, let me ask you this, if he's only doing the spiritual part, then who is doing the other part right now?

ALLEN: I think the honest answer to that question would be the men around him in the Vatican. There are a handful of senior officials, probably no more than six or seven, that for some time have been picking up a lot of the papal slack on things like deciding who's going to become a bishop, or what ought to be taught on certain questions that come up. And some of that, of course, is the normal rhythm of work in the Vatican. I mean, no pope can possibly make all the decisions that wash through this place in a given week. But obviously the percentage of things that are being done by others has steadily been increasing as the pope has gotten weaker.

SANCHEZ: Is there any provision for him to take himself out of the game, so to speak?

ALLEN: Yes. The Code of Canon Law, which is the body of law for the Catholic Church, in canon 332 makes a provision for a papal resignation. All it says is that the pope has to do that freely, and it's not required that anybody accept it. But, you know, I think at this stage that's largely a theoretical conversation, because John Paul II has made it abundantly clear on a number of public occasions. He doesn't have any intention of going down that path , and I don't think there's any evidence this week that he's changed his mind.

SANCHEZ: A bunch of cardinals, about 190 of them, were sitting in the wings. One wonders whether the pope will be involved in the conversation to select the person who may succeed him. I don't imagine you have the answer to that question, do you?

ALLEN: Well, I think the quick answer to that question is the pope has his mind on other things.

But, you know, Rick, the truth is, although there's a law in the Catholic Church that prohibits discussion of the succession while the pope is still alive, in reality cardinals are obviously thinking about that. One of them said just to me yesterday, this is a choice we dare not get wrong.

SANCHEZ: We do thank you, John Allen, for bringing us that information out of Rome, and we certainly will look forward to talking to you once again.

Betty, over to you.

NGUYEN: Now to a novel exercise in absolute monarchy. Saudi men, and only men, cast ballots today in Riyadh elections. Analysts say it is the first vote in a country that largely conforms to international standards. Now the election comes just a few days after President Bush urged the Saudis to embrace democratic reform. Men in other parts of the country, they will go to the polls in March and in April as well.

Now CNN's Peter Bergen is in the Saudi capital and joins us by telephone for this historic vote today -- Peter.

PETER BERGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, while the vote -- I went to a number of the polling places today, and I've gone to visit some of the campaign tents, and clearly there's some excitement about this -- when you give people the opportunity to vote, they tend to be quite happy about it, particularly if they haven't done it in some cases in this country for now 40 years, hasn't really been any real election.

But as you mentioned in the lead-in, this is the first internationally conforming to international standards election. The registration for the election was somewhat low, 150,000 out of a possible 600,000. But I think that partly may have been the people didn't have much expectations for the elections, but as the election day drew nearer, you could see campaign slogans, you could see people out campaigning. And so there seems to be a more excitement about this election than perhaps there was initially.

NGUYEN: Peter, you mention excitement, but you also mention that only 149,000 people in the city of four million have registered to vote. What does that say about the importance, the significance of this election?

BERGEN: Well, those numbers are sort of misleading in the sense that many, many of the people who live in the city are foreigners. Obviously half the population are women. Only people over the age of 21 can vote, and you know Saudi is a place 50 percent of the population is under the age of 15. So it's really 150,000 out of 600,000 eligible, which is low.

But a number of people have said that their friends regretted not registering, because now they are seeing that this may be something serious. Obviously it's -- we don't want to make too much out of this at the end of the day. This is votes were half the council and the municipal elections here. The rest of the people on the council will be still appointed by the government.

But I think most people see this as the beginning of sort of a thin end of the wedge, that there will be other elections four years from now. Even senior government officials saying they are hoping that women might participate in the next round of elections. There's also a possibility of provincial elections, so I think that the reason that there is excitement not necessarily what these particular elections are for, but more that the general principle is for the first time being, you know, applied in a kind of universal manner.

NGUYEN: So it's being seen as an important first step. I understand that. Peter Bergen in the Riyadh capital there in Saudi Arabia. Thank you, Peter.

SANCHEZ: Let's take a look now at what's making news overseas in this morning's "World Wrap." Hamas militants fired dozens of mortars and homemade rockets on Jewish settlements in Gaza today. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas responded by asking three of his security commanders to the Gaza to resign. This is the first major test of a truce announced between the Israelis and the Palestinians Tuesday.

Also a rare sight in the Iraqi city of Mosul -- snow. That's right, Mosul isn't far enough north to really get snow very often, even though it's common in the mountainous Kurdish regions nearby. The wintry precipitation looks like it will continue through the weekend. Precipitation -- don't you love that word?

Also doctors in Peru are taking the first steps to separate the fused legs of a 9-month-old baby girl. In fact, it's called a mermaid syndrome. It's extremely rare. For now doctors are inserting silicone bags to stretch the skin of the baby's legs. Separation surgery is planned for sometime late this month.

NGUYEN: Well, I think we've felt like our hearts have been broken, at least for once or twice in our lives.

SANCHEZ: Sometimes. Now there's an official name for being lovesick. And there's even a remedy for it.

NGUYEN: And surviving a horrific accident that almost takes your life. A survivor's journey to get her life back when CNN's LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: And today's "Daily Dose" of health news. Nursing care by your spouse probably isn't the best option when you're elderly or sick. A University of Pittsburgh study of elderly patients found that verbal and physical abuse was eight times more likely when the primary caregivers were spouses. Researchers speculate that the stress of constant spouse-to-spouse nursing care can easily aggravate negative behaviors already present in the relationship.

And women on high protein diets should take care to distinguish what types of protein they are eating. Studies confirm that consuming large amounts of meat and dairy can elevate heart disease in women. Some high protein diets instead count tofu and nuts as a better protein alternative.

And just in time for Valentine's Day, medical advice on how to mend a broken heart. Doctors at Johns Hopkins say get bed rest and plenty of fluids. There's even a medical term for it, it's cardiomyopothy (ph). Researchers say it is caused by extreme stress or emotional shock such as the sudden death of a loved one. And the symptoms -- they could mimic a heart attack. Unlike a real heart attack, though, it normally does not require medical treatment.

And to get your daily dose of health news online, all have you to do is log on to our Web site. You will find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address on the screen at cnn.com/health.

SANCHEZ: I'm sure you've heard of these, mp3s, i-Pods?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: i-Tunes?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Got them, right?

NGUYEN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Music online has changed how many Americans get their tunes. Well, don't tune us out, because we've got a segment from cnn.com on the music revolution. From cnn.com, here is Veronica De La Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Many mainstream artists thought having mp3 files of their music easily available online. But one Atlanta-based D.J. and producer is using that very technology to his own advantage.

JON FOSTER, RECORDING ARTIST: My Web site is meetjondoe.com.

DE LA CRUZ (voice-over): Jon Foster, known as D.J. Jon Doe, is using the Internet to jumpstart a recording career.

FOSTER: Even though I'm in still in Atlanta, Georgia, and I can't fly to Japan, or even if I can't fly to New York to talk to the labels there, I think you're able to actually, you know, cultivate your career and what you want to present to the world in terms of music and even your image.

DE LA CRUZ: Technology is making it easier for him to promote himself online. But when it comes to the digital divide, he still faces a few challenges.

FOSTER: There's a lot of different types of formats that these companies are using to deliver, you know, the music. So that, I think, makes thinks more confusing. The most popular format is mp3. That's where really this -- the entire revolution with online music started. I can be in the studio on Monday night, get done with the song and mix it and send out the next night and it can preview on a radio show, you know, halfway across the world. So that's what's extremely powerful for me.

DE LA CRUZ (on camera): Now to find out more about the online music revolution, you can log on to our Web site at cnn.com/onlinemusic.

From the dotcom desk in Atlanta, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: It was a night of fun that quickly became night of horror. It's now been two years. I'm sure you remember this. It was a tragic club fire. It happened on one really cold night in Rhode Island.

NGUYEN: And more than 90 people died, plus dozens others. They were critically injured. We will hear from one of those survivors and see how her life has changed since that night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We welcome you back. It's been nearly two years since the horrific fire that killed a hundred people at a Rhode Island nightclub. The band Great White was performing when that club suddenly turned into an inferno. Bandleader Jack Russell talks now with CNN's "LARRY KING" about the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST: What was it like to deal with Jack, afterwards, emotionally for you?

JACK RUSSELL, LEAD SINGER, GREAT WHITE: You know what's it's still very hard. There is not a day that goes by you don't think about that. I mean, the initial reaction by myself, I was completely in shock. It was almost surreal to a point. The therapy is ongoing as I'm sure with everybody. I'm one of the lucky ones myself. I got out. And but I don't think anybody that was there the night came away unharmed some way or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We should also tell you as a sidenote that Great White guitarist Ty Longley was among those that was killed in the fire.

NGUYEN: Now one of the last victims of that nightclub fire to be released from the hospital looks back at that fateful night.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the story of her long road to recovery and her memories of that tragedy.

We do want to give awe word of caution right now: This report does contain some graphic images. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She walks among the headstones, Gina Russo remembering clearly the nightclub fireworks that went wrong.

GINA RUSSO, NIGHTCLUB FIRE SURVIVOR: Because we were so close to the stage, you could see the base of where the fireworks were set up. And it just kept going and going.

FEYERICK: Remembering, she says, the bouncer who blocked the exit door four feet from the stage where she and her fiance had settled in to hear the band, Great White.

RUSSO: We're screaming, there's a fire. Please open the door. Open the door. There's a fire. And he just, you know, arms crossed, very adamantly, club policy, band only. It's for the band only.

FEYERICK: Remembering how Fred Crisostomi, the love of Russo's life, pushed her to safety before being overwhelmed by smoke.

RUSSO: After he pushed me, I had made it to the doorway, but turned around to try to find him. And I was screaming, Fred, where are you? Where are you? But everybody was screaming. And he was just gone. It was just all these heads and a sea of people on fire.

And my last thoughts when I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore, I remember just praying to God to let my children forgive me for dying here in this place, and let them have a good life.

FEYERICK: Russo, who's 37, woke from a coma three months later.

(on camera): When your eyes opened, what did you see and what did you remember?

RUSSO: I remember being in a plastic bubble. They had me in an oxygen tent. My lungs were very, bad.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Russo's hands, head, and back were severely burned, her left ear completely gone. The former hospital secretary has had more than 30 operations, followed by long months of recovery and rehab.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will get one last X-ray.

FEYERICK: Most recently, doctors removed a knuckle so she can bend her index finger. And surgeons took out part of a rib to try to reconstruct her ear. Her hair is gone, and it's not likely to grow back. Russo blames the owners, the building inspectors, and the band's lead singer.

RUSSO: It's just truly, honest to God, amazes me how he can walk around and not accept some type of responsibility.

FEYERICK: Despite it all, she still sees miracles, the biggest, that she's alive to see her two boys grow up. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as she's here, that's all I care about. I don't care about her hair, what she looks like.

FEYERICK: Russo still goes to clubs, but she stays near the door. She thinks about Fred all the time, wondering what life might have been had the bouncer stepped aside and let them out.

RUSSO: Had he opened the door, my life would be completely different. I'd be married by now. And, you know, life would be very different.

FEYERICK: Life redefined.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, West Warwick, Rhode Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. We've been monitoring Donald Rumsfeld. He just went to the podium. He's in Nice, France. He's talking to other ministers of defense from around the world. He's there with members of NATO as well. He's talking about the global effort in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let's go ahead and listen in for just a bit.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECY. OF DEFENSE: ... I believe June, and clearly are on a path toward democracy.

Another 25 million or 26 million people in Iraq have been liberated and have gone out by the millions, despite threats, despite signs on the walls saying, "You vote, you die," and had the courage and the conviction to cast their ballots.

The Iraqi security forces secured with an inner perimeter and outer perimeter some 5,000 polling places in Iraq successfully. And the confidence that that had to give people in that country to see other people coming out of their houses, being willing to do exactly the opposite of what the terrorists told them to do -- the terrorists declared war on democracy, and nonetheless they went out and voted.

I think it's important that the free world stand with those countries. NATO has played and will continue to play an important role. Alliance members know well that extremists seek to prevent democracy from taking root in those countries. And alliance members recognize that the NATO countries remain top targets for extremist attacks.

As the world changes, so must NATO. And those of us who strongly support this alliance recognize the need for it to continue to transform itself to meet the 21st-century challenges and threats.

This includes making NATO forces more capable, more usable, more deployable. It also entails organizational reforms to streamline the NATO bureaucracy and get it better arranged for the 21st century. And I'm confident that, as these things take place, they will be important in making sure that NATO remains probably the most successful military alliance in world history.

Finally, I want to extend my very warm appreciation to our French hosts for their hospitality. I guess I first came to Nice in 1951 as a midshipman. That's a long time ago. And I've been back many, many times. In fact, the most recent visit here, my wife and I came for a vacation in vacation in August 2000, never imagining that I'd end up back in government.

But it's a pleasure to be back here, and I'd be happy to respond to some questions.

And I'll take the easy ones. And Nick Burns is here if there's anything that really requires a diplomatic touch.

(LAUGHTER)

RUMSFELD: He's a diplomat.

QUESTION: I wanted to ask you, now that we're in this new chapter of trans-Atlantic relations that this means there's no more problems, does this mean that it is fine that countries like France and Germany still don't want to send their NATO officers to Iraq?

RUMSFELD: I've been involved with NATO for a great many years. I was a NATO parliamentarian back in the 1960s and I was a NATO ambassador in 1970s. And I've seen these ups and downs and curves in relationships in the NATO partnership, and they have a rhythm to them.

It's not surprising -- ought not to be surprising that from time to time there are disagreements or differences in perspective. But clearly each country in NATO is simultaneously a sovereign nation and makes its own decisions and, in addition, a member of a very successful alliance.

And I think the answer to your question is that countries do make their judgments based on their best interests and their best judgment. And that's understandable. It's always been that way.

So there's really nothing new that's been occurring here. One has it say that this has been a particularly good period for NATO.

If you think of the recent years, we have created the NATO response force. We have modernized the NATO military command structure. NATO has taken steps with respect to Afghanistan and Iraq, as I mentioned, that were really unthinkable not too many years ago. The Bosnia effort has been moved over to the E.U. under the Berlin Plus successfully, and that's an accomplishment for NATO.

So there's a lot of good thing happening in this alliance, it seems to me.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what threat does a nuclear-armed North Korea pose to the world? RUMSFELD: When we have a press conference in the United States, Reuters always gets to ask the first question, and I think he's a little hurt I didn't pick on him first today. I decided to start over there.

Well, it's twofold.

RUMSFELD: One is, obviously, a country that has a behavior pattern that North Korea does of being probably one of the world's leading proliferators of ballistic missile technology, for example, is a threat in the sense of proliferating.

And that is a worrisome thing, that a country of that nature, that has a practice of going outside of most international agreements and understandings and breached the agreed framework that they'd entered into and the North-South agreement that they'd entered into -- so their respect for agreements is modest.

And so one has to be concerned about it from a proliferation standpoint, if you believe them that they have weapons.

I do not know of certain knowledge that they do. I know they -- I'm told that today in the press they indicated they do. But they've indicated other things from time to time that haven't necessarily proved out. So I just don't know whether they do.

But assuming they do -- and I don't want my comments to be confirming that they do, because I can't authoritatively do that. I see intelligence estimates and I know there are countries that -- whose intelligence say that they have them. And they say that they have them. And they may have them. But I don't want to confirm that, because I just can't do that.

And also, given their dictatorial regime and the repression of their own people, one has to worry about weapons of that power in the hands of leadership of that nature. I don't think that anyone would characterize the leadership in that country as being restrained.

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