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Your World Today

New al Qaeda Threat; London on Alert; War in Iraq

Aired August 04, 2005 - 12:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A new tape, a renewed threat. Al Qaeda placing blame for terror attacks in London and warning of more to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are absolutely determined that we can eventually prevent anything happening to Londoners again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: London police rise to the challenge by putting snipers and heavily-armed officers on the streets.

CLANCY: And Palestinians celebrating ahead of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

MCEDWARDS: It is 5:00 p.m. in London, 7:00 p.m. in Gaza. I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Four weeks to the day since London was shaken by a series of fatal bombings, the British capital is being threatened again. This is the latest in our developments.

Osama bin Laden's second in command seen here unleashing a volley of warnings. It was a statement that aired on Al-Jazeera. Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri there, warning of new assaults on Britain and laying the blame at the door of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In a show of strength and defiance, 6,000 police officers are patrolling the streets and the subways of London. Undercover police are mingling with the passengers and the officers. And there are reports of police snipers on the roofs of some buildings in the city.

The first person now charged in connection with London's attempted bombings that was on July 21. Twenty-three-year-old Ismael Abdurahman now stands accused of withholding information.

Well, for more on this development four weeks after the fatal attacks, let's bring in Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson in London.

Nic, a tense day?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly for a lot of people traveling today, Jim. Two weeks since the last failed bombings. Those failed bombings came two weeks after the attacks before. So there's a lot of symbolism today, four weeks into the bombings that killed -- that killed 52 people, plus the four bombers. And everyone traveling today very aware of that.

The police presence much lying higher than it would -- that it would be normally. Certainly higher than even in the heightened security we've seen over the last couple of weeks.

For the public, this time, really, the faith in the police is still there. But we can see from the fact that there's been about a 33 or one-third drop-off in the number of people using the underground network here, that their sort of faith in the system, if you will, is down. There are fears that there could be another attack.

People finding alternate ways of traveling into the city. But for everyone here, Jim, they know that the underground, the bus network here, really the only way that they have to get into work.

CLANCY: On another issue, that tape that we saw from Zawahiri, in it he's making threats. He's blaming Tony Blair. But one interesting point is that he didn't -- he is an Egyptian, and he didn't mention anything about the attack in Sharm el-Sheikh, leading some to believe that that was taped right after the July 7 attacks.

ROBERTSON: It could have been, Jim. Now, the Sharm el-Sheikh bombing came on Friday the 22nd, the early hours of that morning, which was perhaps about 12 hours, 14 hours after the attempted bombings in London on the 21st of July. It would seem unlikely, therefore, that somehow in that tiny window that he would have recorded that message.

It is difficult to exactly date when he did record it. He does refer to the attacks in London. That could mean the four bombings of July the 7th.

So perhaps that is the best indication. No reference to Sharm el-Sheikh. He is, of course, Egyptian. It would be natural, it would seem, for him to want to add that to his statement.

A lot of what we heard in that statement similar to al Qaeda's message in the past: stop stealing Muslims' oil, get out of Islamic countries, or we'll continue the attacks in the United States, against Great Britain, and in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. But also interesting, Jim, that while -- while he addresses the issue of the attacks in London, he doesn't claim responsibility for them.

CLANCY: That was an interesting point. Nic Robertson there in London, giving us a view of what's on the minds of many people these day as we have a new tape. And, of course, we're marking another Thursday. A nervy Thursday, some would say.

Thank you. MCEDWARDS: Well, Nic certainly referred to it there, the police presence in London. We're going to take a closer look at that now. It really is for that city an unprecedented show of force.

Emily Ruben (ph) with more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, (voice-over): It's a security operation the scale of which hasn't been seen since World War II. More than 6,000 officers drafted in from across the country. The high visibility presence designed to reassure anxious commuters.

At 5:38 this morning, the first train to arrive at Russells Square in a month pulled into the station. For many of the staff here, this is their first day back at work, and they held a minute's silence to remember.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little bit, I suppose, eerie. But I think everyone just puts it -- put it out of your mind and just continue as normal, as best you can, really. That's the best way to respond to what's gone on over the last month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I feel a bit scared about it, but I have to get back on. So I have to go to work. You have to do what you have to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sad for what happened, but life has to go on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the view from the driver's carriage along the newly reopened track. Because of the complex search for bodies and forensic evidence, London underground engineers only began fixing the track a week ago.

HOWARD COLLINS, LONDON UNDERGROUND: Our engineers assessed the damage. No damage at all of any significance to the tunnel itself. A very strong structure. But there was intensive cable damage and significant damage to the first two cars of the train.

MICHAEL HENNING, SURVIVOR: We could hear the screaming coming from the carriage just in front of us, who took the full blast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was Michael Henning a month ago, caught on the tube at Aldgate Station where seven people died. Today is his first day back at work. But he says he is still deeply traumatized.

HENNING: The physical side cleared up really quickly. Emotionally, I'd like to think I've been a strong man and not anxious, but I have been fearful. I've been tearful. I mean, emotionally, I've been on a roller coaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A month on in the pages of the condolence book at Russell Square Station continue to be signed. There's little indication of the capital returning to normal just yet. Emily Ruben (ph), ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: British police are not pleased that some information that has been gathered in their bombing investigation is now public. As Deborah Feyerick reports, that information does shed new light on now terrorists went about their work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bombs used in the July 7 attacks in London were detonated using cell phones. And they were made out of basic household materials, not high-end military explosives as investigators first believed.

New York City officials released the details while briefing private security directors in New York City. A law enforcement source confirms investigators believe the bombers used a peroxide-based explosive called HNDT. It can be made using hydrogen peroxide, found in hair bleach; citric acid, used to keep food fresh; and heat tablets used by the military to warm food.

A law enforcement source confirms the bombers kept the materials cool, using high-end commercial refrigerators at the house in Leeds. Also, the bombers may have carried the explosives to London in coolers, stashed in the back of two cars.

A law enforcement source tells CNN the briefing was based on information gathered in part by NYPD detectives sent to London immediately after the bombings. It was shared with private security directors to increase awareness at New York hotels, Wall Street firms and storage facilities.

New York City's police commissioner told security directors the materials and methods used in London could easily be used in New York.

(on camera): A police spokesman says British authorities gave the NYPD the green light to share the information. Scotland Yard declined comment. But a British police force tells CNN it's reckless for another police force in another country to give out what's considered privileged information on an investigation being run by British agencies.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: Iraq's prime minister says his country is getting safer and its security forces are making great strides both in quality and in quantity. But Ibrahim al-Jaafari's appraisal comes as insurgents keep up their regiment of daily attacks, deadly attacks.

Aneesh Raman is following all of this for us from Baghdad -- Aneesh. ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colleen, a tough week for the prime minister's rhetoric to match the situation here on the ground. The attacks continue today.

In Iraq, five members of Iraq's security forces killed north of the capital, in and around the town of Kirkuk. Three of them Iraqi police gunned down in the town center. Two others, Iraqi police commandos, killed after being targeted by a car bomb.

Also today, the U.S. military, Colleen, saying three members of Task Force Baghdad, part of the 3rd ID, the group that controls Baghdad, they were killed last night. We don't know any other details in that it was a result of a bombing.

It brings, Colleen, to 48 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq in just the past 11 days, underscoring how dangerous parts of this country remain. But also, how sophisticated and resilient the enemy is as well.

Earlier today, Brigadier General Donald Alston, who's a spokesman for the U.S. military here, spoke to that point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. DONALD ALSTON, U.S. AIR FORCE: The enemy is a thinking enemy. And they have the capacity to survey the routes. And as much as our forces do what they can to not be predictable, they have no idea whether or not this vehicle had been on that road before.

Certainly the terrorists had. They get to choose the time. They get to choose the place. And in this particular case, they had a quite potent IED that resulted in the death of 15 people yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAMAN: And as he said, evidence of that came this week. Over 20 of the U.S. military deaths happened when Marines were killed in and around the town of Haditha, northwest of Iraq.

That is part of Al Anbar province, thought to be the heart of Iraq's insurgency, and also where the U.S. military has put a lot of its might. Multiple operations are ongoing to isolate and suffocate the enemy, as well as to secure those borders and prevent the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq.

That we could see these casualty numbers in that area, where so much military is present, is obviously of concern, Colleen, to the government, as well as the military here.

MCEDWARDS: Well, Aneesh, what about the security situation moving forward? I mean, I know that al-Jaafari was supposed to address that. What did he have to say?

RAMAN: Yes, at his press conference, he laid out a lofty 12- point plan to deal with the security here. It includes everything that one would assume his government was already trying to deal with, both from public awareness, financial backing for the parts of the Iraqi government that are struggling to deal with this enemy.

It is -- it underscores, Colleen, really the difficulty that this man faces in this government, not just in creating a political infrastructure in a country riddled with violence, but also very real the notion of legitimacy. This is a transitional government in power from the beginning, only for a matter of months until a permanent government comes.

That directly undercut theirs legitimacy and authority when dealing with neighbors like Syria, like Iran. So the prime minister trying to publicly make a statement that looks as if things are moving forward.

All of this, one can assume, has already been taking place. But it shows that public confidence here in Iraq is in need of statement like this, in need of a government that looks like it's being proactive. And that's what we saw today.

MCEDWARDS: Understood, Aneesh. Aneesh Raman. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

CLANCY: Well, there's much more ahead right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY from CNN International.

MCEDWARDS: Coming up next, blanket coverage. Discovery astronauts may have another repair job on their hands. We will explain what's going on up there.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back. You are watching an hour of world news on CNN International.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery is facing another possible repair job. Officials are worried that a torn thermal blanket could rip away during reentry, whip itself backwards, and then damage the shuttle. Damage it seriously. Engineers at NASA trying to decide by Thursday afternoon if this danger is real.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN ROBINSON, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: We have so much -- there are so many engineers on the ground looking at lots more data than we currently have right now, that we have a lot of faith in what they are going to decide. It seems unlikely that we would do that. But based on what we just saw, on the plan that they came up with, all our good support folks on the ground, the plan they came up with for removing the gap fillers, that was an outstanding plan that came together in just a couple of days, and it worked perfectly. So we have a lot of confidence in whatever's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCEDWARDS: And the Discovery crew remembered the crew of Columbia, the crew who died during reentry from their mission in February 2003. They paused for three-and-a-half minutes of silence, as well as giving spoken tributes as well.

CLANCY: Let's check on some of the other news that's happening around the United States right now.

Newly-installed U.S. Ambassador John Bolton attending his first meeting at the U.N. Security Council. Bolton named in a recess appointment by President Bush. That was on Monday. He's controversial because of his past statements about the United Nations and his perceived management style.

A man was released Wednesday from prison in Florida. He spent 26 years behind bars for crimes he did not commit.

DNA evidence cleared 67-year-old Luis Diaz (ph) of two rapes and cast doubt on whether he was responsible for several others. A Miami Dade County judge threw out his five rape convictions which were based on witness identifications.

A final farewell in Virginia to a brain-dead woman who died after giving birth to her daughter. The baby was delivered three months early by cesarean section. Her 26-year-old mother had been -- the 26- year-old mother had been brain dead since May due to illness, but was kept alive until the baby could be safely born. After the birth, Susan Torres' husband requested that she be taken off life support.

MCEDWARDS: All right.

Well, in just two weeks, Israel will start evacuating settlers from Gaza, literally moving people out.

CLANCY: And thousands of Palestinians already celebrating what their leaders are calling a first step toward the creation of a Palestinian state. We'll have more on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Thousands of Palestinians taking part in a celebration of Israel's upcoming withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. The festivities in Gaza part of a Palestinian Authority campaign to try to raise awareness of the disengagement, and also try to foster a peaceful transition in settlement areas and army bases that are going to be evacuated. That all gets under way August 17.

Well, meantime, some Jewish settlers in Gaza have started giving up their guns in advance of the Israeli withdrawal. The weapons were provided to the settlers by the Israeli military. They are now being handed back to prevent any possible confrontations when soldiers dismantle the settlements.

MCEDWARDS: There are opponents to all of this, of course. In southern Israel, the opponents there were keeping up their protests, trying again to force their way past the roadblocks and then into a Gaza settlement in resistance to the withdrawal

Paula Hancocks has more now on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israeli protesters sing a song of love and understanding to the police they know will block them from achieving their goal: reaching Gaza. Thousands took to the streets for a second day to protest the pullout of settlers from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, an issue that has put protesters and Israeli authorities at potential loggerheads. Yet neither considers the other the enemy.

CARLA OZ, ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESWOMAN: Granted, we're here to do our job. And they are here to let their thoughts be made known. We respect them. As soon as it's a legal demonstration, we will be here to protect them and to be with them.

HANCOCKS: It's less than two weeks before the evacuation of settlers is set to begin. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says no one should be in any doubt. The pullout is going ahead, and going ahead without delay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The leadership is dependent on the people. And you cannot -- the leadership cannot do whatever they want.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no return for this. We're not getting anything back. There's no purpose for this.

HANCOCKS: Seven thousand police and Israeli soldiers made their presence felt. Lined up along the road, they made sure no individual could break away and make a dash for the Gaza border. Gaza has been closed to non-residents for more than two weeks.

(on camera): It happened two weeks ago. And it's happened again this Wednesday evening.

The walk to the Gush Katif settlement block has come to a premature end for these protesters. Gaza is still 20 miles behind me.

(voice-over): But the march organizers say they will not give up.

SHAUL GOLDSTEIN, SETTLER LEADER: We will try again and again. And finally, we hope that someone in the government will understand it's a crazy decision to prevent us from getting into this country.

HANCOCKS: Some extremists are acting alone. Police say they have arrested dozens of people trying to sneak into Gaza since Tuesday. Hundreds of others have already got in.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: A television station in Thailand has captured some dramatic footage of a road crash just outside Bangkok. Take a look here. Watch really closely. You'll see it. You have to keep your eyes peeled here.

These police working a crime scene. They are essentially blindsided. There you see it.

A car careens off the road. It crashes right up there. Five people injured in this accident, including two of them with serious head wounds.

Thai authorities say this accident really drives home the growing concern there about the country's high rate of drunk driving. Police say the driver was well over the blood limit - blood alcohol limit. He denies he was intoxicated. You are seeing there any -- he didn't find any sympathy from witnesses there, attacking him, getting in his face there after the accident.

CLANCY: Pretty incredible video.

Well, it's time for us to check in on what is moving the markets in the U.S.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

MCEDWARDS: We will have a roundup of our main stories for you in just a moment.

CLANCY: Relief beginning to trickle in for about 2.5 million people who are on the edge of starvation in Niger.

MCEDWARDS: And two days before the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. We'll have a report from the pacific island of Tinian.

You are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and these are some of the stories that are making headlines around your world.

The crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery may be facing another repair job. Officials are worried that a torn thermal blanket could rip away during reentry, whip backward, and damage the shuttle. Engineers at NASA are to decide within a few hours if the danger is real.

MCEDWARDS: New threats from Osama bin Laden's number two man in al Qaeda. In a statement run on Al Jazeera, Ayman al Zawahiri blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the recent attacks on London, and he also threatens new attacks on the British capital and also the United States. U.S. intelligence officials, of course, studying this latest tape to verify whether or not it's authentic. .

CLANCY: The four weeks since the first bomb attack in London have been marked now by Osama bin Laden's second in command, unleashing new warnings. In a statement that was aired on Al Jazeera, Arabic news channel, al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri said Britain should be ready for new assaults.

And in London, the first person has been charged in connection with attempted bombings of July the 21st. Twenty-three-year-old Ismael Abdurahman is standing accused now of withholding information from police.

MCEDWARDS: Well, this warning from the number two al Qaeda leader is coming exactly four weeks after the London suicide bombings that killed 52 people. This is a time of cautious defiance in the British capital as commuters try to shake off the attacks.

Chris is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unusual sight in the heart of London: Armed police checking bags at subway entrances. But, of course, these are unusual times. Lurking in the minds of police and commuters alike are these images of exactly one month ago, suicide bombings that gutted three subway trains and a bus, and the failed attacks two Thursdays ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of the day, the mind of a terrorist works differently from a normal civilian. So, they could slip through at any minute at any given time, whether you got 100 security or not. Sometimes it takes two seconds to give an opportunist a chance to do something deadly.

BURNS: So this Thursday, authorities were taking no chances. Some 6,000 officers, many of them armed, were deployed as they were last Thursday, said to be the largest such mobilization in London since World War II. The U.S. State Department has warned Americans to be vigilant when visiting London, and British officials acknowledge another attack is possible, but they say they are doing everything they can to prevent it.

ANDY TROTTER, LONDON DEP. CHIEF CONSTABLE: Of course it could happen again. London is in a high level of alert. It's four weeks on from that first attack. But we've got every resource we can possibly find out here on the underground and the overground system today. All the police forces of London are all working together to keep London safe.

BURNS: Usually about 3.2 million people take public transit in London, nearly half the total population. With little choice for alternatives, those commuters try, if not to grin and bear it, than at least overcome any fears of another attack. Many of them are reassured by the heavy police presence, even if it takes just one deadly backpack to get through the security net.

Chris Burns, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY: Military trials are moving ahead for several U.S. soldiers accused of causing the death of an Iraqi general during an investigation and interrogation.

As CNN's Jamie McIntyre reports, court documents are some shedding light on another aspect of this case, and that is a role of a shadowy CIA unit and a secret Iraqi squad. What role did they play?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the sons of Iraqi Major General Avid Hamid Mowhousk told the story of their father's death to CNN last year, they claimed he'd been tortured to death by U.S. soldiers.

HUSAM ABID HAMAD MOWHOUSK, SON OF IRAQI GENERAL (translator): After five months of arrest, we were released from Umm Qasr detention center. We found out that our father was killed during interrogation. We have witnesses, prisoners that were in prison with him know the names of the Americans that tortured him.

MCINTYRE: Now, four soldiers face charges in connection with the November, 2003, death listed on the official death certificate as "caused by asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression" and ruled a "homicide."

Testimony in the pre-trial hearings has established that general Mowhousk, a feared commander under Saddam Hussein, had been stuffed in a sleeping bag and sat on until he suffocated.

But according to the "Washington Post," classified court documents also suggest Mowhousk may have been "severely beaten during previous interrogations by a shadowy CIA unit working with secret Iraqi squads." The newspaper says, "interrogators would deliver the detainees to a small team of CIA-sponsored Iraqi paramilitary squads, code-named Scorpions." And quoted one soldier as saying "detainees knew that if they went to those people, bad things would happen." The Pentagon insists it knows nothing about that.

LARRY DIRITA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: No investigations that I'm aware of have concluded that, for the purposes of obtaining interrogations that we were unable or unwilling to use certain techniques, we'd turn them over to the Iraqis so they could use different techniques.

MCINTYRE: And Dirita says beatings are never approved. Still, according the a court transcript reviewed by CNN, the former commander of the unit testified he was confused about the rules. "I don't know what the approved techniques are or were," Colonel David Teeples told the court last March, adding he thought inducing claustrophobia was OK. "I could understand why the sleeping bag technique could be used as a claustrophobic technique, not intending to harm someone, not intending to kill someone, but intending to put some fear in their mind."

(on camera): Despite a dozen separate investigations into prisoner abuse, the Pentagon says it still has no clear idea what the CIA might have been doing outside the military's chain of command. The CIA is not commenting on any aspect of the case, and says its inspector general is still looking into possible wrongdoing.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: In Sudan, the International Committee of the Red Cross says at least 130 people have been killed, 350 wounded, in riots. These riots have been triggered by the death of the former rebel leader and the first vice president, John Garang. The ICRC says riots pitting southerners again northerners are still going on in Khartoum's suburbs. They have been going on now for four days. But the city center, where many shops have been burned and looted, is apparently calm at this point.

It is feared this violence will undermine the accord that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war. That accord struck earlier this year, in January. Garang's funeral will be held Saturday in Juba. A government commission is looking into the cause of the helicopter crash that killed them.

CLANCY: In Niger, aid is arriving, albeit, slowly, for 2.5 million people facing starvation. Thus far, only a fraction of the hungry have received emergency food rations.

Jeff Koinange visits a village in Southern Niger, where a mother of three is among the so-called lucky ones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wednesday is supposed to be market day in the village of Safo Nasarawa, just 20 miles outside Maradi in the country's south. But a devastating famine that's already killed thousands has also affected a community's harvest, leaving many here desperate for food aid. Help is at hand, giving this poor farming community a little something to smile about.

(on camera): Now this food distribution day is particularly for women with malnourished children, women like this 20-year-old Medina (ph) here, who has twins, Hassan and Hussain (ph).

(voice-over): As her name is announced, Medina receives a week's supply of millet, cereal, the country's staple food. It's a program run by the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF. In a typical village like this, UNICEF would buy the entire yield of millet at a premium. It would then give the millet back to the village, which would then re-sell to the villagers at a fraction of the price.

KENT PAGE, UNICEF SPOKESMAN: For the villagers that are even too poor to be able to afford that, the millet is distributed to them for free. And when they do their harvest next year, they will replenish the cereal bank stock with their food.

KOINANGE: Medina falls in this category. She's nursing twin, and has a 2-year-old son, as well. She receives a free meal with much appreciation. "I'm so grateful for this," she says, "at least I can now feed my family, and also try to produce enough milk to feed my twins."

UNICEF officials say aid is coming to Niger, but not as fast as they would like it to.

PAGE: The aid is getting to the people. It is saving children's lives, but it's true, we need more help.

KOINANGE: Along with her elderly mother, she makes the short walk home to a homestead she shares with her extended family. Women and work go hand in hand in Niger. Whether nursing newborn or taking care of the elderly, it's the women who make up the backbone of this society.

Medina has to first pound the fresh millet grain to make a thick paste. This, she then rolls into tennis ball-sized portions, which she'll have to later pound again.

In between, she has to take Hussain and Hassan (ph) indoors, and away from the harsh rays of the sun.

This is a typical one-room mud shack in one of the world's poorest countries. This is home for five. No privacy, no frills, nothing but four walls. But Medina isn't thinking about a room with a view. She's just happy to be able to cook a meal for her family, no small achievement in a land where famine abounds and catastrophe looms.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Safo Nasarawa, Niger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: Aid slow to come there, but it is slowly getting through.

Still to come, remembering Hiroshima six decades later.

CLANCY: Calls for a nuclear ban in the Japanese city where at least 140,000 people died, and we are going to visit the island where the bombing mission got under way, for a U.S. perspective on the world's first nuclear attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back. You are watching YOUR WORLD TODAY, an hour of world news on CNN International.

Two days before the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, thousands of peace activists marched through the Japanese city to protest the development and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. They marched through the downtown area, converging on a sports arena. That's where the Annual World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs is taking place. It is one of a series of events leading up to Saturday's services that will mark the world's first atomic attack on August 6th, 1945.

CLANCY: And, Collen, this is an event that's being remembered as well on a tiny spot of sand and coral, hundreds of kilometers away from Japan.

MCEDWARDS: That's right. Our Mike Chinoy is there. He's reporting now from the Pacific island of Tinian, where the age of atomic warfare took flight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suicide cliff on the island of Tinian. Here in one of the most ghastly episodes of World War II in the Pacific, hundreds of Japanese leapt to their deaths, rather than surrender to advancing American soldiers.

Reeve Erickson was one of those soldiers. Six decades later, he and some of his comrades came back to Tinian.

REEVE ERICKSON, U.S. VETERAN: I learned that even in the daylight, like it is now, you can see bullets when they fly across your face.

CHINOY: As a U.S. Marine, Reeve fought in four Pacific campaigns, including Saipan, where 3,000 Americans died, and Iwo Jima, where the Marines took the heaviest casualties of any battle in their history.

(on camera): Looking back, it's hard to imagine these tiny, desolate islands could have been worth so many thousands of lives. But their strategic importance can't be underestimated, because it was from this runway, on the island of Tinian, that the Enola Gay took off to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan.

Sixty years ago, Tinian was the busiest military airport in the world, jumping off point for thousands of U.S. bombing raids against the Japanese.

Today, the airfield is overgrown and abandoned. Apart from a handful of aging veterans, there are few visitors, but a small monument has been erected over the pit where the nuclear weapon, dubbed "little boy," the weapon which killed 140,000 people at Hiroshima, was load onto the B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay. And men like these, face the prospect of attacking Japan proper, of confronting an enemy, who, as at Tinian's Suicide Cliff, refused to surrender, are convinced that dropping the bomb saved their lives.

Cleo Hughes was 17 then, just about to be drafted.

CLEO HUGHES, U.S. VETERAN: That if we wouldn't have invaded Japan, like these people all jumped off of cliffs, and fighting to the last man, man, thousands, and maybe a million kids would have got lost.

ERICKSON: It saved lives. It saved a lot more lives than it ever cost. And it cost a number of them. We were positively influenced by it, and pleased that it dropped.

CHINOY: Hiroshima and Nagasaki have come to symbolize the terrors of the nuclear age, but for those who fought the Japanese across the Pacific, the bomb was a terrible new weapon, but one that brought their war to an end.

Mike Chinoy, CNN, Tinian.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: All right, let's get a check of some stories making news in the United States right now. The United States is helping investigate the crash of that Air France jet that ran off the runway and burned on Tuesday in Toronto. A spokesman for Canada's Transportation Safety Board says an emergency was not declared as the plane came in for its landing. All 309 people onboard survived this accident. Teams from both the U.S. and France have joined the Canadian investigation.

An attorney for Martha Stewart says she will remain confined to her New York home until August 31st. Three weeks longer than her original sentence for stock fraud. No one would confirm a report in "The New York Post" which reported that she improperly attended a yoga class with her daughter, and also rode around her property in a utility vehicle. Probation officials wouldn't say if that had violated Stewart's home-confinement terms.

A member of the House Government Reform Committee wants to determine if baseball star Rafael Palmeiro committed perjury in his testimony to Congress last March. At that time, he emphatically denied ever using steroids. This comes two days after Palmeiro was suspended for doing just that, using steroids. The committee asked Major League Baseball for all the documents relating to the positive test, and apparently Palmeiro has agreed to cooperate here.

CLANCY: Ayman Al Zawahiri, the number-two man from al Qaeda, issued a statement. It was aired on Al-Jazeera. Many people consider this to be a major development. We want to hear more about that, and get some views from retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis. Thank you so much for joining us.

What did you make from message that came from Zawahiri? Obviously he had taped this after the initial London bombings, but probably before the time that those attacks were carried out in Egypt.

LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS (RET), U.S. MILITARY: It does appear that way, Jim. Clearly they are trying to infer some responsibility. It appears as if an affiliate, perhaps there in London did this. But also, he's reminding them, look, if you would remove yourself from, quote, "the land of Islam," you, quote, "crusaders," then we'll clearly have a truce.

Now, that, of course, I don't think's going to happen, given what's going on in Iraq. But they want to be relevant, and they want to show that she still have some influence across the world. Now, it may be dealt with by a ho hum, perhaps, here in Washington, but the reality is, we are taking everything we hear seriously. We are continuing to ratchet up our preparations, as are the Brits and others around the world that clearly understand the potential threat that, you know, he brings forth.

CLANCY: Let me play devil's advocate here for a minute, though. If -- I know 50 people dying -- 52 people dying in London was serious, but if this is what all that al Qaeda can muster at this point, wouldn't you say that its reach, that its power has been severely diminished?

MAGINNIS: Well, perhaps Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden in a cave in Afghanistan aren't going to be able to do any more than give an ideological shot in their arm to their affiliates across that. But, you know, we see that Zarqawi, inside Iraq, is continuing to ravage our young marines this week, and other civilian groups there in Iraq.

CLANCY: But that's really -- that's al Qaeda in Iraq. That's not Osama bin Laden. This is a much different conflict. How potent is al Qaeda right now? It would seem that they are reaching out, trying to get some credibility here.

MAGINNIS: Oh, I agree totally, Jim. They certainly are. But they can't do the planning and the preparation from caves in Afghanistan. They have to have affiliates. And that's all they have left, is ideology. At least Osama bin Laden. Until he is removed from the scene, he's going to continue to pump that idea through, you know, his own conduits throughout the world. Al Jazeera is doing them a favor for putting the word out.

But what's going on in London clearly is the Brits are trying to coalesce the Muslim population, to get them to issue fatwas, to get them to cooperate, to turn in some of these extremist so that this won't reoccur. And, of course, the U.S. is trying to do the same thing. Al Qaeda is not off the map totally. They are diminished, and we have captured two-thirds of their leaders. But clearly, you know, they're a -- they have to be dealt with, and we're continuing to do that.

CLANCY: Retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis, our thanks to you for being with us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

MAGINNIS: Thank you, Jim.

MCEDWARDS: All right, well, still to come, we're going to have a check of your international weather forecast.

CLANCY: That's right. Guillermo Arduino will be along with world weather conditions. Stay with us.

MCEDWARDS: We'll be back.

(COMMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT) MCEDWARDS:: And this has been YOUR WORLD TODAY. We've got to go. I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. The news continues right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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