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CNN Live Sunday

Officials Say Sharon Quick to Show Improvement; Bus Tour will Take Tourists through Disaster Areas of New Orleans

Aired December 18, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

GERRI WILLIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Gerri Willis in for Fredricka Whitfield. All that and more after this check of the headlines.
A German woman held hostage in Iraq is freed. Germany's foreign minister says Susan Osthoff is safe if her country's embassy in Baghdad nearly a month after she was kidnapped. He's not saying what led to her release. Osthoff's Iraqi driver has not been freed.

And despite hundreds of arrests in recent days, large demonstrations resume today on the streets of Hong Kong, as the World Trade Organization wrapped up six days of talks aimed at forging a global trade deal. Now many of the protesters are South Korean farmers, upset over the prospect of losing farm subsidies. The WTO ministers reached an interim deal to end subsidies by 2013.

And the suspense is over. "Time" magazine has chosen Bono, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda as its persons of the year. Find out why they were chosen when "CNN PRESENTS" devotes an entire hour to the outstanding trio. That's coming up at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

First up this hour, the story playing out in the Middle East today. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon admitted today to a hospital. He is said to have suffered a stroke, but from all indications he's doing well. To start things off we go to Washington, where CNN's Wolf Blitzer is standing by live to get us into our coverage. Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Gerri. Ariel Sharon, 77-years-old, almost 78 years old, a giant figure in Israel in many more ways than just one. He's been a fixture of life in Israel politically for some three decades, militarily going back to Israel's 1948 war. His influence though has been felt well beyond Israel throughout the Middle East. Let's go directly to Jerusalem, CNN's John Vause, standing by following the story for us. Update our viewers, John, on the condition of the prime minister.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it looks as if Ariel Sharon will be spending the next 24 hours, maybe the next 48 hours at Hadassah Hospital being treated for that minor stroke. That coming from his personal physician who spoke with reporters about an hour or so ago. According to his personal physician, Ariel Sharon is in a good mood. He's talking with family. He's joking with doctors. He apologized to them for quote, "Making them work so hard." He also says that he wants to leave the hospital as soon as possible. The 77-year-old prime minister is being treated for that minor stroke. He felt unwell while leaving his office here in Jerusalem outside the city. He was speaking to his son Omri on the cell phone when he felt unwell. The prime minister's motorcade turned around and sped to Hadassah Hospital. Doctors say the prime minister was conscious when he arrived and that he is now lucid. He was confused at one stage but his condition has been improving over the last couple of hours.

Meantime in Gaza, Palestinians have been chanting death to Sharon, handing out sweets and firing guns into the air to celebrate the news. The president of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas however, has contacted the Israeli government expressed his concern about the prime minister's health and has wished him well. Now, the prime minister's personal physician says he sees no reason why Ariel Sharon will not be able to make a full return to work. He will, however, be advising Mr. Sharon to lose some weight. Wolf?

BLITZER: And one quick assessment, John, while I have you. The political fallout, if in fact he is ill, the political fallout in Israel looking ahead towards the end of March elections could be significant.

VAUSE: Very much so. Ariel Sharon has formed this new party. He's left the Likud party, the same party which he helped establish three decades ago. He's established this Kadima Party. In many ways it's a one-man party. It is built around Sharon, his personality and his pure drive to define the future borders of this Israeli state and to try and settle the Palestinian conflict once and for all.

If Ariel Sharon is not well, if he's not able to continue with that party, then that Kadima Party could very well fall into a heap. That's still a number of weeks, months down the track. Israelis don't vote until March. Obviously, the prime minister's health in between now and then will be very, very important, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, John Vause reporting from Jerusalem. John, thanks very much. Here in Washington, the White House issued a short statement, wishing the prime minister a speedy recovery, saying officials there were well aware of the reports that he had been rushed to the hospital. We are aware of the reports and wish him a full and speedy recovery, that statement from the White House.

Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is watching all of this, himself having spent lots ever time covering the political story in Israel. Give us your assessment right now, Bill, on the political fallout as far as the peace process is concerned and it's quite ironic given the fact that for so many of his years in politics, he was considered an outspoken hawk, but now he has clearly moved to the center of the Israeli political spectrum.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He has not only moved to the center Wolf, he is the center of the Israeli political spectrum. Last month in a very dramatic move, he and a -- he's still in the labor party, Simon Peres, the leader of the labor party, has also been prime minister, moved together to support a new political party, which Sharon formed, the Kadima party that John mentioned a minute ago, that really represents the whole center of the Israeli spectrum, tough line on security. He was after all one of the architects of the settlements, one of the driving forces behind the invasion of Lebanon.

He's trusted on security issues much more than Simon Peres, but he also endorses the road map and wants to see a two-state settlement, Palestinian and Israeli, side-by-side, as President Bush does in the Middle East.

So the United States had -- has a lot riding on Sharon's continued health and survival, simply because the alternatives left, (INAUDIBLE) the new leader of the labor party, possibly Ben Netanyahu who could become the new leader of the Likud Party. Those are not part of the same peace process that the Bush administration endorses and if Sharon were not able to lead the center party, Simon Peres would be far weaker and far less legitimate.

BLITZER: It's interesting Bill, that the leader of the Palestinian authority, the president, Mahmoud Abbas, reaching out through one of his aides (INAUDIBLE) expressing his hope for a speedy recovery for the prime minister, even as more extremist Palestinians in Gaza were celebrating word that the prime minister had been rushed to the hospital. The expectation is if Sharon can get re-elected at the end of March, he would then be in a position to undertake a withdrawal, at least from parts of the west bank.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. Mahmoud Abbas and Sharon both represent really the hope for the peace process, the center of their respective political constituencies. They're both opposed by militants on the right as well as by forces in Israel on the left. But if the peace process is to move ahead, as the United States hopes, as President Bush is counting on, Sharon is crucial to that and, of course, the leader of the Palestinian authority is full aware, fully aware of that. If Sharon were unable to compete in this election, it's unclear how the peace process could proceed.

BLITZER: What motivated, in your assessment, Bill, Ariel Sharon to move from being outspoken hawk on the right side of the Israeli political spectrum towards the center and now being at least perceived here in Washington and among some Palestinians as a centrist, as a great hope, a moderate voice to try to advance the peace process?

SCHNEIDER: Wolf, one word: reality. As prime minister since 2001, he's recognized the reality, particularly the demographic reality of the situation, that the dream of a greater Israel, of Israel essentially governing a large state, which includes Palestinians and Israelis is just impossible. The demographic reality is that the Palestinians will soon outnumber the Israelis and that kind of state could not remain democratic without leading to a Palestinian majority. Therefore, he came to see, to accept the reality, the necessity of a two-state solution, as President Bush endorsed. The reality was there, and he came to accept it.

BLITZER: Bill Schneider, our senior political analyst. Thanks, Bill, very much for that. So once again, Ariel Sharon spending the night in a hospital in Jerusalem. Might be released tomorrow, might spend another day there, his condition described as stable after suffering a mild stroke. We'll continue to watch this story for you, our viewers. In the meantime, let's go back to Gerri Willis at the CNN center in Atlanta. Gerri.

WILLIS: Thank you Wolf.

President Bush is getting ready for his speech tonight on Iraq. Mr. Bush is likely to trumpet the election last week as a sign that Iraq has finally turned a corner amid an unexpected cost in American lives and money. Tonight many Americans will have their ears tuned to anything Mr. Bush might say about when American troops might return home. The speech is set for 9:00 p.m. Eastern. To bring us up to speed, CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the White House. Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gerri, Americans have grown weary at the steady drum beat of bad news from Iraq. More than 2,100 U.S. service members killed and it's certainly been taking a toll on President Bush's approval rating and that's something that his primetime speech tonight will help rectify.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH (voice-over): Aides say President Bush tonight will talk about the importance of the mission in Iraq and give Americans a sense of the way forward (ph) in 2006. He's also expected to tout last week's successful elections there where 11 million Iraqis went to the polls.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a remarkable couple of days for the Iraqi people. They went out and they voted in huge numbers. There were pictures of little children dipping their fingers in ink and blind people going to vote. They understood what the vote meant. The vote meant a democratic future and a chance to control their lives.

KOCH: The U.S. ambassador to Iraq predicts the elections could eventually calm the ongoing violence that has claimed so many lives.

ZALMAY KHALILZAD, US AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: If a good government is formed, if Sunnis feel that their concerns are dealt with, I think violence will decrease over time, significantly, and the terrorists and Saddamists will be increasingly isolated.

KOCH: This is the first Oval Office speech Mr. Bush has made on Iraq since he announced the invasion in March 2003. Aides say the event caps four recent speeches outlining his strategy in Iraq, designed to boost lagging public support. Though poll numbers have ticked up slightly in recent weeks, more than half of those surveyed still don't approve of the way President Bush is handling Iraq, while 68 percent don't think he has a clear plan for victory. Mr. Bush's message on Iraq was overshadowed this week by the revelation that after 9/11, he authorized government eavesdropping on the international communications of people inside the United States. The secretary of state insists the president broke no laws.

RICE: The president has an obligation. He took an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. That means both to protect and defend Americans physically, from the kind of attack that we experienced on September 11th and to protect the civil rights and civil liberties and he is doing both.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: Despite the interest in the eavesdropping story, President Bush is expected to keep the focus on Iraq. Tonight the White House telling reporters that it will begin releasing some early excerpts of his speech in about half an hour. Gerri.

WILLIS: Kathleen, you've been covering this all day talking about the four speeches the president has made recently. Why is it important tonight to do it from the oval office?

KOCH: Well, Gerri, it's not only the venue, the oval office, but it's also the time. If you'll recall those four earlier speeches that the president has given to explain his victory strategy for Iraq over the last two weeks were all during the day. They were carried mainly live on cable networks like CNN and they didn't really draw the broad audience that the president can command tonight at prime time from the oval office on all the broadcast networks.

So he'll really be reaching out to more Americans and again, this gives him a chance to reach the American public with his message being unfiltered, direct from the oval office, no media intervening, no spin.

WILLIS: We'll all be watching. Kathleen Koch, thanks for that report.

We will devote much of our evening to the president's speech on Iraq. At 8:00 Eastern, Wolf Blitzer will brings us a special edition of "The Situation Room." Larry King will get us to the president's speech, scheduled for 9:00 Eastern. Wolf Blitzer will return at 10:00 Eastern with extensive reaction to what the president has to say about Iraq. We hope you'll join us. CNN is the place to be.

The president's not the only one focusing on Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney's overseas trip put him in Iraq today for the first time in 14 years. During a surprise visit, we met with senior Iraqi officials, chatted informally with U.S. troops and observed Iraqi forces in training. He called last week's election a tremendous success and praised what he called the remarkable progress achieved in the country over the past 18 months. The vice president has since left Iraq and arrived in Oman. His itinerary will also take him to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says overall numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq will likely be reduced next year, but he adds that a total withdrawal now would be quote, a tragic mistake. In an interview with veteran British journalist David Frost, Powell also expressed some regrets about faulty U.S. intelligence on Iraq before the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, FMR. SEC. OF STATE: It was not a happy moment when it started to emerge and when I started to receive words from the intelligence community that said, oops, this source was not good. But we still had three other sources and then suddenly the three other sources turned out not to be good. No. I was not happy. I was deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us and what really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of these sources, but the doubts never surfaced up to us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIS: Powell's interview with David Frost aired today on the BBC.

And on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will probably burn the midnight oil as they tackle a host of legislative matters. This is not a (INAUDIBLE) This is a picture you may have seen earlier today at the House of Representatives which got down to business about four hours ago in a rare Sunday session. The House a not alone. On the other side of the capitol, Senate business is scheduled to get underway in about 45 minutes.

(INAUDIBLE) crossing the line by offering tourists so-called disaster tours through New Orleans? That issue coming up. And a scandal in New York involving a multimillion dollar business dealing in human body parts. From CNN center in Atlanta, you're watching CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Among the other stories across America, a construction crane fell across an elevated rail track in downtown Miami Saturday. Train service was suspended and a nearby street was closed while crews dismantled the crane. Luckily no one was injured.

Another hopeful sign that New Orleans is getting back to normal, the city's famous street cars are rolling again in their first day of service since hurricane Katrina. Six of the city's 35 cars are up and running. The Federal government is chipping in up to $70 million to repair those historic cars.

And Senator Hillary Clinton is in New Orleans today. She joined Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu to get a firsthand look at the damage caused by hurricane Katrina. It's Senator Clinton's first visit to the area since Katrina devastated the Gulf region.

And here's a telling example of the way New Orleans is going forward with what it has. A bus tour of the city is about to re-launch in the hope the devastation produced by Katrina will prove to be an attraction. Our Gulf Coast correspondent Susan Roesgen has a report that first aired on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER 360." (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the hurricane, this is the New Orleans that millions of tourists came to see. Gray Line tours showed New Orleans at its best. But now the same visitors who used to ooh and ah over the city's stately mansions can see the ghostly neighborhoods left in Katrina's wake.

It's called Hurricane Katrina, America's greatest disaster tour. It won't start until January, but CNN got the first preview on the trial run. It's a three-hour bus excursion past landmarks now notorious because of the hurricane. The superdome, a sweltering shelter for 30,000 people. Lakeview, a neighborhood swamped by floodwaters for weeks and New Orleans own version of ground zero, the break in the levee at the 17th Street canal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So think about this, people when there's a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, here in New Orleans and we're below sea level to start off with, we're going to get water slammed into the city from the river, of course, coming up and also from the lake.

ROESGEN: Gray Line hopes to tap into the national curiosity about what happened here. But people who own homes along the tour, people like Artie Falt, have a message for gawkers. Keep out.

ARTIE FOLSE, HOMEOWNER: I think it's ridiculous. I mean, they're making -- they're doing tours on other people's misery. I wish they'd stay out the neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As can you see, this was and it's kind of hard to say, this was a really pretty neighborhood.

ROESGEN: The company says the tours will be educational, but Larry Maynard fixing up his mother's house in Lakeview doesn't buy it.

Exploitation of peoples' tragedies to profit though is definitely not the way to go. You really shouldn't do it. I hope somebody -- I hope somebody in Baton Rouge puts their foot down and really realizes what's going on here with this.

ROESGEN: Others Lakeview homeowners say they welcome the tour.

JERRY KREIDER, HOMEOWNER: I think more people that know about it, maybe the more help we'll get.

ROESGEN: The company says the tours will cost $35, with $3 of each ticket earmarked for Katrina relief. To the city's tourism industry, all but knocked out by Katrina, any tourism is welcome, yet Gray Line company owner, Greg Hoffman, who lost his own home in Lakeview is taking some heat from the mayor. You know, the mayor today on the radio I don't know if you heard his comments, but he call what's you're doing, starting the tour odd and opportunistic. What do you say to that?

GREG HOFFMAN, GRAY LINE TOURS OWNER: I wish he'd read the press release and I hope he will come on the tour before we get started on January 4th, because people that initially hear about the tour, they have that general reaction. But the tour like I say is an educational process. It was just like after 9/11. People wanted to go to the site. They wanted to see the devastation at the twin towers. It's the same mindset. People are going to want to come down here and see what the devastation is like.

ROESGEN: A new kind of attraction for a new New Orleans. Susan Roesgen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: Real life tops fiction. A shocking scandals reveals the dark side in the business of dealing with human organs.

And a developing story we've been following all day long. Israel's prime minister is in the hospital after suffering a minor stroke. We'll talk to doctor Marc Siegel in New York to learn more about the medical implications.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: Each week at this time we bring you some of outstanding reporting by CNN over the past seven days. Tonight, CNN's Deb Feyerick has the disturbing tale of a ghoulish chop shop involving human bodies cut up for profit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Bruno was good old New York City cab driver with an opinion about everything, even his own death. After losing a battle with cancer two years ago, his son Vito honored his last wishes.

VITO BRUNO, ALLEGED VICTIM'S SON: My father had requested to be cremated.

FEYERICK: And today in this box, lie Michael Bruno's remains. At least that's what Vito used to think. Now, he's not so sure.

BRUNO: This was the remains of Michael Bruno.

FEYERICK: And now what do you think?

BRUNO: I don't know what's in here at all.

FEYERICK: That's because Michael Bruno may have unwillingly become the victim of the scandal that's making ghoulish headlines. It's sending shock waves through a billion dollar industry that until now has remained out of the spotlight, the business of human body parts.

It's an industry that relies on the goodwill of donors who believe they're helping medical research or saving lives and business is booming. Heads, torsos, limbs, you name it, command hefty prices.

By one estimate a single body chopped into pieces can be worth up to $150,000. The donor never sees a penny, but it seems everyone else does, including the funeral home which can charge $1,000 per body for storage and transportation.

TODD R. OLSON, ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We're dealing simply with an open market, where the supply and the demand is the only limiting factor on how much people are going to be able to profit.

FEYERICK: New York City investigators believe Michael Bruno is one of hundreds, if not more, whose body parts were taken without permission and passed off as legitimate donations, to companies which make money processing the bodies and providing them to the medical community.

Now the Brooklyn district attorney is leading a massive investigation which could implicate as many as six New York City funeral homes and a company that procures organs for hospitals and research. At the center of the case, two men, Dr. Michael Mastromarino of Biomedical Tissue Services in New Jersey and his partner, embalmer Joseph Misselli (ph).

Both are under investigation for allegedly carving up bodies without consent and selling them for profit. The alleged body snatching was discovered here by the new owners of this Brooklyn funeral home. One of them told investigators she was shocked to touch a corpse's leg and discover plumbing pipe instead of bone. The funeral home is now closed and its sign torn down.

BRUNO: It's just beyond anything anybody could ever comprehend. It's just the sickest, sickest story you could hear.

FEYERICK: Vito Bruno says he learned of the alleged theft when a New York city detective showed up at his door with a donation consent form Bruno had supposedly signed.

BRUNO: It was not my signature. Somebody had forged my name.

FEYERICK: Also changed according to Bruno, was his father's cause of death, listed at heart disease instead of kidney cancer.

BRUNO: I was angry and really concerned, concerned that these body parts went into other people. People got diseased body parts.

FEYERICK: How many other victim was there and how long had body parts theft gone undetected? In Denver, Colorado, some 1800 miles away, an apparent whistle blower. How many people could receive tissue from a single donor?

DR. MICHAEL BAUER, BONFILS BLOOD CENTER: We have had a recent case where we've traced it back and there were over 90 different patients who were benefiting by one donation. That's exactly right.

FEYERICK: Michael Bauer tests donated tissue for disease. He says he discovered phone numbers on donor records sent by Mastromarino's company were bogus. BAUER: I still hoped that there would be a logical explanation for it. What was going through my mind was, Dr. Mastromarino had not received permission to recover these tissues.

FEYERICK: It was then Bauer says that he called the New Jersey doctor.

BAUER: His answer it me was, I wasn't calling the families. The funeral homes were.

MARIO GALLUCCI, MICHAEL MASTROMARINO'S ATTORNEY: Nobody's shown us that absolutely anything has been done inappropriately. These allegations, nobody's been charged with any crime.

FEYERICK: Mario Gallucci is the attorney for Dr. Mastromarino. What is being alleged is serious, that is, signatures were forged, medical records were doctored. Can you see not as it relates to your client, how this would be shocking to many people?

GALLUCCI: Without a doubt. I would be very upset to find out that my loved one, who I didn't consent to had tissue taken from them without my consent. Of course I'd be upset.

FEYERICK: But your client had nothing to do with it?

GALLUCCI: Nothing at all.

FEYERICK: That's little comfort to people like Rolando Estrada, a Texas man living with the knowledge that he might have stolen tissue in his knee.

ROLANDO ESTRADA, STOLEN TISSUE RECIPIENT: I guess it would be like almost like you get your car fixed, and they used stolen parts on it, I guess. I don't know, it's kind of weird. It's hard to think about it.

FEYERICK: Earlier this year, Estrada underwent surgery to replace torn ligament, but after the FDA recalled all tissue from Mastromarino's company, Estrada spent a nervous week waiting to see if his new ligament was infected with HIV, hepatitis or syphilis.

ESTRADA: That's when it really sank in that I could have been exposed to something life-threatening, and that's kind of when I started getting really worried.

FEYERICK: Estrada's tests came back negative, but his case is just one of many. For more than a year, tissue from Mastromarino's company was distributed to doctors and hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada. So far, there have been no reports of illnesses stemming from those tissues. Sandford Rubenstein is Brono's attorney in a lawsuit against the New Jersey doctor, his partner, and the funeral home which handled his father's cremation.

SANFORD RUBENSTEIN, VITO BRUNO'S ATTORNEY: This is a double outrage. It's an outrage not just to the families who without consent saw their loved ones who were deceased, their body parts used in others, but it's an outrage to those people who received tissues.

DR. TODD R. OLSON, ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: I wish I to could till you I was shocked, but I'm not.

FEYERICK: Dr. Todd Olson teaches anatomy at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In recent years has watched the corpse trade explode.

OLSON: It's the ideal, you know, capitalistic commodity here. You get for nothing, and all you are doing is charging for processing packing and shipping, storing, and disposing of it.

FEYERICK: Federal law proiblts's sale of any human body parts, but allows for go-betweens reimbursed for reasonable expenses. The problem is there are no limits as to what's considered reasonable and no paper trail to track the movement and there's little regulation or oversight.

OLSON: There are more laws that regulate shipping a he have had lettuce into the state of California than there would be to ship a human head. I think the general public would be outraged if they knew the amount of money involved in this.

MARIO GALLUCCI, MICHAEL MASTROMARINO'S ATTORNEY: You get a fee for procuring the blood sample, you get a fee for storing the tissue. And then you get a fee for shipping the tissue and that's it. That's the only money to be -- the only money transpired with the doctor is that.

FEYERICK (on camera): Can you get rich doing what the doctor is doing?

GALLUCCI: Rich, no I don't think you can get rich.

Reporter: People are calling your client, Dr. Frankenstein, a ghoul, a grave robber. What's your response?

GALLUCCI: He's a pioneer in the industry. He's making mankind better.

FEYERICK (voice-over): In New York, investigators have begun the grisly task of digging up bodies from cemeteries like this one to see for themselves if bones, limbs and other body parts of missing. The funeral home which handled Michael Bruno's body denied any ties to the body snatching ring. Embalmer, Joseph Neselly (ph) and his attorney both denied a request for an interview. Vito Brono, meanwile, is left with anger and doubt.

(on camera): To think you'd actually make a business by illegally selling, illegally taking body parts.

BRUNO: Sounds like a bad movie. Doesn't it?

FEYERICK (voice-over): But it's not, it's a real-life bone snatching scam, which if proven, could expose the dark side of the death business. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: We're following a developing story out of Israel. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a minor stroke. Dr. Mark Siegel is in New York standing by to give us some insight on the medical complications that can come with a stroke.

And then dying to eat: We'll show you a baffling medical conditions where people live with an incurable urge to eat yet never feeling satisfied. That's coming up on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WILLIS: German officials say a German woman held hostage in Iraq has been freed. Forty-three-year-old Susanna Osthoff was kidnapped November 25. Osthoff, an archeologist and aide worker that lived in Iraq 10 years.

And "Time" magazine has named Bill Gates and Melinda Gates and u2's lead singer, Bono, its persons of the year. The three were recognized for their efforts to fight poverty and disease. Tonight at 7:00 Eastern, watch "CNN Presents" for profiles and exclusive interviews with the winners.

The White House is sending a get well wish to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wishing him a speedy recovery. The Israeli leader was hospitalized today after a mild stroke. Doctors say the 77-year-old Mr. Sharon is conscious and talking, but will probably stay in the hospital for a few days.

For more on Prime Minister Sharon's condition and the complications involved with a mild stroke I'm joined from New York by Dr. Mark Siegel of New York University Medical School.

DR. MARK SIEGEL, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY MED. SCH.: Doctor, welcome.

Hello Gerri.

WILLIS: Good to see you again. Let's just talk a little about, first off, what is a stroke, and specifically, what's a mild stroke?

SIEGEL: Well, a Stroke has to do with not enough oxygen to a part of the brain, either because blood vessels in the neck are blocked or because a blood clot forms in the brain. And a mild stroke sumply means that only a small part of the brain is involved, and that there's a rapid recovery of that brain when the blood starts to recirculate very, very quickly after a stroke.

WILLIS: I believe that's what we're seeing right now in these pictures. So with a stroke, is Ariel Sharon going to be impeded in terms of governing? Will it make it difficult for them to do the day- to-day work? SIEGEL: Well, that's being determined right now. And the fact he an altered level of consciousness on the way to the hospital was certainly concerning. That could have been due to blood in the brain or a seizure. But the fact is that in the hospital he's been reported to be joking, interacting, moving his extremity, returning to a normal lel of function. The first 24 hours after a stroke are very important period of time to determine how normal he's going to be, and from the sounds of it, it does sound like he will be able to return to governing. No, don't forget, stroke is the No. 1 cause of disability in the entire world. So, he has to have a series of tests and be watched very closely, but there's some very good optimistic signs happening, right now.

WILLIS: They are common and I think a lot of our viewers are probably -- they probably know someone who's had a stroke. I'm wondering, does one minor stroke mean that more are likely to happen to the patient?

SIEGEL: Well, Gerri, that's a really good question. The answer is, it depends on how well the person takes care of themselves. You know, after a small stroke, certain medications, like aspirin or other blood thinner, can help prevent another stroke from developing, but also overall health is important. And in Mr. Sharon's case, he's way overweight. He obviously has to lose weight. Several studies show that lowering cholesterol is a very good idea in terms of preventing further strokes. We don't know what his cholesterol is, but that's certainly a factor. Eating properly, exercising regularly, not smoking, these are really, really important features.

WILLIS: Dr. Siegel, being overweight, does that cause a stroke to happen?

SIEGEL: Well, being overweight doesn't cause a stroke to happen per se, but increases your Rick of being in that group that develops as stroke. It's the other things that come with being overweight, like high cholesterol or narrowing ever the arteries or plaque or smoking, not eating properly, these main features. So people has are overweight do have more strokes, because of the secondary reasons.

WILLIS: Dr. Mark Siegel thanks for join us.

SIEGEL: Gerri, my pleasure.

WILLIS: Imagine spending every moment of your life feeling hungry? Eating meal after meal, stuffing yourself, but you never ever feel full. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has a unique look at two people with this baffling disorder. You saw it first on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" and one of the best of CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIBEL RIVERA, HAS PRADER-WILLI SYNDROM: No! No! Wait. Wait! Wait!

COHEN (voice-over): The sound of the local ice cream truck makes most children smile, but that sound is torture for Maribel Rivera. She's desperate for ice cream, or anything else to eat, tormented by a constant hunger that never, ever goes away.

And it's not all in her head. Scientists have discovered that people like Maribel are missing a piece of genetic material. They're mentally challenged, and they're always hungry.

Brawny Mauerer son, Andy, has always lived with that non- stop hunger since he was a child.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you think I have to get something to eat, they're never without that feeling.

COHEN (on camera): What is it like to feel hungry all the time?

ANDY MAURER, HAS PRADER-WILLI SYNDROM: It's terrible. I don't know anything else that's so embarrassing.

COHEN: Some people might think, why can't you just control yourself? If I see a donut, I just don't eat it. Why can't you do that?

MAURER: Can't. Because it's there. It's a compulsion, the need, the urge to get the food.

COHEN (voice-over): After 46 years, he's finally begun to learn how to live with that urge.

MAURER: Most of the time, I can control it.

COHEN: But Maribel's long, difficult journey might never reach that point. Her mother, Mercedes Rivera, had two normal pregnancies, gave birth to two healthy children, but the third child was different. When Maribel was born, she didn't cry and she didn't nurse. Doctors struggled with what was wrong.

MERCEDES RIVERA, MERIBEL'S MOTHER: And I said, well, what is wrong with my daughter? And he said, nobody has really said anything to me. He said, well, your daughter is retarded. And that's how she said it, just blunt like that.

COHEN: All signs pointed to a genetic disorder called Prader- Willi Syndrome that affects one in 15,000 people. Dr. Suzanne Cassidy is a medical geneticist and a professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco.

DR. SUZANNE CASSIDY, MEDICAL GENETICIST: Individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome have a period of what we call failure to thrive. They tend to have very poor growth, first in weight and then in length, for a number of weeks or months in infancy. And some time between one and 6 years of age, it seems all of a sudden, one day, the child starts eating whatever they can get their hands on.

COHEN: Maribel was a classic case. She had a low IQ, she was late to walk and even later to talk. She was shorter than average and from the age of 5, Maribel gained weight fast.

RIVERA: She was eating more than usual, or asking for more, or she just probably had a meal and she wanted to eat again.

COHEN: The Riveras had to change the way they lived to keep Maribel from eating herself to death.

RIVERA: Sometimes we even had to like rush ourselves to eat, because if we just kind of do it slow, she'll start looking at everybody's plate, to make sure that nobody was looking and she'll steal from other family members' plate.

COHEN: Food had to be locked up, and the Riveras had to put a fence around their house to keep Maribel from getting out and finding food on her own. But it didn't always work.

MARIBEL RIVERA: Will you buy me a hot dog, please?

COHEN: Maribel's older sister made a documentary about her 24- year struggle with Prader-Willi Syndrome. She caught this startling moment.

MARIBEL RIVERA: Will you buy me a one a hot dog, please? I'm so hungry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is your parents?

MARIBEL RIVERA: I don't have no parents. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

MARIBEL RIVERA: Please? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want ketchup.

COHEN: By the time Maribel was 23, she stood 4'10" and weighed 235 pounds. She had trouble breathing and was diagnosed with diabetes. Her parents checked her into a hospital.

RIVERA: When she first was admitted into the hospital, she was stealing from patients, she was stealing from even the trash.

COHEN: In the hospital, she gained 20 pounds. Her parents brought her home and put her on a strict diet. That sparked a rage.

RIVERA: It was something that I couldn't even handle and in fact, my husband had to actually take over, because of the strength and her tantrums and her -- became really strong and violent that I was not able to handle her. As she got older, it got worse.

COHEN: There's no cure for Prader-Willi Syndrome. The Riveras realized that the only place that could regulate Maribel's disorder was a group home, where she could be watched around the clock.

CASSIDY: When such individuals get put into a group home for adults, especially with Prader-Willi Syndrome, this is when I have seen the most amazing weight loss and increase in fitness.

The food is locked up, it's not available between meals and snacks. Everybody in the home is on a diet, not just that one person. COHEN: It worked for Andy Mauerer. He lost 80 pounds when he moved into this group home. He got a job at a recycling plant, spent a lot of time riding horses, and even started dating.

(on camera): I hear you have a girlfriend.

MAURER: Yeah, I have maybe a couple. Only way I go on dates is if I give my mom my money so I won't go get -- so I won't go out and get food.

COHEN: Why couldn't you just keep Andy at home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because who would care for him when we're gone? It was very difficult, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

COHEN: And how is that living with other people with Prader- Willi?

MAURER: I like it, because I need people around me. Because I need the companionship. It's like -- it's like our house, it's -- we're a -- staff included, we're a family. Always have to keep busy so their minds won't be on food all the time.

COHEN: Tell me about what you've done that you're most proud of.

MAURER: I'm in horseback riding and I got -- won first places several times, which made me eligible to go to the International World Games in Dublin, Ireland.

COHEN (voice-over): Andy won a Bronze Medal at those Special Olympics, but with all of his achievements, Andy still has a desperate urge for food 24 hours a day.

Maribel's family knows that living in a group home won't take away her hunger, but they also know it's the only way to control her behavior. As they go to her new home in Wisconsin, they're full of hope.

RIVERA: What are you excited, Maribel? What are you going to do there?

MARIBEL RIVERA: Watch a movie.

RIVERA: Swimming, exercise.

MARIBEL RIVERA: Exercise.

RIVERA: Make new friends?

MARIBEL RIVERA: Friends.

RIVERA: Lose some weight?

MARIBEL RIVERA: Weight.

COHEN: The adjustment to this new place will be difficult, but the first signs are good.

MARIBEL RIVERA: I think I'm going to stay here.

COHEN: Leaving Maribel behind will be hard for her family, but they know that this decision could save her life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: That report from CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Still ahead here on CNN LIVE SUNDAY, U.S. Troops fighting in Afghanistan will soon get more help from the French.

And look out, G.I. Joe, here comes John Lennon. We'll explain.

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WILLIS: Now in "World Wrap" tonight, as protesters voice their opposition nearby, delegates for the World Trade Talks in Hong Kong agreed on a deal that requires wealthy nations to end farm export subsidies. The deadline for phasing out the subsidies is the year 2013.

And the polls closed a short time in Bolivia's presidential election. Socialist Ava Morales was a slight favorite in the race. He's described himself as a nightmare for the U.S. Morales vows to end U.S.-backed efforts to eradicate Bolivia's cocoa crop.

The French defense minister says France will send hundreds of additional troops to Afghanistan in the year ahead. She says the extra troops are needed because France will assume command of peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan in mid-2006.

Carol Lin is here with a preview of what's ahead. Carol, what do you have on tap?

CAROL LIN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Of course we're covering all the breaking news today and an amazing story about mother's sacrifice for her son. Her son's arm is paralyzed in a car accident and a pioneering surgeon decides, no, it doesn't have to be amputated. There can be a nerve transplant and the donor is the boy's mother. So we're going see how they're doing.

WILLIS: Oh, that's a great story.

LIN: We've got the mom, the son, the surgeon. It's really a miracle. It's been a month since the surgery, so we'll see if he has some use of his arm.

WILLIS: Sounds fabulous, Carl. Coming up.

LIN: Thank you.

WILLIS: Coming up, the CNN Watercooler" and John Lennon like you've never seen him before. Plus a story that has us scratching our heads. How do you lose a two ton sculpture like the one you're looking at right now? Well, it's happened. We've got the details next.

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WILLIS: Some of the unusual stories overheard at the CNN "Watercooler," today. Our favorite story is a massive two-ton sculpture vanished from the grounds of a north London estate. "Reclining Figure," a world famous bronze by the late sculpture Henry Moore worth more than $5 million and it's heavy. Police fear it will be melted down at sold for scrap.

"King Kong" is a $50 million gorilla. Peter Jackson's remake or the 1933 classic was No. 1 at the box office this weekend, and coming soon, the John Lennon talking action figure. No kidding. Called the New York Years, John Lennon, it's described as the first authorize doll of Lennon during his solo career. The company plans to market the 18" doll to collectors next spring.

There's still much more ahead on CNN. President Bush will bring you his views on Iraq during a live speech tonight. CNN's special live coverage of the president's speech begins tonight at 8:00 Eastern with "THE SITUATION ROOM," followed by a special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." Carol Lin with more of CNN LIVE SUNDAY after this.

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