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Your World Today
Top South Korean Scientist Resigns; New York Transit Strike Ends; Tsunami: One Year Later
Aired December 23, 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.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A South Korean hero resigns in disgrace, accused of faking his landmark stem cell research to so many people he had given hope.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Rebirth in Banda Aceh. New life returns to a devastated Indonesian city one year after the tsunami.
HOLMES: Plus, a famous director revisits the tragedy at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. And his film is stirring up a lot of controversy.
VERJEE: It's 2:00 a.m. in Seoul, South Korea; 6:00 p.m. in Munich, Germany.
I'm Zain Verjee.
HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world to YOUR WORLD TODAY.
VERJEE: He was the hero in South Korea, but his research made news all over the world, with "TIME" magazine crediting him with the most amazing invention of 2005.
HOLMES: Now the scientist Hwang Woo-suk has resigned his university post after an expert panel says he falsified data in landmark stem cell research.
VERJEE: Sohn Jie-ae has more on the revelations that the panel says damaged the very foundation of science.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SOHN JIE-AE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He went from the pinnacle of worldwide acclaim to the pit of disgrace. Stem cell research doctor Hwang Woo-suk spoke with reporters, delivering an apology to the Korean people.
"As a way of expressing just a fraction of how apologetic I feel about causing such immense shock and disappointment," he says, "I am resigning of professor of Seoul National University." But Hwang maintained his team have the technology to produce stem cells tailored to specific patients. A team that wept as their leader left the university, his reputation ruined. But there was no sympathy from a panel of experts from Seoul National University who had been investigating Hwang's research.
The panel said in march Hwang submitted fake data and photographs in a paper published in the U.S. journal "Science," making it look as if he had 11 patient-specific stem cell lines when he had only two.
The research was hailed as a breakthrough, improving the chances of tissues grown from cloned stem cells to treat diseases such as diabetes or Parkinson's Disease.
(on camera): With global acclaim in the area of stem cell research, Dr. Hwang was a national hero. But now his fall from grace is on the cover of almost every magazine on sale. And the Korean people now consider him a national disgrace.
(voice over): "What I find most difficult to forgive is that he lied for so long," says this office worker. And while this office worker wanted to give Hwang the benefit of the doubt, he also says now he considers the entire stem cell research a fraud.
The university panel says in the coming days it will announce the results of DNA tests into the two stem cell lines which do exist to see if they are indeed legitimate. The full range of investigation is inspected to include Hwang's earlier research works, including the world's first cloned dog.
Sohn Jie-ae, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: And we are going to be speaking to a managing editor of "Science" later on in our program. The scandal surrounding the South Korean scientists, though, is our inbox question today. And we really want you to weigh in on this.
HOLMES: That's right. Do we trust scientists too much? Simple question. Hopefully some interesting answers.
Send your thoughts to ywt@cnn.com. Include your name, where you are writing from. Try to keep it brief. We'll get some in a little later.
Well, a Dutch court has convicted a chemicals merchant of war crimes. The court sentenced Franz Van Anrab (ph) to 15 years in prison for selling Saddam Hussein's regime raw materials used in poison gas attacks in Iraq in the 1980s. Anrab (ph) wasn't in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. He is in custody, however.
He has said that he was unaware that the material would be used in chemical warfare. He was acquitted of charges of genocide.
An estimated 5,000 Kurds were killed when Hussein's forces used chemical in an attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja in March of 1988.
VERJEE: U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the White House has authorized a reduction in combat forces in Iraq. Rumsfeld says the number of troops will soon fall below this year's baseline of 138,000. That number had risen to 160,000 ahead of last week's elections. Rumsfeld says progress in Iraq's politics, economics and security lay behind the reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Because the conditions here in Iraq have evolved favorably, we've made a decision to reduce our brigades from 17 to 15 and to increase some of our assistance to the training and equipping and -- of the Iraqi security forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: One brigade consists of about 3,500 soldiers -- Michael.
HOLMES: Zain, at least eight Iraqi soldiers and one policeman have been killed in a firefight north of Baghdad. Gunmen storming a highway checkpoint near Baquba setting off those clashes.
Now, also near Baquba, nine people killed in a suicide bombing outside a Shiite mosque. The attacker blew himself up as he was being searched for explosives. A policeman guarding the mosque was among the dead.
VERJEE: The Sudanese foreign ministry says six Sudanese citizens have been kidnapped in Baghdad. They were apparently abducted after attending Muslim prayers. According to a spokesman, four were employees at the country's diplomatic mission in Baghdad.
HOLMES: Well, large demonstrations were held right across on Friday to protest what many say were unfair parliamentary elections. In Baghdad, thousands demonstrated after noon prayers in a rally organized by a major Sunni Arab coalition. Sunni Arabs and some Shiite factions want an international body to review complaints about voting fraud in last week's elections.
A U.S. diplomat in Baghdad said on Friday Iraqi and U.N. electoral officials are examining those allegations. Final results are expected in January.
VERJEE: An Italian prosecutor has issued Europe-wide arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA agents. They're accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan and taking him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. Prosecutors say the abduction violated Italian sovereignty and derailed domestic terror investigations.
They want the 22 suspects extradited from the United States. Italy's justice minister's considering the request.
HOLMES: The holiday rush in the United States is in full swing. That is especially true in New York City, where seven million commuters can once again ride the trains and buses. Transit union board members voted on Thursday to end the mass strike, instructing more than 30,000 bus and train workers to go back to their jobs. While a new contract has not been signed, talks about pension plans, pay and healthcare will resume.
Adaora Udoji has this look back on just at how negotiations between the union and the city reached such a deadlock.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Less than a week before the holidays, chaos. No public transit in a city where seven million people depend on it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you live under a rock?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live in Westchester.
UDOJI: After weeks of intense negotiations and behind-the-scene maneuvering, an impasse.
ROGER TOUSSAINT, TRANSIT UNION PRESIDENT: The Local 100 executive board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties immediately.
UDOJI: Mayor Michael Bloomberg ratchets up the rhetoric.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (R), NEW YORK CITY: The leadership of the TWU has thuggishly turned their backs on New York City and disgraced the noble concept of public service.
UDOJI: Tempers flare.
TOUSSAINT: When you have transit workers stand up for their rights and for their dignity, and we are then called "thugs," "selfish," "greedy," "overpaid" by a billionaire.
UDOJI: The drama unfolded as negotiations broke down an hour before Monday night's midnight deadline. The MTA had made a new offer and a demand. They agreed to increase raise amounts, also to add Martin Luther King day to the list of union holidays, and not to increase the retirement age.
But new hires would have to contribute 6 percent of their salaries towards retirement funds for their first 10 years on the job. That was a deal-breaker. The union wouldn't budge.
Mediators were rushed in and met with both sides as the city that never sleeps waited for any word of progress. The pressure began mounting with furious commuters stuck in gridlock, politicians flailing, fines increasing, and prospects of jail time for union leaders. Finally, the words all had been waiting to hear.
TOUSSAINT: I'm pleased to announce that the Local 100 executive board just voted overwhelmingly to direct transit workers to return to work. UDOJI: Only three days long, the strike has cost the city an estimated $1 billion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, let's go.
UDOJI: Under state law the walkout was illegal. Strikers face fines of two day's pay for every day not on the job. The union stands to be fined $3 million. And union leaders may face jail time.
The courts won't take all that up until January.
THEODORE JONES, NEW YORK STATE JUDGE: I'm pleased on behalf of the people of New York and citizens of our city that indeed hopefully we'll be able to salvage Christmas.
UDOJI: But for now, the city is breathing a collective sigh of relief, knowing that come Friday morning, the nation's largest transit system will be back on track.
Adora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: The day ocean roared and the land they once called home disappeared.
HOLMES: That's right. That's still to come, a look at coping, and, yes, persevering in the post-tsunami world of western Indonesia. Survivors share their stories next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Hello, and welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
Racked by a decade's-long civil war, Indonesia's western province of Aceh was the hardest-hit region during last year's tsunami.
HOLMES: That's right. The sheer force of those giant waves can only be measured in the loss of lives and livelihoods. As many as 130,000 people died in Indonesia alone.
VERJEE: U.N. special tsunami envoy Bill Clinton has warned international focus may wane as the one-year anniversary approaches.
HOLMES: That, as John Irvine reports now from Banda Aceh that survivors are creating new reasons to move on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN IRVINE, REPORTER, ITV NEWS (voice over): He's less than a minute old. After all the misery and grief, the cry of new life is not only cherished here, but eagerly sought. One year on, and Banda Aceh is enjoying a baby boom.
The doctor said that sheer human instinct persuaded couples who had lost children in the tsunami to have more. But many of the newcomers have not been born to an easy life.
The tsunami made 600,000 people here homeless. In this camp, we find Kuz Mayata (ph) and her 3 week-old baby. Her two other children were killed by the wave.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We decided to have a baby as soon as possible because we tried to move on. But sometimes the sadness struck me when I remember those two kids that were lost.
IRVINE: Among the problems here is that land on which thousands of homes once stood is now either seabed or uninhabitable swamp. That said, reconstruction is gathering pace where possible, and the experts are satisfied that the world's largest charitable donation is not being squandered.
DOUG KEATING, OXFAM: We are very happy with the relationships we have, where the money's being spent. We are rigorously audited by outside auditors internally. And I think really the work is going on.
Look behind you. The job is getting done, and I can confidently say that to people.
IRVINE: Off the southwestern coast, fishermen are back at sea. In pulverized villages, mosques that were structural sole survivors no longer stand alone.
This one is used as a kindergarten, although there are few children. The teacher doesn't talk about the tsunami, and the boys don't ask.
Nearby, mass graves, a callous necessity a year ago, are now neat and tended. Fitting memorials at the heart of small communities where people are trying to make the most of having lived.
What they went through is so cataclysmic the rest of us still find it unimaginable.
(on camera): There are pictures of the tsunami coming ashore in Thailand and elsewhere. But none from here, in Indonesia.
So how big was it? Well, look at the evidence. This tree is one of very few left standing here. The tsunami ripped off most of its branches. By my reckoning, that makes the wave at least 70 feet high at this particular point.
(voice over): In terms of infrastructure, it will take years to undo what the tsunami did. Six thousand miles of road were destroyed, although this one, the coastal highway, is manageable once more, even if it does now follow a different path.
Retracing the steps of a year ago, we return to the remnants of another village. Last December, we couldn't discover its name, for there was nobody to ask. But incredibly, there were survivors in Karang (ph), and a few of them have come back to new homes on a hillside. It was by running to higher ground that this woman escaped the wave. She said her 4-year-old son was washed away, never to be seen again.
By contrast, this little boy was the only survivor of his family. His adoptive parents who lost four of their own have named him Rahmed (ph). It means blessing. He's a miracle child in the land of the world's worst recorded natural disaster.
And at the end of year one, post-tsunami, those who have come through it are coping as well as anybody could have hoped.
John Irvine, ITV News, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not the same. I don't enjoy school anymore. I lost so many friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: In their own words, survivors of the tsunami share their stories. As we mark the anniversary, do join us for "Voices From the Tsunami." That's this Saturday at 13:00 hours GMT.
VERJEE: Then, on Sunday at 13:30 GMT, one year after the tsunami struck, we're going to show you how the region's rebounding and how the survivors are working to rebuild their shattered lives. Join us for "Tsunami: One Year After."
Clickety clack of the train on the track. I practiced that.
HOLMES: I'm glad you said that.
It's a sound adding to the jollyness of the season as the strike ends just in time for the holiday rush.
Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy holidays, everyone. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. We will have more of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, let's check on stories making headlines around the U.S.
Roads, airports and train stations are jammed today with holiday travelers. And AAA predicts a record number of Americans will travel this season. Most of you will go by car. Plenty of you are flying.
So, if you are headed to the airport today and wondering what to expect, let's get a picture of that.
Alina Cho has some information for you. She is in the thick of it at LaGuardia International Airport.
Hello.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Daryn.
Not too bad, though. I have to tell you, in some ways it feels like a normal day here at LaGuardia Airport.
Of course we did have that morning rush between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. And things will get busy again. The afternoon rush is expected to start in a couple of hours, at about 3:00 p.m.
Now, holiday travelers have a couple of things to be thankful for this holiday season. Of course that nasty New York transit strike is over. The weather isn't posting a problem. And in turn, there are no reported delays here at LaGuardia.
Now, another thing that travelers will have to keep in mind is that there are some new TSA rules in effect this holiday season. Specifically, travelers will be able to pack small scissors, even some small tools into their carry-on luggage. But screeners will be conducting more random searches.
Another thing to keep in mind, do not pack any wrapped gifts, because those gifts will be opened during the screening process.
And finally a little note here. Daryn, if you are flying through LaGuardia, Santa will be on the runway today.
KAGAN: Oh.
CHO: This is an annual tradition. Oh, yes. Yes, not Santa, really, but a maintenance worker dressed as Santa. But if you are flying out of LaGuardia, you'll be able to give a little wave to Santa as you take off.
KAGAN: Well, we know it's not the real Santa because the real Santa was with us live here last hour here in Atlanta.
CHO: That's right.
KAGAN: And he travels fast but not quite that fast.
Alina, thank you and happy holidays to you and your family.
CHO: And to you.
KAGAN: Thank you.
AAA says that travelers hitting the highways will find gas prices averaging about $2.20 a gallon for self-serve regular. The club saying the majority of the people driving for Christmas and New Year's will begin their trip in the Southeast.
And we are looking at live pictures now from Charlotte, North Carolina. It looks like things are moving pretty smoothly there. Chad, the weather and the skies look clear there. What about the rest of the country?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The skies are great.
(WEATHER REPORT) .
KAGAN: All right, Chad. Thank you.
They went on a raid hunting for terrorists and they found instead a helpless baby. Coming up on "LIVE FROM," what some troops from Georgia are doing to help a little Iraqi girl.
Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.
I'm Daryn Kagan. Happy holidays to you and all of your family.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A warm welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY right here on CNN International.
I'm Michael Holmes.
VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee.
Here are some of the top stories we are following.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the new year will bring cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq. Speaking in the Iraqi city of Falluja, Rumsfeld said the reduction would take forces below the baseline level of 138,000 by next spring. He said further adjustments would be considered when Iraq's new government is in place next year.
HOLMES: In the Netherlands, a chemicals merchant has been convicted of war crimes. Franz Vanderacht (ph) was sentenced to 15 years for selling raw materials used in poison gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds in 1988. He was acquitted of charges of genocide, Vanderacht (ph) has said that he was unaware the material would be used in chemical warfare.
VERJEE: The man considered South Korea's top scientist has resigned his university post in disgrace. Hwang Woo-suk apologized on Friday after an expert panel said data in his landmark stem cell research was fabricated.
The research had raised hopes of finding cures for hard-to-treat diseases. The panel says it also is investigating Hwang's earlier purported breakthroughs, including the first-ever cloned dog.
HOLMES: Well, Hwang Woo-suk published his breakthrough claims in the U.S. journal "Science" back in May. Now the researcher is asking "Science" to retract that article.
For more on this, we're joined from Washington by R. Brooks Hanson, managing editor of physical sciences at "Science." You know, I've got to ask you -- I mean, this can't be a good time for you. How does something like this slip through?
R. BROOKS HANSON, "SCIENCE": Well, I think the peer review process is looking at standardization. And so, in some sense, this didn't slip through. I think by providing all of the data to the scientific community to allow or to provide for a means for replication led to ultimately enough the -- evidence that people could, or that enough questions could be raised when the work wasn't replicated.
HOLMES: So is it -- and just help me understand this. In the scientific community, is there an awful lot of "trust me on this"?
HANSON: Science itself works on trust with a lot of checks on it. And I think we've seen one of the checks come through here.
HOLMES: But not until after it was published.
HANSON: That's true. But we are not an -- you know, journals are not an investigative body. So yes, we are working in some sense on trust that when a scientist says something was done, that it was done. Then, like I said, there are a number of checks and balances that go into that and standards. And that's really what the peer review process does is make sure that when something is published, that the data are available so that other people can look at that. And that's what was done here.
HOLMES: So the protocol is strong enough, do you think, to stop something slipping through? You know, I'm not blaming the magazine. I'm just saying is there enough of the check and balances? Obviously, if something gets published, it carries a lot of credence.
HANSON: Peer review in itself can't catch clever fraud, but it can provide enough data and records that, through further confirmation, that we can catch that. And so, it's never -- peer review itself is never designed to catch clever fraud. Though it's worked in this case, I think, and it's worked in many other cases.
HOLMES: I understand. Tell me, what impact scientific fraud have on science? Not the magazine -- science?
HANSON: I think the first impact that you're seeing here is a lot of unfortunately wasted time by, you know, our peer reviewers in the journal, but more broadly and much more importantly, by the scientific community in replicating this. But overall, there's a lot of exciting research going on in stem cells and cloning more broadly. And I think that will carry through.
So, you know, ultimately, this is very unfortunate and we're all disappointed. But there's a lot of exciting work going on out there and that will eventually put this behind us.
HOLMES; One thing that's interesting about this particular scientist, he became something of a celebrity in his own country. And he was fated by not just the community, but by the media, or also by his own government. Does that tell us something, that scientists shouldn't be fated in this way? That ego can take over? That science isn't a place for celebs?
HANSON: I think, you know, science has to communicate to the public and scientists are important to doing that. I think what this says is that we -- science is ultimately based on honesty and a search for what's happening in nature and that that has to be done straightforwardly and honestly, not that it shouldn't be done at all.
HOLMES: And where does this leave stem cell research?
HANSON: I think, as I said, there's enormous amount of high quality, exciting stem cell research going on and that that will carry the day. So this is certainly a great disappointment and setback, not only because it's wasted some people's time, but I'm confident that the other work, high quality work going on worldwide, will carry through.
HOLMES: All right. We want to thank R. Brooks Hanson, deputy editor of "Science." Thanks so much.
HANSON: Thank you.
VERJEE: Chinese officials are publicly expressing concern about the country's shocking rate of industrial accidents. The Ministry of Supervision admitting Friday it has little real power to stop coal mine owners and local officials from neglecting safety rules. Corruption in the highly profitable coal sector is cited.
The ministry says two provincial vice governors were dismissed, 96 officials were prosecuted, and more than 120 others were demoted or fired for their roles in accidents in 2005. This amid yet another industrial accident. The Xinhua News Agency says the death toll has risen from at least 42 from a gas explosion in a Sichuan province highway tunnel that's under construction.
Tara Duffy has more now on China's year of accidents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TARA DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 5,000 people killed this year in mining accidents. More than 2,000 perishing in fires, like this one just last week in a hospital in northern china. Thirty-nine people dying after a worker tried to fix a power outage.
The death toll from industrial accidents in China is staggering, 30,000 this year. In the last month and a half, two toxic spills polluted water supplies for millions. For the past 25 years during China's economic boom, business often took priority over environmental and work safety concerns. China is trying to face its accident record head on.
LI YIZHONG, CHINESE WORK SAFETY MINISTER: We must find out the cause of accidents, punish the liable people and learn lessons and implement corrective measures. DUFFY: In a report on the six most serious coal mine accidents this year, the central government says that more than 200 people are being disciplined, some through prosecution and dismissal, including local officials and mine managers.
But government action hasn't stopped the deadly stream of accidents. In the latest toxic spill, the cancer-causing metallic element cadmium polluted drinking supplies in the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzbou province. The local government provided clean water to affected areas and closed a dam to stop the slick from reaching the provincial capital Hung Jo (ph). But officials around saying how fast the slick moving or how effective their efforts to dilute it are.
Last month, a plant explosion killed eight people and released a hundred tons of cancer-causing benzene into water supplies. The investigation into who will be held responsible continues.
(on camera): While China's environmental and work safety records are dismal, the government says that the total number of accidents is actually going down. And Chinese leaders, as well as the state-run media, are now more open about admitting the severity of the problem, even when it implicates government officials.
Tara Duffy, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: An Olympic tragedy is revisited in a new film by Steven Spielberg.
HOLMES: Yes, and just ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we're going to speak with an actor involved in this movie, which is the subject of a growing controversy. Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
HOLMES: Yes. Now, at a time when all eyes were focused on the Olympic Games in Munich, the kidnap and murder of 11 Israeli athletes, of course, sent shockwaves around the world.
VERJEE: Director Steven Spielberg's film about the attack and the Israeli response makes its debut in the United States today.
HOLMES: Yes, as Guy Raz reports, it is already stirring controversy in Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The attack that still haunts the spirit of the Olympic Games. 1972, Munich: 11 Israeli athletes murdered by members of the PLO-affiliated Black September group. Israel's prime minister, Golda Meir, then orders an immediate operation to find those responsible. ANNKE SPITZER, WIDOW OF MURDERED ATHLETE (through translator): Golda Meir called us to her office 30 days after the massacre in Munich. And she told us, that she said that the government has decided to hunt down. She never set assassinate or eliminate, but she said to hunt down all those who were directly or indirectly connected to Munich and all those people that had blood on their hands.
RAZ: The operation is where Steven Spielberg's film takes off, based loosely on a book by George Jonas written about the events.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Eleven Palestinian names.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAZ: Loosely because the storyline is almost entirely made up. It's kind of a Hollywood take on the moral qualms of one of the Israeli hitmen. It's this aspect of the film that slightly annoys Annke Spitzker, whose husband, Andre, was one of the murdered athletes.
SPITZER: There is a problem in the movie. And in my opinion, for the viewers, it will be very, very difficult to understand that the Munich part is historically based. And the other part of the Mossad action afterwards, it's fiction.
RAZ: It's thought that about 18 people suspected of involvement in the massacre were assassinated by Israeli agents.
DAVID KIMCHE, FMR. MOSSAD CHIEF: It had nothing to do with vengeance, it had nothing to do with reprisals; it has everything to do with the prevention of more terror attacks against innocent people.
RAZ: Most Israelis vehemently backed the assassinations.
(on camera): They backed it because the 1972 Munich massacre was regarded as one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history. And to this day, the tragedy is marked right here at the grave site of those murdered athletes.
(voice-over): Spielberg's film has been attacked for what critics claim is the moral equivalents drawn between the murder of the athletes and the assassination of the terrorists.
In an interview with the Los Angeles times, Spielberg said, quote, "I just wanted to put empathy in every direction because the situation is not cut and dry."
But Spielberg also added, he supports Israel's response to the attack.
But for Annke Spitzer and the other relatives, Spielberg's mistake was not consulting them.
SPITZER: I told him. I said, look, I said the minimum what you could have done is inform us what is going to happen. You are making a movie, but for us, Munich is our life tragedy.
RAZ: Guy Raz, CNN, Tel-Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: We are joined now by one of the stars of "Munich." Actor Ossie Beck joins us from New York.
Thanks so much for being with us.
OSSIE BECK, ACTOR: Hi, how are you?
VERJEE: Hey.
What kind of experience was it for you to be involved in making this film and reliving an intense historical moment?
BECK: Absolutely thrilling experience. Steven Spielberg is amazing to work with. And he works so closely with us as actors that it just makes it a wonderful experience altogether.
And for me personally, reliving history. And during the process, discovering my own history was just amazing.
VERJEE: What was that?
BECK: I had discovered two days before he wrapped that my grandfather was involved in the Israeli intelligence that assisted in the capture of Adolph Eichmann, who was the chief officer in the Holocaust.
VERJEE: Did it make any difference in the way you approached the movie?
BECK: Well, it was two days before we were wrapping, but for those final two days, it made it very, very real and more connected than it already had been. But I was already reliving a real person's experience.
VERJEE: How much of the movie is fiction? How much is fact?
BECK: For me, personally, as an actor, I was reliving moments that were very real. The sequence of events that happened in "Munich" were very, very real to me.
VERJEE: But there are some fictional scenes in the movie, aren't there?
BECK: The movie itself is about the aftermath from the Munich event. But for myself, the sequence of events that we had filmed, it was very real, and very raw and very emotional, and very much in line with what had happened. VERJEE: It's causing a lot of controversy. What kind of commentary do you think is this film on the Israeli/Palestinian debate. Did Steven Spielberg handle it fairly, you think?
BECK: I think it's very simple. I think as an actor I feel that anyone that comes out of this movie is just going to come out with open dialogue and wanting to discuss what they just experienced. And I think it's going to be wonderful for people to communicate more about what is happening in the world and in society. And that's my biggest hope, is that people come out and openly converse with what they just saw.
VERJEE: The end of the film, there's a scene where one person involved in the mission asks the other, what is it that you've learned? And you know, clearly it's in reference to the mission. But it's often also seen as just sort of a broader thing for the audience to think about in the Israeli/Palestinian context. What did you learn?
BECK: What did I love?
VERJEE: Learn.
BECK: Learn?
VERJEE: Right. Yes.
BECK: I learned that we need patience in life, and we need to be persistent, and fight for what we believe in. And as an actor, I believed in the film, and that's why I took part in it.
VERJEE: Actor Ossie Beck in New York, one of the stars of "Munich." Thank you so much.
BECK: Thanks for having me. Thank you.
VERJEE: It's the big question on many kid's minds these days.
HOLMES: Yes, what's the best way to reach Santa? By mail or e- mail?
VERJEE: BlackBerry.
HOLMES: Or BlackBerry if your kid is spoiled.
We will try to get some answer whence we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
VERJEE: He makes his trip just once a year. Yes, Santa's getting ready for his Christmas Eve journey.
HOLMES: Thank goodness. In anticipation, millions of children around the world have been writing to him -- both of mine, for example -- some by e-mail, others the old-fashioned way, handwritten with a postage stamp, although I wasn't going to spend money on that either.
VERJEE: Cheapo. Richard Quest found out where some of them are delivered.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Send a letter to Santa and this is probably where it ends up. Finnish Lapland, the start of the Arctic Circle where there are more wild reindeer than people.
At this time of the year, 30,000 letters arrive every day at the post office. Sorting these letters from all over the world is a Herculean task for the post office workers -- sorry, the elves. For those letters that ask questions about Santa's life, there's a reply with a special postmark. For those that just ask for gifts, well, they get filed.
These children write about their lives, their friends, their pets. They send lots and lots of drawings. They send photographs. It's a wonderful way of communicating and it's a wonderful way of, you know, getting the feel, you know, what's happening there and how they feel and all. It really is nice.
QUEST (on camera): To Santa Lapland. This is from ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, that was the Adam (ph).
QUEST (voice-over): Opening Santa's mail is a journey around the globe. Other countries send them here even if they are just addressed to the North Pole. The Finns believe all this proves Santa is theirs. Other countries don't agree. In a dispute worthy of the United Nations, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden and others all claim Santa really lives with them. Thin ice, says Finland.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can claim it, but we've got him here on the Arctic Circle, every single day of the year. So if you want to visit Santa, you can come to Rovenaemi and find him here 365 days per year.
QUEST (on camera): With such a volume of mail, Santa it seems is no myth. And it doesn't really matter which country claims him as theirs, with so many letters from around the world, Santa is the happy spirit of globalization.
Richard Quest, CNN, at the Arctic Circle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: An extreme swimmer has set a new world record for the southernmost long distance swim. In less than 19 minutes, Briton Lewis Pugh conquered the zero degree Antarctic waters on Tuesday in just a swimsuit, a cap and goggles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEWIS PUGH, WORLD RECORD HOLDER: It's an incredible feeling when you dive into the waters of Antarctica. I mean the water is zero degrees. The most immediate reaction is massive, massive hyperventilation. And then following that, you start losing feeling in all your fingers, all your toes, extreme pain.
And then it starts moving up your arms, until you can no longer feel your arms and legs. And all your blood has gone to your core to try and protect your core. It's not the type of place where you'd want to spend a lot of time swimming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Scientists just amazed at his ability to raise his body temperature before swimming for survival. His one kilometer Antarctic swim comes just months after his record-setting Arctic swim.
HOLMES: Crazy. He was absolutely crazy.
VERJEE: Let's open our inbox right now. We've been asking you for your thoughts on science researchers.
HOLMES: That's right. The question has been, do we trust scientists too much? Here is how some of you replied.
We Joon Seong from Seoul says, "scientists' enthusiasm to better the world should continue to grow. We need to trust science and learn a lesson from this incident so we don't repeat the mistake."
VERJEE: Simon from New York tells us "we have no choice but to trust scientists, especially those without enough knowledge in science. There will probably be stricter guidelines for publishing science papers."
HOLMES: Henry Hornstein from Montreal writes, "we don't trust them enough . A prime example of this is the U.S. failure to heed the environmental scientists' warnings of greenhouse warming."
VERJEE: And finally, Ed from New Jersey tells us, "yes, we do trust scientists too much, as though there were infallible. They do not have the answers."
HOLMES: All right. There you go. Keep writing. We'll read some more a little later on. Meanwhile I'm Michael Holmes.
VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. Thanks so much for your company. This is the end.
HOLMES: For those of you celebrating, Merry Christmas.
VERJEE: Merry Christmas.
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