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Inside Iran; Drug Could Help Gambling Addiction; Western Union Retires the Telegram

Aired February 02, 2006 - 11:32   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: An emergency meeting in Vienna today concerning Iran and its nuclear ambitions. The U.N. nuclear expert, the International Atomic Energy Agency, looks ready to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council. A vote is expected tomorrow.
Any action in the Security Council on sanctions would wait, though, until March. That's when a key report on Iran's program is due. The Chinese and Russians insisted on the delay. It gives diplomats a month to find a compromise. One proposal would allow Russia to enrich uranium for Iran's energy needs. Iran took steps to resume uranium enrichment in early January. It claims it wants to produce electricity and not bombs.

Iran is sitting atop vast oil wealth, but ordinary Iranians aren't taking it to the bank. In fact, many struggle with poverty, unemployment and runaway inflation.

Our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports look at life in Iran. Her report first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Banderabas (ph) is Iran's biggest commercial port, but many of its people are poor after three decades of economic mismanagement. Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has come here today to promise that he'll change all that. An important message, especially now that he's confronting the West over Iran's nuclear program.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): All of our neighbors, Pakistan and India have nuclear technology. Why is the U.S. barring us from having it?

AMANPOUR: Most Iranians agree but they also want to tell their president about their troubles at home. Today, these special mailboxes have been set up so they can send him their personal letters.

Tell me why you're sending letters to the president?

"Because we really think he'll deal with our problems," she says. "He's ready to listen to our complaints and resolve them, like our job and housing problems."

"He may or may not help us," says this woman, Zora, "but his presidency is enough for us and we thank God."

Partly because of his humble background, partly because of his fundamentalist Islamic faith the president has many supporters here, like this local government official.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want Iran to be developed, an Iran that will fight global arrogance. A fully pure Iran. And our president Mr. Ahmadinejad is really doing that.

AMANPOUR: But there are skeptics looking on like Ali whose letter to the president is an invitation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He says, he's one of us. So I ask him, please, spare a moment to come and see how we live. There are 11 people in my house and I am the only breadwinner.

AMANPOUR: Ali lost his job two years ago, but somehow he has to provide for all those who depend on him.

President Ahmadinejad says he has come to help the poor, people like you. As has he done?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We haven't seen anything tangible so far. Mr. Ahmadinejad, instead of dealing with our problems, is confronting other countries like the U.S. And Israel, and that will make things worse. Today when I saw you, I just wanted to spill out all of my troubles because nobody in this country listens to me.

AMANPOUR: But President Ahmadinejad's fiery rhetoric does draw crowds. His speech in Banderabas the night we visited was packed as he continued his trademark attacks on the U.S. And despite threats of harsh economic sanctions which could drive the country further into poverty, he defiantly pledged not to be bullied into abandoning Iran's nuclear program.

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I declare to the big powers of the world that Iran and Iranian government will follow the path to achieve peaceful nuclear technology.

AMANPOUR: Later, back in the capital Tehran, the president held a press conference.

(on camera): You have said over and over again that your priority is to serve the people. We've been talking to some of the people, particularly in Banderabas, which you just visited, and they tell us that they've heard these slogans over and over again and their life doesn't change and they get poorer.

AHMADINEJAD: I don't know which people you've interviewed. If you mean the tens of hundreds of thousands of people who were there and were chanting slogans in support of the government, the president and his programs, if you mean those people, the answer is clear. If you mean imaginary people that you have interviewed, so be it.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): But there's nothing imaginary about poverty in Iran.

(on camera): This is southern Tehran, an Ahmadinejad stronghold. He based his presidential campaign around a promise to make life better for Iran's poor. But if Iran is further isolated, if sanctions are imposed, he'll have a hard time delivering. Iran itself says that 20 percent of its people live below the poverty line while many outside sources say it could be double that figure.

Back in Banderabas, poverty is driving Ali to despair. Tonight, like every night, he'll cruise the streets using his own car as a taxi. On a good night, he can make $8. But gypsy caps like his are illegal and if he's caught, he'll get a $10 fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This dilapidated car is my only source of income and I have nothing else. I see absolutely no light for the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that report from Christiane Amanpour. You can have more of Christiane's reports from Iran on "ANDERSON 360," weeknights at 10:00 Eastern.

Well, help could be on the way for gambling addicts, from a drug that blocks the rush from winning. We'll have details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A lawsuit that's been filed over the so-called morning- after pill tops our daily dose of health news today. Three Massachusetts women are suing Wal-Mart over access to the emergency contraceptive. They say state law requires Wal-Mart to carry it. Their lawsuit is backed by abortion rights groups's. In a letter to the plaintiff, the Wal-Mart attorney says the store change does not consider the so-called morning-after pill a commonly prescribed medication that it is required to provide.

An experimental drug is showing promise in treating compulsive gamblers. It's an addiction that affects millions of Americans.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with more on how the drug works. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, Daryn, this interesting, because it's a drug that alcoholics use to overcome their addiction to alcohol. And doctors say there's some promise in gamblers using it to overcome their addiction to gambling. Some six to nine million Americans are what's called problem gamblers.

What happens is they gamble and they get this euphoria. Their brains become insatiated in these opioids, which are chemicals that give pleasure, and they can't stop. As a matter of fact, these problem gamblers sometimes have debts that are two times their annual income. Well, let's take a look at what this study found. When they gave this pill, called Nalmefene, to addicted gamblers, 60 percent saw an improvement on this drug, compared to 34 percent who saw an improvement when they used a placebo. Now, the drug, as I mentioned, is currently used by alcoholics. It's used in a shot form, in an injection form. They're hoping to use it in a pill form when it's brought to the market, maybe, for gamblers.

KAGAN: So it's actually something chemical happening in the person's brain?

COHEN: Right. It is something chemical. You think of it as a sort of a moral choice. Like, are you going to gamble?

KAGAN: Yes, don't do that, don't bet all your money.

COHEN: Right, exactly. And there certainly are people who can make the choice whether or not to gamble, but there also are people who are actually addicted to gambling, doctors say.

And what happens is that they gamble, they feel this euphoria, and actually, opioids are satiating pleasure areas of the brain. And there are three pleasure areas of the brain. You see them here. The nucleus accubbens, the amygdala and ventral tegmental area.

KAGAN: Easy for you to say!

COHEN: Yes. And those three areas feel, wow, this is great, I want to keep doing this. And what this drug does is it keeps those opioids from being absorbed into those three areas of the brain.

KAGAN: But what about side effects?

COHEN: There are some side effects. What they found is that especially when people use this drug at higher doses, that people did feel nauseous, for example. They did experience insomnia, they did experience dizziness. So actually, a third of the people in this study dropped out. That's quite at few. So what they're thinking is that the lower doses also seem to work. They're hoping that that will keep those side effects at bay.

KAGAN: And widely available?

COHEN: It hopefully it will be, you know, according to the doctors that we talked to. They hope this will be widely available. It's not now. It's still under study.

KAGAN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

Well, this one might sound a little bit farfetched here. But a sudden change in altitude may have restored the hearing of a 72-year- old British man. The hearing loss began 50 years earlier, when Derek Glover (ph) was in the military. Eventually, he need a hearing aid. Recently he was in a cable car high in the Italian mountains when his ears just suddenly popped and presto, he could hear again. So far, doctors have not been able to explain what actually happened. Mystery.

For your "Daily Dose" of health news online, log on to our Web site. You'll find the latest medical stories, special reports and a health library. The address is CNN.com/health.

We're going to check in on weather and business coming up next. Plus, it's the end of an era for one of America's most storied forms of communication. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We've been talking about Iran through much of the day, and the nuclear threat that that nation poses as it allegedly is trying to build nuclear weapons. Earlier today, the national intelligence director, John Negroponte, was testifying on Capitol Hill about worldwide threats to the United States and he talked about the threat of Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN NEGROPONTE, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: Our concerns about Iran are shared by many nations, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and, of course, Iran's neighbors. Iran conducted a clandestine uranium enrichment program for nearly two decades in violation of its IAEA safeguards agreement and despite its claim to the contrary, we assess that Iran seeks nuclear weapons.

Let's talk about Iran's nuclear threat with Jim Walsh in Watertown, Massachusetts, this morning. He's an international security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Good morning.

JIM WALSH, MASS. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Good to see you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good to have you here with us. So Iran is trying to play itself off as the new kid who's being picked on, saying we're a new Iraq and we're not really trying to do all those bad things you say we're trying to do. But it doesn't look like the international community is buying that take?

WALSH: I think that's right. I mean, in some ways they are being picked on. But they also have a reason why they're being picked on, and that is this 20-year history of concealment and carrying on clandestine activities. So the Americans and the Europeans make a fair point when they say you have not been forthcoming. But the Iranians say, hey, you're only putting these restrictions on us. You allow these other countries -- Brazil, Japan, other countries -- to pursue enrichment. Why is it all about us?

So I think both sides have arguments. But we've reached a new stage here, and that is the Americans and the Europeans have persuaded the Russians and the Chinese, the other members of the Security Council, to at least have the case referred to the Security Council. So there seems to be some movement in the direction of an international consensus. KAGAN: Most Americans probably couldn't pick out Iran on a map. Why should they care what this country is doing with nuclear energy?

WALSH: Well, that's a great question, Daryn. I think Americans should be careful on this subject, because it's a tough one. It's complex. People should not have the idea in their minds that somehow tomorrow Iran is going to whip out a nuclear weapon, or that it has a nuclear weapon.

We're really talking about something that might be a problem in the future, three or five years down the line, or even later. But nevertheless, any country that goes and develops nuclear weapons, I think, and I think most of the international community believes, would be a threat. It means that those weapons, the further spread of those weapons mean they are more likely to be used in a nuclear war.

So it's -- nuclear proliferation has always been a top issue for the American public, and it should be, but I don't think we should overreact to indivual events, either.

KAGAN: So there's this meeting taking place today -- all right. I'm losing people left and right today. I hope it wasn't something that I said. But let me say thank you to Jim Walsh from Massachusetts and MIT this morning. Clearly, got a few technical glitches working today.

(MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: You can blame the telephone, maybe the fax machines. Certainly the writing was on the wall with e-mail and text messaging. After nearly a century and a half, the Western Union telegram, the brief message in the signature yellow envelope, it's gone! The company sent its final dispatch on Friday. Western Union is still around. It is focusing on money transfers.

We've all seen movies that look like everybody involved just kind of phoned it in. Typically, those films are forgotten at award time. But now films can really be phoned in, with real phones, and they're not going unnoticed.

Our Jeanne Moos went to a film festival that put the cell in cellular.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Calling all movie directors. At the CellFlix festival, there is no red carpet to roll out. No one will ask you...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who are you wearing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prada.

MOOS: You can skip the three-hour epics. We're talking 30- second movies, shot with a cell phone.

(on camera): Mike, what was your budget for this film?

MIKE POTTER, DIRECTOR, "CHEAT": It started at zero.

MOOS (voice-over): Speaking, where else, on a cell phone, festival winner Mike Potter said his movie "Cheat" took half an hour to shoot. It stars his grandparents, Fred and Rosemary.

POTTER: They have a very endearing relationship.

MOOS: "Cheat" was one of 178 submissions to Ithaca College's CellFlix festival. Finalists planted their cell phone cameras on escalators and under trains.

But Mike Potter's 30-second love story won the $5,000 prize. Here is the film in its entirety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have this game we play on Sunday, my Rosemary and I. I call out a headline. Rosemary, Bruschi's not gonna play on Sunday.

And if she correctly guesses the headline, I give her a kiss.

Well, that's true.

I gotta tell you something, sometimes I cheat.

MOOS: So they had to do the kiss three times to get it just right, and shooting with a cell phone invites complications.

(on camera): Mike, you never missed any cell phone calls while you were shooting, did you?

POTTER: I had it ring once. I think it was my girlfriend.

MOOS: How can you shoot yourself and know what you got?

(voice-over): Some of us have enough trouble making a phone call, let alone a movie. And talk about multitasking with your cell. A Dutch comedy show foresees cell phones that shave, cell phones that iron, cell phones you can make grilled cheese in, even cell phones that you can order to self-destruct.

This may be Mike Potter's first movie-making award, but already he's issuing a challenge.

POTTER: I challenge Mr. Steven Spielberg, the great storyteller, to a cell phone film battle.

MOOS: Even ET didn't know how to use a cell phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ET, phone home.

MOOS: Steven Spielberg, phone Mike Potter.

POTTER: Let's take away the budget. Let's take away the big- name actors, and let's compete on a smaller screen. MOOS: Smaller pictures. Now, that's something Norma Desmond knew a thing or two about.

WILLIAM HOLDEN, ACTOR: You used to be in silent pictures. Used to be big.

MOOS (on camera): I am big! It is the pictures that got small!

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: You are big. Thanks, Jeanne.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: And that's going to wrap it up for pus. I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is up next. Stay tuned for YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'll be back with the latest headlines from the U.S. in about 20 minutes.

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