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Your World Today
Rescuers Drill Escape Route to Free Two Australian Miners; Failure to Capture Mladic Halts Negotiations With EU; Israel Viewpoint on Threat From Iran; Tsunami Warning Issue In South Pacific
Aired May 03, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Trapped in a cage hundreds of meters underground. An update on mine rescue operations from Australia.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The shadows of Sarajevo and Srebrenica fall across Belgrade as the European Union halts talk on eventual membership.
GORANI: And on the chessboard of international relations, Beijing has just taken the Vatican's bishop.
CLANCY: It's 2:00 a.m. on Thursday morning in Tasmania, Australia.
I'm Jim Clancy.
GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.
Welcome to our viewers throughout the world and the United States.
This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: Hello and welcome, everyone.
Right about now, Brant Webb and Todd Russell should be asleep. Afterall, it's 2:00 in the morning. They're on the island of Tasmania, off Australia's south coast. But the two men probably are not.
They are the two miners still trapped beneath hundreds of tons of rock with rescue on their minds. They've been underground for eight days. But as Channel 7 Australia's Chris Reason reports, at least they have something new to keep them company.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS REASON, REPORTER, CHANNEL 7, AUSTRALIA (voice over): They're working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, two six-man rescue teams, and the task is taxing.
MATTHEW EASTHAM, PARAMEDIC: With any marathon, there's peaks and troughs, and we are working through those with them.
REASON: Paramedic Matthew Eastham has given the first eyewitness account of the rescue site a kilometer below. He said conditions were dark, damp and cramped.
EASTHAM: We've asked them to move their feet up and down to get some more circulation going.
REASON: But some extra comforts have been dispatched. The pair received two iPods today. The music?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apparently one is Foo Fighters. I'm showing my age, because I don't know who they are. It is country and western, I believe, which...
(LAUGHTER)
REASON: And for Brant?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Webbs have sent down some deodorant and some tooth paste. Probably not a bad day after seven days.
REASON: Overnight, eight truckloads of concrete were delivered to the mines to build foundation for the rasbora (ph) drill. The $6 million machine was bolted to that base this morning, and a guide hole cut. By 4:00 p.m., they had begun to carve that 12-meter-long escape tunnel.
(on camera): How is it going today?
JOHN WEBB, BRANT WEBB'S FATHER: Not very good, mate. Not very good.
REASON (voice over): Brant Webb's father, though, is feeling the frustration of the delay. He won't be letting his son go mining again.
WEBB: No, I'll cut his ankles off. I mean, I'll cut his feet off at the ankles. Right? He won't be putting me through this again.
REASON: The pair are trapped under rocks in a cherry picker or telehandler (ph) like this one. It's open at the top and rolled on an angle. And they've revealed they are worried about vibrations from the approaching drill head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they've requested some protective eyewear, some disposable face masks.
REASON: From the prime minister today, praise and encouragement.
JOHN HOWARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: It's a wonderful story of Australian endurance and courage.
REASON (on camera): The men are actually trapped almost a kilometer below where I stand now. It's a skate park, some distance away from the mine's A-frame tower. In fact, much of the mine's operations and effects reach far beyond its front gates.
(voice over): Residents complain about increasing tremors. One in January reached 1.6 on the Richter scale. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you could hear it reverberate out here in the (INAUDIBLE) River. This is 10 kilometers away from the mine site.
REASON: The local council had expressed its concerns to mine management just two weeks before the Ansak Day disaster.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Drilling through solid rock to make the rescue continue. As Chris Reason reported, they're expected to take another 48 hours. A short time ago, Australian Broadcasting's correspondent, Paul Lockyer, explained why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL LOCKYER, AUSTRALIA BROADCASTING CORP.: It's a very, very slow process. It's inch by inch. And given that they haven't been drilling, really, for all that long, they gave themselves 48 hours to get through this 12 meter wall of rock to find those two trapped men.
So, it's going to be a long story to be told. And remember this, that they have to keep stopping to hear for any vibrations. If the men feel vibrations as they work this drilling machine, they have to stop.
The vibrations themselves could bring down a rock fall, or the vibrations could start another seismic event, like last week, which brought down the rock fall then. So, it's a very tricky situation that they're in, and it's never been tried anywhere else in the world, what they are trying to do here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, from Australia, we take you now to China. There, mine accidents are common, sadly.
Fourteen miners were killed late Tuesday alone when a fire erupted in a coal pit. State media reports the accident took place in an illegal mining operation in Gue-Jo (ph) province.
Local officials say gas fumes ignited in the pits sparked the blaze. China's mines are considered the world's most dangerous. Each year, there are thousands of deaths in China because of accidents in mines.
Now, in the United States, the families of 12 men killed in a mining accident in January are now demanding answers. Hearings are going on for a second day with lawmakers and mine officials facing tough questions about what happened and how such accidents can be prevented in the future.
On Tuesday, family members of the victims clutched photos as they challenged officials to toughen safety laws. And they openly expressed their grief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AMBER HELMS, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: This is the man that I no longer have. I'm not sure anybody can understand how lonely I often feel. I'm so well at masking it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, in today's session, a mining inspector admitted that he may have been responsible for a communication error that led family members to believe at one point during the rescue operation that all the miners had survived -- Jim.
CLANCY: Turning now to Serbia, where the deputy prime minister and chief negotiator with the EU resigned after Brussels suspend the talks that could lead to Belgrade's membership in the European Union. The key has been full cooperation with the International War Crimes Tribunal, and that meant the capture of Ratko Mladic, the wartime commander of Serb forces in Bosnia. He was charged with genocide.
The EU says negotiations can resume as soon as Serbia hands the suspect over. The U.N.'s chief war crimes prosecutor says she was assured his arrest was imminent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLA DEL PONTE, CHIEF U.N. WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR: I was misled when I was told at the end of March that the arrest of Mladic was a matter of days or weeks. The information which was presented to me at that time to substantiate that a positive outcome could be expected soon has proven to be as wrong or largely misrepresented.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Mladic has been implicated in the siege of Sarajevo, the siege of Srebrenica, where thousands of men and boys were massacred.
Nic Robertson joins us now to reflect on the atrocities and also look at Belgrade's future.
And waking up in Belgrade today, what did Serbs find that was really different?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they certainly didn't find big expectation in the newspapers that Mladic was about to be handed over to The Hague. The story was largely played down there.
Perhaps what was different and what has been different this time over the past few months is how the prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, has reacted to the EU's decision to suspend those talks. He has, on the government Web site, placed a statement that talks about Mr. Mladic, says that the interests of the entire nation have been put on hold by one man.
What's different is, he names General Ratko Mladic. In the past, Prime Minister Kostunica has not done that. Perhaps he is in some way preparing the country for Mladic's eventual surrender to The Hague -- Jim.
Having said that, he's talking about them. They're talking about Ratko Mladic in Serbia today. Does that really mean he might be arrested any time soon?
ROBERTSON: I think the reality is -- and this is what the critics would say of the current government in Serbia -- that they haven't done enough to prepare the country, and particularly the nationalists within the country, who make up a large part of the population, for Mr. Mladic to be handed over. Perhaps now they are shifting gears.
In the last few months, Mr. Kostunica in this statement says that the support network -- and this has been people inside the army in the past -- indeed, Mr. Mladic, until 2002, was still being paid -- still being paid his pension in the army -- that the support network has now been dismantled. And Mr. Kostunica says that Mr. Mladic is essentially out there on his own and it's only a matter of finding out where he is.
But Carla Del Ponte said that 10 days ago, two weeks ago, the government, Mr. Kostunica, knew exactly where he was and didn't move. So, I don't think in Serbia anyone there is expecting Mr. Mladic to be handed over in the near, immediate feature -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right. Nic Robertson, as always, thank you for your reporting on this story from Bosnia.
GORANI: Well, Serbia's missed deadline to capture Mladic is the focus of our question that we're asking you today.
CLANCY: That's right. This is the question: What do you think can be done to force Serbia to hand over accused war criminal General Ratko Mladic?
GORANI: E-mail your thoughts to YWT@CNN.com. What can be done to force Serbia to hand him over?
Don't forget to include your name and where you are writing from.
Now, the United Nations Security Council meets behind closed doors today, Wednesday, to discuss Iran's refusal to curb its nuclear program. The U.S., Britain and France are set to brief the council on a plan to evoke Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter. Chapter 7 allows for sanctions, but it also allows military action. But a separate resolution is needed to specify either step.
Russia and China, who have veto power, want a softer approach. They remain strongly opposed to U.N. sanctions.
CLANCY: Israel has been the subject of inflammatory statements by the president of Iran. But the Israeli government has mostly let the United States and Europe take the lead in trying to curb Iran's belligerence, as well as its nuclear ambitions. Why?
John Vause explains. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Israel's celebration of independence, 58 years since the founding of the modern Jewish state, a country the president of Iran has publicly stated should be wiped off the map. Just the latest threat Israel has faced during its brief history.
And from Shimon Peres, a founding father of this country, a warning to the Iranians.
"We call on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions," he said. "Remember, that Israel is exceptionally strong and knows how to defend itself."
When Israel successfully tested its Arrow anti-ballistic missile system last December, the message to Iran was clear. The destroyed target, a missile similar to an Iranian Shihab-3, that could be armed with a nuclear warhead. But Iran is pushing on with its uranium enrichment program, insisting its for peaceful purposes.
The United States, Europe and Israel, though, believe the Iranians are secretly developing nuclear weapons, and the U.S. in particular has not ruled out a military option should diplomacy fail. Iran has warned if that happens, Israel will pay a heavy price.
A rear admiral of the revolutionary guard was quoted as saying, "We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel."
(on camera): Israeli government officials are saying nothing about this latest threat from Tehran. A gag order, we're told, coming from the highest level. For the last few months, Israel has been trying to lower its profile in this nuclear dispute with Iran, preferring the Americans and Europeans take the lead.
John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, we're just getting started here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: That's right. And coming up, why your name can cost you your life in Iraq. We'll explain what's in a name after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We want to make this announcement, that the U.S. Geological Survey is issuing a tsunami warning for Fiji and New Zealand.
This warning was prompted by a strong earthquake in the South Pacific about 36 kilometers beneath the sea floor. The 8.1 quake hit near the Tonga Islands. We are going to continue to follow this story, of course, and we'll bring you information minute by minute should it be coming in -- Hala.
GORANI: All right. Now to a story that is raising concern in some Western capitals. It's another example of the leftist trend in Latin America.
The newly-elected president of Bolivia wants to nationalize the country's energy industry. Several of Bolivia's neighbors have expressed concern about that move, especially the use of troops to occupy natural gas fields run by foreign firms. In an exclusive interview with CNN En Espanol, President Evo Morales rejected the idea that his leftist allies, Cuba and Venezuela, influenced his decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVO MORALES, BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I've seen comments that Fidel and Chavez made recommendations after our meeting in Havana. They didn't know anything, absolutely anything about this topic. It was a sovereign decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Well, Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, also denied that he was advising the Bolivian president. Still, Chavez praised the move, saying it's gong to help Bolivia's poor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUGO CHAVEZ, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Evo Morales has decided in a sovereign move to nationalize the oil and gas in Bolivia. And we support by the move by the Bolivian government. Bolivia will recover its sovereignty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Bolivia relies heavily on outside investment, mostly from Brazil, to develop its substantial natural gas reserves.
Turning now to Iraq, where the National Assembly met for a second time on Wednesday amid more violence around that country, Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people when he detonated his explosives at a police recruitment center in Falluja. Twenty-five people were wounded in that attack.
Meantime, Iraqi police discovered the bodies of 14 men near an amusement park in northern Baghdad. Police report that the victims hands were tied. All of them had been shot in the head.
Two German engineers safely back in Berlin a day after their were freed from 99 days of captivity in Iraq. Renay Braunlich (ph) and Thomas Nitzke (ph) appeared tired, but in good spirits as they arrived at Tego (ph) military airport. Neither they nor the German officials that were there wanted to discuss any of the circumstances of their release. GORANI: Jim, we recently reported on the Iraqi prime minister reclaiming his birth name after having changed it years ago. He originally did so to protect himself and his family from Saddam Hussein's regime. But even now, three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis are adopting new names in the interest, as well, of self-preservation.
Ryan Chilcote reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What's in a name? In Iraq, maybe your life.
Just ask Marwan, whose name is usually associated with a Sunni sect of Islam. He wants to change it to a neutral name, something not associated with any sect.
"Every day I hear an 'Ali' was killed, a 'Marwan' was abducted," Marwan says. "Or a 'Hussein' was shot dead because of their names. These names are no good anymore. That's why I've decided to stop putting my life at risk and change my name."
Marwan isn't the only one. At this government office, at least seven out of the 30 men in line were doing just that.
Most wanted to shed Sunni names. Hussein, though, was filing papers to get rid of his Shiite name. He lives in a Sunni neighborhood, where he claims five others with Shiite-associated names have been killed. He wants to become "Ibrahim."
"It's a neutral name," he says. "It doesn't identify you with any sect."
Sectarian divisions and killings have escalated over the last year in Iraq. Shiite fringe groups targeting Sunnis and Sunni extremists targeting Shiites. Names have become labels that can give you the wrong impression.
Remember Marwan, who's getting rid of the Sunni name? He's actually a Shiite. His parents just liked the sound of it. Names didn't used to mean that much.
"Under Saddam," he says," no one cared about names. It's only now with the sectarian violence."
Shiite Marwan's childhood friend Omar, a Sunni, is also changing his name. The actual number of people changing their names is unknown, but on the increase.
(on camera): To legally change your name in Iraq, you have to put notice in a newspaper. Since most people feel that would only invite more problems, they pay a bribe to keep their name out of the papers. Besides, most people here hope the change is only temporary.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Baghdad. (END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right. Well, still to come, the status of women in Iran these days.
CLANCY: That's right. As a vocal minority there pushes the government to impose stricter rules...
GORANI: Will Iranian women push back? A live report from Tehran coming up this hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. But first, let's check on stories making headlines here in the U.S.
A nightmare scenario, two million Americans dead, 50 million infected, 40 percent of the workforce off the job. Experts say that is what could happen if a flu pandemic hits the U.S. Minutes from now, the government details its roadmap for responding to a possible flu outbreak.
White House Correspondent Ed Henry is live with a preview.
Ed, some of the details, please?
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good afternoon, Daryn.
We are about to hear from White House spokesman Scott McClellan, as well as Fran Townsend, the president's homeland security adviser.
There are over 300 specific recommendations in this White House report that they are about to release. Advice for the private and public sectors in how to deal with a potential pandemic flu, including stockpiling vaccines. The federal government will have about 20 million doses of vaccines on hand.
Voluntary quarantines. Only mandatory evacuations in extreme cases. Encouraging business practices that minimize contact among employees, liberal leave policies, as well as teleconferences. Also, some restrictions on travel.
Now, the White House is stressing they are not trying to alarm anyone. They have no specific evidence that a pandemic flu is on the horizon in the immediate future. But they do want to prepare.
Obviously, they were pilloried for their response to Hurricane Katrina. They want to make sure they get ahead of this even before the report is officially released.
Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy this morning criticized this report and what's dribbled out already, saying that in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government was not coordinating enough with state and local officials, and Democrats fear the same could happen here -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Ed Henry at the White House.
Thank you.
And Ed will be with us as we watch it unfold live in about five minutes.
Ed, thank you.
Get ready for the kids' complaints there is nothing sweet in the soda machine at school anymore. A nutrition plan announced today by Bill Clinton expels sugary drinks from public schools. The former president is working with the American Heart Association and the nation's top beverage makers to fight childhood obesity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We should know this is a big challenge for the United States and for the world. It has, on the surface, a simple solution, to help children reduce the number of calories they consume and increase the number they burn. But it's easier said than done and requires a comprehensive approach, which his what we have tried to adopt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: There are tsunami warnings for the Pacific. Let's get more on that with our Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: All right. We will be watching it very closely. Jacqui Jeras, thank you.
There may be landing problems with another Continental flight bound for Houston. There's word that a noise was heard at takeoff when the flight took off from Bogota, Colombia, around 8:00 a.m. local time. The crew checked the plane and continued the fright. The plane is due to arrive in Houston at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.
A Continental Express jet landed safely at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport last night after blowing two tires.
Sexual predators on the Internet. Lawmakers get an earful about online abuse of children today. Among those set to testify on Capitol Hill is 13-year-old Masha Allen (ph). Investigators say the man who adopted her from Russia sexually molested her for years and uploaded pictures of her nude or partially-clothed pictures on the Internet.
Masha (ph) has since been readopted, and her alleged abuser is in federal prison. She's hoping her testimony will help countless other children who are victims of Internet sexual abuse.
In Alabama, new charges in the recent string of church fires. Three college students from Birmingham now face an array of state charges, as well.
Among them, arson and burglary. Those charges were announced just a short time ago. The three suspects were arrested in March.
They also face a number of federal charges in the case. Alabama's attorney general says the state intends to make sure that justice will be had.
Staying alive. We are minutes away from hearing details on the president's plan to keep you healthy during a bad flu outbreak. We will bring you the even live when it starts. We'll also talk with out medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, on what the plan could mean for you.
I'm Daryn Kagan.
Meanwhile, more of YOUR WORLD TODAY comes up after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and these are the stories that are making headlines around the world.
Serbia's deputy prime minister resigns after Brussels suspends talks on Belgrade's E.U. membership. The talks hinged on Serbia cooperating with the war crimes tribunal in handing over the Ratko Mladic, the wartime commander of Serb forces in Bosnia, charged with genocide. The tribunal says it was mislead, that his arrest was imminent. Serbia says it has done everything in its power to apprehend Ratko Mladic.
GORANI: Rescuers in Australia are chipping away at solid rock to carve an escape tunnel for two miners. It's expected to take another 48 hours to reach them. The men have been trapped for more than a week, about one kilometer underground, hundreds of meters, half a mile. Food and water have been delivered to them through a small pipe, along with iPods to help them pass the time.
CLANCY: Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people after he detonated his explosives vest at a police recruitment center in Falluja. That was Wednesday morning. Twenty-five people were wounded in that attack.
GORANI: Authorities have issued a tsunami warning for Fiji and New Zealand and a tsunami watch for Hawaii. The warning was prompted by a strong earthquake in the South Pacific about 36 kilometers below the sea floor. It was an 8.0 magnitude quake, and it hit near the Tonga Islands. We'll be following the tsunami warning, of course, and what impact it might have on those territories and those areas.
Now the African Union is extending the deadline for a peace deal being considered by Sudan's Darfur rebels. They have more another 48 hours. It's the second time Sunday's original deadline has been extended. The Sudanese government has already accepted the draft settlement prepared by mediators in Nigeria, but rebel groups say they're not satisfied with the proposal. Both the U.S. and Britain have sent envoys to the talks. The crisis in Darfur has resulted in the deaths so far of tens and thousands and the displacement of nearly two million people.
CLANCY: There's not a lot of details coming out about the talks, but it's said that the U.S. and Britain are pushing through a new draft, making some changes to that, that would disarm the Janjaweed militia. That the allegedly government-backed militia, though Sudan denies that, it's blamed for much of the killing and the looting that has gone...
KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan. We're going to get to the White House in a just a moment. First, though, we want to go to our Jacqui Jeras for the latest on this tsunami warning that affects perhaps Fiji and other islands, as well.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. We just got off the phone with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, and they had some information from an island called Niue. It's just to the east of Tonga. And they said they've indicated some type of a little blip from one of their buoys there, which could indicate that there was an actual tsunami wave. They're analyzing that information right now, and they think they'll have the information within a half an hour whether or not we actually have a wave out there. So some type of blip has been indicated. As soon as we know more, we'll bring more to you -- Daryn.
KAGAN: OK, we'll...
JERAS: And, again, one more thing about that, by the way, if you're not familiar with this area. Niue is just to the east of Tonga, and New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand, where the warning is right now, that's to the west of there. So we haven't seen anything to the west. This is east of where the epicenter is.
KAGAN: OK, Jacqui, we'll check back with you.
Right now, we want to go live to the White House. Francis Townsend from the Department of Homeland Security talking about the plan for the Bush White House. It has come up with a deal with a possible flu pandemic situation in the U.S.
FRAN TOWNSEND, HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: ... on the Homeland Security Council side by myself and Dr. Rajiv Venkayya, known to many of you.
The team really assembled the best and brightest of health professionals throughout the interagency community, and we benefit from their expertise in the context of this report.
I should make clear from the outset that we do not know whether the bird virus that we are seeing overseas will ever become a human virus. And we cannot predict whether a human virus will lead to a pandemic. Moreover, there is no way to predict how severe a pandemic would be. In the plan, we describe a wide spectrum of severity, and we are candid that we should understand and prepare the worst-case scenario.
This brings us to the next stage of our planning efforts. I have the privilege of releasing and describing to you the implementation plan that is relying on the strategy, as I've mentioned.
As you know, the strategy was accompanied by a budget request the president transmitted to Congress for $7.1 billion to support his strategy.
Shortly after we released it, as I mentioned, we assembled an interagency team of health professionals and experts. The plan that they wrote, the plan that we have assembled, is a road map that the U.S. government will follow to translate the principles of the president's strategy into tangible actions by all federal departments and agencies. The plan outlines how the federal government will invest the $7.1 billion that was requested from Congress, including $3.8 billion that has already been appropriated.
This is not the beginning of our investment in pandemic preparedness. We have invested already over $6 billion in public health and medical infrastructure since 2001. Many of those investments are directly relevant to pandemic preparedness.
The plan is a comprehensive one divided into chapters addressing major considerations raised by a pandemic influenza: protecting human health, protecting animal health, international considerations, border and transportation security, public safety and security considerations, and then planning for considerations of institutional organizations.
Each chapter describes the relevant considerations, roles and responsibilities of federal and nonfederal entities, the specific actions that departments and agencies will take to address the pandemic threat, and expectations of our nonfederal partners in this effort.
The plan contains over 300 specific actions for federal departments and agencies. Because we think it is important to be able to measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of our efforts, every one of the federal actions included in the plan includes a measure of performance and a timeline for implementation of that action.
Given the size of the document, it is worth highlighting some of the priorities that we have identified: including advanced international capacity for early warning and response, limiting the arrival and spread of the pandemic to the United States, providing clear guidance to all stakeholders, and accelerating development of countermeasures.
We recognize that it is unusual for the government to provide this amount of detail about its plans, but we think it is essential to demonstrate to the rest of the world, our international partners, state and local governments, business, families, individuals just how seriously we take this threat.
The implementation plan devotes a full chapter to the United States government's response to a pandemic and describes in detail the actions we will undertake at each stage before, during and after a pandemic.
It describes the policy decisions that we will confront and make throughout the response, recognizing that many of these decisions cannot be undertaken until we know the characteristics of the actual pandemic virus, if and when one emerges.
Finally, in appendix A, we have offered practical advice to schools -- elementary and university -- business, private sector, families and individuals for them to consider in their preparations.
While the federal government has many responsibilities here, we cannot forget that a pandemic occurs because of the spread of a virus one from person to another. This means that individual actions are perhaps the most important element of our preparedness and response activities.
We depend on everyone outside of the government to take this as seriously as we do and to put systems in place to reduce the transmission of infection, and to put plans in place that will mitigate the impact of a pandemic on human health and the functioning of our communities.
We also believe that our partners outside of government will compliment our approach, the approach that we are taking to pandemic preparedness.
In addition to describing the actions we are taking, we provide a great deal of detail in the rationale behind our approach and our framework for future decision-making.
I would like to take a moment to describe what the plan does not cover. It is important to point out that there are things that the implementation plan does not answer, and it is not intended to do so.
For instance, it does not answer all the question about vaccine and antiviral medication prioritization. We are actively discussing those issues across the government and incorporating the scientific, epidemiologic and modelling data that is being developed in real time.
Another example is the specific interventions that we will undertake at our borders and ports of entry to slow the entry of disease.
We recognize that we cannot make these decisions in a vacuum and must consult with our international partners to ensure that we adopt a consistent approach.
It was impossible to capture in a plan of this type the full spectrum of planning that we have asked every department and agency to undertake. Those details are captured in department- and agency- specific plans which were completed in draft form on March 31st. And I would encourage you, to the extent you have questions about specific department or agency implementation plans, to direct your questions to them.
The president has given clear direction to departments that their plans must show, first, how they are going to protect their employees and create a safe work environment; second, how they will identify and ensure continuity of operations at times of significant and sustained absenteeism; third, how they will support the overall federal response to a pandemic and undertake actions contained in the plan; and fourth, how they will communicate pandemic preparedness and response guidance to their stakeholders -- public, private, state and local governments.
The administration takes this threat seriously. And therefore we take the actions contained in this plan seriously, which is the reason that we have assigned performance measures and aggressive time frames.
No one should leave with the impression that this work is only beginning today. Many of these actions began weeks or months ago. In some cases, we have already seen remarkable performance and results despite laying out very aggressive measures for action.
For instance, one of the actions in the plan is to expand the medical reserve corps, a community-based program of volunteer health and medical providers, by 20 percent. That meant from 350 to 420 chapters in 2006.
That objective was placed in the draft plan early in 2006. And the Medical Reserve Corps has already achieved it.
You will see additional concrete examples of progress in the coming weeks, including advancement in our vaccine efforts, which represent the foundation of our pandemic preparedness, translation of the recent modeling efforts to strategies for states and localities to protect their citizens during a pandemic; additional preparedness guidance for businesses, critical infrastructure providers, families and individuals; expansion of a new office at the Department of State, the Avian Influenza Action Group and a new agency body that can rapidly gather information and deploy cross-government personnel, material and other capabilities to assess and respond to any international situation of concern.
These are just a few examples of the additional progress you can expect to see. We intend to track the implementation of action contained in this plan through the Homeland Security Council. And at the end of chapter 2 you'll find additional examples of actions we have already undertaken.
This will be a dynamic process. We intend to update and revise the implementation plan on a regular basis, as our preparedness, the state of technology and our understanding of the threat evolves.
Congress has appropriated the first $3.8 billion of the $7.1 billion requested and necessary to support these efforts. We will work with Congress to secure the remainder of the necessary funds, including $2.3 billion in fiscal year '07 and an additional $1 billion in fiscal year '08 to achieve the objectives in international health surveillance and detainment efforts, medical stockpiles, the domestic capacity to produce emergency supplies of pandemic vaccine and antiviral medications, and preparedness at all levels of government.
As you can see, we have taken an unprecedented level of activity to address this threat. But let me say a few words about threat.
First of all, a human pandemic has not begun, and we cannot say whether or not a pandemic will begin. Right now, it is relatively difficult for the current bird influenza virus to infect humans.
Despite a widespread outbreak, the virus has only affected 205 people and killed 113 of those infected. However, it is possible that if the virus undergoes genetic changes, it could signal the start of a human pandemic.
Given the pattern of history, which suggests that bird flu viruses played a role in pandemics over the past century, we cannot ignore the possibility that this virus could evolve into one that infects and is transmitted to humans.
At president, scientists believe that there is a risk that the virus is more likely to be acquired and be transmitted between humans in areas where there is widespread outbreaks of virus in birds and significant contact between infected animals and humans. These are the current circumstances in many parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.
If this develops into a circumstance where there is efficient human-to-human transmission, we will take immediate action to prevent or to slow the spread of the infection, including entry and exit screening, restrictions on movement across borders, and consider the rapid deployment of international stocks of antiviral medications, in coordination with our international partners.
The key element of an international response effort include, first, agreed epidemiological triggers for international response and containment, the rapid transparent reporting and sharing of samples, rapid response teams, stockpiles of countermeasures, and logistical support for international response.
Minimizing the opportunities for the virus to mutate and helping other nations to prepare should a pandemic virus emerge is a global responsibility and is also the first line of defense for the United States.
The U.S. has pledged $334 million to strengthen preparedness, response and containment abroad. We are working bilaterally with nations and also helping to improve the capacity of the World Health Organization and other international partners to lead the international response efforts.
To highlight the importance of this issue to international governments, in September of 2005 at the U.N. General Assembly, the president launched the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza to heighten awareness of the threat and to work to establish resources that will help prevent, detect and limit the spread of animal and human pandemic influenza within and between national borders.
We will have to act fast to see if evidence that the virus is evolving into one that presents a greater danger to humans. In other words, we cannot afford to be complacent.
But rest assured, our investment now, regardless of whether there is a human pandemic based on the current avian flu, will serve to strengthen and better protect the American people, not only from pandemic flu, but from bioterror and other public health emergencies.
While the human pandemic threat is unpredictable, the spread of influenza in birds is predictable. Nearly 20 countries have identified the virus...
KAGAN: We've been listening in. This is the White House press briefing, and that is Frances Townsend from the Department of Homeland Security coming up with a guideline that the Bush administration has come up just in case a flu pandemic were to hit this country. There are some 300 recommendations about how the government and military can deal with that. We'll get back with that in just a moment and talk with some our correspondents about what's included in that plan.
But first, we want to go to our Jacqui Jeras who is standing by for another warning on this tsunami -- possible tsunami.
JERAS: Yes, possible tsunami. But we did mention just a few minutes ago in case you missed that that a little blip had been indicated near Niue, which is an island just to the east of Fiji. We're going to show you all these locations. But first thing, if you haven't heard it yet, tsunami warnings have been issued for New Zealand, also for Fiji Island, and a watch has been issued for the Hawaiian islands.
We want to show you map here. Here's Australia. We want to show you -- there's New Zealand here, and the islands of Tonga. And that was the location of the earthquake. Here's Fiji up here. And Niue is just to the east of there, over in this area, so that is pulling away. This is the pacific out there. And if you kept going way across, that's where Hawaii is, then back over here, that's where Australia is.
The time estimate for this tsunami wave to hit Fiji has passed. So we haven't heard anything yet out of Fiji. If anything's going to come in, that's going to happen very quickly. We also talked to the specific tsunami warning center out of Hawaii. And they said they think around the top of the hour or so, they should know whether or now that blip that they saw in Niue was actually a tsunami wave or not. So a very dangerous situation.
Not all earthquakes produce tsunamis. It depends what type of earthquake actually occurred. This was a very powerful one, 8.0 magnitude is the estimate. Of course, that could change a little bit once they continue to pour through some of the information. If it was one of the lateral earthquakes, that does not produce a tsunami.
But when you look at the plates of the Earth like this and one of those plates goes up, that pushes all of that water up, and that generates the tsunami wave. So again, warnings in effect for the Fiji islands, also for New Zealand, and Hawaii is under a tsunami watch. And the statement that we got in from the Tsunami Warning Center says at the earliest, it would be midnight HST before those waves would be arriving in Hawaii -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jacqui, thank you. We'll be checking back with you.
Also, we'll get more on this government plan to deal with a flu pandemic, were it to hit the U.S. More on that after this quick break.
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KAGAN: Let's get more information now on the tsunami warning that's been issued for Fiji and New Zealand, after a major earthquake, measuring 8.0 magnitude, shook the Pacific Ocean, the southern Pacific Ocean.
On the phone with me right now is David Applegate with the U.S. Geological Survey. Thank you for taking time to talk with us. First, tell us what we know about the earthquake.
DAVID APPLEGATE, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Well, the earthquake struck just over an hour ago. It was offshore the Tonga Islands, so this was an undersea earthquake. It was in a subduction zone, similar to the setting in which the Sumatra event struck last December -- the December 26th event which, of course, cause so much devastation. This is where the earth's tectonic plates are -- one is diving down below another one.
KAGAN: What about this potential for a tsunami this time?
APPLEGATE: Well, it is a large event, and it was, you know, below the ocean, so it certainly does have that potential. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration has issued a tsunami warning. That does not mean that it has been generated, but that the potential is there. The warning is for the neighboring islands, including American Samoa and Fiji.
KAGAN: And how do you monitor that?
APPLEGATE: Well, we -- of course, we monitor the earthquake. We have a global seismographic network that we operate in conjunction with the National Science Foundation to get that trigger, and that information is fed then directly to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center that NOAA operate.
They then look at the characteristics and make the determination of the potential for a tsunami, and at that point, they start to look at their -- both their tsunami buoys that can measure the wave in the open ocean, as well as coastal tide gauges to look for evidence of the wave itself.
KAGAN: All right. We will continue to watch that. David Applegate, with the U.S. Geological Survey, thank you for that. And we are actually hearing from our Jacqui Jeras that that's been downgraded from 8.0 to 7.8, but still a potentially very serious situation in the southern Pacific.
Let's get back to this other story we're following out of the White House, and this plan by the White House just in case the U.S. would be hit by a flu pandemic.
Elizabeth Cohen, our health correspondent, has been watching that with us as well, 300 recommendations for something that doesn't exist yet.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that's important to remember because I think sometimes, especially when you're talking about the flu, especially when you're talking about bird flu, people feel like it's right around the corner, and that is not the case.
Bird flu has actually been around for many years now and has not made that huge jump to humans that some people thought it might have by now. If you look specifically, since 2003, there have been human cases in nine countries, with 205 people infected, and 113 dead. And, again, that's since 2003.
What this government plan does is it says, look, we don't have a pandemic now, but we could in the future, whether it's bird flu or some other flu virus. And so it's a multi-prong attack. For example, it encourages the development of vaccines, which is tough because the virus -- the flu virus -- the bird flu virus that currently exists isn't going to develop into a human pandemic.
It hasn't, but it could mutate into one. Well, how do you develop a vaccine if you don't know what the virus is yet because it hasn't mutated into it yet? So that's a tough one. Or, for example, getting more Tamiflu out there. Tamiflu is a drug that would treat people if they had bird flu. So it's a multi-prong attack, various isolation, quarantine measures -- a lot going on here.
KAGAN: And we will hear a lot more. Thank you Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you.
We'll hear more about what the White House has to say. Also more on the tsunami warning and watch in the southern Pacific. That's coming up with Kyra Phillips at the top of the hour on "LIVE FROM."
I'm Daryn Kagan. That does it for me. I will see you tomorrow morning.
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