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Your World Today
Sectarian Violence Fuels Staggering Death Toll in Iraq; U.S. Military Clears Unit of Abandoning Civilian Convoy; Russian Soldiers Being Held in Republic of Georgia as Spies
Aired September 29, 2006 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A deadly calling card, another family shattered as the Brigades of Death gun down another victim in Iraq. This time, it's a grandmother
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Growing tension. Russian officers accused of spying appear in a Georgian court as relations between the two countries go from bad to worse.
VASSILEVA: Singling out 7-Eleven. A petrol protest in the U.S. takes aim at Venezuela's president.
CLANCY: And using sex as a weapon in Colombia. An unusual effort to battle gang violence.
VASSILEVA: Hello, and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.
I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.
From Baghdad to Moscow, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
Now, they're the victims of war in Iraq.
VASSILEVA: They're often nameless.
CLANCY: There was a grandmother, a fellow truck driver, and now a relative of the judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial.
VASSILEVA: They are part of an estimated 43,000 civilians in Iraq who were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
CLANCY: But one man may have been targeted because of who he was. The brother-in-law of Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifa was gunned down in Baghdad. He was driving with his son and another boy. Both children wounded in the attack.
Also, in and near Baghdad, 10 bodies with signs of torture found on Friday. Most had legs and hands bound. Many were riddled with bullets and bore signs of torture. Police say they found 25 unidentified bodies across the capital in the past 24 hours alone.
VASSILEVA: Bereaved families caught up in the violence are often too frightened to share their story. But the relatives of one victim, a grandmother, killed while she was buying bread, opened up to CNN's Arwa Damon.
Their ordeal is not over. They now live in fear for their own lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For the family of Umm Luma (ph), pain and anger.
OSAMA RUMANI, VICTIM'S SON (through translator): They killed my mother. I saw my mother on the street. I picked up her brains with my own hands and wrapped it. Picked up her brains.
DAMON: Umm Luma's (ph) killing left her family haunted by fear and a question many Iraqis ask, why? So far, no answers.
She was a grandmother, grew up in a middle class family, married the man she loved and lost him to illness two years ago.
RAFAL ABBAS, VICTIM'S NIECE (through translator): She had a strong personality. She was the leader of us at home. But at the same time she had a kind heart. She stood by me, stood by us.
DAMON: She had lived a simple life, raising a family of four boys and two girls. But then one day the so-called Brigades of Death filled in her name on the dotted line. The death warrant was left at the house.
"Where will you escape, Umm Luma (ph)?" it read. "Await the rage, the slaughter and the murder. Our swords are on the necks of every traitor, agent and coward."
(on camera): The Brigades of Death, like many Sunni extremist groups, view the Shia as being conspirators with the Americans. This is actually the second threat that the family received over the course of a year. But wrapped in this one was a bullet.
The family fled, but no one, least of all Umm Luma (ph) herself, thought that they would really kill a woman. So after about a week, she went back home.
(voice over): On September 16th, she went to buy bread for breakfast. Her niece heard the killers call her by name.
ABBAS (through translator): He said to her, "Are you Umm Luma (ph)?" She said, "Yes, dear, what would you like?"
The first shot hit her in the arm and she fell to the ground. When she fell, he got out of the car and shot her four times all over her body. The killers could not have been more than 18 years old.
RUMANI (through translator): Shoot her once, shoot her twice, break her leg, her arm, but why this? Why hurt us like this? We ask you, why? DAMON: Within minutes of the shooting, a stranger pulls up on a motorcycle, checking to make sure Umm Luma (ph) was dead and asking for her sons.
ABBAS (through translator): We are now living in extraordinary fear. If I'm home alone, I get terrified. Yesterday, for example, was really windy. The door blew open. I fainted because I thought they had come for us.
DAMON: The niece said Umm Luma (ph) dreamed of a secure Iraq. Now the other members of her family fear they too may not live to see it.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Strident charges, strong denials. The U.S. military said its troops did the right thing when they abandoned a U.S. civilian convoy in Iraq. It came under attack by insurgents last year. Now, this claim and the charges made by a former truck driver who survived the attack, and he caught the entire incident on videotape.
Jamie McIntyre has his harrowing story. A note of caution, elements of the video may be disturbing to some of you viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The video starts off showing a supply convoy, a dozen trucks and five military vehicles, heading out from a U.S. base north of Baghdad. It was a routine mission, until some Iraqi men started throwing rocks.
Civilian contractor Preston Wheeler was driving with one hand and holding his video camera in the other, when things got really ugly.
PRESTON WHEELER, CIVILIAN CONTRACTOR: God damn! IED on the left side, two IEDs, gun five -- truck five.
MCINTYRE: The convoy had turned wrong way down a dead end road, and a bullet came through the windshield.
WHEELER: I got it on video, by God.
MCINTYRE: A subsequent military investigation blamed faulty maps. But the wrong turn forced the trucks to backtrack, right into a deadly ambush. Insurgents opened fire on the convoy. Wheeler's truck was disabled by one of the RPGs.
WHEELER: Jesus Christ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Move.
WHEELER: I am -- truck five cannot move. Please help me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Truck (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you at? Where you at?
WHEELER: I'm taking fire. Ten-four. Come back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) taking fire. Please help.
WHEELER: I'm fixing to get killed, God damn it!
MCINTYRE: The video shows a military Humvee leaving the scene.
WHEELER: Somebody get their ass back here now, please.
MCINTYRE: Wheeler hid in the cab of his truck and watched insurgents shoot one of his fellow truckers in cold blood.
WHEELER: They just killed him. Oh, my God.
MCINTYRE: Three truckers, all employed by the Halliburton subsidiary KBR, were killed that day. The aftermath was caught on tape by a U.S. spy plane, showing Iraqis stripping and stoning one of the victims.
WHEELER: You're damn right I'm scared. I'm going home when this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is done.
MCINTYRE: Alone, with no gun and two AK-47 bullets in his arm, Wheeler says he feels he was abandoned by the very soldiers who were supposed to protect him, and that he waited 40 minutes before an Army Black Hawk came to his rescue.
WHEELER: Why didn't the gun truck behind me stop and the gun truck in front of me stop and secure that area? Them guys would not have been executed if the military had followed their protocol, which they call it.
MCINTYRE: However, a formal investigation by the U.S. military conducted a month after the attack found the soldiers did follow their training not to stop until they could safely counterattack: "They didn't leave the scene. They pulled up out of the kill zone and established a security defensive line, so they could continue to fire and protect the convoy," a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq told CNN.
It was, she said, all by the book.
WHEELER: Well, if they was doing it in a textbook fashion, they must have been writing it down, because they wasn't -- they wasn't securing my area where I was at.
MCINTYRE: But military investigators concluded, the soldiers' actions saved the lives of two contractors, including Wheeler, by laying down more than 500 rounds of suppressive fire and directing an armed Humvee to the trucks.
Investigators found no fault with the soldiers' reaction, in fact, recommended one for an award, praising his remarkable courage under fire.
(on camera): The investigation also found that the number of armed Humvees, or gun trucks, as they're called, was appropriate to the threat, and that the fatal mistake was the bad maps, which led to the confusion that took the convoy on its deadly wrong turn.
Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Four Russian soldiers are being held in the Republic of Georgia as spies. A short time ago, a judge ordered all four to remain in custody for two more months.
Matthew Chance reports now on the case and the escalating tensions between the two countries.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Even for the already strained relations between these two countries, this is a new blow. Aircraft have been evacuating Russian nationals from Georgia, furious at the arrest of their servicemen and accusations of spying. The Kremlin has withdrawn its ambassador as well, reacting to what Georgia calls hysteria.
SERGEI IVANOV, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: After what has happened, I have again warned not just our military personnel, but their families, their wives and children, not to go out into the streets unless absolutely necessary. This is because a banded culture in Georgia has reached the machinery of the state.
CHANCE: But Georgian authorities say they have hard evidence Russian military personnel were involved in espionage, releasing this security video as proof. Georgian intelligence officials say it shows Russian agents meeting contacts in the country and paying for information on Georgian military installations. Recorded conversations appear to confirm information was being gathered.
MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI, GEORGIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Our counter-espionage intelligence is working. We have the information and we're working hard to strengthen our state security and democracy. There is a line which cannot be transgressed and a border which any self-respecting state has to defend.
CHANCE: There's little love lost between Georgia and its powerful neighbor. Last winter, a mysterious explosion severed crucial gas supplies from Russia, exposing Georgians to freezing temperatures. Later, Russia banned imports of Georgian wine and mineral water, severely denting the country's fragile economy.
Russia also supports two separatist regions of Georgia and maintains military bases in the former Soviet republic. Analysts say deteriorating relations are down to different versions of the future.
YEVGENY VOLK, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Georgia wants to become a member of (INAUDIBLE), NATO, European Union, while Russia would like to have Georgia as a docile satellite part of the former Soviet empire which will be in the mainstream of Russian policies.
CHANCE: In Moscow, protesters gathered outside the Georgian Embassy to voice their anger at the detention of the Russian servicemen. Both sides say they don't want this to escalate further, but it might.
(on camera): Passions always seem to run high when it comes to relations between Russia and Georgia. And this is prove no exception. Already, the Russian embassy in Tbilisi has stopped issuing visas to Georgian nationals and Russian officials are talking of suspending diplomatic and economic ties with the country indefinitely. Before it gets any better, this diplomatic spat could get a lot worse.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well, let's check some of the other stories that are making news all around the world.
And we begin in Kazakhstan. The world's first female tourist to space has returned safely to Earth. One of her first reactions back on land, giving the crowds a thumbs up.
Iranian-born Anousheh Ansari paid some $20 million for this trip. She described her journey as magnificent and says she hopes to do it again.
CLANCY: Japan's Kyoto news agency says Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eyeing summit meetings in both China and South Korea. Both of those countries had shunned summits with Japan's previous prime minister because of his visits to the Yasukuni shrine. Some convicted war criminals are honored there.
VASSILEVA: Israeli police say what appears to have been a car bomb is likely a criminal rather than terrorist-related incident. One person was killed when a car exploded in Rishon le-Tsiyon, south of Tel Aviv. The medical services reported at least three others were wounded.
CLANCY: Another short circuit for Sony.
VASSILEVA: Coming up on YOUR WORLD TODAY, the laptop battery recall now involves millions of computers as Sony cuts jobs and closes plants.
CLANCY: And 7-Eleven stops selling Citgo gas, ending a long relationship. Could the Venezuelan president's anti-American attitude be to blame?
VASSILEVA: Yes, it could be.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Hello and welcome back, everyone.
She's Ralitsa.
I'm Jim.
VASSILEVA: Absolutely.
CLANCY: And although we don't know you all by name, we do know you live in 200 countries across the globe.
VASSILEVA: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
Thank you for joining us.
Well, you wouldn't expect the batteries on your laptop computer to catch on fire, but Sony says in rare cases that does happen. I've been watching our laptops here. They're doing just fine, no fire so far.
CLANCY: I know. Another thing to worry about, the batteries in the laptops can short-circuit, and it's caused some computers to overheat a lot. There is a growing global recall that involves Sony's rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The tally now, Ralitsa, running about seven million worldwide.
VASSILEVA: Unimaginable.
Major Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corporation is the latest company to join the bandwagon. Toshiba saying it's recalling 830,000 batteries at Sony's request.
CLANCY: Now, this is an announcement that comes after IBM and Lenova recalled more than half a million laptop batteries made by Sony. That was on Thursday. One did catch fire at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month.
Dell also upping the numbers that it's recalling.
Now, the recall is also worrying Sony's investors.
Valerie Morris join us now with an update on Wall Street.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
VASSILEVA: Well, he called the U.S. president "the devil," and now he's going to pay the price. Or is he?
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez raised some right-wing heckles by insulting George W. Bush. Now pressure groups are trying to hit back where it hurts with a boycott of Venezuela's Citgo gas stations.
But as Tom Foreman reports, that may end up hurting Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After months of worry about gas prices and international tension, the Venezuelan president's assault on America put a bull's-eye on an unexpected target.
The Venezuelan oil industry is being hammered by Internet commentators, especially conservative ones, ramping up calls for a boycott of Citgo gas, which is owned by the Venezuelan government.
DONALD WILDMON, AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION: This man has vowed to bring down the United States this century. If you're go to take this man seriously, and I think we should, I don't see why we should be aiding and abetting him. So what can you do? You can simply refuse to buy Citgo gasoline.
FOREMAN: 7-Eleven this week is ending 20 years of selling Citgo gas. The move was agreed upon by both companies months ago; nothing to do with politics, 7-Eleven says.
But 7-Eleven has issued a statement: "We can sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently by Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez."
Citgo's web site wishes 7-Eleven good luck and makes much of Citgo's commitment to American communities. We called for further comment, without luck.
On the street, anger at Chavez smolders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he wants to be -- to have a war or something?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely ridiculous what he said about our president of our country, and we should boycott it as American citizens, in my opinion.
FOREMAN: Would a full-fledged Citgo boycott really hurt Chavez? Venezuela is the fourth largest foreign oil supplier, filling six percent of America's daily need. And if we don't buy it, economists say China will.
Americans could be hurt, too. Most Citgo stations are owned by Americans. Even 7-Eleven points out those folks would lose money.
(on camera) On top of which, oil industry officials say foreign oil is so mixed up in the production process, you never really know the source of the gas you're buying.
(voice-over) Chavez' critics don't buy that.
WILDMON: If we hit the Citgo outlets, then that will be felt in Venezuela. Divide it any way you want to. A dollar is a dollar.
FOREMAN: Maybe they can't force him to take a big gulp, but they would at least like a boycott that was hard for him to swallow.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Well, coming up, it's a hot-button issue this U.S. election year.
CLANCY: That's right, the rules of the game when it comes to interrogating terror suspects. Is it ready to be signed, sealed and delivered?
VASSILEVA: And later, the California wildfire that just won't snuff out. The one firefighters call "The Day After Day Fire."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Heidi Collins at the CNN Center in Atlanta.
More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. But first, a check of stories making headlines in the U.S.
Want to take you directly to Los Angeles County, an area known as Palmdale. It's about 53 miles north of L.A.
A nasty, frightening scene here of a school bus accident. You see several responders, fire crews, police on the scene here. Again, a school bus accident.
It just happened around 11:45 Eastern time or so. Apparently, some sort of collision with a bus.
You see the bus there on its side, the Palmdale school district. What we are hearing is the bus flipped over. Apparently, nine children injured. Not sure how critical, but we are hearing that at least one of them is in pretty bad shape.
So we are watching this situation again for you. Again, a bus accident. You saw the bus flipped over on its side.
Now we're losing that satellite image. But we're going to keep our eye on this area of Los Angeles and bring you more information just as soon as we do get it.
Also, another all-too-familiar scene this morning. A school shooting, once again.
Authorities say a school principal was shot at a school in Wisconsin. A county sheriff's official says students are now safe and the scene is secure. So far, no word on the principal's condition. The suspect is in custody.
And an accused killer gunned down in central Florida. Police in Lakeland say their massive manhunt ended a short time ago. The fugitive accused of shooting two Polk County deputies. One deputy died of his wounds. That suspect died on the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: I can tell you, it was a tough scene. It was a tough event. But the SWAT team members put their life on the line to bring a killer to justice. The killer chose his end. He chose his end because he didn't show both hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The slain deputy left behind three children. The sheriff's department says he was killed on his wife's birthday.
President Bush takes on critics of the Iraq war. Just a short time ago, he wrapped up the latest in a series of speeches on the war on terror. The president talked about leaked portions of an intelligence document. It concluded the Iraq war may be fueling terrorism.
Democrats...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some have selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists, by fighting them in Iraq, we are making our people less secure here at home. This argument buys into the enemy's propaganda that the terrorist attack is because we are provoking them.
I want to remind the American citizens that we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Democrats fired back. They say the president is out of touch and doesn't know how to win the war on terror.
I spoke with the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, to get his reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: The truth is, the president has never been truthful about Iraq, not to get in and he's not being truthful about it now. We need to be tough and smart in the fight against terrorism. And going into Iraq was not very smart.
You can't just talk tough at election time. I saw the president the other day, same old tired rhetoric, Democrats want to cut and run. No. What we want to do is defend America by being tough not just at election time but by being smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Coming up this afternoon in the "NEWSROOM," you know his name from Deep Throat. And now Bob Woodward making headlines again.
Woodward's about to release another look at the Bush administration. Coming up from the "CNN NEWSROOM," you'll read and hear the controversial quotes from President Bush talking body counts, and Rumsfeld called an SOB by one of his top military brass. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apparently not even considered in the chain of command.
So we'll ask a general who was there about those allegations.
And the forgotten children of Romania. We were the first to show you these pictures, brand-new babies, left to fend for themselves. Thousands of orphans tied up and forgotten about. We're going in- depth on this adoption crisis. Find out what you can do to help these desperate children.
Those stories and more ahead when you join Kyra Phillips and Don Lemon on "CNN NEWSROOM," 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a break.
I'm Heidi Collins.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.
VASSILEVA: I'm Ralitsa Vassileva. Here's some of the top stories we're following for you this hour.
Four Russian soldiers in Georgia have been charged as spies, and that is increasing tensions between the two former Soviet Republics. A court on Friday ordered all four detained men to be held in custody for another two months. Georgia says the men comprised a spy ring behind a bombing last year that killed three people. Russia has recalled its ambassador to Georgia, and called the charges "groundless and moronic."
CLANCY: It was a bumpy return home for the world's first female space tourist. But she, along with two others, landed over the steppes of Kazakhstan in the early morning hours. Iranian-born American citizen Anousheh Ansari paid some $20 million to make this trip. One of her first reactions back on land was giving the crowd a thumbs up. And she got some roses. I guess those were thrown in, Ralitsa, with the $20 million.
VASSILEVA: I guess, yes.
To a more serious story now, the chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial has lost his brother-in-law to a gun attack. The man's car came under fire in Baghdad. His young son was wounded. It's not cheer whether they were targeted as relatives of the judge.
CLANCY: Bob Woodward's last two books painted U.S. President George W. Bush as a commander in chief, in full control of his trip. But the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists' latest tome has a very different storyline, particularly when it comes to the Iraq war.
Mary Snow gives us a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "State of Denial: Bush at War, Part 3," is claimed to reveal damaging secrets from inside the White House about the war in Iraq. One of those secrets, Bob Woodward tells CBS' "60 Minutes," is that the administration isn't telling the full story about the amount of violence.
In an interview to air Sunday, CBS quotes Woodward as saying, "It's getting to the point now where there are 800, 900 attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces."
HOWARD KURTZ, "WASHINGTON POST": A Bob Woodward book is always a bombshell event and the fact that the book is even called "State of Denial" suggests that perhaps he's going to be more critical of the Bush administration and its handling of the Iraq war than he has been in the past.
SNOW: Critics have accused Woodward of being too soft on the Bush administration in his last two books. While this new one is under lock and key until it hits the bookstores on Monday, the details he's purportedly revealed to CBS indicate it could be highly critical of the White House.
He tells "60 Minutes" there is intelligence being kept under wraps that the insurgency will get worse in 2007. And he reveals that Henry Kissinger, the secretary of state under Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, meets often with the president and vice president as an adviser. Kissinger's advice, he reports, has been victory is the only meaningful strategy.
Kissinger was traveling and could not be reached for comment. But in an interview with "Late Edition" in March, he made a similar argument.
HENRY KISSINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I do not think that setting a deadline is a useful strategy, because then everything is working in the expectation of a fixed deadline in which the insurgents can simply wait us out.
SNOW: A senior administration official downplayed the book, telling CNN, "It doesn't appear to be anything new. The president has been very frank with the country about the challenges we face in the war on terror, how ruthless, violent and determined our enemy is."
Some predict Woodward's claims might be felt in the November elections.
KURTZ: When Iraq is such an overriding issue in these House and Senate campaigns undoubtedly it is going to have an impact and it's going to provide ammunition, probably, for Democratic candidates running against Republicans, to try to hang that war and its missteps around the neck of the Bush White House. SNOW: But Woodward told CBS that President Bush is so certain about staying in Iraq that he told key Republicans, "I will not withdraw, even if war and Barney are the only ones supporting me."
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Ever heard of a fire tornado? I hadn't. Well, fire crews hadn't, either, until they encountered two of them in a huge brushfire midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. They were struggling for weeks to get the blaze under control, but with the dry conditions there, it's very difficult.
Peter Viles takes us there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For 25 days, it has outfoxed the firefighters, shifting in one direction, then doubling back. But it's when the wind blows that it gets downright mean. A fire tornado, two of them, broke out Tuesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of them! Two of them! Oh my god, the other one next to it!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They merged! They merged! Oh, it came out the back.
VILES: Roughly 200 feet high, the tornado jumped fire lines, threatening the mountain village of Lockwood Valley.
STEVE MUELLER, CALIF. DEPT. OF FORESTRY: It picked up cardboard boxes, chairs and other items, and stuff was just flying around. I've never seen anything like that.
VILES: Many residents packed up and left their homes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope it's here when we get back.
VILES: The village was spared, but the Day Fire, so-called because it started on Labor Day, has now blackened a wilderness area the size of Chicago and is still less than 50 percent contained.
(on camera): The biggest challenge in fighting this fire has been the terrain. It is so steep and so rugged up in these hills, that when the fire flares like it is right now behind me, it's almost impossible to get in here with a fire engine or a bulldozer to fight these flames.
(voice over): When winds are calm, firefighters attack from the air, dumping water, even using a DC-10 to spread fire retardant. On the ground, hot shots, specially-trained ground crews, are doing what they can.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now we're flying crews in, dropping them in. We call it coyote in and out. They stay in for three or four days. They live off of the supplies that are dropped there.
VILES: But when the fire jumped lines this week, it ran into valleys where firefighters had to fight back with hoses and bulldozers. More than 4,000 firefighters are now battling the blaze. This group just checked in from New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so dry out here, this won't go out.
VILES: On day 25, the fire itself was hard to find, but these firefighters know the Day Fire is not done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a little tired. The fire lays down and it picks back up again. So it has been a long ordeal.
VILES: An ordeal with no end in sight.
Peter Viles for CNN, Lockwood Valley, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Amazing pictures there.
Well, it's happened since men and women walked the Earth.
CLANCY: Yes, now, though, some young Colombian women have a special reason, they say, for suddenly getting a headache.
VASSILEVA: They're actually fighting crime, believe it or not. We'll explain.
CLANCY: Crime, gangs, so much else. We're going to get to this story in a couple of minutes.
First, though, Ralitsa, let's go to Bali. Sunday, after all, is going to mark the first anniversary of a day that terrorists brought death to that Indonesian paradise.
VASSILEVA: It was the second time in three years that Islamist suicide bombers had attacked there, once again targeting foreign tourists, but also killing many Muslims.
CLANCY: And they left behind not just grief and pain, but lingering questions.
More on that now from Hugh Riminton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUGH RIMINTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Observing Ramadan is a pillar of faith for Muslims, and more precious than ever for these friends in Indonesia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more meaningful for us because we have to face one year of memorial, our last (INAUDIBLE) and, of course, this Ramadan, every time I pray, I always remember him. I pray...
RIMINTON: One year ago on the beautiful island of Bali, these devoutly Muslim lives were shattered by other Muslims.
SHERRY SURYO, SURVIVED BOMBING IN BALI: We just had chitchat, and we just enjoyed that evening and the scenery, and yes, suddenly, yes, everything becomes dark.
RIMINTON: A tourist video caught one of the suicide bombers walking in with a backpack. Three bombs, three cafes. The last seconds of life for four people at the Suryos table, including both of Sherry's parents.
SURYO: When I saw my mother and father didn't move at all, then I realized it's really serious situation.
RIMINTON: This was the second Bali atrocity, killing 26 people, three years after another terrorist strike had claimed more than 200. Four conspirators have been jailed. The master bombmaker, Azahari (ph), died a few weeks after this attack, in a shootout with police.
Meanwhile, a quieter transformation among these survivors.
HERU DJATMOKO, SURVIVED BOMBING IN BALI: After the incident, we're not becoming friends anymore; we're becoming family.
RIMINTON: In the past year, all have been forced to reflect deeply on the meaning of their faith. Their conclusion, don't blame Islam, but those who kill in its name.
SURYO: I'm also Muslim, and they say that they are doing it because of the religion and because of their fight for Allah, but hurting people is not the way of Islam. And I just couldn't stand -- I just couldn't forgive how they think that they are right to do that.
RIMINTON: Sherry and Reza's two children survived that day. They were a few meters away playing on the beach. Despite their trauma and potential for further attacks, neither the family, nor their friends, will leave the island, which has given and taken so much.
FARSHAL HAMBALI, SURVIVED BOMBING IN BALI: If we leave Bali now, it really shows to the terrorist that they are winning. OK, we have to win. We are here. It means we win. We beat them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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VASSILEVA: Welcome back. You're with CNN international.
CLANCY: And YOUR WORLD TODAY. We're seen all across the globe. Now to the Colombian city of Perrera (ph). Drug trafficking, kidnappings, murders, all a way of life for many young men there.
VASSILEVA: Now the wives and girlfriends of some of those gangsters are trying to change that.
Karl Penhaul explains how. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can look, but you can't touch. These girls are on strike. No more sex for their Colombian gangster boyfriends until they give up their lives of crime.
Eighteen-year-old Marjuri lives with the one toting the mini uzi.
MARJURI, GIRLFRIEND OF GANG MEMBER (through translator): I told him there's a group girls who are keeping their legs closed until their boyfriends change, and I'm thinking of joining them. He laughed, but then I told him I was serious.
PENHAUL: That conversation was three weeks ago, and since then, she says, she's given her man no action.
MARJURI (through translator): It's been a little difficult for me, but I think it's more difficult for a guy, because sex is everything to them.
PENHAUL: Local DJs have busted a rhyme to promote the strike. "Close your legs, sex strike against violence," it goes.
Perrera is one of Colombia's most violent cities. There were 550 murders here last year. It's the command HQ for the country's most ruthless drug cartel.
Authorities say cocaine bosses hire gang members from poor neighborhoods. And when youngsters like Carlos Andre aren't doing the mob's bidding, they're involved in robberies and vicious turf wars.
CARLOS ANDRE, GANG MEMBER (through translator): This is an absurd war between gangs, between us here and another gang over here, and another over there, all for territory and power.
PENHAUL: He says the sex strike hasn't been very effective so far.
ANDRE (through translator): Many of the girls around here like us because we're packing a gun. What good is having a woman around and not having sex with her?
PENHAUL: That's the kind of frustration Marjuri and friend Omaira are counting on. They say at least 23 other women have joined the strike, and they hope it will spread.
OMAIRA, GIRLFRIEND OF GANG MEMBER (through translator): I told my boyfriend, if he didn't want to turn in his gun, I'd help him a little bit. If he didn't shape up, he wasn't going to be getting any. He'd have to sleep alone.
PENHAUL: Nothing new here. In ancient Greece, Lysus Strata (ph) organized a sex strike to end a war between Athens and Sparta.
So far, Omaira and Marjuri they say their men have not quit their lives of violence, but are ready to in exchange for a decent wage. I asked them if they think banning their men watching sports could help step up the pressure.
MARJURI (through translator): Maybe they'd miss watching soccer, but nothing like they miss having sex.
PENHAUL: Marjuri only hopes her sex ploy pays off before her boyfriend's enemies catch up with him.
MARJURI (through translator): I always think some day they could kill him, but he says, don't worry, if they kill me, you can find another man.
PENHAUL: It sounds harsh, but sometimes that's just what life here boils down to, sex and survival, love and death.
Karl Penhaul, CNN, Perrera, Columbia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: It's a sad story, in a way.
CLANCY: We'll see if it works, see if it makes any kind of a difference. I don't think -- a lot of people are interested to watch that, but a lot of people also pretty skeptical.
VASSILEVA: Well, the sky in this story is not the limit.
CLANCY: Still to come, the first female tourist in space tell us what she dreamt about as she lived her dream in orbit above the Earth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CLANCY: Well, there's a look at everybody hard at work on a Friday in the control room. What is your dream vacation? A lot of people thinking about that right now.
VASSILEVA: Oh, yes, absolutely.
CLANCY: If you have $20 million, Ralitsa, it might buy you a trip to space.
CLANCY: You're looking at me? I don't have $20 million but I would love to do it. And that's exactly what one woman did. The first female tourist to space has made her safe return to earth and she's sharing her experiences, including what it smells like above the earth.
Ryan Chilcote explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a lap full of roses, space tourist Anousheh Ansari was all smiles after landing on the Barren Steppe of Kazakhstan. The first woman to pay her own way in to space, had just fulfilled her dream. And Ansari never stopped talking about it. She described the uncomfortable trip up.
ANOUSHEH ANSARI, SPACE TOURIST: Symptoms that I had -- of course, I had motion sickness, but also another effect of weightlessness is low back pain.
CHILCOTE: And she convoyed what she described as a spiritual experience as the Soyuz spacecraft approached the International Space Station, docked, and she flew through the hatch.
ANSARI: The moment that I arrived on the station and it was like going to Mecca.
CHILCOTE: And Ansari described small details like the smell of space.
ANSARI: Actually, when they opened the hatch, they told me, take a good whiff because this is only time you get to smell space so -- it's hard to describe, something between burned food and cooking.
CHILCOTE: She also talked about the larger sensation of weightlessness.
ANSARI: It's like floating like a feather in the air, effortless. You don't need to apply any pressure or anything.
CHILCOTE: Through the trip, Ansari's husband at Russian mission control relayed questions from her blog. Ansari answered, describing how her waking life was converging with her dreams.
ANSARI: My dreams have been wonderful. They've been dreams of all my activities during the day and, you know, the images that I see out the window so it's been fantastic. Of course I dream of you, honey. You know that should be allowed.
CHILCOTE: The Ansaris had already put millions of dollars into sub-orbital spacecraft. The idea, they say, is to create the conditions where everyone can experience space firsthand.
(on camera): I'd like to hear from you what thoughts, what ideas, you might have had since you've now been in space yourself as a private individual about how space travel from a commercial perspective should go forward.
ANSARI: ISS is not a place for a lot of tourists to come. One at a time would work, but when they get up to the crew of six it will be pretty crowded here, so we need to have different destinations for civilians if we want to do a lot of orbitals flights in the future.
CHILCOTE (voice-over): The future is the Iranian-born American's favorite topic. Her advice.
ANSARI: Dream, dream big, don't let anyone tell you that your dreams are impossible. Don't ever give up on it, and make sure you are thinking freely and letting your imagination go. Don't have any boundaries.
CHILCOTE: Ansari used to say the sky's the limit. Now that she's gone past that, she's looking for more.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, mission control, Korolev, Russia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Great story.
VASSILEVA: How do you top that? I'm curious to see. Well, that's it for this hour. I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. From all of us here at the CNN Center and all of our correspondents around the world, thanks for spending a part of your day with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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