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Your World Today
Crisis in Pakistan; Demonstrators Call on Justice Department to Do More; Democratic Presidential Candidates Spar in Nevada
Aired January 16, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Three words expressing their frustration. Protester defy a state of emergency as a senior U.S. envoy arrives in Pakistan.
ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: They aimed for fireworks, but some fizzled out. U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls face a tougher opponent in Nevada -- the crowd.
CLANCY: Call for action. Civil rights activists say the U.S. government is not doing enough to prosecute hate crimes.
SESAY: And a homerun record holder faces hard times. Barry Bonds is charged with lying under oath about using steroids.
CLANCY: It's 9:00 in the morning in San Francisco, 10:00 in the evening in Islamabad.
Hello and welcome to our report seen all around the globe.
I'm Jim Clancy.
SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay.
From Dhaka to Dublin to Dubai, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: A new report warns Islamic militants now gaining ground in Pakistan despite the emergency rule that's been imposed by President Pervez Musharraf.
SESAY: The news comes as a top American envoy arrives in Islamabad. He's expected to advise General Musharraf to call off the emergency decree.
Well, we'll have more on that in just a moment, but first "The New York Times" reports that in the past week, militants have chased out police and now control part of the northwest frontier province. The picturesque region of Swat could prove a launch pad for extremists as they try to push further south. Critics say the militants' recent success proves General Musharraf's emergency decree has done little to combat militant aggression.
CLANCY: Meantime, America's deputy secretary of state has been sent to Islamabad for urgent talks with Pakistani leaders. At the same time, conservative Islamists staging rallies to condemn the state of emergency and what they see is the U.S. interfering in Pakistani affairs.
Karl Penhaul has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Under a heavy police cordon they're protesting the emergency crackdown and what they say is American meddling in Pakistan's politics.
FAZUL UR-REHMAN, UNITED COUNCIL OF ACTION LEADER (through translator): Our fight is with America. Today they say Pakistan should have free elections, but that's just for show. Wherever America goes, it exerts its own political agenda.
PENHAUL: This demonstration in Islamabad has been called by an alliance of conservative religious parties. Some of the same parties that backed the Taliban after 9/11 and condemned President Pervez Musharraf for siding with the United States in the war on terror.
Riot police contained the demonstration but make no moves to break it up. The U.S. nightmare would be if the backlash against emergency rule translates into a groundswell of political support for anti-American religious conservatives like these.
So during his visit to Pakistan, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is expected to urge President Musharraf to end his crackdown and share power with moderate politicians. For the leaders of this protest, Negroponte's trip is just the latest sign of U.S. interference.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): These types of people do not bring any good to the country, and when they leave, everything seems to get worse.
PENHAUL: In nearby Rawalpindi, it's Friday prayers and another call to arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of the people in Pakistan, we do strongly condemn this state of emergency.
PENHAUL: Hours earlier, President Musharraf dissolved parliament and named a caretaker government. Its role, to shepherd Pakistan to general elections in January. But already, the new administration is sparking controversy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Musharraf's government and we strongly condemn this. There should be a neutral government which would hold elections, and free and fair elections are the real solution of the problem, I think.
PENHAUL: Many critics, including the United States, say it will be impossible to hold fair elections if the state of emergency is not lifted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: There's a lot of agreement with that right across the board.
Our own Karl Penhaul joins us now from Islamabad.
And Karl, there's not going to be anything the U.S. says that's going to change the minds of some of the people we just saw in that report, but what does the opposition want the U.S. to say?
PENHAUL: Well, it certainly depends what sector of the opposition you look at, Jim, because Pakistan's politicians are splintered, they are divided. Historically, they have been fighting among themselves.
We see, for example, Benazir Bhutto trying to reach out to Nawaz Sharif. The two formerly were arch rivals. Now they are trying to put together some kind of marriage of convenience to call for a national unity government.
They both want General Musharraf to stand down not only as head of the army, but also as the head of Pakistan. And then they want to progress to free and fair elections where they hope that their moderate parties will succeed. And then the types of (INAUDIBLE) groups that we saw protesting today, they obviously hope that not only will the United States leave and stop meddling in Pakistan's affairs, they also want General Musharraf to stand down and they want to gain success in elections.
Those particular parties are looking toward some kind of Islamic theocracy toward the future -- Jim.
CLANCY: All right.
Karl Penhaul there reporting to us live from Islamabad.
Thank you.
SESAY: All right. Now we want to take you to Washington, D.C. now, where civil rights leaders have gathered for a rally.
They're calling it a march on hate crimes, and they've called it today in Washington, D.C. And the plan is that they will take the group from Freedom Plaza to the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building. Steve Harvey will -- is currently at the mike. Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
STEVE HARVEY, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: It's just an honor for me. I thank God every day for allowing me to be a voice of people, to be able to relay information in a timely fashion, but I thank God for making me attempt to be an inspiration to people across the country. I just thank God for that position.
And so I'm not here with a long speech. You've heard some great messages from some great men. I'm just here to introduce the reason that we are all standing here today about this cause. One of the main people who formed this march, who put us together, I am just -- before we go, I just want everybody to remember this, though. I opened my show for the first 12 minutes talking about God, you know.
I'm not -- I don't talk about going to heaven or none of that. I ain't really sure if I'm going to -- I'm trying. But I ain't -- it ain't a for sure with me. But I appreciate the fact that God puts it on my heart every day to remember where my blessings come from.
And so one of the things I'm most grateful for is that God has positioned me with enough sense in my mind to know that I'm a result of a lot of people from the past, and if it wasn't for them people in the past, Steve Harvey don't exist today.
One of the people that's been around a long time is a man that I'm about to bring to the stage. And I'm telling you, man, sometimes you've got to be inspired by somebody. Somebody got to matter to you, and God put people in our lives that matter.
You've got to have some people that ain't afraid. You've got to have some people that will just go down there and (INAUDIBLE). Then sometimes you've got to have some people that just go down there and just do something.
Well, this brother is all of that, wrapped into one. He has been an inspiration to me. He has been a leader to me, and one of the reasons I'm here today.
Please welcome the one and only Reverend Al Sharpton.
(APPLAUSE)
AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace!
SHARPTON: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace!
SHARPTON: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace!
SHARPTON: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace!
SHARPTON: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace!
SHARPTON: No justice...
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: No peace! SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: What do we want?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Justice!
SHARPTON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Now!
SHARPTON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Now!
SHARPTON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Now!
SHARPTON: When do we want it?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Now!
SHARPTON: All right.
We're getting ready to march.
Are you ready to march?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Yes!
SHARPTON: Are you ready to march?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Yes!
SHARPTON: Are you ready to march?
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Yes! First let me say I'd like Martin King II to come back up, as well as Charles Steel (ph). Three weeks ago when we talked about coming to Washington and we only had three weeks, people said they'll never be able to bring numbers out like they brought in Jena. But we knew that if we would stand up and if the mikes of our community would open up, that our people would come.
And look behind you all the way to the end of the plaza, from all over this country. We're here. The Justice Department wouldn't come to the people. We brought the people to the Justice Department!
(APPLAUSE)
SHARPTON: One of the people that we've come for, I want us to give a big hand. Some of the cases they should have heard.
The case of Mychal Bell, his father, Marcus Jones, from Jena, Louisiana.
(APPLAUSE)
SHARPTON: The Farrell (ph) case, killed by police in west Memphis, Arkansas.
Come on, Debbie Farrell (ph).
The young lady who was hours away from marrying her fiance who was killed in 50 shots, Sean Bell in New York. And she's been fighting for justice for him ever since. Nicole Paultre-Bell.
(APPLAUSE)
SHARPTON: I was brought out by a man that stands up every day and gives us a sense of vision and direction, brother Steve Harvey. And we have also been joined -- one of the things that everyone did on this march was put aside any commercial competition and said we're all going to speak with one voice, for one community. The man sat out in the cold with us all morning, been pumping it a long time, let's give a hand to brother Tom Joyner.
SESAY: All right. We are going to break away from those scenes in Washington, D.C.
You were just listening to the Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist here in the United States, addressing a crowd, a crowd gathered in D.C. today for a march on hate crimes. They will march on the Justice Department.
And the whole idea here is that they want the Justice Department to do more on the issue of hate crimes that are carried out here in the United States.
CLANCY: A classic rally in a lot of ways, but in some ways not a classic rally. You've got people talking about hate crimes. You've also got people there that are saying that black-on-black violence has to come to an end. Women, black women have to be protected as well. So, many issues here, but some of the classic civil rights activists there.
SESAY: Indeed. And, you know, also the point to make, Jim, that a lot of -- a lot of the anger, a lot of the sharp feeling you're seeing there today stems from the events in Jena, Louisiana, where nooses were found hanging from...
CLANCY: And not only there. Nooses all around.
SESAY: Not only there. All around. All around the country have been found, and there's this great sense that not enough is being done to prosecute those that they believe are responsible for these crimes.
CLANCY: All right. A big turnout.
We're going to have more coverage as it's warranted ahead.
But right now we've got to go to a break. There's another night, another political debate.
Did you see it? There wasn't much of a debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am happy to be here tonight, and this pantsuit is asbestos tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: She's been burned before, so Hillary Clinton came prepared in Las Vegas. We will see if the asbestos pantsuit really helped.
CLANCY: Also, many in France will be going nowhere fast this weekend.
SESAY: All transit workers vow to continue their strikes there.
CLANCY: And soul singer Amy Winehouse may be singing the blues again. She's kicking off her 17-day tour. Fans finding it so bad they booed and then stormed out.
This is CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
CLANCY: A special welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States this hour.
Well, we're going to tell you a story now from Saudi Arabia, where a court ruled putting the treatment of women there in the spotlight. SESAY: That's right. The court doubled the punishment of a woman who had been gang-raped because her lawyer appealed her sentence. Her initial penalty of being in the car with a man who was not a relative was 90 lashes.
CLANCY: She's only 19 years old. She was convicted of violating a law on segregation of sexes. The woman now faces 200 lashes, as well as six months in jail.
SESAY: But the seven men convicted of raping her also had their prison sentences increased as well.
Well, the case has sparked a rare debate in Saudi Arabia about the kingdom's justice system.
CLANCY: It has also drawn more attention to women's rights. Amnesty International saying women there face pervasive discrimination and severe restrictions on their movement and their freedoms.
Under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than male relatives.
SESAY: Well, the human rights group Amnesty International also says domestic violence is widespread, and the country's Human Rights Society says it has received reports of hundreds of case of domestic violence.
CLANCY: All right. Time to talk about politics and Thursday night, of course.
U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls stepped into that ring, going toe to toe, so to speak, in a debate that was, well, sponsored by us.
SESAY: Yes. Hillary Clinton seemed to be the target of opportunity for her opponents.
CLANCY: We'll find out if anybody scored a knockout punch.
Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): No laid-back, above-the-fray front-runner stuff this time.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am happy to be here tonight, and this pantsuit is asbestos tonight.
CROWLEY: This time she wasn't going to get burned
CLINTON: I don't mind taking hits on my record, on issues. But when somebody starts throwing mud, at least we can hope that it's both accurate and not right out of the Republican playbook.
CROWLEY: If he did not back off, John Edwards at least felt the need to explain.
JOHN EDWARDS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do believe, however, that voters need to know that we have choices. There's nothing personal about this. I think...
CROWLEY: They pretty much began where they left off, the Bickertons.
CLINTON: ... a lot reaching universal health care.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand...
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hold on. One at a time.
CROWLEY: But then there was a slap-down.
SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DE), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's get to it, folks. The American people don't give a darn about any of this stuff that is going on up here.
CROWLEY: And the noticeably pro-Clinton audience was prone to hiss at some of the stuff tough.
OBAMA: And, you know, this is the kind of thing that I would expect from Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani, where we start playing with numbers -- we start playing with numbers in order to try to make a point.
EDWARDS: Senator Clinton defends the system, takes money from lobbyists, does all of those things. And my point is simply that people have -- no, wait a minute.
CROWLEY: So, for the most part, things settled down. They discussed energy, Iran, trade agreements, and whether sometimes, as it seems in Pakistan, U.S. national security trumps human rights concerns.
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We forgot our principles. Our principles that we said to Musharraf, you know, Musharraf, security is more important than human rights. If I'm president, it's the other way around.
CROWLEY: Big issues were mostly discussed without major disagreement. Exception, Dennis Kucinich, who took everybody to task for switching positions on the war, the Patriot Act and trade with China.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just imagine what it will be like to have a president of the United States who is right the first time.
CROWLEY: As the front-runner, Clinton got most of the attention, whether from her critics or the audience.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you prefer diamonds or pearls? CROWLEY: For the record, Hillary Clinton prefers both.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: There was something about the entire spectacle on television out in Las Vegas, a city known for big stakes gambling, glittering shows and, yes, famous prize fights. Something that, well, we had seen it all before. But there were some differences there.
Let's turn to our own Bill Schneider here for some political analysis.
Bill, as I watched this debate, one thing came to the fore. Barack Obama appears to be evaporating.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's putting it very strongly, but he did have some pretty evasive answers to a couple of those questions.
When he was asked about his position on drivers' licenses -- remember, that was the one where Hillary Clinton seemed to take both positions -- it wasn't entirely clear what his position was. At first it sounded like he was against drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants, and then he said in the end he was for it.
His position on the priority of national security versus human rights in other countries, he wasn't really able to explain, I think, very, very clearly. Hillary Clinton came out and simply said that she thought her first priority as president of the United States has to be the defense of the security of the United States.
So I think the comparison there was damaging for Obama.
CLANCY: Yes. And -- well, Hillary, everybody said she's going to be in the hot seat once again. She performed fine in all of this.
The question for you is, though, what was it about this debate that made us think, well, we've heard this before?
SCHNEIDER: Well, she came out fighting. I mean, you know, the best defense is a good offense, and that's what she did. We hadn't heard that before. That was new.
In the past she seemed to be a front-runner, she was above it all. She didn't get involved in the fray. This time she decided she's been on the defensive for the past two weeks, she was going to come out fighting. That's something we have not heard before.
CLANCY: Well, you know, what we haven't really heard before is the crowd weighing in. The audience...
SCHNEIDER: Oh, yes.
CLANCY: ... if you will, may be the real star. SCHNEIDER: Yes, this was unusual, because the audience -- I don't know if they were cautioned not to say anything, or that they were allowed to say something, but they were very active. There were many, many Clinton partisans in that audience.
Our poll of Nevada Democrats indicated that just over half the Nevada Democratic likely caucus-goers do support Senator Clinton. She's very popular here. A lot of union members support her, a lot of minorities support her. And clearly that crowd was very, very vocal in their support for Senator Clinton.
CLANCY: All right. You know, you look at the three front- runners, and I know the others would like you to talk about them, but -- all right. I'm sorry. We have got to go, Bill. I have got to leave it right there.
Bill Schneider reporting from Las Vegas.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
CLANCY: We will hear more from him this week.
You have already seen the Democrats in the CNN YouTube debates. Coming up later this month in our America Votes 2008 coverage, the Republicans. And again, the candidates will debate your questions.
CNN's Anderson Cooper is going to host that Wednesday, November the 28th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. For international viewers, that's Thursday the 29th at 01:00 hours Greenwich Meantime, right here on CNN -- Isha.
SESAY: Jim, let's go now to Washington, D.C., where large numbers of people are gathered. They gathered to protest the way they see this country prosecuting hate/race crimes.
Our Don Lemon is there in D.C. and I believe he's joined by the Reverend Al Sharpton. Obviously, as you all know, a civil rights activist -- Don.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Isha. And it's a lot of people you can see. It's, you know -- I would say ordered chaos, but not really chaos.
I'm here with the Reverend Al Sharpton. You saw him at the top of the hour here on CNN International.
This march on Washington, on the Justice Department, Reverend Sharpton, did you expect to have so many people?
SHARPTON: Well, we knew that once we had the network of civil rights groups, Steve Harvey, Tom Joyner, black radio, which has always been the drumbeat, Martin Luther King III, (INAUDIBLE), Martin King's father had only "Jet" magazine and black radio in the '60s. So we have resurrected what has worked. And you can see, the white media didn't promote, they didn't even announce this march.
LEMON: Right.
SHARPTON: But look at this. So it shows that we cannot be hampered by or stopped by the lack of media attention.
LEMON: And this is being played on CNN International, which is airing around the world. What does this mean to the world, not only to America, but to the rest of the world?
SHARPTON: What it says to the world is that as America represents itself, they need to know around the world that the federal government, the national government here, is not dealing with hate crimes -- hangman nooses, race crimes around the country. Our appeal is, just as they fight aggressively overseas, they cannot abandon their citizens here. No matter who they are, black, Jewish, whoever, we are here to say that the civil rights of Americans are not being protected by the Justice Department.
LEMON: I'm going to talk to Martin King now, who's the son of Martin Luther King, Jr.
What does this -- being here, knowing that your father -- the original march on Washington in 1963, what does this moment mean to you?
MARTIN LUTHER KING III, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Well, it's bittersweet, because by now in 2007 it's tragic that the rights of people that my father fought for -- my father -- that we still have to march. I'm not disappointed. I'm glad that people are here standing up for justice, but I feel very bad that in to 2007 we are not further along.
And I might add that what this shows to the world is that America is not treating its citizens of color, as my father said in 1963 correctly. And so, we are going to continue to walk and we encourage all to join us, all of our brothers and sisters throughout the world to join us in this effort, until justice arrives.
LEMON: I mean, it's a huge march to see all of these people.
And for our international audience, this is Tom Joyner here, who is a radio talk show host here in the United States.
And because of black media and the radio and the Internet and young people, that's what people are saying got all of these folks out here. How do you feel about that, Tom?
TOM JOYNER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, back in the day, it was black radio that got people to march.
LEMON: And the church.
JOYNER: And the church. But, you know, you only had a few hundred people in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where the radio stations had all of the community listening. And we would stop the music, we would stop playing Aretha and the Temptations, and we would hand the microphone to Dr. King and Reverend Abernathy, and they would tell us where to go, why we would be there, and when to march.
That's what we did then, that's what we're doing now.
LEMON: Yes. And that's what -- you are doing the same thing now, but it's you guys who are doing it instead of Dr. King.
JOYNER: Yes.
LEMON: Yes.
Thank you, Tom Joyner.
Thank you, Martin King.
Thank you, Reverend Al Sharpton.
SHARPTON: And Steve Harvey.
LEMON: And Steve Harvey.
Oh, Steve. I didn't see you back there.
Steve Harvey, who's also in radio.
And then we have (INAUDIBLE).
All these folks here, big players here in the United States. And we want to make that clear for our international viewers.
And this march, they are going to march around the Justice Department here in Washington seven times. And CNN is going to bring that to you live here. We have the capability to go the entire march, wireless. And also it's streaming on CNN.com.
Isha, I'm going to toss it back to you unless you have some questions.
SESAY: No, we are going to leave it there, Don. Many thanks.
CLANCY: We have got to take a short break.
And coming up, what sort of performance would you expect from a singer who's big hit is titled "Rehab"?
SESAY: Well, that's what they got in Birmingham when a very shaky Amy Winehouse kicked off her comeback tour with a show that will go down in rock history for, Jim, all the wrong reasons.
CLANCY: Also coming up, Serbia denying charges it abuses the mentally disabled. The pictures don't lie.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including the United States. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Isha Sesay.
JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Jim Clancy. These are the stories that are making headlines in YOUR WORLD TODAY.
A top American envoy in Islamabad for urgent talks with Pakistan's president. John Negroponte is trying to convince Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule. Earlier, General Musharraf swore in an interim government made up of his close allies.
SESAY: A Saudi court has increased the punishment of a woman who was gang raped. Her initial penalty for being in a car with a man who was not a relative was 90 lashes. It was up to 200 lashes after her lawyer complained the sentence was too harsh and that the sentences of the seven men convicted of raping her were too lenient.
CLANCY: Relief efforts under way in Bangladesh this hour after Cyclone Sidr slammed ashore, washing away homes in the heavily populated coastal areas. Government officials say at least 500 people have been killed. That number expected to rise sharply.
SESAY: Well, Jim, let's get more now on the story, tropical Cyclone Sidr has come and gone but when it slammed into Bangladesh it left a trail of death and uncertainty.
CLANCY: That is because the true extent of the damage can't be known now, the storm's driving rain, high winds, all of it leveled homes, cut communication, destroyed crops and fish farms.
SESAY: James Blake has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES BLAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are some of the first images of Cyclone Sidr, but with communications and electricity down across the region, emergency teams simply don't know how many people have died. Officials say it's more than 300, and that number is rising fast.
ZAMAN RABBANI: Most of the village and homes here, you see the concrete building, they have so-called houses. Mainly the casualty comes because of the high tide, because water was really high and it comes and it swept away people. The forecast is that this cyclone is bad as the 1970 and 1991 cyclones. From '91 till now, this is the worst one. After '91, which people were killed in that cyclone.
BLAKE: The Red Cross considers this the worst cyclone for 16 years but unlike 1991, this time the country was somewhat prepared. 650,000 people were forced to evacuate from their towns and villages in the south. Others camped out in shelters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The storm hit the city at night. It destroyed our hut and slaughtered our clothes. At midnight we took our children to the shelter.
BLAKE: The rescue effort started overnight, even before the storms had eased. The first priority to find people trapped under collapsed buildings. And the navy has now launched a massive search and rescue effort to find hundreds of people still missing by the coast.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: We want to hear from you. If you have video or photos of Cyclone Sidr, become an I-reporter. Submit those pictures or video you've captured to CNN. How do you do it? Go to our website, CNN.com, look for this logo, the I-report logo, click on it for complete instructions.
SESAY: Now, Serbia's prime minister calls the charges malicious and fabricated, but a U.S. human rights group has the pictures to prove its point, that Serbia neglects and abuses its mentally disabled. In fact, the group says some of the practices are tantamount to torture. We'll let you be the judge as you watch this report from Jonathan Miller, and some of you may find the pictures very disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN MILLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Out of sight, out of mind. That's how mental disability is dealt with in Serbia. Disabled people, many of them children, condemned to subhuman conditions, segregation, disease, shackled. Prepare to be shocked. This 7-year- old girl has hydrocephaly it is. She's left here to die, and without treatment she will. Many of these children have Down syndrome, the mildest of disabilities. A long with children with cerebral palsy, they live out their days in a bleak institution in southwestern Serbia. Put any child in a place like this and they will come out disabled.
The most visible problems, such as emaciation are the result of sheer emotional neglect. No wonder these children won't eat. The well established U.S. charity Mental Disability Rights International spent four years investigating and documenting the extent of the abuse. They visited nine government institutions. Understaffing is mostly to blame for all this. There are far too few nurses and too many disabled people to care for. So, they're just put in storage, warehoused, forgotten. In institutions run by the ministries of health and lane or, adults with mental disabilities also suffering with the charity brands inhuman and degrading treatment, tantamount to torture in some cases. Like the man with Down syndrome tied to his bed for 11 years.
ERIC ROSENTHAL, MENTAL DISABILITY RIGHT INTERNATIONAL: It is not acceptable to write off the population of those institutions, to leave the 15,000, 17,000 people behind, to allow the inhuman and degrading treatment and torture to go on must be stopped. These are fundamental obligations of international law. And immediate action is need.
MILLER: The abuses appear to violate article 3 of the European convention on human rights to which Serbia is subject. It prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment or torture. Improper segregation and arbitrary detention would also likely contravene the convention. This is important because one criteria for E.U. intercession is the violation of human rights which is why the Serbian government has come out fighting, although at first ministers did not deny there was a problem. The health minister told Serbi radio that he was doing his best. Conditions to treat disabilities are improving, he said.
Today, though, the prime minister released a statement branding the charity report fabricated and malicious, dark propaganda, suspicion the report is being used for political purposes. We have no political agenda, the director of Mental Disability Rights International told channel 4 news tonight. He called on the prime minister to take responsibility for what members of his government of already admitted. The government said it will set up a commission to investigate the allegations but there's a stigma attached to disability in Eastern Europe, particularly to mental illness. And Serbia, it seems, is no exception. This is secret shame.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: That was Jonathan Miller reporting there. Jim?
CLANCY: Let's go the Middle East and Palestinian politics now. Hamas leader promising to release rival Fatah members and investigate the deadly rally in Gaza this week. He expressed sorrow for the families hp Hamas policemen shot and killed at least seven civilians at a demonstration in Gaza Monday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the ouster of Hamas during a speech on Thursday. Hamas seized control of the Gaza strip last June after routing rival Fatah forces in a brief but bloody factional war.
SESAY: Well, it's another frustrating day for train commuters in Germany. 6,000 train drivers stayed off the job for a third day, part of a strike that's paralyzed the transportation sector. The strike is set to end on Saturday but the union said it may hold more strikes over the holiday season. The workers are demanding a salary increase.
CLANCY: All right. It's also day three in another transit strike in Europe, but in France there's little indication of when this strike will end. Going at least through the weekend. The transit shutdown already cost the economy millions of dollars in lost revenue and it's not just businesses taking the hit. As Jim Bittermann reports from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Along the rails, there is kind of an empty feeling. But in the stations, the atmosphere is more one of confusion and frustration. An estimated 20 million passengers ride French public transportation each day, and while some trains, buses and subways are coming back online, many are not. And you didn't have to be using public transit to find yourselves stuck. The strike's impact spared no one. And if anyone was profiting from it, it was the phone company which had to handle all those calls from people changing their plans because they could not get to where they were going. But a lot of people are not profiting from it. According to one estimate, the strike is costing the French economy 20 million euros, nearly $30 million, each day. Everyone from big businesses to the corner shops. Henry says no train, no clients so he closed his station cafe for the day. Dominique isn't sure what her losses are going to be at a neighborhood bakery but she says unlike normal days, after 10:30 in the morning she has practically no customers at all. And it's not just the French who are affected by the strike. France is a nation that attracts 76 million tourists a year. Most depending on some point on public transportation.
WENDY SCOTT, TOURIST FROM CHICAGO: It has not been a good experience. It's very hard with the language barrier, not being able to use the system.
BITTERMAN: What were the biggest troubles?
SCOTT: Getting to the Eiffel Tower, getting to the Louver, any tourist spot was a lot more difficult, either taxi or walking you had to do. So you didn't get to see as much, basically, with the time that we had.
BITTERMAN: If the striking transport workers who continue to fight against the government's planned pension reforms are leaving some confused, hurting financially or frustrated, at least some French who have been hurt by the strike say their feelings have on beyond anger to disappointment with their country men.
DAVID ALLOUCH: I think it's a shame from the country, a shame for France, a shame internationally, and people that are striking are fighting for privilege that come from another century, they don't exist anymore. It's a bit sad to paralyze a whole country especially when the majority of French people are actually against the strike.
BITTERMAN: Whatever their feelings about the strike, all those affected by it, including the strikers themselves, shared one thing in common -- no clear idea of how much longer it will go on. Jim Bitterman, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Looks lonely at the train station.
SESAY: It sure does.
CLANCY: Just ahead, baseball's falling star.
SESAY: Barry Bonds is the home run king of the major leagues, he's also now under indictment for lying to a grand jury about using performance enhancement drugs.
CLANCY: Then a bit later, Amy Winehouse flops in Birmingham. Stay with CNN.
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SESAY: Welcome back. You are watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN INTERNATIONAL.
CLANCY: Seen live in more than 200 countries and territories right around the globe. SESAY: Here's a check of some other stories we are following for you this hour.
CLANCY: We are going to begin with a bizarre murder investigation under way in southern England. Police say they have found a second body in a house where a convicted murder used to live. On Monday, they found the body of a teenage girl who disappeared 16 years ago. 61-year-old Peter Tobin has been charged with the murder. Police think he may be a serial killer now.
SESAY: U.S. diplomats will not have to serve in Iraq against their will after all. "Washington Post" reports volunteers have filled all 48 open jobs at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad for next year. That's after the move to order diplomats to serve in Baghdad if enough volunteers could not be found.
CLANCY: In France, an airbus carrying out engine tests slammed nose-first into a noise barrier. The jet was being tested before its delivery to an airline. Airbus France says it deeply regrets the incident.
SESAY: Now, three months ago, Barry Bonds was on top of the world, having set major league baseball's all-time home run record. Now he's facing some very serious charges. Ted Rowlands has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Baseball's home run king Barry Bonds is facing four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath about steroid use. Bonds broke the major league baseball home run record this year under a cloud of suspicion that he used performance-enhancing drugs, something Bonds has always denied.
BARRY BONDS: This record is not tainted at all. At all. Period.
ROWLANDS: But according to the ten-page indictment filed in San Francisco, the government has evidence, "including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other professional athletes." Barry Bonds isn't in trouble for using steroids. He was one of several professional athletes that testified under a grant of immunity in 2003 in front of a grand jury. The deal was simple. If you tell the truth, you are fine. If you don't, you're subject to prosecution. The indictment alleges that the testimony given by Bonds in 2003 was "intentionally evasive, false and misleading."
MICHAEL RAINS, BARRY BONDS' ATTORNEY: What we will keep asking is whether -- whether the media and whether the government of this country would spend as much time repairing Barry's reputation as it has spent destroying him after he has proven innocent by a fair and impartial jury.
ROWLANDS: The indictment sent shock waves through the sports world that even brought a reaction from the white house. A statement issued said in part, "the president is very disappointed to hear this. Clearly, this is a sad day for baseball." Bonds, if convicted of the charges, could spend several years in prison. His first appearance in San Francisco federal court is scheduled for December 7th, marking the start of a long, legal ordeal and likely the end of his baseball career. Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Sad news. Really sad news.
Well, first it happened to Britney Spears, I should say, it is news. Now it's happening to Amy Winehouse.
SESAY: Ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, the opening night of a major comeback tour for the British soul singer ends on a bum note. Details just ahead.
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CLANCY: You are looking at some of the thousands of people who have turned out in Washington, D.C. this day in a protest march that has seen Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton joined there by radio personalities and other, all making it known they want the justice department to prosecute hate crimes. Don Lemon, our correspondent and colleague at CNN, is right there with the march. Don?
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, look, you can see -- look here, these folks have joined hands and they're marching, saying, no justice, no peace. You can hear them singing it in the middle of the crowd. We are able to go around this crowd. We have been telling you this is for injustices that people have perceived here, like Jena six and the hanging of nooses and other crimes that they deem should be labeled hate crimes but so far they say the justice department is not doing that, not prosecuting those crimes.
I'm going to move back here a little bit and show you some of the dignitaries who are in this crowd, trying to push it back, we are going live, guys. Trying to show you some of the dignitaries that are in this crowd. You see Martin Luther King Jr. II, you see the received article Sharpton, radio host Tom Joiner and all these folks who have put this march together, only in three weeks were told by the Reverend Al Sharpton this march was put together as the march back in 1963, they said, took a year. This took us -- took them, they say, at least three weeks, and that was through the internet and also through the radio. It would be transparent to tell you it's like this because this is exactly what's happening, we are being pushed, we are live here. And they're trying to organize it, but that's the Reverend Al Sharpton and he's here. Reverend, we are back on CNN INTERNATIONAL live again. Seems like you have more people here.
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: The plan was to go around seven times. We have actually surrounded the building we have so many people. The front has come around, and we are thought even at the end, having moved. These are how many people are here. So you can honestly tell the world that there is so much concern and so much outrage that people have actually surrounded the justice department in Washington, D.C.
LEMON: You heard it from the Reverend Al Sharpton. We will send it back to you. We will be with them throughout the afternoon as they march here around seven times. This is one time you have been around?
SHARPTON: One time.
LEMON: Six more. Back to you.
CLANCY: Don Lemon right there alongside Reverend Al Sharpton and so many others that are out there covering it, a lot of issues that are being covered there. Yes, hate crimes one of them certainly, but there's a lot of concern about crime and many black people coming out in the streets. Many more than a lot of people expected.
SESAY: We are going to shift gears and bring you a very different kind of story now. When rappers are abandoning the dollar you know the green back's got problems.
CLANCY: That's right. In this latest video from the album "American Gangster" hip-hop mogul Jay-Z seen throwing around not dollars, but euros. The corridors of power have been buzzing about the big economic shift going on in the world, with the dollar losing value abroad. This could mark the first time that pop culture is catching on.
SESAY: Indeed. He's pictured using euros in New York where they are not even accepted. You wouldn't normally quiz an American rapper about his thoughts about the U.S. dollar. For more about Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, entertainment values of the democratic debate and to generally get you up to speed on the pop culture scene, we turn to Cash Peters. Thanks so much for joining us. Let's start with last night's debate, everybody is talking about it. Everyone's really talking about Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Which kind of leads me thinking about the second tier candidates, Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich. They don't seem to have a shot at being president. What's going through their heads?
CASH PETERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Like you would ask me, I'm barely up to speed on Amy Winehouse and Britney news. I didn't see it. I was watching a movie. Two, you know what's very, very interesting about this? Is that America cares but only up to a point. They care what happens to Hillary, they care what happens to Obama. Why these other people are even there we can't figure out. I'm sure internationally, when you go to other countries and you say to people, so, what do you take away from these debates? They're going, there was a debate? Because nobody knows what they stand for. All they care about is are we going to get a woman president, a black president? Many of us are rooting for one or two of those. The rest we don't care about. Take that away with you and dine on it.
SESAY: All righty. Let's talk about Amy Winehouse now. She was --
PETERS: I know less about her. Ask me anything. SESAY: She was on a comeback tour, she got booed off the stage. What we are watching, though, is the disintegration of a very talented woman right before our eyes.
PETERS: Do you remember the day when we used to watch these people, these stars, these troubled artists and they were like meteors, comets, they would gradually soar across the entertainment world? They would gradually burn out and that would be it. Now, all we see is the comet's tail. They come up, get a few awards, get popular and then we see the tail and they burn out immediately. The trouble is -- this I really believe is a problem -- is you get so much attention now from blogs, from entertainment journalists, from all these entertainment programs that, frankly, it's almost impossible, once you become successful and become a successful as she did very quickly, to even get traction after that. You get so hemmed in. Britney Spears is one. Lindsay Lohan is another one. I have a friend who lives on a gated community where Lindsay Lohan lives, Britney Spears lives and Paris Hilton is about to move in. You would think they would be secure, it's a gated community. The truth is she looks out of a window, my friend, and there are paps coming over the fence.
SESAY: I have to jump in. I'm so sorry. We are out of time. As you point out it seems to be the every day tail now, these stars, they burst onto the scene and then they bust out as it were.
PETERS: Looking at the comet's tail.
CLANCY: Bad news, their middle name.
SESAY: That's it.
That's it for this hour. I'm Isha Sesay.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. The news continues here on CNN.
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