Return to Transcripts main page

Your World Today

Standoff Between Iran, Britain; Northern Ireland Politics; Crooked Cricket

Aired March 26, 2007 - 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 ANCHOR: A diplomatic chess match. Will British sailors and marines seized by Iran become pawns in a high-stakes bargaining game?
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Side by side at last. The main players in northern Ireland's new sharing power-sharing government sit down and agree to forge a new alliance.

GORANI: Autopsy results announced. We now know what killed Anna Nicole Smith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): A lot of interest (INAUDIBLE). Everyone is talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Everyone. And with opening day in the U.S. just a week away, the baseball world races to decipher the secrets of a puzzling new pitch.

It is 5:00 p.m. right now in Belfast, 1:00 in the morning in Tokyo.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the world.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

From Belfast, to Tehran, to Tokyo, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Welcome, everyone.

We begin with an international standoff between Iran and Britain that seems to be getting more tense by the day.

CLANCY: Facts disputed and facts known. Iran did seize 15 members of Britain's Royal Marines while they were conducting a routine inspection of a ship in the Gulf.

GORANI: Now, Tehran says they were in Iranian territorial waters and may be charged with espionage.

CLANCY: While Britain and Iraq say they were definitely in Iraqi waters. They are demanding their immediate release.

Robert Moore has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT MOORE, REPORTER, ITV NEWS: Hopes that this crisis can be quickly resolved are beginning to recede, with hints in Tehran that the group of 15 might be put on trial. But the bigger questions are these: What exactly are Iranian intentions? And have the group now become bargaining chips?

(voice over): It certainly seems that for the Iranians the capture is part of a bigger game. President Ahmadinejad may be coming under pressure from militant elements to trade the Britons for five Iranians being held by the Americans in Iraq. At every level now, the foreign office is trying to exert maximum pressure.

Yesterday, Britain's ambassador in Tehran demanded access to the captured group of sailors and marines. But instead, Iran's foreign minister, who is at the U.N. in New York, has repeated the claim that Britain had violated Iranian territorial waters.

MANOUCHEHR MOTTAKI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: There are two options to solve this issue. The first option is based on negotiation, a diplomatic solution based on cooperation. And the second option is confrontation.

MOORE: Iraq has now joined the international appeals for Tehran to free the Britons immediately.

(on camera): Naval officers here say in private that the maritime border between Iran and Iraq can be confusing and ambiguous, but in this case, American and British officials say the two British patrol boats were easily within Iraqi waters. In other words, the Iranians either made a navigational mistake of their own or have been deliberately provocative.

Robert Moore, ITV News, Bahrain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now, we're also closely following the dispute over Iran's nuclear program and fallout from a weekend of back-and-forth punitive measures.

A day after the U.N. Security Council voted to impose additional sanctions on Tehran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment, Iran then hit back, announcing it's going to limit the cooperation that it gives to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency. The European Union's foreign policy chief says he's had some contacts with the top Iranian nuclear negotiators and he's going to try to restart talks as soon as he can.

GORANI: No handshake, but a historic meeting, nonetheless. Long-time enemies in northern Ireland have talked face to face for the first time, agreeing to share power. Leaders of the main Protestant and Catholic parties said they will restore self-rule to the province on May 8th. Fiery pro-British unionist Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams struck the deal hours before a British deadline that would have imposed indefinite direct rule from London on northern Ireland. The leaders say they put aside decades of bitter differences, in their own words, to make way for a better future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. IAN PAISLEY, DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY LEADER: With hard work, commitment to succeed, I believe we can lay the foundation for a better, peaceful and prosperous future for all the people of northern Ireland.

GERRY ADAMS, SINN FEIN LEADER: We've all come a very long way in the process of peacemaking and national reconciliation. We're very conscious to many people who have suffered. We owe it to them to build the best future possible. It's a time for generosity, a time to be mindful of the common good, and of the future of all our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, both the British and Irish prime ministers hailing this agreement, saying it was a result of their own government's close cooperation on northern Ireland.

Let's get some perspective now from our European political editor, Robin Oakley. He joins us from London.

Robin, a couple of years ago you tell me that Ian Paisley is going to sit down next to Gerry Adams -- OK, maybe there weren't handshakes and back pats, but they at least sat down and talked, and agreed, they say.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes, Jim. If 10 years ago somebody had stepped off the plant and stepped back again today after living in northern Ireland, they would find it absolutely amazing what we've gone through in these last few years -- the IRA renouncing violence; the IRA destroying its arms; Protestant militias disbanded, and now Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley, the two great political enemies over decades, sitting down at the same table together.

Peter Hain, the northern Ireland secretary, said today those pictures of those two old enemies together will reverberate around the world. And so they will. He said the clouds have lifted from northern Ireland. This was a great day for the province.

Certainly, it does seem at last we're on that final lap of the peace process. I've seen these politicians from northern Ireland trooping in and out of the Number 10 door behind me over the years, Jim. Time after time, deals are failed at the last minute, deadlines have slipped. But this time it seems we really are on course for the culmination of the peace process -- Jim. CLANCY: What could stall it? I think both men gave a bit of a hint to us when they both referred to those who had suffered so much because of what people in northern Ireland and elsewhere call the troubles. But, you know, it's really an indication that there are still hard-liners that never want to see the two sides together.

OAKLEY: Of course there are. Both men are taking big political risks. And Ian Paisley has seen another Unionist Party in northern Ireland virtually destroyed, or certainly badly hit by its earlier attempts to deal in power-sharing.

He's determined to make sure that he brings the unionists along with him. He's had to fight it hard all the way with his own party. The final stipulation was that Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, must show they were cooperating with the police of northern Ireland, the police service they only formally recognized really back in January.

The extra six weeks to May the 8th is really for Ian Paisley to persuade the unionists that Sinn Fein really are cooperating with the police. And that, he hopes, will bring his party behind him in this power-sharing deal. But this being northern Ireland, Jim, you don't want to say everything is over until it actually happens.

CLANCY: All right.

And watching it for us there in London, senior European political editor Robin Oakley.

Thanks, Robin.

GORANI: Right, you don't want to say it's over until it actually happens. That is very true of events in northern Ireland.

Our Fionnuala Sweeney is in Belfast, northern Ireland, with more on the mood there as this announcement was made.

Hi, Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Hala.

Well, you just heard from Robin Oakley. Robin Oakley and I were in Belfast just a couple of weeks ago when these elections were heard for this assembly which meets in Stormont, which is the northern Irish parliament behind me. And even then we knew that Ian Paisley's party, the hard-line Unionist Party, had won the most votes on its side, and the Catholic nationalist Republican, Sinn Fein, had won the most votes on the other s side.

So it was always going to be between these two parties to do a deal. And while there had been some expectation despite the rhetoric from some of the politicians that a deal would be done, there really were historic sights here earlier today, to see Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the arch old enemy of Ian Paisley of the DUP, sitting at a table at a news conference. And even the most hardened cynics here in northern Ireland saying this really was the culmination of a 10-year process since the Good Friday Agreement, a process which is in place many years before to try to bring these two extreme parties on both sides of the political and religious divide together -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Fionnuala Sweeney in Belfast, northern Ireland.

Thanks very much.

All right. Well, the two sides still want very different things, right?

CLANCY: Well...

GORANI: Still Paisley rule from Britain. Gerry Adams, a unified Ireland. Two still very different visions.

CLANCY: Well, different courses, but they see the need to come together. That may be good news.

Let's check in on some of the other stories that are making news this day.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back, everyone. You're with CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: Now, we're covering all of the news, and some of it today we don't usually think of as international news, but it's got a huge interest around the world. We're talking about the autopsy of Anna Nicole Smith.

It shows she died of an accidental overdose of prescription medicines. She was on at least nine of them. The official results were announced a short while ago at a news conference in Florida.

She died last month at a hotel casino there. Law enforcement officials spent a great deal of their time trying to detail what they did not find at the crime scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE TIGER, SEMINOLE POLICE CHIEF: The Broward sheriff's crime scene unit completed a thorough investigation of the case of the death of this -- of the scene of the death and found no evidence of illegal drugs. We have reviewed hundreds of hours of videotape captured by the hotel security cameras and we found nothing unusual. We analyzed the contents of the laptop computer bringing to Mr. Stern with the approval of his attorney, and we found nothing to indicate any foul play.

We are convinced, based on the extensive review of the evidence, that this case is an accidental overdose with no other criminal eliminate present.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. He also said her long-time friend that is shown there, her attorney, Howard Stern, not right now considered as any target for a criminal probe. Smith's name, though, not about to disappear from the tabloids. There's still the question of who fathered her daughter, born last September in the Bahamas.

GORANI: Well, Jamaican police hope a security video can help them nab the killer of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer. Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room last week hours after his team's shocking loss to Ireland. Police are carefully examining the digitally enhanced video, a process that may take some time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK SHIELDS, KINGSTON DEPUTY POLICE COMMISSIONER: It's critically important because it may give us an image of the killer or killers of Bob Woolmer, and you'll know from many murder investigations and terrorist investigations around the world that CCTV can play an absolutely critical part. And therefore, it's important that we do it right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, as police look into the possibilities, among them one theme is emerging -- the gentlemanly game has a very seamy side.

Jonathan Mann has some "Insight".

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hala, let's admit the obvious. Americans don't get it.

North America is the only place in the English speaking world where people don't particularly care about cricket, but the investigation isn't about the game as it's normally played. It's looking into crooked cricket for clues into the killing.

The International Cricket Council estimates that the equivalent of a billion dollars can change hands in illegal betting on just a single day's action. A billion dollars in a day. So it's no surprise that players and entire teams are sometimes offered big bribes to give betters an edge.

Woolmer himself once said that the South African team was offered money when he was coaching there. Former South African captain Clive Rice, in fact, is convinced that match fixing was behind Woolmer's murder, though he says he has no evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLIVE RICE, FMR. SOUTH AFRICAN CRICKET CAPTAIN: There's no doubt that it's match fixing, and be it a situation where things got out of control, or bookmakers trying to cover up what was going on. I think it's -- those have to be the reasons for him being murdered. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Match fixing is the kind of thing you would expect when a sport turned sleazy. What cricketers call spot fixing, though, is smarter because it's easier to arrange and harder to detect. Here's an easy explanation -- call it Crooked Cricket 101.

The batsman, or the striker, the guy with the bat, tries to hit the ball like in baseball. The man throwing the ball has to get it reasonably close to him to make it possible. If he doesn't, the umpire can call it wide, like a baseball pitch that is called a ball. You can bet a lot of money on how many wides are called, and a baller can unintentionally -- or rather intentionally -- throw a wide or a few wides with no one the wiser.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD LORD, "WALL STREET JOURNAL" ASIA: There's all sorts of other things in a cricket match one can bet on. It's a game that goes on a long time, it's rich in statistics. So there's all kinds of ways in which a bookmaker can gain an advantage from having a certain piece of information or influencing something that might seem to you and I to be fairly innocuous, but actually can result in them making a great profit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: It would take a detective to spot all the ways you can cheat, and the International Cricket Council actually hired one. Sir Paul Condon, the former chief of Scotland Yard, no less, he runs cricket's anti-corruption unit. He's apparently waiting to join in the murder investigation if they need him.

GORANI: All right. Well, Jonathan, there are no suspects at this point in the killing of Bob Woolmer, and some are suggesting that this crooked cricket, this shady underworld, has something to do with it. But what about the Pakistani team themselves? They were being interrogated.

MANN: They are not talking. Their spokesman is talking.

What's interesting, though, is that the former head of the Pakistani Cricket Board says that he thinks spot fixing is prevalent everywhere in the game. He says there's no way to stop it, it's too easy to hide.

The team spokesman, the official who is talking, says the team is disgusted, disappointed that they're being suspected. Even the former board head said he doesn't think this current team has done anything wrong. So, the Pakistanis are denying that they are to blame at all, though the problems in cricket are so well known that no one can deny them -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Thanks very much.

Jonathan Mann with "Insight". CLANCY: Still ahead right here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, did Egyptians turn out at the polls and why?

GORANI: Well, the opposition called for a boycott of a referendum on constitutional amendments. Did it work?

Also ahead...

(MUSIC)

CLANCY: Hala, can you believe it? I can't believe it. Elton John officially a senior citizen. Sounded good, though.

We'll have details ahead.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from all over the world, including the United States.

CLANCY: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy. We're trying to look at some of the major stories making news. One of them today is in the Middle East about democracy.

GORANI: Absolutely. Once again in Egypt turnout has been light across that country for a controversial referendum aimed, some say, at barring, limiting the power of the opposition parties, mainly Islamist groups, but also many others. Ben Wedeman is on the story from Cairo and he joins us now live on the day's events.

So the turnout was light, there were calls for a boycott, but also were there any demonstrations out there saying they're against this measure?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Hala, the voting stations close in about half an hour and, as you said, turnout was, indeed, light. In fact, according to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, by mid-afternoon only 3 percent of the voters had cast their ballots.

There were some small demonstrations outside the journalist syndicate and the Bar Association, but by and large, the total number of demonstrators probably did not exceed 200. It was a fairly non- eventful day as far as any sort of disturbances go.

Now this amendment basically enshrines the emergency law that has been in place in Egypt since 1981. It gives the authorities the power to arrest and hold people -- arrest them without any sort of warrant and hold them without charges indefinitely. It allows the president the right to dissolve parliament without holding a referendum on that.

We have heard human rights organizations say that this amendment could take Egypt politically back 25 years. I did speak to some members of the ruling party who, in fact, said that this is a very positive amendment. That it will, for instance, solidify the current ban on religious parties -- or religious-based parties. And obviously, the focus of that is the Muslim Brotherhood, which in the end of 2005, won 20 percent of the seats of parliament.

So the government is very anxious to limit the power of the Muslim Brotherhood and that is one of the reasons why they have so forcefully pushed ahead with this referendum -- Hala.

GORANI: OK. Ben, a few years ago there were hopes that the democratic process in Egypt was going to improve. Egypt is the Arab country America gives the most money to. What went wrong?

WEDEMAN: Well, basically, it is a variety of things. One is that this regime wants to stay in power. It is a regime that has been in power since 1981 and, basically, carries on from regimes that have been in power since 1952, the year of the Egyptian Revolution. So they're very determined to hold on to power.

On the other hand, majority of Egyptians, impoverished, struggling to get by, simply don't have the stomach for a confrontation with the state. They're resigned to the current status quo and simply don't believe that political activism in its current form, under the current conditions, is worth it.

And therefore, that's -- the democracy movement in Egypt is in a crisis. Also, we have to take into account the fact that the United States, following the Iraq War, basically, up to last year was a very enthusiastic proponent of democratic reform in Egypt, but following the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian authorities at the beginning of 2006, the problems of Iraq, the power of Iran growing in the region, the United States is very worried about alienating traditionally close allies, like the Mubarak regime.

So, the Americans don't seem to place a very high priority on democratic change in the Middle East. So, all of those factors together have really taken the air out of the pro-democracy movement here and have given the government the opportunity to re-impose its authority, as was the case before this movement began in late 2004.

GORANI: All right. Ben Wedeman, live in Cairo, thanks very much for that perspective.

Right, and you know, I just got back from Egypt. And when I was asking people what they thought of the political situation there, you know what they said? They were like, you know what, politics, that's one thing. But we want jobs. You know, the economy is a disaster, they were telling me, in some cases.

CLANCY: Part of the fear of the government, part of the fear of the United States, is unable to deliver, the Islamists could sweep into power. And whether the fears are founded or not, this is what is being put out there and that's part of what they're arguing today. Got to check the headlines though.

GORANI: Absolutely. And we'll start with Iran. Iran is suggesting it may put a group of British royal marines on trial for entering its waters, a claim that Britain denies. Now, the troops were seized Friday by Iranian forces during a routine inspection in the Persian Gulf. Iran has denied that -- British officials access to the troops to assess their condition.

CLANCY: Bitter rivals in Northern Ireland agreeing they will share power. The leaders of the main Protestant and main Catholic parties holding their first ever face-to-face meeting Monday in Belfast. They say they're going to form a government by the 8th of May and that heads off that prospect of an indefinite direct rule coming from London.

GORANI: Also in the headlines, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has wrapped up talks with Jordan's King Abdullah. The meeting is part of her push for a return to peace negotiation business between Palestinians and Israelis. Rice is holding separate talks with leaders from both groups again today.

CLANCY: An autopsy of the body of Anna Nicole Smith shows she died of an accidental overdose of prescription medicine. Official results were announced just a short while ago at a news conference that was held in Florida. Smith died, of course, last month at a hotel casino there. Medical experts say there were no illegal drugs involved, although there were nine prescription drugs in her system. They also say no evidence of any crime.

GORANI: All right. We're going to bring you live pictures there of Elizabeth Edwards, that is the wife of John Edwards, the Democratic presidential hopeful, who last week announced that her cancer had returned. She is at the Cleveland City Club. They're on the campaign trail speaking on behalf of her husband. Big story in the United States and the Edwards have been making statements ever since that announcement that Elizabeth's cancer has returned.

CLANCY: Rebels in Sri Lanka taking their fight against the government to a new arena, the air.

GORANI: Now the Tamil Tigers staged their first ever air attack today and while it didn't have a lot of muscle, it did deliver a very threatening message as Seth Doane tells us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SETH DOANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the scene inside a Sri Lanka hospital early Monday morning, 16 airmen from the Sri Lankan air force were wounded and three killed following an attack by rebel Tamil Tigers.

"We were sleeping in the barracks and suddenly heard a big sound, and we were injured," this airman says. The strike significant because it is the first confirmed air raid by rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, who have fought for a separate homeland in Sri Lanka since 1983.

These pictures posted on a known Tamil Tiger Web site purport to show the rebel airplanes and their bombs. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the photos. One analyst believes the small airplanes were most likely assembled piecemeal by smuggling parts into the country.

AJAI SAHNI, INSTITUTE OF CONFLICT MANAGEMENT: The kind of damage they've done right now, any small land strike would have done. So it is more the symbolic factor of an air strike having occurred.

DOANE: Dr. Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management, says the attack is not so much an escalation of violence, but more of a psychological tool for the Tamil Tigers.

SAHNI: This has, I would like to suggest, been a low-cost warning for the Sri Lankan state that this can be done and the next time they could strike at even more sensitive targets and do far greater damage.

DOANE: Several flights were delayed, and the nearby Colombo International Airport was closed for several hours following the air strike. There was no damage to the civilian side of the airport, separated from the military base by a runway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in the lounge and I -- the whole building reverberated and they were not sure initially what had happened but it became obvious very soon that there had been several explosions.

DOANE (on camera): Cathay Pacific Airlines has decided to suspend its service to and from Colombo, Sri Lanka, until further notice. This is just the latest in an ongoing escalation and de- escalation of a conflict which has killed more than 65,000 people before a 2002 cease-fire which has been tested more and more in recent months.

Seth Doan, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody, I'm Heidi Collins here at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I want to bring you this story domestically that we're covering. You are looking at Elizabeth Edwards coming to us from Cleveland, Ohio, doing a series of women's speakers event. Now this is the City Club of Cleveland. Let's go ahead and listen in for just a moment.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS, WIFE OF JOHN EDWARDS: We have things that get in the way of our doing the things that we'll actually go -- carry with us. That hug that carries with me my whole life as opposed to who knew what happened to the panty hose. Those are the things we need to be concentrating on. Those are the things that strengthen us individually, strengthen us in our communities and strengthen us nationally.

When I was doing the book tour for "Saving Graces," my first stop was in New York. People came up -- I gave my little talk and then afterwards people came up in line. And this one woman came up with her husband and she said, I'm a breast cancer survivor, and I said, I'm really glad to hear that. How are you doing? She said, I'm doing well. She said, I am one of the people who wrote you after you had breast cancer. After the breast cancer over the next months I got 65,000 e-mails. I got 30,000 or more pieces of snail mail and -- regular mail. I had this enormous outpouring and a lot of those people were people who were breast cancer survivors.

And she said, I was one of the people who wrote you. I said, thank you so much, it meant a lot to me. She said, you wrote me back. And I said, I'm glad I did.

(LAUGHTER)

EDWARDS: She said, so I came here today to buy your book. She said, and I just opened the book, and she opened it like you do open it, she opened it kind of towards the end of the book and opened it to page 319. Then I turned to my husband and I said, March 19th, that's my birthday.

In the book, in addition to thanking the people who had reached out to me with all of their different hints and things, some of which are inspiring, and some of which are funny and some of which are both, the woman, I thought about her a lot actually in the last few days.

The woman who said she had young children when she had breast cancer had decided that she would not cry in front of them. She'd only cry in the shower. But she had to admit sometimes she took more than one shower a day.

(LAUGHTER)

EDWARDS: But I wanted to make certain I also wrote something about the people who had written to me who had lost children. And I want to do it for a lot of reasons, one is because we lost our son. And I wanted to recognize those people, but, more importantly, recognize the child who had died.

Because I know one of the things you fear is that that child will be erased. One of things I always say to every group where I get a chance to talk about my book at all is to say, if you know someone who has lost a child or lost anybody who is important to them and you're afraid to mention them because you think you might make them sad by reminding them that they died, they didn't forget they died. You're not reminding them.

What you're reminding them of is that you remember that they lived and that's a great, great gift. So, one of the things I wanted to do is put these children's names in print so they couldn't be erased. And Freddy (ph) said to me that when she opened page 319, she saw her name on a page and, what's more, she saw her son's name on a page. Alex (ph) had died from a bone marrow disorder and she wished me good wishes and told me the story of Alex.

That's the kind of two-way street, the gift of the connections. She gave me support and without knowing her, I gave her support back and then we got to make the connection and give each other the hug that we both wanted and were both doing figuratively and then got to do literally.

I can't tell you how important those gestures are, but they're important. These gestures we make to one another are important in other contexts, as well. I grew up in a military community. My dad was in the Navy, I lived overseas a lot, nine years in Japan in small little enclaves where you really depended on one another. And our communities were often -- my father was a reconnaissance pilot, flew spy planes and it was very dangerous work and we lost a lot of planes which means that a lot of families went home without their fathers. In those days they were all fathers.

I apologize, Barbara (ph), they were all fathers.

(LAUGHTER)

EDWARDS: But we had -- we formed a really tight community and that community exists for me today. I still communicate with people that I went to high school with in Japan in the 1960s. What's more, I communicate with people who went to the same school I went to, but I was never there at the same time they were. But because we have this bond in common and this connection.

Those bonds are important to me. I've gotten -- some of those 12,000 e-mails I've gotten were from those people. Some of who I didn't -- I never really knew. But that sense of community -- and I'm not going to give you a political speech, but -- you know, in any way, but one of the reasons that I'm so proud of John and what he's doing is it's not just -- and one of the reasons I think is so important for him to proceed, is it's not just about the man or the message, both of which I support, of course. But it is also about the medium, the way he's going about it. And that is, he's trying to use the grassroots to mobilize us as communities, to action.

And if we think we're going to elect a president and that the president is going to come in and solve all of our problems, and the truth is that the president isn't any different than any one of us, in that respect. He or she can only accomplish so much alone. But imagine what we can do if we're all engaged together in it. We all felt it after 9/11.

COLLINS: You have been listening in to Elizabeth Edwards coming to us today out of Cleveland, Ohio. This is the City Club of Cleveland. She is on a series of women speakers event talking, as you can imagine, about the recurrence of her cancer.

Want to go ahead and get back to YOUR WORLD TODA now. I'm Heidi Collins.

GORANI: Welcome back, you're with YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN INTERNATIONAL.

CLANCY: And we are seen live in more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, in case you're counting.

GORANI: Right. And that includes Japan. CLANCY: That's right, where the prime minister is surprising everyone, reversing himself and apologizing for one of the most painful parts of his country's World War II history.

GORANI: Now initially he had refused to do it. Shinzo Abe addressed the issue of women who were forced to serve as sex slaves saying he was, quote, "apologizing here and now as prime minister," unquote.

CLANCY: And it was only earlier this month, as you noted, that he said there was no evidence Japan forced these women to work in military brothels.

GORANI: Now he also said at the time there would be no new apologies. So this is a reversal of course. The comments triggered an international furor, especially in China and South Korea. And that's where most of the women were from.

Now, as the U.S. gets ready for another Major League Baseball season, the talk on and off the field is about the mysterious gyroball.

CLANCY: That's right, Hala. It happens every spring in the United States, this time it's all about that pitch. Folks saying it's either unhittable or it's just imaginary. The intrepid James MacDonald stepped into the mound to see if he could master this miracle pitch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MACDONALD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Odd delivery, strange spin, baseball players can't figure out what this is. A devastating pitch, possibly on the verge of a Major League debut or little more than baseball folklore. It's called a gyroball. A new pitch believed to be used by Japanese star and Boston Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka.

KAZUSHI TEZUKA, GYROBALL INVENTOR (through translator): There's a lot of interest in whether Matsuzaka throws a gyroball, everyone is talking about it.

MACDONALD: And learning it. In Japan pitchers are rushing to try out this mysterious technique. Tokyo sports trainer Kazushi Tezuka invented the gyroball, inspired by a child's toy called Xgylo (ph). Tezuka perfected a way to throw it, then tried it with a baseball and was stunned by what he saw.

TEZUKA (through translator): It creates an illusion, from the batter's eye it looks like the ball is falling but it's actually rising. Scary, isn't it?

MACDONALD: A gyroball is thrown with a spiral like an American football. It should spin like a bullet, as seen in this high-speed video. The result baffles batters, and at first, even a scientist.

RYUTARO HIMENO, COMPUTER SCIENTIST: We can simulate the actual pitcher's pitch.

MACDONALD: Tezuka brought his secret weapon to Dr. Ryutaro Himeno, a computer scientist and aerodynamics expert.

HIMENO: I couldn't trust him so I tried to investigate the reason.

MACDONALD: Using computer simulations, Himeno says he proved the gyroball exists. Together they wrote their findings into a book, "The Truth About the Miracle Pitch," explaining why it is so hard to hit.

HIMENO: That makes some kind of magic ball.

MACDONALD: But not everyone believes in magic. Detractors say the gyroball is a myth. When footage appeared on YouTube allegedly showing Matsuzaka throwing a gyroball, reaction was furious.

"This so-called 'gyroball' is nothing more than a really good screwball, period."

(on camera): Whether you believe in the gyroball or not, this pitch has been the talk of the baseball world. So we wanted to find out if a complete baseball novice could learn how to throw it.

(voice-over): We begin by pitching small cardboard disks and then the motion. It's all in the hips. Finally, the delivery, with a specially painted ball, the Gyromaster (ph). A frame by frame analysis offers the verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You can see the red part of the ball constantly facing the catcher, that means you're getting closer to a gyroball.

MACDONALD: Joining the ranks of pitchers dreaming of becoming a Matsuzaka in the making.

James MacDonald, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Not bad.

CLANCY: Low and outside -- high and outside. Anyway, the Internet...

GORANI: Whatever you said.

(LAUGHTER)

CLANCY: That's right.

GORANI: All right.

CLANCY: Thanks. The Internet has changed the way some of us shop or date or even how we get our news. I think that's true of most of us. Now, it seems to be transforming what? French politics. GORANI: Even French politics aren't immune. Just ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, the digital age and its impact on political campaigning in France. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Well, Nicolas Sarkozy has now officially resigned as interior minister of France. No, he hasn't given up the campaign. Not by a long shot. That move allows him to focus full time on the presidential race. The first ballot is a month away. Once close to France's president, Jacques Chirac, relations between him and the outgoing leader have been strained and tense. Mr. Chirac officially endorsed Sarkozy last week, more because he had to some say than because he wanted to. Polls suggest Sarkozy will lead the April 22nd first round ballot. But anything can happen a month away.

CLANCY: That's right. You know, Hala, and you know French politics a lot better than I do, but traditionally we think political debate really taking place in smoky cafes with urban intellectuals that have gone some place on the Left Bank.

GORANI: All right. But that is all changing in France. Why? Because, well, it's the digital age, everyone. And the Internet is perhaps ironically changing politics in a country that tends to cling tightly to its traditions.

CLANCY: Jim Bittermann is there and he has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the buttoned- down French presidential candidates are looking for a little image upgrade, the wunderkinds of the Web are happy to oblige. In a country that claims to have more blogs per citizen than any where else on the planet, presidential politics have captured the imagination of the Web-obsessed, or "Internauts," as they are called here.

JULIEN PAIN, MEDIA ANALYST: The new thing with the Internet is that people have the feeling they can participate, that they no longer watch what's going on, but they can maybe have some input and tell what to think and take action.

BITTERMANN: Socialist candidate Segolene Royal has perhaps gone the farthest to demonstrate that approach. For months through a number of blogs and Web sites, Royal has been vacuuming up French opinion and hope under a Web campaign called "Desires for the Future."

But her center-right opponent is no slacker on the Web either. Nicolas Sarkozy's slick site includes a digital clock counting down the seconds to the moment he hopes to be elected. And at every public appearance, his Web address is always in the background.

But does any of this cyber commotion really amount to anything in real-world politics? Author Alexandre Jardin, who runs a political blog called, "How Do We Do It," says that politicians are using the Web incorrectly if they're just after publicity. He says it's much better they use the collective expertise of the Internauts.

ALEXANDRE JARDIN, AUTHOR AND BLOGGER: For example, if you ask them, how can we (INAUDIBLE) to push experienced teachers in the suburbs? The answers are incredibly serious and efficient, and it's like if we were discovering a very clever country.

BITTERMANN (on camera): But Jardin adds it can also work against candidates, especially if they get tempted into exaggeration or misrepresentation. Because there's always someone out in cyberspace who will call them on it. In other words, live by the Web, die by the Web.

(voice-over): In fact, there have already been new media victims, including Segolene Royal, who was secretly caught talking tough to teachers. And one of France's top political reporters, who thought he was off the record when he told students he was going to vote for centrist candidate Francois Bayrou. Both got into trouble when their gaffes appeared on the Internet.

And the political battles are not only being fought on the streets of France, but on the flyways and beaches of the virtual world Second Life. All the major French candidates have campaign headquarters here. Although there was some debate at first about whether the extreme right candidate should be allowed in. But in the end, no one was denied the right to buy their private islands and even sell virtual T-shirts to potential virtual voters.

And through an exacting re-creation of French election night newscasts, the Web even offers something for voters who aren't satisfied with any of the choices. Believing, as pundits say everyone here does, that he or she is the only person really qualified to run the country.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Jim Bittermann. That's it for this hour. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy, and this is CNN. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com