Return to Transcripts main page

Your World Today

First Public Remarks From Former Captives in Iran; Stark Warning on Global Warming Calls for Immediate Action

Aired April 06, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARMAN: We were blindfolded, our hands were bound, we were forced up against a wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Mind games, rough treatment, but nothing they couldn't handle, in their words. Several of the 15 British sailors and marines held in Iran speaking out for the first time about their experiences.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A United Nations study group concludes its landmark report on climate change with a grim warning about global warming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard a big shudder, and then the whole boat started to tilt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Nightmare at sea. A great cruise ship sinks in the Aegean. The 1,500 passengers on board are all confirmed safe except for two.

GORANI: The ugly side of beauty. Long in denial, Italy's high fashion model industry confronts an epidemic of anorexia.

It is 5:00 p.m. in Devon, England; 7:00 p.m. in Athens, Greece.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe this hour.

I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

From Rome to Brussels, where scientists worked all night on that climate report, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: According to one British marine, the whole thing was a media stunt.

CLANCY: Sailors and marines held in Iran speaking out publicly for the very first time on their nearly two-week-long captivity.

GORANI: Now, they answered a lot of questions the world has been asking since they were seized by Iran Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf, saying they were inside Iraqi waters when captured, and were subjected to constant psychological pressure.

CLANCY: Now, six of the 15 detained troops were the ones who came forward speaking before a throng of reporters just a short time ago. They said their Iranian captors kept them in isolation much of the time, calling their interrogation techniques aggressive and rough. But they said overall their treatment was humane.

The crew also explained what exactly happened during the confrontation out in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, saying the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were deliberately aggressive and at times unstable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. CHRIS AIR, BRITISH ROYAL MARINES: Let me be absolutely clear. From the outset, it was very apparent that fighting back was simply not an option. Had we chosen to do so, then many of us would not be standing here today. Of that I have no doubts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. FELIX CARMAN, BRITISH ROYAL NAVY: We were blindfolded, our hands were bound, we were forced up against a wall. Throughout our ordeal we faced constant psychological pressure. Later, we were stripped and then dressed in pajamas.

The next few nights were spent in stone cells approximately 8 feet by 6, sleeping on piles of blankets. All of us were kept in isolation.

We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options. If we admitted that we had strayed, we'd be back on a plane to the U.K. pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: All right. Quite a choice there presented to the sailors and marines.

The crew also talked about sailor Faye Turney, the only female captive. They said the Iranians held her in solitary confinement for several days, telling her the others had gone home.

Let's bring in Paula Hancocks now, who has been talking with some of the crew members in Devon, England.

Paula, you asked them about Faye Turney. They spoke about Faye Turney. She was not there at that news conference, and they really stood up for her. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, yes, she didn't turn up to the news conference, but they did talk about her.

One of the captains was saying that she was their main concern, obviously, being the only woman among 15 British military personnel. We also heard from one of the marines that she had been told whilst she was in solitary confinement that the other men had been released.

So, for four days, while she was alone in that solitary confinement, she did believe that she was the only one left in captivity. And this is what all six of them within this press conference today have been saying, the fact that the mind games was the worst part of it, the fact that they were kept alone very much so at the beginning. Towards the end of their captivity they were allowed to spend some time together -- and the fact that they didn't know what the other men were saying and what was happening to them.

They said that was the worst part for them -- Hala.

GORANI: And you were there with them. You spoke to some of them.

What was their state of mind? Were they angry? Were they resentful?

HANCOCKS: Amazingly, no, they didn't seem to be. They said that they did want to point out that they don't consider Iran an enemy. They don't consider the Iranian people to be enemies.

And also, Captain Christopher Air did point out that at one point he was trying to talk to some of his captors, and he was trying to learn a couple of words of Farsi from them. So, in that respect, they didn't resent those people who were actually holding them.

They said obviously when they saw two boats surround them, they saw the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, they realized that they were in trouble, that it was a situation that it would be very difficult to get out of. They said they considered fighting back, but as you heard from one of the marines there, they knew that they would not probably get out of it alive.

They knew it would spark a diplomatic crisis. And also, there has been some criticism that the HMS Cornwall had not come to their rescue, the main ship that they were based on. But the fact was, they say, they were in shallow waters and it was impossible for any of their colleagues to come and help them.

GORANI: All right. Paula Hancocks in Devon, England.

Thanks very much -- who spoke with some of those released British marines and sailors.

CLANCY: All right. It was a very interesting press conference from beginning to end, and you heard them speaking out and saying the way that they perceived everything. Different maps -- even when they stood up there ad libbing and saying, well, look, we appear to have gone -- they said that these were maps they had never seen, and they were absolutely firmly convinced they were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters.

GORANI: And you've got to feel for them, because this is a very difficult situation for anyone to be in. We did not know when we were seeing these pictures aired by Iranian state television the conditions of their captivity, solitary confinement, blindfolded, guards co king their guns somewhere in the near vicinity of where they were. So, this is something that, you know, probably they're going to have to deal with.

CLANCY: Not to be completely unexpected. I think that what's going to be interesting is the Iranian response to all of this. We're certain to hear more of that. We're going to bring that to you as things come in.

Well, meantime, governments around the world have been put on notice: Act and act without delay to stabilize climate change, or you may face dire consequences. It's a warning that comes from the final report from the U.N.'s -- what's called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Rob Marciano lays out details of this report and the consequences of not acting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice over): February's report from the United Nations panel on global climate change was just the tip of the iceberg. It concluded that global warming is real, it's getting worse, and that human activity is driving it. And a follow-up released Friday in Brussels offers new details on the devastating effects climate change will likely bring to bear on humans, animals and the environment.

MARTIN PARRY, IPCC CO-CHAIR: We're no longer arm-waving with models that this might happen, right? This is what we call empirical information on the ground. We can measure it.

MARCIANO: Perhaps the most troubling finding is that by the end of the century, floods will permanently displace hundreds of millions of people as low-lying coastal areas are swallowed up by rising sea levels.

ROBERT CORELL, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: With a meter or two of sea level rise, we're likely to see hundreds of millions of what we'll call environmental refugees, people who no longer can live where they had lived for maybe thousands of years.

MARCIANO: The report predicts that where it's wet and hot, insect-borne diseases such as malaria will explode. Where it's dry, it's likely to become much drier. And some water supplies will vanish; notably, the glaciers in the Himalayas, the key water source for hundreds of millions of Asians. And the deserts will expand.

JAMES HANSEN, EARTH SCIENTIST: Already, we're beginning to see in the western United States that it is becoming drier and hotter. And if we go down the path of business as usual, we can expect basically permanent drought in the western United States.

MARCIANO: Another grim finding is that the world will see a spike in endangered species, with a wave of extinction from coral reefs to polar bears.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our study in the Arctic suggested that the polar bear is on its way to extinction during this century, in most likelihood, and the reason for that this is that they live on the ice, they get their food off the ice, they snatch the seals through small air holes. And now most of that ice is no longer there and will disappear.

MARCIANO (on camera): Next month, another key section of the report will be released, and it's going to provide some much-needed guidance as to what we humans can do to stop global warming. And even scientists who fear the worst say it's not too late to avoid some of these nightmare scenarios.

Rob Marciano, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Among the findings of the report, a stark warning for Australia.

CLANCY: The study says even moderate increases in sea temperatures may doom much of the coral that makes up the Great Barrier Reef.

GORANI: James MacDonald looks at the threat to one of Australia's national treasures.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MACDONALD, REPORTER (voice over): It's a chance to experience a spectacular world beneath the sea, but to these divers a visit to the Great Barrier Reef is serious business. Reef Check Australia keeps an eye on the health of the coral, and up close you can see just how fragile it is.

ROGER BEEDEN, REEF CHECK AUSTRALIA: Coral has been around for huge amounts of time, and yet there's several different pressures that can actually affect them as a living organism.

MACDONALD: Often called the world's largest living organism, stretching 2,000 kilometers, the Great Barrier Reef is under threat. It's faced over-fishing and pollution, but nothing quite like this. A recent report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming could make the reef functionally extinct within 50 years.

SELINA WARD, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND: We're not acting fast enough to combat climate change, and we need to do that in order to save reefs. MACDONALD: Reef researcher Selina Ward says a rise in sea temperature can lead to widespread coral bleaching which can kill off much of the coral's life support system.

Millions of people rely on reefs around the world as a source of food. They protect coastlines from damage, and the natural beauty attracts plenty of visitors.

(on camera): We're in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of northeastern Australia, and even on a rocky day like today you can still have a clear view of the coral reefs and the marine life that lives here.

(voice over): No one is sure how it will adapt to climate change in the long run, but there is consensus on this: the thought of an Australia without the reef is unthinkable.

ADRIAN HUNT, DUSA DIVE: It would be a dreadful shame if they weren't there as a source for us and for our children in the future. I think it's a call to action and a wake-up call to all of us.

MACDONALD: James MacDonald, CNN, on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: And later in the show we're going to be speaking with a climate expert who has been dealing with these issues and studying the environment for decades, Lester Brown. We will ask him what he thinks of the U.N. report.

CLANCY: Also, we're asking you what you think.

What should be done about global warming? That's our question today. We're hoping that you'll weigh in here and give us your comments.

Write to yourviews@cnn.com.

GORANI: A short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

When we come back, an evacuation at sea.

CLANCY: An absolutely packed cruise liner sinking just off the coast of Greece and the Aegean. Nearly 1,500 passenger had to scramble to abandon ship. One woman says her family, though, still missing.

GORANI: Talk about high expectations. Japanese pitcher Dice-K may still need to prove he's worth his $100 million paycheck, but he's already batting a thousand with fans and retailers.

CLANCY: And they were once the rulers of agent Egypt, but a modern-day flood washed away their civilization. And now many Nubians wonder why the government isn't doing more to preserve their legacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: All right. We're covering the news the world wants to know now.

And a team of Greek drivers is searching the wreckage of a sunken cruise liner, looking for two French passengers reported missing after the ship went down off the coast of Santorini. More than 1,500 people were on board when the ship scraped a reef and began taking on water.

Diana Magnay has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dramatic nighttime pictures of the doomed Greek cruise ship the Sea Diamond. Rescue workers still circling long after they had evacuated those on board. At this stage, powerless to prevent the inevitable.

And here, just before 7:00 in the morning, 15 hours after she began to take in water, it's all over. All 22,500 tons of this enormous ship now lying on the sea bed near the Greek island of Santorini.

The Sea Diamond was carrying almost 1,600 people when she scraped a reef. Passengers said it all happened very suddenly.

TOM GATCH, PASSENGER: I heard the noise, and it was a loud noise, of course, and then I stepped outside of my cabin and looked, and the water was coming down the hallway. And I thought I have to go back inside to get my life jacket, but I had to open the door and didn't have time, because now the water was up over my ankles.

KATIE SUMNER, AUSTRALIAN PASSENGER: We heard a big shudder and the whole boat started to tilt. All of our glasses were sliding everywhere, and our warning that the ship was sinking of the staff running down the corridor screaming out "Life jackets!" and banging on doors.

MAGNAY: Military and commercial vessels took part in the three- hour rescue operation, and local fishermen rushed to help, while tourists on Santorini watched as this ship built as the ultimate in luxury took on more and more water.

But on Friday, the Greek tourism minister announced that two passengers were still missing.

FANNY PALLI PETRALIA, GREEK MINISTER OF TOURISM (through translator): The mother told me that it all happened within a few seconds. While one of the two children was upstairs on the deck, the rest of the family was in the cabin, which suddenly filled with water. They managed to open the cabin door, and the mother dived and got out. She doesn't know whether her husband and her daughter managed to follow her. MAGNAY: In September 2000, more than 80 people drowned when the express Samina (ph) ferry hit rocks and sank off the Greek island of Paros. Greece has since worked hard to improve its safety record. The cruise operator says it has already launched an investigation into how this latest ferry disaster was allowed to occur.

Diana Magnay, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, and welcome back, everyone. Especially those of you joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including the United States.

GORANI: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY this hour.

I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

And these are the stories that are making headlines in YOUR WORLD TODAY.

The U.N. panel on climate change issuing a report that paints a bleak future for the world if nothing is done. It represents the scientific assessment of the evidence of climate change so far. Floods, drought and the extinction of species all predicted if governments don't act to stabilize global warming.

GORANI: Also in the headlines, British marines and sailors who were detained in Iran say they were subjected to "constant psychological pressure and mind games". But they say their overall treatment was humane, nonetheless. The crew says they were clearly in Iraqi waters when seized two weeks ago, but they said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had them outgunned, and fighting back wasn't an option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. FELIX CARMAN, BRITISH ROYAL NAVY: At no time did we actually say we apologize for intruding into Iranian waters. At all times we stuck to our guns and we said, no, we were conducting our operations legally and I think some of the underhand tactics that were used were an insult to our intelligence to be honest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Well, let's get some perspective now on what those British sailors and marines went through in Iran. CNN military analyst retired U.S. General Don Sheppard joins us now from Tucson, Arizona. They seemed to have said from the very start, general, that this was something that was apparently planned by the Iranian side. Should the British forces have been better prepared for that possibility?

MAJ. GEN. DON SHEPPERD, (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, in retrospect, of course is the answer, Jim. The point is that they had intercepted boats out there on a regular basis. This was totally unsuspected. We don't know whether it was planned at the local level or orchestrated from up on high in the Iranian -- but in retrospect great to have helicopters when they were doing this. So again, they were really surprised by what took place and of course there should have been more force in retrospect.

CLANCY: Right call in terms of they said, look, we were outgunned. They were suddenly surrounded. Their two boats suddenly surrounded first by two boats that came along side and then suddenly four more. They couldn't have fought back.

SHEPPERD: It makes no sense for them to have fought back at that point. I'm talking about it would have been great to have more force from the mother ship, if you will protecting them out there and probably that will be done in the future, but when you are surrounded and it's obvious that the people surrounding you are going to kill you and your men, it serves no useful purpose. The best thing to do then was to do what the crew did and then come home safe and sort it out afterwards but it's a tough decision made on the spot.

CLANCY: You know, it was a tough decision as one of the -- I think their commanding officers said, we had seconds to make this call and we think we made the right one. At the same time, others have looked at all this and said whatever happened to name, rank, serial number, don't give them any more than that. They apparently knew the entire time that this was a media circus.

SHEPPERD: Yeah, I'll tell you, I subscribe to the philosophy of you have to put your faith in the people on the spot, they are trained. They are briefed, they know their own code of conduct. They know the orders under which they are operating and the senior officer is responsible to take care of his people so I support the decisions made on the spot.

It's always easy to second-guess and sound tough and do John Wayne and say name, rank, serial number, date of birth. I have many friends who were in prison for a long time and tortured terribly in North Vietnam but that was a different situation, a different time. You have to let the person on the spot make the decision and then be responsible for their actions afterwards.

CLANCY: A lot of people wondering what was the point of all this? If it was a capture stunt carried out by Iran, what's the motive here?

SHEPPERD: Yeah, we're all guessing that because first of all, President Ahmadinejad was supposedly headed to New York to fight the sanctions that he felt were being imposed and make a strong statement in the UN. This screwed that up. Others have speculated it was an exchange they want to exchange these prisoners for the five detainees that the U.D. is holding in Iran -- in Iraq. Others just say that the Iranians are feeling their oats and want to beat their breasts and be seen as very tough and the power in the Middle East. But we're all still guessing. This is a little mysterious. From my point of view that backfired on the Iranians.

CLANCY: All right. Major General Don Shepperd joining us there from Tucson, Arizona. As always, great to have you with us.

SHEPPERD: My pleasure.

GORANI: Well, we want to return now to the topic of climate change. Today's UN report was emphatic that global warming does pose a major threat to the planet and to humanity but it was equally emphatic about who will suffer most. Ralitsa Vassileva has some insight. Ralitsa?

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the UN report on global warming revealed something quite ironic that the nations causing the most pollution are the ones least affected by it. Those who will suffer the most are actually the ones who have contributed the least. And the irony is not lost on those affected the most. Equatorial African nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE AKUMU, EXEC. DIR., CLIMATE NETWORK AFRICA: I find it actually immoral on behalf of the industrialized countries to make Africa suffer again because of their actions, when we have suffered slavery. We have suffered colonialism. Now we are suffering environmental colonialism again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASSILEVA: I want to show you this map which shows the countries producing the largest amounts of greenhouses annually. You see here in just a moment, the United States with 5.9 billion tons. The European Union 3.3 billion tons with China and parts of India nipping at their heels but when we look at the places affected the most by the pollutants released in the most industrialized countries it's not the countries we just showed you on the previous map. It's Equatorial Africa, parts of Latin America and Asia, some of the poorest nations in the world.

Well, Africa is predicted to suffer from drought and crop loss. Latin America, deforestation and fish losses. In Asia, frequent flooding. And the UN says only $40 million have really been put to work to address the problem in the poorest countries like Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJENDRA PACHAURI, PANEL CHAIRMAN: The poor are certainly going to be the worst sufferers, but poor even in the rich countries so I think we really as a global community have to worry about the implications of climate change for the poorest people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASSILEVA: And even when they try to help, America and Europe don't always see eye to eye. A possible American solution to help African farmers save their crops from drought is held up by such a disagreement. Europeans have serious reservations about giving African farmers drought resistant genetically modified seeds which have worked on American farms. Back to you.

GORANI: Now, Ralitsa, why so much disagreement between the U.S. and Europe? Is it economic or is it political?

VASSILEVA: Well, it is mostly political. Basically it reflects the debate as to how to spend funds, where do we invest? Do we invest in cutting greenhouse gases or do we invest in actually adapting to the changes that are going to occur? Forget about the greenhouse gases and then there's a third school of thought saying this is not an either/or situation. We've got to do both, so this debate is out there.

GORANI: I'm telling you I don't think we've heard the last of it. Not by a long shot.

VASSILEVA: No we have not.

GORANI: Ralitsa Vassileva with some insight, thank you very much.

The UN's report should come as no surprise to our guest in Washington. Lester Brown is the founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute. He has a long list of credentials and degrees and he considers climate change one of the most alarming global trends. Lester Brown, thank you for being with us. What is your reaction as you were able to read through some of that UN report that was published today?

LESTER BROWN, EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE: Well, it's good news in the sense that some of this information is getting out now where people can see it and can begin to understand some of the challenges that we're facing. I think one of the things that impressed me about the report was the sense of urgency, and that's partly because with each passing year now, indeed with each passing week we get more evidence of the effects of climate change, whether it's threatened species glaciers melting that feed rivers that millions depend on. So many things are happening so fast it's hard to pick up major newspapers on any given day without finding yet another piece of evidence of the effects of climate change.

GORANI: I suppose the big question is how can alternative energy models be economically viable at this stage?

BROWN: One of the weaknesses of the system is that we are not including the costs of climate change in the price of fossil fuels. If we were, then we would be looking at a very different energy economy than we are.

The good news is that some of the major new sources of energy like wind power are now cheaper in many places than fossil fuels like natural gas, and we're seeing enormous growth, around 30 percent a year worldwide. China is beginning to crank up on wind energy now as is the United States. Europe has long been the leader so there are a lot of things we can do that can make a huge difference but we need to do it quickly.

GORANI: Let me ask you this. Those who are not convinced that global warming is caused by human activity or fossil fuels are saying, you know, over the earth's history we've had fluctuations in temperatures, one viewer, Scott McDonald writes, "If you torture the data long enough it will confess to anything. The reality is we've even seen drops in temperatures over the last years in the Caribbean." What do you respond to those -- How do you respond to those people?

BROWN: I think the important thing to keep in mind is that more than 1,500 of the world's leading scientists from more than 100 countries were involved in this study. I have a great deal of confidence in them and all of their analysis is based on scientifically refereed articles in science journals. It's not something that someone thinks or feels, it's based on hard science.

That's the encouraging thing. This is a solid piece of work. And while some people may disagree ideologically with the conclusions of the report, scientifically it's difficult to find a published article in the scientifically refereed journal that would challenge these findings.

GORANI: All right. Lester Brown, a climate exert and an author with many credentials who has paid much attention to the environmental issues facing our planet for a very long time, thank you so much for your contribution.

BROWN: My pleasure, Hala.

GORANI: Well, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: Coming up, steeped in tradition but stripped of their culture by modern development, Egypt's Nubian people trying to recapture some of their ancient glory.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: They're an ancient community whose ancestor ruled over the banks of the Nile for thousands of near.

GORANI: That was at one point in history. Some of their ancestors were even pharaohs. But modern development suppressed their culture and changed their way of life.

CLANCY: Now, Egypt's Nubians as they're called trying to recapture some of their ancient glory.

GORANI: I visited their villages recently and talked to some of them. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI (voice-over): They ruled over Egypt thousands of years ago. Some of their ancestors were even pharaohs. Their culture and tradition centered around this body of water, the mighty River Nile. They are the Nubians, ethnically different, darker than Egyptian Arabs, closer to Africa with their own distinct dialect and traditions.

But the construction of the Nile dam in the early '60s flooded ancient Nubian, forcing about 100,000 Nubians, some say many more, from their ancestral homeland.

They sacrificed their home by their homeland for the welfare of all of Egypt by the building of the high dam. But ...

GORANI (on camera): They felt they deserved more compensation and they didn't get it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. They feel they deserved more than they get. Yeah.

GORANI: Because some were never compensated, right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no of course, some of them never, not yet.

GORANI (voice-over): Suleiman Bashari (ph) remembers life before the floods. Nubian homes were much larger and life was about planting date trees and raising livestock.

He's lived in a house provided by the government since 1962. after their homes disappeared under water, the Egyptian authorities compensated many Nubians with public housing. But Suleiman Bashari says he misses his old lifestyle.

"Of course it was happier," he tells me "because everybody was working and everybody was cooperating." From tending fields he worked a government job until retirement building a new life in a more urban environment, watering a single solitary tree in front of his house.

The floods didn't just displace people. But ancient Nubian treasures, as well. Some were lost. Others were hurriedly dismantled and reassembled further from the Nile banks. A relocation that for some Nubians was done too quickly.

Amina Saoui (ph), a retired school principal, shows me the deeds to his old property and says some Nubians were moved too fast and too far from the water of the Nile that once made the glory of the Nubian culture.

The Nubians are now scattered across Egypt and because they've been marrying into Arab families, their culture and heritage is becoming harder to preserve.

(on camera): All of a sudden this all changes. How do you preserve the heritage? Isn't it in danger?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it really is in danger. This is a big task now we have to try and have to meet. We at the museum or the institution work in the culture field. We are working to preserve the Nubian intangible heritage that's because we know it will disappear soon because it's now it's out of content, because the land now which is rapidly it's going to disappear, as well.

GORANI (voice-over): Words that continue to ring in my ears on a cruise boat a couple of nights later. A Nubian dance troupe entertains western travelers. Nubian culture today seems to have become a tourist attraction.

In a village downstream from Aswan we are told we will see traditional Nubian culture. Again, here a man looms scarves but just for tourists, it seems. And a tribal leader opens his house to a group of Belgian tourists.

In the kitchen the tribal chief's sister says a few words in the dying ancient Nubian dialect. Outside he shows me where his village used to be. Behind that wall, he says and before the first Nile flood decades ago forced his family to abandon its ancestral home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI (on camera): Well, the next edition of "Inside the Middle East" airing this weekend and the first airing on Saturday at the times on your screen. Hope you can catch it. Great stories from Nic Robertson, as well, who was in the Saudi Arabian desert. We have Shumzar Wazir (ph) on an unexpected love story. Watch it, Jim.

CLANCY: Wow. Sounds good. I will.

Still ahead, the truth about beauty and it's not a pretty story really.

GORANI: It is not. A top Italian fashion designer opens up about a disease that is hitting very, very close to home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Painfully think models strutting the catwalk, the subject of growing criticism within the fashion industry.

GORANI: Now the revelation that the daughter of a high fashion Italian designer is among those battling anorexia. As Jennifer Eccleston reports, her fight is raising awareness of the disease in Italy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a picture of youth and of talent, a picture of beauty and of tragedy. Alaria Laudati (ph) was an art historian, a musician and her mother Aurora tells me whose intense gaze caught the attention of Italy's film and modeling industry.

Two weeks ago Alaria (ph) died of heart failure, common for anorexics, she was 27 years old, 5'6" and just 77 pounds.

"She was skin and bones, she tells me and she was obsessed with her scale. If she had food, she'd weigh herself. We lived in hope that she could get better. But the illness simply destroyed her."

DR. IVO PULCINI, EATING DISORDER EXPERT: The problem and the phenomenon is very, very strong and very big.

ECCLESTON: Dr. Ivo Pulcini is an expert on eating disorders. In the last 15 years he says he's seen an eight percent increase in cases of anorexia in girls, young women and in teenage boys. The disease, he says, is not a new development here, but publicly talking about it and medically addressing it is new.

PULCINI: Because many of them are treated into their own family because they parents, they often have shame of this. And so they prefer privately to treat.

ECCLESTON: That's why the announcement by Milan-based fashion designer Donatella Versace that her 20-year-old daughter Allegra was battling anorexia was an important revelation according to Dr. Pulcini.

PULCINI: Before we knew women with hips with breasts and now fashion industry and fashion magazine show us girls and boy, young boy, young girls very, very thin and every young boy or young girl wants to become like that.

ECCLESTON: It raised the profile of the disease in Italy, he says, and it refocused the spotlight on an industry that's been extensively criticized for promoting unhealthy body images.

Gerard Marie president of Elite Modeling. He's in Rome to find his next muse.

GERARD MARIE, PRESIDENT, ELITE MODEL AGENCY: The way the perception we want to have from the modern woman is changing so we have to cope with that but I don't think that the fact that it has been some attack on this industry causing anorexia that certainly people, suddenly, God, this will be good, everybody will have boobs and hips.

ECCLESTON: Twenty-five year old Chicili Zelli (ph) a recovering anorexic. Insecurity about her looks, the obsessive desire to be thin and pretty, just some of the demons that led to her massive weight loss and hospitalization.

The symptoms of her disease are much more intricate but quietly she admits that at a healthy weight of 130 pounds she once again feels fat. "If I start to diet I run the risk of falling back into the trap again. I'm just not confident enough," she says.

Chicilia's path to recovery has been long and painful, some 10 years. The death of her peer, Alaria Laudati was a stark reminder that failure to beat the disease is not an option. She still suffers but she is determined not to surrender. Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Amazing story. Well told and you look at this, is this a modern disease? Does this only affect us in the 20th century?

GORANI: Well, there are stories of some historical figures that suffered from it. It's obsessive compulsive. It something that those who suffer from it say they can control their food intake but it affects so many more women than men it can only be the result of social pressures to be thin.

CLANCY: One of the questions in YOUR WORLD TODAY ...

GORANI: And it is a killer in some cases so it's a very serious illness.

CLANCY: That's our report for now. I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. Stay with CNN. A lot more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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