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Your World Today

Man Quarantined in U.S. With Drug-Resistant TB; U.S., Iraqi Forces Raid Sadr City; Search for Madeleine: Parents Travel to Rome to Meet With Pope

Aired May 30, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

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DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: We usually rely on a covenant of trust, but the patient really was told that he shouldn't fly.

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JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Air alert. A man with a deadly form of TB remains in isolation after flying between two continents. Now the race is on to find anyone he may have infected.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A tragic ending to a payment dispute in New Zealand. An unpaid power bill leads to a woman's death.

CLANCY: Mixed emotions for the parents of a missing British girl as they receive a personal blessing from the pope.

CHURCH: And you could call it text evolution. Cell phone messages fuel the opposition in Venezuela.

It's noon here in Atlanta and in Caracas, 6:00 p.m. in Vatican City.

Hello and welcome to our broadcast all around the globe.

I'm Rosemary Church.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

From Atlanta to Caracas, to Christchurch, New Zealand, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Welcome, everyone.

Health authorities from Paris to Prague to Montreal all racing right now to track down passengers and crew from two international flights. They were exposed to a man with a dangerous and drug- resistant form of tuberculosis.

CHURCH: That's right. Now, that man in an Atlanta hospital, under the first U.S. government quarantine in more than 40 years. He says he didn't want to put anyone at risk, but he didn't want to change his wedding plans, either. CLANCY: Well, Elizabeth Cohen has his story.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's called XDR-TB, Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, a horrible disease.

GERBERDING: Many of the people who have XDR-TB do not survive their infection.

COHEN: And now health authorities have learned that a man with this disease was on two transatlantic flights. He traveled on Air France Flight 385 from Atlanta to Paris on May 12th. He flew again on May 24th on Czech Air number 0104 from Prague to Montreal. Then he drove by car into the U.S. the same day.

The CDC is urging passengers on these flights to get tested for TB.

GERBERDING: We have no suspicion that this patient was highly infectious. In fact, the medical evidence would suggest that his potential for transmission would be on the low side. But we know it isn't zero.

COHEN: That's why the CDC took the highly unusual step of ordering him to be isolated at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

So who is this man public health authorities are so worried about? He's a resident of the state of Georgia, and he knew, and so did health authorities, that he had TB when he got on the plane from Atlanta to Paris. But they didn't know he had the drug-resistant kind of TB. They only learned that once he was in Europe.

U.S. health authorities contacted him in Europe and told him not to fly home, but he did anyway. And that leaves health authorities searching for the other people on those airplanes who might have been infected.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.

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CHURCH: So, what if you were on a plane with a passenger just like that? The odds are against it, but could you catch a disease like TB aboard an airplane?

Jonathan Mann has some "Insight" -- Jon.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Commercial aircraft carry more than a billion people every year. Most of us are healthy, a lot of us are not, and a crowded airplane can seem like a dicey place to spread or catch a disease. I don't want to minimize the seriousness of the TB they're now fighting, but overall, the best information we have isn't very scary.

Still, we can try and call this segment "Germs on a Plane".

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GERBERDING: Any time you have people sitting close to each other, whether it's on a plane, a bus, or in church, any kind of crowded situation, they certainly can transmit their respiratory diseases.

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MANN: Think of an airplane cabin as a long, thin tube with hundreds of people in it. Air circulating from front to back through all those people has got to be pretty foul, don't you think? Well, the air doesn't actually do that.

When it's in flight, about half of a large aircraft's cabin air comes from outside the plane. That stuff's pretty clean. The other half of the air is re-circulated interior cabin air, and that's the stuff to worry about.

Most of the air comes in from vents at the top of the cabin and then leaves by vents near the floor. It's cleaned with special high- efficiency filters and then recycled again, top to bottom. So the only germs you're likely to inhale are those immediately around you, because germs don't get very far before they're refiltered.

In fact, a 2005 study in the medical journal of "Lancet" suggests that a sick passenger -- and we've put him in 14-E -- creates the biggest risk to people seated within just two rows in either direction. Further away, and the risk decreases to virtually zero for anybody sitting 15 rows away. Even if you're sitting close, the "Lancet" also suggests that long flights, flights eight hours or more, pose a bigger risk than short ones.

SARS, the epidemic lung disease that killed hundreds of people back in 2003, is the exception. That disease is known to have spread aboard planes on relatively short flights and well beyond two rows.

Now, taking an actual flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, the people who got sick were as much as seven rows away. The bad news is that in that case it was pretty spread out. The good news is that SARS has essentially disappeared. But other, much more ordinary illnesses, like the flu, still get sneezed around between (INAUDIBLE).

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DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: The disease that's most commonly transmitted on airplanes is influenza and common colds, year in and year out during the influenza season. But as for exotic infection, that's a matter of public health concern for a long time, and frankly, it does happen occasionally.

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MANN: According to the "Lancet" study, though, the biggest proven source of sickness on a plane isn't the passengers, it's what's on your plate. It's the food.

Although food poisoning is rare, it does happen. You probably don't want to drink the tap water, either. Take the bottled water on board. Anything you get out of the bathroom sink, whether to brush your teeth or take a pill, it's not really something you want to consume.

It all, though, comes back to the numbers. We're flying more than ever before, and most of us, remember, are really doing just fine.

CHURCH: All right. That's really good advice.

But Jon, just wanted to get an idea on some other things that people can do, how they can protect themselves. Some people are suggesting masks might be an idea.

MANN: When SARS was an epidemic, people did wear them. But really, do you want to get on an airplane wearing a mask?

CHURCH: That's ridiculous.

MANN: Do you want to really try to explain that to the person next to you? The truth is, even masks are not particularly effective unless they're worn right. Most people don't know which kind to buy or how to wear them. So maybe a mask really isn't the most practical idea.

What is practical is washing your hands a lot. We teach that to our kids. You should do it on the earth, as you do it in planes.

And you should drink more. Airplanes have very dehydrated air. That's not only uncomfortable, it also dries out the membranes in your nose which protect you from catching airborne diseases.

So, sip on water, you will feel better, and you'll actually get some very easy, simple protection.

CHURCH: All right. And nothing beats washing your hands.

All right. Jonathan Mann, thanks so much for that.

And just reminding people, we do expect the CDC to hold a press conference in a couple of hours from now. And we'll hear more on that issue with the man traveling with tuberculosis -- Jim.

CLANCY: He's well known, he's well regarded, and U.S. President George W. Bush says Robert Zoellick is eminently qualified to be the next president of the World Bank.

Mr. Bush nominated his former trade envoy and dispute secretary of state a short while ago. If the board of the World Bank approves him, Zoellick would replace Paul Wolfowitz, who is leaving next month under the cloud of scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bob Zoellick is the right man to succeed Paul in this vital work. He's a leader who motivates employees. He builds a constituent support and focuses on achieving goals.

I'm pleased that he's once again agreed to serve our country.

Congratulations.

ROBERT ZOELLICK, NOMINATED TO BE WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, some African leaders say they're disappointed with the prospect of Zoellick. They say the World Bank job should have gone to someone who understood their problems, someone from a developing nation -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon pack his bags for a brief visit with President George W. Bush. The leaders are expected to cover a range of issues when they meet in about a month, including missile defense.

Just yesterday, Russia tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile, boasting it can penetrate any missile defense system. President Putin also warned that a planned U.S. missile shield for Europe would turn the region into a powder keg.

CLANCY: Well, let's go to Iraq now. U.S. and Iraqi forces conducting a series of raids in the Sadr City section of Baghdad Wednesday.

CHURCH: That's right. The U.S. says the operations were not directly linked to the search for five Britons kidnapped yesterday from a Finance Ministry building.

CLANCY: But that is exactly what some Iraqi officials and Sadr City residents are saying.

We get details now from James Blake.

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JAMES BLAKE, REPORTER (voice over): The search has begun for the five British men kidnapped in Baghdad. Early this morning, American and Iraqi troops raided homes and buildings in the Shiite-controlled Sadr City area. They were looking for members of the Mehdi army militia, followers of the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the group widely thought to be holding the hostages.

According to residents, two people were killed in the raids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They demolished the house and entered. They handcuffed us and started to beat us, saying, "We want the British." We told them that we do not know anything about them, but they continued to beat us and kick us. They handcuffed men and locked women inside a room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I am still winded from a previous blast, and the U.S. troops accused me of being a member of the Mehdi army. The U.S. soldier crushed my leg under his feet.

BLAKE: Sadr City is a short distance from the Finance Ministry, where the four British security guards and one finance specialist were taken at gunpoint. No group has yet admitted they carried out this attack, but it's not thought to be any al Qaeda-linked Sunni militia. They would have had to pass through police and Shia roadblocks to get this far.

Witnesses say the gunmen looked official.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Four land cruisers and police vehicles arrived here. We thought they were either delegations or officials, but their machine guns were different from normal. They went inside and left after 10 minutes. One of them was a brigadier. You could clearly see his rank.

BLAKE: The four men who worked for GardaWorld Security are thought to be former British army soldiers. In the past, Shiite militia groups have kidnapped foreigners for money or power. Most are then released.

Diplomats in Baghdad are now talking to Shiite politicians. Officially, Britain won't negotiate with hostage-takers, but the Foreign Office says they are willing to start a dialogue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Channel 4's James Blake on the search for five Britons missing in Baghdad.

CLANCY: All right. We want to take a moment and check some of the other stories that are making news around the world this hour.

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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

We're covering the news the world wants to know and giving you a little bit more perspective that goes deeper into the stories of the day.

Now, the parents of a missing British girl traveled to Rome from the site of the girl's disappearance in Portugal. Gerry and Kate McCann have likened their plight to being in the middle of a race. They don't know how long it's going to last.

Alessio Vinci reports the McCanns' goal this day was twofold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: For faithful Catholics, a face-to-face meeting with the pope, even one lasting just a few seconds, is a thrill and a blessing beyond value. Kate and Gerry McCann are devout church-goers, and their brief encounter with Benedict XVI offered them a great deal of spiritual strength.

GERRY MCCANN, MADELEINE'S FATHER: We have very mixed emotions about being here. And, of course, why we're here. Under normal circumstances, it would be one of the most exciting things we could do in our own lifetime, but we're very much -- all that remains is the fact that we're here without Madeleine.

VINCI: But this was not just a spiritual journey. It was an attempt for the media-savvy couple to keep their search for their missing daughter in the public eye.

Outside Britain and Portugal, where Madeleine was kidnapped, few know about her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madeleine McCann? No. No, I'm afraid I don't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's this little girl that got kidnapped?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, the only thing I know is what I saw on CNN last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Madeleine McCann?

VINCI: The pope talked with Madeleine's parents at the end of a weekly general audience, but it was a photo opportunity in which the anguish was plain to see.

Later, at a news conference, the McCanns showed a poster which they hope will soon be shown across Italy and Europe.

KATE MCCANN, MADELEINE'S MOTHER: He said that he'd pray for us and our family, and that he'd continue to pray for Madeleine's safe return to us.

VINCI: The pope now the latest player in a relentless media campaign that has grown beyond the borders of England and Portugal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have seen this little girl...

VINCI (on camera): In the coming days, Kate and Gerry McCann plan to travel to other European nations, including Germany and the Netherlands. They know that the longer they can keep Madeleine's picture on the front pages of newspapers around the world, the better chance they have of finding their daughter.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Well, police in New Zealand are now investigating the death of a woman after family members claim she died as a direct result of her electricity being disconnected. The power supplier says it is also trying to find out more about the circumstances surrounding the woman's death, but believes the company is not to blame.

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CHURCH (voice over): Family members of the 44-year-old mother of four say she became sick in February and had been unable to work at her teaching job since then. Her husband says he was forced to cut back his working hours to care for his wife.

LOPAAVEA MULIAGA, HUSBAND: When she stopped working because she was sick, that's why my family struggles.

CHURCH: Health officials say Filoli Muliaga (ph) was sent home from hospital earlier in the month with a breathing support device, but they insist it was only supposed to support her breathing and that she would not have been sent home if she needed the machine to keep her alive. The family fell behind on their electricity bill, which the power company says triggered the six-to-seven-week process of disconnection.

The bill, payments and other key elements to this story are in dispute. But what is clear is that a contractor arrived at the South Auckland home on Tuesday to disconnect the electricity.

LETITAIA MULIAGA, SON: My mom told him to give us a chance. So they give (ph) us a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what did he say?

LETITAIA MULIAGA: He said he's doing his job. He's here to cut the power off.

CHURCH: Within two hours, the woman died. Her son told TV One News she asked him not to call an ambulance.

Mercury Energy says it regrets what it calls the tragic circumstances surrounding the death and will investigate further. In an online statement, the company's general manager said, "Our operating procedures ensure that if we know a serious health issue could arise from disconnection, we will not disconnect the customer."

DOUG HEFFERNAN, MERCURY ENERGY SPOKESMAN: From our information, the contractor was not told that retaining the electricity supply would have threatened her life.

CHURCH: Nephew-in-law Brendan Sheehan says the family was clearly trying to pay the bill and that no warning was given of the impending disconnection.

BRENDAN SHEEHAN, NEPHEW-IN-LAW: Look, I think their actions are reprehensible. It's absolutely disgusting what they've done. CHURCH: Health officials aren't sure why the woman deteriorated so quickly, but family members and others clearly blame Mercury Energy for her death.

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CHURCH: And a coroner's inquest will be held to determine the cause of death. Mercury Power is a state-owned utility.

CLANCY: All right. We're going to take a short break.

Coming up, back to the future.

CHURCH: That's right. With the current crop of candidates failing to excite voters, Republicans may turn to a proven formula -- a former actor running for president.

CLANCY: And student protesters in Venezuela turn to technology to stay in touch and stay a step ahead of authorities.

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(NEWSBREAK)

CHURCH: A man with an extremely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis is under government quarantine in the city of Atlanta. The first such step taken by the U.S. since 1963. Health officials worldwide are now contacting international travelers who shared flights with the man in May.

CLANCY: Now, the man at the center of the case is the subject of the first federal quarantine in decades, but he's not the only person in the U.S. isolated by health authorities right now.

CHURCH: That's right. We've got the story of an Arizona man also under quarantine. He doesn't know how long he'll be there, or if he'll ever get out.

Thelma Gutierrez reports.

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THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is 27- year-old Robert Daniels. For the past 10 months, he has lived behind the doors of this sealed, specially ventilated room, without human contact, forced into quarantine by the Maricopa County Health Department because he has a deadly, drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. CNN was given rare access to the ward.

(on camera): Can you describe the conditions?

(voice-over): But we had to interview Daniels on the phone, because he's so contagious. Daniels says he's treated like a prisoner, not a patient.

ROBERT DANIELS, TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT: All of a sudden, you have been called an inmate. You have been given a booking number. And -- and the -- the room you're in, it has bars on the windows. There is no shower.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The sheriff's department and Maricopa County health officials say Daniels was warned to wear a mask in public. He didn't, so he was ordered into quarantine by the court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's made his bed, and now he has to sleep in it.

DANIELS: Of course I'm regretting what I did. I should have been a little more mature about all this.

GUTIERREZ: One of Daniels' nurses, who didn't want to be identified, spoke out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really made me very upset to think that us in America could treat a patient so punitively.

GUTIERREZ: The ACLU has stepped in, saying his constitutional rights are being violated.

Robert Daniels told CNN, he is slowly recovering, though his treatment could take years, torture, he says, because his wife and son live in Moscow.

DANIELS: Every day, I sit on the bed, and I remember my wife. And I -- and I realize I can't talk to her, and I just sit there and cry. What else I have to do, because I couldn't do nothing, nothing.

GUTIERREZ: Robert Daniels is not sure when he will be able to see them or anyone else again, because the Health Department says there's no state limit on how long he could be isolated while he's contagious. He could be here for years.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

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CHURCH: Well, the Group of Eight foreign ministers are gathering in Potsdam, Germany to lay the groundwork for the summit next week. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett are among those attending. Foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan are also in Germany, and pledge to increase cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the area of security.

CLANCY: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is defending U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in eastern Europe. She says Russia's opposition to it is unfounded.

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CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECY. OF STATE: As President Putin has said, Russia can overwhelm anything of theirs. So you can't have it both ways. You can't on one hand say it's a threat to Russia, and on the other hand say you can overwhelm it. Of course they can overwhelm it. That's point that we've been making. This is not a system that is aimed at large-scale nuclear weapons of the type that Russia is able to deploy. This is against smaller, but nonetheless, potentially very deadly threats of places like Iran. And we hope Russia will join us.

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CLANCY: Now, Russia's foreign minister counters, saying the U.S. is in effect restarting the arms race with its planned missile defense shield.

CHURCH: Well, Iranians on the streets of Tehran are reacting to Monday's landmark talks between Iran and the United States.

CLANCY: Now, that meeting was held in Baghdad, broke a 27-year long diplomatic freeze between the two countries.

Aneesh Raman took a ride on the metro to get an idea of what the average Iranian thinks about all of this.

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ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No confusion and no delays. Underground in Tehran the trains run without a hitch. More than a million trips a day are taken on the Iranian capital subway. Built with French and Chinese help, and equipped with Austrian rolling stock, but of course, no U.S. technology. It's where we've come to see what people think of Monday's historic talks.

In the first car reserved for women, a range of outfits and a range of opinions.

"Good relations have to start somewhere and go slowly between these two countries, this woman tells us. God willing, from here it will get better."

But before it does, from those less eager to befriend the U.S., a mood of distrust.

"Some governments" she says, referring to the U.S., "are bullies and power hungry and don't want to understand, just dominate."

(on camera): Among most of the people we spoke with, there is optimism. But they also keep in mind that this is just another point along a process that could easily derail.

(voice-over): And quickly, an American Tuesday was charged with working against the regime, another officially in Iranian custody. Neither story getting much coverage here, nor did Monday's talks in Baghdad, a sign perhaps of limited expectations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't seen much. Even I think there is a kind of pressure. They don't make it sound like headline. Not that much. RAMAN: The people here used to their country and the U.S. heading in opposite directions, but the great majority hope that a head-on collision can now be avoided.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, reality television shows offer participants the chance to win money and prizes. But a new Dutch program offers controversy as well.

CLANCY: We'll have that story just ahead. We're going to tell you about a show called "Big Donor," and some says it's big in bad taste.

CHURCH: And later, protesters in Venezuela using the latest technology to stay a step ahead of those who would sweep them from the streets.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY here on CNN International.

CLANCY: All right, we're seen live in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe, and we want to talk about -- I guess we consider ourselves reality television, but there is a whole other form of it out there. These programs often controversial, but one in the Netherlands is really taking it all to new heights.

CHURCH: It certainly is. It's called "The Big Donor Show." The three contestants have kidney problems, and as Chris Choi reports, the prize -- you guessed it -- it's a kidney.

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CHRIS CHOI, ITV NEWS REPORTER (voice-over): The shows are usually about fame and fortune, not life and death. So, has reality TV finally lost all grip on reality?

Adverts for "The Big Donor" explain how a terminally ill woman will donate her kidney. Three contestants will vie for it with viewers texting in their preferences.

(on camera): Even in this bizarre world, the idea of a kidney contest is pretty extreme. It's made by Endemol, the "Big Brother" people. Their founder died of kidney failure, and they say this is to highlight the donor shortage. And that, at least, is reality. In the U.K., of 18,000 people needing a new kidney, only 1,500 will get the transplant.

(voice-over): Here's a man today almost uniquely qualified to comment. He was minutes away from a kidney transplant. (on camera): Would you like a TV show like that to come to the U.K.?

HARLAND HAWTHORNE, KIDNEY PATIENT: I've been waiting for eight years. I think it's hurt (ph) people who have been waiting for a long time, give them a chance in life. So, I don't think it's a bad idea.

CHOI (voice-over): But medics here say ethical rules would stop TV contestants jumping the transplant cue.

(on camera): These are three people who are desperate to receive a kidney. Why shouldn't they be helped, even if it is in this unusual way?

DR. PETER VEITCH, KIDNEY SURGEON: What you're suggesting to me today is that you go about it in the way of allocating according to some sort of popularity contest, and I just don't think that's the right way of doing things.

CHOI: TV producers have sparked debate, but it's about whether they're helping the sick or just making sick TV.

Chris Choi, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has issued a stern warning to Globovision, an opposition television station over broadcasts Sunday he took as nothing less than a personal threat.

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HUGO CHAVEZ, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): What Globovision did the day before yesterday was an open and clear incitement for killing me. Well Globovision, I am warning you during this live radio and television transmission, and I would advise you to take some tranquilizers and tone it down to a minimum, or else we will tone it down for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Mr. Chavez spoke as thousands marched for freedom of expression Tuesday. They were protesting his earlier action against another broadcaster, Radio Caracas Television.

CLANCY: Well, meantime, the protesters themselves trying to keep one step ahead of the government and police by using technology to warn friends, well, tell friends where they are, warn them where the police are located.

Harris Whitbeck has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Vicente Fias (ph) goes to a demonstration in Caracas, he usually carries two text-enabled cell phones. Recently, they've become a must have for any self-respecting member of the Venezuelan opposition. Small and easy to carry, cell phones and Blackberries are ubiquitous in the street protests that have become a daily occurrence since President Hugo Chavez closed down RCTV, the largest opposition television station in the country, last Sunday.

Text messages are the latest tool in the arsenal of opposition organizers, bent on taking their protests to the streets.

VICENTE FIAS (ph) (through translator): During the marches, we communicate via text, we inform about what is happening all around this route.

WHITBECK: Manuel Garcia, a mechanical engineering student who has participated in the protest daily since last weekend, says he texts with his friends to exchange information on the whereabouts of riot police.

MANUEL GARCIA, PROTESTER: And ask him to tell me if anything that could happen here.

WHITBECK: Those who are marching in the streets say they are afraid their society might become increasingly restrictive. Some say the new tools of communication they use might be a way of fighting against them.

TEODORO PETKOFF, NEWSPAPER DIRECTOR: To date, almost impossible to create a totalitarian society, modern Soviet Union or modern Cuba. Today, not only because cell phones or Blackberries, but they allow the widest communication possible among citizens.

WHITBECK (on camera): The phone company won't say if there has been a spike in text messaging since the protests began, but users say it has become increasingly difficult to text because the system is congested.

Vicente Fias (ph) says he has 1,000 people on his texting list, and he is just one of thousands more in the opposition who can communicate in a flash about their movements.

Harris Whitbeck, CNN, Caracas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: All right, everybody's out there, they're texting on their phones, but you know what else is on the phone, everybody's got a camera on their phones. We want to take a look now at some of the pictures that you, there in Venezuela, have been sending to us.

CHURCH: Yes, let's just bring those up. This first picture is from Stefanie, she is in Caracas, and titled it "S.O.S. From Venezuela." She says she and her fellow students want the world to help them regain their freedom of expression.

CLANCY: Yes, Stefanie also seen in these one, a litle bit closer view showing some of the police down on the street -- that's well, National Guard. She's telling us that, she said they've been threatening the students with violence, though she says the students are staging a peaceful demonstration.

CHURCH: And finally, this next picture is from Ratzil in Florida, now it was sent to him by his friend in Venezuela on Sunday. The poster behind that young man says, "Freedom Provides Expression."

CLANCY: And a lot of the demonstrators have been taping up their mouths as you see there, you know, saying we want the right to speak out, say what we think.

CHURCH: So keep those pictures, send them into us. We appreciate those ones coming in. Now, we want more.

CLANCY: I would like to see some video, as a matter of fact.

CHURCH: Yes. And send your pictures to CNN.com and click on the i-Report logo.

CLANCY: That tells you how to do it.

CHURCH: All right, now to Germany where participants in one race were probably ready for a nap after crossing the finish line. The German town of Fredosdor (ph), just south of Berlin, played host to the annual bed race on Sunday. Competitors performed stunts while racing 18 beds along a track. The judging was based on speed, craziness -- has that -- and originality, which was also this year's motto for the contest.

CLANCY: Which one, craziness?

(LAUGHTER)

CHURCH: I love that.

CLANCY: There he goes. Don't want that nurse taking care of me.

Coming up, we're going to hang out with Hollywood's rich and famous. You want to do that?

CHURCH: There you go. It only takes two things -- $70,000 a month and an addiction.

CLANCY: Yes, seems simple enough. A look behind the scenes at an exclusive California rehab facility that's doing a booming trade, when we come back.

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CLANCY: Well, actress and party girl Lindsay Lohan has been in the news, seems like a lot, lately, and all for the wrong reasons, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Seems that way, but this may be a turn for the better. The 20-year-old Hollywood star has checked into a California rehabilitation facility. CLANCY: Now, of course, this follows her arrest over the weekend for driving under the influence of alcohol, as she crashed her car in Beverly Hills.

It'll be Lohan's second rehab attempt this year.

But as Brooke Anderson reports, rehab has become something of a second home for many in Hollywood's fast lane.

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BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Surfing. Massages. Gourmet meals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two balconies up here.

ANDERSON: Luxurious accommodations.

You may think this is a posh resort, but in fact, this is drug and alcohol rehab, Malibu style.

21-year-old Scott Young is nearing the end of his 30-day stay at Passages Addiction Cure Center.

SCOTT YOUNG, RECOVERING ADDICT: I ended up smoking pot and drinking when I was like 10 years old, 11 years old, and ever since then it's just progressed, using heroin, crack, cocaine, drinking when I couldn't get those things. I spent two months in jail before I came here. It's been a long journey for me.

ANDERSON: This is Scott's fifth or sixth time in a rehab. His first in the lap of luxury. A family friend picked up the tab this time because a stay at Passages isn't cheap at nearly $70,000 a month.

Meet Concetta Bruce, a 43-year-old mother who extended her stay to two months. Her parents are pick up the whopping $135,000 bill.

(on camera): What does your family think about you being here? Because from the outside, boy, it looks like a five-star resort.

CONCETTA BRUCE, PASSAGES PATIENT: They all said, we want to go. You know, we would like to go. They realize that in order to get here, I had to be in a really dark place. And I don't think anybody would want to change places with me, to go through the darkness to get to this place.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Concetta says she's been in and out of rehabs over the years, struggling with everything from an eating disorder to gambling, abusing alcohol and methamphetamines, even attempting suicide. Before getting help this time, Concetta became isolated from her family.

BRUCE: It's, you know, four intensive hours a day of therapists, one-on-one, which I really felt I needed to -- to be able to get to the core issues. ANDERSON: Passages is very different from your average rehab. With less focus on group therapy and more focus on one-on-one treatment. Which Concetta and Scott allowed us to witness.

YOUNG: Putting the toxins and the poisons into my body, it really, it didn't affect me at all. And it just -- it just numbed me to having to feel all of this, this self-hate and misery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're accepting yourself right now without judgment. And accepting your emotions right now. It's pretty cool.

ANDERSON (on camera): Chris Prentiss and his son, Pax, a former heroin and cocaine addict, founded Passages six years ago based on the tools they say helped Pax become sober.

Why the gourmet chefs? Why the massage therapists? Is that necessary?

CHRIS PRENTISS, PASSAGES ADDICTION CURE CENTER: It's not necessary in a way, but in another way, it is. Because this is a healing center. The people who want to come to this program expect to be in a nice surrounding.

ANDERSON: Nearly $70,000 a month?

C. PRENTISS: Yes.

ANDERSON: Why so expensive?

C. PRENTISS: Because it's one-on-one treatment, because it's in a $22 million estate, because there's 100 people who work here to take care of 29 clients. It just -- it's an expensive program to put on.

ANDERSON (voice-over): The Prentiss duo claim a success rate of better than 80 percent, and even wrote a book about their unconventional approach.

They reject the decades-old 12-step program and proudly defy scientific studies about addiction.

(on camera): Doctors, scientists, say addiction is a disease. You say it's not?

PAX PRENTISS, PASSAGES ADDICTION CURE CENTER: I know it's not.

C. PRENTISS: That's correct. That's correct. We know it's not.

People do not use drugs and alcohol because they have a disease in their brain. People use drugs and alcohol because of heartbreak, because of loneliness, because of stress, because of anxiety, because of peer pressure, because of childhood problems, rape, incest, brutality, abandonment, guilt, things they've done to others.

ANDERSON: When you send patients home, what do you say to them?

P. PRENTISS: You're cured. C. PRENTISS: Totally cured, 100 percent.

BRUCE: I can't wait to, you know, have my -- the rest of my life unfold. And it's going to be wonderful.

YOUNG: I'm definitely capable of growing out there just like I am in here.

ANDERSON (voice-over): While the Passages' to treatment may be debatable, hope is never questioned.

Brooke Anderson, CNN, Malibu, California.

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CLANCY: That is it for this hour. I am Jim Clancy.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church, and this is CNN. Stay with us.

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