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Your World Today

President Bush Deals With Mortgage Woes, Iraq War; Memorial Ceremony Marks 10 years Since Princess Diana's Death; Artists' Images Create Controversy

Aired August 31, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Helping homeowners. The U.S. president outlines steps to stem the credit crisis that's shaken financial markets around the globe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: She was quite simply the best mother in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Loving memories helped ease lingering pain. Diana's sons lead a tribute to the princess of the people.

HOLMES: Art or Outrage. An Australian exhibit shows Jesus morphing into a mastermind of terror.

SESAY: And smashing glass ceilings into shards. One hundred women set world standards for leadership, earning a powerful title.

It's noon in Washington, 2:00 a.m. in Sydney.

Welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Isha Sesay.

HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes.

From London to New York to New Delhi, or wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

All right. Let's begin at the White House. A busy day for the U.S. president, George W. Bush, a day that began with the president reaching out a hand to help homeowners drowning in mortgage debt.

Ed Henry joins us now with a look at that story and the rest of the president's crowded agenda.

Let's begin with that, then, Ed.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, this mortgage crisis, as you know, has roiled world markets. That's why President Bush wants to show that he's on top of this, that he's dealing with. So he has several issues he wants to deal with on it. He wants to expand the Federal Housing Authority's ability to insure loans for people who can't make their mortgage payments. He also wants to reform the U.S. tax code, and he wants to crack down on these so-called predatory lending practices, so many abuses that we have heard about that have been reported on.

But the president did make clear that he will not go so far as to endorse a bailout that would be funded by U.S. taxpayers, saying that would only encourage bad behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A federal bailout of lenders would only encourage a recurrence of the problem. It's not the government's job to bail out speculators or those who made the decision to buy a home they knew they could never afford. Yet, there are many American homeowners who could get through this difficult time with a little flexibility from their lenders or a little help from their government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: But will this really make a difference? A reporter today asked White House spokesman Tony Snow, "Predict for us how much this will help the housing industry." He wouldn't do it. He said he couldn't really answer that.

So I finally asked him, "Well, will this plan hurt the housing industry?" Half joking, of course. Tony Snow laughed and said, "No, it won't hurt the industry," but still would not say how much it would help the industry.

I think that shows the White House is being very cautious not to go out on a limb, because they realize that this plan can only do so much -- Michael.

HOLMES: A couple of questions for you, Ed.

First of all, the other thing that's on the president's agenda pretty much every day, but especially today, Iraq.

HENRY: That's right. The president heading to the Pentagon in just a couple of hours, to talk to his defense secretary, as well as various generals.

This is crunch time. Only two weeks until General David Petraeus will issue his progress report about the situation on the ground in Iraq. So the president wanting to hear from these various generals.

We know that not all the generals are necessarily on the same page. Some, like General Peter Pace, may want the president to start calling -- to bring home U.S. troops, at least some of them. Other generals not keen on that idea.

The whole point, as the White House is trying to show, the president's listening to all sides, but when you listen closely to what the president himself is saying, it certainly sounds like ahead of this progress report, he's already made up his mind that he wants to continue on the current course, because he believes the surge is starting to work and he wants to give it more time -- Michael.

HOLMES: Got a couple competing reports out there, as well.

Lastly, you mentioned Tony Snow.

HENRY: That's right.

HOLMES: More details on the presidential spokesman's departure?

HENRY: That's right. CNN just confirming moments ago that White House spokesman Tony Snow will be stepping down on September 14th. He'll be replaced by one of his deputies, Dana Perino.

She's been a familiar face. She filled in for him at the podium when Tony Snow was first dealing with his second bout with cancer.

It's very interesting that the news would come today. This is a transition day for the White House. It's also is the final day, this Friday, for Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff. So there is a lot of changes here right now as President Bush's time in office ticks away -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Ed Henry, there reporting on several things on the president's plate this day.

Good to see you, Ed. Thanks.

HENRY: Thank you. Good to see you.

SESAY: A very full plate.

Well, let's check some of the other stories in the news this hour.

(NEWSBREAK)

SESAY: Now, a few hours ago, London paused to remember Diana, Princess of Wales. The woman known as the people's princess died 10 years ago today. Her sons led a celebration of her life at the Guards Chapel, a tribute that was mirrored throughout the city.

Our Richard Quest is outside Buckingham Palace. He joins us now live with more on the mood this day.

And Richard, I suppose one of the striking things about this day is Prince William and Prince Harry really giving voice to the impact Diana had on their lives.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is it in a nutshell. If you hear not another word from me in the next couple of minutes, that probably is the important part of today's memorial service. A decade ago, you can pretty much ask anyone what they were doing when they heard the news that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died. The death led to unbridled grief and emotion on the streets of London. Perhaps, in many ways, it was only princes William and Harry that showed any restraint.

For the memorial service, though, this was their time. They wanted to show what they could do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST (voice over): Ten years on, and this was a chance for princes William and Harry to show where Diana's legacy is concerned, they are in charge.

From the door of the chapel where they welcomed the guests, including their grandmother, the queen, to the readings and the service, William and Harry took center stage. In front of a congregation including celebrities such as Elton John and Lord Attenborough, Harry remembered his mother with words we rarely hear spoken by the royals.

PRINCE HARRY: ... though we miss her. She kissed us last thing at night, her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day.

She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure. She, like our father, was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood.

QUEST: The princes wanted today to be a celebration of Diana's life. They also wanted to put to rest the endless speculation over her death.

It was left to the bishop of London to say, in effect, enough.

RICHARD CHARTRES, BISHOP OF LONDON: Let it end here. Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace and dwell on her memory with thanksgiving and compassion.

QUEST: That's unlikely to carry sway with Mohammed al-Fayed, whose son Dodi also died in that crash. He held his own moment of silence at his Harrods department store in London.

He still believes the crash wasn't an accident. He wasn't invited to the memorial service.

Away from the formal proceedings and silences, ordinary people remembered Diana in the way they did 10 years ago, by leaving flowers at Kensington Palace, her former home, or at the tunnel in Paris where the accident took place. Whatever the public may feel about how Diana died, in the end, this 10th anniversary will best be remembered for the role played by Diana's sons.

ROBERT JOBSON, ROYAL COMMENTATOR: I thought Prince Harry spoke with eloquence and he was right in what he was saying. He was trying to take ownership of this Diana story.

In the decade since Diana's death, we've had so many stories, so many controversies. This was him saying this is my mother, with Prince William, and we don't want this to carry on. We want Diana to rest in peace.

QUEST: In September 1997, the world reached out its heart to the young princes as they walked behind their mother's coffin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: And today, 10 years on, the world watched two grown up princes giving the legacy of Diana the true title, the people's princess.

SESAY: Our very own Richard Quest there in London.

Though we must leave, many, many thanks.

Well, if you'd like to post your thoughts on this story, head over to CNN.com/diana. You can send us your pictures and video from today and also watch clips from CNN's documentary on the princess of Wales. Again, all of that at CNN.com/diana.

Well, CNN's Larry King and a panel of special guests look back to the day that Diana died. The doctor who was first on the scene to give her first aid and her chauffeur join Larry as they revisit that tragic Paris accident in 1997.

That's "LARRY KING LIVE" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern for viewers in the United States, Saturday at 09:00 GMT for our international viewers.

HOLMES: All right. It could be considered thought-provoking or just simply in bad taste.

SESAY: Coming up, did religious artwork go too far? A holographic portrait in an Australian art gallery draws fire.

HOLMES: Also ahead, a U.S. senator claims he did nothing wrong, but many members of his own party want him out after an arrest at an airport men's room.

SESAY: And leading the pack for a second year in a row, why "Forbes" magazine kept German chancellor Angela Merkel number one among the world's most powerful women.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

HOLMES: Seen live around the world this hour.

Well, artists sometimes create much more than a beautiful image, they create controversy as well. Well, this week in Sydney, Australia, the entries for the Blake Prize for Religious Art went on display, and one provocative piece marries the image of one of the world's most revered religious figures with one of its most reviled.

Here's Sarah Cumming with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARAH CUMMING, REPORTER, 7 NEWS (voice over): This is what has upset some Christians, a small hologram of Jesus which transforms into the world's most wanted terrorist and a statue of the Virgin Mary wearing a Muslim burqa. Both are part of the prestigious Blake Prize exhibition.

LYLE SHELTON, AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN LOBBY: It is in bad taste and it will be offensive to many, many Christians.

KEVIN RUDD, AUSTRALIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I think it's awful, frankly. Just think it's awful.

CUMMING: The premier's condemned the works by referring to a painting stolen from the New South Wales gallery recently.

MORRIS IEMMA, NEW SOUTH WALES PREMIER: It's a pity they stole the Dutch master and not those two.

CUMMING: The prime minister's described them as insulting.

REVEREND ROD PETTENDEN, BLAKE SOCIETY: I'm honored (ph) with John Howard's role as a prime minister, but I'm not sure he's an art expert.

CUMMING: Sydney artist Luke Sullivan says his statue is about gender and balance in religion.

LUKE SULLIVAN, ARTIST: It is certainly not an attack on Christianity. I don't see the work as blasphemous or sacrilegious.

CUMMING: Artist Priscilla Bracks wouldn't appear on camera after receiving death threats. She issued a statement saying, "The amount of attention given to people like bin Laden may elevate them to a status where they're perceived as sacred."

(on camera): There is at least one fan of the Osama bin Laden hologram. It's already been sold to a Sydney man who wants to remain anonymous.

SULLIVAN: Art is not always about being nice, and sometimes you do need to use it as a vehicle to explore new ideas.

CUMMING (voice over): Sarah Cumming, 7 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: Now, more than 60 years after the Holocaust, Jewish life in Berlin is still just a shadow of what it once was, but that may be changing. On Friday, after years of restoration, Germany's largest synagogue reopened in all its prewar glory.

Frederik Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For more than 70 years, Rita Rubenstein has waited to see this day. As the Torah is placed back into Berlin's Ryke Street synagogue, Germany's largest Jewish temple, Rita Rubenstein recalls the many times she came here as a teenager and the day she and her family had to flee their native country, never to return until today.

"I never thought I would return here. When my brother was 17, the Nazis killed him. Then we were visited every night by the Gestapo and the SS. It was unbearable. We had to flee," she says.

In his opening prayer, Rabbi Chaim Roswavsky (ph) called the existence of Jewish life in Germany a miracle. And equally amazing, others said, is the fact that he was praying to a full house. Ryke Street synagogue, construction is almost complete for one of the largest Jewish community ad education centers in Germany, with a replica of the Wailing Wall inside.

RABBI YEHUDA TEICHTAL, JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, BERLIN: This wall was put together. These stones are from Jerusalem to resemble the same structure, the same form as the Western Wall. It's not an extension of the Western wall, that's clear, but it serves as an inspiration for the people that are here.

PLEITGEN: Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal heads the center, the first in Germany after World War II, built almost completely without German government funding. A symbol, Teichtal tells me, that Jews put new trust in the country where the Holocaust happened.

TEICHTAL: What did Hitler try to do? Wipe out the Jews. He lost.

Jews are here. Jewish life is growing. If the Jews are here already, we're going to give them pride. We're going to say that Jewish life has a strong future.

PLEITGEN: More than six million Jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps. "The Final Solution," Hitler called his plan, to exterminate world Judaism. Synagogues were burned or ransacked, but the largest one at Berlin's Rykestrasse suffered only minor damage. The Nazis were afraid burning it would damage what they called Aryan houses next door.

Now the synagogue is a symbol of Jewish life in Berlin again, a moment Rita Rubenstein never believed she would live to see.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, a couple from the U.S. city of Cincinnati in Ohio recently won a lottery of sorts, if you can call it that.

SESAY: If you can.

They just delivered their second set of triplets, all without the help of any fertility drugs or treatment.

HOLMES: Oh, boy.

Victoria and Tim Lasita decided they wanted one more child after their first set of triplets became toddlers, got out of their diapers. Instead of one, they got three babies, all still healthy.

There are the kids all there.

SESAY: Yes. Look at older ones there.

Doctors say the odds -- listen to this -- of giving birth to a second set of triplets without the help of fertility drugs is about one in 64 million.

HOLMES: Oh, my goodness.

SESAY: Yes. Yes.

HOLMES: It actually reminds me of a friend of mine who desperately wanted a boy, had three girls, and said one more try...

SESAY: Got twins?

HOLMES: Twin girls. They had five kids under 6, all girls.

SESAY: No, no, no.

HOLMES: Yes. Needless to say, he gave up on the boys.

SESAY: I should hope so.

Well, congratulations to the Lasitas.

HOLMES: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Coming up, will he or won't he?

SESAY: As Washington waits to see whether an embattled senator steps down.

HOLMES: Yes. We're going to hear Larry Craig's own words on a police audiotape about that little bathroom visit that could sink his career.

SESAY: And a financial magazine recognizes 100 women who have worked their way into the halls of power. We'll talk with a "Forbes" editor to see how they're changing the world.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including the United States. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Isha Sesay.

HOLMES: Finished?

SESAY: Yeah.

HOLMES: OK. Let's update you now. It's that time of the program, the top stories.

On Friday, Germany's largest synagogue reopened after a year-long restoration. The synagogue was badly damaged on Cristal Nacht (ph) in 1938, when the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes and properties during the Holocaust. And on Sunday, a new Jewish center opens in former West Berlin, in the hopes of rebuilding Jewish life in that city.

SESAY: U.S. President George W. Bush has revealed details of a plan to help Americans avoid foreclosure during the current credit crisis. He outlined a number of measures, ranging from federal help in refinancing mortgages to tax breaks. One thing the president said he would not do, however, is bail out speculators who bought more house than they could afford.

HOLMES: A solemn ceremony in London for the People's Princess; the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, celebrated at a memorial service near Buckingham Palace, 10 years after she died in a car crash in Paris.

And two minutes of silence at Harrods Department Store, as well. Harrods is owned by the father of Dodi Al Fayed, who died in the car crash alongside Diana.

Well, today's images of a family more at ease in its grief stand in sharp contrast to those over the distant chilly royalty a decade ago. Paula Hancocks has a look back at a terrible week that, in the end, managed to make the Windsors just a bit more winsome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The final images of Diana, Princess of Wales. Grainy pictures from security cameras show her leaving the Ritz Hotel in Paris with Dodi Fayed. Five minutes later, a car crash inside a Paris tunnel. Dodi and driver Henri Paul (ph) were declared dead at the scene. Diana and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones were taken to the hospital.

A few hours later ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are just getting word that the French government has informed all of us that Princess Diana has died.

HANCOCKS: What followed was unprecedented. British reserve gave way to mass hysteria, an immense public outpouring of grief for a princess few had met, but many around the world adored. TONY BLAIR, FMR. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: She was the people's princess. And that's how she will stay, how she will remain, in our hearts and in our memories forever.

HANCOCKS: A sea of flowers and tributes was left at the gates of Diana's home, Kensington Palace. Grief mixed with anger. The paparazzi was initially blamed for chasing the car Diana was traveling in, followed by stinging criticism for the royal family over what many considered a cold response to Diana's death. The queen then broadcast a live address to the nation.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, UNITED KINGDOM: We have all been trying, in our own different ways, to cope. It is not easy to express the sense of loss since the initial shock is often seceded by a mixture of other feelings, disbelief, incomprehension, anger, and concern for those who remain.

HANCOCKS: Few can forget the bowed heads of the young princes as they walked behind their mother's coffin. One million people lined the streets of the four-mile funeral procession. Tens of millions more watched on television around the world.

CHARLES SPENCER, DIANA'S BROTHER: I stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock.

HANCOCKS: Never before has the death of a princess affected so many.

ARTHUR EDWARDS, ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHER: She was a cross between Cindy Crawford and Mother Teresa, you know. She looked like a supermodel and she had the compassion of a saint -- and people saw that.

HANCOCKS: Few at the time dared to question the intense national grief during the week between Diana's death and funeral. Ten years later, many are still surprised at the power of a princess to send a nation into uncharacteristically public mourning.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: If you watch a lot of CNN, you may notice us referring more and more to a new batch of correspondents covering stories for us around the world. Those reporters, cameramen, commentators, who are they? Well, they're you. I-Report is our way of bringing you in with us to shape our broadcast. It's become a very big part, in fact, of the way we do news. Jonathan Mann shows us some of the best of the week in i-Reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This week, CNN has been reporting on the plight of people in southern Greece engulfed by wildfires. We had our own staff on the story. PLEITGEN (voice over): When the fires came up, Astolos Cremanteras (ph) stayed behind to fight the flames. Using a gardening hose, he kept the fire away from the building.

MANN: And we had viewers like Ilias Michail (ph), who used his mobile phone to take this video of volunteer firefighters battling a blaze in the village of Korfas (ph). He says all of the professional firefighters were busy putting out fires somewhere else.

Nick Topalides sent us this photo of the sky above Athens. The flames hadn't reached the capital city, but you could see that the smoke had. And Visillios Porgaiziz shared this shot from Marco Polo beach, north of Athens, a safe distance from the flames, but close enough to see what he calls the catastrophic nature of the disaster. Our own correspondent was impressed.

PLEITGEN: The I-Reports were so very important to our reporting from the wildfires from Greece that here's how people can tell us how they saw this thing; how the fire wall came towards their house; how they were afraid of it. And it really shows it in a very different way than we're often able to show it, if we don't have these I-Reports.

Because if I'm somewhere in the Peloponnesus, which is about a four-hour drive away from Athens, I don't really know what the situation there is like, but then we get these i-Reports that show us the devastation that these fires are causing outside Athens, outside the capital. And we know first-hand what the situation is like. It helps us so much to get a good overview over the situation, even in a very large area like the one affected by the Greece wildfires.

MANN: Also this week, there was the anniversary of an even deadlier tragedy, Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the U.S. killing 1,800 people. The pictures are etched into our memories. Still, I-Report reporters like Judy Young went to meet some of the people who are still coping.

JUDY YOUNG, I-REPORTER: I'm finding that people there seem more depressed now than they were three months after the storm, because three months after the storm, they still had hope that the money was coming and the help was coming. And now they feel really abandoned. And most of them still haven't gotten their road home money.

YOUNG (on camera): Why would anybody who's been through that go back?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is a good question. To be near family?

YOUNG: Uh-huh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it's the life we know and love.

MANN: Nature offered us a different kind of spectacle this week, but only people living on the Pacific Rim enjoying clear weather got to see it. A lunar eclipse, the Earth blocking the sunlight that normally shows us the Moon. If you missed it, a lot of the people who got up in the middle of the night sent in I-Reports so you could see it, too.

And finally, all the U.S. media were out in force covering the dog fighting and animal cruelty charges that brought down football star Michael Vick, but it took a home video camera to capture Otis, the Dog with an autographed Michael Vick football.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the all autograph, woo-hoo! Eat the football, eat the football, Otis. Eat! Let that be a lesson to all you pro athletes out there. What you do is a privilege, not a right.

MANN: It was that kind of week for I-Report.

Jonathan Mann, CNN, Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a good boy!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Got to love I-Reports.

SESAY: Keep them coming in. >

HOLMES: Well, they say it's a man's world. I don't know, not when I'm working with you, that's for sure. Seems women are doing pretty well for themselves. She's the boss.

SESAY: Just ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY a look at "Forbes"' list of the most powerful women. And later:

HOLMES: Risking life and limb to flee the chaos of Somalia. We'll look at the lengths some will go to in hopes of a better life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.

HOLMES: Seen in 200 countries and territories around the globe.

SESAY: Now, it's a man's world, so the saying keeps going, but Angela Merkel might well disagree.

HOLMES: According to financial magazine "Forbes," the German chancellor tops the list of the world's most powerful women. She made headlines at two back-to-back summits calling for cuts in carbon emissions, you may remember, also the replacement of the EU constitution.

SESAY: In China, vice premier's Wu Yi's leadership earned her second place, overseeing an economy rapidly becoming the third biggest in the world. She hasn't backed away from holding her own, either, against Western superpowers, either.

HOLMES: Next comes, Ho Ting (ph), the chief executive of Singapore's state-owned investment country Temasek Holdings. She beat Condoleezza Rice for third place. SESAY: Well, "Forbes" magazine compiles that list under the direction of a very accomplished woman, herself, editor Elizabeth McDonald is joining us now from New York to talk about who made the list and how they were chosen.

Elizabeth, thanks so much for joining us.

ELIZABETH MCDONALD, EDITOR, "FORBES": I'm delighted to be with you.

SESAY: You know, I looked at the list and the first thing that caught my eye was the fact that Angela Merkel was top and Condoleezza Rice was in fourth.

MCDONALD: Right.

SESAY: What is the criteria used for these rankings?

MCDONALD: We set up very complicated computer algorithm where we've input a tremendous amount of data to come up with a ranking. And what we're looking at are the women's career accomplishments, her title, the amount of money she has sway over, and the influence she's wielding around the globe. So those are just some of the elements we're looking at.

SESAY: And I noticed, again, looking at the list, that Oprah is higher than U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton?

MCDONALD: That's right. You know, Oprah is an international media juggernaut. She's now not only in magazines, TV shows, she's possibly branching out into reality TV as well.

So it's a very, very interesting list. I mean, it's said that the list includes 29 women hoping to run governments around the world. Lots of interesting facts about this year's top 100. Tell us some of them.

MCDONALD: You know what's interesting about the top 100 is we are increasingly seeing representation of Muslim women from the Middle East. You know, for example, Sheika Gudna al-Khassimi (ph) the minister of the economy in the United Arab Emirates, has been making tremendous inroads there. Sheika al-Mosa, who is the first lady of Qatar, is doing a lot in terms of bringing about so-called democratic values in the region, but we also have women running conglomerates, running banking companies, all sorts of companies in the Middle East, many that you may never have heard of.

SESAY: All right. Elizabeth, I'm afraid I need to break in there, and ask you to stand by. We need to join our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, standing by at the White House. And she's just been speaking to White House spokesperson Tony Snow, who has announced the date of his departure.

Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's just been about 10 minutes or so in Tony Snow's office, talking about his departure. This is something we reported two weeks ago, but it's been made official by Tony as well as the president is going to come out in a couple minutes and talk about Tony Snow and his replacement, the deputy, Dana Perino.

And Tony Snow telling me quite candidly that this is a financial decision. This is something where he says he's got lots of bills to pay, he has three kids, and essentially that in his words, he said that they were broke. He says this is the best job that he's ever had, that it's been a lot of fun. He told the president a couple months ago that this was going to happen to get ready for this, and that's when they started to look for a replacement.

The deputy, Dana Perino, being the logical choice because of her experience. Tony Snow saying he is in the next couple weeks -- he is actually not going to be traveling with the president or with us to Australia and Hawaii for the APEC Summit. Rather he will wrap up loose ends here.

I asked him what he plans to doing. He said the first thing, two weeks from now will be his last day, he says he can hardly wait to sleep in on Saturday, but he'll be doing speeches, he will be working with charitable groups, those dealing with colon cancer, as well as possibly mulling around some book ideas as well. You know that Tony Snow not only is dealing with a financial situation with kids approaching college, but also, he's been undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer.

Here's President Bush.

SESAY: Suzanne, jumping in there, because the president's just there at the podium speaking. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I sadly accept his desire to leave the White House, and he'll do so on September the 14th. He has been a joy to watch him spar with you. He's smart, he's capable, he's witty, capable of -- he's able to talk about issues in a way that the American people can understand.

And I don't know what he's going to do. I'm not sure he does yet, either, but whatever it is, it's going to be two things -- one, he'll battle cancer and win, and secondly, he'll be a solid contributor to society.

I do want to thank Jill and Kendall, Robbie and Kristie. They have watched the man they love take on a big job, and at the same time fight disease with a lot of courage. And so, I accept, I love you, and I wish you all the best.

And so I had to make a choice in who to replace Tony, and I've chosen Dana Perino. I did so because Dana is a smart, capable person who is able to spell out the issues of the day in a way that people listening on TV can understand. She can handle you all. She's capable of handling your questions. See, you had to ask that. I'm glad to get a little -- glad to get that choir singing.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: I'm not worried about her standing here at the podium -- what I look for in somebody like Dana is somebody to walk in that Oval Office and give me sound judgment and good advice. And I have found that over the course of the time I've known her, she's capable of doing that.

And she's also capable of running the shop that she'll be in charge of. And so, we say to the man we admire a lot, good luck, God speed.

And to Dana Perino, looking forward to working with you. And I'm looking forward to the American people to get to know you like I've gotten to know you.

Tony.

QUESTION: You've lost a lot of members of ...

BUSH: Hold on.

SNOW: Just a couple quick comments. First, Mr. President, thank you and thanks for the honor of serving. This job has really been a dream for me and a blast. I've had an enormous amount of fun and satisfaction, and I'm proud to be working for you, and will continue after I leave working for the White House to speak out about issues I care about.

I'm also proud and happy that Dana will be taking over as press secretary. She's an enormously capable woman, as you know, and somebody who more than capably filled my shoes, while I was away on surgery. And somebody who really is, as I told her before, she's going to find out talents that she wasn't even aware of, but I think this is one of those wonderful times where somebody who has worked very hard in public life and has demonstrated extraordinary capability, is going to have an opportunity to serve a president. And I think she'll have every as much fun and fulfillment in this job as I have.

Dana?

DANA PERINO, DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: You know, I had to pull that out, in order to see over the top.

(LAUGHTER)

Thank you, Mr. President and Tony. I am honored to have been asked and delighted to accept the position. It is bittersweet, of course, because we are all going to miss Tony Snow very much. He mentioned filling shoes, and I said before, he leaves very big shoes to fill and I only wear a size 6. And I thank him for all he's done for us in the administration. He's given us a lot of laughter, even at 6:30 in the morning when we meet every day. And while I'm saddened to see you go, I'm happy for your family. You are their biggest champion. And everyone that has watched you fight this cancer is inspired, and the way you lead your life is one with optimism. And we all should follow your lead.

Over the years, since Scott McClellan hired me to be his deputy, I've gotten to know a lot of you in the room. There's also a lot of new faces in this room, and we do have quite a bit of time left. The president has a very ambitious agenda. We are a nation at war, and the press office, the whole team is going to be here to help support him sprint to the finish.

I have an open-door policy. I hope to see a lot of you upstairs. Would love to see more of your faces rather than just the e-mails.

And Mr. President, thank you for your guidance, and I appreciate all you've done for me and the confidence you've placed in me and I aim to live up to your expectations.

BUSH: Thank you.

QUESTION: How do you feel about losing everybody?

BUSH: Good luck.

Thank you all.

QUESTION: Mr. President, should Senator Craig resign?

SESAY: All right, we're going to leave that now. U.S. President George W. Bush speaking there to the press, giving his thoughts on news of the departure, the date being announced of the departure of Spokesman Tony Snow.

Suzanne Malveaux standing by there at the White House.

Suzanne, the president really paying warm tribute to Tony Snow there.

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly, and one of the things that came up was about his battle with cancer and his fight with cancer. As you know, he was out for a brief period of time for surgery, and then bounced back, and came back. I talked to Tony about that about 10 minutes in his office, or so, before he made this announcement.

We talked a little bit about his recovery. And he really looks at this as kind of a chronic disease. He says that now it is time for kind of maintenance treatment. He had undergone chemotherapy and dealing with colon cancer. And he also said another kind of medication to deal with distributing, or rather, blocking blood from going to other tumors. He said that the biggest tumor he has is about this big, he said, and the hope is that it will stay that way and that he will be in as good health as possible.

SESAY: All right. White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, many thanks for that. There we must leave it. But stay with YOUR WORLD TODAY, because coming up next hour, we'll speak with the editor of "Forbes" magazine and she gives us her thoughts on the top 100 most powerful women. That's coming up. We'll have that and all the day's news ahead on CNN. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Well, "Forbes" magazine has compiled a list of the top 100 most powerful women. Joining us to talk about that is one of the editors, Elizabeth McDonald.

Elizabeth, thank you.

MCDONALD: Sure, Isha.

SESAY: One of the things about this list is it's great you've put together a 100 powerful women, but they don't have much name recognition. Why is that?

MCDONALD: That's a good point. That's what I'm hearing. And I think it's because there hasn't been a lot of coverage of what these women are doing, but you know, I do think that the "Forbes" readers -- and other readers from around the world --will be interested to see how these women plan to use their powers in the coming year. I mean that facetiously, but I think more and more, people are interested in what these women are doing around the globe.

SESAY: Do you see that changing? You say you see greater name recognition, these people branching out?

MCDONALD: I do see greater name recognition, especially with the Muslim women in the Middle East. It's interesting how they are gaining power there. The question here in the U.S., will Hillary -- will we get a new female, a first-time female president? If Hillary was born in India, Israel, Pakistan, where there is a parliamentary system, that the ruling party would hand pick their leader, yes, she would have a better crack at it. She faces a national election in the U.S., so you know, she has a tougher go.

SESAY: OK, Elizabeth, there we must leave. Many thanks for your time.

MCDONALD: Sure.

SESAY: That's it for this hour. I'm Isha Sesay.

HOLMES: You'll be on it next year. I'm Michael Holmes. This is CNN.

SESAY: Stay with us.

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