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Your World Today
Former Prime Minister Back in Pakistan After Eight Years in Exile; Putin Takes Swipe at U.S. Foreign Policy
Aired October 18, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Throwing a one-two punch, Russia's president takes a jab at U.S. policy in Iraq and extends a friendly hand to Iran.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Confirming the rumors, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife put an end to weeks of media speculation.
MCEDWARDS: Tears on her return. Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto ends eight years of self-imposed exile.
HOLMES: And taking on Donald Trump. A Scottish landowner fights the billionaire property developer's plans for a golf resort.
5:00 p.m. along the beautiful coast of northern Scotland, it is 8:00 p.m. in Moscow.
Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.
I'm Michael Holmes.
MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards.
From Karachi to Kabul, from Paris to Pittsburgh, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.
After eight years in exile, she comes home to a hero's welcome.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, that's right. Tens of thousands of supporters welcomed former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto back to her native country.
HOLMES: Yes. Bhutto was overwhelmed with emotion when she arrived at the Karachi airport. Karachi is her power base, if you like. Security, however, was very tight because there had been death threats against her.
MCEDWARDS: Bhutto boarded an armed motorcade, and even with that it took hours for her just to leave that airport compound because of the massive crowd all around her.
HOLMES: That's right. Bhutto's arrival also signals her return to Pakistan's political scene.
Zoe Conway has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZOE CONWAY, REPORTER (voice over): The arrival of Benazir Bhutto's plane brought to an end her eight years of exile spent in London and Dubai. But today is not just a homecoming for Ms. Bhutto. It's also the first day of her campaign to be the next prime minister of Pakistan.
Her return today has been made possible by the newly re-elected president of the country, General Musharraf. He agreed to have dropped the charges of alleged corruption against her that have brought her two separate periods as prime minister to an end, and which prevented her from entering the country. She brings to General Musharraf the support of her political party, Pakistan's Peoples Party, considered liberal and secular, which he needs in order to stay in office and to help him to take on the Islamic fundamentalists that are destabilizing the country.
Thousands of her supporters may have welcomed her home today, but she has many enemies. Pro-Taliban Islamic militants issued death threats against her when she pledged to help the U.S. find Osama bin Laden. But she is defiant. She says that any assassin who targets a Muslim woman will burn in hell.
This afternoon, she will address her supporters at a rally. She has no time to lose. Parliamentary elections take place in January. The supreme court could still scuttle her plans. They have yet to decide whether the amnesty granted to her violates the constitution.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: And again, Zoe Conway reporting there.
Well, U.S.-Russian relations seem to chill a few more degrees each and every month, maybe each and every day sometimes.
HOLMES: Exactly, it seems every time Vladimir Putin or George Bush say something. It's not looking good at the moment. President Vladimir Putin now piling on the frost, with some of the strongest swipes yet at Washington.
MCEDWARDS: Yes. In a televised broadcast, he criticized U.S. foreign policy pretty much across the board, but shaving the sharpest jabs for a war that he calls pointless.
HOLMES: Yes.
Paula Hancocks has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Russian president Vladimir Putin did little to mend bridges with his U.S. counterpart on Thursday. Mr. Putin used his annual Q&A session with the public to urge George W. Bush to name an out date for U.S. troops in Iraq.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Until it is done, the Iraqi leadership, feeling quite comfortable under the reliable American umbrella, will not speed up the development of its own armed forces and law enforcement bodies.
HANCOCKS: Mr. Putin told viewers he believes Iraq was invaded because of its oil wealth and the U.S. now has to leave as soon as possible.
PUTIN (through translator): One could topple tyrannical regimes. For example, Saddam Hussein's regime. But it's useless to fight with the people.
HANCOCKS: Mr. Putin was also asked about his visit to Iran earlier this week, making him the first Russian leader to visit since 1943.
The United States and Israel have made their concerns about a nuclear Iran abundantly clear, but Mr. Putin insists keeping diplomatic doors open is important.
PUTIN (through translator): Direct dialogue with leaders of the states where different problems occur is always more productive and a faster way to success than the policy of intimidation or sanctions, let alone the use of force.
HANCOCKS: Russia has strong economic ties with Iran and is building Iran's first nuclear plant, but opinions on the streets of Moscow are mixed.
This man says it is the West who has strained relations with Iran. "As far as we're concerned, we have economic interests. We're building a nuclear power plant and some energy products over there." He says, "Iran is our strategic partner, and the closer the economic ties the better."
On the other hand, this man calls Iran an unpredictable, radical country. He says one can expect anything from it. That's why the West criticizes its relations with Russia.
Israel is the country most vocally opposed to Iran's nuclear ambitions. The prime minister, Ehud Olmert, made a surprise trip to Moscow Thursday to discuss with Putin what he sees as the Iranian threat to Israel's existence.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: Well, the White House is brushing off Mr. Putin's gloomy picture of Iraq, saying U.S. efforts there are paying off.
Let's get some more reaction now from White House correspondent Elaine Quijano, who's been following all of this.
Boy, Elaine, it just seems like there is no love lost these days.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And you know, it's to note the back and forth, if you will, because these comments, of course, from Russian president Vladimir Putin come one day after President Bush here at the White House in his news conference used the word "wily" in describing President Putin. But today, President Bush's spokeswoman said she hadn't seen that question-and-answer session by President Putin, hadn't seen his comments, and so didn't want to respond directly to them. But she did, of course, defend the U.S. policy in Iraq, said that the U.S. military was helping to pave the way for progress in Iraq.
And she also defended the leadership of Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, saying that he was stepping up and showing leadership. An example of that, she said, his decision to try diplomacy with Turkey in dealing with that situation of the PKK rebels in northern Iraq.
Now, as for the U.S.-Russia relationship, though, clearly there have somebody very public, visible tensions between the two countries. As I noted, President Bush yesterday using that word "wily". He specifically was asking President Putin about his future leadership plans, and said that he was somewhat evasive.
Well, Dana Perino today was asked about that and said the reason the two leaders can speak very frankly is because they have a relationship that is based on trust. At the same time, though, she indicated, of course, the White House is very anxious to hear what President Putin has to say about that meeting that took place earlier this week between President Putin and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Of course, this is a situation that has only exacerbated the tensions between the United States and Russia. They said they still have not heard a readout, and they very much would like to hear what President Putin has to say on that front -- Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, this is tough.
Elaine Quijano at the White House for us.
Elaine, thanks very much.
Well, it is David versus Goliath, or maybe we should say Mike versus the Donald. How about that?
HOLMES: Well, it sounds like it. This is quite a -- ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, a Scottish man stands up to the larger-than-life American business icon, Donald Trump.
MCEDWARDS: Plus, a documentary film about the crisis in Darfur hopes to bring global attention to suffering.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone, to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
MCEDWARDS: We are seen live around the globe, including the United States this hour.
HOLMES: All right.
Right about now, French commuters are implementing plan B in their efforts to get home from work. A crippling transit strike making life difficult not only for them, but also for President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose marital problems continue to make headlines.
Here's CNN's Jim Bittermann.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Hundreds of thousands in the streets and millions unable to get to the office as transport workers confront the government's plan to make them stay on the job longer before they can retire. President Nicolas Sarkozy won election on a program of economic reforms, and opinion polls indicate that more than three out of five French are against the strike. But the unions went ahead with a walkout anyway, proof of how difficult it will be to convince them to give up their privileges.
Under agreements, some dating back to World War II, some categories of workers -- fishermen, miners, train drivers, even dancers at the National Opera -- were allowed to retire early because of the hardships of their employment. Even though working conditions and life expectancy have improved considerably, the early retirement remains.
The last time a government tried to change things 12 years ago, the country was brought to a halt for three weeks, and the prime minister eventually lost his job. But in the face of spiraling budget deficits, the government says the country can no longer afford the retirement perks. And this time around, there seems to be much less sympathy for the workers' issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just bothering people. It's taking other people as hostages.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I don't think it's very legitimate and fair. Totally against it.
BITTERMANN: President Sarkozy, his spokesman said, was keeping on top of the situation, but he went ahead with his planned trip to Portugal for a European Union meeting, leaving behind his other domestic troubles. The presidential press office picked the moment to confirm what's been rumored here for days now, that Sarkozy and his wife Cecelia are separating. Even the left wing "Liberation" found that story more enticing than striking unions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. Jim Bittermann joins us now live from Paris. You know, one of the things about the French, Jim, has always been that they don't really get involved in their politicians' peccadilloes. This was different.
BITTERMANN: Well, I think this one's different only because of the fact it's been going on for so long. I mean, the very first sort of indications that there was any difficulty in the Sarkozy marriage goes back about two years ago to long before he ran for president, when she was spotted in New York City with a boyfriend and not her husband. And, in fact, since then, they've patched things up.
There were a lot of things said about her absence during the election campaign. Then she was back again. And it's kind of been on again, off again and been remarked upon every time. So I think that's one of the reasons why there is a lot of gossip this time around -- Michael.
HOLMES: Now, with the transport strike, you know, and the rugby World Cup final, there's got to be a lot of disruption if this thing doesn't get wrapped up.
BITTERMANN: Well, in fact, we're looking at sort of an improving situation right now. The trains system says that some trains are coming back on line. They basically say things will probably be back to normal sometime around midday tomorrow, so that will be a little bit before the rugby playoffs.
One of the things that happened today was that the unions did not strike -- or at least did not strike so much -- against the Eurostar trains, which are the ones running back and forth between Great Britain and France. About eight out of 10 of those trains were running. So, in fact, there were some ways to get back and forth.
With the British fans coming over here for the rugby matches this weekend, it's probably good news that they were able to get over, I guess. Once they got here, of course, if they are arriving today, they might have had problems getting around town because the metros were completely dead today, although they're starting to come back on line now a little bit, too -- Michael.
HOLMES: Well, that's good news. Do not mess with the rugby World Cup final.
All right, Jim. Thanks for that. Enjoy the weekend.
MCEDWARDS: People are going to have to get creative.
HOLMES: You don't mess with -- I mean, there's a lot of big guys over there, too.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, that's true.
HOLMES: You don't want to be unpopular.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including this hour the United States.
This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
I'm Michael Holmes.
MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards.
Here are some of the top stories that we're following for you.
Russian president Vladimir Putin lashing out at the U.S. for conducting what he calls a pointless war in Iraq. In a televised broadcast, Mr. Putin suggested that the war is aimed at seizing Iraq's vast oil reserves, and pointedly adding that Russia is strong enough to ward off any such invasion.
HOLMES: Tens of thousands of supporters welcomed former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto back home after eight years in self- exile. Massive crowds slowed down her heavily-guarded motorcade as it tried to leave the Karachi airport compound. Bhutto fled Pakistan in the face of corruption charges in 1999.
MCEDWARDS: French media are reporting that President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecelia, are getting divorced. Reports quote the couple's attorney as saying that they are doing so by mutual consent. Rumors of this breakup had been circulating for quite some time now. The first lady had been conspicuously absent from her husband's side during some recent trips overseas.
HOLMES: Well, it looks like a rough patch for the French president. If there is any consolation it could be that others in his position have actually had it worse. Jonathan Mann joins us with some "Insight" -- Jon.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: It is lonely at the top, even if it doesn't start out lonely, it can end up that way. All over the world, presidents have their problems.
Remember Alberto Fujimori of Peru, for example? He had some domestic trouble during his first term in office. Back in the mid '90s his wife publicly accused him of infidelity, dishonesty, tolerating corruption, locking her out of the palace -- that comes up more often than you might think -- even plotting to kidnap her. They did eventually divorce, but he's still facing trial on that corruption thing, among other charges.
Then there was the late-great Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. He divorced his American-born wife, Margaret, after carrying on an open relationship with a former flight attendant. He was about 70 at the time, she 35. She was also an expensive girlfriend. He lost the 1988 elections, in part, because of voters' discomfort with his very public, private life. It's not always the man of the house, though, who breaks up the home. Nelson Mandela got a divorce in 1996, on grounds that his wife, Winnie, had been unfaithful with a younger man who worked as her deputy at the African National Congress. Mandela has since remarried to a former Mozambique cabinet minister, Graca Machel.
Then, of course, there is the case -- do we need to mention -- former U.S. President Bill Clinton whose domestic problems went beyond public to planetary, and actually led to his impeachment trial, of course, by the U.S. Senate.
The list goes on and on, but let's just say that by the standards of some of their peers, the Sarkozys have been dignified, discreet, and very adult. Back to you.
MCEDWARDS: All right, Jon, thanks very much.
The BBC has announced plans to lay off some 1,800 employees. This is a cost-cutting move and it was prompted by a dramatic slash in government funding. Well, that led to a $4 billion shortfall in the British broadcaster's budget.
Now, BBC employees are not going to take this lying down, they are angry. And there is already talk of a strike, but BBC executives say they don't have a choice here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK BYFORD, BBC DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL: We are absolutely under a duty to look at, in that journalistic organization, where can we find efficiencies so we can investigate in the new technologies for the long term. We have found that we can reduce duplication, we should, as a broadcaster who is involved in TV, radio and online, reorganize ourselves for the digital age into a multimedia outfit.
CNN, by the way, does exactly the same thing. All are broadcasting organizations are doing the as they enter the digital age. It means the commitment to quality and distinctiveness to our global agenda, with correspondents around the whole world, and intelligence agenda continues. What we want to do, though, is be able to be as lean and as strong value for money as we possibly can be for the people that own the BBC, which is the public of the United Kingdom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCEDWARDS: As part of the cost-cutting plan, the BBC is expected to sell off BBC Television Center, that is the corporation's landmark headquarters in West London.
HOLMES: Iran is shrugging off eyebrow raising comments by U.S. President Bush, that Tehran's nuclear ambitions could lead to World War III. Iranian officials say the U.S. is trying to distract from its own policy failures by heaping criticism on Iran. But as Ben Wedeman reports, one country was glad to hear Washington sound the alarm. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Iran had a nuclear weapon it would be a dangerous threat to world peace.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was top of the news agenda in Israel.
BUSH: We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel so I told people that if you are in interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.
WEDEMAN: Having been at the receiving end of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiery rhetoric, many Israelis welcomed President Bush's apocalyptic warning.
SHIMON PERES, PRESIDENT, ISRAEL: I think the message is, gentlemen, let's do it before it's will be late.
WEDEMAN: Israel's president and veteran politician Shimon Peres shares his American counterpart's concerns about the Iranian leader.
PERES: That's exactly what President Bush said. Gentlemen, look at the man. Look at the policies. And if, God forbid, he will have a bomb and has terrorists, the terrorists are anxious -- anxious -- to have nuclear devices even if they are primitive, the world will become ungovernable.
WEDEMAN: But Iran watcher Meir Javandafar sees in President Bush's grim words the signs of a diplomatic meltdown.
MEIR JAVANDAVAR, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST: I think the West, especially the White House, is panicking, it's not just frustrated. They are saying that the -- you can't agree on sanctions, extra sanctions against Iran, and the president of Russia goes to Tehran and speaks directly to President Ahmadinejad, the international consensus that the West is looking for, especially Washington and Israel, is falling apart.
WEDEMAN: Thursday Israel's prime minister made an unscheduled trip to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin, who just two days before had met with Iran's Ahmadinejad in Tehran.
JAVANDAFAR: Prime Minister Olmert wants to make sure that President Putin hears the facts not just from the Iranian side, but from the other side of the world, from Israel, who feels most threatened by Iran's nuclear program.
WEDEMAN: It's not
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS. CHAD MEYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good afternoon, everyone, about 12:35 Eastern Time, about 11:35 Central Time, and new tornado warnings now being issued for the Florida beaches here, from about Fort Walton Beach all the way over to Novar, talking about Santa Rosa, as well.
This is extreme southeastern Escambia County and also southeastern Santa Rosa County. This is a storm coming off the Gulf of Mexico. It is spinning. Those purple little boxes that you see there, including Fort Walton Beach, those purple boxes indicating where the tornado warnings are right now.
In fact, we still obviously still have the Oskaloosa County tornado warning going. That includes the city of Fort Walton Beach. These storms have been rotating as they came off the ocean, and as they are coming off the ocean, there will be more. These will not be the last of them here. There will be many more to come today, and many more on up in the Midwest as well.
We had video earlier of the tornado that actually touched down in Pensacola. It was just one of a series of tornadoes. Here now, two more, don't know if these are on the ground. They are Doppler indicated. But the video now coming in fast and furious, even some I- Reports coming in as well.
Here's what we saw from WEAR, our affiliate in Pensacola, Florida, this was about 11:15 Central Time. So, not that long ago, an hour ago or so. Maybe it was a little bit earlier than that, loosing track of where we are.
But here's the tornado. It was spinning. We had a wall cloud at this point in time. I don't think we had a touchdown here. But as we let the video go, that spinning actually gets all the way down to a very well formed funnel. The mall in Pensacola hit pretty hard. Also we do know that the police were chasing this, and so were some of the storm chasers.
A Baptist church was hit in Pensacola, and also some downtown areas. We are picking this up on our WEAR affiliate coverage. And their coverage has been outstanding for us. This is actually from, believe it or not, this is from their tower cam. This is how close this system came to their TV station.
Here's some of the video now that we're picking up. Here's the Baptist church. Forgive me, I don't know the name of this church, but this is where their -- one of their live shots is right now. If you know where it is, please e-mail it to us. That would be great. WEAR affiliate in Pensacola, sending us this raw tape.
We know that the mall, especially right around Dillard's, all the employees and all the people that were in the Dillard's and in the mall in downtown Pensacola were sent to the basement until finally, finally, the tornado warning was gone. They heard it coming, literally it got louder outside, and some of the security guards saw trees flying by the windows. Finally, now, they were all put back in, out of the basement, now they're back up assessing the damage. We will keep it live here for you. Oskaloosa County for you, keep that in mind. You guys are still under -- also Escambia and Santa Rosa, right along the Texas panhandle coast. If you are -- let's say you are visiting here, let's say you don't know where you are, if you are along the coast, if you see a storm coming in off shore, get away from the windows, get back in your hotel room. Because literally this is going to be an all-day event, whether you are in Destin, in Fort Walton Beach or anywhere in Santa Rosa Island area -- or Novar.
And then inland a little bit, literally, this will be an inland storm. These storms are not going to stop rotating when they get to the area and then they get to -- here we go. This is the time frame I was looking at. There you can begin to see that well-formed cone there on the left side. Almost two cones, but what I'm assuming is this is a multi-vortex text tornado; probably two little storms rotating around each other.
When you get in the way of that one little vortex, that's when your spin -- that's when your neighbor's house gets hit and you don't even lose a shingle, when one of those pieces comes down and touches the ground, and then literally right across the street there is no damage whatsoever. And that's what's so dangerous about these things. They are so very, very difficult, difficult to get your hands around.
Even when you are looking at them right on the -- on the Doppler radar, they can be one mile here, one mile there. When you hear the sirens today, make sure you get under cover.
Also here, here's an I-Report coming down. This is some of the other video we are just getting in. It's a little bit short, but you can really see the structure of the storm, the wall cloud coming down. Hard to know whether there's actually a tornado here or not. I don't really see it. I see a rear flank down draft, I see some pokey things coming out on the left side. But where the tornado should be, should be right in the middle. You do see an awful lot of lightning.
Nick Vanderpyle, is that the right name I'm getting with this? This is good stuff. Please, if you are going to give us an I-Report -- and I advise you, please be as careful as you can. I don't want you in the way. I don't want you to be the story that we have to report on. Oh, a guy was trying to shoot video so he could send it in. Please don't do that. Keep yourself at a big distance away.
This obviously, this photographer here, this I-Reporter well away from the storm. If it gets closer than this, get inside your house. Get inside the windows because now when you get a tornado, and this is probably a fairly small F-1, F-2, maybe less than 100 miles per hour. But when you get a large tornado, literally, debris can be thrown 100s of yards away from the storm. And let's say you're shooting out your window, don't get hit by somebody else's shingle that flew off a house 100 yards away.
Get inside. Get in the lowest part of your house if you can. A lot of houses, even including my parents' house in Florida, don't have basements. So you can't get in the basement. But get inside, put as many walls between you and the outside of your house as possible. Think about walls. Think about, OK, here's the interior closet. I got an outside wall, I have a dining room wall, now I'm in the closet. And there's a door, close that door. Get yourself away from that flying debris.
Here's pictures of the church again coming from affiliate WEAR.
Jerome Lazarus has sent us a piece of I-Report video here. Downtown Pensacola, there you see the highway. And just -- there was a lot of rain to start with. That's part of the problem here, with some of these storms. When you go chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma -- and people do it all the time -- some of the people do it for money, though. You can pay to go with a tornado chaser. A lot of these storms in Oklahoma and Kansas are what we call dry storms. They're fairly dry. You can see the tornado. There's no rain around it.
But storms today may very well be what's called the wrapped in rain. Think about -- well, think about a tornado that you can't see because all you're seeing is the rain shield and in the middle there, somewhere, in the middle is the tornado itself. And you don't know it's there. So when you hear the siren, when you get a warning.
Hey, you know what? Another thing I want you to do. Probably all summer you had your severe weather radio, your weather radio turned off, because there's no real severe weather. I want you to get that back on today. I want you to turn it back on. I want to make sure you have your county plugged in. These old systems, these old radios, they're not as good as the new ones. If you don't have a new one, let me tell you, you need to get one. Called SAME, SAME Technology. You literally put your county in there and that's the only county that warns. If you want to put the neighbor county in, or the one south of you, because that's where the storm is coming from, awesome, do that, too.
The old ones went off for every county in -- Florida, and for every county in your state. And theoretically, you turned it off so fast because you -- you got annoyed it went off all the time, it woke you up. Now it doesn't do that anymore. Buy one of these from Midland, Radio Shack, whatever. This one actually is from Midland. It will say it on here, SAME.
Glenn Austin is on the phone with us right now. Is that right, Glenn?
GLENN AUSTIN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: That's right.
MYERS: Glenn, tell me what you saw.
AUSTIN: It has been a wild morning. Just south of Bayou Chico (ph) Bridge, in the southwest portion of Escambia County is where this whole thing started. And it just seemed to move straight through, like slice, through the southwest portion and then move through the city.
What it did is it just ripped apart power lines right and left. It started removing roofs from a number of homes. We had a day care -- and I don't know the name of the day care -- that took a direct hit.
MYERS: Are the children OK?
AUSTIN: Very fortunate, though, to let you know the kids were actually moved into another portion of the church, so they are safe, thank goodness.
Other damage includes, as it went through, power lines down everywhere. They're still arcing and popping. Gulf Power is doing everything they can right now to turn all that stuff off, but it's very, very dangerous outside in the areas affected.
MYERS: Glen, did you see it yourself or were you inside?
AUSTIN: I was inside. Here at the sheriff's office. Here at the sheriff's office, we were evacuated down to the basement at one point. I just stayed on the phones with our local news media, giving them reports of what was going on outside. But very dangerous time here for a short time; that tornado, if you roll the tape throughout the whole thing, obviously, you -- it took about 40 minutes to make its track all the way through.
MYERS: Wow.
AUSTIN: It was down at one point. And you can see, when it comes through, some of the lines were popping and everything. Then it would recede back up into the clouds. And then it would come down again. You know, one thing, we're very lucky with is that when it came up to a number of schools, like Pensacola High School, it seemed to jump over that school. And, of course, those kids were in a tornado mode, which they go through a lot of training in school to do.
So, but fortunately, it skipped over all the schools. And right now, as far as anyone's hurt, I know that there have been some minor injuries. We haven't heard about any fatalities yet. But right now, it's very fluid situation.
MYERS: Well, the south -- actually, the extreme southeastern part of your county, literally almost right now over by Oriole Beach, still under a tornado warning because there are more storms coming off the Gulf of Mexico that will be hitting your area. And all the way over to Fort Walton Beach, now still a tornado warnings going on. What are you advising your other officers to do today?
AUSTIN: Well, the officers are out right now trying to keep the streets safe. And, you know, that sounds very simple but it's not under these conditions.
MYERS: It isn't, no.
AUSTIN: They are doing everything they can to keep people away from the power lines, around some of the damage, and things like that. A lot of sightseers out right now. As these storms come through, our focus is to tell these folks to get inside. We're doing everything we can, at that point, to get people back indoors. We just don't know. This is a second time this morning we've had a storm come through. Earlier this morning, a little after 8:00, we had one come through Pensacola Beach, and it damaged a couple of homes, but nothing major. And then, of course, the big one came through, and started slamming through neighborhoods, ripping off roofs and then, of course, hit that day care. That system is gone, but there's more out there. Obviously, they're all coming ashore one after another.
MYERS: They are. And now we have homes that are damaged. Now there's debris on the ground. That debris is full of nails. Let me tell you, I've chased enough hurricanes and tornadoes to know. Now it doesn't take a 100-mile per hour storm, it doesn't take a tornado to start moving that debris around again. And the most important thing you just said is people need to be inside.
The heaviest storms and cells have moved a little farther to the east of you, and so we are going to get back over to Oskaloosa County, now with most of those cells. But, sir, you still have more weather in your future. Thank you for being on the phone with us today live.
Thank you, Glenn.
So, there you go. Here's the deal, folks. You have tornadoes today. We're going to get big ones. These are fairly little storms. I don't want to call them waterspouts, but that's basically the size that they are. You can see from that damage what an F-1 or an F-2 can do if you are in the way.
Later on today, when the storms get really firing up, we're not going to be talking about F-1s or, 80 mile-per-hour storms. We are going to be talking about 150 miles per hour tornadoes and there are going to be many of them, not only along the Gulf Coast here, where the smaller ones may be. But up into -- up into Nebraska, maybe all the way down through Tennessee, through Dyersburg, through Memphis, in big, big-time cities in the Midwest.
You think you're in the clear because you think it's sunny outside right now, St. Louis all the way through Paducah. Right here, it is sunny, there's not a cloud in the sky, and there's not a raindrop coming down. This is the problem. You want it to be cloudy. If you're cloudy, you're OK. If you're sunny, you're heating up the atmosphere, you are making yourself a ticking time bomb for later on today, because a cold front is going to slide in from the west and that cold front is going to fire these storms up. It's called dry slot convection.
You think you're in the clear because the storms are all gone, and you're in the dry slot. Wrong. There's enough energy in the atmosphere now, as the secondary wave comes through today, there very well may be more tornadoes today than there were yesterday. We had 11 tornadoes on the ground yesterday. Some of those, though, may have been the same tornado.
See, what happens, when we talk about the number of tornadoes, you get a tornado and like the -- like the guy from the sheriff's office was talking about, it skips along. If it skips along a number of times, every time that skips that may be a report of a tornado, even though it's really the same storm, the same tornado itself.
We are going to get the Weather Service out and we are going to keep you up to date at the top of the hour, we will have obviously the latest. We will be here all day, and I will be here all night long. We will join YOUR WORLD TODAY coming up right after this. We will join it in progress, though.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Adam, one thing I wanted to ask you about. You managed to get the state of California to adopt a targeted divestment from Sudan bill through. And it was signed by the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. What do you think about the whole idea of divestment and its potential impact?
ADAM STERLING, ACTIVIST: Sure, the question is how do we put pressure on the Sudanese government to accept peace and security in Darfur. Sudan has enormous oil reserves, and the question, how did they turn those reserves into revenue? They don't have the capital or the expertise, so they bring in all these foreign oil companies, mostly from China, Malaysia and India.
And then these companies then depend on investments from huge investors like the State of a California, so we used the leverage of billions of dollars of pension fund money to tell these companies -- put pressure on the Sudanese government. Tell them it's not business as usual and make a difference. We have seen change. Companies have responded. The Sudanese government has responded. Really this type of economic pressure gets them at their purse strings.
HOLMES: It certainly get their attention. Don Cheadle, one final thing, you are an actor, a fine actor, too. On a more personal level, I'm curious whether your activism in these in these very serious things has impacted your career? I mean, you began and still are in many ways a comic actor, as well as a serious actor. Has there been an impact on your career? I'm just wondering about that.
DON CHEADLE, ACTOR: Well, it's been sliding downhill for years. This is going to put the coffin on it. Let's face it.
(LAUGHTER)
CHEADLE: What better way to go out, you know? I think that, you know, regardless of what it is doing for me, or not doing for me, I was touched by this. I was brought into a stream of activism that was already happening. And I just felt like I couldn't stand idly by, especially after I had seen it with my own eyes and felt it and had the experience, as you mentioned, with "Hotel Rwanda" and the Rwandese people.
These are the things that we are supposed to become involved in. I just had to throw my hat in the ring.
HOLMES: Good work, too. And thanks for doing it. Adam Sterling and Don Cheadle whose career is still very much on track, got another movie coming out. Good to see you. CHEADLE: Thank you.
STERLING: Thank you.
MCEDWARDS: He's still a funny guy, too.
HOLMES: He is still a funny guy. But what a lot of work.
And for U.S. viewers who have been listening to news about tornadoes in the Southeast of the country; that was about, you know a terrific documentary, really, called "Darfur Now", about the disaster that's going on there, done by Don Cheadle, and others. It's really worth catching.
MCEDWARDS: Yeah, it's really interesting.
We've got another interesting thing to tell you about, a global television event, really, next week CNN is going to air "Planet In Peril". It is a documentary about threats to our environment.
HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. Took a year to make this. It explores four main issues. There's deforestation, climate change, overpopulation, and species loss.
MCEDWARDS: That's right. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Yellowstone National Park, crown jewel of America's park system. Its beauty is other- worldly. A fully intact ecosystem, scientists say this is the natural world as it should be. But it hasn't always been this way.
(On camera): Sometimes it's hard to see the impact the loss of one species can have on an entire ecosystem. In order to demonstrate it, you sometimes have to look at the reverse, what happens when one species is reintroduced to an ecosystem.
We have come here to Yellowstone Park because in 1995 gray wolves were brought back to this park; a total of 41 wolves were brought back here over two years and since then their numbers have increased steadily and they have had a major impact on this entire area.
(Voice over): To get a sense of that impact, we wanted to see the animal for ourselves. It's late afternoon in the park and the light is fading fast. It's not easy to find the wolves. They're elusive and very sensitive to the presence of humans. There's a lot of running, ducking and hiding.
(On camera): There's a bison which died several 100 yards from here, along a little river. At night, the wolves are going to come and feed on it. They were out here last night. There's a good chance they will be back tonight, so we're trying to get as close as possible. We don't want to scare the wolves off by getting too close.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a wolf right there. He's standing on a rock.
COOPER: Yeah, I see him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCEDWARDS: He looks quite intrepid out there doing that, doesn't he? Anderson Cooper with just one of the stories that are featured in this worldwide television event.
HOLMES: Yes, Jeff Corwin is in it, and also Sanjay Gupta has some, too. "Planet In Peril" airs next week on. For viewers in the United States, Tuesday and Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. International viewers, a day later, Wednesday, Thursday.
MCEDWARDS: "Planet in Peril" don't miss it.
HOLMES: Actually in the United States, I think it's in high definition, too.
MCEDWARDS: Great.
HOLMES: Imagine those pictures in high def.
MCEDWARDS: Just wonderful. That's it for this hour.
HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes.
MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards. You are watching CNN.
HOLMES: We will see you tomorrow.
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