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Your World Today

Mitt Romney Addresses Concerns About Faith; Top U.S. Commander in Iraq: Violence Down 60 Percent in Past Six Months; One Dead, One Wounded in Blast Inside Paris Law Office

Aired December 06, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Freedom requires religion just as religious requires freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses concerns about his Mormon faith.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: "Now I will be famous," words in a suicide note left behind by a teenager who went on a deadly rampage at a U.S. shopping mall.

MCEDWARDS: Sole breadwinners -- many Iranian women forced to fend for themselves as more of their men turn to drugs.

CLANCY: And I just called to say hello. A talk show host gets first daughter Jenna Bush to call her dad live on television.

MCEDWARDS: It is 8:30 p.m. in Tehran, it's 10:00 a.m. in Omaha.

Hello and welcome to our report seen around the globe.

I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

From Washington to Warsaw, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

For many Americans, faith plays a huge role in shaping their lives, even guiding their hands as they go to the ballot box.

MCEDWARDS: Many want leaders who share their spiritual values, and that is why Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to reassure the Christian majority about his Mormon faith.

CLANCY: That's right. If many of you were watching a short time ago here on CNN, Mitt Romney gave a speech that could be the cornerstone now of his campaign.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. Let's go right to Dana Bash. She's in Texas for details -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Colleen and Jim.

Well, this may be the cornerstone of his campaign, certainly it is something that he could not get away from, the fact that he is the first major presidential candidate who happens to be a Mormon. It is something that comes up time and again in private meetings, with very influential evangelical or Christian leaders, in important early states here, presidential states like Iowa and South Carolina. And it comes up in public also.

So, what Mitt Romney was trying to do is explain his faith. For those who are skeptical and unsure of the religion of Mormonism, he didn't give them much in terms of an explanation about what his religion is all about, but he did defend the fact that he stands by his faith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I believe in my Mormon faith. And I endeavor to live by it.

My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs. Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they're right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And the other main big issue for Mitt Romney has been some -- similar to what John F. Kennedy faced almost 50 years ago, and Mitt Romney brought that up, the fact that John F. Kennedy was a Catholic running for president, many people were skeptical of that, and whether or not his religion or his church would influence the way he handled his presidency. Mitt Romney made very clear today that just like John F. Kennedy before him, he would have nothing of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Let me assure you that no authorities of my church or of any other church, for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs within the province of church affairs. And it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But as much as Romney tried to show that there is a line between his personal faith and his role as president should he be elected, the thrust of this speech really was aimed at making a connection with so-called values voters. Time and again he used code words or language about issues that they really care about, about secularism in the United States.

He said that that is not the way that the United States should be going. He talked about the need for more religion or God or faith in public discourse, in the public square. That is something that he hopes really resonates with evangelical voters, because those issues are big ones for them, because basically what he's trying to do here is make a connection with those voters because they are so critical, especially in that very first contest state of Iowa. The votes there, of course, are less than a month away -- Colleen, Jim.

MCEDWARDS: Yes. I mean, he's trying to secure this nomination, Dana. I mean, have you gotten any reaction, even just in the short little while since the speech? Any sense of whether he's done enough to explain the Mormon faith?

BASH: You know, it is really unclear. I got one e-mail from an evangelical leader in South Carolina who was very happy about some of the hot points that he hit with regard to values and secularism and so forth, but, you know, less -- it was left a little bit wanting in that explanation of what Mormonism is because there is -- there is a lot of skepticism among Christian voters, evangelical voters, about his faith and just about the whole idea of Mormonism in general.

But, look, I mean what Mitt Romney wanted to do sort of tactically here -- and his campaign fully admits this -- is because the news and become the story right now. And that is what he has done.

It is, again, about three and a half weeks before the Iowa caucuses, and what they have tried to do is get on the map, become a part of the narrative -- a part of the political discussion right now with regard to something that he really could not avoid. There was a lot of internal debate about whether he should give this speech, and the bottom line is he did decide to give it after he saw what was going on with the polls in Iowa.

He was ahead there. Now he is slightly behind somebody who is a former Baptist preacher, Mike Huckabee, because he is appealing to voters on issues of faith and values. So Mitt Romney wanted to get in the game with this speech that a lot of people have been talking about for some time and say, I'm one of you.

MCEDWARDS: All right. Dana Bash.

Thanks very much, Dana.

And later in the program we will get more reaction to this. We're going to talk to someone who actually counseled Romney to go ahead and make the speech, an evangelical Christian who believes that Americans should know more about the candidate's faith.

That's coming up -- Jim.

CLANCY: All right. Religion forcing its way onto the agenda of the American political scene, but there is an issue that is out there in the minds of American voters, and it certainly is number one in many's minds, the war in Iraq.

The top U.S. military commander there pointing to a drop in violence again. General David Petraeus cited a 60 percent decline in weekly attacks and civilian deaths over the last six months. He credits several factors to the drop in the violence. Petraeus says cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's calls for his followers to honor a cease-fire one of the things, one of those factors that helped. The general also credits the U.S. efforts, including the troop surge and more aggressive operations against militias.

Well, despite the drop in violence, General Petraeus says he's not celebrating, no dancing in the end zone, as he said. He says 2007 has been the deadliest year for U.S. troops since the start of the war four years ago.

Michael Ware joins us now live from Baghdad.

All of this timed, all of this coming out -- yes, it's the beginning of the month when these numbers usually do come out, but also you've got the secretary of defense there. What kind of a message is it that we're hearing from Iraq today? And does that message jibe with what you see on the streets?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it does, Jim. I mean, honestly, this is extremely old news.

Since October, we have heard the top U.S. commander saying that violence levels are back down to what they were before the Samarra shrine bombing in February 2006 which sparked a civil war. So, this is not a revelation.

U.S. commanders have been hammering and hammering and hammering the stunning success, and that's precisely what it is. More lives are being saved. Less Americans are dying. And more importantly, or just as importantly, less Iraqi innocent civilians are dying as well. That's women and children.

However, there's consequences. There's cause -- there's action and there's reaction.

Now, part of that is that America has built Sunni militias. Now, they're going to have to contend with that in the future.

Another part is an accommodation has to be found with Iran. We now see American commanders saying Iranian activity is dropping, but we don't know why, yet we also believe they're still training Iraqis to come and attack us. So Iran still remains a huge mystery.

And the other thing is they're showing that they're tired of this government. The Americans are losing faith in this government's ability to deliver because all of the success, this 60 percent drop in violence, will be squandered, say U.S. commanders, if there's not real reconciliation by the time the 30,000 U.S. troops go home next summer, Jim.

There's always a price to pay for things.

CLANCY: Well, a lot of military commanders are saying that you can't just start pulling out troops because the numbers are down for precisely the reasons that you are talking about there. What do the Sunnis want? So many have joined these -- you know, the so-called local militias now being funded to the tune of $200 or $300 per man. They're functioning as police.

WARE: Yes.

CLANCY: The government though says we're not going to take them in. They want to save those police jobs, those salaries on the budgets, and hand it out to their own political supporters. In this case, the Shia alliance.

WARE: Well, that's right. I mean, there's a lot of political patronage here. And that's really what we're talking about at the end of the day.

I mean, one of the major factions within this government, arguably one of the most dominant, factions was created back in 1992 in Tehran. It's armed militia is one of the most sophisticated in the country. And top American political analysts and strategists here on the ground say they don't know how to break the back of that organization.

Now, until you do, you're not really going to make headway toward reconciliation. Part of it has been cutting a deal with the Sunni Ba'athist insurgents, Saddam's former military and intelligence apparatus that America has been fighting all these years. The question is, why didn't they cut this deal three years ago?

And overlaying all of this is Iran, the Sunnis' fear of Iran and Iran's backing of the government that's not delivering to America. It's still a very complicated picture, and that's why General Petraeus is being told by his commanders it's looking good, sir, but it could turn on a dime and be back to the hellish numbers that we saw before.

And these troops are leaving anyway. They're simply going back to the numbers we used to have. It's not like a drawdown as a result of this stunning success -- Jim.

CLANCY: Michael, a final question, and that is about the government itself. There was a knockdown, drag-out once again inside the parliament with a Shia lawmaker saying that he had evidence that his Sunni counterpart was plotting against him. The lack of trust among the people that have to lead this country is making any progress impossible.

Is the U.S. here powerless to do anything to step in and force the Maliki government -- force both sides, really, to come together here? They still haven't decided on an oil law to share the wealth, they haven't set the borders of the provinces, shared -- none of it.

WARE: The main problem is, Jim, that the very institutions of power, or certainly those who hold them, the framework of political control in this country, is geared against all of America's interests. And America is finding it harder than it ever thought it would be to break those. So, now, more than ever, America is continuing to work with this Iraqi government, but it's looking for alternatives. It's turning to the people. People power.

If the government won't change, then let's empower the people. Let's give them the weapons. Let's allow them to patrol their streets. Let's fund them if the government won't. And let's erode this block on power that's preventing real reconciliation.

So, the very government America created, it's tried to coerce, it's tried to help, now it's starting to erode because it's becoming more of a hindrance than a help. Now, America has no set path, but nonetheless, the road ahead is still difficult and there's so many factors yet to be taken into account -- Jim.

CLANCY: All right. The casualties are down, the risks ever present.

Michael Ware from Baghdad.

As always, Michael, great to have you with us.

Still to come here on your world today, some panic on the --

MCEDWARDS: Still to come here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, some panic on the Champs-Elysees.

CLANCY: A package explodes in a law office. It was right off Paris' main street. One person killed, but no one knows who or what was behind the attack.

MCEDWARDS: And later, he says he doesn't know where he's been for the past five years, but the wife of Britain's canoe man says she knows. And she's talking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

CLANCY: Covering the news the world wants to know, trying to give you a little bit of perspective that goes deeper into the stories of the day.

A parcel bomb killing a secretary at a Paris law firm, wounding a lawyer. This seemed to come out of nowhere. French police say they're still trying to figure out who was behind the deadly attack and a motive.

Let's go live now to Paris. Our own Jim Bittermann is there.

Jim, what are the police able to tell us at all?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not very much, Jim. As a matter of fact, they seem almost as perplexed by this as we all are because they can't figure out a reason why this particular law firm would have been attacked.

This district of Paris, which is in sort of an area where there's a lot of accountants and a lot of lawyers, is well-known to a lot of people. It's near the St. Augustine Church, that sort of thing, so it's on the tourist maps. But why this particular law firm might of been attacked, it deals in civil and commercial real estate matters. It seems hard to believe that it's the kind of thing that would have prompted a bomb attack.

What happened was this, according to the interior minister who talked to us a little earlier on. About 12:50 local time today, a courier came in with a package, left it at the law office. And when an assistant went to open it up it exploded.

She was killed, and a lawyer standing nearby apparently was seriously injured. He is in a hospital tonight. There were some other people that were treated for shock, but basically those were the only two who were harmed by the explosion.

Police said there were actually two bombs inside the package, one of which went off and one of which didn't. And I'm sure they are going to be going over the one that remains to see if they can find any clues from that.

Also, the interior minister said that the package and the bomb itself seemed to be (INAUDIBLE), which is a French word that means sort of like homemade. On the other hand, she said they had to have some sort of sophisticated training in order to make the bomb in the first place.

The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, visited the scene a little earlier on, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND DELANOE, PARIS MAYOR (through translator): I came immediately because it's a despicable act which must be condemned. It's an attack using explosives th a law office, a crime that caused one death. So as the mayor of Paris, it is my duty to first express my strongest condemnation of such a serious act, my compassion for the victim and her next of kin, and for all the people who have been traumatized and shocked by such an act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: So, the investigation goes on here tonight to try to explain exactly why this attack took place. There are more investigators even arriving as we have been standing here, so it may be some hours yet before we have any even partial explanation of what the cause of this and the responsibility for this might be -- Jim.

CLANCY: All right.

Jim Bittermann there live from Paris.

One dead, one wounded, an investigation continues. But there is some good evidence -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right. The latest now on that intriguing story about a man who disappeared more than five years ago and then he turns up alive last week.

CLANCY: He didn't remember a thing, but anyway, he's being questioned by British police. Attention now, though, shifting to his wife, while his sons are speaking out as well. They say they think they're the victims in all of this.

MCEDWARDS: Paula Hancocks brings us up to date now on this case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the picture that has changed the course of an entire investigation. John and Anne Darwin appear to have been photographed in Panama last year at a time when John was thought to be dead and his wife was thought to be grieving. Their two sons say on Thursday they fear they have been victims of a huge scam by their own parents.

British tabloids claim Anne confessed to knowing her husband was alive when confronted with the picture in Panama City. Her sons say they knew nothing.

A statement of anger and confusion from Anthony Darwin, talking of the emotional roller-coaster he and his brother have been through. "From the height of elation at finding him to be alive, to the depths of despair at the recent stories of fraud and these latest pictures..."

John Darwin was thought to have died at sea in March 2002 until he turned up at a London police station Saturday, claiming amnesia. The sons say, "We have not spoken to either of our parents since our dad's arrest and at this present time we want no further contact with them."

The police now need to piece together what happened over the past five and a half years. Where was John Darwin, and did he have amnesia, as he claims, or was it an elaborate ploy to fraudulently claim his own life insurance?

(on camera): John Darwin has been declared medically fit for questioning, and that questioning started Thursday afternoon at this police station. As for Anne Darwin, she has reportedly said she will return to Britain. If not, the police have the time consuming option of seeking her extradition from Panama if they see fit.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, northern England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: Well, more now from Omaha, Nebraska, where that teenage gunman opened fire on a mall full of holiday shoppers before turning the gun on himself. At a news conference that happened just a little while ago, just about an hour ago, the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, said that Robert Hawkins committed an ugly act of cowardice. It sent panicked shoppers scrambling for covering and left nine people dead.

Ed Lavandera joins us now from Omaha with the latest.

Obviously, Ed, this is a community just reeling from this.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely, Colleen. And in that note that he -- that Robert Hawkins had left behind at a friend's home where he had been living for the last year and a half, it is said that Robert Hawkins had said he wanted to go out in style. And the family he lived with also said that he was tired of being a burden on people.

They describe Robert Hawkins as a young man who felt rejected and depressed for the last several years of his life. Even though some of those same people also say that they had thought things had started to turn around for him, that he had gotten a job, he was -- had a girlfriend, but he recently lost a job, broke up with the girlfriend, and from what we've learned from some people who knew him, say that perhaps those events might have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

But investigators here in Omaha continue to work through the closed mall that you see behind me, perhaps in the snowy distance there. They continue to pour through several floors where the shooting took place inside of this mall. They say that Robert Hawkins had walked into the mall on the second floor, immediately gone up an elevator, and started shooting, killing eight people, wounding five others.

Two of those people remain in critical condition, but the police chief here says that the entire incident only took a matter of minutes. Not enough time for the mall security or any -- or any of the police officers here in Omaha to respond to the scene and be of any help to those victims -- Colleen.

MCEDWARDS: All right.

Ed Lavandera.

Ed, thanks very much for the update. Appreciate it.

Still ahead here on YOUR WORLD TODAY...

CLANCY: New information from the business world on the supreme subprime meltdown as we await details on a federal safety net for at- risk homeowners.

MCEDWARDS: And forced into the workplace to pay the rent. Find out why a growing number of Iranian women are becoming bread winners.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: "Your World Today" continues after a quick break. I'm Don Lemon. I'll see you at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers joining us from all around the world, including here in the united states.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And these are some of the top stories we're following right now.

MCEDWARDS: Investigators in the U.S. state of Nebraska are gathering information about that teen gunman who killed eight people in a shopping mall before turning the gun on himself. In about 90 minutes, officials are expected to release some new details about the shooter's time in state custody.

CLANCY: A powerful parcel bomb explodes in a central Paris law office. A secretary is killed, a lawyer wounded. The motive unclear.

MCEDWARDS: Republican Mitt Romney says he would serve no single religion or group if he were elected U.S. president. The candidate gave a major speech today, hoping to ease concerns about his Mormon faith. Romney says a person shouldn't be elected or rejected because of his religion.

CLANCY: All right. Around the world, many of our viewers don't understand who Mormons are. Well, the same holds true for people in the United States. Where the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it's officially known, was actually born. And that's why Mitt Romney ultimately felt he had to give today's speech. Jonathan Mann has a little bit of insight for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Church of Latter-day Saints is an amazing institution. A homegrown, American faith quite literally devoted to American soil. But the faith still can shake some people's suspicions. There's no fair way to sum it up fast, but here's a tiny glimpse of the big picture.

From its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, the church teaches some fairly conventional, Christian ideas about God and salvation. But also that God has a tangible, physical body and a wife and that Christ was their son. The church is global, but it also has a particular attachment to the U.S. It teaches that the Garden of Eden was in the state of Missouri and that after the second coming, Jesus will go to Missouri as well.

The Church of Latter-day Saints does not believe in big love. That's the TV drama about a polygamist, Mormon family. There is, of course, the Warren Jeffs case to remind people that there really are polygamist in the U.S. But the mainstream Mormon church ex- communicates polygamists, relegating them to a tiny outcast fringe and normal Mormon families don't get quite the same attention.

Still, there are obvious big disagreements between Mormons and other Christian denominations. Mormons revere the Bible, but also the book of Mormon and other scriptures. They follow their own profits and have their own perspective, as we've mentioned, on God. A lot of evangelicals don't consider Mormons Christians at all. And that is the big problem for Mitt Romney.

Rival Mike Huckabee is a former Baptist pastor, an evangelical, and is drawing support from a lot of evangelicals in Iowa, where Republicans will actually begin the presidential nomination process next month. Huckabee is even campaigning there as a Christian leader. Romney was ahead in the polls for months, but he's lost that lead. He had to say something about his Mormon faith. We'll see how it works for him.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: Well, let's start that right now, seeing how it works. We want to bring in a religious leader who says that Romney's speech was important for his campaign but even more important for America. Rich Land is with the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. And he's written a book called "The Divided States of America."

Richard, it's great to have you here.

Now I understand that you actually argued for Romney to go ahead and do this and that you were looking for a real Kennedy-esque kind of speech. A kind of moment where he really laid it out there. Did you get what you were you looking for here?

RICHARD LAND, "THE DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA": Yes. I think we did. I met with the governor at his invitation October 2006. About a dozen evangelical leaders met with him at his home and he said, OK, what do I need to hear? And I said, well, governor, I think that your Mormon faith is not an absolute deal breaker with evangelicals, but you've got to close the deal. Only Kennedy could convince enough Protestants to vote for a catholic and only you can convince evangelicals to vote for a Mormon.

And so I encouraged him to give this kind of a speech. I even gave him a copy of the Kennedy speech. And I said, you know, in your own words, you need to do this kind of a speech.

And so I'm glad that he's done it. I do think it's more important for the country even than it is for Governor Romney to be reminded in this kind of a high profile speech about our rich heritage of religious freedom and religious pearlism (ph) and diversity. And I thought he did a magnificent job. MCEDWARDS: Did he explain enough about the Mormon faith, though, to satisfy those evangelical voters, particularly in the state of Iowa, all of these upcoming primaries and caucuses, who do feel nervous about the religion. I mean, let's face it, some people go as far as saying Mormonism is a cult. Certainly that it doesn't deserve equal standing with Christian faiths.

LAND: Well, first of all, I think that he would have made a mistake had he talked about Mormonism. Kennedy spent not one sentence talking about Catholicism or seeking to describe it or defend it. That's not appropriate, in my opinion, in a presidential campaign. He defended the right of a Mormon to run for president.

And, look, I'm one of those evangelicals who do not believe that Mormonism is an orthodox with a small "o," Trinitarian, with a capital "t," faith. In the lead-in you talked about what they believe about God the Father and God the Son, and that's clearly not orthodox. But they certainly deserve equal standing under the law. And the fact that a person is a Mormon should not disqualify them from running for public office. We have a constitutional prohibition against our religious tests for office. And, after all, we're voting for a commanders in chief, not a pastor in chief.

MCEDWARDS: Is the elephant out of the room, though, now, Richard, do you think, for evangelicals? Or, you know, are there still other issues here? I mean, his record as a governor, for example, has been called into question. Some conservatives think he's too liberal. His flip-flop on abortion. He once said it should be legal and accessible in the United States and then said, no, he changed his mind about that. Is there too much to overcome here?

LAND: Well, it depends on the evangelical, it depends on the socially conservative catholic, where it's too much to overcome. I do think those questions about his record are legitimate questions that deserve to be in a political campaign. I don't think that his individual doctrinal and theological beliefs deserve to be in a campaign.

And I think to the extent that he needed to address them, he addressed them. He said, I will not use the presidency to promote my particular faith. I'll deal with everyone equally. And the Mormon church's authority over me ends with church affairs. It doesn't have anything to do with my performance of my office, if I'm the president, and it would not interfere with my oath of office.

Those are the two biggest concerns that I've heard from evangelicals. And he, straight forwardly, addressed them today, as President Kennedy did in 1960 when he said that he would be guided by his conscience and no external threat would cause him to do otherwise.

MCEDWARDS: Richard Land, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Some early reaction there from you. Really appreciate it, Richard.

LAND: Thank you. MCEDWARDS: Well, as our coverage of "America Votes 2008" continues, stay with CNN. We're going to have a live interview with Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards. International viewers can watch that interview. It's going to be on "Business International." It's going to be at 22:00 GMT. And in the U.S., viewers can see it in "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer. That's at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

CLANCY: All right. Let's look at some other news now.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the international community, keep up the pressure on Iran. Rice begins talks with European and Russian officials on Thursday. Just days after that new U.S. intelligence report that suggests Iran halted its nuclear weapons program back in 2003. Secretary Rice says that report does not change the current course. She says the assessment proves Iran is susceptible to coordinated international pressure.

MCEDWARDS: Well, inside Iran, it is the economy and not the country's nuclear ambitions that seem to preoccupy the average person. No surprise there, as far as I'm concerned.

CLANCY: Well, high unemployment, significantly, inflation, too, leading to growing discontent with the president's policies, particularly among young people. They've also led to a growing problem. That especially among men.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, and that is forcing more and more women to fill the role of breadwinner. Aneesh Raman shines a rare spotlight on this growing social problem there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Each stitch for 33-year-old Hadija (ph) is about survival. Every carpet means she's that much closer to paying the rent. It's a spot Hadija never thought she'd be in. And she is not alone.

Untrained, often lower-income, these Iranian women have been forced to find work overnight, becoming sole bred winners as unemployment among their husbands rise and drug abuse follows.

FATEMEH EBTEKAR, ZENAB COBRA FOUNDATION DIRECTOR: The number of narcotics people is rising up and up and mostly in the men and young.

RAMAN: And so the wives are left to find a job?

EBTEKAR: Yes, find a job and take care of themselves and their children. And sometimes they cannot do that and they leave their children and they live alone.

RAMAN: Trying to help is Fatemeh Ebtekar, who runs this center an hour outside Tehran. Part of the privately funded Zenab Cobra Foundation. It provides work training at any time for 200 suddenly single moms. Along with day care for kids like Hadija's three-year- old son, Ali (ph). We walk home with Hadija on her break, heading to her two-room apartment where she cares for four children. This time, we're along to help. Every other day she's on her own.

HADIJA, (through translator): Six years ago my husband married another woman, lost his money and started doing drugs. He sold everything I had, even the pots and pans, and disappeared into addiction.

RAMAN: Fifteen years ago, Hadija was a hopeful bride. Today, she bears the weight of a husband's affair with crack cocaine.

HADIJA: It's very difficult. Right now, I have to pay for the gas bill. That's on my mind. I'm also thinking how to feed my children tonight and tomorrow.

RAMAN: Back at the center, it's a big day. Once a year potential donors come by and Ebtekar needs their help. It costs $5,000 a month to keep the center running, but from amid these sad circumstances comes strength. Iranian women helping other women help themselves.

EBTEKAR: Women are working. In everywhere they are working. But still we have to try more and to give some more right for women.

RAMAN: Not by choice, Hadija is now part of that movement for equality, but she knows it's going to be a difficult journey.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Bumahan (ph), Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: All right. Well, a shocking discovery in Germany to tell you about.

CLANCY: That's right. And coming up after the break, German police uncovering two eerily similar murders in completely separate parts of the country. And the crimes leave many people asking, how could this have happened again?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: It's 6:47 in the evening in Germany right now where the deaths of eight children have shocked people all across the country.

MCEDWARDS: These kills are disturbing enough. But even more chilling, perhaps, the identity of the people accused of the crimes. Frederik Pleitgen has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The swing rocks empty, blown by the wind a day after the bodies of five boys were found in this house in Darry, northern Germany. The children, aged between three and nine, allegedly killed by their own mother. Leaving this small town asking, why. Kevin Hagedom and Phillip Under (ph) say they often played with the five boys. Both say they saw no signs the kids were abused or neglected.

KEVIN HAGEDOM, KILLED BOYS' ACQUAINTANCE, (through translator): They seemed perfectly normal. They dressed like everyone else. We never suspected anything.

PLEITGEN: Police specialists sifted through the building for hours, looking for clues. Officers had discovered the dead children here the night before. The accused mother herself tipped authorities off, officials say.

"She was in psychiatric care and told her doctor that her children were dead in the house. When officers entered the home, they found the bodies," Wolfshmit (ph) says.

Police believe mental illness played a role in the killings.

The family only moved here a few months ago and neighbors describe them as reclusive. People here say they couldn't have known anything was wrong.

It's the second horrific child murder case in Germany in days. And what's shocking this country, in both mothers are accused of killing their own flesh and blood. In Plauen, in Germany's southeast, a 28-year-old woman is in custody for allegedly killing her three babies. Police found one of the bodies in this freezer, wrapped in plastic bags. The woman says she did not kill the children.

Back in Darry, a sense of shock weighs on this small town of just 600, as the children's toys lay untouched in the yard, all too fresh reminders of five little boys who died.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Darry, Germany.

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MCEDWARDS: All right. Coming up here on YOUR WORLD TODAY, this year's Grammy nominees named by their peers in the music industry.

CLANCY: Also ahead, his ears are probably still ringing, America's president found out a little bit too late that there were a lot of people listening in to a White House phone call.

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CLANCY: They are in there singing, I swear, Colleen. And it's very well that they are because the nominees of the 50th Annual Grammy Awards have just been announced.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, singing badly, I'm sure. Leading the balloting here, hip-hop artist Kanye West, eight nominations there.

CLANCY: I'm really glad to see this one. The troubled English soul singer, and, hey, can she sing, Amy Winehouse won big, six nomination. Best new artist, best record, best song of the year. Well, what else, it was her hit "Rehab." A little prophetic there. She's also up for album of the year for "Back to Black." MCEDWARDS: Maybe she could get a nomination for bad behavior or something. In addition to Winehouse, best new artist nominees are Canadian singer Feist, pop punk p (ph) band Paramore, the country artist Taylor Swift and R&B singer Ledesi.

CLANCY: Wow, the 50th Annual Grammy Awards are going to be handed out -- got to wait a while, next February, in, where else, Los Angeles. La la land.

Well, CNN's worldwide hero's initiative is taking center stage in a global television event live from New York Friday.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, join us as we pay tribute to the 18 finalists in our heroes program here. This has been lovely stuff to watch. Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour are going to host this all- star tribute. It includes performances from Grammy Award winners Mary Blige, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Wyclef Jean as well. Great bunch of stars there. Should be a great event.

CLANCY: Something we won't want to miss. Don't you miss it either. Friday, live from New York, 0200 hours Greenwich Mean Time. Come on just to (INAUDIBLE).

Well, you might know him as George W. Bush. And so do I. He's president of the United States. But of course to a couple of people like Jenna and Barbara Bush, well, he's just plain old dad.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, dad, honey, shnookums or whatever it is they call each other. Like any other parent, though, dad is thrilled to hear from his children any time.

CLANCY: Yes, they don't call often enough.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, right. But what if she calls to say hello quite unexpected and on live television? Take that.

CLANCY: Jenna did -- yes, she did just that. We've sent Jeanne Moos to investigate.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It's normal for a daughter to call home to daddy, but not when this is home and this is daddy.

ELLEN DEGENERES, "THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW": Could you just pick up the phone like right now and call him?

JENNA BUSH: Sure.

DEGENERES: OK.

J. BUSH: He's going to kill me, though.

MOOS: So at 7:30 the other night, a phone rang in the White House. J. BUSH: I'm not going to get anything I asked for for Christmas.

MOOS: Ellen Degeneres is always surprising regular folks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's there.

MOOS: At least she didn't send Jenna Bush with a camera crew unannounced to the door of the White House.

DEGENERES: We're not like barging in, in their pajamas or something.

MOOS: No, no, no, we're sure the Bushs were fully dressed, visiting with a friend in the treaty room when their daughter called.

DEGENERES: Just say hello.

J. BUSH: Hello.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY: Hey, Jenna.

J. BUSH: Hi, mom.

L. BUSH: I'm just sitting here with daddy.

DEGENERES: Oh, hey. It's Ellen. I wanted to say hi to daddy.

L. BUSH: Yes, daddy wanted to say hi too.

MOOS: And to think that just a few hours earlier daddy was answering questions about Iran's nuclear program.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Where you going?

J. BUSH: I'm not going anywhere. Hi, dad.

G. BUSH: Love you.

DEGENERES: Hello, President Bush. How are you?

J. BUSH: This is "The Ellen Degeneres Show."

G. BUSH: Oh, that's great.

J. BUSH: Dad?

G. BUSH: Yes, baby?

J. BUSH: Are you mad?

G. BUSH: No, not at all. I'm glad to talk to you.

J. BUSH: OK. Good. DEGENERES: See.

G. BUSH: And I'm glad to talk to Ellen.

DEGENERES: All right. Look, we're showing a picture of you holding your daughters when they were just born. That's beautiful.

J. BUSH: And the best day of your life, remember, dad?

MOOS: Ellen doesn't always get through on the first try. Take the time she tried to call CNN's Wolf Blitzer but got a producer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He'd love to talk to you as soon as the show's over and that's in 25 minutes.

DEGENERES: I'll be at home having a drink by then.

MOOS: And sometimes when a call comes in at an inopportune time, for instance when Rudy Giuliani's wife called during a speech, it ends up as fodder for comediennes like Bill Maher.

RUDY GIULIANI, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, dear.

OSAMA, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Rudy. Osama. What are you doing?

GIULIANI: I'm talking to the members of the NRA right now. Would you like to say hello?

OSAMA: Yes. Tell them "death to America."

MOOS: Watch out, Mr. President.

G. BUSH: And I want to tell my little girl I love her.

J. BUSH: I love you too, dad.

MOOS: Those comedy writers sure know how to turn sweet nothings into nothing sweet.

GIULIANI: I love you and I'll give you a call as soon as I'm finished, OK?

OSAMA: Rudy, where do we keep the coffee filters?

GIULIANI: OK. Have a safe trip. Bye-bye. Talk to you later, dear. I love you.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: What an investigation. What a stunt. You know, stole my idea.

MCEDWARDS: She was so cute, though. CLANCY: I was going to have you do that tomorrow.

MCEDWARDS: Oh, funny. She was cute, though. Dad, are you mad? Are you mad? I hope not.

CLANCY: He was.

MCEDWARDS: That's it for this hour.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

MCEDWARDS: I'm Colleen McEdwards. This is CNN.

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