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Around the World
Cleveland Man Held on $1 Mil. Bond; Investigations into Roller Coaster Death; Bombs in the Great Barrier Reef; EU Lists Hezbollah Military Wing as Terrorist Organization; India's School Lunch Program; Royal Baby New on the Way
Aired July 22, 2013 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone, to AROUND THE WORLD.
Let's update you on some of the top stories, and, just moments ago in East Cleveland, Ohio, in a courtroom there, police filed aggravated murder and kidnapping charges against the man they say killed three women and wrapped their bodies in plastic.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-five-year-old Michael Madison is being held on $1 million bond.
Now he's a registered sex offender. And, so far, police have identified one of the bodies found over the weekend.
HOLMES: Yeah, they say that it is 38-year-old Angela Deskins, and the police chief says more victims could be found. The city's mayor says Madison idolized Anthony Sowell who was convicted of killing 11 women in the Cleveland area. Sowell was sentenced to death in 2011.
MALVEAUX: Their mom died in a rollercoaster accident and they say this experience has been a nightmare. Rosy Esparza was on her first trip to Six Flags Over Texas on Friday. She was riding the Texas Giant. This is a 14-story high rollercoaster and she was sitting next to one of her sons.
HOLMES: What a tragedy. Witnesses told our affiliate KTVT that Esparza was worried that the lap bar that holds passengers in their seats wasn't secure.
Six Flags says it is committed to finding out what caused her death.
MALVEAUX: What a tragedy.
Now to Arizona where emergency crews rescued at least half a dozen drivers. They caught -- you see there -- in the flash flooding.
There were heavy rains that caused these dangerous flash floods. This is in Apache Junction. This happened yesterday. You see them waving there.
One woman says she saw a man in his sports car getting swept away. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was filming and, all of a sudden, his little Corvette comes bobbing down the water.
He got out of the vehicle and was sitting on top of it. The water was is high couldn't see the vehicle at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Terrifying, that car was actually carried a hundred yards away by the flood waters. Crews did rescue the driver and we're told he's OK.
All right, now take a look at what flash flooding did in southern Utah. That's a huge pile of debris, look at that, just tearing through a canyon. Better get out of the way.
MALVEAUX: We want to get back to our big story today, a new royal baby on the way.
HOLMES: Really?
MALVEAUX: Really.
HOLMES: You wouldn't know.
MALVEAUX: Eleven hours and counting. This is true. They keep counting until it happens.
HOLMES: Poor duchess, yeah, she went into labor overnight, now at St. Mary's Hospital, giving birth.
Becky Anderson is at Buckingham Palace. The queen will be the first person, we imagine, who will be told about the birth.
And I guess there's something about encrypted phone calls so the word doesn't get out before that handwritten notice gets to where you are.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, on the gilded easel which will be at Buckingham Palace behind me on which we'll get the official notice of the baby's gender, the time of birth and the weight of this baby.
You're absolutely right to say the queen is the first one on a phone which is encrypted so nobody can hack into it.
She'll be told by the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, as we know him, and she is back in town. She's been at Windsor for the weekend, but the royal standard is now flying at Buckingham Palace, a sign that the queen is in residence.
We are told by the palace this is just normal protocol. She goes to Windsor for the weekend and she comes back, but you've got to assume that this is an excited great granny who'd want to be in town for the birth of the third in line to the throne. So the details as we know them are exactly what you've just described to the viewers. She's nearly 12 hours into this labor. She was hoping for a natural birth. We're all hoping that she gets that wish. And, well, one just assumes that we'll get notice very, very soon.
Guys?
MALVEAUX: All right, we're waiting. Tell us -- this is before Princess Diana. The royals always gave birth at home.
Tell us about the history this go-round because all of the minutiae and the things that are happening, the protocol, it really is making history.
ANDERSON: Yes. There's a lot of pomp and ceremony sort of involved in what happens here.
But before 1948, for example, royal babies were delivered at home, and so it was Princess Di who had her babies, both William and Harry, at the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's Hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge is at the moment.
And in the past, let me tell you, the home secretary used to be in attendance with about 30 other people, let me tell you, at a royal birth ...
MALVEAUX: What?
ANDERSON: The home secretary there in the past to make sure that the baby wasn't swapped at birth for a commoner, for example. Now that doesn't happen these days, we are told, that it's William, possibly Kate's mom in attendance, with the former gynecologist to the queen, a guy by the name of Marcus Setchell. And he will sign off on the royal birth notice.
Names, Michael and I were talking about this in the past. We have no idea and we won't know when this notice comes.
I'm betting it won't be Ethelred or Ethel. Those were names you got before William the Conqueror, 1066. This baby will be the 43rd British monarch, or English monarch, and the third in line.
I don't know what you think about names, but lots of betting going on at the moment. Girl Alexandra, Boy George or James, it's anybody's guess at the moment.
MALVEAUX: Maybe Becky, huh? Becky or Michael, yes?
HOLMES: Well, it could be.
ANDERSON: How about that?
HOLMES: You never know. You never know. It could be.
Queen Becky, I don't know. Look, I think there could be a Diana thrown in there because you can end up with a long list of names. Becky, stay cool there. I know you're under a tent, but do stay cool. It's the hottest day of the year in London, so yeah.
MALVEAUX: Take care, Becky.
ANDERSON: You're right, 34 degrees, over 90 here in (inaudible).
HOLMES: You know, the royal mint's printing out 2013 coins that they're going to give to parents of babies born on the same day as the royal baby.
MALVEAUX: Nice.
HOLMES: So yeah.
MALVEAUX: But can you imagine 30 people watching labor?
HOLMES: Really, yeah.
MALVEAUX: It's like, can we have a little privacy, please?
HOLMES: Nothing like an audience at your -- oh, boy. Poor old -- I hope the duchess it doesn't go on much longer. That's a long time.
MALVEAUX: Yeah, it is getting a little bit long there.
Well, good for her. We wish her the best.
Running low on fuel, two U.S. fighter jets had to get rid of some extra weight, so what they dropped and where, it's got some folks pretty upset.
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MALVEAUX: Some folks in Australia not too happy with the U.S. military dropping four unarmed bombs on Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Now this happened during a training exercise with the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
HOLMES: Yeah, not the thing you want to do. The navy says the planes dropped the bombs because they were running out of fuel and couldn't land with them on board.
Chad Myers joins us now. They do say that two of the bombs, I think, were inert, and two had been defused or something before they dropped them and didn't actually hit the reef. What's the story?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Missed the reef by about 15 miles, kind of in a sand bar, kind of the flats between Queensland, between Townshend Island, where the bombs were supposed to go and the Great Barrier Reef.
Now, here's the deal. This was a joint exercise because you're all asking yourselves, what are we doing dropping bombs on Australia? I didn't hear about that war. No, this was a joint exercise with the Australian defense services, military. And they were going to take these planes, these Harriers, fly them to the Townshend bomb range, drop their bombs and then go back.
The problem is, when they got there, there were fishing boats every place that they were supposed to drop the bombs, so they couldn't drop them on the fishermen. Really, I mean, no brainer there, right?
So they said, now what are we going to do with them? We have these things on our planes. We have to get back. We're low on fuel. You know, there's no place to refuel in the air, so all of a sudden now, here they are. They're dropping bombs, and they -- honestly it missed the Great Barrier Reef.
We'll just take you right to it and give you an idea of where it is because I know you've been there, Michael, so you've got a great idea.
There's Australia. Here is where the bombs were supposed to go, Townshend Island bomb range, right through here. But south of Bell Cay about 16 miles, that's where the bombs are on the bottom of the ocean about 150 feet deep. There's the Great Barrier Reef about 15 to 20 miles from where they are. So this is going to be OK.
Eventually they're going to go get these. I believe that they'll go pick them up. They're out of any real problem. They're out of danger for shipping lanes. But it's not a good thing that we have four bombs or not sitting at the bottom near the Great Barrier Reef.
MALVEAUX: Yeah, and, Chad, talk about the Great Barrier Reef because you've got like, what, 400 different kinds of coral, endangered species.
MYERS: Beautiful.
MALVEAUX: I mean, it is really one of the great wonders of the world here. I mean, should they go get these bombs out of there? It's close by.
MYERS: It isn't like they haven't had enough problems.
HOLMES: Yeah.
MYERS: With the acidification of the reefs ...
HOLMES: Starfish.
MYERS: With the starfish killing the reef. Yeah, exactly.
They're already -- this has just been one heck of a couple of years for the reef, the health not so good at this point in time. But they're working on it. They're going -- yes, I believe they should go get them. They're not too deep, 150 feet. They could take them, either a UAV or somebody can actually go down there, hook them up, get them out of there.
HOLMES: You'd think you were running a joint exercise you'd call ahead to the fishing operators and say don't go near there, you know?
MYERS: But they were biting. HOLMES: And if you can ever go dive on the Barrier Reef, do it. Beautiful, absolutely spectacular.
Chad, good to see you.
MYERS: Thanks.
HOLMES: Thanks.
All right, last week, children in India -- you remember this -- died after eating those tainted school lunches.
MALVEAUX: Up next, we're going to take a look at the program that feeds millions of Indian children every day and why kids say that lunch is the best part of their day.
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MALVEAUX: News today from South Africa, this is about Nelson Mandela's health, and it's actually good news.
The president, Jacob Zuma's office, says that Mr. Mandela, he's still hospitalized, he is in critical condition, but he is showing, quote, "sustained improvement."
HOLMES: Yes, that's it - that is a good thing indeed. Now this beloved former leader of South Africa, you may remember, turned 95 last week. And great celebration for that. As always, we wish him well and hope that good news continues.
MALVEAUX: The European Union has now agreed to list the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Now this comes after a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite group, which is a strong force in Lebanese politics, already is regarded as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel.
HOLMES: Yes, the move is going to freeze assets and ban travel for people connected with Hezbollah's military wing. It's very hard sometimes to separate the military and the political, though.
The British prime minister, David Cameron, meanwhile, cracking down on Internet pornography. Today, rolling out a plan that would add adult content filters on everything from computers to smartphones to public wi-fi networks.
MALVEAUX: So this means that all Internet users will have to say whether they want to have access to porn. Now, Cameron also says Google and other search companies must do more to hide pornography from children. He's even appointed a parliamentary member as a special advisor on the issue.
HOLMES: So you have to opt in, not opt out.
MALVEAUX: You have to say yes if you want the porn.
HOLMES: Yes, that's going to be interesting. All right, now in the wake of last week's deadly outbreak of school lunch poisoning in northern India, there has been growing attention to the plight of what is the world's largest free lunch program.
MALVEAUX: There were 23 students, you might recall, that were killed. This was from pesticides. This was found in the food and the cooking oil as well. But for students in the country's poorest state, this school lunch program, it really is a lifesaver. CNN's Sumnima Udas has the story.
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SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Time for school for these young students. In a ramshackle hut behind them, a makeshift kitchen where lunch is being cooked.
"These kids really like the food. They always say when I'm not here they miss my food," Gita Devi says.
Here in Bihar, India's poorest state, 95 percent of the free lunches served in government schools come from individual kitchens like this. Rice is provided by the government. Each school is also given a stipend of five to eight cents per student for the remaining cost. And 12.5 million children in some 70,000 schools are fed across the state of Bihar every day in this way. The facilities are basic, but Devi says quality is not compromised.
"We are as hygienic as possible when we prepare the meals for the children. After all, we eat the same food," Gita Devi says.
For many of the children, it's the best part of their day. I asked this boy what he loves about school. "The food," he says.
Most here come from impoverished backgrounds. Books and uniforms are provided by the government. School and lunch are free, but the infrastructure is lacking.
UDAS (on camera): It's about 40 degree here or 100 Fahrenheit, but there are no fans here, no electricity, no tables or chairs, no playground and no bathrooms.
UDAS (voice-over): It hasn't stopped school attendance from increasing though.
"Attendance has risen by 10 to 20 percent because of the Mid-Day Meal Schemes," this school teacher says.
Getting more children to go to school has been the Indian government's priority and the impact is long term.
R. LAKSHAMANAN, DIRECTOR, BIHAR MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME: This is a scheme which actually brings in people from all communities, all (INAUDIBLE) categories. They sit together and they have meals at the same place. So this brings in the feeling of communal (ph) harmony and social harmony at a very young age. UDAS: Officials admit the recent case of mass poisoning in Bihar has undoubtedly had an impact on one of India's biggest success stories, but the broader benefits of the world's largest school feeding program, they say, should not be questioned.
Sumnima Udas, CNN, (INAUDIBLE), Bihar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, it has been the rule since the beginning of the monarchy, but times are a changing. Up next, why the royal baby's gender will make history by not making a difference.
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HOLMES: Well, guess what, there's a royal baby about to be born any time now, if you didn't know already, and they will likely become queen or king at some point. But they'll have to wait their turn because they will be third in line to the throne.
MALVEAUX: That's right. This is actually the first time in more than a hundred years there have been three living heirs to the throne. And as Tom Foreman explains, the succession to the throne is also complicated depending on whether or not it is a boy or a girl.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The queen is the only head of the royal family that most of us have ever known. And yet, as a woman in this role, Max, she is unusual.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she was the oldest child but there was two girls. So she went on to become monarch. But if she had had a younger brother, then he would have become king, and she would have been passed by.
FOREMAN: And that was sort of the natural progression and would be with her children, the boys would rule.
FOSTER: Oldest boy is Prince Charles. He'll go on to become monarch. But its seen as fair because he's the oldest child anyway.
FOREMAN: Same thing applies to the next one.
FOSTER: Absolutely. William, oldest child, boy, will go on to become king.
FOREMAN: And now comes the puzzle, though, because a child is coming along, a baby, could be a boy, could be a girl and times have changed.
FOSTER: Absolutely. I mean the general feeling is that whether it's a boy or a girl, the oldest child should just go on to become monarch. At the moment, it's the boy who will take precedent and it seems unfair.
FOREMAN: So people are talking about a rule change, and that means an entirely new venue. So we wind up over here in the House of Lords, where, Max, some very special legislation has been in the works.
FOSTER: This is the Succession to the Crown Bill. It was rushed through parliament. It states that succession to the crown no longer depends on gender. Up until now, the eldest son would go on to become king, whether or not they had a more capable older sister. In future, the plan is that the oldest child, whether or not they're a boy or a girl, will become monarch.
FOREMAN: But it's not as simple as all that, is it, because there have been thousands of laws promulgated in this country for many, many, many years.
FOSTER: Yes, and for centuries they've really assumed this sexism. Take, for example, this, the Treason Act, 1351, and it states that it is treason to kill the king's son and heir. That's had to be changed to eldest child and heir. It's the example of the type of thing they've had to change. And it's been very complicated, but they have managed to do it, at least in the U.K.
FOREMAN: And just to make it a little more complicated, think about this. This is a country that has enormous influence in scope all around the globe. And how is that going to play out, Max?
FOSTER: Well, the British monarch is also head of state in 15 other countries around the world. You can see them marked in yellow on here. And they all have to legislate for this rule to come into force. And most of them have managed to do it but we're still waiting on Australia. They probably won't get around to it until after the birth. But we do know that this rule will be backdated, so it will affect this baby.
FOREMAN: An awfully big fuss, in any event, over a very little baby.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: After President Obama's personal reflections on Trayvon Martin's death and on race, many black leaders want to know what is next.
HOLMES: And how do we, Americans, push the conversation forward? Well, next hour, we're going to talk to the head of the National Urban League. Do stay with us for that.
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MALVEAUX: Let's take a look at what is trending right now AROUND THE WORLD.
Not a big surprise. The biggest trending story is the royal birth. Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, has been in the hospital since this morning.
HOLMES: It's been a while now. She went into labor overnight. Now, #royalbaby getting the most hits on Twitter right now. If you look at that column in your browser, you will see it just spinning around. Also, it is the top trending story on cnn.com. MALVEAUX: And we should start tweeting that, I think.
HOLMES: We should, yes.
MALVEAUX: Several stories caught our attention today, photos as well.
I want you to take a look at this. This is in Barcelona. Two female divers competing in day three of the FINA World Championships. That's a global competition for water sports held every two years.
HOLMES: Yes, the games include swimming, water polo, diving, synchronized swimming. A great photograph there.
Now Taiwan. Tourists snapping photos of brightly colored murals painted by a retired soldier.
MALVEAUX: You've got to love it. The sight known as the Rainbow Military Dependence Village. It is one of 800 settlements that's built for retired Chinese veterans who fought during World War II.
HOLMES: And to the Philippines. Police fighting with anti-government protesters. The country's president gave his state of the union address earlier today. Many Filipinos upset about the economic gap between rich and poor.
Some powerful photographs there.
MALVEAUX: And take a look at this. You can dance, right, if you want to, but can you break the world record while doing it? We've got to do this. These guys actually did it. Nearly 1,700 people high stepping their way to a Guinness World Record. This is in Dublin, Ireland.
HOLMES: Yes, it's that Irish line dancing. The river dance. It's the longest river dance line beating the old record by more than a thousand. It kicked off the Samuel Beckett Bridge on Sunday. The eternal question to these things is why?
MALVEAUX: Oh, come on.
HOLMES: But they had fun. Right at the end of one (ph) there was a guy with a horse head on his head. Yes. Just pointing that out because we don't have time to get to the end of the line because we've got to go.
MALVEAUX: Yes, but we're going to break a record some day. Soltery (ph) line, maybe.
HOLMES: One day we will do a record for annoying our executive producer for talking too much. I'll see you tomorrow. You're back.
MALVEAUX: All right, good to see you. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.