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WikiLeaker Learns His Fate; Court Rules on Berlusconi's Fate; Searching for $136 Million Jewel Thief; Teen With Knife Killed by Toronto Cop; Pakistan TV Giveaways: Babies; Driver of Derailed Spanish Train was on the Phone

Aired July 30, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: We are on verdict watch in the case against Bradley Manning. He's the Army private accused of the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And this hour, Italy's former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, also awaiting a verdict. It is his final appeal against a tax fraud conviction. If he loses, he could be banned from public office and that could affect the government.

COREN: And it could be the largest jewel heist in history. We'll have the latest from Cannes, France. That's coming up.

Welcome to AROUND THE WORLD. I'm Anna Coren, sitting in for Suzanne Malveaux.

HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for your company today.

Well, was he a whistle blower or a traitor? We will learn next hour whether the Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has been convicted or acquitted of leaking classified documents.

COREN: Well, Manning is accused of the biggest leak of classify information in this country's history. Well, prosecutors at his court martial called him a "traitor." But the founder of WikiLeaks, the site that published the documents, says Manning did the right thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: The alleged statements that he made, yes, he was willing to take that risk from these alleged statements because he believed that apparently that the result is so important. And we call those types of people that are willing to risk, not be a martyr, but to risk being a martyr for all the rest of us, we call those people heroes. Bradley Manning is a hero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Barbara, always a pleasure to see you. Twenty-two charges he initially faced. He plead guilty to, what, a dozen of them. But the big one yet to come.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That is right, Michael and Anna. It is the whole issue now aiding the enemy. That is the crucial charge. About one hour from now, we will find out what the judge has ruled. If he is convicted of aiding the enemy, this 25-year-old private first class could indeed wind up spending the rest of his life in jail.

He has already plead guilty to some lesser charges that could net him a 20-year sentence. But, still, about an hour from now, we will find out from the judge her final ruling. There's no military jury in this case. It's all being decided by the judge.

This is really underscoring this fundamental debate right now going on in the United States and so many places around the globe. Personal privacy, keeping the government's secrets. Is it - can a whistle blower, an alleged whistle blower, leak classified information or is this a case of a member of the United States military basically betraying this country.

Michael. Anna.

HOLMES: All right, Barbara, appreciate that. Barbara Starr there at the Pentagon. And, of course, the other whistle blower, Edward Snowden, probably will be watching that very closely, although his is a civilian issue.

COREN: Yes, stuck in the Russian transport.

HOLMES: Still there.

Another big story that is also playing out in Washington right now, that is, of course, the first direct Mideast peace talks in years. Three years since these two sides have come together. Nobody think it's going to be easy. Those are live pictures coming to us from the State Department. And you see there the secretary of state, John Kerry. Now he's -- just got out of a peace talk meeting, trying to get things going. And he says that he knows it is going to be a very difficult process.

COREN: Well, President Obama sat down this morning with the lead Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. The five key issues they have to agree on to ensure a two state solution are borders, security, refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and, of course, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

HOLMES: Keeping an eye on that for you.

Now, any minute, we could learn the fate of the former Italian prime minister, who always seems to be in trouble. Silvio Berlusconi we're talking about.

COREN: Well, Italy's supreme court is ruling on his appeal of a tax fraud conviction. And the situation is rather tense because, obviously, what happens to Berlusconi could obviously affect Italy's fragile coalition government.

HOLMES: Yes. He doesn't have an official role in running the government anymore, but he is still a very influential, political player. Today's ruling could technically send him to jail, but more appropriately, perhaps, it could ban him from public office. Barbie Nadeau is just outside the high court in Rome.

Now, tell us about these consequences. I mean if he is convicted, I mean the charges of him serving jail time are probably slim, but the whole thing of banning him from public office could impact the government.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's very unlikely that he's going to actually have to serve jail time because of his age and because of an amnesty of three - you know, they knock three years off his sentence automatic. It doesn't seem likely. He said over the weekend he would prefer to be in jail than do community service like a common criminal and didn't need to be re-educated.

But the bigger -- the bigger punishment for him is being banned from public office. Of course that wouldn't be automatic. It would have to be approved by the Italian senate, things like that. Nothing moves very quickly here in Italy. But that is a far, far, far bigger blow to him, just the fact that he couldn't run for office, that he couldn't be part of the parliament as a senator. That would be a much greater punishment for Silvio Berlusconi.

COREN: Barbie, he's still a man who obviously wields a great deal of influence, has done for some 20 years. But he could pull the plug, effectively, on the Italian government by withdrawing his support from the coalition. I mean that could be disastrous.

NADEAU: Well, you know, he -- his supporters here have said that if he is -- this conviction is uphill, they're going to walk out in mass, which would cause a collapse of the government. They've also said, short of that, that they're going to pose - you know, stage protests, block the streets of Rome and the highways around the city, things like that. There are a lot of threats. Whether or not any of that would come to fruition, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But there are a lot of people who still love Silvio Berlusconi and who really support him here in Italy. And those people don't want to see him go.

There's also, of course, the question about whether or not a judiciary should be involved in a political future. That is to say if the judges can ban him from public office, when that should be the job of the voters, you know, does that - does that over - you know, overstep the boundaries of the judiciary. All those things have really polarized a lot of Italians on this topic. It's a hot topic here and people are really waiting to see what happens with this high court.

HOLMES: Let us know when you hear, Barbie. Good to see you. Barbie Nadeau there. And, yes, as Barbie says, people look in on Berlusconi and they see this guy whose always in legal trouble. But, you know, the Teflon king, if you like, nothing seems to stick. But he has a lot of public support.

COREN: He does. He's extremely popular. And as I was saying, he's 76 years old. So it's highly unlikely he actually will do prison time at his age.

HOLMES: Exactly. Exactly.

COREN: Well, moving onto another fascinating story, trying to catch a thief who made off with $136 million in jewels. Well that's the mission now for authorities in Cannes, France.

HOLMES: I'm checking out your earrings, actually. This is a mystery that has everyone talking now. We're learning a little bit more about how it went down. CNN's Erin McLaughlin is on the story for us at the scene of the crime.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Michael and Anna.

Well, it was brazen, it was fast and some say the work of an expert. Now more details into the heist that has shaken the French Riviera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): It's now thought to be possibly the largest gem theft in recent history. The estimated amount of stolen jewelry from the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France, now believed to be worth close to $136 million. While police scour through countless hours of surveillance video, we are learning more about how one gunman managed to pull off such a huge heist.

According to the deputy prosecutor for organized crime, the suspect entered the Leviev (ph) exhibition in the hotel around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, entering through normally secured doors that opened onto Cannes famed Croistte Promenade.

SCOTT ANDREW SELBY, AUTHOR, "FLAWLESS: INSIDE THE LARGEST DIAMOND HEIST IN HISTORY": This person knew exactly how they're going in. There was a locked French door that this person was somehow able to open.

MCLAUGHLIN: Armed with a semiautomatic pistol, the suspect, his face covered with a hat and scarf, held up the manager of the sale exhibit and other vendors in the presence of unarmed private guards without firing a single shot.

Authorities say he then escaped with a bag containing rings, earrings and pendants. He exited by another door on the inside. Officials describe the sequence of events as very fast.

SELBY: The police are very intrigued as to whether that's an inside job or they simply noticed this door and took advantage of it. They knew exactly what they were doing and they planned this with military precision.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN: This morning we could see them packing up what remained of the exhibition.

Meanwhile, questions here still persist as to how this robbery could have happened and what security needs to be in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Michael and Anna.

HOLMES: All right, Erin McLaughlin there reporting for us.

Well, coming up, a teen holding a knife on a public bus in Canada held at gun point by the police and then fired upon multiple times.

COREN: Yes. The disturbing pictures. Well, now his death has outraged people right across Canada. A live report is coming up.

HOLMES: And that book. Yes, you've all read it. We know you have. "50 Shades of Grey" getting blamed for an increasing number of people getting stuck in handcuffs and other things.

COREN: Yes, why emergency responders believe the book is behind all these bondage emergencies.

HOLMES: And a TV host in Pakistan has a unique giveaway for Ramadan. He is giving out babies.

COREN: No, it's not a joke. Stay tuned. We'll explain shortly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Disturbing video now of a disturbing incident. Canadians outraged over a police shooting that had left a teenager dead. More than a thousand demonstrators took to the street of central Toronto last night to voice their anger over this incident.

COREN: Well, authorities say they are investigating the killing of 18- year-old Sammy Yatim on a vacant downtown streetcar. We have the video taken by a bystander that shows the police confronting Yatim, then the fatal shot. Now we want to warn you, this video isn't necessarily graphic, but it certainly is disturbing.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: There's plenty here that is disturbing. Police say that the officer involved has been suspended with pay. Joining us now is Jennifer Pagliaro, a reporter with "The Toronto Star" newspaper, whose been covering this obviously in depth.

Jennifer, tell us about the buildup to this. What seems extraordinary here when you look at the video is, that this is a man armed with a knife, but gunshots just seem a little extreme here.

JENNIFER PAGLIARO, "TORONTO STAR": Well, there certainly have been other police shootings that have caused death recently, but this is the only one that we've seen on video. And I think that's what's causing some of the outrage here. It's not totally unusual, but in Toronto we only saw officers fire their guns intentionally 23 times last year. So it's pretty rare.

HOLMES: What threat was he posing? He was on the bus on his own with a knife, am I right?

PAGLIARO: Right. You can see him. We know that he was on an empty streetcar. There were passengers on the streetcar, but they had exited when the police arrived. You can see the knife in one of the videos. There's several YouTube videos. But as far as we know, he doesn't appear to be threatening officers, but it's really hard to tell. It's unclear and it's hard to make that judgment right now.

COREN: And, Jennifer, what do we know about Sammy Yatim? Did he have a history of violence? Was he known to police? What do we know about him?

PAGLIARO: Well, he's 18 years old. As far as we know, he doesn't have a history of violence. His family and friends say he didn't have a history of mental illness. And we know that he came from Syria about five years ago. He lives here with his parents and his sister. But he was staying with friends at the time.

HOLMES: To give you a little context too for people watching here in the United States, I think there were 54 murders last year in Toronto. Just to give you a sense of proportion there, look at that, Chicago, 511, Houston, 217. You say that there have been some shootings there in Toronto involving police. What's been the reaction to this one?

PAGLIARO: Well, this one, as I mentioned, it's getting a lot more attention because in this case we're able to see the video. We don't know what happened before the video or what happened after the camera was turned off, but we actually see the shooting.

Like I mentioned, there was a police shooting death at the end of April, and also in June. Both in those instances, there were men holding knives. But, again, we don't have the video and aren't able to see what actually took place. And I think that's what's causing the outrage in the case.

HOLMES: Pretty disturbing, that's for sure. Jennifer, thanks. Jennifer Pagliaro there, appreciate that.

COREN: Something like nine shots fired.

HOLMES: Nine shots fired in all. It's the sort of thing, on the surface of it -- and there's an investigation ongoing, of course, and we'd have to wait till the end of that, but it's one of those things where you're thinking, you know, stun grenade, Taser or something.

COREN: Could have taken other action. Yeah, exactly.

Well, coming up on the show, a TV game show in Pakistan is trying to boost ratings with a giveaway. Now that's nothing new, but the prize is definitely a first. We'll explain, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to AROUND THE WORLD, everyone.

And now for a -- well, bizarre is probably an understatement -- story that is almost too hard to believe.

COREN: A TV host in Pakistan has a unique giveaway for Ramadan. He is giving out babies.

HOLMES: Yeah, it's not a joke. Here's Saima Mohsin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They say having a baby is the greatest gift of all. This is the moment an abandoned baby was handed over to an unsuspecting childless couple on live TV.

SURIYA BILQEES, NEW MOTHER (via translator): I was really shocked at first. I couldn't believe we were being given in baby girl. I was extremely happy.

SYED ZULFIQAR HUSSAIN (via translator): We weren't complete. This baby has made our house a home.

MOHSIN: 500 people make up this live studio audience for a marathon seven-hour Ramadan special program.

AAMIR LIAQUAT HUSAIN (via translator): At Christmas, there's Santa Claus to give everyone gifts. It's important for Christians.

For us, Ramadan is special, so it's really important to make people happy and reward them.

MOHSIN: So would you call yourself the Santa Claus of Islam then?

HUSAIN (via translator): Oh, I wouldn't say that myself, but I think it's a good concept to give gifts to people. It's not good to take but to give.

MOHSIN: (Inaudible) has been described as a religious scholar, TV megastar and even a sex symbol.

His heady mix of religion and entertainment is often followed by controversy. In his new show, he cooks while men sing Islamic hymns, discusses religion with children in a garden full of rabbits, snakes and goats.

And then he has a "Price Is Right"-style bonanza giveaway.

He's testing the audience's knowledge of the Quran to win everything from a mobile phone to a motorbike.

Now he's pleased, shocked and surprised people across the country in what's a TV first for Pakistan, giving away a baby.

Do you think by handing over a child on live television to a childless couple is trivializing the issue of abandoned children and adoption.

HUSAIN (via translator): Not at all. We've created a symbol of peace and love. That's our show's theme, to spread love.

I'm setting an example, giving a childless couple an abandoned child.

MOHSIN: The NGO which finds and houses up to 15 abandoned babies a month says it joined forces with the TV show to raise awareness of the issue.

RAMZAN CHHIPA, CHHIPA FOUNDATION (via translator): Our team finds baby abandoned on the street, in garbage bins, some of the dead, others mauled by animals, so why not ensure the baby is kept alive and gets a good home.

We didn't just give the baby away. We have our own vetting procedure. This couple was already registered with us and has had four or five sessions with us.

MOHSIN: But the couple didn't know they'd be handed a two-week old baby girl when they were invited to take part in the show. They're the second couple to be given a baby on TV.

Adoption isn't officially recognized in Pakistan, and there's no adoption allow, so these couples will have to apply for guardianship at family court. This wasn't processed before the live broadcast.

(Inaudible) says this isn't a gimmick to win the fierce Ramadan ratings war in Pakistan. He says another couple will soon be given an abandoned baby on the show in the coming days.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, Karachi, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: A bizarre story, isn't it?

HOLMES: I hope they give them diapers as well.

All right, yeah, or it's a cute one. Just swap it out.

COREN: All babies are cute, 10 fingers, 10 toes.

A South African chef is told he's too obese to live in New Zealand, but I think you need to be the judge.

HOLMES: Yeah, also, London firefighters say the book "Fifty Shades of Grey" could be behind the rise in emergencies involving handcuffs. We'll have that, too, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Just getting some new information about that train crash in Spain. We have learned the driver on the train was on actually on the phone with railway staff when it left the rails. Of course, 79 people were killed in that accident and scores more were injured, many of them seriously. The train was going around 100-miles-an-hour when it left the tracks. That is much faster than the speed limit for that section of the rail. We'll keep an eye on any more developments on that, of course, and let you know.

COREN: Well, to some, he's a hero. To others, he's a traitor. Next hour, we will learn the verdict in the court-martial of Bradley Manning. Well, he's accused of the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

HOLMES: Prosecutors say Manning gave 750,000 pages of documents to the website, Wikileaks. Now the most serious charge against Manning is aiding the enemy. If convicted on that count, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

We're going to have live coverage, again, of that verdict in the next hour, so keep it right here on CNN.

COREN: And we're also waiting to find out Silvio Berlusconi's fate from Italy's supreme court. The former Italian prime minister is appealing his tax fraud conviction.

HOLMES: Yeah, what happens to Berlusconi could affect Italy's fragile coalition government. Most governments in Italy are fragile. Now he doesn't have an official role in running the government any more, but he's still a very influential political player with one important member of that coalition.

As soon as we get word of that decision, we'll bring that to you as well.

COREN: And now to Egypt where deposed President Mohamed Morsy is said to be doing well. The European Union's top diplomat met with him last night.

HOLMES: Catherine Ashton is the first high-level official outside the Egyptian military to actually get to meet with Morsy since he was ousted almost a month ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHERINE ASHTON, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: We talked for two hours. We talked in-depth. He has access to information in terms of TV, newspapers, so we were able to talk about the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Well, Ashton said the meeting's location was kept secret even from her and she declined to deliver any message from Morsy.

HOLMES: Yeah, she said she didn't want to confuse it or have anything he said misunderstood, so she's saying nothing.

All right, now to this rather bizarre story, a chef who says his work visa was denied by New Zealand's immigration officials because he's too fat.

COREN: It is a rather bizarre story, as you say. Albert Buitenhuis and his wife moved to Christchurch from South Africa back in 2007, and he's been working as a chef ever since then.

HOLMES: Yeah, but back in May, immigration officials refused to renew their work visas, saying he is too unhealthy.

Our Errol Barnett is following this story from Johannesburg in South Africa.

You know, he says he doesn't want to be the poster-child for immigration issues, but that he feels like what has happened is unfair. What else is he saying? It's not his only health issue, is it?