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Attorney General Faces Contempt Vote; Jimmy Carter on Egypt's Election; American Kids Forced Out of U.S.; No-Shows At U.N. Earth Summit; How To Turn Trash Into Food

Aired June 20, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We're taking your around the world in 60 minutes.

Here's what's going on.

Egypt on edge, the fate of its ousted dictator and the fate of its struggling democracy both in question at this hour. The crowd in Tahrir Square demanding power back from the military. The entire country is waiting for official word on who won the presidential election.

They are also waiting an official statement on Mubarak's condition. By all accounts, the 84-year-old former president is critically ill. In just a moment, I'm going to talk to former President Jimmy Carter about the uncertainty and the attention around Egypt's future.

And Julian Assange, he made a bold move to stop his extradition to Sweden. Assange was founder of the whistleblower WikiLeaks and he is at the Ecuadorian embassy now in London. That is where he is asking for asylum.

Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning in a sexual assault case. Last week, Britain's top court dismissed his appeal to stay in England. His trip to the embassy violates the conditions of his release on bail.

Well, the scene looks calm, but the situation was tense, the air near a bank in Toulouse, France. This hostage situation is ending just within the last hour. Police say a gunman who claims he is with al Qaeda too four people hostage. All four have now been released.

Police say shots were fired and the hostage taker was wounded. The location is not far from the scene of a deadly standoff in March when police cornered a man wanted for killing seven people. He was killed after a 42-hour siege.

A botched gun-running sting targeting Mexican drug cartel leads to a showdown in Washington is what we'll be talking about. Now, President Obama and the White House are also involved. The House Oversight Committee is considering contempt measure against Attorney General Eric Holder.

Chairman Darrell Issa, he is demanding more documents related to this operation called Fast and Furious, the sting operation was an attempt to track weapons purchased by Mexican drug cartels.

But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lost track of more than 1,000 of those weapons carrying across the border. But two of those guns turned up at the scene where a U.S. border patrol agent was killed.

Kate Bolduan, she's following developments at Capitol Hill.

Kate, tell us, first of all, where we are in this process? And why is the White House involved?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very good questions, Suzanne.

So, where we are right now, and I think that we have live pictures of ongoing meeting of the House Oversight Committee. What we are seeing right now is really they are ticking through what appears as if every committee member is taking the allotted five minutes to have their say about all of these that -- everything that has been going on. This months of back and forth fighting between this committee, the Republican chairman of this committee, and the Department of Justice specifically, Attorney General Eric Holder.

This was to this point already a high profile political showdown between the powerful chairman of this committee and the top -- present top law enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder. But with this latest twist of the White House announcing that they are going to insert executive privilege over the documents, at least some of the documents that this committee is seeking really kicks it up a notch. This is from a showdown to full on war between two branches of government.

MALVEAUX: Why are these documents so important?

BOLDUAN: These documents are important -- we don't know specifically, of course, what's in the documents -- that's what the committee wants to know. The attorney general last night said these are things like e-mails, internal communications within the Department of Justice.

So, why -- what the attorney -- pardon me, the chairman of the committee wants, he wants documents between the dates of February and December of 2011. This date is important because in February, the Department of Justice sent information to Congress saying that there was nothing improper that went on with this gun walking operation, this botched gun walking operation. Well, it all came out that there clearly was - a lot that went wrong, 10 months later, the Department of Justice had to retract that denial.

And so, the chairman of this committee, Republicans on this committee, they want to know who knew, what, when? Is this simply -- was this simply a bad operation or is someone at fault? Does someone need to really be in trouble and held to account for what happened here?

And, of course, as you well noted, a U.S. border patrol agent was killed and two guns were found -- two weapons were found at the scene of his killing.

So this is a very -- this is already a big deal. It's become an even bigger deal here in Washington and outside of Washington, because this is two branches of government that are really butting heads here.

MALVEAUX: All right. Kate Bolduan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Back to Egypt now. Egyptians are clamoring to know if ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak is dead or alive. He has been declared clinically dead, on life support, and in a coma. It's all adding to the country's political and constitutional turmoil over who won the presidency and how much power the winner will actually have.

The Carter Center has monitored both rounds of the election in Egypt and President Carter himself was there for last months' vote. He is joining us by phone.

President Carter, thank you very much for joining us here.

You were there to monitor these elections. You put out a statement from the Carter Center saying that you are deeply troubled by the undemocratic turn that Egypt has taken. How so?

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (via telephone): Well, the supreme council of armed forces has assured me every time they have met with them that they will turn over full political and economic and military power over to the elected officials. And obviously, the latest decisions two days before the election and even as people went to vote have been completely contrary to that.

But I think that they should back off and keep their promise and let the elected officials in Egypt not only constitute the group that will write the constitution, 100 members, but also give the president legitimate power to act as a chief executive of the country.

MALVEAUX: In light of the fact that they have not done this, do you believe that this was legitimate presidential election?

CARTER: Yes, the elections have been OK. We have been there ever since November. We have monitored the parliamentary election and also the presidential election -- both the original and then the two- person runoff recently.

We'll be there throughout the process of inaugurating the new officers and running the new constitution. The Carter Center will be there when a referendum is held among Egyptian people to approve or disprove the constitution once it's written. So, we're there prominently.

And noted leaders, I have met with General Shafik. I've met with Dr. Morsi several times to discuss the future of Egypt with them, discuss the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, and those very important issues.

MALVEAUX: You mentioned the fact that this, in the parliament, the Supreme Courts dissolved the parliament and this military issued a decree saying they have military power. These military rulers have now given themselves more power than they ever had under President Mubarak's regime. Do you think that the president -- whoever the president is -- is going to have real presidential powers here?

CARTER: Well, if the international community will rally to support democracy and freedom in Egypt, then, yes, I think the military will have to back down. But it is going to have to be a strong statement made from the United States once the identity of the president is known regardless of who it is, that the military must cede power, give up power, to the elected officials.

Otherwise, the entire process I think is going to be disapproved by not only the international community, but also by the people of Egypt and they might even go back to the demonstrations, including violence. I hope that does not happen. It need not happen.

MALVEAUX: How does the international community do that? I mean, how do they force the Egyptian military to give up power?

CARTER: Well, one way would be for them to refuse to give, for the financing to the military. But give it with complete control by the elected officials, that is the parliament and the president as is the case in every instance.

We give $1.3 billion to Egypt every year. And the Congress so far has approved it. But I notice that Senator John Kerry and others say that this money will not be given if the military retains control. It will just be another dictatorship if this procedure goes forward and I hope it won't.

I know for instance, though, Shafik quite well.

I know Dr. Morsi quite well. He was educated at Southern Cal University. He's got a PhD in engineering.

He's got has two children who are students in American universities. He's a dean in engineering at a college. And he is a responsible person and his answers to my probing questions have been satisfactory.

MALVEAUX: Why are you satisfied by Mohamed Morsi? I mean, this is somebody who has been a conservative Islamist as well, with the Muslim Brotherhood. And he has made some statements regarding Egypt and Israel, particularly regarding Israelis -- calling them vampires and killers at one point?

CARTER: Well, I don't know what he said in the past, but I know what he says to me.

MALVEAUX: What does he say to you?

CARTER: And also to the American ambassador and to other visitors and, including Congress members from the United States that he will honor the terms of the treaty that I negotiated in 1979 between Israel and Egypt. He is going to treat all of the people in Egypt the same.

He was instrumental in writing a wonderful statement that was made by the grand imam that is the number one Sunni theorist, Sunni Muslim theorist in the world, who is also the head of a 120-student university in Egypt. They are working now on another statement with Morsi's participation on basic women's' rights, that will be issued within the next month.

My impression is, I'm not guaranteeing anything. I just know what he tells me and others when we visit him. And he's quite familiar with international affairs being educated in the doctoral level in our country.

MALVEAUX: So you are confident in his leadership that he is somebody who is actually determined the winner here. But there are some signs that people are --

CARTER: We don't know who's going to win yet.

The final statement by the election commission won't be made until tomorrow.

MALVEAUX: Do you think that he would be the person, the kind of person who would lead in Egypt that the United States could and should be working with? Do you think he's the best pick?

CARTER: Yes, I certainly do. In fact, I hope that the United States will acknowledge and work with either one of the two candidates who is elected president, and also with the elected parliament.

MALVEAUX: Does it concern you at all the instability in the region, because we have just over the last couple of days seen rockets being fired from Egypt's northern Sinai into southern Israel. We are seeing the level of violence increase, and we see the demonstrations that are taking place, people who do not believe that the military is actually going to turn over power to the real leader there.

Does it concern you that we are now invested in a place that right now is not stable?

CARTER: Well, it concerns me very much. That is why we are spending so much time, and me, personally, and the Carter Center and others in Egypt to try to make sure that democracy does prevail, and peace prevails.

And I'm very personally interested in the continuation of the application of the peace treaty provisions between Israel and Egypt. And Dr. Morsi and obviously General Shafik both have pledged to me that they will honor these terms.

MALVEAUX: I want to move on the Syria, if we could. The U.N. now estimating more than 10,000 people have died in the 15 months since the Syrian people's uprising. We know that Syria's leader, Bashar al-Assad has insisted he is not going anywhere. What do you think the Obama administration should do? They say Bashar al-Assad should go? What do you think the Obama administration needs to do?

CARTER: Well, I don't believe we will get directly involved in any military action in Syria. I think that would be a tragic mistake.

But I do think that the United States could just work intimately, and give with Kofi Annan and give him full support. He is working with the Iranians and he is working with the Russians, he is working with the Assad regime, he's working with the revolutionaries in Syria, he's working with the United Nations.

But I think that the support has been given to him from Washington has been very uncertain. He's the only ball game in town.

So I know Kofi Annan well. I stay in touch with him permanently, and I think that we need to work exclusively and with full support for Kofi whatever he is trying to do.

MALVEAUX: Should the United States try to provide weapons to the opposition or funding?

CARTER: I don't think so. You know, I think that there are some entities in the world who are our allies that are giving weapons to the revolutionaries, Saudi Arabia may be one -- I'm not sure. But I think the more weapons we inject into Syria, just the more tragic the civil war is going to be.

MALVEAUX: And, finally, President Obama met with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, just a couple days ago. It is obvious that there's tension between them. The president was not able to convince Putin to pull his support for Bashar al-Assad.

Do you think that the United States -- do you think that we've got leverage when it comes to Russia?

CARTER: I think minimal leverage, because we are at odds with Russia on many things, not only in Syria, but also the Iranian nuclear issue. I was hoping, obviously when Obama and Putin got together, they make some common agreement. But I think that the Russians are trying to cooperate fully with Kofi Annan in Syria at least, and I hope that the United States will do the same thing and let Kofi be the negotiator between the two, also between Assad and the revolutionaries.

I think they have fractured or a complicated and diverse support for this only ball game in town as I have used already is a mistake. So I think that is the only thing that we should do in Syria right now.

MALVEAUX: All right. President Jimmy Carter, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate your insights.

CARTER: It's a pleasure. Thank you. I hope y'all will interview which ever president is elected in Egypt and let the facts be promulgated directly from your own observation.

MALVEAUX: We certainly will. We will certainly attempt to do just that. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

CARTER: Thank you again. Goodbye.

MALVEAUX: Here is what we are working on this hour of NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL.

It is one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Well, now, the power company in charge is finally admitting they weren't prepared when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. We take you around the world in 60 minutes.

It is a record number for the century in 2011, 800,000 -- that is right -- 800,000 people became refugees according to the United Nations. So the U.N. is trying to raise awareness by making today, June 20th, World Refugee Day. Some people leave their countries and others are trapped in cities within their own borders.

Last year, Michael Holmes showed us how thousands of Iraqis are stranded in Baghdad camps.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are a persistent stain on the new Iraq and a fettered legacy of the war here, squalid camps for those who fled Iraq's violence and haven't gone back home.

JAMHURRIYYA MUSA, DISPLACED IRAQI (through translator): I don't sleep at night. Ever since my husband died, I don't sleep. I wake up at 4:00 a.m. I pray and keep checking on my children.

HOLMES: The lives of those children changed forever in 2004, when masked men came to their neighborhood and starting shooting. The family fled, and ever since this has been home.

MUSA (through translator): What do I do? I'm a widow with children and I live here. I have no one.

HOLMES: This place is home to 1,200 men, women and children -- lots of children -- living in appalling conditions on the grounds of what was a Saddam Hussein military base on the outskirts of Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Joining us is Michael to talk about this.

So, it's really fascinating. Who are these people who are actually at the refugee camp? And can you tell us a little bit about them?

HOLMES: Yes. A lot of them are ordinary folks and they were victims of the sectarian violence that we saw erupt in Iraq around '06 and also in '07.

And essentially, you have people who flee who are displaced by hunger or war or persecution -- in this case, religious persecution. They got caught up in the sectarian vice that gripped up the country and saw thousands of people die. And essentially, people came to their neighborhood, sometimes their own neighbors who are Shia or Sunni and they said, go or we will kill you and some people were killed in their homes as part of the sectarian violence.

And a lot of people ended up in places like that. They're still there today.

MALVEAUX: So, did it make any difference to get out any better or worse when the pullout, when the U.S. military left?

HOLMES: It's the same. It's the same.

I mean, in a lot of ways, it's a little bit more difficult for those people, because without the continuing security that a lot of the U.S. forces created, it's harder for NGOs to do their work there. The (INAUDIBLE), it's trying to help these people, which are no evidence of it at the time. And we were there not that long ago, last year.

MALVEAUX: I want to give out some figures, some U.N. figures on the refugees in the last 10 years. I want you to take a look at these numbers here.

We are talking about Afghanistan -- remaining the biggest producer of refugees with 2.7 million. Of course, as you have seen following Iraq, 1.4 million. Somalia, 1.1 million, and Sudan, 500,000 and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 491,000.

Tell us -- do you even think that World Refugee Day makes a difference here? I mean --

HOLMES: Well, at the end of the day, maybe. Look, I don't know, but what it does do is it creates awareness. We are talking about it and hopefully people out there are listening and aware of just how big this problem is. And the damage that it does, too.

You know, take Iraq as an example. You've got a situation there where you had 1.5 million to 2 million Iraqis internally displaced. And you had another 1.5 million to 2 million who fled the country.

Now, those who fled could afford to flee, so there is a brain drain there. And those who are inside are not able to go back which is a social drain, the damage done to the social fabric

Same thing. You can go to Somalia to talk about the people who fled the famine, and Syria, and you've got thousands of refugees on borders in camps in Jordan and Turkey. This does a lot of damage to the social fabric. It does a lot of damage economically. It costs a lot of money. You've got 1.7 million refugees from Afghanistan, mainly in Pakistan.

MALVEAUX: Is there anything -- in covering these areas specifically, is there one thing that you think that the international community, that we should know about this?

HOLMES: Well, yes, the one thing, and I try to do this when I tell stories in the field -- it's about people. This is not about a million IDPs in Iraq. It's about people.

It's about someone -- I'll tell you about someone I know personally, Zanab , her name is. In 2004, as you know, we were involved in an ambush in Iraq and I was in a convoy and my translator and friend Duraid Mohammad was killed, along with one of our drivers, Yasser, shot there by insurgents there in front of our eyes.

His sister last month was confirmed as having permanent residency in Australia, thank God. It's taken from '04 to now for her and her kids, bouncing around looking for somewhere to live. They had to leave because Duraid worked for us. They would have been killed if they stayed on their own country.

So I like these sorts of stories to be told in terms of individuals.

MALVEAUX: Right.

HOLMES: These women and her kids and (INAUDIBLE).

MALVEAUX: It's about people.

HOLMES: It is.

MALVEAUX: It's not the numbers.

HOLMES: It's not. Let's put a face on them. It's that lady that you just saw crying who is still there.

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Michael. Thank you.

The House Oversight Committee considering a contempt measure against Attorney General Eric Holder.

I want to go the Joe Johns in Washington for more on this developing story.

Joe, clearly, this is quite an extraordinary move that is taking place here. And people are looking at this wondering if this is politics, if this could turn into some sort of constitutional crisis or go to the Supreme Court -- what is happening?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's happening is essentially that the committee, as we have been noting here on CNN all day, Suzanne, is apparently moving toward a moment where they cite the attorney general of the United States for contempt of Congress. That would have to be verified, if you will, by a vote of a full House of Representatives. You presume they have the votes if they decided to do that.

But meanwhile, today, the administration has invoked its constitutional, if you will, executive privilege. Now, what that means is basically that the White House saying that there are certain things that individuals in the Congress are entitled to have, and this information is not one of those things that the Congress is entitled to have.

Question out there that is sort of going around Washington today is why would the White House invoke executive privilege in a situation like this? And -- come on, I mean, the suggestion then to a lot of people who are reading between the lines without looking at the documents that have been flying around, the Justice Department is that, hey, did the president of the United States, himself, have something, some type of communication relating to Fast and Furious that they don't want to disclose publicly?

So, very much raising the stakes with this citation of the executive privilege function, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So, Joe, where does this go? I understand they are holding this hearing now, and they have the take a vote. It could go to the full House as well. I mean, take us a little bit down the path, if you will.

JOHNS: Right. Well, typically, when you get into situations like this, it gets negotiated out, because nobody wants what you call a constitutional crisis. They will do what they have to do and then everybody gets in a room which is essentially something that Eric Holder, himself, suggested in testimony in the United States Senate that he was willing to sit down to talk to anybody he needs to talk with, including the speaker of the House to work something out.

The last time this kind of thing came up is a few years back in the Bush administration when Karl Rove and Harriet Miers were called to task for information they may or may not have had, relating to a number of United States attorneys that had been fired. It actually ended up going to the court. The court -- in the first case, the U.S. district court suggested that the president did not have the right to cite executive privilege in that situation.

And then everybody on Capitol Hill and the administration got together and decided, all right, we will negotiate a deal with Rove and Miers go ahead to answer some questions, and limited questions, and we are not going to put them under oath or whatever. And it went away.

So, the reason why these things tend to go away after a long fight and then some backroom maneuvering is because if you do try to have a court fight, it could go on for years, and virtually all of the individuals who started the fight might be in other places, and the attorney general might have stepped down, and so on.

So, it's sort of everybody's interest somewhere down the line to try to talk this thing through and get it over with, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll see if it develops or if it goes one step further. Thank you, Joe.

He's been called everything from a hero to a traitor. The latest twist in the saga of the man behind WikiLeaks.

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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, where we take you around the world in 60 minutes.

Right now, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seeking political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Police are trying to figure out if they can or should arrest him.

Nima Elbagir, rather, is live in London with some of the details.

Nima, first of all, why the Ecuadorian embassy of all places?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very good question, Suzanne. Some are suggesting it's because there is something of a personal friendship that's been developing between Assange and Ecuador's left wing populist, and most importantly, anti- U.S. president, Rafael Correa.

Last month, Correa was a guest on Assange Russia Today talk show. And he addressed Assange as "my dear" because of the fellow outcome. But Assange's mother actually saying that it is much simpler than that, she is saying that it is because Assange does not trust the Swedish justice system. Take a listen to what she had to said, Suzanne.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ASSANGE, MOTHER OF JULIAN ASSANGE: Concern is of course given the flagrant abuse of the human and legal rights in the Swedish case for two years, their refusal to adhere to their own police procedures and their own prosecutorial standards that were he to go to Sweden where he would be jailed straight away and charged nonquestioned, he would not have the opportunity then to seek political asylum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: She also did not have particularly flattering words for either her own home Australia government or the British author who she accused of aiding and abetting the U.S. and accusing her son. Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: I don't understand this. Can they just look and the police go in if the embassy and arrest them or do they have to go through a process? What happens next?

ELBAGIR: Well, they absolutely cannot step into the embassy to arrest him. Right here behind me is basically for all legal purposes is Sovereign Ecuadorian sovereignty. So that this is why this has gone from being a legal nightmare for the British authority to being a diplomatic complete mess. The Ecuadorian ambassador has actually had to go to British foreign office today. They would not tell us what they discussed; we can imagine it was probably quite a fraught interview.

MALVEAUX: All right. Nima thank you so much. I want to put this story into perspective and go to Hala Gorani who joins us from Washington. Talk a little bit more about Juliann Assange and his legal problems. And how Nima says it is a big mess over there political and now legal as well. It is a complicated case that started obviously when his website Wikileaks published a lot of leaked diplomatic cables and embarrassed several governments, international businesses. Where did it go from there? How did it get to this point?

HALA GORANI, ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, we got to this point after he essentially exhausted almost all of his legal options in the United Kingdom and a court ruled in the UK that within two weeks essentially he could be extradited to Sweden to face charges of sexual misconduct, he has not been charged with anything officially and his concern and the concern for Wikileaks is that this is all essentially politically motivated and it had nothing to do with any legal case in Sweden. That this is because he has irked the western powers by releasing this 250,000 cables that have certainly embarrassed many of the United States but also in other countries, and he said that the U.S. and his website says that the U.S. will just find a way around laws in Sweden that prevent people from being extradited for political offenses such as the one that he says he is being accused of by western countries, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Hala, how does the public perception of Assange play into this? Some people think he is a hero. And others think he is a trader.

GORANI: Yes. I think many people as well after the release of these cables who were initially supportive of the effort are now saying, look, this guy is positioning himself politically, sometimes expressing sympathies with people who support the regime of Bashar al Assad for instance, this is the Arab spring of rioting, he has lost some of his creditability, even among people who supported the initiative initially to release these cables.

I think people are seeing him in some cases as a hero however as you mentioned there, and it is important to underline that, but it is someone who has exposed the hypocrisy of western countries according to them by releasing these cables and the information that was meant to be top secret and that we can now all read online. One of the things I want to mention is and Nima mentioned it as well, is that he is making a name for himself by becoming buddy-buddy with leaders of nations that are very anti-Washington. He interviewed the leader of Hezbollah as well, so he is positioning himself politically quite clearly.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Hala.

A major announcement from the fed is expected any moment now and could ripple through the global economy. We are going to talk about that. Bring it to you as soon as we have it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: When the fed speaks Wall Street listens and so does the global economy. Ali Velshi keeping an eye on the Fed chief Ben Bernanke today on the announcement, Ali, it just came out. Give us the news.

ALI VELSHI, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right. So this is a decision by the Federal Reserve to continue a program that was supposed to end in two weeks. This is the program where they shift things around so that the long-term interest rates remain low. We have talked many times about how -- the cost of borrowing money for ten years for the government is about 1.67 percent right now. That encourages overall rates to be lower so that the fed worried that an increase in rates was going to slow down the U.S. economy which they say is already slowing a little bit, they have decided to extend this program until the end of the year.

You may hear it referred to as Operation Twist. This is the thing they were expected to do, but as you can see from the market reaction, it is not making investors all that happy. I am not sure that they were waiting to hear for something more robust from the fed that they would think of intervening in the economy by putting money in, something that we have called qe3 or quantitative easing. That was not very likely to happen, but there is a real sense that the U.S. economy has slowed down in the last couple of months, still growing, but it is growing at a slower pace.

And that the fed is the best chance to make something happen. They have put off that decision right now and doesn't mean they cannot make it later, but for now the fed has made a decision that will probably have an impact on mortgage rates or other loan rates. A lot of the rates in the United States are set on the 10-year bond and they are making a decision that will keep the interest rates on the 10-year bond relatively low.

So that is what the decision is, the fed is extending something called Operation Twist, not a great reaction on the markets rights now, I would not call it a bad reaction as the markets have been down all morning and they are down a little bit more now, but still early and everybody is digesting this thing and thinking about what it means, but for the moment, it is the least that was expected of the fed to do in their attempt to shore up the U.S. economy.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All in an effort to stimulate the economy. All right. Ali thank you very much.

All hell broke loose at a nuclear power plant in Japan last year, and now the company responsible. Finally admitting that they were not ready when the earthquake hit and the water rushed in.

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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL where we take you around the world in 60 minutes. Tokyo Electric Power Company officials say they were not fully prepared when last year earthquake is and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Well the company has issued its final report on the disaster. A separation investigation by a Japanese government said power plant operators were poorly trained.

Penny Aleamar who couldn't leave her country for 24 years, most of that under house arrest has finally received her honoree doctorate from Oxford. Amongst San Suu Kyi giving her grief today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Aung Sun Suu Kyi was awarded years ago but couldn't leave her country to get it. She picked up a Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 over the weekend.

Born in the United States, they speak English, wear Nike sneakers, so what are these kids doing in Mexico?

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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, where we take you around the world in 60 minutes.

Many American kids born and raised here being forced out of the country they know. Their parents are illegal immigrants who are deported back to their native countries. And 1.4 million Mexicans moved back to Mexico between 2005 and 2010. That is according to a "New York Times" census analysis. They brought with them 300,000 American-born children. Fernando Del Rincon from CNN en Espanol is here with us in the studio to kind of explain this a little bit to us. Is this relatively a new phenomena or has this been going on for quite some time?

FERNANDO DEL RINCON, COHOST, CNN EN ESPANOL'S "PANORAMA MUNDIAL": No, no, it's not -- hi, Suzanne, how are you?

MALVEAUX: Nice to have you on.

DEL RINCON: Thank you. Thank you so much.

No, it's not new. It's been happening for a long time. But since during the Obama administration, the deportations have increased in number. It's now that they are feeling it more harder in Mexico in terms of education and small towns, because these kids, they don't come back to the big cities like Mexico City or maybe Monterrey, they're coming back to small towns. So you've got to think about this as a situation where they have no access to the same education, first of all --

MALVEAUX: Right.

DEL RINCON: Like they have here in the United States. They don't even have cafeterias sometimes in the schools. No computers. And they don't feel Mexicans. This is a complicated situation for them because, at the same time, they're not accepted as Mexicans for the other kids. They think they are U.S. citizens. MALVEAUX: So, explain to us this, because it -- you see what these kids are going through. It must be very traumatic when you talk about the language difference, the cultural differences, the differences in identity. What are these kids going through?

DEL RINCON: Well, just imagine this. That they call some of them leche, that means milk, because of the white color they relate to the American citizens, the U.S. citizens. So they want -- they are willing to come back to the United States. They feel like they are just passing by, passing through Mexico, not staying there. They actually -- they don't want to stay there.

MALVEAUX: What happens when they come back? Because you bring up a really good point, they actually come back to the United States. Are they well adjusted? Do they have problems?

DEL RINCON: No. Actually, they are not well adjusted. It -- to understand it, I will try to just think the other way around. Think about being born and raised in Mexico and then feeling a Mexican and then come to the United States out of the blue, and then start trying to understand what's going on here with the culture, with the education, and also the family structure is different. The way they live in Mexico, it's not the same way they live over here. Not just talking about the access to big houses or nice places --

MALVEAUX: Sure.

DEL RINCON: But there's a lot of communications, roads, a lot of things that they don't have over there. And when you're talking about small town, because more -- more often their parents are people that didn't have money and that's what they came over here to -- you know (INAUDIBLE).

MALVEAUX: Right. It's an extraordinary story. I mean it really is. And just kind of the cultural divide and the shift here. I mean they've got to really live in two different worlds.

We're going to talk a lot more about this and we'll bring you back on another time.

DEL RINCON: Yes. Important , they want to come back. So it might be a problem for the U.S. in the near future.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you very much. Good to have you here. Appreciate it.

DEL RINCON: Thank you. Thank you so much, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: It's supposed to be a global summit to save the environment. So why aren't some of the big names showing up in Rio? When did it suddenly become unhip to go green?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Saving the planet from major environmental threats, an extremely difficult challenge that world leaders say they are actually committed to tackling. But some big names are a no show at Rio this year. Here's Shasta Darlington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a shanty town overlooking Epenima Beach, you can see how Rio de Janeiro is an ideal place to talk about how to build a sustainable future. That's what 50,000 global leaders, CEOs, environmentalists and academics will do over the next three days. This is Rio+20, the biggest ever United Nations conference hailed as an historic opportunity to reduce poverty while preserving the planet's natural resources with some notable no- shows.

DARLINGTON (on camera): More than 100 heads of states are participating in the formal talks. But just as significant is who didn't come. We're talking about President Barack Obama, Britain's David Cameron and also Germany's Angela Merkel.

DARLINGTON (voice-over): It might have seemed like a natural stop following the G-20 meeting in Mexico, but it was overshadowed by the crisis in Europe and presidential campaign in the United States. Observers say many leaders have been forced to put the environmental on the back burner.

GEORG KELL, U.N. GLOBAL COMPACT: They have to manage crisis situations. And they are basically in a kind of crisis mode.

DARLINGTON: Twenty years ago, Rio hosted the landmark earth summit with real commits to tackle climate change. For many, Rio+20 has already failed. After days of acrimonious negotiations, the document produced for leaders to sign eliminated financial commitments and other contentious issues.

LASSE GUSTAVSSON, WWF INTERNATIONAL: If the end game of this on Friday night will be what we have on the table today, the result will be more poverty, more conflict and more environmental destruction.

DARLINGTON: On Rios's scenic beaches, Brazil's indigenous tribes formed a human banner to demand a cleaner, greener future. Chief Rawoni told us the summit is an important opportunity for his people to be heard. But critics say it risks going down in history as Rio minus 20.

The best measure of success will probably be what actions, if any, governments take to ensure a sustainable future once it's over.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Turning trash to treasure in Mexico City. And the treasure we're talking about is food.

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MALVEAUX: Take out the trash in Mexico City these days has a whole new meaning. Here's Rafael Romo. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it comes to garbage, Mexico City has got most cities beat. With a population of more than 20 million people, this metropolis produces nearly 13,000 metric tons of trash a day. Enough to create one of the largest landfills in the world. It is a distinction the city would like to change. And one way to get rid of trash is through recycling.

This is mercado trueque, or barter market. Once a month, hundreds of people come to one of the city's parks with as much trash as they can carry, exchange it for goods from a farmer's market. We joined Jose Luis and his roommate as they went through the process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been gathering glasses, plastic for about a year.

LUCILA ROMERO MONFORT, RECYCLER: What they do, is you take -- separate all the materials. Papers up there. The (INAUDIBLE). The glass here. And paper products here. And (INAUDIBLE) trash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have my 60 green points and they gave you a bag. And now I'm going to spend my --