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Queen, Former IRA Commander Shake Hands; Mexico Elects a President in 4 Days; More Firsts Expected in Egypt; Saving Women in Afghanistan; Tensions Mount In West Bank; Carbon-Eating Ca

Aired June 27, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Kyra.

And welcome, everyone, to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. I'm Don Lemon. Suzanne is off today. And we're going to take you around the world in 60 minutes.

Here is what we have going on.

Areas around the Syrian capital are seeing some of the worst violence there yet. An opposition group says fierce clashes erupted between rebel and government forces near Damascus. Meanwhile, Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, told his new cabinet that the country is in a state of war and his regime must win.

Hours later, a pro-government TV was attacked. At least three stoppers were killed. The government officials blame terrorists.

A dramatic sea rescue is happening in the Indian Ocean. A ship with 150 asylum seekers onboard has capsized and sunk near Australia's Christmas Island. This photo, take a look it, was taken shortly before the boat went down. So far, 136 people have been pulled from water. One person is confirmed dead though.

It's unclear where the asylum seekers are from. It is the second time in a week that a ship of asylum-seekers has capsized in the area.

It's 30 days and counting until the start of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. And to mark the equation today, giant Olympic rings were placed on London's Tower Bridge. The chairman of gamers says the rings are an iconic symbol that inspire athletes and unite people around the world.

We're going to go live to London in just moments. Stay with us.

With a handshake, they took a giant step forward. Britain's Queen Elizabeth and former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness, made history in Belfast. What you are seeing here is the second handshake done for the public. The first happened behind closed doors.

Our Nic Robertson tells us why the past events made today's meet so incredible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A decade ago, few in Northern Ireland would have dared imagine it. Britain's queen to shake the hand of a once feared paramilitary commander who for more than half of her reign was committed to overthrowing her rule in Northern Ireland.

Martin McGuinness, today a leading politician, was once a commander of the Irish Republican army, the IRA. Under his leadership, Catholics, nationalists and republicans forged to unify all island. Their enemies, protestants in the province, and their fighters known as loyalists, along with the police and the British army all loyal to the queen.

Over 30 years, more than 3,500 people killed. More than a thousand of them soldiers ands policemen, the royal family, the queen's government, on more than one occasion targets for the IRA, too.

Most painful for the queen, her cousin, Earl Mountbatten, a World War II hero, murdered by McGuinness' IRA, as the vacationing earl was fishing off of the Irish coast.

Almost a decade and half since McGuinness helped convinced the IRA to dump its arms. No event speaks more loudly of burying the hatchet.

The former IRA commander apparently putting behind him decades of hostility to the crown, and allegations that the queen's forces illegally killed IRA members.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: CNN's Nic Robertson is in Belfast for us.

Now, Nic, earlier this week, Martin McGuiness said he had shaken the hands of many unionists over the years, but, quote, "in shaking the hand of Queen Elizabeth, I am symbolically shaking the hands of hundreds of thousands of unionists." That's what he said.

Nic, how are the people you have met there reacting to this?

ROBERTSON (via telephone): Very interesting, because there is a gathering at the parliament building today and a garden party for the queen, more than 20,000 people, most of those coming to see the queen from the Protestant community, the very people who would have been in the past hated, and marching. They told that they were very happy to see the handshake, and they really hope that this means that the country can move forward, that this is important. They recognize it was a big step for Martin McGuiness.

So, they're very happy to see the queen and for Martin McGuiness, to take this step.

Of course, not everyone feels that way. There are others who say he has too much blood on his hands, and those of his own community who say he's given up on his own principles of a united island and justice for all the victims within the IRA.

But the majority here do want to step forward and they are very happy about it today.

LEMON: Let's talk a little bit more about some problems ahead, despite the historic occasion here. Just last night, there were clashes between police, Nic, and demonstrators -- and scuffles between pro and anti-British groups. What is the meeting mean in terms of heading forward here?

ROBERTSON: Well, the meeting today is really very heavy on symbolism. It is a symbolism of the two arch enemies, McGuinness -- and there is few people that embody the IRA and it's bloodiness more than him. And really the queen embodies the republicans like McGuinness, who have been tried to throw out of Ireland. So, the symbolisms have been big.

But it's now, it's substance. And the substance is building and delivering on the people's expectations of, inquiries of the people that have lost loved ones through troubles, of building bridges of the two communities. What happened last night is quite incredible and on the heels of Belfast, a huge Irish flag from the Republican community here, the Catholic community who wants to unite with Ireland -- that was unfurled on the island and, of course, the protestants, the hardliners in that community, responded to going onto the hill and got into a fight. Nne policemen were injured trying to calm the situation.

So, those tensions exist, but it's the substance of trying to join the community and isolating the minority that continue to want the violence. And the way to bring the majority is steps like we've seen today, the handshake and real cross community efforts to build the bridges. And its handshake is an example and now, the community has to do more of this thing, getting together more.

LEMON: Nic, if we can talk, can we talk a little bit more about the queen and the royal family? What does this say about the queen and the royal family and their change of attitude?

ROBERTSON: Well, this is the 20th time that the queen's visited Northern Ireland, but on the trip, this is the first time she has met somebody from Sinn Fein and shaken their hand. This is first time she's ever met and shaken the hand of somebody who is a commander of the IRA.

Yesterday, for the first time, she went into a Catholic Church and looked warmly welcomed by the leading Catholics in Ireland.

So, for her, she has taken steps that she has not taken before. Her cousin, Earl Mountbatten, a favorite of hers, introduced her to her husband, he was killed by the IRA. So, there's been a need for forgiveness.

But what the queen does here is she embodies more than a politician can of what IRA wanted to do, still want to do, the real, the IRA that continues today, throughout the British government, she embodied the Britain more than anything else. So she is that sort of symbol that the Republicans would like to remove.

So, for her this shows that this sort of puts her in the position that no politician can really occupy. Prime ministers come and go. The queen has been around for 60 years. So, it really shows that the queen has a role within perhaps in a global context, but certainly within the national context -- a role that no prime minister can fill.

So there is a feeling among those around the royal family that this also shows that the queen is still a very useful and important member of British society in a way that no politician can be leading a process here.

LEMON: Yes, very good point, Nic. The queen has been around and leaders come and go from other nations. Thank you very much. We appreciate that, Nic Robertson.

In just four days, voters in Mexico head to the polls to elect a new president. And the election will have a major impact on both sides of the border, from drug wars, to U.S trade with Mexico, to immigration. For the candidates, today is the last day of campaigning of Sunday's.

And CNN's Miguel Marquez live in Toluca, Mexico, for us, where the front-runner is holding a rally.

Hello to you, Miguel. The PRI candidate is way up in the polls. But would he have a total mandate to govern here?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is not clear. He is very close to it and every poll seems to suggest. If he hits around 42 percent or 43 percent of the vote on the first, he will probably control both houses, and that is hugely important here, because the PRD, the central right government that has been in power for the past 12 years.

People here, even though some progress, and in some areas e especially economically, they are frustrated not more and regular Mexicans are not feeling the sort of change they want. They are hoping that if they give a Band-Aid to the new guy, the new old guy, since this party was in power for 71 years until 2000, that things will change, Don.

LEMON: What's at stake here Miguel in this e election? How significant is it?

MARQUEZ: It is very significant. The fact that the PRI, that was in power from 1949 until 2000, and they were humiliated in 2000. The fact that 12 years later, they are returning to power with the Mexican electorate who are just as frustrated with the people who ushered it in, the central right party, the PRD.

And the more interesting is that AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO as they call him here, the populist central left politician who lost by a whisker in 2006 hasn't had the sort of play in the election, hasn't had the resonance with voters, because they feel he might be the wrong person at the wrong time.

Mexican voters deeply want change, they want stability, they want more opportunity, they want less corruption, with a lot at stake here -- Don.

LEMON: I've got to ask you quickly, Miguel, after midnight tonight, it is reported that after the elections kick in. It's kind of a media blackout. Explain how that works.

MARQUEZ: Well, it is not a media blackout. It is a campaigning stop. It is a sort of cooling off period. No more campaigning or rallies like we are seeing out here and no more campaign commercials. The reporting that we can do has to be, can't be specifically political.

All of this ahead of the Sunday's vote, basically a cooling off period for a lot of the voters here, and something that American voters and voters around the world after suffering through a very hard campaign might appreciate as well, Don.

LEMON: All right. Miguel Marquez in Toluca, Mexico -- thank you, Miguel.

Here's more that we are working on this hour for NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL:

Egypt just held its first democratic election. And now, another first, a woman will serve as a vice president.

Plus, it looks like pond scum, but it's actually a weapon against global warming. This carbon eating car may help solve one of the world's problems, but you've got to have a big tank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The problem with this invention as it is right now is nobody wants that on the top of their car, but our inventor here says that with the help of the automobile industry, it will be sleeker and become much more desirable.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I want to give you an update now, and this is just into CNN, and that mall collapse that happened in Canada this weekend where they were searching through the rubble for people, and they heard tapping earlier this weekend. We are getting confirmation that one person has been found. A body has been found, but it has not been identified.

Recovered this morning and police are now saying that they are going to work with the coroner to ID that and of course robots and canines are being used to find people, possibly still buried and some of them may be alive in the rubble, but they are checking. One person has died and still trying to confirm the identity of the person in the mall collapse in Canada this weekend.

We'll continue to update as we get new information here.

More firsts are expected in Egypt, the country's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi plans to appoint a woman as one of his presidents, and a Christian as another.

Michael Holmes joins s now.

These are historic appointments here considering Muslim Brotherhood and all that, he's an Islamist who and once known for banning women from the presidency, and now this?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes. What it is showing is the reality of the political landscape in Egypt. You got to remember, Morsi won with only 50 percent of the vote in the run off. Now, a lot of the people, the moderates didn't have a candidate in the race. They didn't even vote. So this is a guy who realizes and he is a pragmatist, and he realizes that he only has the support of only 25 percent of the electorate and he knows he's got to try to dissociate himself from the more extreme elements of the Muslim Brotherhood.

And, you know, there are other realities as well, international realities.

LEMON: Right.

HOLMES: He is fervently anti-U.S. in the past. They are getting $1.3 billion from the U.S. So, he's got to be nice. The Israel treaty also ties into that. The U.S. is going to say, you you're your money, don't disregard the treaty.

LEMON: He said in the beginning he would try to work for equal rights for women, which was unusual, which he's doing now, and he said he would keep all of the international agreements which he talked about. But the advisers say that Egypt will not be an Islamic republic.

Can this former member of the Muslim Brotherhood heal this very polarize country? And is this the start of doing it?

HOLMES: Well, it goes back to pragmatist, being a realist, can he heal it? I don't know. It's a very fractured place.

In terms of the religion and also in terms of class, he has more pressing issues actually as the president, economic issues. I mean, this is a country where the economy, tourism are in tatters. This is a country where 40 percent of the Egyptians live below the poverty line.

Money is going out, investment is gong out. You know, half of the foreign reserves have been eroded. There's been an enormous crime rising since the revolution, and rapes and killings and car abductions and theft. And so, he's going to have to focus on those domestic issues, and that will help him get the support of the street, of course.

LEMON: And let's about the military there, because you remember, they said there was a sort of a de facto coup in the military. There's another unexpected development. Cairo's administrative court overturned the rule that allow the military to arrest people without a warrant.

What if anything can you read into this. And do we know if the military has ultimately rule in Egypt?

HOLMES: Well, it does for a moment. And this, of course, was all just pride, a presidential runoff, when the military knew that Morsi was going to win, the military have for decades tried to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, those guys don't get along. They're not natural bedfellows.

So, as you said, they took sweeping powers, they dissolved the parliament which has been democratically elected, they are going to supervise the writing of the Constitution, they're going to control the military defense, interior ministries -- which leaves the president without much power, really, and the certainly on the international stage.

The military, because they have always opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, they don't have an innate interest or incentive to help him do his job well.

LEMON: That's a problem.

HOLMES: That could certainly be a problem. It is going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.

He is walking a very fine line between the domestic issues he is facing and the religious part of his party that wants him to be more hard-lined than he is indicating. He seems pragmatic and he is giving the signals he is going to try to walk that line.

The military role has got to be problematic for him.

LEMON: Yes.

HOLMES: If the military decides they want to keep these powers, they will.

LEMON: Yes, and it's just the beginning.

HOLMES: And then watch the street come alive again, because this is what the revolution was about, getting rid of that authoritarian sort of regime that existed before.

LEMON: And I repeat, this is just the beginning.

HOLMES: It is, Don. That's really is.

LEMON: Thank you.

HOLMES: Good to see you, my friend.

LEMON: Listen to this, one country wants to legalize marijuana. The government wants to sell pot. We're going to tell you where.

Plus, Brazil's prisons are crowded. So, they've got a novel way, a novel -- remember that word -- way to cut time for inmates. Reading books?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, everyone. We are taking you around the world in 60 minutes.

Prisoners are now reading their way out of prison. Yes, you heard me right. It is happening in Brazil. The government there has announced that inmates can reduce their sentences by reading books. Each book is worth four days off with a maximum sentence reduction of 48 days a year.

This is all worth it? Any time off is good. Inmates have to finish the books within four weeks and write an essay. The program is a way to reduce prison overcrowding while educating the inmates before their release.

Brazil's neighbor Uruguay backing a radical new plan to crackdown on the drug crime and make money in the process. Get this -- the country's president wants the government to be the sole legal seller of marijuana.

CNN's Rafael Romo explains why now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): A certain green leafy plant brought to you for your pleasure by your very own government. It may sound like a farfetched idea in the United States, but in the small South American nation of Uruguay, that's s exactly what the government is proposing.

ELEUTERIO FERNANDEZ HUIDOBRO, URUGUAYAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Three of the four most consumed drugs are already legal. Alcohol the most popular and tobacco, the second most popular, medications, and the fourth one, marijuana, which is consumed by approximately 300,000 people.

ROMO: Marijuana possession is legal, but production and distribution is not. The proposal by President Jose Mujica is to have the government control its production and sell. Government officials say that the money that drug dealers get would eventually go to public coffers.

DANIEL OLESKER, URUGUAYAN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTER (through translator): It has been internationally recognized that separating the market for marijuana from other drugs has substantially positive effects for the welfare of the population.

ROMO: Legalizing drugs is not a new concept in South America. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina has proposed legalizing some drugs in central Africa as a joint solution for rampant violence in the region caused by drug trafficking.

Former President Vicente Fox who governed Mexico from 2000 to 2006 says legalization is a way of reducing violence.

VICENTE FOX, FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT: When the violence was thick in Chicago, 100 years ago with the alcohol prohibition, the only answer and solution came from the rising again, back again the consumption of alcohol.

ROMO: But other leaders like Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos say that legalization by other countries may have implications for the region.

PRES. JUAN MANUEL SANTOS, COLOMBIA: I agree that we have to discuss where we are and where to go, but talking about legalization at this moment is counterproductive unless it's a world approach.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. So, Rafael Romo joins me now.

So, Rafael, this bill as to be approved by Uruguay's Congress. Before I ask you if this is likely to happen, and this is interesting because it is the government controlling. This isn't just decriminalization or legalizing it and opening it to free trade. This is a government controlling it. Is that likely to happen?

ROMO: Well, this is not by any means any open market for drugs, and the entrepreneur can start growing marijuana, it is the government coming in and telling people, I am going to be in control. I'm going to produce it, I'm going to sell it, and I'm going to control this distribution. That is what is interesting about this proposal in Uruguay.

And to answer the second question, it t is very likely it will pass this summer. The president, and his party controls the Uruguay and Congress, and the broad front. And so, he has the means to passengers, if this gets work, and drug crime goes down, can you expect to look at legalizing or sell selling other drugs besides it, besides marijuana?

ROMO: Well, a number of countries and not very likely, they are equating marijuana with alcohol.

LEMON: Yes.

ROMO: You have a number of countries in the region that have a very hard stance against illegal drugs -- I'm talking about Colombia, and further north, I'm talking about Mexico. And also today, the head of the U.N. Nations on Drug Policy Control says that, Uruguay, if they approve this, they would be in violation of international agreements. So it remains to be seen if this actually becomes law, what's the international community going to do about it?

LEMON: It's interesting, because there are number of municipalities and states here and then U.S. looking at not government regulation of it and sell it, but to decriminalize it and have a free market. That's the only way they believe its' regulated. So, interesting. We'll see.

Rafael Romo, thank you very much for that.

HOLMES: Sure.

LEMON: The countdown for the Olympics hits the one-month mark, and London unfurls a big welcome sign.

But is the city ready for the big games?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, yes, the countdown is on in London. Thirty days until the start of the 2012 Olympics. Giant Olympic rings are in place on the Tower Bridge over the Thames River.

Look at that. They will remain there throughout the games. They look beautiful there.

Becky Anderson is live at the bridge for us right now.

Becky, I understand, the rings will be a feature of the special light show tonight. That is going to be exciting. Big crowds expected?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL A NCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not sure that they will be as big as they were for the diamond jubilee, but expect them to come in there hundreds if not thousands to see the light show this evening. That's right.

These marking the calendar month, it's a month to go, and marking the occasion, of course, these Olympic rings. Each the size of a London bus, let me tell you. They weigh three tons and 25 meters wide. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today said that they represent the five hoops that London has had to go through in order to ready itself for what they call the most spectacular sporting event ever on the planet -- at least that is what they hope, Don.

They have to get the venues ready. They've got to get the security ready. They've got to get the transport and look and feel of the city, and indeed, they got to be ready for the athletes. Ten-and- half thousand athletes pitching up here in the UK, ready for July 27th. They will be coming in over the next ten days, and then of course, got the Paralympics. Four-and-a-half thousand athletes in the Paralympics, which comes just after the Olympics.

So, we are on the homestretch as we would say here in the UK. Don?

LEMON: So the venue has to be ready and everything has ready for the athletes. But let's talk about this, what about the security for the Games? Is London ready?

ANDERSON: Yes. That's right. We had the head of the intelligence service just in the last 24 hours, that's MI-5 here, saying that they cannot guarantee the security of these Games. But of course, they will do absolutely everything to ensure that people who are here coming to the Game and indeed, the athletes safe. The agency itself says they have canceled all leave -- about 3,000 people at that agency -- altogether, so as far as security is concerned, there is going to be about 20,000 feet on the ground. And that is the police security forces and indeed, the intelligence services here.

The American intelligence services, we are told, are also on the ground here helping out. This is as big of an operation as the UK has seen since the Second World War, I'm told, so far as security is concerned.

So they are ready. The concern, of course, is as ever -- a lone wolf or something more organized than that. But they certainly say they are ready. And as I say, they can't guarantee security ever.

LEMON: The rings and the tower bridge, quite a fetching pair over your shoulder, Becky Anderson. Thank you very much. We appreciate your reporting.

Let's talk about Japan now. It's set to restart its first nuclear reactor since last year's disaster, and not everyone is happy about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, everyone, where we're taking you around the world in 60 minutes.

Japan is ready to power up its first reactor since the tsunami last year that devastated the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and anti- nuclear activists aren't happy about it. Protesters rallied outside of the (INAUDIBLE) electric company's board meeting in Osaka today. They are calling for the closure of all nuclear plants. The number three plant, it's - that's the reactor there, will be activated on Sunday.

Opposition groups in Syria are reporting 35 people killed across the country today. The violence is intensifying in and around the capital of Damascus. Government officials are blaming terrorists for a bombing at a television station.

We go now to CNN's Ivan Watson, joining us from Turkey. So, Ivan, what can you tell us about the attack at that TV station?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Syrian government says this was a rebel raid at about dawn. They attacked a pro-government TV station outside of the capital and killed three journalists there and four security guards. And then set explosives to blow the offices and the facilities up.

The information minister of Syria is calling this an attack on freedom of expression in Syria, and he is blaming it on Arab groups, on international organizations, the U.S., the European Union as well, and claiming this is an act of terrorism. It definitely shows the increasing audacity with which the armed opposition in Syria is operating right now.

LEMON: Yes, and listening at how the leaders are describing the situation, terrorism, war, serious. And president Bashar al-Assad told the new cabinet, Ivan, that the country is in a state of war and he made it clear that he is determined to win. And this comes as U.N. and Arab League diplomats prepare to meet in Switzerland.

Is this all just more talk from both sides? What is going on here?

WATSON: Well, I mean, the fact is what is happening on the ground despite all of these meetings, despite all of the negotiations and the diplomacy, is that the fighting has just gotten worse in the last couple of months.

There was a report just issued by the United Nations special envoys office to Syria, and they have said that despite a six-point peace plan that was supposed to be in effect months ago, that the fighting has intensified. Both the Syrian government has appeared to try to take over urban centers using tanks and artillery and helicopters and militia as well from rebel forces. And meanwhile, the rebels have stepped up assassinations and attacks on high-ranking Syrian military officers as well as the use of those weapons we know so well from the Iraq conflict next door, improvised explosive devices, which kill not only the Syrian military, but also kill Syrian civilians. The U.N. saying there are 1.5 million people, Don, in Syria right now who are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

LEMON: Goodness. Ivan Watson, thank you so much.

Let's go to Afghanistan now. The most dangerous country in the world to be a woman, especially if you are expecting a baby. Women are seven times -- 70 - 70 more times to die in childbirth there than from a bullet or a bomb. But a health care program is trying to change that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Afghanistan ranks as one of the most dangerous places for expectant mothers. A woman dies from pregnancy complications every two hours. It is an alarming statistic, but as CNN's Mohammed Jamjoon reports, new programs are working to make both pregnancy and birth safer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOHAMMED JAMJOON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Learning to handle a difficult birth. Young women in this Kabul medical institute will soon join the growing number of midwives in a country where being a mother is ranked among the worst in the world.

These students are trying to change that grim statistic. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (speaking in foreign language)

JAMJOON: (INAUDIBLE) says she wants women in far-flung provinces to have access to good medical facilities, doctors and midwives.

The remoteness of this clinic in Botokshan (ph) province means many women cannot reach it in time to deliver. Less than two-thirds of the women in Afghanistan have access to a nearby facility.

RACHEL MARANTO, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Many, many mothers and children will never see a medically trained health worker, doctor, nurse or midwife in their lifetime, and that really needs to be improved and turned around.

JAMJOON: So Save the Children along with other NGOs and foreign donors are funding programs in conjunction with the health ministry to improve the chances of mothers' and children's welfare and survival.

In Afghanistan, a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes every two hours. Many of these women have lost mothers, sisters, and cousins this way. They've also buried their babies.

They decided to change things. Now they are volunteering as community health workers in a pilot program in the district of Guldara (ph). They are illiterate, so they are learning from pictograms.

It's good work, proudly says mother of six, Noorseia (ph). In my village, maternal mortality has gone down 100 percent in the last two years.

Noorsi's village may be an exception, but the overall project is judged successful. Most women now give birth in facilities in the presence of qualified health workers.

(on camera): Often it seems trying find a positive story in Afghanistan is like searching for a needle in a haystack. NGOs point to a certain success in the reduction of mother-and-child mortality rates here in recent years. But according to Save the Children, women in Afghanistan are still 70 more times likely to die in childbirth as they are from a bullet or a bomb.

(voice-over): Just one reason why the midwifery programs like this one are so important. Ten years ago, there were about 500 midwives in country. Today, there are some 3,000. But many more are needed.

Their main goal should be serving mothers, says (INAUDIBLE), and decreasing the rate of maternal mortality.

A noble goal, but one that could be in serious jeopardy, women and aid workers feel, if foreign funding falls off once the coalition troops withdraw.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: Interesting. Let's bring in Mohammed Jamjoon now, who is in Abu Dhabi. So Mohammed, what else did you hear from those young women learning to be midwives. How important is their mission to them?

JAMJOON: Don, it is extremely important. They say it almost as a higher calling, a very noble goal that they have.

The young woman we spoke with in the piece, Almaza Katawazi (ph), she is 22. She grew up in Kabul, but her family comes from a remote province called Patika in Afghanistan. And once she graduates, she plans to go back there, because she says in her district, in the district that her family came from, there are no midwives there to help the pregnant women. She says that she wants to do it for them.

But beyond that, most of the girls that we spoke with also said they had very personal reasons for doing this. Many of them had grandmothers, mothers, cousins, relatives, aunts, sisters who experienced difficulty with the childbirth; some of them died in childbirth. So, they really want to do something to help Afghanistan.

And we must add that even though the women who are doing this, that it is tough for them to get into this program, they are very proud of this, this can be dangerous as well. You are talking about a country where the Taliban is still very much frowns upon women working, women studying, so to go to these remote provinces to help the women there that are in danger, it can be dangerous for the midwives as well. They are very willing to do this. They see it as something to help Afghanistan and they're very proud of the fact that they are in this program and they will be helping the women of Afghanistan very soon. Don?

LEMON: It seems that they are prouder of doing that than they are worried about helping in this situation, and they are worried. How worried are the women that came across, that you came across that the situation might start getting worse again for mothers to be?

JAMJOON: There's a lot of concern. When we went to Guldara (ph) province, when we went to this volunteer health clinic, you know, the women there know that pilot programs like this are helping the country in ways that the country hadn't seen for the last several years. Afghanistan, just two years ago, was ranked as the worst place in the world to be a mother. In the last year, now it's ranked as the second worst place in the world to be a mother.

Now that's great improvement for Afghanistan, but it's still a very dire situation. And so the NGO workers we spoke with and the women that we spoke with, they say, look, they're very happy the situation is improving, but there still needs a lot of work to be done. And they're worried that as the troops withdraws, if funding dries up, what that means for the future of mothers and babies in that country. It's a very critical time there and if they want the numbers to continue to reduce when it comes to maternal and child mortality, there's going to need to be continued and sustained investment from international donors into that country.

Don. LEMON: We appreciate it. Mohammed Jamjoom reporting.

An eviction deadline approaches in the West Bank. Some Israeli settlers are resisting orders to leave their homes on Palestinian land.

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LEMON: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL, where we take you around the world in 60 minutes. Let's take a look at what's trending globally right now.

Twitter users are using #refugees and #asylum to talk about a rescue operation underway right now off of Australia's Christmas Island. A boat packed with about 150 asylum seekers capsized and sank in the Indian Ocean. This is the crowded boat just moments before it capsized and so far 136 people have been pulled from the water, one person is now confirmed dead. Last Friday, another boat of asylum seekers turned over in the same area. Six bodies were found and 110 people were rescued from that accident. The Australian government met today to discuss a plan for processing asylum seekers.

Tensions are mounting in the West Bank. Earlier this year, Israel's supreme court ruled that apartment blocks in the Ulpana neighborhood were built illegally on Palestinian owned land. Now settlers must be out by July 1st and many have reached an agreement with the government to go quietly. But as Elise Labott reports now, some activists promise to revisit the evictions.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Piles of tires surround the Ulpana neighborhood. Right wing Jewish activists prepare to resist the demolition of five apartment buildings.

MICHAEL BEN HORIN, GOLAN HEBREW MOVEMENT (through translator): We are preparing for every option. We believe in God and the fact that Jews love each other. We will win and not get to any struggle.

LABOTT: Nearby, a Palestinian mosque has been set on fire. Graffiti warns Ulpana, war. Tensions are building ahead of a July 1st deadline for residents to leave. The Israeli high court ruled the buildings are on private Palestinian land and ordered the eviction of some 30 families. Among them, Brad and Kal Kittay (ph), and their daughter Hannah (ph), who moved from Australia two years ago.

BRAD KITTAY, ULPANA RESIDENT: We were looking for a nice place to bring up our kids, to raise our family. We liked the quiet. We liked the greenery. We liked the neighborhoods.

LABOTT: The tranquility they wanted is about to be shattered.

KITTAY: For us, this home signifies a lot more than just a place to live. This is our independence. This is our pride. This is our family. So it's very difficult to be told one day that you have to be out.

LABOTT: On the other side of the hill, in the Palestinian village of Dura El Kara, Hibri Ibrahim Hassan waits.

LABOTT (on camera): And where is your --

HIBRI IBRAHIM HASSAN, LAND OWNER: My land is right on top of that mountain over here. I cannot even see my land.

LABOTT (voice-over): The land on which Ulpana was built, he says, has been in his family for almost 300 years.

HASSAN: In my mind, I remember going back to 60 years ago when I was a young boy, it was -- we used to grow grapes in that land.

LABOTT: For almost 20 years he watched as the West Bank settlement of Bet El expanded. His five-year battle led to the court rule which declared the land his. Now he hopes to bring the land back to the village of Dura El Kara and his family.

LABOTT (on camera): There was someone else living on your land right now, a family, who's about to lose their home. How do you feel about those settlers?

HASSAN: As human being, I feel sorry for them. But they have done something wrong. We talk about democracy, right, huh? The right for ownership is principle in democracy.

LABOTT (voice-over): The Kittays are preparing to leave peacefully, but they don't think moving will solve anything.

KITTAY: I think that if we can reach peace through this process, well, then I'm happy that my house is the sacrifice for that. Unfortunately, I don't think that my house being destroyed will bring to peace.

LABOTT: Some previous evictions have been far from peaceful. Six years ago, settlers clashed with Israeli security forces as they demolished the hilltop settlement of Amona (ph). The residents say they'll go quietly, but others may not.

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LEMON: All right, let's talk to the person who filed this report. That's Elise Labott. She joins us now from Jerusalem.

Elise, how is the first phase of the moving going, because, as I said, people want to revisit this and they want to possibly resist it. So the first phase, how's it going?

LABOTT: Well, Don, according -- the residents are going quietly, as we said. It's this group of settler activists that are trying to wreak havoc. Yesterday and last night, as the residents were leaving, some of these settler activists tried to entrench themselves around the buildings and actually they were forced out by the residents. And, today, also, some youth came around trying to make trouble. The activists have made this agreement with the government to get out, to leave quietly. They'll be resettled in a neighborhood nearby. But it's these settler activists that might wreak havoc before the July 1st deadline.

LEMON: What's expected on July 1? Will everybody be out? And if they are, I guess that's good. But if not, what's expected?

LABOTT: Well, I think the rest of the residents, they've agreed to go. And I think that they'll be out. The question is, what are these activists going to do? These kind of right wing settler activists. And, also, is Mr. Harbi (ph), the rest of the Palestinian, are they going to be on their land? That's really unclear because already people are saying that they're going to appeal. And while the Palestinians are saying they're confident. They know on July 1st the land will be vacated. Whether they're going to be able to take possession is really far from clear.

LEMON: Elise Labott in Jerusalem. Thank you, Elise.

Now imagine this for you. A device that would actually eat the carbon dioxide from your car. One scientist did just that. But you've got to have a big tank.

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LEMON: A scientist in India invented a contraption, and you can call it a contraption, that he says can solve the world's global warming crisis. It is a tank full of algae that sits atop a car. You have to see this thing. CNN's Sara Sidner reports now from New Delhi.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scientist Dinabandhu Sahoo is trying to prove the smallest of things can help solve one of the world's biggest problems. For 25 years, he's been peering into microscopes at algae, the organisms many of us see as unwanted pond scum. But he, among other scientists, have discovered this green looking goo can actually be a weapon against global warming.

SIDNER (on camera): How amazing are algae?

DR. DINABANDHU SAHOO, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI SCIENTIST: They're beautiful. Microscopic to macroscopic, you can find them very, very small under the microscope. You can also see the algae which can grow up to seven kilometers (ph) long in the ocean, like giant kelp.

SIDNER (voice-over): he's using this beautiful algae to create what amounts to a carbon eating car. It works like this. Algae is poured into a container on the car. The tailpipe is fitted with a device that channels the exhaust through a tube and into the clear container. The carbon dioxide coming out of the tailpipe goes directly into the container. Sahoo says algae can capture carbon dioxide, and with water and sunlight, the algae multiplies and oxygen is produced as a byproduct. Bye-bye greenhouse gases. Hello pure oxygen. Sahoo made this rough prototype for $500 and affixed to his old car. SIDNER (on camera): The problem with the invention as it is right now is, nobody wants that on the top of their car. But our inventor here says that with the help of the automobile industry, it will get sleeker and become much more desirable.

SAHOO: They have been all trying for the hybrid cars, hybrid in (ph) cars, which are very, very expensive. And this is a very simple device which can be fitted into the car.

SIDNER (voice-over): When it's time to replace the contents of the box with new algae solution, scientist Sahoo says the wastes can be turned into biofuel, which could in turn power vehicles. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into biofuel research, but there are exerts who say they don't think algae-based biofuels would perform well in vehicles. And then there's the issue of building the infrastructure to create the biofuel, which would be hugely expensive. It would require a great deal of investment from industry and government policy to encourage its use. Still, Sahoo hopes his relatively cheap invention can help cure the world's rising temperatures with seaweed.

Sara Sidner, CNN, New Delhi.

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LEMON: Several stories caught our attention today, and photos as well. Take a look.

In India, these women are planting rice in hopes that they will get enough rain to grow. The monsoon season, which is critical for farming, has been below average this month.

Children clash with police outside a court in Cambodia before 13 women were released from jail today. The women were arrested after they protested being evicted from their homes.

Reel now to Australia. These elephants, look at them, they are giving their stamp of approval for a conservation program. Handlers helped the elephants dip their feet in paint before they stepped on the canvas.