Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

World Growing By Leaps And Bounds; Hugo Chavez Cancer Free; Lagerfeld Builds Legacy At Chanel

Aired July 11, 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: Here's what's going on now.

Dozens of children 2 and 3 years old died horribly of a mysterious disease that had doctors racing to find a cure. They had no idea what was happening until today. They know. I am talking about Cambodia. A deadly outbreak sprang up this year, started killing children. Sixty-four children died in all.

I want to take you live to Cambodia right now. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he is there and he is finding out, what is causing the sickness is one thing, curing it is another. What do we know today, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, and just that number 64, you know, to put that in perspective, that was out of 66 cases. So what we were hearing was a nearly 100 percent lethal illness here.

What we're learning now over just the last day, Suzanne, is that in addition to Enterovirus 71, we talked about that yesterday; that's the pathogen that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease -- there were two other pathogens that were also found, something known as Streptococcus suis and also the pathogen that causes dengue fever, something that is quite common.

In this part of the world, in this country in particular, they have 11,000 cases. But the questions, Suzanne, they were trying to answer, is why were these pathogens so aggressive? Why were they essentially leading to the death of these children, as you mentioned, 24 hours after admission?

And one of the things the World Health Organization is pointing to is the use, the inappropriate use of steroids in these children. Steroids, as you may know, is a medication that is an anti- inflammatory. But in someone who has an infection, it also suppresses the immune system, allowing that infection to be more deadly.

So it can take a dangerous infection, Suzanne, and turn it into a deadly one. That's the simplest and best way that I can sort of put this together. But that's how this mystery illness sort of gets solved.

MALVEAUX: What is next, Sanjay, in terms of doctors dealing with this? GUPTA: Well, you know, the big thing is a message from the World Health Organization to doctors, to health care teams all around Cambodia, saying refrain from using steroids. I think that's going to be a message that is going to be heard pretty loud and clear.

You know, with regard to the infections themselves, this is a part of a world where we saw avian flu originate, where we saw SARS originate. So there are going to be infectious diseases and that's not going to change.

But how deadly they are, how much of an impact they might make obviously is the name of the game here. So in addition to not using steroids, they're going to try and prevent the spread of the infection as much as possible.

Some of this, just simple messages, things that you and I have talked about a lot. Even after all this reporting, reminding people to wash hands, because hand and mouth transmission is one of the ways these pathogens are spread. So important, simple reminders, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Sanjay, is this something that could happen in another country if the conditions were right?

GUPTA: Yes, it absolutely could happen in another country. And you know, we've been talking to a lot of doctors who have looked at these sorts of things in other countries. In fact, they've seen Enterovirus 71 outbreaks in other countries. They've seen them even cause deaths.

Again, what was different here was just how quickly and how much destruction of the lungs, for example, we were seeing with this particular pathogen. So it can happen but I will tell you from a contagious standpoint, I think you can walk back some of the concerns that we heard early on. This is the good news.

Does not appear to be contagious, does not appear to be clustering. Does not appear to be a necessity for travel warnings for people visiting Cambodia, so that's a little bit of good news in there as well, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Let's have a little bit of good news in there. Thank you, Sanjay. Appreciate it.

Also in Cambodia right now for a totally different reason, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is there. She landed in Cambodia just a little while ago. This is her arrival in neighboring Laos. That was earlier in the day. She is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos. That is in 57 years. She was only there for four hours. She met with the communist country's prime minister.

Clinton is touring the part of the world once known as Indochina -- Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. She is attending an economic and cultural summit in Cambodia.

Followup to a story that we first told you about yesterday. Police have charged this Egyptian couple with putting their child at risk. This is an unbelievable story here. They are accused of trying to smuggle their baby in a carry-on bag through airport security at the United Arab Emirates.

Now people say the parents, they didn't want to wait for visa papers for this infant, so they put him in the security system. And the baby, we understand, is in good condition.

This just in to CNN. Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf al-Fares, has defected, that is according to two members of the opposition's Syrian National Council. Al-Fares, he is actually the highest ranking diplomat to defect since the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, the bloodshed continues. Opposition group says 34 people have been killed already today in Syria, 16 months into the carnage. And all of the diplomatic dealings in the world have still failed to end the government's attack on its own people.

New efforts are now underway by the U.N. Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan. Now he is fresh from peace talks in Syria, Iran and Iraq. He is now briefing the security council about what he thinks is the way to end the Syrian crisis.

We want to bring in Richard Roth at the U.N. there. So. Richard, tell us a little about this. The U.N. Security Council, they are -- they want to hear what he has got to say. They have got to make a decision about what to do. What are the options right now?

RICHARD ROTH, SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, for viewers who may not be familiar with how the U.N. works, the secretary-general of the U.N. makes recommendations to his bosses, the U.N. Security Council. And then the council decides.

They have until approximately July 20th or so to decide what to do with this, in effect ,failed mission in Syria -- 300 unarmed observers who were unable to quell the violence by moving around and trying to keep tabs on who was doing what to who,.

So there are three options the secretary-general of the U.N. has proposed to the security council. And Kofi Annan the former secretary-general is briefing the council now on the situation on the ground and peace talk opportunities.

According to the current U.N. secretary-general, the recommendations, the council will consider three options. Number one, the most likely, shifting the focus of this mission deployed in Syria to a consolidation -- move people from around the country of Syria into Damascus to have a central office and then focus on political transition talks.

Maybe not totally transition, but talking with all factions of Syrian society. It really won't stop the violence in any way.

Option number two, of course, more observers and increasing armed protection, that is rated unlikely by various diplomats. And then number three would be really dismantling the mission and bringing everyone home. That doesn't appear likely. They are not ready to give up yet on this mission.

So three major options that the security council is considering.

MALVEAUX: And Richard, there was also a meeting that took place in Moscow today between Russia and the opposition leaders, who want Mr. Assad to go. What happened? How did that go?

ROTH: Well, that's a little unique. The opposition, which wants President Assad out and has never agreed to any kind of talks, and Russia, which has been all about let's talk. Let's talk in Moscow. Let's have several meetings between Assad representatives and the opposition.

It's never happened. It doesn't appear, according to diplomats, it would happen and the opposition told the Russians, look, Assad's got to go. Everyone's got to go before we sit down and talk.

The Russians said, yes, this is all part of a process, but only through diplomacy can you achieve some solutions.

Of course, Russia is still a major arms supplier to Syria. It said yesterday through some government officials it will stop any new sales and delivery to Syria, but certainly the connection between Moscow and Damascus is strong and strong enough here at the U.N. to block any new resolutions, which some countries want to have, along with those three options on what to do in Syria.

They'll all agree to new considerations, but various countries want more pressure put on.

MALVEAUX: Still a lot to work through there. All right. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate it.

Many world leaders are condemning Syrian president Bashar al- Assad, the embattled dictator. He has, however, found an ally in Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez, he has recently sent three large diesel shipments to Syria, despite international sanctions.

And "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that a fourth shipment is now in the works. And critics warn there could be military material hidden inside those ships.

Here is more of what we're working on for this hour in Newsroom International.

A woman is found dead in London. Her husband is in custody. He is the son of one of the wealthiest men in the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Everyone in the United Kingdom is talking about this mystery today. It is the death of a woman and what might have happened to her and how much one of the world's richest families is involved in this.

This is Eva Rausing and her billionaire husband, Hans Rausing. She was found dead this week in her home in London. The same day he was arrested on drug charges. Well, now we're hearing some details about the couple's past run-ins with police, also involving drugs.

We want to go live to London. Atika Shubert is following the story.

First of all, tell us why everybody is so interested in this mystery.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Rausing family is one of the richest families in the world. You know those ubiquitous liquid containers, the Tetra Pak case? Well, this was invented by the grandfather, Hans Rausing Jr. And it left him with -- his father is actually worth $10 billion. So it is a staggering amount of wealth. That is one reason why they're all interested.

But there are also these reports of hardcore drug use by the couple. In about 2008, they were both arrested for possession of heroin and crack cocaine when Eva Rausing attempted to smuggle drugs into a party at the U.S. Embassy. So this is a couple who is known both for their wealth, but also their hard partying. That's why there is a lot of interest in this.

MALVEAUX: Atika, what do they believe happened to this woman?

SHUBERT: Well, they don't really know yet. Her death is classified as unexplained. An inquest is still ongoing. So we should know in a few days' time, hopefully. We don't even know how long the body was in the house.

What we know is the circumstances around it that Hans Rausing Jr. was apparently driving erratically. He was stopped by police, arrested for suspicion of drug possession, and that's when police went into the home and discovered the body of Eva Rausing in an upstairs room.

We understand that now Hans Rausing has been rearrested and questioned in connection with her death, but he is currently receiving medical treatment. So we probably won't get any answers on exactly what caused her death until at least a few more days.

MALVEAUX: This is kind of a weird report. Some media reporting that inside the U.K. that Hans Rausing might have lived in the house for a week or more with his wife's body. Are police commenting about that?

SHUBERT: They are not commenting on that. They say they simply do not know how long the body was in the house. It is something that they are hoping the inquest will be able to tell them. At this point, it's pure speculation. We just don't know.

MALVEAUX: And what about the rest of the Rausing family? Are they actually influential in how this is being handled? SHUBERT: They are very influential. The Rausing family is very well known here for their efforts at philanthropy and academia. For example, Hans and Eva Rausing were known by Prince Charles because they were big donors to the Prince's Trust. So they were very well known here.

I have to say, however, that they weren't directly involved with the Tetra Pak business, which is what earned all of this money for them. Their father, in fact, had divested his shares in the business a long time ago in 1995. So they had nothing to do with the business.

But they're very well known in London for their philanthropy work, especially and sadly, Eva Rausing gave almost a million dollars to a charity that tried to prevent young people from getting hooked on drugs.

MALVEAUX: The irony. Well, thank you, Atika. It's really a very interesting and mysterious story there. Appreciate it.

A question: what do you do if the government starts making cuts and it hits you where you work? Well, if you're a miner in Spain, you're going to take your grievances to the street. That is right. By the looks of it, of course, they are (inaudible) going to take you there live to see how that's turning out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Many of us have experienced cuts in salary, Christmas bonuses gone. Well, earlier today, Spain's prime minister announced some similar measures in his speech. And then thousands of miners marched to Madrid. They had been walking for hundreds of miles to protest cuts already made to the coal industry.

Now as the miners arrived, they were welcomed by supporters. They were all gathered in the streets. But as you can see, violence broke out between the protesters and police.

Want to bring in Al Goodman, who is in Madrid. And, Al, these miners say that you cut the subsidies, it's going to put them out of work and so they're taking to the streets. Do you think, when you see those scenes unfold where you are, if it is going to make any difference?

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne. Well, those scenes unfolded right here where we're standing, because the miners were bringing their protests to the industry ministry behind me, trying to get the government to reverse course. And the clashes left 76 people injured, 43 protesters and 33 police officers among them.

Now, some of the miners say that it does appear like the government is not going to change course, but they are going to keep fighting anyway. All of this happening, by the way, as the government, as the prime minister in parliament this morning announced a new round of austerity cutbacks and a new round of tax hikes, all of that because the Spanish banks need a bailout from Europe.

And Europe has said you will get the money but there are conditions. We want more budget austerity.

MALVEAUX: So, Al, where does this go here? I mean, Spain, you've already got 25 percent unemployment, you've got these new cuts announced by the prime minister. So you're talking families, businesses, people who are obviously going to be impacted in this. Where do they go from here?

GOODMAN: Well, if you listen to the prime minister, the hard times have to come now and later, later, later there will be the good times.

But, boy, if you talk to the families, not just the miners but so many other people across the board, among the cuts today, reducing the length of the unemployment benefits, the prime minister saying people have to get back to work and go out and look for a job.

But there aren't jobs to be had. So basically the people are suffering and what we're hearing from experts is right now the only safety net in Spain really is the extended family safety net. That is under extreme pressure. If that breaks, things could get a lot worse, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: It might seem like a political question here, but a lot of people are asking this and they're warning that this new financial package, it could put Spain into a deeper recession. So do you think they're talking about they need more growth over cuts to get out of the economic decline?

GOODMAN: Well, that has been a very vibrant debate by some of the world's leading economists, not just in Spain but outside the opposition to the prime minister -- remember he has a commanding majority in parliament. Doesn't have to listen to anybody else and his critics say he doesn't. They say that he could be making cuts to the wealthiest.

I mean, tax increases on the wealthiest people, like is happening next door in France, where the socialist president is taxing the wealthiest people and not putting these critics that the government here say all of the problems on the workers' backs, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Al, thank you very much.

As Al just explained, people facing hard times in Spain. But when you visit a Spanish flea market, ask them how their lives, how they're doing, well, it might surprise you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: As mentioned earlier, Spain's government is slashing budgets, raising taxes now. It means that everybody is cutting back, looking for a bargain and trying to stretch their savings as much as possible.

Richard Quest, he visited a flea market in Madrid, where shoppers and sellers are feeling the pinch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST (voice-over): At Madrid's El Rastro flea market, there are bargains to be had. Not much else to sing about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After three years of recession, we are trying to struggle as hard as we can to at least to survive. So now after these difficult three years, the only thing that we are thinking of is how to manage ourself with food and also with college for the small boys and we're waiting for this recession to get finished.

QUEST (voice-over): On every stall, there are economic tales of hardship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, right now there is no consumption at all because the economy is slow down. It worsen day by day. We believe that it seems would be worse in the next year, at least for one to two years. We have problems to pay the expenses.

QUEST (voice-over): People rummaging for that bargain, even sellers struggling to make a sale.

QUEST: Are people buying less? Are they bargaining the price down?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're focusing only on tourists. The Spanish people are not -- buying less and less.

QUEST: And do they fear it's going to get worse?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. Definitely.

QUEST (voice-over): In a country where the young persons' unemployment rate is at least 50 percent, the economic picture is even bleaker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you think that the real problem here is unemployment, especially among young people, because there is a lack of opportunity for people that are just coming out of university and they're trying to get new jobs. But the life is still pretty good.

QUEST: It just hasn't hit home yet. It has -- people haven't realized what's about to come their way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I think that they do. They just don't worry that much about it, because at the same time, what can they do to stop it, right? At the end of the day, this country's now belong to IMF anyway, right? Like most -- like Greece, right? Well, I don't think we need to be rescued. I just think that it's going to take some discipline.

QUEST: So people are not going 'round here as if it's the end of the world?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look around you. Look around you. I don't think so.

QUEST (voice-over): Looking around, there are many stories of struggle and the odd glimpse of optimism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Look around you. Richard Quest, joining us from London, Richard, love that piece. You had a chance to really get a good look there.

We saw today that Spain's prime minister says he is now going to raise taxes. A big surprise. It was against one of his campaign promises that a politician is actually reversing himself here. How are people reacting to this?

QUEST: Yes. The only thing -- the moment I heard Mariano Rajoy raising taxes, the first thing I'm old enough to remember, "Read my lips. No new taxes." Now, in that case it took about three years before we got the no new taxes pledge broken.

In this case, it's been less than three months, give or take. So from that point, Mariano Rajoy has been -- obviously he took a stand and he now had to go back on it.

In Spain, the interesting thing is this. It's definitely the people who are still in work, have still got money and will pay higher taxes, but are not affected as much. It is this vast and growing underbelly of society that is being badly hit and will continue to be hit.

And, Suzanne, one of the things you saw in that report, which perhaps wasn't as obvious is the biggest and busiest stalls there were those that were selling one piece of clothing for five euros, two pieces for three. So one for three, two for five. And those bargain basement stalls were absolutely crammed at the first day of the January sales.

MALVEAUX: Everybody is looking for a good bargain. Richard, you mentioned the fact that some people were optimistic. Why?

QUEST: Very good question. I think it's false optimism. It comes back to this idea, the same as in the U.K., the same as in the U.S. If you are in work and have not lost your job, you've not lost your benefits, yes, the recession and hard times have hit.

You may be paying more for gasoline. You may be paying more in some taxes, but, fundamentally, fundamentally you're OK and maybe even better off as price pressure has pushed things down.

It is the people who have lost benefits, who are out of work, those people who are now really struggling. And if you look at Spain, there is this, very much now, this, well, "what will be will be" attitude. But the bars were still busy. The restaurants were still packed. And the cafes were still doing brisk business.

MALVEAUX: Kind of similar to here. All right. Richard, thank you. Good to see you as always.

War crimes, crimes against humanity happen across the globe. Well, the court that is supposed to prosecute people who engage in the atrocities, well, it has been around for years but it's handed down only one sentence. We're going to talk about the court's record with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It's a new trend among the wealthy as they try to escape their tax burden, give up U.S. citizenship. Grammy-nominated songwriter Denise Rich, she is the latest. She has lived in London for almost a year and has renounced her U.S. citizenship.

You remember her ex-husband, Mark Rich, fled to Switzerland after being convicted of tax evasion and profiteering. In 2001, then- President Clinton issued a controversial pardon.

Cuban government official says that the cholera outbreak there is now under control. Authorities haven't updated the official death toll, but earlier this month they confirmed that three cholera deaths had occurred. Eighty-five cases are confirmed, 346 cases suspected. The outbreak has been centered in the eastern part of Cuba.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

MALVEAUX: Got to love it. The love of Bob Marley continues in the Caribbean. A U.S. marine biologist has named a new species of coral crustaceans after him. That's right. The small parasitic creatures, they hide among coral reefs and are unique to the Caribbean as the legendary reggae singer. Way to go.

Now it is supposed to be the world court that administers justice in cases of war crimes, including genocide. But now, at 10 years old, the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands is being harshly criticized for being selective in its prosecutions.

Just yesterday it sentenced Congo militia leader Thomas Lubanga to prison for forcing children under 15 to become soldiers. Well, his case, it was the ICC's first sentencing since the court was actually established in 2002. Lately critics say it is unfairly choosing who it goes after, and that the court is targeting Africans and bypassing abuses in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.

We're going to talk to someone who knows about genocide and war tribunals. Our next guest, Elie Wiesel, he is a Holocaust survivor and professor at Boston University.

And, Professor, thank you for joining us. You might not remember; you taught me as a visiting professor at Harvard. Your class was one of the most amazing, impactful courses I've taken, the history of genocide. And I want to talk a little about what we are seeing here with the ICC. Ten years now to wait for the first sentencing for these crimes. Why does it take so long, do you think?

ELIE WIESEL, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: Suzanne, first of all, I congratulate you, to be your teacher in teacher is my pride.

MALVEAUX: Thank you.

As for the international court, they are not so proud of it, because the idea was to -- I remember how it came about -- 1992 already, a secretary of state, Larry Eagleburger and I at the State Department discussed the creation of that court. But it took a long time for the court to come into being.

Why it takes long, who knows why? The legal, the judicial process is so long always. It is not only that. But because it is international, so it takes more time. But the idea is good and it should be better. Simply, when a person, anywhere in the world, is involved in crimes against humanity, that person should know that that person will be judged.

MALVEAUX: Let's talk a little bit about the criticism about these cases and where they've been launched. So we look at the scene that's been set up. You have the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor. He goes to prison in a special separate court for the civil wars and fighting in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Now you have Lubanga here yesterday. Do you think there is bias about who is being prosecuted and who's being tried for these crimes?

WIESEL: I don't think so, because the very first leaders actually were those who were involved in the war of Bosnia and Yugoslavia. Many of them were (inaudible), sentenced, condemned and some of them really are still in prison. So there is no bias. No racial bias. I don't think so.

MALVEAUX: Do you think, when you look at the Arab spring uprisings, you have these -- some of these dictators who are being held accountable and then some seem to be protected from the ICC (sic). So if you look at Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, he is an ally of the U.S. And he is seen as turning his security forces on unarmed protesters, but he is still living very comfortably in Yemen.

You have Syria's Assad, who has powerful friends like Russia and China. How do you hold those dictators accountable if their backers are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council?

WIESEL: Well, what can we do? They have the legal power and the legal power is one of the basic principles of the United Nations. It doesn't always please me, but the fact is they have it. But then I really believe that these people that you mentioned, they will be arrested one day. I'm sure they will be. And they will be brought to justice.

MALVEAUX: What gives you that optimism? What gives you that hope?

WIESEL: I believe in justice. I believe in truth. And when the two are combined, then they are powerful. It takes time. At times we have to be patient, being patiently patient.

MALVEAUX: Wise words, Professor Elie Wiesel, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

WIESEL: Thank you, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Hosting the Olympics. Nothing new for London, but did you know that the first modern games weren't even supposed to be held in England?

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: In just two weeks, London is going to kick off the 2012 Olympic Games. The city is going to welcome hundreds of thousands of athletes and spectators. Going to be pretty cool. For London, it is a tradition. Dates back to more than a century. Becky Anderson takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): 1908, 1948, 2012, spanning the course of the century. Perhaps no city has been more influential in shaping the future of the modern Olympic Games than London.

But it was only by chance that the Olympics were held here. The Games were originally scheduled for Rome, but even a century ago, the event could be an economic burden.

The Italian government feared the games could bankrupt them and when in 1906 Mount Vesuvius erupted, they beat a hasty retreat. With no budget, no venue and only 18 months to go, the Olympic Committee cast around for another venue. And in the summer of 1906, they found one.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Britain rules the waves, or it thinks it does. So the red empire map is covering most of the globe. And although the First World War is coming, when you looked at it in retrospect, they don't know about this. So in 1908, they are trying to show the world how sport is played.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Having taken on the Olympics, the British set about organizing it with the help of some royal intervention.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, this seat of British majesty was where the marathon race began under the windows of the east terrace. And the story was that Princess Mary, the Princess of Wales, wanted it to start so that the children could see it from the nursery.

And that is the distance, in the end, from here down to the stadium. That brings you to 26 miles, 385 yards.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Marathon runner Durando Pietre captured the public's imagination that year. In gold medal position, he fell just meters before the finish. The Crown, desperate to see him beat American Johnny Hayes , encouraged the officials to help him across the line. He was later disqualified.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Queen Alexandra, who was watching the box, was so moved by this wonderfully tragic heroic tale that she goes in her cupboards overnight and comes out with a special silver cup.

She says, where is Durando Pietre ? And he has -- comes up to the crowd with the acclamations of the crowd, and is given the special silver cup.

ANDERSON: The London games of 1908 could not have been in starker contrast to those of 1948. The city, like much of Europe, had been ravaged by war. The local population was still under rationing and coming to terms with life in peacetime. London was a broken city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A flight of birds was released into the skies, a message to the world that strife must cease.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Despite the times, Charles McIlvainy remembers the games for very different reasons.

CHARLES MCILVAINY : I was very, very fortunate to run a leg of the relay to bring the flame to Wembley.

ANDERSON: And that of course is the torch.

MCILVAINY : And that was the torch, which I've still kept. It's got my name and everything.

This one here was at the actual changeover, and each runner had their own torch.

(CROSSTALK)

MCILVAINY : Well, not really. (Inaudible) Yes, well, I was young and fit then.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDERSON (voice-over): And so to London, 64 years on. What can we expect from this next Olympic chapter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have every race, every nationality. It's going to be a festival that is going -- I mean, no one who comes will ever forget it as long as they live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Hugo Chavez claims that he has been cured of cancer. We're going to look at how people in Venezuela are reacting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Today is World Population Day. In case you haven't counted lately, there are about 7 billion of us here on earth. I want you to take a look at this. China continues to have the largest population with more than 1.3 billion people. India, not too far behind with almost 1.2 billion. The U.S. ranks third with a little more than 330 million people. Indonesia, fourth. Brazil rounds out the top five.

In London today, the British government and the United Nations are hosting a summit on family planning. Hoping to ease the population problem, they want to provide contraceptives to millions of women and girls in the world's poorest countries who don't have access to them. The man in charge of the U.N. effort, Babatunde Osotimehin, he heads the U.N. Population Fund.

Doctor, very good to see you here.

We've gone from, what, a little bit more than 2 billion folks in 1950. Now we're at 7 billion. Is this a good growth rate? Is this the way it should be?

BABATUNDE OSOTIMEHIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNFPA: Quite frankly, the world population growth rate is slowed down in the last decade or two. But what we are doing today in London is really not about controlling population. It's about giving access to women so that they can make choices about their lives to have the number of children they can afford and the spacing between them that is convenient for them and that is healthy. So it's about choice. It's about rights. And it's about women's health.

MALVEAUX: Understandably so. Is there an issue, is there a problem with how many people are on our planet now in terms of the resources that we have to sustain them as families?

OSOTIMEHIN: At this point in time, of course, where you look at specific regions of the world, there are some pressures on the ecosystem. But going forward, we need to take steps, of course, to insure that we can provide for everybody. And that's why we're empowering women to be able to make those choices in their lives, to rear -- to have just the number of children that they can afford and they want. And it actually not only empowers them in terms of child bearing, it also empowers them economically.

MALVEAUX: And we understand your boss, the U.N. secretary, Ban Ki-moon, he issued a statement here reiterating the importance of making reproductive health care mainstream. He says in his statement, "investing in universal access to reproductive health is a crucial investment in healthy societies and a more sustainable future." And it also, of course, as you say, advocates birth control. I suspect that there has been some pushback from the Vatican over this and perhaps other religious organizations who do not believe that birth control is a good idea.

OSOTIMEHIN: Well, listening to you and talking about it, we don't talk about birth control. We talk about empowering women to make choices. I think they are two different things. This is the right of every woman to make this choice. It's the right of every girl, adolescent, growing, to be able to make choices about her life, to decide when and how many and what (INAUDIBLE) she will have. Now, of course, we know that in places in the world where that has been applied appropriately, where spaces have been made for women to make those choices, the population growth has slowed considerably. And we've had a better growth in terms of the economy and the quality of life for people.

MALVEAUX: And, very quickly here, you see a situation in China that is occurring here where you have this policy, reported cases of forced abortion because of the country's one child policy. How do you strike that balance between providing birth control in the right number, the population that our planet can sustain, and these kinds of countries that promote these policies?

OSOTIMEHIN: UNFPA promote the policy to insure that we have a rights based approach to family planning and to rearing children. And that's what we do all over the world, including China.

MALVEAUX: All right. Doctor, I appreciate your time.

OSOTIMEHIN: Thank you very much.

MALVEAUX: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez says he is totally free now of cancer. He said this before. It's not the first time that he has actually made the claim. I want to bring in Rafael Romo here to talk a little bit about it.

So why do you suppose he's saying this now? Is this political in some ways or something?

RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: It is very political. We're less than two months away from presidential elections, October 7th. And whatever he says right now, to position himself as a candidate who's viable to win re-election again -- and this will be his third re-election for another six-year term. He came to power in the late '90s for the -- 1990 for the first time. So positioning himself as somebody who's healthy and capable of running the government is very, very important for him to do.

Now, he said the same thing last year in June when he disappeared for a number of weeks, went to Cuba to get treated. Had surgery to remove some sort of cancer. He has not released what kind of cancer he has. An then he went back to Venezuela and said, I'm cancer free.

Now, a little bit of a time line here. That was the first time that we heard that there was a problem. Last year in June.

MALVEAUX: Right.

ROMO: Then over the fall, he underwent several chemotherapy treatments in Cuba. And then again in February of this year, he had another surgery. So nobody really knows, first of all, what kind of cancer he has.

MALVEAUX: Right. And have we seen him? We haven't really actually seen him. So is there any way to verify whether or not any of this is true? ROMO: There's really no way to verify it. It's a state secret when it comes to his condition. No -- we don't really know what kind of cancer he's had. We know it's something in the pelvic area. But we don't know if it's bone cancer or if it's affecting any other organs.

MALVEAUX: Well, he would have to make an appearance, I'd imagine, if he's going to be running again.

ROMO: Exactly. Well, the last few times that he has been in public, he appears -- his face is a little bit swollen. So doctors and those who know would say that that's what happens when you're taking steroids, which is part of treatment for some kinds of cancer. But the reality is, what his real status is, we don't even know.

MALVEAUX: And you've got a separate report coming out, violence against women in Mexico. Can you expound on that a little bit? I know you're working on something else.

ROMO: Y Es. Well, Amnesty International is publishing a report about violence against women in Mexico. And it's being embargoed until 7:00 tonight. But the report comes at a very timely time because we can talk about, for example, the hundreds of murders that have happened against women. All the victims are women.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

ROMO: In (INAUDIBLE) across the border from El Paso, Texas, that have yet to be solved. We can talk about women as collateral damage when it comes to the drug war. More than 50,000 people who have died, many of them women, many of them collateral damage.

And last but not least, and this is something that I've been also working on, trafficking of women within Mexico for the purposes of sexual exploitation. And that is very, very dramatic because we're not only talking about adults, we're also talking about minors. And so when you put all of that together, it's a very alarming situation indeed.

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll be looking more for your report, 7:00 you said, yes?

ROMO: Uh-huh. Thank you. Yes.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Rafael.

All this week we're taking you inside the world of high fashion. Through our CNN "Backstage Pass," today the ultra high end of high fashion. Karl Lagerfeld's pricey collection at Chanel not for everybody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Few names dominate the fashion world like Chanel. Signature handbags, iconic perfume label and arguably the event, Paris Fashion Weeks. The Chanel runway show debuting its latest clothing collection. Well, the driving force behind the brand, designer Karl Lagerfeld. He is one of ot cauture's superstars. There's more to him than just fashion. All these week, Alina Cho is introducing us to the people who inspire the clothes women like to wear. Here's your fashion "Backstage Pass."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the only cameras allowed inside Chanel's Paris design studio, we get a glimpse of Karl Lagerfeld few see. The Chanel maestro at work.

KARL LAGERFELD, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, CHANEL: Can you walk in this?

CHO: Just hours before he unveils his latest ot couture collection to the international press. The clothes you see here will soon be on the runway, but never in a department store, because couture dresses are custom made.

LAGERFELD: Something that's made by hand, (INAUDIBLE), impeccably made, what fits like a glove.

CHO: With the most expensive fabrics and details, so intricate a single dress can take hundreds of hours to make.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Couture is the moment when it all starts. It is the place where you hear and you see it first.

CHO: Couture elevates a brand like Chanel, even though many fashion houses lose money or break even doing it. At Chanel, Lagerfeld says couture makes money.

CHO (on camera): On average, what is the cost of a couture dress?

LAGERFELD: It depends. You know, it goes from $35,000 to $200,000 or $300,000.

CHO (voice-over): For one piece of clothing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people don't understand why couture costs so much money. The work that you'll see on the runways here in Paris is like no other. This is museum quality.

CHO: So who's buying couture?

LAGERFELD: Second wife and if not third . You see? And they all have model sized bodies maybe.

CHO (on camera): And younger these days you say?

LAGERFELD: Yes. Very young. Average is 30, 35.

CHO (voice-over): And more international.

LAGERFELD: It's completely different. The world of the Japanese, the world of the Chinese, the world of the Russians, the world of the Middle East, or to India, and Brazil.

CHO: And these clients are discriminating.

LAGERFELD: You put a dress on an actress for the red carpet, you see (INAUDIBLE). She sees a photo. She comes with the dress.

CHO (on camera): No.

LAGERFELD: (INAUDIBLE) has the dress.

CHO (voice-over): Yes. Because for all that money, Lagerfeld says the couture client wants a dress nobody else has.

CHO (on camera): So then for Chanel and for you, what does couture represent?

LAGERFELD: It's the top of the -- of the pyramid.

CHO: Creme de la creme.