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Obama Draws "Red Line" On Syria; U.S. Loses Key African Ally; South African Miners in Mourning After Massacre; A Children's Book to Explain the Euro Crisis in Portugal; Hong Kong Women Live Longest; Iranian Singer Draws in Israelis

Aired August 21, 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 you around the world in 60 minutes.

Here's what's going on right now:

She was being forced to marry a man she didn't love. When she resisted, her parents killed her. But this didn't happen in India, or Pakistan or Afghanistan. It happened in the U.K.

And the euro crisis threatens all of us. So, how do you explain it to kids? We'll try a picture book.

But, first, the White House wading deeper into a civil war. President Obama issuing his toughest warnings so far to the Syrian government.

But there has been no letup in the violence threatening the people of Syria and journalists now covering this uprising. Rebels say 33 people were killing in fighting across the country today. A Japanese journalist was killed in a gun battle in Aleppo yesterday, and two journalists working for an Arab TV station financed by the United States are now missing.

Jim Clancy, he's joining us.

I want to start first of all with the president's comments. This was made yesterday about a possible U.S. military response. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Jim, this really got a lot of us thinking and got our attention here when he talks about changing the calculus, changing the equation, crossing a red line. This is a language that is very, very strong. We have not heard this from the president yet. This is the first time here.

What does this mean? In terms of where the United States is positioning itself, and how Syria is responding?

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we look at this in the context of what is believed to be in the hands of the Syrian regime, and that is a very large and potent arsenal of nerve agents that could be deployed, could be used.

Moreover, they could be shifted to other locations and put into the hands of people that the U.S. really does not want to have these kinds of weapons. They're worried about the security. They're monitoring that.

And the president is hinting, they're hinting, he could change the game here and he could take unilateral military actions. The Russians are very quick to respond to all this. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, was in Beijing at the time. Here's what he had to say.

All right. Sergei Lavrov -- what he had to say was that they believed that unilateral military action or even the threat of it was outside the bounds of the United Nations charter and international law. They don't want to see anything.

We saw backtracking right here from Damascus saying, wait a minute, we weren't saying that we had chemical weapons, we were saying that we would only use those types of weapons if a foreign force invaded us. So, you saw sharp reaction from the Russians, perhaps reflecting Chinese position, but certainly coming from Damascus as well -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Jim, there's a lot of division over this. And, clearly, the Russian and Chinese -- they don't like to hear the kind of language they heard from President Obama.

Tell us, what is the situation on the ground in Syria? Because before, we did see some movement. There actually was a lot of concern whether or not nuclear or chemical weapons were being moved in that country.

CLANCY: Well, chemical weapons. Listen, to be clear here, we're not talking about nuclear weapons. Chemical weapons -- yes, the Free Syrian Army said some had been shifted to southern airports and to the border with Syria, but at this time, it hasn't been confirmed. As I said, we do know the U.S. is closely monitoring this from the air to find out just where they might be moved and what might be done with them after that point.

Are they being deployed? That's a big question. This is not a conflict in any way, shape or form, where the use of chemical weapons would really be strategically effective. There's no real frontline here. There's no major force moving into the country.

So the question would become then, would day be used just to retaliate against the civilian population? As Saddam Hussein did with Hallajah (ph) killing thousands of civilians? Or would they be deployed, would they be transferred to another party which really concerns the U.S. -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Jim, finally here, the number two guy in Syria, the vice president, there are still reports that he is no longer in that country, that he has defected. Do we have any more information about his whereabouts?

CLANCY: None, absolutely. The Free Syrian Army telling reporters that it believes their troops are trying to usher him out of the country. But let's be clear here: Farouq al Sharaa for years was the face of the Syrian regime under Hafez al Assad, Bashar's Assad's father, the face of the regime to the world. He represented them in the Madrid peace talks after the First Gulf War.

So here's a very major figure in this government. Now, we know he had a bit of a falling out with the government. He may want to leave.

Let's be very clear here -- leaving the Syrian government, leaving Bashar al Assad is not the same thing as joining forces with the opposition. We're going to have to wait and see on this one -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Jim Clancy, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

We're going to turn to Africa, where Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawai, he has died. He was a strong ally in the U.S., especially in his fight against the terror that happened in that region. Economic reforms also during his 20 years in power transformed his country.

So you might recall, this was the scene, this is in the '80s, when about a million Ethiopians died in a famine that sparked an outcry around the world. Including this --

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

MALVEAUX: "We Are the World" recording raised millions for famine relief.

Fast forward now to 2012, Ethiopia had become one of the most stable nations in the region, relatively prosperous.

We want to bring in Michael Holmes from CNN International to talk a little bit about this.

So, he was first of all, he was not in the public eye for months. People suspected there was something that was seriously wrong. What happened?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You know, we've been keeping an eye on it down at CNN international, raised this sort of mystery a week or so ago when he didn't show up to couple regional meetings.

Nobody knows for sure. He's died out of the country. There's speculation he was being treated for an unspecified illness in Belgium, perhaps Germany, and then got an infection and that's what killed him.

To put it in context, he was undeniably the man who was central to everything in Ethiopia, the good and the bad -- from the amazing economic turnaround that we saw in Ethiopia, which is one of the poorest countries in the region, to what it is now. Very stable. Economic growth is good.

But he was also responsible for enormous repression. Dissent in that country was crushed. This guy was not a fan of listening to the opponents. He would crush them ruthlessly. You have a bit of the good and bad on both sides. It was a 2005 election. 200 people were killed when they protested the results. The next election in 2010 he won 99 percent of the vote.

So, you know, democratic credentials can criticize. The economic reform is topnotch.

MALVEAUX: Yes, Human Rights Watch -- I mean, they say he was guilty of abuses. He was very much authoritative figure there. But talk a little bit about this power vacuum now that we see, because there is a lot of concern that now that he has passed away that you do not have a strong leader in that country, and that country is so critical to providing the stability in that area of Africa.

HOLMES: Absolutely critical, and being a good friend of the United States. Yes, his deputy, a guy called Hailemariam. He has now stepped in in an acting capacity. They're going to work on who's going to be the permanent replacement.

Miriam Singh (ph) is a bit young for the job at the moment but he was the put there by the prime minister and seen perhaps as somebody who could make it up the ladder. He died young. He was 57. He didn't expect this to happen now.

So, people are worried about what could happen mow. And a very delicate place. We have a map we can show you. You have nasty neighbors around. You've got Somalia, you've got South Sudan, there's been problems in Kenya.

Why is he important to the United States? Why does it matter to us?

Well, he has been a major regional ally in counterterrorism, in the fight against terror. Particularly when you're talking about Somalia. U.S. drones sort of patrol around Somalia or east Africa. They're launched from Ethiopia.

Special Forces have used Ethiopian soil to help out in that region, too. This is a man who sent his own troops into Somalia in a couple occasions to fight al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked militant group.

So, with him not there, is that help -- we're going to be so readily available, The U.S. is going to watch carefully what happens in the next few weeks.

GORANI: He also established relationships -- trade relationships with China, turkey, as well as India and had 11 percent growth rate in that country. When you look at what's happening now, is there concern? Is there fear that you're going to go back and you're going to see what took place? So, so tragic in the '80s, when so many people were starving and that economy was just in such bad shape.

HOLMES: Well, it al depends what happens, who's going to take over and whether self-interest gets involved with it. Who's going to be clamoring for the leadership rule? Who's going to run the country now? If Merriam stays in, Hailemariam stays in, and is seen as a man who followed after the prime minister, then that stability could be there.

You never know. This is a country, too, in the early '90s had Eritrea split off from Ethiopia, seceded, and you had a ferocious war there from '98-2000. Thousands of people were killed.

There are still tens of thousands of troops facing off across that border. They don't like each other. Will Eritrea sort of take advantage of this?

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, who talked about -- they say the country's going to collapse. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? But no one knows at the moment. It's a worrying situation.

Did he create a system that would survive his demise? We don't know yet.

MALVEAUX: There are a lot of Ethiopians in this country, Ethiopian America, as well as those emigrate.

Do we think this is going to have an impact when people take a look at what is taking place on the country?

HOLMES: An impact in Ethiopia, you mean?

MALVEAUX: Ethiopia, or even here in the United States, when you got that close connection with so many people.

HOLMES: Yes, I think those who are here are going to worry about their own families and how things are looking there.

This is a hard line Marxist who was a revolutionary. He fought in the guerilla war against the communist government in the '70s and '80s who then became an economic reformer, but that dominance that he had, that iron glove that he ruled with could come back to bite him. Because now what? And, you know, people who live here, and I know several Ethiopians in my neighborhood, and they'll be worried about what's going to happen now, in terms of the succession chain of command.

MALVEAUX: We'll be keeping a close eye --

HOLMES: Yes, he was yin and yang, this guy.

MALVEAUX: Yes, a little bit of both.

HOLMES: He was stability, he was nasty.

MALVEAUX: Like many leaders.

HOLMES: But he helped us. Like many leaders who have helped us as well.

MALVEAUX: Exactly. Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it.

Here's more of what we're working on for NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. The Mars rover has been a huge success for NASA, right? Well, now, India is interested in exploring the red planet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It's a chilling story of a young immigrant woman in England who favored a Western lifestyle over her parents' traditional one. Well, the tragic result, a so-called honor killing.

Atika Shubert has a report from England.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no sound on this wedding video, making it all the more eerie. The bride is barely able to keep her head up and no one in the wedding party looks happy.

British police provided this video to CNN. It is the date stamp that's crucial, February 2003, and the teenager behind the bride, Shafilea Ahmed, proof that she was brought to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

This was the future that awaited the British 17 year old. Her parents had told her she would be married off and left in Pakistan like it or not.

Shortly after this video was shot, Shafilea drank a bottle of bleach in this bathroom. She was hospitalized and then flown back to Britain, viewed as an embarrassment by her parents.

Shafilea Ahmed was born in Britain, her parents Farzana and Iftikhar Ahmed raised her and her siblings in the small town of Warrington where Iftikhar worked as a taxi driver.

Plenty of people in Warrington knew the family, but no one was willing to talk to us on camera as though the entire town wanted to put the tragedy behind them. One taxi driver who worked with the father described him as an ordinary man with a temper.

Neighbors describe Shafilea as a quiet girl that would slip out of her high heel shoes and cover up her short sleeve tops a block before reaching home.

But it was at school that the first warning signs emerged.

(on camera): This is where Shafilea went to school and it was her teachers who repeatedly raised the alarm calling social services when she missed class, when she showed up to school with bruises on her arms, once with bruises around her neck and a cut on her face.

And it was her teacher, not her parents, who reported her missing to police in September 2003.

(voice-over): After months of searching, her body was found in the River Kent badly decomposed and dismembered. No cause of death could be determined.

Her parents held press conferences complaining about police delays, breaking down in tears.

And in this interview with local ITN News denying any involvement in her death.

IFTIKHA AHMED, SHAFILEA'S FATHER: Would we kill our own daughter?

UNIDNETIFIED MALE: Well, would you?

AHMED: Never.

SHUBERT: The truth came seven years later from Shafilea's younger sister Alicia, seen in this wedding video, her identity protected. Shafilea had endured years of beatings and abuse by both her parents, Alicia said, but it was after this trip to Pakistan that things got much worse.

The day she went missing, Alicia said, both parents held Shafilea down and stuff a plastic bag down her throat until she stopped struggling. In court, Alicia testified that her mother Farzana had ordered, quote, "just finish it here".

It happened at their home, immaculate from the outside, hiding the family's dark secret within.

(on camera): This is where Shafilea grew up, it's the family home. It's where Shafilea lived and died. Up until recently it's where her parents still lived. It's where her brother and sister still are. In fact, I spoke to her sister briefly, but neither her nor her brother want to talk about it.

(voice-over): Farzana and Iftikhar Ahmed have now been convicted and sentenced to life in prison, last seen lead away in hand cuffs.

Shafilea's death has been recognized by the British court as an honor killing. Their fear of being shamed, the judge noted, was greater than their love for their child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Atika Shubert -- she joins us from London.

Atika, it's such a powerful, powerful piece you've just done there. I have so many questions. I do want to start off with one question, however, and I don't know if you can answer this. But what do her siblings think of the parents who killed her?

SHUBERT: Well, one of the saddest things about this, of course, it has destroyed the family. There are four siblings, three sisters and one brother. One of -- the brother and the sister actually support the parents and are trying to file an appeal of that conviction. The other two sisters have been estranged from the family, no longer are in contact with their parents and their identities have been protected because they helped to testify against them.

MALVEAUX: Why do they feel this was justified in any way?

SHUBERT: It was a matter of family honor, and this type of crime, after speaking to a number of campaigners and experts on this, it's basically about the shame the family feels from what they perceived to be embarrassment from the community. And it seems in this particular case, by drinking bleach, by being severely injured, the family couldn't really hide the troubles that they had anymore, and this was perhaps the turning point in Shafilea's case.

It's a very particular kind of crime and very sad. One of the hardest things about it, of course, is the family that the family are the perpetrators.

MALVEAUX: And Shafilea indeed, drinking the bleach, I'm assuming that was -- that she was trying to commit suicide, that she was trying to kill herself after this arranged marriage. Is that correct? Is that what the family thought?

SHUBERT: Well, it was certainly a cry for help. But the family, I don't think initially knew what to do, and simply brought her back to Britain. And it was definitely one of the contributing factors to what happened later.

MALVEAUX: Put this into context for us, Atika. I mean, this seems like this is such a rare thing that would happen in Britain. We've heard these things happening in India. Map this out for us, if you will.

SHUBERT: We have heard cases like this in India and particular areas of Pakistan, for example, but unfortunately, it has happened before in Britain. Shafilea's case is not the only one. We have seen other cases as well in Europe, Germany, Belgium and France have had cases of honor murders recently.

So it seems particularly that here in Europe, what you have is that sort of traditional and culture clash where parents might want to enforce these very traditional conservative values on their children and the children are being exposed to these very Westernized ideas and re belling against it and may cause the crash that sometimes leads to this kind of violence.

MALVEAUX: And, Atika, finally, was there anything that social services in your reporting or storytelling could have done to protect this young woman, this young girl before it got to this point where her parents killed her?

SHUBERT: They were notified several times and in one particular instance she actually did tell social services that her parents were planning to take her to Pakistan to force her to marry. But she also told social services that she could handle the problem herself.

And unfortunately, in that case, they allowed her to go back to her family. What campaigners now say and what this case has changed about the way British social services deals with these cases is that they try and remove the victim from their family. They don't try to mediate or negotiate a solution with family, to simply remove her from that danger until they can find a better solution.

MALVEAUX: All right. Atika Shubert, thank you so much -- excellent reporting. It's very strong, a tragic story. We appreciate you bringing it to our attention.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. We take you around the world in 60 minutes. When it comes to Ireland's music scene, here's what's topping the charts.

(MUSIC)

MALVEAUX: This is the group of Monsters and Men with their new single "Little Talks." The group is from Iceland. This song hit number one in Ireland. Also number seven on the billboard rock songs chart here in the United States.

It's about 155 million miles away, and NASA's Mars rover has become a star. I want you to check this out. This is new CNN/ORC poll, says majority of Americans thinks Curiosity is a major achievement.

And we're not alone. Others nations want to explore more of the red planet as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAM RAMGOPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a stellar -- actually, make that interstellar message for the world on the country's Independence Day, with the iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, India announced it's headed for the Red Planet.

In his speech, Prime Minister Singh told the crowd his cabinet has approved the Mars orbiter mission, calling it a huge step for India in science and technology. The unmanned spacecraft, part of the mission known as Mongolian (ph), will lift off next year on a 10- month-long flight, where it will just orbit, not land on Mars, sending back photos and data.

The mission's goal is to study if life ever existed or can be sustained on Mars. But India is facing a tight deadline with the launch plan for November 2013.

KIRAN KARNIK, INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION: Timing is important, because this is the time -- by the time the mission gets there, that Mars will be comparatively the closest. So the small window in which we need to make a launch, and that's the reason why the mission has to go up next year.

RAMGOPAL: The announcement comes on the heels of the success of the latest U.S.-to-Mars rover, Curiosity. India will be the sixth country to launch a Mars mission after the U.S., Russia, France, Japan and China. But India's scientists caution the country should not get caught up in a global space race.

KARNIK: My only concern, if anything, is not the risk of failure, it's the risk that the program should not get diverted to the high visibility somewhat prestige related events.

RAMGOPAL (voice-over): But the rewards are considered huge and if the mission is successful, India would become the first Asian country to reach the Red Planet.

Ram Ramgopal, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: The first for South Korea -- the country's ruling matter picked Park Kung Hey as presidential candidate. She's the first female ever nominated by the party and daughter of the country's former leader. If she wins in December, Park says she'll work to stop corruption, build a country where, quote, "no one is left behind."

If she wins, South Korea will become president 17th country run by a woman. Take a look at the map, from Argentina to Australia, women rule.

Dozens of their co-workers were gunned down while fighting for better wages. Now, hundreds of these miners in South Africa, they are back to work after all of the bloodshed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEUAX: Now to one of the world's largest mines in Rustenburg, South Africa. That is where hundreds of miners have now returned to work. But last week, police opened fire on a line of armed strikers. Thirty-four were killed, 78 wounded. It was the deadliest police action in a decade. Police now say they acted in self-defense.

Well, David McKenzie went to the bloody scene to search for answers. Want to warn you, some of the video is graphic. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A handful of stones mark a makeshift grave. A body lay here, blood soaks the earth. The people of Maurikana (ph) are still in shock. This man who wouldn't give us his name said he lost two family members.

I'm sad because these people who were killed are my family, he says. They were just killed. They did nothing wrong. They were fighting for their rights. All he could find, he says, were their clothes.

This field has become the crime scene of the deadliest police action since apartheid. Late last week, after several days of a violent wildcat (ph) strike for more wages at the Lonmin mine, police opened fire on protesters. More than 30 were killed. The footage of the killings seared in the minds of South Africans.

Do you feel that your company has blood on its hands from what has happened?

SIMON SCOTT, ACTING CEO, LONMIN: I don't think so. I mean, I think we all, as South Africans, feel exactly the same way you feel. We've done - you know, we've gone -- we've made sure that any of our employees that have been directly affected in this, we're doing as much as we possibly can. We put in place counseling for the families. We're assisting in the arrangement appropriately with regard to the burials that need to take place.

MCKENZIE: So whose fault is this?

SCOTT: There is a commission of inquiry that has been set up to look at whose fault it may be. At this time, we're not pointing fingers. We're saying, let's get back to work. Let's get operations running smoothly. And then if there is blame to be apportioned, let's do that at a later stage.

MCKENZIE: But these union leaders say they weren't. Many of the miners are (INAUDIBLE) in Americana (ph) mines. They earn between $300 and $500 a month for the dangerous work. They've demanded at least three times that.

But inside the mining shanty town, any worker we try to interview is immediately stopped by union leaders.

The police helicopters are still circling the area of the mine. There's a real feeling of fear in this entire region. Interesting thing is, the union has put out the word. Nobody will speak to us.

Hundreds of protesters already been charged by state. Miners scour their rest lists to see who's in jail. Family members of those who died say they support the strike.

We're here to mourn, says this man, and to cry for those who died on this spot. Lonmin has threatened to fire anyone who doesn't go back to work by Tuesday. But now that the blood has been spilt, workers say, it will take a stand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: David joins us live in Johannesburg. And David, first of all, I don't quite understand this. So, this company wants miners to return, to go back to work? They're still burying their dead and they'll say, we'll sort this all out later?

MCKENZIE: Well, they have -- yes, I mean, that's basically the right read of it, Suzanne. The company has said now they're not going to fire people this week if they don't go back to work, because they said it needs to be this period of mourning, which actually South Africa's president Jacob Zuma asked for.

There is a sense of who is to blame for this? On one hand, it's either the police or the protesters. Police say that the protesters pushed toward them and fired weapons at the police, and that's why they retaliated, killing 34 people. And the protesters say they were shot at just because the police were afraid.

And it all harkens back to a much darker period in South Africa's history. People look at this, and really the images of this look so much like the images during apartheid in South Africa, where mine strikes were frequently violently put town by the police. So, a lot of soul searching is going on here in South Africa. And at this point, Suzanne, no real sense there's any resolution to this violent strike.

MALVEUAX: David, you say that the president, President Zuma, is actually calling for some sort of investigation or inquiry. Is there a feeling among the people that you talk to there that somebody will be held accountable for what happened?

MCKENZIE: At this point, no. They're very skeptical of President Zuma's calls, which is interesting in itself. I think we're seeing a sea change in some of the attitudes amongst South Africans, particularly poor South Africans who feel democracy hasn't brought them the gains they had hoped for. People I spoke to on the mines were very skeptical of what the government could offer. Some of them even calling for an independent international inquiry saying the government, which made up of leaders, who are some of them part of the strikes and part of the protest actions during apartheid, they say they don't trust them.

So, a lot of politics is going on here as well. People trying to grab what happened and use it for their own end. It remains, though, that dozens of miners were killed on that fateful day last Thursday. I think the repercussions of that here in South Africa will last for a very long time.

MALVEAUX: David McKenzie out of Johannesburg. Thank you so much.

Going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: Not exactly Alice in Wonderland. A new book for kids tries to explain the financial trouble in Portugal. It is one of the countries hit hardest by the euro crisis.

Isa Suarez explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SUAREZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the pages of this book, the markets are the bees. And the deficit, the bear. Big and fat. The crisis, the speculation, the credit ratings, the debt, the troika. There's no once upon a time. This is a story of today, as explained to children in crisis-hit Portugal.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD (via translator): The markets are getting worse with the crisis. Now the troika.

SUAREZ: To make it fair for all, or perhaps complicate matters further, the authors have created two editions of this book. One with a view from the right --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The debate is really extreme. The people on the right say the bear, who's a deficit, got fat to quickly, ate way too much, ate too much honey.

SUAREZ: -- and the other, from the left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Poor bear, it's not the bear's fault. It was the bees who in this case are the markets that stuffed the bear's mouth with honey. And he's innocent.

SUAREZ: Five-year-old Inesh (ph) has no idea who to blame or how Portugal slid into this crisis. It seems she's not alone.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: The crisis I can't quite explain because it's a bit complicated and I haven't understood it yet.

SUAREZ: Despite the long silence and pauses, Portugal's finance minister, Vitor Gaspar, was invited to take part in the book launch. He's hoping it will help educate the young. Even he has leafed through these pages.

VITOR GASPAR, PORTUGUESE FINANCE MINISTER: For the fairies, there is no (INAUDIBLE). The order is seeing the world upside down.

SUAREZ: Perhaps he will take it home with him, some light summer reading before the bears come out again in September. Isa Suarez, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: All right. The next chapter of that book could be about the ease wars. That is because Portugal says he's going to have to bail out the autonomous region.

Call this the Chinese fountain of youth. We're going to tell you what is keeping these women in Hong Kong alive longer than anybody else.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Japan can no longer boast about having the longest living women in the world. Hong Kong now has taken the title. Women there live an average of more than 86 years. Pretty amazing. Anna Coren takes a look at the secret to their long life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, it's hard to imagine how Hong Kong, with its high intensity, stress and pollution, could possibly add years to your life. But it just so happens that its female residents have not only learned but mastered the secret to aging.

At one of the city's elderly community centers, 89-year-old Lee Wan Fong defies age and gravity at a daily dance class. I asked her how she's so energetic. "From exercise and a healthy body," she tells me. "It should be this way."

Mrs. Lee is not the exception, but the rule. A study by the Japanese government has found women in Hong Kong live the longest in the world with an average life expectancy of 86.7 years, overtaking Japan, which held the title for 25 years.

DAISY LI, YWCA SUPERVISOR: That's good news to Hong Kong people, yeah. I think, through my observation of female members, they are high active. I think these are important factors.

COREN: Lis Ching (ph) is testament to that. At 101, she walks with a cane unaided, reads a newspaper with a magnifying glass and visits the center each day to catch up with friends and share a meal. "I'm healthy because I exercise," she explains. "It makes me happy."

Dr. Bernard Kong, president of the Hong Kong Geriatric Society, is not surprised by the results, citing a good public health system that looks after its senior citizens.

DR. BERNARD KONG, HONG KONG GERIATRIC SOCIETY: The last few decades we have very good scientific and also medical advances in Hong Kong. And also we're keeping our tradition as basically Chinese culture.

COREN (on camera): Whether it be diet, genetics or medical advances, health professionals agree that one key factor that sets Hong Kong's elderly apart is the importance of family within the Chinese culture. An overwhelming majority live with their children or grandchildren with only around 10 percent living on their own. Well, that is a fraction compared to other developed cities, like London or New York, where up to 40 percent of the elderly live by themselves and are at risk of social isolation.

COREN (voice-over): Hong Kong men lag behind their women with a life expectancy of 80 years of age. And this gap doesn't look like changing any time soon. KONG: We depend on people to look after us. Women, (INAUDIBLE), they are the ones who take care of us and when women disappear (ph), and (ph) our chance of mortality is much higher.

COREN: Most of these women have outlived their husbands. And for 94-year-old Yeung Wai Hing, the past is painful. She lived through war and has loved and lost more times than she'd care to remember, but her positive attitude has got her through it. "I live happy no matter what" she says. "You will live each day, why not be happy?"

Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.

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MALVEAUX: Oh, you got to love her smile.

While their governments are threatening war, this Iranian singer, she's reaching out to Israelis through her music. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Singing all through my childhood.

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MALVEAUX: When you hear about Israel and Iran, you might think of nuclear tensions or two countries sounding like they're on the brink of war. Probably not music, divas, pop culture. But as Elise Labott reports, a Persian singer named Rita, she is bridging the gap between these two countries.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She sings in Farsi, the language of Iran, but the fans dancing at her feet are Israeli and she's their top diva. Rita Johanfaruz known simply as Rita, now a cultural ambassador between two sworn enemies.

RITA JOHANFARUZ, ISRAELI ROCK STAR: Music was always a language -- one language that everyone could get connected with and be open to it.

LABOTT: As the crowds gather outside, a warm-up ritual with her band. Her performance, an affair with her audience, seducing them with tales of her native language. Born in Tehran, her family came to Israel when she was only eight. But the sounds and scents of the streets of Tehran remain with her, as does the music.

JOHANFARUZ: Especially, I think I remember my mother singing all through my childhood. So the music was a very big part of my life. I knew who I wanted to be since I was four years old. I used to sing, I think, some Persian song like (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

LABOTT: Settling into a Tel Aviv suburb, music remained her passion, singing in Hebrew and quickly rising to stardom. In 1988, this Iranian (INAUDIBLE) was invited to sing the Israeli national anthem during the country's jubilee celebrations.

JOHANFARUZ: To be a foreigner when you were a child and suddenly that you were chosen from all of those amazing singers and artists in Israel to sing the anthem.

LABOTT: A year ago, she decided it was time to revisit the soundtrack to her childhood.

JOHANFARUZ: I was in the middle of making another Israeli Hebrew record. Suddenly I felt like something is not matching and I felt something in my stomach that started to burn and to -- and I felt that I want to make a record that is (ph) the music of my childhood, my family.

LABOTT: She called it "All My Joys." A compilation of classic version ballads with a modern twist. It topped the charts in Israel and went gold within three weeks.

While most western style music is banned in Tehran, Rita is an underground hit. Iranians download and buy bootleg copies of her albums at their own risk and flood her with messages over e-mail and FaceBook.

JOHANFARUZ: I want to show the real culture, the real amazing, amazing culture of Iranian and they, the Iranian people, you know, they feel that.

LABOTT: Visiting a Persian language Internet radio station in Tel Aviv last year, the lines ran hot with Iranians who love her music.

JOHANFARUZ: We have to do it more until some, you know, some magic will happen. And we have to believe in magic. When there will be a peace, because it's going to be, and I'm going to sing there. Let me dream. Let me dream.

LABOTT: A dream, indeed. As an Israeli citizen now, she can't go back to her homeland, but she has a message for the people of Iran.

JOHANFARUZ: We are not enemies at all. We don't have anything to be enemy. I believe that if we, all of us, would scratch this wall that they put between us, we can -- we can take it off soon.

LABOTT: Tearing down walls, building bridges, giving a voice to hope.

Elise Labott, CNN, Tel Aviv.

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MALVEAUX: What an amazing story.

This next young lady just swam across Lake Ontario and she's only 14.

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