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Heat Wave Kills Hundreds in Pakistan; France and US Discuss Espionage Scandal; Immigrants Using Chunnel to Reach Britain; US Hate Groups Examined; Queen Elzabeth Tours Germany

Aired June 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

LYNDA KINKADE, CNNI: Hello, and welcome to the International Desk. I'm Lynda Kinkade live from the CNN Center. It's 7:00 p.m. in Karachi where

the coming night will provide only a little relief from a deadly heat wave. Record-breaking temperatures have killed more than 800 people in southern

Pakistan. Morgues are filled to capacity. Bodies are lying outside and thousands of people are flooding hospitals, and power outages, along with

fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, are only making things worse. Let's see what's in store for these people ahead. Meteorologist, Chad Myers

joins us now, and, Chad, by all accounts, this is one of the worst heat waves --

CHAD MYERS: Absolutely.

KINKADE: -- in decades, only worsened by the power cuts which has crippled the water supply.

CHAD MYERS: Uh-huh.

KINKADE: Is there any relieve in sight?

CHAD MYERS: There is because monsoon season is getting here, but just like India's monsoon was a little bit late, this seems like we should already be

seeing a few showers in the afternoon around Karachi, and we're just -- we're not getting them. We're not getting cloud cover. We're not getting

any relief, and, as you said, the temperatures have been as high is 44.8, and that's in the shade. Understand that all the temperatures that we take

and we talk about are always in the shade, so if you're working outside or even sitting out in the sun, it is warmer than the -- even the thermometer

has said, 44.8 on Saturday, cooling down. Today only in the upper 30's, 37 today. The morning low was 30-and-a-half. That's good. That's good news.

KINKADE: (Inaudible).

CHAD MYERS: It's still not where we need to be. It's still isn't down to normal. It's still isn't helpful for those power cuts when you have to

shut the power off to get it around the country every once and a while to move the power around when you still have to do that, and your temperatures

in the afternoon are approaching, well, over a 100 degrees Fahrenheit, certainly over 37 degrees Celsius each afternoon, and even for tomorrow, 38

for the high, but the heat index because the humidity is there, will make it feel like 46.

KINKADE: Chad Myers, stick around. We're going to go live now to Sandra Morrison. She joins us on the line from Karachi, and, Sandra, heat waves

are not uncommon in Pakistan, but this one coincides with Ramadan, during which, many Pakistanis fast. Can you tell us how people are coping there,

especially the hospitals?

SANDRA MORRISON: Yeah. You're right. It's a combination of factors that have led to this particular high temperature, lack of power, to -- leads to

thousands of people, not hundreds, thousands, flocking to hospitals. One major hospital that I spent the day at today has seen 8000 patients since

the highest temperatures struck on Saturday, most of them coming in with heat stroke. We saw people shaking, delirious. The people were being

picked up unconscious on the street and brought in, collapsing in front of people's eyes, local residents coming in as well. There isn't a government

ambulance service in this country, so it's the private ambulance services that have been coming to the rescue, so it's a pretty dire situation in the

hospitals. It was a pretty chaotic scene when arrived there. There's not enough equipment. There's not enough doctors, and so the military and the

para military forces in Karachi and the province around in Sindh have been drafted into to help out and local people, too, bringing blocks of ice,

bringing medicines themselves to the hospital. It's an incredibly chaotic situation, and then we also went to a morgue, and that was absolutely

horrific. The morgue has not had constant electricity because of these power outages, and their cold storage system, as a result, is failing.

It's the largest morgue in the city. It's seen 650 bodies, and we could smell them when we got out of the car.

KINKADE: Absolutely horrific. Sandra Morrison, thank you very much for that update. We're going to go back to our meteorologist, Chad Myers.

Chad, why is this heat wave so bad compared to the previous years?

CHAD MYERS: You know, I just lost the hearing from you, but I can see that I'm back on TV, so I'm going to go ahead and pick this up. I don't know

what question you asked me, but what I want to just get to will be the monsoon. When does it finally arrive? When does it finally start to cool

off significantly, and that's probably still a good week or week-and-a-half away because the monsoon, as it's moved over, all of India has not made it

yet all the way up to Karachi, so we will see these temperatures from 39 to 38 staying here in the middle to upper 30's with morning lows right at

about 29 or 30 degrees. That's still warmer than it takes to cool you off because your body temperature is 37, and if you're in the sun and in the

humidity because you have to be, that's when it gets very, very dangerous. I'm going to have to toss it back to you because I can no longer hear you

here in Atlanta, even though we're only about a half a block away, I can't hear you unless you really shout.

KINKADE: Technology, Chad Myers, thank you very much. Now, the Syrian Government says ISIS militants have attacked the rich cultural heritage of

the ancient city of Palmyra. Now, this video is set to show the insurgents blowing up two ancient Muslim shrines. They seized control of the city

last month, and a Syrian option group says they executed scores of captive fighters, as well as civilians. Palmyra is UNESCO a World Heritage site in

the desert northeast of Damascus. Now, we want to take you back to the Northern Syrian town Tel Abyad. All this week, Arwa Damon has been sharing

stories from residents who lived under ISIS control until recently. The evidence of their brutal oppression is everywhere in the city, and the

danger from ISIS still lingers. Here's Arwa Damon exclusive report.

ARWA DAMON: ISIS may have been driven out of Tel Abyad for now, but they still remain a military force that is quite formidable, and during our trip

to the town, we were able to see some of what they had at their disposal. This was an ISIS bomb-making facility. Bags filled with a sticky white

powder, low-grade explosives, which, as we are shown, is highly flammable. The YPG, the Kurdish fighting force in control of Tel Abyad, is busy

clearing it out. Half the bed of a truck already filled with mortar rounds that they collected here at the rear of a mosque named after al-Qaeda

founder Osama bin Laden. Tel Abyad is a mine field of booby traps.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come take a look through here, see what they found in there.

DAMON: It's hard to see grate (ph) but stacked along the wall, makeshift bombs, strands of detonation cord sneaking out. This was a park where

children used to play. The local YPG commander says, something did not feel right. They put a warning on the gate, and a resident told them ISIS

had booby trapped it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the juice thing. You see a cable coming out of it. Okay. Don't touch the door.

DAMON: ISIS no longer controls Tel Abyad, but their terror lurks in every corner, and the town is still cloaked in fear. A certain unease emanates

from the adults, anger evidenced in their voices, their answers short and sharp. (Inaudible) says ISIS forced him to purchase from them black

clothing for his little girls. The three say they were sometimes scared. Now they're just enjoying being outside without head scarfs, and they want

to go back to school. We went for a month, and then they closed it, the girls tell us. They made it a base for the state; meaning, for ISIS. That

was two years ago. Now, they say, they are happy. In an environment like this, one can only hope it stays that way. That particular family had fled

to Tel Abyad from Aleppo before ISIS took over the town, but when the terrorist organization arrived, the girls' father said, he quite simply

could not afford to move his family anywhere else.

KINKADE: And it's clear from what we've seen that the residents of Tel Abyad are committed to reclaiming their future, but the story of the city

doesn't end there, and neither does our coverage. You can visit our website for images you didn't see in Arwa's report. You'll find all that

and much more at CNN.com. Reports say the French and US presidents are set to have a conversation in the coming hours about claims by the whistle-

blowing website, WikiLeaks that Washington spied on Francois Hollande, and his two predecessors. Mr. Hollande's office has called the allegations

unacceptable. Let's get now more from our senior international correspondent, Jim Bitterman in Paris, and, Jim, the French knew the US was

spying on them and warned them not to do so, but it appears that ignored that request. What sort of intelligence did they gather, and what will

happen when the US ambassador to France is summoned to the French Foreign Ministry in the coming hours?

JIM BITTERMAN: Well, I'm not so sure, Lynda, that they ignored that request, because the fact is that, I -- what we heard from the Elysee was

that the US had engaged with France not to do any further spying after it was discovered in 2013 when the leaks about Germany, the spying on Germany

came out, and Obama apparently promises the French government that it would stop. Now, the WikiLeaks material that came out today did not involve

anything since then, and, in fact, it was only up until about 2012, right after Hollande took office, so it's not clear that any of this material

that was leaked today has to do with anything that has happened recently, and, in fact, there is nothing in there that applies to anything that's

happened recently, and -- but, nonetheless, this has provoked a huge outcry in France. The prime minister who we've just been watching in front of the

national assembly, said this is very serious and unacceptable, and he said that the US has to do something very quickly to rectify the damage, and the

kind of things that are being suggested here by some of his fellow Parliamentarians is that perhaps the -- Obama should make a public apology

for the spying that took place on France. Another Parliamentarian suggested that, in fact, the TTIP, which is the Trans Atlantic Trade Pac

should be shelved for a while. There shouldn't be any further negotiations on trade because of this, so there's a lot of anger here that's come out,

and, especially, a lot of political posturing as well, Lynda.

KINKADE: We know one French intelligence expert said that simply that the US does it because they can, and all governments know that spying goes on

even between allies. How do you think this will affect the US/French relationship. We saw that there was a deterioration between the US and

Germany when allegations of spying on Angela Merkel came out.

BITTERMAN: Well, I don't think it will have an immediate effect really at the heart of the matter. The question is, a lot of anger being expressed,

and, as I say, a lot of this is political posturing on the part of those people that would like to make something out of this; either to make the

government here look bad or for other reasons. But, in any case, if it's shown that, in fact, Obama was not good, President Obama was not as good as

his word, that, in fact, there has been spying going on since he promised that it would stop, then that would really bring about a crisis in

relations, and another thing that might bring about crisis in relations, I think, would be any kind of indication that this spying was economically

related, that, in fact, the Americans were spying on the French to get some kind of economic advantage in contracts or something else over the French

and using their spying material with their spy-gathered material, their intelligence material for advantage in world negotiations and contracts and

that sort of thing.

KINKADE: We'll just have to see how this all plays out. Jim Bittermann, thanks very much for joining us.

BITTERMAN: Sure.

KINKADE: You're at the International Desk. Still to come, scenes like this of migrants desperate to hitch a ride into Britain have the UK

reconsidering it's approach to border security. Also, a busy day for Britain's queen traveling in Germany. Find out what's next and who's

tagging along. All that and much more here at the International Desk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome back. Britain is considering stepping up border security a day after migrants rushed across into the country from France. Traffic

in the Chunnel Tunnel, the link between the two nations beneath the English Channel, is back up and running after Tuesday's chaos. A protest by

striking French workers had blocked the tunnel on the French side causing a traffic back-up. Migrants took advantage of stopped vehicles and tried to

jump onto waiting trucks to get into England. CNN's Erin McLaughlin joins us now from London. Erin, we've seen some incredible pictures of migrants

jumping on the back of lorries and riding underneath the trucks between the engines and the wheels, many desperate to get to the UK. Some drivers

warn, it's only a matter of time before the situation become the deadly.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN: Yes. Truck drivers, some of the truck drivers saying that they're scared. They're saying that the migrants appear to coming --

to be becoming increasingly desperate; and, therefore, increasingly dangerous. They also say they've seen that some of the migrants have been

armed with things such as knives. Meanwhile, for the most part, as you say, the transportation situation there in Kale has improved. The ferries,

for the most part, on time. The rail, as well as, Eurostar, on time as well; however, there is the issue of this backlog in Kale, trucks still

waiting there for hours to cross the channel. Once again, proving to be magnets for these migrants trying to board the trucks. A CNN crew on site

today said they saw police officers chasing the migrants with pepper spray trying to keep them away from the trucks, but, overall, for the most part,

the scenes today have -- the situation, rather, today has improved compared to the chaos of yesterday. A line of traffic snaking its way through

France. Most places, this is a travel nightmare commuters try to avoid. But in Kale, France, it's seen as an opportunity. Aerial footage shows

migrants as they scramble to board trucks to England. Police try to control the situation. Scenes like this are all too familiar in the

beleaguered port of Kale where an estimated 3000 migrants live in tents waiting for a chance to cross the England Channel. Many say the problem is

getting worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a catastrophe. There's no other word for it. I mean, you can see around you, you know, there's trash everywhere. There's

broken tents, you know, they were burned buildings a couple of weeks ago. There's 3000 people living in conditions like that, and don't have -- they

don't have enough of anything.

MCLAUGHLIN: On Tuesday came an opportunity to escape the squalor. Disgruntled ferry employees protesting ship sales at the company created a

barricade of burning tires and rubble outside the Euro Tunnel eventually shutting down the tunnel, Eurostar Rail, and all ferry traffic, sparking

travel chaos as far out as London. Police used tear gas in force. Protesters were pushed to the side of the road, the whole scene creating an

eight-kilometer line of vehicles, a magnet for desperate migrants. Well, to put the situation there in Kale in perspective, as I mentioned in that

piece, some 3000 migrants estimated to be in that camp this year. Last year, there were a thousand migrants, so the problem appears, according to

aid organizations, to have tripled, Lynda.

KINKADE: It's certainly getting worse. We know that the UK is talking about tougher security measures. What are they planning?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, today we heard from the British prime minister, David Cameron, in Parliament, calling for better security situation in Kale. He

pointed to the fact that the United Kingdom already dedicated some $18 million to this effort. They're sending in more border officials to search

their trucks. Cameron said that they'd be willing to offer more money to the cause if needed as well. On the French side of things, they've

increased security in Kale this month, over a thousand police officers, French police officers, dedicated to the effort, but Cameron today also

calling on Europe to address the problem at the source, calling on Italy in particular, to begin doing a better job of taking fingerprints and

documenting migrants when they arrive on Italy's shores before they make their way to places such as Kale, and they're also emphasizing the need, he

said today, to break the link between migrants arriving on European shores and migrants being able to stay, but given, you know, the crisis that's

unfolding in places such as Syria, and places so much as Libya, that could prove to be really a herculean task, Lynda.

KINKADE: It certainly is a big problem, and it's only getting bigger, Erin McLaughlin, in London. Thank you very much. Lawmakers in South Carolina

will open up debate about removing the Confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds. South Carolina's house of represents voted

overwhelmingly to take up the issue. Many people now want the controversial flag gone immediately, but its removal can only be approved

by the state's general assembly. A two-thirds majority vote is needed to bring it down, and while some argue the Confederate flag is a symbol of

southern heritage, others say it is a banner of oppression often used by white supremacists. As Sara Sidner reports, hate groups in the US appear

to have a lot in common with militant organizations elsewhere in the world, including, ISIS.

SARA SIDNER: They promise a better life, purity, a way to erase modernity, and get rid of people who don't think like them. In song and words, they

tell their followers to fight for what they believe in. Sound familiar?

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SIDNER: Are there similarities between, for example, white supremacist groups here in the United States and ISIS?

BOB BAER: Well, in a lot of ways, they're almost identical. Bob Baer should know. He's spent decades as a CIA operative in the Middle East.

Now back in America, he points out the grievances of homegrown hate groups virtually match those of terrorist groups in the Middle East.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BAER: Well, I think at the bottom of this that there's a feeling of both for the ISIS and the white supremist of injustice, whether it was from the

South or marginalize, you know, white people, and they think that they've been robbed of something. You look at the Sunnis, ISIS. Those people

think they were robbed with the invasion of Iraq, and they are trying to reimpose justice.

SIDNER: Dylann Roof is a case in point. A website registered in his name features a manifesto that blasts modern America, and blames black people

and other minorities for its current state. I hate the sight of the American flag. Modern American patriotism is an absence joke. And goes

onto say, I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. And online is where Roof and so many other angry

dispossessed people now find an audience for their hateful views.

BAER: Whether it's ISIS or American domestic extremists, are looking for young people generally in their 20's, socially isolated who either have a

little bit of familiarity with the ideology or are unstable, frustrated, and angry, and would be susceptible to it.

SIDNER: The main difference? ISIS is actually more sophisticated in its messaging, using slick videos, white supremacists not so much. Still, ask

any expert on the subject, and they'll tell you, homegrown terrorism is more dangerous to the average American than ISIS. Take a look at this map

created by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in America. Those are the numbers of hate groups in each state, and former

CIA operative Baer says predicting their members' behavior is far more difficult than that of ISIS recruits.

BAER: Frankly, I'm more worried about domestic terrorism because the fact is most of them are fairly benign. Just because you fly the rebel flag

doesn't mean you're going to turn violent.

SIDNER: The real danger is when the message connects with someone like Dylann Roof, ready, willing, and able to carry it out. Sara Sidner, CNN,

Los Angeles.

KINKADE: Britain's Queen Elizabeth, II, has been touring Germany and visiting with German leaders. Earlier today, she laid a wreath in Berlin

at the Central Memorial for the victims of war and tyranny. It's a sight that honors German suffering in events from World War I to the separation

of East and West. The 89-year-old Monarch is on a state visit through until Friday, and Max Foster is in Berlin following that trip for us. Max,

this is the queen's seventh trip to Germany, and at 89 years of age, possibly her last international trip, but she's not slowing down, quite a

busy schedule over the next few days.

MAX FOSTER: Yeah. And the palace is really denying that this is her last big foreign trip, which is a lot of the speculation. They're saying

they're rumors, which are completely unfounded, and they do point to that really packed schedule that you rightly point out. She's doing a huge

amount each day that she's here, which would put her grandchildren to shame. You don't see Kate and William doing the same amount of events in

the course of a day as she does, and the key moment today really was that meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, so we were told it was going to be

behind closed doors because the queen's counterpart as head of state in this country is the president, and he's hosting her, but we did eventually

get some pictures, actually, from the foreign ministry showing Angela Merkel meeting with the queen, and the sound was up as well, so it was very

rare to hear that type of conversation, also quite rather to hear Angela Merkel speaking English, and it was all that -- all about that meeting,

really, a reference back to the Second World War, so you had Angela Merkel showing her through a private abatements (ph) pointing over to where the

Berlin Wall would have once stood, and Merkel described how she lived in the East, so just some 200 yards away from where they were standing, which

was quite a remarkable moment, when you consider how built up and developed that area is, and then they went onto discuss how it had been 70 years

since the war, and you heard the queen talking about how there have been so many anniversaries, so while some -- the two countries get on very well

together now, there is this ongoing reconciliation between them because of this very dark moment in history, and, really, what those photographic

moments are about is part of the history, the evolving history, as those two countries come together.

KINKADE: And, of course, it won't be all official visits this trip. Prince Philip, the queen's husband, he's fluent in Germany [sic] -- in

German, has relatives in Frankfurt, so he's planning to spend some time there.

FOSTER: Yeah. And he actually came to school here for a while in Germany, and the queen has German heritage as well, which is why -- partly why --

you see this great connection between Germans and British royalty, so you saw big crowds out today wanting to come out and see them, but it is

actually an official engagement, this lunch on Thursday in Frankfurt, but Prince Philip is inviting a couple of his relatives along, and that really

emphasizes the bonds between the two countries, and perhaps something that the people in Britain don't necessarily know that there is this very close

relationship between Germany and the British Royal Family. In a way, they are sort of Germany's royal family as well because of that heritage.

KINKADE: And, of course, it's not common for the British prime minister to join a tour by the queen, but David Cameron will be there on this occasion,

and he has a lot riding on this trip. What's he hoping to achieve?

FOSTER: Yes. It's not usual for prime ministers to come along because they're not meant to be seen to be piggy backing on royal visits because

the queen's role is a -- sort of a long-term role to build relationships between countries and boost Britain's interests abroad, but she does create

this -- she does get access, obviously, to the highest places in the country, and she creates an atmosphere of working together, and David

Cameron is taking that opportunity, really, to come to the state dinner tonight, and he's going to get face time with Angela Merkel. His big

mission, really, in Europe right now, is to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Europe. He needs Merkel's support on that, so there's

some politics behind the scenes on this one.

KINKADE: What [sic] going on in Germany today. Max foster, thanks for bringing us up-to-date. Now, still to come, one of Australia's most

notorious ISIS fighters is believed to be dead. Now, his wife and children are stranded and want to come home. Why that may not happen next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome to the International Desk. I'm Lynda Kinkade, and here are the headlines. Reports say the French and US Presidents are set to

have a conversation in the coming hours about claims by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks that Washington spied on Francois Hollande and his two

predecessors. The US says it isn't targeting Mr. Hollande communications, and will not do so in the future. Britain is considering tightening its

border security after a rush of migrants tried to cross into the country from France. The migrants took advantage of a stalled channel tunnel

traffic to board trucks on the French side. Traffic very backed up due to a protest by French ferry workers. An oppressive heat wave has killed more

than 800 people in Southern Pakistan, and authorities fear that number could rise. Up to 8000 people have been treated at one of Karachi's

hospitals during the past four days. The city's largest morgue is overflowing with bodies. Britain's Queen Elizabeth is in Germany for a

state visit. It's the first full day of her three-day trip. She met with German leaders and laid a wreath at a memorial for victims of war and

tyranny. Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to join a state banquet Later on. Australia has been moving quickly to keep ISIS fighters who join

the military group from coming home, and today Parliament is taking it even further, considering a bill to strip citizenship from the children of

Jihadists. That debate is happening just as the family of a family of a man believed to have been killed fighting with ISIS makes an appeal to

return home. Kristie Lu Stout reports.

KRISTIE LU STOUT: The wife of one of Australia's most notorious ISIS fighters wants to come home. According to a written statement that her

mother provided to Australian media. Karen Nettleton asked the Australian Prime Minister to help bring her daughter and five grandchildren home.

Elvin's (ph) daughter, Tara, is the widow of Khaled Sharrouf, a Jihadi, who has believed to have recently died in a drone strike in ISIS-controlled

territory. Australian authorities say they're still working to confirm his death. Sharrouf first made headlines when he Tweeted a photo of his seven-

year-old son holding a severed head. Karen Nettleton asked for compassion for her family. My daughter made the mistake of a lifetime, she wrote.

Today she a parent alone in a foreign and vicious land looking after a widowed 14-year-old and four other young children. The 14-year-old is the

couple's daughter, who married her father's best friend, a man also believed killed in the drone strike. And the Australian Parliament has

made it a crime for any of its citizens to travel to Syria without an official purpose. Prime Minister Tony Abbott says there will not be

special treatment for the family of Sharrouf.

TONY ABBOTT: Yes. You can't convict the kids on the basis of the crimes of the parents, but, nevertheless, they will be dealt with in the exactly

the same way of the families of criminals are normally dealt with.

STOUT: Abbott's government has also introduced a controversial bill that would strip the children of foreign fighters of the they are citizenship as

long as they had a second nationality. Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

KINKADE: To Greek's debt problems now, and they are careering (ph) towards a very dramatic end. There's less than a week to go now before a huge

payment is due, and it's doubtful that Greece can pay it, but now we're hearing negotiations with the country's lenders have hit a snag. There is

a lot at stake. Tadhg Enright joins us now with the latest from London. Tadhg, Greece's bailout drama has entered a crucial 48 hours as the two

sides strive for an agreement, but there key sticking points; notably, the changing corporate tax rate, the pension system, and the tax exemptions on

Greek Islands. Take us through those.

TADHG ENRIGHT: Yeah. I mean, things were going so well, Lynda, with this latest set of Greek concessions, which were submitted on Monday, but then

today, the IMF, one of the creditors, weighed in and said it did not believe that this was a credible, sustainable way forward. Let's just take

you through some of the detail in all of this. Now, Greece's creditors wanted Athens to save around $2 billion a year in the cost of administering

pensions. The Greek government didn't want to cut the direct payments that it would make to pensioners. Instead, it said it would make these savings

by raising the retirement age and increasing contributions for pensions from public sector workers. It also said it was going to raise an extra $9

billion through tax hikes, more taxes on companies and more taxes on sales, VAT. The IMF, though, has said that this is not the way forward. They're

putting more taxes on, you know, transactions within the economy, will damage the economy, will not help Greece get out of a recession, and it

wants to see more savings made through pensions, cuts to pensions, and cuts in public sector wages. The very things that it has to know the Greek

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will find difficult to sell to his electorate back home. Now, the PM is having a meeting right now with those

international creditors. It's bound to be a tense one. They'll be trying to bridge the gap. Nobody spoke on the way into that meeting in Brussels,

but the Greek Prime Minister did Tweet beforehand, and he said that the repeated rejection of equivalent measures by certain institutions never

occurred before, neither in Ireland nor Portugal. This odd stance seems to indicate that either there is no interest in an agreement, or that special

interests are being backed. I think reading into what he means by this Tweet since he saying Greece is being unfairly treated. Neither Ireland

nor Portugal were treated like this. He claims when it came to their bailout, and his theory is that perhaps the IMF is trying to destabilize

his government because they would rather deal with a different, perhaps less left-wing government.

KINKADE: So at this point in time, what are the chances that the talks will fail and Greece will exit the EU? And if that happens, what could it

mean for Greece and its creditors?

ENRIGHT: I don't think Greece is on a definite path out of the EU at this stage, you know, the sense is that we are still closer to a deal now than

we were even a couple of days ago. Everyone involved in these talks from the EU's perspective and from the Greek Government's perspective, want to

keep Greece in the EU, and the IMF must know that they can only push the government in Athens so far without, perhaps, destabilizing it. If you do

destabilize it, you could, you know, trigger an election. And where would we be then? There's only week to go until the latest bailout program ends.

There's a big multi-billion -- or $1.5 billion payment due to the IMF, and if you destabilize the government now, that payment doesn't get made, and

we could see Greece then tumbling out of the Euro.

KINKADE: No doubt we will be talking a lot over the next week. Tadhg, thank you very much. And still ahead on the International Desk. The 40-

year-old Virgin is a fictional American movie, but for some men in Japan, it's their reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're 41 years old, have a good job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you've never had sex.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome back. In Japan, an art class offers middle-age men a chance to draw images of nude women, but for some, it's the closest they

have been to a naked woman. CNN's Will Ripley reports, it's part of a larger problem in Japan that is some are trying to change.

WILL RIPLEY: Tokyo's famous red light district, Kabukicho. caters to pretty much every sexual desire, the kind of place that could make you

think most of Japan is obsessed with sex. Until you meet people like Tikashi Saki (ph), who asked us to hide his face and change his name.

You're 41 years old, have a good job.

TIKASHI SAKI (ph): (Inaudible).

RIPLEY: But you've never had sex.

SAKI (ph): (Inaudible).

RIPLEY: Approaching middle-age, he's never had a relationship or even been kissed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a virgin? Are you a virgin?

RIPLEY: A real life version of Steve Carell's character, the 40-year-old virgin.

THE INTERPRETER: I was a little surprised they made a movie about someone like me.

RIPLEY: Saki (ph) is not alone. A Japanese Government study says 1 in 4 Japanese men in their 30's who have never been married, are virgins. While

some prefer it that way, others would like their fortunes to change. Their difficulty blamed on everything from a stagnant economy to Japanese Manga

fans favoring fantasy over reality. For some of these mostly middle-age men, this nude art class is the closest they've ever been to a actual naked

woman. Classes like this try to help people feel for comfortable with their sexuality. There's even this text book specifically for virgins to

help them break down their barriers to sex. Class organizers know the apparent disconnect is leading to fewer relationships, record-low

birthrates and a shrinking population, a crisis threatening the world's third largest economy. By solving the virgin problem, I think we can solve

many other social problems related to sex, says Singo Takashumi (ph). His non-profit offers sex education and assistance. In Japanese society, we

have so much entertainment, he says. Why do we need to choose love or sex? Saki (ph) is a mountain climbing 41-year-old who appears to lead a normal

life, hiding his virginity from family and friends. Do you have hope that you're going to meet someone hopefully soon?

THE INTERPRETER: I always have hope. I keep having hope.

RIPLEY: Hope to fall in love, get married, start a family, hope that some day, he'll have more than a sketch to call his own. Will Ripley, CNN,

Tokyo.

KINKADE: NASA is trying to solve another mystery on the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn Space Probe that's now orbiting the dwarf that's now

orbiting the dwarf in the asteroid belt has spotted a towering structure that rises nearly five kilometers above the surface. NASA call it a

mountain with steep slopes, but others say it looks conspicuously like a pyramid. Back in February, Dawn photographed these bright spots on the

surface of Ceres. Scientists say they're not sure what the spots are. Complete mystery. Well, that does it for us here at the International

Desk. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Thanks for joining us. But don't go anywhere, World Sport with Alex Thomas is up next.

END