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Plane Debris Investigation; Flood Waters Ravage India; Zimbabwean Hunter Defends Lion Killer; First U.S. Republican Presidential Debate Scheduled for Thursday; U.S. President Barack Obama to Address Congress on Nuclear Deal; Fishing Boat with Migrants Capsizes near Libya; Calais Migrant Crisis; Bringing Relief to Myanmar; Hiroshima 70 Years Later. Aired 10-11 ET

Aired August 05, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center.

We begin with the investigation into Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and what could be a crucial moment in learning what happened to the missing

plane. Now aviation experts are meeting at a laboratory in France right now to begin their analysis of the Boeing 777 debris found on Reunion

Island last week.

Our Saima Mohsin joins us now from near Toulouse.

Hi, there, Saima. Investigators really need to get this right. They need to say with certainty this is MH370. That's a priority, isn't it?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That really is the priority, to connect this flaperon with MH370, with a direct link, not just a process

of elimination, Robyn, which we can all do, can't we. We know that there - - that it is from a 777 aircraft. We know that there is only one 777 aircraft missing in the world right now and we know that MH370 was a 777

aircraft and that it went potentially down in the Indian Ocean, which is where this piece washed up.

But they cannot just rely on that. What they're saying, and that is why they're all inside this laboratory right now, is to jointly agree that

they can confirm and 100 percent say to the families of the passengers and crew on board that plane that they believe this is from MH370.

That's top of the bill, of course. And the French prosecutors of this, which is leading the investigation here in France, leading this

delegation of a number of groups that come from United States, Australia, China and Malaysia, joining French authorities to come here to carry out

these tests. They really want to make sure that they've got it right and then they're saying they will -- they told CNN that they will release a

statement tonight about today's meeting.

And if -- a big if -- if they find something or can confirm something, they will do so tonight, Robyn. We are here every hour. We're bringing

you the very latest as in when we got it a short while ago. They all went inside. They didn't, of course, stop to talk to the media. The delegation

entered in the test that need to be carried out, again, to be carried out right now, Robyn. And what they -- what we understand from former

investigators about the kinds of tests that they're going to carry out is sonograms, x-rays 3D imagery as well, looking at it externally first to see

are there any signs of scratches, explosions, et cetera, which we're told looking at the pictures is not likely. There certainly won't be any

residue because it's been in the sea for so long.

And then they will take it apart piece by piece. So Robyn, effectively they can tell us whether it is a part of MH370 or not. And

then how potentially the plane went down. But what they won't be able to tell us, of course, is why -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Exactly what happened in those moments. But we will come back to you if there is any word from investigators in that building behind

you. Saima Mohsin, near Toulouse, thank you so much.

Now investigators will have a lot to analyze, as Saima said there. They need to examine that wing component inside and outside. Now aviation

analyst David Soucie showed our Alisyn Camerota what they're looking for and what they could learn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the first thing is, as an investigator, is to shake off everything you know about MH370, just forget

about everything you know because you're going to let this part tell its story. Every single part in the accident has its own story to tell.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: How does it do that?

SOUCIE: Well, as we look at it, first of all, visually, we look at it and you can see a couple of very interesting things about this. We've

talked a lot about the barnacles.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And I'll let you draw on that.

SOUCIE: These are strategically put there. I mean, see how they grow here and here and here and here?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SOUCIE: All along the back here are these barnacles.

Well, why are they there and why are they not here?

CAMEROTA: I don't know, why?

SOUCIE: Well, because this -- what happens is this is a zinc chromate paint. This is an Imron paint which is an epoxy paint. So it's designed

to keep microbes and algae and that sort of thing from growing.

So what happens here, this tells us, that this is where it broke. This is where the metal broke, because that's exposed aluminum, exposed

magnesium, exposed steel. All of those things are what this barnacle really likes.

CAMEROTA: OK. And the fact that it tells you -- try to do this -- where it broke, what does that -- go further down that route.

SOUCIE: Well, what we can tell, then, is -- it's more important where it didn't break. If you look at this, there is no evidence of any

barnacles right here --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

[10:05:00]

SOUCIE: -- or on the top. What that tells us that this thing was -- had a lot of stress here and here and here and at the mounting points. But

it did not crush; it didn't come into the water and crush with the rest of the aircraft. I suspect this thing is telling me that it was not on the

airplane at the time it hit the water.

CAMEROTA: It came off first?

SOUCIE: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: And that tells you what?

SOUCIE: Well, it tells me a couple things. One is it could have been extended or down when it did glide into the water and then pull it off.

But the reason I don't think that's the case is you can see how straight and -- straight this piece is here. If it had hit the water, it would be

all twisted and deformed. So I don't think that's the case.

I think what happened is this thing, in the air, as the aircraft was - - run out of fuel, it made a quick and straight and really, really almost the speed of sound descent.

CAMEROTA: How quickly could we know if this is actually MH370?

SOUCIE: It could be very quick. Because what's on the part, inside of the part, which is pretty tamper-proof, that they'll be looking at

first, is the part number for the assemblies. There's several assemblies within it. And that part number is 113-W and then 66-something at the end.

So that's the number they'll know. So they'll know on the surface. But we'll probably have to wait for a forensic analysis, which means that

they'll test the metal to see that it was the metal that actually came from the manufacturer.

CAMEROTA: But we, the public could know today?

SOUCIE: It's possible. But these are professionals. They're not going to tell us anything until they're absolutely 100 percent done with

the investigation. It may be a while.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Fascinating stuff. Now that was CNN aviation analyst David Soucie speaking with our Alisyn Camerota.

Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss cautions that even if the debris is from MH370, it may not reveal much about the plane's final

moments.

Let's move on now to Central India, where severe flooding is causing more devastation, this time knocking two trains off their tracks. The

trains derailed within moments of each other, swept off a bridge by flood waters overnight. They were packed with passengers; more than 2 dozen

people were killed, hundreds rescued.

And dozens of people are seriously injured. But Indian officials say they don't expect the death toll to rise significantly. Our New Delhi

bureau chief Ravi Agrawal is following the rescues and the details of this accident from New Delhi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: The government so far has been working overnight through all of today trying to help people, to

rescue people from both of these trains. Remember, this accident took place in the middle of the night. What the railway ministry has said so

far is that it was pitch dark. There was a sudden flash flood and really it wasn't the fault of the train driver. The tracks gave way; the train

then collapsed, they fell into the water and that's why so many people have died.

I should add, though, this isn't entirely unusual. India has a number of train accidents every single month. And these collectively often add up

to hundreds of lives lost every year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Ravi Agrawal there.

Now the professional hunter who led the expedition to kill Cecil the lion says he feels sorry for his client, American dentist Walter Palmer.

Theo Bronkhorst told the reporter with Agence France-Presse that Palmer was, quote, "a good man who did nothing wrong."

Bronkhorst has been charged with failing to prevent an illegal hunt. But today a judge postponed the trial until next month.

David McKenzie now joins me live from Zimbabwe with more details.

Hi, there, David. You spoke to Bronkhorst.

What did he say?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Robyn. I think it's worth noting in the beginning that he seemed quite overwhelmed by this

media attention in this tiny magistrate's court here in Hwange, where the global outrage has ended up kind of finding its way here to this court,

where this man, Theo Bronkhorst, is potentially going to be charged or face trial on poaching.

Now his actual trial has been postponed until late next month. I managed to grab a few words with him. And he did say he was sorry for the

American Walter Palmer just as well. And here's what he had to say to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: What do you feel about the charges laid against you and the lion hunter?

THEO BRONKHORST, HUNTING GUIDE: I think it's ridiculous and I think it's wrong.

MCKENZIE: And you think you'll come through this?

BRONKHORST: I've got a good legal team and I hope so.

MCKENZIE: What is your feeling about the issue of hunting in Zimbabwe?

BRONKHORST: It's an integral part of our country and it's going to continue. And if we could not use wildlife sustainably, there will be

(INAUDIBLE).

MCKENZIE: And do you feel you had all the right permits and everything was above board?

BRONKHORST: I believe so.

MCKENZIE: And so what do you think about the way you've been prosecuted like this?

BRONKHORST: Crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well, Robyn, behind me there, it's Hwange National Park some distance away.

[10:10:00]

MCKENZIE: They've actually banned hunting, all kinds of big game hunting on the margins of that park in the back of this furor over Cecil,

the lion and his killing.

But one official, a senior official from Zimbabwe Parks privately told us that in fact they want this furor to subside so they can have legal

hunting continue to get money back into this park, because they say they haven't had a single cent from treasury in Zimbabwe for some time. So on

the ground here it's a complicated issue. But certainly this hunter still faces charges next month -- Robyn.

CURNOW: David McKenzie in Zimbabwe, thank you very much.

The nuclear deal with Iran took months of late nights and tough negotiations. Now the battle has come to Washington. Congress holds the

key and the U.S. president will make his case in a live speech in the next hour. We'll take you to the White House for a preview.

And Donald Trump made the cut but Rick Perry won't be on the same stage. We'll review the lineup for Thursday's Republican presidential

debate. All that and more here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK.

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CURNOW: Welcome back.

Now the first Republican presidential debate will be held Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, and 10 candidates will take the stage in prime time for

the event hosted by FOX News and they include Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz,

Rand Paul and John Kasich.

Well, senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny now joins me now with a preview of Thursday's big debate.

So we've just read who's in. Is it just as important to look at who's out and really what does this lineup tell us?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Robyn. It is important to look at who's out. There are some pretty significant

candidates who will not be on that stage, in fact some familiar ones to viewers of Republican presidential campaigns in previous years. Just the

last campaign, for example, the person who was basically the runner-up to Mitt Romney, his name is Senator Rick Santorum, the former senator from

Pennsylvania, he's not going to make the list. So he'll be at this earlier debate. Same as Governor Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas, the

longest-serving governor in Texas history. Of course he followed George W. Bush as Texas governor.

And then a few other candidates you see there on the screen, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana; Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of

Hewlett-Packard; Senator Lindsey Graham and a couple others. So it is just as important who is not on that first stage.

But the reason that this is separated, the field is so large, Robyn, so many candidates, there physically is not room for them all on the stage.

[10:15:00]

ZELENY: So there was a cutoff in national polling; the top 10 made the cut.

But look, this is not the only debate; there are going to be several debates. So it's certainly possible for someone to leapfrog from the lower

tier up to the higher tier in debates to come.

CURNOW: OK. What then is expected from this primetime debate? There's a concern, I think, within the Republican Party that Donald Trump

will hijack the conversation, go rogue.

Or do you see we -- do you think we're going to see sort of a different Trump, as his campaign enters a new phase?

ZELENY: It's a really good question. So far he has hijacked this presidential campaign. No one saw this coming. Certainly none of the

other so-called Republican front-runners, like Jeb Bush and others.

But it's really unclear what he will do at the debate tomorrow evening. But when you talk to Republicans who have talked to him and when

you talk to other advisers, most people don't think he will try and blow up the debate at all. This may be a moment of the campaign where he tries to

take on a more serious tone, where he tries to perhaps expand his appeal to other voters and show that, wow, he actually might be serious about this.

He could be a serious contender for the presidency.

It's important to note that Donald Trump, there are a couple different sides of him. We often see the reality television side and we've seen the

side in the campaign, when he's kind of yelling at people and calling people "losers" and other things.

But he's also a very successful business man. He knows his way around a board room. So I believe the Donald Trump that will show up at the

debate is going to be more of the CEO Donald Trump, more of the serious business man Donald Trump. And I do not anticipate him trying to go rogue

at all.

Now if someone attacks him, he will definitely attack back, no question about it. But I do not think he'll be instigating any of these

attacks.

CURNOW: No. I think it's going to be interesting TV either way.

Now tell us about movements within the Democratic race. That's getting interesting, too.

ZELENY: It certainly is. Hillary Clinton is still the runaway front- runner in the Democratic field. But it's not as comfortable of a primary campaign as she may have anticipated. There's this senator from Vermont, a

socialist senator, he proudly calls himself, named Bernie Sanders. And Bernie Sanders is really giving her a bit of a run for her money. In the

state of New Hampshire, where there is the first primary will take place next year in February, he's only 6 points behind her in the latest poll

from there, in a poll out last night, 6 points behind her. No one ever thought the race would be that close.

And that has opened the door to so much speculation about is Hillary Clinton a damaged candidate because all of her years in the public

spotlight, because of all the questions about the Benghazi attacks and her email use, et cetera, is she flawed?

And that has given way to conversations about is the vice president of United States, Joe Biden, going to jump in the campaign? He'll be thinking

about it over the next month. I'm told by his advisers he'll make a decision sometime in mid- to late September. But this gives the Clinton

campaign a bit of heartburn here, because they do not have as easy road to the Democratic nomination as they once suspected.

CURNOW: Indeed. And the last time I think Hillary was held back because there was a sense of inevitability. Maybe this helps her in the

long run. I don't know.

Jeff, thank you so much, though, for your analysis from Washington. We'll leave it at that.

ZELENY: Thanks, Robyn.

CURNOW: I want to give you to -- take you to some live pictures here from the U.S. Capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (voice-over): There you go. The Senate committee is holding a hearing on the implications of the sanctions relief that's part of the

nuclear deal in Iran, with Iran. Next hour, U.S. President Barack Obama will be making a speech directly to that Congress, making his case for

supporting the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins us now.

Michelle, I want to talk about this speech that President Obama is going to give.

How's he going to frame it?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This should be a big one. We just found out he's going to speak for 45 minutes at this

university here in Washington, D.C. So he's going to hit all of those points that we know he's going to hit, that the White House has hammered

home what seems like a million times by now, even before this deal was forged. They want to say that this deal blocks all pathways to the bomb

for Iran, that it's going to have the most stringent inspections and the most transparency in any such deal historically.

And those same kinds of key elements that they've been spelling out. But he's also going to go a little bit further and talk about a more --

philosophical, maybe even some emotional terms, saying that this is as consequential as to go to war with Iraq was, in terms of foreign policy

issues. And he's going to hit out at critics, saying that the some people who are opposing this deal now were the people who voted back then to go to

war with Iraq.

He believes that not having a deal would be a pathway to war, that --

[10:20:00]

KOSINSKI: -- Iran, without a deal, would be unchecked and could build a bomb within a matter of months. And then you would have Israel possibly

taking military action.

So he's going to sort of look at the parameters of what happens if there is no deal also. And he's going to say this is an opportunity and it

would be a historic mistake to not take that opportunity now. Really, emphasizing that this shouldn't be a close debate in his opinion and the

opinion of the White House, that this should be clear that the deal is the way to go.

So he's not just going to be speaking to some university students and leaders; he's technically speaking to the entire world in his final push

about a month away before Congress takes this vote -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Even the location, Michelle, of the speech also, very symbolic because President John F. Kennedy made a historic anti-nuclear

speech there in the early '60s. All eyes on President Obama in the next hour or so. So thanks for that and we'll come back to you for analysis

after the speech, Michelle Kosinski there at the White House.

And as I said, stay with CNN. We do plan to bring you President Obama's speech live in the next hour. Our coverage begins at 4:00 pm in

London, 5:00 pm Central European Time, right here on CNN.

Coming up at the IDESK, their hopes of making it to the U.K. are fading. So some migrants have set up a more permanent camp across the

Channel in Calais, France. We'll take you inside the so-called Calais Jungle -- next.

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CURNOW: This just in to CNN, an Irish and Spanish vessel are racing to save hundreds of migrants whose boat capsized off the coast of Libya, at

least 100 people have been pulled from the waters of the Mediterranean so far. And more rescue boats have been dispatched to the area to rescue the

remaining passengers. We will continue to monitor this story and bring you more details when we get them.

Still, thousands of migrants have survived the journey across the Mediterranean and thousands are now in Calais, France. Some of them

waiting for the opportunity to sneak across the Channel to Britain.

Well, as police try to stem the flow of illegal migrants, British media report that fines for those caught carrying stowaways have been

increased. The reports say truck drivers can now be forced to pay $3,100 on the spot for every illegal migrant found in their vehicle at any British

port.

Faced with tightened security and an uncertain future, some migrants have given up on the hope of getting to the U.K.; instead, they've chosen

to make Calais their home. Kellie Morgan takes us through the so-called Jungle of Calais.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLIE MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just before midnight, a group of men race down train tracks that lead to the Eurotunnel to

England. We watch more than 20 migrants take this route in just minutes. French police arrive and searching by torchlight find two more men who

failed to get through the razor wire fences. They're steered away by a police convoy.

These are the scenes we've become accustomed to when we think of Calais, migrants taking desperate measures to get to the United Kingdom,

driven by the belief Britain offers them a better life.

[10:25:00]

MORGAN (voice-over): Many, though, having failed again and again in the face of increased security and even injury have given up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the roof. I just build it.

MORGAN: And you built this yourself, yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MORGAN (voice-over): Alpha, as he prefers to be called, left his home country of Africa a decade ago. He's been in Calais for eight months and

since then has tried 20 times to get to the U.K. He's among those now choosing to stay in France. He built his own little piece of England in a

migrant camp, dubbed "The Jungle," calling his home (INAUDIBLE) the Beckham (ph) House.

MORGAN: What do you love about England so much?

"ALPHA," AFRICAN MIGRANT: The first you come in England, they put you in a hotel two, three days or one week, they find you home. After then in

two weeks, now two months, you really know. Usually they accept you or they reject you. It's not like here in France.

France, you take more than one year.

MORGAN (voice-over): It's a common belief here in the jungle, with many like "Alpha" are coming to realize they stand a better chance of

settling and surviving here, thanks largely to local volunteers.

Debris to Calais residents offers delivers used building materials to The Jungle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): I see them as lost travelers. They don't have any home. And they don't have any family.

MORGAN (voice-over): This generosity has helped "Alpha" set up a free mobile phone charging service but more broadly it provides the migrants

with a home away from home, complete with shops, churches and even a school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chaise.

MORGAN (voice-over): These students are now learning French, a necessity if they're to be granted asylum in France. Many, though, still

dream of Britain.

LINDA AUBRY, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: We said to the migrants it's better for them to stay here but a large part, they believe that U.K. is always an

El Dorado.

MORGAN (voice-over): Here there are food donations. And this is where migrants wait to access to showers and their one hot meal a day,

funded by the French government. But it's barely enough. These people live in squalor.

MAYA KONFORTI, L'AUBERGE DES MIGRANTS: You live under plastic. You live inside broken tents. There's no garbage pickup.

MORGAN (voice-over): Still, "Alpha" remains optimistic, outside his Jungle home, a French sign reads, even with all the difficulties, we still

keep a smile on our face -- Kellie Morgan, CNN, Calais, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Coming up, international relief efforts are kicking into gear for flood-stricken Myanmar. We'll see how far the aid is flowing and

whether there's any relief in the forecast for South Asia -- that's next.

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[10:30:00]

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CURNOW: Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Here are the headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (voice-over): International investigators are beginning their analysis of the Boeing 777 debris found on Reunion Island last week.

They're inspecting the wing flaperon at a French laboratory near Toulouse to see if it came from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

A court in Zimbabwe has postponed the trial of the professional hunter who led the expedition that killed Cecil the lion until September the 28th.

Theo Bronkhorst has been charged for failing to prevent an illegal hunt but he maintained the hunt was legal.

Zimbabwe wants to extradite the American dentist who killed Cecil with a bow and arrow.

U.S. President Barack Obama will be speaking at American University in Washington next hour. He's expected to lay out his case for approving and

implementing the nuclear deal with Iran. U.S. lawmakers have to decide whether or not to sanction the deal by mid-September. The White House

frames it as the most important foreign policy decision since the Iraq war.

Indian officials say at least 27 people were killed in a double train derailment overnight. Two passenger trains going in opposite directions

were swept off a bridge in a flash flood. Hundreds of people were on board. The drivers of the trains are not being blamed for the accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Also facing deadly flooding, Myanmar: the U.N. World Food Programme says more than 200,000 people there are in desperate need of

food. So far it's shipped aid to more than 82,000 of them. A state newspaper reports China has sent in a rescue team and released supplies for

20,000 families. So far we know of 47 people killed in the flooding. But the worry is that the toll is actually much higher.

Alison Rhodes is with UNICEF's Myanmar office and she spoke to CNN earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON RHODES, UNICEF MYANMAR: It's very difficult to reach remote areas because that's where the mudslides and collapsed bridges. In these

conditions, children can be separated from their families. So in many (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So is there any relief in sight for the region? Let's go to Chad Myers for the latest.

Hi, there. Vast parts of Asia are battling these deadly floods. Will there be more heavy rain in the region?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there will. And vast parts, Robyn, are having huge droughts. This is what we expect as the climate

changes around the world. We're not going to be spreading the rain out nicely anymore. It's going to be drought or flood. And we had this

cyclone that ran right over Myanmar, right over and into eastern parts of India and put down -- especially in Myanmar right here -- 1.2 meters of

rain. Can you imagine? Imagine what 1.2 meters would do in less than seven days. What would that -- would do to any country, any city in the

entire world. It just can't run off fast enough.

So that would move you back into India. The pictures here look more like Venice. Unfortunately, this is a downtown city street and people now

are getting through in boats.

And I'm telling you about how this isn't really a widespread event. Deficits in the monsoon in the red, deficits down here as well. And then

108 percent above normal here across the western part of India and here -- you don't even have Myanmar data, but we're talking about at least 50-60

percent above normal where we should be at this time of year. And more storms are coming.

Monsoonal wind, yes. And we'll get those monsoons as is typical; they know where they're going to be. But we have low pressure centers as well.

Those lows will draw in the humidity, draw in the moisture from the surrounding oceans and seas. And that will cause more and more in the way

of flooding, all the way through this, we're going to see rain every single day. Some spots here along the west coast of Myanmar could pick up another

half a meter of rain.

And there's something else going on in the world. There is a typhoon that will eventually get to Taiwan. This typhoon was a supertyphoon for a

while with wind speeds of 260 kph. It has now died off a little bit. The water right here is not quite as warm as what we're going to get to when we

get from here, it was warm; all of a sudden, cool and then warm again. So as we get back toward Taiwan, this is where the storm is going to

reintensify. By 48 hours from now, we're going to see 220 kph winds right over the island of Taiwan. Right over and that -- this is the smash-in-

the-face from here and then it's going to get pushed right --

[10:35:00]

MYERS: -- into Taiwan and along the main coast there of China. This is where the heavy rainfall could be. There could easily be 250 mm of rain

anywhere. That's what the pink means, 150 mm is what we see here.

So the storm is big; it's getting less organized in the cooler water. But then all of a sudden when it gets here, it's going to grow in strength

again -- Robyn.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much for that, Chad Myers there.

Crews battling wildfires in the U.S. state of California are expecting drier conditions today. On Tuesday, they got something of a break in the

weather, thanks to rainy conditions. The so-called Rocky fire in north of San Francisco is now 20 percent contained. Even so, about 7,000 homes were

threatened as of late Tuesday night. And evacuation orders remain in effect for about 13,000 people.

And we're also following this breaking news in Libya. An Irish and Spanish vessel are racing to save hundreds of migrants whose boat capsized

off the coast of Libya. At least 100 people have been pulled from the waters of the Mediterranean so far. And more rescue boats have been

dispatched to the area to rescue the remaining passengers.

Reports say coast guard boats responded to distress calls from the stricken vessel; when they arrived, migrants rushed to one side of the

boat, capsizing it.

Agence France-Presse reported as many as 600 people were on board. And we'll keep you posted if we get any more reports on that rescue that's

underway.

You're at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Seventy years ago, flash brighter than the sun lit the sky and five square miles of a city was gone. The

first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. When we come back, a survivor describes vividly how she remembers it all.

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CURNOW: Thursday will mark 70 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Tens of thousands of people were killed

instantly; many more died from their injuries and from radioactive fallout. Now despite the passage of so many years, many who lived through it say

they remember the moment in excruciating detail.

CNN's Ivan Watson spoke to one survivor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She may look frail, but don't be fooled -- 87-year-old Chisako Takeoka is a

survivor who lived to tell the tale of the world's first atomic bomb. She was in Hiroshima, not far from ground zero, when an atomic flash lit up the

sky.

"I was 3 kilometers away," she said. The shock wave knocked her out. She said she woke up in time to see the mushroom cloud.

On the morning of August 6th, 1945, a U.S. bomber dropped the weapon nicknamed "Little Boy" over the city of Hiroshima.

About 80,000 died immediately, by U.S. estimates, the five-year death toll from radiation poison and cancer, about 200,000.

Takeoka was only 17 years old and had just finished a night shift, making torpedoes at a military factory. After the blast, she says she saw

horrors here by the river.

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CHISAKO TAKEOKA, HIROSHIMA SURVIVOR (through translator): I still remember the day very well because this was a river filled with dead

bodies. People were burned and they jumped into the river.

WATSON (voice-over): Takeoka survived the ordeal and eventually went on to become an outspoken activist, campaigning around the world against

war and nuclear proliferation. Hiroshima was rebuilt along with a peace park to honor the victims. The museum here chronicles the devastating

effects of the A-bomb, leaving some American visitors grappling with very difficult questions.

SCOTT BAKER, BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA: In America, a lot of the (INAUDIBLE) talked about how necessary it was to see the -- to release the

bomb and have all these innocent civilians die. But when you really look at it from a moral standpoint, it's like was this really necessary? Did we

have to do this?

WATSON (voice-over): Scott Baker traveled here from Northern California. He and his fellow Boy Scouts say they're shocked by what they

learned here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I came here, I didn't really know what to expect. But then once I saw all the images and stuff, I kind of felt a

little sick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel it's necessary to walk through and to see what happened and just to go through history to see that this can be

repeated if we make the wrong mistakes.

WATSON (voice-over): That's an observation A-bomb survivor Chisako Takeoka is relieved to hear. Two years after the bomb, her first son died

18 days after birth from what doctors told her was A-bomb syndrome.

Today she works with her daughter to pass on her eyewitness account of the bomb's devastation in Hiroshima to future generations. Her message on

this grim anniversary: never again -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Hiroshima, Japan.

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CURNOW: And also on this grim anniversary, we're waiting for President Barack Obama to speak in Washington. And he's expected to lay

out his case for approving and implementing the nuclear deal with Iran. And we'll bring that to you live.

Well, that does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Don't go anywhere. "WORLD SPORT" with Alex Thomas is up next.

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