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CNN Live Sunday

Secretary Rice Makes Unannounced Visit to Baghdad; IRS Change Would Allow Sale of Information; Charles Taylor's Possible Link to Murderous Gang of Rebels

Aired April 02, 2006 - 16:59   ET

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

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Back in the USA, the final leg of Jill Carroll's flight to freedom. Details coming up.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Plus the long and dangerous journey through Mexico to the border. We're going to take you on board the death train.

And then, imagine all the information on your tax forms, up for sale. It could happen to you. We're going to tell you what you need to know.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Sophia Choi. All that and more after this check of the headlines.

In Boston today, a homecoming for Jill Carroll, the form hostage was greeted by her family at Boston's airport just a few hours ago. Carroll, a freelance journalist was kidnapped in Iraq and held hostage for 82 days before being released Thursday. Much more ahead.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made an unannounced visit to Baghdad today. They hope to jump start the process of formation new government. We're going to have more on this story ahead.

And Iran says it has successfully test fired a submarine attack missile. The test was shown on state television and Iranian official says the missile is the world's fastest.

St. Peter's Square filled by thousands of faithful Catholics. They're marking the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict's prayers from the Vatican were broadcast around the world.

And two more human cases of bird flu have been reported in Egypt. The latest patients are young girls, sisters, 18 months and six years old. There have been eight human cases of the deadly flu strain in Egypt. Two people have actually died.

Well, we begin with a long-awaited homecoming. She was covering a story when she became the story. Today, former hostage Jill Carroll is back in the U.S. and as these pictures show, back with her family after almost three months in captivity in Iraq. CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff is in Boston and joins us now with more. Allan? CHERNOFF: The reunion that so many people had worked for and prayed for did happen today, finally, in Boston. Jill Carroll reunited with her family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Home at last, former hostage Jill Carroll back on American soil. The final leg of Carroll's flight to freedom arrived in Boston Sunday afternoon. Onboard, Carroll found a red rose on her dinner tray and admired its color as she held it up to sunlight shining through a window according to a "Christian Science Monitor" report. "I finally feel like I'm alive again," "The Monitor" quoted Carroll. CNN correspondent Paula Hancocks was onboard.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now, I did talk to her just briefly and she said that she was happy with how things have gone since her release. She said that the people at Ramstein Air Base have been fantastic.

CHERNOFF: A police-escorted motorcade brought Carroll to the offices of the "Christian Science Monitor," her employer. There, a tearful family reunion. "The Monitor" released this picture of Jill hugging her twin sister Katie as dad Jim, and mom Mary Beth looked on. In a statement that the "Monitor's" editor read Saturday, Jill Carroll asked for privacy.

RICHARD BERGENHEIM, EDITOR, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR": "Now, I ask for the time to heal. This has been a taxing 12 weeks for me and for my family. Please, allow us some quiet time alone together."

CHERNOFF: Carroll also wrote in the statement that she had intentionally lied in an interview with her captors as a condition for her release.

JILL CARROLL, FORMER HOSTAGE: There are a lot of lies to come out of the American government calling the mujahideen terrorists and other things and I think it's important that the American people hear from me the mujahideen are only trying to defend their country.

CHERNOFF: Now after 82 days in captivity, Jill Carroll will be able to share the joy of her new freedom with her family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHERNOFF (on camera): Hopefully Jill Carroll will heal quickly. When she is ready and "The Monitor" says, she'll hold a press conference to share details of her ordeal. Sophia?

CHOI: Allan, thanks so much.

And we have this just in to CNN. Apparently, there has been a confirmed tornado in southeast Iowa. Let's toss it over to Bonnie Schneider to get the latest details. Bonnie?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sophia, the National Weather Service has confirmed this tornado near Eldon in Iowa and that's just in the southern area of Iowa near the Missouri border. Mainly a rural section of Iowa but keep to note that the storm is moving to the northeast at 50 miles per hour. And this is for eastern Davis County. This is not the only area we're watching for severe weather. You can see the storms working their way across Davis County at this hour, but as we look at the big picture, we have tornado watches and a new watch box now posted for northern Arkansas. This looks to end into tonight.

Meaning the likelihood exists for tornadoes to develop and you can see it extends well into Illinois and a good portion of Missouri. The thunderstorms are just pounding Missouri all through the center of the state today. These are severe thunderstorm warnings and they just line up as we get closer to St. Louis where we're looking unfortunately for some severe weather to break out tonight.

Let's talk about other tornado warnings we have in effect including our watch box. As you can see, no tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms being reported. Now as we slide further to the east and south of Des Moines, we have several new tornado warnings posted into areas including Warren County and we have western Mahaska County and south central Iowa and also into Marion County in south central Iowa. These go for another 20 to 30 minutes and we've been watching the strong storms not hitting Des Moines directly but to the south. And unfortunately Doppler radar is indicating some rotation with the storms, we may see tornadoes touch down at any time.

So if you're in Iowa, Missouri or further to the south toward Arkansas, keep an eye to the sky and watch out for severe weather and maybe stay inside until the storm has passed, of course. That's the best advice. Sophia?

CHOI: All right, Bonnie, thanks so much. And you've been telling us that the risk was there all day and now it seems at least in one area it's become a reality. Thanks.

Two American helicopter pilots are confirmed dead in Iraq. Their remains have been recovered after their chopper crashed southwest of Baghdad yesterday afternoon. The military believes the chopper was shot down. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the rounds in Baghdad today with an urgent message for Iraq's political leaders. Rice teamed up with British foreign Secretary Jack Straw to impress upon the Iraqis the need to get their government up and running. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smiling under pressure, Prime Minister Ibrahim al Jaafari met the U.S. secretary of state and the British foreign secretary for 45 minutes. Hearing their calls too quickly form a new Iraqi government. Although neither Condoleezza Rice nor Jack Straw publicly called for Jaafari to step aside his insistence at being the next prime minister is widely seen as the principal stumbling block to forming the next government.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: They need a prime minister who can be a unifying force. They need a prime minister who can represent all interest and can run a sectarian government that is capable and able of bringing -- able to bring all people in.

ROBERTSON: Rice and Straw thanked President Jalal Talabani for his efforts to break the logjam. The unprecedented diplomatic double teaming, an indication of frustration in London and Washington.

RICE: We thought, both Jack and I thought that given the commitment of the United States and the United Kingdom to Iraq's future, the price that we've paid here that it was important to come and deliver a message that the time has come to end those negotiations and to form a government.

ROBERTSON: The message delivered in turn to politicians of all stripes here. No government means no stability. A message that since the massive sectarian attack on a Shia shrine in Samarra in February seems to strike a chord.

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: The situation is still fragile and there must be a concerted effort to form this government, otherwise, God forbid, a couple of more like them will ignite the whole country.

ROBERTSON: Lunch was hosted by Abdul Aziz al Hakim, the principal Shia power broker. A key player behind the Jaafari nomination. Just last week he said they're working as fast as they could. But he's less convinced than Rice and Straw, the new government can solve tensions.

ABDUL AZIZ AL HAKIM, SHIITE POLITICAL LEADER (through translator): We are trying to do our best to speed up forming the new government, but we don't think it will stop the violence.

ROBERTSON (on camera): The reality is options for Iraqi politicians are limited. The powerful Shia block that nominated Jaafari has few other candidates and are under tremendous pressure not to break ranks. And broadly, across the whole political spectrum it's recognized that if the Shias are divided, any new government would be weak. Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: All right. Well, here's a question for you. How much of your tax info are you willing to let the IRS share with others? Just ahead, find out why your personal finances might soon be available to a wider audience. Also, how safe is your kitchen? Come along as the experts look at what's growing in pretty clean-looking homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bacteria doesn't care whether or not it's growing in Jack's kitchen or Susie's kitchen or Ari's kitchen or the restaurant down the street. They just want a place to grow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHOI: You know, a lot of you are sharing information you really shouldn't. The Justice Department is saying today that 3.6 million households are victims of identity theft. In a study done in the last half of 2004, 1.7 million had an unauthorized use of a credit card, 900,000 households experienced theft from cell phone or bank accounts and personal information from 540,000 households was misused to open new accounts, get loans or commit other identity crimes. I hope you weren't one of those victims.

But when it comes to keeping your private information private, the IRS holds a hearing Tuesday on a new and pretty controversial rule. It could increase the number of people and companies getting a look at information on your tax form. And even though it wouldn't happen without your say so, our Gary Nurenberg reports some people still don't like the idea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two weeks until the April 15th filing deadline, Steve and Ranja (ph) McNerney walk into a meeting with their tax preparer, numbers in hand.

STEVE MCNERNEY, TAXPAYER: It's information that is our information that is not for sale.

NURENBERG: They just learned about a proposed IRS rule change that would allow their tax preparer to sell that information to mass marketers.

MCNERNEY: I thought that information was confident information between the tax preparer and the client.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will tell him you're here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

NURENBERG: Since the 1970s the IRS has permitted tax preparers to provide them with their consent to affiliated businesses that provide financial services. The rules change would allow tax preparers with consent to provide client information to anyone. The McNerney's tax preparer, Joseph Jacques, says he won't do it.

JOSEPH JACQUES, ACCOUNTANT: My policy at my office is total secrecy of my client's information. I don't disclose anything.

NURENBERG (on camera): But other tax preparers do and the IRS says it suggested the rule change to make it very clear the clients know it and approve it in advance, even as the IRS removes limits on who can get the information.

MARK EVERSON, IRS COMMISSIONER: The problem we saw was we don't think that the taxpayer is fully aware of the fact that this is going on.

NURENBERG (voice-over): The IRS proposal requires specific written consent on a separate piece of paper that warns taxpayers in large print the privacy of their information can't be insured once the preparer releases it.

EVERSON: This, we believe, will result in less information, actually being disclosed unknowingly.

NURENBERG: And because some nationwide firms outsource tax preparation to overseas sites, the rule change would require consent for that as well.

One senator has introduced a bill that would restrict the disclosure of tax information.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: If you can find me somebody out there who thinks it's a great idea to get a bunch of junk mail or to expose ourselves to, you know, encroachments on our privacy then maybe the IRS position makes sense.

NURENBERG: Privacy groups plan to tell an IRS hearing this week the new rule could lead to costly identity theft.

MARC ROTENBERG, ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER: Something that is really placing Americans' privacy at risk, somewhat needlessly.

NURENBERG: The McNerney's won't allow the sale of information on their tax form but if the proposed rule change becomes law, millions of other taxpayers could. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: In other news across America, want a chance to vote on Miss America? Well, you're going get it this season. Country music TV and the Miss America Pageant planned a seven-part reality show leading up to the pageant which has been suffering from pretty low ratings. You're going to be able to call in or log on to vote for the show's finalists.

A clear message as the new baseball season opens. The steroid scandal continues and just across the street from AT&T park, home of San Francisco slugger and alleged steroid user Barry Bonds someone has paid for this billboard, you're about to see it. All it says is "Trade Barry."

In Indianapolis, college basketball's championship is now set. Florida beat Cinderella team George Mason yesterday. On Monday the Gators face UCLA. The Bruins beat LSU in yesterday's late game.

And in Washington. Look at these beautiful pictures. These are live pictures. Hundreds turn out to see the cherry blossoms. More than 3,000 trees lining the Tidal Basin descend from trees presented to the U.S. back in 1912. It was a gift from Japan to mark 60 years of good relations. Gorgeous, huh?

Well, it has been months since Hurricane Katrina hit, but many homeowners still wonder if their insurance company will cut a check. Ahead, we meet one attorney who's fighting back and demanding his money. And later, germ alert. What lurks in your kitchen can make you sick, very sick. Yeah. CNN LIVE SUNDAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHOI: Seven months after Hurricane Katrina, the tragedy lingers for many, hoping to rebuild their homes and their lives, but thousands of Mississippi homeowners can't do that with their damage claims rejected. One lawyer, however is now fighting back. Here's Sean Callebs with this "Best of CNN" report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs took on big tobacco in the mid-90s and won billions. Now in the aftermath of Katrina he's going after insurance giants and firing the salvo that this time it's personal.

DICKIE SCRUGGS, LAWYER: It is personal as anything in my life that's ever happened to me.

CALLEBS: Like so many others in the Gulf region, Scruggs' home was destroyed. He had the maximum federal flood insurance and got $250,000, just a fraction of his home's value.

SCRUGGS: Most of our house was completely torn away.

CALLEBS: Scruggs' homeowners insurance was flooding and not wind that leveled the house and his policy doesn't cover flooding, it would have covered wind damage. Scruggs says it's ludicrous to think that powerful hurricane winds caused no damage to his house. He says people are being bullied by insurance companies.

JULIE ROCHMAN, AMERICAN INSURANCE ASSOCIATION: Well, I think Mr. Scruggs would like to portray himself as a bit of a Robin Hood.

CALLEBS: Insurance industry spokeswoman Julie Rochman says Scruggs is misguided and is misleading people who suffered so much already.

ROCHMAN: I also think he's being cruel to people to give them what in many cases will turn out to be false hope that he'll find them a pot of gold someplace.

CALLEBS: She says the industry handled 3 million claims and more than 90 percent of those have been resolved but there are hundreds of thousands that haven't. Many houses close to the water now look simply like this, a plain slab. To determine what was damaged by wind and what by water, engineering firms are hired by insurance companies. But Scruggs has documents, showing engineers contracted by State Farm actually changed some findings from wind damage to water.

SCRUGGS: It's fraud. It's cheating.

CALLEBS: This report from the Forensic Analysis and Engineering Company dated October 23rd says "the primary and predominant cause of damage to the subject property was due to hurricane force winds." However, about two months later on January 3rd, a new and what turned out to be the official report presented to State Farm said it wasn't wind after all. Saying, "The movement of the house across the street with minimal wind damage is consist with the buoyant force applied to the building by rising water, allowing wind to move the house."

FAEC says the October findings were a draft report and engineers received more complete data for the second assessment. The engineering company goes on to say that State Farm never asked any of their employees to alter their conclusions.

SCRUGGS: They told me that they're not going pay me anything as a result of the water damage and the first engineering report from their own engineers said it was all wind.

CALLEBS: State Farm says it did nothing wrong.

ROCHMAN: I'm not aware of any company that's out there telling their engineers what to find. The engineers are independent.

SCRUGGS: I'm still mad. I'm still mad as hell about this. I really am. Their argument is that it's a flood. You had a flood and there's an inclusion in the policy for flood so we're not going pay.

CALLEBS: Scruggs is suing five insurance companies that covered 90 percent of Gulf resident, State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide, MetLife and USAA. He's representing more than a thousand homeowners including his powerful brother-in-law, Senator Trent Lott whose Pascagoula home was also destroyed.

Scruggs doesn't need insurance money to rebuild his million and a half dollar home, he's rich, but Scruggs is the exception. Instead of filing a class action suit or filing hundreds of suits Scruggs says he's going to file handful of what he calls pilot cases hoping to set precedents. The insurance industry says again, Scruggs is misguided.

ROCHMAN: I think the most important thing for people to understand is that each claim has to be adjusted separately. Each home is different.

CALLEBS: And what about those homeowners who paid premiums for years now being told they are getting nothing?

SCRUGGS: It's just a matter of outrage. This is a looting and a mugging that's going for this region of the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: And that was CNN's Sean Callebs reporting from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Here now a look at the top stories. In the news, Jill Carroll is finally home. The 28-year-old freelance journalist is spending some time with family and friends back in Boston after a harrowing 82 days as a hostage in Iraq. Severe weather is slamming parts of the South and Midwest today. They been a confirmed tornado touchdown in southeast Iowa, but it's flooding that's feared in North Dakota where they're preparing for the worst. The National Weather Service expects the Red River to crest 21 feet over flood stage on Wednesday.

The U.S. and British secretaries of state made an unannounced stop in Baghdad today. Both Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw say they're trying to rekindle a dialogue between quarreling Iraqi factions.

Iran's navy says it has successfully test fired an underwater missile. Iranian TV describes the mills as the fastest in the world with an upward speed of 220 miles an hour.

All right. So how many times a week do you eat out? How often do you worry about whether the restaurant you're eating at has passed inspection? What if we told you that you should also be worried about your own kitchen? CNN's Randi Kaye takes you on the hunt for germs that might actually be growing in your own kitchen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hector de la Cruz, an inspector with the Los Angeles Health Department prowls through pantries, raids refrigerators and scopes out sinks. He's knocking on bacteria's door.

With 76 million people in this country suffering from food borne illnesses each year, de la Cruz and the L.A. Health Department are looking to clean up California kitchens, so they've developed an at- home test similar to those used in restaurants around the country. We asked if he would tag along as we checked out three Los Angeles area kitchens and what made may be lurking inside them. Our test kitchens belonged to Ari and Vera Miller and their two children, Jack Smiler and his and Susie Wells and her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, we're here to inspect your kitchen.

KAYE: De la Cruz and his assistant Kathy get right to it, checking refrigerator temperature and inspecting the food. On the surface, the Miller's kitchen is spotless.

ARI MILLER, TEST KITCHEN OWNER: Like a good marriage we never go to bed angry and never leave dishes in the sink.

KAYE: But de la Cruz has some concerns about the sponge, the dish towel and mom's chicken barley soup. At first he was just slightly concerned but then Ari Miller revealed the soup was still hot when it was put in the fridge.

HECTOR DE LA CRUZ, L.A. HEALTH DEPARTMENT: You have any dark, deep secrets in there?

KAYE: That increases the possibility bacteria will grow where the soup didn't cool properly. DE LA CRUZ: This is what we consider potentially has hazardous food product meaning that it could at the proper temperatures and the right amount of time start to support the growth of microorganisms.

KAYE: If de la Cruz was concerned we thought maybe we should be, too. So we took a sample of mom's homemade soup to send to the lab.

(on camera): Please forgive me if we find something in the soup, mom.

(voice-over): And the sponge and dish towel for testing, too. We were off to Venice Beach to Jack Smiler's house. While de la Cruz went to work inspecting the kitchen, Smiler went online to take the Health Department's food safety test.

JACK SMILER, TEST KITCHEN OWNER: A C. A score of 72 points.

KAYE: But Smiler took it all in stride.

SMILER: I don't think we need to be held the same standards that a public kitchen should be held to.

KAYE: But would a restaurant chef hang his fly swatter with his pots and pans.

DE LA CRUZ: You have a fly swatter with the clean pots and pans.

KAYE (on camera): That's a no-no.

(voice-over): So we decided to help Smiler out. We sent his fly swat tore the lab and a left over steak and a sample from the floor around his cat's litter box to see what she may be dragging around the house and into the kitchen. Now it was time to visit Susie Wells' house in Los Angeles. Our final kitchen impressed even our meticulous inspector.

DE LA CRUZ: You received an A.

SUSIE MILLS, TEST KITCHEN OWNER: Oh, thank you.

KAYE: But de la Cruz's test only captured what the eye could see. What the eye couldn't see was sent off to this New Jersey lab and the results were surprising. While the health inspectors gave the Miller's kitchen an A, Ron Schnitzer, the lab director who tested our sample his a different grade in mind.

RON SCHNITZER, LAB DIRECTOR: Microbiologically, it was a horror.

KAYE: The Miller's sponge turned up over 1 million bacteria per milliliter. That's a lot of bacteria in just about 1/5 of a teaspoon which means when the Millers thought they were cleaning up they were actually spreading bacteria. Same story on the dish towel, but the worst offender, mom's homemade chicken barley soup.

MILLER: The soup sometimes stays out and my mom's soup is a mixture of all things that she just throws in. Some of the stuff in there might be suspect.

KAYE: The soup surprised even our lab director. It had more than 50 times the amount bacteria than is expected in prepared food. It had 5 million bacteria in less than a teaspoon of soup.

SCHNITZER: It probably started out with bad ingredients to start with with very high bacteria count, probably improperly cooked and then transferred into non -- with non-clean utensils into a non- sterile container so just one problem after another.

KAYE: And remember Jack Smiler's home? The health inspectors gave him a C, but in the lab he came out ahead and so did his cat. The sample from his kitty's litter box had less bacteria than anything we tested in the Millers' kitchen.

So is it really possible to keep our kitchens that clean or will bacteria continue to get the best of us?

DE LA CRUZ: Bacteria doesn't care whether or not it's growing in Jack's kitchen, Suzy's kitchen or Ari's kitchen or the restaurant down the street. They just want a place to grow.

KAYE: Bottom line -- Inspector De La Cruz can't visit everyone's home, so you have to be your own inspector. Let foods cool before refrigerating them. Change your sponges often, wash your dishtowels, and clean, clean, clean.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: We're watching a couple of developing stories right now. First we want to take you to Colorado where we're watching a wildfire. This is happening in Broomfield, Colorado. A wildfire has broken out in the Broomfield and Westminster area. You see some rescue crews there. We don't see -- there's the flames. Several highways in the area closed as units are responding as you just saw there. Winds are gusting up to 45 miles an hour. So that's not helping those firefighters any at this point. But we're going to keep our eye on these wildfires as crews continue to battle them.

We're also watching tornado activity. We have tornado warnings across the country and we told you about a tornado touchdown, a confirmed tornado touchdown in southeast Iowa just a short time ago. CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider has been warning us about the potential for tornadic activity all day today. Bonnie, what have you got?

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHOI: Bonnie, thank you so much for keeping us up-to-date on all of that. And you know what, it is spring and these are spring storms. That's expected. Thanks, Bonnie, see you in a bit.

All right, for some, it's the train to prosperity. For others it is a deadly risk. Coming up, you're going to see why some call it the death train.

And imagine a place where thousands are forced to cope with the effects of amputation. Find out why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHOI: It is a desperate and dangerous journey and all too often it ends in death, but for thousands of border crossers it's worth the risk. Our Ed Lavandera takes us aboard the death train.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The trail of desperation starts here in Chiapas, Mexico. These rail lines have been described as a graveyard without crosses.

SONIA NAZARIO, AUTHOR, "ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY: They call it "El Train de La Muerte," the train of death.

LAVANDERA: Tens of thousands of Central American migrants hop trains heading north. On this 1,200 mile journey from Chiapas to border towns like Nuevo Laredo, they'll battle bandits who rob and rape, they'll go hungry and thirsty for days. And out of exhaustion, some will fall off the trains, thousands have died.

NAZARIO: Many of them die silently alongside the rails. They bleed to death.

LAVANDERA: Sonia Nazario says the journey is hell. She knows, because she road the train reporting for her book titled, "Enrique's Journey." The story of a teenage boy who rode the train.

NAZARIO: They risk losing arms to the train, losing legs to the train, losing their life but they are willing to take that risk.

LAVANDERA: We asked Nazario to be our guide through Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

NAZARIO: Once you get this far north, the stakes are very high.

LAVANDERA: Nazario took us to a shelter in this border town, it's where we meet 18-year-old Nervin Guerrera. He spent the last month walking and riding the train through Mexico. He left Honduras with $10, bandits robbed him of that. Some days he only ate tortillas people would threw on the train. All this to reunite with his father who he hasn't seen in two years.

He says, "Having a father is the most marvelous thing in the world. I think about him all the time. He loved me so much when we were together."

LAVANDERA: Nazario says the economic and personal desperation of their lives drives them to attempt this dangerous journey. And she warns more will keep coming.

NAZARIO: It grows every year and it's growing because of the desperation in these home countries where people just cannot feed their children and so they see it as the only way to be able to do that.

LAVANDERA: When night falls on the shelter in Nueva Laredo, this group of migrants rest and pray. They survived the most treacherous part of their journey but they are still far from the promised land. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Nueva Laredo, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: And CNN's Lou Dobbs examines the immigration debate from Mexico tonight. His "Broken Borders Special Report" begins in about 20 minutes, at 6:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Well, he spent nearly 40 years as Pope John Paul II's right-hand man. Just ahead, you'll hear his memories of the pontiff.

And they are the victims of war. Find out what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHOI: And we want to take you to Colorado where we're following a developing story. A wildfire has broken out in the Broomfield and Westminster area.

This fire is forcing some evacuations. Local T.V. station there KMGH T.V. says the Walnut Creek subdivision near Jefferson and Boulder County line is being evacuated.

Authorities have used the reverse 911 system, they are to warn residents about this fire. It's estimated right now at 500 acres and you can see that big patch of black there and rescue crews now on the scene.

Several highways in the area, by the way, are closed as units are responding. Winds are gusting to 45 miles an hour right now so that might not be helping firefighters any, as it just fans the flames there.

But we are continuing to watch this fire as people are being evacuated. So it's pretty close to homes obviously as people are being evacuated in the Jefferson and Boulder County line area. We'll keep our eye on this and bring you more details as we get them.

Here's tonight's "World Wrap." French President Jacques Chirac approves controversial job legislation that has had French youth rioting in the streets. But even as he signed it, Chirac called for the law to be swiftly modified. As written, the law is designed to encourage employers to hire younger workers by making it easier to fire them.

Advice from Washington from former soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev tells "Time" magazine that as the world's sole superpower, the United States has become intoxicated and should stop attempting to impose its will on others. America's one-time rival, then partner, says yet he's speaking a friend. And accused war criminal Charles Taylor is expected to plead not guilty tomorrow to atrocities committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone. He is to appear in court in Freetown. His trial will take place at the U.N. court in The Netherlands.

Now Taylor once ruled Liberia, but he cast his shadow beyond his country's borders. He's accused of accepting a share of Sierra Leone's diamond wealth for backing a murderous gang of rebels that had a brutal pension for chopping off people's limbs. CNN's Jeff Koinange reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abu Sesay says he just has two wishes in life. The first is to do the things normal kids his age do. But that wish will never be granted.

Several years ago, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front or RUF, supported and armed by Charles Taylor, were on the offensive in Sierra Leone.

Abu's father was fleeing, carrying his two-month-old son on his back. A bullet from one of the rebel's guns went through Abu's leg, killing his father. Abu was tossed into the bushes. He wasn't found for two days. His leg later had to be amputated. His mother, Kadiatu, is now struggling to raise Abu and his five siblings.

Two years ago a local NGO donated this prosthesis, but Abu's already outgrown it.

"Right now I can't even send him to school because the other children make fun of him," she says. "I can't even afford to pay for food for my children, let alone buy him a new leg."

It's the same for 21-year-old Aminata Tureg (ph). She says that at 15, she refused to be a sex slave for a rebel leader and the penalty was having her leg chopped off with an axe. She says it took more than 20 swings before her leg was severed at the hip. Now she's raising her son by selling ground nut cakes at 10 U.S. cents each. She says she can't even use a prosthesis because there's no place to fit it. Sometimes she wishes the rebels had killed her.

"I feel like I'm being punished by God," she says. "This is the worst form of punishment one can ever get. I will never be able to feel like a real woman again in my life."

The rebel onslaught didn't seem to discriminate, 50-year-old Mariyama Bariyea (ph) says she had her leg chopped off for apparently not carrying enough firewood for the rebels. She crawled her way in the bush for three days before help arrived. She now spends her days weaving curtain strands to feed her eight children.

I asked her if she blames Charles Taylor for what happened to her. "Charles Taylor is the one responsible for this," she says. "He started the war and he deserves to go to hell." She wears a prosthesis when working around her garden patch, helped by some of her children. Nineteen-year-old Suleiman Sesay also blames Charles Taylor for the loss of his arm. He and a group of other teens refused to do some chores demanded by the rebels of the RUF. He eeks out a living raising pigeons and wishes he had enough money to go to school. I asked him what punishment he thinks Mr. Taylor should get.

SULEIMAN SESAY, WAR VICTIM: I want the government to cut off Charles Taylor's both hands, let him feel the pain that we feel. Somebody that's bringing war in your own country is a very wicked man, kill our brothers, kill our sisters and cut off our hands. I think he's a very wicked and witch person.

KOINANGE: Young Abu Sesay shares Suleiman's feelings, which is where his second wish comes in. "It would be to fire a bullet at the former warlord,"he says, "just as a bullet was used to shatter his life."

Jeff Koinange, CNN, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: Memories of Pope John Paul II from a man who served at his side for nearly four decades, coming up after the break.

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CHOI: Well, it was a big day in Rome as Pope Benedict XVI remembered his predecessor at a morning service at the Vatican. It's been a year since Pope John Paul II died. Benedict recalled John Paul's final days of suffering. He spoke from the same window where John Paul made his final public appearance.

Tonight, tens of thousands of people filed St. Peter's Square. The scene resembled the days before Pope John Paul's passing, when pilgrims from all over the world gathered at the Vatican to pray.

Well the world is still reflecting on the life and the legacy of the late pope. Tonight we get a rare insight through the eyes of some of the people who knew him best. CNN faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher has a preview.

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DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH AND VALUES CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nearly 40 years, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz and Pope John II were inseparable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I didn't have a private life. His schedule, his work, became my work, my schedule.

GALLAGHER: Dziwisz was the pope's personal secretary, a job he started when John Paul was still Karol Wojtyla, the young archbishop of Krakow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He asked me, can you come and help me with my work? And I said, when? He said, today. I told him I'd come tomorrow. And tomorrow lasted for more than 39 years.

GALLAGHER: Today, one year after his friend's death, Dziwisz is back home in Krakow. Working the same job. Living in the same home. And praying in the same private chapel where his mentor once prayed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): After breakfast, he'd come here. Lock himself in and pray by himself until 11:00. No one else was allowed in. He'd be here alone with Christ. And not only did he pray, he also worked here.

The nuns were always curious about what he was doing. They peeked through the key hole and would see him prostrate on the floor. That was his way of praying. So this chapel was very close to his heart.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHOI: And Delia Gallagher joins me now live. Delia, you really got unprecedented access. I mean, like, for example that man never gave an interview before.

GALLAGHER: Well, yes, very rare that he would ever speak out to the press. And really that was one of the things that I was so interested in doing, sort of because the pope was such a huge figure.

I always wanted to know about the guys behind him and what life was really like for them and so that was something we were able to do in this special. We talked to the pope's private secretary, the man at his side for 40 years.

And he was very open with us and told us a lot about what was going on, especially in those last days before the pope died and we also got to talk to the pope's doctor which was another man I wanted to talk to about the pope's health. And he was somebody who never went on record either. So we got some very good interviews with this.

CHOI: As you went through and spoke with all these people who were so close to the pontiff, what did you come away with personally? Because you spent years covering the Vatican.

GALLAGHER: Yes, you know, one thing that struck me that most of them said -- we interviewed five cardinals. They said without prompting that they pray to the pope and it was something I never thought of because, you know, these are men of the church and so on. And this was their close collaborator and I said, "You know, afterward he might be made a saint." And they said, "Well, we already pray to him." He said, "I already pray to him." And time after time, they sort of told me that and I thought that was surprising.

CHOI: That's surprising and touching stories to end. We look forward to seeing your two-hour special report tonight at 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN. Delia, it was a joy talking to you.

GALLAGHER: Thank you.

CHOI: Well, we have also been talking a lot this hour about immigration, but there are still some pretty tough questions we have to tackle.

For example, is illegal immigration someone else's problem? Up next, a Lou Dobbs special report, "Broken Borders." Lou examines how illegal immigration and border security affect the entire country, not just small businesses or border states. That's next on CNN.

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