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Your World Today
Bush Iraq Policy; Iraq Detainees Freed; Sharon Health Update
Aired December 19, 2005 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Playing to win. President Bush repeats his case for victory in Iraq.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Freeing Dr. Germ and others. The U.S. military releases some top former members of Saddam Hussein's regime.
MANN: And not free to go yet. Ariel Sharon is grounded briefly by a stroke.
VERJEE: It's 12:00 p.m. in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad.
I'm Zain Verjee.
MANN: And I'm Jonathan Mann.
Welcome to our viewers throughout the world. This is CNN International and this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
VERJEE: The U.S. president today gave his views on Iraq, again. And people in Iraq, the U.S. and around the world are weighing in on whether U.S. and Iraqi forces are winning and whether more patience is required.
MANN: But there are new questions about Iraq and the broader war on terror and how Mr. Bush's policies have affected the civil rights of Americans.
VERJEE: We begin with Mr. Bush's latest remarks at the news conference.
At the White House Mr. Bush told reporters the recent election in Iraq was historic but that it does not mean an end to violence. He also said he will not bow to political pressure to announce a deadline to pull out U.S. troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, I hope by now you've discovered something about me, than when I say we're not going to have artificial timetables to withdraw, and/or, you know, trying to get me out on a limb on what the troop levels will look like, the answer to your question on troop levels is, it's conditions- based. We have an objective in Iraq, and as we meet those objectives, our commanders on the ground will determine the size of the troop levels.
Nice try, end of your try.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Mr. Bush was unapologetic about recent revelations that he personally approved eavesdropping on Americans by the National Security Agency without court approval.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: This program has targeted those with known links to al Qaeda. I've reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for so long as our nation is -- for so long as the nation faces the continuing threat of an epidemic that wants to kill our American citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: For more on Mr. Bush's wide-ranging news conference, we go now to senior political analyst Jeff Greenfield.
Jeff, what did the president set out to do, and do you think he succeeded?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: This press conference shouldn't be seen in isolation, Jonathan, as part of a -- of a several weeks' long strategy. It involved about a half a dozen speeches and public appearances to convey a couple of points.
One, that he's not isolated, that he's not in a bubble only listening to people who tell him want he wants to hear. He's taken questions not just from the press, but from citizens, he's acknowledged mistakes and strategy and tactics, he's at pains to say we've changed course in Iraq, and we've had to. So that's part of it.
The second thing I think, in terms of domestic politics, is he's -- clearly an effort to put the Democrats on the offensive on two issues. One is the non-reauthorization of the Patriot Act. He twice at the press conference called it inexcusable that they, along with four Republicans, filibustered in the U.S. Senate the extension.
And second, I think he's trying to shift the ground to say to his political opponents on Iraq, OK, we've told you we recognize we've made mistakes, but we're on a path that's going to make this better. What do you want us to do exactly? Do you want us to pull the troops out without making sure Iraqis are secure?
What's your plan? I have a plan. That's the case, I believe, that the president is trying to make -- Jonathan.
MANN: Now, he's also making an argument, which is that his administration needs all the information it can get, and he uses the days before September 11th as an example, saying that if the U.S. government had received more information it might have been able to, in some way, behave differently. Is that what an independent investigation has shown, that there was a lack of information? Or did the administration have the information and miss it? And is today President Bush trying to set the record a little bit differently?
GREENFIELD: What I believe is, in general, the so-called walls that were set up between the CIA and the FBI, between intelligence gathering and law enforcement, every -- every investigation of 9/11 that I'm aware of has shown that was a definite problem. Even the case where they found the 20th conspirator, Moussaoui's computer, there were rules in place that prevented the full sharing of that intelligence.
Now, the question here is whether or not what the president has acknowledged he's done, which is to authorize intercepts of conversations between people at home in the United States and people abroad without so much as a court order. Whether that's going to be accepted on national security grounds or seen as just an expansion of presidential power, even beyond that that normally happens in wartime, my feeling about this is it's really going to depend, as I told Zain a few moments ago, on whether the more libertarian Republicans, conservatives who are anti-big government see this as an unwarranted extension of presidential power or say, you know what, on national security grounds, we can see why you had to do this.
MANN: The president spoke Saturday, he spoke Sunday, he spoke just a short time ago. When President Bush makes a case this frequently, do Americans end up agreeing with him? Is this going to work?
GREENFIELD: I'll let you know. We're just at the end of this literally within the last hour. And contrary to what some people on cable television do, I'd just like to wait, oh, I don't know, a day or two to actually see what the impact was.
What we can say is, so far, the initial forays into public opinion have not materially changed opinions about the president, but the news from the elections does seem to have produced a bump in the president's job approval ratings. And I think from the very beginning, Jonathan, you know, some things don't change day to day.
Present and future conditions in Iraq are going to determine, in my view, how the public comes to judge what the president did in the past. The worse the news got over the last year and a half, the more people came to -- the reasons for intervening in the first place. And even the president's trustworthiness.
If this election produces a slow but steady move towards some kind of stability in Iraq, I think people are going to be much more likely to say, well, whatever mistakes were made in the past, we're in the right direction.
So that's why I think, if you'll forgive me, I'll break with some of my colleagues and say I just don't know yet.
MANN: On that note of modesty, senior analyst Jeff Greenfield, thanks very much.
GREENFIELD: OK.
MANN: Zain.
VERJEE: Jon, the U.S. military has released some top former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, some of whom have been detained since the initial invasion of Iraq They include two women, one dubbed Mrs. Anthrax, and the other Dr. Germ.
Aneesh Raman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Captured with fanfare, under suspicion for involvement in Iraq's alleged weapons program, "Mrs. Anthrax," as she was dubbed, Huda Ammash, the five of hearts, the 39th most wanted in the deck of cards, released quietly Saturday, according to her lawyer, along with several other high-level detainees by the U.S. military who now say they no longer have cause to keep her in custody.
But in May 2003, there was global discussion about Iraq's alleged WMD. That's when Ammash, seen here shortly before the war, turned herself in. The former head of Iraq's biowarfare program said that she had nothing to do with any alleged WMD program.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of her life she had been in the administrative field, not in scientific and actual work.
RAMAN: Also released Saturday, Dr. Rihab Taha, dubbed "Dr. Germ," captured just a week after Ammash. Not in the deck of cards, but another high-level detainees, the former director of Iraq's biological weapons program. Ammash and Taha were the only two female high-level detainees.
(on camera): The U.S. military has not provided any specifics beyond the number of high-level detainees released. They say that's for the security of those let go. But given who they are, people involved with Iraq's alleged weapons program, it has once again brought focus to the prewar intelligence used by the U.S. government as a pretext for war.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Meantime, Iraq's Election Commission has released early partial results from Thursday's parliamentary vote. According to those figures, the ruling Shiite Islamist Coalition has made a strong showing in Baghdad province, the country's largest. A Sunni-led group was second in the capital.
Meanwhile, the head of the Election Commission says officials are thoroughly investigating complaints of misconduct and voter interference. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADEL AL-LAMI, IRAQI ELECTION COMMISSION (through translator): We will not hesitate to issue a fine or a penalty, according to the law. There's some penalties that are under the -- the penal code, and some are for the election code or election law. So maybe we will withdraw a candidate, there's a fine, there is indictment, if there was a crime that was committed, and so on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: And the counting will go on for some time. Election officials say they don't expect to release final results before the new year.
VERJEE: Spain's interior minister says police have arrested 15 people suspected of recruiting fighters for the Iraq insurgency. The interior minister said the suspect aimed to recruit and indoctrinate fighters to take on Western forces in Iraq. Jose Antonio Alonso also said the suspects had contacts with al Qaeda in Iraq. He said there was no evidence the suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack in Spain.
MANN: Time for us to take a short break.
VERJEE: When YOUR WORLD TODAY returns, a conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan as the country inaugurates its first popularly-elected parliament in decades.
MANN: And you may have heard "TIME" magazine has named its person -- or persons, we should say -- of the year.
VERJEE: And before we tell you who it is, we want to hear from you.
MANN: Who do you think should be the person of the year and why?
VERJEE: E-mail us your thoughts, YWT@CNN.com. Don't forget, include your name and where you're from. And keep it short, and we'll get as many of your thoughts on the air.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Hello, and welcome back. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
MANN: An hour of world news on CNN International.
VERJEE: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to remain in hospital for at least another day after suffering a mild stroke. Doctors say a small clot block a blood vessel in his brain, but they insist his outlook is good and that the stroke didn't cause any damage.
John Vause updated us just a short while ago. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ariel Sharon will spend another night here in hospital, but doctors say his condition has continued to improve throughout the day and he should be discharged sometime tomorrow morning.
Also, new details about what happened last night when the 77- year-old prime minister suffered a minor stroke. Doctors say that at no time did he lose consciousness. They did say, however, that he did have trouble talking but he was never at any time confused.
DR. YAIR BIRENBAUM, DEP. DIR. OF HADASSAH HOSPITAL: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was hospitalized yesterday night at the Hadassah Medical Center after undergoing a minor cerebral event. Yesterday night and today he underwent extensive testing, and the medical condition and testing will be elaborated by my colleagues to this press conference.
I am coming at this moment from the room of Prime Minister Sharon, and after conducting with him a short conversation, I can say that he looks fine, feels fine, and he wants to go home. We hope to release him tomorrow.
VAUSE: When he is discharged, Mr. Sharon will spend the next couple of days at home at his Jerusalem residence under observation. But those who met with him today say the prime minister was in good spirits, joking and laughing.
ILAN COHEN, DIR. GENERAL OF SHARON'S OFFICE: One of the concerns was -- I mean, he said, "Is it true that everyone is so interested in what's happening to me?" That is the sense of humor of Ariel Sharon.
VAUSE: Also today, doctors carried out an extensive general checkup of the prime minister. They say, apart from this minor stroke, he is in good health.
John Vause, CNN, at Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: As I think John mentioned there, Mr. Sharon is in the midst of all this running for a third term as prime minister. You may remember he recently broke with his conservative Likud Party to form a centrist slate. Well, Likud voters are choosing his replacement Monday. Polls predict that former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will win the leadership position. Netanyahu quit as Mr. Sharon's finance minister in a dispute over the Gaza pullout.
VERJEE: A look at what's topping the news in the United States is up next for our viewers here in the U.S.
MANN: The rest of us will get a report on what's moving financial markets, and the story on two American energy companies joining forces in a multibillion-dollar deal. Details on a really massive merger in our business report next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. We'll have more of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, a check of stories making headlines here in the U.S.
President Bush this morning -- again this morning turned up the heat on Congress to renew the expiring anti-terror Patriot Act. He had a news conference that was seen live here on CNN in the last hour.
Mr. Bush said that America cannot afford to be without the law for a single moment. The anti-terror law cleared the House, but Democrats and a handful of Republicans have successfully blocked it in the Senate. Just moment ago, Democrats responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: ... Constitution, and he cites law for authorizing the use of force -- excuse me -- for -- he cites the law which authorized the use of force in Iraq as the legal basis for his wiretapping and surveillance program. What he does not do is tell us where in that resolution authorizing force in Iraq does he see that authority? We can't find any.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: And Democrats are continuing to respond, and we will listen in to what they have to say and bring you any of the highlights a little bit later.
Meanwhile, New York's first transit strike in more than 25 years could paralyze the city at midnight tonight. The head of the Transport Workers Union says that buses and subway trains will come to a screeching halt if there is not substantial movement by transit management. Already about 50,000 commuters in Queens are having to walk or take cabs because of a limited strike on two private bus lines. The union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan to meet again today over wage and benefit increases.
The price for a gallon of gas is going up again. A new survey finds gas prices have jumped more than 8 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. The first increase in three and a half months.
The average price for a gallon of self-serve regular is now $2.21. You might be paying more or less depending on where you live around the country. Less than $2 a gallon in Salt Lake City and about $2.34 a gallon in Chicago. Experts predict the new year will bring even higher prices.
A symbol of New Orleans's charm and laid-back style is back on track three months after Hurricane Katrina blew through. Six of the city's historic street cars made the rounds through the French Quarter just in time for the holidays. Flooding from Katrina has really damaged the tracks and power lines.
Let's get a check of the nation's weather. Meteorologist and severe weather expert Chad Myers joins us with that.
But not a lot of severe weather out there for you, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, I'm just going to go get a coffee and kind of sit around and put my feet up. This is...
KAGAN: A little latte.
MYERS: Exactly. This is a great -- yes, I can get the cafe du monde on the street car.
Nice day for a lot of folks, yes, Daryn. This is really one of those days where -- where the weather guys take a breather because they know that this isn't going to last long.
There is a huge ridge of high pressure blocking all of the storms. Now what we mean by that, when we talk about a trough of low pressure, that's where the bad weather is. When we talk about ridges, that's where the good weather is.
When you have blue skies over the top of you for a couple of days, you are under a ridge. When you have clouds or rain or snow under you or above you, that means that you are actually going to see the trough. You're in the bad side.
There is a huge ridge that runs all the way up into Edmonton and Bamth (ph), and then back down through Chicago. So, Chicago, you're in the trough part, you're in the cold part. So is New York City, so is Buffalo.
Temperatures today not out of the teens. Minneapolis and the wind-chill factor right now is 14 below.
Phoenix, you're in the ridge part, you're in the warm part. It's 73 for you today, and even warmer for tomorrow in a lot of spots down across the West.
Seattle, 52.
Now, move off to the east, Boston, 37. Warmer out there in Seattle. Sometimes that happens. But it's that big ridge, the big trough that will make differences in the forecast, and it certainly makes a nice weekend or nice week for weather people.
KAGAN: All right, Chad. Enjoy it while you can.
MYERS: All right.
KAGAN: And American high school students preparing to take the SAT. Well, I guess we'll get to that later.
An update now to a story we've been following here on CNN. An Ohio family is celebrating a victory in the push for school safety checks. Just hours from now, Jarod's Law is scheduled to take effect after Governor Bob Taft signs the measure. It will require annual inspections of such items as cafeteria tables, bleachers and playground equipment. Two years ago today, 6- year-old Jarod Bennett was killed when a 290-pound cafeteria table fell on him in his elementary school. And since then his parents have been pushing for the new safety law.
For parents with teenagers, a new survey offering some encouraging news about drug use. There are, though, still some signs and areas of concern.
The survey was taken by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It found that cigarette smoking is now at its lowest level among teens. It dropped in all three groups surveyed, 8th, 10th and 12th graders. The use of illicit drugs is also dropping, but the continued abuse of prescription drugs is still a major concern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LLOYD JOHNSON, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: I'm worried that with generational replacement, the lessons learned in the mid '90s from a very active anti-inhalant campaign are now being lost on a new generation that didn't see them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: A closer look now at what the survey found. Nearly 10 percent of 12th graders use the painkiller Vicodin. Nearly 6 percent of them had used Oxycontin.
Alcohol use fell almost 3 percent among 8th graders. It dropped just over 2 percent among 12th graders.
Steroid use fell for all grades.
American high school students preparing to take the SAT could be in for some relief from the testing marathon. The College Board is now thinking about allowing students to take the three parts of the college entrance examination in separate sittings.
The board recently expanded the SAT's length to nearly four hours, and it's facing complaints that the exam goes on for too long.
We have heard from President Bush twice in 14 hours. Coming up on "LIVE FROM," much more on the president and his message.
Plus, do you have questions about god? Send them to LIVEFROM@CNN.com. The "God Guy" is going to be around and he wants to hear from you.
Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Hello, and welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.
I'm Zain Verjee.
MANN: And I'm Jonathan Mann. Here's some of the top stories that we're following at this hour.
At a White House news conference just a short time ago, U.S. President George Bush staunchly defended a recently revealed program of domestic spying. The president was unapologetic about allowing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without court approval. He said the program targeted suspects with links to al Qaeda and authorizing it was not only lawful but his duty in protecting Americans. Opponents of the practice say it violates civil liberties.
VERJEE: The U.S. military in Iraq has released Rihab Taha, dubbed "Dr. Germ," as well as some other top former Baathists. A military spokesman says they were freed on Saturday as part of an ongoing prisoner review. Also released was Huda Saleh Mehdi Ammash, another biological weapons researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax." Ammash was the only woman on the 18-member council that ran the Baath Party.
MANN: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to remain in a hospital for at least another day after suffering a mild stroke over the weekend. Doctors say a small blood clot briefly blocked a blood vessel in his brain, but they insist his progress is good and the stroke will not leave any permanent damage.
U.S. President George Bush says he has the constitutional authority to use secret wiretaps without warrants to spy on Americans in the fight against terror. But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are demanding more concrete answers about the domestic spying program.
For more on the Bush policy, we're joined now from the White House by Elaine Quijano -- Elaine.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi to you. Good afternoon.
Yes, the president early today staunchly defended, as you mentioned, that domestic spying program, something that came to light in a newspaper report on Friday. "The New York Times" moving ahead and publishing a story that President Bush authorized in 2002 the monitoring of international e-mails and phone calls of American citizens to others outside the United States without a court order, as is required in other cases.
Now, of course, lawmakers here on Capitol Hill, some of them here in Washington, I should say, quite angry about this, saying they believe that the president overstepped his bounds by doing that. But the president today defended his right to do so, and he also said that national security has now been hurt, now that the disclosure of that program has taken place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy. You got to understand, and I hope the American people understand, is still an enemy that would like to strike the United States of America, and they're very dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, President Bush also took questions on Iraq, but the president maintaining what he has said many times before, that he will not put a timeframe on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. He believes to do so would be a mistake and would undermine the progress being made in Iraq.
But certainly here on the domestic front, one of the continuing questions is on the domestic spying program. Some Americans concerned that perhaps civil liberties were violated, but the president saying again today that he is striking the balance between national security and securing those civil liberties. Back to you.
MANN: Elaine, we have seen the president every day making very important speeches, very important appearances to the American public. How much longer is this rather intense campaign going to go on? Has the White House given you any signal?
QUIJANO: Well, certainly this press conference, this news conference, part of what has been a tradition at the White House. At the end of the year, it is customary for the president to come out and speak to reporters in a very formal setting such as this. This is not, obviously, the first time that he has had a news conference of this sort.
But this does come on the heels of that rare Oval Office address last night, in which President Bush focused on the issue of Iraq. That certainly part of a concerted effort by the White House to help turn around public opinion. Anybody's guess, we haven't heard what might be taking place in 2006 on that front. But certainly the president will continue to highlight what he sees as progress in the war on terror and in Iraq itself.
MANN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thanks very much -- Zain.
VERJEE: John, opposition Democrats have responded and they're talking about both the NSA spying issue, as well as the Patriot Act, which remains in limbo in Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
U.S. SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: I don't know why the president is concerned about the Patriot Act when he apparently believes he can just do all this stuff by himself anyway. Patriot Act is important. All of us want to reauthorize it. All of us believe it has to be reauthorized.
But the president has stated a doctrine that he can just make up the law and create whatever other powers he wants on his own. And I have been very involved in this issue over the weekend. I've seen the argument shift.
First argument was that somehow we voted for this when we voted for the Afghanistan war, which I strongly supported. Nobody believes that that changed the basic criminal and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act laws relating to wiretaps.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: And the president earlier said it was inexcusable for the U.S. Senate to let the Patriot Act expire.
So, how exactly would the National Security Agency spy on Americans? How does that happen?
CNN's Tom Foreman got the scoop on a snoop from former NSA worker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Privacy advocates say the door opened wide for domestic electronic surveillance a dozen years ago and fear of international terrorism and crime prompted a new law.
Phone companies, Internet providers and others had to give police ready access to their networks, which handled virtually every call and e-mail in America. And while members of the intelligence community say once those domestic communications were considered off-limits to them, times have changed.
STANSFIELD TURNER, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Today the emphasis is more on getting the information because we're so determined, of course, to defeat the terrorists.
FOREMAN: So how does tapping into a phone or computer work? Very well, says a former NSA employee and author of the book "Spice Among Us," Ira Winkler.
IRA WINKLER, FORMER NSA EMPLOYEE: Depending upon the methods going in and the specific communication provider, it can be a very, very quick thing.
FOREMAN: Winkler, while admitting he has no specific knowledge of what is allegedly going on at the NSA right now, says it could work like this. Imagine a terrorist captured overseas has a cell phone and a laptop showing suspicious communications with someone in the U.S.
With the right authorization, Winkler says an NSA employee could simply type a command into a computer, which would link to the networks handling the calls and e-mails from that targeted address. Then the NSA computer would begin watching that phone number and that computer digitally recording everything that happens on the way, perhaps, targeting other phones and other computers within America for the same treatment.
WINKLER: Technologically, this is simple, it's fast, it happens automatically. There doesn't necessarily have to be a man in the loop.
FOREMAN: Analysts would later decide which communications should be examined more closely.
The technical ability of police or intelligence officers to read e-mails or listen to phone calls is, of course, never supposed to be activated without the proper authorization.
And it is always highly sensitive work. The NSA and the White House will not talk about any particular methods that may or may not be in use right now.
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Because they're classified, I'm not able to get into discussing those issues from this podium.
FOREMAN: But there will certainly be more talk in days to come about when spying for Americans means spying on them.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Still ahead, Guillermo Aduirno will be along with the stories involving weather.
VERJEE: Weather is very much on the minds of people in northern Pakistan. We're going to be going there to see how people are coping with winter closing in two months after the earthquake.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MANN: Welcome back. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
VERJEE: An hour of world news here on CNN International.
More than two months after a powerful earthquake hit South Asia, winter is closing in and many survivors are still living very tenuously. Bill Neely takes us to a Pakistani village close to quake's epicenter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL NEELY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The tears are still flowing here; the pain has not eased. Balakot's tough people, crushed by grief for weeks now, were in mourning again today. The earthquake is still claiming its victims.
Amrazan Bevi (ph) died at 9:00 this morning, ten weeks after being pulled from the rubble with massive injuries. She was buried before sunset beside her four grandchildren, the second in a family in two weeks to die after long suffering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was injured in the earthquake and then, she died. I can't say why I am alive. NEELY: The new days bring little relief here. A bitter cold has set in, a harsh winter is forecast and life here is harsh. Through their broken city, Balakot's people still carry their injured. This man's legs are fractured. He relies on his brother. There are no wheelchairs here.
Blow by blow, they're destroying what's left of their city. Tearing it down and turning it to rubble so they might start life over again, but the damage and the daily aftershocks are making that hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, that has got a mental effect for people. I mean, we just can't seem to get out of it.
NEELY: How can they with injured children everywhere?
Hundreds died here. The survivors lie in the streets and list their dead classmates.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Garson (ph). Nadia (ph). Naureen (ph).
NEELY: Noor (ph) was pulled from her school with a fractured leg.
(on camera): And how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am fine.
NEELY: You are fine.
(voice-over): Her friend Faraj (ph) has a fractured leg too, and recovers next to the mass grave of her classmates.
There were tears here, too. A woman mourning her young sister; a boy, his 14-year-old brother. A generation still in shock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of child been disturbed, and they don't want to go to school, don't want to go to college because they're really just frightened that it might be another chance.
NEELY (on camera): That there might be another earthquake?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there might be another quake.
NEELY (voice-over): And in the bitter cold, children are weakening. Most are coughing. Chest infections are rife. Some are barefoot. They live outdoors, in tents. They are so, so vulnerable.
(on camera): The day after the earthquake, a man here told me there is nothing left of Balakot but its name. That's not quite true, but it will take a whole generation to rebuild this.
And just ahead, there's a long, hard winter to endure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Bill Neely reporting there -- John? MANN: You know, Zain, after picturing like that, tragedies like Pakistan's, 2005 may turn out to be a year of sad irony when it comes to American charities. Overall, giving may break a record because of the outpouring of support for tsunami and hurricane victims, but the response to those tragedies has some charities experiencing donor fatigue.
Gary Nuremberg takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifty nine?
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's nearly always a line at Washington, D.C.'s Bread for the City.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventy two, please?
NUREMBERG: The charity provides food to about 5,000 families as often as once a month.
Sylvia Williams has been helped by Bread for the City for 10 years. Works two jobs to get by, lives in a basement apartment with no heat, but because there's no refrigerator either, the temperature helps keep the food in those bags fresh.
SYLVIA WILLIAMS, CHARITY RECIPIENT: You only get one bag, or maybe two bags, (inaudible) where you used to get 15, you know? So it really has been a change since those storms.
NUREMBERG: By "those storms," Sylvia means the tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, all of which led to huge charitable contributions.
But Bread for the City is seeing a drop in donations of more than a quarter of a million dollars this year.
GEORGE JONES, BREAD FOR THE CITY: I haven't heard people and donors specifically say to me, "I'm giving to Katrina," but we know that that's happening on a large scale.
NUREMBERG (on camera): Bread for the City isn't alone.
At a special holiday dinner Sunday sponsored by another food charity, Martha's Table, organizers said the natural disasters have had a clear impact on corporate giving.
LUCY LOWENTHAL, MARTHA'S TABLE: They would have given to Martha's Table, but at time their corporate budget had been redirected down to the South.
NUREMBERG (voice-over): The impact is spotty.
The Salvation Army says nationwide cattle donations are up 1 percent. A survey of charities by the Association of Fundraising Professionals disclosed a drop in contributions in the weeks immediately after Katrina, but also shows an increase in recent weeks.
PAULETTE MAEHARA, ASSN. OF PROFESSIONAL FUNDRAISERS: There are segments of our membership that are experiencing some donor fatigue, but by and large it certainly has not hit the majority of our organizations.
NUREMBERG: Local charities recognize the need to help those in faraway places but worry about the impact close to home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you both.
Thank you. See you next month.
NUREMBERG: Gary Nuremberg, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Japan has had some of the heaviest snowfall in decades.
MANN: Astonishing snow there. Astonishing is the word of the day.
(WEATHER BREAK)
VERJEE: For one journalist, a really daunting assignment. He was asked by his employers to be environmentally friendly for a whole year.
MANN: What does that mean?
Well, no clothes drier, and even worse for the family, no car.
As part of CNN's "You and the Environment" series, Jim Boulden takes a look at a new, greener way of life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Hickman family has been trying to live a more environmentally friendly and ethical life since May of 2003. That's when Leo Hickman's employer, London's "Guardian" newspaper, asked him to change his ways and write about it in a yearlong column.
LEO HICKMAN, REPORTER, "THE GUARDIAN": I've invited these three, what we ended up calling ethical order, to spend the better part of the day here at the house rummaging through cupboards, looking through the fridge, asking lots of questions about our lifestyle, such as where we went on the holiday, how we get around? Do we have a car? Do we use public transport?
BOULDEN: The Hickmans failed the audit. They flew on too many holidays, used disposable diapers, had bleach under the sink.
A lot had to change. So out went the tumble drier and the dream of buying their first car; in came washable diapers and....
L. HICKMAN: Look. Whoa, look.
BOULDEN: ... the worms.
Two-year-old Esme (ph) loves the thousands of worms which now consume much of the family's food waste.
L. HICKMAN: The worms kind of get going and kind of munch their way through it all, and they turn it into this really rich, dark compost, which I ended up using in the garden and actually ended up growing some vegetables and things with that compost. It was a lovely kind of cycle.
BOULDEN: To grow those vegetables, Hickman ripped up the back deck and used the boards to make garden boxes. What they don't grow comes in the organic box each Friday.
JANE HICKMAN, WIFE: You can see how fresh they are. You can see how they've just been dug up.
BOULDEN: But don't believe for a second the transition has been easy or that the Hickmans bought into all the suggestions.
J. HICKMAN: Well, some of it I just thought, you know, forget it.
BOULDEN: They didn't give up the fridge freezer and couldn't afford the solar panels or electricity-generating windmills.
But Leo's wife Jane no longer buys cosmetics from big corporations.
J. HICKMAN: I've had quite a lot of fun discovering new products. And there is an awful lot out there. And you can still really pamper yourself and really spoil yourself, you know, you don't have to be washing your face in the morning dew to be going natural.
BOULDEN: The Hickmans could now go back to their old ways. The column finished over a year ago, but it spawned two books detailing how you can make a difference without changing your lifestyle.
And Leo wanted to keep going even with one big sacrifice.
L. HICKMAN: Not having a car was one of the -- was the biggie, really, because, you know, you make a huge difference by not having a car.
BOULDEN: No car means a huge savings, and the rediscovery of South London's famous Brixton Markets.
L. HICKMAN: It's been crucial to the experiment actually, to try and make sure that we think about all the local shops. Because you notice, all this kind of stuff just goes away. If the supermarkets get all our money, then all this stuff is going to disappear.
BOULDEN: The whole point for the Hickmans is you don't have to sell your house and live in the woods to make a difference.
L. HICKMAN: If I can do it, I mean, anyone can do it, honestly.
BOULDEN: Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Tough, tough way to spend a year.
Still to come, what does Charles Lindbergh have in common with Martin Luther King, Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini?
VERJEE: And for that matter, Jon, what do all of them have in common with the computer and the endangered Earth?
MANN: Don't go away. We'll tell you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Well, we love traditions and it's time for an annual media tradition again in the United States.
MANN: Every year, "Time" magazine names the person or persons that it feels have influenced the news the most. Now, it's not always a good thing. Hitler and Stalin have won the distinction in the past.
VERJEE: They have, indeed. But as Gerri Willis tells us, few would question the worthiness of "Time"'s latest choice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BONO: I'm experiencing an unusual feeling. I think it's called being humbled.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bono may have made more headlines for his work on aid to Africa than for his music in the past few years. And even in the face of personal recognition, the rock star is staying on message.
BONO: This can be a generation that can end extreme poverty, and by that we mean kind of stupid, daft poverty where 3,000 kids are dying everyday of a mosquito bite in Africa, you know, malaria. We can fix stuff like that.
WILLIS: The Live Aid concerts organized by Bono and others this year went a long way towards that goal. Shortly after the concerts, G8 leaders committed to double aid to poor countries by 2010, adding about $50 billion a year.
Also honored by "Time," Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, with a endowment of more than $28 billion. Much of the foundation's work is dedicated to funding vaccines for underprivileged children.
BILL GATES: It has been a great way for global health to get more visibility and I think it is part of a upswelling of interest and see more equity. The greatest inequity left. The more people know about us, the more they want to ask.
WILLIS: "Time" Magazine reports the Gates spent giving more money away faster than anyone else. But like Bono, the couple wants to keep the focus on the prize.
MELINDA GATES: I think the important thing is recognizing the issue of inequity across the globe.
BONO: Though we're coming from different places, and we are in agreement that this can be a generation that can you know, eradicate extreme poverty. That's not, a kind of -- you know, sort the wishful thinking. That's not sort of misty-eyed, rock star nonsense. This is a hard-headed business guy and science-based person. These are achievable goals and I'm a mouthpiece, I'm a rock star, I'm a lucky man. But it's the tough stuff that will get this done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Giving away more money faster than anyone ever has. Well, now you know what the editors of "Time" magazine think.
VERJEE: Well, what about you? Who do you think should be the person of the year and why?
We got an e-mail from Thomas in Canada. He votes for the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying: "For the very large reason, leaving the Gaza Strip and giving it back to Palestinians."
MANN: Hussein in London writes: "President George W. Bush is my man of the year. He is focused in the war against terrorism. He never looks back. He is resolute in spite of the popular opinion against the war in Iraq."
Tony in Massachusetts, here in the U.S., writes: "I think the 'Time' selection of Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono could not have been more accurate. These three people put our current leadership to shame. Now if only Bill Gates would run for president!"
VERJEE: That's it for YOUR WORLD TODAY. YWT@CNN.com if you want to weigh in on that.
MANN: Zain got a vote, too, we mention before we go.
VERJEE: I just sent it.
MANN: I'm Jonathan Mann.
VERJEE: I'm Zain Verjee.
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