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Your World Today

Violence in Egypt; Rafah Crossing Reopens; Justice Department Opens Investigation Into Domestic Spying Leak

Aired December 30, 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.
JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Mandatory expulsions turn deadly as police in Cairo force Sudanese refugees out of their makeshift tent city.

COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Justice Department investigate leaks of highly classified information about a top secret government surveillance program.

CLANCY: And humanitarian officials fear those who survive the Pakistan quake will not make it through the Himalayan winter.

MCEDWARDS: It is 7:00 p.m. in Cairo, 12:00 noon in Washington.

I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And this is CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

We are going to begin with what was a violent end to a three- month-long sit-in protest by Sudanese refugees in Egypt.

MCEDWARDS: That's right. Riot police armed with batons and water cannons moved in to try and clear a makeshift camp that they had set up in Cairo, and there were some clashes.

CLANCY: Between 10 and 20 refugees were killed, including some children.

Paula Newton has details for us now on what the U.N. Refuge Agency calls a terrible tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ringed by as many as 4,000 riot police, the protesters' defiance meant little. When the water didn't work, police marched in.

One by one, they plucked the Sudanese protesters from their camps. Not even children were spared, dragged away forcefully as Egypt hopes to finally put an end to what it called an illegal three- month sit-in.

The Egyptian government claims most of those who died were trampled or injured in the stampede as they tried to run from police. As many as two dozen police were also injured in an operation that was a long time in coming.

These Sudanese refugees were looking for safe passage to the U.S. through Europe. But when the U.N. refused to hear the refugee claims, they squatted, right in the middle of one of Cairo's most affluent neighborhoods. Since then, three have died in the camp, including a 4-year-old boy.

Huddled onto buses, these Sudanese now face an uncertain future in Egypt, where they could eventually be deported back to Sudan, where despite a recent cease-fire, war and famine continue to ravage the country.

Paula Newton, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Many Sudanese refugees in Egypt -- and there are some two million of them -- say they are afraid to return home despite a January peace accord that formally ended Sudan's 20-year-long civil war. The United Nations says it must prioritize all of the appeals it receives for refugee status, giving highest consideration to those at greatest risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON REDMOND, UNHCR SPOKESMAN: The situation in southern Sudan, even though a peace agreement has been signed, is still very, very difficult. We have started a voluntary repatriation back to southern Sudan, but this particular group of people who are among actually some two million or more Sudanese in Egypt are already in a country that offers protection. And that is Egypt.

We do resettle Sudanese and other refugees abroad, but the number of resettlement places in the world today is very, very limited. And so we have to resettle people who are vulnerable, who are in a place where they cannot currently receive protection.

Since 1999, we've resettled about 16,000 Sudanese from Egypt, 3,700 in 2005. But the number of places are very, very limited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: The U.N. Refugee Agency says it had brokered a deal to end all of this peacefully between the Egyptian government and the leaders of the protesters. But when the leaders' ship (ph) went back to the camp, it was rejected by the people that had gathered there.

Well, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is open now after a Palestinian police protest forced its closing on Friday. This just the latest trouble to hit the area in the past week. We get more now from Guy Raz and the implications it all has for the Palestinian government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Gunfire in Gaza, Palestinian versus Palestinian. Masked militants taking over government offices. Three British tourists kidnapped by gunmen. The border crossing under siege by Palestinian police.

And all of it happening in less than five days.

Gaza wasn't supposed to turn out this way. After Israel ended its military occupation there this past summer, the Palestinian government became a sovereign authority. No Ottomans, no British, no British, no Egyptians, no Israelis. Gaza was supposed to become the proving ground for the future Palestinian state.

It unraveled within months. The embattled Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is struggling to restore order in the area.

SAID ZEEDANI, AL QUDS UNIVERSITY: He is partly to blame for his own fault. He failed from the very beginning to assert his own authority.

RAZ: Abbas won a landslide presidential election last year. But he's come under criticism for failing to confront the disparate Palestinian militias vying for power.

Earlier this week, Abbas tried to persuade militants to halt rocket attacks on Israel. But no one was persuaded. Militants vowed to carry on.

Some Palestinian officials called the Gaza crisis labor pains. Freedom can sometimes be messy, they say. But it's also a product of a deepening crisis facing the Palestinian government, a government increasingly unpopular with both its supporters and its detractors.

The political movement that controls the government, Fatah, increasingly seen as corrupt or ineffective.

(on camera): In less than a month, Palestinians go to the polls to elect a new parliament. Under current conditions, no one can say for certain whether that vote will be held on schedule. The mandate Mr. Abbas so resoundingly won just a year ago is rapidly slipping away. And calls for new leadership are growing louder every day.

Guy Raz, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: So many stories, so little time. It's been quite a year, for sure.

MCEDWARDS: I know, it really has. And we want to get your thoughts about the year that is almost behind us now, almost history.

What do you think was the most compelling news story in 2005? Tell us what it is and what your reasons are if you think so.

CLANCY: E-mail us at ywt@cnn.com. Keep them short. And be sure to include, well, at least your first name and where you are writing from. We are going to try to read some of these out on the air. MCEDWARDS: All right.

Well, turning now to Iraq, two explosions in Baghdad killed five people and injured 23 others. Iraqi police say a parked car bomb and a mortar round exploded in a busy commercial street in central Baghdad. Insurgents have stepped up their attacks in the city since election security restrictions were lifted.

Well, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq says the Iraqi Electoral Commission has invited a team of international observers to look into those complaints of voter fraud. The international mission for Iraqi elections will also send a team, and they'll be doing some follow-up assessments to the interim report. This report said the vote was in accordance with international standards.

Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites have been staging demonstrations. They've been complaining of fraud on election day.

Well, a U.S. teenager is heading home after an amazing journey to Baghdad. Listen to this.

CLANCY: Yes, he's in a little bit of trouble though, I think.

MCEDWARDS: Yes.

CLANCY: Farris Hassan made the trip without telling his parents. Hassan, who's of Iraqi descent but doesn't speak a word of Arabic, told his mother he wanted to see how Iraqis feel about democracy and the war. She, of course, refused to let him go, and then she says he took things into his own hands.

MCEDWARDS: That's right. Hassan says he knows -- he knows how dangerous his trip was. He gets it. But he plans to kiss the ground and give everyone a big hug when he gets back home.

And I hope that includes his parents.

CLANCY: I hope it works.

In the U.S., there has been a new development in the controversy over the National Security Agency and its surveillance of Americans, but it involves who revealed the spying in the first place, the leaker.

David Ensor reports from Washington about an investigation by the Justice Department.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The Justice Department leak investigation has been opened, officials confirm, concerning a report in "The New York Times" December 16 which said the National Security Agency has been monitoring phone calls and other communications between people inside the United States and others overseas since the president approved a top-secret program after the 9/11 attacks, and doing so without warrants from a court. The report raised a firestorm, with critics charging the president had exceed his authority and the program was illegal. By law, intelligence agencies are required to refer to the Justice Department any possible leak of classified information. This investigation, like others, will be conducted by FBI agents and Justice Department officials.

Leak investigations are difficult. They often do not succeed. "The New York Times" says it knew about the top secret NSA program a year ago but decided not to make it public after appeals from administration officials.

Publicly and privately, senior administration officials, present and former, have said that this leak did serious damage to national security.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCEDWARDS: Well, coming up, they lived through a terrible earthquake, but months later they are still struggling to survive.

CLANCY: When YOUR WORLD TODAY returns...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, it is very cold. But even more pragmatically speaking, it just makes this area absolutely uninhabitable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: ... Dr. Sanjay Gupta once again, this time taking us to northwest Pakistan to show us just how dangerous the frost of winter really is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MCEDWARDS: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International.

Pakistani authorities say at least 24 people have been killed in an avalanche caused by an aftershock from an earthquake. They say the victims were villagers who had been digging for gemstones in a remote northwest region and that area was the area that was hit by that quake in October, the big one that killed more than 70,000 people.

CLANCY: It's been nearly three months since the 7.6 magnitude quake laid waste across the region. In that period of time, the onset of winter has survivors struggling to endure another blow from Mother Nature. We have more on that now from Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice over): Since the earthquake of October 8 in Pakistan, there have been more than 2,000 aftershocks. It seems the earth is always trembling. And it has left a feeling of everything being unsettled, both physically and psychologically.

But as we learned, the greatest threat to the more than two million displaced survivors was not coming from the ground, but from the air. It's getting cold, really cold.

The snow has already started to fall in the hilltop town of Gangwal, snow-covered peaks with impossibly blue rivers running through them. Today, the Aga Khan Foundation brings supplies.

As I watch the young boys and men jostle for the few bags, it never seems like enough. Never before have I seen relief at such a raw level. Simply, if these supplies hadn't arrived, many of these people would have probably died within the next few weeks. I know many of them still will.

Ten-year-old Javid (ph) and 13-year-old Masir (ph) are brothers. They lost their mother during the quake. And their father is too ill to help. So -- and this is too often the case -- young boys are quickly turned into men, as they move their family from higher in the mountains to this village.

(on camera): So, he's moved here because it's -- it's too -- too cold?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because their houses are all gone. So, they have decided to move to that place. And there are (INAUDIBLE) brothers and sister in that tent. They're burning wood to keep them warm. And they're all right.

GUPTA (voice-over): Their job today is to try and hoist at least one of these 50-pound bags of supplies up the side of one of these mountains to their home. They don't want any help, afraid someone will steal their bag.

Their hands are working hands, already far too callused and cracked for such a young age. But they do have shoes, more than this boy can say -- no shoes, no jacket, no gloves and, some would say, no chance at survival.

Today, it is below freezing. As he curls his toes in a futile attempt to stay warm, it looks to me like frostbite may have already claimed his black feet. He runs away when I offer him my coat.

(on camera): The snow has started to fall in many places of Pakistan, as you can see here.

And it is a tremendously large problem. Obviously, it is very cold. But, even more pragmatically speaking, it just makes this area absolutely uninhabitable. What you want to do is to be able to drive stakes into the ground here. You absolutely can't do it.

The ground is just too tough. Some of the people around here are telling me they can't even dig to bury people. They can't even dig their own graves. And get this. Even when the snow starts to melt, all this water actually will come down and cause significant mudslides -- so, one problem on top of another.

Right now, a lot of people are trying to be encouraged to move to lower ground to get away from all this. But, as you can see, so many people are still staying around here.

(voice-over): The Pakistani government has set up tent relief camps, like this one, but many aid organizations are trying to help people stay where they live and continue the lives they know.

ROGER DEAN, GOAL IRELAND: And every person -- there's no selection criteria. Everybody gets what they need to stay alive this winter.

GUPTA: A few miles away, Roger Dean with the GOAL foundation is fighting for the life of that boy with no shoes and everyone else in the area.

(on camera): So, tell us what's going on here.

DEAN: What we have got here is, we have got the logistical base for GOAL in this area. We have got -- our shelter and our food programs are all being supplied from here. So, we are having all the metal sheets for people to build their homes, their winter shelters coming out from here.

GUPTA: We're about a mile in the sky now, you know, about 5,000 feet or so. What has been the biggest challenge to get all this done?

DEAN: It's the time scale. We're working against a very, very tight time scale. We could have had snow any day. As you can see outside, the cloud has come in overnight. This is new for today. And that's a bad sign. That means rain is on the way. And, when there's rain, there's snow. So, anything can happen.

GUPTA (voice-over): GOAL and many relief organizations, including USAID, World Food Program, and Doctors Without Borders, are working to make it safe to continue living here.

(on camera): This home costs about $200.

Point out a couple of things here. First of all, this is corrugated iron. And for many people living in this area, this could be the difference between life and death, as the winter gets much colder here.

Also, as you look up here, you will see a lot of straw in between the tarp and the corrugated iron. That's the best form of insulation they can have around here. And, also, this tarp itself, a simple tarp, gray on the outside, and actually white on the inside.

And the -- and the point of that is to actually attract the sun, to keep it even warmer. This is what they are going to have to deal with, as the winter gets much colder around here and the temperatures drop below freezing at night.

What this the -- what is the thing you need more than anything else?

M. MUSHTAQ KHAN, VILLAGER: We need no -- iron sheets. If we have iron sheets, we can live here. Otherwise, this tent is not enough.

GUPTA (voice-over): And there it was, a problem. Yes, it was getting colder, and a solution, $10 iron sheets.

It wasn't clear that these corrugated iron sheets would make it here in time to save the lives of Javid (ph), Masir (ph), and that boy with no shoes. Some say it's already too late. Some say the aftershock of winter came too quick and too strong.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Gangwal, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Delivering aid to the earthquake survivors produced rare moments of cooperation between Pakistan and India. The quake's aftermath just one of a number of challenges India faces as it emerges as a power in the global economy.

MCEDWARDS: And now a key player in Indian politics is speaking out in her first major interview since turning down the prime ministership back in 2004. Rajdeep Sardesai, of CNN's new sister network in India, CNN-IBN, has this exclusive interview with Sonia Gandhi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJDEEP SARDESAI, CNN-IBN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Isn't it true that every day, one day it's the left, one day it's (INAUDIBLE), you're under pressure, the congress doesn't know how to handle coalition governments? You've never done it before.

SONIA GANDHI, UPA CHAIR: Well, I don't think we have done that badly.

SARDESAI: You don't think...

GANDHI: After all, we had -- this is really the first time that we are in a coalition at the center, a full-fledged coalition at the center.

SARDESAI: You're not under pressure when you impose presidents who...

(CROSSTALK)

GANDHI: Differences, maybe differences of opinion on a particular issue or point, but we have been able to resolve all the points which have been brought to us. And after all, isn't that part of life? You work whether in a coalition, whether within your party, whether in your area, your sphere, you work with colleagues, with people. And constantly you have to listen to them to adjust, to talk to them. Listen to them.

SARDESAI: So in this one year you think the party has come to terms with the fact -- the congress has come...

GANDHI: I think so.

SARDESAI: Because there are large parts of the country, ma'am, where the congress doesn't exist today. (INAUDIBLE), you have to be a very junior partner. Doesn't that worry you, West Bengal also?

GANDHI: West Bengal has been so for long (ph) quite a long time.

SARDESAI: But...

GANDHI (INAUDIBLE), yes, is certainly an area of worry, of concern.

SARDESAI: And what are you going to do about it? Have you thought about it? Some say...

(CROSSTALK)

GANDHI: I think about it all the time.

SARDESAI: Do you?

GANDHI: I do think about areas where we are not strong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now, you can read more about that interview with Sonia Gandhi at CNN's IBN's Web site at www.ibnlive.com.

Still ahead in this edition of YOUR WORLD TODAY...

MCEDWARDS: Well, something we can all relate to, the price of gas. There is a dispute over natural gas, and this one is threatening the relationship between the Ukraine and Russia. We'll explain this right after the break.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. First, though, let's check on stories making headlines here in the U.S.

It appears 2005 will end on a very stormy note for the waterlogged West Coast. A series of storm bands have folks sandbagging in advance of high surf advisories, swollen rivers, flood watches, fears of possible mudslides, and even snow. CNN's Jen Rogers is live. She is in Napa, California, with the latest.

Jen, hello.

JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

Well, it has been raining here now for a couple of hours. And the showers are continuing. We are expecting them to pick up in the afternoon. We do have a flood watch that has been issued here for the north base starting at 6:00 p.m., going through tomorrow.

Just to give you an idea of what's happening here at the Napa River, here's a sign behind me, that orange stripe there. That is the flood level.

The level at which this level floods is 25 feet. Obviously you can see we are pretty far away from that. But talking to officials here in Napa, what concerns them is getting three inches of rain in six hours.

If something along that magnitude happened, you could see this river come up to that level, they say, in three to four hours. And the creeks and tributaries right around here can rise even faster -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jen Rogers live in Napa, California. Be safe out there.

Now to fire-scarred Oklahoma. New flames have already erupted this morning. A fire on the edge of Oklahoma City had exhausted firefighters scrambling before dawn.

The fire destroyed a barn. And crews raced to awaken a homeowner as flames swept even closer.

Earlier on CNN's "LIVE TODAY," we heard from a spokesman for the Oklahoma City Fire Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. BRIAN STANALAND, OKLAHOMA CITY FIRE DEPT.: Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating with us. This morning, where I am standing now, we had a fire that broke out yesterday at about 1:00. This fire broke out again about 1:00 and burned about 1,500 acres.

And the winds have shifted out of the north now. They were blowing from the south yesterday. They are now blowing out of the north very, very strongly. And we are expecting conditions to worsen over the weekend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: In all, more than 300 homes and businesses have burns in Oklahoma and Texas. And four lives have been lost.

Let's bring in Chad Myers, our severe weather expert. (WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: An Iraqi baby is on her way here to the U.S. She'll get an operation that may save her life. Three-month-old Baby Noor is due here in Atlanta tomorrow. Doctors will close a hole in her spine.

Noor stole the hearts of U.S. soldiers who searched her parents home in Baghdad. They worked with friends at home and Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss to get the child into the U.S., where she will have surgery.

And another huge event takes place this weekend. The world ushers in a new year.

2006 begins at the stroke of midnight tomorrow night. Cities all across the world are preparing for huge New Year's Eve celebrations.

One of the biggest parties, of course, in New York Times -- in Times Square in New York. That is where just a few minutes ago they tested the famous ball. And we got a picture of that.

Security will be tight. Police are banning all backpacks, large bags, and alcohol is definitely a no-no.

Four months to the day after Hurricane Katrina struck, a man returns to New Orleans to find his mother's body still lying in the rubble of her home. CNN's "LIVE FROM" will have much more on this unbelievable story at the top of the hour.

Meanwhile, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break.

I'm Daryn Kagan. Happy New Year, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: To our viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome back. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.

MCEDWARDS: And I'm Colleen McEdwards. Here are some of the top stories that we're following for you.

A three-month protest by Sudanese refugees has come to a violent end in Cairo. Here's a look at it. Police armed with batons and those water cannon forcibly cleared make-shift camp and clashed with some of the refugees. The government says 10 refugees killed in what it calls a stampede. Health officials, though, putting the death total as high as 20. The refugees were protesting living conditions in Egypt. They were also demanding that the United Nations resettle them in another country.

CLANCY: The border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened, right now. That after a Palestinian police protest about 100 officers stormed the Rafah crossing on Friday, they were trying to prevent a suspect from fleeing the region. They were protesting the killing of a fellow officer in a drug-related family feud. European Union monitors closed the crossing. They fled to the nearby Israeli terminal.

MCEDWARDS: Energy officials from the European Union are expected to meet next week to talk about the Ukrainian-Russian dispute over the price of natural gas. The E.U. gets a quarter of its gas from Russia's stated-owned monopoly called Gazprom. Gazprom has threatened to cut off supplies to Ukraine on New Year's Day if Kiev refuses to pay a four-fold price hike.

CLANCY: A U.S. military official says the number of detainees and a hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has more than doubled in the last week. Forty-six detainees joined 38 already on strike protesting conditions at the facility. Bob Franken has more for us on the hunger strikes and it says they are not unusual.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It is not something unusual. As long as I've been going down there which was almost from the moment they opened Camp X-Ray, if you remember that. There have been hunger strikes protests against a variety of offenses, we all imagine, on the part of the detainees. And now we're told with some credibility that it is a protest against the desperation in the seeming futility of the existence there.

Now part of the problem is, is that nobody really knows how the detainees are being treated. The military will take you down there for a tour. Take you, meaning members of the media, but most reporters, including this one, have long started calling these dog and pony shows. You have severely restricted access, no access whatsoever to the detainees, you have no ability to communicate with them, your video is strictly censored leading people to believe that maybe some of the charges that have been made down there are charges that might have some credibility. At least there's nothing that has been shown that would refute the charges. So we have evidence such things as this glimmering of a hunger strike. They do force feed them in an effort to keep them alive. Meanwhile about 500 continue down there in circumstances that we can only guess at.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Now most of the detainees have been held for more than three-and-a-half years now without charge or access to lawyers.

MCEDWARDS: Well Latin American politics is not for the faint of heart. It is never steady as she goes, it can be very difficult to predict. And this year it certainly was.

CLANCY: It certainly was, and after decades of what we had seen as conservative governments. It seems the pendulum in the region shifting decisively to the left.

MCEDWARDS: Our Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman reports now on a political trend that has got a lot of people worried in the U.S. government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): It was a year defined by political upheaval and unprecedented elections that have dramatically changed the political map of Latin America, a dramatic shift to the left with Venezuela leading the charge.

In Bolivia, indigenous groups paralyzed the country, calling for the naturalization of the nation's natural gas wealth and forcing the resignation of their President Carlos Mesa, whose predecessor had also been forced out. In Ecuador, President Lucio Gutierrez too was ousted after widespread demonstrations.

While in Brazil, a ballooning corruption scandal has seriously damaged the credibility of leftist President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva. This, as another political hurricane swept the region. Venezuela's fiery populist leader embarked on a leftist crusade to launch an alternative, economic and political model to Latin America, a model free of what he calls U.S. imperialist domination.

HUGO CHAVEZ, VENEZUELA POPULIST LEADER (through translator): Only united can we feet imperialism and lift our people from misery.

NEWMAN: President Hugo Chavez used his nation's vast oil wealth to make friends and influence people all over the region, selling fuel at cut prices while declaring war on free trade with the U.S. All this with the blessing of his mentor, Cuba's president Fidel Castro.

Violent anti-bush demonstrations in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, last month, illustrated the growing anti-American sentiment in the reasonable. The icing on the cake came earlier in the month when Bolivia's leftist leader, Evo Morales, was elected as this country's first-ever indigenous president, a man who boasts he will become Washington's worst nightmare.

And if there was any doubt where his priorities lie, Evo Morales has decided to make his first international visit since being elected president to Cuba. He was received here at Havana's international airport by President Fidel Castro, a man he's described as an inspiration.

ANDRES OPPENHEIMER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Washington is very worried and it should be, because you have two kinds of leftist leaders in Latin America, you have a democratic globalize left, for instance, in Chile with President Ricardo Lagos and leading Brazil with President Luiz Lula da Silva. But Evo Morales is a radical, he's a totally different kind of leftist, he supports Cuba, he support Venezuela...

NEWMAN: In Chile a more moderate leftist, socialist Michelle socialist Michelle won the first round of presidential elections earlier this month. While in Uruguay, a former leftist rebel was elected earlier this year. Latin America's turn to the left is undeniable. The question is how sharp will that turn be?

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY: This left-leaning political trend in Latin America can't be good news for the Bush administration. Joining us to discuss the evolving relationship between Washington and Latin America, much more, Arturo Velenzuela. He is a professor of government, he is the director of the Center for Latin American studies in Georgetown University.

What is really happening? Is the left resurgence in Latin America really something to be concerned about? Or is it the failure of the democracies, the middle of the road democracies that's cause for concern?

ARTURO VELENZUELA, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, I think that we need to contextualize things a bit. We're not in front of the revolutionary civil war context of the past, in the 1980s where the authoritarian regimes of the '60s and '70s. We still have elected leaders throughout Latin America. But clearly the population in many of these countries is dissatisfied. The lot of individuals has not improved significantly. Latin America continues to be the continent of the greatest inequality in the world and so this has led, in many countries, people to try to find other leaders. Now it's not clear, however, the trend is towards necessarily the Chavez kind of leftism. There is -- there are two lefts in Latin America, really, it's the kind of populist leftism of Chavez in Venezuela, but also as your package suggested, the left of the Chileans, for example, that is a different kind.

CLANCY: A social democratic left.

VELENZUELA: It's a social democratic left, one that believes in free trade, that believes that, in fact, engaging with a globalized economy. And I would put Brazil more in that category and Uruguay more in that category. So, I would be reluctant to say that there's a trend in the direction. Clearly the Morales thing is a setback, because Morales more than any other leader in the region looks like Chavez, and this...

CLANCY: All right. You've got Chavez, you've got Morales and you've got two people here that often like to put a finger in the eye of Uncle Sam, if you will. Have they done anything for their people, at least in the case of Chavez? Has he succeeded in doing what previous governments couldn't do?

VELENZUELA: Well, he has what previous governments had in Venezuela and where successful in doing too and that is the enormous wealth of oil and with the high oil prices now he's distributing that and that clearly contributes to his popularity. Morales in Bolivia does not have, for example, those resources and he's going to have to take on a different set of policies in order to be able to satisfy individual demands.

But the, you know, the United States is also unpopular in the region, not just because of economics situation, but also because United States posture in the world is one that's rejected by people most, across the political spectrum from right to left. And I'm referring really to the war in Iraq and to U.S. unilateralism as perceived in Latin America. That goes against the grain and so the U.S. has got a real challenge right now to overcome that perception of rejection of U.S. policy. And I think the administration is working hard to try to make amends and to deal with Chavez and with Morales in a more sophisticated way than in the past.

CLANCY: Arturo Valenzuela. I want to thank you very much for joining us and giving us your insight and experience here in Latin American politics.

MCEDWARDS: All right, well still ahead. Guillermo Arduino is going to be here with stories in your weather news.

CLANCY: And then looking back at a story that no one will forget. The incredible year that Michael Jackson has had. His umbrella not shielding him from some very bad publicity.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Well, he actually won in court, but the court of a public opinion is, of course, another matter. For Michael Jackson it's been a year that he would probably rather forget. But who among us could forget that year and that case? Our Rusty Dornin looks back at one of this year's defining moments.

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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A man under suspicion, always the showman, Michael Jackson facing child molestation charges hops atop an SUV in front of the courthouse. The antics toned down when the trial began, sort of. There was the pajama day and once he turned up so late to court the judge threatened to have him arrested.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pain in the neck.

DORNIN: Outside the courthouse, the circus rings, thousands of media, and hundreds of fans from around the world, as well as the protesters. Inside the courtroom, prosecutors promised many things. Jackson, they claimed, molested a 13-year-old boy after plying him alcohol. And the superstar conspired to hold the boy and his family captive inside Neverland. But the prosecution strategy often backfired on the witness stand. One of the weakest witnesses, was the accuser's mother.

LINDA DEUTSCH, "ASSOCIATED PRESS": She put on a German accent, she snapped her fingers, she performed and her answers were sometimes contradictory. They brought out facts about her having lied in the past, and she admitted it.

DORNIN: There was plenty of salacious court testimony about Jackson's behavior around young boys.

MARTIN BASHIR ABC NEWS "NIGHTLINE": Sleeping in bed with children?

MICHAEL JACKSON, ENTERTAINER: No, you're making it -- no, no, you are making it all wrong.

DORNIN: And there were Jackson's own remarks in this documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson" by British journalist Martin Bashir. But the defense pointed out that it wasn't until after he was released that Jackson's accuser claimed he was molested. Something they contended didn't make any sense. Then there were the celebrity witnesses like Larry King and Jay Leno, and of course Macaulay Culkin. The former child star, Culkin, said he slept in the same bed with Jackson, but told the court nothing ever happened. Legal analysts said it was irrelevant to this case whether Jackson had ever had relationships with other boys.

JIM MORET, LEGAL ANALYST: This is about the accuser. There's only one accuser. Only one alleged victim in this case. And if you don't believe that accuser, and if you don't believe his brother, Michael Jackson has to be acquitted.

DORNIN: Money was another headline for prosecutors. Was the man who built a fantasy land in his own back yard going broke? Prosecutors claimed he'd mortgaged everything to support his extravagant lifestyle, including his collection of Beatles music. That was the reason prosecutors alleged Jackson held the accuser's family hostage, to protect his own reputation and his millions. As the trial wore on, Jackson's pale, thin appearance plus two hospital visits sparked speculation about his health.

RAMONE BAIN, JACKSON SPOKESWOMAN: It was not because he was sick, but because Mr. Gregory said you look a little dehydrated and I feel that you need electrolytes.

DORNIN: Never far from his side during the entire trial, Jackson's mother, and sometimes his father. As the case drew to a close, his siblings again joined the parasolled entourage. Jackson's final wave to fans has he left for Neverland to await his fate. Ten days later on June 13th, the verdict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury in the above and titled case find the victim not guilty of conspiracy as charged in count one of the indictment. We the jury find the defendant not guilty of a lewd act upon a minor child.

DORNIN: For several jurors, it was the accuser's mother who tipped the scales in Jackson's favor. Foreman Paul Rodriguez says she just wasn't believable.

PAUL RODRIQUEZ, FMR. JACKSON JURY FOREMAN: We just thought she wasn't a credible person.

DORNIN (on camera): To you was that one of the biggest factors in your mind raising reasonable doubt?

RODRIQUEZ: Well, actually, yes, it was. Yes, it was. When we listened to her and the way -- there were just so many things that came up.

DORNIN (voice-over): On judgment day, just hours after Jackson was exonerated, juror Ray Hultman told Larry King he doubts.

RAYMOND HULTMAN, JUROR: I feel that Michael Jackson probably has molested boys.

DORNIN: Doubts that have turned into tell-all book deals for Hultman and another juror. Jackson headed to the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain after the trial and has remained in seclusion ever since. His publicist says he's working on a song to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims, but his own financial future is more precarious than ever. Yet the man who no longer tops the pop charts, remains the subject of endless fascination.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, San Francisco.

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MCEDWARDS: All right, well let's get you a look at global weather conditions around the world.

CLANCY: And we'll join Guillermo Arduino at the International Weather Center, a deep freeze across Europe, isn't it ?

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CLANCY: All right. Guillermo thank you very much for a heads up on what could be the last hurricane of the season, or the first one of the next season.

MCEDWARDS: Yeah, lets -- how many hours have we got left?

Still ahead, though, your e-mail. We want to get those in.

CLANCY: Also, do you know what an American film director is also an accomplished jazz musician? Well, he's been performing in Europe and you could say he found himself there. We'll have the story next.

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CLANCY: Well, you may know him from his many films, but did you also know he's an un -- accomplished jazz musician. That's Woody Allen. There he is performing with his New Orleans jazz band in Spain. Allen has been touring Europe of late with his band members. But in the Spanish city of Oviedo, he took time to pay a visit to, well, himself. There he is. The statue was erected in his honor just a few years back.

MCEDWARDS: That's quite a likeness. The right height, too.

And it's time now to check on the inbox. We've been asking you to think back on all the news of this past year and tell us what you think was the most important event, important news story of 2005.

CLANCY: Now, here's some of your replies. Let's begin. Nwole from Nigeria writes this:

"I think the most compelling news in 2005 was Hurricane Katrina." MCEDWARDS: Sami from Syracuse, New York says:

"The most compelling story in 2005 was the death and destruction caused by the quack in Kashmir. It was heartbreaking; what makes it worse is people will continue to die."

CLANCY: John wrote this from Pennsylvania: "The most compelling story was watching a president commit problem impeachable offenses without consequences more serious than losing points in public opinion polls."

MCEDWARDS: And Tanya from Wisconsin says the biggest story for her was Katrina, "It destroyed the illusion that the government can protect the public from disaster. It exposed the scope of political corruption and lucrative, partisan response."

CLANCY: Well, there was some liberal sentiment out there, certainly, but a lot of messages, people talking about the pope, John Paul -- the death of John Paul II. They also said that they really felt the U.S. soldiers were the big story for all the good that they had done.

MCEDWARDS: Yeah, a lot of support for the U.S. troops in our e- mail box today. This has been YOUR WORLD TODAY I'm Colleen McEdwards.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. For all of us here at CNN International, thanks for spending a part of your day with us, see you next year.

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