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Your World Today

Mexico's Calderon Takes Lead in Elections; Space Shuttle Discovery Arrives at the International Space Station

Aired July 06, 2006 - 12:34   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the president's 60th birthday today, and he's inviting everybody whose birthday it is today to come up and have a picture with him. I guess July 6th, a popular birthday. Oh. OK. A good impromptu moment.
While they're doing that and getting that photo opportunity, I'll tell you that probably the most important question the president and the prime minister took had to do with North Korea and the missile launches that we've been seeing happen over the last day or so. President Bush insisting that the United States is interested in pursuing these six-party talks and the route of diplomacy, which the president says is the idea for the United States. But he does say diplomacy does take a long time.

The president and the prime minister as they walk away from their news conference.

We have lot more news from here in the U.S. We'll get to that in just a moment. Right now, a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

First story. Right to San Diego, California, with great anticipation. A lot of families awaiting the return of the USS Ronald Reagan. As you can see, the sailors on board there. The crew returning to San Diego after the ship's maiden voyage left San Diego on January 4th. Now, we're talking about 5,000 sailors on board, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and participating in coalition exercises during their six-month deployment. So welcome, sailors, to San Diego.

Other news today. President Bush, if you've been listening in, has been stressing diplomacy. North Korea offering more tough talk, also offering up more missiles. It's one day after its flurry of missiles ignited world outcry. The communist nation says more launches are planned. No timeframe has been mentioned, but reports from South Korea say three or four missiles are on the launchpads right now, ready to go. U.S. officials say none is capable of striking American soil.

North Korea also threatening stronger physical action if any country dares to interfere. The U.N. Security Council is meeting for a second day to consider possible sanctions. Council members Russia and China opposing sanctions. They're calling for more diplomacy.

We heard from the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: There may be disagreement at the moment over the vehicle that we use here in the council, but no one speaks in favor of North Korea. No one takes the North Korean lines. Nobody says it was a good thing that North Korea launched these missiles. And I think if North Korea continues to do it, it will simply underline the views that all countries on the Security Council have already taken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: No same sex marriage in New York. The state's highest court handed down that ruling this morning. Gays and lesbians had argued that a marriage ban violated their constitutional rights, but the court says the law limits marriage to opposite sex couples. The judges threw the ball into the lawmakers' court. They say any change in the law would have to come from the legislature. Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.

Up in smoke. The tobacco industry wins and a $145 billion verdict is tossed out. Just about an hour ago, the Florida Supreme Court refused to let the punitive award stand. It was the largest ever granted by a U.S. jury, and the court said it was excessive. The payout stemmed from a class action suit filed on behalf of smokers in 2000.

About the only state services in New Jersey today, the highway toll booths. The budget crisis calling snake eyes and Atlantic City's casinos and racetracks and closing down state parks, campgrounds and the courts. You need a driver's license? You can forget about that. Forty-five thousand state workers have been sent home and by next week, the crisis could threaten some state aid programs. Governor Jon Corzine is back at the state legislature for a third day, begging for an increase in the sales tax. He needs it, he says, to balance the budget, which is a constitutional requirement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: If you're trying to get out of a hole, why don't you just stop digging? We're certainly off on the wrong track. We need it get out of New Jersey's budget hole, this recurring sea of red ink, and get real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Corzine put a compromise on the table this morning which calls for temporary relief of some property taxes, but so far, no deal.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: The biggest threat, is it Iran or is it North Korea? Former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix feels strongly about this one. We will hear from him in the next hour on LIVE FROM. That's at 1:00 p.m.

Meantime, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break. I'm Daryn Kagan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, to our viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY.

HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're seen live in more than 200 countries across the globe. We're covering all the news for you from Washington to Gaza to Baghdad.

CLANCY: And one of the top stories today is the election close call, if you want to call it that, from Mexico.

GORANI: Close elections seem to be common these days, especially in North America. Just look at the graphic. The Mexican election results show ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon with only .1 of a percentage point lead, but that appears to be enough for a victory.

CLANCY: Even if all the votes left to count went to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, they still seem unlikely to change the outcome.

GORANI: Reports have Lopez Obrador supporters weeping in the streets at this hour after these results.

CLANCY: All right, let's get some perspective now. Let's get some perspective on the election, how it's coming out, and the two men involved. Jose Carreno is the Washington correspondent for "El Universal," one of the largest newspapers in all of Mexico. Thanks so much for being with us.

Jose, it is said, Mr. Lopez Obrador is saying, he's going to ask them to recount even more. Will he be able to do that? The government seems to be saying a vote-by-vote recount is out of the question.

JOSE CARRENO, "EL UNIVERSAL": The vote-by-vote option is out of the question, legally at least, and that will be the government's and the (INAUDIBLE) position. Now having said that, everybody expects Mr. Lopez Obrador to push this possibility up to the Supreme Court if needed to be. His supporters and himself have a history of tenacity, but they will go the legal way all the way up.

CLANCY: You know, as you sit there in Washington, where you are a correspondent, you have no doubt seen some of the reporting that would no doubt try to cast Mr. Lopez Obrador as the leftist, and comparing him in some ways to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, but really is that a fair comparison? How much difference is there between those two candidates?

CARRENO: I say that there is a huge difference. I mean, Mr. Lopez Obrador is much more in the nationalistic mode than the left, if you want to use the word. He's much more in the more mixed economy, mixed government role in the society than socialistic, and he has very little or very small knowledge of the world abroad, which means that he does not dream, and he doesn't care either about these kind of alliances that Mr. Chavez was spoken about.

On the other hand, Mr. Lopez Obrador is very conscious about the relationship between Mexico and the United States and the great integration, so he will not pick a fight that will cost Mexico in terms of society and in terms of economy.

CLANCY: So on an issue, an explosive issue in the United States like immigration, is there a difference that can be drawn between those two men? Certainly, you know, the public in Mexico are bringing it right down to the wire here with how close the vote was.

CARRENO: Mostly in terms of immigration, first, the difference might be in the way to tackle the problem. Mr. Lopez Obrador has said that he wants to create more jobs in Mexico to stop the bleeding, if you want to put it that way, from people toward the United States. Mr. Calderon has said that he will work with the United States to put more control on the border and to create jobs in Mexico. So the difference is more on the emphasis, but both of them want to have a better handle of the immigration problem in Mexico.

CLANCY: Jose Carreno, a final question, and that is, what does the next Mexican president have to do to raise the standards of living? What are the people of Mexico expecting of him?

CARRENO: They expect a better handle of the economy. They expect a larger struggle in terms of creating jobs and in terms of controlling the police, in terms of controlling corruption, in terms of law enforcement. The people of Mexico is very much middle of the road, you might have seen -- 35.5 percent for one,, 35.6 percent for the other. So they want some continuity, but at the same time they want some change and some emphasis in economy and security.

CLANCY: All right. Jose Carreno, Washington correspondent for "El Universal," one of the largest newspapers in Mexico, I want to thank you very much for joining us here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

GORANI: All right, coming up we're going to share with you some spectacular live images all the way from space, Jim.

CLANCY: That's right out in orbit. As you see here, the Shuttle Discovery successfully docked with the International Space Station. Stay with us, we'll have that coming up straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: They're the only humans living in space and they've got some company.

CLANCY: That's right. The U.S. Space Shuttle Discovery arriving at the International Space Station.

For more on the rendezvous, let's bring in space correspondent Miles O'Brien. Another big day, a very important maneuver.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was and it went off without a hitch as far as we can tell, Jim and Hala. The space station and the Space Shuttle Discovery meeting almost precisely on time, somewhere about 350 kilometers above the coast of Chile, about two hours ago.

Just a little while ago we saw the crews come together, they shook hands. And you see the live pictures now of the International Space Station control room as where -- as an indication of where they are now. They're coming up on the North Atlantic right now. The two craft now joined.

Take a look at the scene as they came together, hugging each other. There they are. That's the pilot for the space shuttle, Mark Kelly, hugging Jeff Williams, the American crew member on board the International Space Station. The commander is Pavel Vinogradov of Russia, and total of nine people aboard there, on the International Space Station.

That's the most it's been occupied for quite some time. German Thomas Reiter will be left behind and he'll spend six months up there, the first time a European astronaut will be a long-term crew member there.

Look at these wonderful shots as the two crafts, traveling there at about 27,000 kilometers per hour come together ever so slowly, but that's Discovery right before it performed a very important maneuver called the pitch maneuver, but we've been calling a somersault.

Take a look at this shot here as they came together. This is -- they were just a few meters away from each other at this time. And the space station crew members got out some cameras, 400 millimeter lens, 800 millimeter lens and it was their job to go through very specific locations on the belly of the space shuttle to ensure that heat shield is intact and good for the crew to return to earth a couple of weeks from now.

And you may recall a year ago when they did this for the first time -- it's a post-Columbia thing -- they found a little problem right up in this area. It was a so-called gap filler. It is a piece of material that goes between the heat resistant tiles on the belly of the space shuttle, and they had to did an emergency spacewalk to pull it out because they were afraid it could cause a little hot spot there an perhaps burn through.

So that somersault maneuver went well. We're waiting to see the pictures on that and see how it went. Then came the docking shortly thereafter. As you can see with the sequential still videos, the commander Steve Lindsey was able to bring Discovery in without a hitch.

They try this stuff so much in simulation, maybe they don't even know the different, but I'm told the shuttle flies like a dream once it's up there. He's up in here, by the way, looking out these top windows along with a laser range finder that is operating by one of the crew members, and he brought it in right down the center line, as they like to say in flying -- Jim and Hala.

GORANI: Miles, the International Space Station is feeling a bit cozy right now with nine people on board. Can we expect any spacewalks?

O'BRIEN: There are actually two spacewalks that are planned for sure for this mission, and probably a third as soon as Mission Control gives them the go-ahead, assuming they have enough fuel to operate the electricity on board the space shuttle.

And what they're going to be doing, first of all, they're going to be testing an extra-long boom to that allow the spacewalkers in the future, if there's damage to a shuttle, to do work on the belly of it without being at the space station. That's one of the things they'll be doing and we'll keep you posted as those spacewalks occur.

CLANCY: Miles, as always, great to have us with you. You got the last word in there. We're going to continue to watch the space mission on CNN USA and CNN International, but that has to be it for this hour.

GORANI: "LIVE FROM" is next for our viewers in the United States.

CLANCY: And for our viewers elsewhere, more of YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. Stay with CNN.

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