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Your World Today

Story of a Fallen U.S. Soldier; Islamist Forces Abandon Last Stronghold in Somalia; A Tour of New Year's Eve Festivities

Aired January 01, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A grim milestone. The U.S. military announcing the death of its 3,000th soldier in fighting in Iraq.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A fresh start. Somalia's prime minister says the era of warlords in his country is over, as Islamic fighters flee their last major stronghold.

CLANCY: Out with the old, in with the new. The world ushering in 2007 in spectacular style -- fireworks, music, confetti, and parties.

GORANI: And the whirling of dervishes in Turkey. They may entertain tourists, but spinning is their way of worshipping God.

CLANCY: It is 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad and Mogadishu.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

From Sydney, to Istanbul, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: Hello and Happy New Year, everyone.

Happy New Year, Hala.

GORANI: Thank you. You, too.

CLANCY: All right.

When people all around the world are making wishes for the new year, what's number one on their list? Usually it's peace.

GORANI: While many U.S. troops in Iraq wonder if this could be the year they'll come home, they're starting 2007 with a very different milestone, one they never wanted to reach.

CLANCY: And for many Iraqis the new year bringing fears that the execution of Saddam Hussein could actually make sectarian violence worse.

Now, the Sunni versus Shia split over his death evident right down to the streets of Baghdad, where some Sunni-Muslims protested the hanging, calling Hussein a martyr. They're vowing revenge against the U.S. and Iraq's Shia-led government.

Hussein's oldest daughter, meantime, attended -- and this was a surprise for many people -- a similar demonstration in Jordan, where hundred dollars gathered to condemn the execution. Raghdad Hussein and her children were granted asylum there in 2003, following the invasion of Iraq.

GORANI: As the U.S. contemplates a new strategy for Iraq, it's announcing a grim reminder of the human cost of the war. As we mentioned there at the top of the hour, the Pentagon is confirming that the U.S. military death toll there has reached 3,000 since combat began nearly four years ago.

CLANCY: All right. Let's get the view from Cal Perry. He's on the ground there. He has the story of Caleb Lufkin, one of the fallen U.S. soldiers. We have to caution you, some of the video here may make some of our viewers uncomfortable.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAL PERRY, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): This is one story out of 3,000, the story of a soldier, far from home, fighting in Iraq, taking pictures, as all soldiers do. This one, published in "Stars and Stripes," shows a search for roadside bombs, an eerie foreshadowing of what would happen to the photographer.

Caleb arrived at the 10th Combat Support Hospital on May 4th, as thousands before him, a wounded soldier brought to his knees by war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Access guys, get the IO out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Clear him off, guys.

What's your name?

CALEB LUFKIN, SOLDIER: Caleb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Caleb.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of these clothes are going to come off, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty pale.

Breathe deep for me, Caleb.

LUFKIN: Am I (EXPLETIVE DELETED) dying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you having trouble breathing over there?

LUFKIN: A little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A big breath.

Don't you dare try to die on me. OK? I didn't get your permission.

LUFKIN: Don't let me die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't let you die, dude. I promise. I promise. I promise.

I give you my word. OK?

PERRY: These were the images transmitted by news agencies that day, showing smoke rising in the distance from a string of roadside bombs detonated in Baghdad. And this, the brutal result of one of those bombs, Caleb's flat jacket torn apart, his boots filled with blood.

There's no reason for telling who lives and who dies in Iraq. Brought in at the same time with Caleb, a soldier that medics cannot resuscitate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a pretty bad injury on the right there.

PERRY: But Caleb hung on through emergency surgeries in Baghdad and Germany. Sometimes there's only so much a body can take. He died three weeks later during surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. His heart simply gave out.

And so Caleb returned home to Galesburg, Illinois, a fallen hero. He'd earned four medals serving his country.

Caleb's mother was too upset to speak. She wrote her eldest son a letter to say good-bye.

"You were still smiling your first day of kindergarten," the letter said, "when I found it so hard to let go of your hand. 'I'll be OK,' mom,' you said over your shoulder to me as you trotted alone into the school with your new school backpack. It was almost more than I could bear, letting go of that little hand and releasing you into the world. And you said the same thing again when you went to Iraq... 'I'll be OK, mom,' with your Army pack on your back."

She ended the letter as any mother would, simply, "You are forever in my heart."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: That was Cal Perry.

GORANI: Reporting from Baghdad there.

Well, our colleagues at CNN.com have devoted a special section to the war. Visit it at cnn.com/iraq.

CLANCY: All right. Let's check some of the other stories making news around the world this hour. GORANI: All right. And we begin with the search for a missing airliner off Indonesia. Air controllers are fearing the worst after losing contact with the Adam Air jetliner.

The Boeing 737 disappeared after taking off from east Java in bad weather with more than 100 people on board. The crew sent out a distress signal before contact was lost more than 10 hours ago.

CLANCY: All right. Take a look here. Some live pictures now from the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C., where the family of former president Gerald Ford is receiving mourners.

Common people from the streets, as well as President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, expected to be among those who come to view the casket and pay homage on this, the final day that Mr. Ford will lie in state. President Bush is going to be delivering Ford's eulogy at a funeral service Tuesday at Washington's National Cathedral.

Mr. Ford died last beak. He was the oldest president ever, 93.

GORANI: In his first public address of the new year, Pope Benedict XVI called for peace and said the conflict in the Middle East has gone on "too long." The speech came two days after the execution of Saddam Hussein, an act the Vatican condemned as tragic.

CLANCY: After more than 15 years of fighting, Somalia's prime minister is vowing that the era of warlords in his country is over. Islamic fighters now fleeing the last major stronghold in the south. They're heading towards the Kenyan border as government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, advance.

Frederik Pleitgen joins us now from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

What is the view there on what is happening in and around Kismayo right now? What are they predicting comes next?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Jim, what the Ethiopian foreign minister has told me is that he believes that this war is basically over for the Ethiopian side. They say that the rebels have left Kismayo. Their soldiers are now in Kismayo after having taken a long time to get there.

They say that the rebels pretty much gave up without putting up much of a fight. But then again, they were up against one of the strongest armies in Africa, really, the Ethiopian army, having attacked with tanks, artillery, and also with warplanes.

Now, he says the war is over. We're obviously not sure if the Islamists feel the same way. We haven't heard from them today.

But what they were saying before is that they will continue the fight. Even if they do lose this last battle in Kismayo, they would continue to fight using all sorts of other means. Also including guerrilla warfare. Now, nevertheless, the government in Mogadishu right now is starting to try to start something like a course of reconciliation for that country. On the one hand, they have issued an amnesty for Islamist fighters who are willing to turn themselves in and really turn their weapons in as well. And on the other hand, they've issued an ultimatum to citizens to give up their weapons, to turn in their weapons. And really, government soldiers are going to be going around as of tomorrow and starting to collect those weapons, because really what they want, reconciliation on the one hand, and disarming the public on the other and, because all sorts of Somalis that we've been talking to are telling us that really the big problem in that country is that so many people have weapons.

Almost everybody has a weapon. And on the other hand, that country is really (INAUDIBLE) divided. It's fractionalized, where clan members have their own little territories and have their own little armies. And really, it's very, very hard to build a nation in that country, and there hasn't really been a nation there for the past 16 years.

CLANCY: Now, when we look at the situation, there's no doubt that Ethiopia has played a key role here, and perhaps with tacit U.S. approval.

Any comment about that?

PLEITGEN: Well, that's what the Ethiopians are saying, is that they're very much in line with U.S. interests. And they're saying that really the aspect of the war on terror in all of this has really been very important for the Ethiopian side as well.

What the Ethiopians have been saying all along and the Somali transition government has been saying all along is that these Islamists were, in fact, harboring internationally wanted terrorists. Some of those individuals, three of those individuals, they say, are suspected of having been instrumental in the embassy bombings of 1998 in Kenya and in Tanzania. So, really, they do feel very much in line with the United States.

Now, on the other hand, Ethiopia says that within days it's going to be pulling out of that area. It's going to be pulling its troops out of that area. And it says it will not be part of any sort of reconstruction effort. And Ethiopia is calling on the international community, but especially the African countries in the international community, to start something like a peace force for Somalia.

CLANCY: All right. I want to thank you very much for being with us there.

We're talking with Frederik Pleitgen. He's in Addis Ababa right now as Somalia undergoes some dramatic change this New Year's Day.

GORANI: Just ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, high hopes, as really in previous years, for this coming year, 2007.

CLANCY: That's right, Hala. The world is celebrating the coming of a new year.

GORANI: But for smokers in Hong Kong, 2007 could be tough.

CLANCY: Also another story. The journey of a lifetime coming to an end for millions of Muslims now attending the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to CNN International, seen live around the globe.

This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

Now, these are the main stories we're following today.

Islamic fighters abandoning their last major stronghold in southern Somalia.

Millions of Muslims stoning the devil, a ritual marking the last day of the Hajj.

And so long 2006. Hello 2007.

GORANI: All right.

For just about everyone now, the partying has ended, and the cleanup is under way. As 2007 officially gets going, an estimated one million people packed New York City's Times Square to greet the new year. They were snowed under by three and a half tons of confetti, released after the famous New Year's Eve ball slid down the flagpole at midnight.

But hours before that New Year's Eve bash in New York City, Asia and Europe rang in 2007, in style in some cases.

Alphonso Van Marsh takes us on a tour of the festivities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIRLEY BASSEY, SINGER (SINGING): Diamonds are forever

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Over Sydney, the skies sparkled to the tune of Shirley Bassey's diamonds are forever. Australia is one of the first nations to ring in 2007 in spectacular style.

New Year's Eve organizers weren't about to be outdone in Taiwan. Taipei's 101 building, one of the world's tallest, was aglow in fireworks.

In Bucharest, Romanians were cheering on more than an impressive fireworks display. At the stroke of midnight, Romania became a member of the European Union. Political implications of EU membership aside, some revelers in this former communist capital say they are looking forward to more social and economic opportunities in '07.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I wish for cheaper drinks for my friend, Yanni (ph), and better salaries.

VAN MARSH: Paris's Eiffel Tower once again provided a classy and festive show to close 2006. Warm weather and a letup in rain ensured big crowds and plenty of champagne flowing at midnight.

Low-tech but high in spirit in Nairobi, a sold-out concert featuring Kenya's top pop acts one of many parties across Africa bringing young and old together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really excited about sharing this new year with young people right here, young Kenyans here in Africa. It's an exciting moment.

VAN MARSH: Leave it to Rio to draw some two million people to the biggest New Year's party in South America. Brazil's Copacabana Beach was the place to be.

And London was the envy of Britain. Driving winds and heavy rain forced cancellations and delays of New Year's celebrations in Newcastle, Liverpool, and other cities north of London. It almost seemed like they all came down here. Police say 350,000 people packed the banks of the River Thames to hear Big Ben chime in the new year, along with a stunning 10-minute fireworks display around the London Eye Ferris wheel.

Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right. Fireworks all over the world, but many people in Hong Kong are perhaps not in a mood to celebrate. They're having a smoke-free New Year's Day, whether they like it or not.

They rang in the new year with a ban on smoking in most public places. While some are fuming, the trend may be spreading in Asia.

Anjali Rao reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANJALI RAO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A new year around the world, but in Hong Kong a new era for smokers. After almost 10 years of political wrangling and fierce argument from the tobacco industry, smoking is now banned in most public places, including indoor work places, parks, beaches, and restaurants.

So far, so good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Customers are obeying the rules, apart from one or two. But they put out their cigarettes after we told them to.

RAO: Others, though, would rather the government butt out. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's not right. The government taxes us on cigarettes but won't let us smoke. It's pointless to allow the sale of cigarettes if they won't permit us to smoke.

RAO: Government statistics put the number of smokers here at nearly 800,000. That's about 14 percent of the population. And it may not sound like a lot next to countries like France, Japan, or China, but change may be coming to China, as it's eager to attract the right global attention ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The figures are astounding. China accounts for almost a third of all cigarettes smoked, but many believe Beijing will have no choice but to follow Hong Kong's lead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, first of all, the leaders are not smoking now. After Deng Xiaoping and one or two others, you now don't see any of the leaders smoking in public. And they don't smoke themselves. So that has to be a very good sign.

RAO: Around the world, some 1.2 billion people light up on a regular basis. Around half of them in Asia. Yet the air is beginning to clear.

Though not quite on the scale of, say, Ireland, which has a nationwide ban on smoking in all places of work, Singapore has outlawed smoking in many public places, so have several Australian cities.

As far as activists are concerned, though, any progress needs the cooperation of the tobacco industry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a big, big population of China, India, Indonesia. This is, you know, the promised land as far as the tobacco companies are concerned, and there's every effort that they're putting huge amounts of effort in there.

RAO: Efforts nonsmokers in Hong Kong are hoping one day will be smothered for good.

Anjali Rao, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, don't go away. When YOUR WORLD TODAY continues, release the hounds. Keeping Fido too confined is just one of the unusual new laws taking effect on this first day of the new year.

And then later, watching a unique way of worship -- Turkey's whirling dervishes.

All that coming up on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back to YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And these are the stories that are making headlines around the world. Islamic fighters fleeing their last major stronghold in Somalia. Ethiopian and government troops advancing into the city of Kismayo. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi says the warlord era is over in Somalia. He's offering the fighters, though, that are on the run an amnesty if they give themselves up. He has also ordered a nationwide disarmament with a three-day deadline for everyone to hand over their weapons.

GORANI: The Pentagon has just announced that two more U.S. service members were killed on Sunday. That brings the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the war started nearly four years ago to 3,002. December was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq in two years. More than 100 U.S. service members were killed.

CLANCY: More than a million people gathered in New York City's Times Square to ring in 2007 with cheers, kisses and hopes for peace. The cleanup of more than three tons of confetti began soon after the party-goers headed home.

GORANI: Well, Monday marked the final day of the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Our Zain Verjee has been on the scene since the start of the event. And she joins us now live by broadband.

Zain, how is it looking today?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Hala, it was the last day of the stoning ritual at the Jamarat Bridge, a significant day. Pilgrims do this ritual essentially to symbolically reject the devil's temptation. Everyone was on edge hoping that stampedes were not going to happen as they did last year. And they in fact did not happen. The flow of pilgrims we understand was quite good.

The Saudi government has invested $1.5 billion in the construction of a new bridge. We spent some time there and basically this bridge is a lot wider, it's a couple of stories high so far. They want to build it up to five. There are also two entry points where pilgrims can enter. There are also strict crowd control measures that have been implemented, where crowds are moved section by section, block by block in a steady flow as well. Pilgrims were not allowed to bring their luggage. And there was a fairly good control of that from what we were able to see on the ground, because luggage in the past has triggered stampedes of people falling all over that.

Muslims this day, Hala, on the last day of the Hajj, are celebrating the third day of Eid, that's a religious holiday. They celebrate it with their families. It's kind of like Thanksgiving or Christmas. They exchange gifts and there's a lot of good food there as well.

During the time we've spent here over the past few days in Mecca, we've met a lot of different pilgrims. We had a chance to talk to one British Muslim from Yorkshire in England and talked a little bit about his experience here, as well as some of the challenges he faces being a Muslim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Joining us now is 26-year-old Suleiman Motala from England. What has your Hajj experience been like so far?

SULEIMAN MOTALA, BRITISH MUSLIM: It's absolutely brilliant to see different people come over here for Hajj and to meet different people, it's absolutely unbelievable.

VERJEE: Now this is the third time that you've come, right?

MOTALA: Yes. This is the third time I came over. The first time I came over I really, really loved it. I tried to tell different people. I brought a few people over the second time. And (INAUDIBLE), like I say, I really love it here. So that's why I've come here for the third time.

VERJEE: You're a young man coming to have this experience. Why is it so important for to you come and come so often?

MOTALA: It's part of my religion. I don't have to come here. The reason why I come here is I feel safe, I feel part of the religion. When I come here, it really hits me in my heart to be among with the people who I see over here.

VERJEE: We see a lot of young people here. We see a lot of older people here, and it's difficult for them to go around the Kaaba sometimes. What about as a young man? Is it tough also? I mean, you are fit, you are healthy. Is it tough to go around?

MOTALA: Oh yes, definitely. It is tough, but the thing is, when we are back home, everybody keeps saying, you should go to your Hajj in your early years, not too early, and not too old. The early -- when I say early, I mean around 25 years old, because when you come to do your Hajj, around 25 years old, you're fit, healthy, and hopefully you can, you know, run...

VERJEE: Yes, run, right. You can't run, it's completely packed. There's no running there.

MOTALA: Well, you can watch (ph) (INAUDIBLE) this time of Hajj, then obviously you can't run, because you're all clumped up together. So you have to be patient. Hajj is patience. You have to be patient. If you don't have patience, I'm sorry, this isn't the place for you.

VERJEE: Young people tend to be more impatient anyway, right?

MOTALA: Yes, they are. But Insha'Allah is there with them, and they will get the patience with them.

VERJEE: What is it like being young, British and Muslim for you? MOTALA: (INAUDIBLE) is OK. I find it harder towards the last couple of years since what has happened around the world, but before then, a couple years, or three years ago, (INAUDIBLE) I've never, ever had to be different with people. But since things have changed, I do get some kind of, you know, remark with regards to my religion. But I think...

VERJEE: Like what?

MOTALA: You know, you're a terrorist, and you know, what you guys are doing isn't right, and everything. But I just intend to just ignore them because my religion is all about friendly. I like to be friendly with people, if they can't be friendly with me, then that's up to them.

VERJEE: How do you explain to people who are asking questions, especially about young British Muslims saying, why is it that some of the more affluent ones, the more well-educated ones turn to terrorism?

MOTALA: The thing is, I don't know how they do it or why they do it. The reason is, these things happened to me. I went to Palestine a couple of -- I went to Palestine in August, sorry. And I met a couple of people, and I was talking to them with regards to this, and they said they have had some, you know, trouble in their lives with regards to this. And they have got nothing to do with their lives because they've lost their father, they've lost their mother, they've lost their whole family and they've got nothing to live for, so that's what they do, they (INAUDIBLE) to go into terrorism side.

VERJEE: So you're saying that things like that, like what's happening in the Palestinian territories, what's happening in Iraq and places like that makes young Muslim men angry? Is that what you think?

MOTALA: Yes, they do. To be honest I'm angry as well, but I'm not a terrorist. There's different people, different -- you know, different minds around the world, but like I say, people have to be patient in everybody's lives. You know, you've got to be patient on what you're doing.

VERJEE: What is it that you would like people to know most about you, about Suleiman, and how you would like to be perceived as a young British Muslim man?

MOTALA: Friendly, I like to be friendly. I am friendly with everybody back home. I'm sure if they're looking at me, they can tell. They can say to each other and say, oh, I know him. He's a very friendly person. I'm very unharmful -- harmful, sorry.

VERJEE: You're -- what, you're a handful?

MOTALA: Harmful.

VERJEE: Oh, yes.

MOTALA: I don't harm anybody, and that's all part of my religion. And I try to act upon what our religion says, just to be friendly with your neighbors, with the people, with your workers, no matter what religion they are or who they are, just got to be friendly with them.

VERJEE: And that's the image that you portray?

MOTALA: Yes, I hope everybody will follow me in that way, and let's make the world into a very, very safe place.

VERJEE: Thank you.

MOTALA: You're welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: We had a chance to meet pilgrims from different conflict zones around the world, from Iraq, from Somalia, from Sudan. We had an opportunity to meet one man, Mohammed Abed from Gaza. He told us why he needed to be here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): He's looking at a breathtaking image he's just made, where the whole Muslim world's represented, but Palestinian photographer Mohammed Abed is between two worlds. Here in Mecca, he's both journalist and pilgrim. His life and livelihood is Gaza. He says he's had enough.

MOHAMMED ABED, PHOTOGRAPHER: I need to change my mood, every time I see the blood -- clashes between Israeli and Arab and Palestinians in Gaza. OK, I shoot picture, but this is -- make a problem for me in my mind, my emotions, you know?

VERJEE: He's emotional in Mecca, too, he says, but the difference is, he's anxious to cover this story, and be a part of it.

"I saw millions of people going around the Kaaba with the same clothes, the same chants, men and women together. It stopped me in my tracks," he says, "seeing the people circling the Kaaba really moved me." He says he was so awestruck at first he couldn't even shoot. When he finally did, his pictures of the Kaaba ended up in the paper.

ABED: Here the light is very bad.

VERJEE: Out in the streets and on the marble of the Grand Mosque, Mohammed aims his camera at the faces he rarely gets to shoot, like this old man. Or these women who wanted to pose. But it's not all smooth outside the Grand Mosque. He runs into police, ever-ready to pounce on photographers who aren't allowed near the Kaaba.

A few feet away, he sees fellow Palestinians. Taking pictures of them makes him smile. The holiest day of the Hajj pilgrimage is day two, the Day of Arafat. Mohammed puts down his camera and utters a silent prayer, alongside almost 3 million Muslims. He has a special plea. ABED: I want to pray for the Palestinian people to finish the occupation, and finish their clashes with Israel. This is the important thing (INAUDIBLE).

VERJEE: Mohammed tries to cleanse his spirit here and erase the images of loss and pain in Gaza and replace them with this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): And pilgrims this day are saying an emotional farewell to the old oasis town of Mecca, as well as to the Kaaba that you see behind me in the center of the Grand Mosque. They say they're leaving here with a real sense of spiritual renewal, of rebirth and that they almost have a second lease on life, a clean slate. We really hope that you've enjoyed our coverage here from Mecca. To all of you, happy New Year and Eid mubarak.

GORANI: All right. Zain Verjee there in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Great coverage over the last week.

CLANCY: It's been great, yes. Enjoyed that, Zain. Thank you for it.

When we come back, a geographic leap of faith, a spiritual spin with Turkey's whirling dervishes.

GORANI: Well, they are trance-like dancing is a treat for tourists. But for them its meaning is much deeper. We'll explain after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Welcome back. This is CNN INTERNATIONAL.

GORANI: And you're watching live pictures of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, ringing in the New Year. The movie producer George Lucas is the grand marshal of this parade.

CLANCY: You know, we're marking 30 years of "Star Wars," and so it's a good time, well, since the first "Star Wars" movie came out.

GORANI: There you have it, floats and people lined up on the street. It's traditional on the U.S. on New Year's Day for parades.

CLANCY: A great day to be in Pasadena. Oh, but it's not quite the situation if you're living in Colorado. Here's the capital, Denver, the Mile High City, buried under its second major snowstorm in as many weeks. Ski resorts in Europe, though, envious. They are trying to scrape by in a winter where they really don't have much snow to speak of. Is this global warming? Or is it just nature's way? Al Goodman reports from the barren ski slopes of Spain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Spain's oldest ski resort, Candanchu. It's too warm, which means not enough snow here and at ski resorts across Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in trouble.

GOODMAN: Eduardo Rodan (ph) heads Spain's Winter Sports Federation and also runs this resort.

(on camera): How high would the snow usually be right where we are?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Normally one meter.

GOODMAN: So up to your waist.

(voice-over): Blame it on global warming, says a new report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. French resorts recently canceled World Cup ski competitions, and here in the Spanish Pyrenees, only 20 percent of Candanchu's the ski runs are operating.

(on camera): This is the highest point of the resort that is open today for skiing, 2,020 meters, about 6,400 feet. But up there is the very highest point, which is closed today because there's not enough snow.

(voice-over): The expected holiday crowds are down, hurting business not just on the slopes, but at the resort's oldest hotel. Javier Landa's (ph) family has run it for three decades. He's not convinced that global warming is the culprit.

"In the last 30 years," he says, "this is the third time we've had little or no snow during the Christmas holidays. It's not so unusual." But some skiers beg to differ.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's global warming, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not normal that -- in this time. It is so less snow here.

GOODMAN: There's still enough to run a school for the next generation. But by the time they grow up, some experts warn, a fourth of the ski resorts in the Alps may not have enough snow. Still, many resort owners are optimistic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am concerned, of course, but I'm not convinced that, that will be definitively the situation. I think that winter can come, can arrive.

GOODMAN: In the meantime, this resort turns on the slender snow- making machines at night so there will be powder by day, at least enough for a few more runs before the next snow falls.

Al Goodman, CNN, Candanchu, Spain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right. Now to Turkey and a look at one of the country's most interesting, most fascinating, really, attractions there, the whirling dervishes. They entertain tourists with their trance-like spinning. But for them it's actually their unique way getting closer to their spirituality.

Faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything turns in the universe, the world turns, the sun turns, your blood under your skin turns, and also the dervish turns.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN FAITH & VALUES CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are as much a part of Turkey's history as the towering spires of their mosques. The whirling dervishes perform their dance in theaters, clubs and restaurants all around this country. Tourists may find them entertaining, but for the dervishes, each dance brings them one step further on their search for spirituality.

(on camera): Dervishes come from the Sufi branch of Islam, known for mysticism and asceticism. Dervishes take a vow of poverty and live in monastic conditions similar to Christian monks. But for dervishes, spinning is their way of worshiping God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you open your arms, you take from God and give to people. And that is the meaning of it. And your heart, when you are making Sema, is like this, to your heart -- you look to your heart. And this is the meaning of, I'm turning around my heart.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Akun (ph) has been a dervish since he was 13. He says everything about their dance, which is part of a music ceremony, called the Sema, has meaning. The robes represent shrouds. The hats, tombstones. The dance itself is divided into four parts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The meaning of the first part is, who are you? You are thinking, who am I? The second part, dervish understands, OK, I am human, I am living. And in the third part, dervish understands that there is a force. And dervish gives his heart to God. The fourth part, your soul comes back to your body. And you understand that, yes, I am human.

GALLAGHER: The dervishes were banned in Turkey in the 1920s out of fear that their religious roots would lead them to revolt against the new secular government. It was nearly 30 years before the government, realizing their dancing was a draw for tourists, allowed them to perform in public again. But Akun says politics is the furthest thing from the dervishes' minds. He says they follow a code to love all people, serve their communities and to find joy in their dance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody asks these questions to me. How do you feel? How do you feel? But you can't explain perfectly, because it is between me and God. You can't explain.

(END VIDEOTAPE) GORANI: All right. Delia Gallagher there reporting on the ancient dance of Turkey's whirling dervishes.

CLANCY: Well, he was the wrong guy, apparently, in the right place.

GALLAGHER: Still ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, how a big BBC blooper provided this guy, I remember this, more than 15 minutes of fame. Stay with us.

CLANCY: A lot more than 15 minutes.

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CLANCY: Well, Hala, this is one of the classic television stories for the research department, especially. After all, he was just an ordinary guy until one, what do we call it, an extraordinary day?

GORANI: Well, that's when fate plucked him from obscurity to a unique type of fame, for being in the right place at the wrong time. Jeanne Moos reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one face you don't forget.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) is the editor of the technology Web site News Wireless.

MOOS: He was Guy Goma. He came to the BBC to interview for a job in information technology. They mixed him up with another guy named Guy and threw him on the air live being interviewed as an expert in trademark law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, good morning to you.

GUY GOMA: Good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you sir surprised by this verdict today?

GOMA: I'm very surprised to see this verdict to come on me.

MOOS: Guy became an overnight global sensation. His deer-in- the-headlights expression plays continuously on the Guy Goma fan site. He's even had poetry written about him. He's obviously no choker at life's game of poker. And everyone asked the same question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you get the job?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you got the job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you get the job that you came to the interview.

MOOS: Well, now we know, he didn't, despite a petition with over 5,000 names on it at guygoma.com.

(on camera): The BBC won't say why Guy didn't get the IT job, but he's gotten lots of other things.

(voice-over): For instance, his own entry in the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. He has gotten his very own celebrity P.R. rep. He has appeared on a big-time British comedy show, a company that supplies freelance TV technicians hired him to do an online commercial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, action!

MOOS: Don't adjust your sound. Guy plays a hapless technician who forgot to put a mike at the end of his pole. The company says it took a lot of takes to recreate that famous expression, but will Guy ever find the right job?

In the meantime, he's auctioning off his lucky blue shirt for charity, the one he wore during his surprise guest appearance. Bidding is up to more than $190. P.S., Guy notes, the shirt has been worn a couple of times. Actually we've seen it practically every time guy has been in the public eye. Fans have put Guy's expression to music, and even his words.

GOMA: Good morning.

MOSS: A group called The Sex Bishops has sexed up guy's delivery.

GOMA: Good morning. I'm very surprised to see...

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right. Sometimes we look that -- you know, sort of deer-in-the-headlights for other reasons. That's it for this hour. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. And this is CNN.

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