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Your World Today
Daily Violence Taking Toll on Iraqi Population; Thousands Protests Treatment of Indian Film Star; Muslim Extremism in Britain
Aired January 17, 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: What's a normal start to the day in Iraq? Far too often it means the burying of the dead from the day before.
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Jihad as justice. Moderate Muslims try to quell the radical movement within their own religion.
CLANCY: Why some in India say a British reality TV show showcases the ugly reality of racism.
VASSILEVA: And is it morally right to keep a mentally disabled child physically small? One family says no.
It is 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad, 5:00 p.m. in London.
Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.
I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.
CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.
From Baghdad, to London, to Mumbai, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
It's all too apparent in the headlines. Iraqis are struggling with the turmoil that is ripping their country part and with the emotions that grip the survivors.
VASSILEVA: Burying the dead is among the only expanding enterprises.
CLANCY: Simple wooden boxes and raw emotions lead the funeral processions from the previous day's bombings. Not far away, angry students turn out to demand more security.
VASSILEVA: A poor mostly Shiite area was the suicide bomber's target on this day. At least 17 people were killed, with double that number reported wounded.
CLANCY: People are still donating blood for the victims of Tuesday's twin blasts that killed 70 people outside a major university in the capital.
VASSILEVA: All these killings keep most people indoors, but the military has been called in to root out the militia. CLANCY: Now, also to root out the individuals who perpetuate this violence.
Michael Holmes has a rare look inside both worlds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I've been told that the neighbor next door was killed. Where was he killed at?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is a story about people, people in a neighborhood, Dura, at the center of Baghdad sectarian bloodletting. The people who are willing to talk to U.S. soldiers about who's doing the killing.
We'd like to introduce you to these people, put a name and face to their pain and their fear, but to identify those who speak of the horrors they face could be to sentence them to the same fate as their loved ones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They ask for $2,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they take his car (ph).
HOLMES: Later, this family added that the Shiite neighbor and friend had been tortured, first his eyes gouged out.
(on camera): Do we know who did it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We don't know. These days you don't know. People get killed left and right.
HOLMES (voice over): Next door, a man angry at the killing gave names, telling us later the reason. Fifteen of his friends and family have been killed in recent months.
We're on patrol with soldiers from a Stryker unit, the 520th, looking for weapons and insurgents but also the crucial information that could lead to the murderers on these streets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up? We're there.
HOLMES: The military calls it human -- human intelligence. Many who ask the questions call it courage when someone answers those questions.
(on camera): Is it hard to get people to talk?
1ST SGT. BILL MONTGOMERY, U.S. ARMY: Yes, it is. They're scared. And there's a lot of intimidation by the local sectarian groups. And they've been very effective in scaring the local nationals. And they're not talking.
HOLMES (voice over): First Sergeant Bill Montgomery, on his second tour in Iraq, has been on dozens of clearing operations like this. But we watch as he spends time, a lot of it, in each house, questioning. Sometimes he hits pay dirt.
MONTGOMERY: Tell him we've got a lot of murders in this area. Who's responsible for the murders in this area?
HOLMES: A man we won't identify has an idea, and names someone he says is a low leader of the Mehdi army in the area. He follows the lead, asks more questions.
Then this: the accused man's house is raided. He's not here, and only one legal weapon is found. The man is put on a watch list.
(on camera): Families in Dura told us they rarely leave the house these days. It's simply too dangerous. No one said they send their children to school anymore. Be seen in the wrong place by the wrong person, and you could so easily end up one of the many bodies found tortured and murdered in the streets of Baghdad.
(voice over): At this house, a stark illustration of the sectarian threat here. We arrive to find this Sunni family packing. It's 11:15 a.m., and the previous night they had been told by Shiite militiamen to leave by noon, or they'd be killed and their house burned.
A dilemma for the soldiers. They want to stay the night to protect the family and, they hope, greet the insurgents. But the terrified family wants to leave. They insist, and so the soldiers came back to escort them out of Dura.
Another family forced from their home by Baghdad sectarian war.
Michael Holmes, CNN, Dura, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: President George W. Bush admits he is frustrated with the lack of progress in Iraq. As he pushes his new plan for more troops to the public, he also concedes the execution of Saddam Hussein could have been handled better.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... which it basically says to people, look, you conducted a trial and gave Saddam justice that he didn't give to others. But then when it came time to execute him, it looked like it was kind of a revenge killing. And it sent a mixed signal to the American people and the people around the world. And it just goes to show that this is a government that's still got some maturation to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: Mr. Bush also warns that pulling troops out of Iraq now will only lead to an expedited failure.
CLANCY: Well, now to Britain, where residents are angry and some of them ashamed. Bollywood is up in arms, and now both the Indian and British governments are entering the fray over a television show's treatment of a major film star.
Critics say an Indian celebrity is being subjected to racial abuse and bullying on Britain's television show "Big Brother."
Let's bring in Paula Hancocks in London now.
This story has really gone far beyond what anyone expected, with the prime minister getting involved today.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jim. Yes, just in the last 24 hours, this story really has escalated.
Now, reality TV shows, by their very nature, caught publicity. If people are talking about what happened the night before, the day after, then, it is considered a success. But there are tens of thousands of viewers here in Britain and also some protesters in India that believe that this time around "Celebrity Big Brother" has just gone too far.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice over): Reality TV shows want controversy. Arguments boost ratings and ratings make money. But is this season of "Celebrity Big Brother" verging on racism?
SHILPA SHETTY, BOLLYWOOD STAR: My name is Shilpa, Jackie (ph). Get that right.
HANCOCKS: The row surrounds this Bollywood star, actress Shilpa Shetty, and the way that some contestants are treating her. One English housemate couldn't pronounce her Shilpa's name, so just referred to her as "The Indian."
SHETTY: You need to understand it's not a sentence. It's a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) name. Shilpa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do they do that in India, eat with hands?
HANCOCKS: Fellow housemates have made fun of her accent, her eating habits, and her Indian background. The strain on Shetty is clear.
SHETTY: Why do they hate me? Why am I detested?
HANCOCKS: Those inside the house are unaware of the slow-boiling controversy outside. Tens of thousands of viewers have complained about what they see as racism and bullying. British newspapers are filled with comment and analysis.
The prime minister was even asked about it in parliament.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I've not seen the particular program in question. Therefore, can't comment on it. But, of course, I would agree entirely with the principle that is outlined, which is that we should oppose racism in all its forms. HANCOCKS: The program makers say, "Matters of bullying or racial abuse are taken extremely seriously," and they will intervene if they feel it's necessary.
But some fans of Shilpa Shetty back home in India believe it's already gone on too long, burning effigies of the organizers of "Big Brother." This man says, "In the name of racism, she was abused and insulted. And all Indians are feeling insulted."
As protests continue and death threats have been received against some of those in the house accused of bullying, one former contestant is trying to put it into perspective.
CAROLE MAIONE, FMR. "BIG BROTHER" CONTESTANT: The cause of racism should stop. This is how this sort of thing gets out of control. It isn't racism. It's just girls being very silly and very childish.
HANCOCKS: Whatever the behavior is classed as, the show isn't suffering. Ratings jumped 20 percent overnight after the controversy broke.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: So it's certainly not all bad news for the show. But it's very embarrassing for Gordon Brown. Now, he's the current finance minister here in the U.K., the man widely tipped to take over from Tony Blair when he steps down later on this year.
He is currently touring India. He was trying to improve relations between the two countries. But instead of talking about that, he's had to field questions about a reality TV show back here -- Jim.
CLANCY: Paula Hancocks there live from London.
Paula, thank you very much. You shed a lot of light there on this story and explained to a lot of people why some sensitivities are really being raised by all of this -- Ralitsa.
VASSILEVA: Jim, another story we're following from London, six men there on trial right now, charged with botched suicide bombings on London's transportation system. That was back, you might remember, in July of 2005. And we've been following that trial very closely.
For people inside the U.K., it's symbolic of something profound happening around them. And that will be the subject of today's "INSIGHT," coming up in about two hours from now.
And Jonathan Mann is here joining us now with a preview.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ralitsa, one in eight Londoners is a Muslim. Nationwide, there are about a million and a half Muslims in Britain as a whole. And most of them are horrified by terrorism. But there is a debate in some quarters of their community, nonetheless, for the allegiance of its young men. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The battle for Islam is, in the end, a battle of ideas. And tonight, on the campus of the prestigious Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, there will be a debate between mainstream Muslims and the self-appointed apostles of Islamic holy war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to (INAUDIBLE) and welcome to (INAUDIBLE) believe that Islamic violence can never be justified.
AMANPOUR: The small group of Islamic extremists who turn up at every rally and protest in Britain have come here to Ireland to debate moderate clerics who say their religion has been hijacked by the likes of Anjem Choudary and Omar Brooks.
OMAR BROOKS, MUSLIM EXTREMIST: We drink the blood of the enemy. We can face them anywhere! That is Islam! That's jihad!
And (INAUDIBLE) said, "I laugh when I kill." And he said to his own people (SPEAKING IN ARABIC). He said, "I come to slaughter all of you!"
So anybody who wants to stand in the face of the Muslims, he will face the banner of jihad.
AMANPOUR: There aren't many people following the banner of Omar Brooks, yet he and his colleagues have loudly dominated the public debate about Islam. But tonight, the moderates fight back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people, Ladies and Gentlemen, have a good look at them. They actually think if you kill children, if you kill a woman, you would go to heaven. You have no chance in hell.
And you're a lawyer, Mr. Choudary -- can I speak? You're a lawyer and you would know that you can't go to heaven except if you claim insanity. This is not an ideology. It's a mental illness.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: It's the kind of talk that gets your attention. A lot of people are paying attention.
Our Christiane Amanpour has a special look at Muslim extremism in Britain and the Muslims who are trying to stop it in a documentary called "The War Within."
For our viewers around the world, you can see the complete program later this weekend -- Jim, Ralitsa.
VASSILEVA: Thank you, Jon. We'll be watching.
CLANCY: Yes. Excellent. I mean, it really sounds provocative. I'm looking forward to seeing some of that.
VASSILEVA: Me, too.
MANN: They're fighting for the soul of the community.
CLANCY: They are. And it's -- you know, you hear some really strong language I don't think that people outside the community could even use to describe it.
All right. Jon Mann, thank you.
VASSILEVA: Thank you, Jon.
CLANCY: Well, let's check some of the other stories that we're following for you this hour.
VASSILEVA: And we're going to begin with what the Philippine government is calling a victory in the fight against terror.
Philippine army forces say they have killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group which is believed to have links with al Qaeda. The man known as Abu Sulaiman was reportedly killed in a jungle fight with army troops. Sulaiman is thought to have planned an attack on a passenger ferry in 2004 that killed at least 100 people.
CLANCY: The United Nations issuing an unprecedented appeal calling for an end to the violence in Darfur. Widespread attacks have forced more than a quarter of a million people to flee the region in just the last six months. Some of them for the second or third time. Twelve aide workers have been killed. U.N. agencies, 14 of them, came together to say if the violence isn't brought under control, they may be forced to suspend their operations.
VASSILEVA: The Spanish doctor who examined Fidel Castro last December is dismissing a newspaper report that the Cuban president is gravely ill. Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Sabrida tells CNN that the ailing 80-year-old leader shows "some progressive improvement."
The Cuban government has revealed very few details about Castro's health.
CLANCY: All right. We're going to take a short break.
Coming up, he survived a hurricane, a hospital crisis, and a major flood all before he was even born.
VASSILEVA: When YOUR WORLD TODAY returns, an embryo rescued from the chaos of Katrina has actually become a healthy baby boy. We will meet the proud parents.
There he is.
CLANCY: And a little bit later, Israel's army chief stepping down. The latest in a litany of headaches for the prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VASSILEVA: Welcome back to CNN International.
CLANCY: That's right. We're seen live in every time zone all around the world.
This is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
It's a decision no parent should really have to make, but one U.S. couple decided it was the best way to care for their severely disabled daughter.
VASSILEVA: But critics strongly disagree with that decision, saying the treatment amounts to abuse. And one British charity is even campaigning to stop it from happening there.
CLANCY: Our own Elizabeth Cohen has more now on the controversy that surrounds a little girl named Ashley and how a similar couple in similar circumstances made an entirely different choice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUE HOOD, MOTHER: All right. Let's go.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Matthew Hood has a lot in common with Ashley, the girl whose parents intentionally stunted her growth. Both are severely disabled. They can't walk, talk, or even sit up by themselves. But while Matt and his parents have carved out a quiet live for themselves here in Illinois, Ashley and her parents have become the center of protests and angry blogs.
Matt's mom, Sue, is one of the people who is most furious. Furious that Ashley's parents arranged for drugs and surgery to keep their daughter forever small.
(on camera): So the very first time you heard that they limited her final height by giving her drugs...
HOOD: I was shocked. I was totally shocked. I was not only shocked, I was flabbergasted.
COHEN (voice over): Or as another parent blogged, "I am truly just sick to my stomach to imagine that it is acceptable medical practice in any case to surgically stunt a child's growth."
(on camera): Sue, this would be a lot easier if he were smaller, right?
HOOD: It would be easier. But I just don't think it's the right thing to do.
COHEN (voice over): The Ashley controversy centers on this: If someone's brain is like a baby's, is it OK to make her body stay small, too? Ashley's parents say for their daughter, yes. They want to be able to carry Ashley for the rest of her life so they can more easily cuddle her and include her in on family activities.
She's 9 now, and they write, "We are currently near the limits of our ability to lift Ashley at 65 pounds." Matt weighs more than twice that.
(on camera): So Matt is 5'9", 150 pounds. That's bigger than Ashley would have been full grown.
HOOD: Right.
COHEN: And you lift him.
HOOD: I lift him.
OK. Good job.
COHEN (voice over): Sue Hood says of course it's tough lifting her 15-year-old son, turning him, changing his diaper.
HOOD: Once you have an idea an how to work with the kids and how to dress them, it's really not such a big deal.
COHEN (on camera): Can you understand why they did what they did?
HOOD: No. I can't understand for a minute why they did what they did. I still think it's appalling. I can't understand why anyone would choose that for their child.
COHEN (voice over): Matt's parents say it's easy to cuddle with him. They want him to go through puberty, just like everybody else.
HOOD: And we don't need to lift you like a baby to get a hug. No.
I put him in a tilt wheelchair every Saturday and I shave his face for him. You know? And I put on some aftershave on him, and we talk about being a man and how, you know, he is like his dad, and isn't it a great thing to be a man? You know, he -- they get that.
COHEN: Ashley's parents say a child-sized body without breasts is fitting and dignified for their daughter. They've inspired others.
One mother asked doctors to do something similar to her disabled daughter but was told no. In an e-mail to Ashley's parents, that mother wrote, "Your experience has given me the strength to revisit the situation with the doctors."
Ashley and Matt both spend their days in wheelchairs, lying in bed, listening to music. She loves opera, he prefers country music.
HOOD: Great. Good job. You did it.
COHEN: But their parents have very different definitions of dignity, have made very different choices for their children, who cannot make the choices on their own. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Woodridge, Illinois.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: A very, very tough choice.
We have also another family's story of living and trying to make choices in difficult circumstances. This one with a much happier ending.
CLANCY: I think I can use that about now.
A baby boy who was conceived through in vitro fertilization is alive and well today thanks to rescuers in flat-bottom boats.
VASSILEVA: They saved him when he was just an embryo from Hurricane Katrina's rising waters.
CLANCY: Now, his parents have named him for the biblical character who is perhaps the most famous flood survivor of them all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REBEKAH MARKHAM, MOTHER: I'd like to introduce the world to Noah Benton Markham (ph), and this is his big brother, Wit Markham (ph).
Little Noah here just happened to be stowed away for two and a half years. It's scary to think that, you know, he was in the storm and he survived the storm. And I was so far away.
And he was there, and people went in and risked so many different things and orchestrated it so precisely that -- and everything worked. I mean, it's just a miracle. And I'm so blessed.
We were having a little trouble coming up with names. And I prayed about it because, you know, we wanted something special. When his sister saw the newspaper article, she thought of Noah. And when she told me, it sounded so good.
GLEN MARKHAM, FATHER: The name we did choose was -- you know, I think fit perfect. You know? But, no, Katrina was out.
R. MARKHAM: He's going to be studying Katrina in school and knowing it's a huge part of history. And I'm going to be able to explain to him that he survived it before he was even born.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: What a story.
VASSILEVA: Amazing, yes.
CLANCY: A great story.
Welcome, Noah.
Well, coming up later, Apple's new iPhone may be causing quite a stir in the U.S., but many in Asia aren't that impressed, really.
VASSILEVA: Yes. We'll tell you why.
Also, thick ice coats trees, power lines and streets. A nasty winter storm grips part of the United States.
CLANCY: Watch your step. And this one could hit a lot of people right in the pocketbook.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins at the CNN Center in Atlanta.
More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes. But first, a check on stories making headlines in the United States.
School bus crash in northern Kentucky. Three middle school students are reported to be hospitalized in critical condition. They were among 17 kids on the bus.
No official word on what may have caused the crash, but a Kentucky state police spokesman told a local TV station the bus lost control, crossed into oncoming traffic, and then ran off the road. It ended up sideswiping a utility poll.
Prosecutors in Missouri today building their case against kidnapping suspect Michael Devlin. The pizzeria manager due to be arraigned tomorrow. He's accused of kidnapping two boys in the St. Louis area.
Police say he held Shawn Hornbeck captive for four and a half years. Ben Ownby, the boy on the left, was found with Shawn in that same apartment four days after he disappeared.
Yesterday, Ben's parents spoke about their nightmarish week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DORIS OWNBY, BEN'S MOTHER: Just that Ben's doing fine. We decided not to bring him here today. We think that he needs to get back to normal. We're going to try and get him ready to go back to school, get him -- you know, just trying to make his life a little bit more normal than it has been the last few days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Slipping and sliding from coast to coast. Ice, snow, freezing rain, bitter cold making for another miserable day across a big part of the country.
Not much comfort in Comfort, Texas, either. That town and many others in the Lone Star State paralyzed by a blast of ice and snow. A 300-mile stretch of Interstate 10 was shut down after snow started falling on top of a layer of ice. In the Pacific Northwest, schools and businesses across western Oregon shut down. The state legislature called off its session. And the snow and ice caused a rash of traffic accidents.
More misery in the Midwest. Nearly a foot of snow has fallen so far on parts of Indiana. In New Hampshire, a struggle just to stay warm. Thousands of homes and businesses are still without power after Monday's ice storm there.
Reynolds Wolf is standing by now in the weather center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: College loans under debate on Capitol Hill. Democrats, now in charge of Congress, want to cut interest rates on government loans to low and middle income students. Number crunchers say the 50 percent reduction phased in over a five-year period will cost taxpayers almost $6 billion. The House is expected to pass the bill today and send it on to the Senate.
We're learning more about last summer's fatal Comair crash. The National Transportation Safety board releasing important files today, including transcripts of the cockpit voice recordings.
CNN confirms reports that the copilot said it was "weird" there were no lights on the runway. Investigators have said the plane took off from the wrong runway and the control tower was understaffed. Forty-nine people died in the August crash in Lexington, Kentucky. The NTSB has not made a final ruling on the accident.
Toxic chemicals still smoldering today. This is the site of a train derailment near Louisville, Kentucky. You saw the massive fire burning live on CNN NEWSROOM yesterday. An EPA expert on site says there does not appear to be any outstanding danger. But still residents are not being allowed back in their homes. Emergency officials now believe they will have the fires completely under control by tomorrow morning.
Want to get on over to Andrea Koppel, our congressional correspondent. She has some details on a Senate resolution in response to President Bush's Iraq plans.
Andrea, what is the latest on this?
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest, Heidi, as you know there have been a couple of Democrats who have been shopping this resolution around, Joe Biden of Delaware and Carl Levin of Michigan, two senior Democrats. They have been joined by a senior Republican, by Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
Now CNN has just obtained two of the key excerpts from this Iraq resolution that they're going to be laying out in a couple hours here on Capitol Hill. And they say whereas the U.S. strategy and presence on the ground in Iraq can only be sustained with the support of the American people and bipartisan support from Congress, it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating U.S. troop presence in Iraq.
Now what makes this resolution significant is the fact that you have a top Republican, Chuck Hagel, who signed on. And they are now looking, Heidi, to get as many Republicans to sign on as possible in the effort to show this as not just a bipartisan resolution, but one that has quite a bit of support among the president's own party.
We know that President Bush has invited a number of the wavering Republicans over to the White House today in an effort to keep them from signing on to this resolution, which even though it is nonbinding, it's symbolic in nature, does not have the force of law, both Democrats and Chuck Hagel believe that this resolution will succeed in showing President Bush as being isolated from members of his own party. We don't expect this to go to a vote until probably at the earliest next week. And it could be introduced to the floor of the Senate later today, Heidi.
COLLINS: I would imagine though, Andrea, that the White House or Republicans who are not in favor of the nonbinding resolution will say just that, it's nonbinding.
KOPPEL: True. And that -- absolutely it does not have the force of law. And, in fact, over in the House, you have one of the top Republicans over there, John Boehner of Ohio, who plans to introduce a bill of his own, which is going to say basically anybody who would sign on to this resolution does not support U.S. troops in Iraq, and that Democrats are looking to cut off support for U.S. troops in Iraq. Democrats counter absolutely not. This is a statement of opposition to the president.
And their concern, Heidi, about sending more U.S. troops there, what they're saying is that if President Bush chooses to send more troops to Iraq, he needs to come back here to Capitol Hill to get approval from the Congress because they believe that the approval that they gave him back in October of 2002 to invade Iraq did not include escalating it as they see with an additional 20,000-plus troops.
COLLINS: All right. Live from Capitol Hill for us today, Andrea Koppel.
Andrea, thanks.
Well, as you know, it's already shaping up to be a very crowded field when the presidential primaries roll around. Who is in? Who's thinking about getting in? Who's thinking about thinking about getting in? We'll give you the candidates scorecard so far, all that and a whole lot more, get started at 1:00 Eastern in the "CNN NEWSROOM."
Meantime, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break. I'm Heidi Collins.
(NEWSBREAK)
VASSILEVA: Well, contemplating the next steps toward peace in the Middle East. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has taken her diplomatic mission to Europe now to brief German and British leaders about her talks with Israelis and Palestinians.
Frederick Lipkin (ph) joins us now from Berlin with more details on those talks.
So, Frederick, tell us about them.
FREDERICK LIPKIN (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ralitsa, basically what's happening right now is that Condoleezza rice and German Secretary of State Frank-Walter Steinmeier are in talks as we speak right now. Now their main focus is going to be the Middle East.
Germany, of course, at this moment holds the E.U. presidency and really they've said that the Middle East is going to be their top foreign policy priority. What the Germans are saying is that they want to get the Middle East peace process back on track as fast as possible, and really they say that they will be with any American efforts to try to get that peace process back on track as fast as possible. And what I've been hearing from the German government in the past days is that they very happy with what Condoleezza Rice has been doing in the past days in the Middle East in trying to garner support for that -- Ralitsa.
VASSILEVA: And, Frederick, what about Germany's role in Iraq? We know that Rice has also been trying to garner support for the new strategy there that President Bush has come up with.
LIPKIN: Really, a lot of what she is trying to get here is moral support. Obviously Germany does not have any troops in Iraq. What they're doing is they're training Iraqi police officers. But an important role that Germany could have in all of this is something like an intermediary role. Really German diplomats do talk to a lot of countries that American diplomats are not talking to at this point.
German Secretary of State Steinmeier was in Syria only a few weeks back to talk to the Syrian foreign minister, so really that intermediary role could be very important in the next -- in the coming months and weeks.
Thank you very much, Frederick Lipkin (ph) joining us from Berlin with the latest on Condoleezza Rice's visit there. Thank you very much.
Echoes of the gunfire from five months ago, the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting in Lebanon. It was a conflict that claimed a new casualty on Tuesday. You might not have been the last either.
Ben Wedeman now on the political fallout dogging the Israeli government.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was intimately linked with Israel's summer war with Lebanon, and widely blamed when it went wrong. Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz has handed in his resignation, not the first victim of the political fallout from Israel's ill-fated Lebanon war, and probably not the last. Next to go, perhaps, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, says analyst Hirsch Goodman.
HIRSCH GOODMAN, INST. FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: If the chief of staff is going, the defense minister has to go. He handled this in the most appalling manner. There was no communications at the right level. He had no background to make the decisions.
WEDEMAN: Israel's powerful armed forces swung into action last July after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. What followed was 34 days of intense bombardment of Lebanon's infrastructure. More than 1,000 Lebanese, mostly civilians, were killed. One-hundred-and-sixty Israelis were killed, including 41 civilians, yet Israel failed to stop Hezbollah from firing missiles, more than 4,000, deep into Israel. And the two soldiers remain unaccounted for.
Before the smoke had even cleared, the blame game and the official inquires began, focusing on Halutz, Peretz, and ultimately Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A man who presides over a body politick that, to put it mildly, looks rather unhealthy.
Tuesday Israeli police announced their opening a criminal probe into Olmert's dealings as acting finance minister two years ago.
In addition, his executive secretary is under house arrest for tax irregularities, his finance minister under investigation for possibly having failed to report embezzlement. The head of the Israeli Tax Authority is also being investigated for wrongdoing.
And several months ago Olmert's justice minister resigned, charged with an indecent act. In addition, the police are still investigating Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, for possible sexual misconduct with a staff member.
(on camera): They all deny any wrongdoing. But it seems to add up to a storm of scandal that would engulf most countries. Or does it?
GOODMAN: It is a system of democracy that is not scared to have a police investigation against its president, and it's not scared to indict its prime minister. This is not Banana Republic; it's a very strong democracy with very strong institutions that no politicians yet have managed to corrupt.
WEDEMAN: Maybe not yet, but critics say it's not for lack of trying.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Well in a move that could be a setback for peace efforts in Somalia, lawmakers in parliament have voted to oust its powerful speaker. Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan has been publicly critical of a proposed peace-keeping mission endorsed by parliament. He'd also split with the president and the prime minister over peace overtures that he had made to leaders of the ousted Islamic movement.
CLANCY: All right, the move to push away this speaker was met with opposition by both the European Union and the United States government. They view Adan as someone who might be able to in one way or another pull all the sides in Somalia together.
So what is next for the war-torn region? U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is someone who studied Somalia pretty carefully and is also the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa offered a three-part solution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D), WISCONSIN: We need to work with others to make sure there is a genuine and effective peacekeeping force that can bring a measure of security to Somalia now, now that there is an invasion by Ethiopia into Somalia.
Secondly, we have to figure out a way to strengthen the government there so it truly represents effectively all the different factions and groups within Somalia. You can't just have a paper government or a government that represents only a few.
And finally, we and the rest of the people in the international community have to put some dollars behind this. We have to help with the reconstruction. And people will say, of course, we're already spending so much in Iraq.
But we're spending $8 billion in Iraq a month. And we've only talking about spending something like $40 million in a situation that actually is a place where al Qaeda was operating prior to our Iraq invasion and Iraq was not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: That was Senator Russ Feingold, chairman of the subcommittee on Africa talking with us a little bit earlier here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
VASSILEVA: Well, still ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, another candidate enters the race for the White House.
CLANCY: That's right, Democratic Senator Barack Obama joining a list of presidential candidates that seems to grow larger by the day.
VASSILEVA: Can't keep up with it.
And as Apple introduces its new i-Phone in the U.S., tech savvy consumers in Asia are simply yawning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VASSILEVA: Welcome back. We bringing you an hour of news from an international perspective here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
A lot of buzz is generated by a relative newcomer in the corridors of power in Washington. Jim is taking a closer look at that -- Jim.
CLANCY: That's right. Let's take a few minutes to talk about all these developments in the democracy that is the United States of America.
Fact -- every single president since George Washington has been a white man. It's a fact. Here's another one. Every single person in the U.S. knows someday a black or a woman or both will get their chance. The question is when?
That's why it wasn't just another name moving closer to race for U.S. president in 2008 when U.S. Senator Barack Obama announced the formation of a committee that is a first step towards that.
The announcement came on his internet site on Tuesday. Dana Bash gives us a look at the reaction up on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Barack Obama!
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The senator who's already reshaped the 2008 race with crushing crowds from Iowa to New Hampshire, made it sound as if he's as surprised as anyone to be taking the first formal step to run for president.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: Certainly, I didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago. I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.
BASH: Yet, Barack Obama's announcement in this web video of an exploratory committee to raise money came after months of political prep work. In a classic move, he tried to turn his biggest liability, lack of government experience, into an asset, running as an outsider.
OBAMA: Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions.
BASH: Obama is a celebrity. Paparazzi even followed him to Hawaii to steal a bare-chested photo.
Whether he can turn media attention into a credible candidacy is the question. Just two years ago, the 45-year-old candidate was in the Illinois state legislature, and experience is sure to be an issue in the Democratic field that includes seasoned political heavyweights.
ANNA GREENBERG, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Democratic primary voters are strategic. And as much as they like Barack Obama, if they think that he's going to be a weak general election candidate because of his lack of foreign policy credentials, it's going to be a problem for them.
BASH: Despite these scenes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Obama trails Hillary Clinton and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards in assembling strong political organizations. But they are all nervously watching Obama-Mania.
GREENBERG: This announcement may put more pressure on Hillary Clinton to decide either way, if she's going to run or not. Because there will be some real competition for -- on fund raising. There will be competition on hiring advisers and operatives on the ground.
BASH: Senator Clinton's advisers insist she's not changing her timetable, planning an announcement likely next month.
Obama does have a leg up on Clinton and many other Democrats who voted for the Iraq war. He's opposed it from the start.
OBAMA: Are there any circumstances that you can articulate in which we would say to the Maliki government that enough is enough and we are no longer committing our troops?
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not going to speculate.
BASH: He would be the first black president, something a former black candidate applauded on the eve of Obama's announcement.
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: There's a non-stop line between the March in Selma in 1965 and inauguration in Washington in 2009.
BASH (on camera): In announcing an exploratory committee instead of his formal candidacy for president, Obama left himself some wiggle room, saying he'd make a speech with a final decision back home in Illinois on February 10.
But Obama even told reporters here on Capitol Hill he fully expects to say in that speech he's running for president.
Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Intelligent, articulate, who is Barack Obama? Well lately, he's become something of a media darling, getting a lot of attention on television, in newspapers, and on the internet.
Don Lemon gives us a look back at the moment when Obama first burst on to the national scene.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next senator from the state of Illinois, Barack Obama!
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Barack Obama stepped onto the national stage drawing a clear line between his political ambitions and his family history. As a Senate candidate in 2004, he wowed the Democratic National Convention with his eloquence and his life story.
OBAMA: Let's face it. My presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.
LEMON: Obama's father was born in a small village in Kenya where he herded goats and went to school in a tin-roof shack. His mother was born in Kansas. Her family enduring the hard-scrabble days of the Depression and World War II. The couple met in college in Hawaii, married, and had a son.
OBAMA: They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.
LEMON: As a young man, the future senator says he struggled with his multi-racial heritage, describing in his memoir how he smoked marijuana and tried cocaine to try to push questions about who he was out of his mind.
But Obama later embraced his roots and the American Dream. He went to college in California and New York and in 1988, he entered Harvard Law School.
He was the first African-American elected president of the Harvard Law Review. It was just the beginning.
Obama went on to serve almost eight years in the Illinois State Senate, and now he holds a distinction of being the only black senator currently serving in Congress and one of the top tier potential candidates for the highest office in the land.
SEN BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.
LEMON (on camera): Much of what you see from Obama now, his personal and political style, so to speak, it was honed on the rough and tumble streets of Chicago's Southside when he was a community activist.
And many of the people who were part of his inner circle then are still part of his inner circle now. And they will be among the first to know what he's going to say in that formal announcement come February 10th.
Don Lemon, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Well, Apple's new iPhone is causing quite a buzz in the world.
CLANCY: That's right, but not so much, surprisingly, in Japan. Coming up, why many Japanese say the iPhone technology is nothing new to them. We'll find out why, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VASSILEVA: Jim, you are excited about Apple's forthcoming gizmo, the iPhone?
CLANCY: Yes, I guess we should be because it is part iPod. It's a phone. It's a television. It gives you the Internet.
VASSILEVA: But it doesn't pay your bills.
CLANCY: No.
VASSILEVA: Still got to pay them.
CLANCY: That's expensive.
VASSILEVA: For many Asians, actually, it's just a yawn. That is nothing new to them, and Eunice Yoon explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EUNICE YOON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For millions in Tokyo, life begins and ends with the mobile phone. The daily commute to work wouldn't be the same without it.
Just ask Yuki Yoshikawa. The I.T. engineer buys the train ticket, grabs a cup of coffee and picks up a magazine all with a tap of his cell phone. So when asked for his thoughts on Apple's new iPhone, Yoshikawa's ho-hum attitude shouldn't come as a shock.
YUKI YOSHIKAWA, IT ENGINEER (through translator): It doesn't surprise me.
YOON: Unlike in the U.S., where cell phones are still used mainly to make phone calls, in Japan, they double as a TV set, a boom box, a personal computer, even as a briefcase.
HIROYUKI OGAMI (though translator): I carry around my blueprints on my cell phone.
YOON: Architect Hiroyuki Ogami also uses his phone to book flights, trade stocks, and navigate his way back home.
OGAMI (through translator): I can not survive without my cell phone. It is my second self.
YOON: The Japanese can find their second selves with their keitai, as mobile phones are called there, because the country has some of the fastest mobile broadband networks in the world, one generation faster than the networks on Apple's home turf.
ROSS O'BRIEN, INTERCEDENT ASIA: I don't think the iPhone will reinvent the phone. In Asia in particular, there are numerous devices that are incorporating media and entertainment functions into them. The iPhone doesn't add anything more to that conversation.
YOON: The iPhone has been stirring up conversations among tech enthusiasts with its full-blown music and video player, new voice-mail system and touch sensitive screen. Apple plans to launch the iPhone in the U.S. this June and in Asia next year. But with so much competition, will the iPhone sell?
YOSHIKAWA (through translator): The new iPhone looks fashionable. I am curious.
YOON: And in this gadget-crazed culture, curiosity may be all the iPhone needs.
Eunice Yoon, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: We've got to say happy birthday to a very special person today.
CLANCY: That's right. He will always be the greatest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Oh, words punched into the memories of a generation of people, all fans of Muhammad Ali's famous right jab.
VASSILEVA: The greatest turned 65 today. Happy birthday.
CLANCY: That's our report. Your watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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