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Your World Today

Dozens Killed in Baghdad Bombings; President Bush to Defend Iraq Strategy in 'State of the Union'; Beached Cargo Ship on English Coast Threatens to Spill

Aired January 22, 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: No safe haven. Iraqi marketplaces become blast zones. A surge in casualties greeting the new year.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Twenty-six women so far. A Canadian serial murder case that spans three decades.

CLANCY: A container ship spewing its cargo on to the coast of England. Bounty for scavengers, but a crisis for local officials.

CHURCH: Very large rabbits, do they hold the key to North Korea's food shortage?

CLANCY: It's 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad right now, 9:00 in the morning in Vancouver.

Hello and welcome, everyone, to our report broadcast around the world.

I'm Jim Clancy.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. From Toulouse to Frankfurt, Los Angeles to Prague, wherever you're watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: As Baghdad awaits a long-promised security crackdown, two bombings just seconds apart killed at least 88 people in the worst single attack since November. Hours after the blast ripped through a crowded marketplace, another market was attacked north of the capital. All of this follows a particularly deadly weekend for U.S. troops.

Let's bring in Arwa Damon, live in Baghdad -- Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it has been a very deadly weekend for U.S. forces here. At least 27 killed Saturday and Sunday alone, and it has been a tragically deadly day for Iraqis, one of those days where the bombings just seem to be relentless, happening one after the other. The deadliest attack, though, happening in the capital, Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice over): Familiar sights and sounds in the Iraqi capital -- explosions, sirens, mayhem. Insurgents striking once again in the heart of Baghdad. This time hitting one of the city's main marketplaces for the third time in as many months, an area mainly frequented by Baghdad's impoverished Shia population, leaving scores dead and wounded.

Two midday car bombs exploding seconds apart, tearing into the secondhand clothing section of the markets. The dead and wounded rushed to hospitals already stretched to the limit.

Here, at Al-Kindi (ph) hospital, frantic efforts to save lives. It's the same hospital where just days ago medics battled to treat the casualties from twin bombings at a university that killed at least 70 students and employees and wounded over 160.

The insurgency, relentless. Their tactics, evolving.

New details of a brazen and unprecedented attack on U.S. forces in Karbala. According to the police spokesman there, gunmen wearing uniforms very similar to those worn by U.S. forces got through three checkpoints flashing fake IDs. Some even spoke English.

They stormed a supposedly secure coordination center where a meeting was under way to discuss security for the upcoming Shia pilgrimage known as Ashura. Police said the attackers targeted only U.S. soldiers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: The scene of the attack is under lockdown. The vehicles that were used in the attack were actually found in a neighboring province.

Iraqi officials are calling this an unprecedented incident. The Americans right now are still saying that an investigation is under way. They're trying to figure out what went wrong and why -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, obviously, you're dealing in Karbala. That is an area where Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi army have been very active. Not only did the gunmen in this case go in without challenge, they went out without challenge, with some of the eyewitnesses saying, well, we thought it was the American troops just battling the American troops.

It doesn't make sense. Do they expect not just coincidence but connivance?

DAMON: Well, Jim, the concern is that, of course, it was an inside job. At this point, that might be why the Americans have not commented just yet.

The only thing that we really do know from local police in that area was that they are claiming that the Iraqi police and security forces who were on the scene thought that this was, as you just mentioned, American-on-American violence. The gunmen did go in, were not stopped on their way in, nor were they stopped on their way out after the attack had taken place.

This is a very tricky situation for all sides who are involved. As you just mentioned, Karbala, along with other areas down there in the predominantly Shia south, is known to be a Mehdi militia stronghold. There are concerns now that if the uniforms used were similar to ones used by U.S. forces, that that could be a new step that the insurgents are taking. Really, this entire incident is raising a lot of questions -- Jim.

CLANCY: All right. That will be an interesting investigation to see what conclusions are drawn from it.

Arwa Damon reporting live from Baghdad -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Well, U.S. President George W. Bush gets another chance to sell his new Iraq strategy to a war-weary public at home. But even as he puts the finishing touches on his State of the Union Address, new opinion polls show he doesn't have the confidence of many Americans.

A "Washington Post"-ABC News poll finds 71 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. Just 26 percent believe it's going in the right direction.

It also finds more Americans, at 60 percent, believe the Democrats in Congress would do a better job handling Iraq than President Bush. Just 33 percent said he'd handle it better.

Another poll finds 67 percent of Americans oppose sending more troops to Iraq, the cornerstone of Mr. Bush's new strategy. The Associated Press-AOL News poll finds 31 percent support the deployment.

Well, some members of Mr. Bush's own party are among those who don't support sending more troops. A bipartisan resolution opposing the strategy is circulating on Capitol Hill and could come to a vote this week. All of that means Mr. Bush has his work cut out for him as he gears up for Tuesday's address.

Well, let's bring in White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano.

And a big operation ahead of him. What's he going to say to convince people he's on the right track?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, as you just noted with those polls, and mentioning the resolutions as well, it will be a different dynamic certainly this year for President Bush as he delivers his State of the Union Address. It will be a Democratic-led Congress, but the skepticism over his Iraq plan is coming, as you point out, not just from Democrats, members of the opposition party, but from some of his fellow Republicans as well.

So the president will continue trying to make the case tomorrow night that his strategy for an additional 21,000-plus forces to pacify Baghdad and the rest of Anbar Province in Baghdad -- in Iraq -- can, in fact, be effective.

Now, aides say that the president's comments on the Iraq war will be made within the context of the larger war on terror, yet his address, as Arwa noted, comes on the heels of an especially bloody weekend in Iraq for U.S. troops. Now, asked to comment earlier today in the briefing, the president's spokesman said that as the Iraqi government begins to assert itself, violence should not come as a surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You can expect, as there is pushback, that there is going to be some increase in violence. But on the other hand, what's been going on the ground -- and you've seen the prime minister being more assertive when it comes to dealing with militias, you've seen the prime minister being more assertive when it comes to political reconciliation...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, the White House also is clearly trying to shift some of the focus off of the president's foreign policy, which has been unpopular, certainly, and onto his domestic agenda. Aides say that in his State of the Union Address he will try to highlight areas of possible cooperation with Democrats.

Now, issues like healthcare, immigration, energy, and education policy, and issues that really do affect millions of Americans. But on Iraq, officials here privately acknowledge, Rosemary, that until there are positive changes on the ground, Americans will continue to have doubts about the president's new strategy -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Indeed. All right. Elaine Quijano at the White House there.

Thanks so much.

And CNN, of course, will have live coverage of Mr. Bush's State of the Union Tuesday. That begins an hour before the speech at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM." That's 01:00 GMT Wednesday, or the times shown there on your screen -- Jim.

CLANCY: Let's shift our attention now to Europe, and a Balkan surprise.

Serbia's president is calling on pro-democratic parties to put their differences aside and form a coalition government. This, after radical ultra nationalists won the most votes in Sunday's round of polling. But the party did not get enough to take power outright.

The pro-Western democratic party which came in second is expected to seek a deal with other parties and form a coalition. The European Union's top diplomat says it's a bit early to assess the impact of the elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVIER SOLANA, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: Let me say that, first of all, I am pleased that today was (INAUDIBLE). Second, I think that there's a clear majority of forces which are democratic. And thirdly, that I hope very much there will be the formation of a speeding up that will be on the line of the pro-European forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: The outcome of the election is certain to complicate some of the major issues that face this next government. That includes membership in the European Union, and also the question, will Kosovo be independent or will it just be an autonomous region?

Rosemary.

CHURCH: Well, marine crews are working to contain environmental damage from a cargo ship run aground on the English coast. Police are scrambling to keep scavengers away. Some of the material that has washed ashore includes BMW motorcycles. The beaches are part of a coast designated as a World Heritage Site.

Zoey Conway reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): The booty is bountiful. It's wine galore. Located within England's only natural World Heritage Site, the beach at Branscombe in Devon is now littered with the cargo from the Napoli container ship. The loot includes car parts, motorbikes, and other less recognizable objects.

MICHAEL WHITE, DEVONSHIRE FIRE BRIGADE: There's always some stuff washed in, but not on a scale like this.

ROBIN MIDDLETON, BRITISH TRANSPORT DEPT.: It cleans the beach up. As well, it's free. You know? A couple of people I've seen this morning, they've got brand new BMW motorbikes worth $15,000 each. So, you know, everything's worth some money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The scavengers are perhaps not aware that they could be committing theft. The police say anything taken from this beach belongs to the salvage company.

It's a race against time to save this container ship from causing an environmental catastrophe. The challenge facing the salvage team, to get thousands of tons of oil off the Napoli before it breaks up. They fear that if the weather deteriorates, the ship, which is cracked on both sides of the hull, could quite literally break in two.

The ship is carrying 3,500 tons of heavy fuel oil used to power the Napoli's engine. The 200 tons of diesel used to power the ship's generators is now believed to have leaked into the sea. And there's 1,700 tons of hazardous chemicals on board, ranging from perfume, to nitric acid, pesticide and peroxide.

The question environmentalists are asking is: Can the structural damage caused to the ship be solely blamed on the 45-mile-an-hour winds and 9-meter high waves of last Thursday's storm? Just how seaworthy was the ship, they ask? For it has run aground before.

In 2001, it got stuck in a coral reef in east Asia. After that incident, it's been reported it spent 60 days in a boatyard being repaired. But the ship's management company, the London-based Zodiac, say the Napoli passed its last safety check in May 2005.

Devonshire police say that soon private security guards will be deployed to stop the looting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Zoey Conway (ph) reporting there.

CLANCY: All right. Let's take a look at some of the other stories we're following this hour here on CNN.

CHURCH: All right. And we begin with a confession to murder in Turkey.

Istanbul's police chief says a teenager who confessed to killing a prominent journalist has no connections to organized terror groups. Ogun Samast also expressed no regrets for gunning down Hrant Dink last Friday.

Now, Dink had called the World War I mass killing of Armenians by Turks genocide. Despite Samast's confession, the investigation is ongoing.

It is the 34th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe versus Wade decision, a decision that legalized abortion in the United States. People on both sides of this debate are holding rallies and vigils in Washington.

You can see one under way right now. This is a live picture.

The Democratic-controlled Congress would likely block any new anti-abortion measures during this current session.

CHURCH: Iran's Revolutionary Guards are conducting three days of missile tests. It's the first such exercise since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to suspend its nuclear enrichment program. Among the weapons being test-fired is an advanced missile that Iran says can evade radar detection and use multiple warheads to hit several targets some 75 kilometers away.

CLANCY: All right. We're going to take a short break.

Coming up, though, an emotion-filled trial getting under way in Canada. It involves dozens of missing women and some grisly details.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN International. And you're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: That's right, where we try to bring our viewers around the world, in the U.S., and everywhere, up to date on some of the news of the day around the globe.

CHURCH: Well, one of the most anticipated murder trials in Canadian history is beginning in Vancouver.

CLANCY: Robert William Pickton, there's a name that's going to stand out for a long time. He is accused of killing 26 women, most of them prostitutes or drug addicts.

CHURCH: That's right. This trial focuses on only six of the victims.

Natalie Clancy puts a name to the faces of some of those victims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE CLANCY, REPORTER, CBC NEWS (voice over): May 12, 1999, Serena Abotsway sings at a park in the downtown east side to pay tribute to her friends who have disappeared. Abotsway was a fixture in the neighborhood. The second generation addict whose father died of an overdose marched to demand police do more to find the missing women.

A year and a half later, her name would be added to the list. And now she is also known as count one, the first woman Robert William Pickton is accused of killing.

ELAINE ALLEN, FRIEND OF MISSING PERSON: Serena was fabulous in so many ways. She could get under your skin in a second, but she was someone that I could never really get mad at or ever stay angry at.

Just awful. Just awful.

N. CLANCY: Elaine Allen met Abotsway and many of the other women Pickton is accused of killing when she worked at a drop-in center for sex trade workers.

ALLEN: When Regina went missing, I mean, you noticed it right away. She was such a popular, outgoing woman on the downtown east side.

I always thought of her as being a social maven. And when she went missing, everyone knew right away. Everyone talked about it.

N. CLANCY: Thirty-seven-year-old Georgina Papin was a mother of six. She disappeared in 1999.

Two years later, Andrea Joesbury vanished. The 23-year-old was desperately trying to get clean in hopes of regaining custody of her child.

ALLEN: I don't think that I ever saw a time where she got over that. I think that she was constantly in a fog of bewilderment and utter depression.

N. CLANCY: Dr. Susan Burgess first reported Joesbury missing when she stopped coming for methadone. She treated many of the missing women.

DR. SUSAN BURGESS, ADDICTION PHYSICIAN: Of the women who we know ended up in the Pickton situation that were my patients, they were the most blazing individuals.

N. CLANCY: Like Mona Wilson, who disappeared in 2002.

BURGESS: She had a mental illness. She was well known to (INAUDIBLE). And -- but, yes, a gentle person. Very sweet.

N. CLANCY: Not all the women were sex trade workers. Brenda Wolfe had a boyfriend, a son and a job in a bar when the 30-year-old vanished in 1999.

ALLEN: Brenda was quiet. She was quite. And she always -- she was -- she was popular. Women liked Brenda. I don't think I ever saw her without -- without a buddy or without a friend.

N. CLANCY: Of these six women, Marny Frey (ph) was the first to disappear. She last spoke to her stepmom on her 24th birthday. Lynn Frey wants people to know Marny (ph) loved her daughter Britney (ph) and says she never told a lie in her life.

LYNN FREY, VICTIM'S MOTHER: When Marny (ph) got heavy into the drugs, a lot of our personal belongings that was worth money, like cameras, videos, you know, anything like that, would go missing. And you'd finally go to find a special ring that you wanted to wear that day and it was gone.

You'd confront her and she would say, "Yes, I took it and I sold it."

N. CLANCY: Songs like this one have been written in their memory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): ... the way I miss you more each day

N. CLANCY: Portraits painted in their honor to help friends and family remember the women for how they lived, not how they died.

Natalie Clancy, CBC News, Vancouver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: That's going to be a remarkable trial and remarkably painful.

CHURCH: We'll be watching that, too.

CLANCY: All right. We've got to move on.

One of the first rules of warfare, know your enemy.

CHURCH: That's right. With that in mind, correspondent Ben Wedeman takes us behind the scenes in Israel when we come back. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

CLANCY: A former Israeli general with years of experience fighting against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas now chosen as the new chief of Israel's armed forces.

CHURCH: That's right. This as the army rearms itself to fight future wars by taking some cues from its enemies.

CLANCY: Ben Wedeman catches up with the so-called red units.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israeli soldiers prepare their weapons for a raid, a mock raid. The bullets are blanks. The grenades spew only smoke. But this is deadly serious business. The troops are assaulting a house defended by the red unit, a new group mimicking the tactics of Israel's present and potential battlefield foes, Hezbollah fighters, Palestinian militants, Syrian soldiers. Many of the red unit troops are women who don't normally serve in combat units.

SECOND COMMANDER DANA MARCOWICZ, RED UNIT: We have to learn about the enemy in order to defeat it.

WEDEMAN: These exercises are being conducted at a new facility that looks remarkably like an ordinary village in Gaza, just a few minutes drive away, or the West Bank.

(on camera): This is the world's largest and most sophisticated urban-warfare training center. There are more than 400 buildings, and it's designed to simulate the conditions in an obviously Arab town with A population of about 50,000.

(voice-over): Missing in all of this is the most vulnerable element in modern Middle Eastern warfare, civilians. Their absence blamed on the budget.

BRIG. GEN. UZI MOSKOVICH, RED UNIT: We don't have civilians. We don't have enough money to rent civilians.

WEDEMAN: They may be in short supply, but not high technology. Soldiers here wear uniforms with censors that pick up on laser beams shot from specially equipped guns.

And while we only saw Israeli soldiers, others are involved here. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping build this facility.

"They're using the knowledge they've gained," combined with our knowledge, says Lieutenant Colonel Ari Moray (ph). "There's an intention to do joint exercises with the Americans and create a reservoir of knowledge that can be of service to us and to them." WEDEMAN: It appears the lessons learned here may have applications elsewhere.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Za'alim (ph) Amry Base, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A report just published has found that Northern Ireland police officers colluded with loyalist paramilitaries to cover up at least a dozen murders over a 10-year period. Now the report says loyalists, who worked as police informers, were effectively given immunity for their crimes. False police notes on crimes were created and searches of suspects homes were frustrated. And in some cases, killers facing police questioning were baby-sat during police interviews so they avoided incriminating themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN FELICE, NI POLICE OMBUDSMAN'S OFFICE: We have established a fountain of work by certain officers within special branch designed to ensure that informant I and his associates were protected from being held to account for his actions.

Indeed, we have identified a series of instances when they took steps to ensure that when police informants committed crimes they were shielded from police officers investigating that crime and from other agencies within the criminal justice system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, says nationalists and Republicans won't be surprised by the findings, and this may be just the tip of the iceberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRY ADAMS, SINN FEIN PRESIDENT: This is a report into collusion in a small area, in a small timeframe. Collusion goes back to the '70s, and through the '80s, right through the '90s. It was administrative practice, wasn't just a few bad cups. It was policy in Ireland, institutionalized terror against Republicans, against nationalists, and occasionally a Catholic or a man like young Raymond McCord (ph) get caught up, and he went the way all of the other victims went as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, the report says two retired assistant chief constables refused to cooperate with the investigation. Current Chief Constable Hugh Ord (ph) says the report is, quote, "shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable reading." He's apologized to the victims' families.

Well, this report comes as Sinn Fein looks set to persuade its rank and file to back a move to recognize the legitimacy of the current police force in North Ireland. The hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party is making such a move, a precondition for sharing power with Sinn Fein.

For more analysis of today's reports and its implications, we're joined now by senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.

Nic, interesting there, we heard from Gerry Adams, saying this is just the tip of the iceberg. Is that what we're seeing here?

NIC ROBERTSON, SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: It does seem to be. This is an investigation that was called by the father of one man who was killed by a unit of the Elsta (ph) Volunteer Force, which is only one of many loyalist paramilitary forces. And this investigation only looks at the period in the sort of mid to late 1990s and the early 2000s. There certainly were a lot of other intelligence operatives run by the police, run by the army, run by the intelligence services, not just in the north of Ireland, but in the south of Ireland, and the other loyalists paramilitaries, and also inside the IRA. And what the police ombudsmen have discovered here is systemic failures within the police force here, the special branch in running these particular agents. Essentially what she is doing in revealing this is paving the way for perhaps deeper investigation that will overcome and find ways to get around and perhaps legislate to get around these kind of flaws in the future.

But is this the tip of the iceberg? It certainly appears to be so. Members of the IRA involved possibly in killings with their agent handlers knowing, then if those handlers didn't bring those agents in and say, let's use you to present evidence in that case of the killing, rather than use you to carry on and perform other intelligence work, that amounts to collusion -- Colleen.

CHURCH: Nic, Rosemary here.

So, really, it's going to be very difficult for Sinn Fein to convince its rank of file of the legitimacy of the police. How are they going to go about doing that with this in mind?

ROBERTSON: Well, certainly as Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams said, it certainly is common knowledge this sort of thing was going on. Sinn Fein's efforts to win its support base over to supporting the new police service of Northern Ireland is something that Gerry Adams and other leaders in Sinn Fein have been working on for some time. And they're going to have an executive vote on that this next weekend. And it seems unlikely that they would allow this to derail the work that they have put in to bring their supporters this far.

However, it does show the problems that leaders on both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland have convincing their supporters that they can trust the police, that they can move forward, that they can trust the other side. It's systematic abuses by the police, alleged by using informers, that has given many people the deepest worries and fears about cooperating with the police -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, Nic Robertson, be interesting to see where this goes. Thanks, Nic -- Jim. CLANCY: All right, let's go to another controversy, in Iran. Since his election last year, the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has defiantly, sometimes angrily, and many would argue unwisely, defended his country nuclear program, advocated it should go further at times. The defiance has left Iran reeling under United Nations sanctions, and Mr. Ahmadinejad apparently him feeling the heat from the highest levels of Iran's government.

Let's discuss this some more. We're joined by Hadi Semati of the University of Tehran, currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute.

Thank you so much for being with us.

HADI SEMATI, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Thank you. My pleasure.

CLANCY: On its face, professor, some people might say, well, this obviously is because Iran is developing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. Iranians are proud of it, and President Ahmadinejad is making things worse with the West. Is that what it comes down to?

SEMATI: I think it actually -- President Ahmadinejad has had two sets of problems, especially in the recent times. One is primarily I think the messy part. This is a president that came to power on a populist economic justice campaign agenda. On that issue, I think has failed to come up with coherent policies or his policies and promises at least have not delivered yet. I think that is more of an issue that he's being challenged on.

CLANCY: Do you think that, you know, he is a populist and he knows how to play the audience, and now he's using Iran's nuclear industry, its fledgling nuclear program to spread that populism, isn't he, and some people higher up don't like it?

SEMATI: Yes, and of course the second issue (INAUDIBLE) foreign policies. This is a country that the president doesn't have a whole lot of power on key strategic foreign and security policy issues. But he has been sort of successful, at least at the beginning, to use nuclear programs of Iran and the U.N. Security Council sanctions to rally the nation around this core objective, and for other objectives that he has.

But increasingly he is coming under pressure because those have created a sort of a consensus in the international community against Iran, and a lot of more seasoned and the more pragmatic conservatives, that supported him initially, are now saying now that his rhetoric is costing Iran a lot. So he's definitely facing a lot of pressure from the conservative on those issues as well, being very, very adventurous in the use of rhetoric.

CLANCY: And a couple of things, and I've got to wrap it up. But there's another U.S. aircraft carrier moving into the Gulf. There are warnings coming from Richard Pearle, the noted neocon, a good friend of the Bush administration, telling an Israeli audience flat out, that President Bush will go to war with Iran. Others are speculating that conflict could come sometime this year. What is your perspective? Do you think there's going to be a war over Iran's nuclear program?

SEMATI: I'm not sure. Of course, the chances are -- I'm more afraid and concerned of miscalculations on both sides. I think at this point I do not see any temptation in the bush administration in Washington for directly challenging Iran militarily. But I suspect, as both sides have hardened their positions, there are serious chances of miscalculation and incidents that would lead to a frontal confrontation militarily, and that is a real danger, I suppose. Both sides are becoming more aggressive in their posture, publicly, rhetorically, and of course in practice. Iran is doing military maneuvers, military maneuvers now, and so people are concerned that where all of these are leading could be a military confrontation sometime down the line.

CLANCY: All right, Hadi Semati of the University of Tehran, a visiting fellow here in the U.S. for a while. I want to thank you very much for taking the time to sit down and talk with us a little bit more.

SEMATI: It's my pleasure. Thank you.

CLANCY: It's been interesting.

Well, what if they had an election for president and nobody came?

CHURCH: That's not going to be a problem in the U.S. presidential election, of course. It's still more than a year away, and the field of candidates is already crowded. We'll have a closer look when YOUR WORLD TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Hello, everyone, and welcome back.

Our top stories this a single attack killing at least 88 in Baghdad. And U.S. president George W. Bush facing some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union Address -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, thanks, Jim.

The U.S. political scene gets our attention this hour. There are only two main political parties in the United States, yet one year before the presidential election, there are more than two dozen declared or potential candidates. The young and popular Barack Obama edged closer to the race last week, and in the running the familiar and formidable Hillary Clinton, the darling of Republican conservatives, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, and a face familiar to some New Mexico governor, and diplomatic troubleshooter, Bill Richardson.

Well, with the first votes still one year away, it's hard for most Americans to get excited about the campaign, unless you live in the small but politically influential state of New Hampshire. It's a state you can't afford to bypass if you want to become president.

Bob Franken explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Most states have a state bird, a state song. But in New Hampshire . . .

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Politics is our state sport and I'm delighted that you're here to play this game with all of us.

FRANKEN: They've been playing the first primary game here since 1920. While Hillary Rodham Clinton's announcement causes palpitations everywhere else, here it's, join the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really feel that we have a chance as citizens of New Hampshire to really -- to meet all of the candidates. And so until I have an opportunity to meet all of the candidates, I will make a decision after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We really haven't seen Hillary and we haven't seen Barack Obama, except once over in Manchester. And it will take us a while to figure out who they are.

FRANKEN: Actually, Hillary Clinton goes back to 1992 in New Hampshire, when as the wife of candidate Bill Clinton, she was traipsing through all the snow and scandal.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) NEW YORK: If anything about our marriage is important to the people of New Hampshire, it's whether or not they will have a chance to keep their own families together and the (INAUDIBLE).

FRANKEN: Now, Hillary Clinton herself is seeking the embrace of New Hampshire's voters, along with many, many others, including lots of Republicans, McCain, Brownback, Romney, Giuliani. Among the Democrats, Obama, Edwards, Biden, Richardson. Vilsack was here on Friday, Dodd on Saturday.

SEN. CHRIS DODD, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I apologize being a few minutes late. I'm not Bill Clinton. I'm not an hour late.

FRANKEN: Did he say Clinton? Actually, Hillary Clinton has not been here for a while.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the candidates have to come to New Hampshire if they want to win. It's just the way that it is.

FRANKEN: The primary is slated exactly one year from now, unless New Hampshire moves it back because it feels like its first in the nation's status is being jeopardize by other states. The first in the nation's presidential debates will be held this April. Debates cosponsored by CNN.

Bob Franken, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CLANCY: Well, If you had a bad day, we might have an explanation for you when we come back.

Also ahead, huge rabbits revealed. Why this German breeder is getting so much attention for his furry friend.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: Giant rabbits and the great leader of North Korea. Rosemary, what do they have in common?

CHURCH: All right, that is something we need to explain. While much of the world is offering aid to the reclusive regime in North Korea under certain conditions.

CLANCY: We get more now from Frederik Pleitgen, who tells us the story of a rabbit farmer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Ellie. Ellie is Germany's biggest bunny and she could help end a food shortage in North Korea, at least that's what the North Koreans seem to think.

KARL SZMOLINSKY, RABBIT BREEDER: A few months ago I received a phone call saying the North Koreas want to buy my rabbits for food production.

PLEITGEN: Karl Szmolinsky breeds big rabbits. Giant gray they're called and gigantic they are. Ellie and her bunny pal Robert have a combined weight of over 40 pounds.

(on camera): Robert here really is a very big and very, very heavy rabbit. In fact, there's enough meat in this rabbit to feed seven people.

(voice-over): And that's where North Korea comes in. For years, the internationally isolated country has been suffering from famine. Kim Jong-Il is looking for ways to provide food for his people and large rabbits could be part of the plan, experts say.

HANNS GUENTHER HILPERT, NORTH KOREA EXPERT: Why not. It's a pretty simple technology and basically you need manpower to look after the rabbits and that's what the North Koreans have.

PLEITGEN: So Robert and Ellie will wind up on North Korean plates before too long. But Karl Szmolinsky says that's just part of the business.

SZMOLINSKY: People in Germany eat rabbits as well. All of our rabbits are eaten. We sell them to the locals here in town.

PLEITGEN: Fourteen of Karl Szmolinsky's giant rabbits have already been shipped to North Korea. And if Pyongyang needs more, the next batch has just arrived. Karl Szmolinsky will visit North Korea in April to advise the government on how to breed giant rabbits. His secret is simple, he tells us, lots of water, plenty of food and lots and lots of love.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Edderswalde, Germany.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Looks like the rabbit is bound for a bad day, but maybe we are, too. I mean, there are psychologists that are saying this is blue Monday.

CHURCH: All right, but we know why now, apparently. It's the bleakest day of them all, and we're hearing that's because bad weather, credit card bills and failed New Year's resolutions means you may be feeling a little down in the dumps.

CLANCY: Yes, psychologists back up the theory. A formula indicates people are most likely to feel depressed in this, ladies and gentlemen, the full final week of January.

CHURCH: So now you know why.

All right, we've got to go now. I'm Rosemary Church.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. Try to keep your chin up. The news continues.

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