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British Marines Seized; Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Survives Suicide Blast; Jamaican Police: Pakistan Coach was Strangled

Aired March 23, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMMODORE NICK LAMBERT, BRITISH ROYAL NAVY: ... they were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may well claim that they were in Iranian territorial waters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A big problem in the Persian Gulf. British Marines are in Iranian hands as a routine patrol inspection provokes their seizure in disputed waters.

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A horrible day at the office in Baghdad. Iraq's deputy prime minister is wounded at his compound in a suicide bombing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pathologist report states that Mr. Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation. In these circumstances, the matter of Mr. Woolmer's death is now being treated by the Jamaica police as a case of murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Cricket crime in Jamaica. The pathologist says coach Bob Woolmer was strangled, and the police are pitching it as most foul.

CLANCY: And in Germany, a new one-named media star is born, and perhaps a cottage industry, as the country's unofficial polar bear mascot makes his very public debut.

GORANI: It is 7:30 p.m. in Tehran, 11:00 a.m. in Kingston, Jamaica.

Hello and welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.

I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy.

From Berlin to Baghdad, Kinshasa to Kyoto, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.

This hour, there's a potentially dangerous confrontation under way in the Gulf.

GORANI: Now, Iran has seized 15 British Marines. London is demanding their immediate release.

CLANCY: Thus far, Tehran has not made any public statements. There are many conflicting details here.

GORANI: All right. We have live reports from London and Tehran for you this hour, plus a closer look at the incident in our "INSIGHT" segment.

Becky Anderson is standing by in London with more on the British version of events, while Middle East correspondent Aneesh Raman is live from Tehran, Iran, with that side of the story.

Becky, let's start with you. Reaction from London.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A swift and unequivocal reaction from the U.K. government, Hala. We heard from the Ministry of Defense a little earlier with this statement -- they said, "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level. The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and our equipment."

Now, this could just be a simple misunderstanding. The delineation line in those waters is fairly unclear.

The commander of the British fleet in the region, Commodore Nick Lambert, referred to that fact just a little earlier. This is what he had to say.

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LAMBERT: There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally, the Iranians may well claim that they were in Iranian territorial waters. The extent and the definition of territorial waters in this part of the world is very complicated. That is one of the reasons we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, that was Commodore Nick Lambert speaking to us earlier.

Well, the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the foreign office here to speak to the undersecretary, Sir Peter Ricketts. The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, is indeed in her constituency here in the U.K. She will make a statement on this a little later.

Those talks with the Iranian ambassador who -- which lasted about 30 minutes, were described as brisk and cordial, with the U.K. demanding, as I say, the safe return of personnel and equipment -- Hala.

GORANI: So Becky, you are mentioning there is some communication at the lower diplomatic level. Do we know anything at this point about the condition of those U.K. Marines?

ANDERSON: We don't know anything about the condition of those U.K. Marines, as far as we know, at this point. This incident, on the face of it, at least, seems to be fairly similar to the one that happened in 2004. Remember when eight British servicemen were held by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for about three days. They were released unharmed.

Now, the British, let me tell you, are in these waters under the Iraqi mandate, effectively at the command of the U.N. They are there to make sure that those waters are safe. They are extremely important waters as far as the Iraqi oil is concerned. Also, the scene of times of a lot of smuggling.

So, as I say, this could be a simple misunderstanding. We don't know the condition of these servicemen. Fifteen, though, are being held at present by the Iranians -- Hala.

GORANI: All right. Becky Anderson, live at 10 Downing Street.

We can now go to Tehran, Iran, where Aneesh Raman is standing by.

We understood that no declaration has been made regarding the fate of those 15 servicemen. When do we expect to know more from the Iranian government, Aneesh?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: It could be a day or two, Hala. That's just the information flows here.

Added in to this delay is the fact that it is the Iranian new year. Virtually all government offices are closed. All calls that we've made to ministry officials went unanswered.

This incident, though, hasn't even been reported, as far as we've seen, on Iranian state-run television yet, broadcast within the country. The only state-run channel to mention the incident is Al Alam, which is Arabic language, Iranian state-run channel, broadcast mainly outside of the country. And in their report, they sourced their information to the British Foreign Ministry. So, across the board, no comment yet from Iranian officials.

If we use the past as any predictor -- because incidents like this have occurred before, most recently about two years ago -- Iran may contend that the British military personnel were in Iranian waters. As Becky mentioned, the area this took place, it's a river that feeds into the northern part of the Persian Gulf. The Iraqis call it Shatt al-Arab, the Iranian's call it Arvon Rud (ph).

It's a river, and within that river is the actual border between Iran and Iraq. So it's easy to see how confusion might exist. The British, though, are still contending they were in Iraqi waters when this incident took place, of course -- Hala.

GORANI: OK. Aneesh Raman, reporting live from Tehran.

Thanks for that -- Jim. CLANCY: Well, it is not exactly clear what happened in the Gulf. We know that no shorts were fired. That's leading to presumptions that the British sailors and Marines are all right. But it's certainly not clear what happens next.

What can we tell you? It's this -- the biggest naval battle since World War II was fought in those very waters in the Arabian Gulf, or the Persian Gulf, as it's called. It's an amazing story that's particularly relevant today.

Iran and the United States engaged each other directly with deadly results. You may never have heard of it.

Jonathan Mann has some insight.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's one of the most important naval battles in U.S. history, and it's worth recalling on a day like this one. A sobering opportunity to look back on a day in 1988 when things got bad in the Gulf.

Now, the Persian Gulf gives the world more than half of its oil. But have a look. It's actually a very small place for big ships.

The Strait of Hormuz in particular is 34 miles across, but the shipping channel that commercial ships can use is only six miles wide. And every day, 16 million barrels of oil travel through that six-mile gap.

Back in April of 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian Revolutionary Guards mined the Persian Gulf, and a U.S. warship hit one of those mines. The U.S. retaliated, attacking an Iranian oil platform, setting off the largest naval battle since World War II at different spots all across the Gulf involving warships, warplanes, helicopters, speedboats, you name it.

Here's one portion of what we found in our archives. The pictures don't really do it justice, but listen now at some of the last American words to an Iranian ship that fired on a U.S. cruiser.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I intend to sink you. This is a warning. Stop and abandon ship. I intend to sink you, over.

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MANN: He meant what he said. They did sink the cruiser. The battle lasted nine hours, and among the casualties, two oil platforms, six Iranian ships, roughly half the Iranian navy at the time that were damaged or sunk, 15 dead Iranians, and two dead Americans.

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COMMANDER EDWARD MANN, USS JACK WILLIAMS: It was a long day. And from our perspective, it's probably a day that 230 guys on this ship will remember for the rest of their lives. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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LARRY SUID, MILITARY HISTORIAN: I think it escalated. They simply thought that one Iranian ship might come out and they could hit it, and instead, you ended up with a battle both on the oil rigs and against a couple of Iranian ships.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Very few Americans remember that day. It was a long time ago, after all. And it was the middle of a larger war that really had our attentions, the Iran-Iraq War.

But Jim, you were in the Gulf at the time, weren't you?

CLANCY: We covered this story. I heard that live -- that exchange between the U.S. commander who said, "I'm going to sink you, abandon ship."

And the Iranian talked back to him very defiantly. But they had already set their sights on his ship.

They wanted him, because this particular ship and this particular commander were known to attack oil tankers very aggressively. And this is the important part -- they strafed the lifeboats. They had already made up their mind that they were going to take down this ship if he came out.

And as soon as he came out of Bandar Abbas, they gave it to him. You could see. There was videotape of the missile going over the horizon, Jon.

You never saw the ship. It was that far away. You never saw the ship, but you saw the reflection of the flash of the explosion, and then the cheers of the sailors that went up.

MANN: Just to be absolutely clear, this was 1988, if you're just tuning in now. We don't want to give you the impression that there's fighting of that kind under way.

CLANCY: No, but it's a really risky situation. In those times, just like today, what we have, Jon, is a situation where there's so much weaponry right out there in the Persian Gulf. There are all these cruisers, and there are all these patrol boats that are doing small inspections. But there's two U.S. aircraft carriers, there are more Iranian ships out there.

It's a very dangerous situation. And it's very small. They come very close to one another.

All right. Jon Mann with "INSIGHT".

As always, great. GORANI: All right. Now to another major story we're following, an attempt on the life of Iraq's deputy prime minister, Salam al- Zubaie.

He was wounded, nine other people were killed in a suicide bombing inside his Baghdad compound. Now there's word that the attacker was, in fact, linked somehow to one of the guards.

Let's get details from Kyra Phillips. She is in Baghdad with more on this assassination attempt and the condition of one of those Iraqi deputy prime ministers -- Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have to tell you, Hala, this is just a reality check that you really can't trust anybody here in Iraq, whether you are working for the deputy prime minister, or you are working a checkpoint, or you are in the Iraqi police, or within the military. There is a lot of infiltration that takes place, and that's the word now, that somebody got inside the deputy prime minister's inner circle. There's talk that it could have been connected to the bodyguard, to the adviser, someone there in his staff, even possibly the cook.

Here's what we can tell you, is that the suicide bomber was wearing a vest, and this is what caused all the destruction. It was little ball bearings like this.

And Hala, I know you have been in the war zones, and you have had to cover suicide bombings. This man apparently had a vest, plastic explosives inside with thousands of these little ball bearings. And, of course, once that bomb is detonated, these ball bearings are what cause all the destruction.

They explode from that vest. You saw the marks of these ball bearings in the walls inside that compound. You saw the devastation that it caused.

Also, we're being told in addition to this suicide bomber, there was a car bomb also planted. We're not quite sure if it was inside or just outside the compound. We believe it was inside the compound. And these happened simultaneously.

When did it happen? Well, today is Friday prayer. There's a curfew from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and this happened around the 1:00 hour time.

So, whoever came in there knew exactly, more than likely, where the deputy prime minister was going to be. Once again, showing that it is so hard to trust anybody, even within your own inner circle here in Iraq.

GORANI: And Kyra, what do we know of the condition of Salam al- Zubaie currently?

PHILLIPS: Well, according to the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, he came out with a statement saying he visited the deputy prime minister in the hospital, inside the fortified Green Zone where doctors were working on him, and said that he was fine. But we are getting conflicting reports.

If indeed this suicide bomber got close to the deputy prime minister, you saw the devastation from inside that compound. And we're told nine people were killed, including his brother, in addition to another 15 people that were injured.

So, if he was anywhere close to these individuals, say, his brother, his advisor, some of his security team, and they were killed, it's still a question what his condition is like at this point.

GORANI: All right. Kyra Phillips, reporting live from Baghdad.

Thanks, Kyra.

CLANCY: All right. As we look at the situation now that's developing there in Iraq, clearly high-profile targets are a prime objective for the insurgents, for al Qaeda, perhaps even sectarian violence. But remember, right now there are battles under way between tribal groups, Sunni tribal groups, and al Qaeda insurgents in Iraq. And this may be Sunni-on-Sunni violence as they go after a representative in the government.

GORANI: Well, in a situation like Iraq, Sunni on Sunni, Shiite on Sunni -- I mean, it's just so difficult to draw any kind of lines within that conflict...

CLANCY: And we saw Shia-on-Shia violence this week down in Basra.

GORANI: Absolutely.

All right.

Now, ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, do stay tuned. The latest on a very mysterious death, that of Pakistan's cricket coach.

MORGAN NEILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We'll see -- that's right. We'll see how what was once a cricket story has turned into an international case of whodunit.

CLANCY: Also ahead, he rules Pakistan's military with an iron fist. But is President Musharraf losing his grip on the rest of the country?

GORANI: And all together now, oh! Look at it. The cutest polar bear alive steps out into public view for the first time.

Stay with us.

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CLANCY: Hello, everyone. Well come back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.

CLANCY: Covering the news that the world wants to know, needs to know. Trying to give you a little perspective that goes deeper into the stories of the day.

The mystery behind the death of Pakistan's cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, taking a very dark turn indeed as details are disclosed by police in Jamaica. They now say Woolmer was strangled to death in his hotel room.

Morgan Neill joins us by broadband from Kingston, Jamaica, with more details of this investigation into what authorities are now calling a clear case of homicide -- Morgan.

NEILL: Jim, the details of this case have just gotten more and more compelling. It's gone from a case where we were trying to find out just how Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died, to what's become a classic whodunit now. Police last night ended days of speculation over how Woolmer had died, reading this statement...

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Karl ANGELL, JAMAICAN POLICE: The pathologist report states that Mr. Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation. In these circumstances, the matter of Mr. Woolmer's death is now being treated by the Jamaican police as a case of murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEILL: Now, police say they found no signs of forced entry. Deputy police commissioner Mark Shields says -- in an interview -- he said in a radio interview it appeared that the killer or killers were known to Woolmer, as Woolmer appears to have let them into the room. Now, another strange aspect to this case, the killer or killers managed to get into this room, strangle Bob Woolmer, which police say would have required some considerable force, as he was a large man, without anyone in the adjoining rooms or the rooms above or below apparently being aware of that.

Now, police looking -- they are making a long list of who was in the hotel near while -- Bob Woolmer's room at the time. They are going through that list, talking to people who may have had contact with him. But I can tell you, it's not going to be an easy task, because with the Cricket World Cup going on here, you have players in the hotel, you had a large media contingent in the hotel, all rubbing shoulders, coming and going well into the night -- Jim.

CLANCY: Morgan Neill, reporting to us there from Jamaica.

The latest on this case that has really gripped not only Pakistan, but the whole world of cricket.

GORANI: All right. Let's check some other news we are following today.

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HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone, to our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries around the globe, including, of course, the United States this hour.

JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: This is YOUR WORLD TODAY on CNN International. I'm Jim Clancy.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani.

Here are the top stories we're following for you. And we start with this.

Iran has seized 15 British marines in the Persian Gulf. Military officials say they were conducting a routine boarding and inspection of a merchant vessel in Iraqi waters. The marines and two small boarding boats were taken into Iranian territory by members of the revolutionary guard. Tehran not commenting at this time on the incident.

CLANCY: Iraqi security officials say an attacker who tried to kill one of the deputy prime ministers may have had some inside help. Salam al-Zubayi was wounded. Nine other people were killed in this suicide bombing. You can see the devastation there inside his Baghdad compound. A security advisor says the bomber was a friend of one of the guards.

GORANI: Police in Jamaica says the Pakistan cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, was strangled in his hotel room. They're asking anyone with any information about this case to come forward. Now one area investigators are looking into is cricket gambling. Woolmer's death came only hours after Pakistan's shocking elimination from the World Cup.

CLANCY: Well, continuing our coverage now of that seizure of British marines, 15 of them, in the Gulf. We have two guests with us. Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, and Jon Alterman, with the Center for International and Strategic studies.

Jamie, let me start with you. What do we know there from the Pentagon? What are we hearing?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from -- you know, the U.S. military is not directly involved in this, but they're obviously monitoring it very carefully. They're a coalition partner with Great Britain in patrolling the Persian Gulf. This maritime operation. And according to what U.S. officials say, they believe that the British ship was, in fact, in Iraqi territorial waters conducting a routine inspection of a ship that they thought might be smuggling automobiles.

Those British royal marines were dispatched in smaller boats, those inflatable hull boats that look kind of like zodiacs in the U.S. Navy, and were finished with the inspection when they were confronted by up to six vessels from the Iranian revolutionary guard corps navy. And not part of the regular Iranian navy. And in this argument over whether they were in Iraqi or Iranian waters, they were eventually detained and taken along with their small craft to somewhere in Iran. Presumably, a base near the shore.

CLANCY: All right, Jamie McIntyre, the latest there from the Pentagon. As he notes, closely watching this situation.

Let's shift over to Jon Alterman, with the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

John, this all comes in a rather rough backdrop. And that is the tensions, ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States there in Iraq, accusations the Iranians are smuggling arms into Iraq, all kinds of other tensions.

JON ALTERMAN, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: It's absolutely true. There's also a lot of smuggling that goes on in general, commercial smuggle that goes on, on the border. A lot of it is run by the Iranian revolutionary guard corps as a way to support their activities. They don't have the same chain of command as the Iranian navy. They're a little bit of a loose cannon in the region.

And one of the real dangers, as the U.S. ramps up the pressure on Iran, is that a mistake with the Iranian revolutionary guard corps could descend into a war that nobody wants because we don't have communication and because we have cowboys on one side who are trying to show how tough they are, coming up against the very fierce American force that's on very high alert.

CLANCY: All right. Interesting point there because these were naval vessels, not of the Iranian navy, but of the revolutionary guards involved in this. They're protecting their interest, which could be partially smuggling. There was some word initially that they thought that this dow (ph), you know, it's really a wooden sailing vessel, but it's motorized, was carrying stolen cars.

ALTERMAN: There could be any number of things. There's a lot of oil smuggling that goes on in that region, again as a way that the revolutionary guard corps supports itself economically. They have an interest in continuing the flow back and forth.

It's not only between Iran and Iraq. There's also a lot of smuggling that goes on across the Gulf. Dubai is a center of smuggling. And as one of the heads of the Dubai ports several years ago told a friend of mine, you have to understand that in Dubai there are two kinds of smuggling, there's legal smuggling and illegal smuggling. There's a whole bunch going back and forth and it's very hard to tell who's responsible. The danger, as I say, is that the revolutionary guard corps doesn't respond to this same chain of command as the regular Iranian military, and the odds of miscalculation are very high.

CLANCY: This is a very important point that you make there. And I think you should explain it a little bit. I think a lot of people have the impression that if the Iranian leadership orders the revolutionary guard to do something, snap your fingers and they will do it. Not necessarily the case, is it?

ALTERMAN: Well, and there's also the problem of what constitutes the Iranian leadership. You have a lot of different kinds of opinions in the Iranian government. You have the role of the president, who really doesn't determine national security policy. You have a whole series of clerical bodies presided over by the leader, Ali-Hamed Imam (ph), the ayatollah.

How the chain of command works and how orders are given and how decisions are made, is not clear as far as I can tell, even to Iranians. Iran doesn't have any of the clarity of decision making, the clarity of the chain of command that the U.S. has. Instead, there's so much ambiguity that allows a broader coalition to stay in power. But when it comes down to issues of force, to issues of war, it's not clear that anybody in the leadership really has the ability to move pieces around the way you have on the U.S. side.

CLANCY: All right. One final question, then. That it has to do with Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, hoping to get to the U.N. Security Council this week and argue the care not for sanctions to be imposed, more sanctions on his country. What's the likelihood he's going to be pushing to get these 15 British sailors and marines released as soon as possible?

ALTERMAN: My guess is, behind the scenes, he's totally out of the loop. What he is hoping for is that this lasts a matter of days, and not weeks. What we've seen in the past is that this is the kind of thing that lasts days, not weeks, and then we move on.

CLANCY: All right. Let's hope so. Talking there with Jon Alterman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. As always, Jon, thanks for being with us.

ALTERMAN: It was great to see you, Jim. Thank you.

GORANI: All right. There we hear with Jim and Jon Alterman, their discussion about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's potential trip to the United Nations. Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, has more on that.

We understand the Iranian president and his entourage have a visa, but other visa requests are out. What's the latest on that?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the U.S. mission to the U.N. says the second batch of visas for extra security and extra personnel is being handed over, about now, in Barron (ph), Switzerland. The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations is sitting poised in the delegates lounge, waiting for a call for confirmation, waiting for word on the president's trip.

Now, of course, the Security Council is also still consulting about when this vote on a resolution will be. When that decision is made, that's probably when you're going to see President Ahmadinejad show up at Kennedy Airport in New York.

Now, what's the impact of the sailors being seized, the British sailors? Earlier I asked two Security Council permanent members for their reaction, if there was any impact.

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JEAN-MARC DE LA SABLIERE, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: You know, I don't think that this will have a direct impact. Certainly it's -- you know, we are very, very much concerned.

QUESTION: Does the incident with the British, though, not complication the whole picture?

WANG GUANGYA, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: I hope not, yes, because it all depends on how the two governments handle this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Now the ambassador from Qatar just a few moments ago told me that there will be more consultations in three to four hours from now. So people thought they might decide right now on when the vote will be. We're still going to have to wait for even more hours, which probably means that the vote is indeed Saturday. It will be late Saturday to allow for the arrival of the Iranian president and other matters. They're discussing disagreements among council members on a nuclear free zone in the Middle East, which the U.S. and others say should have no place in this resolution, though Russia says it has a new idea on that to sell.

All high drama for the United Nations this week here and in Baghdad, where the U.N. secretary-general got a surprise when he made a surprise visit yesterday to Baghdad.

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ROTH, (voice over): That explosion welcomed Mr. Ban to Baghdad. The U.N. secretary-general was visibly shaken by the close call. This time the U.N. was lucky. In 2003, a larger suicide bomber attack on the U.N. compound in Baghdad killed more than 20 U.N. staff, including one of the leading diplomats in the U.N. system, Sergio Vieira de Mello. That bombing forced a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the U.N. and effected how the U.N. operates around the globe. Thursday's close call reminded the U.N. family that Iraq is still a very dangerous place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sad thing about Iraq, the first thing that it did, it just brought the memories of the friends that we lost there.

ROTH: It's been a love-hate relationship between Iraq and the U.N. Since the Security Council failed to stop the war, some in Iraq take their anger out on U.N. personnel. The U.N. has since helped coordinate elections and provide other aid, but there are only 84 U.N. staff members in Iraq, along with hundreds of U.N. protection troops. And with explosions like the one that shook the new U.N. secretary- general, that likely won't change any time soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, you probably watching more television than I. So, I mean, they would provide an answer to you. I mean the main constraint is the security situation.

ROTH: And it's still an American show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason that the U.N. has not been involved, is they haven't been asked to do so. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: That's Professor Thomas Weise (ph) of City University. So everyone here waiting for the Iranian president. The secretary- general will not be here. He will continue his travels in the Middle East. The U.N. says it wants a wider commit in Baghdad. But due to security problems, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Back to you.

GORANI: Richard Roth at the U.N.

Jim, some developments from Washington?

CLANCY: That's right. Up on Capitol Hill, the House very nearly voting its approval for a $100 million military spending bill. But the important thing here is that attached to that bill is a writer that calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by September 2008. We have word it just passed. Let's see if we can bring you some live pictures of what's going on down there.

All right. You're looking at that. Andrea Koppel is there on Capitol Hill.

Andrea, this has passed, and not unexpectedly.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you, not unexpectedly in the last 24 hours. Because, really, up until yesterday, up until Thursday, Democratic leaders were not sure they had the votes, Jim. And I was told if they didn't believe they had the votes, they weren't going to binge this bill to a vote today.

It has -- the vote count is still going on. We know that it has 218. It may have even gone up since the last minute. Which, we can tell, in fact, Speaker Pelosi is on the floor making the announce. :et's listen in.

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The bill is passed without objection. A motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

KOPPEL: This would have been a huge setback for Speaker Pelosi if it had not passed, Jim. She put tremendous amounts of energy in this, lots of behind the door arm twisting on members. They added $21 billion worth of sweeteners. What Republicans say is unnecessary pork, but Democrats maintain that these were equally emergencies that needed to be dealt with, whether we're talking about money for Hurricane Katrina or for the Walter Reed cleanup. Nevertheless, it did have that sentence in this bill, as you pointed out, for is very first time, binding legislation which sets the date of August 31st, 2008, by which all U.S. combat troops have to be out.

Now, of course, this has to go over to the Senate, which could debate and vote on this as soon as next week before it would go to the president's desk. Nevertheless, it is significant that Nancy Pelosi got a big victory here in getting across the finish line with the -- at least 218 votes needed to get this pass through. Jim.

CLANCY: But, Andrea, as we look at this, yes, it's significant in the career of Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat now speaker of the House, first woman, all of that significant. President Bush is going to put a big fat veto stamp on this and they don't have two-thirds of the votes to come back against it. So this is never becoming law, is it?

KOPPEL: Well, it's even more than that, Jim. Even though it has now passed the House and, in fact, the former speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert, just passing behind me. I'm right off the House floor. No one expects this to pass the Senate next week. That's not saying it can't happen. But they need 60 votes in order to get that through. And, remember, just a couple of weeks ago, Senate Democrats were unable to even get the votes necessary to pass a non-binding, mostly symbolic resolution opposing this troop buildup. So the idea that you would be able to pass a bill that would have a date certain in there for all U.S. combat troops to leave is highly, highly unlikely and would be a huge, huge rock to push up that hill.

CLANCY: Andrea Koppel there on Capitol Hill. As always, Andrea, thank you very much.

GORANI: Well, we're going to shift gears, as we say. He became a world wide media darling after an animal rights activist said he was better off dead than being raised by humans. And little Knut is still causing quite a stir.

CLANCY: Take a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are crews here from Pakistan, from South Africa, from Australia, all here to photograph the most famous bear alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: We've got the pictures, as Germany's unofficial polar bear mascot makes his indisputable adorable public debut. It's all coming up straight ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY.

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TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And some breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM this hour. A couple of pieces of information we want to share with you at this time.

First, at the White House, you see the White House briefing there in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. And a big of a gaggle going on now with reporters. We understand that White House Spokesman Tony Snow is taking part in that.

But we are learning here at CNN that the White House press secretary, Tony Snow, has a small growth in his abdomen. No further information or details available at this time. But we are just learning just moments ago that the White House press secretary has a small growth in his abdomen and that surgery on that growth is scheduled for Monday.

And we will get more information at the top of the hour. I believe the White House briefing may be starting at 1:00, or certainly in the 1:00 hour. So we will certainly get more information on the condition of White House Spokesman Tony Snow.

And also, just an additional note, also from the White House, we're learning that President Bush will make some comments on the House passage of the supplemental funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. this afternoon. Just about, oh, a little under an hour from now.

So let me just sort of recap what we have. Just in the last 10 minutes.

First of all, White House Spokesman Tony Snow announcing that a small growth has been discovered in his abdomen and that surgery is scheduled to remove that growth on Monday.

And also, at 1:45 p.m., just a little under an hour from now, President Bush will have some comments on the House passage of the supplemental funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More details on all of this coming up at the top of the hour with Don Lemon and Brianna Keilar. That's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern here in the NEWSROOM.

Right now, let's get you back to YOUR WORLD TODAY.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNA (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): And there are crews here from Pakistan, from South Africa, from Australia, all here to photograph the most famous bear alive.

Knut has his own video podcast and the Berlin Zoo has big plans for him.

ANDRE SHUELE, BERLIN ZOO VETERINARIAN: When he's one to two years old, and he gains a lot of weight and size, then we will move him to another zoo where he gets the chance to meet a female and, yes, to make more small Knuts.

MAGNA: The zoo's director says he hopes Knut's star status will draw attention to the dangers of climate change and the melting of the ice on which the polar bears live.

BERNHARD BLASZKIEWITZ, BERLIN ZOO DIRECTOR: Knut should be a symbol for the real problems we have with the global warming and (INAUDIBLE) destroying of the habitats, especially in the northern parts of (INAUDIBLE).

MAGNA: For Knut, the North Pole's a million miles away. He's basking in the attention and taking fame in his stride. Diana Magna, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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CLANCY: All right. Time to take a little bit of a lighter look at the news. Hala and I don't intentionally try to be funny when we're reporting here, but other people do. And the tug of war between Congress and the White House over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, main topic for late night comedians, Hala.

GORANI: Well, here is a preview of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, "The Global Edition," that airs this weekend on CNN International.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": A flat-out denial from Gonzales. You know, in the good old days, that would have been the end of the story. The Republican Congress would have said, huh? What? You didn't? OK. And gone back to, say, building bridges in Alaska to save Terry Schiavo from gay flag burners.

But now, the opposition party controls Congress, and they can perform a very complicated legal maneuver, known as asking for things. Like all the internal e-mails about the matter. Among them, this one, where, quote -- where the man who did the firing admits he'd never even looked at the performance of one of the men that he fired. Another e-mail relating Karl Rove's desire to remove up to 20 percent of U.S. attorneys who are not "loyal Bushies." And this e-mail that says, "let's fire U.S. attorneys for purely political reasons and make sure we keep all the e-mails. PS, I am cheating on my wife with an underaged boy. PPS, seriously, don't delete this."

Yes. Some people, they don't know the power of the e-mail. And I'm sure there's an emoticon that goes with, I am cheating on my wife with an underage boy. Some version of a frowning face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Well, there you have it.

GORANI: Well, viewers in Europe and Asia can check out "The Daily Show" global edition with Jon Stewart this weekend.

CLANCY: It airs exclusively here on CNN International, 15:30 GMT. That's 2100 hours if you're watching in New Delhi.

GORANI: All right. That's it for this hour. I'm Hala Gorani.

CLANCY: I'm Jim Clancy. The news continues here on CNN.

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