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Your World Today
Nigerian Kidnappers Hold Three-Year Old Child; Parents Involved In Negotiations For Her Return. Pakistan's Musharraf Actually Has A Long-Standing Legal, Political Crisis That Pales In Comparison To Current Siege At Red Mosque
Aired July 06, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN ANCHOR: A nightmare in Nigeria. The parents of a three year old British girl grapple with kidnappers' demands.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Is passenger safety on the line? A number of Chinese pilots struggling to meet an international aviation standard.
VASSILEVA: Concerts on every continent, a music marathon puts the spotlights on solutions for climate change.
FRAZIER: Out of 21 candidates, seven make the cut. The few hours remain now in the global contest to name the new seven wonders of the world.
VASSILEVA: It is midnight in Beijing, 5:00 p.m. in (INAUDIBLE) Nigeria. Welcome to our report broadcast around the world. I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.
FRAZIER: I'm Stephen Frazier and this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
VASSILEVA: Just three years old, the little girl was snatched through a shattered window, leaving behind parents sick with grief.
FRAZIER: We're going to begin with this kidnapping case in a region that is rife with this sort of crime, but they rarely see this kind of target.
VASSILEVA: That's right, gunmen seized a British girl in Port Hartcourt Nigeria's main oil center in the swampy delta region.
FRAZIER: Her mother says the kidnappers have now offered to exchange the girl for her father, but police are advising against this. Asha Sasay has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHA SASAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 3-year-old British girl kidnapped in Nigeria's restive Niger delta. According to local police, Margaret Hill was snatched by gunmen who smashed the windows of a car carrying her to school in Port Hartcourt on Thursday. The little girl is the first foreign child to be seized in the oil rich region, that has seen kidnapping become commonplace. Her family is in shock. CATHY DUFFY, MARGARET'S AUNT: Absolutely dreadful. Dreadful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How and when did you hear what happened?
DUFFY: Yesterday morning her father phoned from Nigeria to let us know what had happened to Margaret on the way to school. I just couldn't believe it at all.
SESAY: Margaret's father, Mike Hill, is a British national and long-time resident of Nigeria. The child's mother Alucci is a Nigerian national. Right now it's unclear who's responsible for the kidnapping. There are reports the hostage takers are giving Margaret bread and water but threatening to kill the 3-year-old unless her father agrees to take her place. The British government is said to be working to secure Margaret's freedom while the foreign office has called for her immediate safe release, a call echoed by other Port Hartcourt residents.
HAJARA OTARU, STUDENT: Very sad, a little girl has been kidnapped from this country of ours. I want the girl to be released so that her parents will be very relieved.
SESAY: Margaret's kidnapping follows that of five oil workers on Wednesday. The Niger delta has become increasingly lawless since 2005. While the region sits on top of the nation's oil wells, there is widespread poverty. Armed gangs and militant groups are known to operate in the area.
Groups such as MEND, the movement for emancipation of the Niger delta have launched attacks and kidnappings, calling for a more equitable distribution of the region's oil wealth. MEND have recently ended a month-long ceasefire but deny any involvement in the kidnapping of Margaret. A spokesman for the group says they will quote, "join in the hunt for the monsters who carried out this abduction." Scores of foreign workers have been taken since the beginning of this year, but the abduction of children is rare. Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom has been paid. Leaving Margaret Hill's parents waiting and hoping that their little girl will return home safely, soon. Asha Sasey, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: The kidnapping has focused the world's attention to the unrest in Nigeria.
FRAZIER: Actually the situation there has been simmering for years and at the heart of the problem, oil. Rebels say the government and foreign oil companies are getting rich while the people of this oil rich delta region live in poverty.
VASSILEVA: Criminal activity has cut production by Africa's biggest oil producer by a quarter.
FRAZIER: More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Nigeria since 2005, half of them in this year alone. VASSILEVA: Most are released after a ransom is paid. Lending support to the government's accusations that the delta rebels are really nothing more than common criminals.
Since the delta region is so profitable and so vital to Nigeria's economic stability, why don't police guard it more heavily? We put that question to a security analyst earlier on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O.B. SISAY, EXCLUSIVE ANALYSIS LTD.: The Nigerian government has made efforts, it's had task forces trying to stem the violence. But the nature of the delta, it's a swamp region, it's very difficult to raid. The militants are locals. They know the terrain a lot better than you'd expect than the army would, so it's quite difficult to sort of go through that terrain and completely secure it.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: He also says that the delta region is extremely dangerous for all foreigners, not just those in the oil industry.
FRAZIER: Now to Pakistan where smoldering internal ideological divisions are actually becoming explosive now. There are reports that Pakistani President Musharraf's airplane was fired upon as it was taking off from an airbase near Islamabad. And with the volatile standoff at Islamabad's red mosque in its fourth day now, intelligence sources say two students who were trying to surrender were shot dead by radical Islamist students. The top cleric who's holed up inside says he and his followers are prepared to become martyrs. So far the government seems to be holding off though on an all-ought assault. Still both sides are dug into their positions. The government says the time for talking has now passed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARIQ AZIM, PAKISTANI DEPUTY INFORMATINO MIN.: It has been our policy that this matter should be resolved amicably through dialogue. But unfortunately, this did not bring the required results so there will be no more dialogue. It has to be an absolutely total surrender, unconditional total surrender.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: The mosque siege that began on Tuesday was actually months in the making. The radicals inside have continued raising the stakes under the eyes of Pakistan's leadership. Now that leadership is under increasing pressure to do something about the situation. CNN's Tom Foreman has a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A showdown in the capital of Pakistan. Paramilitary forces close in on a mosque. Some suspects are captured. Some are killed and some still remain inside. How did it come to this? MAHMUD DURRANI, PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: It was a big embarrassment, but the government, in spite of the embarrassment, was trying to avoid collateral damage.
FOREMAN: Islamic students were demanding Taliban-style Islamic law in the city, trying to force the issue by, among other things, kidnapping women they accuse of being prostitutes. The government says the leaders are Taliban sympathizers, maybe even directly connected to the Taliban. How did Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf get into this jam?
TERESITA SCHAEFFER, CTR. FOR STRATEGIC & INTL. STUDIES: Certainly for the past three months he's been very much weakened by some other developments taking place in Pakistan, and I think this has inhibited his ability to take action.
FOREMAN: The head cleric of the mosque says most of the activists were students from a religious school.
ROBERT TEMPLER, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: For the past several decades Pakistani governments and particularly military governments have been very indulgent towards these sorts of madrassas and mosques. The madrassas are particularly (INAUDIBLE) extremely important to extremism in this country, but it's a very small number of madrassas that are the key extremist ones.
FOREMAN: Madrassas came under international scrutiny in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, amid concerns that they were training children to become militants.
DURRANI: The bad madrassas are few. The government has launched a major campaign to get hold of all the bad madrassas. They are trying to reform all the madrassas with their reason that they should get some modern education, too, besides religion so that people who come out of madrassas have open minds.
FOREMAN: Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: You can follow the latest developments from the standoff in Pakistan from our enhanced website. There's also a gallery of key moments captured in photos. It's also designed to let you decide how you get the news. Find it all at cnn.com/international.
FRAZIER: To Washington now where it appears that the political party of U.S. President George W. Bush is increasingly running out of patience with his strategy for the war in Iraq. Another senior Republican lawmaker is demanding a change of course now. Long-time Senator Pete Domenici is the third high-ranking Republican to break ranks over the past two weeks. He very quietly changed his policy the day before the Fourth of July. Domenici says he wants U.S. troops home in less than a year's time now, but military leaders disagree, they say a pullout would be disastrous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. RICK LYNCH, U.S. ARMY: Those surge forces are giving us the capability we have now to take the fight to the enemy. The enemy only responds to force and we now have that force. We can conduct detailed kinetic strikes, we can do cordoned searches, and we can deny the enemy sanctuaries. If those surge forces go away, that capability goes away and the Iraqi Security Forces aren't ready yet to do that. So now what you're going to find if you did that is you'd find the enemy regaining ground, reestablishing sanctuary, building more IEDs, carrying those IEDs in Baghdad and the violence would escalate. It would be a mess.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
FRAZIER: The White House says the surge, as it calls it, of U.S. troops has only recently reached full strength now and should be given more time to show results.
VASSILEVA: Men and women who join the military in any nation do so knowing that they might never come home again. But for ordinary people caught in the crossfire of battle living with the horrors and pains of war can be especially wrenching. Hala Gorani has one girl's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was Zainib (INAUDIBLE) before the attack. This is her today. The human face of the victims of violence in Iraq. Overshadowed by the apparently endless body count, it is the forgotten figure, Iraq's injured and maimed. So far in 2007, according to government figures, almost 13,000 people have survived car bombs, mortars and rockets, but their lives have been forever altered. Zainib who is now 18 says her house was attacked last December.
They took me to the hospital and I fainted. When I woke up, my legs were gone she says.
GORANI: She waits for an appointment at Baghdad's artificial limb center, one of two public facilities for amputees in the Iraqi capital. Zainib winces in pain as a doctor measures her strength and says she still has to wait at least a month before she can be fitted with prosthetic limbs. We follow Zainib to her house in eastern Baghdad's (INAUDIBLE) neighborhood where she said the attack that left her badly injured also killed her sister and sister in law. At first, she says, she isn't scared that she is strong. But then -- I can't go out. I can't. What can I do? I remember that my family was all there and in one moment I was in the ambulance back to the house after a month and a half I came home and my family was gone.
According to Iraq's ministry of interior, one-quarter of all injuries from the violence in Iraq involves the loss of at least one limb. The head of this center says it can make 1200 artificial limbs a year. Half the number needed to help amputees. For Zainib and thousands of Iraqis like her, getting new legs will only be the beginning of a lifelong recovery. Hala Gorani, CNN, Baghdad. (END OF VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Our international viewers can see more of Hala Gorani when she hosts "Inside the Middle East," this month from Baghdad. That's Saturday 7:30 GMT or the times on your TV screen.
FRAZIER: A little break for us now, but when we come back, aviation and communication.
VASSILEVA: The two don't always go hand in hand. We'll find out how some Chinese pilots' lack of English skills can lead to some pretty dangerous situations.
FRAZIER: And 150 performing acts around the world, getting ready to rock out for Al Gore and a cleaner world. We'll have a preview of Saturday's live earth concerts.
And then a little later --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like the struggle of my life, you know I was working as hard as I possibly could.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VASSILEVA: We'll hear what it feels like to get sucked halfway out of an airplane at altitude and actually live to tell the tale.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VASSILEVA: Welcome back to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
FRAZIER: We are covering the news that the world wants to know and we're giving you some perspective that goes a little deeper into the stories of the day.
Including this one about Chinese pilots. There are 8600 Chinese pilots flying commercially internationally now. So how many speak English, the international language of air traffic control?
VASSILEVA: The answer is not nearly enough, that's according to some experts and they say it's putting passenger safety at risk. CNN's John Vause has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Air China flight 981 from Beijing touched down at New York's JFK airport this past April, there was clearly a major communication problem between pilot and tower.
TOWER: Make the right turn here at Juliet join Alpha hold short of Mike Alpha, Air China 9-81.
PILOT: Air China join right... err... Julia join Alpha err hold (UNINTELLIGIBLE) November.
TOWER: Ok, I'll say it again.
VAUSE: Three times the tower gave instructions, but that wasn't the end of the confusion.
TOWER: Air China 9-81, have they cleared you into the ramp?
PILOT: Roger, err (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
TOWER: Have you been cleared into the ramp?
PILOT: Ok, going to the ramp.
TOWER: No! That was a question. Have the ramp people cleared you into the gate?
PILOT: Roger to the gate, Air China 9-81.
TOWER: I'll try it again, it's a question. Hold your position. This is a question, have you been cleared into your gate?
PILOT: Ok, we hold here.
VAUSE: Frustrated, the controller adds.
TOWER: Nobody seems to speak English here today.
BARRETT BYRNES, CONTROL TOWER OPERATOR: Is it something that happens every day? The little things happen every day, but the major problems that they are to cause yet another aviation disaster.
VAUSE: Barrett Byrnes from the JFK control tower testified before congress seven years ago, warning that pilots with poor English posed a serious problem. And he says they still do today.
BYRNES: For nothing to have happened between now and then is a sin.
VAUSE: Air China admits there was an incident with flight 981 but blames the control tower.
XU XIUKAI, AIR CHINA ENGLISH TRAINING: He didn't use the standard RKO language. That's why the pilot didn't catch the actual meaning.
VAUSE: Even so, the airline says the pilot was sent to special English classes like this one. By March next year, all pilots flying internationally will be required to pass a verbal English test. Huo Youlin a pilot for more than 20 years just passed that exam.
Have you ever had trouble talking to the tower?
HUO YOULIN, PILOT: Yeah. We flew to American, Europe.. just pilots... usually speak English.
VAUSE: Of the 8,000 Chinese pilots who fly internationally, less than 800 have taken English tests, just over 600 have passed.
(on camera): Air China says many older pilots will struggle to meet the new English requirements, and the airline expects at least 5 percent will fail the exam. But in the meantime, those pilots continue to fly. John Vause, CNN, Beijing.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
FRAZIER: Well, it doesn't take any imagination to realize it is vital that pilots and controllers communicate effectively quickly.
VASSILEVA: It will become even more of an issue in the future. Under the terms of a new agreement reached last month, the number of daily flights between China and the U.S. will double by the year 2012.
FRAZIER: All of the Chinese airline pilots who fly overseas are going to have to pass that English competency exam that John mentioned by March of next year.
VASSILEVA: China's civil aviation authority says some pilots are resisting the change, especially ex-military pilots who speak little or no English.
FRAZIER: As John just reported, only 651 pilots have managed to pass the exam. That leaves only 8,000 still to go.
VASSILEVA: It's not even noon yet in the western U.S. and they're already feeling the heat of yet another scorching day.
FRAZIER: Still ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY, as the temperatures reach record and deadly highs now, a child has died in Idaho. We'll check to see how people in the region are trying to stay cool.
VASSILEVA: Also ahead -- the stage is set for the live earth concerts. We will look at whether this worldwide event will go over as just another music venue or will it really impact policy on global warming.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN Center in Atlanta. More of YOUR WORLD TODAY in just a few minutes, but first a quick check on stories making headlines here in the U.S. Deadly heat in Idaho. Police say a boy about 15 months old was found dead inside a locked car during a blazing heat wave. A woman arrested at the scene while she's charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony injury to a child. Our affiliate KXLY reports the woman is the boy's step-grandmother. The mercury in Boise, Idaho soared to 104 Thursday, breaking the city's previous record. It's expected to be even hotter today.
The next few days, won't be much better. Triple-digit temps are expected to stick around for up to a week.
In Texas, dismal deja vu, more heavy rain drenching the eastern part of that state. This is video from Tyler just east of Dallas, widespread flooding, roads, some structures under water. The area was already saturated from weeks of downpours. Storms have been pounding Texas since late May. Thirteen people have died in the flooding, four others still missing, including a 6-year-old boy swept into the Gulf of Mexico. A thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, rivers and creeks filled to the brim are threatening to spill over again.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLILPS: A new report of possible trouble for Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. CNN affiliate WAVY says that these pictures show federal agents searching Vick's property in Suri County, Virginia. The station quotes sources as saying the agents are looking for possible animal remains. Vick has been under investigation for an alleged dog fighting ring on that property. He has denied any links to that illegal sport.
A federal investigation is launched into threats against a well- known investment firm. The FBI tells CNN at least nine newspapers have received vague threats against Goldman Sachs. Each handwritten note says quote, "Goldman Sachs, hundreds will die. We are inside. You cannot stop us." We're told the notes are signed A.Q.U.S.A. More than 3,000 Goldman Sachs employees work in Jersey City in the state's tallest building. Goldman Sachs had this to say. "We take any threat to the safety of our people very seriously and we're working closely with the law enforcement authorities, who tell us they don't believe the threat to be very credible."
Disturbing new allegations, U.S. marines accused of killing civilians in Iraq. It allegedly took place during the U.S. siege on Fallujah in November 2004. According to several Pentagon officials, a former marine says his comrades gunned down their eight civilian prisoners. The allegations surfaced when the former marine applied for a job with the U.S. Secret Service and received a routine polygraph test given to job applicants.
Alabama surprise, Orange Beach police say that the driver of this red car led them on a chase, speeds topping 100 miles an hour. It ended with the car crashing and rolling. The driver? An 11-year- old girl. And there's more -- police say she was driving under the influence. The girl faces a long list of charges, including DUI.
A 3-year-old British girl taken hostage in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Now the girl's parents are pleading with Nigerian militants for the safe return of their daughter. There have been numerous kidnappings and attacks in that area. This is reportedly the first kidnapping of a foreign child. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, we're going to talk with former military intelligence officer Ken Robinson about this kind of hostage scenario. What are officials able to do? That story and much more ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM at 1:00 eastern.
Brides and grooms lined up in Las Vegas hoping to get lucky. Tomorrow is the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year, some believe it's the luckiest day of the century. Possibly the busiest day of the year for weddings. Tens of thousands of people trying to tie the knot. Among them, "Desperate Housewives" Eva Longoria and basketball player Tony Parker, with a wedding in France.
Meantime, YOUR WORLD TODAY continues after a quick break. I'm Kyra Phillips, see you at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FRAZIER: Welcome back to all of our viewers joining us from more than 200 countries and territories around the globe, including United States. This is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Steven Frazier.
VASSILEVA: And I'm Ralitsa Vassileva. Here are some of the top stories we're following for you today.
The parents of a young girl abducted in Nigeria are involved in intense negotiations with her kidnappers. On Friday the captors offered to exchange the three-year-old Margaret Hill, for her father. British-born Mike Hill said he was willing but Nigerian authorities discouraged the idea. The toddler was snatched from a car while being driven to school Thursday in (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
FRAZIER: In Washington, another senior Republican lawmaker is now calling on the U.S. president to change course in Iraq. Senator Pete Domenici was once a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war. Now he says he wants U.S. troops heading home by next spring. U.S. military leaders say a troop withdrawal would cause serious setbacks.
VASSILEVA: Pakistani officials are investigating what may have been an assassination attempt against President Musharraf. They say shots were fired from a rooftop around the time his plane left a nearby military base.
And in Islamabad, the top cleric hold up in a hard-line mosque says he and his followers would rather die than surrender to the government. Intelligence sources say two students tried to surrender, but were shot dead by radical students.
This standoff in Islamabad has been the focus of Pakistan over the past few days. That mysterious shooting incident of the students, and the continuing e terror attacks elsewhere in the country are making a lot of news as well. But there is another much larger problem for General Musharraf about his very legitimacy and his ability to remain his country's leader. Jonathan Mann has some insight.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT: The siege of the Red Mosque could drag on for days or a few more weeks. President Musharraf has been very cautious about forcing it to end. Maybe because he'll have is to face a bigger problem after the impasse is over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENZIR BHUTTO, FMR. PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: We need a military that takes pride in serving the country, not a military that takes pride in running the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MANN: President Musharraf does double duty. He seized power in a coup and keeps it in two ways. He is both the uniformed army's chief of staff and Pakistan's civilian head of state. Before the mess at the Islamabad mosque, there's been much bigger trouble over that. It isn't a lone mullah that's causing the trouble, it is the Pakistani constitution, and the chief justice of the supreme court.
The Justice Iftakar Chowdri (ph) might have forced Musharraf to give up one of his two jobs, but Musharraf essentially fired the justice first. That did not go over well with the Pakistani public.
Even though Musharraf had a 54 percent approval rating back in March when the trouble started, only 30 percent of Pakistanis thought he should keep both of his jobs. There were riots in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, that killed 34 people, the worst political violence in years; and worse, we should note, than what we've been seeing at the Red Mosque these days.
Karachi got riots, there have been protests in Lahore (ph), Quetta (ph), and Islamabad, too. But look at the people involved, and look at what they're wearing, not the traditional clothing or beards, favored by Islamists, but suits and ties of the clean-shaven middle class. Lawyers and judges, in particular, who have come out to demand the rule of law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COHEN, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: The judicial crisis is particularly important because it undercut Musharraf's moral authority. Whatever moral authority he had in Pakistan was certainly damaged by the fact that the judges came out, the lawyers came out, along with the Islamists, along with, essentially many Pakistanis and Pakistanis of the middle class.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: The irony here is that the general faces two kinds of opposition, the Islamists demanding Koranic law, the secularists demanding constitutional law. In both cases, the president stands increasingly isolated, a leader, really, at odds with the law.
FRAZIER: So what does he do with that?
MANN: Well, he could give up, which he's not going to do, or he can hang on. He took power as a soldier, he's kept it as a civilian, and a soldier, at the same time. But he wants to really be a democratically elected leader. He has organized his election in the past, he faces another election before the end of the year. So, he's going to seek reelection, as president. He may have to give up his uniform to do that.
That's what this debate is all about. And right now there are intense negotiations and all kinds of speculation about how he'll do it. But he wants to stay there and he wants to stay in some kind of democratic guise. So look for all kinds of things to be talked about and to be attempted, just so he can hang on. FRAZIER: Well, we'll need you to keep us up to date with all of those.
MANN: I will.
FRAZIER: Jon Mann, thank you.
VASSILEVA: Nine cities, seven continents, and more than 150 acts. Those are the makings of Saturday's Live Earth Concerts, which promoter and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore calls the world's largest entertainment event.
The aim? Raising awareness about climate change. Monita Rajpal has a preview from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Lights, camera, environmental action; 2 billion people worldwide are expected to watch rock stars unite to highlight the dangers of climate change. Every continent, even Antarctica, will sing from the same song sheet.
The London leg plays host to Madonna, the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chile Peppers. Al Gore was one of the project's founders.
AL GORE, FMR. LIVE EARTH FOUNDER: These Live Earth Concerts, all around the world, the largest entertainment event in the history of the world, are designed to promote awareness of the crisis and, more importantly, specific awareness of the solutions, and how we can solve it.
RAJPAL: Some environmentalists, though, remain skeptical about it's impact.
ISA FREMEAUX, CAMP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Once people are aware, that our climate change is a great threat, then what?
RAJPAL: The organizer of Live Earth, who also produced Live Aid, feels these concerts could trigger global change.
KEVIN WALL, PRODUCER, LIVE EARTH: It happened with the civil rights movement. It happened with the apartheid movement. Yes, we could apply it to climate change. We can -- music has an emotion. If we can transfer that emotion to a message, we'll move the audience for months, and for years.
RAJPAL: Reaching this stage hasn't been easy. Rio's concert was almost abandoned. The Istanbul gig was dropped following security fears and a lack of interest. Ticket sales have been slow for most shows.
And there are other concerns.
FREMEAUX: I'm very worried about the amount of carbon that is going to be released in organizing something of that scale. RAJPAL: Enter John Rego, head of the Live Earth global green team. He insists the event can be environmentally sound. At one unnamed venue, the temperature will be raised to reduce air conditioning. Rego monitors every fixture.
JOHN REGO, LIVE EARTH GLOBAL GREEN TEAM: These light bulbs use 50 percent to 70 percent less energy than your typical light bulb.
RAJPAL: Ensuring the message is in the machinery.
REGO: The whole backdrop is actually made from recycled oil drums.
RAJPAL: And nothing goes to waste.
REGO: The recycling signs are here, and the Live Earth message there, is important.
RAJPAL: While still running smoothly.
REGO: This is your pure, neat, biodiesel.
RAJPAL: Live Earth will be beamed around the world for 24 hours, but solving the environmental crises will take much longer. Monita Rajpal, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRAZIER: But will this 24-hour global music-fest raise enough cash or enough awareness to make a difference in the long run? Or will it be, as a lot of critics are warning, just a spectacle. Jason Carroll has more from a Live Earth venue just outside New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGERS) Just like a dream --
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Live Earth, a 24- hour concert, 100 acts in cities across the globe.
AL GORE, FOUNDER, LIVE EARTH: That's global warming.
CARROLL: Former Vice President Al Gore developed the idea to help protect the planet. Over the past few decades there have been several global concerts with different causes, all with the same basic goal -- raise money -- not this time.
GORE: It's actually not designed to raise money. It's designed to raise awareness and to spread word about the solution.
CARROLL: Organizers won't put a dollar amount on expected money raised. Profit will go to Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit he founded to help reduce global warming. Gore hopes the music will inspire people to go to the Live Earth website and follow the seven-point pledge, which includes fighting pollution, and planting new trees. Critics say Live Earth's goals are too vague. EVAN SERPICK, "ROLLING STONE": I think it is pretty ambiguous. They could have done a much better job, much earlier on, being very clear about hard goals.
CARROLL: Bob Geldof, the man behind two global concerts for poverty is quoted as calling Live Earth, a "a hollow spectacle". But even with profits, getting the money to those in need can be challenging. In 2005, Live Aid hoped to influence world leaders to commit more money to poverty. Those leaders committed $50 billion by 2010. But at least one watchdog group says they're not on track.
On the other hand, Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, to date, has raised $15 million. According to UNICEF, 87 cents of every dollar went to children in Bangladesh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Concerts really do make a difference.
CARROLL (on camera): Performers such as Alisha Keyes (ph), Kelly Clarkson, The Police, and Bon Jovi will all here at Giants stadium to perform. We're told that all of the performers are lending their talents free of charge. Jason Carroll, CNN, East Rutherford, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: It all began as just another day of work. as a critical care nurse with air an ambulance company, Chris Fogg was really used to transporting patients.
FRAZIER: On this day, as they were cruising, though, at 20,000 feet, disaster struck. The window next to him exploded, and that caused a drastic change in pressure that sucked him out of the window head first. As that graphic, there, shows.
VASSILEVA: As you can see, with half his body outside the aircraft, he fought desperately to fight from the intense suction. Fogg told CNN's John Roberts, it was one of the scariest moments of his life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS FOGG, AIR AMBULANCE NURSE: The window immediately to my right just exploded and --
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Just for no reason? You didn't touch it?
FOGG: Nothing. Just sitting there, it just blew up. I was immediately sucked out of the plane to my right. My head and my right arm went right out the window.
ROBERTS: So the only thing left in were your legs, the lower part of your torso, your left arm.
FOGG: Yeah.
ROBERTS: Did you even realize what had happened at that point?
FOGG: No. It was so fast, it really just pulled me right out. I didn't even -- you didn't know, you didn't know anything until I was outside. But it shook me up quite a bit.
ROBERTS: I would expect it would.
FOGG: Yeah.
ROBERTS: Did you have any sense of where you were?
FOGG: Well, when I -- I -- my head was forced down to my chest, and I did see the tail of the plane pretty clearly. Then my headset that I was wearing was hitting the side of the plane. It was like the struggle of my life, you know. I was working as hard as I possibly could. I was lucky that my left hand as a reflex went up to the ceiling to hold the wall, and my knees went against the wall. I was just pulling for all my might. I guess it just wasn't my day to die.
ROBERTS: So, how did you manage to work your way back inside the plane?
FOGG: I was just pulling and pulling and pulling. Finally my chest came away from the wall of the plane enough that more wind went by me and it broke the suction that was pulling me out. And with all of the energy I just fell right back into the plane.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRAZIER: And after all of that, it turns out, Fogg suffered cuts and bruises. He needed a lot of stitches to his head, but amazingly went back to work the very next day.
VASSILEVA: I hope he didn't have to fly.
A test of the Palestinian president's clout is under way right now in the West Bank.
VASSILEVA: Coming up on YOUR WORLD TODAY, we'll look at how Mahmoud Abbas is fairing.
(GUNFIRE)
FRAZIER: And time is running out for your chance to vote on what's being called the new Seven Wonders of the World. Coming up on YOUR WORLD TODAY, a look at the sites on the list of nominees.
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VASSILEVA: Welcome back. You're watching YOUR WORLD TODAY, here on CNN International.
FRAZIER: We're seen live in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe.
VASSILEVA: Well, now that Hamas controls Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to strengthen his hold on the West Bank. He has ordered militias to disband, including those loyal to him. But leaders of those militias are refusing to give up their arms because of Israel's stranglehold on the West Bank. Ben Wedeman has more.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Try to get around the West Bank, and you'll probably run into something like this.
A flying checkpoint, an impromptu Israeli army roadblock, holding up dozens of cars for security reasons, the army says.
"But there's no trouble here," says municipal worker Hassum Hannum (ph), "so why all these complications?"
Life in the West Bank is complicated, and often deadly. Last weekend Israeli forces killed a Muhammad Al Buhajah (ph), a militant with the Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, during a raid in the northern West Bank town of Jenneen (ph).
His comrades gave him a noisy sendoff. The West Bank, ruled by U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is supposed to serve as a model of good governance and prosperity, outshine Hamas in Gaza. But while Hamas has managed to restore law and order in Gaza, and Wednesday ended the almost four-month kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston, Abbas' rule is off to a rocky start.
He ordered that all militias, including the military wing of his own Fatah movement, the Aqsa Martyr's Brigade be dismantled. But it's an order few of the men nominally loyal to him are jumping to obey.
Zacharia Zubedi (ph) never goes anywhere without a bodyguard, a commander in Jenneen's Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, he's wanted by Israel for a series of attacks. I asked him if he's willing to give up his arms.
First, he said, "No." And then, "Maybe."
"If," he says, "I see Israel and the whole world are serious about solving the Palestinian problem through an international peace conference, by setting up an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Fatah's leader in Jeneen insists there will be no farewell to arms.
"The Aqsa Martyr's Brigades cannot be dissolved," says Atta Al Bulramayhi (ph), "as long as there's a Zionist occupation."
In Jenneen's refugee camp, Ahmed Albuhaja (ph) receives well wishers, come to pay respect for his son Muhammad, killed in the Israeli raid. He says Israel is doing little to help Mahmoud Abbas.
"Instead of leaving people alone," he says, "there are closures, clamp-downs, checkpoints around the cities. At night, there are incursions. They're not letting anyone relax."
And until they can relax, uneasy will rest Abbas' crown. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jenneen, on the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRAZIER: Coming up, a little change of pace. If you think the ancient wonders of the world are just a little too old now, hang on.
VASSILEVA: You have just a few hours to vote for a new list of Seven Wonders. The beautiful carved city of Petra, in Jordan, is among the finalists. More than about 20 final nominees are just ahead.
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FRAZIER: Well, it's a debate going on for centuries, especially in fraternity parties of Big 10 schools in the Midwest -- what should be included in the Seven Wonders of the World?
VASSILEVA: The earliest list was compiled about 200 B.C., now a Swiss Canadian adventurer has capture international attention by organizing an Internet voting contest for the new Seven Wonders.
FRAZIER: You have just a few hours left to cast your vote. Anyone can vote. It ends in a little more than seven hours. Here's Michael Holmes explaining how to do all that.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INT'L. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Are the ancient wonders of the world, too ancient? More than 2,000 years after the Greeks named the Seven Wonders, seven new ones are set to be revealed. Twenty finalists, ranging from India's 17th Century monument to love the Taj Mahal, Paris' 19th Century Eiffel Tower have drawn more than 90 million Internet votes in one of the largest polls ever conducted. July 7, or 7/7/07, will conclude the multi-year, media campaign instigated by Swiss businessman, Bernard Weber.
BERNARD WEBER, NEW7WONDERS FOUNDATION: This is the first time we have the opportunity to have a global vote, and by the way to also invite children -- this is the first time children can vote. They vote out of passion, not out of nationalism. So this is the first-time opportunity. I think we should seize that opportunity so that everybody can decide what the new Seven Wonders should be, and not some government, not some individuals, some institutions.
HOLMES: The star-studded event called the New Seven Wonders of the World will feature performances by Jennifer Lopez and Sha Ka Jahn and hosted by Hollywood's Hilary Swank and Ben Kingsley.
Contenders include well-known greats, like the Coliseum in Rome, Matchu Pitchu (ph), in Peru, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the Great Wall of China, and the giant stone statues on Chile's Easter Island.
Even national figures, like Brazil's President Lulu DeSilva (ph) and Jordan's Queen Reinia (ph) are promoting their country's hopefuls. But the New Wonders campaign is not universally recognized. The U.N. Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, identifies world heritage sites, but claims there is no link whatsoever with the New Seven Wonders of the world campaign.
Egypt has taken exception. According to Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the Great Pyramids of Giza, should be above the competition and remain the world's only surviving ancient wonder.
ZAHI HAWASS, EGYPT'S SUPREME COUNCIL ON ANTIQUITIES: The Pyramids have to be away from this list completely. The pyramids still exist until today as a symbol, the symbol, of the genius of the ancient people. And we should not put them in any modern list.
HOLMES: Following the Egyptian protest, organizers assured the Pyramids honorary status in addition to the Seven New Wonders, for the remaining contenders, there's no way to prevent online voters from casting multiple ballots. The new list will capture opinions of those with access to the Internet, and those who vote often. Michael Holmes, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VASSILEVA: Quite a truly democratic vote, but it's been kind of slow, hasn't it?
FRAZIER: The website has been clogged by voters. You can go to the website. It's the new7wonders.com. You can look at all the nominees, cast your vote. But apparently give it some time because a lot of people have been there. And no write-ins. We hear people want to, by acclaim, pick the birthplace of our Ralitsa, but that apparently is not permitted. You have to choose one of these.
VASSILEVA: I wouldn't have a problem with that. That's it. I'm Ralitsa Vassileva.
FRAZIER: I'm Stephen Frazier. This is CNN.
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