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Britain Plans Iraq Troop Cut; Interpol Unscrambles Image of Alleged Child Predator; Diana Inquest: British Jury to Track Fatal Events in Paris; Four South African Contractors Have Been Held in Iraq for 10 Months; Free Speech A Deadly Business in Egypt
Aired October 08, 2007 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A U.S. town picks up the pieces and struggles to understand in the wake of a shooting spree by a policeman.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And China prepares for the 2008 Special Olympics and starts by revamping the way it treats its own disabled citizens.
HOLMES: 7:00 p.m. right now in Basra, Iraq; 11:00 a.m. in Crandon, Wisconsin.
Welcome to our report broadcast around the globe.
I'm Michael Holmes.
GORANI: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani.
From Baghdad to Beijing, Tokyo to Terre Haute, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
HOLMES: Steadily shrinking for years, the coalition in Iraq will see another steep cut within months. The United States' chief war ally planning to bring more than half its troops home by spring.
GORANI: Well, Britain's prime minister announced the partial troop withdrawal a short time ago today in the House of Commons. Gordon Brown says security progress in southern Iraq has paved the way for British troops to pull back from Basra and transition to an overwatch role.
HOLMES: He says their numbers will drop to 2,500, an announcement that prompted a heated response from the political opposition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We expect to establish provincial Iraqi corps (ph) in Basra province in the next two months, as already announced by the prime minister of Iraq, move to the first stage of overwatch, reduce numbers in southern Iraq from at the start of September 5,500 to 4,500 immediately after provincial Iraqi control, and then to 4,000. And then in the second stage of overwatch from the spring, and guided as always by advice of military commanders, reduce to around 2,500 thousand troops, with a further decision about the next phase made then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: When troop numbers continue to be reduced, there comes a point at which they will lack a critical mass and cannot protect themselves properly.
Is the prime minister absolutely satisfied that these reductions won't take us past that point? And furthermore, does he think this is the minimum number necessary for such protection?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, let's get more now on the troop announcement from London from our reporters on the ground in Iraq.
Nic Robertson is at a British air base in Basra, and Jim Clancy is in Baghdad.
Let's start with you, Nic.
You were meant to join us live. Before you get to the impact of this announcement, tell us why you are on the phone.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, a few minutes ago, three missiles were fired on this base. We're all in a secure location. Right now, everyone is quite safe.
But that does appear to have been a reaction from Iraqis or Iraqi militias to Gordon Brown's announcement. It sends like the all-clear siren is going off right now.
But what's happened here is the announcement of the reductions is all condition-based. That is, if the security situation is secure enough, those troop reductions will happen. And as one officer here told me just a few minutes ago, three missiles fired on this base is not going to make any impact on those decisions about security. The missiles that have been fired on British bases have gone down significantly over the last month and a half, and this is just a one- up attack that they have been experiencing occasionally as the past six weeks have gone by -- Michael.
HOLMES: Nic, tell us exactly from your perspective how things have been going since the British started withdrawing. There were fears of a vacuum of sorts. There's been intra-Shia rivalry, a power struggle.
How has it gone?
ROBERTSON: Well, a month and a half ago, the British were in Basra palace, a building in the center of Basra, and there was -- they were fighting intense battles every day. Through working with an Iraqi army general and an Iraqi police commander, those commanders were able to talk to the militias, convince them to stop fighting with coalition forces.
The British troops pulled out of the center of Basra. They say that 90 percent of the attacks that were going on, 90 percent of the violence, was aimed at them.
And since they pulled out of the center of Basra, there's been a marked reduction in violence. And that's allowed them to focus on what Gordon Brown was talking about, training and mentoring the Iraqi security forces to make sure that they are capable and able to take over the province. And that is expected to happen in a few months -- Michael.
HOLMES: All right.
Nic Robertson in Basra.
Thanks.
Let's go to Jim Clancy, standing by in Baghdad.
The word from there, what are you hearing, Jim?
JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly as we look at the situation as it develops in Basra, you have to remember Iranian influence playing in all of this. At one point, British troops were convinced it was actually Iranians who were firing mortars at them. Nic was reporting that a little bit earlier today.
We sat down with General David Petraeus, the commanding officer of U.S. troops here in Iraq, and he went down a long list of how he says Iran is influencing the battlefield in Iraq by introducing what he called accelerants.
Here's his list.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: There's no question, absolutely no question that Iran is providing advanced RPGs, RPG-29s. It has provided some shoulder-fired stinger- like air defense missiles. It has provided the explosively-formed projectiles, and it has provided 240 millimeter rockets, in addition to mortars and mortar rounds and other small arms and ammunition.
So, this is a big concern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: All right.
So, as you look at the problem here, all of those weapons he listed, not just a threat to U.S. forces, also to British forces and certainly to the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police. In all of this, Petraeus has said there are signs of Iran manipulating the situation in Iraq by the use of a subset of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the so-called al-Quds force. He even went to so far as to say that the Iranian ambassador here in Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi , was a member of that al-Quds force. We've finally gotten a response from the Iranian embassy to that here in Baghdad. They say no comment.
They referred us to an earlier statement that was made by the foreign ministry spokesman in Tehran. The statement that said the charges were not new, and they were baseless and not right. But the controversy continues over Iran's influence. Some believe it will grow as Shia-Shia conflicts continue -- Michael.
HOLMES: All right.
Jim Clancy in Baghdad.
Thanks.
GORANI: International law enforcement is asking for your help. The Interpol agency believes that it has unscrambled the face of a vicious sexual predator. A global alert is being issued, asking for information about a man who tried to hide his identity in photos police say he took with his very young victims.
Reporter Neil Connery has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEIL CONNERY, REPORTER, ITV NEWS (voice over): This is the face of the man now the subject of an unprecedented global police hunt. Interpol say he sexually abused boys in more than 200 photographs posted on the Internet. He blocked his own face on the images to disguise his identity, but thanks to the efforts of Germany's federal police agency, his face can now be revealed.
Police believe he abused boys as young as 6 years old in Vietnam and Cambodia more than four years ago. The pictures have been on the Internet since then. Police have been able to use technology to show who he is.
JIM GAMBLE, CHILD EXPLOITATION AND PROTECTION: In one respect, it's a fantastic breakthrough, to be able to take a picture which has been digitally changed, and then to reengineer that back to a picture whereby people would be able to identify the individual. The real breakthrough, however, is using the image we now have to share with the public.
CONNERY: This summer, an ITV News investigation showed the dangers posed by pedophiles using the Internet to target children. Interpol itself has a database of more than 500,000 images of child sexual abuse. Thanks to technological advances, police forces around the world now hope this man can be tracked down quickly.
Neil Connery, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right.
Ten years after her death, a British jury is following in Diana's final footsteps to experience firsthand the sights and the circumstances of the last moments of the princess of Wales.
Our Phil Black is standing by in Paris with more on the day's events -- Phil.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Hala.
It's not unusual for British tourists to visit the site of the accident that killed Princess Diana, but today the jury that must rule on how and why she died received a very official look, though. They were brought in on buses to the d'Alma tunnel, just near where I am standing here.
Firstly, they drove through the tunnel a number of times. But then police moved in, in large numbers and brought traffic to a stop. This allowed the jury to walk in slowly and take a very intimate, closehand look at this key site in this investigation.
They walked in, along with the judge, Scott Baker (ph), and various court officials, to examine the exact pillar, the precise point of impact where the Mercedes struck that night. And we're told to sort of study a number of the traffic features and flows of that particular area.
Now, as I say, it was a high-security operation, not necessarily because of any immediate security threat, but, for one, to keep the traffic out of the way, but also to keep the world's media out of the way as well. This court is very much focused on keeping the identity of these jurors hidden.
Tonight, the jury will drive this route again, only this time in darkness to get a better sense of just of the journey that car took that night -- Hala.
GORANI: All right.
Phil Black reporting live from Paris, near the very sight where Princess Diana was killed in a car crash 10 years ago.
Thank you, Phil.
HOLMES: OK. Next, a deadly shooting spree in the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
GORANI: Well, he was hired, of course, to protect and serve the town's residents. So why did a sheriff's deputy turn his gun on them? The latest on the investigation, next.
HOLMES: Also, foreign companies doing business with Myanmar's junta, under pressure to pull out. But some argue that would do more harm than good.
GORANI: And considering a tattoo? Here's some ideas from London, where the world's best tattoo artists gathered to share technique, style and design.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone, to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
GORANI: All right. We are seen around the world, of course. And this hour, a special welcome to our U.S. viewers.
HOLMES: Indeed.
A small town in the United States wakes up to a nightmare. Six young people at a party, shot and killed. The man who opened fire on them, a sheriff's deputy.
Susan Roesgen is in Crandon, Wisconsin, for us live.
What an absolute tragedy, almost unbelievable.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Michael, for this small town, as you mentioned, a town of fewer than 2,000 people here in rural Wisconsin.
I'm here at the high school where the superintendent of schools is going to hold a news conference less than an hour from now to hopefully give us some more information about the shooting here early Sunday morning, a shooting in which most of the students here at the school and the teachers as well knew the victims.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN (voice over): In this house at a late-night high school party, a young sheriff's deputy, barely out of high school himself, 20-year-old Tyler Peterson, shot and killed six people. Then he ran.
Dozens of fellow officers hunted for him and after a few hours of searching, took him down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The subject was located by law enforcement officers. The subject is deceased and is no longer a threat to the public.
ROESGEN: The police won't say what caused Deputy Peterson to become a killer, but friends of the victim say one of the dead was Peterson's ex-girlfriend. All the victims were current or former students at the high school where he was also a graduate.
RICHARD PETERS, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: This is the kind of scenario that I think every small town in the USA says this could never happen here.
ROESGEN: Now parents like Jenny Stahl are in shock.
JENNY STAHL, MOTHER OF VICTIM: I haven't seen her yet. So, in the back of my mind says maybe they made a mistake and my daughter is somewhere, just hiding out, waiting for everything to be safe to come now.
ROESGEN: Jenny's daughter, 14-year-old Lindsey Stahl, was apparently Deputy Peterson's youngest victim.
STAHL: I just can't believe this. You know? She was only 14. She'll be 15 next month.
She's just starting to live. And the sad thing is, who killed her? You know, a cop.
He's supposed to be -- cops are supposed to always protect you I thought. You know? And it's one who took my daughter and how many other people's lives?
ROESGEN: A shooting that has left this small town of just 2,000 people stunned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: There was one survivor at that off-campus party, one person critically wounded. We expect that when law enforcement is able to interview that person, Michael, we'll learn more about what happened.
Also today, we learned from the mayor of this small town that that deputy, Deputy Tyler Peterson, apparently took someone hostage in his run at another location, and then he himself was shot to death by a member of the S.W.A.T. team. Particularly ironic, because he was not only a full time sheriff's deputy, he was also a member of that same Crandon Police Department -- Michael.
HOLMES: Absolutely extraordinary.
Susan Roesgen, thanks.
GORANI: All right. A short break here on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
When we return, a rough start to the week on Wall Street as stocks continue to struggle.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
GORANI: French toast became "Freedom Toast". French fries were called "Freedom Fries".
HOLMES: Not long ago, that's how some Americans renamed two popular foods because they felt they were fed up with the French. But the two countries are making nice again.
GORANI: When we come back, a one-on-one chat with France's new ambassador to the United States.
HOLMES: And they bathe their bodies in ink. The end result, ah, you decide. We will take you to a tattoo festival later this hour. (NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back, everyone. All of our viewers joining us from around the globe, including this hour the United States, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY. I'm Hala Gorani.
HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes. Here are the top stories we are following for you.
His digitally disguised image has been circulating around the Internet for years. Interpol says new technology has allowed it to descramble his face. Police say this man is shown raping young boys in images; his name and nationality unknown. Police want you to help find him.
GORANI: Jurors in the Diana inquest are seeing firsthand the scene of her death, a decade ago. They are visiting the hotel where she was staying, as well as the underpass where her speeding car lost control. The trip was organized to help jurors better understand the circumstances surrounding the death of the princess of Wales.
HOLMES: Britain has announced plans to withdraw more than half its troops from Iraq within months. Gordon Brown says security improvements have paved the way for British troops to pull back from Basra. And transition to what he called an over watch role. He says troop levels will shrink to 2,500 by the spring.
GORANI: Ten months after four contractors were kidnapped in Iraq, their wives in South Africa have heard nothing of their fate.
HARRIS: Robyn Curnow now reports on how the war in Iraq continues to impact all corners of the world.
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If he is still alive, Andre Durant must dream about this little face; his two-year- old daughter whom he hasn't seen since he was kidnapped in Iraq 10 months ago. If he is still alive, Andre Durant must wonder if he's missed by those back home. He is.
He is Durant is one of four South African security guards taken captive in Iraq last year. For comfort, their wives meet here at Durant's Pretoria home, sharing photos and stories. This Marie Enslin's husband, Johann, was the team leader.
MARIE ENSLIN, HOSTAGE'S WIFE: On this particular morning, they were escorting a truck filled with water and food, and apparently at a roadblock, which was legitimate roadblock, they were taken by men, which was in uniform, in police uniform. And that is why they did not suspect anything funny and why they got out of their cars.
CURNOW: Eleven days after they were kidnapped, Andre Durant phoned home and spoke to his wife Lourika.
LOURIKA DURANT, WIFE OF HOSTAGE: He phoned me the 21st of December, that afternoon. He said, I'm OK. Please give my greetings to the children. And we're going to be released soon, and then stopped to pray. So we thought that soon they will be freed for Christmas, but still waiting.
CURNOW: Since that phone call, the wives say there's been no other contact with the men, or their captors, no word if they are dead or alive.
RETHA SCHEEPERS, HOSTAGE'S WIFE: We thought about death already, but we know in our hearts that they are still alive. But there's no proof. There's no proof.
ELMARIE GREEF, HOSTAGE'S WIFE: It's 302 days today, and we still haven't heard anything. Nothing. And this is terrible. It's hell.
CURNOW: Lourika Durant says nobody seems to know who has the men and why they were targeted. Despite appeals for information in Iraqi newspapers like this one, and on Iraqi television.
Now, with the children nearly a year older and the prospect of another lonely Christmas looming, the families say they are desperate.
ENSLIN: Just for the sake of 11 children and four wives, numerous brothers and sisters, parents, parents-in-law, grandmothers and grandfathers who honestly can't understand why all of this is happening. Please, people, we make an appeal to you, please come forward. We'll do whatever you require of us to do. We are willing to do what you want of us. But we need the husbands and the fathers of these children to return home.
CURNOW: These women say they can't cope for much longer.
ENSLIN: It's stretches like that where you just say, God, have mercy on us. Please.
CURNOW: Robyn Curnow, CNN, Pretoria, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Very difficult time for those women.
An Iraqi probe into a shootout with a U.S. contractor, Blackwater, has raised the number of Iraqi civilians killed to 17. The report says the Blackwater guards were unprovoked, and that those involved should stand trial. Blackwater says it acted in self-defense.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi officials held joint talks exploring the role of U.S. security contractors in Baghdad on Sunday. A U.S. envoy is expected in Iraq this week to investigate how security contractors operate there.
HOLMES: There are mounting signs of social unrest in Egypt. The country has seen what some call the biggest wave of labor strike since the 1950s. And a human rights group is accusing it of, quote, "A broad crackdown on government critics." Now there are also concerns about press freedoms. Middle East Correspondent Aneesh Raman has that. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He doesn't look dangerous, suspenders and all, but Ibrahim Issa, the editor of a leading independent newspaper, is a convicted man, facing one year in prison. His crime, criticizing Egypt's ruling party, and he could get three more years for essentially defaming Egypt's president.
"I publish reports about President Mubarak's health," he says, "and asked that officials update the public as to whether he is sick or not. For that I now face more years in jail.'
At 79 and after a quarter century in office, speculation over the health of Hosni Mubarak is a Cairo constant.
(On camera): In August, many in Egypt's independent press reported that Mubarak was seriously ill. And the government charges that led to a huge withdrawal in foreign investment.
(Voice over): In 25 years of Mubarak, seven journalists were jailed, Issa says, but now in the past few weeks, 11 journalists face jail sentences for writing about his health. It is a crackdown on an independent press, still in its infant stage. Gissan Kassam (ph) is a well-known publisher and just received the Democracy Award in Washington, for his work building a free press in Egypt. As he left for D.C., the state-run press called him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A turn coat, a traitor, fifth column, you name it, OK? Very ugly.
RAMAN: Despite the now very real threat of jail, the independent press in Egypt is not backing down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are people who are committed and will defend this at any cost, go to jail, whatever the Mubarak regime brings upon them, they are willing to take it.
RAMAN: Mubarak has, in the past year, faced fierce criticism at home and abroad over his lack of democratic reform. The freedom of press the latest to be rolled back. Issa the latest journalist preparing to go away. Detailing in this published note how he's told his son he may be heading on a trip. Always one for a punch line, Issa promised a gift when he gets back, a toy soldier.
Aneesh Raman, CNN, Cairo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: The Olympic spotlight is shining on China.
HOLMES: It is helping some of the country's neediest citizens to get the attention they need. After a lifetime of neglecting and shunning the mentally disabled, what one city is doing to make things better.
GORANI: And does this hurt? If you have to ask, you're probably not ready.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it hurt?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Thousands of tattoo lovers gathering to celebrate the body as a canvas. We get a glimpse of the skin show that's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. You are watching YOUR WORLD TODAY right here on CNN International.
GORANI: We're broadcast all over the world, of course. In this hour, welcome to our U.S. viewers.
We move on to this story, unseasonably warm temperatures took a deadly toll on runners at the Chicago marathon on Sunday.
HOLMES: Unbelievable. Scorching heat, but very, very high humidity as well left one runner dead, sent dozens to hospitals, at least 250 more people were treated on-site. Organizers canceled the second half of the 26-mile or 41 kilometer race midway through.
GORANI: The race director said they were concerned that medical personnel just wouldn't be able to keep up, as the temperature passed the previous race record of 88 degrees Fahrenheit.
HOLMES: Very high humidity.
Well, there's been a lot of focus on how next year's Olympic games in Beijing are already changing China.
GORANI: But Shanghai is currently hosting the Special Olympics and that's brought attention to how the country treats people with mental disabilities.
HOLMES: As John Vause now explains, there is a little sunshine in some of their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Call this a start, a start by the Chinese authorities to care for their weakest and most vulnerable. In the last two years, more than 200 Sunshine homes have opened in Shanghai. A place for the mentally disabled, like this 25- year-old Chen Chao Han (ph) to learn basic skills, training for a job, or just hang out.
Chao Han (ph) enrolled a year ago. Every day, her parents say, her confidence grows. She's now learning piano, to use a computer, how to care for herself. The big change is being able to make her bed and washing the dishes and doing laundry, says her dad. Now she can walk half an hour to the Sunshine home. She has to cross several major streets. It's no problem for her anymore, adds her mom.
Chao Han (ph) is still shy around strangers. Just like Judy Yang was once, but now she's one of China's most famous special Olympians, featured on the front cover of a mainstream teenage magazine.
"A lot of people are accepting now," she told me. "They're willing to be friends, to let their children play with disabled kids, and they learn from one another."
(On camera): The Sunshine homes are a direct result of Shanghai winning the rights to host the Special Olympics. Back then, city officials realized that many of China's 13 million intellectually disabled were not getting the kind of basic care they need. But even today there's still nothing like a Sunshine home anywhere else in the country.
(Voice over): Away from the big cities, cases like this are still common. A young man locked inside a room because his parents couldn't cope. In June this year, many who were illegally enslaved in brick works were mentally disabled. It was less than 20 years ago, the former prime minister Li Ping was quoted as saying, "mentally retarded people give birth to idiots".
YIN YIN NEW, UNICEF ENVOY TO CHINA: Neglect and discrimination are still quite prevalent. People tend to be ashamed of children with disabilities. They tend to hide them away.
VAUSE: While there is still a long, long way to go, at least now a few like Chen Chao Han (ph) can find dignity and respect through achievement, no matter how small. It's a start. John Vause, CNN, Shanghai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Let's take a look at some of the other main stories we are following for you today.
GORANI: We begin in Kashmir where a helicopter escorting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his entourage crashed. Mr. Musharraf wasn't hurt, but four soldiers on board were killed. The president's press secretary and several others were seriously injured. Officials blamed the crash on a technical problem.
HOLMES: A trio of genetic scientists will receive their year's Nobel prize for medicine. Americans Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies, and Britain's Martin Evans were named for their groundbreaking work in genetic targeting. The Nobel committee says their research on stem cells has furthered the study of disease like cystic fibrosis, diabetes and cancer.
GORANI: Also in the headlines, funeral services in Tokyo today for the Japanese journalist who was killed in Myanmar. Kenji Nagai was killed September 27, as he photographed the pro-democracy protests in Yangon. One video shows he was shot at close range. Japan is considering reducing aid to Myanmar in protest of his death.
The recent military crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Myanmar is bringing new heat to companies that do businesses in -- that do business, rather -- in that country. Calls are growing for those businesses to leave Myanmar. But some companies are resisting, saying they can do more to help the situation by actually staying. Jim Boulden reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Companies from around the world do business in Myanmar, from oil giants like France' total, Chevron from the U.S. and Malaysia's Petronas, to small timber firms which provide teak for furniture.
Groups which oppose Myanmar's military rulers, like the Burma Campaign, say the world needs to adopt stronger economic sanctions against doing business there.
MARK FARMANER, THE BURMA CAMPAIGN, UK: There has been billions of dollars of investment in the country, and at the same time we've seen a dramatic increase in human rights abuses. We've seen the people of Burma become much poorer. We've seen health and education spending fall dramatically.
BOULDEN: An arm of Chevron made its $1 billion investment before the U.S. imposed sanctions against Myanmar. Its business was allowed to remain.
ANNOUNCER: This isn't just about oil companies. This is about you, and me.
BOULDEN: Chevron has a new marketing campaign called, Human Energy. But several human rights groups say it does not square with its presence in Myanmar. The oil giant says it wants a peaceful solution to what's happening in Myanmar that respects human rights. But its business there provides vital energy for millions of people in the region. And the company says the lives of people living around its project are improving, including free health care to 50,000 people along its pipeline.
Total says it, too, deplores what's happening but says staying in Myanmar is the best way to help people there.
CARL MORTISHED, REPORTER, "THE TIMES": Those companies that have actually stayed there, you know, do have a role to play.
BOULDEN: Carl Mortished of "The Times", of London, says sanctions would mean companies in Myanmar now could be replaced by firms with less commitment to change.
MORTISHED: If you abdicate responsibility to this country, which is what I think boycotting really means, wash your hands, then you basically are saying to those countries and those organizations that do want to do business with Burma, you have freehand. You can operate as you wish in conjunction with the generals.
BULLMAN: The Burma Campaign disagrees and claims some victories. Thanks to what it calls "The Dirty List". Companies it says do business with the regime. It's taken British American Tobacco off the list. It sold its Myanmar joint venture in 2003, after the British government asked BAT to pull out, leaving no major U.K. companies there.
The Burma Campaign is also agreed not to put a small London-based climate change project developer on the list, after it pledged to suspend a possible investment. Mekong Travel will stay on the list. It says providing travel to the golden land can only help to bring about change.
It's ultimately up to companies and their customers and governments if pictures like these turn them away from Myanmar. Jim Boulden, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Sometimes there are stories with pictures so compelling, or quirky that you really have to see them.
GORANI: Well, officials in Denver are blaming computers for a blackout that left a whole baseball stadium in the dark. A playoff game between the Colorado Rockies and the Philadelphia Fillies was delayed, obviously, but the Rockies' offensive fireworks lit up the night as they won the game.
HOLMES: Spooky.
In Lima, Peru, pet owners brought their scampering friends for a special blessing at the Convent of St. Francis. Each year, the convent, established in honor of the patron saint of animals, holds a ceremony for pets to receive the saints blessing.
GORANI: And not all 10-year-olds hate being on a school bus, especially when they're the drivers. One enterprising youngster swiped the school bus, just got behind the wheel of a school bus, and then led police on a 70-kilometer chase, 44 miles, before a deputy safely stopped him.
I'm just surprised it took the deputy 44 miles to stop a 10-year- old.
HOLMES: He may face charges over this. Well, no kidding.
GORANI: Who, the 10-year-old?
HOLMES: Yeah.
GORANI: All right.
HOLMES: At least he should be sent to his room for a very long time.
GORANI: We understand he actually drove through some spikes. So, you know --
HOLMES: Ah, stop spikes.
GORANI: Kid's fearless.
HOLMES: OK, when we come back, every tattoo you can imagine.
GORANI: On people from all over the world. Up next, if you like body art, or you're just curious, this is the place to be. You're with CNN. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Well, some disturbing news for art lovers. Intruders have seriously damaged a priceless painting at the Museum Orsey in Paris. The framed oil by impressionist Claude Monet, is titled, "La Pont d'Argenteuil", a four-inch tear in the canvas can be seen just to the right of center. May have problems distinguishing it, but it -- there it is. It really did damage the canvas. The French culture minister says a group of people who appeared to be drunk can be seen on surveillance video entering through a back door early on Sunday. When an alarm sounded, the group fled and no arrests have been made.
HOLMES: Wow.
GORANI: Well --
HOLMES: Do you have a tattoo?
GORANI: No.
HOLMES: I know where you can find about 20,000 people who do, however.
GORANI: You are talking about the London Tattoo Convention that took place recently in London.
HOLMES: Oddly enough, I am. That's where Emily Chang was.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just mad about tattoos.
EMILY CHANG, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Meet 20,000 tattoo enthusiasts from around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love tattoo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are an addiction. You get addicted to them.
CHANG: Like father and daughter, Paul and Jade Voler (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm having this one done. It's not quite finished yet. It's just has the line work done, but basically in honor of my dad. CHANG: For her it's a pledge of love. For others it might be a rite of passage or a symbol of spiritual devotion, or nothing special really.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not for any deep meaningful reason. I just like tattoos.
CHANG: This is the London Tattoo Convention.
MIKI VIALETTO, CONVENTION ORGANIZER: People that come here in London can see all the different techniques, all the different style of the best tattoo work in the world.
CHANG: It's believed tattoos date as far back as the stone age, and over the years have become a form of expression and show many different cultures. The art, as everlasting as the images themselves.
FILIP LEU, TATTOO ARTIST: I'm second generation, both my parents tattooed before me.
CHANG: Filip Leu, of Switzerland, specializes in full body art.
LEU: I hope the people I tattoo wear these tattoos as a badge of honor.
CHANG: Paul Booth of New York dabbles in what he calls the disturbing.
PAUL BOOTH, TATTOO ARTIST: I do black and gray work mainly. Not much color. And it's usual think creepy stuff. I do all the scary monsters and that sort of thing.
CHANG: And Hoi Dan (ph), of Japan, says her tattoos tell stories of Japanese history. They'll be tattooing their tales here for three days, on bare bodies who will wear them forever, and perhaps even pass the passion along.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In your daughter's the same.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, my daughter is five, and she's dying for one but she's still got a few years to wait.
CHANG (on camera): Does it hurt?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit.
CHANG (voice over): Emily Chang, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Ouch.
GORANI: You know, I almost prefer the full body tattoo suit, than just the tiny little thing. It's kind of interesting. I think it is body art, the actually.
HOLMES: It does hurt. Not that I know.
GORANI: No, no, you've heard.
Now to Latin Lederhosen.
HOLMES: The largest German community in Latin America celebrating October fest on Sunday. The small Argentinean town of General Belgrano, was turned into a mini Munich for the day, complete with those leather shorts, accordion music and what would it be without beer by the barrel?
Let's turn now to the Rugby World Cup, if we must, because Australia got knocked out of over the weekend. So, too, New Zealand. The two other southern hemisphere teams have triumphed, however, Argentina proving too strong for Scotland on Sunday during their quarterfinal showdown in Paris. The final score there, Argentina 19, Scotland 13, that win secured the Puma's first semifinal berth at the World Cup. They deserve it. They will be playing Sunday's other big winner, the Spring Box, the South Africans grinding out a bruising 37- 20 win over Fiji in Marseilles. Fiji having a great tournament.
GORANI: Is it over for us Australia?
HOLMES: Don't remind me.
GORANI: All right.
HOLMES: Yes, it is.
GORANI: That's it for this hour. I'm Hala Gorani.
HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes. Very sad. Bye.
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