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Your World Today
Finland Pauses to Mourn 8 Victims; Turmoil in Pakistan; Dangerous Toys Recalled
Aired November 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: Finland mourns as a picture of the teenaged gunman emerges a day after that deadly school shooting.
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A good first step, or not good enough, or at all? More protests and clashes in Pakistan as the president sets a date for elections.
HOLMES: Harmless beads that can turn deadly if eaten. Another mandatory recall of a Chinese-made toy.
GORANI: And l'amour is in the air. The world's most eligible bachelor president, Nicolas Sarkozy, professes his love for America.
It is 10:00 p.m. in Islamabad, Pakistan, 7:00 p.m. in the Finnish town of Tuusula.
Hello and welcome, everyone. Our report is seen around the globe this hour.
I'm Hala Gorani.
HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes.
From Paris to Washington, wherever you are watching, this is YOUR WORLD TODAY.
GORANI: A day of mourning is being held in what's usually one of the quietest corners of Europe.
HOLMES: Yes, flags flying at half staff in the Finnish town of Tuusula as residents try to understand why the 18-year-old gunman, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, decided to go on a killing spree.
GORANI: More details are now emerging about the tragic events at the town's high school where the teenager killed eight people before killing himself.
HOLMES: That's right. The tragedy has shocked the small town which has a population of just about 34,000. It's just north of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Phil Black joins us from there with the very latest.
A news conference earlier, Phil. What have we learned?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Michael.
Police have told us a little bit more about the events in the high school building behind me. We have learned that Pekka Auvinen fired some 69 shots during this time roaming the corridors, picking off people, but it appears that he was prepared to do a lot more than that.
Police say when they found his body, unconscious with a self- inflicted wound to the head, he still had another 320 bullets, as well as some flammable liquid. So they believe his intention was to burn the high school down.
Now, police have confirmed that of the eight victims, two of them were female staff members -- a 61-year-old principal and a 42-year-old nurse. The rest were all students, and all of them suffered -- all of them died from more than one gunshot wound.
Now the question that is being asked here in this small town and across Finland, of course, is why? Pekka Auvinen left some clues, some YouTube videos posted on that site before the massacre, as well as a document, something that he called his manifesto, which detailed his hatred for the human race and why he believed that many people do not deserve to continue living.
He also left a suicide note for his family. Police have been reading this. Here's what they make of what they have read so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAN OLAF NYHOLM, DETECTIVE CHIEF SUPT.: The preliminary analysis which we have of the offender is that he's quite a lonely person. He has a great anger against society. And he expressed a lot of extreme opinions and radical thoughts. And this is very preliminary analysis because this only happened 24 hours, which I like to stress is based on the material we have found, the letters, et cetera.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Students who knew Pekka Auvinen say that he was always quiet and perhaps a little lonely, but about a month or so ago they noticed a distinct change in his personality and he became even more withdrawn. And they point out that that was around the time that he first obtained his gun license -- Michael.
HOLMES: Now, Phil, I understand gun crime is rare in Finland, but Finland has the third highest gun ownership level in the world, the highest in western Europe, and a very high murder rate in general.
BLACK: Yes, that's very true. Some two million guns or so to around five million people is quite an extraordinary ratio. And as you say, around the third highest per capita statistic in the world.
Hunting, gun sports, these are all very popular here, and so gun ownership is high. But gun crime, that is relatively low. And so something of this scale, while it has come as a great shock to the people of Finland and, of course, the people of this small community. To give you an idea of this, I would just like to show you the growing memorial that is being set up here just outside the high school. You can see this is where people have been coming through last night, through today, to leave candles, flowers, messages, to stop and reflect, and to even stand here and cry openly.
There is a great deal of sorrow in this town at the moment. The events that took place at this high school were a great surprise to the people here -- Michael.
HOLMES: All right, Phil. Thanks for that.
Phil Black there in Finland -- Hala.
GORANI: Well, Michael, the United States is saying that an announcement made by Pakistan's president is a "positive step" toward restoring democracy, but a key opposition leader says it doesn't go far enough.
Here's an update on the crisis that's fueled days of protests in this nuclear power, Pakistan.
President General Pervez Musharraf says parliamentary elections will be held by February 15th. Originally set for January, they had been suspended under the state of emergency. General Musharraf also repeated a promise to step down as military chief but gave no date.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto says these pledges aren't good enough. She's going ahead with a major rally planned for Friday near Islamabad.
In another sign Mr. Musharraf may be trying to stem international anger over his emergency rule, Pakistan is easing up a bit on independent media. CNN, our network, and the BBC are both back on the air.
Our Dan Rivers is in Lahore, and joins us with more on today's developments -- Dan.
DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Benazir Bhutto has described President Musharraf's promise to hold elections before February the 15th as vague and insufficient. The clock is ticking to this showdown tomorrow here in Pakistan when tens of thousands of her supporters are expected to gather on the streets. As we have been finding, the opponents to President Musharraf now beginning to involve the students of Pakistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RIVERS (voice over): First, it was the lawyers. Now, small groups of students are also daring to speak out, adding their voice to the protests against martial law. Some too nervous to show their face.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel extremely bad because it's a one-man show. What he wants to do and what he thinks is best for the country is being done.
RIVERS: Others were bolder, though, defying the ban on political protests. But this campus hasn't exactly been overrun by radicals. Around the rally, a drawing class continues. Many just standing impassively amid the chance to hang the president.
(on camera): These student leaders are making their point forcefully about the state of emergency, but so far they lack the numbers or the organization to make any real challenge to General Musharraf.
(voice over): The only person who seems capable of doing that is this woman, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. She says she's fighting for democracy, but her critics accuse her of corruption, incompetence and of selling out after she struck a controversial power-sharing deal with President Musharraf, a deal that has now apparently fallen apart. She's threatening to bring tens of thousands of supporters onto the streets on Friday, a showdown with her rival unless her demands are met.
But General Musharraf appeared to offer some concessions after a high-level meeting in Islamabad. Officials confirming martial law will only last a month, that elections will take place before February 15th, that the general will step down as head of the army.
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTANI PRESIDENT: The issue of elections, there is no doubt in my mind elections must be held as soon as possible now that we have calculated all the actions. Elections in Pakistan must be held before 15, February 2008.
RIVERS: But it might not be enough. General Musharraf's opponents are incensed, claiming hundreds of lawyers, human rights activists and opposition politicians have been arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one believes this president any more.
RIVERS: The United States has seen General Musharraf as a key ally in the war on terror, a bulwark against extremism. Now, though, he's looking increasingly isolated and desperate as he tries to tough out the next few days and defuse an increasingly volatile situation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIVERS: One of the key allegations by President Musharraf's opponents is that the supreme court that he's now appointed after the others were -- the other judges were sacked is now merely a rubberstamp for his will. They say that he has corrupted all the institutions of state, that they simply can't trust what he says anymore.
GORANI: Now, Dan, is Musharraf's announcement seen as the result of American pressure, or is it being perceived inside of Pakistan as a result of pressure coming from these demonstrators and opposition parties?
RIVERS: I think there's probably an element of both in there, but certainly the key thing that he must be realizing is there is a real danger for him tomorrow. If they manage to get tens of thousands of people on to the streets, if Benazir Bhutto manages to unite all of these disparate groups which so far have not presented a United front, if that manages to come together in the next few days, that's a real danger for him. It's a real danger that he could be forced out of office.
What Benazir Bhutto is hoping to do is to grab power, to seize the initiative here, to try and bring in some of her critics -- the lawyers, the students, civil society, and so on -- to try to bring them all together with one voice in Rawalpindi tomorrow to say, look, enough is enough, General Musharraf has to go.
GORANI: Yes, a tense situation considering he still controls the army.
Dan Rivers in Lahore, Pakistan.
Thank you so much for your report -- Michael.
HOLMES: Well, the state of emergency in the Republic of Georgia is next for us. The Associated Press reporting that President Mikheil Saakashvili has called early elections in January to try to fuse what has become a crisis.
Georgian police, meanwhile, have been pouring into the capital, Tbilisi, following anti-government demonstrations calling for his resignation. Demonstrators clashed with troops in the capital, enforcing the state of emergency. Those protesters accuse the pro- western president of corruption, but Mr. Saakashvili says Russian leaders are behind the unrest.
The former Soviet republic hosts a pipeline bringing oil from the Caspian Sea to western markets.
GORANI: Scientists in China are analyzing a popular children's toy that produces a potentially deadly chemical when wet. The Chinese-made toys marketed in the U.S. as Aqua Dots have been recalled worldwide after initial tests showed that they were coated with a chemical that metabolized into the so-called date rape drug when ingested.
Jason Carroll has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Just add water and create a fantasy world. That's how Aqua Dots and Bindeez Beads were marketed to children looking to create play things out of the colorful beads. Now those toys are being recalled. This, after in some cases if those colorful beads are swallowed, the chemical used to make the adhesive metabolizes into a dangerous drug known as Fantasy, also called GHB. And in other circumstances, it's referred to as the date rape drug because of its hazardous effects.
DR. NAREN GUNJA, POISON INFORMATION CENTER: This toxin can cause you to become comatose, from which you may either stop breathing or obstruct your airway and potentially cause death.
CARROLL: Doctors discovered the problem after three children were hospitalized in Australia. The mother of a 10-year-old victim says her daughter became very ill after swallowing the beads.
HEATHER LEHANE, MOTHER: I was just beside myself. Just so -- I was just so frightened because I literally thought that she wasn't going to make it.
CARROLL: Here in the United States, two children fell into comas after ingesting the beads. Both have since recovered.
The toy beads are imported from a manufacturer in China. The company that sells Bindeez Toys in Australia, Moose Enterprise, released a statement on its Web site announcing an immediate and voluntary recall.
Late Wednesday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of four million Aqua Dots in the United States. All those made between April and November of this year.
This raising more concerns about Chinese imports. Over the past year, at least 20 million toys made in China have been recalled worldwide. Now two more toys, this time connected to GHB.
Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate used to be sold in health food stores in the U.S. as a performance-enhancer for bodybuilders until it was banned in 1990. Now its more common use is by club-goers who risk using it illegally for its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects.
(on camera): The Consumer Product Safety Commission says anyone who has Aqua Dots at home should throw them out immediately. They also say an investigation is under way right now into exactly how those hazardous chemicals made it into all of those toys.
Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, CNN called the company that distributes Aqua Dots in the United States. And we've not yet heard back from them. But within hours of the recall, Spin Master posted a statement on their Web site saying they are cooperating fully with the recall.
The statement reads, "Out of an abundance of caution, we've stopped shipping this item and are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission." The company also says it has "made the safety of children our foremost priority."
HOLMES: You would hope so.
All right. Coming up after the break, the bearer of bad news.
GORANI: Federal Reserve chief Bernanke delivers his economic forecast to the U.S. Congress. The outlook not so good.
HOLMES: And later, a newly single Nicolas Sarkozy batches it in the states but still has l'amour on his mind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone, to CNN International and YOUR WORLD TODAY.
GORANI: A special welcome this hour to our viewers in the United States.
HOLMES: Well, more brake lights ahead for the U.S. economy.
GORANI: The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve says business growth is going to slow down noticeably in the coming months. So get ready.
HOLMES: Ben Bernanke providing the Fed's economic forecast to a joint congressional committee, and he pointed to the severe housing slump and rising oil prices as risks that could lead to higher inflation. The key -- the Fed cut a key short-term interest rate last month, you'll remember, by a quarter of one percentage point, but the Central Bank has not indicated if more of those cuts might follow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The financial turmoil was triggered by investor concerns about the credit quality of mortgages, especially subprime mortgages with adjustable interest rates. The continuing increase in the rate of serious delinquencies in such mortgages reflects in part a decline in underwriting standards in recent years, as well as a softening of house prices. Delinquencies on these mortgages are likely to rise further in coming quarters as a sizable number of recent vintage subprime loans experience their first interest rate resets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, the Fed chairman's comments come a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 360 points in one session.
So how is Wall Street reacting to Bernanke's comments now?
Ali Velshi joins us live from New York with that.
Ben Bernanke, Ali, is saying, well, essentially, we might see a slowdown for six months of 2008, but then perhaps a pickup. Are Wall Street investors in agreement with the Federal Reserve chairman?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, therein lies the question. I mean, he was saying what we all seem to know about where the economy is going.
Wall Street is not loving it, right now down about 115 points. But you know, with everything we have been talking about in the last few weeks going on in the U.S. and world economies, one never knows what to a tribute that point loss or gain to. We are seeing again triple-digit losses right now.
Ben Bernanke commented on a few things. On the economy, he was talking about the federal funds committee that changes interest rates. He says the committee expected that the growth of economic activity would slow noticeably in the fourth quarter from its third quarter rate.
The third quarter economic growth in the United States, 3.9 percent, you know, was very encouraging to people, making them think maybe things are on track. 3.9 is not a bad number. He's saying don't be too surprised if it slows on oil, which we have been tracking very closely.
Bernanke says, "... further sharp increases in crude oil have put renewed upward pressure on inflation and may impose further restraint on economic activity."
Boy, I just wish he would say it straighter. But he's saying everything we know. We could be seeing a slowdown on housing, he says, on average from now until the end of next year -- that's the end of 2008.
Nearly 450,000 subprime mortgages per quarter, every three months, are scheduled to undergo their first interest rate reset. And for our international viewers, Hala, that means that they had these very low teaser rates to get them into their mortgages, and they are going to reset now that mortgage rates are higher. Which means we're going to see more foreclosures, which means no foreseeable end to the crisis that the U.S. housing market is in at the moment.
So, you know, half hopeful. The only thing he said for sure is he doesn't see a recession. He didn't even say that. He just wouldn't offer odds on a recession.
GORANI: Right. And perhaps not -- this housing slump not spreading to other parts of the economy. But in a country like America, Ali, where individual wealth is so closely linked to housing wealth, where so many people are expected to foreclose on their homes next year, where the dollar is lower and oil prices are higher, are economists saying that we are in for a recession in 2008?
VELSHI: Well, you know, and some of the congressmen were saying this. It's like, what happened?
I'm paying more for energy, the housing prices are not there. And the dollar is low, so things that we buy from other parts of the world are more expensive. How can you say this isn't going to affect people?
The one silver cloud -- silver lining around this cloud, Hala, in the United States is that unemployment remains low, around 4.7 percent. And that's what seems to be keeping things going.
Many economists are saying, watch the unemployment number. If it ticks higher or the U.S. stops creating as many jobs as it's creating every month, that's when you start to worry about a recession. GORANI: And consumer spending took a huge...
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And the holiday shopping season, right? We're right at the beginning of that.
GORANI: Absolutely.
VELSHI: So lots to watch.
GORANI: Ali Velshi, as always, appreciate it.
Thanks so much.
VELSHI: My pleasure.
GORANI: A lot more ahead on YOUR WORLD TODAY.
Stay with us.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back to 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. Let's update you on the top stories to the minute.
In Finland, the student who apparently opened fire at his high school on Wednesday has died of his own self-inflicted wounds. Police say the suspected gunman killed seven students and the school head mistress before shooting himself.
GORANI: Georgia's president takes a step to defuse an escalating crisis. Mikhail Saakashvili has called for early presidential elections in the republic for January. Protestors accuse him of corruption and they have been demanding his resignation. President Saakashvili has also promised to lift a nationwide state of emergency within days.
HOLMES: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says parliamentary elections will be held by February 15th. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rejected that announcement, saying elections should be held by mid-January as was originally planned. She pledged to stage a massive protest on Friday. Let's carry on with our coverage of Pakistan and the dramas unfolding there. Our own Zain Verjee sat down with Pakistan's foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri in Islamabad to talk about the ongoing crisis and the large number of civilians detained. She joins us now live via broadband from Islamabad. Zain?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRSEPONDENT: Michael, we spoke to the foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri here in Islamabad just a few hours ago. He told us that General Musharraf does not need to be told by the United States or anyone else to go for elections and take off his uniform. He says that General Musharraf has always planned that and it is going to happen soon. He added, too, that it was a good thing that Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf's advisors were talking to each other. He said it was important to encourage that particular -- political dialogue. He also answered questions about the crackdown, the brutal crackdown on the lawyers here and this is how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHURSHID KASURI, PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: We are facing a very difficult situation in the tribal areas and the adjoining districts including (INAUDIBLE). And the strength of the government was being undermined, and there was a feeling that this government was very weak and people in the tribal areas were taking advantage of it. Now, on the face of it, it looks really ridiculous. How do you justify taking action against militants by rounding up on civil society activists or --
VERJEE: Not activists, but --
KASURI: I agree with you. I quite empathize with what you are saying, I'm not even going to disagree. But what I am saying is look at the situation that Pakistan is in. The government has no desire to keep these people in for long.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Michael, we also asked him about the media crackdown that's been going on here in Pakistan and he said, look, when it comes to the Pakistani print media, they are saying whatever they want. They are running critical stories of General Musharraf, he said. He did acknowledge, though, that local TV stations were off the air and hoped that the (INAUDIBLE) channels would also be back on the air. CNN and BBC apparently are on the air. We haven't had a chance to see that yet but we understand that that's going to happen soon. One more thing, Michael, we asked him if the internal political crisis in Pakistan was detracting from the war on terror in the northwest frontier province and the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, and he said yes. Michael?
HOLMES: Now, Zain, Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, her own government was, of course, riddled with unrelenting allegations of corruption and mismanagement but she's really the only politician putting her head up above the power put at the moment. What's going on with her?
VERJEE: Well, she's planning this mass rally tomorrow in a military garrison town just a short ways away from Islamabad. The government has said there's no way that we're going to allow that to happen but they said they're just going to push ahead with it. It seems as though there's a potential for violence and a collision course tomorrow here in Pakistan. We're also hearing, too, that members of Benazir Bhutto's party have been arrested, hundreds of them ahead of that rally. She's also in talks, her advisors, rather, with General Musharraf's advisors. She almost seems to be playing two sides here, almost using her street leverage, her ability to get people out on the streets as a negotiating technique with Musharraf, along with the deal making that appears to be going on behind the scenes. But the point you make about corruption is a really important one. She is popular here on the streets but there are a lot of people in Pakistan that don't like her because of the ineffective government she's run before and because of the corruption allegations that she's faced. There was a court that convicted her in Switzerland in absentia back in 2003 for depositing something like $11 million in kickbacks. Those questions and that cloud is still there in Pakistan. Michael?
HOLMES: Yeah, an important part of the mix and worth raising there. Zain, thanks very much. Zain Verjee there in Islamabad.
GORANI: Pakistan's political turmoil has a lot of drama, a lot of passion, but not a lot of politicians involved, as we heard there, from Zain and our other reporters on the ground. Benazir Bhutto may be the exception, but maybe not. Jonathan Mann has some insight on a big missing link in the mess.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In times of crisis or calm, Pakistan has a lot of politics and it has roughly 90 different parties, built around political, religious and ethnic issues. But as we've seen the lawyers in the streets and now hear news of elections after all you might wonder, where are the politicians? Where are the parties? A lot of the prominent people we might expect to see protesting are in jail. Estimates vary but along with the lawyers pulled from street protests, hundreds of political activists have been rounded up, too. Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party, the PPP still has her freedom but she hasn't been seen on the streets since the day she arrived in the country, when she attracted hundreds of thousands of people and an assassination attempt that killed more than 130. She spent this week slowly ratcheting up her rhetoric against General Musharraf and plans an open-air rally near the capital Friday, her first since the emergency was declared. Bhutto isn't just in danger. Just as important, she's in a delicate position. Musharraf's people say openly they have been negotiating a power-sharing deal with her. How does she protest and partner with the president at the same time? Another former prime minister (INAUDIBLE) leads a faction of the Pakistan Muslim league, the branch of the PNL, with an "n" for (INAUDIBLE) in its name, but he's doing it from Saudi Arabia. He tried to enter Pakistan in September but he was deported even before he got out of the airport.
The in country head of his party, Javid Hashmi is among the opposition figures who got arrested. Below that level, we aren't seeing much protest from the party. Then there's the MMA, a coalition of hard line Islamist parties whose strength really alarms the west. The parties and leaders like (INAUDIBLE) Rehman, have at times worked with Musharraf's government, and they have been fairly quiet in the last few days. A few statements, but no protests in the streets. There's a more fundamental problem here. Pakistanis don't have a particularly high opinion of politics whether it's democracy or dictatorship and the country has moved back and forth between them before. So unless the parties really rally their supporters, most Pakistanis will just sit this one out, which is so far what they have been doing. Back to you.
HOLMES: Jonathan Mann, thanks.
Don't go away. Still to come on YOUR WORLD TODAY, ebbing away.
GORANI: A new poll shows support in the United States for the war in Iraq is at an all time low and a growing majority want troops to come home.
HOLMES: And a sinking dollar, surging oil prices, is the U.S. economy headed for the rocks?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: A warm welcome back everyone. You are with YOUR WORLD TODAY right here on CNN International.
HOLMES: Indeed, seen live in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe.
Well, a new poll in the United States concludes that opposition to the war in Iraq has reached an all-time high. A CNN survey finds that 31 percent of those questioned support the conflict, while 68 percent say they are against it. There is a similar feeling about potential for conflict with Iran. Sixty-three percent of respondents are against military action in Iran, even if it's limited to air strikes. And if ground troops are involved, opposition rises to 73 percent. That poll conducted last weekend, bears a margin of error of around five percent.
GORANI: The war in Iraq is of course an important issue in the 2008 campaign, but the domestic economy is also a key concern for voters. In 1992, Democrats used the phrase it's the economy, stupid, to campaign against and ultimately defeat the first President Bush. Bill Schneider reports the phrase may ring true again in 2008.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): Here are the issues voters now rate as the most important in their vote for president. The economy now tops the list. Just ahead of the war in Iraq.
MARK ZANDI, MOODY'S ECONOMY.COM: At the heart of our current economic problems is the evaporating housing market, the plunge in sales, construction and most importantly, house prices.
SCHNEIDER: When the economy is bad, the economy is the issue. That was certainly the case in 1980 when Ronald Reagan got elected and in 1992 when Bill Clinton won on the economy, stupid. At the time of those two elections, only about a third of Americans said things were going well in the country. Compare that with the last three presidential elections. In 1996, 2000 and 2004, solid majorities said things were going well. And this year? It looked good in January, when 57 percent of Americans thought things were going well. But that number has been dropping all year. It's now only 42 percent.
ZANDI: The job growth has slowed quite sharply over the course of the past 6, 12 months and at this current rate of job growth, unemployment will continue to rise.
SCHNEIDER: Right now, the more important you think the economy is, the more likely you are to vote democratic. In a trial heat between the two front-runners, Hillary Clinton leads Rudy Giuliani by 27 points among people who feel the economy is an extremely important issue. She's five points ahead among those who say the economy is very important. While Giuliani leads among those who say the economy is moderately important or not important.
(On camera): Democrats like to remind voters that the economy was booming in the 1990s. That wasn't a boom, Republicans say. That was a bubble. Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. Want to return now to Pakistan, the ongoing developments, chaos there, really. Saleema Hashmi is a former principal of the National College of Art, she's also a human rights activist who was arrested and has now been released. She joins us now and thanks for doing so. Tell me the circumstances of your arrest.
SALEEMA HASHMI, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Well, we were in a closed door meeting of the human rights commission of Pakistan. Present were about 50 to 60 community leaders. There were journalists, there were women's groups, representatives of minorities. There were -- it was a really -- quite a cross-section of society. And we were discussing the implications of this new state of affairs that we find ourselves in, which is a state of emergency declared by General Pervez Musharraf. He was trying to understand its various ramifications. And then, you know, we were half way into the discussion, it was a very calm tea and cookies meeting as somebody would describe it. The police came outside, the building was surrounded, and we were told to come outside. We informed the police that we were in the middle of a meeting, and there was no reason to come outside. They insisted. They first asked the women to leave which made us think they were only going to arrest the men. And we were about half and half so the women refused, saying that you know if there was to be any action, it should be carried out against, you know, total body of the people who were sitting there. After which the police came into the room and forcibly removed everybody from there. We were asked by the director of the human rights commission under what order we were being asked to leave? We were told the orders came from above. The gentleman looked heaven ward as though it was an order from heavens above. We were then led into vans. And we were taken to the local police station where we were kept -- we were still not told what we were being arrested for. And this situation, we were locked in two different rooms.
HOLMES: Saleema a lot of the arrests that we've been seeing on television have really been fairly violent. Was there any violence involved?
HASHMI: No, not in this. This was probably the first of the arrests that took place on Sunday afternoon. Because it was inside a building, go later, the next day, when we were finally taken to the magistrate's court, they charged us with unlawful assembly and we were told that we were outside chanting slogans on the road, which is entirely untrue.
HOLMES: So, there's been hundreds -- hundreds of arrests of really a lot of the intelligence of Pakistan. How has this made you and your colleagues react? Does it make you less likely to protest or more likely?
HASHMI: I don't think that people are going to be less likely to be angry. From what it has seen, I mean, we were lucky in the sense that we were thinking and we were charged, you know, the next day. They have been people who have been -- whose demonstrations had been broken up extremely violently. That includes mainly lawyers, journalists, media people, some students. But I think that what we are witnessing right now is an absolutely incredible slap down countrywide.
HOLMES: What do you do then as a human rights activist do now? You have been released. What do you do now and other activists?
HASHMI: Well, we are all out on bail and friends have stood guarantors for us and we are supposed to behave ourselves for the next 90 days so our friends are not going to lose their cars and their properties. But as we see and we are witnessing that students all over Pakistan who have almost become politicized over the last years, they have become very interested in what's happening. I think that -- in Lahore certainly some of the more elite students, organizations have seriously looking at these violations of fundamental rights. They are looking at the fine print when they find that the constitution is as we know it is being held in a bend. So I think this is the beginning of rather a widespread awareness of what this is going to do.
HOLMES: Ok. Saleema, appreciate your time Saleema Hashmi there, human rights activist recently arrested and released. We are going to take a break, be right back.
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GORANI: Welcome back, everyone. We want to revisit the U.S. economy and the global economy. The subject of a rather gloomy forecast by fed Chief Ben Bernanke on Capitol Hill. Are our things really bad? We're joined now from London by Gillian Tet, editor of the "Financial Times." Thanks for being with us. The big question right now Gillian is will this credit mess we have seen over the last few months extend to other parts of the economy?
GILLIAN TET, EDITOR, FINANCIAL TEAM: Well, that is, indeed, the big question that investors are asking right now. This summer we had a nasty credit shock, but the impact of that was really felt most of volume in the debt markets. However, we are just starting to see concerns erupting that we could be heading for bigger realignment of the financial markets that would affect the equity sector and also lead to further sel0loff in the dollar as well. GORANI: Now, we are seeing the Dow Jones industrial average, that figure that you see on your screen is live, down 178 after a triple digit decline yesterday. Gillian, what does this mean for the ordinary consumer in the United States?
TET: Well, it's basically pretty bad news because what you will start to see is broader questioning of the kind of robust growth we have had in the U.S. in the last few years. You are seeing signs that people are beginning to realize that if the Wall Street banks start hurting they could start putting out the cost of borrowing for consumers and companies all over the U.S. and that on would certainly dampen down growth as well.
GORANI: Now we're talking about a very, very low dollar. At historic lows. We saw Nicolas Sarkozy visit the U.S. president yesterday, probably happy his euro can buy almost $1.50 for one year. Remember Gillian when the one euro was 85 cents? What does this mean for the world economy? How will it realign things?
TET: Well right now city in London it means that a lot of British shoppers are thinking about doing their Christmas shopping in New York this Christmas. But aside from that, we are potentially entering a very dangerous faze because just as investors in the U.S. are starting to get some cold feet, confidence is starting to fall,. So, too, we are seeing people around the world start to question whether the U.S. economy is as strong as they thought, whether the U.S. financial system was as safe as they thought. And that's leading some people to say, well, maybe it's time to diversify out of dollar assets --
GORANI: I'm sorry to interrupt you because we only have about a minute left. But I'm hearing more and more often from economists, speaking all over the world, dump your dollars, buy euros. The euro will continue to strengthen against the dollar.
TET: Well, that is absolutely the types of concerns, the kinds of comments being echoed all over the place, all the way from (INAUDIBLE) to Alaska and everywhere in between. The question now really is what are the Europeans going to do about that? A strong euro not good for the euro region, but the other big question is will Washington sit by as the dollar continues to fall or when it still falls, to try and stem that decline at some point?
GORANI: All right. The euro, strong euro is bad for Europe because obviously, that makes Europe's exports more expensive. But why is a weak dollar bad for America?
TET: Well, the danger is that it's going to leave the U.S. authorities in a bit of a inflationary bind. On the one hand, if we have problems in the credit markets and we have growth slowing down, there will be a lot of pressure on the feds to cut rates. The problem is, though, that if the dollar is falling, that could actually boost inflationary pressures.
GORANI: Sure.
TET: I'm not quite very nasty.
GORANI: I'm sorry Gillian we've got to leave it there but especially with oil prices so high. Thank you so much Giuliani head of the financial times. Thanks again.
HOLMES: And that will do it for this hour, I'm Michael Holmes.
GORANI: And this was YOUR WORLD TODAY, do stay with CNN, a lot more ahead I'm Hala Gorani. Thanks for your company.
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