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Explosion Shakes Central Beirut; Wounded Pakistani School Girl Stands; EU Leaders Agree to Install Watchdogs; Living Chic In Europe; Still Rocking After 50 Years

Aired October 19, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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


MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And thanks to you, Ashleigh.

Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. As Ashleigh said, I'm Michael Holmes. Suzanne Malveaux is still out. We're taking you around the world in 60 minutes. And here's what we're covering for you today.

A car bomb rocks a normally quiet part of Beirut in the middle of rush hour causing chaos on the streets and fears about what might come next.

Foreign policy will be the focus of Monday night's presidential debate. CNN's Fareed Zakaria is going to put it all in perspective for us.

Also, they started rocking 50 years ago. The Rolling Stones celebrate a truly golden anniversary.

We're going to start in the Middle East. Panic, violence, death, and fear returning today to Beirut, Lebanon. That's where a car bomb blew up in one of the city's busiest and most peaceful neighborhoods. The latest official word, eight people dead, almost 10 times that many wounded. The explosion filling the street with burning wreckage, broken glass. This all happened just a few hours ago. Police are still helping the injured, securing the area and trying to find out who did this.

Let's get straight to Beirut live. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom has been covering this.

You're not -- actually not that far from where this happened. You heard it go off when you were out there reporting on another story. What did you see when you first got there?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michael, it was a chaotic scene. The people that were there on the scene, many of them clearly in a state of panic.

Ashrafiya is a Christian neighborhood in the heart of the city. You and I have been speaking today about the fact that this is a neighborhood where you have malls and coffee shops, schools, and churches. It's a very tolerant neighborhood. And the people that I spoke with today were very concerned about what this means. There has been so much worry these past several months that there would be more spill-over violence from neighboring Syria, where that brutal civil war has been raging for so long.

When we got on the scene there today, many people I spoke with were worried that this could be a return to the old days, 2005, when there was a wave of car bombings and political assassinations that was going on in Beirut. And people were really worried that could happen again. That this could be a sign of those days yet to come.

Now, we did speak to one person there, Mr. Edmond Boutros with the Coptic Christian League here if Lebanon. And here's what he told us about why he was so concerned about what happened today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDMOND BOUTROS, EYEWITNESS: I'm afraid that years ago like (INAUDIBLE) we had (INAUDIBLE) explosion in Lebanon, and I'm afraid that this explosion will not be the first of a dozen (ph) other explosions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JAMJOOM: Many people we spoke with today worry that this might just be the first of many such explosions to come. Nobody has yet taken responsibility for this bombing today. Right now there is a meeting of the security council here in Lebanon. An emergency meeting that is taking place at this hour as we speak. And nobody has pointed fingers to one specific group who might be behind this at this point, but the cabinet here has declared tomorrow a national day of mourning.

Michael.

HOLMES: Always such intrigue in that part of the world, Mohammed. And it was only just not that long ago that a senior -- a Lebanese politician allied to al Assad in Syria was arrested and has been charged over explosives being brought into Lebanon and fears that attacks and targeting was going to be carried out.

We are getting word -- and I don't know if you've heard this yet -- that a senior Lebanese intelligence official, Wissam al-Hassan, was actually killed in this explosion. And, interestingly, he was the brains behind uncovering that plot.

JAMJOOM: That has been confirmed now, Michael, and that just adds another layer of concern because he was so involved with the Hariri inquiry, with trying to find out who was behind the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon, which happened in 2005. So this certainly to stoke more fears about what this will mean. Many people will assume because of this that Syria had a hand in this. Already when we were speaking to people out in the streets today, they were concerned that some sort of connection would be established. That's not been established yet at this point. Nobody has been named.

But there has been so much tension in Lebanon of late as to if what's going in Syria would rear its ugly head here more in Lebanon, a country that's really trying to get -- still trying to get back on its feet after a long civil war between 1957 and 1990. Syria very much inextricably linked with Lebanon. Very close ties with Lebanon. You have those here who are opposed to the regime and you have those here who are very much with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. And many people had thought that Bashar al Assad, in one way or another, would show up somehow in the internal politics yet again here in Lebanon and cause more chaos in a country that's still recovering from a civil war that only ended in 1990.

Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, and, of course, with the veneer of stability that exists in Lebanon, Mohammed, it's long been, as you said, feared that al Assad would try to destabilize the situation in Lebanon to divert what's going on within his own borders. So this is obviously a very worrying thing.

And when you look at the neighborhood that was attacked, a predominantly Christian neighborhood, usually peaceful, very social sort of area, as posed to the trouble that's already spilled outside the borders, which happened in the north, in Tripoli, the port city where you had Sunni and Alawite issues.

JAMJOOM: That's right. And we should point out, you know, violence in Lebanon can happen at any time in pretty much any place. But the fact that this happened today, in a neighborhood that is known to be tolerant in which people of all faiths are welcome. It's a predominantly Christian neighborhood, but it is a populous and popular place with kids, with adults. There are schools, churches, malls, coffee shops. It's really considered to be a wonderful place in the heart of Beirut. A place that is trying to show how this country has moved on from the sectarian violence that wrought its ugly head in the past.

In the north of the country, in places like Tripoli, oftentimes you see violence, you see clashes between factions that are with the Syrian government and factions that are against the Syrian government. So if this is spill-over from the violence in Syria happening in the heart of Beirut, in a neighborhood as tolerant, a Christian neighborhood as Ashrafiya is, that is an extremely worrying development. Yes, violence can happen here any place. But the fact that this happened here today, very worrying for the people we spoke with about what's yet to come here in Lebanon.

Michael.

HOLMES: Indeed. And thanks for your reporting on this, Mohammed. Thanks so much. Mohammed Jamjoom there in Beirut.

You know, interestingly, it was just two days ago the U.N. and Arab League's new point man on Syria was in Beirut. Ironically, while he was there, he warned leaders there in Lebanon that the Syrian conflict could not be expected to remain inside its borders if things continue the way they are. We're talking about Lakhdar Brahimi, of course. He stopped over in Lebanon before crossing into Syria. He's off to Damascus today. But what he's trying to do is broker at least a temporary cease-fire at the moment. A U.S. spokesman says Brahimi expects to meet with the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, face-to- face on this trip. Let's turn now to the Pakistani schoolgirl activist who was shot by the Taliban. She is showing signs of a remarkable recovery today, standing for the first time since she was attacked, even communicating with doctors. You'll remember Malala Yousufzai, she is that courageous 15-year-old who spoke out for girls rights to go to school. She explained her position in an interview last year with our Reza Sayah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALALA YOUSUFZAI, SCHOOLGIRL ACTIVIST: I have the right of education. I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk. I have the right to go to market. I have the right to speak up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Brave girl. Malala was shot in the head October 9 as she headed home from school. The Taliban have vowed to shoot her again now that she survived. Her story's sparking outrage around the world, including within Pakistan. Tens of thousands rallying in Karachi Sunday in support of Malala, who has become a symbol of resistance against the Taliban and in favor of education for girls. She was taken to the United Kingdom where she has been undergoing treatment at a hospital in Birmingham. Dan Rivers is in London.

Dan, some remarkably good news by the sound of it. Tell us what you know.

DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing, isn't it? You just look at that picture and, I mean, clearly, you know, she has been in a very grave situation. But the fact that she's regained consciousness, she's come out of this medically induced coma. More than that, though, that she, despite being shot at point-blank range in the head, is able to communicate, to write, to stand, and that she clearly, you know, her memory is intact is remarkable.

Now, the doctors are saying, you know, she's not out of the woods yet, but she's doing well. They are cautiously optimistic about her prognosis. They're basically saying that, you know, what -- there are several risks. One is infection, where along the track of the bullet through her head, and also that bone fragments that were sent not actually by the bullet, but by the shock wave of the bullet, is also a risk. And that's something that they're going to have to look at. They're talking about possibly rebuilding the part of the skull that was damaged and possibly inserting a titanium plate.

At the moment she's unable to speak because she's had a tracheotomy. She's got a kind of tube down her throat. But they think once that tube has been removed, there's a good chance that she might be able to speak as well. So, some really encouraging news. And, you know, the most amazing thing, despite everything she had gone through, she was able to write a message of thanks for all the people that had shown support and interest. Just showing what a remarkable young girl she is.

HOLMES: Yes, it is incredible considering she was shot in the head. The bullet traveled through her head to her neck. I mean any idea how long -- you know, this is not going to be a short treatment. How long is she going to be there, do you know?

RIVERS: Well, when we were talking to the doctors earlier on in the week, they were talking about, you know, months, basically, of recuperation. Whether that's now going to be, you know, revised back a bit in terms of how long she spends in this particular hospital, we still haven't been told. But it's really encouraging. I think this is probably, you know, a lot better than they -- than they dared to dream when she first arrived. We were being, you know, distinctly told, this is a very long, slow process of rehabilitation. It's too early to say. I don't think anyone could have dreamt that she would have basically been able to write and stand and communicate so quickly just a few days after arriving in hospital.

HOLMES: Yes, Dan, thanks so much. Dan Rivers joining us there from London.

Want to tell you that the president's speaking live at the moment in Virginia. We'll hear a little more from him after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back.

President Obama making one campaign stop before a weekend at Camp David. He's at George Mason University this hour in Fairfax, Virginia. Let's listen in for a moment.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Four years ago, I told you we'd end the war in Iraq, and we did. I said we'd end the war in Afghanistan. We are. I said we'd refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have. Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat. Osama bin Laden is dead.

Four years ago I promised to cut taxes for middle class families, and I have. I promised to cut taxes for small business owners. We have 18 times. We got every dime back from the banks that we used to rescue those banks. We've passed laws to end taxpayer funded Wall Street bailouts for good. We repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to make sure that nobody who wants to serve our country gets kicked out because of who they love.

When Governor Romney said we'd let -- he'd let Detroit go bankrupt, we said, we're not going to take your advice. We re-invented a dying auto industry. It's come roaring back to the top of the world.

Four years after the worst economic crisis of our lifetime, we're moving. After losing 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, businesses have now added over 5 million new jobs. Unemployment has fallen from 10 percent to 7.8 percent. Home values are back on the rise. Stock market's nearly doubled. 401ks are starting to recover. Manufacturing's coming home. Assembly lines are humming again. We've got to keep moving forward. We've got to keep moving forward. We've got more work to do. I've got a plan and it's a real plan, not a sales pitch, to grow the economy and create jobs and build more security for the middle class. I want to send fewer jobs overseas and sell more products overseas. I want to invest in manufacturers and small businesses that create jobs right here in Virginia, right here in America.

I want us to control more of our own energy, cut oil imports in half, create thousands of clean-energy jobs. I want every child to have the same chance at a great education that Michelle and I received. I want to hire more teachers in math and science, train 2 million workers at community colleges, bring down the cost of college tuition.

I want to use the savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to pay down our deficit, put our people back to work right here doing some nation-building here at home.

That's the agenda you need. That's the agenda we need. That's how we strengthen the middle class. That's how we'll keep moving forward and, in 18 days, you're going to have a chance to say whether we keep moving forward.

In 18 days, you can choose between top-down economic policies that got us into this mess or the middle-class-out policies that are getting us out of this mess.

In 18 days, you can choose a foreign policy that gets us into wars with no plan to get out or you can say, let's end the Afghan war responsibly. Let's bring our troops home. Let's focus on making sure that we're building America.

In 18 days, you can let them turn the clock back 50 years for immigrants and gays and women or we can stand up and say, we are a country in which everybody has a place.

(END LIVE COVERAGE)

HOLMES: President Obama, there. And Mitt Romney and running mate, Paul Ryan, they're going to be holding a rally this evening in Daytona Beach, Florida. Michelle Obama is in Ryan's home state of Wisconsin. Keeping an eye on the candidates there.

Now, a lot at stake, of course, for President Obama and Mitt Romney in Monday's third and final presidential debate. Joining us now to talk about what we should be looking out for is CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" and a man who knows his foreign policy.

Let's talk a bit first about the back and forth over Libya in Tuesday night's debate. What did you make of it?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, I think clearly President Obama got the better of that exchange and Romney just made a mistake and dug himself deeper into that mistake by insisting that he was right on what was really a kind of a technical point.

And it distracted attention from his larger argument, which was a perfectly fair one, which was that the administration had been at the very least very clumsy in the way it had handled the aftermath of the crisis, so ...

HOLMES: Do you see that being rectified in the next round?

ZAKARIA: I think he'll be very hard on Obama, yes. I think what Romney has decided is that the Benghazi attack provides an opening which allows him to talk about the attack and then tie it to all the unrest in the Middle East, from Egypt to Tunisia to Syria to Iran, and say, you see, President Obama's Middle East policy is unraveling.

It wouldn't be a particularly powerful critique if not for the Benghazi thing because it doesn't seem -- otherwise, it just seems like, you know, the Middle East is an unstable place. It's always been an unstable place, but now you have a point of attack.

HOLMES: Yeah, and, you know, I wanted to cover this with you. The Middle East and Israel and the Palestinians, in particular, always high on the foreign policy agenda, but that whole issue is slipping from view, that particular one, and Mitt Romney's famous hidden-camera speech to donors, pretty much indicating he sees no point in pursuing a Middle East peace agenda when it comes to Israel and Palestinians.

It was pretty pessimistic. What did you make of that and how will that be received in the Arab world?

ZAKARIA: I think it was very pessimistic and it was a reflection, really, of the current Israeli government's position.

Romney's position on these issues are essentially Netanyahu's positions and Bibi Netanyahu has made clear that he really has no interest in trying to get some kind of a serious peace deal right now. He takes advantage of the fact that the Palestinians are divided and they are and that is a huge problem, but that has become an excuse for the Netanyahu government to do absolutely nothing, and Romney, in a sense, is saying ,that's how things stand and we'll just kick the can down the road.

It's disappointing because it provides -- you know, it means the Palestinians continue to live in hardship. It also means the Israelis don't solve what's an important issue for them, which is getting rid of this albatross around their neck.

HOLMES: Yeah, exactly. I've got to talk about China, too. The Chinese leaderships' ears must be burning every time there is an address from either candidate. A lot of tough talk.

I want to just play a bit of the sound from Tuesday's live debate and we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: On day one, I will label China a currency manipulator which will allow me, as president, to be able to put in place, if necessary, tariffs where I believe that they are taking unfair advantage of our manufacturers. OBAMA: When he talks about getting tough on China, you've got to keep in mind that Governor Romney invested in companies that were pioneers of outsourcing to China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: China, of course, needs the U.S. as a market and the U.S. needs China as a bit of a bank.

What is the reality here? How likely is it either of these men will take tough action against China? What exactly could they do?

ZAKARIA: Well, this is a lot of campaign rhetoric, except for one thing, which is Mitt Romney is making a very specific promise. He says that on day one he will label China a currency manipulator, which does -- the only point of doing it is that it then allows you to raise tariffs against China.

Well, the Chinese will certainly retaliate. There's absolutely no question about that. They may also argue that what the Federal Reserve is doing with quantitative easing has the effect of lowering America's -- the value of the dollar and that it is, in its own way, the manipulation of currency.

So, we're setting the stage for what could possibly be a trade war between the number one and number two economies in the world. That should be a very worrying prospect because we haven't seen anything like it for a long, long time.

HOLMES: Fareed, got to talk to you about Syria, especially perhaps in the wake of the apparent target in Lebanon today, Syria.

Republicans have accused the president of a failure of leadership in Syria, leading from behind, and what we've heard from the Romney campaign about how he would respond to the crisis in Syria. You know, it's such a thorny issue for a country trying to get out of two wars.

ZAKARIA: Well, it's a thorny issue for really anyone. If you look at the Turks, they tried to get involved and be more aggressive and that foreign policy has sort of collapsed and they are now trying to find some way to, you know, topple the Assad regime without doing what everybody recognizes would be a gruesome military intervention.

Look, Romney in his foreign policy speech on the subject had a lot of hot air, criticizing President Obama, but his specific proposal was so modest. He said that what he would do, compared to what the Obama administration is doing, is explore the possibility of looking at whether some of these groups that are battling the Assad government are not extremists or radical Islamic groups and find a way to get them arms.

Not to arm them, but to -- you know, it was done in the passive voice, which means, really, he's saying letting the Saudis and the Qataris give them arms.

Well, A, it's already happening and, B, if you think you can figure out among this bunch of people who's an Islamic radical and who's not, good luck.

HOLMES: Yeah, precisely. Yeah, that's the whole problem, isn't it? Nobody knows who the opposition is, who you arm, whose going to get the arms we send in there. It's really an impossible situation.

Fareed ...

ZAKARIA: And if you end up two years from now with a U.S. passenger airline that's shot done with a missile that was provided by us, all hell will break loose.

HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely. Always great to get your thoughts on foreign policy, Fareed. Really appreciate your time. And do watch Fareed's special, by the way. It's coming up on Sunday.

ZAKARIA: What America can learn from the countries leading the green revolution, from manufacturing practices to energy resources. Find out what we're not doing that could help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. "Global Lessons -- The Roadmap for Powering America," a GPS special documentary, that is Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern. Don't miss it.

HOLMES: He knows his stuff.

All right, now, creating a single watchdog to keep an eye on banks in the euro zone. A live report coming up on new efforts to help prevent future catastrophic bank loans. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Responding to Europe's debt crisis, EU leaders agree to install a watchdog to oversee banks in the eurozone. Right now each of the 17 eurozone countries is supposed to keep an eye on its own banks and bail them out if they get into trouble.

But that, of course, has left some countries deep in debt, forced to take wildly unpopular austerity measures. Think about Spain and Greece, as well, where we saw demonstrations just this week.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now to help explain what this all means. Fred, euro officials think this is the best way to protect against the crushing debt problems some members are facing. Why?

FREDERIK PLETIGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, because it seems there have been a lack of oversight in some countries, especially one of the ones that you just mentioned, namely Spain, that actually led to a lot of Spain's problems.

If you look at right now what that country is having to do is they're having to pump a lot of money into their banking sector because a lot of their banks are in danger of going broke and, quite frankly, the Spanish don't have that money at this point in time.

And this new oversight body is really there to do two things. One, of course, is oversight over all European banks and the other thing is, also, actually bailing these banks out. And the money that it draws from could come from the European Central Bank, but it could also come from the European Stability Mechanism. That is a bail-out fund that the eurozone has.

So, it is a very, very important thing and there was a lot of political wrangling at this EU summit before this deal was actually made, especially between the Germans and the French, and what happened was the French wanted this thing to come earlier.

The Germans said we need more time to actually hammer this out because, of course, what the Germans are worried about is that they are going to have to pay a lot of money into this oversight body and end up bailing out banks in other countries than their own and that's something that is very difficult to explain to voters in this country.

Michael?

HOLMES: Yeah, it was an uneasy compromise in many ways. You know, Mr. Hollande and Angela Merkel, not necessarily on the same page when it comes to this crisis.

The timetable of this is pretty crucial, isn't it?

PLEITGEN: It is very crucial and one of the things that the French always wanted is they say that this thing has to be in place by January 1st, 2013. They said that that was something that they were not willing to budge on.

The Germans said, it's not going to be in place by January 1st, 2013 and, so, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande went head-to-head at this summit for about 11 hours and they came up with a compromise, as they usually do here in the eurozone, if there's two positions that seem completely at odds with each other, but in the end they reach a compromise.

And what's going to happen is that the legal framework is going to be in place by January 1st, 2013, but the thing is not actually going to go into force until way later in 2013, probably towards the end of the year because a lot of details have to be hammered out, what sort of powers this authority is going to have is going to have to be hammered out.

And one of the reasons people see behind that and one that we always have to keep an eye on is that Angela Merkel faces elections later this year here in Germany and she certainly doesn't want to be seen to be giving money to other countries' banks before that election, Michael.

HOLMES: Yeah, and, of course, Fred, as always, what happens in Europe matters in the United States, doesn't it, because of ....

PLEITGEN: Certainly does.

HOLMES: .... the trade? Exactly. Fascinating stuff. Fred, always good to get your thoughts. Fred Pleitgen, there in Berlin for us.

Well, one business in Spain is riding out the European debt crisis. Richard Quest checks out a reusable diaper start-up that is surviving on its own when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, anyone who's had children will be familiar with the daily routine of changing diapers. Yes, you, too, Dad. And they will also be acquainted with the cost of paying for them over and over again until their babies are toilet-trained.

Well, our Richard Quest found a woman in Spain who sees a business opportunity in all of that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The wheels of new industry are turning in this tiny workroom.

MONTSE MUNOZ, FOUNDER, TUCUXI: This is modern cloth nappy.

QUEST: It's an uphill struggle for Montse Munoz who set up her reusable nappy business in 2010.

MUNOZ: We have key advantage in recession, which is an economical advantage for parents with the first baby -- with the first baby where they have to invest in cloth nappies.

They already save 900 euros, and this is a saving strategy for the family. Another type of customer buy them because of ecological motivations. Well, it's obvious about pollution of disposable nappies.

QUEST: This is the original small business, opened in the teeth of recession, but because it has a niche market, is expanding.

It's got one machine over here. Come with me.

MUNOZ: Yes.

QUEST: And this is the empire.

MUNOZ: Yes, three sewing machines. That's it. You don't need much more.

QUEST: Second-hand machines at that because, like thousands of small businesses across Spain, there's precious little support from the banks for investment.

MUNOZ: To get one euro from a bank, you have to put through two euros in the business and you have to guarantee it with five euros of your own, so if they give you, I don't know, 1,000 euros, you need to have 5,000 euros in the bank to make them sure that you will pay them back, so you need such guarantees that it makes impossible to get a loan.

QUEST: A lack of access to funding means growth must remain modest. Montse reinvests her earnings back into the business.

She's proud her products are made in Spain. She's frustrated that the current tax regime makes local production uncompetitive.

MUNOZ: The cost of labor is not because of the salaries because Spanish salaries aren't that high. It's because of the taxes.

For every 100 euros I pay to a person, I have to pay 40-to-50 to the state and that is very expensive. Extremely expensive.

QUEST: You take the baby.

MUNOZ: Yes and you close the nappy.

QUEST: I don't know what all the fuss is about.

MUNOZ: It's like a disposable one. It's so easy.

QUEST: There you are. You just sort of get on with it. Keep quiet. There.

To continue to move forward, the one thing businesses here crave is predictability and that is the one thing in today's Spain that's a long way off.

Richard Quest, CNN, Barcelona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And he is English. That's why it was nappies, not diapers. It is in my country, as well.

All right. The death of a trucker, a riot in China, lots of unanswered questions about what happened. We'll look into it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. A rare look at a searing protest in China. Show you there the city of Luzhou which is in Southwest China. This happened late on Wednesday.

Thousands of people rioting in the streets setting fire to police cars. They say a truck driver was beaten to death by police. State media, though, say that he was parked in a no-parking zone then got sick and died after a scuffle with police.

State media report 20 people were arrested.

To London now, a once popular children's television and radio host is accused of sexual abuse. Jimmy Savile died a year ago. Now, sexual misconduct allegations are pouring in against him.

Savile was a whacky and dynamic BBC presenter who was actually knighted and given an honorary doctorate. He's accused of preying on teenage girls for decades.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong is scheduled to address a crowd at a fundraiser for his Livestrong cancer foundation in Austin, Texas, tonight. This will actually be his first public appearance since that scathing report by the U.S. Doping Agency alleging that he ran an elaborate doping scandal. Did so for years, they say.

The Armstrong scandal has cost cycling a big sponsor, meanwhile. Dutch bank, and it's a big bank, Rabobank, will stop supporting professional cycling at the end of the year. The bank says the decision is a direct result of that report. A statement from the bank expresses doubt that the world of professional cycling can ever, quote, "make this a clean and fair sport," unquote.

Armstrong, of course, denying the allegations against him.

Well, finding deals in Europe for hip hotels. Some advice for you from a travel and leisure expert on where to look and where to buy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Planning a trip to Europe? Well, if your wallet is full, try booking a $400 a night luxury suite at London's Dorset Square Hotel. That's in the rather fashionable Marylebone neighborhood. It is one of Europe's new chic hotels. And there are lots more for the discerning traveler. Nilou Motamed is features director and senior correspondent at "Travel and Leisure" magazine.

That's a heck of a job. I want to work there.

NILOU MOTAMED, "TRAVEL AND LEISURE" MAGAZINE: I know, it's a good job.

HOLMES: Yes, I know. Not bad. You're in New York.

MOTAMED: Not so bad. I am in New York, but not all the time. Most of the time I'm on the road.

HOLMES: Yes, in luxury hotels. The Dorset Square Hotel, not to be confused, I mean, with the Dorset Hotel, has only 38 rooms. Does small mean chic?

MOTAMED: I love intimate. Right now, actually, you know, the idea of having a small boutique hotel where you can have kind of a more curated experience is definitely something that we're seeing as a big trend in travel and leisure. And the Dorset Square and the Firmdale property, the Fermdale properties that own the Dorset Square really do a great job with this. This is their seventh property in London. And what I love about it is that what they've taken a little bit of the neighborhood and taken it as a motif and used it throughout the hotel. The neighborhood, Marylebone, as you mentioned, this little garden that they have right outside, which a lot of the rooms look out onto, used to be a cricket park. And so they have these cricket motifs throughout the hotel. And kit (ph) camp is just the queen of doing intimate and using beautiful embroidery and lots of colors in the rooms. This is a place where you're going to feel really cosseted and really special.

HOLMES: Yes, the Marylebone Cricket Club, we call it the MCC, legend in cricket, but I don't think our audience would follow that. How about -- MOTAMED: I love the Aussie bringing in the cricket. That's good.

HOLMES: Oh, you got it. Great sport.

Now, what about other sites across Europe? Obviously there's plenty of these little things popping up.

MOTAMED: There's -- well, there's Mama Shelter in Marseille. We're very excited about Marseille. That's a town that we have our eye on because there's a lot of creative energy going on there. And Mama Shelter, when it opened in Paris, actually got a design award from "Travel and Leisure" because it is Philippe Starck. It is really thinking about this young, creative set who wants to have fun in a hotel.

And when you think about deals, this is only $90 a night in Marseille. There are about 120 rooms. They all have IMAX in them. The -- it's all about communal dining when you're downstairs. There's a pizzeria. It's all about fun. And what I love about that is the fact that for $90 a night, you can have a great experience and you don't have to sacrifice the idea of having a comfortable stay with the idea of having a fun stay.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. When CNN sends me away, it's normally Iraq or Afghanistan and it's a cot in a tent. So next time I'll travel with you guys at "Travel and Leisure" magazine.

MOTAMED: We're happy to have you.

HOLMES: Nilou, great to see you. Thanks so much. Nilou Motamed.

MOTAMED: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. A lion out of The Rolling Stones song, "Jumping Jack Flash." The London red carpet debut of "Crossfire Hurricane." You remember that? It's a new documentary, this one about The Rolling Stones, but the buzz is all about their 50th anniversary tour. Do you feel old now? Fiftieth?

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HOLMES: Now you may remember a Swedish band called Panetoz that we first introduced you to a few months back. Well, that band performed in Stockholm, but their members come from Finland and countries right across Africa. They have now taken their smash hit "Dansa Pausa" and released an English version in the United States.

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HOLMES: You can sit down now. The band's label says after their CNN interview, people in the United States started to take notice. (INAUDIBLE) make a difference.

Let's stay with the music world. Rolling Stones fans will be getting some satisfaction from the legendary rockers as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. The group is going on tour. It's a short tour, though. There's also a documentary chronicling their rise to fame. It's going to be out in theaters. Neil Curry caught up with the band on the red carpet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL CURRY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was born in the summer of 1962. An event of little consequence in British cultural history. But in the months that followed, there was a phenomenon in the birth of British talent. The Beatles, the first James Bond film and the first gig by a band which became known as The Rolling Stones in this building behind me in London.

CURRY (voice-over): Fifty years on from that first gig at the Marquee Club, the band members are preparing to hold themselves on stage once more to play hits such as "Painted Black" and "Brown Sugar."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soon we'll be back on stage --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Playing for you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In two cities --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That know how to rock 'n' roll.

CURRY: With a total of just four performances in London and Newark, it's not so much a tour, but a celebration of the career which has spanned three generations of fans.

With a new hits album on the way, and a new documentary, "Crossfire Hurricane," about to hit cinemas, The Stones defied their combined 273 years and walked the red carpet with a spring in their step.

CURRY (on camera): Can you tell me what it was like back in those early days with the first gigs of The Stones?

RONNIE WOOD, THE ROLLING STONES: Well, I had so many songs to rehearse. Like 300 songs laid on my head in (INAUDIBLE) when I first was rehearsing. Keith and I would stay up day after day and just churn through the songs. And I luckily know them all in my head. I was blessed.

CURRY: And what about the stagecraft? How did you learn to own the stage?

WOOD: Well, they kind of make you feel welcome and take you under the umbrella of feeling comfortable within The Stones. And luckily I felt that comfort before I joined.

CURRY: What sets the rolling stones apart from other bands?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, they're very, very talented and very clever. And they've been together 50 years. That's quite an achievement. And they make the greatest music in the world.

CURRY: And how are you looking forward to the new gigs? WOOD: Really a lot, yes. The rehearsals in Paris are going fantastic. And we're playing all the old material and combining it with a whole cross section, you know, right through the years. It's really good fun.

CURRY (voice-over): The band's gross earnings broke through the billion dollar barrier more than a decade ago. And some fans are lamenting the high ticket prices, which start at $150. While others consider it a small price to pay for what could be the last chance to see one of the most essential bands in the history of rock 'n' roll.

Neil Curry, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Expensive tickets.

It's a bird, it's a plane, is it a wing man. One of those stunts you don't want to try at home or off the garage.

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HOLMES: All right, we have some pictures for you to check out now.

Daredevils in central China who took part in the wind suit flying world championship. Oh, yes, there is such a thing. They are looking like birdman. The fearless flyers gliding down from a 4,600 foot peak in the country's Hunan Province. The winner a South African who swooped to the ground in less than 34 (ph) seconds. Are you kidding. That's crazy, isn't that?

Fred Whitfield's here.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: I thought that was such a -- yes, I thought that was such a unique thing to one particular jumper out there. But now when you see it en masse, it makes it less special.

HOLMES: Oh, no, no, everyone's doing it. Everyone's doing it. You don't do that?

WHITFIELD: Sorry.

HOLMES: You haven't got a wing suit?