Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Crowds Swarm St. Peters Basilica For Last Benedict XVI Led Mass; Syrian Opposition Leader, Foreign Minister To Have Meetings In Russia
Aired February 13, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, HOST: Tonight on Connect the World, a poignant farewell. The pope holds his last public mass two days after a shock resignation.
MAX FOSTER, HOST: And I'm Max Foster in Rome where the pontiff tells huge crowds that he made his decision for the good of the church.
SWEENEY: And also this hour, relief is in sight as stricken cruise ship is on track to dock in around 24 hours. What it's like to be on board a holiday turned nightmare.
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIRA SORVINO, ACTRESS: Anyone can be an abolitionist. It's just up to you to decide that you're going to do it.
SWEENEY: Actress Mira Sorvino and why she got involved in the latest CNN Freedom Project documentary.
We begin with Pope Benedict's final public mass as spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics. Wearing the purple robes of Lent, the pope resided over Ash Wednesday services at St. Peters Basilica. He received a thundering and standing ovation. Many in the congregation broke down in tears.
Benedict will step down at the end of this month, becoming the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.
Well, the pope also received a warm reception at his weekly audience earlier in the day. Let's get details now from Max Foster in Rome -- Max.
FOSTER: Hello, Fionnuala. When so many people gathered here today, it really felt like a historic occasion. That mass, his last mass as he presided over it, really felt like an electric atmosphere. When you speak to people that came out of it or people that went there they said it was this amazing atmosphere in there. They felt like it was history.
These are, of course, always amazing occasions. It's a spectacular building. And so many people are passionate about their religion. But this felt like history.
And earlier in the day an audience what normally would be an average weekly audience again turned into an historic occasion as the pope spoke for the first time since resigning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): I have done these in full freedom for the benefit of the church, but I have prayed quite a long time and I have examined before god my conscience fully aware of the gravity and seriousness of such acts, but also aware that it is not adequate for me to continue if I don't have the strength that is required.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: You really get a sense being here how powerful the Catholic church is, all those billion followers around the world. And many of them coming here. A lot of people here today had actually planned to come here weeks, months, if not years ago, and came here today not expecting this environment. So much media here and this news, of course, this shock news that the pope had actually resigned. They never considered that would ever be the case.
And you get a sense of the anticipation, excitement, nervousness in a way, and sense of history that people feel when you speak to people up there outside the basilica. And I had a chance to speak to a few people who went to the audience where the pope spoke for the first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very emotional from everybody and also the pope I think he was very emotional.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were a lot of people I think a lot of people wanted to make them -- him feel that we are sympathy. We were on his side, so to speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very (inaudible). They went to the water twice into the audience. I don't know if it was water or some mint, but he looks tired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, we don't yet know what the next pope's priorities will be, what direction he'll take the church in, but many Vatican watchers here actually don't expect much deviation from Benedict's conservative views, really, on social issues. And here are several controversies that await the next pope and will certainly be in his entry.
Homosexuality, same-sex marriage -- that's a big one. The role of women in the church. Abortion, especially in cases of rape or when the life of a mother is at stake, that's a very big issue. People have talked about that. And of course the sex abuse scandal that dogged the church for years and with no resolution, really.
One Oscar winning filmmaker actually thinks that sex abuse scandal is inextricably linked to Pope Benedict's resignation. Alex Gibney directly a documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God. And it tells a really powerful story of four deaf men who are abused as boys by priests. And it tells the story of those boys really taking their search for justice right up here to the Vatican.
And here's a brief clip from one of the men involved who held that terrible secret for so many years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I first entered St. Johns I loved it. In the confessional booth there was a dividing wall, but there was a little space so you could sign back and forth and he would bless you. And he told me to take off my pants. I kept it a secret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, I had the chance today to speak to the director Alex Gibney. And I began by asking him why he really came about this documentary. Why did he want to look into this subject, which is so powerful and so poignant, of course, at this time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX GIBNEY, FILMMAKER: What I learned about the church was that it had been involved in a kind of massive global coverup of cleric sex abuse crimes. And it was shocking to me to learn just how vast and how longstanding that coverup had been going on.
FOSTER: What was the problem with the systems of the church that allowed that to happen, do you think?
GIBNEY: I think the problem at the heart of it was a sort of secrecy and hypocrisy at the heart of the system. Forced celibacy I think creates that culture in part because we know through studies done by priests that over 50 percent of the priests are not celibate. So if you have at the heart of a system something that is so hypocritical and so prone to covering it up, so prone to mandating secrecy, then you have a serious cultural problem when it comes to covering up crimes, particularly sexual crimes.
FOSTER: That does seem to be a real concerted effort to deal with that culture now lead by the current pope, in fact. But what sort of long- term damage do you think has been done to the church with the new church has to deal with?
GIBNEY: The long-term damage that's been done to the church is in terms of its credibility. I like to tell people this is not a story about faith, this is a story about crime. And unfortunately the church has been involved in covering up crimes. And it's going to have to prove to people that it will no longer do that. And it's going to be more concerned about the victims, particularly children, then it is about the predators.
FOSTER: The Vatican is very clear that the pope is stepping aside because of his health and his age actually, nothing to do with this scandal. But it's an opportunity for the church, isn't it, this resignation?
GIBNEY: It is an opportunity for the church. If the church chooses to accept this opportunity to break free of the past and to try to forge a new system by becoming more open. I mean, one thing that the church could do is disclose all the documents, not only in the Vatican, but around the worldwide system that relate to clerical sex abuse. That's a positive step that they can take, a kind of truth and reconciliation commission that would I think get back the faith and confidence of all the Catholics around the world.
FOSTER: Many likely candidates for the papal role. What sort of person do you think would be best to take the church into the next phase and away from the scandal and all the culture that came with that?
GIBNEY: I think the best person would be somebody who was young, who is strong and determined to root out this clerical culture of secrecy. It's going to take hard work, because the hierarchy of the church is determined to stay as it is, or as it was, for many, many hundreds of years. So it's really going to take a forceful pope in order to change the direction of the ship.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, Gibney said he repeatedly tried to get comment from officials at the Vatican, but those calls were just left unanswered. Fitting, he says, that the title to his documentary is Silence in the House of God.
Many people talk about the secrecy surrounding the church. Maybe that will change with the next pope, but for now we're going to get back to Fionnuala Sweeney at CNN Center.
SWEENEY: Max Foster in Rome. Thank you as always.
And you are watching Connect the World from CNN Center. Still to come tonight, as reports surface that Syria's opposition leader is planning a trip to Russia we speak directly to the country's deputy foreign minister about the situation.
Did rogue former cop Christopher Dorner die in a burning cabin? California investigations await forensic tests.
And, the privacy debate heats up. Did an Italian magazine go too far by printing photos of the Duchess of Cambridge? All that and much more when Connect the World returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World with Fionnuala Sweeney. Welcome back.
The European commission is calling for DNA testing across all meat products. The call comes as a food scandal sweeps across Europe. Earlier on Wednesday, two meat processing companies were raided in Britain. A team investigating the alleged mislabeling of horse meat entered a slaughterhouse in England and a meat plant in Wales. Work has been suspended at both premises.
Both the European commission and the British prime minister have expressed horror at the discovery of horse meat in foods labeled as beef.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONIO BORG, EUROPEAN COMMISSION HEALTH MINISTER: If anyone distributes and circulates meat products as beef when it is not beef then that is in violation of legislation.
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Retailers I think do bear a real responsibility here. At the end of the day, it is they who are putting products on their shelves and have got to say that they're really clear about where that meat came from, what it was -- who it was supplied by. It is up to them to test that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: And we'll have more on the European horse meat scandal later in the program.
Four people are dead after a plane made an emergency landing in eastern Ukraine. Russian state media also say two people are missing. 45 people were on the Antonov aircraft as it flew from the resort city of Odessa to Donetsk. It's not known whether the plane skidded off the runway or overshot it completely. Local media say it overturned and ended up in a field.
The Syrian foreign minister of the leader of the Syrian opposition will both visit Russia by the end of the month. According to Russian state media, the dates haven't been set, but both visits will be in the coming weeks.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in the Syrian capital. He joins me now live -- Fred.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fionnuala. And of course one of the big things we've been talking about with the deputy foreign minister Faisal al-Maqdad was the recent gains that the opposition says that it's making, especially in northern Syria. Of course, taking a very strategic hydro electric power dam as well as also taking a very big military base.
Now I confronted the deputy foreign minister with that. And he said he still believes that the Syrian military is the one that's in the driver's seat. Let's listen in to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAISAL AL-MAQDAD, SYRIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: I think we are winning. We have already won. You are in Damascus. You are aware of what's happening around Damascus. They threatened to have Damascus -- I mean, more than one year ago. And they are not there. We are still here.
PLEITGEN: How do you see this evolving in the future?
AL-MAQDAD: What we want to do is to solve the issue on peaceful basis, something which President Assad has said from the beginning.
PLEITGEN: Is this really possible to solve this issue on peaceful basis when your army is shelling neighborhoods. I mean, using artillery to hit whole neighborhoods is...
AL-MAQDAD: Yes. This is a reaction. You cannot imagine the damage and destruction and the killing and the crimes committed by these people against civilians.
PLEITGEN: What could a peaceful solution look like? And where could negotiations start, because that seems to be one of the biggest problems at the moment.
AL-MAQDAD: We hope that -- I mean, those who are willing to stop the destruction of Syria come to the national dialogue without conditions to sit together as Syrians under Syrian leadership and sort out our problems together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN: And of course, Fionnuala, that -- the meeting that is going to happen with -- in Moscow, of course the foreign minister of Syrian and of the opposition both coming there. It's not a face to face meeting, but both of them coming there for talks, that might be a small first step. But it still seems to be the big problem what terms peace talks could happen. And the Syrian government of course saying they want talks to happen in Damascus. They want the opposition to come here whereas the opposition says they want these talks to happen in northern Syria perhaps or outside the country.
So right now both sides still very much at loggerheads. Both sides also claiming that they're making significant gains on the battlefield as well, and that therefore they are the ones who can set the terms as to where these negotiations and how these negotiations take place.
So still a lot dividing these sides, obviously, and they're conflict getting worse, if anything, rather than better. Nevertheless, those meetings that happen in Moscow could be a small first step to these two sides trying to get to the table, Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: And a lot of attention will be focused on that. Thanks very much. Fred Pleitgen in Damascus.
California investigators are pouring over charred human remains found in a torched mountain cabin. They're believed to belong to Christopher Dorner, a fugitive former police officer wanted in at least four murders. Dorner led police on a six day chase that ended in Tuesday's shootout and fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burn it down. Look out. Gas -- shoot the gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the gas!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burning gas, burning gas
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Police say Dorner didn't come out of the cabin as it was engulfed in flames.
The international media is overreacted: that is the opinion of the editor of an Italian magazine which went public with photos of a pregnant Duchess of Cambridge in a bikini. In the UK, St. James Palace says it's a question of privacy. Let's go back to Rome and bring in my colleague Max Foster who is CNN's royal correspondent and in the perfect place to cover this story at the moment.
Max, what is your take on what's happening?
FOSTER: Well, it's fascinating. Speak to people on the streets of Rome, whether they're from Italy or not, and everyone is pretty bemused about there's so much attention around this story, particularly when they look at the pictures. Many of them, they say, are very complimentary pictures. And I have to say the editor of the magazine has today said a similar thing, they don't think there's any controversy here. No invasion of privacy. They say these were public figures in a public area in this -- on this island of Mostic (ph).
In Britain, the pictures haven't been published. And there's a concern there that actually there has been an invasion of privacy. And if those pictures were published in the UK they would end up in court and that because these are private residences in Mostic. So actually they were a public couple in a private area.
There's a huge debate here. But what's very clear is that Kate and William value their private lives. They accept they're public figures but they think they have a right to a private life like anyone else. They put their foot down when they think that line has been crossed. Media outside the UK don't agree with that. And they're going ahead with publishing these pictures as they come in.
The fact is, pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge pregnant in a bikini is very valuable. There's a market out there of magazines that are ready to buy the pictures that paparazzi are working to hard to get.
SWEENEY: All right. Max Foster, thanks for updating us on that.
Live from CNN Center, you're watching Connect the World. Coming up, how we can all do our bit to end modern day slavery. Oscar winner Mira Sorvino tells me how she's working to end sex trafficking. A special edition of the CNN Freedom Project next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: 21 million men, women, and children around the world are in forced labor. What that means is this, at any given point in time in the world, three out of every 1,000 people are trapped in horrendous jobs trying to pay off a debt unable to escape. CNN's Freedom Project is committed to bringing you the facts, the victim's voices, but also the success stories.
You may remember the award winning documentary "Death in the Desert," which uncovered evidence of organ trafficking. But a year later we saw how tribal leaders are banding together to put an end to this horrific trade in human suffering.
And it's not just big organizations and media companies which can help in the fight against global slavery, ordinary people like you and me can also take a stand. On Friday, the CNN Freedom Project will show you how in our new documentary "Mozambique or Bust." It's all about a U.S. charity which collects bras for sex trafficking survivors to sell in the clothing markets of Mozambique.
Here's a short clip.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SORVINO: This is Tashinia (ph). She was just 15 years old when she was trafficked for sex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Someone will take you and promise they're going to give you money, but in the end they just beat you very badly. And even if you go to the hospital you can still be left to die because they know that you are nobody. You are a slave.
SORVINO: She didn't have the courage to escape until years later, the night her young daughter woke up and watched.
UNIDENTIIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I saw in my child's eyes what she was seeing, I was sad. It is still something that hurts me a lot because of what my child had to see me do that night. I don't want that happening again, because it took a lot for me to erase that from her memory.
SORVINO: He own childhood stolen, Tashinia (ph) wants more for her daughters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I want to be an example, an honest mother that can say, look my daughter, this is not good. This is not good for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes, from the depths of darkness comes stories of hope and heroism.
DAVE TERPSTRA, FREE THE GIRLS: Do you want to come kick the ball? Come here.
SORVINO: This is Dave. He was living in the United States when he first heard about human trafficking.
TERPSTRA: You know, so often we find out about a problem in the world. And, you know, we see it on the news or, you know, somebody tells us about it. We read it in a magazine. And, you know, it makes us upset and we want to do something. But, you know, what do you do?
Who are you going to pass it to? Good pass.
I think that's just what happened for me with trafficking in persons. I heard about it. And I heard about it. And then something stirred inside of me that I just -- I couldn't let this one go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Well, more on Dave's journey and how he got involved into helping survivors like Tashinia (ph) come up in the documentary on Friday.
Actress Mira Sorvino is the voice behind the story, the narrator. The Oscar winner is also a UN office on drugs and crime good will ambassador, working to combat human trafficking. She joined me from CNN Los Angeles. And I started by asking her how she joined the fight against modern day slavery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SORVINO: I always wanted to be an activist. My parents were activists. My father's greatest heroes were Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King. And my mother marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King. And I grew up in a household that was very idealistic about social justice causes.
And when I got the chance to become an activist on these kind of issues, I was working with Amnesty International on their stop violence against women campaign for three years. And under that canopy of violence towards women and girls was this human trafficking subject. And it really caught me. And once I started meeting victims and survivors it changed my life, it really rocked my world, and sort of broke me down and then built me up in this peculiar way that sort of strengthened my resolve.
SWEENEY: When you think of the best way to drive change, do you focus on governments, agencies, or are you surprised at just how much one individual can actually give practical help?
SORVINO: I try and direct everyone to get involved in this wave of modern day abolitionism in their own way. So if you're a government, I urge you to write and pass the stiffest anti-trafficking laws, but always with a victim centric -- a victim centric focus to them, that they have to make sure that they're respecting the human rights and the special trauma that victims of human trafficking undergo.
SWEENEY: How difficult is it to get that message across? I'm thinking of governments here specifically?
SORVINO: You know, it's very interesting, because so many governments have signed the Palermo protocol at the UN against trafficking and have been part of the signatory to the UN global plan of action, but 16 percent of those countries that are signatory have no convictions against human traffickers whatsoever on the books, none yet. And that actually represents 40 percent of the crime. So 40 percent of the traffickers of the world live in countries where there has been not one conviction against them.
SWEENEY: Just as a final point, I mean, you have said that individuals can make a difference. And they don't actually have to be directly involved, but they can donate.
SORVINO: Well, yes, every individual with their skillset or their assets can make a difference, can save people's lives. And the UN has a wonderful thing called the UN voluntary trust fund for victims of human trafficking. And it has a small grants facility that gives to NGOs that help victims directly. It's not for advocacy or advertising or fundraising. It's all towards saving lives and rebuilding them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Mira Sorvino there. And you can see our new CNN Freedom Project documentary "Mozambique or Bust" for the first time on Friday at 4:30 pm London, 5:30 in Berlin.
The latest world news headlines just ahead.
Then, the cruise from hell. We'll find out how the passengers and crew of the stricken Triumph cruise liner are holding up.
As the European commission calls for DNA testing on all beef products, we talk to a world renowned chef about what actually goes into our food.
Battling it out on the pitch, Real Madrid are taking on Manchester United. We'll bring you the latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: And this is CONNECT THE WORLD. The top stories this hour.
Pope Benedict has celebrated his final public mass as spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics. He presided over Ash Wednesday services at St. Peter's Basilica and received a thunderous standing ovation. The pope is resigning at the end of the month.
At least four people have been killed when a plane crash-landed in Ukraine, according to Russian state media. News Agency RIA Novosti says 45 people were onboard the plane, which was making an emergency landing in Donetsk. It says the fate of two passengers is still unknown.
The European Commission is calling for DNA testing for all meat products in the wake of the horsemeat scandal. Earlier on Wednesday, two meat processing companies in Britain were raided by teams investigating alleged mislabeling of meat.
A stricken Carnival cruise ship is limping toward land. Tug boats are pulling the disabled Triumph toward the US Gulf Coast. In just about a day, the cruise liner is expected to end its journey in Mobile, Alabama. For more than 4,000 passengers and crew, relief can't come soon enough. They've been living for days in conditions that some describe as "foul."
Well, family members of some of the passengers are already at the port in Mobile waiting for their loved ones. CNN's David Mattingly is also there. He joins me live. What's the mood of the families?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN US NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I spoke to a couple of mothers earlier today. Their two daughters are onboard that ship with their fathers. The daughters called and were very distressed when they spoke to them on Sunday, talking about what had happened, about how they didn't have enough food, about how they were having to sleep out in the hallways.
The mothers, naturally, getting very upset. They haven't heard from their daughters since then, so you can imagine how anxious everyone on shore might be, almost as anxious as the people on the ship are to get off and be reunited.
But the conditions we heard about early on were that when the power went out because the engine caught on fire, the fire was extinguished, but then the damage was done. The ship couldn't move anymore, there were problems with the plumbing, the sewage was backing up through the toilets and through the other plumbing systems.
They managed, according to the officials of the cruise line, they managed to restore plumbing to some parts of the ship as well as some electricity to some parts of the ship.
But people were talking about having to pull their mattresses outside, sleeping out on deck, just to get away from the heat, get away from the smell that had occurred there. And also talking about long lines for food, once they were able to start cooking some food again.
We received word this afternoon that there was a helicopter operation going on out on the seas this afternoon, delivering more provisions to that ship, along with some generators. We don't know what they'll be using those generators for, but they are being delivered to the ship today.
It's about 24 hours now that we're thinking that this ship will be arriving at the dock behind me, and at that point, all of the passengers will disembark to buses. They'll be taken to hotel rooms if they need to. They'll be taken to planes if they need that, to fly back home.
It's going to -- they're going to have some options when they land here, but right now, so far, the officials with Carnival Cruise Line offering their apologies and doing as best they can to get everybody home once they get here to Mobile, Alabama.
SWEENEY: All right. Should be some interesting scenes 24 hours from now. Thanks very much, David Mattingly, there, in Mobile, Alabama.
Well, Jay Herring is a former senior officer with Carnival Cruise Lines. He is now the author of the book, "The Truth About Cruise Ships." He is with me live from our Dallas bureau. Thank you very much, indeed, for joining us. Have you ever heard anything like this?
JAY HERRING, AUTHOR, "THE TRUTH ABOUT CRUISE SHIPS": Yes, I have. I actually worked on the Carnival Triumph a few years back and on a couple other ships, and I was actually out on the Gulf of Mexico on a different ship where we lost power, and we were stranded out there, adrift, for about an hour.
SWEENEY: And an hour, obviously, doesn't compare with several days, but what really this example illustrates is that safety is generally quite high in terms of standards on cruise ships -- until something goes wrong.
HERRING: Sure, yes. Cruising is one of the safest things people do, and certainly one of the safest vacations you can take. In the last 10 years, 100 million people have take a cruise and less than 50 have actually died from a maritime-related accident.
SWEENEY: OK, but the issue here is obviously going to be that we have passengers sleeping out in the open, we have people who have purchased tickets who are clearly in conditions that are less than hygienic. What about the problem of disease?
HERRING: Yes, sure, I mean it's -- I understand. I've been on the Triumph when it was in dry dock, and when that happens, they turn off the ventilation to work on the ship, and with no ventilation on a ship that's the size of three football fields, it gets very hot in a matter of hours.
So, I absolutely believe that there are passengers sleeping out on deck. Because as hot as it may be outside, it's much more comfortable than being indoors.
SWEENEY: And we're hearing from our reporter, David Mattingly, a moment ago in Mobile, Alabama, that helicopters are now going over towards the ship carrying supplies. Is this not something that there should not be already a plan in place? And who is responsible for it? Presumably the Carnival Cruise company, in this case.
HERRING: Yes, sure. The number one priority for Carnival right now is the safety of the passengers. And so, while you may be able to lift off a couple of passengers in a medical emergency via helicopter to take them to shore, it's not practical or would actually be more dangerous to do something like that for the -- for all of the passengers.
SWEENEY: I'm just wondering if there's any kind of standard practice that could be enforced to hurry things up once something happens to a ship at sea?
HERRING: Yes, unfortunately there's really not much you can do. I talk about it in my book, "The Truth About Cruise Ships." There's -- with 4,000 people onboard, there's no other option really. They talked about, well, why don't you bring in another vessel and tender people to the other ship?
Well, again, in the Gulf of Mexico, depending on the sea conditions, you can have clear seas one minute and very quickly it can get pretty dangerous, so --
(CROSSTALK)
SWEENEY: But you know, we have the Federal Aviation Authority --
HERRING: -- the passengers --
SWEENEY: -- when it comes to standardizing the practices on planes. I'm wondering is there anything like that in the offing, or given that we had the Costa Concordia this time last year, anything in the offing or possibility that something like that could be corralled together when it comes to cruise ships?
HERRING: Costa -- they talked about regulating the industry more, and especially from last year's Concordia accident and this. And we may see some more regulations come down that get passed as a result of this. But as of right now, there really isn't an equivalent to the FF -- the FAA for aviation, not like you have -- not as strict or stringent like that.
SWEENEY: Do you see that that is something that perhaps might evolve if customers demand it, if passengers demand it?
HERRING: Maybe. You'll always have people that are complaining and squawking. When people come off the ship tomorrow, I'm sure you're going to hear lots of horror stories. Some passengers are going to say, oh, this was the worst cruise, I'm never going to cruise again.
And some other passengers are kind of taking it in stride and just kind of understand that the company's doing everything they can, and sometimes things happen.
SWEENEY: I'm sure there are going to be some insurance claims as well. Thanks very much, we must leave it there. In Dallas, thank you, Jay Herring.
Now, the Triumph cruise ship, as we just mentioned, is expected to dock at about this time tomorrow, and of course, we'll bring you those events live as they unfold right here in CONNECT THE WORLD.
Live from CNN Center right now, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up after the break, what is in your food? Europe reels over the beef products that are actually made of horse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Hello and welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD. The European Commission is calling for all beef products in Europe to be DNA tested for horsemeat. The scandal that has exploded over the past few days comes after a routine test in Ireland in January reported some horsemeat in food labeled as beef.
It was then discovered that some foods, such as beef lasagne, contained between 60 percent and 100 percent horsemeat. The scandal has engulfed the whole of Europe from Ireland to Romania, and the list of countries affected continues to grow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON COVENEY, IRISH AGRICULTURE MINISTER: I think that there will be more than one person responsible, because I -- if you follow the supply chain in terms of where food has come from, given the labeling that is there and the traceability of that product, which is actually not that difficult to trace it, there is more than one problem here in terms of one person or one entity, in my view.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Well, in the UK, where things are coming to a head, the quality of processed foods is being discussed, and you can expect to pay around $6 for four quality burgers fresh from a butcher. But if you're on a budget, for that same $6, you can get 12 frozen processes burgers from a supermarket.
It's this type of frozen, processed food that's been found to contain the horsemeat. Joining me now from London is renowned chef and owner of Racine Restaurant, Henry Harris. Henry, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.
Correct me if I am mistaken, but wasn't horsemeat used as rather a staple in diets some decades ago in Britain?
HENRY HARRIS, CHEF AND OWNER, RACINE RESTAURANT: It was, certainly after the war, when the -- and it was a good, affordable food source, very high in protein, very healthy. It was often served to invalids, as well.
SWEENEY: Right. Invalids because it was good for them? It contained iron? Or because it was cheap?
HARRIS: It was very rich in iron and very high in protein, low in fat, and it had good restorative qualities.
SWEENEY: All right. So, the issue here at the moment doesn't seem to be as much about food safety in terms of health, but -- I'll get onto that in a moment -- but really, the mislabeling of the products.
HARRIS: Exactly. Good quality horsemeat is a great food source, but we're being --
(CROSSTALK)
SWEENEY: But we don't know that that's the issue.
HARRIS: -- but when they sold it --
SWEENEY: We don't know that the --
HARRIS: No.
SWEENEY: -- that the horsemeat --
HARRIS: Exactly.
SWEENEY: -- was of good quality.
HARRIS: That's very true, indeed. But what we're being -- where the problem is is it's almost a criminal act is that we're being sold one product as another. And supermarkets don't appear to care what they're buying, and until they were found out, it didn't really appear that they cared what they were selling to us.
SWEENEY: Did this ever occur to you before, or individuals before? I'm wondering -- in a sense, how long do you think this practice might have been going on?
HARRIS: I suspect due to the absence of questions I've seen through following the news after the last day or two that this has probably been going on for quite some time.
SWEENEY: And really, what surprises me is the scale of it, as we just heard from the Irish agriculture minister, that it stretches all the way across Europe, and that there is so many chains in the supply that there is no actual central control.
Given that there are so many complaints about Brussels and how it operates, but we don't really know at exactly from where our meat -- or even if it's horsemeat -- is coming.
HARRIS: Exactly. And yet, we're still led to believe by the FSA and various government bodies and the EU that all meat is traceable. And this just doesn't appear to be the case.
And I think that so much of it is at the budget end of the food market, where the producers are forcing the producer -- the producers of processed foods are forcing the suppliers to deliver a product at a much cheaper price than they should be selling it at.
(CROSSTALK)
SWEENEY: Well, Henry --
HARRIS: And so, it makes them compromise.
SWEENEY: -- I wonder if you can just bear with us a moment, where this leaves the whole question of processed foods as part of the European diet in the future, because already in the UK, there's evidence that consumers are looking for alternatives to supermarkets' processed food.
According to an organization representing independent butchers, they've seen a 20 percent increase in sales, and some butchers are reporting an increase of 50 percent since the scandal broke, and there has been a 30 percent rise in the sale of freshly-made products, like burgers and meatballs.
So, presumably, good for the local butcher and perhaps good for the people who are eating this, as we know, full meat, 100 percent. But where do you think it leaves the future for processed food, which in some ways has served a purpose for many years. It's cheap, it's inexpensive.
HARRIS: It's cheap, inexpensive, and convenience food. But I think that it ultimately -- we will benefit through the healthy aspect of being able to go to a local butcher and knowing where our meat comes from, where there's a much greater bond of trust between a small producer and the end user.
SWEENEY: And could you see --
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: And I think we'll all benefit in the end.
SWEENEY: And finally, could you see that perhaps prices might lower - - this could be a turning of a page for the face of the local butcher if people now flock to the butcher rather than to the supermarket frozen shelves?
HARRIS: Well, I hope so. It's natural economics. It'll protect the High Street and the small businessman, particularly butchers, fishmongers, green grocers. And ultimately, I hope that it will make us shop in that way, cook more at home, healthier meals, healthier families. Everyone's better.
SWEENEY: Healthier society. All right, thank you very much, indeed, Henry --
HARRIS: Pleasure.
SWEENEY: -- for joining us there. Henry Harris, owner of Racine Restaurant in Britain.
And coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, one of the world's best footballers got a chance to battle his former club. Could Cristiano Ronaldo lead Real Madrid to a crucial Champions League win? Find out next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: One of the most anticipated Champions League matches in years is just wrapping up. Cristiano Ronaldo led Real Madrid against his former club, Manchester United. Don Riddell joining me now with all the action. Tell all.
DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It was one-all. It was a great game. Cristiano Ronaldo scored in his first encounter against Manchester United since he left them a few years ago, and it's one of those results that really sets up the second leg at Old Trafford absolutely perfectly.
Real Madrid had so many chances in this game, Fionnuala. They certainly could have won this game quite handily, but Manchester United's goalie, David De Gea, performed absolutely heroics in the United goal in possibly one of his best-ever games for the Red Devils.
Ronaldo scored a superb goal, a terrific header for Real, but the one- all score line means it's all to play for at the return leg.
That was one of two games on Wednesday evening in Europe. In the other game, Shakhtar Donetsk drew two-all with Borussia Dortmund, the German champions. Dortmund needed a late equalizer from Mats Hummels in that game, and they now have two away goals, so you tend to fancy the German champions for the return leg. But two pretty exciting games there, Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: Yes, all very exciting to watch them.
RIDDELL: Yes.
SWEENEY: Now, yesterday -- we didn't get a chance to report it right in this program because there was some breaking news -- the International Olympic Committee has taken wrestling out of the Games as a sport, and within the last 24 hours or so, there has been outrage at that.
RIDDELL: Yes, absolutely. We knew that this week they were going to vote to drop one of the sports. A lot of people thought it was going to be modern pentathlon, but instead, it was wrestling, one of the most established and traditional of Olympic sports, which is now fighting for its very Olympic future.
It's not out for good. They now have to basically persuade the IOC that they're good enough to be considered for future Olympic Games. The problem is, it's them and seven other sports that are all vying for just one place.
So, absolutely outrage from wrestlers, from wrestling fans all over the world. How on Earth could the Olympic movement drop them? And the IOC have spoken today and kind of admitted, yes, we hear your concerns.
The IOC president, Jacques Rogge has said that he has already spoken with the head of the World Wrestling governing body. They are going to meet to see how they can find a way of keeping wrestling in the Games. So, it's -- it's not great news, but its path looking a bit more positive than it was yesterday.
SWEENEY: And so, it could be reversed, technically?
RIDDELL: Well, they can't actually reverse it, but wrestling could be allowed to stay in the Olympics. But that would mean that any one of these other seven sports wouldn't be in, and of course, sports like wakeboarding, squash, Wushu, baseball and softball, they're all hoping to get in for 2020 and beyond.
So, they -- and they've all been campaigning for some time to get themselves into the Olympics. Wrestling's now kind of on the back foot, because they weren't expecting to be in this position, and they've got to get themselves organized pretty quickly to persuade the IOC to let them stay in.
SWEENEY: It's clearly a growing Olympics.
RIDDELL: Well, the problem that IOC have is that --
SWEENEY: I'm asking all the dumb questions, Don Riddell.
RIDDELL: Yes. Well, the IOC --
(LAUGHTER)
RIDDELL: The IOC's big problem is that the Olympics is growing and it's getting too big.
SWEENEY: Right.
RIDDELL: So, they don't want to have more and more sports and more and more Olympians taking part, because it's already an absolutely enormous event once every four years. So, they're trying to keep a lid on it.
They would rather keep it a more streamlined event and keep it relevant with younger people, and this is one of their concerns. And one of their arguments for wrestling was that they believe that wrestling isn't as popular as it used to be, and it's not as modern a sport as it should be.
Their critics are today saying, well, you're completely uninformed. It's way more popular than you realize. Perhaps a bit of modernization needs to take place. Perhaps this will be the wakeup call that wrestling needed, and they can get themselves into shape. But it's going to be an interesting few months.
SWEENEY: But it's been an extraordinary 24 hours or so.
RIDDELL: Absolutely, yes.
SWEENEY: Thanks very much, Don. And Don, of course, will be back in just over 30 minutes' time in "World Sport," that's 10:30 PM London time, 11:30 if you're in Berlin.
Now, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, a day of love across the globe. It's also the 15th anniversary of V-Day, set up by the writer of the "Vagina Monologues," Eve Ensler, calling for the end to violence against women and girls. Becky Anderson spoke to Eve about her tireless campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 15 years, Eve Ensler has been campaigning to end violence against women, a global scourge she has brought to light through annual V-Day rallies and her award-winning play, "The Vagina Monologues."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If our vaginas could talk, they would be screaming.
(LAUGHTER)
EVE ENSLER, FOUNDER, V-DAY: We've reached 140 countries, we've raised $100 million, we've broken silences, we've eradicated taboos, we've changed legislation and created new ones, but we haven't ended violence against women and girls.
So, for our 15th anniversary, we were thinking, our whole mission was to go out of business. We didn't want to be here 15 years later, and it turns out that the UN says that one out of every three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
ANDERSON (on camera): That's one billion --
ENSLER: Billion women.
ANDERSON: -- women.
ENSLER: That's right.
ANDERSON: Eve, where do you think things are worst?
ENSLER: It's pretty bad everywhere. I think we see escalated situations, obviously, in conflict zones, where war -- where rape, now, is being used as a systematic tactic of war. Look at Syria, what's happening there now, and obviously in Congo and in Sudan.
We are going to build a revolution here.
ANDERSON (voice-over): But it's these women who have inspired Eve to embark on her most ambitious campaign yet.
ENSLER: I spend a lot of time in Congo, because we opened this amazing center there called City of Joy, which we've opened in partnership with the women of Congo. And a good part of the day, when they're not in classes healing or training or learning agriculture or civics or English or -- they dance. They dance.
And I really witnessed women who have suffered the worst atrocities in the Congo finding a way to turn that suffering into power, or to turn that pain into power through dance.
So, we started thinking, what if a billion women and all the men who love them danced on the same day? And what kind of energy and what kind of attention and what kind of -- what could it draw up on the planet?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): This is my body, my body's holy. No more excuses, no more abuses!
ANDERSON: That day of dance, known as One Billion Rising, is all set to take place on February the 14th in an unprecedented 195 countries.
ENSLER: I think the whole idea is that if we get a billion people to dance, we'll begin to open up our imaginations and consciousness to really feel what it would feel like if women were safe and free. And then we'll be willing to fight for it even harder once we taste that.
ANDERSON (on camera): How much traction do you think the issue has had since the India rape case, because that rightly was an enormous headline around the world, wasn't it?
ENSLER: Well, you know, I was in India right when it was happening, and it was actually, obviously, a very disturbing thing, because it's a horrible rape case in the death of Jyoti. But it was also an amazing time to be in India, because you could really feel the issue of sexual violence breaking through human consciousness.
And for the first time in certainly in my life where I've ever seen sexual violence be on the front page of every newspaper, and I think it's absolutely propelled violence against women into the center of the discourse around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: And that was Becky Robinson -- or, sorry, I beg your pardon --
(LAUGHTER)
SWEENEY: Becky Anderson, there, talking to Eve Ensler.
I'm Fionnuala Sweeney, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you for watching.
END
