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Connect the World
Three Young Women Missing For 10 Years Rescued; Turkey Condemns Israel's Strike In Syria; Spain's Princess Christina Cleared Of Corruption Charges
Aired May 07, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After years in captivity, a horrific ordeal comes to an end. Tonight, how these young women can begin to rebuild their lives.
With their country on a knife edge, I'll ask the Mali's deputy prime minister what the future might hold.
And sport's newest power couple hit the red carpet.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World.
SWEENEY: Call 911, my name is Amanda Berry, that appealed to a hero neighbor has led to the remarkable rescue of three women in the U.S. state of Ohio held captive for some 10 years. Tonight, they're alive and free, but they have a lot to recover from.
The images you are seeing now show what the women look like when they disappeared. Two were just teenagers at the time. Three brothers suspected of kidnapping them are now under arrest. The FBI in Cleveland says the brothers might be formally charged on Wednesday or Thursday. Tuesday's rescue is being hailed as a miracle by the women's families.
CNN's Tory Dunan is following this astonishing story from Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TORY DUNNAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ricardo DeJesus says he never gave up hope that his sister Gina was alive.
RICARDO DEJESUS, GINA'S BROTHER: It was nine years, nine long years, and I was just happy I was able to sit there and hug her.
DUNNAN: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight all disappeared in separate cases between 2002 and 2004. Their ordeal came to an end Monday after a neighbor heard screams for help.
CHARLES RAMSEY, NEIGHBOR: And she says, "help me get out. I've been in here a long time.
DUNNAN: Police swiftly moved in after a frantic 911 call.
AMANDA BERRY, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years and I'm here. I'm free now.
UNIDENTIIFED MALE: Due to Amanda's brave actions, these three women are alive today.
DUNNAN: The three women were examined at a local hospital and released. Police say they believed the young child Amanda Berry brought with her out of the house is her daughter.
Police have arrested the homeowner, 52 year old Ariel Castro and his brothers Pedro and Onil. Authorities say they never had any indication something suspicious was going on in the house. But one neighbor says she noticed a little girl looking out the attic window.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just strange to see a little girl up there. And I started questioning people and I says he's got a daughter. They said, no, he doesn't even have a wife.
DUNNAN: The FBI is looking into the many unanswered questions as the families begin to heal. DeJesus says he's never going to let his sister out of his site.
DEJESUS: Anywhere she goes I'm going to sit there and make sure that she gets there and back home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: I bet he will.
But tonight, many questions remain.
Tory is with me now live from Cleveland, Ohio. Tory, what is the latest on the investigation?
DUNNAN: Well, Fionnuala, basically in the past half an hour or so we've seen more activity than we've seen throughout the whole day. I want to show you what it looks like here, this is Seymour Avenue. This is the suspect's house. These the FBI agents are on the front porch, K-9 unit going into the house. They're coming out. And they're also taking some evidence out at this point.
So the latest for the investigation really, what we've heard from authorities is that they have a lot of ground to cover. You have to remember, this is a 10 year period at least that they're dealing with so they say they'll be searching the home here trying to gather some evidence, but also essentially that the suspect had other properties, so that will be part of the investigation as well.
SWEENEY: All right. And we've been looking at live pictures, aerial pictures there of that FBI entering the house that you mentioned there, Tory. A question, do we know how many people have been involved in this?
DUNNAN: At this point, we don't know how many people have been involved in it. It's sort of speculation from neighbors talking about how many people they saw sort of coming and going from the house, but at this point the latest information from authorities is that they just have arrested those three brothers and that charges are pending.
SWEENEY: Tory Dunnan there in Cleveland, Ohio. Thank you for joining us.
We're going to look at what it will take for these women to take back their lives in just a moment. But first, a reminder of other cases that ended with captors being freed.
Jaycee Dugard was dragged into a car as she walked to a bus stop in California in 1991. She was held captive in a backyard for 18 years before being discovered along with two children fathered by her captor.
Natasha Kampusch was held in a windowless basement cell near Vienna, Austria for eight years. She escaped. And her abductor committed suicide shortly after she fled.
To the west in St. Polten, Austria and Joseph Fritzl enslaved his own daughter for at least 24 years fathering seven children with her.
Well, the three Ohio women are lucky to be alive, but this story doesn't have a happy ending just yet, because their healing has only just begun. Psychologist Jeff Gardere joins us now live from CNN New York.
First of all, is there any standard average of knowing when the effects of this kidnapping, a long-term kidnapping might be over for these girls?
JEFF GARDERE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: No, we really don't know, because everyone has their own psychology, their own resilience. Because they are very young, we hope that the prognosis would be better for them. However, we're talking about young women who were taken just at a critical moment of their maturity, this is when kids are going to high school or going into college or prom, so the emotional damage is extremely severe given those facts.
SWEENEY: All right. And if they had been, perhaps, at a different age, the emotional trauma may have been more or less severe?
Let me ask you what are psychologists going to be doing in the next few days and weeks with these girls -- women now?
GARDERE: Well, what they'll be -- yes, what they'll be doing is they're going to assist law enforcement in the debriefing of these young women so that they can go ahead and get all the information they need to continue with the criminal charges and so on, but they're also going to advise law enforcement to be very careful, to be very slow, to be very steady, because the information that they'll be getting from them certainly will be retraumatizing these former captives over and over again. So you want to make sure as you extricate that information you don't break them down, you give them a sense of mastery or strength, eagle strength. And more than anything else, that you can keep them giving information in a way that will be helpful not just for law enforcement, but also for themselves.
In other words, getting them to process this information as they now begin on their road to emotional recovery.
SWEENEY: And one sees from the picture a degree, a huge degree understandably of euphoria almost, and presumably a huge amount of relief. What can the women expect to go through, undergo in the next few days and weeks and perhaps even years in terms of conflicting or changing emotions?
GARDERE: Sure, well, we could tell with these former captives that even now they are very happy, but they're still in shell shock. Now they have to make the transition from that very unreal world of horror to reality. So seeing family members once again, reintegrating into society, reconciling with people who are gone. One of the captives mothers died of a broken heart over this situation. And of course the situation with Amanda Berry having a daughter. We believe, probably, from one of the captors how does she reconcile that situation so it will be very, very difficult. But I know that they will be able to make it with the proper emotional, psychological help.
SWEENEY: And from the kidnappers' perspective, what kind of mental state must he and perhaps those who allegedly helped him be in to do such a thing?
GARDERE: Simply, these are -- yes, these are psychopaths. These are people who dissociate with any kind of empathy for their captives and more than anything else have convinced themselves that what they did was for the benefit of their victims which shows you how twisted their minds truly are and how they have no real reality testing.
SWEENEY: We live it there. Jeff Gardere, thank you very much for that insight from CNN New York.
Our top story tonight, three brothers arrested after three young women and a child break free after years of captivity in the U.S. state of Ohio. Authorities say they will charge the brothers soon. The women escaped from a Cleveland house on Monday night a decade after they disappeared.
You're watching Connect the World. And still to come this hour, quote, unacceptable and inexcusable. Turkey has harsh words for Israel after deadly airstrikes in Syria. And we are live in the region as tensions increase.
Plus, the Spanish royal family can breathe a sigh of relief, but is the damage already done?
And...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But the question has started to be asked, is this sustainable?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Why the issue of security in Somalia is put in the headlines once again. A report from the dangerous streets of Mogadishu coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney. Welcome back.
Israel is coming under harsh criticism after weekend airstrikes on Syria. The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is furious saying the strikes give the Assad regime an opportunity to cover up its own killings of government opponents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The air attack by Israel on Damascus is unacceptable, no rationale, no reason can excuse this operation. These attacks are a bargaining chip, an opportunity delivered on a silver platter to the hands of Assad to the illegitimate Syrian regime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Israel's defense minister today said his country isn't intervening in Syria's civil war, but quote, said "we have made clear what our interests are," Moshe Ya'alon says, "we've laid down red lines among which are the transfer of sophisticated weapons to terror organizations like Hezbollah."
Well, tensions were already high in the region when four UN peacekeepers were kidnapped today. It happened in the occupied Golan Heights around the area of separation between Israel and Syria. The UN says the peacekeepers were on patrol near the Syrian town of Al Jamla (ph) when they were seized.
Sara Sidner is covering develop tonight -- developments, I should say, tonight from there. Thank you very much for joining us, Sara.
Let me ask you, any developments, first of all, on the kidnap of these UN peacekeepers?
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. The UN very quiet because they are basically saying they want to make sure that they can ensure the safety of those peacekeepers who were taken captive. What we do know is that we've heard from the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade who has said they indeed did detain these UN peacekeepers, detained them because they said that the peacekeepers were actually in a very dangerous position. They said that they were actually trying to keep them safe.
No one knows exactly what is happening with the negotiation, because the UN has been very clear that it is not going to say a word until its peacekeepers are safe, so that's the situation at this point.
We have been on the border here. We're very, very close in the lovely village of Majdal Shams. You can hear the booms and bangs of the war going on just next door.
The UN patrols the area between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria. These peacekeepers, their job is to keep that area as a no-man's land where neither side goes into it. But clearly it is not a safe zone anymore -- Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: Not a safe zone. You said last night that in a sense in Israel it was downplaying the impact of what it hasn't yet said it did over the weekend. What is the atmosphere like where you are now in the Golan Heights?
SWEENEY: You know the people here are hearing the same sounds of war that they've been hearing for some time now. This war in Syria is now headed into its third year. The sounds of the war have certainly come closer. And we do know that there have been mortars that have ended up from the Syrian side of the border into the Golan Heights side of the border, but generally speaking people here are going about their business.
We do know that there are two Iron Dome anti-missile batteries that have been kept in place over the past couple of days. They are put at the border with Lebanon, the border with Syria as well in case there were some kind of retaliation either from Lebanon -- Hezbollah in Lebanon, or from Syria.
The Syrians saying that they felt like this strike, that they accused Israel of was a declaration of war and that they were going to retaliate, but they didn't say when and they didn't say how. So certainly while the government is saying, you know, we are not hearing the winds of war there is a bit of concern. You would not see these two Iron Dome batteries being put in place if they didn't have any concern that perhaps something could be lobbed over from either of those countries -- Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: Sara Sidner, thank you for joining us.
Well, Israel's ally says the country has the right to stop weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah. British Foreign Secretary William Hague gave us his thoughts on the crisis today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM HAGUE, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Israel is entitled to protect its own national security. I'm not going to condemn Israel for doing that. I do think that these events underline the regional dangers of what is happening in Syria, to the stability of Lebanon, possible increased involvement of Hezbollah that may lie behind the Israeli attacks, the huge strains on Jordan.
SWEENEY: Is there a moral equivalence between Syrian rebels potentially, if not conclusively, using chemical weapons and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons?
HAGUE: Well, there is no -- the United Nations commissioner of investigations hasn't declared any conclusive evidence. I think they were clear about that yesterday.
SWEENEY: If not conclusive.
HAGUE: On the part of anybody.
Now we have seen credible evidence that we have passed on, of the regime's use of chemical weapons.
SWEENEY: But if the rebels were?
HAGUE: Let us not prejudge that.
We haven't seen any evidence ourselves of the opposition using chemical weapons.
I think what's important now is for the UN investigation to be able to look at all the allegations that are made.
SWEENEY: Let me ask you a final question if I may about bringing Russia on board and China on board with this, because they would be of the view, presumably, that there is a moral equivalence between the rebels using chemical weapons as well as the Syrian regime if all of this is proved conclusively.
Where are those diplomatic talks going now as John Kerry arrives in Moscow?
HAGUE: John Kerry's visit to Moscow is, of course, important. And we in Britain are also doing our utmost to intensify our dialogue, our discussion with Russia, on this, because we have never stopped searching for a diplomatic breakthrough. We won't ever stop searching for that.
The United Nations Security Council has failed in its responsibilities to the people of Syria over the last two years. It's only through working with Russia that the rest of us on the security council can succeed in fulfilling our responsibilities that if those discussions with Russia make no progress then increasingly we will have to build up our support for the opposition for the National Coalition.
SWEENEY: And a final question, then, where do you see Syria in a year from now?
HAGUE: In Syria, there is no international agreement on the way forward. As things stand, we are heading for the biggest humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st Century so far. And regional instability of an ever more -- on an ever more alarming scale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Britain's foreign secretary William Hague earlier.
Live from London, this is Connect the World. And coming up, a serious scare for one of the most famous men in Pakistan. We'll get an update on how Imran Khan is doing after his dramatic fall in Lahore.
And an emotional declaration, Amanda Knox opens up to CNN. That's all coming up on Connect the World.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Welcome back. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney.
Some dramatic video now from Pakistan. Here you can see Imran Khan on the right falling from the stage at a political rally in Lahore. The former cricket star and leading political candidate was rushed to hospital. CNN's Saima Mohsin sent us this update on his condition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Doctors say Imran Khan suffered two fractures to his spine, but there's no sign of neurological damage. He has also received a number of stitches to his head. This comes after a really dramatic fall where he was being lifted by a forklift truck to the top of a container around 20 feet high where he was due to address a crowd at one of his first election rallies of the day.
As he was going to the top, somehow he, or one of his guards, lost footing and he and a number of his guards, two or three of them, fell to the ground. They fell on top of him miraculously. They've escaped unscathed. He suffered two fractures to his back. And of course several cuts and bruises to his head. He was bleeding as he was taken away. People were crying in the crowds, very concerned for his safety.
But he has spoken from his hospital bed, giving a very moving and powerful speech saying that he's done all he can for the people of Pakistan. It's now time for them to take responsibility for their own destiny and vote on May 11.
Meanwhile, other politicians out of respect have delayed their election campaigns. The president of Pakistan has also sent his best wishes.
Saima Mohsin, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: In Mexico, carnage and at least 20 dead after a speeding tanker truck crashed into homes and exploded. Video from the scene shows heavy smoke and flames and a massive response by police and firefighters. Investigators say the driver was careening down a highway near Mexico City when he lost control of his rig which was carrying gas. The driver survived and is under arrest.
A manhunt is underway in Rio de Janeiro for an armed man who police say terrorized passengers on a moving bus. Police say this surveillance video shows him on the bus. They say he robbed passengers and raped and beat a woman before jumping off. This latest attack is raising more concerns about the city's ability to provide security.
The pope is due to visit in July, and Rio is set to host the World cup next year and the Olympics in 2016.
Queen Elizabeth II will not attend this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, but Buckingham Palace says it isn't for medical reasons, despite the monarch's age. A royal source says the palace is reviewing the number of long haul flights the queen takes. At 87, she attends more than 400 events every year and has gone to every Commonwealth Summit since 1973.
Her son, Prince Charles, will represent the queen at the gathering in Sri Lanka in November.
Preliminary charges against Spain's Princess Christina have been dropped. An appeals court has ruled there isn't enough evidence to tie her to a corruption investigation involving her husband. Madrid bureau chief Al Goodman has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AL GOODMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A relief for Princess Christina in an unprecedented case in Spain. An appeals court on a two to one vote dropped the preliminary charges against her, which were imposed last month by an investigating magistrate Jose Castro. Princess Christina, the youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos, would have been the first direct member of Spain's royal family forced to testify before a judge. No longer. But the appeals court did not block further investigation by Judge Castro.
Princess Christina's husband Inaki Urdangarin has faced preliminary charges in this corruption scandal for more than a year. He denies any wrongdoing. Urdangarin had a nonprofit foundation that got lucrative government contracts to put on sports and tourism events. The judge wants to know if some of that money was diverted for private use.
The scandal has caused big problems for Spain's royal family. In the government's latest poll for April, the royal family had an approval rating of less than 4 on a 10 point scale, far from the days when the royal family was routinely rated as one of the top institutions in Spain.
Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Amanda Knox issued an emotional plea of innocence as she opened up to CNN in a wide-ranging interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ask me if I killed somebody. The answer's, no, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. Not, you can't prove it. Not, you can't place me at the scene. You understand how you can't place me at the scene sounds cagey?
KNOX: Yes. I mean, I have professed from the very beginning that I didn't do it and no one believed me. I -- I was screaming at -- to the prosecutor when they were screaming at me during my interrogation, telling me I had amnesia, I had to know and I told them I didn't do it and I want there, and no one listened to me. It's like I'm having to prove my innocence instead of just saying it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Knox in her own words gave her views about the allegations against her, her upcoming retrial and much more. That's Amanda Knox, The Unanswered Questions tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern for viewers in the Americas.
Well, those of you in Europe can watch it on Wednesday at 11:30 am in London, 12:30 in Berlin only on CNN.
The latest world news headlines just ahead.
Plus, as (inaudible) nations meet to discuss Mali's future, the country's foreign minister tells me her most processing concern.
Plus, NASA big, grand mission in Greenland. What this little robot could uncover about climate change.
(MUSIC)
SWEENEY: Plenty of ABBA adoration going on at the new ABBA museum. We'll take you there. That's coming up on Connect the World.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: This is CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories this hour. Three women who went missing ten years ago in the United States state of Ohio are alive and free tonight. Their rescue followed a desperate call to emergency services by one of the women, Amanda Berry. Three brothers have been arrested in connection with the alleged abductions of the women, who had disappeared separately.
Another landmark as the Dow continues its record run. For the first time ever, the blue chip index has closed above 15,000. Investors also pushed the S&P 500 to a new record. Wall Street watchers say confidence in the US economic recovery is growing, pushing the markets to new highs.
A Syrian rebel group says it's detained four UN peacekeepers and posted these pictures on its Facebook page. It says it took the men for their own safety because of fighting in the area. The UN says the peacekeepers were on patrol in the Golan Heights and it's trying to secure their release.
Russia and the United States have agreed to try and arrange an international peace conference on Syria. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met his US counterpart, John Kerry, in Moscow. They say they'll push the Syrian regime and rebels to find a political resolution to the civil war.
Former cricket star and Pakistani political candidate Imran Khan has fractured his spine after falling at a campaign rally in Pakistan. Khan was injured when he and several others fell off a makeshift lift that was taking them to the stage. The doctors say Khan won't have longterm neurological damage.
And security was top of the agenda at the Somalia conference held in London this Tuesday. Delegations from more than 50 countries discussed how to prevent Somalia from slipping back into lawlessness. The country has suffered from two decades of conflict, disease, drought, and famine.
Earlier, I spoke to the British foreign minister -- or foreign secretary, I should say, William Hague, about Britain's pledge of more than $200 million in aid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM HAUGE, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Governments, including the UK, are announcing additional financial support to build Somalia's own armed forces.
SWEENEY: Is that possible, though, given that al-Shabaab still has a presence in Mogadishu, the capital?
HAGUE: It's essential, partly because of those things.
SWEENEY: How do you do that, then?
HAGUE: Well, we do that by integrating militia into armed forces, according to the plan set out this morning by the minister of defense of Somalia, and by funding more police. The UK is providing the funding that will allow a doubling of the number of police in Somalia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWEENEY: Well, Somalia's widely considered to be a failed state, but after those two decades of conflict and militant Islamist rule, the country is now working to rebuild itself. With me here in the studio is the country's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, Fawzia Yusuf Adam.
I'll be speaking with her in just a moment, but first, I want to bring you this report from Mogadishu. CNN's Nima Elbagir traveled through the city with African Union forces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smoke rises above the streets of Mogadishu. Passers by gather to pull bodies from under the blood-spattered rubble. It's a car bomb aimed at the minister of interior's convoy. Inside escape injury, but at least eight civilians are killed.
The attack is quickly claimed by al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked militant group. It no longer controls much of the city, as it once did, but can still make its presence felt.
Troops of the African Union force here cordon off the area to guard against a second blast. Normal life quickly resumes.
The people of Mogadishu are used to bomb attacks, and as we travel through town with the AU force, we barely merit a second glance.
ELBAGIR (on camera): Since al-Shabaab's withdrawal from Somalia about a year and a half ago, Mogadishu has become a very different place. But there is still a terror threat -- suicide attacks, roadside bombs, increasingly complex tactics. And African union patrols like these are crucial for maintaining security. But the question has started to be asked: is this sustainable?
ELBAGIR (voice-over): The security gains here are still fragile. Somalia's security force is under-paid and under-equipped, are limited in number, and their presence doesn't extend far beyond this capital. H Somalia president Hassan Sheikh Mahmud took office six months ago, and this is how he travels, with an entourage of well-armed men and a convoy of armored vehicles. Even that can't guarantee his safety, but that doesn't seem to bother the man with arguably one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
ELBAGIR (on camera): We're traveling with the Somali president's convoy inside one of the African Union escort vehicles that's accompanying him. The president has decided that he wants to head out to Denali on the outskirts of Mogadishu, one of the remaining areas in which al-Shabaab has managed to maintain a presence.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): In spite of the attack on the minister of interior's convoy less than two hours ago, the president is keeping an appointment to attend a hotel opening.
ELBAGIR (on camera): You insisted against the advice of many of those around you on coming here today. Why?
HASSAN SHEIKH MAHMUD, PRESIDENT OF SOMALIA: They attempted my life the second day I was elected, see? And continuously, I'm living under that threat. But I don't see it deserves. It's taking that level of risk. If I remain indoors and I say I don't go out, that's their success.
I want to prove -- and I mean it -- that they cannot keep us the way they want. We are the ones who decide what we do, when we do, where we do.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): Mahmud doesn't underestimate the challenge, but insists one day Somalia must eventually take responsibility for its own security.
MAHMUD: We need a financial commitment, technical commitment, technical support commitment, and we need diplomatic engagement in Somalia. We want Somalia as a -- to be treated as a normal country. Unless we are treated as a normal country, Somalia will never become a normal country. That's what we are expecting from the world
ELBAGIR: As night falls, the city streets empty. Under the watchful eyes of the African Union night shift, Somalis National Army soldiers man one of the hundreds of roadblocks that spring up after dark. The attack earlier in the day was at this very junction. Everyone is on edge.
Security patrols, roadblocks, and never-ending vigilance are the price of the city's freedom from al-Shabaab's control. Somalis are daring to believe that after 22 years of anarchy, a new Somalia is emerging from the rubble, and they're risking their lives to prove it.
Nima Elbagir, CNN, Mogadishu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Fawzia Yusuf Adam is the Somali foreign minister and deputy prime minister, and the report we have just seen highlights, really, just how far Somalia has come, and we heard there your country's president talk about how it wanted to be treated as a normal country, that it needed funding in order to be seen as a normal country, to get to that point.
Today, you saw a doubling of funding for the police force, more than $200 million from Britain, and 20 -- more than $40 million more from the US, and they've already given millions and millions of dollars. Is that going to be enough for Somalia to be able to take over its own security?
FAWZIA YUSUF ADAM, SOMALI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Somalia is a very rich country. It has a lot of potential. And actually, the key to unlock that is support and recognition. Now we are getting that. We have come a long way. We have defeated al-Shabaab, not fully, they're still there, but we are actually in -- our security is increasing by the day.
SWEENEY: And how do you intend to defeat the remainder of al-Shabaab, the pockets that are in Mogadishu? And what of the people who were members of al-Shabaab? What of their fate? Can they be incorporated into the new Somalia?
ADAM: Of course. We are even willing to talk to them. A number of them are defecting, the young people. These are mainly young people who are -- hide because of lack of opportunity and lack of jobs because of the longterm conflict that we had.
We are, as I said, Somalia is a very rich country, and if -- now, luckily, the embargo was lifted recently, and we are now working on our army, we are integrating our soldiers and the world partners are supporting us, so --
SWEENEY: I was outside Lancaster House today where that conference was taking place, and there were several hundred Somalis -- people living in Britain -- demonstrating against your president. Some accused him of being very close to al-Shabaab, and others said that he wasn't prepared to implement a federal constitution for Somalia, as he should. What do you say to, first of all, the connections with al-Shabaab?
ADAM: There's no connection between al-Shabaab and President Hassan Sheik. That is not right, that's not true, and everybody knows that. Hassan Sheikh is not a fundamentalist fighting for whatever they are fighting for. Hassan Sheikh is a president who is genuine, who has been there for 20 years --
SWEENEY: OK.
ADAM: -- who has worked so hard to reach where he is today.
SWEENEY: And to those people who say that he's not implementing the federal constitution, that there are only little parts of the country that he's actually in control of or that will be incorporated into the government?
ADAM: I would say these are not right. These are not saying the right or don't know about the right information, what's happening on the ground. The constitution -- we have a selected parliament and an elected president, and elected president of the parliament. They are collectively working on reviewing the constitution, and he is control of the whole country --
SWEENEY: All right.
ADAM: -- except two pockets --
SWEENEY: All right.
ADAM: -- run by al-Shabaab.
SWEENEY: Well that, again, begs the question again, will Somalis, with all this funding, be able to run its own security?
ADAM: It will.
SWEENEY: All right. And a year from now --
ADAM: With the help -- a year from now, we are all envisioning that Somalia will be independent from al-Shabaab and their likes, and will be running its own -- it's a very rich country, we have --
SWEENEY: OK. You made that point already many times.
(LAUGHTER)
SWEENEY: May I ask you, though, about really a very dreadful part of your country's image worldwide? You are one of two women cabinet members in Somalia, which is wonderful for women in your country, but yet, something like 1700 women were raped last year in displacement camps by men in government uniforms.
And this was something that was introduced by al-Shabaab, the rape of women. It's something that's managed to continue and hasn't been eradicated. What assurances can you give the international community as well about -- not to mention these women specifically -- about their future security? Because it's really all about security, it's not just arms. It's also about civil society.
ADAM: Somalia is coming out of a 20 -- over 20 years, maybe even 30 years of conflict, and that's a classic what happens in countries that are emerging from conflict. But we are committed to fighting for the human rights of women, girls, and everyone else in the country. We are reforming the justice, we are reforming the security forces, we are in the -- we're only six months old.
SWEENEY: All right. A final question.
ADAM: Yes.
SWEENEY: What would you say to those many, many ex-pats, Somali ex- pats around the world who left because of the 20 years of conflict and who may be opposed to your government? What does Somalia hold for them?
ADAM: We're welcoming everyone. We -- a lot -- high numbers of diaspora also from these groups are coming back to rebuild the country. The country is so -- in need of everyone else, and it's a democratic country. T
hey can come, join the politics, be part of the business community that are investing in the country. They should -- we welcome them, and we invite them, even, to come back and take part as our country's reconstruction and development.
SWEENIA: Fawzia Yusuf Adam, foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Somalia, thank you for joining us.
ADAM: Not at all. Thank you very much for inviting me.
SWEENEY: Live from London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD, and coming up next, she is the head of a company that got its start making gun powder more than 200 years ago. We'll introduce you to this week's Leading Lady.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Sign up for the job of CEO and a lot of hard work is in store, but imagine doing it in the middle of a financial crisis. Well, that's exactly what this week's Leading Lady did. Ellen Kullman is one of only 21 women running a Fortune 500 company. And as Poppy Harlow reports, Kullman hopes to be an inspiration.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She's a woman with a plan and a vision.
ELLEN KULLMAN, CHAIR AND CEO, DUPONT: Change isn't something that happens to you. Change is something you do to make things happen.
HARLOW: Important qualities in a leader of a company more than 200 years old, constantly forced to adapt to an every-changing technological and economic landscape.
KULLMAN: Certainly, the four years I've been CEO has been marked with quite a substantial uncertainty in the marketplace.
HARLOW: Ellen Kullman took the reins of chemical mega-corporation DuPont in 2009, a company that got its start producing gun powder in 1802 and now has its hand in thousands of products, from Kevlar to air filters. She became CEO at the height of the financial crisis.
KULLMAN: Seventy thousand people are looking up saying, "What do we do?"
HARLOW (on camera): Right.
KULLMAN: "Where do we go?" What's going to make a difference -- so much fear and so much uncertainty. And I went back to basics. Focus on what we can control.
HARLOW (voice-over): DuPont operates in more than 90 countries, which means Kullman is always on the move.
(APPLAUSE)
HARLOW: A few months before she gave this speech in Durham, North Carolina, we caught up with her in Davos, Switzerland.
HARLOW (on camera): Walk us through a day in your life at DuPont. What is it like?
KULLMAN: You know, they're very full. Earlier this week, I -- we had our earnings call. We're talking with media, we're talking to investors.
And I went from there to do two videos for meetings I couldn't attend for our groups that I wanted to send specific messages, then went into a ballroom full of 400 of our top leaders from operations from around the world and talked to them about 2013 --
HARLOW: And then you get on a plane and fly to Davos.
KULLMAN: And that's when I think. Plane time historically has been my time to kind of just think and catch up on things and read and say, what are we doing well? What are areas that we should focus on?
HARLOW (voice-over): Back at Duke University in North Carolina, she's hoping to inspire the next generation of leaders. Kullman was once a student in her hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and it was a history teacher in high school who inspired her.
KULLMAN: He helped me see that by majoring in science and engineering specifically that it would open doors, not narrow what I do.
HARLOW (on camera): If it weren't for your history teacher encouraging you, do you think you'd be in this position today?
KULLMAN: Absolutely not.
HARLOW: No?
KULLMAN: No. I doubt it.
HARLOW (voice-over): Her philosophy on work and life is one of no regrets, and that balancing, she thinks it doesn't exist.
KULLMAN: It was always a give and take. It was always something that works 24 hours, 7 days a week, and my family's 24 hours, 7 days a week. And somewhere in there, you figure it out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: And figure it out she does. Next week, Ellen Kullman talks about handling pressure. For more on our Leading Women series, log onto cnn.com/leadingwomen. You can also read about some favorite fictional heroines and weigh in on your leading ladies of literature.
And coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, the battle for survival in the Premier League. Can Wigan avoid the drop again?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: At this stage in the season, it's often the bottom of club football tables that are providing the biggest drama. Don Riddell joins me from CNN Center with the very latest chapter of the relegation battle in the Barclays Premier League. Don?
DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks very much, Fionnuala. I tell you what, this is almost more exciting than the race for the title and the race for the Champions League places, because these clubs really are fighting for their lives.
And this season, there are so many clubs involved in this relegation scrap, even though QPR and Reading are already down. There is one more place that everybody is trying to avoid.
Now, Wigan make a bit of a habit of this every year. They were in action against Swansea today. That game has just finished. It ended in a two-all draw. Wigan were leading that game twice, but they ended up having to settle for -- in fact, I apologize. They were beaten by three goals to two, so a very, very big setback for Wigan.
And you could see by looking at the players at the end that they were really, really very disappointed. I think they know that this is a real setback for them. As you can see, they are on 35 points, now. That's 3 games from safety with only two games left this season.
And of course, they have the added distraction of the FA Cup final coming up. That would be nice, but I think what is more important for them is that they can stay in the Premier League.
SWEENEY: And change gear, here, Don, because a little more on the celebrity side. Sport's newest power couple have been out and about in public. What was the occasion, if we need to know and need to be confirmed about who they were?
RIDDELL: Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn, they -- of course, they confirmed their relationship on Facebook a bit earlier this year, and this was their first public outing. It was a star-studded gala event, the Met gala in New York, and as you can see, there they are.
They were the guests of "Vogue" magazine. The scene was punk. And I'm not entirely sure they were dressed appropriately, given that that was the theme. Although, if they were trying to be non-conformist, Fionnuala, then maybe they were absolutely spot on.
Tiger's already back to work. He's playing in the Players' Championship at Sawgrass in Florida this week. He arrived there today. Lindsey Vonn, of course, recently had knee surgery following a really, really bad fall earlier this season. But she looked to be walking OK, and by all accounts is making a good recovery.
SWEENEY: Yes, she was wearing a cast a few weeks ago. Wonder if she's still wearing it. Don Riddell, we'll leave it at that. Thanks very much, indeed.
All this week at CNN, we are taking a closer look at the science behind climate change and extreme weather and how it all affects you. Mars may have Rover, but Earth has GROVER, and NASA has high hopes for the robot's powers of detection, as Ayesha Durgahee reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AYESHA DURGAHEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a NASA probe on a ground mission to Earth. This is the Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research. You can call it GROVER. Powered by the sun, it will use radar to peer beneath Greenland's ice sheet, getting clues on how it formed.
LORA KOENIG, NASA GLACIOLOGIST: GROVER should be able to gather more data than a human could working in the ice sheet environment, and for a longer period of time. It'll go slower than we would with snowmobiles, but when it goes for 24 hours, which a human can't, it'll actually gather more data for us.
DURGAHEE: The robot really can work around the clock, for the moment at least. It's the arctic summer right now, so the sun won't set below the horizon. Greenland is of major interest to climate change researchers. In November, a team of 47 scientists, backed by European and US space agencies, said Greenland and Antarctica are now losing three times as much ice each year as they were in 1990.
Last summer, NASA said these satellite images showed melting areas on 97 percent of Greenland's surface ice. The refreeze afterwards is one of the things GROVER will be looking at. Calculating how much ice is being laid down should help work out how much Greenland's melt is contributing to rising sea levels.
While satellites keep track on climate change from space, GROVER will never leave this planet. But just like its Martian Rover cousins, GROVER has NASA's fingerprints all over it.
MICHAEL COMBERIATE, NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER: This is like a spacecraft that operates on the ground. It's just like a spacecraft, because it has to survive in a hostile environment unattended for months at a time while we are communicating with it sporadically.
DURGAHEE: GROVER's mission will be a lonely one at first, though later in the year, it will be joined by Cool Robot, developed by Dartmouth College. Over the icy terrain, the pair will conduct their scientific research, never tiring, and never complaining about the cold.
Ayesha Durgahee, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: In tonight's Parting Shots, it's all about having the time of your life at the new ABBA Museum in Stockholm, there's a lot more on offer than karaoke. Instead, you can sing along to the Swedish band's greatest hits with life-size holograms of the legendary pop group. And the ABBA adoration doesn't stop there. Our own dancing queen, Pauline Chiou reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC - "DANCING QUEEN" BY ABBA)
PAULINE CHIOU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just like the Dancing Queen, you can dance, you can jive, and curators hope you'll have the time of your life at ABBA, the museum. The high-tech shrine to Sweden's world-famous pop group opens on Tuesday in Stockholm.
The foursome shot to fame in 1974 when they won the Eurovision song contest with "Waterloo."
(MUSIC - "WATERLOO" BY ABBA)
CHIOU: The group went on to sell more than 370 million albums before their breakup in 1982. Now, fans can relive ABBA's most memorable moments through a multitude of memorabilia, including 70s stage costumes, scores of gold and platinum records, a replica of their recording studio.
Visitors can even sing along to ABBA's hits with life-sized holograms of the group. Curators call it an immersive and interactive experience. They say former member Frida Lyngstad, got emotional when she got her first look at the museum.
INGMARIE HALLING, EXHIBITION CURATOR: Yesterday, Frida was walking around here, and she had a little tear in her eye because it was very nice and she felt good vibe from her own story.
CHIOU: Former member Bjorn Ulvaeus is helping to finance the venture.
BJORN ULVAEUS, ABBA MEMBER: Yes, it's quite weird, in a way, to build a museum of yourself.
CHIOU: But unfortunately, he says there are no plans for an ABBA reunion.
ULVAEUS: So, it's been quite a lot of years, now, since that time, and as you all know, we've never reunited. And so I take the opportunity now to say that we are not going to either.
(LAUGHTER)
CHIOU: The opening has attracted longtime ABBA fans from as far away as Mexico and the UK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the music is timeless, really, and it still lives on, even now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The museum is a huge thing. It's an acknowledgment of their achievements and them as a group.
CHIOU: Tourism officials are hoping ABBA's enduring popularity will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Swedish capital.
Pauline Chiou, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: And I bet there will be lots of tourists. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney, this has been CONNECT THE WORLD, and thank you for watching.
END
