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Connect the World
Imran Khan Addresses Crowd From Hospital Bed; Bail Set For Ariel Castro At $8 million; Stephen Hawking Boycotts Israeli Conference
Aired May 09, 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: Hello, I'm Fionnuala Sweeney.
The man accused of keeping three women captive for a decade has faced court in the U.S. State of Ohio. Now the county prosecutor in the kidnap and rape case, Timothy McGinty, is speaking at a news conference in Cleveland. Let's listen in.
TIMOTHY MCGINTY, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, PROSECUTOR: ...continue to do so.
On behalf of all the citizens of Cuyahoga County, I salute and thank the heroes this case has already revealed, first and foremost, the victims who have found the internal strength and courage to outlast their tormenter and survive this decade of torture and depravity, and, second, the victims' families who never lost hope for their loved ones and spurred all officials on, third, the neighbors and police officers who acted decisively and bravely to rescue these victims.
We also commend the professionalism of the Cleveland Police Department, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and all the specialists they have given us and the many hundreds of hours they have spent and will spend on this case.
And they work together effectively and whose determination to bring this case to justice never wavered. For further questions, please submit them to our public information officer, Maria Russo, who will give you her e-mail.
We will work tonight to respond in writing as many questions as the law allows us to answer. I thank you for your time. I thank you for your concern. And on behalf of Cuyahoga County, we thank everyone who has worked on this case, everyone who has worked to achieve justice and will work to achieve justice.
I know each and every one of you in the media are here to help in this case. I cannot answer all your questions. So, I want to do it carefully and legally and do nothing that would jeopardize this case.
So, we're going to -- tonight, we are going to stay and answer every single question we can. We're going to do in writing. So, I thank you. Thanks very much.
SWEENEY: All right, there you hear the county prosecutor there, Timothy J. McGinty, talking to the media. Of course it's his job to successfully prosecute Ariel Castro who appeared in court earlier in the day. He, of course, is accused of keeping three women captive for a decade. He's already been in court and Chris Welch reports now from Cleveland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS WELCH, JOURNALIST: This is Ariel Castro making his first court appearance in Cleveland Thursday. You're hearing the voice of assistant prosecuting attorney Brian Murphy.
BRIAN MURPHY, ASSISTANT DA: Today, the situation has turned, your honor. Mr. Castro stand before me as a captive -- in captivity, prisoner. The women are free to resume their lives.
WELCH: The judge set bail at $8 million, $2 million for each of the three women held and Amanda Berry's daughter born during her ordeal. By now the story is all too familiar. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight kidnapped between 2002 and 2004 and imprisoned in a home until last Monday.
Berry and DeJesus returned to their families on Wednesday, Knight has continued to receive medical attention.
Meanwhile, we're hearing more about the horrific conditions described by the women during their years in captivity. According to an original incident report, Michelle Knight said she was impregnated five times by the suspect and after each of those he forced miscarriage by a starvation and punches to the stomach.
But when Berry was pregnant, Knight says she was forced to deliver the baby. And when the child stopped breathing, she claims Castro threatened to kill her.
A domestic violence expert says these tactics used by an abductor sound familiar.
LINDA JOHANEK, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER: Isolation is number one. He clearly isolated them in this house. He also did a lot of emotional manipulation.
WELCH: Some have questioned why the horrific situation didn't end sooner, but police are defending their investigators.
DEPUTY CHIEF ED TOMBA, CLEVELAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: And if there was one bit of evidence, one shred of a tip no matter how minute it was, they followed it up very, very aggressively.
WELCH: Reporting from Cleveland, Ohio. I'm Chris Welch.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: All right, but let's get the very latest on this case. Brian Todd joining me now live outside the courtroom there in Cleveland.
Just a few minutes ago, Brian, he heard from the county prosecutor saying essentially that because they want to give these victims time to heal that they are instructing any employees and public safety to cease releasing information and records about this case.
Can you tell us any more about that?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a sense of frustration, apparently, among some officials in Cleveland, because the mayor had eluded to something like what the prosecutor just said, essentially calling for city and state employees to not maybe leak so much information, not be so loose with information that they give to the media. Clearly some sensitivity among top officials in the city of Cleveland, Fionnuala.
You know, you described the arraignment where we actually got a lot more detail than we got from this news conference just now. The arraignment gave us a lot more detail on just kind of what is outlined against Ariel Castro in this case.
He came in, he looked despondent, he looked down. He never spoke. He did not enter a plea. They set bond for him at $8 million, which his attorney tells us he doesn't have and so he'll be spending just about all of his time in jail until this case is disposed of one way or another.
But the prosecutor, Brian Murphy, did outline what he, you know, kind of -- the justification for these charges, saying that Ariel Castro he, quote, "snatched these women off the streets of west Cleveland," quote, "to be used in whatever self-gratifying, self-serving way he saw fit." He says that two of the victims basically endured this, what he called a horrifying ordeal for the last decade, the third for close to a decade.
And here's what Brian Murphy said, they withstood repeated beatings. They were bound and restrained and sexually assaulted, basically never freed to leave this residence.
He was making the case for not letting Ariel Castro out of jail any time soon. And the judge granted his wish on that score -- Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: All right. Let me ask you a question, we're getting -- before I ask you that question, rather Brian, we are getting information, according to law enforcement sources, telling CNN that investigators are closely examining writings that they believe were written by Ariel Castro found in his house. Apparently they contained what we're hearing as specific detailing of actions and reasons behind actions. So it's going to be obviously a very long developing case here.
And the question that many people have been asking is that how did no one know that these women were in this dire situation. That is the question that's being posed by many people in the United States right now.
And for more on that, Randi Kaye explores the psychological phenomenon.
Let's go to Tom Foreman now with the report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The geography of these kidnappings is really quite remarkable. Let's bring in the map and look at it, because all three of these young women disappeared at roughly the same time in the same place -- 2002, 2003, and then in 2004. They disappeared without a trace in an area full of businesses, full of homes, nobody had any idea where they went. And now, 10 years later, they show up three miles away from the spot where they disappeared.
So what do we know about this house? Not a whole lot. We know it's very old. We know it's only about 1,400 square feet. And the neighbors, by and large, paid no attention to it, because it was quiet. It was sealed up, so much so that some people thought maybe no one even lived there. But now of course we know someone did live there, a man who came and went largely by the back door and occasionally, occasionally people did see signs of other people, including in one case a neighbor who saw in a window that's right up here a woman peaking out. That window was later covered over altogether.
So what about the inside of the house? We know from an eyewitness that there's a small living room right inside the front door. That's where he kept his musical instruments. Beyond that is a small dining room. Back here is the kitchen.
There are four bedrooms in this house. We believe they're all on the second floor along with the bathroom up here. The attic is believed to be unfinished.
But one of the big questions is the basement. In this area, the ground is very sandy and very loose. So basements are typically considerably smaller than the general profile of the house. Maybe only 15 feet by 15 feet. It may house a water heater and a furnace, but this is almost certainly the case all the time. It will be a leaky, musty, dank, damp place and a terrible place for anyone to have to be any period of time. And yet this is also true, it would be the kind of place where you could call and call out for help and likely never be heard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: And Tom Foreman there with, as you can see, a mock-up of the house and the kind of conditions that these women and the six year old girl were living in.
Well, still to come this hour, a massive campaign rally in Pakistan ahead of critical national elections on Saturday. We'll be taking you live to Islamabad.
Outrage and anger at the renounced (inaudible) Stephen Hawking. Why he is boycotting a major event in Israel.
And the former Guatemalan dictator on trial over a massacre 30 years ago. We hear from the filmmaker who helped make the case against him.
All that and much more when Connect the World continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: You're watching CNN. This is Connect the World with me, Fionnuala Sweeney. Welcome back.
In Pakistan, another turbulent day as elections draw near. The son of former Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani was kidnapped during a rally on Thursday. It comes just two days after cricketer turned politician Imran Khan suffered a terrible fall. Saima Mohsin joins us now from Islamabad -- Saima.
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fionnuala, it's been an extraordinary run-up to the election campaign. We've had election violence and then just a few days before he's meant to address a huge rally, Imran Khan has that dramatic fall you just mentioned, tumbling to the ground alongside his guards receiving four fractures, two of them to his mid-back. And doctors say, though, he will make a full recovery. He addressed crowds tonight as have many political leaders. This is the last day of election campaigning. They're all obviously trying to get in their last word. Imran Khan once again speaking from his hospital bed. You can see those pictures there.
Tonight, he actually -- the first time he gave a speech, it was very emotive and it was very much a speech. This time it was very frank and open, telling people, hey, please, give me one more chance. You've tried the others, try me. And he talked from a very personal point of view as well. He very rarely speaks about his personal life. He talked about his marriage to Jemima Khan and how he's had to effectively give up his family life and dedicate it to politics in Pakistan.
On the flip side, while Imran Khan was addressing a rally in Islamabad, the frontrunner Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister, wanting to come back into power, was addressing a large rally in Lahore, too. And incidentally, because of election violence we understand he was told to postpone that until later on in the night, because of security concerns -- Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: All right, so clearly it has been a very dramatic run-up to this election. But talk us through, now Saima if you will, the procedure and the process. What happens over the next few days and when will we know the results?
MOHSIN: Well, this has been the final day of any kind of election campaigning, midnight Pakistan time, which was just over an hour ago, everything had to shut down. So Pakistanis go to the polls at 8:00 am local time Saturday, that's 11:00 in the evening Eastern time. And they will have the whole day. And they have a day off. It's a national holiday in Pakistan, to go and cast their votes. A lot of it is done by election symbols for those who can't read or write, they will recognize the symbols. They've been allotted to people. And Pakistanis will spend the day hopefully with a high turnout casting their votes.
Let me give you some figures about that. There are 36 million new voters here in Pakistan. It's going to be an extraordinary election, not just as you say marred by election violence, but certainly people very much looking forward to these polls, looking forward to once again having the power of their votes to cast into potentially the next democratic dispensation here in Pakistan.
So a lot of new voters. We're told there's new polling stations, more election observers, more women candidates. So a lot of choice, too, in these elections. Pakistanis certainly very geared up and looking forward to it.
SWEENEY: All right, that's quite a number, 36 million new voters. Saima Mohsin, we shall leave it there. Thanks for joining us from Islamabad.
Well, now to the bloody conflict in Syria. Amateur video has emerged of what activists say are rockets falling on the city of Darayah.
The voices you can hear accuse Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of the shelling. CNN can't verify the authenticity of this amateur video.
A new disaster in Bangladesh's garment industry. At least eight people were killed when a fire tore through a sweater factory in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday. Officials say a police officer and the factory owner are among those who died. They say the fire broke out on one of the lower floors of the 11 story building and authorities are now trying to figure out how it began.
Next, to a plan to expand a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Israel's civil administration has approved plans to add almost 300 more homes to this development. It isn't a done deal. There are still more stages to go in the approval process. However, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heading to the region this month, the Palestinians say it sabotages efforts to restart the peace process.
It has been an uncomfortable question for Boston authorities: what to do with Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body? Police now say the remains of the Boston bombing suspect have been entombed, but they didn't reveal when or where. His body went unclaimed for two weeks.
Tsarnaev was killed a few days after the April 15 bombing during a shootout with police.
Take a look at this incredible image. A woman in Brazil recovering after her husband accidentally shot a harpoon into her mouth. He was cleaning the harpoon gun when it misfired. The spear struck the woman's jaw and mouth before lodging in her spine. Doctors say it had gone even one centimeter to the left or the right she would either be dead or paralyzed. And that's really extraordinary.
Live from London, this is Connect the World. Coming up, it is the front line in the fight against Somali piracy. And CNN gets exclusive access on board an African Union vessel taking on terror on the high seas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Welcome back. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney.
This week, Somalia won international pledges of extra aid and military assistance at a major conference here in London. The UK also said it would help boost radio communications on the Somali coast to help combat piracy.
The African Union is playing a big part in keeping those waters safe. And Nima Elbagir gained exclusive access aboard one of their boats.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIMA ELBAGIR: This is the African Union's marine contingent. Every day for the last six years they've patrolled the waters off the coast of Somalia on the lookout for potential threats. And they don't have to go very far to find them.
We've only gone about 30 kilometers up the shore north of the capital Mogadishu and already the patrols come across a suspected pirate base. We can't get any closer than this for security reasons, but this really illustrates how present that pirate threat continues to be here.
Lieutenant Isaac you are in command of this marine patrol, can you talk us through how you get your intelligence? How do you know, for instance, that that back there is an insecure area where there is a pirate threat?
LIEUTENANT ISAAC EWAGA, MARINE UNIT, AMISOM: We do get intelligence information through the Military Intelligence Officer, who see that they consider it, and then we do also get information through the local fisherman.
ELBAGIR: So the fisherman tell you that they've seen suspicious movement, that they've seen pirate crafts here.
EWAGA: Yeah, the boats which they do not know the origin, they normally communicate through intelligence channels.
ELBAGIR: You know that they're on shore and yet they don't come out when you're here.
EWAGA: Yeah, because of our presence here the coastline doing a routine patrol every day. They know we are here and they -- we are capable of doing anything so they do not come on our way.
ELBAGIR: Since May 2012 there have been no successful pirate attacks, but that doesn't mean that there haven't been a fair number of attempts, nor as we just saw, does it mean that there aren't pirates waiting on shore for their window of opportunity. And the African Union told us that as you go further up that coastline there are even more pirate encampments.
The problems of piracy might be felt at sea, but their root causes lie here on land. Until the international community deals with the problems that blight Somalia as a whole, then it's hard to see how there can be a sustainable solution, a long-term solution to the issue of piracy.
Nima Elbagir, CNN, Mogadishu.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Physicist Stephen Hawking says he will not attend a high profile conference in Israel to boycott Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The decision has sparked outrage. Conference organizers are furious. And there's been a barrage of criticism on Twitter, too. From Jerusalem, Sara Sidner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The decision by one of the world's best known scientists to boycott Israel has sparked a firestorm on social media sites.
Normally celebrated for his scientific mind even as his body is trapped by a debilitating disease, Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking is being demonized and praised for his politics.
Though he has been to Israel and the Palestinian territories several times in years past, he canceled an appearance at a prominent conference in Israel at the behest of some Palestinian academics.
OMAR BARGHOUTI, BOYCOTT DIVEST SANCTION CO-FOUNDER: We all had the same message. Under conditions of occupation and apartheid, we don't want anyone to come to Israel, to Israel's conferences, to Israel's festivals, it will be isolated as South Africa was under apartheid.
SIDNER: Israel says it is a well established democracy, not an apartheid state. The organizers of Israel's president's conference were outraged at the reason for the cancellation and sent this statement, which reads in part, "the academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone who whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission."
The story took off on social media sites. Many of the comments filled with fury and hatred for Hawking, prompting the comments themselves to spark controversy all on their own.
One tweet that misspelled him said, "a conspiracy of sorts. Shame S. Hawkins. Bloodthirsty anti-Semite from the onset."
A comment in Hebrew on an Israeli news site's Facebook said, "he should die already."
And there were many more we can't broadcast due to their explicit content.
The comments sparked others to respond with disgust. One tweet saying, "traumatized by the comments directed at Stephen Hawking, cripple and vegetable are among the mildest."
The reporter who broke the story in Britain's Guardian newspaper said, he too, faced social media's wrath for telling the story, but he understands the emotional response.
MATTHEW KALMAN, AUTHOR: The issue of the boycott reaches deep down into the psyche on both sides. For Israelis the idea of a boycott reminds them of the Nazi boycott of the Jews and it reminds them of the boycott of South Africa. It makes them feel like pariahs. For the Palestinians, the same thing. They believe Israel is South Africa. They believe that Israel should be subjected to a boycott. And they also feel that until now, nothing has worked and this is their last weapon of -- that they can use.
SIDNER: Despite all the controversy, some 5,000 people are expected to attend the conference this year, including former President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and songstress Barbara Streisand.
Still, the controversy is another example that social media has become a powerful tool that is sometimes turned into a weapon against those whose ideas don't match our own.
Sara Sidner, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: The latest world news headlines just ahead.
Plus, Prince Harry crosses the Atlantic to the U.S. capital ahead of a six day world tour.
We get reaction to one of football's biggest appointments as David Moyes is confirmed as the new manager of Manchester United.
And submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean and believed to be 100 million years old. Are these rocks evidence of a lost continent off the coast of Brazil.
That story and more still to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: This is Connect the World and the top stories this hour.
The Ohio man accused of holding three women captive for nearly a decade stood expressionless with his head down at his first court appearance. 52-year-old Ariel Castro is charged with kidnapping and rape. Police say he separately lured each victim by offering her a ride home.
The son of former prime minister Yousuf Gilani was kidnapped during a political rally in Pakistan on Thursday. Eyewitnesses say gunmen fired shots into the crowd, then grabbed Ali Haida Gilani and drop away. He's running for a parliamentary seat in Pakistan's upcoming elections.
At least eight people have been killed in another disaster at a Bangladesh garment factory. Fire poured through the Dhaka building on Wednesday and it comes as the death toll in the factory collapse two weeks ago rose to 931.
The United Nations estimates there are now nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees living outside the country. But inside the country, little is known about thousands more. Frederik Pleitgen has a look at what some of those displaced are coping with.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Syria's civil war is engulfing more and more of this country, and an increasing number of civilians are feeling the effect, many forced to leave their homes, and now dependent on humanitarian aid.
This family recently arrived at this shelter in Damascus.
"We came from Zamalka," she says, "and the situation there is awful. We can't live there. But we also can't afford our own place here, so the shelter took us in."
This shelter has a food distribution center run by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the United Nations World Food Program. The aid packets cover the basic needs: food, utensils, and toiletries. But the amounts are barely sufficient.
PLEITGEN (on camera): As the conflict here in Syria drags on, more and more people are becoming displaced, and the United Nations is having increasing difficulty providing all of them with the aid they need to get by.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Aid organizations say more than 4 million Syrians are now internally displaced. Reaching all of them is a big problem for the groups.
KATE NEWTON, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: We are hindered in some areas of the country simply because we can't move around easily, and some of our convoys are being attacked.
The other key challenge we have is funding. We have funding needs of $19 million every week, now, between the people who we're feeding inside Syria and the refugees outside the country, and obviously, that's a huge demand from our donors.
PLEITGEN: The violence in Syria's two-year-old civil war shows no sign of letting up, as opposition forces battle the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in an increasingly stalemated conflict. Aid donations are simply insufficient. The Syrian Red Crescent's warehouse in Damascus, nearly empty.
ABDUL RAHMAN ATTAR, PRESIDENT, SYRIAN ARAB RED CRESCENT: If you can see what had been delivered until now and what is the need, it's not covered more than 30 to 40 percent.
PLEITGEN: That makes life for Syria's internally displaced even more uncertain. Driven from their homes, they have to hope there will be aid available the next time they come here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Frederik Pleitgen, there, reporting on the terrible plight of refugees, displaced people inside Syria and the work being done to help them.
An historic trial is finally coming to a close with final arguments today against the former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt. The 86- year-old is facing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity over a massacre 30 years ago. And, as Rafael Romo explains, it's a case that may never have made it to court if not for archival footage provided by a filmmaker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: The young and seemingly naive filmmaker who 30 years later is using her footage to help indict a dictator.
PAMELA YATES, FILMMAKER, "GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR": I went to Guatemala in 1982. I had been working as a sound recordist on other people's films and on news segments in Nicaragua and El Salvador, when I heard about this hidden war in Guatemala.
I knew that the Guatemalan journalists who were trying to cover the story were being killed or silenced. And international journalists who went to Guatemala were being stopped at the airport, detained, interrogated, and deported. And so I thought, this would be an amazing story to be able to tell.
ROMO: That story became the acclaimed documentary, "When the Mountains Tremble." It featured rare footage of the fight between leftist rebels and the Guatemalan military Junta.
YATES: I had no idea that I was filming in the middle of a genocide.
ROMO: Yates is now retelling the story in her new film, "Granito," after digging out a new chapter. Central to it is former dictator general Efrain Rio Montt, who seized power of the country in 1982.
YATES: As I was interviewing him, I asked if I could go with him on a helicopter mission into the highlands. He took one look at my innocent face and must've thought, "Hey, why not have this gringita on a mission? What harm could she possibly do to me?"
ROMO: Three decades on, while going through her outtakes, Yates discovered an interview with Rios Montt, which has been used to bring charges of genocide against the former general.
YATES: I interviewed General Efrain Rios Montt in 1982. He was the president and head of the armed forces. And I asked him what was happening in the highlands, the epicenter of the war against the Maya population.
And we had a very long interview. He denied, denied, denied. He said there was no repression on the part of the army, that there was no killings, that there were no massacres in the highlands. And when I kept insisting that he answer my questions, he got very angry, and he said, "I'm the head of the army. If I don't control the army, what am I doing here?"
And this was seminal, because now that is being used as evidence in the liability theory for the chain of command that he was responsible for what we now know was a genocide in Guatemala.
ROMO: While Rios Montt continues to deny the charges, the film "Granito" follows the path of the activists, including Yates herself, in pushing for justice for the estimated 200,000 people who were killed in the 36-year conflict, which began in 1960, six years after an American-planned coup toppled an elected government.
Yates is hoping her film, together with skeletal remains and military documents, will bring long-awaited convictions.
YATES: There's an amazing new attorney general named Claudia Paz, who has taken all of the evidence gathered over the years and now has the political will to move forward with these cases. So, it's not only Efrain Rios Montt, it's other officers, other heads of state, former heads of state, and -- people down through the chain of command that she has been going after.
There have been more convictions and more arrests in the last two years in Guatemala than in the previous 30 years. So, this moment is quite a watershed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: And this trial is taking place currently. Let's get the latest, now, from Rafael Romo. He joins me from CNN Center. The trial began in March, but there were very many delays, so what is the significance, apart from the fact that it's actually taking place, of today's proceedings in this trial?
ROMO: Well, Fionnuala, this is very significant because it is the very first time anywhere in the world that a head of state is being tried for genocide by his very own country's justice system. And again, this is in Guatemala, where impunity has been rampant for decades. So, it is very significant.
And also, you've got to remember that Guatemala was immersed in a civil war for 36 years, from 1960 to 1996. So, many human rights activists believe that this trial is going to -- once and for all is going to finally close those wounds opened during those 36 years of civil war, Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: All right. Is this an open and shut case? What's the prosecution seeking in terms of a penalty?
ROMO: Seventy-five years, not only against Mr. Rios Montt himself, but also his former chief of intelligence, who is being tried alongside with him. It is very possible that he might get 75 years behind bars.
Now, he's 86 years old, so chances are that if he, indeed, gets the conviction, he may never see freedom again, Fionnuala.
SWEENEY: All right. And any indication when we might get a verdict?
ROMO: Well, Mr. Rios Montt testified in his own trial today. He says that he is innocent and that he was just a product of the circumstances, but he never personally ordered the extermination of the native people of Guatemala.
That means that the trial is coming to an end very soon. Some analysts say that it may even be tomorrow, when we get to hear what's going to happen to him in the future, what the verdict is going to be.
SWEENEY: All right, a fascinating case, a fascinating story. Rafael Romo, thank you for joining us.
Next, live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD, and still to come, the ingenious wheelchair from the developing world given a modern makeover. The first episode of our new series, Blueprint, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: And now, for the first episode in a new series here on CNN. Every fortnight on CONNECT THE WORLD, we will be bringing you Blueprint, a program that looks at the many ingenious products developed in the world's top design schools. Inventions that become game-changers.
And tonight, we kick off the series with a product that is going to get many people around the world mobile again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMOS WINTER, PROFESSOR, MIT: My name is Amos Winter, and I'm a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and my technology is the Leverage Freedom Chair, a developing-world wheelchair.
From the start of the project, I've been working with Tish and Mario to develop the LFC. In the summer of 2005, I spent that summer in Tanzania, and the challenge that I saw is that if you are a wheelchair user who lives in a rural area, there's not really a good mobility aid available to you that enables you to travel long distance on many types of terrains, kind of like a mountain bike for your arms, but is also small and maneuverable enough to use indoors.
LFC is a lever-powered wheelchair that through the lever system enables the person to go fast on tarmac or have a low enough gear to go through sand or mud or up steep hills by simply shifting his hands up and down the levers.
TISH SCOLNIK, GRIT: The LFC is definitely more than just a hunk of metal. It's a life-changing piece of equipment. I've seen people who literally were housebound when I first met them, and after using the LFC are now participating in their communities. They're thriving and they're smiling and they're confident.
WINTER: And it had to be cheap enough to fit within the current provision and donation structures that already distribute wheelchairs. So, the price of the LFC couldn't be beyond about $200 US.
Continuum is a product design firm here in Boston that we've been working with on the LFC project for a number of years. Continuum and Gianfranco have 30 years of experience with user-centered design and product development.
GIANFRANCO ZACCAI, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CONTINUUM: I think the LFC really is in a sweet spot, because it has this very, very functional engine that then can meet different needs in different parts of the world.
WINTER: We're going to talk to them today about how to take this developing-world technology, combine it with some conceptualizations that they've done for a rich world product.
We're at the point to transfer our developing-world technology, which offers a high performance at a low cost, to developed countries.
ZACCAI: People will want to use the wheelchair in different conditions for different aspects of their lives. They might want to go skiing, they may want to go in the water or at least at the beach.
WINTER: So, you can add, maybe, fatter tires for the sand and a lower gear ratio for the beach.
ZACCAI: The whole notion of not only making the wheels come off to make it more compact, but giving people a choice of wheels so that they can have fun.
WINTER: Yes, that's a very, very cool idea.
The aim is to make something better than either of us could have done alone.
ZACCAI: I think we also want to think about the business proposition and the communication and the branding of it, and how do you make it really cool? And coolness is not a temperature. It's a state of mind, right?
WINTER: The chair was educational in that it showed me that you can combine rigorous science and engineering with an understanding of the compelling socioeconomic factors behind the problem.
So, what I'm doing now in my career is trying to do that over and over again with irrigation, prosthetics, farming technologies, water purification. But all leveraging science and technology to create a positive impact in the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, a legend is replaced at Manchester United, even if the handling wasn't so legendary. We'll have the latest after the break.
And in the deep off the coast of Brazil, scientists believe this could be evidence of a submerged continent. We'll have details of the dramatic discovery just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: It wasn't a great surprise, but we now know for sure that Everton manager David Moyes will lead Manchester United into its new era. Amanda Davies is outside Manchester United's stadium, Old Trafford. So, I guess it is all over, bar the actual handover?
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, it is, Fionnuala. One of those rare moments as a journalist you get to prepare for breaking news, because this was such a well-known secret, really, and has been for the last 24 hours or so, or very soon after Sir Alex Ferguson announced he was retiring from his position here at Manchester United.
David Moyes, the Everton boss, was installed as the favorite to take over. They did keep us guessing somewhat this morning. A wall of silence came down from both Manchester United and Everton, but then at 3:00 local time, there was a statement from Everton saying that their manager of 11 years was leaving.
And then an hour after that, Manchester United confirmed that as of July the 1st this year, David Moyes will be the Manchester United manager. That wasn't so much of a surprise when it came out. The thing that did get people a little big shocked was the fact that he's been handed a six-year contract.
And I think that says a lot about the club's decision and how they went about the decision to employ their new manager. They wanted somebody to buy into the longterm strategy of this great, global brand, and David Moyes has shown at Everton in the past that he is in it for the long haul, he does like building for the future.
The club statement was incredible, with comments from Sir Alex Ferguson, from Sir Bobby Charlton, the great Sir Bobby Charlton, the Glazer family, from David Gill, there, the chief executive. They're all very much endorsing their man and what he will bring to the club.
In terms of the fan reaction, it's been a little bit more mixed, some saying they're a little bit underwhelmed by the appointment. They feel they wanted somebody like Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid manager, who has such a great history here in England and has a little bit more of what you would call, I suppose, a star quality.
But a little bit earlier, Steve McClaren, who was one of Sir Alex Ferguson's assistants here at Old Trafford and then went on to become the England manager, he was on CNN-SC with Pedro Pinto, and he gave the appointment a big thumbs up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE MCCLAREN, FORMER MANCHESTER UNITED ASSISTANT MANAGER: I think it's great for any of the coaches, now, out there, British coaches especially, who are just starting off in the game, in the coaching game, trying to take their licenses, as we talked with Marcel about.
And it's important that you see one of them characters go through the system, do their apprenticeship at a club like Everton, have success, and then get a major, major job rather than importing foreign managers in that will last for one, two, or three years. So, for me, as a British coach, manager, I think it's fantastic for the game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIES: There are still a couple of questions left unanswered, Fionnuala: who David Moyes is going to bring with him here. And then, of course, this really kicks off the managerial merry-go-round. There's now a vacancy, of course, at Everton as well.
SWEENEY: There is. Of course, there is the question when we'll see Moyes as Old Trafford on the pitch, or at least on the lines. But let me ask you, as far as Man U might be concerned, do you think that the announcement of the retirement and what some people are calling the anointment of David Moyes went as smoothly as they club would've liked it?
(LAUGHTER)
DAVIES: I think in a word, no. But you have to maybe give United a little bit of slack. It's been 26 and a half years since they last had to appoint a manager. The internet didn't even exist then. And I suppose that was the crux of where things went a little bit wrong today.
There's a great mutual respect between these two clubs and, indeed, the two managers, and I don't think Manchester United wanted to upset Everton. They felt that they wanted to give Everton their opportunity to have their say and say that their manager of 11 years, David Moyes, was departing.
But maybe the fine details of this, with this age of social media and the greater network of whispering that goes on, maybe the details weren't quite decided before everybody actually started speaking out about it.
So there was this incredible hour where we saw posts going up on Manchester United's Facebook page, on their Twitter site, saying a new manager had been confirmed. The next minute, they'd been taken down.
So, as we said, when it actually came out and we were allowed to say David Moyes is the new Manchester United manager, we were all pretty well prepared.
SWEENEY: Indeed, the media called it right. Thank you very much for joining us there from Old Trafford this evening. There you have it, David Moyes is the new man in charge at Man U.
Well, earlier I spoke with prominent sports journalist, Paddy Barclay, and I began by asking him if he thought Moyes' appointment was a surprise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK BARCLAY, COLUMNIST, "LONDON EVENING STANDARD": I would be very surprised if Everton only found out in the last few days that they're looking for a manager for next season. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they know who that manager for next season will be. So, I think also the closeness of the relationship between Moyes and Ferguson, which is the key --
SWEENEY: Ah. Because he's being brought in to be brought up, so to speak?
BARCLAY: Well, I think probably that's -- that would be going a bit too far for a 50-year-old manager who's been doing well for 10 years and has won, maybe, 3 manager of the year awards. But I do take your point. He is at Manchester United for one reason and one reason only: that Sir Alex Ferguson wants him there.
SWEENEY: What qualities do you think Moyes might bring that -- dare I say it? -- Fergie might just not have --
BARCLAY: Not have?
SWEENEY: -- in abundance.
(LAUGHTER)
SWEENEY: In abundance.
BARCLAY: Patience with the media, for a start. A little more humility. Don't get me wrong, Moyes is an extremely strong-willed and substantial figure, but he -- he is more polite.
SWEENEY: And one final question: what does this mean for the futures, potentially, of Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo?
BARCLAY: I think they'll be decided regardless of the management structure, quite honestly. I think that the -- the return of Ronaldo will obviously be for football reasons, because any club in the world would want one of the two best players in the world.
But as for the departure of Rooney, I think -- I don't think it'll make any difference. I think Moyes got the most exciting years out of Rooney, his teenage. I don't think Rooney's kicked on since then.
Whereas Ronaldo is ten times the player he was as a teenager, and I think Moyes is famous for getting the very best out of players. I think Manchester United are going into an equally exciting era, strange as it may seem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Sports journalist Paddy Barclay there. Now, a royal alert in the United States. Prince Harry has arrived, and he's kicking off a six-day tour. Right now, he's in Washington, where he's just met the first lady, Michelle Obama, and the second lady, Jill Biden.
Earlier, he was on Capitol Hill for a charity event close to his heart, and our royal correspondent, Max Foster, has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Prince Harry has finally arrived in the United States, the first stop of his US tour. This is an exhibition about landmine clearance, and it was a cause very close to his mother's heart, Princess Diana's legacy is partly defined by her work on landmine clearance. What Prince Harry wants to do here is very much keep her legacy alive.
So, this is about one of the charities that he supports, but there will be other events during the tour, which are all about promoting British interests. So, there will be receptions here in Washington, in Denver, and in New York to promote British trade with the United States.
So, he is what they call involved in gentle diplomacy. He's being used to bring in big-name guests, introduced to British speakers who can really benefit from his popularity here in the United States. There'll be time for some fun as well. He'll be involved in a baseball game, in a big, glamorous polo match.
But also, you'll see this theme coming up again and again about Prince Harry's military involvement. He is a serving officer. And the backbone of this tour, I'm told by the palace, is an event this weekend.
It's called the Warrior Games. It's a Paralympics for wounded soldiers, servicemen and women, and he's really fascinated by that, and he's going to be there, spend the whole weekend at that particular event.
As far as Las Vegas is concerned, perhaps it is in everyone's minds. He stripped off, the photos were published all over the world last year, but he wants to get rid of that reputation he has here in the US. I think he's going to be a pretty professional prince on this tour, and he's certainly not going to be taking his clothes off.
Max Foster, CNN, Washington, DC.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: I can't believe Max Foster would dare talk like that on Capitol Hill. Well, as he mentioned, Prince Harry hoping to avoid the sort of headlines following last year's visit to Vegas. The prince being, of course, photographed naked in a hotel suite. Soon the pictures were circulating across the globe.
Events didn't quite go to plan during a visit to America in 2010 when a horse threw Harry to the ground during a polo match to raise money for his charity in Africa. But there's also been a more serious side to his trips across the Atlantic. The prince is dedicated to his work with war veterans and last year, he was presented with a humanitarian award by former US secretary of state Colin Powell.
We just want to show you some pictures now just in to us of Prince Harry meeting the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, at the White House. There is an event taking place there, a charity event of Michelle Obama's, and there to the right of your screen, you can see the vice president's wife, Jill Biden.
We leave that there and turn now to a discovery that has rekindled the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. Scientists say they found continental rocks in the deep seas off the coast of Brazil. Tom Sater joins us with more, now, from the International Weather Center. What does it all mean?
TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, they didn't find Atlantis, that search will continue, much like the search for the Holy Grail. But research teams from Brazil and Japan got together to really find something interesting.
As we look at Earth, we can see South America, we see Africa, and we know -- it's not just a belief, we have scientific proof -- that of course a hundred millions of years ago, this was one large continent.
Let me show you how it evolved over time. Plate tectonics, and we're going to show you the video. They started to move. Just like we have volcanoes that make islands and motus, as they moved, you can see how South America and Africa drifting apart.
This was India, and it moved so quickly it slammed into Eurasia to create the Himalayas. But Australia drifted away, and it really created this land mass and, of course, the separate continents that we have over time.
What was found, announced this week that this joint effort between a Brazilian-Japanese team, they've been dragging the areas in between these continents, and let me go back now and show you what they found.
Southeast of Rio de Janeiro, they were able to come back to an area they were dragging about a year ago, and what they found was hints of -- there could be granite. Granite is, of course, rock that is only found on the, of course, land masses.
They don't -- dove, I should say -- in a submersible 2400 meters below the surface, and we have pictures of what they found, granite, on the surface of the ocean floors. It's typically basaltic rock, that's like a volcanic ash.
Granite has never been found before. They were not able to actually grab a sample of the granite. They did take core samples that have iron, magnesium, and cobalt in them, and they are for sure now, Fionnuala, that this was left behind years ago, hundreds of millions of years ago, when South Africa -- or South America and Africa split apart.
So, if they can find this, it could be quite interesting of what will they find in the future that was left behind as the plates started to move around the Earth.
SWEENEY: Very exciting for scientists and the public in general. Thanks very much, Tom Sater. I'm Fionnuala Sweeney, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you for watching.
END
