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Connect the World
Anti-Government Clashes Spread Across Turkey; Explosion At Poultry Plant In China Kills Over 100; Massive Floods Engulf Central Europe
Aired June 03, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Not backing down, protesters pack Istanbul's main square as anti-government protests sweep across Turkey. Tonight, what is fueling the anger.
Also ahead, newly released photographs of model Reeva Steenkamp as we've never seen her before. Tomorrow, her accused killer heads to the court.
And the special one returns to Chelsea for a second spell. Can he guide the clubs to glory once again?
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the world with Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: Well, it's late in the evening in Istanbul, but thousands of anti-government protesters are in no mood to sleep, I can tell you.
Crowds have gathered in Taksim Square and other sites across the country after a fourth day of clashes with police. Medics say one person has been killed in the unrest and thousands have been injured nationwide.
Well, the protests are easily the biggest challenge yet to the rule of Prime Minister Erdogan, but if he's concerned he sure isn't showing it. Listen to how he dismissed the demonstrators today before leaving on an overseas trip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Regarding these incidents, as a prime minister and a resident of Istanbul, I would like to say that if we'd put aside people who joined this protest with their naive emotional feelings after the social media calls, extreme elements organized these protests. And unluckily, people joined it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, Prime Minister Erdogan is a democratically elected leader with a good deal of public support. Protesters accuse him of abusing his power and becoming increasingly autocratic.
I want to bring in Ivan Watson now for the very latest from Istanbul - - Ivan.
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the situation here in Istanbul's central Taksim Square is peaceful. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of people milling about peacefully demonstrating and in the neighboring park where the protests began exactly a week ago with just a couple of dozens demonstrators.
Now we've heard about clashes about two kilometers from where I'm standing in the direction of the Istanbul office of the Turkish prime minister, that's been a target of violent demonstrators now for the third night who have been trying to get to that office, very angry because the Turkish prime minister has become the target of a lot of the anger.
And there is a helicopter that's been circling overhead, a police helicopter, at some points shining its spotlight into the crowd down here, which was soliciting boos and hisses from the crowd. Let's give you an image of what the scene looked like here in Gezi Park just a few hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: It's a pretty festive scene here in Central Istanbul. We are in Gezi Park. Until about a week ago, very few people really knew what this place was even if you were a Turkish citizen, but it has become the center of a national debate and a movement that's really been challenging the government of this country, unprecedented for the last 10 years.
It's because last Monday, 40 or 50 demonstrators held a sit-in. They didn't want the government to bulldoze this place to make way for a shopping mall. And the government cracked down, it sent in riot police with tear gas and water cannons and pepper spray again and again, and that has triggered these protests that have erupted in a number of different cities and towns across Turkey.
A significant challenge to the Turkish prime minister who has repeatedly denounced the demonstrators, calling them members of extremist organizations and marginal groups.
Now, I ran across this young woman Neslahan (ph), a mother and a working woman in Istanbul, a Turkish citizen. Are you a member of a marginal group?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not, Ivan. I would say that I'm one of the normal citizens, many of the normal -- one of the many normal citizens who are here today. And I think we're all here because we want our voices to be heard, we want our government to listen to our demands when they're making decisions that affect our lives. And I think we actually are sick and tired of violent suppression of social protests.
WATSON: And I've never seen a crowd like this in this park in Istanbul...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think Turkey has ever seen a crowd like this, not even the 60s, not in the 70s. And I think this is exhilarating, because for the first time so many different groups of different, you know, political leanings are actually together and there's a sense of solidarity, a sense of celebration, something that maybe we've all been dreaming and hoping for and that we've created ourselves.
And it's actually a great feeling.
WATSON: Thank you.
And just to give you a sense, it's hard to tell is this a majority movement or not, but we see a lot of strange things develop -- ethnic Kurdish political groups side by side with Turkish nationalists, their ideological rivals. We've seen the fanatical supporters of rival soccer teams uniting in clashes against the Turkish police.
In this place, the crowd is overwhelmingly peaceful. And as we just heard from one of the demonstrators, they really want to send a message to their Turkish prime minister.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: Now, Becky, we've just seen that our sister news organization CNN Turk has been showing live footage of clashes between demonstrators setting up barricades in the capital Ankara. And police firing tear gas and driving around some of their armored personnel vehicles as well.
So while in some places we see these very joyous, peaceful scenes, in others like the city of Izmir last night, we've seen violence where some demonstrators appeared to have torched one of the party offices of the Turkish prime minister's Justice and Development Party -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah, OK. I'm fascinated to hear you widening the scope of this. We haven't got those pictures from Ankara into CNN as of yet. Of course, as we get them we'll bring them our viewers. But it's important to point out that the disturbances that we've seen in Turkey are not just in Istanbul.
Let's take a look at the geography of these protests. They did start off a week ago in Taksim Square in Istanbul, but since they've spread most notably to the capital Ankara and its downtown Kazile Square (ph). And there are reports that protests have taken place in some 67 other places and provinces in Turkey, prominent ones including Izmir and Adana.
Well, one prominent Turkish blogger says the protests should be a wake-up call for Prime Minister Erdogan. Binnaz Saktanber has been taking part in demonstrations in Ankara and joins us now live.
And we are pointing out here tonight that though our viewers are looking at pictures from Istanbul, the disturbances, of course, have been across the country. Where have you been today and what have you seen?
BINNAZ SAKTANBER, BLOGGER AND POLITICAL SCIENTIST: I can't see you, but I've been in Ankara on the streets and what we've seen is disproportionate police brutality coupled with hundreds of thousands of people, or tens of thousands of people walking on the streets and trying to exercise their democratic right of peaceful protests and civic unrest and civic resistance.
So we had been tear gassed, but the areas we had been weren't too (inaudible) thank to god, but we...
ANDERSON: Let me just stop you there, because you're painting a very good picture for us given that we can't let you see the pictures of late. But you say you've been exercising your democratic right to protest, protest what at this point? What is it that you're protesting?
SAKANBER: Right. I think every public has a tipping point in general. And what might have started as a protest trying to protect the demolition of a green space, or a park, has just snow-balled into a larger issue, I think. And after years of the government ignoring the rights of women, rights of LGBT groups, rights of minorities, suppressing the freedom of expression and putting hundreds or maybe thousands of journalists into jail. This was a tipping-point.
So I think the protesters are protesting that the government efforts of trying to limit the definition of democracy. And, yes...
ANDERSON: Yeah, you've written. Let me just -- let me just let our viewers into something that you wrote today. You said this issue has become -- and the issue of the park in Istanbul -- has become the catalyst for the most widespread civil unrest in Turkish history.
You make the point that Turkey is no stranger to mass demonstrations. So what makes what you are seeing on the streets of Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul, what makes it different this time?
SAKANBER: Well, this is really an organic protest. And I cannot (inaudible) enough that this is a civil unrest, civil protest. It is not organized by any political party or any trade unions that we saw in the past that -- during the May 1st demonstration, for example.
Historically, demonstrations or protests in Turkey are organized by particularly affiliated groups. This one is not. This is a civil protest simultaneously just happened and organically exploded.
ANDERSON: So are you -- let me stop you there for one second. So are you and those that you hear on the streets calling for the end of the Erdogan administration? And if so, what do you expect to happen next?
SAKANBER: Well, it's a bit -- it's a bit easy to say that this process will resolve in the resignation of the government, because respectfully we know that he's a legitimate government and he has a popular vote. And he's legitimately elected.
But having said that, his way of communicating with his public has outraged thousands or millions.
What he's doing, actually, is trying to define the public as only AKP voter base. The public is much more bigger than that, and much more segmented than that. And what the government has to do is just to respect the lifestyles and choices and tipping-points of this public.
This process is not organized ideologically as he claims, or -- yes -- or it is not organized by any political party. And actually protesters are very aware of that and are trying to walk away from those groups and just there emphasizing that this is a civil unrest, civil protest. And this is just -- they want their voices to be heard.
ANDERSON: OK. All right.
And we appreciate your voice tonight here on CNN, explaining that this is not religiously motivated nor politically or ideologically motivated as you explain to us. So far as you are concerned, this is civil unrest and your voices want to be heard.
For that, we thank you Binnaz, for joining us from Ankara this evening.
Live from London, this is Connect the World. Still to come, survivors talk about locked gates after a massive fire engulfs a Chinese poultry plant.
And after days of downpour, central Europe is swamped with some of the worst flooding that it's seen in half a century. We're going to check if there is more rain on the forecast.
And the return of the Special One. We're going to take a look at why Jose Mourinho is heading back to Chelsea in West London. All that and much more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: A fire official tells CNN that an explosion caused a deadly fire at a poultry plant in northeast China, but the cause of that blast is still unknown. China's state run news agency says more than 110 people lost their lives on Monday.
My colleague Nic Robertson says the final count could be even worse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That death toll has just climbed steadily through the day. It took firefighters six hours to bring the blaze under control. It began at about 6:00 am in the morning at this Chicken production facility. There were about 300 workers inside the plant, about 100 managed to escape. Some of them reported that the gates to the plant were locked shut.
We also understand that the internal construction in the plant was prefabricated, that it was complicated internally, that some of the exits were narrow.
One worker describes being in a building there at the plant with about 100 other workers. The fire didn't start where she was in another building, she said, but suddenly somebody said run and she began running for the exit, which she said was about 40 meters away.
Then she said the lights went out. It was dark. She fell over. She got burned. She was taken to hospital, not too badly injured. She was one of the lucky ones.
Several score of people there have been reported injured so far as well.
What we understand from the fire services, they say that they believe an explosion triggered this fire at the chicken production facility. Eye witnesses also say that they heard a bang before seeing the black smoke.
But this death toll at the plant there, so far more than a third of the workers who were there have been reported dead. The indications are that this -- this tragedy that has happened here, that the death toll could still continue to climb further.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Beijing, China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, the second suspect in last month's killing of a British soldier in London has been charged at Westminster's Magristrate's Court. Michael Adebolajo is accused in the murder of Drumme Lee Rigby near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich on May 22.
Now that attack has sparked an intense police investigation. And Britain's prime minister has chaired the first meeting of a new UK task force looking at extremism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There is nothing in Islam that justifies acts of terror. And I welcome the spontaneous condemnation of this attack from mosques and Muslim community organizations right across our country. We will not be cowed by terror. And terrorists who seek to divide us will only make us stronger and more united in our resolve to defeat them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, CNN was at the London court early on Monday when Adebolajo was brought in. Atika Shubert reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael Adebolajo arrived here at Westminster Magistrates Court a little before 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning. He took a seat behind glass panels flanked by police officers. He was dressed all in white with his left arm in a cast. And he also held the Muslim holy book, the Quran, in his hand.
Now, the judge confirmed that he wanted to be called by a different name during court proceedings and that name is Mujahid Abu Hamza. He also had all the charges read out to him. Those charges were the murder of that British soldier, Lee Rigby. Also the attempted murder of two police officers and illegal possession of a firearm.
Now, he seemed quite agitated throughout this relatively short hearing. Just for 10 minutes this hearing was. But he seemed quite agitated, interrupting the judge several times to ask questions about proceedings. At one point he even seemed to appear to blow a kiss to a supporter in the public gallery. And then, before leaving the hearing, he actually lifted his arm up and kissed the Quran. So all very interesting details on a relatively short hearing.
He is now expected to have a bail hearing within 48 hours. And he will also have his preliminary hearing for his trial at the 28th of June, and that is when his case is expected to be joined up with that of the other main suspect in this, Michael Adebowale.
Atika Shubert, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, in the U.S. the court-martial of Bradley Manning started today after six months of pre-trial motions. Military prosecutors accuse the army private of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history. Manning has already pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him and faces up to 20 years in prison. But he plead not guilty for the most serious charge, aiding U.S. enemies, that could bring a life sentence.
Prosecutors contend that information received by Osama bin Laden can be traced to Manning's leaking of documents to WikiLeaks.
Live from London, this is Connect the World. It is 21 minutes past 9:00 here.
Coming up, remembering Reeva Steenkamp, as her accused killer returns to court, we'll hear from her friends and some newly revealed photographs.
Up next, though, Prague is on alert as flood waters cause thousands to flee across central Europe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Right.
Thousands of people are being forced from their homes in central Europe where flooding is causing death and destruction, I'm afraid, in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. At least eight people killed reportedly across the region. The death toll could rise.
The Czech government has declared a state of emergency deploying 2,000 troops to help rescue more than three times that many evacuees.
Flood waters from torrential rains have also swamped the German town of Passau. German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit that region on Tuesday.
So the big question, will there be even more rain? CNN's weatherman Tom Sater joins us now from the international weather center.
I mean, these pictures are absolutely horrific, given that we are now into June. This is supposed to be the summer in Europe.
What's going on? And what can we expect?
TOM SATER, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Well, winter hung on for a long time -- remember, last spring was the wettest spring on history, one of the coolest this time.
We've got an area of low pressure that just will not move. And so over the weekend, we have torrential rainfall reports. More rainfall fell Friday, Saturday, Saturday night than most countries can see in three months. I mean, Austria, they're well over their average, not just for the month. I mean, in some areas 221 millimeters when on average maybe 60 or 70 millimeters per month. All areas' streams, rivers, creeks, tributaries are over their banks. And it's worse than actually we can even see.
But to get in a little bit closer, it's not just been rainfall, which is starting to taper off in a few locations -- I mean, the last 24 hours we've had around 28 in parts of Poland and into Germany, but in Poland alone we've had some tornadoes. We've had large hail as well. But you can see here in Chmielnik, too.
What we're finding here is even though the rainfall rates are going to start to lower somewhat and we're going to see the back edge, this area of low pressure is still spinning. So intermittently, the rainfall anymore will just, you know, exacerbate the problem. But you can start to see in some areas of southern Germany, we get into around parts of the south -- Bavaria. We're going to see it start to taper off, but that's where it's the worst.
Let me show you some pictures. Let's start in Germany. We're going to go down to the (inaudible) here, because this is called the city of three rivers. And it's the river in the Danube. And of course they're near record waters here. We're near 12 meters in height. They're doing everything they can to sandbag. This is as close. People are evacuated.
You know, it's not just in Saxony and Bavaria, we have problems, too, in the Czech Republic. In fact, you see these pictures here. it's devastating floods. I mean, all regions in Bohemia, as well as the capital Prague, two fatalities and those numbers are going up, some are missing. Government has declared state of emergency. Czech rivers all continue to rise. The worst seems to be in South Bohemia. But in some cases, Becky, it is -- it's the worst in 50 years. On the Danube, it could be the worst since 2002. And that costs, you know, $4 billion in damage.
So, we're going to continue to watch it.
It's trying to taper off somewhat, but it still takes awhile for that crest to make its way downstream.
ANDERSON: Yeah, it's remarkable stuff. All right, let's cross our fingers for better things to come. I guess that's all we can do. All right, thank you mate.
The latest world news headlines, as you would expect here at the bottom of the hour on CNN just ahead.
Plus, remembering Reeva as Oscar Pistorius returns to court for the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. We talk to her friends and see newly released photographs of the model.
And getting louder, a concert to empower women and girls. We take you behind the scenes of what was a star-studded sound of change concert this weekend.
And Chelsea recalls its special manager. We're going to find out just how valuable a leader like Jose Mourinho really is to the world of football.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is Connect the World. You're watching CNN. I'm Becky Anderson.
The top stories this hour, anti-government anger continues to swell on the streets of Turkey. Protesters accuse prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of abusing his power, but he dismissed their reverences today, calling them naive and vandals.
Protesters in some cities accuse police of using excessive force to try to clear the demonstrations. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported on clashes in Ankara earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At one point, once the teargas started, they began breaking up rocks to throw them at the police. And this particular barricade was built when they tore apart some construction awnings to one side of the road, but the teargas still very rich in the air here. And now, of course, the police have brought in a helicopter.
They are here in significant number, but apart from a couple of exceptions, we haven't seen that much violence on the part of the protesters, though as these hours of clashes dragged on, they increasingly began to break up rocks to throw at the police, but that was met by an intensification of teargas and these armored vehicles moving down the street to clear people out of the way.
But the police pattern is sometimes hard to understand. They seem to move down a street, clear people out of it, fire teargas down the roads that lead off it, and then just simply move back to the central square here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, the prime minister blamed ongoing demonstration on extremists and political enemies. Protests have broken out in most provinces. They were sparked originally by a sit-in over plans to bulldoze a park to build a shopping mall in Istanbul.
A short time ago, my colleague Christiane Amanpour heard the deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling party tell CNN that no mall would be built. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU, VICE CHAIRMAN, AKP (via telephone): The building shopping mall has never been considered here in Taksim Square. What is considered is the pedestrian way and putting the car traffic under the tunnel and enlarging this -- the Taksim Square.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you're saying no mall?
CAVUSOGUL: Only -- all military barracks is considered to rebuild, the old military barrack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: OK. Well, a fire official tells CNN an explosion caused what was a deadly fire at a poultry plant in northeast China. The cause of that blast is still not known. China's state-run news agency says 119 people lost their lives in Monday's blaze. It's being described as the country's worst fire in more than a decade.
Central Europe, as you heard just earlier, is dealing with swollen rivers that are expected to rise even more. Flooding has reached a critical stage in parts of the Czech Republic. This was Prague earlier today. In parts of Germany and Austria, it's more of the same. Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes.
Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will return to court tomorrow. The South African athlete faces murder charges for shooting his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, back in February. He says he thought that he was shooting an intruder. Well, CNN's Robyn Curnow spoke with one of Steenkamp's old friends who had some special photographs to show you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was on the beaches of this South African seaside town that a young law student aspired to be a model, posing for these amateur snapshots. That young wannabe model was Reeva Steenkamp.
But just a few years later, she had transformed herself into a cover girl. She might have looked different --
(LAUGHTER)
KERRY SMITH, REEVA STEENKAMP'S FRIEND: I think that's the one.
CURNOW: -- but she didn't change inside, said her student friend Kerry Smith, who took those pictures on the beach about eight years ago.
SMITH: If anything, that's Reeva in her natural beauty. Not a stitch of makeup on, hair blowing in the wind with the sea behind her, sun setting behind her.
GARETH BARCLAY, PHOTOGRAPHER: This is another one from this shoot.
CURNOW: Reeva was a confident, professional model, ambitious, too, says Gareth Barclay, who shot these photographs a few months before she was shot dead by her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius. Pistorius says it was a tragic accident, that he thought she was an intruder. The state says it was murder. For now, it's just images of Reeva that are left to explain the kind of person she was.
BARCLAY: Most of the photos I took of her aren't even edited, that's just how she is. Skin was always great, beautiful eyes, beautiful features.
CURNOW: Reeva asked Barclay to take this photo of the tattoo etched on her neck.
BARCLAY: For her, it was very personal to her. She never really spoke about it or anything, she just wanted a personal photo of it.
CURNOW (on camera): Reeva had a tattoo on the back of her neck that said "Only God will judge me" in Italian. Do you know why she had that specific tattoo?
SMITH: That was something that her grandfather had always said and was very close to her own heart.
CURNOW (voice-over): Worlds she felt defined her, while Oscar Pistorius will eventually be judged in a South African court.
Robyn Curnow, CNN, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, Oscar Pistorius isn't expected to be in court for very long tomorrow, but it's his first scheduled public appearance since February, and the world will be watching to see how he's doing. Africa correspondent for the "Guardian" newspaper, David Smith, joins me now from Johannesburg. And just outline for me, if you will, what happens tomorrow. Where are we in the timeline of all of this?
DAVID SMITH, AFRICA CORRESPONDENT, "THE GUARDIAN": The line's breaking up a bit, but I think you're asking where are we with the case. Yes, it's been more than three months since Oscar Pistorius got bail immediately after the shooting. And since then, police have been investigating what happened, carrying out forensic and ballistic tests.
And tomorrow, it seems likely we will hear that, frankly, they have not finished. The investigation is ongoing. So, almost certainly the case will be postponed until August, when it is hoped that the police will have finished.
So, really, we're not expecting any dramatic announcements, certainly no new revelations tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Yes, we've heard about the --
D. SMITH: Pistorius himself, meanwhile, has been lying low in that time, has been barely seen in public since he was last in court.
ANDERSON: Sure. And we've heard about what could be the alleged inadequacies in the prosecution's case. What are South Africans saying about all of this? There was such a lot of hype at the beginning of this, wasn't there?
D. SMITH: Again, I couldn't quite hear all of that, but certainly, yes. South Africans remain fascinated, huge amounts of chatter on Twitter and in media and other sources. I'd say there's still both supporters and naysayers for Oscar Pistorius.
There's a hard core that remain very loyal and defend him vigorously and say, look, he was -- he actually thought he was trying to protect his girlfriend. But others for whom he's a fallen hero and they feel let down and they feel -- this is an open-and-shut case already, it is, of course, a massive story in South Africa and much followed.
But to be honest, it's gone very quiet in the last three months. There's not been that much to say, and lot of other news going on in South Africa. But I'm sure it will come back with interest tomorrow, and there'll be huge attention once again. But understand, the international media is equally if not more interested in this case than South Africans.
ANDERSON: David, thank you for that. David Smith in South Africa for you this evening. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. We are live out of London for you, 37 minutes past 9:00.
Is space tourism ready to blast off? Find out why Richard Branson says that everything is possible.
And next up, Chiming for Change. Beyonce headlining a concert, calling it the empowerment of women and girls around the world. We'll get you backstage after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: At a star-studded concert here in London on Saturday, pop diva Madonna chose not to sing, but rather to use her voice to call for a revolution in girls' education. It's a call that's being growing louder and louder since the Taliban's attempt to assassinate Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai eight months ago.
We've also joined the cause, and in te new CNN film "Girl Rising," we're going to bring you the stories of just some of those who are fighting simply for an education. Fredricka Whitfield introduces us to a girl from Nepal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is 16-year- old Purnima. She lives in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Purnima is one of the lucky ones. She's attending school.
PURNIMA, STUDENT: I'm proud of my school.
WHITFIELD: Girls in Nepal have a higher illiteracy rate than boys. Room to Read, a global nonprofit group that promotes literacy and gender equality in education, is trying to change that.
RISHI AMATYA, ROOM TO READ: The girls' education program started out because we found out that most families, if they were able to afford an education of one child, it was boys that got preferred over girls.
WHITFIELD: Purnima attended primary school, but government education is free only through the fifth grade. Organizations like Room to Read allow her to continue her education.
PURNIMA: I am the first person getting education in my family. We are from the poor family so we cannot afford all to go to high school.
WHITFIELD: Purnima lives with family above a carpet factory. Her father his paralyzed and her mother is blind. Without an education, Purnima says she would probably end up working at the carpet factory, but now she has big dreams.
PURNIMA: I want to be an eye doctor when I grow up because my mother is blind. I want to be an eye doctor in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, Purnima is now 17 and is waiting to find out whether she passed her 10th grade final exam. In the end, she decided to become a nurse. See a special presentation of CNN's film "Girl Rising" Saturday, June 22, 8:00 PM London, 10:00 PM Berlin, right here on CNN.
Well, as I mentioned before that piece, this rising took place center stage in London Saturday at the Sound of Change live concert. Madonna just one voice. Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Jesse J amongst many others amplifying the global call for education, health care, and justice for women and girls. Here's a look at what went on behind the scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: We are 48 hours away from a huge concert here at Twickenham Stadium in London. Let me show you what's going on here. You're going to have the likes of Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, all here.
It's Saturday, it's 4:00 in the afternoon, so we are just two hours away from the start of what will be a star-studded performance. Have a look, people already streaming into Twickenham Stadium here in West London. The stage is set for what will be the most fantastic gig, kicked off, of course, by Beyonce, who's been warming up in the past couple of hours.
The 50,000 or so who are lucky enough to have got a ticket here -- it is a sellout concert -- will know that every single penny that they have spent will go to a good cause. More than 100 foundations represented by Chime for Change, all working for the good of women and children in 70 countries worldwide.
Who you looking forward to most?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beyonce. Of course.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Apparently Jay-Z.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: J-Lo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Florence and the Machine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beyonce and J-Lo. You can't really get that.
ANDERSON: Beyonce and J-Lo. Look at you gang, all shy on me.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: Was it something we said? You know why you're here. All the money goes towards women's and girls' issues. How is important is that to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very important. Very important. I mean, it's good that it's doing things like this to raise awareness for it, definitely.
ANDERSON: Good to see some men here supporting women's and girls' issues. What are you looking forward to most?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alex Adams.
ANDERSON: Who's -- ?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's Alex Adams? You don't know?
(LAUGHTER)
(CROWD CHEERING)
ANDERSON: Just minutes to go now here in the stadium. Having been speaking to people outside, it's clear who most people want to see. She will start in five minutes, Beyonce, headlining here at Twickenham. And just look at the crowds. And there's still probably 10,000 or 15,000 queuing to get in. What a night.
Just wanted to bring you downstairs to where what we call the red carpet has been here backstage at Twickenham Stadium. Take a look down there, Brad. It's not really a red carpet, is it? It's kind of dotted carpet tonight.
This is the media room, beginning to empty out tonight, so swing it around. This is about as glamorous as it gets, right?
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: Here we are, the media, watching the concert on a television screen. That is about as close as we get. So, when you think that this is a glamorous job in TV, Becky Anderson, CNN, quite frankly, it ain't.
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ANDERSON: Coming up on CONNECT THE WORLD, the Special One returns to Chelsea. That is a special, glamorous job. We head to Stamford Bridge right after this.
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ANDERSON: In the ever-revolving doors of English football, Chelsea has announced it's bringing back the Special One. Manager Jose Mourinho won two consecutive Premier League titles for the club before his shock exit in 2007. Christina MacFarlane is at Chelsea's home stadium, Stamford Bridge, and she joins us live from there. What's the reaction been from the fans?
CHRISTIANA MACFARLANE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Becky. It's all quiet here at Stamford Bridge, but I can tell you, it's been the scene of some excitement this afternoon. The fans have been telling us that they're over the moon that Jose Mourinho is returning to the club for the second time.
They're saying it's written in the stars and that they have unfinished business with this manager. Meaning, of course, that they want to win the Champions League trophy, which is the only trophy that they failed to win with Jose Mourinho the first time around.
They're also saying that they hope this will be the start -- signal the start of a period of stability for the club, who have grown so accustomed to changing managers every season. Jose Mourinho said today that he intends to stay for a period of four years with the club. But you never know with Jose Mourinho what's around the corner. We'll just have to wait and see.
ANDERSON: Do you think there's anything significant about the timing of this announcement? And also, he fell out with the owner, Roman Abramovich, last time. Is that all now water under the bridge?
MACFARLANE: Yes, that's right, Becky. We've been hearing this afternoon, some of our sources have been telling us, that actually this deal was a done deal, has been a done deal for many months now.
But when you consider that Sir Alex Ferguson, the longest-running, most successful manager of the Premier League, has just stepped down from Man United after 26 years, you couldn't say the timing -- the timing could not be better for Jose Mourinho to step in now and take control of the Premier League and really assert himself and show his dominance.
And you're right to say, of course, that Roman Abramovich, the last time they -- the last time they parted ways, it wasn't amicable. The fallout in 2007 before -- where he left before the end of the season, we understand it was because there was a disagreement between Abramovich and Mourinho about how Abramovich wanted Mourinho to play football, to have Chelsea, his team, play football.
But we're told now that's all water under the bridge. We're told it was a misunderstanding, and we understand in an interview from Jose Mourinho this afternoon that it took him just a couple of minutes to sit down with Roman Abramovich to agree to become the manager here for the second time in his career.
ANDERSON: Remind us what this deal is worth.
MACFARLANE: Well, the most interesting thing today as well, Becky, of course, is that we've been hearing from the players as well. We spoke to Demba Ba and David Luiz just a few weeks ago, and they told us that they would be absolutely ecstatic if Roman -- if Mourinho was to return here.
But also consider that the last time he was here, some of the old guard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, they're still here today. They're still in the squad. So, it'll be a very popular appointment among the players as well as the fans, and he'll be returning for his first press conference in a week, next Monday, and we're all very much looking forward to hear what he has to say.
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ANDERSON: I knew you were going to say that. Any sports correspondent worth their weight in gold can't wait for that first press conference. Christina, I know you are anticipating it, and so am I. Christina MacFarlane for you outside Stamford Bridge this evening.
Well, his nickname suggests Mourinho is a highly-valued asset for any club. Let's find out just how valuable he is. I'm joined by a man who provides a very unique insight to these matters by crunching the numbers.
Stefan Szymanski, co-author of the bestselling book "Soccernomics" joins me now on the line from Ann Arbor, Michigan in the US. This is a multimillion-dollar deal, but I heard a question some -- I guess some years ago, but it's certainly a question which is prescient today, which is, how do you put a value on a manager these days?
STEFA SZYMANSKI, CO-AUTHOR, "SOCCERNOMICS" (via telephone): That is a very good question. About -- I think the first thing to say is most managers don't add very much in terms of value. They -- and you can see that in the fact that most managers don't last very long. The average tenure of a manager in the Premier League is less than 12 months now.
ANDERSON: Yes.
SZYMANSKI: So, they're not really doing very much. But there are these few exceptional managers, and Mourinho is obviously in that class, who add a substantial amount. And they're able to -- the real point is that they're able to do things -- to achieve things to win trophies, which other managers can't win with the same amount of resources.
And you can ultimately put a value on that, because every point in the league, every trophy, is worth so many euros, so many pounds. And therefore, you can -- you can figure out roughly what they're worth.
ANDERSON: It's interesting, isn't it? I was reading your "Soccernomics" book, which I think is absolutely fantastic, and you talk about how the more a club pays its players, the higher it finishes in the league. But that doesn't allude to managers, that's just talking about players.
Things have really changed. An old-fashioned manager like the likes of Alex Ferguson, perhaps, used to be out there with the lads on a wet Wednesday afternoon, is really one of the past, isn't it? These -- what do these managers do these days? And are they just simply part of the celebrity brand, as it were, as opposed to physically making these players into better sportsmen, as it were?
SZYMANSKI: Well, I think there are two types of managers. I think there are a large fraction of these kind of celebrity brand managers who really don't add very much and maybe don't even know very much about how to run a football team.
And it's interesting that some of the most successful managers are not necessarily those who were -- have been successful players themselves. Arsene Wenger, Mourinho, of course, and Ferguson, which was a good player, but he wasn't one of the great players.
So, in that sense, it really -- what they do, what those people do are -- they're much more complicated. They're much more like the CEO of a large corporation. They're much -- they're motivators, yes, but they're also organizers.
They organize the whole structure of the -- within the club, whether it's to do with training, medical facilities, to do with personal relationships with the players, to do with the branding of the club.
All of the -- a whole range of management functions, which traditionally managers were not concerned with. But the really great managers, they can do all of those things, and therefore, that's how they add value, by bringing the whole thing together.
ANDERSON: Fascinating stuff. Listen, we'll have you back. It's going to be a big summer of revolving doors, be those management doors and player doors. Looking forward to this season upcoming, but we'll let you go for the time being.
A big story here in the UK, but not just in the UK. As we've been discussing, managers these days and certainly special managers make news around the world. Jose Mourinho back at Stamford Bridge West London this evening as we speak.
Now, if you dream of lifting off into space but you have missed your shot at becoming an astronaut, well, there is still hope, apparently. Passenger trips into space could be just a year away. As Felicia Taylor reports, some companies have already started selling seats.
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FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks like the stuff of science fiction, but after the test flight of this Virgin Galactic spaceship in April --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You broke the speed of sound, and we had our first powered flight.
TAYLOR: -- the era of commercial space travel may finally be dawning. The company hopes paid flights aboard the SpaceShipTwo will begin next year.
RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, VIRGIN GROUP: Everything's possible, I think, after today.
TAYLOR: Virgin mastermind Richard Branson is far from the only entrepreneur hoping to make a profit in space. As "New York" magazine notes in a recent issue, the business of space tourism appears ready to blast off.
XCOR Aerospace is also selling seats on its Lynx spaceship. The Lynx takes off like an airplane and is built to make up to four sub-orbital space flights per day. Flights could begin by next year.
SpaceX, a company that is already ferrying cargo to the International Space Station, is working to send astronauts into orbit. CEO Elon Musk believes the sky is the limit for space tourism.
ELON MUSK CEO, SPACEX: I want to make space accessible to everyone, just as -- airline travel has become accessible to everyone.
TAYLOR (on camera): Space may not be accessible for most of us just yet, but if you log onto Virgin's website, you can book a reservation on SpaceShipTwo for a whopping $250,000.
TAYLOR (voice-over): Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will be one of the first to fly Virgin. He's auctioned off the seat next to him to a Russian billionaire for charity for $1.5 million. A trip aboard the Lynx is a relative bargain. A mere $95,000. Experts still think demand will soar.
MICHAEL LOPEZ-ALEGRIA, COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT FEDERATION: The numbers somewhere north of 500 folks all over the world that have actually been to space. And I think within the next few years, we'll see that number double. It's going to catch on like wildfire.
TAYLOR (on camera): Who hasn't dreamt of exploring the planets and the stars? And with private companies like Virgin jockeying for position, it looks like the competition for space travel is set to soar, as more and more firms try to profit from the final frontier.
Felicia Taylor, Liberty Science Center, Jersey City.
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ANDERSON: In tonight's Parting Shots for you, a new stamp issued in the UK to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the queen is getting a lot of criticism. "Hideous." "Embarrassing." And "like a bloke wearing a wig." Those are just a few of the words from art critics. Let's bring it up, for goodness sake, otherwise I'm going to be hung here, or taken to the Tower, at least.
For a new portrait of the queen by artist Nicky Philipps. The portrait forms part of six new stamps issued to mark the queen's anniversary. But although it's a first-class stamp, the painting itself has been called a "distinctly second-class effort" by critics.
Unfortunately, we don't know what the queen herself thinks of it, but you can let me know what you think of it, @BeckyCNN as ever.
I'm Becky Anderson, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. From the team here in London, it's a very good evening. The network, of course, continues after this short break. Don't go.
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