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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN International's World One
Aired March 28, 2011 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MONITA RAJPAL, CNN ANCHOR: Marching west, opposition forces gain ground in Libya, claiming two key cities.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: The next target, the city of Sirte, Moammar Gadhafi's birthplace.
RAJPAL: Hello. It's 5:00 a.m. in Washington. It's 11:00 a.m. in Tripoli. I'm Monita Rajpal.
VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee.
You're watching WORLD ONE live from London.
Also, ahead: fresh earthquake shakes Japan's damaged nuclear plant as work goes on to cool down an overheating reactor.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
RAJPAL: Change could be on its way in Syria. After days of deadly protests, the government is expected to lift the longstanding state of emergency.
VERJEE: Miami's big three celebrate after a big night. We'll give you all the details in our sports update.
RAJPAL: But, first, rebel fighters in Libya are advancing on Colonel Gadhafi's hometown Surt. Libyan state TV says it was bombed overnight. Reports from the area suggest government forces are keeping the rebels at a distance from the city for now. That despite an early report in which an opposition source appeared to claim anti- government fighters had taken Surt.
Over the weekend, rebels appear to capture key towns from Gadhafi loyalists. Ras Lanuf and al Brega now seem to be in their hands. If that is confirmed, the rebels will have reclaimed all the area they lost to the Libya army at the start of the war.
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RAJPAL: Here is the scene last night in the capital Tripoli. Our correspondent there says he heard six explosions followed by bursts of anti-aircraft fire.
VERJEE: International forces continue to strike Libyan targets over the weekend, and NATO says it is taking over full control of allied operations. It's now going to oversee the no-fly zone, an arms embargo and all efforts to protect civilians. But it has such a tough task ahead.
Let's get more from CNN's Diana Magnay. She joins us now live outside the NATO Libya naval force headquarters in Naples, Italy.
Hi, Diana.
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jane. This is called no-fly zone plus. So, it means that NATO has full military command now of the operation, now called Operation Unified Protector. So, making sure no arms or mercenaries coming to Libya by patrolling the Mediterranean, implementing the no-fly zone and now, thirdly, fulfilling the U.N. mandate to protect civilians. So, still, the rules of engagement there aren't particularly clear.
Let's just hear what the secretary-general of NATO yesterday had to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Our goal is to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack from the Gadhafi regime. NATO will implement all aspects of the U.N. resolution -- nothing more, nothing less.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAGNAY: Nothing more, nothing less, Zain. After a meeting where NATO ambassadors have been hammering out what the rules of engagement were supposed to be. We did hear from a senior U.S. official that they do constitute attacking loyalist forces if they are posing an offensive threat to civilian populations. But this is still, obviously, a delicate and difficult area, and we hope to find out more about the details over the course of the day.
There will be a press conference in a few hours' time here at the Joint Allied Force Command in Naples, which is where the operation will be commanded from under a three-star general, Charles Bouchard. And it means that the U.S. will effectively now be taking a supportive role rather than the primary role in this operation going forward, really just sending in reconnaissance and jamming planes rather than conducting a majority of the strike missions it has been and, of course, the cruise missiles strike, Zain.
VERJEE: Is it clear what would constitute success and when the operation would be over?
MAGNAY: That's at the moment is not clear, in fact, on the Sunday talk shows in the United States, secretary of defense and the secretary of state were asked that kind of thing and they could give no collar indication of whether this be a question of weeks, months or whether it would be over by the end of the year. So, we are hoping for more details on that as the day progresses. But I think it's incredibly hard to ascertain how long this campaign might continue, Zain.
VERJEE: CNN's Diana Magnay reporting -- thanks, Diana. RAJPAL: We want to give you another look at how the rebels have advanced over the weekend. Operation held areas are here marked in yellow. Areas under government control are marked in green.
Now, on Friday, the rebels were in control of Benghazi. Colonel Gadhafi was in charge of Tripoli, Misrata, Sirte and Ras Lanuf and Brega, as well as Ajdabiya. But then, anti-government, anti-Gadhafi forces retook Ajdabiya. They then took back control of Brega and Ras Lanuf. Now, Ras Lanuf is important because it's home to big oil and gas facilities. Rebels gained control of those two cities at the start of the civil war but then quickly lost them to government forces.
The Libyan government says coalition attacks are killing innocent civilians. The U.S. rejects that claim. It says Colonel Gadhafi is going to great lengths to mislead the outside world.
Here's Robert Gates on the CBS program, "Face the Nation."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GATES, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The truth of the matter is we have trouble coming up with proof of any civilian casualties that we have been responsible for. But we do have a lot of intelligence reporting about Gadhafi taking the bodies of people he's killed and putting them at the sites where we've attacked. We have been extremely careful in this military effort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Libyan authorities say they've released a woman who claimed she was raped and beaten by Gadhafi forces. She burst into a hotel used by international journalists in Tripoli on Saturday and she was shouting, saying that she had been detained and assaulted. She was then bundled away by force by government minders.
Now, they're saying she's been let go, but CNN cannot confirm there. There's a lot more concern about her well-being.
Nic Robertson has more from Tripoli.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Government officials had initially told us when Iman al Obeidi was taken away from this hotel at high speed, in a car, that she was mentally unstable, which was being taken to a hospital. They later told us that she was, in fact, safe and well and sane, and she was in a police investigation headquarters filing a criminal complaint against the men she alleged raped her. Now, government officials are telling me she is at home with family here in Tripoli.
Many journalists have been asking if they can see her. There are many concerns and questions about what we're being told about her and about her well-being. The government has here been involved in a smear campaign against her; state television raising all sorts of questions, suggesting that she's been involved in prostitution.
Indeed, the government spokesman himself had earlier been on the record saying he was a prostitute. And I asked him about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Nic?
ROBERTSON: Her family has described her as a law student. You have been on the record yourself describing her as a prostitute.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nic, could we not discuss her -- no, no, listen, Nic -- Nic, Nic, could we please? This is a very -- Nic, please, could we just -- to respect her, her daughter, her family, to respect -- this is a very conservative society. Could we not expose her in public, please?
Could we let -- I mean, what do you care about, Nic, OK? Not to embarrass me as I'm standing on the stand. What you care about, Nic -- OK, listen, if I said something, I said what I knew. I don't want to repeat anything I said. I'm not withdrawing from what I said. I'm saying I don't want to make it even more known, even more public.
This is a criminal case. This woman has a family. We need to protect her privacy, her daughter's rights when she grows up.
We need to make this as a criminal case -- as legal a case as possible without talking about people's history, their files, their crimes or their lifestyle. Especially we live in a very conservative society so as a sign of respect for this hopefully and quite sure, by the way, the OK from them will come out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: So, a lot of journalists reaching out to her family, reaching out to try and meet with Iman al Obeidi, to see her, to hear her old story, to see how she is this time. Now, she has been as the government says released from government custody.
Clearly many questions outstanding -- the government thinks she has a child. Her family says she doesn't have a child and the journalists will continue to push the issue here with the government, until they're able to meet with her -- of course, so many questions about her safety and well-being until that happens.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Tripoli, Libya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJPAL: Programming not for you: U.S. President Barack Obama is due to speak about the situation in Libya Monday night. He is expected to provide an update on the multinational military action and you can catch that live on CNN from the National Defense University in Washington. It airs at 7:30 p.m., U.S. Eastern time, that's 23:30 GMT.
VERJEE: You're watching WORLD ONE live from London.
RAJPAL: New problems, growing fears. Japanese officials wonder what to do with highly radioactive water.
VERJEE: And if that's not enough, the temperature is rising in one of the damaged nuclear reactors. We're going to take you live to Japan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJPAL: You're watching WORLD ONE live from London.
Our top stories this hour:
In Libya, rebels are recapturing towns from forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. Over the weekend, they appeared to retake both Ras Lanuf and al Brega. They are now advancing on the Libyan leader's hometown of Surt. State TV says bombs fell on the city last night, but there's no indication the rebels have captured it just yet.
VERJEE: In Japan, a new tsunami warning has been canceled. People along the northeast coast woke up on Monday to a new fresh magnitude 6.5 quake. Officials now say it only caused ripples. But the jolts triggered new fears among the survivors of the March 11th quake and tsunami. The disaster killed close to 11,000 people.
RAJPAL: Adding to that, new fears are also emerging at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Officials say they need to extract highly radioactive water that's accumulated in one damaged reactor. But they haven't got anywhere to put it and that's not all.
CNN Paula Hancocks joins us now from Tokyo.
And, Paula, first of all, let's talk about new levels of radiation. What kind of confirmation have you received from TEPCO?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Monita, we just had another news conference from TEPCO and they pointed out that they have had another setback in their attempts to try and bring the nuclear plant back online.
Earlier on, they were saying that they were struggling to try to drain the contaminated water from the reactor's turbine rooms because they had nowhere to put it. But now, they say that they discovered that the water is actually in the tunnels that come away from the turbine room and actually carry the electrical cables. So, another area that they've actually discovered, this contaminated water, varying levels of radiation in reactor two. Just outside that turbine building, we understand the radiation levels are high.
So, this is another problem for TEPCO officials which we just discovered in the last few minutes -- Monita.
RAJPAL: Adding to the problems for TEPCO, there seems to be criticisms and questions about the way they've been handling the crisis there in Japan. Not only that but also misreading -- supposedly misreading radiation levels. What more do we know about that?
HANCOCKS: That's right. This was a mistake that happened Sunday when they were talking about radiation levels and they decided that it was 10 million times the usual level of radiation that you'd find in the cooling system. This was for reactor two. It turned out it was 100,000 times more.
Now, this is still a significant amount. But when you're bandying about numbers like this, it's very confusing for the public and it's certainly not something you want to get wrong and they have come under a lot of criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The destruction a tsunami can wreak on a nuclear power plant is clear. What's not clear is whether the owners of Japan's Fukushima plant could have predicted this.
One seismic researcher says, yes, telling CNN he warned TEPCO two years ago that there was evidence of an earthquake and destructive tsunami in the same area in the year 869. He asked the safety committee to consider this when deciding how to protect the plant.
YUKINOBU OKAMURA, ACTIVE FAULT & EARTHQUAKE RESEARCH CENTER (through translator): Data on tsunamis can be found in layers of the earth. And my institute has been researching this. Based on this data, it indicates that there was a huge tsunami that occurred previously. That's why I asked the question.
HANCOCKS (on camera): Okamura, who heads up a national research institute, says that TEPCO instead decided to focus on a 1938 earthquake in which one person died and he says that they barely mentioned the word "tsunami" throughout the whole meaning. TEPCO has not responded as yet to Okamura's allegations. And although they hold press conferences day and night, direct questions are rarely met with direct answers.
(voice-over): At this press conference, reporters repeatedly asked why there were no preparations for such a big tsunami to hit and called on TEPCO to apologize. The Japanese government has told TEPCO to be open and transparent so as not to lose the public's trust.
But the government itself has not escaped criticism. Fifty-eight percent do not approve of the way they handled the crisis, according to a poll by K news agency.
This man says, "I won't forgive the government for hiding information and the tyranny of the power company." He says, "I'm protesting because the government is not taking action."
But this man tells me, "I can understand the situation, because with the earthquake and tsunami combined, there was nothing they could do."
But the public may find it harder to understand mistakes made by TEPCO, such as miscalculating the number of zeros when reporting the level of radiation in water in reactor two's turbine room. A level of 10 million times more radiation than normal revised many hours later to 100,000 times, confusing an already confused public.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: We also heard from the Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano who said that this kind of errors cannot be forgiven and won't be forgiven, calling on TEPCO to be more careful in the future -- Monita.
RAJPAL: Paula Hancock from Tokyo -- thank you.
VERJEE: Let's get a little bit more on the weather in Japan, as well as the tsunami advisory put out. Our meteorologist Jen Delgado will tell you more on that.
Hey, Jen.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Zain. You're right. And we did have a tsunami advisory.
We're going to go over to our Google Earth and give you some more information as we step off -- I'm going to step off the camera for you just to give you a little better detailed information.
The big dot you're seeing in orange, that indicates the earthquake that triggered that tsunami advisory, 6.1. Initially came out as a 6.5 with a depth of five kilometers right around 15 miles. Now, we know it was actually 17 kilometers and had a strength of 6.1. It was located about 100 kilometers to the east of Miyagi prefecture. That's why we had that tsunami advisory there.
Now, as I show you in this graphic, anywhere you're seeing in orange, that indicates earthquakes that we've had just throughout the day. So, it's been very active. And actually, we're up to nearly about 670 aftershocks since the initial one on March 11th.
As I take you over to our weather computer, I want to show you some updated information, just to give you an idea how many more aftershocks we can expect. Potentially, we could see this going through the next several months ahead, potentially year ahead. But for the magnitude of, say, six, up to 6.9, we could see roughly about 100 aftershocks across the region. Right now, we already have about 44 in the six magnitude range. So, certainly, this area is going to remain very active seismic-wise as we go through the next year.
Now, let's talk about the weather. Actually, we're dealing with dry conditions. That's good. We have this ridge of high pressure.
It's going to be weakening. We'll see some light showers working in down towards the south. But for Fukushima, as well as Sendai, this area is going to stay dry. The winds are going to offshore and that is also going to be favorable as we go through the next several days.
And I want to point out to you, here's the proof that it's going to be dry across Sendai. The wind is coming in from the southwest. There's that offshore flow. There's the Fukushima power plant so that certainly going to be cooperating. The temperatures as we go through the next several days will be climbing up. We'll see a lot of sunshine around, with the average high of 11, getting closer to that.
And, finally, I want to leave with you some video coming out of Myanmar. And, don't want to forget this area, because on March 24th, we had a strong earthquake there, and it bordered right on the border of Thailand. You're looking at Chiang Rai, and that one was actually 6.8. Reportedly, 75 people died and hundreds of people were injured.
I want to point this out to you because this area right here also is still trying to recover and the residents are just now coming back and surveying the damage across that region. As I take you back over to the satellite. This is Myanmar. This is Thailand -- to give you an idea, very quiet weather-wise there. But, certainly, this area too hard hit with a recent earthquake, as well.
We'll send it back over to Zain, as well as Monita.
VERJEE: Jen Delgado, thank you. You're watching WORLD ONE.
RAJPAL: An American wedding cake for a British Prince. William gets inspired by a U.S. tradition.
Stay with us for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VERJEE: Welcome back. You're watching WORLD ONE.
Here are some stories we're talking about:
Chrysler and Ford have asked dealers to stop ordering cars and trucks in certain colors because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. A Japanese company that supplies one of the key paint ingredients is having a really tough time with production. Ford is restricting orders in black and red. And Chrysler is scaling back on 10 colors. But companies say that they've got enough supplies to meet existing orders but they could run out if they can't find another source.
Nintendo may have reached a landmark with 3-D technology with the new 3DS. It's a handheld device and it actually creates digital images that are dimensional that you can actually see without special glasses. It went on sale in the U.S. on Sunday. Nintendo is expecting to sell 4 million of them in just one month.
And Prince William has taken inspiration from the U.S. for his wedding cake. Now, he personally requested a groom's cake made of his favorite cookies and chocolates to be served alongside the official wedding cake. The groom's cake is a tradition, if you don't know, from the Southern U.S. The bride-to-be, Kate Middle, has chosen a multi-tiered fruitcake for the main wedding cake, to be made by a celebrity cake designer.
RAJPAL: Cookies and cake, two of my favorite things. What was in your cake? DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We had a Banoffee pie wedding cake, which was fantastic. I didn't know you could put that in the cake. But, they did it.
RAJPAL: Any kind of cake would be good. Anyway, enough about food.
Scotland may have lost their football Friendly against Brazil on Sunday, but Scottish golf fans had plenty to celebrate this weekend, Don Riddell.
RIDDELL: All right. Thanks very much.
It has been a dream weekend for Scottish golf. Just hours after Paul Lawrie won the European tours and the Andalucian Open, the PGA Tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando also went to a Scot, Martin Laird.
It was another disappointing day for the sixth-time winner of this event, an up and down day for Tiger Woods. This on the 18th was a down. Double bogey, Tiger finished for 24th.
Laird didn't exactly have a smooth ride either. Here is he from the bunker on the 11th. He found the water from there. That soon translated into a double bogey, dropping his score to six under. But he got his act together after that, now on the 16th. A birdie putt to move to eight under. And that brought a two-shot lead over his closest rival, Steve Marino.
Marino pushed him really hard. His birdie on the 18th took the American to seven under, giving him a chance of a playoff. But he could only watch and hoped that Laird slipped up. The Sot held his nerve, though, with the pressure on the final hole. He made his par putt to win it by a stroke. That is his second win on the PGA Tour.
In tennis, Novak Djokovic remains the player at the moment. The Serbian has won all three events that he's played in the season. And he is the only man in the top 100 not to have lost a match in 2011. He continued that form at the Miami Masters with an easy match against the former top 10 player, James Blake. The number two seed extended his phenomenal 2011 win streak to 20-0. He's 22-0 if you include the Davis Cup win at the end of last year.
He took the first set by comfortable margin, six games to two, and he was already up a break here in the second when his ground strokes proved a bit too much for his opponent. Djokovic now four, love up, and he broke leg again to take the set six-love. It was all over in just 52 minutes. Djokovic is on course to repeat his Miami triumph of 2007.
Now, you may have noticed that all of our highlights are from Florida today. In Miami last night, there was an incredible and historic performance from the Miami Heat against the Houston Rockets. For the first time in a regulation game since 1961 three players from the same team scored at least 30 points and 10 rebounds. Dwayne Wayne was one of them, despite twice landing hard on his tailbone and needing treatment. Miami are a star-studded team that has often failed to gel this season. But they were in the zone on Sunday. LeBron James scored 33 points with 10 rebounds, and he was only actually three assists short of a triple-double. Chris Bosh had 31 and 12 rebounds. While Wade recovered from his early injury to produce 30 points and 11 boards.
Now, the last time that three players achieved such a feat was in February of 1961. Incredibly, the Cincinnati Royals lost that game. But the Heat got the win they deserved last night by 125 to 119. A historic performance for you there.
RAJPAL: Indeed. All right. Don Riddell, thank you very much.
VERJEE: That was exciting.
You're watching WORLD ONE live from London.
Coming up --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I come to here in Benghazi after I saw Gadhafi dictator -- he killed my people here. He killed Libyan people without any reason.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJPAL: They come from school, homes and workplaces across Libya with one goal in mind: ending the Gadhafi regime.
Stay with us for a closer look at the civilians who have taken up the fight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RAJPAL: Hello. This is WORLD ONE, live from London. I'm Monita Rajpal.
VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee.
Our top stories this hour:
Opposition fighters in Libya are advancing toward Colonel Gadhafi's hometown of Surt. They're hoping to take control of the city as they march continually westward toward the capital, Tripoli. Over the weekend, they retook two key towns, al Brega and Ras Lanuf. That came as NATO said it was taking control of all international air operations over the country.
RAJPAL: More worries at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Officials say there is no place to put highly radioactive water that needs to be removed from the damaged reactors. They also warn the heat is rising at reactor number one. The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11th are now known to have killed nearly 11,000 people.
VERJEE: Israel deployed a rocket shield near Gaza, but the military says Israelis under fire from the Gaza Strip may not be completely safe. A battery of radar-guided missiles nicknamed the "Iron Dome" is near Beersheba, which has been hit by rockets twice in the past month. The system is designed to track and intercept incoming missiles in midair.
RAJPAL: In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservative Christian Democratic Party has suffered big losses and is poised to lose its grip on power in a key state. The southwestern state of Baden- Wurttemberg has been ruled by the Christian democrats for more than half a century. Early results from voting Sunday show they failed to gain a majority and now the greens are expected to form a coalition with the socialist democrat.
VERJEE: For the first week of international action over Libya, it was a U.S.-led coalition directing airstrikes and cruise missiles, but that is changing now. The NATO alliance will take command of the operation.
CNN's Paula Newton is at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Paula, how long is it going to take to transfer the command?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The transition will take a few days. We expect a complete transition of the no-fly zone by the end of today. But in terms of taking over the entire mission, it could take until Thursday or Friday.
But we've already learned, for instance, Zain, that U.S. warships are beginning to pull back, perhaps not going on as many sorties as they have been going on in the last few days. Remember, Zain, that's actually what the United States wanted. President Obama promised that he and his government would be stepping back a bit from this mission.
In terms of the alliance itself, they say that they have enough assets, enough countries contributing to be able to handle this for a three-month period right now. They may extend that, but if they extend that past three months, again, we'll have to go through the entire agreement process here at NATO again -- Zain.
VERJEE: What's NATO saying about how it's going to avoid civilian casualties?
NEWTON: Well, they say that this is paramount, obviously. I just finished an interview with the secretary general here, who told me a few things about the mission. They refuse to talk about the rules of engagement in details, saying that they're classified. But on the other hand, they're saying, "Look, are we going to arm the rebels? No," he says. "We're here to protect people, not arm people." That's very clear.
And perhaps even a difference from some members of the coalition, Zain. It was just yesterday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates was saying that they hadn't decided whether or not they would arm the rebels. Completely in contradiction to what the NATO secretary general said. In general, when you talk point rules of engagement, Zain, I think it's fair to say and there is an understanding here among NATO ambassadors that it will not go as far as the coalition has been going. That is not what you're going to hear publicly from NATO. NATO continues to say that they will do no more or no less than the coalition.
But, obviously, today when I put the question to them, Zain, look, in Surt, we hear Libyan forces are in retreat and they're still being attacked. And the NATO secretary general is categorical with me. He's very clear, saying, no, we are there to protect civilians. We're not there to attack forces that are in retreat -- Zain.
VERJEE: CNN's Paula Newton reporting from Brussels at NATO.
RAJPAL: Libyan opposition fighters have been quick to take advantage of international support and push government forces back. The rebels took the town of Ras Lanuf virtually without a fight.
CNN's Arwa Damon is there with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the gate to Ras Lanuf, heavily damaged but that we are told is initial fighting in Gadhafi's forces and opposition fighters. The fighters saying when they came through here earlier, they encountered no resistance. In fact, they say there was no sign of Gadhafi's troops at all. This largely due and, in fact, completely due, they will say, to the airstrikes that took place that literally forced Gadhafi's military back significantly, and with the fighters now saying they also control Bin Jawad.
These have been very significant gains for the opposition. Now, they control Brega, Ras Lanuf, two oil towns. And we can see the refinery of Ras Lanuf, dark spoke rising from it.
We went into the city, the town of Ras Lanuf earlier. Most of the buildings do not appear to have sustained that much damage, but people were telling us that a number of homes were either set on fire or burned somehow by Gadhafi's military, they say.
We went inside one home, we met a young man who was trying to salvage family photos, visibly upset and distress, very emotional. A stream of fighters coming through here, trucks loaded with ammunition, others with blankets, waters, all resupplying the front lines. People are waving French flags. A young man met with an American flag, saying that they want to thank the international community.
But although there's not been much of a fight this far, the opposition says their next destination, Surt, being Gadhafi's hometown, they say there, they expect the toughest battle as of yet.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Ras Lanuf, Libya.
(END VIDEOTAPE) RAJPAL: When it comes to helping the Libyan people, the U.N. says it would like to do more. But the situation in the country presents enormous challenges as one of the U.N.'s humanitarian officers explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIE AMOS, U.N. UNDER-SECY.-GENERAL, HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: The difficult thing for humanitarian workers is security and being able to go in and access the people most in need. The thing that I want to see is all parties to the hostilities recognizing that these are ordinary women, children and men we're talking about, they should not be caught up in this. They should not become the innocent victims of this -- either in terms of their personal security, in terms of becoming accidental victims of the hostility or in need -- or, indeed, in terms of their need for food, shelter, medical supplies.
It's very, very difficult for us to find out exactly what's been going on. We've been trying to talk to all of the parties to gain access so that we can see for ourselves. But we still haven't managed to get in to all the places that we need to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: We've had a lot of chances to see and hear Moammar Gadhafi as he fights to hang on to power, but who are the people risking their lives to drive him out?
Reza Sayah gives us a who's who of Libya's opposition army.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just last month, they were civilians -- all ages, all walks of life.
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: My name is Wissam (ph).
SAYAH: Twenty-two-year-old Wissam was in college.
Ahmed is 32, a husband, father, and engineer.
Eighteen-year-old Edris (ph) was a student studying business.
Today, they're amateur soldiers in the rickety rebel army of Libya's opposition. United, they say, by one mission, to topple the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I come to here in Benghazi after I saw Gadhafi dictator -- he killed my people here. He killed Libyan people without any reason.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want my country to be free. I want freedom for my country.
SAYAH (on camera): The opposition's leadership is just as much of a motley mix as the fighters. It's a group of 31, made up of local politicians, military leaders who have defected and prominent figures like lawyers, doctors, academics, activists. They call themselves a transitional government. They, too, at this point, appear to have the same objective.
HANA AL-GALLAL, OPPOSITION'S MEDIA COMMITTEE: The main objective of the national council, it is the main objective of the Libyan people. It is the removal of Gadhafi and his regime.
SAYAH (voice-over): With the rebels pushing west, gaining momentum and territory, a Libya without Gadhafi appears more likely by the day. Whether democracy will follow is far from clear.
Libya has long been a patchwork of tribes and rival sects kept largely intact in the grip of Gadhafi's autocratic regime. Although they've joined hands in a common quest, two of the opposition's leaders have already criticized one another.
AL-GALLAL: Well, it's normal. I mean this difference is normal. This is what we like. For 42 years, we have unified opinion and nobody express their opinions. We didn't have this freedom. So, it's good. It's good to have rivalry.
SAYAH: The opposition says the path to democracy won't be easy, but whoever derails it, they say, will face what Colonel Gadhafi is facing now.
AL-GALLAL: We broke -- the wall of fear does not exist and we have no more fear to come out again and again and again until we have the right governments governing us.
SAYAH: Reza Sayah, CNN, Benghazi, Libya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: This is WORLD ONE, live from London.
RAJPAL: Next, an insider's perspective from a former friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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AYMAN ABDEL NOUR, SYRIAN IN EXILE: Listen to the people. And try to go back before you were president, what will your heart would tell you? Yes, that's right. And I assure you, he will enter the history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Stay with us for that report. And we'll also bring you more on the violent protests in the whole region.
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VERJEE: You're watching WORLD ONE.
Syria's cabinet is expected to resign next week. That's according to a source close to the government. The source also says the country's long-standing emergency law is likely to be lifted and the president, Bashar al-Assad, will address the nation within a couple of days.
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VERJEE: Demonstrations in the southern town of Daraa and the coastal community of Latakia erupted in violence at the weekend. Syrian authorities say 13 people have been killed by gunfire involving snipers since Friday.
RAJPAL: Well, Syria is similar to that of many other countries across the region where civil unrest was unheard of until now and what President Bashar al-Assad does next could decide how Syria's conflict is resolved. This is just one example of the anger that is felt by some in the country towards the government.
Well, CNN's Stan Grant tells us about one man who has a unique perspective on the president based on relationship that goes back some 25 years.
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STAN GRANT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ayman Abdel Nour knows the mind of Syria's president like few others. They met at Damascus University as young men in 1984. For nearly a quarter of a century, the two friends shared good times.
AYMAN ABDEL NOUR, SYRIAN IN EXILE: Before being president he's a good guy.
GRANT (on camera): He's a good man.
NOUR: Yes, for sure.
GRANT: What was he like as a friend?
NOUR: He was good, really. Really.
GRANT (voice-over): Now, the bad times. Protests growing, blood on the streets.
Abdel Nour says he does not recognize his friend Bashar al-Assad.
(on camera): What is more important the president or the man?
NOUR: It depends on the place on that place, in his end.
GRANT: If he's in the room as president --
NOUR: He's president, of course.
GRANT: When he goes home to talk to his wife --
(CROSSTALK)
GRANT: No heart.
NOUR: Of course. GRANT (voice-over): Abdel Nour says it is Assad the president, not Bashar the man who is authorizing the crackdown on protesters. In Syria, he says as part of an attack on dissidents in 2008, state security was given a license to kill.
NOUR: Under the law, they are immune. You cannot them to the courts.
GRANT (on camera): So, someone can shoot a Syrian in the street, a protester. Nothing will happen.
NOUR: For sure. This was a law -- the decree was acted by the president in 2008.
GRANT (voice-over): Abdel Nour himself says he fears for his life. He fled Syria four years ago after criticizing the government on his Web site. His friendship with Bashar al-Assad shattered. They no longer speak.
NOUR: Sure.
GRANT (on camera): So, you, a former friend, you can't go back to the country.
NOUR: They are the most targeted in order to keep all of them away. This is a tactic.
GRANT (voice-over): Ayman Abdel Nour says he believes Assad is getting the wrong advice. Those closest to the president blaming the protests on foreign interference. He says it's time for the president to listen to old friends.
(on camera): If you were to give him one message today as a friend of his, as someone who knows him, what would that message be?
NOUR: Listen to the people. And try to go back before you were president, what will your heart would tell you? Yes, that's right. And I assure you, he will enter the history.
GRANT (voice-over): For Bashar al-Assad, the verdict of history awaits.
Stan Grant, CNN, Dubai.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJPAL: And staying in Syria, a "Reuters" TV producer and camera have been missing since Saturday night. They were meant to cross into Lebanon after going to Syria on Thursday to cover those demonstrations. There has been no word for them. A "Reuters" official says the agency is very concerned about the well-being of its employees.
VERJEE: You're watching WORLD ONE live from London.
Imagine not being able to rescue the people in your care. That's a lasting torment for the doctors and nurses at a quake-ravaged hospital in Japan.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "The patients couldn't walk," she says. "I heard someone screaming, 'Auntie, I can't save you.'"
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VERJEE: That's just ahead on WORLD ONE.
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RAJPAL: Welcome back. This is WORLD ONE, live from London.
VERJEE: We're coming up on 6:00 a.m. in New York, noon in Berlin, 7:00 p.m. in Tokyo.
Our top stories right now:
Rebel fighters in Libya are advancing on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Surt. Libyan state TV says the city was bombed overnight. But we don't have any indication that the opposition has captured it as yet. Over the weekend, the rebels claimed some pretty key victories retaking control of both Ras Lanuf and al Brega.
Emergency workers in Japan are scrambling to fight rising reactor temperatures at the Fukushima nuclear plant. Officials say reactor one needs a more secure cooling system. Workers are hoping to have a permanent power generator running by Tuesday. But that's not the only worry. They're also trying to figure out where to store highly radioactive water that needs to be removed from the plant's basement.
The earthquake and tsunami that did all the damage at Fukushima is now known to have killed nearly 11,000 people. More than 17,000 are still missing. For some survivors, the torment of being unable to help others or be with them for the rest of their lives -- as Kyung Lah tells us.
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LAH (voice-over): In the haunted shell, the remains of the Takata Hospital, amid the broken beds, the I.V. bags filled with mud, nurse Fumiko Suzuki (ph) hears the screams of the lives she could not save.
"The patients couldn't walk" she says. "I heard someone screaming, 'Auntie, I can't save you, I'm sorry.'"
I looked out and the wave was as high as a fourth floor window. "I'm sorry," I said, "as I ran upstairs."
You had to leave patients behind? "It is the biggest regret I have."
(on camera): The tsunami flooded every single floor of this hospital. Fifty-one people were hospitalized that day. Twelve drowned in their beds, three died on the roof awaiting rescue. But it wasn't just patients who died that day. (voice-over): Ten of the Takata's hospital staff died with the patients, among them, a man who ran for a satellite phone so survivors could call rescue crews. The hospital's director says he tossed it to the roof seconds before the tsunami killed him.
"This handwritten note reads, 'he's helping us from heaven,'" says Dr. Ishiki (ph). The doctor himself lost his own wife but won't leave his makeshift clinic, a survivor burdened with the echoes of lives left behind.
Nurse Suzuki feels the same. She's been here ever since she was rescued -- cheerfully treating patients despite losing her house, her friends and her family, everything. The clothes she's wearing donated.
"When I hear that," says Suzuki's lifelong patient, "it breaks my heart. It's a natural disaster. They want to save everyone. But in this situation, they can't."
Nurse Suzuki says she can do something now. She can stay on the job.
"Whatever the situation, I will stay here. Talking with the patients will be my cure."
The caretakers pledging to heal and hoping to heal themselves.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Rikuzentakata, Japan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MONITA: You know, those images pretty much say it all. And there are so many moving pictures coming out of the region. And we'd like to share some of them with you here.
Here, a woman from Iwate prefecture sitting through the rubble, trying to salvage whatever she can. She's 74 years old, we're told, and was left with nothing but the clothes that she was wearing when the tsunami struck.
In Jakarta, this man is adding his palm print to a backdrop resembling the Japanese flag to show solidarity with the victims. You remember, Indonesia was the nation hit hardest in the 2004 tsunami there.
And take a look at this -- this is a side of Tokyo that we're not used to seeing. It's normally vibrant -- city lights and billboards were turned off in the Shibuya fashion district. The earthquake has left Japan suffering electricity shortages.
VERJEE: If you'd like to help the victims of the quake, you can find more information. Just go to CNN.com/Impact, OK? Our "Impact Your World" team is also collecting links to organizations that are mobilizing relief efforts in Japan. You can also find a link to Google's People Finder database. Now, that's one that's helping to reunite people that have been separated in all that chaos.
We continue to add information to that page so go check it out, OK? It's at CNN.com/impact.
You're watching WORLD ONE live from London. I'm Zain Verjee.
RAJPAL: I'm Monita Rajpal. Thank you for joining us. We want to leave you with a look at some pictures coming out of the U.S. state of Utah.
VERJEE: Yes. Take a look at these. These are rescuers that brought seven people to safety after they were trapped on Horseshoe Mountain after an avalanche. You can see here it's a pretty steep climb.
You're watching WORLD ONE on CNN.
