Return to Transcripts main page


Dow Hits 13,000; EuroGroup Approves Greece Bailout

Aired February 21, 2012 - 16:00   ET



The brutal reality of a modern day Greek tragedy. Eurozone ministers may have agreed on another massive bailout but outside the soup kitchen in Athens, life goes on.


ANDERSON: Well, a Greek finance minister said a nightmare scenario is being avoided by tonight, we ask "Is it a fair deal for the Greek people?"

Also tonight, as some voters go to the polls in Yemen, we explore the uprising through the eyes of a reluctant revolutionary.

And meet the new meat. We speak live to the man behind a lab-grown hamburger.

Well, another late night, another landmark deal but will Monday's agreement to finally put Greece on the road to recovery a ruin? That's the question we're going to explore tonight as the country's once again saved from a damaging default.

Now, the sums of Greece's second bailout are huge - $172 billion in aid. Now, if all goes to plan, it's $450 billion debt load will be cut by some $140 billion. That wouldn't sound fairly well with the market especially on the other side of the Atlantic where the DOW breaks through the 13,000 barrier for the first time since the financial crisis began in 2008.

Let's see where they finished up and they're just below just shy of that number - 12,965. They're about 0.12% higher there for the Dow Industrials. The European markets are pretty lethargic. Reaction has got to be said the NASDAQ stateside of course are down about 10% but the FTSE and the DAX here in Europe both are between a third and a half of 1%.

Greece's finance minister also gave the thumbs up to the deal, describing it as the possibly the most important in Greece's post-war history. He says the country could now work towards regaining its lost spaces.


EVANGELOS VENIZELOS, GREEK FIANANCE MINISTER (VIA TRANSLATOR): Now we can find our place again in Europe and the world - a place that we put in doubt for so long building our wealth on clay legs. We need work, work, work and responsibility all on a stable ground.


ANDERSON: For Greece to reach stable ground, it needs to dramatically reduce its debt to what we call a sustainable level. But (INAUDIBLE) a remote chance of achieving that, it's going to have to make some significant sacrifices as my colleague Jim Boulden now reports.


JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER), LONDON: After another marathon session around the table in Brussels, Europe's finance chiefs emerge bleary-eyed. After hours of talks, Greece will get a second loan to stave off bankruptcy for now. More aid chosen over bankruptcy.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKNER, EUROGROUP PRESIDENT: It's the intention of nobody to have Greece outside the Euro area. This would be a bad (INAUDIBLE) for a reason it would be a nonetheless bad situation for the Euro area.

BOULDEN (VOICE-OVER): But with more aid, the second economic lifeline in less than two years comes more oversight of the Greek economy and a fundamental change to the way Brussels oversees where its money goes.

CHARLES GRANT, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN REFORM: Every Eurozone country that borrows too much and has a problem raising money in the markets has to answer to Brussels and will have to give up some sovereignty to E.U. institutions. It's asymmetric. It doesn't apply to Eurozone countries that are not in trouble. It doesn't apply to Germany or the Netherlands or to Finland.

BOULDEN (VOICE-OVER): For instance, Greece is being told it has to change its law and then its constitution to make debt repayments a priority when it comes to the government paying its bills. Until that change, Greece will have to put debt repayments in an escrow account with oversight from Brussels to make sure the money is there to pay bond holders.

It's all a part of increased vigilance to the worry of some.

ALISTAIR DARLING, FORMER BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER: I think there's a broader point about democracy here and that is having to submit your national budgets to an unelected bureaucracy and that seems to fly in the face of all concepts of democracy that I understand.

BOULDEN (VOICE-OVER): Then comes the so-called fiscal compact. The countries that use the Euro and many others in the European Union have vowed to monitor each other's budgets and deficits and stick to mandatory limits of public debt and (INAUDIBLE) balanced budget rules into national law so that another Greece shouldn't happen again.

BOULDEN: Twenty years ago, rules were put in place to keep debt from getting out of control. That didn't work. Greece got its first bailout after promises were made by Athens. That didn't work. Now, closer scrutiny of tax and spend is the new price to pay.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.


ANDERSON: But is it price worth paying? That is the question tonight. Earlier, (INAUDIBLE) to Greece's environment minister. He was the former finance minister George Papaconstantinou. And I began by asking whether it irked him that Greece had been forced to relinquish control of its affairs. This is what he said.


GEORGE PAPACONSTANTINOU, GREEK ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTER: We need to own the program. If the Greek government - this government and the government after the next election - do not own the program, believe in it, implement it to the letter, then we won't be able to get anywhere. But this is separate from monitoring. Monitoring is something that needs to happen and to be perfectly honest, it is much better to have the teams on the ground helping us and talking with us on a daily basis then what we have at the moment which is at every three months, the Troika arrives, it's this huge circus, when will the Troika come, when will the Troika leave, what will be the report that they write. It is much better for the program for Greek society which looks upon this situation with trepidation with a lot of anger, with frustration, with fear of the future to have a team on the ground just like we have in IMF teams who also have an E.U. team on the ground and have technical assistance and real collaboration for around the same kind of objectives.

ANDERSON: Its the creditors of course that Greece needs to pay and Greece has (INAUDIBLE) amend its constitution to give priority to debt repayments over the funding of government services. To all intents and purposes, the money that comes into Greece going forth, goes out. How do you explain that to people who are taking a 40% cut in wages and possibly further job losses to come?

PAPACONSTANTINOU: Well, I think the kind of the view that we need to explain to the Greek people is the following: our creditors are taking care of the debts. They reduced the - by 100 billion - private creditors reduced their demands by 100 billion. Official creditors are lending us to be able to stand on our feet again and we will take care of our own deficit. In other words, we will no longer as of next year, have a primary deficit. We will be able to cover our expenditures with our own revenues, our own tax revenues. That's the deal that was cut yesterday and I think it's an honest deal.

ANDERSON: What do you say to people who will suggest today that Greece and the Eurozone is just kicking the can down the road and ultimately, Greece will default and will pull out of the Eurozone or indeed be kicked out?

PAPACONSTANTINOU: I think that people who say this typically are not in the Eurozone and do not understand the mechanics of the Eurozone or the political will to keep it together. They also don't understand the dramatic economic and social consequences for any country to decide to unilaterally default or exit the Eurozone. This is not a simple affair. It is something that will put the country in a very, very deep recession - a depression for many years with unemployment much higher than what we're having at the moment. They also don't understand the contagion effects to the rest of Europe. Those who think that somehow we have now managed to isolate contaminated Greece from the rest of Europe really got to have it wrong.

ANDERSON: Can you confidently look me in the eye tonight and say that this is (INAUDIBLE) a line under Greece's problems or is there a distinct possibility at this point of a third bailout?

PAPACONSTANTINOU: Yes. I think we can be certain that this is a big enough decision to turn the page for Greece. If we implement those decisions, if our European partners stand next to us and if they follow these decisions through with robust rules of economic governance in Europe, I think we're seeing - we're turning the corner of the debt crisis in Europe by solving the one place Greece where it started.


ANDERSON: A lot of "ifs" tonight. And while the minister may talk about turning the corner, for many Greeks it could be years perhaps decades before they will see any light at the end of this tunnel. Let's not forget, this is a country where wages have fallen by up to 40% in the last couple of years, a country where almost half of 16-24-year-olds are now out-of-work and a country where homelessness has increased by a quarter over the past two years.

As Matthew Chance discovered earlier, this one.


MATTHEW CHANCE, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, (VOICE-OVER): At this soup kitchen in Athens, the growing ranks of Greece's new poor. Former office workers, shop keepers, pensioners laid low by their country's economic despair.

72-year-old Alexander would only speak to us if we hid his face. He told me his family owned two clothes shops in Athens but lost everything when the economic crisis hit. People no longer buy expensive designer fashions, he says.

Social workers say it's a familiar tale. Recession and austerity forcing thousands of once-middle income Greeks into poverty.

CHANCE (ATHENS, GREECE): Around the world, many people see this Greek financial story as a debt problem. People focus on how many billions of Euros the country owes to get itself out of debt. But from the point of view of the people on the street, it looks very different. You're seeing here in this soup kitchen people who just a year ago were ordinary European citizens. They shopped at supermarkets. They had apartments. They had jobs. They've seen their standards of living drop off a precipice and that's the real Greek tragedy that's being played out in reality across this country.


ANDERSON: Well, let's speak to someone now who is directly caught up in this tragedy. Katerina Chiotini is an actress who hasn't been paid for six months. Things are so bad she's now considering moving abroad. She joins me now from Athens tonight. And thank you for that.

You've seen the (INAUDIBLE), the bailout deal. You've heard what the minister has to say to the nightmare scenario has been avoided. How do you feel tonight, Katerina?

KATERINA CHIOTINI, UNEMPLOYED ACTRESS: I feel that the Greek government saved the banks again once more--

ANDERSON: And what do you mean by that?

CHIOTINI: --and (INAUDIBLE) people - and not the Greek people. I mean, but - all the - all this arrangements, I think it's all about the banks. The Greek people is already bankrupted.

ANDERSON: Is it a sense of fear or a sense of resignation that you have for the future at this point?

CHIOTINI: It's a (INAUDIBLE). It's not - it's not exactly a fear, okay? Of course, we're all afraid. We are not desperate though. I think that we need to maintain our dignity and we are very a valiant people and we have proved that through the centuries so I'm sure we're going to make it.

ANDERSON: Is there a difference between how you feel about what is going today in Greece and how for example your parents' generation feel?

CHIOTINI: No. Not anymore. It used to be because we used to be more rebellion, more (INAUDIBLE) people and parents were always like "Okay, you have to settle down, you have to find a job, you have to see your future and see what you're going to do." But now, it's exactly the opposite because now we're going on the streets and demonstrate without parents and now grandparents.

ANDERSON: I know you're--.. Yeah, and then you make a very good point. We've seen people of all ages protesting these austerity measures. I know your boyfriend is an architect. You're an actress. Both of you struggling at present. What do you see of your future?

CHIOTINI: We're getting married.

ANDERSON: Good for you.

CHIOTINI: So, I mean, there's always the optimistic side. Okay, we're afraid, we're very - we're worried, we need to have a plan B. We're trying to make a plan B for ourselves, maybe to another country. But it's not what we want. We want to stay here and make it in our country because we love our country, we love Greece, and we hope that we make it. We need a plan B though - like all of us. Every young people right now discussing the streets and everyone discuss about the plan B that maybe we have to leave the country so we have to find something - we have to find something realistic.

ANDERSON: We'll leave it there. We're going to take a break - short break. We thank you for joining us and we do wish you and your boyfriend the very best of luck as we do for everybody in Greece this evening.

You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live from London. (INAUDIBLE).

Afghan protestors rage against the treatment of religious materials found. NATOs commander responded.

Right now, struggling Chelsea is taking on Napoli in the Champion's League but will they end the Italian side's 16-year unbeated home record in Europe? How they're doing, just ahead.

Plus, this (INAUDIBLE) go for golden anniversary. John Glenn rocks NASA again 50 years after his historic launch.

All that and more still ahead when CONNECT THE WORLD continues here on CNN. Stay with us.


ANDERSON: You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD here on CNN. I'm Becky Anderson. This is the world's news leader.

Welcome back. Now, the Arab Spring has ushered in a new era for Yemen. Voters cast ballots today to replace longtime-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Many called it a victory for the people even though only one name was on the ballots - the current vice president Abdurabu Mansur Hadi.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We asked God - the Abdurabu Hadi is up to the expectation that the people (INAUDIBLE). They gave him his authority.


ANDERSON: Well, Mr. Hadi will lead Yemen for a two-year interim period. He took over for Saleh back in November after months of protests forced a deal to transfer of power. There'll be much more on that story at the bottom of the hour for you so stay with us for that.

A look now (INAUDIBLE) at some of the other stories connect your world tonight.

And the Red Cross is urging the Syrian regime to let it distribute aid to besieged communities. This is a story we reported 24 hours ago as well and nothing's changed. The plea comes as security forces keep pounding the defiant Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs. Opposition activists say more than a hundred people have been killed across Syria today, Tuesday alone. Relentless shelling and growing hunger are daily constraints now. CNN's Arwa Damon witnessed what is staying on the inside the country.


ARWA DAMON, SYRIA: Even on an operation like this one bringing in these basic supplies that residents here so desperately need, we have to happen under cover of darkness and also have to be (INAUDIBLE) as possible.

They've been quickly calculating exactly what it is that they need to take up for the time being. And they've been loading things like babies' diapers, cracked wheat, (INAUDIBLE) but then someone called out saying, "Oh, should we put cooking oil on the trucks?" Well, they've run out of cooking oil. In fact, this is pretty much all that they have left.


ANDERSON: Even if the food runs out, Arwa says there hasn't been much panic. Instead, there's that matter-of-fact fortitude even though the government siege of Homs shows no signs of ending.

The former head of the International Monetary Fund is being held for questioning in connection with an alleged prostitution ring. Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived at the police station in Lille in France as authorities investigate claims that luxury hotels are serving as a base for a prostitution network. The one-time French presidential hopeful stepped down from his IMF post when he was charged with sexual assault in New York last year. Those charges were later dropped.

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan is apologizing for the burning of religious material including the Quran at Bagram Airfield. Protests erupted outside the airfield's gate. General John Allen said the materials were gathered for disposal and were given to troops for burning by mistake. Military officials say the items were moved from a detainee's library because of extremists inscriptions.

Venezuela's president is facing more surgery. Speaking on state television, Hugo Chavez says that doctors will operate on lesions in the same area where they removed a cancerous growth last year. Doctors detected the lesions in a weekend examination. Mr. Chavez says he is in good condition.

Well, in sport, Chelsea currently facing off (INAUDIBLE) described as a tough Champion's League test in Italy and they are doing it without their captain. We've got news of a new setback to John Terry coming up.

An extraordinary look at the uprising in Yemen added on the (INAUDIBLE). We talked with the filmmaker behind the documentary called "The Reluctant Revolutionary".


ANDERSON: Welcome back. 25 minutes past 9 in London. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live from here. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome back.

The sports headlines for you and topping those - a major blow to Chelsea's Premier league and Champion's League campaign. The club's captain John Terry could be out of action for up to six weeks, (INAUDIBLE) undergo surgery on his right knee which he injured after colliding with a goalpost during last month's FA Cup victory (INAUDIBLE). Now Terry, as you may know, is currently awaiting a trial over allegations he racially abused QPR's Anton Ferdinand - charges he denies. Well, Chelsea is currently on the pitch against Napoli in the Champion's League. We'll bring in Patrick Snell for the (INAUDIBLE) and how the blues are doing without their skipper. I believe it's not such a good night, huh?

PATRICK SNELL, CNN CENTER: It's not such a good night for Chelsea, Becky, but Napoli are having the time of their lives right now and this is a clear indication just how important John Terry is to his team and his country, of course, as well. At 31 years of age, he's still very, very influential but he's watching from the sidelines and he's seeing his team lose in a big way right now. They took the lead to their Spanish international Juan Mata. He put Chelsea ahead but that was probably the worst thing Chelsea could have done, Becky. It just fired up Napoli and the parties and home crowd there and they've hit back with three goals from their South American stars - Ezequiel Lavezzi with two, he's the Argentine, and then Edinson Cavani, the Uruguayan player helping himself to a strike as well. This match is in the second half. It was 2-1 Napoli at halftime. It's now 3-1. Remember, this is the first leg of the round of sixteen ties so Andre Villas-Boas, the Chelsea head coach, on whom there is mounting pressure still has time to turn this around if of course he's given time, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. And the pressure building of course on that young Portuguese manager. (INAUDIBLE) if the club loses this match?

SNELL: No. Not this match. I think they'll definitely give them at least a return. 34 years young, he's extremely young to be a head coach of such a high-profile team. There's no question about that and many people did raise their eyebrows when Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's owner, brought him to Stanford Bridge but he was hired for a reason and that there is huge potential there. There is quality on some level. But Chelsea fans though are getting more and more frustrated. The second leg is going to be absolutely vital. If Chelsea can get a goal back, it's going to be very interesting. If Napoli gets a fourth, then you do fear for the Villas- Boas, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And let's remember Roman Abramovich very much behind - he was a man who brought the manager in so he's not going to want to get rid of him unless he really doesn't perform.

Real Madrid next. Former Chelsea manager also in the Champion's League action earlier. How does that one turn out?

SNELL: Yeah, the coach that Roman let leave - Jose Mourinho of course the special one waving his magic wand, Becky, wherever he goes these days. He did it with Internacional. He's now doing it at Real Madrid. They're cruising towards a Premier League title at the expense of Barcelona but earlier Tuesday in the Champion's League, they went to freezing Moscow and it ended 1-1. They were leading very late on in that one. Cristiano Ronaldo - who else - scoring on 28 minutes of (INAUDIBLE) a plastic pitch you know there in the Russian capitol. But the host would level in stoppage time so it's 1-1 but that is a good result, really, I think for both teams to take back to the (INAUDIBLE) where Real Madrid will be, I think, clear favorites in that Jose Mourinho and Los Blancos I would expect to advance quite comfortably through to the quarterfinals of the European cup, Becky.

ANDERSON: Good stuff. Patrick Snell at CNN Center for you and back with World Sports in just about an hour's time. Thank you for that.

Still to come here on this show on CONNECT THE WORLD, a historic vote in Yemen today but the outcome, well, it was never in doubt. We're going to have a live report on an election short on candidates but long on hope for the future.

Then a leading scientist says the world is going to face a meat crisis in the next few years. This latest invention may change all that. He's going to tell us about that after the break.

Plus, he was the top talent in an era overflowing with (INAUDIBLE). We're going to show you how Da Vinci is surprising us yet again.


ANDERSON: Just after half past nine in London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live from London on CNN. Let's get you a check of the world news headlines at this point.

The Greek finance minister says a nightmare scenario has been avoided after a deal was done to secure a second bailout. Now, Greece will get an extra $170 billion of aid, helping the country to avoid a damaging default, for now, at least.

Opposition activists in Syria say more than 100 people have been killed across the country today alone. The city of Homs is being hit especially hard, and the Red Cross is calling for an immediate cease-fire so that aid can be delivered to civilians there.

Raging Afghan demonstrators protested at Bagram Airfield on word that religious materials, including Korans, were being burned there. NATO's commander apologized, saying the materials were gathered for disposal and were given to troops for burning by mistake.

And voters in Yemen have ended decades in power for President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They're endorsing his vice president, the only name on today's ballot. Deadly clashes in the south were a reminder of the challenges facing the new government.

Those are your headlines. Carrying on, though, with the story, it was an unprecedented vote for a longtime dictatorship, but still showed how far Yemen has to go to achieve true democracy. Still, many people there are thrilled that a new political era has begun. Let's bring in CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, who's live tonight, for you, in Sanaa. And the atmosphere there, if you will?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, we were at a polling station in the old city in Sanaa here at the Al-Tabara School, which functioned as a polling station today. The mood was actually quite festive. The mood was very positive.

It was actually very familial as well. A lot of the voters who came out, whether they were men or women, brought along their children. They were telling us that they believe that their children represented the future of this country, that they wanted their kids to be able to share in and witness this historic day.

Now, while there have been doubts cast about the legitimacy of this election from some activists here who say that because there's only one candidate, that it doesn't really represent a true election, a lot of the people we spoke with in Sanaa today said that the reason it was historic wasn't so much because of the election of the new president, but really because it signaled the end of the era of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's dictator, the president who's ruled this country for 33 years, actually a bit more than 33 years.

Here's a bit more of what some of the voters had to tell us today at the polling station.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We asked God if Abed Rabbo Hadi is up to the expectations that the people have for him. They have him his authority.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Our country can be safeguarded, and God will get rid of those who trick us, those who destroyed our country, separated us, broke us, and did what they did. The elections now came for the sake of saving Yemen.


JAMJOOM: That women you just saw there was over 80 years old. It was quite extraordinary to see her there. She wasn't just voting today, she was also volunteering as an observer to make sure that the voting went in a very smooth manner.

Now, we heard that in Sanaa that the voting did go quite well. Official numbers haven't been released yet, but observers of today's election are starting to say that voter turnout across the country was higher than expected, especially among women voters.

We'll wait to hear in the next few days what the exact tallies will be, but we should note that even though there was no violence to report in Sanaa, the real worry point here in Yemen has been the south of the country, the port city of Aden, where there is a separatist movement that's been gaining momentum the past few months.

In Aden yesterday, there were polling stations that were attacked. Today, four people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters there.

These types of events really have the potential to undermine what is being billed by the Yemeni government as a way to heal this country, and really just underscores how tenuous and fragile this country, that's beset with so many problems, is even at this point. Becky?

ANDERSON: Mohammed, listening to what those that you spoke to today on the streets of Sanaa had to say, they said they hope the new president will live up to their expectations. What are their expectations at this point?

JAMJOOM: Their expectations right now are for democratic reform. They want to see a new constitution. More than that, they want real economic opportunity for Yemenis.

This is the most deeply impoverished country in this region. This is a country where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day.

This is a country where even before the Arab Spring took root, there were multiple crises that he people were facing, a water shortage, a separatist movement in the south, sectarian tensions up in the north. You have huge amounts of malnutrition amongst children here.

What people want to see in Yemen is opportunity for the Yemeni people. They say they haven't seen that for over three decades. They want new opportunity. Right now, even though a lot of them are cautiously optimistic about who will take power, that's the vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, they are willing to give him a chance.

But the activist we spoke with said even if they're supporting him right now, if he doesn't start delivering on these pledges, they will be back out in the streets, and they will demand his ouster as well. Becky?

ANDERSON: Mohammed Jamjoom in Yemen for you this evening. Mohammed, thank you very much, indeed, for that.

One filmmaker took his camera to Yemen last year to document the cost of freedom. He did that through the eyes of a local tour guide. The documentary, "The Reluctant Revolutionary," gives us a rare inside look at the uprising as it unfolds.

Well, I caught up with filmmaker Sean McAllister and his protagonist at the Berlin Film Festival.



SEAN MCALLISTER, DIRECTOR, "THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY": While the world was focusing on the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, I'd come to Yemen, sensing it would be next. I wondered how revolution would effect this country, the poorest and most heavily armed in the Arab world.

In a way, any kind of change here would be a bloodbath, wouldn't it? Because everyone's got a gun.

KAIS, TOUR GUIDE: It's not a bloodbath, but it will be a blood swimming pool.

MCALLISTER: Meaning what? What's the difference?

KAIS: Bloodbath will be a few hundreds. Blood swimming pool will be thousands.


MCALLISTER: The film starts -- it was a genuine journey, really, that he went on. I didn't know where it was really going to go. I didn't even know if I had a film that was going to unfold if he remained reluctant.

But there's this transition halfway through when we witness a massacre.

ANDERSON: You witnessed a massacre?

MCALLISTER: A few people had been killed and we'd filmed this sniper attack on the camp, and things started getting ominous for me. And then, we went in the camp, the snipers started to attack the camp, and a few people were killed. I'd filmed it, and I could feel the net closing in on me.




MCALLISTER: By the time the next fight was coming, all the major networks and journalists that were there for the papers were suddenly deported, and then, there was this -- hairy moment.

I remember going into the makeshift hospital in the mosque the night before, the Thursday before the Friday prayers, and they were just hanging these drips out in this line by line, like 50. And I said, "What's going to happen?"

And they said, "Come back tomorrow."

And sure enough, after Friday prayers, there's this black plume of smoke, as you see in the film, and there's just this attack. Every Friday, you see protesters would push the boundaries of the camp, trying to get closer to the presidential palace. Fifty-two people were killed, and I was in the makeshift hospital as they all came in.


MCALLISTER: We shouldn't even be out with the car, it could lead to ambush.

KAIS: They are my tribe.


KAIS: In the beginning, I wasn't like, as the title of film, I wasn't convinced about it. And of course, this guy did a great favor for me, he pushed me in, just look to the reality of what's going to be happening. And I've seen a great change in my life and in my country, too.


MCALLISTER: It's like -- like a festival, here.

KAIS: It's more. It's revolution coming.

MCALLISTER: Do you think?

KAIS: Yes.


KAIS: Too soon.

MCALLISTER: This will be memorable, this place where we stand now, in years to come. They already called it -- what did they call it? This --

KAIS: Change Square.

MCALLISTER: Change Square, yes.


ANDERSON: How would you compare the uprising in Yemen to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa?

MCALLISTER: You know, it's not going to be perfect. The steps to democracy, the steps to this perfect system is not going to be overnight. So, everybody's saying, oh, it's a sham, it's a sham. It may be a sham. But if it's one step closer to something that's better, then that's positive.

KAIS: Yemen is going to get a better future for sure.


ANDERSON: "The Reluctant Revolutionary." Look at the Yemen uprising through the eyes of one local.

Up next, mystery meat. The scientist who says he can grow a hamburger in a laboratory. Well, he's going to tell us why he wants to, up next.


ANDERSON: Well, let's just update you on a score tonight, an important one, particularly if you are a Chelsea or Napoli fan out there. Chelsea going down to Naples 3-1 there in Italy tonight. First leg, of course. The return game at Stanford Bridge in a couple of weeks time, but as things stand at present in the Champions League in the UEFA Champions League, Chelsea lose 3-1 in Naples tonight.

All right. The announcement made headlines around the world as skeptics shook their heads. A team of Dutch scientists said they were going to grow something like this. Doesn't look too good, does it? A hamburger from stem cells in a petri dish.

Well, in a moment, I'm going to ask the head researcher on that team why he thinks it is a good idea. First, though, CNN's Mary Snow with this report.


MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a long way to go from a hamburger like this to one looking like this. This is actually beef being created in a petri dish.

A Dutch scientists is using stem cells from cattle muscle tissue to create a burger in a lab. And he told a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he aims to unveil the first one by October.

MARK POST, UNIVERSITY OF MAASTRICHT: It's still very small pieces and too small to actually cook it right now, so we are now gearing up to produce, let's say, a golf ball-size of this stuff and then cook it.

SNOW: Post estimates that first burger will cost $330,000 to make. Behind it all is the search for a more environmentally friendly way to produce meat as the world's population grows. With land at a premium for the animals needed, one scientist at the conference says global meat consumption could rise 60 percent in the next 40 years.

This isn't the first lab food to make headlines. Here in the US, an effort to produce genetically engineered salmon has hit snags as the Food and Drug Administration considers its safety. Even if it looks the same, tastes the same, and is just as safe, would people really eat beef made in a lab?

It's a hard sell for some at New York's Katz's Deli, where fifth generation owner Jake Dell brings in thousands of pounds of beef every week.

JAKE DELL, KATZ'S DELI: Call me traditional, call me old-fashioned, I think meat should come from a cow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It might not be a bad idea.

SNOW (on camera): Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, because it would save the Earth, that's one way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could not see my meat coming from a petri dish.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need to know that it had a face.

SNOW: Some good news for the skittish. Post says even if he had unlimited resources, it would still take him 10 to 20 years to make these stem cell burgers as efficient as regular ones. For now, he says his research is being funded by a financial backer who wants to remain anonymous.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.


ANDERSON: Well, his financial backer may be anonymous, but Dr. Mark Post is not. He's leading the charge to create the test tube burger this year, and he joins me now, live from the Netherlands to explain why you say without lab-grown meat the world is headed for, and I quote, "a meat crisis." What do you mean by that?

POST: Well, demand is going to increase, is going to double in the next 30 years or so, and production is right at the maximum right now. We cannot produce more than through the traditional livestock method, so that will lead to a scarcity of meat and, therefore, a price increase.

ANDERSON: I see that none of this would be worth doing if you didn't think in the future you could convince people to eat test tube or lab-grown meat. I wanted to reinforce how people felt, or certainly learn for myself.

I took this, that's sitting in front of me tonight -- it's pretty old, now, because we did this earlier on today -- but I took this out with me onto the streets of London earlier on today. I want you, Doctor, to just hear what people in London thought of the idea.



ANDERSON: You in for a tasty burger? I'm sure you eat burgers, do you, every so often?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, of course.

ANDERSON: Of course you do. Would you eat this burger if you knew the meat came from a test tube.


ANDERSON: It's any old burger. Would you eat it if the meat inside it was grown in a lab by scientists.




ANDERSON: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to eat it fresh.

ANDERSON: Not even if it was a stem cell from muscle?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My meat's got to be real.

ANDERSON: So, you don't think that would be real.



UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not meat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There, you see? I told you, see? Look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What cows you know that grow in a lab?

ANDERSON: Do you eat burgers?


ANDERSON: You don't -- why don't you eat --


ANDERSON: Do you eat burgers when Mummy and Daddy let you?


ANDERSON: If you knew that that burger was grown in a test tube, would you eat it?


ANDERSON: You wouldn't? Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Because -- it's gross.

ANDERSON: It's gross. What's your name?


ANDERSON: Nicolai says it's gross.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't do it.

ANDERSON: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we don't know yet. First of all, we don't know the nutritional value. And then, I think until there's a lot of research showing that the structure of the cells is the same, I wouldn't do it.


ANDERSON: All right. Nicolai's dad making a good point there. Dr. Post, you saw people's reaction, there, on the street. You're probably not surprised by what you heard. How do you answer concerns about, for example, the nutritional value of any patty grown in a petri dish? How do you convince people this is something they should consider trying?

POST: Yes, well, I think the people said it very accurately. They don't know yet. And that makes sense. If you don't know exactly what it is and why we need to do this, then of course you seem to have a lot of choices and your choice for the thing that you do know, which makes perfect sense.

The -- we believe, and we have strong reasons to believe, that if you create meat from the same cells that you are using when it's growing in an animal, you just grow it outside of the animal, that the eventual product will, in terms of nutritional value and quality of the proteins, will be exactly the same.

And moreover, it will be, eventually, a much more efficient way of producing meat with less environmental impact. So, if you get all the information together, that might change the choices. Not now, but maybe 10, 15, years from now.

ANDERSON: "Might" being the operative word. You have a financial backer, you say, who shall remain anonymous for the time being. Tell me, how big an industry do you think this could be if, indeed, you can convince people this isn't science gone men, that this is safe, this is the future of food production?

POST: Well, in my mind, it could potentially take over the entire meat-producing industry, which is, of course, worldwide, huge and is ever increasing if we let demand just develop the way it's doing.

And of course, there are other alternatives for the meat crisis that we're going to face. But none of them, as of yet, include products that are exactly the same as the meat that we value and crave, even.

ANDERSON: All right. Well, keep in touch. There'll be lots of naysayers out there tonight, but I'm sure the world of science applauds, at least, the research that's going into this.

Let me tell you, I'm pretty sure that a patty at the moment, out of Dr. -- the doctor's lab cost about $200 grand. I don't think anybody's going to be buying this as of yet --

POST: Right.

ANDERSON: -- but we wish you the best. Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

You're with CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson. When we come back tonight, think you know this face? Well, think again. We're going to show you a new Da Vinci mystery, up next.


ANDERSON: Well, imagine someone else standing next to Leonardo Da Vinci and copying him stroke for stroke as he painted the world's most famous and mysterious portrait. Well, new evidence suggests that may have happened. CNN's Nick Glass shows us.


NICK GLASS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We all know the Mona Lisa, that enigmatic smile, ever more remote behind bulletproof glass. Over the last century since she was briefly stolen from the Louvre in 1911, she's arguably become the most famous work of art on Earth.

And yet, 500 years after she was painted, she still manages to surprise us. She has, it seems, an almost identical twin. The Prado in Madrid has owned an anonymous copy of the Mona Lisa since the museum was founded in 1819. But under scientific analysis, this copy has startled the experts.

GABRIELE FINALDI, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, PRADO MUSEUM: We knew this was an interesting picture. We didn't quite know how interesting it was. And I think that's what's really exciting about the stage we are now.

GLASS: The face has always been framed against black. But this turned out to be a later overpaint. Careful cleaning gradually revealed the same landscape as in the original painting.

Using infrared reflectography, a kind of x-ray, they compared the two wooden panels, the Mona Lisa on the left, the copy on the right. The under drawings were practically identical. Just as Leonardo changed his mind about a detail -- the hands, the hairline, or the edge of the fabric on her dress -- so did the copyist.

The conclusion was, as Leonardo worked slowly on the portrait, one of his pupils faithfully replicated what he did. Master and pupil may well have worked side-by-side in the studio in Florence.

FINALDI: The copy is in remarkably good condition, so I think it has a lot to offer regarding the understanding of the original in the Louvre, particularly in the landscape and in the headdress, for example, and in details of the face and hands.

GLASS: This has been a thrilling time for Leonardo scholars. They always knew he'd painted an image of Jesus Christ as Savior of the World. More than 20 copies exist, one in particular known only from a ghostly old black and white photo.

In 2005, this version was discovered in a private American collection. This is the first time a color image of it, before restoration, has been shown on television.

The overpaint, the crude, reddish tint to the hair and beard, was carefully removed. And after restoration, scholars finally recognized the painting for what it was, not a copy at all but, miraculously, Leonardo's original work.

After 500 years, the Mona Lisa on the left now has a mirror image of herself. With the old varnish removed, her twin looks fresher, younger, if not quite as mysterious. We can all judge for ourselves when they're reunited in an exhibition at the Louvre next month.

Nick Glass, CNN, London.


ANDERSON: There you go. And just before we go, let me tell you, the British equivalent of the Grammys tonight, and Adele and Rihanna doing particularly well. I'm Becky Anderson, that was CONNECT THE WORLD for you. Thank you for watching. The world news headlines, as ever, and "BackStory" up after this short break. Don't go away.