Sweltering Around World; Headmistress Flees After Children Die; Top Putin Opponent Sent to Jail
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Now the Taliban have written a rather bizarre letter reaching out to the Pakistani school girl their gunman tried to kill.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: And antiapartheid icon Nelson Mandela marks a huge milestone and the world is celebrating. Welcome to AROUND THE WORLD. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.</s>HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for your company today. Well, let's start off with this, the northeast, the Midwest of the U.S. getting even hotter today. Tens of millions of people under heat advisories.</s>MALVEAUX: We are not alone. This is not the only part of the world struggling under these stifling temperatures. This is really hot around the world. Eastern Canada, from Toronto to Montreal, all reaching the 90s yesterday, which is way above average. A new report finds at least 85 people have died from this extreme heat this summer in Japan.</s>HOLMES: Yes, then go to Britain. They're in the grips of a heat wave as well. Chad Myers, let's start with the U.S. and Canada.</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure.</s>HOLMES: What can folks expect today?</s>MYERS: You know, heat index 105, 110 and all these numbers that we talk about, when you add the heat and humidity, some people call it humidx (ph), humidture (ph), whatever, all it is, is just the -- will your body, when it perspires, will that perspiration evaporate? And when it does, then you get cooled down, just like getting a shot at the doctor. Put a little alcohol on a cotton swab, put it on your arm, your arm turns cool. That's the evaporation. So that's what your body's hoping to do, it's hoping to evaporate some of the heat that is building up inside of it. It's unable to do that when the heat index is above you your body temperature, and that's everywhere across the Midwest, all the way into southern Canada. Atlanta, Canada, has been very hot all week long too. New York City, 101. Washington, D.C. today will go to 104. That's what it feels like outside. Now, there's relief coming. There is some relief coming by Sunday into Monday. But, still, tomorrow could be a degree or two warmer than today itself. Finally, Montreal, you're going to cool down, 73 on Sunday. That will feel real good compared to where you've been the last couple of days.</s>MALVEAUX: And, Chad, tell us about Japan. I understand that people are dying from heat stroke, most of them elderly people, and the U.K. pretty much dealing with this heat wave as well.</s>MYERS: Yes. You know, U.K. and Japan as well, parts of Asia. Again, I know it's summertime, but this has been a particularly brutal summer with the heat and humidity and then it rains. When it rains and then that rain evaporates, that's what increases the humidity. You can see the heat there just in that picture coming off the ground there. And that's what they've been dealing with, with air temperatures well above 90, 95 degrees there in Japan where they really don't expect it many times. In London, London has been well upped into the 80s and 90s the past couple of days and even the past couple of weeks. And if you're going to go and look at the British Open,</s>A.C. HOLMES: Yes.</s>MALVEAUX: Yes.</s>MYERS: I mean there's not a lot of air conditioning in London because they don't expect it to get hot.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Yes, that's the thing. Yes. No, I lived there for many years and, yes, you're right, no A.C. So when it gets into the 70s there, the media calls it the sizzling 70s. Everybody just starts complaining about the weather. But I was talking to Alex</s>MYERS: I know. Unheard of. The scores might be ridiculous.</s>HOLMES: Yes, exactly.</s>HOLMES: Yes, they're all going to start collapsing just because it is sunny. Chad, good to see you.</s>MALVEAUX: Thank you, Chad.</s>MYERS: Thanks. You're welcome.</s>HOLMES: Stay cool out there.</s>MALVEAUX: Nice to see those pictures, though. A lot of the Brits had the popsicles.</s>HOLMES: Oh, yes.</s>MALVEAUX: Everybody had like either ice cream or a popsicle in their hand.</s>HOLMES: Out in Hyde Park. Oh, yes.</s>MALVEAUX: Nice. Nice job (ph).</s>HOLMES: All right, now to a more -- far more serious story, a deadly story, the poisoning of nearly two dozen school children in India. Police now searching for the school's headmistress.</s>MALVEAUX: They actually want to question her about how the school's free lunches became contaminated with insecticide. That's right. This poison was so toxic that some of the children actually died in their parents arms on the way to the hospital. You see those just heartbreaking pictures there.</s>HOLMES: Yes.</s>MALVEAUX: Many other students survived, but remain hospitalized.</s>HOLMES: Sumnima Udas takes us now to the ward where some of those kids are being treated.</s>SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Twenty-two children have died after eating their free lunch in school and all the children who fell ill from that meal have been brought to this government hospital. There are two dozen children here. Doctors say all of them, though, are now out of danger. When they arrived here, though, many of them were vomiting, they were feeling dizzy. Many of them even fainted. Doctors suspect it's a case of organophosphorus (ph) poisoning, which is an insecticide that is commonly used by farmers in this part of India.</s>HOLMES: Sumnima joins us now on the line. Sumnima, you know, yesterday there was a lot of concern or talk about the cooking oil which was supplied by a grocery store run by the headmistress's husband. The husband's disappeared. The headmistress has disappeared. What are they saying?</s>UDAS (via telephone): That's right, Michael. The local police in</s>MALVEAUX: And tell us a little bit about this free lunch program, because this is really the biggest in the world. It feeds more than 100 million people here. But some people see it as being very uneven, if you will, inconsistencies in the safety, the quality of the food, just depending on where you live, what state you live in.</s>UDAS: That's right. It really depends from state to state. The authorities are in shock because while there had been some minor issues of</s>HOLMES: Just terrible. Sumnima, thanks so much. Sumnima Udas there is on the spot where this happened reporting for us.</s>MALVEAUX: And we saw those pictures too of those protests.</s>HOLMES: Yes.</s>MALVEAUX: I mean sometimes that - all -- the frustration of a lot of people, they feel like that's the only thing that they can do is just to lash out.</s>HOLMES: Yes, they feel powerless. Yes. That's a huge problem in India, the malnutrition side of things. Tens of millions of children who rely on that food program and look what happens.</s>MALVEAUX: In Russia today, a man is facing a five year prison term for corruption, but you have to know who this man is and who would actually love for him to be out of the picture.</s>HOLMES: Very suspicious. We are talking about Alexei Navalny. Now, that is not a household name here in the United States, but he is very well known in Russia and also he's a major headache for President Vladimir Putin. Navalny is an outspoken politician. He's against just about everything that President Putin stands for.</s>MALVEAUX: Well now he has been tried and found guilty of something that he has accused Russian officials of doing for years, and that is embezzling money. U.S. officials, they say his trial was a sham. European officials calling it a joke. Even Mikhail Gorbachev is upset, saying this guy's prosecution nothing but dirty politics. Our CNN's Phil Black is in Moscow.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was Alexei Navalny in a more hopeful time, leading tens of thousands of people protesting against Vladimir Putin. Navalny's passion, charisma, fierce language and commitment to fighting corruption inspired many to join him on the streets on those brutally cold winter days. But that was more than a year ago and a lot has changed. New laws considered by many to be repressive, crush the protesters' enthusiasm and Navalny, the movement's most popular figure, became the target of a criminal investigation.</s>ALEXI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION FIGURE (through translator): This day has finally come. I expected it.</s>BLACK (on camera): Why do you believe this is happening?</s>NAVALNY: I've been investigate and corruption in state-run companies by government officials over the last six years. These people steal billions. I'm making it harder for them to steal. They understand my anticorruption work is a threat.</s>BLACK (voice-over): The corruption fighter accused of corruption. He was prosecuted for allegedly stealing $500,000 worth of timber from the state when he was an adviser to a provincial governor. Navalny has always said the charge is ridiculous.</s>BLACK (on camera): Do you think you have any chance of winning?</s>NAVALNY: Of course not. They didn't fabricate this case to allow that. It's obvious for me it's going to be a guilty verdict.</s>BLACK (voice-over): Navalny also has political ambitions. He wants to be president. But Russian law forbids convicted criminals running for office.</s>NAVALNY: It's through one of putting (ph) goals in this trial is to stop me from being involved in politics. But this law only exists in Putin's system and our goal is to destroy Putin's system.</s>BLACK: The president's spokesman said Putin didn't follow the trial. Navalny is not the first prominent Kremlin opponent to be sent to jail. Mikhail Hoberkofski (ph) has been locked up for the last decade. Once Russia's richest man, he was convicted in a case widely seen as punishment for trying to promote democracy in Russia and Navalny was in court last year to see the women of Pussy Riot sentenced to two years for their anti-Putin punk prayer in a Moscow cathedral.</s>BLACK (on camera): Are you ready to go to jail? Is your family ready for that?</s>NAVALNY: I always understood right from the start, you can go to jail in Russia for any independent political activity. You shouldn't do it if you are not ready to go to jail.</s>BLACK (voice-over): Russian authorities have always insisted Navalny's prosecution is not political, but a senior investigator recently admitted his colleagues had fast tracked their work in Navalny's case because of his criticism of Russia's political system.</s>HOLMES: And Phil Black is live with us now in Moscow. Now, Navalny, the risk here, of course, from the perspective of Russia's power brokers, is they could turn this guy into a political martyr, if you like. What is his level of support?</s>BLACK: It is considerable, Michael, especially within the cities of Russia. Major cities like Moscow, among urbanized, middle class, well educated people who travel, spend a lot of time online. These are the people that are angry about many aspects of Russian society, a lack of democracy, the continued domination of politics by Vladimir Putin and what they believe is an intolerable level of corruption. These are the people that Navalny spoke for. These are the people who support him. Outside of these major cities, he is less well known and less supported. But the people who know him and support him feel very strongly, he was potentially a future leader of this country.</s>MALVEAUX: And, Phil, tell us a little bit about what the situation is with President Putin. It clearly seems like he is very challenged, if you will, and insecure about his opponents -- being challenged by his opponents here. Do people see this as an act of desperation?</s>BLACK: Well, I think certainly some of Putin's opponents would certainly interpret it that way, but it does very much fit a trend. Those who oppose President Putin know that they run the risk of the system in some way targeting them. And certainly that's what Navalny's supporters believe. They are in no doubt whatsoever that he is paying the price for his opposition to the government, to the political status quo, to President Putin in particular. They view this very clearly as political payback. The case against Navalny was always very flimsy. It was dropped once because of a lack of evidence but authorities ordered that it resume. The Russian courts, they are notoriously lacking in independence from the political system and they have a very, very high conviction rate, said to be more than 99 percent. So when we spoke to Navalny, he was in no doubt whatsoever that it would end with a guilty verdict. He knew he would be convicted. But he hoped that he would not receive a jail sentence. But today he was led from the court in handcuffs to begin a five year prison term. Suzanne.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Yes. You don't want to be an opposition leader in Russia these days. Phil, good to see you. Phil Black there. He was running for mayor, too, but that's not going to happen, obviously.</s>MALVEAUX: Yes, that's not going to happen. And obviously the United States, the European Union saying it's a sham, you know.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Exactly.</s>MALVEAUX: It doesn't mean anything. Here's more of what we're working on for AROUND THE WORLD this hour. Shocked, stunned, that is how the parents of Trayvon Martin describe their reaction to the Zimmerman verdict. They are now speaking out.</s>HOLMES: And remember the young Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban? Well, she's received a letter from a senior Taliban leader. You won't believe what he says in it.</s>MALVEAUX: And CNN was there when Panamanian authorities opened the containers of the seized North Korean ship. You're going to see what was actually inside.