Cyprus Races To Avert Debt Crisis; The Latest in Obama's Trip to the Middle East
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to AROUND THE WORLD. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Suzanne Malveaux.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for being with us. We'd like to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and indeed around the world.</s>WHITFIELD: Let's begin in Jordan. There, President Obama meets with King Abdullah as the president winds up his trip to the Middle East.</s>HOLMES: Yes, the two leaders are scheduled to hold a news conference. Actually that's meant to take place pretty soon. We'll be listening in, of course, and update you on the latest developments. Now Jordan, of course, an important strategic ally for the U.S. and partner in the region.</s>WHITFIELD: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today apologized to Turkey for a 2010 commando raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza. You'll remember, eight Turks were killed in that attack.</s>HOLMES: Yes, the Israeli leader apparently phoned the Turkish prime minister, Erdogan, during a meeting with President Obama. This is a pretty significant development. And it comes from two senior administration officials. Prime Minister Netanyahu apologizing for what happened and admitting to operational mistakes. Apparently relations are going to be normalized now.</s>WHITFIELD: In Egypt, hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood today. They through Molotov cocktails as police surrounded the building.</s>HOLMES: State-run Nile Television says supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, well they held a counterdemonstration. The police, you can see clearly there, acting as a buffer.</s>WHITFIELD: And big decisions, tough dilemmas. Cyprus says the next few hours will be crucial.</s>HOLMES: That's right. The island nation trying to save its very banking system. Now, lawmakers there are working on a new proposal to raise money for a bailout.</s>WHITFIELD: The deal can't come soon enough for Cypriots. Banks have been closed all week as Cyprus sorts out its financial mess. And for many people, the situation really is pretty dire.</s>HOLMES: Yes, think about it. What would you do if you didn't have any cash and you didn't have a credit card and you didn't have a debit card and things like that? Well, Nick Paton Walsh has a story now of a Russian maid in Cyprus caught up in this crisis.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Olga, a Russian single mother who taught herself Greek just to get work in an upscale hotel, has always lived on a budget, but never like this. She has no ATM card, so closed banks mean there's no more money now for food. Here, how much is left in her purse for her family to live off.</s>OLGA, CYPRUS RESIDENT(through translator): Not even five euros. I took a loan from friends to get through the weekend, but I don't know when the banks open again. My son gets paid tomorrow with a check, but he can't cash it anywhere. We have money, but can't get at it. Maybe even for a week.</s>WALSH: Her eldest two have grown and work to pay for school, but little Elena (ph) always has questions.</s>OLGA: Mom, what will we do now, she asks. At school, even the little ones talk. She hears stuff in school and that's a problem. I can't put adult problems on a baby's shoulder. I explain, I say we can get through this. We will wait and something good, I believe, will come of this. I feel hopeless. Fear, not just for my future, but for the future of my children. What can we do?</s>WALSH (on camera): Across Nicosia there is that sense of despair. Streets like this that would normally be bustling, now barren and empty. So many Cypriots waking up to hear that the solutions their government offered the day before have now been cast aside.</s>WALSH (voice-over): During Thursday, queues grew at ATMs. Gas station asked only for cash. Shops stayed shuttered. Panic built. Olga says her 1,000 euro savings, a two-year's work for her, not something she can lose even 2 percent of.</s>OLGA: I feel like it's a million because I worked for it, sweat for it. I saved this money. I'm not scared. I'm not angry. It's desperation that grips your soul. A desperate situation. And you cannot find your way out.</s>WALSH: She jokes her life is like a fairy tale. It gets scarier the longer it goes on. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Nicosia.</s>HOLMES: Well, of course, world financial markets are waiting and watching all of this unfold.</s>WHITFIELD: We're watching very closely. We have reporters in Cyprus and here in the U.S. tracking the latest developments. Let's bring in our Jim Boulden, who is in Nicosia, and Zain Asher in New York. So, Jim, you first. What is the latest about a plan?</s>JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (ph) Well, I wish I could tell you that plan b was being debated here in the parliament, but I just walked into the chamber itself to look and there's nobody in there. Six hours ago they were supposed to start to debate these bills to try to fix the financial system, but the talks are still going on behind the scenes. We still haven't heard whether Europe will agree to anything that Cyprus is trying to come up with. So plan b has not been agreed to. As we know, the money will be cut off from the banks on Monday. They're supposed to open again on Tuesday. There's still no plan. It's now the sun going down on Friday night. People are at the gate protesting to find out what parliament's going to do, guys, and they still don't have a plan that we can tell you about.</s>HOLMES: It's extraordinary. Zain, I want to bring you in now to talk about the markets. It's interesting the Europe markets were up earlier. I think they ended up on the day. The American markets, they seem to be shaking it off. But, you know, what would it take for that situation to change?</s>ZAIN ASHER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Well basically if that situation would change, basically we'd have to see this rippling out to other countries. So if depositors in periphery countries, for example Spain, right, felt that their money wasn't safe and did a run on the bank, then obviously the global economy would be in jeopardy and that obviously includes U.S. markets. And, naturally, Europe is one of our biggest trading partners. But for now, you know, investors don't seem to be too stressed. It is a very tiny country. It doesn't have the same impact as some place like France or Germany. Plus, you know, we have seen a huge rally in the stock market since the start of the year. Major averages up 7 to 10 percent. And, you know, it would take a lot to change that. Michael.</s>HOLMES: You see it half a percent up on the day already. Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. And, of course, big frustration. People can't get to their money from the banks. But then, Jim, maybe you have some encouragement. Any signs that perhaps banks will reopen as early as Tuesday perhaps?</s>BOULDEN: That can only happen if there's an agreement here to save the banks. The restructure, shutdown, whatever you want to call it and reorganize these banks and then Europe says, OK, we'll allow the European Central Bank -- think of that like the Federal Reserve, putting money into these banks just to keep them alive for a few more weeks. The Federal Reserve of the European Central Bank says, we will shut that money off come Monday night. So it's really, really tight. People simply aren't able to do day-to- day operations because they can't get access to the money. As we were hearing earlier, taxi driver telling me they just want five or ten euros, no change, and they're rounding things up so they can get the bills in their hand. They're not going to be giving change because they need to keep that money as much as they can get their hands on.</s>HOLMES: All right. And, Zain, just finally, too, I mean from an American standpoint, we've got our Americans viewers with us, of course, what happens in Europe matters in the United States. Europe, the biggest trading partner. It all does -- it's all interconnected now.</s>ASHER: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, there are huge protests in the streets in Cyprus, just to show you just how riled up people are over there. But I just want to emphasize that this could never happen here in the U.S. Here, the FDIC insures deposits over (ph) $250,000. In Cyprus, they do have deposit guarantees as well, but they're willing to override that law because of the dire straits they're in. Also in the U.S., you know, as banks get into trouble, the U.S. does have the authority to borrow money or literally print money to bail them out. In Cyprus, it's not that simple because they're part of the Eurozone. So they don't have that kind of economy. They have to lean on the shoulders of the ECB. So it does seem to be relatively contained over there.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Zain, Jim, thanks so much to both of you. Appreciate it.</s>HOLMES: OK. Here's more of what we're working on this hour for AROUND THE WORLD. Got a Mexican politician we're going to show you now. She's saying she was not a call girl.</s>WHITFIELD: She only worked as a model and posed in lingerie as a favor for a friend, she says.</s>HOLMES: We're going to look at that. Also, a nude baby picture of the universe from billions of years ago.</s>HOLMES: It is beautiful, isn't it.</s>WHITFIELD: Uh-huh.</s>HOLMES: And even the pope has to get things in order now that he's moved house.</s>WHITFIELD: One thing he can check off his list now, canceling his newspaper subscription.