
At 0849 gmt this morning, CNN/I broke into the live edition of World Sport, with Candy Reid in Atlanta, to bring breaking news coverage of the sentence of Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, "Chemical Ali", for his role in the death of Iraqi Kurds in Anfal in the late 80s.
Rather than Shihab Rattansi bring this breaking news from CNN Center, Hala Gorani did so live from Baghdad. (This allowed World Sport to continue off-air, for the rebroadcasts later today). Hala spoke to several people on the phone with archive footage of the attacks and the aftermath shown on-screen. Delayed footage of the trial in Baghdad was also shown.
Coverage broke off for a break at 0857 gmt, and at 0900 gmt Shihab Rattansi returned at CNN Center and together with Hala Gorani in Baghdad, breaking news coverage continued.
Larry King Replay started at 0907 gmt in progress.
(As an aside...I always assumed that the airing of Larry King at 0900 gmt was a recording CNN/I had made, and then played out. But I've recently realised that Larry King Live is also rebroadcast on CNN/US at the same time. So, technically, I wonder if CNN/I actually cuts to CNN/US for this?)
CNN/I cut into Larry King at 0925 gmt to bring further breaking news coverage of the Chemical Ali sentencing. Due to the delay of the courtroom video footage, there was no footage of Ali receiving his sentence until now, and this was aired while Shihab spoke to Hala in Baghdad.
Larry King resumed at 0930 gmt
Labels: CNN International, Hala Gorani, Shihab Rattansi