that's what the affordable care act's all about. that's its promise. and i intend to deliver on that promise. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. >> thank you. >> all right. so there he is, the president of the united states in the rose garden making a 25-minute or so, maybe 26-minute pitch, if you will, for the affordable care act. acknowledging he is frustrated. he does not like the way the website has worked these first three weeks. nobody he says is more frustrated than i am. no sugar coating he says, but it's going to get fixed. he guarantees it. didn't say when exactly it will be completely fixed but he said people are working around the clock to make it work. we've got a full analysis coming up as the president goes back into the oval office right now. jake tapper, let me get your quick thought.

the president really didn't explain why the website wasn't ready to go perfectly on day one. >> no, he did upgrade the word glitches is now kinks. so there is an acknowledgement in that change of language that it is more serious than the administration has acknowledged but he also just emphasized the product. he said i'm frustrated because this is a great product. he talked about the individuals with pre-existing conditions who now have insurance through these exchanges. he was introduced by a woman who was the first woman to sign up for insurance from the state of delaware as you and i were discussing, wolf, it took her seven hours on the phone and online. eventually she had to go through and clean out all the cookies from her cache but she did sign up from the small state of delaware. you know, he's in an untenable position. he wants to have people sign up. he gave out the 800 number you but at the same time, there there are serious problems and tens of millions of americans who need to get on these

exchanges because there is a federal mandate that they sign up for insurance by next march but are having trouble doing so. >> let me bring sanjay gupta into this well. i got a tweet. we do know kathleen sa bellious was there in the rose garden sitting next to denis mcdonough during this event. senator mcconnell tweets when a visit to a obama website makes a trip to the dmv seem pleasant, it's time for the president to consider delaying this rushed effort. certain aspects of obama care, as you know, have been delayed. employer mandates, individual mandates have not been delayed. do you foresee a possibility because of these problems the president may announce on an administrative basis he's going to delay certain aspects of this? >> i would be very surprised if the individual mandate was delayed. we talked about this a little bit earlier again, wolf.

but you know, this is a complicated system but so much of it depends on this individual mandate in terms of actually getting more people into the system to help pay for it. if those people don't come into the system, premiums will be much higher i think than expected for the people who are joining the marketplace. so there may be delays in other smaller aspects but i don't think with regard to the individual mandate. he started off as jake was saying, as well, this isn't just a website. he was making his case that look, we're talking about people who are trying to sign up over the last three weeks. even for people who have not been paying attention to this issue at all think this doesn't involve me, i have insurance, this is somebody else's issue, they are benefiting, as well. that's the case he was making. he gave a few examples, people who stay on their parents' plan till age 26, seniors who can get cheaper prescription drugs. he was saying look, this extends a little bit more widely than just the website. this extends a little bit more

widely than just the people trying to get in the marketplace now. this has bigger benefits and protections. so that was sort of the case that i think he was making. again, that individual mandate, i would be surprised, wolf. >> if he were to delay because some people might say for three, four weeks, if it's not working properly, maybe delay the penalty phase, paying this $90 a year fine the first year if you don't sign up and you're required to sign up. let me get jake's take on that. >> i just wanted to ask sanjay, it seems notable when the president -- this is not odd for a politics but he talks about the examples that help tell his story, the individuals now paying less because they're not held responsible for having a pre-existing condition, the 25-year-olds who are able to stay on their parents' plan, et cetera. but he doesn't talk about the individuals who now have to pay more in health insurance because their plans no longer fit the federal standard or for other reasons and to have a full honest discussion of health insurance, we should acknowledge

that there are individual who are going to pay more because of these changes, not only people who are going to pay less. >> yeah, and i think the specific sort of ands, to apples comparison here is there were these sort of bargain rate plans. they didn't offer much for people but those plans were available for people who really didn't think they needed to have health care insurance because they thought themselves to be healthy. a lot of those plans are not available anymore to jake's point. they're no longer allowed under these new regulations. so those people will probably have to pay more. i think the larger issue, you heard the study. the president cited a specific study saying six out of ten uninsured people who join the marketplace will pay $100 a month for premiums. that is dependent on many things including the individual mandate stays in place, that these young healthy people choose not to sign up, just pay the penalty instead. if they don't sign up, those numbers will go up what people

are paying >> elizabeth cohen, let me get your thoughts because the president also said, you know, if the website's not working at efficiently as it should and clearly it isn't, you can do it the old fashioned way. call someone. wait time won't be long. you might be on the phone for a while to get through the this process or you can meet what they call a nab gator. go to some government office and do it the old fashioned way with paperwork. how long would all of this take? forget about the website for a moment. the phone call, signing up or going through a navigator, going to a government office? >> i don't think it's going to be incredibly long. i don't think it's going to be like the seven-hour ordeal we heard from somebody who tried online. it's still not the quickest thing in the world. it's not like buying a book on amazon. you have to give information, birth dateses about your yourself and your family members. you need to get all the security questions so they can verify your identity. this is not a sort of lickety

split process like a lot of us are used to when we go online. it's not going to be when you go in person or over the phone. for many people struggling online, it's going to be quicker to do this in person or do this over the phone. >> it probably will be. marc saltzman, you write about technology. quickly to you, did you hear encouragement from the president that he's on top of it, the administration is on top of it, the department of health and human services, they're bringing in the best minds i.t. people in the country to work on this, that this is going to be resolved anytime soon? >> that's what he said. but without giving, you know, a timeline or how much it's going to cost, he did say he's doubling down. he's doubling up the efforts to get the website working. he reinforced the fact that it's a good product. it's going to save you money, but it's not a good website to the paraphrase him. i think that by bringing on the right people and without him extending the deadline perhaps

you can read between the lines that they're working on it and that his sources are telling him, we're going to get this resolved quickly. even the worth kinks, by the way, i heard your colleague say earlier that is maybe a more serious word than glitches. it's still pretty light. it's still a light sounding word. kinks sounds like it's a little chink in the armor. i think it's a bigger problem than this. i think we'll know within a few days how many people continue to grow frustrated and maybe opt for the phone-in process or the printout option. >> jake was quoting the president calling it kinks earlier it was the glitches. these are obviously a lot more serious than what the president is now saying kinks, or what earlier was described as glitches. these are serious, serious problems with the website it wasn't jake's word, it was the president's word kinks. just want to be precise on that. laurie sigel is still with us. do you have a good understanding why some of these great i.t.

folks working in the government were not ready on day one as they should have been? >> well, first of all, you have to look. they contracted this out. silicon valley would recruit the best engineers and bring them in. it would be aileen process. this was quite the opposite. i was looking at this waiting for obama to say exactly where these, quote unquote, kinks were, where the problems were. we just didn't hear that. i mean, the one thing he said was the number of people visiting aggregated underlying problems. we do have confirmation the overwhelming traffic was an issue here. what we don't know the is what the underlying problems are. without knowing that, we don't know the specifically how long it it will take to fix that. he said no one's more frustrated than him. but we didn't really get the idea from what i know that they're replacing right now virtual tech with hardware, they're adding servers trying to anticipate for the demand, they're trying to fix problems on the back end.

but this idea that they weren't really able to get the best and brightest to do it in the first place is a pretty big deal here. >> he didn't provide numbers here. he did say 20 million people have gone online to check in to see if they could go online. he did use the word thousands have succeeded in actually going forward and enrolling and purchasing health insurance. thousands he said. didn't say how many thousands. we're going to continue our special coverage. much more right after this. we t. you keep the peace. we calm your congestion and pain. [ man ] thank you. thank you. [ female announcer ] you rally the team. you guys were awesome. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cough. you give them a case of the giggles. tylenol cold® helps relieve even your worst cold and flu symptoms, so you can carry on with your day. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol cold®.

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website not so good right now. listen to what the president said. >> there's no sugar coating it. the website has been too slow. people have been getting stuck during the application process. and i think it's fair to say that nobody's more frustrated by that than i am and precisely because the product is good, i want the cash registers to work. i want the checkout lines to be smooth. so i want people to be able to get this great product. and there's no excuse for the problems. and it's these problems are getting fixed. >> jim acosta, you were in if the rose garden during this event. tell us who was there. i know the secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius was there. i didn't hear the president make any specific reference to her. >> no specific reference to her. there were other officials on hand, as well. chief of staff denis mcdonough, the senior advisor to the

president valerie jarrett. a lot of democratic activists in the audience, wolf. we spotted brad wood house who used to be at the democratic national committee, various other activists in the party as well as people ho support the law and benefited from the law according to the white house. it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days with secretary sebelius. she has been called to testify on capitol hill. there's a hearing on thursday about that. the department of health and human services basically said she doesn't have the time in her schedule at this point to testify at that hearing and conservatives are responding by saying well, she had time to go on the daily show with jon stewart earlier this month. why won't she testify on capitol hill. this was very much a campaign style event in the rose garden. you heard clapping and laughter at some of the president's punch lines during those remarks, but some interesting comments that the president made he is going to have to hope he doesn't live to rue the day he said those things. he said something like, it's going to get fixed. we're well into a tech surge to

fix the problem and that sort of thing. those are comments if this doesn't get straightened out he may live to regret some of those words. the president did say time and again during this event that the website is really only part of the program, that people can call in and get insurance that way and that there are many consumer protections that are working for people right now. also interesting, wolf, that the president did sort of come out and acknowledge these issues the very first woman who introduced the president said she had had some technical issues in signing up for insurance and the president mentioned a letter he received from a gentleman in pennsylvania who signed up for insurance and described the process as somewhat maddening but now that he's saving money he feels better about it. no question about it, he has to hope these problems get fixed and fast because this is his signature achievement. if he wants to call it that, it's going to have to be fixed. >> and quickly, jim, near the end, we saw ha young woman who was standing behind the president appear to get weak.

it looked like she was getting ready to faint. the president turned around and some folks started to help her and fortunately she was taken away. but was it really hot out there? was it sunny? what was it like? >> a lot of sun. you and i both have seen this happen at campaign stops, somebody in the audience standing there too long gets a little weak in the knees and starts to faint a little bit. i think that's what happened there. she was escorted out pretty quickly. it didn't seem to be a major problem from that point forward. as you noticed, the president quickly wrapped up his remarks after that happened. he said these things sometimes happen when he goes on for too long. but it doesn't appear to be anything more serious than that, wolf. >> fortunately. jim, thanks very much. jake tapper is here. were you surprised at the end, the president slams the republicans for the government shutdown, for their opposition to obama care, and turns what was almost like a sort of a pitch for obama care an inpoe mechelle, if you will, call this

number and you can get through, operators are standing by to at the end, he makes this direct turn and goes after the republicans? no, because president obama when i was a white house correspondent when they were doing health care. he really did -- be there were many efforts on capitol hill. it passed as a partisan bill but there were many efforts on capitol hill for it not to be a partisan bill for republican ideas to be included and that was a big source of frustration. i know in the white house, obviously, the president is still resentful of the fact that republicans -- he attempted to bring them on board to do this bill and then they were not part of it and they have been trying to block it as we saw with the shutdown. one final point. we still don't know how many individuals have successfully purchased or at least completed the enrollment process and are waiting for the final step. and one of the other problems we know about is that insurance companies are having problems on the back end of the software. it's not just people having trouble logging on and joining these exchanges but the insurance companies are getting

false information, inaccurate information. they're told somebody's enrolled and then told that person has unenrolled. they're are much bigger problems with this website than glitches or even the upgraded kinks. >> one day will they tell us how many people have bought the insurance through the website. they have to say how many of these are healthy young people who don't need much insurance but doing it because of the individual mandate and how many are people who never could buy insurance before who have pre-existing conditions very poor or frail or whatever. >> they've not been transparent with this number. >> they've got to be transparent. >> a lot of us have been trying to get this number. over the weekend, the administration obviously leaked some sort of number they accumulated through the state exchanges and the obama care website healthcare.gov to the associated press. immediately as soon as the a.p. posted the story, obama administration officials started tweeting it out there, 500,000. it's not 500,000 people who have

successfully enrolled. it is 500,000 people have started the process. >> the registration process. >> we is it i don't know how many have actually enrolled. that is an important number for this legislation to work. >> you'll have much more coming up later today. >> 4:00ing >> i'll be watching later in "the situation room." >> i'll be watching that. >> guys, thanks very much. that ends our coverage at least for now. thanks very much. i'll be back at the top of the hour. "around the world" starts right after the break. [ sneezes, coughs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more sinus symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is.

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stories today. the president says people are working 24/7 to fix the obama care website fiasco. and australians are dealing with the worst wide fires they have seen in more than a decade. and this little girl is found in the hands of a family. now accused of kidnapping her in greece. now, they say they adopted her, though not legally. we're going to take a look at this bizarre case. welcome to "around the world." i'm suzanne malveaux. michael holmes is off today. we start off with france, one of america's oldest allies but now reports of u.s. spying, they have the french fuming. they have now summoned the u.s. ambassador to the foreign minister's office. this follows a french newspaper's report that the national security agency, nsa, intercepted more than 70 million phone calls in france over a 30-day period. our jill dougherty is at the state department. jill, explain to us why this is so serious. the u.s. gathers intelligence

all the time, spies on flenrien and enemies. we're talking about what, 3 million phone calls a day. is that normal? >> well, i don't know actually, i guess nobody could really know the precise number and whether that's normal. but certainly being called in, being summoned by the foreign minister to explain yourself is not exactly ra teen for the state department and in fact, the american ambassador charles rifkin was called in by the foreign minister to explain himself. these are -- it's an interesting thing. what do you mean by summon? well, when they summon an ambassador, it's roorl choreographed. it's quite formal. they call them in. there's significance in who they meet with, what kind of words they use, for example, let's say in french, if you have your high school french there, remember the tu and vu form. the tu form is the familiar and

the vu form is the polite. you might address him in the familiar form. by the way, we do know that secretary kerry who is traveling in france at this very moment not a good time to arrive, has met with the ambassador. he went over to the american embassy and talked with charles rifkin. and we will hopefully get a statement. we expect a statement from the embassy a little bit later today. >> jill, i remember in covering president bush, he was quite upset with the french when it came to not supporting the war in iraq. he took away the name french fries and turned it into freedom fries and the white house and the capitol air force one, no such thing as french fries. that was kind of a public snub. but you know, this seems like something that is much more important, although it's a slap on wrist. it's a public embarrassment, but it does seem like it is substantially to the very core of setting u.s., france relations. >> it does. france, remember not so long ago

relations were not very good. now they've been quite good. and this comes at a moment that you would hope that it would continue to be good. it could damage relations. we'll have to see precisely how seriously behind the scenes. but let's listen to what the french foreign minister fabio said. >> translator: these kind of practices between partners that violate privacy are totally unacceptable. we must quickly assure these practices aren't repeated so the ambassador will be receive this had morning at the cadorsi. >> at the kay d 'orssey. what is the united states saying? we expect a statement from the embassy a little bit later. in the meantime, the nsa has a statement not a whole lot. they're saying we are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity. and as a matter of policy, we have made clear that the united

states gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. so they're throwing it -- you'd have to say kind of right back saying this is something that a lot of nation dozen. >> jill dougherty thank you so much. we're going to be following that, of course. people around the world have been following this story. they're touched by this mysterious 4-year-old girl and what is taking place when it comes to her parents. now, the couple claiming to be the parents of the little girl they call maria, well, they have just been charged with abduction and falsifying papers. the child was found last week in a roma community in central greece. the roma have been known in the past as gypsies. so-called gypsies. authorities are now trying to figure out who her real parents are and where they might be. aaron mclachlan has the story. >> she's known only as maria, the little girl at the center of an international mystery. just who are her parents?

and why was she found living in a gypsy campsite in greeces? investigators were carrying out a routine inspection of a roma encampment near the town of larisa when they noticed maria, her blonde hair and blue eyes were striking. she looked nothing like the 39-year-old man and the 40-year-old woman claiming to be her parents. dna tests later confirmed the investigators' suspicions. >> there was bad living conditions. poor hygiene. so the girl was found in a state of neglect both physically and psychologically. >> the man and woman were arrested on suspicion of abducting a minor. and the campsite is now under investigation. the couple's lawyer denies the charges. >> our clients claim is that we never abduct this child. we just adopted. with in a way nonlegal.

that's where we can confess. >> police launched a public appeal. and have asked interpol to help locate her real parents. when her story broke, it reminded many of the disappearance of madeline mccann in portugal six years ago. no trace of her has ever been found. >> i hope that something liking this would go give the mccanns enough hope and encouragement that they renew their strength for the fight. >> so erin, i know that you actually were able to observe and get a sense of what happened in court today. what is the latest with this family? >> hi, suzanne. police have just released the mugshots of this couple. they reesed them following today's court hearing there. now, identifying this couple by name, a 39-year-old chris toes solace and 40-year-old ella polo have been charged with the

abduction of a minor as well as falsifying records. they are not releasing them. they will remain in custody. what police are hoping to achieve by releasing mug shots, they want members of the public to come forward with more information about this mysterious little girl, suzanne. >> erin, i know you've got new video of the little girl and mother dancing. what what does that actually tell us of this story and the relationship? >> i spoke to a cnn producer who was outside of the courthouse. she said the family, the family members of this roma family that were outside were very upset because they very much viewed this little girl as one of their own and they released this video of the little girl dancing with a woman that appears 0 to be the woman who was posing as her mother to sort of show that this little girl had a good life with this family, but and again, you know, there are serious questions here. police saying that the couple's story keeps changing and they really want to get to the bottom

of just who this little girl is and how she ended up in this community. suzanne. >> erin, thank you so much. we're also following a flight in dublin hitting severe turbulence injuring several passengers. we actually got the call from the pilot to ground control. that's up next. e take away your. you keep the peace. we calm your congestion and pain. [ man ] thank you. thank you. [ female announcer ] you rally the team. you guys were awesome. [ female announcer ] we give you relief from your cough. you give them a case of the giggles. tylenol cold® helps relieve even your worst cold and flu symptoms, so you can carry on with your day. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol cold®. ♪ hooking up the country whelping business run ♪ but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. ♪ build! we're investing big to keep our country in the lead. ♪ load! we keep moving to deliver what you need. and that means growth, lots of cargo going all around the globe. cars and parts, fuel and steel,

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severe turbulence on the boeing 757. now, this plane was headed to dublin, went from newark. making its descent when this emergency happens. now, the pilots radioed into air traffic control for ambulances. just listen. >> dublin, united 23. >> united two-three. >> yes, we are going through the drop like about 15-20 miles ago. we hit a pretty bad down draft. and we had some passengers hurt. so we need some ambulances to meet the flight. >> roger. i'll organize that, united two-three. united two-three. do you reckon one or more ambulances do you need? >> as many as six or so people. so it might be a couple ambulances. >> roger, thanks. united two-three, are any of those people hurt hurt, very seriously hurt? >> we're not really sure.

but we would like to have the trucks standing by. >> okay, fine. thanks, united two-three, and there will be. rescue en route. >> all right. want to bring in richard quest joining us from new york. they sound pretty calm but we know that there were a couple people injured pretty badly. one passenger actually had to be taken to the hospital for severe turbulence that occurred. do we know why it was just a couple of people, the condition of that one passenger in particular? >> well, from what the airline tells me, no, we don't really know much more than one was taken to hospital and the other were just slightly treated. the severe turbulence, bear in mind the phraseology used here by the airline and by everyone involved. phrase severe turbulence isn't being used accidentally. it is a term of art in aviation. to look at the definition of severe turbulence, it's turbulence that causes large

abrupt changes in altitude and attitude. occupants are forced violently against seat belts. unsecured objects are tossed about. food service and walking are impossible. we know the fasten seat belt sign was on during the turbulence. what we don't know is whether it was on before it began. and it won't be surprising because, suzanne, severe turbulence particularly in this particular sort of situation, can be unexpected and unanticipated. so it's highly likely passengers were walking around the cabin maybe just going to the restrooms before landing >> do we have any idea if the people who were seriously hurt who were taken to hospital, whether or not they were wearing seat belts or that might have been a situation where as you had mentioned, they're getting up doing something and it just wasn't as bad as it was for the others? >> well, i'm going to go basically and say clearly they were not wearing seat belts. if they had been wearing seat belts, i'm guessing seven people won't have been injured.

it's a reminder you always have your seat belt fastened but unexpected turbulence can happen at any point. what this is about is what point the turbulence happened, was it expected, i'm guessing not. or were passengers ignoring the fasten seat belt sign. we don't know the those facts yet. we can also gauge that this it was really nasty because the return flight, flight 22 from dublin to newark was canceled. and my guess is, that it was canceled because united quite right lit are checking out the aircraft. severe turbulence is the sort that could cause minor damage to the aircraft. my guess is they were strek checking out for any structural problems. >> richard quest, thank you as always. coming up next, we'll talk about severe weather impacting around the world.

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to the australia. this is where more than a dozen wildfires are now burning. there are 63 separate fires that are threatening communities. this is near sydney. scorching an area that is larger than new york city. more than 200 homes have now been damaged or destroyed. and officials are now warning that the dry, windy conditions have the potential 0 create what they believe is a megafire. volunteer firefighter shot the video while making a harrowing drive through the fire lines. he tells cnn that a last second wind shift spared his home from the flames. these terrifying images were shot from a helmet cam. cs from the mount victoria fire brigade trying topect homes and property. robin ker now has the very latest from ca too many ba. >> we're at the bush fire control center. it's from here that many of these operations are being coordinated. this is an around the clock

operation. five firefighters out now. more than 1,000 of them trying to contain the blazes. this is what the rural fire chief had to say. >> we will pick roads and fire trails. we will back burn from them under mild conditions. mop out or put out the fire between that break and the main fire. that takes the fuel out between the main fire and the break. and there ever, the fire will go out because it has no fuel anymore. >> authorities have their work cut out for them because forecasters expect the weather to deteriorate by wednesday. they're forecasting extra gusty winds, stronger winds as well as higher temperatures and don't forget, a lot of the undergrowth, the vegetation is very dry. so they're concerned that these fires will fuel -- be fueled even further creating perhaps one big megafire which will be endangering perhaps even the outskirts of sydney. now, authorities also saying that volunteers are doing

everything they can. firefighters have been coming in from across the country to try and reinforce the work that is already being done here in sou south wales. but really, really this is of real concern because these fires are coming much earlier in the season. just remember there are bush fires every year here but these are much worse, particularly because the size of them is much larger and they're much faster than normal. just think about it in terms of size, the land that has already been burn out by these fires is equivalent to the size of a city such as los angeles. so really a lot to battle against in the coming days. suzanne, back to you. >> all right, thank you, robyn. talk about low visibility here it, 11 million people in china can't see a thing. a major city now shut down. we're going to take a look what has caused this dangerous problem. ♪ ♪ dial up my number now

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private these pictures really speak for themselves when you look at it. this smog is so thick in parts of china, it's really just hard to see. just a few feet in front of you. and dense fog has forced now some schools actually have got to close. it's disrupted flights, public transportation, bus routes, all of that. want to bring in our chad meyers to talk about this. what is going on? why is it so thick like that it's extreme. >> they fired up the coal plant to make heat for the city, 10 million people, one coal plant makes heat for everybody. kind of like the steam heat you see in new york city with the steam coming out. burning corn stalks in parts of the plains where they grow corn in china and the wind hasn't blown in about three days. people say they're holding hands walking down the street and can't see the face of the person they're talking to. that's how bad it gets sometimes. >> it's really, really bad. how long is this supposed to last. >> you need a cold front. that comes 48 hours from now. so it does go away. for now, this is 20 times the

pollution is 20 times what the u.s. calls safe. so not even close to what we would consider safe. they can't see the traffic lights. there are crashes at the intersections because people can't tell whether it's red or green. >> the bottom line they should be staying inside till all of that clears. >> no question about it. elderly, are kids inside, that's why the schools are closed, too. i want to switch gears. we're talking about a hurricane that is strengthening around mexico. >> cat 3. yeah, category 3, 120 miles per hour. so far so good. it's not going to slam into mexico. but it's right along the coast. that's not good because rain is right along that mountain range. all that rain is going to pile up. where is it going to go in right back into the ocean. that's two to four along the coast, maybe 8 to 10 inches in the mountains. what happens when it rains in the mountains? it washes downhill. we're going to have mud slides. it's going to be ugly. the storm does get close to the coast. >> they were hit before.

>> three times now. i know and we've had nothing, thank goodness. >> why is it so mild? >> don't know the yet. that will be somebody's ph.d. map paper. >> are we close to the end of hurricane season? >> it's code outside. when it's cold, the hurricane season goes away. we're close to the end. still a chance for a gulf storm though. >> we might be in the clear. we're talking three weeks or so? >> four. >> keep your first, crossed. thank you, chad. appreciate it. he has been a prisoner north korea for the past 11 months. still to come, american kenneth baes' mother finally gets a chance to see him. she's talking exclusively to cnn about her recent visit. also her worst fears. (vo) you are a business pro.

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we're taking you around the world. to the korean peninsula. this is a report on an american

being held prisoner in north korea. ken a kenneth bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what north korea called hostile acts and plotting to overthrow the government. to you for the first time, we hear from his mother in an exclusive interview about her recent visit to see her son. cnn's paula hancocks has the story from seoul. >> an embrace filled with emotion as a mother hugs the son she fears she could lose. kenneth bae has been held prisoner in north korea for 11 months. his mother speaks exclusively to cnn about her recent visit. >> my heart ache when i saw him with a hospital garment in a confined in a small space. >> she says his health has improved a little since this interview was filmed in august. bae was hospitalized suffering from a catalog of illnesses

including diabetes, heart problems and back pain. >> i really cried a lot after i saw this picture. i really could not believe that prisoner is my son. >> bae, an american citizen, was arrested in november of last year. he was sentenced in may to 15 years hard labor for what north korea called hostile acts and plotting to overthrow the government. his mother says he didn't discuss the reasons for his arrest when she met him, but he does have a love for north korea and its people. >> i think his faith was so strong. he wanted to convey some his way so that is the very conflict over the -- >> bae was allowed to visit her son in hospital three times while in north korea which she is very grateful for but was unable to meet with officials to plead his case. she begs the regime for mercy

and is terrified he will be sent back to the labor camp. >> that's my worst fear because i don't think that his body can endure eight hours labors a day, six days a week. >> vigils have been held back home in seattle for bae. his mother tells me letters from supporters around the world help to keep him mentally strong. bae told his mother he is being treated fairly and being held in a special labor camp where he is the only prisoner surrounded by guards and doctors. she tells me of the moment she had to say good-bye. >> how long did it take to see him again? how long should i wait for him to return? actually, very hard to leave him over there. >> paula hancocks, cnn, seoul. >> i can only imagine a mother's pain. well, it must be one of the most famous violins in history. this is an instrument that was

played by one of the musicians on board the ill fated titanic. carl has more on this instrument and the hefty price tag, of course, that it fetched. >> reporter: this violin once belonged to a musician named wallace hartley. if the name's unfamiliar, you'll know the ship he sailed on. he was the band leader of the titanic. that's the reason why the instrument fetched $1.7 million in objection october 19th in england. unlike many other titanic artifacts, the violin didn't fall to the ocean floor. historians believe it was strapped to hartley's body when it was pulled from the water days after titanic sank. it turned up in attic in britain several years ago. what helped identify it was an engraving from his fiance. for wallace on the occasion of our engagement from maria. it was returned to her after the ship wreck. she never married. to be fair, other hick violins have gone for more. a rare strayed various once

fetched almost $16 million. this violin is one of many artifacts including others from wallace hartley to come up for objection. it may be the most symbolic though. it tells a story that is at once a romance and tragedy. as remembered in films, this is believed to be the instrument hartley used for the hymn "nearer my god to thee," as the ship sank into the icy thoracic. it's not playable and may never be gin. like the titanic, hartley's violin keeps its secrets locked deep inside. carl izuk, atlanta. >> thank you for watching "around the world." cnn newsroom continues starts right now with wolf blitzer. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com right now the president saying there are no excuses for the problems on his health care exchange's website. he says they will be fixed but he adds, obama care is more than

just about web sites. we're going to hear from both sides of the debate. and right now, the dow jones industrial average a little bit lower. investors are waiting on the delayed september jobs report that's now due out tomorrow morning. and right now, outside reno, nevada, two people are dead and two boys are in critical condition after someone opened fire at a middle school. that according to local officials in sparks, nevada. police say the suspect has been "neutralized." it's not clear right now if there are more victims. hello, i'm wolf blitzer reporting today from washington. full steam ahead. that's the message from president obama today. he was the keynote speaker at an obama care pep rally in the rose garden at the white house. while he admitted there have been some major issues with the health exchange website, he also tried to clear up misconceptions and questions about obama care.