mcconnell has to unite the republican party and get those voters out and they're motivated in a midterm election with barack obama president. >> all right. we'll see what happens. terror in nigeria. twin blasts rip through a crowded market in the heart of a major city. talking in thailand. hopes for a break through as opposing sides meet this hour. the new study about germs on planes will make you want to pack a lot of hand sanitizer the next time you travel. new images from north korea in a land where foreigners are watched very closely. we'll hear from a photographer who captured some very candid

moments. thanks for joining us. you are watching "cnn newsroom" i'm rosemary church. >> and i'm john vause. we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. it is 8:00 a.m. in nigeria where rescue workers are combing through what was left of a bustling market. >> 118 people are dead after twin car bombs tore through the market tuesday. no one has claimed responsibility but many suspect the militant islamic group boko haram. zain asher reports. >> reporter: these attacks have all the markings of boko haram. twin bombs exploded in a busy market. a car bomb went off roughly around 3:00 local time. as locals had gathered to help the injured a second car bomb

went off 20 minutes later. they were designed to cause maximum impact and to cause a maximum number of injuries. the city is important because it's an essential part of nigeria. the place that's been a hot bed of religious violence. boko haram has exploited the tension to instigate more violence in that area. these attacks on tuesday coming just a few days after a suicide bombing killed roughly five people. of course, while all the international spotlight is focused on the nearly 300 missing girls from chibuk that were taken be on april 18th. despite the president goodluck johnson vowing to crush them in the northeastern state in nigeria, boko haram seems to be determined to wreak havoc in the country. zain asher, abuja, nigeria.

thailand has leaders of the political party and had leaders arrive for what could be a crucial meeting at this hour. >> it's happening under the latest declaration of marshal law which seems to be having the desired affect. paul is in bangkok with more of the army's move to ease months of political turmoil. >> reporter: it's day two of thailand's marshal law. at this point things appear fairly calm. there were military personnel and military vehicles on tuesday. this wednesday the army chief was insisting that this is not a coup, insisting that it is business as usual. at least at this point this wednesday it does appear that that is holding. but it is an unusual role for the military to be playing when you consider the long history of military coups and of over throwing governments in thailand. now they are trying to play the role of mediator according to the military chief, trying to get both sides to talk with each

other and to stop the bloodshed in the words of the army chief over recent months of protests, more than two dozen people have been killed. we did speak to one source close to the caretaker prime minister who said the two sides have been talking, there have been back channels and they have met, but at this point there has been little progress but they are trying to find some way to push this process forward. paula hancocks, cnn. the u.s. has been keeping a close eye on events in thailand. >> later this hour we'll hear from the u.s. ambassador to thailand. the u.s. is expected to release a memo on drones. >> his father sued the u.s. justice department and the obama administration said the the time

that el alaki was targeted because he posed an imminent threat. his son was killed by a drone strike in yemen in 2011. we are following a disturbing incident out of california. police are charging a woman with a murder of her three young daughters at her home in a los angeles suburb. the youngest child was two months old. the oldest was three. no word yet on the motive. serbia is observing three days of mourning after record flooding in the balkans killed more than two dozen people. >> the waters are still rising in one town that's already devastated. >> reporter: military vehicles now patrol the flooded streets 30 kilometers from the serbian capital of belgrade. the rains have stopped but it's not out of danger. the flooded river is swollen by

heavy rains. thousands of people have fled. it's not completely a ghost town. >> translator: they were driving like crazy in the streets, beeping their horns shouting, evacuation, evacuation. get out. get out. i know all of that. i live on the fourth floor. the water comes up to there. then where do we go? >> reporter: there are fears that new flood waters could breech sand bags and it gets this power plant. half of serbia and all of belgrade depend on it. dozens have died. the death toll continues to rise. the prime minister declared three days of mourning beginning wednesday. they're appealing for international aid. >> translator: the damage will be much bigger. >> reporter: they want to know how they can recover from this mess. >> translator: many people from my street left last night. only a few stayed.

what will happen next we don't know. >> reporter: the new flood wave is expected to peak by wednesday and then the hard work of recovery begins. serbia has appealed for international aid in the hundreds of millions of dollars. cnn. we'll get more a little later on the forecast in that part of the world, but we're going to take a short break just now. ahead, the nfl faces another lawsuit related to player safety. >> yeah, find out what the players allege their teams did to them. and u.s. automaker general motors issued another massive recall. we will tell you why they're calling back more than 2 million cars and trucks. female narrator: through memorial day at sleep train,

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well, u.s. automaker general motors' stock was down 3% at tuesday's closing bell. >> yeah, and that is after another massive recall, this time 1.3 million suvs were recalled for faulty seat belts. they include buick enclaves, chevrolet traverses, gmc acadias and saturn outlooks. about 1 million chevy malibus

and pontiac g 6s were recalled. they had transmission problems. >> then there were 1400 cadillac he is ka lads with faulty air brakes and gmc sierras being recalled for fire risks. a blow to the u.s. tech giant microsoft. china has banned government use of the latest operating system, windows 8. beijing issued the ban. state media says the ban is meant to ensure security. the chinese government did not explain how the ban ensured that or supported the use of energy saving products. football in the u.s. can be tough and hard hitting, and it goes without saying, a lot of injuries are part of the game. >> yeah, but how some teams responded to those injuries, that is the subject of a new lawsuit against the national football league. eight former players claimed

sometimes they administered drugs to mask their injuries so they could keep playing. retired quarterback jim mcmahon here said he played with a broken neck and ankle that he was never told about. >> offensive lineman jerry newberry said years of pain killing drugs left him with renal failure, headaches and they filed a class action lawsuit. it's interesting hearing what some analysts said. it's like sending the gladiators out to fight. >> drugged up. >> yeah. >> without feeling. they've settled the massive lawsuit for concussion. that was $700 million so now another big lawsuit on the way. >> keeping an eye on that. the floods in the balkans, only one part of the problem. over 100,000 land mines litter serbia from the war some two decades ago. for more on that we want to check the forecast.

>> let's go to pedram. the floods are disturbing. the land is causing landslides but now land mines. >> this is a very, very dangerous and bad scenario shaping up in the next couple of days. we know the rainfall has stopped. you look at the perspective. the serbian government is saying the damage is exceeding an estimated expectation of $1.5 billion, could easily get up to over $2 billion when this is all said and done. the flooding widespread. we know a lot of the agricultural industry impacted by this as well. you take a look at this. when we're talking about flood erosion, volumes of water. essentially what you're seeing here is the undersea or underwater topography begin to move about. we have silt carried downstream from this. down at the surface we have pebbles that bounce around and move at long distances. you bring in large objects. you can get those to move along and rotate at the surface. a lot of these land mines, take

a look at the footage, weigh about five or six pounds. the metal variety and the plastic variety that float. they'll be on the move. the footage you're seeing here are some of the fields that were initially marked before the floods. now the signage and also just the field in general has been disrupted. the concern is that all of this is moving downstream and impacting people farther downstream that perhaps did not expect it to. something very dangerous in that regard is shaping up across the region. the multi-billion dollar event, the human impact, infrastructure and agricultural impact being impacted. farther back upstream, these are the damages left in place as far as property being absolutely just demolished when it comes to water and a great force of water. we often talk about, john and rose marry, it takes six inches of moving water to knock a person off their feet. it takes two feet to move a vehicle. water levels here upwards of 6 to 12 feet. so anything is fair game.

that's the big concern the peak in belgrade, the biggest city, will be saturday afternoon, 21 foot water heights coming in along the river here. >> wow. the governor saying this is the biggest crisis they've dealt with since the war. >> extraordinary images. thank you. another day, another legal victory for supporters of same-sex marriage. >> this time a federal judge has struck down pennsylvania's ban on gay margeriages. the decision came a day after a similar ruling in oregon. those states are joining 17 others and the district of columbia where same-sex marriage is legal. we should note this, just a decade ago not one u.s. state allowed same-sex marriage. five men face sentencing today for the 2006 murder of russian investigative reporter. a moscow jury found them guilty

tuesday of organizing and carrying out the shooting of the kremlin critic. she was known widely for her reporting on human rights violations in chets any yeah. just over an hour israel's supreme court will hear an appeal in the wrongful death suit brought by the family of u.s. peace activist rachel core re. she died in 2003 when she tried to block a military bulldozer from raiding homes in gaza. they're challenging the ruling that her death was an accident. when we come back, it's something most air travelers really try hard not to think about. >> yeah, airplanes are filthy, full of germs. we will tell you about all the unwanted travel companions after the break. also, the nba lays out its case against donald sterling. we will have the exclusive new details.

know this tune? the classic introduction to a monster led zeppelin tune. another band thought it sounded too similar.

some u.s. political veterans are celebrating primary victories as they look forward to the november elections. mitch mcconnell beat out a tea party challenger for a sixth term. he will facial lis son lunder d gren lundergan grimes in the fall. and india's next prime minister fought back tears as he

spoke for the first time to his bjp party at india's parliament house. he's promising a government that thinks for the poor. the hindu nationalist won. he brought the gandhi dynasty to an end. he's expected to take the oath of office on monday. in ukraine pro russian separatists are vowing to block voting on sunday's election but on tuesday thousands of ukrainians sent a message. this was the scene in the city of donestk where factories sounded their sirens and drivers honked their horns. ukraine's richest man called for the action. it was meant as a peaceful warning against those who might disrupt the balloting.

>> translator: i want to tell everyone that we will not stop. you will not intimidate us. nobody will intimidate us, including those who call themselves so-called donestk people's republic. tell me please, does anyone know one representative of the dpr? what have they done for our region? >> despite that show of support for elections, pro russian support is strong in eastern ukraine. as aaron mclaughlin reports, they're trying to ensure that all eligible voters are able to cast ballots. >> reporter: these ballots are being printed to make history. the goal is to have enough in time for ukraine's presidential elections on may 25th, but printing them is not the problem, it's getting them east to the regions of donestk and areas where the separatists have banned vote being for the presidential election and have

declared their own independent republics. clashes like these almost a daily occurrence. michael onhodbski is the chief of the central election commission. he is responsible for making sure it's fair and secure. he's adamant election areas already open in all areas of ukraine except crimea. >> how many will be open will not be available for voters to vote is absolutely unpredictable now. >> but some of them will be open? >> definitely. definitely. >> reporter: how are you going to physically get the ballots to those areas? >> let it be our secret. >> reporter: olexander leads one of the largest voting areas. >> translator: for us it is important that this election shows the world that it is open

and fair, he says. if our observers refuse to monitor the election, it will be a bad signal for voters. >> reporter: security isn't the only concern. there is the issue of fraud, which was a big problem during past presidential elections. as you can see, all 21 candidates' names printed there. they can check the name of the candidate of choice. now a big concern is fraud and there's a number of precautions they've taken to prevent it. in an election they say the ballot goes underneath a light like this. that glowing number tells them that the ballot is real. high tech for sure, but ukrainian officials agree, these elections to be legitimate, ballots need to reach those that want to vote. erin, cnn, kiev. the national basketball association says los angeles clippers owner donald sterling

tried to convince his ex-girlfriend to lie about recordings of him making those racist remarks. >> the "los angeles times" is reporting details of the nba's case against sterling. it says sterling and the team's former president destroyed evidence and misled investigators. >> the report goes on to say that sterling tried to persuade v. stiviano to say she altered the infamous recordings of him and to say it's not his voice. adam silver refused to comment but said the league is moving forward with plans to force sterling to sell the team. >> my confidence level is high. we know we're doing the right thing, and i know i have the owners behind me. and the timing is laid out in the nba constitution. we're following it to the letter in terms of numbers of days that mr. sterling has to respond and then when the hearing will be held and, as i said, i know we're doing the right thing here. >> and sterling has until may

27th to formally respond to the charges against him. a massive beef recall in the united states is now expanding to retailers? >> until tuesday the recall only extended to beef shipped to restaurants? more than 800,000 kilograms of ground beef processed by the wolverine meat packing plant in michigan may be tainted with e. coli. so far 11 people across four states have been sickened. probably no surprise here that surfaces inside an airplane are rife with germs. >> pack your sanitizers. a new study shows the hazardous bacteria can survive for days. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has more. >> reporter: it's amazing how long these potentially deadly bugs can live on the surfaces that all of us touch when we're on an airplane so i happened to fly from atlanta to los angeles, a five hour flight last night, took a couple of selfies.

let's take a look. so on a window shade, for example, mersa can live for fiv days. on leather seats mrsa can live for six days and on that tray table mrsa can live for five days. e. coli, the dangerous kind, can live for three days. now the place where the bacteria live the longest was actually the asset pocket. you know the asset pocket in front of you that contains the emergency information? those cloth seat pockets mrsa lived for seven days, but it is important to note that the cloth did prevent the bacteria from spreading easily because basically the bacteria kind of got absorbed into the cloth. now we contacted several airlines for comments about this. delta airlines got back to us and they said, look, we're so concerned about this that we actually gave the auburn university folks the armrests and the tray tables and all of those surfaces that they could do their testing. delta says they wipe down all of their surfaces every day.

now it's also important to know the auburn university researchers, they didn't go to actual planes and try this experiment. that, of course, would have been dangerous. they took the equipment delta gave them and used it in their own labs and they simulated the atmosphere so it would be like a regular pressurized airplane. having heard this, you're wondering what can i do? the answer is, take alcohol based wipes and wipe down the surfaces. after the flight you can use hand sanitizer to clean your hands. back to you. good advice there. okay. it's one of the best known guitar rifs in rock and roll. take a listen. ♪ ♪ in case you didn't know, that is "stairway to heaven" but the big question, did led zeppelin actually write it? >> glad you told us that. >> not according to the band spirit.

they claim it's a ripoff from their 1968 song "tourist" listen to that. ♪ ♪ >> now 43 years after "stairway to heaven" was released the trust for spirit's late guitarist randy california is suing led zeppelin for copyright infringement and a writing credit. it comes weeks before led zeppelin's planned rerelease of its first three albums. >> rolling stone magazine says spirit and its family waited to file the lawsuit because they did not have the money to actually pay for the lawyers until now. >> i don't think it sounds like it. >> really? i do. >> no. >> but you're deaf. >> no, i am not deaf. >> you are deaf. >> no. i think it's a completely different song. maybe they're inspired by it. >> okay. >> i know which one -- >> i think it sounds very similar. >> okay.

your opinion counts. hundreds of millions of people have viewed the original video for the infectiously peppy song "happy." >> one police chief in iran thought a homemade version was downright scandalous. plus, we speak to the u.s. ambassador to thailand to see how the u.s. views the latest declaration of marshal law. and later a city that keeps its citizens isolated from the world. we'll be back. coffee experience. that's 150 years of experience in refining and perfecting the rich, never bitter taste of gevalia. and we do it all for this very experience. this very second. this exact moment. [woman] that's good. i know right? cheers to that. gevalia. 150 years of rich, never bitter coffee.

just past 3:30 wednesday morning on the east coast of the united states. this is "cnn newsroom" and i'm

john vause. >> i'm rosemary church. we want to welcome back our viewers in the united states and all around the world. let's check the headlines at this hour. the key players in thailand's political unrest are being summoned to a meeting by the army chief. it's happening a day after the military is claiming marshal law. they're asking antigovernment leaders to resolve their differences from dialogue. >> they're meeting in shanghai to discuss security issues. chinese president xi xing ping. some of the leaders are there. >> no one has claimed responsibility for a pair of deadly bombings in the central nigerian city of jos. 118 people were killed as the car bombs exploded in crowded markets.

authorities fear the death toll could rise as workers search the rubble for more victims. the u.s. state department is advising all-americans in thailand to avoid protests and security operations. and the u.s. ambassador in bangkok told me a little earlier that thai generals have not staged a coup, but she says washington is closely watching how long marshal law will remain in place. >> one of the things we are very, very much urging all sides is to use this as a short-term measure to bring peace and foster a dialogue. we're looking to see people talking to each other, finding a solution for it, and finding a solution that involves elections so that the thai people can choose the government they wish. so those will be some of the things we're looking for. >> i know the u.s. position is there needs to be a period of peace and stability and that this will ultimately be resolved through elections which are

scheduled in july. they had elections earlier this year and that didn't work. why is there so much faith that elections would work again from your point of view? >> well, i think all of us view elections as the best way in democracy for people to express their views. it's a way that citizens across thailand can choose how they wish to be governed, but it is important that elections take place in peace, freely and fairly, and that's why we're, urging all of the parties in thailand to come together in a genuine dialogue to find a way forward that would include genuine elections that everyone can participate in. >> now this political crisis seems to have continued on pretty much since 2006. are you concerned as you look at the situation in thailand that this is a country which is becoming ungovernable, you have the entrenched resources on one side and the masses on the

other, neither side seems willing to budge? >> it's an issue. thailand as i mentioned before is one of the oldest allies in asia. a key partner for us economically, strategically. one of the things we are, of course, urging our thai partners to do is to find a way forward. as we all know, democracy can be complicated, it can be difficult, but it is important and an old democracy like thailand needs to look for ways to strengthen their democracy and their institutions. there are a lot of great people here, john. wonderful thai citizens, business men, young laiders, entrepreneurs, ngos and we're hoping those voices will be heard as well. >> now the military says this action was necessary to restore peace and stability, but from your perspective actually being there on the ground, do you think that the military had no other option here but to step in had the situation gotten that bad that this martial law was

actually necessary? >> that's a tough question. you know, the situation has gone on for about seven months. there's definitely been an uptick in violence. there have been incidents. there have been people killed. both sides of the protesters had been threatening. expanded, larger demonstrations. it's hard to say honestly. and as you know, we are urging that this be martial law for a very limited duration in space. it's, you know, important to return control to civilian authorities. >> okay. ambassador kenny, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, john. appreciate it. malaysia and satellite company say they are working to release data from the last hours

of flight 370. malaysia says it's part of the process. >> they're reporting on what they're hoping to learn. >> reporter: the malaysian government says it will soon release raw satellite data from the night flight 370 vanished. that led them here to the south indian ocean. >> our push is for independent review, out of the hands of people that hold liability in this case. we'll have to trust that that independence will bring some light. >> reporter: experts outside the investigation are eager to review data the moment it's released. >> it's important for other people to look at it just because they haven't found the airplane where they thought it was and other people might just come to a different conclusion. >> reporter: the satellite company inmarsat and malaysia are discussing when to release it and what material to include. cnn is told to expect not only

the numbers but an analysis as well. >> what do the numbers actually mean is crucial. we don't necessarily have to see every detail of their analysis, but we certainly need to understand the definitions of the terms that they've used. >> the release is a win for families who have been demanding the data for weeks, but they realize it's not an instantaneous game changer. >> i don't think that we'll have any big discovery right off the bat. it will take a long time for outside experts to take this information and to try to create models. >> reporter: in an open letter, family group expressed fears the search could end before the plane is found saying that would be, quote, tantamount to murdering us. they also called for the full recordings of these pings thought to be from the black boxes. an australian newspaper reports investigators there will not make them public.

skeptics believe it's another indication of waning confidence in the signals. >> investigators are confident enough to send blue fins and ocean shields back to the search zone. the search has been delayed for days because of broken parts. the underwater search could resume the hunt for flight 370 as soon as wednesday. rene marsh, cnn, washington. well, this is a sad one. six iranians hoping for a song for happiness has landed them in a tehran jail. >> they're suspected of making a homemade version of the song "happy" by pharrell williams and posting it online. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> so this may seem like a lot of fun to most of us, right? tehran's police chief called it, quote, a vulgar clip which hurt

public chastity. pharrell williams posted a message on his facebook page saying it is beyond sad that these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness. just a few days before the arrest the president gave a speech saying iran should embrace the internet age. >> hopefully the president will make sure that they revisit what happened to those young people. >> yes. stupid. >> unacceptable. >> it's just stupid. okay. you're watching cnn. still to come here -- >> they actually have an enormous responsibility to address the climate change challenge because of simply the scale of their emissions coming out of the supply chain. >> a new report breaks down how our food supply is connected to global warming. also, a u.s. pet supply retailer says no more treats from china for fido. find out why after the break.

an 11-year-old has set the golfing world abuzz by winning the right to compete in the u.s. women's open golf tournament next month. >> this is incredible, lucy li is from california. there she is with an easy

victory in the qualifying match. the sixth grader with a love for animated disney films trounced her rivals by seven shots. she went on to say, i played very well today. >> i love it. >> which clearly means not only a talented golfer but modest with a talent. >> isn't that wonderful? >> yes. >> good on her. a new report says your food is contributing to climate change. >> the ten companies that make most of what we eat account for more carbon emissions than finland, sweden, denmark, norway combined. >> wow. and all of that means higher prices at the grocery store. here's jake tapper. >> reporter: from the ice caps melting in the arctic to the thousands displaced by severe weather in our own neighborhoods, scientists say the effects of climate change are getting closer and closer to home, but a new report by the progressive advocacy group oxfam

talks about how it may affect our favorite foods. >> kellogg -- >> reporter: oxfam says decades of emissions by food companies such as kellogg and general mills are part of the climate problem and reducing them is key to the solution they say. according to the report, the food industry accounts for 1/4 of the country's greenhouse gases. >> they have an enormous responsibility to address the challenge because of the scale of their operations and the amount of carbon emissions coming out of their supply chain. what that translates to for the people are hirer prices. >> reporter: that means eating our wheaties could cost 20% more in the u.s. by 2030 ♪ ♪ bet part of waking up -- >> reporter: for coffee companies the best part of waking up has gotten more expensive by 10% due to climate change and other contributing

factors. if you're hoping to get your energy by a dose of chocolate is going up. coco prices are going up by 7%. >> we're trying to get companies to act today and it will hopefully stabilize their supply chains and ensure that we address the volatility in the global food supply so we're not going to be paying higher prices later. >> reporter: in response to oxfam's report, kellogg's says it's working on multiple fronts to reduce this. this is the latest in what seems a new strategy from those working to combat climate change to focus ott nonhow it will affect things in a sen true but how it will affected things today or tomorrow. jake tapper, cnn, washington. >> real food for thought there, right? well, u.s. pet food petco says

it will no longer sell dog and cat treats made in china in its 13 stores by the end of 2014. >> this move is because of fears that treats are making pets sick. the u.s. food & drug administration has been giving warnings since 2007 of the risks of chinese treats made by chicken and duck. just this past month the fda said it had received 4800 illnesses of pets being sick. the cause of the illnesses are under investigation. >> the fda received more than a thousand reports of dog deaths. >> cnn lina matello talks to one woman who nearly lost her pet to these toxic treats. >> reporter: meet sadie from florida whose brush with death

still haunts her owner. >> she started throwing up blood. she started passing blood. she actually was throwing up blood clots that looked like pieces of liver. >> reporter: sadie's vet thought it was due to the treats. >> i was devastated. i almost started crying in his office. i thought, i killed my dog. i had no way of knowing that. you go to the store, you look at chicken treats. they looked like something i would eat myself. >> reporter: it turns out sadie is not alone. the food & drug administration has received more than 4800 complaints over sick pets, including 1,000 dog deaths possibly linked to chicken, duck, or sweet potato jerky treats. >> it doesn't surprise me. that number is probably a lot more. the fda is only able to go to the numbers reported by them by pet owners or veterans so that number is probably a lot higher. >> reporter: dr. brett levitsky

has seen a lot of cases. symptoms include vomiting, bloody diarrhea and increased water consumption. >> your dog can die within five to seven days of eating these treats. it's that quick. >> reporter: since october the fda has received 1800 new complaints possibly related to tainted treats. most of the products were sourced in china, but so far investigators have not been able to determine exactly why the animals are getting sick. adding to the mystery, the fda acknowledges that the ingredients from this treats could come from anywhere. >> the problem is, they can't pull the a name in the jerky treats that's causing a problem. >> there she goes. >> reporter: snow knows she's lucky to have sadie around. she reads labels and only buys food made in the united states. >> i hope that they investigate it. i hope that they take them off the market because if they don't, thousands of dogs are going to die.

>> alina muchado, cnn, miami. >> the problem with the treats made in the united states can still have treats made from china. they're not entirely safe. vets say treats are not necessary for the dogs. >> yes. just -- >> little bit of advice. >> leave them out, right? after the break we'll introduce you to the man banned forever from north korea. and we'll show you the photos he took that got him black listed. plus, blunder on the french railroad is causing some red faces and a massive construction effort. ficer, i've helped many people in the last 23 years. but i needed help in quitting smoking. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced the urge for me to smoke. it actually caught me by surprise. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these,

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welcome back.

a revealing set of photographs has gotten one man banned from north korea for life. after six visits to the hermit kingdom since 2008, french photographer eric lafore was told in 2012 that he could never return. >> he was able to conceal photos that they told him to delete. they give rare insight into the isolated country. >> we consider it suicide in north korea. in pyongyong. there's a market where you can get many, many things from all around the world. of course, few people can access this. you have more and more cars. people always look really well dressed. they give a good image or so of the way people are dressed and the way the people are living the good life.

i have heard in france, a guy with a blue jean with a hole is more success than blue jean without a hole. for them it was impossible to understand this. in pyongyong, you can see the real thing. they don't want you to take a picture of this. we are like in america. we are poor people looking for food and for money so if you don't take picture of those people, nobody will give you that and know that you have poor people. it's very sad in the country, sad to see that people don't have access to water, electricity. you see the kids trying to get wells. they do not want to show this side of the country. this picture is really special because it was my first day in north korea. i saw this woman in pink standing in the middle of this

big assembly. i went to the place and the guy started to shout at me, stop, mister. i did not stop. and if you go to see the dolphins show, you can see the military people. if you go to mountain side, you'll see them working in the sawmills. they are everywhere. in fact, it seems like it's a big army on the moon. any kind of event, they are asking you from flower, festival. this is the only time in north korea that i saw some people fighting. i saw some of the people. for me it was like happy picture. this guy had some good time. he was in the grass. it was good. but the guy say, if you show

this, the army says the guide -- no, we don't have so much imagination. i make emotion, mixing the pictures. i wanted to let the north koreans speak. everything that was interesting about their life, about the way they see us. north core rean are not the robots we claim. they are really, really warm people. when you know them, they are warm. they hide their feelings. you must not stop just on their image. you must try to get what's behind the forced ideas. heavy rains in taipei and hong kong have been causing some problems. let's go to pedram. hey, p.j. >> hi, guys. to see the observations, in

taipei we have the wettest single spot on the earth in the city. checking in with the numbers, over 11.5 inches of rain coming down in a 24 hour period. we have a semipermanent front that sets up across asia producing historic rainfall. i want to take you down to the city and show you the scenes as they took place in the past 24 hours. in taipei if you're watching from the united states, the city of chicago comparable. we have population 2.6 million people live in taipei. similar population across chicago. the rainfall staggering. the city's airport they're reporting some seven inches or 20 centimeters of water across the ground across the airport causing flooding. if travel portions take you out, traffic problems, low visibility. 11.5 inches, that's the monthly average here. to put this in perspective.

if you're tuned in from los angeles, in a good year you get 20 inches. the vast majority taking down six inches. you see it in millimeters, upwards of three millimeters coming down across the city. the rainfall forecast over the next couple of days. eastern china, upwards of 4 inches there. out across the united states we have strong thunderstorms scattered about the region. severe weather, 22 million people in line for severe weather. a slight risk for severe winds and hail. i'll leave you with the video of hong kong again. take a look at the perspective of the time lapsed footage of the strong storms coming in. pretty impressive site. >> a shot over the mid levels there. >> i love those. >> pretty cool. >> thanks, pedram. >> thank you. france's national rail system has purchased 2,000 trains for its expanded regional

system. >> costs about $20 billion. the only problem is they are too wide to fit into many of the train stations. the rail company gave them dimensions for every french station built less than 30 years ago but most french train platforms are at least 50 years old. now construction crews are trimming 13 a train platforms. they blame the mishap on, quote, an absurd system. >> it's a very unfortunate joke. >> yeah, it is absurd. in the u.s. and washington, three years of hard work went into the water when a very, very fancy yacht capsized. >> $10 million of fancyism. have a look at this. the yacht is 90 feet. that's more than 27 meters. >> its builders were putting it into the water for the first time, very proud of it, to deliver it to the owner when something went terribly wrong. >> yeah. investigators are now trying to

figure out just what happened. that was absurd. >> absurd. thanks for watching "cnn newsroom." >> i'm rose marry church. >> i'm john vaus. "cnn newsroom" is coming up. for everyone else, it's "cnn news center." well, did you know that game show hosts should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband... or would you rather have a new caaaaaar!!!! say hello to the season's hottest convertible... ohhh....and say goodbye to samantha. [ male announcer ] geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more.

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