you're looking at live pictures from the israel gaza border where the cease-fire appears to be holding. we'll bring you live reports from both sides of this conflict. growing fears that russia could be planning an intervention inside ukraine. and a second american infected with ebola arrives in the united states for treatment.

>> it's 10:00 a.m. in israel and gaza, where we are well into day two of a three-day cease-fire. these are live pictures from along the border where israeli tanks have drawn into defensive positions. israel says it's accomplished its mission of destroying the network of tunnels hamas used. for its part, hamas has not fired any rockets at israel since the truce began. >> we're covering the story from both sides of the border. matthew chance is in jerusalem, we begin with karl penhaul in gaza city. there's been an opportunity there to get lives some way toward being back on track.

>> i haven't seen that. what i saw when i went out into eastern gaza yesterday for example. were people going back to look at what had happened to their homes, in most cases finding piles of rubble and ruins or structures of building so badly destroyed that they will have to be demolished. one man i spoke to had a three story family home. he was scrapping through the remnants, trying to find clothes to take home to his family. the only thing he found was a small child's top. i saw him try to pull them out. they turned to rags in his hand. there is little for many people to put their lives together again.

they're trying to get basic necessities. one man, when i asked him, who has won this war. has hamas gained anything out of it, has israel gained anything out of it? this is war, there are no winners. another man said to me, we've been staying at friends, i took my family to shelter there, and my friends said, now the cease-fire has come, aren't you happy you can go back home. he looked at him with a blank stare and said, i have no home to go to. >> this lull in the violence, can it be seen as the beginning of negotiations? do you think those in gaza are able to go ahead with besaw a statement lagts night. now the brigade the military wing of hamas is on board with anything the political

leadership decided. that in many senses reading between the lines is kind of a statement they're going back to their peace time foot being. hamas confirms peace. they go back and allow the political wing to take over the day-to-day running of the organization. so that statement from the al kassam brigades is important in that sense. it's handsing back authority to try to negotiate. the israelis are not sitting down at talks. they still regard those as terrorist organizations. so the shuttle diplomacy is going on somebody carrying mexicans from one room to another. israel wants demilitarization of the gaza strip and the militant factions want the gaza strip to be open to live life as normal.

matthew chance is in jerusalem. matthew, what can you tell us about expectations for the peace talks in cairo? >> well, i think the expectations are high in the sense that, you know, the 72-hour cease-fire is likely to be extendextended. both sides have made it clear that they've exhausted their reasons for being in this conflict. israel says it's basically completed the military objectives it's set out to do. hamas has nothing to gain from continuing to fight israel on the ground in the gaza strip. in terms of expectations for this delivering some kind of more permanent truce, more permanent solution to the conflict that underlies this latest violence they've been witnessing in gaza, i think expectations are very low. carl was mentioning the two sides come at this negotiation

from very different perspectives. israel wants an end to the rocket attacks. if that happens they say that they'll -- they won't any longer go in and strike gaza in the way that they have been for the past four weeks. the palestinians load by hamas and gaza, of course, want something different. they want the borders to be opened up to allow the free flow of people across them. they want the blockade, they call the siege of gaza to be ended so they can bring in goods and supplies into the gaza strip. that's something that's been resisted by israel because they believe there's been opportunity for hamas to rearm themselves. they're coming at it from different perspectives. it's difficult to see how they're going to reach some sort of compromise. >> you need a good media to do that. does the u.s. have that amongst the negotiating parties, do you think? >> well, egypt is certainly

playing that role. in the past they've been pivotal in negotiating treaties between the israelis and the palestinians. a slightly different role now. the government in egypt regards hamas very negatively. domestically in egypt the muslim brother hood has been criminalized. the members have been arrested and sentenced to death. hamas is seen as an off shoot of the muslim brotherhood. no love lost. nevertheless, the mood on the street in egypt, seeing so many palestinians killed. 1875 is the latest body count is creating an ee morm mouse political pressure to do something so they are mediating these talks with a view to extend being initially this cease-fire, but there's a broader issue as well. john kerry has spoken about this, u.s. secretary of state, perhaps the two sides, he hopes, can go into the negotiations and as a result of them realize they

need to get together to forge a much broader political agreement, a two-state solution where the israeli occupation of palestinian territories comes to an end. that's his hope but the evidence that we've seen is that neither side at this period are ready to do that. >> matthew in jerusalem, karl in gaza. thank you both very much indeed. a buildup of russian troops is building fears that moscow might be experiencing another military incursion. they say that there are 20,000 russian troops on the border, 8,000 more than there were last week. right now russia is staking a week of military exercises. about 800 kilometers from the border. meanwhile, ukrainian forces are closing in on donetsk.

the city has been a strong hold for pro russian forces for months. intense fighting in the city center and heavy shelling has forced residents to move into their cellars. nick peyton walsh is covering it. he's talking on the ground after gunshots rang out a few meters away. >> reporter: it's so quiet here in central donetsk. we have to keep our voices down. intermittently we've heard heavy gunfire in what looks like the very center of donetsk. it seems like center fire, rgbs being used. the ukrainian military is advancing towards the city center mostly from the direction over my shoulder here. last few hours explosions have been on the skyline to the distance over there. the key change in the last half an hour we've heard sustained automatic gunfire in donetsk.

they must be edgy or in the worst situation an exchange of gunfire if they are this close, anderson. >> how close is the firing to you, nick. >> reporter: i would say two, three blocks away maximum. pretty close, indeed. we are pretty much in the center of donetsk here. the militants have been filling out in the past two days. we drove in yesterday. it was clear they were retreating back down one of the main highways here into central donetsk and that matches with what we've seen about ukrainian military positions moving fast towards city center. the question is, anderson, as we know there's been a doubling of russian troops on the border to 20,000 in the past week. does that suggest that moscow wants to intervene or are we looking at separatist movement here which is in its last stages as the ukrainian military advances, anderson? >> to try to give us some

speculation on the crisis in the ukraine, we'll go to phil black. he's in moscow. the troop buildup, phil, how can we interpret that? >> reporter: well, max, the russian government doesn't talk in detail about this. it has acknowledged in very broad terms having a military presence on the ukrainian border and says that presence is there because of ukrainian shelling which has crossed the border striking the russian military, in one case killing one russian. that is the line. the intention for these forces is perhaps more than that. you heard nick say there's perhaps around 20,000 soldiers, russian troops within striking distance of the ukrainian border. the estimate varies but it is somewhere between the 13 and 20,000 figure that are somewhere within striking distance of the ukrainian border with a broad range of capabilities that would allow them to move across that territory very quickly and intervene in this conflict quite

decisively. no one seems to be suggesting that we're talking about another land grab, if you like. russia moving in, grabbing a piece of eastern ukraine and then holding onto it in the way that they did in crimea earlier in the year, but what the fear is, i think, is that as ukrainian government forces make gains, drive forward, reclaiming territory and really push for an outright military win which looks increasingly possible if not likely, therefore, the chances of russian intervention in some form intercrease. that -- increase. they are not saying anything publicly to confirm or deny whether or not that is valid. >> what would be their justification for that? >> reporter: well, russia has a tradition, if you like, of moving into neighboring countries with the intention of protecting, it says, russian speaking people, ethnic

russians. we've seen that in a number of cases, whether it was georgia in 2008, indeed, crimea just this year. and throughout this crisis russia has repeatedly said it has the right to protect people who are ethnically or culturally russian. that's why. there was a great fear. when there was a great macing of troops russia could be moving into eastern ukraine. at that time they drew down those forces and seemed to de-escalate the situation but as we've been reporting in recent weeks, the numbers have been on the up again, not to the same levels perhaps but to levels that are concerning. so in the event that this conflict is proceeding, russia has always claimed that it is innocent ukrainians that are suffering. they're targeting civilians and so forth building up a narrative that would suggest a willingness to intervene on a humanitarian pretexts, a willingness to protect ethnic and cultural

russians in that region. that's one possibility. at the moment russia is not using that sort of language, not in the way it was earlier in the year, but it's clear that given the number of these forces, the capability of these forces, western countries have not ruled out the possibility that russia is preparing for the possibility of that sort of movement. >> phil in moscow, thank you very much indeed. coming up next on cnn, he is the most senior u.s. officer to be killed since 911. after the break the attack that's raising new questions about how afghan soldiers are vetted. plus, islamic militants in northern iraq are ordering christians to convert or else. >> these families were expelled from their homes on very short notice. they were told to get into their cars and leave.

the top american military officer is expressing

condolences after a two star general was shot and killed by a afghan soldier. martin dempsey said we're often at risk. major herald green was killed in kabul, afghanistan. jim schuter has more. >> reporter: it was a brazen attack killing the most senior u.s. officer since 911 and it began with a routine trip to afghanistan's premiere training facility for afghan military officers. a delegation of senior american and coalition officers was visiting the marshal faheem university outside kabul when disaster struck. an afghan soldier opened fire. major general herald green, the deputy commander of the security transition in afghanistan was killed. 15 coalition soldiers, including eight americans, were injured, some seriously. forces responded killing the

shooter. pentagon officials tell cnn that the shooter was an afghan soldier who had been with his unit for some time and had completed a rigorous seven-step vetting process to ensure he was not a taliban fighter. >> we're months away from the u.s. handing over security responsibility for afghanistan to afghan forces like these. does this undermine your confidence in their ability to take over that role? >> the afghan national security forces continue to perform at a very strong level of competence and confidence and warfare capability. they have had a good year securing one not two national elections. >> reporter: so called green on blue where they attack their coalition partners have been an ongoing and grave problem and today's attack made clear the risk remains. >> as we turn more and more of the security responsibilities for these installations over to afghan troops, i think the risks

will rise because since we don't control who the afghans assign to these duties, it is very easy for the taliban to infiltrate these people. as we draw down the chance increases, not decreases. >> reporter: i also asked admiral kirby if this eroded the trust and he says actually their trust is growing. the numbers support that to some degree. these attacks peaked in 2012. they declined significantly since then, but the measures in place to reduce that risk have only mitigated it, they have not eliminated it. as admiral kirby said, afghanistan is still very much a battlefield. jim sciutto, afghanistan. a former afghan prisoner is set to get underway today. the u.s. army sergeant will be asked questions by a general leading the investigation. some say he deserted his post.

bergdahl was captured by the taliban five years ago. he was released for five taliban members in may. he's currently back on duty in san antonio, texas. his legal team has said it will be, quote, an interesting and productive day. in iraq militants force thousands to leave their homes. unicef say 40 children part of a religious minority have died. they died as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration over the past couple of days. the group says up to 25,000 children are now stranded in the mountains and are in dire need of humanitarian aid. iraqi christians are also being threatened by isis militants. the sweep into northern iraq has driven mean to flee or go into hiding after threats on their lives. michael holmes reports.

>> reporter: an ancient mosque said to be the burial site of the prophet jonah gone in a cloud of dust. one of the holiest sites reveered by multiple faiths destroyed by isis. since taking over in june, the sunni extremist group has targeted a number of shia mosques, religious shrines, and crackdown on minorities. this flyer orders them to convert to islam, pay a religious tax, or face death by the sword. the threat prompted thousands of christians to flee mosul in june. some left with little more than the clothes on their backs. >> these families were expelled from their homes on very short notice. they were told to get into their cars and leave. on their way they were stopped, they were stripped of their possessions. many had their i.d.s taken and

they were told to simply walk away with the clothes they were wearing. >> reporter: thousands of displaced christians have sought refuge in the semiautonomous kurdish region. iraq's christians once numbered more than 1 million but since the u.s. led invasion in 2003, most have fled the country. isis's arrival in mosul has effectively ended a presence there, one dating back to the earliest days of christianity. the head of iraq's largest church calls the prospects for christians frightening. >> translator: the future of christians is uncertain if practical solutions are not realized, then the number of christians will go down. >> reporter: hundreds of iraqi christians carrying banners and chanting slogans recently marred to the u.n. office demanding a

stop to the genocide targeting their faith. >> translator: this is a crime against iraq. christians and muslims, we live together as brothers for a long time. we just want the peace and love. >> reporter: from baghdad to washington, isis's persecution of christians has been internationally condemned. >> the humanitarian situation is extremely serious and it is heartbreaking particularly when it comes to christian minorities and other vulnerable groups. >> reporter: but little is being done, and iraqi christians who have said mass in mosul for more than 1800 years are now gone, forced to observe their faith elsewhere now. michael holmes, cnn. still to come on cnn, a second american infected with ebola has arrived in the united states. we'll bring you an update on her condition after this. first, cnn takes you exclusively to the epicenter of the outbreak. a staggering battle that's facing health care workers in

sierra leone. for the last two weeks they've doubled their capacity here of confirmed ebola patients, and they're doing all they can to help those who are sick, but they're absolutely at capacity here.

well, a second american affected with ebola is getting treatment at emory university in georgia. martha writebol was given a serum. a spokesperson said the missionary is still very weak but she's showing signs of continued improvement. she joins her colleague, dr. kent brantley who's already being treated at the hospital's highly specialized unit. the world health organization says there have been 887 deaths from ebola and more than 1600

cases since the outbreak began in march. most have been in guinea but sierra leone is battling a rapidly growing number of cases as well. david mckenzie gained exclusive access to doctors and patients at a busy treatment center in sierra leone's hard hit calhoun. >> reporter: taking incredible care to combat an unprecedented outbreak. >> gloves. >> reporter: ebola can lead to death with one drop of in23ek9ed fluids. >> that's why we take every possible precaution to effect that. >> reporter: already dozens of doctors and nurses have died. dr. stefan kruger said he had to come. >> this is where they need us and there's a really big lack of resources and at the moment in calhoun, if there wasn't treatment here, there would be nothing. for me, that's a good enough reason. >> reporter: in calhoun they are losing the battle.

ebola has hit four countries. the number of infections continue to rise. this outbreak is out of control. in the last two weeks they've doubled their capacity here for confirmed ebola patients. they're doing all they can to help those who are sick but they're absolutely at capacity here. >> it's really difficult because we are running behind. we don't know where we are staying and it's really like -- it's frustrating because we don't have the capacity to go everywhere. >> reporter: but here they do what they can. in the high-risk zone, this one pulls up for help. she has ebola. so does her son. >> translator: ebola is so sedly it's killing our citizens, it's killing our country. her husband and son died of the disease. 70% of confirmed cases here will

die, too. to talk to her we must stand a few feet away. the strict protocols protect us. the cruelty is they isolate her. still, tenna believes her 12-year-old daughter will make it and so will she. we are feeling much better, she says. we are strong. we're going to fight. >> what happens when you actually beat this disease? >> yeah. that's a real highlight of everything that we do here. everybody comes through to watch the patient come out of isolation and it motivates all the staff to continue to work. >> david mckenzie, cnn, calhoun, sierra leone. now the death toll from an earthquake that rattled southwestern china on sunday is rising. chinese state-run media say the number of those killed now stands at 589. 9 people are still missing and thousands are reported injured.

rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing. an 88-year-old woman was found alive after being buried under rubble for more than two days. the house collapsed during sunday's 6.1 magnitude quake. officials say she's in stable condition and receiving treatment at a nearby hospital. japan has dealt with several blows from mother nature. the island nation is bracing for another fierce typhoon as well. meteorologist pedram javeheri joins us. hi, pedram. we see him, we don't hear him. we will later in the show. we are going to return to our top story when cnn's special coverage continues as well, getting a look at the destruction in gaza firsthand. it's not hard to see why the u.n. says it will take decades

to rebuild. plus, egypt's new president tries to establish his new role as peace maker. we'll go live to cairo after a short break.

you're watching cnn's special coverage. i'm max foster in london. the headlines this hour, it's day two of a three-day cease-fire between israel and hamas. all indications are that the truce is holding. all of israel's ground forces are outside of gaza in defensive positions. there are no reports of any rockets being fired from gaza into israel. the nato officials tell cnn there are now about 20,000 russian troops massed on the eastern ukraine border. that's an 8,000 troop jump from

last week. the buildup comes as ukrainian forces come in on donetsk. family is mourning the shooting of major harold green and 15 of his coalition comrades were wounded when an afghan soldier opened fire at a training camp. a german general was amongst the wounded. a second american is being treated for ebola in the u.s. nancy writebol arrived and joins dr. kent brantley in a highly secure area. they're suspending flights to liberia and sierra leone throughout august. more now on our top story, the cease-fire between israel and hamas. with the fighting on hold many gaza residents getting a chance to return to their homes to see the devastation firsthand.

the united nations suggests that rebuilding could cost between 4 and $6 billion and take decades. martin savidge reports. >> reporter: for the first time in weeks, fishermen in gaza tend to their nets. a sign of optimism this cease fire might actually work, but they don't take their boats beyond the break wall in case it doesn't. when it comes to peace, palestinians have learned to hedge their bets. at u.n. schools and shelters, some began leaving to go where isn't clear. others were more pragmatic thinking it best to wait and see. they said there was a truce before and we left, says this man, but five minutes after we got home the airstrikes started. at gaza city's main market it's busy and the food and goods plentiful. the end of the violence has not put an end to the problems here. most conflict zones, cash is

king. credit cards don't work too well here. when you need cash, you go to the atm. they're lucky, this one works. unfortunately, most people haven't been paid in months so there's no money for them to withdraw. there is no shortage of opinions about the war and the talks to end it. this man says the cease fire is the right decision. no one needs war. but this woman believes hamas will negotiation concessions from israel. i am expecting a victory from the resistance. we will win this war, she says. we are preparing the festivities. in the waist land that was shazia, no one is planning celebrations. this was pounded relentlessly by airstrikes and artillery for days. here it's the same story. no homes, no schools, no mosques. nothing is left of what used to be. i was shocked, he says. i was imagining everything except the site i saw.

here in the ruins residents are realizing a cease-fire was the easy part. the hard part is what comes next. martin savidge, cnn, gaza. israel says more than 2300 rockets landed on its soil since july. 64 soldiers and three civilians were killed in the fighting. many israelis say they're glad to see an end to the violence. >> we can go deeper in this campaign but we have to consider the cost. we have to consider the price that we might pay for this. >> we've been in gaza for two weeks and -- >> the israeli soldiers flashed victory signs as they crossed the border. the idf tweeted, mission

accomplished, and claimed it destroyed 32 tunnels used by hamas militants to attack israel. egyptian president abdul fattah al sisi but his government is trying to make peace between israel and hamas. >> reporter: palestinians digging through the rubble that is now gaza look to egypt to help open the territory they have come to see as a prison. >> we need the human passage that clings us to the world. we need to give our people in gaza some hope. >> reporter: egypt has been traditionally the center of zbraf viti in moments of crisis. hosni mubarak served as a bridge between israelis and palestinians. he brokered a deal to release soldiers. hamas had a friend in mohammed morsi who opened the border

between egypt and gaza and along then with secretary of state hillary clinton brokered a cease fire between israel and hamas in 2012. but things have changed since then, like israel, egypt's current president views hamas as a terrorist group and a regional threat isolating the group politically, sealing off the border and sealing off tunnels. >> the reason they have put restrictions on the borders is because we don't want hamas to do that. as long as hamas doesn't want to invest in the people of gaza and wants to invest in the terrorist war machine, those restrictions have to stay in place. >> reporter: with monday's cease-fire, they're the peace broker. egypt holds the key while helping to deny hamas the ability to rearm and attack

israel. >> egypt is not just negotiator. hamas has spelled out their leading demand is an end to the siege, what they call a siege of gaza, and they're looking to egypt to open up the rafa border crossing. so egypt is, in fact, a party to this cease-fire negotiation if you want this to win door, then egypt has to pull out something. >> reporter: egypt blamed the failure of last week's cease-fire on the failure of john kerry to bring in qatar in diplomacy. u.s. officials say we're a long way from that. we have to make sure the cease-fire holds first. cnn, washington. want to take you now to cairo where those talks are expected to get underway. our reza is in the egyptian capitol. he joins us live. what are the egyptians saying about this and how they're going to handle it?

>> reporter: well, we know some information, some details about the format, about the arrangement of these talks. according to an egyptian government official, these are not going to be direct negotiations. in other words, this is not going to be talks where you're going to have israelis and palestinians sitting across the table from one another, negotiating with one another. these are going to be indirect talks. in other words, in one location in cairo you're going to have the israelis talking to the egyptians, probably egyptians intelligence officials and in another area in cairo you'll have the palestinians talking to egyptians of the foreign ministry and then you'll have the egyptians acting as a go-between, shuttling between the palestinians and israelis. hamas wants something from egypt as well.

hamas wants egypt to open its border crossing in southern gaza, the rafa crossing. we're eeg fwager to see how the responding. it seems to be moving forward slowly. the israeli delegation arriving here. the palestinian team already here. they arrived here on saturday over the weekend. we've had more than 24 hours of peace and kaucalm in gaza. peace is holding. the stage is set for the talks to get underway today and unless something happens, unless something goes wrong they will, indeed, happen today. much of the world will be watching to see where all of this goes. >> particularly in the u.s., and we were hearing earlier from elyse's report that the u.s. will ultimately be expected to get involved. at what point do they get involved because it's not involved right now? >> reporter: i think it's safe

to say the u.s. is going to chime in. they're going to be talking to the israelis. they'll be talking to the egyptian government. when it comes to this immediate cease fire, the goals at ending the fighting and the immediate future i think egypt is going to be the lead mediator. they're going to broker this particular process, but i think eventually, this is what much of the world wants, much of the international community wants, a lasting peace, perhaps some sort of two-state solution. when you start talking about the bigger picture i think there's no question washington is going to be involved in that process but obviously we're not there yet. >> and how do they open up the debate and discussions? you say they're a two-state solution. they first of all have to agree on key definitions before they start talking, right? >> yeah. there's so many stumbling blocks here when it comes to reaching the two-state solution. first and foremost there's

indications by israeli government officials, prime minister benjamin netanyahu. he suggested that he would never move the security setup that he has in palestinian territories and many critics of mr. netanyahu say that shows you he's against a two-state solution but the international community, the overwhelming opinion of the international community is more peace to be established between the israelis and the palestinians. some sort of two-state solution must be established but, again, unfortunately we're very far off the map right now, max. >> reza sayah, thank you very much for joining us. coming up on cnn, a huge side effect that affects millions of internet users. details ahead.

welcome back. they've called off the patent

war outside the united states. the agreement ends legal battles in countries including japan, south korea and the u.k. tech giants have been fighting since 2011, largely over the design of smart phones, a lucrative sector that the two companies each dominate. each company accused the other of infringing on its patents. their rival in the u.s. will continue. the government has included that a leaker is exposing national security documents. proof comes as a story on the news site called the intercept which used u.s. security documents. the dates of the papers apparently followed leaks by u.s. intelligence leaker edward snowden. that news site is run by journalist glenn greenwald who published information from snowden. government officials are trying to identify the suspected new leaker. today is a big day for the

european space agency. they're hoping for a leap in space exploration whtd rosetta spacecraft catches up with a comet. >> reporter: since humans first started exploring space, only a handful of craft have lapped on celestial bodies. for the first time they will land a craft on a comet. it's been a ten year journey covering 6 billion colonies. rosetta is less than 230 kilometers away. once there they hope to find clues to the origin of our own solar system. rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and then land a probe on the nucleus instead of flying by to snap pictures. >> for the very first time you're going to learn a lot and it will be the basis for new

experiments. it's like building a building. >> reporter: this has taken shape. the latest ones show 67-p is two pieces joined together. the neck or connecting part has a different spot. it could even be ice and they've learned more from studying changes in the signals coming from rosetta. >> the nucleus is pulling the spacecraft out of its planned orbit and that can be seen as a shift in frequency of the transmitter radio signal from the spacecraft. >> reporter: on its way rosetta flew past two as steroids. scientists can't wait to get their hands on more data when they start orbiting on wednesday and lands a probe on the nucleus in november. >> big day in space news. do stay with us. news continues after this.

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hawaii is a tropical paradise, but right now is preparing for two rude visitors. hurricanes in fact. meteorologist pedram javaheri is joining us. how bad is it going to be? >> the state department of education there is canceling all classes on thursday and also in maui county.

it was a category 4 equivalent yesterday at this moment. now it has weakened to a category 2. it's starting to fall apart on satellite imimagiagery. julio is sitting in favorable conditions in warm water. iselle set to get here friday night into saturday morning. officials say this is serious. take all the proper precautions. no hurricanes have made landfall on the islands since 1992 and only two in history have made landfall. unusual. then you see one weakening and a secondary one behind it headed in that direction as well. expected to remain a hurricane for another few hours and go to a strong tropical storm as it moves across portions of the island friday night into saturday. julio similar track, which is quite unusual when you think of two in recorded history and then you get two of them in the same week. certainly not the best time to

be on the islands if your plans are taking you there. if you're going to be there, certainly stay away from the water. storm surge up to 15 feet a possibility. the full moon is around the corner. all of that plays a role into how bad coastal locations will be with the storm system. southern japan has been inundated with tremendous rainfall. we have winds of 160 kilometers per hour. it is equivalent to category 2. taiwan sits 1,000 miles away. manila sits 1300 kilometers away. look at the footage from luzan. 800 miles from the center of the storm system, this is across portions of ermosa. about 100 kilometers or 60 miles northwest of metro manila where people are waiting through chest high waters and the concern is these sort of conditions will be pushing in towards southern

japan. extremely flooding will be played out in this region. the graphics kind of putting it in perspective of exactly where the track of this storm system goes. this will be friday night to saturday as well across kochi in southern japan. this region, max, has seen a foot of rainfall. it's been in southern japan. more rain floods come down here than you would expect outside of your studios in london in an entire year in a couple days time. this next storm system, not good timing for folks across southern japan. >> pedram, thank you very much indeed. online security company says hackers in russia have stolen 1.2 billion user names and passwords for half a million e-mail addresses. that could make it the biggest threat. they made money by sending spam to the country.

people can check the website to see if they were hacked. i'm joined by an internet security analyst and he joins me from los angeles via skype. thank you for joining us. first of all, how did the scam work? >> it was pretty simple. what's most interesting for the viewers watching is they utilized computers through what's called a bod net. a bunch of who i am computers that were not secure, they planted a bug in there, and then when you visited a website, they tested the website for vulnerabilities. if it was open, they were able to come back and steal data. in other words, many of us who were hacked, i know at this point i wasn't one of them, but if our systems were not updated, we were used to steal from ourselves. >> and is that information from us still out there? are we still vulnerable as a result of the discovery of this? >> oh, very much so unless you

are going out there and changing your passwords. that's probably the most important thing you can do immediately. fortunately, many of us do what we dwsh i'm sure you've done it. i don't want to remember five different passwords. i'll remember the same one and therefore now you're vulnerable in many other places where your information resides simply because you're utilizing the same e-mail and password. >> how much money can a scam like this produce? >> millions and millions on an ongoing basis. if you don't know you've been victimized, it's easy to use your information to create new identities, to sell it to other organized crime and to victimize your friends, they trust information they get from you, then when they get some legitimate contact from you, they'll click on it, get

victimized. you can almost have a recurring revenue stream, almost the thing you could put on wall street and make more money by investors into it. >> i understand that things like this happen and it's a global problem so law enforcement authorities can't be across every single little scam that comes along, but when you talk about more than a billion names and passwords being stolen, hijacked, there's a big problem here, isn't there? there's a law enforcement problem that something can get so big before anyone discovers it. >> yes, it's absolutely true. the internet and as well ats hackers, they do not recognize geographic boundaries and law enforcement boundaries. on the other side of it, law enforcement is very concerned about my country, your country, a different continent and therefore cooperation is slower. it takes longer to investigate. it takes a lot more resources and by the time law enforcement

is catching up they could be packing up one location, for example, in russia which they're talking about and moving it off to another location. so it's a constant cat and mouse game. in this case the cat is -- wait, i've got it backwards but you understand completely what i'm saying. >> yeah, it's unbelievable to think of it at this level. thank you for joining us. appreciate your time. >> thank you. australian authorities have chosen a company. warren trust says the company will use two vessels to map a huge area of the southern indian ocean. the boeing 777 disappeared on march 8th on a flight to beijing with 239 people on board. months of searching have yet to

show the plane. this week marks the 108th anniversary of brittain's role into the great world war. armistice day is the 11th of november. pop yis are being planted in the moat at the tower of london. i had a look. it's a rare privilege to be allowed into the moat here, particularly during this installation which is truly spectacular when you are here. it's growing all the time. the latest three people to plant pop yis were no less than the duke and duchess of cambridge and the prince harry. each represents someone being here. the artist, paul cummins, said he was inspired by the will of the soldier who died.

it was the blood. >> what you see here is a flowing series of waves, particularly the way some come out of the tower and as you come out there's a breaking wave of pop yis. every poppy is a soldier who lost his or her life in the first world war. it's a mass but it's a mass of individuals. >> to think this project isn't nearly complete. it's creating a sea of red around the spectacular castle. >> you've been watching cnn's special coverage. i'm max foster in london. do stay with us because "early do stay with us because "early start" is next. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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♪ happening now -- the truce takes hold in gaza. the second day of the temporary cease-fire between hamas and israel holding for now. but what is the status of the peace discussions? we're live with the latest developments. the u.s. general assassinated in afghanistan. an insider attack, catching victims by surprise. the ambush raising new concerns this morning over the safety of our troops in america overseas. we'll take you live with the very latest on that as well.