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>> and i'm errol barnett. a warm welcome to those of you watching in the u.s. and all around the world. coming up -- >> i ask you to please release my child. >> the mother of an american journalist makes an emotional plea to his isis captors to let him go. this as the extremist group sets its sights on the strategically vital iraqi city of kirkuk. new intelligence suggests isis fighters have managed to infiltrate the area in secret. >> also ahead, a top u.s. health official says isolating west africa isn't the answer to stopping the ebola virus. you'll hear his prescription for getting the outbreak under control. after nearly two years in the hands of islamic militants in syria, american journalist peter theo curtis is now safe at his mother's home near boston. >> curtis was freed on sunday. but the joy of his release was tempered by the execution just days earlier of fellow journalist james foley. curtis's mother nancy says she

is overwhelmed with relief. on wednesday curtis thanked all those who worked so hard to bring him home. >> when i was in prison, i had no idea that so much effort was being expended on my behalf. and now having found out, i am just overwhelmed emotion. i'm also overwhelmed by one other thing, and that is that total strangers have been coming up to me and saying hey, we're just glad you're home, welcome home, glad you're back, glad you're safe. great to see you. i suddenly remember how good the american people are and what kindness they have in their hearts. and to all those people i say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart. >> peter theo curtis there. well, the mother of an american journalist whose life is now under direct threat by isis militants, is appealing to the group's leader for his release. shirley sotloff's son steven has been missing since last august.

he is the other journalist shown in the isis video in which james foley was beheaded. isis said sotloff's life depends on the u.s. halting its air strikes on isis fighters in iraq. in the video plea for his release sotloff's mother says her son was only trying to report on the suffering of muslims. >> since steven's capture i've learned a lot about islam. i've learned that islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. steven has no control over the actions of the u.s. government. he's an innocent journalist. i've always learned that you, the caliph, can grant amnesty. i ask you to use your authority to spare his life and to follow the example set by the prophet mohammed, who protected people of the book. i want what every mother wants, to live to see her children's

children. >> and meantime, a coalition of syrian rebels now say a second american isis member has been killed. the fighters made the announcement wednesday but didn't provide a name for this u.s. citizen, and it comes, you may remember, on the heels of the death of a 33-year-old american, douglas mccain. he had also joined the extremist group. >> well, isis, meanwhile, shows no sign of letting up as it seeks to add territory to what it calls its caliphate. and as anna corinne reports the key iraqi city of kirkuk has found itself firmly in the crosshairs. >> reporter: sitting silently in a hospital bed, 10-year-old aya gently touches her face. the horror of her injuries more than enough to bear. her brother is dead, but no one wants to tell her. this was the terror unleashed on aya, her family, and the city of

kirkuk when three car bombs and a roadside explosive went off within minutes, killing 20 people, injuring more than 100. cctv footage capturing one of the deadly blasts. isis claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, designed to inflict as much pain and trauma as possible. "my children didn't deserve this," says aya's father, who was driving his family when one of the bombs went off just meters from his car. "no one's children should have to suffer like this." while it struck panic and fear into the mixed community of shia, sunnis and kurds, kirkuk is yet to fall under isis control. when iraqi soldiers fled from their outposts following the sudden fall of mosul in june it was the peshmerga from kurdistan who came in to defend the city and its valuable oil fields. but despite the presence of these soldiers and the newly built defensive positions, the islamic extremists are on the doorstep.

"isis is just over there in those arab villages," explains general nadi amir. "they fired on us again last night." not all isis militants are operating out in the open. intelligence officials tell us that many are infiltrating kirkuk, quietly recruiting young disaffected sunnis, including this influential emir from mosul who was recently arrested. "they come to kirkuk because of all the minorities," says intelligence chief idris rafat. it's easy to blend in. due to kirkuk's diversity this is a city that is exposed and vulnerable to isis. according to authorities, they've arrested dozens of members in the past few months, including the emir. and they strongly believe that there are sleeper cells plarning to attack. for these bombing victims recovering from their gruesome injuries they know too well the danger the islamic extremists pose in their mission to create a caliphate. >> i ask from the god to revenge

from this terrorist. please, god, help us. help the iraqi people. >> reporter: a desperate plea from a young engineering student who just wants to live in his country without fear. anna corinne, cnn, kirkuk, iraq. >> so hard to watch many of those images. now, isis uses the web as one of its main recruitment terms. in the next half hour we'll look into why some of the world's largest social media sites, we're talking facebook, we're talking twitter, why they decided ton use technology to block extremist content from their sites. so stay tuned for that later in the program. but now this. the cease-fire between israel and the palestinians appears to be holding now in its second day. adds part of the deal israel agreed to ease the blockade of gaza and allow aid and building materials through border cross kz like rafa, the one you see

here. >> on wednesday trucks packed with food and other supplies rolled across the border from egypt. among them was the first u.n. food convoy allowed into the territory since 2007. well, the rafah crossing is gaza's only land link to the outside that's not controlled by israel. to the north another key crossing between israel and the golan heights is now in the hands of syrian rebels. the israeli military has now closed off the area around quneitra crossing as cnn international correspondent ben wedeman reports. >> reporter: a lot of armor being moved around this evening. we saw a military presence along the demarcation line between the golan heights and syria. what's significant is that at this point israeli forces are separated by only about 200 meters from syrian rebels, seemingly led by members of the us in rah front, that is, a

group affiliated with al qaeda which has increasingly raised its profile in southern syria. now, this took place after a day of what appeared to have been mortar and artillery barrages between syrian rebels and the syrian army around the quneitra crossing. this went on all day long, some of the most intense clashes we've seen on the other side of that demarcation line. several shells fell within israeli-controlled territory. in the morning one of those shells wounded an israeli army officer. in the afternoon we understand at least two other israeli civilians were also wounded lightly by those shells. but this definitely represents a significant change on the ground in southern syria. now, what's interesting, until now there has been sort of a tacit indirect relationship between the syrian rebels and the israeli authorities. you've been to hospitals. i've been to hospitals in

northern israel where syrians including fighters were being treated by the israelis. but if the nusra front is going to be become more heavily involved in the fighting in southern syria, this may cause israel to start to reconsider its calculations about what's going on on the other side of that line. >> now, the al-nusra front and isis are both considered terrorist groups by the united states, but there are some differences. numbers are sketchy, but isis is thought to have at least 15,000 fighters with as many as 3,000 from western countries. those are estimates. the al-nusra front is about a third the size. isis operates in iraq and syria while al-nusra operates mainly in syria. isis's primary going is to establish and expand an islamic khalifate through iraq and syria. the al-nusra front on the other hand aims simply to establish an

islamic syria. and isis gets much of its funding from criminal activity including kidnappings and extortion, as we've seen. al-nusra's resources come mainly from overseas plus military equipment seized in syria. final, isis, which grew out of the splinter group al qaeda in iraq, has been kicked out of al qaeda central altogether. al-nusra's allegiance remains with al qaeda. all right. a short break now. but still ahead the man in charge of the u.s. response to ebola says it's worse than he feared. he cnn catches up with him as he gets his first look at the front lines of the fight against the virus. plus, more heavy fighting reported in eastern ukraine and new accusations of russian troops crossing the border. [ woman ] the cadillac summer collection is here. ♪ ♪

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let's bring you the latest now on the ebola outbreak in west africa has already claimed nearly 1,500 lives. i've got to give you a warning here, this is one sobering update. air france said wednesday it will suspend all flights to sierra leone. this comes after the french government requested the carrier to stop flying to the capital, freetown. meantime, as the virus spreads through parts of liberia's capital, one emergency coordinator tells us the response is just not strong enough to keep pace with the outbreak there. listen to this.

>> all over the city. all areas. all districts of the city. today have people dying and people getting sick every day. so the population has turned and they are now afraid. they are asking for help. they don't know how to respond to this because if they call the hotline nobody will come and pick them up because the system is completely overstretched. there are too many and the response is too weak. >> and in addition, tom frieden, the head of the u.s. centers for disease control, says it's even worse than he had feared. he warns that trying to seal off infected countries not only won't help but it will ultimately, he says, increase the risk of the deadly disease spreading elsewhere. frieden is in liberia right now assessing containment efforts. he spoke with our nema al bada earlier. >> no one has ever seen an outbreak of ebola like this with this kind of explosive spread in urban areas. we've seen clusters in hospitals

and terrible, hundreds of cases in other outbreaks, but we're in the thousands here. >> reporter: the world health organization has spoken about an underestimation of the death toll. they've also spoken about a secret patient caseload. is that the sense you've gotten on the ground, is it could be so much worse than we know right now? >> it's definitely worse than the total numbers. how much worse we don't know. we know not all the cases have been reported, not all the cases have been diagnosed, not all the cases have been tested. so it's a much bigger problem than anyone anticipated. the world liberia and evident africa. that will make it harder to stop the outbreak and ultimately increase the risk to other places because every day this outbreak goes on it increases the risk for another export to another country. so the sonnioner the world come together and helps liberians and west africans to stop it the safer we'll be. i already interviewed survivors, i saw one there this morning, people there who are feeling

well enough to complain about the food. so there's definitely hope for individuals and we can turn this around. what we have to do is basically two things -- stop spread among caregivers in health care and in the homes and stop spread through the burial process. >> reporter: what is your sense of experimental drugs? we've heard of zmapp and that's been used successfully in some cases, others not. do you think that's something that should be explored here? >> the key right now is getting good-quality care to as many patients as fast as possible. that means helping them with their symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting, bringing their fevers down, giving them medications for pain and perhaps most importantly giving them rehydration. oral rehydration and whenever possible intravenous rehydration. these are life-saving proven interventions. experimental drugs are experimental. we don't know if they work. and we don't have many of them or lots of them. >> now, all this week cnn international is airing special coverage of the crisis to fight

ebola. it will appear on cnn news center with isha sesay. tune in to hear expert answers to the questions you all posted to twitter and facebook. that is for our viewers of cnn international at 7:30 in london, 8:30 p.m. in johannesburg. we wanted to turn to the crisis in ukraine where a military spokesman says russian soldiers in armored vehicles crossed into eastern ukraine not far from where ten soldiers were detained monday. diana magmay has details of that and new fighting from slovyansk. >> reporter: we're hearing disturbing reports of very heavy fighting in two areas to the south of the main conflict zone in eastern ukraine. one area just between the rebel stronghold of donetsk and the russian border there seems to be very heavy fighting there. reports that local separatists are being backed by fighters who have crossed the border from russia and are lending their support with heavy weaponry and artillery. now, we're also hearing according to ukraine's national

security council that dozens of civilians have been killed when the terrorists, as ukraine calls them, opened fire in various villages close to donetsk. now, it is very difficult for us to verify this information. first and foremost, russia denies that it is sending any kind of fighters or weaponry across the border from russia, and it has denied that ever since this conflict began. and secondly, we are not in those regions, and we cannot tell exactly what is going on. but further south also very close to the azov sea near to mariupol there seems to be another offensive going on where according to a local commander russian tanks have pushed in from across the border there and engaged ukrainian forces in very heavy fighting. so there is a sense that there seems to be a new counteroffensive by the rebels backed by russian support of some kind that is putting very, very heavy pressure on ukrainian

forces as they attempt to win back control of the rebel-held parts of eastern ukraine. diana magnay, cnn, slovyansk, ukraine. well, we've seen our fair share of maps showing the cities impacted by the fighting in eastern ukraine. now canada's delegation to nato is using its own special map to give a not so subtle message to moscow. >> yeah. you want to look closely at this. this is its twitter page. it all seems pretty mundane. but look at that map there. it had a few notations there they sent out. russia, there in red, and not russia. the message, "geography can be tough. here's a guide for russian soldiers who keep getting lost and accidentally entering ukraine." canada using a bit of humor to make a very clear point. coming up after the break potential new information on the flight path of malaysian airlines flight 370. we'll tell you what officials had to say about the search for

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malaysian airliner suggests flight 370 may have turned south earlier than previously thought. but australia's deputy prime minister says that won't change the priority search area in the southern indian ocean. >> warren truss says the search for the missing jetliner will resume next month and include australian, chinese, and malaysian vessels. in the meantime, authorities have been mapping the ocean floor in the area they plan to search. >> i have to say that the information that's been gathered in this mapping exercise has been quite remarkable. whilst there was a view that perhaps this was a relatively uninteresting piece of geography, a long, long way from the shore, we have discovered through this work quite remarkable geographical features including a couple of volcanoes. >> and truss says without the mapping project leading up to the search expensive pieces of equipment might have been lost

or damaged in the months to come. there hasn't been any sign of flight 370 since it disappeared from radar on march 8th with 239 people on board. now, "scandal" is one of these popular shows in the u.s., but we can tell you about a real-life scandal in france that's threatening the job security of one the world's most influential women. the international monetary fund chief christine lagarde has now been placed under formal investigation. french prosecutors allege lagarde was neglect -- negligent, i should say, in dealing with a 2008 fraud case that rewarded a businessman more than half a billion dollars. lagarde says the investigation is without merit and her lawyer said she should not leave her post at the imf. >> translator: personally, i can see no reason for her to resign. it's a matter for her and her board. and i cannot speak either for her or for the members of the board. >> the scandal actually dates back more than 20 years and has

embroiled some of france's most famous politicians and executives including former french president nicolas sarkozy. all right. we turn to afghanistan now. and that war-torn country still in political limbo over allegations of fraud in the june 14th presidential runoff. on wednesday the two candidates pulled their representatives from a u.n. ballot ordered which had been set up to end the standoff. the dispute between candidates abdullah abdullah and ashraf ghani is threatening to revive ethnic violence in that country such as u.s.-led nato troops withdraw after a 13-year battle against the taliban. >> a lot happening in the world. and now we want to get to the world of weather. in northwest europe there is some severe storm. you've got tornadoes i guess that are pending as well. >> yeah, and we can find out more by turning to our meteorologist pedram javaheri. >> good news at this point no, reports of injuries or damage and no major impacts when it

comes to air travel but the storm system pretty easy to pick out here on satellite imagery. very pinwheel, symmetrical, organized feature as it begins to roar ashore across portions of the u.s., europe. been quite active. seen seen three reports of tornadoes or water spouts in the last 24 hours. one of them in eastern england across portions of chromer. a region that this portion of the uk notorious for getting small grade tornadoes. when you consider the size of the uk roughly a little larger than the u.s. state of idaho, this region sees 25 to 35 tornadoes per year, which is the highest number for the surface area of anywhere in the world. pretty impressive. but small kale, no major damage in place. wet weather certainly going to be an issue across in region. it is approaching the transitional portion of the year here where we begin to see temperatures cool off. the activity and the weather pattern also intensifying. the storms usually take the northern route and gradually start moving on to the south as

we approach the 21st day of september, the first day of autumn here across portions of the northern hemisphere. travel concerns very limited at this point from gatwick to heathrow in london. 15 to 30-minute delay. but generally because of a low ceiling set up across this region and your temperatures going to be in the mid 20s. 72 to 75 degrees fahrenheit very ideal for this time of year. very seasonal to say the least as well. you take a look, we do have flooding to tell you about that is taking place across portions of india, northeast india where the vast majority of the floods have taken place. this region is actually about 20% below normal in the rainfall department, but pretty impressive setup here as far as eastern india, portions of bangladesh. month of june, 40 inches of rainthal fa came down, or 1,000 millimeters. month of july, almost the same exact spot, almost 40 inches came down. in the month of august again another additional 1,000

millimeters, 40 inches in place. you do the numbers, it's about 120 inches that have come down, in spots even greater. and they are still deficient for rainfall when it comes to monsoons. it tells you what a remarkable portion of the world this is. >> thanks, pedram. coming up, just ahead, growing concerns over isis. u.s. officials say the militants have an alarming ability to learn and adapt both on the battlefield and online. plus, a child accidentally kills a weapons instructor at a shooting range. now everyone's asking, what's a 9-year-old girl doing with a machine gun? her hands? we're back in a moment. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america.

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leader of isis pleading for his release. sotloff is the other journalist shown in the isis video in which james foley was beheaded. isis says sotloff's life depends on the u.s. ending its air strikes on isis fighters in iraq. syrian rebels have captured the country's only crossing into the israeli-occupied golan heights. a syrian opposition group says 20 government soldiers and four rebels were killed in the fighting. israel says stray fire wounded a military officer in israeli-controlled territory. the head of the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention says the ebola outbreak across west africa is worse than expected. the deadly virus has killed nearly 1,500 people. air france decided wednesday to suspend all flights to sierra leone. the french government asked the carrier to stop flying to the capital, freetown. and now to iraq, where the u.s. is considering expanding its air strikes and humanitarian

aid drops as isis fighters advanced in northern parts of the country. weeks of isis attacks have forced many to flee the town of amerli, that's north of baquba. the united nations now fears a possible massacre of the thousands of shia turkmen still trapped there. >> and to the north near erbil the u.s. says it carried out three new air strikes on isis targets wednesday. the region's kurdish peshmerga fighters are battling the sunni militants on the ground but say they need more help. >> now our equipment with isis is not equal. there's no balance between, you know, our forces and their forces. we don't have a problem with manpower, but we have a problem with equipment. with weapons, with ammunition. fortunately now we're receiving, but it's not enough. we need more and we need more air strike to be able to defeat isis. >> now, there's rampant

speculation about the prospects of u.s. military intervention in syria to fight isis. a research fellow at the new america foundation says it needs to happen and he's confident it will. barak bartfi talked to me. >> the united states has no choice but into the veen in the syrian conflict that president obama has tried to avoid at all costs. we've seen stepped up intelligence gathering. we're talking about drone surveillance in the syrian air. and soon we're going to see air strikes based on a large coalition not only of western nations but local regional arab allies as well. >> but those kinds of coalitions are things that are always discussed in middle east conflicts. the suggestion that maybe arab states should do more. the criticism that the u.s. didn't get behind some of the resistance in syria early enough as far as arming them. how difficult would it be to get a type of coalition together

enough -- especially when you consider iraq and its fractured government, to really take on i isis? >> we know european allies, specifically france and england want to sign on. we know the qataris and saudis have been funding the opposition and they want to get involved as well. but basically it's going to be an american operation. even though we're going to have a coalition. it's the same thing we saw in 1990 during the first iraq invasion. it was a large coalition but it was basically a fig leaf sought americans could come in and do what they had to do. >> why are you so confident that the americans will go ahead with the strategy of continued air strikes, let's say, maybe in syria and continued efforts to stamp out isis? >> well, the writing is on the wall. the president has spoken about it. we know senior defense officials are now traveling in the region to sound out the allies. we know that the united states has put in a number of special forces in iraq to monitor the

situation, to gather intelligence and it's just a matter of time before we effect that and operate on that intelligence. >> how much time, do you think? >> it's going to take a few weeks. we believe that nothing will happen before the september nato summit where the united states can talk with its western allies about the strategy. so we should see sometime in september or october some type of action. >> and how long do you think that action would take before we saw noticeable results? he. >> the problem is air power does not win conflicts. we know this from many conflicts in history. what the united states is going to try to do, it's going to try to degrade isis's capabilities to allow the so-called modern opposition to move against isis. it's going to be basically a multipronged attack. >> a glitch there. barak barfi speaking to me earlier today. >> as the white house weighs its options to contain the spiraling

influence of isis in iraq, the jihadist group is growing in strength across the region. our brian todd looks at how the militants are toughening up their tactics on the battlefield. >> reporter: they're vicious, battle hardened and maybe most frighteningly, they learn fast. that's the word from u.s. officials, who tell cnn isis is getting better on the battlefield. one u.s. official says they show uncanny discipline. a pentagon official says isis is a learning, adapting, reacting organization. >> their battlefield discipline continues to surprise us, to show us that they're really a first-tier force, that they're trained. >> reporter: combat veteran douglas olivant says on the battlefield isis is likely using what he calls a react to contact drill. that means in a firefight they make initial contact against their enemy using the smallest number of fighters possible, maybe three or four. >> and then put down fire so that -- because those three or

four guys can then keep 20, 30 of the enemy focused on them. >> then ollivant says a larger group of isis fighters comes around, flanking the enemy on one side, finds a weakness, attacks it. >> this is something the u.s. army ranger regiment has really practiced for years. it's been their hallmark. >> reporter: and isis has demonstrated it has a powerful arsenal. an american howitzer cannon according to this video posted by isis, which claims they're firing on a military base in syria. and even unmanned aerial vehicles. this propaganda video shows aerial footage of a syrian military base and brags the drone is deployed from the army of the islamic state. the ranks of isis fighters are building in part due to their savvy use of social media. experts say their outside supporters use social media to help them recruit and promote. >> what makes it so powerful is there are hundreds of people out there on twitter, on facebook, on instagram that are forwarding their messages, disseminating them, republishing them.

>> reporter: and selling them. isis t-shirts, hoodies, even toys are market online by its supporters and sold in shops around the middle east. >> that all started with the now well-known black flag, which experts say is an important tool in the branding of isis. we've seen is this all over the areas they've captured including the mosul dam. one islamic scholar told us this is another isis distortion of islam. they've simply taken what's called the shahada, the declaration of faith in the koran, saying there is no god but god and mohammed is the messenger, they've placed it on a black background and created an enduring evil symbol. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> now, one thing brian mentioned there, building its infamy online has been central to isis recruitment tactics. the military group spread that gruesome video we remember showing the beheading of the american journalist james foley on various social media outlets. >> yeah, it's a move that sparked anger over how such

violent content gets posted in the first place. especially when there is technology available that can stop it. samuel burk reports. >> reporter: there's already technology to stop copyrighted songs, sporting event videos and child pornography from being uploaded to social media. a digital fingerprint identifies a piece of content and allows social networks to proactively find repeat instances from being published to their platforms. analysts say this very same technology, however, is not being used to stop the spread of videos and photos from groups like isis on the world's largest social networks. >> especially in the early stages of distribution basically what we're talking about is the same file being uploaded 500 different times. so it seems to me that that's pretty easy to stop. you know the size of the file. you know its properties. you can just automatically block it at the point of upload. >> reporter: there are clear legal and financial implications when it comes to copyrights and child pornography, but not so with extremist material.

twitter tells cnn that it uses what it calls photo dna to identify and report child sexual exploitation images. all other content removal is reported to us by users through forms on our site. then they decide whether to take it down, as they did with the gruesome images of the beheading of journalist james foley. youtube and facebook also rely on users to flag up material. they say they take on anything violating the policies listed on their websites. >> the difficulty with extremist material is for all of the social media platforms, social network platforms, it's trying to work out the point at which something is considered sufficiently extreme. >> reporter: analysts say social media companies are reluctant to use automated removal for that material because the current technology has a lard time distinguishing between a legitimate news story post bd the gruesome video and the original video posted by the jihadist. >> most of the social media platforms have a sort of philosophical objective to them

proactively searching out material and taking it down. they don't actually want to be responsible for the material. they would say we provide a platform, the users decide what goes on that. >> reporter: while some argue that trying to block isis will just drive it to other smaller social media sites experts say like the well-oiled pr machine at any major corporation isis clearly wants its message on the biggest social media networks to spread its propaganda to the largest audience possible. samuel burke, cnn, london. a short break now. and still to come, one of columbia's most feared killers is walking the streets a free man. after the break find out why he's already missing life behind bars. our "name your price" tool helps -- oh, jamie,

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now the mastermind behind more than 3,000 murders is

walking the streets a free man. but as rafael romo reports, this hitman says he's living in fear now that he's no longer behind bars. >> reporter: jhon jairo velasquez is a free man for the first time in 22 years. known simply as popeye, velasquez was released tuesday night from a prison northeast of bogota, colombia. he was the top hitman for drug lord pablo escobar during the '80s, the period known in colombia as the narco-terrorism era. he surrendered to authorities in 1992. "i doen'to anything to anybody, he said then. "i haven't done anything wrong." but in jailhouse interviews he admitted several times to killing about 300 people. he also confessed to masterminding the killings of more than 3,000 other people, most of them civilians. he was also responsible for a number of high-profile kidnappings, among them that of former colombian president andres pastrana. he personally apologized to pastrana two years ago in

prison. "i ask you for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart," he told pastrana, "for what the medellin cartel did, for risking your very important life." he also told pastrana he dismembered some of his victims, something he says he deeply regrets as a man who's turned his life to god. velasquez spent 22 years in prison, or 3/4 of a sentence for the murder of former presidential candidate luis carlos galan. the victim's son says he has already forgiven him. "he was sentenced for my father's murder," his son said. "he gave us the truth and asked for forgiveness. in my case i forgive him." velasquez told local media that he fears for his life as a free man and there's an 80% chance that his many enemies will kill him, especially those members of the medellin cartel whose names

and committed crimes he voluntarily disclosed to authorities. rafael romo, cnn. this is a tragic story. a 9-year-old girl from new jersey accidentally killed her instructor at a shooting range. a man who was teaching her how to fire a submachine gun. it's a shooting range where children as young as 8 can fire a weapon if they're with a parent or guardian. >> yeah. and this is stirring the debate over gun control and safety. you even have some gun advocates saying putting an uzi, of all things, in the hands of a 9-year-old is questionable, even if it is legal. tom foreman has more. >> one shot. all right. >> reporter: at the bullets and burgers gun range instructor charlie vacca is leaning over the 9-year-old girl telling her how to handle the uzi as she squeezes off a shot. then moments later she pulls the trigger for a burst of fire and the 9-millimeter submachine gun jumps toward vacca's head. he is mortally wounded. >> really don't know what

happened. our guys are trained to basically hover over people when they're shooting. if they're shooting right-handed, we have our right hand behind them ready to push the weapon out of the way. and the left hand the same way. >> developed in the 1950s the uzi can fire ten rounds per second at close to 900 miles an hour. in the hands of a skilled marksman can can be highly effective. but groups like the law center to prevent gun violence have long argued that guns in the hands of young people bring inherent risks. 28 states plus washington, d.c. have laws to prosecute adults who allow children unsupervised access to guns, but they point out such laws don't apply to supervised use. >> there might not be a law on the books but this is one of those situations where we think common sense should probably dictate our behaviors. and it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to give young children access particularly to very powerful automatic weapons.

>> reporter: still it's happened before. in 2008 an 8-year-old boy at a gun show in massachusetts shot himself in the head while firing an uzi. the former police chief who organized that show could have gone to prison for more than 20 years, but he was acquitted. and local authorities say so far in this latest incident charges will not be filed against anyone, calling the death the result of an industrial accident. tom foreman, cnn, washington. now, in many states there are gun enthusiasts. i spend a lot of time in arizona. there are many gun enthusiasts there. and in that state it is up to the gun range to decide whether or not to allow a minor to fire a gun. prior to the shooting the gun range where the accident took place allowed children between the ages of 8 and 17 to shoot a weapon if they were accompanied by a parent or guardian. according to cnn affiliate klas the shooting range has now changed that policy. minors will have to be 12 years or older and at least five feet tall to be allowed to fire a

weapon. all right. well, up next a real story of turning lemons into lemonade. wait till you hear what one jilted groom decided to do with the prepaid reception after his wedding was called off at the last minute. back in a moment. what does it mean to have an unlimited mileage warranty on a certified pre-owned mercedes-benz? what does it mean to drive as far as you want... for up to three years... and be covered? it means your odometer... is there to record... the memories. during the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event now through september 2nd, you'll get complimentary pre-paid maintenance and may qualify for a two-month payment credit. only at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. [ male announcer ] over time, you've come to realize... [ starter ] ready! [ starting gun goes off ] [ male announcer ] it's less of a race... yeah! [ male announcer ] and more of a journey.

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>> reporter: phil turned his prepaid wedding reception into a fund-raiser for surgicorps. >> it just snowballed into this massive event where we're getting tens of thousands of dollars in dojss, we're selling hundreds of tickets. >> once word got out his phone started ringing. >> gift baskets, donations. from $50 up to our largest was $12,000. >> houses at disney world, trips to cancun, internet packages and websites. >> i imagine this is going to be unlike most charity events out there. >> reporter: phil's sour split quickly sweetened into a labor of love. >> it makes you feel really good

that we're literally going to be changing a massive amount of kids' lives. it makes it almost feel like it's not the worst thing in the world, to cancel a wedding. >> reporter: this one break-up may in fact make up to $50,000 for children in need. >> i'm really excited to see what the end result of this is, which is all the smiling kids' faces. >> wonderful. >> good on him. >> wasn't what i was thinking. i would have called up all the exes and been like hey, it's off. i've got the reception hall. >> you really said that. >> just me? let's move on, shall we? >> let's do that. along the coast of southern california tropical storm marie is far offshore. the storm is kicking up some serious waves from north of los angeles down along the border with mexico. >> and we have to keep saying that as fun as it looks this is dangerous. lifeguards had to rescue more than 100 people in a single day. the national weather service has

issued beach hazard and high surf advisories. pay attention to those things. even pro surfer laird hamilton is taking precautions. >> we're just thankful we get to ride these waves. but i think everybody needs to be heads up right now. it's not a game. this is some serious stuff. and you know, somebody passed away last night down here. some people have been hurt. and it's something that you've just got to be -- you've got to have your respect for the ocean. >> as he said, it is not a game. and for more on what's pushing the big waves let's turn back to our meet roll jicht pedram javaheri, who joins us again for the international weather center with the details. some good advice from him too there. >> absolutely. that's one person you should listen to when it comes to what's happening out there, right? the conditions, though, across this portion of southern california, the storm system, as rosemary just told you, downgraded to a tropical storm. so it's certainly a shell of its former self, sitting out there across portions of the eastern -- western pacific now with about 900 miles away from southern california. winds 60 miles per hour. just falling apart as it moves

on in toward cooler waters. but this is what it looked like. from the international space station, reed wiseman, an astronaut on board snapping this photograph just a couple of days ago. this was a category 5 storm system sitting out there. that's the concern. we had wave heights 33 feet at that time. still sitting at 25 feet over the open waters. and even though the storm system itself has weakened it has already put the water in motion ahead of it and that's the concern right here across coastal california, some of those communities south facing, also southeast-facing beaches really going to be impacted by this. look at the scenes here coming out of southern california. you saw the waves 10, 15 feet. in a few areas reports of 20 feet have occurred. last time we had something like this associated with a tropical feature it was hurricane linda. we had monster waves back in 1997. a very similar storm system with linda. wave heights upwards of 30 feet at that time. and again the high surf advisories are in place through friday. we know malibu pier has been closed. look at the areas here as the barriers have been put up on the coast across portions of seal

beach, folks gathering on the pier looking down at the waves. that's kind of the safer place you want to be. you take a look. the very expensive coastal property, that's you view you have in some of these beaches face the waters the next couple of days. and the forecast again goes to improving in the next couple of days. but this is what you're looking at from santa barbara toward ventura all the way down portions of even long beach where wave heights could be upwards of 15 feet in a few areas or about 3 to 4 1/2 meters. kind of a storm system again here that's moving away from the coastline and believe it or not on the other side of the united states we have cristobal doing the exact same thing and also sitting about 900 miles away, in this case from new york city. so as we approach labor day weekend, we have rip currents on the eastern united states as a threat with a storm that's not directly impacting the u.s. and marie also indirectly impacting the u.s. with its surf out there on the coast of california. and there's a disturbance in the gulf of mexico as well that is causing some issues. all of these storms not hitting the u.s. but certainly making its impacts felt.

guys? >> all sorts of systems there. appreciate it. it is that time of the year again for what's being called the world's biggest food fight. take a look. oh, look at the crazy people, huh? this is the scene wednesday at the analyst tomatina festival in spain. >> the colorful spectacle begins when several trucks begin in trucks of overripe tomatoes, or tomatoes, as our american viewers say. participants stomp, throw, and even eat the tomatoes. similar celebrations also take place in other parts of spain. >> it's messy. it's crazy. it looks like so much fun. i'd definitely do that. would you jump in there? >> oh, absolutely. that looks like fun. and that does it for this hour of cnn's special koefrnlg. i'm rosemary church. isa soares joins errol after the break. >> been a pleasure to be with you. enjoy your weekend. but do stay with us at the top of the hour. we'll hear from a man who's made a living negotiating ransom payments with extremist groups. why he says the mother of an american journalist is taking

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