good evening. thanks for watching this extended version of ac 360. chief national security correspondent jim sciutto joins us with late developments. what do you hear about u.s. air strikes. they're near baghdad, how near? >> very close, just southwest of the city in a strongly sunni area that's been a stronghold for isis fighters. in fact, for sunni insurgents going back ten years.

that's one place. they also struck an isis convoy in the north in sinjar. what's different about these is these are the first strikes since the president announced expanded military operations in iraq and outside those original two very limited categories, one of protecting u.s. personnel in iraq and, two, protecting minorities who came under threat from isis. in the beginning, u.s. officials tell me, of a more aggressive phase in the air strike campaign. >> let's talk about the coalition that the u.s. is trying to assemble to fight isis. >> you have public commitments coming through. you have australia sending fighter jets as well as military advisers. canada's sending military advisers. you have the french agreeing to not only surveillance flights but also to carry out air strikes. france did not come on board with the 2003 invasion. and then from arab countries, you have private commitments. i'm told pi senior u.s. military official that more than one arab country has agreed to carry out

so-called kinetic activity. these are air strikes against isis positions, but what you're going to see, you won't see the arab nations advertising that support. there's too much disagreement and criticism at home, but i am told they are coming on board. that said, you know, the u.s. is really going to be doing the lion's share of this from the air with iraqi and kurdish forces doing the bulk of the work on the ground. >> even european nations, france has paid isis ransom for some of their hostages. so they're going to partake, but it's the u.s. really leading the way on this thing? >> no question. leading the way from the air, leading the way with leading this coalition, leading the way with the investment of military assets. once again the u.s. finds itself in the lead in a war in iraq. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. one woman's personal and legal nightmare has been going on for more than a decade that began when she got behind the wheel of her car, that car recalled by gm for a problem that could make some of them

dangerous and in some cases deadly. 100 people have put in death and injury claims against general motors. today the lawyer hired to handle the compensation claims says the number has risen and is pekted to rise again. as you will see in poppy harlow's report money may be the least of her problems. >> the past ten years i have been in form of a prison. >> reporter: michael erickson was candice anderson's first love. >> i can still hear his laugh, big laughter. >> reporter: and rhonda erickson's only child. >> there's gifts on the wall that he gave me. he's everywhere in this house. >> reporter: the father of two young daughters, sierra and savannah. >> he'll never walk them down the aisle. he'll never -- he can't go see their ball games and their

achievements. >> reporter: november 15th, 2004, everything changed. candice and her boyfriend michael are in a major car crash. candice is behind the wheel and is severely injured. michael doesn't survive. >> i was through the windshield on the hood of the car and his face was face down in my lap. >> reporter: candice anderson pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide. only this year a decade later she learned it may not have been all her fault. you were being prosecuted as a murderer. what did people in this town call you? >> i've been told a couple of times point blank to my face that i was a murderer, that i killed him. >> reporter: candice could not have been prouder the day she bought her brand new 2004 saturn

ion. >> this one right here. >> reporter: this is the tree you hit? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: less than nine months later it crashed on this east texas country road. >> that was the day that my old life ended. two police cars and a neighbor pulled up in my yard. and you kind of know what that is, a mother does. and it's just like your whole world crashes right there. >> reporter: the police report says neither candice nor michael was wearing a seat belt. the air bags did not deploy. do you ever have moments where you think why did i survive? >> oh, yeah, i've felt that way the whole ten years. >> reporter: after the crash xanax was found in candice's system. she was not prescribed the drug but said she took one pill the night before. candice's intoxication resulted in the accident. >> i did have a minimal amount of xanax.

that's not a question. do i think i was intoxicated that day? no, i wasn't intoxicated. >> reporter: but the authorities disagreed and she was indicted on a felony charge of intoxication manslaughter facing up to 20 years in prison. later she pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide, a felony and was sentenced to five years probation and fined. but just this year gm recalled millions of cars for a defective ignition switch which can suddenly turn the engine off while driving, disabling the air bags, power steering and anti-lock brakes. candice' 2004 saturn ion was one of those. at least 19 people died as a result, but gm won't release those names to the public. after news of the recalls, michael's mother contacted the national highway traffic safety administration who told her that her son is one of those deaths. >> they let somebody else take

the blame for something that they knew at that time was their fault. >> reporter: gm replied to that allegation saying it is putting the customer and their safety first. you may never have known. >> i don't believe i ever would have known. >> reporter: did gm ever reach out to you? did you ever tell you? >> i still haven't heard from them. >> reporter: in fact, as this all dragged on for candice andersen, there is proof that general motors saws signs of the problem and didn't fix it. the same year as candice's crash gm was investigating ignition switchoffs. they didn't identify it as a safety issue and didn't fix it. they called it, quote, a convenience issue. in 2006 as candice was indicted and faced 20 years in prison, gm's own document show the defective switch was improved

but those investigating the cause of the crashes weren't told about the changes, delaying them for years from getting to the root of the problem and from recalling the cars they should have. in 2007 the same year candice pleaded guilty to felony charges, gm did their own special investigation into her crash calling it unusual and noted the air bags should have deployed. but candice and michael's mother say gm never told them. despite all these warning signs, gm didn't issue a recall for the defective switch until this year. while gm acknowledges widespread incompetence and neglect, the company says there was no cover-up. >> i'm fighting for my justice. i want vindication. i want them to say -- you know, i want people to know that it was the car and it wasn't me. >> reporter: the state trooper who arrived at the scene of the crash filed intoxication

manslaughter charges against candice. >> i think it's important not to gloss over any mistakes that were made or any wrong that might have been done. the corporation withholds information and that results in unsafe conditions, that's terrible. but there was still an individual driving while intoxicated. >> reporter: while he says it would be his duty to file the same charges today he believes candice may not have even been prosecuted if they knew her car was defective. >> it may have changed everything for candice, and it may have changed everything for michael. >> reporter: and candice has lived with immense guilt over michael's death for nearly ten years. >> my name is candice anderson and i'm a survivor of the gm defect. >> reporter: now her fight is to get that conviction off her record. and she's got some in washington on her side. >> will you recommend to the governor of texas that he pardon ms. anderson? >> we will provide information

to support that decision, but i don't think it's -- it's not something that i think is appropriate for me to do. i don't have all the facts of the case. >> with all due respect, that answer, really is unworthy of gm. i hope you'll think more about it. this is a young woman whose life has really been changed as a result of a perversion of the justice process as a result of gm knowing and concealing that she was innocent. >> reporter: now even the former district attorney who prosecuted anderson is fighting for her. in a letter recommending a full pardon she writes, it is my opinion that no action or omission of ms. anderson was the cause of the accident. she also writes if she had all the evidence from gm, she would have stopped the prosecution.

every november 15th candice anderson comes here. there's no headstone yet. rhonda erickson hasn't been able to bring herself to lay one. >> it's not an easy task. it's like, you know, letting go of all the pieces. >> reporter: gm's ceo mary barra has apologized to victims and their families. >> i'm deeply sorry. >> reporter: a victim fund has been set up. they've applied for payment from that and for now have put their lawsuit against gm on hold, but they may still sue gm in the future. do you think that some individuals at general motors should be criminally prosecuted? >> i was. because of my negligence. i think that if a 21-year-old girl is charged with negligent homicide and has to go through the motions, that there should be held criminally responsible. i do. i do believe that.

>> unbelievable story. poppy harlow joins us now. ten years of her life taken. her love of her life taken. this mother lost a child. let's talk about this intoxication that she was charged with. she had no alcohol in her system. >> none. >> she had taken one xanax the night before and this happened around noon the next day. >> it is. so technically 1.2 milligrams per liter of xanax. that means nothing to us. to the law, there's no legal limit for xanax. a police officer can determine if you're impaired or not. what es your tolerance, how much do you weigh, how much did you eat? but as you heard in the piece they said if they'd known that the car was possibly defective, they would never have prosecuted her. >> she did plead guilty. >> she did. and we asked her why because we looked through the paperwork, the pretrial paperwork, and she had indicated on it that she was going to plead not guilty.

but she was 20 years old. she was facing 20 years possibly in prison and her advice from her attorney was to take the deal five years probation, pay a fine, but have a permanent felony on your record. that is better than possibly going to jail for up to 20 years. so that's why she said she did plead guilty. now she's still fighting, she still has this felony on her record. >> if they didn't have the information about this vehicle, she could have gone to prison. >> she could have gone to prison. now they'll put the request through the courts. they can pardon her. the governor can pardon her or they might not. >> we'll keep following that. amazing story. adrian peterson talking about the child abuse charge he is facing as the vikings okay him to play.

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new developments in the

adrian peterson story. people have been talking ever since a texas dprand jury indicted him on a child abuse charge. this is what he did to his son with a switch. a tree branch. the child is just 4 years old. it included cuts on his thighs, buttocks as well as his scrotum. the vikings cleared him to play next weekend. at the same time peterson, through his lawyer, released a statement saying he did what he did out of love and according to the way he himself was raised. now it's a style of parenting that many say they recognized and actually lived through whether they endorse it now or not. >> this is the 21st century. she did the best she could, but she was wrong about some of that stuff she taught me. i promised my kids, i won't teach that mess to them. you can't beat a kid to make them do what they want to do. the only thing i'm proud about is the team that i played for, they did the right thing. >> yes. >> take him off the field.

i don't care. we're in a climate right now, i don't care what it is. take them off the danggone field. becauses a a man that's the only thing we really respect. we don't respect no women. we don't respect no kids. the only thing roger and them do, take them off the field, because they respect that. >> some of the reaction of sports television. plenty more playing out. more on this story now from ed lavandera. >> reporter: the pictures are startling, skin lacerations inflicted by adrian peterson on his 4-year-old son. the professional football star called it a whoopin', using a thin tree branch 10 to 15 times. texas prosecutors say it is child abuse. >> a grand jury indicting in case looked at the injuries inflicted upon the choild and determined that this discipline was not reasonable and did not reflect the community standard of what was reasonable discipline. >> reporter: we've also learned new detail of text messages peterson allegedly sent the boy's mother in minnesota after the lashing.

the lashing. peterson wrote he felt bad after the fact when i noticed the switch was wrapping around hitting thigh. another text was more graphic. got him in the nuts once i noticed. but i felt so bad. i'm all tearing that butt up when needed. i start putting them in time-out for future whoopings. never do i go overboard but all my kids will know daddy has the biggie heart but don't play no games when it comes to acting right. nick wright is a sports radio talk show host in houston where peterson lives part of the year. he's familiar with the new and extensive details in the peterson police report. according to wright, the incident happened after the little boy had pushed another of peterson's children off of a motorcycle video game. >> he called it a standard whooping. he said the only parts of this that was different than usual was when the switch wrapped around the child's leg and cut the child's leg. and the one that

hit the child on the genitals. aside from that, he was asked by police, are the marks on the child worse than usual. and he said on his butt, no. he said on his butt, that's what a whooping is. >> reporter: wright says the little boy also told police that he was scared of his father, that he was often punished in what the boy described as the whooping room. and his father had lots of belts. he talked about his father putting leaves in his mouth while he was lashed. he spoke with investigators in a 40-minute phone conversation where he justified disciplining his son with this kind of force. >> you listen to the audio of adrian peterson with the police, and he comes across honestly as a loving parent who truly believes he was doing what was right for his son, who feels badly about two specific unintentional injuries. adrian peterson is very self-assured that he not only loves his children but that this type of discipline -- at least he sounded self-assured at the

time that this discipline was necessary and this type of discipline was more mild than the discipline he received that helped turn him into the man that he is today. >> reporter: in a statement adrian peterson wrote that after meeting with a psychologist there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate. i am, without a doubt not a child abuser. after missing only one game, the minnesota vikings announce that adrian peterson will be back on the football field this coming weekend. >> what else did he say when he spoke to investigators? >> nick wright told us that he made that phone call and that adrian peterson said today he spoke with investigators over the phone for about 40 minute ors so. he said in his statement, he did this against the advice of his attorney. but he also did mention that this wasn't the only time that he'd doled out a severe punishment to this son during that visit back in may. it was according to nick wright and what he was able to gather

from the information at hand is that the authorities didn't know about that second punishment, but adrian peterson told them about it. up next the bottom line impact of this and the ray rice story on peterson, rice and the nfl. ♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen.

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the ray rice and adrian

peterson cases have had a major effect. bud selig says the league and the players union have scheduled a meeting this week to talk about domestic violence policy in the wake of the scandal. they don't have one. how the ray rice incident will affect the nfl will remain to be seen but it's had a huge impact on nfl fans and sportcasters. here's what hannah storm said yesterday. >> one of my daughters has her first fantasy football team this season, but at breakfast this week instead of discussing how her team was doing, we watched the ray rice video play out again in all its ugliness. i spent this week answering seemingly impossible questions about the league's biggest stars. mom, why did he do that? why is he in jail? why didn't he get fired? and yesterday, why don't they even have control of their own players? so here's a question. what does all of this mean for the future? >> rice has lost major

sponsorships. but the league as a whole still has a lot of money coming in from some of the biggest companies in the country. at least one ad campaign targeting women has been targeted. >> reporter: a black eye on one of the nfl's big sponsors, an ad for cover girl's nfl game day makeup line mocked up to look like this. the altered picture going viral. it speaks to the outrage a lot of fans are feeling but don't expect the nfl's sponsors to join the chorus. >> this kind of thing really doesn't put pressure. it's the kind of thing we see constantly these days. people can be very creative in what they ultimately put on the internet, but it really does not have an adverse effect on the nfl or on the sponsors. >> reporter: the nfl is the richest sports league in the world. raking in 10.5 billion last year. commissioner roger goodell earns more than any of his star players. in 2012 alone he made over 44

million. despite controversy surrounding four star players in the last two weeks, two key sponsors are voicing their support for the commissioner and the league. verizon ceo lowell mcadams saying we're very supportive of the nfl and we'll wait and see how the facts play out here. but at this point i'm satisfied with the actions they've taken. this statement from pepsico. domestic violence is completely unacceptable. we're encouraged to see the nfl is now treating this with the seriously it deserves. big name companies including fedex, anheuser-busch, microsoft and procter & gamble. the company owning cover girl. sponsorship deals for an individual player, however, can get pulled quickly. nike and ea sports, the makers of the madden video game apruptly ending endorsement deals with ray rice after video

was released hf him knocking out his then-fiancee janay palmer. they're taking steps to show that they're responding in a serious way to instances involving violence. they've hired four women to help shape their domestic violence policy. that hasn't silenced the cries from advocacy groups like ultraviolet which flew banner planes over nfl stadiums saying goodell must go. but for now it may be giving big-time sponsors enough confidence to stay in business with the league. ray rice now faces professional and financial punishment. he'll not, however, face any additional legal sanctions. he went through a pretrial diverse program for first-time offenders. not everyone gets that chance. the question is does celebrity play a part in who does? here raps a story from the exact same jurisdiction, exact same prosecutor but a very different outcome. randi kaye explains.

>> reporter: shaneen allen was driving in new jersey when she was stopped by police for a simple traffic violation. in the car with her, her brand new handgun. >> i went in my purse to give them my license and my registration, i also gave him my license to carry with it. that's why i told him i have my firearm on me. >> reporter: trouble is, shaneen's license to carry was for her home state of pennsylvania, just across state lines from where she was pulled over in new jersey. she says she had no idea it didn't transfer state to state. she had just bought the gun a week earlier after being mugged. still, this single mother of two was handcuffed and arrested on the spot. charged with both illegal possession of a firearm and possession of hollow-point ammunition. she's now facing more than 11 years in prison. how worried are you about going to prison? >> very worried. i'm worried every minute, every day.

i have to worry about where my kids are going to go, what's going to happen to them. >> reporter: this is the man looking to put shaneen in prison, atlantic county prosecutor jim mcclain, the very same man who chose not to prosecute baltimore ravens star ray rice. rice was charged in the same county with aggravated assault. he pleaded not guilty and applied for a special intervention program that gives arrestees a chance to wipe their record clean. in may, prosecutor mcclain approved rice for that program. the pretrial intervention program or pti allows first-time offenders to avoid prison and probation. those that get accepted have to get counseling, do community service, and stay out of trouble. once the program is complete, all charges are dropped. rice was facing up to five years in prison when he got into the program. shaneen is facing more than double that. yet a month before clearing ray rice for the program, prosecutor

mcclain refused shaneen's request to enter the same program. why do you think the prosecutor denied you access into the program? >> he's trying to be tough on guns. he's using me as an example. the pti program was for first-time offenders like me and that's what i should have got. >> reporter: prosecutor mcclain declined our request for an interview. but his office gave us this statement. mr. rice received the same treatment by the criminal justice system in atlantic county that any first-time offender has in similar circumstances. adding, the decision was correct. are you angry? >> very, very angry. i'm frustrated. i think that our situation should be switched. i should have got pti and he should have got years in prison. so he definitely got a pass. >> now we're learning the prosecutor is going to take another look at shaneen's case. he sent this letter dated

september 12th, just friday, addressed to the superior court judge telling him that he, the prosecutor is, quote, reviewing our office's position on the appropriate resolution of this matter. the prosecutor is asking for three weeks time to review everything. and for the court to delay the start of the trial and any pretrial hearings. the trial was supposed to start the first week in october. maybe he's caving to all the attention and the pressure this case is getting due to the ray rice connection, or maybe not. but shaneen allen certainly has hope for the first time in nearly a year. >> joining me mark geragos and sunny hostin. it is remarkable. this is a woman who had a legal right to carry this gun. she had a permit. she crossed the state line just a few miles. didn't realize her mistake. >> right. >> and she told the police officer about the weapon. it wasn't as if she was trying to hide this weapon. she doesn't get a diversion program? >> it's remarkable. i've been saying this from the very beginning. i feel like i'm sounding like a

broken record, right? bottom line is domestic violence cases are rarely, rarely placed in these pretrial intervention programs. i've prosecuted these case. they don't kaufl. when you look at the law in new jersey, it's clear that this type of violation is ineligible for the pti program absent the prosecutor's waiver. there's no question this was celebrity justice. everyone knows it. i don't think that they'd say otherwise. >> ray rice gets a deal with no jail time. his record can be wiped clean and this woman is facing up to ten years. >> well, do you want me to tell you what's really going on here? >> yeah, tell me what's really going on. >> ray rice, if that video had been leaked by tmz prior to the situation when he went to court, he never would have gotten the pretrial diversion program. it's not because he was a celebrity. it's because of the media

attention. this poor woman, and i agree with sunny, she is a poor woman. she's a poster child for somebody who should have gone flu the pretrial. the only reason now that it looks like -- and i'll guess that they'll give her pretrial diversion now, they'll wake up and have an epiphany is because of media attention. it's not so much the celebrity, it's when the media puts their focus on mg. that's why i laugh when lawyers say i'm not going to try my case in the media. i say that's malpractice per se. in both of these cases, the manipulation or the failure of the media is what caused this. >> mark, you don't believe that ray rice, because he's a famous football player, that he got treated differently than if he'd been a nonathlete had had beat his wife unconscious in a public elevator in a major casino in atlantic city? >> with a video. >> if there was no tape, the elevator tape, which is when you see the strike and you've got

the wife, you know, the fiancee then wife coming in there and saying, no i started it, i did this or that. that's not unusual. sunny will tell you, i think, that in most of these domestic violence cases and i've handled thousands of them, frankly. they're kind of, unfortunately, one of the crimes that clog up the criminal justice system it. seems like at least in my experience, 95% of the time the girlfriend or the wife ends up recanting. not only that i can't tell you how many times they're the ones that come into my office and want to hire me to represent the husband/boyfriend. a symbiotic and sometimes enabling relationship. >> but mark, you have to agree that the prosecutors had this videotape when they allowed him to enter into the pretrial intervention program. that videotape is something that prosecutors were trying domestic violence cases rarely have. the fact that they had that

video yet still allowed him to enter into that pretrial intervention program has nothing to do with media coverage. it has everything to do with the fact that he's a famous football player. >> i'm just telling you sunny that isn't the case because i've seen it with people who are not famous. you know, i do have a practice that involves nonfamous, noncelebrity or noninfamous people. a lot of times if there's no media attention and you've got a purported victim who is not yelling or screaming bloody murd murder, that's how these things get disposed of. >> we'll definitely follow the case of this woman to see what happens to her. if media attention is going the make a difference, what's happened to her seems stunning to me. mark, i appreciate it, sunny as well. isis has captured a third hostage british aid worker david hanes.

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another family is going through the unthinkable. their loved one beheaded by isis. the third captured killed by isis terrorists. we're starting to hear from david haines family. what have they been saying so far? >> they live in perth just north of here, just in the foothills of the scottish mountains. david haines daughter bethany, a young teenager, she wrote on her facebook page today some very emotional words. this is what she said. i was really touched by the messages of support coming at this hard time. i know my dad would be really

touched and grateful. now, she's not the only one from the family who has spoken out. we were there in perth today. this is a town where david haines went to school. he's known by many people there. his brother mike lives not far away. and his brother's also spoken very emotionally saying that he knows that not all muslims are to blame for this, that this isn't the real islam. and he described his brother as a very loving person. but he himself couldn't automatically react with hate towards his killers. this is what he said. >> my first reaction could be one of hatred, but my brother's life wasn't about hatred. it was about love for all men. he tried to be a better man. he tried to account for his mistakes in previous life

through good work. >> a very emotional time for the family. i watched the raw recording of that interview with his brother -- david's brother, mike. he struggles -- mike struggles many, many times to get his message across, breaking down, but he really wanted to get the idea across the people just the kind of person, the caring person his brother was, anderson. >> i read about david haines' career. he'd spent a lot of time in a lot of dangerous places taking great risk to help other people. what do we hear about what he was doing inside syria? >> we know he was working on an aid convoy trying to assist them in setting up a new refugee camp. at that refugee camp that he was returning from the camp on the day of his capture, returning back towards the turnish border, not far from the border when gunmen closed in on his vehicle and very quickly and skillfully removed him from the vehicle, took him away. and that was it.

this was year and a half ago march last year. his local mp who i talked with in perth today told me that many people in the town from the school that he went to remember him as being a very caring and helpful person, someone who always reached out. he described the town of perth as feeling diminished. he said david was a hero for this, that the people of the town respected him for his sellish humanitarian giving, the work that he'd done. >> nic robertson, just so terrible. as the fbi looks for a former resident of boston. there's new communication with how they communicate with each other and the codes they use. >> reporter: the boston man wanted for questioning in connection with isis and its grisly propaganda spoke frequently with friends about waging jihad against america and its troops. they often spoke in code according to court documents.

culinary school was code for training camps. peanut butter and jelly, code for jihad. he talks to another english speaker apparently in somalia who tells him to come fight. >> right now in culinary school, i just make peanut butter and jelly. >> all right. >> the phone call recordings were introduced in mehanna's terror trial. pakistan was referred to as p-town and yemen was the ymca and the other man referred to was bob or brian. listen again to meha in,nna ask unidentified friend for his e-mail address? >> actually, i'm not even on the internet. trust me, there's no way i'm going to be on the internet. not that there isn't some here, but where i am right now, no. >> they traveled to yemen together in 2004. initially telling u.s.

authorities they were going to check out schools. prosecutors say they were unable to find a training camp in yemen. however, he allegedly traveled to fallujah in iraq in february 2004 during u.s. fighting there. two years later he was studying computer science at the university of massachusetts in boston when fbi agents questioned him about his travel. he left weeks later and fled to syria. his buddy tarek mehanna never traveled there although his other friend encouraged him to wage jihad. >> immediately. >> look, look i'm going to give you advice and i have to let you go real quick. do it now. >> deborah feyerick, new york. >> just ahead, a crackdown on christianity in china. churches and crosses torn from the skyline in eastern china leading to protests now clashes between christians and police.

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something to look out for when reporting this next topic as aired on cnn international over the last few days. chinese censors have actually blacked it out. the box that is in the bottom of the screen is actually this program several seconds delayed that's airing in china right now. now, just for interest, you can keep your eye on that throughout the program and see what actually happens. in the past they've censored us and it's gone to black. they might do it again.

they might censor us again tonight. the story goes -- and we've just gone to black in china. so we're no longer being seen in china. the story concerns religious freedom or we should say the lack of it. christian leaders in eastern china say they are facing the worst persecution in decades as the government destroys churches and tears down crosses. now exclusive video shows police clashing with church members. cnn international correspondent david mckenzie reports. >> reporter: extraordinary scenes of defiance in the middle nief of the night. a church congregation barricading themselves in from hundreds of riot police. it's happening in wenzhou known as the jernusalem of china wher for months the government has demolished scores of churches and torn down hundreds of crosses. >> translator: what the government here is doing is so

barbaric today we're seeing the fundamental symbol of our faith violated, and it hurts us deep inside our hearts. >> reporter: chen zhai is a respected church leader in wen xiao. he says the faithful now live in fear. in this amateur video obtained by cnn the salvation church security camera footage, police brutally beat the faithful and drag them away. still, christians here aren't backing down. >> for more than two months they had people here day and night 24/7 guarding the gates of this church to stop the communist party from coming in and tearing down their cross. >> reporter: "i'm going to hold the cross in my arms and protect it," says this man. "we didn't steal. we didn't rob. we didn't take drugs. what did we do?" through state media local authorities say they are targeting all illegal structures. but party documents show that

churches are a focus. church leaders say their crime was to become too numerous, too intimidating for a party long suspicious of the faithful. recent research shows that there could soon be more christians than communist party members. and in 15 years more christians in china than anywhere else. facts disputed by the party. chen says that christians have no interest in politics. but he has a warning. >> translator: the law enforcers are breaking the law themselves. if they keep doing things this way, there's a saying, those who play with fire will get burned. >> reporter: after violent clashes, salvation church members pushed back the police. but they came back with reinforcements several weeks later and stripped the church of its cross. still the devout say they won't stop believing here because

their faith is too strong. >> and david mckenzie joins me now live from china. i believe we're still probably being censored in china. again, we'll check on that during this. david, do we know how many churches have been shut down, how often has this occurred so far? >> reporter: well, it's happened a great deal, and it's happened for several months, anderson, really throughout this year. and scores of churches have been demolished by the party in that region of china. and as i reported, more than 300 crosses torn down. they say this is about illegal structures, but there are a lot of strange buildings in that province. it's actually quite well known for it. why would you go to the trouble of getting a team in there and breaking down a cross, which is really the symbol of criticism' faith? now, party leaders say it's just because of the reasons i've stated. but the churchgoers say they're doing this on purpose, to

intimidate christians, to show who's really boss in china. the communist party. and clearly they're intimidated. >> david mckenzie, thanks very much. we'll continue following it. just ahead tonight, hillary and bill clinton went to a picnic. see why that fact made the world of 2016 presidential politics suddenly become a lot more interesting. we'll be right back. tempur-pedic for awhile,so a but now that we have the adjustable base, it's even better. [alex] when i put my feet up on this bed, my stress just goes away. [evie] i go up...heeeeyyy... [donna]our tempur-pedic is the best thing in our house, 'cept for my husband. [lauren] wait,wait,where are you going? [announcer] visit your local retailer and discover how tempur-pedic can move you. for over 19 million people. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most.

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i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years, that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ more happening tonight. susan hendricks has a "360" bulletin.

susan? >> reporter: anderson, north korea has sentenced 24-year-old american matthew miller to six years of hard labor for committing hostile acts. u.s. state department officials responded by calling for the immediate release of miller and fellow american kenneth bae, who is serving a 15-year sentence. they also asked for amnesty for jeffrey fowl, an american tourist who was arrested in june. violence continues in ukraine despite a cease-fire deal. shelling in the steve donetsk on sunday killed six civilians and wounded 15 others. russia's foreign minister says the cease-fire seems to be holding in general and that moscow is ready to work toward lasting peace. well, hillary clinton was in iowa for the first time since her failed presidential run, attending a steak fry fund-raiser for democrats over the weekend. her husband, you know who he is, bill clinton at her side. she didn't flat out say she will run again in 2016, but she did chat with reporters, stirring up even more speculation. and a dutch artist has learned this the hard way. never let chainsaws near your giant rabbit. as the saying goes.

chainsaws are suspected to set that off, that fire that damaged the giant rabbit. workers were trying to take it down because of a typhoon. so it looks like the rabbit was in trouble either way. >> strange story. all right, susan, thanks very much. that does it for us. thanks for watching. we'll see you again at 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight for another edition of "360." "cnn tonight" starts now. good evening, everyone. this is "cnn tonight." i'm alisyn cammarata. don lemon is on assignment. we have breaking news for you tonight. bombs raining down closer than ever to baghdad as the u.s. battles isis. we'll bring you the latest on those air strikes. plus all the developments in the case of vikings star adrian peterson, charged with abusing his 4-year-old son. peterson says he was just disciplining the boy. according to tmz, this was the result. so where do you draw the line when it comes to disciplining a child? do parents have the right to decide? or are there universal red flags of