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tv   CNNI Simulcast  CNN  October 12, 2014 12:00am-1:01am PDT

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>> in rich's case taylor has given him a reason to want to stay young. and in many ways that's better than sex. a power full cyclone makes landfall in eastern india. residents there facing punishing conditions for the next several hours. we'll have a live report. in the middle east, a relentless assault for control of the strategic city of kobani. a u.n. envoy now warns of a possible large scale massacre if people are not evacuated quickly. and liberia's health care workers hit the breaking point and make a threat as they struggle with the ebola epidemic. we welcome our viewers around the united states and the world. you are watching cnn. i'm george howell here at the cnn center in atlanta. powerful storms are hitting
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parts of asia hard. the most intense cyclone is here. it's causing extensive damage. hundreds of thousands of people are forced to leave their homes ahead of the storm. there's a powerful storm in japan, vongfong. it is expected to hit the country's southern mainland today. on saturday it blew through okinawa injuring at least 25 people. derek van dam has been tracking it in the international weather center. where do we start? >> all eyes are on the east coast of india at the moment, including the eye wall of the tropical cyclone. this is the latest radar coming from the region. you can see the eye wall. this is edging closer to the main land of india. it's located right here. it should be feeling the brunt of the strongest winds be as we
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speak. now we'll get a lull in the winds as the eye passes over but the winds will pick right back up again and it couldn't be worst timed as this is timed with high tide so we'll look at coastal flooding as a major concern. you can see the latest satellite imagery. this storm is massive. 205 kilometer per hour sustained winds. that makes it equivalent to a category 3 hurricane if it was in the atlantic basin. this is the current winds around the center of tropical cyclone hudhud. the tropical force winds is right there over the northern state and continues to move inland. this is quite a rain maker. hopefully we can bring up the visuals out of this particular region because we do have some storm damage out of that area. heavy rain, uprooted trees on roadways knocking out power,
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halting transport service around the area. 150,000 people have been evacuated ahead of this storm to prevent injuries. they've been brought to shelters and relief centers. global disaster report. that's the gdas as the storm is strong enough to have a high humanitarian impact on nearly 11 million people. unfortunately this storm actually coordinates to the date of a strong tropical cyclone that impacted the east coast of india last year at this time. this is fresh in their memories at the moment. the last thing we need is another powerful storm like this one. it will move inland very, very quickly. again, our concerns here are not just the wind but it's the storm surge and the possibility of flooding especially along the coast as the storm system drives in the wind and the ocean. we're talking about a coastal storm surge of 1 to 2 1/2 meters. add in 3 1/2 millimeters of
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rainfall. that will cause the possibility of flooding. equally as important but not as strong, we have tropical storm vongfong in the japanese mainland. we have this as a rain maker. impressive rain totals as it runs parallel. the seventh busiest japanese airport received 254 millimeters from this storm. that's all from the world weather center. derek, it's due to be a rain maker for sure. >> absolutely. >> let's go down to our storm chaser james reynolds. he's on the ground in okinawa. he experienced it personally. he joins us by phone. james, if you can hear me, good day to you. can you tell us what is the very latest from damage that you see there? >> reporter: well, you know, the winds are dying down and the situation now is much better than it was 12 hours ago right in the thick of the storm. luckily damage appears to be minimal. the infrastructure here is very strong and geared up dealing
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with the typhoon. i did see at least one land flight which partially blocked the road and there are sporadic power outages across the island. >> james, our meteorologist showed us the storm track, the storm moving to japan right now. what would you advise residents about what you've experienced? >> well, absolutely. just the storm is a very large system so the strong winds extend from the center. no doubt they're getted busted by strong winds even though the storm is many hours away from landfall. of course, the heavy rain threat in the mountainous areas of main land japan has flash floods, landslides which is very predictable to predict and can strike with very little warning. >> james, i've covered hurricanes here on the east coast of the united states as you were doing there. i know it's a difficult assignment. can you tell viewers what it's been like for you to hunker down and deal with this storm and report this information for us. >> well, i think exhausting is
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the best word to describe this one, not only for myself but of course the residents here. just the sheer amount of time that okinawa has been lashed by torrential rain and very strong winds. we're talking almost 48 hours now, and the coast line is being battered by large waves. it's just been a very long haul covering this storm and obviously trying to keep safe as well. >> storm chaser james reynolds joining us by phone. james, we really appreciate your insight there. now onto the battle against isis. the militant group is close to extending control over parts of iraq and syria. regional officials at iraq say the sunni militants are moving to capture all of onbar province. in neighboring syria the situation is growing worse as kurdish fighters in kobani try to prevent a massacre in that town near syria's border with turkey. you're looking at live pictures now of the syrian/turkey border.
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at the syrian city of kobani, the u.s.-led coalition has carried out nine airstrikes on isis targets in and around kobani. meantime, the kurdish fighter tells cnn that the kurdish groups defending that syrian town are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by isis. cnn's nick peyton walsh has more on the battle ranging in kobani. >> reporter: noga period to be more difficult than kurds defending kobani. the front line still moving west, it seems, shrinking kurdish ground. some fleeing. these men's trucks stuck on the railway. some of the shots get closer. they duck. and then edge towards a largely closed turkish border. this, probably an isis truck, as it ran towards kurdish lines.
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one sight particularly important. two of these kurdish fighters were female and the fact they hold ground this far east means isis is yet to seize the official crossing into turkey which would mean they encircle the kurds. it will bring some relief to a world and locals anxiously watching hearing the u.n. suggest over 10,000 civilians could be trapped by the fighting. there's no question the conflict inside kobani is moving quickly, but the big doubt is how many people still remain inside the city, civilian, while the turkish army sat on the hillside watching this tragic scene unfold. will they intervene and permit a humanitarian corridor. to the far west, a rare psych. some men were allowed to cross into turkey. not allowed to stop and talk, they shouted to us. they knew of hundreds trapped
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just across from the official crossing of turkey. faces that speak of the savagery looming large over this town. nick peyton walsh, cnn, near kobani. now on to iraq. residents in baghdad are on edge after a wave of deadly car bombings. officials say three attacks on saturday killed at least 43 people, including several members of iraq's security forces. more than 40 other people were wounded in those attacks, all bombings targeted shia neighborhoods. isis pushes to overtake anbar province. they say their hold on anbar is weakening and they are asking the united states to deploy troops to help. cnn's senior international correspondent ben wedeman has this story. >> reporter: fresh isis recruits trained to retrieve the wounded from the battlefield.
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in a newly released propaganda video from the group entitled blood of jihad, it's clear isis doesn't lack for tresh recruits. the training includes religious instruction, mostly about the importance of fighting, killing and martyrdom. men like this can be part of the ongoing effort of isis to take all of iraq's vast anbar province which extends to the outskirts of baghdad. officials in anbar tell officials they believe 10,000 isis fighters have been sent from syria in northern iraq to anbar to join the offensive. two months of coalition airstrikes in anbar have targeted isis but haven't halted its advances. another video released by isis purports to showing a downed drone. isis already controls 80% of
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anbar. saturday isis forces surrounded the last remaining town fully under government control and make further inroads into ramadi. isis holds almost every major population center in anbar. on the outskirts of baghdad also in anbar. their hold on the province is slipping day by day. the army has been plagued by absenteeism, corruption and incompetence, hardly the ingredients for success. anbar's pro vinceal council says it's appealing to baghdad for forces to join the battle. although baghdad has made it clear it doesn't want u.s. ground troops and the obama administration has repeatedly insisted, no combat troops will be deployed here. >> as if all of this weren't grim enough, a series of car bombs in the capital as well as government controlled areas
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indicates that isis is following a two-pronged approach to take more territory and to sew terror into those areas it doesn't control. ben wedeman, cnn, baghdad. so as isis forces continue to advance, u.s. secretary chuck hagel says iraqi security forces are in full control of baghdad. he says airstrikes will continue to hit isis targets in iraq. a campaign that has been going on since august. cnn military analyst rick francona tells us why the militant group has been so resistant to the airstrikes. >> reporter: when we first started it blunted them, slowed them down, almost stopped them. we were hoping that the iraqi army would regain the offensive and go back and retake that territory. we've been very frustrated that the iraqi army is incapable of doing that. i talked to an iraqi official the other day and they said the iraqi command structure has
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evaporated. they alone have not been able to stop these guys. that's what's driving the anbar sheiks to ask for american forces, because they know that will work. so we're beginning to see the sunnis in anbar start to say, listen, we're not interested in isis coming here. we need help from the outside. >> the u.s. says around 300 airstrikes have been launched against isis positions in iraq. liberia's medical staffers say the ebola epidemic has been making working conditions unbelievably difficult. just ahead, what they say they're facing and what they may have to do. plus, we'll have a live report from madrid to give you the very latest on the case of the nursing assistant battling ebola in a case that is bringing about public fear. q.
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onto the ebola crisis. special screenings have started up at new york's john f. kennedy international airport. procedures are only for the roughly 150 passengers who come in each day from the main west african countries battling the
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outbreak. the screenings involve travelers having their temperatures taken and answering questions about possible exposure to the virus. for mower u.s. air ports will implement those procedures starting thursday. still, health officials say nothing can be done to reduce the risk to zero. meanwhile, as liberia struggles to contain this epidemic, things could actually get worse for west african nations. medical teams say they are working in conditions that have become unbearable. they may have to do something drastic if that's what it takes to get what they need. nema elle bagger reports. >> reporter: the struggling health care structure has been stretched to breaking point and now the health care workers, the people on the front lines against this virus say they, too, have been stretched to breaking points. they've been on a go slow. ambulance workers who have attempted to get patients admitted to this, the government's largest treatment unit tell us that they've had to
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take patients elsewhere. this has become a critical juncture for the president and her government. she's behind me now attempting to calm some of those threatening to go on a broader strike. >> we have to be equitable to everybody and it takes time. resources are scarce. we're trying to meet all their needs and we'll continue to do that. >> so currently you have 3,000 deaths, so you have 50,000 deaths in the next four weeks if it's not handled soon. >> so given those consequences, why do you still want to strike? >> i don't want to strike but the president has to listen to the health care workers. they are 100 people. so the president has to listen and act very fast. >> reporter: a lot has been said about the international community's response, but these are the men and women who have been risking their lives and
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staunching the wounds since the beginning of this crisis and now they are seeing that the world does not forget about them. cnn, monrovia, liberia. continuing with the ebola epidemic. all eyes are on madrid and a hospital there where a nurse's assistant is being treated for the virus. she is the only known person to have contracted ebola outside africa. her case has caused the nervous public to question if spanish hospitals are equipped and ready to fight ebola. cnn senior international correspondent nic robertson joins us live. nic, good day to you. first question a lot of people want to know is the condition of theresa ramiro. >> reporter: yeah, she remains in critical but stable condition. she is conscious and talking according to hospital officials. she is receiving her treatment by drugs. one of those drugs, the antiinfluenza drug. what other medications she's getting are not clear. there have been a couple of developments in the last 24
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hours here. one of the nurses who have been under observation has had a second negative test so she has been released from quarantine and by the 16th of august, just a few days from now. she will be -- 16th, rather, of october, she will be released from observations. she is now out of quarantine. that said, another nurse submitted herself to being put under observations here at the hospital just yesterday. her father said that she volunteered to come in here. she was concerned about the contacts that she had had. so there are currently 15 additional people who have had risky contacts who are under observation. five of them are doctors, four nurses, three beauticians, two other hospital staff and of course theresa ramira's husband. at their apartment building where they live, residents are still very concerned and nervous about the situation. >> nic, you talk about the
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hospital. tell us about that hospital specifically. is it designed even to treat ebola? >> reporter: well, the european disease prevention and control organization has said that the building itself is not designed to combat ebola. what we know is that the hospital staff had already cleared the third floor so that they could essentially use that floor for treating people potentially with ebola and keeping those under observation in one place. they have now we're told cleared the fourth floor of that same hospital building. it is a large complex here. one building being used at the moment for the treatment of observation. what we are told by the european center for controlling disease, preventing its spread, they say
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that the staff here are up to the job and capable, but it's the facilities themselves that are not. but this is sort of fueling public concerns right now. this is what neighbors of the family -- neighbors of theresa romero's family where she lives are saying. >> translator: some people were very frightened. they even left their homes in this neighborhood. others are trying to go about their normal lives. we walk our dogs in places where they walked their dogs. >> reporter: so it's that level of concern. i mean, people have so many questions here. they recognize that the systems in place are not the best and perhaps it seems now, you know, according to european officials not even up to the task. george. >> nic, a lot of people were certainly outraged here in the united states given what happened in dallas, texas. people frustrated with the process there.
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you see the same frustrations playing out with people on the streets there in spain. nic robertson, we appreciate your reporting live in madrid. now looking at the world numbers in the ebola epidemic. there are more than 8300 confirmed cases of the virus in west africa and more than 4,000 people have died from the virus but it's feared the actual numbers could be even higher. the vast majority of the cases and the deaths are in liberia, sierra leone and in the country of guinea. the news continues here on cnn. what caused a u.s. flight to drop so fast that passengers had to put on oxygen masks? we look at that story and dramatic video ahead. and a protest against alleged police violence continues today in missouri. we'll take you to what's called the week of resistance. stay with us straight ahead. this is cnn. we tackled your shoulder pain. you make him rookie of the year.
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welcome back to cnn. i'm george howell. very tense moments on a u.s. air flight on saturday. oxygen masks make a drop and the plane takes a dive. it was a scary situation. cnn's rosa flores has the story. >> reporter: imagine this, kids screaming and passengers in pain from their ears popping. that's how one passenger described the rapid decent on a flight from new york to charlotte, north carolina, on saturday. passenger danny lippert shot
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this video after the oxygen masks deployed simultaneously. he said that it was a very dramatic event. after that a pilot let everyone know that the plane had just gone down from 36,000 feet to 10,000 feet. >> everything seemed pretty normal and then all of a sudden all of the oxygen masks dropped. i've been on hundreds and hundreds of flights before and you've been given instruction but i've never seen it. it's a little bit startling when they all dropped at the same time with no real announcement at any time. when the masks dropped it was very, very quiet. nobody really got alarmed. everybody complied and the whole crew just handled everything extremely well. danny also says everyone was surprisingly calm. the plane landed normally. airline personnel were at the gate to answer passenger questions. emts were also on hand.
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according to u.s. airways, 146 passengers were on board and no one was hurt. the maintenance team is evaluating the plane. no word on the cause of the pressurization issue. day three of what's being called weekend of resistance forges ahead with several planned rallies and meetings in st. louis, missouri, this morning. protests continued well into the night in the st. louis suburb of ferguson, missouri. hundreds of people from around the world are there for the four-day protest event. it's also called ferguson october. demonstrators are demanding the ferguson police officer who shot and killed 18-year-old michael brown in august be charged with a crime. still ahead here on cnn, as people flee the isis advance in the syrian kurdish town of kobani, tension grows between turks and kurds. plus, john kerry arrives in
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egypt for an international conference on gaza.
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. welcome back to our viewers and around the world. i'm george howell. this is cnn. tropical cyclone hudhud is slamming india. india's navy is on high alert. the storm has caused extensive damage to the eastern indian seaboard and forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes. saturday marked the first day of enhanced screenings for ebola at new york's john f. kennedy international airport. on thursday four more international facilities will be doing the same testing. the special screenings are only for passengers that come from the areas of west africa where ebola is prevalent. officials in iraq's anbar province are being asked to send ground troops. the islamic extremist group is now said to control 80% of that province. in syria, isis is tightening its grip on the town of kobani as
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kurdish fighters have outgunned and overwhelmed islamist militants. if isis manages to seize anbar province, they will have gotten control to the outskirts of baghdad. >> reporter: isis has been trying to seize kobani for weeks. the city's significant because isis wants to claim a swath of land running from its self-declared capital of raqqa in syria on the euphrates river to the turkish border about 100 kilometers away. kobani is a key border city and historically significant to the kurds who are now defending it. if isis seizes kobani, it will have control across northern syria. in recent months isis has taken control of most of the major syrian cities along the euphrates river.
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besides raqqa it controls other cities. follow the euphrates river southeast and eventually you get close to baghdad. several cities along the way now in the hands of isis, notably fallujah. they are fighting for control of hadita and ramadi. if isis consolidates its control of anbar, it will surround baghdad for a possible attack on the iraqi capitol. michael holmes, cnn. across europe thousands of kurds took to the streets to protest what they say is the turkish government's inaction against isis around kobani. in paris, hundreds chanted and held signs of support for kurdish fighters, and more than 20,000 kurds in duesle door of germany demanded stronger support from the international country. one told reuters it was a
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slaughter. others pleaded for more weapons to help the kurdish fighters. some refugees fleeing kobani are looking at a new hardship. they're being detained and as they await their fate behind bars, some are even now staging a hunger strike. cnn's arwa damon has this story. >> reporter: the authorities won't let us into the sports complex turned make shift detention facility for syrian kurds. by phone we reach mustaf albali, a media activist inside. >> i hoped. i hoped until the last minute that the battle wouldn't come into kobani. when it did, i left, he says. he ended up a among the more than 270 people being held here. among them, dozens of women and children. we've been on hunger strikes since the first day we were detained october 6th, he tells us. we're not being accused of anything specific. they asked us why it took us so long to leave kobani.
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turkey's concerns that there are kurdish fighters a among the group stem from decades of violent conflict between turkey and kurdish separatists called the p.k.k. it's designated a terrorist organization by turkey, europe and the u.s. and it's an off chute of the p.k.k., the y.p.g., that is fighting isis in kobani. that is part of turkey's reluctance to get militarily involved. despite having its armor lining the border within range of isis targets. turkish kurds have watched isis take over kobani street by street and turkey's perceived complacency is igniting the long-standing tensions between the turks and the kurds. countrywide clashes and riots claimed the lives of more than 2 dozen people threatening a fragile peace process between turkey and the p.k.k. and fueling the belief among the
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kurds that turkey's intent is to see our demise. this is not helping. this woman who doesn't want her identity revealed is trying to reach her husband. we call someone to help. >> reporter: this woman's husband is inside. she's trying to get him to come to the window because she wants to see him. he had rushed to kobani to get clothes for their son, got stuck when turkey closed the border. her husband finally briefly appears. >> translator: i am a bit happy, she says, but i don't know what's happening. >> reporter: these days, few people do. potentially linked to the demise of the kurds in kobani is also the future of turkey. if kobani falls, the kurdish leadership has warned, the peace talks will collapse, meaning conflicts within its own borders may be inevitable. arwa damon, cnn, turkey. the united states secretary of state is in cairo, egypt, for an international conference on
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rebuilding gaza. much of the area was destroyed in july and august of this year. the palestinian authority is calling for $4 billion in aid. cnn's ian lee joins us now from jerusalem. ian, what exactly is needed for gaza? >> reporter: well, george, a lot is needed, and as we heard, the palestinians are requesting $4 billion in aid. the talks are just getting underway. dozens of countries are being attended. this is being hosted by egypt as well as norway. we have the secretary of state there. we also have tony blair and the u.n. -- from the u.n., ban ki-moon. a lot of people there trying to raise the money. the u.n. is saying they need $1.6 billion to rebuild gaza. that will go to the 20,000 homes that have been left uninhabitable leaving over 100,000 homeless. i was talking to people in gaza, they're saying a lot of people are leaving their numbers on the
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destroyed buildings hoping that when a delegation gets around to seeing whose houses have been destroyed, where that money should go, that they are contacted, too. there's a lot of work to be done to rebuild gaza. a lot of that money to rebuild these homes. >> ian, when we talk about this money, we all remember, we see some of these images of the destruction that happened during that conflict, how likely is it that that money will turn into reality? how quickly will that happen? >> reporter: well, that is the big question. we've seen in past conflicts in 2008, 2009, 2012 a lot of money being pledged but none of that money materializing. a lot of the holdup is with the border crossing going into gaza. israel and egypt have been hesitant to allow any of that material going in. israel wants reassurance that any of that material going in wouldn't be turned into more tunnels that would go into israel or rearming hamas, but that being said, part of the deal that ended the last war was
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to have goods and reconstruction material going back into gaza. one of the key points was that the palestinian authority from the west bank, from the president mahmoud abbas would take control away from gaza to ensure that the goods went to the right places. we're told that the palestinian authority will be taking control of the border today although we're told that hasn't happened yet. that will be a key feature for any of this money really materializing for the people on the ground. and a lot of people are going to be waiting for that as winter is just around the corner. >> john kerry was certainly part of the truce talks throughout the conflict. what does he hope to achieve out of this conference? >> reporter: well, one of his primary missions is to make sure that there is money for the people of gaza, that they get that, that they can start the rebuilding process, but when you talk to a lot of these people who are going to potentially donate money, there's a lot of
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trepidation here that their money may shall used to rebuild gaza but then wasted when another war comes. that's john kerry's point, to restart the peace process, to get the israelis and palestinians talking again. that rb top on his list to get the two sides talking again. noticeably, israel is absent from this conference. they weren't invited and it will be a big task for the secretary. >> ian lee joining us from jerusalem. ian, we appreciate your reporting there. coming up after the break, what you can expect from the start of the sentencing process for the oscar pistorius case on monday. we'll take you to south africa for a live report next. it's the yoplait greek taste-off and we are asking the music city which 100-calorie strawberry greek yogurt tastes best. this one is definitely the winner. yoplait greek 100! you want to see which one yoplait greek beat?
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chobani yes! yoplait greek wins again. take the taste-off for yourself!
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welcome back. the sentencing phase begins monday for olympic sprinter oscar pistorius. after a murder trial that was closely followed around the world, south african track star was found guilty last month of culpable homicide in the 2013 shooting death of his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp. the judge will now hear arguments from both the prosecution and defense on an appropriate sentence for pistorius. before sentence is announced adding to a situation he was also found guilty on a weapons charge unrelated to the killing. with more now on the steps ahead
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for pistorius our diana magnay joins us from johannesburg, south africa, live. diana. >> reporter: hi, george. well, it's up to the judge how long she gives oscar mipistoriu culpable killing of reeva steenkamp and this separate firearms charge. there is no minimum sentence for culpable whom sidhome homicide. if you talk to legal analysts, they're very divided on what they expect to come out, whether he will serve time in south africa's notoriously overcrowded prisons or whether he will get a partially suspended sentence or a fine. opinion is very much divided on what judge maceba will eventually rule. the whole process may go to appeal even if this week's --
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you know, in a few days' time after we've heard the various arguments from the prosecution and the defense. if she does come out with a sentence, that may still go to appeal. so even though we're at the final stage of this very long case which has gripped the nation and, indeed, the world, it still doesn't finish even when the sentence is handed down. george? >> diana, certainly people have watched this around the world, but what is the feeling there about this case as it goes into the sentencing process? what are people saying about it? >> reporter: i think people are very divided. you have many who feel that the culpable homicide verdict was too lean yept anient and that p intended to kill whoever was behind that door, even if he didn't think it was reeva and who would, therefore, be shocked if he didn't serve a good many years in prison and then there are others who feel that he shouldn't. and there are various factors
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that mitigate against a longer jail sentence for pistorius, such as the fact that he's a first-time offender, the fact that he clearly feels very deep remorse for what he did and that was evident from his testimony on the witness stand throughout the days of this televised trial. i think it's very fair to say that the entire nation was watching at some point and that everybody that you speak to does have a very strong opinion on whether they feel that he's guilty of culpable homicide or, indeed, of murder. on whether they feel that judge maceba came down with a fair verdict or whether she was too lenient on him. so this is a sentencing that the nation will be watching for sure, george. >> certainly all eyes will be watching this case and we'll be keeping in contact with you, cnn correspondent diana magnay live in johannesburg. we appreciate your reporting there. several months of captivity have left 27 hostages physically weakened but relieved to now be
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free in cam maroon. linda kincaid has more on their journey to freedom. >> reporter: the 27 hostages were flown from the far north of cameroon to the capital. among them, ten chinese workers captured by the islamist terror group boca had a ran. the wife of the country's vice minister was freed. >> today he has been successful in getting the release of the 27 people who were abducted including the wife of the prime minister, the ten chinese who were taken hostage. >> reporter: it's not yet clear how the hostages were freed but cameroon's prime minister said others were involved. >> indeed, it is a resounding victory, but this is an
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efficiency by the head of state. >> reporter: the free captives were taken to be treated at the general hospital. boca haram has been inactive since 2009 and has killed thousands of nigerians, both christian and muslim. the group adopted an estimated 276 skills in april. dozened escaped but more than 2 oof are still missing. linda kincaid, cnn. in the united states, a man is suing police in indiana for what he claims was excessive force. cnn's susan candiotti found out this is not the first time the officer has been involved and been sued. >> reporter: it's an image that's hard to forget. 13 minutes into a standoff after a man repeatedly refuses to exit his car following a seat belt infraction an officer smashes a
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window. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: he's lieutenant patrick vicari, smack in the middle of a video gone viral. who is he? vicari's been on the force 21 years according to a source with knowledge of the department. he's the head of the traffic division seen here running a sobriety checkpoint last year shot by a northwest indiana police watchdog group. in august he did an indiana public broadcasting radio interview group about the very thing that caused all of the trouble in the first place, the importance of seat belt enforcement. he also spoke about getting drunk drivers off the road. >> that goes hand in hand with the seat belt laws that we also have to endorse. they feel that big brother is watching them. >> right. >> also to an extent, okay, that might be the case but, again, should i stand idolly by and try to do nothing to solve this problem? >> reporter: the hammond police department won't say anything about vicarri's record.
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this group of black ministers from the hammond area, the naacp and a city councilman want answers. they haven't been able to talk specifics about what happened either. >> certainly the officer should not be on the streets which the mayor indicated that they are on the street. they definitely ought to be confined to desk duty and not interacting with the public until there has been a full investigation. >> reporter: we were told vicarri wasn't in the office and after several attempts to reach him by phone and at his home, he wasn't there, he called me back. i can at least say that much, but only to say he can't comment. we do know he's been sued at least three times over allegations of excessive force, including a complaint from this couple, this photographer, and a man who says he suffered a brain injury during an arrest over a parking infraction. all three cases were settled out of court. officer vicarri did not admit to guilt in any of them.
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this week hammond's mayor has been standing by viccari and all his officers. it's not an ideal situation, the mayor told me. it's not a good idea to argue with police. 99% of people agree with that. i wish this didn't happen. i know these officers are good people. a neighbor called him a good guy defending his decision to smash that window. >> i think he's just doing his job. i think that he's entitled to act in a responsible manner seeing as he's been on the police force for 20 years. i'm not going to question a man of his integrity. >> hammond's former police chief wrote on his blog four years ago, quote, i'd take a bullet for pat, yet for some hammond residents what happened during this traffic stop is a clarion call for a national debate about the use of police force. susan candiotti, cnn, hammond, indiana. next on cnn, are you a snap chat user? you will want to pay special
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attention to this. hundreds of thousands of snap chat images have been leaked online. many of them are explicit. how did these supposedly secure files get stolen? we look into it next. you're watching cnn.
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some scary news for users of snap chat. cyber criminals have stolen
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100,000 videos online. >> reporter: snap chat has nearly 100 million users it's estimated and of those 50% are 13 to 17 years old. teen being the operative word there. and we all know that many people use snap chad to send nude images and videos of themselves, so that means a significant amount of this leak may be child pornography. snap chat says its app was attacked. it was third party apps that connect to snap chat. what does that mean? let's say you and i are having a conversation on snap chat. you are using the official snap chat app but unbeknownst to you i am using an unofficial version. my app allows me to save the images and videos you're sending me. it's an unofficial app like mine that may have been hacked. this all exposes a major flaw in using snap chat. this on top of the user names and passwords being hacked
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earlier this year from the app which is valued at $10 billion. samuel burke, cnn, new york. >> so maybe not a good idea to send that picture. some of london's famed telephone booths are known as red boxes, they're going green. with more people now using cell phones, many of the traditional phone boxes are sitting eye doll. jim bolden shows us how two entrepreneurs plan to give the boxes a modern day upgrade. >> reporter: there's the queen, the red double decker buses and the red telephone boxes. the first two symbols of brittain are still going strong, but who makes a phone call in a public box anymore? so, what to do with those empty red boxes? >> i hate it. people are charging. >> two weeks from graduation from the london economic school. use them as part of the mobile revolution which has made the
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boxes obsolete. introducing the solar box, a place to recharge your phone or tablets. >> the red telephone boxes or in this case retail phone boxes are an iconic symbol of london. they've come up with the idea of reforming something that isn't being used much. >> reporter: they won a contest set up by mayor boris johnson as part of the green initiatives. >> it's an iconic structure. it's an iconic idea. we have an iconic mayor. this is a good day. it makes for people an abstract development. >> reporter: the plan is for six of these solar powered green telephone boxes in the coming months and dozens more could be in the works if they catch on. >> what we want to do here is stimulate the low carbon economy
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and reform matting infrastructures out of date like telephone boxes, as a great we think new addition to have the green boxes around london. >> reporter: some of >> reporter: some 60,000 boxes were installed. some were protected by law and can't be removed but most are not sitting idol so giving them a new lease on life might save the telephone box from going away. jim bolden, cnn, london. russian president vladimir putin's attempt to reintroduce three siberian tigers into the wild might be working, but it's actually working in china. this video from may shows mr. putin helping to release the tigers in russia's far east. now chinese officials say at least one of them appears to have crossed a river into the northeastern part of china and a second was seen nearby.
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officials in both countries are worried because that region of china has been a prime ground for tiger poachers. we thank you for watching this hour of cnn. i'm george howell. my colleague is up next. we continue monitoring the damage in india after a powerful cyclone made landfall just a short time ago, and we look at the ebola screenings at u.s. air ports and how they affect travelers. the news continues here on cnn the news continues here on cnn right after this short break. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com when i really need to get stuff done, i hide in the laundry room. no one ever goes in there. a lawyer that's a monkey? hahahaha. also, the dryer sheets reeeally help my writing. writing supplies. oh. number 7 of my 20. the amex everyday credit card with no annual fee. thank you. make 20 or more purchases in a monthly billing period and earn 20% more rewards. it's membership that rewards you for the things you already buy, everyday. what's your 20?
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isis ramps up the onslaught on two fronts. thousands of militants could be heading to iraq to fight for a province on baghdad's doorstep. and in kobani they appear set to take the town on the border with turkey. and a typhoon slams into india's coast. high-speed winds are uprooting trees and floods are on the way. and ebola virus screenings begin at select airports in the u.s. and europe. some say the efforts, though, won't