♪ love you yeah yeah yeah ♪ ♪ love you yeah yeah yeah ♪ the u.s. president says sony made aceling the release of the movie. new information emerging about the deadly moss stage taking at a cafe in sydney earlier this week. find out what the real target may have been. also ahead this hour, dismissing her critics and pushing the boundaries. the story of an american ballerina making history. you're watching cnn live coverage. hello and welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. we begin this hour with the growing controversy surrounding the film "the interview" which

lampoons north korea's leader, kim jong-un. the studio says it is looking for other options for releasing it. as for who is behind the threats and cyber attacks on sony, the u.s. is naming names. chief u.s. security correspondent jim sciutto has that. >> reporter: the blame has been doubt. the u.s. is naming the rogue country in a sony hack. the fbi said, quote, the destructive nature of this attack coupled with its coercive nature sets it apart. >> we cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the united states. >> reporter: the hackers sent investigators on a worldwide chase routing the attack through servers ranging from countries in asia, including china, then europe and latin america. some servers in the u.s. were even used. still, the nsa and fbi were able

to track the attack back to north korea and its government. >> think of this as dirty tricks on a global scale. this has exceeded our expectations. they always make threats. most people shrug off the threats so threatening a cyber 9/11, the film is dead. they must be incredibly happy in pyongyang. >> reporter: now that the country behind those damaging keystrokes has been identified, the administration is looking at how to respond. >> they caused a lot of damage, and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> reporter: the u.s. could impose sanctions on north korea's prized military complex and further economic sanctions including implying even tighter restrictions to pyongyang's dollar denominated trade, desperately poor country's life

line to fuel food and crucially weapons. they're not yet calling the hack an act of terror or war. >> the cyber domain remains challenging. it remains very fluid. part of the reason why it's such a challenging domain for us is because there aren't internationally accepted norms and protocols. >> reporter: there are other steps the u.s. could take, stealthier reforms of retaliation, such as cyber attacks on critical systems in north korea delivered in a way that the source remains unclear. the stuks net virus that was used against iran. the administration very conscious of avoiding escalation. they don't want to provoke further provocation or even worse. jim sciutto, cnn, washington. the ceo of sony pictures entertainment is defending his company's decision to pull the film from theaters. michael linton spoke with fareed

zakaria in this exclusive tv interview. >> the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? >> no, i think actually the unfortunate part is in this instance the president, the press and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. so, to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events, we experienced the worst cyber attack in american history and persevered for 3 1/2 weeks under enormous stress and enormous difficulty and all with the effort of trying to keep our business up and running and get this movie out into the public. when it came to the crucial moment when a threat came out from what was called the gop at

the time threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters, the movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it, and announced that they would not carry the movie. at that point in time we had no alternative but to not proceed with the thee at trick release on the 25th of december. that's all we did. >> so you have not caved in your view? >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered and we have not backed down. we have -- we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> why not release it online in some form or the other, video on demand? >> there are a number of options open to us, and we have considered those and are considering them. as it stands right now, while there have been a number of

suggestions that we go out there and deliver this movie digitally or through vod, there has not been one major vod, video on demand distributor, one major ecommerce site that has stepped forward and said they are willing to distribute this movie for us. again, we don't have that direct interface with the american public so we need to go through an intermediary to do that. >> mitt romney says why not just put it on youtube and let the whole world see it. >> that's certainly an option and that's certainly one thing that we will consider but, again, all of this has transpired so quickly that we're trying to weigh the options as to how we can get this -- how to go forward with all of this. we were taken by surprise by the theaters, which is what we wanted to do first, and now we're trying to proceed and figure out what the next steps should be. >> the president says he wishes -- i wish they had talked to me. what is your response? >> my response is that a few days ago i personally did reach

out and speak to senior folks in the white house and talked to them about the situation and actually informed them that we needed help. the fbi has been with us now for several weeks and has been great, but i did reach out and explain the situation to them at that time. >> so the president is wrong when he says that you did not reach out to him? >> well, i don't -- when he's asking about reaching out -- >> i wish they had talked to me first is the -- >> right. so we definitely spoke to senior advisors or a senior advisor in the white house to talk about the situation. the fact is, did we talk to the president himself and talk to him about what was transpiring as the theaters started pulling back and not -- and being unwilling to distribute the movie? no, but the white house was certainly aware of the situation. >> not only did the theaters all pull out but you couldn't get any of the major hollywood studios to support you?

george clooney writes that he put out a petition and tried to get support. he couldn't get a single person to sign it. have you been surprised at the fact that nobody has been willing to rally around you? >> i am surprised, frankly. i mean, i understand on the one hand that my fellow studios and everybody else has their own commercial concerns and they, themselves, were worried about becoming the target, and it did make for a -- make this entire enterprise to be a very, very lonely affair, but on the other hand, it -- you know, this is a moment where you would expect the industry to rally around and support you. >> is it your estimation that the theater owners panicked because the north koreans do not appear to have the capacity to launch some kind of major simultaneous or really any significant terrorist attack in the united states. why do you think they panicked? >> well, what i can only imagine is homeland security came out that day and said that there was not a viable threat, and my

sense of it, having had the conversations, was there was enormous pressure put on them by the malls, by the shops in the malls, by the surrounding neighborhoods who were also threatened in those e-mails to say that they shouldn't show the picture and they basically on the basis of looking at that, they decided that they wouldn't take the picture. >> does that mean that a dvd release also becomes difficult because you would face the same challenge, which is the walmarts and the costcos of the world would have to agree to stock the dvd? >> again, we don't have a direct interface with the american public so we would require either throughon line or in a retail situation, we would need distribution. yes, it's fair to say if we can't find one of those large retailers or many of those large retailers to sell our dvds, we wouldn't be able to provide them with "the interview." >> is it fair to say, michael, that your hope and expectation

is that the movie will be seen by people? >> we have always wanted the american public to see this movie. we have worked tirelessly to do so, so absolutely. we would -- that's -- that's -- that's been the primary objective throughout. >> michael, let me ask you to go through the sequence of what happened. when did you first realize that you had a problem? >> the first time we understood that there was an issue with the north koreans was back in june of last summer when they came forward with various e-mails, statements and actually i think they were in touch with the white house itself and described their disfavor with the movie. at that time we reached out with experts at various think tanks within the state department to try to get a proper understanding of whether or not there was a problem here and

whether or not we were providing a security risk, and we were told that there wasn't a problem here and so we continued to proceed. >> including the u.s. government told you there wasn't a problem? >> the u.s. government told us there wasn't a problem, correct. >> so when people asked, the north koreans threatened you, why didn't you take it seriously? >> we did take it seriously. we went to the people we thought were most expert in the area, people in the u.s. government, people in various think tanks and inquired as to whether or not this would be a problem and they told us it wasn't. that actually is for the world to see as my stolen e-mails have been presented in public. >> there was an e-mail between you and somebody at the rand corporation and -- >> and somebody at the state department, correct. >> interesting interview from michael linton. we will hear more from him in our next hour including his response to criticism that the movie is in poor taste and never should have been made in the

first place. imagine sending your children back to classes just days after a massive school massacre. that is what parents started doing friday in peshawar, pakistan. the sydney siege in australia. the gunman may have had a different target in that. we'll tell you after this. female announcer: sleep train's interest free for 3 event!

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♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ welcome back. pakistani forces say they killed several taliban insurgents today including a key commander in clashes in and around the city of peshawar. this comes days after taliban militants massacred 148 people at the school, most of them children. earlier on friday the military also said it killed dozens of insurgents but didn't specify if they were taliban members. in peshawar schools have now reopened for the first time since this week's massacre. >> reporter: it was no ordinary school run. this spoke volumes that most of the children arriving were brought by car to the school gate, not by foot, and were ushered in by armed guards.

♪ ♪ >> reporter: the morning assembly was somber but also defiant. how do you feel being back at school? >> i feel really scary after that thing that happened. it had made our hearts a little bit scared. >> i feel a little bit squared because if we are the next target. >> reporter: but do you still want to come to school? >> yeah, for education. >> reporter: the first school day since the taliban attack is a step towards a sense of normality for children in pakistan, but it is only the first hesitant step in what promises to be a long journey. it's not just the murder of 132 school children in the army public school that's led to such widespread revulsion in pakistan, it's the fact that children receiving a modern

education are now a part of the conflict in this country. the professor taught at the school which was attacked where one of her sons was also a pupil. surrounded by her family, she tells a story of how she had to identify her murdered colleagues and then found out what had happened to her son. >> they asked me to come towards the children and identify the staff and some of them -- i came out of there. they brought a boy towards me. they didn't know the situation. i lost my boy, too. i lost my son, too, and i was searching for him. >> reporter: another family devastated in a country seeking

a way out of a war affecting teachers, mothers, and school children. >> just horrific what those families are going through and these sweet children going back to school even though they are scared. well, a new warning tonight for americans traveling over the holidays. the state department issued an alert saying their threat analysis is, quote, strongly suggesting a focus by terrorist not only on targeting of u.s. government facilities but also on hotels, shopping areas, places of worship, schools among other targets during this holiday period. that is from the state department. this morning two americans traveling overseas comes in the wake of this week's deadly attack in sydney, australia. two people were killed in that attack and the shooter also killed. we learned now that the cafe may not have been the intended target. we spoke with chris reason from seven network.

here he is. >> reporter: one extraordinary thing is that the news breaking today from journalists who dug into the gunman's background is that he was, in fact, targeting this building, this office, the channel 7 studios which as you know just 30, 40 meters across the plaza here behind me from the cafe, but he tried to get into this building, he was targeting a breakfast program called "sunrise," he had a particular grievance with them and a current affairs program that we have called "today tonight" that had been doing stories with him over the recent years. he wanted to access the presenters of the show. to do what? we couldn't guess. when he approached the front door apparently assuming the security was too great, we've ramped it up since the threats, about this place becoming a target back in september. he chose a fallback target, the cafe behind me. channel 7 staff extremely

nervous about that. news that we certainly didn't want to hear, but the word is this was the target. >> the gunman originally from iran had a very troubled past and was well known to australian police. a separate attack elsewhere in australia ended in the deaths of eight children this week. it happened in a suburban home in karins, australia. a woman found stabbed at the scene has now been arrested. the children who died range in age from 2 to 14 years old. the woman is the mother of seven of them. police have spoken with the fathers of the children but so far no charges in this case have been filed. well, this programming note for you, the syrian town of could he b kobani has been the site of several attacks. nick peyton walsh was inside that besiege the city. he spoke with kurdish fighters, witnessed first-hand damage in

the town and spoke with families. nic brings us a rare and remarkable look at the impact of isis inside kobani. that airs at 8:00 p.m. here in london on cnn. next, how the people in havana feel about the change to u.s./cuba ties. ♪ [ female announcer ] you've tried to forget your hepatitis c. but you shouldn't forget this. hepatitis c is a serious disease. left untreated, it can lead to liver damage and potentially liver cancer.

but you haven't been forgotten. there's never been a better time to rethink your hep c. go to hepchope.com to register for more information. then talk to your doctor about scientific advances that may help you move on from hepatitis c. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5. well, throughout this past

week we have heard mixed reaction to president obama's historic announcement of changes to u.s./cuba relations. florida center marco rubio slammed the president's order just moments after the announcement but in havana it has mostly been a time of celebration. cnn's rosa flores is there. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the narrow streets of havana are filled with sites, sounds and voices. it's those perspectives that make up the real cuba. its people. right now, everyone is talking about one thing, cuban relations with the u.s. how did you celebrate the news? >> how did we celebrate?

we take some beer. we are very happy. we phone friends. >> reporter: in havana when you want to know the mood on the street, one of the places you can start is here, in central park. there's always a lively conversation. it's known as the hot corner. i'm asking so who thinks it's a good idea for the u.s. and cuba to establish relations? those ideas in the past. some of that buzz, some of that energy, it's for a future with lax travel and trade

restrictions to make it easy for americans to walk into privately owned shops like these and buy art with classic cars, for example, maracas, mow men tows. even though president obama said a visit to cuba was probably not in the cards, we asked people if they'd welcome the u.s. leader would you like for president obama to visit? >> yes. >> why not? >> reporter: there are signs of a cuba frozen in time everywhere. the classic cars, the weathered buildings, but the recent news has people here optimistic about what's ahead for their children. says it's a christmas gift and he has kids and this is something great for his family. like havana's old cobble streets, cuba's relationship with the u.s. is still a little bumpy and after all lifting the

embargo still requires action from congress. but this move is just wide enough to give people hope. rosa flores, cnn, havana. another storm on track to impact the western u.s. this weekend. derek van dam's watching that for us. derek? >> look, natalie, if you're from seattle, you're used to this type of weather. it's the fact that it continues to come and there's more rain. >> well, anybody who's paying attention along the west coast, thank you for staying up with us. the west coast getting more inundated. frontal boundary starting to press in and that will bring much-needed relief from the northern and central parts of california. it doesn't appear that the rain will get us far south from los angeles or even san francisco for that matter. 12 to 24 inches of snowfall across the northern rockies and parts of the cascade mountains. those are rainfall totals along the west coast. some locations could receive between 4 and 6 inches.

elsewhere across the united states, we have a clear day across the northeast. rain for the southeast and we are looking forward, well, to the potential of a white christmas across the great lakes. we have a storm system we are monitoring closely. it looks like it will be a rain event. this could definitely impact travel conditions along the major metro poly tans, boston and new york city. chicago, definitely snow and windy weather. natalie, i have got some extraordinary video to show you that's just come from nasa. do you remember december 5th when they launched that unmanned spacecraft that's just a prelude to, well, life on mars for earthlings here. >> what's it doing there, derek? >> this is footage that they released of the capsule reentering our atmosphere. it reached speed of 20,000 miles per hour. as it re-entered our atmosphere, we started to see ionized gases

form around the capsule and it reached temperatures of almost 4,000 degrees fahrenheit. natalie, that is twice the temperature of molten lava. it took 11 parachutes to slow this capsule down just before it landed in the pacific ocean about 600 miles off the california coast. it was only traveling at 20 miles per hour. >> isn't that something? it's amazing where they get the cameras to show us. >> i know it. if you look on the last few images you'll start to see the splash, the big splash when this thing finally reaches the ocean. >> which side? >> what a cool thing to see, actually. >> there it is. >> this is a pre-kurs who are to us potentially, humans traveling to mars. we need to do the unmanned space crafts and release them just to get the testing for the heat shields and all the various components to make all the technology to work. >> that's fascinating. thanks, eric.

>> you're welcome. the fbi blames north korea for the cyber attack on sony, but experts say that is nothing compared to what pyongyang could do to nuclear facilities. we'll have more on that part of the story just ahead.

welcome back to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalie allen. our top stories, sony says it is looking for other options for releasing the film "the interview." the studio shelved the comedy after threats against theaters. the sony executive says he disagrees with president obama's comment that pulling the movie was a mistake. pakistani forces say they killed several taliban

insurgents including a key commander in clashes in and around peshawar. this came days after they massacred 148 people at a peshawar school, most of them children. on friday the military said it killed dozens of insurgents but did not specify if they were taliban members. a gunman who held a cafe hostage in sydney may have had a different target in mind. chris reason said the shooter had a grudge against his network and was, in fact, targeting their building. he says the gunman had grievances against the network for doing stories on him and even tried to get in before heading to the cafe. a number of celebrities are upset over sony's decision to pull the film, the interview, saying essentially north korea is getting to sentences -- censor what movies america can see. paul berkaman looks into that.

>> you are entering into the most dangerous country on earth. sony entertainers has touched off fear and loathing in show business. >> so kim jong-un gets to decide what movies we make. >> reporter: george clooney is one of the most outspoken actors. he wrote a petition for sony that he wanted entertainment power brokers to sign. we know that to give in to these criminals now would open the group for freedom of expression, privacy and personal liberty, but deadline hollywood said no executive signed the letter after the sony attack. >> it's your e-mails, your private stuff. the whole town is scared. everybody has to be scared. >> reporter: but in one decisive moment sony banned the interviews. >> i am so disappointed. i wanted to see the movie. i think this is the wrong thing

to do. i hear it in the film. meryl streep is great as king jong-un. and i said, okay, if they're not going to show "the interview" that's it, no more north korean movies for me. >> reporter: perhaps not for anyone. insiders predict a new chilling effect on controversial film subjects. a thriller project said north korea also just got scrapped. >> you're not going to see villains that have anything to do with that region that could be perceived as being antinorth korean or chinese, even iran people are saying is off limits. >> i wish we had an escape plan. >> reporter: in hollywood there's solidarity for "the interview." seth rogen. the franco/rogen has delivered the young male audience and big profits. pineapple express and this is the end cost little to make and racked in more than $100 million worldwide, but dollar signs

couldn't save this sign. "the interview's" billboards being ripped down dead center of angry, nervous hollywood. cnn, los angeles. and, again, the u.s. pointing the finger at north korea for the hack on sony computers which resulted in a massive leak of kifl employee information and e-mails. in south korea the government is increasingly concerned there about cyber attacks on something beyond entertainment studios, on its nuclear power plants. kim law joins us live from seoul with more from that. kim. >> natalie, we need to underscore that this was a successful hack of the nuclear power plants. what basically happened according to investigators is the same sort of malware that attacked sony that allowed hackers to essentially get the keys and wander through sony's infrastructure, computer

infrastructure, well, the same thing happened here, but this time, this was one of the most carefully guarded government agencies, the one that runs nuclear power plants. >> hello, north korea! >> reporter: the hollywood movie pulled, an international megacompany embarrassed and exposed. perhaps just a warning shot for america on the cyber war with north korea. they say they've launched a series of crippling attacks in that country. the most brazen coming to light this week. a hack of south korea's nuclear power system. they say hackers posted on a blog nuclear power plant blueprints and other secret documents and then wrote this. >> if they do not stop the operation of nuclear power plant, they will destroy. >> reporter: wow. very serious?

>> yes. >> reporter: that raised some serious alarm bells? >> yes. >> reporter: with the government? >> yes. >> reporter: not just because of what was stolen but because of what this means. they're getting better at it. while the north consistently pleads, in a sense the south maintains the evidence is there. last year south korea's banks were hacked, television knocked off the air. similar malware to what ground sony systems to a halt and similar code to what led to this latest breach of south korean nuclear power plants. there's a pattern, practice first in south korea and then aim overseas. >> reporter: should america be prepared for north korea to try to break in to these types of agencies in america? of course, he says. even though the u.s. is one of the best prepared nations, cyber attacks are really hard to protect yourself from so they have to constantly be vigilant

from. >> you want us to kill the leader of north korea? >> yes. >> reporter: with sony's stunning decision pulling this movie, it may send a simple signal to north korea, cyber attacks work. >> reporter: now the south korean government says it is currently going through 23 power plants. this action after the suspected hackers posted some new threats saying that -- online saying the virus was in place and it could be activated at any time against the nuclear power plants. likely an empty threat, but after sony, natalie, they just can't be too careful. >> absolutely. you just reported yesterday about the hackers in north korea who work specifically on this all the time very much in the shadows. but, kim, what u.s. government agencies do south korean investigators there worry about as possible hacking targets? >> now keep in mind that the way

south korea positions itself in the cyber war is that this is essentially the practice ground and that the united states is a big target so given what's been happening here, they are concerned about government agencies, the united states, like nasa, which has communication satellites because north korea would love nothing better than to try to control the american message and think about what kind of communication havoc that would be. so it's those types of agencies that south korea is stressing must have strongest -- the strongest fire walls available and the united states really needs to try to get ahead of these hackers. >> all right. kim law for us live there in seoul. very, very interesting, revealing, and frightening developments. thank you. well, the governing body of international football gets ready to release what could be a scandalous report, but there's a catch. not all the information will be made public. we'll have that just ahead for you. we needed 30 new hires for our call center.

i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5.

football's governing body says it will release a redacted version of the controversial report into corruption allegations into the organization. the report is said to expose wrongdoing into the bids of the world cup by russia for 2018 and by qatar for 2022. the release comes a few days after the report's author, michael garcia, resigned from fifa. well, the most decorated

olympian ever will avoid jail time. has received a one year suspended sentence for driving drunk. michael phelps entered a plea of guilty to charges in baltimore, maryland. a judge also gave him 18 months of supervised probation and ordered him not to drink alcohol during that time. video from the night of phelps' arrest in september shows him waefg through traffic in a white suv. he had a blood alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit. the 18-time gold medal winner later tweeted, this has been his biggest learning experience. that was the suv right there. well, when it comes to sports, india, as you he no, is a cricket crazed country, but a new game is taking off. the commissioner of the national basketball association believes india is the next frontier for hoops. here's cnn's don riddell.

♪ ♪ >> reporter: if ever there was a one-sport country, it would surely be india. they play cricket from dawn until dusk. they reveal gods and where the love of the game is passed from one generation to the next. the nba believes this is the next big market for their sport, basketball. >> i would say cricket is a traditional sport here in india, but there's also an extraordinarily young population and a young population that's going to develop interests of their own in sport and making decisions on their own as to what their favorite sport will be. >> reporter: the nba commissioner adam silver, india represents the next gold rush. >> we are the fastest growing sport now. when i look at a market like india, well over 1 billion people, a burgeoning middle class, an economy that's just getting going, i think india is the next great frontier for the

nba. >> reporter: with its massive population, there's no doubt india has enormous sports potential. this was the scene in mumbai. making the case for basketball is the sacramento kings. they're owned by the indian businessman, vivick renadive. >> when i bought the sacramento kings one of my main goals was to make sure that we succeeded in expanding the game of basketball in india. i believe this is the greatest sport in the world. i wanted to share the richness, spectacle, athleticism with the people from the country of my origin. it's more than a sport, it's a lifestyle. it appeals to the young. it's got a swagger to it. it's a post colonial sport.

>> reporter: of the games currently being broadcast, the nba knows they're too early to be part of a mastel vision audience. once they've grown the interest, silver says they'll consider changing some of the tip-off times to accommodate viewing overseas. that's when you'll know it's taking off. >> there might be a new michael jordan emerging in india. 2014 was a big year for spotify. why they have yet to make a profit.

most popular programs for streaming music legally and yet spotify is still a money losing operation, at least at this point. samuel burke looks at the challenges facing the online service in this next year as he counts down spotify's five biggest songs. >> reporter: it is the streaming service that towers above all the others. spotify with 50 million active users. the five most listened to songs on spotify this year tell the story of its most eventful 2014. ♪ all of me loves all of you >> reporter: number five, "all of me" by john legend. getting more subscribers to give their all to spotify and become paying customers is key if this money losing operation is to

ever turn a profit. just 20% of users pay to listen now and costs are rising. at number 4, katy perry's "dark horse." ♪ because i'm coming at you like a dark horse ♪ >> reporter: spotify's the most popular streaming service in the world for now. the dark horse is apple. tim cook and company might bundle their recently acquired beats streaming music service into itunes next year. and just like this year's third most streamed song "summer" by calvin harris, spotify is in a high stream race against others like sound cloud, pandora and google. number two, "clean bandits rather be." this music video is is set in tokyo, japan. a place spotify would rather be. it's yet to enter hugely important markets like japan, russia, india and china.

and the number one most streamed song on spotify this year, "happy" by pharrell ♪ because i'm happy >> reporter: spotify investors appear happy for now. despite its losses the company is valued around $4 billion with reported revenue of over $1 billion. and an ipo could come soon. but there are big issues spotify just can't shake off. taylor swift's pulled all of her songs from spotify complaining that it's not paying artists enough. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: spotify's hoping they do get back together. as it tries to keep investors happy, spotify can't afford more ex-lovers or blank spaces. >> i've got a blank space, baby.

>> reporter: in 2015. all right. we'll wait and see spotify's future in 2015. days of relentless rain have proven deadly across parts of southern africa. derek's back with this to tell us about it. >> yeah, that's coming from the capitol of mozambique. you can see waves of moisture that's led to unfortunately five confirmed deaths across the region. this is a very remote part of southern africa where the flooding actually took place. because of the relentless rain it's created mudslides. it's made it very difficult for authorities to get and help the areas impacted by the rainfall. now some of our tropical rainfall measurement tools that we use to determine how much rain actually took place across this region indicating near chumoyo 400 millimeters of rain.

muputu, 100 millimeters plus. you can see why we have experienced flooding. this is an occurrence that happens quite regularly unfortunately across mozambique. the rainy season runs basically from october through about april. remember, we're in the southern hemisphere here. so low pressure systems and high pressure systems rotate in different directions compared to that in the northern hemisphere. two different weather makers here, one being what is called the semipermanent indian high pressure system. that with its counterclockwise rotation drives in moisture from the indian ocean resulting in the heavy rainfall leading to flooding near muputu. this is bans of rainfall that change with the seasons depending on what part of the continent you're located on. it's now in the summer season so we're actually experiencing that rain ban stretching further south impacting central and northern mozambique.

that's where we've experienced 400 millimeters of rainfall plus. remember, what's also fresh on the minds of residents across mozambique was flooding killed 55 people and displaced over 170,000 individuals from their homes. chumuyo within the midst of their rainy season and unfortunately there's more wet weather in store. we could experience upwards of another 100 millimeters of rainfall near the border of zimbabwe and central mozambique. that's all we've got. back to you, natalie. when americans watch the american production of the nut cracker, they will witness history. for the first time an african-american woman is dancing the lead role. randi kaye has more of misty copeland's success story. >> reporter: she's long been called an unlikely ballerina. but at 32 years old, misty

copeland is the first african-american soloist in two decades at the prestigious american ballet theater. her story is different than most ballerinas. >> reporter: you took your first ballet class at 13? >> yes. >> reporter: which is a pretty late start? >> it is. >> reporter: months after that first class in a boys and girls club in san pedro, california, people were calling misty a prodigy. she was 17 when she joined the american ballet theater but not everyone was willing to accept this ballerina who didn't look like all the rest. >> dear candidate, thank you for your a.m. case to our ballet academy. unfortunately you have not been accepted. you lack the right feet, achilles tendons, turnout, torso length and bust. >> reporter: did you ever receive a letter like that? could you relate to that? >> i did. my teacher said, keep that letter because you're going to want to look back on it one day.

as an adult i was told i didn't have the right skin color, i was too muscular, i was too curvy, my breasts were too big. >> reporter: you wrote about an experience where your friend overheard an american ballet staff center said you didn't knit with your brown skin especially in a ballet like "swan lake." do you remember how that affected you? >> yeah. i get emotional right now just thinking about it. i tried to understand the person's perspective and how deep rooted it is in the ballet culture. it's so easy for them to just say these things out loud not understanding the affect it can have on someone. >> reporter: misty proved her critics wrong and played the dual role of the white and black swan in swan lake in australia and will reprize the role for the washington ballet and the american ballet theater next year. >> reporter: i want to get to

that one moment when you saw you in front of met. did your heart just skip a beat? >> it was overwhelming and i didn't see myself up there. i saw a black woman and that was the part that made me so emotional, to see a black woman representing ballet, representing america's national ballet company on the front of the metropolitan opera house. i was like, that's change. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, new york. >> such a wonderful story. misty copeland. have to see her dance one day. beautiful young woman. in the next hour of cnn's special coverage we will go live to seoul, south korea, to learn why the country is especially concerned about potential hacking attacks by north korean agents. also, severe turbulence, a mid-air brawl and an emergency exit pulled open. a look back at a scary week for some air travelers. that's coming up here on cnn.

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after the fbi officially points the finger at north korea in a sweeping cyber attack, some dictator someplace can't dictate free speech and vows to respond. also ahead this hour -- >> you began to experience the cyber attack, what was your respon response? why did this happen? >> questions of the top sony executive. we will hear him in an exclustive tv interview. also,he