program. anything passes for content nowadays. whatever your idea is, share it there, and we'll come to you. thank you. hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. i'm rosemary church. coming up in this hour, after being blamed for the sony hacking, north korea may be the latest victim of a commuter hack. plus we're learning more about the two new york city police officers ambushed and murdered in their patrol car and the attacker's family now has a message for their loved ones. also ahead, cnn's exclusive interview with the western journalist who got access inside isis. find out how he gained their

trust. it is 3:00 in north korea where the internet seems to be returning after an outage that lasted more than nine hours. it's not clear what actually caused the disruption. but some analysts say it could be a cyber attack. now it comes just days after the u.s. said it would respond after blaming north korea for hacking into sony pictures and releasing a wealth of personal information. i want you to take a look at this graph from dyne research. now the purple columns show normal internet usage in north korea. but you see the white gaps on the right side of the chart? they represent a loss of service. meanwhile, south korea is testing its ability to respond to a potential cyber attack on its nuclear plants after the power company's computers were hacked recently. we are in the south korean capital and we now have a live

report. we understand seoul is not ruling out north korea's possible involvement in that cyber attack on its nuclear power plant operator. what's be being said about that right now? >> reporter: what they're saying is that this country has got to learn that cyberattacks are simply the new warfare. that is the new reality. when you look at what it is going to be facing when it comes to north korea. that's the message that we're getting from the government. and they holook at what's happed to their nuclear power plants. it's a story that's been gaining some steam. the nuclear power plants had a hacker break in, steal blue prints and post those sensitive documents on a website that hackers generally look at. the government is saying these are not super sensitive documents, not super classified but they are still sensitive, items that should not be in the public space. so this is a compromise of security. the other thing that is

concerning is that this particular hack does bear some very stark similarities to what happened to sony and what happened to the south korean banks last year. someone managing to break in, grab the keys and wander inside protected information space, rosemary. >> yeah. it is a warning to everyone across the globe. of course cyber security is the new norm, isn't it. while we're on the topic, i do want to move to what happened in north korea. its internet outage lasted nine hours as we mentioned. what do we know about what caused that outage? >> reporter: well, we know that it went down. and the website that went down went down hard. these are government websites, and when we try to check in to kcna, which is the way that north korea speaks to the outside world, we got an error page. this is something i've never seen before. people who watch north korea have never seen this before.

there's sometimes some slow service trying to get to the page, but you never see this. the website briefly came back up hours later and then got replaced by a purple flower. so when you talk to internet security people as we have been through the day is that this looks like a hack. it doesn't look like something that the united states would bother with. it looks like something that perhaps an amateur might be doing to mess with north korea. the website does appear to be working right now, but rosemary, it is very slow. it is moving very, very slowly, and it does fail every once in a while. so this isn't over yet. >> no, it doesn't seem to be. many thanks to you reporting from seoul, south korea. the u.s. ambassador says life in north korea is a live willing nightmare. samantha power spoke monday as a the u.n. security council took up north korea's human rights record. the council was urged to refer north korea to the international

criminal court for crimes against humanity. >> i am saying this with a heavy heart. because for south koreans, people in north korea are not just anybody's, millions of south koreans still have our family members and relatives living in the north. even though we never hear from them, even though by now the pain of separation has become a cold fact of life, we cannot watch video clips from north korea without flinching at what we are seeing. we cannot listen to stories of north korean defectors without sharing in their tears. without feeling as if we are there with them, experiencing

the tragedies. >> and monday's procedural vote, which is exempt from vetoes is the first since 2006, when the security council added myanmar's human rights record to the agenda. all right. we do want to turn now to another big story we are watching very closely here on cnn. new york city is on high alert for possible copycat attacks on its police after a man shot and killed two officers over the weekend. investigators are looking into more than a dozen threats to the nypd posted on social media. the department is also increasing security around the new year's eve ball drop in times square. the city's mayor met with the families of wenjin liu and rafael ramos, saying they are in tremendous pain. that meeting comes as critics blame the mayor for inciting violence against police by

supporting recent protests. >> the attack on these two officers, the assassination of these two officers was an attack on the city of new york as a whole, on every one of us, on our values, on our democracy. we cannot tolerate such attacks. anyone with the ability to help us stop them must step forward. >> and the doctor for officer liu's parents say they are so devastated by losing their own child, they have not eaten since he was killed. his wife of two months was very emotional at a news conference monday with his parents. >> this is a difficult time for both of our families. but we will stand together and get through this together. thank you. >> new york is planning a moment of silence tuesday at 2:47, the exact time officers ramos and liu were gunned down. the gunman's sister says

ismaaiyl brinsley did not shoot them in retaliation for police brutality. he was mentally ill and needed help. meanwhile, the nypd is trying to piece together his timeline before the shooting. martin savage has more. >> reporter: surveillance video shows suspected gunman ismaaiyl brinsley at a mall saturday, about three hours from now, he'll shoot and kill two new york police officers. authorities are still trying to piece together those final hours. ? if any w . >> if anyone has seen this individual -- >> reporter: this video captures the moments just after the shooting as personnel try to save the officers. brinsley takes his own life on a subway platform as police close in. hours later it is announced that officers wenjin liu and rafael

ramos are dead. on his social media, postings. >> two of new york's finest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation. they were quite simply assassinated. >> reporter: a review of brinsley's cell phone contained video they believe he shot in manhattan earlier this month at a protest over the deaths of eric garner and michael brown. brinsley's string of violence began early saturday morning, about 200 miles away. police say he gave entrance to his ex-girlfriend's apartment somehow through the lobby and knocked down her door. she told police he threatened to shoot himself. after the woman talks him out of it brinsley shoots her and flees and takes her cell phone with him. police begin tracking brinsley with her cell phone. he posts "i'm putting wings on

pigs today." nypd is warned of the potential danger. police believe when he appears in this video his plan is already set. >> new yorkers quickly run over to the police officer and point out a bag left unattended. and that is good and important, but this is another thing we have to do now. >> reporter: at about the same time, brinsley throws the cell phone away and police lose track of him. the next time he's seen is near the intersection of myrtle and tompkins, where he strikes up a conversation with people on the street, ending it with a statement "watch what i'm going to do". as word of the shooting spread, new york police officers rushed to the hospital where the men were taken. so did new york mayor bill de blasio. and in a hallway, this moment captured, officers turning their backs to the mayor, many of them believing his sympathies for

what they call anti-police demonstrations helped paved the way for the deaths of their brother officers. >> there's blood on many hands tonight. those that incited violence on this street under the guise of protest to try to tear down what new york city police officers did every day. >> reporter: martin savage, cnn, brooklyn. the deaths of the officers have heightened tinks between the nypd and city hall. we'll have more on that later in the newscast. we turn to australia and a private memorial service was being held today for one of the hostages in last wreak's siege at sydney cafe. she was shot and killed at the cafe. the lawyer and mother of three was buried monday. her family has requested that video not be shown until after the service is over. also on tuesday, a private

funeral was held for the other victim, 34-year-old tori johnson. he was the manager of that cafe. the 16-hour siege ended after the gunman and both hostages were killed. well, there are frayed nerves in france at country deals with three attacks in three days. ahead, growing fears of terrorism in europe. plus, russia's central bank is bailing out its first victim of the collapsing economy. now a former finance minister is warning of more trouble ahead. we'll explain. i have a cold with terrible chest congestion. i better take something. theraflu severe cold doesn't treat chest congestion. really? new alka-seltzer plus day powder rushes relief to your worst cold symptoms plus chest congestion. [breath of relief] oh, what a relief it is.

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welcome back, everyone. at least 10 people were injured in france. it happened when a van driver plowed into shoppers at an outdoor christmas market. authorities say the driver stabbed himself after monday's attack. he is expected to recover. the incident is still under investigation, but a prosecutor says this seems like an isolated case so far, not an act of terrorism. well, that incident monday is the third attack to take place in france since saturday. french authorities say it reflects a dangerous trend. an increasing number of radicalized french muslims. senior international correspondent jim bittermann has more. >> reporter: twice over the weekend, unserving attacks some

consider acts of terrorism. in one, a driver drove around for a half hour plowing into pedestrians, sending 13 to the hospital. and in a suburb, a man shouted allah akbar as he knifed police officers. he was shot dead. after visiting the scene, the french interior minister said investigators are still trying to determine the exact motivations of the two attackers but they are looking for weak signals in advance of a terrorist attack and that everyone knows the terrorist threat is real. both incidents seem the kind of thing that experts have been warning about, attacks by extremists acting alone. >> there's obviously the crisis of identity from these individuals, from these young

people. they're looking for something. they're looking to exist, to, for kind of recognition. and they feel that through that engagement, they will find that recognition. >> reporter: in fact, statistics released just last week by the interior minister indicated just how serious the threat may be. the number of french nationals with relatives in syria and iraq has doubled to 1200. of those, more than 600 are in those countries or on their way there. 60 jihadists are thought to have been killed in the fighting. a dozen people were arrested just last week suspected of helping young people travel to join the fight. and more and more family members of those who have been self-radicalized or recruited by fundamentalists have come forward hoping to prevent more

french young people from joining the jihadists. >> and that was senior international correspondent jim bittermann reporting from france. anti-immigration rallies in germany are growing larger. [ shouting ] this demonstration monday night in dresden drew more than 17,000 people. they call themselves "patriotic europeans against the islamation of the west". german chancellor angela merkle has condemned the protests. there was a rally by a smaller group opposing them. wall street is booming just before the christmas holiday. it was a big day for the dow which is up more than 8% for the year.

the nasdaq also posted gains a russia is warning of an economic crisis. they risk having their debt downgraded to junk status. >> translator: today i can say we have entered or are entering a full-scale economic crisis. next year we'll feel the full effects of it. we will be under the greatest risk since 2000. the household income of ordinary people will decrease. >> he blames the ruble's plummet in part on sanctions over ukraine. falling oil prices have also helped batter the russian economy. a hong kong tycoon and former official have learned

their fates in the city's largest corruption trial. thomas kwak was fined more than $64,000. he was found guilty of conspiracy of payments made to a former government official. hoo was sentenced to seven and a half years. k kwak's younger brother was acquitted of all charges. a $772 million fine was levied to settle a case. alstromw alstrom, the fine the highest ever for foreign bribery in the u.s. a german author boltedly

seeks and receives access to isis nigfighters and the territ they captured. we'll back in a moment.

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[ alarm rings ] no! home and auto bundle from progressive. saves you money. yay, game night, so much fun. welcome back to cnn. well, reuters reports that jordan will begin providing training and arms to iraqi forces in the next few days. the aim is to help rebuild iraq's army which lost large arias of ground to isis

fighters. meantime, kurdish peshmerga fighters head up sinjar mountain after they broke isis's months-long siege there over the weekend. yesterday, we showed you a story about a german author who traveled deep into isis territory. he risked his life to get a close-up look at the isis militants and life under their control. well, now he tells us how he managed to get such extraordinary access. >> reporter: what i have here is the declaration of safe passage, i think it is, that you received from the islamic state. do you letter what it says, alsals also. >> yeah. it says that the caliph is giving the guarantee that i would be protected, my people, my team would be protected, and i would come back to germany in safety. and it's a clear guarantee.

our problem was that we didn't know if this guarantee was true. because i cannot control the stamp on this declaration, on this guarantee, and this was our risk. >> reporter: but did they treat you well when you were there? did they abide by what they wrote in here? >> they were correct. but they were not very kind to me. we had very hard discussions about our, our, about the way of investigations. about our freedom and sometimes they choose, chose a tone that i didn't accept, and we had a dispute. and after two days we had a very hard dispute, and we almost decided to leave and to go back. >> reporter: what about censorship. how openly were you allowed to travel? what were you al lowed to show?

>> i could make comparisons. they said you can go to mosul. are you the only one, first one. et cetera. and this was the good side. but the bad side was that we had to give our mobiles, our laptops to them, and that all the photos were controlled. all the films were controlled. >> reporter: so they went through all of your stuff, all of your video. >> they went through all of the stuff, and of course, we said no. we refused. and we had, again, a huge dispute. they said you can leave, if you want to leave then leave. so i think even if we hadn't take one single photo, i was

interested to see what was happening in this country. >> and to see much more of the video and interviews he shot during his journey inside isis, just go to our website, cnn.com. we'll take a short break now, but just ahead here on cnn, why the tense relationship between the mayor and the police predates the shooting of two officers. plus. would you have ever made fun of kim jong-un? i wouldn't dare he says, that's a path to death. >> no funny business when it comes to north korea. hear why comedy doesn't stand a chance under the country's regime.

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a wrarm welcome back to cnn. i'm rosemary church. i do want to check the headlines for you this hour. internet service appears to be back up in north korea after a disruption that lasted more than nine hours. some analysts say the outage may have been an attack. it comes days after the u.s. said it would respond to the hacking of sony pictures, which it blames on north korea. new york city is planning extra security for new year's eve in the wake of threats to its officers post the on social media. this comes after the ambush killing of two police men over the weekend by a man who made threats online before shooting them and committing suicide. a van plowed into shoppers at an outdoor christmas market in western france. at least 10 people were injured.

the driver stabbed himself in the neck after that crash, but he is expected to survive. a prosecutor says this appears to be an isolated case and not a terrorist attack. well, tensions are simmering between police and new york city's mayor after the shooting deaths of those two police officers, our miguel marquez has the details. >> reporter: a shocking moment as new york mayor bill de blasio entered the hospital saturday where the mortally injured officers were taken, fellow police turn their backs on him, a powerful and divisive message to the mayor of this major city who has lost their trust. >> i've never seen hostilities this heightened before in my career. >> reporter: one nypd union, the patrolman's ben ever lants association has been withering in its attacks on de blasio. >> there's blood on many hands

tonight. that blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall, in the office of the mayor. >> reporter: he and his organization representing beat cops blame the mayor for the way he's handled recent protests. the lack of indictment of police in the killing of michael brown in ferguson, missouri first set off angry protests here. they grew angrier. a handful of protesters actually calling for the killing of police after a jury in new york failed to indict police over the killing of eric garner after he was stopped for selling loose cigarettes. in the midst of the protest firestorm, de blasio shared his feelings about talking to his own mixed-race son about how he should deal with police. >> we've had to literally train him as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any

encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him. >> reporter: but perhaps what angered police here most, protesters given free reign of the city for several nights, and in one incident, several protesters on the brooklyn bridge physically assaulted a nypd officer. so upset over the mayor's handling of the protests on december 12rks well before these current killings, the police ben ever length associate asked officers to sign a letter to the mayor asking him not to attend funerals of officers if they were killed in the line of duty. >> it puts the citizens in a very dangerous place. when you hear some of the rhetoric by the union president, that raises the level of frustration. >> reporter: tension between police and de blasio started before he took office in january over new york's stop and frisk

policy. at its height in 2011, 87% stopped were black or latino. de blasio made this a corner stone of his campaign. >> i think the long-term security needs of this city require moving away from stop and frisk. >> reporter: it ended in 2013 and has been a sore point for police and its unions who view the practice as successful in cushing crime here and preventing everything from petty crime to terrorism in the future. miguel marquez, cnn. >> mayor die blae blasio is bei defended by bratton. he said ongoing issues are root

the rooted in the city's long history. >> i guarantee you some officers don't like me. amazingly some do. i can't quite understand that. but some do. some of you have been around this town for a while. can you point out to me one man that has not been battling with the police unions in the last 50 years? name one. name one. so the experience of this man, about some cops not liking him, it's nothing new. it's part of life, part of politics. >> now bratton was also police commissioner under former new york mayor rudy giuliani who started the stop and frisk policy. giuliani talked about his own police policies and had a few choice words for critics in an interview on cnn's "new day." >> the children of black parents

in this city are being save bid our police officers. and during the time i was mayor -- and i don't mind saying this -- i saved more black lives than any mayor in the history of this city, because i was not afraid to police according to statistics, and not to what al sharpton would try to sell you as black propaganda. >> so how do you explain the protests we've seen across this city and elsewhere where they think that police are using excessive force and they think police are treating communities of color differently. >> it's the sail way that people are afraid of flying on an airplane than travels in a car. because when you see a big crash, oh, my gosh, plane crashes. people driving in a car have a much greater chance of dying in kafrmt if i have a father and a black son, there's a 1% chance that my son's going to be harmed by police. >> they would argue that it should be 0.

that's an overextension of it. the idea that the mike brown case was the right case to hang this cause on may be an arguable assumption. but the idea that blacks are at risk when it comes to the culture of policing. that's not new, and you know there's a lot of statistical support for it. >> you don't want to ignore the problem. you want to be very candid about the problem. but you don't want to do it disproportionately. those police wouldn't have been in ft. green. >> but they don't have to be abusive that's a legitimate issue. the real problem is that blacks kill each other. >> here's a highway that has 2% of the accident. here's a highway that has 92% of the accidents. the president and de blasio are spending all their time on the 2% highway and not on the 92% highway.

it far outweighs officers who abuse anyone. by the way. both cases you mention, great sympathy for their families, but both of those men were committing crimes. >> former mayor giuliani on cnn's "new day." the district attorney in milwaukee announced that a former officer was justified in the shooting death of a mentally ill man and will not face charges. the decision sparked angry protests. [ shouting ] he died in april after being shot more than a dozen times during a confrontation with the officer. >> reporter: the district attorney's report details statements from more than a dozen witnesses from that april day and their accounts of a violent encounter between officer christopher manning and dante hamilton. >> multiple witnesses heard

multiple commands. there was stop, get down, just variations of that. >> reporter: consistent was that manning took out his baton, that hamilton was able to take it from him and was beating the officer when the fatal shots were fired. >> they came to the conclusion that based on all the facts, all the circumstances present to a reasonable officer and officer manny's position at the time the circumstance occurred, his use of force was privileged and was justified. >> reporter: chisholm says a major point of concern was that hamilton was shot 14 times. >> there is no standard that says an officer is required to stop and reassess after firing x-amount of rounds. the national standard is that if they fire to stop the threat. as long as the threat is still present, they are authorized to continue firing. >> reporter: and to demonstrate, chisholm released a video showing an officer firing 14 times with the same type of gun to show how quickly it happens.

14 rounds in less than three seconds. >> according to the citizen witnesses that saw the majority of the incident, the officer stopped firing as soon as mr. hamilton went to the ground. so with mr. hamilton on the ground, the firing stops. as long as mr. hamilton was standing and armed with the officer's baton and had use thad against the officer already, he would be justified to employ force. >> the officer who shot hamilton has been fired for not following protoco protocols. the fbi will review the case to see if any federal charges are warranted. when it comes to north korea, comedy is no laughing matter. we'll see what passes for entertainment in the hermit kingdom and why a punch line can wind you in a prison camp. and we'll tell you how an australian father and his sons

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♪ you are so beautiful [ applause ] music has lost one of its most powerful and soulful voices. british singer joe cocker died monday at the age of 70. he'd been battling lung cancer. the raspy voiced singer rose to fame after a rendition of "a little help from my friends ". his career spanned 50 years and had planned to keep going with tour dates scheduled well into 2015. turning back now to our top story and the repercussion of the hacking of sony pictures. the attack was triggered by the

comedy "the interview", it depicts a cia plaot to assassinate kim jong-un. we show you why satire is no laughing matter. >> reporter: welcome to prime time programming on north korea's only television station. a cartoon explaining how to bomb the enemy. to traditional dance, praising the supreme leader. this is entertainment a la north korean regime. to the western world, all of this is strange. a little twisted, and certainly devoid of any humor. would you have ever made fun of kim jong-un? i wouldn't dare, he says. that's a path to death. he knows, because the defector

was once a comedy writer for five years with the north korean military. comedy and the dprk, you ask? well, sort of. as a comedy writer, is it very dangerous what you can make jokes about? [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: among writers, the ones sent to prison most often are the comedy writers. go too far in a punch line, and it's prison time. the goal in north korea is not to laugh, but as another method to enhance loyalty to the regime. it is little wonder north korea fails to see the humor in this silly american movie. satire just doesn't exist. joking about the supreme leader and killing the character on the big screen is not metaphor, but punishable by death. kim understands why the movie would push north korea of launching a cyber attack. this writer is now in the very

unfunny business of reporting news from the outside world, sending it via proxies into north korea. he doesn't joke. he wants his former homeland to understand the very serious consequences of what began as a comedy. cnn, seoul. >> is that real? pope francis used his annual christmas address for a blistering critique against vatican officials. he urged them to mend their ways which he likened to a sick body. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: a disease of turning bosses into gods. it is the disease of those who court their superiors, hoping to conquer their ben ever lance.

they honor people and not god. they are people who live their service, thinking solely of what they must receive and not about what they have to give. they are petty, unhappy people, inspired only by their fatal egoism. >> butt pope d >> but the pope did wish them a merry christmas. he's been working on overhauling the administrative body ever since he became the head of the church last week. we've got rain, snow in the united states. >> just in time for everybody traveling and trying to get to where they need to go before christmas. i was at the grocery store today. it is mayhem out thayer. people are getting desperate. it's getting very close to christmas here. so let's talk about this illy timed, ill-timed storm.

big trough of low pressure. but you see this piece of energy moving through dallas? that is the storm that's going to eventually scoop up and head up to the north and east and bring us not only a severe weather threat tuesday but christmas eve as well. it is going to be windy and nasty with very heavy rainfall, strong winds. and on the backside of the storm i do think we'll get some places that will pick up six plus inches of snowfall across the midwest. but that's going to be limited to the midwest because the storm is across the mid section. we're on the warm sector here in the east. so the big cities all across the eastern seaboard do not have to worry about snow this time around. but it will be windy enough to cause airport delays. so let's track this for you tuesday afternoon. already seeing showers and storms. if you are flying through the hub in the southeast, atlanta, there will be airport delays

today because of the potential of strong thunderstorms that will be rolling through. and then i think we repeat again on wednesday. especially early on. then there's early wednesday morning up towards chicago, first is rain, then on the backside will be a swath of snowfall. and it will be flying here as far as the flakes heading into wednesday. and then by thursday we begin to clear this thing out, thursday being christmas. then we're done, just in time for everybody to get back home here. but severe weather threat again, tuesday into wednesday, large hail and frequent lightning. and it will be into atlanta by the time we get into wednesday. this is the area we're going to watch very closely over the next few days. because i think it will be impacting a lot of people trying to get home, not just people getting home but also delivery

trucks. we may have packages that may not get where they need to get. >> it's a similar story each year. well, a four-day camping trip turned into a 11-day fight to survive after an australian father and his two young boys got lost in the outback. they left their brisbon home on december 11. unfortunately, they made a wrong turn. their car got bogged down in mud, and they were stranded. they survived by rationing the four days' worth of food they packed and collecting rainwater. they were down to their last few slices of bread when a farmer remembered seeing their car. the father is fine. the boys lost some weight, but they are expected to make a full recovery, and quite a lesson in survival there for those two young boys. all right, a very short break but still to come, el

gordo grips spain. several women celebrate across the country after they win money. plus the christmas cheer in brazil as postal workers light up childrens' lives. what you're doing now, janice. blogging. your blog is just pictures of you in the mirror. it's called a fashion blog, todd. well, i've been helping people save money with progressive's discounts. flo, can you get janice a job? [ laughs ] you should've stuck to softball! i was so much better at softball than janice, dad.

where's your wife, todd? vacation. discounts like homeowners', multi-policy -- i got a discount on this ham. i've got the meat sweats. this is good ham, diane. paperless discounts -- give it a rest, flo. all: yeah, flo, give it a rest. it is going to be a very happy holiday season for the winners of spain's famous el

gordo lottery. the annual christmas drawing was worth nearly $3 billion. the winning numbers drawn on monday, 1, 3, 4, 3, and 7. among those now wearing big smiles, workers at a madrid restaurant. their boss says the winners are now all about $120,000 richer. >> well, i'm very, very happy but also very happy for them. just imagine, the boss gets the money and they don't. this way everybody gets the money. >> everybody's happy. reuters reports tickets sales were up for the first time since 2008. and postal workers in brazil are spreading christmas cheer to those in need. half a million less fortunate children have gifts under their tree this year. shasta darlington explains. >> reporter: a modern-day santa

claus. delivers presents to your doorstep. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: no matter where that may be. part of a christmas campaign run by brazil's postal service, matching needy families with generous donors, with the help of traditional "dear santa" letters, keeping imagine eck alive for young and old. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: wow, so it's for real, says this woman as she receives a present for her granddaughter. in downtown sa paulo o most of it takes place here. roetz mary and her family are joining in for the third year in a row.

here's a letter from a nine year old boy, she says. asking for a blender for his grandmother, even if it's used, and a toy car for his little brother, but nothing for himself. jazmine picked a girl her same age. she's asking for barbie roller skates, she says. the letters also tell stories. my mom has a health problem, she says. she's 33 and cleans houses. the program was started 25 years ago by a handful of postal workers who decided to do something about all the letters. the regional postal director says today children have to meet three criteria. they must be under ten, he says, from disadvantaged families, and they have to write the letters by hand. this year, 500,000 brazilian children will see their wishes come true. footballs and barbie dolls are on many lists, but you can also

find baby formula and diapers, soon on their way to another christmas tree. shasta darlington, cnn, brazil. great story and a great program. thanks for watching. i'm rose mary church. next hour join errol barnett for all the latest news from around the world. you are watching cnn.

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hey there, everyone. i'm errol barnett. a big welcome watching in the u.s. and all around the world. i'll be with you for the next two hours. >> i'm asking everyone and this is across the spectrum to put aside protests, put aside demonstrations. >> new york city's mayor calls for unity after the murder of two police officers and new questions now about the final hours of their accused killer. also, cybermystery. north korea struggles to get its internet service back up and running after a massive outage. also coming up for you financial meltdown. a kremlin ally warns of tough times ahead for the russian economy and russians in general.