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NEWS STREAM

Leaked Documents: Major Concessions Offered by Palestinians; Phone- Hacking Scandal in U.K.; Awaiting the Unknown in Australia

Aired January 24, 2011 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANNA COREN, ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet.

Hello. I'm Coren in Hong Kong.

Leaked documents reveal what is said to be major concessions offered by Palestinians during Middle East peace talks.

Afghanistan's youngest addicts -- why some children there are being given opium.

And how the government's collapse is allowing Tunisians to look at life among the country's former elites.

The Palestinian Authority says it is not keeping secrets. All PA leaders are denying a report that its negotiators offered unprecedented concessions to Israel back in 2008. The Al Jazeera network says it has obtained nearly 1,700 documents relating to the last decade of peace talks.

Well, the biggest concessions relate to Jerusalem. Negotiators reportedly offered to concede Israeli control of most of east Jerusalem. Well, that's significant, because Palestinians want their area as the capital of their future state.

Well, it's on the right side of this red line here. Israelis annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 War. The move is not being internationally recognized, but Israel has been building neighborhoods there ever since.

The report also says Palestinian negotiators offered to compromise on control of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Well, that's the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest places.

Well, another shocking allegation reveals that Palestinian negotiators were willing to give ground on the right of return for refugees.

Well, let's bring in Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Flower.

Kevin, just before we get to the detail, can we confirm the authenticity of these documents?

KEVIN FLOWER, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: No, we can't. Indeed, the Al Jazeera network obtained these documents from a source that it's not revealing. CNN has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of these documents. They're also being published by "The Guardian" newspaper in Great Britain as well.

So that caveat aside, what these documents show us is a lot of details about the inner workings of the Palestinian positions in negotiations with Israelis over the Middle East peace conflict. And as you mentioned, garnering the most attention has been the particular Palestinian positions on what are called core issues, and the one getting a lot of attention today, the status of Jerusalem. And specifically, Anna, this is significant, because what these documents show are two different positions, both public and private, from the Palestinian Authority.

Privately, these documents seem to suggest that the Palestinians were talking about relinquishing their claims to huge swaths of land in east Jerusalem that is settled by Jewish Israelis, but while publicly saying something completely different. But they are completely opposed to any Israeli presence in east Jerusalem. Now, of course this gap between the public and private positions has created a bit of a political predicament for the Palestinian Authority vis-a-vis its public, vis-a-vis its political opponents, Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Now, just a short time ago, we heard from a top adviser from the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, who's called for an independent commission to study the veracity of these documents, but he also took the Al Jazeera network to task for their journalism. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABED RABBO, PALESTINE LIBERATION ORG. SECRETARY GEN. (through translator): They fabricated the agreements and changed the events, and cut a word from here and a word from there. They attached pictures of people who have nothing to do with negotiations, and they mixed it all together, because this serves the prior interests of Al Jazeera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLOWER: Now, some of that -- that press conference that that gentleman gave, Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and a top Palestinian Authority official, was a very angry press conference. He talked a lot about the Palestinian Authority, you know, not being guilty of the charges that Al Jazeera was making against it -- Anna.

COREN: Kevin, some members of the Palestinian Authority have said that these documents are a bunch of lies. But has there been any response from Israel's government?

FLOWER: At this point there has been on official reaction from the Israeli government whatsoever about these documents, but they're looking at it closely. One thing that the Israeli government is sensitive to is how it gets portrayed in the international media. Specifically, whether it is seen as being forthcoming in negotiations, being an active partner in negotiations, and being responsive to American wishes. And so the downside for this for Israeli is that it appears from some of these documents that Israel rejected some of these concessions that were being offered by the Palestinians, which basically sort of turns the table on Israel, who, for a long time now, for several months, has been saying they don't have a partner for peace in the Palestinians -- Anna.

COREN: Kevin Flower in Jerusalem.

Thank you.

Well, the militant group Hamas has also responded to these reported revelations. Hamas is in control of Gaza. Well, a spokesman tells CNN that the Palestinian Authority cannot be trusted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OUSSAMA HAMDAN, HEAD OF FOREIGN RELATIONS, HAMAS IN LEBANON: They were desperate, truly, because they don't have credibility, they've lost the elections, and they knew they are only supported by outside. So they were desperate to find a solution which may keep them in power. This is what they were negotiating for.

And I have -- to turn back to the documents, Saeb Erekat was saying we have to do anything to keep the PA. Even if we give parts of Jerusalem and even if we drop the right of return, they were desperate to (INAUDIBLE), and it shows how those people cannot be trusted, because no one can negotiate while he's a desperate man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Well, the conclusion of an Israeli investigation into last year's raid on a Gaza aid ship is also stirring controversy. It found Israeli commandos acted professionally and did not break international law when they seized this ship at the end of May.

Well, nine members of a Turkish relief group were killed. One survivor calls the report a sick joke and denies Israeli forces acted in self- defense. Well, Turkey says it's appalled and dismayed at the findings. Palestinian leaders say the independent commission lacks credibility.

Well, Ireland is bracing for early elections after its already fragile ruling coalition was dealt another blow. On Sunday, the Green Party pulled out of the government, depriving it of a majority in parliament. Well, the Greens say they will still support an austerity mandate (ph).

And on Saturday, Prime Minister Brian Cowen resigned as the leader of the governing Fianna Fail Party. Well, Ireland's coalition government has been crumbling since it had to ask for an international financial bailout late last year. The early elections could happen as early as next month.

Well, former British prime minister Gordon Brown is the latest high-profile name mentioned in a phone-hacking scandal in the U.K.

Well, let's go live to our Dan Rivers in London for more.

Dan, it would appear that pressure is mounting on Scotland Yard to reopen this case. What can you tell us?

DAN RIVERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think there are more and more calls now on the police to reopen this case.

This all goes back to the interception, or the hacking into, Prince Williams' recorded answer phone messages back in 2005 by a reporter on a tabloid newspaper here called "The News of the World." Clive Goodman was then convicted of that illegal activity, along with a private investigator, in 2007.

At the time, a sort of line was drawn under it. "The News of the World" said he was a rogue reporter, he was acting alone, without any sort of collusion or knowledge of senior managers in "News International." No one thought anything of it.

But since then, repeatedly, more and more details have come out in the press that perhaps other people's phone messages were also hacked into, not just Prince William. People in politics, in the media, people in the realms of sort of football sports, supermodels like Elle Macpherson, pop stars like George Michael. The list of potential people who have been involved with this just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and now it's culminated in perhaps the most high-profile person of all, Gordon Brown -- of course, former prime minister -- who wrote to the police six months ago, we now discover, asking if his phone was also hacked into by journalists on "The News of the World" why he was the finance minister here, the chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now, we don't know whether it was hacked into, but certainly I think calls are growing for a fuller investigation into this. One journalist has already been convicted, but there are now questions about whether this was more widespread than previously thought.

COREN: Dan, how high up did this scandal go? Any idea?

RIVERS: Well, "News International" maintaining this line, as I say, that he was -- as I say, Clive Goodman was a sort of rogue reporter acting on his own. But many people find that, frankly, incredible, that an editor of a tabloid newspaper could get so many front-page stories from Clive Goodman without asking how and where they came from.

And now several other cases are sort of lined up in the courts, civil cases, with people searing "The News of the World" for damages. "The News of the World" has already settled in one case involving Gordon Taylor, who's the head of the football players' union here, for an untold amount. We understand hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been paid to him.

But there are lots of other people now beginning to queue up at the courts for similar legal action. And now the Crown Prosecution Service, the sort of public prosecutors here, if you like, are reviewing the police evidence to see if there is potentially any grounds for further prosecutions of journalists at "The News of the World," or senior editors, or management. And, of course, this has claimed the spin doctor of the current prime minister, David Cameron, who had to quit his job as the continuing scandal rolled around the news.

But I don't think this is over by any means at all. Andy Coulson has resigned, yes. But there are no questions about whether not just he, but other managers who are still imposed (ph) at "The News of the World," may have known -- they're denying that -- and whether Rupert Murdoch himself, the owner of "News International," had any knowledge of this practice of hacking into celebrities' and politicians' phones in order to gain salacious gossip and news stories about them.

COREN: You certainly get a sense, Dan, that this story still has a long way to go.

Dan Rivers in London.

Thank you for that.

Well, still ahead on NEWS STREAM, in the Australian state of Victoria, floodwaters are still rising, and so is the cost of the damage. We'll show you how the town of Swan Hill is preparing for the deluge.

The devastating impact of opium in Afghanistan. We meet the child addicts whose lives are being shaped by the deadly drug.

And rewriting the history of the electric car. What was once written off is finally catching up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Welcome back.

Well, more than 800 people have now been killed by extreme flooding in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state. Flash floods and mudslides have wiped out entire neighborhoods in hillside towns. The homes in low-lying areas are being flatted by the sheer force of mud and water.

The state government said late Sunday that 809 people have now lost their lives. Well, that figure includes at least 391 victims in the city of Nova Friburgo alone.

Well, in Australia, more than 3.1 million people have now been affected by the flooding that has ravaged the east of the country. But for some residents of Victoria, the worst is yet to come. Australia's federal treasurer says the disaster will be one of the costliest in the nation's history.

Well, the size of the cleanup bill isn't surprising when you look at the scale of the damage. Well, this is what the New South Wales/Victoria border looked like in mid-January, 2010. The summer drought left the land parched, and you can see a few small lakes, but most are not visible.

Skip forward a year, to last Wednesday, and the main difference is how green the region is. Just look at Lake Buloke over here.

Well, this lake barely existed before. There's no shortage of water now, and it measures about 20 kilometers from north to south.

Well, running through the center of this image is the Murray River. And alongside it are the towns of Lake Boga and Swan Hill. Well, the former has already been swamped. The latter is preparing for the worst.

Nine Network's Laura Turner reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA TURNER, REPORTER, NINE NETWORK (voice-over): Slowly sinking under, Marabik (ph) West devoured by the relentless tide. Residents fleeing to relief centers as the surge burst through levees and bore down on Swan Hill.

Russell and Sharon Duri (ph) live on the weakest point of the Swan Hill levee bank.

RUSSELL DURI (ph), RESIDENT: I've seen what's coming and, yes, it made me nervous.

TURNER: If it breaks, the home is lost and the flood will be sent straight up the Murray Valley Highway into the center of town. It's the result of four rivers converging. The danger here has drawn worldwide concern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A message came through from Toronto, Canada, giving us support, with a message of support, and best wishes. It was fantastic.

TURNER: And this is why -- floodwaters are described as a massive inland sea covering an area about 90 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide. That would take in much of Melbourne and the suburbs, including outer areas, and stretch from Bacchus Marsh in the west, to Yarra Glen in the east.

Taking desperate measures, 80,000 sandbags await this flood. That's despite some here stealing them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disappointed, disgusted, disgraceful.

TURNER: Tourist attractions have been shut down and Australia Day celebrations postponed. Swan Hill preparing for the unknown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kids came and completely cleaned their rooms out. Not a stick of furniture left in there.

TURNER: Laura Turner, Nine News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

COREN: Well, turning to other news now, the South Korean navy has released footage of Friday's predawn rescue mission. The operation killed eight Somali pirates, while five other were captured and could stand trial.

Here's Paula Hancocks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 5:40 a.m., the South Korean navy opens fire. A predawn ambush to save a Korean-owned ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Arabia Sea. A helicopter hovers overhead with South Korean snipers ready to take out any pirate they see on board.

6:09 a.m., under cover of continued fire, a navy boat approaches the hijacked ship. Thirty commandos board. The commandos approach the bridge of the ship. Parts of the military-released footage has the audio cut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. OK.

HANCOCKS: Then an order over a louder speaker is heard. It says, "Apart from the snipers, don't shoot."

9:56 a.m., eight Somali pirates are dead, five are captured, and the South Korean navy has control of the ship. Two of those captured are seen sitting on deck with their hands tied behind their backs. The 21 seamen are all freed.

The captain of the bullet-riddled ship is the only one injured, shot in the stomach by pirates, according to officials. The first mission of its kind for South Korea, and officials are calling it a success.

Former navy captain Park Chang-Kwoun tells me navy commandos train for this scenario and could well respond to any future hijacking. Talking about the tactics used, he says, "Commandos are at the greatest risk when they're approaching and boarding the ship. The continued firing protect the commandos, deceives the pirates, and creates confusion, incapacitating the pirates on desk."

(on camera): Just 10 minutes before the South Korean navy opened fire it made a loud speaker announcement to the crew on board which said, "Very shortly, the navy will attack to rescue you. Evacuate to a safe place and do not come outside," an order in Korean, which the Somali pirates would not have understood, and an order which is thought to have helped save the crew's lives.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Coming up on NEWS STREAM, it's a drug war that has thousands addicted in Afghanistan. And look who is giving opium to the kids, Afghanistan's next generation of drug addicts.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Well, now to a story of staggering drug addiction that knows no generational bounds.

In Afghanistan, opium abuse, particularly among poor adults, has been well publicized. But on a trip to a remote part of the country, Arwa Damon discovered babies and children are being hooked on the drug.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Aziza (ph) reaches into the cupboard for a small, dark lump wrapped in plastic. Unwraps it, and feeds a small piece to her 4-year-old son, Omay Buma (ph). It is his breakfast, a breakfast of pure opium.

"If I don't give him opium, he won't sleep," she says. "And that disrupts my work."

Aziza (ph) comes to her family of poor carpet weavers in northern Afghanistan. She has no education and no idea that opium is addictive.

"We give the children opium whenever they get sick as well," she says. In fact, this entire extended family is addicted. The adults take opium to work longer hours and ease pain.

Aziza's (ph) elderly mother-in-law, Rosigul (ph), rolls a small ball in her fingers, pops it into her mouth, and passes a chunk to her sister. "We are very poor people without enough to eat," Rosigul (ph) explains. "We have to use drugs and keep our kids quiet."

It's a cycle of addiction passed down through generations, generations untouched by the outside world. This part of Afghanistan is famous for its carpets, but so remote, there are no real roads. There is no medical care, and a government drug rehabilitation center is four hours away in Mazar-i- Sharif. It has just 20 beds and a handful of staff for an epidemic.

"Opium use is nothing new to our villages or districts. It's an old tradition. It's something of a religion," Dr. Mohamed Drativ (ph) explains.

Most Afghans aren't aware of the health risks of opium, and only a few are beginning to understand the danger of addiction.

Rosigul (ph) is in a detox program, along with her 3-year-old son Babagildi (ph). "I was using drugs when I was pregnant with this baby, so he was born addicted," she says. "I gave him drugs to make him sleep."

She, too, is a carpet weaver. Her addicted mother-in-law shares the bed next to her. Three generations of one family struggling with a curse that afflicts well over a million Afghans.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Such a sad story.

Well, drugs, specifically opium, big business in Afghanistan. U.N. figures show about 90 percent of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin, comes from Afghan poppy fields. And while opium production was down by almost half in 2010, the value of the crop went up 38 percent, to more than $600 million. By one estimate, the Taliban raises up to $300 million a year from the drug trade.

Well, Afghanistan is one subject likely to come up in the U.S. "State of the Union Address." President Barack Obama is getting ready to use his bully pulpit once again. We'll bring you a preview.

Plus a look at the lavish lifestyle of Tunisia's elite. Ordinary people get a glimpse of the opulence they helped pay for.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong and you're watching NEWS STREAM. These are your world headlines.

The militant group Hamas is slamming Palestinian negotiators for what it says are concessions to Israel they did not have the right to make. A drove of 1,700 documents the al Jazeera networks says it obtained appear to show that Palestinians offered to concede Israeli control of most of East Jerusalem. The documents cover more than a decade of peace talks going back to 1999.

And Brazil, more than 800 people are now known to have died in floods and landslides earlier this month. The death toll is almost certain to rise. Hundreds of people are still missing. The fear is they're buried under all the mud and refuse. Entire hillsides collapsed two weeks ago after the equivalent of a month's rain fell in 24 hours.

In Australia massive flooding is putting more homes at risk today. Flood waters are spreading further across the southeast of the country forcing people in Swan Hill and towns like it to prepare for the worse. Record rain began in November has already left huge parts of Queensland under water.

A woman suspected of kidnapping a 19 day old baby from a New York hospital has turned herself in to police. Anne Pettway surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was issued for her last week. Well, she's suspected of abducting Salina Rene White (ph) 23 years ago. White (ph) tracked down her real mother earlier this month after saying she had a feeling she was brought up by a family who were not her blood relatives.

Well recent weeks have been kinder to U.S. president Barack Obama after a turbulent few months. As his approval ratings improve, he's keen to focus on rebuilding the U.S. economy. And Tuesday will give him his biggest platform of the year. Well Jim Acosta joins me for a preview of the State of the Union address.

And Jim, I guess it's all about jobs.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is. The president has been talking about this for weeks. He's going to continue to talk about it. And the State of the Union address is a real kick-off for his 2012 campaign. And from all indications, President Obama will be striking a centrist tone at the State of the Union address here in Washington tomorrow night. And in the wake of the tragedy in Tucson, national unity will be the dominant theme, one idea that has caught here in the nation's capital is a bipartisan seating arrangement you'll be seeing tomorrow night. Members of Congress in both the House and the Senate won't be sitting in their usual spots with the parties sitting on separate sides of the aisle. Instead, roughly 60 Democrats and Republicans will be sitting side by side. This is not something you see every day out of the State of the Union address.

Folks in Washington have dubbed these parings "State Dates." And check out some of the political odd couples we're talking about, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer and Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn. Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin says he looking forward to sitting next to his new Senate Republican colleague Mark Kirk.

But Republican leaders say they want to see more than Washington theatrics at the State of the Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) KENTUCKY: More important than the appearance of sitting together is what we do together. And the America people are more interested in actual accomplishments on a bipartisan basis here in the next six to nine months than they are the seating arrangement at the State of the Union.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: My new Senate Republican colleague from Illinois, Mark Kirk and I, are going to sit together. I'm bringing the popcorn, he's bringing the coke with two straws. And we're -- I'm kidding of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And of course we hope he's kidding. Not everybody on Capitol Hill is into this idea. Republican congressman Paul Brown has called this a Democratic attempt to silence Republicans. And the symbolism is only going to go so far, Anna, that's because Republicans and Democrats are already locking horns over President Obama's expected calls for new spending -- Anna.

COREN: Jim, any indication of the special guests that will be attending?

ACOSTA: Yes. One guest that a lot of people are going to be talking about, and you'll remember him specifically, Daniel Hernandez, the hero from the Tucson shooting. He is the congressional intern that basically saved Gabrielle Giffords' life after she was shot at that town hall event earlier this month. According to the White House, he is going to sitting next to the First Lady at the State of the Union address, so that is a big honor. And members of Giffords' medical team will also be in the First Lady's box. So that is something that all eyes will be on Tuesday night. It's a big honor.

COREN: Yeah, well deserved.

Jim Acosta in Washington, thank you for that.

ACOSTA: You bet.

COREN: Well, CNN will have live coverage of U.S. president Barack Obama's State of the Union address. It all starts Wednesday at 10:00 in the morning here in Hong Kong.

Well, demonstrations against Tunisia's new government persist. Police have used tear gas to clear protesters gathered outside the prime minister's office while other people are touring sites like this. Well, that's the burned-out home of the former president's nephew. Ben Wedeman takes us inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's all a bit overwhelming for the residents of this seaside town of Hammamet. They are finally getting a look at how their former rulers used to live. Their sumptuous villas now empty, many scarred by fire, are open to the public.

This is the home of the nephew of former president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, before it was something else.

We used to get together with our friends and play here during holidays or in the evening, recalls Wenis Sebah (ph), until they came and took the land.

Security guards kept the common people well away, but not anymore.

(on camera): The homes of the illicitly rich and famous from the old regime are now wide open to the public. Villas like these have become the ultimate post-revolutionary tourist attraction.

(voice-over): Mohammed Mehpuz (ph) is taking his two children around a villa in the suburbs of Tunis. There's a lesson in all of this: I'm telling them that this is what happens to thieves, injustice comes to an end, he says, that's what I'm teaching my children.

The old regime was part dictatorship part kleptocracy. What the inner circle wanted, it got.

If you had something nice, something of value, they would take it, Wanida Camel (ph) tells me.

Anything of value has already been carted away days ago, though there is still something to be had.

This woman found a cover of a DVD that seems to say it all. They were more than the Godfathers, she says, the godfather wasn't this bad. He didn't take people's houses.

Every single room seems to reveal a lifestyle most Tunisians could only dream of.

Look at this, this man says showing me a poolside kitchen, they were eating lobster. Most people here haven't even heard of lobster.

Amdah Fadah Ama (ph) is leading the investigation into the dubious dealings of the old regime.

We'll have to do everything in an objective, dispassionate way, he says, to investigate every act of corruption and malfeasance.

Police gave us a quick tour of one house that wasn't ransacked, the summer home of Sakher El Materi, the powerful son-in-law of President Ben Ali. And in this home, there was a tiger. That tiger was actually mentioned in WikiLeaks. And according to people around here, the local residents caught the tiger and ate it.

The WikiLeaks cable noted the valuable Phoenician and Roman artifacts scattered around the house, describing Materi's lifestyle as, quote, "over the top." Perhaps an understatement to many Tunisians getting their first glimpse at the life of the elite.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Tunis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Well, you are watching NEWS STREAM. There were once written off, but now electric cars are seeing a surge. Stay tuned to find out who is leading the green race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Well, more than a decade ago, the electric car was written off by the auto industry, but now the rush is on to create one for the masses. Well, Christie Lu Stout spoke to the director of a new film called "Revenge of the Electric Car" about the green revolution unfolding on our roads.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Plugging in instead of filling up, this year many consumers will get their first chance to buy an electric car. Electric models from Nissan and GM are now sold in the U.S. and Europe. But this isn't the first time a major car maker has gone electric.

Rewind to 1997, GM released the EV1.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The electric is here.

STOUT: Now quite, it turns out, only 1,000 EV1s were produced, available only for lease in California and Arizona. A few years later, GM decided to pull the plug, repossessing the cars and destroying them.

The Detroit giant said that the technology simply wasn't ready. Many of the early converts were disappointed, including Chris Paine.

CHRIS PAINE, DIRECTOR: We had an amazing experience with this car. And one day they said, we're taking the cars back. And it wasn't just my car, it was all these cars. So we started digging down to see what had happened, and it turned out that a variety of forces had kind of come together to kill this generation of cars. So that's why we made the film, to kind of make a murder mystery out of this whole story.

STOUT: His 2006 film, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" became a cult hit. It chronicled the short life of electric cars in the late '90s that revived as a result of tighter restrictions on air pollution in California. The film didn't shy away from laying blame. The culprits in the film ranged from the oil companies to the car makers themselves.

In 2011, it is a radically different climate. Enter Paine's new documentary, "The Revenge of the Electric Car." This time, electric cars are going mass market.

PAINE: There's a degree of excitement around electric vehicles we hadn't seen before.

STOUT: The film follows four leaders in the field: former GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn...

CARLOS CHOSN, NISSAN CEO: We need to predict the future, prepare for it. If it happens, we'll be ready.

STOUT: Electric car enthusiasts Greg Abbott and Tesla founder Elon Musk.

ELON MUSK, TESLA MOTORS FOUNDER: Until we see every car on the road being electric, we will not stop.

PAINE: This big surprise is that electric cars are coming back as fast as they are. Some people are, you know, wondering whether our film is trying to be too corporate friendly in a sense, but my intention, electric cars need to be in the marketplace. We haven't been able to buy them. If the corporations are going to help us buy them, then we're going to tell that story.

STOUT: The electric cars featured in the film are currently available only in select markets. So for many around the world, we'll have to wait until spring for the film and even later for the cars.

Christie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Well, Apple says 10 billion apps are being downloaded from its App Store. Well, 7 billion of those in the last year alone. If you're wondering which app marked the milestone, it was paper glider downloaded by a Gail Dover (ph) from the UK. Well, it's a free game where you pilot a paper plane through an office. Downloads from the app store have been growing at a breakneck pace. And the service has only been open two-and-a- half years.

Well, compare that to Apple's music downloads, it took iTunes nearly a decade to pass the 10 billion song mark. Well, since the App Store opened in July 2008, there have been plenty of other contenders entering the ring. We don't have precise figures, but according to Andrew Lieb's (ph) account, Google Android users have now downloaded nearly 2.8 billion apps.

Well, when it comes to the number of apps available, Apple and Google are way out in front with hundreds of thousands on offer. The closest to those two, well, Nokia's Ovi Store has around 40,000 apps. Well, BlackBerry may vie in handset sales with Apple and Android, but not in Apps. You can see how few apps the BlackBerry App World has here. And a tiny purple box that you can see there in the corner, well that's Windows Phone Marketplace, at last count, just 6,732 available.

Well now here's a gadget tailor made for your taste buds, a (inaudible) printer that actually pumps out food. Well, the designers want it to become as common place in the kitchen as a kettle, but as Laura Segall finds out, the price of the goody making gizmo could end up turning us off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here with Seth David Arnold at the French Culinary Institute. David, you are playing around with a really cool technology, the 3D Food Printer. Talk to me, what exactly is this.

DAVID ARNOLD, FRENCH CULINARY INSTITUTE: Basically it's a machine -- you take any form of paste, right, that's the kind of thing you have to get and you get it into a syringe and it'll extrude it into any shape that -- any shape you want. As long as you can create it in the computer, you can make it out of whatever you can put through the syringe. So we're doing things with icing, we're doing things with cookie dough, we're doing things -- this is masa, the same stuff you make tortillas out of, things like that. It was the only real limitation now is that the product has to be able to go through a syringe. Other than that, sky is the limit.

So here it's a little more sturdy now that it's been steamed. So that's the -- I'm going to fry it, don't worry.

JEFF LIPTON, GRADUATE STUDENT: I'm a graduate students at Cornell University in the computational physics lab. And I'm the lead of the Fab@Home project. This is an open source 3D printer. What that means is, we give away all the blueprints, all the designs, all the technical information that you need to build your own, to sell your own, or to innovate with it.

The basic innovation behind it that it allows you to inject skill into the process. I may not be the best frosting decorator in the world, but with a 3D printer, I can lay my food down and get beautiful art work out. So I'm making it as easy as possible by injecting the skill of others.

ARNOLD: Anything that requires a high level of precision that people don't usually have with their hands in terms of making icing or decorations, this thing can perform amazingly well and have good repetition for small runs like your house, like your holiday cookies right?

SEGALL: How much would one of these go for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the prince point that we're shooting for is about a grand. So, we would like it to be a $1,000. And then eventually we want to bring it to a price point of say $700. So we'll bring it to the price point of the iPad and then we're good to go.

Bite it.

SEGALL: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good, right?

SEGALL: This is really good!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: One happy customer.

Be sure to visit the CNNMoney web site for more feature stories like that. You can also stay up on the stock market and check out the latest business headlines. Just log onto CNNMoney.com

We now know the two teams that will play in the NFL's title game as BJ Raji leads Green Bay to the Super Bowl, all 160 kilograms of him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Well, this video out of Ontario, Canada will certainly give you chills. A dash cam captured the whole thing. Just watch the left side of your screen. There it is, a tractor trailer careening out of control. It crashes through the guard rail and dumps about 30 tons of sand. Luckily no one was injured. The truck driver has been charged with careless driving. He blames the accident on poor road conditions. Well, as for the driver of the car, he credits years of playing video games with saving his life.

Quite extraordinary, isn't it?

Raphael Nadal is gunning for his fourth Grand Slam in a row. Can anyone stop him? Don Riddell is watching the action Down Under. Hello Don.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Not today, Anna. Hello, how are you?

Yeah, Rafa is through to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open where he will face a fellow Spaniard, David Ferrer. It was another routine performance for the top seed today. Nadal dispatched Marin Cilic in straight sets. He's yet to drop a set this year in Melbourne.

Britain's Andy Murray is also through to the last eight. He was ruthless in the straight set win over Jurgen Melzer. And he will play Alexander Dolgopolov next.

In the women's draw, the U.S. Open champions, Kim Clijsters has to work for a win against Ekatarina Makarova. The first set was tricky, the second much simpler -- 7-6, 6-2 the score. Clijsters plays the Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova next.

Now in two weeks' time two of the NFL's most storied teams, the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, will go head to head for one of the biggest prizes in all sport -- the Super Bowl.

The start off of the AFC title game on Sunday, the New York Jets had stunned the Patriots to get this far, but the Steelers were ready for them. Rashard Mendenhall powered his way into the end zone for the opening score and Pittsburgh went on to dominate the first half. While the Jets managed just rushing yard, Pittsburgh had 135. And when Ike Taylor sacked Mark Sanchez in the second quarter, William Gay scooped it up and took off for a 19 yard score and a 24-0 Steelers lead.

The Jets hadn't played Super Bowl football in 41 years. And they weren't about to give up on the dream that easily. This was the second of two touchdown passes from Sanchez. Jericho Cotchery making it a five point game, but they couldn't get any closer than that. Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers held on to book a third Super Bowl date in just six years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN ROETHLISBERGER, PITTSBURGH STEELERS QUARTERBACK: Super Bowl -- you know, you can sit there and say you're first one or you're tenth one. I mean, any player is just happy to get there and try and win one.

MIKE TOMLIN, PITTSBURGH STEELERS HEAD COACH: It's a unique group in there. We've had a unique journey, so it's special. But they all are. I mean, who are we kidding? There are 32 teams that start this journey and there's two left, and we're fortunate enough to be one of them. It's awesome.

REX RYAN, NEW YORK JETS HEAD COACH: Well, shoot, we came up short, you know, one game again. And you know, it cuts your heart out. But you know like I say, there's only way to respond and we're going to roll our sleeves up and go at it again next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Sunday's NFC championship was a renewal of an old American rivalry, the Green Bay Packers traveled south from Wisconsin to meet the Chicago Bears at a rather Chilly Soldier Field.

Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were looking to win their third straight road playoff game against a Chicago team that lost its starting quarterback Jay Cutler to a knee injury in the second half. In his place, Caleb Hanie was trying to lead the Bears back from a seven point deficit in the fourth quarter, but he over cooked that one a bit gifting BJ Raji a crucial score. That gave the Packers a 14 point advantage, but Hanie and the Bears kept pushing forward. Hanie went deep here to find Earl Bennett and some rather shabby tackling allowed him to score.

21-14 now, it was a one possession game. And that's how it stayed until the very last minute. Fourth and four from the Packers 29 yard line, last chance. Caleb Hanie, he was picked off by Sam Shields. And that was the end of that. 21-14 the score. Green Bay are heading to the Super Bowl in Dallas.

So it promises to be quite a match-up in Super Bowl XLV next month in Texas. The Packers will be making their fifth appearance in the big game while the Steelers will be playing in the Super Bowl for the eighth time. That's tying the Dallas Cowboys for the most appearances ever. Both teams have won multiple Super Bowls. Green Bay have three Lombardi Trophies, the Steelers are the most prolific team when it comes to championships, they have six titles to their name.

Now it has been awhile since Green Bay made it a Super Bowl. Their last appearance was back in 1998 when they lost to Denver. The Steelers were there just two years ago beating Arizona in a thrilling finish in Tampa in Florida.

Anna, it promises to be a really exciting build up to that game which is in just under two weeks' time.

COREN: OK. Thank you. Don Riddell, good to see you.

Well, time to go over and out there. And today, it's the case of who's a snotty boy, then? Well, New York's Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, that's who. Just take a look at this footage from the Jets contest with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Sanchez appears to kick a winner as they say and share it with back-up quarterback Mark Brunell. Well, thankfully Brunell is not nasal gazing as he think his teammate is just giving him a friendly stroke. Unfortunately for Sanchez, the camera knows best.

Well, that's it for NEWS STREAM, but the News certainly continues here at CNN.

"WORLD BUSINESS TODAY" with Max Foster -- Max Foster, Maggie Lake and Andrew Stevens is coming up next.

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