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NEWS STREAM

Greeks Protest German Chancellor Visit; Syrian State Media Defector Describes Culture of Deceit; Orlando Cruz Explains What It Was Like To Come Out On International Stage; Profile of Universal Studios President Debby Langely

Aired October 09, 2012 - 8:00   ET

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

JIM CLANCY, HOST: I'm Jim Clancy at CNN Center. Hello everyone. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

We begin in Greece, that's where German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making her first visit since the debt crisis broke out, but will it be a welcome arrival?

Also coming up, inside the mind of the Syrian regime, a defector tells CNN about propaganda tactics being used in the country.

And a leap of faith: the man attempting to free fall from four times the height of Mount Everest. What's happening with his would-be mission?

Good evening in Hong Kong and Asia. Good afternoon in Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Greece right now, this is her first visit there since the European debt crisis began. She's meeting with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and she will also hold talks with President Karolos Papoulias, Greek has been struggling, and I mean struggling under austerity measures demanded by its international lenders in return for all those bailout funds. The Greek government, hoping to receive the latest installment just this month. And it's been looking for ways to implement further budget cuts of nearly $14.5 billion.

Now many Greeks say it's Mrs. Merkel and Germany that are directly to blame for the pain and deep cuts in government spending. Well, some are showing that anger out on the streets. You're looking at live pictures here coming to us from Athens, people turning out to protest the German Chancellor's visit despite a ban on demonstrations in the center of Athens. They're really protesting their predicament as much as Mrs. Merkel's presence.

Economic problems and the austerity measures have turned life literally upside down for many Greeks now struggling to make ends meet. As of May, the European commission says more than 50 percent of Greeks under the age of 25 officially unemployed.

Now for more on the German chancellor's visit Matthew Chance joins me now from Athens live. Matthew, how is this visit shaping up, how important is it for Greece and for Mrs. Merkel?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's absolutely crucial, this visit, it really does underline what is one of the most essential relationships in Europe. Greece, of course, is desperate for German cash. It needs the support of Angela Merkel to get more of its bailout fund so it can, you know, kind of continue to survive as a country. At the same time, Angela Merkel has made it increasingly clear that she does not want to see the EuroZone broken up. And so she has to be seen to be supporting Greece in its efforts to stay within that single European currency. And so this visit is important for both of these leaders, and both of these countries.

But you can see even though it's been categorized by the Germans at least as a normal official visit I think is the phrase you used, you can see from the scenes behind me it is anything but that. Thousands of people, 25,000 according to the police force here in Athens, have flocked into this main square in the center of Athens to voice their opposition to the presence of Angela Merkel, because even though German has in one sense been a big backer of Greece, providing much, the lion's share of the bailout funds it has received so far, virtually every one of those Greek protesters out there, certainly all the ones that we've spoken to, hold Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, personally responsible for all the hardship, the economic despair that the country has had to endure in the past several years and will have to endure in the future. And so there's a great deal of anger and animosity towards Angela Merkel out there. She is certainly not welcome in the Greek capital, Jim.

CLANCY: You know, as I look at that crowd and these live pictures that we're watching right now, I see actually a lot of young faces. And that's a pretty amazing number that's come out today that 50 percent of those 25 and under are now unemployed and I guess with nothing but time on their hands.

CHANCE: It's more than 50 percent, it's something like 55 percent are the official figures in that youth age group, between 16 and 25 years old who don't have any work in this country. And that's just one example of how deep the austerity cuts that have been implemented in this country are really biting.

You've got virtually a whole generation of young Greeks that desperately need to be in work, but simply there are no opportunities for them. They're coming to protests like these. They're moving to the political extremes. They're leaving the country and getting jobs in other parts of Europe if they can.

But whatever way - whatever is happening, it's having a very devastating impact on Greek society and that's why there's so much anger out here on the streets today.

CLANCY: You know, I don't know whether you can answer this Matthew, but, you know, just trying to get at how fair it is to blame Mrs. Merkel. And what further cuts this government is contemplating?

CHANCE: Yeah, well it is I suppose in one sense unfair. I made that point earlier. And I've been making it to Greeks I've been speaking to about how Germany does provide the lion's share of the bailout funds that Greece has benefited from.

But no matter, the answer to that has time and time again that yes we're grateful for the money we've been getting from Germany and from other European leaders and from the IMF and from the European Central Bank, but that doesn't mean that our standards of living should be allowed to fall off a cliff in the way that they have been allowed to. Greeks say we shouldn't be made to be slaves because of the benefits that we've been receiving.

And so there's a great deal of anger and as I say animosity towards Angela Merkel here about the fact that she has chosen this time on the eve of another announcement by the Greek government of a further $15 billion or so dollars worth of austerity cuts they have to implement. Many Greeks feel they've endured enough and they don't want to see Angela Merkel here.

But because of the big security operation that's been put in place here, almost on an unprecedented level in the Greek capital -- thousands of police deployed, helicopters in the sky, police cordoning off vast swaths of the city center to prevent the public getting anywhere near Chancellor Merkel's motorcade. Then we're seeing the concentration of protesters right here outside the Greek parliament in the center of Athens.

CLANCY: Matthew Chance reporting to us there live from Athens. He's going to be keeping an eye on those demonstrators today as they vent their anger at their predicament. Thank you very much, Matthew, as always. Now the larger, macro view of all of this should be noted. Merkel's visit comes as the International Monetary Fund once more cutting its global economic forecast. In its July report, the IMF predicted the world economy would expand by 3.5 percent this year. But now, barely three months later, it's revising that number down to 3.3 percent. It cited setbacks including Europe's ongoing debt crisis and political and economic uncertainty in the U.S. as well.

China, of course traditionally a major export market for Japanese cars. But names like Nissan and Honda are seeing their sales plunge in China today all because they believe of that ongoing political dispute over a set of islands in the East China Sea. Toyota says its sales of new vehicles in China has been nearly cut in half in the past month alone.

Now let's get a little bit more on this from Stan Grant. He's in Beijing. And then Alex Zolbert in Tokyo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well this is a car dealership, a Toyota car dealership in Beijing, and a very quiet one, I can tell you. There are sales people here, but I don't see a lot of customers. This is a situation that's being repeated right across the country. Toyota's sales have plummeted. In fact they've halved in September from the month before.

And not just Toyota, but other Japan car makers as well. We already know that Nissan and Honda along with Toyota are looking at making big cuts into their overall production in China.

Well, what is this all about? This is not just about car sales, this is about the festering dispute between China and Japan over what China calls Diaoyu Islands, what Japan calls Senkaku. This territorial dispute has flared violently in recent months. There have been protests across China, sometimes targeting Japanese businesses like Toyota. In fact, there's even been reports about Chinese people themselves being attacked while driving Toyota cars.

This really gets to the heart of the relationship between China and Japan, one that is very fraught, that has a very long and tense history, but is a very, very important trade relationship. In fact, China is Japan's single biggest trading partner. This is going to hit Japan where it hurts. Already we're seeing an uptick in sales of Korean cars. And General Motors is reporting record sales for September.

This is about Chinese nationalism. It is about sending a message to Japan and making sure Japan hears it.

Stan Grant, CNN, Beijing.

ALEX ZOLBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Tokyo the Japanese car makers knew that the fallout from this island dispute was going to be bad. And now we are finally getting a look at just how bad.

You've seen the figures out of China and they are abysmal. Now there are two questions on the table. The first, how long is this going to last for these Japanese car makers? The answer to that is anyone's guess as this is still an ongoing political dispute and ultimately it's up to the Chinese consumer if he or she wants to buy a Japanese car.

The other question, though, which we put to an analyst earlier today in the meantime, what are the Japanese car makers going to do about this? How are they going to make up the lost revenue? According to him, they'll look to other regions: Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia mainly. Still, though, the numbers out today are in line with most analysts' expectations.

KOJI ENDO, ADVANCED RESEARCH: How the number is going to go in October, November, December, and probably the first three months of the next year, that's the big question mark. If this kind of numbers, minus 50 or minus 60 continues for the next six months straight, well it's going to be a lot worse than we originally expected.

ZOLBERT: One other very important point to make is that each Japanese car maker has a business partner there in Mainland China. These are usually 50/50 joint ventures. So it's not just Japanese companies taking a hit.

And then if you add into the equation the tens of thousands of people who work for the parts suppliers as well. The impact is being felt far and wide.

Alex Zolbert, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY; Still to come right here on News Stream, blasts rocking the Syrian capital today. Fighting between government and rebel forces escalating near Damascus.

Also, a group in India, helping young lovers stay together despite family and societal pressures to part. How this group is giving love a fighting chance.

And reaching new heights, and Austrian skydiver hoping, hoping to set a record. The weather may have something to do with this. But he's hoping to do something that's really out of this world. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: 14 minutes past two in the afternoon in Athens. And you can see the objects are flying as security police are squaring off with demonstrators in the heart of the capital city. These protests timed to coincide with the arrival of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who is - although Germany's loaning most of the money for the bailout funds for Greece, Mrs. Merkel is personally being blamed by many for the harshness of the austerity that they are facing, seeing the quality of their lives diminished greatly by past actions of the government that have put their future in jeopardy.

This is the situation live in Athens right now. And you can see tear gas it appears just exploded there driving back the demonstrators, police being hit by missiles being thrown from all quarters it appears. Rocks are being hurled at them. A tense situation in Greece this day. There is some tear gas being thrown back by one of the demonstrators.

All right, we'll keep you posted on what's happening in Greece.

Meantime, let's look at what is going on right now in Syria. Opposition activists say fierce clashes continue in Syria's capital after a night of explosions, gunfire and shelling. They say two car bombs exploded near the Syrian air force intelligence compound in a Damascus suburb. The activists also say that hundreds of regime forces and detainees being held at that compound may have been killed. A witness reports one of the blasts was the largest he's ever felt. State run television has not reported on either of these explosions.

We are continuing to try to follow it. Obviously we cannot verify on the ground what has taken place.

The war for Syria not just being fought on the ground, not just being fought in the air, it's being fought in the country's media. Now a Syrian man who says he helps spread government propaganda spilling secrets to our own Ivan Watson. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERANTIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For years, Abdullah al- Omar rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful people in Syria, government ministers, foreign dignitaries, and even the Syrian president.

For five years Omar claims worked in the presidential palace, his main job was propaganda.

ABDULLAH AL-OMAR, DEFECTOR (through translator): I was a member of the press office in the presidential palace. We met to manufacture news and see how we could distribute and publish these lies. We invented stories that would help justify the crimes committed by the Syrian regime.

WATSON: Omar says he was a member of a 15 person team working under longtime government spokeswoman Bouthaina Shabaan. When high ranking officials like the former prime minister defected, Omar's job was to trash the defector's reputations.

AL-OMAR (through translator): We contacted regime loyalists from Lebanon and Syria to appear as guests on Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya to say these defectors were bad and corrupt.

WATSON: But now Omar is one of those defectors. And he's offering details impossible for CNN to independently verify about how the Syrian president has coped with the uprising.

How did Bashar al-Assad's behavior change over the last year-and-a- half?

AL-OMAR (through translator): He seemed worried all day long. We rarely saw him smiling. He paced up and down the corridors and stared out the windows at Damascus. And he was always anxious and tense. One day I saw him kick a table. He was cursing, swearing against the Syrian people.

WATSON: Omar shows photos of himself with top Iranian officials like the Iranian ambassadors to Damascus and Beirut.

Were the Iranians meeting with Bashar al-Assad frequently?

Almost daily, he tells me. Four and five times a week.

Omar says the biggest crisis came in July after a bombing killed this man, presidential security adviser Hassan Turkemani as well as three other top security officials. He says the bombing also seriously wounded Assad's brother Maher, a military commander who hasn't been seen in public in months.

AL-OMAR (through translator): Two days after he returned from medical treatment in Russia, Maher al-Assad came to the presidential palace. He had lost his left leg in the bombing and also the use of his left arm.

WATSON: Last month Omar defected and fled to his hometown of Atareb in northern Syria, now a ghost town devastated by the civil war.

How did you feel when you saw the destruction in Atareb ?

AL-OMAR (through translator): I swear I cried when I entered Atareb and saw all the houses and shops abandoned and everything destroyed and burned. When I saw it with my own eyes, I cried and asked how could Bashar al-Assad do this? I want to apologize to the Syrian people because I worked for this butcher and killer regime.

WATSON: A tearful apology, but his sincerity is questionable, especially when coming from a man who admits to spending years lying for the Syrian regime.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: Well, still ahead right here on News Stream, what if they don't want an arranged marriage? What if they want to follow their hearts? Find out why many couples in India are turning to the love commandos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: First, they found themselves falling in love, next they found themselves fearing for their lives. That literally the story of one young couple in India. And they are not alone by any stretch of the imagination. In a nation where arranged marriages are the norm, an underground group is helping thousands of people who follow their hearts and go against their parents' wishes.

Sumnima Udas has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMNIMA UDAS: In this bustling city of 18 million people they say even the walls have ears. So we're taken through a maze of back allies to locations we can not disclose, a safe house somewhere in downtown Delhi. Here we meet 22 year olds Lalita and Deve. They've been hiding here for the past two weeks. Their crime, falling in love.

DEVENDRA DUMAR, IN LOVE (through translator): When I couldn't see her I used to go crazy and think about her all the time. I'd lie awake all night not sleeping. It was just like the movies.

UDAS: But like many a Bollywood film, it was a doomed relationship from the start. Lalita belongs to an upper caste family of land owners, and Deve, a lower caste family of blacksmiths. Lalita says she feared for her life, all because of her feelings for Deve.

LALITA CHAUHAN, IN LOVE (through translator): They said would ruin the family's reputation. They would threaten me all the time. I couldn't take it anymore. I told him we need to do something.

UDAS: With no one else to turn to they called the Love Commandos, an unlikely group of ex-journalists and lawyers who made it their mission to even the odds.

Head commando Sandre Sachte says they've helped rescue some 20,000 couples since it started back in 2010.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every couple that approaches us is under so much pressure and so much stigma, that they feel they may be killed any minute.

UDAS: 95 percent of marriages in India are arranged, but with more and more Indian youth flirting with romance, the Love Commandos have their work cut out. Their giving Lalita and Deve food and protection until they can find their own feet. They're providing legal assistance. And they even got the couple legally married.

But Lalita and Deve worry that others back home are having to pay the price. Two hours outside of Delhi, we find Lalita's grandfather at home. He tells us the parents are at the farm, though when we get to the farm, we see that he's beaten us to it.

He tells us to stop filming. He says they don't want anything to do with Lalita, that she's as good as dead to them.

We head to a nearby village to look for Deve's parents.

It's locked. It seems to be locked and no one here.

We find his uncle who tells us just days after Lalita and Deve eloped, acting on a complaint from her parents, the police held Deve's mother and father and three of his friends on suspicion of kidnapping. Deve's parents deny the charges as does Deve, but they're not returning home fearing further harassment.

And one the friends who helped the couple escape is still in custody.

SHRICHAND CHAUHAN, DEVENDRA'S UNCLE (through translator): Yes, love happens, that's fine. But in this society they've done something wrong. The law allows it, society doesn't.

UDAS: Back at the shelter, the couple knows they've put their family through a lot, but they say they have no regrets.

LALITA CHAUHAN (through translator): We would have been killed had it not been for the Love Commandos.

UDAS: Even though they don't quite know what's next, they're happy to be alive and together.

Sumnima Udas, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: You're watching News Stream.

Now if the weather cooperates, if, one man will set out to do what no human has done before, a skydiver hoping he'll step into the thin air and land in the record books. We'll take you live to the launch site.

Plus, if you've heard of Punto Banco, it's the game at the center of a multimillion dollar dispute between a London casino and a professional gambler. You don't have to be good to win big. We're going to explain the game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: News Stream. I'm Jim Clancy. And these are your headlines.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Athens for her first visit since the EuroZone debt crisis began. This is the scene on the street, an estimated - well, thousands of protesters. A lot of news media down there too. There have been clashes and police and protesters, tear gas and rocks have been hurled. Greek police, of course, out in force. Many Greeks blame Germany and Mrs. Merkel personally for forcing their government to slash spending with an impact on their jobs, their wages and especially their pensions.

In Syria, opposition activists say hundreds of people may have been killed in twin car blasts in a suburb of Damascus. They say the bombs exploded near an Air Force intelligence compound. Those explosions followed a barrage of gunfire. Explosions and shelling that rocked the Syrian capital earlier on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the Libyan government are addressing the Internaitonal Criminal Court at The Hague today. They argue Libya should not have to hand over Saif al-Islam Gadhafi for trial. The son of the former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi faces and ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, but the Libyan government wants the trial to take place where he could face the death penalty at home.

The winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for physics have been announced. Physicist Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the United States are going to be sharing the award. The Nobel Prize committee says it's recognizing their groundbreaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.

Concerns about the weather now delaying again a man's plans to make a recordbreaking free fall. Felix Baumgartner is going to attempt the jump from 120,000 feet above sea level, that's nearly 23 miles, or more than 36.5 kilometers up.

Now it's hard to imagine what Baumgartner is going to experience. He's going to break the sound barrier. Let's try to put it in perspective. Mount Everest stands nearly 9 kilometers tall. Weather reports say its summit temperature ranges from minus 20 to minus 35 degrees Celsius. At that altitude, there is 66 percent less oxygen compared to sea level.

Or think about the last plane that you were on. Most cruise at an altitude of 35,000 feet, or nearly 11 kilometers. The outside air temperature is colder than minus 37 degrees Celsius. And you can only breath because of the plane's cabin air system. The partial pressure of oxygen is too low.

The Concorde flew even higher, 18 kilometers above the Earth. Baumgartner is going to be jumping from, get this, twice that distance. It could be as cold as minus 57 degree Celsius, the atmosphere so thin Baumgartners blood would vaporize without his protective suit. Now it's not a complete vacuum, but there are very few breathable air molecules that high up.

While Baumgartner's jump is called the Mission to the Edge of Space, well it is not really the edge of space, that's an accepted boundary of 100 kilometers, not even half that.

Let's get more on weather conditions at the launch site. Mari Ramos at the world weather center. Mari, what can you tell us?

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, love that name, though, to the edge of space, because it is really amazing that he's going to be doing that reentry, you know, with his own body, with his own spacesuit. He's not going to have a vehicle. You know, when you - we see those reentry of the shuttle or any of the other spacecraft, even the Soyuz, they - the astronauts are protected in a craft. They're not using their own spacesuits to try to attempt reentry like that, which is pretty incredible, even though like you said it's 36 kilometers up, not 100 or 150 kilometers up.

Let's talk a little bit about that, about some of these heights that are pretty impressive. You were just mentioning how high this is going to be, about 36, 37 kilometers where that jump attempt is going to happen at about 120,000 feet.

And you're right, that temperature does get colder as they go up. But you actually get to a layer in the atmosphere, right after you passed the tropopause where it actually begins to warm again. So this balloon in this capsule that he's going to be traveling in in that ascent, Jim, actually has to go through quite a bit of - quite a bit of duress as it will.

Let's go ahead and head into Rosewell, New Mexico here. First of all, think about the balloon itself is only - it's about 10 times thinner than a plastic bag. So that's how thin it is. And if you were to spread it out, it would be about 40 acres wide, that's how large the balloon that he's going to be using to do that ascent is.

Now the weather must be clear. And one of the problems that we've had right now is that the weather, not at the surface but a little bit higher up at about 800 feet, 800 to 900 feet the wind has been a little bit higher than they would like to see.

You've got to remember that we're not talking only about the weather at the surface that has to be good, you have to have that entire column of air going up that has to be within the parameters for the launch and also for the descent. Yesterday they had some problems with the jet stream being here too - a little too close and the winds were too high with that.

So as he goes up, that temperature will cool as it passes through the troposphere. When you get to the tropopause, which is that in between layer, that boundary layer between the troposphere where we live and the stratosphere where he's headed that's when you begin to see a little bit more in the way of turbulence. And after that, Jim, you start to see the temperature actually warming because you don't have the protection of the ozone and you - it absorbs a lot more sunlight. So this part of the atmosphere is actually a lot warmer.

So all of these things have to happen and then the descent will begin. And that descent should take about 15 to 20 minutes.

The other big question, which I thought this was pretty cool, where will he land? Well, this is where he's taking off. And this is from - we have that font to put up here from Red Bull Stratus, and let me go ahead and zoom out, because this is - I thought was pretty amazing. They have a contest online. I'll go ahead and tweet this in just a minute, and some 35,912 people have guessed so far, where the landing site will be. This green right over here, that was one of the landings that they had before. This is another one. And as you can see, people are trying to guess where that will happen.

Once the launch does happen, if the weather does cooperate, they're going to close the contest down. So that's actually pretty cool. Then you have to go retrieve, of course, the capsule and Mr. Baumgartner.

CLANCY: I don't worry much about the temperature there, I'd be completely frozen with fear jumping from that altitude. I jumped once, once, from like 3,000 feet. And it seemed like 50 miles.

RAMOS: I was in an air balloon once and it was pretty scary, especially the landing, you know, but...

CLANCY: All right, Mari, keep us posted, an interesting day. And I like that, let's guess where he's going to land.

Well, Baumgartner is hoping to become the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle, we noted that a little bit earlier. Brian Todd, he's live at the launch site in Roswell, New Mexico. Brian, no aliens there, but you know, what have you got going this morning?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, they say right now it is about a 50/50 chance that this will be launched today. You heard some of the reports about the wind. What we've just been told a short time ago was that the wind speed at about 800 feet, which is about near the top of where the balloon would be inflated is just a little bit too strong for their comfort, about 20 miles per hour up there, that's a little too strong for their comfort.

You see behind me now the sun is about to come up. What we're told is that once the sun comes up, they believe that the winds often do calm down. So that's what they're counting on. Our photojournalist Mike Love can zoom in to the capsule there. You can see it at the end of that yellow crane. The balloon is to the right of it. It is obviously not inflated yet. It is kind of sitting on its side deflated and a little bit folded up. If this launch is a go, that will be brought out and unfolded and then inflated to about 55 stories high. It's a massive - at least it's massive height on the balloon. The balloon itself is very thin, as I know you've just been discussing.

But right now, about a 50/50 chance that this mission will be launched today. They're going to - they did say there would be no launch before 9:30 am Eastern time a little less than an hour from now. They'll make a definite call on whether to go today by 10:00 Eastern time a little bit less than an hour-and-a-half from now, Jim.

So that's kind of what we're waiting on right now, the final word on this. It looks to be a beautiful day here on the surface, but again, you know, the wind speeds, this balloon while very strong and very resilient is a little bit sensitive to the wind speed. And it's going to have to be just right for them to be able to send it up to that 122 - 120,000 foot level.

So that's kind of what we're waiting on. This is a very exciting time, though, a lot of anticipation here in Roswell. This mission has been more than five years in the planning.

CLANCY: Wow, five years in the planning.

Is he already in his suit? Are they putting up some test balloons to check the wind speeds?

TODD: Yeah, you can see some balloons behind me over here. I don't know - well, maybe you can't see them. They dot the skyline just above the horizon there. They're - those are balloons that are testing out the wind speed. There's a - there seems to be a larger balloon a little bit higher up. And I guess that's what really is taking the measurements there.

We are told that he is in the Airstream, which is - looks like a trailer to the left of the capsule over there. And we're not sure what his state of mind is of course and what he's doing right now, probably just going through some final checks before this may come off. So that kind gives you a visual of the launch site and the wind speeds.

You can see those balloons bobbing around slightly. You know, to us it certainly doesn't seem like a heavy wind over there, but again this balloon is very sensitive to that. So we're going to be monitoring that very closely.

CLANCY: You know, as we look at all of this and we think about it this is more than just going into the record books, you can actually see that - I mean, there is something that will be accomplished here. Nobody has ever broken the sound barrier as a human being flying or moving.

TODD: That's absolutely right. No one has done that outside of a space vehicle. And one of the key goals of this mission is to find out what happens to the human body when you go at the speed of sound outside a vehicle, no one has ever done it. Felix Baumgartner if all goes as planned will do it only in a high pressure suit, a helmet, and a parachute, that's what they hope to learn, what does that do to the body.

They expect that, you know, it shouldn't be battered - his body shouldn't be battered around too much, that it might be jolted a little bit, but they think that, you know, the conditions up there will not - will not harm his body if he's in that pressure suit and if it performs as it should.

Another goal of the mission scientifically is to see how this pressure suit works. If it works well, this could be the next generation of spacesuit. When Joe Kittinger did his jump in 1960 they modeled later spacesuits in the Apollo and Mercury missions after his suit, because of the way that worked. So that's another thing, Jim, that they're going to be measuring on this trip, whether this high pressure suit can be the suit that human beings can use outside of a space vehicle in the event of a malfunction.

CLANCY: All right, as the sun rises in Roswell, New Mexico, we get our firsthand look and an update there from Brian Todd. Brian, this could be a big day for you. It's not as big for Baumgartner, but a pretty big day, thanks.

TODD: No.

Sure.

CLANCY: All right.

He is one of poker's hottest names, but he's now become involved in a multimillion dollar dispute. A source confirms that American poker player Phil Ivy has had a win over more than $11 million withheld, withheld from him by a casino in London. The Daily Mail first reported that Ivy hit a winning streak over two nights in August. But he wasn't playing poker, it was a much lesser known game called Punto Banco.

Now I have no idea, really, what Punto Banco is even though I went out and read up on it. Let's get some details from Remy Inocencio. He joins us live from CNN Hong Kong with the details on how to play this game.

Remy, what exactly is this Punto Banco, if you can explain it to us?

REMY INOCENCIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. Good question. And I have to admit I didn't know anything about this until coming up on this day, but Punto Banco basically is a card game that is really all about sheer luck, it means player bank. And you bet on one or the other winning a match. And it is very ,very popular, especially here in Asia. Right next door to Hong Kong, we of course have Macao that is the gambling capital of the world.

Take a listen at how important this game is to casino profits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gambling culture in Macao is based primarily on Baccarat. It's a game based on luck. And if they can defeat the gods of gambling they'll do very well, but that's very different than Texas Hold 'Em poker which is a game of skill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INOCENCIO: All right. And now this is how Punto Banco looks. Basically the player and the banker are dealt two cards each, the side that gets closest to 9, well, they win. Now gamblers can put their money on either the player or the banker, but once the cards are dealt then a system of rules dictates who gets a card and who doesn't.

Now the rules are complicated, but the point is this, once you put your money on either side, all gamblers have nothing whatsoever to do. The casino actually plays both hands for both parties. So you don't need any skill and you can't form any strategy. It turns out that the bank, though, does have a slight advantage of just more than 1 percent by some accounts, but that makes it all the more interesting, because that raises the question as to how Phil Ivy could have won nearly $12 million of his as well as the bank's chances of winning were so close to 50/50, Jim.

CLANCY: But it would also seem that he didn't have a chance at all in order to cheat, because they're doing everything.

INOCENCIO: You know, that's what a lot of people are saying. They're saying that there's some speculation that there might be collusion there, but of course that is not proven. There's talk about card counting, but you know when you stack four, five, or even six cards in one deck when you're dealing it's pretty difficult to count.

So maybe it was just a really awesome streak of good luck, Jim.

CLANCY: All right. Well, bad luck he's not collecting anything, at least yet. We'll see how this one turns out. Remy Inocencio I want to thank you very much for being with us.

All right, still ahead right here on News Stream, the show of show business. We go behind the scenes of Hollywood with one of the top executives in the movie industry. Stay with News Stream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: 45 minutes past the hour, just about 46 past.

Our Leading Woman this week lets us into a world rarely seen: the business side of Hollywood. Donna Langely is her name. She's co-chair of Universal Pictures. Now she oversees the creative and the production aspects of the studio. She reports to Adam Fogelson who leads the business side of Universal. Together, they're trying to figure out just how to keep a studio successful at a tricky time for Hollywood.

Felicia Taylor introduces us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The red carpet, photographers screaming for attention, starlets assuming pose after pose. This is what Hollywood means to most people. But for Donna Langely it's another appointment on a very busy calendar. As co-chair of Universal Pictures, she's attending the premier for Universal's movie Pitch Perfect.

It's just the end of her Monday, a day filled with non-stop meetings and phone calls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't asking...

TAYLOR: She's works alongside Adam Fogelson on all aspects of Universal's business and production strategy. And her day could take her from making distribution and licensing decisions to suggesting changes to a film in production, such as their big Christmas release Les Miserables.

DONNA LANGELY, UNIVERSAL PICTURES: I think we should speed that shot up that goes into the close-up of him.

TAYLOR: She's one of only a small group of women who has ever risen to such power in a studio. And she's not afraid to explain why.

LANGLEY: I know I do my job really well. I know I do.

TAYLOR: This British transplant, stylish Hollywood executive, mentor, and mother of two young boys is Donna Langley.

Another tram putters by, tourists swiveling their heads from side to side. What they're hoping to see is just a glimpse of Donna Langely's world. Her office is on the same 400 acres as the Universal Studios Theme Park, sound stages, and outdoor sets.

Langely came to Los Angeles from the UK's Isle of White at 22. And through her job as hostess at the hit Roxbury, she met New Line's president of production Mike DeLuca . He offered her a job.

LANGELY: I started as an intern and then moved to an assistant position and then have worked my way all the way up through the business.

TAYLOR: She figured out that she may have a knack for this when she helped to discover a hit while at New Line, a script other studios had passed on.

LANGLEY: I was involved in a series of movies called Austin Powers. And the...

TAYLOR: Never heard of it.

(LAUGHTER)

LANGLEY: I was a junior executive. I was a baby, you know, didn't have any business doing anything. And I read this script and I flipped for it. I loved it. And my boss did too. So we got to make the movie.

MIKE MYERS, ACTOR: Yeah, baby.

LANGLEY: It was the highest rated comedy for a long time. And it really was just such a tremendous sort of validation of my taste in my way. And that was the first time that had really happened to me.

TAYLOR: In 2001, Langley moved to Universal Pictures, eventually becoming president of production.

She helped bring the studio its two most profitable years in history with hits like Wanted, the Bourne Ultimatum, and Universal's most profitable movie to date, Momma Mia.

(MUSIC)

TAYLOR: How do you know when you've got a hit on your hands when it comes to filmmaking?

LANGELY: You can see it in the - in the sort of every frame that you're watching that it is all coming together, that the director is just absolutely in tune with his vision and the actors are doing everything that you would want to see them do and you can just sort of - you can just feel it.

OK.

TAYLOR: By 2009, Langely was promoted to co-chair, and she placed two people in the role she used to hold alone.

What's it like to know that two men had to take over your position that you did single-handedly?

LANGELY: I think it's great. I makes me laugh every day, you know, it's - I wouldn't have wished the job that I had at that point on anybody, so...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, just catch up briefly on (inaudible)...

TAYLOR: In this meeting with the co-president of production, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Peter Kramer, you can see why she split the job in two as each man bounces movie updates back and forth. They're deciding which scripts are worth pursuing and choosing which writers, directors, actors, or producers would fit a film.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's so excited because he feels like he's found his new curving bullet, so...

TAYLOR: Langely is clearly on top of her world. This year, Universal topped its highest grossing domestic box office totals. And she just secured the highly pursued film rights to one of the hottest, most talked about novels: 50 Shades of Grey.

LANGLEY: Good morning.

TAYLOR: In the coming weeks we'll see her in the favorite part of her job, the edit room, and hear what this wife and mother of two wants every woman to know.

LANGLEY: I think a lot of us women think that we have to sort of be buttoned down and sort of, you know, say we can have it all and we do have it all and it's really easy and I've got this and don't worry and I'm on it, but the reality is it is difficult.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLANCY: All right. Felicia Taylor there with another fresh look at Leading Women.

A boxing pioneer speaks out. We're going to hear from the first openly gay boxer as he prepares to face public reaction, possibly another battle after that announcement. He's also facing his next opponent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CLANCY: It is the business end of the baseball season. The players, well, they're looking for October heroes. It's a nervous time for the fans. Teams are all out there trying to reach the World Series, battling in the playoffs. Joining us now Alex Thomas, he has the latest postseason news for us - Alex.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I can tell, Jim, you're one of them, aren't you? Let's start with the title race in the National League division series. It's between two teams with very different histories, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last year, but I doubt there are any Washington fans that remember their city's last triumph back in the 1920s. But despite their more recent success, the Cards only add three hits as they lost game one.

Although Monday's meeting was a different story, John Jay's spectacular catch at the top of the sixth helping preserve the Cardinal four run lead. And then Carlos Beltran got to work in the bottom of the sixth smashing Mike Gonzalez for a solo homerun put in the Cardinals into a commanding 8-3 lead. And Beltran wasn't done. He was back again in the eighth hitting a two run dinger as the Cards romp to victory by 12-4. That series tied at one apiece.

In the American League, Weijin Chen and the Orioles were trying to tie their series with the Yankees. And the bases were loaded at the bottom of the third when Chris Davis gets hold of this pitch and the O's secure two runs to take the lead.

Then to the bottom of the sixth. Baltimore increased their advantage thanks to this hit from Mark Reynolds.

The Yankees respond very quickly indeed. In the very next inning Derek Jeter with the RBI single. Although New York couldn't draw level. And at the bottom of the ninth Alex Rodriguez was struck out, that's the end of the game. And it's 1-1 in that division series as well.

Orlando Cruz is one of the best featherweight boxers in the world and he's on the brink of landing a world title fight. He's currently preparing for a bout in a fortnight's time. And the buildup has all been about Cruz declaring that he's homosexual. He's the first openly gay boxer in the sport's history and it's too early to know how his fellow fighters and boxing fans will react, although Cruz is sure to get a good idea in his next fight in Florida later in the month.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Cruz has been telling us about his historic announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORLANDO CRUZ, BOXER: I'm not ready. I'm nervous. I'm thinking the guy's talking bad, you know. And (inaudible) family and my mother. She said, are you ready Olando? I'm not ready mom. I'm nervous. I don't know, maybe, maybe - maybe the people here of New York is going to push me or (inaudible) me, you know what I mean? So, I'm not ready, you know. I'm very, very nervous, you know...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS: I've got more in World Sport in just over three hours time. We'll be going to an exhibition golf event in Turkey where the players, Jim, are allowed to wear shorts for a change and much, much more. Back to you.

CLANCY: Wearing shorts, all right. Listen, Alex, I'll check in with you again tomorrow. I know you've got a lot more news coming our way in the hours ahead. Alex Thomas with us live from London.

That has to be it for this edition of News Stream, but the news continues on CNN. Specifically, don't go anywhere, World Business Today is next.

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