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Jazz Legend Dave Brubeck Dies; Typhoon Bopha Death Toll Now 274; India Suspended From Olympics; Israel Not Backing Down; Huge Ghost Town Built In Angola
Aired December 05, 2012 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news and sad news, jazz legend Dave Brubeck has died.
As a pianist, Brubeck is known for stepping outside the traditional boundaries of jazz, bringing jazz really into the mainstream.
He also responsible for breaking many racial barriers. It was in the 1950s, he played black jazz clubs in the deep south, played with Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, you name it.
He was -- we understand from CNN Entertainment -- he was actually on his way to the hospital on Wednesday, today, for regular exam. He was with his oldest son, and his son felt that something was wrong, called actually 911 from the car.
Brubeck was rushed to the emergency room. We are told that doctors could not keep his heart going, that he had heart failure and that he had passed away.
Brubeck lived in Wilton, Connecticut. He would have been 92-years old and, just some of the amazing things that he did in his career. He was able to set music to words of the Old Testament and as well as to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Most recently took photographs of Ansel Adams and let's just listen in. This is "Take Five."
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It was back on December 6, 2009, his legacy was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors, a gala that they have and they called -- what the Kennedy Center called six decades of dazzling musical genius.
Truly a national and international treasure, Dave Brubeck has died, would have turned 92-years old tomorrow.
Flying machetes, that is how one relief official describes what the wind did. The Typhoon Bopha unleashing in Southern Philippines. A frantic search now for survivors is under way in the areas where the storms tore roofs off the buildings, triggered flash floods. The death count now stands at 274. It is expected to grow as that typhoon continues to churn.
Our Liz Neisloss visited the island that was hit the hardest.
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LIZ NEISLOSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Typhoon Bopha slammed into the Philippines southernmost province of Mindanao with fierce winds, ripping up trees and destroying houses. Corrugated iron roofs torn from homes and thrown through the air as one relief official said. like flying machetes. There was also heavy rain and high water.
In Davao region, three times the amount of rain the area would normally receive in the entire month of December in only three hours. Many of the deaths are being attributed to flash floods and drowning.
A powerful typhoon in December of last year killed more than 1,200 people. Officials say they learned a painful lesson from that storm and it may have saved lives this time around.
LIZA MAZAO, MINDANAO DISASTER MANAGEMENT OFFICIAL: In terms of the intensity, we're expecting the worst because it's a super typhoon, but we're more prepared this time. More prepared and we did pre-emptive evacuation and early warning this time, unlike last year.
NEISLOSS: The storm had been building over days and Philippines' officials took action, initially evacuating more than 60,000 to shelters and those numbers have since grown. Families huddled together, not much space though there is food and, for some, needed sleep. Not all heeded the call to evacuate. This woman's mother died in the storm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't think the winds would get that strong. The floods were rushing towards us. We didn't imagine it would turn out that way so we didn't come here to evacuate, she says.
NEISLOSS: Over the next few days, relief workers will be searching remote areas for survivors, more death and damage likely to emerge.
Some here are slowly returning to their homes to clear the mud and the water. Others will have to wait in shelters for aid and for rebuilding. Still, fortunate to have survived the super typhoon.
Liz Neisloss, CNN, Mindanao, Philippines.
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MALVEAUX: The world's oldest woman has died in a small Georgia town. Hear her secret to longevity.
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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. We take you around the world in 60 minutes.
Justin Bieber might have some fresh competition coming from Finland. Take a look at this. Kind of a look-alike. It's 14-year-old Robin with his chart-topping hit, "My Missing Piece."
Minding her own business, avoiding junk food, that is how Besse Cooper managed to live to the ripe old age of 116. I'm not kidding. Cooper died peacefully this week at an assisted living facility in Georgia. Look at her. She is just lovely.
She was the world's oldest person. This is according to the record keepers at Guinness. Cooper was born in 1896. She was a suffragette, a schoolteacher, an avid gardener. And if folks think, you know, it's downhill after middle age, Cooper's 77-year-old son recently said that his mom's best years came in her 80s. Good for her.
One of the most populous countries in the world is in big trouble with the International Olympic Committee. We are talking about India, suspended from anything Olympics -- no funding, no voting and, if something doesn't change, India's more than a billion people not allowed to send athletes to the Olympic games.
CNN's Sumnima Udas has the details.
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SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In an embarrassing setback for India, an organization in charge of its Olympic athletes, the International Olympic Committee has suspended India's Olympic Association.
The IOC said it was compelled to do so because of the Indian branch's failure to comply with the Olympic charter and as a protective measure against government's interference in the IOA's election process.
But, in spite of the protection, the Indian Olympic Association went ahead with the elections anyway.
The main point of contention seems to be that one of the officials who is widely expected to be the secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association is actually the secretary-general of the Commonwealth Games which were held back in 2010, and he is still facing charges of corruption. He is currently out on bail, but he has been in custody for the past 11 months.
If the International Olympic Committee's suspension is not lifted, it means Indian athletes will not be able to participate in future Olympics under the Indian flag.
Now, even though this comes as a huge embarrassment, many of India's athletes have actually come out and supported this decision. They have said that this is actually an opportunity for the Indian Olympic Association to finally clean up and perhaps to turn itself into an association that athletes can finally be proud of.
Sumnima Udas, CNN, New Delhi.
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MALVEAUX: Bulldozers, cement trucks could be bringing Middle East peace process to a standstill. We're going to talk to people who are actually living on disputed land outside of Jerusalem.
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MALVEAUX: Israel is now digging in its heels on plans to build 3,000 homes in east Jerusalem and on the West Bank. An official with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's office, says "there will be no change in the decision that was taken." Palestinians say that the settlements are illegal and would cut off the West Bank from east Jerusalem, which is proposed as a capital of a Palestinian state. Well, leaders in the U.S., Australia, and Europe say that this plan could kill any chance of a two-state solution.
Our Frederik Pleitgen, he actually visited the construction zone.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These barren hills outside Jerusalem are the center of the international uproar. The area is called E-1 in the West Bank, where Israel says it's planning to construct a settlement neighborhood. The land is already developed with power lines, roads, and a functioning police station.
A few miles away in the Palestinian town of Azaria, people say the new settlement construction would be catastrophic. Taxi driver Atala Titi (ph) believes it would make it almost impossible for him to get to many towns in the West Bank.
"If they build this settlement and close off our roads, it will mean that my trip from Hebron to Jericho would take between five hours and a whole day," he says.
The construction here would essentially be an expansion of Ma'ale Adumim, one of the largest Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel announced the construction of some 3,000 homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a punitive measure after Palestinians won a bid for upgraded status at the U.N. Building here would link the Ma'ale Adumim settlement with Jerusalem, a move the Palestinians say would essentially cut the West Bank in half and cut them off from what they hope will be the capital of any future Palestinian state, east Jerusalem.
SAEB ERAKAT, CHIEF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR: There is no chance for a Palestinian state. It's impossible. I mean, anyone who would look at the maps, look at the geography would know exactly that this decision means that no more two-state solution.
PLEITGEN: The Israeli government says it believes the Palestinians breached international treaties by going to the U.N. in first place and the decision to move ahead with the settlement construction is a direct response.
PLEITGEN (on camera): Israel's announcement to accelerate settlement building here in the E-1 area of the West Bank has led to harsh reactions both from the United Nations as well as countries around the world. Nevertheless, Israel says it stands by its decision and will not be deterred by international pressure. PLEITGEN (voice-over): West Bank settlements, like this one, look almost like any other city in Israel with schools, malls, and supermarkets. But they're on land the international community says should be negotiated about as part of a future Palestinian state. The mayor tells me he believes Israel has every right to expand.
BENNY KASHRIEL, MAYOR OF MA'ALEH ADUMIM SETTLEMENT: This place, this (INAUDIBLE) it is in (INAUDIBLE) municipality, part of Ma'aleh Adumim municipality. A government lands that has to be built for our young couples.
PLEITGEN: Others are more blunt.
"Ma'aleh Adumim should be joined to Jerusalem," this man says, "that way the Arabs can't take their part of Jerusalem."
Whether or not the construction goes forward, this will remain one of the many thorny issues between Israelis and Palestinians.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, in the West Bank.
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MALVEAUX: This is a beautiful place. So beautiful that actually nobody can afford to live here. We're going to take you inside this ghost town. It's in Africa, built by Chinese investors.
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MALVEAUX: Kilamba, it's one of the most beautiful modern housing communities in the world. It's a massive city. It's outside of Luanda, Angola, on Africa's west coast. Well, the government had to build this to solve its housing shortage, but very few Angolans can actually afford to live there. CNN's Dave McKenzie takes us inside a high-rise ghost town.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the promise of a new Angola. The government PR video shows the scale of this new city.
MCKENZIE: The Chinese company who got the tender to build Kilamba and it's quite extraordinary. Some five years ago there was absolutely nothing here. Just bush. And in that time they've built schools and medical centers, kindergartens and, of course, tens of thousands of apartments.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Built using Angola's oil credit lines with China. The final touches are still being made. But there are falling highways without cars. Schools with no pupils. Part of Kilamba feels like a ghost town. We eventually found someone who had bought a flat.
MCKENZIE (on camera): So you live in this apartment building? So which -- where is your apartment?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah, seventh.
MCKENZIE: On the seventh floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (INAUDIBLE).
MCKENZIE: Wow. And this building, is it completely filled?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No. We have three residents in this building. We have three of the apartments occupied.
MCKENZIE: Is it a bit strange to be in a huge building with only three --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You're right, it's a bit strange, especially sometimes when I don't have friends, family over, you might be tempted to say, oh, maybe I should have stayed in the city. But for all other purposes, it's quite ideal.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Manuel Da Rocha, economics professor at Angola's Catholic University says this $3.5 billion project is misguided.
MCKENZIE (on camera): Is Kilamba a vanity project?
MANUEL JOSE ALVES DA ROCHA, CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF ANGOLA: Yes, maybe. Maybe. We are looking through this project as a political project. The housing there is very -- it's still very, very, very high in terms of cost. And I think there is a lot of (INAUDIBLE) to sell the apartments and the house.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): It's a problem caused by the vast amount of oil money pouring into this former war torn country. Angola is Africa's second largest producer of oil and construction is booming. But housing can't keep up. A shabby flat will cost you up to $4,000 a month. And here most people survive on less than $2 a day. The government points to developments like Kilamba as an example of its commitment to the people.
MCKENZIE (on camera): There's obviously a housing shortage in Angola, but houses without no people doesn't solve the problem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are solving the problem because people are moving. The idea was start this town (INAUDIBLE) you don't have any problem relocating people, and from there you either (INAUDIBLE).
MCKENZIE: So start from complete scratch?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Complete.
MCKENZIE: Why did you choose the Chinese for this project? Was it because the oil went to China and this was a response?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. No, the idea the Chinese just was (INAUDIBLE) the cost. So we had to do a lot of houses, and we need to get a good price. And the Chinese gave us the group price for the project. That was the reason.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Entry level apartments run at $120,000 each in Kilamba. The developers promised full occupancy in Kilamba in a year. So don't write it off just yet. Angolans are dreaming big.
Dave McKenzie, CNN, Luanda, Angola.
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MALVEAUX: A ceremony befitting of a king. I'm going to show you some of the best pictures taken around the world and the stories behind them, up next.
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MALVEAUX: New satellite pictures appear to show that North Korea is preparing to launch a long range rocket. An analysts tell CNN that this image here, you can see it on your screen, shows launch activity that there was just a couple of days ago. Now, North Korea said it plans to put a satellite into space, but the U.S. opposes the move because it is the same process used to test ballistic missiles. The launch would also violate two U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Well, dogs usually chase cars, right? That's what we normally see. Turns out there are a few that can drive as well. These are animal trainers in New Zealand who taught three dogs to actually start a vehicle, drive a track, down that track and then stop, right? It's -- this is not just a stunt, though aimed at making YouTube.
This is actually an animal rights group that is in Auckland. It wants people to see just what rescue dogs are actually capable of doing. And this is the hope. They hope that the dogs are going to end up in good homes as well.
