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Protests in Egypt; Typhoon Bopha Hits the Philippines; Drone Warfare; IOC Suspends Indian Olympic Committee; War in Syria; Shocking Photo Makes 'New York Post' Front Page

Aired December 05, 2012 - 08:00   ET

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

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, and welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet.

As tens of thousands of protesters show up, media outlets shut down. But Mohamed Morsi's plans for the future of Egypt remain on track.

As the worst of the weather passes, the true cost of Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines begins to emerge. And John McAfee's efforts to evade police in Belize take him over the border to Guatemala. The Internet security pioneer speaks to CNN.

Egypt's capital is on edge again today. On Tuesday, about 100,000 demonstrators surrounded the presidential palace, sparking violent clashes. Some reports say that they forced the president to move from the building, something his office denies. And despite protesters' best efforts, however, Mohamed Morsi is refusing to budge on his political plans. Demonstrators remain in the capital's Tahrir Square. They are furious over decree giving Mr. Morsi wider powers and over a proposed referendum on a new constitution. And they gathered Tuesday night to demand a reversal of that decree and the scrapping of the draft charter. Critics say its wording is unfair, that it gives too much power to a president who is meant to herald the emergence of a new, more democratic Egypt.

The referendum on the constitution is planned for December the 15th, and several media outlets have gone off air Wednesday in protest. But President Morsi is standing firm.

Reza Sayah joins us now live from Cairo, where he witnessed last night's protests firsthand. Reza, the protesters -- they are not backing down. Can you describe the scene for us?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were some tense moments last night at the presidential palace. This was the first time opposition factions have moved from Tahrir Square to the presidential palace to drive home their message to President Morsi. For about an hour, there was clashes between protesters and police. Demonstrators started throwing rocks and debris. They managed to get through a barrier that was arranged by security forces. Security forces responded by firing tear gas. The big question was, would things get uglier, would things escalate? They did not. Police changed their strategy. They went behind palace walls, and things calmed down considerably, and for the next few hours the protests were very much peaceful. A lot of people out there. There is still a sit-in going on at this hour and back here in Tahrir Square. Again, Kristie, opposition actions coming together, protesting against the president.

STOUT: And more protests today, and it's incredible, the scenes from Tuesday night. Some 100,000 protesters gathered. Who are these demonstrators, Reza? Just how diverse is the anti-Morsi movement?

SAYAH: Well, these are a variety of groups that have banded against the president. Keep in mind, once President Mubarak, the former president was toppled in 2011, many of these groups were divided, but now they've united against the president. These are the moderates, the liberals, the secularists, the nationalists, the women's rights groups. They don't like the way this constitution has been drafted, they don't want to take a vote on December 15. They are doing their best to derail the president's plan. They are very much concerned that down the road, an Islamist-dominated government could use this constitution and deny them their rights. There is a lot of mistrust within these opposition groups for the president and the Muslim Brotherhood. That's why they say they'll keep coming out here. Kristie.

STOUT: You know, these various groups have come together and formed almost this unified opposition. They seem to be gaining momentum. We have this vote coming up on December the 15th. What is the opposition's plan? Will they boycott the vote? Or do they plan to vote against the draft?

SAYAH: Some say they'll boycott it, some say they're going to go vote "no", and certainly, they continue to have momentum on the streets. But when you look at the way things are shaping up, the deck seems to stacked against them. If you look at the president, he is in a pretty good position to get what he wants, and that's to get this vote on December 15th on the constitution. He has executive powers, of course. He inherited legislative powers when he was elected. With the decree a couple of weeks ago he has additional powers. And his position is that he was elected to establish all these democratic institutions, and the best way to move forward is to vote on this constitution on December 15th, and he also says once the country votes "yes" on this referendum, all those additional decrees that people were outraged over will be immediately canceled and annulled. He is hoping that that position is going to win over some of these opposition factions. They haven't. They still don't trust the president and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kristie.

STOUT: Both sides not backing down. Reza Sayah joining us live from Cairo. Thank you.

Now, Typhoon Bopha has left a trail of destruction and devastation across the southern Philippines. Flash flooding and strong winds affected hundreds of thousands of people, and the death toll has soared to 140. Now, 33 bodies have been recovered from this valley alone. The hardest hit areas were the coastal, farming and mining towns on the island of Mindanao, where flash flooding and heavy winds laid waste to homes and livelihoods. The officials say about 170,000 people sought refuge in evacuation centers, and for the latest, I'm joined now by CNN's Liz Neisloss, who is in Davao City in Mindanao. And Liz, what kind of destruction have you seen there?

LIZ NEISLOSS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the destruction is in many pockets in remote areas of this region, Kristie. And you mentioned the rain, and that is the big part of the story here in this province. It is an intense amount of rain it was that fell. It is supposedly the amount that fell in one month, this province normally sees an amount of rain that fell in three hours in one day. And many of the deaths are being attributed to drowning. There has been a mudslide. There is fear that there will be more, given the topography of this region. It is prone to mudslides. But officials here, Kristie, are saying that they learned a lot from a massive storm last year here that killed more than 1,000 people, and they vowed not to make the same mistakes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIZA MAZO, NATL. DISASTER RISK REDUCTION & MANAGEMENT COUNCIL: It's - in terms of, you know, the intensity, what we are expecting is lower (ph), because it is a super (ph) typhoon, but we are more prepared this time, more prepared in preemptive evacuation and early warnings this time, unlike last year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEISLOSS: So, what more prepared meant -- more than 50,000 in evacuation shelters, and those numbers have swelled dramatically. It's not expected that everyone will be able to immediately return home as the storm moves on. Many homes are filled with mud, filled with water. Many homes are, obviously, destroyed. So it could be weeks and months until homes are rebuilt and aid is distributed. And officials are literally going out combing remote areas, Kristie, in the next few days.

STOUT: Yeah, and that's happening right now. Can you tell us more about this rescue effort? We know that remote areas in the southern Philippines have been effected by this major typhoon. What's being done right now to reach the storm victims there?

NEISLOSS: Well, officials are traveling, however they can. In some cases roads are impassable. We've been told people will be helicoptering in, flying in. So officials are literally still mapping out where they need to go and what they need to do, Kristie.

STOUT: All right, Liz. Liz Neisloss joining us live from Mindanao. Thank you.

You are watching NEWS STREAM. And up next, driven under ground and surrounded by darkness: a Syrian family imprisoned on the front lines of the civil war. Also, Iran says it's captured a U.S. drone, but the U.S. says it is not theirs. We've got the latest on the international drone dispute. And back on the grid: Internet security pioneer John McAfee has emerged from hiding, but he is in another country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: Welcome back. And you are looking at a video rundown of all the stories in today's show. Now, we've told you about the protest against Egypt's president. Later, I'll show you what life is like for one family in Aleppo, Syria. They say that fighting has forced them to stay in an underground bunker for the past four months. But now, take a look at this. Iran says this is a U.S. drone that it captured in Iranian air space over the Persian Gulf. And today, state-run Press TV reports that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have extracted data from the drone. A U.S. defense official denies any Navy drones are missing, saying all of the Navy's unmanned air vehicles operating in the Middle East have been accounted for. Now, here is the White House reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As there is no evidence that the Iranian claim is true, I'm not going to comment on something about which we have no evidence in its truthfulness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now, Iran says the captured drone is the ScanEagle, made by Boeing subsidiary Insitu. Now, it's small, it's only 1.4 meters long with a three-meter wingspan. It weighs about 18 kilograms on average. Now, the ScanEagle is low-tech, it can even be launched by a catapult and caught with a rope. Interesting tidbit, it was first used by fishermen to observe tuna fleets.

But the purported capture of the ScanEagle comes exactly one year after Iran claimed it shut down another U.S. drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, and here is the model of that drone. And compared to the ScanEagle, the Sentinel is high tech. It can fly at a higher altitude. And U.S. claimed that the drone had crushed in the Iranian desert after it left the base in Afghanistan.

Now, whether they are low or high tech drones, have no doubt -- they have transformed the face of combat. Nic Robertson looks at their importance in modern warfare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq was the game changer. Drones became the must-have kit for front line troops.

PETER SINGER, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: It went from being seen as something that -- it was really exotic to have to one of these patrolling overhead to you didn't go out on convoy without requesting full-motion video.

ROBERTSON: More than 7,000 unmanned aerial vehicles by the end of drawdown a year ago; almost none at the beginning.

MARK KIMMITT, FORMER U.S. MILITARY GENERAL: It's completely different in 2011. Our soldiers learned, they adapted, technology adapted to the conflict.

ROBERTSON: Technology that gives soldiers an unparalleled battlefield advantage - real-time video of the enemy without putting pilots in harm's way. In 2009, the U.S. Air Force opened their doors to us at an air base near Las Vegas.0 We saw how by satellite remote control they flew drones thousands of miles away in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(on camera): What you are looking at now is my crew and me being videoed from thousands of feet up in the sky by an unmanned aerial vehicle, a UAV, or a drone. They're revolutionizing the battlefield. No war is ever going to be the same again.

(voice-over): An irreversible dynamic, because not only were they shooting live video, drones soon got fitted with missiles. Now you could see and shoot the enemy.

SINGER: The Predator, usually, if it's armed, goes up with just one missile. The Reaper can carry 3,000 pounds of munitions.

ROBERTSON: In this new war, killing and spying became easier. Most modern armies, even some police forces have them now. The CIA got drones, too, targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen and Africa. So effective, Osama bin Laden wrote about them, "they have even distinguished between houses that are frequented by male visitors at a higher rate than normal."

But the toll against terrorists has been turned. Hezbollah, with the help of Iran, has their own. So too, another Iranian ally, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is using drones against the rebels. It's what worries world leaders when Iran lands someone else's drone.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: North Korea's plans for a rocket launch, they appear to be gaining steam. A new satellite image shows increased activity at the launch site. And according to one analyst, what we are seeing here is the beginning of the end of launch preparations. Now, North Korea says the launch will happen between December the 10th and the 22nd to put a satellite into orbit, and the U.S. and others fear it is a disguised long-range ballistic missile test. The plans have heightened tensions ahead of South Korea's president's elections on December the 19th.

Now, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency is reporting that Seoul is completing testing on missile defense radars. The source tells the agency they'll be in place when the north launches the rocket. According to Yonhap, Seoul acquired two Israeli-made Green Pine radars earlier this year that will track the flight path of the North Korean rocket.

You are watching NEWS STREAM. Coming up next, India's athletes, they face a ban on competing at the Olympics for their country. But one told the "Times of India" that given the mess in Indian sports in the last few years, this could be the best thing to happen. More on the story, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: A festive light display here in Hong Kong. You are back watching NEWS STREAM.

Now, it was known that legendary jockey Frankie Dettori would face a suspension for a failed dope test, but just how long would it be? Amanda Davies joins us. She's got the very latest. Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kristie. It's pretty much what we expected. The most famous face in British flat racing, as you said, Frankie Dettori, suspended for six months, not just in France where the case was, but horse racing worldwide. The Italian, of course, failed the drug test back in September. Dettori tested positive for a banned substance at the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, and the French racing authority's medical commission held an inquiry which concluded on Tuesday in Paris. His lawyers told CNN he won't be appealing the verdict. Dettori hasn't ridden in public since the Melbourne Cup in Australia a month ago. He, of course, ended an 18-year association with owners Godolphin in October and had said he was going to be riding freelance next year. He will be able to get back in the saddle from the middle of May.

Now, it's a dark day for sport in India. The International Olympic Committee has suspended India's national Olympic committee, and CNN's Sumnima Udas joins us live from New Delhi with the latest. Thanks for joining us. Just put us into the picture here. Why has the IOC banned India from competing?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amanda, the main point of contention really seems to be the Indian Olympic Association's choice of secretary general. As we speak, elections are going on right now for certain positions, key positions in the Indian Olympic Association in spite of that suspension by the International Olympic Association. And the man named Lalit Bhanot is expected, widely expected to become the next secretary general.

Now, the problem is Lalit Bhanot was also the secretary general of the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in 2010, and if you remember, those games were mired in controversy. Lalit Bhanot himself was held in custody for a few months on charges of corruption, so that really seems to be a major issue.

Another point of contention, also, is the age limit. The IOC has certain restrictions in terms of how old the officials can be, and the age restriction is 70, and some of these key officials in India are actually over the age of 80, and a lot of them have held these positions for more than 20 years, 30 years, and this is also a major problem here.

Amanda.

DAVIES: Sumnima Udas, thanks very much. Very interesting that a lot of the athletes are actually supporting what's been going on after their disappointing performance at London 2012 this year. We'll speak to you again later, thank you.

Now, there are three places in the knockout stage of the European Champion League up for grabs on Wednesday. The Chelsea's Rafael Benitez has admitted his side might need a bit of luck, but not a miracle, if they've got any hope of making it through. The Blues are in danger of being the first defending champions not to qualify for the knockout stage of the competition, because even if they beat Nordsjaelland, they need the Shakhtar Donetsk to do them a favor against Juventus as well. It really has been a baptism of fire for Benitez, who took over from the popular Roberto Di Matteo just two weeks ago, and from the (inaudible) of fans have made it blatantly clear: he is not welcome. And in recent days, there have been rumors that one of the Blues previous interim managers could return to help him out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFA BENITEZ, CHELSEA INTERIM MANAGER: I have no idea. I know (inaudible) is a nice person, good (inaudible), but all the information that they have that is not coming through (ph). It's just a story in the press, but nothing else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: It's not been a great week for English Premier League bosses in Europe. Roberto Mancini has insisted that he's not embarrassed by his side's early exit from Europe's top competition, though, despite failing to win a single match. Tuesday's (inaudible) defeat of Borussia Dortmund in Germany means that City finished bottom in group D. Julian Schieber scored the only goal of the game in the second half. Dortmund is already guaranteed their top sport in the standings, but City finished bottom of the table with three points, and no victories. The lowest total for the English side in the history of the tournament's group phase. Now, though, they have got to try and regroup ahead of the weekend's small matter, the Manchester Derby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTO MANCINI, MANCHESTER CITY COACH: I don't think it will be a problem, because we did not (inaudible) Champion League tonight, and it's clearly that tonight we lost our qualification for a (inaudible), but I think that after tomorrow, we'd be important for us to think only about Derby, and we will fight (ph) to recover our strength, and then we think that it wouldn't (ph) be a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Well, and the other man to keep an eye out for on Wednesday, Barcelona's Lionel Messi. It could be a record-breaking day for him in the Champions League. The Argentine is expected to play for his club against Ben Speaker (ph) after scouring two goals in each of his last five matches. One more would take him to the magic mark of 85 goals in 2012. That would see him tie a record for most goals scored in a calendar year. That was achieved by the great Gerd Mueller back in 1972. Two goals, of course, will take him past that record. That's more goals scored this year than quite a few teams, let alone an individual.

Now, the Wizards coach Randy Whitman says his team knew they had to make a statement in their Tuesday night game. They certainly did that. The NBA's worst team shocked the league's champions, Miami Heat, with a 105 to 101 point win. Heat were looking to extend their winning streak to a season high seven games against Washington, but they were down late in the fourth quarter to a team with just one win all season. With 10 seconds left, the Wizards' Jordan Crawford was fouled, and made both free throws to extend their lead. Crawford finished with 22 points in all. The Heat kept going, though. LeBron James here missing the corner three (ph), then he grabbed the rebound and (inaudible), with the Wizards 104 to 101. (inaudible) missing his first free throw. He's made the second to give Washington their second win of the season. An end to the Heat's six game winning streak.

Means there is hope for us all, Kristie, that one. Back to you.

STOUT: Fans of the Heat not feeling too good right now. Amanda Davies there. Thank you. You are watching NEWS STREAM, and coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What can we say, we are living in a prison, prisoners in a prison, Fatme says.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: We meet a family living life on the front line in Aleppo and taking shelter from Syria's civil war underground. And then the final, horrifying moments of a man's life captured on camera and plastered all over the front page of a newspaper. It has sparked outrage in the United States. But the full story is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching NEWS STREAM, and these are your world headlines. Typhoon Bopha, which hit the Philippines on Tuesday, has now killed more than 140 people. Scores have been injured, and tens of thousands forced out of their homes. Floods and landslides have added to the destruction.

Four Egyptian satellite TV channels are blacking out today in protest over the president's new draft constitution. A dozen newspapers also refused to publish on Tuesday. And today, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an open and transparent dialogue to end the crisis. The strike action is a show of support for Egypt's opposition, which believes that President Mohamed Morsi is trying to grab more powers. The referendum on the new constitution will take place on December the 15th.

A royal celebration in Thailand, where the king is marking his 85th birthday. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Bangkok to honor King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The queen could not attend due to poor health. Thailand's king if the longest reigning monarch in the world.

Fighting raged in Syria on Tuesday with activists reporting 155 deaths across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: According to activists, Syrian fighter jets attacked a Damascus suburb, and this video purportedly shows a warplane over the city of Douma. CNN cannot verify the authenticity of these images.

In another attack in the Damascus area, activists say 30 people were killed when a school and a refugee camp was shelled on Tuesday. It is not clear who was behind that attack.

As the conflict takes an ever greater toll on civilians, CNN's Arwa Damon met a family in Aleppo who are prisoners in their own home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Down a steep stone stairway and into the darkness. This is where the Kurdiye family has been hiding for four months.

"The strikes were all around us. We just ran out, with nothing," 20-year- old Fatme recalls. "We just ran and ran down here, and the shrapnel was falling all over."

Since then, they have dared occasionally to go back home to collect belongings.

"There would be bombing like that, and we'd come running back here," Fatme says.

Their home is just five doors away. But it's right in one of Aleppo's front lines. It has been hit by artillery fire since they fled.

"We go home every two weeks to shower, fearful and terrorized," Fatme's mother tells us. "We have a weak home. It could crumble any moment."

Their makeshift bunker was a workshop, the carpenter's intricately carved furniture still lining the walls. The last time the family ventured out was three weeks ago.

Fatme and her young sister want to leave, anywhere but here, anywhere they can feel the sun and smell fresh air. But their father refuses.

"Poor but proud." He says he doesn't want to be at the mercy of others. Here, he can send his son to scrape money and buy a little food. It's humbling how amidst all they have lost and suffered, they insist on offering us tea.

The girls dream of wounded neighbors. Their mother has nightmares her children are dead and says she feels her heart is going to burst with each explosion.

"I just tell her it's far away and not to be scared," Fatme says. But sometimes the bombings are so close, the family says they choke on the dust.

"What can we say, we're living in a prison, prisoners in a prison," Fatme says.

"It's more like a grave," Zuhra (ph) adds.

(on camera): To give you an idea of just how dark it really is and terrifying with all of the sounds of the gunfire outside, we're going to switch our camera light off. This tiny flame is all the family has.

(voice-over): As they listen to the sounds of war above.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Aleppo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: NATO says it is stationing Patriot missiles in Turkey to guard against Syrian shells. And the request, it came after errant Syrian artillery shells spilled across Turkey's border, killing five Turkish civilians in October. NATO foreign ministers approved Turkey's request on Tuesday. The decision was made as news surfaced about fears of Bashar al- Assad's government using chemical weapons.

Now, an update on the Internet security pioneer John McAfee. He has emerged from hiding and turned up in Guatemala. His lawyer says McAfee will seek asylum there. Three weeks ago, he disappeared from his home in Belize after his neighbor was found shot to death. In an exclusive interview Tuesday night with CNN en Espanol, McAfee talked about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCAFEE: No one has blamed me for the murder. I have not been charged. I am not a suspect. They merely want to question me about the murder.

I am not concerned. I have not been charged with a crime. There is no basis for extradition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: That was John McAfee speaking with CNN en Espanol. Now, McAfee says he is willing to talk by phone with authorities in Belize.

Let's get the very latest on that deadly typhoon. Typhoon Bopha, which has displaced over 170,000 people in the Philippines. More now with Mari Ramos. She joins us from the World Weather Center -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Kristie. Yes, this a story that will continue to unfold even as the typhoon continues to move away. There is so much destruction left. When you have such a large tropical (inaudible), it will hit an area that is so vulnerable, of course, to this kind of damage.

I want to start you off, first of all, showing you where the storm is now. It is out here now in the South China Sea. Some rain expected, heavy, possible even for you in Manila right now with the outer bands of the storm moving through here. There's still some very gusty conditions along these areas, and people that are, again, are on this side of the Philippines -- we have thousands of people that were stranded on the other side along (ph) ports (ph), because people couldn't get out, ferries and boats weren't working. The weather here slowly starting to improve, but I want to show you some of the pictures here from the south, where the storm made landfall.

You know, when you see pictures like this, you can understand, you know, many of these people barely have anything, and now much of what they have has been destroyed by the storm.

Crops, that's going to be one of the things, because this is people's livelihood now. Not only did they lose their homes and their families in so many cases, they also lost their way of life, and that can take a long time for people to actually recover from. There you are seeing people mourning some of the dead that were found in this nearby village, very graphic images there that are coming out of this region.

A lot of flooding still left, and they are still assessing the damage as they reach some of the hardest hit areas in the region.

Come back over to the weather map over here. Wind now 148 kilometers per hour, just scattered rain showers in the hardest hit areas here of Mindanao, but watch out for the heavy rain. Like I was saying, as the storm continues to move away. Scattered rain showers here, the bulk of the rain from Palawan and moving into the South China Sea.

I think this is going to be a storm to watch as we head into the weekend. For you guys across Southeast Asia, maybe southern China. It appears that it might start taking a turn a little bit more to the north. We'll have to see what happens in the next couple of days, but definitely a typhoon in the South China Sea is definitely something we have to keep an eye on. You can see it here, again, in those wide bands of circulation that continue to move through here.

In quite a contrast to the weather across much of East Asia, we've been talking about this for the last few days, some pretty good snowfall coming in across northeastern China, including Seoul. This is the picture of Seoul, and it's been snowing quite a bit. This is the first snowfall of the season for you, and it looks like more to come as we head through the next couple of days. -5 right now in Seoul, -9 in Beijing. These temperatures are well below the average for this time of year. -2 the high as we head today, actually, tomorrow only zero, so a little bit warmer, right? Similar situation as we head into Seoul and also back into Pyongyang. So that's definitely some winter weather there.

Check out this winter weather. This is in Moscow. We've been talking about the snow here for days. Well, they had a little bit of a break, then Tuesday the snow came back, a little bit of a break again today, and then more snowfall expected to happen in the next couple of days. These are happy people. You know who is not happy? The next video, you'll see them. Very unhappy, people stuck on the roadways. Again, this traffic jam in Moscow proper was not as bad as the one from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It didn't last three days, but it did not take much snowfall to really cause some damage there as far as the travel delays.

And big travel delays across central Europe too with the snowfall.

We are going to take a break right here on NEWS STREAM. Don't go away. More news in just a moment right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: Now, there are new privacy concerns for Britain's royal family. A London hospital has confirmed a prank call was made to staff treating the Duchess of Cambridge for acute morning sickness. Two deejays from Australian radio station Today FM say that they got through to the Duchess's private nurse, and had a short conversation about her condition. The deejays, they pretended to be the queen and her son, Prince Charles. The hospital confirms a hoax call was received and says it deeply regrets the incident. In a statement, the chief executive said this. Quote, "This is a foolish prank that we all deplore. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously, and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

The office of Prince William is not commenting on the incident. The duchess was admitted to the hospital on Monday, forcing the royals to make an earlier than intended pregnancy announcement.

On Tuesday, we told you about the end of the tablet-only newspaper, "The Daily." Now, the last issue will be on December the 15th, but the app has already been removed from the iTunes store. And when it launched nearly two years ago, some hailed "The Daily" as the future of publishing, but it failed to attract enough subscribers to stay afloat.

Let's bring in our regular tech contributor, Nick Thompson. He is the editor of NewYorker.com, and Nick is also the co-founder of the Atavist. This is a media company that builds tools for digital publishing. And he joins us now. Nick, good to see you. Tell us the buzz there in New York. Why did "The Daily" fail?

NICHOLAS THOMPSON, CO-FOUNDER, ATAVIST: Well, I think a lot of people have been expecting "The Daily" to fail. It hasn't taken off the way that people expected it to take off. There are a lot of reasons given for why it failed. Fundamentally, I think the problem was they tried to make people pay for news that's readily available for free on the Internet, and they also didn't play very well with the open Internet. They did not make it easy to share content from "The Daily." They walled everybody into the iPad app.

If you're going to wall everybody into the iPad app, if you're going to make them pay for something, if you're going to make them do it on a digital device, you really need to have something they can't get for free and that's not similar to what's showing in their Twitter stream, their Facebook stream, their Google Plus stream or whatever, and "The Daily" just did not distinguish itself enough.

They did have beautiful technology. They pushed iPad publishing forward. They showed how subscriptions can work on the iPad. They did have 100,000 subscribers. So there were -- it's -- in some ways it's a promising failure. At their core, they have the wrong idea for what to do, but on the margins, they did a lot of things right.

STOUT: A promising failure brought down by the paywall, in part. Now, it's been blamed for its demise, but Nick, how do you get people to pay for digital content? How do you do it?

THOMPSON: Well, you have to have something that they can't get for free. I mean, I always say, I work at the New Yorker, our view is that, you know, we publish once a week, we publish long stories, we publish fact-checked stories, we publish stories that people spend months and months and months on. You can't find those stories for free, so we're able to charge some people for those. So what "The Daily" should have done is figured out something that you can't get for free elsewhere, you can't charge for something that's readily available for free. So they had to have a different model for the kind of journalism they did. They would have had to have had, you know, maybe it should have been more narrowly targeted, in-depth reporting, right? "The New York Times" or CNN, companies that really do in-depth reporting, reporting that people don't do, they have bureaus around the world, it's expensive, but it's also unique, so people will pay for that. So that's what -- that's what you need to do.

STOUT: "The Daily's" audience was so narrowly targeted, its target was just iPad users. I mean, is it wise to have a media business model that focuses only on the iPad or a tablet device?

THOMPSON: Well, no, that's tricky, right, and no, it's not. I mean, they had an advantage. What they did with the iPad is they got a special deal with Apple, where Apple gave them all kinds of benefits, and in return, they went big on the iPad. So "The Daily" was a way of selling the iPad, the iPad was a way of selling "The Daily." Now, that's kind of a one-off thing that you can do with Apple if you are the first player, but now, yes, it's absolutely better to try to be out there on Android devices, to try to be out there on iPhone devices, to try to be out there in as many ways as you can.

You know, at "The New Yorker," we started on the iPad, now we expanded to the iPhone. You can certainly get us on the Kindle, and there are versions coming on Android. So there is, you know, there is a real effort to get on to everything, and I think that makes sense. You have to be where people are. People use all kinds of digital devices.

The other issue is the demographic of people who use the iPad, it's expanding, it's large, it's huge, but it's also mostly the affluent. So if you are going to serve that demographic, you have to have the content that appeals to them, and it's not clear that "The Daily's" content was targeted at that demographic.

STOUT: Now, personally, I like reading on tablets. I read -- I read long- form magazine articles, I read books on my iPad, never on my desktop or my laptop computer. So despite the death of "The Daily," do you think long- form journalism really works best on a tablet in terms of a digital platform?

THOMPSON: First thing I think long-form journalism is awesome on the tablet. I love reading on my tablet. I think people find it very convenient. You can set up in a comfortable chair, you can sit, you can hold your tablet. It's something we've done from the beginning. The way, the habits we get into and the way we use our devices is really important. Part of the reason we don't do that kind of reading on our computers is we're just not trained that way, and I think we all are starting to be trained to read that way. So yes, I think there is absolutely a future for it, and I think it's showing, and I think this success of lots of publications that are publishing long stuff on tablets and on Kindles, the way reading habits are changing is really, really, encouraging for the future of people who publish long, in-depth stuff. So like I said, "The Daily's" failure should be seen as a failure of the -- or a mistake in core idea, not the failure of the technology or necessarily a bad sign for the future of media with these digital devices.

STOUT: I agree, I agree. Despite the demise of "The Daily," here is hoping that someone else will pick up parts of the business model and turn it into something much, much greater. Nick Thompson, joining us live from New York. Thank you.

THOMPSON: Thanks, Kristie.

STOUT: Now, we got a story -- this is a story that stunned New York and really the rest of the world. The police there say a suspect now in custody has implicated himself in a crime that has shocked the city and much of the nation. A man was pushed to his death from a subway platform. It's not just the instance itself that's shocking, many people are talking about a photograph of this horrific incident that was published on the front page of the "New York Post." Here is Mary Snow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Why exactly these men were fighting is unclear. But moments after this video obtained by the New York police was recorded, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han, whose face is obscured, was pushed on to the tracks, police say by the man yelling at him. A subway barreling through the station killed Han, with horrified onlookers unable to save him.

NIGEL GRANT, MTA WORKER: I know they was -- kept arguing with each other and stuff. And I see people were trying to flag the train down before the train gets to him.

SNOW (on camera): The fight happened around 12:30 in the afternoon on this platform that's only about 10 feet wide. A doctor who was on the platform says that the victim was trying to protect people that he didn't know, and she says that many people tried to help him by alerting subway personnel.

The victim was struck, and she says she performed three to four minutes of chest compressions on him, but it was too late.

(voice-over): One eyewitness describes the train coming to an abrupt stop three quarters into the station.

PATRICK GOMEZ, WITNESS: People are just standing in fear and shock, not knowing what's really going on. Some people started running out of the platform. You know, other people just stood there and really didn't know what was going on.

SNOW: The suspect, meantime, was able to slip out of the station into Times Square. And police canvassed the area with his image, placed on wanted posters placed in the streets.

But it was another image in this cruel killing that has sparked an uproar. This is one of several photographs published by "The New York Post" of Han facing the train seconds before his death. "The Post" quotes the photographer saying he tried to warn the train operator by running towards him firing off his camera flash.

But online, there were public comments of disgust: "Wow, enough time to take a few pictures. Why didn't the person help? What an age we live in, when getting the picture is more important. I am appalled."

(on camera): We reached out to the photographer and "The New York Post," but both declined our request for comment. As for Han, he was among the more than 5 million people who ride the New York City subways on any given day. Police tell us he was on his way to the Korean consulate to get his passport renewed.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: Welcome back. Now, the U.S. space agency has announced plans to send a new rover to Mars. It follows NASA's success this year with Curiosity, and it's part of a long-term plan to send humans to the Red Planet. The new rover is set to launch in 2020.

Now, let's turn to the future of camouflage. Designers are trying to develop technology for the U.S. military that works like an invisibility cloak. Chris Lawrence explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Camouflage can be the difference between a soldier getting shot and going home. So a lot is riding on the next generation design to outfit troops. It's only been eight years since the Army spent $5 billion on camo that critics say didn't fool anyone. Soldiers complained to the point the Army abandoned its one- size-fits-all universal pattern.

(on camera): So they were looking for camouflage that they could use everywhere?

GUY CRAMER, DESIGNER: Correct. And it didn't work anywhere.

LAWRENCE: Guy Cramer is one of the designers competing to win the Army's next multimillion-dollar contract. This summer he showed us the science behind every shape, size and shade of these pixels.

CRAMER: You now have your camouflage. We're trying to trick the brain into seeing things that aren't actually there.

LAWRENCE: Digital patterns recreate shapes already found in nature, and 3D layering creates depths and shadows where none exists. That's today's design. But developers already have one eye on tomorrow.

CRAMER: What's coming up down the road and very quickly is the Harry Potter cloak.

RUPERT GRINT, ACTOR: What is it?

LAWRENCE: With that fictional cloak, Harry isn't just camouflaged, he's invisible.

DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR: My body's gone!

LAWRENCE (on camera): How invisible are we talking here? If I walked into a room with a soldier wearing one of these cloaks --

CRAMER: You wouldn't see him at all. He would be completely invisible to you.

LAWRENCE (voice-over): This isn't make-believe. The military has seen the so-called quantum stealth technology. It works by bending the light around an object, even concealing most of a person's shadow. Imagine what that could do for a sniper hiding in a field, or the American pilots who ejected over Libya when their fighter jets crashed last year.

CRAMER: They could actually pull out, very similar to what they carry with a survival blanket, throw it over the top of them, and unless you walked right into them, you wouldn't know that they were there.

LAWRENCE: So what was once firmly in the world of make-believe could quickly become quite real.

(on camera): And the science is in the special fabric. So you don't need a power source or some instruction manual to make it work. Theoretically, any soldier, even in the most remote location, could quickly put it on and put it to work.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: Incredible prototypes there. That is NEWS STREAM, but the news continues at CNN. "WORLD BUSINESS TODAY" is next.

END