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President Barack Obama Visits the West Bank; Can Cyprus Put Together Bailout Deal by Monday?; Were Chemical Weapons Used Inside Syria?

Aired March 21, 2013 - 08:10   ET

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

(LIVE COVERAGE OF ABBAS/OBAMA NEWS CONFERENCE TO THIS POINT)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. Welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet. U.S. President Barack Obama has made a landmark visit to the West Bank. He was welcomed by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the official Mukada Compound in Ramalla. Israeli settlements and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails topped the agenda of their 90-minute meeting. And the leaders, they just held the press conference minutes ago where the U.S. president said that Palestinians deserve a state of their own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Palestinian Authority is more efficient and more transparent. There are new efforts to combat corruption, so entrepreneurs and development can expend. Palestinian security forces are stronger and more professional, serving communities like Bethlehem, where President Abbas and I will visit the Church of the Nativity tomorrow. Moreover, this progress has been achieved under some extremely challenging circumstances. So I want to pay tribute to President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad for their courage

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: And also, earlier we heard from the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but for now, let's go to Cyprus, where there are long lines at the banking machines. Some people there are worried about their savings, and even though there are long lines there, the banks do remain closed. Now, if Nicosia cannot strike an agreement with the E.U., the money runs out on Monday. The lawmakers have been trying to come up with the plan to reduce the amount that Cyprus must borrow to prevent it from going to bankruptcy. And parliament overwhelmingly rejected the $13 billion bailout after days of public backlash over proposed tax on bank deposits.

Meanwhile, the Cypriot finance minister met Russian officials in Moscow to discuss possible assistance. Russia has extensive financial interests in Cyprus.

This week, our correspondent has been watching developments inside Cyprus. Jim Boulden is in Nicosia. He joins us now live. And Jim, the ECB has set a deadline. So can Cyprus get a bailout deal together by Monday?

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not only can they get a bailout done by Monday, an agreement, they have to get the agreement of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF. So, we have learned in the last hour from the president's office that this plan B, as it were, is moving through the governments, through the government program. So, we -- they are calling it an Investment Solidarity Fund. What is that? The idea is to dump assets from the state and assets from the church here, the Orthodox Church into a fund and then issue bonds. That seems to be what Plan B is. The question is, will it be enough money for Cyprus?

STOUT: All right, unfortunately, we just lost our correspondent there in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. But he was just telling us the details of the Plan B being discussed by governments officials there in Cyprus, especially in the event or after the ECB announced that there is a Monday deadline for some sort of a bailout deal to be reached.

Now, South Korean regulators, they say that the cyber attack that took place on Wednesday, it came from an IP address in China, though hackers can often use computer addresser from other countries. And it caused an outage that affected more than 23,000 computers of media organizations and banks. And South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that servers were infected with software that slowed and shut down systems. And according to the security company SophosLabs, the coding was relatively unsophisticated, which is surprising for a country which prides itself for being technologically very savvy and very connected.

Now, many first pointed their fingers at North Korea, saying it has launched similar cyber attacks in the past.

Meanwhile, North Korean media had carried a statement from the military warning that the U.S. bases in Guam and Japan are within striking range. And this comes after the U.S. announced its B-52 bombers were taking part in military exercises and making flights over South Korea. Now, these are pictures released by North Korea state run TV of its leader, Kim Jong-un, who appeared to be guiding and inspecting a drill involving drones on Wednesday. We'll have much analysis about the situation from Seoul after the break.

Also ahead right here on NEWS STREAM, a discovery deep in the ocean. Recovered from a historic space mission that happened some 40 years ago. We got the details about this coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: Welcome back. And you're looking at a video rundown of all the stories in this show. We've already taken you to Cyprus. Leaders are trying to come up with a new plan for the nation's finances. Later we'll bring you the calls for an investigation into suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria, but now let's talk about Google. Now, it unveiled Google Keep on Wednesday. If you are familiar with Evernotes, then you know what it does. And basically, it is a digital post-it notes, and reviews have been mostly positive. But some critics say that they are hesitant to use it. That's because Google recently announced that it would kill its popular Google Reader. And let's bring in our regular contributor and editor of thenewyorker.com, Nicholas Thompson. He joins us now live from New York. And Nick, so Google launches Keep after ditching Reader ...

NICHOLAS THOMPSON, THENEWYORKER.COM: Yes.

STOUT: But why did they scrap Google Reader to begin with?

THOMPSON: Well, it scrapped Google Reader because there is perception both among the company and outside of the company that it had become too distracting, that it's doing too many things, so it needs to narrow down what it does. Also, RSS readers, which is what Google reader was, are kind of being supplanted by social media. A lot of people have switched from RSS to Twitter to Google plus or to Facebook's news feed. So, why maintain this product that, you know, people are moving away from when you've got 700 other things that you're working on, and in fact, when you're about to launch a whole bunch of other stuff here.

STOUT: Yeah.

THOMPSON: So, I mean Google -- Google has products that do basically everything, and so now every now and then, they have to clean up a little bit and kill some of the other ones off.

STOUT: Yeah, it makes sense. I mean there are some of the other alternatives out there to Google Reader, but there was also the buzz that Google ditched the reader in order to launch Google Play news.

THOMPSON: Right.

STOUT: With issues and subscriptions. Do you buy that -- what do you think?

THOMPSON: Not really. I mean, I think Google Play news is going to be something different. Google Play news is a way inside of Google Play that you can read newspapers, just as in Google Play you can read magazines and you can buy books. And they don't have a newspaper part of Google Play, and so some people have been sniffing through JavaScript, and they figured out, oh, wait, they are about to launch a whole new color (ph), a whole new category for newspapers. I think that the Google Play, the newspaper section of Google Play is more of a sort of the next iteration in providing content through Google Play onto Android devices. People buy phones, they want to use those phones to read newspapers and magazines that they've always loved. Google has been slowly building that out. They haven't had as much adoption as they like, but now they are moving quickly and they are doing that.

I think the Google Reader killing decision was more based on the shift away from -- from RSS. Though, there have been a lot of people who are very upset. I have friends who are, you know, hard-core Google Reader addicts, who are - who have been a tough time lately.

STOUT: Sure. The RIP, you know, Rest In Peace hashtag was being used ...

(LAUGHTER)

STOUT: Quite a lot in the last weeks, since, you know, then closed it down. Let's talk about the relationship, though, between Google and the publishing industry.

THOMPSON: Yes.

STOUT: I mean in your words, you said Google has destroyed publishing, but as you pointed out, it also wants to boost publishing as well. Nick, you are in the publishing business ....

(LAUGHTER)

STOUT: Are you suspicious or do you continue to welcome the great Google overlord?

THOMPSON: Well, it's inevitable. And when I said Google has destroyed publishing, I don't mean Google, I mean the Internet has transformed publishing. If you look at the way publishing has changed in the last ten or 15 years, a huge part of that has been because of the Internet and a huge part of that is because -- been because of Google. "Newsweek" has gone under. Why did "Newsweek" go under? Thousands of factors, but part of it is that -- part of it is the spread of the Internet, the creation of blogs, which, of course, Google made possible through its search algorithms, and part of it is Google News. So Google has pushed this transformation which has led 1,000 flowers boom, but has also created a lot of upheaval in my industry.

Now, is Google a partner? Absolutely! We want "The New Yorker" in Google Play, every magazine wants it out there, they recognize it's a great distribution platform. You know, I publish stories in NewYorker.com, I'm desperate to get them in Google News, because that drives traffic to us. So, Google is absolutely a dear friend, but it's also a big part of this transformation that, you know, every publisher is dealing with in different ways. So, it's a very exciting time. Google has a very complicated role, where it's both, you know a force of disturbance and a force, you know, the great force for traffic and the thing that if you can master and work with, will really help your publication survive. So, dealing with Google is important.

STOUT: Now, if folks from Google are watching this, they are cool, they know you at "The New Yorker", you are on their side, everything is all right. Before you go, I have to ask you about Facebook, Nick.

THOMPSON: Yes.

STOUT: Sorry -- you want to -- I have something there.

THOMPSON: I also want -- I mean people who run Google do really care about publishing for a couple of reasons. A, just they like it, they are smart people, they are good people, they like it. But also, they don't want to be seen as having destroyed this thing that people love. People love newspapers, they love magazines. And so Google is, I mean the people who run Google, and the top engineers there, care desperately about this and about doing that right, but -- what were you asking about Facebook?

STOUT: Yeah, because you were saying -- you were saying just then this will segue perfectly into my comment about Facebook. People love newspapers.

THOMPSON: Yes.

STOUT: I mean so much so that Mark Zuckerberg, you know, what he refreshed the newsfeed for Facebook, he kept making comparisons to a newspaper. What did you make of that?

THOMPSON: Well, it's hilarious. You -- when they were announcing news feed, Mark Zuckerberg used the word newspaper about 29 times in the first five minutes of his introduction. I mean, what he is doing is, he is trying to say that news feed, the main central feed on Facebook is like a newspaper. It's the thing that you'll check every day to find out what's going on in the world, to learn about the things that are important to your friends and that you'll be talking about during the day. That's why we used to read newspapers around the breakfast table. So we'd have the sense of what's going on with Obama in Israel, and so all the conversation that came up, we have some information.

Zuckerberg is saying, Facebook is a personalized newspaper. It will give you the most important news, the stuff that your friends care about. So, he is both trying to explain what he's doing, and also newspapers -- the sort of the brand value of the word newspaper was in decline for a while, and now it seems, it's cool. People really like the idea of newspapers, even as they -- as newspapers go away in some ways that word becomes cooler, and so I think a lot of tech companies are not appropriating, but using that word a lot.

STOUT: It's nice to hear, in terms of brand value, the stock is rising for newspapers.

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: Absolutely.

STOUT: Nick Thompson, always great, (inaudible) with you. Thank you so much.

THOMPSON: Thank you, Kristie.

STOUT: Nick Thompson, newyorker.com. Take care.

Now, spring began with snow in Beijing. We saw some beautiful pictures over in the last couple of days. Mari Ramos is back. She'll join us now from the World Weather Center with more. Mari.

MARI RAMOS, METEOROLOGIST: Because (inaudible) first couple of pictures of the snow in Beijing. But let me tell you, it snowed again, and it really did help with the air quality quite a bit.

I want to go ahead and show you some pictures from Beijing and some overall pictures that you guys were sending us. I know we've been telling about this for the last couple of days, remember? CNN spring hash tag, or spring CNN hashtag. This is on interim, go to the cnn.com page, and you can actually take a look at some of this.

I want to start you off with some of the pictures that you guys did send us. And the first one I want to show you, can we see it? It's from Beijing. It's not coming up? Oh. OK, well. Oh, there it is. Here we go. This first one is from Beijing, and you can see their rooftops covered yes, the first day of spring did start off with some snow for you there. Let's go ahead and click to the next one. We have pictures from all over the place, and this one is from California, not too far from where you used to live. Kristie, look at that -- the vineyards there, beautiful, beginning of spring day.

This one is right here -- this was from Georgia, and beautiful spring flowers already in bloom. This is one of my favorite ones, this was I believe is from Germany and then as we move on, this last one, I want to show you, where did it go? Go to the next one. Well, that might be my last one. OK. Well, anyway, let's go back to Beijing. I love these pictures, and please, keep sending them to us, let us know -- I know it's autumn for you in the Southern hemisphere, so we want to hear from you guys, as well.

Well, anyway, this is another picture from Beijing, and you see a little child there with the trees covered in snow. Like I said, this did help air quality quite a bit, and what we have over here in Tokyo is the earliest bloom of the cherry blossoms, which is pretty exciting, because they watched us very carefully to see when it is going to happen, and here we go, finally it did happen, and it was earlier than usual. And a lot of that has to do with the temperatures across the region here. There have been quite warm. This year in Tokyo, your average high temperature usually would be around 13 degrees for the month of March. Well, this year, it's been around 18 degrees, and because of those warm temperatures the plants are blooming a little bit quicker, and that's what happened this time around with the cherry blossoms. They had 17 days above the average in Tokyo when it comes to temperature, and out of that, 19 of those days were with the temperature above ten degrees, which is what the cherry blossoms actually need to begin their blooming, so to speak. The highest temperature was 25, and that just happened a couple of days ago. Remember, last week.

But anyway, as we head back over to the weather map, 5 degrees in Beijing right now, 7 in Tokyo, and 19 in Taipei. 20 in Hong Kong, and I know you guys have had some rain across this area, and I think the rain is actually going to return here in the south and east with the after week at this a little bit of a break here. We'll begin to see the return of the rain with our next weather system (ph) that will be coming up into this area.

But Kristie, before I go, I have this really cool story that I want to share with you, guys. And this is something that we've been monitoring for a long time, and it has to do with my favorite topic -- my other favorite topic besides weather, space. Sent (ph) to the bottom of the ocean, and we have the pictures to show you where an expedition actually -- this is from Jeff Bezos expeditions, and he is the CEO of Amazon, remember? Well, they found these engines, these things at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about maybe 360 -- 370 miles from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Well, they believe that these are the engines from the Saturn V rockets that launched back in the '60s and the '70s. They think that this is -- going to be one of those great finds. They have spent several weeks out there, and they were finally able to retrieve them. They said that they don't know for sure if these are those massive Saturn V rocket engines, because the serial numbers haven't been too visible, but NASA is helping, trying to figure out what they are. They have all the telltale marks they said. You know what? They said a part of the ocean is littered with all of these things from the space age that would land out there in the ocean, which is the reason why they picked Cape Canaveral, because when they launch, they launch over toward the ocean, and all those pieces would land there. Back to you.

STOUT: It's a fascinating find, isn't it? I mean it is more space trash that undersea treasure, but the historic value is definitely there.

RAMOS: That's right. One man's trash. Right?

STOUT: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And a space geek's treasure.

RAMOS: There you go.

STOUT: Mari Ramos will nod in agreement to that. Thank you very much, indeed, Mari. You're watching NEWS STREAM. And coming up next, multiple calls for independent investigation into the accusations that both government troops and rebels have used chemical weapons in Syria. And Australia's prime minister offers a national apology for a past government policy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching NEWS STREAM. And these are the world headlines. Now, E.U. has given Cyprus a Monday deadline to come up with the new plan to avoid bankruptcy. The president of Cyprus is said to unveil an investment fund to raise money after the country's parliament rejected an earlier E.U. bailout calling for a tax on bank deposits. Meanwhile, Cypriot banks and the country's stock exchange will remain closed for the rest of the week.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was reelected to the Labor Party leadership unopposed. That comes as former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd announced he would not challenge her. And Gillard called for the ballot after a senior cabinet member openly asked for a vote.

Now, U.S. President Barack Obama has met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. In a press conference after their talks, President Obama has said that the U.S. remains committed to creating a Palestinian state.

At least one person was killed when two police helicopters collided and crashed at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. (inaudible) spokesman says the rotors of the two choppers apparently hit each other as they were landing, and several people were injured.

Now, the accusations continue to fly over the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government is demanding an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons. They made this surprise visit to a school in Damascus. The opposition is also calling for a probe, and both sides accuse each other of using chemical weapons. Most members of the U.N. Security Council also want an investigation.

Meanwhile, intelligence officials in Washington are also looking into the attacks. Out Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As more pictures emerge of hospitalized Syrians, CNN has learned U.S. intelligence agencies are in a massive around the clock effort to determine if these people were attacked by chemical weapons. So far U.S. officials say, there is no corroboration.

ROBERT FORD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SYRIA: So far, we have no evidence to substantiate the reports that chemical weapons were used.

STARR: In a classified briefing to Congress, intelligence officials said it's not clear what happened, but CNN has learned new details about how the CIA is trying to figure out exactly what did happen here.

U.S. intelligence operatives are now talking to rebels and defectors to see what they now. At Fort Detrick, Maryland, these videos are being analyzed by the Pentagon's classified medical intelligence unit. Officials tell CNN military analysts are looking at the patients' symptoms and conditions, along with reports from Syrian doctors, to see if the symptoms of suffocation and convulsions match a potential chemical attack. Intelligence analysts are also looking at satellite imagery to identify movement of chemical weapons or launches of missiles that could have carried chemical warheads. They are looking at intercepts of cell phone and Internet traffic for chatter about attacks.

If an attack is proven, and if President Obama were to order military action, CNN has learned Turkish and U.S. aircraft in Southern Europe are close enough to launch air strikes. The U.S. Navy is also maintaining a classified submarine presence in the Mediterranean along with surface warships that could fire missiles to destroy chemical sites.

ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS, NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, EUROPE: We're looking at a wide range of operations, and we are prepared, if called upon, to be engaged.

STARR: Intelligence officials say because there are no U.S. operatives or military personnel on the ground inside Syria, it may be very difficult to prove exactly what happened. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: Now, the leader of the Kurdish rebel group in Turkey has called for a cease-fire to end nearly 30 year of violence. Abdullah Ocalan is serving a life sentence in a Turkish jail, but he continues to command the Kurdish Workers' Party. Now, you're looking at live pictures of an event to celebrate the Kurdish New Year. And just a short time ago, a representative from Turkey's Peace and Democracy Party read out a statement from Ocalan, and he calls for a new period in Kurdish- Turkey relations, where politics, not the gun will take a lead.

There are nearly 30 million Kurds who live in this area, highlighted in red, and are concentrated around eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran and parts of Syria and Armenia. And the goal of the Kurdish Workers Party, better known as the PKK, has been to establish an independent state. Its roots date back nearly 40 years. Abdullah Ocalan has led the rebels this whole time, even though he's been in prison for the past 14 years.

PKK fighters began their violent campaign in 1984, and since then, nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, mostly with Turkish troops. But last October, Turkish government and the PKK began talks to try to end the conflict. And Ocalan's call for a truce is the latest step in that peace process.

Now, let's go now to journalist Andrew Finkel, live in Istanbul. And Andrew, even before this statement came out, it was deemed historic. Is this historic? Could we be nearing the end of the 30-year-old Kurdish war?

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST: Well, we haven't reached the end yet, but we've certainly reached a momentous step in this process. The fact that Abdullah Ocalan, the man once vilified in the Turkish press, a man called the baby killer, who was sentenced to death there in 1999, he in a sense has been rehabilitated as a person who commands the respect of the Kurdish community in Turkey, and he had called not simply for a cease-fire, but for a controlled withdrawal of -- so this is really a momentous step in the process for peace, but it is -- it's a little bit up in the air, because we don't know yet what the Turkish are -- Turkish authorities (inaudible) do in return to secure the cooperation of the PKK, Kristie.

STOUT: And these comments from Ocalan, they come during the Kurdish New Year. We are watching live pictures of the Kurdish New Year celebration, currently under way. Can you give us some more context about what led to this announcement from Ocalan? I mean, there had been months of peace talks between the PKK and Turkey, but what did both sides in concrete terms actually agree on?

FINKEL: Well, this we don't actually know. I mean, there are various of versions of what had happened. We've had a major leak to the Turkish press. Abdullah Ocalan has said that there will be some sort of autonomy for the Kurds, some sort of (inaudible) devolution (ph) of power. But I think what -- what -- what we know today is that there is a great desire that this conflict should end, and what we are seeing is a celebration. It's the first day of spring, it's the Kurdish New Year. In the past, this has been an occasion for rioters to throw Molotov cocktails at the police. But now we see it's an occasion for people to come out and dance and to listen to music, and to listen to this very important announcement by their leader. So today at least is the day of optimism. What the future will hold, of course, we have no way of knowing for sure, Kristie.

STOUT: Now, the idea of optimism in this Kurdish New Year after this call for a cease-fire from Abdullah Ocalan. Can you tell us more about Ocalan, the PKK leader himself? I mean how long has he been in prison, and also just how he's been able to command and lead the PKK while being in jail?

FINKEL: Well, it is in many way a remarkable achievement. Abdullah Ocalan was basically a poor Kurdish villager, who had some education, who basically led what was in many minds a sort of radical, Stalinist movement in the '70s in Turkey at a time when the far left was very active. But he made that transition from being a sort of lefty to being a Kurdish nationalist, and in 1984, the newly formed PKK formed basically a -- a movement which used violence and terrorist tactics in order to make their point. And there was a very heavy-handed response from the Turkish authorities, long years of conflict and civil war. In many ways this conflict played into the hands of the PKK, into the hands of the nationalists, because if you couldn't have (inaudible) Kurdish rights, really, the PKK was the last man standing, they were the people who were defending with the true force of arms, the independence movement. So the Kurds remember him with that respect.

And, of course, what happened is that he took refuge in Syria. In 1998, the Syrians, under Turkish pressure, got rid of Ocalan. Ocalan was sort of fleeing for his political survival. He was apprehended in Kenya of all places, returned to Turkey where his trial was a very dramatic moment in Turkish history, when Ocalan went on trial in 1999. He was found guilty of treason, was sentenced to death, and this was really a moment of great sort of catharsis in Turkey, that they felt that they've -- they've solved the Kurdish problem through force of arms, but, of course, it continued to drag on.

Ocalan, at the time, I mean, I was actually at that trial in '99, and Ocalan basically -- the message he was delivering was, well, you know, that's fine, I did it. You know, but let's move on, and if you need solve this problem, you need my help. I'm the person who can basically solve this problem on your behalf. So, when you are ready, come to me. And, of course, all these years later, more than nearly 15 years later, he has in essence been rehabilitated as a political leader, and Turkey is trying to do business with him, Kristie.

STOUT: Well, Andrew, thank you so much for joining us on the line and giving us so much context into Ocalan, the PKK leader, and his latest call for a cease-fire to end nearly 30 years of violence. Journalist Andrew Finkel joining us on the line from Istanbul.

Now, it was a dramatic day in Australian politics on Thursday. As mentioned earlier, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, she was facing an unexpected leadership vote, but kept the job after no challengers emerged. Earlier in the day, she offered a national apology to families affected by the government's policy of forced adoption last century. Thousands of babies were removed from the care of mothers that the state deemed unfit to raise a child. A practice that the prime minister condemns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA GILLARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children. You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers, and you were yourselves deprived of care and support. To you, the mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologize. We say sorry to you, the mothers, who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent. You were given false assurances, you were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest, and in many cases illegal.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

GILLARD: And the apology continues. We know you have suffered enduring effects from these practices forced on you by others for the loss, the grief, the disempowerement, the stigmatization and the guilt. We say sorry. To each of you who were adopted or removed, who were led to believe your mother had rejected you, and who were denied the opportunity to grow up with your family and community of origin, and to connect with your culture, we say sorry. We apologize to the sons and daughters who grew up not knowing how much you were wanted and loved.

By saying sorry, we can correct the historical record, we can declare that these mothers did nothing wrong, that you loved your children and you always will.

(APPLAUSE)

And to the children of forced adoption, we can say that you deserve so much better. You deserve the chance to know and love your mother and father. We can promise you all, that no generation of Australians will suffer the same pain and trauma that you did. The cruel, immoral practice of forced adoption that will have no place in this land anymore.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: The prime minister's apology came one year after an official report found that there were up to 150,000 forced adoptions between 1951 and 1975.

You are watching NEWS STREAM. We'll be back right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STOUT: Live from Hong Kong. You are back watching NEWS STREAM. Now, a new computer attack has just become public. And this time, the targets are American politicians -- Hillary Clinton, both Presidents Bush and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell may have had some of their email compromised. Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)'

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A hacker who has reported to have broken into correspondence involving former presidents apparently has found a new target: confidential memos to Hillary Clinton from a former aide have been hacked, according to the Web site Smoking Gun. The Secret Service says it's investigating. Smoking Gun says it has been in touch with the hacker, known as Gutifer (ph). The memos which Smoking Gun says were in the email account of former Clinton aide Sidney Blumental have information on the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Our efforts to contact Gutifer were not successful.

Smoking Gun, owned by Turner Broadcasting, the parent firm of CNN, could not provide someone to go on camera with us. Sidney Blumental who has not worked for the government for several years, would not comment. Cyber security expert Michael Sutton says this hacker has a diabolical method.

MICHAEL SUTTON, ZSCALER CYBER-SECURITY: He's not going after the individual he ultimately wants to get to, but rather the family and friends, the ones that are in communication with them, and, of course, if they are on the receiving end of the email, you have the email.

TODD: Another expert said Gutifer maybe doing this to zero in on the politicians themselves. According to Smoking Gun, there are also hacks of emails and pictures circulated among friends, relatives and aides of former Presidents George W. Bush and his father. Some of the emails reported reflect sensitive issues regarding the health of George H.W. Bush. The Secret Service tells us it's investigating the Bush hacks. But Gutifer could make that a challenge.

It looks like the hacker took pains to cover his tracks. Instead of forwarding the hacked emails and attachments directly to journalists and others that would have looked like this, he recreated them, copying and pasting the text into new emails. This one posted by Smoking Gun shows that he put the text into a pink background with a casual font style that looks like a written note. Experts say he did this to make it harder for investigators to find metadata that could be traced back to him.

We couldn't get comment on the hacking from Hillary Clinton, from any representative of the Bush family, or from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, though he did confirm that his Facebook and email accounts were hacked.

Who is Gutifer?

SUTTON: Often, the demographics of an individual like this are male, young, highly intelligent, and the fact that they are getting recognition for their success continues to fuel them.

TODD: Based on its correspondence with him, Smoking Gun says Gutifer subscribes to conspiracy theories, and claims the government has investigated him for years.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: Now, in sport, the streak is still intact, but the Miami Heat, they seem to be feeling the pressure of keeping their record-breaking run going. Alex Thomas is in London with more on that. Alex.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Hi, Kristie. The Miami Heat extended the NBA's second longest streak to 24 games, but their latest win came after a crazy game in Cleveland, which saw the record books torn up. Back at (ph) his old team, LeBron James and the Heat were expected to surge (ph) to victory. Yet the Cavaliers led by a massive 27 points at one stage, before a second half comeback, railing (ph) with a crucial three in the third, when Miami's shooting finally got hot. Unsurprisingly, King James led the fight back, tying the scores with a three, and ending up with a triple double of 25 points, 12 rebounds (inaudible). And when Allen (ph) found his mark again late during the fourth, the Heat was suddenly seven points clear. Cavs didn't go away, but Miami held on for their best ever second half comeback, and for the 98 to 95 win, it was Cleveland's worst ever collapse.

And let's update you on where that leaves Miami's bid to close in on the best ever winning streak in NBA history. That was set by the Lakers in the 1970s. The Heat now nine wins away from that mark. Their next game's against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night.

(inaudible) focus on LeBron when he goes back to his old team in Cleveland, and while some fans will never forgive him for joining the Heat, LeBron supporters are hoping he'll return to the Cavaliers one day, and the guy who ran onto the court on Wednesday night falls into that latter category. It certainly wasn't a protest invasion.

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LEBRON JAMES: He said he missed me, and come back, please. And I didn't have much time to say much to him, because, you know, the security got to them, but I just - I patted him on the head.

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THOMAS: I guess a pat on the head is worth getting hauled away by security. Now, Luke Donald called the first round of his Malaysian Open debut hard work after struggling to (inaudible) score of 72, nine shots off the lead, held by Thailand's Kiradesh Aphibarnrat. Donald only flew into the country two days ago after playing in the Tampa Bay Championship on the PGA tour. And although this chip-in was one of three birdies, the world number three also dropped five strokes, including a double bogey. Three- time major champion, Paul Harrington (ph), is in a far better place after firing five birdies and only two bogeys, and an opening round of 69 that left him tied for 15th place when bad weather stopped play. And that was Anders Hansen, who enjoyed the shot of the day here, hauling his long line (ph) approach from the rough on the right of the second fairway. And it rolled in eventually for an eagle. Hansen with a six on the par round of 66.

More sport for you in a couple of hours time. Kristie, back to you in Hong Kong.

STOUT: All right. Alex Thomas, thank you. You are watching NEWS STREAM, and coming up next, a lot of Lego. Find out what these people are building. I'll be speaking to the creator of this massive Lego construction.

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STOUT: Welcome back. And if you are a Harry Potter fan, then you may be able to name all the houses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but it takes a special kind of Potter fan to build this -- a huge replica of Hogwarts, made entirely from Legos. And just to give you a sense of scale, this is its creator, Alice Finch, sitting right next to her project. It took her some 12 months to build. She used 400,000 Lego bricks. And what makes it so impressive, though, is the attention to detail. I mean, check out this scene from the Great Hall - it's just complete with Lego mini figures of characters all enjoying a feast. And the replica also includes scenes from all seven of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and eight movies, like this one from "The Goblet of Fire."

Now, let's find out more about why she took on the project. Alice Finch joins us now life from Seattle in the U.S. state of Washington. And Alice, why did you do this?

ALICE FINCH, LEGO CASTLE CREATOR: I was playing with some Legos with my older son, and I decided that I wanted to build something a little bit more architecturally accurate than the official Lego set. I've been to the building that they've based the Great Hall on, and I decided I wanted to make it just like the real thing. And that was the very beginning of this project, and then it grew until it included the entire castle.

STOUT: You are partly inspired by your son, you're definitely a Harry Potter fan, you definitely did your research, and in recreating Hogwarts with around 400,000 pieces of Lego, mind you, what was the most difficult part to build?

FINCH: The part that was really difficult was laying out the whole thing. It takes up an incredible amount of room, and I had to figure out how to divide it on two large base plates, so that each section was a carriable chunk. I have a Lego room where I build with my kids, and I worked on it a little bit during the day with them, but mostly at night, and I needed to figure out a way to break it down into manageable chunks. There were individual challenges with building or a classroom or something, but really it was just figuring out how I was going to make this enormous project small enough to do bit by bit.

STOUT: And what are you planning to do next? You plan to add on to Hogwarts, or do you plan to move on to other subject matter?

FINCH: Well, interestingly enough, I've had quite a response on the Web, and people have noticed that I don't have a Quiddich pitch. Something I was actually intending to build from the very beginning, but I really did just run out of time. So, I think I actually am going to build a Quiddich pitch, because it's going to be an interesting build. I want to do some flying players, and add certain talents (ph) which I had never done before.

But I'm actually working on other projects. I've started to build Hobbiton from Tolkien, and I'm working with a couple of friends of mine on Rivendell, and that's going to be another fairly large project that - even though I am only doing a part of it, it's a pretty big project overall, so that's what I've got going right now.

STOUT: All right. You've got a lot ahead of you, and you have a few more Lego bricks to source. Alice Finch, thank you for joining us and sharing your project with us, and good luck.

Alice, she's not the only creative Lego fan - in Ohio, a professor built a to-scale replica of the university stadium with one million bricks. And we could bring it up for you. Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, the church replica, here it is, was built to mark the 40th anniversary of the World's Heritage Convention. And so was this replica of Russia's St. Basil's Basilica. Sometimes Lego itself is behind these huge constructions. I mean, this stunning model of Buckingham Palace, it stood at Legoland Windsor ahead of the royal wedding.

And that is NEWS STREAM, but the news continues at CNN. "World Business Today" is next.

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