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Cypriots Line Up for Cash; Mandela Back in the Hospital; Pakistan Officials Seek Female Teacher's Killer; Massive Cyber Attack Detailed; Pope to Visit Detention Center

Aired March 28, 2013 - 08:00   ET

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

MONITA RAJPAL, CNN HOST: I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong. Welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): South Africans nervously await word on Nelson Mandela's health, their beloved Madiba is back in hospital.

Plus Cypriots line up for cash. Banks are back in business for the first time in 12 days.

And if you've ever been caught in the rain without an umbrella, listen up. There's a reason it's hard to predict precipitation.

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RAJPAL: We begin NEWS STREAM this Thursday with more health concerns for one of the world's most respected men, Nelson Mandela is back in hospital.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): The South African government says the former president is being treated for a recurring lung infection. President Jacob Zuma is appealing to South Africans and the world to pray for the 94-year old and his family. We understand that when Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital, he was conscious.

Of course, as you remember, he had a lung infection back in December and was admitted to hospital and spent 18 days in hospital. He was back in hospital earlier in the month, earlier in March around the 10th of March for a routine checkup. And he was then released a night -- a day after.

Let's take you now straight to South Africa and to CNN's Robyn Curnow, who joins us now from Johannesburg.

Robyn, has there been any updates from the hospital?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: There hasn't been any updates. And as we know, when Nelson Mandela is hospitalized, there isn't a lot of information. The only official statements we're getting are from the government, from the office of the president, Jacob Zuma.

And what is striking and in particular this time is that they said that he was taken to hospital late last night, before midnight on Wednesday, indicating that he was rushed to hospital. Normally these statements try and placate, try and calm people down. This indicates he perhaps, that this was a serious non-routine hospital visit, also saying, of course, that he's suffering from a recurring lung infection.

Now we know when he was hospitalized for those three weeks in December, that he had a lung infection. It's never been explained whether we have a lung infection that was perhaps bronchitis or whether it was more critical, such a pneumonia. Either way, we understand from medical experts that he probably would be having trouble breathing.

So also, which I'd like to stress, is that I've spoken to people over the past few weeks and there has been some indication from those close to Mandela that his doctors have been worried about him picking up an infection due to the change of seasons here in South Africa.

It's, of course, autumn; the days are still hot but the temperatures plummet quite significantly during the night. And there has been concern from doctors that this could have had somehow impact his health.

So they've been ultra-cautious in the past few weeks. We understand they haven't let him go downstairs at his home. They've kept him in his bedroom. They've limited, to some extent, the number of visitors who are seeing him.

And of course, also, bear in mind with all of this, that that room, that bedroom in Nelson Mandela's house here in Johannesburg, is pretty much a high-care ward. It's sanitary; there's a real sense of medical urgency around him. And he's obviously also monitored constantly, 24 hours a day, by a team of doctors and nurses.

So the fact that he was rushed to hospital late last night, an indication perhaps that this is serious.

RAJPAL: All right. Robyn, thank you very much for that, Robyn Curnow reporting to us there live from Johannesburg. Of course, if there's any update we will bring that to you live here on CNN.

Let's turn now to the situation in Cyprus. And it's been a long time coming, 12 days to be exact. But two hours ago, Cypriot banks reopened their doors. The Cyprus stock exchange is still closed, however, people lined up amid tight security to get their hands on their savings and carry out transactions.

Lenders were closed while the government thrashed out a controversial bailout agreement with the European Union. And while they are now open, it is not business as usual.

Strict restrictions have been put in place to prevent a run on the banks. For starters, withdrawals like this will be limited. Let's give you an idea of that. There is a daily limit of some 300 euros or nearly $400.

You can deposit your checks, but they won't be cashed. And there is a ban on the early withdrawal of money in fixed term deposit accounts. And for the first time since the euro was launched, limits have been imposed on cross-border transfers.

So say you wanted you move or put your money in your wallet and leave the country, you could, but only about $4,000 worth. How about an online transfer? Well, that's just $6,500. Not to worry, though. There is always this. That's the plastic -- or not, shall we say -- overseas spending is restricted on your credit and debit cards, too, $6,500 per month.

Now let's take you live to Cyprus and get more on this story. And CNN's Ivan Watson, who joins us live now from the capital, Nicosia.

Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Sure open today, after more than 12 days of closure. We're not seeing any --

Monita, the banks are open today after more than 12 days of closure. And as you can see, we're not seeing a run on the banks. There's some extra security that's been posted, but for the most part, the people coming into the banks have been pensioners and, in this case, some foreign workers as well.

There were strict restrictions, capital controls imposed, on the eve of this opening. And it's very clear that the Cypriot government is very worried that whatever money was left in the troubled Cypriot banks could be flushed out in a run on the banks. So they've limited withdrawals to about 300 euros per person per day.

You can't spend more than 5,000 euros outside of the country on your credit card. Cypriots seem to be taking this on the chin, trying to keep a stiff upper lip and aware that many of them have lost a lot of money. Take a listen to what one pensioner had to say to us a few hours ago.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I said, I'm losing my money because I got all my money at Laiki Bank. It will be closing now and they said they will spread it into a good bank and into a bad bank.

Well, I got more 100,000 pounds at my account. So I'll have only 100,000. That's what they say.

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WATSON: And Monita, a big question here is how do you -- how do you carry on if you're a business owner? And I talked to an owner of a cell phone shop. He said, listen, it's coming to the end of the month. I have to play my employee 1,000 euros. But checks are not allowed to be used anymore as part of the capital controls that have been imposed.

And he can't pull out more than 300 euros in cash from a bank account to pay his bank employees.

So this small business owner informing me that he would actually either have to pay his employees less or they would have to basically quit. So those are some of the challenges that people are facing now nearly two weeks after this crisis hit this small island, Monita.

RAJPAL: Yes. It certainly gives you an idea of the bigger picture and the ramifications of what's taking place right now in the country. Ivan Watson there in Nicosia, thank you very much for that.

Let's take you now to the Korean Peninsula at the display of American military might, two stealth bombers flew more than 10,500 kilometers from the U.S. to South Korea as part of an annual joint military drill. Then returned to the U.S., the B-52s dropped inert munitions during these drills. But the bombers are capable of carrying conventional and nuclear weapons.

Now those exercises have angered North Korea, which has issued a slew of threats directed at South Korea and the U.S. in recent weeks. On Wednesday, it said it was cutting off a key military hotline. And that could have affected the Kaesong industrial complex, where South Koreans cross into the North to work.

But Yon Hap says several hundred workers were able to enter the site today after the North cleared them, using a different communication channel. This is not the first time that Pyongyang has disconnected the military hotline. It has happened before, most recently in 2009.

Now you can find complete coverage of the latest tensions at our website, among other things. There is this analysis of Kim Jong-un's recent actions, plus a photo gallery of snapshots from Pyongyang. Find it all at CNN.com.

A state of emergency and the presence of troops hasn't stopped sectarian violence in central Myanmar. Rioters torched more than 50 Muslim homes and two mosques in two townships last night. Authorities have now imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in those areas, bringing the total number of townships under curfew to nine.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): And this is the scene in Myanmar's commercial capital, Yangon. Some shops have been closed as fears increase that the violence could spread there. Groups of Buddhists have been targeting Muslims for more than a week now.

At least 40 people have been killed and the United Nations says 12,000 people have fled their homes. Many have barricaded themselves in schools and a monastery.

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You are watching NEWS STREAM.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): Still to come, the murder of a teacher prompts calls for action in Pakistan. We'll bring you a live report from Islamabad.

And the latest on the Oscar Pistorius murder case. A judge has now relaxed bail restrictions on the athlete.

And then studying the sky is the role clouds are playing in climate change.

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RAJPAL: You are looking at a video rundown of all the stories that we're covering in the show today. We've already told you about former South African President Nelson Mandela's hospitalization. Later, we'll show you what the new pope is doing for Holy Week.

But now we turn to a tragic story in Pakistan.

Her son says he watched helplessly as gunmen shot Shahnaz Nazli on her way to the all girls' school where she taught. Now her murder has prompted a petition, calling for Pakistan's government to step up security and protection for girls and their teachers.

Well, police say they have arrested 18 suspects in an operation to find those behind the attack. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joins us now from Islamabad with more on that.

Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Monita, we know now that the police have released 12 of those 18 people they detained yesterday. The six that remain in custody, not clear if among them are the two attackers. There's been no claim of responsibility. It bears all the hallmarks of a Taliban attack.

And as we've been learning the details, it becomes more and more chilling.

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ROBERTSON (voice-over): He saw what no child should see and is still in shock. Daniel Ahmed recounts the moment his mother was shot dead by the Taliban.

"She was standing next to me when the first bullet hit her," he says. "Her blood splattered on me. She was hit in the head."

Shahnaz Nazli, a primary school teacher, was on her way to work at an all girls school in Pakistan's semi-independent tribal region when two Taliban gunmen approached her on a motorbike. Six shots; she had no chance. Her son forced to flee as they turned their gun on him.

"When I came back, I found my mother," he says. "She was still alive for another five minutes, still breathing. But she was dying."

The brutal killing comes barely six months after schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, an outspoken campaigner for girls' education, was shot in the head by Taliban assailants on her way home from school.

Medevaced to Britain, many surgeries later, she is on the road to recovery and remains just as committed to thwarting Taliban aggression, becoming the first to sign a U.N. petition to Pakistan's president, demanding he ensure the security and safety of girls who want education.

Only days out of office, Pakistan's first female foreign minister, confident that process has begun.

ROBERTSON: Can the government realistically stop it and make all girls safe in these areas?

HINA RABBANI KHAR, FORMER PAKISTANI FOREIGN MINISTER: The biggest threat that Pakistan faces is from any group which is violent, which uses violence as means to prove their strength or their agenda. I feel that what the previous government was able to do very well was first to fall on track completely the ideological space for these people to exist.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): According to Nazli's husband, however, it's the teachers who've been on the run. The family, along with other teachers, moved by the government when militants made her old school unsafe.

"There was no security from the government, not just for my wife, but for all the teachers," he says. "My wife was martyred while she was on duty."

All he wants, he says, is justice and a way to raise his family on one salary.

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ROBERTSON: Well, the school remains closed and no additional security from around there from what we've been told today, and it's not clear when the school will actually reopen, Monita.

RAJPAL: So, Nic, if there's no security at the school, what steps have the government taken, then, to security education and the security of the girls and their teachers?

ROBERTSON: Well, when I put that to former Foreign Minister, she told me that, number one, this government has had the constitution changed, which makes it now -- which enforces a law, which says that girls have to go to school between 5 and 16. Until then, that wasn't enshrined in law, that they have to go to school.

So the government says it's done that. What it says it's trying to do is reframe the sort of -- against the propaganda that the Taliban is using, that somehow that the war in Pakistan is part of the United States' war on terror as the officials here put it, that somehow the Taliban is using that as propaganda to clamp down on anything they see as Western, i.e. education for girls.

And the government say that they're trying to reframe that, close down the ideological space and say, look, to the Pakistan people, this is not an American war. This is a war that's happening in Pakistan. These militants are killing Pakistani people, Pakistani schoolchildren.

But as the -- as the former foreign minister told me, making this argument and making these changes, will he take a long time to change the mindset. And realistically in the meantime, the Taliban still have the guns. They're on the offensive as we saw yesterday. They're really dictating what's happening right now, Monita.

RAJPAL: All right, Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson there in Islamabad.

Now the circumstances surrounding her murder are eerily similar to the attempted killing of Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head last October by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan.

After a miraculous recovery, she has just secured a reported $3 million deal for her memoir, "I Am Malala." In press reports, the 15-year old is quoted as saying the book will stress the rights of all children to an education. And she says, "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education.

"I want it to be part of a campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."

"I Am Malala" is set to be released in the fall.

Coming up here on NEWS STREAM, is your computer running slower than usual? Well, it could be due to a massive hack attack in Europe. We'll bring you those details in just a moment.

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RAJPAL: Welcome back.

If your Internet has been slow this week, a massive cyber attack in Europe may be to blame. Tom Foreman explains how it happened and who's feeling the effects.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This ought to be about a simple conflict between two small companies. But that's not the case. It seems to be expanding in ways that have many users of the Internet, and companies that rely on the Internet, feeling very nervous.

Let's explain how it happened.

First of all, we have this company called Spamhaus. Spamhaus is an Internet spam watchdog. It creates spam data filters for 1.4 billion users.

What that means is it helps companies avoid having their inboxes fill up with those things that none of us want -- ads for things that we have no interest in buying.

Spamhaus was looking around and it focused on this company, called CyberBunker. CyberBunker is a web hosting service in the Netherlands and Spamhaus said they were going to blacklist this company because too many of the clients of CyberBunker were doing things like this, that's what essentially started the war here between these two companies.

I'm not going to get into who's right and wrong, because frankly, I think there's too much we don't know about that.

What we can say is it has expanded and it has included essentially a tax upon the way the Internet works and communicates between these two companies.

And if it were limited to these two companies, maybe nobody would care, but, as it has expanded, many, many, many more users throughout Europe have been somehow roped into this, and they say they're getting slower connection speeds, maybe not able to connect to certain websites they want to connect to.

They have nothing to do with the dispute, but they're being caught up in it. That's the big concern.

Is it affecting the United States at this point? No, unless somebody has direct dealings with those two companies. Essentially the world is divided into five different Internet continents, and right now this is limited to the European and Russian one.

But this is the important point: the world economy remains shaky enough that if you have enough disturbance in this area, other places could feel the economic ripples from it.

That's one of the very big concerns here, and that's why, as we understand it, some big Internet names are beginning to weigh in on this small dispute and say we must end this, because we're screwing around with something that could really cost a lot of people a lot of money if it's not contained.

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RAJPAL: Tom Foreman reporting there.

Now the CEO of Cloud Affairs (ph) says the last big wave of the attack hit Tuesday morning, but says he fears there will be more.

Now for the first time since Japan's nuclear disaster, we are getting a glimpse of the abandoned city of Namie, located close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. And inside the exclusion zone here in the red, people are still barred from entering Namie.

But thanks to Google, users of its Street View imagery can now get a 360- degree tour of the city, which used to be home to 21,000 residents. Google sent its Street View cars there earlier this month. And as you can see, city streets remain empty with destruction at every corner.

Now let's not forget, two years on, Japan is still trying to clean up from the disaster. But progress has been slow. Many are asking why Japan, a country considered a technological superpower, relied on relatively low- tech methods during the crisis.

Robots like these here were used to gather data on radiation, but advanced robots are just now being developed to enter the most contaminated areas within the Fukushima's plant shattered reactor cores, too dangerous to humans.

We have dramatic video now of a sinkhole from China. Mari Ramos is at the World Weather Center with more on that.

Hi, Mari.

MARI RAMOS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Monita. I think sinkholes are so scary because you really have almost no warning that this is going to happen. And then suddenly the ground just opens up. Remember the one from Florida that we showed you a few weeks ago, where a man was sleeping in his bed and then the ground opened up and he died.

And here's another video. And this one from China.

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RAMOS (voice-over): Take a look. There you see the ground just opening up. This hole estimated to be about 4 meters wide. And Monita, get this: 12 meters deep. It happened in a residential area in the southern city of Shenzhen. And you can see there you know, the person that was killed here, 25-year-old security guard that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, really.

Was a person who died, really dramatic. What causes sinkholes and why is it that they can happen anywhere? You have the ground that just quickly erodes. It's the groundwater begins to erode the area underneath. And then you begin to get almost like a cave underneath the ground.

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RAMOS: So what happens is on the surface everything looks absolutely normal. Sometimes you can get some signs, such as cracking or shaking. But many times there is little or no warning at all. Now that can happen when it collapses suddenly. And then you end up with a situation like what we saw there.

So it depends on what kind of ground you have. When you have softer ground, such as salt beds or limestone, it can happen at a lot more when there's a lot of groundwater, for example, or aquifers near the surface, or human activities such as mining, wells or irrigation.

In this case, it is possible they're saying that construction nearby could have been one of those triggers that made the sinkhole actually happen. But it really isn't know and they're, of course, going to be investigating that. It could have been also the recent rainfall that has happened across that part of China or even those old sewer pipes and water pipes that run under the ground.

If one of those broke, that one could have also caused the sinkhole. So you really -- there's no way of knowing until they actually investigate each individual event that happened.

I want to show you some other kind of video and this one from Africa. And this is also very dramatic stuff. Look.

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RAMOS (voice-over): This is a swarm of locusts. And we're talking millions and millions of them. This is happening in Madagascar. They say the recent rainfall made the situation perfect for breeding of locusts. They are out looking for food.

And the problem is that the food that they're eating is the food that the humans are going to need later. This could create a huge food shortage across Madagascar. They say the main crop that has been damaged is rice. The U.N. is asking for millions of dollars to try to get some money to spray these areas, to stop these locust swarms. They are two types of locusts, the hopping kind and the flying kind.

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RAMOS: Either way, Monita, this is very scary video when I look at this. And I cannot imagine being in a situation like that. They say a full third of the country has been affected by these huge locust swarms. Back to you.

RAJPAL: Yes, just been thinking about what the cameraman is having to cover himself with with all those locusts. I know.

RAMOS: I know.

RAJPAL: Mari, thank you very much for that.

If you not a diver but wonder what it's like underwater, well, we've got good news. Some Australian scientists are sharing their research online. And it lets you experience a virtual dive in the Great Barrier Reef.

Plus as pre-Easter celebrations get underway, Pope Francis puts his own stamp on familiar traditions. You are watching NEWS STREAM.

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RAJPAL: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong and you are watching NEWS STREAM. These are the headlines.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): Former South African President Nelson Mandela is back in hospital. The 94-year old is being treated for a recurring lung infection. Now you may remember he was also admitted to hospital earlier this month for what officials said was a routine checkup.

Banks in Cyprus have opened for the first time in nearly two weeks. They've been in lockdown while the government thrashed out a controversial bailout agreement with the European Union. But strict transaction limitations are in place because of concerns that too many account holders might try to withdraw all their cash at once.

A Greek shipping magnate was the apparent target of this bombing in central Athens. No one was injured when the bomb exploded outside his home. A newspaper received a tip about 30 minutes before the blast and police were able to evacuate the area. The business man is also a former board member of the troubled Bank of Cyprus.

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RAJPAL: Let's take you back now to our top story and the declining health of this man, Nelson Mandela.

Back in July 2001, he announced that he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. He's shown here a few months before that at a Celebrate South Africa concert in London. Ten years later in January 2011, he was admitted to hospital for two days, this time it was for an acute respiratory infection. And as you can see, the country got behind him there.

And just over a year later, in February 2012, he had surgery for a hernia. Then at the end of last year, he was admitted to hospital suffering from a lung infection. And still there, a week later, Mandela had surgery to remove gallstones. Then in January of this year, a spokesman said he was on the mend and getting back to normal.

Staying in South Africa now, a judge has relaxed bail restrictions on South Africa track star Oscar Pistorius. He's charged with killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, back in February. The new bail terms allow Pistorius to travel overseas with conditions. Let's get the latest now from CNN's Nkepile Mabuse. She's in Pretoria.

Nkepile, what was the reasoning behind letting Pistorius travel?

NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Judge Bann (ph), who heard this case that Oscar Pistorius brought to the Pretoria high court says the magistrate that ruled on those bail conditions, that his defense team say were unwarranted and not substantiated by fact misdirected himself, is what the judge today said, and was wrong.

He says that the magistrate did not take into account that Oscar Pistorius has absolutely no intention to relocate. He is a well-known athlete, known around the world. He is not a flight risk. And he should not have been barred from traveling overseas, because this is how he earns his money.

So today the judge at the Pretoria high court saying that Oscar Pistorius is now free to travel but conditionally. He needs to let the authorities know a week before where he's going and when he's coming back, when he returns within 24 hours, he needs to hand that passport back to his attorney, who is Barry Ruth (ph).

Basically, the judge gave Oscar Pistorius everything that he asked for today. He simplified (ph) about six of those restrictions that were imposed by the Pretoria magistrate's court and replaced them with new ones, Monita.

RAJPAL: And the thing is, though, Nkepile, yes, he is well known; yes, he is well off. But the fact of the matter is he is charged with murder. And during his initial bail hearing, the prosecutors had said that he, because he is well known, he has a lot of friends abroad. And because he is well off, he has a lot of homes abroad supposedly. So he could very well be a flight risk.

Is this a surprise, that the judge had said not the case?

MABUSE: You know, I mean, I spoke to a few criminal lawyers here in South Africa. And some of those restrictions, Monita, he couldn't -- he wasn't allowed to drink alcohol. He couldn't go back to the crime scene, to his home. He couldn't speak to his neighbors.

And at the time, the state hadn't even given him a list (ph) of the witnesses, some of the neighbors who are his witnesses. So he actually could not (inaudible) if he does go back, he didn't know who not to speak to, to (inaudible) if, you know, if he would be in danger of compromising the state's case.

So what the judge today said is that this -- this is a very serious matter. He emphasized that. He said murder is the most serious case that anybody could face. But he says the laws in South Africa also make allowance for reasonable bail conditions. And in his view, these bail conditions were unreasonable, Monita.

RAJPAL: All right. Nkepile, thank you for that, Nkepile Mabuse reporting to us there live from -- on the phone, I should say, from Pretoria.

For Catholics around the world, today is Holy Thursday. And the new leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, is doing things a little differently this year. He is celebrating the mass of the Lord's Supper at a juvenile detention center. It's just another sign of just how this pope is doing things on his -- well, in his own way.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, joins us now live from Rome with more on that.

Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Monita, he will be going to the Casal del Marmo (ph) juvenile detention center, where there are about 50 inmates, 40 young men, 10 young women, where this afternoon he will conduct the ceremony where he will wash the feet of 12 of them, the 12 symbolizing the 12 disciples of Jesus.

Now normally the pope would in previous times, would have gone to one of the papal churches around Rome, and he would have washed the feet of 12 retired priests. But this time, he's doing it completely differently.

It'll be inmates, some of whom as far as we know aren't even Catholic. Some are from Tunisia, Egypt, Somalia, the Ivory Coast, and countries in Eastern Europe, really underscoring that this is a pope who's going to make -- or rather do things very differently.

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WEDEMAN (voice-over): The day after Francis became pope, he was shown his new official residence. He strolled from room to room and met his staff. In a city where spacious homes are hard to come by, the papal apartment is downright palatial, with more than a dozen rooms and a stunning view.

But according to reports in the Italian press, he said it was too big and that it could accommodate 300 people. And now it's official. He's not moving in. Instead, he prefers to stay in room 201, a modest suite at the Casa Santa Marta, the residence where cardinals stayed during the conclave.

The furnishings are relatively austere, though hardly monastic. The sitting room, does, however, have a minibar.

Tourist Juan Sarmiento (ph), a fellow Argentinean, is impressed.

JUAN SARMIENTO (PH), TOURIST: I think it's an excellent notice that the pope is close to the people, and not close to the gold and the rich things.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): German Christina Behr (ph) has a more practical interpretation.

CHRISTINA BEHR (PH), TOURIST: I think it's the climate, because it's very hot in this building. In summer, the sun comes from the south directly on this flat. And I think it will be very warm there.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Officials at the Holy See are cautioning, don't jump to conclusions.

WEDEMAN: The Vatican Press Office has put out a notice saying that they want journalists to avoid using language such as pope abandons apostolic palace or pope turns back on wealth of papal apartments, that he simply wants to be in the Vatican residence where he can be close to people, and take advantage of the services available there.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): He's chosen to ride the bus when he could have taken his official chauffeur-driven car, and paid his own hotel bill after becoming pope. And he's wearing sensible black shoes, not the red ones, in which he's walking away from the trappings of power, if not power itself.

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WEDEMAN: I think what's interesting here, Monita, is that he's clearly trying to eliminate the middlemen when it comes to his job. He doesn't want to be isolated in everything he does. He seems to want to have contact with ordinary people, Monita.

RAJPAL: Ben, that's all well and good, but some people will say these are all, I guess, material things and that he is shunning. What about real changes within the Catholic Church that many are demanding?

WEDEMAN: Yes, you're absolutely right. You're talking about style instead of substance. Now that doesn't necessarily mean substance is not on the way. And veteran Vatican watchers will tell you that this period of Easter, Holy Week and Easter, is a very busy one for any pope and that really there are lots of rituals to be done.

When the Easter season is over, he has the job of appointing a new staff. And I think that they say that that's where you're going to start to see where he wants to go in terms of substance, not just style in the Vatican, Monita.

RAJPAL: Ben, thank you very much for that, Ben Wedeman reporting to us there from Rome.

Where social media meets science, coming up, we're on the Great Barrier Reef, where scientists are harnessing the power of the world's social network to save coral.

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RAJPAL: So what do you see when you look at the clouds? Some people spot shapes in the puffy masses floating above our heads. But, well, scientists, they see a mystery. There are many unknowns about cloud behavior and it could hold some clues to climate change. Let's bring in Carl Franzen of that tech blog, "The Verge. He joins us from CNN New York.

Carl, thank you very much for being with us. So what do we know that we didn't know before about climate change? And change and how are clouds have they helping us find that?

CARL FRANZEN, REPORTER, THE VERGE: Thanks, Monita. It's good to be here. You know, there's still a lot of unknowns, as you pointed out, about clouds, how they form, where they form, how they regulate the Earth's environment.

We do know a few things, but scientists are using supercomputers right now to look really far into the future, run simulations of what clouds are going to be like hundreds of years from now. So that's what we're trying to do and they're hard at work on that.

RAJPAL: What we understand about clouds right now is that they tell us about precipitation, the cloud formations as well, what kind of precipitation we're going to get. But what about movement? What do we know about what these super computers are able to detect?

FRANZEN: Yes, it's a good question, Monita. There's a number of different scientists taking different approaches. But essentially all of them are feeding back into giant models, mathematical models that run on these supercomputers.

And you can think of a supercomputer, you know, it's a bunch of tiny computers, like the kind that we have in our laptops or our phones. But they're linked together. And so you can get a lot more processing power and run many more complex simulations. And that's what we're going to need to do, because clouds are actually much more complex than they appear from the ground.

RAJPAL: I think you described it in your article, they're kind of like -- the simulation is kind of like video games. Tell us a little bit more about that.

FRANZEN: Yes, yes. It's great. Thanks for bringing that up, Monita. It's -- for all the video gamers out there, like myself, it's kind of fun.

They can actually create fake clouds based on some of the observations that have of real clouds right now and manipulate them within these computer simulations to change certain parameters, certain attributes of the cloud, make it a rain cloud, make it a really dark cloud, a big cloud, a storm cloud of some sort.

So they can really simulate most types of clouds that are out there. And they're trying to get those simulations to be more accurate to what would actually happen in the real world.

RAJPAL: So what could -- yes, based on that, what can we learn from these simulations that could actually, I guess, not learn so much about climate change, but also help us as we move forward into the next generation as well?

FRANZEN: Yes, all of these are good questions and that's exactly why, you know, there's over 100 scientists have different universities and institutes around the world, Berkeley National Lab was the one that I looked at and also the University of Washington. And you know, it takes a lot of these minds put together to really figure out how clouds are going to affect the entire Earth.

And you know, as you pointed out, they affect things like rainfall. They affect things like the Earth's temperature. They reflect sunlight back outside of the Earth and also trap heat in. So all of these attributes, the number of complicated things going on there.

And it's going to take all the scientists that are currently working on this problem to really figure out how clouds will affect Earth's climate well into the future and even 10 years from now, let's say.

RAJPAL: All right. Carl, we thank you very much for that and for sharing your article with us, Carl Franzen there from "The Verge." We appreciate your time.

FRANZEN: Thanks, Monita.

RAJPAL: Well, from clouds to coral, all this week, we've been bringing you a unique look at the Great Barrier Reef. Today, CNN special correspondent Philippe Cousteau shows us the social media side of this important science project.

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PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So what have we got here? What's going on?

RICHARD VEVERS, PROJECT DIRECTOR, CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY: We're just taking the camera out from the last dive and then download the images straight onto the computer. And then normally we can get the images that we've taken on the dive up within the hour, up on the Internet.

So we've got our social media pages and we've got over (inaudible) 7 million at the moment. And we'd just like to keep people updated on what we're doing.

COUSTEAU: This is pretty radical from the perspective of science and research to be having this much of a consistent and immediate online presence.

VEVERS: Yes, and we wanted -- I mean, that is an essential part of the Catlin Seaview Survey. It's really about trying to communicate with science as much as doing the science itself.

COUSTEAU: There's a greater purpose than just showing pretty pictures of fish to this endeavor to try and help people understand what's at risk here.

VEVERS: Absolutely. The pretty pictures of the fish are really to start getting people engaged in the first place. Then we want to take people on the journey with us. So they actually get involved in the science. So we explain the science, but then try to get them involved in the analysis of the data so they really understand what's going on in the oceans.

COUSTEAU (voice-over): A partnership with Google allows the survey team to bring the company's Street View technology underwater, giving anyone with Internet access the chance to go on a virtual dive at many of the survey sites. Vevers says he had doubts that the scientific community would embrace this form of instant outreach.

VEVERS: Well, I thought there would be a lot of resistance to what we're trying to do. But universally I -- well, I haven't had one negative comment from any scientist. And we've been talking to hundreds about this project. I think every scientist we've spoken to realizes there's a need for science to be communicated extremely well. And this project allows so many scientists to do exactly that.

COUSTEAU: Do you fear that that type of outreach might interfere with the serious science that's going on?

OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG, LEAD SCIENTIST: We're showing them the evidence, showing the methodology, showing the sort of philosophy of science. And I think that's an important experience in itself. But you're right. I mean we can do so much more in taking the raw, unpolluted evidence and communicating it to the places where it needs to go.

And I think the Catlin Seaview Survey does that in a way which is very unique. It's certainly unique from my experience. And that's one of the reasons why I'm quite hopeful about how much impact it will have. So to me, that's why this is exciting. I mean, before, it's like, well, you do a science project; you get a press release; you get a paper. And that's the end of it.

For me, this is a global problem. And it's going to involve billions of people understanding the problem.

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RAJPAL (voice-over): Philippe Cousteau, taking you underwater and above it for a unique perspective on how coral reefs impact the world's oceans and all of us as well. It's a CNN special, "Going Green: Oceans." See it Friday night at 11:30 here in Hong Kong. That's 3:30 in the afternoon for you in London.

Ahead here on NEWS STREAM, it couldn't last forever, folks. The Chicago Bulls stomped out the Miami Heat's winning streak. We'll have more on that, much more, in our "WORLD SPORT" update.

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RAJPAL: Recently we've been talking about the heightened tensions between North and South Korea. People who live on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong takes threats from the North very seriously. It was attacked by the North 21/2 years ago. Matthew Chance takes us to a place built to remember the events of that day.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, no wonder there's so much concern at this happening again. This, of course, is an animated reconstruction of this island's heavy artillery bombardment by North Korean forces in 2010. You can see it was an unprovoked attack that took residents here by surprise.

But as you can see, in true South Korean fashion, they've built this huge high-tech museum dedicated to what they call their day of terror. There's even a holographic display here that reconstructs events as (inaudible).

This is a North Korean rocket or what's left of it that's been preserved at near the buildings where rockets like it struck, causing all this utter devastation.

They've been preserved here outside the museum as part of a sort of memorial to the four South Koreans who were killed in that North Korean attack and also as a symbol of the kind of danger that North Korea continues to pose to this island and to this community.

Well, this being on Yeonpyeong is, of course, much more than just a museum. You come down into the basement; you can see these big, thick metal doors and these huge thick concrete walls. This is the basement exhibition space. And you can see it shows photographs and various bits of military equipment over here, like gas masks.

But of course it also doubles as a bunker. So if there is another North Korean attack here, the people of Yeonpyeong can find shelter amid the trauma of their recent past -- Matthew Chance, CNN, on Yeonpyeong Island.

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RAJPAL: Switching gears now, their form has been as hot as their name, but after a record run, there's eventually been a cooldown for the Miami Heat. "WORLD SPORT's" Alex Thomas brings us those details.

Hi, Alex.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Monita, yes. It was not only the NBA's second best streak, but also the second longest winning run in American sporting history. But after 27 victories in a row, the Miami Heat has tasted defeat for the first time since February the 1st.

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THOMAS (voice-over): With Dwyane Wade back from injury on Wednesday night, the Heat had a chance of extending the streak to 28 games, but were up against the mighty Chicago Bulls, a proud team of long-term rivals, (inaudible) top scoring for the home team with 28 points.

It met Miami, not for the first time in recent weeks, had to launch a desperate comeback. As always, led by LeBron James who racked up a game high of 32 points with seven assists. (Inaudible) 13 points down at one stage, (Inaudible) Mario Chalmers (ph) putting the Heat in the lead with a layup in the third.

However, King James wasn't getting things all his own way and his frustration spilled over when he shouldered Carlos Boozer (ph) late in the fourth. LeBron arguing that it wasn't a clear foul.

The ball started pulling away again, outscoring the Heat in the dying seconds, late Robinson missing the three but Boozer's there for the rebound layup over LeBron and Chicago eventually clinched a 101-97 point win, six games short of the Lakers' 41-year-old record. Miami's streak is over.

DWYANE WADE, NBA CHAMPION: It's the game, man, you know, we didn't -- like I said, when we playing, we playing. We playing to win.

Every game (inaudible) win a game. And I think that's all the (inaudible) about, just a team that, you know, is doing what we supposed to do, what we always done since we was kids, which is every time we step on the court, we shot a winner ballgame.

It really didn't matter to us, man. I mean, if you get it, it's awesome. If you don't, I mean, we still -- we won 27 games in a row. I mean, that's pretty awesome. So you know, really, we really wasn't (inaudible) we got to get that record? Not at all. So you know, now that it's over, I'm glad it's over.

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THOMAS: FIFA says it'll wait for all the post-match reports before deciding whether or not to pushing Uruguay striker Louis Suarez (ph) for an alleged punch. Television footage of Tuesday's World Cup qualifying match in Santiago appears to show the Liverpool striker hitting a Chile defender in the face. Suarez is already suspended for Uruguay's next game away to Venezuela in June.

Now with less than a week before UEFA's Champions League resumes "CNN FC," our weekly football show, is the place to be. Pedro and his (inaudible) to answer your questions and debate, among other things, whether Juventus could be the most underrated side in the competition. That's all in just over four hours' time.

Now a controversial big hitting New Zealand batsman, Jesse Ryder (ph), is fighting for his life in hospital after being attacked outside a bar in Christchurch. The assault happened just days before the 28-year-old cricketer was due to fly to India to compete in the country's lucrative Premier League.

Police describe the attack as extremely vicious and Ryder's been put in a medically induced coma to recover from multiple injuries, including a fractured skull. He hasn't played for New Zealand for a year after taking a break from the international game to sort out what he called some personal issues.

That's all the sport for now. Back to you in Hong Kong, Monita.

RAJPAL: All right, Alex. Thank you very much for that.

And before we go, we want to bring you an extreme case of lost and found. Lindsay Scallan's (ph) underwater camera slipped off her wrist during a dive in Hawaii and she had lost all hope of ever finding it. But five years later, it resurfaced all the way in Taiwan. It traveled nearly 10,000 kilometers across the Pacific Ocean before washing ashore.

The camera was destroyed, but the memory card was intact. And the two men who found it, well, they work for China Airlines. The company created this Facebook page looking for the camera's owner. Two days later, one of Scallan's friends identified her.

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LINDSAY SCALLAN, CAMERA OWNER: So he sent me a message on Facebook, and I was just floored that, oh, my goodness, these are my pictures. And it brought back a lot of memories of things that we had done there that I had forgotten about.

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RAJPAL: Now China Airlines has offered Scallan a free flight to Taiwan to reclaim her long-lost camera. But she's not sure she can get time off from her new job.

All righty. That is NEWS STREAM. I'm Monita Rajpal. The news continues here at CNN. "WORLD BUSINESS TODAY" is next.

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