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NEWS STREAM

Search Underway For Mysterious Tsarnaev Contact Misha; Borussia Dortmund Thumps Real Madrid 4-1; Vladimir Putin Calls For Greater Cooperation With U.S.; CNN Money Reviews Galaxy S4; George W. Bush Presidential Library Dedicated Today

Aired April 25, 2013 - 08:00   ET

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


KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now investigators comb the background of the brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bombings as the suspects' parents speak out.

In the wake of the attacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for more cooperation with the United States to fight terror.

And we get a review of the world's biggest handset makers' flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S4.

We begin with the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings. The parents of the two brothers accused in the attack have just wrapped up an emotional news conference from their home in the Russian Republic of Dagestan.

Now the suspects' mother Zubeidat Tsarnaev is telling CNN that she believes the bombings were staged and fake. Now meanwhile, we have learned that Russia asked the United States twice to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother who died in the police manhunt following the attacks.

Now President Vladimir Putin says that the bombings highlight the need for closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

Now FBI agents were in Dagestan investigating the brothers' background. And so, too, is Nick Paton Walsh who joins us now live from Makhachkala. And Nick, what did the mother tell you about the brothers?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first off I think the thing that struck us the most was she accepted that her son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a -- embraced a devout form of the Muslim faith, in fact even asked her to cover up her hair at one point as the whole family kind of turned in that direction.

She also said to me quite clearly that the FBI had been to visit her son, Tamerlan, in 2011 to talk to him, to tell him, you know, basically say they were watching him, they were concerned about what they said was his radical nature of his faith. Let's hear what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZUBEIDAT TSARNAEV, TAMERLAN'S MOTHER: They said that they just think that Tamerlan is a kind of little in radical side of Islam and they just don't want -- like, they are keeping their eye on, you know, the boys, like young boys like Tamerlan, so any bombing, any like (inaudible) won't happen in America on the streets, like on the streets.

WALSH: Said we're going to be watching you. They said that.

TSARNAEV: Well, they said that we watch boys like Tamerlan and they (inaudible) nothing wrong with it, we just want you and all be safe. So, yes, they were watching him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: She also gave a bit of an insight as to how this change may have occurred. A man called Misha (ph) a family friend in Houston, friends of the family, of Armenian descent who converted to Islam, kept coming to the home. She considered him a great guy, you know, just pure in terms of what he made them -- the path he made them follow towards Islam. And I think she accepts this is where the family began to shift broadly in that direction, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And we'll be learning more about Misha (ph) in an upcoming report right here within the hour on News Stream.

While we have you, Nick, the denial: does the mother of the suspects, does she still deny that her sons were behind the bombings?

WALSH: Yes, in a word. In fact, she even believes that pictures from the manhunt earlier on that particularly evening where Tamerlan was shot by police, pictures which show a man stripped of his clothes being put into a police car, that they actually show her son. She believes he was taken alive and then is unclear as to how he may have ended up dead later on. But she does now accept he is dead.

So a woman, I think, really struggling to reconcile the vision of her angelic sons, in her mind, and that that's being put before her repeatedly through the media by U.S. officials. A deeply traumatic time for her indeed, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Nick Paton Walsh joining us live from Makhachkala. Thank you very much, indeed.

Now as authorities look into the suspects' backgrounds and who may have shaped their views, some relatives say a man they call Misha (ph) discussed Islam with Tamerlan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSARNAEV: Misha, everybody is talking about Misha now. I don't know, Misha -- yes, Misha -- when Misha visited us, we just kind of -- he just opened our eyes, you know, really wide about Islam. He was really -- he's devoted and he's very good, very nice man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: So he opened our eyes. But who is Misha? Now Brian Todd rounds up what we know about him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Family members now describe a mysterious man who they say had a mesmerizing influence on Tamerlan Tsarnaev. They only know him as Misha. They say they don't know his full name.

Here's how the suspects' uncle described the man and his influence on the older brother in an interview with CNN.

RUSLAN TSARNI, TSARNAEV BROTHERS' UNCLE: There's a person, there's some new convert into Islam of some Armenian descent. And he said this person he just he took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely. Tamerlan is off now. There is no even any obedience and respect to his own father. That concerned me big-time. Unbelievably.

TODD: More pieces fit together in a telephone interview Wolf Blitzer did with the ex-brother-in-law of the two suspects. Elmirza Khozhgov said he'd met Misha twice, been introduced to him by Tamerlan. Kozhgov said he didn't witness Misha actually turning Tamerlan into a radical Islamist, but...

ELMIRZA KHOZHGOV, SUSPECTS' FORMER BRITHER-IN-LAW: He surely did have influrnce and did teach him things that would make Tamerlan go away from the people and go more into the religion. And maybe, maybe that's possible that he suggested to him some radical ideas.

TODD: Khozhgov said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had told him he'd quit boxing and listening to mainstream music, because MIsha taught him that in Islam it's not good to do those things. Asked if he suspected that Misha was connected to any terrorist groups.

KHOZHGOV: I didn't suspect either him or Tamerlan being connected to terror groups or having terrorist ideas, but I know that they had a lot of conversations about just, you know, Islam and how Islam is being attacked from the outside, you know, from the western countries and how Islam is under pressure.

TODD: Asked when Tamerlan became a more devout Muslim, the ex- brother-in-law and the uncle both say they noticed it about four years ago. We searched for Misha, using the internet, a search database and social media, cross referencing his name with descriptions of him. One name did come up. We scoured matching addresses in the Boston area, phone numbers and emails. We couldn't find him, so we're not mentioning his name.

Has Misha ever been connected with the Islamic Society of Boston, the mosque the two suspects attended? I put that question to mosque spokesman Yusufi Vali.

Is there such a person in this congregation? And do you think that could -- there could be anything to that?

YUSUFI VALI, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF BOSTON SPOKESMAN: Not to our knowledge, not to our knowledge.

TODD: And another mosque official told me, quote, we are looking for him, too. They say they want to find Misha as much as anyone else right now.

Brian Todd, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now as the search for answers goes on, so too, does the mourning. Boylston Street is now open again. And on Wednesday, some victims made an emotional return to the scene of Monday's terror. And while in Cambridge, several thousand mourners gathered at MIT to pay their respects to campus police officer Sean Collier who was killed on Thursday night.

U.S. vice president Joe Biden said that terrorists will never prevail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: They can never defeat us, whether it's al Qaeda central out of the fatah (ph), or two twisted, perverted cowardly knock-off jihadis here in Boston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: But could the U.S. government have done more to stop these attacks. That's a question some Americans are asking. Joe Johns has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Tamerlan Tsarnaev left the U.S. for Russia in January 2012, the Department of Homeland Security took note. His name was included in the Customs and Border Protection System called TECS, which is supposed to detect unusual or suspicious travel, but other agencies knew about him as well. The now dead Boston bomber was also included in the FBI's enormous terrorism screening database, a half million names of known or suspected terrorists. And the CIA asked to include him in the national counterterrorism centers terrorist identities datamart environment, also known as TIDE, similar to the FBI list and updated several times a day with much more specific information.

KEVIN BROCK, FORMER FBI AND NCTC OFFICIAL: This is a big database that captures any known or suspected individuals who might have some type of connection to terrorist activity around the world, frankly.

JOHNS: So, shouldn't Tsarnaev's travel have raised more alarms? Intelligence and law enforcement officials tell CNN Tsarnaev was included in 2011, because Russia had raised the possibility he was tied to extremists. But three months later, having interviewed him, his family, and looking at some of his online activities, the U.S. did not see a threat and cleared him.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There was no derogatory information, no indication of terrorist activity or associations either foreign or domestic at that time.

JOHNS: And that's the reason Tsarnaev's name was not placed on any list that could actually have stopped him from flying when he left the U.S. for Russia last year.

The other million dollar question is how the guy ends up coming back into the country and no alerts.

BROCK: It's not necessarily the case that somebody who travels based on an FBI investigation that found nothing is going to be in the system and alerting.

JOHNS: Officials say by the time he returned, having been cleared by the FBI, the system was no longer required to notify about his travels.

A U.S. intelligence official said the CIA was given different spellings of Tsarnaev's name and multiple birth dates. All that information was put into databases and shared with various government agencies.

Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Many unanswered questions.

Now up next in Bangladesh, people are still trapped under the rubble of a building that collapsed on Wednesday in the capital Dhaka. And coming up, we'll have the very latest on the search for survivors.

And as Texas prepares to honor the victims of last week's explosion and fire at a fertilizer plant, we'll take a closer look at the damage.

And Russia's president speaks to the people in the live televised call-in session. We'll tell you about the questions and answers ahead right here on News Stream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream.

And this right here is a visual rundown of all the stories we're covering on the show today. We've gone through the latest in the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing. And later, we'll take you to Spain and show you the impact of high unemployment.

But now we go to Bangladesh where rescue workers are still hoping to find survivors beneath the rubble of a factory building that collapsed on Wednesday. 199 people are now confirmed dead, more than 1,000 are injured. And there are growing questions about the construction of the building and what happened shortly before it collapsed.

Now Sumnima Udas is following developments for us. She joins us now live from New Delhi. And Sumnima, I mean this desperate search for survivors goes on. What is the latest?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie, scenes of complete desperation on the outskirts of Dhaka so that building collapse. It's been about 32 hours since that building collapsed and rescue workers are still on the ground trying to pull out as many survivors as they can. Some of the eyewitnesses have been saying that they can still hear people screaming from underneath the rubble, but the rescue workers have not been able to get to many of them.

Now right now authorities are saying more than 190 people -- 99 people have died, about 1,400 people have been rescued, many of them badly injured, and many, many others are still trapped underneath that rubble.

Now authorities are not saying exactly how many are still trapped, but the Garment Association of Bangladesh has said that normally 2,500 workers would be working inside that building.

LU STOUT: You know, it is just so chilling to hear of the screams underneath the rubble.

Sumnima, what caused the building to collapse?

UDAS: Kristie, authorities are still not saying what exactly caused this building to collapse, but on Tuesday some of the people -- some of the workers who did survive say that they saw massive cracks on the seventh floor of the building. They were told on Tuesday by the management not to come to work on Wednesday, but on Wednesday the building management -- the owners actually of some of the factories said the building was OK and safe to work, so the workers showed up around 8:00 am that morning. And around 9:00 am, an hour later, the building just started crumbling -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: And this is just reviving safety concerns in Bangladesh. It comes just months after that garment factory fire in the country. I mean, change is desperately needed here, but will there be change?

UDAS: That's exactly the question many people are asking. And that's what I was talking to a garment manufacturer and an analyst in Bangladesh earlier about that. And he was saying that this industry is just so big in Bangladesh, it's so influential, that the government simply does not get involved.

Remember, Bangladesh is just second to China when it comes to the export of clothing. This employs millions of people in Bangladesh. And the reason there's still so many issues in terms of safety standards is that a lot of these global brands like your Primark and your Wal-Mart who import from Bangladesh, whose source their clothing from these factories in Bangladesh, they of course are looking to pay as little as possible. And these factories say that they have to cut costs somewhere. And often times safety standards are the first ting they overlook.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and very sad to hear that. I mean, this is just such a terrible disaster and one that should never be repeated.

Sumnima Udas on the story for us. Thank you very much indeed.

Now the town of West in Texas is still searching for the cause of last week's explosion at a fertilizer plant. Now first responders bore the brunt of the blast. It killed nearly one-third of the town's volunteer force. As you can see, firefighters from neighboring communities are filling the void. A memorial will be held later on Thursday for the 14 people who died. And U.S. President Barack Obama will speak at the service.

Now the blast, it was so strong, it flattened this apartment complex. And it was next to the fertilizer plant, right behind the playground right here. And the rubble, it's all that remains.

As Ed Lavandera tells us, investigators hope it holds answers to why this tragedy occurred.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bomb went off inside here. It's pretty bad. We've got a lot of firemen down.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Captured from firefighter radio transmissions, those were the frantic moments just after the West, Texas explosion sent a deadly shockwave through this central Texas town. This is the first up close look at the blast site.

(on camera): This is the blast site here. You can see the crater, which is 93 feet wide, 10 feet deep. And that was part of one of the buildings that was on the ground here.

(voice-over): Investigators say they still don't know what caused the fire or what triggered the explosion about 20 minutes after firefighters were called to the scene.

ROBERT CHAMPION, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: It's like putting a puzzle pieces together, reenacting that fire to see what transpired to cause the explosion.

The damage is so extensive that state and federal investigators are using shovels to sift through the debris, looking for clues to what ignited the fire that led to the explosion.

KELLY KISTNER, ASST. TEXAS FIRE MARSHAL: It could be remains of the buildings. It could be electrical components. It could be fertilizer remains if that's what we're looking at, chemical remains. It could be the way that the material was stored, they may be able to find containers, pieces of containers. There is a whole list of things that they'll be looking for.

LAVANDERA: This is an aerial picture of the fertilizer facility before the explosion. This part of the building is where the explosion erupted. This is the site after the blast, the twisted and charred remnants of two fire trucks are still at the scene.

(on camera): You can see the charred remains of a second building that was on this site. And between these two buildings, we're told is where many of the firefighters and EMS teams that were killed in this explosion were working at the time of the explosion.

LOUISE MILLS, VICTIM'S SISTER: It's killing me, it's killing me bad inside. I just want some answers.

LAVANDERA: Louise Mills is still waiting for investigators to identify her brother's remains. 41-year-old Morris Bridges (ph) was the father of three children. He joined the West volunteer fire department three years ago. He was one of the first people on the scene.

(on camera): So you just pray he didn't suffer?

MILLS: Yes. I do. Every day. I know he didn't suffer. I know he didn't. We're suffering. We want him back.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Louise Mills says her brother loved wearing his bright red firefighter's shirt and showing off his volunteer firefighter badge. For Morris Bridges (ph), jumping into harm's way is how you earn the firefighter's badge of honor.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, West, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now in Syria, the civil war has destroyed yet another historical treasure. A minaret in Aleppo that has stood for almost 1,000 years appears to be gone. Now this is a video that we believe was shot last month of the city's ancient Umayyed Mosque. And you can see on the right, the minaret is still standing. And on Wednesday, this, it's just not there anymore.

Now the Syrian government says the minaret was blown up by terrorists amid the regime's code word for rebels. Now the rebels deny that. They say government tank fire knocked it down.

Now the mosque had already been damaged in the fighting in recent months. In fact, this video was taken late last year, but now this minaret, it appears to be completely gone, a piece of Aleppo's skyline, an irreplaceable piece of history, wiped off the map.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still ahead, we have a sports update for you. Germany's dominance in the Champion's League continued as Real Madrid were humbled. Amanda Davies will join me with more on that and more. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Just check out that view here in Hong Kong, a stunning cloud effect above Victoria Harbor. I've never seen something like that before.

You're back watching News Stream.

Now we have another Champion's League semifinal, another German team with a convincing win over Spanish opposition.

Amanda Davies joins us from London with more -- Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kristie, it really has been an incredible week. And it was a case of anything Bayern Munich could do their Bundesliga counterparts Borussia Dortmund were determined to show that they could do it too. And they really did it in style against Real Madrid in their Champion's League semifinal first leg after Bayern's 4-0 drubbing of Barca on Tuesday, 4-1 it finished in Dortmund with Polish striker Robert Lewandowski scoring all four goals for Juergen Klopp's side. It's the first time Dortmund have made the semifinals for 16 years. And they're now in a great position heading into next week's second leg in Spain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUERGEN KLOPP, BORUSSIA DORTMUND MANAGER (through translator): This was an extraordinary match for us against a fantastic club. We have now won the first leg and we are perfectly clear that this is not yet decided. We are going there and we'll have to give it our best to hold against the storm, which can now be expected. We don't feel like the favorites, but rather a justified semifinal participant.

JOSE MOURINHO, REAL MADRID MANAGER (through translator): Everything is possible in football. They will have to fight and get the most out of themselves next Tuesday to try to make the impossible possible in Madrid. Again, everything is possible in football. And my players will perform accordingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Away from football, the trainer implicated in horse racing's biggest doping scandal in recent history faces his disciplinary panel on Thursday. Mahmoud al-Zarooni is appearing at a British Horse racing Authority inquiry in London after 11 horses at the famous Godolphin stables tested positive for anabolic steroids. Al-Zarooni admitted on Monday to what he described as a catastrophic mistake and faces a maximum ban from the sport of 10 years.

BHA doping inspectors turned up unannounced at his yard in April 9 and detected steroids in 11 of the 45 samples taken.

The Godolphin owner and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashi al- Maktoum has put the stables on lockdown until they're certain that it's clean. He has spoken of his anger at the discovery and insists there is no excuse.

Coach Mike D'Antoni has called for his side to be more efficient after the L.A. Lakers went 2-0 down in their NBA playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. Dwight Howard and the Lakers went into the game not only without Kobe Bryant, but also missing Jodie Meeks after an ankle sprain game one.

Howard was trying to keep his side in it here in the second quarter on his way to 16 points and nine rebounds, but there were too many mistakes from the Lakers. This, one of their 13 turnovers as Kawhi Leonard took advantage for the Spurs.

Manu Ginobili starting game one, and here helped the Spurs to an eight point advantage at half-time.

And Tony Parker extended that lead. He was on fire in the second half finishing 24 of his 28 points, his biggest haul, in fact, for 15 games as he led all scorers. It finished 102-91 for the Spurs to give them a 2-0 lead in the best of seven series heading into game three in Los Angeles on Friday.

And of course, Kristie, it's Thursday and that means it's CNN FC day. It promises to be a great one this week with so much to talk about. And it's Brad Friedel joining Pedro and the team in the sudio this week. They're on air at 5:00 pm London time.

And of course it's your cue to get involved and have your say as well via our CNN FC page on Facebook and Twitter.

That's it from me for now.

LU STOUT: All right, Amanada Davies there, thank you so much. Take care.

Now coming up right here on News Stream, who knew what and when? The information that Russia shared with the U.S. about one of the alleged Boston bombers is under scrutiny. And President Putin wants closer cooperation between intelligence services. We'll go live to Moscow for the latest.

And the new Samsung Galaxy 4S. We'll look how it compares with its predecessor and other smartphones on the market.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

Now rescue workers are still trying to pull survivors from the rubble of the building that collapsed Wednesday in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. Thousands of people were working inside when the accident happened. 199 people have been confirmed dead, more than 1,000 are injured.

Now South Korea has reached out to Pyongyang to offer talks about restarting operations at the Kaesong factory complex. It says North Korea has until noon on Friday to accept or there will be what it calls grave consequences. Now Kaesong is a jointly operated site where staff from the North and South work together.

Now Reuters says it has identified the underlying reason why thousands of dead pigs were dumped in a Shanghai river last month. The news agency says its analysis points to overcrowding on pig farms in the area. Now Chinese media have already blamed crude raising techniques and extreme weather for killing large numbers of pigs. It says most corpses were disposed of safely.

Now the mother of the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombings tells CNN she believes the bombings were staged and fake. Her husband is expected to travel from Russia to Boston soon. But he says that U.S. officials have told him that he will not be allowed to see his surviving son who remains wounded in the hospital.

Now Russian President Vladimir Putin held a live televised call-in session with the public today. And CNN's Phil Black was monitoring the event. He joins us now live.

And Phil, this call-in closely watched in Russia and around the world, in particular comments about the Boston bombing investigation.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie. This Q&A session has been going for four-and-a-half hours now, and has covered a lot of different territory, much of it the domestic concern. But in there, there were also a few comments about the Boston situation. And what we heard from Vladimir Putin wasn't quite, "we told you so," but perhaps more, "we warned you so."

Putin spoke about the fact that he has long warned about the threat of international terrorism emanating from within Russia itself. He said that Russia was one of the very first victims of international terrorism. And he accused what he described as western partners of offering support both direct and indirect to Russian terrorists and accuse them of often referring to them as freedom fighters instead of terrorists. And he said he has long told them that instead of this sort of support and making general statements that western security forces should work more closely with Russia's own.

And to quote Putin today, he said, "now these two criminals confirmed that we were right."

It is true that Vladimir Putin has long been seeking to get greater international credibility, perhaps legitimacy for Russia's efforts to stamp down on Islamist militants within the North Caucuses region. Here's a little bit more of what he had to say on this today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The tragedy should motivate us to work together in addressing common challenges and threats. And terrorism is one of the main threats today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: So he wants greater cooperation from now on. And he said that very clearly. He said that a few times lately. But what he still hasn't commented on is the degree of cooperation that existed leading up to the Boston attacks, specifically in that period in 2011 where we know, according to the FBI, that Russia's efforts, be it internal security service, turned to the FBI and asked them to look into the elder of the two bombing suspects, because they were concerned about the fact that he had become radicalized.

The FBI says the information they were provided with at the time was very vague, non-specific. And Russia has still not given away any detail on precisely what it knew, what it had on Tamerlan Tsarnaev, why he showed up on their radar at all as a potential Islamist threat.

We've spoken to the FSB, Russia's internal security service. They've asked us to put our questions in writing and they'll get back to us perhaps, maybe. It's not really a surprise, because this is a very secretive organization. It is the successor to the famous Soviet secret police the KGB. And so at the moment they're feeling no need whatsoever to divulge publicly precisely what they knew about this bombing suspect, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And this call for greater cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in the wake of Boston, it takes place at this annual phone-in session.

Can you tell us about the event itself, because it was slickly produced. It looks like a talk show. This is Kremlin propaganda at work. What is its purpose. And how many Russians actually tune in?

BLACK: It is a heavily produced piece of work that generally takes place within Russia once every year or so, or thereabouts. This is pretty much annual. This is the 11th time he has done this. The first was back in 2011 during his -- sorry, 2001 I should say, during his first presidential term. He's done it almost every year as first two terms as president, during his four years as prime minister, and now this is the first one to take place since Vladimir Putin has returned to the presidency for a third term.

The way it works is questions are submitted supposedly from all over Russia from -- by phone, internet and so forth. In this case, the organizers say they've literally received millions and millions of questions from across Russia.

It is very slickly produced. And the content covers a very wide range of politics, lifestyle, social factors, but also as we've been hearing, international affairs as well.

And they are notoriously long. Vladimir Putin, I believe, is still going. And he is approaching what would have to -- what I'm pretty sure is the record for these appearances, which is a little over four-and-a-half hours of talking there, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Breaking another record for Vladimir Putin.

Phil Black joining us live from Moscow, thank you.

Let's take you now to Spain, which is marking a record it certainly is not proud of. Unemployment soared to 27.2 percent in the first quarter of the year. And you compare that to neighboring countries where unemployment ranges from just over 5 percent in Germany to about 11.5 percent in Italy.

Now Spain's numbers are comparable to those in Greece, the first EuroZone country to seek a bailout back in 2010. Its unemployment rate last reported in January is 27.2 percent.

Now in Spain, that percentage translates into 6.2 million people who are out of work.

Now Al Goodman caught up with one man who is trying to keep his head above water.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He used to be a champion dart thrower in Spain and he competed internationally, but this day Jose Maria Baquero (ph) seeks advice from his union. He was laid off from his factory job nearly two years ago, his benefits almost finished.

"I thought I would never have a problem working," he says. "But this situation hit me and a lot of other people, too."

Baquero (ph) is from Avila, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with an unemployment rate around 26 percent. He takes us out of old town to an industrial park many factories closed.

He worked here 10 years making automobile wiring.

"I thought I'd be here forever," he says."

But the production line moved to North Africa.

Next, he spent five years at this factory. It also left town.

Since then, he's worked just a few months filling in as a security guard at this housing complex.

This wall was built centuries ago to protect Avila from any harm. But today's threats are very different, overwhelming many of the town's residents. Like these protesters, they invested their life savings in shares at this bank, which sunk into debt in the economic crisis. They're trying to get their money back. The bank says it's trying to work with arbitrators for a solution.

Baquero (ph) has nothing to invest. He didn't even stop for a closer look. He lives with his parents and a brother who is also jobless.

Tourism is now the main industry in Avila, but it doesn't pay everyone's bills.

"City hall is more worried about people coming to see the wall," he says, "than with attracting employers."

Back at the bar, Baquero vows not to be picky.

"The first job I get will be the good one," he says.

With such fierce competition, he knows in order to get another job, he need to hit a bull's eye.

All Goodman, CNN, Avila, Spain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, Samsung's new Galaxy. The S4 is the latest generation of the Android smartphone, but is it everything it's been hyped up to be? Well, CNN Money's Adrian Covert weighs the pros and the cons next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream.

And let's go back to our visual rundown of the show. Now we will soon talk about George W. Bush's presidential library in a few minutes, but first it's time to get a review of Samsung's latest flagship phone. Now the Galaxy S4 is the followup to one of the most successful Android phones of all time. It's predecessor sold 50 million handsets worldwide. In fact, the S3 was hailed as one of the best Android phones of its time. And many reviewers said it proved that Samsung could make a handset as good as the iPhone.

Let's get reaction now to the new handset from our own expert, CNN Money's Adrian Covert joins me now live from New York. Adrian, it's good to see you again. As just mentioned, the Galaxy S3, it was such a breakthrough last year for Samsung. How does the S4 compare?

ADRIAN COVERT, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it's an improvement in every single way. Is it enough of an improvement to warrant everybody ditching their S3s and going getting an S4? Maybe not. But there's in no aspect is the phone worse. The screen is better, the processor is better, the camera is definitely better, it's one of the best around. So, yeah, I mean, it's an improvement, but maybe not -- you know, a groundbreaking development that the S3 was.

LU STOUT: Got it. So an improvement, but not necessarily a big event for Samsung.

Now there's been a lot of hype about these natural interactions with the S4 like eye tracking, hovering gestures, et cetera. Do you like it? Or is it just very gimmicky to you?

COVERT: They're all gimmicks. You know, it's sometimes they're kind of interesting like, oh look at what technology can do, but really they're nothing that anybody is going to use in a natural manner. It's not easier than using your finger to scroll on a touch screen or, you know, do anything like that. So, you know, they're not useful.

LU STOUT: Yeah, I mean, it sounds kind of cool like pausing -- the video pauses when you look away. But, as you said, it's gimmicky, not really useful at the end of the day.

Now you've been using the phone regularly for I guess over a week now. So Adrian, from a user perspective, what did you really like about it and what did you just not like at all?

COVERT: I mean, you know, the hardware is really powerful. It's fast and fluid as you're going to find in an Android phone right now. You know, I really -- I really like the screen. You know, there are very few, you know, smartphone screens that are better. But, you know, I think what I didn't like were those software features. I think Samsung tried to sell those as, you know, the best new features of the phone and, you know, they should have focused on the core hardware. I think that's the best part of the phone.

LU STOUT: And a big question both Apple fans and also for Samsung, conversion, will the S4 convert an iPhone user and say I want to use this instead?

COVERT: No. I think, you know, everybody is settled in what they like. And if you like iPhone you're probably going to stick with iPhone. If you already like Android, you're probably going to stick with Android. And barring a huge mistake from either platform, I don't think there's going to be a huge conversion like that.

LU STOUT: OK. And what about Android users who may not be using Samsung -- HTC, other with smartphones, will they start looking at this and say this is the Android smartphone for me?

COVERT: It's possible, yeah. It comes down to preference. HTC, the hardware is a little bit nicer. The fit and finish, it's more quality. But Samsung, the actual internal components produce a little bit more speed and power. So it really depends on what people are looking for out of a phone.

LU STOUT: All right.

And when we look at the main smartphones, the major ones that have been released in the last year from the iPhone to the new Samsung Galaxy, the main criticism has been what we heard just from you just now that it's, you know, slight improvement, nothing really special here, not an eventful upgrade. So the question is, I mean, are smartphones now already so advanced that we have hit the plateau in development? What do you think?

COVERT: As far as hardware goes, yes. You're not going to see any major significant breakthroughs, you know, with the hardware I don't think. But what you're going to see is the operating system and, you know, software features improving and improving and improving. Samsung's, you know, software features may be not the best, but what Google and what Apple are going to do with their OS, improving things with voice search and contextual information and what not, I think that's where you're going to see the big breakthroughs in smartphones now.

LU STOUT: Very interesting stuff there.

Adrian Covert, CNNMoney.com. Thank you so much. Take care.

COVERT: Thank you.

LU STOUT: Now it looks like Microsoft will soon take the wraps off the new Xbox. The company put their message on their website saying that they will unveil a new generation of Xbox on May 21, that's almost three months after rival Sony announced their own new console the Playstation 4.

So what can we expect with the new Xbox? We don't know much yet, but one line of Microsoft's message stood out for us. Now they say it will mark, quote, the beginning of a new generation of games, TV, and entertainment. And that could be key that they're putting TV and entertainment almost on equal footing with games in the new Xbox. We'll know a lot more on May 21.

Now, here in Hong Kong, we had felt that earlier today this was the first proper day of summer, a lot of sunshine, feeling good, but now I see it's getting pretty stormy out there. Mari Ramos joins us now and tell us what's going on -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie, you know it was your warmest day so far this year. It hasn't been this warm in Hong Kong, it was over 31 degrees today, since October 6. So it's been quite awhile that you've had a proper summer day, to say the very least.

Let's look outside. Can we take a look? You mentioned earlier about how the clouds were kind of moving a little bit differently today. Well, now these were some very strong thunderstorms in part fueled by those very warm temperatures which are, by the way, about 5 degrees about the average for this time of year. But, the rain showers I think are going to stay with us for a little while right now.

Come back over to the weather map. This is from the Hong Kong observatory right from their web site and you can see right over here the rain and the storms kind of moving through. It was a pretty good line of storms that was coming along this area. And just in the last hour you've had, you know, between 30 and 40 millimeters of rainfall in Hong Kong proper and that's pretty significant.

That was a page kind of coming back refreshing itself.

So there you see it. That line of storms continuing to move on. So still overnight tonight some strong thunderstorms, not as strong as what you had earlier. And the strongest of the winds I think have now moved offshore. So a little bit of good news there.

But tomorrow, again, the possibility of some strong storms developing along this old frontal boundary here. And notice the strong storms also back over toward Vietnam, over -- all the way across southeast Asia.

Some of these are really going to dump some very heavy rain for you very, very quickly.

It's cooled off, though, 24 degrees, 28 in Hanoi, 17 in Shanghai and 14 in Beijing. Did you enjoy that blue sky day in Beijing? It would look a lot nicer with good air quality today. Those winds shifted to the north yesterday late in the evening. And it really helped clear things up. We'll see how it goes over the next couple of days.

So, anyway, high pressure in place over here. Winds out of the north. Conditions -- I should say winds out of the south, excuse me. And conditions begin to warm up across these areas. So we'll have to monitor the air quality up here in Beijing. And the heavy rain will move along this frontal boundary into the northern portions of Luzon and back over toward Taiwan. That will be the area to watch as we head into the weekend for the heavier rain.

And back over here -- so we talked about the east, right. There's Hong Kong over here. This area we've circled is the area where we had that strong earthquake earlier in the week. And, yeah, there's some rain here. And that's a concern.

Let's look at the pictures, because remember we've been talking about how the terrain is just so difficult to maneuver, almost straight lines when it comes to these mountains and then the villages and the cities down at the bottom.

Well, they've had dozens of landslides when the earthquake happened. And now with the rain they have even more. So they cleaned up the roads and now they have to clean them up again. And this is very difficult, because they have to get some relief supplies to the people who need it most. So this is still going to be a concern in the days and weeks to come.

And there you see the landslide. It's pretty difficult, indeed.

And the next piece of video that I want to show you is from Afghanistan. And they also had and earthquake. This one was yesterday, a 5.6 killed at least five people, injured about 100 people. They're trying to get relief supplies into this area as well.

Kristie, you see the construction there, not exactly -- you know, the best to kind of withstand this kind of activity. And then in other areas of Afghanistan, they've had some very heavy rain. In some cases, when we get northern Afghanistan all the way up into central Asia over 100 millimeters of rainfall.

So they still have a lot going on here, most of this northern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and then here into central Asia some heavy rain still possible again today.

So a lot going on. And that's Asia alone.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: One region alone, a lot going on. Mari Ramos across it all. Thank you so much indeed.

You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, it's an event that will bring together all living U.S. presidents. We'll explain the appeal of the presidential library.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now he is a leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation, but now Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has another distinction. As the website Tech in Asia points out SBY, as he is known, is the most followed Asian leader on Twitter. What you may find surprising is he only started his Twitter account 12 days ago. Since then, he's amassed nearly 1.6 million followers.

But SBY is still well behind the leader with the most Twitter followers in the world, that's U.S. President Barack Obama who has over 30 million followers.

Now from Superstorm Sandy to clashes in Cairo, iReporters have helped CNN cover some of the world's biggest stories by sending in their pictures and video. And now, we are honoring those contributions in the third annual CNN iReport awards.

We have chosen 36 nominees in six categories. So let's take a look at the hopefuls for the compelling imagery prize.

LU STOUT: Over the coming weeks, we'll be showcasing the nominees for the other categories. Now the winners will be chosen by a panel of CNN experts, but we need your help as well. Now to vote for the special community choice award and to find out more about the nominees, just go to CNNiReportawards.com.

Now five U.S. presidents are gathering under one roof. They're attending a ceremony for George W. Bush, also known as Number 43. Now here is a live look at his presidential library in Dallas, Texas. Now it has taken more than two years to build it. And the time since Mr. Bush left office, it seems Americans have developed a more favorable view of his presidency.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows that the number of people who believe his two terms were a failure has fallen significantly.

Now the presidential library dedication today spotlights key moments from those years. And here you see the moment that he learned of the 9/11 attacks. Its legacy also includes the Iraq invasion and the response to Hurricane Katrina. And Mr. Bush says history will ultimately judge him. And that's the point of these presidential libraries.

Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you're taking the kids they're thinking, excitement. But they probably should.

A presidential library is kind of a library, and kind of a museum, and kind of an archive, but mainly it's a living memorial to the chief executives of our country.

The first one came around in the late 1930s. Franklin Roosevelt who had been steaming along as president, he looked around his office and he said, I've got a lot of papers here. We've been dealing with the Great Depression. We need to do something with this record so people can see it later on.

Eventually congress got on board and said what we need to do is have a rule here. Basically the rule is that the president who is going out raises the money to build his presidential library and museum, or whatever he wants to call it, and then the taxpayers take over and basically pay for running it.

It's not a library in the sense that you wouldn't go and check out a copy of Black Beauty. The courts decided a long time ago we gave them a nice house, we gave them a nice job, we gave them a nice office, that stuff belongs to us, we get to see it. So with a few restrictions most of the official business of the White House that a president does -- the people he meets, conversations he has, everything that's recorded there winds up in these archives.

Presidential libraries do allow you to have a really up-close personal look at these presidents in some ways. You can't really see through the news. For example, I walked through Jimmy Carter's library once with Jimmy Carter and he stopped and talked about his Nobel Prize and how he felt when he got it.

Another time, I walked with the elder President Bush through his library down in College Station, Texas and we stopped at a replica of his office from Camp David. And he stood there and shook his head and he said it's exactly the way it was.

Presidential libraries are tourist attractions in that every town that has one advertises it. But they're also serving a more serious purpose. Think about this, there are hundreds of millions of documents and papers buried in these libraries and those are poured over on a weekly basis by historians and researchers who every now and then come up with new information that shed new light on how a decision was made or how a president thought.

If you get a chance to got to the White House and talk to the president, be careful what you say because one day it could wind up in a presidential library with everybody looking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Tom Foreman there.

Now sometimes it feels like everyone has a Kickstarter project. Now actor Zach Braff is the latest to use the crowd funding website to raise cash for a project. He wants $2 million for a new film. And it looks like he might just get it. He has raised $1.4 million in a single day. And it comes weeks after fans of the TV show Veronica Mars raised almost $6 million for a movie.

But it turns out that not every celebrity's Kickstarter project is a guaranteed moneymaker. In fact, the one time teen star Melissa Joan Hart launched her own project for a new movie called Darcy's Walk of Shame. She wants $2 million, but after two weeks she's got just $36,000. Ouch.

Now that is News Stream, but the news continues at CNN. World Business Today is next.

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