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Fukushima Tank Leak Reclassified Level 3 Disaster; Hundreds Killed In Apparent Chemical Attack; Bo Xilai Trial Update; Interview with Mark Zuckerberg; Ad Companies Tracking Your Every Move; Egyptian Court Demands Release Of Hosni Mubarak

Aired August 21, 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.

Now, as UN inspectors visit Syria, there are new claims that hundreds may have been killed by a chemical weapons attack.

Another crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan as workers try to slow a radioactive water leak.

And Mark Zuckerberg speaks to CNN about what he is working on next.

Now the Syrian government is flat-out denying opposition claims that it unleashed chemical weapons outside the capital on Wednesday. An opposition group says more than 650 people are dead from a poisonous gas attack in rebel strongholds near Damascus.

Now the government calls the claims, quote, "completely baseless."

Now graphic video posted online said to show victims of the purported attack. And we warn you, some viewers may find it very disturbing. Now CNN has not been able to verify the authenticity of these images.

Now Arwa Damon can tell us more about this video. Now she joins me live from our bureau in Beirut. And Arwa, what have you learned about this reported chemical weapons attack?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very murky information out there, Kristie. And a lot of those videos are actually too disturbing to even be shown. A lot of the victims extremely young, videos also emerging showing doctors trying to resuscitate some of the victims.

One doctor who I spoke to said that within an hour of this attack allegedly taking place, his one field clinic ran out of atropine. Another young medic who was something of a volunteer said that he went to the scene of one of these attacks and that he began to feel as if his vision was going blurry. He lost all sensation, feeling in his limbs. He says at one point he collapsed his symptoms lasting for around three hours. The opposition claiming that this was a chemical weapons attack, the death pool most certainly, according to various opposition sources, activist networks, in the hundreds.

And while this is not the first time that there have been allegations of chemical attacks in Syria, most certainly is the highest death toll from such an alleged attack that we have seen to date, Kristie. But again, very difficult to get accurate information.

LU STOUT: Yeah, very murky. But this disturbing video, the reports of the attack, they come as a UN team of chemical weapons experts are in Damascus. I mean, is this team talking. And can they look into this report?

DAMON: Yeah, the timing of the attack, because that UN team is there, is most certainly raising a lot of questions. Now they were tasked initially with finding out if a chemical attack had taken place, not necessarily who was responsible for it. Because if you'll remember there have been numerous allegations in the past, most notably an attack that took place in the northern province of Aleppo. That was one location they were supposed to be visiting there, not speaking to the media at this point.

We have tried reaching out to them. But one can only assume that they're going to be asking the Syrian government for access to visit the site of this most recent attack, potentially something that could prove to be quite challenging, given that it is in a rebel controlled area. It would require some sort of mediation. But it's hard to imagine that they would not be putting that kind of a request forward.

And in the event that they do, we'll have to see how the Syrian government does respond.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and can you tell us more about this area where this alleged attack took place? You said that it was a rebel controlled area, is that right?

DAMON: It's to the east of Damascus. It's fairly expansive. It involves a number of different neighborhoods of small villages. It's called Rhouta (ph), and it has been under the control of rebel fighting forces for quite some time now. It is one of those many shifting numerous front lines.

There have been various reports that, again, we cannot confirm, that the Syrian government was going to be trying to launch an offensive to take it back. And that rebel units in there were putting out requests for additional weapons, additional manpower, fearing this assault by Syrian government forces.

But it is one of the main rebel strongholds that is very, very close to the capital. In fact, some of the neighborhoods are effectively part of the capital itself. They are right on the outskirts.

And one of the neighborhoods where one of these alleged chemical attacks is said to have taken place is not too far from where those UN inspectors themselves are believed to be staying, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Arwa, thank you very much indeed for that context and analysis on this very disturbing report coming out of Syria this day.

Arwa Damon reporting live from Beirut. Thank you.

Now turning now to what is being billed as China's trial of the century. It's said to begin in a provincial courtroom on Thursday, far away from the center of Chinese political life. Now the former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai is accused of bribery, corruption, and abuse of power. His wife is serving a sentence for the murder of a British businessman whose killing set off a chain of events that led to the downfall of one of China's most ambitious men and the Communist Party's biggest scandal in years.

Now 64-year-old Bo Xilai has not been seen in public for over a year.

Now David McKenzie joins me now live from outside the courtroom in the eastern city of Jinan where the trial will be held. And David, can you tell us how the authorities there are gearing up for the Bo Xilai trial?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, they want to portray an image of control. The Communist Party controls the courts, controls the judges and the police in this country. They wouldn't even be taking this step to go to this trial, we believe, if they weren't sure that they wouldn't have any surprises.

Bo Xilai was an extremely charismatic politician, very powerful here in China, really Communist Party royalty. So in the court behind me, when he shows up tomorrow, it will be a seminal moment in modern political history here in China, no accident that it's happening here far away, as you mentioned, from his power base in Chongqing. When we went to Chongqing, we found an extraordinary level of support still for the man who ruled that city for four years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: On steamy summer nights in Chongqing, residents of southern city homes get outside for relief. It's an enormous government housing project, one of 200,000 residents, Wan Chin (ph) says she's always wanted her own place, now she can afford it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel very comfortable. I didn't have to spend any money on it. I feel great.

MCKENZIE: Wan (ph) pays less than a $100 a month in subsidized rent. She gives credit to disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): No matter how controversial Bo Xilai became with party leadership, it doesn't matter to us common people in Chongqing. He cared for us, it the only way I can put it, like a father caring for his children.

MCKENZIE: There's subsidized housing throughout China, but Bo did it on a breathtaking scale, impressing migrant entrepreneurs like hair dresser Li Goching (ph) with lower commercial rents, he hired staff and turned a profit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think, to be honest, Bo Xilai really helped with the improvement of our living standards. Chongqing is a great city to live in.

MCKENZIE: Bo Xilai's personal charm and populist touch won him many followers here in Chongqing and many friends abroad. But as his power grew, so did he attract powerful enemies.

Chief among them, the ruling Communist Party. They've banished Bo, banned any support for him in public, and muzzled positive press.

But loyalty runs deep in Chongqing, it seems.

"You can see all of the construction. He built all of these skyscrapers and projects," this man says, his friend agreeing.

"We think his policies were good."

Harassed by police, but this woman still wants to have a say.

"I hope that his trial will be carried out based on facts," she says. "And his contributions taking into account. It's not fair to only focus on his mistakes."

Many ordinary Chinese in Chongqing seem skeptical. They brush off Bo Xilai's alleged crimes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Nobody is perfect. When people began to compliment his accomplishments, there will always be those who get jealous.

MCKENZIE: Many here, like Wan Chin (ph) blame Bo's downfall on politics, part of the hidden world of party power far removed from what really matters in their lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: But what really matters for senior leadership, it seems in China, is to get this trial past them with the most -- or the least fuss possible. And through the day tomorrow, we'll be having this trial here in eastern China. And we believe it will be a very staged managed affair.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: Yeah, the party is looking forward to just pushing the issue out of the way and getting this over and done with.

Up to now, just how damaging has the Bo Xilai scandal been for the Chinese Communist Party?

MCKENZIE: It's been very damaging, Kristie. It's exposed deep rifts in the party, which generally works behind the scenes. As one author described it, the Communist Party is like god, it's everywhere, all powerful, but you don't generally see it. And it's there controlling the situation like the situation we're in today with this Bo Xilai -- who is considered to be a real shoe-in for the standing committee of the politburo at one point, the leading group of Chinese politicians.

This spectacular downfall means that he will vanish from public life, unclear what any sentencing will be. We probably won't, in fact, see sentencing at the trial. But certainly staged, managed affair. There might be surprises, a lot of rumors swirling around here in eastern China. What we do know from our sources is that some relatives of Bo Xilai might be present at that trial, and we might expect some kind of evidence being presented on behalf of Gu Kailai, his wife, who was of course convicted for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: And of course the trial begins tomorrow. It's great to have you there live in Jinan for us. David McKenzie joining us live from the eastern Chinese city. Thank you.

Now in the United States, we will soon learn the fate of the former intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, the soldier who was convicted last month of leaking thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Now a military judge is expected to sentence him in just over an hour from now.

Now the 25-year-old was acquitted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, avoiding a possible life sentence. Still, prosecutors are seeking at least 60 years behind bars.

Now you're watching news stream. And coming up, a radioactive water leak at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant raises the alert level. We'll tell you what officials are trying to do to contain the situation.

And in the Philippines, large areas are still underwater. Mari Ramos will bring us the latest on the situation there.

And we've got an exclusive interview with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg about his new initiative to bring the world online. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

You're watching News Stream. And you're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show today. In a few minutes, we'll bring you a special CNN interview with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

But now, we go to Japan and another crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Now workers from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TPCO, are furiously trying to stop tons of radioactive water from leaking.

Now the workers are in the process of transferring contaminated water from one leaking storage tank into another tank. And we recall that three reactions at the Fukushima plant went into meltdown after a powerful earthquake and tsunami back in 2011.

Now Japanese officials are now expected to issue their gravest warnings since that crisis, classifying the radioactive water leak as a level three.

So, what does that mean? Well, this is the International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear and radiological events scale, which is the international standard for categorizing such things. Level one is classified as an anomaly. Now the leak had previously been assigned this level in which the problem is considered minor.

At level three, is then classified as a serious incident. It means workers can be exposed to radiation that is more than 10 times the annual acceptable limit. And they could suffer non-fatal health effects, such as burns from the radiation. But there is still a low probability of significant public exposure.

Now the most severe level is seven, which is a major accident. It involves a major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects. Now there have only been two events classified as level seven, the nuclear crisis at Fukushima two years ago, and the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine back in 1986.

Now a little earlier, I spoke to Mark Willacy who is the Tokyo correspondent for ABC Australia. And I began by asking him what a level three warning would say about the plant's risk to the general public.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK WILLACY, ABC AUSTRALIA CORRESPONDENT: I would say that the risk is growing. We've had a situation there in Fukushima where we've seen leaks before. We understand this is the fourth incident involving a leak from a tank. None of those other leaks have been deemed worthy of being sort of cited as a radiological release event, as it's called on the international nuclear events scale. This one, though, is something out of the box. It's something that it basically involves radioactive substances that if you were to stand near it for any length of time, one of these puddles, then you would be in a little bit of trouble.

So from that perspective, Tepco, the operator, has obviously decided that it needed to report this incident. Japan's nuclear regulators have obviously decided it also needs to rate this incident on the international scale.

So from that perspective, it would give you an idea that things aren't going well at the plant. In fact, they seem to be deteriorating.

LU STOUT: You said it just then, Tepco has been dealing with leaks before. It's been struggling to manage the toxic water there. We know that 300 tons of this radioactive water has been leaked into the ocean, but do we know how long the water has been leaking and what kind of health threat does it pose?

WILLACY: Well, what we have is two sets of leaks here. We have a load of groundwater entering off a slope into the plant complex every day. What we have from that is 300 tons becoming contaminated. And that groundwater is then leeching into the Pacific.

Now this incident that is being reported today is from a tank on site at the plant. This is water that's probably been used to try and cool the melted reactors in this -- in the plant itself. And what that water has done, it's been sitting in these tanks for months and months and months. And they're leaking out. So this is a second front, if you like.

And what it's saying is that Tepco can not only handle the groundwater problem that it's struggling to deal with underneath the plant, but it also cannot control what's going on inside the tanks at the plant. There are about 1,000 of these tanks, each holding about 1,000 tons of contaminated water. And what they suggest is that some of these tanks may have fatal flaws in them.

LU STOUT: Thanks for pointing out that there are multiple leaks that have been taking place there at the affected plant.

A spokesperson of Tepco spoke to CNN earlier. She says that work is underway to stop the flow of toxic water in the tanks by transferring the water from the leaking tank to a new, non-leaking tank. Do you think that will do the job? Do you think that will be a permanent fix?

WILLACY: Well, I think the problem for Tepco is that these tanks were designed to last five years. Now it's been two-and-a-half years since the nuclear disaster. And obviously there's a problem with the design of these tanks or the material used in these tanks.

They key (inaudible) to earlier reports that the run of seals that bind these tanks together, there may be a problem with them, because that's how we understand that this water has leaked out, which means if there's a problem with one of these tanks, then the other 999 of them have to be checked.

It's a problem, because again these tanks are supposed to last five years. We are nowhere near there yet. We're only halfway to five years, so Tepco has got a big job on its hands to take all these tanks and to make sure that this leak isn't being replicated anywhere else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Mark Willacy speaking to me earlier about the rising danger level at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Now what about the water that has already leaked? Well, Tepco has proposed setting up a subterranean barrier, basically freezing the ground around the plant to block the radioactive water from seeping out any further. Now that would involve plunging thousands of tubes carrying a powerful coolant liquid into the ground.

Now it's never been done before on such a massive scale.

But one former nuclear plant operator and engineer told CNN that Tepco's options are rather limited. Now Michael Freelander (ph) said that it can either dump all radioactive water into the ocean or let it evaporate.

Now at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in 1979, Freelander (ph) says officials allowed contaminated water to evaporate. But the scale of that disaster, it was much smaller than the one at Fukushima.

Now he founded one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. And now Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg plans to get billions more people connected. We'll have his interview with CNN next on News Stream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now it is estimated that two-thirds of the world's population still does not have access to the Internet, but Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, he wants to change that. He has just announced an initiative to bring the entire world online. And he sat down with CNN's Chris Cuomo for this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you visit the Facebook campus, you get the sense that anything is possible.

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, FACEBOOK.COM: We want the campus to feel like a little -- a little city or village.

CUOMO: And now, Zuckerberg wants to make the entire world like the Facebook campus in a way, by providing Internet access to the entire world. The idea is called Internet.org. Its target: the 5 billion people around the globe without access to the Net.

ZUCKERBERG: I mean, here, we use things like Facebook to share news and catch up with our friends but there, they're going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to health care for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away that they haven't seen in decades.

Getting access to the Internet is a really big deal. I think we're going to be able to do it.

CUOMO: And the word "we" is the key word here because this isn't just about Facebook. Zuckerberg has done something extraordinary to achieve the extraordinary, reached out to the biggest players in social media and mobile data, aka his competitors in part, to work together.

(on camera): How did those calls go?

ZUCKERBERG: It probably varies.

But I mean, in general, these are companies that we have deep relationships with and have worked with on a lot of things for a long time. So this kind of came out of a lot of the discussions that we had.

CUOMO (voice-over): So a team of the best in the business is coming together but for a task this size, uniting five times the global presence Facebook has already, it's going to take a lot more.

(on camera): What about the how? Like how do you do this? How developed is the plan?

ZUCKERBERG: You know, we have a plan, a rough plan for what we think we're going to need to do to pull it off, and, of course, the plan will evolve over time and we'll get better ideas. But, you know, if you look at the trends, I mean, data is becoming more available to people. Apps are getting more efficient to run. There are new business models to help more people get online.

CUOMO: It's also good for Facebook and these other companies, right, because mobile access to the Internet is where your business lies, right?

ZUCKERBERG: You know, if we were just focused on making money, the first billion people that we've connected have way more money than the rest of the next $6 billion combined. It's not fair but it's the way that it is. And we just believe that everyone deserves to be connected and on the Internet. So we are putting a lot of energy towards this.

CUOMO: People see you as somewhat of a comeback kid right now. Forget about the kid now but it's a phrase. That, you know, you took some lumps and found a way to come back.

Are aware of that? Do you feel that in yourself that, like some people thought it wasn't going to happen, that you had had your run but look at me now? Do you get a sense of that?

ZUCKERBERG: Yes. You know, we've always just focused on building something great over the long-term. Right, so everyone at Facebook, I -- I just tell them, you know, come in and try to make the biggest impact that you can have and if we keep building a service that people love and that more and more people use every day which we seem to be doing pretty well at, then we're going to be fine over time and that's our focus and in terms of building the company.

CUOMO: Hard to do when you hit the bumps in the road though, right? It's a great message when everything is OK.

ZUCKERBERG: Especially important when you hit the bumps.

CUOMO: So, we're not trying to connect the world to the Internet. You have to run one of the biggest companies and when you want a distraction from that, you've decided to take on the easy task of immigration policy and the United States. Why are you wading into those waters?

ZUCKERBERG: When we were first talking about doing this, a lot of people actually were worried that it was going to be a problem for Facebook, right? And I just decided, I think that this is too important of an issue for the country. I mean , there are 11 million undocumented people who came here to work hard and contribute to the country.

And I'm -- you know, it's -- I don't think it's quite as polarized as people always say.

CUOMO: What would be your advice to people in D.C. who are trying to balance these two almost diametrically opposed positions. One is immigration policy is about what you're talking about. Let's bring in our human potential. And the other one is, let's find a way to get them out.

How if you had to enter that, this is your new team, you have to make these Democrats and Republicans come together, what advice do you think you'd have that's not going on down there now?

ZUCKERBERG: Well, it's -- I can't really tell anyone how to legislate. I mean, that's -- everyone understands this stuff way better than I do. So, you know, my goal in this is just to try to help support folks who care deeply about getting this done, on both sides, and hopefully we can make a difference.

CUOMO: In terms of the politics of it, you think it's just important enough where you're going to do it anyway.

ZUCKERBERG: Yes. I mean, I think there are some things in life that if you believe that it's such a big problem, you just stick your neck out and try to do it, right? And I mean, a lot of people think that it's going to be really challenging to connect 5 billion people, too. It is, but I think it's one of the biggest problems of my generation to get everyone in the world to have Internet access.

And when, similarly, you know, 11 million undocumented people -- that's a lot of people whose lives we can improve and make the country stronger.

CUOMO: Good luck with everything.

ZUCKERBER: Thank you.

CUOMO: You're not even 30 yet. You're doing great. You're doing great. Good luck with everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now remember, in some parts of the world, it is still very, very difficult to get online. In fact, across Africa it's estimated only around 15 percent of the population has access to the Internet.

Now you're watching News Stream. And coming up next, a dispute over the detention of this man heads to court. Now the partner of the newspaper journalist who broke the Snowden story has filed suit. We'll go live to London for the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now Syrian opposition groups claim hundreds of people have been killed in a chemical weapons attack on rebel strongholds outside Damascus. Now the government has categorically denied the allegations, calling them, quote, completely baseless. The United Nations team is currently in Syria to investigate claims of chemical weapons use.

Japan is expected to raise the warning level at the Fukushima nuclear power plant later today as a radioactive water leak there continues. It is the most severe warning since the immediate aftermath of the 2011 disaster.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has accused the interim government of arresting its spiritual leader on trumped up and political charges. Authorities say Mohammed Badie will be investigated for inciting violence and killing protesters. Hundreds of people have died since the interim government crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy.

Now police in the United States have charged three teenagers in connection with the murder of an Australian college baseball player. Now authorities say 23-year-old Christopher Lane was gunned down from behind while jogging in Duncan, Oklahoma.

Now, new claims that pressure on The Guardian newspaper came from the highest levels of British government. Now according to The Independent newspaper, Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the country's top civil servant to contact The Guardian, and I quote The Independent's report, "to spell out the serious consequences that could follow if it failed to hand over classified material from Edward Snowden."

Now The Guardian's editors said on Monday that the paper had physically destroyed computer hard drives. This was reportedly done under the eyes of representatives of Britain's general communications headquarters. They wanted The Guardian to either hand over the Snowden material or destroy it.

This is what UK Home Secretary Theresa May had to say about the overall case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, UK HOME SECRETARY: I think it's right, given that it is the first duty of the government to protect the public that if the police believe somebody has in their possession highly sensitive, stolen information which could help terrorists, which could lead to a loss of lives, then it is right that the police act. And that's what the law enables them to do.

But of course the law also has safeguards within it. And we have an independent reviewer who, as he has already said -- David Anderson has already said -- he will be looking into this case to ensure that it was conducted properly

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And separately today, the partner of a British journalist who was detained at London's Heathrow Airport for nine hours has filed a suit against the British government. Now lawyers for David Miranda say his interrogation was unlawful.

Atika Shubert is following all of the developments outside London's high court. She joins us now live. And Atika, first, can you tell us more about how and why 10 Downing Street contacted The Guardian?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's interesting, because according to The Guardian they said a senior government official. But now several British media are reporting that it was the top civil servant -- and this came straight from 10 Downing Street, from the British prime minister's office.

Now we have contacted the Prime Minister's office. And this is what they told us, quote, "we won't go into specific cases, but if highly sensitive information was being held insecurely, the government would have a responsibility to secure it."

Now just to give you an idea of what exactly happened when those government officials, according to The Guardian, came into their offices, they destroyed their hard drives. And I'm sure you know, Kristie, you can open up a hard drive, this is what it would be it look like. You run a magnet over the risk here to try and destroy the data. But it's not actually physically destroyed until you really just take a hammer to it or find some other way to scratch it, the surface there, and then you know it's physically destroyed.

According to The Guardian, these discs inside were literally shredded.

Of course the problem is that even though the data on this drive might be permanently destroyed, if you have other digital copies around the world, which The Guardian has said that it does, then it's sort of pointless. And so this is why The Guardian feels that in a sense this is just a form of intimidation and a show of force.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and even though that The Guardian has destroyed the hard drives, it's very likely that it still has copies of what the intel that Snowden handed over to them, also newspapers overseas have copies of the same files as well.

What is The Guardian saying about how it will react to what they call this act of intimidation? I mean, how committed will they stay on this story?

SHUBERT: Well, The Guardian's view is this, that when they were asked to hand over the information they said no and this is what resulted in the destruction of their hard drives, even though, as they pointed out to this government official, that they had other digital copies elsewhere. And the response was simply that they will continue to report NSA leaks, continue to report the Edward Snowden story, but they will probably do it from one of their overseas offices.

So, it isn't deterring them from going ahead with the reporting, but it doesn't seem at this point that they're taking any sort of legal action, that of course is different from the journalist Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian journalist, and his partner David Miranda.

LU STOUT: Yeah, tell us more about that. And what is David Miranda saying about what he experienced?

SHUBERT: Yeah, well his lawyers have basically said they will take legal action. In fact, I have the letter here. And in this letter they have demanded to know why he was detained for nine hours at Heathrow Airport under schedule seven of the terrorism act. They're saying that they -- he had his DVDs, laptop, game console and flash cards all taken away from him. And all the questions were about the NSA leaked story.

So they're saying that in this letter that it's an abuse of the terrorism law and they want to know why he was held, what those police officers were looking for. And if they don't get those answers, then they're going to take them to court to get them answers.

Now we're still waiting to see when that's going to be filed here at the high court, but it does seem that they're willing to take it to the next legal step.

LU STOUT: All right, Atika Shubert on the -- reporting on two fronts on this story for us. Many thanks indeed. Atika joining us live from London.

Now time now for your global weather forecast. Let's get an update on the devastating floods in the Philippines. Again, many parts of Manila remain water logged.

Details now with Mari Ramos. She joins us from the world weather center -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie. So much going on here with the flooding situation across East Asia. There are three areas that we're going to talk about.

First of all, the monsoon. This is the monsoon surge. And that's the flooding that you're talking about here in Manila. That's number one.

Number two, of course, is the typhoon, Typhoon Trami. Heavy rainfall over Taiwan.

And number three is the threat for flooding inland here across parts of China with the ground already saturated from days of heavy rain and the remnants of what was Typhoon Utor.

But we are, like you mentioned, going to focus a little bit more on this monsoon surge, this tremendously heavy rain that has been affecting the Philippines, including Manila, like you mentioned. Manila getting more than 150 percent of their normal rainfall for the month of August in just a matter of days. They have almost 700 millimeters of rainfall already on the ground. And that has caused massive flooding.

To learn more about what's going on there, we're going to talk to reporter Jenny Reyes. She is with us and now on the line from the region, from Marikina City. And I believe -- do we have her on the line? If you can hear me, Jenny, can you tell us the latest of what you observed right now across that area, waterlogged from days of heavy rain?

JENNY REYES, ABC,CBN REPORTER: Hi, Mari.

Of course, we are right now feeling definitely a lot of the rain that you were talking about just now. We have over 100,000 people spending the next few days in evacuation centers as the heavy rain continues to bother not just capital of Manila as well as neighboring provinces in Luzon.

Here in Marikina City where I am right now, we have over 30,000 people temporarily housed in government evacuation centers. And staying in these evacuation centers is no picnic, these are usually classroom that are converted into shelters. And in one of the areas that we visited, as many as 80 families of four are crammed into single, tiny classrooms and there are local children who need to use classroom desks or cardboard boxes as beds.

There is also the risk of the rapid spread of disease, which is the common cold, fevers, skin diseases and (inaudible) related to flood waters. These are also being monitored by the health department with all these people living in such close proximity.

And then just reminding you, this is just the first time that the city, or even a country is (inaudible) of this magnitude. In 2009, Typhoon Gatana (ph) hit the metropolis and Marikina was also one of the areas that took the heaviest damage because of the Marikina River that swelled and overflowed into the city during torrential rains.

And then again, that (inaudible) at the exact same time, one (inaudible) and heavy cost, heavy flooding in this area.

So these two disasters are really learning experiences for the rest of the people (inaudible) about having to evacuate.

RAMOS: Yeah, one of the things that we're watching right now is the Marikina River. This is just east -- this is inside metro Manila, for those of you that may not be familiar with it -- it's inside metro Manila over toward the eastern side. And the river flows from the mountains down to the south. And it does tend to flood quite frequently.

Because the city, and because officials there have so much experience with flooding -- like you said, it's happened at least twice before where we've had these tremendously heavy rains -- do you think that people were prepared to evacuate and listening to the warnings? And do you think the officials were prepared also for -- to get -- to save people that needed to be saved and to take them into shelters?

REYES: They are actually. The city has set up an alarm system that alerts residents when they have to leave, when they have to prepare to go to evacuation centers and when a mandatory evacuation is in place. This alarm essentially alerts them on the water levels of the river, because at times like this one when rains are just heavy and there is a downpour expected, the rivers swells and overflows into the cities and heads into residential areas.

RAMOS: OK. Thank you very much. That was reporter Jenny Reyes, ABC- CBN reporter from Marikinia City -- ABS-CBN for Marikina City. Jenny Reyes reporting to us from that region. Thank you much.

Let's go ahead and move on very quickly. I want to show you right over here. The satellite image is still getting some more moisture. Kristie, we're kind of concerned about this, because even though the tropical cyclone is moving away, we're still expecting in some cases up to 8 centimeters of additional rainfall happening across this area. And that is still a concern because those areas like we saw -- and we just heard from Jenny -- are still waterlogged.

The next thing is, of course, Typhoon Trami, this one bringing extremely heavy rainfall. I want to leave you with this look right over here, this is from the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. And this is what Trami looks like right now. It has been dumping -- there's Taiwan, you can barely make it out down here to the bottom. Extremely heavy rain over this area, over the mountains easily over half a meter of rain already falling in Taiwan. In Taipei proper, they've had over 200 millimeters of rain in the last 24 hours.

Kristie, back to you.

LU STOUT: All right, Mari thank you as always for tracking the storms for us. And great to get insight on the ground in the Philippines about the situation there. Mari Ramos, thank you.

Now, up next, do you ever wonder why Internet ads, they seem to reflect things that you've recently looked at online? It's not a coincidence. Coming up on News Stream, we'll tell you how companies are tracking your every move on the net.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now Internet advertising has become a big business. And it's also raised concerns about your privacy. And Tom Foreman explains why you might want to think carefully about what you search for online.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Worth more than the company that produced the "Star Wars" film, more than McDonald's makes a year, even Ferrari, that's how valuable Internet advertising has become, raking in over $30 billion annually, spurring a gold rush among companies for information about you.

JUSTIN BROOKMAN, CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY: Just over the last couple of years, you've seen an explosion of trafficking and targeting technologies.

FOREMAN: Jason (sic) Brookman is with the Center for Democracy and Technology.

(on camera): So let's talk about how this works. Imagine there's a couple that finds out they are expecting a baby. They go online to look up the word pregnancy. What happens?

BROOKMAN: Right away, they shared with Google that they are interested in pregnancy. They can add that to their profile and they get served a lot of ads. I start clicking on links.

FOREMAN (voice-over): With every click, powerful marketing companies drop cookies onto the couple's track to record their browsing history, what they looked at and for how long and much they spend. Some may link to the couple's real-world shopping habits, noticing they purchased a home pregnancy test and, suddenly, on their e-mails, on their Smartphones and social media sites comes an avalanche of ads for baby bottle, strollers, car seats, cribs and much more.

(on camera): And all of this could happen before the couple tells their family they're pregnant.

BROOKMAN: Yes. There's hundreds of companies in the advertising game. They can drop a cookie and say this person is pregnant.

FOREMAN (voice-over): If you search something more delicate, like sexually transmitted disease, infidelity or escorts, all of this can be tracked. And all of this is drawing the attention of the Federal Trade Commission.

JESSICA RICH, BUREAU OF CONSUMER PROTECTION, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: Consumers are concerned if their children are tracked in this way. And there's also questions about whether this information is -- who is this information given to. Can your employer get it? Can your insurer get it and learn about your habits?

FOREMAN: Still, so far, the government is relying on the Internet ad industry to control itself, even as it grows steadily better at tracking your every move purchased and clicked.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now the bottom line from that report, a wealth of information about you, your family, your personal life all being collected and sold

Let's talk more about online tracking with our regular contributor, Nick Thompson. He is the editor of the NewYorker.com Nick, good to see you. I know there in the U.S. online tracking is on the radar in a big way at the FTC and of the U.S. Congress. I personally don't want my every move tracked online, but is government intervention the answer?

NICK THOMSPON, NEWYORK.COM: Government intervention is actually pretty hard and pretty complicated, because the technology develops very quickly and government tends to move very slow. Legislation passes through congress at a very slow rate. So it's hard for government to respond to specific concerns.

What the FTC can do is they can put specific restrictions on specific companies. They can certain deals, like they've done with Facebook. They can crack down hard when there's a violation. And they can set out a -- you know, a series of principles which companies have to follow, or sort of set of best practices that consumers can be aware of.

So the FTC can and should do all of that, but government intervention on this stuff is actually pretty complicated.

LU STOUT: And what about the ad industry itself? Can it control itself as it collects more information about us?

THOMPSON: Well, the ad industry has incentives to regulate itself, right. The ad industry doesn't want to get called out. They don't want to have something bad happen. You don't want to be known as the company that revealed this terrible thing to somebody else. So they do have incentives to self-regulate, but they also have vastly more incentives to try to gather as much information and to do as much of it as they possibly can.

There is an arms race between the companies, who can gather more data? Data is power. So the more data you can get, the better the ads you can serve. So self regulation is going to be -- it's not likely to work that well.

LU STOUT: So, then what can I do in the meantime as a net user as a concerned citizen, as a consumer. I know I can block the cookies. I could choose to use a better browser, but is that the only thing I can do?

THOMPSON: Well, for one, I don't think it's -- it's not quite as apocalyptic as some people feel. So a lot of this tracking is, you know, I -- you know, messed up my registration for the New York City Marathon so I was Googling ways to try to get in and started getting served as on special ways to get in the New York Marathon. That's actually useful.

So a lot of the ads that come up are useful.

If you're pregnant and you've told everybody it's useful to get deals on Pampers.

So you don't have to worry that much about all of it.

But there are lots of things you can do to the extent you are worried. So you can set up -- you can browse in incognito mode on your browser, then information isn't collected about you. You can disable, as you say, third party cookies on your browser. Every browser has a preference for that.

Two things that I think are important that most people don't know is that I turn off the preferences in my phone in the settings over the different apps and services that track my location. That kind of weirds me out. There are a lot of settings and a lot of ways you can do that.

And the second thing is to know that if you go to Google.com/history, it'll show your entire history of what you searched for when you were logged into Google. It's almost like a diary. And once you've looked at that once, you realize, OK wait a second, if I'm searching for something and I'm on somebody else's computer or if I search for something and somebody else goes on to my computer, you just need to be aware of that.

So sort of being aware of your browsing habits, taking some protective measures and also not getting too wrapped up in it.

LU STOUT: You know, you just reminded me, I remember going to Google.com/history when it first launched. I'm definitely due to go back just to see what has happened since then.

THOMPSON: It's amazing.

LU STOUT: I know -- it was scary what it revealed. What was it, a couple of years ago? But I definitely need to go back. Thank you for the tips. Thank you for the analysis as always. Nick Thompson, NewYorker.com. Take care and see you next week.

THOMPSON: Now, Chicago is a city facing huge challenges. And according to U.S. census figures, some 21 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Now this week's CNN Hero makes sure that donated goods in the city get in the hands of those who need them most.

Now meet Judson Kinnucan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Housekeeping.

JUDSON KINNUCAN: On a day to day basis, there are tons of items that are thrown away. It's shocking to understand how much hotels have in excess.

I was doing a lot of volunteering and I saw how desperately in need people were for all those type of things. And I thought to myself I could be that connection, that matchmaker.

My name is Judson Kinnucan and I collect donations around Chicago for charities that don't have the money and the manpower to do it on their own.

We did a multitude of different items donated. And whatever charities need, we can get them those items.

I've got a full barrel of shampoo, conditioner, lotion for you.

Hygiene is 365. People need that every single day of the year.

A lot of great stuff in here. We partner with over 40 hotels. We work with dozens of companies. Oh, fantastic. That's just a lot of showers right there. They're going to love this.

The excess from corporations is great, because there is always an overage or a damaged product that is still good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a double impact here. We're being environmentally responsible and people in Chicago are really benefiting from this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many can you use?

KINNUCAN: Two or three if you've got them.

Men and women who were struggling with issues of poverty, they have as much personal dignity as anyone else. So anything that they can do to keep themselves looking good and feeling good is important.

It's a simple concept, but it's very labor intensive.

This is full.

But it's fun for me.

When this is empty, give me a call. I'll come pick it up. Get you another one.

And if I can improve people's lives, it's a double bonus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now this news just into CNN. Reuters reports that an Egyptian court has ordered the release of former President Hosni Mubarak from prison. Now the 85-year-old, he's being retried on charges that he ordered the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ousting. And CNN has confirmed that Mubarak will be leaving jail. He could leave jail later on Wednesday as there are no longer any legal grounds for his detention while he is on trial.

Again, we have learned former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak will be able to leave jail.

Now, CNN's Freedom Project works to raise awareness of modern day slavery. And this week, we're taking a closer look at sex trafficking in South Florida. Now Adriana Hauser joins Miami undercover agents in an operation targeting prostitution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADRIANA HAUSER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is 9:00 pm. And while most people have ended their work day, these undercover agents begin their shift. We were invited to join. Tonight, they're goal is to talk to prostitutes to try to gather information about potential traffickers or underage working girls.

SGT. NICOLE DONNELLY, MIAMI-DADE POLICE DEPARTMENT: If they're a juvenile, we'll see if they're missing. We'll try to recover them. We'll talk to them, see if they were actually working for somebody. And then if it's an adult, you know, we'll give them the same opportunities and the types of assistance that we have that we can help them get off the streets.

HAUSER: At first, there was little activity. But close to midnight, the girls started coming out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's on the west sidewalk and northbound, walking with a perp.

HAUSER: We spot a woman. A detective approaches. He pretends to be a customer and negotiates the transaction. This is when an arrest would have normally happened. But tonight, the idea is simply to talk.

Marianne (ph) agreed to talk to us as long as we hide her identity.

HAUSER: What are you doing here tonight?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trying to survive.

HAUSER: Is this every night?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I can't -- if I can help it, no.

HAUSER: She says she started working as a prostitute when she was 15 after both her parents committed suicide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I was working in brothels, I was working the circuit all over the United States making big-time money.

HAUSER: What's a good night for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A good night is whatever I want it to be.

HAUSER: She remembers making between $400 and $500 a night. But that was a long time ago. Yesterday, she says was not a good night. And tonight she's hungry.

Do you not fear for your life? Do you not fear...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god, yes. Do you think I'm nuts?

HAUSER: Marianne says she feels fortunate because although she has experienced danger, she has never been seriously hurt. And the money she makes pays her rent, the food, and a few drugs she says she consumes for pleasure and not addiction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it's only crack, I don't do heroine, I don't do pills, I don't do known of that hard shit.

HAUSER: She appears young, but she's 50 and realizes this type of work will likely come to an end soon.

What do you plan for your future? Are you saving money?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seriously, $50 a night. I've got to pay -- I eat out every day. I like to smoke cigarettes, I like to drink beer, and I like to have extracurricular fun.

HAUSER: With no college degree, she says finding a more conventional job has been hard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if you don't speak freaking Spanish and you don't -- and you've a background in prostitution and drugs, OK, that's all (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

HAUSER: So for now, this is her life, a life she feels keeps her captive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've known this for so long. This is what I know.

HAUSER: Do you ever want to get out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God knows I want to get out.

HAUSER: Adriana Hauser, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that is News Stream. But do stay with us as we get more out of Egypt where a court has just ordered the release of President Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president, but he will remain in custody for 48 hours pending appeal. This is CNN.

END