Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

China Mobile Begins Selling iPhone, Interview with Jeffrey Sachs; President Obama To Announce Changes To NSA; Australian Heat Wave Continues; Philippines Battered With Rain; Russian Group Tortures Gay Men On Film

Aired January 17, 2014 - 8:00   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 President Obama plans to call for an end to one of the NSA's controversial surveillance programs, but just how far will his overhaul go?

Apple's CEO celebrate's the iPhone's debut with China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile carrier.

And Jeffrey Sachs speaks to me about the age of sustainable development.

In about three hour's time, the U.S. president is set to announce sweeping changes to the way Washington gathers intelligence. Now Barack Obama will deliver a speech at the U.S. Justice Department detailing reforms to the National Security Agency.

Now senior administration official says that they include changes to the NSA's telephone metadata collection program to address privacy and civil liberty concerns.

Now senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has this preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDWARD SNOWDEN, NSA LEAKER: End mass surveillance.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than six months since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden started leaking the details of the government's massive surveillance programs, President Obama is poised to make some changes to the ways Washington spies on the world.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We can and should take steps to make the activities we engage in in order to help keep America safe and Americans safe more transparent.

ACOSTA: The president is expected to weigh in on one of the most controversial programs, the bulk collection of American's phone records, a practice a federal judge and even one member of the White House's own NSA review panel have called unconstitutional.

GEOFFREY STONE, WHITE HOUSE NSA REVIEW GROUP: It leaves sitting out there a huge amount of information, personal information about Americans that could be abused in awful ways.

ACOSTA: A senior administration official says the president will call for those phone records to stay at the NSA temporarily, but he will seek input on Congress and the intelligence community on where to store that data permanently. The president is also expected to appoint a public advocate to take part in the secretive federal surveillance report and scale back eavesdropping on foreign leaders.

That move would begin some much needed diplomatic healing after widespread reports of spying on U.S. allies like the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The NSA controversy has placed the president in a position he likely never saw coming.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient.

ACOSTA: That is, defending a surveillance state he once criticized when he first ran for the White House.

OBAMA: That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens.

ACOSTA: Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: As we await President Obama's announcement, British media reporting more details about the NSA's activities. The Guardian and the UK's Channel 4 news cite documents from former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden about a program called Dishfire.

Now according to the reports, on an average day, the NSA has collected almost 200 million text messages from around the world and has used them to extract data on people's locations, their contacts and financial transactions.

Now the latest allegation adds to what we already know. And all the leaks paint an incredible picture of what the NSA can apparently do.

Now there's the Prism program, which according to Snowden's leaks, gives the NSA direct access to the servers of tech giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft allowing the NSA to directly access user emails.

Now the companies have denied allowing the NSA direct access to their servers.

And then there's Muscular program, which allegedly taps into the datalinks between servers at Yahoo and Google and said to be jointly operated by the U.S. and UK.

And there is more: other revelations say the NSA is cracked most of the common methods of encryption used online, even that agents operated inside games like World of Warcraft to spy on other players. And what makes this all the more incredible is that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Guardian's editor Alan Rusbridger says the paper has published only 1 percent of the files leaked by Snowden.

Now still a host of reports based on Snowden's revelations allege the NSA spied on officials, citizens or companies from all the countries highlighted in red on this map. Now many governments have expressed their outrage to the U.S. But back in July, President Obama said it is standard practice that nations spy on each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I guarantee you that in European capitals there are people who are interested in if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points my be should I end up meeting with their leaders. That's how intelligence services operate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: So, what will President Obama do about the NSA? Well, you can see him speak as it happens right here on CNN 11:00 am in Washington, 5:00 pm in Berlin, 1:00 am here in Hong Kong.

Now, normally a mobile carrier selling a certain brand of phone, it wouldn't be one of our top stories, but this isn't any phone and it's definitely no ordinary mobile carrier. China Mobile started selling the iPhone today. It's worth noting that the iPhone has long been sold in China on other carriers. But China Mobile is the world's biggest mobile provider.

Now how big? Well, China mobile has 763 million subscribers, that is more than the entire population of the United States. And they only help Apple. Here's IDC's list of the top smartphone vendors in China in the second quarter of 2013. We'll bring it up for you in a sec. But when you see the data as it comes up for you, Apple, it doesn't make the cut.

Now, CNN's David McKenzie visited a China Mobile store on the first day of iPhone sales to see just what the reception was like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This family is buying a new iPhone on contract, which they can now do in China. It's such a big deal for the American company that the CEO, Tim Cook is here to plug it and also even give phones to customers.

This could mean, say analysts, an extra 10 to 20 million new customers just in year one of this deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a birthday for me. Today is...

MCKENZIE: It's your birthday today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

MCKENZIE: Happy birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

MCKENZIE: And you've got a new phone?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Thank you.

MCKENZIE: We expected a crush of people here on launch day, but it's business as usual. And only a handful of people looking over the new iPhone and contract.

The one reason for that is around 1 million people ordered the iPhone before the deal was finally launched, according to the company. Another is phones like this are actually more affordable to Chinese and change all the time. So guys like this will buy the cheaper phone and replace it more frequently.

"I haven't thought about Apple," says one. "There are so many Chinese brands, I pick the model based on my income."

Apple faces an uphill battle in China for the race of the mobile consumer in this country. But they hope that this deal will give them a competitive edge in China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And David joins us live now from CNN Beijing. David, I couldn't help but notice there were no long lines there in the store.

MCKENZIE: No, no long lines, that's partly due to the way this deal unfolded.

And also look, Kristie, we've been waiting for this for years now. Six years in the making these discussions between Apple and China Mobile. On their end it seems that because of the personal push by Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, and certainly a lot of back room deals that were made in this, it came through.

Also, it's because people could order the phones before the actual launch date.

So this isn't really one of your classic big openings of a new phone or new gadgets, it's more like a long-term hard-nosed business decision by these two companies that could access Apple this huge consumer base, also a wide distribution network throughout the country. Apple has struggled to get to the smaller tier cities here in China. People have been buying phones in Hong Kong and Beijing, Shanghai, sending them off to their hometowns often for people to get access to this hardware.

But now Apple says this is a way for them to access all these potential consumers and partner with the biggest mobile network here in China -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Now this week we know the China launched the COS, or the China Operating System as the latest made in China mobile operating system designed to go up against Android and Apple's iOS. Is this a potential threat for Apple?

MCKENZIE: In the long-term perhaps. What we do see in China is that when they bring out a new system, because of the way that China works often people have to go buy the system. They started their own 3G system when 3G launched in China. That really was taken on by most phones -- you know, companies which wanted to work in China. But it's hard to see whether this will replace iOS or Android over time. It's a linux based open-source software.

So the key here is different mentalities. China has really growth in these kind of open-source user generated software like Xiaomi and others -- and Android of course. And Apple really goes by this mantra that they know best for the consumer. They aren't trying to be, it seems, all things to all people in China. They want to have an aspirational brand. Stick to their classic hardware. Sell it to the Chinese market.

But, as you mentioned in your introduction, Kristie, they are far behind the market leader here in terms of volume, which is Samsung. Three other companies follow Samsung, they're all Chinese. And then Apple is a distant fifth.

So if they want to catch up in this market, maybe they're going to have to be more flexible. But certainly they're trying to do it by partnering with the big hitters like China Mobile.

LU STOUT: That's right. And we'll see just how much marketshare they'll be able to grab up now that they are allied with China Mobile.

David McKenzie joining us live from Beijing, thank you very much indeed for that report.

Now still to come right here on News Stream, we have a very disturbing story out of Russia. A group is targeting gay men trapping and tormenting victims and then posting the video online.

Also ahead, explosions rock an anti-government protest in Thailand as demonstrators continue their push to oust the prime minister. We'll hear what she has to say.

And the heat is still taking its toll on tennis players at the Australian Open. We have the highlights from day five of the tournament just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now in just a few weeks, the Russian city of Sochi will host the Winter Olympics.

Now, this is a shot of the Olympic park earlier this week. The event is a prestige project for President Vladimir Putin, but it has been largely overshadowed by concerns about security. And today, Mr. Putin is trying to turn the focus back to the games themselves. He is there touring Sochi and visiting volunteers.

Now another issue in the spotlight as Russia gears up to host the games is the treatment of gays and lesbians and the law that banned so- called gay propaganda to minors. Activists say it has increased violence against the gay community.

Now Phil Black has this disturbing report on a group that lures in victims online and then taunts and assaults them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In Russia, gay men like 22-year-old Dmitry are expected to blend in to the crowd. So they use the Internet to meet each other secretly. This is what happened when Dmitry recently arranged to meet up with someone he'd been chatting with online.

He was surrounded on a dark street by men wearing masks.

"I couldn't escape once they'd got me," he says. "There was nowhere to run."

For 13 minutes, he is threatened, mocked, and interrogated about his sexuality. The video was then posted online.

Dmitry was the victim of what has become an increasingly popular activity in Russia, vigilante groups using the Internet to meet and ambush gay men. Members of these groups call it "going on safari." And the sad fact is Dmitry got off very lightly. That's because other victims have been treated far worse.

In this video, the man's hair is shaved, a rainbow painted in its place. Later, he's made to drink what he's told is urine.

This terrified man is gripped by the head. He begs for mercy and is told he has a choice, he can lose an eye or be sodomized with a large fork.

And this video shows what happens to victims who resist or try to escape.

The man seen in all of these videos is a well-known ultranationalist and leading figure in a movement called Occupy Pedophilia. It has grown to become a nationwide network with branches in cities across Russia that upload videos of their so-called safaris to a central website.

Human rights activist say these groups have grown dramatically since the introduction of a law banning the promotion of gay equality to children, the so-called gay propaganda law. They say the authorities lack of action on these assaults also encourages them.

Investigations have been open. And despite all the overwhelming video evidence, no one has been prosecuted.

TANYA LOKSHINA, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: And that means there's vigilante groups, a sense -- a false sense of self-righteousness -- yeah, you're doing the right thing.

BLACK: The groups members say they're targeting pedophiles, not homosexuals. And that's why they almost always pose online as a 15-year- old, which is just under Russia's legal age of consent.

But videos often don't support that.

He says, "I don't like gays. I'm not afraid of you. I just hate you all."

In this video, two victims are made to dance together slowly while their tormentor sings. One of the men is crying.

The Internet and these videos are the latest tools of persecution in a country where being gay has never been easy. That's why Dmitry is philosophical about his encounter with Russia's anti-gay vigilantes.

He says, "they humiliated me, but I'm used to it, because I've been humiliated and beaten throughout my life."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Deeply disturbing video there.

Now President Vladimir Putin is trying to improve Russia's image on human rights ahead of next month's winter games. Yesterday, he assured the international sporting community that athletes would not face discrimination on any basis, his words.

Let's bring in CNN's Phil Black for more. He joins us live from Moscow. And Phil, will Putin's words provide any comfort to Russia's gay community?

BLACK: Kristie, no, not really, because Russia's gay community isn't really just concerned about the Olympics nor even specifically with the details of the gay propaganda law itself. What they're concerned about are the messages they say are being sent to broader Russian society and the climate that is creating here.

They say that the gay propaganda law, the language that is being used by officials on state television, the fact that people who engage in harassment, intimidation, even violence towards gay people are not being held accountable, all of these things have created a climate where it is increasingly acceptable, increasingly the norm to treat gay people as second class citizens without the same dignity, rights and respect as everyone else.

So, when Vladimir Putin says that there will be no discrimination at the Olympics, when he goes further and says that Russia does not discriminate, what he's saying is that it's not illegal to be gay in this country. But gay people say they're not concerned about the specific legality, what they're concerned about is how difficult it is for them to live their lives in this country. And they say it has become much harder very quickly in recent history, Kristie.

LU STOUT: That's right, given this undercurrent of intimidation and bullying.

Now in Sochi, what is the gay community like there? And how vocal will they be during the games?

BLACK: It is a surprisingly vibrant gay community, I guess you could say. Sochi has already been a holiday town stretching back through the Soviet Union, so it has always had the reputation as a place where gay people from across Russia could go in secret to go and live their lives just a little bit more openly for a period of time before returning to the various corners of Russia.

And so the people who live there, live with a greater sense of tolerance from the broader community than perhaps in other provincial cities.

Their attitude towards the Olympics is, well, they're kind of excited about it still, because they view it as a party and they hope that everyone can take part in it. But they are aware of what they say are the social changes that have been taking place across the country and the impact that that is having on the broader gay community.

And like gay people everywhere, they take a fairly dim view of it, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And the gay propaganda law that passed last year in June, could there be another law to repress gay rights even further in Russia?

BLACK: There's a lot of fear about this in the gay community among human rights activists because over the course of last year one parliamentarian and his faction tried to push through a law that would effectively strip parenting rights from gay people who are raising children. It triggered really a great deal of panic and fear that the government was literally about the start taking children from their parents.

That law has been withdrawn, but the politician behind it is promising to continue working on it on a slightly revised version. And the fear among the community is that it's going to be reintroducing, could find new momentum after the Sochi games when international attention and focus has drifted away somewhat.

But it has certainly created a great deal of fear. Some Russian families -- gay families have already left this country, packed up with their kids and left, and a lot of others are seriously talking bout it -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Phil Black joining us live from Moscow. Many, many thanks indeed for your reporting today and of course for your series all week, much appreciated, good stuff. Thank you.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, Thailand's prime minister tells protesters calling for her to go, quote, "I am not resigning." More on that and more right here on News Stream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now at least 36 anti-government protesters have been injured in Thailand. Two explosions went off in the capital Bangkok close to a large group of demonstrators. Now officials say a grenade may have been launched at the crowd.

Now opponents of the government have been trying to bring the capital to a standstill this week, but their numbers have been falling. They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Now she spoke to the media earlier saying it was her duty to stay as prime minister. And elections were the only way to solve the country's problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YINGLUCK SHINAWATRA, PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND: I think we came from election, we get the vote of 15 million vote from the majority. But when the protester requests and adjust that people don't want our family. I think our family is one of the victim. I don't think that we, we just do our job. So that's why election will be only one that clears out our family by election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Last month the prime minister called for an election to be held on February 2.

Now to sports. And while temperatures continue to soar in Melbourne, none of the top seeds of the Australian Open tennis championships have got hot under the collar. Now there were no big upsets on day five of the tournament.

China's Zheng Jie admitted the scorching weather did affect her as she was beaten in straight sets by Casey Dellaqua.

The Australian is the last home player left in the women's singles because Sam Stosur was later knocked out by Ana Ivanovic.

Now defending women's champ Serena Williams proved that she did not want to hang around in the heat by taking just 80 minutes to just sweep past her third round opponent. Now the American won her match 6-3, 6-3 and will now face Ivanovic in the next round.

It was a record 61st win at the Australian Open for Williams beating the previous record set by the legendary Margaret Court.

Now also our Li Na, the fourth seed from China battled through a marathon third round match lasting more than two-and-a-half hours before reaching the last 16. You could also see confirmation of that win over Ivanonic -- for Ivanovic, rather, over Stosur, after a three set tussle on the Rod Lever Arena.

Now in the men's singles Novak Djokovic didn't take to court until 10:00 at night in Melbourne, but moments ago the defending champion did move on to the fourth round in straight sets. Now earlier three of the top eight seeds also go through David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and Stan Morinca.

You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, how do you combat poverty in a way that won't destroy the environment. I speak to the director of the earth institute Jeffrey Sachs who says it is China's turn to rise to the challenge.

And as investigators expose more members of a global pedophile ring, we meet some of their young victims burdened by the horror of their abuse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now U.S. President Barack Obama is set to announce sweeping reforms to the National Security Agency's practices. Now senior administration official says they include changes to the NSA's telephone metadata collection program to address privacy and civil liberty issues. Now Mr. Obama will deliver a speech at the U.S. Justice Department in about two- and-a-half hours from now.

At least 36 anti-government protesters have been injured in Thailand and two explosions went off in the capital Bangkok close to a large group of demonstrators. Now officials say a grenade may have been launched at the crowd and the protesters are demanding the resignation of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Syria says it is ready for a cease-fire in Aleppo and a prisoner exchange with rebel forces. The foreign minister met up with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to set out a timeline. Now a second round of talks on how to end the civil war is due to be held in Geneva, Switzerland next week.

French President Francois Hollande has paid his first visit to the hospital since his partner, first lady Valerie Trierweiler was admitted a week ago. Now she was hospitalized after a French magazine reported President Hollande is having an affair with a French actress.

Now he is a professor, author and renowned economist. And he thinks the end of poverty is within our grasp. Now Jeffrey Sachs is someone who understands the challenges of poverty. As director of the Earth Institute, he advises the UN unsustainable development. TIME magazine has called him one of the most influential people in the world.

Now I spoke to him earlier and started by asking for his response to news out this week that India has now been polio free for three years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY SACHS, DIRECTOR, EARTH INSTITUTE: Well, of course, this shows if you target the effort -- and Bill Gates has played a huge role in targeting that particular effort. You can make huge progress. Polio, way down, almost eradicated. Malaria, same story -- big targeting globally. Now it's down by half in Africa. Huge, huge successes.

This shows what can be done. We have technology. We have the means to implement on a large-scale, sometimes we lack the organization and political will, but when the focus is there, when the resources are put in, great progress.

LU STOUT: Now top stories from the region today include these devastating floods in Indonesia that has displaced tens of thousands of already impoverished families as well as this bust of an online pedophile ring that involved families in the Philippines that felt so desperate they needed to sell their own children to be abused.

I just wanted to get from your perspective, you've traveled to 127 countries around the world to look at the effects of extreme poverty and climate change. What have you seen, and can you encapsulate just the overall problem?

SACHS: Well, you mentioned these floods. One could mention the terrible air pollution in Beijing today. One could mention the incredible heat wave that's disrupted the tennis tournament or the Australia Open in Melbourne.

So we're seeing the world already under incredible stress from human activity, whether it's pollution or whether it's the global warming coming from the fossil fuel use. You see poor people that are pushed out of their homes, losing their livelihoods, losing their lives, international markets disrupted, the world has to focus on this the same way that's its been focusing on polio. We need a new energy system compatible with our well- being and our survival, that's one of the great challenges that we face right now.

LU STOUT: And you have said by necessity we have entered the age of sustainable development. What does that mean and what will happen during this era?

SACHS: Sustainable development is a concept that now the whole world, all the governments of the UN have said that's it. What does it mean? It means we can't just focus on economics alone, we need to focus on economics, on social inclusion -- that is no huge gaps in our society which have been widening, and on environmental sustainability. Economics, social and environmental together.

It's a new concept, it's a harder way to run an economy. You can't just focus on GNP, you have to focus on the big holistic picture.

I'm offering a course on Coursera, a worldwide free online course, already many, many thousands of people all over the world are part of it, to have a real discussion, how do you put these three pieces together? This is the kind of global discussion that we need now.

LU STOUT: As you're here in Hong Kong, I've got to ask you about China. And a success story out of China is how it's been able to pool hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the last two decades. And what are the lessons learned from China that could be applied to other areas, other places in the world, in particular Africa in order to banish poverty?

SACHS: China's success in ending extreme poverty just set every world record, every superlative one can imagine. And China's role in Africa is very positive in my estimation -- big investments, linkage of resource rich Africa with relatively resource poor China. So it's a complementary fit. And now I'm seeing a lot of Chinese businesses go to invest in Africa to produce for world markets, not only primary commodities, but shoe manufacturing, apparel and other labor intensive industries that were the first step of China's development, but now are going to be a crucial step for Africa.

But China also has a huge challenge ahead. It's done great on economics, but on the environment, this is the next challenge, pollution in all of the big cities, air that's so dirty that highways are being closed down right now. People are staying in their homes. Waterways that are heavily polluted. And China is a coal based economy. And coal is a huge problem for air pollution and for the carbon dioxide that changes the climate.

So China has done part of the story of sustainable development, but combining the economic, social and the environmental is a great challenge for China as well.

LU STOUT: Because prosperity is not enough, people want a better quality of life.

SACHS: That's it. They want happiness, they want wellbeing and that means that you can breathe the air, you can know that you have a chance that if you happened to be poor that your child will have a chance to get ahead.

So it is the mix of the overall economy with the social and environmental conditions.

LU STOUT: And the role of technology in all this, it wasn't that long, a couple of weeks ago, I had the head of the EPA standing right there and we had along ranging discussion, especially about pollution in China. And she said there's a lot of technology transfer and sharing between the U.S. and China, especially with these pollution sensors to increase the quality of the readings inside China.

Your thoughts in technology, whether it's better sensors or even open source and the role technology can play for economic development.

SACHS: Technology is key. Think of CNN. It linked the world for the first time in history in immediate news and now we have many ways of social media. This is changing life for what used to be remote rural areas, now they're part of the world economy -- great.

New ways to produce electricity. China has brought down the cost of photovoltaic solar power, contributing now to a 100 fold reduction of cost of PV solar. This is great. This gives us a chance for low cost, clean energy in the future.

And when I see what mobile connectivity in the poorest places of the world, how it's changing health, how it's changing education, how it's changing business development, this is the big story of our time -- making the technology work for human well-being, make technology work for sustainable development.

LU STOUT: We need sustainable development to protect our environment while lifting people out of poverty. How optimistic are you that we could see the banishment of poverty, the end of poverty in the next few decades?

SACHS: I said in 2005 in a book called "The End of Poverty" that we could end poverty in our generation. I'm delighted that this past year the World Bank, the development committee, a very formal, important committee in the world voted to take on the commitment to end extreme poverty by the year 2030. We have a timeline. It's official. The governments are on board. The UN membership will soon vote to put that as goal number one for the post-2015 period, the end of extreme poverty.

It's real. We're not on track. You have to decide that's important, just like deciding to fight polio. It wouldn't happen by itself, but if you make the effort, it can happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Jeffrey Sachs there.

And as he mentioned, he has launched a free global online course, it's called The Age of Sustainable Development. And you can check it out at Coursera.org.

And now this just into us here at CNN. And an update on a story we've been covering here, anti-gay laws in Uganda. Now the AFP news agency is reporting that the Ugandan president has now blocked a controversial anti- gay bill that would have seen homosexuals jailed for life. Now according to local media President Yoweri Museveni says that there are, quote, "better ways to cure what he called the abnormality."

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come right here on the program, the fight to protect children. The CNN Freedom Project reports on efforts to stop sex trafficking and to catch pedophiles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now investigators have smashed a global pedophile ring that charged people money to watch live online broadcasts of Filipino children being sexually abused. And unfortunately this type of international cyber sex ring involving children is all too common.

Now CNN's Freedom Project brought the issue to the forefront in the documentary The Fighters. And a warning, this report by Jonathan Mann may be disturbing to some viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Over the past 20 years the group Visayan Forum says it's rescued more than 15,000 children from human traffickers, including young girls victimized in online sex rings.

CECILIA FLORES-OEBANDA, VISAYAN FORUM FOUNDATION: As of now, there's a new phenomena of trafficking for cybersex that we observed for almost three years already.

MANN: Cecilia Flores-Oebanda protects the girls from further harm. The work of Oebanda and world champion boxer turned congressman Manny Pacquiao is the subject of the CNN documentary The Fighters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Girls fill their days playing, talking, learning skills all the while living behind locked gates and long fences, because it's too dangerous to expose them to the streets in which they were born. Like a jail where only the innocent are locked away.

MANN: During filming, three girls living at the permanent shelter Center of Hope spoke to Oebanda about the abuse they suffered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): At the Internet cafe, they tell me to take my clothes off and then they make me dance. I was kind of embarrassed, because I'm not used to being naked like that.

FLORES-OEBANDA (through translator): Where did they ask you to dance?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I front of the camera.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator) : I also take my clothes off and I dance. And then we're told to spread our legs. Then the neighbor comes over. He gets naked and we're told to touch his privates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The American men, they choose. They choose which one of us they want, which one will do it.

MANN: For about 30 dollars, an American man is able to have the girls do anything he wants while a man behind the camera makes sure the girls comply.

FLORES-OEBANDA: She begged you to stop. She said that you need to stop so that you stop exploiting them. You can stop victimizing young girls like that. Maybe next week, again, we were able to rescue the same girls in the same situation, trafficked for sex for a (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Despite originally being open and friendly with our crew, it became apparent the trauma the children faced wouldn't be forgotten.

FLORES-OEBANDA: The trauma is really too deep that I -- until now -- they wake up in the middle of the night screaming and crying because they are so afraid that the trafficker will come again.

Sometimes we don't really understand why one of the kids just sometimes suddenly got sick. And she always vomit. And our psychologist said that because she remembers what this guys on the Internet tried to do.

MANN: But luckily, U.S. Homeland Security investigators tracked down this man, Jeffrey Hershel, living in western Pennsylvania. Agents arrested him at his home. There, they found dozens of pictures of young children.

And in May of last year, a judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Children's rights advocates say these types of cyber sex crimes are very difficult for authorities to track down, because of the sophisticated technology that's involved.

Even though some perpetrators are sent to prison, that brings little comfort to the pain and suffering these young girls are enduring every.

Jonathan Mann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: A powerful and deeply troubling report there.

If you want to find out how you can help fight modern-day slavery, we have a list of global organizations working to stop human trafficking and to stop sexual exploitation. Just go to CNN.com/freedom.

You're watching News Stream, and up next a standoff between capitalism and communism. After the break, we look back at Germany at the start of the Cold War.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now there's been more rain for the southern Philippines. Let's get an update on conditions with Mari Ramos. She joins us from the world weather center -- Mari.

RAMOS: Hey, Kristie. We want to talk a little bit about what's happening here, because these are some of the same areas that were affected by Supertyphoon Haiyan last year and by Typhoon Bupha (ph) a couple of years ago here across the central and southern Philippines. And we've been talking about this area of low pressure for already most of this week.

This is not moving anywhere or going anywhere fast. It's been sitting over the same general area bringing some very heavy rain. But this high that you see right here means -- it means that the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is thinking that this could become our next tropical cyclone, maybe a tropical depression, maybe a tropical storm. Either way, doesn't matter. In the Philippines they've already named Agaton (ph). And it's bringing some very heavy rain across the region.

I want to show you some pictures of a landslide that occurred in areas to the south here. Now, the ground was still moving -- look at the tree just coming down right there -- very dangerous conditions. Overall across the Philippines, already 37 people have been killed in flooding and landslides and things related to the weather.

It has been raining very heavily over the last few days. There have been over 200,000 people displaced from the flooding just in the last few days. And unfortunately, now with this weather system that is sitting over the same area, we're going to see even more heavy rain over the region.

Come back over to the weather map over here. I want to show you as far as the rain what we can expect. Look at this, across this area right in here, the area in red that's 25 centimeters of additional rainfall. And because this system is nearly stationary, the area that you see there in white, that could be up to 75 centimeters or more. So definitely the potential for flooding and landslides remain.

But notice how it's affecting a widespread area here that will see between three to five centimeters of additional rainfall just over the next couple of days. So definitely something quite serious. And again, with areas that are still recovering from those devastating typhoon across the region.

I want to switch gears and take you north and talk about the air quality in Beijing. That's just one of the places that has been suffering from just awful, awful air. Actually Beijing earlier today was up in the good category, but it's going downhill very, very quickly.

Other parts -- this is Hebei Province, this video that I'm going to show you, where 12 highways had to be either shut down completely, Kristie, or at least partially shut down because visibility is so poor. This is a widespread problem, of course, across much of northern China. And unfortunately we're going to see this through the weekend. We're not expecting any kind of significant change here.

So very hazardous air conditions are expected to continue. Cold weather, as well. What we need is a good weather system to go through there and help clean the air out.

Let's head south. A lot to cover today. This is in Australia. The heat wave, of course, continuing here. Look at that, Melbourne got again up to 44 degrees. Canberra again over 40 degrees. This is the third day in a row that that happens.

But we're going to start to see a chance. Look at Melbourne, for example. These very extremely high temperatures compared to the average, which is this line right here. But Saturday, 21 degrees for the high. Why? Well, because we have a cold front coming through. And this is going to help just change the air across this region.

Already Melbourne has winds out of the south. Look at these pictures, this is from a fire that is burning near -- this is in Victoria. There are more than 40 different fires that are burning across this region.

If you think about it, this fire alone, this one fire, is over 40 square kilometers. And it's huge. And it's burning out of control. They're expecting winds at this area that will be in excess of 60, maybe 80 kilometers per hour.

The concern for fire services is that this particular fire could continue to spread. Those embers could continue flying. And even though we have a cold front that's coming through here, come back over to the weather map, you'll see it right there. It's not bringing any significant rain, just a lot of wind and maybe even some lightning. So still a concern, even though the temperatures are going to go down over the next couple of days.

So good and bad, Kristie. Back to you.

LU STOUT: Yeah, the size and the speed of those blazes very, very scary. Thank you very much alerting us to that story. Mari Ramos there. Thank you.

Now it is nearly 25 years since one of the most significant political events of the past century, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now a CNN series cold war recounts the struggle between communism and capitalism that defined an era in this preview. It's a confrontation between east and west is just starting to emerge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The nightmare of the western allies was that poverty would drive the Germans toward communism.

ELFRIEDE GRAFFIER POPPEK, DORTMUND RESIDENT (through translator): There was never enough food. We were always hungry. In those days, we went on scavenging trips. We went to farmers and begged. Sometimes we got something, other times nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America's General Lucius Clay reflected there is no choice between being a communist on 1500 calories a day and a believer in democracy on 1,000.

Aid to Germany cost Britain over $1 million a day. But British supplies were not enough to save thousands of Germans who died that winter for lack of food and fuel.

Britian, too, was weakening. The fierce winter of 1946-47 brought industry to a standstill. The country's economy, undermined by six years of war, began to seize up. Coal ran out, electricity failed, and food rationing were even tighter.

LORD ANNAN, BRITISH MILITARY INTELLIGENCE: You know, people forget again, we never had bread rationing during the war. We had bread rationing after it. And that was because we were pouring wheat into Germany to prevent mass starvation there.

PAUL NITZE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: That was a bad winter altogether. It was cold and crops were bad. People were unhappy. And the communists were making strenuous gains here, there, and the other place, particularly in Italy and in France. But also in Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The British could no longer afford all their heavy commitments in the Mediterranean. They told the Americans they intended to pull out.

CLARK CLIFFORD, SPECIAL COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT TRUMAN: The message came and it was flat. It said, Great Britian is withdrawing from both economic aid and military aid to Greece and Turkey.

GEORGE ELSEY, AIDE TO PRESIDENT TRUMAN: This simply crystallized the opinions in the executive branch that the United States had to move and move very, very quickly.

NITZE: The prospect didn't look good at all for Europe or for the United States or for anybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Washington, President Truman went to Congress. From now on, he announced, the United States would contain the advance of communism anywhere on the globe. This, at last, was the official declaration of the Cold War.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And tune in this Saturday for the next episode of CNN's landmark series Cold War. Revisit a pivotal time in history as the Iron Curtain divides a world struggling to recover from the ravages of war. The next Cold War Saturday, 19:00 in Hong Kong.

And finally, the last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II has died. Hiroo Onoda was a member of the Japanese imperial forces. And during the war, he was sent to the small island of Lupong (ph) in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces. When allied forces defeated the Japanese in the Philippines in 1944, Onoda evaded captured. And for about 30 years he hid in the jungle, surviving on food that he either found there or stole from local farmers.

And that entire time, Onoda refused to accept Japan's defeat in World War II. It wasn't until 1974 that he emerged from the jungle and handed over his sword. Onoda then returned home to Japan to a heroes welcome. Hiroo Onoda died in Tokyo on Thursday at the age of 91.

And that is News Stream. But the news continues at CNN. World Business Today is next.

END