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NEWS STREAM

Tensions Rise In Crimea; Still No Trace of MH 370; A Look At The Invention Of The World Wide Web; Tropical Cyclone Lusi Pounds South Pacific; Confusion Over What Happened To MH 370 Causes Frustration; Sen. Dianne Feinstein Accuses CIA Of Stealing Senate Committee Investigation Documents

Aired March 12, 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 Malaysia officials widen the search for a missing plane again. There was still no trace of that plane and the 239 people onboard.

As Crimea prepares to choose whether to split from Ukraine, we visit an area known as the gateway to Russia.

And 25 years ago today, this man presented an idea that would change our lives forever: the world wide web.

The search area has been expanded again today for the Malaysia Airlines plane that so far seems to have simply vanished without a trace. Now search teams are covering 70,000 square kilometers for flight 370 which disappeared more than four days ago.

Now officials called the search operation unprecedented.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HISHAMMUDDIN BIN HUSSEIN: This is unprecedented what we're going through. Coordinating so many countries together is not something that is easy. You're looking at so many vessels and aircraft, so many countries to coordinate and a vast area for us to search.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: But one country is scaling back its search effort. Now Vietnam appears to be frustrated by the information it's getting from Malaysia and said that it would wait for clearer information on where to look.

I want to show you exactly where the search effort is taking place right now. Now the plane, it took off early Saturday from Kuala Lumpur, it was heading toward Beijing, but this is where it lost contact with air traffic control.

Now the search area was initially around that spot, but has since been expanded. And that's because some officials say radar recordings suggest that the plane may have turned around and gone off course possibly flying back toward Malaysia.

But at a briefing today, officials said further analysis of the radar data would be needed to confirm that. And we have 39 planes, 42 ships and search crews from 12 countries all scouring the seas and some land areas for any sign of a huge jet. So far, there's been no sighting, just several false leads.

Now several false leads. Now CNN's Richard Quest is our aviation expert. He joins me now live from New York. And Richard, you know, after we heard today from that rather frenzied press conference in Kuala Lumpur, are we getting any closer to finding the plane or what happened to it?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'd have to say, no we're not. And it is perhaps worrisome, and maybe not a little troubling that four or five days -- excuse me, four or five days after the incident happened and far from narrowing where they believe the playing to be. They're extending the search range area and the discrepancy between searching in the east -- the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand and the Straits of Malaka and up to the Andaman Sea is really quite extraordinary. And that's why one other point is they are bringing in and they are admitting that they are seeking the help of other experts -- the NTSB and the FAA from the United States, to help understand the east-west tracks of these radars.

Because once the plane ceased to use its transponder, a secondary radar system was -- they followed these planes by wasn't relevant and you're literally just looking at a little line on a computer screen, which does a ping every now and then. And it's finding out what that ping is and which one is likely to be relevant that they're now having to search and now having to seek extra help.

LU STOUT: And can you tell us more about the art of radar detection, because there's a lot of readings and there's a lot of confusion out there about where and when the plane was last detected. Can you clarify what we know?

QUEST: Yes, we know that the plane took off. We know that it was heading towards Beijing. We know that there was radar track of it going out into the Gulf of Thailand where it meets the South China Sea. And that's when it all now becomes murky, because we have the -- we have one source from the Malaysian airforce saying it did a turnaround and was headed back across Malaysia to the Straits of Malaka. We have a denial of that from the prime minister's office. We have the royal Malaysian Air Force now saying they never said that in the first place, but by the way we're still concentrating our search in the Straits of Malaka.

So, you've got -- we just do not know because they haven't released the information. They haven't made it clear what the radar tracks are showing. And now we have -- we have a bizarre addendum to all of this with a report from an oil worker off Vietnam who says that -- does the potential of something burning off Vietnam.

Now if that is true, or if they're investigating that as a serious option, then they really don't have any idea where this plane might have been.

LU STOUT: Yeah, thanks for mentioning that letter from that oil rig worker. It was going viral earlier today and it raised just a lot of eyebrows here in the newsroom.

What needs to happen next, Richard. I mean, we know that the search area has been expanded, yet what needs to happen?

QUEST: Very simple -- cool, calm, collected heads of an experienced nature need to get hold of the raw data and start working their magic, if you like. And what we now know is once you get the NTSB involved and once you get the FAA and the Europeans, if they're invited, they are enormously experienced.

You've got civil radar, you've got military radar. you've got anecdotal evidence, that's going to form the core. Once you get Boeing involved onto that table as well.

I'm not saying for a second that the Malaysians can't do this. I am saying that in the heat of the crisis that they now find themselves in that there is a distinct lack of information and clarity about what took place. And these external -- these external forces coming in will perhaps bring that shape and order that is lacking so far.

LU STOUT: That's right, more expertise which only bring us closer to some sort of an answer here. Richard Quest, thank you so much.

Did you want to add one more thing?

QUEST: Yeah, I did want to say one thing. There's two distinct things here. I mean, the Malaysians by all accounts are doing a superb job of actually searching the waters, the crisscrossing, the making of blocks, the doing it all systemically. But what we're talking about here is a level of expertise of interpreting electronic data. And you really do need to go to the people who have that expertise and it is the NTSB and the FAA.

LU STOUT: And they're on their way. Richard Quest, thank you so much. Take care.

Now, sophisticated international search and rescue team have yet -- not so far, they've not yet located the missing plane, but there is a way you can help in the effort.

Now CNN's Dan Simon, he explains how online crowdsourcing using satellite imagery is actually being used just to try and to find the missing pieces of this puzzle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Boeing 777 is no small airplane, but in this case it feels like a needle and the ocean is the haystack. That's why a Colorado company called DigitalGlobe has elicited the public to help find the missing plane.

LUKE BARRINGTON, DIGITALGLOBE: And we'll ask you to mark anything that looks interesting, any signs of wreckage or a life raft.

SIMON: The company has pointed a couple of its orbiting satellites at the Gulf of Thailand, and put the images online at tomnod.com for people to scour for anything suspicious. See something interesting, you tag it with an easy click. A CNN iReporter found this image that he thought resembled the shape of a plane. No word on what, if anything, it is, but by crowd sourcing the images, you put more eyes on possible clues.

It's not the first time satellite imagery has been used in this way. It helped track tornado damage last year in Moore, Oklahoma, and more recently the floods in Colorado. But the most well-known example of crowd sourcing following a tragedy occurred after the Boston Marathon bombings. Investigators asked attendees to submit any image or video that might assist them in locating the perpetrators. As for the plane, the sheer number of digital volunteers has overwhelmed the website. A sign of a public eager and willing to help.

BARRINGTON: In many cases, the areas covered are so large or the things that we're looking for are so hard to find that without the help of hundreds of thousands of people online, we'd never be able to find them.

SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And for the families and loved ones of those on board, the wait it goes on. It's simply agonizing. And the frustration over having virtually no answers is really just too much to bear. In fact, some vented their anger at airline officials in Beijing on Tuesday.

And for more now, our Saima Mohsin joins me live from Kuala Lumpur. And Saima, families, again they are desperate for answers. Tell us what they're going through.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, of course they're desperate for answers. Day five, they've spent many agonizing days and nights, of course, Kristie, hoping against hope that they will hear from their families, from their loved ones, their next of kin. They are a lot of them have gathered, as you say, in Beijing. Many of them been flown here to Kuala Lumpur by Malaysia Airlines, which is acting as a center of operations for that massive search operation, of course, and to try and help support the people here.

They've brought in specialists to talk them through the situation, to help them at this difficult time. We went to one of those hotels today where I actually met a few members of the families, many of them reluctant to talk, some of them actually wanting to share how much they loved the people on board. I met one young man whose brothers, two of them, his elder brother and his young brother, were on board that flight just as it disappeared and he told me of when they first heard the news how their heart sank, how they panicked immediately, they started phoning their phones. They tried to call the airline. They had very little information as they have continued to have.

And one of those men's wives sitting at the side too distraught to talk, Kristie. She just kept bursting into tears. She was unable to speak to us. We kept away from her out of respect for her privacy and her emotional well-being at this moment.

But we spoke to him and he said, you know, we've been family and sticking together since we were kids. We've never been apart. This is the first time we felt that we've been so far apart. We feel a sense of loss, but we're not giving up hope.

On the flip side, we saw the frustration bubbling over. As we walked down stairs, we saw an elderly man shouting at the counter -- the Malaysian Airlines counter setup with those specialist assistants, team members, shouting at them saying we don't want your money. We don't want compensation. We just want answers. We want to see our family.

His son, in his twenties, was on board MH370 -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: It sounds like the family members, they are getting emotional support in counseling. What they're not getting is information. So are real questions being raised here about how much authorities know? And how much they're willing to share with the public?

MOHSIN: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, what's interesting, Kristie, is people keep coming up to us here -- and there is a huge amount of media here trying to glean what information we can from it -- we've got a really large team here for CNN working on this around the clock day and night trying to get as much information as possible. But the trouble is very little information is coming out and being shared.

We have had regular press conferences, almost every few hours in fact, but usually there's very few updates. And if you consider the massive situation they have on their hands, the vast amount of land and sea that they have to cover, in terms of the sea and the ocean that they're trying to cover on both sides of the Malaysian peninsula, it's 27,000 square nautical miles.

I mean, it's unimaginable. I went up in a search and rescue mission yesterday over the west of Malaysia, Kristie. And we looked out at sea and as we looked out across the horizon, the ministers of defense and transportation who is overseeing this operation said to me it's overwhelming. You know, how do we do this? I don't want to stop. I've made a promise to the families and I won't stop, but how do we find even something as big as a 777 in this vast ocean? It's an unimaginable task.

But, yes, there are calls for much more information to be shared. And nobody is sure why the government is so reluctant to share what they're finding or what they know, because as far as they're concerned, they're saying the plane was there. It was on course as we handed over from Malaysian to Vietnamese air traffic control, it disappeared.

Yet they have given us a little nuggets of information like this slight air turn that took place just as it disappeared off the radar. And then today in a press conference, they reiterated some information that we picked up on overnight here on CNN that this plane may well have traveled, turning back over the Malaysian peninsula to the west coast. And that is because while the transponder -- this is in a piece of equipment in a plane that identifies the plane so that air traffic control can see that this is Flight MH 370, Kristie -- that that transponder was mysteriously switched off.

But military radars, primary radars, picked up an aircraft turning back and heading west. And that's where they're concentrating their search -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, it's day five in the search for this missing airliner and still so many questions. Saima Mohsin joining me live from KL, thank you so much for that update.

Now you're watching News Stream. And up next, security is tightening in Crimea ahead of Sunday's referendum to stay with Ukraine or to join Russia. Flights from Kiev and Istanbul, they are canceled, but not from Moscow.

And protests erupt in Turkey after the death of a teenage boy. We'll go live to Istanbul for the latest on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now in Crimea, security is getting tighter and movement more limited as the troubled Ukrainian peninsula prepares to vote on whether it should join Russia.

Now incoming flights from Kiev, Istanbul and other cities have all been suspended for the rest of the week. The only flights that are apparently being allowed to land are from Moscow.

Now in Crimea, posters encourage residents to vote in favor of Russia. And it seems officials are already looking to a life with the mainland. Anna Coren traveled to the peninsula's eastern tip to find out who is in control and what plans are underway.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under bleak skies buffeted by howling winds, the coastal city of Kerch sits on the Black Sea. This is the eastern tip of Crimea. And through the mist, several miles away, is Russia, also known here as the main land.

This is our gateway to the Russian invasion. And as we drive up, military trucks line the road.

Hello.

We ask them what they're doing. "No comment" says the Russian soldier, no filming is allowed here.

A senior officer then walks up, his machine gun in view.

"Get out," he tells us, you are not welcome.

Go forward? You don't want us here?

Our crew then heads to the entrance of the port that's been taken over by armed local militia. As soon as we approach, the man in the balaclava orders us to turn off the camera.

Why can't we film here?

They refuse to give an answer.

"Are they for Russia" the militia asks our translator. "Tell them Putin is already our president."

(on-camera): Just across this strip of water is Russia, and it's from the port on the other side that they're ferrying troops and military equipment from.

Russian forces are occupying Crimea. And from the soldiers we've just spoken to, they say the people who don't want to be part of Russia can leave.

(voice-over): One man who's been planning for this day is the mayor of Kerch.

He's already spoken to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about building a bridge. Moscow has approved the funding and construction will begin in the next few months.

According to the mayor, the Russians don't just promise, they deliver.

For now it's not civilians traveling from the mainland, but a continuous flow of Putin's men.

Anna Coren, CNN, Kerch, on the Crimean peninsula.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. And still to come, tear gas clouds, Turkish streets as protesters demonstrate after the death of a teenage boy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong you're back watching News Stream. And let's return to one of our top stories today, security is very tight in the Crimean city of Simferopol. And those traveling by train are being searched by pro-Russian militia.

And these armed men say that they're looking for people bringing in weapons. Diana Magnay is at the train station in Simferopol. She joins me now live on the line.

Diana, around you, have you been seeing crowds there desperate to leave or afraid?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, we have seen and spoken to some families who are leaving because they're worried about the situation -- Ukrainian families born here but decided to leave because of the referendum, because of the way it's being held.

I've just spoke to a lady who is taking her mother to Kiev. Her mother is actually Russian. But she says, you know, this is not an authority that I recognize. This is not a referendum whose rules I believe in and therefore I want to take my mother out of here just for the time being.

And you definitely get a sense that among the Tatar community, among ethnic Ukrainians and now even amongst some Russians that they just don't want to be in this city over the next few days.

And as he said, you know, this is a city crawling with various different militia groups supposedly keeping order at the moment and the streets are calm, but obviously highly armed, highly organized and not really under any central authority should a situation get out of control who knows how these various groups will operate without any sort of central authority to keep them in hand.

LU STOUT: All right, Diana Mangay setting the scene in Simferapol there in Crimea ahead, of course, that big referendum, the big vote taking place on Sunday. Diana, thank you.

Now let's go to Turkey where there is grief and there is anger on the streets of Istanbul. Now the rage was triggered by the death of a teenager of injuries suffered on the sidelines of an anti-government protest in Istanbul nine months ago. The 15-year-old was struck on the head by a tear gas canister and had been in a coma.

Now thousands of people turned out for his funeral. And the unrest, it comes at a difficult time for the government with an election just weeks away.

Now for the very latest, Ivan Watson joins me now live from Istanbul. And Ivan, tell us more about why this boy's death provoked such a strong reaction there.

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: It's really remarkable, Kristie. I'm walking with quite literally a river of humanity. This is the funeral procession for this teenaged boy, Kerkin Elvan, whose funeral is expected to take place within a couple of hours.

And the people here are chanting that the government, that the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a killer, they're accusing the government of being fascist. And they're carrying portraits of this boy Berkin Elvan who wasted away and had his 15th birthday while unconscious for nine months in a coma, in a hospital again as you mentioned after being struck in the head by a police tear gas canister at the height of anti-government protests last June in Istanbul.

So this boy has really become a symbol of what the critics that are gathered here by the tens of thousands claim is the authoritarian policies of the government and of police brutality. Those are, of course, claims that the Turkish government denies, though the Turkish prime minister repeatedly has called the protesters against his elected government terrorists and riff raff.

Now the Turkish president who has a more symbolic position, he called the family of this boy a day before he died on Tuesday to express condolences and also to try to help the family. Take a listen to an excerpt of what the Turkish president said about this death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH GUL, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): I was really sad when I saw the news today. He was only 14 when this incident took place. My condolences for his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now that statement was not enough to settle the anger and rage and grief in the streets of many Istanbul neighbors last night, Kristie, when I witnessed basically riots, crowds hurling abuse and bottles and rocks at riot police, calling them killers and child killers. The police held back. They eventually began pursuing demonstrators through the streets. There was tear gas, burning barricades, plastic pellets being fired by the police back at the demonstrators.

The Turkish president's office, they said that they told the family of the dead boy what can we do to help and that the family said they wanted evidence -- they wanted the security camera footage of the actual incident, which the president's office says has not been found. And they also asked for police not to interfere in this funeral. And I had to say we've been walking several kilometers right now with these tens of thousands of demonstrators and I haven't seen a single police officer during this time - - Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah. And we're looking at these live pictures as these anti-government protests continued today.

Ivan Watson on the line from Istanbul. Fresh anti-government protests in Turkey after the death of this 15-year-old boy. Ivan, thank you very much indeed for your reporting.

Now frustration is growing with each day. A passenger jet with 239 people on board is not found. Malaysian officials are asking for patience, but now there's even more confusion. We'll go live to Kuala Lumpur to get the latest on the search.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now Malaysian authorities have announced an expanded air and sea search for missing flight 370. 12 countries are now helping, but Vietnam has announced that it's scaling back the operation until Malaysian officials provide clearer information on where to look.

Now there's new word on Michael Schumacher's condition. Now a statement from his agent says the seven-time Formula One world champ is showing, quote, small encouraging signs. But adds that he still faces a long fight to recovery. Now Schumacher has been in a coma since late December after hitting his head in a skiing accident in the French Alps.

Now dramatic testimony at the Oscar Pistorius murder trial today has focused on the door to the bathroom where Reeva Steenkamp was fatally shot. Now police forensic scientists are among a cricket bat at the door, which was brought into the courtroom. He testified he appeared Pistorius was not wearing his prosthetic legs when he knocked down the door after killing Steenkamp.

As the region of Crimea prepares for a controversial referendum, Ukraine's interim prime minister will meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington today. Now the U.S. says it wants to show its strong support for the people of Ukraine.

Now meanwhile, Crimea's second city Sevastopol has officially adopted the Russian language just days ahead of the vote on whether to leave Ukraine for Russia.

Now Nick Paton Walsh joins me on the phone in Crimea. He has just witnessed a tense standoff between troops at a military base there. And Nick, what are you seeing?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, we're in Novoazovsk, which is to the northwest of Crimea, it's slightly about the town of (inaudible). There is a Ukrainian naval base, which has been it's fair to say putting in defenses very strongly in the last couple of hours or so. It's the first time I've seen Ukrainian troops actually ready to fire back and fight with their weapons loaded.

They are in that state of readiness, because around them are swirling dozens -- certainly we've seen -- of what are obviously Russian troops. I say that obviously -- they don't have markings on their uniforms, but the Ukrainian officer we spoke to at the base said that they had, in fact, identified themselves to the Ukrainian soldiers there as being Russians.

What we saw emerge was troubling, because at one point the Russian soldiers moved towards the base. They seemed to be moving down the side of the base, along a fence between -- that runs between the base and the actual shoreline -- the base is situated upon -- almost trying to move towards the base down a flank as though they were trying to intimate those on the base.

The base sounded the alarm. The men inside ran to their positions, some taking up positions behind sandbags. They moved an armored personnel carrier closer towards the gate. There was a real sense, then, that they were genuinely expecting some sort of attack.

The Russians moved back in some areas, moved forward in others and laid down a heavy machine gun on the ground right in front of the gates of the Ukrainian naval base point it at the gates themselves.

I should point out at no point were shots fired, but there was an extraordinarily high moment of tension there. You could see it in the eyes of the Ukrainian soldiers. And then as this escalation of that tension moved down slightly and the Russians decided to move back into their trucks and move away we saw one, perhaps two Russians, it seems, they're certainly Russian make, and I think I saw Russian red star insignia on the helicopter itself, one or two Russian attack helicopters swirling around the town itself.

There is a building in the town where it seems the Russian -- or Russian, say, unidentified troops have made their particular base.

But what has been interesting to note here is the readiness of the Ukrainian soldiers to defend their base, but also, bizarrely, the reaction of the locals. I can't speak to the entire town, but many you who spoke to us were clear they saw the Russian soldiers here as being here to protect them, to protect their right to speak Russian, which some people say is threatened by the new Ukrainian government decision to remove Russian as an official language.

But it was interesting to note the locals not leaping immediately to the fence of the Ukrainian soldiers here who are very much on their own, very much isolated, but very clear they're willing to defend that particular base, but see the Russians here as perhaps coming to their assistance in some way.

Bizarre scenes here, but certainly very tense.

There has now de-escalated, but for a moment there it did -- we had armed men, both willing to exchange fire, facing off against each other in a matter of meters away -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: You know, this is a really bold and brazen move by Russia. And just to confirm here, this was not pro-Russian militias, or pro-Russian troops that were making this move in on this Ukrainian base, these were Russian troops.

WALSH: They didn't have insignia. They wouldn't talk to us. They didn't identify themselves, but most observers have seen the nature of the weaponry, the discipline, the kind of uniforms they had, the vehicles they were driving in, that all suggested they're from the Russian forces.

I mean, this debate has been going on for over a week now, whether or not the thousands of men well trained, well disciplined, and good fitting uniforms and decent weaponry running around here taking various areas over are in fact actually from Russian forces. The U.S. government says they are, but of course they haven't identified themselves as such and the Kremlin says they're self-defense forces.

But what we saw according to the Ukrainian officers were men who identified themselves to them as having been Russian soldiers, moving towards this base, trying to intimidate the Ukrainian soldiers on it, perhaps probing defenses, seeing what they're reactions would be. The Ukrainians very much isolated, but fortunately they're weapons loaded and at one point in fact trained on the Russians on the other side of the gate about 20 meters away from them -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Wow, Nick Paton Walsh reporting on this tense showdown in Ukraine. Thank you very much indeed for that update, Nick.

Now, back to our top story, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Now Malaysian officials, they held a news briefing earlier today, but that really did little to clear up the mystery surrounding the location of the aircraft.

Now Jim Clancy is in the Malaysian capital. He joins me live from Kuala Lumpur with the latest. And Jim, you know, what did you identify as sort of the key details from that press conference earlier today?

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously first of all, Kristie, it has to be the fact that we do not know where flight 370 is right now with its 239 souls aboard. That remains the big mystery.

But officials here are opening up and laying out the evidence, if you will, bit by bit, that suggests that maybe we've been looking in the wrong place. What I'm talking about is the fact that we now have that second radar track that shows while the plane went on its flight path towards Beijing at some point about an hour out of Kuala Lumpur it abruptly turned -- the transponder went off and then it abruptly turned, military radar tracked that.

Now there's a difference -- there was a transponder in the first part, military radar in the second track that went hundreds of miles off course. Here is the director of civil aviation in Malaysia to explain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZHARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN, DIRECTOR, MALAYSIAN DEPT. OF CIVIL AVIATION: In our radar, the secondary radar we look at our radar and it was posting about 1:21 in the morning. And the target disappears off radar at 1:30 in the morning. And that is because we have a secondary radar. Our primary radar does not pick it up at that particular point in time.

Then the defense -- defense primary radar was analyzed on the same day and there was an indication of -- like I say, an indication of possibly (inaudible) come back. That's the reason why a search was conducted in the search (inaudible) Andaman Sea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: OK. Now to try to understand that, what he's saying is that they were getting a ping, you know, like Flight Tracker the app. You can see the flight number. You can see the course it was on. You could even get the air speed, all those kinds of things. Well, that was up to that point of about 1:15, 1:30. Suddenly that went off and then they could use their data from military radar, that primary radar he talked about, to track the plane on a different path it was heading -- it was some 200 miles northwest of Panang. Meaning, it was completely out of the South China Sea.

And the South China Sea is where there's been a lot of searching done right now. It put it on a path that was taking it into the Indian Ocean.

But they say that primary radar -- primary radar data that they have, they can't positively identify that. They've asked the Americans to come in with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Europeans, come in here, help us analyze the data so we can tell for sure.

So they're still saying they don't know that that other -- that veering off path is the correct one.

So, I mean, that's where it was left today. A lot of controversy, a lot of people wondering what's going on. The Indian government has said it will join the search.

Back to you, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Jim Clancy with the very latest from KL. Thank you so much for that.

Jim mentioned Flight Radar 24. Well, let's take a closer look now at the technology used to track aircraft in flight.

Flight Radar 24, it's one of the biggest tracking sites in the web. It displays the location of thousands of flights every day. Now the website's co-founder Mikael Robertsson joins me live from Stockholm, Sweden with more. And Mikael, first, tell us how your site works, how accurate if Flight Radar 24?

MIKAEL ROBERTSSON, FLIGHT RADAR 24 CO-FOUNDER: It should be more accurate, because it receives ABS signal from aircraft and the data is taken from the GPS on board the aircraft. And so the positions will received should be very, very accurate.

LU STOUT: And remind us, according to Flight Radar 24 where and where was the missing Malaysian plane, when was that plane last detected?

ROBERTSSON: It was last detected at 21 minutes past 1:00, about 150 kilometers off the Malyasian coast, northeast of the Malaysian coast.

LU STOUT: And did the flight turn around?

ROBERTSSON: We can't see it turning around, but I'm not saying it didn't turn around. We could only track it for about 150 kilometers and then we saw that the signal disappeared and I don't know if this could be because of the transponder was turned off, or this could be because the aircraft lost altitude very fast so we lost the signal. Those are two possibilities.

LU STOUT: What did you make of the announcement earlier today out of KL from Malaysian military officials saying that they believe that the plane could have turned around?

ROBERTSSON: Yeah, I guess they have to analyze the (inaudible) data and come to a conclusion, but if they say that that is a possibility, I guess it's correct.

LU STOUT: OK, now, Malaysia's air force chief also said today that military radar might have detected the plane 2:15 a.m. local time Saturday, that's 45 minutes after it took off tracking 230 kilometers northwest of Panang. How close is that reading to what you picked up earlier?

ROBERTSSON: It's quite far away. But if it was flying without the transponder than we can't track it really.

LU STOUT: OK, so the reason for the discrepancy?

ROBERTSSON: Yeah, I guess we compare a little bit different data. We have the last position with that transponder and Malaysian military, they have the position off the aircraft without the transponder. So that's why there's a difference.

LU STOUT: And why is it that, you know, given in the era of pinpoint accurate GPS technology that we don't have answers here? You know, why is technology failing us to find this missing airliner?

ROBERTSSON: Yeah, that's a very good question. I guess nothing is 100 percent sure. So if there is a possibility for someone to turn that transponder off, then we can get these kind of problems.

LU STOUT: OK. Mikael Robertsson, founding of Flight Radar 24 joining me live from Stockholm. Thank you so much for joining me. Take care.

ROBERTSSON: Thank you.

LU STOUT: Now, I mean, so many questions remain about the fate of this missing plane. But there have been several key developments in the five days since it disappeared. Now CNN.com has put together a timeline of events to help you get up to speed on the information that has come to hand so far. And we also have a breakdown of what we don't and also a breakdown of what we don't know. Just go to our homepage for that, links and more at CNN.com.

Now let's go back in time for a moment. Now just imagine a world without CNN.com, without Google, Facebook, or even the keyboard cat? Well, without this man we wouldn't have any of those things. We've got more on the contribution he made 25 years ago later in the program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: OK, let's go to Washington where the head of the Senate intelligence committee has made explosive accusations against the CIA. Dianne Feinstein accuses the agency of searching through computers used by senate staffers and secretly removing classified documents. The CIA denies the claims.

Now the dispute centers on the intel committee's multi-year investigation with CIA's interrogation and detention programs. For more, let's go live to CNN's Michelle Kosinski at the White House -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kristie.

What's being alleged here is really stunning, like and dagger inside the U.S. government and going right to the question how much power does the CIA have? And how much is congress able to keep tabs on it?

Now five years ago, the Senate intelligence committee started investigating the CIA's detention and interrogation practices post- September 11, some of which President Obama has called torture. Well, the committee says that during that investigation the CIA accessed committee computers and deleted certain damning information.

Now each side is alleging that what the other has done might have been criminal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CHAIRWOMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: The CIA just went and searched the committee's computers.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Diane Feinstein blasted the CIA on the Senate floor.

FEINSTEIN: Besides the constitutional implication, the CIA search may also have violated the fourth amendment, the computer fraud and abuse act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance.

KOSINSKI: The 6.2 million documents she says for staffers who spent years coming through, but and then noticed certain pages started disappearing. This happened twice, more than 900 pages. She says the CIA, when asked what was going on, first denied any interference. Then blamed it on the IT guys. Then said the White House had says an internal report that highlighted the CIA's own problems started disappearing.

FEINSTEIN: It was not their classification level, but rather their analysis and acknowledgment of significant CIA wrong doing.

KOSINKSKI: CIA Director John Brennan strongly denied hacking those computers.

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: Nothing could be further from the truth. We wouldn't do that.

KOSINSKI: Though Dianne Feinstein says he admitted the CIA, quote, "searched them." She says now the CIA is claiming her committee should have never had access to that internal report. And the CIA has now gone to the Justice Department to look into whether Senate Intelligence Committee has committed a crime, something she calls intimidation of those trying to investigate.

FEINSTEIN: Wading through the horrible details of a CIA program that never should have existed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: Now of course this has drawn strong reaction. One Republican Senator said if this is true this is dangerous to democracy and that Congress should declare war on the CIA. Senator Feinstein says she's going to move as early as this month to have her committee's entire report on the CIA declassified and made available to the American public, which should be quite a read, although it is now at least 6,000 pages long -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Wow, incredible. Michelle Kosinski, thank you very much indeed with the latest 6,000 pages long -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Wow, incredible. Michelle Koskinski, thank you very much indeed with the latest on that.

Now time now to get your global weather update and Mari Ramos, she's still tracking a tropical cyclone in the southwest Pacific. She joins me now with the latest -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kristie.

Yeah, this is a very slow moving weather system, but the good news is that it will start speeding up, in other words moving quicker away from the areas that has been affected.

So here's Australia. We're going to go ahead and head farther here toward the east just off -- near Vanuatu actually, in between New Caledonia and Fiji. This is where we have Tropical Cyclone Lusi bringing some very heavy rainfall. Over 200 millimeters of rain in Pekoa and in Vila, they've already had over -- almost 200 millimeters of rain and that's just in the last 24 hours.

This is a strong weather system, winds now clocking in at close to 120 kilometers per hour gusting to more than 150. It's the outer bands of this storm that have been affecting the populated areas. And there's about 230,000 people in this area alone. The concern and the problem has been that it had been moving very, very slowly and it has at least four people have been killed according to the UN office of humanitarian affairs. They say also that there has been extensive damage to crops in the region and some damages to homes and of course people that had to be evacuated from their homes because of the flooding across this region.

So, you can see the bands of the storm extending from New Caledonia all the way back over toward Fiji. Schools in Vanuatu will reopen again today.

As the storm continues to track farther to the south, what we're going to have with Lusi is maybe intensifying just a little bit more before it starts to lose steam as it continue to move south.

And, yes, directly south of here is New Zealand, the North Island of New Zealand in particular.

We're going to watch this storm as the remnants of it still could be - - you know, bring us some significant weather as it moves closer and closer to this area and the outer bands of this storm will be affecting you about Friday afternoon local time. So Friday evening and into Saturday. This is definitely a weather system that you want to monitor in that part of the world as well.

Before we head north, I want to take you to Darwin here across northern Australia. There was a blackout here. And they weren't exactly sure what happened. We have video to show you, people just very, very frustrated, because it lasted over 12 hours. Now, schools had to be closed, public transport had to be suspended.

They weren't exactly sure what had happened, but the Northern Territory government said that it had to do with -- they were going to do an inquiry as to why this happened, especially with temperatures so hot. They said that there was a tripped circuit at one of the substations in those areas. Eventually, though, after 12 hours of very hot temperatures and of course very uncomfortable conditions, the lights did come back on.

Come back over to the weather map. Let's go ahead and go back to one of our top stories. And of course still no sign of that Malaysia airlines flight that disappeared over the weekend. I want to show you that when you look at this picture looking out of an airplane, conditions remained very calm, Kristie, across those areas of the South China Sea all the way back to the Andaman Sea and the areas where those searches have been going on. You can see right over here still looking at clear skies. And I'm telling you this, because there was some concern that the weather was going to start turning across some of these areas. But I think we're going to go ahead and stay with mostly clear skies and calm conditions.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: All right, clear and calm for now. Mari Ramos there, thank you.

Now still to come right here on News Stream, a very significant birthday. It is 25 years since this man, Sir Tim Berners Lee proposed what became the world wide web. We look back at his accomplishment after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: The technical paper at a European physics lab. His name Tim Berners Lee. And on that day he proposed creating the world wide web. And today it has become perhaps one of the greatest tools ever invented.

Now it's an easy way to browse through the sum of humanity's knowledge and a way to spend hours looking at funny pictures of cats sometimes.

Now, for something we all use on a daily basis, it's worth defining just what it is that he invested. Now many talk about the Internet and the web as if they're the same thing, but they're not.

Now the Internet is the network itself, a collective term for all of our computers and devices linked together as one giant entity. But the web is one of those things that we do on the Internet. It's on a number of services like email, FTP, even voice calls like Skype, they're all running on the Internet.

Now the web is the most prominent of them. Now it might seem complicated, but at its heart is a very simple idea. The web is made up of pages of content. And the breakthrough from Tim Berners Lee was to link those pages using hyperlinks to jump between different pages on different computers in different countries is the core idea that made his invention different and turned the web into the essential tool it is today.

Now of course it took awhile for the true value of the web to emerge. Take a look at this clip from a CNN story on the web from 1993.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Promoting the information super highway, Vice President Gore on Wednesday said he could foresee the day when a youngster just home from school, given a choice between Nintendo and the Encyclopedia Britannica, would choose to access the encyclopedia. If that is so, that might be an even greater accomplishment than the technology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: It's like a time machine there.

Now referring to his invention, Tim Berners Lee once said this is for everyone. It was a message he famously tweeted out at the London Olympics opening ceremony.

Now the web is his gift to the world and not a waking hour goes by when we're not somehow reminded of the power of his invention.

So, what can we give in return to Sir Tim? Well, at least one big huge and heartfelt thank you.

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

END