Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

Australia Committed To Finding MH370; Ukrainians Along Russian Border Nervous About Possible Invasion, Vow To Fight; UN Panel Urges International Committee To Act Now On Climate Change; al Jazeera Journalists Still In Egyptian Prison After Hearing; Earthquake In South California; Recep Tayypi Erdogan Declares Victory For AK Party In Local Elections

Aired March 31, 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.

It is a race against time for this ship to find the flight data recorders from MH370, but there is still no trace of the plane at all.

A UN court orders Japan to stop its annual whale hunt.

And a swarm of small earthquakes rock Southern California. And we'll tell you what it all means.

As the hunt for missing flight 370 concludes for today, there was yet another setback. Now orange objects described by Australian authorities as one of the most promising leads turned out to be nothing more than discarded fishing gear.

Now another high tech piece of equipment is joining the search effort, a ping detector has been fitted to an Australian ship. It'll be used to track down the plane's flight data recorders.

But that operation, it faces its own set of hurdles. Now the ship towing the ping detector will take up to three days to get to the general search area, which spans some 254,000 square kilometers. The detectors only have a range of about three-and-a-half kilometers. And adding to the challenge, batteries on the pingers last abut 30 days. That gives searchers roughly one week to locate the flight data recorders.

Now when and if they are found, the so-called black boxes could provide crucial insight into what went wrong. Athena Jones has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE KOLLY, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: This is one of the more advanced labs in the world. And for that reason that's why we tend to help other countries.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at the National Transportation Safety Board state- of-the-art laboratory, a demonstration of what it takes to get vital information from the all-important black boxes. This is what the pinging of one of the data recorders sounds like once it's made contact with water. Even after a prolonged period in saltwater, data from these devices is still retrievable.

ERIN GORMLEY, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We have had a good success rate with recovery. All of the recorders, you know, go through different stresses and -- but overall we have had a very good success rate with water recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you ever not gotten data in a water recovery?

GORMLEY: I can't think of one?

JONES: Recorders found in saltwater are first bathed in freshwater and later carefully dried and taken apart to reveal this, the device's memory card. Even a damaged card can be useful, says recorder engineer Erin Gormley.

GORMLEY: The data does jump from chip to chip. Even if you one corrupt chip, because it has cracked or it has gotten some sort of corrosion on it, we should still be able to build the information back.

JONES: Information from the flight data recorder's memory card, which keeps track of data like the plane's pitch, altitude and speed, is downloaded on to a computer system, where teams make sense of the data. To us, it just looks like zeros and ones.

GORMLEY: We get information from the manufacturer of the aircraft that has a data map. And that data map translates all the zeros and ones into actual parameters.

JONES: For the cockpit voice recorder, a team of six to eight people helps transcribe the device's four channels, which picks up not just voices, but everything from a door opening to a seat shifting. The work they do here is difficult, but it's key to understanding what went wrong in airline disasters.

GORMLEY: We want to make sure this never happens again.

JONES: The director of this NTSB lab said it's incredibly rare for them to come across a black box too damaged for them to be able to access the data. And it's not water, but a high- intensity, a high-duration fire that's most likely to make that information to be irretrievable.

Athena Jones, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And again, it is a race against time to locate those flight data recorders.

Now Paula Newton is in Perth, the center of the search operation. She joins me now live. And Paula, of course the search effort, it goes on, but the fact is this, it's just a lot of objects have been picked up, but still no actual plane debris.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And that's a point not lost on anyone.

Today, another search day is over. Australian authorities telling us that they haven't found anything significant.

At the same time, though, Ocean Shield, that ship that in a few days will be on scene to be able to try and locate those black boxes we were just talking about, it is now underway. Moments from now, it will begin its journey -- as we say, it won't be there for a few days yet, but when it gets there it will be very significant in this search.

You know, it's been a tough day. They talk about objects that are found and then it turns out just to be nothing -- either garbage or fishing equipment. And it's tough. It's tough for the families listening in so intently on this search as well.

At the same time, though, we have to say this search has started a whole new phase. We've got more planes in the air, more ships that are on sight the entire time, 24/7, looking at those objects. And Kristie, also crucially, helicopters now who can go right up to objects once they're spotted from the air and then be able to call those ships over, usually within hours to be able to check them out and see if it is anything.

Today, Prime Minister Tony Abbott here in Australia spent some time here at the base and he wanted to make it clear that they're giving this their best shot and that everyone should just settle down and get comfortable, because this investigation will, one way or the other, take months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Challenges are considerable, but let's not underestimate the goodwill. Everyone wants to get to the bottom of this mystery, everyone is united in their common grief, in their common anxiety to resolve this. I don't think we've got a whole lot of competing national pride at stake here. I think we've got at stake here a whole of a people who just want to solve the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: What's interesting here as well is that he said that, look, if this mystery is solvable we will solve it. But it's interesting that that nagging doubt certainly isn't escaping Prime Minister Abbott.

I should say that a coordination center is being set up here not just to coordinate the international efforts of this search, Kristie, but also for the families. They do -- they do expect that some of the families of those missing passengers will be here in the coming weeks and they want to make sure that they do everything they can to show them the extent of this search now -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: That's right, because they need support, they need answers as well. Paula Newton, thank you so much for that. Paula Newton reporting live from Perth.

Now for families of those on board, the wait has been utterly excruciating. And now relatives of some of the flight's Chinese passengers are stepping up pressure on the Malaysian government. Paula Hancocks reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Praying for lost souls. Today, Chinese relatives of the missing airline passengers seek refuge in a Buddhist temple in Kuala Lumpur looking for some peace in the midst of such tragedy.

Of the 239 people on board, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, 154 were Chinese citizens. "Chinese are kind-hearted people," says this relative, but we can clearly distinguish between good and evil. We will never forgive those who hid the truth and the criminal who delayed the rescue mission.

These families arrived in Kuala Lumpur Sunday and within an hour, staged a press conference adding to the mounting pressure on the Malaysian government for answers. Dressed in white t-shirts with the words "pray for MH-370," they chanted three goals, we want evidence, we want proof, and we want our family.

Australian authorities are making preparations in Perth for the grieving families. But Malaysia Airlines' CEO says they will fly those families to Perth only after official confirmation that wreckage from the plane has been found. This woman begged please Malaysia's transport minister, please don't stop looking, find our loved one. Officials involved with the search gave words of encouragement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We owe it to everyone to do whatever we reasonably can and we can keep searching for quite some time to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Paula Hancocks reporting.

Now South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports that the two Koreas traded live fire across the disputed maritime border. It says North Korea fired several artillery shells as part of a military exercise. And South Korea says if fired back, because some shells fell into South Korean water.

Yonhap says residents on those border islands were temporarily evacuated. No injuries have been reported. And the exchange comes a day after Pyongyang raised the possibility of more nuclear tests.

Now the international court of justice has ordered Japan to stop its annual whale hunt. It has rejected Japan's argument that the hunt is carried out for scientific research.

Now Japan's fleet carries out the hunt every year, despite a worldwide moratorium. The UN led court has ruled that Japan must now revoke any permits granted as part of a research program.

Now two other countries, Norway and Iceland, also hunt whales.

You're watching News Stream. And still ahead this hour, preparing for the worst: Ukrainians say that they are increasingly nervous about thousands of Russian troops stationed at the border.

Despite a corruption probe and a crackdown on social media, the Turkish government claims victory in local elections, but will that carry onto the national stage?

And scientists say the world is warming and time is running out. A UN panel on climate change declares without action the impact could be irreversible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is in Crimea to discuss the future of the region. He says Crimeans are now part of a powerful country.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Russia held talks on the crisis in Paris, but failed to reach any breakthrough. The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says that there is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation on the border.

And Ukrainian residents on the border are closely watching the buildup of Russian troops. As Karl Penhaul reports, they are praying for peace, but they have also begun preparing for war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Faith they can avoid a war with the Russians but just in case a little prayer. This church sits on eastern Ukraine's border. Its priest, once an officer in the Soviet army, can't believe his old comrades will invade but if they do he's telling his flock to stand and fight.

FATHER MIKHAIL ZORIVCHAK, VILLAGE PRIEST (through translator): I will preach our people to defend our homeland from any invader. This is the land of our grand fathers. I'll pray and if they need me I'm ready to join them to protect our freedom.

PENHAUL: Luba Kostroma has brought his 3-year-old grandson Alexei for communion. His son is an army reservist. If conflict comes he'll be on the front line.

LUBA KOSTROMA, MOTHER OF UKRAINIAN RESERVIST (through translator): Every mother worries when her son is mobilized. We under our young men have to protect the homeland. It's painful that our sons must go to war in the 21st century. So, we're praying for peace.

PENHAUL: But faith doesn't line only in divine hands. In a nearby potato field Ukraine troops mine a camera. They've spotted tanks, attack helicopters and even missile batteries.

At a border checkpoint, Ukrainian guards shrug off the threat of war, but a fall back plan seems to be in place.

(on camera): The Russian border is just a few hundred yards away. We've come across this, a series of what appear to be recently dug defensive positions including this trench but right now there's no sign of any Ukrainian troops.

(voice-over): The open farmland is classic tank terrain. The Ukrainian villages say their best chance would be deep in the swamps where the grand fathers known as partisans waged a guerrilla fight during World War II. Our trip along the frontier is cut short.

(on camera): We were stopped by the border guard. They told us that's a closed military area. We have no authorization to be there so they are escorting us out.

(voice-over): If things do turn bad, Father Mikhail and other villagers believe they have to tactical advantages over the Russians.

ZORIVCHAK (through translator): We know the forest and swamps like the back of our hands. It will be very hard to fight us. Truth will always win. God is on our side.

PENHAUL: Even so, the mood here is somber.

Mothers afraid they may lose their sons, Ukrainians afraid they may have to battle old neighbors. There's not been to ask for whom the bell tolls.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And Karl Penhaul joins me live now from the Ukrainian- Russian border. And Karl, first we have to talk about Russian forces. There are reports of a possible de-escalation at the border. What have you seen?

PENHAUL: We've got clarification now, Kristie, from Kiev, from the defense ministry and the foreign ministry. The situation is far more complex than that.

What government sources are now telling us is that in fact Russian troops are not backing away from the border area, they're simply repositioning their forces. So if you look at the map, what government -- Ukrainian government are telling us is that the Russians are pulling troops from the eastern side of the border, pulling them up to the northeast sector of the border. That puts them, in fact, much closer to Kiev. And it puts them basically about 16 kilometers that way, that's how close the border is from here.

And where we are now, the Ukrainian army has come. They're setting up tents. This is a logistics and supply area. And over there, there is also a medivac field hospital as well. That is how seriously the Ukrainian army continues to take the Russian threat.

Over in that area -- and for operational security reasons, I can't show you that right now, maybe later I can bring you some pictures of that. But dug in, there are armored personnel carries, there are tanks, and there are anti-aircraft weapons as well, because what the Ukrainians here say is that the Russians not only are there soldiers across that side of the border, there are also tanks and attack helicopters.

And also, very revealing as well, I just took a short trip along the highway a few miles away from where I am now. And since this morning, more tanks and more armored personnel carries have pulled up close to the roadside there, dug in as well, and are now being camouflaged. It is very clear that the Ukrainian army here does feel that the Russians could still stage an incursion into this part of northeast Ukraine.

And in fact talking to the commander of this camp here, he says that during the day the Russian tanks, the Russian troops, are pretty quiet on that side of the border. But he says come the nighttime, even from this position, 15, 16 kilometers away, you can hear the Russian tanks maneuvering.

He says that already, some kind of psychological warfare is already underway, Kristie.

LU STOUT: The situation there at the border indeed has not de- escalated. As you've been reporting, Russian troops, they have not pulled back. They have repositioned themselves. We can see behind you, Ukrainian troops have moved in at the border.

Now meanwhile, we know this, Obama and the west, they have made it clear they are not going to war. They're not willing to fight for the future of Ukraine. Has that disappointed the government, the military and the people of Ukraine?

PENHAUL: It is difficult really to get a handle on what the government thinks. The government seems to have been playing things very cautiously. They want to maintain the west -- western European powers and the United States as their principle allies as they are now. A lot of that is because help for the Ukrainian economy hinges on getting support from western powers.

Also, we've seen how western powers applauded the Ukrainian military for not firing a shot in Crimea when the Russians rolled in and decided they would annex it.

But we're getting the sense here in this corner of Northeast Ukraine, things are going to be very different. Ukrainian soldiers that are here in this area appear to have come from areas from the interior. They're not relying on troops who have been based here for decades. And also the attitude from the civilian population is very different.

As we saw in that report, a priest in a village on the border saying to his flock, we have to stand and fight. The villagers are only too happy, because they have a long tradition, a long legacy, of partisan warfare, that that they're grandfathers taught them fighting against the Germans in World War II. And they say it doesn't matter if it's the Russians now, we'll still stand and fight them. We know they've got tanks, hey, we're going to break up in guerrilla units and we're going to go to the swamps, we're going to go to the forests.

They know that area like the back of their hands, because these are tough back woodsmen. You know, in winter, they're out there. They're shooting wolves, they're hunting ducks. They know how to get about in this terrain. And they do seem ready to fight, Kristie.

LU STOUT: They are praying for peace, but they are preparing for war. Karl Penhaul joining me live from the Russian Ukrainian border. Thank you so much for that update.

And you're watching News Stream. Still ahead on the program, after a rocky year in Turkish politics, voters headed to the polls this weekend in municipal elections there. And we'll find out why this local vote is being closely watched at the national level.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now right here on the program, we have highlighted the pressure put on foreign correspondents in China. Now Bloomberg's Asia editor-at-large has quit.

Now Ben Richardson recently resigned to protest his boss's handling of an investigative story about hidden financial ties between the families of Chinese officials and a wealthy businessman.

Now Bloomberg ran a similar story about President Xi Jinping's extended family back in June. And the Bloomberg website has been blocked in China ever since.

Now Richardson spoke to CNN's Brian Stelter about the journalistic challenges of covering China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN RICHARDSON, FRM. EDITOR-AT-LARGE, BLOOMBERG NEWS: The problem is, what most people don't understand, there are certain red lines you can't cross in China and one of those is to poke around in the affairs of the members of the ruling politburo. So, you know, that -- apart from that, almost anything else is fair game.

STELTER: I'm sure a lot of viewers at home wonder what it feels like to spend so much time reporting, editing a story and never have it appear anywhere, and then to resign because of that.

So what does it feel like for you personally?

RICHARDSON: It's -- well, I've spent a couple of months really pretty angry about the way that the story was managed because the entire situation could have been avoided. And it's extremely frustrating. I mean, we, just put in this in context, at the end of 2012, you know, we garnered a bunch of awards and there was a lot of back slapping going on inside the company. You know, we were vetted (ph), I guess, and you know we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.

Then we were encouraged to embark on a similar story, never disencouraged, so we worked four people with a lot of help from our other colleagues. You know, we spent the best part of seven or eight months working on this story, that's a big chunk of your life. And, you know, you invest a lot of emotional capital in a story like that.

STELTER: What would the repercussions have been if Bloomberg had published your story?

RICHARDSON: Well, that's a very good question because no one knows. It's very hard to believe that the Chinese government would throw Bloomberg out of the country. That was, you know, the main reason that Matt gave for, you know, not wanting to run these kind of stories.

You know, I've heard senior executives, you know, I've met very senior officials in China and have been told that Bloomberg's terminals -- they can't live without them. So it doesn't quite gel for me. It's not in China's interests to throw out a major news organization. I mean, it looks terrible.

I mean, generally I think they welcome the increased transparency and scrutiny, you know, in many areas of society. It's just as I say, there's this one particular red line.

So I feel personally -- and here's the other thing, the irony of it all of course is that, you know, the facts that Bloomberg allows -- Bloomberg's management allowed a bunch of journalists to spend, you know, more than half a year poking around in territory that we'd already been told not to look at, you know, we may as well have published it. They're damned anyway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now a spokesman for Bloomberg declined to comment on the disputed story, or in Richardson's resignation. Bloomberg's editor-in- chief has previously said that the piece remains, quote, active. But the story's lead journalist has also left Bloomberg, and he also declined to comment when contacted by CNN.

Now, still to come Turkey's national election is still months away, so why is the prime minister already claiming victory? We'll take you live to the capital just ahead.

Plus, these foreign journalists have been jailed for months in Egypt in a case that's been called an attack on free speech. After the break, we'll take you to Cairo as their trial continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Another setback in the search for the missing Malaysian Airliner. Officials say orange objects spotted by search planes turned out to be fishing equipment. Meanwhile, a ship with a special detector that could pick up signals from the flight data recorders is on its way to the search zone. But it will take up to three days to get there.

The UN's international court of justice has ordered Japan to stop hunting whales. Now Japan has killed the whales in its annual hunt, insisting it's for scientific research. The court rejected that.

The United Nations i warning that time is running out to deal with climate change. A major new report says that unless something is done to reduce emissions, their impact may be irreversible. And for some people, the effects could be catastrophic.

Now Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is claiming victory for his party in local elections. He says the ruling Justice and Development Party has a strong lead after Sunday's municipal polls. He government has been under fire in a corruption probe. And the vote, it's seen largely as a test of his support.

Let's get more from Turkey now. Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson joins me now from CNN Istanbul -- Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, that's right, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party appear to have scored a convincing victory in Sunday's local elections, surpassing by far the final results of the main opposition party, though one race in particular, the race for mayor in the capital city of Ankara is still being disputed by the opposition. It was neck and neck results from the two candidates.

But overall, clearly Erdogan has won this election weather what has been without a doubt one of the most difficult years of his political career. Major protests against him and his government, a corruption scandal that probably would have brought down most governments in western Europe or North America. He and his party have proven that really as a politician he has been indestructible for more than a decade as has his base of support for this powerful prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: The results are in, and in the words of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he just delivered an Ottoman slap to his opponents.

Candidates from his ruling AK Party won by a comfortable margin, improving on an electoral winning streak Erdogan has enjoyed since 2002.

This was the first time Turks have gone to the polls since anti- Erdogan protests erupted in Istanbul last summer and since police launched a corruption investigation that implicated top officials in Erdogan's cabinet.

But scandals and unrest clearly haven't shaken the faith of Erdogan's many supporters.

ADEM ACAR, JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY SUPPORTER (through translator): This election determines the future of Turkey. We must stand strong. We must stand straight. We must stand big. For that reason, AK Party must always win.

WATSON: Voters cast ballots on Sunday for the mayors of Turkish cities and towns. But it felt like far more was at stake here.

Look how closely the vote count is being scrutinized in this polling station. There are far more election observers than you'd expect in what's supposed to be a local election. And I have to say that the mood in these polling stations is rather tense.

Some election observers ordinary voters worried about cheating.

Have you ever watched a vote count before?

AYSE SENYER, OPPOSITION SUPPORTER: No. First time. This is first, first one watched vote.

WATSON: And why this time?

SENYER: Because our freedom is in danger, I guess. And I'm really afraid.

WATSON: In the last week-and-a-half, the government has shut down Twitter and YouTube, and some fear Erdogan's crackdown can now go further.

BULENT ALI REZA, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND ANALYTICAL STUDIES: Well, that's I think the question that all of us will focus on. Now (inaudible) same throughout the campaign that this was a referendum for himself, for his party and that if he were to actually gain a mandate from the people that there would be a crackdown.

But what Turkey needs after the elections is reconciliation rather than the kind of crackdown that some people fear.

WATSON: The most popular politician in Turkey says he wants to be a leader for the entire Turkish population. The question some are now asking, how will his prime minister now treat the millions of Turks who voted against him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Now, Kristie, Erdogan -- Kristie, Erdogan in his victory speech, he vowed to be a prime minister to all 77 million Turks in all 81 provinces of this country. He had some conciliatory messages. He urged the opposition to really step up its game and learn to reach out to all segment of society, as he claims and has proven to some extent the Justice and Development Party has had some success in doing.

But he also had some pretty ominous words of warning for his opponents, in particular an Islamic conservative movement led by an exiled -- self-exiled Turkish preacher who lives in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania name Fetullah Gulen, Erdogan's mildly Islamist political party and Gulen's movement have been at open war for the last two months.

Take a listen to this excerpt from Erdogan's victory speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERDOGAN (through translator): We will not surrender to Pennsylvania and their offshoots in Turkey. For tomorrow, there may be some who flee, there are some who have already fled. I have personally filed legal complaints against some of them. I warn that they could flee. We will enter their lair. They will pay for this. They will pay the price.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, that's a pretty ominous warning. Erdogan has always fired back at his critics, whether it's accusations of excessive use of police force or suppression of freedom of speech or the internet, most recently, by saying, hey, he is a democratically elected leader and he is once again clearly won that electoral mandate. The question again is going to be how is he going to use that? He has a history, particularly in the past couple of years, of being very intolerant of his critics and his opponents and of being quite vengeful in his politics against those opponents. So people will be watching that very closely in the days and weeks ahead.

I think there's quite some fear from people in segments of society that voted against the prime minister and his ruling party in Sunday's vote -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: That's right. How will he use his mandate? We shall see.

Ivan Watson reporting live from Istanbul, thank you.

Now three al Jazeera journalists are back in a Cairo courtroom. They have been detained since December, accused of spreading false news and of belonging to a terror group. They deny the charges. And their detention has drawn international condemnation.

Now Ian Lee is outside the courthouse. He joins me now live. The courthouse, of course, is where the trial is underway.

And Ian, what's taking place in court today?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, it really was a roller coaster of emotion for the al Jazeera journalists for correspondent Peter Greste, bureau chief Mohamed Fahme and producer Baher Mohamed. For awhile there, it looked like they actually might be released on bail. That didn't happen.

Today's court session, we heard from the three defendants, all of them denying that they belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, that they were spreading false news saying that they're basically journalists doing their job and they weren't hiding what they were doing, they were working out in the open, something the government has said they were doing. Then they said that -- that they want to be released and this is, as Peter Greste said, this is frankly preposterous that they're still being held.

Well, the judge didn't see it that way. He also postponed the next session until April 10, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Ian, in the last few months, there has been this immense global campaign to free the al Jazeera reporters. There's that viral campaign, also appeals from various governments, including the U.S. State Department.

How effective have they been?

LEE: These campaigns have been somewhat effective. You've seen this as -- or you've seen the interim president Adly Mansour address this case personally, addressing both Peter Greste as well as Mohamed Fahme saying that he hoped this resolves quickly.

Egyptian officials (inaudible) Egyptian officials, a lot of them would like to see this case go away as it does put Egypt in a poor light, but also highlights the state of freedom of speech here in Egypt and the freedom of press. This is a very high profile case, but there's also other journalists who have been detained who aren't getting this sort of press coverage who are...

LU STOUT: OK, unfortunately we just lost the live feed with CNN's Ian Lee joining me live from Cairo there. My apologies for that.

You're watching News Stream. Do stick around, because up next we have this. Hot, dry, running out of food, that is the verdict from a new UN climate report. The United Nations says world leaders must act now to stop the damage caused by rising temperatures.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now, it is a deadly and thrilling passion, diving off cliff faces Ellen Brennan has become a pioneer of wing suit base jumping. And Nick Glass traveled to her home in the French Alps for this week's Art of Movement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLEN BRENNAN: BASE JUMPER: Right before you get to the edge of the cliff, you work yourself up. You've got these nerves going. You're breathing hard and then you walk down to the edge. You have to calm down. You have to slow down your heart rate, you have to breath deep. And once you realize that you're in a good physical and mental spot, you squat down, you lean over and then you push.

3, 2, 1 see ya.

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meet Ellen Brennan, the fastest woman in the skies and a pioneer, one of just a handful in the relatively new sport of wing suit base jumping.

The idea is to launch off a vertical cliff, wearing nothing but a wing jump suit and a parachute. Today, Ellen is flying, soaring over snow and glaciers in the French Alps. She's made Chamony (ph) in the valley below her home and help make it a playground for a new generation of bird men.

At 26, Ellen is highly experienced. She's made 600 wing suit jumps. But today is a little different. Just below the spike of Mount Blanc, Europe's highest mountain, a granite spike, the Aguille du Midi. If she completes a jump from here, a flight of some 3,000 meters, it'll be her longest to date.

BRENNAN: It's scary, especially at Aguille du Midi right now. It's new, not many people have jumped it. You have to repel down to a little rock that's not comfortable to stand on.

You squat down, you lean over, and then once you almost reach the point of no return, then you push.

At that moment, everything is calm for just that moment. Everything is moving in slow mo. You feel the pressure starting to go into your arm wings, you start to see the sides of the walls come up faster and faster and you're in this mindset of just acceptance.

And then within three seconds, sometimes even shorter, your suit has inflated and you're officially flying away from the cliff. And those are the most vital three seconds of any jump. Like that's where you make or break it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3, 2, 1 and go.

GLASS: Everyone recognizes that this sport is as dangerous as it is thrilling. Only the most experience sky divers can take up the challenge. With speeds of up to 200 kilometers an hour, the biggest kick comes from flying close to the ground. But it's also a bigger risk.

Do you know how many people have died?

BRENNAN: Some of the calculations we've done, we want to say maybe 1 in 10.

GLASS: One in 10?

BRENNAN: I hope it's not like that, but I'd have to say that I've had quite a few friends die doing this.

GLASS: having flown for one minute and 22 seconds, her longest ever flight, she pulls her parachute and floats gently down.

BRENNAN: When I was a kid I never believed I would be able to fly down a mountain. And now we're doing it all the time, daily, like it doesn't get any better than that. I'm living my little kid dream.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: That was beautiful and totally insane.

Now you are watching News Stream. Still ahead on the program, California is cleaning up after multiple earthquakes shake the Los Angeles Area. Some experts say that should be a wakeup call.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Hotter, drier and hungrier, now that's the forecast for the next century, according to the latest report from the United Nations panel on climate change. And it warns that governments must act quickly to fix this man-made problem.

In particular, the panel says carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced right away, otherwise the impact of climate change will be more severe and possibly irreversible.

But one author of the report acknowledges that some action is already being taken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL ADGER, UN INTERGOVERNEMNTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE: The impacts of climate change are universal. They are being felt in every part of the world, but of course there's some fantastic best practice in how to deal with these things. Various parts of the private sector, the insurance industry, it knows these risks, it's already adjusting its business models to them. We know that we can really do fantastic coastal defenses, coastal planning, make sure that we don't exacerbate these risks by the sorts of decisions that we're taking. And I think both the private and public sectors around the world are really beginning to wake up to this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now this is a critical report for the planet and human kind. Let's get more now with Mari Ramos. She joins me from the World Weather Center -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie. We're going to try to break some of this down to you. It's a very complicated report. And one of the things just coming off of what that expert was saying right now is how there are things that governments are doing, that people are doing, private and public sector are doing to adapt to the changes that we're seeing in our climate. But we have to remember that most people that will be affected by climate change are in areas that are very poor, socially, economically disadvantaged areas. And those areas have less money, for example, to be able to put up those kinds of defenses or adapt to climate change as quickly. And that is a key part of this report.

But let's go ahead and get started.

First of all, this, I've showed you this before from the last report. Heat waves, coastal flooding, heavy rain events, drought or drying events, hurricanes, tornadoes, less evidence of stuff over here, more evidence of the things on this side. And that continues to be the trend as we look at this newest climate change report.

So, these events that we see, especially the extreme events, could become and will become more common. That is something that authorities continue to say.

Now, the main thing this time around that we're talking about is not just the impact, but how we adapt to these changes and how vulnerable we are. When you think about climate, think about, you know, the natural changes that are going to happen and that's important, but also think of the man-made changes. And that creates the hazards that we have. And that's this big circle that you see right here.

The other thing to think about is our development -- how we grow, the economy, how we change and adapt and how we prepare, how we govern ourselves when it comes to these changes. All of these things combined, bring us our vulnerability and our exposure and together gives us the risk, and risk is one of the key things that they keep talking about this time around and resilience, how we adapt and how we survive and how we move to the next level when it comes to these changes in climate.

Now, one of the things that they talk about is these changes in rainfall, in snowfall, the patterns, how they change. The melting of snow, the melting of the permafrost, how this can change where the fresh water is and cause some serious problems.

Changes in migration pattern for land and water. Think of fish, for example, that would live and feed in a certain area in the tropics that may be migrate to high latitudes because the water gets too warm. That could cause not only a food shortage, but also a money shortage for many communities. And, yeah, maybe places in other latitudes will start to see these kinds of fish and make money off of it, but those benefits really do not come even close to the damage that this is doing.

When it talks to the growing seasons, for example, and crop yields, a similar situation as these migrations in -- for fish, or animals, for example, areas that now are growing a lot of food may not be able to, because of drought, or because of temperature, while areas farther north or farther south might be able to do it, but those, again, they're saying the benefits really would not be enough.

Now, the impact on health -- heat related deaths, water born illnesses, those are huge things also. Less people will die, let's say from cold, but more people would die from death (ph) and those water born illnesses, areas that may not have had those kind of experiences before, Kristie, could really begin to see some problems with it. So these are just some of the key items that they discussed.

LU STOUT: Just some of the key items affecting our health, our food security, our water security as well. Mari Ramos, thank you so much for walking us through the report. Thank you and take care.

Now, let's turn to California where two earthquakes have rocked the L.A. area in just the past two weeks. And as many as 100 aftershocks have been counted since Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GENNIGER SCOTT, LA RESIDENT: The floor separated from the walls.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In case Southern Californians forgot, this is earthquake country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being it was a jolt, it's more scary.

ELAM: Mother Nature provided the reminder over the weekend. A 5.1 magnitude quake that struck in Orange County on Friday followed by more than 100 aftershocks. Many of them so small, most people didn't even feel them. Still a lot of activity where it's been unusually dormant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was way beyond anything I had ever experienced.

ELAM: Take a look at these pictures from Friday's initial quake. Bottles toppling off of store shelves, brick walls falling apart and a rock slide that left this car on its roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll double check everything.

ELAM: Following the shaker, 20 apartments south of Los Angeles were initially red tagged and then cleared, but six homes were deemed structurally unstable displacing a couple dozen people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is going to be a lot more clean up and I'm worried that there is going to more aftershocks coming.

ELAM: And on Saturday, a 4.1 after shock. In fact, even while scientists were in the middle of an earthquake briefing...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're having an aftershock now about 2.7.

ELAM: ...aftershocks continued to erupt.

DR. LUCY JONES, SEISMOLOGIST, MIS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: The last 20 years is one of the quietest periods we've had. Obviously that's not true for 2014, which just might mean that we are getting back to the more normal rate.

ELAM: Or could it mean the big one is on the way?

JONES: We have never found worldwide a pattern of building up and then you get the real big earthquake. That's not the way earthquakes look like. Most of them are random.

ELAM: And a not so gentle reminder for Californians to get prepared. Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And before we go, here's a story that may change the way you think about ink. A U.S. teenager has figured out a way to save the federal government some big bucks, roughly $136 million a year. And the source of those savings is surprisingly simple. You just change the font of all government documents to Garamond. Now the 14-year-old Severe Merchandani (ph) compares it to Times New Roman and Century Gothic. He found that the thinner strokes of Garamond used the least ink, which is twice as expensive, believe it or not, twice as expensive as French perfume. HP printer ink costs up to $75 an once, compared to $38 per Chanel No. 5.

But will this bring a typeface about face? While the U.S. government printing office calls the finding, quote, "remarkable." But says the department is focused on shifting content to the web.

Still, it is something to consider the next time you click print.

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

END