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Massive Explosion Levels Aleppo Hotel; Pro-Russian Separtists To Move Ahead With Referendum; Nigerian President Vows That Kidnapping Will Be End To Boko Haram; Investigating Effectiveness of Dear Antler Velvet; Interview with Former Alibaba CEO David Wei

Aired May 08, 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.

Nigeria's president says the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls will be the end of the terror group Boko Haram.

A massive blast levels a hotel in the town of Aleppo in Syria.

And as the number of new users stalls, we'll ask an expert whether Twitter could be in trouble.

Now shocking new details are emerging about the latest attack by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram. Now gunmen from the radical Islamist group attacked the northern town of Gunborongala (ph) on Monday.

And today, we learned residents have found 310 bodies in mass graves there.

Now witnesses tell CNN, villagers were burned alive during the 12 hour assault on an outdoor market.

Now Boko Haram, of course, is also behind the mass abduction of some 200 schoolgirls more than three weeks ago. And some say Monday's attack maybe a message to troops who are searching for the missing students.

Now CNN's Vladimir Duthiers joins me now live from the Nigerian capital of Abuja. And Vlad, what kind of impact will this latest assault by Boko Haram have on the search for the missing girls?

VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Kristie, it will most likely hamper any kind of search and rescue operation for these children. This latest atrocity just a long line of atrocities that Boko Haram has committed in Nigeria since 2009. They've burned churches, they've burned - - attacked mosques and schools, government barracks, police stations, really no rhyme or reason to their attacks.

They've even in 2011 attacked the United Nations compound right here in Abuja.

So, this atrocity where they attack this market using a typical modus operandi of Boko Haram, arriving in army fatigues and armored personnel carriers, using rocket-propelled grenade launchers to attack this market. Shop owners running for their lives, locking themselves in their shops. Boko Haram setting those shops aflame.

So this on the eve of the world economic forum here in Abuja certainly puts the government in a moment where they are certainly looking to the United Nations to the U.S. to China, other countries that have voiced their alarming -- what is happening in the northeastern part of this country, it's certainly alarming to them.

And I think President Goodluck Jonathan has tried to say something about that at the World Economic Forum. Here's what he had to say. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODLUCK JONATHAN, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA: I believe that the kidnapping of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUTHIERS: So the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria, Kristie, the beginning of the end of terror. A lot of people are scratching their hands and saying you've said this before and yet the attacks continue with impunity. How are you going to end terror if Boko Haram can seemingly attack at will, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And back to the fate of these missing girls. They've been missing for over three weeks now.

Nigeria's government, its response has been feeble at best. What about the international response? What has been pledged by other nations to help find and bring back safely the over 270 missing girls?

DUTHIERS: Kristie, they've pledged intelligence sharing. They've pledged to use satellites, to use any kind of imagery that can be used to pass over this dense forest known as the Sambisa forest, bordering Nigeria and Cameroon.

But I think for the first time in a long time, the Nigerian government is on their heels. These kinds of attacks happen with -- they are regular occurrences in northeastern Nigeria. People there on the ground tell us that they feel neglected and forgotten by their government.

And I think for the first time as the world takes notice as to what is happening to the people in that part of Nigeria, they are reacting in a way that we haven't seen for a time, coming out very forcefully and saying that they're going to try to end this, Kristie.

LU STOUT: You're right, the world has taken notice. It's been very heartening to see and hear the international response. The U.S. and China, as you reported, they will provide satellite imagery and intelligence to help out.

But despite that technology and that know how, what are the challenges in mapping and reaching the area where the missing girls are believed to be?

DUTHIERS: Very challenging. This is a remote forest area. This is a group that has taken on this force as their stronghold. It is where they are based. Last year, the president saying that parts of Borno state were not under control of the federal government, this is what he was talking about.

Attacking a defensive position where you're not familiar with the terrain in an offensive movement very challenging. And Kristie, if they know that they're being attacked, they might kill the hostages.

LU STOUT: Vladimir Duthiers reporting on the story for us. Thank you very much indeed for that.

Now the man behind the mass kidnappings of the Nigerian schoolgirls is Boko Haram's elusive leader. His name Abubakar Shekau. We heard his outrageous and despicable promise earlier this week to sell the missing girls.

But beyond his extremist beliefs, what do we really know about this radical leader? Well, CNN's Jonathan Mann fills in the gaps.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's one of the most wanted men in the world. The leader of Nigeria's growing terrorist threat: Boko Haram.

But who is Abubakar Shekau?

ABUBAKAR SHEKAU, BOKO HARAM LEADER (through translator): I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.

MANN: Smiling and laughing, he admits to the mass kidnapping of nearly 300 girls in Nigeria.

While he's posted a number of videos online, espousing his extremist Islamic ideology, saying he wants to end all western education, little is known about Shekau. His exact age is not clear. He's said to be in his mid- thirties, or forties.

Experts say Shekau considers himself an Islamic holy man, but he's also a ruthless killer. His group blamed for attacks that have killed thousands of innocent civilians.

Shekau was once deputy to Boko Haram founder, Muhammad Yusuf, until Nigerian security forces killed him in 2009. Shekau was also thought to be dead, but he resurfaced a year later, announcing in a video he was the new leader of the group.

He was reportedly wounded in 2012, and there were reports again last year that he had been killed.

So far, his attacks have been largely confined to Nigeria, but Shekau has also declared his allegiance to al-Qaeda.

SHEKAU (through translator): We have killed countless soldiers and we are going to kill more. Our strength and firepower is bigger than that of Nigeria. Nigeria is no longer a big deal to us, as far as we are concerned. We will now comfortably confront the United States of America.

MANN: The U.S. State Department has declared Shekau a "global terrorist", and put a $7 million bounty on his head. Nigerian authorities have tried for years to capture or kill him. But so far, Abubakar Shekau has managed to evade all attempts to stop his campaign of terror.

Jonathan Mann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And amid the search for Nigeria's missing schoolgirls, the capital Abuja is hosting the World Economic Forum for the first time.

Now business leaders from around the world are attending amid extremely tight security. But the event has been largely overshadowed by the Boko Haram attacks.

Now this is U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama holding a bring back our girls sign. Now she tweeted out this photo of herself, thus becoming the latest high profile figure to join the global movement.

And this is what Britain's prime minister had to say one Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I'm the father of two young daughters. And my reaction is exactly the same as his and every father or mother in this land or in the world, this is an act of pure evil. It's united people across the planet to stand with Nigeria to help find these children and return them to their parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: It is an act of pure evil.

Now this global campaign has seen a huge reaction online as well. the hashtag #bringbackourgirls has gone viral in recent weeks as supporters try to draw attention to this story.

You can get more coverage on our website, just go to CNN.com/international.

You're watching News Stream. And still ahead, pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine say they have thought it over and they are not going to take President Putin's advice on that controversial referendum.

Plus, you're looking at Thailand's new caretaker prime minister now that a constitutional court has removed Yingluck Shinawatra for abuse of power. And she's facing even more trouble now.

And later in the show, some say it is an astonishing natural cure. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will look at the possible benefits and risks of deer antler velvet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream. And you're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show today.

Now we started with efforts to find more than 200 schoolgirls who are still missing in Nigeria. In a few minutes, we'll talk about China's crackdown on journalists ahead of the Tienanmen Square anniversary.

But now to Ukraine.

Now pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine say that they have taken a vote and they have decided that they will go ahead with their referendum on Sovereignty as planned. This, despite a direct call by Russian President Vladimir Putin urging the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic to push back Sunday's vote.

Now Mr. Putin, he made this plea on Wednesday. He said dialogue needed time in order to have a chance.

Now our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon is in the city of Donetsk. She joins me now live with the latest.

And Arwa, despite that call to postpone the referendum, the referendum will indeed go ahead. Are you seeing preparations underway?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to the leaders of the pro-Russian camp, those preparations have been underway ever since they decided to hold a referendum, ballots already being printed. And they also, bear in mind, have access to voting lists and polling sites because of the buildings that they control containing, housing those vital pieces of information.

The decision to go ahead being taken by the leadership of the pro- Russian camp in Donetsk and also in the region of Luhansk, because they say even though they respect President Putin's comments, his opinion, they do believe that Russian would come to their assistance should the need arise.

They feel that at this stage, because of the escalation of the situation, because of what they view as being aggression by the Ukrainian military they had no choice but to go ahead with this referendum, because to postpone it would be failing their followers, failing their people on the ground here, Kristie.

LU STOUT: The referendum will go ahead, it will take place on Sunday. How will it affect the simmering tension across Ukraine?

DAMON: Well, of course the great concern and the likely unfortunate scenario is that it will only serve to heighten those tensions. A lot of the opinions here have been hardened against the central government in Kiev even further because of the actions by the Ukrainian military as they have been trying to move through and regain at least a semblance of control in some very small areas of eastern Ukraine.

They have managed in some rare cases to declare victory, like in the city of Mariupol, but there that victory was very short-lived.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: The nation's flag once again flying above Mariupol city hall to the rage of some and the relief of others.

"You can't blame the pro-Russians, it's our government that brought it to this state," Natalia (ph) tells us. "But it's the military that freed our city."

But she had hardly finished expressing her support for tough action when her words were drowned out, the crowd cheering as Ukrainian forces left the premises.

Why? Orders from above, we were told. Within seconds, the Ukrainian flag replaced.

Overnight, Ukrainian forces moved in onto the city, clashing with the pro-Russian side on the outskirts. This building was evacuated by the pro- Russian protesters, but now, less than 12 hours later they are celebrating because it is once again firmly back in their control.

More hardened and enraged at the central government, fueled even further when the crowd marched to the police station to free their detainees, driven back by police gunfire.

"I hit the ground," this man holding a bullet says. "Everyone was trying to run away."

A block away from city hall, life on the street creates an aura of normalcy, something so many here crave.

Lena Anosova (ph), an new mother, is terrified.

"We are worried every day," she says. "We are worried when we are here and when we leave."

The repercussions of recent events are evident. After this branch of the country's largest bank was looted and torched a few days ago. The bank decided to close all its locations in eastern Ukraine, reopening some facilities, those here saying they would withdraw all they can.

Angry crowds also swarm the checkpoint leaving from the city to the border with Russia, more fortified than when we were here two weeks ago and backed up by the military.

"Why are you here?" This woman demands to know. "What are your orders?"

Pleas to back away ignored.

"This is military from western Ukraine, we don't trust them," Yvgeniy (ph) explains.

The crowd is now moving towards the tanks, trying to form something of a human barricade to prevent them from moving. We've been seeing the tempers here flaring just in the short time that we've been witnessing these events.

This confrontation avoided, but the country's crisis won't be navigated so easily.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And, Kristie, this is, as we know only too well, a conflict, a crisis that is deeply entrenched in geopolitics, trying to navigate all of it is going to prove to be incredibly difficult, and understandably people here are growing even more anxious by the day.

LU STOUT: And Arwa, I also wanted to ask you about the reaction there to Vladimir Putin and his recent comments. Putin says that he has ordered his troops to withdraw from the border. He also made that call to postpone the referendum there in Donetsk, how has that been interpreted in Ukraine? Is it a sign that perhaps he's willing to compromise?

DAMON: Well, that would at least be the public image that is being given, but his rhetoric is being greeted with a lot of skepticism, especially from the central government in Kiev that is effectively dismissed a lot of what he has said, going so far as to state that he has no business speaking about a referendum that they view as being illegitimate to begin with.

There are concerns that we are hearing being voiced that Russia is distancing itself deliberately right now from the pro-Russian camp, at least publicly, but that it is using that as an excuse to be able to say, look, we have no control over them. They're pressing ahead with what they want to do. And try to continue to press that argument that they are not directly involved in actions on the ground.

When it comes to the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian- Russian border, Russia is saying that it has, in fact, pulled them back. NATO saying that it has seen no indication of that.

There's a lot of blaming and counter blaming that has been going on here. All sides are guilty of that. And the central government in Kiev also at fault to a certain degree because of its failure to reach out to the pro-Russian camp and try to bring them to some sort of political negotiation.

And of course trapped in the middle of all of this are the civilians who are going to continue to bare the brunt of this crisis as it does continue to unfold.

LU STOUT: Arwa Damon reporting live from Donetsk, many thanks indeed for that.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, first she was ousted. Now Thailand's former prime minister could be banned from politics. And Bangkok braces for renewed protests. We'll bring you a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now it seems China is continuing to crack down on activists ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square protest. Now the state run Xinhua news agency says that the prominent with Gao Yu has been detained for allegedly leaking state secrets. Now the Chinese broadcaster CCTV televised what it called Gao's confession. It blurred her face, but identified her by name.

Now the 70-year-old is accused of sharing a highly confidential document with a foreign website that published the material last year. But Chinese media reports did not provide any document details or name the website.

Now it is not the first time this press freedom advocate has been accused of this very crime. Now here you see protesters back in 1995 calling Gao a prisoner of conscience.

At the time, she was serving a six year sentence for leaking state secrets.

So what exactly qualifies as a state secret in China? Well, according to the group Human Rights in China it is loosely defined as matters that are related to state security and national interests. That can include major policy decisions, defense and diplomatic activities, economic development, even science and technology.

But there's also a catchall provision for other matters that are classified as state secrets by the national state secrets bureau.

Now in Thailand, former prime minister, she is now facing new problems. One day after a court threw Yingluck Shinawatra out of office, the nation's anti-corruption agency has indicted her over a controversial rice subsidy scheme. Now the case now goes to the senate which could ban Yingluck from politics for five years.

Now this comes as the remaining members of Yingluck's government tries to move ahead with elections planned for July. And both sides of Thailand's political divide vow mass rallies in Bangkok.

Now CNN's Saima Mohsin is there. She joins us now live. And Saima, tell us more about this new indictment.

Yeah, Kristie, it never rains, but it pours, doesn't it? As you said, yesterday she's dismissed from being caretaker prime minister. Today, she's facing potential impeachment and criminal cases.

Now let me break that down for you. First of all today the national anti-corruption committee said that they believe they have enough evidence to indict Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for her involvement for presiding over this rice subsidy scheme. And for what they said was blatantly ignore the warnings that they sent her twice last year and a separate warning of the office of the ombudsman about potential for corruption in this case.

Now this was were the government, as it says, was trying to help rural communities and farmers across Thailand by setting a fixed price for their rice that they were selling to the government. That turned out to be way above the market price, three trillion Baht's worth of losses to the government that's caused sine the scheme was opened up. And that's what has lead to this ruling today.

Now the national anti-corruption committee will send their evidence to the senate. The senate then has the right to impeach Yingluck Shinawatra, even though she's already been dismissed as caretaker prime minister. We believe this still could happen.

Now it's not necessary that she will then be banned for five years, but there is the potential, they have that ability to decide that.

Simultaneously, Kristie, there are also criminal cases to face as far as this corruption case is concerned as well, a committee has been set up for that. We don't know much more other than that they are investigating Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's involvement -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: And Saima, we have to talk about just the power being wielded by Thailand's constitutional court. I mean, how is it able to again and again remove an elected leader from power?

MOHSIN: Yeah, it's extraordinary, isn't it? A constitutional court, by the way, that managed to remove three democratically elected prime ministers that was set up and supported post-coup by the military in 2006. Incredible powers that it's wielding. And the questions being raised are who is watching the watchers?

This court not only deems what's right and wrong under the constitution, but has been dolling out its judgments and dismissing three Pheu Thai Party prime ministers. Yingluck Shinawatra is the third to go. And so anyone who questions this constitutional court's decisions is immediately then slapped with the title of being pro-Pheu Thai, pro-red shirts.

So there's a lot of difficulty about the questioning their decision.

But incredible power.

And the irony is it's a democracy that comes under threat repeatedly by a court that was given more powers by the military -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Saima Mohsin reporting live for us from Bangkok, many thanks indeed for that.

Now the activist Malala Yousafzai on the rights for all girls to attend school and almost paid for it with her life. Now ahead, hear what she has to say to CJNN's Christiane Amanpour on Boko Haram's brazen school kidnapping in Nigeria.

And, it's been used for thousands of years in Chinese herbal medicine. Some people swear by it. And it is getting increasingly popular. But does deer antler velvet really work? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

As Nigeria accepts international support in its search for more than 200 missing school girls, President Goodluck Jonathan declares that it is the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria. Now that bold statement was made in his address today at the World Economic Forum. His speech comes as the death toll from Boko Haram's assault on Monday on one northern town tops 300.

In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists have decided to go ahead with their referendum on sovereignty this Sunday as planned. This, despite a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to push back the vote. Now he made the call on Wednesday saying dialogue needed time in order to have a chance.

Prominent Chinese journalist Gao Yu has been detained for allegedly leaking state secrets. Broadcaster CCTV televised what it called Gao's confession. It blurred the 70-year-old's face, but identified her by name. Now Gao was the latest high profile activist detained ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square protests.

A massive blast in the Syrian city Aleppo has leveled a hotel. This is all that remains after the bombing by Syrian rebels. Now government forces had been using the hotel as a base. Now the country's most powerful rebel alliance, the Islamic Front, has claimed responsibility for the blast. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says at least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured.

Now let's get the latest on the blast in Aleppo and what it means in the context of the larger civil war there. Now CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following developments from Berlin, he joins me now on the line. And Fred, a huge blast today in Aleppo, what more have you learned?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: Hi, Kristie.

Yeah, gigantic blast, and also a very important neighborhood. It appears as though that's very close to the citadel in Aleppo, which is of course in the old town, a very historic area.

And as you said, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes that around 14 people were killed in that massive explosion, which seems to completely level that hotel, which apparently was being used by government forces.

There are some who put the death toll as high as 50. At this point, it seems as though all sides are still trying to find out, however, even the Syrian government says that there are many, many people who were wounded in that incident.

The Syrian army and the Syrian government for their part saying that there was an ongoing operation against rebels in that area, that they'd apparently uncovered some tunnels that were supposed to be used for attacks against Syrian forces and that then this gigantic bomb -- or these gigantic bombs were detonated.

The Islamic Front, for its part, says that this was part of one of their operations, that they targeted not only this hotel, but also several other buildings in the area. And it certainly shows that even though we've been reporting from that truce in the central city of Homs, that in other places the civil war goes on unabated. And indeed, it's by far not as clear a picture of the Assad regime being in control and command in many other places. And indeed that the rebels had been making some gains in the Aleppo area quite recently, Kristie.

LU STOUT: That's right, the civil war, it's a reminder that the civil war goes on unabated. This massive explosion caught quite dramatically on video tape there just serves as a reminder this brutal fight for the future of Aleppo still happening.

Syrian government forces, are they losing the fight? Are they under serious pressure ther?

PLEITGEN: Well, they're under serious pressure in the Aleppo area. I mean, it's interesting, just a couple of months ago I was actually in Aleppo and the Syrian government took us there and said that they were making gains there, that things were going better, they'd won back the area around the airport. They were able to conduct flights into the area.

Again, we went into the front line in Aleppo, in the city there. So they said at that point things were going well, but it seems as though tide has somewhat turned in the Aleppo area, that the rebel forces there seemed to have consolidated somewhat, they seem to be launching concerted offensives now. They also seem to be better armed than before. And the most recent reports that we're getting is that if any sort of momentum, it appears as though that it's on the rebel sides at this point.

However, we always have to be careful in Aleppo, because in the past couple of years there have been so many reports that the city was on the verge of falling, that the government was on the verge of losing it; or things going in the other directly, the government was on the verge of winning it. That's never happened.

It appears as though it's a stalemated fight, but one that is still very brutal as we've seen in this attack that happened right now, but one where both sides might win a little territory or lose a little territory, but winning that entire city, both sides still seem to be very, very far off, which of course again enforces the thought in the west and in other places as well that this -- the civil war in Syria simply cannot be won by military means unless there's some sort of outside intervention, which of course at this point in time is not in the cards, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And Fred, from Aleppo, let's go to Homs next. Hundreds of people evacuated from a rebel stronghold there in Homs. Give us the context, who is being evacuated and why?

PLEITGEN: Well, these are rebel fighters. Homs, of course, is the highly symbolic city for the rebels. It was one of the first cities where they actually had any sort of terrain, where they held several neighborhoods. It was the epicenter of the Syrian uprising and really one that joined the uprising very early on.

What's gone on, however, in the past year or so I would say, and I was also in Homs a couple of times, is that increasingly the Syrian government was making Homs the priority. They were pouring forces in there. It was a very brutal battles that went on there as well using some very heavy weapons even in urban areas.

And in the end, the rebels were really only confined to a couple of neighborhoods. They were using tunnels to get just a few supplies in there. They were certainly very much under supplied. A lot of them were complaining that they didn't have enough food. And so it seems as though this was probably the best outcome for the rebels there in Homs. And certainly the city of Homs has a huge strategic value to the Assad government as it tries to sort of carve out an area in central Syria that it controls.

For the rebels, however, it's lost its strategic significance a very long time ago. Again, of course, a very symbolic place there.

So these were rebel fighters that are being evacuated. There's a truce that's going on that calls for the rebel fighters to be evacuated from these places in Homs to get safe passages to areas that are under their control, but also on the flip side of that, there are also some pro- government fighters that are set to be released, and are being released, by rebels in other parts of the country -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Fred Pleitgen there. Fred, good to have you, especially with that much needed update on the Syrian civil war. Fred Pleitgen on the line from Berlin.

Now, let's get your global weather forecast. From hail to tornadoes, there are millions of people in the United States right now that are under threat from severe weather.

Now Samantha Moore is at the world weather center. She joins us now with the latest -- Samantha.

SAMANTHA MOORE, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, over 50 million people, Kristie, will be under the threat for severe weather today alone. And, you know, we were off to a really great start this year. It was a very quiet season until last week. And that's when we saw an explosion of activity, including a tornado that went through Mississippi. And we have video of one that went through Tupelo, Mississippi.

This is a church, a day care center at a church. And tornado came by very close. It was less than half a kilometer away. And you can see how the wind directly just changes here. And all the debris showing up on this playground. And then the playground really just being covered with debris from neighboring houses and such that were nearby.

So, devastating storms, some 34 people died in last week's killer outbreak. And now we are under the gun again today.

In fact, this is the region, as we go back to the maps, that we're concerned about across what we call tornado alley. Fire danger is minimized as the cool air moves in the next 24 hours. But severe weather here. We're ahead of the frontal system stretching from the western Great Lakes down into the big bed region of Texas, this is where we're going to see that threat for severe storms once again today.

A lot of moisture moving out ahead of this system. You have that cold air along with that dry line moving through Texas. So that means we can once again see some very large hail, some severe winds as well as some tornadoes all across this region. But particularly here where we have a probable risk for tornadoes across much of Iowa, stretching into southern Minnesota.

So, that would include cities like Des Moines in central Iowa, Chicago if you're flying in or out of Chicago, this will also be an area that could be affected, air traffic could be affected by severe thunderstorms. It could be moving in, Saint Louis and down into the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex as well.

And we're going to have to watch for those gusty, damaging winds once we get into the afternoon hours, particularly today and tomorrow and even as we head into Friday evening as the system moves to the east.

So, we'll be watching for that probability as we head into the next 24 to 36 hours.

Ahead of it, the heat I was talking about. Temperatures some of the hottest we have seen so far this year ahead of this system stretching in across the plain states and on up into the Great Lakes. So these temperatures running several degrees above average all across the upper Mid West, the south central plains and across the Deep South.

So, Kristie, a season that started out to be rather quiet has definitely ramped up in its activity. And we're going to have to stay on guard to stay safe from severe weather.

LU STOUT: That's right, indeed, with the potential for more severe weather on the way. Samantha Moore there, thank you.

Now up next, it is a coming of age for China's internet industry as ecommerce giant Alibaba sets the stage for its public debut in the U.S. Next, we hear from its former CEO about what's expected and learn more about the company's drive for success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now China's Alibaba is about to go public with a bang. The world's leading online marketplace is planning to launch one of the largest American IPOs ever by a tech company. Alibaba already dominates the market as home. It's estimated that nearly $4 out of every $5 spent online in China goes to an Alibaba marketplace.

Now earlier, I spoke with David Wei, Alibaba's former CEO. I began by asking him just how big he expects the IPO to be.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID WEI, FRM. CEO, ALIBABA: (inaudible) a few years ago told everybody in the business one (inaudible) IPO, it's definitely will be bigger than Amazon plus eBay, under GMB (ph), also under marketcap on the evaluation. I think most likely the IPO will set up a new record for how much money raised.

LU STOUT: Bigger than Facebook?

WEI: Bigger than Facebook, definitely.

In the private market, Alibaba share's trading at a valuation of $158 to $160 billion. Unfortunately, (inaudible) is correct. So I think the correct private market is giving an evaluation of $150 billion to $160 U.S. dollars already.

LU STOUT: Now there's been a lot of concern about pirate goods and counterfeit goods sold on Alibaba's platforms by its users. How will the company address that?

WEI: Well, I'm one of their victims. I resigned in 2011, because of...

LU STOUT: That's right. It was because of a fraud inquiry. You were not directly involved, but that's why you left.

WEI: Yeah, that's I think how seriously you can consider Alibaba group -- directors, senior executive employees having -- trying their best...

LU STOUT: So still an issue and still a priority. Anything else you'd like to add on that point?

WEI: Well, I think this is an ongoing issue. It's not because of Alibaba group or Tao Bao.com (ph) or TB.com (ph), it's a nature embedded in Chinese community. TaoBao (ph) is just a reflection of the nature of the community.

So I think TaoBao (ph) will probably solve issue before the whole country solves this issue. But if the whole country still is suffering from these kind of counterfeit products issue TaoBao (ph) can hardly be 100 percent immune to it.

LU STOUT: There's also the issue of moving to mobile, because Alibaba is up against 10 Cent and WeChat, which is already on its way to becoming a global player. How is Alibaba going to do that?

WEI: Well, do you shop on Facebook? I don't think so. That's how I consider Facebook is not a threat to ecommerce in the states or anywhere in the world. And I don't think WeChat can be a threat to ecommerce.

It may be doing a little bit of complimentary ecommerce, like friends sharing some of their hobbies, products they love of buy gifts to each other, but will not be the mainstream I think consuming behavior from social network, any social network.

And I think from the mobile Internet point of view, if you look at recently I think the transaction value from TaoBao (ph) mobile application it's bigger than TaoBao (ph) PC application. That's a very good offensive position Alibaba Group (inaudible) TaoBao (ph) already.

So don't need to worry about WeChat.

LU STOUT: Got it.

And final question for you. About Jack Ma (ph), I mean he's the founder. He's an icon in China. What was it like to work with him?

WEI: Lots of people consider Jack Ma looks like an ET. He's really an ET, because he's an English teacher.

LU STOUT: Got you.

WEI: So I think these two words, English teacher, make a different Jack Ma. English -- he's one of a very few founders in even internet space can speak very fluent English which gives him the opportunity to understand what's going on outside China directly. So that's I think where most of his vision is coming from. Speak English, understand the rest of the world outside China.

Then teacher, giving him very unique leadership style. He is not an ex, say, military service people who manage Alibaba like an army, he managed Alibaba like a school. So we call ourselves campus. We call ourselves alumni. We call ourselves schoolmates, classmate, which is true. He lead the business in the teacher's way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And while Alibaba prepares to go public, Twitter is in the midst of its first year as a publicly traded company. Now it revealed last week that user growth is slowing, causing concern over whether the social media platform can hold on to its mass appeal.

So, is Twitter sputtering? Let's check in with our regular contributor Nick Thompson of the New Yorker.com. Nick, good to see you.

Twitter has put the warning out there of poor user growth. So how worried should the company be?

NICK THOMPSON, NEW YORKER.COM: Well, the company should be quite worried. And he stock market is expressing its worry quite clearly. This is a stock that was at $75 in December and now is at about $30. People are very concerned about the user growth. They're very concerned about the money Twitter is getting per user, and they're very worried that instead of following a trajectory like Facebook where Twitter becomes an integral part of almost everything we do on the web, Twitter becomes a sort of a side, a niche service that isn't so important and so integral.

LU STOUT: Now you and I are big Twitter users, OK, full disclosure. So -- but I have to admit, it's a little bit difficult, at least for me, to see this trend in poor user growth, because you know I think Twitter is so dominant and it's so big.

Is it because I'm stuck in a bubble, I'm stuck in a bubble of big Twitter users?

THOMPSON: I mean, there is a bubble of big Twitter users and you and I are both among them and many of our friends and peers are very much among them, but if you look at the actual number of people who use Twitter and you look at the amount of time they spend on Twitter, it's absolutely growing, but how many people do you know who joined Twitter in the last month and were really excited about it?

You know, that number is very small. The people who, I think, who are going to join this platform probably are already on this.

There are new people, absolutely, right. And it's still growing. It's not shrinking. It's just not growing nearly as fast as it was.

LU STOUT: Yeah, it's not growing enough.

Now, this, of course, is pure speculation. If Twitter is dying, what could replace Twitter one day? I mean, because the functionality is important, right, so the function will continue. So what will replace it?

THOMPSON: Well, you know, I don't think Twitter is going to die. I mean, Twitter could become -- it could end up just being much smaller than you expect it. It's not going to route of MySpace. It's already gotten -- it's gotten big enough to avoid that, it's not going to disappear, but you could see -- you know, there's going to be a certain amount that's going to transfer to What'sApp, right? Twitter is partly a way of communicating with your friends. It's also partly a way of reading a news stream. You can see thousands of different news streams that are taking off. In fact, Facebook may absorb some of the news reading functionality of Twitter just as sort Twitter absorbed the news reading functionality of RSS.

So there are about six different ways that the information we take off Twitter and the way we communicate on Twitter could move to other platforms. There's no one direct competitor, it's not like there's another service just like Twitter that's going to eat Twitter's lunch, but the reasons we use Twitter we could start using other services for all of those and then Twitter can, you know, just shrink and shrink and become less relevant.

LU STOUT: Got it, but Twitter is not going to go by way of MySpace, it's not going to go away anytime soon. That one too many communications idea will continue to be absorbed by other social media platforms.

But for Twitter, for its bottom line, it has to gain mass appeal right in order to turn into a big advertising engine. Can Twitter do that?

THOMPSON: Well, I think it has to do two things. It has to gain mass appeal. So it has to reduce the barriers of entry, it has to make it so that somebody can join Twitter and immediately understand it and immediately have fun, immediately understand the archaic language that is kind of used on Twitter.

The second thing they have to do is they have to get better at monetizing, right. So the way Twitter, like many other technology companies, began with a promise that we're not going to worry about money now, we'll worry about money later. And now it is later. The company has been around for a long enough time and they have to do what Google did and what Facebook did and what people were skeptical both of those companies could do, which is monetize their massive user base.

Twitter could do that through advertising, but that seems hard. And then there's the very, very promising possibility that Twitter could make lots of money through data analytics, which is something they're trying to do better at.

But weirdly, the percentage of revenue that Twitter gets form data analytics has been declining. So this is the area where, you know, analyzing these billions of tweets and figuring out what movie is going to do well next, or how -- you know, what stock is going to climb, right. Can you, you know, use artificial intelligence, analyst that information, get valuable information and sell it. You know, Twitter has not done nearly as well with that as it should.

So on the bad side, it shows they haven't succeeded there. On the good side, it shows that there is a massive opportunity still out there for this company.

LU STOUT: All right. W ell, good luck to Twitter as they try to monetize their way to a bigger and better future. Nick Thompson joining me live from New York, thank you. Take care.

THOMPSON: See you on Twitter.

LU STOUT: See you.

And you are watching News Stream. Still ahead on the program, putting a traditional Chinese remedy to the test. Now some professional athletes, they swear by it, but does dear antler velvet really work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: An update, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says his rehab is going great. Now you'll remember that Ford once admitted to smoking crack.

Now Ford recently said he was taking a leave of absence to deal with his alcohol problem, so how is he doing? Well, he told a Toronto Sun columnist this, quote, "rehap is amazing. It reminds me of football camp. Kind of like the Washington Redskins camp I went to as a kid."

Now he hasn't revealed the location, even though one political colleague says he should to prove that he's actually in rehab.

Now I want to tell you a story about a dietary supplements made from a deers antlers in its earliest stages of growth. Now Chinese medicine has been using deer antler velvet since ancient times. Now these days people all over the world are taking a look at its possible benefits and risks. So CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupt put it to the test.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Deer Antler Velvet, it's this dietary supplement that a surprising number of athletes, trainer, and doctors are turning to. They believe it helps improve muscle strength, recovery, and boost energy. It's been used in China for thousands of years and the premise is pretty simple. A deer's antlers grow fast, more than an inch a day. Could those regenerative qualities transfer over to human beings?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tore my rotator cuff 90 percent all the way through.

GUPTA: Desperate after his injury professional ballplayer, Adam Greenberg, turned to Deer Antler Velvet at the suggestion of one of his doctors.

(on camera): How quickly would you feel these results after taking the pills?

ADAM GREENBERG, LURONG LIVING MANAGING DIRECTOR, FOUNDER: Within the first couple of days I knew there was something positive going on. Doctor called me up and said how are you playing? I said, what do you mean? He said, you don't have a rotator cuff. It's basically non- existent.

GUPTA (voice-over): Intrigued by Adam's story, his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Patrick Kwok, decided to start testing this on his own. The first thing he wanted to try and confirm, safety.

DR. PATRICK KWOK, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: First 100 we tracked them fairly closely, you know, with questionnaires, phone calls, to really make sure if there's any adverse effects that could come from taking the product.

GUPTA (on camera): So the 100 patients or so that you followed, you haven't seen any harm?

KWOK: Correct.

GUPTA: What about benefit?

KWOK: Increased energy, you know, decreased joint pain and muscle ache and decreased recovery from injury.

GUPTA: The immediate reaction is, suspicious, dubious about this sort of thing because this sounds too good to be true, probably is all of that. What are you comfortable saying about this now?

KWOK: I think it really boils down to like we didn't invent this. The proof is in the 2000 years of use in Chinese or Asian medicine.

GUPTA (voice-over): Deer Antler Velvet is sold now in the United States as liquid drops, capsules, or sprays. The cost ranges from $30 a bottle to a couple hundred dollars depending on the product and the strength. Because it is sold as a supplement not a medicine, companies don't have to prove there's any benefit so we decided to look into it. Combing through dozens of studies looking at the effects of Deer Antler Velvet on humans. Despite the enthusiasm of people like Dr. Kwok, none of these studies showed a convincing benefit from talking the products.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heart rate is coming up. Everything is looking great.

GUPTA: Only one on strength training showed even a possible positive effect. Craig Broeder was that study's author.

DR. CRAIG BROEDER (PH.D), MEDICAL RESEARCHER: I had some really positive findings, but it's so small it needs to be repeated with a large number of subjects before I would say you got to take -- this is a given. This is absolutely going to help you. The biggest effect we saw didn't have anything to do with effected strength, but the biggest effect happened to turn in on the aerobic conditioning side.

GUPTA: Dr. Alan Rogo believes any positive effects are due to nothing more than a placebo effect.

(on camera): If I were something who came to you and said, look, I'm taking this stuff, it seems to work for me. I feel stronger, I feel faster. What would you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would say don't take it. That would be easy.

GUPTA: Because it doesn't work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: I'm not going to die from it, but it doesn't work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly.

GUPTA: But that doesn't stop Dr. Kwok or many doctors we spoke to for this piece who do believe Deer Antler Velvet replaces deficiencies that we all have.

KWOK: It has naturally occurring glucosamine and the building blocks of cartilage.

GUPTA: In fact, Dr. Kwok was so impressed he invested in a company that Adam Greenberg and a team of athletes started to sell the product themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will jump it to the whole next level quickly.

GUPTA: But even they acknowledge the science is not yet there and this is by no means a magic potion.

GREENBERG: So it's not take this and you're just going to be an amazing athlete. It's eating a non-inflammatory diet, putting the right food in your body, taking deer antler.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that was Dr. Sanjay Gupta reporting there.

Now finally, debates on TV, they can often get a little bit heated, but in Jordan two participants on a live program did not give up without a fight, literally. Now these journalists broke down more than just the issues. Now they have been discussing the war in Syria and one of the journalists said that the other supported Syria's revolution. He responded by saying his colleague was being paid to support the Syrian government.

Now the fight, it all came to an end when finally the production staff had to step in.

That's a wrap, and that is News Stream. But the news continues at CNN. World Business Today is next.

END