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NEWS STREAM
New Boko Haram Video Released; Eastern Ukraine Referendum; Sterling Speaks to CNN; FIFA World Cup Countdown; Ukraine Referendum; Syrians Return to Homs; Interview with Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan; Inmarsat Flight Tracker
Aired May 12, 2014 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to NEWS STREAM, where news and technology meet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT (voice-over): A new Boko Haram video is released, said to show many of the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted one month ago.
DONALD STERLING, CLIPPERS OWNER: I'm not a racist. I made a terrible, terrible mistake.
STOUT (voice-over): L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling speaks exclusively to CNN and apologizes after he was caught on tape making racist remarks.
And after Syrian rebel forces pull out of Homs, residents return to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives.
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STOUT: In the last few hours, a video made by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram has been released by the French news agency AFP. It is said to show dozens of girls who were abducted from their school in the northeast of the country nearly one month ago.
And in it, the leader of Boko Haram says that he is willing to exchange the girls for Boko Haram prisoners. In all, this video runs about 27 minutes, and it shows, as you can see, some 100 girls. And if the video proves to be authentic, it will be the first time the girls have been seen since they were taken nearly one month ago.
CNN's Nima Elbagir joins us now live from the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
Nima, what does the video reveal about the condition of the girls and where they are?
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, although the girls appear to be in good health, you could see from the video that they appear to be under a certain amount of duress, understandably. But it definitely seemed like they were saying things they'd been told to say rather than wanted to say, especially when they were talking about the conversion and the reciting of pro-annex (ph) verses.
These are girls who came from Christian families, although of course Chibok is within the majority, Muslim, Islamically-ruled normal.
The other takeaway, I think, many people are now going to be looking very closely at is the audacity of having such a number of girls in what appears to be an open air location. When Boko Haram carried out this attack, Kristie, many people were saying that they would not be able to move such a large number of girls. And there were a lot of reports that the girls had indeed been split up into smaller groups, allowing for their onward sale or allowing them to be moved much more easily without detection.
The fact that they are -- well, that they were, I should say, at the time this video was shot, because we don't have a definitive timeline on this, the fact that they were together, it says a lot about Boko Haram's capacity and their ability and really what we're seeing from this (INAUDIBLE), their absolute brazenness in this attack -- Kristie.
STOUT: You were the first international journalist into Chibok where this mass abduction took place. And you spoke to one girl who managed to escape Boko Haram.
How did she escape?
ELBAGIR: Well, she took a risk. She jumped. She told us that she knew that what was ahead of -- well, she knew that the ground would be terrifying and, you know, God alone knows whether she'd escape jumping from the high-speed lorry in the dark. But at the same time, she said she felt that what was ahead of her, what Boko Haram had in store for her, that that was the more horrifying thing.
And she said that she would rather die than go with them. Take a listen, Kristie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELBAGIR (voice-over): This is a road few are now willing to travel. (INAUDIBLE) militant group Boko Haram are constant in this part of Nigeria. But what's happened in Chibok put the world on notice.
ELBAGIR: In here, in these rooms, is where the girls were sleeping when armed men in what they describe as military uniforms came to their dormitory gate and told them that they'd come to protect them. The girls started to assemble in the yard as ordered to; didn't realize who the men really were until it was too late.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): He said, "OK, we enter this lorry."
ELBAGIR (voice-over): This girl managed to escape. She's now too fearful to show her face, too fearful to go back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): A big lorry.
ELBAGIR: A big lorry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ELBAGIR: They came with a big lorry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ELBAGIR: Was it one or more?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seven.
ELBAGIR: Seven lorries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): Trucks, motorbikes, residents here tell us this raid was effectively a shopping trip for Boko Haram. Over 200 girls dragged from their beds to be sold off as bounty, a message that the militant group's edicts on female education must be heeded. But a way also for big men with guns to make money off terrified girls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): If it's in Chibok, I'll never go again.
ELBAGIR: You'll never go back to school?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
ELBAGIR: Because they made you afraid?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): Before the militants left, they destroyed everything they could, textbooks, the library, the laboratory, their attempt to forever shutter this school.
Elizabeth (ph) and Mary (ph) are friends, members of the same church their daughters were also friends, hoping one day to study medicine. They and many of their classmates never made it home from school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): We are pleading with them to release our daughters. We don't have power to do anything that requires power.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): They say they still feel powerless, no closer to finding their daughters nearly a month after they were taken.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELBAGIR: What many of the villagers we spoke to told us that they had in fact received warning phone calls from friends and families in the surrounding villages, Kristie, that when that Boko Haram convoy began crossing country towards Chibok, that it was visible and that it was reported to the villagers in Chibok. The question they're asking is why didn't the authorities know?
And this video and if it is indeed a Boko Haram video will, of course, only add to that cacophony calling for the government to answer some of these concerns -- Kristie.
STOUT: Yes, both chilling and deeply frustrating, the warning signs are there; they were warned and yet this attack took place -- back to that video, just released, Nima, showing at least 100 of the schoolgirls that had been taken by Boko Haram.
In this purported video, Boko Haram is offering to exchange the girls for prisoners. And I'm just wondering, is there a group that's negotiating with Boko Haram? Who is directly talking with this terror organization?
ELBAGIR: There have been several aborted attempts at peace talks, but there are lines of communication however fragile between the government and Boko Haram. I think what we have to bear in mind is this is very much an about-face from what Boko Haram had originally said they intended to do with the girls, which is sell them as spoils of war. So I imagine the government is still just digesting this new turn. And I think they will very much be caught between two very difficult decisions, get the girls back and deal with the immediate issue about abduction or further strengthen Boko Haram's hand by giving in to their -- to what they're asking for, realistically, though, time and time again with Boko Haram, what we've seen is their ability to operate with impunity and we see this in the brazenness and we see this in the demands that are coming forth now from this video, Kristie.
STOUT: Nima Elbagir reporting live from Abuja, thank you.
Now turning now to Eastern Ukraine and the Kremlin today said the will of the population there must be respected after two regions held independence votes. One election official says nearly 90 percent of voters in Donetsk cast ballots in favor of a split from Kiev and reports also say that support was overwhelming in Luhansk as well. Ukraine's government has slammed the separatist-led vote as a propagandist farce.
Now CNN's Atika Shubert is following the vote; she joins me now live from Donetsk.
And Atika, a lot of concerns about voter fraud in the referendum there. Did you see evidence of that?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I can't say whether it was out-and-out fraud. But what we certainly saw were blatant voting irregularities, in fact we caught several of them on camera, where you see voters coming in, either voting twice or stuffing multiple ballots into the ballot box.
So and that was just simply at one polling station we were at. So which is why, even though we're now waiting for the results of the official results of the referendum, and you can see some people already gathering here at the de facto headquarters of the self-declared Donetsk people's republic, this is where they're going to announce those results.
But when you see those kinds of irregularities, of course, it calls into question exactly what are these numbers and how reliable they are. There is a bit of a war of numbers happening here between what the referendum officials here say and what the officials in Kiev say.
While we're waiting for the official results, I want to just run you through what was said to be the turnout yesterday, according to officials here. They said that almost 75 percent of people across Donetsk came out to vote. But according to Kiev, Kiev says only 32 percent came out here and only 24 percent in Lugansk. Now there's no way for us to independently verify those numbers on either side.
But it just goes to show the different narratives each side is trying to give here.
STOUT: Now some votes are being counted, Atika.
What is the larger picture here?
What did this vote mean for the people who went to the balloting boxes, for people who did cast their votes, was this a vote for more autonomy? Was this a vote for a new state? Or a vote to eventually lead to another vote to join Russia?
SHUBERT: Well the question on the ballot was do you support the independence of the people's republic of Donetsk, yes or no? But why people came out and cast their ballots is a different matter. I talked to a number of voters. And what really came across was their anger and frustration with Kiev, that they were somehow unwilling or unable to stop the violence on the streets.
And they may have felt very differently a few weeks ago. But seeing violence an hour and a half away in Mariupol, where several people were killed, that terrible fire and a death that where dozens of activists were burned inside of a building, ongoing violence and tensions everywhere, they felt -- they feel that Kiev somehow can't get control. And this, really, for many of the voters, was a big no to Kiev, more than it was a call for independence or a call to join Russia.
STOUT: And also, the Ukrainian presidential elections, they're due to take place on May the 25th. But given the open conflict, the violence you mentioned there in Mariupol, the referendum there in Donetsk and elsewhere, the presence of pro-Russian separatists is Kiev ready for that?
SHUBERT: Look, it's clear that with a presidential election coming, the tensions are just going to increase. And it's not clear at all how they're going to be able to carry a vote out in this part of Eastern Ukraine.
There's not been any organized attempt to sort of disrupt presidential -- those general elections when they happen on May 25th. But individually, people have been saying they're just not going to participate. They're just not going to -- they're going to boycott the vote.
So this is something that Kiev is going to have to deal with. I think we also have to take into consideration, however, Moscow's response to this. Remember just a few days ago, Vladimir Putin was sort of giving the signal that perhaps a general election was something that Moscow could envision seeing and having happen, even though his critics have been saying he's been trying to disrupt the general election.
So a lot is going to depend not only on what Kiev does but how Moscow and the rest of the world reacts.
STOUT: Yes, and we'll going live to CNN's Matthew Chance in Moscow for the reaction from the Russian capital over there within the next hour.
Atika Shubert joining us live from Donetsk, many thanks indeed for the update there.
You're watching NEWS STREAM. And still to come on the program, we have an exclusive interview with the owner of the L.A. Clippers. Hear what he has to say about the racist remarks he made that can cause him his professional basketball team.
Plus their city had been under siege for 700 days. Now residents of Homs, Syria, are returning to what is left of their streets and homes.
And British satellite company Inmarsat says it can track almost every long- haul passenger flight in the world and now it says it is offering its services for free. That and more ahead. Stay with us.
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STOUT: Welcome back. Now the L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling says he was coerced into making racist remarks that have landed him a lifetime ban from the NBA. In a CNN exclusive, Sterling sat down with Anderson Cooper for his first interview since the scandal broke.
Now as he waits to see if fellow team owners will force him to sell the Clippers, Sterling pleaded for a second chance. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STERLING: I'm a good member who made a mistake and I'm apologizing, you know. And I'm asking for forgiveness. Am I entitled to one mistake? Am I, after 35 years? I mean, I love my league. I love my partners. Am I entitled to one mistake? It's a terrible mistake. And I'll never do it again.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The vice president of the NBA Players Association, Roger Mason, he said that the players won't accept anyone in the Sterling family owning the Clippers, not you, not your wife, not your son-in-law, not your daughter.
Do you believe them?
STERLING: I really don't know. The people that are going to decide my fate, I think, are not the media and not the players' union but the NBA.
COOPER: The owners?
STERLING: Pardon me?
COOPER: The owners?
STERLING: The owners; if the owners feel I deserve another chance, then they'll give it to me.
COOPER: But there is a path for you to fight their decision, isn't there?
STERLING: Of course. But if you fight with my partners, what at the end of the -- at the end of the road, what do I benefit? And especially at my age. If they fight with me and they spend millions and I spend millions, let's say I win or they win, I just don't know if that's important.
COOPER: Why wait so long to apologize? It's been a couple of weeks; you could have come out --
(CROSSTALK)
STERLING: That's a very good question. I just -- I'm so emotionally distraught. And the reason it's hard for me, very hard for me, is that I'm wrong. I caused the problem. I don't know how to correct it.
COOPER: Do you trust people? I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: -- couple of phone recordings just in the last week or two that have come out of people you've talked to on the phone or seems to be your voice who then sold it to, you know, Radar Online or TMZ. And I hear that, I think do you have anyone you trust around you?
STERLING: I don't give interviews. The only one that I know that I talk to is Magic Johnson.
COOPER: You have talked to him?
STERLING: Twice. And then of -- yes. He's --
COOPER: Did you apologize?
STERLING: He knew the girl, he said. He knew the girl well. He --
COOPER: Did you apologize to him or.?
STERLING: Well, if I said anything wrong, I'm sorry. He's a good person and he.
What am I going to say? Has he done everything he can do to help minorities? I don't think so.
But I'll say it. I'll say it, you know. He's great. But I just don't think he is a good example for the children of Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: Wow, the NBA legend Magic Johnson was at the heart of the Sterling scandal in a now infamous (INAUDIBLE). Sterling criticizes a friend for posting pictures of herself with black players, including Johnson. Sterling is heard saying that he doesn't want her to bring black players to Clippers games. But that didn't stop Johnson from attending a playoff game against the Oklahoma Thunder on Sunday.
You heard Donald Sterling say that he's made one mistake in 35 years, but that is questionable. In 2003, multiple plaintiffs claim the L.A. Clippers owner used intimidation tactics to scare black and Latino families living in an apartment block that he owned. They say Sterling was trying to get rid of certain minority groups in the building.
A video taken by a resident shows Sterling's wife posing as a government agent, going door to door to harass certain tenants.
You're watching NEWS STREAM. And still to come, we're counting down to the Cup. Stadium's unfinished, expensive flights and soaring temperatures, just some of the issues plaguing Brazil's World Cup only a few weeks away.
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STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching NEWS STREAM. And it is one month to the day until the FIFA World Cup gets underway in Brazil. Now thousands of fans will be pouring into cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and in some cases a city you may not know -- Manaus. Now it is located deep in the heart of the Amazon. Manaus will play host to two high-profile matches. But its selection as a host city has been criticized by some.
Let's bring in Shasta Darlington. She is with us from the Amazon city of Manaus -- Shasta.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We are right here in the heart of the Amazon. This is where one of the arenas of the stadiums has actually been finished, ready to have some test games before the World Cup. You can see this around me, Arena Amazonia. It's quite impressive. This is where Portugal will play against the United States, where Italy will play against England. And things are looking good. But the bigger problem here is logistics. You said it; we're in the heart of the Amazon, really thousands of kilometers from other major cities.
So the only way in is a slow boat upriver or an airplane and what we've seen is the airport expansion is still underway. And it looks like it won't be done in time for the World Cup.
And then once you land, well, the urban transport project planned for the Cup never even got off the ground. So talking to people here, there's a lot of ambivalence. People who weren't necessarily as excited for the World Cup as you might expect. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There's a feeling that more was invested in the World Cup, but not in the city's infrastructure. But all the events inside the arena are packed. So people are obviously enjoying it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They could invest in education, health care. It would be much better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLINGTON: So there are a lot of different issues here; a lot of people are saying that this stadium, as beautiful as it is, could end up being a white elephant. There isn't a major professional team here; what are they going to use it for once the World Cup is over?
And then on the other hand, when you talk to fans, they aren't as excited about coming here as you might expect because the prices are so high, to fly to Manaus from major hubs like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, it's going to cost around $600 during the Cup. And as I said, it's going to be difficult to get around.
So what we've heard a lot of -- from both foreigners and Brazilians is a lot of ambivalence. But it's surprising, coming from Brazilians. You know, at other World Cups, they're some of the most enthusiastic crowds, listening to samba music, dancing.
This time around, while they may be supporting their team, they aren't necessarily that excited about all the spending that's gone into the World Cup and they aren't out on the streets partying, Kristie.
STOUT: There's the issue of logistics. There's the issue of cost.
Is there also the issue of potential social unrest? And I ask because there were plenty of protests at last year's Confederations Cup. So could we expect the same at the World Cup this year?
DARLINGTON: You know, it's a good question and one that we've been trying to gauge ourselves. The anti-World Cup protests in the last couple of months have actually been pretty small. But what we've seen growing -- and I think this is what we could expect during the World Cup -- is just general unrest, general discontent, people who could use the World Cup as a platform to air their grievances. So we've seen a lot of people, low- income earners, for example, holding major protests to demand low-income housing in Rio de Janeiro. We've seen a lot of -- in the residents of favelas, of the shanty towns, taking to the streets in protest against the way the police have moved in as part of the so-called pacification program, people going on strike, even policemen.
If this happens during the World Cup, it's going to be very complicated. A lot of these protests turn violent; and some of them are happening in the touristy areas. So I think those are the kinds of complications that we could see drag on through the World Cup, making it difficult for Brazilians, for visitors and really unpredictable. We don't know where to expected this kind of discontent, Kristie.
STOUT: A number of challenges ahead. Shasta Darlington reporting live from -- it doesn't look like it, but deep in the Amazon, the Amazon city of Manaus, Brazil.
Thank you, Shasta. Take care.
Now this weekend it brought some severe weather and heavy snow to the U.S. and flooding rain to China and Hong Kong. Let's get the latest with Samantha Mohr. She joins us from the World Weather Center -- Sam.
SAMANTHA MOHR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it was a busy weekend in the weather world, Kristie. We saw severe weather breaking out across the Plains during Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon and these pictures coming out of the Omaha, Nebraska, area yesterday, as severe thunderstorms descended on Omaha. This is a time lapse of those supercells moving in, just look how dark the skies are, how much lightning occurred as these storms rolled on through and we had a lot of damage in this area as well.
So unfortunately, we're going to be under the gun again today as we head in through the afternoon hours, taking a look at the severe weather outlook that we're expecting to see, all the way from the western Great Lakes, including the Chicagoland area, stretching down into Dallas-Fort Worth and into South Texas towards the Big Bend region. We had the threat for large hail, gusty, damaging winds and possibly more tornadoes as that cold air moves into some very moist, unstable air, heavy rain on the south end of this. And then as the cold air has been moving in, incredible snow for this time of year. And it's Mother's Day. It's May and we shouldn't be seeing snowfall amounts like this coming in across the Rockies. It's just very unusual to see this much snow this late in the season as we get amounts coming in at Centennial ,Wyoming, this just right along the border, 99 cms; at Estes Park, just northwest of Denver, some 33 cms. So very heavy snow as the system moved in and we continue to have the winter storm warnings in place and winter weather advisories from gusty winds, snow and packed-in roadways and more snow to come.
So more scenes like this as we take a look at this video, out of the Denver area, at I-70, the traffic just stopped heading west at this point. And the snowfall causing a lot of problems with slushy roadways, some roads being impacted, actually seeing accumulating snow and the wildlife out there trying to find a little bit of food here. I think we're going to see a couple of deer scurrying in a moment. They're, of course, trying to stay off the roadways and on the nice, white grassy surfaces.
OK, we missed our deer, I think. But let's move you into China right now, where we're seeing some incredible heavy rainfall amounts. In fact, we had a red storm warning in Hong Kong Sunday night. And of course that's where 50 mm per hour when we had that red storm warning in place.
Overall since Thursday, Hong Kong has seen 369 millimeters of rain, the monthly average is just over 300. So we're seeing pictures coming out of Eastern China like this, from this factory wall that collapsed. This is the area where that factory wall collapsed at that recycling factory in the Shenzhen province, 18 factory workers were killed when a saturated wall just collapsed. And look at just how strong these currents are as this rain just accumulated here and caused tremendous problems. And this rain is going to be moving out temporarily, this heavy, heavy rain. But unfortunately, more rain should be moving back in by the middle of the week, unfortunately, Kristie. So we'll keep our eyes on that for you.
STOUT: Yes, very dramatic video of the heavy flooding there in China.
Samantha Mohr, thank you so much for that.
STOUT: You are watching NEWS STREAM.
And still ahead, the ballots are counted from a controversial vote in East Ukraine. Organizers say 90 percent want independence from Kiev.
Can Ukraine stop the region from joining Russia?
And returning to a Syrian city destroyed by war -- the rebels have withdrawn and now residents move back to Homs to rebuild their neighborhoods.
Stay with us.
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STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.
You're watching NEWS STREAM.
And these are your world headlines.
A video made by the Nigerian militant group, Boko Haram, has been released by French news agency, AFP. It is said to show dozens of girls who were abducted from their school in the country's northeast nearly one month ago. In it, the leader of Boko Haram says he's willing to exchange the girls for Boko Haram prisoners.
The prosecution pressed a witness called by the defense on whether Oscar Pistorius needs to be referred for psychiatric examination. Psychiatrists told the court that Pistorius had a troubled childhood, citing his parents' divorce and the death of his mother. He is standing trial for the murder of his girlfriend.
L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling says he was baited into making racist remarks that have landed him a lifetime ban from the NBA. Now Sterling is waiting to see if fellow team owners will force him to sell the Clippers.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, he apologized and he pleaded for a second chance.
Pro-Russia separatists in East Ukraine say 90 percent of voters said yes to independence from Kiev. Now, Ukraine calls the vote a farce, while Moscow says it respects it and hopes the referendum will proceed without violence.
Now, I just want to remind you of the divide between Ukraine's east and west. Now, CNN.com created a couple of graphics that really illustrate the sharp split. Now this map shows the percent of people who speak Russian as their native language. The darker the color, the more Russian speakers there are. And the two darkest areas are Crimea and Donetsk.
Now, this map, it shows the results of Ukraine's 2010 presidential election. The blue region saw the majority of the votes go to Yulia Tymoshenko, while regions in red voted for the pro-Russian candidate, Victor Yanukovych. Again, you can see a clear and distinct line between the southeast and the rest of Ukraine.
And while Ukraine's government says the vote is illegal, the Kremlin has welcomed the referendum in Eastern Ukraine.
Now let's get more on how Ukraine expatriates voted from our Matthew Chance.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia's president has spoken against this referendum, but he's doing little to stop it. Even here in Moscow, expatriate Ukrainians were openly casting their votes under the guard of nationalist Russian Cossacks with whips.
Organizers say more than 1,000 ballots were cast in the first few hours. The overwhelming vote of (INAUDIBLE) Sergei from Donetsk was for greater autonomy from Kiev.
(on camera): How did you vote, da or nyet, yes or no?
(voice-over): "I voted yes, of course," he told me, "because we're all so tired of the ruthlessness of the Kiev regime."
It was only last week, amid the spiraling violence in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, that Vladimir Putin pulled an apparent U-turn, calling on Russians in the region to postpone their vote.
The U.S. State Department has criticized Moscow for not doing more, allowing a polling station in the capital could be construed as active encouragement, further stoking Ukraine's instability.
(on camera): You see people here in Moscow extremely enthusiastic.
(VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE: Excuse me. Got it. OK, Donbas is the area of Eastern Ukraine that these people are from. And so, clearly, they're voting. Everybody that we've spoken to here, everybody voting yes to greater autonomy and, of course, that could lead to events later on down the line and perhaps a union with Russia.
(voice-over): What many voting here in Moscow, like Karina (ph) from Luhasnk, say is their ultimate goal. "I want Donbas to be part of Russia because I am ethnically Russian myself," she tells me, "and all of my family are from here."
The big concern is that the Kremlin, despite its assurances, may be thinking that, too.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
STOUT: Now, let's get more on the Russian reaction from Matthew Chance in Moscow to the referendums that have been happening in Ukraine over the weekend -- Matthew, the official reaction, how has the Kremlin described these referendums?
CHANCE: Well, it's -- it's expected them in -- in contradiction to the position of -- of the Western powers, the European Union countries, the United States and, of course, the interim authorities in Ukraine itself.
What the Kremlin said, essentially, in a statement is that it respects the choice of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Luhansk in the Ukrainian language.
It also says that it hopes that the implementation of the results of the referendums will proceed along what it calls civilized lines. It commented on the high number of voters that turned out to vote in the referendum at the weekend. And it also called for dialogue between the various side, including the pro-Russian supporters in the east and south of the country, to try and find a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Ukraine.
So the -- the Kremlin very much sort of backing the position of those pro- Russian activities in the east and the south of the country when it comes to the legitimacy of this -- of this -- of this referendum.
And, of course, there were flaws in it. But for the Russian point of view -- from the Russian point of view, the flaws are outweighed by the fact that so many people turned out to vote. And they see it as a true expression of what people in that part of the world really want.
STOUT: And now the question is, what's next?
After these votes are self-rule, will they lead to votes to join Russia?
And already, after these referendums, there's been talk of even more sanctions.
So given that, does Moscow want to annex other parts of Ukraine?
Does it have the appetite to see another Crimea type situation?
CHANCE: Well, I think part of the problem in this crisis is the uncertainty about what Moscow's intentions are. We don't know what's being planned at the highest level of the Kremlin or whether even they have a plan or whether they -- this whole situation has spun out of control.
Remember, just a few days ago, back on May the 7th, Vladimir Putin called on these pro-Russian groups not to stage these referenda right now and to postpone them for a later date. But they went ahead and did it anyway.
Now, whether that's because he exerts no real control over the situation or whether he said this on purpose in order to distance himself from the -- from the events on the ground pretty much is a -- really, is very much a matter for speculation now.
In terms of what his ultimate ambition is there, what the Kremlin says publicly is that it wants a federal system to be adopted in the Ukrainian constitution that gives ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in the east and the south of the country a sort of greater degree of autonomy within a sort of united Ukraine.
But the big concern, of course, one of the big concerns is the fact that the Kremlin has stationed -- Russia has stationed tens of thousands of troops just across the border in Western Russia, near the border with Ukraine. Despite its assurances that those troops have been sent back to their barracks, there are still concerns that this could be the precursor for another land grab inside Ukraine -- Kristie.
STOUT: Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow.
Thank you.
Now, let's turn to Syria. A 700 day siege in the city of Homs is now over. The rebels have left and thousands of the city's residents are going back to their homes.
CNN's Frederick Pleitgen is the first Western journalist to document the return.
And here is his exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the ruins of the old town of Homs, a mass migration, as thousands enter this battle-scarred neighborhood either to come back in or to get their belongings out. Very little seemed salvageable, but that doesn't stop residents from trying.
Hasan Detash (ph) and his workers are clearing out what's left of his shoe store. He had to flee the area more than two years ago.
"Of course, it was awful," he says, "When the fighting started, I had to get out of here. I have not been back in two and a half years."
Only a few days after rebel fighters left the old town of Homs, the cleanup effort is already underway, even as the Syrian Army says it's still clearing streets and buildings of improvised bombs and booby-traps.
(on camera): This is the main square in Homs. And the authorities are moving very quickly to open this place up again. Behind me you can see that they're already starting to clean up.
But if we look around, we can see that all the buildings around this main square and this entire neighborhood are absolutely destroyed. They're flattened. It shows the tragedy of what happened here in the past two years. And it also shows just how long it's going to take to rebuild the old town.
(voice-over): Homs was one of the first towns with large demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad in 2011. They were crushed by Syrian security forces. But soon, defectors from Syria's military starting fighting to protect the protestors. Homs became the epicenter of the uprising against the Assad regime.
Then government forces launched a brutal campaign to win back the territory, including heavy shelling and a siege that cut off residents from food and water. Finally, both sides agreed to a truce and the rebels withdrew from Homs last week, a deal these government soldiers say they endorse.
"I think it was the best thing to do," he says. "It gives the people a chance to come back and start rebuilding their lives."
With so many killed and wounded and so much of this historic town destroyed, there are no winners in Homs. But many people now returning back are still optimistic that maybe there is a chance for a new beginning.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Homs, Syria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: As the search for Flight MH370 continues, a British satellite company says it has the technology to track virtually every long haul passenger flight in the world. And now, it says it will offer the service for free. That story coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUT: Now, Thailand's acting prime minister tells CNN that he is in control of the country, after former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was dismissed, found guilty of abusing her power.
Our Saima Mohsin first asked him how much support is there for the government to press ahead with an election?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIWATTUMRONG BOONSONGPAISAN, THAI CARETAKER PRIME MINISTER: There are several groups of people, some of them -- majority of them would love to have elections, general election. Some of the groups may not. But whatever it is, we must do according to what is stipulated in the constitution.
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former Prime Minister Abhisit is offering an alternative. He is calling for reform.
Are you considering that?
Are you going to consider that?
BOONSONGPAISAN: We -- we are going to have a meeting with the ESIT (ph). We would be talking about the ways we -- we would probably set up -- we should set up the dates and we -- we will have to talk about the ways to make this successful.
MOHSIN: Does that mean you're considering reforms?
BOONSONGPAISAN: Well, reforms is not bad. It's the best for the country. It's good for the country. We're -- we must listen to all stakeholders, OK. We must do that. We must have a referendum and all those kind of stuff.
MOHSIN: The PGLC is now moving en masse to Government House.
Why isn't the government or law enforcement agencies stopping them?
BOONSONGPAISAN: Well, they have been moving into many government offices. And we want to have this handled peacefully. So we -- we will talk to them. And if they want to come in, we'll let go. We'll let go.
MOHSIN: Your party stonewalled (ph) a close associate of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Don't you think it's time for the Shinawatra family to remove themselves from Thai politics for the good of the country?
BOONSONGPAISAN: I would say this, there are so many families in the country, in the politics, not only Shinawatra.
MOHSIN: Yes, but they're the most divisive. In essence, this is what this battle is about.
BOONSONGPAISAN: That is said by one group of people. The other group of people say differently. So it's -- I think it's the freedom, OK. It's the freedom for each individual, whatever they want to do lawfully in the country. And it's up to the people. If they come in and people, the majority of them still choose them, well, what would you say?
Democracy -- democratic country.
Are you going to say, hey, you cannot -- you cannot come in?
I think that's not democracy as you believe. And I believe (INAUDIBLE).
MOHSIN: Investors around the world are watching Thailand very carefully right now. We've already heard some analysts saying that the current political impasse is depressing consumption, it's having an impact on private and public sector investment.
BOONSONGPAISAN: This is a temporary setback, OK. We have had a similar situation many times in the past. And it's unique for Thailand that we can come up and we can resolve the situation very quickly and we'll be -- we -- we want to become the most attractive investment locations for all the investors.
MOHSIN: Is this government still in charge of the country?
BOONSONGPAISAN: Yes, definitely. Definitely. It's -- it's both by law and also by -- by the way we work, OK. I -- I am appointed to be the caretaker acting prime minister. And then we have the cabinet, 25 of them, and then we -- we run the capital, we run the military, we run the police. There's no question about that, OK.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
STOUT: Well, Thailand's acting prime minister also told CNN that his government would be, quote, "delighted to talk to the opposition" after it meets with the election commission this week.
Well, the man leading the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 tells CNN tracking technology on planes needs to be upgraded as soon as possible.
Angus Houston is a former head of the Australian Air Force and he told CNN's Anna Coren that until the necessary changes are made, there will always be the risk of aircraft simply vanishing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can you understand, though, the -- the frustration and anger felt by the families of the victims?
ANGUS HOUSTON, HEAD, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTER: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you know, initially -- initially, the aircraft, well, simply put, it just disappeared. And I guess in this day and age, I think that surprised a lot of people. But if you turn off the transponder and you turn off the ACAR system, you turn off everything on the aircraft that transmits, an aircraft can disappear. And I think that's something that we, as a world community, have to correct as soon as possible. We need to have jetliners that are equipped with some sort of tracking device that can't be turned off, that can be tracked all of the time. And with satellite technology available, I think that can be done in, you know, in the near future.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
STOUT: Angus Houston there.
Now a company that helped trace Flight 370's last known position is offering a global plane tracking service for free. Now, remember that right now, flight trackers like this one rely on aircraft reporting back their own positions.
Now, Inmarsat says it is able to pinpoint nearly all the world's long haul commercial flights in progress. And the company says that's because the vast majority of jetliners are already equipped with an Inmarsat satellite connection.
Now, aviation expert Miles O'Brien has been following this story for us.
He joins me now live from Washington DC -- Miles, welcome back.
Good to see you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Thank you, Kristie.
STOUT: This announcement, Inmarsat says this tracking service is an immediate fix and it's free because Inmarsat will be carrying the costs.
Do you think this is a good thing?
O'BRIEN: Yes it is a good thing. It's just way late in the game. And I - - I applaud Inmarsat for doing this. I applaud their altruism. I know, ultimately, they're -- there's a business model here. Well, they'll sell the airlines added capabilities and all of this.
But what it points out is why did this not happen after the crash of Air France 447 several years ago, or, for that matter, before then?
For a long time, ships have been -- you can identify any ship on the sea, where it is, or for that matter, trucks going across the continental United States.
The fact that airliners have had -- have been -- had the capability or the -- the vulnerability to go missing is extraordinary.
So I -- I hate to be half empty about it, but this is a failure of the regulatory bodies and the airlines that the hasn't happened sooner.
STOUT: You applaud the move, but you say this should have come a lot, lot sooner.
But will this free tracking service just announced from Inmarsat, will it prevent a repeat of an MH370 type of mystery?
O'BRIEN: Yes. It would prevent much of the mystery component. It doesn't prevent bad things from happening on aircraft necessarily. But what it does do is it eliminates the search in the search and rescue component. We would have known where this plane was with great precision right after it went missing. And we wouldn't have had this long orderly just trying to find out where it is in the world.
So that's a big deal. And that also, frankly, that capability does impact safety, because the sooner you can get to the black boxes, the flight data recorders, the cockpit voice recorders, the sooner you have an answer as to what might have went wrong.
And if there is some sort of defect in an aircraft, it's very urgent that that information get out to the world quickly so that a fix can be made so that a plane flying passengers around is not vulnerable to that defect.
So it does impact safety. And it certainly takes the mystery away.
STOUT: All right, Miles O'Brien joining us live from Washington, DC.
Many thanks, indeed, for your take on that.
Take care.
O'BRIEN: All right, take care.
STOUT: You're watching NEWS STREAM.
Coming up right here on the program, we've got a different look at the tech world start-ups and twenty something geeks making billions. A new TV series takes on Silicon Valley. And we'll hear from the stars of the show next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUT: Welcome back.
Now, an HBO comedy series is giving new meaning to the term geek chic. It's called "Silicon Valley." It takes a look at the highs and lows of starting a business in California's famous tech hub.
Laurie Segall takes a look at what inspired the show.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A name defines a company. It has to be something primal, something that you can scream out during intercourse, like Paviatto (ph).
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): HBO's new series "Silicon Valley" is lifting the curtain on nerd culture.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SILICON VALLEY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goo-oogle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEGALL: Actor Thomas Middleditch, who plays a struggling tech entrepreneur, reluctantly admitted that his past prepped him for the role.
(on camera): Have you always been a herd?
THOMAS MIDDLEDITCH, ACTOR, "SILICON VALLEY": Oh, does it show?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MIDDLEDITCH: I wish I could have done that, but my hands can't even squish that bottle, all these nerd claws.
SEGALL (voice-over): At the heart of the series, Mike Judge, known for creating shows like "Beavis and Butthead" and the movie, "Office Space."
But before all that, Judge worked in Silicon Valley.
MIKE JUDGE, CREATOR, HBO'S "SILICON VALLEY": I used to be an engineer and I know these types of people more.
SEGALL: These types of people are now the new rock stars and Hollywood has taken notice.
JUDGE: Yes, very introverted programmer types, just think about somebody with billions of dollars and nobody around to tell them no, don't do that.
SEGALL: I met the show's creators last September at a conference where tech entrepreneurs go to get discovered and launch their start-ups.
(on camera): When I saw you guys, you were at Techrus Disrupt (ph) last September kind of doing research for this.
JUDGE: Yes. We went to parties. We went -- we also, you know, we visited with incubators and start-ups.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "SILICON VALLEY," COURTESY HBO)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The enter Pied Piper and tech crunch disrupt. I know a lot of big players have come out of it, Dropbox, Yammer, what have you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALEC BERG, PRODUCER, HBO'S "SILICON VALLEY": We were just saying WhatsApp is worth more than Campbell's Soup or Xerox, which, you know, you make soup for more than 100 years and you do it better than anyone and you're worth less than somebody that came along three years ago. That's crazy.
SEGALL (on camera): Are programmers and coders, are these the new heroes?
BERG: I don't feel like the Carnegies and the, you know, the rail barons and the emperors of generations past were as cerebral, you know. And I feel like we are living in this -- and we say as much on the show -- we're living in an era where, you know, nerds are king.
SEGALL: There's something so funny and interesting in "Silicon Valley" about just kind of having to fake it until you make it.
I mean is this kind of thing universal?
MIDDLEDITCH: Definitely in Hollywood.
TJ MILLER, ACTOR, HBO'S "SILICON VALLEY": Just in general, yes, I think there's a lot -- anyplace where it's really difficult to make any sort of headway, yes, you've got to kind of have the right combination of being able to falsify confidence like myself and have real true talent, like Thomas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: Laurie Segall reporting there.
Now, "Silicon Valley," it airs on HBO, which, of course, is part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner.
And that is NEWS STREAM.
But the news continues at CNN.
"WORLD BUSINESS TODAY" is next.
END
