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NEWS STREAM

Thai Military Mediates Talks Between Government, Opposition; Dozens Dead After Twin Blasts In Nigerian City of Jos; Interview with China Ambassador to U.S. Cui Tiankai; Microsoft Unveils Bigger Surface 3 Pro; Interview with Twitch Executive Matt DiPietro

Aired May 21, 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, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now dozens are dead in Nigeria after twin blasts in the city of Jos and a militant attack on villages in Borno state.

China's ambassador to the U.S. says his country is the victim of cyber attacks after the U.S. charges five Chinese military officers with hacking.

And Microsoft unveils a bigger tablet, but can it really replace your laptop?

We begin in the heart of Nigeria where a national emergency official says twin explosions have killed at least 118 people and injured dozens. A local official put the death toll much lower at 46. And while no one has claimed responsibility, the deadly attacks are focusing renewed attention on the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

Now the blast rocked a crowded market in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday. Now authorities say a suicide car bomb detonated first. And then this happened just 20 minutes or so later.

An improvised explosive device hidden in another car detonated, sending people running and screaming in panic.

Now there seem to be no end to the violence. And witnesses say Boko Haram attacks on several villages this week have left at least 30 people dead.

Now Vladimir Duthiers joins me now live from Nigeria's capital Abuja. And Vlad, first, just walk us through the aftermath of these latest deadly attacks.

VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie.

Well, a gruesome and gory scene as described by witnesses, body parts strewn everywhere, ambulances screaming, people shouting, carded in wheelbarrows, carried on foot to local area hospitals, including ambulances.

This blast seems to have been targeted now only, Kristie, at civilians, but the second blast seemed to be timed with attacking first responders who came to help the wounded and the injured.

So this is a -- just another indicator of the terror that Nigerians are facing on an almost daily basis.

Now in the past, this area, Jos, had not been targeted. There had been in the past some violent tensions between Muslim Fuwani (ph) herders and some Christian farmers, but it had been a generally peaceful area. Most of the recent attacks in Nigeria have been focused on the northeastern part of the country in attacks that have come through the hands of Boko Haram.

Now, no one has claimed responsibility for this attack. But if this is the handiwork of Boko Haram, and this does appear to be their modus operandi, it would again signal not only to the Nigerian government, but to people everywhere, that this group can attack anywhere at any time, Kristie.

LU STOUT: And given that, just how committed is Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, to combat Boko Haram and also to find the missing schoolgirls?

DUTHIERS: Yeah, Kristie, the president Goodluck Jonathan and through his spokesman Reuben Abati came out very quickly with a statement yesterday actually condemning the attacks in Jos and saying that they were vowing to do everything that they could to conduct this war on terror, as they call it, and to wipe out Boko Haram.

But the search for the girls goes on. We know that the president has said that 20,000 Nigerian soldiers are in northeastern Nigeria focused on trying to locate these girls. He's also admitted that they have no idea where they are. You know at least 100 of those young girls appeared in a video released by Boko Haram, but the United States and other countries say through intelligence reports that there may be indications these girls have been split up and moved into, or trafficked into neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

But all of those countries, those border countries in Nigeria have committed to sending one battalion each to locate these girls, but still, Kristie, more than six weeks later still haven't found these girls.

LU STOUT: Yeah. And what has facilitated Boko Haram? And why is it that Boko Haram has managed to thrive in the northeast of the country to carry out violent attacks and carry out these mass abductions of these schoolgirls. Is this a failure of the Nigerian government?

DUTHIERS: It's a great question.

It is -- a lot of people feel that it is. A lot of people feel that the Nigerian government doesn't have any control over the northeastern part of the country. It's one of the poorest areas of the country, it's one of the least educated.

Boko Haram, the name means western education is forbidden, western education is a sin. They've attacked in the past schools, mosques, churches. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. Everybody is a target to this group.

The Nigerian military has vowed to stamp them out. They've put three states -- the president has put three states in Nigeria under a state of emergency. But even under that state of emergency, Boko Haram has continued to attack with impunity seemingly at will.

So, it's a good question as to understand exactly how and when the government will ever be able to put a stop to this, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Vlad Duthiers joining us live from Abuja, thank you very much indeed for that.

Now Boko Haram militants are suspected in a string of deadly attacks in Nigeria this year alone. On April 14, militants bombed a bus station in the capital Abuja during the busy morning rush hour. Dozens of people died.

And then later that night, Boko Haram gunmen seized more than 200 girls from their school in northeastern Nigeria. And most of those girls are still missing despite that huge search effort and worldwide appeals for their safe return.

In March, nearly three dozen people died when two explosions shattered a neighborhood in the Boko Haram stronghold of Maidugoori (ph). And that followed a devastating attack one month earlier.

Now police say Boko Haram militants killed dozens of people in a northeastern village and burned almost all the buildings there to the ground.

Those are just some of the numerous attacks this year, which have put Nigeria on edge. In the country's northeast, two young men barely escaped alive. Now one was shot by Boko Haram militants, the other saw his home burned to the ground. They spoke to Arwa Damon. Now her report, it contains images you will find disturbing. And CNN has chosen to blur the identities of these men for their own safety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A few months ago, Maman (ph) was asleep in a room with three of his friends when Boko Haram attacked. The gunfire jolted them awake. Their house set on fire, smoke quickly engulfed the room. His older brother Abu Bakar (ph) was in another house.

They ran into the bush, but his brother wasn't able to escape and was stuck in the room.

The door had been blocked.

Maman (ph) remembers his friends screaming as the fire raged. He started crawling. The fire had already burned through the door, giving him an escape. He was the only survivor.

On the other side of the hospital ward, another of the terrorist group's victims. Isa used to cut wood for a living, but after Boko Haram attacked the first time, he joined a vigilante group. It was around dusk in the market when they struck again last week.

"They came on motorcycles, six of them," Isa says.

The first bullet hit his arm, the second through his back, knocking him to the ground. He started praying.

"They asked me where I was from. I told them from this village," he remembers. "They said, well, just let him go. He will die anyways."

He's terrified, his scars not just a reminder to him, but he says a signal to Boko Haram that they didn't finish him off.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Maidugoori (ph), Nigeria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: In Thailand, the persistent political deadlock appears no closer to a resolution after Wednesday's talks between rival parties.

Now the army who mediated the session, has set another meeting for Thursday. Now the military is facing criticism after declaring martial law, but denies the move amounted to a coup. It says it had to step in to restore law and order to the streets of Thailand.

Now let's get an update now on the situation there. And CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Bangkok. She joins us now live. And Paula, these talks that have been called by the military, who is taking part in these talks? And what are they out to achieve?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, they didn't achieve anything at this point. There's no conclusion. No one expected there to be. But the very fact that everyone sat in the same room was progress in itself. You had the leader of the pro-government protest camp, the leader of the anti-government protest camp. That's the first time that those two men have sat down in the same room and talked together. You also had some opposition leaders. You had members of the government at this point.

So there were a lot of different people from the two very separate political sides here in Thailand. It is a deeply polarized political scene here at the moment. And what the military is trying to do, according to the army chief, is to try and act as a mediator and to try and make sure that the two sides come to some kind of reconciliation.

But of course it is very difficult. The very fact that the two opposing sides are so opposed. It's very difficult to see where they can find some common ground. But the army chief is insisting they sit down together. He has said that he wants to see everybody back in the same room on Thursday. And he wants everybody to come back armed with what they want, their ideas for how to push the country forward.

So that is going to happen on Thursday. And the very fact that these meetings are taking place is progress in itself, Kristie.

LU STOUT: You know, it's interesting that the Thai military called for this meeting to take place and to continue tomorrow as acting as a sort of mediator. So Paula what role does the military want to play here? To merely enforce security or perhaps extend its powers into perhaps politics?

HANCOCKS: Well, what the military is saying publicly is that they want to get the two sides together and they want to make sure that there is peace on the streets. There is no violence on the streets and there is no more bloodshed. So they're saying that they want to create an atmosphere where talks can take place.

Now, of course there are some within Thailand who are very nervous that the military has once again carried out martial law and declared martial law. And what we're seeing on the streets of the capital, though, is not very much military presence at all. It's a very slight military presence. Even those that you do see, some military trucks, some military personnel, are very relaxed. And there's certainly not an agitated sense of them being here at all.

So certainly the martial law is not seeing tanks rolling down the street, but people are nervous because some, many, remember the fact that they have carried out many military coups in the past -- 18 have been attempted in the past 80 odd years, 11 of those were successful -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Paula Hancocks reporting live from Bangkok for us. Thank you.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come, CNN visits the heart of Japan's Fukushima disaster to see how cleanup operations are going. Now three years on, it is one of the most radioactive places on Earth.

And the U.S. government says it has legal justification for killing Americans overseas using drones. A secret memo is to be released for the first time.

Also, China's ambassador to the U.S. tells CNN he finds it incredible that Beijing can be accused of cyber espionage. We'll bring you his interview with our Christiane Amanpour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now Tepco says it has begun diverting groundwater from around the Fukushima nuclear complex into the Pacific Ocean.

Now the plant operator says it is trying to reduce water accumulating on the site and becoming radioactive.

Now Tepco says the water being released was pumped from wells above the plant last month and has met strict safety standards.

But still, despite Tepco's assurance, some are skeptical saying Tepco underestimated the amount of radioactive substances it released into the environment.

Now our Will Ripley traveled to the heart of the devastation inside the red disaster zone to see how the cleanup is going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WLL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lifeless, decaying, desolate: Fukushima is virtually untouched since that awful day three years ago when people living here had just hours to take what they could and go. Fields once full of crops, now full of black bags with contaminated soil.

Right now on the bus heading toward Fukushima Daiichi. We just pass the police checkpoint which stops anybody from coming in. And what we're seeing along this road are so many and the homes and the businesses.

A senior scientist and his research team at Fukushima University just published a study claiming that power plant's operator Tepco grossly underestimated the amount of radioactive poison, cesium 137, released during the meltdown.

This material has already gone into the ocean it's already there.

He's especially worried about contaminated fish in a country where most meals come from the sea. His research team says cesium spewed into the air during the meltdown and later fell into the water, contaminating the north Pacific Ocean and the Japanese mainland.

Tepco says the company's radiation estimates come from the best information they have, but a spokesperson admits nobody really knows for sure.

This is my first time going inside one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Wearing special suits to protect us from radiation, we passed through security, board the bus and go to the heart of the Fukushima nuclear plants.

Piece by piece, workers are trying to safely take it apart.

Even under normal conditions this is slow, grueling work. This is reactor four. This reactive relatively intact. But reactors one, two and three melted down. There's a lot of damage, a lot of contamination and the cleanup is expected to take decades.

Outside, buildings battered by the fifty foot wall of water during the 2011 tsunami. Inside a reactor control room with walls turned into makeshift notepads when the plant lost power, water level measurements from workers trying to prevent the melddown.

The invisible danger from Fukushima is why these towns will continue to sit empty for years as crews try to contain the slow moving catastrophe that turned their homeland into this wasteland.

Will Ripley, CNN, Fukushima, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: This is News Stream. And up next, a candy kingpin and a former prime minister -- just ahead, we take a look at the top contenders in Ukraine's presidential elections this weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

And you're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show today. We started with the attacks in Nigeria. A little bit later, we'll show you more of these incredible pictures of the downpour in Taiwan.

But first the U.S. is set to release a secret memo on drones. Now the document details the government's rationale for killing Americans on foreign soil by drone strikes.

Now White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins me now live from Washington with more on this.

And Michelle, exactly what will the memo disclose and why is the White House releasing it now?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know what exactly will make its way to the public, because it will be redacted. And we don't know exactly how soon it will be released publicly because of that redaction process.

But it's generally seen as the secret legal memo that details the government's justification for targeting American terror suspects overseas. And it's interesting the Obama administration was actually ordered to release it by a court in this Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times. And the memo was written as part of a different lawsuit. And that was filed by the father of one of those terror suspects, Anwar al Awlawki. He's the American-born preacher who was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

So, this is to be released to the public eventually, again in that redacted state. So we don't know exactly how much detail will be in there, how much of the government's legal justification for this kind of targeting we will see. But we do know that some members of the U.S. Senate were able to take a look at it behind closed doors. And that is interesting, because today the senate will vote on the nomination of the author of this memo to a judgeship, an appeals court judgeship.

So it was really important when this original -- or I should say the lawsuit to release the memo was brought the Civil Liberties Union, it was important for them that the senate be able to see this memo, to see what this legal mind was writing before they nominate him to be a judge, a very important judgeship in the U.S., Kristie.

LU STOUT: There are both political and legal reasons why this memo will soon be released, because it is a secret legal memo its contents were redacted. We don't know what it's going to say.

But before its release, what do we know about the legal explanation that's been out there for using drone strikes to target U.S. citizens on foreign soil?

KOSINSKI: Yeah, well, when al Awlawki was targeted in 2011 -- and apparently there were several attempts to kill him with drones before they succeeded, he was put on this list, and that was really unprecedented. The administration said he posed a threat. He was a terror suspect. He had called for jihad against the U.S.

And the government in a series of statements talked about the threat that he posed. He was considered an extremely dynamic motivator of people around the world, kind of a top talent recruiter for al Qaeda, then specifically had this high position in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula based in Yemen.

He was seen as meeting with top terrorist suspects that he had preached to, some of the September 11 hijackers. He was considered to be associated with other terrorist suspects like the underwear bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab who tried to bomb that aircraft in 2009.

So the U.S. has made it very clear that they saw him as an important target, a serious and risky target, and that's why they put him on this list. And we know that since then, four Americans have been killed by drone strikes overseas, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Michelle Kosinski reporting live from the White House, thank you.

Now Ukraine is gearing up for a pivotal presidential election on Sunday, the first since Viktor Yanukovych was ousted amid a political uprising in February.

Now in the running is candy oligarch Petro Poroshenko. He's known as the chocolate king of Ukraine.

Now the other main contenders, the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was recently released from prison.

Now whoever wins, Ukraine's new leader will have their work cut out for them. Ukraine has been shaken by months of violent unrest with separatists in the east pushing for independence.

Now before the big vote gets underway, ballot papers are being printed, but as Erin McLaughlin reports, distributing them will be a huge challenge in a deeply unstable eastern Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These ballots are being printed to make history. The goal is to have enough in time for Ukraine's presidential elections on May 25. But printing them is not the problem, it's getting them east to the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk where separatists have banned voting for the presidential election and declared their own independent republics.

Clashes like these almost a daily occurrence. Michael Ohendovskyi is the chief of the central election commission. He is responsible for making sure it is fair and secure. He's adamant that election stations will be open in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea.

MICHAEL OHENDOVSKYI, CHIEF, CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION: We have around 2,000 polling stations, for example, in Donetsk region. How many of them will be open for which part of them will not be available for voters to vote on election day? It's absolutely unpredictable now.

MCLAUGHLIN: But some of them -- but some of them will be opened?

OHENDOVSKYI: Exactly. Exactly.

MCLAUGHLIN: How are you going to even physically get the ballots to those areas?

OHENDOVSKYI: Let it be our secret.

MCLAUGHLIN: Oleksandr Churnyenko (ph) leads one of the oldest election monitoring organizations in the country. He has observers in the east. And he says they receive regular death threats.

"For us, it is important that this election shows the world that it's open and fair," he says. "If our observers refuse to monitor the election, it will be a bad signal for voters."

Security isn't the only concern. There is the issue of fraud, which was a big problem during past presidential elections.

As you can see, all 21 candidates names printed there to vote, they simply check the name of the candidate of choice.

Now a big concern is fraud. And there's a number of precautions they've taken that prevent it. If an election official suspects a ballot is a fake, all they have to do is put the ballot underneath a light such as this, that glowing number tells them that this ballot is real.

High tech for sure, but Ukrainian officials agree, for these elections to be legitimate ballots need to reach those that want to vote.

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Kiev.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Britain's royal family rarely gets involved in politics, but the Press Association reports the heir to the British throne made a rather unguarded comment comparing Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

While touring the museum of immigration in Canada, a volunteer says she told Prince Charles about her experience fleeing the Nazis and he responded by saying, quote, "Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.

However, the royal family says the prince would not to seek to make a public political statement during a private conversation.

Now still to come right here on News Stream, five Chinese army officers, they've been indicted by the U.S., but China's ambassador to the U.S. tells CNN that China really is the victim.

And laptop or tablet? Which do you choose? Now if you have a tough time making that decision, Microsoft says it has the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now searchers are combing through the rubble of deadly bombings in central Nigeria searching for victims. A national emergency official says at least 118 people were killed when two explosions rocked a market in the city of Jos on Tuesday. Now a local official puts the death toll much lower at 46. Now one has claimed responsibility, but Boko Haram militants are behind a continuing wave of terror.

Now Thailand's military held crisis talks with representatives from rival political parties who tried to ease the deadlock and months of violent unrest. More talks are on for Thursday. Now the military declared martial law this week, but denies it is a coup.

Tepco says it has begun diverting groundwater from around its Fukushima nuclear complex into the Pacific ocean. Now the plant operator says it is trying to reduce water accumulating on the site and becoming radioactive. Now Tepco says the water being released has met strict safety standards.

After months of political upheaval, Ukraine is finally set to hold presidential elections this Sunday. And vying for the top spot is business Petro Poroshenko and the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Now China's staterun newspaper Global Times is blasting Washington after U.S. officials indicted five Chinese military officers on charges of cyber espionage. Now in an editorial, it called the accusations pretentious and ridiculous, noting that Washington itself was caught spying both home and abroad with the NSA PRISM program.

Now the newspaper says the U.S. is playing victim when in fact it is the intelligence superpower of the world.

Now Washington is accusing these five men of hacking into U.S. computers to steal business secrets. Now Christiane Amanpour got exclusive reaction from Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUI: You see, it's really amazing to see that some people still believe they have the moral high ground and credibility to accuse others, if we consider the Snowden revelations and so on, so forth. And people still can do that.

It's a bit incredible.

(CROSSTALK)

CUI: ...the fact is -- I think that the fact is China is a victim to such cyber attacks. There has been persistent and large-scale attacks on China's Internet, on China's government institutions, school, universities, companies and even individuals. And these attacks originate from the United States. So we have always requested the United States to give us a clear and thorough clarification. But we still have none of it yet.

AMANPOUR: The United States seems to be making a distinction between what it, I guess, does, which is national security eavesdropping, surveillance, spying, hacking and what it's accusing you and the Chinese government of doing, which is commercial cyber attack, commercial hacking and also stealing trade secrets.

What is your reaction to that?

CUI: I don't know how they can make a distinction between such activities.

How do they explain the attacks on Chinese companies, universities and even individuals?

Is that for national defense? Or is that for other purposes?

AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you this, then, to react to the specific charges.

The United States, as you obviously very well know, has laid out a detailed indictment and it has labeled 31 counts, which could carry a maximum of 277 years in jail. And it is asking you -- and this is what the FBI is saying, the FBI director -- "If we fabricated all this, then come over to Pittsburgh and embarrass us by forcing us to put up or shut up and we will put up."

That is a direct challenge from the FBI director.

So if you're saying the U.S. is hypocritical, if you're denying what the United States is charging members of the Chinese PLA with, why not face the music, face the charges, send them over to Pittsburgh and have a jury, have lawyers and defend yourselves?

CUI: And why don't they come to Chinese court and explain themselves?

AMANPOUR: Well, that...

(CROSSTALK)

CUI: You see, Christiane, there used to be a working group on cybersecurity between the two governments. And they all agreed that the two governments should work together to fight such cyber attacks because it would certainly hurt the interests of both countries if we allow any cyber attacks to continue.

And we requested the United States to provide us with any evidence they have. And we will certainly pursue these cases in accordance with our own laws.

But they have never done that.

AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you then --

(CROSSTALK)

CUI: I don't think this is a very constructive approach.

AMANPOUR: ...is...

CUI: Yes, please.

AMANPOUR: ...is this working group still set up?

Is this one of China's retaliatory measures that it has now been disbanded or suspended?

CUI: Because they have undermined the very basis for this -- for this working group, the very basis for the working group is the commitment of both sides to work to address these measures, to address these issues through cooperation and dialogue. And now they are taking unilateral action. They really undermine the very basis of the working group.

The U.S. have to withdraw its wrong decision. Otherwise, because the U.S. took the first step and it has to take a right step.

AMANPOUR: This is a first; many people are in fact surprised that the United States government, after working sort of with you and this group over the last two years, has chosen to make this very public legal charge and indictment against members of the states, members of the PLA.

But apparently, this is a very detailed indictment and it lists people, you know, charged with conspiring to commit computer fraud, accessing computers without authorization, for the purpose of commercial advantage among other things.

Again, I know you're denying it, but why don't you take advantage of the court system and if there's nothing to hide, then you'll be exonerated?

CUI: We are not only denying all these false charges. We are also demanding some clarification from the U.S. side about cyber attacks on China. And they owe us such an explanation and clarification.

I hope they will also come to China's court to explain themselves.

AMANPOUR: All right. Well, we seem to be in a tit-for-tat verbal charges between capitals.

These here on our map are the six U.S. companies that allegedly China has been hacking into for the purpose of stealing intellectual property and gaining competitive advantage.

Amongst them are very famous companies, U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, Alcoa and three other companies.

There's a question also, along with these charges of getting trade secrets, what about the charges that actually China is also preparing and prepared for infrastructure attacks against key elements of U.S. infrastructure?

Those have been alleged in the past and some people, for instance, the former CIA director, has said that, you know, we're possibly in the midst of a cyber Pearl Harbor.

CUI: I think the fact is China's infrastructure is under attack, attacks originate from the United States. So we also have a long, long list of very good and well-known Chinese companies that have been attacked by such activities originating from the United States.

So I think it would be constructive and practical for two governments to work together on these issues, to address these issues together, not to exchange accusations like this.

I don't know why the United States made such a decision.

AMANPOUR: Well, it has made a decision, and as I acknowledge, it has surprised quite a lot of people...

(CROSSTALK)

CUI: And certainly it's the wrong decision.

AMANPOUR: ...and it...

CUI: It's a non-constructive, it's a wrong decision.

AMANPOUR: ...and it surprised a lot of people in governments around the world.

But you say the only constructive way to get through this is to work and talk together.

But if this working group has been disbanded and people believe that China will take more retaliatory steps, how on Earth are going to be able to discuss this?

Is that now, you know, consigned to the past?

CUI: We were very supportive toward the working group and we made our best efforts to make sure that the working group would have a good start. And they did have a good start.

But it's clear, the U.S. choice is to get rid of this working group. They have chosen another course of action. And it's not our choice. We're just responding to a decision, a wrong decision, taken by the United States.

AMANPOUR: They, of course, allege in this indictment that it is the unit of the PLA called Unit 61398, the news of which broke last year in Shanghai, that is responsible for this organized hacking into trade secrets. I know you deny this and I'm not going to get you to admit it, presumably, on the air.

But the last time we spoke, you said that it was in China's interest to maintain a stable and healthy relationship with the United States, which is the biggest world power.

Is that still possible?

And how will you get out of this?

CUI: This is still our position. This is still our hope. Whether this is possible or not is not entirely up to us. We have to have corresponding efforts by the United States. China itself cannot guarantee that the relations will move on the right track. We -- it requires efforts by both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And you can watch the rest of Ambassador Cui Tiankai's interview with Christiane Amanpour online on our website.

They also touched on other issues, including China's territorial disputes with its neighbors.

Now Microsoft says it has found a solution to the battle between laptop and tablet, but does it deliver? We take a look at this newly unveiled hybrid device next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream. And let's return to our visual rundown now.

In a few minutes, we'll get the latest forecast for Taiwan after the island was drenched with heavy rain. But now, let's talk about Microsoft's latest tablet.

Now when Microsoft invited journalists to a small gathering, some assumed that they would show off a smaller version of the Surface tablet, but instead they got this, a larger Surface.

Now the Surface Pro 3 has a 30 centimeter screen. It is big, it's very heavy by tablet standards, but Microsoft isn't pitching it as a tablet, they're billing it as a competitor to laptops and they're talking up an advantage its competitors don't have, the ability to run virtually any Windows program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSUF MEHDI, CHIEF MARKETING & STRATEGY OFFICER, MICROSOFT: One of the things that's great about the new Surface Pro 3 is that because it's full Windows you can run all of those applications. So, for example, if you're music is in iTunes, it can run iTunes just fine and have all of your music here.

Likewise, if your photo are here, you can put those on. If you listen to Pandora, or you watch Netflix, all of the apps now, because it's full Windows now all those work just great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now Microsoft Surface tablets have always had a great reception from critics, but not from customers. So does Microsoft really have a hit on its hands?

Let's bring in our regular tech contributor Nicholas Thompson. He's the editor of the New Yorker.com. And Nick, thank you so much for joining us once again.

The Surace 3 is out. We just got a sneak peak of it, then. Early reviews are in. And they're pretty good. But will it finally get consumers excited about a Microsoft tablet?

NICHOLAS THOMPSON, NEW YORKER.COM: Very hard to say. They have a plausible argument. And there are a lot of people who travel with tablets and with laptops who would be very happy to switch to one device. They have built something that allows you to actually work, to write memos and to do things like that, which are very hard to to on tablet devices, so they found a plausible market niche.

They've got a good device. They have a large marketing budget. They have the support of Intel, which has not done well traditionally in tablets and obviously wants to push into this new market.

So there is an argument, there is money, there is a product.

On the other hand, this is a complicated device. It's a fairly saturated market. And the early Surfaces got good reviews, and as you say they have not sold nearly as well as Microsoft hoped.

LU STOUT: And I still can't get over the size of this thing. I mean, for a tablet, the Surface Pro 3 is huge. It's heavy. It weighs in at around 800 grams, much heavier than the original iPad. Do you think the Surface makes the case for a bigger tablet, even a bigger iPad?

THOMPSON: Well, it might.

I mean, you know, a lot of what we do on tablets is we watch movies, which are great on bigger screens. You know, we use Excel spreadsheets. If we're going to be using a Surface, it's nice to have a lot of space. When you're writing, it's nice to have a lot of space. There are huge advantages to having a big screen size.

The other thing is that if you're going to try to find some kind of a niche in the tablet market, you might have to have a -- I don't need to have a very small screen or a very big screen, in part because phones -- the screens on phones are increasing so much. And so if you're going to find a space in there you have to kind of also compete with phones and you have to go much bigger. If you're just a little bit bigger than phones, then you're competing on the other side.

Point b, there are so many devices in these categories right now it's hard to find a plausible niche. And it's kind of impressive that Microsoft seems to have found one.

LU STOUT: Yeah, because it's out to create a tablet that can effectively replace the laptop, but can Microsoft do it -- and can Microsoft do it ahead of others, including Apple?

THOMPSON: Well, that's the other big question, right. So Microsoft, the old Microsoft, they had products that nobody likes, but that everybody used. And now Microsoft has these products that, you know, reviewers really like, but nobody uses. These -- you know, their consumer facing devices. They have not had a lot of success with their phones, they have not had a lot of success with their tablets. They have not had a lot of success with most of their hardware with the exception of the XBox. They haven't quite figured out the secret special something or other that makes these things sell.

Perhaps they're too confusing, right. This comes with a keyboard. You have to plug into it. It comes with a stylus. What do I really use the stylus for? I have to buy all these extra addons. How exactly does this work?

Their previous products, there were lots of concerns about the software being confusing.

So Microsoft may not be a company that's really great a designing things that consumers really want to buy as opposed to designing things that critics like to say are good.

So, that's a big obstacle.

On the other hand, like I said, this looks promising. They have a new CEO. They have new directions for the company. This is kind of a fresh start. We'll see.

LU STOUT: I can tell you're not a fan of the Surface 3, but you are diplomatic. It's promising, in your words. Nick Thompson of the New Yorker.com.

Yep, go ahead.

THOMPSON: No, it's promising. And you're right, I'm a little bit of a skeptic, but there's -- I certainly don't want to be on record and then be proven completely wrong, which is entirely possible.

LU STOUT: OK. So we'll wait and see.

Nick Thompson, New Yorker.com. Thank you so much. We'll talk again next week.

Now earlier this week, we told you about reports that YouTube was eyeing up the gaming site Twitch for some $1 billion. And the site, it allows people to broadcast live video feeds of the games that they're playing right from their PC or their Playstation 4 or their XBox One.

Now at its peak, it is responsible for more online traffic in the U.S. than Facebook or Amazon.

Now Laurie Segall caught up with Twitch's vice president of marketing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY: For those of us that don't know at this point what Twitch is, tell us a little bit about the idea and the concept.

MATT DIPIETRO, TWITCH: Sure, Twitch is essentially social video built specifically for gamers.

SEGALL: How exactly does it work?

DIPIETRO: It works by allowing the videogamer to broadcast live video capture of their actual gameplay.

SEGALL: You can't ignore the rumors that have just come out that you guys are potentially going to sell for $1 billion to Google, which would -- if you look at it and you look at YouTube and what you guys do, you guys are competing with YouTube, which would make a lot of sense. Can you speak to those at all?

DIPIETRO: I can't comment on industry rumors. So I have to stay mum on that.

SEGALL: If, perhaps, something were to happen and you guys were to partner with a bigger company or things were to change, you know, how do you think the gaming community would react?

DIPIETRO: You know, very generally I think any community online, be that a gaming community or otherwise, is just very interested that you are going to be true to the platform and the vision that you built in order to get them there.

SEGALL: What did the future look like?

DIPIETRO: The future is bright and very exciting. You know, you look at the video game industry generally, 60 plus percent of Americans are gamers. And you know the future for Twitch is we really want to be that social platform where people gather.

So as long as you stay true to those core principles, I think, any community would celebrate.

SEGALL: Interesting that the gaming community was thrown into this spotlight when almost through Oculus recently, right. I mean, you look at the Oculus acquisition with Facebook, what do you think that did for the gaming community?

DIPIETRO: You know, that was a really interesting thing. I think that in the end what happened was more of a shaping of the games industry in the eyes of the wider sort of business community.

SEGALL: Take me to why you guys are here at the Webies. You guys are accepting an award, right?

DIPIETRO: Yeah, our five word speech is a nod to a phenomenon on Twitch called Twitch plays Pokemon, which maybe you're not -- you don't know about, but you should look it up. And the five word speech is, "praise be to the helix."

SEGALL: So you're going to accept the award. You're going to accept the award. I guess last question, are you going to accept a $1 billion.

DIPIETRO: No comment.

SEGALL: OK. Fair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now you heard Matt DiPietro tell Laurie Segall about Twitch Plays Pokemon. It is a game of Pokemon played by thousands of people on Twitch at the same time.

Now players, they type commands like up into the comment section for the game to execute.

Now with thousands of people each trying to give their own commands, it can look like anarchy at times, but believe it or not they actually managed to finish the original Pokemon game this way.

Now if you had any doubt it is the rainy season in Hong Kong, take a look at this, heavy rain, lightning, thunderstorms shook Hong Kong for hours. Is there more on the way? We'll find out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream.

Let's get an update on your global weather, the latest on the heavy rain in Taiwan. And of course what we were subjected to here in Hong Kong, that heavy lightning and thunderstorm show that happened in the middle of the night.

Let's go to Samantha Moore. She joins us from the world weather center with more -- Samantha.

SAMANTHA MOORE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kristie.

Yes, incredible rainfall here, a little bit earlier than usual. I mean, it is that time of year. We see the Mei-Yu Baiu Front set up and the Plum Rains set in from May to July, but this is very heavy for this early in the season as all that warm, moist air gets trained on waves of moisture working its way along this stationary boundary that has pulled up shop here across much of southeastern Asia on up towards Japan.

So all of these areas will be affected by extremely heavy rainfall. And that's what we have seen so far.

You mentioned Hong Kong. 53 millimeters of rain in the past 24 hours. But in Taipei, we have had almost two months of rain in just a 24 hour period with most of that coming within six hours.

So the wettest place on the planet this past 24 hours has been Taipei. And here are some of the pictures coming out of there. You can see the cars having to navigate all of this deep flood water here, making it very difficult for folks to get around. And also we've had many reports of accidents as a result of this heavy rain automobile accident and flooded houses and apartment.

So incredible rain in such a short period of time with nowhere for it to go. And you can see that as we take a look at the satellite estimates of this type of rainfall, it wasn't just Taipei, it was the entire island of Taiwan here where we saw upwards, close to 300 millimeters of rain in that short window span.

So, we have pictures coming out of water rescues, too, because of this flooding rain. Here's a gentleman being rescued over this torrential rainfall that caused this river just to rush madly beneath him. I can't imagine how terrifying this would be to be this close to being swept away like this in that water that is just so, so powerful.

So here's the latest satellite imagery. This is water vapor satellite imagery. And it shows the moisture that is associated with these thunderstorms and all that convection that is moving on in here.

Hong Kong, as you mentioned, Kristie, all of the lightning and the thunderstorms that we had.

Right now, the radar looking pretty quiet, but we do expect to see more thunderstorm activity working its way in after a break the next couple of hours. We're getting that little break right now. Those winds out of the south that is that warm moist air that's moving in. So more thunderstorms overnight.

So it could look like this once again as we take a look at this time lapse from last night as those storms came rumbling through. And you can see just all of the lightning here and the heavy, heavy rain that came pouring down. It kept a lot of people up overnight.

And you can see more rain moving in far to the north -- look at that, a dawning of a new day when the sunshine returns just for a bit.

But heavier rain still to the north. And this pattern is setup now, Kristie. So we're going to continue with the heavy rain here and hot weather to the north in Beijing where they're seeing incredibly warm, hot, sticky temperatures.

LU STOUT: All right. Samantha Moore, thank you so much for the forecast and the warning here in Hong Kong. Quiet for now, but I'll be wearing the ear plugs tonight. Samantha Moore, thank you.

Now you may remember the vuvuzela from the World cup in South Africa. It's kind of hard to forget. Well, if two entrepreneur get their way, Brazil will have its own noisy response.

Michael Holmes has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Remember the vuvuzela? That skinny plastic horn became the signature soundtrack of the 2010 World Cup. Its ear splitting drone filling stadiums in South Africa. But after the tournament, the buzz quickly died when officials banned the vuvuzela from future football matches.

Brazil's version of the vuvuzela, the caxirola also fell flat shortly after it was introduced last year. The pear shaped shaker was banned by FIFA for fear it could be used as a weapon.

Now, a pair of Belgian entrepreneurs are trying to fill the vuvuzela void. This is the diabolica, a collapsible trumpet. It's makers are hoping it will make a big noise next month in Brazil.

FABIO LAVALLE, DIABOLICA DESIGNER (through translator): We wanted to come up with a musical instrument for fans that could also be a souvenir. We thought of coming up with a trumpet. We didn't want to compete with the vuvuzela, because we hated it. Everybody hated the vuvuzela, so we didn't want to do something similar.

HOLMES: While it still may be small, the pocket-sized horn is surprisingly loud and requires less lung power than the vuvuzela.

LaValle says he sold nearly half a million so far with more orders coming in from around the world.

But whether the diabolica is truly trumpeted a success, will be up to football fans.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

END