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NEWS STREAM

ISIS Militants Continue Push For Kobani; Tracing Thomas Eric Duncan's Contacts In Liberia; Hong Kong Protest Crowds Dwindling, But Still Passionate

Aired October 06, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now defiance, but dwindling noticeably smaller crowd camped out in the heart of Hong Kong. But these pro-democracy demonstrators insist they are

not done yet.

Now ISIS militants will be gaining ground in Syria despite an all-out effort to defend the key city of Kobani.

And a powerful typhoon is moving out to sea after venting its fury in Tokyo and other parts of Japan. The latest on the storm's path straight

ahead.

Now, it is slightly quieter on the streets of Hong Kong this evening. And crowds of pro-democracy protesters appear to be thinning.

Now the government ordered them off the streets on Monday so that schools and businesses could reopen after they were shut last week.

Now despite these smaller numbers, as you can see there are still hundreds of protesters refusing to leave. But they did clear a path for

city employees to return to their offices.

Meanwhile, the student protest leaders say that they will continue to demonstrate until their talks with the government become more productive.

Now CNN's Kyung Lah joins us now from a protest cite in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district where there were clashes over the weekend.

And Kyung, police have ordered the protesters there in Mong Kok to leave, but will they budge?

KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the latest statement is that the police want them to get out of here specifically this

street that I'm standing on. It is an intersection that as you can see, Kristie, you see this giant tent here, the people who are sitting on the

ground. You can see that they're surrounded by people who are trying to get around them. This is a major shopping area that has effectively been

shut down, at least to traffic.

And what we're seeing instead is scenes like this as -- even though there are fewer people who are protesting, people in these crowds are

debating democracy, they're -- these guys don't want to be on camera -- but they're arguing and they're trying to give their position, whether they are

pro-democracy or anti-occupant.

So, what we're seeing also is a pretty good number of police officers.

Now there was some debate on Friday over how effective the policing was and whether the officers were able to stop any anti-Occupy people from

physically attacking the protesters. But they appear to be creating quite a good barrier between the people who are a little angrier at the

protesters and the protesters themselves.

So what we're still seeing, a good number of students and various members of the protest group sitting. They've clearly made a camp here.

They've clearly shut down traffic. But here's the important part, Kristie, it does appear that their numbers are smaller Monday evening -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, the numbers of the students there is smaller this evening, but they refuse to budget despite that police order. Are you

seeing anything that could turn into those scenes that were witnessed of Friday night, any anti-Occupy elements that could reintroduce violence to

that corner of Mong Kok?

LAH: Yeah, we haven't heard of any violence -- no fists, no reports of any sexual assaults tonight, spoken to several of the people who are

camped out here and they say it's very different. What they were seeing Friday evening is every 30 seconds to a minute they felt physically

threatened, verbally threatened. Tonight is quite a bit different, they are still seeing some elements of that, because people are very inflamed

about this, they're very passionate, but that's being -- that's much more spaced out.

And we've even seen the police officers, you know, they're standing here, they're trying to be very calm. What they're doing is when they see

people becoming incredibly passionate or very colorful in expressing their viewpoints, they're intervening, they're trying to stop it before it gets

physical.

LU STOUT: All right, Kyung Lah joining us live from the scene there in Mong Kok, thank you very much indeed for your reporting, Kyung.

Now meanwhile, in Syria, ISIS is closing in on the strategic border town of Kobani despite U.S.-led airstrikes in the region.

If ISIS captures the city, it would be a devastating blow to Kurdish fighters who are waging an uphill battle on the ground to keep ISIS out.

Now Kobani would give the militants control of a 100 kilometers stretch of land from their de facto capital Raqqa all the way to the

Turkish border.

Now one fighter inside Kobani tells CNN it is the last chance for Kurdish defenders to flee the city.

Well, let's get the latest from the ground. CNN's Arwa Damon joins me now live from the Turkish-Syrian border. And Arwa, just how close is ISIS

to taking Kobani, this key strategic town?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, how close they are to actually taking the whole town, that we're going to have to wait and

see. They will have quite the battle on their hands. And it's a battle that we have been seeing pretty much going on all morning with intermittent

bursts of gunfire, some of it more sustained, a lot of artillery landing in the city center itself, that's artillery fired by ISIS< which has already

established itself, entrenched itself in the southeastern part of the city.

Reuters broadcast an image -- we through binoculars managed to see the ISIS flag, or at least what seemed to be the ISIS flag on top of a large

white building on the southeastern front of Kobani.

Now, Kristie, when it comes to defeating ISIS, this is not going to happen by military means alone, it is going to have to take place at an

ideological level, defeating those factors that allow people like this young women who we met to be drawn towards an organization like ISIS.

And we do have to warn our viewers at this stage that the story, her story that they're about to see does contain some potentially very

disturbing images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beneath the veil is a young heart-shaped face. Eyes filled with guilt and turmoil under

perfectly sculpted brows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): At the start, I was happy. I was carrying a gun. It was new. I had authority. I didn't think I was

frightening people but then I started asking myself, where am I? Where am I going?

DAMON: The 25 year old Hadisha -- not her real name -- is a former elementary school teacher turned member of the feared female ISIS brigade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): We parole the streets. If we saw a woman not wearing the proper clothing, we would grab her.

Sometimes they would be lashed.

DAMON: She speaks longingly of the start of the Syrian revolution and elation of being a part of something great. But then came the violence,

displacing her family multiple times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Everything around us was chaos. The Free Syrian Army, regime, barrel bombs, strikes, wounded,

clinics, blood. You want to tear yourself away to find something to run to. My problem was I ran away to something uglier. I ran away to people, this

Tunisian, who lured me into the Islamic State.

DAMON: They met online when curiosity drew her to ISIS social media pages. He told her that he was coming to Raqqa, that they could even get

married. So she convinced her family to move there.

Her cousin was already married to an ISIS fighter and a member of the junta brigade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): She took me to the brigade headquarters in a hotel in Raqqa. She introduced me to the commander. She

had a very strong personality. Her features were very sharp. She gave you the sense that she was a leader, not an ordinary woman.

DAMON: A Syrian is in charge of carrying out the lashings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): She's female, but not a normal female. She's huge. She has an A.K., a pistol, a whip, a dagger.

DAMON: In the same building as the brigade headquarters is an office specializing in arranged marriages for the foreign fighters and in many

cases, forced marriages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Foreigners are very brutal with women, even the ones they marry. There were cases where the wife had

to be taken to the emergency ward because of the violence, the sexual violence.

DAMON: Burned into her mind, this horrific image she saw online of a crucified teenager accused of rape. It's not the only side plaguing her

dreams.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The worst thing I saw was a man getting his head hacked off right in front of me.

DAMON: Then she found her husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): I said enough. After everything I had already seen and all of the times I had stayed silent

telling myself we're at war and when it's over it will be rectified. But after this, I decided no, I have to leave.

DAMON: This is the first time she tells anyone her story. She escaped just before the U.S.-led coalition air strikes began. Her family also fled

Raqqa but are still in Syria. She desperately wants to be her old self.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): A girl who's happy and loves life and laughter. I want to be like that again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And another thing that she was telling us, Kristie, was how she also put a certain level of blame upon the international community for

not coming to support the Syrian revolution in its onset when it was still managing to stay relatively speaking peaceful. She and so many others were

talking to acknowledge that there is an evil that exists at this stage inside Syria, but they say that this is not the type of evil -- ISIS, that

is what they are referring to -- that they can defeat on their own, Kristie.

LU STOUT: CNN's Arwa Damon reporting live from the Syrian-Turkish border. Thank you.

And as the ISIS offensive closes in on that border, many are wondering what kind of reaction we can expect from Syria's northern neighbor.

Now Turkey has the second largest army of the NATO bloc, its parliament cleared the way for action last week, but will they act? That

is the question that Christiane Amanpour put to the Turkish prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST, AMANPOUR: There have been loud and serious voices saying that Turkey should help save Kobani, because, yes, they're

Kurds, and maybe you see them as foes, but if you don't, it could cause a huge number of problems amongst Kurds in your own country and

humanitarianly it would be better if you did. Are you prepared to save Kobani ?

AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: We will do everything possible to help people of Kobani because they are our brothers and

sisters. We don't see them as Kurds or Turkmen or Arabs.

If there is a need of intervention to Kobani, we are telling that there is a need of intervention to all Syria, all of our border.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And you can watch the rest of Christiane's interview with Turkey's new prime minister later on Amanpour. That starts at 10:00 p.m.

in Abu Dhabi, 9:00 p.m. in Istanbul and Ankara only on CNN.

Now still to come right here on News Stream, as an Ebola patient fights to stay alive in U.S. hospital, authorities in Liberia are retracing

his every move before he left. More on the battle to contain the deadly virus next.

Plus, Typhoon Phanfone moves away from Japan, but it has left behind a path of destruction. We'll have the latest after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Time now for a check of your global weather and the aftermath of Typhoon Phanfone in Japan and also the makings of another storm on the move

and on the way toward Japan.

Let's go to Mari Ramos, she joins us from the World Weather Center -- Mari.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kristie.

Yeah, this is quite the storm. It moved a little slower than we expected. And it did cause some damage and some very heavy rain across

parts of Japan.

This is what it looked like as it was making landfall, just scraping the shore here form Kyushu and Shikoku all the way back over toward Honshu,

you can see that right over here.

And I want to show you some of the rainfall totals, first of all, that we got across the region.

For example, right here in Tanogashima, they had 334 millimeters of rainfall since Sunday. And if you think about, their average for the

entire month of October is 167 millimeters of rain.

Also pretty significant wind gusts of 140 kilometers per hour in Shonomisaki and in Owase they had over 400 millimeters of rain, again

that's more than a month's worth of rain that fell in just a matter of two days. So pretty significant stuff.

Now I want to show you in Tokyo proper, the rainfall was pretty significant here as well. They had over 300 millimeters of rain in Tokyo,

and they're normal rainfall for the entire month of October -- and remember, we're just at the beginning of October right now, is merely 200

millimeters of rain, so very heavy rain there as well.

I want to show you some pictures of Tokyo proper where, yeah, the wind was howling, in some cases up to gusting at the airport up to 170

kilometers per hour, that was the strongest wind gust that we could find in that area.

There was more than a million people that -- excuse me, more than 10,000 people that had to be evacuated because of the heavy rain, those

more vulnerable areas were the ones where people had to leave. At least three people are missing and one killed in Japan because of the very heavy

rain and wind and waves associated with the storm.

And stalk about waves, look at this picture right over here, dangerous surf, this is just one image of what some of the waves look like -- this is

in Kihou. And you can see that there's a seabreaker wall right over here. And look how huge the waves go right above it.

Keeping the boats relatively safe, of course, is important here, but you can see how it would be extremely dangerous for anyone who would be

near the shore, especially when you don't have that kind of breaker walls protecting you.

And this is the powerful winds, again, that were affecting even as we headed into Tokyo.

A couple of things about Tokyo -- even though the winds are not going to be nearly as strong as they were before, we're still looking overnight

tonight for winds to remain -- for conditions to remain quite breezy. So, I think flights should be returning to normal, transportation should be

returning to normal, but still you're in for a bumpy ride as the wind settles down across that region.

And this picture right over here of the tough conditions at the grand prix -- the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

Kristie, one more thing, you did mention that new storm that is forming. We are watching one new typhoon and that's this one right over

here taking a similar track toward Japan. That's going to be something we watch over the next few days, because this could be our next big weather

maker, another typhoon forming in the west Pacific -- back to you.

LU STOUT: All right, thank you for the warning. Mari Ramos there, take care.

Now last month a man left Liberia and he flew to the United States. And then days later he tested positive for Ebola. Now ahead, we'll go live

to Liberia to pick up the trail of contagion he left behind.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Now in less than one hour, an ambulance is to pick up a second Ebola patient to be treated at a medical center in the U.S. state of

Nebraska. Now the freelance cameraman, his name is Ashoka Mukpo, was diagnosed with Ebola last week. He was working for NBC in Liberia.

Now the U.S. network says that Mukpo arrived in the U.S. early on Monday on a specially equipped plane. According to the latest figures from

the World Health Organization, it suspects there have been more than 3,400 deaths from Ebola in West Africa.

A Liberian man who tested positive for Ebola after arriving in the U.S. has taken a turn for the worse. Now Thomas Duncan is now in critical

condition in a Texas hospital. And CNN's Nima Elbagir is in the Liberian capital Monrovia following the beginnings of the story. She joins us now.

And Nima, you tracked down Thomas Duncan's movements and his contacts. What did you find?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, speaking to Duncan's friends and neighbors, Kristie, you start to build a picture of

someone who really didn't know what he had been exposed to. The sister of Marthalee Williams (ph), the pregnant teenager who subsequently on to be

confirmed as having died from Ebola, we're told, collapsed and Duncan and other neighbors rushed to her help. And that has created a domino effect

that isn't just ricocheting here, but it's ricocheting across the ocean in the United States.

Take a look at this, Kristie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: This is the house where Thomas Eric Duncan was renting rooms. The rest of his neighbors have now all been put under quarantine. They

can't go out. But we can come in to them as long as we keep our distance.

(voice-over): Duncan was renting rooms from the family of Marcaline (ph) Williams. Williams' aunt, Anna Dier (ph), told us she was in her

seventh month of pregnancy when she collapsed. Her family and neighbors rushed to help. Duncan amongst them.

Now, both of Williams' parents, her aunt says, have tested positive for Ebola, and Duncan is accused of having left Liberia knowingly taking

the virus with him.

(on camera): This door behind me is the room that Thomas Eric Duncan was renting here in this compound. It is the focal point of so much of the

fear and paranoia that's ricocheting around the world. And that room, through that door, is exactly how he left it the day he board that plane

heading to the United States.

(voice-over): Teta (ph) Williams is 12. Last week she rushed to her dying sister's aid, alongside Duncan. None of them could have imagined the

consequences, she says, especially not Duncan, as he boarded his plane.

(on camera): Did he know she died of Ebola?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

ELBAGIR: Nobody knew.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): The leader of the local Ebola task force has more questions for Teta Williams. His is an unenviable task.

(on camera): Are you trying to trace all of the people that were in contact with Marcaline (ph)? How many do you have already?

PEWU WOLOBAH, EBOLA TASK FORCE: Right now we have (inaudible).

ELBAGIR: Almost 100 people. WOLOBAH: 100, yes.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): As America struggles to contain the fear of Duncan's diagnosis in Dallas, here they're struggling to come to terms with

the mounting death toll. Already nine others who came into contact with Williams are dead or dying.

Nine-year-old Mercy (ph) is being looked after by her 17-year-old brother Harris. Their mother also was among the first at Williams' side.

Days later, she herself was rushed to the hospital. Mercy doesn't know this yet, but after we leave, one of the neighbors is going to take her aside

and explain that her mother is never coming back home.

WOLOBAH: We have been carrying on this awareness over and over. We tell the people, no matter how much you love your person, it is the health

authority (inaudible) responsible to pick up the sick.

ELBAGIR: It's a lesson they've learned here the hard way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: It really does just illustrate to you, Kristie, that no matter how many failsafes you put in place, the reality is there is only

one way for people around the world and here to be safe and to truly contain this and that's for a concerted effort to grow around trying to

find a way out of this crisis here on the ground -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Nima Elbagir on the story and also tracking the brutal path of the contagion live from Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, thank you very

much indeed for that, Nima.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come, pro-democracy protests taking a toll, small business owners in Hong Kong talk to CNN

about their frustrations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

In Syria, despite coalition airstrikes, the boarder town of Kobani remains under heavy siege by ISIS militants. Well, a fighter inside the

city tells CNN that the Sunni militants have breached the southeastern edge of the town. And as you can see in this video, the ISIS flag is now flying

over one building.

In South Africa, the British businessman Shrien Dewani has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering his wife while the couple were on their

honeymoon. The taxi driver says that he was paid to carry out the murder and to make it look as though the couple were the victims of a carjacking.

It's going to take not one, but two elections to decide the next president of Brazil. 99 percent of the ballots cast on Sunday have been

counted, and incumbent Dilma Rousseff is in the lead, but she didn't win the needed majority.

Now she will face the center-right candidate Aecio Neves in a runoff. And that vote is set for October 26.

Now here in Hong Kong, pro-Democracy protesters are allowing government workers to return to their headquarters, but some demonstrators

have ignored the chief executive's call to disperse.

At the main protest site, in Admiralty, the crowd there is still blocking a major highway, but the turnout is much smaller than during the

weekend.

And as the protests drag on, small business owners here, they say that they're being hurt by a dropoff in customers. Andrew Stevens hit the

streets to hear their concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the working-class streets of Mong Kok, Virginia Lau is losing patience. Business is down 30

percent and getting worse, after 45 years selling newspapers out of this stall, she now struggles to make ends meet.

"It's never been this bad," she tells me. "At first, I supported them, but then I started to think they're being selfish because they block

the roads and that's wrong."

Virginia is one of the many feeling the squeeze in Mong Kok as the protest movement heads to its second week, camped on an intersection in one

of the busiest districts of Hong Kong.

Businesses big and small are being affected, from the chain stores and banks on Nathan Road that runs through the heart of the district, to the

smallest of stalls tucked away on a lane, there's not much business going on.

Away from the main street, there's a warren of small alleyways like this one just off the main protest site. And the people here don't want to

be interviewed on camera, but they will tell you that business is hurting.

It was scenes like this last Friday night that have spooked shoppers and tourists alike, the violent confrontation between pro- and anti-Occupy

protesters and reports that organized crime was fueling the unrest.

Though there is support here for the protesters, many others, including Polly Lau who has lived in Mong Kok all her life say enough is

enough.

POLLY LAU, MONG KOK RESIDENT: I'm very angry, because this movement is disrupting my life. I think there will be a rebellion, actually a

rebellion of the other 7 million people in Hong Kong against them.

STEVENS: But there's no plan yet to break up this camp. Students we spoke to say they're staying put.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I won't leave.

STEVENS: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because if they ask me to leave in these times, we don't get anything. And I won't live in this situation.

STEVENS: And they've apparently come up with a new strategy of reacting in the face of criticism, with a simple song.

(SINGING)

STEVENS: Andrew Stevens, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now let's get the perspective from a business leader based here in Hong Kong, property developer and entrepreneur Allan Zeman joins me

now. Alan Zeman was also a member of the election committee for Hong Kong's chief executive. And thank you for making yourself available for

CNN.

And I know, you know how business works here, you know how the government works here. And I'm trying to think when these talks kick off

between the second in command Carrie Lam and the Hong Kong student leaders. Are the Hong Kong student leaders, will they be respected? Will they be

treated not as kids, but as equals?

ALLAN ZEMAN, CHAIRMAN, LAN KWAI FONG GROUP: No, I think generally the government is really earnest in having a proper dialogue. This -- what's

happened in Hong Kong is unprecedented. I don't think the government ever expected -- no one ever expected something like this. And I think really

the government is really earnest in -- without conditions, is really sitting down and trying to find a solution so that we can get back to

normal lives, open the streets, send the students back to school and really try to give them something that they want.

LU STOUT: You're saying the Hong Kong government is earnest, is sincere, is solution oriented, do you think there's going to be political

change as a result of these talks?

ZEMAN: You know, Kristie, you have to understand that Hong Kong is not its own country. We're one country, two systems, but remember it's one

country. And so things still have to fall in line with what Beijing wants as well, because Beijing needs stability. If things go out of control

here, they're worried about what happens back home. And it's 1.3 billion people across the border, and they've got to keep it stable.

And so it's important for all parties that we settle this peacefully. We've got to settle this in a way that works for everyone. And Hong Kong

can get back to what we've always been famous for, is stability here.

LU STOUT: And the business impact with the protests, what kind of impact has it had on businesses and on tourist spending in Hong Kong?

ZEMAN: Well, unfortunately, it came at one of the worst times, because Golden Week is really a big bonanza for most of the retail industry

in Hong Kong, that's when all the Chinese have one week of holiday and they all come to Hong Kong to spend their hard-earned cash. And what's happened

is since this occurred, it's the eighth day today, businesses many, many shops have seen no customers -- I walked -- I've been in many of the shops

in the central area, in Mong Kok, they haven't seen a customer at all.

And that's been very, very worrisome, because our rents in Hong Kong are very high, a lot of these entrepreneurs are SMEs, small, medium

enterprises. They don't have a lot of cash flow. They depend on every day business. They have staff that they've got to look after. And so it's

also worrisome for the staff, because staff have families that they've got to support. And so it goes right down the line.

And this has really been a real problem, because closing off the streets, the main area in Hong Kong, the government has been really

tolerant. If you think of London, closing off Oxford Street, or 5th Avenue in New York, my prediction is the government would be in one day or two

days with tanks to clear the streets.

Here they've been tolerant. They've allowed the students to occupy those streets. And it's affected so many business -- everybody's life has

changed, the traffic in the area is what used to take a half hour to drive to work, now takes maybe an hour-and-a-half and--

LU STOUT: And a final question for you, you represent business interests in Hong Kong, you do have the ear of the government. You've been

involved in that nominating process. A number of your customers are students, are the youth of Hong Kong, and you've also gone out and about to

mingle with the protesters, what did you see, what did you learn from that? And how has that affected your view of what's going on in Hong Kong?

ZEMAN: I went out to be with the protesters, because I really wanted to understand who is there, what's going on. And it wasn't just university

and teenagers, it was also families that came out that were in support, showing support of the students.

I think that basically the students really what they want is universal suffrage, they want a civic nomination, this is something Beijing has

offered to Hong Kong universal suffrage, a different system. The U.S., UK everyone has different forms of universal suffrage. The nominating

committee is something that I feel the government -- there is some room to work with the students to show them that maybe it can be more

representative, and that can help, maybe, to be face-saving for everyone.

LU STOUT: Yeah, for everyone involved. Government, business, the students and--

ZEMAN: I think that's very, very important, and also China.

LU STOUT: And also China. We'll have to leave it at that, but thank you very much indeed for sharing your thoughts with us. Allan Zeman.

You're watching News Stream. We'll be back right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now have you ever wondered what happens after you order something online? Well, one company uses hundreds of robots to help get those items

from the warehouse to your house. And Art of Movement finds out how these smart machines stay in sync and perform with such precision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: A place for everything, and everything in its place. In this massive facility about the size of four football pitches, more than a

million units of online retail items are housed. It is essentially that all inventory is organized and easy to find in order to swiftly get these

items to their final destinations.

That is, unless the inventory needed can be summoned on demand. That's how it works at the quiet logistics online fulfillment center, where

200 of these orange mechanical wonders help workers prepare 10,000 to 20,000 orders for delivery every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Robot's job is really to move inventory from storage to the workstation. And any time somebody places an order, the

robot is dispatched to the storage location that has that unit and brings it to our associates to pick.

LU STOUT: With names like BotMobile, Jack in the Bot and Bottleship, each robot is given its own identity and also given their own assignments.

Like a choreographed routine, they move autonomously up and own he aisles of the warehouse, never missing a step, and always hitting their

mark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As it drives up, you'll see that it's driving over these barcodes here, and there's a camera on the bottom of this drive unit

that's communicating where this bot happens to be driving to.

LU STOUT: Designed to operate in tight quarters, the robots are small enough to travel under the storage units, yet strong enough to lift almost

a metric ton of merchandise. Like a skater on ice, they glide across the warehouse floor at about 10 kilometers an hour and can stop on a dime to

avoid running into obstacles or fellow bots.

They can even find the charging station when they're power is running low. What keeps this mechanical workforce performing with such precision

is the software that commands it.

AL DEKIN, SR. VP, SALES & MARKETING: We think of the software as being a giant air traffic control system. You know, the software will

allocate a certain number of spots to a specific robot that's what keeps the things from bumping into each other, that's what keeps the robots from

hitting each other.

LU STOUT: The system, which was designed by Amazon.com's subsidiary Kiva (ph), keeps track of all inventory so the robots know exactly what's

on each storage unit. With a recorded accuracy rate of 99.99 percent, human error is practically eliminated in this phase of the process.

DEKIN: In terms of overall productivity, the use of the robotics tends to be around anywhere from three-and-a-half to upwards of five times

more productive. So we would have to have that many more people to actually get the same amount of work done.

LU STOUT: But the human touch is still necessary to get the products out the door. Quiet Logistics has 400 people working on fulfillment at

this facility alone, so these smart machines are not yet ready to replace living workers, but they do lessen the movement necessary to get the job

done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And World Sport with Alex Thomas is up next with more on the horrific crash at Japan's Grand

Prix.

END