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Kobani Kurds Asking For More Help; World Bank Warns Ebola Outbreak Could Cost Africa $32 billion; Smog Envelops Beijing; Kim Jong un Missing From Public Appearances; Sunni Tribes Key To Defeating ISIS In Iraq

Aired October 09, 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 the future of Africa is at stake: a warning from the World Bank president as the Ebola epidemic devastates West Africa. We'll take you

inside one treatment center in Liberia.

Plus, witnesses in the Syrian city of Kobani say the situation is getting worse. Why new coalition strikes may not be enough to save the

strategic town from ISIS fighters.

And heavy smog rips Beijing. When will the air clear?

Happening right now, leaders from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are in Washington meeting with officials from the World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund.

Now the focus stemming the deadly Ebola outbreak.

Now the virus is raising fears in many places outside West Africa. Now a 57-year-old women is being tested for Ebola in Australia, the results

are due on Friday.

Now she was recently in Sierra Leone treating Ebola patients.

And meanwhile in Spain, five people are being monitored at the same Madrid hospital where nurse's assistant with Ebola is being treated.

And we have just learned that her condition is worsening.

And in the United States, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in America has died. Thomas Eric Duncan died on Wednesday in Dallas, Texas

where he was hospitalized after contracting the virus in Liberia.

Now as we've seen, doctors, nurses and others serving on the front lines of the outbreak, they are at risk. Now the World Health Organization

says more than 400 health workers have been infected with Ebola, 232 of them have died, but to put these numbers into perspective, the WHO adds the

overall number of infections is likely much higher across the board due to what they say is insufficient data collection.

Now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, they made this chart forecasting the number of cases that could be expected in the coming

months.

Now the solid line, it's based on the number of actual reported cases and projects the expected increase if current intervention efforts go on.

As you can that number, it starts to level off around 10,000 in late January.

Now the dotted line you see adjusts for estimated underreporting. It shows the number of cases closer to 25,000.

Now so far, Liberia has been hit the hardest. Its fragile health care system has been overwhelmed.

Now a CNN camera went inside a high-risk zone at one of Liberia's state-run Ebola centers. Nima Elbagir reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Blood-spattered and limp, too weak to hold up his head; a nurse struggles under the weight of a

desperately ill patient. The nurse agreeing to wear a camera to give us a glimpse of the bleak reality he witnesses daily. Here at this government-

run treatment center.

Today, the nurse managed to get this patient to drink water. It's a small victory.

For the last two months, Dr. Soka Moses and his team have worn their protective suits in unbearable heat, walking the high-risk wards to tend to

the patients in their care.

DR. SOKA MOSES, JFK EBOLA TREATMENT UNIT: Life is rough and then you die. What else can we do? If we don't do it who will do it for us? So,

we have to take the risk and take care of the patients or else our country will be wiped away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't leave some behind. Drain the whole tank, yeah.

MOSES: So, working in a high-risk zone is highly dangerous. You have so many patients in agony. Patients are crying in pain, some patients are

dying (inaudible), some patients needs help, some patients cannot move any longer and you see some patients you cannot do anything for them, they are

dying and all you do is you watch them die sometimes you pray for them. And do the little, you doing just hope that something miraculous happens.

ELBAGIR: Dr. Moses got one day's training before going into these wards and says that's typical here in a health care system struggling to

cope. You do what you need here to survive.

The nurse forgets the camera for a moment and begins to hum a hymn to himself, a comfort amidst the grimness. And ambulances arrive bringing

more patients. It begins again.

There is no room, so the stretcher goes on the floor for now, next to a mattress where another critical patient lies. Here, there are two

patients for every bed. More patients. It is unimaginably unrelenting.

But there are the success stories, and that's what sustains the staff.

Around the back of the Ebola ward, patients spot the camera and begin to wave. They are recovering, maybe even going home soon. But for the

staff, there is no end in sight.

What happens when you go home at the end of the day?

MOSES: I get prepared for another day.

ELBAGIR: And another day, and another day, until their prayers are finally answered.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Monrovia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Wow, incredible video there from inside those Ebola treatment centers.

Now international health authorities say that they are doing all that they can to contain the Ebola outbreak. But there have been calls by some

for a travel ban to prevent the disease from spreading. But Thomas Frieden, who is the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, says it is more important to treat the outbreak at its source and simply screen travelers.

Now CNN's Rene Marsh is at Dulles International Airport in Washington with new updates from U.S. authorities there.

And Rene, what are American airports doing to check passengers arriving from Western Africa?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Kristie, good morning.

We see this morning that preparations are under way for what's being called ramped up screening measures at very specific U.S. airports.

Tougher screening means tougher, more details questions for passengers flying from very specific West African countries.

We also know that there will be temperature checks. And custom's officers will be using something like this, a thermometer that does not

need any contact, but it will tell them if the person has a fever.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)??

MARSH: In just days, ramped up screening of passengers will begin at New York's JFK airport and expanding to Atlanta, Newark, Chicago and here

at Washington Dulles. The five airports receive about 95 percent of the 150 passengers arriving in the U.S. every day from Ebola hotspots, Guinea,

Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Under the new screening measures, all passengers traveling from those countries will have their temperatures checked with a laser thermometer, no

touching necessary, just held close to the forehead. A new CDC questionnaire must also be filled out upon landing. ??

DR. AMESH ADALJA, UPMC CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: There's a 21-day incubation period. People may not have a fever when they are passing

through the airport. And invariably, when a case comes through, people are going to ask you, you know, we had this temperature screening set up. Why

did this happen? And I'm telling people that it's completely predictable that it will happen, because this is not a fool-proof way to prevent Ebola

from coming into the country.??

MARSH: Similar screening is already in place in West Africa, but the goal of these new U.S. checks is to identify passengers airport officials

missed or who developed symptoms while traveling. ??

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: This is an additional layer of screening that can be targeted to that small population in a way that will

enhance security, but also minimize disruption to the broader traveling public. ??

(END VIDEOTAPE)??

MARSH: Well, the CDC says 1 out of 500 travelers traveling from West Africa do have a fever, but in most cases it is malaria. So what they do

realize is that they are going to find individuals with a fever when they do these checks, but they're pointing out that it won't always be Ebola --

Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Rene Marsh reporting live from Dulles International Airport in the U.S. Ramping up these screening procedures at

American Airports. Thank you, Rene.

Now you are watching News Stream. Later on in the program, we'll have much more on the Ebola outbreak, including questions about the treatment

Thomas Eric Duncan received in the U.S. compared to other Ebola patients.

Also, bleak reports from the Syrian town of Kobani where local fighters say that they can't fend off ISIS without more U.S. air strikes.

And, breaking news from Hong Kong about those talks between city leaders and pro-democracy protesters. Keep it here.

(COMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now we've already shown you the desperate situation facing health care workers who are fighting Ebola in West Africa. A little bit later, we take

a look at a very noticeably absent Kim Jong un.

But now, ISIS has shipped reinforcements into the embattled Syrian town of Kobani. A Kurdish fighter tells us a large number of new fighters

arrive from Raqqa earlier today. There was also a witness report of an intense street fighting in the center of the city.

Now even with airborne support from coalition forces, many say airstrikes just aren't enough to save Kobani from capture. And Washington

has been very clear on this, the United States will not use ground troops to help that town or any number of other Syrian towns under assault.

Now CNN's Phil Black is live from the Turkish-Syrian border. He joins us now. And Phil, Western officials they're saying that they are not going

to save Kobani and yet this battle rages on. What can you tell us?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie, despite the very blunt language from Washington, they're really lowering

expectations about what the air power can do, we've continued to see that air power exercise against ISIS as it moves around Kobani behind us. The

sound of aircraft overhead has been almost constant. And as we look away there towards the southwest of the city, you can see smoke very clearly in

the sky.

We've seen a number of airstrikes coming around that area, one just in the last 15 minutes or so.

So, the air power is still being used here, but the fighters in the city tell us -- and from what we're seeing as well -- it would appear not

with the same intensity that we've witnessed over the previous 48 hours or so.

Those Kurdish fighters in the city were really thrilled by the degree to which the United States was using air power against ISIS in its

positions around the city. And the Kurdish fighters say that made a real difference in terms of what they were able to achieve fighting street-to-

street in the city itself, even taking territory back from ISIS.

But the fight is still very much against them. They don't have the numbers or the resources to hold the territory they're taking back.

And as you touched on there, they say that ISIS has since been reinforced with a lot of new fighters arriving overnight from Raqqa, the

Syrian city that ISIS has effectively declared to be its capital.

So the momentum is still very much against them. They want the United States to do more.

Another country under great pressure to do more here is the one where we're standing, Turkey. And here along the border area, there is a lot of

Turkish military with the sort of resources that will make a difference to this fight should Turkey choose to get involved.

We can show you off in the distance there a hill not far from the Turkish border just over the crest, so the location not visible from the

Syrian side, you can see a formation of Turkish tanks. They've been there for a while. But they're not moving, not getting involved in any way.

The Turkish government says there needs to be a ground operation. But he's very specific about what it says is necessary or how that should take

place.

The foreign minister from Turkey was discussing that just today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU, TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We cannot expect Turkey to do a land operation. This is not a realistic

approach. We now have different groups in the area and we can never guess where the terrorist groups will target and will continue to fight.

We underlined repeatedly that we do support the bombardment of our allies, but this is a problem, which you cannot resolve just by air

bombardments and you cannot change the balance of power in the region with these air bombardments. Maybe you can stop them for a short period, but

you cannot clean the whole region of ISIS or some other terrorist organizations. You need to take into consideration all options, including

an operation on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: So, Turkey says it is in favor of a ground operation, but doesn't want to do it alone.

So far, no other countries look to be even considering the possibility of signing up to such an operation. So it still appears to be something of

a non-starter.

The Kurds that are defending Kobani behind me, they say they don't want Turkish troops to role across the border. What they want is for the

Turkish government to open the border so that they can resupply their troops with ammunition, with new fighters, and only then, they believe,

they would have the ability to hold onto this city for a bit longer. How long? If that comes along with greater air support from the United States

and its allies -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: You know, Phil, it's extraordinary this Turkish tanks are right there at the border not far from where you are, but they're not

moving in and that blunt language from Washington is seeming to suggest that the fall of Kobani is inevitable. So when Kobani falls to ISIS,

what's going to happen? What's going to happen to ISIS and what will happen to the people inside Kobani who didn't have time, who didn't manage

to escape?

BLACK: Well, those people that are in the city now, they say there will be a massacre, that's the sort of language they're using to try and

pressure the United States to help out more, to do more with those air strikes. They believe that all the fighters that remain and some

civilians, too, we are told, will be killed. And it is quite horrific, perhaps, to imagine just how -- or just what could take place in that event

given the brutality that we've seen from ISIS up until this point.

It is not nice to consider how the Kurdish population here in Turkey and other regions will react in the event that that is allowed to happen,

because they already feel to a significant degree as if they have been betrayed, forgotten about by Turkey, by the international community. They

don't believe they're getting the help that they want.

And for ISIS, it'll mean that they successfully claimed a wide swath of new territory at a time when an international operation led by the

United States claims to be degrading their capabilities.

So, it's a powerful message from ISIS in the event that that takes place, but the United States, in their blunt language recently, has been

saying we're not concerned, necessarily, about individual cities or territories that ISIS is claiming. They're taking the bigger picture view.

It is about resources, infrastructure, command and control, the things that allow ISIS to continue to function on the scale that it is now.

They believe that if they erode those over time, then the sort of advances that we're seeing behind us will not be sustainable for ISIS --

Kristie.

LU STOUT: Kobani is on the brink and so many lives there are at stake here. Phil Black reporting live from the Syrian-Turkish border, many

thanks indeed for that update.

Now U.S. officials, they tell CNN that their primary goal is to beat back ISIS in Iraq and then go after its leadership and then its resources

in Syria.

Now to do that, the Pentagon says airstrikes alone are not enough. They need help from ground forces like the Iraqi army and the Kurdish

Peshmerga.

Now one group that could play an important role is the Sunni awakening that proved so pivotal in Iraq several years ago. Now CNN's Ben Wedeman

has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If the ISIS tide in Iraq is to be turned, it's men like these, Sunni tribal fighters in Anbar

Province, who will be key.

They are members of the so-called Sunni awakening, or the Sahawate (ph) as they are known in Arabic. They played a critical role during the

American surge to crush the insurgency, paid and armed by the United States, they fought and temporarily subdued al Qaeda in Iraq.

But when the Americans left in late-2011, support from the Baghdad government dried up and many have since gone over to ISIS.

Sheikh Wusam al Hardan (ph) is the leader of what's left of the Sunni awakening: "We were at our height during the American presence," he

recalls. "But when the Americans left, responsibility for the Sunni awakening passed to the Iraqi army. We had 103,000 men, but that number

evaporated to just 34,000."

Sheikh Wusam (ph) has escaped repeated attempts on his life by his many opponents. He concedes in his native Anbar Province, active ISIS

opponents are now in the minority.

"Most of the tribes have moved away from the Sunni awakening," he says. "They're afraid to confront ISIS. If they say they're with us, they

and their homes will be targeted. Most of the tribes are sitting on the fence."

Or have sided with ISIS, which was quick to post pictures on the internet of tribal leaders in Anbar searing allegiance to the Islamic

State. ISIS now controls most of Anbar.

Sunni awakening members are caught between a rock and a very hard place. Underscored by this chilling video in which ISIS militants, dressed

as Iraqi soldiers, break into the home of a local leader. They're forced to dig their graves, but not before he gives this statement under obvious

duress.

"I advise anyone in the Sunni awakening," he says, "to give themselves up and stop their work."

Their work, however, could make the difference between success and catastrophe in Iraq.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching CNN News Stream. And coming up next, a change of heart in Hong Kong over talks between the government an

protesting students. We got that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now here in Hong Kong, talks between protesting students and the government are off. Now they had been planned for Friday, but within the

past hour or so, Hong Kong's deputy chief Kerry Lam said that the government could not agree to student demands. She said it would have been

impossible to have a constructive meeting.

Now the Hong Kong Federation of Students will issue its own statement in a little over half an hour's time.

Now meanwhile, on the streets of Hong Kong, days of pro-democracy protest is wearing on the residents. There are complaints of heavy traffic

as major roads and junctions remained blocked in business and retail districts throughout the territory. And despite the shrinking protest

crowds, police have not touched the protest barricades for days.

Now for the north, Beijing is on alert as smog sets in. So let's get the bad air forecast with Mari Ramos. She joins us from the World Weather

Center -- Mari.

RAMOS: Hey, Kristie, look at this picture here behind me. Do not adjust your TV set, this is what it looked like earlier in Beijing. And

actually it's gotten a little worse in the last hour. I get a tickle in my throat. I can imagine being there.

This is a picture taken from our bureau, actually, by one our CNN employees there. And you can see how visibility was reduced significantly

across the city.

And they're not alone. Even in the last hour or so, the air quality has actually gotten worse, down to 461 -- or up, I should say. That's in

the hazardous level. And you can see these different levels over here from very unhealthy to hazardous almost off the charts at 500.

Now, the orange alert that was issued is to just make people more aware and tell them, you know, reduce traffic. There's some schools that

are not letting children go outside, all of this of course as a precaution just to not let people go.

Now one the things that happens is this is their new advisories that they began last year to help with the pollution and to try to manage this a

little bit better after much criticism from people living in this area.

You can see the smog from space. The difference between the smog right there and the clouds right over here. But I have an even better

image to show you. This is more high resolution. And you can clearly see that dirty air not affecting not just Beijing, by the way, notice that

there are millions of people, dozens of cities, hundreds of cities, I should say, that are affected by the bad air across this corner of

northeastern China. And clearly the difference between the smog and the clouds very, very visible.

W don't have a big weather system that's going to come along and help clear the air, so this is expected to last for the next couple of days.

Two big stories, though, two tropical cyclones that are kind of flanking the map here. Let's go ahead and very quickly tell you about

Super Typhoon Vongfong. I think it's no longer a super typhoon.

The storm continues to move up to the north here and expected to reach the southern islands of Japan by the next two days then affecting Japan

proper. We'll have to see what happens. This is taking a very similar track to Phanfone just a week ago, so we'll have to see how things develop

in the next couple of days.

Back to you.

LU STOUT: Yeah, Vongfong is a mighty system.

Mari Ramos there, thank you. You're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, fighting Ebola starts with education. We'll tell you

more about how the disease spreads and clear up any misinformation.

Also ahead, North Korea's supreme leader has slipped from the spotlight. The question now is, where is Kim Jong un? And is he still in

charge?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now health officials in Spain say the condition of a nurse's assistant infected with Ebola has worsened. Now five other people are being

monitored for possible exposure at a hospital in Madrid. That as the IMF and World Bank hold a meeting in Washington on the deadly Ebola outbreak in

West Africa. Now leaders of the hardest hit countries are taking part.

Australia is monitoring what could be its first case of Ebola. A 57- year-old woman has been isolated at a hospital in Cairn and is being tested for the virus. Results are due back on Friday. Now she recently returned

from Sierra Leone where she had been treating Ebola patients.

Now sources inside the embattled Syrian city of Kobani say ISIS fighters are still pressing forward despite that steady campaign of

coalition airstrikes. Now one fighter says the militants appear to be reinforcing their positions. An activist says street-to-street combat is

taking place. An ISIS takeover of Kobani would give the group an unhindered swath of territory from Raqqa all the way to the Turkish border.

Now the French novelist Patrick Modiano has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. He's being honored for what the committee

describes as, quote, the art of memory with which he's evoked the most ungraspable human destinies.

Now Modiano's more than 30 books center on topics like memory, identity and guilt with the city of Paris present in many of his works.

Now let's return to our top story now, efforts to stem the deadly Ebola outbreak.

Now questions are being raised over the U.S. patient Thomas Eric Duncan and whether his death could have been prevented.

Now David Mattingly looks at how his care differed from other Ebola patients who were transferred to the United States for treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)??

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thomas Eric Duncan's death leaves behind a trail questions about Ebola treatment and prevention

that is more 5,000 miles long. Liberian health officials didn't suspect the sick woman Duncan assisted in Monrovia was infected with Ebola until after

Duncan was already in the United States. ??

Five days after his arrival, an ailing Duncan goes to the hospital in Dallas and tells them of his recent travel from Africa, but they just give

him antibiotics and send him home. ??

DAVID LESTER, VICE PRESIDENT, TEXAS HEALTH RESOURCES: Regretfully that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team. And as a

result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the clinical decision-making. ??

MATTINGLY: Duncan spends three days potentially exposing others before he's back, even sicker this time, in the hospital. It takes two days to

confirm, he's infected with Ebola. Duncan's case is a sharp contrast to Doctor Kent Brantly and Missionary Nancy Writebol, America's first Ebola

patients. Both were diagnosed in Africa and given an experimental drug ZMapp and flown to the United States under quarantine, the drug seemed to

work. ??

NANCY WRITEBOL, EBOLA SURVIVOR: What a great, great nursing staff and what a great doctors. ??

DOCTOR KENT BRANTLY, EBOLA SURVIVOR: He treated me with expertise, yet with such tenderness and compassion. ??

MATTINGLY: Duncan was in the hospital for nine days when his girlfriend speaks from quarantine, begging that he get the same

experimental drug. ??

LOUISE TROH, THOMAS ERIC DUNCAN'S GIRLFRIEND: I am asking God. I'm asking the American government, the same medicine they gave to the people

that came from Liberia, the Ebola people that came, the people with Ebola that came. Please help save his life. He's too young to die. ??

MATTINGLY: But supplies of ZMapp are depleted. The hospital confirms Duncan was given a different experimental drug already in serious

condition, his status doesn't improve. ??Blood transfusion from Ebola survivors are also believed to provide antibodies to patients still

fighting the disease. Doctor Kent Brantly today gave blood to one Ebola patient on NBC cameraman. He also gave blood to an infected doctor who has

since recovered. Both Writebol and Brantly confirmed they agreed to also give blood to Duncan, but it only works if their blood types match. ??Now

it no longer matters. ??

DOCTOR TOM FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: Today we are deeply saddened by the death of the patient in Dallas. ??

MATTINGLY: Duncan's case ends with the worst possible outcome. Brantly was out of the hospital in 19 days, Writebol out in 14. After finally being

admitted, Thomas Eric Duncan, died in 11. ??

David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta. ??

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now remember, Ebola is extremely deadly, but not very contagious. Now the virus is transmitted by contact with the bodily fluids

of an infected person. Symptoms generally occur eight to 10 days after infection, but can take up to 21 days.

And people with Ebola suffer from extreme vomiting, diarrhea and high fevers, which causes sweating.

Now that puts the people who care for them at risk of exposure. But proper hygiene can help stop the spread. Now UNICEF has one aid group

trying to educate people about how to protect themselves. It's also working to distribute 50,000 household protection kits in Liberia.

Now let's take a look at some of the items inside each kit. It contains protective gowns, but also gloves, masks as well as soap, chlorine

and a sprayer along with instructions on the use and safe disposal of biohazardous materials.

Now UNICEF says that these kits allow family caregivers to look after Ebola suffers as safely as possible.

Now another vital tool in the fight against Ebola: cash. Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a record donation of $50

million to help with the response. And on Thursday, Melinda Gates spoke about where she thought the money should be spent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELINDA GATES, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: Well, I think we need to move supplies very quickly. I think we need to educate communities

very quickly on how they can make sure they don't contract Ebola. I think we need to actually draw blood from people who have had Ebola and recovered

from it so we can use their blood or their antibodies to give those to other people, and then back home we need to be working on the right drugs

and vaccines for a long-term strategy against Ebola as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: But that $50 million donation, it's just a drop in the ocean. The World Bank estimates that Ebola will cost Africa some $32

billion by the end of next year if it spreads to larger countries.

Now leaders from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, they're all speaking at the annual meeting at the World Bank and the IMF today.

And you can see much more from that meeting where World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said that the future of Africa is at stake here. Isha Sesay,

we'll have a live report on World Business Today, that's in just under half an hour from now right here on CNN.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come on the program, speculation abounds over where North Korea's young dictator has gone. It

has been weeks since he's made a public appearance, leaving many to wonder just who is really ruling the hermit kingdom right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now Friday may be a pivotal moment for North Korea. All eyes will be on the capital to see if the country's supreme leader makes an appearance

at a big anniversary event.

Now the young leader hasn't been seen in public in over a month.

Now CNN's Paula Hancocks has more on the speculation surrounding Kim Jong un's absence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Walking through a surprised foreign media scrum last year, insuring our CNN cameraman gets

his close-up, and greeting his seemingly adoring and overwhelmed soldiers.

North Korean leader Kim Jong un has never been one to shy away from the camera, which makes his more than one month absence from public all the

more notable.

A visible limp and state acknowledgment of his, quote, "discomfort" pointing to health issues.

JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERISTY: There are reports that he has hurt his ankles. We've seen a lot of tapes of him limping pretty severely.

You know, if Kim Jong un has to be on crutches, that might be an image that North Korea doesn't want to show to the rest of the world.

HANCOCKS: Kim's second in command and other high ranking officials turning up in Seoul over the weekend, while both surprising and

significant, probably lays waste to breathless speculation of a coup. Although the delegation reportedly told their southern counterparts the

supreme leader wasn't even sick.

ANDREI LANKOV, KOOKMIN UNIVERSITY: I'm sure that's a yes he is in control, because, well, if you assume that he has been somehow removed, we

would expect some serious changes in the personal composition of the leadership -- new appointments, new dismissals, some people going missing.

HANCOCKS: Assuming Kim Jong un is calling the shots, North Korea is true to form blowing hot and cold, slamming South Korean President Park

Geun-hye last week as a, quote, wretched pro-U.S. stooge and traitor to the nation.

Two days later, top officials are all smiles with an unprecedented visit to Seoul pushing for inter-Korean talks. Another two days pass and

North and South Korean boats exchange fire along the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

The very next day, Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to the United Nations invites reporters to a highly unusual briefing.

It's these contradictory signals that lead many analysts to assume that it is in fact business as usual in North Korea, even if the leader is

nowhere to be scene. And the next litmus test is Friday, and the anniversary of the founding of the Worker's Party, ceremonies where Kim

Jong un would usually be front and central.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. But don't go anywhere, because World Sport is up next with Alex Thomas. A global

football star is the target of a racial slur. We've got that story and more after the break.

END