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NEWS STREAM

ISIS's Social Media Strategy; Police Officers Shot in Ferguson, Missouri; China's Left-Behind Generation; Unusual Tactic During High Speed Chase

Aired March 12, 2015 - 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. Welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Two police officers shot in Ferguson, Missouri, a town gripped by months of tension between protesters and police.

We look at the hidden cost of China's massive economic rise: the children left behind by migrant workers.

And we'll show you how ISIS supporters use Twitter and other social media to broadcast their message.

And we begin in the U.S. state of Missouri where two police officers are in the hospital with gunshot wounds after a street demonstration in

Ferguson took a violent turn.

Now the shots rang out around midnight just as the protest was breaking up. Now crowds had gathered outside the Ferguson police

department on Wednesday night in part to celebrate the resignation of the city's police chief.

Now for some of the protesters in those crowds, the police chief's resignation was not enough. They were chanting racist cops have got to go.

Now protesters have complained of racism and mistreatment in Ferguson for months appear to be vindicated by that recent report from the U.S.

Justice Department. If found widespread and systemic discrimination in the city.

Now the investigation was ordered after a white police officer shot and killed the unarmed black teenager in Ferguson.

Now a grand jury found no reason to indict that officer. But Michael Brown's death in August, it set off months of protests and it brought

national and international scrutiny on the suburban town in Missouri.

Now CNN's Sara Sidner has followed all the unrest in Ferguson very closely for us. And she has the details now on this outbreak of violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNSHOTS)

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

SIDNER (voice-over): Breaking overnight, two police officers in St. Louis County shot outside the Ferguson police department.

A night of protest in Ferguson winding down when shots rang out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Acknowledgment nine months ago would have kept that from happening.

SIDNER: Witnesses report hearing multiple shots and seeing one officer down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bullets went right past my head, it's kind of traumatic -- I'm still kind of in shock because of it.

SIDNER: The injuries are serious. One St. Louis County officer was shot in the shoulder. Another officer, a Webster Groves officer, shot in

the face.

JON BELMAR, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: These police officers were standing there and they were shot. Just because they were police officers.

SIDNER: Earlier, police drew their guns during a scuffle between protesters. Police making multiple arrests.

Some protesters cheered at the resignation of Police Chief Tom Jackson. For others, it comes too little, too late, demanding the entire

Ferguson Police Department be disbanded.

JAMES KNOWLES, MAYOR OF FERGUSON: The chief's resignation is effective March 19, 2015.

SIDNER: His resignation comes on the heels of a scathing report from the Justice Department, slamming Ferguson officials for widespread racial

bias and targeting African-Americans. Jackson now one of the six city officials gone after the DOJ's damning report.

Some are calling for Mayor Knowles to be next. He says he won't budge.

For now, a nationwide search for a new chief of police is under way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now, we heard one witness describing a close call in Sara's report. Now earlier, CNN spoke by phone to a woman who was at the protest.

She says she was right there where the shootings took place and she saw it all unfold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNETTA ELZIE, WITNESS: So the police and the protesters were having a standoff, which usually happens at protests when the police are allowed

to do their snatch and grabs, which they've done maybe a three or four times tonight.

So the police were lined up against the police department parking lot and the protesters were lined up against the (inaudible) parking lot. And

they were just standing there. We were just standing here for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Two -- a protester and a lawyer and a legal observer went inside the police department to get three of the protesters who were arrested tonight

out of jail. And the moment they walked across that's when I heard four shots ring out. And the shots came from the direction of the hill, which

the person who was just speaking mentioned. There is a hill across from the Ferguson police department and that's where I heard the shots come

from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: That was witness and protester Johnetta Elzie there describing the shootings of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri. And

she reiterated that the Ferguson protests have been mostly peaceful. And the last report, the two officers were in, quote, serious condition.

Now forces fighting ISIS in Iraq tell CNN that they have driven the militants out of most of the city of Tikrit. And one commander says three-

quarters of the town is now in Iraqi hands and just 150 extremist fighters remain.

But to the west of Baghdad, ISIS is looking to take new ground. The militants have launched an assault on Ramadi.

Now for the latest developments, CNN's Arwa Damon joins us now live from Istanbul. And Arwa, we have joint Iraqi forces. They are ramping up

their efforts to take back Tikrit. What is the latest on that key battle?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do have at claim you were mentioning there coming from the commander of one of the

predominately Shia militias, but no independent confirmation of that significant of an advance by that joint force against ISIS at this stage in

Tikrit.

We do know, however, that this has been an ongoing battle for quite some time now, the joint force trying to enter the city and come on ISIS

positions from four different directions. And we do know that, yes, they have been gaining ground, but that being said as you were mentioning there,

despite those gains in Tikrit, we are seeing ISIS amping up its efforts in Anbar Province to the west of the capital, launching that fairly complex

attack in the city of Ramadi, that happening yesterday.

And in Syria, another key battlefield of course for ISIS there, ISIS fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, launching

an attack on a key town very close to the border with Turkey, potentially presumably trying to open up yet another logistical route from Turkey to

their main stronghold Raqqa in Syria.

So, perhaps some losses in some parts of the battlefield, Kristie, but gains for ISIS in others.

LU STOUT: Yeah, losses and gains throughout the battlefield. All eyes on Tikrit right now.

And if joint Iraqi forces do, indeed, regain control of Tikrit, because it sounds like momentum is on their side, what do you think it will

mean for the overall battle across Iraq, including the fight for Ramadi and efforts to retake Mosul?

DAMON: Well, the logic is that if Tikrit falls it'll deal a psychological blow to ISIS fighters and it will also potentially open up

another key route for the coalition made up of the Iraqi security forces, Shia militia and a handful of Sunni tribes to then continue advancing

towards Mosul.

Mosul is going to be the more critical and decisive battle, just given how large the city is in and of itself, the fact that most of its civilian

populations remain and that ISIS has been entrenching itself there for quite some time now.

But the defeat of Tikrit does not necessarily mean that the overall momentum against ISIS is suddenly going to take a decisive turn. And we're

going to see ISIS retreating ahead of any sort of advance that may be coming its way.

ISIS is an entity that most certainly at this stage has proven itself very adept at adapting to the various shifting dynamics of the battlefield.

It is entrenching itself even more in Anbar Province where it does have more of a support base amongst the predominately Sunni population than it

does in some other territories in Iraq. And then of course let's not forget the territory that ISIS controls in Syria.

So people might want to point to a potential loss in Tikrit as being a key turning point in momentum in the battle, but let's not underestimate

the capabilities that ISIS continues to maintain, Kristie.

LU STOUT: OK, Arwa, appreciate your reporting on the reality check there. Arwa Damon reporting live for us from Istanbul, thank you.

Now the civil war in Syria has raged on for four years now. And what began as protests against President Bashar al-Assad has since blown into a

humanitarian catastrophe. A report by several aid groups says 220,000 people have been killed, that is one person every 10 minutes.

And more people have died young. Now according to the UN-backed report, life expectancy is now an average of 56 years. Now compare that to

76 in 2010. 20 years shaved off in the span of just four years.

Now the report also slams the United Nations for doing little to protect civilians. It says the number of refugees have jumped by more than

a million last year.

Our correspondents have visited camps in Turkey, Lebanon and inside Syria. Here's a look at their reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than 3,800 Syrians have fled across the border here to Turkey, running for their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what is life here life?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Life is bad here. No water, no food, no home. There is disease. Children get ill.

DAMON: Crammed together six families, their feet caked in mud, mothers trying to provide their children what comfort they can.

WATSON: This was the town's main hospital. It was hit, locals say, by war planes on December 31, one of several civilian targets to be pounded

by air strikes in just the last couple of weeks.

DAMON: So we're just right now on the very edge of this makeshift camp. And you can see these crude tents that people have strung up for

shelter. It has just started to rain now. It's just a plastic tarp.

WATSON: There are around 7,000 refugees living in freezing tents like this on the edge of Syria waiting to be allowed into Turkey. And they are

but a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of refugees living outside Syria as well as many more displaced inside Syria itself.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The monitors are trying to shout out to the soldiers on the other side of the front line

there to clear the road, to clear the barricade. It's clearly a road that's not used often now. The soldiers over there seem to be very

nervous.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The shelling and the air raids on the rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo means that any building

anywhere in this part of the city could be hit at any time. In fact, this building was hit just 20 minutes ago.

DAMON: "They fell in that area," 11-year-old Dee (ph) points to where artillery from Syria slammed into the hillside in northern Lebanon.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, there's not many places in the world where you can feel how fierce and intense

fighting was if you go there after the fact.

But Babr Amer (ph) is certainly one of those places.

DAMON: That village on the hilltop over there, that is Syria, the actual border, it's even closer to us. Under normal circumstances,

refugees would never be settled this near to a border, this near to a front line, but they had no other options.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lebanon has been absorbing refugees for nearly two years now. Winter is setting in and

fighting is picking up around Damascus, sending more people across the border. The country simply can't take any more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Now CNN has put together a list of aid groups that are providing food, shelter and medical care for the refugees. You can find it

at CNN.com/impact.

Now you're watching News Stream. And after the break, we will explain why millions of children in China are being left behind by their parents.

Also ahead, an Australian teenager is at the center of a new brutal claim by ISIS. Details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now imagine this, being a child and only seeing your parents about once a year, that's the case for more than 61 million children in China.

They're known as the left-behind generation.

Now young kids in rural areas whose parents left to make a living as migrant workers in the big cities.

David McKenzie has more on this disturbing trend and its impact on a generation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 6-year-olds are often hard to handle, but Liu Li Ming (ph) is perhaps more of a handful

than most. And wherever Liu (ph) goes, his granny has to follow.

TANG XINYING, GRANDMOTHER (through translator): I have a lot of trouble with him. He is so difficult. Raising this child is a huge

headache (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

MCKENZIE: She takes care of Liu (ph) because his father left to find work and his mother abandoned him.

XINYING (through translator): I can't teach him well. This boy should be educated by his father and mother. I can't even catch him when he

runs away from me. I can't discipline him when he misbehaves.

MCKENZIE: In China, a generation of children like Liu (ph) are raised without parents. The numbers are staggering. There are more than 60

million left behind children in China, that's one in five. More often than not, they're cared for by aging grandparents.

When you visit these villages you see something extraordinary. It's only the very old here and the very, very young. All those who are working

have left for the big cities.

Rural villages like this one in Anhui Province are almost empty. The surrounding fields polluted, jobs non-existent.

Recent studies show that left-behind children do worse at school, have behavioral problems as they grow up and are prone to depression.

The Communist Party it's trying to help, but many say their policies made it worse.

XINYING (through translator): It's not good, but we don't have a choice. I don't want to, but I have to raise him. What other options do I

have? Where would I leave this boy if I didn't take care of him?

MCKENZIE: In the race to build a modern China, China's oldest generation and its very youngest are left behind.

David McKenzie, Chaohu Village (ph), China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now a study by the Center for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility shows a toll on the parents as well.

Now, it found that more than 80 percent of migrant workers it surveyed viewed themselves as inadequate parents. Now the executive director of the

center explains how government policies are contributing to the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INES KAEMPFER, EXEC. DIR. CTR. FOR CHILD RIGHTS & CORP. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: There are a lot of cities in China, smaller cities, that

now have (inaudible) restrictions. So there is some change coming. But generally, just the way China's system currently is set up children

basically can only get education in their hometowns. And on top of that, most of the times, or a lot of times, both parents are working. So it's

both the political situation, but also the situation that they don't have anywhere, or anybody to look after their children once they leave home, and

so they decide to leave them back in their hometowns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: All because of China's Huco (ph) system.

Now the Chinese government has increased social services for rural areas to help address the problem.

Now an appeal to spare two Australians from execution in Indonesia have been delayed for a week after a problem with the court paperwork. Now

Australia has been pushing Indonesia to grant clemency to convicted drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Saima Mohsin reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of hope is resting on today's appeal. Inside the courtroom, the lead judge read out

the written statements and appeals from Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the Bali Nine ringleaders. And then a strange twist, the attorney

general's office, the team was present, but unable to represent President Joko Widodo for his part in this court case. The appeal against his

rejection of clemency, because paperwork hadn't been signed.

A bittersweet adjournment, of course, at least to March 19, as these two men's lives hang in the balance, all the while everyone trying their

best at the 11th hour to plead for mercy, including the Australian government which has also offered a prisoner swap with Indonesian prisoners

in Australian prisons. And to cover the cost of the two men remaining in jail should their death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment.

JULIE BISHOP, AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I will continue to put proposals to the Indonesian government. I'll continue to appeal to

President Widodo to spare the life of these two young Australians. We do not for a moment understate the severity of the crimes that they committed.

We understand the seriousness of drug trafficking, however these two young men have now been in prison for 10 years and they are both sincerely and

deeply remorseful. I don't see any good purpose being served by the execution of them at this point.

MOHSIN: A team of Islamic scholars have also flown to Jakarta from Australia, appealing to what is the largest Muslim population on Earth, the

Indonesian nation, and President Joko Widodo, for mercy and forgiveness, which they say is the basic tenet of Islam that these two men are, in Julie

Bishop's own words, a remarkable examples of reform. And they should not face the death penalty.

So far there's been no response from the government.

Saima Mohsin, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now still to come on News Stream, the young Australian man suspected of blowing himself up in a suicide mission for ISIS in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now the Australian government is working to confirm a report that a teenager from Melbourne carried out a suicide attack in Iraq. A message on

a Twitter account used by ISIS says the bombing by 18-year-old Jake Bilardi was in the city of Ramadi.

Now the claim was accompanied by a series of images, including a photo of someone who looks like Bilardi.

Now this week, his aunt had this to say about why the teenager joined ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNIE BILARDI, AUNT OF TEEN WHO JOINED ISIS: He's just a young boy that went looking for something after he'd lost someone very, very dear to

him: his mother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now the Australian government says it canceled Bilardi's passport last year on the advice of security agencies. Stan Grant has the

latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, SKY NEWS: It was an extraordinary transformation from a shy awkward teenager, Jake Bilardi, living in Melbourne Australia to Abu

Abdullah al-Asrali (ph), a suicide bomber now apparently dead in Iraq.

Now this transition was played out in Bilardi's own blog where he talks about wanting to kill non-believers where he plans to carry out

bombings in his hometown of Melbourne and ultimately travels to Iraq in August last year to join Islamic State.

Now the Australian government canceled his passport in October. This is a stance the Australian government is taking with so many of these

foreign jihadis who are leaving Australian shores to travel to the Middle East. There is an increasing number who have fallen under the sway of the

hard-line ideology of groups like Islamic State.

This is what Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop had to say.

JULIE BISHOP, AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: This is another tragic example of a young Australian being lured to a senseless and violent death

by a brutal terrorist organization that is intent on imposing suffering and misery not only in Iraq and Syria, but beyond.

GRANT: There are believed to be around about 100 Australians fighting alongside Islamic State, about 20 of those have died already, at least 100

others are believed to be sympathizers with Islamic State still here in Australia.

Now, Jake Bilardi, of course, is just the latest and the most extraordinary example of this. In his blog, he does talk about wanting to

carry out attacks in Australia. Of course now he has carried out this attack in Iraq and sadly paid for it with his own life.

Stan Grant, Sky News, Sydney.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: And you're watching News Stream. And still ahead, ISIS spreads its message on social media. Find out how the group uses Twitter

and what can be done about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Now two police officers are wounded after gunshots were fired at a protest in Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrators have gathered after the

Ferguson police chief announced his resignation. The renewed violence comes after a federal report found a pattern of widespread racial

discrimination by police.

Now in the Bangladeshi city of Mungrap (ph), police say five people have died and up to 40 were injured after the roof of a partial-built

cement factory collapsed. Emergency and rescue operations are continuing to try to find more workers feared trapped in the rubble.

Iran's supreme leader has reportedly slammed a letter by Republican Senators in the U.S. that says any nuclear deal could be nullified by the

next president. Iranian media reports that Ayatollah Khamenei calls the document, quote, "deception, trickery and backstabbing."

Now this week on News Stream, we've been taking a critical look at social media. And today, we want to examine the rising threat of online

radicalization. Now ISIS is one group using social media to spread its message and to recruit fighters. Twitter and Facebook are known to take

down accounts and content associated with terrorism, but they often rely on complaints from users.

A new study published by the Brookings Institution analyzed thousands of ISIS supporting Twitter accounts. As you can see on the chart, it found

a rapid escalation in the number of accounts created each year.

Now, I want to bring in the lead author of that report. The reports is called the ISIS twitter census. J.M. Berger joins me now live from

Cambridge, Massachusetts and his new book it's called "ISIS the State of Terror" has just gone on sale today. J.M. Berger, thank you so much for

joining us here on CNN.

And first could you please break down your findings for us. How many Twitter users support ISIS and who are they?

J.M. BERGER, AUTHOR: Thanks. So, yeah, we found that during the month of October going into November, which is how long it took us to

collect the data, that there were about 46,000 active ISIS accounts, that was a minimum number, but we think it's pretty close to being accurate.

Those accounts include accounts that had been suspended and new accounts that were created during the period that we were collecting

information. And overall, you know, we think the network is smaller today. There have been thousands and thousands of suspensions. We were able to

track about 19,000 suspensions, which couldn't confirm that all of them were related to ISIS, but comments from Twitter since the paper came out

indicate to us that that is probably a low-end estimate there may be actually more than that.

So, the network is shrinking under this pressure. And, you know, our rough estimate today of what it is today, which is slightly less robust

than what we did for the past period is that there is probably 30,000 or less.

LU STOUT: But ISIS has shown that it is skilled at using Twitter. Why is Twitter a valuable tool for ISIS?

BERGER: Well, ISIS wants to broadcast its propaganda to the widest possible audience. It puts a lot of effort, it produces very professional

and often very effective propaganda. But if nobody can read it, then it doesn't do them a lot of good.

So, even though platforms like Facebook and YouTube and Twitter have put pressure on their networks, they keep coming back because they can get

a bigger audience on those platforms than they can elsewhere. And that's really where the suspensions hurt them.

You know, the content remains available. It would be possible to really drive it down to almost nothing with a very aggressive effort that

would be difficult to sustain. But, you know, what we're doing instead is we're interfering with their ability to broadcast it to a bigger audience.

And that's really where the suspensions are very effective.

LU STOUT: It's a propaganda tool for ISIS, it's a recruitment tool as well. And you point out that ISIS is much more successful than other

jihadi groups when it comes to exploiting social platforms like Twitter. Why is that?

BERGER: Well, they have a very effective propaganda. They've really changed the narrative. And we talk about that a lot in our book, ISIS

(inaudible) with Jessica Stern.

But, you know, they also have a very good understanding of how social media works on a technical level. So, for instance, they, you know, had a

really very advanced campaign involving between 500 and 3,000 users who would just tweet all day long hundreds of tweets a day putting out the same

content over and over again so that it would trend and be aggregated, for instance, third party websites and Twitter accounts that pick up on

trending hashtags and then republish them.

Or to effect search results on Twitter.

So, you know, the people they have running their social media operation are very technically minded and they understand the mechanics of

social media. They understand that they can generate just enough activity to get the attention of the mainstream media. And that's when stuff really

blows up.

ISIS can't make something go viral like the dress did or like the llamas on the highway did. They can't get that kind of organic action, but

what they can do is they can make just enough of a splash that the news media picks it up and then their message gets out.

LU STOUT: Now, as you pointed out earlier, I mean Twitter is cracking down on ISIS's use of its social media platform. There are suspensions of

accounts that have taken place. ISIS is feeling the squeeze. As a result, ISIS has issued death threats to executives and people who work at Twitter.

What more can Twitter and social media companies do to counter ISIS propaganda and recruitment on their platforms. What else should they do?

BERGER: Well, there's a real debate about how much more they should do. You know, the suspensions at the current level are having a pretty

dramatic effect on their ability to accomplish their goals. They still leave a lot of open source intelligence available for people in government

and people like myself to study the group and try to understand what's going on with it.

It is possible -- it would be possible using the techniques that we used to identify accounts for the study to really dismantle this network in

a serious way. You could really drive it down to, you know, maybe even just a few hundred accounts if you were willing to invest the manpower and

resources that would be necessary to do that.

I'm not sure it's desirable to do that, because you know this body of data does have some value to us. No matter what we do, if we drive them

completely off of Twitter, they will find another way to get their message out, so we're not completely choking off the message.

So I think the balance we need to strike is between being able to track and monitor and anticipate what they're going to do while not giving

them free run to do whatever they want.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and in light of that, what is your recommendation to western government? What more should the west do to respond to extremism

in general on social media?

BERGER: Well, there's a lot of discussion about that right now. I mean, a lot of people, particularly in congress, are very unhappy with how

the social media companies are handling this stuff. You know, I hear rumblings about people being interested in writing legislation on this, and

you know, there are very complicated issues that come into play in terms of the first amendment.

You know, what I think -- at the same time is that you know social media companies are really -- the laws haven't kept up with the technology.

So, you know, our current laws and our current regulations aren't really designed for, or suitable for this kind of phenomenon.

So, there's a lot that needs to happen here. And I think the first step is really to get everybody into a room and the government and the

companies and people from private sector and activists, you know, people who are interested in speech and get everybody into a conversation on this.

And the social media companies have been very resistant to doing this in a visible, you know, public kind of forum, and I think that you know these

threats of impending legislation maybe what it takes to get them to sit down and really take this seriously.

LU STOUT: Yeah, and J.M. Berger, we thank you and your co-author for really kicking off the conversation on this, on the roots of online

extremism and what should be done to fight them, for all the recommendations that you just laid out.

J.M. Berger, author, thank you so much for joining us here on CNN. And take care.

BERGER: Thank you.

LU STOUT: All right, you're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, we'll explain why one of Saturn's moons may just be the next

home away from home for us Earthlings. It's all in a new study out today. Stick around for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now one of Saturn's moons may just be the next best place to look for life beyond our planet Earth.

In a new study in the journal Nature, astrophysicists working alongside NASA scientists say Enceladus has a warm ocean at its southern

pole. They say the ocean is heated by hydrothermal vents under the ice. It is an important discovery, because hydrothermal vents here on Earth pump

out heat and minerals. they support a wide variety of life that doesn't need sunlight to survive. And that is a critical element for any life that

might exists under a thick layer of ice on Enceladus.

Now two suspects trying to escape police may have hurt their case, that's because they ditched the evidence as they drove tossing bails of

marijuana at the cops that were chasing them.

Now CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was just another high- speed chase until the suspect started tossing the evidence, out the right side, out the left.

These suspects are bailing all right. Those are bales of marijuana.

What do you think their strategy was here? SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: Well, it's not a good strategy. This is one for the dumb

criminal case.

MOOS: Most bales bounce. A couple of them burst. The sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, thinks they were trying to --

BABEU: Make a stop somehow by causing a wreck.

MOOS: That never happened, though 21 bales were jettisoned.

Talk about pot luck. Police believe four or five drivers who just happened to be passing by managed to grab some of the tossed marijuana and

they didn't turn it in.

After reaching speeds of 110 miles an hour, the SUV ran over spike strips laid by deputies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just tossed his cell phone backward.

MOOS: Watch the tires of SUV shred. Moments later, it pulled over and the suspects ran for it. At least one of the men is from Mexico. They were

arrested on marijuana charges.

This isn't the first evidence to fly out a window. Two suspects in Britain were caught on dash cam heaving packets of heroin before they were

finally forced off the road.

But it can be messy trying to throw drugs out the window of a moving car.

The driver of this VW tried hurling a bag of heroin only to end up dusting his interior.

And then there were the San Diego suspects who flung thousands of dollars in cash after a drug deal went wrong. Motorists tried scooping up

the bills. One even stopped in the middle of the freeway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much you get, man?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to keep it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.

MOOS: That's not what they mean by throwing money at infrastructure. And this isn't what causes potholes.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: That's everything caught on camera, no less.

And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, but don't go anywhere. World Sport with Don Riddell is next.

END