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More Rain in Store for Already Flooded Houston; FIFA Officials Arrested in Zurich; Queen Elizabeth Opens Parliament with Speech; Iraqi Troops Begin Assault on Ramadi; Malaysian Gravesite Suspected Trafficker Detention Camp. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired May 27, 2015 - 8:00   ET

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

[08:00:13] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream.

Now police arrest several FIFA officials in a raid in Zurich as world football's governing body faces two corruption probes.

An abandoned camp run by human traffickers reveals the horrors facing Rohingya migrants.

And flood warnings are still in effect for one of the biggest cities in the United States.

Two multimillion dollar corruption probes, a dawn raid on an expensive hotel, two vice presidents charged, but world football's governing body

says its business as usual.

Now police arrested several FIFA officials in Zurich after an indictment from the U.S. And then, just a few hours later. Swiss

authorities said that they opened a criminal investigation relating to the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Russia and Qatar. Now FIFA says

those events will go ahead as planned and so will Friday's presidential election. And it says the investigations were actually a good thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER DE GREGORIO, FIFA DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS: For us, it's a hard time, it's not nice to be here in front of you and try to explain

something that is not nice, but at the same time, and I can confirm you for us, for FIFA this is good. This is good what happens. It confirms that we

are on the right track. It hurts. It's not easy, but it's the only way to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Now, it is important to note that FIFA President Sepp Blatter has not been charged with anything. But sources say he is still

under investigation. He is widely expected to win a fifth consecutive term as FIFA president on Friday partially because many of his competitors have

dropped out.

Now Prince Ali of Jordan is the only candidate still running against him. And he says, quote, "today is a sad day for football."

Alex Thomas joins me now live from Zurich. And Alex, FIFA says that these corruption probes do not involve Sepp Blatter, but it must certainly

bring into question his leadership of the organization.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kristie, this is arguably the biggest scandal to hit the governing body of the world's most

popular sport since Joseph "Sepp" Blatter was elected FIFA president back in 1998.

And what is the most extraordinary thing is the timing of the public announcement of these investigations and these raids by authorities here in

Switzerland and in the United States and the scale of their probes involving hundreds of millions of dollars, tens of counts of charges

certainly as far as the U.S. investigation is concerned. Talk of money laundering, embezzlement, fraud, bribery, corruption, this is hugely

embarrassing yet again for FIFA.

But as you say, Sepp Blatter himself the man that all the outside critics of FIFA tend to throw their bric-a-bracs at has done very well

during his 17 year reign to escape being tarnished by any of this controversy. And so far yet again he's missed the mud slinging.

But it extraordinary coming just 48 hours before more than 200 global football bosses cast their votes. In the building behind me here in

Zurich, Kristie, for -- to elect the next FIFA president, which as you say is expected to be Blatter again for a fifth term at the age of 79.

LU STOUT: And Alex, we know that six football officials have been arrested over corruption charges at FIFA. What can you tell us about those

officials being held there in Zurich and when they will be extradited to the U.S.?

THOMAS: We don't have the details on their extradition. The name that does stand out, and is the most obvious one for comment, is Jeffrey

Webb. He's the president of CONCACAF, one of the five confederations of World Football. And they're in charge of football for the Caribbean, North

America and Central America.

Webb is seen as a rising star in global football administration. Blatter himself has suggested he could be the man to replace him whenever

he's voted out of office or decides to stand down.

That reputation now seems in tatters, although of course Webb -- nothing has been proved yet against Jeffrey Webb. And a bit of a shame,

really, because he's one that has quite admirably led the fight against racism in football, the head of FIFA's anti-racism task force. So that is

the biggest shock of the names on that list.

Other names like Jack Warner, who has quit football in disgrace since that controversial vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host back in 2010,

are less of a surprise.

So much detail to wade through, Kristie, and that's what all these global football bosses are telling you about, more than 200 from across the

globe are doing right now. Lots of chatter.

I spoke to the head of one African football association who says for him it doesn't matter, he's going to vote for Blatter ahead of his only

challenger, Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein regardless. We know, though, that all the European delegates, under the banner of UEFA, are meeting later

today to discuss what their stance is already with hearing rumors of calls to have the election postponed until we know more.

[08:05:37] LU STOUT: You know, there's a lot of chatter, people weighing in all over the world on this story. And what's the bigger

picture here? I mean, we know that FIFA is no stranger to crisis. But this is a multi, multi, multimillion dollar corruption case dating back to

the 90s, two separate probes. How damaging is this ultimately for FIFA?

THOMAS: It's probably the most damaging the sport has ever seen, Kristie, and possible to say which is maybe a comment in itself, of how

many different scandals we've seen certainly under Blatter's reign in the last 17 years.

But the man that he replaced, Joao Havelange, the Brazilian who had been in charge since the 70s, was certainly no angel. And that has

typified football really, Kristie. Like a lot of sports, they all come -- they all hail back to the amateur era. And many of the stuffy old men in

blazers, as they're often referred to, have struggled to come to terms with the modern corporate world, which is what global sport at the highest level

has now become.

To give Blatter credit, under pressure he has tried to change FIFA at the top. They've got independent chambers of ethics that investigate

claims of corruption. They've tried to change their governance, make it more transparent -- although many of the experts they brought in to help

them do that have said they've encountered lots of barriers to it.

So FIFA are trying to say, look, we're changing with the times. This investigation shows we're trying to root out evil at all levels of the

game. But the critics will say until they get rid of the man at the top, football will always have a shadow over its head.

LU STOUT: All right. Alex Thomas there. Alex, good to have you there in Zurich on the story for us. Alex Thomas reporting.

Now you might be wondering why the U.S. is investigating an organization based in Switzerland. Well, the U.S. says it has evidence

that crimes were organized in the United States involving television rights in Latin America and U.S. banks were involved with the payments.

Now over three years, 70 percent of almost $6 billion came from TV and marketing rights for the 2014 World Cup. We'll have much more on that from

our U.S. justice correspondent Evan Perez a little bit later right here on the program.

Now in India, the relentless heat has killed more than 1,100 people in just the past few days. And the situation is especially dire for the

millions of homeless and others who lack electricity to run fans and air conditioners.

Now Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been the worst hit states, however Telangana's chief secretary says the deaths could have been avoided

if people took, in his words, a little more care.

Now he's urging people to use umbrellas, to drink a lot of water and to avoid going outside during peak afternoon hours.

Now many areas are seeing daytime temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Now relief could come later this week with expected monsoon

rains.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I want to touch on this, because it is a devastating event taking place across India. You see some of the

images coming out of this region of people literally going for desperate measures finding a way to cool off across this region. And Mother Nature's

air conditioning, what we call the monsoons in this part of the world -- the current positioning remaining just offshore of Sri Lanka while three

days ago that climatological position should have brought it north of Sri Lanka and pushing it on into areas of southern India.

So, we are a couple of days behind what you'd expect for when the monsoons begin entering the sub-continent. And then you notice the area

right here to the north and to the east, this is the hottest location right there across India in recent days. And climatologically that would take

until the middle of June before the monsoons arrived in that region.

So we know this potentially could be a long duration event when it comes to the excessive heat in place. And notice heat indexes getting up

close to 50 degrees in some of these locations. And when you have the cumulative effective of heat building on you, it becomes a very, very

deadly scenario. And notice we had that, of course, in 2003 in Europe, 70,000 fatalities. In Russia, over 50,000 lost their lives just a few

years ago. The concern, again, is that this 1,100 will continue to rise because the heat continues to stay in place. And the forecast supports it

for at least the next couple of days into the mid and upper 40s.

We'll send it back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: All right. Pedram Javaheri there.

Now America's fourth largest city, Houston, Texas, is struggling to recover from epic flash floods a day ago. And now it's raining there

again.

Now CNN's Rosa Flores is in Houston where a new round of warnings has just been issued. She joins us now live.

And Rosa, what is the latest on the flood damage as well as the search for the missing?

[08:10:00] ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, just about half an hour ago, the office of emergency management here issued a flash

flood warning. Now, Kristie, that is very bad news for the people here in Houston, because the ground is already saturated. They're expecting one to

three inches of rain in the next few hours. And the situation with the waterways can change very quickly.

Now I want to show you something very briefly, because this is Brays Bayou. Now Houston is a bayou city. There are bayous like this that run

across the city and they empty out eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. In the past few hours, we've seen the water just here rise probably at least a

foot, maybe a foot-and-a-half.

Now 24 hours ago, the situation was very different. If you take a look at this pipe that runs from bank to bank you're at Brays Bayou.

You can see that there's debris that's hanging from that pipe. That's where the water level was 24 hours. If you look beyond the banks of Brays

Bayou, you see that there are homes there.

We talked to some of those people and they say that they were very scared. The water started rising very quickly. And some of them had to

get on their kitchen counters to stay dry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: The catastrophic aftermath of record-breaking deadly flood waters in Houston, Texas, revealed this morning. More than 11 inches of

rain fell in a matter of hours Monday night into Tuesday, a wall of water rising with frightening speed, leaving thousands traveling in their

vehicles racing to escape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn around, don't drown.

FLORES: Rows of vehicles left abandoned on a Houston highway, some cars almost completely submerged under water, emergency crews scrambling to

pull people from the floodwaters. But for some it was too late. One woman says she witnessed the discovery of a body in a flooded truck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a woman, and it was dead by the time we got there.

FLORES: Thousands of people without power, the flash floods rushing through thousands of homes. Houston's mayor says at least 4,000 residents

may have suffered significant damage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We first were on the couches and then on the table and then on the counters.

FLORES: One Houston resident, her family narrowly escaping the flood, shows me the devastation the rapidly rising tide left behind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water got up to the slip on the county.

FLORES: Over a dozen people, including children, are still missing. And the death toll in both Texas and Oklahoma continues to rise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now here's some more bad news. I've been monitoring the number of people without power here in the Houston area. A few hours ago

it was at 8,000. Right now it's at about 15,000. So just imagine that, Kristie. Some people are without power. Some of them are waking up with

some serious water damage inside their homes. And then they're seeing this, more rain at this hour and one to three inches expected in the next

few hours -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, some serious damage being caused by these record- breaking floods. Rosa Flores live in Houston for us, thank you.

Now you're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, new details come to light about the desperate situation for migrants in Asia

with reports that some were forced onto boats.

Plus, dozens of Iraqi forces killed in an ISIS suicide attack. We'll have the latest on the military operation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:25] LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now here on News Stream, we've been highlighting the plight of migrants stranded at sea. And a new report says that thousands of them may

have been forced from their homes.

Now Human Rights Watch spoke to Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar who say groups of men armed with knives and guns dragged them onto boats. And

after their long ordeal on the water, some ended up in human trafficking camps.

Now this comes after 139 shallow graves were found near the Malaysian border with Thailand. And authorities suspect the site was a detention

camp used by traffickers to hold migrants captive for ransom.

ITN's John Sparks reports from northern Malaysia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SPARKS, ITN REPORTER, CHANNEL 4 NEWS: We were taken in army trucks to the bottom of the mountain. Where the Malaysian authorities said

they had found a human trafficker's camp. This was a significant development. Last week, they vehemently denied there were any.

(on camera): But we're still going, are we? We're still going to the camp?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

SPARKS (voice-over): The order was given and we began the climb. Yesterday, the Malaysians came clean, admitting there were at least 28 of

these camps where traffickers held thousands of migrants, persecuted Burmese, called Rohinga, and impoverished Bangladeshis. And we followed in

their footsteps. Men, women and children forced up and down this trail.

(on camera): The track is rough and it's very steep. You can see it's well used. There's litter all over the place. And it's difficult to believe

that local people and members of the authorities didn't know that there were hundreds of people living out here.

(voice-over): The camp took shape from a distance. Such was its size, it wasn't easy to hide. A bamboo jail that stretched across the mountain

clearing. But further details were hard to come by.

(on camera): How many people do you think were kept there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure.

SPARKS: Not sure. We've been given a few seconds to walk through the camp, but I think this is the wrong name for this place. It's more like a

village or a prison complex. There are cells, rung with barbed wire, and watch towers and food, water, storage facilities. There's even a cage were

people were kept, I presume, because they tried to escape.

(voice-over): Clearly, it was a place of real cruelty, where hundreds were held for the purposes of extortion. To earn their release, the

victims' family members had to pay a ransom of $2,000 to $3,000. Later, we spoke to a young Rahinga who was held for seven months in a jungle camp.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Brokers told our relatives to send the money, and beat us while we were on the phone. They're very bad

people. There's little to eat here. Some people starve. Many are sick.

SPARKS: Cherut (ph) managed to escape months ago, but many prisoners never leave.

Up in the mountain, forensics teams have begun examining 37 graves or burial pits. And on the earth's surface, we saw bone fragments and

someone's jaw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): One man didn't have any money to pay the ransom, so the brokers beat him. They handed him over to the

camp guards and said, "You can finish him." The guards took a rope and hanged him. I saw it.

SPARKS: It is an odious business and it's gone on for years. But now the authorities here in Malaysia and neighboring Thailand seem determined

to uncover the truth. The Thais making more than 60 arrests. Still, many think the traffickers will soon return to the mountains.

John Sparks, Channel 4 News, northern Malaysia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: A horrific story there of torture and death.

You're watching News Stream.

Still to come on the program, we head to the front lines in Iraq for a firsthand look at how Iraqi forces plan to wrest back territory from ISIS.

That straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:34] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now the move by Iraqi forces against ISIS is in full swing in Anbar Province. The strategy is two-pronged: round up ISIS militants and choke

off the supply route into Anbar.

A senior international correspondent Arwa Damon reports from the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNFIRE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a mass mobilization across multiple fronts in two key Iraqi provinces

fueled by the fall of Ramadi, in Anbar, which borders where we are. This territory was recaptured hours before we arrived.

(on camera): Kadar (ph) was just saying when the force moved in here, earlier in the day, there were a number of IEDs that ISIS fighters had

buried. Right along this route. A number of them exploding on -- on some of these units. And there were at least 11 casualties.

(voice-over): ISIS used to move with ease, transporting fighters and weapons through areas they controlled.

(on camera): Anbar Province is in that direction. Their main aim here right now is to make sure that they hold the defensive position to keep

ISIS from recapturing this territory as -- as other elements of their unit advance further that way.

(voice-over): Hadi Aran (ph) commanders the Budar Brigade (ph) within the Shia paramilitary force leading this joint operation with Iraq's

forces.

HADI ARAN (ph), COMMANDER, BUDAR BRIGADE (ph): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: "We cut off their supply routes into Anbar and we surrounded the enemy in this area," Aran (ph) explains.

It is a critical line of defense between the regions that also runs along a vital south-to-north oil pipeline. Throughout the battlefield is a

patchwork of ISIS strongholds and logistical lines.

We see but are not allowed to film or speak to Iranian advisers. Iraq's powerful neighbor, a much more reliable ally, in the war against

ISIS.

ARAN (ph): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: "Anyone who depends on American support is depending on a shadow," Aran says. "The dependence by the central government on the United

States is one of the reasons we lost Ramadi." That won't happen here, all of the men vow.

More forces and reinforcements arrive. Through a scope, one fighter pinpoints suspected ISIS vehicles a distance along the berm. Others watch

and wait, preparing for ISIS to strike back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:25:12] LU STOUT: Now there have been some setbacks today as Iraqi forces mount their military operation against ISIS. Let's get the very

latest from Arwa. She joins us now from Baghdad.

And Arwa, as Iraqi forces charge into what is now the second day of their offensive, they're being targeted by ISIS suicide bombers. What can

you tell us?

DAMON: And that attack took place in Anbar province between the city of Fallujah that is firmly under ISIS control and the town of Garma (ph).

Three suicide bombers targeting an Iraqi army combat outpost, killing at least 30 soldiers. It goes to show you what it is, the tactics that ISIS

is and continues to employ as it has been in the past whilst trying to maintain its own grip over this key now contested territory.

And those forces that are massed around Ramadi, we are hearing from several tribal sheikhs have been able to make a little bit of progress. To

the south of Ramadi they were able to capture the Anbar University. This, after numerous airstrikes targeting that installation last week. Now this

Iraqi force able to move in there.

And this force, as we have been reporting a combination of both conventional Iraqi army and police and unconventional forces, those

Iranian-backed Shia paramilitary units as well as tribal leaders, Sunni tribal fighters, that is.

And at this stage, this really is a very challenging battle, to say the least, taking place, as you were saying there, on multiple fronts

across numerous provinces, Kristie.

LU STOUT: So games being made in Anbar this day. And Arwa, from what you saw in the battlefield, do you believe that Iraqi joint forces can take

back Salahuddin province, including that critical Baiji oil refinery there?

DAMON: Well, Kristie, they are confident that they can. And they're confident that they will. The issue here is how long is it going to take,

and what is going to happen after, if and when the Iraqi forces do manage to capture the Baiji oil refinery, a critical installation, and the other

territory that they are trying to capture from ISIS as well.

Will they be able to hold that territory? Will they be able to ensure that they have sufficiently cut off the ISIS supply lines and impeded the

organization's ability to regroup and target where it finds vulnerabilities, because that has been one of the key problems in the past

as we saw with the fall of Tikrit. The Iraqi government quick to declare victory there, but then shortly afterwards we saw ISIS launching that

massive offensive in Baiji and also in Anbar province.

LU STOUT: All right, CNN's Arwa Damon reporting live from Baghdad, thank you so much Arwa.

Now you're watching News Stream. And still to come we'll go back to the top news story, the arrest of several FIFA executives, that came after

a U.S. investigation. And we'll get more on that probe from our U.S. Justice correspondent next.

Also ahead, in a speech from the throne, Queen Elizabeth lays out the new UK government's agenda. We'll give you the highlights.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:51] LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

Now world football's governing body is facing two corruption investigations. A U.S. probe led to the arrest of several FIFA officials

in Zurich, while Swiss authorities say that they've opened an investigation related to the vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Now FIFA President

Sepp Blatter has not been charged. He is expected to win a fifth straight term as president on Friday.

Now the deadly heat wave in India has killed more than 1,100 people in the past week. And temperatures have risen as high as 48 degrees Celsius.

Two southern states have been hardest hit. Authorities are urging residents to stay indoors during peak daytime hours and to drink lots of

water.

Iraqi forces are in the second day of a major offensive to take back Anbar and Salahuddin Provinces from ISIS. Sources say 30 Iraqi soldiers

were killed in ISIS suicide attacks on a combat outpost in Anbar today. Shia militias are helping in the Iraqi operation.

The U.S. attorney general says corruption at FIFA is, quote, rampant, systemic and deep rooted.

Now the U.S. justice correspondent for CNN Evan Perez joins me now live from CNN New York. And Evan, this is a stunning development. Just

what brought about these arrest warrants from the U.S.?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORREPSONDENT: Well, Kristie, this has been an investigation that's been going on for several years. If you recall,

the United States lost out to Qatar for the 2022 -- to host the 2022 World Cup, and that's when they were beginning to hear complaints about what was

believed to be a rigged process, corruption really, at FIFA and especially in the higher levels of FIFA, the world governing body for soccer. And

that's how this investigation began.

Obviously, the Justice Department says that they've been working on this now for years. They've got indictments now against 14 people,

including Jeffrey Webb, who is the vice president of FIFA, also Jack Warner the former FIFA vice president as well as officials from Venezuela, Brazil,

Uruguay, Costa Rica.

According to the FBI and the Justice Department, this is really about bribery and racketeering and money laundering.

The way it worked was simply companies paid money to get sponsorships, paid kickbacks to certain officials in FIFA to be able to get certain

sponsorships, and now these are the charges they are bringing.

We expect Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, and the FBI director James Comey, to announce these indictments in Brooklyn in a couple of

hours.

LU STOUT: And Evan, the U.S. Justice Department wants those named in the indictment extradited. What is the timetable on that? What happens

next?

PEREZ: Well, what happens next is these officials, I'm sure, are going to challenge their extradition. And Swiss law is a bit complicated

for the U.S. to navigate.

According to the Justice Department, they have made sure all the charges that they've brought are ones that can be brought under Swiss law.

They expect these people to be extradited. Some of them are not citizens of Switzerland, so that should be a little more simple for that process.

This is only still the beginning, though, because we have an investigation that's still ongoing.

Sepp Blatter, who is the long-time chief of FIFA, is not among those who is indicted. And that is leading to questions about what exactly is

going to happen to him, next.

He's going to win election on Friday for a fifth term, but whether or not this indictment allows him to stay in place is the open question now.

LU STOUT: That's right. The FIFA boss Sepp Blatter. He's in focus event though he's not named in the indictments. But were those arrested

and charged very, very close to him?

PEREZ: Well, you know that's what's very interesting about this is that pretty much all the leadership around him was indicted in this case.

And they just were not able to bring these charges against Blatter. Believe me, they did try and investigated him.

Now the Swiss say they're investigating the process here including what Blatter was involved in the 2018 and 2022 World cup bids. So we

expected that we'll see some more on that end.

[08:35:11] LU STOUT: All right. Evan Perez, live in New York for us. Thank you very much indeed for your reporting.

Now you're watching News Stream. Still to come on the program, UK parliament has officially opened for the new year with the help of

Britain's Queen Elizabeth. Details on her annual address next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back

Now Britain's Queen Elizabeth has just delivered her annual speech to open the UK parliament. There was no shortage of pomp and circumstance.

The queen arrived by horse-drawn procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster adorned in ceremonial robes and jewels. This is the 64th time

the queen has delivered the speech. It was written by Cameron's new conservative government and outlines their proposals for the coming year.

Now the queen spoke of a planned referendum to decide on the UK's membership within the European Union and touched on domestic issues as

well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: My government will legislate in the interest of everyone in our country. It will adopt a one nation

approach, helping working people get on, supporting aspiration, giving new opportunities to the most disadvantaged and bringing different parts of our

country together.

My government will continue with its long-term plan to provide economic stability and security at every stage of life. They will continue

in the work of bringing the public finances under control and reducing the deficit so Britain lives within its means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And let's head to 10 Downing Street now for a look at the queen's speech and the challenges facing British Prime Minister David

Cameron, our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is there. He joins us now live.

And Nic, the queen's speech it was prepared for her by the government Could you tell us more about what she said about the EU referendum?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the EU referendum, David Cameron's government has laid out that it will hold that

in/out referendum before the end of 2017. There's certainly indications at the moment that this may be fast tracked, if you will, to try to get to the

point of holding a referendum even by this time next year. David Cameron is certainly got a busy agenda later this week with visits to Luxembourg,

France, Germany and Poland all to put forward his views, Britain's views, on how its membership and participation in the European Union can be

changed and better reflect what the British people want in terms of, you know, when he plans to hold that vote. I think a lot of that will depend

on domestic politics.

And that is one of the reasons why in the queen's speech today it does appear to be one of those things that he will try to fast track and get

done early ahead of that 20 -- end of 2017 deadline that the queen announced today.

LU STOUT: And also the issue of Scotland. What was the message delivered on giving more powers to Scotland?

ROBERTSON: Well, I think there are two messages here. One is he talked about devolving powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland --

Northern Ireland under the context of the Stortman-House (ph) agreement.

But the sort of -- the subtext there, and also the language that was used was very much in keeping with what the queen had said at the

beginning, which is one nation, which is keeping the country together. A strong, long lasting constitutional arrangement is how it was termed in

terms of giving this additional devolved power to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.

The subtext there, of course, absolutely clear that David Cameron intends to keep Britain, the United Kingdom and to keep Scotland as part of

that United Kingdom.

So what he's laying out there is that what will be on offer is something that he hopes will make the Scots happy enough to stay part of

the UK -- Kristie.

[08:40:45] LU STOUT: And, Nic, now that David Cameron has an overall majority, can we assume that, yes, he can succeed and press ahead with his

agenda as delivered by the queen?

ROBERTSON: In the short-term the answer is yes. In the long-term he faces potential pitfalls along the way. Why? Because some of his back

benchers are more anti-Europe than he is. And that is believed to be one of the reasons why he'd like to fast track that in/out Europe EU

referendum, because he can -- he hopes that that stage still to have stronger support from all those back benchers.

But it will be an agenda that he feels more empowered, because he does have a majority inside -- you know, inside parliament now. So that should

help him.

But there will be problems, because he doesn't have support across all these issues from all his own MPs and the European referendum is one where

there are MPs in his party who are going to look to him to come back from these talks in Europe with stronger guarantees and potential changes that

the rest of the Europeans at the moment are not ready to give and we need to be very clear in saying that, that these MPs will want to see him get

more from Europe than potentially he is able to get. If they see that he doesn't get that, there becomes the difficulty for him moving forward,

Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right from 10 Downing Street, Nic Robertson reporting live for us on the challenges ahead for the British prime minister. Thank

you, Nick.

And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. But don't go anywhere. We have more on the FIFA corruption probes in World Sport with

Amanda Davies next.

END