Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Steep Declines on Major Stock Markets Across Asia; Americans Who Stopped Terror Attack on European Train Go Public; Thousands of Protesters in Beirut. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired August 24, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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


JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Going down, the steep declines continue on major stock markets across Asia.

News (ph) happening, all died, the three American men who stopped the terrorist attack on a European train go public with their stories.

And thousand protesters on the streets of Beirut, Lebanon calls in the (ph) army unto anti-gunman demonstration turned violent.

Hello and welcome everybody. Thank you for joining us.

I'm John Vause. The second hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

I'm live (ph) on the stock markets in Asia at this hour, started with fears of a China's economy and falling oil prices continuing across Asia's major industries and at the moment, there seems to be no bottom (ph) inside to all of this.

Let's have a look at the latest numbers across Asia.

There we have the Australia's S&P ASX 200 down by 3.5 percent, the Nikkei in Japan down by almost 4.5 percent, Hong Kong down by more than 4.5 percent and the big story, of course, what is happening in China. The Shanghai Composite down there by almost 8.5 percent.

CNN's Asia Pacific Editor Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong, he joins us now with the very latest.

So Andrew, we're expecting the big sell-off but this seems beyond most prediction, especially in China.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Yeah, China has been alarmed to self in the market. It's a pretty much all summer.

John, we've seen the sort of movements before eight percent swing. We're swinging up to 12 percent in a day. So, to see this in China is surprising but it is certainly not unprecedented. These are big, big swings.

Fundamentally, what's happening in China at the moment is this is a market peaked back in June. A lot of it on money which have been borrowed by small investors. That market then turned and came off sharply and that going to self-perpetuating cycle going with people wanting to get out whenever and wherever they could.

The government stepped in. They tried to make a difficult for people to get out. A lot of the companies were actually taken off the stock market at the time to -- so that couldn't sell the stocks.

What were left are those stocks that are being bought by Chinese institutions to try to cushion the blow. But that required them actively having to step into the market.

When you see a full (inaudible) 8.5 percent, it tells you that the authorities are not actively trying to stop this market fully or certainly not actively enough trying to stop this market falling. But it does create this fear and fear does tend to have a contention effect and we're seeing this around the Asian markets at the moment backed up, of course, by the fact that Wall Street fell, so sharply, I mean a big fall on Wall Street on Friday.

Some people are generally (ph), investors are nervous everywhere. And they keep looking at the Chinese economy as the epicenter if you like of this. And indeed the Chinese economy is weaker than most investors think most economist thing and we saw that with these numbers coming out on Friday, but whether a weak economy in China justifies this sort of global sell-off, well, that's more debatable, John.

VAUSE: You're talking about what the government can do, what they're not doing to trying prop up this market. There was an expectation over the weekend to the central bank might act and traders are looking for that to happen.

It didn't happen. What do they want and why did the government do it?

STEVENS: Well I don't know why the government didn't do it, I think there were still expectations that the government may do something. Obviously, if this sort of sell-off continuos, the government is very much, very likely to step in with some sort of plans.

I mean, what they were looking for was for to allow the banks to free up some of the money which is currently on deposit at the central bank is a sort of insurance policy if you like, allow that money to be used by the banks to be recycled back into the economy, get more money flowing so the economy get more paper spending, get things moving on a economic level.

That was the idea. It's sending at least these broad messages that the government is doing something to support the economy which then they hope will ease fears about people who are investing in the stock market.

Now, we're still waiting for that to happen. A lot of economies are still talking about the government could easily cut interest rates again. They could do this move with the banking as I've said.

And there are other measures as well. But the government sort of quote (ph) a little bit between Iraq and the hotter place (ph) so I don't want to throw too much money at this because we seldom do that in 2009 and that created the sort of bubbles in the stock markets, the bubbles in property that the government desperately wants to avoid happening again.

We're still seeing the air coming out of these bubbles so I don't want to go back to square one, have this sort of repeating cycle of bubble, the blooming bath (ph) if you like.

It's a very delicate balancing act and at the moment the authorities don't have it in the right balance obviously because we're seeing this massive sell-off and we are seeing the economy awakening much more rapidly than most people have predicted, John.

VAUSE: (Inaudible) helped a man who was injured by the attacker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPENCER STONE, THWARTED TERROR ATTACK ON TRAIN: Saw that he was squirting blood out of the side of his neck. I was going to use my shirt at first but that wouldn't have worked. Two of my fingers in the hole found what I thought to be the artery, pushed down and the bleeding stopped. I held that position until the paramedics got there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The suspected gunman is in custody and authorities are looking at ISIS as part of their investigation.

Nic Robertson with details.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To those three young men now being described by so many people as heroes gave very kind (ph) of what happened. They described this attack on the train as being about 165, 170 pounds weight, about 5 foot, 10 tall. He was silent. They said as he was trying to attack the people in the train and when they sprung into action to taken down, he clearly struggled. They said (inaudible) intensively Spencer Stone was injured.

This is his account of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STONE: I turned around and I saw he had what looked to be an AK-47 and it looked like it was jammed or wasn't working and he was trying to charge the weapon and Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said let's go and ran down, tackled him. We hit the ground.

Alek came up and grabbed the gun out of his hand, while I put him in a chokehold, it seemed like he kept pulling more weapons out left and right.

He pulled out a handgun, Alek took that, he took out a boxcutter, started jabbing at me with that, we let go, all three of us started punching him while he was in the middle of us.

And I was able to grab him again, and choke him unconscious while Alek was hitting him in the head with the pistol or rifle.

ROBERTSON: The attack has now been identified as a young Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani. He has a track record, if you will, all the way across Europe from Spain to France to Belgium of associating with radical Islamist.

The Belgium said that they're investigating radical Islamist group say he's been associated with that.

The French continue to crash him in here in Paris and also concerns about time that he spent outside of Europe in Turkey between May and July this year.

They said counter terrorism officials in Europe tell us that they believe he's associated with a French ISIL inside Turkey. They don't know if he managed to get to Syria but that French ISIL in Turkey, they believe directed a young Algerian student in Paris in a (inaudible) to attempt to attack a church. That attack was faulted but the association that the believe Kozani (ph) has with the same French ISIL in Turkey now causing great concern, but of course the French wanting to find out right now, does he have associates, are there more threats, are there more attacks eminent.

But for the three men, these young Americans described as heroes, they will be meeting very soon with the French President Francois Hollande and the prime minister and the former minister and the interior minister and the transport minister, a red cup an event if you will at the French President's policy released early on Monday morning.

The French here are really feeling that this man saved so many lives and deserve significant thanks and gratitude for that.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Paris.

VAUSE: A 2000-year-old temple of the Syrian city of Palmyra has been ruined today after being blown up by ISIS militants.

The head of Syrian antiquities program says the inner part of the temple was destroyed and the columns around it collapsed.

The entire city as UNESCO World Heritage which ISIS took control of back in May.

This latest attack on Syrian's ancient artifacts comes just days after militants beheaded a man who was in charge of Palymra's antiquities department for more than 50 years.

More than 5000 immigrants are now in Serbia after crossing through Macedonia.

Their journey to Western Europe was held off a days because Macedonia closed its southern border last week. That border is opened again, but Arwa Damon reports this is just a temporary solution to a much bigger problem.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Macedonia which on Thursday had declared a state of emergency and shutdown its border with Greece. Now, not only has opened it but is doing everything that it can to assure the refugees and immigrants through. Right now, they are in the process of building a makeshift entrance to the trains that will be carrying the immigrants all the way to the boarder with Serbia. From there, they will continue their journey on foot.

None of this was seen here in the last few days. The immigrants because of the closure of the border were trapped on the Greek side and what can only be described as disastrous and heartbreaking conditions.

It was raining and they were left with little canoe shelter and no humanitarian aid to speak off. Now, we're seeing authorities rallying on both sides to try to facilitate the journey for these refugees and immigrants.

Now, they are being processed here as well. What the processing means is that they are then given a piece of paper. They give them 72 hours to either live Macedonia or apply for asylum here.

The vast majority of them are continuing their journey unto Western Europe. That is where they want to eventually end up. But the flood of immigrants across Europe isn't truly unprecedented, not only our eight organizations to struggling do deal with that, a various European nations are as well. And this is just one of the many potential breaking points because Europe cannot handle the influx of the immigrants especially since as of now there are still no long-term solutions to resettle them.

Arwa Damon, CNN on the Macedonia Greece border.

VAUSE: Those are tough words.

The South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, she is demanding an apology from North Korea for landmine explosion which wounded two South Korean soldiers.

Now, the South Korea is responding to that incident by blurring propaganda broadcast across the border into the north and says, it won't stop until Pyongyang apologizes.

North Korea though denies responsibility for the explosion. Meantime, top negotiators from North and South Korea are still holding those high-level talks in the DMZ.

Anna Coren is following these negotiations for us from the Hong Kong. He joins us now live.

And so Anna it's at least the positive side, the talk is still ongoing and it's not really unusual that despite three days is not a little progress to report.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, that's absolutely right, John. This is expected. This is not going to be solved in a measure of days. No word from Kim Jong-un as to that village in the DMZ when his top negotiators meeting from both sides as to whether today's meeting has wrapped up. That meeting mind you started yesterday afternoon, so certainly a marathon session.

The two sides have been meeting since Saturday afternoon and this could go on for days and as you say the South Korean President Park Geun-hye is now demanding an apology for what she is called armed provocation which includes those incidents of landmines being laid the DMZ which have injured two South Korean soldiers.

A couple of them remained, one of them loosing both his legs. She says that unless they received an apology that South Korea will continue blurring the pro-democracy propaganda statements from those loudspeakers which as we know infuriates the North Koreans.

They are concerned that their soldiers will hear these messages and will brainwash and perhaps defect and that is what caused the North Koreans to fire at those loudspeakers last week. South Koreans returning fire and that is where we are now at this very moment, John, having these negotiations.

VAUSE: So why is the South Korean president so insistent on a formal apology for the North Korea that landmine incident, how much of that is domestic politics?

COREN: Yeah. Look, I think domestic politics are certainly playing into it. Park Geun-hye not only popular in South Korea but we also have to remember that South Korea needs to take a strong stands against North Korea specially in line of what happened back in 2010 whether where those two major incidents which claimed the lives of more than 50 South Korean civilians and soldiers.

You first have the shelling of -- I big your pardon, the sinking of the Cheonan warship which killed 46 sailors.

North Korea to this day still denies that a torpedo that warship and (inaudible) in 2010, the shilling of Yeonpyeong Island where several civilians were killed as well as a number of soldiers.

So, you know, South Korea has, since then, been taking a very strong sense against the North and its threats of war hence this is why Park Geun-hye is certainly not backing down.

VAUSE: Anna Coren, live in Hong Kong with very latest on those talks which, do you think is still going on, on the DMZ. Thanks Anna.

When we come back, the secondary protest to its violent in Beirut, we'll tell you exactly how their government is responding to all of this, plus officials in Southern England say the death toll from Saturday air show crash could still rise, all that and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN WEATHER WATCH CORRESPONDENT: Good day. I'm Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for CNN Weather Watch.

Big changes in our forecast, 30 degree temperatures long gone around London. Couple disturbances once we've been buying in past 24 hours, another one dropping in from today at this scale and (inaudible) pretty soggy over the next 24 hours over this region, also very wet as far as very windy condition as I should say as well in and around Paris as the storm cruise by.

We'll keep it almost autumn like for a few people with the winds (inaudible) up around Paris potentially 50 kilometers per hour and notice the storm track just in favorable location to bring in more strong winds into this region in the next coming couple of days.

The angle channel, that certainly going to be the wet spot around, let's say, Southern England also works (ph) away towards Northern France in a coming couple of days, so we'll keep it cool, we'll keep it wet around 17 degrees in London, Paris only up to 22 after well- honed to the 30s in recent days.

Notice, the showers continuing off into Berlin and then we get back into the sunshine around Kiev and Moscow, a gorgeous day at around 20 degrees in around portions of western Russia.

The heat still on around Bagdad Telviev, 32 degrees a couple not just cooler around Beirut should be into the upper 20s and taking back to the Western and Northern Africa temperatures and Casablanca comfortable (ph) 27 should be a little warmer in the Lagos (inaudible) some thunderstorms around Nigeria working the way up there towards Lagos into the afternoon hours.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: And welcome back. A huge cloud of black smokes rising near Tokyo Haneda Airport as well as fire that's burning at steel factory nearby. Government officials tell CNN air traffic has not being affected, 16 fire engines and a helicopter are on sense as cruise are trying put out the flights.

It is being called a new chapter in relation to four years after it was stolen by protesters. Britain has reopened its embassy in Tehran.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was there to watch the Union Jack being raised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILIP HAMMOND, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Iran is, and will remain, a very important country in a strategically important but volatile region. Maintaining dialogue, even under the most difficult conditions, is crucially important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In 2011, protest in Tehran over British sanctions on Iran of its nuclear program and now that there is a nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers, Mr. Hammond says Britain and Iran should also work together on common issues, like terrorism, regional stability as well as migration.

Army maintained (ph) patrolling through the streets of Lebanon's capital after anti-government protest turned violent for the second day.

Red Cross Lebanon says 49 people were injured on Sunday, 31 of them are police officers.

The protest was started by uncollected garbage routing in the streets of Beirut.

Nick Paton Walsh, the public anger goes way beyond that.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The stench at the heart of Lebanon's dysfunctional government had been intolerable for months, but eventually it burst out into the heat of summer streets, piles of trash growing daily, the collection of which as basic task that the government could not organize.

They had other sins like not being able to decide on a president for 15 months, collapsing water and electricity systems, corruption, but this is something that Lebanese couldn't pretend wasn't happening.

So the protests began, building until Saturday night when hundreds were in running street battles with police and army who in a response even the government accepted was totally excessive, fired live ammunition into the air to disperse them, tear gas, water cannon.

Ninety nine people injured. The Lebanese Red Cross said, and also 35 police, officials added. So Sunday night at 6 p.m. they returned, thousands of them. Peaceful at first, but a small minority at the front clashed with the police, who knows who started it.

But police used water cannon to push them back and then anarchy began. Some protesters tried to breach the barricades, threw rocks at the police, even a road sign. A motorcycle was set alight. Police retreated partially.

Then, later, the tear gas began, a thick cloud of it. Endless, it seemed. Protesters forced to flee as night moved in, the clashes still continued. Black smoke over the center of what remains of state's power in Lebanon.

And the bad smell of the rot in the state mixed now with tear gas and thick smoke as Lebanese ask what will put the fires out?

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

VAUSE: Revolutions (inaudible) unusual unpredictable moment which set off a chain reaction of protest and anger which over time grow to be unstoppable.

It's too late to say if Lebanon is at that point so they're trying to work out where all of these are heading, Randa Slim with the Middle Eastern Institute joins us now from Dayton, Ohio.

Randa, thank you for being with us.

Many protesters in that crowd with (inaudible) slogan which are popular journey Arab spring in Egypt and Tunisia. Is that an indication that this where this demonstration in Lebanon is now heading?

RANDA SLIM, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: It's too early to tell, although the protests are motivated by the same feeling, by the same demands that have draw -- that have driven the demonstrations in Egypt and now are driving the demonstrations in Iraq which is demands for good governance, end of corruption, demand for accountability of the political class.

But Lebanon is different than Iraq. It's different than Egypt. We don't have state institution to speak with, to bring down. You have basically a group of seven to eight political leaders that controlled the country and that have -- and that will do everything in their power to protect those interests against anybody that threatened them, including the (inaudible) what protesters aimed.

VAUSE: You know Randa, official say it has become a lot hollow slightly to provide basic services in Lebanon because of the influx of Syrian refugees.

That would certainly be a factor but is there any other reason for the government values (ph)?

SLIM: No. No, no. This -- I mean the storm (ph) has been in the making for years, for decades. What -- and this garbage collection problem or the garbage crisis as they are referring to Lebanon is just was the, like the tipping point and -- but the anger, the political paralysis, the -- I would say, the end -- the up ending of the old social contract between citizens and governors, have been contested now for a long time and this has been in the making for some time. Look, there is...

VAUSE: And -- sorry to interrupt but I just want to go to the issue of the paralysis which mentioned, at least according to prime minister, it could mean a much bigger economic crisis is just a few weeks away. Do you agree with him when he says the country is facing collapse?

SLIM: That is correct and that's in a way that balance that these protesters have to strike. On one hand, they are tapping into in over all mood and of anger and dissatisfaction with the political elite and the feeling that excite for them to go but, on the other hand, you have a large majority of the Lebanese population who are asking, well, if we bring down this cabinet which is the only remaining political institution that is working, what's going to be next.

What's the roadmap for what comes after breaking down the cabinet and that's what's forcing more and more Lebanese now to start thinking whether we have got -- whether they have gotten to close to the brink and starting to step away from it.

VAUSE: Yeah, maybe Libya is an indication of what could happen.

Randa Slim we appreciate you being with us. We appreciate your thoughts. Thanks so much.

SLIM: Thank you. VAUSE: Let's a quick break (ph). When we come back, we'll have more on the fall in the Asian markets. Is this a correction or is it a much worst to come. We'll have the latest on the Asia market meltdown, plus officials in England finally work out across the village get the crash on a busy road. We'll have an update on the deadly accidents when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

The headlines this hour, Asia's stock market is continuing very sharp fall. Let's look at the latest numbers across the region.

The Australia's S&P ASX 200 down by more than 3.5 percent and Nikkei down almost by 4.5 percent, Hong Kong continuos to fall down now by more than 5 percent, the big history today though, the Shanghai Composite down paying towards 9 percent into negative territory.

ISIS militants have strike again in ancient city of Palmyra. At this time, they blew up at 2,000 year old temple. They had a serious antiquities program says, the inner part of the temple was destroyed and columns around it collapsed. ISIS took control of the city back in May.

Three Americans who stopped the deadly gunman on a Paris bound train will be honored for their heroics in France. Spencer Stone, Alex Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler will meet with President Francois Hollande and other top leaders in the coming hours.

And a news conference on Sunday the, the men said, they had no choice but to confront the gunman.

Army tanks are rolling through the streets of Beirut after protest turned violent for a second day. Uncollected garbage is rotting in the streets. An army spokesman says protesters threw rocks and firecrackers on Indian 31 policemen. The police responded with water cannons and tear gas.

And more the meltdown and stock in (ph) Asia, Peter Lewis is a financial consultant who deals with Asian security, joins us now live from Hong Kong.

So, Peter is this the correction we have to have or are we heading for another global financial crisis?

PETER LEWIS, PETER LEWIS CONSULTING, DIRECTOR: Well, certainly a correction that there was needed here in Asia and the Shanghai Composites has now -- is now down over a third from its all-time highs and it's what tell us sort of 2015's gains.

I think in the U.S., I think the correction is only just started and I think, you know, the U.S. really has only just started to catch up probably last week with what is being going in the China markets for while and also commodity prices. And I think the problem is that, China's growth is slowing and also its trade with the rest of the world is down sharply, which means that global trade and hence global growth is slowing and the world (ph) has relied very heavily on the last -- over the last few years on China growth and other emerging markets as well to support global growth.

Growth in Europe and Japan is very anemic, so without China and some of the other emerging markets, the U.S. alone although it's got respectable growth cannot support the global economy and I think the market is starting to realize that the global economy is slowing China in particular is not going to meet at 7 percent targets...

VAUSE: Sure.

LEWIS: The growth on markets are reacting accordingly.

VAUSE: May to that China's economic problems here that, how much is the -- how much is this actually based on fact and how much is the sell-off is based on negative seven because it seems the reaction is well out of whack with the, what we know about the situation of the economy.

LEWIS: Well, China's market has been a momentum market now for at least the last year. And there's been an enormous number of retail investors own in your accounts around 90 percent of them the China market is retail investors, they repealing in when the market was going up and the market more than doubled in almost a year.

And they were buying stocks without really knowing what they were buying, these were taxi drivers, school teachers, students rushing through from accounts, but the momentum works both ways and now that the markets is starting to unravel and people have lost confidence in whether or the government connection support the market. People had panic selling on the way...

VAUSE: Yeah.

LEWIS: ... out as well.

VAUSE: The Dow Jones (ph) swings back pretty quickly and hot. Hey, is everything more in Beijing under this point of prop up shared prices, do they have luxury of just try to write this out?

LEWIS: Well, what people were hoping was that we would see maybe over the weekend an interest rate cut or at least are cutting the reserve requirement ratio, the amount that banks have to hold a gain in capital gains, their loans.

Neither of them come over the weekend, there wasn't announcement that they were again to allow state pension farms (ph) to invest up to 30 percent of their assets into stocks. But that's being mooted for quite awhile, so the market open this morning quite disappointed that there was no measures.

Three and half thousand was seen as a crucial support, now for everyone fought the Chinese government was going to defend and the market just slice through that very quickly at the open.

VAUSE: Yeah, we just live that those numbers now is heading towards the 9 percent down the Shanghai Composite where we've got, oh it's actually come back a bit 8.35 it still not a great result.

Peter, thanks for being with us, we appreciate it.

LEWIS: Thank you.

VAUSE: Authorities in England say it tie likely that at least a lot of people died after a plane crash at the shore on air show on Saturday. But through scale that this strategy remained unknown and authorities are warning the death toll could rise as they remove debris from the side hand investigate why the plane went down on a busy highway.

Here's Ian Lee

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Words are hard to come by for residents of Shoreham-by-Sea, a community reeling after a deadly plane crash Saturday.

A Cold War-era hawker hunter jet was performing a loop, its first maneuver of the day but failed to pull up crashing into a nearby highway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It flew obviously too low and that was it, it hit the ground and there was a lot of flame and a lot of nasty.

LEE: Veteran pilot, Andy Hill, miraculously survived the crash after being pulled from the wreckage. A day of fun turned to tragedy for hundreds of spectators including children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone stay in your places please. We'll be getting the emergency services in soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then all of a sudden you just see these flames and just a big black of smoke, it's just devastating. It's really hard to explain really to a child.

LEE: An education too soon for two year old Daniel and six year old Matthew.

Nearby a crane removes what's left of the plane as the search for clues as well as bodies went to a third day.

As a rule, stunts are not allowed to be performed over spectators or neighborhoods, really anywhere where a crash could kill someone on the ground. And with the airport just right there and a lot of empty space, authorities are going to be trying to figure out why this plane crashed on a busy highway.

Unsuspecting motorists were the victims. The scale of this tragedy is still unknown. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been an enormously traumatic incident. A train will be brought in to lift the wreckage of the hunter jet on Monday and as we have already indicated, it is quite possible that we will discover more fatalities.

LEE: As more families learn about the fate of their loved ones, the more grief will be translated into flowers.

Ian Lee, CNN, Shoreham-by-Sea, England.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: When we come back, we'll shift gears, we'll head to the Smithsonian National Zoo where officials have been a little bamboozled, where a giant panda gave birth to not just one as he expected, but two cubs. Meet the newborns in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

USAIN BOLT, JAMAICAN SPRINTER: I definitely think this was my hardest race. I've been through a lot this season. It's been rough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt describing his victory at this year's World Athletic Championships in Beijing.

He took home the gold in the 100 minute dash, beating American runner, Justin Gatlin by a meter 1/100 of a second. Bolt has struggled with the injuries all season and described what it was like beating Gatlin, the fastest man in world this year that was until Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLT: Justin has been running great. He's been showing up running fast time. So, I know it wasn't going to be easy, the championship. And I always say that, my coach has told me one thing that, I've learned over years that Justin Gatlin, when it comes to a championship, he always shows up.

So, for me I knew that if I'm going to come here and win, I had to run the great race and well-execute a race, so, for me, I'm just happy that I got it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Bolt's victory on Sunday, just the latest in a long line of wins in an incredible track record (ph) include six gold medals at the Olympics, nine world championships and world records in the 100, 200 and 4 by 100 meter races. Bolt says that the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 will be his last. And he's hoping to bring home three more gold medals.

OK, someone here wrote, it is pure pandemonium in the U.S. capital. Get it, because it's about a panda. Visitors are flocking to the Smithsonian National Zoo because there's been a rare twin birth of panda cubs. Diane Cho, with our affiliate WJLA has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE CHO, WJLA REPORTER: Even though the giant panda cubs weren't on display at the national zoo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Baby panda.

CHO: There was no shortage of excitement as Bau Bau entertained the crowds, celebrating her second birthday with a special frozen foodsicle (ph) cake.

Many came to the zoo the day after May Shan gave birth to the twins just to be a part of it all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just hope they'll be healthy and grow up to be wonderful pandas and create more. And hopefully we'll get more out in the wild and save their habitats.

CHO: This is the video, the first born giant panda cub during its first exam. The zoo staff believes the cub they retrieved last night was actually the second giant panda cub born just after 10:00 at night. The cub retrieved this morning was s first born at 5:35 p.m.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we give her a little bit of time to see if she would actually pick both cubs out but she was really struggling. She was trying but she wasn't able.

CHO: The panda team has been swapping the cubs to give them one on one time with their mom. While the other one is kept warm in an incubator and hopes of increasing their survival. But the frequency all hinges and whether May Shan allows it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, our goal is for each one of these cubs to spend precious time with their mom, nursing and getting all the nutrients that they need to grow.

LOU SANCHEZ (ph): Last night I was just like, "Come on, we're leaving, let's go."

CHO: Lou Sanchez (ph) was so happy about the newest additions at the zoo. She convinced her parents to book a flight from New York just to be here the next day.

LOU SANCHEZ (ph): Yeah I was really excited, I was really happy I teared up a little bit when I came.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That was Diane Cho, our affiliate at WJLA.

And here it is right now, that's the panda cam. It's been crashing all day long it's proved so popular. But you can see mama panda asleep there. Maybe crushing little panda twins, who knows, log on to the Smithsonian National Zoo web site. You can check out giant panda cam. Later on, Pedram Javaheri will be doing just that, he's a bit of a panda lover.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN WEATHER REPORTER: I was just -- I pulled up a camera a few minutes ago my self it's doing something...

VAUSE: Really?

JAVAHERI: We -- yeah, you know, you didn't like the panda pun. I know -- you're probably not going to go back.

VAUSE: Yeah. I didn't get the panda thing.

JAVAHERI: People like panda, say the web site crashed. So, a lot of people are in the fence but, you know, we'll talk pandas later.

VAUSE: It's OK I...

JAVAHERI: Yes I know, of the -- each thorough in John, we'll talk about the storms that have been causing quite a mess cross portions of Asia. In fact in particular, the town of Baguio about 300,000 people living across this town.

And we know -- but the main road to this town actually cut off from tremendous rain fall that has coming down in recent days across Northern portions of the Philippines. Baguio again, well known for the season of blooming, it's the flower festival that takes place every February on into March. Thousands of people come here, and the road way again, look at -- the main road to the town, just absolutely devastated there when it comes to what's occurred.

And we know, unfortunately 15 people have lost their lives across the Philippines with the storm system that made quite a remarkable track, look at it head westward in the past couple of days as it gets to sway North of Luzon, steering currents in the atmosphere, mainly of front, kind of pushed the storm system and give it a right turn. And eventually, go straight up east of Taiwan, tremendous rains also in place around their and now around the areas of Japan also getting some very strong rain fall and heavy winds as well.

Upwards of 700 plus millimeters has come down in a 36-hour period. London by the way, gets about 600 millimeters in an entire year, so, it kind of tells you what we're dealing with across portions of the Philippines when it comes to the enhanced monsoons. But work your way towards some of the Southern prefectures in the Ryukyu Island, areas of Southern Japan. Heavy rainfall also the theme here, in six hours about a 100 millimeter has come down.

Brand new video coming out of this region of Ishigaki. Kind of show you what's happened when it comes to the flooding that's in place around areas of Japan and also the winds. Look at them, just howl through the city here, population, roughly 48,000 people or so. And they're just getting battered left and right with this storm system that eventually left thousands without power once it passed.

So, now the concern is, this is headed towards southern Japan, the Korean Peninsula, what is going to be left of it. Look at the wind speeds, Ishigaki coming in with 250 kilometers per hour winds in access of that that is the 7th strongest wind speed that we've ever seen observed in Japan.

And again, in the next 24 hours, Kagoshima gets in on very strong winds about 165 kilometers per hour. And then beyond that, it moves in towards the Sea of Japan with the rain fall being the predominant threat.

We think the winds will finally die down here. But still, could see 100 plus millimeters of rainfall and then you look at what's happened across this region from Seoul out towards Pyongyang. Extreme to exceptional drought is prevalent. So, at least, John, we'll get some rainfall here I say Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be quite heavy for an area that hasn't seen much of it in the last nine months. John?

VAUSE: Not all bad news but clearly, yeah, causing a lot of destruction along the way.

JAVAHERI: A lot of distraction to the south, yeah.

VAUSE: Yeah, OK Pedram, thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

VAUSE: Actor, director, Mel Gibson is accused of abusing an Australian photographer. The woman says the Oscar winner pushed her, spat at her and was verbally abusive after she photographed him and his new girlfriend outside a movie theater in Sydney on Sunday.

Gibson's spokesman though has told us the actor was being harassed by the photographer and there was no physical contact. Police though are investigating the incident.

When we come back, disturbing tattoos on the streets of Los Angeles. We'll have details on how sex traffickers are branding their victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERIN HAWKSWORTH, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Erin Hawksworth with your CNN World Sport headlines. Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin went head to head in the 100 meter finals, Sunday. Bolt made a typically slow start, dragging his huge frame upright before clicking into gear. They were neck and neck down the straight but Bolt powered through dipping first and edging out his rival in a time of 9.79 seconds.

Moving on to the Premier League where just last week Chelsea beat Manchester United to signing Barcelona's forward Pedro and it sure did pay dividends for the Blues against West Brom.

It only took 20 minutes into the match for Pedro to score in his debut. He would also set up Diego Costa for an easy goal to put Chelsea up two-nil. But Chelsea had to sweat this one out. Apparently because John Terry got himself sent off 10 minutes into the second half but they did hang on 3-2. Roger Federer has denied Novak Djokovic the Career Golden Masters

adding a seventh Cincinnati title. The world number one was bidding to become the first player to win all nine of the Master's series events but he came up short losing for the fifth time in Cincinnati.

Federer claimed his seventh western and southern open crown 7-6, 6-3 on Sunday. It was Fed's serve that really made the difference. Federer will reclaim that number two spot. I'm Erin Hawksworth and that's to look at your World Sport headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: This week the CNN freedom project investigates how some girls have been branded by their traffickers and pimps to signify ownership. CNN Sara Sidner rode along with along with the police patrol in Los Angeles. This is what she found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. RON FISHER, LAPD VICE UNIT: There's two girls standing on the corner up here monitoring traffic. They are aggressively hitting up cars in the street.

I have a good shot of it right now. Both of them can go. So if we can all burn on this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, you heard him, boys. Let's go.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have been called all sorts of names from ladies of the night to prostitutes. But when they are underage, police now have a different name for them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have come a long way in recognizing these children are victims. They are not the suspects.

SIDNER: These days, one of the surest ways to tell that a person has been trafficked, the marks on their bodies.

FISHER: The tattoos tell the story if they have been around long enough.

SIDNER: On patrol with LAPD's van vice unit, Sgt. Ron Fisher says it's common to see girls with brands that signify ownership.

FISHER: The typical tattoos the pimp will use are dollar signs. They'll have a tattoo of a money bag. They'll have a crown that stands for the whole pimping thing.

SIDNER: Police say the girls rarely come to them for help. Instead it's when they get arrested that intervention sometimes happens.

That is how this 15-year-old found refuge from her trafficker, vice cops getting her to a house called Children of the Night.

What were you afraid of? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared he might kill me or my dad. He used thoughts like that and always had guns. There was just gang relations and so it was really hard to avoid him. I'm scared.

SIDNER: At 13, when she should have been worried about homework, she was being branded, bought and sold by a friend of her drug-addicted father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't really know how to sleep with people because I was young and never had sex before.

SIDNER: You were a virgin?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So -- and then he's like he's going to teach you what to do and everything and I just went with it because I thought, okay, this is the style I will live for the rest of my life.

SIDNER: She thought nothing of the tattoo he insisted on giving her, his initials on her ankle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One day, he was like, I tattoo all my girls so they took out Indian ink and a needle and he just did it.

SIDNER: The mark of slavery.

LOIS LEE, ANTI-TRAFFICKING ACTIVIST: That's not how kids see it. They belong to somebody. It's important to them. Someone's claimed me.

SIDNER: Anti-trafficking activist, Lois Lee, knows how they think. For more than 30 years, her organization, Children of the Night, has been a safe haven for sex-trafficked children.

She says, on the streets, new laws targeting sex traffickers have had some unintended consequences.

LEE: There's fewer children prostituting because the gangs control them and they can -- they serve less time for using them for other kinds of crimes, so why would you use them for sex if you get life in prison or 20, 40. 60, 80 years for torture and kidnapping? They'll use them for a burglary, a car jacking, give them a gun so you don't go to jail.

SIDNER: But the result is the same. The kids are stuck in a horrible life.

LEE: There should be a law that anyone who uses a child in any crime suffers the same penalties as if they used them for sex trafficking.

SIDNER: Lee says as horrible as that life may be, far too often, the nightmare begins at home where girls are sexually abused or neglected, making life with a trafficker seem more alluring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And please join us tomorrow at this time for part two of Sara's special reporting. You will hear from the 17 year old girl who says she was sold a dream which never came true. She's now left with a brand that she went off (ph) again.

Thank you for joining us for this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

Errol Barnett and Rosemary Church are up next on the very latest news on all around the world. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)