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NEWS STREAM
Second American Sentenced to Hard Labor in North Korea; Kenya to Burn Largest Supply of Ivory, Rhino Horn; Violence Erupts Outside Trump Rally in California. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired April 29, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:34] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream. A decade of hard labor: North Korea sentences a
U.S. citizen for alleged espionage and subversion.
Dozens killed in deadly air strike on a Syrian hospital, but all sides deny responsibility. A live report on the tragedy in Aleppo just ahead.
And fighting the evil that is the illegal ivory trade. We will look at what Africa is doing to stop elephant poaching and why there is still an
appetite for ivory in Asia.
For the second time in a month, North Korea has sentenced a U.S. citizen to hard labor.
Now, Kim Dong-chul was given 10 years for subversion and espionage. Now CNN's Will Ripley spoke to him in Pyongyang in January under the watch of
North Korean officials. And back then he said he had been in custody since October of last year.
Now, for more on this story, let's bring in Will Ripley. Now he has reported extensively from North Korea. He joins us now live. And Will,
you met and you talked to Kim Dong-chul while you were reporting in Pyongyang. What was he able to say and share with you then?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We met him in January, Kristie. And he told us that he had been arrested in October of 2015. He had already been
in custody for several months. He had not yet faced his trial, which, of course, we now know the trial happened today. A one-day trial, by the way,
where prosecutors were seeking 15 years hard labor. They sentenced him to ten years.
But what he did lay out for us is the evidence that North Korean state media, in their news release today, they talked about. They talked about
the evidence that Kim Dong-chul claims that he was essentially caught red- handed collecting information about sensitive military installations in North Korea and he was getting in and out of the country from China,
because he and his wife operate a business in the DPRK.
There is now just one particular area where Chinese-owned businesses are still operating inside the country. It used to happen also in the Kaesong
Industrial Complex, but due to the escalating tension between North and South Korea Kaesong is now closed.
However, Kim Dong-chul, he was still crossing back and forth across the border. And I him exactly how he said this espionage worked on behalf, by
the way, of South Korean interests, is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: How did it work? How did you pass on the information you collected?
KIM DONG CHUL, DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA (through translator): I bribed a local resident, and had him gather important materials considered national
secrets in this country, such as military secrets, nuclear related materials. I got these materials, hid them in my car, and secretly brought
them to China where I handed them over, or I would go to South Korea and deliver them directly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: So Kim said that he was living in Yangtze (ph), China and commuting every day to the special economic zone of Rason (ph), North
Korea. And again, that is where one of the unique places in North Korea where China-owned businesses are operating and people
can under certain circumstances commute back and forth. So, you have this Korean-born U.S. citizen who was operating a business inside the DPRK. He
claims that he, on behalf of South Korean interests, was collecting sensitive information. He confessed to all of it for us in January. Now here we are at the end the April, just one week before the Workers' Party
Congress and you have this American citizen who confessed. His trial wrapped up in a day. Ten years now of hard labor is his sentence, Kristie.
LU STOUT: Yeah, there's been a flurry of provocative actions by North Korea. North Korea has sentenced another U.S. citizen for hard labor.
It's detained a number of foreign nationals. It continues to carry out these missile tests. Why? What does North Korea want?
RIPLEY: Well, in the case of foreigners detained who are in North Korea, the government of
Pyongyang will tell you they're there because they committed crimes in the country. When you think about the American student, Otto Warmbier who is
currently serving a sentence of hard labor, 15 years, I believe, if my memory serves me correctly. That was because he was accused of trying to
steal a political banner from the hotel where he was saying on his last night in the country.
He was accused of subverting the government by doing so, and he confessed as well. You'll remember a very emotional video confession, and then you
have that Canadian pastor Hyun Sue-lim (ph) who is also in custody right now, and he was sentenced to hard labor for life using religion to try to
overthrow the regime.
When you're talking about the military activities, Kristie, you know, this is clearly, talking about
the three failed missile launches in the last two weeks, one partial missile launch success leading up to the Workers Party Congress,
speculation there could be a fifth nuclear test.
This is a strategy many believe on the part of the Supreme Leader Kim Jong- un to project strength and power domestically and also send a strong message internationally that North Korea will
not be stopped by the heightened sanctions that are in place right now.
[08:05:59] LU STOUT: All right, CNN's reporting live for us from Tokyo. Thank you, Will.
Now, North Korea is raising concerns over the stepped up military activity we've seen in recent weeks and months. Just on Thursday, it test fired two
missiles only hours apart, both of which failed, that's according to South Korea.
Now, CNN's Paula Hancocks takes a look at what the north may be up to.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kim Jong-un seems to enjoy his job. The North Korean leader is frequently filmed smiling and
joking with generals during military drills.
But the intensity of missile and nuclear tests this year alone suggests he's a leader in a hurry.
GARY SAMONE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I think Kim Jong-un is making decisions that damage North Korea's interests. It seems to me he's needlessly
antagonized the Chinese, and the Chinese are responding in a way that is very unusual.
HANCOCKS: Ignoring calls for restraint, Pyongyang may well have made Beijing's decision to support stronger sanctions easier.
It's no secret North Korea's main benefactor is not happy. The President Xi Jinping has also made it clear he will not allow tensions to spiral out
of control.
XI JNPING, PRESIDENT OF CHINA (through translator): As a close neighbor of the peninsula, we will absolutely not permit war or chaos on the peninsula.
Once it happens, it would not benefit anyone.
HANCOCKS: The Worker's Party Congress is now just one week away. Believed to be a chance for Kim Jong-un to tout his achievements and solidfy his
power. Well, one South Korean government official described Kim's leadership recently as, quote, "seemingly unshakable."
President Park Geun-hye says the next thing we could expect, nuclear test number five adding at the begin of a national security meeting Thursday,
"if the Kim Jong-un regime carries out another nuclear test despite warnings from the international community it will have no future."
North Korea has a duel track policy. The pursuit of a strong economy alongside the pursuit of a
strong nuclear program, but experts say the fact that Kim Jong-un has little to boast about when it comes to the economy might be one more reason
he is so heavily focused on nuclear.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: Now, the UN special envoy to Syria says in the last 48 hours, an average of one Syrian has been killed every 25 minutes, one has been
wounded every 13 minutes.
Now, Staffan de Mistura says the country's cessation of hostilities is under threat of collapse. One of the latest strikes, a missile hit a
pediatric hospital in Aleppo killing 50 people, including doctors and nurses. Now, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was quick to blame
Damascus, but Syria and Russia both say they are not responsible.
Now from the story, senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins me now live from Beirut. And Nick, the truce, it appears to be
fading in Syria and we're getting an even more clear and stark picture of the civilian toll in Aleppo. What's the latest?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the air strikes continue this morning, according to activists in rebel-held areas in Aleppo
say that jets launched missiles on in one instance a clinic. It seems as though the death toll from that is relatively low. It may not be anybody
injured, in fact, according to initial reports, simply because the clinic had nobody in it.
It's both a Friday and terrifyingly in this war zone, hospitals may be a no longer frequented as often as they used to be since they appear to be
targets.
A mosque also hit, apparently 20 airstrikes in total. Some activists reporting two women have lost their lives in that violence. So, no let up
in the kind of bombardment they're facing.
Well, of course, it was yesterday's attack on the MSF hospital which has got so much of the world's attention partly because of its timing, really.
Attacks like that in Aleppo, particularly against hospitals, have been happening with terrifying frequency in the past years, but not during a
supposed period called a cessation of hostilities.
There was always an element of artifice about this whole idea of a cessation of hostilities, the hope being simply anything is better than the
continued previous earlier pace of civilian loss of life. But there was a hole in it, in the groups considered terrorists by Russia and the United
States, particularly the al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front also fight along groups who were not considered terrorists, particularly in Aleppo as
well, muddying who can and cannot be targeted on the battlefield.
So, this uptick in airstrikes has got people particularly worried partially because at the same time any remnants of the peace talks in Geneva between
the opposition and the regime has crumbled, fallen apart. We now have this renewed uptick, what's called a return of violence soaring back to its pre-
cessation levels. I'll quote the UN this morning in their assessment. They called this a monstrous
disregard for civilian life.
The broader fear, Kristie, being that this is part of a regime and Russian bid to move against that
rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo. As these airstrikes were launched, there, sympathetic media in Syria, talks about a push to retake that whole
area. Well, it is going to take a very long time to do that, be phenomenally messy, very, very bloody.
We have upwards of 200,000 civilians thought to be in that rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo and these air strikes intensify -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: And you're right. Since the air strike on that hospital in Aleppo it has been generating headlines. It does have the world's
attention right now and MSF has been campaigning for the UN and the security council to act and to reaffirm that attacks on hospitals and hospital staff must end.
Can the UN, or let alone peace talks, end these deliberate attacks on civilians?
WALSH: Well, no. I mean, there's been no sign of that in the constant demands for those things to stop in the past years. It makes no difference
to what has to be frankly regime behavior targeting these hospitals.
Now, it's hard always to tell whether there's actually a specific target, a hospital like that, or the result of some egregious error by the more
indiscriminate weapons used by the regime. But I have to say, you know, the abundance of evidence in the past been -- the hospitals have been
specifically targeted.
So, when another strikes comes like it did yesterday, the Russian suggestion that they weren't
involved, the regime weren't involved and coalition planes were in the sky really has no credulity attachable to it at all.
So, yes, we are looking most worryingly in the days ahead an escalation of these kind of air
strikes perhaps paving the way for some broader move to seal off or pressure certainly that rebel-held east of Aleppo.
LU STOUT: Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Beirut. Thank you, Nick.
Northern Syria has been the scene of intense fighting in recent months. The city of Aleppo, as you heard from Nick Paton Walsh, it's under siege.
Shelling pounds the a key battleground daily. And the UN says rebel and government fighting there has now reached catastrophic proportions.
The International Red Cross says it's one of the places that has not yet seen any sign of a cease-fire.
But Aleppo is not alone in witnessing attacks on soft targets like hospitals. In fact, seven hospitals in Syria, all affiliated with Doctors
Without Borders, have been bombed since the start of the year. Last year, there were 63 attacks on hospitals.
As one doctor in Idlib province told our Clarissa Ward, the bombing of hospitals in rebel-held Syria is one of the crueler forms of warfare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP))
DR. MAZEN AL-SOUAD (through translator): They want to kill the maximum number of people. Also they want to forbid the area from having medical
service. If there is no doctor, no nurse, no hospital, then there is no healthcare for the people and people will flee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: And despite the dangers common among many of the doctors that CNN spoke with was their resolve to stay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FERAS AL-JUNDI (through translator): This is our country. We can't desert it. If we left, then we have sold our morals. Who would treat the
people? I can very easily leave, but we will remain steadfast. I am prepared to die rather than to leave. And I will carry on no matter what.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: A heartbreaking moment from Clarissa Ward's undercover in Syria series there.
Now, organizations like Doctors Without Borders are part of a growing chorus of voices calling
on the UN to pass a resolution to stop the targeting of hospitals, and get a resolution designed to stop the targeting of hospitals.
Now, to corruption charges involving the president of South Africa. Now a high court there recommends that Jacob Zuma face more than 700 charges of
corruption saying the national prosecution authority acted irrationally when they were dropped in 2009.
Now, prosecutors now decide whether to reinstate them. Mr. Zuma denies any wrongdoing. Now we will have much more on this and what it could mean for
South Africa's president coming up on CNN Money with Maggie Lake. That starts in less than an hour from now.
You're watching News Stream. And up next, violence on the U.S. campaign trail. Protestors scuffle outside a Trump rally in California.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:18:43] LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News
Stream.
Now, foreign NGOs and charitable groups operating in China are grappling with the implications of a new law. More than 7,000 will have to submit to
police supervision and declare their source of funding.
Human rights groups and the United States have heavily criticized it. Amnesty International says it has severe consequences for freedom of
expression and peaceful assembly.
And now to an ugly night on the U.S. campaign trail in the race for the white house. It happened as a Republican frontrunner rallied support for
the party nomination in California. Donald Trump addressed supporters inside the stadium and police and protesters outside came to blows. Some
people were injured, and several arrests were made.
Now, Donald Trump is campaigning ahead of the California state primary. It's happening on June 7. And Phil Mattingly is in Washington with the
latest. And, Phil, what happened here? I mean, how did this Trump rally turn so violent, so ugly?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, what we saw last night is something we haven't seen for a number of weeks. Obviously, Donald
Trump rallies have had violent clashes in the past, but it seemed to dissipate based on some of the states where primaries were being held over
the last month or so.
That's changing in Ccalifornia. And it's important to note California obviously a very difficult, complex state politically, particularly for
Republicans, but especially on the issue that Donald Trump has made central to his campaign: immigration. That was what flared up last night. That's
something the campaign advisers on all Republican campaigns say we should expect to certainly happen going forward in the future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Chaos breaking out outside of a California Donald Trump rally last night. With hundreds of protestors taking to the streets, clashing
with drivers, smashing windows, and attempting to roll over cars, facing off with Trump supporters.
CHANTING: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Donald Trump!
MATTINGLY: This fight leaving this Trump fan bloodied and bandaged. Police on horseback, struggling to contain the demonstrators.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win, win, win!
MATTINGLY: Inside, Donald Trump riling up a massive crowd.
TRUMP: Look at the size of this place.
MATTINGLY: Taking aim at rivals.
TRUMP: Lying Ted Cruz. We know lying Ted.
As crooked as you can be. Crooked Hillary.
You ever see a guy eat like him?
MATTINGLY: And keeping his eye on next Tuesday's high-stakes primary in Indiana.
TRUMP: The big poll is going to be on Tuesday in Indiana, but I was all over the state today with Bobby Knight, and I love Bobby Knight, and they
love Bobby Knight, and let's see what happens.
MATTINGLY: Indiana's biggest paper blasting Trump on Thursday, calling the GOP frontrunner quote, a danger to the United States and to the world. As
millions of dollars and dozens of ads continue to flood the state, Ted Cruz mincing no words on his view of the high stakes there.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is the common sense and good judgment of the Hoosier State that is the one thing that stands
between us and plunging over the cliff.
MATTINGLY: Even as top GOP figures start warming to the idea of Trump as the nominee.
SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: Generally speaking, I like what he had to say.
MATTINGLY: This, as former house speaker John Boehner condemned Trump's main rival, Ted Cruz, at a college forum with the harshest words yet.
JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Lucifer in the flesh.
I get along with almost everybody, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a (bleep) in my life.
MATTINGLY: Cruz firing back, using Boehner's disdain to try and bolster his case.
CRUZ: If you're happy with John Boehner as speaker of the house and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump's your man.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Now, Kristie, for Ted Cruz it's very clear. Indiana, a state that votes in just a couple of day, is really make or break for his
campaign to stop Donald Trump from securing the Republican nomination before the convention. But it is worth pointing out, California will be
the last primary held on June 7, 172 delegates at stake there. That is the state
where Donald Trump's advisers tell me they plan to clinch that nomination. So, while Indiana is big, keep a very close eye on California. That will
be central to Donald Trump's plans.
And you you know, as we've seen just over the last 24 hours, that means there will be a lot of
protests and a lot of kind of heated rhetoric in the days and weeks ahead, Kristie.
LU STOUT: All eyes on both states in the race ahead. Phil Mattingly reporting for us live. Thank you, Phil.
And now to the Democrats and underdog Bernie Sanders getting the party nomination is a long
shot. Right now, he needs 97 percent of the remaining delegates to beat Hillary Clinton. His lone backer in the Senate says unity is key going
into July's convention, and Sanders should back out in June if he's losing to Clinton.
A mandatory nationwide power outages and a two-day work week, it's all part of Venezuela's plan to save energy during a drought. Now, Rafael Romo
reports, measures may be contributing to another problem: a fresh crime wave.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The looters broke the gate, stormed into the
pharmacy and ran away with as much as they could carry.
"They took computers and merchandise," owner Idis Bracho (ph) says.
Police in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo say they rounded up multiple suspects.
In this highly polarized country, everything is explained in terms of politics.
"Criminals paid for by the opposition are bent on disrupting the country," this local official said. Tensions have risen in Venezuela since the
government of President Nicolas Maduro, issued several decrees to save energy. The extraordinary measures include four-hour rolling blackouts and
imposing a two day workweek.
The president says the blackouts are an emergency measure.
Water levels at the dam that provide 75 percent of Venezuela's electricity are at record low levels due to a drought caused by the El Nino weather
pattern.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Here's a look at the drought conditions. You can see that darker shading of red for northern Venezuela, exceptional
drought conditions.
ROMO: The two-day workweek is already disrupting life for many.
Edgar Febrero (ph) learned the hard way when he tried to renew his passport, no government employees.
"I'm disappointed and angry," he says. "They're systematically destroying the country."
Daily life for the average Venezuelan goes well beyond inconveniences.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen food shortages, medicine shortages, now basic services, electricity, even water that is not reaching a big portion
of Venezuela's population.
ROMO: Add to that the highest inflation rate in the world, which has made the Bolivar, the local currency, lose 98 percent of its value on the black
market since Maduro took office in 2013.
Rafael Romo, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: Your watching News Stream. And still to come, sending a message to poachers and traders, Kenya burns tons of ivory and rhino horn.
A traditional art on Hong Kong's modern skyscrapers. We go 30 floors up with the city's bamboo scaffolders.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(HEADLINES)
LU STOUT: Now let's turn to an urgent problem in Africa: illegal animal poaching. Last year alone, some 35,000 African elephants were slaughtered,
that is one every 15 minutes.
And now four African countries are teaming up to try to change that. Kenya is hosting the first summit of a group that calls itself the giants' club,
as a show of determination tusks from thousands of poached elephants are to be destroyed.
It is described as the biggest-ever burning of illegal ivory. Now, let's bring in Robyn Kriel now from Nairobi for more. And Robyn, the biggest
ivory burn in history is happening there in Kenya. What message will it send to the world?
[08:30:33] ROBYN KRIEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the message that Kenyans hope the world will hear, Kristie, is that these tusks, while
they may be worth millions of dollars, and indeed, 105 tons of tusks worth roughly around $200 million, and 1.35
tons of rhino horn will be burned here in Nairobi on Saturday. The message that the Kenyan wildlife service and the Kenyan government wants to get out
is, that this is worthless when it's not on a live animal.
They want to share with the world their idea that these it tusks and the millions of dollars that it could be worth is completely null if they're
not on a live animal and that is the message that they've been pushing out.
Of course, this has been really closed with controversy, Kristie, because people are saying, why
not rather flood the market with ivory, why not flood the market with rhino horn? Why not rather use that money, put -- sell that ivory, use that
money to fund conservation efforts? But the Kenyans are say they're sticking by their guns. This has worked for them in the past back in 1989
when they managed to effectively ban the trade, for the legal trade of ivory across internationally.
So this has worked for them in the past. They're saying remember these that tusks, remember that this rhino horn was once on a live animal and
particularly, Kristie, they're trying to appeal to the Asian market, which, of course, uses as particularly China, uses ivory in a lot of its ornaments
and for various business deals as a sign of, of wealth and prosperity.
LU STOUT: And when that ivory burn takes place, viewers here in Asia will watching it take place over the weekend with you covering it.
And another giant of the wild that needs protection in addition to the elephant is of course the rhinos. And Robyn, you recently had an encounter
with a very special pair of rhinos. Tell us about them.
KRIEL: Well, yes. Sadly, Kristie, last year more than 1,300 rhinos were poached on the continent and they are already an endangered species and, in
fact, some of them critically are endangered. We got to spend the day baby-sitting a southern white rhino, a very rare southern white rhino
named Ringo and he has a very interesting and even more rare best friend. Here's that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRIEL: Hello, you sweet thing.
Babysitting a rhino is remarkably similar to babysitting a baby. A day- long cycle of eat, play, sleep, repeat with the occasional rather squeaky temper tantrum thrown in
when he gets hungry.
Abandoned by his mother at 2 weeks old, Ringo was nearly dead when he was rescued by rangers at Old Pedgada (ph) Conservancy in central Kenya, a
major reserve for the endangered animal.
Three times a day on this formula of baby formula and white oat.
Is Kristie (ph), your friend.
Now Ringo has several adopted parents who work around the clock to keep him safe and sleeping like a baby.
Is he sleepy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, he want to sleep, and then you can scratch him more.
KRIEL: Oh. He likes to be scratched?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Under there.
KRIEL: Oh.
Tell me how it makes you feel when you hear of a rhino like Ringo being poached?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeing Ringo, how I play with him and then I just lie like thinking what about Ringo be bushwhacked one day? It would be very
sad for me.
KRIEL: Ringo's favorite time of day, say his keepers, is bathtime.
So, they're trying to emulate exactly what Ringo would experiencing in the wild with his mom.
She would wallow to cool down and also to avoid sun burn.
But with his mom gone, this rare baby southern white rhino has found a fatherly love in something even more rare -- Sudan is the only male
northern white rhino left on the planet. The hope is that he will teach Ringo to be more like a rhino, and less like a human.
And the baby rhino has taught the old one a thing or two.
RICHARD VIGNA, CONSERVATIONIST: The fact we've now got a, a small rhino, who's beginning to interact with him is psychologically, I think, good for
Sudan. And certainly we've seen his demeanor and his kind of appetite for life, if I can put it that way,
improve since Ringo appeared on the scene.
[08:35:14] KRIEL: One isolated, the other abandoned. The two rhinos have found companionship in one another.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KRIEL: Well, of course, Kristie, more orphaned animals than ever before on this continent, orphans much like Ringo. It's those ideas that they're
trying to push through so that people realize that buying rhino horn and, of course, ivory tusks is not worth it when you have to kill a little baby
like Ringo.
It is too late, however, for the subspecies of the northern white rhinos Sudan. They do not believe that they will be able to breed that breed any
further. He will likely die the male rhino on this continent -- Kristie.
LU STOUT: A sad fate for a very, very beautiful animal. Robyn Kriel Reporting for us live from Nairobi, thank you, Robyn.
And due to an (inaudible) this Saturday, Kenya holds what it calls the biggest ever destruction of illegal ivory. And let's remember, this is a
global problem. Much of the demand, as Robyn said just then, much of the demand from ivory comes from China where it is prized still as a luxury
item. And conservationists say education and government action have helped reduce demand in recent years. In fact, the group Save the Elephants says
the price of elephant tusk dropped almost by half in just 18 months.
But activists say more needs to be done. One priority is to uncover black market traders that are still operating under the cover of licensed
vendors.
Now, think of 21st Century science and genome sequencing. That may come to mind. That is
understanding the unique gene structure of every living thing -- animal, plant, and human. And one of the largest genome sequencers in the world is
BGI. And much of its work is being done right here in Hong Kong.
The company is helping out with a crowd-funding project to sequence the territory's floral emblem, the Bohemia flower.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT EDMUNDS, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, GIGA SCIENCE: The Bohemian Project is a community genomics projects, looking at the emblem of Hong Kong.
The origins of the Hong Kong Bohemia are quite mysterious.
All right, let's get some of these leaves here.
And trying to understand its origins, from looking at its DNA.
I'm Scott Edmunds, executive editor of Giga science and I'm also the one running the Bohemia genome project.
We very quickly brought the fresh plants here, in the offices of Hong Kong. For the last five, six years, it's been the largest sequencing center in
the world.
And once we extract the RNA, we convert it to DNA, we do labeling steps, we do amplification steps. It gets fed on to a special kind of glass slide
and then we put it on the sequencing machine upstairs, and that's where the magic happens.
We will then use this in education projects, getting students to then assemble the genome.
It's a bit like a jigsaw. They have lots of tiny little pieces and then have to solve this puzzle.
These skills are so useful in the 21st Century. We would like students in Hong Kong and beyond to be inspired by this project, and get trained up to
be a new generation of data scientists.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LU STOUT: And you can see more about this incredible project in the latest edition of On China as we explore the latest in cutting-edge science. It
airs again on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Hong Kong right here on CNN.
Now still to watch right here on CNN, we have got Hong Kong's bamboo towers. We get a lesson from one of the masters of this traditional trade.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:40:40] LU STOUT: Welcome back. You're watching News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.
Now, virtually anyone who's been to Hong Kong has seen this before -- bamboo scaffolding surrounding the city's legion of skyscrapers.
Ivan Watson explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 30 stories up, hanging on a bamboo pole. This is how they build and repair skyscrapers in Hong Kong
with scaffolding made of bamboo. It's a common sight in these urban canyons, towering ladders of sticks trusted by the workers
who cling to them.
It's all the more remarkable when you consider bamboo is technically the largest member of the grass family.
To get a better sense of how this very modern city uses such an ancient technique for construction, I went to bamboo scaffolding school.
So this is the bamboo?
WEN CHI-LEUNG, BAMBOO SCAFFOLFDING MASTER: Bamboo.
WATSON: Master Wen Chi-Leung explains, because it's both hollow and strong, bamboo is lighter, cheaper and more flexible than metal
scaffolding. And that allows him to work at dizzying heights.
You've worked 88 stories up on bamboo?
"I can see a lot of clouds from up there," he says.
The key to this job is a safety technique Master Wen calls riding the bamboo, keeping an ankle locked around a pole at all times.
You keep your gloves in your helmet?
CHI-LEUNG: Yeah.
WATSON: As for the scaffolding.
You make it look so easy.
It's held together with simple knots made of nylon strings.
Maybe you can finish this one for me, because I've ruined it.
I should probably stick to my day job.
Goes up like that?
The people who do this work are proud of their craft.
"Bamboo scaffolding is an art," this scaffolder says. A Chinese traditional art that can be traced back thousands of years.
It's certainly an example of an ancient skill that continues to be taken to modern day heights.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
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LU STOUT: And to give you another example of why bamboo is so widely used out here it took only 30 minutes to build this bamboo structure. It
supports of weight of two people, as you can see it is relatively light.
And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout, but don't go anywhere. World Sport is next.
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