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Fighting in Syria; Olympic Security a "Fiasco"; HSBC: Money Launderer to the World; Traditional Game Broadcast in Kazakhstan; Americans Kidnapped in Egypt Released; Violence Breaks Out in the Republic of Congo

Aired July 17, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We're talking you around the world in 60 minutes.

Here's what's going on right now:

Investigators are trying to find out what caused this fire in a high-rise building in Istanbul, Turkey. Crews managed to evacuate hundreds of people and we're hearing no one was killed or injured. Now, the district mayor says the building's fire extinguisher system turned on automatically but if it had not says it could have been a huge disaster.

In Toronto, a person of interest is now in custody for what police are calling the worst incident of gun violence in their city's history. Affiliate CTV reports the shooting broke out at a house party late last night. Two people were killed, 22 others injured including a baby.

Kofi Annan says the Syrian crisis is at a crossroads. The joint special envoy for Syria made the remarks following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now, Vladimir Putin supports Annan's peace plan but is opposed to any kind of military action in Syria.

Scenes like this one continue to filter out, out of Damascus. Opposition groups say that 28 people died today in the fighting. Meanwhile, the military presence in the capital, it is continuing to grow.

Now, these pictures show tanks on the streets of Damascus. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the videos. We're not allowed in the country. We usually depend on YouTube.

But Arwa Damon's exclusive report, she explains the danger of smuggling video out of Syria and the desperation to tell people's stories. We've got to warn you, some of the images in Arwa's piece is quite disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The power is out in the streets of Douma. The three activists and their escorts don't dare shine a light. There is a sniper lurking.

Gunfire in the distance forces them to pick up the pace.

The activists are part of the opposition's media operation. They smuggle themselves into the Damascus suburb last month and risked their lives to document this. A massacre said to have taken place just hours earlier. Among the corpses strewn about, that of a little girl.

A man points to one of the bodies and says he was executed, a civilian. Points to a second corpse and adds, this is his cousin, shot because he tried to save him.

Residents are readying the bodies for burial. Blood soaking through the funeral sheets.

The names of the deceased hastily scrawled. It's a grim routine Syrians in areas that have dared stand up to the regime have grown accustom to.

The bodies unceremoniously dragged away and placed alongside others. Residents say Syrian security forces searching for weapons in some buildings wiped out members of several families.

This man described what happened in one instance.

"They had two rooms they put the men and women in" he says. "From 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., the living were trapped with the dead. It was an execution. They asked where are the guns?" "There are no guns" was the response. And they executed them one after the other.

At least 45 were killed in this one attack, residents say. Information CNN cannot independently verify.

In the morning, the media team picked their way through rubble- strewn streets, but they would not be able to leave Douma. The Assad regime siege intensified. The government bombardment relentless. Many more were killed.

(on camera): The team that filmed this at the end of June was trapped inside Douma for more than a week, and it's taken this long to get the footage smuggled to Lebanon.

(voice-over): All that effort, all that risk to give the world a glimpse of Syria's narrative of horror and despair.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Arwa Damon, she's joining us live from neighboring Lebanon.

Arwa, it's an incredible story. Tragic. The situation now in Douma, what does it look like?

DAMON: Well, we just received notice from one of the opposition activists networks that there was renewed shelling there and that there were reports that government forces alongside pro-government thugs were entering the area once again. This is just one of many parts of Damascus that has seen some pretty intense fighting over the last few days.

There's also been some pretty fierce battles taking place in the heart of the capital, itself, Suzanne. A neighborhood called Al- Midan. This is but a few minutes' drive from the president's very seat of power. There have been pretty dramatic images coming out showing smoke billowing over this part of the city, itself.

So most certainly, right now, this rebel fighting force is taking the battle straight to the area where they know it is going to matter the most and that is the very heart of the capital, Damascus.

MALVEAUX: Arwa, we know that opposition forces, they are certainly showing this kind of video, their side of the story.

How does the Syrian government actually counter this? How do they tell what is happening there on the ground from their point of view?

DAMON: Well, Syrian state television, if you watch it, you would feel as if you were watching something taking place in, perhaps, in another location entirely. They've been showing a lot of pro- security forces propaganda, showing images of government troops giving out flowers, kissing babies.

But they've also been placing their reporters in these particular areas and trying to make the point that nothing, in fact, is taking place, while in the background, though, of these reports that are coming out, you do see that shops are shuttered. Oftentimes gunfire is heard. The government is trying to perpetuate this image that it is fully in control.

Now, that being said, one has to remember this is still very much a one-sided battlefield. The government forces by far outnumber and outgun the opposition at this stage, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Arwa, excellent reporting as always. Thank you.

Olympic organizers in London -- they are still scrambling to fill thousands of security jobs, even though the games begin next week. That's right. Thirty-five hundred troops, they've been called in to help after the main security contractor called G4S said it wouldn't come anywhere near filling the 10,000 workers it had actually promised.

Well, today, Nick Buckles, he is the head of that company, he was called for parliament, grilled about the need to do even more and the need, actually, for more troops in the coming days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So his question is, should you have more support as a contingency, because over the last few days since Thursday, your staff are not turning up? Should we have more people on standby? That's his question. It's quite simple.

NICK BUCKLES, CEO, G4S: OK. I don't believe so at the moment. We believe we can cover all venues with support from the police and the military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Hala Gorani, she joins us.

Nick Buckles, man, he's not a happy guy. He's -- you can see the slumped over shoulders there. I mean, all attention is on this guy who obviously has failed his mission He's going to lose a lot of money.

This really does look like a disaster right now.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: It does. It's a shamble. Nick Buckles, himself, really accepted responsibility for what has turned out to be a security fiasco in the United Kingdom.

Some of the members of parliament were perhaps a little more angry and disappointed than him, they were incredulous the company would maintain its $89 million management fee as a result of the contract that it signed with the U.K. government. So, some are saying, hang on, this may not be exactly the way we would like to see it go.

Now, G4S is the security firm. It's a private company. It signed a contract with the U.K. government. It had a $444 million contract but only has 4,000 guards ready out of the 10,400 that were promised and still cannot for certain say that all these guards, up to 7,000 on the day, at the end of the month of July, with ill be ready and at their post.

MALVEAUX: I've never seen anything like this before. This is just crazy. I mean, it's crazy how badly they've botched this whole thing.

There are reports now the TSA is actually going to be helping out here. Going to be at Heathrow Airport, other airports throughout London to try at least to get some of these airlines coming from the United States and some guards on the ground to help people get them through security.

GORANI: And this is unrelated, as you know, to the security fiasco with the private contracting firm. These, we understand from a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, are extra TSA staff. So, American security agents.

They will be in various U.K. airports. They will not do any security screening, we understand, but they'll act as liaisons between TSA -- the TSA in the U.S., here in the U.S., especially for American flights in and out of the U.K., and TSA agents and security personnel in the United Kingdom. This is just extra staff, an extra layer to help out.

You know, on Monday, 25 percent more passengers than usual flew through Heathrow which is already one of the world's busiest airports.

MALVEAUX: And, Hala, I've got to tell you about this story. We were talking about this before. So, this three buses carrying Olympic athletes that are just trying to get to the Olympic village, right? So they get lost, right? The bus driver gets lost. He got tweets from athletes.

This from Kerron Clement, who a hurdler. He says, "Athletes are sleepy, hungry and need to pee. Could we get to the Olympic Village, please? Lost on the road for four hours. Not a good first impression, London."

They go on to speculate that, what, you can finish the -- you could actually run or walk that distance faster than it took them on that bus?

GORANI: They didn't set any Olympic records driving to the Olympic village, I can tell you that. They have a special lane from Heathrow airport to the Olympic village. It's supposed to take an hour. It took them four.

What I found most amusing -- I mean, you know, no one got hurt. It was day one. Let's cut them slack -- is that one of the Australian athletes on the Australian bus pulled out his iPhone after a while and was like, let me just Google this, put this in map quest and get us to the Olympic village.

They finally made it after four hours. So all is well and good. I'm certain that these bus drivers, some of whom apparently didn't know how to operate the GPS on the buses, have learned in a hurry how to do that, "A", and "B" the road to the Olympic Village.

MALVEAUX: Not a good first impression honestly. We hope it gets better as the days go on.

GORANI: OK.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Hala.

GORANI: I hope so, too, for the athletes' sake, because yes, after eight, nine hours on a plane, four hours on a bus, you just want to get there.

MALVEAUX: Thanks, Hala.

Here's more of what we're working on for NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL.

It's extreme home makeover with Venezuela's President, Hugo Chaves. He is building loyalty by giving away homes. Is it campaign stunt to get re-elected? We're going to check it out.

Plus, we're going to take you to Kazakhstan where they're broadcasting live for the first time. They're playing a game that I've never heard of. This is weird, kokpar, a headless goat, right, serves as the game ball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The dead goat it could be said it used and abused. But in kokpar, the riders are nearly every bit as much as risk.

Stealing the goat frat from an opposing player, perfectly legal.

Knocking his opponent off his horse -- well, that's apparently legal, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL.

Drug cartels, terror groups, both at the heart of the latest banking scandal developing today. This is a U.S. Senate hearing that is going on right now. Live pictures.

Lawmakers are grilling HSBC bosses for their role in the money laundering. Senate says that the British banking giant allowed billions of dollars to be transferred to dangerous gangs and terrorist groups.

Maggie Lake, she's joining us to help sort all of it out.

This is Europe's largest bank. We're not just talking about errors or rogue traders here. This is a decade that they are saying where crimes occurred and this money was going to terrorist organizations.

How did that happen? How do they even explain this?

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're having a hard time doing it, I tell you, Suzanne. And, you're right. You know, we've become immune to hearing about financial scandals, derivatives and the such.

This is shocking compared to that. I mean, we are talking about basically allegations of HSBC in some cases being banker to some of the world's most wanted criminals.

Mexican drug cartels, $7 billion in cash transfers over two years. Shadow accounts in the Cayman Islands. A Saudi bank with links to al Qaeda terrorists. Iranians looking to skirt U.S. sanctions, $20 billion worth of transactions.

So these are specific. They take place over a decade and are pretty astonishing.

The HSBC executives sitting there, they started out with David Bagley, who's the head of compliance, top watchdog to the bank --

MALVEAUX: Sure.

LAKE: -- who essentially gave his resignation during the testimony to the surprise of some.

MALVEAUX: Really?

LAKE: Yes, he did. He said there's going to be a transition.

He said, he sort of painted a picture of a global bank that had bought a lot of banks around the world that were growing fast, that had little control and just didn't have oversight of them. That's not sitting well with the lawmakers there.

You can imagine that this may not be the only head to roll. We're expected to hear from Irene Dorner, the head of U.S. operations in a little bit.

MALVEAUX: Maggie, I imagine you say heads are going to roll, that this is not going to be enough for the Justice Department that's also investigating this. What kind of fine could they be hit with, do you think?

LAKE: Well, some people are talking about a fine in excess of $1 billion, Suzanne. But remember -- that is a lot of money for a fine, but this is a global banking giant.

And one lawyer that we spoke to that specializes in money laundering, has worked for the Senate before, said that that would be essentially like giving them a parking ticket. He said what went on was criminal and someone should go to jail for it.

MALVEAUX: I want to read a statement here that they have issued an apology acknowledging their mistakes.

They say, "We will acknowledge in the past we have sometimes failed to meet the standards regulators and customers expect. We believe this case history will provide important lessons for the whole industry in seeking to prevent elicit actors entering the global financial system."

Do we have any sense, Maggie, at all, just the ripple effect? It might be too early to know, but the ripple effect through American banks and down to consumers?

LAKE: Yes. Let's all learn from the experience, that sort of sounds like blame sharing if you ask me. It's a little soon to tell, Suzanne, what's going to happen.

If you're an American consumer and you got an account with HSBC, it may mean nothing. I mean, the worst case scenario would be if they lost their charter. Most people don't think that's going to happen. They'll most likely to have pay a fine.

If they did, you'd probably see a name change. Someone would buy the U.S. operations.

If they don't end up doing that, you know, what we always come back to is the more we see these infractions, the more cops you need on the street. And when you need more cops on the street, someone's got to pay for it.

So, where does the money come from? A lot of consumer advocates worry in the end those costs get passed along to us, the banking customers.

MALVEAUX: All right. Maggie, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Football, baseball here in the United States, but Kazakhstan known for a game called kokpar. It's pretty bizarre. Think horses and a headless goat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. Taking you around the world in 60 minutes.

When it comes to Ireland's music scene, here's what's topping the charts.

(MUSIC VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Got to love the red hair. That is Florence and Machine with their new single "Spectrum." It shot to the top of the charts in Ireland and her homeland of the U.K. Love the wig.

You might recognize the Grammy nominated singer from her other hit, "Dog Days are Over."

For many of us it is probably best known as the home of the fictional character Borat. Well, all this week, CNN is live from Kazakhstan. The former Soviet republic is located in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, near Russia and China. It said that the history of Kazakhstan, it's said, could be written in hoof prints as nomadic tribesmen, hundreds thundered on horseback throughout the vast plains.

Little wonder then as our Jim Clancy shows us the national sport and traditions that reflect the day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's called kokpar, and it isn't for the faint of heart or stomach.

Kazak horses, smaller than thoroughbreds, but stouter in build, carry the riders of two opposing teams. A decapitated goat serves as the game ball. There are goal pits at either end of the field. The object, lift the goat off the field and carry it to your goal. Other than that, there do not appear to be any rules.

The dead goat, it could be said, is used and abused but in kokpar, the riders are nearly every bit as much at risk. Stealing the goat from an opposing player, perfectly legal. Knocking an opponent off his horse -- well, that's apparently legal, too.

Kazak horsemanship is legendary. No one can point a finger to exactly when and where kokpar originated. It's clear enough the enthusiasm for this competition remains fierce today and a vivid part of Kazakhstan's history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Jim Clancy, he's joining us from Astana. First ever live report from Kazakhstan.

So, Jim, you are in the country's capital there. You have a landmark behind us. Tell us what's actually behind you, what that symbolizes?

CLANCY: Well, behind me is an entire city that has been built, get this, just since 19, what, '95 or so? It was declared the capital in 1997.

All the buildings behind me are new. You're looking at one, it's called the Yurt, behind me, is the world's largest tent.

Now, that tent is something to the tune of 150 meters high. There's an entire shopping mall. There's an entire sandy beach inside there that services the people of this new city of Astana that has trebled the population up to 700,000 now in just a short span of 15 years.

Incredible, phenomenal growth. An incredible pride in their heritage here.

You know, you saw what was done on horseback there with the national sport. I can tell you, I saw another game kisco (ph) that was played, Suzanne, and that's where a young man chases a young woman on a horse and at a full gallop tries to kiss her. But if he misses -- get this -- if he misses, she's got a whip. I don't mean a little riding crop. She's got a whip and she can whip him all the way back to the finish line.

These people, they love their sport, they love their heritage. And it's a huge country, three times the size of Texas. Fascinating visit here.

MALVEAUX: Jim, I think I might be really surprising to most people about the whip, but it's not surprising to me because I want you to see this picture. It was '97. I was with the first lady, Hillary Clinton, when she went to Kazakhstan.

And what did they do? They presented her with a whip. That is right. And it is because it represents power.

And these are -- I mean, most people wouldn't realize this, men carry these whips to this day to symbolize the kind of power that they have. Why do they hang on to that kind of tradition around the horses and these kinds of games and these whips?

CLANCY: You know, it is in the Kazak culture. There's no other way to put it.

I talked to a traditional musician in this country. Yedeel (ph) was him. He proudly told me, he says, "Yedeel is my name. You know what that is?" He says, "You know what you'd say in Europe? It's Attila, as in Attila the Hun."

And they see their history as one that dominated Europe at one point. Today, they're opposed -- a silk road used to go through here. They're between China and Turkey, Europe. They're seeing a rebuilding of that silk road, rail, land routes.

This country is on a roll. This country is really growing in confidence by the day. It has a better credit rating than Russia. Better credit rating than Brazil, even.

Kazakhstan is coming back in a very big way, in a very short period of time. I was here 21 years ago. I can't believe the change.

You're right, our first live shot here with CNN from Kazakhstan. Proud to be with you for that.

MALVEAUX: Pretty awesome there, Jim. I'm sure you've picked up a whip. I have one as well from Kazakhstan. It means you're very powerful.

All right. There goes Jim. See you.

Two Americans reuniting with their families now after being held captive in Egypt for days. We're going to hear about their experience up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Two Americans who were kidnapped in Egypt say they didn't think that they would even be alive today. They say their faith in God got them through. The two, Michelle Louis and Lisa Alphonse, they are reunited with their families and the members of their church group. They were released yesterday after being held for four days.

Elise Labott, she just interviewed them. She joins us by phone from Jerusalem with some of the details here.

Elise, I understand they explained that this was a pretty terrifying experience, that they were moved around the desert from each place each night and really had no idea if they were even going to be killed or get through this thing.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They didn't, Suzanne. It was a very harrowing experience for both Reverend Michel Louis and Lisa Alphonse, basically taken off their bus. In the beginning, the Bedouins were very rough with them, they said, you know, roughing them around, pointing guns at them. Lisa was hit a little bit in the face.

And what happened was, originally, they were just taking Lisa. The Bedouins were just kidnapping Lisa. And Michel Louis, he was the leader of the church group that was on the tour with them. And he says, as a leader, I really can't let her go alone. So he offered to go with them. And for four days they had no belongings, they had just the clothes on their back.

Michel is a diabetic and he wasn't able to take his medicine. And they really were just given marginal food, some pita bread, living really like Bedouins for those four days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elise, why were they kidnapped in the first place? Did the kidnappers explain what was going on, or what they wanted or why they chose them?

LABOTT: Well, Suzanne, if you remember, this is a very lawless area and the Bedouins are known for kidnapping Americans and Westerners, mostly for money. This time, it was a little more complicated. The leader of the Bedouin group, his uncle was detained in another city in Alexandria, in Egypt, on drug charges and he was hoping to get them released.

They thought if they kidnapped some Americans, this would be a very high-profile case that the Egyptians would want to resolve. And so they were trying to use them as leverage to get his uncle released. I think what happened was the Egyptian authorities promised to take a look at the case and said maybe they'll be able to do something. And so the Bedouins let them go.

MALVEAUX: So they reached a deal then? I mean, there was no kind of storming of the facility or anything like that? They essentially just released them?

LABOTT: They essentially just released them. I think what the Egyptian authorities were very afraid of going in by force and having some armed conflict with these Bedouin groups, because then that would lead to more kidnappings. And they've -- they promised that if they weren't -- if their demands weren't met, they'd continue to make kidnappings.

So what happens usually in these cases is tribal elders, local police authorities are able to reason in a way with these Bedouins and let them go. But it was very harrowing for them. They said they didn't know if they would be alive. They said that they really, as you said, put their faith in God, that God would keep them safe.

And what they were doing down by the Sinai is retracing the steps of Jesus. This is believed where Moses was given the Ten Commandments. St. Catherine's Cathedral is a very famous place that Jesus once visited. So for them, it was really retracing Jesus' steps. It was really a very Biblical experience. And in the end, they said that it was God that saved them.

MALVEAUX: All right. Elise Labott, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the Middle East. And the United States thinks they may be moving them out of storage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: Syria's moving some of its chemical weapons out of storage, U.S. officials telling CNN. And if that is true, this is very significant. Syria controls one of the largest undeclared weapon stockpiles in the world. We're talking about weapons of mass destruction, chemical, nuclear, biological.

But so, is this move an effort to keep chemical weapons out of the rebels' hands or is it something that is much more sinister? Nicholas Burns, he is former U.S. ambassador to NATO, and he joins us from Providence, Rhode Island.

Nick, good to see you as always. You take a look at this scenario. What do you make of it? Do you think that he, Assad, is trying to protect the stockpile or do you think potentially he's preparing to use it against his own people?

NICHOLAS BURNS, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Well, Suzanne, it's likely very bad news. The charitable explanation, as you say, is that, perhaps, Assad is moving these weapons to keep them out of the hands of the rebel army, but look, Assad is isolated. The tide is beginning to turn against him. This could be -- it could be a move of desperation.

Look at the events of the last week. General Tlass has defected. A major senior ambassador has defected. The Russians have backed away from Assad. And the rebel alliance is gaining strength.

There are reports this morning, as you've seen, that the most intense fighting over the last 18 months has been the last two days in Damascus, itself. So it's very likely a reaction to the deteriorating political and military situation around President Assad.

What should NATO or the U.N. do in terms of intervention? Would it be grounds for either one of those groups, those countries, members of those groups to get involved?

BURNS: Well, first, Suzanne, I think it's obviously the United States and other governments will warn President Assad that any use of chemical weapons would be an absolute disaster for him. It would be morally tantamount to war crimes. He would be brought up on charges subsequently if he used chemical weapons.

The last person to use them, of course, infamously, was Saddam Hussein against the Kurds of Halabja more than 20 years ago. And so there has got to be a very stiff warning by the international community to President Assad.

And the country that should lead that warning is Russia, because Russia's been protecting President Assad. It's twice used its veto to protect the Syrians in the Security Council. And the Russians should understand that it's not in their interest to see these weapons used. I hope we'll see that kind of reaction from Moscow.

MALVEAUX: And, Nick, the U.S. military says it could take more than 75,000 troops to actually secure Syria's chemical weapons sites if they were at risk of being looted or unguarded. Is that a realistic scenario the United States would even provide that kind of support?

BURNS: It's very difficult to say. As you say, Suzanne, it's unclear why President Assad may be considering this. We've talked about those scenarios. But any kind of western or U.N. or NATO military intervention would have to entail, I would think, in the hundreds of thousands of troops, because you're talking about warfare in an urban environment here, in a densely populated country.

This is very dissimilar from our invasion of -- the NATO invasion of Libya, I should say, attack on Libya last year. And it would require so many troops and I think be so complicated logistically that you've seen the United States and other countries back off from that scenario in the past.

But obviously if the Assad regime were to use chemical weapons against its own people, then it's a completely different scenario, and I wouldn't exclude at all consideration of an intervention force if that happened.

MALVEAUX: Nick, I have to ask this question, but how do we know for sure that there are actually WMD in Syria? Because the Bush administration had botched it so badly in terms of intelligence. If the Obama administration said, look, we have got to secure these weapons, people might kind of think, do we really know, are they really there?

BURNS: Well, obviously with that -- with Iraq as background, there are going to be questions about this. But I think we've seen the Assad family, both Hafez al-Assad, the father, and now Bashar al- Assad, the son, engage in activity that is completely reprehensible.

And so I think the benefit of the doubt will not be with them. I think there's great distrust of the Syrian regime worldwide, certainly in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Nicholas Burns, thank you, Nick.

Up next, we're live, on Congo's border with Uganda, where thousands of U.N. peacekeepers are fighting a rebel group.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: An amazing story of an Olympic athlete, Nur Suryani. She's going to be competing in the 10-meter air rifle event in London. Now, what's so special is not that she's the first woman ever from Malaysia to do so, but it's the fact that she's going to do it while eight months pregnant. That is right. She has been cleared by her doctors and says she is going to ask the baby to keep calm while she shoots.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: She's also the gold medal winner in her event at the Commonwealth Games two years ago.

And these rhinos, they are a threatened species, but the Singapore Zoo is welcoming its 13th baby, one step towards saving the white rhino.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Violence is brewing along Congo's border with Uganda. Rebel movement calling itself M-22 has faced off with more than 17,000 U.N. peacekeepers and government troops. This is near the regional capital of Goma. Now these rebels have already taken over several towns and thousands of Congolese, now they are fleeing their homes.

Joining us live, David McKenzie from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

What is happening where you are?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, what we're having is this tense situation here in Goma. The M-22 rebels which, in fact, mutinied (ph) from the Congolese army in April, are threatening to push toward the town we're in right now. It's a major regional town, right on the borders of Uganda and Rwanda, and often a flashpoint, a very key position and strategic position.

The rebels have threatened to push into this town. We've seen heavy defenses of the 17,000-strong UNESCO U.N. forces, tanks, APCs and other hardware surrounding the town that we're in, trying to stop this potential onslaught from this rebel group.

It's unclear whether they are going to push into this town, but if they do, certainly a very worrying sign for the stability of this region which has just, over the decades and years, been a flashpoint for violence in Africa. Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: What are people doing where you are right now in this town, in this city, who are threatened?

MCKENZIE: Well, it's a weird -- it's a weird situation, I have to be honest with you. In many ways, Goma feels like normal. I've been here several times. But there's also this heightened sense of threat. And what is more worrying and more sad, really, Suzanne, is that we've been to a displaced camp, where we've met several children who have been pushed out because of this place. In fact, 20,000 into Uganda, 20,000 to Rwanda, and just people here who have pushed out of their homes because of the fighting.

I met a 15-year-old who can't find his parents. He was sitting in this camp, bewildered and lost. And they ran out, when they were in the middle of their lessons, fighting started. Out of nowhere, gunshots are ringing out, they had to flee that area and come to here, to the relative safety of this town.

Now the reason we need really to pay careful attention to this situation is because, in the past, flashpoints in Eastern Congo have exploded into regional wars. At one point, Congo had two major wars that it called the World Wars of Africa, several countries involved in the fighting. It's all around minerals and oil, and wealth of this region. The people have always been affected. And they are still poor and scared, Suzanne. MALVEAUX: All right. David McKenzie, thank you for the update. Appreciate that. Please let us know how this turns out as the evening develops. We're going to have more after the break.

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MALVEAUX: Welcome back to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL; we take you around the world in 60 minutes.

In Pakistan, a doctor was shot today while taking part in the World Health Organization's polio vaccination campaign. Now authorities say Dr. Constant Dedo was returning from a small town in Karachi when gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on his car, hitting both the doctor and his driver.

Both men are in stable condition. There is no motive to the attack, but Pakistanis have been suspicious of vaccination campaigns since the CIA faked a vaccination drive last year to collect DNA samples from people in Osama bin Laden's compound.

People in southwestern Japan now bracing for a typhoon after having suffered through record rainfall. Now, the area is already inundated from four days of torrential rain, which triggered landslides and flooding. At least 32 people are dead or missing and hundreds have been evacuated from their homes.

In North Korea, a little-known general just got promoted to vice marshal. Now the state-run news agency says Hyon Yong Chol got the title a day after the army chief was relieved of the post. Some analysts say that the move may reflect a power struggle between the country's powerful military and the civilian elite.

During the Arab uprisings, thousands of lives were put on hold to join the protest and Olympic athletes, well, they were no exception. Many of them, they had to stop their training. Others suffered injuries. Some even lost family members. Well, Mohammed Jamjoom, he has a story of a Tunisian gymnast who was told by a former regime he would never compete again.

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MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wajdi Bouallegue is finally getting the global recognition he deserves.

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JAMJOOM (voice-over): A major photo shoot for "Sports Illustrated" and what has become one of the symbols of the revolution. This is the former home of the toppled Tunisian president's brother- in-law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Looking at me? OK. Great.

JAMJOOM (voice-over): After he fled the country, it was gutted, covered in graffiti. Now it houses rebel and revolutionary art. For Tunisia's star gymnast and Olympic hopeful, it's a strong statement. Bouallegue is one of Tunisia's leading athletes, known to be one of the best floor exercise performers in African and Arab history. Bouallegue makes the sport look easy, combining physical strength, poise, flexibility and balance.

He competed in the 2004 Olympics and now is said to be the only Tunisian gymnast at the 2012 games. During Tunisia's revolution, the scenes of protest not only took over his athletic dreams, the violence hit home.

WAJDI BOUALLEGUE, OLYMPIC GYMNAST: It was here, downstairs with all the neighbors here, ready to protect our city.

JAMJOOM (voice-over): Bouallegue decided to defend his community during the uprising as part of a neighborhood watch.

JAMJOOM: So this is where you guys would sort of patrol?

BOUALLEGUE: Yes. This is where every residence over here have their own groups, and every head of family, right here, of every home. And our wives and our sons are at home, and right here to communicate with us if there is something wrong happened, we communicate quickly.

We was really scared. Sometimes we was, like, 200, 300 people. And we just heard some noise like, come on, come on, come on, go to fight, go to fight. And we run, we run, we run.

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MALVEAUX: Want to take a look at what is trending globally right now. Tomorrow is Nelson Mandela International Day. People are already talking about their plans to observe it by serving their communities.

It's also going to be Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday. And for the past three years it is a day for people in South Africa as well as the rest of the world to spend 67 minutes volunteering, from feeding the hungry to building homes for people in need. Now those 67 minutes served also to honor the 67 years the former South African leader spent fighting for human rights.

Several stories caught our attention today, photos as well. Take a look at this. A Syrian refugee child lays on the floor at a camp in Jordan. More than 140,000 refugees escaping the ongoing violence in Syria end up there. Jordan plans on building more camps.

These rhinos are cooling off at the Singapore Zoo. They are two of the 13 African white rhinos bred there, the most in a single zoo in South Asia. Some are shipped off to other zoos as a move to save the species, which is threatened in the wild.

And now to Lytham, England, these guys dressed pretty cute as tigers, showed up to support Tiger Woods during the British Open practice session earlier today. Woods is the favorite going in. If he wins, he could regain the number one spot in the world.