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Snipers, Fires And Bodies, 100 Dead In Protests; Facebook Pays $19B For Free Texting App; West Virginians: We Don't Drink The Water; States Debate Drug Overdose Amnesty Laws; Canada Edges Out U.S. For Women's Hockey Gold

Aired February 20, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Tell me what you're seeing on the streets today.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are not seeing many police defecting. We are hearing that interior ministry statement that 67 of that number have taken hostage. No details or evidence to back that up for the moment, part of a wave of rhetoric from security forces here. The police saying they are giving arms to their officers to protect themselves from taken hostage and protecting their families.

The military saying they will take up arms to stop the country from falling into a civil war. Real concerns that even though the police have been on the back since the bloodshed of this morning, they may move in at some point escalating the situation. Protesters are behind barricades here, conducting (inaudible) like a mask in the middle of the square behind me.

But I should warn you in images, which you are about to see that are graphic. Here's a report of the bloodshed of this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): This is (water) troops who looks like protesters carried away from police lines dead, wounded. Gathered inside the lobby of a hotel under the sheets, head wounds and most hit by bullets. They are dead. The number rising. Together with disbelief and rage. Outside this makeshift morgue and hospital live fire was around.

Eight hours earlier, the president agreed on a truce and something changed. Police suddenly withdrew and protesters moved forward. It's unclear why. This man said he fired a shotgun at police, once protesters have been fired upon by a sniper. He didn't want his face shown.

This man said stun grenades have injured protesters causing them to surge forward. Opposition leaders blamed the provocation in the debris of what was once peaceful protest shotgun pellets and tips of live rounds. Police and protesters face-to-face. Barricades being reinforced as many fear an escalation is ahead. Are you ready they ask a young man? He may not be. Ukraine may not be. What comes next? (END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: So Brooke, here we are. The president blames the opposition for the violence. The opposition asked police to defect. The E.U. says it's going to ban the sale of equipment for internal repression here, trying to hamper police resources and protesters gathering mind me and the barricades, a real fear of what lies ahead -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nick Paton Walsh, we will stay in close contact with you there in Kiev. Thank you so much.

Two of the big tech headlines of the day. You are hearing today the name WhatsApp, and you're maybe thinking what the -- how can this company most people haven't even be worth $19 billion. The $19 billion is how much Facebook is paying for this app, which allows users to text photos and messages and videos for free the first year then charges them a single dollar a year after that.

This deal means Whatsapp is worth more than brand names that are household names. Look at this. Ralph Lauren, Campbell Soup, Fidelity even Barbie's creator Mattel not worth as much as this company founded by just these two guys, one of whom used to be on food stamps.

CNN's Laurie Segall joins me now and first to the $19 billion figure. Why so much?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Unbelievable, right. But when you look at it and you really dig into it, you begin to understand Facebook. Now it's a big numbers game. They have 450 million monthly users who are signing on a million users every month. Here we haven't heard about it that much. You go overseas and a lot of people replaced SMS with Whatsapp. He said I want to connect the world, that's Mark Zuckerberg's religion. This is a big step in that direction -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I never heard of it, but I got schooled by some people today who were like, you don't know Whatsapp? Anyway, so tell me about these two men who founded this, one of whom applied for a job at Facebook, and well, now look at him.

SEGALL: Sure, the two cofounders are fascinating. Let me start with Yon Coombe. Now he immigrated here when he was a teenager. He was from Ukraine. He was living on food stamps, Brooke. He had absolutely no money and could barely speak any English and really represents the Silicon Valley dream. He went on to work at Yahoo and later he ended up starting Whatsapp.

I just got information from a source close to the deal that is inspiring. He went inside to Mark Zuckerberg's house on Valentine's Day when he decided he wanted the deal to go through. They drew up the papers over the weekend and then Yon went to the same welfare place he used to go to with his mom who has passed away to sign the papers and he was tearing up as he signed the papers, you know, pretty unbelievable.

When you look at his co-founder who we met at Yahoo, he said Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with active people. He clearly found it. Let's take it a step further, in 2009, he got denied by Twitter. He tweeted got denied by Twitter. That's OK. It would have been a long commute. Obviously this is a big win for both and a very emotional one. When you look at Silicon Valley and these big wins, this is huge for these guys.

BALDWIN: It's amazing. Doors close and never know. The door opens, the $19 billion door.

Coming up, a wolf in Sochi? Look at this, an Olympic athlete shot this video over her phone showing what appears to be a wolf roaming the halls of her hotel. What's going on here? We will talk about that.

Also next it has been more than a month since West Virginians were told to drink the water and it was OK. Since then, emergency room visits have skyrocketed. I'm talking rashes, headaches and nausea. Is the water in West Virginia really safe? That story after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Water-related health complaints are up. After last month's chemical spill near Charleston, West Virginia, 300,000 people are there and all got this all clear to drink the tap water. Here's the thing. Visits to the emergency room and doctor's offices have skyrocketed. The water is supposed to be OK to drink so what's going on?

Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, went to West Virginia and she is there. She asked the head of the County Health Department why he is aborting the tap water in his own office.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Officially this water is supposed to be just fine, but look what this woman says happened to her when she washed her face, and when this boy bathed, and when this man's wife takes a shower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within a couple minutes I'll have a headache.

COHEN: They're not alone. After a chemical spill last month, officials instituted a water ban for about a week then lifted it saying the chemical was at very low levels. New data from West Virginia shows when people started drinking and bathing again, visits to doctors' offices and emergency rooms shot up with people saying the water made them sick. Even the county health department they posted these sign, don't drink the water.

(on camera): This is the County Health Department. Should you be saying the water is OK to drink if official agencies are saying it's OK?

DR. RAHUL GUPTA, KANAWHA, CHARLESTON AN PUTNAM COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT: Official agencies are saying it's OK but not saying it's safe to drink. It's important to make that distinction. We've got to make sure the water is safe. That's really the word here. People are looking for that word.

COHEN (voice-over): Indeed. The word safe is nowhere in the official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC said based on animal studies, they calculated levels of the chemicals a person could likely ingest without resulting an adverse health effects. That's not good enough for Dr. Rahul Gupta. He is the head of the Board of Health. He's avoiding tap water.

(on camera): You want to hear that word safe.

GUPTA: Absolutely, we do.

COHEN: Dr. Gupta says in some places like his house, you can still smell the chemical, it hasn't disappeared.

(on camera): Is your wife drinking the tap water?

GUPTA: She's not.

COHEN (voice-over): This week the governor of West Virginia asked the CDC to do more testing. The CDC has not continued monitoring health problems there.

GUPTA: So the event seems to be over from a lot of people's perspective at state and federal levels. On the ground when we talk to people, it's not over. They're continuing to suffer with issues.

COHEN: With no studies on this chemical's effect on humans, some residents and businesses are not taking any chances. In a recent survey, only 4 percent of people in the area said they are drinking tap water, water that officially is fine to drink.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And in Charleston, Elizabeth Cohen. You bring up the CDC in your piece. What will it take for them to say this water is safe?

COHEN: Brooke, safe is not a technical word. They take a leap of faith to say it's safe. They are saying, look, it's unlikely to cause adverse health effects at this level. Safe is a beat of a relief. I'm not sure that they are going to do it. We will have to see.

BALDWIN: OK. Elizabeth Cohen in West Virginia for us today. Elizabeth, Thank you very much. Coming up here on CNN, a family's tragic loss, their son died of a heroin overdose. His parents say the death could have been prevented. Now the parents are speaking to me. They are taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. They are joining me in studio with what they are trying to accomplish here in Georgia, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The death of actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's overdose was a wakeup call for a lot of people. Did you know how cheap heroine has become or how easy it is to get in this is from 2012, a national survey on drug use and health, charting the rise in abuse. Look at the line, so many of the people who are abusing this drug, very young so will die from an overdose even though they could have been saved.

Most drug overdoses happened when you were around friends or acquaintances. But the thing is no one calls for help because they are afraid for being arrested for drug possession. That is what happened to one young man here in these pictures.

His name is Steven Cardiges. Steven was a week shy of his 21st birthday when he overdosed on heroin. I hate meeting you under these circumstances, but you are so passionate about this and sorry about the loss of your son, but let's get to the legislation. I know you are heading to the state capitol after you are with us. We will get to the legislation. First, Steven.

ROBIN CARDIGES, SON DIED FROM DRUG OVERDOSE: Steven was an awesome kid. He had such a bright future. He was an eagle scout and he like his brother had a lifelong desire to serve in the military. He went Junior ROTC through all of high school and became a member of the American Revolution as a result of his Eagle Scout project. Great kid. Bright future.

STANLEY CARDIGES, SON DIED FROM DRUG OVERDOSE: He like a lot of kids, teenagers, he had friends that we never knew. He never brought them around the house. He was very private about his friends and there were signs that we know how that we didn't know then when they child gets withdrawn and doesn't want their friends around. It's like a wakeup call, a big red flag. Cell phones didn't help either. Nowadays with the way people can communicate with texting and things like that, it's hard for parents to keep up with who they are talking to. When I was a kid, you had to use the house phone.

BALDWIN: The land line. It's changed. So he's with these friends.

ROBIN CARDIGES: He made the deeply regrettable choice to try heroin. He was in a car with two other people, a driver and another passenger. He started to suffer the respiratory failure that results with an overdose. They drove around with him and didn't know what to do.

BALDWIN: They knew something was wrong and didn't want to take him to the hospital. They were worried. That's why you are here and why you are fighting a couple blocks away at the state capital. What do you want?

STANLEY CARDIGES: Just so you know, this 911 medical amnesty bill is not a get out of jail free card. That's not what this is about.

BALDWIN: There is criticism. If friends or acquaintances want to take someone in the troves of an overdose, they can drop them at the hospital and they won't get in trouble. The criticism is this will protect drug dealers.

STANLEY CARDIGES: In the bill we have proposed --

ROBIN CARDIGES: We worked closely with the association to make sure they can go after the bad guys. We want them to go after the bad guys. These young individuals are with him and were -- they may have been first time users and they had limited quantities and the bill is very specific as to the quantities that they can have. This is not just for a heroin overdose victim. Think about the senior citizens who have pain medication.

They may ingest more than they should have. Forget they took a dose. Our wounded veterans may forget. There two bills. The 911 medical amnesty bill, which is House bill 965. That gives amnesty to those who seek medical attention from someone who is overdosing. The second bill is house bill 966. It makes it the antidote widely available. It can be administered in other states, in 16 other states, lay people and first responders can administer it.

Here they have to go to the hospital. When the young people finally went to a home or someone with enough sense to call 911, and the first responders came, by the time they got him to the hospital, he was dead-on arrival. Had they been carrying it, they could have administered it as a nasal spray and instantly reverse the effects.

BALDWIN: I see it on your faces. You want this to never happen to another family. Can I speak to other parents who maybe think their child could be dabbling? What's your message?

ROBIN CARDIGES: My message is go to georgiaoverdoseprevention.org and you can read the bills and contact the legislator. That's the most important thing. They want to hear from constituents. Once we get the bills passed. Our mission is to educate every young person we can.

STANLEY CARDIGES: Pay attention to how your kids are acting. When they start to act with drawn, if they are sad all the time and don't want to talk and all they want to do is be with their friend that you don't get to meet, those are the biggest warning signs. That's pretty much. Watch the cell phones and text messages. They are bad.

ROBIN CARDIGES: They shouldn't have to choose between going to jail and saving our son's life or going through it.

BALDWIN: I know you are going to the house. We will follow you and see if this becomes law. Thank you so much.

ROBIN CARDIGES: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: I'm so sorry about Steven.

STANLEY CARDIGES: He was a good kid.

BALDWIN: I'm sure he was. Thank you.

Coming up here, we do have some breaking news involving a former NFL star and TV analyst. We are getting word he is accused of raping and drugging multiple women. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Two breaking news stories. Let me begin with what we have learned with the Olympics. Here's what we learned. The U.S. women's hockey team battled for gold today in overtime against Canada and just a short time ago, Canada beat the U.S. in overtime.

CNN sports, Lara Baldesarra, rushed up here and got mic'd in the nick of time. We just learned about this sports news. My Canadian guest producer got in my ear and is very thrilled, but Team USA.

LARA BALDESARRA, CNN SPORTS: I'm trying to catch my breath here. I literally did rush in and this was a game that was heart pounding. We went into overtime and it came right down. Canada was denied what really appeared to be a clear penalty shot. It was on a breakaway. The Canadian girl taken down, we thought it was going to be a penalty shot. No, it wasn't. Canada managed to score that winning goal in overtime.

BALDWIN: So the ladies USA lost. What men's -- it's tomorrow men's hockey?

BALDESARRA: Yes, now we have this really big rivalry built up because Canada USA women's, it's set the bar for the men's rivalry that we will see tomorrow. That's also between Canada and the USA. We are expecting big things from this game as well. These are two teams where a lot of people say USA is the favourite even though Canada is the defending gold medalist from the Vancouver games.

BALDWIN: High stakes. We will be having another conversation tomorrow. Breath, breath. Thank you so much.

The other breaking story we are following now is former NFL star, Darren Sharper accused of raping and drugging multiple women. He played for the Saints and the Packers and the Vikings. The NFL Network recently suspended him as an analyst. He is in Los Angeles for him and Darren Sharper, give me the back story.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): I'm in the Los Angeles County Courthouse. He was charged with two separate incidents here in which and he sexually assaulted two women on two separate occasions. The other investigation other bets were made. No formal charges have been filed. He is allegedly involved in other incidents in New Orleans, Tempe, Arizona, and Nevada.

Bringing the total to possible alleged victims of him to seven possible sexual assaults, and 11 possible driving including male who for lack of a better term was with the group in Las Vegas. I tried to contact his attorney and not received word back from him. He goes in court here in Los Angeles. They are asking for his bail to be increased to a whopping $10 million saying that the public safety is at risk and because of the seriousness of these crimes and because of all these other investigations involving Sharper -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. I know you said you're at the L.A. County Courthouse, but let us know if that bail does go up to $10 million, Paul Vercammen on the phone for us in L.A. Paul, thank you very much.