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New Tone in GOP Debate; North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles; Japan Marks Anniversary of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster; Rise and Fall of China's Steel Industry; New Tone at GOP Presidential Debate; Suspected ISIS Recruitment Documents Cache Found; Beverly Hills Doctors Heads to Syria; South African Woman Sentenced for Child Kidnapping. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired March 11, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:46] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm George Howell.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Natalie Allen. Thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
The men who want to be the next president of the United States squared off yet again Thursday night in Miami, Florida. And anyone expecting the name calling and insults of the last debate, well, likely disappointed.
HOWELL: That's right. There was substance this time. Donald Trump started the night by calling for unity in the party. He wants Republicans to rally behind him as the frontrunner. Meanwhile, the only real sparks that flew were over policy concerns. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & DEBATE MODERATOR: Last night, you told CNN, quote, "Islam hates us." Did you mean all 1.6 billion Muslims?
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I mean a lot of them. I mean a lot of them.
There's tremendous hatred and I will stick with exactly what I said to Anderson Cooper.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, let me say that I know a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says because he says the things they want to say. The problem is presidents can't say what they want. It has consequences here and around the world.
TRUMP: You can say what you want and you can be politically correct if you want. I don't want to be so politically correct.
RUBIO: I'm not interested in being politically correct. I'm not interesting in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One concern I have with Donald is although his language is quite incendiary, when you look at his substantive policies on Iran, he has said that he would not relationship up this Iranian nuclear deal. I think that's a mistake. The ayatollah wants nuclear weapons to murder us.
JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people who represent radical Islam, they want to destroy everything that we're about and other Muslims who don't share their view. But at the end of the day, we have to bring the world together, the civilized world, and we all speak with one voice to make sure people who sit on the fence understand what civilization is and we represent it, and equality and hope for everybody.
CRUZ: For the people at home, if you're one of the 65 percent, 70 percent of Republicans who recognizes that if we nominate Donald Trump, Hillary wins. That's why the media wants him to be the nominee so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: A man at a Trump rally has to go to court after he was caught on camera punching a protester in the face. It happened Wednesday in North Carolina. Trump was asked about the incident with our Jake Tapper citing times it may have seen Trump was condoning or encouraging violence at his events.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I certainly do not condone that at all, Jake.
TAPPER: Some of your critics point to comments you've made at these rallies, including February 23rd, I'd like to punch him in the face, referring to a protester. February 27th, in the good old days, they would have ripped him out of that seat so far. February 27th, knock the hell out of him, will you? Seriously, OK, just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees, I promise, I promise.
TRUMP: We have some protesters who are bad dudes. They have done bad things. They are swinging, they are really dangerous, and they get in there and they start hitting people, and we had a couple big strong powerful guys doing damage to people, not only the loudness, the loudness I don't mind, but doing serious damage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: A very, very important debate leading into Tuesday.
Let's bring in Larry Sabato, the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Larry, it is good to have you with us this hour.
Here is the question. Very important debate happening in the state of Florida, which is key to Marco Rubio. The question, was this a big night, a good night for Marco Rubio or did he fall short?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: It was a good night for him. He was careful to keep his comments civil and follow through on his pledge not to repeat his mistake, frankly, from a week or so ago when he joined some other candidates in the gutter. He had a hometown crowd there cheering for him. He had a hometown advantage. I don't know how much difference it will make, but I think he had a good night.
HOWELL: Donald Trump is still the frontrunner here. Other candidates tried to swing voters to their side. I noticed, though, there was a critical moment where Ted Cruz seized on something. Listen to this and let's talk here on the other side.
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[02:05:18] CRUZ: That Donald's rallies recently, he's taken to asking people in the crowd to raise their hand and pledge their support, to him. Now, I've got to say, to me, I think that's exactly backwards. This is a job interview. We are here pledging our support to you, not the other way around.
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HOWELL: Posing the question there to voters, is this about you, Donald, or is this about the people? Will that may well for Ted Cruz?
SABATO: That's an argument that cruise has to make if he's going to turn this around. The problem for cruise and, really, all the candidates at this point, is that this is the 12th Republican debate in the primary season. It's really difficult to find undecided Republican voters who are actually going to show up at the polls.
HOWELL: Let's talk about the tone of this debate. Not as much mudslinging. We did hear more substance in this debate. What were your thoughts?
SABATO: I was very grateful, for once, for once, to see a substantive and exceptionally civil debate among the Republicans. It's not an exaggeration to see this arguably is the only civil Republican debate. They've been throwing mud at one another since the very first debate last summer. So it's a refreshing change. I think they'll all Benefit from it. They're all going to feel better at this time in the morning been at least I hope so.
HOWELL: One person that has not engaged in the mudslinging and that's Governor John Kasich. And in focusing on the issues and focusing on his home state, Ohio. Was it good for him to stay of the mudslinging and what do you think about the strategy to put all his eggs in the Ohio basket?
SABATO: He has to do that. He doesn't have any options. He's come second here and there, but that's not good enough. But he does deserve to be the only candidate who kept a positive tone for a long while.
HOWELL: A lot of pressure on John Kasich to get the state of Ohio and Marco Rubio with Florida. We will have to see what happens here in the coming days.
Larry Sabato, thank you.
SABATO: Thank you.
HOWELL: Some Republicans blame the president for fostering discontent among some Americans, leading to the rise of Donald Trump. On Thursday, Mr. Obama responded to that.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been blamed by Republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their primaries and who they're selecting for their party is novel. What I'm not going to do is to validate some notion that the Republican crack-up that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that I've taken.
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HOWELL: The president added there is not a massive difference between Donald Trump's immigration policies and those of his rivals, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
ALLEN: We move to South Korea now where it's military says its neighbor to the north fired two short-range ballistic missiles Thursday.
HOWELL: These images from North Korea state run media show Kim Jong- Un reportedly watching the launch. The move comes as already heightened tensions on the peninsula continue to worsen.
ALLEN: Let's turn to CNN's Paula Hancocks in Seoul
Paula, this action by North Korea comes as the U.S. and Seoul conduct war exercises.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Natalie, yes. The largest ever. There's 300,000 South Korean troops. There's about 17,000 U.S. troops involved. They're carrying out drills by land, air and sea. It was a massive exercise that we're going to develop. Every year, Pyongyang gets angry about these exercises, believing the allies are working together to practice invading North Korea. But the tension is so much higher this year because of everything that has preceded it, the nuclear total, the satellite launch and North Korea threatening nuclear war between Washington and Seoul. So the latest article in state run media we're seeing is quoting Kim Jong-Un as saying we need to continue testing nuclear capabilities, saying in order to verify the power of he newly developed nuclear warhead, it needs to continue and showing he's continuing the direction he has chosen.
[02:10:50] ALLEN: Paula, what's reaction there from the region? HANCOCKS: Well, certainly there's a lot of concern in the region or
so in the United States as to what's happening at this point. It really seems as though on a daily basis tensions are rising higher. We saw those photos on Tuesday which Kim Jong-Un said was showing a nuclear warhead. There is a lot of concern as to whether or not that was the case. South Korea's ministry saying they didn't think North Korea had that capability yet. So there is a difference of opinion as to how far advanced the weaponry and nuclear program is. Certainly, there's universal concern that they are at this point and tensions are so high.
ALLEN: And the military exercises are going on for several weeks.
Thank you, Paula Hancocks, for us there in Seoul.
HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It was five years ago that a deadly earthquake set into a chain of deadly events that led to a nuclear meltdown. Thousands of people were killed in this disaster. We'll have live images from the memorial taking place this hour.
ALLEN: Plus, we'll take you inside China's Rust Belt to meet laborers facing a bleak economic future.
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[02:16:21] ALLEN: This is the scene in Tokyo, Japan, mourning the thousands of people that lost their lives in the massive earthquake and tsunami that triggered one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.
HOWELL: It happened five years ago on Friday. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese emperor lead the memorial to honor the victims of that disaster. Lines of people offered flowers and remembrance of the many people who were killed or went missing.
ALLEN: People throughout the country stopped to observe a moment of silence as bells tolled at the exact time the earthquake hit.
HOWELL: Let's go live to Japan. CNN's Will Ripley joins us.
Will, good to have you with us.
There were so many people displaced and still that facility is leaking low levels of radiation.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. The latest number from the Fire and Emergency Management Agency here in Japan, 22,000 people dead, not only in the initial earthquake and tsunami, that was the majority of deaths, but also people who died during the evacuation and people who subsequently died because of health complications resulting in all the turmoil in their lives. And all of this as that nuclear plant continues to leak radiation in the Pacific Ocean.
We went with some scientists trying to trap it to get a grip on how big this disaster really is.
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RIPLEY (voice-over): Our journey takes us more than three miles off the Japanese coasts.
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RIPLEY: Scientists scoured the sea bed, searching for radiation. Greenpeace research team is just beginning to assess the fallout five years after Fukushima.
UNIDENTIFIED GREENPEACE RESEARCHER: There is still active there in liquid form and slowly leaking into the ocean. That's dangerous for the future.
RIPLEY (on camera): Scientists believe around 80 percent of radioactive tv material from Fukushima went into the ocean, which is why researchers are out here trying to find hot spots where fishing may be unsafe.
(voice-over): A staple of the Japanese diet, seafood is tested for radiation. Before children eat a single bite, cooks scan every ingredient.
Safety measures don't stop in the kitchen. The playground has a Geiger counter. Teachers test daily walking routes, students get regular medical checks.
(on camera): Are all these precautions really necessary or is it for peace of mind?
"It's absolutely necessary," says the principal. "We need to keep measuring for radiation."
So far, 167 Fukushima children are suspected of having thyroid cancer. Experts disagree if cases are results of the meltdown.
"The government doesn't understand our focus years of suffering, raising children here," says this father.
Before the meltdown, the Japanese public overwhelmingly supported nuclear energy. Today, polls show most are against it.
Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors after Fukushima. Just a few have been restarted with new, strict safety codes. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pro nuclear government wants many more back on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to have independent safety regulator.
RIPLEY (on camera): Can all the regulations prevent another Fukushima?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.
RIPLEY (voice-over): He was on a panel recommending the restarts But even he admits nuclear will never be fully safe in a nation prone to natural disasters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the concern can always exist.
[02:20:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They haven't learned the lesson from Fukushima.
RIPLEY: Nuclear opponents urge Japan to invest more in renewable energy, saying keeping reactors idle is the only way to protect future generations and prevent another catastrophe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY: Just this week, a court ordered one of those restarted nuclear reactors to shut down after neighbors in the community surrounding it filed a lawsuit about the safety precautions that were being taken at that facility. It just goes to show you the idea of how important it is. Those who support them say Japanese energy bills have spike almost 20 percent because they're importing fossil fuels. They say Japan's greenhouse gas emissions have also spiked. But when you think about the fact that the preschoolers in the piece will be in their mid 40s by the time Fukushima is decommissioned and the radiation can linger for up to 300 years scientists say, it does make many people in this country wonder whether it's worth the risk -- George?
HOWELL: A thorough examination of it all, Will. Natalie and I were commenting on your story, just watching that water come through the power of mother nature and then juxtaposing that with what people are dealing with today, the measures that they have to take to lead normal lives, as normal as they can be at this point.
Will Ripley, live for us in Tokyo. Thank you for your report.
ALLEN: I think we'll all remember when that tsunami hit.
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ALLEN: Well, the European central bank is taking dramatic action to lift Western Europe's sagging economy. The bank on Thursday dropped its main interest rates to record lows, further into negative territory and announce it will print more money.
HOWELL: The ECB says in April, it plans to buy up $87 billion in government and corporate bonds each month. The goal, to encourage banks to expand lending.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIO DRAGHI, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK: Central banks have no ammunitions left. Central banks have no policy instruments. But I think the best answer to this is being given by our decisions today. It's a fairly long list of measures and each one of them is very significant.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: And European markets initially cheered the news and jumped more than 2 percent while the Euro dropped more than 1 percent against the U.S. dollar. But stocks quickly gave up some gains and the Euro moves were reversed on Thursday.
We turn now to China and the once owned steel mills that are now in a state of decline.
ALLEN: CNN's Andrew Stevens introduces us to some people that once depended on those mills are struggling now to make ends meet.
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ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR (voice-over): This is ground zero of China's new economic reforms, the country's steel mills, hulking relics of an earlier time, massive complexes like the Bunshi Iron and Steel Company, the lifeblood of the town Bunshi. But now facing the unknown, as Bunshi looks to blast the bloated and state- owned enterprises starting with steel and coal.
(on camera): This propaganda mural speaks to a different era when heavy industry ruled China and the workers were told the state would look after them from cradle to grave, the so-called Iron rice bowl. That bowl has cracked. Workers today face a very different future.
(voice-over): Most people here work in the mills, but it's a tight community and they're suspicious. They tell us they don't want the company to find out they've been talking to the media. But it's clear that the pay and jobs here are now being cut.
In a back street away from the crowd, we meet this man who spoke to us, but wouldn't give us his name. He and his wife both lost their jobs at the steel works a couple of months ago. He was reemployed as a day worker, which means he loses his health benefits.
"The company is firing many workers and rehiring day works because it saves him had action of money," he says. There's no benefits or insurance. I have to accept this job because I have a wife and a daughter to take care of."
The company and the provincial government, which owns the steel plant, their website says 110,000 people work here. They won't disclose their profits, but China's steel industry is deep in the red as demand shrinks and prices slump worldwide.
Most workers who spoke to us say wages have been cut dramatically in the last year.
This gentleman had his pay cut by about 60 percent. He lives with his parents, so he quit and is now looking for a job in any city.
"The company is losing money. I'm quite young and single. I'm pretty sure I can get another job in a big company, he says. I can still live here on this pay, bit makes things a lot harder."
At a local convenience store, Lu Benchi (ph) waits for customers. She's been here for nine years, but over the last two years, business has nosedived.
"We used to sell a lot of stuff here everyday. Now less than a third of that," she says. "There were 20 or 30 shops for workers around here. Now there's hardly any."
The mood right now in Bunshi is one of grim acceptance and the workers say they're expecting things to go from bad to worse.
Andrew Stevens, CNN, Bunshi, China.
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[02:26:08] ALLEN: Excellent story from Andrew.
HOWELL: Absolutely.
ALLEN: A doctor in California has left his practice to help Syrians in need.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: We'll have the same hospital being born over and over and over again. This is not a collateral damage. That is a targeting of hospitals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Coming up here, what he says could prevent the war from ending.
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[02:30:04] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. And it is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. We've live in Atlanta.
Let's update you on our top stories this hour.
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HOWELL: America's choice 2016, and fair to say that it was a gentler tone on stage this time at the U.S. Republican presidential debate. But there were also fireworks, as well.
ALLEN: They were generally contained to policy issues and campaign concerns.
Here are the highlights for you in 90 seconds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I can't believe how civil it's been up here.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR & DEBATE MODERATOR: Last night, you told CNN, quote, "Islam hates us." Did you mean all 1.6 billion Muslims?
TRUMP: There's tremendous hatred and I will stick with exactly what I said.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you go anywhere in the world you're going to see Americans serving us in uniform that are Muslims.
TRUMP: You can be politically correct if you want. I don't want to be so politically correct.
RUBIO: I'm not interesting in being politically correct. I'm interested in being correct.
JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I happen to believe in solar energy, wind energy, efficiency. Renewables matter.
RUBIO: These rules we are being asked to pass, they are hurting our environment and it will hurt and devastate our economy.
TAPPER: Do you believe you've don anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged?
TRUMP: I certainly don't condone that at all.
TAPPER: February 1st, knock the crap out of him, would you?
TRUMP: It's not me. It's usually the municipal government, the police.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At Donald's rallies, recently he's taken to asking the crowd to raise their hand and pledge their support.
TRUMP: I would probably have the embassy closed until a really good deal is made.
RUBIO: The embassy is a former consulate. We don't have to close it at all. Second of all, I don't know where Cuba will sue us, but if they sue in a court in Miami, they'll lose.
CRUZ: There are some in Washington who are having fevered dreams of a brokered convention. I think that would be an absolute disaster.
KASICH: We don't what will happen because we still have about half the delegates to be selected.
TRUMP: Embrace these millions of people that now for the first time ever love the Republican Party.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: That was a good match up there, a very busy, a lot said in that debate.
Check out at CNN.com/politics for more coverage of this election cycle.
ALLEN: Other news now, a cache of leaked documents reported from ISIS gives more insight into the group's recruitment.
HOWELL: These forms actually gauged how useful some potential fighters could be for that group.
Fred Pleitgen explains for us.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Reports in European media say the trove of ISIS documents contain what appears to be the data of tens of thousands of possible of ISIS recruits. The German Federal Criminal Agency says it's in possession for the documents and believes they're genuine and says it will use them in their law enforcement efforts.
The documents are like admission forms filled out by recruits when they entered ISIS's self-declared caliphate. They answered 23 questions. Some of them are standard, but others seem to be cynical. Another question asked them to list their previous experience.
Various publications in Europe say the documents likely seem to be from 2013 and 2014. Some have raised doubts about the authenticity. But the German interior minister has been quoted as saying he believes they could allow authorities to prosecute people who joined ISIS and returned to their home countries.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Programming note, this week, CNN's Clarissa War takes you on a harrowing journey deep into the heart of a country scarred by five years of war. You see these images of what's happening there in Syria, isolated by devastation.
ALLEN: You'll get an exclusive look "Inside Syria, Behind Rebel Lines" and meet the people who call what left of this embattled country home.
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[02:35:08] CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We had to travel under cover to see a war few outsiders have witnessed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The Russian planes target anything that works in the interest of the people. The people never see any good. They live a destroyed life.
WARD (on camera): There are snipers all around here, but this is the only road now to get into Aleppo.
(voice-over): Aleppo was once Syria's largest city, now an apocalyptic landscape. Any civilian infrastructure is a potential target, including hospitals.
(on camera): Is it possible that they did not know that this was a hospital?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Everyone knows this is a hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: It's all part of our special coverage, "Inside Syria, Behind Rebel Lines." You can find it only here on CNN.
ALLEN: The peace talks to end the Syrian civil war are set to resume Monday and the Syrians who have not escaped the conflict are struggling to survive. Some even starve to death.
HOWELL: Becky Anderson has the story of a plastic surgeon who left his practice in Beverly Hills to help those affected by this conflict.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cautious optimism. That's how many observers are viewing the current cessation of hostilities in Syria. Despite some scattered attacks, the humanitarian workers try to deliver much-needed aid to millions of Syrians.
DR. MAX SUAFF (ph), DUBAI-BASED PHYSICIAN: We understood to go in and out all the time.
But for the Doctor Max Suaff (ph), a Dubai-based physician who provides medical assistance to residents in Aleppo, it's had little affect.
SUAFF (ph): When I talk to my people in Aleppo, there are still hurting. Very hard to find any food and medicine.
ANDERSON: CNN's recent rare access into Aleppo exposed the harsh realities of life in the rebel-held city. The drop in air strikes came after a significant increase in the city's bombardment by Russian and pro regime forces. And in a recent report, Amnesty International accused Russian and Syrian government forces of deliberately targeting hospital after hospital to pave the way for ground force toes advance on northern Aleppo.
(on camera): Do those doctors working on the ground in Syria feel they have become targets?
SUAFF (ph): They die every month. When you have the same hospital being bombed over and over and over again, this is not a collateral damage. That is a targeting of hospitals and they do the same to schools.
ANDERSON (voice-over): While the reduction in violence has set a more hopeful backdrop for peace talks, Dr. Max, member of the Syrian opposition himself himself, sees a major pit fall. SUAFF (ph): One big red line is not to have Assad as part of this
resolution? This revolution will never end, even if the opposition signs off to it and they will not if Assad stays in power.
ANDERSON: As the conflict steps into hits fifth year, Assad stays and those of the Syrian war may not be yet numbered.
Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Find out to help refugees at CNN.com/impact. CNN has information on how to contribute to vetted, nonprofit organizations trying to help in Syria.
(HEADLINES)
HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, two North American neighbors warm their ties. What emerged from the talks between the leaders of the U.S. and Canada?
[02:40:04] ALLEN: Also ahead, a 20-year-old kidnapping case ends with a woman convicted and the teenager she stole as an infant faced with getting to know a new family. We'll have that story ahead for you.
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HOWELL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM. Canada and the United States are tackling climate change. President Obama welcomed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House on Thursday. It's the first official Canadian leader in nearly two decades. They discussed various issues, including making the countries' shared border more open and secure.
ALLEN: At a joint news conference, Mr. Trudeau outlined plans to battle climate change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: The president and I have announced today that we'll take ambitious action to reduce methane emissions nearly by half from the oil and gas sector, reduce use and emissions of hydro fluorocarbons and reduce impasse emissions standards for heavy duty vehicles among other plans to fight climate change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The White House later hosted a steak dinner for Mr. Trudeau and the first lady of Canada. There they are for their fancy dinner.
HOWELL: Very nice.
We should go over to weather now. Monumental flooding has occurred in the Deep South of the U.S. this week. ALLEN: Really bad.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is bad, Natalie, George. We've had the governors of both Louisiana and the Mississippi region declaring states of emergency in some of the effected counties. State government offices and many schools are going to be closed right through today. I want to show you just how bad it was. Take a look at this video food footage. The flooding has extended even further northward along the Mississippi and, in fact, some of the National Guard has been called in. There's been over 360 people rescued from their homes and their vehicles. You can see some of the people being stranded and helped and assisted by the National Guard and the local police and authority agencies across that region.
Getting to my graphics, this will blow your mind. We're talking about just over 20 inches of rain in Monroe, Louisiana. Other areas with equally impressive rainfall totals, this is since Wednesday when the storm really started to ramp up. We've done some of the calculations for you. This is an interesting water cooler tidbit for you. In Monroe, 20.9 inches, equivalent to 11 billion gallons of water dumping out of this particular storm system. We did the calculations, that is enough water to equate to four hours of continuous rushing water over Niagara Falls. You can imagine how expansive and wide the Niagara Falls region is. Those dots from Texas to Louisiana and Tennessee and Mississippi, those are river gauges, all indicating to us that they're at or above flood stage. 87 of those gauges right at that flood state right now. We're talking about a one in 500 or one in 1,000 year occurrence. That means that we've had a probability of about 0.1 percent of this happening within our time period. Now, you can see the watches and warnings across this area, impressive rainfall totals and on the eastern half of the United States, the temperatures have been warming up. They've been enjoying the sunshine.
Now, unfortunately, this warming trend that we've seen across the world has spelled disaster for some parts of the world, including into the Argentinean Patagonia side. Parts of this glacier collapsed into the ocean sending ripples of water across this lake. There was about 4,000 tourists that were able to capture this spectacle.
[02:47:12] ALLEN: Oh.
VAN DAM: This is the Patagonian Glacier known as the White Giant. It is a naturally occurring phenomenon. But, obviously, the fingerprints of climate change being seen.
HOWELL: Wow. It's sad to see
VAN DAM: It is.
HOWELL: All right.
VAN DAM: Also equally impressive.
HOWELL: Beautiful.
ALLEN: Derek, thank you. Well, we have this story for us next. A South African woman will be
sentenced in May after being found guilty of kidnapping a baby in 1997 and raising the child as her had own.
CNN's David McKenzie has details on the remarkable circumstances that led police to learning the teenager's true identity after all this time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a story that has gripped the South African public, how nearly 20 years ago, a newborn was taken from he mother's side, kidnapped by a woman posing as a nurse. The woman tried for many years to get her child back. No leads until a strange twist of fate, how they found her child because her other daughter moved to a high school where a senior at that school was almost identical looking. So much so, the police were called in for DNA tests and they found that it was, in fact, the missing child. The child has now concluded with the woman, who cannot be named, who took this child. She said that she had taken the child through legal adoption, but the judge said that was fanciful, saying that she is being convicted of kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children's Act. She's already in prison. Sentencing will be next May. And the girl's real parents hope she can learn to know the family she never had.
David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Goodness.
ALLEN: My goodness. That poor young girl caught between two families now. What a story.
Coming up, on Saturday, a man will take on a computer in an ancient board game. Who is going to win? We'll explain the significance behind it all and what it could mean for the future of artificial intelligence. That's coming up.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
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[02:53:18] ALLEN: Saturday will be make or break for the world champion of the complex board game Go.
(CROSSTALK)
ALLEN: He's facing off Google's super computer in a best of five series. Good luck.
HOWELL: Alpha Go, it is up 2-0 after very tense matches.
Ivan Watson has more on this man-versus-machine showdown.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Believe it or not, these are the final nail-biting moments of a historic contest between man and machine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alpha Go scores another win.
WATSON: Korean champion, Lee Sidol emerges in defeat after losing the second battle in a row against a Google super computer called Alpha Go. He says he's in shock.
"I'm just speechless. Looking at today's game, it was a complete defeat," he says. "Alpha Go played a perfect game."
The two opponents have been facing off at Go. Many describe it as the world's most complicated strategy war game.
(on camera): The computer just beat the human champion, again.
ANDREW OKUNE (ph), GO CHAMPION: Yes.
WATSON: How do you feel?
OKUNE (ph): Worse.
(LAUGHTER)
WATSON (voice-over): Go players like Andrew Okune (ph) argue that to be good at this 2500-year-old game you need to have intuition, a characteristic that we used to think was uniquely human.
OKUNE (ph): We really enjoyed playing a game that, even today, with computers being so strong, they couldn't play. Up to a few months ago, they could, you know, pick out a terrorist's face in a crowd or land an airplane that was in trouble, but they couldn't beat us at this. Now they can. That's sad. We don't like that.
[02:55:09] WATSON: 20 years ago, a computer called Deep Blue beat the world grand master, Gary Kasparov, at chess. Go is much more complicated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another way of viewing the complexity of Go is a number of possible configurations on the board is more than the number of atoms in the universe.
WATSON: Last year in October, Alpha Go beat Europe's Go champion. IN the last five months, Alpha Go has gotten better at the game, says a Korean Go master. He's at a loss.
"It's scary how quickly it upgraded," he tells me. "It feels like it's the Terminator."
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: If we die tonight, mankind dies with us.
WATSON (on camera): Are we one step closer to the robots taking over?
OKUNE (ph): You mean it hasn't happened yet?
(LAUGHTER)
WATSON (voice-over): Jokes aside, the designers insist Alpha Go is a step bigger in computer science.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is one rung on the ladder solving order official intelligence.
WATSON: Artificial intelligence, or A.I., is something that continues to capture popular imagination.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Are you building A.I.?
WATSON: At this challenge match, that science fiction fantasy feels one step closer to reality.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Seoul.
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HOWELL: I was good at Connect 4. I don't think I'm ready for Alpha Go.
ALLEN: I'll take you on, Connect 4 or Battle Ship.
Thanks for hanging in there with us. Our top stories are right after this. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
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