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Connect the World
Kenyan Government Looks for Answers; Iranian President Speaks at UN General Assembly
Aired September 25, 2013 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, the answers lie under the rubble as dramatic new video emerges from Kenya. We'll look at the questions that still remain. And I'll just ask what this means for the country's battle against al Shabaab with the former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga.
Also ahead...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT OF IRAN: I bring peace and friend...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: A simple message about a complicated situation. Iran's new president speaks to CNN about his country's relationship with the U.S.
And deleting your digital don'ts. How a new law in the U.S. is giving kids and teenagers the chance to wipe their online slate clean.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: A very good evening. There are unanswered questions in Kenya tonight about how gunmen were able to kill at least 61 people in an Nairobi mall. As recovery workers search for bodies under the partially collapsed shopping center, authorities are moving to the forensic phase of their investigation.
Now this is a surveillance image taken out of two of the gunmen inside the mall. You can see them there on the top right. An immense amount of work remains to learn about how al Shabaab, a militant group from Somalia, was able to pull off such a well coordinated and quite frankly brazen attack.
And this new video just in to CNN, you see a family running for their lives with two kids in their arms. The parents are clearly agonized over choosing the right moment to make their escape.
And here, in this video from Saturday, we see frightened shoppers with their hands in the air desperately running towards armed guards.
Well, to discuss the latest status of the investigation. I'm hopefully joined from Nairobi now by the Kenyan government spokesman, Manoah Esipisu. Sir, thank you very much indeed for joining me this evening. And condolences to all of you in Kenya from us here at CNN.
The question this hour just how did 10 to 15 Islamist extremists lay siege to a shopping mall for days, holding off security forces? We need some answers at this point, don't we?
What can you tell us at this point? Starting with just how well coordinated this attack was. Was does this intelligence tell you at this point?
MANOAH ESIPISU, STATE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Well, at this point we obviously think that the attacks were very well coordinated. We -- our intelligence people are looking through the evidence to piece together what exactly happened. It is obvious to us that the -- our primary concern was being able to get civilians out of the building as soon as possible and out of harm's way. So as the figure 10 to 15 might look insignificant if you think that we put out our security forces out there to neutralize them.
The basic point is that when you are dealing with evacuating civilians, and there were more than 1,000 of them in that mall, our concern is to get them out and not primarily first of all. To deal with a threat.
You deal with the threat after you get out as many of your people alive as possible.
ANDERSON: And let's address...
ESIPISU: ...that was our concern then. That would have been our concern now.
ANDERSON: Right.
Let me address some of the questions that need answering. So, the first is simply this, how many hostages did you get out alive and do you know how many people may have lost their lives inside in that final phase?
ESIPISU: That is a detail that we don't have at the moment. We know that there were more than 1,000 -- 1,000 people we evacuated from the building. We do not believe that at the final phase there were many people still holed in the building. However, every single Kenyan life counts. And every caution was required to keep that life if we were able to do so.
ANDERSON: OK. How many of the attackers survived?
ESIPISU: I'm unable to give that detail. I know that five of them were killed. What we're now going to do, of course, is go through the rubble, piece together the evidence, look at CCTV footage of the area and be able to give a detailed conclusive response to that.
ANDERSON: There's been much speculation about where these attackers may have been from. Many reports now suggesting that many, if not all of them, were English speaking. What can you tell us at this point about the citizenship of those who attacked this mall?
ESIPISU: We believe at the moment that this -- they were multinational. However, as far as you know forensic teams are now pouring over the evidence. We've got agents from FBI, from Britain, from Israel, from Canada, from Germany all interested in begin able to piece together the identities of these people. And when that is done we will let the world know.
ANDERSON: Can you confirm that one of these attackers was a woman from the UK? Is there any evidence to support that conjecture at this point?
ESIPISU: We can't confirm that it was a woman from the UK. What we have said consistently the last few days is that there have been people who have said they did see a woman. We're now investigating exactly that. And once we are able to come with a conclusive evidence, we should be able to say so.
ANDERSON: Last question to you, sir. Does the country need to rethink its state security system at this point? And perhaps we should ask whether the security of soft targets like the mall needs to be rethought as well.
But it seems that this attack had been expected, you just didn't know when. So would you assess that state security needs a rethink at this point?
ESIPISU: Well, I think every attack makes you to pause to think what could have been -- what could have been done better. I think after the Boston attacks, that would have been thought about. I think after the London bombings, that would have been thought about. And I think after the Spanish train bombings, that would have been thought about.
Of course, Kenya will be thinking about that going forward. But already we have raised the levels of security at our entry and border points. And generally, we have raised security in tourist areas and in the city.
So we are already taking some measures.
But this is a global problem. It requires global solution. And obviously we will be looking to our partners and friends local, in the region and internationally to be able to deal with the terrorist threat.
ANDERSON: All right, sir. We very much appreciate your time with us here on CNN tonight. And we wish you the best. Thank you very much, indeed.
All right, the spokesperson for the government there in Kenya trying his best to give us as much as he can on exactly what he knows at this point.
Former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga joins us now on the phone from Johannesburg. Many, many questions, sir. Very few answers at this point.
I guess the biggest issue is this, do you think, given your experience with security in your country, that this will embolden Islamists and al Shabaab sympathizers to attack again?
Certainly the militant group has suggested that it will.
RAILA ODINGA, FRM. PRIME MINISTER OF KENYA: Well, you know that -- so, these things take a bit of time to plan. The terrorists will all the times trying to look at loopholes in the security arrangement of the country. And when they strike, that is when it becomes like a wakeup call. That is when happens 9/11, it just happened to us 16 years ago in '98 and so on.
But the fact that these people were able to penetrate and even from information available that they even hired some officers within the premises, because it raises serious issues as far as security preparedness is concerned.
ANDERSON: Yeah, and I think the government there just before you joined us on CNN, the government there certainly suggested there may need to be a rethink on the state security system.
This is the biggest security challenge that the new president has faced to-date. There have been other less high profile attacks, haven't there, since 2011 when you sent Kenyan troops into Somalia at the behest of the international community.
Has Kenya been unprepared, do you think, since then? Could it have done more?
ODINGA: Well, as you know that our troops went into Somalia basically in order to protect our own boundaries, to deal with the security threat internally, because we were suffering seriously from attacks by the terrorists.
One, of course, expected that there would be some retaliatory attacks by the al Shabaab. There have been weakened and moving -- they're wounded. And as you say that the wounded buffalo, it's even much more dangerous.
So this -- something that we knew would be coming. And probably we should have prepared better for this.
ANDERSON: I'm wondering...
ODINGA: But this is not the time really for blame games.
ANDERSON: Sure. No, no. I totally understand that.
I think these are questions that will need to be answered going forward.
During your term, you had asked for funds and troops from the U.S. and the EU to attack Somalia by land, sea and air. And I know you made a big point about that. Do you think effectively that you were let down by others in fighting this good fight against al Shabaab in Somalia?
ODINGA: Yeah, I mean, remember a piece of the (inaudible) particularly during the height of piracy on the high seas. And we say that solution to piracy did not -- or did not lie in the seas, but on land. And that we needed to get a (inaudible) effort to deal with the matter conclusively on land.
(inaudible) for example, we wanted to attack Kismayo and we needed naval support from our international community. There was such a reluctance to do so. So that we were really left so much on our own.
We do think that this is an international issue, and that it requires international (inaudible) to deal with it conclusively. It cannot be left purely national or regional matter. And therefore we think that going forward we will require more support from the international community.
ANDERSON: Right. OK. All right, Mr. Odinga, it's a pleasure to have you on. We thank you very much indeed for joining us.
Well, as investigators piece together the events of the past few days, what do we already know? We're getting very few answers as you can see from the government who are hard pressed to just get in amongst the rubble at present.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson joining me now.
First off, Nic, how did these gunmen get into this building?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the sort of breakdown map of the building, of the mall. And they're believed to have come in through here through the Art Cafe (ph) on the ground floor. But at the same time behind this, there's a car park. And some are believed to have come in there, the two coordinating together to drive people one way towards the gunmen.
ANDERSON: This was meticulously planned, wasn't it? This is -- still, let's bring up this still picture of two gunmen inside the mall. What do we know about them?
ROBERTSON: Well, what the government said is sort of multinational operation. We know that these two look East African. And the other thing we can see about them here is they're both carrying relatively light weapons with not a lot of ammunition. There's a belief that perhaps there were heavy weapons stored inside, more ammunition stored inside. This would kind of give you that indication.
These two guys lightly armed probably couldn't hold off the police for four days.
ANDERSON: We've got some video here, Nic, that I want people to just have a look -- just walk me through what we're seeing here.
ROBERTSON: What we're seeing here is really significant, especially for investigators right now. These are the people that are being evacuated by the police. We know that five of the gunmen that went in have been killed. They were believed to have been 10 or 15. At this moment, were some of those gunmen changing their clothes to escape dressed as civilians? So this video is going to be very important for investigators right now to go through that.
ANDERSON: What do we know about the police operation?
ROBERTSON: You know, a lot of police, the special trained forces put inside the building. But again, the importance of providing a security cordon all the way around so perpetrators couldn't escape, again did the -- the question will be asked, did the police -- were there enough forces going in to do that, secure it?
ANDERSON: And to get there in time.
This is a picture of smoke coming from the mall. It's not clear what part of the building it was from, though, is it?
ROBERTSON: It's not. I mean, what we know is this is the car park here. This is where some of the gunmen were believed to have gone inside the building. What is understood to have happened is between the sort of third, second, first floors, those floors have been collapsed around the back towards where that (inaudible). But even right now, we don't know the specifics of what was on fire, who set it on fire, and why.
ANDERSON: As we say, lots of unanswered questions this evening. Still, Nic, thank you very much indeed.
Still to come tonight, he delivered the most anticipated speech at the UN general assembly, now Iran's president has spoken to CNN. You can watch part of that later in this hour.
We're going to take a very short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back. 17 minutes past 8:00 here in London. I'm Becky Anderson.
Now the surveillance video of the Navy Yard shooting in Washington earlier this month has been released in a press conference Wednesday.
An FBI spokeswoman said that Aaron Alexis acted alone and was not targeting specific people. It was also revealed Alexis was under the delusional belief that he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves.
Well, UN chemical weapons inspectors have returned back to Syria. They're investigating as many as six claims of chemical weapons used by the regime and the rebels. A team has already confirmed the August 21st use of sarin gas outside of Damascus, but it did not say who was responsible.
And Syria's chemical arsenal is the focus of a UN security council meeting today. That's at the UN.
For more on that, let's cross over to senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh at UN headquarters -- Nick.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, the lunch which the P5 were meeting at, which Syria would dominate, has ended. We've heard little from that so far apart from the secretary-general's office. He was also in attendance. Ban Ki-moon saying that the focus was on trying to get the organization for the prohibition for chemical weapons to get the technical issue of Syria's disarmament sorted out. We know that's one of two remaining hurdles here. The Russians want that process monitored effectively and violations assessed by the security council here while it has a veto and the Americans would prefer to see that UN monitoring group, the OPCW make that key decision.
Plus, we have the text with the resolution. How far will it go in suggesting that the enforceability Barack Obama mentioned here yesterday at a speech will actually be part of the word if Syria is considered in violation.
I don't think anybody is in doubt that if we do see a resolution coming out in the next couple of days it won't, in itself, automatically suggest a measure Syria will place if it violates disarmament regime.
But really, we're still yet to hear quite how close Moscow and Washington have got to getting something they can both agree on pushed through.
A real sense of pressure, though, because we've had a number of key meetings here, summit. There seems to be issues everyone is aware of, and frankly can these two capitals get it together to actually push something through? We have people dying every day on the ground, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah. And lest we forget. Nick, thank you for that.
And Michael Jackson wrongful death lawsuit is nearing an end as both sides present their cases. Earlier on closing arguments, Jackson's last concert promoted AEG Live tried to convince a jury that it was not responsible for the singer's death.
CNN's Casey Wian joins us now from outside the court in Los Angeles. What did we hear today?
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we've heard today basically is basically the argument from AEG Live that it was not -- that it did not hire Dr. Conrad Murray who, of course, administered that fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol to Michael Jackson back in 2009. They brought up the fact that there was a contract, but it was only signed by Dr. Conrad Murray. It was never signed by the concert promoter, nor was it signed by Michael Jackson. So they're saying that there was, in fact, no employment relationship there.
They say Michael Jackson was the person who actually chose Dr. Conrad Murray, demanded he be brought along on tour, and that he had had a relationship with him since at least as far back as 2006.
So they're saying that basically AEG Live does not have any employment relationship with Dr. Murray, so if the jury in fact finds that, that negates pretty much everything else. These potentially $2 billion in damages that are being sought by Michael Jackson's mother and his three children, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah, potentially significant development, then, in that case. Casey, thank you for that.
To a shocking story now out of the UK where police have charged three men on allegations of forcing the others into slavery. Now these arrests are part of an investigation into slavery that has so far yielded seven arrests and three potential victims from Britain and from eastern Europe.
One of the victims is reported to have been missing by his family for 13 years.
Well, live from London, this is Connect the World. Coming up, a rare interview with the President -- the new Iranian president. CNN's Christiane Amanpour has talked with Hassan Rouhani. That interview is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, this is Connect the World. 22 minutes past 8:00 in London.
Now this year's UN general assembly has been dominated by one man, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. He delivered what was a wide awaited speech on Tuesday in which he offered immediate negotiations over his country's nuclear program.
My colleague Christiane Amanpour sat down with Mr. Rouhani hours after the speech and asked him about what is his new diplomatic push.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Mr. President. Nice to see you. Salamu alaykum.
Nice to see you again, exactly. Please.
Welcome to CNN. Thank you for doing this for us.
I want to ask you what it feels like to be what some people have called the "It" man of this UNGA, highly anticipated. You seem to be the focus of attention, and unusually for Iranian presidents, people are looking at you with some, at least, cautious optimism.
What does it feel like to be in this position?
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): Before beginning to respond to your question, I would like to actually say my greetings to the people of America, who are very dear and near to the hearts of the Iranian people, and to wish them a good time and good times ahead.
Now for any president, in order to use an opportunity to the benefit of others would require him to use the platform given by his people to project that in places such as the United Nations.
AMANPOUR: There was a lot of expectation, maybe too high expectations, that you and President Obama might at least shake hands today at the United Nations.
Nobody thought there was going to be a formal meeting. But perhaps you would at least say hello, shake hands, break the ice.
But you didn't. Why didn't you?
ROUHANI (through translator): There were some talks about it, in fact, to perhaps arrange for a meeting between President Obama and myself so that, given the opportunity, we can talk with each other.
And the preparation for the work was done a bit as well. The United States declared its interest in having such a meeting and, in principle, Iran could have, under certain circumstances, allowed for it to happen.
But I believe that we didn't have sufficient time to really coordinate the meeting to the full extent that we needed to. But speaking of the icebreaking that you mentioned, in my opinion, it's already beginning to break because the environment is changing.
And that has come about as a result of the will of the people of Iran to create a new era of relations between the people of Iran and the rest of the world. Our hope, our expectation, in fact, indeed, is that all nation and this nation as well will respond positively to the people of Iran.
AMANPOUR: Are you authorized to start talking, negotiating, with the United States?
Are you authorized by the Supreme Leader back in Iran?
ROUHANI (through translator): Now we have to remember that when it comes to the United States, for 35 years, there have been no relations between the two countries, between Iran and the United States. The higher officials of the two countries have never spoken with one another, especially at a level of president.
You know, they have for two presidents to sit down. This has not happened for 35 years. So necessarily we must give time for diplomacy to work itself, for dialogue to come about, for circumstances to be laid properly.
The Supreme Leader of Iran has said that should negotiations be necessary for the national interests of the country, that he, in fact, is not opposed to it. He has specifically mentioned in a recent talk that he is not optimistic regarding the issue of talks with the United States. But when it comes to specific issues, government officials may speak with their American counterparts.
If an opportunity had risen today, and the prep work for that had been done, probably the talks would have taken place, primarily focused on the nuclear issue or on developments on the Middle East. And therefore the Supreme Leader has, I can tell you, given the permission for my government to freely negotiate on these issues.
AMANPOUR: One of the things your predecessor used to do from this very platform was deny the Holocaust and pretend that it was a myth. I want to know, you, your position on the Holocaust. Do you accept what it was? And what was it?
ROUHANI (through translator): I've said before that I am not a historian personally, and that when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust as such, it is the historians that should reflect on it.
But in general, I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime that the Nazis committed towards the Jews as well as non-Jewish people is reprehensible and condemnable.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: The Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaking with Christiane. And you can see that interview in full tonight at 10:00 London time, 11:00 Berlin right here on CNN.
The latest world news headlines, as you would expect, at the bottom of the hour are just ahead.
Plus, a devastating scene in southwestern Pakistan, a powerful earthquake killed hundreds and leaves thousands more homeless. We'll get you an update on the rescue efforts underway there.
And remarkable evidence of just how powerful that earthquake was. I'm going to show you the world's newest island, created out of this earthquake.
That, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories this hour. A forensic investigation is now underway in Kenya into the Westgate Mall siege in Nairobi. At least 61 people died in those attacks, and the recovery workers are still searching for bodies beneath the collapsed mall.
Pakistan's government is sending more than 1,000 soldiers to help with rescue and relief efforts after what was a powerful earthquake struck a remote southwestern province. At least 330 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured.
New surveillance video of the Navy Yard shooting in Washington early this month has been released in a press conference on Wednesday. An FBI spokeswoman says that Aaron Alexis acted alone and was not targeting specific people. It was also revealed that Alexis was under the, and I quote, "delusional belief" that he was being controlled by electro-magnetic waves.
A group of Syrian rebel brigades is rejecting the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition. That's the opposition group supported by the West, which just announced the formation of a government in exile. They Syrian National Coalition is playing down this development. It refuses to recognize the al-Nusra Front, which is tied to al Qaeda.
Well, despite -- or, sorry -- desperate to find their loved ones after a powerful earthquake, villagers in Pakistan are digging through collapsed homes with their bare hands looking for any signs of life.
Authorities there say at least 330 people were killed when the quake rocked a remote southwestern province. Now, that toll is almost certain to rise as some people remain trapped beneath the rubble there.
The 7.7 magnitude quake was so strong that it created a new island, forcing this mass of mud and rock from the sea floor, so you can imagine what the quake did to fragile mud and brick homes.
Now, rescuers are racing against time to reach those in need. Authorities say more than 300,000 people have been affected -- 300,000, I said -- in six districts across a vast area of Balochistan.
Well, that remote terrain isn't the only thing slowing relief efforts. That area is impoverished and it has few medical facilities. So, some victims must be airlifted to major cities for treatment. As Saima Mohsin now reports, Pakistan's government, they say, at least, are sending hundreds of soldiers to the rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAIMA MOHISIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The death toll has continued to rise as rescue workers make their way to this remote area, as has the number of injured. Many of them are believed to be still buried under the ruble.
Now, Awaran, the worst-affected area in the southwestern province of Balochistan, is very remote, it's greatly impoverished. It didn't even have electricity. It certainly doesn't have the road network for rescue teams to get to the people affected there easily.
It doesn't have a hospital with an emergency room or even a surgical unit to deal with those seriously injured. So, the military has been drafted in, more than 1,000 troops so far already working to get to the people and help them, mostly by air, using helicopter and light aircraft to fly medical and rescue teams in and the seriously injured out.
But as rescue workers get there, we're getting a clearer picture of just how widespread this devastation is.
Saima Mohsin, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, after that quake, people were astonished to see this small island that had emerged near the port of Gwadar some 400 kilometers from the quake's epicenter. How exactly did that happen? Well, let's bring in Jenny Harrison at the International Weather Center.
Let's start though, Jen, with the earthquake itself. How deep was it, and just how badly-affected is this area now?
JENNY HARRISON, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, as you said, we've got all this trouble to deal with, the people, of course, dealing with it the best they can. And of course, the rescue effort well underway.
It was a very, very strong earthquake, this one, Becky, 7.7 magnitude and very shallow, of course, and into some very, very sandy earth. So, of course, it was felt a very, very great distance. So, 15 kilometers deep, 7.7 magnitude.
And since then, there have actually been 14 aftershocks, as well, in the region. They will continue to come, as well, particularly with a quake of that magnitude.
The weather conditions now in this region are very critical, of course, the rescue -- the search and rescue operations that are still very much underway. The last two hours, there's been some weather well to the south and the east of there, there's been quite a bit of rain. It will continue to come down, and will also continue to accumulate.
But thankfully, that is not the case very close to the epicenter. Having said that, the weather conditions by day are probably not ideal. Very, very hot, very dry conditions. The dry is good. But look at these temperatures: 39, 38 on Friday, the same on Saturday.
So, those are temperatures in and around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, higher than that, and of course, those are temperatures in the shade. These people at this stage probably have no shelter, no shade, and of course, water is quite likely in very, very short supply.
The good news, possibly, is the overnight hours, we've got temperatures in the low-to-mid-20s Celsius, so it is mild, again, for people who are without anything in the way of shelter. So, that is the weather conditions, obviously, for the next few days.
Now, moving onto this island, this, of course, again, just another image of it. You can see, obviously, the size. It's not huge. It's actually about 18 meters high, 30 meters long, and about 76 meters wide.
They're not entirely sure yet exactly what it's constructed of, whether it's mud, rocks, a mixture of the two, so scientists, obviously, taking samples because that will also determine how long this island potentially stays there. It could disappear in days, it could stay there for months, potentially, also for years.
It's not unusual for this, obviously, the coast line, particularly, to change. Here are some examples. Japan in 2011, Chile in 2010, and of course the big tsunami particularly, but in 20 -- 2004, the Sumatra earthquake, huge changes in the landscape from those particular earthquakes, though are much, much more powerful than this particular earthquake.
And different geophysicists have said different things. Some have been saying it's actually unlikely to have been pushed up by the quake. Some have been saying new islands have appeared in this area before, particularly what they call mud volcanoes. This is what this region is actually known for.
So, this is going to show you a little bit of what we're talking about by a mud volcano. So, of course, right down there, the earth's core, we've got this magma. Then, you've got a reservoir of water. Above that, you've got gasses that get stored in the sand and the mud and the rock, and of course, you have the ocean above that.
So, the gasses are continuing to bubble and rise. And by the way, the people who are actually on this island have said that they've seen bubbling all the way around the island, it smells of gas. Also, there've been a lot of dead fish, apparently, around this island in the general area.
So, you've got all of this -- these gasses, apparently, which are being released into the sand and the mud and the rock. The earthquake is thought to have really compacted a lot of this sand and this mud and this rock.
And then, of course, time -- eventually what happens is the pressure releases all of this, and it is thought that this pressure, with the earthquake as well, has forced all of this literally to come up from the ocean floor and to rise out of the sea, and this is what everybody is seeing now.
This is how it has formed this mud island. And this particular region of Pakistan off the coast has as many as 18 of these mud volcanoes. They can also form on land, as well, because remember, you don't have to have the water above. You can have all sorts of other vegetation.
So, this is thought to be how it's come about, Becky. How long this island stays there, well, that will have to remain to be seen. Back to you.
ANDERSON: Yes. All right, Jen. Remarkable stuff, isn't it? Let's find out more about the rescue and relief efforts. We're joined by Khalid bin Majeed, who's the principal information officer of the Red Crescent.
Sir, I know you're in Islamabad, but monitoring what's going on. I know the official death toll stands at 330. I was in Pakistan after the huge earthquake in the northwest in 2005, it was days before the scale of that became apparent, and I think, at this stage, that this may be even more remote. What sort of emergency rescue response has there been?
KHALID BIN MAHEED, PRINCIPAL INFORMATION OFFICER, RED CRESCENT: Thank you for the interview. Actually, now, the death toll has gathered into the report, it has increased to 400 people and injured, they are now past the limit of 500 and almost 300,000 people were affected.
And 50,000 people, they lived within 15 kilometers of a big center and got into. And -- still there are some areas that are not accessible because the road network and all the communication channels, they have been broken. So, the death toll can be increased because when we have a clear picture, clear information --
ANDERSON: Sure.
BIN MAJEED: -- and when we're in all the areas, then there will be a clear picture --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Yes, let me remind --
BIN MAJEED: -- but so far --
ANDERSON: Yes, let me remind our viewers, back in 2005, I think I'm right in saying there were 250,000 injured in the end above Muzaffarabad, and some 75,000 killed. These things -- this was a big earthquake. These things can be really destructive.
So, do you think the response has been adequate at this point? I know you say it's very remote and it can be described as fairly lawless, this area, as well. Has it been an adequate response at this point?
BIN MAJEED: Yes, as far as the government and the local NGOs are concerned, they are working through that area, but the problem is that the road network, that is not in place, and they are trying to -- police there to provide relief and evacuate the injured people.
And as far as the lawlessness is concerned, there are some reports that those people, they have also offered that those who are coming for the relief, they are welcome and promise they will not harm anybody.
ANDERSON: All right, we're going to leave it there, sir. We thank you very much, indeed, for joining us, but we'll remain on this story and update our viewers as and when we get more information, a very difficult situation there in Balochistan in Pakistan.
All right. Live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up, have you ever wanted to erase inappropriate or embarrassing content that you've posted on Facebook. Well, a new law in California may make your dream come true. Well, at least if you live there.
And we'll take a look at one of the busiest railway routes in the world. That's part of the Gateway series. And both of those stories up next for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, the Channel Tunnel is one of the busiest whale --
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: Whale-way routes. The busiest railway routes in the world. More than 304 million people traveled through it since it opened in 1994, and up to 120 million tons of cargo pass through it each year.
Well, that means the tracks need to be constantly maintained. So, this month's Gateway, we sent Atika Shubert behind the scenes to find out exactly how that is done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A rail yard in Coquelles in northern France is home to the world's longest workshop. Every month or so, a Eurotunnel shuttle, all 800 meters of it, comes here for a much-needed pit stop.
Trains like these carry an average of 7 million people every year. So, out on the platform, troubleshooters make sure they remain in tip-top condition.
YANNICK VANDENBUSSCHE, TROUBLESHOOTER, EUROTUNNEL: On this kind of train, a wheel can do 1.2 million kilometers, so it's important to look after the grease on the wheel. And we have to be very quick, because the train is there just for 26 minutes, not more.
SHUBERT: From the rolling stop to the railway tracks, it takes about 800 people to maintain the Channel Tunnel.
(TRAIN HORN)
SHUBERT: And it's at night that workers head deep beneath the ground and under the sea. As traffic subsides, only one of the two commercial tunnels remains open.
DAVE BENNETT, WORKS SUPERVISOR, EUROTUNNEL: We've got a north tunnel, a south tunnel, and then running in between those two tunnels, we have a service tunnel. Tonight, the south tunnel is completely out of service whilst maintenance work is done.
We have to make sure that we are back on commercial service with both tunnels at a specific time tomorrow morning, and 5:50 is our cutoff this morning.
SHUBERT (on camera): The service tunnel is really the nerve center of the operations here. It's where the maintenance workers and the troubleshooters are based, and they used specially-designed vehicles like this to respond to any emergency. And if you step over here, right behind this door, is where all those trains are whipping by.
SHUBERT (voice-over): After traveling the length of this 50-kilometer artery, French and British teams swarm over the tunnel. Tonight, they are on cleaning duty.
BENNETT: We've got full tunnel clean works every weekend. As the trains come in, they pick up a lot of dirt from the outside, especially on nights like now, rain -- the rain brings in lots of dirt and dust that sticks to the trains. That can cause all sorts of problems, but it never does, because we do it so regularly.
SHUBERT: With the help of the most powerful of machines, 72,000 liters of water will be jet-sprayed to give this underground network a deep clean.
BENNETT: What you're seeing now keeps Eurotunnel running. If it wasn't for the maintenance side that you see now, Eurotunnel would grind to a halt. We've got over 100 kilometers of track in the two tunnels put together. Just the lighting, the cooling, the electronics, the bar detection, the cleaning equipment, it's -- it can go on and on and on.
SHUBERT: And on it goes. In the early hours, commercial traffic will resume inside the tunnel as dawn breaks along the English Channel a hundred meters above.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: You're back in London. Coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, wiping out -- excuse me. Wiping out bad memories. A new law in California proposes deleting embarrassing online content, but is it going to work? Well, that is up next. Do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: All right. How would you like to erase any embarrassing or inappropriate content that you have posted on the web? Well, a new law in California would let anyone under 18 do just that. Its defenders say it's meant to protect privacy and ward off cyber bullies. But as Kyung Lah reports, others warn that it simply won't work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The internet is jammed with self-made videos of teenage boys jamming, as well as teen girls, and plenty of embarrassing episodes --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you eat those sprinkles?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: No.
LAH: -- of candy-covered kids covering their tracks. Oh so cute now -- maybe not in 20 years when running for, say, political office or the CEO slot at a Fortune 500 company.
The cost of our oversharing. But a new California law wants to give children under 18 a chance to erase the digital footprint literally, passing what's called the Eraser Button Law. By 2015, if a California minor wants something like a video or picture deleted, the web company has to do it.
JAMES STEYER, FOUNDER, COMMON SENSE MEDIA: They deserve the right to take that back, and the right to have that forgotten and not haunt them in their college admissions or trying to get a job, or even in the way that they interact with some of their peers.
LAH: James Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, advocated for the law's passage. He admits it's not perfect, but it's a step forward, and predicts it will be replicated in other states and even at the federal level.
STEYER: The reason this matters so much is it's an historic turning point, because privacy is about you and me and our kids. It's not necessarily about the data-gobbling of companies in Silicon Valley. But up until now, most of the laws have been written in reality by the companies, and they've just taken your data and your privacy.
ERIN LA ROSA, SENIOR EDITOR, BUZZFEED: The law, to me, just sort of shows how little lawmakers know about the internet and how the internet actually works.
LAH: Erin La Rosa is a senior editor at Buzzfeed, a site that feeds off buzz in the social online world. She supports attempts by advocates and lawmakers to protect children, but says in the online world, this law won't do anything. Here's why.
LA ROSA: So, let's just take a photo of us, and we'll do a selfie.
LAH (on camera): Yes.
LA ROSA: So, now we've got this photo.
LAH: OK.
LA ROSA: Right? So, I'm going to upload this, let's say, Twitter.
LAH (voice-over): Seconds after posting to Twitter, La Rosa's colleague downloads a photo like millions of us do every day.
LA ROSA: This copy has now been shared on Facebook, on another person's Twitter. They can remove one copy. The other copies are still there forever.
LAH (on camera): So, trying to control this is ludicrous.
LA ROSA: Impossible.
LAH: Impossible.
LA ROSA: Yes. It's not going to happen. Especially under this law.
LAH (voice-over): Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: All right. Well, we thought we'd put together some don'ts, as it were. Here's our top five things you shouldn't do on social media from the team at CONNECT THE WORLD.
It's best not to post about illegal activities, and you should definitely not engage in bullying. That's an important one. Not-so-nice comments about your teachers or employers are also best left offline, and beware of how your messages, photos, and posts are perceived.
For more on how prospective employers might use your digital footprint to make a decision about giving you a job, I'm joined by Andrew Scherer from the organization Inspiring Interns. That's an intern recruitment agency. I'm sure the first is simply, do you have a social media footprint, and if you do, can we get rid of it? Is that what you -- the first question you put to them?
(LAUGHTER)
ANDREW SCHERER, INSPIRING INTERNS: Yes.
ANDERSON: I mean, employers use this stuff, don't they, in researching?
SCHERER: Yes, they do. I think most employers will go online and -- even if it's a simple look at someone's Linkedin profile or maybe a quick Google search, they will be checking out any information that's available.
ANDERSON: Are prospective interns or applicants for jobs aware of that, do you think?
SCHERER: Some are, but a worrying number aren't. I speak at universities quite regularly, and when I say to people that do you employers will be checking out the pictures of you at 3:00 in the morning on Facebook, I get a lot of surprised faces. So, I think there's still a lot of naivete around that.
ANDERSON: And this isn't a new trend by any stretch, is it?
SCHERER: No, I've been working in this area for about three or four years, and it's certainly been going on for all that time. And obviously, in the digital world, when things move very quickly, that's a pretty established trend.
ANDERSON: How many of those points that we just brought up on our big wall behind me would you disagree with? These are don'ts and they're pretty obvious, aren't they?
SCHERER: Yes, I think --
ANDERSON: Yes?
SCHERER: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHERER: The rules of the online world are pretty similar to the rules of the real world. If you're sensible and do things that you think other people will be happy with then you'll be all right.
ANDERSON: Have you heard youngsters in the past or people coming through your agency saying I'd love to be able to get rid of this stuff, but I simply can't?
SCHERER: There's one or two cases, although more extreme cases. I think it's pretty simple. If you are doing the normal things online, you're on Facebook, on Twitter, to make sure that that's -- you self- regulate a little bit what you're saying and make sure your Facebook privacy settings are such that people can't easily discover the things that might get you in trouble.
But if you've had a very negative experience and maybe, say, got some negative press for something you've done -- I know someone who's been trolling recently and has had a lot of negative press -- if that starts appearing on the first search page on Google, then you are in trouble and it is difficult to get rid of it.
ANDERSON: Yes. All right, good stuff, thank you very much, indeed.
SCHERER: Thank you.
ANDERSON: This new law, obviously, and cyber bullying, an enormously destructive problem out there. Thank you very much, indeed.
Let's get you some breaking news. CNN International correspondent Nick Paton Walsh at the United Nations. Nick, any closer at this point to a UN resolution on Syria, is the question. What have you got?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, we have some interesting news. Speaking to a diplomatic source here, it appears that the discussions of the past day have borne some kind of fruit.
I'm being told -- and this could still fall apart -- but the text, now, which the Russians appear to have agreed to comes up with three major points: accountability for the 21st of August attacks, doesn't specify how that would happen but does suggest that will be in the text. Some binding and enforceable language, I understand, if Syria is considered to violate disarmament obligations.
And I understand, though, this resolution won't be under Chapter 7, the part of the UN Charter that could authorize force. It will make a reference to Chapter 7 being involved in future votes.
And thirdly, technical language says the Council can remain seized of the matter at any time, which basically expedites any future discussions. That's key, because it seems like one of the hurdles here -- and it could still fall apart, but this diplomatic source says the Russians are onboard with this -- one of the hurdles that the UN has cleared.
What they're waiting for now is a technical discussion to finish in the Hague, and in the Hague, they're waiting to see if the technical details of monitoring and assessing violations of any problems you may have with Syria's chemical weapons disarmament, if that actually goes through. But significant developments, it seems, from these previous P5 meetings, Becky.
ANDERSON: All right, Nick, thank you very much, indeed, for that.
That was CONNECT THE WORLD. We've got a minute or so to go. We need to hear from you. What do you think about this Syria story, if the Russians are indeed onboard with what looks like a fairly sound resolution, then where do we go from here?
It's been a story which has been resonating online, of course, for weeks if not years now. Lest we forget, we are talking about 100,000 deaths, some 7 million people displaces. We want to hear from you, get in touch, facebook.com/CNNconnect, have your say. You can tweet me @BeckyCNN, your thoughts please, @BeckyCNN.
And your Parting Shots before we leave you tonight. Another tech fail. If you want to know how to get to the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, well, it might be best not to consult Apple Maps. If you do, you may end up on the airport's runway.
Fairbanks International Airport had to close an aircraft access route because two motorists in the past three weeks have ended up driving across the runway, all thanks to a flaw in Apple Maps.
We shouldn't laugh, should we? That's pretty ridiculous. Number of times I've tried to get to airports and I've been taken into McDonald's and things. Gruesome. But there you go. Anyway, good story for you.
I'm Becky Anderson, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. From the team here in London, it's a very good evening. Out of Atlanta, the team wants me to say good evening as well. Thank you for watching. CNN, of course, continues. Christiane Amanpour after this with an exclusive interview with the Iranian president for you. So do stay with us. A very short break, we'll be back after that.
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