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Connect the World
Embattled President Barack Obama Holds Health Care Rally In Massachusetts; British Security Firm G4S Accused Of Prisoner Abuses In South Africa; Two Gun Charges Added To Oscar Pistorius Trial
Aired October 30, 2013 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: An embattled president and administration under siege. From spying allegations to health care woes, it seems Team Obama can't catch a break. Tonight, we ask if the man who was once wooed by the world still has the faith of the American people.
Also ahead...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even though I didn't torture, I heard the screams. And as we are talking right now I can hear those screams.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Haunting memories of one survivor working to help the millions still missing around the world.
Plus, buried nearly 2,000 years ago a Roman eagle rises once again in London.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.
ANDERSON: A very good evening. We begin with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama under fire on two fronts both at home and abroad.
First, the spying scandal that seems to widen with each parting day. European Union delegates are meeting with White House officials this Wednesday. German delegation is in Washington, too, holding separate talks now all demanding answers about an alleged U.S. spying program that reportedly monitored communications of world leaders and average citizens alike.
Well, as serious as that scandal is, President Obama is away from the White House today as he tries to put out the flames on another front. The troubled rollout of his signature health care law. He is speaking as we speak as it were in Boston this evening.
And this is him. We'll bring you any thing he says of international interest as we move through this hour.
We are covering all angles tonight.
World affairs reporter Elise Labott is following developments on the spying scandal from CNN Center, and CNN senior political analyst David Gergen is looking at the problems dogging the health care rollout as well as the bigger picture of how President Obama is handling all of this.
Let's kick off, Elise, with you. And new revelations surrounding the NSA. The latest about the NSA tapping Yahoo and Google. What do we know at this point?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the head of the NSA, Becky, Keith Alexander said this is not true, that whoever was leaking this information got it wrong, because what they're saying is these work that the U.S. does with Google and all of these other -- Facebook -- all these other companies is mandated by a court order. And so it's not that they're tapping into these databases, these companies are lawfully doing it. They're saying that the U.S. would never do anything that's against the law when they can do it lawfully.
ANDERSON: All right, Elise. We're going to continue speaking, I just want to dip in and have a quick listen to what this embattled president is saying tonight. Let's listen in.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Health care...
PROTESTERS: ...for our generation, stop the pipeline. Mr. President...
OBAMA: OK. We're talking about health care today, but we will...
PROTESTERS: (inaudible)
(CROWD BOOING)
OBAMA: No, no, no. That's OK.
(CROWD BOOING)
OBAMA: They -- what they...
ANDERSON: That's interesting, isn't it, because this is.
OBAMA: That is the wrong rally.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: We had the climate change rally back in the summer. This is the health care rally.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: So, health care reform in this state was a success. That doesn't mean it was perfect right way. There were early problems to solve, there were changes that had to be made. Anybody here who was involved in it can tell you that.
As Jamal just said, enrollment was extremely slow. Within a month only about 100 people had signed up, 100. But then 2,000 had signed up. And then a few more thousand after that. And by the end of the year, 36,000 people had signed up. And the community all came together. You even had the Red Sox help enlist people to get them covered.
And pretty soon, the number of young uninsured people had plummeted. And recession struck, the financial security of health care sheltered families from deeper hardship. And today, there is nearly universal coverage in Massachusetts and the vast majority of its citizens are happy with their coverage.
(APPLAUSE)
ANDERSON: well, that is President Obama in Massachusetts and we promised that we would get you some of the sound from the rally that he's holding there.
It's about Obamacare, which is the health care program that he's been plugging for most of his administration, but it was very interesting to see what happened just moments ago, being heckled from the floor.
This is a man some six years ago you would have expected nothing but support for.
So what is going on with this administration?
Well, our senior political analyst David Gergen says the Obama administration has been very good at politics, but it's never been very good at the execution of policies.
David is now joining us from Cambridge, Massachusetts where the president is tonight.
And you put his woes -- and these are woeful days, it has to be said, down to the inexperience of the Obama White House. And it was fascinating to see him being heckled, what was it, on climate change just earlier on. But explain what you mean by that, David?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think these are just the woes of a young, inexperienced administration, I think it now -- we now know there are certain patterns over five years about governing and about politicking.
This president is extraordinarily good at campaigning. And he ran one of the best organized -- two of the best organized campaigns -- 2008, 2012 -- that we've every see in American politics, swept him into office. And people were awestruck by just how well run those campaigns were.
But he has not brought that same style to governing. It's been a big surprise. Ordinarily, Democrats who have bold ideas about government bring in bold, big people to administer them. And this president has not done that. He has drawn a lot of power into the White House. He has many of the cabinet officers feel disempowered. They feel the real decisions are made in the White House, but the White House staff does not have the kind of heavyweights in health care, for example -- Senate -- former Senator Tom Daschle would have been an ideal choice to administer this and work with Kathleen Sebelius in doing that. Didn't do that.
And he's now gotten some trouble -- not only the rollout, digging this signature initiative botched in terms of its rollout, no one can quite remember something like this.
But beneath this there's something more important. It's not just the technical side, it is the fact that the president repeatedly promised the American people if you like your health care insurance you can keep it. And it turns out that's not true. And some 2 million people have reportedly already had their policies canceled. And they don't know where they stand, because these systems don't work very well.
ANDERSON: It's fascinating, isn't it. As we watch as international observers, we see the Germans, members of the European parliament in Washington calling for answers to questions about spying and the National Security Agency. We're also seeing the minister of -- Secretary of Health on the Hill as well responding to questions about this health care bill.
I mean, listen, you were an adviser to four U.S. president -- Nixon, David, through Clinton. If you were advising Obama today, what would you be saying in this last couple of years which would make him a success not what could be a failure at this point?
GERGEN: Well, I -- look, there have been a lot of twists and turns. Let's be fair, three or four weeks ago it was the Republicans who looked like they were in terrible shape. They were all banged up over the shutdown of government and now it's Obama's turn. So things may turn again for him.
He can work his way out of this and get this network fixed.
But I do think it's true two or three things. One is, I think the president needs to keep the people he has with him, but add to them some real heavyweights in policy and execution who will give the country reassurance that the White House is in good hands.
Secondly, he has to have a very strong no surprise rule. I don't ever want to be surprised by anything good or bad, but especially bad. And he looks like he's either been totally surprised or someone is lying.
I mean, the problem the president has got now is either he didn't know about all these things and his team is incompetent, or he did know about them and they're lying.
So that's not a good place to be if you're president.
ANDERSON: Fascinating. David, thank you for that. I think you remember the last couple of years for Bill Clinton were actually his most successful in the end. So there is hope, I guess -- at the end of...
GERGEN: Give him a shot. Yeah, yeah, he's -- look, if he were to pull out peace with Iran, which was really respected piece and they just disarm their nuclear weapons people would think that was a triumph. We'll see.
ANDERSON: Fascinating. We have 18 months to 24 to work out whether this was -- or will be a successful second term or not.
All right, and you and I will keep talking, of course. David Gergen, always a pleasure.
Still to come this evening. We'll tell you Oscar Pistorius could be facing even more troubling court. And why Chinese police are calling this a terrorist attack.
Plus, rising once again: the Roman eagle has dusted off its wings after lying for nearly 2,000 years beneath the city of London. All that and much more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: This is CNN. And the show is Connect the World with me, Becky Anderson in London. 13 minutes past 8:00.
Now at least nine people, including four women and four Iraqi security forces have been killed following the suicide car bombing at a security checkpoint in Mosul in northern Iraq. Police say it was followed by a shooting carried out by several gunmen.
Now at the same time, the Iraqi prime minister is in Washington for talks about the deterioration of the security in his country.
A suicide bomber blew himself up near a hotel in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse on Wednesday. Local authorities said he only killed himself. This video posted on YouTube purportedly was taken near the scene, although we can't independently verify that. Police were able to thwart a second bomber, we believe, this time at a popular tourist site in Monestir.
UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi met with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Wednesday. Now that is the first time the two have met since December last year. Mr. Brahimi is trying to build support for the Geneva II peace talks which are set to happen next month.
CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom has more on the president's stance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was reported on Syrian state television that President al-Assad responded by saying in order for these peace talks to go forward, countries that are supporting the rebels militarily and providing monetary aid must stop doing so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That's the story in Syria.
South African prosecutors say track star Oscar Pistorius will face two more gun charges at his murder trial next year. Now you'll remember he's accused of premeditated murder in the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The details from Errol Barnett.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Oscar Pistorius' murder trial gets underway in March of next year, he will also face gun related charges. It was announced this week by the national prosecuting authority that it's been successful in what's called a centralization of charges. What it's done is it's taken gun related charges from another jurisdiction against Oscar Pistorius and moved it to where the murder trial will take place.
The NPA tells me this is so the same magistrate can see all charges against the so-called blade runner at the same place at the same time.
However, analysts believe the prosecution could actually be on its back foot after the defense announced last month that it was hiring forensic experts from the United States. In this scenario, it's believed the prosecution could be aiming to characterize the story as an irresponsible gun owner.
Pistorius shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. He has maintained always the he meant to shoot an intruder.
Errol Barnett, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, four Frenchmen who were held hostage in Niger for more than three years are safely home. The men were kidnapped by al Qaeda's North African arm in the Magreb in 2010. The French government has denied playing a $27 million ransom for the men.
Well, Russian mayoral candidate and persistent critic of President Vladimir Putin Alexei Navalny has been indicted in a fraud and money laundering case. He's accused of stealing 30 million rubles from a French company.
Now the chargers were filed just weeks after he was released on a suspended sentence from a previous case.
Authorities in southern India say a bus with 49 people on board came off the road and burst into flames. It's not yet known how many people were killed, but police say they rescued seven so far. They say that driver was trying to overtake a car when the bus crashed.
Well, police in China are now calling Monday's deadly crash at Tiananmen Square a terrorist attack. And investigators say they have already have five suspects in custody.
Latest from David McKenzie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chinese police say they've arrested five suspects relating to the dramatic incident on Tiananmen Square here on Monday. They're also calling that incident a terrorist attack, which they say was carefully planned, organized and premeditated.
They say a man, his wife and his mother plowed through the tourists in front of the forbidden city when that Jeep caught alight. They say they found a cylinder, a gas cylinder, matches as well as other paraphernalia and also a flag with religious extremist writing on it. The names of the suspects suggest that they are from the minority Uighur community based in China's trouble west of the country.
This incident, which occurred in the middle of the day at the symbolic heart of the Community Party had been deeply embarrassing for the leaders of China just days before a major meeting of Community Party leaders.
David McKenzie, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, live from London, this is CNN. Coming up, why is a British firm in the center of torture allegations at this South African prison. We'll be live in Johannesburg for that.
And later in the program, a football club from Russia will be punished for racist chants by its fans. The details also coming up.
This is Connect the World live from London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Right. Welcome back.
British security firm G4S is at the center of allegations of a pattern of abuse and torture at prisoners at one of the world's largest privately run prisons. The claims are so disturbing that South African authorities have taken back control of Manguang Prison while they investigate.
Now Arwa Damon is live for us in Johannesburg. And let's speak to her in just a moment.
First, though, her report. And a warning, some of the footage you are about to see you may find disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Video of an inmate being treated for his wounds after a prison fight, but it's the audio inadvertently caught in the background that has human rights investigators alarmed.
They say that is the dry clicking of electric shocks being administered.
RUTH HOPKINS, WITS JUSTICE PROJECT: Here, you can hear the screaming now. It's -- that person is really in pain.
DAMON: Just one of the videos leaked to Ruth Hopkins, a human rights investigator with the Wits University Justice Project who started her investigation after receiving dozens of letters detailing prisoner abuse, allegations of electric shocks, anal probes, and worse.
HOPKINS: And then later on in the investigation I found out that the prison was also forcibly injecting these inmates with anti-psychotic medication according to the accounts of the inmates.
DAMON: She says the videos were shot earlier this year, inside the Manguang Maximum Security prison, home to South Africa's most violent offenders. At the time, the prison was operated by the British private security giant, G4S.
(on camera): In a statement to CNN, a G4S spokesperson said, quote, "we do not use any form of torture or shock treatment, adding that G4S staff at Manguang correctional services do not administer medication nor do they have access to it.
The spokesperson also said that they do take these allegations very seriously and they would be launching their own investigation into the matter.
(voice-over): But in another video leaker to Hopkins, G4S employees hold down a struggling inmate as he is given an injection.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not an enemy.
DAMON: Hopkins says according to a health care worker, he was given an anti-psychotic drug despite no record of psychosis.
HOPKINS: But as you can see these are all G4S employees. You can even see the logo.
DAMON: But the videos were shot by G4S employees themselves. According to its government contract, the G4S emergency security team is obligated to document its actions, mandated to only use force under strict guidelines.
G4S says it cannot verify any of the videos and the company continues to deny all allegations of inmate mistreatment.
With contracts across the globe, including with U.S. customs, Baghdad International Airport security, Wimbledon and many other red carpet events, this is not the first time it's come under scrutiny. G4S landed the lucrative London Olympics Contract to provide security staff, but failed, forcing the British government to call in additional troops to secure the games.
Earlier this month, complaining of being ill-equipped and understaffed, its employees at Manguang Prison went out on strike. G4S fired hundreds of them. What followed was even more violence in the notorious prison.
G4S says it was working to fix the problem, but the South African government responded by firing G4S saying, the contractor has lost control over the facility.
But according to documents obtained by Ruth Hopkins, the problems at the prison were not new. As far back as 2010, a classified correctional services memo says the state is being milked for work not done. They, G4S, used the cheapest methods. The memo describes the use of electric shocks as routine.
Three years later, the government forced to take the prison back.
HOPSKINS: Because you cannot outsource constitutional obligations.
DAMON: And an international security firm again finds itself under intense scrutiny. And this time denying it is responsible for torture.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, let's get more on what is a story that's developing as we speak. Arwa is tonight live for you from Johannesburg. And what do we know of the latest on this investigation, Arwa?
DAMON: Well, we spoke to the temporary manager of the prison. He is with the government's department of correctional services, Mr. Zacharia Modise (ph). He said that all G4S staff had been replaced with department of correctional service officers and that they had a fairly high level investigative team looking into all of these various allegations.
They're not only investigating G4S employees' actions in the prison, though, Becky, they're also looking into possible misconduct, malconduct by members of the independent medical team that is in fact staffed at the prison itself. Part of their investigative team does include medical staff as well.
We do believe, according to this temporary manager, we could in fact see the results of that investigation as early as Friday.
This must certainly something that the South African government at this stage is taking very, very seriously.
ANDESRON: Fascinating. Arwa Damon is live for you in Johannesburg this evening.
Well, for news just in to CNN, Facebook reporting a 60 percent increase in its third quarter revenues to just over $2 billion. Shares up 15 percent in after hours trade. We're going to have a lot more on that as you would expect on Quest Means Business. That is about a half hour from now at the top of the hour.
But, yeah, Facebook's latest numbers out. Impressive stuff.
The latest world news headlines just ahead, plus the faces of the world's missing millions. We're going to speak to a man who thought his family was gone forever, but who had a very happy surprise.
And an amazing discovery that goes thousands of years unearthed in London. More on this eagle after this.
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ANDERSON: Half past 8:00 in London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories for you this hour. The director of the US National Security Agency is rejecting allegations in a new "Washington Post" report. He says that his agency broke into communications links that connect Yahoo! and Google data centers. Now, General Keith Alexander says the report is, and I quote, "factually incorrect."
British media are reporting that three journalists who used to work for "The News of the World" tabloid newspaper have pleaded guilty to phone- hacking. They're among a group of defendants who went on trial this week, including the paper's former editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.
Chinese authorities are now calling a fiery car crash on Monday a terrorist attack. They've arrested five people in Xinjiang province, where the Uighur minority group is based. Two tourists were killed in that crash in Tiananmen Square along with the three people in the car.
A massive rise in social network Facebook's fortunes. The company reporting a 6-0 percent -- that's 60 percent -- increase in its third quarter revenues to more than $2 billion. Shares are higher by 15 percent in after-hours trade.
War crime and natural disaster, reasons why millions of people are missing around the world. This Wednesday, for the first time ever, the mystery of the missing is being given a global platform. Meeting in the Hague, the International Commission of Missing Persons is calling for action.
Now, exact figures are hard to come by. In Iraq, anywhere between a quarter of a million and one million people have gone missing since the Iran-Iraq War began in 1980. Around 50,000 people unaccounted for in Syria.
And it's not just conflict that makes people disappear. The Mexican drugs war, for example, has seen some 28,000 souls disappear. In the Balkans, 40,000 went missing after the war there some 20 years ago.
Well, I met one survivor of the Bosnian War and heard how the ICMP helped find his lost relatives. And do remember, there is a human face to every single one of these stories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON (voice-over): The faces of Bosnia's missing thousands, still unaccounted for more than 20 years after the conflict.
KEMAL PERVANIC, BOSNIAN WAR SURVIVOR: So, this is my cousin Sajhad (ph). They were brothers. And Sajhad was taken from his home, and he ended up in one of the three camps. He was tortured there, and then he was transferred to the Omarska camp.
ANDERSON: Kemal Pervanic says his two cousins were killed by Bosnian Serbs in the ethnic cleansing of the early 1990s, when thousands of Muslims were sent to Serb-run detention camps.
PERVANIC: We had some chance in the Omarska camp. And one day, he was called out again, and I never saw him again. He was recognized -- actually, his body was recognized on the basis of his clothing by another detainee in Omarska.
And his brother, younger brother, Suhad (ph), was taken from the house by a Serb neighbor and shot very close to the -- shot dead very close to the house. And Suhad's remains were recovered from a mass grave in my village in 2004.
ANDERSON: But for many years, Kemal had no answers about what had happened to Sajhad and Suhad. All he had were the memories of the prison camp where he'd last seen his cousin, a camp like this one, shown in rare TV pictures from the time.
PERVANIC: I refused to watch, for example, people being tortured and killed because I always hoped I would get out alive. So I thought I wouldn't want to carry those memories with me. But even though I didn't watch, I heard the screams. And as we are talking right now, I can hear those screams.
ANDERSON: The memories still haunt Kemal, but thanks to the work of the Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons, he has at least been able to lay his cousins to rest.
The ICMP has helped many in Bosnia and around the world find the remains of their loved ones. Using DNA techniques to identify remains, their work helps bring justice for the victims and accountability to those responsible for heinous war crimes by providing evidence at trial.
KATHRYNE BOMBERGER, INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON MISSING PERSONS: If states don't take responsibility for these cases, countries, particularly Central Africa and other places in the world, are likely to continue violent efforts to disappear persons.
ANDERSON: The ICMP doesn't only deal with victims of conflict. After the recent Lampedusa boat disaster that left hundreds of African migrants drowned, the ICMP stepped in to help identify the bodies. But the organization says there needs to be more international help to deal with the world's missing.
BOMBERGER: I think we have an obligation of the international community to launch an effort to deal with these cases on a global scale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, as well as identifying those who will never return, there is a parallel mission to reunite the living. Joining me here is Emily Knox from the Red Cross International Family Tracing Service to talk us through that process, and I have to say that Alex Myuka Ntung, who survived violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is also with me.
Now, you lost 11 family members, but with the help of the Red Cross, you have successfully at least reunited with your nephew. I just want you to step back for a moment and just talk us through life for you way back when.
ALEX MYUKA NTUNG, AUTHOR AND PEACE CAMPAIGNER: Coming from a region like that, which has been -- it has experienced civil war and violence for the last decades, three decades, and I do read old headlines in terms of numbers and statistics.
Actually, as you just imagined, that has averaged in the millions of people who have been affected by civil war in DRC. It affected my family badly --
ANDERSON: You --
NTUNG: But --
ANDERSON: Yes, go on. Go on.
NTUNG: I was going to say, finding my nephew recently was incredible. It was a dream come true. And I keep every tragedy in term of stories, then finding my nephew is amazing, amazing discovery.
ANDERSON: That was something that you were able to do along with the Red Cross, I believe. I know that you face incredible challenges. Just walk me through this process.
EMILY KNOX, RED CROSS INTERNATIONAL FAMILY TRACING SERVICE: Well, the -- yesterday was actually the 150-year anniversary of the Red Cross Red Crescent movement, so we've been looking and helping families who were separated from their loved ones for a long time.
But it is challenging, because we often work I conflict-affected areas. But the British Red Cross works with sister organizations, different Red Crosses and Red Crescents across the world, and we have volunteers who go into these difficult places to look for family members.
ANDERSON: Because I know you've still got a number of family members that you hope that you will find. I want you to just explain to our viewers what happened to you and your family, and give us a sense of the relief, at least, when you found your nephew.
NTUNG: My nephew is the son of my brother, who is still missing since the last 12 years. He went missing last 5 years. And I never thought we'd find him, because we never found his father. And recently, he contacted the British Red Cross in Ethiopia. He was in a refugee camp near Sudan, that's where he ended up.
And so, as you can imagine, with that sort of background, you're trying to find a safer place to go. And he's young, he's 18, 19, so he ended up where he is now.
ANDERSON: These are -- there are these remarkable stories that people find each other after so many years. When was the last time you saw your brother, for example?
NTUNG: My brother who went missing, the last time I saw him was 1999.
ANDERSON: Yes. These are these incredibly traumatic family situations, which sometimes have a light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, sometimes they don't.
KNOX: Absolutely. And sometimes it's not always good news. But what we find with some of our services is that people really want to know what's happened to their loved ones, so -- because the uncertainty, living with the uncertainty of not knowing, is just very difficult for people.
ANDERSON: Can you talk us through the tracing process?
KNOX: Absolutely. So, people can go to the Family Links website, which is familylinks.icrc, and then find their local Red Cross or Red Crescent office. And then they go to the office, give the information about when they last saw their loved one, their last known address, give us that kind of information.
And then we work with our colleagues all around the world, and again, with local volunteers, really. And at the end of the day, it's about people --
ANDERSON: That's true. Matching names up, right?
KNOX: Exactly. Or --
ANDERSON: Yes?
KNOX: -- going on a bicycle in a village somewhere actually looking for people. So, it's not without risk as well.
ANDERSON: What do you do next? Because you are still searching, aren't you?
NTUNG: Very much so. I come from a culture where if you don't find a missing person, it's as if that person is dying. I continue to die. So, really, you always live with hope that you'll find, even if you're now searching, they will turn up one day in a miracle. You don't really give up. You dream about them and you keep searching in your mind.
ANDERSON: And so, what's the process you're going through at the moment? What are you physically doing? How does it work? It's a tough job, isn't it?
NTUNG: It is. I think therapy-wise, you kind of really compare the relative issues how they come. Come from a region like that where you know there are other people have gone missing, hundreds, thousands of people have gone missing. And you know, from families you know.
I think that's what probably makes -- waiting really makes you stronger. You're kind of feeling you're not the only one.
ANDERSON: You're not alone.
NTUNG: You're not alone. And your case might be relatively -- probably relatively better than others' where they may have gone missing for a long time.
ANDERSON: To just reinforce how important it is for people to either get closure, sadly, or to hook up with their missing relatives after so long, just walk us through that day when you knew that you were meeting your nephew once again. How does it feel inside?
NTUNG: It was incredible. It was incredible, just -- I had a phone call from British Red Cross saying that they're looking for me. And first of all, it was like, how -- looking for me for what? And how do you know me?
And wow, it was surprising, it was telling me that they have found me and my nephew. Of course, they have to go through checks in kind of a tent city, of me and my brother and who do we know? So, they would have to do those type of checks, which is incredible.
For me, it was amazing, amazing process to go through but still have to trace the person where, thank God for technology and Google, they manged to find me where I was, and that was amazing news that day.
ANDERSON: My hairs are standing up on my arms.
NTUNG: Yes, thanks.
ANDERSON: Let's hope you get more good news in the future.
NTUNG: Thank you.
ANDERSON: To both of you, thank you very much, indeed --
KNOX: Thank you very much for having us.
ANDERSON: -- for joining us. You saw the strap on the bottom as we were talking there, and you now know how you indeed can get a hold of the ICRC in the future if you have information, that is important, help and advice. Familylinks.icrc.org.
Live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. We'll be back after this short break.
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ANDERSON: Well, Hong Kong is reaping the benefits of what is a highly sophisticated travel system. Authorities argue its air and rail services have set it apart in the region. And they say, at least, it's opened up huge opportunities with mainland China.
Well, Andrew Stevens went off to explore, and as he explains, it's a much healthier outlook than it was a decade ago. Here's this week's episode of the Gateway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a Thursday afternoon, and for many Hong Kongers, this is where the journey to China begins. From here at the Hong Kong MTR station, travelers can either take either take a cross-boundary train to the border, or an Intercity train straight into China.
CARMEN LI, MTR GENERAL MANAGER, INTERCITY: We're very mindful that we provide the best possible service to our citizens going to China, as well as bringing Chinese people to Hong Kong. And we think that the economic growth between the two places also hinges on how easy transportation is.
STEVENS: Commuters and tourists alike have taken full advantage of just how easy it is. In 2012, more than 100 million people used the cross- boundary service, and 4 million used the Intercity trains. Soon, the MTR will make it even easier when it opens its express rail link in 2015 that will connect Hong Kong with other high-speed rail lines in China.
LI: Ever since 2003 when we had some difficulty due to SARS, and then the government introduced a policy whereby the mainline individual travelers can come to Hong Kong very freely. So since then, we have almost double-digit growth on an annual basis.
STEVENS: Air travel growth has followed as well. HKIA now has 48 mainland destinations, 1,000 daily flights, and more than 100 airlines servicing China, including Hong Kong's flagship Cathay Pacific.
JOHN SLOSAR, CEO, CATHAY PACIFIC: I've learned never to be surprised at how fast China develops. The development has been fast, it's been good development, and I think what you're going to see on the travel side is also good development. The number of passengers who want to go outbound is clearly large and growing.
STEVENS: And if you can't get to your final destination by plane or train, you can hit the road or take to the sea. Passengers can transfer straight from their flight to eight different locations in China by ferry. There's no need to go through immigration, and even their baggage will be checked straight through.
There are also 550 daily bus trips to more than 110 cities in China, as well as private car rentals available. Hong Kong has positioned itself to be a crucial link to helping people to get into every corner of China, and it's good business to stay that way.
SLOSAR: The message here is that a lot of places realize that travel and being a travel hub that people want to go to and find it easy to go to get other places has value. We know that here in Hong Kong. Other places know it, too. What we've got to do is make sure we stay ahead of the competition.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: A football club from Moscow will be punished for racist behavior by its fans during a European Champions League game. Amanda's with me for more on this. What do we know?
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: This is about CSKA Moscow and their Champions League match against Manchester City from last week. Yaya Toure, the Manchester City Ivorian Coast midfielder, ten minutes into the second half, went to the referee and complained that there were monkey chants coming from the stands.
CSKA refused to believe that this was the case, but UEFA did look into it. A nine-man panel has met in Switzerland at their HQ today, and they have, indeed, confirmed that there were racist chants coming from the stands.
And so, they have followed the rules that were put in place by UEFA in May this year. They really decided to step up their fight against racism. So, following those rules, the first offense from racism in the stands at a match means that for one game, a section of the stands will be closed off to spectators.
ANDERSON: That's the punishment? Is that tough enough, do you think?
DAVIES: This is a very, very interesting one. We had -- we spoke to Piara Power, who's head of Football Against Racism in Europe a little bit earlier on, and he said yes, this is a great sign that European football's governing body is finally stepping up and taking action. They are following the plan they put in place.
The second offense, if this was to happen again, would be a whole match behind closed doors entirely, no fans in the stadium at all.
But, very interestingly, some footballers have spoken out on Twitter today. We've got a couple of quotes from what they've said. Former South Hampton player Matt Le Tissier says, "Wow, partial closure of stadium for one match for racist abuse for CSKA Moscow! Those boys at UEFA are so tough!"
ANDERSON: A little cynical.
DAVIES: A little sarcasm there. And Stan Collymore, former Liverpool player went on the same lines. He said, "I'm a racist. I'm going to move to section E against Bayern." This is the match against Bayern Munich that will be -- they'll suffer the punishment. "More UEFA clownery."
The criticism of these punishments in the past is that a fine for a club, what impact does that have on spectators? This does mean that they will have less spectators in the grounds. So next -- if they were to go it again and a whole match behind closed doors, that is a big punishment.
ANDERSON: It's worth the question, isn't it? Is the club responsible for its fans? Are the fans real fans of the football club? I remember the 1980s when British clubs or English football clubs were not allowed to play in Champions League because of a number of issue, not least the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. And that really hurt us as football fans.
DAVIES: Yes.
ANDERSON: We really -- and I think that was hooliganism at the time, of course, and that really made a difference. But there's always this question, who's responsible for whom at this stage?
DAVIES: Yes, and are these people actually real football fans?
ANDERSON: Sure.
DAVIES: That's the other big issue.
ANDERSON: Yes.
DAVIES: There are people we've seen in the past, they go to games just to cause trouble. It's something that's a big issue in Italy at the moment. There, they've brought in laws to do with territorial differences and different chanting. They've actually had to row back, because they were implementing matches behind closed doors, but fans were going to games just to get opponents' teams in trouble.
ANDERSON: Riled up, yes.
DAVIES: So, yes. That's not great.
ANDERSON: You know what? It's not easy.
DAVIES: No.
ANDERSON: At least they're affecting something at this point.
DAVIES: Yes.
ANDERSON: Let's move away. I hate talking about football when we're talking about racism and problems. We love to report -- we hate it when we're talking about -- one day we won't have to do it. You've got other news tonight, haven't you?
DAVIES: Yes. Yesterday we were talking about an incredible story where most people across Europe were running to take cover from the storms, one Brazilian surfer decided to go and take advantage, and we thought he might have set a world record for surfing the biggest wave ever. But 24 hours later, we're not so sure. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the big wave seen around the world.
CARLOS BURLE, SURFER: It's like going down in a mountain that never ends.
SWEENEY: Surfer Carlos Burle described catching a ride on what may be a world-record wave. It happened Monday off the coast of Portugal. Everyone's still talking about the Brazilian surfer's amazing feat. But not everyone is sure it's a record.
LAIRD HAMILTON, BIG WAVE SURFER: If he's claiming that he's ridden the biggest wave ever ridden, I'd say maybe he wiped out on the biggest wave ever ridden.
SWEENEY: Eyewitnesses say Burle rode a towering wave estimated at 30 meters or 100 feet in height. If that's confirmed, it would break Garrett McNamara's current world record. He surfed a wave nearly 24 meters or 78 feet high in the same spot back in 2011.
This time, McNamara was a member of Burle's support crew, and he says --
GARRETT MCNAMARA, SURFER: You know, I watched all the waves, and I didn't see any waves that were bigger than the wave I caught last year. There was definitely no waves over 100 feet ridden.
SWEENEY: Experts are also questioning Burle over a close call involving his surfing partner. Burle helped rescue Maya Gabeira on Monday after she nearly drowned attempting to catch one of these monster waves.
MCNAMARA: She doesn't have the skill to be in these conditions and she should not be in this kind of surf, and I feel like it's Carlos' responsibility to take care of her, and he's just lucky that she didn't drown.
BURLE: She wanted to surf badly. And sometimes people think that I pushed her, but that's not true, because I'm just here to help her.
SWEENEY: Gabeira suffered a broken ankle but is otherwise OK. When it comes to the record, that will all need to be sorted out by officials from Guinness World Records, but Burle says he's confident he has set the bar.
BURLE: You can check out the images, you can check the footage, all the pictures, and it's incredible. I made it, and I made it and I was glad just to do it.
SWEENEY: Fionnuala Sweeney, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: All right. Just had your sports update with Amanda there. In tonight's Parting Shots, a wave of tourists descended on the Museum of London today to get a glimpse of a rare Roman statue dug up at a building site, let me tell you.
The artifact depicts an eagle devouring a snake and was found in such good condition, archaeologists tell me initially they believed it was only a recent carving, something like a couple of weeks ago. Well, I went along to see for myself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON (voice-over): On public display for the first time in almost 2,000 years, this rare Roman sculpture was unearthed just 30 days ago at a construction site in the city of London. Though at the time, archaeologists did not realize the significance of the find.
ANDERSON (on camera): I know that when you as a team found this, you were a little sort of underwhelmed. You didn't know what it was, did you? Because at first it was just a piece of stone, right?
SIMON DAVIS, ARCHAEOLOGIST, MOLA: Yes. Yes.
ANDERSON: When it first came out.
DAVIS: Relatively common discovery on an archaeological site. And then to go ahead and reveal it and realize the detail, the quality of the workmanship, and the completeness of the find, it was just amazing.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The Roman eagle's pristine condition has enabled it to be fast-tracked to the Museum of London, which is set inside the city's old Roman walls.
ANDERSON (on camera): Roy, just how significant a find is this?
ROY STEPHENSON, MUSEUM OF LONDON: It's a highly significant find. I've been around London's archaeology for about 27 years, and this, I would say, is the very best piece of Roman sculpture that's come out of the ground in that time.
And I know the excavating crew were taken aback to the extent they really didn't actually believe it was real it was so good. To think, oh, it must have fallen off a pub or it's part of an 18th century garden center or whatever.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The artifact has been traced back to the first or second century when Britain was under Roman rule, and experts believe it would have perched on a mausoleum reserved for the wealthiest citizens.
ANDERSON (on camera): And so who would they have been?
DAVIS: Well, they were a Roman family, and we don't really know who the person would have been. But we're guessing it would have been somebody of significant wealth, of means, somebody with style and taste.
ANDERSON: What's something like this Roman eagle worth?
DAVIS: Frankly, if you were to sell it, where's the catalog of Roman Eagles to compare and contrast it? So, as far as we're concerned, its without value. It's priceless.
ANDERSON: If this eagle hadn't been found, it would have forever been buried under what will be a new hotel in the city of London, and the museum here is delighted that the site owners have allowed them to display this in all its glory for you and me.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Only one other statue remotely like this is known to exist in the world.
ANDERSON: Simon, your reputation stand on the answer to this next question. Are you absolutely convinced that this is a Roman eagle from Roman times and this isn't something I'm going to find in a local garden center down the road?
(LAUGHTER)
DAVIS: Well, I'm absolutely sure that it's a Roman sculpture. We found it in a Roman roadside ditch, there's good dating, and a well-sealed context. I'm sure it's a Roman date.
ANDERSON: We can hold him to that.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And now to something even the most eagle-eyed of you couldn't have spotted. We'll leave you with a photo gallery on our website that brings you images around the world the likes of which you've never seen before. They are from a contest sponsored by Nikon. View them all on our website, cnn.com/international. We leave you with those. It's a very good evening from London.
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