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South Korea Votes; Citizen Journalist Helps Expose Corrupt Politicians in China; Barcelona Coach to Step Down for Health Reasons; Protests in New Delhi; Instagram Under Fire

Aired December 19, 2012 - 08:00:00   ET

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


MONITA RAJPAL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong. Welcome to NEWS STREAM where news and technology meets. Will the daughter of a man some say was a dictator become South Korea's next president? We'll be live in Seoul. The citizen journalist exposes corrupt politicians online with help from the government. Sound unusual? It's in China. And this just in to us at CNN. Reports say Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova will step down for medical reasons.

In the coming hours, one of these two people will emerge as South Korea's next president. The tight race puts left leading candidate Moon Jae-in against the conservative ruling party's Park Geun-hye. Both candidates can be viewed through the prism of their past. Moon served as chief of staff for late President Roh Moo-hyun, who killed himself during a bribery investigation, and Park is the daughter of a divisive formal leader seen as a dictator by some and an economic savior by others. But voters are concerned about the future. Namely, the economy, income inequality, job creation and education are the most pressing concerns for South Koreans. Polls are finding relations with North Korea rank lower on the list. Well, exit polls show Park has a slight lead. If elected, she would be South Korea's first female president. Paula Hancocks is keeping an eye out for the results first, and she joins us now from CNN Seoul. What are the indications suggesting at this point, Paula?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Monita, at this point, we've got 55 percent of the vote that's been counted, and Park is in the lead with 51.9 percent of the vote, 47.7 percent for Moon. We have seen Park ahead throughout the past few hours voting -- counting these votes, but that gap is actually narrowing.

Now, three of the main broadcasters from all sides of the political spectrum have actually called this election. They've forecast that Park Geun-Hye, the conservative candidate has won, but at this point, of course, only 55 percent of the vote has been counted, so we should urge some caution. But we have been hearing from Park's camp that she will making a speech in half an hour. It could potentially be a victory speech, but we'll have to wait and see exactly what she says when she goes to the Saenuri Party Headquarters, that's her party, and then she'll be coming to a square in downtown Seoul and giving a public speech in front of what will probably be thousands of people coming to hear her, so, potentially she is coming to give her victory speech. But it has been a very close run thing, a very close run election. Both candidates actually have quite similar policies, although they are on two different sides of the political spectrum, one conservative, one liberal. Let's listen to what South Korean voters had in mind when they went to the polls earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Park Geun-Hye has experience and know-how. I think she's trustworthy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I believe Moon Jae-in has experience already in running the country. There have been some difficulty issues over the past five years, and he has the strength to fix problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm concerned about homeland security, foreign policy and the economy. Among those, the economy is the most important issue. We need to help and raise the number of the middle class.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I hope the next president can put what the people want and the country's developmental needs before the interest of his own party.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: So, the economy really has been a number one issue, as we've been hearing from voters, as it has been in many elections around the world. Monita.

RAJPAL: What's interesting is that the economy has certainly brought these two candidates closer together with - when you were talking about how far apart they are when it comes to their political parties and what they stand for, but it's also interesting in that the histories of these two candidates as well. We are talking about a candidate whose father had a very divisive history when it comes to South Korean politics, not to mention also her opposing candidates' history as well. How much does that play into the electorate's mind?

HANCOCKS: Well, certainly the election was not just about two candidates this time around, it was also about the histories of those two candidates, both tied to very significant presidents of the past, and neither one could really unlink themselves from those -- from that history, and neither one necessarily wanted to. It's that where their power base lay.

Of course, Park Geun-hye, her father was a former dictator who than won elections to stay in power. He was in power for 18 years, and people here either loved him or hated him. Many said that he committed human rights abuses, he delayed the onset of democracy, but for others, he was the country's economic savior, bringing it up from the ashes of the Korean War. And an interesting point is, Park's rival Moon Jae-in, was actually arrested back in the 70s, and he was in prison because he was protesting against Park's father, Park Chung Hee, the dictator, he was protesting against. And he was penalized for that. So that just really encapsulates how different they are politically.

But when it comes to the economy, both have moved towards the center. We've certainly seen Park and Moon move towards the center, because they know that welfare reform, they know that youth unemployment, concerns about that, the rich and the poor gap is widening here in South Korea. They know that's what the voters want to hear about, and so they both say that this is what they will fix, and the policies are really quite remarkably similar. Monita.

RAJPAL: Paula, thank you for that. Of course, we'll be waiting for those results as they are coming in momentarily -- in terms of the official results coming in momentarily, and we'll check in with you then. Paula, thank you very much for that. Paula Hancock there, at CNN Seoul.

We now turn to the United States. And mourning over the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. A teacher who family members say gave her life trying to protect her students from the gunman will be buried today. 27-year old Victoria Soto told her class to hide in the closet after Adam Lanza forced his way into the Newtown, Connecticut school. Victoria's mother says she loved the children more than life itself. More victims of Friday's massacre will also be buried today. Police say Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother before heading to the elementary school, where he gunned down 20 children and six more adults before killing himself.

The tragedy has prompted a renewed debate over gun control, and now U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to lead an inter-agency process on that issue. That announcement is expected from President Obama today. Dan Lothian joins us now from the White House with more on that. And Dan, what more are we expecting from this announcement?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are told by White House aides that the president will be laying out more of the process of what will take place in this appointment of Vice President Biden to head up this inter-agency effort rather than laying out any specific policies. We'll see if we will get a chance to maybe probe the president with questions, but it's once again, just announcing this effort rather than laying out any specifics. And, you know, the White House has been hit over the last few days for, you know, what is the president going to do? He talked shortly after those shootings about actions that he and his administration would take to ensure that some things like this didn't happen again, but they didn't spell out a lot of details. Well, that changed. Yesterday, White House Spokesman Jay Carney gave a little bit more:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He is actively supportive of, for example, of Senator Feinstein's stated intent to revive a piece of legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban. He supports and would support legislation that addresses the problem of the so-called gun show loophole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: The president also would support measures that will deal with mental health issues as well. Now, throughout this entire debate, we have not heard from the National Rifle Association until late yesterday when the organization put out a press release saying that their membership was shocked and saddened by the tragedy, and then at the end of that press release pointing out that they will offer any meaningful - prepared, rather, to offer any meaningful contributions to help make sure that something like this never happens again. Monita.

RAJPAL: Dan, are we seeing lawmakers there upon the Hill crossing the aisle and making this a bipartisan issue? We see so much of American politics divided over party lines. Has this Newtown tragedy making lawmakers cross the lines now?

LOTHIAN: Well, I think so. I mean, for example, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who is a long-time member of the NRA, has come out and talked about the need for maybe tougher gun laws, and in fact, he spoke with President Obama yesterday about, you know, what can be done, and you are sort of hearing this collective voice, a bipartisan voice that something needs to be done. At the same time, you have a lot of gun owners out there who say they want to make sure that in these processes, as there's this intense scrutiny, that their rights remain. They say it's very important that something like that, their rights to bear arms, are not trampled on during this process.

RAJPAL: Is there a sense that the president's hands are tied right now, because as we were talking about, the strength of the NRA lobby?

LOTHIAN: You know, some might say that, but as that press release that I just noted from a short time ago, clearly, the NRA is expressing interest to get engaged in this process, to have some kind of meaningful, rather, conversation to make sure that another tragedy doesn't occur. So, based on that, you get the sense that they are willing to take some action, and they have a press conference that they've scheduled for Friday, that they are calling a major press conference here in Washington. At that time, we will get a sense of more details in terms of what they plan to do.

RAJPAL: All right, Dan, thank you so much. Dan Lothian there at the White House. Still ahead here on NEWS STREAM, new information on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi is raising some serious alarm bells for the U.S. State Department. Plus, crackdown on corruption: China's Communist Party is getting a little help from an unexpected source. And Insta-backlash: photo sharing site Instagram downplays a recent announcement that made fans furious.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Welcome back. The World Health Organization and UNICEF say they have suspended all polio-related activities in Pakistan after three more health workers were killed this Wednesday. Five others were killed on Tuesday. Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio has not yet been eradicated, but some people -- people there view recent vaccination campaigns with suspicion. Meanwhile, in India, the brutal gang rape of a student on a bus has sparked outrage and protests on the streets of New Delhi. Demonstrators vented their anger outside the official residence of the city's chief minister on Wednesday. Riot police responded with water cannon. The victim of Sunday's attack remains hospitalized in critical condition. Protesters say violence against women is skyrocketing across the city, and as Sumnima Udas reports, they are demanding action now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are scenes you rarely see in this part of New Delhi. In (inaudible) of the capital normally far removed from activism. But today students, activists and the general public have taken to the streets to protest the crime they say has sadly become commonplace.

TWINKLE SHVAJ, STUDENT: We are not protesting here because a girl was raped yesterday, but we are protesting here because this is everyday issue. My father calls me five, six times in a day, just to check where am I, where am I, where am I and if I'm reaching back home safely.

UDAS: Police say a 23-year old medical student was raped by several men in a moving bus over the weekend. According to investigators, she and a male friend bordered the bus just after 9:00 in the evening, when they were both brutally attacked. She was raped repeatedly, both were then stripped and thrown off the bus. There were no other passengers on the bus, and the bus driver is among the accused.

Hundreds of Delhi students have gathered in the location where the incident took place. As you can see, they completely blocked off traffic. this would normally be a very busy intersection in South Delhi. They are now demanding justice and saying, enough is enough.

UDAS: Delhi has always been notorious for a high rate of crime against women. Government figures show the capital accounted for 23 percent of rape cases amongst all Indian cities in 2011. But the gruesome nature of this attack has caused outrage even in parliament.

JAYA BACHCHAN, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: I'm ashamed, I personally feel very, very ashamed that I'm sitting in this house and I'm helpless and I'm not being able to do anything.

UDAS: The survey conducted in partnership with a U.N. Agency found two out of every three women in New Delhi have been sexually harassed up to five times in one year.

RANJANA KUMARI, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH: I can talk about my own experience as a student in this city, that you go by bus, somebody is pinching you, somebody is touching you, somebody is coming close to you. I mean, this is absolutely, you know, the mentality where you just look at women's body as the object of sex and you want to just use, abuse.

UDAS: Activists blame it on attitudes towards women, inadequate policing and a low conviction rate for rape. In this case, the police have arrested four of the accused and two are still absconding.

"Theoretically, it's possible, but practically it's impossible to stop and check every truck, every bus and every car," he says.

Protesters here, though, are demanding better security and hoping the very public outcry around this brutal case will finally trigger more action. Sumnima Udas, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Results of an independent review on the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi back in September have just been made public. They reveal serious leadership and management deficiencies at high levels of the U.S. State Department, both in Washington and in Libya. The report also says those issues, coupled with systemic failures, resulted in grossly inadequate security at the diplomatic compound. The U.S. ambassador was one of those killed in Benghazi.

We want to get you more now from our world affairs, reporter Elise Labott, she joins us from the U.S. State Department in Washington.

Elise, we understand that some 29 recommendations were made, and Secretary Clinton has said that the State Department has already begun implementing some of them. Give us a little bit of an idea, what more she is talking about.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it ranges, these 29 recommendations range, Monita, from tightening security at these - what they call these expeditional posts, where there are these high threat environments, but not a lot of resources, to really looking in intelligence and a deteriorating security environment. If you remember, there were about five attacks on other western targets, including the U.S. consulate. There was an IED attack leading up to 911. So, what Secretary Clinton has done is she set up a team led by her deputy secretaries to implement some of these recommendations. One thing she's already done is appoint a deputy assistant secretary in charge specifically of these high-threat posts. She is also working with the Pentagon to send hundreds of Marines to beef security at some of these dangerous posts.

RAJPAL: Also interestingly enough, Clinton did say that diplomats cannot work in bunkers. Understandably, that not every place is going to be secure. However, that said, was there a sense that that was an underestimation of just how dangerous Benghazi still was, even after Gadhafi was overthrown?

LABOTT: I think so. I think what the report found is that there were a lot of warning signs, there was a hotbed of militant activity in eastern Libya, and there were these others attacks that they saw. And what they said is, yes, there were additional security measures taken, but it really should have been a kind of wake-up call for leadership at the Department's diplomatic security bureau and its Near East Affairs Bureau, who handles Libya and other posts in the Middle East, to look and say, is there more security that could be done? How should we be operating there? And I think one of the things is, yes, there's an acceptable level of risk that you have to take into account when operating in these posts, but there are not these fortress posts, like some of the U.S. embassies around the world. These are small posts, not a lot of personal, not a lot of facilities. What you need is, is the kind of new security paradigm, if you will, to operate in these high threat environments.

RAJPAL: And that requires money, resources and funding. So how much of the onus is placed on Congress now for perhaps not approving the request of funds that the State Department had requested in the past?

LABOTT: Well, that's certainly a big factor and a big problem listed in the report. That there is this climate at the State Department of a lack of resources, which leads the leadership to have to choose, make this kind of choice among their children, if you will, what -- what posts need security, what posts don't need security. There were not a lot of personnel at this post in Benghazi. So, maybe they felt they could do a little bit more with less. So, definitely, they were -- the panel says that Congress needs to support these security upgrades and these security increases, and more not only more personnel, but more experienced personnel. What the post was doing was relying on kind of temporary assignments, relying on local militias, and these people were not experienced, not seasoned and not up to the task.

RAJPAL: All right, Elise, thank you very much. Elise Labott there in Washington.

There were some who questioned whether he was good enough to be Barcelona boss. Reports say Tito Vilanova is stepping down for medical reasons. Now, the question is, who can possibly replace him?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: And we got some breaking news, sports news, I should say, involving one of the biggest football clubs on the planet. And why? They'll need a new coach. Alex Thomas is in London to explain all that for us. Hi, Alex.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Monita. In sad circumstances, the prospect of Pep Guardiola returning to Barcelona has been raised, after reports in Spain claimed current boss, Tito Vilanova, may stand down for medical reasons.

Barcelona have told CNN that they will release a statement later amid suggestions that Vilanova has suffered a relapse in his battle against a cancerous tumor. Although he underwent a successful operation to remove a tumor just over 12 month ago, it's thought the problem has returned, and he may need to quit the club to focus on getting better.

It has led to speculation inevitably that former coach Pep Guardiola could be tempted back to the camp now to help his old team out. Vilanova's record since succeeding Guardiola is excellent. He's lost just two of 27 matches and hasn't been beaten in La Liga at all. The (inaudible) of course, true (ph) to the Champions' League knockout rounds as well. We'll have full analysis on that dilemma for Barcelona, what's next for Vilanova, for the club, or even for Guardiola? All on "WORLD SPORT" in just over three and a half hours time.

Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, there's also a concern of a different kind at the Los Angeles Lakers, despite their third win in a row. Critics say the team hasn't improved under new coach Mike D'Antoni, even with Pau Gasol back from injury. The Lakers struggled on their home court against the Charlotte Bobcats, and at one stage in the third, L.A. trailed by 18 points, although Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard combined for the allez-oop (ph) as L.A. fought their way back into the game. The Lakers ahead by this stage in the fourth now, although two of Gerald Henderson's 19 points have slammed in as the Bobcats stay in touch (ph). That's a contender for dunk of the season when you look at the replay. The score was a tie. Then with a minute and a half on the clock, Kobe driving to the basket and laying it in. He got 7 30-point games in a row, the fourth best run of his career. And it was just a single point when the Bobcats had one last-ditch bid to win it. Campbell Walker's shot is blocked, and Henderson and later Ben Gordon both miss their chances. What a scramble at the end, but the Lakers breathe a sigh of relief after a 101-100 win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOBE BRYANT, LA LAKERS: You just have to grind it out. I think it was a big - big lesson for us, but we managed to stick together. We could have folded the tent, but we didn't. We stayed together and played hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS: And that is all the sport for now. Back to you in Hong Kong, Monita.

RAJPAL: All right, Alex, thank you very much. And still to come here on NEWS STREAM, named and shamed. Citizen journalists in China are helping bring down Communist Party officials accused of corruption.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong, you are watching NEWS STREAM and these are the world's headlines. Ballots are being counted in South Korea's presidential election. We are expecting to find out who's won in the next couple of hours. If she wins, conservative candidate Park Geun-hye would become South Korea's first female president. Left leading candidate, Moon Jae-in, is a former human rights lawyer.

And independent reports on the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi has cited systemic failures, and leadership and management deficiencies of the U.N. State Department. Four Americans were killed in the attack, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. It took place on September 11th this year. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she will work to improve security for U.S. diplomatic facilities worldwide.

Swiss bank UBS will pay $1.5 billion in fines to the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland after admitting its staff manipulated interest rates for several years. The libor rate, which UBS tried to rig for its own benefit, is a benchmark rate used as the basis for what borrowers pay on loans such as mortgages and car finance. And of course, you will have more on that on "WORLD BUSINESS TODAY" in just about a half hour's time.

U.S. President Obama has just been named "Time" magazine's 2012 person of the year. It is the second time he's been honored by the magazine after first receiving the title back in 2008. In its latest issue, "Time" refers to Mr. Obama as the symbol of a new America.

China's new Communist Party leadership has vowed to crack down on corruption, and so far incoming President Xi Jinping seems to be sticking to his word. More than a dozen low-ranking party officials have been fired in scandals that recently became public. Anna Coren joins us now from CNN Beijing with more on that -- Anna.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know that corruption is a huge problem in China. Some say it is the biggest problem facing China's Communist Party. But with the level of anger really growing here amongst the people, one citizen journalist has taken matters into his own hands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: This is an image of a Communist Party official having sex with an 18-year-old prostitute. We can't show the video. It's simply too explicit. But she's a gift from a construction company in return for contracts -- a common way of doing business in China.

The story aired on state TV after the video was posted online last month by citizen journalist Ju Ra-Fung (ph), founder of the web site Supervision by the People. "As a journalist, I will report the truth," he tells me. "Most media in China are a mouthpiece for the party. My responsibility is not to the party, but to the truth."

Within hours of the video being uploaded, it went viral. Three days later, the Chongqing (ph) district official was sacked.

"Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, this is the first time an official has been taken down so quickly after being exposed," he says.

We contacted the official and the Chongqing government; both declined to comment. This is a victory to Mr. Ju, who now receives thousands of emails with information on corrupt officials.

But this work is not without its risks. He's exposed more than 100 party members, and received dozens of death threats.

Here in China, controversial web sites are either blocked or shut down, which is what makes Ju Ra-fung's story so fascinating. For years, his network has struggled to exist. Now, he's not only allowed to operate, but officials are offering him police protection.

This dramatic shift in the government's stance follows last month's warning from China's newly appointed leader, Xi Jinping. "Corruption could kill the party and ruin the country," he told the 18th Party Congress. A similar message was delivered eight years ago by then Premier Wen Jiabao. But Xi Jinping is sticking to his word. More than a dozen low-ranking officials have already been sacked over corruption charges. The most significant scalp is senior party member from Xichuan (ph) province.

"Several corrupt officials have been taken from their posts in the Party Congress," he says. "But if they are serious about cracking down on corruption, there must be real reform in the political system." And people seem to agree.

"It's not just the system. It's rooted in Chinese culture," says this woman. "I see little hope for change." "It's so common among officials. The government always says it will crack down but nothing will be different."

In the meantime, Mr. Ju plans to keep on doing what he does best -- exposing those in the party who believe they are above the law.

Mr. Ju is in possession of four other videos that show officials having sex with prostitutes. Now, we're unable to show you these because Mr. Ju is yet to verify it, but I can certainly tell you they are very explicit.

And very damning, which can only mean anxious days lie ahead for China's corrupt officials.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Now, many people are wondering why the government has changed its tune. You know, a few years ago, that citizen journalist would have been locked up behind bars, but really, this entire type of journalism is being embraced, as is the role that social media is playing in cracking down on these corrupt officials. But at the end of the day, the core of this problem is that there is real social unrest. There is that anger amongst the public, and that is something that the Chinese government wants to get a handle on, because that's obviously something they don't want to see get out of control.

RAJPAL: So we're seeing, Anna, that the new leadership in the Communist Party as they've sacked some government officials who have been accused and found corrupt -- accused of corruption and have been found to be corrupt, but what else is the government doing to crack down on the systemic corruption within the party itself?

COREN: You've mentioned those dozen or so officials that have already been sacked as the result of this widespread investigation, this crackdown on anti-corruption. But also, Xi Jinping has appointed an anti-corruption commissioner. His name is Wang Chi-xian (ph), and he is considered the fireman of China, if you like, a real troubleshooter, and some have described it as having the toughest job on the planet. But many say that if he can't get on top of this, if he can't crack down on this behavior, which is really ingrained in the Chinese society, then Monita, nobody can.

RAJPAL: Anna, thank you very much. Anna Coren there, live for us from Beijing.

It is one of the most respected names in media, but an independent inquiry has found the BBC was plagued by poor management, chaos and confusion when it found itself at the center of a scandal. The Pollard review has been looking into why the BBC's flagship current affairs show "NewsNight" dropped an investigation into claims of sexual abuse made against a former presenter at the corporation. Well, that presenter was Jimmy Savile, who was once an almost revered household name in Britain. So what has the inquiry found? Let's go to Dan Rivers, who joins us now from London with more on that. Dan.

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that one of the central findings of this exhaustive and highly critical report into what went wrong here at the BBC is that basically, the editor of that "NewsNight" program, which was compiling the expose on Jimmy Savile, took the decision to drop the expose in good faith. In other words, there was no real pressure from his senior management to drop it to protect Jimmy Savile, who of course was a BBC personality. They were about to air a glowing Christmas tribute to Jimmy Savile. There is no suggestion the decision to drop the expose was taken to shore up those programs. It was simply Peter Rippon's decision, and one as we heard here in the press conference he had a complete change of heart on whether the story should run almost within 24 hours, going from wanting to put it on air very quickly to suddenly putting the brakes on, and at that point, trust really broke down with his reporter and producer who'd looked into this exhaustively, and as we know now in the end, the rival channel ended up putting it on air, and the story in the end was vindicated.

So that's a decision the report said was seriously flawed. Peter Rippon didn't even go and watch the initial -- the original source material, did not look at the interview to see what they had. But despite this damning criticism, Peter Rippon remains at the BBC. He'll be moved to another post away from the editorship of "NewsNight." His line manager, Stevie Mitchell, is going to resign.

This is what Tim Davie, the acting deputy general, had to say about the changes that will be made as the result in personnel, senior personnel here in the BBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM DAVIE, ACTING DIRECTOR GENERAL, BBC: The director general has left the BBC. The deputy director of news has left the BBC. We're putting a totally new team into "NewsNight." Now, I think there will be a lot of people with theories about what we should or shouldn't have done. I will just say, go to the report and look at it calmly and think about what's fair and proportionate. That's what I've done, and I think we made the right decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: There was also damning criticism not only for that poor decision to ax the report, but the way they then dealt with the aftermath of it, the chaos and confusion, as you said just there, Kristine, senior management, they just couldn't get their story straight. Peter Rippon, the editor, wrote a blog about his reasoning, which was full of inaccuracies, and also some interesting details about the extent of knowledge within the BBC of quote, "the dark side of Jimmy Savile," that phrase used in emails from senior BBC managers to one another, when discussing about how they should put together an obituary or a documentary on Jimmy Savile, that doing that would be very difficult.

So some pretty difficult words to digest for the BBC. They say they are going to implement the report in full, but a lot of criticism here in London that no one has actually been sacked as a result of this, just one senior manager who's tended his resignation; others staying within the corporation.

RAJPAL: The interesting thing, Dan, I guess about all of this is the chain of command in all of this, and the event in question happened under Mark Thompson's leadership. What does the report have to say about him? Granted, he is no longer there now.

RIVERS: Well, no new revelations, really. Mark Thompson, we knew, had been -- had the fact that they were going to do this expose into Jimmy Savile, mentioned to him at a party by a journalist. He, again, comes out of this not really looking any worse. Basically, he didn't know any more than that. He likened it to someone sort of saying to, you know, the justice minister, you know, what do you think about this trial in Liverpool? And he said, well, you're in a difficult position in that case, because, you know, as someone that senior, you can't get involved with those detailed editorial decisions. So I don't think he comes out of this any worse than the facts that we already knew about him. Of course, he's now gone on to head up the New York Times, and there is a lot of interest in the U.S. as to how damaged he is by all this. But certainly for other lower down managers in the BBC, some really damning criticism against Helen Boaden and Steven Mitchell, her deputy as director of news. He's gone, she's staying. Adrian Van Klaveren, who was also involved in this decision process, stays on as well. So I think the headlines tomorrow will be, you know, 3.2 million pounds, 10,000 emails, interrogated, and not one person has been fired.

RAJPAL: Yes, the (inaudible) will certainly have a field day with that one. Dan, thank you very much for that, Dan Rivers there in London.

Coming up next on NEWS STREAM, Instagram sparked panic with new user rules. Now the site is backtracking amid the backlash. We'll take a look at the big picture.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Welcome back. You're watching NEWS STREAM, and this is a visual rundown of all the stories in the show. We've talked about South Korea's presidential election. We are waiting for official word on the results. We've also talked about Barcelona manager resigning for medical reasons. Now we want to talk about Instagram. On Tuesday, we told you about the social network's new terms and conditions. In many respects, we didn't find them to be too different to similar sites, but it didn't matter. The new terms caused a huge backlash online, so much so that Instagram was forced to publish this. A blog post saying, "we're listening." Adding it will modify the new terms to make it clear that they will not sell your photos. But Instagram also made clear that it plans to make money from its users.

We want to bring our regular contributor Nick Thompson. He's the editor of NewYorker.com. Nick, was this outcry justified?

NICK THOMPSON, NEWYORKER.COM: I think it was justified. As you say, look, there are a lot of technology companies that have onerous terms of service, and if you read them very carefully, they give appalling rights to the technology companies, but it's also true that Instagram's terms of service were awful. If you read them in an expanded way, it looked like if I took a picture of my kids at Denny's, that Denny's could then use that to advertise its products, or it could even maybe just take any picture of my kid that I put on Instagram, or if you know, if my mother writes a comment underneath the picture of my kids, then some life insurance company can show a picture of my kids and try to sell something to my mother.

It all just sounded just creepy, no matter how you thought about it. We didn't know exactly what they were going to do. We have some clarity now, but it certainly gave them the power to do creepy stuff. So yes, outrage justified.

RAJPAL: Facebook, as we know, owns Instagram. How much of the reaction is because of Facebook's controversial record on privacy?

THOMPSON: That is an interesting question. Facebook has a terrible record on privacy, at least as far as privacy advocates are concerned. Mark Zuckerberg's view on privacy is that the world is basically changing, privacy does not matter. They have to play along, give people some privacy rights for now, but they'll constantly change. So Facebook is constantly evolving since the very beginning. More and more of what you put on Facebook is shared with more and more people, whether you like it or not. The privacy policies constantly evolve, and they constantly evolve in the direction of posting more of your information in more places.

Instagram kind of has the same attitude, which is we're going to evolve in that direction. Their view is that the world is evolving that way, and in general, they are right, but you know, there can be backlashes.

I mean, one of the most surprising things about this is that Instagram did not anticipate this. I mean, this is a horrible blow for Instagram. They've backtracked, they are obviously not going to do all the terrible things I mentioned a minute ago, in part because they've seen such user backlash. But they should have anticipated this, having seen what happened to Facebook, so they should be more careful.

RAJPAL: They probably didn't think that everyone actually, those people who did react, actually read through the terms and conditions, because I can tell you, Nick, I'm not someone who will actually go through the pages and pages of legal lingo that you see in the terms and conditions. I just often just click "I accept," and that's that. When we do that, how worried should we be by how much of my rights I'm actually signing away?

THOMPSON: Often you're signing away tons of your rights and you should be worried. There can't be a burden on you to have to read all the terms of service. It would take you all day. You would never actually do any work. You would just come in, start reading the terms of service, and click on it when you finish at the end of the day. But what I think is important is that tech journalists do read them and do look at things, so this is CNET that broke this story, that read through the terms of services, found the changes to Instagram policies and alerted the world, and I think that is an important thing. Also, I think technology companies and everybody who requires their users to click on these terms of services probably should try harder to make their terms of service clear. Tumblr for example has done that. There are people who are saying, hey, let's write these terms of services for humans, as opposed to, you know, crazy lawyers. Let's write them for regular humans instead of just putting them all in legalese, and I think all tech companies should do that, and I hope following the Instagram fiasco, that starts to happen more.

RAJPAL: Yes, I am definitely for that. So, Nick, what kind of impact will all of this have on Instagram, the brand?

THOMPSON: My guess is it's going to have a very bad impact in the short term, but Instagram is such a good service and is so beloved that it will rebuild users' trust. It comes at a very, very bad moment, at a time when a lot of people are buying new gadgets, giving them for holidays, and if there is a sort of a lingering sense of distrust, maybe someone who gets a new computer won't sign up for an Instagram account. It also comes at a bad time because Yahoo! has just upgraded Flickr, which a lot of people are very enthusiastic about, so now there is a real competitor. My sense is Instagram will weather this, just as Facebook has weathered all of their privacy problems and all the storms about their privacy changes, but still, not a good move, and definitely, definitely a black eye for Instagram.

RAJPAL: Great stuff there, Nick. Always good to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us on NEWS STREAM.

THOMPSON: Thank you for having me.

RAJPAL: Still to come here on the show, a key date in the Mayan calendar has some predicting the world's demise, but NASA is working overtime to dispel the latest rumor. This one about a (inaudible) planet said to be on a collision course with Earth.

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RAJPAL: Welcome back, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in parts of Eastern Europe. Mari Ramos is at the World Weather Center with more on that. And Mari, we are talking about some pretty bitter cold temperatures.

MARI RAMOS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been very cold, indeed. You know, in some places across Eastern Europe, there is already 45, 50 centimeters of snow on the ground. This is already getting into the extreme level when it comes to the cold temperatures.

Let's go ahead and start to get these pictures from Ukraine. You know what? It does get pretty serious, Monita, when we start talking about these temperatures being so -- it's very early in the season, and they are already extremely cold.

Think about this. Last year in the month of -- actually, earlier this year, in the month of February, there were 150 deaths in Ukraine in a matter of weeks because of the extreme cold and the snow and the bitter cold temperatures. Well, this time around in these last 24 hours alone, there's already been more than 20 deaths across Ukraine because of the bitter cold temperatures. That raises the number to the 20s.

One of the big concerns that they have is, like the first picture I showed you, some of the homeless population, they have no place to go when the temperatures gets this cold. How cold has it been? Well, we are talking about Kiev, for example, where this picture behind me was taken, the average high temperature is zero. So, it's already very cold this time of year. But they have not made it to zero in the last week. And it's actually been ten to 12 degrees colder than average. So, there is very significant cold that has been affecting this area. We see the extreme cold also in Moscow. I can't believe that lady is not wearing a hat -- minus 18 yesterday in Moscow. So, there's extreme cold continues here across central and Eastern Europe, extends over toward Asia, we'll talk about that in just a moment.

Western Europe, actually, not doing too bad today, but there's some rain headed your way. Temperatures are above freezing, so most of this will -- precipitation will come down as rain. Watch out overnight, because if it does get below freezing, any water on the ground will freeze.

The heavier snowfall will again be in this area right in here, across southeastern Europe, along this area of low pressure, so that's going to be the thing to watch. There is some snow expected, of course, as we get into the higher elevations here, Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern parts of Italy.

Very quickly, this is a picture from Kazakhstan. Talk about (inaudible) bitter cold. This is another area. This city, for example, the average low temperature, Monita, try to imagine these kinds of temperatures -- the average low is actually about 20 degrees below freezing. But they've been about 40 degrees below freezing over the last week, and in some cases we are looking at extreme cold that is extending across this entire area. This is well ahead of the season, and we are looking at record setting temperatures in these areas. They are starting to just kind of -- move farther to the south over Afghanistan and Pakistan, northern Pakistan, so that's going to be something to watch. And yes, it is cold across east Asia, but I guess now after seeing those temperatures, we can't complain too much. Back to you.

RAJPAL: Can't complain at all. I mean, we are talking about pretty dangerous temperatures there in the northern part. Thank you very much for that. Mari, I know you are a space buff.

RAMOS: I am.

RAJPAL: Space fan. So stick around for this. The number of people, did you know, in space has doubled in the last two hours?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And liftoff! Tom Marshburn, Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield making their way towards the International Space Station.

(END VIDEO CLIP0

RAJPAL: The three riding in that Soyuz capsule include one American, one Russian, and Canada's first space station commander. They will join the current three residents of ISS on Friday. Meanwhile, a team of astronomers thinks it has found a potentially habitable planet nearby. Of course, that's a relative term. The Tau Ceti star is less than 12 light years from earth.

Now, this is an artist's concept of the planets orbiting it. They are thought to be between two and six times the size of Earth, making it the latest system yet detected, but the findings still need to be confirmed.

Meanwhile here on Earth, NASA scientists are making sure people know the world will not end December 21st. One theory floating around, a runaway planet on a collision course. Here is why you shouldn't worry about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MORRISON, NASA SCIENTIST: There are people who think that somehow NASA has been doing a coverup, a coverup of a planet, called Niburu, named by the ancient Sumarians, that in the normal description has a 3,600-year orbit, so it comes back into the inner Solar System every 3,600 years, and each time it comes in, it either hits the Earth or almost hits the Earth. This time it's supposed to hit the Earth and destroy us.

And it's such a pervasive idea that makes no sense, because if it were there, we could see it, and by now it would be the brightest object in the sky after the sun or moon. Anybody could go out and see it. You can dispel this rumor yourself. You don't have to ask the government or ask scientists, just go out and look at the sky, and you will find no new bright object in it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Oh, well, that is NEWS STREAM, I'm Monita Rajpal. The news continues here at the CNN World Business Today. That's next.

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