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NEWS STREAM

Lou Reed Dies at 71; October 26 Women Driving Campaign Called Success; Sebastian Vettel Wins Fourth F1 Drivers Championship; Car Drives Through Barricades At Forbidden City; Powerful Storm Leaves 200,000 Without Power In England

Aired October 28, 2013 - 08:00   ET

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


PAULINE CHIOU, HOST: I'm Pauline Chiou in Hong Kong. Welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

A deadly car crash in Tienanmen Square. Hours after a vehicle plowed into a crowd, people are still asking why it happened.

Plus, Britain feels the force of a major Atlantic storm. Authorities tell travelers to prepare for delays.

And the man who opened up new possibilities in rock 'n' roll has passed away. The music world mourns Lou Reed.

There has been a deadly crash at one of the Chinese capital's most famous landmarks. A car plowed into a crowd of people at Tienanmen Square in Beijing earlier today. State run media say five people, including one foreigner, have been killed. Dozens more have been injured.

Now this area is in the heart of the city and is visited by millions of people from across China and around the world every year. Two of the dead and many of the injured were tourists.

Now state run news agency Xinhua says the car drove into a guard rail of a bridge over the moat of the Forbidden City before bursting into flames. David McKenzie has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're going to get out and try and film. We'll almost certainly be detained.

(voice-over): The chief symbol of Communist Party power in lock down. At noon Monday, a Jeep plowed into throngs of tourists and caught fire, say police. The driver and two passengers killed, at least two tourists dead and dozens injured.

(on camera): There's a heavy police presence here. There normally is. But right now it's clearly escalated. Apparently this car drove out from this road, down this way, crashed through a barricade outside the entrance to the Forbidden City opposite Tienanmen Square. This area is possibly one of the most sensitive in China. And right now, if I look, you can see there are no tourists here in this area. Normally, it's absolutely jammed packed.

(voice-over): Tienanmen Square itself eerily quiet. Tourists and onlookers kept out.

It's still not clear whether it's a horrible accident or a political statement, but authorities aren't taking any chances.

David McKenzie, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: Strong winds have left at least 220,000 homes without power in England. At least two people have been killed, including a 17-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on her home south of London today.

Meanwhile, authorities have suspended the search for a teenage boy swept out to sea. Rescuers say he went missing from New Haven on the southern coast. But the search was called off because of rough conditions.

The wild weather has disrupted some flights and train services. And there are warnings the storm could cause flooding in some areas.

Erin McLaughlin joins me now live from Lyme Regis south of London. Erin, it looks like the worst if over. Where are you at least?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pauline. Well, we're hearing of yet another fatality associated with this storm, a 50- year-old man was killed in Watford, England this morning after a tree fell on his car.

Now, the storm arrived here in Lyme Regis at around 10:00 last night. We were out in the thick of it. The wind was short and sharp bursts. Not the kind of sustained winds that you'd see with a hurricane, but certainly enough to leave you a little unsettled on your feet.

Now clearly it has passed through this area. The met office spokesperson that I talked to tells me that conditions are expected to improve here as the day goes forward. But I spoke to some residents this morning, some sleepless residents, I should say, who describe for me some of the experiences overnight. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, the wind was just whirling up and down the street. It was just noises. It was like boxes were everywhere. And also all the lights were going on and off all through the night. It was just horrendous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bit windy, a bit rainy, but otherwise it was a bit of a flat storm, really. We were hoping it was going to be really good. That's why we came down this morning to look at all the stones, me and my sons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was harsh. It woke me up in the night. The kids slept through, though, they were fine. But for me it's very, very noisy, very windy. Look out the window, you could see the boats going , the trees were going. It was pretty, pretty harsh, yeah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLAUGHLIN: Around 200,000 homes currently without power throughout England. I talked to the spokesperson at the power board. And he told me that's primarily due to some of the downed trees in this area. Normally we'd see this kind of storm system in the winter. And the problem with seeing it in the fall is that the ground is already pretty saturated. The trees still have leaves on them. So they cause all kinds of problems when they get uprooted due to the kind of wind. We see blocks in their roads as well as damage to some of the buildings, Pauline.

CHIOU: Erin, we've already heard about a lot of cancellations and delays, but what about railways and also people trying to get to work in their vehicles?

MCLAUGHLIN: It has been a very difficult morning for commuters. There have been severe disruptions on railways throughout the country, delays in the Eurostar as well. Heathrow Airport having to cancel around 130 flights. There's been delays there as well as delays at Gatwick airport, Pauline.

CHIOU: Erin, thank you very much. Erin McLaughlin there south of London.

And let's bring in Mari Ramos. She's tracking the storm from the world weather center. Mari, where is the storm right now?

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: You know, such a large weather system that it's impacting just millions of people across northwestern Europe. To say where is the storm right now, the actual center of the storm is just offshore there across the UK. And as it continues to move along. We'll continue to see the weather just deteriorating across this area here of north-central portions of Europe.

So, across Ireland we're starting to see an improvement, also across western parts of the UK, but notice that the severe winds -- and depending on the either possible or very probably with the reds here, are still quite possible today.

Another thing that's kind of unusual also for this time of year, so see isolated tornadoes. This is very early type of storm system. There's a lot of ingredients here in the atmosphere that could also bring us the possibility of tornadoes across these areas. So definitely something to watch out for. That would of course ensue even more damage.

And notice, even southern portions of Scandinavia all the way down over into Germany through Berlin and possibly getting some strong winds all the way back over toward Brittany here across northern parts of France.

So a lot going on here.

As far as the wind, that has been the major concern, even though there are some concerns for flooding across these areas, the winds have been the most, the most damaging of all. And this is the forecast wind gusts. And we're going to go ahead and put it in motion starting from about noon today.

And I want you to notice, if you can't tell the numbers, because it goes by pretty quickly, notice the colors that are going to be changing. The brightest colors right now are in this area right in here. And then we begin to see those colors just kind of fall out of the way. The lighter colors indicate less strong winds. In other words, the winds begin to diminish. And that's exactly what we're expecting as this storm system moves away.

Currently, we have 56 kilometer per hour wind gusts in London, 72 in Amsterdam -- that's where the strongest winds are going to be right now, crossing the Channel and over toward France and through the low countries and even into Denmark and Germany. This is what the radar looks like. And you can see that push of air just coming in off the ocean here. And notice the rain now spreading all the way back over even into Poland all the way down into central parts of France. And even into northern Spain they're getting a little bit of rain associated with this weather system.

Big picture looks like this. You know what's going to happen, this will continue trailing into north and central Europe. And that nasty weather will continue to spread to areas farther to the south -- Pauline, back to you.

CHIOU: OK, Mari, thank you very much for the update there.

This is News Stream. And just ahead, fresh allegations of U.S. spying in Europe. Leaked documents are adding fuel to the fire in already strained U.S.-EU relations.

Plus, another scandal, this one in Britain, two former newspaper editors go on trial charged with phone hacking. We'll take you live to London for the very latest.

And, a bold move in conservative Saudi Arabia. Women get behind the wheel in defiance of rules that keep them from driving. We'll tell you about the protests and the fallout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHIOU: You're watching News Stream. And you're looking at a visual version of all the stories we've got in the show today. We've already told you about the car crash in Tienanmen Square that killed at least five people. Later, we'll go live to London where two former high profile tabloid editors are standing trial.

But now let's turn to the latest allegations about U.S. surveillance programs.

Spanish media are reporting that the National Security Agency, or NSA, tracked about 60 million phone calls in that country in just one month. The claims are based on classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. And they've added to the outrage being felt in several European countries.

German officials are still fuming over allegations that the NSA tapped the phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel for years. The NSA is denying a report by a German newspaper that U.S. President Barack Obama was told about that surveillance in 2010.

Well, German intelligence officials are now traveling to Washington, D.C. to get some answers.

Let's go live to CNN's Diana Magnay in Berlin for more details. Diana, there's a huge amount of damage control going on right now. What does Germany hope to get from these meetings in Washington?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pauline. Well, two things, really, first of all an explanation of exactly what went on, how widespread this eavesdropping program was, which incidentally was taking place from the roof of the U.S. embassy here in Berlin, which is just five minutes down the road from here where they have a bird's eye view of the government quarters. And where, according to Der Spiegel, the magazine that came out with a very long article about this, and had the documents from NSA leader Edward Snowden, which suggested that Angela Merkel's phone had been tapped. They talked about an elite unit of intelligence agents sitting on the fourth floor of the embassy and intercepting everything that came their way from phone calls to wireless networks to satellite communications.

So, these intelligence chiefs, they're the very top level of intelligence here going to Washington as soon as these meetings have been arranged -- they haven't left yet -- will be looking for an explanation as to what exactly these people were doing there, how wide ranging their surveillance was and how it could have happened that the U.S. was using those kind of tools against an ally.

And secondly, of course, this no spy agreement, which Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have been talking about, which is that basically a code of conduct between intelligence networks to make sure that they don't spy on each other and not -- especially not from each other's territories, Pauline.

CHIOU: Diana, according to these reports, the surveillance started in early 2000s in terms of eaves dropping on the phone calls of the personal cell phone of Chancellor Merkel. But this is well before she became chancellor. Is there any explanation as to why Merkel was spied on before she even became the head of the country?

MAGNAY: Not really. But you do get the feeling, or some sense, that this kind of spying was fairly ad hoc. It seems to be, you know, the numbers that they managed to get hold of they would then use, especially if they were pertaining to people who might, then, become something important such as chancellor.

I mean, the article in Zontag (ph) and Der Spiegel that say that Gerhard Schoeder, the then chancellor, was also spied upon at that time. And The Guardian came out last week with allegations that the NSA was spying on 35 world leaders and that that was effectively being organized because within intelligence circles in the U.S. you were encouraged to hand over your Rolodex. So is sounds fairly ad hoc. Those numbers they got hold of, they then sort of intercepted and eavesdropped just to see what came up.

But the big point of German officials here is just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it.

CHIOU: And I'm sure they're going to make that point in Washington when they have those meetings. Diana, thank you very much. Diana Magnay there live in Berlin.

You're watching News Stream. With just over 100 days to go, Sochi is getting ready host the 2014 Winter Olympics, but will the city be ready? We will take you there live to see for yourself after this break.

(COMMERCAIL BREAK)

CHIOU: The countdown is on for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The games will be held in Sochi, Russia in February. The city is a rather unusual choice, given that it's a seaside resort with a subtropical climate. The city has undergone extensive changes to prepare for these winter games.

Most of the sporting facilities had to be built from scratch.

CNN's Phil Black joins me now live from Sochi. Phil, does it look like the city can be ready in time?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pauline, they have achieved a lot, built a great deal, but there is still so much more to do and just a little over 100 days to do it in.

Now, construction is really going around the clock. The noise, the dust, they are very much constant features of life in the city at the moment. It's not just about building sporting facilities as you mentioned, because that is largely done. The real challenge here is giving this city an overhaul, taking this rundown, neglected, Soviet era holiday town and turning it into something worthy and capable of being an Olympic host city. That is the challenge.

It is incredibly ambitious and that is why this is on track to become the most expensive Olympics in the history of the games.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK: Sochi's Olympic bid had one fairly significant weakness: no existing sporting facilities. Organizers have tried to turn that into a strength by designing from scratch the ideal model for Olympic venues. This is what they came up with. Two clusters: one by the coast, one in the mountains. A new road and rail line linking the two. Compact, efficient, no big travel times between venues.

(on camera): As the calendar hits the 100 day countdown mark, that design is basically a reality. While on the ground things are still pretty rough and there's a frenzy of landscaping, painting, taking care of the details to get the place looking right, the sports facilities have all been built and tested.

But work on one big piece of infrastructure is letting the side down. And it's kind of important.

(voice-over): The Fisht Stadium (ph), the stage for the opening ceremony, doesn't look like it's going to be ready soon. Sochi's unpredictable weather and the people directing the opening ceremony have forced big changes on the design during construction. It was supposed to be open with views of the sea on one side, mountains on the other. But it's now getting a roof.

Russia isn't a country known for its efficiency, building all this on time will be a statement to the world. It's why President Vladimir Putin is taking such a personal interest.

Dmitry Grigoriev manages the speed skating arena. He says Putin's direct oversight has made a big difference.

DMITRY GRIGORIEV, VENUE MANAGER, ADLER ARENA: I'm not going to say why or how, but it has, believe me.

BLACK (on camera): But you're seeing things happen, basically?

GRIGORIEV: Yes.

BLACK: Quickly, efficiently?

GRIGORIEV: Yes.

BLACK: Perhaps in a way that they wouldn't have happened otherwise?

GRIGORIEV: Yes. Yes. Very much so.

BLACK (voice-over): Getting the venues ready isn't Sochi's only challenge. The whole city was rundown, neglected, with little investment since the Soviet era. It's getting a major overhaul, which doesn't look like it could possibly be ready soon. The skyline is a mess of cranes and partially completed buildings, many of them much needed hotels.

And then there's the traffic. Ask any local, it's often appalling.

Sochi's mayor Anatoly Pahomov (ph) is firmly on team Putin. He says the president's hand is felt everywhere. And Olympic investment generally has renewed the city in a way that wouldn't have been possible without the games.

There are some unusual sights around this Olympic city, like this mysterious and growing military facility near the coastal venues. Security, always a big Olympic concern, is even more so here. Islamic militants, fighting an insurgency not far from Sochi, have sworn to disrupt the games.

And on the naked, pre-winter slopes, you see these huge silver mounds. In this technically subtropical climate, snowfall can be patchy. So organizers are storing vast amounts of last seasons snow just in case.

Russia is promising an Olympics unlike any the world has seen. So different is this city from previous hosts, so great the challenges, it would be difficult not to deliver on that promise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK: Now the people behind the construction of that Olympic Stadium, Pauline, tell us it will be finished, it will be standing ready to go by the end of November. If that is true, then that will give the creative types behind the opening ceremony about two months to get in there, set up and rehearse. That's not a great deal of time, given what we're hearing about the scale of creative ambition behind or aimed at being achieved through that spectacle, Pauline.

CHIOU: Phil, it's pretty clear from your story that the pressure that Putin has put on the people there is speeding things up. But what's the importance of Putin's involvement?

BLACK: Well, for all the delays, the troubles, the cost overruns and so forth, you really can't overestimate the power of the Putin factor. He's in town again today, opening a new rail station, meeting with Olympic officials. The feeling here is that whatever problems might look like at this stage, they will get there, they will achieve this, these games will be a success, because the president is determined to make a statement to the world about the greatness of modern Russia regardless of the cost.

I mentioned the cost earlier. At the moment, it is set to cost more than $50 billion, Pauline.

CHIOU: All right, Phil, thank you very much. That's Phil Black there live from Sochi as we are 101 days away from the opening ceremony. Thank you.

Well, let's get more now from the world of sport. Amanda Davies joins us live from CNN London. And Amanda, let's start with Formula One.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pauline. It was a fantastic weekend in Formula One in India. And the newest member of the sports four-time champions club is being congratulated by Michael Schumacher and Alain Proust for matching their achievement. Sabastian Vettel claimed his fourth straight title on Sunday with victory at the Indian Grand Prix and Proust has predicted there will be plenty more to come.

Vettel started on pole in India and won the race by nearly 30 seconds from the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. That was the German's sixth race win in a row and his tenth of the season to see him clinch the title with three races of the season left to run. It's the result that means he's celebrating another world title. And Red Bull are celebrating their fourth straight constructive (ph) success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN VETTEL, 4-TIME F1 WORLD CHAMPION: I think the team, you know, the spirit inside the team is so strong that I've heard it on the radio, it gives me so much power that, you know, it's a pleasure to jump in the car and go out for the guys and just try to give it all I have. And the car was phenomenal today. It was phenomenal this season, to be honest. So I couldn't ask for more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: It's all square heading into game 5 of baseball's world season after the Boston Red Sox leveled things up with victory in game 4 thanks in large part to slugger Johnny Gomez. He came to the bench and launched a three run home run. It broke a 1-all tie and gave the Red Sox a lead over the St. Louis Cardinals that never slipped.

In the bottom of the ninth the Cards had the tying run at the plate, but first base runner Kolten Wong gets picked off for the final out of the game. So it's a 4-2 win for Boston ahead of Monday's game five.

In tennis news she may be 32-years-old, but Serena Williams just keeps on getting better and better. And the world number one says there's more to come after securing another WTA season ending championship to take her season's winning total to $12.4 million. Serena had to fight for it against Li Na going a set down in Istanbul in the final, but she fought back showing the grit and determination that has led her to 11 titles this season. She won in three sets in the end, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.

As I said, that's $12.4 million of prize money, second only to Novak Djokovic.

But Roger Federer's quest for a place in the men's season ending event goes on after defeat in the final of the Swiss indoor even in Basel. Federer was beaten by Juan Martin Del Potro in three sets to give the Argentine his second title in a month, but the Swiss can assure himself the place in the eight man field in London by winning his opening match next week at the Paris Masters.

That's it from me, Pauline, more sport a little bit later on.

CHIOU: OK. We look forward to it. Thank you very much Amanda. Just ahead on News Stream, we'll go live to London where two former News of the World editors are on trial in that phone hacking scandal.

And in this Roma community in Bulgaria, the biological mother of the little Greek girl known only as Maria says she wants her daughter back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHIOU: I'm Pauline Chiou in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

Chinese authorities say five people are dead after a car drove into a crowd and caught fire in Beijing's Tienanmen Square. The driver of the Jeep and two passengers were among those killed. The crash happened near the entrance of the Forbidden City. Reports say 38 people were injured, 11 of them taken to the hospital.

A severe storm is battering southern England. At least two people have been killed, including a 17-year-old girl who died when a tree feel on top of her home. Some flights and train services have also been canceled. The fierce weather has knocked out power to about 220,000 homes.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says Damascus has met its first major deadline in the process of eliminating its chemical weapons arsenal.

Syria has handed the OPCW a declaration of its chemical weapons program and a plan to dismantle it. Inspectors hope to complete this task by June.

In London, two former news of the world editors go on trial today. They are charged in the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the British tabloid. Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are accused of conspiracy to intercept cell phone voicemail at the now defunct tabloid.

Now both Brooks and Coulson deny these allegations. Some of the world's best known celebrities were reported to be among those whose phones were hacked. Crime victims were also targeted including casualties of the July 7, 2005 London terror attacks.

Brooks is also charged with plotting to eavesdrop on the voicemail of Millie Dowler, a British schoolgirl who went missing and was later found murdered.

Now public outrage over revelations that Dowler's phone had been hacked led to the News of the World's closure back in 2011. It also prompted a parliamentary committed to issue scathing criticism of the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch.

Now CNN's Max Foster joins us live now from the studios in London. Max, what is the scene like outside of the courthouse now?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were throngs of journalists. This is a big story. It's a complicated story. Eight defendants, the two main ones you have talked about there. And the main allegation is conspiring with others to illegally access voicemails between October 3, 2000 and August 9, 2006. That's the real core of this whole story. It's about phone hacking. Was there phone hacking at the News of the World, now closed of course.

And these are two key figures in British society as well. Andy Coulson was David Cameron's head of communications. Rebekah Brooks very close family friend with the Camerons. So there's so much intertwined here and so many different charges as well. But those are the two main figures.

Other charges as well, Brooks is alleged to have made inappropriate payments to public officials. Also claims that both of them perverted the course of justice, so seven boxes were removed from the archives of News International where Brooks was eventually chief executive. And also those police officers investigating phone hacking, there were allegations around whether or not the course of justice is perverted in the course in relation to them.

So a complicated set of allegations. But something that so many people are interested in, because it has led to so many inquiries, questions a bout media ethics in the UK. And whether or not indeed the press should e regulated. And a big debate around that, that comes to the core of democracy in this country.

But this is just the first day of a trial, Pauline, that could last six months.

CHIOU: Yeah, the first day starting with jury selection today.

Max, thank you very much for the preview. That's Max Foster there live in London.

And if you want more to refresh your memory about this long and complicated case, log on to our website. Among other things, you can find this time line of the phone hacking scandal.

Now we want to update you on the story surrounding the little Roma girl named Maria. While she sits in a child care facility in Greece, her biological mother living in Bulgaria now says she wants her back. Sashka Ruseva insists that she did not sell her child, but that she trusted another woman to take care of her.

Karl Penhaul has her side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A long way from the tumbledown village she calls home, a long way, too, from little Maria, the daughter Sashka Ruseva left behind in Greece, aged just 7-months-old because she says she was too poor to look after her.

SASHKA RUSEVA, MOTHER (through translator): I kissed her. I was crying. I was worried. My heart was breaking.

PENHAUL: Ruseva talked to CNN at a TV studio in the Bulgarian capital. This Greek Roma couple is in custody charged with kidnapping Maria.

I ask Ruseva how she met the accused man Kristos Salas.

RUSEVA (through translator): Who is Kristos?

PENHAUL: The defense lawyer for the Greek couple told CNN her clients say Ruseva handed over Maria to them directly. But Ruseva says she never met the Greek couple. She says she entrusted her baby to a different woman who hired her to harvest oranges near the Greek town of Patra (ph).

RUSEVA (through translator): A woman came to me and said she was Bulgarian, not Greek. She told me if I wanted, she would take care of my baby and that I could come back and collect her later. She gave me her phone number. And when we got back in Bulgaria we telephoned her. We tried to call, but the phone was switched off. We worked for that woman for three of four days. We earned money to come back home, but I didn't receive any money from that woman for my baby.

PENHAUL: That was 2009. Ruseva remembers few details about the woman who took in Maria.

RUSEVA (through translator): I have no clue what her name was. I didn't ask and she did not say. The woman looked good. Her skin was not too pale, a bit like us. She was blond with dyed blond hair.

PENHAUL: Bulgarian police are investigating Ruseva and husband Atanas (ph) on suspicion they sold Maria for illegal adoption.

RUSEVA (through translator): People say I have received 400 leva (ph), but how could I receive money? They keep saying that on TV. Do you think that I would sell my child for 400 leva (ph)? I'd like to build a house. I don't have a proper house or a proper bed, nothing. I didn't receive anything. I'm so poor.

PENHAUL: Ruseva says Maria was born in a hospital in the town of Lamia.

RUSEVA (through translator): I didn't know the language. The doctor said something like, "go away." And I grabbed the baby and got out.

I took care of her for seven months. How could I possibly sell her after taking care of her after seven months?

PENHAUL: Ruseva says she always intended to go back to Greece and bring Maria home to Bulgaria.

RUSEVA: I told that woman I would come back and take my child with me. I love that baby, but I could not go back and collect her, because then I got pregnant again with this one and then with that one.

PENHAUL: Ruseva has 10 children. They live in this one bedroom mud- brick house. Yet Ruseva wants Maria back.

She has a message for the unidentified woman at the orange farm who she says promised to care for Maria.

RUSEVA (through translator): I would tell that woman that I want my child back. When did I sell it to you? You were the one that told me you had no children of your own and so that you would take care of my child. When did I sell her? When did you give me money? Why are you lying like that?

PENHAUL: Karl Penhaul, CNN, Sophia, Bulgaria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: Now lets turn to Saudi Arabia. And activists there are hailing Saturday's protests a big success. A few dozen women got into the driver's seat in defiance of a ban on women driving.

Well, Mohammed Jamjoom has been following this campaign closely and joins us now live from CNN Beirut.

Mohammed, several more women are now posting videos of themselves driving. And they're posting that online. Have there been any repercussions?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Pauline, the day of the campaign, which was October 26 when dozens of women went out in various Saudi Arabian cities we were told that at least six women had been detained at one point or another. Some of the women we spoke with said they were treated very kindly by police, that it was not too difficult and that they were finally, several of them, said released into the custody of their male guardians after signing pledges not to drive again.

But today we're hearing some more worrying developments. I've spoken with several supporters of the campaign. They're telling me that one man who has been closely affiliated with the campaign, who has been working with the female supporters of the campaign named Baret el-Mubarak (ph), who is a columnist and a teacher, they say that he was detained last night by the bureau of investigation and prosecution in Riyadh, that he has been interrogated and has not been released yet. And so there's a lot of worry about what's going to happen to him. Why exactly he was detained.

And several of the women that I've spoken with today say that they believe that they are being followed around cities like Riyadh and cities like Jeddah by unmarked cars that have secret police in them.

Now I must stress, I have reached out to the Saudi Interior Ministry several times in the last couple of hours. I have not been able to get any comment or confirmation from them about this, but there is a growing sense of unease at this hour by several of the female supporters, not just women who drove these last several days, but also women who very publicly support the campaign and have called for an end to the driving ban -- Pauline.

CHIOU: So, Mohammed, even though you're talking to these women and you're sensing this growing sense of unease and discomfort, is there momentum among activists to protest the ban even more? And how much friction is this causing?

JAMJOOM: Absolutely. There is growing momentum by an increasing amount of women in Saudi Arabia. Now I should stress, we're talking about a few dozen who who have actually gone out and driven in the past couple of weeks.

The campaign is considered a success because not only did they go out on the 26, they went out before. They've gone out since then. And they say they're going to continue to go out. And because of that, there has also been a sense of euphoria. And there has been a real sense that they have accomplished something.

Now, Saturday was a day when there was a lot of worry about what would happen to the women, but because of how it turned out it was also a lot of cheerfulness. Here is our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMJOOM: Laughs were the last thing anyone expected in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. Tensions were high. Women had been warned.

TAMADOR ALYAMI, SAUDI BLOGGER AND OPINION WRITER: Yesterday was a very serious day. I mean, it was full of nerve racking news and a lot of anticipation.

JAMJOOM: Worry of women getting behind the wheel in the last country on earth that doesn't allow it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, guys, this is me driving for the first time. I'm here to support our case in letting women drive in Saudi Arabia.

JAMJOOM: Dozens of Saudi females took a spin as a few Saudi males posted a new spin on an old classic.

(MUSIC)

JAMJOOM: These women didn't wait for their drivers, for once enjoying the open roads of a closed society. Smiles were abundant. But it's when this video hit that the laughs began.

A reworking of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry." For this occasion, no woman, no drive.

I spoke to the song's creators in Riyahd via Skype.

What have you been hearing as far as the reaction from women supporters of the driving campaign? What do they think of the video?

FAHAD ALBUTAIRI, SAUDI COMEDIAN: A lot of the ladies actually thought that we were, you know, against the women driving.

JAMJOOM: They told me that's not the case, they just wanted to spread a little cheer. Apparently they have. The clip has gone viral in a big way with more than a million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours.

HISHAM FAGEEH, SAUDI COMEDIAN: For me, personally, it's been very like loving and supportive. Of course you're going to get criticism: you're online and you're doing comedy and everybody is a critic.

JAMJOOM: In the ultraconservative kingdom, the October 26 women's driving movement has many fierce critics. A lot of them are women. Saudi society is still very much split on the issue.

Tamador Alyami drove through the streets of Jeddah last week, but we too worried to do so again on Saturday. Still, she was able to take a little comfort from an unlikely source, one that had become an unexpected anthem.

(MUSIC)

ALYAMI: It cracked me up. I laughed. And I shared it with everybody. I wanted it to have the same effect on them, because it eats up a lot of the tension I was feeling.

JAMJOOM: And for a few moments, should could imagine all roadblocks finally out of the way.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JAMJOOM: Now, Pauline, I grew up in Saudi Arabia. And I can tell you it is extraordinary to see these displays of civil disobedience that have been going on the past couple of weeks, but I should stress even though this campaign is gaining momentum, society is really still split in Saudi Arabia. There's a lot of women there that not only are OK with the male guardianship system, they are not OK with the idea of women driving. And they are expressing that opinion as well.

I will say this, the women that I'm speaking with today, even the ones that are concerned, are saying, look, we are not trying to pose any challenge to the government of Saudi Arabia or to any of its officials. All we want is a right to drive our cars -- Pauline.

CHIOU: Yeah. OK. And thank you for your personal comparison as well.

Mohammed Jamjoom there live from CNN Beirut.

Well, coming up next on News Stream, a look inside this cutting edge studio in Switzerland where flying robots have a mind of their own. Stay with us.

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CHIOU: They are the flying robots of the future, but how do the tiny machines learn to operate on their own? Well, Nick Glass finds out in this week's Art of Movement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK GLASS, CNN INTERNATIONAL: We are in the arena, the flying machine arena at Zurich's ETH University in Switzerland. And a quadracopter is about to show us what it can do. Can it zigzag through the poles all by itself?

Practice, or at least repetition makes perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. One more, guys.

GLASS: Professor Raffaello d'Andrea runs a research project exploring robot movement in the air. Machine athleticism, he calls it.

RAFFAELLO D'ANDREA, ETH ZURICH: We -- you know, we always set our sights on creating things that have never been created before. It's like a triumph of humanity. Look what we can do, right? Look what we can make these inanimate things do? You know, if we can do this, we can do anything.

GLASS: Since 2009, the arena has been a space where, as they say, flying robots live and learn? Learn, that is, to move through the air all by themselves without remote control. The quad can balance a pole. No problem.

Not so easy for a human to balance. How does the machine do it?

D'ANDREA: Well, it's actually doing something that's very similar to what you're doing right now to balance. The first step is that it needs to watch what's happening. The pendulum has a gray marker on top. And there are cameras up above that can see this marker and report this information back to the computer.

What you're doing is using you're intuition on how you expect this pendulum to move. What we use for the quadrocopter is that we develop a mathematical model of how this pendulum moves in conjunction with the quadrocopter.

GLASS: Those mathematical models are based on a series of algorithms that act as a language telling the robots what to do. The ones developed here are the most complex in the world, allowing the robot to perform gymnastic maneuvers never seen before like throwing a poll, building a wall, or catching a ball.

D'ANDREA: Algorithms take information and they produce action in the context of machines, that's what algorithms are, it's rules, how do I take information, input and convert it to actions so that the machine does something interesting.

GLASS: All this movement begins on the page, a pencil across a piece of graph paper writing out complex mathematical equations that translate to movement in the air.

D'ANDREA: And mathematics can be very elegant. You know, when you come up with a really nice algorithm, the mathematics tends to be also very elegant. The two things go hand-in-hand. In fact, there's a small correlation between watching these vehicles do something graceful and beautiful and how beautiful the mathematics is that achieves it.

GLASS: Predictably, some of the arena stunts have gone viral on the Internet. Playing catch is one of them. Left to work, the relevant algorithm has to make 50 different calculations every second: where the ball is going, how the pod should get there, how it should hit the ball back and so on. All pretty complicated mathematical stuff. If only I could lob the ping pong ball in the right place just occasionally.

D'ANDREA: I celebrate motion. I think it's a wonderful thing, whether it's humans that do it or machines that do it or the mathematics that captures it. I just -- I love motion.

GLASS: In the arena in Zurich it seems somehow both serious and playful, research project and play pen for the boys. Whoever thought that calculus, algebra, physics, control theory and the like and algorithms could be this much fun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: You're watching News Stream. Still to come, the music world mourns the Walk on the Wild Side singer Lou Reed. Up next, a look at his extraordinary influence on rock 'n' roll.

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CHIOU: Dr. Congrad Murray was released from prison in California earlier today after serving two years of his four year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson. Murray's lawyer has indicated he may try to get his medical license reinstated.

A powerful voice in the world of rock 'n' roll has gone silent. Lou Reed died on Sunday at the age of 71. The pioneering singer, songwriter and co-founder of the group, the Velvet Underground, had an enduring impact on many other rock musicians. Reed once said his goal was not just to make music, but to speak to people the way Shakespeare and James Joyce spoke to him through literature. Here's Nischelle Turner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With classics like "Sweet Jane", Lou Reed influenced generations of rockers, often merging also risque lyrics with droning guitars. Born and raised in New York, Reed joined creative forces with Andy Warhol, who sponsored the "Velvet Underground."

Rolling Stone named the Underground's 1967 debut album the 13th greatest of all time.

LOU REED, MUSICIAN: I get personal satisfaction out of making things that don't exist. I follow passion. And that is the one rule I've lived by.

TURNER: The edgy Reed said he wanted to tell the stories of outsiders. As a solo artist, Reed's lyrics "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" explored sex, drugs, and drag queens.

(MUSIC)

ANTHONY DECURTIS, CONTRIBUTIONG EDITOR, ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE: He saw himself as a literary figure as much as a musician and took that aspect of his work very seriously.

TURNER: Reed also delved into acting, playing an annoying record producer in Paul Simon's 1980 movie rip of the music business, "One Trick Pony."

REED: What do you think I am? Just a non-turnout (ph) here? I made a couple of records myself. I know what I'm doing.

TURNER: Reed loved poetry and legions of indie rockers hung on his every word. He celebrated independent streak as heard on "I Love You, Suzanne."

(MUSIC)

TURNER: Reed had been frail for months after a liver transplant earlier this year. He died at his home in South Hampton, New York, at age 71.

Nischelle Turner, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHIOU: And that was Nischelle Turner reporting.

My colleague Andrew Stevens spoke with Rolling Stone magazine's contributing editor Anthony DiCurtis about how Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground really changed rock 'n' roll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY DECURTIS, ROLLING STONE: Essentially the Velvet Underground, you know, invented what we think of now as alternative rock or underground rock. So beginning back in the day with, you know, the likes of Iggy Pop and David Bowie and then moving on up to, you know, the punks, you know, Patty Smith and Television and Talking Heads and then moving on further to REM and to U2 and to the present with, you know, The National and Arcade Fire, you know, these are all artists that have felt the impact of Lou Reed.

And, you know, he's up there with Bob Dylan and Lennon and McCartney as far as impact goes. You know, obviously many fewer people are familiar with his work, but they are familiar with his impact whether they know it or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHIOU: And news of Lou Reed's passing has been reverberating on social media. Many fans are talking about this photo, which is the last one posted on Lou Reed's Facebook page. It appeared six hours before the news of his death. And it is captioned simply, the door.

Thousands of people have posted comments sharing their memories of the rock legend.

Michaelangelo Mato (ph) says it's impossible to imagine the past 50 years of rock without Lou Reed. You can read the opinion piece on our website at CNN.com.

And that is News Stream, but the news continues right here at CNN. World Business Today is coming up next.

END