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AROUND THE WORLD

Toronto Council Conflict With Crack-Smoking Mayor Continues; Six People Killed in Midwest Tornadoes; Scrambling To Save the Babies; Russian Airliner Crash

Aired November 18, 2013 - 12:30   ET

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


IAN MACINTYRE, COMEDIAN: But we've been living it for about three years now. And this has been pretty obvious from the get-go, that this guy was a bit of a train wreck. He's been a pretty bad mayor, pretty much this whole time, and it's -- we're just finding the world is catching up to the rest of us.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, it's kind of an understatement there.

So he's been on the city council for at least 10 years before he became mayor, but he ran on this campaign which you were talking about, kind of poking fun at, the "I'm just like you" campaign, like everyone's running around smoking crack and saying really weird things.

MACINTYRE: Just like you. Yeah. His whole thing this whole time has kind of been, "I'm the little guy. I'm just like you. I'm just a normal person." If anything, he's the furthest thing from a normal person. If he's just like us, then he's just like the least of us.

But I mean, Rob Ford, he's really a manufactured image, this whole time. He claims to be just a little guy, just a Regular Joe. He's a trust-fund millionaire. His father was involved in provincial politics for years and then became a self-styled, backroom, power broker.

And then people got behind Rob Ford, kind of quietly. They ran his campaign. There as a former premier of ours who helped run Rob Ford's campaign. He's really the farthest thing from an everyman. And the fact that he keeps repeating that is -- I don't know -- kind of frustrating

MALVEAUX: Yeah, so Ian, you've kind of got the pulse, your finger on the pulse there in the community. You're a part of these protests, these rallies and stuff.

Do you think people, they'll be successful? Do you think they'll be able to get rid of this guy?

MACINTYRE: Well, I mean, as you see, he's not going anywhere if he can help it. People keep saying he's not leaving city hall unless he's voted out or brought out in handcuffs, which fortunately seems pretty likely at this point. So hopefully we get him out that way. I mean, people here -- the protests that we had last week, it was a "Save Toronto" rally organized by Nikki Thomas (ph). We didn't think that Rob Ford was going to listen and leave, although that would have been cool.

But we just kind of wanted to show that there are people in the city who want him gone and hop support what the council is doing right now, just to even defang him a little bit, take away some of his powers.

MALVEAUX: All right, Ian, thank you very much. We appreciate it. We'll see if all the pressure of the protests, if it actually gets to the mayor, if he decides to step down, certainly looks like he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

We're also just getting this here, Mayor Ford's chief of staff confirming that the mayor gave his staff $5,000 raises on Friday. Now, he says that these funds were in the budget, but the city council now is moving to strip him of his power, and the mayor's brother, he says, what the city council doing is just simply wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG FORD, TORONTO CITY COUNCIL/MAYOR'S BROTHER: What is happening today is an overthrow of a democratically-elected mayor, illegally. This is what you see in third world nations. You don't see this in Canada. You don't see this in the United States. You don't see this in the U.K. We're talking about a third world nation overthrow here.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why doesn't he try to avert the situation, take your advice, their advice, just step back and get some help for a short time and come back? Doesn't that avert the situation?

D. FORD: You know something, no. It wouldn't avert it, because the ship's already left the dock, and there's no rule --

ROBERTSON: Do you think that your brother did allow the ship to leave the dock by not taking the opportunity when it was presented?

D. FORD: You know something? Personally, he's made a mistake. We will rehash this for the next hundred years, folks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right, we're going to be rehashing it, momentarily, the city council certainly rehashing it as they hold another meeting. You see a live picture there.

They are meeting again. They are trying, bit by bit, to strip the mayor of his power, so he's simply a figurehead and not really the mayor at all. So we'll see if they're successful in that. We're going to bring that to you live after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're keeping an eye on the city council meeting in Toronto, set to begin any minute now. So much of Mayor Ford's power is really on the line when you think about it, because they're trying to strip him from his power because of all the scandal surrounding him. So as soon as it starts to heat up, we're going to, of course, get that to you live and just dip in.

We also are covering this major story, the Toronto -- rather, the tornado devastation across the Midwest. Six people have been killed. Hundreds of others lost their homes after these tornadoes tore through neighborhoods, many neighborhoods. We're talking about reports of at least 68 tornado sightings on Sunday.

And this is just incredible. Take a look at the video. This is captured on a car dash-cam. This is out of Lebanon, Indiana. And you can actually see it. You can see it there, the tornado funnel cloud moving across the horizon. The storms hitting Illinois the hardest, but also Missouri and Indiana, as well.

Several neighborhoods in Washington, Illinois, were is wiped off the map. Take a look at this tremendous destruction. This is where they lost their lives, six people. It could have been a lot worse had much of this town, the 10,000, not been attending church at the time.

We actually spoke to the mayor earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR GARY MANIER, WASHINGTON, ILLINOIS: People are in shelters; people are staying with loved ones, hotels if they were able to get one.

We're going to rebuild. I mean, we're going to jump back up off canvas and fight and be what it once was. I think we can do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Talking to our Chris Cuomo on the ground there.

Dozens of homes were also destroyed in Kokomo, Indiana. You can see this one here. You see the inside of the house, the roof simply sheered off, completely gone. Schools there are closed as we would expect. Hundreds of thousands are without power across all three states.

I want to the bring in George Howell. He joins us from Kokomo, Indiana. And just give us a sense of how people are dealing with this today.

We have seen extraordinary pictures. I imagine the stories behind these people's lives are heartbreaking.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, absolutely, and when you look at the damage, whether it's in Illinois or whether it's here, and certainly the loss of life in Illinois, when you look at the damage throughout this region, you know, whether this here, whether it was a tornado or whether it was straight-line winds, the damage is extensive. You look here behind me. That used to be a fire station, no longer the case. Today it's all about destroying, tearing down a lot of buildings and starting from scratch in many cases.

I spoke with the mayor here just a few hours ago, just about what it's like, you know, to sustain this much damage and what it's like to start over. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: Here in Kokomo, it's possible this community took the hardest hit. We were in a neighborhood not far from here, and a father who had actually constructed a tornado shelter in his backyard told me of seeing a large wedge just past the trees, marble-sized hail.

He moved his whole family into the underground chamber in the backyard and within seconds, the tornado struck his home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So Suzanne is, you know, the thing about it is, we're still getting those wind gusts. They come in pretty strong at times. That is not helping certainly getting in the wait as these crews go through and try to remove a lot of the debris flying around all night, trying to get back to some sense of normalcy.

MALVEAUX: George, as we saw the governor speaking there, it really is quite incredible when you think about it that no one lost their life in the state of Indiana.

How did that happen? How were people able to escape what you saw there?

HOWELL: That is the silver lining out here. You know, I just took a slight driving tour to see more of the damage out here. It's so extensive. There are businesses that are gone, homes that are gone.

It is amazing no one was seriously injured, that no one was killed. The governor says this is in part to the fact that the warning got out, whether it's through residents watching their local news affiliates to get that information as the meteorologists tracked the storm coming in, whether it was from emergency officials sounding alarms, telling people to take shelter.

People took shelter. People got out of the way. And that's one reason the governor says, you know, that this state, you know, really dodged a bullet in many ways, because people were able to get out of the way as the big storm system passed through.

MALVEAUX: All right, George Howell, it's fortunate so many people that were able to follow directions and get help when they need. It could have been a disaster much, much worse.

Thank you, George. Appreciate it. We're waiting for the city council hearing to take place. This is out of Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford in the hot seat. We expect, potentially, to see him in this hearing and potentially talk, as well. He's admitted to smoking crack and getting drunk, and he says he is not stepping down.

More after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: In the Philippines, they are still scrambling to deliver just the basics after the deadly typhoon. We have new video now that shows just the power of this storm. I want you to see this.

So you can imagine the kind of damage that this caused. The U.S., Britain, are bolstering their military assets to try to help the millions of hungry and homeless now Filipinos.

And when you take a look at the video from this drone that is flying over the damage, you can see, I mean it is extraordinary. You get this bird's eye view of just how much of the land has been clobbered by the storm. Apocalyptic, really, when you look at this. The people, they are soaked, they are dazed. Nearly 4,000 have died and about 3 million people are displaced from all of this. There is an urgent plea to save the babies. As CNN's Ivan Watson reports, one church has been converted into a neonatal ICU simply trying to keep the newborns alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janeah Musasiso (ph) pumps for dear life. Her newborn baby isn't breathing and there's no incubator, no respirator and no electricity to power the machines to save this two-day old baby's life. So her mother pumps oxygen by hand.

Baby Musasiso (ph) is just one of 27 newborns here, storm babies, you could call them, all born after the typhoon. They're in a hospital chapel that was converted into a maternity ward after the storm destroyed this city.

WATSON (on camera): These tiny babies are in what doctors are calling the ICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. It's clearly improvised. And they've been put here because their health situation is frighteningly unstable. In fact, doctors say six infants have died in this chapel in the last six days.

WATSON (voice-over): Dr. Leslie Rosario says some of these infants are too unstable to be medevac'd to a better hospital out of the storm zone.

WATSON (on camera): What do you need for these sick babies right now most?

DR. LESLIE ROSARIO, WORKING TO SAVE BABIES AFTER TYPHOON: Mostly now medical ventilator, especially for these babies. Then (INAUDIBLE) machine, incubators for prematures. WATSON (voice-over): Tiny, fragile cocoons. This little girl was born just a few hours ago, and she's six weeks premature. During our visit, some good news. Little Sian James' (ph) health has stabilized and he graduates from the ICU to rejoin his mother.

WATSON (on camera): Is this your first son?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

WATSON: How do you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy.

WATSON (voice-over): Doctors say most of the newborns here are healthy. But during what should be a moment of joy, parents also face uncertainty. Many have seen their homes destroyed, so they rest amid the pews. While next to the altar, Dr. Rosario says Baby Musasiso's chances are not good.

ROSARIO: Right now the baby is really in very poor condition, (INAUDIBLE) condition. So certainly a poor prognosis for this baby.

WATSON: There is little more Janeah Musasiso can do now but pray for her daughter's life.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Tacloban, Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Sadly, that little baby died over the weekend. In all, eight infants didn't make it. A glimmer of hope. Those remaining children that you saw, they have been released to their homes and they've been now taken to better facilities.

We are also keeping an eye on the city council meeting in Toronto, set to get underway any minute now. Much of Mayor Ford's power is now on the line. When it, of course, picks up, we'll take it to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: A developing story. The Ohio state capital. Police are now working an active bomb threat situation. This is at the Port Columbus Airport. Now the airport spokesman says that security officers are inspecting that plane there, American Eagle Flight 302 which came from Dallas, Texas. The plane landed.

It was just before noon Eastern Time, and airport security was notified of a potential bomb threat shortly before it touched down. One hundred and thirty-eight people are on board, including five crew members. They're going to begin letting those passengers off the plane soon.

So we're going to keep our eye on that. We don't know yet what the condition of the passengers are. We're going to get more information. But a potential bomb threat aboard that plane. We're going to keep our eye on that plane and, of course, the pictures of the passengers once they get off the plane, to get more information about what is actually occurred on that plane.

In Russia, they are still looking for the bodies and clues to what caused a jet airline to crash into the ground. Now this happened on Sunday. This is in the Republic of Tatarstan. The plane crashed after taking off from Moscow International Airport. Now, officials say it was carrying 44 passengers and a crew of six, including the son of the Republic's president. The victims range in age from 13 to 87.

No one survived and parts of this plane are scattered on the tarmac. You see it there. They have found the flight recorders, which could provide at least some answers in terms of what caused this plane to simply drop out of the sky and explode.

I want to bring in our Richard Quest, who covers aviation for us. What kind of clues do we have so far?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The biggest clue that we've got so far in many ways is the video. The closed-circuit television video camera picture of the plane crash which shows the aircraft, I mean, you know, literally coming straight down into the ground like that. It is - it is frightening. It is distressing video. But it does show.

And in that - in many ways, that tells us a great deal about what was happening because there's no forward momentum on the aircraft. It is as if the aircraft has stalled in flight. We know the weather was poor. We know that the pilot attempted one of - this was either the second or the third go round and he tried to go - to land. But putting together all those pieces of the jigsaw, we now start to get a vet early vision of what might have - the sort of thing.

You're talking about things like dramatic aeronautical failure of the air frame or of the aircraft. Well, that's one particular thing they'll be looking at. They'll be looking at how they were -- the pilots were handling the aircraft in those last moments. Did they allow the speed to bleed off to the point of stall? What was the engine management during those last few seconds of flight. But because we will know from those pictures of how the aircraft came out of the sky, that will be the crucial piece of evidence.

MALVEAUX: And, Richard, I understand that this particular aircraft had been flying for 23 years for at least eight different airlines.

QUEST: Yes. Yes.

MALVEAUX: Is that typical of a 737?

QUEST: I mean, you know, the 737 has been around for decades. It is the best-selling aircraft in the world. Eleven thousand have been ordered, 7,700 have been delivered. There is absolutely no reason why merely because it's a, you know, that age, 23 years old, that that is a complete red herring in that respect.

Eight owners, yes, again, a red herring, providing the aircraft was maintained, it was properly looked after and it had regular checks, which, of course, you have to have according to various aeronautical regulations. So the age per se is a red herring. Don't necessarily -- there are many planes flying that are older than that doing very nicely, thank you.

MALVEAUX: All right, Richard Quest, thank you. Appreciate your information, as always.

We're also watching this. Two shootings and a car-jacking. This is out of Paris. It's got a lot of folks on alert, a bit worried about what's happening there. A gunman on the loose. Police say that a man, armed with a shotgun, walked into the lobby of "The Liberation Newspaper," fired twice hitting a photographer's assistant in the chest. Now, the victim is now in serious condition we understand.

Later a gunman opened fire in front of Societe Generale Bank towers. Nobody was wounded in that particular incident. And a man later told police that he was car-jacked in that same neighborhood. So officials say that the similar description suggests that this could be simply one gunman on the loose.

Thanks for watching "AROUND THE WORLD". CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, history is being made on the markets. The Dow Jones passed the 16,000 milestone for the first time ever today. We'll find out what it means for money in your pocket.

Right now, people in the Midwest are reeling from deadly tornadoes that ripped across the region. The storms killed six people and devastated entire neighborhoods. We'll go live to one of the hardest hit areas.

Right now, a scare for passengers on a plane on the ground in Columbus, Ohio. They were taken off the plane in a remote part of the airport after reports of a bomb on board. We'll keep you updated.

Right now, the Toronto city council is debating whether to strip Mayor Rob Ford of some of his key powers and hand them over to the deputy mayor. We'll bring you all of the highlights.

Hello, I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, in for Wolf Blitzer today.