Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

Australian MP Questions Gun Laws; Village Burned, 185 Women, Children Kidnapped In Northern Nigeria; Vladimir Putin Stresses Economy In Year-end News Conference; Cubans Celebrate U.S. President Announcement; Why Serbia Is So Good At Tennis

Aired December 18, 2014 - 08:00:00   ET

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


MANISHA TANK, HOST: Hi, I'm Manisha Tank in Hong Kong. A warm welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Vladimir Putin says Russia is not an aggressor. And he says sanctions imposed by the west are partly to blame for his economic

problems in the country.

Sony cancels the release of the controversial film The Interview after threats from a hacker group.

And how the pope helped to broker an historic deal between the U.S. and Cuba.

Good you could join us.

Now we begin this hour in Moscow where the Russian president Vladimir Putin wrapped up his end of year news conference just a short

time ago. He spent about three-and-a-half hours taking questions from journalists. And as expected his nation's troubled economy was the main

focus.

Mr. Putin answered questions about the falling ruble, rising food prices and western trade sanctions. He also talked about the crisis in

Ukraine. He said that despite international criticism, Russia had simply defended its own interests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Russia has only made contribution where it is supporting its national interest

in the harsher, harsher (ph) way. We're not attacking anyone. We're not warmongers. We are only defending our interests and the disatisfaction

of our western partners are huge because of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TANK: Well, the European Union still calls Crimea's annexation illegal. And to prove its point, the EU actually slapped new sanctions

on the region during Mr. Putin's new conference. The sanctions include a ban on investment in Crimea starting on Saturday.

So, our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now from Moscow. He was listening to the speech. Matthew, those key

themes that came up, there were three of those key themes, which were really the main ones. and he definitely had to deal with the economy.

He had to deal with Crimea. What did you make of this?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I didn't think there was much that came out of this in terms of policy U-turns. It was

an interesting to watch, obviously. He made the economy and the economic crisis the focus of this press conference.

But if you were looking at this -- these words and listening to these words to see if Vladimir Putin was going to be cowed by the

economic turmoil that has been affecting his nation and perhaps do a U- turn on Russia's policy on Ukraine or you know back down in its confrontation with the west I think you would have been disappointed.

There was none of that.

He stuck to his guns and basically was relatively defiant.

The emphasis on the economy clearly there saying that Russia will overcome the economic problems. It will use its vast resources and

foreign currency reserves to support its economy if it needs to. It will diversify its economy.

He was asked one really interesting question quite early on in the press conference, and this illustrates that he wasn't frightened of

taking relatively hostile questions. He was asked this one question, is the crisis, the economic crisis in Russia, the price we have to pay for

Crimea -- Crimea of course the area of Ukraine that was annexed by Russia back in March.

And he categorically denied that, saying, no, these two things are not related. We had to take Ukraine -- I'm paraphrasing him here,

because it was to do with our sovereignty and our independence as a nation. We don't want the Russian bear, he said, to become just a

stuffed animal.

So, a very defiant tone of the kind that we've come to see as characteristic of this Russian leader.

TANK: Yeah, and speaking of something that's characteristic, this year-end sort of speech. He does this Q&A that he does. It's a big

staged event. And so interesting that he took some of those important questions, the questions that we wondered, wouldn't we, would they come

up or not.

Against the backdrop of all of this and the economy, I know that you've spoken to some people who are feeling the pinch of the economic

problems right now, but still his approval ratings are pretty high.

CHANCE: They are pretty high. They're still in the region of 85 percent. But I think we have to remember that we are now just at the

opening phase of what could be a very long running and very deep economic crisis.

I mean, Vladimir Putin himself saying he could take two years before the country is back on its feet, before it's recovered. And in

that period, obviously Vladimir Putin will be aware that his popularity could nosedive if people really start to lose faith in his ability to

drag the country out of its economic morass.

And so that was the reason he was emphasizing the economy so much to give people the impression that the government had a handle on this,

to reassure them that they knew what they were doing. And I think that was the key message of this press conference at the end of 2014 from the

Russian president.

TANK: OK, Matthew Chance in Moscow, thanks very much. And thanks for the analysis there on what we've been calling an epic speech.

Now in northeastern Nigeria, officials say Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped at least 185 women and children. It happened just north

of Chibok in Nigeria. And witnesses say attackers shot the men, killing 32 and burned down most of the village. But it took four days for this

news to reach the state capital. Boko Haram was also behind the April abduction of 200 schoolgirls in Chibok.

Diana Magnay has been following this story for us from CNN London. Diana, it's really quite alarming if you look at sort of the nature of

these attacks and now this abduction of so many women and children.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Boko Haram has been behind widespread slaughter across northeastern Nigeria

and these three states that are in a state of emergency and have been for a long time, killing hundreds of people and we're seeing these

abductions on a really very large scale, 185 in this latest attack.

I'll tell you a little bit about what we know happened. This attack happened in the village of Gumsuri, which is about 20 kilometers

away from Chibok where those 200 girls were abducted back in April. And apparently around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, Boko Haram gunmen drove

into the town, unleashed machine gun fire, killed 32 men who were part of this local vigilante group and these kinds of groups have sprung up

across the region to try and protect the villages and the towns from Boko Haram and they dosed the village with petrol, set fire to most of

the houses and rounded the women and children up into pickup trucks and have driven off with them.

We're also hearing that there was another attack in the town of Chibok itself about 10 days ago where some 50 people were killed.

And, you know, it feels awful to list these attacks, but they go on and on. At the end of November, we had Incano (ph) at the mosque a

huge explosion and mass killing there, more than 100 people dead there. You know, the scale of this killing is extraordinary. And there are

questions over whether the military, the Nigerian military, can cope or push Boko Haram back. Clearly at the moment they don't seem to be able

to do that, certainly not in these very remote villages of which Gumsuri and Chibok both are, Manisha.

TANK: Yeah, well, that has struck me as incredible when you said that these were -- it was a vigilante group that was trying to defend

themselves. You would want to hope that actually the military should be there to defend these people.

MAGNAY: Well, the military is in place in northeastern Nigeria, but there are questions over whether they have the training that they

need, whether they had the equipment that they need.

Only yesterday a process ended, a court martial, basically, where 54 Nigerian soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny. And yet when

you read what their lawyer had to say about the case, and he's a prominent Nigerian human rights lawyer, he said that they were pointing

out the fact that they could not take Boko Haram on without the requisite arms. And even though the Nigerian president has requested an

extra $1 billion in order to equip the military, it doesn't appear as though the weapons that they have asked for are actually trickling down

to the soldiers and the troops who need them on the ground.

So you have local police, you have these vigilante groups, and you have a very demoralized Nigerian military trying to take on extremely

well-equipped militants and not seeming really to touch the sights in that campaign against Boko Haram -- Manisha.

TANK: And as always often happens in these scenarios, Diana, it's the people living in those areas, the civilians, you know, living in

fear. We'll have to leave it there, though. Diana Magnay, thank you very much for that.

You're watching News Stream. Still ahead on this program, U.S. officials think they know who hacked Sony. But it comes too late to

save The Interview. The film won't be in movie theaters any time soon.

And the U.S. and Cuba announce their countries will work together to improve relations. This historic moment has joint praise and

criticism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TANK: A North Korea defector has told CNN what many have suspected all along. He says the reclusive nation is running a secret hacking

unit. Jang Se-yul who claims that he worked as a computer expert for Pyongyang says the country employs hundreds of cyber warriors around the

world. And he says the agents of the so-called Bureau 121 are trained to take down computer systems in enemy states.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures has decided to cancel the planned Christmas release of the comedy The Interview. The studio had little

choice. Leading theater chains in the U.S. had already said they wouldn't show it.

They're concerned about a threat to moviegoers from the hackers who claim they broke into Sony Pictures' computer system.

The U.S. President Barack Obama, though, told people not to worry. He says authorities are monitoring the hack attack. And there's no

reason to stay away from the cinemas.

So, what does the film's cancellation mean for Sony Pictures then? For more on that, let's get to Brian Stelter who has been looking at the

story quite closely.

Brian, it from all angles is quite an incredible story. And one wonders whether Sony Pictures is going to be able to come out of this.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have the same questions you do about this, you know, and the financial damage it's just continuing to

add up.

We've got The Interview and its $44 million budget, plus all the marketing and other expenses that are now, you know, awash. But then

you've also got the hundreds of millions of dollars of costs probably related to the cyber attack itself, because there's been so much other

damage done -- you know, people's social security numbers and medical records and other private information released onto the internet.

So there is -- there are different layers of damage here.

But the most public one, obviously, is this movie, the cancellation of this movie. I've never seen anything quite like it. I was speaking

to a source at Sony last night who said this has simply been unbelievable.

But like you said, Sony had little choice, because almost all the major theater owners in the United States one by one yesterday said,

sorry, we're not going to screen this movie. So that's why Sony has now canceled it.

TANK: So, does this mean it's canceled, it's gone, no one is ever going to see this movie? Or might it actually come out on DVD or

something like that?

STELTER: You know, that's the question now. We were asking last night, and Sony did put out a one line statement saying we have no

further plans to release this film. What they're trying to say is we're not going to put it on Netflix, we're not going to put it on video on

demand, we're not going to put it out on DVD.

I was also told, though, never say never, you know, right now this is a very tense time for Sony. The last thing they want is for these

anonymous hackers, these criminals, to think that they still have a plan to release The Interview and thus continue to release information,

continue to embarrass the company further.

But maybe -- maybe once this settles down, maybe they will see an opportunity to release this film in some form. I'm not betting on it,

but I personally would love to see it because of all the controversy.

TANK: Well, it's remarkable, isn't it, Brian, that we've seen other movies leaked onto the internet by, you know, whoever is able to

do that kind of thing, but we'll see. I don't know, maybe...

STELTER: Well, that's the thing, a lot of Sony's other films have come out, but The Interview hasn't. You know, Annie came out online

illegally. It doesn't get to theaters for another week. But for whatever reason, The Interview didn't leak. Maybe that's because the

hackers don't want us to see it.

But I have a feeling, whether Sony puts it out legally or not, this movie is going to get out somehow. There's just too much interest in

it.

TANK: I'm with you on that one.

Well, it is, it is.

And just finally, there have been a number of celebrities who have gone out on social media and they've tweeted for example comments in

relation to this. And they've talked about effectively the incursion on Freedom of speech, because obviously it's a big deal for Hollywood for

this to happen...

STELTER: It really is.

TANK: So, what are people saying about that?

STELTER: You know, we saw Judd Apatow call this disgraceful. We saw Jimmy Kimmel last night call it unAmerican what's happened here.

There's a lot of blame to go around, I think, because you know I think you've got theater owners who are afraid that Americans will be afraid

not to go to the theaters. And then you've got Sony also concerned about that.

So it was a real conundrum for them.

But where we ultimately ended up here is a very disappointed outcome for everyone involved, because it does feel like capitulation to

like I said an anonymous band of hackers, maybe working in the middle of nowhere from their computer screens that were effectively able to stifle

freedom of expression.

At the end of the day, Hollywood is not going to forget, because of the worrisome precedent that this sets.

TANK: Yeah. And it's amazing that in parts of Asia where I am Sony Pictures was always told when they got the feedback that this movie

would never work here. So, interesting from all angles. Brian Stelter thank you so much. Such an interesting story.

Now, strong reaction is pouring in to the historic announcement that the U.S. and Cuba relations will be thawed after more than 50 years

of hostility. In Havana, people spilled into the streets to show their support for renewed relations with their northern neighbor.

Reaction, though, was much different in one part of Miami, Florida. Those chants were directed at the U.S. President Barack Obama. Miami is

home to a large number of Cuba exiles who oppose any change in policy toward their Communist homeland, though many younger Cuban-Americans

support the change.

So the new deal between the U.S. and Cuba followed top secret talks that went on for more than a year. Both Canada and the Vatican played

important roles. CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nothing says a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations more than this -- the historic phone call between

President Obama and Cuban leader, Raul Castro.

JOHN F. KENNEDY, 35TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES : The Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba.

ACOSTA: The first presidential level engagement, the White House says, since the Cuban revolution, more than 50 years ago.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests

and instead, we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.

ACOSTA: Senior administration officials say the secret U.S.-Cuba talks started in June 2013, with most of the discussions happening in

Canada and led by Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes.

Those wheels were in motion when the president and Raul Castro shook hands at Nelson Mandela's memorial service last December. But one

key sticking point remained -- the imprisonment of Alan Gross in Cuba.

OBAMA: A major obstacle stood in our way -- the wrongful imprisonment in Cuba of U.S. citizen and USAID subcontractor Alan Gross

for five years.

ACOSTA: Last March, President Obama found a pivotal player to help broker the deal, Pope Francis. They discussed Cuba at the Vatican,

something Mr. Obama did not disclose when asked by CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what were his concerns?

OBAMA: In terms of the meeting with His Holiness, Pope Francis, we had a wide-ranging discussion.

ACOSTA: Earlier this year, the pope kept the conversation going, sending letters to President Obama and Raul Castro. Then in October, the

Vatican welcomed officials from the U.S. and Cuba to push the talks forward.

PRES. RAUL CASTRO, CUBA (through translator): I want to thank and recognize the support of the Vatican.

ACOSTA: The pope, who celebrated his 78th birthday today with a mass celebration is also the first Latin American leader of the Catholic

church, so it should be no surprise he got the ball rolling according to the Vatican spokesman.

GREG BURKE, VATICAN SPOKESMAN: I'm sure not everybody in the U.S. is happy with what's happened here. There's no doubt about that. We've

already seen that. And yet he says it's always better to be talking than not talking. And that's really what this was about.

ACOSTA: A senior administration official said Cuba's former leader, Fidel Castro, was not involved in the negotiations for this

deal.

As for a presidential trip to Cuba, the White House is not ruling one out noting Mr. Obama was in China last month where democracy is not

exactly on the march.

Jim Acosta, CNN, The White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TANK: Well, let's go live to the Cuban capital now. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is there and joins us live.

I know everyone has been bombarding you with the same question, Patrick, but how are people feeling about it there?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, they're waking up and still pinching themselves a little bit. You have

to go back and look. You know, most Cubans in Cuba today were born after the revolution that never have known anything other than

Communism, single-party Communism. They've never known anything other than U.S. sanctions. They've never known anything other than being

members of a country -- citizens of a country that for a long time has been considered a rogue country, certainly very isolated country.

So the idea of -- that that could all change or that at least a lot of that could change and they could have closer if not warm relations

with the United States. It really is going to take some time to sink in. And we're not seeing, of course, any changes on the ground yet, but

you know in the coming weeks and months we are going to start to feel some of the ripple effects of the U.S. is going to take, you know, the

embargo continues, but it's going to lose some of its teeth.

The U.S. is planning on opening an embassy here to replace the intersection they currently have and the Cubans will do the same. You

could see high level visits from Secretary Kerry, possibly even as Jim mentioned President Obama.

So things are moving faster here than they have in generations, perhaps than in the history of the Cuban revolution and for many Cubans

it just doesn't seem quite real, at least not yet.

TANK: Well, Patrick, as the reality begins to sink in, from your vantage point and from what you know of the Cuban people, it will be a

time of transition over the coming months, over the coming years. Do you think Cuba is ready for it?

OPPMANN: Absolutely not. Cuba's economy is not ready for it, the infrastructure is not ready for the influx of tourists. Mentalities

have to change. People talk about the external embargo and then the internal embargo as well, one set by the Cuban government and by

people's own mindsets that they sort of refuse to believe that things can ever change, that the Cuban government has put up its own barriers

in controls on its own people that probably need to be lifted now.

So, you know, those are the kinds of things that do need to be phased out as this historic change does come into being.

But I'll tell you this, the Cuban people, even if they're not fully prepared for it, they've wanted this change for so long. You can feel

it this early. People want to be able to have contact with their neighbors, want to be able to see their families. You have people here

who have had families have left years ago, decades ago and then not be able to see them since.

So there is a real thirst not only for a better life, but to be more connected certainly to people in the United States.

TANK: Yeah, it's certainly a remarkable moment. And so much has changed outside Cuba in 50 years. People have got a lot of catching up

to do with everything, I suppose.

All right, Patrick thank you very much.

Now this week''s deadly hostage siege in Sydney is sparking a new debate in Australia. Some wonder could lives have been saved if the

country's gun laws weren't so strict?

We'll look into that polarizing question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TANK: A very seasonal view of Victoria Harbor there.

Now leaders from China, Hungary and Serbia have signed a deal to build a high speed rail line between Belgrade and Budapest. And it'll

make it easier to transport Chinese goods to central Europe. It comes as Serbia is working to join the European Union.

CNN's Paula Newton caught up with the prime minister to ask about one potential hurdle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Will you categorically recognize Kosovo without any caveats if that is the

condition of EU membership?

ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER: I have never heard of that condition.

NEWTON: It likely will be a condition. I'm sure I can go to the European Commission today and they will say, yeah...

VUCIC: They won't say that. They won't say that.

NEWTON: So you're saying you don't have to, you don't expect -- you expect to gain full fledged European member without...

VUCIC: No. I just say, we have our process. It's not that simple. It's not that simple, you know, when you speak about it. To

say you have to recognize Kosovo as an independent state, we have never had that kind of condition and they know that it would be a kind of

condition that will be saying or conveying a message to Serbia, OK, we do not expect you as a part of European Union very soon.

And we didn't get that condition. I didn't hear that at least from anyone from Euroepan Union.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TANK: Still to come on News Stream, the residents of Sydney Australia honor the victims of Monday's hostage standoff with a sea of

flowers. We'll tell you why the country's gun laws are now under the microscope.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TANK: I'm Manisha Tank in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines.

In his end of year news conference the Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the country's struggling economy and currency crisis on

what he called external economic factors. He also praised the central bank's intervention to defend the ruble and said Russia's economy will

rebound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): This situation could continue approximately -- nobody can say exactly -- for two years. But that does

not have to be like that, the situation can be -- can improve sooner even first or second quarter of the next year or the end of next year.

Nobody can say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TANK: U.S. investigators are set to officially blame North Korea for the cyber attack on Sony Pictures. It comes as the studio announced

it has canceled the Christmas release of the controversial comedy The Interview. The film depicts the fictional assassination of North

Korea's leader. The same hackers who claimed they targeted Sony have threatened anyone who goes to see the film.

Nigerian officials say Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped at least 185 women and children near Chibok. 32 men were killed, including

the chief imam. Survivors say the attackers were burned, then burned the village. It took four days for word of the raid to get to the state

capital.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Cameroon troops have killed 160 Boko Haram militants who attacked a northern military base.

In Pakistan, a second day of national mourning. Taliban militants massacred 148 people at an army run school in Peshawar. Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif visited a hospital treating some of the wounded. Most of the victims were students.

Now, Australia is still trying to heal after this week's hostage tragedy. This makeshift memorial in the heart of Sydney continues to

draw thousands of people paying their respects. Days now after that deadly siege ended early on Tuesday morning. Two hostages were killed.

We'll give you a better sense of just how big this has become, a sea of flowers fills the street in the heart of Sydney's central

business district.

Well, Australia has very strict gun laws, but one lawmaker is questioning whether Australians are actually safer because of it.

Andrew Stevens explores the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: The final terrifying moments when police stormed the Lindt Cafe. Two hostages

died at the hands of gunmen, Man Haron Monis.

But could the outcome have been different if Australia didn't have such tough gun laws, if some of the hostages were armed?

Well, one lawmaker thinks so. And he told national radio that he thinks Australia's gun laws are turning this country, quote, "into a

nation of victims."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened in that cafe would be most unlikely to have occurred in Florida or Texas or Vermont or Alaska in

America or perhaps even Switzerland as well. But a nutcase who held them all hostage wouldn't have known that they were armed. And bad guys

don't like to be shot back at.

STEVENS: Australia cracked down hard on gun ownership in 1996 after the Port Arthur Massacre. 35 shot dead by loner Martin Bryant at

a popular tourist destination in Tazmania.

Automatic and semi-automatic weapons and shotguns were banned. And a government buyback program saw some 700,000 weapons handed in to

authorities.

CHARLES KNIGHT, MACQUARIE UNIVERISTY: We have some of the restrictive gun ownership laws around the planet, particularly for an

agricultural society where there's often a genuine need for firearm.

STEVENS: Did it work? The statistics support it. Gun related deaths in Australia fell by 59 percent between 1995 and 2006.

The man behind that crackdown, then Prime Minister John Howard, hit back at the senator today, calling his argument flawed and simplistic.

And on the streets of Sydney, Howard's view has plenty of support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Australian gun laws have proven that we have less incidences of guns. So I think keep the laws as they are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like people shouldn't have to feel like they have to have guns to protect themselves, but I think it's about

more people having guns I think that's going to make the problem worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I ever been to America where there's no gun laws and you do act differently. Like I have relatives that, you

know, that have wary of their road rage, because you know people have guns in their cars. So, I do feel safer with our gun laws here in

Australia.

STEVENS: Monis did not have a gun license, but that didn't stop him killing. Another key question for the national inquiry into what

happened, how easy is it for a man with his criminal record to get his hands on a weapon?

Andrew Stevens, CNN, Sydney.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TANK: You're watching News Stream, still to come on this program. Serbia has announced some top tennis talent. After the break, we head

to the Balkans to discover the secrets of their success.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TANK: Serbia is still healing from the devastation of the Balkan conflict. But the country is finding a breakthrough in sports.

Homegrown tennis stars like Novak Djokovic have risen to the very top of the game. Paula Newton finds out what's behind their winning moves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Novak Djokovic is once again the world's number one tennis player for the third time in the last four years. He's a winner, a

joker, by all accounts a gentleman. He's also a Serbian patriot, a hero in a country that was in need of a gamechanger.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, MEN'S TENNIS NUMBER ONE: Now this is the life that I always wanted to have for myself. I mean, to be the best in the world

in tennis. And I was always dreaming about it. I remember as a kid I was, you know, improvising and making a little trophies out of different

materials and just going in front of the mirror and lifting the trophies and saying I was a champion.

At that time, in Serbia, our tennis was nowhere.

NEWTON: Nowhere. And not just in tennis. Serbia is still trying to recover from the devastation of the Balkan conflict of the 1990s.

But in tennis, talk about a turnaround. This nation of just over 7 million is serving up quite a game, dubbed Serb and volley by tennis

observers. The talent defies the odds.

Ana Ivanovich, former world number one; Jelena Jankovic, former world number one and doubles champion Nenad Zimonjic; and up and comers

like former junior number one Ivana Jorovic.

We caught up with her training in Belgrade, letting us in on the secret of Serbian tennis success.

IVANA JOROVIC, SERBIAN TENNIS PLAYER: We are very strong people. And I think that is like what's makes us so special.

We need to do everything alone without any help, you know, because we're a really small country. But it's hard the other way it's really

nice, because you know that makes you really strong.

NEWTON: Zimonjic has always taken an underdog mentality into every match in what has has been a long and winning singles and doubles

career, including Davis Cup wins for Serbia on home turf.

NENAD ZIMONJIC, SERBIAN DOUBLES CHAMPION: I always remember that really like amazing feeling, you know, to represent your country, to be

one of the top four players from your country and then to compete with the best players from the other parts of the world and there was

probably the best moment that we achieved was to win the Davis Cup title here in Belgrade 2010.

NEWTON: The father of two still call Belgrade home and is raising his children here. He, too, speaks with his determination despite

crushing odds with no financial backing and crumbling tennis facilities.

ZIMONJIC: To have world number ones for such a small country it was amazing.

Djokovic is the poster boy for what fame and fortune in tennis can do for a place. It's created a halo effect in Serbia not just for its

tennis talent, but the whole country, a sign that this nation and its people are back in the game.

Paula Newton, CNN, Belgrade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TANK: And that's News Stream. I'm Manisha Tank. World Sport is next with Alex Thomas.

END