Syrian Government Claims al-Nusra Front Responsible for Chemical Attack
CHIOU: I'm Pauline Chiou in Hong Kong. And you're watching News Stream. These are your world headlines. An American man has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by North Korea's supreme court. A U.S. official says Kenneth Bay went there with a valid visa and was arrested last November. North Korean State Media says Bay was found guilty of, quote, serious crimes, but they didn't give any more details. India's prime minister is demanding justice after an Indian inmate was killed in prison in Pakistan. Sarabjit Singh died after what Pakistani authorities said was a scuffle with other prisoners. Singh had been on death row for two decades after he was convicted of spying for India and planting bombs in Pakistan. A report commissioned by the UN and USAID says humanitarian agencies were too slow to react to drought and famine in Somalia in 2011. The study says some 260,000 people died, more than half of them under the age of five. An investigation is now underway to determine the cause of this cargo plane crash in Afghanistan on Monday. All seven people on board died. Chris Lawrence tells us more about the victims and what may have happened to the flight. And we warn you viewers may find the images in this report disturbing.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The video is dramatic and disturbing. A Boeing 747 just stalls and falls back to Earth in a massive explosion just seconds after takeoff. The video purportedly shows a cargo plane that crashed Monday near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, killing seven American crewmen including Brad Hassler (ph).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could trade places with him so that he could be with his family, I would in a heartbeat.</s>LAWRENCE: That's Hassler's brother who says Brad got married just two weeks ago and his wife is pregnant with their second child.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is his daughter Sloan, who is two. And who we don't see in here is the baby that's on the way who we expect to see in October.</s>LAWRENCE: The 747 was bound for Dubai, carrying equipment as part of the U.S. military's drawdown from Afghanistan. The civilian cargo plane was loaded with five MRAPs, each weight about 27,000 pounds.</s>STEVEN WALLACE, FRM. DIR. FAA ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION UNIT: Securing them is absolutely critical to safety.</s>LAWRENCE: Steven Wallace (ph) is the former director of the FAA's accident investigation unit. He says there's no forgiveness in a plane's center of gravity. Basically there can only be so much weight at each part of the plane.</s>WALLACE: So it's critical that the total weight be within the limit and that the plane be balanced.</s>LAWRENCE: The 747 can take off a couple of different ways -- when it's carrying passengers, it'll take four to five minutes to reach 15,000. But in Afghanistan there's always the danger of being shot out of the sky, so the pilots need to gain as much altitude as possible while they're still over Bagram. A 747 carrying cargo can reach altitude almost two minutes faster.</s>WALLACE: The typical concern with a cargo aircraft, and this has caused accidents before, is that when the airplane is rotated with the nose up, the cargo moves aft if it's not properly secured.</s>LAWRENCE: It's much harder to have a massive shift of weight on a commercial 747 because the passengers and the weight are evenly distributed in the seats. It's just one of the possibilities that the NTSB is looking at as their investigators arrive in Afghanistan. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.</s>CHIOU: President Obama leaves today on a three day trip. The first stop is Mexico where he'll meet with the country's new president Enrique Pena Nieto. Talks are expected to focus on economic issues, but cross border drug violence will also be a major part of their discussion. Then it's on to Costa Rica. Mr. Obama will discuss developments in Central America with leaders from around the entire region. Well, a new petition is calling on President Obama to keep his promise to close the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was created by Morris Davis, who is the former chief prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo. And as you can see, it already has more than 104,000 signatures. And among other things, they are demanding that the Defense Department transfer prisoners cleared for release. The first inmates arrived at the Guantanamo Bay facility in January of 2002. And now many of the remaining prisoners are staging a life or death protest against their plight. But Jonathan Mann shows us how authorities are responding.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Why exactly are we doing this? Why are we doing this?</s>JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Obama once promised to close Guantanamo Bay, tried for a time, was rebuffed by congress and public opinion and then essentially moved on. But many of its prisoners haven't moved on. And they're pushing themselves onto his agenda again. There are 166 being held there. Some are awaiting trial by U.S. military tribunal, others considered not easily put on trial, still others waiting to be transferred overseas with their transfers on hold, some have attempted suicide. About 100 are said to be staging hunger strikes in protest against what they consider unfair treatment and a desperate fate as prisoners without any realistic prospect of freedom.</s>OBAMA: I don't want these individuals to die. Obviously the Pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can.</s>MANN: The Pentagon is force feeding the hunger strikers it considers in real danger of starvation, 23 according to a military spokesperson, pouring liquid food through a tube pushed up the nose and down the throat. And it defends the practice.</s>COLONEL GREG JULIAN, PUBLIC AFFAIRS CHIEF, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND: This is the same procedure that's used in civilian hospitals for people that are in a condition where they're unable to eat normally.</s>MANN: But force feeding gets a different description from a current prisoner who says he endured it and dictated this account published in the New York Times. "There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone." An expert in medical ethics puts it this way.</s>ARTHUR CAPLAN, NYU MEDICAL CENTER: These people are basically shackled and bound. They're not trying to accept the treatment. The more you struggle, the more you resist, the worse it is.</s>MANN: The U.S. President is pledging to take a new look at Guantanamo and the fate of the men held there. IN the meantime, GITMO stays open and the hunger strike continues. Jonathan Mann, CNN.</s>CHIOU: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made a rare public appearance. He visited power plant employees in Damascus on Wednesday. And the outing came amid more violence in the country's civil war. Bombs have exploded in the capital for three days in a row. The two year conflict has killed an estimated 70,000 people, mostly civilians. Recently allegations of chemical weapons use have grown louder. Well, Fred Pleitgen sat down with Syria's information minister in an exclusive interview and he joins us live now from Damacus. Fred, what did he have to say?</s>FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the main things, of course, that we talked about was these allegations of chemical weapons use. Of course, the United States is now saying that it has evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria. However, it doesn't know who exactly used them. So I hit Syria's information minister with that. And he denied that it was the government who used them. Let's listen in.</s>PLEITGEN: The United States says that it has evidence that chemical weapons were used in the conflict here. Did your armed forces use them?</s>OMRAN AL ZOUBI, SYRIAN INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): The government would never use chemical weapons if we had them. We have proof that Islamist Jubhat al-Nusra have used chemical weapons. America is not serious about discussing this type of chemical weapons used. They want to accuse Syria and not search for the truth. It is shameful.</s>PLEITGEN: Do you fear that this could draw the United States into increased action?</s>ZOUBI (through translator): The most important question is why western countries have given such weapons to al Qaeda and Jubhat al-Nusra. Do they want to increase terrorism or do they want to find a pretext to invade Syria? They are trying to make them stronger, it means that the western countries are on the same sides as these terrorists.</s>PLEITGEN: How do you view President Obama's position, then, because President Obama is taking a lot of heat in the United States for not taking more action on Syria. How do you view his approach?</s>ZOUBI (through translator): President Obama says chemical weapons are a red line, then he is in direct accordance with President Assad who also thinks that chemical weapons are a red line.</s>PLEITGEN: And Pauline, one of the other things that really stood out in that interview was sort of a complete denial on the part of the information minister to accept that parts of the opposition and of the armed opposition here in Syria have legitimate concerns. He basically said he felt that most of those who -- or pretty much all of those who are armed here were part of Islamist extremist groups. And really that seemed to leave very little room for any sort of negotiations, Pauline.</s>CHIOU: Fred, we've also been hearing about more bombings in Damascus. You've been there for a few days now. Is the war getting closer to the capital?</s>PLEITGEN: Well, I'll tell you, I've been here for three days and we've had five major bombings here in the Syrian capital. So certainly a lot of people are quite afraid at this point in time and do feel this conflict seeping in closer and closer to home. The other things (inaudible) of the regular sort of shelling that we hear, it was jet fighters in the air. It was some very heavy weapons being used, also a lot of small arms fire that you could hear as well. So it certainly seems as though things are heating up here in the Syrian capital. There was some shelling just now as well. Whether or not that indicates any sort of shift in momentum on the battlefield, it's still very, very much unclear. But I can tell you people here are much more anxious than they were when I was here last two months ago, Pauline.</s>CHIOU: OK. So that's the comparison there. Be careful, be safe. Thanks so much, Fred. Fred Pleitgen reporting live from Damascus. A world sport update is just ahead on News Stream. Bayern Munich make history in the Champion's League. And Amanda Davies will be here with much more coming up next.