Blizzard Bears Down On U.S. Northeast
LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream. And these are your world headlines. Now tens of thousands of Tunisians are in the streets of the capital to pay their last respects to slain opposition leader Chokri Belaid. His assassination on Wednesday triggered protests across Tunis. Elsewhere in the city, riot police have fired tear gas at dozens of demonstrators. Now this area has been a flashpoint for protests in the days since the death of Belaid. Hugh Grant is among 144 people who received settlements from Rupert Murdoch's News International for phone hacking. Hugh Grant's lawyers said that he received substantial damages. Another actor's lawyer said he also received sincere apologies. A suicide bomber on a motorbike has blown himself up near the city of Gao in Mali. Witnesses say that he drove into a group of Malian soldiers and detonated his vest. One soldier was killed. It is the first reported suicide bombing in Mali since French troops entered the country four weeks ago to try to drive out the Islamist rebels. Now nearly 3,000 flights have been canceled as the northeastern U.S. braces for a major blizzard. As shops are packed, lines have formed at gas stations as people prepare for the worst. And motorists have been warned to stay off the roads when the storm hits later today. And we are closely watching the situation in Tunis, Tunisia. And new clashes have taken place between police and protesters amid mourning for a slain opposition leader. Let's bring back our senior international correspondent Dan Rivers. Dan, what's the latest?</s>RIVERS: Well, I'm -- have a bit of bird's eye view on the main boulevard in the center of downtown Tunis. And again, crowds are gathering at one end of it at the northern end. Several hundred people. In the last half hour since I spoke to you, Kristie, again we've seen sporadic clashes with the police firing tear gas, chasing protesters down side streets. Many of the police on motorbikes armed with batons and attacking people that way. I think the big fear, though, is that the tens of thousands of people who are currently at the cemetery waiting for the burial of Chokri Belaid, there's a suggestion that all those people are going to march into the center of Tunis. And if that happens, I think we're going to have a very volatile situation.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, you're reporting there have been clashes. Tear gas canisters have been fired. We know that police, security officers are there at the scene. What about the military? Are they on standby to step in if needed?</s>RIVERS: They are. Yeah, we've seen armored personnel carriers on the streets. Haven't seen any soldiers playing an active part, but there certainly there is a military presence here. It's fairly small where we are, but we have seen military helicopters hovering overhead as well. One assumes that they are there as a last ditch backup in case things get really out of control here. I think the really big problem, though, is controlling that sea of people that are currently at the cemetery. And if, you know, tempers get inflamed and people decide they want to march on the ministry of the interior it's very difficult to see how they're going to be stopped.</s>LU STOUT: You know, tempers are inflamed. And when you talk to the protesters who are out there this day, what are they telling you? Why are they out there protesting?</s>RIVERS: Well, we spoke to several people -- the people are coming up to us and say help us save our country, help us, you know, fight for freedom. I think they see that Chokri Belaid's assassination is a tipping point. And they're very concerned about the direction in which this country is heading. They felt that the whole point of the revolution was to overthrow dictatorship of the totalitarian regime of President Ben Ali. Now they feel that they are beginning on a slippery slope back towards that kind of repression and extremism. And they're just terribly concerned that the government, the Islamist led government isn't protecting people, isn't offering security, and isn't guaranteeing human rights here. And that, they say, is what the revolution was all about.</s>LU STOUT: Wow, the tension is clearly high. Tunisia is at a tipping point. Dan Rivers is there joining us on the line live from Tunis. Thank you, Dan. Now in Nigeria, police are investigating the killings of nine people who were working for a government polio vaccination program. Now these attacks happened in the northern city of Kano. And the World Health Organization says Nigeria is only one of three countries that has failed to stop the transmission of polio, the others, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Let's get the latest now from Vlad Duthiers who is in Lagos. And Vlad, I mean, why would polio vaccinators be murdered there in Nigeria?</s>VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a good question, Kristie. The reason is there are Muslim clerics that have called the vaccination program for polio a way by which the west will sterilize young children. And so people who follow these clerics, people who may not have the proper education to know that this is actually beneficial to them, have resisted efforts to have vaccinations. And this is exactly what the police think may have happened. I spoke to one gentleman who works for an entity that is pursuing this eradication of polio in Nigeria. And he says that this is true, that there are Muslim clerics that have called for attacks on westerners who try to vaccinate children, but that in fact it's a fallacy. Obviously polio is a huge killer. The World Health Organization says that since 1988, they were -- you had 350,000 cases. They brought that down 99 percent so that you only had about 650 cases worldwide in 2011. Now in Nigeria, the government from the President Goodluck Jonathan to the State Governors have all made it a priority to try to eradicate polio in Nigeria. But last year there was a slight uptick. They had about 120 cases in the country, that was up from the previous year 2011. So this is an initiative that everybody from the government down to the NGOs are focused on, but there is -- there are small pockets of resistance, especially in the Muslim north, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, this is such an infuriating story. You have clerics calling for an end to polio vaccinations in a country that still desperately needs it. I mean, on the flip side, is there a public awareness campaign to tell people that polio vaccinations are safe and that they are very much needed?</s>DUTHIERS: There has been. As I said, the government here in Nigeria has really made it a priority to eradicate polio in this country. The governors of the states have also made it a priority. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made it a priority to eradicate polio in Nigeria, and in fact eradicate it in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well. But this is similar to some of the attacks that we have seen, actually, in Pakistan. The Taliban there has also targeted polio vaccinators in that country for the very same reasons. This one gentleman that I spoke to today, who is part of an effort to vaccinate people across Nigeria said that in reality what happens is that when you hear the west, when people hear "west," they immediately think that it's something that is sent to harm them and in fact it's simply not true. And so they're battling that, that's a challenge for all the health workers that are vaccinating children, especially in the northern part of the country. You don't see it so much in the southern part of Nigeria, but in the northern part where this incident took place it's something that continues to be a major, major challenge, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Wow, polio vaccinators there in Nigeria up against so much, including securing their own safety. Vlad Duthiers, thank you. Now the northeastern United States, it is bracing for a fierce winter storm that's expected to bring heavy snowfall from New Jersey to Maine. And people all across the eastern seaboard are stocking up ahead of the blizzard. They're clearing store shelves and waiting in long lines at gas stations. Now the storm is on track to hit the same part of the country that was slammed by super storm Sandy just last October. Now it's the combination of two systems that makes this storm definitely one to watch. And for the very latest, let's go to Mari Ramos, she joins us from the World Weather Center -- Mari.</s>MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kristie. Yeah, let's talk about this storm. It is a pretty intense weather system. And it is that merging of these two storms, the ones what's just giving this a lot more attention and a lot more power. What we have is an area of low pressure right here in the Mid-Atlantic region. That one is beginning to rise here to the north. So that's picking up a lot of moisture as relatively warmer air. And then there's another weather system coming in across the Great Lakes. This one has some moisture, not that much, but it definitely has a lot of cold air. When these two systems merge together, we end up with this larger storms that intensifies very, very quickly and just rides right along the coastline here. The result is very heavy snowfall across mainly the northeastern U.S. here and very strong winds. Some of the hardest hit areas, some of the areas that we're expecting to have the largest effect, as you mentioned, some of those areas his by super storm Sandy back in October. Those areas are going to get some very heavy snowfall, probably very strong winds, and even possibly coastal flooding. But the epic snowfall is expected to be farther north in the city of Boston. And that's where we have our CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons. Hello, Indra. I can see the wind starting to pick up just a little bit there. What's the latest going on from Boston?</s>INDRA PETERSONS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Mari, I want to imagine that you are here in Boston, Massachusetts. It's been a mild winter. We have 15 inches below normal for snowfall. And now there's reports of this huge monstrous blizzard headed this way. I mean, this could break records. We could break the record of 24 inches of snowfall in a 24 hour period. And we could potentially in Boston here break the record of the all-time blizzard where we saw 27.5 inches of snow and that was broken in 2003. So that's what we're potentially watching here. Currently, conditions generally mild considering what's coming our way. Temperatures here right at the freezing mark. Winds, we're seeing about some 20 mile per hour winds out there. And visibility is great. I actually want to show you the customs tower here behind me, because that's less than a quarter mile away. Now we always know when we see blizzard, we watch to see whether or not we lose visibility less than a quarter mile. So we're going to be tracking that as we go throughout the day today. Now we're expecting as we go through late afternoon into the evening hours to see snowfall rates here of two to three inches per hour. Now if that's not bad enough, we're going to be seeing gusts of upwards of 50, 60, even 70 miles per hour not out of the question. So when all is said and done, I could be standing here in three feet of snow. Some models even bring it higher than that. You add in the snow drifts that can be going over my head. So this is a monstrous storm. And the good news here, people are adhering the Mayor Menino's warnings. They are staying indoors. They're not going out today if they don't need to. Schools are closed after noon today. Everthing is going to be shut down. Cars will be off the road. Everyone will be indoors. And again, the crews are ready. They have over 600 trucks here, 4,500 are on standby. Even the National Guard here is on standby if need be. And the good news, with all the residents I've talked to, they feel confident, you know, that everything will be just fine. They're going to stay at home and resume business as usual come Monday. In fact, I can tell you, in just the last few minutes starting to see a couple of snow flurries coming down. So, yeah, the worst is yet to come.</s>RAMOS: Definitely. You know, the people in New England, in Massachusetts they -- you'd say, well, they're used to these harsh winters. This makes it a little bit different, because of the gravity, because of how much snowfall is expected. Now you mentioned the preparations there. Flights have been a huge concern. Have you seen anything with people maybe worry a little bit more where they think they're just going to clean this up pretty quickly and be able to go back to work on Monday?</s>PETERSONS: Yeah. Right now we're reports over 3,000 flights canceled. That, of course, is all of the northeast. And, yes, as far as you're talking about the concern, people are concerned. With all those trucks in place, with the National Guard in place, they're saying we're used to this. We trust our mayor and the government that this will be under control. The good news, of course, this is ahead of the weekend. So they'll have several days. This should start to clear out of here by Saturday. But keep in mind, the winds will still be here. So those snow drifts, the low visibility will still be here through Sunday. Planes are expected to start to return by late Sunday, but that's only to start up service as we go back through Monday. So hopefully after the weekend things will go back to normal.</s>RAMOS: OK, great. Well, you guys stay safe, stay in touch. That's Indra Petersons reporting to us from Boston. And I'm sure -- I want to see the snowfall that high like you said, you know, a meter of snow, quite a bit. And like she said, starting a little bit of snow flurries there. Kristie, these are the two weather systems that I was telling you about. This one right here with the rain that's already bringing a little bit of snow into portions of New York. And then this one right over here is the other one and it's going to be the merging of these two what's going to bring us the problems. And those snow flurries she was talking about is probably a little bit of that that you see there. But the worst, so to speak, is yet to come. This entire area under a blizzard warning right now. Winter storm warnings for other areas. And remember, it's not going to be just New England that's going to get this very heavy snowfall, it's going to be areas farther to the south all the way down into Virginia, possibly close to Washington, D.C. and portions of the eastern Great Lakes in particular are still under those winter storm warnings through the rest of the day today. And one other thing that she mentioned, those 3,000 plus fights that have been canceled, Kristie, that is a huge deal. I saw tweets earlier today from the Paris airports saying we have a lot of flights canceled, of course, to the northeast and that is affecting other flights. British Airways was also saying call ahead, because we have a lot of flights canceled into those areas. And so with that many flights canceled, people all over the world are really could be impacted by this if you have any kind of travel plans to this very busy northeastern corner of the world. And here in the U.S., forget it, this is going to take a long time to clear that backlog of stranded passengers. Back to you.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, highly disruptive, major nor'easter. And here's hoping that everyone is prepared for it. Mari Ramos there, thank you. Now before the storm hits Boston, the Lakers were actually in town to play the Celtics. So who came out on top in the clash between the NBA's biggest rivals? Amanda Davies will have all the highlights next.