Turkish Anti-Urbanization Protesters Clash With Security Forces
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet. Now Syria says three westerners were killed fighting for the rebels. Microsoft unveils an update to Windows 8, but can it boost the company's ailing operating system? And more than 70 years after Amelia Earhart disappeared, some researchers say they may have found her final resting place. Syrian state media reports that three westerners have been killed by government forces in the province of Idlib. It claims that the westerners were found fighting with rebels and had weapons and a map of military bases. Now Syrian TV released footage of those items. It also shows a car riddled with bullet holes, three bodies, and what it says are the passports of two of the westerners. Well, a family member tells CNN that one of the three was Nicole Lynn Mansfield from the U.S. State of Michigan. Britain has now verified reports that a British national was also part of the group. Now Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says his government will attend a peace conference in Geneva next month, but the opposition Syrian National Coalition says they won't attend unless Assad gives up power. Now the president spoke about the talks in an interview with Hezbollah television network al-Manar TV.</s>BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA (through translator): We will have an official delegation to attend this conference and legitimate representatives on behalf of the Syrian people. Who will they represent? When the conference is over for us, we will return to Syria and to our homes and to our people. When the conference is over for them, where will they return to? Their five star hotels?</s>LU STOUT: Now President al-Assad, he went on to talk about his country's military contracts with Russia. Now Moscow has been criticized for selling missiles and anti-aircraft systems to Syria. But this Friday, a senior Kremlin aid has defended Russia's right to deliver the weapons. Now Nick Paton Walsh is following developments in Syria from neighboring Lebanon. He joins us now live from CNN Beirut. And Nick, Bashar al-Assad, he is speaking out, but what exactly is he saying about the delivery of the Russian missiles?</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a curious 24 hours, because Lebanese media reports of that interview to al- Manar TV had implied that he had said categorically that missiles, the S300s had already been delivered. These are particularly high tech sophisticated Russian missiles which have got some concerned could seriously impede further Israeli air strike, or in the unlikely event that NATO intervened, cause NATO casualties, too. In the actual interview, though, he was a little more elliptical, not entirely categoric, just simply said this was a matter for their own military privacy to a degree and that they would -- Russia would fulfill the contracts previously agreed. That's since been backed up, though, today by Russian state media report that have gone on to suggest that in fact this delivery may not take place until the Autumn, some suggestions that perhaps it may not happen until next year, in fact. So a lot of uncertainty as to when these will precisely arrive. But we spoke to one defense expert who explained that even if they do get there, there's weeks perhaps not months until they're actually ready to be fired.</s>ROBERT HEWSON, EDITOR, JANE'S AIR-LAUNCHED WEAPONS: The text book way of doing this would say that it would take several months to be really operational and effective, but can you rush a capability in to have a quick and dirty defensive capability? Yes, you could do that in a week or two.</s>WALSH: Certainly, this is the aim of the Assad interview. He is trying to look confident, trying to look like he has what he needs to fend off any future offenses. And this was becoming an increasingly a regional war, but of course we just don't know the reality on the ground when these vital missiles will actually get there -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, and capability issues aside, as the analyst pointed out just then, if and when Syria gets hold of all these Russian missiles, what impact will it have on the conflict?</s>WALSH: It's unclear, because these missiles themselves have never really been tested in open warfare against a modern air force, that expert went on to explain, like the Israeli air force or even in the unlikely event of a NATO intervention, the U.S. or any other western particular power. So the question really is what effect will they have. That expert's suggestion was that they would probably significantly increase the chance of casualties on any air force trying to intervene in the air space in which they worked. And they also resemble, to a certain degree, the PATRIOT missiles placed along the Turkish-Syrian border by NATO. So a gamechanger in terms of the level of sophistication they bring there, although at the end of the day I think he (inaudible) the lines of most modern air forces will have somehow worked their way around them, although will probably sustain some sort of casualties if they come up against them -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: All right. Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us from CNN Beirut. Thank you, Nick. And we've got some news coming into us now. There is unrest in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Ivan Watson is there. And Ivan, tell us more. There are protesters throwing rocks and bottles, tear gas being used. What have you seen, what have you experienced?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kristie, we just got gassed here in our office. So I apologize, my eyes are streaming here. This is Istanbul's Taksim Square. It's the fourth straight day of protests here. This is like the Times Square of Turkey's largest city. As you can see riot cops advancing here, they've been firing tear gas at demonstrators, firing right now, every few minutes. Firing water cannons as well. Demonstrators throwing bottles and rocks at them as we speak. This began for days ago when anti-urbanization protesters -- let's take a listen to what's going on here. Demonstrators banging on the metal barriers here. What started four days ago as a protest against a plan to destroy, demolish a park and build a shopping mall here in Taksim Square has now erupted into a largescale clashes in the streets. They're hurling rocks back and forth. And police firing tear gas. Now we've reached out to the Istanbul municipality to find out casualty figures, how many people have been wounded. The police mounted a pre-dawn raid on what was a sit-in in the park, the disputed park. And these battles have been going on in the main streets of this city for the past six, eight hours. Again, its as if the police were tear gassing Times Square in Manhattan, Kristie, on a daily basis for nearly four days. And this seems to have tapped into some real rage, particularly within secular segments of Turkish society who are boiling with anger against the Islamist rooted government here in Turkey -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: This is incredible. These are largescale protests in the heart of Istanbul there in Turkey. Tear gas is being used against the protesters. You got tear gassed on the way to the office and feeling the effects of that. And the reason why these protests are taking place, it's an anti-urbanization protest, is that right?</s>WATSON: That's how it started, Kristie. And I think there is anger within some segments of society, particularly here in Istanbul -- and more tear gas being fired right below our window -- anger at government backed projects, massive construction and developments projects -- building a new bridge across the Bosphorus Strait, a third airport in Istanbul, completely redeveloping this central square here in Instanbul where you have residents and local business owners complaining that they're never really consulted about this. In addition to the frustration with the development, urban development plans, there is also frustration at what seems to be of diminishing tolerance from the Turkish government over any demonstration of dissent. The use of tear gas by the Turkish police, particularly in recent months, has become a weekly, if not daily, incident where it being satirized in Turkish satirical cartoons with people joking that the Turkish cops are offering to fire tear gas if children don't eat their vegetables at dinner. We can see a water cannon being fired in the distance. All of this is tapping into real frustration at the Turkish government, which is elected, frustration that's perhaps surprising considering that Turkey has enjoyed a period, a decade of real robust economic growth where people's standard of living has improved dramatically.</s>LU STOUT: You know, we're seeing live on our screens the use of tear gas, the use of -- excuse me, the use of water cannons. You were describing the use of tear gas. And we heard the firing of the tear gas canisters earlier. Why is the government responding in such a dramatic way? Is it seeing these what started as an anti-urbanization protest, is it seeing it as a some sort of a political threat?</s>WATSON: Well, this is not something new. A couple of weeks ago after residents of a border town that suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern Turkish history, a Turkish border town on the border with Syria, more than 45 people killed, residents of that town, when they tried to hold a protest, Kristie, they were tear gassed by the Turkish police. We also saw here on May Day, which is, you know, a traditional holiday for the left and the labor movement in Turkey. We had massive use of tear gas in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey's commercial capital. This has been an increasingly common use of police force against any gathering that is not sanctioned by -- I'm sorry, the tear gas is starting to overwhelm me here -- but this has been increasingly common use of force by the Turkish government, which has let a lot of critics to argue, listen, this government does not -- is acting authoritarian and anti-democratic. It does not allow public assembly and any show of dissent -- Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: Well, I know you're dealing with the effects of that tear gas. Thank you very much for joining us on the air and giving us the very latest with what's happening with these protests, these dramatic protests taking place in the heart of Istanbul. Ivan Watson joining us live from the Turkish capital. Thank you, Ivan. Now we want to tell you about an American woman accused of drug smuggling in Mexico. Her name Yanira Maldonado. And she has been freed from jail. She's on her way home. Now that journey was interrupted nine days ago when Mexican authorities said that they found nearly six kilograms of marijuana under her bus seat. Now the mother of seven insisted it was not hers. Now it seems a surveillance video supported her claim. And now that she's free, Maldonado is expressing thanks. Rafael Romo joins us now live from Nocales, Arizona. And Rafael, what more is Yanira saying about her ordeal?</s>RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just try to imagine, Kristie, how difficult it must have been for Yanira Maldonado in the last two weeks. First, her aunt died in Mexico. And this is a woman that she loved very much. She attended her funeral. And on her way back from Mexico, she and her husband Gary Maldonado get detained and arrested, accused of smuggling drugs, specifically marijuana. Authorities say they found as many as 12 pounds of the drug under their seats and charged her, not him, with drug trafficking. After that, she gets sent to a federal prison and then transferred to a state prison in the state of Sonora just across the border from where I'm standing. Every single day she would maintain that she was innocent, that she might have been framed, that she has never had any trouble with the law and that she did not understand why she was caught in the middle of all this. Interestingly enough, Kristie, he case inspired a lot of sympathy in Mexico. And many people were just wondering and asking the government what had happened, because there was not clear evidence that the government had a case against her. And then the video that you mentioned, a video showing her boarding the bus with only two blankets, two bottles of water and her purse. The couple boards the bus. And the point that the defense attorney was trying to make is that it would have been impossible for them to carry onto the bus almost six kilos of marijuana. And so that was a crucial piece of evidence that was introduced in the trial yesterday. And last night, just before midnight here local time, we hear about a ruling from the judge saying that she can go free. Now she's a free woman and is back in the United States and about to be reunited with her children -- Krsitie.</s>LU STOUT: That's right, this American mom, this mother of seven, now on her way home. Rafael Romo joining us live from Arizona, thank you. Now you're watching News Stream, and still ahead, this South African community, it claims to have many benefits, but you can only live there on one condition. Plus, he escaped from house arrest last year, but activist Chen Guangcheng says his family in China still needs help. And what's old is new again, we'll check out Windows 8.1.