U.S., Cuba Open Embassies; GPS Used in El Chapo's Escape; Former Chinese Top Aide Arrested.
NEWTON: Very historic moment for the United States and Havana. You do hear protests though as Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodriquez Parrilla, raised the flag in Cuba's embassy in Washington on Monday. With that, the U.S. and Cuba resumed diplomatic ties after 54 years of Cold War animosity and distrust.</s>BARNETT: Parrilla met with Secretary of State John Kerry who welcome what he called a new beginning. And while some are praising this milestone, other's remain critical.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would argue that our policy for the last 50 years has been a miserable failure and made no difference in Cuba. I believe having normal diplomatic relations gives us an opportunity to communicate our concerns about human rights or drug interdiction or environmental issues.</s>ORLANDO PARDO, CUBAN BLOGGER: I was there in the State Department today. And the secretary of state of the U.S., John Kerry, and it was changeful, the Cuban councilor was saying that Cuba has gained in many ways and the U.S. has to give back Guantanamo and for so many decades of U.S. embargo. When he was asked by a correspondent about the freedoms in Cuba, and he said that freedom in Cuba arrived in 1959.</s>NEWTON: In Havana, the U.S. embassy was opened on Monday. Kerry will raise the American flag in Havana next month. [02:20:]</s>BARNETT: We have a few new wrinkles to tell you about in the prison escape of Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman. He escaped his cell through an elaborate tunnel a week ago.</s>NEWTON: The pictures were incredible. Officials now believe that his accomplices used a global positioning system, or GPS, to help with their plan. And as CNN's Polo Sandoval reports, they may have even done a dry run at another prison.</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 14 months before Joaquin Guzman pulled off his escape from a prison, his organization may have been rehearsing with a separate jail break. A Mexican newspaper snapped these photos of a tunnel leading to a prison in el Chapo's home state of Sinaloa. Mexican officials say it was used in the escape of three inmates accused of trafficking weapons and drugs, at least one with ties to the Sinaloa cartel, a drug organization notorious for subterranean smuggling. This 2014 jailbreak and this month's el Chapo escape are similar. They started at construction sites and ended behind prison walls. This engineer has worked on some of Mexico's largest tunneling projects and says digging such a precise path takes manpower and technology as well.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CIVIL ENGINEER: The first thing was they must do is get the location and then start digging in that location with topographic equipment that is so accurate.</s>SANDOVAL (on camera): So el Chapo had to do was find the exact coordinates of that shower and the experts would do the rest?</s>UNIDENTIFIED CIVIL ENGINEER: Exactly.</s>SANDOVAL (voice-over): The civil engineer says the easiest part of the dig probably came at the end.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CIVIL ENGINEER: They have all the plans they could find the pipeline who goes right under the el Chapo shower.</s>SANDOVAL (on camera): And Mexican authorities are interviewing the supervisor of the prison. Investigators believe he may have given away unauthorized access to the prison plans. But he has been added to the list of seven prison employees connected with the escape. Polo Sandoval, CNN, Mexico City.</s>BARNETT: Outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter is setting up a special task force to deal with corruption and bribery allegations.</s>NEWTON: Before he could make that announcement, a British prankster threw a stack of fake cash. Blatter made it clear there is a lot he wants to get done before his time is up.</s>SEPP BLATTER, FIFA PRESIDENT: My duty and mission now is to defend the institution, FIFA and not to defend myself. I can defend myself. I don't need help with that. But FIFA and I'm happy today, the executive committee together with the confederation they have said, yes, president, we will help you.</s>BARNETT: Now Blatter also announced his replacement will be announced in a special legislation on February 26th. Four of the six football confederations have asked him to consider running but he hasn't made a decision just yet.</s>NEWTON: In China, a top aide to former Chinese President Hu Jintao is facing prosecution over alleged corruption. Authorities arrested Ling Jihua after expelling him from the Communist Party.</s>BARNETT: Accepting bribes and trading power for sex are some of the accusations against Ling. The arrest comes amid current President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption. Our senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, joins us live from Beijing with details on this. Ivan, President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption sweep continues. What is Ling Jihua accused of doing?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's accused of violating Communist Party discipline and rules. He is accused of accepting enormous bribes through his family. He's accused of seeking benefits for his wife's businesses and then in a bit of a contradiction here he is accused of, quote, "committing adultery with a number of women and trading his power for sex." So he has been under investigation since December but now stripped from the Communist Party and under arrest. He could have been described under President Hu Jintao as being a chief of staff. This is a formerly immensely powerful Communist Party official at the top of the Chinese pyramid of power brought down and facing perhaps a life sentence or worse in Chinese prisons as a result of this anti-corruption drive led by the current leader, Xi Jinping.</s>BARNETT: Let's talk about that. Ling was Hu Jintao's right hand man and observers wonder if it is more about Xi Jinping's consolidation of power than stamping out corruption.</s>WATSON: There have certainly be -- there's been speculation and suggestions and accusations from some observers this is more of a witch hunt and an example of Xi Jinping going after rivals and basically trying to remove them. But the fact is that the anti- corruption drive is popular with many Chinese who have seen the leadership in this country, top officials amass enormous wealth and corruption is something that he bangs on about. In the case of Ling Jihua, this is somebody who was behind the scenes a lot in the previous administration but he gained notoriety in 2012 when his son crashed a Ferrari in Beijing and ended up killing himself and severely injuring two women and it was very clear that any reports about this deadly accident were then scrubbed from the internet and from media reports as well. It's almost impossible to find a picture of this mangled Ferrari. That has become one of the many symbols for some Chinese of the huge wealth that some of these so-called tigers in the Communist Party, the wealth they amassed for themselves and their families. Another thing, his wife ran what was described as a non- governmental organization called youth business China. She was the founder of it. We have called a couple of the offices around the country and at least two of the offices say their offices have been suspended. Perhaps another casualty in the anti-corruption drive that ended in her husband's arrest -- Errol?</s>BARNETT: Ivan, live in Beijing. Ivan, thanks.</s>NEWTON: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still to come, British Prime Minister David Cameron has a message for anyone even think about joining ISIS.</s>DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: If you are a boy, they will brainwash you and strap bombs to your body and blow you up. If you are a girl, they will enslave and abuse you.