i say, here are some things you can do. i am anne motley halum, i am helping the people in rural gat ma la protect their family and friends. pine trees with tap roots hold a mountain together. the trees are cut for fire wood. without realizing it, they have taken away their protection. we started to teach the villagers how to use the trees. we will start with a little seed bed and we will build that and then we transplant those seed lings on to the mountain slopes. we watch the trees grow. that s why we stay for five years. notice that the mudslides aren t happening here. we say, you have got it. you know how to do this now. i can go back to areas that were nothing but mudslides and soil erosion and now i see forests and they are still there and they are beautiful.
in the wake of the massive flooding and mudslides there. and despair for thousands of families as the death toll keeps on rising. most of the casualties are in rio de janeiro state. that s northeast of the city of rio. rescuers still haven t reached some badly affected areas. hundreds of people are still at risk after the floods washed their homes away, leaving them clinging on dangerous river banks or mountain slopes. so far the government has confirmed more than 630 people have died. officials say that that number could go even higher. cnn producer helena demora is at the heart of one of the hardest hit areas of rio de janeiro. helena joins us now. give us an idea of what you ve been seeing, helena, and what people are telling you. reporter: jane, we re actually not there yet because the roads are blocked. we are at the interstate 102 between rio de janeiro city and teresopolis. we were just told that half of the mountain with serious and
i m don lemon here to look at some of your top stories. in brazil, torrential rain and mud slides are believed to have killed 591 people. more people could be in danger since many residents live on mountain slopes. three u.s. military were kill in iraq, two died. another u.s. soldier was wounded before the iraqi soldier was killed. a third military was killed in ira iraqi demonstrations in iraq. christopher matlow was shot as
going to demonstrate and what we ve already seen demonstrations in cairo, seen them in gaza city, libya, yemen. so the arab countries are going to be looking at this closely to see who s going to follow tunisia s lead. depending what happens, it s important for the stability of that region. absolutely. also, i know we re going to be following this. we were kump consumed by the net of arizona. people may have missed what s happening with the flooding in australia and new the philippines and brazil. devastating. absolutely devastating. in brazil, we ve had 631 people have died so far. rescuers have had a hard time getting to the locations because they re on mountain slopes and riversides. thousands are still there. out of australia, same thing. we have a situation where the infrastructure is completely destroyed in northeast australia. in the philippines, again, 1.5 million people across 25 provinces. unprecedented flooding. unprecedented, yes. it s an anniversary that you
become too much of a liability because of corruption and dissat faction with the economy, that intelligence and army leaders simply decided it was time for him to go. . it can t really be said there was a revolution here. it looks like the popular movement brought down the president, but it didn t bring down the regime. martin. ben wedeman in the capital of tunisia. thanks very much. a curfew in effect as darkness has set in. in brazil, flooding has killed more than 500 people. floodwaters swept through the mountainous areas in rio de janeiro, and rescuers have not been able to reach many hard hit areas. with thousands of families living on mountain slopes or river banks, authorities say they face an extreme risk of being washed away. the region has been declared a disaster area, so many people lost their lives, schools and police stations are being used