:00:00. > :00:08.Minister, David Ford. For now, it is time for the news from the US. ABC
:00:09. > :00:16.World News. Welcome to ABC World News. Rivers with icebergs the size
:00:17. > :00:20.of cars. Out west, trying to find tens of thousands of sandbags to
:00:21. > :00:25.block seems like this as an epic brainstorm is bearing down. Out of
:00:26. > :00:31.the shadows. A dramatic encounter today and about sex traffickers lure
:00:32. > :00:40.in American youth. And the girl who decided to speak out and fight back.
:00:41. > :00:41.A big change. The airline unravelling the rules for frequent
:00:42. > :00:56.flyers. Good evening. A giant rainstorm is
:00:57. > :00:59.bearing down on the West Coast and the race is on to protect homes
:01:00. > :01:05.against the threat of the mud and the floods. In one town, they are
:01:06. > :01:18.trying to Marshall 30,000 sandbags for the storm hits. Our reporter is
:01:19. > :01:23.they are. `` there. The storm is already causing problems in northern
:01:24. > :01:29.California and Oregon. Winds are snapping huge trees. It was very
:01:30. > :01:34.strong. Sandbags are at a fever pitch. This town is at the base of
:01:35. > :01:39.the mountains scorched by fire just a month ago. 18,000 sandbags are
:01:40. > :01:44.already in place. They want to 12,000 more and lay miles of
:01:45. > :01:50.concrete barriers. The heaviest rain is expected on Friday with winds of
:01:51. > :01:56.up to 60 mph. We will prepare for the worst. It takes hundreds of
:01:57. > :02:01.sandbags to shore up a home. What they cannot do is stop mudslides
:02:02. > :02:08.like the ones that covered this part of California in 2005. In the rest
:02:09. > :02:16.of the country, winter still rules supreme. In many Apple is a ground
:02:17. > :02:21.blizzard. Zero visibility. After a weekend warmth started breaking up
:02:22. > :02:26.icebergs, rivers are now dealing with ice jams. In Illinois,
:02:27. > :02:31.authorities had to shut this bridge because of the ice. These enormous
:02:32. > :02:35.chunks of ice pushing against the foundation of this bridge are a
:02:36. > :02:39.concern. Warm water has been released from a nuclear plant into
:02:40. > :02:45.the river to hope that it will melt the ice. The ice is threatening
:02:46. > :02:48.nearby homes. What are you worried about? The water will push the ice
:02:49. > :02:53.underneath and it will push the ice up and it will crush everything.
:02:54. > :02:57.That is the frustrating part for many as they cannot do anything
:02:58. > :03:01.about these ice jams. Flooding is a big concern but now they are coping
:03:02. > :03:07.with the bitter cold. It will not get above freezing for days.
:03:08. > :03:17.We are going to take you into an electrifying drama on Capitol Hill
:03:18. > :03:22.today. A stunning fact in America ` 300,000 children in the US are
:03:23. > :03:25.vulnerable to sex trafficking. Let out of rough neighbourhoods and out
:03:26. > :03:33.of good ones, and so often they're just the children next door.
:03:34. > :03:41.Lacey was just a normal 12`year`old girl. He bought me address and it
:03:42. > :03:48.was special. I felt like I was a princess, like a queen or something.
:03:49. > :03:53.She met her at a party and showered her with gifts and money but soon
:03:54. > :03:57.demanded something sinister. I was 13 when I started in the strip
:03:58. > :04:03.clubs. First he made a strip for money and then he told her that she
:04:04. > :04:07.would sell her body for sex or else. I got in the car with three people,
:04:08. > :04:11.I was scared and nervous and they did not want to do it but could not
:04:12. > :04:19.come back without any money. She came out of the shadows today at
:04:20. > :04:25.Capitol Hill. My story of seduction and explication is not unique. Many
:04:26. > :04:28.girls go through what I did. She wants punishments were human
:04:29. > :04:32.traffickers toughened, and to give police more tools to bust pimps and
:04:33. > :04:38.get the lives of victims back on track. The FPA estimates that
:04:39. > :04:45.293,000 children are victims of sex trafficking or at risk. What a
:04:46. > :04:51.terrible feeling that is to feel like at 14 or 15 or 16 you know that
:04:52. > :04:56.you life is over. But nobody will ever see you how you want to be
:04:57. > :05:00.seen. For a problem that is not going away, there are signs like
:05:01. > :05:10.these is designed to help victims out of the shadows and help put the
:05:11. > :05:17.traffickers behind bars. We have news about the culture war raging in
:05:18. > :05:22.Arizona. The law that puts religious liberty against equal rights. Many
:05:23. > :05:25.companies and big names like John McCain and met Romney are warning
:05:26. > :05:32.the government not to sign that bill. More than 65,000 people have
:05:33. > :05:42.signed a petition urging her not to sign the bill. She has until
:05:43. > :05:46.Saturday to decide. Not far away, in Texas, another debate about gay
:05:47. > :05:50.Americans. A federal judge struck down the Texas ban on same`sex
:05:51. > :05:57.marriage. No marriages can take place until an appeal, but Texas
:05:58. > :06:05.could join this map of 17 states were gay marriage is legal. A shock
:06:06. > :06:11.for everyone who treasures frequent flyer miles. Delta announced a big
:06:12. > :06:14.change with a big advantage to business travellers with corporate
:06:15. > :06:21.expense accounts. What is this mean for everybody else? You are already
:06:22. > :06:27.paying more for bags and food and tonight more bad news. The first
:06:28. > :06:31.major carrier, Delta, is completely overhauling its frequent flyer
:06:32. > :06:37.programme. Used to be able to earn your miles based on how far you
:06:38. > :06:40.flew. Now you are going to be rewarded for your spending and
:06:41. > :06:47.server time in the seat. Today somebody in first class and somebody
:06:48. > :06:53.in economy each fly and receive the same amount of miles. Under the new
:06:54. > :07:01.plans, if I have a ticket in advance for $350, I will only get 1700
:07:02. > :07:08.miles. That last`minute business traveller who pays $1000 will get
:07:09. > :07:15.5000 miles. Those high spending business travellers who Delta wants.
:07:16. > :07:24.As the head of their frequent flyer programme said... This system, is
:07:25. > :07:29.already in effect at some smaller airlines and some hotels are using
:07:30. > :07:36.the same calculation. Is this the point plan of the future? It is bold
:07:37. > :07:39.and risky. Other airlines will observe and if consumers respond
:07:40. > :07:50.well they will follow. Getting that free ticket will cost you more. In
:07:51. > :07:54.international news, the US hurled a tough new warning at Russia, saying
:07:55. > :08:00.an intervention in Ukraine would be a great mistake. John Kerry urged
:08:01. > :08:08.restraint, saving this is not Rocky four. The Russian President ordered
:08:09. > :08:14.his troops to conduct military exercises on Ukraine's doorstep.
:08:15. > :08:19.From Russia, next to China. Tonight, in the grip of an epic dome
:08:20. > :08:23.of smog. The air pollution is so dire, someone said it was like a
:08:24. > :08:28.respiratory nuclear winter. We decided to have a look at how hard
:08:29. > :08:33.it is to reach clean air through smog.
:08:34. > :08:39.This is what it was like to wake up in China's capital. Life inside a
:08:40. > :08:43.toxic cloud, seven straight days. I'm looking at the sky, it is just
:08:44. > :08:48.about as polluted as I have ever seen. This application indicates the
:08:49. > :08:55.air quality index. That number is 512. The WHO says 20 is what is
:08:56. > :09:04.safe. I once lived in Beijing, but in the past 26 years, the pollution
:09:05. > :09:09.was never so bad. The air tastes metallic in your mouth. We are
:09:10. > :09:14.pulling out of a Beijing train station, and we are going to have a
:09:15. > :09:19.look at sea where the smog ends. Visibility dropped as we left the
:09:20. > :09:27.city and move across the industrial belt. The pollution index peaked at
:09:28. > :09:31.610. We travelled 450 miles, the same distance from Boston to
:09:32. > :09:35.Washington, DC, before finally escaping the worst of the haze. Will
:09:36. > :09:42.the first time we have some poking through the clouds. The number here
:09:43. > :09:46.is 142, and right now in Beijing it is still 533. The smog is the result
:09:47. > :09:51.of a booming industry without regulations, but if you think it is
:09:52. > :09:54.only China's problem, think again. A new study shows how the smog makes
:09:55. > :09:59.its way all the way to America, travelling in a matter of five or
:10:00. > :10:04.seven days across the Pacific, contributing up to 10% of the air
:10:05. > :10:07.pollution on the West Coast. 5.5 hours later we arrived at our
:10:08. > :10:14.destination, as far from Beijing as the distance between Boston and
:10:15. > :10:20.Colombia, South Carolina. Right here, it is only 83. It is certainly
:10:21. > :10:24.easier to breathe. That number is still four times higher than the WHO
:10:25. > :10:31.says is safe. We finally breathe clearer air, but we have not fully
:10:32. > :10:37.escaped the polluted sky. We turn now to a headline about
:10:38. > :10:42.modern health and the importance of a man's biological clock. Most of
:10:43. > :10:46.the emphasis through the year has been put on the age of a pregnant
:10:47. > :10:53.mother and risks for the child, but tonight a new study puts new
:10:54. > :10:56.emphasis on the age of the father. What they found was that the older
:10:57. > :11:01.you are when you have your children, the greater the risk they have for
:11:02. > :11:05.having a mental illness. This was a huge study, very well done. It was
:11:06. > :11:10.in Sweden, and they followed more than 2.5 million men. What they
:11:11. > :11:17.found, was that the age of the father really contributed. Compare
:11:18. > :11:22.to the youngest fathers, those who were fathered by men older than 45,
:11:23. > :11:27.three times the risk for autism, 13 times the risk for attention deficit
:11:28. > :11:31.disorder, 25 times the risk for bipolar, and twice the risk for
:11:32. > :11:35.schizophrenia. The risk is still low, but it goes up as your father
:11:36. > :11:43.gets older. Any conjecture about why? This doesn't prove it is age,
:11:44. > :11:47.but we know that the older you are, the more mutations there right in
:11:48. > :11:49.your sperm. It doesn't mean that you should rush out and have the
:11:50. > :11:56.children young, but if you wait longer there is a risk involved. It
:11:57. > :11:59.was an emotional day as members of the Kennedy family assembled in a
:12:00. > :12:03.court room in New York to support one of their own today. Ethel
:12:04. > :12:08.Kennedy was listening as her daughter took the stand. Her
:12:09. > :12:12.daughter on trial for driving under the influence of a sleeping eight,
:12:13. > :12:21.and today vividly recalling her father, his death, and the mother
:12:22. > :12:28.who carried the family forward. Testifying in her own defence at her
:12:29. > :12:31.drug driving trial, Kerry Kennedy opened up about a very public
:12:32. > :12:36.family. In entering the defence's initial questions, she described her
:12:37. > :12:41.rock ringing, affectionately referring to her father, the late
:12:42. > :12:44.Bobby Kennedy, as quote " daddy". She also spoke about his
:12:45. > :12:57.assassination. Kennedy's 85`year`old mother, Ethel,
:12:58. > :13:04.who rarely makes public appearances, was also in court. The
:13:05. > :13:09.trial is over a single misdemeanour count of driving while impaired.
:13:10. > :13:13.Kennedy says in July 2012 she accidentally took a prescription
:13:14. > :13:18.sleep drug with a breakfast instead of her thyroid medication, and each
:13:19. > :13:20.got behind the wheel. She has pleaded not guilty, and testified
:13:21. > :13:28.that she felt disorientated and frightened, and says... If these
:13:29. > :13:33.jurors agree that this was an accident, it seems like a stretch to
:13:34. > :13:38.convicted. On cross`examination, prosecutors tried to betray her say
:13:39. > :13:42.frequent user of the sleeping drug, who carelessly took the wrong pill
:13:43. > :13:53.`` portray. In the final moments, the prosecutor asked if a conviction
:13:54. > :14:00.would hurt her public image. She replied, yes.
:14:01. > :14:08.We are mums who are just trying to protect our children. Tonight,
:14:09. > :14:10.People magazine decides what should be off`limits, and we will tell you
:14:11. > :14:12.in a few minutes.