HIV outbreak linked to unlicensed doctor

• An unlicensed doctor has been charged over an HIV outbreak in Cambodia


• Police confirm the doctor re-used needles while treating patients


• Health officials say 106 tested HIV positive, with over 800 seeking to be tested


• Stay calm and don't spread rumors, says health minister

Hong Kong (CNN) -- An unlicensed doctor has been charged with causing an HIV outbreak in a remote village in northwestern Battambang province, local media report.

More than 800 panicked residents of Rokar village sought testing after reports of infections emerged last week. Some 106 people tested positive for HIV, according to the National AIDS authority.

A provincial court has laid three charges against the unlicensed doctor, Yem Chroeum, including intentionally transmitting the HIV virus and running a clinic without permission from the Ministry of Health, police said.

The police confirmed Chroeum used contaminated needles.

Obama: Work still to do in AIDS fight

"After questioning Yem Chroeum, he confessed he did order his son-in-law to burn down the evidence behind his house, and (treated) patients with negligence, as well as using the same needles to treat them," Chet Vanny, deputy police chief of Battambang province told the Phnom Penh Post.

Cambodia calls for investigation

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen called for an inquiry into the mass HIV infection last week.

"I call for a thorough investigation into the issue," Hun Sen said in a televised speech.

The Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS have sent teams to the village to carry out more investigations and provide free testing and treatment services.

"I urge everyone to stay calm and avoid listening to or spreading rumors," said Dr Mam Bunheng, minister of health in a press release.

"We should also all fully respect the privacy of the affected families and ensure they do not face stigma and discrimination," he added.

UNAIDS estimates there are 76,000 people living with HIV in Cambodia. The country has been widely praised for its progress in tackling AIDS. New HIV infections have dropped by 67% from 3500 in 2005 to 1300 in 2013, according to UNAIDS.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced last week that Cambodia is committed to stopping new HIV infections by 2020. The government will allocate US$3.7 million of national funding to HIV treatment from 2015 to 2017.

CNN's Mitra Mobasherat contributed to this report.

Attacks show threat to France

• Weekend terror attacks -- plus an incident Monday in Nantes -- have France on edge


• The threat of a terrorist attack in the EU is greater than at any time since 9/11, officials say


• Support for ISIS runs deep among disenfranchised immigrant communities

(CNN) -- A 20-year-old French-Burundian posts the ISIS flag on his Facebook page, then enters a police station in the suburbs of Tours on Saturday, shouts Allahu Akbar and slashes one officer across the face with a knife and wounds two others before a fourth officer shoots him dead.

A 40-year-old French-North African with a long history of psychiatric problems shouts the same words on Sunday as he plows his Renault Clio into pedestrians in five locations in Dijon, injuring 11 people -- two seriously -- before being arrested after a police chase.

A man drives his car into a Christmas market in Nantes on Monday then stabs himself, leaving 10 injured in an incident authorities say has not been linked to terrorism.

The two attacks over the weekend -- and the incident still being investigated in Nantes -- have rattled nerves in France.

European officials tell CNN the threat of terrorist attack in the European Union is greater than at any time since 9/11 because of the emergence of jihadist safe havens in Syria and Iraq. But no country faces a greater terrorist threat than France, with support for ISIS running deep among disenfranchised immigrant communities in the rundown, crime-ridden banlieus that surround many French towns.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday said his country had never faced a greater terrorist threat.

The numbers tell the story: 390 French extremists are now fighting with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to French officials, with 231 believed to be on their way. Fifty-one have been killed in suicide bombings and combat. And 234 have left the conflict zone, with 185 now back in France.

Since the summer of 2013, French police say they have thwarted five terror plots.

Neither of the weekend attackers traveled to Syria or Iraq. The deceased Tours knife attacker -- a convert named Bertrand Nzohabonayo -- appears to have been a lone wolf inspired by but not directly connected to ISIS. According to French media reports, his brother had been on the radar screen of French security services, suspected of wanting to wage jihad in Syria.

In a news conference on Monday, the local prosecutor in Dijon said the attack in his city the previous day was "absolutely not a terrorist act" citing the suspect's mental health history, but French authorities might yet open a terrorism investigation.

ISIS threats to France

ISIS has explicitly called for lone-wolf terrorist attacks in France because of its participation in airstrikes in Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition, and the weekend attacks were eerily similar to the methods they suggested.

"If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock or slaughter him with a knife or run him over with your car or throw him down from a high place or choke him or poison him," ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani stated in an audiotape in September.

On November 19, three French ISIS fighters appeared in a French language video put out by the group's propaganda arm, repeating the call for attacks in France. One of them stated:

"Terrorize them and do not allow them to sleep due to fear and horror. There are weapons and cars available and targets ready to be hit. Even poison is available, so poison the water and food of at least one of the enemies of Allah. Kill them and spit in their faces and run over them with your cars. Do whatever you are able to do in order to humiliate them, for they deserve only this."

A significant number of the nearly 400 French nationals now fighting in Syria and Iraq are believed to have joined ISIS. That includes Maxime Hauchard, a 22-year-old convert from Normandy who French authorities suspect participated in the grisly on-camera beheading of more than a dozen members of the Syrian armed forces in November orchestrated by the British "Jihadi John."

French officials are worried that those on their way back to France -- or already back in the country -- could launch attacks.

In February, police in Cannes broke up an alleged plot to bomb targets in France by Ibrahim Boudina, a French-Algerian extremist who had allegedly just returned from fighting with ISIS in Syria. Police say they found almost a kilogram of the high explosive TATP in his family apartment building in Cannes. Boudina has denied the allegations against him.

ISIS-linked terror on the French Riviera

Mehdi Nemmouche, a French-Algerian ISIS fighter who allegedly helped guard Western hostages in Syria before returning to Europe, allegedly shot and killed four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May.

Nemmouche was arrested in France and extradited to face trial in Belgium. He has denied the charges. In both the Cannes and Brussels plots, investigators believe it is possible the men were acting on their own steam. No evidence has been publicly released suggesting ISIS leadership signed off on the plots.

It is not just ISIS causing concern to French security officials. European counterterrorism officials tell CNN a relatively high number of French extremists have joined ISIS rival Jabhat al Nusra, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

Of most concern: David Drugeon, a French covert from Brittany who has emerged as one of the most skilled bombmakers in the Khorasan group, an al Qaeda A-team based in Syria's Idlib province with ties to Jabhat al Nusra.

U.S. officials tell CNN they believe Drugeon has been working on nonmetallic explosive devices that the group hoped to smuggle on board Western passenger aircraft and has been talent-spotting European extremists in Syria who can be trained for attacks in Europe. Drugeon was injured in a U.S. drone strike that hit a vehicle he was traveling in November.

Khorasan bomb maker thought dead survived

New laws, old grievances

In November, France adopted tough new anti-terror legislation making it easier to shut down jihadist websites and confiscate passports and identity cards of those suspected of wanting to travel overseas to fight jihad.

But critics say the French government has done too little to tackle one of the key contributing factors to radicalization: The deep sense of alienation toward mainstream society felt by a significant number of young Muslim immigrants in the banlieus.

In the years after 9/11, France was held up as a model by many for its "assimilationist" agenda and its zero tolerance of extremist radical preachers. Britain, by contrast, was criticized for a "multicultural" approach that for too long offered political refuge to extremists from around the world.

But by the late 2000s, Islamist extremism had also become a significant problem in France. Although French leaders paid lip service to assimilation, the concept was only theoretical for young unemployed Muslims living in impoverished banlieus whose socioeconomic grievances were more acute than their counterparts in the United Kingdom.

While France could crack down on radical preachers in the 1990s, it was powerless to prevent the growth of jihadist websites and social media in the second half of the 2000s.

Jihad in Syria has become a "cause celebre" for French extremists able to access this content online. While many British extremists traveled to al Qaeda's safe havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the years before and after 9/11 because of their language and kinship ties to the region, much of France's banlieu population hails from North Africa, making travel to jihadist battlegrounds in the Arab world easier and more attractive.

In the wake of the attacks in Tours and Dijon, French authorities are worried about copycats in the weeks ahead.

A number of pro-ISIS extremists praised the attacks on social media, with one French radical from the banlieus now claiming to be in Syria tweeting he hoped they would be "the first of many."

Is Nintendo working on new Wii?

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind "Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda," says Nintendo is working on a new gaming console.

• Nintendo is working on a successor to its Wii U console, designer tells Associated Press


• "Mario" creator says new hardware is under way


• Sales of the Wii U have been disappointing for Japanese company

(CNN) -- The successor to Nintendo's troubled Wii U may be on the way.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man who created Nintendo classics such as "Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda," says the Japanese gaming giant is at work on a new gaming console.

"For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems," he said, via a translator, in an interview with The Associated Press. "While we're busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be."

'Mario,' 'Zelda' creator says give the Wii U time

One of the most iconic names in video gaming, Nintendo dominated the market with its Wii console, which sold more than 100 million units after its release in 2006. But the follow-up, Wii U, with its handheld second-screen controller, failed to make a similar splash.

Examining Nintendo's woes

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Inventing the 3-D motion sensor

The company lost more than $15 million in the final nine months of 2013, largely due to disappointing sales numbers for the Wii U. A sales forecast of 9 million Wii U units in 2013, the console's first full year, was slashed to a mere 2.8 million.

This year has seen a slight uptick in sales, with the release of popular titles such as "Mario Kart 8" and "Bayonetta 2." But the console still trails the rival PlayStation 4 and Xbox One badly in popularity.

Things got so bad that there was speculation Nintendo would abandon hardware entirely, instead focusing on developing popular franchises such as Mario and Zelda for other consoles.

In the AP interview, Miyamoto focused on more positive recent news for the company.

Released in October, "Super Smash Bros." has joined the new "Mario Kart" title as a hot seller as have "amiibos," action figures of popular Nintendo characters that can both be collected and used in conjunction with some video games.

And there have been reports, via the Sony email hack, that a "Super Mario Bros." feature film may be in the works.

While the Wii U was released a year earlier than last year's PlayStation and Xbox updates, it's unlikely gamers will see a new Wii in 2015.

Several major software releases for the Wii U, including new "Star Fox" and "Legend of Zelda" titles, already have been announced for the coming year, making it unlikely the company would compete with itself with new hardware.

Garbage truck kills pedestrians

• NEW: Police confirm six people have died in Glasgow road incident


• NEW: Police say Glasgow road accident not "terrorism-related"


• Scottish police say "very serious road incident" occurred in central Glasgow Monday


• A spokesperson tells CNN the incident in George Square occurred just after 2:30p.m. GMT

(CNN) -- Six people have died after a garbage truck collided with pedestrians in the center of the Scottish city of Glasgow, police confirmed Monday.

Scottish police also promised further updates in a tweet Monday.

Speaking to the BBC earlier Monday, Superintendent Stuart Carroll said it appeared the "bin lorry" had struck one pedestrian before going up onto the sidewalk and colliding with a number of others.

Police said the truck crashed at the Millennium Hotel Glasgow at George Square.

Carroll said "at least seven" people had been seriously injured. "The driver has also been taken to hospital where he is receiving treatment," Carroll said.

"For now it does not look to be either a criminal or deliberate act," he said.

Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson said investigations into the circumstances of the "tragic incident" were ongoing.

"We can however confirm that this is not a terrorism-related incident," he said.

Police earlier told CNN the incident was being investigated as a road accident.

A Glasgow police spokesperson said the incident occurred just after 2:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) Monday.

Diversions and road closures are in place and police have asked people to avoid the area.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter that he was being kept "fully briefed" on the incident.

"My thoughts are with the families of those involved & emergency services," Cameron said.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, said her thoughts were with "everyone involved in dreadful #GeorgeSquare incident."

How U.S. helped spy's wife get pregnant

• Gerardo Hernandez was the head of the spy ring known as the Wasp Network


• Since 2001, he was being held in a U.S. prison; he was released in a prisoner swap


• Havana has been abuzz since his wife in Cuba showed up pregnant during news coverage

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- It might be the most bizarre of the closely guarded secrets from last week's historic agreement between the United States and Cuba: How did the leader of a Cuban spy ring serving life in a California federal prison manage to impregnate his wife 2,245 miles away in Havana?

As part of the most significant diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Cuba in more than 50 years, a prisoner swap was made. To uphold its part of the bargain, the U.S. released three Cuban spies, including Gerardo Hernandez, the head of the spy ring known as the Wasp Network.

Hernandez had an ear-to-ear smile Wednesday as he arrived at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport. State TV showed Hernandez as he was greeted by President Raul Castro and then embraced and kissed his wife, Adriana Perez.

Cubans watching the nonstop coverage of the prisoner swap were shocked when the cameras zeroed in on Hernandez hugging Perez. She was obviously in the late stages of a pregnancy that had no easy explanation.

Not only had Hernandez been serving a double life sentence, but his wife also worked for Cuba's intelligence services and was banned by U.S. officials from visiting her husband in prison, according to the Cuban government.

Rumors swirl in sultry Havana

The subject became the immediate hot topic in Havana where rumors swirled fast about the baby's paternity and whether the Cuban government could have somehow arranged a clandestine conjugal visit under the nose of U.S. authorities.

The couple appeared at another event on Saturday, where together with the other freed spies, Castro and the communist island's top political and military officials showered them with applause.

A beaming Hernandez stood by Perez, whose round stomach was clearly visible for viewers of the live broadcast

As the couple left the celebration, Hernandez hinted at the secret surrounding the pregnancy.

"Everyone's asking, and we have had a lot of fun with the comments and speculations. The reality is it had to be kept quiet," Hernandez told the government-run television channel. "We can't give a lot of details, because we don't want to hurt people who meant well."

He said his wife's pregnancy was a direct result of the high-level talks.

"One of the first things accomplished by this process was this," Hernandez said, gesturing to his Perez's stomach. "I had to do it by 'remote control,' but everything turned out well."

Two sources involved with the diplomatic talks, when questioned by CNN, uncloaked the mystery: During the negotiations, Hernandez's sperm was collected and sent to Cuba, where Perez was artificially inseminated.

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed the story, without going into the details.

"We can confirm the United States facilitated Mrs. Hernandez's request to have a baby with her husband," spokesman Brian Fallon said.

What the U.S. would gain

Why would the U.S. government do this? The artificial insemination was made possible in exchange for better conditions for Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor imprisoned in Cuba. Gross was released last week as part of the prisoner swap.

"In light of Mr. Hernandez's two life sentences," Fallon said, "the request was passed along by Senator [Patrick] Leahy, who was seeking to improve the conditions for Mr. Gross while he was imprisoned in Cuba."

The discretion on both sides makes sense.

For 18 months, officials from both countries refused to admit that they were even holding high-level talks.

Officials communicated via back channels, knowing that any leak about the talks could doom the talks.

Impregnating Perez involved cutting through bureaucratic red tape at multiple U.S. government agencies.

As Perez began to show, officials from both countries fretted over how they would explain her pregnancy and what to do if the baby arrived before the talks succeeded.

2001 conviction

Hernandez was convicted in 2001 of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the Brothers to the Rescue shoot down that left four Cuban-Americans dead after Cuban Air Force MIGs blew up the two civilian planes as they flew toward Havana to distribute anti-government leaflets. He received two life sentences.

Cuban authorities said Hernandez and the other operatives were trying to prevent terrorist attacks from being carried out on their homeland by violent Miami exiles.

That the U.S. government helped a man convicted of plotting the murder of four Cuban-Americans and spying on the exile community in Miami will likely further rankle many of the same Cuban-Americans who were already furious that Washington is restoring diplomatic relations with Havana.

But Tim Reiser, an aide to Leahy who worked to broker the landmark agreement with Cuba, said helping Hernandez conceive a child led to better treatment for Gross by Cuban authorities and was an important concession to help reach a historic deal.

"The expectation was that this man would die in prison. This was her only chance of having a child," Rieser told CNN.

Gerardo Hernandez said he and his wife are expecting their baby daughter to arrive in two weeks and they will name her Gema.

Patrick Oppman reported and wrote from Havana, Cuba. Evan Perez reported from Washington.

Reports: VA projects lost billions

• VA critics say project cost overruns and construction delays are burning money


• Denver medical center's estimated cost nearly doubled, to more than $1 billion


• Delays averaging nearly 3 years at 4 sites contributed to $1.5 billion in cost increases


• Rep. Mike Coffman: "This is money that is not going to the care of veterans"

(CNN) -- While veterans in recent years were dying as they waited for care at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, the VA has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on controversial projects across the country, according to government reports and members of Congress.

Critics say budget overruns and construction delays on several projects are burning money that could have been used to help more veterans access timely health care, with one lawmaker even comparing the elaborate projects to the Taj Mahal.

For example, a massive construction project near Denver mired with problems ran hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and ended up in court over design and contract issues, according to court documents.

The joint venture building the medical center near Denver, Kiewit-Turner, estimated the total project would cost more than $1 billion -- almost double the contractual estimate of $583 million.

Kiewit-Turner took the matter to court, saying the VA never provided a design for the medical center that could be built for its budget. The court sided with the builder, allowing Kiewit-Turner to walk away from the project earlier this month. Kiewit-Turner and the VA subsequently reached an agreement to resume construction.

VA reveals 'largest reorganization' ever

Judges with the United States Civilian Board of Contract Appeals said the total cost of the medical center remains unknown but will be "significantly in excess" of the VA's original budget.

Various forms of VA mismanagement and changes in the medical center's design contributed to cost overruns and construction delays, according to court documents.

During court proceedings, private contractors criticized the VA for including expensive, non-health-related projects within the medical center's design, such as an estimated $82.6 million, three-story glass concourse that would connect different parts of the facility, which included a "zigzag" wall to block the sun.

"All of this was aesthetics," Paul Blatnak, a private construction manager on the project, said at a court hearing in May. "Nobody was interested in cleaning up the aesthetics so that we could improve or add to the patient care."

The VA and contractor Kiewit-Turner resumed construction on the medical center Monday, but only after the VA paid the contractor $157 million in owed costs.

"This isn't about building a medical center, but about building a facility where VA can provide high-quality health care to the more than 390,000 Colorado Veterans who have served our nation," VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said last week.

GAO official: 'Conflicting direction' caused cost overruns

A 2013 report by the Government Accountability Office found that delays and mismanagement contributed to a total cost increase of $1.5 billion at VA construction projects in Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Orlando.

The report said that an average construction delay of 35 months at each project contributed to the cost increases, such as in Las Vegas, where construction was delayed more than six years. Those delays were blamed on changes in local veterans' needs and shifting VA policies, according to the GAO.

Lorelei St. James, the GAO director of infrastructure issues at the time of the investigation, told CNN "conflicting direction" from the VA has repeatedly caused cost overruns on different projects.

As an example, St. James said VA managers have told contractors to wait for equipment before designing specific hospital rooms, but VA's central office or other VA managers have ordered contractors to proceed with designs anyway. These contradictions have caused unnecessary work and extra costs, she said.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, whose district includes the VA project near Denver, said the agency should be stripped of its authority to oversee major construction projects.

"This is money that is not going to the care of veterans," Coffman, himself a veteran, told CNN, adding that some of these medical centers are given unnecessarily elaborate designs, like "Taj Mahals."

Coffman said the construction problems are deeply rooted in the VA's culture, since these projects have had consistent delays and cost overruns despite different VA managers overseeing construction on different sites.

The VA did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

At a hearing before the House VA Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations in April, a top VA construction official, Gregg Haggstrom admitted there have been challenges but said the VA has improved its construction process by better defining costs, adding staff and using an online tool to track design changes, along with other reforms.

"VA is moving toward its goal of improving and streamlining our processes to increase access to our veterans and their families," Haggstrom said in his testimony.

The GAO report additionally found in 2014 that the rent the VA paid for 31 leased outpatient facilities increased by a total of $34.5 million primarily due to VA delays and project changes, among other issues.

The VA will have to pay these extra costs annually for each of the properties' 20-year leases, according to the GAO's report.

Additionally, the VA's Office of Inspector General found the VA could inappropriately handle $795 million worth of service contracts in the next five years if its contract management processes do not change, according to a report released this year.

Wind turbine debacle

One of the VA's green energy initiatives has also been a source of spending controversy.

The VA hired the firm JK Scanlan Co. to build an energy-saving wind turbine in 2009 at the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota -- for a price of $2.3 million.

The project was completed in 2011, but it was shut down the same year due to oil leaks, and although a litany of repairs was ordered, a variety of technical issues caused the turbine to sit idle for years.

In October of this year, the VA terminated its contract with JK Scanlan, the company overseeing the turbine, and said it will seek to recover the wasted costs.

A 2014 report released by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, argues the VA has misused or mismanaged billions of dollars on initiatives ranging from lavish employee trips and conferences to faulty IT systems and call centers that handle just a few calls a day, among other programs.

Some of the specific expenses Coburn highlighted as wasteful include $489 million spent on "office makeovers" in less than five years, $5 million spent on unused computer software between 2006 and 2011, and even $50,000 spent on the production of a parody of the movie "Patton."

Coburn's report also criticized the VA for maintaining and renovating unused buildings, such as a historic monkey house on the property of the VA medical center in Dayton, Ohio.

"Even a small amount of waste in the way VA has contracted for each facility could easily mean over a billion dollars in taxpayer dollars lost that could have paid for veterans' essential medical care," Coburn's report said.

Congressman: Management is the problem, not money

The VA's budget has grown from about $114 billion in 2010 to about $154 billion in 2014, but a CNN investigation found veterans were dying while waiting for care despite this increase in funding.

A VA internal audit this year found extreme delays in patient care and scheduling issues were systemic throughout the department. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned as a result.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, told CNN delays in care at VA hospitals cannot be attributed to lack of money since VA has left hundreds of millions in health care funding unspent each fiscal year since 2010.

"VA doesn't have a money problem, it has a management problem," Miller said, explaining that Congress has repeatedly passed legislation to increase VA resources, yet problems have persisted.

In August, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that provided the VA with an additional $16 billion to hire more VA doctors and nurses, open mobile clinics and enable more veterans to obtain private medical care.

A VA audit released in December showed more than 13,000 appointments still had wait times longer than 120 days.

Secretary Robert McDonald, who began leading the VA this summer, has vowed to reform the agency and uphold patient care as its top priority.

"I'm convinced that our comprehensive reforms will enable us to better meet the needs of our Veterans because we will be looking at everything we do through their eyes. We owe them nothing less," McDonald said in a November press release.

ISIS: 'Slavery signals progress'

• German journalist and author Juergen Todenhoefer journeyed deep into ISIS territory


• He interviewed ISIS fighters, prisoners, and members of the public caught up in the battle for Iraq and Syria


• One ISIS spokesman told Todenhofer: "slavery and beheadings [are] part of our religion"


• ISIS "preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen," says Todenhoefer

(CNN) -- Juergen Todenhoefer's journey was a tough one: dangerous, but also eye-opening. The author traveled deep into ISIS territory -- the area they now call their "caliphate" -- visiting Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in Syria, as well as Mosul in Iraq.

Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, was taken by ISIS in a Blitzkrieg-like sweep in June.

Todenhoefer managed to visit the mosque there where the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, gave his only public address.

And he saw the realities of daily life under ISIS, with all shops having to close for prayers in the middle of the day.

"There is an awful sense of normalcy in Mosul," Todenhoefer said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

"130,000 Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them."

Nonetheless, he says, there is an air of fear among residents: "Of course many of the them are quite scared, because the punishment for breaking the Islamic State's strict rules is very severe."

A new name for ISIS?

Senior ISIS leaders killed in U.S. strike

ISIS pamphlets regarding women

Is this where ISIS began?

According to ISIS's leadership, the group's fighters managed to take Mosul with only about 300 men, even though more than 20,000 Iraqi army soldiers were stationed there when the attack was launched.

Todenhoefer spoke with several ISIS fighters who took part in the operation.

"It took us about four days to take Mosul," a young fighter told him.

"So you were only about 300 men and you defeated 20,000 troops in four days?" Todenhoefer asked.

"Well, we didn't attack them all at once, we hit their front lines hard, also using suicide attacks. Then the others fled very quickly," the fighter explained. "We fight for Allah, they fight for money and other things that they do not really believe in."

Glow in their eyes

Todenhoefer told CNN the enthusiasm the ISIS militants showed was one thing that stood out.

"When we stayed at their recruitment house, there were 50 new fighters who came every day," Todenhoefer said. "And I just could not believe the glow in their eyes. They felt like they were coming to a promised land, like they were fighting for the right thing.

"These are not stupid people. One of the people we met had just finished his law degree, he had great job offers, but he turned them down to go and fight ... We met fighters from Europe and the United States. One of them was from New Jersey. Can you imagine a man from New Jersey traveling to fight for the Islamic State?"

He went on to say that one of ISIS's main points of strength is their fighters' willingness -- even their will -- to die on the battlefield.

Todenhoefer met one somewhat overweight recruit in a "safe house" who said he wears a suicide belt to every battle because he is too chubby to run away if he is cornered and would choose to blow himself up, rather than be captured.

ISIS also has a track record of abusing, torturing and executing prisoners of war. Todenhoefer was briefly able to speak to a Kurdish captive while in Mosul. The captive claimed he had not been tortured, but Todenhoefer said he found that hard to believe.

"This was a broken man," Todenhoefer said. "It was very sad to see a person in this state. He was just very weak and very afraid of his captors."

ISIS is preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen

Juergen Todenhoefer, author

Todenhoefer conducted the interview with the prisoner while several ISIS fighters stood guard. He asked the man whether he knew what would happen to him.

"I do not know," the captive told him. "My family does not even know I am still alive. I hope that maybe there will be some sort of prisoner exchange."

Child ISIS fighters

Todenhoefer was also taken to see child soldiers outfitted with Islamic State gear and brandishing AK-47s. One of the boys seemed very young but claimed he had already gone to battle for ISIS.

"How old are you?" Todenhoefer asked.

"I am 13 years old," the boy replied -- though he looked even younger than that.

One of the most remarkable episodes of Todenhoefer's trip to the ISIS-controlled region came when he was able to conduct an interview with a German fighter who spoke on behalf of ISIS's leadership.

The man -- clearly unapologetic about the group's transgressions -- vowed there was more to come; he also issued a warning to Europe and the United States.

"So you also want to come to Europe?" Todenhoefer asked him.

"No, we will conquer Europe one day," the man said. "It is not a question of if we will conquer Europe, just a matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such thing as borders. There are only front lines.

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"Our expansion will be perpetual ... And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to Islam or pay the Islamic tax will be killed."

Todenhoefer asked the fighter about their treatment of other religions, especially Shia Muslims.

"What about the 150 million Shia, what if they refuse to convert?" Todenhoefer asked.

"150 million, 200 million or 500 million, it does not matter to us," the fighter answered. "We will kill them all."

Beheadings

The interview became testy when they reached the topic of beheadings and enslavement, especially of female captives.

"So do you seriously think that beheadings and enslavement actually signal progress for humanity?" Todenhoefer asked.

"Slavery absolutely signals progress," the man said. "Only ignorant people believe that there is no slavery among the Christians and the Jews. Of course there are woman who are forced into prostitution under the worst circumstances.

"I would say that slavery is a great help to us and we will continue to have slavery and beheadings, it is part of our religion ... many slaves have converted to Islam and have then been freed."

The ISIS spokesman blamed the beheading of captured Western journalists and aid workers on the policies of the United States.

"People should really think about the case of James Foley," he said. "He did not get killed because we started the battle. He got killed because of the ignorance of his government that did not give him any help."

Even with recent gains by Kurdish forces against ISIS in northern Iraq, Todenhoefer sees the extremist group as entrenched, building state institutions, and that it shows no sign of losing its grip in the main areas it controls in Iraq and Syria.

"I think the Islamic State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize," he said. "They believe in what they are fighting for and are preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen."READ MORE: Fighting for Kobani -- from a distance

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