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Protests Precede Climate Summit; Scientist Runs for Climate Awareness; Pope Francis Arrives in CAR; Lawyer Killed in Turkish Shootout; COP 21 Delegates Draft Proposal; Ice Storm Threatens Midwestern U.S.; Pope Francis Arrives in Central African Republic; Ben Carson Visits Syrian Refugees; Police Thwart Terror Attack in Kenya; Hostage from Planned Parenthood Shooting Recounts Her Experience; Vigil for Fallen Colorado Officer; Images of Cuban Life. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired November 29, 2015 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Paris launches a massive security operation as more than 100 world leaders arrive for a crucial summit on climate change.

Plus Pope Francis is about to arrive in the Central African Republic, what he's hoping to accomplish in the war-torn country.

And Russia's slapped tough sanctions on Turkey over the downing of a fighter jet.

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KINKADE: Hello to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

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KINKADE: World leaders will begin to arrive in Paris today ahead of the COP 21 conference. Protests have erupted around the world to demand action on climate change ahead of the international summit, which begins on Monday.

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KINKADE (voice-over): In Indonesia, protesters gathered at the city center, urging the government to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Protests have also been seen in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and the Philippines; 24 Greenpeace activists have been placed under house arrest, suspected of planning violent demonstrations; 120,000 police and soldiers will provide security for the event.

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KINKADE: Joining me now is CNN correspondent Phil Black, live from Paris. And Phil, obviously we have seen so many demonstrations across the

world. People now are calling for action on climate change but, in Paris, due to security concerns, demonstrations there were cancelled.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right, Lynda. Paris is supposed to be the epicenter of this global public movement. Organizers have been planning a huge march here.

Hundreds of thousands of people, it was hoped, would take part, joining those people around the world in a popular demonstration, if you like, demanding a strong, ambitious result from the climate negotiations that will be taking place here over the next two weeks.

But it's not to be. While Paris is making the commitment, stepping up and insisting that these talks go ahead, guaranteeing the massive security required to protect 147 heads of state, the tens of thousands of other people that will be attending the official part of this event, there's still been a cost, that festival-type aspect to it.

The area where people themselves can get involved and pressure leaders and negotiators to come up with a real strong result, well, that's been scaled back enormously, if not wiped out entirely.

So the march can't go ahead. Activists are planning other smaller, more nuanced events around Paris today. We are seeing lots of shoes having been volunteered, having been laid out at a location close to the march, where the march was to be. That is obviously still an attempt to demonstrate numbers.

Support will for securing a strong climate deal here. There is talk of a large human chain being formed in a part of Paris later today as well. These are much smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people expected for the march itself.

But the hope I think that activists have is that this -- the emotional reaction to the attacks here in Paris will be one that still encourages world leaders, the negotiators and representatives to work harder at coming up with a strong agreement at the end of the two weeks of talks.

And that, many say, would be the ultimate act of defiance to those who took so many lives here in Paris just two weeks ago -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Absolutely. And this, of course, this event would have already been a security headache even before those Paris terror attacks happened. Just give us a sense of the security situation.

BLACK: Well, it's incredibly visible. It is everywhere, really. You mentioned 120,000 police, gendarmes -- that's the military police, other security forces -- that's nationally. That's how many people as well as soldiers as well. That's how many have been mobilized to protect France at the moment.

Then around the site of the conference itself is a big security perimeter there. A lot of streets are going to be locked off over the next 24 hours as more leaders arrive, as these talks get ready to begin officially tomorrow.

There's 3,000 security forces there or around that number there alone protecting that site. So a massive operation.

And when you get a sense of those resources that are required to hold something like this, to protect so many world leaders, so many other visitors and so forth, you can perhaps understand and even the environmental activists themselves say they can understand why perhaps a huge march involving hundreds of thousands of people is something that the police, security forces and the government simply wouldn't have been able to deal with today -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, a huge effort there by a lot of people involved.

Phil Black in Paris, we will check in with you later. Thank you very much for joining us.

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KINKADE: One climate scientist has been running for months ahead of the conference, all the way from Norway to Paris and it is all to raise awareness for how climate change has affected the Arctic. CNN's John Sutter biked alongside him for part of the journey. Take a look.

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JOHN SUTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Erlend Moster Knudsen is a climate scientist from Norway. And he's been running for nearly four months.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

SUTTER (voice-over): They call this journey Pole to Paris. It started in the Arctic and I caught up with him thousands of kilometers later here in Northern France.

ERLEND MOSTER KNUDSEN, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Yes, today we're going to do about 32 kilometers from Auberge (ph) to Trelawne (ph). And that's quite an average day for us.

SUTTER (voice-over): He only carries one extra pair of clothes and he's already on his fourth pair of shoes.

KNUDSEN: All that's in this bag is everything I have.

SUTTER (voice-over): Today it's almost eight hours on the road through villages and across farms. His destination, a U.N. climate summit called COP 21. And I had to bike just to keep up.

KNUDSEN: What we're trying to do with this journey is running and biking across half the globe, it's really to connect the stories from people around the world.

For me, the distances, the world's kind of gotten smaller rather than larger over this journey as I'm seeing it's possible actually to move just by running from pretty much polar regions into Paris.

SUTTER (voice-over): Erlend has run the farthest (INAUDIBLE) group. He's been 2,100 kilometers on the road, running almost a marathon a day. He started in Arctic Norway. Some days have been beautiful, other days have been like this, snowy and rainy here in France.

He's on his way to the COP 21 climate talks, where he'll bring with him all the stories of people he's met along the road.

KNUDSEN: In the Arctic, things start changing rapidly. It's warming more than twice as fast as the global average. This is all having huge consequences, for example, for reindeer, for polar bears, but also for people living in the region.

In Paris, I hope very much we can continue on this path, that we can take another step and a big and important step in the right direction.

SUTTER (voice-over): The recent terror attacks in Paris haven't stopped him. If anything, he's more determined to arrive with a message of hope -- John Sutter, CNN, Trelawne (ph), France.

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KINKADE: In a few minutes I will ask an expert about the climate issues to be discussed at that Paris summit. Stick around for that one.

The pope has left Uganda and is set to arrive in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic very shortly. While there he hopes to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, who have accounted for widespread violence within the country.

This is the first time the pope has visited an active war zone, drawing concerns from his security personnel. But Pope Francis hopes he can still make a difference despite that danger.

Sectarian violence in the country has led to security concerns ahead of the last leg of Francis' travels through Africa, as I just mentioned. CNN's senior Vatican analyst, John Allen, weighed in on what the pope hopes to accomplish during his time in the Central African Republic.

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JOHN ALLEN, CNN SR. VATICAN ANALYST: What can difference can he make? I mean, that obviously remains to be seen. But this is a country, as you say, that has been locked in a bloody civil war for the last couple of years.

It's a place where the violence basically breaks Christian Muslims and where 80 percent of the population is Christian. And so I think Pope Francis believes that if he hits the ground and he calls on those organized Christian militias, the anti-balaka militia, if not to lay down their arms at least to observe a cease-fire to allow peaceful elections to unfold, he could make a real difference.

Now we'll see if that happens. But I think is another indication of how committed Francis is to trying to be a peace pope.

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KINKADE: Ahead, we will bring you the pope's arrival in the Central African Republic live as it happens.

In Southeastern Turkey, a prominent pro-Kurdish lawyer, Tahir Elci, was killed on Saturday. Elci was shot when gunfire broke out between security forces and the PKK militants during a news conference. Two Turkish police officers were also killed and another wounded.

Meanwhile, Russia is hitting Turkey with economic sanctions. It is a reaction to the downing of one of its warplanes by Turkish forces last week. Among the penalties, a block of certain Turkish goods imported into Russia.

Moscow also curtailed visa-free travel between the two countries and Russian travel agents will no longer sell packages for trips into Turkey. CNN's Ian Lee is joins us from Istanbul. And before we get to all of that, Ian, you have got some more information on the downing of that Russian jet.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Lynda.

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LEE: We are hearing the body of the pilot of that plane has been delivered to Turkey, that it was late last night that the body was handed over to the Turks. There were men there of the orthodox religion that took the body and prepared it. Now it's going to be handed over to the Russians.

This has been a very sensitive point as well, as having -- getting that body back to the Russians. This is something that the Russians wanted to have done swiftly. And now we are seeing that the body, in fact, has been handed over.

KINKADE: Yes. Very tough situation. And of course the fallout from that continues. Russia is certainly handing down a lot of sanctions to Turkey.

LEE: That's right. This isn't going to be a forgive-and-forget moment for Putin. We have seen a number of economic sanctions and you mentioned tourism. And that really is a big one. They bring roughly $4 billion worth of tourism to Turkey every year.

And you have that visa-free travel being thrown out as well. That's going to make it a lot more difficult for businessmen from both countries going back and forth. And we have heard from Moscow, we've heard from Ankara saying to their citizens that you shouldn't go to the other country unless it is absolutely necessary.

There are other measures that Russia could take still. We haven't seen any moves toward the gas. Turkey gets about 60 percent of its gas from Russia. There's also we are watching this nuclear power plant that is a multibillion dollar project, the one that Russia is building for Turkey. So there's a lot here that could happen.

But really it all hinges what we are hearing is on an apology. Putin demands an apology from President Erdogan and Erdogan wants an apology from Putin. It just seems like both men want something that neither is willing to give.

KINKADE: Yes, certainly not.

And we know Erdogan is hoping to meet with Putin at the Paris summit.

What are the chances that will happen?

LEE: Seems really slim at this point, Lynda. Again, we have -- going back to this apology. Putin will not meet until there is an apology. And if -- the day of the incident, in fact, Erdogan tried to call to talk about it. Putin just didn't answer.

There is another opportunity, though, on December 15th, that Erdogan is scheduled to go to Moscow to meet with Putin. This is something that has been planned for a while. We do not know if that trip has been cancelled or not. But still it really does seem like right now it hinges on that apology.

KINKADE: And now looking at the killing of this pro-Kurdish lawyer in Turkey, does it look like that was an accidental death that he was caught in the crossfire?

Or do authorities believe he was assassinated?

LEE: There's some really dramatic video surrounding the killing of Tahir Elci in Diyarbakir in Southeastern Turkey. But the one piece of video that is missing is the actual moment where he is shot and who shot him. This has really raised a lot of questions.

We heard from the Turkish prime minister, saying really it could be one of two options, either A, he was assassinated or, B, he was an innocent bystander caught up in some crossfire because if you look at this video you can see that there was a gunfight before he was shot and killed.

Now the Diyarbakir Bar Association, which Tahir Elci was the head of, has said this is an assassination. We need to also remember that Tahir Elci last month was on CNN Turk and he was talking about the PKK, the Kurdish PKK, which is called a terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the United States.

He said that they are not a terrorist organization and that there should be some political dialogue between them and the Turkish government.

Well, right after that, he was arrested. He was interrogated. He was released but he had received a lot of death threats following that. So these are all things that investigators are going to have to look into. But this is a very polarized climate. You have the pro- Kurdish, the major pro-Kurdish party doubtful that a thorough investigation will bring light to this -- Lynda.

KINKADE: OK. Ian Lee, a lot to cover there from Turkey. Thank you so much for staying across it all for us. We will talk to you soon.

Still to come, world leaders as we mentioned earlier, are set to meet at the COP 21 climate conference in Paris. We will talk to an expert about the issues on the table.

Plus an update on Ben Carson's surprise trip to Jordan to visit Syrian refugees and what he thinks about the crisis after seeing it firsthand. A live report just ahead.

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KINKADE: Welcome back.

While in Paris, nearly 150 heads of state will start to arrive in a few hours for the COP 21 summit. They will try to agree to a plan to stop global warming. The summit is also a security headache for France. Tens of thousands of officers have been deployed across Paris and border control has been stepped up.

Meanwhile, protesters across the world are demanding strong environmental commitments.

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KINKADE (voice-over): These images come to us from New Zealand, Switzerland, the Philippines and Australia.

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Ruth Davis joins us now from Paris. She is a senior policy adviser Greenpeace International.

Ruth, thanks very much for being with us. Now there is a draft proposal that was hashed out between the delegates ahead of this summit. Just explain for us what is on the table.

RUTH DAVIS, SENIOR POLICY ADVISER, GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL: So I think there were three main themes to this that we need to think about. There's the destination, where are we actually going and what are we trying to achieve?

From our perspective in civil society, it is really important that where we are going is towards a completely clean energy --

[04:20:00]

DAVIS: -- future. So that's one critical part of the conversation.

A second part is what's the map or the process that we will use to get there?

It is really important that we don't see this as just ending in Paris because the offers we have on the table now, whilst they're important, are not enough to keep us below 2 degrees or 1.5 degrees temperature wise. So it's really important that countries are able to come back on a five-year cycle and improve their levels of ambition.

And the third thing is all about the resources that we will need to get us there. This is going to be a universal agreement and universal participation means that we have to have universal access to resources. So that countries, poorer countries who are facing development challenges, are able to meet those with the solidarity of other countries around them.

So those are the kind of three key themes, our destination, our map and the resources to get there.

KINKADE: Very clear explanation. Now there was some research by the group Globespan that found just four of 20 countries that were polled say that a strong global deal on climate. That is down from eight countries. That's back in 2009.

Do you think support is waning?

DAVIS: No, I don't, actually. I think it's a very complicated question because people inevitably respond to these kinds of polls with the issues that are upmost in their mind at that moment. And this is a difficult world we live in. There's been facing economic challenges, huge security threats.

It's kind of inevitable that people respond to those immediate issues. But I think you need to look around you and see that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are mobilizing and demanding climate action during the course of this weekend.

We have never seen so many people actually directly involved from all walks of life, from all kinds of different political backgrounds and countries calling on governments to come up with a solution.

So, no, I don't feel that. Actually I feel hugely heartened by the level of support that I see for strong action.

KINKADE: And of course there does seem to be a growing sense among rich and poor countries that taking action on climate change could be costly and might destabilize fragile growth in some regions.

How do you take those concerns on board when rallying support for action on climate change?

DAVIS: I think it is really important to understand that this transition to a clean energy system is something that needs to happen in a way that actually supports sustainable economic growth and that supports the opportunities of people to get out of poverty and live decent lives.

But one of the things that we have seen over the course of the last few years is that actually the kind of infrastructure, the sort of clean energy that we'd like to see put in place is hugely economically beneficial for people for all kinds of different reasons, not least because clean energy doesn't bring with it all of the difficulties of air pollution, of water pollution, that we have seen in countries like China, which have been a huge burden on their population and a huge burden actually on their economy.

So the opportunities to transition to clean energy are ones that are also opportunities to build a more sustainable economy.

But the reasons why I'm talking actually so much today about resources is because in order to be able to make use of those opportunities and to capture them there has to be a sense of solidarity and being able to get access to the investment, to the infrastructure and to the support for adaptation that allows countries to get onto a more sustainable path for their citizens.

KINKADE: OK. Ruth Davis joining us from Paris, senior policy adviser at Greenpeace International.

You will have a busy two weeks ahead there. Thank you so much for joining us.

DAVIS: Thank you.

KINKADE: And you can get complete coverage of the COP 21 conference on a special section of our website, also reports on the climate change debate from the field, from the community that's standing up to coal mining efforts, to why that stated to enjoy a big carbon footprint than you think. It is all at cnn.com/2 degrees.

The Midwestern United States is dealing with the aftermath of a dangerous winter storm. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is at the World Weather Center.

Karen, what's it like?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It has been very dangerous along the interstate, secondary roads all across the South Central United States. This has been a very lingering ice storm that has impacted the region from Texas Panhandles all the way into Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and into Iowa.

But you can see the weather pattern is fairly stuck and the ground is becoming saturated out ahead of this weather system. That has presented a secondary volume of problems.

Where there were high-water rescues, thanks to the abundance of wet weather across Northeastern Texas, but these are our weather advisories and winter storm advisories, warnings and watches. And we are looking at several inches of ice.

And already in Wichita, Omaha, Oklahoma City, ice has been devastating and has knocked the power out to thousands of people over the last several days.

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MAGINNIS (voice-over): Take a look at what it did look like in and around Oklahoma City. Everything covered in layers of ice. Now --

[04:25:00]

MAGINNIS (voice-over): -- as pretty as this may look, it does produce a very heavy toll on the power lines, telephone lines, also on trees and limbs. They come crashing down. And we have seen numerous reports of that happening.

But look at the roadways. They have been clogged as well. There have been spinouts, tractor-trailers that have jackknifed. Very dangerous driving conditions across the South Central U.S. And we're looking at already nine fatalities associated in the last several days because of the continuing situation; there could be more.

And across sections of Europe, back-to-back storm systems will be impacting the United Kingdom into the Lowlands region into the Benelux and into Scandinavia. While further to the south, those temperatures will be warming up slightly.

But we have this long fetch of moisture on back-to-back storm systems, just kind of aimed at Ireland, Northern Ireland, also in to Scotland, as well as in to Wales and the winds will be very gusty here over the next 24 to 48 hours.

As we watch that steady stream of moisture, the winds could gust as high as 100 kilometers per hour or about 60 miles per hour -- Lynda, back to you.

KINKADE: Thanks, Karen. Some incredible pictures out of Oklahoma City. I was feeling cold just looking at that.

MAGINNIS: Exactly.

KINKADE: Thanks, Karen.

Well, there's another weather disaster hitting China's capital. This one is manmade, though. Beijing residents have been advised to stay indoors as smog there reached more than 15 times the safe level. Authorities blame coal fuel heating in homes across the city. The thick smog has reduced visibility to just a few hundred meters. Some 20 million people live in Beijing.

Still to come, Pope Francis continues his trip through Africa. We will bring you the latest from the Central African Republic just ahead. Stay with us.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Here's an update of the top stories we are following this hour.

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KINKADE (voice-over): Russia is imposing economic sanctions on Turkey for the shooting down of one of its fighter jets. The measures block the import of certain goods into Turkey -- from Turkey into Russia, sorry. Moscow also curtailed visa-free travel between the two countries.

Polls are open in Burkina Faso in their first free election in almost 27 years. Voters will elect a new president after former president Blaise Compaore was overthrown a year ago. Compaore was attempting to change the country's constitution so that he could maintain power.

The pope is set to arrive in the Central African Republic any moment now. He left Uganda earlier on Sunday. He will look to spread a message of peace in a country ravaged by sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims. This is the first time the pope has ever visited an active war zone.

Traveling with the pope is CNN Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher -- and apparently they have just landed in the country.

Delia, the pope's trip to the Central African Republic is the biggest security challenge for the Vatican.

How have they prepared for this?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Lynda, I can tell you we are here at the airport. There are obviously U.N. security, there's about some 10,000 to 13,000 U.N. security here in the Central African Republic. There are also French troops, there's of course also the Vatican security.

So certainly in terms of security, this is the leg of the trip that people were concerned about. This is a country which has been suffering, at least in the last two years, severe fighting between Christian and Muslim militia groups, not entirely because of religion, also because it is a country rich in natural resources, diamonds, minerals and so on.

And there's a power struggle. It has a long history of civil war, a long history of coup and military regimes. So it is unstable.

However, the Vatican has decided. Their security came several days ago and did another sweep. We've been asking the pope's spokesman every day on this Africa trip if the trip is confirmed and here we are.

And I think certainly for the people of this nation it will be an important trip. It's an important trip for the pope. The archbishop of the capital city, Bangui, said it best when he said the pope, in choosing to come here, has chosen the weakest and has chosen the poorest. And I think that's the message that the pope is hoping to give.

Two things have gone on. On Monday he will visit a mosque in one zone of Muslim area. And then he will also open the holy doors of the Catholic cathedral and that is a kind of symbolic gesture. It is the main door of their cathedral, which is connected to the pope's special jubilee year for reconciliation and peace.

So those are the two things that we will be looking for when the pope comes down. He is just saying, meeting with the transitional president of the Central African Republic and we are being pushed over to get into the convoy and get ready for the pope. So I will let you go, Lynda, and will be back next hour with some more.

KINKADE: OK, Delia Gallagher, we appreciate that update. Thank you so much for joining us.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is calling the Syrian refugee crisis a great human tragedy. That came after visiting with refugees in Jordan on Saturday. Carson admits it's a situation that needs to be fixed but doesn't believe the U.S. is the country to do it.

CNN correspondent Oren Liebermann joins us live from Amman, Jordan, with the latest on Carson's surprise trip.

And Oren, this was a very secretive visit.

What exactly was Ben Carson hoping to achieve?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it could be that here Dr. Ben Carson is trying to boost his foreign policy and national security credentials, not only because those are seen as two of his weak areas but that's very much where the Republican presidential candidates are focusing their efforts right now.

So this could be Carson's attempt to make that more important for him and make him seem stronger when it comes to foreign policy and national security.

And of course the Syrian refugee crisis and whether the U.S. should take in Syrian refugees has been a big part of that debate. Most, if not all, Republican presidential candidates, including Carson, don't want the U.S. to take in Syrian refugees.

But this is Carson coming on the ground here, visiting two of these Syrian refugee camps here in Jordan, the Azraq refugee camp and the larger Zaatari refugee camp, to learn about -- what he says -- to learn about is the crisis for himself and to make his own decisions. He plans in the next few days, in the coming days, he said in a statement, to put out his own plan for foreign policy and --

[04:35:00]

LIEBERMANN: -- for Syrian refugees, a problem he blames, in part, on the Obama and Clinton administrations. So this is Carson, not only coming here to be seen as someone who knows more about the refugee crisis but as somebody whose credentials are stronger and we will see what that plan is in the coming days -- Lynda.

KINKADE: And, Oren, in the past, Dr. Carson had made quite a few controversial comments about refugees, in particularly compared some Syrian refugees to rabid dogs.

Has he had a change of heart?

LIEBERMANN: Well, based on his statement that he put out yesterday, it certainly seems like it's saying this is a human tragedy and the international community needs to step up. But it seems it was a carefully worded statement.

He said the U.S. taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees isn't enough but instead of coming out and blatantly saying, yes, the U.S. should take in more refugees, it seems what he's saying is the U.S. should help countries like Jordan that are taking in all of these refugees.

So we'll see what that plan is. But this seems very much like Carson stepping back from those comments and perhaps trying to make up for those comments where he compared some Syrian refugees to rabid dogs and coming out with his own plan on foreign policy, again, they are trying to seem like foreign policy and national security are not his weak points but his strong points.

KINKADE: All right. So he actually can see the problem now but he kind of wants countries in the region to do more to support those refugees. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Police in Kenya say they have thwarted a terror plot and arrested two would-be attackers. Authorities say both men admitted they were working for Iran. As Robyn Kriel reports, this is not the first time Tehran has been accused of plotting terrorism in Kenya.

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ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Security officials here told CNN that the two men, both Kenyan nationals, were planning attacks on soft targets such as Western hotels frequented by tourists, businessmen and diplomats.

Sixty-nine-year-old Abubakar Sadiq Louw and 25-year-old Yassin Sambai Juma have confessed, police say, to working for Iran's Quds Force, the special forces wing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps that does work overseas.

The pair's work reportedly included spying for Iran, planning terror attacks and recruiting other terror operatives. Kenya's chief of police told reporters that the men had both traveled to Iran under false pretenses to be trained in spycraft and military tactics and that Juma had also recently trained in Karbala, Iraq.

Kenyan officials say this man, Mojtaba Ghanbarian, was their Iranian Quds Force contact. He is believed to have traveled the continent. Police say they have coordinated with other intelligence services in Africa as to his movements.

Counterterror police here are still hunting for other young men thought to have been recruited by the spy ring. The last attempted attack by Iran's Quds Force in Kenya, police say, was back in 2012. That was when two Iranian nationals were arrested with 15 kg of RDX explosives in the coastal resort town of Mombasa. Both have since been sentenced to life in prison.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that he believed they were targeting Israeli interests here in Kenya. So far, no reaction from Tehran on these allegations -- Robyn Kriel, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: New details about the suspected gunman in a women's health clinic massacre. The comments he reportedly made to investigators may reveal a possible motive for the attack. That story just ahead.

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KINKADE: Welcome back. Now to the latest in the shooting at a Planned Parenthood women's health clinic in the U.S. A law enforcement official tells CNN the suspected gunman mentioned baby parts to investigators. He also reportedly expressed anti-abortion and anti-government views in police interviews following his arrest.

Planned Parenthood faced backlash earlier this year after an anti- abortion group released videos alleging that the organization was selling fetal organs. Critics have discredited the videos, calling them heavily edited and misleading.

Planned Parenthood released a statement concerning the suspect. The organization says eyewitnesses confirmed that he was motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion.

They went on to say that this is an appalling act of violence targeting access to health care and terrorizing skilled and dedicated health care professionals. The U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch called the attack "a crime against women."

CNN's Dan Simon spoke with a woman who was held hostage inside the clinic. She said she was there for an ultrasound when the gunman opened fire.

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DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you saw the gunman outside, what did he look like?

KENTANYA CRAION, HELD HOSTAGE INSIDE COLORADO CLINIC: Looked like he had no remorse and that this was just a game to him.

I ran down the hall. I tried to open one door. It was locked. I opened another door. And there was two people there. One was a nurse and one was an actual patient.

When I heard around two, the second gunshots, you could clearly tell it was in the building. It was near, it was close.

One of the ladies beside me started screaming. I had to tell her, remain calm, everything's fine. Because, like I said, the gunshots were there, as clear as day, you could hear it.

We actually had a gun bullet go through our wall, it came through one and went through the other and you could see the gunpowder and smell it. And it was just frightening at that point. We all just wanted to get out.

About, I'd say 30, 45 minutes later, a police officer had contacted one of us. And he let us know that he's coming, they're coming to get us. He wanted to know what end of Planned Parenthood we were in.

He explained the procedures on how we would know it was him. And then after that phone call, maybe 20, 15 minutes after that, you hear people walking in the hall. Then we heard the procedure. And we opened the door. And there was a SWAT team.

SIMON: I know this was a sensitive topic with your boyfriend. You haven't heard from him.

What do you think?

What do you think may have gone on or happened?

CRAION: I'm trying to be positive. I don't know if the people that were injured have reached out to their families yet or if he just doesn't know my number. But I'm just hoping everything's OK.

SIMON: Because his number may have been stored in your phone? And he may not...

CRAION: Right. Exactly. I mean, I've called his phone like --

[04:45:00]

CRAION: -- when it was happening, I called him, I texted him, there was no reply that his phone was active. And at a certain point my sister had called him. She heard someone pick up, and then they hung up twice, and then after that his phone has just been dead ever since.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: We don't know yet if she has made contact with her boyfriend. Police say they won't release the victim's identities until Monday.

We are also learning more about the police officer killed in Friday's attack. Police in Colorado Springs held a vigil on Saturday for Officer Garrett Swasey. Here's Sara Ganim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Officer Garrett Swasey was a loving father of two, a former championship ice skater and a leader in his church. He was also a devoted police officer, killed Friday in the line of duty when a man opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shooter is shooting at officers now.

GANIM (voice-over): Forty-four-year-old Swasey was an officer for the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus. He was on duty Friday when he heard the call of shots fired and rushed to the scene.

KURT AICHELE, CO-PASTOR, HOPE CHAPEL: I've known him for about 10 years and throughout that entire time, watched him faithfully serve others and place others before himself in nearly every situation.

GANIM (voice-over): Kurt Aichele is a pastor with Swasey at his church was there when Swasey's wife had to tell their two young children what happened to their dad.

AICHELE: The cries and the sobs of her children learning that their daddy was never returning is something that will probably be etched in my mind for the rest of my life.

GANIM (voice-over): Swasey was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, a graduate of Melrose High School, the mayor there saying, "As a class of 1989 graduate, I remember him to be a kind and caring young man with many friends dedicated to his skating career and excelling at all areas."

A six-year veteran of the police force, law enforcement was his second career, after retiring from figure skating. He competed in the 1995 national championships and won a junior national title in 1992 in Orlando.

CHRISTINE FOWLER BINDER, FORMER ICE SKATING PARTNER: Garrett is or was the most selfless person I knew. Always there as kind of my confidant, my brother. He put up with me.

GANIM (voice-over): His skating partner, Christine Fowler Binder, talked to Swasey's mother on the phone.

BINDER: She just wanted me to say that, to remind everyone that, you know, Garrett died in the line of duty, protecting everyone in our country, and that there's no time that he ever would not have done that.

GANIM: In the early 1990s, Swasey moved to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center. Friends at the church where he led groups and played guitar say he defined himself through his faith.

SCOTT DANTENVILLE, CO-PASTOR: Here's a man who stands on principle, loves Christ, and obviously, you know, he might not be in alignment with the abortion industry but he would be willing to go in and lay down his life for those people.

GANIM (voice-over): Sara Ganim, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back with a little more on the latest stories from around the world. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(SPORTS REPORT)

KINKADE: Welcome back. A well-known American photographer has been capturing life in Cuba for over 20 years and now is getting to see the country change. Our Patrick Oppmann reports from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER TURNLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER: When I make a photograph I'm not trying to knock someone over the head and tell them what they're supposed to think. I want to offer them a chance to feel what I felt.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Peter Turnley hunts for an iconic image to make in the broken-down neighborhood of Central Havana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).

OPPMANN (voice-over): One of the world's best-known living photo journalists, Turnley as of late has turned his lens on Cuba.

TURNLEY: One of the things that I think is a reality of our world today is with globalization: so often wherever we do go, things all look the same. But one of the beautiful things about Cuba is that's not the case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).

OPPMANN (voice-over): Turnley happens upon Cuba senior citizens exercising in a vacant lot and goes to work while dancing with his new friends. It's a spontaneous, joyous moment, the kind that keeps bringing Turnley back to the island.

TURNLEY: For me this is a beautiful lesson of life. And it's the way that I would love to live life.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Turnley's life for decades was centered on capturing the image that made far-ranging in-complex (ph) conflicts understandable on a human level. From the fall of the Soviet Union to the Gulf War to the end of apartheid in South Africa, Turnley was there. But during a 1989 visit to Havana, Turnley caught the Cuba bug.

TURNLEY: I had a sense that change was underfoot. So I've made 20 trips here now in the last four years. So for me this has been -- this sense of change has been present now for quite a while. I'm grateful that I have a sense that my timing was right and that I was a part of this moment of change.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Turnley has released a new book of his Cuba photographs and, in November, inaugurated an exhibit of his work in Havana's premier art museum.

It's the first of its kind for an American photographer, museum officials say, since the Cuban revolution.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).

"He goes to the essence of human drama," she says, "the daily life in Cuba. And with his photos he makes a portrait, a landscape that is very human, respectful and sensitive of the Cuban reality."

As the thawed relations continues between Cuba and the U.S., Turnley says he will continue to capture his moment (INAUDIBLE).

TURNLEY: And Cuba is one of the places where I've been where, every time I leave, I have a sense of being offered a really beautiful lesson in life. I think what is transcendental about Cuba in the midst of this moment of change is the spirit of the Cuban people.

I actually only hope that the change will be --

[04:55:00]

TURNLEY: -- as kind to Cuba as it has, as Cubans have been to me.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Scientists believe they have a new clue to solve a mystery from the 3,000 years ago. That's when Queen Nefertiti vanished after ruling Egypt for 12 years. A British archeologist says her remains could be in a chamber behind King Tut's tomb.

Experts are now analyzing thermal scanning that revealed an empty spot between the walls. Work inside the tomb won't begin until all that data from the radar and infrared devices are analyzed by Japanese experts. Nefertiti, her not-so-modest name means "a beautiful woman has come."

Sunday marks the 14th anniversary of former Beatle George Harrison's death. He wrote one of the most memorable hits on the album, "Abbey Road." Take a listen.

(VIDEO CLIP, "HERE COMES THE SUN")

KINKADE: Who doesn't love that song?

Harrison frequently had to take the back seat in songwriting behind Paul McCartney and John Lennon but his album, "All Things Must Pass," was first to reach number one by a solo Beatle 45 years ago. It was considered Harrison's turn to speak and it became his most successful album.

That does it for this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. I will be back after the break with another hour of news from right around the world.