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Hostage Crisis in Burkina Faso; D-Day for Iran's Sanctions; One Dead, Five Hospitalized After Clinical Trial; Taiwan Could Elect First Female President. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired January 16, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

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[00:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: (HEADLINES)

ALLEN: And hello everyone, we're live in Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM thank you for joining us.

And we begin with breaking news out of the West African nation of Burkina Faso where a terrifying hostage crisis has been unfolding. In the nation's capital, security and military forces launched an assault against the gunman who stormed the hotel and cafe popular with westerns like Friday.

According to the country state broadcaster the soldiers are now inside the hotel and going room to room looking for the gunman. About 30 hostages have been freed. At 20 people were reported wounded. Al-Qaeda and the Islamic Maghreb claims responsibility.

For more now David McKenzie is following the story from Johannesburg and he joins us with the latest you're hearing David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, that's right Natalie, this terror attack unfolded late Friday in Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Faso.

Now an undetermined number of gunmans stormed this capital. They are now into the Splendid Hotel both not by westerners, government officials, U.N. officials in that country.

Now the latest we're hearing is scores have been released by security operation of the Burkina forces who - and this will been helped by both French Special Forces and U.S. military personnel according to the U.S. officials. A grim discovery this morning though according AFP, 10 bodies were found on the terrorist of that restaurant by fireman that's according to the AFP as the death toll is unclear at this stage. But given that there at least a 100 people in that restaurant and many of course staying in a hotel on a Friday evening, it could be a very bad news in deed. Natalie?

ALLEN: Absolutely. It's a beautiful name for a hotel, and a place where people are relaxing and then this. What can you tell us David about who is claim responsibility? MCKENZIE: Well according to Jihadi monitoring groups, it's been claimed by Al-Murabitoun which is now joined with al-Qaeda and Islamic Maghreb. And now that's the same group or groups that attacked the Radisson Hotel in late November last year, where more than 20 people were killed in Mali.

It's the same region, and in general, the same terror threat is post throughout the Sahel and the western part of that North Africa -- of West Africa.

So at this stage it appeared to be a coordinated attack with gunman similar to the attack that happened in Mali. There were explosions according to witnesses as the gunman attacked that restaurant, the security forces circled or encamp around the hotel for several hours presumably assessing the situation before they stormed the hotel have been going room to room as they do in this kind of situation checking if any hostages are in the hotel and any gunman might be hold up in that hotel.

But as of sometime ago the gun fired itself had stopped after those horrific scenes in the capital late Friday's and through the May, Natalie?

ALLEN: All right, we appreciate you bringing us the latest, David McKenzie there in Johannesburg. And we'll wait and hear if any of these terrorist have been caught. Thanks David.

Joining me now is Daveed Gartenstein-Ross; he's a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thank you for joining us.

I want to ask you first, what do we know about this group that is claiming responsibility al-Qaeda and the Islamic Maghreb?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SR. FELLOW FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Al-Qaeda and Islamic Maghreb is the North African branch of al-Qaeda. They've made a resurgence in recent years in our much more operation being filed. In particular there is one group that had split with them a little while back called Al-Murabitoun lead by a notorious terrorist named Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

For a few years they remain lead to al-Qaeda even though they had left al-Qaeda and the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM.

But just after they carried out an attack at the Radisson in the Malian Capital of Bamako, Al-Murabitoun rejoined AQIM and this attack seems to be based on the early reports the work of Al-Murabitoun specifically, which basically functions like Special Forces for al- Qaeda. They're very good at terrorism and they have carried out high profile attacks in multiple countries.

[00:05:11] ALLEN: I was going to say, so they are targeting areas, frequented by westerners. And in this case U.N. operatives stayed in this hotel, correct?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: That's correct and in particularly I think are the French which are particular silent (ph) for AQIM because the French ended up the intervening in Mali after al-Qaeda and the Islamic Maghreb cease northern Mali and became the dominant force in that country from 2011 to 2012. The French intervene in January of 2013.

Since then we've seen Mali in the North descendant to an insurgency. And meanwhile the French have become definite target for Jihadist not that they work before. But this is something that al-Qaeda and Islamic Maghreb in particular will basically figure the French war.

ALLEN: Right, and what can we done to try to reign this group in beside their high skill and clearly they're moving around Africa.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Yeah, and look these are some of the key questions that we're dealing with across unfortunately most of the theaters now. This is becoming the new normal in which you have major world capitals are being hit several times a week. You know we have this just on the back of the Jakarta attack, we of course had two high profile attacks in Paris. And attacks from countries that haven't seen terrorist attacks in decades, like in Kuwait, we have the Istanbul bombing.

It's hard to keep track of them all. And that's how frequent a pace of attack is in major areas.

So there's a question about how you just staying with group like this which as we know from things like the Cody 2012 campaign isn't an easy thing to do, it's hard to get in a small group of guys, number one.

Number two there's the question of prevention and mitigation. How do we make our urban area safer especially given the lack of capacity in security forces in so many of these countries? That's one of th e key thing that the U.S. has trying to do right now. It's working with partner nations to try to build the capacity in security forces in order to mitigate and prevent attacks.

But that's only a part of solution, that certainly is not going to present a short -- sort of short-term solution to this over arching and worsening problem.

ALLEN: We appreciate your time and your expertise, thanks.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: My pleasure.

ALLEN: Indonesian police have named one of the five attackers who killed two people and wounded dozens on Thursday in Jakarta.

They say the man named Afif was killed in the attack. He was also known as Sunakim and had been previously convicted for terrorist activities.

Police also say this militant (inaudible) orchestrated the attack from ISIS headquarters in Syria.

Iran could know in just a few hours if the international sanctions against it will be lifted. The IAEA is expected to tell group of world powers known as the P5+1 if Iran has lived up to it's part of last year's historic deal.

Senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reports including how this could impact the global oil market.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well right now all signs point to Saturday as being the day that the International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran is fully in compliance with all of the things that it needs to do to get sanctions relief under the nuclear agreement, when the last thing to the Iranians had to do was disable a reactor in the town of Arak.

The Iranians announced that they have done that and they believe that they are now in compliance. But again we believe that that announcement will be made on Saturday. And once that announcement is made the sanctions relief will be almost immediate. The Iranians believe that between the $30 and $50 billion in assets that we're frozen because of the sanctions will be unfrozen immediately.

They also think that they are going to be able to sell around 500,000 barrels of oil in addition to what they're already putting on the global market. So we'll have to wait and see what that means for instance for international oil prices.

Now of course this is also in country that has been bad need of investments into it's infrastructure, into the aviation sector also in to its hydrocarbon sector. One of the things that will also happen is that Iranian banks are going to be able to do business internationally electronic banking will be possible up until now.

If the business people wanted to do business in Iran, they had to literally go there with sacks full of money, now they'll be able to do business much more easily the Iranians believe that this would give their economy a huge boost, quick boost but of course with the political tensions between the Iran and the U.S., there's no telling, there's no guarantee that this whole process couldn't at some point fall apart again.

Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

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ALLEN: These economic sanctions against Iran have been in place for decades. We will of course let you know what the IAEA comes up with and report here on CNN.

[00:10:19] Will oil plummeted below $30 a barrel Friday fueling a nervous global fell off in sending U.S. stocks into a nose dive (ph) the Dow dropped another 391 points closing just under 16,000. Investors dump stocks in anticipation of a long holiday weekend.

The NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent it's lowest point in 14 months. The S&P 500 also slumping 2.16 percent.

A drug trial disaster has left one person brain dead in France and others hospitalized.

Next, the doctor explains the rigorous standards behind clinical trials and talk about what might has gone wrong here.

Also polls are open for a few more hours in Taiwan. We'll tell you what is the historic election could mean for relations with China in a live report.

Having next, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. One man is brain dead and five others have been hospitalized after volunteering for a drug trial in France. Dozens of people took different doses of the drug. The man who suffered negative reactions all took the same dose.

French health officials say the trial was in phase one a testing on humans.

Joining me now Dr. Joel Zivot he's a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University here at Atlanta Dr. Zivot thanks for being with us.

JOEL ZIVOT, PROFESSOR OF ANESTHESIOLOGY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

ALLEN: Let's first explain to people what is a phase one trial.

ZIVOT: Sure. A phase one trial is a form of trial where the intention is to test a drug to see whether a drug is safe or not safe basically it's a small group of volunteers.

ALLEN: Healthy volunteers, right?

ZIVOT: Healthy volunteers, yes people who don't have the condition that might be ultimately the reason why drug is being used. So its healthy people and you're just asking the question is this drug safe in people. It's not meant to be effective or the treatment in question is just a question of safety.

ALLEN: And so we know that this drug had been tested on animals. What are the safe guards beyond that for these volunteers or in a test like this?

ZIVOT: Well in order for a trial to be allowed to go forward it must face a rigorous evaluation, their international standards that are put in place to protect people who are volunteers for trails. In order for a trial to be tested on humans it has to first of all be tested in some other, either a group of animals or in the laboratory and evidence and has brought forward and evaluated by an impartial review that determines now that it's safe to go ahead and try the drug in people.

These drugs that are intended to be used for people, they ultimately have to be tried in people. And when you try a drug a new drug in a person there is a risk.

[00:15:02] ALLEN: Yeah, and something went disastrously wrong, this is anything put interest about the situation, what you read about it? ZIVOT: Well I can't I don't the details so I can't comment. I would say though that in any clinical trial. The essential element is that a person that is involved in a trial is a volunteer. And volunteer is in this fundamental and central to the participation in any trial.

In order to be a volunteer -- to volunteer rather for a trial, a person has to understand what are the risks are. So would be the obligation of the investigator to inform the volunteer in plain language and with enough time allowed to understand what the risks are so they can then decide whether they want to participate or not.

ALLEN: And so, they certainly sign something that they're giving away, you know, their rights to what if something goes wrong. I guess it's probably complicated.

ZIVOT: I don't think it's so much to be seen to giving away anything. I don't think that's the way to think about it. I think that by signing what you're really just saying is that you acknowledge that you had an opportunity to review the documents.

It's not really a function of giving away anything. The experimenter and the volunteer continue to have a relationship. And the intention again is that information should be exchanged in a impartial way against to a person can understand.

And so by signing it's not a setting a side of right, it's really just with knowledge that they've seen the documents, they understood and that they've volunteered.

ALLEN: Well, in the world of social media and media being global and on compassing. Do you think could have some impact on future face on trail that anyone that might be a candidate for a volunteer it might Google and go. I'm not doing that.

ZIVOT: Well, you know what? I hope not, because clinical trials are important. And we need these trials and we need people to volunteer. We are indebted to volunteers. Volunteers especially in a phase 1 trial who recognize and accept a certain degree of risk to be able to allow themselves to be used, to learn something very important and one always who consider a drug and it's beginning stages ultimately becomes that drug that makes the difference in a life of someone in the future. So I hope that no one is disquieted in anyway on participating in clinical trials.

ALLEN: Something went terribly wrong in this case. So we further investigated. Well, thanks for you time Dr. Joel Zivot. Thank you.

ZIVOT: Thank you. Thank you very much.

ALLEN: The polls are open for a few more hours in Taiwan where voters could elect their first female president. Tsai Ing-wen the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party is projected to win in a landslide. And China will be paying close attention to the results. Tsai's party has historically been in favor of Taiwan's independent.

Let's turn now to Kristie Lu Stout. She is live for us in Taipei. She's watching this election. And Kristie, if a female is about to be elected, it looks like the voter might make history here.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, it is Election Day here in Taiwan and we're expecting a landslide victory for Tsai Ing-wen. She is at opposition DPP party, a 59-year-old former trade negotiator. Do for understated manner and her steadily calm.

Now if she becomes president she'll become the first female leader of Taiwan and she'll be facing the whole host of challenges. Among them, a stagnating economy of rising and very vocal use movement that challenging issue of dealing with cross-strait ties and the relationship with China and arising Taiwan identity.

Very interesting development. We've seen a video go viral of a Taiwan pop star apologizing bowing and kowtowing for waving the Taiwan Republic of China flag a concert in South Korea.

This is that view that many people here are talking about. In fact when I was at the polling station this morning a number of voters specially younger voters were saying they where there because the issue that matter to bend the most is the issue of Taiwan identities. They want to have to right to wave the Taiwan flag on the world's stage.

Now polls closed as 4:00 p.m. local time. We expect to hear election results for both the presidential and the parliamentary election shortly after that. Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Thank you, Kristie. And I want to ask you though. How is China watching this break?

STOUT: Yeah, China is watching this. So it's very, very closely as you mentioned just a moment ago. The DPP party Tsai Ing-wen party traditionally advocates for an independent in Taiwan. But we heard and seem Tsai Ing-wen take a more measure and somewhat say pragmatic approaching that she would maintain the status quo warm relation between Taiwan and China. If she does indeed become the next president of Taiwan, it is not likely that we're going to see the scraping of the policies that incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou putting to place of increase trade ties or shipping ties between Taiwan and China.

[00:20:06] But there will be that period of time where both sides are going to have to fill each other out to determine where cross-strait ties and that relationship will go next. Back to you.

ALLEN: All right. Kristie Lu Stout for us. We're waiting to see the outcome. But as you said she is expected to win in a landslide. Thank you.

After Sean Penn is breaking his silence about his interview with the drug kingpin El Chapo, that was called recently. Penn's article appeared in Rolling Magazine this week detailing his meeting with Guzman and the question. He later submitted to two big Ben fugitive drug lord.

He told CBS News that readers missed the point of his interview.

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SEAN PENN, ACTOR: I have terrible regret.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What other regrets?

PENN: Ever regrets that the entire discussion about this article ignores it's purpose which was to can try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the war in drugs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Penn says he speak really met El Chapo last October. The cartel leader was recaptured one week ago.

The U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz is being slammed for his criticism of New York City. Earlier this week Cruz says his Republican rival Donald Trump "Embodies New York values." Trump called his comment very insulting and receive rare backup from New York Democrats including former New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

The New York Daily News with more blunt and it's response putting "Drop Dead Ted" on it's Friday cover. Cruz now apologizing for his comments, well, sort of.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you're right. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have all demanded an apology.

And I'm happy to apologize. I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who've been let down by liberal politicians in that state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: As we said, apologize sorta. Trump and Cruz are now neck-and- neck in the first caucus state of Iowa just two weeks before that vote.

We'll have more news right after this.

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ALLEN: Heavy snow is threatening to bury parts of Eastern Europe and Derek Van Dam is here with us. That's a lot of snow.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. We're talking about some areas that could easily see a half meter a snowfall which is significant and will be quite disruptive especially for anyone trying to travel in that area and the height of the snowstorm will start Sunday morning and last right through Sunday evening particularly across the Southern Balkan Peninsula.

We'll take look at the graphic here and explain a little bit more to you so you can see at home exactly what to expect if you are perhaps watching us from this part of the world. Thank you. First and foremost for your viewership, but if you're perhaps traveling to this region you want to be prepared for delays.

We've got a huge deep in the jet streams. You remember the jet stream is basically the world's driver of our weather system, then it's going to allow for a low pressure system develop across the Southern Adriatic. Plunging our temperatures and changing that precipitation over from liquid to frozen variety and that means snowfall into Serbia, into Bulgaria as well as Romania, a Sofia that is a particular city that we're expecting anywhere from 15 to upward of 30 centimeters of snowfall as this low precious system follows along.

[00:25:03] The jet streams are the strong upper level wind and turns in quite a significant amount of wind as well.

Here's the storm system you've evolving. We will get some rainfall into southern Italy and into Sicily. But again we're focusing our attention on the heavy rain over the western sections of Greece and perhaps just outside of Athens. And the heavy snowfall just to the north once the temperatures start to plunge behind the system.

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ALLEN: Oh, that's fun.

VAN DAM: And the race course was marked by ski gate as well. Quite astounding.

ALLEN: Yeah, it's like Lindsey Vonn.

VAN DAM: Idea. Yeah. Lindsey Vonn.

ALLEN: There she goes.

VAN DAM: Taking it to the extreme. They had a specialize snow tires, snow chains for that.

ALLEN: I see it. (inaudible) won't want those to pop up.

VAN DAM: No, we do not want that.

ALLEN: All right. Speaking a little problem we've got one in space. Astronaut Tim Peake made history on Friday. But he's the first European space agency astronaut to walk in space wearing the British flag. And the U.S. fight engineer ventured outside the ISS to make repairs, but NASA cut the mission short because of a water leak in Kopra's helmet. Both the astronaut reentered the space station safely and he said he was accelerated (ph) about the walk.

And a newly unveiled dinosaurs skull is so big it cannot completely fit in the gallery where is being displayed. That's pretty cool isn't it?

The prehistoric creature is 122 feet or 37 meters long. It's at New York Museum of National History and parts of it's long neck extends outside the exhibit.

The skeleton was discovered in Argentina in 2014 were Titanosaurs roamed about 100 million years ago.

VAN DAM: Very fitting name Titanosours.

ALLEN: Look at the head sticking out. That's awesome. Got to go there.

All right thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen along with Derek Van Dam. And you top stories after this.

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