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Taiwan Earthquake Examined; Syrians Flee Alepp; Lunar New Year Approaching; Hillary Thinking Beyond Primaries. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired February 06, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:12] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rescuers race to dig out dozens feared trapped in collapse building after a powerful earthquake in Southern Taiwan.
Thousands more Syrians rush to get out as government forces and Russian jets pound the city of Aleppo.
And it's the Lunar New Year and millions are on the move in China. We'll show you just how hard it is to be on the move and try to get home during this time in China.
It's all next here on CNN Newsroom. We are live in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.
Hundreds of rescue workers are searching a collapse 17-storey building in Tainan in Southern Taiwan right now. They are looking for people who may still be trapped after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the city before dawn on Saturday. At least people now are confirmed dead. The quake calls this residential building floors to pancake on each other as people slept.
A number of structures were damage as well. A woman describe what it was like for her and her family in the moments before they were rescued.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, (Through Translation): fortunately when we were trapped we stuck under a space created by a baby crib and a closet door, so that things wouldn't fall on us and air was able to get in.
I was so afraid that what if the rescuers couldn't find us, that I would start screaming at soon as I heard anyone looking for survivors. And since my husband and I were trapped in different rooms we keep making sure each of us was OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Very happy ending to their flight after the earthquake there. Leslie Chang is a reporter with Siemens (ph) affiliate SETTV and he joins us now on the line from Taipei in Taiwan.
Leslie, thank you for talking with us. What is the latest on the search for anymore survivors? LESLIE CHANG: Yes, there's a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan at 3:57 in the early morning Taipei time. That's almost 12 hours ago and the epic center is in Meinong Kaohsiung City in Southern Taiwan. And seismic depth is 16.7 kilometers. So that a pretty shallow earthquake.
And the dead total rise to seven right now. And the slope that (inaudible) release is equal to 2 nuclear bombs according to the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. And other cities counties like near the Pingtung, Tainan and Chiayi also felt the shock. Several after shock are being reported and power I also cut off in some areas.
And the most serious disaster is a 17-storey apartment building called Wei Guan collapsed. Many children and babies were inside and we have to learn that there are some casualties including 10 day old baby girl and a little girl. And at least people died in that falling down building.
Immediately after the 6.4 quake 168 other household were left out of power in Taiwan and many building at least 10 buildings collapse and dozen of people were trapped in the rubbles. Casualties are being reported and the rescue team has been rush into the site digging holes to get close in, at least their bare hand to get people out. And for now at least 900 household have still out of power.
ALLEN: Leslie, I want to ask you about this 17-storey building because we're looking at video of it right now while you're speaking. Any word, I know it's early on why perhaps this building collapse as it did. And then other buildings around it weren't affected, so disastrously.
CHANG: As we know there's Construction Company for that building Wei Guan, went bankruptcy while this construction is, while the building was still in construction. So some experts believe that this building there must be some problem in the constructing process, or something critical thing missed in that construction process, that some experts say. But that the expert (inaudible) still investigation to confirm if this -- if there is some problem inside the building in the structure.
ALLEN: Leslie Chang for us. Thank you so much from Taipei, Taiwan. And again their still looking for perhaps any more survivors in that building there in Tainan City.
Other news now, it is getting to be crunch time again on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday and our new CNN/WMUR poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire survey center finds Donald Trump with an 11 point lead. Marco Rubio is in solid second and Ted Cruz and John Kasich now tied for third. Jeb Bush comes in at forth.
[02:05:15] On the Democratic side they're just two now Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton by almost 2 to 1. He got 61 percent. She got 31 percent, New Hampshire right next door to his home state of Vermont.
U.S. President Obama praise the countries economic progress in Friday as the unemployment rate in the U.S. fell to 4.9 percent. That is the lowest rate in eight years. And the president certainly did not past up the chance to take a shot at Republican presidential candidates while touting these new job numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: The United States of America right now has the strongest most durable economy in the world. I know that's still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches as their doom-and- despair tour plays in New Hampshire. I guess you cannot please everybody,
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Oh, with the New Hampshire primary just days away the Republican candidates are hitting of course the election trial hard. But as Dana Bash reports bad weather on Friday force Donald Trump to take a snow day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It turns out being a billionaire with your plane can be politically paralysis.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm number one in New Hampshire. Will you please keep me there?
BASH: After last night rally Trump went home to New York. He said his plane couldn't get back to New Hampshire his morning because of the snow Tweeting "Big storm in New Hampshire move my even to Monday. We'll be there next four days." And posting this on Facebook.
TRUMP: The great slogan of New Hampshire live free of die means so much to so many people. All over the world they use that expression.
BASH: But Granite State voters expect to see candidates in person. Being absent for a day this close to the primary is not ideal especially since Trump has been stepping it up with more traditional retail campaign events.
Jeb Bush troll Trump about it on Twitter saying "My 90 year old mother made out to campaign." As for Bush he suddenly seems to be embracing the Bush brand brining his mother the popular former First Lady.
BARBARA BUSH, MOTHERO F JEB BUSH: He is decent and honest -- he's everything we need in a president.
BASH: Even releasing an ad with a more controversial family member his brother.
GEORGE W. BUSH: I know Jeb. I know his good heart and his strong backbone Jeb will unite our country.
BASH: But Jeb Bush is former protegee Marco Rubio could be standing in his way. He's sharpening his criticism to try to slow Rubio's rise with this new ad.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: Jeb Bush ran for Florida, Marco Rubio finish the sentence. FMR. SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, I mean I would just say that there's a guys who's been able to -- number one.
MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The bottom line is he didn't get accomplishment done, neither did President Obama.
BASH: Rubio is talking a lot of incoming. The publisher of New Hampshire conservative union leader who endorse Christie wrote "Young Rubio must make think New Hampshire a bunch of rubes. He hasn't spent much time here, but he's trying to sell himself with T.V. ads and someone who can go to Washington to clean the Washington mess.
BEN CARSON, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.
BASH: Meanwhile, Ben Carson won't let up on Ted Cruz for what Carson aid called dirty tricks Iowa caucuses night. Sending this e-mail erroneously suggesting Carson may drop out. Cruz has apologize but Carson isn't satisfied telling Buzzfeed "Not to take corrective action is tacitly saying it's OK or it's sort of like, as Hillary Clinton said after Benghazi what difference does it make.
Carson said it doesn't raise to the level of Benghazi but "I'm saying it's the same kind of attitude.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Well, on the Democratic side the candidates have been pretty civil with each other until now as they put it all on the line in New Hampshire. They are starting to go after each other just a bit. Of course there are just two on this side.
Here's Joe Johns with that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The calendar might show four days until the New Hampshire primary but Hillary Clinton has already looking beyond the fight for the nomination.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMORATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will call Senator Sanders the first call I will make. I'm so fortunate as to get this nomination. We have a lot to work to do. I look forward to working with him as a partner in the Senate.
JOHNS: And today Bernie Sanders is decrying the role of money and politics.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, U.S. DEMORATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People are obsessed whether raising money. It is getting worse because of Citizens United. So I think we move to a public funding of elections.
JOHNS: The fight between these two Democrats is growing more intense. Hillary Clinton airing an ad in New Hampshire jabbing Sanders for his idealistic proposals.
CLINTON: The American people can't afford to wait for ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real word.
[02:10:05] And in their final debate before votes head to the polls, Tuesday. Clinton and Sanders engaging in a series of feisty exchanges.
CLINTON: I think it's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks. And let's talk about the issue ...
JOHN: Continuing to trade barbs over which of them is the true progressive.
CLINTON: If we're going to get into labels, I don't think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady bill five times.
SANDERS: One of the things we should do is not only talk to talk but walk to walk. I am very proud to be the only candidate up here who does not have a super PAC, who was not raising new ...
JOHNS: Clinton calling out Sanders for repeatedly saying, her campaign takes money from big bank and special interests.
CLINTON: An enough is enough. If you got something to say, say it directly. But you will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donations that I every received.
JOHNS: And assuring voters, there will be no more surprises in the e- mail controversy hanging over her campaign.
CLINTON: You know, before it was e-mails, it was Benghazi, and the Republicans that were stirring up so much controversy about that. And I think the American people will know, it's an absurdity. I have absolutely no concerns about it whatsoever.
JOHNS: Senators will step off the trail and onto the Saturday Night Live Stage this weekend where he will appear alongside host, Larry David, who impersonated the candidate earlier this season.
LARRY DAVID: I own one pair of underwear, that's it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: David, quite close to the real thing there. And again, New Hampshire will be the place for the next vote this week and the campaign.
Well, the Vatican says, an unprecedented meeting of church leaders will take place next Friday in Cuba. Pope Francis will meet the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
It's the first meeting between the heads of both churches since the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity split apart, nearly one thousand years ago.
In Syria, thousands of people are running for their lives. We'll tell you why Turkey says another humanitarian catastrophe could happen at any time. That's ahead here. Also, some Iraqi refugees risked everything for a new life in Germany. Now, they're going home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. We turn to Syria now where thousands of civilians, even more, are now running for their lives from the city of Aleppo.
Syrian regime forces, as government forces back by Russian Air Support, are now aggressively trying to retake this key city.
[02:15:08] The opposition says, the military assault lead the U.N. to temporarily suspend peace talks that were going on in Geneva.
Syrian Forces have already cut off the only opposition's supply route to the city. And Turkey is now warning that all of all mass exodus now by people getting out of a humanitarian debacle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AHMET DAVUTOGLU, TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: I am addressing to our hearts. Now, 10,000 new refugees are waiting in front of the door of Kilis because of air bombardments and attacks against Allepo.
Sixty thousand or 60,000 to 70,000 people in the camps in North Aleppo are moving towards Turkey. My mind is not now in London but on -- in our border -- how to relocate these new people coming from Syria.
Three hundred thousand Aleppo -- people living in Aleppo are ready to move towards Turkey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: This latest wave of refugees, now getting out, could intensify the worst humanitarian crisis the world is seeing since World War II.
Our Arwa Damon has more from the Turkish-Syrian border.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.N. has warning that upwards of 300,000 civilians are potentially at risk if Assad's forces are able to lay siege to the city of Allepo.
These are people who live in the eastern portion of the city. And that is not counting the tens of thousands who are already claimed the Allepo countryside as the regime forces advanced undercover of Russian air strikes.
And those who have made it to the border in Turkey have been forced to wait because the border continues to remain closed.
One none profit able to go through and provide those who are on the side with some tents. But they are still in desperate need of food, water and additional medical supplies.
People describing the bombardment by what they say is, mostly, Russian fighter jets, is being the most intense they have seen since the fighting broke out in Syria some five years ago.
One man who we spoke to on this side saying that he was waiting for his relatives to, eventually -- hopefully, come through. Describing their village where he said they facing Russian bombardment, an advance by Assad's forces but also the ongoing threat of ISIS.
And those families who are now fleeing, they are families. And people who waited this long because they truly hoped that there would be some sort resolution, some sort of end to the violence.
And now, they, themselves, find themselves forced to make that impossible decision of leaving everything and their homeland behind.
Arwa Damon, CNN, at the Kilis border in Turkey.
ALLEN: Well as we know, millions of Syrians have sought refuge in other countries since the war began almost five years ago. The majority have settled mainly in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.
More than 4 million Syrians are now in those four countries with more than 6 million others displaced inside Syria. There are also more than 813,000 Syrians currently seeking asylum in Europe.
So that's what we meant by the worst humanitarian catastrophe since World War II. Well, for some Iraqi refugees living in Germany, there is no place like home. They are leaving and drove to return to their country. They risked everything to flee. Why?
Here's Senior International Correspondent Atika Shubert in Berlin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ATIKA SHUBERT, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Starting at about 9:00 a.m. every morning, at two forms in front of Berlin's Iraq embassy.
A line of refugees who have given up on their dreams of Germany, and now, want to go home. It cost $6,000 for this man to get on a crowded smuggler's boat in Turkey to Greece (inaudible).
"Most of the Iraqis here want to go back, 90 percent he told us. Here, there is only bread and cheese. We can't live like this. I would tell people, don't come, you'll regret it."
Rain or shine, there is always a much longer wait at Berlin's Social Services. Some are here to register their asylum applications. Others have medical claims or unemployment benefits to process.
Some refugee applications take just a month to clear. But many can take a year or more or wait so long that some refugees are now suing the German government.
And now, Germany has ruled that refugees may have to wait two years before their family can join them. Mind-numbing bureaucracy, cold winters, strange food, a language and customs that many here find hard to understand. [02:20:02] For an increasing number of Iraqis, heading back to their war-torn home is a better option.
Every week there is now a direct flight from Berlin Airport on to Erbil and Baghdad. And according to Iraqi Airways, they say, in some flights, as many as 30 percent of the passengers are refugees who want to go home.
The mood is good at Iraqi Airways check-in. Many of those in line are Kurdish showing off their temporary passports currently issued by the Iraqi Embassy.
"I'm going back to my family," this man tells us. "It's a surprise, I didn't tell them. I'm just going to knock on the door and then they will know I'm home."
Since September, Iraqi Airways had had at least a hundred refugees flying home every week and that number is rising. A ticket cost about $250. That's a bargain compared to the $9,000 Muhammad (inaudible) spent to be smuggled into Germany. Today, he leaves bitterly disappointed.
"Honestly, it's a joke," he tells us. We heard it would be wonderful here but it wasn't. It's very crowded and it gets worst as more people come. The bureaucracy is slow. Many applications are not even accepted in the end because too many people are coming in. And that's the reason I'm leaving" he said.
For some Iraqis, it seems their dream as a one-way ticket back home.
Atika Shubert, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: How about that one? What a nightmare journey. We wish them well back home. And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: Derek Van Dam is with me now and he's going to be talking more about El Nino because it's causing even more very scary situation for some people in the world.
DEREK VAN DAN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Natalie, it's becoming clearer and clearer that this strong record-breaking El Nino that we're currently undertaking across the world right now has devastating effects on the world's security on food hunger being the main concern there.
Take a look at some of the visuals coming out of Africa. This is -- and particularly, in Ethiopia, a Reuters' report saying that hunger caused by El Nino is named as one of the top humanitarian crises faced by aid groups in 2016 alone.
Think about it. We've got crop failures, increases in food prices, deteriorating livestock conditions that has a knockout effects to the security of food across the world.
Now, let's focus in on Southern Africa where nearly two-thirds of the corn belt in Southern Africa is under significant threat due to drought conditions.
Food shortages rose to 6.4 million people, impacting that many people from 2014 to where we are currently right now. Now, this is all thanks to our strong El Nino season that we continued to feel across the world typically in a typical growing season. From January to March across Southern Africa, we get plenty of rain across this region but that is suppressed, thanks to El Nino. And that has disastrous effects on crop conditions across this area.
Just look at the satellite loop, it is high and dry from Zimbabwe to Botswana and to South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and this has profound impacts on over 6 million people in rural South Africa. And even northward into the Sahel region over North Africa, roughly one in six people are projected to not have enough food to eat in 2016 alone.
[02:25:09] Some countries including South Africa doing what they can planting over 3.7 million indigenous trees to the country to help with reforesting the area and helping bring in some of the healthier water into the agriculture.
Now, it's not only Africa that's having these concerns, we're talking about Papua New Guinea in to Latin America. There is a severe drought in Colombia as we speak. And this is all thanks to the erratic rainfall patterns all caused by El Nino.
So this is something that aid organizations are paying very close attention. We talked about humanitarian crisis just a moment ago. And this will certainly be topping the charts in 2016.
ALLEN: An El Nino staying with us for a few more months.
VAN DAM: That's correct, continuous.
ALLEN: All right, thanks Derek.
Well Chinese population is on the move in breathtaking numbers, millions of people who had to leave home to find jobs in cities are now returning to their families to celebrate the Lunar New Year which starts Monday. Look at the throngs of people.
CNN's Alexandra Field travels with the crowd many of whom spend days on trains and busses to get back home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just take a look around. These people are waiting patiently but they had been waiting all year for this moment. For so many of them, this is the one and only time of the year where they'll get to go home, they'll see their friends, they'll see their family members which is what makes all of this the largest annual migration of people on the planet. Here in China, it's called the Spring Festival and it includes the Lunar New Year so everyone is scrambling to get home by New Year's Eve.
Nearly 332 million train trips taken across China. These people all had to buy their tickets week in advance. For a lot of them, the journey won't just take hours, it will actually take days.
The trains leaving the stations here in Southern China are some of the busiest in the entire country. That's because this is the region that's full of factories, the manufacturing area. The workers come from all over the country which means that their journey home can start with one-train ride, being followed maybe more train rides. And some people tell after that, they could have to hop on a couple of busses.
These trains will run all through the day and all through the night. Every single seat on this train is sold out. And actually, it's quite common that you'll see people sitting on the floor. A lot of these trains have standing room only, every inches packed with stuff, gifts they're bringing home.
If there are delays, this weather (inaudible), the schedule off, that's where you can have pretty big problems. With all these people traveling, it can create a lot of chaos.
The Spring Festival lasts for 40 days. During that time, there will 2.9 billion trips. But the biggest rush happens in the days and the hours before the dawn of the Year of the Red Fire Monkey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Alexandra Field there. We'll be right back with our top story.
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