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U.S.-Cuba Relations Enter New Phase as Obama Arrives in Havana; Trump Defends Violence at Rallies; New Poll in Utah Shows Trump Losing to Clinton, Sanders; Turkey Postpones Soccer Match Over Security Concerns; Language in ISIS Recruitment Textbooks Justifies Horrors; North Korea Flexes Military Muscle. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 21, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:12] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is "CNN NEWSROOM," live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, from a "Cold War" to a warm welcome. U.S. President Barack Obama steps into history, arriving in Cuba for a talk with the island's communist leaders.

Donald Trump's campaign planning extra security after one of the most violent confrontations yet; this time at rally in Arizona.

And from Canada, the heartbreaking story of a little boy who died from meningitis. His parents now facing jail time because they allegedly treated him with natural home remedies.

Hello everybody. We would like to welcome our viewers from all around the world. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Relations between the U.S. and Cuba are in a new phase now that President Barack Obama has arrived in Havana. He's the first U.S. president to visit the island nation in 88 years. The visit caps a reengagement process that began December 2014. Our Jim Acosta is traveling with the President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Change is in the air here in Cuba, as President Obama prepares to spend his first full day here on the island. The President will begin his day laying a wreath at the memorial remembering the Cuban Revolutionary, Jose Marti, and then the President will sit down for a formal bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro.

As for last night, the President and First Family, they took a walking tour of Old Havana, even stopped at the Old Cathedral, here in the Cuban Capital, and that was after the President addressed members of the U.S. Embassy here in Havana, where he talked about the significance of this trip.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been nearly 90 years since the U.S. president stepped foot in Cuba. It is wonderful to be here. Back in 1928, President Coolidge came on a battle ship; it took him three days to get here. It only took me three hours. ACOSTA: Later on tomorrow, the President will be delivering a speech to the Cuban people, and the White House says the President will talk about expanding human rights for the Cuban people; talking about freedom of speech and freedom of the press. After that the President will wind down his trip to Cuba with baseball game between the Cuban Nationals team with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay; so more on this historic trip to Cuba. Joining us now is Luis Alvarado. He's a Public Affairs, Political and Media Strategist. Thanks for coming in. It's been a while. I mean, we've been meaning to have a chat. So I'm glad we could do this now, especially on such a monumental day like today.

LUIS ALVARADO, PUBLIC AFFAIRS POLITICAL & MEDIA STRATEGIST: Right.

VAUSE: This whole Cuba/US debate, does it now move beyond the whole issue of should there be diplomatic relations to now there are diplomatic relations and its a positive and maybe the debate is, did President Obama give too much away in reestablishing ties with the government in Havana?

ALVARADO: You're absolutely right. The polls have indicated that America actually wants it move forward and step away from the history. There are certainly those in the community -- in the Cuban community mostly who don't see this as a positive sign, and they do have an argument; but so far, what we are seeing is that we are doing it, there's an expectation.

Everybody has different expectations, but from a political perspective, we still don't know what a win would be for President Obama, given that there is, I think, more land mines, political land mines, for him to negotiate, like meeting with dissidents after the Cuban regime had told them they are telling their people not to speak with President Barack Obama.

So at this point, being there with his family is a great vision of what Americans can be in Cuba but at the same time there are problems that Cuba has to address before we actually say that President Obama's visit has been victorious.

VAUSE: Okay, so look at some of those issues right now. So how far can the President push Raul Castro on issues of human rights, freedom of the press, democracy? We know that the President will meet with some dissidents, I think on Tuesday, as well. But when it comes to pushing the actual communism government, how much leverage does he have right now?

ALVARADO: Very limited. I mean, let's remember that in our country, we, the president of the executive branch also has to get ratification from congress. He cannot just move forward in diplomacy and expect congress to follow along. So far we have seen that Congress is not willing to do that yet, and so, technically, I think at this point it is just a goodwill trip, and I think he's doing fabulous at that because there are great expectations, people are happy. The Cuban people look like they are excited but I think the Cuban people by watching CNN throughout the day, it is easy to recognize that people of Cuba still don't know what's going on.

VAUSE: Yes, I think everyone is still little bit in the dark as to how this all ends and, like you say, what the definition of success is.

Very quickly, this isn't just a one-way street. A lot of people have made the point that the diplomatic thaw is also about ending the United States [00:05:02] isolation from Latin-America in many ways.

ALVARADO: Well, for Latin-America, when they look at President Obama, they actually feel that it has been a failure, because you look at Venezuela and you look at what is happening there; and you look at Central America with capital of the murder of the world in Central America; you look at Argentina and Brazil, great turmoil. It is easy to say that President Obama has actually stepped away from Latin- America and now Latin-America is expecting something good to come out of this.

VAUSE: We'll see; Luis, thanks for coming in.

ALVARADO: It's a pleasure; thank you.

VAUSE: Well a senior aid for the Donald Trump campaign appears to be involved in a physical confrontation with a protester. A number of videos from a rally in Arizona seemed to show campaign manager Corey Lewandowski yanking the demonstrator on Saturday. The Trump spokesman says Lewandowski was dealing with a man who had already removed from the event and somehow found his way back in. Donald Trump says Lewandowski actions were "spirted", in his words, and that the campaign manager was trying to take down obscene signs around the protester.

Okay, it's a big week of politics coming up here in the United States. Let's get more on that now with our Senior Political Analyst and Editor with "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein.

Ron, so we have votes coming up on Tuesday. We have three states which are, in fact, voting Tuesday. We've got this poll now out in Utah. This is fascinating; it's only one poll we should point out. Let's take a look at these numbers here, showing Trump losing narrowly to Hillary Clinton and by a much bigger margin to Bernie Sanders. Utah has voted Republican for more than 50 years. Is this the great big orange canary in the coal mine for the Republican Party?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANAYLST: I feel like, to some extent, the violence in Chicago, the violence in -- that in some ways is more the canary in the coal mine to me because it is the ghost of Christmas Future. I mean, there is no question I think republicans have a very clear preview of what is ahead over the coming months, in terms of what a Donald Trump candidacy would mean. It's going to mean this intense polarization, activation of parts of their coalition, maybe the ability to put some new states in play, but intense resistance and a posture from Trump that's quite remarkable as he continually defends the violence at his events, blaming it entirely on protesters. So I think looking forward this party is facing, you know, an extraordinary situation, mounting resistance institutionally, but no clear path to stopping him from winning the nomination.

VAUSE: We'll get to the violence in just a moment. I want to quickly talk about Arizona --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: -- because this is a big state -

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

VAUSE: -- especially for Ted Cruz.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

VAUSE: He needs to win this. John Kasich has pretty much written off the state. How much is the early voting there, though, going to hurt Ted Cruz?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, that's the ability for Trump to bank votes is important. Arizona is fascinating because, you know, I often talk about the brown and the gray in America, that we are living through two simultaneous demographic revolutions. We're diversifying in our youth population, that's the brown. We are doubling the number of seniors, and 80-percent of seniors are white, that's the gray.

Arizona is the state with the widest divergence between the demography of its youth population and its senior population and those older whites are the core of the republican party in Arizona. They are really at the essence of some of the tensions over changing demography that we have seen in the country. It is pretty fertile ground for Donald Trump given SB 1070 and the Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a lot of the backlashing against immigration kind of has started in Arizona. So it's going to be a challenge for Ted Cruz, given Trump's connection, I think, to kind of the -

VAUSE: And especially if some of that violence may have impacted voters. I think half of the people expected to vote in that primary have already voted.

BROWNSTEIN: Have already voted.

VAUSE: Okay, now you mentioned some of the violence that we've seen. Donald Trump was in Arizona. There was another violent clash there, at one of his rallies this weekend; and, in fact, it has become one of the hallmarks in his campaign.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

VAUSE: Take a look at this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The press is calling this thing oh, but there's such violence. No, violence. No, you know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? I think like basically none.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Let him get up. Let him get up.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Lay there mother [bleep].

TRUMP: If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.

He lies. I've never seen anything like it.

[00:10:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't breathe, man. I can't [bleep] breathe.

TRUMP: How many people have been injured mate rallies? Zero. Zero.

There's no violence. None whatsoever. People say, well, is there violence. There's no violence, there's lovefest. These are lovefests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Not quite a lovefest, really.

BROWNSTEIN: Not quite, no.

VAUSE: Okay, well, Donald Trump meets with Republican leaders Monday. Obviously the violence is one of the big issues, which we brought there; but what else should we read into that meeting with the senior conservatives on Monday?

BROWNSTEIN: First of all, the violence, we haven't seen anything like this since the George Wallace 1968 campaign. I was reading the other day, a description of the George Wallace rally in Madison Square Garden, in October 1968, this independent presidential candidacy, of course, was a third-party segregationist governor of Alabama ran as the right, and the echoes of what he was saying from the stage and what was happening in the crowd were just a remarkable.

Look, I think Republicans are dealing with a very difficult set of choices here. You have Donald Trump, who clearly has the biggest base of support in the party, of anyone who is running; but he is a plurality front-runner. At this point in any other race, the person who won as many states as Trump would be climbing toward 50-percent, you would see a procession of elected officials, you know, fall in line and say it is time to start closing it up. We need to consolidate. None of that is happening. He is the biggest, but stuck between 35 and 40-percent. I think he's at 37-percent of total votes.

So the question of how this proceeds and whether he falls short of the majority of delegates and what happens then, I think all of it is still up in the air because rather than consolidating, in many ways, John, it feels as though opposition is digging in, in part because of violence.

VAUSE: Also tomorrow, after he meets with Republican leaders, Donald Trump will address the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, right? Apparently he is going there, using a prompter. He'll have prepared remarks. This is an attempt to show he has policy chops. He's knows the issues. That he is a serious candidate. Is this going to be a hard turn for him?

BROWNSTEIN: It is. Like he said the other day, who are you listening to? I'm listening to myself is what he said.

Look, on AIPAC, it is kind of fascinating because it's one of many, many areas, where actually he departs from traditional Republican orthodoxy but he is basically trying to position himself more as an honest broker, he is saying, between the Palestinians and the Israelis, somewhat echoing, we haven't really heard on the republican side since Jim Baker -

VAUSE: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: --and George H.W. Bush. And we could talk about entitlements. We can talk about trade. We can talk about spending. I mean, there's so many areas where he departs from the kind of traditional Republican approach, but what he has done by doubling down on the kind of immigration and trade is he has cut the party, as we said before, along a new fault line, along a class fault line, dominating among the blue collar republicans and it's put him in this position where no one can get past him, even though he may not himself get it a majority of the party. At that point they are left with very difficult choices, either you nominate him, and many republicans bolt, or you pull it away at the end, and his supporters bolt. Either way, it seems as though they're heading towards a fracture in the party.

VAUSE: And we should note that a number of Jewish leaders are planning protests.

BROWNSTEIN: To walk out.

VAUSE: Yes, tomorrow at AIPAC. Ron, always good to be here.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you very much.

VAUSE: Also, while Donald Trump claims to be a major supporter of Israel, Oren Liebermann reports now from Jerusalem, the Israelis don't feel the same way about Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On Israel Donald has said he wants to be neutral.

TRUMP: There is nobody on this stage more pro-Israel than I am.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You would be forgiven for thinking the candidates were running for office in Israel.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By supporting the Israeli's -

LIEBERMANN: The Republican's trying to one-up each other, arguing about who will keep Israel safe and who can repair the strained relations between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Trump has gotten most of the headlines in Israel.

TRUMP: My name is Donald Trump and I'm a big fan of Israel.

LIEBERMANN: Planning up his stance on Israel and highlighting an ad he made for Netanyahu's reelection in 2013.

TRUMP: You have a great prime minister.

LIEBERMANN: And yet comments on Muslims in the U.S. and a salute it Trump at an Orlando rally, compared by some to an apparent Nazi salute, that all frightens some Israelis.

ALAN PINKAS: Like the entire world, the Israeli's are looking quite astounded and astonished at this phenomenon called Donald Trump.

LIEBERMANN: Before dropping out of the race, Marco Rubio attacked Trump on Israel.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: The policy Donald has outlined, I don't know if he realizes, is an anti-Israeli policy.

LIEBERMANN: Yet, despite the Republican emphasis on Israel, the latest poll from the Israel-based Panels Politics Institution shows Israelis favor Clinton, a carry-over from Israelis fondness for Bill Clinton.

We hear Trump and Cruz, and before Rubio, and now Kasich arguing about who is [00:15:02] the most pro-Israel; and yet Israelis prefer Hillary Clinton, why is that?

PINKAS: I think it's a recognition and familiarity thing. She is a household name in this country. I think everyone remembers her husband, Bill Clinton, when he was president.

LIEBERMANN: Hillary Clinton played up her support for Israel on CNN's "State of The Union" in February.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will defend and do everything I can to support Israel.

LIEBERMANN: The irony to all of this arguing about Israel, especially in front of an American-Jewish audience, is that overwhelmingly Israel is not the main issue for American-Jewish voters. The 2015 survey from American Jewish Congress found that Israel fell behind the economy, health care, and national security. Only 7-percent of American-Jewish voters said Israel was their deciding issue.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: And before the voting begins on Tuesday, all five presidential candidates will sit down with CNN. The big five interviews begin 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. You will see it only here, on CNN.

A short break here, and when we come back, latest on the only surviving suspect on the deadly attacks in Paris. What authorities found after Salah Abdeslam was captured. Also ahead, CNN's Nima Elbagir goes into the heart of the Belgium's fight against homegrown terrorism and finds the extremist texts at the core of ISIS recruiting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)]

VAUSE: Turkish authorities postponed a soccer match in Istanbul on Sunday because of security concerns one day after a suicide bombing in the city killed four people and wounded dozens. Turkey's Interior Minister says a Turkish citizen with ties to ISIS carried out Saturday's attack in a busy tourist area. Five others have been detained in connection to the blast.

Belgium's Foreign Minister says captured Paris terror suspects Salah Abdeslam was ready to restart something in Brussels. He added, authorities found lots of heavy weapons after Abdeslam's arrest on Friday. The 26-year-old was captured after a gun fight with Belgian authorities.

Well, for more on Abdeslam's capture, we are joined here in the studio CNN Law Enforcement Contributor Steven Moore, formerly of the FBI; and joining us by Skype is our Intelligence and Security Analyst Bob Baer, formally with the CIA.

Bob, first up to you, Abdeslam's lawyer says his client is cooperating, he's not insisting on his right to remain silent. How much information do you think investigators are likely to get from him and how legit will that be?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, John, legit I don't know, but the fact that they captured all these arms and he was talking about anticipating another attack tells me this network that hit Paris on 13 November is much bigger than originally suspected.

What surprises me in all of this is the meta data didn't really serve us. I mean, they should have rounded up these networks within days after the Paris attack. But these guys are very careful about their communications and it has taken four months. We don't even know how big this network is.

VAUSE: Actually, Steve, let's just speak on that point because there was [00:20:00] that interesting report in the "New York Times" today, which basically went step by step by step showing how ISIS has improved its ability to carry out these kind of attacks, especially when it comes to these cellphones, not sending e-mails and encryption. As a law enforcement official, a former FBI guy, how difficult is it if you don't get those clues which are traditionally left behind?

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Those are your bread and butter, and if you take them away we're going to have to relearn how to find terrorists, and there may not be a good way. If you take away the information we could get from the iPhones, you're blinding us.

VAUSE: Okay, now, authorities, Steven, they say that when they found Abdeslam, he was just a short walk from his family home there in Brussels. Authorities now say they have this crucial insight into all the local connections that helped him to basically hide for four months. Who would be part of that network? How extensive would it be? What are the chances they aren't just hiding one guy right now?

MOORE: I think they're hiding a bunch of people. It's a North African community. They are extensive; and the fact that he could, if he stayed in the country, stay in this community and not be ratted out, not be found, nothing, is very disturbing.

VAUSE: Bob, to you, were you surprised that Europe's most wanted man was hiding pretty much in plain sight?

BAER: I'm surprised, frankly, that his friends and relatives hid him. They're not members of the Islamic State, according to what I've heard so far. I mean, this man's a mass murder and they hid him from the police. That tells me how disaffected and unassimilated these communities are, both in Belgium and France, which should be very disturbing because there is a cult springing up there, which the French or Belgians don't have a good grasp of.

VAUSE: And, again, to you Steve, how many other Abdeslam's are actually still out there and what, eventually, do you think is the game plan for these guys, as far as ISIS is concerned? Are we basically in for another wave of these kind of attacks?

MOORE: Well, we don't know yet, but my money would be on yes we are because if you can hide Abdeslam in that neighborhood for four months, if that is indeed what happened, imagine what we're not seeing. I mean, that's somebody we know to look for; imagine the people we don't know yet that we should be looking for. This is horrible.

VAUSE: As a law enforcement officer, when you've taken down members of al Qaeda, other jihadists who you've been tracking, where does the vast majority of your information come from as an investigator?

MOORE: It's the stuff left behind. It's the pocket litter. It's the phone information. It's the computers.

VAUSE: What about when they're on the run though? Is it from within the community? Is it from the family? I mean, where does it come from?

MOORE: It's going to come from other people within the organizations. Families tend not to help a whole bunch. So it's going to -- you're going to have to find just corner pieces of the organization and work towards the center.

VAUSE: And Bob, to you, I guess we know there was at least one more jihadi; this one was actually in Turkey. This apparently was an ISIS attack. Turkey is now, basically, facing a war on three fronts. Do you think that maybe now it is time that Erdogan decides to try and make peace on one side? Let's renew negotiations with the Kurdistan's Workers Party?

BAER: That will never happen. What he's afraid of, Erdogan, John, is that there's going to be a great, you know, Kurdish nation, which would include Iraq, Turkey and Syria. That's his worst fear, that Turkey is broken up and he's going to fight the Kurds right to the end.

VAUSE: So he's going to be fighting this basically three-front war to the bitter end?

BAER: For a long time, and I just hope it doesn't destabilize Turkey. I mean, he has already gone after the press. He's already talked about anybody who talks -- that is supporting terrorism will good to jail, even verbally. He is cracking down and he's got reason to.

VAUSE: Okay; Bob, thank you. Bob Baer there, former CIA operative, joining us via Skype.

Steve Moore, former FBI agent, now our Law Enforcement Contributor, thank you for coming in. Appreciate your insights.

MOORE: Thank you.

VAUSE: Okay; Abdeslam's arrest is a big blow, but Belgium's fight against homegrown terrorism continues. One of the battles, combatting an epidemic of extremist literature. In the first part of CNN's exclusive series, "Frontline: Belgium," Nima Elbagir seeks out textbooks at the core of ISIS recruitment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPO)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A sunny day in the center of Brussels. For years' authorities here have been combatting an epidemic of extremist literature. We set out to find how easy it still is to access these texts.

Using an undercover camera, we visited a number of book shops, asking for books we knew espoused violent jihadi information. This man stammers [00:25:03] nervously before telling me he doesn't have them in but knows where to find them. Sir Jous (ps), a small district in the north of Brussels. We head to Sir Jous.

Another book shop. Another stammered answer. We're directed to the center of town, back to the first shop. It is starting to feel like we're being given the run around.

Hind Fraihi knows these book shops all too well.

HIND FRAIHI, RESEARCHER: So, 11 years ago, several stores, book stores in Brussels --

ELIBGAR: Ten years ago the resurgent visited many of them undercover, to expose the extremist literature openly for sale. After she published her findings she found herself at the whirlwind of recrimination, criticism and threats.

FRAIHI: The mayor, the police, the secret service, they all said it was too sensational; that I exaggerated. My conclusions were based on, well, just street talks. So they didn't take me serious and they didn't take the young people on streets seriously.

ELBAGIR: The buying and swapping of the books is itself part of the radicalization, seen as evidence of commitment, that the ideology is taking hold. Armed with the titles and publishing houses, we don't have to search much further. Through online bookshops in Belgium, extremist literature is delivered right to your front door.

We're not disclosing the names of these books but these are amongst the extremist texts being found in the homes and hideouts of suspected militants. They're, essentially, Jihadi 101s. The language in here is horrifying, justifying the targeting of Jews, the conscription of children and matter of fact statements that it is every Muslim's responsibility to bear arms. These are key ISIS tenents.

In many European countries these books are banned. In Belgium, at best, buying these books may attract unwanted attention from the authorities, but the books and their sale is completely legal. Videos like this have grown infamous here. Belgium jihadi' exhorting those still at home to join

them in Iraq and Syria. Estimates vary, but Belgian security sources calculate the average number of Belgians who have successfully left to join ISIS since the Paris attacks, at almost two dozen.

The dramatic capture of the so-called eighth Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, just a street away from his childhood home in Brussels after months on the run, a stark reminder of how hard it's been for Belgian authorities to stay one step ahead of the extremist networks, and the tide of extremist literature bolstering the networks is proving even tougher to quell. If anything it appears to be even easier to obtain.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And this week Nima will have more from inside Belgium's fight against homegrown terrorism, including a look at the fear of radicalized Belgian's coming home and losing more children to the lure of ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: Belgian security forces tell CNN through 2015 and average of 5 to 6 Belgians a month left to join ISIS and it's a pipeline that flows both ways. For the families and the communities, they return to, it only exacerbates the fear.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN, via translator: Every sign, every case is different. When you look at them separately they don't look like signs of radicalization. But when you look at the whole pictures you realize they are signs of radicalization, they are part of the recruit the process. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Watch Nima's investigation Tuesday on our series, Frontline Belgium. You will only see it here on CNN.

A short break; when we come back, the U.S. has deployed its largest war machine for joint military exercises with South Korea. We will have an exclusive look at the warship the U.S. hopes just might intimidate North Korea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:54] VAUSE: You're watching "CNN NEWSROOM" live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause with had headlines this hour: more than 50 years of tense estrangement are over with U.S. President, Barack Obama's arrival in Cuba. His two-day visit includes a meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro, a televised address to the Cuban people, and a meeting with anti-Castro dissidents.

Belgium's Foreign Minister says authorities found a lot of heavy weapons when they arrested Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam. He added that the 26-year-old was ready to start something in Brussels. Investigators are now trying to uncover the terror network that supported Abdeslam.

Russian investigators say flight recorders from the FlyDubai Jet that crashed Saturday have been significantly damaged. All 62 people on board died when the plane from the United Arab Emirates crashed as it made its second landing attempt at Rostov-on-Don in Southern Russia. There's no word yet on the cause of the accident.

There are new images which have been released by North Korea state media on Sunday showing leader Kim Jong-Un observing military drills. The country has been flexing its military muscle and making some nuclear threats because of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. Our Ivan Watson has an exclusive look onboard a U.S. warship taking part in the annual event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Somewhere in the sea east of Korea, F-18 fighter jets catapult into the sky, launching off the deck of U.S. Aircraft Carrier, the John C. Stennis.

This carrier's strike group is here as part of annual joint military exercises with South Korea. This takes place every year and it makes the North Korean government furious. They argue that this could be a cursor to a military invasion of the North.

Nonsense says the admiral in charge here, but he says the presence of the largest war machine in the U.S. military arsenal is designed to send a message to North Korea.

[00:35:02] RONALD BOXALL, REAR ADMIRAL, U.S. NAVY: The (inaudible) and the things you see from North Korea we hope that our actions here, as routine operations, help to deter any escalatory actions. WATSON: North Korea routinely shows off its own military muscle. Some experts argue you have to show strength when dealing with this regime.

DANIEL PINKSTON, KOREA EXPERT, TROY UNIVERSITY: If you show interest the domestic political system, in North Korean -- in an authoritarian state like North Korea, you're eliminated, and that's how it works in the international system. If you are weak they will bully you and take advantage of you. They only respect power.

WATSON: The problem is, this annual show of force, which includes simulated amphibious assaults carried out by U.S. and South Korean marines, hasn't stopped North Korea from testing nuclear bombs. In fact, Pyongyang recently fired salvos of ballistic missiles twice in just eight days, in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Just days ago Kim Jong-Un gave orders for scientist to develop the technology to launch a nuclear warhead on the tip of a ballistic missile. Even those who preach power concede Pyongyang is committed to expanding its nuclear arsenal.

PINKSTON: They put so much effort and they are very dedicated to having these capabilities. So if they aren't reliable today, they are going to keep working so they will be reliable in and that they can use them if they need to use them, tomorrow or next month or next year.

WATSON: And so the saber rattling continues. In addition to this strategy of containment and deterrent, experts say the U.S. and its allies are very likely training for other possible scenarios, such as how to take out North Korea's growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, if it looks like Pyongyang

is about to use them.

Ivan Watson, CNN, aboard the U.S. Aircraft Carrier John C. Stennis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Still to come here, a mother and father are on trial in Canada accused in their son's death from meningitis. We'll have the details on the case, and the debate it's raising over medical care for children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: In Canada the parents of a 19-month-old boy who died from bacterial meningitis and a lung infection, are on trial. Prosecutors say Ezekiel Stefan's parents repeatedly refused to take him to a doctor after he became sick in February 2012, choosing, instead, to give him home remedies. Two weeks later the toddler stopped breathing, was rushed to hospital where he soon died.

David and Colette Stefan are charged with failing to provide their son with the necessities of life. The case comes at a time when anti- vaccine sentiment is rising. Ezekiel was not vaccinated. Whether or not that's got much to do with this case, we'll find out right now.

Criminal defense attorney, Darren Kavinoky joins me with more. Okay, so let's look at charges here because --

DARREN KAVINOKY, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sure.

VAUSE: -- the authorities, prosecutors, they're not saying the parents actually killed the kid. They make clear the little boy was loved. He was cherished. What they're say is they are guilty of a lesser crime.

KAVINOKY: Yes, the failure to provide the necessaries of life is essentially the failure to provide reasonable medical care to a child and of course this really invites the discussion about the conflict between religious beliefs and religious freedoms versus your obligations when you are caretaking somebody else; but this a 19- month-old child who doesn't have a voice of his own when it comes to his own medical care.

VAUSE: Yes.

KAVINOKY: And so the nature of the charge is a much lesser charge than [00:40:04] murder; still subjects the parents up to five years each in prison though. So this is significant on many levels.

VAUSE: And they have three other kids. They could lose custody of their children, if they're found guilty.

KAVINOKY: Right. Right, and there are temporary orders that are requiring those other kids to be examined regularly by doctors.

VAUSE: Okay; the little boy was sick for a couple of weeks. The parents tried these natural remedies. They didn't have much impact. The legal question here, I guess, that hopefully you can work out for us, when the parents -- when are the parents required to seek out conventional treatment for a sick kid? After all, they did try to get the kid to a hospital. They tried to rush him to hospital but it was too late.

KAVINOKY: Right.

VAUSE: So where is the line here? When should they have acted and when do they become guilty for not acting fast enough?

KAVINOKY: Right; well, ultimately it turns on questions of reasonableness. Here we need to look at laws that are going to apply in different jurisdictions. There is definitely a trend towards providing a legal voice for these kids, and most states now have a law that does require parents to act reasonably in order to seek out that medical care, even if it does conflict with their personal religious beliefs.

VAUSE: Okay; we're talking about reasonable here because part of the case, part of the testimony which has been put forward in the court, a nurse and the herbalist, --

KAVINOKY: Yes.

VAUSE: -- said get this child to a doctor now, and they didn't. They didn't do that straight away.

KAVINOKY: Right.

VAUSE: How crucial is all that in all this?

KAVINOKY: That is exactly the key piece of evidence in this case because if you listen to what the parents have to say, it's that the child took an unexpected turn for the worse; that he was certainly ill and they were doing things that were reasonable to take care of him and all of a sudden things got bad quickly. What these witnesses are saying is no, there were explicit warnings that this is a child that needs medical intervention. Get the child to a doctor and they failed to do so. Instead they sought out more herbs and --

VAUSE: Home remedies and --

KAVINOKY: -- home remedies, exactly.

VAUSE: Okay, so this --

KAVINOKY: And, sadly, this was a death that could have been (inaudible) by antibiotics.

VAUSE: Right.

KAVINOKY: And in research this story, and this issue, I see that there are dozens of deaths every year from kids that are similarly situated. It is an enormous issue.

VAUSE: Okay; and it also gets into the issue of vaccination too.

KAVINOKY: Yes.

VAUSE: That's an emotive one as well. It is not really part of this but some people have brought it into this. Could (inaudible) vaccinations? There's a lot of parents around the world, here in Los Angeles and everywhere else, they don't want to get their kids vaccinated.

KAVINOKY: There's a movement that way, yes.

VAUSE: And that could be a fatal decision, not just for your own child but for someone else's child.

KAVINOKY: Right.

VAUSE: Does this, sort of, reasonableness of care, necessities of life, come into play here?

KAVINOKY: It absolutely does. and what we're really talking about, if we with put it under a microscope, is that we all have the right to make personal decisions. We have these freedoms to decide for ourselves. It's where those decisions are in conflict with the rights of other people that we really get into problems, or it invites problems. Here, while the parents may have been making personal choices based on religious views or otherwise --

VAISE: Personal preference.

KAVINOKY: Exactly. It's where it starts to impact the health and well-being of a child, then we really have an issue. And, sadly, even though authorities could come in and try and seek even temporary guardianship, often times it is only after it is too late that that is realized.

VAUSE: It's such a sad story. Darren, thank you for talking us through it.

KAVINOKY: Of course.

VAUSE: Appreciate it; thank you. And, thank you for watching "CNN NEWSROOM," live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause; "World Sport" is up next and then I'll be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You're watching CNN.

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