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Another Potential Terror Suspect Investigated by Police After Belgian Attacks; Bernie Sanders Wins Big in Western States; U.S. Corporations Threatening Action Against GA and NC After Bills Seen as Discriminatory Against LGBT; Zimbabwe Among Top Tobacco Producers in the World. Aired 2-2:30a ET
Aired March 27, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Belgium reflects on a devastating week as new leads are investigated and new terror victims are identified.
Alaska and Wyoming's "feel the Bern" as Sanders with the victory in a Democratic caucuses in those states, we'll tell you how those went, look in the wider U.S. presidential picture.
And southern discomforts for supporters that LGBT rights, we'll tell you why big businesses are threatening boycott of certain U.S. state.
It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, thank you for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.
As the city of Brussels tries to find its way forward. Police make a new breakthrough in their investigation. Authorities have charge the man they are simply calling "fatal fee", with terrorist murderer among other counts, though they won't say yet what part it may have allegedly had in the bombings.
The search continues for other suspects that authorities struggle to unravel the complex web that orchestrated Tuesday's attacks. Officials announce Saturday that the widely reported death toll of 31 had been counting the three attackers, so they revived the number of victims to 28.
A young American couple Justin and Stephanie Shults had -- has been confirmed among those killed in the attacks, when the news reached Justin's family they could hardly believed it. Schults' uncle described his reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALE BRENAM, BRUSSELS VICTIM'S UNCLE: When I hear their voices it's -- it's just terribly a part, I start crying and then I start I have been seizures. And then when I found the news out that, you know, that I found I mean he was passed away, I just totally blank out, I start to cry and (inaudible). (END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The couple was from Tennessee, but they have been living in Belgium since 2014.
Two U.S. parents whose son survived the attacks were now in Brussels at his bed side. The 20-year-old Mormon missionary is in the hospital with second degree burned and shrapnel wound to his legs.
Saima Molson talked with his parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAIMA MOLSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Proud parents show me a photo of their family.
AMBER EMPEY, JOSEPH'S EMPEY MOTHER: Yeah.
MOLSON: He is for release and worried. Their eldest Joseph Empey was at the airport check-in exactly where the bomb went off.
A. EMPEY: He is the oldest to five kids it certain. He was then, he's just been no (inaudible) he was born, you know, from the time was little pokies just setup then taking care of all the mess, you know, he's responsible and kind, but loving and.
MOLSON: Joseph called his parents from hospital, his voice was calm and then he send them these photos.
A. EMPEY: It was devastating.
MOLSON: He's being treated for second degree burns to his hands, face and head with surgery to shrapnel wounds on his legs.
A. EMPEY: It won't drag (ph). Yeah.
MOLSON: And when you first saw him?
COURT EMPEY, JOSEPH EMPEY'S FATHER: His eyes are beautiful. I mean just -- he can see through all the burns and all his injuries that kill his thing, so and hurt in there and if we only can times we're (inaudible) and heal on the outside and -- I'm sure with his emotions as well.
A. EMPEY: Eyes and it's smiling, he's got the damages just all around the face, he know but he's got his pretty blue eyes and just thankful and excited to see us.
MOLSON: Joseph was just a few miles away from the end of his two-year missionary tour to Europe when the bombing happened. He described the scene to his parents.
C. EMPEY: It was horrifying what he went through, he remembers the blast and until now. And he was very scared and hiding and then he went into helping those around him looking for his three missionary colleagues to help them. MOLSON: (Inaudible) what they sort of the terrorist?
C. EMPEY: I don't understand it, I just know that there so much more good and love in the world that it always win.
MOLSON: Joseph has more surgery and treatment to go through, his family can't take him home yet where his brothers and sisters are anxiously waiting to see him again.
Saima Molson, CNN, Brussels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Too very relieved parents right there, to find out how you can help the victims of the Brussels attacks, you can go to our website, cnn.com/impact. Our team has gathered some ways to offer support.
[02:05:07] We turn now to Northern Iraq, where thousands of families have fled their town as the government gets ready to push ISIS out of more villages. Officials say that families are being given humanitarian assistance.
ISIS had been loosing territory in Iraq and the country's military says, it's making progress south of the key city of Mosul which the militant groups still holds.
Nigeria, is sending some parents to Cameroon to try to identify two female suicide bombers. Cameroon state news as the girls plan to attack the village there, but there's the good part, vigilantes stopped them on Friday.
One girl claim she was among the 270 school girls kidnapped by Islamic terror group Boko Haram two years ago.
We turn now to the presidential race. In the U.S., Democratic voters had spoken across two states of the U.S. race for the White House and Bernie Sanders has won big.
The key states of Washington, he pulled in 72 percent of the votes, there are 101 delegates at stake there. In Alaska the senator picked up 80 percent of the delegates, but in the national delegate counts, Sanders is still way behind his rival Hillary Clinton, she has more than 1,700 delegates to his 988.
High voter turn out play the key role in Sanders victory but the outcome of Saturday's caucuses look not a sure bet. Here's a look at how the results came in.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The stakes are very high for Senator Bernie Sanders in his struggle to catch up with Hillary Clinton in the delegate race, a total of 142 delegates on the line.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: So what is Bernie Sanders really need to do, we'll take a few wins 80-20 in all three of these states. Will then he cuts a decent chuck into her lead then.
TAPPER: It's all about margins Kate Bolduan.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Margins matter that's the line of the day and the night.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The room was actually couldn't enough state walls put up basically, they push those out and have to open up the room, because just so many people streamed in.
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's reverse up to democracy and actually Jake, they are literary hand counting them.
TAPPER: CNN projecting that Independent the Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will be the victor in the contest in Alaska.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: One thing that's happening here is that, because Hillary Clinton is starting to focus a little bit more on the general, he's no longer in the business so much of trying to define Bernie Sanders in some sort of negative light. That allows Bernie Sanders to still really define himself.
BERNIE SANDERS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All righty all ready for a news alert. We just won the State of Washington.
We are making significant inroads in Secretary Clinton's lead.
If your support coming here in Wisconsin, we have a path towards victory.
BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: June 3rd, that's when Barack Obama wrapped up enough delegates in 2008 and Hillary stayed in go back a very point, we have March 26th. There's a long way to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: So we have one more state to count to the votes -- that's will be in Hawaii where it still this 8:00 p.m. there, so we'll you the outcome when we get those numbers.
The next Republican contest is that for April 5th with the primary votes in Wisconsin and the candidates will feel questions in a CNN Town Hall setting three days from now. You can catch up live at 1:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, London time.
U.S. corporations are threatening action against the states of Georgia and North Carolina, following a series of bill, seen as discriminatory against the gay and transgender communities.
Here's CNN Nick Valencia.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of this people are upset, they are angry, they have been left out of the Democratic process. NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDNET: This week, outside of the governor's mansion in North Carolina, protests and arrests. The demonstrators are opponents to a newly passed state law that they say is devastating to the civil liberties of transgender people.
The law strengths down a recently passed ordinance in Charlotte, it would have protect the trans people and allow them to select the restroom of their choice, based on how they identify.
PHIL BERGER, NORTH CAROLINA STATE SENATOR: The adoption of the ordinance by the city council of Charlotte was just crazy.
VALENCIA: Republican lawmakers like Senate Pro-Tem (ph) Phil Berger were furious at the legislation.
BERGER: Allows grown man to share bathrooms and locker facilities with girls and women.
VALENCIA: In a special session, solely to consider the bill, Republican law makers passed the Public Facilities Privacy and Security's Act. It means transgender people in the State of North Carolina must use a restroom related to the gender on their birth certificate.
[02:10:00] North Carolina's bill signed into law Wednesday is the latest in a string of states attempting to pass similar anti-LGBT legislation.
MIKE CRANE, GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: In the courtrooms you're seeing folks get their religious beliefs persecuted against.
VALENCIA: In Georgia, the controversial bill passed by the State House and Senate is called the Free Exercise Protection Act. One of the several religious liberty bills that have surface across the country.
Governor Nathan Deal had until May to sign it into law. Senator Mike Crane is one of the bills most addendum supporters.
It's this legislation a direct results of what the Supreme Court did last year and legalizing same-sex marriage or gay marriage.
CRANE: I think it's a result of many things but that was just another catalyst, I believed.
VALENCIA: But many blue chip businesses around the nation say there will be major financial consequences to Republican efforts in Georgia and North Carolina.
Disney and Marvel Studios have threatened to abandon production in Georgia, if the governor signs the bill into law. The NFL says it could have an impact on whether Atlanta is selected as the host of the 2019 Super Bowl. And in North Carolina, the NBA says, because of the new law, it may pull the All-Star Game from Charlotte next year.
Six major conventions have considered relocating if the governor signs the bill into law, Atlanta's Convention and Visitors Bureau said the decision could cause the state up to $6 billion, and we should mention that the parent company of CNN, Turner has joined the laundry list of big corporations to speak out against the legislation.
Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: It is Easter Sunday in parts of the world celebrating the day Christians believed Jesus rose from the dead. Pope Francis will celebrate Easter with a mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in the coming hours. Italy is heightening security there after the deadly bombings in Brussels.
In Jerusalem, hundreds of Christians are attending mass at the church where it is said, Jesus was in tomb.
Some big news for the horse racing fans among new California Chrome was now Americas highest earning race horse after winning the Dubai World Cup and the $6 million in prize money. The odds were in favor of the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner who plays second in last years Dubai Cup.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, Marketplace Africa is next.
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[02:15:13] ZAIN ASHER, CNN MARKETPLACE AFRICA: Welcome to Marketplace Africa. We cover the biggest economic trends impacting the continent.
This week, we're focused on Zimbabwe's tobacco industry. The country's actually among a top in producers in the world, and let me show you some of the production at numbers for you here at this magic screen.
The Food and Agriculture Organization assess global tobacco production in 2013, and actually China lead the way with 3 million tons of tobacco produced that year, it's actually three times the amount produced in Brazil, which came in second. Zimbabwe on the other hand is low got further down the list they came in sixth but about 150,000 tons of tobacco produced in 2013.
Now for numbers to share with you here production in Zimbabwe is on the rise and one reason is because of the growing number of tobacco farmers. From 2009 to 2014 the number of farmers in the country actually more than doubles to 87,000 farmers.
The gross in a local market has created a very competitive environment and now tobacco producers in Zimbabwe are getting innovative so they don't get smoke out.
Here's our Eleni Giokos with more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Wow this really hot, this is about 60 degrees Celsius?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, your drag now.
GIOKOS: Wow.
It's not just the heat that is unbearable in needs tobacco curing rooms, but also the sharp smell of nicotine. With tobacco growers sourcing leaves in hot rooms has become a way of life and the means to make money.
So how many leaves do we have here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 84,600 leaves.
GIOKOS: Tobacco is the life blood of the Zimbabwean economy, it's the biggest foreign exchange earner in the country more than 90 percent of tobacco produced in the country is destined for the export market. That makes Zimbabwe the world's sixth largest tobacco producer.
ADAM MOLAI, SAVANNA TOBACCO PRESIDENT: For me I will say Zimbabwe is the land of opportunity.
GIOKOS: Adam Molai who is married to President Robert Mugabe's niece and is the chairman of Savanna Tobacco, says the industry's full potential is yet to be realize.
MOLAI: When we got in, everybody was so comfortable with Zimbabwe producing tobacco with producing 200 million cages of tobacco and everybody was so excited. But for me I said, there's the opportunity, is there not enough opportunities to beneficiaries, value added, create jobs, create a value multiply in almost 10 times.
GIOKOS: Now, Savanna has plants to capitalize on locally source tobacco.
NICK HALES, SAVANNA TOBACCO CEO: It's one of the major advantages we have, because our base is there in Zimbabwe, one of the finest (inaudible) in the world, we have unlimited access to some of the best tobacco in the world.
GIOKOS: Are you guys should beat taking big brands on?
HALES: Absolutely. I'll be worried if I was in, I'll be very worried.
GIOKOS: And the perfect mix he says is quality price and availability.
HALES: Excellent tobacco, certain moisture.
GIOKOS: Over 12 million cigarettes are produced over a 24 hour cycles yet at the Savanna plant in Harare. That's around 4 billion cigarettes every single year.
And as consumers becoming increasingly aware of the health hazards of smoking, Savanna is still banking on growth. HALES: It was a health issue, there's no doubt, cigarettes there's no secret it is bad for your health. The people had choose to smoke, we provide product for them, I like to light and smoke my brand.
GIOKOS: Many health officials would say that making cigarettes more affordable or accessible is a mistake, but Savanna has created a two cigarette pack that sells for $0.10 targeting low income customers.
The industry has change dramatically over the last two decades. Zimbabwe's agriculture industry has struggled since the land redistribution policy went into effect in the early 2000s. Teasing land obtained by white farmers during colonial rule and redistributing it among is black, many of whom had little experience running large farms while they are about 88,000 registered tobacco growers are to struggle for many.
JOHN ROBERSTON, ECONOMIST: The quality is what for surprise and the quality is are new being achieve by very few farmers. Most of them are delivering the poor degraded tobacco if your don't any bring two hectares but you don't have enough to work was to produce all the various grains at (inaudible) and your going to get badly paid.
GIOKOS: From the fields to the production line, and then the roads, there are many obstacles for farmers and manufacturers, but ideal time at conditions for producing high quality tobacco exist in Zimbabwe providing a green field of opportunities for growers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Really interesting piece there, and Eleni Giokos happens to be with me here in the studio.
[02:20:04] So, Eleni in Zimbabwe when you think about how high the unemployment rate is and the gap between the rich and poor. Do people really have enough disposable income to afford cigarettes?
GIOKOS: Well this is the question right, you know, it's very difficult for them to buy a pack of cigarettes and you'll find just as we saw in my piece that company's like Savanna are actually coming up with new products to create a two cigarette pack and to try get, you know, people that can't afford in tight pocket to bring up, you know, $0.10 and then you've got to your two sticks right?
But over and above that what's interesting is the advertising scenarios there is that, your free to advertise on television, on radio, billboards, something we haven't seen in many countries ...
ASHER: Not seen in other parts of the world?
GIOKOS: Absolutely, and even (inaudible) so that's it goes is very strict smoking rules even in public places.
ASHER: So they are desperate that happens about local market.
GIOKOS: Yeah. ASHER: I do want to ask you of having seen your piece, you said other time in this tobacco curing room, what was the impression you got of them?
GIOKOS: Well, first we run to the manufacturing plant, so you see this high technology of, you know, making cigarettes so fast, it's incredible to see how the cigarettes are cut from the making of the filter and so forth. And to the extend that even we decided that I would double into the smoking site of things and even take a cigarette ...
(CROSSTALK)
GIOKOS: Cigarette hot off. The manufacturing place is just very interesting -- a very interesting experience, very smooth, I mean I'm no smoking myself, but anyway to that. And then went to the thumbs (ph) and so what happened on the ground.
Let me tell you, the curing process taking tobaccos from the plant and putting it into the 60 degrees Celsius rooms, just make a team that oozes art for those leaves the smell, it, you know, it was absolutely petrifying to see this. And it completely put me all smoking and it gave me a complete key different view on the entire process, it's very industrial, it is very dirty and it is very tough.
ASHER: And, you know, when people smoke they rarely think about ...
GIOKOS: Yeah.
ASHER: ... the tobacco making process but eye opening experience to say but Eleni Giokos, thank you so much. Have a great she is back to South Africa.
OK, time for quick break, and when we come back, we're going to see the AstraZeneca heads of the Middle East and Africa. Don't go away.
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ASHER: Welcome back everybody.
AstraZeneca is the global pharmaceutical company based in London. Last year they generated nearly $25 billion in revenue. Tarek Rabah is AstraZeneca vice president for the Middle East and Africa. I recently sat down with him, talked about the challenges of this judicial (ph) continent and in fact increase the company's footprint in Northern Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAREK RABAH, ASTRAZENECA VICE PRESIDENT: So, we actually do have already a manufacturing facility in Egypt. We are also partnering in Nigeria to build a local manufacturing facility.
This cannot be primarily to service the Nigerian market.
ASHER: OK. RABAH: And now the most important is to make sure that it derives medicines available for the patients that actually need them, and that's what we're trying to do -- we're trying to do in Nigeria.
ASHER: This counterfeiting -- counterfeiting of drugs, does that worry you at all?
RABAH: It is of course an issue that avoids us and we work very closely with the authorities to make sure that only high quality medicine available and, you know, any kind of this of counterfeit medicine is counter acted and the country's where we act on.
ASHER: Given a lot of a drugs in Africa are imported, how much of a challenge is distributing the drugs across the continent especially in areas that are hard to reach?
[02:25:04] RABAH: So we work with a very reputable partners in terms of agents and distributors to make sure that our drugs are widely distributed and available to the patients that actually need them. I'm going to give you an example of what we're doing with Healthy Heart Africa.
So Healthy Heart Africa is an important program that tackles a non- communicable disease specifically cardiovascular and specifically hypertension. This actually one of the most preventive diseases in Africa and not treating hypertension adequately can actually have died at consequences including death for the patients.
So we've developed a program in which a base on base on three elements, one we want to raise awareness and education to the patients so that they know that this is a risk factor, to let hypertension needs to be measure that they need to be just clean.
The second thing is educating physicians and healthcare workers on the importance of hypertension, and on how to treat hypertension as well, and the third is to make sure that you have a sustainable supply chain, so you have availability of these drugs across a big stay as possible. And make it available for the patients and of course make this available at an extreme accessible price.
So we're discounting to that can reach 90 percent of the not the market's price for hypertension products.
ASHER: But aside from hypertension, that's also been arise in other non-communicable diseases in Africa like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, what other preventive programs are your offering for those illnesses?
RABAH: About 35 percent of death is actually attributed to non- communicable disease, such as cardiovascular diseases and other diseases. And probably by 2030 we're going to have announce 50 percent of death attributed to these kinds of non-communicable diseases.
So the innovation Healthy Heart Africa is that you're an integrating a treatment of a non-communicable disease and to an existing platform for communicable diseases, so you are leveraging whatever exist right now, to actually treats an additional disease and specifically none a -- non-communicable disease.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: And AstraZeneca recently announced that they goal as they increase sales Africa by almost 10 percent a year.
It's time to get to our Facebook page and our website, keep with all of our stories and share your thoughts.
I'm Zain Asher, thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next week in the marketplace.
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[02:30:15] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is CNN News Now.
