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Belgian Police Make Major Arrest; John Kerry Visits Afghanistan; Secular Bloggist Murdered in Bangladesh; Sanders and Clinton Battle for Wyoming; The GOP Race for the White House; Restoring Palmyra; SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket on Ocean Platform. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired April 09, 2016 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: Belgian police make a major arrest, a man they think may be third bomber in last month's Brussels airport attack. From inside the fragile Mosul Dam crews work to keep it from collapsing and submerging Iraq's second largest city.
Plus, SpaceX finally gets a hole in one. The aerospace company makes a historic rocket landing after sending some very important cargo to the International Space Station. I love space stories, can't wait to share that with you.
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HOWELL: Live from CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
A very good day to you. We begin this hour with the dramatic developments from the investigation into the Paris and Brussels terror attacks.
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HOWELL: For months now, police have searched for Mohammed Abrini, the man who authorities believe drove the Paris attacks.
Now he is finally in custody following more raids in Brussels. Investigators are trying to determine if Abrini is also the mysterious man in the hat you see here, the third Brussels airport bomber seen in surveillance video. They also netted if Friday's raids in Brussels, at least two other terrorist suspects, including a man suspected of being involved in the second Brussels attack at a metro station. These arrests could bring investigates more much needed intelligence.
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HOWELL: Kelly Morgan is live in Brussels this hour following this investigation. Kelly, what more do we know about these arrests and how important they could be for investigators?
KELLY MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, George. This Abrini is a huge fish. He is one of the most wanted men in Europe at the moment. And when he was arrested yesterday, that dramatic footage he was walking around if plain sight. He was arrested by police officers wearing plain clothing and taken into custody. Now, he has been in custody overnight.
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MORGAN: We assume that police will be questioning him and wanting to know what more he knows about the Brussels attacks and also the Paris attacks. So let me just spell out the links that this man has to both of those. The Paris attacks, we know there is CCTV footage showing him with fellow captured terrorist - Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam. They were caught on CCTV footage at a petrol station en route to Paris just days before those November attacks. That's the Paris link with Abrini.
In terms of Brussels, prosecutors are saying that his DNA was found in the (Scarbek) apartment, basically the bomb-making factory that was used by the Brussels attackers. So he is a huge fish for authorities to have caught.
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MORGAN: What they are still trying to establish is what his role was on March 22nd. Let's take a listen to what prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt had to say about that.
ERIC VAN DER SYPT, SPOKESMAN, BELGIAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE: At the moment the investigators are verifying whether Abrini Mohamed can be positively identified as being the third person present during the attacks in Brussels National Airport fountain, the so-called man with the hat. The investigation continues currently in the interest of the investigation, no further details can be given.
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MORGAN: So the other main suspect that was arrested yesterday is a man by the name of Osama Krayem, also known as Nail Al Hamed. Now he is the man that prosecutors believe was with metro bomber, Khalid El Brakoui at the metro station bombing. Now he is significant in that he also has connections to Saleh Abdeslam. We know he traveled from Syria into Europe with another man. They arrived in Germany and were picked up outside a refugee camp in Germany by Salah Abdeslam and then driven back to Belgium.
So another big fish and what this is all doing is really consolidating those links between the Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks and really helping police try and dismantle this terror web that clearly has tentacles across Europe, George.
HOWELL: Kelly Morgan live in Brussels. Kelly, thank you so much and we will stay in touch with you as investigators continue their work.
The online media wing of ISIS claims that the terror group has released hundreds of factory workers in Syria.
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HOWELL: They were taken hostage when ISIS captured a sprawling cement factory north of Damascus on Wednesday.
ISIS says it released 300 workers because they are Muslims and not loyal to the Syrian regime. At least 20 others are still being held though. And according to ISIS, four people have been executed because they belong to a minority Shiite sect.
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HOWELL: The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Friday all to support Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi. He is trying to reform government corruption there and hitting road blocks.
There is also a growing concern that ISIS will seize on any political gridlock and then become stronger. Mr. Kerry says current efforts against ISIS are working and that they don't want to lose any momentum.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We urge everybody to work together. We urge everybody to put the interests of Iraq writ large ahead of personal interest or sectarian interest and to find this in this moment of crisis a way to be able to join together to come out strong.
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HOWELL: Meanwhile, Iraq even though ISIS controls the Mosul Dam, that big structure could threaten the lives of more than a million people in that country. Our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, takes us inside the dam to see why so many people are at risk.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The advance on Mosul itself has been put on something of a pause with the Iraqi Army holding defensive positions until re-enforcements arrive. But the threat posed by ISIS is not the only one Mosul or the country potentially faces.
It has been described by some as the most dangerous dam in the world. The Mosul Dam, the largest in Iraq, which produces hydroelectricity is built on a foundation of soft gypsum rock, making an erosion a constant challenge. We enter the under belly of the dam to see how it is even still standing.
Completed in the mid-1980s, what keeps it all intact is a process that needs to happen daily. Workers are drilling bore holes. This one will go down 150 meters or around 500 feet. Drilling that particular distance takes about a week and then the machines go up and down along the length of the dam breaking up, and then repouring cement to try to ensure the stability of the dam's foundation. It's a process called grouting. When ISIS briefly took over the Dam in
2014, this was halted for 45 days. Intense around the clock routing reversed those weaknesses. The U.S. issued recently a stark warning describing the collapse as "serious and unprecedented" a catastrophic event that would see Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and under ISIS control entirely submerged with flooding as far downstream as Baghdad.
That warning said the lives of up to 1.5 million Iraqis would will be at risk. But the Dam's manager Riyad al-Naemi insists that disaster is not imminent.
RIYAD AL-NAEMI, MOSUL DAM MANAGER: (As translated) If the dam were to collapse when the water level is at 330 meters above sea water, then, yes, Mosul would be flooded. But with current levels there would be minimal damage.
DAMON: The seepage is one of the reasons why he says the U.S. is so concerned. But he claims his team has determined that it is not impacting the dam's foundation. Still, last year, the U.S. installed an early warning system they monitor regularly. And there is an urgent need for repairs.
Millions of Iraqis are directly reliant on the Mosul Dam in one way or another. But years of neglect by the Iraqi government due to politics, bureaucracy and corruption are already being felt.
Couple that with security concerns that for years kept international companies from taking up the job. An Italian company has just been contracted to repair and refurbish the dam but work is yet to begin.
And in Iraq, where nothing is ever entirely predictable , it is always the best to plan for the worst.
Of course the hope is that worst case scenario is not going to materialize and the U.S. does not know exactly when the dam may or may not collapse. They say it could be a week, a month, it could even be years. But at this stage it's not a risk that the country can afford to take.
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HOWELL: Arwa Damon reporting there for us.
And Iraq's Prime Minister has said that if the dam does burst, the government would assist people forced to leave their homes, a story we will continue follow, of course.
And Al Qaeda linked affiliate in Bangladesh is claiming responsible for the machete killing of a secular blogger in the capital Dhakar this week, that is according to a group that monitors jihadists.
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HOWELL: The militants called the attack vengeance because they say Nazeem Udin Samad had in their words abused god and Islam.
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HOWELL: Following this story, our senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong this hour. Ivan, it's good to have you. So what more do we have about the investigation now into these claims?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just spoke with police in Dhaka about an hour ago. They say they have not yet to make any arrests in the murder of Nazeem Udin Samad on Wednesday. They also say that they're investigating the authenticity of this claim from Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, that they carried out the murder on Wednesday night.
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WATSON: Now, if you look at the document, itself, of the pro ported group, and we cannot independently confirm whether or not the claim is, fact, real. The group says that it carried out the slaughter of this writer in revenge for his perceived insults against the prophet Mohammed and Islam. And it cited three of his Facebook posts dating back from 2013 and 2015.
The group went on to basically say that it would continue to target atheists who dared to publicly question Al Qaeda's strict interpretation of Islam. And it went one step further, George, saying that it would also target people who stop the spread of Islamic Sharia Law and named that these potential targets could include engineers, doctors, judges and lawyers. George.
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HOWELL: Protests, obviously, happening as people demand protection for free speech. So Ivan, you know what can be done? What could people do to make sure that they are protected?
WATSON: Well, let's also keep this in context. There have been some small protests, but they've been a couple of dozen people perhaps about a hundred supporters of this slain writer, Nazeem Udin Samad again chopped down with machetes on Wednesday night on his way home from university classes.
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WATSON: The sixth atheist blogger or publisher of atheist texts to have been killed in some 14 months.
The Bangladesh authorities insist that they are investigating and that they will extend protection to anybody that will expect it. I spoke with a blogger whose name was published on a list, a hit list of 84 people more than a year ago. And that man said that he lives in fear now, that dozens of his colleagues have simply fled the country.
In his case, he described some of the cases he's - the measures he's taken. He bought a new house. He basically moved. He bought a new car. He changed his phone number. He takes alternate routes to and from work.
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WATSON: And now he no longer publishes anything on social media. He meets in private with fellow atheist colleagues and they share plans and measures to try to protect their lives. He feels like atheists basically are under a campaign of assassination. And he goes one step further saying that he cannot trust the police for safety because the same police offering to extend protection have been prosecuting some of these writers in the past for allegedly committing crimes of blasphemy, criticizing religion in Bangladesh. George.
HOWELL: Wow, Ivan you explain those steps that he's taking, extreme measure, really, the danger there of free speech. Ivan Watson, live for us in Hong Kong. Ivan, thank you and we'll stay in touch with you.
We move on now to North Korea. State media there reporting what they call a successful weapons test.
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HOWELL: Leader Kim Jong-un un is said to have overseen a ground test of a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile. Tension, though, on the Korean peninsula are high ever since Pyongyang tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bam back if January. It says that it has miniaturized a nuclear warhead.
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HOWELL: It is 4:14 on the U.S. East Coast, this is CNN NEWSROOM and still ahead this hour.
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HOWELL: After a week of bickering, it looks now like the U.S. Democratic candidates are playing nice again. A cool down in the war of words between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders coming up.
Plus the marijuana business is booming in Argentina even though shops are not allowed to sell the actual plan. We will explain as NEWSROOM rolls on.
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HOWELL: America's Choice, 2016. The race for the White House and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in the coming day if Wyoming.
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HOWELL: Democratic caucuses, 14 delegates and four super delegates are up for grabs there. Clinton leads the overall count with an estimated 1780 delegates. Bernie Sanders has 1099 delegates. Be sure to tune in to CNN all day on Saturday for the very latest in the Wyoming democratic caucuses only here on CNN.
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HOWELL: A much bigger prize on the Democratic horizon. It is the state of New York. That crucial primary will be held on April 19th. CNN, Suzanne Malveaux has the very latest for us.
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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton is not letting go of charges from Bernie Sanders that she is not qualified to be President.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You may have heard Senator Sanders say I'm unqualified to be President. Well, seriously, seriously, I've been called a lot of things over the years, but unqualified has not been one of them. He doesn't really believe that. This is all pretty silly.
MALVEAUX: The rebuke from the Democratic front runner comes after Sanders backs off his earlier criticism of Clinton's qualifications.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Does she have the experience, obviously she does. She was Secretary of State, a U.S. Senator. I thought an outstanding First Lady in many respects, breaking the mold.
MALVEAUX: Clinton returning the favor when asked if Sanders is qualified.
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CLINTON: As I said, I would take him over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz any day.
MALVEAUX: Sanders, though, is insisting that Clinton's judgment is still fair game.
SANDERS: We all make mistakes, but I regret less than she does, because I had the courage to vote the right way, even when it was not necessarily popular.
MALVEAUX: A sign of the tough battle under way in New York. Ahead of next Thursday's CNN debate in Brooklyn and the state's April 19th primary. Both sides are playing up their empire state's connections.
HILTON: I am really going to try to win the New York primary. Because I love New York.
MALVEAUX: While the Brooklyn born Sanders paid a visit to his childhood home.
SANDERS: I spent the first 18 years of my life in apartment 2c right here. MALVEAUX: Thursday's, Bill Clinton's prior exchange with Black Lives
Matter protesters in Philadelphia.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You are defending the people who killed (inaudible) in the same manner. Tell the truth.
MALVEAUX: The former president, trying to move beyond his comments during a campaign stop in Erie, Pennsylvania.
CLINTON: I did something yesterday in Philadelphia. I almost want to apologize for but I want to use it as an example of the danger threatening our country. We all have different experiences. We cannot learn anything unless we listen.
MALVEAUX: Back in New York, where Sanders hopes to momentum after a string of recent victories. His campaign says it is making plans for an open convention.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are beginning to work on that right now. In fact in all likelihood there will be an open convention.
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HOWELL: That was CNN's Suzanne Malveaux reporting for us. New York will be the spotlight for next week's CNN Democratic Presidential debate. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off live from Brooklyn, next Thursday, April 14th. 9:00 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast, only here on CNN.
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HOWELL: Now to the Republican side of things, Donald Trump believes he has a twitter problem. That is according to Ben Carson. The former presidential candidate has served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign. Carson says Trump thinks that his use of social media could hurt his campaign.
The Republican front runner has been criticized for repeatedly using twitter to viciously attack his rivals.
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HOWELL: The Republicans are ramping up their fight to secure the number of delegates needed to win their party's nomination. Saturday, Colorado selects its Republican delegates and in less than two weeks, there's that all-important New York primary.
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HOWELL: Donald Trump leads with 746 delegates followed by Ted Cruz, 525 delegates, John Kasich with 145. And our Jim Acosta the one to report on it all.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Inside Trump world it's a new day in the GOP delegate battle and Donald Trump's new general in charge of racking up the number needed to clinch the nomination is predicting victory.
PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CONVENTION MANAGER: It'll be apparent to the world that Trump is over the 1237 number and at that point in time when it is apparent, everything is going to come together.
ACOSTA: Trump's Convention Manager, Paul Manafort told CNN's Chris Cuomo he is now revamping the GOP front runners delegate war plans. It's a new power sharing relationship Manafort says with Trump's current campaign manager Cory Lewandowski.
CORY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: This is an example of Donald Trump managing and the kind of leadership he will bring to the Presidency after November. The campaigns have different phases.
ACOSTA: And while Manafort pushed back on the notion Lewandowski is being sidelined after a string of campaign setbacks, he made it clear he answers only to Trump.
LEWANDOWSKI: I listen to everybody but I have one man whose voice sounds - is louder than everybody else's.
ACOSTA: Manafort's rise comes at a crucial time as Ted Cruz is implementing his own delegate strategy to grab them wherever he can.
Case in point, this weekend, Cruz is scheduled to visit Colorado, where Republicans are holding their own convention to select delegates. Cruz picked up more delegates there today.
REP. KEN BUCK (R), COLORADO: The Cruz campaign has been successful in Colorado because we started earlier, we identified more of the grass roots supporters. I don't think that the other campaigns took this process seriously early enough.
ACOSTA: It's a trip Trump decided against in the hopes of a landslide over Cruz in the New York primary. Trump was apparently working out of the office today saying in a tweet, "it's so great to be in New York, catching up on many things. Remember, I am still running a major business while I campaign and loving it."
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, we have a clear path forward to get the 1237 delegates. It's difficult. We've got to win and we've got to win consistently.
ACOSTA: Cruz told CNN's Dana Bash he is laughing off the R rated welcome he is receiving in the Big Apple after he slammed Trump's New York values.
CRUZ: I laughed out loud. Look, I have never been popular with left wing journalists or tabloids.
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ACOSTA: Lagging behind in the delegate fight, John Kasich is making the case he won't be dead on arrival at the GOP convention the summer.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't be fooled, Ted Cruz can't win the nomination out right. He can't defeat Hillary Clinton either.
ACOSTA: With a tough new ad, Kasich argues he still has the best shot at defeating Hillary Clinton. He is warning voters, Trump's Make America Great Again message is a general election disaster.
KASICH: We're not winning, we're winning on everything. We are still the strongest country by far in the entire world and people ought to stop whining about America. OK?
ACOSTA: As for Ted Cruz he's courting some big donors here in Las Vegas. He will address a Republican Jewish group run by Casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson tomorrow and after some downtime, Donald Trump gets back on the campaign trail in his home state of New York.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Las Vegas.
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HOWELL: Day two of the Master's golf tournament is now in the books.
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HOWELL: Defending champ Jordan Spieth leads the way at the halfway point. But his arrival Rory McIlroy is not far behind.
The Northern Irishman is just one shot back after a 1 under par round on Friday tied for the best round of the day. Just seven players are under par at the Augusta national course. Windy conditions though on Friday pushed up many scores. Spieth and McIlroy will play the 3rd round together and the Texan says he is ready him.
JORDAN SPEITH, DEFENDING MASTERS CHAMPION: I'd rather be someone less - I'd rather be playing with someone less threatening to be honest. He's certainly proven himself in majors, but I think it's going to be a fun - really fun challenge.
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HOWELL: Adding to the intrigue, if McIlroy wins the masters, he will achieve the career Grand Slam of all four of golf's major tournaments. We'll have to wait and see.
ISIS destroyed a 2,000 year old city in Syria.
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HOWELL: And now a Russian museum wants to help bring it back to life. See how they plan to use the new technology that's available to restore an ancient treasure. Live in the United States and around the world, this hour, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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[04:30:30] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, it is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell. The headlines we are following this hour.
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HOWELL: North Korea claiming yet another successful test in its arms program this according to state media there. Leader Kim Jong-un supervised a ground test of a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile. Last month, Pyongyong said it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to mounted on missiles.
An Al Qaeda affiliate in Bangladesh is claiming responsible for the machete killing of a secular blogging in Dhaka this week, this according to a Jihadist monitoring group. The death of Nazeem Udin Samad sparked protests by students, they are calling on the government to do more to protect free speech in that country.
Mohammed Abrini he is the latest person to be arrested in connection to last November's terror attacks in Paris. Authorities are now investigating if he played a part in the bombings in Brussels. Officials believe he may be the unidentified third man seen in airport under surveillance video during that attack.
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HOWELL: With this new arrest, Abrini could be a vital piece in the growing investigation. Authorities are concerned about the scope of a terror network in Europe and every potential link can lead to more intelligence.
Earlier, our Zain Asher spoke to CNN Security Analyst Bob Baer on how significant this arrest might be.
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BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE SECURITY ANALYST: What's extraordinary about this for me is the fact that he was involved in the Paris bombing on the 13th of November, yet stayed in Brussels and managed to put together another plot under the, you know, before the police essentially I mean it's incredible.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fact that he stayed in Brussels. How surprising is that for you?
BAER: Well, that surprises me in the sense that I didn't realize how deep and you know, and reclusive, I mean isolated this Moroccan community is in Brussels. The fact that he could hide there, even though he was a mass murder for the Paris attacks and he still could hide, it's amazing. Those communities are so separated from main stream Belgium that it's -- I think it's even come as a surprise to the Belgium police.
ASHER: So the next step is obviously authorities are going to interviewing him, what is the track record of terrorists actually cooperating with authorities?
BAER: I have found that these people who are ready to die except martyrdom, don't make great witnesses. It's very difficult to turn them. They are ready to do prison time. He can stay there forever. I've spent years interviewing these people in prisons, in Israeli prison, suicide bombers.
ASHER: So is it the fact they won't talk at all or they give false information?
BAER: They give false information, false leads. They probably won't talk at all. They'll promise, their lawyers will promise but at the end of the day, they won't say anything. It's very surprising to find one that will turn against the movement.
ASHER: So do these arrests now make an attack either in Brussels or Paris more likely, more imminent or less likely do you think?
BAER: Well, as we know, Zain, there are other people out there. The network hasn't been completely rolled up. I mean, we don't even know where these - where these people arrested today have been. You know one was in Birmingham, another is Swedish. They've been coming in and out of Europe posing as refugees. One had a fake Syrian passport according to local media. So I don't think we're even at the beginning of identifying the entire network. I mean there is a lot of these people that are witting and there are some unwitting ones and we can be talking years before we get to the end of this.
ASHER: And just quickly, Bob, Belgian authorities have obviously made a lot of arrests over the past two weeks but they have also come under a lot of criticism. Do you think that criticism is fair?
BAER: Oh, it's justified to undertake an attack like this, Brussels airport, the metro, of people that are already identified, yes, they failed.
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HOWELL: That was CNN Intelligence and Security Analyst Bob Baer speaking with my colleague Zain Asher just a bit earlier.
A top U.S. military commander in Africa says that ISIS has doubled its number of fighters in Libya.
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HOWELL: This intelligence now comes from the intelligence community. They believe there are between 4,000 and 6,000 fighters there.
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HOWELL: Libya has become a haven for militants since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi back in 2011 especially from other North African countries.
The U.S. commander says many of them have pledged their allegiance to ISIS.
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HOWELL: That terror group has all but destroyed Syria's ancient city of Palmyra but since it was reclaimed from ISIS the Hermitage Museum in Russia now has a plan to restore the 2,000-year-old city.
Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance has more now.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The old amphitheater at Palmyra was used by ISIS as a backdrop for public executions.
Russian drone video shows it's now one of the few monuments there still standing.
Other irreplaceable structures, like this monumental Roman arch was simply raised to the ground by the so called Islamic state. The Kremlin says helping recapture and now demine Palmyra is one of the major achievements of its air war.
For now, one of the Russia's most prominent museums with an important Palmyra collection wants to help restore the unique site.
SERGEY NIKITIN, HERITAGE MUSUEM: Because Palmyra is one of the few surviving ancient cities. When we come to Rome, we see ruins (inaudible)
Palmyra is an ancient stage, it stays as it was, so it's a great subject and great archaeological site.
CHANCE: Russia's archaeological interest and expertise in Palmyra is real, this hermitage collection of statuary and other artifacts from the city like these (inaudible) stones inscribed with both ancient Greek and Aramaic scripts. It is one of the most important outside of Syria. Even more so now that so much of Palmyra has been destroyed by Islamic state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you protect them down on this pyramid.
CHANCE: You can see them as a hologram.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see them as a hologram in the middle.
CHANCE: And volunteers at the museum are developing a more high-trek approach, building holographic models of the now destroyed buildings of Palmyra breathing life they say into the ancient city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main point is that the reconstructions that I made that are now shown in the hologram are real reconstructions with the real sizes and texture of how it used to be before the explosions, before all the problems.
CHANCE: Right, so that could be really useful when it comes to restoring for the site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
CHANCE: But only once Palmyra is secure say museum officials will the Russian team be sent to assess the archaeological damage. It could be years before the cultural vandalism of ISIS is undone.
Matthew Chance, CNN, St. Petersburg.
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HOWELL: The restoration effort under way, but sadly, it can never be the same.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, still ahead: Argentina's budding weed industry.
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HOWELL: Cannabis shops are flourishing by selling everything except cannabis, itself. And now they are calling for the country to finally legalize the drug. Plus, a milestone in space flight. We will tell you why this rock landing could launch the next generation of space exploration. Stay with us.
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[04:41:30]
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HOWELL: 10:41 in the Vatican city this hour and you're looking at live pictures where Pope Francis is holding a holy year audience as part of his jubilee of mercy year. The Pope may address his statement here, urging priests around the world to accept Catholics who have divorced and remarried. Francis also asked the church to be more tolerant of gays and lesbians. He did not change any church doctrines.
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HOWELL: In a mostly Catholic Latin American country, gays and lesbians are celebrating a major judicial decision in a move toward equality.
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HOWELL: Colombia's top court paved the way now for same sex marriage. Six of nine justices voted to throw out a petition defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Colombia is now the fourth Latin American nation to recognize same-sex marriage.
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HOWELL: Now on to Argentina, where marijuana is producing profits for shops in Buenos Aires, even though businesses there are not actually allowed to sell the plant yet. Entrepreneurs hope that the country will legalize the plant once and for all.
CNN's Diego Laje has this report for us.
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DIEGO LAJE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Buenos Aires has a unique cannabis business where the business consists of everything except the cannabis, itself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was explain that I cover 99% of the business. I don't touch seeds and that's the remaining 1%.
LAJE: Sales of seeds and products with THC, the active chemical in cannabis is illegal. Courts have tolerated possession for personal use and have recently allowed medicines containing TBH in specific cases. There are no restrictions on the sale of flower pots, fertilizer and other equipment to grow marijuana. Nevertheless, if police finds the plants, there will be problems with the law.
SEBASTIAN BASALO, DIRECTOR THC MAGAZINE: Many people are interested. We aren't talking about people only interested in the recreational use of cannabis. We are talking about a plant that has shown in value in recent medical research and has increasing medicinal use.
LAJE: While the marijuana industry grows in Argentina to the East Uruguay already allows research, medical and recreation use. Chile, next door to the West, regulated research and medical use.
Businessmen like (inaudible) think marijuana will be legal in Argentina soon and he thinks the 20 shops like his in the country's capital will go from being profitable to making it big.
The state of Colorado in the U.S. has a population of 5.5 million people and a legal business of $1 billion a year. Meanwhile Buenos Aires and surrounding areas have a population three times that size. Shops like these are awaiting a storm, a very profitable storm.
(Inaudible) shop opened since 2009, currently employs five people, he says, but its impact goes beyond retail.
We require fertilizer and we use the logistics network because we have to transport many goods. I have to get soil, pots and other products and that creates further economic growth.
LAJE: For a country with a relatively small manufacturing sector this air filtering system suggests a trickle effect. A bill introduced in congress in 2012 to legalize planting and consuming cannabis for personal use isn't currently on the government's agenda. At least for now there is only a help for an industry that buds but can't flower.
DIEGO LAJE, CNN, Buenos Aires.
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[04:45:21] HOWELL: Switching to weather now, athletes who love extreme sports came together on the icy mountain plains of Norway for an out of this world competition that involves the weather.
Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEORLOGIST: George, I was captivated by this story because only last week I ticked off a little bucket list item for me and that was kite surfing while I was in South Africa. I managed to -
HOWELL: Oh, how was that?
VAN DAM: I managed to get out on the water and try something that I had never done before but it's extremely difficulty, challenging and exciting at the same time. But these athletes that you are about to see took this to a whole new level. Take a look at this image.
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VAN DAM: This is 350, yes, snow kiters. OK, Now, this is a sport that I didn't even know existed. That's why I'm so fascinated and captivated by this story. We will get into a closer image just so you can see what they're doing.
They used skis or snowboards and are pulled literally by a kite. Obviously, that's all dictated by the strength of the wind. But they have a 100 kilometer race to travel. Unbelievable that's almost 60 miles. And again this is one of the toughest competitions, at least for this particular sport. You can see just how extreme it can be.
And taking my own experience into account here, when I was in South Africa last week kite boarding, which is on water using a wake board is extremely difficult. I can only imagine just how challenging this is because you've got a much harder surface to fall on if you don't get it right.
Well we're going to go to winter in the United States because that was in Norway by the way, those images you saw a moment ago and it feels like winter over the Eastern U.S.
If you are traveling to New York City or even Washington, D.C. or Boston, you'll want to listen up because you'll want to pack the winter clothes in your bag. Because, well, even though the calendar says it's spring it certainly feels like winter.
We've got freeze warnings in effect from Omaha, to Cincinnati and Nashville. And that extends all the way to the East Coast, including the nation's capital. We've got a huge roller coaster of temperatures today. Overnight lows dropping below freezing for the Big Apple. We have the potential for 10 to 15 low temperature record sets across Eastern U.S. And look at Washington D.C. yes, we've got a roller coaster of weather for you as well.
It's all thanks to this deep trough that's digging into the eastern half that's going to allow for that cold arctic blast to settle in and it's even bringing the potential of snow for some of those cities over the eastern parts of the country.
Take a look at this video coming from - well we'll bring you to the space - from the International Space Station. I love this. This is a time lapse. Look at those lightning storms from above. The International Space Station, by the way George is traveling at 5 meters per second, 5 miles per second rather and it actually circumnavigates the globe every 90 minutes.
HOWELL: It is fascinating. Derek thank you so much.
VAN DAM: You're welcome George.
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HOWELL: Now, moving on to a milestone in space exploration.
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HOWELL: The SpaceX has nailed the landing of the main stage of a Falcon 9 rocket on a platform that is bobbing in the ocean. Four previous attempts failed. The privately owned company hopes to reuse rockets dozens of times to make space travel cheaper. This rocket just carried up a capsule, I should say, with food with supplies and experiments headed to astronauts at the International Space Station.
Kristie Lu Stout has more on this story.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is not your standard space launch. No, Elon Musk's reusable Falcon 9 rocket isn't just restocking supplies on the International Space Station, think more along the lines of galactic gardening.
The SpaceX mission is all about life outside our planet and the cargo on board could determine if we'd ever survive a stay on Mars or beyond. Among the 7,000 pounds of supplies and experiments, fungai and seeds. Astronauts have already grown red Romaine lettuce in orbit and sampled the goods.
Next up is Chinese cabbage. Now the project laying the groundwork to see if growing vegetables on other planets is possible. Also if tow, mice. Their mission to help scientists figure out how to stop muscle waste and bone loss in orbit. It's also carrying an expansion for the International Space Station, an inflatable module called "Bean." It's just a test for now to see if an inflatable module can work in orbit. If it does, it could represent the future of space habitats.
Now CNN went inside another one of the habitats; Bigalow Airspace is designed to make living in space more accessible. But there's sure to be an heir of nervousness in this SpaceX camp. Its last cargo delivery in June ended in failure with the reusable rocket disintegrating after just a couple of minutes. This time, they'll be hoping it survives the journey.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN.
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HOWELL: Coming up, a United Airlines flight attendant makes a dramatic and very fast exit from her plane.
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HOWELL: And now she is out of a job. U.S. Authorities are investigating the incident.
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HOWELL: This is a strange one. A United Airlines flight attendant made a dramatic exit in Houston, deploying the aircraft emergency slide instead of just walking off the plane. Jeanne Moos has more on this very bizarre get away.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: United Airlines didn't let this slide. A flight attendant activated the emergency slide after the plane landed in Houston. You can see her toss out her bag and then slide down the chute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's insane why?
MOOS: That we don't know and many of the passengers didn't even know it happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we landed, we were notified to, we were told to stay in our seats as deplaning would take a bit longer.
MOOS: CNN Affiliate KPRC says the flight attendants family told them "the woman is doing well and it's a private family matter."
United says she's no longer employed there.
[04:55:12]
MOOS: The last time a flight attend about did this, it was a far more flamboyant exit. Who could forget Steven Slater? He got fed up after getting cut by a JetBlue passenger's oversize bag, he commandeered the intercom. To the expletive, expletive that told me to expletive off. Slater grabbed a couple of beers to take with him and activated the chute.
STEVEN SLATER, FORMER JETBLUE FLIGHT ATTENDANT: I was just thinking, I'm free, I'm finally free. But I got to the bottom of this, this wonderful warm sunlight was out there and I just felt this -- I felt unencumbered a weight off my shoulders.
MOOS: He immortalized in song. [singing] As for those emergency slides, they've been sliding places they shouldn't be. This one deployed inside the plane, forcing an emergency landing two years ago. And this one fell off a jumbo jet last month and landed in a Mesa, Arizona front yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just a loud bang and then the house actually shook.
MOOS: Passengers keep opening the emergency exits. Thankfully, before takeoff a man opened the China Southern Plane opened the door hoping to get some fresh air, thinking the lever opened a window. And a first time flyer in China mistook the exit for a restroom. Oops.
No wonder why flight attendants get a kick out of this tee-shirt, I understand this is not the lavatory, unless of course it's the flight attendant opening the door.
Jeanne Moos, CNN , New York.
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HOWELL: Just when you thought you saw it all. Thanks for being with us. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'll be back after another the break with another of news around the world. You are watching CNN the world's news leader.
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