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More than 80 Dead in India after Fireworks Start Fire; Mohamed Abrini Identified as Suspect in Brussels Airport Bombing; Sanders Has Won Eight of the Last Nine Contests; Ford Motor Company is Seventh Largest Carmaker in the World. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00] ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: A firework show gone horribly wrong, more than 80 people are now dead in Southern India after a blaze erupts at a temple.

Plus, Belgian police identified the so-called man in the hat, what's next (ph) since the investigation of the terror attacks in both Brussels and Paris.

And, Bernie Sanders adds another phase to his win column. The U.S. Democratic presidential candidate grabs Wyoming and keeps pushing up on his rival, Hillary Clinton.

Hello, everyone. I'm Zain Asher, and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

In Southern India, what was meant to be a celebration at a temple ended with 86 people dead after a fire erupted, rescue operations are continuing after a firework show led to a massive blaze. And I know that more than 250 people have been injured, many of them have been taken to hospitals.

The fire happened in the southern coastal state of Kerala early Sunday morning.

Mallika Kapur joins us live now from Mumbai with the latest. So, Mallika, this was basically a firework show that pretty much ended in disaster. Walk us through what happened.

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It ended in a day of tragedy. You're absolutely right. It was around 3:30 in the morning and there were several pilgrims and worshippers inside this temple complex in the town of Kollam, which is in the southern Indian state of Kerala. And it's really not uncommon for people to pray for the night or to gather at 3:00 in the morning for a very early morning worship.

And that's where these people were, there were celebrations and some people lit firecrackers. And some of these firecrackers then fell on another magazine of firecrackers. There were other firecrackers that have been stored in the temple complex and one firecracker then lits (ph) the other firecracker and within minutes, the entire temple was engulfed in these massive flames. And you would know about the extent of injury, more than 80 people are confirmed dead. There are more than 250 people who are in hospital right now being treated for burns and injuries.

And I think it's safe to assume that the death toll is only going to rise as people battle for their lives, but some of them who are critically injured might succumb to the injuries. Zain.

ASHER: Yeah, that is a sad fact that the death toll, as we've been seeing throughout the night, throughout the morning where you are, is likely to increase.

But, what has Prime Minister Narendra Modi say about this?

KAPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reacted very quickly. He has been tweeting all morning, he's been very active on Twitter and he said, one of his first tweets said that, "The incident here, the fire, the temple complex, is hot trending and shocking beyond words."

He's also on his way to the scene of the tragedy right now and he said that he wants no protocol, no formalities that usually accompany a prime minister (inaudible) any way. He wants the focus to remain on rescue and relief efforts. He is going there. He's asked our local authorities to galvanize helicopters so that helicopters can be used to airlift people from there who need urgent medical attention and take them to hospitals that have better or more sophisticated facilities.

And, he's also tweeted that he's taking a team of doctors and burn specialists with him to this area to make sure that the people who are injured have the best care possible.

He's also announced compensation for the next of kin of people who have lost their lives about $3,000 for those family and around $750 for those who've been injured. So we've seen a very quick and swift response from the prime minister who's currently on his way to the temple.

ASHER: All right, Mallika Kapur, we, of course, wish those people who have been injured a swift and quick recovery. Mallika Kapur live for us there. Thank you so much. Appreciate that.

Want to turn now to the Brussels terror investigation, authorities have identified Mohamed Abrini as the third suspect in the Brussels airport bombing. He is a childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam, and is one of the alleged masterminds of last November's terror attacks in Paris. It is believed that Abrini drove the Paris attackers to the French capital days before the bombings and the shootings there.

Now, Belgian police arrested Abrini on Friday and they're hoping he'll provide further intel on the network of terrorist in Europe. Here is Frederik Pleitgen with more.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly a lot of major developments here in Belgium since the arrest of Mohamed Abrini. The federal prosecutor coming out earlier and telling CNN that it was especially, when Mohamed Abrini was confronted with facial recognition results, that he then said that yes, it was indeed him that was on that picture, the third person, the so-called man in the hat, caught on that CCTV video inside the Brussels airport shortly before those attacks were conducted.

[02:05:16] Now, apparently, Abrini went even further and he told the investigators that the exact route that he took away from the Brussels airport towards the city center of Brussels after leaving the airport. He said at some point along the way, he dumped his jacket and he said that in the end, a hat that he'd been wearing to conceal his identity that he sold that hat.

The other major development that also happened here on Saturday was that the investigators say that they've now positively identified Osama Krayem as being the second person inside the Maalbeek metro station when it was blown up by a suicide bomber.

Now, in spite of the results that the investigators are getting, they say they realized that potentially this is not the end of it. They fear that there could still be people out there who perhaps provided logistical or other support to this terror network. There was a major raid that took place in the Etterbeek district of Brussels on Saturday, there, the police say they didn't discover any sort of weapons or explosives, but they do say one of the apartments they raided was potentially used by these terror suspects as a safe house.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Brussels, Belgium.

ASHER: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with other G7 foreign ministers in Hiroshima, Japan. It is the latest stop in a worldwide (ph) trip. They also took him to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Kerry and the other G7 ministers are discussing Ukraine, North Korea and nuclear arms as well.

Now, Hiroshima is the site of the first use of a nuclear bomb in war, the U.S. dropped there in August of 1945 leading to the end of World War II.

Later in the day, Kerry plans to visit a memorial to honor the people killed in that bombing.

And, in an unprecedented move, British Prime Minister David Cameron has released his personal tax information for the last six years. Mr. Cameron admitted that he benefited from an offshore trust that was setup by his late father. That fund was aforementioned in a so-called Panama Papers leak. Mr. Cameron says that he paid all the relevant taxes after selling his shares before becoming prime minister.

As early heat wave continues in India and residents are desperately seeking of a cooling the range brought in from the annual (inaudible) talk more about this with Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. This part of the world is maybe no strangers to that kind of weather.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, that's right. So, the monsoon rain doesn't typically move in to Southern India until now the last parts of May and the early parts of June. So we still have several days, several weeks, if not, before those cooling temperatures come in and the much needed rain comes in as well.

This heat is coinciding with an extreme drought especially in the south central part of India. You can see that the government is trucking in freshwater to some of the local communities and villages there, there's been a migration of people actually to some of the larger cities just for the sole purpose of getting freshwater up, places like Mumbai and into Goa as well.

But, unfortunately, this is bringing some ominous reminders of 2015, if we get to my graphics, this was in fact the year that was the fifth deadliest heat wave that actually occurred in India, 2,500 fatalities directly attributed to the heat.

Now, we've already seen temperatures soar just this week on, Saturday, this is a look at yesterday's day time highs. Look at the 40s concentrated across the central and eastern half of India.

It's all because the angle of the sun this time of year is so strong. So, we have very strong solar radiation that really heats up the land, we've got our large mountain range to the north. So that's blocking any cool weather that wants to spread over the subcontinent.

Unfortunately, it just allows for the heat to really build. And so people are just waiting desperately for the annual monsoon season to shift the winds and bring in our chances of rain as well as the cooling temperatures that usually moves from the south to the north as the season progresses from, basically, June 1st right through August.

Now, how does the body react to heat? Well, typically, we would sweat, you understand that. I understand that. We get warm. That is our body's way of coping or dealing with the heat.

Well, unfortunately, in this part of the world, we just can't do that. You see, when we actually sweat on our bodies, this is a cooling process, but when the humidity levels, the DuPont (ph) levels, are so high, that cooling process actually doesn't occur within our bodies so we have a problem regulating that heat and often people can succumb to the effects of heat illnesses and heat stroke which, of course, is a cause of death as well.

Take a look at the temperatures, they're going to continue to surpass that 14-degree mark for May (ph) locations.

Look, I want to end on a good note, some positive things coming out of the world. Take a look at this, Zain.

[02:10:01] I've never seen something like this before, an ...

ASHER: Wow.

VAN DAM: ... underwater art exhibit, made on an artificial reef in the Florida Keys. They call this a subsea art exhibit. It is the second largest artificial reef and they brought in these pieces of art, they enclose them in a plastic glass (ph) container and mount to them on a silicone sealed steel frame, and then dove at about 90 feet or 27 meters below the surface of the water. So we could enjoy.

ASHER: That is amazing. I was actually just in the Florida Keys ...

VAN DAM: OK.

ASHER: ... a week ago today and I should have ...

VAN DAM: Did you visit the art exhibit?

ASHER: I did not.

VAN DAM: How did you forget?

ASHER: I'm actually not the best in that.

VAN DAM: (Inaudible) OK, all right.

ASHER: But who knows, OK.

VAN DAM: Now, the whole world knows.

ASHER: I know. OK, Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

VAN DAM: Thanks, Zain.

ASHER: Appreciate that.

Now, for the U.S. race for the White House and another win in West for Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate picks up the Wyoming caucuses on Saturday. He has now won eight of the last nine states contests. The Vermont senator won more than 55 percent of the vote, boosting his momentum (ph) in the race against Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS,(D-VT) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that it is very fair to say that we were way, way behind at -- during the first half of this contest, but we are having to say the least a very strong second half.

And we are closing very fast, and now that Wyoming is behind us, we are here in New York State.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: So Sanders may have won Wyoming but the 14 delegates that were up for grabs were actually evenly split between both he and Clinton, they both got seven delegates each.

Now, take a look here. Here's how the total delegates dance now. Hillary Clinton leads with an estimated 1,790 delegates, Sanders has 1,113.

The candidates are currently in New York right now campaigning ahead of the states primary. Clinton says she needs that win in order to become the Democratic nominee sooner and so she can focus on beating the Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON, (D)PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are on the path for the nomination, but I need to win big here in New York because the sooner I can become the nominee, I can turn and unify the Democratic Party like I did with President Obama back in 2008.

And, the sooner we can go after the Republicans fulltime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: The New York Democratic primary will be held Tuesday, April 19th.

All right, that does it for us. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Zain Asher. Marketplace Africa with me is up next. You're watching CNN.

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[02:15:39] ASHER: Welcome to Marketplace Africa. We cover the biggest economic trends impacting the continent. This week, we're focused on Ethiopia's car industry.

When I recently drove through Addis Ababa, I haven't noticed any new cars on the road and there might actually be a reason for that. So walk with me over here so I can explain what that reason is.

The reason pretty much is taxes. So taxes on imported cars sold in Ethiopia are very high, and that makes them extremely difficult to afford.

So let me give you an example, OK. Let's say, you wanted to buy a moderately prized Sedan, so, for example, a Toyota Corolla. If the base price, if the original price is roughly around $15,000, once that car is imported into Ethiopia, there's an immediate 35 percent duty tax added, and that's because it's a foreign vehicle. That brings the total to lean over $20,000. But by the way, we are just getting started.

On top of that, will be charged next to 30 percent more in excise tax. And for foreign cars, the big engines, that tax can actually be as much at 100 percent. So, it could be as much as double the price of the car.

Then on top of that, I'm not joking by the way, there is another 15 percent value-added tax plus another 10 percent surtax for imported goods overall. And before you drive home with that vehicle, you still have to pay 3 percent of the base price at 3 percent of the original $15,000 for withholding tax.

So, for a $15,000 car, it would actually cost you in Ethiopia nearly $34,000, that is basically double the price of the original car.

Now, there is one silver lining, and that is, the handful of foreign car makers are trying to reduce those taxes by assembling cars locally. And, they're creating jobs, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: At this car factory in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian hands (ph) are assembling cars destined for Ethiopian roads.

But these parts, Ethiopian parts, and this isn't an Ethiopian company. Lifan Group, a private Chinese enterprise, opened a factory in 2014. The company pays about 100 employees, 97 percent of them local workers, assembled five cars each day.

The factory has capacity to assemble up to 20 cars per day if demand increases.

Almost every part, from the engines to the seatbelts, are shipped from China. Assembling in country more than just shipping pre-built cars give Lifan an edge over other imports.

If you're a customer in Ethiopia, why is it that it's to the Lifan car than a Toyota, or a Honda.

FIGO WANG (ph): Because Lifan is a new car.

ASHER: It's a new car.

WANG (ph): Yeah, Nissan or Toyota may be second hand. Yeah, and it's too expensive.

ASHER: According to the Ethiopian Transport Authority, there was just on the 84,000 registered cars on the road here last year. That's a tiny amount for a country with about 97 million people. And most of the cars are used import sold at dealerships like this one.

ASHENAFI WELDETEKDE (ph): We're selling the small automobiles like Yaris cars from 350,000 up to 420,000.

ASHER: 350,000 Ethiopian birr is roughly around $16,000. And that's of these compact cars that are about 10 to 15 years old.

By comparison, Lifan Motors sells new cars in Ethiopia for anywhere between $15,000 to $30,000. The company says they sell about 50 cars each month and offer five different models. And because the cars are assembled locally, the company gets a break on Ethiopia's high import duty.

MU GANG, LIFAN MOTORS GENERAL MANAGER: Import tax for cars, we have -- if it is a CBU, the import tax is 35 percent. But for us, we are the manufacturer so we've got the privilege of the 30 percent. That's why we only pay the 5 percent of import tax.

ASHER: The company still pays high excise and other taxes, but the amount saved on the duty tax translates to a much lower price tag when compared to similar imported vehicles.

For many Ethiopians, they'll choose to buy older foreign cars with names they're familiar with like Toyota and Nissan.

The older the car, the more affordable it becomes. But that has unintended consequences.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These cars are old, they pollute the country, they cost a lot of money to import spare parts.

[02:20:00] So if the government would allow to bring in new cars, raise lower taxes and each would reduce the transportation problem in the country.

ASHER: The Ethiopian government arguments that the high taxes is that personal vehicles are categorized as luxury items. And the revenues from the taxes collected fund major projects like the recently built metro rail system in Addis Ababa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The amount of cars that are being imported in Ethiopia has remained very high.

So the government doesn't have any incentive to reduce the taxes because if government thinks that (inaudible) import and so, why reduce the tax.

ASHER: Some car companies see this as an opportunity. Like Lifan, another Chinese carmaker, Geely, assembles their cars locally as well.

But, they use an Ethiopian engineering company instead of doing it themselves. The company offers two models in Ethiopia for roughly between $15,000 to $22,000, and say the sell 30 to 40 a month.

The general manager at Lifan Motors tells me he thinks this trend will continue to grow.

GANG: We are very confident to develop in this country, to develop this in the market but we will see if -- for the future if we got this (inaudible) if we can really make this market very successful. Maybe we will bring some supplier from our (inaudible), because now we've got all the spare parts from the different supplier in China, so we can convince some of them to complete that (ph) or produce the parts here.

ASHER: And while there is a rising number of trained workers in Ethiopia ready to get their hands on those parts, only time will tell if more factories like this one will mean more new cars on the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Time for a quick break here on CNN. When we come back, we're going to continue our conversation on cars with the head of Africa, one of the world's largest carmakers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: Welcome back to everybody.

According to Forbes, the Ford Motor Company is the seventh largest carmaker in the world. Last year, the company has sold more than 6.5 million vehicles worldwide and made $150 billion in revenue. In 2014, Ford created a division for the Middle East and Africa. The

company says it sold 187,000 cars in that region last year giving it a 4.5 percent market share.

Jim Benintende is the president of Ford Middle East and Africa. I sat down with him in Ethiopia and I asked him whether his company is a little bit late for the game in a market dominated by Japanese cars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BENINTENDE, PRESIDENT MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA: You know, I guess you could say that, but I -- the way we feel is that we compete with the Japanese and the Koreans everywhere in the world. And we do a very good job of it.

And now that we have a focus on Africa, we believe with our products and with our distribution network, that there's no reason why we can't compete with the best in the business in Africa.

As you and I talk, in South Africa, we produce the ranger, we build almost 90,000 a year. And right now, we export the ranger to 150 countries. So that really has helped our business to be able to export the product.

ASHER: And, in terms of full-scale manufacturing, it's going to start in baby steps. So I'm assuming that if you're going to move to country like Nigeria, you would start by manufacturing a small car part. Which car part do you think lends itself to begin, just to begin the process of full-scale manufacturing?

BENINTENDE: Yeah, I think, you know, there's obviously things like tires, batteries which really help, but also we're actually building wiring harnesses for our plants in Europe out of Morocco.

And what that did is it started a whole operation for us in Morocco.

[02:25:02] So, it's very important as you've mentioned, Zain, for us to really begin the process of building parts in these countries to make manufacturing viable.

ASHER: And that would create jobs as well.

BENINTENDE: Absolutely.

ASHER: (Inaudible) one for -- based in West Africa that are dealing with fuel and oil prices.

But, I do want to talk about consumer finance because that is a big barrier to owning a car. You know, we're in Ethiopia right now. The average salary for government workers is less than $100 a month in some cases. And, if they want to buy a car, the average price of a car can be more than $20,000. They have to pay for cash.

How do you think, across the continent, the consumer finance industry can be restructured? BENINTENDE: Yeah, I -- you know, I'm always impressed with your

knowledge of the car business in Africa. But, you're exactly right. I think one of the major steps for us in Africa will be credit.

Right now, in South Africa, we've achieved 15 percent market share which is really almost unheard of. But much of that is your consumer financing. So we know it grows the business. We know it grows the new car business. And it's something that has to happen for us to grow.

ASHER: Significant especially for an American constancy (ph) in Africa.

I do want to talk about fuel quality. How does the issues of fuel quality and sulfur and fuel affect the business of a company like Ford?

BENINTENDE: Well, you know, we comply with emissions regulations and regulations throughout the world, globally. And, the difficulty in some countries in Africa is the high sulfur content and much of a diesel fuel.

And what that does is, it really works against a lot of the emissions controls that we've put in cars. So, we look for a standard essentially across Africa, particularly how it relates to sulfur and fuel. That would help the consumer, that would help the environment, and that would help us to grow our business.

ASHER: Africa is a continent of 1 billion people. So the number of cars per capita is still better to be low. What can a company like Ford do to increase penetration?

BENINTENDE: We have a plan and a strategy that we've put together last year to really improve our penetration in the African continent.

And, when you look at it over the next six or seven years, the driving age will -- what people will really improve to about 55 percent more than what it is today.

So, the middle classes is beginning to version as well in Africa. So we see it as a terrific opportunity for us in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: And Ford announced late last year that they planned to launch at least 30 different models in the Middle East and Africa by 2020. We'll certainly keep an eye out for that.

Don't forget to go to our Facebook page and our websites to have 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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