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Italians Bid Farewell to Earthquake Victims; Turkish Forces and Free Syrian Army Drive ISIS from Border Town; Iraqi Army Frees Qayyara; Canadia Babies Switched at Birth Forty Years Ago; US, Russia Closer to Agreement on Cooperation in Syria. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired August 27, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:11] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Laid to rest, families bid farewell to the victims of Wednesday's deadly earthquake, as Italy declares a national day of mourning.

Pushing ISIS out, Turkish forces join with the Free Syrian Army to drive the terror group out of a border town hoping to set up a terror- free zone.

Plus, another loss for ISIS, the Iraqi Army recaptures the town of Qayyara, getting closer to -- on offensive on Mosul.

From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world him. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

5:00 a.m. on the U.S. East coast, it is a national day of mourning right now in Italy as that nation prepares for a state funeral for some of the victims of this week's earthquake. The disaster killed at least 281 people. It has injured close to 400 others. Thousands of people now are living in camps, their homes have been destroyed. Rescue crews are digging through rubble in many different towns and villages, hoping to find survivors.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live by phone joining us in the town of Amatrice. Fred, let's talk about the situation. Every day, every hour that passes, it becomes a matter of survival for people who may be trapped in that rubble. Can you tell us about efforts by these rescue teams to find them?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, George. Yeah, those efforts certainly are still ongoing, even though the rescue teams are telling us at this point in time they don't have much hope that people could still be trapped alive under that rubble. Nevertheless, of course they are still continuing to try and find people.

You know, the big problem they have there is the aftershocks here in the region. It's something that's been ongoing. And every time there is an aftershock for instance in Amatrice, those rescue crews, they obviously need to stop working, they need to evacuate that area. Because the rubble itself starts shifting and it can bury the rescue crews underneath. That's a very dangerous thing.

The other thing that's also a problem because of these aftershocks is that, two main access roads to the town of Amatrice which is by far the worst hit in this entire disaster area. Two of those main access roads have already been cut because aftershock has destroyed these roads and there's only one access road left into Amatrice. And the local mayor there says, the fact that cut out as well, the town will mostly be cut off by the land road.

Now, the Italians are probably finding some other way to get if there. But it certainly will make things a lot more difficult. Nevertheless, as I'm standing here right now, we can see the efforts ongoing. We can see the rescue dogs still at work. But, again, now about 80 hours after this earthquake happened it will be very difficult to find any sort of survivors, the chances certainly are dwindling, George.

HOWELL: Fred, while you're telling us about the situation there in Amatrice, we're looking at these live images of the memorial services that are being held. I'd just like to get a sense from you, in that community, as people deal with, you know, now many days after this earthquake, how are people coping with so much loss?

PLEITGEN: Well, you know, it's a very important question. And it's something that really has devastated a lot of these communities. We have to keep in mind that these are very small town, these are very close knit communities, these are people who, you know, everybody in this town knows everybody.

And, in a place like Amatrice which has about 2,000 inhabitants, every single family in some way, shape or form has been affected. And it was absolutely tragic. I can tell you from having been here, to see some of these relatives, having to watch as their loved one's bodies were taken out of the rubble by these rescue crews. There would certainly something of extremely painful for them. And you could see people walking down the streets, in these towns, traumatized, in fears, still trying to comprehend the situation.

At the same time of course still living with that fear that another big tremor could happen, some of the aftershocks that we had here, have been almost as powerful as the original quake. There was one that was 5.5 magnitude. So, there is that fear, there is of course the great loss that happened. And then of course, for a lot these folks, is also the material loss as well.

But because, you know, a lot of the buildings have been destroyed. A lot of the historic buildings in town that this -- have been destroyed. And many people in some of these smaller towns wonder whether these places are still viable to live in at all or whether or not they might have to be abandoned. So, it's a huge loss for the community, obviously a huge loss for Italy. At the same, so I have to say that the response by the Italian authorities and by the rescue crews have been very good, very efficient and also trying to help the folks in this community. The psychological help and material held help as well.

[05:05:01] HOWELL: Our Senior International Correspondent, Fled Pleitgen live for us on the phone in Amatrice. Again, we're seeing so much devastation and damage on the one side, and again, our viewers around the world seeing memorial services that will soon to be held for the many, many people who died.

Fred, thank you for your reporting. We'll stay in touch with you. And for the people already rescued and in various hospitals, the trauma, it is far from over. Atika Shubert talks with some of the survivors from this earthquake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little girl plucked from the rubble alive, rescued 17 hours after the earthquake.

Many of the victims here were children enjoying their summer holidays with their families. Four-year-old Giorgia Rinaldo survived because her older sister Giulia shielded her from the rubble, sacrificing her own life for her baby sister.

This is Ascoli Hospital and this is where that little girl pulled out of the rubble was brought to for treatment. Ninety-nine of those injured in the earthquake were brought here. And this is where family members wait for word of their loved ones, still living the trauma of their ordeal.

Here, Giorgia's father is coming to terms with the loss of one daughter and the survival of the other. He told doctors he was not yet ready to speak to media. But others talk to try and make sense of the destruction. Guiseppe Bagnato was lying in bed with his wife Dominica when the earthquake struck. Now, he is waiting for her to come out of a lengthy surgery.

"For us, it's the end", he told us. "It's a house with so many memories. So much life, but it's finished. We're scared, we won't be coming back. We saw death. We felt it. My wife". And then he breaks down in tears. He says, "We prayed. The Madonna wanted to save us."

Nineteen-year-old Mattia Rendina was sleeping on the top floor of his family summer house, his mother in the room next door, when the house collapsed.

MATTIA RENDINA, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: My first thought was, my mother. My mother is here. But I can't help her.

SHUBERT: Rendina was buried in rubble. It took an hour for his uncle to find him and dig him out with his bare hands.

RENDINA: When I came out, I kissed him, because -- and I say that -- and I said to him that he was in my life and -- but my thoughts are still of my mother because she passed away. She's gone.

SHUBERT: He survived. With hairline fractures to several vertebrae. His greatest pain is the loss of his mother.

RENDINA: I'm like this because my mother teach me to be a person like this. To be strong. Yes. SHUBERT: Given new life, the survivors of Italy's devastating earthquake are healing, Slowly.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Ascoli Piceno, Italy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Coming up in a half hour, Atika will be back for the start of that state funeral that we mentioned just a little later here in this newscast.

In Syria, some families who have been under siege for nearly four years, they are finally getting a break. A sort of break. Thousands of civilians are being given safe passage out of the Damascus suburb under an evacuation deal between the Syrian government and rebel fighters. Hundreds of rebel fighters are also leaving Daraya in a what is a substantial territorial gain for the government.

Meanwhile, Turkey says it is continuing to clear ISIS militants out of northern Syria near it's border. Turkey's prime minister insists, his country's troops will remain in Syria until Turkey's security is guaranteed.

Let's go now to our Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live in Gaziantep near the Turkey border with Syria. Nick, let's start by talking about the situation in Daraya.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. At this stage, we're still learning that an evacuation is continuing. Troops said to be -- it says rebel fighters said to be in the region about 700 or so have left on buses to the rebel-held province of Idlib in the north predominantly held by -- among moderate faction with Ahrar al-Shamal also with the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra there. That is a stronghold for anti-regime forces.

They've moved in that direction. They appear to have safely reached the destination along with some of their families. The question is, the fate of the civilians that have been there, differing figures between 3,000, according to regime, maybe 8,000 according to rebel sources were in that area.

[05:10:03] The civilians now being held in a nearby place (inaudible), a camp effectively run by the regime, so obviously that's safety now. Paramount, the U.N. urging great care and that this evacuation should be voluntary.

But let's bear in mind here, this is not really some enormous moment of benevolence on both sides. This is the grinding end of an awful siege that lasted four years. The people have been reduced to basically eating a broth made out of a leaves they could find there. It is a territorial gain, substantial gain for the regime and possibly also a sign that the rebels frankly needed the manpower elsewhere. And some may say in longer term, potentially a sign of the more broader balkanization of this country.

Some may say that it's good, it's perhaps the pockets of resistance and alliance between the regime beginning to be ironed out and population moving to places, potentially more sustainable in the long term. But let's not try and put a glass on this. It is a big loss I think for rebels there caused by the starvation of many people besieged in that area. Many of them civilians, and I think those who perceive much of this war is down to the cruelty of the regime against its own population. A victory perhaps for that regime strategy. George?

HOWELL: The civilians who again have been cut off from food, from medicine for such a long time. Nick, let's also talk about the situation there along the Turkey-Syria border and Turkish troops inside Syria. What more can you tell us about those efforts and if we have any indication of a time line as to how long those troops could be inside this other country?

WALSH: We don't know the precise numbers of Turkish troops inside Syria. No, we obviously seen the same as everyone else has, of armored vehicles crossing over there are company, we know by Turkish troops. The broad is -- the legal prime minister is saying we will continue inside that country until the threats against Turkish security is gone. Then that is potentially indefinite passed.

Now, that is not what Turkey has said they're embarking upon. But they face not just the threat of ISIS as the rest of the world does in that particular northern Syria. Many say a broader goal as Turkey that are felinely denied is pushing back the Syrian Kurds inside of there. The PKK -- sorry, the YPG, PYD, align with PKK in this area here, the Turkey seems to be a terrorist towards against them.

Now, all eyes are focused on the town of Manbij. That is deeply controversial because it was retaken back by the SDF back, by the United States, they're also part of NATO as is Turkey. Turkish troops focus on that now deeply particularly clearly contentious, the retaking by Turkish troops and militia laws in that town, George.

HOWELL: Nick Paton Walsh live for us in Turkey. Nick, thank you for the reporting. We will stay in touch with you.

Iraq's next big goal is to liberate the city of Mosul which has been under ISIS control and is the de facto capital in Iraq. The Iraqi army just re-took Qayyara which officials want to use as a spring board to recapture Mosul.

Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon shows us how much life is already changing for those no longer under ISIS control.

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the main road going through the town of Qayyara liberated some 24 hours ago from ISIS. And this is Bashid (ph) who we just met. He came out, he was waving his (inaudible).

He says, because they told us -- the Iraqi army told people to come out carrying white flags.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) DAMON: So I just him if he was afraid when the explosions happened, and yes, of course he was. A lot of people we have been talking to were telling us that ISIS was using them as human shields.

There was another father who we met here was clutching his two-year- old baby. And he said that ISIS fighters were shooting from his front door at the Iraqi security forces, there was incoming mortar fire. And he just remembers grabbing his two-year-old, not being able to see anything and making a run for it out the back door.

We also met Dawud (ph), who is over here. And Dawud (ph) was telling us about how under ISIS and this may seem like something very simple but they weren't allowed to wear shorts. And the adults that we're seeing -- yeah, shorts were forbidden.

And the adults we're seeing here are all newly clean shaven. Because under ISIS, they had to grow long beards. That's maybe the simplest most basic of the hardships that people were going through. There is story after story, one little girl, who was talking to the Iraqi army when they first came in and talked about how her father was strung from one of these posts for three days accused of collaborating with the coalition.

You see that thick black smoke. That is because the oil fields around here that ISIS had set on fire, they're still ablaze. And people who we've met, we've been talking to, this has been going on for the last six or seven months. A number of them did lose their loved ones, because of ISIS' brutal rule.

[05:15:02] All of them said that they would have fled if they could, but ISIS would not allow them to do so. Some of them were telling us about how ISIS separated men from the women and the children, kept people confined to their homes. It was the country counterterrorism unit, you see one of their humvees coming down the road right now.

Some of the other fighters flashing the victory sign that moved in, in the operation to liberate Qayarra. And even though this is being considered as success because it was so strategic for ISIS and it is a very significant victory for the Iraqi security forces. And the people here were saying that the town itself, can be rebuilt. But what they've lost in terms of lives, that is something that will never be restored.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Qayyara, Iran.

HOWELL: The great deal of lives, great deal of material loss there in Qayyara but their lives different now without ISIS controlling that city. We'll stay in touch with Arwa.

This is CNN NEWSROOM, and still ahead, Donald Trump's ever kissing immigration policy has some political watchers, well, scratching their heads.

Plus, flash floods ravage parts of the U.S. State of Missouri. We will have the very latest here. Stay with CNN.

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HOWELL: America's choice 2016, Donald Trump appears to be sending mixed messages about whether or not he will deport 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump and his campaign signal that he may support a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., but then, he appeared to walk those comments back with CNN's Anderson Cooper and then again with Fox News. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My stance is very strong. It's going to remain very strong. There will be no amnesty. There's no legalization. We're going to build a wall. It's going to be a tremendous powerful wall. We're going to have great technology along with the wall and we're going to stop people from coming in.

Day one, we're going to get all of the gang members and the gang leaders and the drug dealers and all of these people that have illegally crossed. They've been in our country. We're going to get them out very, very, very fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:20:06] HOWELL: In the meantime, a new headache for the Trump campaign. Details are now surfacing about domestic violence allegations tied up to Trump's new campaign chairman Steve Bannon.

Back if 1996, Bannon faced multiple charges including one for a misdemeanor domestic violence stemming from an incident involving his former wife. That case was eventually dismissed. A spokesperson for Bannon has said that he has "Great relationship with both his ex and their twin daughters."

We're also hearing more now from Donald Trump's doctor, Harold Bornstein. He wrote that four paragraph note last December. The only medical record Trump has released so far. And it describes the 70- year-old Republican as the, quote, healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. To ever be elected if he would be elected. Now that doctor tells NBC News that, well, he rushed to write it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAROLD BORNSTEIN, DONALD TRUMP'S DOCTOR: I thought about it all day and at the end, I get rushed -- and I get anxious when I get rushed. So, I try to get the four or five lines down best possible that they would be happy. This is how -- it's excellent particularly (inaudible) that eventually worked out just fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Scrutiny of Trump's health follows his allegations that Hillary Clinton who is 68-years-old doesn't have the stamina to be president. Her doctors have written that she is also in good health. In the meantime, Clinton's campaign is repeatedly tying Donald Trump to racism. On Friday, Clinton's vice presidential pick Tim Kaine told a crowd in Florida that Donald Trump promotes the values of white supremacists. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP

TIM KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He has supporters like David Duke connected with the Klu Klux Klan who are going around and saying Donald Trump is their candidate because Donald Trump is pushing their values. Klu Klux Klan values, David Duke values, Donald Trump values are not American values, they're not our values. And we've got to do all we can to fight to push back and win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Kaine's comments, "Vile and baseless" and had, "No place in this campaign."

In the meantime, Clinton is expected to get her intelligence briefing in the coming hours. Donald Trump received his earlier this month.

We're following another story regarding weather, a flash flood emergency that was issued for the Kansas city, Missouri, metro region. Overnight, it has definitely soaked that part of the United States. And our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here. Derek, so, you know, we saw some images before, it looked pretty bad.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is, it's been a rough night for residents of the Kansas City Metro Area. This is by the way the first time the national weather service has issued a flash flood emergency for Kansas City. So we found that out in our research.

Now, take a look at the footage. You can see just what they've been dealing with. Wow, I mean to say the least, pictures speak a thousand words here. And there has been 10 swift water rescues that have taken place already. Street car service was suspended. Portions of downtown highway loop that circumnavigates the entire city was actually shutdown. You can you see some of the rescue workers going from car to car to car to make sure that there are no individuals stranded within those vehicles.

Remember, it only takes about a 1.5 to 2 feet of rushing water to pick up an entire SUV, let alone a small vehicle and wash it down the road. Take a look at this. This is the latest radar. Notice how the thunderstorms continue to move over the Kansas City region for a prolonged period of time. We're talking three to four hours.

That is what is called in the meteorological world, "the training of thunderstorms". So, when they come over the same location for a long period of time, that's when we get that excessive rain totals. And by the way, I've also noticed that there's some storms developing just to the west across central Kansas that well, could unfortunately bring more rainfall to Kansas City. The good news is that the National Weather Service has lifted the flash flood warnings for the Metro Area, but look at the excessive rain that did fall across that region. See that little shading of red just in the southern suburbs, just south of the Metro, they received anywhere between 7 and 8 inches.

The other story we're following here is the potential development of some tropical activity. This is across the Bahamas just north of Cuba. The National Hurricane Center has a 40 percent probability of a five day development, especially as it crosses South Florida, the Florida keys and into the Gulf of Mexico. But look at that, a lot of dry air in the upper levels of the atmosphere as well as strong upper level winds. So that is not really conducive for tropical development which is good news, George. We don't want to see this thing develop into a full blown tropical storm or hurricane.

HOWELL: No.

VAN DAM: But the major thrust going forward for southern Florida, heavy rain, gusty winds this weekend. Not a comfortable place to be in Miami for today and tomorrow.

HOWELL: All right, Derek, thank you.

VAN DAM: You're welcome George.

HOWELL: All right, now to a story about some life long friends in Canada who made a startling discovery that they'd been living with the wrong family for 41 years. CBC's Cameron McIntosh has details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[05:25:09] CAMERON MCINTOSH, CBC NATIONAL REPORTER: David Tait Jr. spent 41 years believing this woman was his biological mother. It turns out his mother was actually this woman, raising his best friend Leon Swanson as her own son. DNA now proving a long held troubling suspicion the two were switched at birth.

DAVID TAIT JR, SWITCHED AT BIRTH: I want answers. I want answers.

LEON SWANSON, SWITCHED AT BIRTH: I don't know what to say.

MCINTOSH: Both men were born in this federally run hospital in early 1975, three days apart. It's unclear how, but DNA has proven Tait's biological mother went home with the wrong baby, Swanson. Shocking but not entirely surprising. For decades, there have been comments each resembled the other's families.

SWANSON: When we were both 20-years-old, people start teasing us being switched.

TAIT: How this could be done?

MCINTOSH: This discovery last year convinced them to do the test. These two men born in that very same year in that very same hospital discovered they were switched. Former Manitoba Cabinet Minister Eric Robinson is helping both sets of men.

ERIC ROBERTSON, FORMER MANITOBA CABINET MINISTER: The first time could be discounted as a mistake. A second time in my view is a criminal activity.

MCINTOSH: Today, the federal health minister promised an investigation.

JANE PHILPOTT, CANADIAN HEALTH MINISTER: It's fundamentally important that we understand how this could have happened at the time.

MCINTOSH: For both men and their parents, there is a lot of anger and confusion and also sense that they are now all one big family.

TAIT: They'll always be my mom and dad regardless, you know. They raised me technically from day one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWEL: That was CBC's Cameron McIntosh reporting there for us.

Still ahead, we will go back to Italy. A state funeral is about to get under way to honor some of the dead from this week's powerful earthquake there.

Ukraine has been under a cease fire for more than 18 months now, but they're still fighting on daily basis there. A view from the ground, ahead.

Live from Atlanta and across the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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[05:30:37] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here and in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And it's good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

Turkey says that it will continue its first major military incursion into Syria. Turkish military helped to drive ISIS out of a key Syria border town, Turkey wants to fight the terror group, but also to prevent Kurdish fighters from seizing more territory there. South of Mosul and in Iraq, life is slowly changing for the people in the town of Qayyara. This week the Iraqi army drove ISIS out of the key town which officials want to use as a springboard to recapture Mosul before the end of the year.

The U.S. Secretary Of State John Kerry says the U.S. and Russia are close to reaching a Syrian cease-fire agreement, but still have some issues to work out. Both sides will try to finalize details how they continue their meetings in Geneva. Hundreds and thousands of people have died Syria since that war began there.

Nearly five-and-a-half years ago, a state funeral is just about to get on under way in Central Italy for many of the victims of Wednesday's devastating earthquake. Italy's Prime Minister and President are also attending. At least 281 people are dead and then unknown number may still be trapped rubble.

CNN's Atika Shubert is near the gymnasium where the state funeral is taking place. And now joins us live. Atika, if you could tell us about what's happening there. How people are coming together with -- to cope with so much loss?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, there's a -- this is the gymnasium closest to the hospital here in Ascoli Piceno. This is where 99 of the victims, those injured were actually brought, 49 people in the area died in that earthquake. And that -- this is their funeral today. Now, we had a state funeral which means that the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is here, the Italian President Sergio Mattarella is also here.

We expect that service to get and underway any moment now. As you can see, hundreds of people have come out from the neighboring towns and villages to pay their respects. And you can't see it from here, but actually there's Church just behind here which is opened up their Church yard and put up the large T.V. screen so that people can follow the service as it begins. And I was quickly inside earlier. And as you can imagine, it's a very sad scene inside. There are three rows of coffins and each family is clustered around the coffin, each coffin has the name of the deceased taped to it and there are flowers and often photos of the deceased on the coffin.

And with you -- what really strikes you is just how many people there are survivors themselves, You can see them wearing cast, broken arms, bandages on their face, on their neck. These are the same people that were pinned down in the earthquake that had -- were covered with rubble and debris and were pulled out. But in that same moment, they also lost their love ones, their only family members. So it is a very emotional, very raw moment for so many families inside. And the reason for this funeral today is in many ways for the entire community to come together to bring some closure to this terrible tragic event.

Many of the families will have their own private funerals afterwards. But this is a way for the entire community to the market together. George.

HOWELL: CNN's Atika Shubert. Again just outside the gymnasium where this state funeral is being held. Atika, thank you so much for your reporting. Again, as we look at these live images there, people are coming together, 281 people killed in this earthquake and many, many others could still be trapped in the rubble some 400 could be injured from this.

That number certainly could go up as well, if they are able to find more people in that rubble. We'll continue to follow the state funeral that is happening in Italy.

After nearly 10 hours of talks in Geneva, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry says the United States and Russia, that they are close now to reaching a cease-fire agreement in Syria but he says Washington will not rush to a deal with Moscow. CNN's Matthew Chance has more now for us.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, after marathon talks in Geneva, Russia and the United States were apparently unable to reach a final agreement to cooperate in Syria, although both sides reported progress on that front.

[05:35:07] The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he had long and productive talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. He said he achieved clarity with the Russians on most steps towards renewing a Syrian truce.

At a joint news conference in Geneva, the Russian foreign minister said the two had made a number of steps forward and it also discussed ways of addressing the humanitarian situation in Syria including Aleppo which he said was at the center of their discussions.

Russia and United States are on opposite sides of the war in Syria with Moscow a strong backer of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Washington calling on him to step down. But they have a common enemy in ISIS and other Jihadist groups. And talks have been focusing on how to cooperate for instance in the sharing battlefield intelligence.

It was also been talk of Russia pressuring the Syrian government to end air strikes on densely populated areas. Those discussions were told are still continuing despite the fact there was no conclusive agreement at these talks.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

HOWELL: Matthew, thank you.

Ukrainian armed forces are testing a new guided precision missile. Officials say that it has a range of up to 300 kilometers and can use a variety of warheads. Public size missile tests are not typical at peace time. But Ukraine's case is somewhat unique a. Cease-fire has been in effect there for now then more than a year-and-a-half and as our Phil Black shows us, that truce exists in name only.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BLACK, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Through this gate is one front line of a war still ravaging a country and destroying lives a year-and-a-half after all sides promised to cease-fire. Where would Ukrainian soldiers be is the country's east. As they try to hold a position against pro-Russian forces?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been coming for us, slamming into the walls of this shed. The people here say that this is what it's like every single day. They're not just lobbing stuff at each other. They're trying to move forward and take each other's territory.

BLACK: The captain Andre Skorotzki (ph) tells us we must now run.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quickly, quickly, quickly. BLACK: This short dash for recover draws fire. We shelter in the remains of another devastated building. The source of the incoming fire is very close. So you're enemy is out that way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. This way. It's on the way.

BLACK: One hundred meters way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

BLACK: The pause in the shooting allows us to move forward. We cross more open ground between old buildings. This industrial site is a fiercely contested prize. The Ukrainian forces say they've lost ten men here in the last month. And there are casualties every day. Captain Skorotzki (ph) wants to show us one of the positions they're being attacked from.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BLACK: Just there. A tall towel build so close, we could stroll it in less than a minute. At that moment the fighting picks up, there's incoming fire through several directions.

There is now fighting during the day every day. You saw the ceasefire there but more than that it's in the evening, 4 o'clock, like clock work. This begins. And it really kicks off. Why is this position, this territory, so important?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): He says the enemy has already moved beyond the line of control set in the peace deal known as The Minsk agreement. He says if the pro-Russian forces move forward from here, they could keep going and take any city in Ukraine.

BLACK: From relative safety, unless (inaudible), until it gets too close, more of his men just outside. They've punched through this building before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you wish to go now?

BLACK: OK. I'm ready. You good? Chris are you good?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

BLACK: Bullets whisk around our team during the final round for safety this is what a ceasefire looks like in eastern Ukraine.

[05:40:05] Phil Black ,CNN, Dnipropetrovsk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Phil Black, thank you so much for that reporting.

Five people are in custody in the killing of a Bolivian deputy minister. Authorities say that he was kidnapped and beaten to death by miners. He was trying to negotiate with the mining unions, after weeks of protest and strikes, the miners have been demand government, allow them to work directly with private companies.

Federal police in Brazil are recommending charges against the former President Louise Inacio Lula Da Silva, They say Lula and his wife should be indicted for money laundering and corruption. It's all part of probe into an embezzlement scheme at the state run oil company Petrobras. Prosecutors now must decide whether to ask a judge for the indictment.

Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff impeachment trial is under way. The senate there will vote on Tuesday but there have already been some fireworks.

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HOWELL: ... force the presiding Supreme Court Justice to suspend the session on Thursday. Rousseff was suspended in May on corruption allegations, but she says she has done nothing wrong that her competitors just want her gone and out of the way.

If she is voted out, the interim president, Michel Temer will finish out her term until 2018.

This is CNN NEWSROOM and ahead, amid heated debates around the world, a French court rules on a town's ban against women wearing burkinis. We'll tell you all about that.

Plus, 50 years of bloodshed appear to be coming to an end. After Marxist rebels and Colombia's Government comes to an agreement. Stay with us.

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[05:45:17] HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. In France, a French court has ruled the French Mayors do not have the right to ban full length swimsuits worn by Muslim women known as the bukinis.

Friday's court ruling does not immediately affect all towns with a ban. But it could set a precedent. More than 30 French towns had banned the suits. Frustration over the burkini ban has boiled over this week after photos came to surface a police making a woman remove some of her clothing on the beach Nice.

The Tunisian parliament voted in a new government on Friday. The French Minister Youssef Chahed's National Unity Party, the Prime Minister's party I should say won with over 75 percent support. Tunisia's President appointed Chahed in early August after a no confidence vote ousted the former prime minister in July.

After more than 50 years of civil war if Colombia, negotiators have signed a peace deal. Colombians have to approve the deal in early October, but they're already celebrating. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has this report for us.

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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colombians take to the street to celebrate a long awaited peace deal. Colombia's President declared that five decades of bloodshed were over.

"Today begins the end of the suffering, the pain, and the tragedy of war," he said, from their jungle camps, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known as FARC in Spanish, battle the Colombian Government in accused of carrying out kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking to finance the longest running insurgency in the Western Hemisphere.

At one point the Marxist Gorillas controlled an area the size of Switzerland. But the string of military defeats forced the FARC here to the negotiating table in Havana.

As many of the FARC leadership had million dollar bounties on their heads. Cuba was considered neutral territory. The grueling talks dragged on for nearly four years until on Wednesday they had a deal.

"I have the certainty that the agreement is the best possible agreement. We all wanted something more. But the deal we struck is a viable deal," said the Colombian Government's chief negotiator.

October 2nd, Colombians will go to the polls to vote on the controversial deal. As a part of the agreement, FARC foot soldiers will leave the jungles and reenter society with training programs. If the group's leaders, admits the crimes they committed and pay restitution to their victims. They might avoid serious jail time. Something the FARC insisted on from the beginning of the talks.

"We aren't considering going to jail," this FARC commander told me. He will fight for justice doesn't deserve that. "We don't act like a criminal terrorist group. We have a sacred fight." While not perfect, observer say the Colombian government got the best possible deal.

ADAM ISACSON, WASHINGTON OFFICER OF LATIN AMERICA: It's the best you could do. I think that actually getting something better than this on the battlefield would have taken many more years and cost thousands or tens of thousands more lives.

OPPMANN: Supporters and opponents of the deal are already in full campaign mode. While the majority of Colombians approve of the peace process, still for many after from has taken over 200,000 lives to see the FARC leadership walk away free and form a political party, that's a pretty bitter pill they have to swallow, still though for many Colombians the best opportunity at peace after a half century of war is an opportunity they refuse to let slip away.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

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HOWELL: Patrick, thank you. Still ahead, a couple flees their war torn Syria and says that they have been welcomed with opened arms in Germany. We'll have their story ahead.

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[05:50:25] KATE RIELY, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sports headlines.

The Bundesliga kicks off the new season on Friday night when by Bayern Munich faced Werder Bremen and then Carlo Ancelotti, firstly gain in charge of Bayern. The defending champions has raised with six medal win.

Xabi Alonso scored the first goal of the season with a nice 25 yard finish. It didn't take long Robert Lewandowski to get off to a flyer, either he would collect a hat trick on the night.

In other football news, former french international and arsenal legend Thierry Henry has joined the Belgium National Team. The striker becomes the new assistant coach under Roberto Martinez. The news has announced on conference on Friday that Martinez saying that Henry was brought on board to change spirit into winning trophy. That's our flash together is next Thursday when Belgium faced Spain in a friendly game.

Lewis Hamilton faces an uphill battle this weekend and far as Formula 1 returns from its summer break. The defending champion has been given a 30-place grid penalty in exceeding his permitted allocation of engine components.

The Britain, however, wasn't the only one making headlines. Teenager, Max Verstappen and fellow Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo caught the eye with fastest time in the afternoon session. Mercedes, while their cars were down the list for that second session. And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

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HOWELL: Syrians have been fleeing their country by the tens of thousands since the civil war began they're hoping to find a safer new life.

Isha Sesay introduces us to a couple making a successful journey out in the long road into Germany.

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ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mohammed Helal Masouti and his wife Bayan have a comfortable life in Germany. A happy one, happy they say to be welcomed with open arm by the people and the small town of Nassau.

BAYAN HELAL MASOUTI, SYRIAN MIGRANT, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Life in Germany is nice, the country gave us so much. They gave us everything. There's no life in Syria. Everything is destroyed in Syria. Our houses are destroyed. We're starting new life here in Germany.

SESAY: A little more than two years ago, Mohammed and Bayan were living in the midst of war in Aleppo. More surviving than living.

Bombings, destruction, carnage, became their norm, since the war started in 2011.

MOHAMMED HELAL MASOUTI, SYRIAN MIGRANT, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The planes were always dropping rockets on civilians and buildings. People die from those strikes. Children, women, and the elderly died. Young and old people died.

SESAY: Fed up with the violence and the lack of job opportunities, Mohammed was forced to flee leaving his wife and family behind to begin a complicated journey, hoping his family could one day join him. He headed to Damascus. From there he took a bus to Lebanon, then a plane to Egypt, a boat to Italy, a train to France and then finally Germany. The length of the trip, a mere 10 days, the price $3,000.

B. HELAL MASOUTI, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We slept in camps, camps on the roads. They served us food and drinks just enough to keep us going on the road. We spend most of our time on trains and buses until we got here.

SESAY: Almost two years after he left, Mohammed's wife Bayan followed her husband paying a smuggler to bring her by boat like so many others.

[05:55:06] B. HELAL MASOUTI, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I was scared when I was traveling by boat. We were scared to drown, it was a difficult experience. We left at night, the waves were high but we safely arrived in Greece.

After arriving in Germany, the couple, like others seeking refuge, had to go through a long process in order to be able to stay in the country. He won't talk about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He says he doesn't like to talk about politics. Mohammed has a job in the metal industry. And though the German government has financially helped his family, he says he's proud he pays his own rent.

Despite all that has happened, the couples still love their home country.

M. HELAL MASOUTI, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): When the war is over in Syria and the Syrians return, I wish they work on rebuilding and developing the country, so Syria can become the strong country it used to be.

B. HELAL MASOUTI, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): A dream of Syria returns to the pre-war state and it can be better, the dream that Syria be safe, the dream to be reunited with our families.

SESAY: Until then, they plan on staying here and filling these empty walls with new pictures and new memories far away from home.

Isha Sesay, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Thank you for joining us, for this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN center in Atlanta. For our viewers in the United States, NEW DAY is next. And for other viewers around the world AMANPOUR starts in a moment. Thank you for watching CNN, the world's news leader.