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Italy Mourns Earthquake Victims; Battle Intensifying Along Turkish-Syrian Border; Trump Tweets about Death of NBA Star's Relative; Heroin Overdoses on Rise in Midwest. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired August 28, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:07]

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GEORGE HOWELL, HOST: A moment of remembrance in Italy. Funerals held there for some of the victims of Wednesday's earthquake.

Tensions spike along the Syrian/Turkish border. A three-way battle for control is intensifying there.

And a new effort to attract a crucial group of voters. Donald Trump tries to reach out to African-Americans by referencing the death of a U.S. Basketball star's relative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: From CNN World headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell and "CNN Newsroom" starts right now.

4:00 a.m. on the U.S. east coast. In Italy, people are struggling with great loss and sadness as they bury some of the victims from Wednesday's earthquake.

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HOWELL: That country held a state funeral on Saturday, which was also a national day of mourning in Italy. The earthquake reduced one town to rubble. It badly damaged several others, but it is the human loss that is most painful in these communities. Almost 300 people are dead and many more are missing. Our senior international correspondent Atika Shubert has more now, on the service.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The school gymnasium turned makeshift chapel fit for a state funeral. Three rows of coffins, 35 in all, each with a bouquet of flowers and a photo of the person lost in Italy's devastating earthquake. Beside them, family members, many of them survivors themselves, their broken limbs in casts, their faces bruised and bandaged, their eyes red and swollen from crying.

Italy's Prime Minister and President attended offering condolences to those who lost loved ones, conveying their gratitude to the firefighters, police and emergency medics that pulled survivors from the rubble.

Bishop Guiseppi D'ercole, led the service mentioning victims by name including Julia Rinaldi the young girl who died shielding her four year old sister Georgia as their summer home collapsed around them. Georgia survived with minor injuries, Julia did not.

(Maria Kamatchi) lost friends and family in the earthquake. She and her husband used their bare hands to dig neighbors out of the rubble. Community is very important she told us. The small villages like this, the relationship with the land with those you love, with your family is very, very strong. It will be even stronger. We won't give up she says.

There will be more funerals. The death toll from the earthquake continues to climb into the hundreds as more bodies are discovered in the rubble. This funeral is only among the first. A national day of mourning for the country to come together and begin the process of healing and rebuilding.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Ascoli Piceno, Italy.

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HOWELL: Atika, thank you. In Aleppo Syria dual bombings hit a wake that was taking place there Saturday.

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HOWELL: The Aleppo Media Center says at least 24 people were killed and 30 were wounded. The wake was for several children who were killed in a barrel bombing in the same neighborhood on Thursday. Activists say that bombing left at least 15 people dead.

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HOWELL: A new attack in Turkey rockets fired at an airport in the southeastern part of that country.

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HOWELL: It happened Saturday night at the Diyarbakir Airport. Turkey's state run news is blaming a Kurdish militant group known as the PKK for attack. No casualties or injuries have been reported and flights have not been disrupted.

A Turkish soldier was killed Saturday when two Turkish tanks were hit by rocket fire. This happened near Jarabulus, Syria, according to Turkish officials three soldiers were wounded. Turkish forces helped Syrian rebels to retake this key city of Jarabulus from ISIS earlier this week. The effort all part of a larger ongoing operation to secure the Turkish border with Syria. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: At first glance it looks like Turkey is simply ramping up the fight against ISIS inside Syria. But, as our Nick Paton Walsh explains, there are some other motives at play.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Speaking just recently on Turkish television the Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was pretty clear in suggesting a fairly wide scope to this operation now. He made a reference to something called the (Maraya) Jarabulus line, Jarabulus, that's a substantial town taken from ISIS on the border. Maraya is another town substantially to its west which actually is located right below the major border crossing known as Babel Salam.

Now that area has had Turkish friendly Syrian rebels in it for quite some time but it's been separated from Jarabulus obviously because ISIS have controlled that turf.

[04:05:00]

WALSH: What we're hearing is that Turkish backed Syrian rebels have been moving west into villages along that border area and according to the Deputy Prime Minister appear to have an end goal of reaching Maraya, establishing this Maraya Jarabulus line.

Now that's a pretty big sway obviously the Turkish Syrian border is over 1,000 km long but it's a pretty big sway of territory for them to hold and it would of course give those Syrian rebels who often lack a proper foothold quite a bit of border as their own territory and that would then enable them potentially to move southwest towards Albab also held by ISIS, their major last stronghold in that area. But also potentially too out east towards Manbij.

Now Manbij after U.S. assurances has technically been released or given back to the local population by the Kurds that are backed by the United States known as the SDF. A force that the U.S. put together to fight ISIS because they were effective because they were disciplined on the ground. It had some Sunni Arabs in it but it's mostly Kurdish.

There are people left behind in control of Manbij who the Kurds say are basically local fighters. Now we're hearing also that there may be new clashes south of Jarabulus potentially between these forces the Kurds left behind who are partially Kurds and Kurdish backed and also the Syrian rebel units that have moved into Jarabulus.

That still playing out know but it's yet another dangerous dynamic here, but most importantly we're getting a sense really of the sheer scope of this Turkish operation and it's about taking a pretty big part of this border.

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HOWELL: Senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh for us. Nick thank you.

For more context now on what's happening on the ground, CNN Military Analyst retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona believes that Turkey is planning for what will happen after ISIS. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LT. COL RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The Turks are not worried about what's happening right now in Syria, they're worried about what's going to happen a year from now, two years from now when ISIS is defeated. And I think everybody understands that at some point ISIS is going to be defeated.

You can see it happening in Iraq probably in the next year and soon after that in Syria. Everybody is vying for positions on what's going to happen post ISIS. And the Kurds are also doing this as well. They're staking out as much territory as they can in both countries because they're angling for much more territory, much more autonomy, some say even some sort of a unified Kurdish area up there across northern Syria and northern Iraq.

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HOWELL: Rick Francona there.

Turkey may continue to get more involved as it reacts to what the Kurdish forces accomplish.

Hundreds of Syrians are starting a new life after being trapped in Daraya. A city that has been under siege now for four years.

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HOWELL: Buses started to arrive this weekend, bringing them to their new settlement in (Hirajilia). The Syrian government prepared nearly 300 apartments there. The families had been essentially cut off from food from water and supplies, after rebels took over the town near Damascus.

SAMER SHEIKH RAJAB, EVACUATED FROM DARAYA: (As translated) At first they scared me in Daraya. Yes I was afraid because the rebels told me that the government would take me and kill me. But when I got out and saw the situation here, everything changed. The situation is very good and they treat us very well here.

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HOWELL: The Syrian forces, the government there, now has control of Daraya under the terms of the new deal for the evacuation of both civilians and for rebels. Libyan forces are also fighting ISIS officials in Libya say that they have nearly regained control of Sirte.

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HOWELL: It's been under ISIS control since last year. Sirte was the home town of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Libyan troops say U.S. air strikes are helping. Reports also say the last group of militants are now confined to just one area of the city center.

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HOWELL: This is "CNN Newsroom" and still ahead. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Donald Trump trying to gain African-American voters by bringing up a tragic shooting in the city of Chicago. How Democrats are responding to that coming up.

Plus the heroin epidemic in the United States, it has become even deadlier. The powerful concoction that's causing a spike in overdoses. Still ahead.

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[04:10:30]

KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN "World Sport" headlines. Real Madrid may have started their campaign with a 3-0 win over Sociedad last week but Saturday you saw them play at home for the first time this season as they faced Celta Vigo.

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RILEY: They had to wait for the hour mark for the first goal when Alvaro Morata put the home side ahead. The visitors then drew level setting the stage for Toni Kroos to score the winner for Real. 2-1 it ends, their 14th straight la Liga win.

To the English premier league where Jose Mourinho's Manchester United looked to continue their fine start to the season. They traveled to Hull on a miserable, rainy night. United needed more than the full 90 minutes to get the win. Substitute Marcus Rashford scored in the second minute of stoppage time. United made it 1-0 giving them three wins from three to start the year for the first time in four seasons.

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RILEY: Formula one champion Lewis Hamilton suffers yet another engine change in the Belgian Grand Prix. The Brit's starting grid penalty has being risen to a whopping 55 places. But he will start 21st due to their being only 22 cars in the race.

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RILEY: And Fernando Alonso's grid penalty. As for Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg it will be another pole position. Hamilton has a 19-point lead over his German teammate. That means a win in Belgium could be enough to put Rosberg back on top.

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RILEY: And that's a look at all your sport's headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

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HOWELL: Independence Day took a violent turn on Saturday in Moldova's capital. People there were celebrating the country's 25th year of independence when protesters went head-to-head with police as you can see in this video. They say that they are upset with the government over a billion dollars that disappeared from the country in bad loans. Demonstrators claim they are just as poor now as they were under the former soviet union.

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HOWELL: Back here in the United States, border agents, in San Diego, California seized $3 million in cash on Saturday.

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HOWELL: It is a major haul for an agency that's focused more on security than smuggling. Mexican cartels are known to move huge quantities of money and drugs across the border, all in order to sustain their businesses in the United States, and stopping that flow would be a huge blow to the industry at large.

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HOWELL: Passengers aboard a Southwest airlines plane were shaken up after their flight took an unexpected turn.

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HOWELL: The Boeing 737 was flying from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Orlando, Florida, when one of its engines failed on Saturday. Passengers then say that they heard an explosion. The plane started shaking, and oxygen masks were deployed as that aircraft descended. The plane made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida. All of the 99 passengers and 5 crew on board, they are okay. But the investigation is ongoing.

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HOWELL: America's Choice 2016 the race for the White House and Donald Trump has returned to his hard-line stance against undocumented immigrants.

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HOWELL: He told an Iowa crowd on Saturday that deportations would be top priority if Donald Trump is elected president. Thursday Trump told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he wouldn't back a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, but he declined to say whether he would deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

[04:15:00]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I promise you from the first day in office, the first thing I'm going to do, the first piece of paper that I'm going to sign, is we're going to get rid of these people, day one, before the wall, before anything. And our great law enforcement, they know who they are they've been living with them for years, and they don't want to put up with it anymore.

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HOWELL: Trump on Saturday also continued his attempts to court African-American voters pointing to the killing of an NBA all-star's cousin as reason that he should have their support.

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HOWELL: Nykea Aldridge was shot in the head in Chicago on Friday while pushing her infant in a stroller. She was the cousin of Chicago Bulls star Dwayne Wade. Trump referenced her death and tweeted this, "Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying, African-Americans will vote trump exclamation point." Trump also brought up Aldridge's death on the campaign trail. Listen.

TRUMP: The cousin of NBA star Dwayne Wade, a great guy, Dwayne Wade, was the victim of a tragic shooting in Chicago. She was the mother of four, and was killed while pushing her infant child in a stroller just walking down the street. Shot. It breaks all of our hearts to see it. It's horrible. It's horrible. And it's only getting worse. This shouldn't happen in our country, this shouldn't happen in America.

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HOWELL: Trump's opponents have criticized his reaction to Aldridge's death. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine told reporters in Florida a different response was needed. Listen.

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TIM KAINE, U.S. DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We ought to just be thinking, we just ought to be extending our sympathy to the family. That's the only - that's the only reaction that's appropriate right now. And maybe a sadness about this gun violence issue which we know is complicated, But that is you see something like this, and we should redouble our efforts to really adopt and promote smart strategies on that. The sympathy issue is the one that that ought to be our strong first reaction.

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HOWELL: Tim Kaine there. Aldridge's death has drawn fresh attention to U.S. gun violence especially in the city of Chicago.

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HOWELL: The Chicago Tribune Newspaper tracks homicides there, and by its figures, this year's murder count, it is well on its way to surpassing last year's. 2015 saw 490 murders around the city. But this year it already has 455. Even before Aldridge's death, her cousin Dwayne Wade was an outspoken critic of gun violence. He's used twitter to mourn saying "the city of Chicago is hurting. We need more help and we need more hands on deck. Not for me, and my family, but for the future and -- of our world, the youth."

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HOWELL: In the nearby state of Ohio, a dangerous drug is creating new concerns. It is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and can knock out an elephant. Now, drug dealers are mixing it with heroin to help stretch their supply. The impact has been lethal with about 100 heroin overdoses in Cincinnati, Ohio, in just a week. Rachel crane spoke with one self-described addict about why the drug is so appealing.

LAURIE ERION, APRIL'S MOTHER: It's terrifying. It terrifies me.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A recent spike in heroin overdoses. Nearly 100 in the last week alone have Laurie Erion fearing for her daughter's life.

APRIL ERION, HEROIN ADDICT: I would love to get high. I would, you know I'm a drug addict, that's what I do best.

CRANE: April is 22 years old and she's been using heroin for the last six years. In those years, she said she's lost about a dozen friends.

ERION: Overdose. I just had one of my friend's die I think yesterday morning and she left four kids behind.

CRANE: Officials suspect a batch of heroin laced with elephant tranquilizers is to blame for the latest string of overdoses. But April says that's not enough to scare away regular users.

When you are addicted to heroin, when you're using, you don't care about dying. You're just chasing the next high. And for a lot of people, hearing that there is a souped-up strain of dope on the streets, that's actually appealing?

ERION: Yes, definitely. Absolutely. Because you -- you stop getting high. That's why they call it chasing. Because you stop getting high. You're just - you're staying not sick. So when you here that somebody has overdosed or you hear about these crazy new drugs, you know, you're thinking, like well, all right. It's about time. I'm trying to get high. I mean that's all you've been trying to do.

[04:20:02]

CRANE: So that means with this new strain of heroin that's cut with an elephant tranquilizer.

ERION: I am very sure that there are heroin addicts who are actively looking for it. And thinking that the people that are dying are doing it wrong. They're doing too much. They're not -- you know what I mean they're just thinking that they're going to find a way to get really high and not die. Or if they die, they don't really care. But they're definitely looking for it. I would be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My friend's on drugs. I think he's overdosing - I think he's overdosed.

911 OPERATOR: Is he awake?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No he's awake but barely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's breathing.

911 OPERATOR: OK. What's he OD'ing on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heroin. I guess it's laced with --

CRANE: This firehouse in Cincinnati responded to nearly two dozen overdoses in a single day last week. More than ten times their daily average. And they don't know when the calls will stop coming in. But April's mom is worried about a different type of call.

LAURIE ERION: You know, we hear an ambulance, and we always wonder if it's someone that we know or for our child. And that's something that we live with every day. You know, we go to bed at night, wondering if we're going to get that phone call.

CRANE: April and her mom know better than anyone how difficult the struggle with opioid addiction is.

ERION: I'll do any drug you put in front of me. So, it's definitely a struggle. It's really hard.

LAURIE ERION: It's difficult because we can't like love them out of it. You know, so, we love them so much, and it doesn't -- there's nothing that we can really do for them.

CRANE: April says getting sober is a daily struggle. But in her eyes, not using heroin is progress. Even if other drugs are taking its place.

ERION: I'm definitely not -- I wouldn't say I'm using. But I've used twice since I've been out and I've been out for a month.

CRANE: How has heroin changed your life?

[07:45:03]

ERION: Well, I'm 22. I just did 11 months incarcerated. I'm back on probation with more time on the shelf. When in reality, I mean I probably should have been applying for med school this summer. You know, that was what I wanted to do. That's where I should have been.

CRANE: Rachel Crane, CNN, Cincinnati.

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HOWELL: Rachel, thank you. And as Rachel mentioned, officials believe the heroin blamed in the rash of deaths was combined with an elephant tranquilizer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: Carfentanil is the most potent opioid used commercially. It's ten thousand times stronger than morphine and it is a version of Fentanyl, the pain killer that investigators say is responsible for the death of the entertainer Prince that happened earlier this year.

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HOWELL: Now to the state of Florida. People there keeping their eye on the skies this day as storm systems bring problems through the tropics. Let's bring in our meteorologist Derek Van Dam to talk about it. Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's all about Tropical Invest 99. That's a bit of a mouthful more to the tag you just read there. The point is that it's been getting a lot of attention because it's so close to the U.S. mainland, and they've been sending out hurricane hunters to inspect this latest cluster of thunderstorm.

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VAN DAM: And I think the word disorganized is probably the best way to describe it as it stands. But I've noticed some interesting features that have popped up over the past, let's say two or three hours. Let me show them to you. Take a look at the satellite loop. OK, here it is, Tropical Wave Invest 99-L. Here's Cuba, here's the Bahamas, there's southern Florida, this is the cluster of thunderstorms known as Invest 99L. Not an impressive name. Hasn't been officially named just yet.

The question is will it? Well what I'm starting to notice here is just north of Hispaniola this little spin in the clock -- in the cloud cover overhead. That clockwise or rather counterclockwise spin is an indication that we're starting to get a little bit of, well, organization to this cluster of thunderstorms. So hurricane hunters will continue to investigate this throughout the course of the morning. I believe there's one on track leaving from the Biloxi, Mississippi, region to that area.

It's the five-day forecast that has meteorologists very interested because once it gets into the open waiters of the Gulf of Mexico, it has to travel through the Straits of Florida, first, over the Florida Keys bringing showers, gusty winds, potential for some flooding into south Florida. But as it enters this warm, moist environment across the Gulf of Mexico that's where we have the potential for some tropical development. That's where we have our highest probability I should say.

Nonetheless In the near-term from today through the next three days, southern Florida will be impacted by rough surf, gusty winds, and the potential for flash flooding. And it's not out of the question to really see a tropical wave like this produce anywhere from 4 to 6 inches locally. You can see some of those shades of orange, even whites across Cuba. That could easily see some impressive rainfall totals, especially in the mountainous regions associated with this tropical wave moving through.

[04:25:14]

VAN DAM: I got to take you to the other side of the world but we're keeping this theme of tropical development. We are monitoring typhoon Lionrock very closely. There's mainland Japan, there's China, 215 kilometer per hour sustained winds. This is equivalent to a strong category 3 Atlantic hurricane. And we still have that track that's going to take it into mainland Japan over the next three days.

Leaving you with this video coming from Turkey, scary moments for people caught in an underpass. Rapidly rising water actually trapped these citizens of Turkey's capital Ankara. They had to be rescued by firefighters just in the nick of time. No injuries but wow, scary moments. You can see the water actually pouring out of their cars.

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VAN DAM: Wow. Imagine being stuck in something like that.

HOWELL: Derek Van Dam, thank you.

VAN DAM: All right, George.

HOWELL: This is "CNN Newsroom" and still ahead, Italy is in mourning.

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HOWELL: Mourning the loss of people and communities after this week's earthquake coming up, a report from near one of the country's most devastated towns.

Against all odds, migrants are still making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. Next, the horrors many face searching for a better life, a better future, and the race to prevent hundreds more from drowning.

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HOWELL: We are live from Atlanta this hour, broadcasting across the United States and around the world. You're watching "CNN Newsroom."

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[04:30:00]

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 with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

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HOWELL: A Turkish soldier was killed Saturday in a rocket attack south of the Syrian town of Jarabulus. A Turkish military source says two soldiers were wounded there. Turkish officials blaming the attack on Kurdish militias. Earlier this week Turkish forces helped Syrian rebels retake Jarabulus from ISIS. Rockets were fired at Turkey's Diyarbakir Airport Saturday night. Turkey's state run news agency blaming the Kurdish militant group known as the PKK for the attack. No casualties have been reported and flights have not been disrupted.

In Paraguay an ambush killed eight soldiers during a routine patrol on Saturday. Government officials suspect the attach was carried out by a gorilla group known as the Paraguayan People's Army, or the EPP. That is a leftist group that formed just over a decade ago.

The nephew of leader of the powerful drug cartel, the Sinaloa drug cartel was killed in a shoot-out on Friday. The victim's uncle took over the cartel's operations when Joaquin Guzman, who's better known as El Chapo, was recaptured. This is just the latest attack on the group's family members, El Chapo's son was kidnapped in Puerto Vallarta two weeks ago but then later released.

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HOWELL: In Italy, communities are in mourning there. People are burying the almost 300 victims killed in Wednesday's earthquake. And hundreds of people came together to attend a state funeral Saturday with nearly three dozen victims.

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HOWELL: CNN is live near Amatrice, the hardest-hit town in this earthquake. Our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is live near that community that is struggling with grief. Fred?

PLEITGEN: Yes, absolutely. They certainly are, and you know one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that Amatrice is really by far the hardest-hit community, George. The 291 people who have been confirmed killed, more than 230 are from Amatrice. And you know, having been out here the past couple of days and speaking to the folks here, there's two things that really still very much get to them.

On the one hand, of course, it's mourning their loved ones. The fact that every family in this town in some way, shape or form has been affected. Then it's also the fear of the aftershocks that have really been a big issue over the past couple of days.

There was a major aftershock late yesterday evening of about 4.7 magnitude that really rocked that area again. And of course every time that happens, buildings that have already been damaged continue to come down. The people there continue to be in fear.

And then one of the other things that now the Italians are looking forward to is there's a real discussion of what is the future of a lot of these villages around this area going to be? It's a mountainous area. It's got a lot of very small villages that were barely viable before this earthquake. Now a lot of them are saying look it's an unsafe area. Is it really worth reconstructing all these houses? Are some of these villages going to have to be abandoned. And it really is something that's tragic for a lot of the folks we've been speaking to.

We went through some of these places yesterday and they said look I don't know if i have a future here. We don't know if this community is going to have a future. So certainly there's some tough decisions that the Italians are going to make. On the one hand they're saying they're going to rebuild everything but the big question is does that count for all the small villages that we have in this region? Again it's a wide region that's been affected. Amatrice more so than a lot of these other small places. But certainly there's a lot of communities right now that are mourning the dead that are afraid of the aftershocks right now. And also very concerned about their future, George.

HOWELL: Well Fred, you're explaining so much uncertainty for these families there. Obviously Italian officials hoping, looking to rebuild. But you know the question is, will they? And for those families, for people who have homes there, who have everything that they've ever owned there, and now gone, how are they handling, you know, the fact that so much has been lost, and there is uncertainty about what to do next

PLEITGEN: Well, it's a very good question. It's a very difficult one for them. And I think right now the folks that we've been speaking to are saying look, at the moment what we're doing is we're trying to survive day to day. We were in a small town yesterday where we saw a family whose home had been damaged but not completely destroyed, their house is unsafe to get into. So right now they're living in an RV outside of their home because they said look we're too scared to go into that house. We fear that there's going to be aftershocks and we'd rather be inside a vehicle than inside a home. But in the long-term they're going to have to see whether or not that village is going to survive.

Now the village we were in had 12 people that regularly live there. In the summer months when you have the vacation time it's about 80 to 100 people who are in there. But they say, look, is this community really going to survive? A community that has 12 people there permanently? Is it going to be rebuilt? Is it worth rebuilding? It really is a serious question that the authorities are going to have to ask themselves. Are you going to put a lot of money into building all these houses earthquake-proof? There still are a lot of historic houses that you basically can't make earthquake-proof. So it's very difficult. A lot of uncertainty for these folks as they're trying to come to terms with the losses that they've faced. It's a very tight-knit area here. People know each other. People from Amatrice have friends in other villages. They go back and forth. So they're dealing with that immediate loss, and at the same time that uncertainty is something that looms that uncertainty is something that is being debated all over Italy as well.

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[04:35:15]

HOWELL: Our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen near Amatrice. Fred, thank you for the context just getting a sense of what people are dealing with, and, you know, some idea of how Italian officials plan to move forward there. Thank you.

Now to berlin. Anti-immigration protesters climbed the famous Brandenburg Gate on Saturday. A group of far right activists they say that they are against the "Islamization of Germany."

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HOWELL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a drop in popularity after welcoming over 1 million asylum seekers last year. The anti- immigration party, alternative for Germany, is expected to do well in two regional elections next month.

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HOWELL: The United Nations says thousands of asylum seekers continue to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better future and better life in Europe. It is an incredibly dangerous journey. Human smugglers cramming migrants on rickety floats and many families have drowned. Here are some of the stories from those who are rescued at sea.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to keep everyone alive. You're all safe. Okay? Sit down!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might not trust us, and their concern is they might be attacked by pirates or get arrested again by the Libyan authorities. All we were just hearing is people dying, dying, dying, boats capsizing. The Italian coast guard cannot cope. We're talking about mass migration. We have to do something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called one of my cousins and they said if you do not bring $2,000 you'll be dead by evening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get outside from the misery. Yes, they are trading people like an animal.

JOHN HAMILTON, DEPUTY OPERATING OFFICER: These people that we come across are really desperate. They're coming from countries that tortured, they're beaten.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: so they took me with knives. When they ask for money. (Inaudible). Light, there's no light, they are killing. You don't have money, you have nothing.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time now is 20 past 7:00. We've started early, since 4:00 in the morning. Now we're up to another two boats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do know about this journey, people. They know exactly what it's going to be. Maybe they got two choice. Either you're dying or you're getting across the sea. This is the future that we have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At times the way they speak, they think that everything is so easy. You know they're going to get there, find a job and all this. But then I try to think that I wonder if they do get what they want, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Africa, they traded people like real people, real humans. Yes, that's what we're looking for.

[04:40:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I look at the children they're all happy, laughing and that and in my mind I think these children don't know what they're going through. They might, in a time, go back to their country, and share their expertise in whatever they do. And make their country better.

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HOWELL: In the race for the White House, Donald Trump is pushing back against efforts to link him to the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.

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HOWELL: He re-tweeted a supporters post that Hillary Clinton said a KKK member was her mentor. Speaking in Iowa, he also dredged up Clinton's past use of the term super predator. Trump this week had repeated claims that he will do well among African-American voters.

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HOWELL: The retired basketball player turned author Kareem Abdul- Jabbar has written a new book that takes a look at American society. It's called "Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White. CNN's Poppy Harlow sat down with the sport's legend to talk about this election season and race relations in the United States.

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In recent weeks we have seen Donald Trump speak about African-Americans.

TRUMP: You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

HARLOW: What was your reaction to that?

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR, RETIRED BASKETBALL PLAYER: My reaction to that was if he -- if he wanted to address African-Americans, he should come and speak to them. A number of different African-American groups that are politically connected have invited him to speak to them --

[04:45:12]

HARLOW: The NAACP?

ABDUL-JABBAR: The NAACP, and other groups. And, he hasn't done that.

HARLOW: His supporters push back and they say his speeches, even though they've been in front of largely white audiences, are on national television, so he is speaking to African-Americans. What do you make of that?

ABDUL-JABBAR: I think that he should come and speak to African- Americans specifically, and give them some specific ideas as to how he plans to change things. Because he only speaks in generalities. And he's very vague. He says he's going to make it better but he never says how.

HARLOW: Is there anything he can do? Is there anything he can say that you think would increase the support he has among African-Americans?

ABDUL-JABBAR: I don't know. But he hasn't tried to do anything. He's just talked about it. And you know, talk is cheap. The only Republican politician I've seen that actually said something along those lines, and I believed him that he meant it, was Rand Paul. And he wanted to talk in the black community about conservative solutions for chronic unemployment, and the failure of the educational system. But I think Mr. Trump's posturing has been very insincere.

HARLOW: To be clear you're a big supporter of Hillary Clinton in this election.

ABDUL-JABBAR: Yes, I am.

HARLOW: A recent "New York Times" poll on race relations showed that Americans think that race relations in this country right now are as bad as they were in 1992, after the Rodney King beating and the ensuing L.A. Riots. And you write in your new book that America essentially patted itself on the back for electing the first black President. But then, "the systemic racism in the country seemed to get worse." Why?

ABDUL-JABBAR: I think the systemic racism in the country got to be more pronounced because it became more obvious. And it's always been there. But now, it became a lot more obvious. And I think that that's really --

HARLOW: Why did it become more obvious? Because we have a black President?

ABDUL-JABBAR: I don't -- I -- that's a good question. I don't have the answer for that.

HARLOW: Hmm.

ABDUL-JABBAR: But I think it just -- people started to realize, geez, something's -- something's not right here.

HARLOW: You have said being a black role model is a double edged sword for inspiration and frustration. Was there a particular experience that taught you that? What made you feel that?

ABDUL-JABBAR: People would say that -- well, look, certain black Americans are now among the wealthiest Americans that means that if they make it, all the other black Americans should be able to achieve that. And, people without the educational background to advance their lives don't make it. And it doesn't matter what color they are. So we have to deal with the facts here. It's not about color. It's more about class than anything else.

HARLOW: The tools for upward mobility.

ABDUL-JABBAR: The tools for upward mobility have to be available and people have to take advantage of them, and it's the most difficult on the people who need it the most.

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HOWELL: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar speaking on race relations and the election in the United States. You can hear more of his interview with my colleague Poppy Harlow by logging onto our website money.cnn.com.

Rock climbing is one of the few sports coming to the Olympics in 2020.

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HOWELL: We will introduce you to an amazing young star who's already good to go for the world stage.

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[04:50:22]

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RILEY: I'm Kate Riley with CNN World Sport headlines. English premier league action where Jose Mourinho's Manchester United look to continue their fine start to the season. They traveled to Hull City and on a miserable rain? Night United needed more than a full 90 minutes to get the win. Substitute Marcus Rashford put away a cross from Wayne Rooney in the second minute of stoppage time United takes it 1-0 giving them three wins out of three to start the year for the first time in four seasons.

Now just two weeks ago Liverpool traveled down to London and ended up beating Arsenal in a seven-goal thriller. A fortnight on though Jurgen Klopp's men went back in north London, this time they faced Tottenham. The visitors struck first when James Milner converted a penalty just before halftime. Spurs struck back when Danny Rose equalized in the 72nd minute.

Not the goal fest the fans were not hoping for this one would finish 1-1 at White Hart Lane. And there's good news and bad news for Formula one champion Lewis Hamilton. The bad news after yet another engine change in the Belgian Grand Prix the Brit's starting grid penalty has risen to a whopping 55 places. The good news is only 22 cars in the race. Fernando Alonso also picked up a heavy penalty so Hamilton can't be any further back than 21st on the grid.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RILEY: That's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

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HOWELL: Having withdrawal from Rio 2016, do you miss it? Well it's a little early to start forecasting the next summer Olympics, Tokyo 2020 but the addition of a few new sports, including rock climbing, will certainly bring in a whole new cast of stars. CNN's Patrick Snell introduces you to one of them.

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PATRICK SNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At only 15 years of age Ashima Shiraishi may well be the best rock climber the world has seen. Four years from now there's a good chance she'll be a household name in the U.S. as she's considered one of America's best prospects for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where climbing has just been sanctioned as an official sport.

ASHIMA SHIRAISHI, 15 YEAR OLD ROCK CLIMBER: It's really interesting because the format that's going to be in the Olympics has never been, you know has never been happened ever before in any other competition. But basically there's three disciplines of climbing and it's sport climbing and bouldering and speed climbing.

So for sport and bouldering, it's basically just getting to the top that's the most important thing and just getting higher or just completing the climb. But then tor speed climbing, it's about time. So you have to go up the wall as quickly as you can. But then at the end they're going to combine the scores of how well you do on all three of the disciplines. So basically you have to be good at all of them which is going to be a challenge.

SNELL: As for the challenge of growing the sport, rock climbing has benefitted from the rise of climbing gyms that have popped up. Beforehand it was really only a sport attempted by those close to mountain ranges. But by being brought up in New York City, Ashima started her climbing career on the rock walls of a Brooklyn gym before graduating to the real rocks found in Central Park.

SHIRAISHI: Since you are a baby, you walk or just crawl, then you climb. It's just something that's very natural. And for me that's how I found climbing so interesting. It's because you don't really need to know much to be able to climb. All you have to do is just climb up the rock.

[04:55:12]

SNELL: Memory described as a bouldering phenom Ashima is particularly excited by the Tokyo games because it's taking place in the country of her parents' birth. Nevertheless the inspirational moments that just took place at the Rio Olympics have clearly left an impression.

SHIRAISHI: There are so many athletes that I'm really inspired by. But I would say Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt and Simone Biles probably are the most inspirational for me. They inspire me because they prove that there are no boundaries in sports and I guess history and all these barriers are meant to be broken.

SNELL: History beckons for the teenager who may well inspire the next generation of rock climbers to break barriers of their own.

Patrick Snell, CNN.

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HOWELL: Patrick, thank you. So do you like pizza? And could you imagine pizza when you wanted to just fall from the sky, your dream might just become reality. All thanks to domino's pizza hoping soon to begin food deliveries by drone in New Zealand.

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HOWELL: By drone. Customers will be notified when the drone is approaching. They go outside, they hit a button on their smartphone and then the drone will lower that pizza on a tether. Domino's says the test deliveries will begin to customers next month by drone.

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HOWELL: That's the brave new world we're in. Thanks for being with us for "CNN Newsroom." I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I will be back after the break with more news from around the world. Stay with us