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Migrants Try to Flee Camp at Hungary-Serbia Border; Germany Expects 800,000 Asylum Applications; France to Accept 24,000 Refugees; Cameron Questioned over Drone Strike in Libya; Pope Francis Enacts New Church Reforms; Austria to Improve Conditions for Refugees; Lion Killer Returns to Work. Aired 10-11 ET

Aired September 08, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00]

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Lynda Kinkade at the CNN Center.

There is a warning that more asylum seekers will be streaming into Europe as the migrant crisis continues to lead the news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE (voice-over): These pictures we're about to show you from the Hungarian border with Serbia illustrate the urgency of the problem. You

see frustrated migrants running away from a holding area because they are afraid they are going to get stuck there.

Our Arwa Damon has been walking, even running alongside those migrants who broke out of the holding area in Hungary. Arwa joins us now from Hungary,

from near the border with Serbia.

Arwa, just explain what's happening now.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are at the tail end of this procession, following the police. The bulk of the refugees who

broke out are right in front of this last line. The police did manage to catch up with them and we can't really tell at this stage if the police are

leaving them somewhere or if they are just accompanying them. We do know at one point they circled them around a field They tried to manage which

direction they were going in. They failed.

The men at the front of this procession pushed through the lines once again. We also did see the police stopping a single car -- train on this

track to allow people to pass in front of it.

A lot of those we're talking to, themselves also unclear about where they are going. All they know is that they want to keep moving. That, for

them, is the most essential thing at this point.. The reason why they broke out, well, the area that they were being held in is meant to be a

transit camp or a transit holding area that is the place that they stop at just as soon as they cross from Serbia into Hungary.

But many of them were really fed up and angry at the fact that they had been waiting for hours, some of them for days and the conditions there are

less than ideal. It is quite grim and they didn't understand why they were not able to move on and get to the transit camp they were supposed to be

going to -- or so they thought.

So they finally decided to push through. This was not organized. This was not coordinated. This happened very quickly and all at once. A small

group managed to break through the police cordon that encircled this holding area and then everybody else just broke through.

Many of them running up, leaving behind what little belongings they had, others discarding them along the way because initially they were bolting.

They were running as fast as they possibly could. Parents were carrying their children to try to get through and get as far away from the police

force.

But the police did eventually catch up to them, a lot of them discarding their meager belongings along the way. Lynda, one of the tougher things we

witnessed were these two children, a brother and a sister, who lost their shoes and were walking barefoot.

And I can tell you we are walking along a train track and the ground, the stones -- I'm just going to show you what they are having to walk on --

these little children are walking on this in their bare feet.

We were talking to their mother early, just like, what are we supposed to do? We have to keep going. We can't stop. Our children have had to grow

up before their time in their homeland -- this is a family that was from Syria -- and now we thought we were going to be saving them by bringing

them here to Europe, but instead we are finding ourselves in all of these situations, putting them through all of this.

It's just another sign of their desperation, the fact that they are going to these extreme measures to keep moving. That's how badly they want to

get to their final destination. That's how emotionally, mentally, and physically frayed they are at this stage.

They believe, they hope that, once they get to Austria or Germany or wherever it is in Western Europe that they are going, that they will

finally be able to relax for a bit.

This is something very simple, but it's something that a lot of these people have not been able to do at this stage, not for a very, very long

time.

KINKADE: And, Arwa, does it seem that --

[10:05:00]

KINKADE: -- they have had any resistance from police there?

Just give us a sense of where exactly you are and where these train tracks lead.

DAMON: I don't really know. I know that these train tracks lead away from the Serbian border. I do believe that we are heading towards the main

highway that, if one were to be crossing through the normal official large crossing point or at least one of them, I believe that is the direction

that we are heading in.

But we literally cut through various different fields, cornfields, sunflower fields and then they moved up onto these train tracks. The

concept that they have in their minds, that these train tracks will eventually lead them through the country all the way possibly to Budapest

and beyond. No one is entirely sure.

In fact, a lot of them are trying to figure out if anyone had a cell phone battery, trying to GPS exactly where they're going. Again, this was a very

unplanned effort. Unlike the march that you perhaps would have seen on Friday along the highway from Budapest to Vienna, where people went out in

the thousands and then it was broadcast and aid and assistance came out, we're not really seeing any of that here.

This happened quickly in a very remote part of the country and we have been walking away from the main road at this stage.

Keep this in mind, too. We have been going for about three hours now and these people, these kids have been without water, having to walk this

entire way for about three hours, all of them understandably exhausted, along with their parents and everyone else.

KINKADE: No doubt, no doubt at all. You showed us earlier the razor wire fence that divides Hungary and Serbia and the plans -- obviously they're

building a permanent fence.

Is that still on track to be finished by next week and what impact do you think that will have on the flow of refugees?

DAMON: They say they are trying to finish it as quickly as possible before they actually get the actual wall into place. They are not building a

fence, they are building a permanent wall. Before they get that into place, they do have, as we have been showing our viewers, these huge coils

of concertina wire that now effectively demarcate a border where in the past there was none.

They then plan on building this wall. Opponents of the government, those who do not support what the government is doing when it comes to handling

this whole entire crisis, believe that that will create more problems than is going to provide solutions.

They believe it is going to not impede the flow of people coming through, but simply make it more difficult and more dangerous for them to actually

get into Hungary. Because people are so determined to get where they want to go. No matter what stands in their way, they will find a certain way to

be able to get through.

It will also send more and more people towards the smugglers who, as we have seen, sadly, do not necessarily have these refugees' best interests at

heart. The other thing that is quite concerning is that next week new legislation is supposed to be going into place that basically is going to

shut down entirely that whole southern border between Hungary and Serbia.

No one coming across it, if they are caught or if they hand themselves over to the authorities, is going to be allowed to transit through Hungary.

They will be held at camps along the border, where they can either apply for asylum in Hungary of they are free to leave but they are only free to

leave in the direction of Serbia.

So that's another reason, too, why perhaps we are seeing this fairly large rush right now, the larger numbers coming across the border because it's

already quite difficult and it is only going to get more difficult in the future.

KINKADE: No doubt. It's some incredible pictures you've brought us. Our thanks to you, Arwa Damon, and your team. And we will check in with you

again soon.

The European Commission has crafted a plan for new country by country quotas to help take in refugees. It's part of an effort to find a home for

as many as 160,000 people seeking asylum.

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KINKADE (voice-over): According to Reuters, the countries you see here in red will be called upon to do the most, especially Germany and France. The

plan is designed to take pressure off Hungary, Italy and Greece. States can buy their way out by paying a small percentage of their GDP.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel supports the quotas, calling them an important first step. Let's get more from our Atika Shubert in Berlin.

Atika, Germany, of course, is taking the lion's share of asylum seekers. You're near the temporary homes Germany will use for refugees. They appear

to be shipping containers. Just explain what --

[10:10:00]

KINKADE: -- refugees can expect.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Basically I'm standing in front of what is an apartment block of shipping containers that are bolted

together and they can be bundled together so that they're made into one- bedroom apartments, enough for a family, each with a kitchenette, a toilet and there are also communal kitchens and showers on every floor as well.

But it does take time and money to build these. This took about five months and still construction is going on here. It will house about 300

people. But what Germany is saying is that it needs to build 150,000 temporary homes for the refugees coming in. That is a lot to handle.

What the German chancellor has done has rallied the country in her speeches, saying even though this is a crisis that will change the country,

the country is up to the challenge. However, she cautions that Germany can't be the only one. This is why those quotas are so important, to

spread the burden across the E.U.

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ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): We really need to discuss about a joint and overarching asylum policy and we, Sweden and

Germany, are of the view that binding quota actually are to be applied so that refugees can be fairly distributed to the European member states.

Unfortunately, we are a long way off this target.

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SHUBERT: Now those quotas are dependent on how big the country is and how well the economy is doing and the population. Consider that Germany has

promised to consider 800,000 refugee applications, that's just 1 percent of the population. And that's what Germany is asking other countries in the

E.U., to do the same. Take in 1 percent of their total population.

KINKADE: And Atika, the vice chancellor in Germany spoke about perhaps taking as much as a half million refugees next year and the year after. It

seems that Angela Merkel would not weigh in to speaking about the numbers.

SHUBERT: I think the government is willing to talk about the numbers for this year. The forecasting for the years ahead is a much more difficult

proposition. They want to see how this works out, if there is a joint asylum policy that can be handled by the E.U. and of course it's not just

the quotas. It's also reception centers in countries to make sure that any refugees coming in can be treated humanely and registered in those humane

conditions.

So I think she is refraining from that for now, but it's very clear that Angela Merkel has taken the lead and by doing so she really has forced

other E.U. countries to change their policies as well.

KINKADE: Taking the lead and she is being seen as a hero amongst migrants. Atika Shubert, thank you very much for that update.

Meanwhile in France, President Francois Hollande has agreed to take in another 24,000 migrants. Senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann

joins us now from Paris with more on all of that.

And, Jim, President Hollande has spoken of the need to act, as he said, without calculation or delay.

What did he say about the refugee intake?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: He said several things. We had a news conference from him yesterday; had a speech from him this

morning basically saying that France will welcome the numbers that you suggested there.

We heard from his interior minster just about an hour ago and he spelled out in more precise terms exactly what he is talking about; 5,000 will be

coming into public housing units around France; 4,000 will be coming into reception centers and 1,500 in a temporary emergency shelter. That's the

initial group that they are looking at.

They also have sent, as of yesterday, they sent two teams, two of the agencies here in France that screen refugees, to Munich and they are there,

going to bring back the first 1,000 or so refugees from Munich within the next 24 to 48 hours.

So there is a movement here to bringing people and resettling them. There is also some pushback here because we heard from the interior minister this

morning at least one town has refused to take any refugees who are not Christian.

And the mayor there, the logic of the mayor there, he said he believes if they can't answer questions about Christianity, they may be Muslims and if

they are Muslims, they may be terrorists. That's his philosophy. That was a town of about 35,000 down in the Loire valley.

But it's not representative of what we are seeing. Basically the representatives of mayors who are meeting with the interior minister today

and they have agreed to take on refugees all over the country as long as the national government supports them with various kinds of aid packages to

help pay for all of this.

We are going to see a mayor's meeting on Saturday here with a much larger number of mayors themselves who will be coming to Paris --

[10:15:00]

BITTERMANN: -- to meet with the interior minster -- Lynda.

KINKADE: And Jim, Germany, it seems, wants a political solution to the crisis in Syria, but seems France is more focused on a military solution.

BITTERMANN: Well, France has been saying all along, a political solution is the only way to go in Syria and I think they still believe that.

However, that's not working well. The coalition has been trying military means now for more than a year.

So bow they have indicated that they will join the coalition. They've indicated that by today launching the first two reconnaissance flights over

Syria. They haven't been doing that; they've been doing reconnaissance and attack flights over Iraq but this is the first time they are flying in

over Syria, looking at ISIS targets.

I would suppose in the next couple of days that they have isolated some targets and will go on attack against them. So essentially they are saying

military means now, just because the idea of finding any kind of political solution and getting rid of the current regime in Syria has not come to

fruition at all -- Lynda.

KINKADE: OK, Jim Bittermann in Paris, thank you very much.

Still to come at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, David Cameron faces some tough questions. Coming up, the British prime minister gets scrutinized for a

drone strike in Syria without (INAUDIBLE) permission.

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KINKADE: Welcome back.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron is now facing some heat after announcing a U.K. drone strike in Syria that killed two ISIS fighters from

Britain. Some are questioning the legality of the attack since Parliament voted against a military action in Syria back in 2013. Our Nic Robertson

joins us now from London with more on all of this.

And, Nic, this drone strike was the first time Britain has ever carried out such an act outside of war.

What has been in reaction there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly some people think that anyone who goes off to join ISIS is really already

taking a stand there against the country and certainly the propaganda videos from ISIS that have been put out by these two young men, Reyaad Khan

and Ruhul Amin, does seem to support that.

There is concern from human rights lawyers here and from opposition MPs that the British government shouldn't have done this without getting full

political support of the Parliament.

But Prime Minister David Cameron has said very, very clearly that he sought the advice of the attorney general here. It was positive advice that he

was doing this that the country had done this out of national interest, to protect national interests that these young men were plotting and planning

attacks in the U.K. And the only way to disrupt those attacks were by targeting them inside Syria.

So he has been very clear; we heard from the defense minister saying today that if the situation arises again, they will strike.

[10:20:00]

ROBERTSON: And of course, that vote back in September 2013 was a different scenario, because David Cameron went to the Parliament to ask permission to

use the British Air Force with manned aircraft to essentially target the government of President Bashar al-Assad. This is a different scenario now.

This is ISIS on the ground inside Syria, British citizens among them.

And David Cameron does expect or is hoping to have a vote on action inside Syria, on whether or not the British government should run inside Syria,

fly manned aircraft on bombing runs against ISIS as it does in Iraq already. He is hoping to do that sometime next month.

So it does seem to sort of set the agenda in those terms. And he, again, is very clear that he does have legal authority, the government has legal

authority to do this -- Lynda.

KINKADE: So, Nic, would you say that this could be the turning point?

Could the refugee crisis coupled with this targeted strike into Syria, be the turning point for Britain's involvement in the war in Syria?

ROBERTSON: It is certainly building in that direction. Britain's not the only country that's asking the question, to solving the problem of the

refugees. You have to go to the root of the problem. You heard President Francois Hollande in France today, saying that ISIS needed to be brought in

front of the International Criminal Court, that he believes that solving the problem -- or partly solving the problem of the refugees is tackling

ISIS inside Syria.

So this certainly the way that David Cameron is leading the government at the moment and certainly the issue of the refugees has crystallized that

and targeting these two British citizens inside Syria, members of ISIS, is a step in that direction. As mentioned it does appear that we may see more

of that -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, indeed. Nic Robertson in London, thank you very much.

Still to come on the INTERNATIONAL DESK, Pope Francis is making major changes to how Catholics can get marriage annulments. Those details just

ahead.

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KINKADE: Welcome back. Pope Francis is simplifying the process for Catholics how want to annul their marriages. The changes are expected to

speed up a process the pope has previously called "long and burdensome."

It's all part of the pope's push for the Catholic Church to become more welcoming. Let's bring in our Vatican correspondent, Delia Gallagher, for

more on all of this.

And Delia, it seems in short that the annulment of marriage will now take less time and cost less.

What is the Vatican doing?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Lynda. Those were the two major complaints, let's say, about the annulment process. It

could take anywhere from one to five years to get an annulment. And the cost involved could be from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand

dollars.

So what the Vatican announced today is that the pope says the process should be free with the exception of some nominal charges for

administration because there are, of course, people who work in the church tribunals.

The way the annulment process happens is it starts at the local level in what they call a diocese in a tribunal there. And what normally has

happened is that there are two grades of --

[10:25:00]

GALLAGHER: -- let's say, trying to decide and judge what the verdict will be.

So those two tribunals, both needed to independently look at the case. What the pope has done, in order to streamline the process, is get rid of

one of those tribunals.

So the process will obviously be shortened now by saying that the verdict of the first tribunal of the case of the annulment can stand. In addition,

the pope has added a kind of fast track which is put under the direct responsibility of the bishop in cases, which he says are more evident,

where it is obvious that the annulment should be granted, for example, the brevity of the marriage, if there was coercion at the time of the wedding,

if there was an extramarital relationship, for example, at the time of the wedding. So those are a couple of the major changes that the pope has

instituted today to help streamline this annulment process -- Lynda.

KINKADE: So, Delia, when will these changes all come into effect? And isn't it expected that this will lead to an increase in couples who are

struggle with their marriages to seek an annulment?

GALLAGHER: It comes into effect on December 8th. That is the beginning of the Year of Mercy that Pope Francis has wanted for some time, to bring

people back into the church.

The thing about annulments is it's not really directed at people who are necessarily married, it's directed at people who are already divorced and

who want to get remarried in the Catholic Church. Because the problem is you can't get remarried until you have an annulment.

This topic has been discussed for the last year, quite hotly debated here at the Vatican and will be discussed again in October, about giving

communion to people who are in this situation, that they have not bothered to get an annulment because, again, they thought it was costly and time-

consuming. But they're in a new relationship and in some cases they want to get married again in the Catholic Church.

So these people are in a kind of irregular situation. They are not allowed to receive communion at the moment and the debate is should we give them

communion, should we not give them communion?

By making these changes to the annulment prices, they are able to get around this because they say you can now get an annulment; annul your first

marriage, which, in some cases, happened 10-20 years ago, then you are free to have another Catholic marriage and then you can receive communion.

Receiving communion, of course, is important because it's a sign of your good standing, as it were, with the Catholic Church -- Lynda.

KINKADE: OK, Delia Gallagher, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you for that update.

Still to come here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, Hungary is struggling to deal with a massive flux of refugees. They want to head west to Germany and

Austria which is now pledging to improve conditions for asylum seekers.

We'll have the details on that at the IDESK, just ahead.

Also ahead, the dentist who killed Cecil the lion is back in the public spotlight. What he faced on his return to work when we come back.

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KINKADE: Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Lynda Kinkade. And here are the headlines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE (voice-over): Hundreds of frustrated migrants have broken out of a holding center in Southern Hungary near the Serbian border. A massive

influx of migrants and refugees is straining Hungary's resources and the country is being the site of dramatic scenes at train stations and camps.

Most of the refugees are trying to get to move west to Austria and Germany.

The German chancellor is calling for mandatory migrant quotas for E.U. members. Angela Merkel said all states must step up to deal with the

escalating crisis and put a common policy into practice. She says the crisis has to be solved in the spirit of European solidarity.

Pope Francis is simplifying the process for Catholics who want to annul their marriages. The pope has called the current system "long and

burdensome." Changes to speed up the process take effect on December 8th, the start of what the church calls the Holy Year of Mercy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Austria's chancellor says the country's making extra provisions for refugees and migrants as winter approaches. That's according to

Reuters. The country is anticipating thousands of new arrivals.

Our Fred Pleitgen has been following this from Vienna and he joins us now.

Frederik, so many refugees have come through where you are over the weekend. It seems to be starting to ease now. Austria's saying it will

phase out these emergency measures soon and resume the normal European laws.

Any indication of when that could happen?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems as though they are in the process of making that happen, Lynda. I spoke a

little earlier today with the spokesman for the Austrian interior ministry and he says that, at this point, at least, as far as the police is

concerned, they are going back to business as usual.

Now of course that by no means will mean that Austria will close its border; it means that they simply go back to the usual process that they

have under the Schengen agreement, which is of course, the borderless area here in -- or the open border area here in the European Union.

So what you'll have is instead of a full-time border control, you'll have police here and there, checking vehicles, checking to see, in particular,

if there's any people smugglers out there, or checking vehicles. You'll have people every once in a while getting on trains. But by and large, it

still will be an open border just like it is now.

Now there was more to these emergency measures, of course, because on the other hand, there was also an Austrian railway company that was using

special trains to ferry people from the Austrian border, to here, to Vienna but then also from Vienna to Munich. That has largely also stopped as

well. But there are still some special trains going from here to Germany because of course, the demand for that at this point is so very high with

the hundreds of migrants that we've been seeing coming through this railway station. Today was supposed to be somewhat of a slower day.

But I can tell you we have seen well over 1,000 refugees come through the station just today -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Wow, still a huge number of refugees.

Frederik, public opinion has certainly swayed in support of settling refugees in Germany and France. We've heard hundreds of volunteers in

Austria, where you are, providing transport for immigrants.

But give us a sense of the bigger picture. What's the public opinion there and where does Austria sit when it comes to quotas?

PLEITGEN: Well, Austria seems to be in favor of quotas. It's interesting because one of the things that the Austrian chancellor said is he said that

he believes that more of Europe is necessary rather than less Europe. And that seems to indicate that they believe that other countries need to share

the burden or need to do more to share the burden of these many refugees coming in and other countries need to accept more of those refugees.

Of course, the Germans are for quotas, mandatory quotas. It's not clear when the Austrian government is for that as well. But it seems as though

both of these countries say that the Dublin agreement that as it currently stands, which of course means that the country where refugees enter is also

the country where they have to register as asylum seekers, that that is something that simply cannot be upheld anymore.

As far as public opinion is concerned, it is also very remarkable to see that public opinion remained so stable in the corner of wanting to help

these refugees. You don't just see here, of course, in Vienna, you see it in Germany as well, with people making major donations.

And what's even more important, Lynda, I think, is people really donating a lot of their time to help these folks -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, it's really, really good to see, especially after what so many went through in Budapest. Frederik Pleitgen, we appreciate your time

again today. We will talk to you soon. Thank you.

The U.N. special representative for international --

[10:35:00]

KINKADE: -- migration says the whole world needs to help with this migrant crisis. Peter Sutherland spoke earlier with CNN. He said everyone must

step up to taking refugees, including nations on other continents.

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PETER SUTHERLAND, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR MIGRATION: The member states of the problem, not Brussels or at least some of them. We were

talking here for one thing for some of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, some of whom have even said that they will only take Christian

refugees which runs counter to the very principles of humanitarian action, which should be based on the dignity of the human person rather than their

race.

This is unacceptable.

A second point I would like to make is this and this is very important. All over the world, there is understandable frustration with the

incoherence and incomplete nature of the European response, where all or substantial numbers arrive in Greece and Italy and are deposited there,

having been saved in the Mediterranean by ships from all over Europe and then left to Italy and Greece to handle.

This is all incoherent and unsatisfactory. But it also has to be said that the definition of responsibility for migrants and for refugees isn't based

on proximity. Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan are closest to Syria and carry between them millions of refugees.

Europe is next. But this is a global problem. And there are whole swaths of the world who are not taking responsibility for this. Virtually no

refugees have been accepted in the Middle East. There are countries in the Middle East who say that they have never signed the convention to protect

refugees.

That is irrelevant. Forget about conventions. This is a question of humanitarian response. When the Vietnamese boat people issue arose, all

over the world, responsibility was taken. And now we need and we need to convene a meeting of some kind to get on the table the offers, financial

and in terms of taking refugees from every part of the world. North America, Latin America and Asia. This is not just a problem for those who

are located closest to the problem.

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KINKADE: And if you want to help the refugees, we have on our website a list of aid groups working on the ground, from teams dedicated to rescuing

migrants in the Mediterranean to groups providing food to young refugees. It's all at cnn.com/impact.

We will be back after this short break.

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KINKADE: Welcome back. The U.S. dentist who killed Cecil the lion --

[10:40:00]

KINKADE: -- is back at work after more than a month out of the public eye. Walter Palmer was greeted by cameras and a few protesters as he arrived at

his practice in Minnesota.

It's the first time he's been there since the international uproar over Cecil's death. Our Boris Sanchez has been following this story for us from

New York. He joins us now.

And, Boris, when this story first broke about six weeks ago, a lot of patients said they would no longer see Dr. Palmer.

What's the situation today? Any patients, many protesters; how much security?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have yet to get a clear sign, Lynda, of how many patients the doctor may see today, what work is that there were

protesters, a handful of them, outside of his office, some of them chanting, "Extradite Palmer," as he walked into his office.

It wasn't the same kind of response we saw in the weeks after we had the revelation that he was the man that killed Cecil the lion, where you

couldn't get into his office. There were massive crowds outside, very aggressive crowds outside.

And even though initially local police said that they would not have a preventive presence there, we did see some officers on hand amongst the

crowd. We also noted that there was someone that appeared to be a bodyguard walking in the office with Palmer. It appears he is not taking

any chances, knowing the rancor and vitriol we saw from the crowds there before.

KINKADE: That's right, Boris. He was certainly a target on social media for a very long time. He was called a killer, Satan, a poor excuse of a

human being. But it wasn't just him, his family members were also targeted.

SANCHEZ: There were serious threats made toward his family as well. He says that's part of the reason he stepped out of the public eye for several

weeks, for family security issues. He has asked since then in an interview with the AP that came out this weekend that his family receive privacy. He

is questioning the humanity, I'm quoting him, of those who have threatened his family online.

KINKADE: OK, Boris Sanchez, we will have to leave it there for now, but we will talk to you about this a bit more soon. Thank you.

That does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Lynda Kinkade. But don't go anywhere. "WORLD SPORT" with Christina Macfarlane is up next.

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