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CNN NEWSROOM

Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders Surging in the Polls; Huge Explosion in Tianjin, China; ISIS Beheads Croatian Hostage; U.S. Using Key Turkish Air Base to Strike ISIS; Top North Korean Official Missing; China Allows Currency to Fall for Third Day; Solving the $500 Million Art Heist; Kenya's Mission to Save Elephants in Danger; Aired 12-1:00a ET

Aired August 12, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: He's still in front. Donald Trump leading the Republican field in the race for the White House. Our latest opinion poll just ahead.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: And China fireball. Explosions so powerful they registered as earthquakes leaving dozens dead and injured.

VAUSE: Penning an apology. The giant pen maker Bic says sorry for offending women with an ad campaign many thought was sexist.

ASHER: A warm welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Glad to be with you. I am Zain Asher.

VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. And this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, despite a wobbly debate performance and a feud with FOX News the latest CNN/ORC poll shows Donald Trump is still leading the Republican field in the race for the White House. Trump is up eight points in Iowa, the first state to vote in the U.S. primary. Political novice and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson comes in second, while former Florida governor Jeb Bush has fallen to seventh place.

ASHER: And in fact Jeb Bush actually laid out his strategy to fight ISIS on Tuesday. And he also took the opportunity to take aim at Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama over their Iraq policy. But fellow Republican Donald Trump switched the tables. He blasted Jeb Bush and his brother on that issue.

I want you to listen to what he told my colleague Jake Tapper earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unlike Jeb Bush, unlike the brother, unlike in the brother, you know, who got us into the whole war, I was totally opposed to the war. You look at 2004, Reuters in July of 2004, headline, "Trump Opposes War in Iraq."

I am the most militaristic person you will ever meet. However, you have to know when to go and when to use the military. They used it at the wrong point. And I said, there'll be a total imbalance of the Middle East, Iran will take over Iraq. Lots of bad people like ISIS will take over the oil. And that's exactly what happened.

I turned out -- and I'm the only one of all of the candidates running, I am the only one, the absolute only one that opposed the war. So, you know, one of those things. And you could call that vision, to be honest with you, Jake. You could call that vision. And I'm very proud of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Donald Trump saying exactly what's on his mind. And as a fellow Democrat no major changes. Hillary Clinton remains in the lead in Iowa with 50 percent support. Senator Bernie Sanders is in a very distant second place. Vice President Joe Biden has yet to decide whether he'll run for president but if he does he certainly has some catching up to do. He's at third place at 12 percent.

VAUSE: Donald Trump leading the polls is an old story by now. But what is new and almost staggering is the lead Trump holds on almost every key issue. Look at this. Best for the economy, Donald Trump, preferred by a mile. Saying who will be best in immigration, Trump by a margin of 3-1. He even leads on the question of who would best handle terrorism. And here's the biggie. Who has the best chance of winning the election, again Donald J. Trump.

If you weren't taking Donald Trump's run for the White House seriously then perhaps now might be a good time to start.

To walk us through these latest poll numbers Republican strategist Rich Galen is in Washington. He joins us now.

Rich, I get it, it's one poll, it's one state. The Iowa caucus will be held in February next year, but still what do you make of the numbers?

RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, numbers are numbers. And in American politics, when you're leading you take them as biblical in terms of their importance and if you're not leading you remind everybody that they're just a snapshot in time. They're not predictive, which is actually very useful to remember.

But four years ago -- I'm not sure your viewers these names will mean a lot to all of your viewers. But four years ago a woman named Michele Bachmann, a member of Congress, Newt Gingrich, a guy named Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum, all led the polls at one point or another four years ago. And of course Mitt Romney became the nominee.

So you want to be in first but if you can't be in first you look for reasons why it doesn't matter. And I think that's what the other 16 campaigns are doing.

VAUSE: Yes. But then again the argument is that Trump is running a different campaign this time, and it's more Reaganesque and all the rest. But if you look at those numbers, what is surprising is that Ben Carson, the brain surgeon, how did he get into second place? And also for Jeb Bush if these numbers hold, and it's a big if, is that curtain -- is that over for him? Is it curtains for him?

GALEN: No. Well, again, if these numbers hold, yes. But the question is, will these numbers hold and I think the answer to that is no. I mean, Donald Trump is a -- is a kind of celebrity act and sooner or later that's just stars.

Ben Carson is a very well spoken, very honest, very thoughtful guy but I -- you know, he doesn't know anything -- he's never been in politics. A lot like Herman Cain was four years ago. And it's difficult to believe that when people actually begin to pay attention all the way down the road next February that he'll still be in second place.

[00:05:14] I think going to your question about Jeb Bush, he's got $100 something million in the bank. He is probably -- most people would think that he's the leader in the clubhouse, so to speak, and he's got the time and the money to be able to wait out to see how this whole thing sorts out until there are not 17, but 12, and eight, and maybe four, and then they've got enough to really turn on the after burners and make something happen. Maybe not in Iowa but certainly in New Hampshire, South Carolina.

VAUSE: OK. Let's get -- let's move to the Democratic side of things because Bernie Sanders surging in the polls again, and this is in New Hampshire. Another early voting state for the primaries. How much is Bernie Sanders hurting the Hillary Clinton campaign and how much is Hillary Clinton hurting the Hillary Clinton campaign here?

GALEN: Well, they're both playing on each other. Bernie Sanders is drawing enormous crowds, I mean, 28,000, 30,000 people in August of the off-year. It's just -- it's unheard of. I don't understand what's going on but I don't pretend to understand how Democrats think. But the fact is, there was a poll that just came out, that showed him actually leading Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. And that's not something the Clintons wanted.

Mrs. Clinton of course is embroiled in this business about her e-mails when she was secretary of state. Just today it was announced that they have to turn over the server, the machine, to the FBI. So the weight of this stuff is causing people to think about whether or not she can -- you know, she can sustain herself. But it's turned into -- I'm not sure it's turned into a horse race because nobody believes that Bernie Sanders is going to be the nominee. But it's interesting to make her have to work for it a little bit harder.

VAUSE: Rich Galen, Republican strategist in Washington, great to speak with you. Thank you, sir.

GALEN: Thank you, John.

ASHER: So he may not be the frontrunner like Donald Trump, but Republican candidate John Kasich is certainly making a name for himself. He got plenty of attention for his answers to questions on same-sex marriage at last week's debate when he said yes, he does support traditional marriage but that doesn't mean he can't love and respect people who do believe in same-sex marriage.

Kasich sat down with CNN's Dana Bash and spoke about the Trump factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You thanked Donald Trump for being in the debate because you think he drew 24 million people, who also got a look at you.

(LAUGHTER)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. Yes.

BASH: You think he's a positive force in the GOP field?

KASICH: I think he's tapping into people's anxieties as I mentioned at the town hall because I think those anxieties are real. I think people about had it with frustrations in their lives connected to the government, connected to the loss of jobs. But I don't think people want to stay on the negative side. I think they want to know what the solutions are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: A "Boston Herald"/ Franklin Pierce University poll indicates that Kasich made a jump to third in the key state of New Hampshire following Thursday's debate.

VAUSE: And there is some sad news to report. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter says he has cancer and it has spread to various parts of his body. Mr. Carter says a recent liver surgery revealed the cancer.

ASHER: The 90-year-old says that he's now rearranging his public schedule so he can undergo treatment. He was elected president in 1976 and served just one term. Since then he has been a tireless campaigner for human rights around the world.

VAUSE: Well, to China now and the scene in the port city of Tianjin. This is it right now. You can see the smoke which is still billowing there, more than 12 hours after a massive blast rocked that city of more than 10 million people. It was a chemical fire. It was an explosion at a warehouse overnight.

ASHER: The explosions were so powerful they were felt miles away and could even be seen from space. At least 17 people are dead and hundreds injured. A state of emergency is in effect in the immediate area. But the explosions caused damage far from the warehouse district.

CNN's Will Ripley arrived there not long ago. He was reporting from a hospital where some of the injured were being treated when he was interrupted by security and victims' angry family members.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We really don't know what happened, as you said. But describe the area where it happened.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

RIPLEY: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Will Ripley is with us now from Tianjin.

So, Will, it's a little calmer there now. Describe the devastation around you.

[00:10:02] RIPLEY: It's remarkable, John. We're standing about two kilometers from the blast site itself. But you can see the effects of the shockwave on this car. First of all, it was -- it clearly caught on fire. It's been torn apart. And then if you look at this convention center just beyond the car, you can see the door or what was a door, kind of an entryway there, completely pushed in.

A lot of the -- a lot of the windows around here are smashed. We visited a housing block earlier and almost every single window of every apartment -- it's too far behind me so you can't -- we can't zoom in but many of those windows are gone. There are shards of glass on the ground. And a lot of people who were so terrified running out of their homes overnight when they heard these explosions they didn't have time to put on their shoes or even put on many clothes.

So a lot of injuries that the hospitals are seeing right now, and we have hundreds of people in various hospitals around the city, people cut themselves on the broken glass. That's probably the most common injury that we're seeing right now.

And then I want to show you something that's perhaps even more troubling off in the distance there. You can kind of make it out. It's a smoke plume just beyond those apartment blocks, those buildings. That's where the explosion happened. The fire is still burning right now. They haven't been able to put it out. And there is a bit of a chemical smell in the air. It is not as thick we're told as it was during the overnight hours. But it's enough to tickle your throat a little bit and make you wonder what exactly you're breathing in out here.

But most people that we see don't have masks. They're not handing them out. Just a couple of police officers and a few emergency personnel have been wearing masks. Everybody else is just walking around in these devastated streets trying to figure out what to do next -- John.

VAUSE: Will, it's incredible to think that's about a mile and a half away from where that blast happened. How do residents there describe this explosion? What do they feel at the time?

RIPLEY: We interviewed a couple of people actually here in this parking lot. They ran to this parking lot for safety because the house that they were in they say collapsed all around them. What happened, first of all, during the overnight hours they noticed the orange fireball outside of their window. They were asleep in their house. And then shortly after seeing the fireball, so bright that it actually woke them up out of bed, then they heard the loud explosion and then there was another explosion about 30 minutes later. So powerful that their house collapsed around them.

Strangers helped bury -- carry them out of the debris. They just grabbed a few of their belongings and they ran to safety. And a lot of people ended up we're told here. They have now since scattered about to other areas in the city. So a terrifying, sleepless night. And those are the folks who survived without any serious injury. There were a lot of people who had to go to the hospital. We saw a man moaning as he was wheeled in with very severe burns. And another man -- one of the men who interrupted us during our live shot, he was on the ground sobbing, saying why did they take her, why did they take my daughter away, why would god take my daughter?

We believe his daughter was one of the people killed. Understandably he and his friends and supporters were very emotional and upset that we were even there. And they certainly showed us, John. It's just a sign of how tense things are here after a very terrifying, long and sleepless night.

VAUSE: So, Will, is that essentially the background between that confrontation you had a little early today with the security officials and some of the residents there that were just upset that, what, international reporters had turned up to cover this?

RIPLEY: That's the impression that I got. They were -- as soon as they -- as soon as they mobbed me during my live shot, and it was -- it was civilians, there were police officers in the crowd but they kept shouting in Chinese, delete, delete. Erase your video. Erase your pictures. And I tried to explained to them, I wasn't -- I hadn't taken any video or pictures, that I was just talking into Skype, but of course that was lost in translation. Things got very heated.

At one point they were grabbing me, holding on to me, not letting me leave. But we were able to diffuse the situation and after a period of several minutes I was able to walk away unhurt. I'm fine. They are the ones who are not OK and I understand completely what they're going through and why they're angry. We're here trying to tell their stories, trying to show people what has happened because there are going to be a lot of people here now who need help as a result of this.

People who need help rebuilding their lives, people who've lost loved ones and people who need medical care. And we want to stay here and we want to tell those stories. Difficult time for everybody here -- John.

VAUSE: Yes. A lot of rattled nerves, to say the least.

Will Ripley in Tianjin, we appreciate you being with us. Thanks, Will. ASHER: OK. We want to take you to North Africa now where images

posted online appear to show the beheading of a Croatian hostage that was held by the Egyptian branch of ISIS.

VAUSE: The images, though, have not been verified, but if they are confirmed it could be the first time the militant group in Egyptian Sinai has captured and killed a foreigner.

Ian Lee has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Croatian Tomislav Salopek was a topographer for a French company. In July ISIS in Egypt kidnapped the father two and now it appears they have executed him.

[00:15:00] The Croatian government, while not able to confirm, fears the worst.

(On camera): This is the road where ISIS allegedly kidnapped Tomislav Salopek. As you can see, there is not much out here but desert. It goes for hundreds of kilometers deep into the Sahara, an area known in Egypt as the Western Desert, famous for adventure seekers and oil workers, but also known for being a bit unpredictable and at times dangerous. A year ago, out here, ISIS claims they killed an American oil worker.

(Voice-over): ISIS demanded the release of all female Muslim prisoners in Egypt in exchange for Salopek, giving the government 48 hours to comply, but the deadline passed.

MOKHTAR AWAD, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: That speaks to the heart of what's driving a lot of the angry Islamist youth inside Egypt who, in the patriarchal Muslim society of Egypt, is the issue of female honor is so dear that violence is always justified to protect it.

LEE: ISIS in Sinai routinely executes alleged spies and captured Egyptian soldiers. Hundreds of people have also died in clashes between security forces and the militants.

But this brutal, deliberate killing of a civilian marks a turning point for ISIS in Egypt.

AWAD: Unfortunately, in the long term, is that they might try to focus on more kind of shock-and-awe type attacks, stuff like we see with this poor Croatian man, where they're trying to maximize the level of perceived brutality.

LEE: Worrying for an Egyptian government that relies heavily on foreign investment and tourism and deeply disturbing for foreigners living in Egypt.

Ian Lee, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: And in fact, CNN actually reached out to Croatian and Egyptian officials who haven't confirmed Salopek's death. An official with Egypt's Interior Ministry says, I'm quoting here, "We have heard the news but we are working to confirm it."

VAUSE: Well, still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, Syria sees a surge in violence just hours before a high-level meeting to try and end the violence. More on that story coming up.

ASHER: Plus new concern from authorities in Portugal as a wildfire burns out of control at a national park.

VAUSE: And then later teaching orphan elephants to be wild again while keeping ivory poachers away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:21:21] ASHER: Iran's foreign minister has been meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss ways of ending the Syrian civil war that's been going on for several years now. Now a few details are coming out about Wednesday's meeting but Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif was expected to discuss a four-point peace plan he hopes to send to the United Nations.

VAUSE: Just hours, though, before the meeting a surge in violence between rebels and government forces left at least 36 people dead, dozens more wounded in the capital Damascus. These fatalities came as serious warring parties declared a 48-hour truce beginning early Wednesday. Since the civil war began back in 2011, more than 250,000 Syrians have been killed.

In the meantime, the U.S. is launching new airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. It's the first time the strikes have come from a base in southern Turkey.

ASHER: The agreement for the United States to use the Incirlik Air Base was reached last month.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen asked Syrian information minister for his reaction to the developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMRAN AL ZOUBI, SYRIAN INFORMATION MINISTER (Through Translation): The air raids led by the West, also known as the alliance raids, have been going on for a long time, so this is nothing new, but actually, what's in the mind of Turkish President Erdogan is not the intention to confront ISIS. It is to combat the Syrian Kurds, the Iraqi Kurds and the Turkish Kurds, so actually not any intention to confront ISIS.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you make of America's air campaign against ISIS?

ZOUBI (Through Translation): We have been clear since the onset of the airstrikes by the alliance. We support and we are with any party that combats ISIS by any means. Either we are with them or they are with us. But the problem lies with America. They say they want to confront ISIS, at the same time they don't want to cooperate with the forces that are fighting ISIS on the ground, which is the Syrian leadership. That's very confusing and very suspicious.

PLEITGEN: You said that in guerrilla warfare it's not always the territory that you win that matters. What do you think victory could look like?

ZOUBI (Through Translation): A victory would be the victory over terrorism, not of Syrians over Syrians. We would like the armed Syrian opposition to come to hold talks with us. And when we talk about terrorism, we mean Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and Ahrar al-Sham, who consider us infidels. This is the mentality we should confront.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Our Fred Pleitgen there reporting in from Damascus.

We move on now to Argentina. Severe flooding in parts of the country there has caused thousands of people to evacuate. Areas around Buenos Aires have been hit the hardest. But the unseasonal deluge, it all started a week ago. Officials say emergency crews are now being deployed in the city of Lujan that's seen here after a nearby river overflowed causing some major flooding.

ASHER: And Portugal has actually had the opposite problem. Fire crews have been battling a wildfire at a national park in Portugal that's threatening acres of re-planted forest. Now authorities say the fire which broke out on Monday didn't threaten people or homes, but it could destroy areas of strong environmental importance.

VAUSE: OK. Let's get a little bit more on the weather right now. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us.

Of course the fires in Portugal concern everybody. So what's the latest?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, this is a part of Portugal that's very popular with tourists. It's actually the highest region of Portugal into the mountains so a ski resorts typically but they're bone dry as we're seeing on the west coast of the United States with a lot of ski resorts. Much is the same on the west coast from the southwest area of Europe as well. So we'll jump right in. Just because in the last 10 days or so we've seen some 22,000 acres, about 9,000 hectares of land that have been scorched.

[00:25:02] And look at the perspective here. For not only areas of Spain but also on to northern Portugal. And that's a thermal signature of hundreds upon hundreds of fires that are scattered about this region. Extremely mountainous. Again, some areas getting up to about 2,000 meters or 6500 feet high. That's where the natural park is located. And when we talk about that, again I use that analogy of lighting a match and holding it straight, it gradually burns towards toward your finger, you kind of give it a slope and it rapidly burns towards your hand. And that's what's happening right here with the slope the firefighters have to deal with. Six hundred of them working on the flames out there.

And severe drought, that's in place for about 80 percent of Portugal and in Spain, next door it is far worse. That's off the charts there when it comes to the exceptional drought. In fact look at Madrid, 38 consecutive days, temperatures have been at 35 degrees Celsius or 95 Fahrenheit. They should be in the upper 80 Fahrenheit. 56 straight days they have been at 30 Celsius. But 86 Fahrenheit. Again, the average temperature just a notch below that and a warm weather continues over this region over the next couple of days.

We do have a slight trend in the cooling department for Lisbon. In fact look at this, the mid-20s Celsius, that's right around the upper 70s Fahrenheit, guys. That's the coolest weather I look back 41 day, the last time it was this cool. So talk about the fires kind of culminating in recent days. At least Mother Nature now, as we head in towards the middle portion of August starting --

VAUSE: Enjoy it while they have got it. You don't often think about bush fires in Portugal but they are fairly common.

JAVAHERI: Those happen. Yes.

VAUSE: Yes. OK. Pedram, good to see you. Thank you.

ASHER: Thank you, Pedram.

VAUSE: OK. A break here but when we come back, a mystery from the hermit kingdom. Yet another top North Korean official has not been seen for months.

ASHER: Plus a company that makes pens is now apologizing for an advertisement that some are calling sexist. We'll tell you why in a couple of minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:08] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live all around the world. I'm John Vause.

ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. It's 12:30 in the morning here in Atlanta. Let's give you your headlines.

The U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to dominate his party rivals. New CNN poll numbers from the early voting state of Iowa show him topping the field with 22 percent. However, he faces a large gender gap trailing his closest competitor Ben Carson among women.

VAUSE: The U.S. is launching manned airstrikes from Turkey for the first time in the battle against ISIS in Syria. The attacks are part of an agreement reached last month. The flight times from Incirlik Air Base will be shorter compared to those from bases in Iraq or aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

ASHER: And a huge explosion in Tianjin, China have killed at least 17 people and injured hundreds more. Now what triggered the blast is not clear right now but witnesses say it felt like an earthquake. Most of the injured were hurt by flying glass as the explosion shattered windows far from the initial blast site in the city's warehouse district.

VAUSE: Just today now until a historic moment in U.S.-Cuban relations. On Friday John Kerry will be the first U.S. secretary of state to step foot in Cuba in 70 years and he is there to raise the American flag over the newly opened embassy in Havana. Diplomatic relations were restored last month.

ASHER: Now Kerry sat down with Andres Oppenheimer, he's a columnist for the "Miami Herald" and a CNN Espanol host. They discussed a potential U.S. relationship with Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRES OPPENHEIMER, CNN ESPANOL HOST: Secretary Kerry, you have said that your talks with Cuba -- U.S. talks with Cuba, in those conversation talks you talk about Venezuela. What exactly did you ask Cuba to do regarding Venezuela and what was Cuba's response?

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, we want Cuba -- I mean, Cuba, excuse me. We want Venezuela, obviously, to live up to the norms and standards of the OAS, of the inter-American human rights requirements, and of free elections that are accountable to the international community. And so we're very interested in establishing a normal relationship with the Venezuelan government in an effort to try to help meet the needs of the Venezuelan people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Now Thursday is also former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 89th birthday. But it is not known whether he will attend Friday's ceremony.

VAUSE: So he's looking young there from 1984.

ASHER: It was an old -- old picture there.

VAUSE: Yes. He was way older than 89.

ASHER: Well, a recent report say a top North Korean official hasn't been seen in public for months.

VAUSE: Of course the question now is could he be yet another official who has fallen out of favor with Kim Jong-Un? We get details from Brian Todd reporting in from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A top official in Kim Jong-Un's government vanished from public view. Choe Yong-Gon, a North Korean vice premier, hasn't been seen in eight months. That's according to South Korea's Unification Ministry which tells CNN it is, quote, "watching closely for possible change in the status." NICK EBERSTADT, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: It could mean that he

is on hold. It could mean that he is under suspicion or under investigation. It could mean that he got dead.

TODD: The State Department says if Choe Yong-Gon was executed, this would be yet another example of what it calls the extreme brutality of the North Korean regime.

The vice premiere's public disappearance comes during an extended bloody campaign of purges by Kim Jong-Un. South Korean Intelligence and Foreign Ministry officials say he's executed at least 70 top officials since taking power in late 2011.

KEN GAUSE, NORTH KOREAN LEADERSHIP EXPERT, CNA: I think the inner circle is a very tense place to be right now under Kim Jong-Un. The leaders within that inner circle, and there are only a handful of them, are both looking over their shoulder, looking at Kim Jong-Un, trying to define what he wants.

TODD: Kim reportedly had his defense minister, Hyon Yong-Chol, executed with an anti-aircraft gun, apparently for pushing back on Kim's orders and nodding off at meetings. There are published reports that the architect of Pyongyang's new airport was executed because Kim didn't like the design.

U.S. officials tell CNN executions are Kim's way of solidifying his position, a way of sending a bone-chilling signal to those closest to him.

JONATHAN POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Don't mess with me. I'm the boss. And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay absolutely loyal to me.

TODD: Kim famously had his very powerful uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, executed. Analysts say that signaled a departure from the way Kim's father and grandfather operated.

EBERSTADT: They ran the most totalitarian system, of course, that's ever been operated by human beings. But during their tenure, the royals always stayed safe. That was one of their rules. If you were in the royal court, you were in pretty good situation no matter what was happening to hundreds of thousands of people in prison and so forth.

[00:35:07] TODD (on camera): The people close to Kim who are safe, blood relatives, namely his younger sister Kim Yo Jong who is rising in power and a shadowy older sister Kim Sol Song, never seen in public, said to be advising him behind the scenes.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Stay in North Korea, a new photo of the dear leader that bears a strong resemblance to the other dear leader. Take a look at this. Kim Jong-Un, he's here on the right wearing those same sunglasses that his father the late Kim Jong-Il used to wear a lot. You can see the younger Kim wearing these shades, but aren't they stylish? His father was rarely seen without them.

ASHER: Yes. It's not quite clear what sparked the North Korean leader's change in fashion. But generally he does want to sort of look like his grandfather, or really respects his grandfather but.

VAUSE: It could have just been a sunny day.

ASHER: Yes. Just like the shades.

VAUSE: Absolutely.

ASHER: There you have it.

OK, in the meantime, pen maker Bic South Africa is apologizing for an advertisement that sparked outrage online. Here's what got the company in trouble. Take a look at this. The ad says, and I'm quoting here, "Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss."

VAUSE: What's wrong with that?

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: The message was meant as a salute and a tribute to South Africa's National Women's Day. Not surprisingly it backfired delivering what most considered to be a sexist message. On goal for the gigantic pen maker.

ASHER: Yes. That offended a lot of people.

OK. We're going to take a quick break here on CNN. When we come back, there are new pieces to a puzzle in a 25-year-old mystery. Investigators hope recently released surveillance footage may finally reveal who's behind one of the biggest, the biggest art heists in history.

VAUSE: Also China's currency falling for a third straight day. We'll see how the financial markets in Asia are taking the news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:04] ASHER: Welcome back, everyone. China has allowed its currency to fall for the third day in a row. The central bank set the reference rate more than 1 percent lower versus the U.S. dollar.

VAUSE: OK. Let's see how the Chinese financial markets are reacting to this news. You can see the Shanghai Composite down by more than half of 1 percent but in Hong Kong it's up by a third of 1 percent. So you see it's mixed, Zain.

ASHER: Right. Anna Coren is following the developments from Hong Kong. She joins us live with more.

So, Anna, China is saying that they want market forces to control their currency but analysts say that this is just really a way of making their exports cheaper. Which do you think is true?

(LAUGHTER)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Zain. It depends on which story you want to believe. Obviously, China is saying that the devaluation of the yuan is allowing market forces to really perhaps a bigger role in determining the value of the yuan. They would say that this is the natural course that the yuan has been appreciating way too quickly, you know, up 10 percent from 2014.

But certainly this is something that the United States and the IMF has been pushing for, and of course China, too, placing a lot of pressure on the IMF to perhaps be included in that elite group of world currencies such as the U.S., the euro -- U.S. dollar, the euro and the yen. But then the story outside of China, Zain, is that there's a clear indication that the devaluation shows that China's economy is substantially weaker than what official figures suggest.

And that by devaluing the yuan this will help revive the economy domestically, as well as stimulate those exports which you mentioned. Obviously by weakening the currency, it makes those exports cheaper, as well as much more competitive. So this is something that perhaps China wants.

An export report came out last week that showed that exports were down some 8 percent. But there's no denying that a weakening of the currency, Zain, has rippled across the global markets. You know, everyone has taken a hit. Yes, markets today perhaps stabilizing somewhat. But it also reflects the sharp reaction towards the devaluation that perhaps everyone is not so trusting of the economic data coming out of China.

Officials there saying they want growth of up to 7 percent this year. But that is now really being questioned even more so now with the devaluation of the yuan -- Zain.

ASHER: Yes. At one point the Dow Jones is actually down nearly 300 points earlier today, although it ended flat. But this could really be a problem for companies that have I guess exposure to China.

OK. Anna Coren, live for us there, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

VAUSE: There are new clues in one of the biggest art heists in history. 25 years ago, thieves made off with 13 works of art worth $500 million.

ASHER: Yes. Now grainy surveillance footage -- take a look at this -- captured just 24 hours before the theft may hold the key investigators have been searching for and finally crack open this case.

Here's our Randi Kaye with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) : On this never-before- seen video, a man who may have pulled off the biggest art heist in history.

Take a good look. The grainy video is from March 17th, 1990, the night before two men broke into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Those men made off with 13 works of art valued at $500 million.

Rick Abath was one of the guards on duty that night. He was just 23 years old then. We spoke to him back in February 2013, his only television interview. He admitted he let the thieves into the museum on the night of the heist.

RICK ABATH, FORMER NIGHT WATCHER: And they buzzed the buzzer and I just kind of leaned over to the intercom and said, "yes." And they said, "Boston Police, we've got report of a disturbance on the premises." So I buzzed them into the dead room.

KAYE: Rick Abath has always maintained he had nothing to do with the theft, but this newly released video shows a guard resembling Abath just 24 hours before it. At the start of the tape the unidentified man is seen backing up his car to the museum side entrance. After the first guard leaves to do his security rounds, the man outside approaches the museum. The guard at the desk presses the door's buzzer, but the man doesn't enter. Instead he returns to his car and turns on the parking lights.

After, he heads back to the museum, and he's once again buzzed inside. This time he does enter through the same door the thieves would enter through the very next night. The man appears to go through some paperwork at the guard desk, then disappears for about three minutes inside the museum out of view of this particular security camera. It's unclear what he was doing or why he was there in the middle of the night.

[00:45:15] (On camera): Investigators want to know if this video was some sort of dry run for the real thing. They say the car seen in the video even matches the general description of the vehicle seen parked outside the museum the night of the theft. The FBI released the tape hoping the public can help identify the mystery man.

(Voice-over): Could this man have anything to do with the break-in on the night of the heist? And why did the museum security guard let strangers into the museum two nights in a row.

Rick Abath, who says he was handcuffed during the heist, has never been charged in connection with the crime, but he's never been officially cleared either.

ABATH: Once I sat, you know, sat down with the FBI, I think the first thing I said was, what do you want to know? Because, I knew, I mean I was like, well, I'm the guy who opened up the door. They are obviously going to be looking at me.

KAYE: Our calls to Abath this week were not returned.

On the night of the theft, the panic button at the desk was never activated allowing the thieves to take their time spending nearly an hour and a half in the museum collecting the artwork. That was 25 years ago. And despite a $5 million reward, the artwork has never been returned.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A short break here on CNN NEWSROOM. When we come back, Wednesday was World Elephant Day. Up next we will take you to a national park where they're fighting to save elephant calves orphaned by poachers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:50:35] VAUSE: Well, some jaw-dropping images of a shark off the coast of Mexico gives new meaning to the words "great white." Meet Deep Blue, thought to be the largest great white shark ever recorded on video. You can see just how big she is as she swims right up against a cage full of divers.

ASHER: And she is huge. Deep Blue is actually estimated to be 20 feet long, weighs 5,000 pounds and at least 50 years old. And guess what, she's actually pregnant. The researchers who films Deep Blue are tracking pregnant great whites to protect their nursery grounds.

VAUSE: She was pregnant and hungry.

ASHER: Yes.

VAUSE: Best to stay away.

ASHER: How -- and incredibly heavy, as well. But very beautiful shark.

OK. Onto another story we are following. Kenya's dwindling elephant population is under threat from poachers who want the ivory.

VAUSE: And Wednesday marked World Elephant Day meant to encourage conservation efforts to help these animals and CNN's Robyn Kriel takes a closer look now at wildlife team efforts to save them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's feeding time for Kenya's orphaned elephants. Many of their mothers were killed by poachers for their tusks. So for these calves, milk is a powered formula. And now their mothers wear green coats.

JOSEPH SAUNI, HEAD KEEPER, DAVID SHELDRICK WILDLIFE TRUST: Elephants are usually very, very much intelligent and brave. They give you love when you give them that love back.

KRIEL (on camera): Well, it's almost impossible to stay clean when you're enjoying bath time with baby elephants. And they are a lot like human babies actually. They love their bath time and they never want to get out. But what might look like a lot of fun is an incredible amount of hard work to try to reintegrate these orphans back into the wild.

(Voice-over): And that is the goal of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, teaching orphans how to be wild again. So far they have successfully rescued, rehabilitated and released some 200 elephants back into the bush. But raising orphans only to release them into a dangerous environment makes little sense. So the trust partners with the Kenya Wildlife Service to fight other constant threats, like removing thousands of wire snares that trap animals.

SAUNI: So this traps the animal there and it falls down and dies.

KRIEL: In this vast African bush, security must also come from above. Then an urgent call from the anti-snaring unit. They've spotted a wounded bull elephant. We rush to join the vet team already on the ground.

KRIEL: Dr. Poghon says that the bull's festering wound is probably from a poisoned arrow. With a single shot, he darts it with a tranquilizer.

DR. JEREMIAH POGHON, KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE VETERINARIAN: Hope you have him on visual.

KRIEL: The team must work quickly. They closely monitor the bull's breathing. But the elephant fell on the wrong side. It's worse than they thought.

POGHON: We need to work on this one before we can lift it up.

KRIEL (on camera): Oh, my god.

POGHON: Again.

KRIEL (voice-over): After the first wound is cleaned and treated, the six-ton giant must be rolled over.

The arrow wounds are about three weeks old. Another week without help for the 40-year-old bull --

POGHON: When the poison gets into the abdominal cavity then it will kill it.

KRIEL: He's speaking from experience. He's treated some 500 elephants.

POGHON: We will inject our revival drug and within one minute, this elephant should be up.

KRIEL: But the large animal has trouble getting up. He needs help.

POGHON: Small team, but we work on big elephants.

KRIEL: And he's confident this one will make a complete recovery.

The outlook for the rest of Kenya's elephants may not be as good. Dame Daphne Sheldrick has devoted her life to saving the species. She believes Asia's insatiable appetite for ivory is driving the killings.

DAME DAPHNE SHELDRICK, DEVOTES LIFE TO SAVING ELEPHANTS: Something is being done at the other end. There's no welfare in Africa. There is a lot of poverty and unemployment. And as long as he can get money from killing an elephant he's going to do that. But if there is no demand for the tusks there will be no reason for him to go after the elephants.

[00:55:04] I doubt whether my great grandchildren will actually be able to see wild elephants living a normal life. They are very -- they're going rapidly, they say one every 15 minutes.

KRIEL: While these keepers will likely mother many more orphans, they remain determined to secure them a future in the wild.

Robyn Kriel, CNN, Tsavo National Park, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Yes. Small team looking after big animals.

ASHER: Right.

VAUSE: Well, we end here with baby against baby. Mother against mother as dozens of little ones race to win a baby crawl contest.

ASHER: Yes. The event celebrates Thailand's National Mother's Day. Babies -- they are so cute. Babies between six months to 1-year-old participated and some, as you can see, were more eager than others to cross the finish line.

VAUSE: And Mother's Day also coincides with the Thai queen's birthday and there were in fact tributes held in honor of her 83rd birthday.

Thank you so much for watching this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

ASHER: And I am Zain Asher. We'll be back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after this quick break.

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