Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Manchester United Season Finale Evacuated for Suspected Explosive Device; Suicide Blast Kills 30 in Yemen; Gas Plant Attack in Iraq; NYT Runs Story on Donald Trump's Treatment of Women; Suspect Arrested in Bangladesh for Hacking Deaths; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Talks About Life After Husband's Death. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 16, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:07] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: this is "CNN NEWSROOM" live from Los Angeles; ahead this hour: the bomb scare at Manchester United. A football stadium evacuated, the game postponed, all because of a simple blunder; coordinated ISIS attacks in Iraq and Yemen including a deadly assault on a gas plant near Baghdad; also ahead, a scathing print report on Donald Trump and his treatment of women and the U.S. presidential candidate is now firing back on Twitter.

Hello, everybody; great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. "NEWSROOM" L.A. starts right now.

It was quite the scare for Manchester United fans on Sunday. Police evacuated their stadium after finding a suspected explosive device. Hours later, they determined it was harmless, accidently left behind by a private company after a training exercise. Authorities insist the device was highly realistic and that opting for safety was the best course of action here. Christina McFarland has the details now from Old Trafford.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA MCFARLAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fans arrived here at Old Trafford on Sunday expecting to see drama on the pitch, when Manchester United took on Bournemouth in the final fixture of the season, but instead they were disrupted by an off it after a suspicious package was found in the northwest corner of the stands. After 75,000 fans were evacuated from the stadium here and sent home, a bomb disposal team was sent in to conduct a controlled explosion of the device, which is said to have been very life-like. But late on Sunday night, it was confirmed that the package was in fact a training device, which was left behind by a private firm following a training drill.

While, this isn't an ideal situation for Man United Football Club, there is a great deal of relief that the situation wasn't as dangerous as first suspected and there is reassurance that the fans and the security staff here dealt efficiently and swiftly to the incident.

The Premier League have announced that the match that was due to take place here today has now been rescheduled for Tuesday, the 17th, where it will draw a close to the Premier League season.

Christina McFarland, CNN, Manchester.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay; for more on this we're joined by Steve Moore. He's a retired FBI agent. He's a CNN Law Enforcement Contributor. Steve, thanks you for coming in.

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED FBI AGENT AND CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Sure.

VAUSE: Okay, we're looking at reports saying this was a cell phone strapped to piping. So let's assume this was a real bomb. This is a bomb that would have been remotely detonated as opposed to a time?

MOORE: Absolutely.

VAUSE: Okay; so it was found around 3:00 p.m. local time. Soccer fans are there, they're in Old Trafford, they're tweeting, we have been evacuated; look at this. There is all this stuff over social media. Would you really, if this was a real event, would the authorities in London have this much time to get all of these people out of the stadium without the bad guys knowing what is going on and setting off that explosion.

MOORE: Probably not. If it was a real device, the people looking at the bomb, and there will be people looking at the bomb, even if they're not the callers, they're going to be giving intel to the callers saying detonate now. Still, I think it was a smart thing to do.

VAUSE: They didn't have a choice but to evacuate?

MOORE: No, not at all.

VAUSE: Okay. Well, I guess my point is here with all this over social media, essentially, if this was a real world situation, it could have ended a lot - you know, it could have ended with high body count here.

MOORE: Likely would have, but you can't -- you can't discount the fact that maybe something happened with the device and people were trying to detonate it and it wasn't going off -

VAUSE: Okay.

MOORE: -- something like that. But, yes, this was a potential disaster.

VAUSE: Okay. So now officials have apparently increased security at soccer Venues because we know back in November, the Paris attacks, they tried

to blow up that soccer stadium back then. So apparently -- is this what we're looking at now for the real world here, anyone can leave a suspicious package behind and it will end up with 70,000 people being evacuated from a soccer stadium? MOORE: That's unfortunately always been the case. I mean, we went through this during the anthrax threats back in the late '90s, early 2000s. This is what we go through almost cyclical. People can do these threats and sometimes get away with it; but, yeah, that's out there and this is a possibility. All you have to do is have something that looks a lot like a bomb and it could be a problem.

VAUSE: Okay, the fact that this device had been there since Wednesday, and we're now Sunday, --

MOORE: Yes.

VAUSE: -- and there was increased security, apparently, at least, because of the ISIS and another increase in security concerns because of concerns about attacks from Irish Republican dissidents, what does that say about increased security?

MOORE: It tells me there was not a -- not really all that much of an increase because nobody walked the stadium prior to the game. If you had done normal protocol, you would have walked the stadium at least with the [00:05:01] dog, and this device was designed to alert a dog. So nobody looked at it visually, nobody sent a dog through, so that's problematic also.

VAUSE: Okay. So if you're a law enforcement official, you come across the device like this, I mean, obviously you evacuate the stadium, but what are the other options, just from a security point of view?

MOORE: You don't have any options because you've got the device. You - I mean, first of all, you can have somebody trying to find out were there any drills, were there any kinds tests in this area but as the number one thing you're going to do is looking at that, and the first thing they do is say, if this is what we think it is, and that type of explosive, how much room do we have? How much do we have to evacuate? In this case, they said you got to evacuate the whole place. So it was a large appearing bomb.

VAUSE: how much is -- how much is Europe especially on edge now because of the threat from ISIS, because of what happened in Paris back in November?

MOORE: I think they are on edge. I would prefer them to be not on edge, but alert and focused but I do think they are on edge; and it will not help the public if they think that the authorities are missing devices that obvious, number one, --

VAUSE: Right.

MOORE: -- or that in training, they leave these behind when they should be inventoried and labeled so that if the police find it there, it says clearly this is an inert device used for training. All of ours were labeled.

VAUSE: This is not a bomb.

MOORE: This is not a bomb. Don't blow me up.

VAUSE: Pretty basic stuff.

MOORE: Yes.

VAUSE: So that's the lesson out of all of this, I guess.

MOORE: That's -

VAUSE: A lesson at least.

MOORE: It is the lesson they should have learned before they did the training.

VAUSE: Steve, good to speak with you.

MOORE: Thanks a lot.

VAUSE: Well, a series of attacks by ISIS have killed dozens of people in Yemen and Iraq. Yemeni officials say suicide bombers struck a southern military base early Sunday. The blast killed at least 30 troops, left 29 others wounded. An hour later, another suicide blast targeted the convoy of a Yemeni security official, killing two guards and injuring four others.

In Iraq, a car bomb struck just south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least two people, wounding almost a dozen more and more violence erupted just north of the Iraqi capital on Sunday when ISIS militants attacked a natural gas

plant killing ten security personnel. The deadly assault sent plumes of smoke into the air, left storage tanks ablaze. Ian Lee has details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fireballs lit up the early morning sky north of Baghdad after ISIS launched a deadly attack at a gas plant. Two attack helicopters from a nearby base helped repel the attack; more than ten guards killed. This attack sparked harsh criticism from Baghdad's governor, Ali al-Tamimi. He slammed the chief of the plant for failing to provide adequate protection. He pointed to the inappropriate number of guards and their light weaponry, no match compared with ISIS' firepower and tactics. He called for an overhaul of the plant security to protect the facility, which is important economically, for the services it provides, and geographical location.

The plant is just north of the capital along the road that leads to the ISIS stronghold of Mosul. Another failure of the attack, he says, was the delayed response by Iraqi security forces, they're special forces. The

governor called for security leaders to be replaced after it took the forces two and a half hours to respond.

This latest attack underscores two important points: first, a change in ISIS tactics while the terror group faces battlefield losses over the past few weeks, sleeper cells increased the number of attacks in territory controlled by Iraqi security forces. Second, it highlights the failure of security forces to root out ISIS in that area.

Ian Lee, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: in just the past week, more than 100 people have been killed in Iraq and ISIS attacks. CNN's Military Analyst Retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona joins us. Colonel, thanks for being with us.

ISIS now appears to be moving to the small insurgent style attacks. Is this all about trying to keep pressure on the Iraqi government which is in the midst of the crisis, sort of, I guess, hoping for a collapse at least maybe the government will be unable to put together some kind of cohesive response?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well the - and I think they're having a good effect. I mean, that report from Ian just highlights the effect that ISIS has had.

When the governor of Baghdad Province comes out and lays out the -- all the details of how bad the security was in one area, this is exactly what ISIS wants. They want to convince the people, mostly the Shi'a population of Baghdad, that the government cannot protect them and they should be more concerned about security in Baghdad rather than trying to gather up all the forces necessary to march all the way north to liberate Mosul. The people of Baghdad would rather have their own security than liberate Mosul and we're seeing these battlefield losses push ISIS more and more into these tactics. They think it is a tactic that works for them and I think we're going to see more of this.

[00:10:03] VAUSE: Okay; let's look at the other side of the equation because during a briefing in Oman, Jordan, Brett McGurk, who is a U.S. Special Envoy, he talked about ISIS and how much territory ISIS is losing in Iraq. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VDIEO CLIP)

BRETT MCGURK, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR COALITION AGAINST ISIS: And now, the caliphate, as they call it, this perverse caliphate, is shrinking. So they are very much on the defensive. They have not (no audio) any territory really since their operations in Ramadi, going all the way back to May.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So what sort of strain does this now put on ISIS, both financially, psychology and also, I guess, from a propaganda point of view?

FRANCONA: They really have suffered a lot. I mean, the increased accuracy of the U.S. airstrikes, a combination of the Russians also dropping bombs on them, they are shrinking. The U.S. and the Syrian Democratic Forces have cut their supply lines. They are in bad shape on the ground but that does not prevent them from reverting to tactics that they believe works for them and that's why you're seeing this uptick in the car bombings and the suicide bombings. So we're going to continue to see that.

I don't think we should count ISIS out just yet. They still have the ability to strike back. Yes, they're losing territory, but they keep counterattacking and as we push them in one area, they just move to another. This is going to be a long process, and if we think Mosul is going to be liberated this year, I think we're being optimistic, John.

VAUSE: One other thing McGurk said, which I thought was quite consider interesting, he talked about ISIS also being squeezed on social media as well. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCGURK: They had free reign in the propaganda sphere. They had millions of Twitter and Facebook pages pumping out these lies every single day. We have now worked as a coalition to counter that. For every pro (no audio) Twitter handle, there is now six calling out its lies and countering that message. That's very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That seems to be a significant development, at least when it comes to the propaganda war but, I guess, how and when will the U.S. and its allies know if that strategy is actually working?

FRANCONA: That's really hard to pin down, but I think the metrics that they're using are pretty accurate. We're seeing much, much less recruiting. They're recruiting is cut by about two-thirds. We are hurting them financially, and seeing that in the social media that their salaries are being cut. So it is having an effect. I'll defer to Mr. McGurk on the exact numbers but there is an increased cyber side to this offensive against ISIS and it appears to be having an effect.

This is going to be a multifaceted attack but it's going to take a long time because we're not just trying to defeat them on the ground in Iraq and Syria. We've got to go after them wherever they are and, as your report said earlier, we're looking at Yemen, Libya and other places.

VAUSE: And you mentioned Mosul a short time ago, saying pretty much any military effort to retake Mosul is obviously a long way off. There does seem to be a fixation on Mosul but I'm just wondering how determined will ISIS be to hold Mosul and, I guess, also Raqqa? Could they simply decide for a tactical retreat and set up a de facto capital in Libya, for example?

FRANCONA: Well, they might have to do that but how do they get out? That's the problem. What you're seeing, the military strategy starting to come together and they're starting to be surrounded. Once we cut off those two enclaves and create two separate enclaves, then you can roll them up, put them under siege and try them and get them in place. This is what we did not do in Afghanistan, and they were able to escape through Pakistan.

What we're trying to do is cut off all routes of approach and we can isolate them, right there, before they have a chance to get out. If they do get out, then it's a problem. We have to go to other places. I don't think anybody really wants to get involved in a war in Libya and a war in Yemen and other places.

VAUSE: Okay; Colonel, good to speak with you. Rick Francona, thanks so much.

FRANCONA: Good to be with you, John.

VAUSE: Jihadist groups are threatening to drive Christians out of Syria, burning churches and desecrating priceless icons. The historic town of Maaloula was recently freed after being seized by Islamist militants but some Christians still fear for their lives. Senior International Correspondent, Fred Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jesus loves you no matter how you feel these children sing at a religion class in Maaloula, Syria's most famous Christian town, which was occupied by Islamist militants for six months. Several towns people are still missing.

I want things to be better like they were before, and for the kidnapped people to come back, 7-year-old Gabriela says.

Similar words from 8-year-old Bella Amun. I want Maaloula to be better and more beautiful than it used to be she says.

Shocking, their reaction when I ask how many of them have had to flee their homes.

Islamist rebels led by al-Qaeda's wing in Syria Jabhat al-Nusra invaded Maaloula in late 2013, this video by one of the groups, allegedly shows a [00:15:01] suicide blast that took out a checkpoint to the village.

The rebels kidnapped 12 nuns from a convent. It took more than six months of intense battles to oust them; but scars remain. This is the same Thecla convent and shrine, or what is left of it; a warning to Syria's Christian community.

While some buildings here in Maaloula have been restored, others remain exactly like this, completely destroyed and mostly burned out.

And, of course, many people who live in this town ask themselves whether Christianity still has a future here in Syria.

Syria is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Maaloula is the last place where the Aramaic that Jesus spoke is still in use; but groups like ISIS have vowed to oust the Christians from this land.

This member of Maaloula's city council shows me just some of the priceless icons that were damaged or looted, especially the most ancient ones. JOSEF SAADI, CITY COUNCIL, MAALOULA: They stole it and then they fired the other. The new one, they fired it.

LEE: They burned it.

SAADI: They burned it.

LEE: As we left, a Christian song was playing on a loudspeaker system in the entire town, a sign of defiance from a Christian community that hopes the children learning about their long heritage in Syria will have the future in the land of their ancestors.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Maaloula, Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Still to come here, Donald Trump has a big problem with support from women voters. Now an in depth report from the "New York Times" could offer some reasons why; and, the Twitter war between Trump and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren takes on racial overtones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (WEATHER HEADLINES)

[00:20:46] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. There has been a lot of reporting about a gender gap in Donald Trump's support. Now the "New York Times" is delving into the U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate's behavior with women in private. "The Times" interviewed more than 50 women who worked with him, dated him or observed him socially and accounts reveal unwelcome romantic advances, unending commentary on the female form, a shrewd reliance on ambitious women and unsettling workplace conduct.

For more on this we're joined by our two political strategists. On the Democratic side is Dave Jacobson and on the Republican side, John Thomas. Thanks for coming in on a Sunday.

DAVE JACOBSON, CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT, SHALLMAN COMMUNICATIONS: Thanks for having us.

VAUSE: Good to have you both here. Okay, Donald Trump, as he always does, he's responded to this "New York Times" article. He said this on Twitter, posted this, "Everyone is laughing at the "New York Times" for the lame hit piece they did on me and women. I gave them many names of women, I helped -- I helped them, they refused to use them." Then on Sunday, we had the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, basically said, on this report, voters don't care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I think that all these stories that come out and they come out every couple of weeks, people just don't care. I think people look at Donald Trump and say, -- and Hillary Clinton and say who is going to bring an earthquake to Washington, D.C.? I think the bigger issue, when we make these judgments about people are, you know, whether or not individuals are throwing stones in glass houses. When people are hypocrites, that's when these stories have an impact. I don't think Donald Trump and his personal life is something that people are looking at and saying, well, I'm surprised that he's had girlfriends in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay, John, I think it is fair that Trump supporters, those on the Trump train, they won't care. They'll probably read this and enjoy it to some degree. But what about independents? What about those who may be on the fence? What about women voters who might be not sure about this? Something like this could have an effect and more stories like this; right?

JOHN THOMAS, PRESIDENT, THOMAS PARTNERS STRATEGIST AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: First of all, I think Donald was right; this was a hit job. I mean, it wasn't fair and balanced. I'm sure he has empowered people, especially women in his company, that he's promoted through his company. I read that article, I didn't see any of those stories. So that was a little unfair. With that said, your point about independents and swing voters, it would be a big deal if this were something hypocritical. Donald Trump is known to pick fights with women. He's picked on Rosie O'Donnell, Megyn Kelly. He's not going to win this election because he's a sweetheart to women.

VAUSE: Is this baked into the cake already, his history with women?

JACOBSON: Yes; I mean, look, there is hard data to back up the fact that women are turned off by Donald Trump. Over 70-percent of women across the country have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. His challenge is that 53-percent of the voters who turned out in 2012 were women. He's not able to win this election if he's not able to sort of pivot away from this misogynistic sexist narrative that is attached to him moving forward.

THOMAS: How does he does that is he says yes, I'm a jerk and I offend people, but the fact is I'm best to help you on the economy and help your family keep their job.

VAUSE: But are women voters turned off from Donald Trump because he's, you know, he's been a chauvinistic person when he's dealt with women in the past, he comments on their bodies and this kind of stuff, or is it for other reasons? What is the turnoff factor here?

THOMAS: Well, I think he's just kind of a rude person, that's his persona; and a lot of them don't like that. I think he's got to show that he supports women on their issues and really it is going to come down to the economy. I don't see Donald Trump out-Trumping Hillary on women, although Donald Trump is going to start to make the case that Hillary's record on women might be not as good as she's portraying it to be.

VAUSE: Okay, let's get to Hillary Clinton now because, oddly enough, Reince Priebus also mentioned Hillary Clinton. "He said voters don't care about the stories from the past." I thought that was interesting. So, with that in mind, today Hillary Clinton announced the role that her husband, former president, Bill Clinton, will have should she be elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My husband, who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, because, you know, he knows how to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay, so we'll have Bill Clinton front and center as this campaign moves forward. I'm just wondering, is there an equal playing field for both these candidates when it comes to these scandals from the past; Dave?

[00:25:01] JACOBSON: Well, look, Bill Clinton is going to have liabilities, but I think his assets are going to outweigh those liabilities. The reality is, during the Clinton Administration, back in the Nineties, we saw the largest, or one of the largest expansions of the American economy in all of the country's history. The reality is he's one of the most popular democrats in this country.

CNN put out a poll a couple of months ago. He's got a 56-percent approval rating, that's higher than President Obama's.

VAUSE: Well, I think -

THOMAS: I think -

VAUSE: Okay, you go.

THOMAS: Well I think the fact that Bill Clinton is so integral to her administration, we're really going to use Bill Clinton as an entree to talk about Hillary's roles in Bill's former scandals; that's what it is.

VAUSE: You mentioned the opinion polls. There was a new one that came out in January. Let's take a look at these numbers: Bill Clinton went from a 50-something percent favorable down to 39-percent favorable, and this is after Donald Trump went after him for just one month. He went from November to January, 50 to 39. Not favorable went down a little bit as well, but those -- that favorable is what really hurt him. It went from 50 down to 39.

Bill Clinton is not running for office. This is all about legacy and reputation, Bill Clinton values his legacy here. So if he gets hit by Donald Trump and his numbers keep falling, does he then go rogue? Is he going to be able to be controlled by the campaign?

JACOBSON: Well, look; he hasn't really taken the gloves off. He's going to be the official attack dock in the general election. I think him, as well as President Obama are both going to be laser focused on attacking Donald Trump. We haven't seen him embrace go embrace the bare knuckle tactics we saw in 1992 or 1996 campaigns.

THOMAS: But, you know, I think Bill's lost some of his sheen because in 2008, he became more of a liability for Hillary when he would ride on the back of a truck, making gaffes and misstatements. It has been a while, so we'll see.

JACOBSON: Everything you just said is true, but in 2012, he actually delivered what was, I think, the most sort of compelling pitch and definition of the Obama presidency at the 2012 DNC Convention, which then propelled President Obama to the White House.

THOMAS: You're right, but it is all how you frame it.

VAUSE: Yes.

THOMAS: You know, the fact is, if we're talking about Bill's legacy as it relates to women, and Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky, that's a whole different story.

VAUSE: That's why I was talking about if it was an equal playing field. I guess it is if that's -

THOMAS: It also, John, shows you the power that Trump has to take people down. Knocked out 16 people in a primary, he can take out one -

VAUSE: Very quickly, Donald Trump still not toning down his style. When he was asked about his Twitter war with the democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. he told the "New York Times" this, "You mean Pocahontas?" That's a reference to Warren's Native American ancestry. Also Donald Trump seems to be starting a feud with the newly elected mayor of London who is a Muslim; listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope Donald Trump loses the election. my message to Donald Trump and his team is your views of Islam are ignorant.

TRUMP: Well, when he won I wished him well. Now, I don't care about him. It doesn't make any difference to me about him. Let's see how he does. Let's see if he's a good mayor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you offended by what he said?

Yes, I am because he doesn't know me, never met me, doesn't know what I'm all about. I think the very rude statements and frankly tell him I will remember those statements. They're very nasty statements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Isn't this the problem he needs, to be able to move on and let this kind of stuff go?

THOMAS: Donald has to be the Donald. That's just who he is.

VAUSE: But isn't this concern the Republicans have, that he can't let these things go, that can't be the bigger guy in all of this?

THOMAS: Yes, it is but he's come a long way. I thought that was a very tame and tempered statement from what we have seen in a --

VAUSE: Really? I'm not going to forget this?

THOMAS: But he said it in a cool and calm manner. The old Donald Trump would come right at you. I think he's trying his best, but to his core, that's who he is.

JACOBSON: I want to jump in really quickly, you brought up Elizabeth Warren. I think his challenge is, he's trying to make this case that he's going to put Michigan, Pennsylvania, the sort of Rust Belt states into play. Those are states that Bernie Sanders - well, not Pennsylvania, but Michigan and Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders was so successful in. Part of that is because he has this anti-Washington narrative that Donald Trump's embraced. There is no way Donald Trump will pick off Bernie Sanders supporters if he's alienating Elizabeth Warren folks, who are lined up, ideologically at least, right along with Bernie Sanders.

VAUSE: Because she was Bernie Sanders before all the Bernie Sanders?

JACOBSON: Exactly; precisely.

VAUSE: David, John, thanks for coming in; see you next hour.

"The Washington Post" says Ben Carson has named some of the potential U.S. vice presidential candidates for the presumptive republican nominee Donald Trump. The former presidential candidate told a reporter that Trump's potential running mates include John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz - that would be Lyin' Ted -- Sarah Palin, and Chris Christie.

Trump responded to the report saying, "The Washington Post report on potential VP candidates is wrong. Marco Rubio and most others mentioned are NOT under consideration"; but the comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live" poked fun at Trump's claim that he didn't pose as his own publicist. Listen to this.

["Saturday Night Live" clip plays]

VAUSE: The next states primary and caucus voting is set for Tuesday in Kentucky and Oregon.

[00:30:03] You can watch all day coverage, right here on CNN.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, an arrest has been made in the murders of two Bangladeshi activists; what police say ties the suspect to the killing when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody; you're watching "CNN NEWSROOM" live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause; the headlines this hour: Sunday's bomb scare at Manchester United's home field ended up being a false alarm. Authorities evacuated the stadium after finding what they thought was a bomb, but they later determined it was just a training device, which had been accidentally left behind by a private firm.

Baghdad's governor is blasting security officials after an ISIS attack on a gas plant just north of the capital. He says the plant was inadequately protected and an elite response team took too long to arrive. At least ten Iraqi security personnel were killed in Sunday's attack.

ISIS is claiming responsibility for a suicide blast at a military base in southern Yemen. Security officials say the bomber attacked the base's main gate early Sunday. At least 20 troops were killed and 29 others were wounded.

In Bangladesh, a suspect has been arrested over last month's hacking deaths of two gay rights activists. They're among a number of hacking murders committed in Bangladesh in just over a year. For more on these killings and what we know about this arrest, we're joined by CNN's Alexandra Field.

So, Alexandra, exactly who is this suspect and how did they actually arrest him? What are the details?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Well, John, it has actually taken weeks for this to happen. It's been weeks since the gruesome double murder of these two gay rights activists. Police say they finally [00:35:02] have a suspect who they brought into custody. His name, Shariful Islam Shihab. He's 37 years old, and officials in Bangladesh say that he's part of a homegrown Islamist militant group.

It is important to point out that we have spoken to terrorism analyst and experts in the region who say that this group, Ansarullah Bangla, does have ties to al-Qaeda. In the aftermath of this murder, it was the Bangladeshi chapter of al-Qaeda which publicly claimed responsibility, but there hasn't been an arrest in the case until now and police will have three days to interrogate this man, as far as the details of this double murder.

The men killed in the attacks were Tonoy Mujumdar and Xulhaz Mannan. They were very prominent figures in the LGBT community in Bangladesh. Mannan was the publisher of a gay rights magazine. This was really a horrific crime in which the two men were inside an apartment, in the capital city of Dhaka. Five or six men who were posing as couriers burst into the apartment and hacked them the men to death. But we're told by police that they also brought guns to the scene of the crime, and one of those guns was traced back to the supposed owner, which is the suspect in this case, Shihab; John?

VAUSE: So is this suspect now providing any information or leads on who may have carried out those other murders?

FIELD: Authorities are saying he's participating, that he's being cooperative, that he is giving information. Again, they've got three days to ask the questions they need answers to. So the hope here is that this suspect could help them to connect to the other five or six men who are believed to have participated in this attack, but they're also hoping that this suspect could provide some clues or information about this spate of hacking deaths that we have seen across Bangladesh, really, since 2013, targeting secular bloggers, LGBT activists, religious minorities and academics.

Again, he is part of this group Ansarullah Bangla, which Bangladeshi officials say is a home grown militant network. They do say that others members of that network have been arrested in connection with some of the previous hacking deaths, specifically of two prominent secular bloggers. So they are hoping to unearth more of these connections here, but there is an extreme level of frustration, John, when you're in Bangladesh, which we were recently, when you're talking to people on the ground because they say in the aftermath of these dozens of killings, they have seen police take people into custody. They have seen arrests made. They have seen some charges, but they have seen a failure to prosecute and convict and, frankly, a failure now to stop these killings from continuing unchecked almost every week now as we're seeing, John.

VAUSE: It does. Alexandra, thank you; Alexandra Field, just back from Bangladesh, reporting live this hour from Hong Kong. Thank you.

A short break here. When we come back, severe thunderstorms and lightning are expected around this time of year in Bangladesh but this year they've turned especially deadly. That story in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Heavy thunderstorms have hit Bangladesh in the past week but there's also been an astonishing rise in the number of [00:40:01] people killed by lightning strikes. Let's go to Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri at the International Weather Center for more details on this.

I'm not entirely sure of the numbers here, but it's possible we're looking at dozens of people being killed, right?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes; absolutely. It is really a heartbreaking story, a fascinating story when you think about what occurred here over the past several days. We know this is the wet season, monsoon season upon us, the thunderstorm season certainly beginning to pick up in intensity; just dozens and dozens of fatalities scattered about a very small area of land, when you think about this country in particular.

I want to show you what the odds of being struck are, because a lot of people have different numbers. The official odds, when you take a look at in a lifetime, are actually quite small; they're 1:12,000. In fact, 90-percent of lightning strike victims actually survive. People think it is the other way around; it is not. If you're around people, if you administer CPR, you typically can survive. Of course, you do get severe burns. A lot of people have lifetime injuries they have to deal with but it is certainly a possibility to survive.

In the U.S. alone, so far in 2016, we've had five lightning strike fatalities which, alone, that number, five, is the most we had this early into the season since 2001. Now, you go on towards an area such as Bangladesh, there it is, right there; a pretty small land area. Since the beginning of March, we know the numbers are right around 90 fatalities coming in for a several month people across this region.

Now, the country itself has over 150 million people. That's half, half the size of the U.S. population, but in an area the size of an average U.S. state, such as the state of Georgia. That's an incredible number when you think about that in comparison. Of course, when you work your way across this region, we know much of the fatalities likely occurred in open fields, a lot of farmers across the region. They have to get their job done and they, perhaps, do not take the storms as seriously as they should.

We know this time of year, typically speaking, across the United States, where beta is readily available, you begin to see lightning strike fatalities really spike in the heart of the hot season, the thunderstorm season as well; John?

VAUSE: Okay; Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there with those details.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, Facebook's CEO plans to sit down with a number of leading conservatives this week to address a controversy over its "Trending Stories" section. Among those accepting the invitation from Mark Zuckerberg is the conservative fire brand Glenn Beck. Facebook is accused of suppressing conservative news stories on its site, but says it found no evidence to support those claims.

And, it was an emotional address from Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg as she spoke publicly about her husband's death. Dave Goldberg died suddenly a year ago while the two were vacationing in Mexico. Sheryl Sandburg delivered the commencement speech at the University of California, Berkeley and she talked about her loss and grief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERYL SANDBERG, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, "FACEBOOK": Dave's death changed me in very profound ways. I learned about the depth of sadness and the brutality of loss. But I also learned that when life sucks you under, you can kick against the bottom, find the surface, and breathe again.

[Applause]

SANDBERG: I learned that in the face of the void, in the face of any challenge, you can choose joy and meaning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And Sheryl Sandberg also said her loss helped her find deeper gratitude in life.

Well thank you for watching "CNN NEWSROOM" live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. "World Sport" is up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

("WORLD SPORT" AIRED)